Clean Water And Clean Drinking Water - 898 Words

Water is an essential element in our daily lives, but for North Americans, water service is a convenience that we too often take for granted until a serious issue occurs,† (Waterworld, 2014). There is more than 1 billion people who lack adequate access to clean drinking water and at least estimated there are over 400 million that are children. Because unclean water yields illness, roughly 443 million school days are missed every year. (Goodnet, 07 Oct, 2014). Providing clean water to the billons of people who don’t have access to clean water is important because it help maintain human health. â€Å"Clean water has become one of our most precious resources in the 21st century, in fact one in nine people live without access to clean and drinkable water.† (Goodnet, 07 Oct, 2014). Human need water that is clean and safe to drink so it can help maintain the body s temperature, it would also lubricate and cushion the joints. To help provide clean water to developing co untries our organization should provide help to an organization called charity: water, which are a nonprofit organization that provides safe and clean water to developing countries. Our organization should provide help to Charity: Water because it could help spread awareness around the world, help developing countries in creating ways to have clean water, and provide a health living environment. From this statements, The figures are staggering: one billion people without clean water, 2.5 billion without properShow MoreRelatedWater Shortage Of Clean And Drinking Water2027 Words   |  9 Pagespressurized water is used to crack the formation containing the unconventional oil and gas a lot of water is consumed in breaking that formation and getting the access to the hidden oil and gas resources. The clean water consumption in the process of fracturing is very much which can result in shortage of clean and drinking water. The shortage of clean and drinking water can result in water drought. All the living creatures need water for their survival. The shortage or abundance of clean and drinking waterRead MoreThe Fight For Clean Drinking Water1390 Words   |  6 PagesDrinking a glass of water does not usually stir up thoughts of injustice. If it in someway did, it would probably be over concern for those in underdeveloped countries who struggle to get clean drinking water. Yet, the struggle to attain clean drinking water occurs in the United States as well and especially for minorities. Regulations in the Federal Safe Drinking Act often go unmet and the purpose of the Safe Water Drinking Act unfulfilled as minority dominant and poor communities often have theRead MoreWater Quality Of Clean Drinking Water1773 Words   |  8 Pagesexistence of water is critical to life on Earth. The world has been set up in a way that makes mankind heavily dependent on water for cultivation, sanitation, transportation, and most importantly, survival. However, over the last two centuries, while revolutionary technologies and discoveries have raised the overall standard of living, water quality has deteriorated significantly. The United Nations (UN) estimate that the amount of waste-water produced annually is six times more than the water that existsRead MoreThe Contamination Of Clean Drinking Water Essay1803 Words   |  8 PagesOne of the most common problems with the pres ence of excess water in communities, whether via tropical storms or coastal flooding, is where the water goes and what is in that water. The primary issue this intervention will focus upon is the contamination of clean drinking water. Floods can cause water to pick up potentially harmful chemicals from agricultural land or pretty much any place where humans live or work, anything from large amounts of pesticides and fertilizer to industrial chemicalsRead MoreThe Importance Of Clean Drinking Water Pollution2357 Words   |  10 PagesAbstract The sustenance of safe and quality drinking water is increasingly becoming an urgent priority due to global pollution. It means that maintaining clean drinking water requires effective policies, regulations, and acts that identify, document, and eliminate health risks in all potable water sources. Water pathogenic microorganisms must be understood and identified in water sources because they have a relationship with acute and chronic illnesses. Surface water could quickly change because of humanRead MoreClean Safe Drinking Water Essay1073 Words   |  5 PagesClean safe drinking water Assessment: Many people living in poverty and not having much of anything like safe places to live let alone clean AND safe drinking water which also comes under good health due to drinking and washing in the polluted water it becomes even harder to stay healthy. More than 884 million people suffer from not having the basic clean water that is 3x the United States population. It is mainly places situated in Asia and especially Africa these water problems affect half ofRead MoreClean, Safe Drinking Water Is Scarce1014 Words   |  5 Pages Introduction Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world do not have access. But we take it for granted, we are wasting it, and we even pay for it a little too much to drink plastic bottles .Water is the basis of life. And yet today all over the world, too many people spend all day looking for it. In places like India Education suffering from sickness disappears. Economic development will be lost if people are just trying to survive. But it needRead MoreSocial And Psychological Needs For Clean Drinking Water1369 Words   |  6 Pagescomplex beings because unlike animals, we need more than just food and water to survive. Most living creatures depend on food and water to meet their fundamental needs for survival. Likewise, humans also require these basic needs, but we also have large egos that need to be satisfied. As privileged members of a well-developed society, we do not see how fortunate we are to have easy access to unlimited amounts of fresh clean water. All of our basic needs are easily met, so the focus for most of us isRead MoreProviding the World with Clean, Decontaminated Drinking Water562 Words   |  2 Pagesdemand for water is rising higher every year. A lack of natural freshwater forces scientists and businesses to create the most productive and efficient filters and water systems. Desalination is one of the many ways of providing the world with clean, and non-contaminated water. The many types of desalinating water provides the world with only one percent of its total water demands, yet the companies running these plants are worth an estimated 87 billion dollars combined. Desalinated water is easy toRead MoreWe Need Clean Drinking Water Pollution2538 Words   |  11 Pagesexperiencing a water crisis. Only 20% of the world’s inhabitants have access to clean running water, while over one billion people do not have access to clean drinking water (Population Institute, 2010, page 2). In public health, 21 of the 37 leading diseases in developing countries are related to unstable water sanitation (Population Institute, 2010, page 1). As a result, nearly 1.2 billion people inherent a greater probability to obtain a health problem by consuming unclean water (Population Institute

Essay on How Culture Impacted on Kurdish Community Mental...

Culture is an experience, knowledge, values, beliefs, religion, notions of time, spatial relations, attitudes, meanings, concepts of the world, hierarchies, and possessions acquired by a community in the course of generations. Culture is a part of every human being. It does not matter where someone was born or lived. Every single human being is surrounded by culture that effects his or her life. Culture influence our beliefs, expectations, norms and how someone will think and act. Culture also affect every ones mental health in many different ways. Today we will discuss how culture impacted on Kurdish community mental health. Kurds are an ethnic group who was originated in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Many Turks immigrated to the other†¦show more content†¦It leads to unemployment and these women start feeling anxiety and loneliness. Culture effect everyone in so many different ways. Culture has a big impact on the mental health. For example, Kurds prefer male child over female child. Kurdish culture also prohibit any medication that contain alcohol. Organ transplant and any mechanical ventilation is also prohibited, unless there is a prof that it can save a life, then they may decide to change their mind. Kurdish culture also perform special rituals for dying person. Kurdish culture also prohibit postmortem after the death, because they believe that death person may feel more pain in after life. They also believe that dead body may only be handled by same sex individuals and must be washed before burial of the body. Kurdish culture also impact the way Kurds think about their food. They only eat Halal meat. If Kurd is admitted in hospital, he or she prefer to eat food brought from home or they might eat only vegetarian food at the hospital. Kurdish communities are male dominated. Females are not allowed to travel alone and a male family member must accompany the female. All the decisions are made by male in the family. In conclusion, we can say that Kurds are very religious and cultured oriented people. They put their religious beliefs before their health. Culture is playing very big role in their mental health and the way they treat their mental illness. Women and children are not allowed to make any

Lean Supply Chain and Logistics Management †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Lean Supply Chain and Logistics Management. Answer: Introduction The following paper focuses about the facts of the order management processes and the order handling processes of the All You Need Office Supplies Ltd. They are operating within Australia mainly as well as in other foreign countries and they supply the things that are needed in an office. This has been a really profitable business but lately some problems have been noticed in their business operations. Some of the problems have to be identified in the course of this discussion so as to resolve the issues within the organization. They want to get back their customers at their disposal as their customer base is decreasing very rapidly (Knox and Van Oest 2014). The BPMN diagram has to be used in this paper as it will help to denote the problems and the ways the problems can be solved. The assumptions that can be made from the provided case study are the company has been facing losses because of their infrastructure and the customer and product management systems have been running out of date (Arai et al. 2012). The customers have been shifting their choices because they are getting more benefits from the rival company Office Market. This is an area of concern for them and they have to improve their management systems so that they can get back their customers. Many issues have been identified in this course of the case study as the concerned company in this paper All You Need Office Supplies Ltd. Has been losing their customer base to the rival company Market Office. The one problem that can be identified as the major one is the fact of their order handling process (Solomon 2014). The scope for this process as it will gain only a few number of customers within the given time. As the customers have to contact them through phone calls, they get engaged tone most of the times as the lines remain busy. This is why they get angry and impatient due to trying again and again. This is loss of time and patience as well. The order handling persons take the calls and process orders only up to a certain time limit which most of the people are not able to avail. This frustration causes the customer shifting. This is why this problem has to be solved immediately if they want to revive their market position (Morgan 2012). The limitations in this process are that the customers are not being able to place their orders on an urgent basis and they have to wait for hours to get their orders placed. If the customers are not getting the desired support from the service providers, they are likely to change their shift their choices. The time limitation is very convenient for the business organizations since they might need some things on an urgent basis. This situation has to be changed in order to improve the customer satisfaction levels (Best 2012). BPMN diagrams The BPMN diagrams or the Business Process Management and Notation diagrams are very important for improving the business conditions (Chinosi and Trombetta 2012). There are four types of diagrams in the BPMN diagram process. These are Process Diagram, Collaboration Diagram, Choreography Diagram and Conversation Diagram. A process flow diagram is one of the most important components in the BPMN diagram chart. This diagram is more frequently used in the chemical engineering firms or the process engineering firms (Chobantonov et al. 2013). The purpose of this diagram is to improve the already existing process model of the organization. This diagram helps to show the relationships between the major components of an industrial organization. This diagram uses some specific symbols to depict a particular process. These symbols may tend to vary and they are likely to be drawn by hands or sticky notes or professional diagrams in particular (Chinosi and Trombetta 2012). These diagrams can be developed by using different software. This process diagram helps to design a better process or create a new process branding; it makes standard improvements in the optimal efficiency of the plan. This also depicts the responsibilities of the organizations inside and outside (Chobantonov et al. 2013). The collaboration diagram is designed to depict the roles, functional operations, behaviors of the individual objects as well as the overall operations of the entire organization. The objects of the diagram are shown by rectangles with the naming being labeled inside. This diagram suits best for displaying the relationships among the smaller number of objects (Chinosi and Trombetta 2012) The choreography diagram shows a process but it is different from that of the standard BPMN process. Through this diagram, the participants of the business use to connect their interaction processes. The main focus falls not on the performed work but on the interaction between the different parties (Chinosi and Trombetta 2012) Conversation diagram has been introduced in the BPMN 2.0 as it helps to demonstrate a particular use of describing the collaboration diagram. This version is considered to be the simplified version of the collaboration diagram (Chinosi and Trombetta 2012) In this diagram, the message flow is controlled by the conversations in two or more diagrams. BPMN Diagram Level 1 The All You Need Office Supply Limited has taken some steps to improve their services. They will look to fulfill their orders by some stages. They will look to receive the order in their warehouse through their mobile software and process it there. Then they should check the order mail and check the inventory. They should check if the sufficient stocks are available and then confirm the orders. The transportation company then should confirm the orders and then send the shipped orders via their transport vehicles within a certain time. They should arrange for their shipment and then look to deliver the shipment product to its order delivery address. Lastly, they should be asking for payments from the clients. The business process of All You Need Office Supplies Ltd must take some positive steps in their business domain so that they can improve their sales figures and get back their lost customers in the process. They have to assess and analyze how many customers are moving away from availing their services. Then they should try to remodel their product management and customer management processes (Weske 2012). This will be helpful for them as this will inherit new ideas to improve their business operations. They can use the online methods of order processing so that they can gain better results. The conclusion from the first assignment can be drawn that All You Need Office Supplies Ltd will have to implement new ideas and business processes so that they can improve their services and make themselves available to the customers all the time. The lesser thee customers have to handle the hazards, the more they will be attracted to their services. This should be done if they implement the BPMN 2.0 diagrams properly. Recommendations All You Need Office Supplies Ltd have to introduce new business processes into their operational areas. They should have to incorporate an online medium for the transactions (Armstrong et al. 2012). As the customers are feeling very inconvenient about the outcomes of their current business process and the timings, All You Need Office Supplies have to expand their hours of activeness. The telephonic mode for the booking of the office goods is not appropriate because the telephone lines remain busy most of the times and this is very annoying for busy customers This problem should have a remedy. The company must open a new website portal or mobile software through which they can book their items (Armstrong et al. 2012). This process will enhance the business process of the company. More customers will pour in if they make their business process upgraded (Armstrong et al. 2012). The shipping time of the products should be reduced as well. This would meet the needs of the customers. The average shipping time should not be more than 3 days. The reduced costs of the items will fetch more customers at their disposal. This factor will work positively as this will surely increase the revenue for the company. The orders should be approved within a specified time and it should be delivered faster by the best logistics organization in the industry (Myerson 2012). The automated process in the business operations will decrease the hazareds for both the officers and the customers. References Arai, Y., Akiba, M., Tachimura, Y. and Kanno, Y., Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd., 2012.Product management system. U.S. Patent 8,237,569. Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015.Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Best, R., 2012.Market-based management. Pearson Higher Ed. Chinosi, M. and Trombetta, A., 2012. BPMN: An introduction to the standard.Computer Standards Interfaces,34(1), pp.124-134. Chobantonov, P., Cotner, A.B., Gilbert, P.G., Heredia, D.A., Howitt, M.A., Moeller, M.H., Moffat, A.J., Nonemacher, M.N. and Sanderson, G.C., International Business Machines Corporation, 2013.Business process diagram visualization using heat maps. U.S. Patent 8,527,311. Knox, G. and Van Oest, R., 2014, September. Customer complaints and recovery effectiveness: A customer base approach. American Marketing Association. Morgan, N.A., 2012. Marketing and business performance.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,40(1), pp.102-119. Myerson, P., 2012.Lean supply chain and logistics management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Solomon, M.R., 2014.Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being(Vol. 10). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Weske, M., 2012. Business process management architectures. InBusiness Process Management(pp. 333-371). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Nazi Gold Essays - Aftermath Of World War II, Swiss Law,

Nazi Gold It is the last great mystery of World War II: the unfinished, unprecedented search for what may be billions of dollars in cash, gold, property, and art hidden and unclaimed by victims of the Holocaust ? or plundered by the Nazis and their accomplices before shipping Jews to the death camps. In 1938 Nazi Gestapos raided the homes of over 10,000,000 innocent Jews. Their houses were thrashed, possessions were stolen, and lives were torn for the benefit of ?one superior race.? None of these people ever received compensation for their misfortunes, but most of all they never regained their lives. They had switched their bank accounts to the neutral country of Switzerland. This was to ensure their money was still theirs, if by some chance they survived the terror known as the Holocaust. When all Jews were forced into mandatory concentration camps that money mysteriously fell into the hands of Swiss bank officials. The very few Jews that did survive the deathly concentration camps, were denied the hard earned money that was in the Swiss banks. These people have been fighting fifty years with bank officials to find if Switzerland still had their money. It has now become evident that billions of dollars are left in Swiss banks. Of these billions of dollars the few that survived t he Holocaust have never seen a penny. These victims deserve the money they earned years ago. The families of those whose lives were taken deserve to get compensation for their ancestors. Holocaust victims and families of dead Holocaust victims must get compensation for being terrorized. There are millions of dollars worth of Nazi gold in the United States and Great Britain, but most gold is stored in Switzerland. Two countries that were firmly against the dictatorship that was going on in Germany, took millions of dollars of stolen gold from that same country. The United States and Great Britain are said to have gold hidden in their central banks that was looted by Nazis , but Switzerland was the main destination for gold from the looting of the Nazis. For years, Swiss bankers have denied having anything but minimal amounts of Nazi loot and unclaimed Jewish accounts in their vaults. ?There's been a 50 year campaign of dissembling,? says Edgar Bronfman, the business mogul and president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), who leads the search for the hidden assets . Over 50 years have passed and Switzerland has claimed they have minuscule amounts of Holocaust victims money. It wasn't until someone dug very deep into Swiss banking archives known as the JAG files that the truth was found. In one of those boxes, she found a copy of the Soci?#233 G?#233rale de Surveillance, a Geneva banking association. It listed names of Jewish nationals from Eastern Europe who had put their money into Swiss banks, with the amounts of their deposits. Translated into dollars and adjusted for inflation, the total came to about $20 billion. It has been over 50 years since the Geneva Convention concluded WWII, and until 1996 Switzerland denied they even took any sort of money from the Nazis. When a nasty paper trail was followed, it was learned that more than $20 billion was hidden in Switzerland, Great Britain, and the United States. But not one penny of the money stolen by Nazis has been returned to Holocaust victims. It has been over fifty years since Gestapos raided the homes of Holocaust victims. Almost seven million Jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps, but the estimated 600,000 survivors of the Holocaust have never received restitution payments from Germany. Some countries have overlooked Jewish concentration camp survivors, and gave money to prominent Nazi rulers. The age of many of the as-yet-uncompensated victims if Nazi persecutions has given urgency to the task. Over the years, most of the victims have been overlooked while some perpetrators and their heirs have been rewarded. The German widow of prominent Nazi Julius Streicher, for instance, received a lump sum of 46,000 deutsche marks ($35,000) from the West German government as compensation for money her husband might have earned had he survived the war . In this case the victim was overlooked and the criminal's family was rewarded. Is this the way

Management Integrity on Audit Planning and Evidence Essay Example

Management Integrity on Audit Planning and Evidence Essay Example Management Integrity on Audit Planning and Evidence Essay Management Integrity on Audit Planning and Evidence Essay Review on the Impact of Management Integrity on Audit Planning and Evidence This research is done to assess the correlation between management integrity and ARM, audit planning and misstatement detection, which leads to analysis of the impact of management integrity information on audit conduct. Motivation Some cases of failures such as Enron and Sardines-Solely have led public in general requiring auditors to be more careful in conducting their audit tasks, especially in terms of audited companies Internal controls. The basic of these internal controls Is built by Its management Integrity. By knowing the management integrity, It Is expected that auditors will be more aware In planning their audit which will affect the quality of their audit results as management Integrity may affect the credibility of the source and evidence. Prior Studies The underpinning theory suggests that there is a link between risk assessment and the way auditors planning their tasks. Previous literature which mostly based on questionnaire shows that auditors rely more on prior year error in their overall risk assessment than on a specific evaluation of management Integrity. It failed to provide good evidence regarding the correlation between risk evaluation and audit related Judgments. Hypothesis Management integrity has negative correlation to risk of material misstatement (ARM), which will affect the audit planning and source of evidence. Management integrity has negative correlation to persuasiveness, timing, and extent (PETE). There is a significant negative correlation between management integrity and the detection of material misstatements. Method From 78 random samples, only 60 clients provided management Integrity assessment. The authors did the research based on audit working papers In field setting, within focus on the transactions related to revenue such as cash, account receivables, Ana sales. I en researchers uses data cooing Ana employed ten audit risk model to connect management assessment integrity to risk of material misstatement (ARM) then ARM assessment to choice and scope of audit procedure. Results Clients who were assessed as having high levels of integrity had lower preliminary assessments. However, error in previous years is a better indicator of how risk is assessed and how audits are planned. This evidence suggests that when the client trustworthiness is doubted, the auditors will seek outside information about the financial statements instead of detailed examination of client supplied evidence. Another suggestion is that auditors seek much more persuasive evidence than is indicated by revised audit risk assessments. The result of the examination of the direct link between risk management integrity and the discovery of misstatement suggests that management integrity is associated with the uncovering of misstatement in the current year. Variation in management integrity assessment appears to be related to both audit planning and audit outcomes in a systematic way. However, although, cases of low management integrity are often eliminated during the client acceptance phase, clients with a spectrum of management integrity are still taken on. Therefore, the audit process needs to be able to handle a range of levels of management trustworthiness. Practical Implications One of the positive things from this research paper is that the researchers did the examination based on field setting and audit working papers rather than questionnaire like most prior researchers did. This means the quality of the response would be better as it is based on the real evidence rather than opinions of auditors which were probably scaled or ranked by the researchers before. Scaling, ranking, or vying some choices in the questionnaire would limit the real opinions of the auditors. Furthermore, the authors also put industry and public indicators or variables into their formulas. This means the authors realist that they need to consider other factors which may affect the risk of the audited company, the management integrity, or the culture of the company. Limitations The research was done based on random data from four big accounting firms. There is no further explanation of how random the sample being chosen; whether the researches differentiate the data based on the clients industry or merely random. Moreover, it is questionable whether 54 random samples can really represent hundreds or even thousands of clients. We assume that the clients of the big accounting firms would be big companies as well regarding to the audit fee. Therefore, the results might be different if the data was taken from smaller audit/ accounting Tells or smaller audited companies. I en Iterance newer does not mean the correlation between MI and audit planning, PETE, and misstatements detection will be positive; instead, it merely means that the indicator number of the correlation might change. Moreover, the authors pointed out that the clients of Big 4 audit firms ere dominantly technology oriented, which means an industry with a higher than normal rate of fraud. Therefore, the procedures may differ from those used in other industries. Because of the nature of the data, the authors were unable to identify individual auditors and to communicate the types of Board of directors were involved or what management and ownership relationships exited in the firms being audited. However, it should be noted that despite the results are generally acceptable in the real world, yet an exception might happen when the auditor has similar interest with he management or other parts of the audited company, meaning that the independence of the auditors would be questioned.

Selfie and Other Words Ending with -ie

Selfie and Other Words Ending with -ie Selfie and Other Words Ending with -ie Selfie and Other Words Ending with -ie By Mark Nichol Selfie is the latest addition to a small family of English words using the diminutive suffix -ie as an informal marker. Purely diminutive forms have been around for hundreds of years; puppy, likely borrowed from the Middle French word poupà ©e, meaning â€Å"doll† or â€Å"toy† (and cognate with puppet), dates from the fourteenth century, as does baby, a diminutive (as is babi, and along with babe) of the Middle English word baban, and hypocorisms, or pet names in diminutive form (such as Johnny), were first seen in the early fifteenth century in Scotland. Scottish was also the inspiration for the -ie ending, first seen in laddie, meaning â€Å"young boy,† in the mid-sixteenth century. Adoption of this form into English followed the popularity of Scotsman Robert Burns’s poems, which he wrote in the late 1700s and which feature such terms as laddie and its female equivalent, lassie. The latter word was the name of a heroic collie dog in an 1859 novel that probably inspired a similar character in a series of stories and novels written throughout the twentieth century, as well as films and television series. And speaking of dogs, doggie (also spelled doggy) was first attested around the same time as laddie and lassie appeared. The first common modern word utilizing the -ie diminutive is movie, first attested in 1911, just after the dawn of the cinematic age; it is so engrained in our vocabulary that few of us give any thought to its origin as a slang diminutive of â€Å"moving picture.† Two decades later, technological developments that enabled films to be produced with sound prompted the short-lived term talkie. (Within a few years, virtually all films were talkies, so the word soon became obsolete.) At about the same time, British writer Aldous Huxley expanded on that breakthrough in filmmaking by alluding in his novel Brave New World to feelies, films that incorporate touch and smell in the moviegoing experience. (The term later referred to facsimiles or models of objects featured in a computer game that are packaged with the game.) In the 1940s, the term hippie was coined as a pejorative diminutive of hipster, meaning â€Å"one who is self-consciously trendy† (first attested in 1941 but enjoying a resurgence over the last decade or so); a decade later, it (and the alternate spelling hippy) was appropriated to refer to people adopting a countercultural appearance and attitude. Also during the late 1960s, a radical group called the Youth International Party, inspired by hippie and alluding to the acronym of the name, dubbed themselves Yippies. The next -ie slang word to come along was foodie, referring to a person with gourmet tastes; it first appeared in the early 1980s. About twenty years after that, people began to refer to photographs they took of themselves as â€Å"selfies.† Though the practice dates back to the dawn of photography, the advent of cell phones with photographic capabilities made it unusually convenient for anyone to take selfies; a development that in hindsight seems to have been inevitable is the selfie stick, a pole used as an extension of the arm to provide a greater range when taking a selfie. Selfie and its similarly constructed antecedents are exhibits in the case for the introduction of new vocabulary as a democratic process: Anyone can coin a word. With the ubiquity of social media, it’s much easier than before for such neologisms to go viral, but they can easily get lost in the signal-to-noise clutter. But selfie and many other new words have thrived because they fill a need; how else can we concisely refer to photographs one takes of oneself (and other people and/or a background)? If you find yourself at a loss for words, create one of your own and see whether it has leggies. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Rhetorical Devices for Rational WritingLatin Plural Endings90 Verbs Starting with â€Å"Ex-†

Build a prototype E-Commerce Website Assignment - 1

Build a prototype E-Commerce Website - Assignment Example Logically, it is the marketing in every business that constructs the fundamental basis on which the business performance lies. The business has performed development-oriented studies and ascertained the origin of its misfortunes. Moreover the business has realized the remedy activities that if executed would reinstate the original performance capacity of the organization (Miller 2009). While pointing out the fact that there are particular aspects that influence the business situation and their adverse effects, the business has identified technology and proper management as the critical sources of the difficulties. However, the company problems have been condensed into a single trouble bordering the marketing and monitoring of stock. The company has experienced a slow pace of delivering products to its customer. The slower pace in selling as well as delivery of products to its customers has attributed to the cheaper sales due to the application of manual systems in the sales. Moreover, the manual outdated system of controlling the stock has been identified to being time consuming and wasting more time as a result. According to all the above provisions, the business has realized that a sole solution to its predicaments attributing to its ability to meet its threshold of  £2500 to cater for the basic requirements can be solved through the e-commerce. The contemporary system to be adopted by the company besides being observed as a future development strategy, it will also operate as a platform in the entire United Kingdom with a current venture in technological applications regarded as probable solutions (Schneider 2011). Throughout this piece, there will be an explicit elaboration on the current trends in e-commerce and the entire business fraternity. There will be a complete elaboration on the infrastructure needed to uphold development in the business. There will be justification of the desired choice amongst

Features Of The Freshmen's Life In Colleges Essay

Features Of The Freshmen's Life In Colleges - Essay Example But although students in college are required to work hard so as to pass their exams, there are a lot of deviant behaviors in colleges, through which the students manage to score high grades without working hard for it. This paper looks at the general challenges faced by the freshmen in colleges. The information on the challenges faced by the freshmen in college is based on Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6. The paper also includes the answer to interview questions on college life. And finally, the paper concludes with a paragraph that synthesizes the challenges of college life obtained from the Reading My Freshman Year Chapter 6, with the answers to the interview questions. In colleges, freshmen students indeed find themselves in a new environment, with a lot of challenges, and the students have to adapt to the challenges of the college life if they are to survive in college life and come out successfully, having achieved their goals. As we have stated in the introduction, there are diverse cultures and classes of people in colleges; student joins colleges from different cultures and social status. And when the student people from different cultural backgrounds and social status find themselves together, the students start to re-group based on one’s culture, social status, religion, believes or worldview. As it is clearly expressed in the Reading My Freshman Year chapter 6, â€Å"College Culture, like any culture, is neither singular nor monolithic†. One of the common cultures in USA colleges is the culture of students disrespecting their professors. This culture was developed by elite male students in the colleges who had a negative view towards education. One of the main challenges faced by freshmen student in colleges, therefore, is relating with their professors.

Support Children and Young People Positive Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Support Children and Young People Positive Behaviour Essay Good behaviour in all aspects of school life is necessary. We are providing high standard of discipline and behaviour. By adhering to this policy we aim to recognise and promote positive behaviour and in doing so, will help to promote self-esteem, self-discipline and build positive relationships based on mutual respect, consideration and tolerance. The policy is not only aimed at pupils, but to all who are involved in the school community, from parents to governors, to staff etc. in order to be able to apply it consistently. Everyone work hard to help children to keep up high standards of behaviour, so they can use their time in school effectively to learn and develop. We are encouraging children to do their best, establishing in them a sense of self-respect and independence by praising their efforts and being interested in them as individuals. It is our aim to instil in children a sense of respect for the feelings, needs and interests of other people, like also commitment and pride in the school. Fundamental reasons of this policy are being followed to make sure that all children know that they have the right to learn, every teacher has the right to teach and everybody in school has the right to feel safe, secure and happy by being part of school community. We believe it’s very important to make children feel proud of themselves and show them the appreciation of their self-development and creativity. That is why we are using rewards such as weekly certificates, house points, golden tickets, marble jars or written reports and newsletters to parents, to let them know personally, that their children are doing well. We also believe we must signify very clearly negative behaviour. To make an effort on that we have created three ‘Golden Rules’ to help us make that strategy real. First Golden Rule says ‘do what an adult tells you to do the first time’, so children can identify their authorities and people whose behaviour they should follow, so defiance or deliberate disobedience will be absolutely intolerable. Second Golden Rule is about ‘keeping your hand and feet and other object to yourself’. In our school community it’s completely unacceptable to indicate danger or harm, like physical violence and threats to another person or racism towards children, which is regard as extremely serious and we always take constant action against it. We always try to make sure, that all racist incidents are being reported by our grownups. ‘No put downs or swearing’ is the third rule, which is same important as the rest two of them. We are trying to create nice and friendly atmosphere at our work place, like also develop children’s communication skills without using any unnecessary or abusive vocabulary. Procedures for handling unacceptable behaviour in our facilities are followed to deal with children, whose behaviour is opposite to our school rules or is any different way perilous. We are using ‘1-2-3 exit’ method in the classroom, dinner hall and playground. This system is utilized, while the inappropriate behaviour is identified. The teacher gives first warning to a child, if it continues to be disobedient, they are given second one, after third, if the misbehaviour still persists and then ‘exit’, which means they are sent to another classroom to work alone in silence for some period specified by teacher. After that procedure, teacher and student must go through talk and complete ‘Exit Form’, which makes them think about all the effects and to make sure, they know what they have done wrong or who they have affected and how to change it, to not make it happen again. This form is kept in child’s behaviour record, monitored by the Head Teacher and definitely, parents have to be informed. That might also result in the child missing future trips and the other school events. Anti-social behaviour, which affects everyone, is unacceptable and will not be tolerate is bullying. There are three types of bullying: physical (using physical violence), verbal (name calling with racist remarks) and indirect (spreading rumours about someone). It is our responsibility to keep that kind of behaviour away from happening, because pupils who are being bullied can show negative changes in their attitude, like becoming shy and nervous, taking unexplained absences or pretending illness. We must encourage them to report bullying in schools and be alert to the signs of it, so we can react promptly and solve the problem as soon as possible by following the school policy steps. All the head teachers are response, under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to follow procedures to avoid bullying among pupils and make people around or working with them, to pay more attention about this rules. That kind of incidents will be dealt immediately by one of the member of staff, recorded and given to the head teacher, who will take an action. Parents must be kept informed about every record in a file of child and sanctions might be used after consultation and investigating all people who were concerned. Pupils will be supported by the member of staff, by discussing and investigating what happened, who was involved and what was done wrong and will be necessary to change. We will also offer help with restoring self-esteem and confidence if needed. Exclusion may be taken as a disciplinary step. Within the set of courses the school will be more aware of the problem of bullying through education in PSHE, tutorials and assemblies to completely eliminate that sort of behavioural matter. We are all members of the school community, we as a teachers and staff, you as a parents, and of course our children. We all have duties and responsibilities to follow, to make our lives easier more comfortable and secure. These policies have been created to help us turn those rules into a life and make our schools safe and happy environment to learn, play and grow up for everyone, with no exceptions.

The Mid-life Crisis in Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock :: Love Song J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a poem which enters the dynamic consciousness of its title character, whose feelings, thoughts and emotions are displayed in a motley but organized sequence, as they ride the man's wavering mood. His is a mood wavering more often towards haplessness than fulfillment, because Prufrock is a man caught in a vicious cycle of introspection, journey, and retreat. More specifically, J. Alfred Prufrock, as developed by Eliot, is a man experiencing a mid life crisis, brought about by society, and sustained by his own fear and reluctance. Throughout his "song," Prufrock questions himself. He does so not after a performed action, nor during, but nearly always before. Seemingly inbred in him is the tendency to think deeply into everything he does, so that the consequences of his actions may not attract the attention of a society he sees constantly lurking behind him. Nervous and fearful of this hovering critic, Prufrock finds himself considerably shaken by life actions as simple as descending a staircase. A task considered perfunctory and performed without conflict by others, Prufrock, when atop the staircase asks himself, "'Do I dare?' and 'Do I Dare?'"(Eliot 811). His reluctance comes with the response to the question, which Prufrock in his self-consciousness answers for society, answering, "(They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!') and "('But how his arms and legs are thin!'." Prufrock's conflict thus arises because in his consciousness it is not the end of the stairs which await him as he stands at the top, but a society crouched in the shadows and poised to attack. Henceforth, the cycle is revealed; Prufrock professes an intention, hesitates in paranoia at the prospect of achieving it, and then retreats into self consciousness upon contemplating what society would think of him, and his 'thinning hair' as he did it. This fact incites one to wonder if Prufrock, who repeatedly asks himself, "And how should I presume?" is trapped by and within his own mind, as it continues to engage in the aforementioned cycle. It is within this 'thinning hair' and these 'thin arms and legs' where Prufrock's inhibitions, and consequently the crises he finds himself in, are rooted. Only a man in a mid-life crisis could be so shaken by a bald spot, so unnerved by silent comments aimed at his 'thin arms and legs' (which leads one to envision his torso to be the opposite) by a society which fuels its oppression of Prufrock with his own self-consciousness.

Learning Team A Week One Reflection Essay

The object of the reflection for this week is to discuss the objectives for Week One and their relation to the importance of the balance sheet to internal and external users. The objectives discussed by Learning Team A are the components of cash and cash equivalents, and the comparison and contrast of different inventory cost flow assumptions and how they are valued. The internal users are indentified as management and the external users are investors and creditors. Cash and Cash Equivalents Cash is defined in the text as the â€Å"most liquid of assets† and is identified by companies as a current asset. (Weygandt, Kimmel, & Kieso, 2010) What has become very popular is the classification called cash and cash equivalents. FASB has determined that classification to be misleading and it will probably be eliminated from financial statements. Cash will be cash and what used to be short term cash equivalents will now be reported as temporary investments. One of the situations leading to this decision is some companies having to take large losses on auction-rated notes. These notes are liquid because they can be traded daily, but they are not short term because the terms of the notes can be lengthy, in some cases 30 years. When the economy went bad, the auctions stopped, the value went away and the companies participating had to take sizeable losses. Why inventory is important on the Balance Sheet Inventory is an important aspect on the balance sheet. When an outsider studies the balance sheet, they have to look at the assets that the company currently has to make the inventory portion of the balance sheet make sense. The reason that the inventory shows on the balance sheet as a current asset is so outsider investors assume the inventory sells in the future when the product is complete. When investors review the balance sheet, they also like to see that the company does not have too much inventory in case they are cannot sell it, or get rid of the inventory in the future. If companies do not have an accurate amount of inventory they have to estimate it to reflect the information on the balance sheet. Calculating inventory value using Gross Profit and Retail Inventory methods The gross profit inventory valuation method is pretty simple. Beginning inventory plus purchases minus sales at selling price less gross profit percentage equals ending inventory. The major disadvantage of this method is that it is an estimate and not actual which is why it is not a GAAP approved method unless physical inventory is done to back up the valuation (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield, 2010). The retail inventory method, on the other hand, is an acceptable way to valuate inventory. Many retail stores have so many items it is really impractical to do regular inventory counts. To calculate inventory valuation this way, the store takes the beginning inventory plus purchases less sales to determine ending inventory at the retail price. Then the goods available for sale at cost amount is divided by the goods available for sale at retail amount to determine the cost-to-retail ratio; that figure is multiplied by the retail ending inventory to come up with the cost. Internal users of accounting can include management, employees, and owners. Managers use this accounting information to view the company’s performance. Employees view accounting information for job security. Owners view accounting information to view profits from their investments. External users can insist of creditors, investors, and customers. Creditors use this information to check the company’s credit worthiness. Investors would like to earn money from their investments. Customers would like to maintain a long term company customer relationship. The balance sheet allows internal and external users to view what the business has and what the business owes. Knowing a company’s net worth is very important. Using different methods to calculate inventory for companies can be very critical.

Management Role in Ensuring Editorial Freedom

Responsibility, credibility and quality are key words for a large, serious media group. This applies in relation to the users of our media, customers, employees, shareholders and the societies in which we work. At the forefront, however, is the publishing responsibility: to safeguard editorial independence and freedom of speech in the media which we own. Free media are among the main contributors to strong, live democracies. A credible, strong media should defend important values such as religious freedom, tolerance, human rights and democratic principles. They must reflect a diversity of opinion. For this reason, they should also provide different ways of looking at issues and views on important questions in public debates. The management must facilitate editors in complying with the legislation and ethical regulations of the country where the operations take place. Editorial quality and credibility are the cornerstone of publishing activities and these, together with the individual medium’s articles of association, form the basis for the editors’ work. The editor-in-chief has full freedom and is personally and fully responsible for the content of the medium of which he or she is in charge. However, there are only few publications that allow their editors with total freedom. In reality, an independent press is a myth. Or at best, a glorified term. Most editors dare not write their honest comment/opinion. In other words, they are sometimes paid to keep their honest opinions out of the paper. And if they do defy the management, they would soon be out on the streets hunting for a new job. Most managements have vested interests – political, social and cultural in running the paper, which may not gel with the opinions held by the editors they employ. It is here that the editors have to either compromise with their editorial values or pay a price for standing up to them. In private, corporate media environments, editorial hiring and firing are the preserve of the owners. Media houses (read owners) have become highly profit-oriented organizations. So editorial values are always at stake Distortion of news and comment in such a scenario becomes the order of the day. Most owners hand-pick their editors so that the policy of the owner becomes the policy of the editor. Dissent is seldom allowed It is media owners who possess the greater weapon today – i. e. , one useful against incumbent politicians fearful of bad press, lack of access, and endorsement of opponents. This sorry, quid-pro-quo, relationship leads to media corruption, benefitting only the ruling, corporate, class. Managements giving complete editorial freedom is therefore rare. But any newspaper which enjoys more flexibility and freedom from their management, has the potential to make greater impact and live up to the reputation of a frank, fair and fearless media. Today's concentration of media ownership and editorial power brings into sharp focus not only the immense responsibility, but also the freedom and estate of editors – in particular those with huge audiences. Yet it is major-media owners, and their hand-picked editors, who decide what the vast majority see, hear, and read. Media owners and their editors have become the unelected, and unregulated, keepers of the public trust and molders of the public mind.

Free Essays on Silence Of The Lambs

What is Forensic Anthropology? From within the specialized area of osteologythe study of bones- comes the application of the methods and techniques of analyzing skeletal remains for cases that will apply tf legal importance. Osteological analyses yield clues as to how populations of people might have lived, how old they were when they died, if they were female or male, their state of health (or disease), types of trauma they may have experienced as related to climate, warfare, and occupation. Forensic anthropologists help identify individuals who died in mass disasters, wars, or due to homicide, suicide, or accidental death, and applying the evidence to a case legally. Anthropology is the "study of humans" in a broad sense. There are primarily three subfields of anthropology, or three general areas into which the study of humans can be classified: Cultural anthropology, Archaeology, and Physical (or Biological) Anthropology. A fourth subfield, Linguistics (pertaining to language), seems to have been absorbed by the other three subfields in many cases today. Cultural Anthropology Cultural Anthropology: this subfield deals with myriad aspects of human society, culture, behavior, beliefs, ways of life, etc. It can include studies of non-technologic societies, technologic societies, past and present. Many areas of anthropology over lap eachother. For example, cultural anthropology may overlap with studies of foreign language, economics, psychology, sociology, political science, the medical field, ecology, women's studies, history, and so on. Archaeology Archaeology is the study of past cultures, through peoples' material remains (i.e. artifacts). The lifeways of past peoples can be studied from the artifacts they leave behind, which can range from items as small as bits of pottery and tools to large dwellingshuts, houses of worship, etc. Archaeological research covers a vast array of cultures throughout time and spacef... Free Essays on Silence Of The Lambs Free Essays on Silence Of The Lambs What is Forensic Anthropology? From within the specialized area of osteologythe study of bones- comes the application of the methods and techniques of analyzing skeletal remains for cases that will apply tf legal importance. Osteological analyses yield clues as to how populations of people might have lived, how old they were when they died, if they were female or male, their state of health (or disease), types of trauma they may have experienced as related to climate, warfare, and occupation. Forensic anthropologists help identify individuals who died in mass disasters, wars, or due to homicide, suicide, or accidental death, and applying the evidence to a case legally. Anthropology is the "study of humans" in a broad sense. There are primarily three subfields of anthropology, or three general areas into which the study of humans can be classified: Cultural anthropology, Archaeology, and Physical (or Biological) Anthropology. A fourth subfield, Linguistics (pertaining to language), seems to have been absorbed by the other three subfields in many cases today. Cultural Anthropology Cultural Anthropology: this subfield deals with myriad aspects of human society, culture, behavior, beliefs, ways of life, etc. It can include studies of non-technologic societies, technologic societies, past and present. Many areas of anthropology over lap eachother. For example, cultural anthropology may overlap with studies of foreign language, economics, psychology, sociology, political science, the medical field, ecology, women's studies, history, and so on. Archaeology Archaeology is the study of past cultures, through peoples' material remains (i.e. artifacts). The lifeways of past peoples can be studied from the artifacts they leave behind, which can range from items as small as bits of pottery and tools to large dwellingshuts, houses of worship, etc. Archaeological research covers a vast array of cultures throughout time and spacef...

Overrides in VB.NET - Using VB.NET Series

Overrides in VB.NET - Using VB.NET Series This is one of a mini-series that covers the differences in Overloads, Shadows, and Overrides in VB.NET. This article covers Overrides. The articles that cover the others are here: - Overloads- Shadows These techniques can be hugely confusing; there are a lot of combinations of these keywords and the underlying inheritance options. Microsofts own documentation doesnt begin to do the topic justice and there is a lot of bad, or out of date information on the web. The best advice to be sure that your program is coded correctly is, Test, test, and test again. In this series, well look at them one at a time with emphasis on the differences. Overrides The thing that Shadows, Overloads, and Overrides all have in common is that they reuse the name of elements while changing what happens. Shadows and Overloads can operate both within the same class or when a class inherits another class. Overrides, however, can only be used in a derived class (sometimes called a child class) that inherits from a base class (sometimes called a parent class). And Overrides is the hammer; it lets you entirely replace a method (or a property) from a base class. In the article about classes and the Shadows keyword (See: Shadows in VB.NET), a function was added to show that an inherited procedure could be referenced. Public Class ProfessionalContact ... code not shown ... Public Function HashTheName( ByVal nm As String) As String Return nm.GetHashCode End Function End Class The code that instantiates a class derived from this one (CodedProfessionalContact in the example) can call this method because its inherited. In the example, I used the VB.NET GetHashCode method to keep the code simple and this returned a fairly useless result, the value -520086483. Suppose I wanted a different result returned instead but, - I cant change the base class. (Maybe all I have is compiled code from a vendor.) ... and ... - I cant change the calling code (Maybe there are a thousand copies and I cant update them.) If I can update the derived class, then I can change the result returned. (For example, the code could be part of an updatable DLL.) There is one problem. Because its so comprehensive and powerful, you have to have permission from the base class to use Overrides. But well-designed code libraries provide it. (Your code libraries are all well designed, right?) For example, the Microsoft provided function we just used is overridable. Heres an example of the syntax. Public Overridable Function GetHashCode As Integer So that keyword has to be present in our example base class as well. Public Overridable Function HashTheName( ByVal nm As String) As String Overriding the method is now as simple as providing a new one with the Overrides keyword. Visual Studio again gives you a running start by filling in the code for you with AutoComplete. When you enter ... Public Overrides Function HashTheName( Visual Studio adds the rest of the code automatically as soon as you type the opening parenthesis, including the return statement which only calls the original function from the base class. (If youre just adding something, this is usually a good thing to do after your new code executes anyway.) Public Overrides Function HashTheName( nm As String) As String Return MyBase.HashTheName(nm) End Function In this case, however, Im going to replace the method with something else equally useless just to illustrate how its done: The VB.NET function that will reverse the string. Public Overrides Function HashTheName( nm As String) As String Return Microsoft.VisualBasic.StrReverse(nm) End Function Now the calling code gets an entirely different result. (Compare with the result in the article about Shadows.) ContactID: 246 BusinessName: Villain Defeaters, GmbH Hash of the BusinessName: HbmG ,sretaefeD nialliV You can override properties too. Suppose you decided that ContactID values greater than 123 would not be allowed and should default to 111. You can just override the property and change it when the property is saved: Private _ContactID As Integer Public Overrides Property ContactID As Integer Get Return _ContactID End Get Set(ByVal value As Integer) If value 123 Then _ContactID 111 Else _ContactID value End If End Set End Property Then you get this result when a larger value is passed: ContactID: 111 BusinessName: Damsel Rescuers, LTD By the way, in the example code so far, integer values are doubled in the New subroutine (See the article on Shadows), so an integer of 123 is changed to 246 and then changed again to 111. VB.NET gives you, even more, control by allowing a base class to specifically require or deny a derived class to override using the MustOverride and NotOverridable keywords in the base class. But both of these are used in fairly specific cases. First, NotOverridable. Since the default for a public class is NotOverridable, why should you ever need to specify it? If you try it on the HashTheName function in the base class, you get a syntax error, but the text of the error message gives you a clue: NotOverridable cannot be specified for methods that do not override another method. The default for an overridden method is just the opposite: Overrideable. So if you want overriding to definitely stop there, you have to specify NotOverridable on that method. In our example code: Public NotOverridable Overrides Function HashTheName( ... Then if the class CodedProfessionalContact is, in turn, inherited ... Public Class NotOverridableEx Inherits CodedProfessionalContact ... the function HashTheName cannot be overriden in that class. An element that cannot be overridden is sometimes called a sealed element. A fundamental part of the .NET Foundation is to require that the purpose of every class is explicitly defined to remove all uncertainty. A problem in previous OOP languages has been called â€Å"the fragile base class.† This happens when a base class adds a new method with the same name as a method name in a subclass that inherits from a base class. The programmer writing the subclass didnt plan on overriding the base class, but this is exactly what happens anyway. This has been known to result in the cry of the wounded programmer, I didnt change anything, but my program crashed anyway. If there is a possibility that a class will be updated in the future and create this problem, declare it as NotOverridable. MustOverride is most often used in what is called an Abstract Class. (In C#, the same thing uses the keyword Abstract!) This is a class that just provides a template and youre expected to fill it with your own code. Microsoft provides this example of one: Public MustInherit Class WashingMachine Sub New() Code to instantiate the class goes here. End sub Public MustOverride Sub Wash Public MustOverride Sub Rinse (loadSize as Integer) Public MustOverride Function Spin (speed as Integer) as Long End Class To continue Microsofts example, washing machines will do these things (Wash, Rinse and Spin) quite differently, so theres no advantage of defining the function in the base class. But there is an advantage in making sure that any class that inherits this one does define them. The solution: an abstract class. If you need even more explanation about the differences between Overloads and Overrides, a completely different example is developed in a Quick Tip: Overloads Versus Overrides VB.NET gives you even more control by allowing a base class to specifically require or deny a derived class to override using the MustOverride and NotOverridable keywords in the base class. But both of these are used in fairly specific cases. First, NotOverridable. Since the default for a public class is NotOverridable, why should you ever need to specify it? If you try it on the HashTheName function in the base class, you get a syntax error, but the text of the error message gives you a clue: NotOverridable cannot be specified for methods that do not override another method. The default for an overridden method is just the opposite: Overrideable. So if you want overriding to definitely stop there, you have to specify NotOverridable on that method. In our example code: Public NotOverridable Overrides Function HashTheName( ... Then if the class CodedProfessionalContact is, in turn, inherited ... Public Class NotOverridableEx Inherits CodedProfessionalContact ... the function HashTheName cannot be overriden in that class. An element that cannot be overridden is sometimes called a sealed element. A fundamental part of the .NET Foundation is to require that the purpose of every class is explicitly defined to remove all uncertainty. A problem in previous OOP languages has been called â€Å"the fragile base class.† This happens when a base class adds a new method with the same name as a method name in a subclass that inherits from a base class. The programmer writing the subclass didnt plan on overriding the base class, but this is exactly what happens anyway. This has been known to result in the cry of the wounded programmer, I didnt change anything, but my program crashed anyway. If there is a possibility that a class will be updated in the future and create this problem, declare it as NotOverridable. MustOverride is most often used in what is called an Abstract Class. (In C#, the same thing uses the keyword Abstract!) This is a class that just provides a template and youre expected to fill it with your own code. Microsoft provides this example of one: Public MustInherit Class WashingMachine Sub New() Code to instantiate the class goes here. End sub Public MustOverride Sub Wash Public MustOverride Sub Rinse (loadSize as Integer) Public MustOverride Function Spin (speed as Integer) as Long End Class To continue Microsofts example, washing machines will do these things (Wash, Rinse and Spin) quite differently, so theres no advantage of defining the function in the base class. But there is an advantage in making sure that any class that inherits this one does define them. The solution: an abstract class. If you need even more explanation about the differences between Overloads and Overrides, a completely different example is developed in a Quick Tip: Overloads Versus Overrides

Technology integration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Technology integration - Essay Example AT&T is a telecommunication company that offers a wide variety of products and services to Americans. The following factors has made the company’s success in the integration of technology. AT&T Company is well known in contacting immense research at all times. This enables them to capture a broad range of customers which determines their profit at the end of the day. The company has an extremely qualified research team that embarks on constant research work and working close with the product designers, and they can come up with the latest products meeting the customer’s needs (Yee and Oh, 2013). The company is working on the internet of things and bringing new technological gadgets beefed up with 3 & 4G networks which make the users download products from websites in few seconds. These products are as a result of constant R&D, that the company has heavily invested. AT&T Company has the best innovative team that has ever been known in history. They constantly keep innovating so as to meet the rising needs and even goes to the extent of making products which make the life of the user even more comfortable. The company also achieves this through the issuance of patents which makes its team broader. From their official website, the company in the year 2014 issued at least one patent a day, and that has seen them have over 10000 patents issued in various parts of the world. In this case, the company will always have state-of-the-art technology at all times ensuring new and improved products to meet a broad range of customer needs (Iansiti, 1998). It is very true when a company becomes very aggressive in the above-discussed sectors of constant innovation and R&D, it will undoubtedly succeed. AT&T Company not only utilizes the two aspects, but also works out with mergers and acquisition that makes the company widen its

Henry A. Wallace Questions the 'Get Tough' PolicyAndrei Vishinsky's Essay

Henry A. Wallace Questions the 'Get Tough' PolicyAndrei Vishinsky's United Nations Speech - Essay Example Henry A Wallace â€Å"Questions the Get Tough Policy† The main issue revolving around the mind of Henry Wallace was how the rest of the world views the USA following their day-to-day actions. The reading expounds on the international politics of 1940s. Some of the actions that cause concern are $13 billion budget for the war and Navy Departments, continuing examinations and manufacturing of bombs, the plan to arm the Latin America among other military plans in manufacturing the B-29s and the B-36s. These plans and actions make the USA look as if it is paying so much to earn peace. They may also look as if the US is planning to intimidate the rest of the world or it is planning for an inevitable war. Truly, the best way to enhance peace is investing in arms as this will build a predominance force. However, the USA is doing a lot as far as getting prepared for a war is concerned. Henry Wallace explains these actions of Atomic bomb investment as a cheap warfare as compared with t he outdated wars. This is in reference with the fact that there are a few nations with the capacity to produce the weapon. The production process also requires little labor force and the plant itself occupy a small area as compared to the space occupied by plants manufacturing old rifles. Another reason for investment in atomic bombs is that having many bombs among other nations is of no benefit because they would be of benefit just as having enough weapons would do. Another key reason why the country is producing atomic bombs is that the production will kill the monopoly that a nation such as Russia is producing the weapon. This is through a neutralization effect. He also argues that they are producing the atomic bombs to show preparedness for war, as they are the most venerable nation following the fact that they are the wealthiest nation in the world (Baylis, Smith, and Owens 23). He refers to a philosophy in military studies, which states that there is no nation capable of winni ng a war that fully destroys modern civilization. The theory, therefore, advocates that the best preventative measure is attacking nations, which produce the weapon. The theory by its nature is unethical and immoral. The USA may be at a fix if it decided to apply the theory because if it attempts to attack Russia and all its atomic reserves, it will awaken Europe, meaning in has to destroy it as well which it would be an immense challenge. There are also issues concerning distrust of Russia by the Americans. This is following the conflicts between the two nations as far as political and economic power is concerned. However, there is also an argument that the continuing thought regarding distrust for Russia will not do the world any good because of their reaction concerning the allegation. This is in reference with the history of the nation as well as the policies of Russia to the rest of the world. Following the argument by Henry Wallace, it is evident that the Americans feel that t hey are exceptional and superior to other nations (Baylis, Smith, and Owens 56). Andrei Vishinsky's â€Å"United Nations Speech" â€Å"The Get Policy† by Henry Wallace of 1947 analyzes the need to stop the ongoing after- war propaganda that negatively affected the people. Different individuals share their own opinion about the war, and this is published in the newspapers and daily

Managerial Economics Week 12 Individual Work Assignment

Managerial Economics Week 12 Individual Work - Assignment Example Incorporating secondary and intangible benefits and costs is an important analytical tool that can help project managers to account for the value added that arises from outside the project. The employment assumption in Detroit area regarding the benefits of the project is that the project will create more job opportunities for people. There is a positive relationship between employment rates in the region and the redevelopment project. There will increased income for resident of the area due to the project Without incorporating benefits in calculating the Benefit-cost ratio, the BCR equals discounted incremental costs. The project would be very costly to implement hence would not be desirable to conduct. The assumption is that the facility will lead to increased revenues from hotels and other conventional facilities. The assumption is realistic since the hotels would accommodate customers. Good customer services and accommodation are some of the core areas of the hotel facility that will generate revenues in addition to creating employment opportunities for people. Hotels generate Revenue from room rentals, food and beverage sales. Improving customer services, adding new revenue source and branding the hotel are some of the strategies that allow hotels to generate high levels of revenues (Rosehill, 2014). The desirability of the project slightly decreases even though the BCR value is less than 1. Reducing benefits from hotel facilities and excluding employment benefits makes the project less desirable for

How Concepts Of Fate Explored In Oedipus English Literature Essay

How Concepts Of Fate Explored In Oedipus English Literature Essay Fate and free will both play an integral role in Oedipus life. In Oedipus, Sophocles points out the old Greek belief that fate cannot be escaped even though a man has freewill and choice. Despites a man free will it is fate that will eventually prevail. But was Oedipus a victim of an inevitable fate or did he create his own destiny through his free will? Oedipus just like Laius and Jocasta tries to escape his fate by acting on his freewill. Laius had tried to escape his fate by trying to kill the child who was meant to kill him, but does not succeed. Oedipus too tries to escape his fate by running away from Corinth after he was told of the oracle that said he is to mate his own mother and murder the father who gave him life. Afraid and of course believing the oracle he runs away in order to escape it. But by doing so, he is unaware that he has actually taken a step closer to his own destruction. This is proved when on his way to his new life, he unknowingly kills his own father Laius and fulfills a part of the oracle. He then goes on and takes over Thebes and marries his own mother and hence fulfills the first oracle. However, Laius and Jocasta had a chance which Oedipus didnt. They were given a warning saying that they should not produce a child. But Laius was overcome by a momentary lust (Oedipus Tyrannus notes- Pg 90) and thus lef t his son to face the consequence of his action. Jocasta and Laius can also be seen as a perfect evidence of freewill. It was their choice of action that led to their destiny. Their fate was never certain. They were given a warning but ignored it and went against gods will. Their choice of action shows that it was freewill that created their destiny. However, we can also say it was their fate because the warning itself had mentioned their fate. Moreover, they get their punishment for going against god; Laius is killed by his own son and Jocasta marries not only her own son but also the murderer of her husband. The play shows that the gods are in control, and not men (www.slashdoc.com). Furthermore, the play can also be looked at as the fate of Laius and Jocasta since they were the one who ignored the oracle and made a mistake. Oedipus just seems like someone guiding them to their fate. Their ill-fate was the punishment for avoiding the warning and acting on their freewill. So, therefore, we can also say that Oedipus was just a vict im of his parents curse, the curse of your mother and father, a double blow (pg 33 Line -417). At the beginning of the play, when there is a plague in Thebes, we are told about the new oracle from Creon. He coveys the oracle that in order to get rid of the plague, the murderer of Laius must be found. Here we can say that it is his freewill thats creating his destiny because Oedipus could have waited for the plague to end and not send Creon to seek help from Apollo, but he does. This shows him acting with freewill and shows that man is reliable of his own actions. However, on the other hand, we can also say it is fate because it was meant to happen. There were two things he could have done; one was to wait for the plague to end and the other to send Creon to seek help from Apollo. But he goes for the one that leads him to his destruction. So we can say that its fate and is taking him towards his downfall. He does exactly what a good king should have done but doesnt realize that he is pushing himself closer to his downfall. Also, after he learns of the oracle, he could have sear ched for the murderer slowly and quietly but he curses the murderer which in actuality is him cursing himself , I also pray that this unknown doer of this deed, whether he acted alone or with accomplices, may wear out his wretched life in abstract misery(pg 23 Lines 246-278). This symbolizes that freewill is just a road to ones fate. The agon between Oedipus and Tiresias brings out a lot of Oedipuss flaws. His harmatia include arrogance, violence, pride and his quest for truth. In this scene Tiresias continuously warns Oedipus not to ask more, but Oedipus does. The scene creates a lot of tension and Tiresias foretells a lot Now you see clearly but then you will see darkness (Pg 33 line -419). But Oedipus does not pay any heed to this and mocks Tiresias blindness. We can also say that Oedipuss harmatia led and contributed immensely to his downfall. Even after hearing a lot, he is still ignorant and is committed in finding the murderer. Here too he could have stopped his enquiry and saved himself but he doesnt and thinks he is doing the right thing but has no idea of what waits for him. Consequently, he continues pushing himself forward. Jocasta tries to calm Oedipus down by telling him that no one who is mortal has the power of prophecy (pg53 lines-788-789). She also provides an evidence for this by telling him of the old oracle and adds that Laius was not killed by his own son but by robbers and as for the child they had thrown him away with his ankles pinned together. And for the first time realization hits Oedipus, and he cries, Oh. What a wretched I am! It seems I have exposed myself to a terrible curse, without knowing it.(pg 55 lines 744-745). But Jocasta assures him that Laius was killed by robbers and not a single man. Even after knowing so much Oedipus is still persistent in finding the whole truth. He now waits for the shepherd who had witnessed Laius murder and calls him hes only grounds for hope (pg 61 lines836). But in reality the shepherd is the one who opens the gate to his ill-fate. The chorus then, in the 2nd STASIMON reminds us that the laws of the land is in the gods hand and not men The laws pres cribed for these are sublime ,and were given their birth in the clear air of heaven, Olympus (pg 65 lines 865-867). While they are waiting for the servant, a messenger comes by and informs that Polybus is dead and later adds that Polybus was not Oedipuss father Polybus was no relation of your (pg 75 line-1016). Just then Jocasta realizes that the oracle has come true, and begs Oedipus to stop his quest. But as always Oedipus doesnt listen and misunderstands Jocasta. Jocasta leaves calling him an unhappy man. The herdsman then comes into the scene and at first refuses to tell the truth. Like Tiresias and Jocasta, he too warns him to stop but Oedipus doesnt. The herdsman then confirms Oedipuss identity (that he is Laius son) and thus breaks the shield that had been there till now that had kept Oedipus away from his ill fate. Having realized what he has done, Oedipus cries Oh, oh! The whole truth has come out. Light may this be the last time I look at you (pg 8 lines 1182- 1123). The chorus then reflects on the illusionary qualities of mans happiness and the futility of mortal life. Even someone who appeared so pre-eminently successful as Oedipus has shown this by falling victim to terrible suffering. (pg 86 notes). We are then told about Jocastas death. Jocasta suicide is purely freewill since her fate was never to die but to marry her son. So her decision to die was not her fate but her choice; her freewill. At the end of the play, Oedipus blinds himself and when the chorus asks him what had made him do so, he replies, Apollo, it was Apollo, my friends (pg 97 lines 1328). But the hand that struck them was mine (pg 97 line-1331). He now understands his fate and takes responsibility for his actions and is guilty for killing his father and marrying his mother. Even though we know that Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, we as an audience feel pity for him because he didnt do anything deliberately. The characters in the play were not fully responsible for their actions. In the play, fate and freewill both worked together towards Oedipus destruction. Every action he took, lead him to closer to his destruction. Thus we can conclude that freewill is just a road that leads to ones destination. In the end all the oracles are proved right and it is proved that fate is inevitable and humans are controlled by god and despites a mans freewill, it is fate that prevails. AS English Literature Unit 2 Dramatic Genres Oedipus Coursework First Draft Jesika Limbu

Can a fingerprint be reproduced? :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

Can a fingerprint be reproduced? Imagine the guilt a wife and mother would feel knowing that carrying out her daily routine of waking her husband, so he could get ready for work, would cause her never to see him again. To just send him off as she has done for the past thirty-two years would cause such heartbreak for her and her family. For her to remember the way he would turn on all the lights and make as much noise as possible to keep her awake so that he could get a good-bye kiss. And to think that that kiss would be their last one because when he arrives at work, takes the elevator to the fifty-second floor, and takes a seat at his desk a terrorist would fly an airplane into his building, The World Trade Center. On that dark day, The World Trade Center became a burial ground. Thousands of people lost their lives because of someone’s warped view of religion. Because of this warped view, we as a country have to make the difficult decision of what to do with the empty area where the Twin Towers once stood. People are divided on what to do with this are in the middle of Manhattan. Should we, as a nation, rebuild The World Trade Center or make a memorial in its place? Many factors play on this decision. For example, it is prime real estate. Yet, on the other hand, it is sacred ground. A place of reverence and a place of remembrance of those lives lost in the tragedy that occurred on 9-11. People from all over the United States of America came to this one spot not to view or exploit the vacancy but to remember the totality of the two towers by remembering the employees, the bystanders, and all the police officers and fire fighters who lost their lives to save others. Strangers came together to pay their respects to the dead and to show their loyalty and support to their country. After September 11, this site has become more than a national landmark. People used to come and be in awe because of the magnificence of the two buildings, but now they come for something else. This is another reason it is so difficult to decide on what to do with this void in the New York skyline. People want a place that they can go and remember their loved ones that have passed because of the tragedy on September 11, 2001.

Heredity, the Environment and Development Essay

The study of genetics has grown out of a desire to understand how exactly the individual comes to be just that, an individual different from its peers. In order to comprehend the scope of possible outcomes and how they came to be behavioral genetics looks at a number of variables; these include the impact of our genes (nature), and our environment (nurture). A countless number of hypotheses were put to the test through research to analyze the degree of influence of each. In this paper, team A will discuss the methods of behavioral genetics, the various research techniques used, their testing populations and why used, along with proposed answers and explanations. Behavioral GeneticsBehavioral geneticists uses family, twin and adoption studies as a basis for their argument of individual differences (Lerner, Bearer, Garcia, & Coll, 2004). A significant contributor to studies in behavioral genetics, provides this definition: â€Å"Behavioral genetics is the genetic study of behavior, which includes quantitative genetics (twin and adoption studies) as well as molecular genetics (DNA studies) of human and animal behavior broadly defined to include responses of the organism from responses measured in the brain such as functional neuro-imaging to self-report questionnaires† (Plomin,2004). Read more:  Influences that affect children’s development essay One of the first twin studies was conducted by Bouchard in 1979 when he found a set of monozygotic twins, babies from a fertilized egg that splits into two. The babies were separated at a few weeks old. The babies had many physiological and psychological similarities. Since Bouchard’s initial study it has been proven that, while monozygotic twins raised together have many similarities, those separated at an early age have an even greater likeness. Since twins being raised together are more likely to highlight their differences in order to maintain some element of independence, behavioral geneticists argue that this indicates a strong genetic underpinning in human development (Plomin, 2004). Research conducted by Grilo and Pogue-Geile (1991) correlated the familial relationships with extroversion. The study included monozygotic twins reared together and apart, dizygote twins reared together and apart, biological parents and children, biological siblings, adoptive parents and children and  unrelated siblings reared together. The results reflected that the highest correlation was between monozygotic twins raised together and apart. The lowest correlation was between unrelated siblings raised together. For behavioral geneticists, these results conclude that genetics are at work in determining the extroversion of a person. Behavioral geneticists suggest reasonable doubt in assuming connections between psychological environments and developmental results may be genetically arbitrated and that the environment a person is in responds to the genetically influenced characteristics (Plomin, 2004). The genetic association between parent and child is useful to examine. For example, â€Å"†¦differences in parenting can be the genetic effect rather than the environmental cause of children’s psychopathology† (Plomin, 2004, p. 345). The results of the twin, adoption and family studies support these assumptions. The Correlation of Heredity and EnvironmentThe nature versus nurture controversy exists because some people believe that a person’s genetics has the greatest impact on their personality, intelligence and behavior. On the flipside, some people believe that the environment has more of an impact. Behavior geneticists assume that behavior is influenced by the relations of heredity and environment. With the help of twin studies, and adoption studies researchers are working on understanding what molds a person into the individual he or she is today. Twin studies, using identical twins, are conducted to understand how biology influences traits and psychopathology in humans whose genotypes are the same (Haimowitz, n.d.).Twin studies also use fraternal twins who share half of the genes they acquire at conception which helps to compare the degrees of genetic influence such as intelligence and personality. Adoption studies take a look to see if adoptive children exhibit the behavioral and psychological traits of their adoptive parents, or those of their biological parents (Haimowitz). Any links to biological parents can be attributed to genetics, and any connection to adoptive parents can be  attributed to environment. Heredity-Environment correlations can be shown in three ways. One is the passive genotype-environment correlations. Passive genotype-environment correlation exists when a child’s biological parents are raising him or her (MacDonald, n.d.). An example of this situation could be Ana’s parents having the genetic predisposition to be intelligent and read skillfully leading one to believe that Ana will more than likely share these skills. Evocative Genotype-Environment Correlation occurs when a child’s genotype provokes a specific type of physical or social environment (MacDonald, n.d.). An example of this type of correlation: Andrew is artistic, and outgoing, he will elicit encouragement to try out for plays. Sheena is very athletic and competitive; she will be encouraged to go out for sports. Active genotype-Environment Correlations emerge when a child seeks out environments he or she will find compatible and stimulating (MacDonald, n.d.). An example could be that a child like Matilda, who has a gift of music, will seek a musical environment where she can expand on her talent. Scientist researching how genetics influences academic achievements show three ways heredity and environment could possibly be correlated. The three ways in which Meredith Phillips and a team of colleagues found genetics and environment to be correlated are passive correlation, active correlation, and reactive correlation. â€Å"Passive correlation: genes influence both a child’s environment and heredity (Phillips, Brooks-Gunn, Crane, Duncan, & Klebanov, n.d.,  ¶ 3).† â€Å"Active correlation: genes influence the environments that a child seeks out (Phillips et al.,  ¶ 3).† â€Å"Reactive correlation: environments react differently to people with different genetic profiles (Phillips et al.,  ¶ 3).† In passive correlation if a parent is the type of person whom enjoys reading, the love for reading could be transferred to the child from the parent reading to the child frequently. The child will already have the genetics from the parents. My son enjoys music I would like to think he received that from me because of my interest in music. He hears a great deal of music when at home therefore, the music rich environment my son is placed in has an influence on his musical achievements. Combined with the genetic aspect of my love for music and his father’s love for music the affect of his music rich environment causes a stronger influential desire to be involved in music. In active correlation, the child has genetic influences from the parent reading to him or her. When the child voices the desires for the parent to read to him or her, the parent enjoying the reading ultimately influences the child by reading to the child. The child requesting stories to be read is the incentive the parent has to continue the process along with the parent’s love for reading. Reactive correlation was described as genetics affecting the child’s physical features with the child’s features being judged by peers. The views of the child’s peers are voiced and in the process the child’s academic achievements are effected. The child’s environment can put him or her under a certain labels. In this situation genetics affects the views of the child’s peers and the environment combined with genetics can have a negative affect on the child’s academics. Definition of Shared and Non-shared Environmental ExperiencesBeyond genetics, each individual has a unique personality that is based on a blending of their shared and non-shared experiences in life. Shared environmental experiences are those which the majority of the world encounters. Shared experiences can occur differently by culture, but generally adhere to a specific â€Å"social clock or a set of age norms that defines a sequence of normal life experiences (Boyd & Bee, p. 10).† For American culture think of the traditions of school, watching a baseball game, having a BBQ, getting married, having children, working and retiring as relative shared norms that all, or most of us, encounter. Of course, non-shared experiences are different for each of us; these are categorized as individual experiences. Individual or non-shared experiences  can be influenced by â€Å"race, socioeconomic status, and other social factors (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 36).† These individual differences can also be related to school, relationships, marriage and childbirth and the unique perspective that each person has. Each individual thinks much differently and so the way that they perceive and interact in the world will make their experiences, shared and non-shared, unique to them. Role Played by Shared and Non-shared Environmental Experiences DevelopmentThe importance that shared and non-shared experiences have in development is that they help shape our personal development as well as our social development. If in fact, each person encounters shared experiences in accordance with the norm expected, they are more likely to fit in culturally and have a higher understanding of appropriate and healthy relationships. Likewise, with non-shared experiences if interactions each person has with their parents and peers, and in his or her independent life, is healthy they will know themselves internally and process environmental factors that occur around them in a healthy manner. If the shared and non shared experiences of an individual do not go according to the norms of society it will be more difficult for them to develop into healthy adults who function both independently and interdependently at appropriate levels. (Boyd & Bee, 2006, p. 36) In conclusion, behavioral geneticists have used a wide array of approaches to their research in developmental theories. Through the use of identical twins a great deal of information has been acquired on the basis of both genetics and environment. The strongest proponent of this argument was shown to be the case of identical twins separated at birth exhibiting very similar characteristics even though they had not been raised in the same environment. Corresponding research which also strengthens this argument shows that adoptive children exhibit very few of the characteristics of their adoptive parents. It seems safe to say that genetics lay the foundation of behavior with environment and individual experience capable of exhibiting some influence beyond that. References Boyd, D., & Bee, H. (2006). Lifespan Development. Retrieved from http://ecampus.phoenix.eduGrilo, C. M., & Pogrue-Geile, M. F. (1991). The Nature of Environmental Influences on Weight and Obesity: A Behavior Genetic  Analysis [White paper]. Retrieved from National Institute of Health: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.govHaimowitz, A. G. (n.d.). Heredity versus Environment: Twin, Adoption, and Family. Retrieved April 21, 2009, from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/haimowitz.htmlLerner, R. M., Bearer, E. L., Garcia, , & Coll, C. G. (2004). Nature and Nurture: the Complex Intereplay if Genetic and Environmental Influences on Human Behavior and Development. . Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=iFriCJCTsx4C&printsec=frontcoverMacDonald, K. (n.d.). PSYCHOLOGY 361: BEHAVIOR GENETICS. Retrieved April 21, 2009 , from http://www.csulb.edu/~kmacd/361Notes2.htmlPhillips, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Crane, J., Duncan, G. J., & Klebanov, P. (n.d.). How Might Genetic Influences on Acad emic Achievement Masquerade as Environmental Influences?. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from http://www.children.smartlibrary.org/NewInterface/segment.cfm?segment=2606Plomin, R. (2004). Genetic and Developmental Psychology. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50(3), 341-352. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/merrill-palmer_quarterly/v050/50.3polmin.html

The Return: Nightfall Preface

Ste-fan? Elena was frustrated. She couldn't make the mind-word come out the way she wanted. â€Å"Stefan,† he coaxed, leaning on an elbow and looking at her with those eyes that always made her almost forget what she was trying to say. They shone like green spring leaves in the sunlight. â€Å"Stefan,† he repeated. â€Å"Canyou say it, lovely love?† Elena looked back at him solemnly. He was so handsome that he broke her heart, with his pale, chiseled features and his dark hair falling carelessly across his forehead. She wanted to put into words all the feelings that were piled behind her clumsy tongue and stubborn mind. There was so much she needed to ask him†¦and to tell him. But the sounds wouldn't come yet. They tangled on her tongue. She couldn't even send it telepathically to him – it all came as fragmented images. After all, it was only the seventh day of her new life. Stefan told her that when she'd first woken up, first come back from the Other Side after her death as a vampire, she'd been able to walk and talk and do all sorts of things that she seemed to have forgotten now. He didn't know why she'd forgotten – he'd never known anyone who'd come back from death except vampires – which Elena had been, but certainly was no longer. Stefan had also told her excitedly that she was learning like wildfire every day. New pictures, new thought-words. Even though sometimes it was easier to communicate than others, Stefan was sure she would be herself again someday soon. Then she would act like the teenager she really was. She would no longer be a young adult with a childlike mind, the way the spirits had clearly wanted her to be: growing, seeing the world with new eyes, the eyes of a child. Elena thought that the spirits had been a little unfair. What if Stefan found someone in the meantime who could walk and talk – and write, even? Elena worried over this. That was why, some nights ago, Stefan had woken up to find her gone from her bed. He had found her in the bathroom, poring anxiously over a newspaper, trying to make sense of the little squiggles that she knew were words she once recognized. The paper was dotted with the marks of her tears. The squiggles meant nothing to her. â€Å"But why, love? You'll learn to read again. Why rush?† That was before he saw the bits of pencil, broken from too hard a grip, and the carefully hoarded paper napkins. She had been using them to try to imitate the words. Maybe if she could write like other people, Stefan would stop sleeping in his chair and would hold her on the big bed. He wouldn't go looking for someone older or smarter. He wouldknow she was a grown-up. She saw Stefan put this together slowly in his mind, and she saw the tears come to his eyes. He had been brought up to think he was never allowed to cry no matter what happened. But he had turned his back on her and breathed slowly and deeply for what seemed like a very long time. And then he had picked her up, taken her to the bed in his room, and looked into her eyes and said, â€Å"Elena, tell me what you want me to do. Even if it's impossible, I'll do it. I swear it. Tell me.† All the words she wanted to think to him were still jammed up inside her. Her own eyes spilled tears, which Stefan dabbed off with his fingers, as if he could ruin a priceless painting by touching it too roughly. Then Elena turned her face up, and shut her eyes, and pursed her lips slightly. She wanted a kiss. But†¦ â€Å"You're just a child in your mind now,† Stefan agonized. â€Å"How can I take advantage of you?† There was a sign language they had had, back in her old life, which Elena still remembered. She would tap under her chin, just where it was softest: once, twice, three times. It meant she felt uncomfortable, inside. As if she were too full in her throat. It meant she wanted†¦ Stefan groaned. â€Å"Ican't†¦.† Tap, tap, tap†¦ â€Å"You're not back to your old self yet†¦.† Tap, tap, tap†¦ â€Å"Listen to me, love†¦.† TAP! TAP! TAP! She gazed at him with pleading eyes. If she could have spoken, she would have said, Please, give me some credit – I'm not totally stupid. Please, listento what I can't say to you. â€Å"You hurt. You're really hurting,† Stefan had interpreted, with something like dazed resignation. â€Å"I – if I – if I only take a little†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And then suddenly Stefan's fingers had been cool and sure, moving her head, lifting it, turning it at just this angle, and then she had felt the twin bites, which convinced her more than anything she was alive and not a spirit anymore. Andthen she had been very sure that Stefan loved her and no one else, and she could tell Stefan some of the things she wanted to. But she had to tell them in little exclamations – not of pain – with stars and comets and streaks of light falling around her. And Stefan had been the one who had not been able to think a single word to her. Stefan was the one struck mute. Elena felt that was only fair. After that, he held her at night and she was always happy.