Testing Required When Applying for a CE Mark for a Medical Device Essay

Testing Required When Applying for a CE Mark for a Medical Device - Essay Example The use of a PE tube is used to hold the cement after sterilization per prescribed, typical methods contained in the standards. The cement is mixed and inserted into the tube to a level flush with the tube. The cement used in a fresh state prior to implanting is also tested for microbiological contamination. As the testing requires a tube to contain the cement for testing a like size rod of equal diameter and length and sanitized per normal procedures will be used as the control. For long term testing of in bone, which is what is required in test the effects of the cement which will be used long term in actual application, selection of the species for test and control is contained in Figure 1 below: Implantation will be done through normally accepted surgical method including shaving the insertion area and thorough antiseptic cleaning of the area and surgery to implant should be performed to minimize any trauma to the area. After insertion sutures are used to close the site and ensure tubes do not loosen or move. After surgery observation is conducted of the test species at appropriate intervals to note and record per 3.3.4 of the standard â€Å"any abnormal findings, including local, systemic and behavioural abnormalities† (p. 5). At the completion of the testing period, in this case 78 weeks the animals will be euthanized humanely in order to determine the biological response of the test area to the prolonged contact with the cement â€Å"by grading and documenting the macroscopic and histopathological test responses as a function of time† (p. 5) and comparing it with the control material (the rods) and the surrounding area. The examination will be facilitated by use of a low magnification lens of each test site material. After all of these results have been documented, the test and control tubes and rods and the surround tissue/bone shall

Globe Theatre Essay Example for Free

Globe Theatre Essay William Shakespeare was born on April 26, 1564. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. Scholars have surmised that he most likely attended the Kings New School, in Stratford, which taught reading, writing and the classics. THEATRICAL CAREER Some of Shakespeares plays were published in quarto editions from 1594. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. EARLY WORKS With the exception of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeares first plays were mostly histories written in the early 1590s. Richard II, Henry VI (parts 1, 2 and 3) and Henry V dramatize the destructive results of weak or corrupt rulers, and have been interpreted by drama historians as Shakespeares way of justifying the origins of the Tudor Dynasty. Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the witty romance A Midsummer Nights Dream, the romantic Merchant of Venice, the wit and wordplay of Much Ado about Nothing, the charming As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Other plays, possibly written before 1600, include Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. LATER WORKS It was in William Shakespeares later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. In these, Shakespeares characters present vivid impressions of human temperament that are timeless and universal. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet, which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeares plots, destroying the hero and those he loves. In William Shakespeares final period, he wrote several tragicomedies. Among these are Cymbeline, The Winters Tale and The Tempest. Though graver in tone than the comedies, they are not the dark tragedies of King Lear or Macbeth because they end with reconciliation and forgiveness. JULIUS CAESAR The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination, and the defeat of the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi. It is one of several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history, which also include Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. THE TEMPEST The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skilful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonios lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonsos son, Ferdinand. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction,[1] in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunkentinker named Christopher Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself. The nobleman then has the play performed for Slys diversion. The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship, but Petruchio tempers her with various psychological torments—the taming—until she becomes a compliant and obedient bride. The subplot features a competition between the suitors of Katherinas more desirable sister, Bianca. HAMLET The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge. Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudiuss brother and Prince Hamlets father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old kings widow and Prince Hamlets mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Hamlet is Shakespeares longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others. [1] The play was one of Shakespeares most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most-performed, topping the Royal Shakespeare Companys performance list since 1879. TWELFTH NIGHT Twelfth Night; or, What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as aTwelfth Nights entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,[1] with plot elements drawn from the short story Of Apollonius and Silla by Barnabe Rich, based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first recorded performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the years calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio. MACBETH Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare. It is considered one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies. Set in Scotland, the play dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil is chosen as a way to fulfil the ambition for power. The play is believed to have been written between 1603 and 1607, and is most commonly dated 1606. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeares play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book. It was most likely written during the reign of James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shakespeare’s acting company, and of all the plays Shakespeare wrote during James’s reign, Macbeth most clearly reflects the playwright’s relationship with the sovereign. MERCHANT OF VENICE The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedyin the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeares other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for Shylock and the famous Hath not a Jew eyes? speech. Also notable is Portias speech about the quality of mercy. The title character is the merchant Antonio, not the Jewish moneylender Shylock, who is the plays most prominent and most famous character. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeares early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors (along with The Tempest) is one of only two of Shakespeares plays to observe the classical unities. It has been adapted for opera, stage, screen and musical theatre. The Comedy of Errors tells the story of two sets of identical twins that were accidentally separated at birth. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant, Dromio of Syracuse, arrive in Ephesus, which turns out to be the home of their twin brothers, Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio of Ephesus. When the Syracusans encounter the friends and families of their twins, a series of wild mishaps based on mistaken identitieslead to wrongful beatings, a near-seduction, the arrest of Antipholus of Ephesus, and false accusations of infidelity, theft, madness, and demonic possession. POEMS In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In Venus and Adonis, an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in The Rape of Lucrece, the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovids Metamorphoses, the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. [124] Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeares lifetime. A third narrative poem, A Lovers Complaint, in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the Sonnets in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote A Lovers Complaint. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. The Phoenix and the Turtle, printed in Robert Chesters 1601 Loves Martyr, mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. SONNETS Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeares non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeares sugred Sonnets among his private friends. Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeares intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the dark lady), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the fair youth). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial I who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets Shakespeare unlocked his heart. The 1609 edition was dedicated to a Mr. W. H. , credited as the only begetter of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W. H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the Sonnets as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time. ESTABLISHING HIMSELF By 1597, 15 of the 37 plays written by William Shakespeare were published. Civil records show that at this time he purchased the second largest house in Stratford, called New House, for his family. It was a four-day ride by horse from Stratford to London, so it is believed that Shakespeare spent most of his time in the city writing and acting and came home once a year during the 40-day Lenten period, when the theatres were closed. By 1599, William Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe. In 1605, Shakespeare purchased leases of real estate near Stratford for 440 pounds, which doubled in value and earned him 60 pounds a year. THE MERMAID TAVERN GROUP About this time Shakespeare became one of the group of now-famous writers who gathered at the Mermaid Tavern located on Bread Street in Cheapside. The Friday Street Club (also called the Mermaid Clu was formed by Sir Walter Raleigh. Ben Jonson was its leading spirit. Shakespeare was a popular member. He was admired for his talent and loved for his kindliness. Thomas Fuller, writing about 50 years later, gave an amusing account of the conversational duels between Shakespeare and Jonson: Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson; which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English man-of-war; Master Jonson (like the former) was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow, in his performances. Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention. Jonson sometimes criticized Shakespeare harshly. Nevertheless he later wrote a eulogy of Shakespeare that is remarkable for its feeling and acuteness. In it he said: Leave thee alone, for the comparison Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time! Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were To see thee in our waters yet appear, And make those flights upon the banks of Thames, That so did take Eliza, and our James! WRITING STYLE William Shakespeares early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didnt always align naturally with the storys plot or characters. However, Shakespeare was very innovative, adapting the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation, Shakespeare primarily used a metrical pattern consisting of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse, to compose his plays. At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose. Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare’s mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. MARRIAGE AND LIFE IN LONDON In 1582, when he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway. She was from Shottery, a village a mile (1. 6 kilometers) from Stratford. Anne was seven or eight years older than Shakespeare. From this difference in their ages, a story arose that they were unhappy together. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583. In 1585 a twin boy and girl, Hamnet and Judith, were born. What Shakespeare did between 1583 and 1592 is not known. Various stories are told. He may have taught school, worked in a lawyers office, served on a rich mans estate, or traveled with a company of actors. One famous story says that about 1584 he and some friends were caught poaching on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy of Carlecote, near Warwick, and were forced to leave town. A less likely story is that he was in London in 1588. There he was supposed to have held horses for theater patrons and later to have worked in the theaters as a page. By 1592, however, Shakespeare was definitely in London and was already recognized as an actor and playwright. He was then 28 years old. In that year Robert Greene, a playwright, accused him of borrowing from the plays of others. Between 1592 and 1594, plague kept the London theaters closed most of the time. During these years Shakespeare wrote his earliest sonnets and two long narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Both were printed by Richard Field, a boyhood friend from Stratford. They were well received and helped establish him as a poet. RELIGION Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeares family were Catholics, at a time when Catholic practice was against the law. Shakespeares mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. The document is now lost, however, and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591 the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church for fear of process for debt, a common Catholic excuse. In 1606 the name of Williams daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeares Catholicism in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove either way. SHAKESPEARE PROSPERS Until 1598 Shakespeares theater work was confined to a district northeast of London. This was outside the city walls, in the parish of Shoreditch. Located there were two playhouses, the Theatre and the Curtain. Both were managed by James Burbage, whose son Richard Burbage was Shakespeares friend and the greatest tragic actor of his day. Up to 1596 Shakespeare lived near these theaters in Bishopsgate, where the North Road entered the city. Sometime between 1596 and 1599, he moved across the Thames River to a district called Bankside. There, two theaters, the Rose and the Swan, had been built by Philip Henslowe. He was James Burbages chief competitor in London as a theater manager. The Burbages also moved to this district in 1598 and built the famous Globe Theatre. Its sign showed Atlas supporting the world. Shakespeare was associated with the Globe Theatre for the rest of his active life. He owned shares in it, which brought him much money. Meanwhile, in 1597, Shakespeare had bought New Place, the largest house in Stratford. During the next three years he bought other property in Stratford and in London. The year before, his father, probably at Shakespeares suggestion, applied for and was granted a coat of arms. It bore the motto Non sanz droictNot without right. From this time on, Shakespeare could write Gentleman after his name. This meant much to him, for in his day actors were classed legally with criminals and vagrants. Shakespeares name first appeared on the title pages of his printed plays in 1598. In the same year Francis Meres, in Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury, praised him as a poet and dramatist. Meress comments on 12 of Shakespeares plays showed that Shakespeares genius was recognized in his own time. HONORED AS ACTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. King James I followed her to the throne. Shakespeares theatrical company was taken under the kings patronage and called the Kings Company. Shakespeare and the other actors were made officers of the royal household. The theatrical company was the most successful of its time. Before it was the Kings Company, it had been known as the Earl of Derbys and the Lord Chamberlains. In 1608 the company acquired the Blackfriars Theatre. This was a smaller and more aristocratic theater than the Globe. Thereafter the company alternated between the two playhouses. Plays by Shakespeare were also performed at the royal court and in the castles of the nobles. After 1603 Shakespeare probably acted little, although he was still a good actor. His favorite roles seem to have been old Adam in As You Like It and the Ghost in Hamlet. In 1607, when he was 43, he may have suffered a serious physical breakdown. In the same year his older daughter Susanna married John Hall, a doctor. The next year Shakespeares first grandchild, Elizabeth, was born. Also in 1607 his brother Edmund, also a London actor, died at the age of 27. GLOBE THEATRE The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeares playing company, the Lord Chamberlains Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642. A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named Shakespeares Globe, opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre. The Globe was owned by actors who were also shareholders in Lord Chamberlains Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, andThomas Pope, owned a single share FAMOUS QUOTES All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Listen to many, speak to a few. CRITICAL REPUTATION Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as the most excellent in both comedy and tragedy. And the authors of the Parnassus plays at St Johns College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage, though he had remarked elsewhere that Shakespeare wanted art. FIRST FOLIO Mr. William Shakespeares’ Comedies, Histories, Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeares plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio. Printed in folio format and containing 36 plays (see list of Shakespeares plays), it was prepared by Shakespeares colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It was dedicated to the incomparable pair of brethren William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (later 4th Earl of Pembroke). Although eighteen of Shakespeares plays had been published in quarto prior to 1623, the First Folio is the only reliable text for about twenty of the plays, and a valuable source text even for many of those previously published. The Folio includes all of the plays generally accepted to be Shakespeares, with the exception of Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and the two lost plays, Cardenio and Loves Labours Won. W. W. Greg has argued that Edward Knight, the book-keeper or book-holder (prompter) of the Kings Men, did the actual proofreading of the manuscript sources for the First Folio. Knight is known to have been responsible for maintaining and annotating the companys scripts, and making sure that the cuts and changes ordered by the Master of the Revels were complied with. DEATH Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare’s death. In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to the first son of her body. Shakespeares will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her my second best bed, a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance. Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008.

Emporer Hadrian Of Rome :: essays research papers

By the time Hadrian's contributions to his country had succeeded, and death was near; he was the most hated man in Rome. However, throughout his reign, he was regarded as a noble leader. "The Roman emperor Hadrian exercised a profound organizational influence on the Greco-Roman world. He worked successfully toward the codification of Roman law and the strengthening of imperial border defenses (Eadie 8)." Emperor Hadrian made many important contributions to Roman culture, and he was also known as one of the greatest Roman emperors in history.Hadrian was born on January, 26 76 a.d. in Spain. In his youth, he developed a strong interest in Hellenic culture. This earned him his nickname "The Greekling." For example, "Hadrian was an admirer of Greek culture and under different circumstances, might well have devoted his full time to literature and philosophy rather than politics (Eadie 8 )." Hadrian was well-educated, and known throughout Rome as a military man. For instance, " He rose through the ranks as befitting of one of his position in life and became a well-respected general (Internet Hadrian 4)." Soon after, Hadrian was married to a thirteen year old girl named Sabina. Thirteen years of age was very young even in Roman terms of marriage. Hadrian became emperor in 117a.d. This occurred when Trajan, Hadrian's deceased father's cousin and guardian, made Hadrian his successor on his deathbed. "Certainly Hadrian's relationship with the Senate was not a good one(Coleman-Norton 674)." At the beginning of his reign, he put four former consuls to death for conspiracy. This created negative personal relations between Hadrian and the Senate; however, "Hadrian generally treated the Senate with the utmost respect(Coleman-Norton 674)." Throughout the years 120-133, he traveled eminsly. He visited Britain, Spain, eastern provinces, and even Africa. Towns and cities vastly benefited from his journeys. Harbor installations, roads, and bridges were built. The size of Athens almost doubled, and many new cities, including Adrinople were founded by the emperor(Coleman-Norton)." " Hadrian's travels, which during his reign covered a period of more than twelve years, were the most extensive of any peacetime emperors in history(Coleman-Norton 673)." Hadrian cared about the welfare of his country and people. For example, "Hadrian was an able and tireless ruler. He issued laws protecting women, children, and slaves from mistreatment (Beers 112)." He also revised and reorganized the entire system of Roman laws. Hadrian greatly improved the East by building new roads, temples, theatres, and circuses.

Evaluating Employees with Ease Essay

Performance evaluations are a critical component of human resource management in any organization. In â€Å"Evaluating Employees with Ease† Sharon LaBuke gives useful tips designed to help nursing employers conduct evaluations that translate into a positive experience for their employees. In LaDuke’s view, the first priority is to strategize the process. A good place to start is the examination of the evaluation document that forms â€Å"a common frame of reference for both manager and employee† (LaDuke, n.d., p. 49). It is noteworthy that the author places cultural issues at the top of the list of priorities, suggesting that employers thoroughly evaluate the culture of their facility to see whether the process is consistent with the culture. Relationships with the people evaluated and finding the right language are also at the top of the list, since these issues help set the right kind of atmosphere for the evaluation process, suggesting that people will feel better if they know the employer has the right kind of attitude. The second set of suggestions involves more organizational aspects. For example, LaDuke suggests that people will feel the evaluation is more objective when they know that they are being evaluated on an ongoing basis, with feedback offered throughout the year. To help make assessments more detailed and grounded in facts, employers can log important events and try to address them in a timely fashion. The creation of a personal plan for improvement is also a useful idea. Created with staff input, this plan can serve as a roadmap for individual development, helping the person to focus on the right areas. Constantly following up on the progress with the plan, the manager can create an ongoing dialogue with the employee concerning personal needs. The author effectively captures the most important points in the evaluation process. It is helpful that the focus is on the personal development of the employee, not on evaluation per se. the nurturing nature of such evaluation clearly has the potential to contribute to the employees’ development and foster adequate atmosphere in the organization. Reference LaDuke, S. (n.d.). Evaluating Employees with Ease.

Sociology Syllabus

Each chapter has a module quiz associated with it (aside from chapter 9 which is included with Modules 8 and 10; Module 10 also includes chapters 11 and 12). You must take the quizzes in each section prior to taking the exam. In the end, this will benefit you. Please look closely at the attached schedules and due dates. You will be responsible for keeping these commitments. You may complete the course as quickly as you like, as long as you abide by the due dates. Exams and Assignments Exams: There will be a total of three exams: two exams will be worth 100 points each and the final exam will be worth 120 points.Exams will cover material from the assigned online modules, quizzes, lectures, class discussions and experiential learning exercises. The exams will be administered totally online and will consist of multiple choice questions. The dates and material covered by each exam is set forth in the course outline located at the end of this document. To encourage students to master the material before testing, all exams will be timed. Students will be given 50 minutes to complete each exam. Please note that you will only be permitted to â€Å"move forward† during an exam.You may not skip a question and return to it later, or answer it and later try to change your answer after you have saved your response. Please be advised that the order of the exam questions will vary for each student. Quizzes: You must complete the assigned online modules in order to successfully omplete the class. At the end ot each module, you must successtully complete a 1 question multiple choice quiz by answering at least 7 questions correctly. You may repeat each quiz as many times as you wish to achieve the desired score; however, you will be required to wait at least one hour before repeating the quiz. All quizzes will be timed.You will be allowed 10 minutes to complete each quiz. Students who fail to correctly answer a minimum of 7 questions or who do not complete the quizzes dur ing the assigned time period will receive a zero. Please note that no make-up quizzes will be given. Reflection Paper: Identifying how and why we behave and why we have certain attitudes and beliefs can be a daunting task. During the semester, students will be asked to reflect on their beliefs related toa topic. The reflection paper will be worth 25 points. Please note that students will be penalized one letter grade for poorly written work (please proofread).Specific instructions for each paper will be posted on Blackboard. Survey Completion: Twice during the semester, students will have the opportunity to express their beliefs and opinions about a specific topic by completing a brief, online urvey. These surveys will give students the opportunity to compare their views with those of their classmates in a non-threatening and anonymous way. While student responses will not be â€Å"graded,† students will be required to complete the surveys within the time provided. Please not e that no make-up surveys will be given. Each survey is worth 10 points. https://donemyessay.com/sociology-exam-3-chapters-6-8/Attendance As an online class students are responsible for completing all quizzes, exams, and assignments in a timely fashion. Assignments must be completed by the noted date. Students who are unable to complete an assignment in a given time period is ncouraged to contact the professor as soon as possible. The professor is likely to be more accommodating prior to a missed assignment versus afterwards. Grade Calculation Final grades will be determined through the use ofa point system. The maximum value of each exam and assignment along with the range of points associated with each letter grade are listed in the tables below.

White Matter and Your Brain

White Matter and Your Brain The brains white matter is situated under the surface gray matter or cerebral cortex of the brain. White matter is composed of nerve cell axons, which extend from the neuron cell bodies of gray matter. These axon fibers form connections between nerve cells. White matter nerve fibers serve to connect the cerebrum with different areas of the brain and spinal cord. White matter contains nerve fibers that are wrapped with nervous tissue cells known as neuroglia. Neuroglia called oligodendrocytes form an insulating coat or myelin sheath that wraps around neuronal axons. The myelin sheath is composed of lipids and proteins and functions to speed up nerve impulses. White brain matter appears white due to its high composition of myelinated nerve fibers. It is the lack of myelin in the neuronal cell bodies of the cerebral cortex that makes this tissue appear gray. Most of the subcortical region of the brain is composed of white matter with masses of gray matter dispersed throughout. Conglomerates of gray matter that are located below the cortex include the basal ganglia, cranial nerve nuclei, and midbrain structures such as the red nucleus and substantia nigra. Key Takeaways: What Is White Matter? White matter of the brain is situated beneath the outer cortex layer, also known as gray matter. Most of the brain is composed of white matter.White brain matter appears white because of myelin that is wrapped around the nerve axons of white matter. Myelin helps to facilitate nerve impulse transmission.White matter nerve fibers connect the cerebrum with the spinal cord and other areas of the brain.There are three main types of white matter nerve fiber tracts: commissural fibers, association fibers, and projection fibers.Commissural fibers connect corresponding regions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.Association fibers connect brain regions within the same hemisphere.Projection fibers connect the cerebral cortex to the brainstem and spinal cord. White Matter Fiber Tracts The primary function of the brains white matter is to provide a pathway for connecting the different areas of the brain. Should this brain matter become damaged, the brain can rewire itself and establish new nerve connections between gray and white matter. White matter axon bundles of the cerebrum are composed of three main types of nerve fiber tracts: commissural fibers, association fibers, and projection fibers. This is a colored 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the white matter pathways of the brain, side view. White matter is composed of myelin-coated nerve cell fibers. Tom Barrick, Chris Clark, SGHMS/ Science Photo Library / Getty Images Plus Commissural Fibers Commissural fibers connect corresponding regions of the left and right brain hemispheres. Corpus Callosum - thick bundle of fibers located within the medial longitudinal fissure (separates the brain hemispheres). The corpus callosum connects the left and right frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and occipital lobes.Anterior Commissure - small fiber bundles that make connections between the temporal lobes, olfactory bulbs, and amygdalae. The anterior commissure forms the anterior wall of the third ventricle and is thought to be involved in pain sensation.Posterior Commissure - white matter fibers that cross the upper region of the cerebral aqueduct and interconnect the pretectal nuclei. These nuclei are involved in pupillary light reflex and control the diameter of the pupils in response to intense changes in light.Fornix - an arching band of nerve fibers that connect the hippocampus in each brain hemisphere. The fornix also connects the hippocampus to the mamillary body of the hypothalamus and projects to the anterior nuclei of thalamus. It is a structure of the limbic system and is important to the transfer of information between the hemispheres of the brain. Habenular Commissure - band of nerve fibers located in the diencephalon that are positioned in front of the pineal gland and connect the habenular nucleus of each brain hemisphere. Habenular nuclei are nerve cells of the epithalamus and a component of the limbic system. Association Fibers Association fibers connect cortex regions within the same hemisphere. There are two types of association fibers: short and long fibers. Short association fibers can be found just below the cortex and deep within white matter. These fibers connect brain gyri. Long association fibers connect cerebral lobes within brain regions. Cingulum - band of fibers located within the cingulate gyrus that connect the cingulate gyrus and frontal lobes with the gyri of the hippocampus (also called parahippocampal gyri).Arcuate Fasciculus - long association fiber tracts that connect frontal lobe gyri with the temporal lobe.Dorsal Longitudinal Fasciculus - thin fiber tracts that connect the hypothalamus with portions of the midbrain.Medial Longitudinal Fasciculus - fiber tracts that connect areas of the mesencephalon with cranial nerves that control eye muscles (oculomotor, trochlear, and abducent cranial nerves) and with spinal cord nuclei in the neck.Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus - long association fiber tracts that connect the temporal, frontal, and occipital lobes.Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus - long association fiber tracts that connect the occipital and temporal lobes.Occipitofrontal Fasciculus - association fibers that branch into superior and inferior tracts that connect the occipital and frontal lobes.Uncinat e Fasciculus - long association fibers that connect the frontal and temporal lobes of the cortex. Projection Fibers Projection fibers connect the cerebral cortex to the brainstem and spinal cord. These fiber tracts help to relay motor and sensory signals between the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. White Matter Disorders In multiple sclerosis or MS, the nerves of the brain and spinal cord are damaged by ones own immune system. Damage to myelin disrupts nerve signal transmission. ttsz / iStock / Getty Images Plus White matter brain disorders typically result from abnormalities related to the myelin sheath. A lack or loss of myelin disrupts nerve transmissions and causes neurological problems. A number of diseases can affect white matter including multiple sclerosis, dementia, and leukodystrophies (genetic disorders that result in abnormal development or destruction of white matter). Destruction of myelin or demyelination can also result from inflammation, blood vessel problems, immune disorders, nutritional deficiencies, stroke, poisons, and certain drugs. Sources   Fields, R. D. Change in the Brains White Matter. Science, vol. 330, no. 6005, 2010, pp. 768769., doi:10.1126/science.1199139.

The Effects of the Uninsured on the Economy

The Effects of the Uninsured on the Economy Free Online Research Papers We face a health care crisis today like we have never faced before. People are suffering, they are going without critical healthcare, and the effects are tearing families apart. People are going without life saving medication, dying prematurely, and suffering emotionally (Ruth, 2005-2006).Yet our healthcare system leaves 47 million Americans uninsured (Farrell, 2009). People are unable to afford the high cost of insurance, and this is leaving them without access to healthcare. According to Farrell (2009),â€Å"The reason for high cost of care in the united states include factors such as the rising cost of technology, prescription drugs, and high administrative costs from the country’s complex multiple payer system (Farrell, 2009 para.10). According to the common wealth fund the United States spends double on healthcare per person compared to any other country, and there are as many as 101,000 people dying each year, because they have no insurance (Torrey, 2008). People are going without insurance because of the high cost and this is causing financial, physical and emotional effects. THE FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE UNINSURED People are suffering financially, because they do not have access to affordable insurance. According to Farrell (2009) there is someone filing bankruptcy due to healthcare problems every 30 seconds and 1.5 million a year are reported to have hospital bills they cannot afford (Farrell, 2009). According to Genzlinger (2008) in â€Å"The paths of The Uninsured Take Some Frightful Turns† people are being financially burdened with hospital bills that they cannot afford, and in some cases are forced to sell their personal belongings. Here is one of the stories. Karen Dove worked as an apartment manager, and because her health was failing her she was not able to do the work that was required of the job. So she had to quit, and as a result she lost her insurance. She eventually started having stomach pains, and goes to a doctor who refuses to treat her because she in uninsured. Karen finally finds someone to treat her, and is diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, which is usually fatal. Karen has surgery, and is put through the pain of chemotherapy and the cancer goes into remission, but the hospital bills have left her and her family deep in debt. For Karen to pay the hospital bills she has to sell her home and some of her personal belongings and move into a cheaper house. Karen must stay under the care of a doctor for the vital treatment, and medication she needs but after a year the cancer returns, and she passed away March 2008.Certainly if Karen would have had access to health insurance she would have had a better chance of survival (Ge nzlinger, 2008). In a piece written by Appleby (2004) â€Å"Hospitals Sock Uninsured with much Bigger Bills† she explains how one family let their business health insurance lapse while they looked for a better deal and during this time the man fell sick, and was hospitalized for a viral infection. Now they are faced with $116,000 in hospital bills, which could have been reduced to $25,000.00 if they would have had insurance. When a person is insured their insurance company will negotiate for cheaper rates with doctors, and hospitals. The uninsured do not have this advantage, and are usually charged more for the same services. Ruth (2005- 2006) states â€Å"that in 1999 the cost of inpatient treatment of pneumonia for an insured adult patient ranged from $100 $3,434.00, but $9,812 for a person without health insurance† (Ruth, 2005-2006.p.7). THE PHYSCIAL EFFECTS OF THE UNINSURED People are suffering physically, because they are going without preventive healthcare, and screenings. According to Ruth (2005 – 2006 ) â€Å" 50% of uninsured non-elderly Americans are going without preventive healthcare services like pap smears, blood pressure checks, mammograms, cholesterol screening, prostate examines, and sigmoidosopies† (Ruth, 2005-2006 Para. 11). They are also more likely to be diagnosed with some sort of disease that has reached the advanced stage according to (Family USA. 2008). For example, women that do not have regular breast examines are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer (Dying for Coverage Familiesusa.org. 2008). There are approximately 11.4 million uninsured Americans that suffer with some sort of chronic disease, because they are unable to get healthcare which may cause them to suffer with a handicap or even die (Gever, 2008.) Those with chronic conditions are also more likely to go without getting their prescriptions filled due to cost (Cassil, 2005). THE EMOTIONAL EFFECTS ON THE UNINSURED People are suffering with emotional problems, because they have no insurance. Ruth (2005-2006) writes how people fear that some illness or accident will happen, and leave them without the ability to financially support themselves, and/or their family members and be faced with hospital bills that they cannot afford (Ruth, 2005- 2006). According to Ruth (2005 – 2006) in a study done at Harvard School of Public Health, one person made the statement that not having health insurance â€Å" effected us more emotionally than anything†¦ my marriage broke up† and another said it was, â€Å" a tremendous strain mentally, and physically to pay the medical bills† (Ruth, 2006). Stencil (2002) writes in â€Å"Health Insurance Is a Family Matter† that just one uninsured person in a family can affect the mental and physical health of the entire family and children are no exception. Depression in a parent increases the chance that a child will suffer in their grades, they will have problems in socializing, there will be a higher rate of mood disorders like irritability, and unreasonable anger (Stencil, 2002). The consequences of our broken healthcare system will continue to grow financially, physically, and mentally and will reach more people. â€Å"While this problem was formerly a problem confined to low-income Americans, more and more middle class citizens are becoming directly affected by the problem† (The Case For Universal Health Care para.2). The cost will be greater than it is now if there is not a solution found soon and this is why the federal government should provide healthcare for all who cannot afford it. Some people disagree with this because they say it would need to be funded through higher taxes on â€Å"smoking, fast food, etc., leading to a further loss of personal freedoms† (Messerl, 2009), but the number of uninsured has reached 47 million (Farrell, 2009) and is higher than it has ever been. Many people are living week to week not knowing if they will have a job due to the economy creating fear that they will lose their insurance coverage (Ruth, 2005-2006). Conclusion The federal government should provide healthcare for all its citizens, because of the financial, physical and emotional effects it is having on hard working families. There are 47 million Americans falling through the cracks in the health care system. They are suffering with financial, physical and emotional effects because they do not have access to affordable health care. Why does insurance matter? People without insurance are more likely to go without preventive care, to delay or forgo medical care, and to die prematurely. We need to look at this situation like we would look at a highly (contagious disease). Think about what would happen if we let people with Tuberculosis go without treatment. It would spread, and sooner or later everyone would have it and then what would be the cost? You think a universal healthcare plan would cost too much? Think about what it would cost to cure an epidemic! There are many reasons out there that argue for, and against a universal healthcare plan. Out of all the reasons one thing that we all agree on, affordable healthcare is an important issue for us all. Reference Appleby, J. (2004). USA TODAY. Hospitals Sock Uninsured with Much bigger Bills. Retrieved March 22, 2009, from http://usatoday.printhis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpttitle=USATODAY.com Cassil, A. (May 18, 2005). Health System Changes, Retrieved March 29, 2009 from hschange.com/CONTENT/739/ C. Schoen, R. Osborn, M. M. Doty, M. Bishop, J. Peugh, N. Murukutla, Toward Higher-Performance Health Systems: Adults Health Care Experiences in Seven Countries, 2007, Health Affairs Web Exclusive October 31, 2007 26(6):w717–w734. Dying For Coverage Familiesusa.org. (2008). new state reports from families: USA march March – April 2008) Retrieved March 27, 2009 from Http://www.families usa.org/issues/uninsured/publications/dying-for-coverage.html Farrell R. R. (2009). America’s Healthcare Crisis. Is there a Solution? Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://wwwrealtruth.org/articles/090203-005-health.html Genzlinger, N. (2008). The paths of The Uninsured Take Some Frightful Turns. New York Times, Retrieved March 18, 2009, from Academic Search Premier Database. Gever, J. (2008).Uninsured Americans Carry Large Chronic Disease Burden. MedPage Today). Retrieved March 29, 2009, from pnhp.org/news/2008/august/uninsured_amercians_.php Campbell, M, Hammerstein D. (2003). Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada Volume 349:768-775. Number 8. Retrieved April 06, 2009, from nejm.org/aboutnejm/copyright.asp Messerl, J. (2009).From Balancedpolitics.org-universal healthcare (pros cons arguments for and against). Retrieved April, 07, 2009, from balancedpolitics.org/universal_ health_care.htm Phelps, S. (2003). Healthcare: Treatment without Insurance. Retrieved from Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law.ed.vol. 2 Detroit: Gale, .p741-744. 2vols. Ruth, E. (2005). Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, class of 2008. Edited by Koa-Ping Chua, Jack Rutledge Fellow 2005-2006. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from www.amsa.org/uhc/AMSAUninsuredPrimer.pdf Stencil, C. (2002).Health Insurance Is a Family Matter. Institute Of Medicine. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://national-academies.org pnhp.org/news/2008/august/uninsured_amercian Torrey, T. (2008). Why the American Health Care System Needs Reform Understanding the Dysfunction of American Healthcare retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://.patientabout.com/od/patientempowermentissues/a/whyreform.htm The Case for Universal Health Care. Retrieved March 27, 2009, from www.amsa.org/uhc/caseforuhc.pdf Written By, Ginger A. Cole Paralegal Major Bryant Stratton Research Papers on The Effects of the Uninsured on the EconomyThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationLifes What IfsTwilight of the UAWNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Personal Experience with Teen PregnancyPETSTEL analysis of India19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductHip-Hop is Art

Definition and Examples of Argumentum Ad Misericordiam

Definition and Examples of Argumentum Ad Misericordiam Ad misericordiam is an argument based on a strong appeal to the emotions. Also known as  argumentum ad misericordiam  or  appeal to pity or misery. When an appeal to sympathy or pity is highly exaggerated or irrelevant to the issue at hand, ​ad misericordiam is regarded as a logical fallacy.  The first mention of  ad misericordiam  as a fallacy was in an article in the  Edinburgh Review  in 1824. Ronald Munson points out that [n]ot all mention of factors which appeal to our sympathies is irrelevant [to an argument], and the trick is to distinguish legitimate appeals from spurious ones (The Way of Words). From the Latin, appeal to pity   Examples and Observations Your Honor, my incarceration is cruel and unusual punishment. First, my prison-issued shower sandals are grossly undersized. Secondly, the prison book club consists mainly of prisoners who club me with books.(Sideshow Bob in Day of the Jackanapes. The Simpsons, 2001)This appeal to our emotions need not be fallacious or faulty. A writer, having argued several points logically, may make an emotional appeal for extra support. . . .When an argument is based solely on the exploitation of the readers pity, however, the issue gets lost. Theres an old joke about a man who murdered his parents and appealed to the court for leniency because he was an orphan. Its funny because it ludicrously illustrates how pity has nothing to do with murder. Lets take a more realistic example. If you were a lawyer whose client was charged with bank embezzlement, you would not get very far basing your defense solely on the fact that the defendant was abused as a child. Yes, you may touch the hearts of the juror s, even move them to pity. Yet that would not exonerate your client. The abuse the defendant suffered as a child, as woeful as it is, has nothing to do with his or her crime as an adult. Any intelligent prosecutor would point out the attempt to manipulate the court with a sob story while distracting it from more important factors such as justice.(Gary Goshgarian, et al., An Argument Rhetoric and Reader. Addison-Wesley, 2003) Germaine Greer on Hillary Clintons Tears Watching Hillary Clinton pretending to get teary-eyed is enough to make me give up shedding tears altogether. The currency, you might say, has become devalued. . .   Hillarys feeble display of emotion, while answering questions from voters in a cafe in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Monday, is supposed to have done her campaign the world of good. If it has, its because people have wished a tear into her stony reptilian eye, not because there actually was one. What caused her to get all mooshy was her mention of her own love of her country. Patriotism has once more proved a valuable last refuge for a scoundrel. Hillarys clipped diction did not falter; all she had to do was take the steel edge off her voice and our imaginations did the rest. Hillary was human after all. Fear and loathing fled New Hampshire, Hillary scored against the run of play, and all it took was the suspicion of a tear. Or so they say. Can the moral of the story be: when youre up against it, dont fight back, just cry? As if too many women dont already use tears as a power-tool. Over the years Ive had to deal with more than one manipulative student who produced tears instead of w ork; my standard response was to say, Dont you dare cry. Im the one who should be crying. Its my time and effort thats being wasted. Lets hope Hillarys crocodile effort doesnt encourage more women to use tears to get their way.(Germaine Greer, For Crying Out Loud! The Guardian, January  10, 2008) An Argument That Raises a Warning Signal ​​Plenty of evidence has been presented that the ad misericordiam is both a powerful and deceptively misleading tactic of argumentation well worth careful study and evaluation. On the other hand, our treatment also suggests that it is misleading, in various ways, to think of the appeal to pity simply as a fallacious argument move. The problem is not that appeal to pity is inherently irrational or fallacious. The problem is that such an appeal can have such a powerful impact that it easily gets out of hand, carrying a weight of presumption far beyond what the context of dialogue merits and distracting a respondent from more relevant and important considerations.While ad misericordiam arguments are fallacious in some cases, it is better to think of the argumentum ad misericordiam not as a fallacy (at least per se, or even most importantly) but as a kind of argument that automatically raises a warning signal: Look out, you could get in trouble with this kind of argument if you are not very careful!(Douglas N. Walton, The Place of Emotion in Argument. Penn State Press, 1992) The Lighter Side of Ad Misericordiam: The Job Applicant Seated under the oak the next evening I said, Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad Misericordiam.[Polly] quivered with delight.Listen closely, I said. A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his qualifications are, he replies that he has a wife and six children at home, the wife is a helpless cripple, the children have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, no shoes on their feet, there are no beds in the house, no coal in the cellar, and winter is coming.A tear rolled down each of Polly’s pink cheeks. Oh, this is awful, awful, she sobbed.Yes, it’s awful, I agreed, but it’s no argument. The man never answered the boss’s question about his qualifications. Instead he appealed to the boss’s sympathy. He committed the fallacy of Ad Misericordiam. Do you understand?Have you got a handkerchief? she blubbered.I handed her a handkerchief and tried to keep from screaming while she wiped her eyes.(Max Shulman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Doubl eday, 1951)

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE TELEGRAM IN THE UK Research Paper

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE TELEGRAM IN THE UK - Research Paper Example To the Victorians, the telegraph was a symbol of man’s power over nature. The Telegraph became a special tool that enabled and enhanced commercial and imperial expansion. Morus (2000) observes that it was not by coincidence that the financial speculators became the first and most prolific users of the telegraph. Moruss observation reveals the economic significance of the Telegraph. The telegraph was also an important tool to the military that came to know of its potentials soon after its invention (Conboy & Steel, 2015). The Telegraph penetration was happening in the time of Crimean War in the mid-1950s. The telegraph enabled the military to get access to front-line events. In general, the introduction of the telegraph broke down the barriers of space and time. The telegraph provided the United Kingdom community with an intelligence-gathering capacity which translated into economic value. The adoption of the telegraph has been summarized well in the words of Morus (2000) who named it â€Å"The nervous system of Britain.† This study looks into the economic influence that the telegraph made in the United Kingdom. For the UK population, the telegraph held out boundless potentials. With the introduction of the telegraph, Britain was able to gain control of its colonies. Britain gained an upper hand over other colonizers when it came to controlling several colonies. A connection exists between the telegraph and the expansion and consolidation of British colonial power in the nineteenth century (Conboy & Steel, 2015). The Imperial system of the telegraph communication created efficient communications between the British government and its colonial possessions. Telegraph both shortened communication times between countries of the Empire and centralized control in Whitehall. The shortening of communication times reduced the autonomy of colonial administrators. Morus (2000) argues that the telegraph played a crucial role in imperial expansion. The colonialist Britain

The Relationship between the State and the Citizen Essay

The Relationship between the State and the Citizen - Essay Example The exact relationship between a state and its citizens is of profound concern since the state seeks to acquire maximum authority while the citizen seeks to acquire maximum liberty, a condition that is impossible in reality. However, to achieve a necessary compromise of both sides, reasonable amount of power and authority is made available to the state to ensure its smooth running and reasonable liberty is made available to the citizens to ensure the best developments of their personalities. A citizen is not necessarily a person who lives within the boundaries of a state but rather an individual who enjoys the rights made available to them and that are recognized by the state and also one who participates in the affairs of the state. The interests of the citizen should not be in conflict with the state since both the state and the individual depend on each other. The citizen depends on the state for safety, law and order as well for facilities that enable them undertake their day-to- day activities with ease. According to Veneklassen and Miller (2002), there are three definitions of citizenship that relate the status of an individual to the relationship with a nation-state (32). These include: Civil citizenship. It emerged in the Western world in the 18th century and it refers to the human rights necessary to ensure freedom of every individual. These rights include free speech, freedom of assembly, equality and property rights. Political citizenship. This definition emerged as a result of the struggles in the 19th century and it accentuates the right to participation in exercising political power. It was characterized by the struggle by women, minorities and poor people to acquire the right to vote which was initially granted only to male individuals who owned property. Social citizenship. It emerged in the 20th century and it emphasises on minimum rights and standards of economic, social and cultural well-being. It is a struggle by the disadvantaged groups to make this view of citizenship legitimate. States today are generally less responsive to the needs of their citizens and the deficit of most democratic states in being adequately democratic is a clear indication of this. The governments in these states are adapting a trend in which they are becoming more responsive to the needs of individuals or groups who are concerned with a particular part of the economy and are less responsive to the needs of the general public. Despite the requirement of a democratic political system where every citizen has equal rights and a say in the governing process, some organizations and individuals have an elevated influence over the governing process by trying to influence legislators or bureaucrats to act in their favour. As a result of this, the few in power satisfy their greed at the expense of the needs of the majority of the citizens. A state that is less responsive to the needs of its people is generally less likely to undertake duties allocated to it in the best interests of the general

African mask cultures Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

African mask cultures - Research Paper Example In Africa masks can be traced back to well past Paleolithic times. These art objects were, and are still made of various materials, included are leather, metal, fabric and various types of wood. African masks are considered amongst the finest creations in the art world and are highly sought after by art collectors. d) Ancestry has more influence in African culture than in any other culture. They honor their ancestors in all possible means because of their belief that ancestors can do many things in their life. Masks are recognized as the symbol of communication between an ancestor spirit and a human. Masks are also associated with celebrations, crop harvesting traditions, war preparations, peace and trouble times, rituals and customs of many of the African cultures. Because of the differences in belief, the meaning of mask wearing is different among different cultures in Africa. Ritual dances are common among many of the African cultures, and masks are important in all such ritual da nces. Each mask represents a particular spirit. It is believed by the African people that a person wearing a particular mask loses his identity temporarily and becomes the spirit represented by the mask itself. Even though mask wearing is mainly seen in African countries, the influence of African mask wearing custom has been spread to some other regions as well. Cubism, fauvism, and expressionism are some of the artistic movements which used the themes of African mask culture effectively. Moreover, in American and European art cultures also, the influence of African mask culture is visible. This paper briefly analyses the African mask cultures. (Pictures / photos / images of some MASKS and headdresses, 2010) â€Å"Ritual ceremonies generally depict deities, spirits of ancestors, mythological beings, good and or evil, the dead, animal spirits, and other beings believed to have power over humanity†(African Masks History and Meaning, n. d). Perhaps, Africa is the worst affected region in this world as far as beliefs in superstitions are concerned. Even after huge advancements in science and technologies, many of the Africans have still many superstitions. They do believe that the spirit of their ancestors or and even the spirit of the animals can influence their life very much. They are of the view that their life is shaped by these spirits and it is their duty to respect, recognize and worship these spirits to lead their lives in prosperity. Masks of ancestors are often considered as the most valuable thing in a family and they keep it as a monument. During the mask ceremony the dancer goes into deep trance, and during this state of mind he "communicate" with his ancestors. A wise man or translator sometimes accompanies the wearer of the mask during the ritual. The dancer brings forth messages of wisdom from his ancestors. Often the messages are grunted utterances and the translator will accurately decipher the meaning of the message. Rituals and ceremoni es are always accompanied with song, dance and music, played with traditional African musical instruments (African Masks History and Meaning, n. d). Ritual dances performed with the help of masks are often believed as the occasion to communicate with the ancestors. The dancer who wears the mask of a particular ancestor claims that he is able to communicate with the spirit represented by the mask. He may speak lot of things at the time of dance which may be perceived as the messages of that particular spirit to African community. The dancer mostly speaks in different languages which may not be understandable to

Seeking Pleasure and Happiness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Seeking Pleasure and Happiness - Essay Example Unfortunately, Billy is deadly wounded and is left recuperating injuries in a hospital and meets Sally, Bob Hyde’s wife. He believes that Sally will help her get over the anger, frustration, and pain he got from the war. Luke and Sally pursue happiness through sexual pleasure, and the two eventually engage in sex (Waldo, 2014). Sally gets an organism for the first time and she slowly starts forgetting her husband and starts enjoying the happy life with Luke. Luke feels exasperated by Billy’s decision to kill himself by injecting air into his body. Billy committed suicide as he was striving to obtain happiness and get over the injuries he got from the war, hence affirming the extent that people go in search of pleasure and happiness.  Similarly, in The Last Detail 1973, Larry Meadows is sentenced to 8 years in prison after his plan to steal $40 botched. The petty crime that Meadows expected to be a source of unending pleasure lands him in unfathomable miseries. As he i s transferred from Norfolk to Portsmouth prison, Buddusky and Richard Mulhall provide several adventures for Meadows as a way of ensuring that he obtains happiness before getting to prison (Chuck, 2013). Meadows, an underage, seeks pleasure in whiskey and visits a brothel where he loses his virginity and openly admits that the few profane activities he had engaged in when in the company of Buddusky and Richard gave him the greatest happiness in life. This is what Aristotle termed as Egoistic Hedonism that torpedoes an individual’s life.

Assignment in law (Legal Issues Relevant to the Quality of the Website Essay

Assignment in law (Legal Issues Relevant to the Quality of the Website and Indecent Images of Children, Invention Law, Expert Witness) - Essay Example Synergy Ltd, the company in which I am a systems manager does not want to be left out of the internet technology and its benefits. Therefore, the company has sought to develop a website in order to attract clients in the wake of the economic downturn. The website will provide relevant contact information, technical information, and a discussion group allowing registered users to discuss problems, and allow them to estimate the charge for recovering information. The company has sought the services of a developer to develop its website. There are legal issues that are relevant to the quality of website delivered by the developer and to protecting the company from problems. These issues include the following: private and security issue and legal liability issue. According to Baumer, Lyengar, & Moffie, (2003, p. 23), the issue of privacy and security is one of the main issues that surround creation of websites. Websites are crucial for storing and selling of information that benefits both the businesses and the consumers. However, there is a concern among businesses and consumers regarding their personal safety and privacy of their personal and other sensitive information. This concern is compounded by the ease with which information may be cross processed and collected from websites. In the United Kingdom, the issue of website security and privacy is covered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (Defago and Bockanic, 2006, p. 205). These Acts requires that cookies should be signposted on the websites. In addition, they require that visitors of the websites should be allowed to refuse or accept their personal details to be collected and used in the websites. Also, the Acts requires that personal information that is collected concerning individual visitors should be used or processed in accordance to the principles and provisions set out in the Privacy Regulations and the Data Protection Acts. More importantly, these Acts seek to protect businesses in an event that commercial relationships become ruined, as was demonstrated in the case of Ashton Investments v OSJC (2006). In this case, OSJC (a Russian company) employed spyware to the computer system of its former business partner, Ashton Investments, to hack illegally private information relating to the litigation between them. In the light of these two Acts and the need to protect the business in an event of ruined relationship between the company and its business partners, the developer of the website should ensure that the website has a high level of privacy and security. In regard to the issue of legal liability, it is important to point out that the utilization of Wide Web has prompted businesses to venture in unexplored business frontiers. As such, they are more likely to be exposed to legal risks. This issue has been exacerbating by the fact that most laws relating to cyberspace in both criminal and civil dimensions are still in comparative legal infancy. The legal liability issues relating to websites are copyrights, infringement of copyrights, website development contracts, appropriation of names, and defamation (Baumer, Lyengar, & Moffie, 2003, p. 24). In addition to under the Data Protection Act 1998 and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, Digital Economy Act 2010 makes legal provisions for website and internet. The Act has provisions that seek

Seeking Pleasure and Happiness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Seeking Pleasure and Happiness - Essay Example Unfortunately, Billy is deadly wounded and is left recuperating injuries in a hospital and meets Sally, Bob Hyde’s wife. He believes that Sally will help her get over the anger, frustration, and pain he got from the war. Luke and Sally pursue happiness through sexual pleasure, and the two eventually engage in sex (Waldo, 2014). Sally gets an organism for the first time and she slowly starts forgetting her husband and starts enjoying the happy life with Luke. Luke feels exasperated by Billy’s decision to kill himself by injecting air into his body. Billy committed suicide as he was striving to obtain happiness and get over the injuries he got from the war, hence affirming the extent that people go in search of pleasure and happiness.  Similarly, in The Last Detail 1973, Larry Meadows is sentenced to 8 years in prison after his plan to steal $40 botched. The petty crime that Meadows expected to be a source of unending pleasure lands him in unfathomable miseries. As he i s transferred from Norfolk to Portsmouth prison, Buddusky and Richard Mulhall provide several adventures for Meadows as a way of ensuring that he obtains happiness before getting to prison (Chuck, 2013). Meadows, an underage, seeks pleasure in whiskey and visits a brothel where he loses his virginity and openly admits that the few profane activities he had engaged in when in the company of Buddusky and Richard gave him the greatest happiness in life. This is what Aristotle termed as Egoistic Hedonism that torpedoes an individual’s life.

Industrial Placement Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Industrial Placement - Case Study Example This clearly implies that poor performance of the human resource is hazardous to the organisation. One of the major human resource issues faced by most organisations is the high rate of employee turnover. Problems arise in many organisations as a result of unethical practices of the management towards the employees. This leads to more employee grievances and, in turn, affects the smooth functioning of the organisation. Increased rate of employee grievance is also a cause for high employee turnover. A good human resource management can help to solve the human resource issues of an organisation. Initially it was the personnel department who dealt with the employees in the organisation. But the personnel department only dealt with the technical aspects of the employees such as staffing, remunerating etc. Later on, human resource management became a separate department to look after the welfare of the employees at the work place. "Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. Human resources, on the other hand, are responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organisation." (N. Madison. 2007). The terminology changed from personnel management to human resource management when the significance of the human resources in an organisation's success was identified properly. The fact that human consideration has to be given to the employees paved way to the formation of human resource departments in the organisation. The main functio ns of the human resource management include recruiting, selecting, placing, controlling, remunerating and motivating the employees of the organisation. Though human resource management's function includes all the activities beginning from recruiting the staff the main objective of human resource management is to provide a good working environment for the employees so that the employees feel good at work. The employees should be provided with sufficient benefits and allowances apart from salary, on the basis of their performance and as per the statute governing the employees' welfare. Human resource management in an organisation is mainly based on the concept that the employees in an organisation are human beings and they are unlike other resources. Employees will have their own problems and difficulties at their workplace arising as a result of the problems in their personal life. And also human resource is a factor whose behaviour cannot be predicted by any means. This study is aimed at identifying the human resource issues existing in the hotel giant Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. The study is conducted in Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers located in New York City. Sheraton is one of the oldest and the best hotels in the world. Currently it has very good market share in the hospitality industry. The final report is addressed to the top level human resource executives of the company for helping them to resolve the problem. Objectives of the report The main objective of preparing this report is to study and analyze the major human resource issues existing in the organisation. The study is routed to some of the areas which were found to be unsatisfactory

Our Moral Responsibility to Provide Monetary Aid to Pakistani Villagers Essay Example for Free

Our Moral Responsibility to Provide Monetary Aid to Pakistani Villagers Essay In this essay, I will argue that the theory of Utilitarianism presents resilient, compelling arguments that exemplifies why we have a moral obligation to donate money to help the Pakistani villagers affected by recent floods. Though the argument put forth by Ethical Egoists in favor of donating money to the Pakistanis is convincing, it lacks the quantitative validation that Utilitarianism provides. The Perspective of an Ethical Egoist Ethical Egoism is a consequentialist moral theory that says each person ought to pursue his or her own self-interest exclusively (EMP 69). A person’s only moral duty is to do what is best for him or herself, and he or she helps others only if the act [of helping] benefits the individual in some way (EMP 63). On the surface, it appears that it is not in a person’s best self-interests to donate money to help villagers in Pakistan. The giver experiences monetary loss and the diminution of personal financial wealth, and expends time, energy, and effort in the donation-transaction process. He or she receives neither public acknowledgement nor donor recognition. There are, however, intangible benefits that the giver may reap as a result of his or her deed, such as the satisfaction that he or she receives from giving monetary aid to the Pakistanis or the happiness that he or she experiences for acting in accordance with his or her values. It is in the giver’s self-interest and, therefore, his or her moral duty to give monetary aid to those plagued by the Pakistan floods. The facts that an Ethical Egoist would consider to be important are the consequences to him or herself because Ethical Egoism is a consequentialist moral theory that revolves around the self. Consequentialism contends that the right thing to do is determined by the consequences brought about from it (Class Notes, 10/05/2010). In this case, the morally relevant facts that the Ethical Egoist is primarily concerned with are the intangible benefits and advantages that he or she would receive from giving. The Ethical Egoist would also consider the actual and implicit costs of giving aid, as they are consequences brought about from helping the Pakistani villagers. The argument put forth by Ethical Egoism is good because it is compatible with commonsense morality. To reiterate, Ethical Egoism says that â€Å"all duties are ultimately derived from the one fundamental principle of self-interest† (EMP 73). According to Hobbes, this theory leads to the Golden Rule, which states that â€Å"we should ‘do unto others’ because if we do, others will be more likely to ‘do unto us’† (EMP 74). In this case, if we do not give to others, other people will not give to us. Thus, it is to our advantage to give to others. The Utilitarian Argument Classical, or Act, Utilitarianism maintains that the morally right act is the one that yields maximum happiness for all sentient beings impartially. Utilitarianism requires us to consider the general welfare of society and the interests of other people. Giving money to help the villagers in Pakistan generates positive consequences and diminishes the negative effects of the floods. Specifically, donations for disaster relief results in the availability of medicines to treat sicknesses, the provision and distribution of cooked meals, hygiene kits, and clothing, and the reconstruction and restoration of homes and schools. In short, giving money relieves great suffering of the flood-affected Pakistanis, enhances the balance of happiness over misery, and endorses the maximum and greater good of society. Therefore, the morally right thing to do is to donate money to help the Pakistani villagers. Similar to Ethical Egoism, Utilitarianism is a consequentialist moral theory, though this theory is concerned with the greater good of society. Therefore, the morally relevant facts for a Utilitarian are the consequences to all people impartially. In this case, they include the circulation of food, clothing, medicines, and the restoration of villages. Providing monetary aid ultimately produces the greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness for society. The Utilitarian argument for donating money is good because it provides calculable validation. In other words, the utility of the receivers is quantifiable and tangible (number of meals, hygiene kits, water tanks provided, number of homes rebuilt, etc. ). This tangibility clearly illustrates that the utility of the receiver exceeds the marginal cost to the giver and produces the greatest amount of happiness over unhappiness. Why the Utilitarian Argument is Stronger There is an epistemic problem that weakens the argument given by the Ethical Egoist. We do not know precisely what the consequences will be. We expect that the intangible benefits include self-satisfaction, enjoyment of giving, and happiness from providing financial aid, and we estimate that the costs consist of the actual donation payment and all related opportunity costs; however, we do not know exactly what the consequences will be and the extent of the results. It is, thus, difficult to gauge whether donating to charity is actually in the giver’s best self-interest exclusively because the associated costs may be very great (the giver may end up poorer or the donation-transaction process may be stressful; both situations would not be to his or her advantage). The immeasurability and intangibility of the benefits also weakens the argument. Ayn Rand, an Ethical Egoist, responds to this objection and asserts that it is completely moral and permissible to offer aid to others even when one does not anticipate any tangible return; â€Å"personal reasons for offering aid—reasons consistent with one’s values and one’s pursuit of one’s own life—are sufficient to justify the act† (Gordon Shannon, 10/16/2010). Rand says that personal reasons, such as values and pursuit of a flourishing life, are adequate to justify the act. We run, however, into a problem: just because we have a moral justification to give aid, does it mean we are morally required to give aid? Rand provides a moral justification, but not a moral mandate; this makes the argument put forth by Ethical Egoism weak. While Ethical Egoism provides a convincing argument and response to the objection, the Utilitarian argument is stronger because it buffers against the epistemic problem and provides quantitative, calculable validation. The problem of epistemology does not apply to or weaken the Utilitarian argument because we know what the consequences will be, based on present initiatives. Plan UK has provided cooked meals to over 250,000 people, shelter for 230,000, water tanks, hygiene kits, and medicines for thousands of families (Plan UK). We know how the money will benefit the Pakistani villagers and we can quantify the amount of happiness and good that entails the act of giving aid to others. To summarize: Ethical Egoism says that we ought to pursue our own self-interests exclusively. The morally right act is the one that benefits the self. There is, however, an epistemic problem. We do not know what the consequences will be or the extent of these outcomes. Donating to charity may not benefit the self. Utilitarianism, however, avoids the problem of epistemology and immeasurability. Therefore, Utilitarianism is the stronger argument. Conclusion In this paper, I have presented the theories of Ethical Egoism and Utilitarianism, delved into the morally relevant facts, and reflected on why each argument is good. I illustrated why Utilitarianism is stronger by appealing to a weakness of Ethical Egoism. Thus, the Utilitarian perspective that we have a moral duty to donate money to help Pakistani villagers is a better argument.

Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance

Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Corporate governance paradigm is based on the argument of Berle and Means (1932) that separation of ownership and control leads to the problems associated with agency theory so that the managers of a company may not act in the best interest of owners. Throughout the twentieth century, the pattern of ownership continued to change from declining individual ownership to increasing institutional ownership. So, it is not surprising that institutional investors are increasingly looking more carefully at the corporate governance of companies because good governance goes hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability. Many studies have been conducted to see the impact of institutional holdings on corporate governance. Some researchers contend that substantial holdings by institutional investors and corporate governance are significantly correlated while others argue the absence of such a relationship. Evidences are also inconclusive on whether institutional investors invest in good governed companies or their holdings improve the governance practices. The role of institutional investors is visualized in two perspectives, the corporate governance and the firm performance. The present chapter covers the empirical studies on the above issues as institutional holdings and corporate governance, institutional holdings and firm performance, corporate governance and firm performance with special emphasis on the studies conducted in India on the above aspects. The present submission seeks to evaluate the impact of institutional holdings over corporate governance and firm performance by constructing governance score and taking various measures for firm performance. Various studies have focused on different aspects/levels of ownership and their effects on firm performance. As a result, various arguments have been put forward both in support and against the notion of the effects of ownership structure on the firm performance. While some researchers denied the direct correlation between ownership structure and firms economic performance while the others argued that there exists such a relationship for certain. Amongst those who establish such causality, some provide evidence that there is a negative relationship, while others plead a positive relationship between the two. Studies have also been carried to determine a link between varied aspects of corporate governance and firm performance; evidence in this regard too appears fairly mixed. There has been extensive literature to document a positive relationship between the two, based on identified individual aspects of corporate governance and firm performance whereas others do not find any conclusive evidence in this regard. Prepositions put forwarded by the researchers in this context are being reviewed here as under in the perspectives identified above: 2.1 Institutional Holdings and Corporate Governance Coombes and Watson (2000)1 on the basis of a survey of more than 200 institutional investors with investments across the world showed that governance is a significant factor in their investment decision. Three-quarters of the investors say that board practices are at least as important as financial performance. In fact, over 80% of the investors in the survey stated that they would pay more for the shares of a well-governed firm than a poorly governed firm with comparable financial performance. The survey indicated that the premium these institutional investors would be willing to pay varied by country, with premiums being higher in Asia and Latin America (where financial reporting is less reliable) than in Europe or the U.S. Bradshaw, Bushee and Miller (2004)2 indicated that firms whose accounting methods conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles have a greater level of investment by U.S. institutional investors. They found further that increases in conformity with U.S. GAAP are positively associated with future increases in U.S. institutional investment, but that the reverse does not hold (i.e., increases in U.S. institutional ownership are not associated with later changes in accounting methods). The authors attributed this relation to home bias rather than better transparency (and corporate governance) however; their results are also consistent with the latter interpretation. Chung, Firth, and Kim (2002)3 hypothesized that there will be less opportunistic earnings management in firms with more institutional investor ownership because the institutions will either put pressure on the firms to adopt better accounting policies or they will be able to unravel the earnings management rule so it will not benefit the managers. They found that when institutional investors own a large percentage of a firms outstanding shares, there is less opportunistic earnings management (i.e., less use of discretionary accruals). Hartzell and Starks (2003)4 provided empirical evidence suggesting institutional investors serve a monitoring role with regard to executive compensation contracts. First, they found a positive association between institutional ownership concentration and the pay-for-performance sensitivity of a firms executive compensation. Second, they reported a negative association between institutional ownership concentration and excess salary. One implication of these results, consistent with the theoretical literature regarding the role of the large shareholder, is that institutions have greater influence when they have larger proportional stakes in firms. Parrino, Sias and Starks (2003)5 indicated that those firms that fired their top executives had a significantly greater decline in institutional ownership in the year prior to the CEO turnover than firms experiencing voluntary CEO turnover (even after controlling for differences in performance). These results support the hypothesis that institutional selling influences decisions by the board of directors-increasing the likelihood a CEO is forced from office. This implies that boards care about institutional trading and ownership activity in their firms. Further, the authors found that larger decreases in institutional ownership are associated with a higher probability of an outsider being appointed to succeed the CEO. This result suggests that directors are more willing to break with the current corporate management and institute change. They also noted that there are several potential effects when institutions sell shares. First, heavy institutional selling can put downward pressure on the stock price. Alternatively, institutional selling might be interpreted as bad news, thus triggering sales by other investors and further depressing the stock price. Finally, the composition of shareholder base might change, for example, from institutional investors with a long-term focus to investors with a more myopic view. This last effect might be important to directors if the types of institutions holding the stock affect share value or the management of the company. Cremers and Nair (2005)6 stated that the interaction between shareholder activism on behalf of institutional investors and the market for corporate control is important in explaining developments in abnormal equity returns and accounting measures of profitability. Davis and Kim (2007)7 found that mutual funds with conflicts of interest (based on management of pension assets) more often vote with management in general. On the other hand, mutual funds have more incentive and power to oppose management in firms in which they have a larger stake. McCahery, Sautner and Starks (2008)8 have relied on the survey data to investigate governance preference of 118 institutional investors in U.S. and Netherlands. The study found that the majority of institutions that responded to the survey take into account firm governance in portfolio weighting decisions and are willing to engage in activities that can improve the governance of their portfolio firms. Brickley, Lease and Smith (1988)9 found evidence supporting the hypothesis that firms with greater holdings by pressure-sensitive shareholders (banks and insurance companies) have more proxy votes cast in favor of managements recommendations. Moreover, firms with greater holdings by pressure-insensitive shareholders (pension funds and mutual funds) have more proxy votes against managements recommendations. The authors differentiated between the different types of institutional investors, noting the difference between pressure-sensitive and pressure-insensitive institutional shareholders and arguing that pressure-sensitive institutions are more likely to â€Å"go along† with management decisions. The rationale is that pressure-sensitive investors might have current or potential business relations with the firm that they do not want to jeopardize. Maug (1998)10 noted that institutions use their ability to influence corporate decisions are partially a function of the size of their shareholdings. If institutional investor shareholdings are high, shares are less marketable and are thus held for longer periods. In this case, there is greater incentive to monitor a firms management. However, when institutional investors hold relatively few shares in a firm, they can easily liquidate their investments if the firm performs poorly, and therefore have less incentive to monitor firm performance. Almazan, Hartzell and Starks (2003)11 provided evidence both theoretical and empirical that the monitoring influence of institutional investors on executive compensation can depend on the current or prospective business relation between the institution and the corporation. They concluded that the monitoring influence of institutions is associated more with potentially active institutions (investment companies and pension fund managers who would be less sensitive to pressure from corporate management due to lack of potential business relations) than with potentially passive institutions (banks and insurance companies who would be more pressure-sensitive). Marsh (1997)12 has argued that short-term performance measurement does work against the active monitoring by institutional investors. The performance of fund managers is evaluated over a shorter time period. Hence, they act under tremendous pressure to beat some index. So, when they find a case of bad governance, they find it economical to sell the stock rather than interfere in the functioning of the company and incur monitoring costs. Denis and Denis (1994)13 found no evidence to suggest that there is any relationship between institutional holdings and corporate governance. They stated that if companies that create shareholders wealth are the ones with poor corporate governance practices, and then one really cannot blame the institutional investors for having invested in such companies. For, after all, a fund manager will be evaluated on the basis of stock returns he creates for the unit holders and not on the basis of the corporate governance records of the company he invests the money in. If however, one finds that companies with poor corporate governance practices are the ones, which have consistently destroyed shareholders wealth, then the contention that the institutional investors need not look at corporate governance records cannot be justified. David and Kochhar (1996)14, provided empirical evidence regarding impact of institutional investors on firm behaviour and performance is mixed and that no definite conclusions can be drawn. They argued that various institutional obstacles, such as barriers stemming from business relationships, the regulatory environment and information processing limitations, might prevent institutional investors from effectively exercising their corporate governance function. Agrawal and Knoeber (1996)15 found little evidence of an association between total institutional ownership and other possible control mechanisms (e.g., insider ownership, block holders, outside directors, CEO human capital, and leverage). Payne, Millar, and Glezen (1996)16 focussed on banks as one type of institutional investor that would be expected to have business relations with the firms in which they invest. They examined interlocking directorships and income-related relationships, and noticed that when such relations exist; banks tend to vote in favor of management anti-takeover amendment proposals. When such relations dont exist, banks tend to vote against the management proposals. Leech (2002)17 is of the view that many institutional shareholders do not seek control of a company for a variety of reasons, which include the fear of obtaining price sensitive information, and that it is more likely that institutional investors seek only influence rather than complete control. Moreover, it has also been argued, in line with the â€Å"passive monitoring† view, that institutional investors may not be keen to â€Å"exit† on their investments â€Å"i.e. sell their equity stakes when the firm is not performing optimally, mainly because they hold large investments and thus selling may lower the price and further increase any potential loss. Woidtke (2002)18 concluded by comparing the relative value of firms held for public versus private pension fund that relative firm value is positively related to private pension fund ownership and negatively related to (activist) public pension fund ownership. These results supported the view that the actions of public pension fund managers might be motivated more by political or social influences than by firm performance. Ashraf and Jayaman (2007)19 examined mutual funds trading behavior after the release of voting records. The study found that funds that support shareholder proposals reduce holdings after the release of voting records. Since the time of releasing voting records could be very far from the shareholder meeting date, mutual funds trading behavior after the release of voting records may be unrelated to the votes cast in the meeting. Dahlquist et al. (2003)20 analyzed foreign ownership and firm characteristics for the Swedish market. The study found that foreigners have greater presence in large firms, firms paying low dividends and in firms with large cash holdings and explained that firm size is driven by liquidity. It reiterated that foreigners tend to underweight the firms with a dominant owner. Leuz, Nanda and Wysocki (2003)21 asserted that the information problems cause foreigners to hold fewer assets in firms. Firm level characteristics can be expected to contribute to the information asymmetry problems. Concentrated family control makes it more likely that information is communicated via private channels. Informative insiders have incentives to hide the benefits from outside investors by providing opaque financial statements and managing earnings. Haw, Hu, Hwang and Wu (2004)22 found that firm level factors cause information asymmetry problems to FII. It found evidence that US investment is lower in firms where managers do not have effective control. Foreign investment in firms that appear to engage in more earnings management is lower in countries with poor information framework. Choe, Kho, Stulz (2005)23 found that US investors do indeed hold fewer shares in firms with ownership structures that are more conducive to expropriation by controlling insiders. In companies where insiders are dominating information access and availability to the shareholders will be limited. With less information, foreign investors face an adverse selection problem. So they under invest in such stocks. Covirg et al. (2008)24 concluded that foreign fund managers have less information about the domestic stocks than the domestic fund managers. They found that ownership by foreign funds is related to size of foreign sales, index memberships and stocks with foreign listing. Leuz, Lins, and Warnock (2009)25 found that foreign institutional investors prefer to invest in firms with â€Å"better† governance practices. This literature assumes that firm level corporate governance mechanisms substitute for weak country level legal protections of minority shareholders. Aggarwal, Klapper and Wysocki (2005)26 found that U.S. mutual funds tend to invest greater amounts in countries with stronger shareholder rights and legal frameworks (controlling for the countrys economic development). In addition, within the countries, the mutual funds also discriminate on the basis of governance in that they allocate more of their assets to firms with better corporate governance structures. Resume After reviewing the literature on the above sub-section, it is concluded that the results are inconclusive regarding the association between institutional holdings and corporate governance as some studies invariably support the hypothesis that institutional holdings and corporate governance are significantly related while the others reject it. But the results are uniform on one issue that there is positive relation between the foreign institutional holdings and corporate governance as foreign institutional investors are relatively more concerned about the governance practices of companies and countries as well. They prefer to invest more in the countries with stronger shareholder rights and legal frameworks. Similarly, they do invest in the companies with good disclosure and transparency measures. A group of studies contend that institutional investors consider governance practices of companies as an important consideration for investment decision. They not only care for financial performance of target companies, but also put great emphasis on the board practices. They are ready to pay premium for good governance. Institutional investors can put pressure on firms improve their governance practices if they have substantial stake in the target companies and do not have business relations with them. Moreover, if they dont involve themselves actively in governance but only vote with their feet it serves as a deterrent for the management in practicing bad governance. As it will send bad signal to the stock market leading to further decline in the stock prices and may be changing the shareholder base from dynamic institutional investors with long-term focus to myopic investors. Whereas in other studies, it has been observed that institutional investors prefer to remain passive and concentrate on their own business objectives, rather than look into the governance practices of companies. They do not involve themselves actively in the governance of firms for variety of reasons as short-term performance measurement, business relationships, regulatory environment, information processing limitations, free-rider problem etc. Moreover, they may not be interested in selling the shares of poor firms as they have large holdings and selling may aggravate their potential loss. 2.2 Institutional Holdings and Firm Performance Pound (1988)27 explored the influence of institutional ownerships on firm performance and proposed three hypotheses on the relation between institutional shareholders and firm performance: efficient-monitoring hypothesis, conflict-of-interest hypothesis, and strategic-alignment hypothesis. The efficient-monitoring hypothesis says that institutional investors have greater expertise and can monitor management at lower cost than the small atomistic shareholders. Consequently, this argument predicts a positive relationship between institutional shareholding and firm performance. The conflict-of-interest proposition suggests that in view of other profitable business relationships with the firm, institutional investors are coerced into voting their shares with management. The strategic-alignment hypothesis states that institutional owners and managers find it mutually advantageous to cooperate. Holderness and Sheehan (1988)28 found that for a sample of 114 US firms controlled by a majority shareholder with more than 50% of shares, both Tobins Q and accounting profits are significantly lower for firms with individual majority owners than for firms with corporate majority owners. Hermalin and Weisbach (1988)29 further stated that the managerial ownership is positively related to performance between 0-1% of managerial ownership, negatively related thereafter up to 5%, and again positively related from 5-20% and negatively related thereafter. Boardman and Vining (1989)30 compared the performance of state owned enterprises, joint enterprises, and private corporations among the 500 largest non-US industrial firms, and found that mixed enterprises and state owned enterprises perform substantially worse than similar private enterprises. McConnell and Servaes (1990)31 found a strong positive relationship between the value of the firm and the fraction of shares held by institutional investors. They found that performance increases significantly with institutional ownership. Han and Suk (1998)32 found (for a sample of US firms) that stock returns are positively related to ownership by institutional investors, thus implying that these corporate owners are actively involved in the monitoring of incumbent management. They also found that alignment effect dominates if the managers own up to 41.8% of the share capital. They further evidenced that beyond the limit of 41.8%, the mangers are able to control the Board of directors and so the entrenchment effect dominates the alignment effect. Majumdar and Nagarajan (1994)33 found that levels of institutional investment are positively related to the current performance levels of firms. However, a less-stronger, though positive, effect is established between changes in performance levels and changes in institutional ownership. The results are based on a study investigating U.S. institutional investors investment strategy. Bethel et al. (1998)34 consistent with the view that market for partial corporate control identifies and rectifies problems of poor corporate performance, found that activist investors typically target poorly performing and diversified firms for block share purchases, and thereby assert disciplinary effect on target companies plans in mergers and acquisitions. Douma, Rejie and Kabir (2006)35 investigated the impact of foreign institutional investment on the performance of emerging market firms and found that there is positive effect of foreign ownership on firm performance. They also found impact of foreign investment on the business group affiliation of firms. Investor protection is poor in case of firms with controlling shareholders who have ability to expropriate assets. The block shareholders affect the value of the firm and influence the private benefits they receive from the firm. Companies with such shareholders find it expensive to raise external funds. Bhattacharya and Graham (2007)36 investigated the relationship between different classes of institutional investors (pressure-sensitive and pressure-resistant) and firm performance in Finland. It documented evidence that these institutional owners own stakes in multiple firms across industries, leading to a possible two-way causality or endogenous problem between firm performance and ownership structure. It was also evidenced that institutional investors with likely investment and business ties with firms have negative effect on firm performance and the impact is very significant in comparison to the negative effect of firm performance on institutional ownership. Wiwattanakantang (2001)37 investigated the effects of controlling shareholders on corporate performance and found that presence of controlling shareholders is associated with higher performance, when measured by accounting measures such as return on assets and the sales-asset ratio. However, the controlling shareholders involvement in management has a negative effect on the performance and it is more pronounced when the controlling shareholder and managers ownership is at the 25-50 percent. The evidence also revealed that family controlled firms display significantly higher performance. Foreign controlled firms as well as firms with more than one controlling shareholder also have higher return on assets, relative to firms with no controlling shareholder. Abdul Wahab et al. (2007)38 examined the relationship between corporate governance structures, institutional ownership and firm performance for 440 Bursa Malaysia listed firms from 1999 to 2002 and found that institutional investors have a positive impact on firms corporate governance practices. Qiet et al. (2000)39 found that firm performance is positively related to the proportion of shares owned by the state. In addition, they found little evidence in support of a positive correlation between corporate performance and the proportion of tradable shares owned by either domestic or foreign investors. Wahal (1996)40 observed that although institutional investors, particularly, activist institutions, have been successful in their efforts to affect the governance of targeted firms, these same firms have not demonstrated performance improvements. Studies examining the relationship between institutional holdings and firm performance in different countries (mainly OECD countries) have produced mixed results. Chaganti and Damanpour (1991)41 and Lowenstein (1991)42, for instance, find little evidence that institutional ownership is correlated with firm performance. Seifert, Gonenc and Wright (2005)43 study does not find a consistent relationship across countries. They conclude that their inconsistent results may reflect the fact that the influence of institutional investors on firm performance is location specific. The above studies generally consider institutional investors as a monolithic group. However, Shleifer and Vishnys (1997)44 as well as Pounds (1988)45 theorizations and later empirical examinations by McConnell and Servaes (1990)46 suggest that shareholders are differentiable and pursue different agendas. Jensen and Merkling (1976)47 also show that equity ownerships by different groups have different effects on the firm performance. Agrawal and Knoeber (1996)48, Duggal and Miller (1999)49 find no such significant relation between institutional holdings and firm performance. Resume Various studies on relationship between institutional holdings and firm performance have been reviewed in the above sub-section and the results are mixed. Different researchers have taken different performance measures as some of them have considered accounting measures but others have taken stock market indicators.Some of the observations contend that institutional investors are more expert in monitoring the affairs of companies as compared to individual investors; their holdings improve the financial performance of target companies. The results are more significant, where managers also have some ownership stake so as to have alignment effect. Moreover, if their stake is substantial, they can also assert disciplinary action against the poorly performing firms. Similarly, foreign institutional investors have also positive impact on the firm performance. But the results of other observations state otherwise. They state that if institutional investors have business ties with the firms, they would go along with the management and it may have negative impact on the firm performance. The studies have revealed out an interesting observation that Institutional holdings have positive effect on firm performance but their active involvement in management has negative effect. Some of the observations state that institutional investors may have significant impact on the governance practices of companies but do not improve financial performance. 2.3 Corporate Governance and Firm Performance Lipton and Lorsch (1992)50 found that limiting board size improves firm performance because the benefits by larger boards of increased monitoring are outweighed by the poorer communication and decision-making of larger groups. Millstein and MacAvoy (1998)51 studied 154 large publicly traded US corporations over a five-year period and found that corporations with active and independent boards appear to have performed much better in the 1990s than those with passive, non-independent boards. Eisenberg et al. (1998)52 found negative correlation between board size and profitability when using sample of small and midsize Finnish firms, which suggests that board-size effects can exist even when there is less separation of ownership and control in these smaller firms. Vafeas (1999)53 found that the annual number of board meeting increases following share price declines and operating performance of firms improves following years of increased board meetings. This suggests meeting frequency is an important dimension of an effective board. Core, Holthausen and Larcker (1999)54 observed that CEO compensation is lower when the CEO and board chair positions are separate. It is further shown that firms are more valuable when the CEO and board chair positions are separate. Botosan and Plumlee (2001)55 found a material effect of expensing stock options on return on assets. They used Fortunes list of the 100 fastest growing companies and obtained the effect of expensing stock options on firms operating performance. Morgan and Poulsen (2001)56 found that pay-for-performance plan generally helps to reduce agency problems in the firm as the votes approving the plan are positively related to firms that have high investment or high growth opportunities. On the other hand, votes approving the plan are inversely related to negative features in some of the plans such as dilution of shareholder stakes. Mitton (2002)57 examined the stock performance of a sample of listed companies from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. It reported that performance is better in firms with higher accounting disclosure quality (proxied by the use of Big Six auditors) and higher outside ownership concentration. This provides firm-level evidence consistent with the view that corporate governance helps explain firm performance during a financial crisis. Claessens et al. (2002b)58 observed that firm value increases with the cash-flow ownership (right to receive dividends) of the largest and controlling shareholder, consistent with â€Å"incentive† effects. But when the control rights (arising from pyramid structure, cross-holding and dual-class shares) of the controlling shareholder exceed its cash-flow rights, firm value falls, which is consistent with â€Å"entrenchment† effects. Deutsche Bank AG (2004a and 2004b)59 explored the implications of corporate governance for portfolio management and concluded that corporate governance standards are an important component of equity risk. Their analysis also showed that for South Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, the performance differential favored those companies with stronger corporate governance. Fich and Shivdasani (2004)60 based on Fortune 1000 firms, asserted that firms with director stock option plans have higher market to book ratios, higher profitability (as proxied by operating return on assets, return on sales and asset turnover), and they document a positive stock market reaction when firms announce stock option plans for their directors. Gompers et al. (2003)61 examined the ways in which shareholder rights vary across firms. They constructed a ‘Governance Index to proxy for the level of shareholder rights in approximately 1500 large firms during the 1990s. An investment strategy that bought firms in the lowest decile of the index (strongest rights) and sold firms in the highest decile of the index (weakest rights) would have earned abnormal returns of 8.5% per year during the sample period. They found that firms with stronger shareholder rights had higher firm value, higher profits, higher sales growth, lower capital expenditures, and made fewer corporate acquisitions. Brown, Robinson and Caylor (2004)62 created a broad measure of corporate governance, Gov-Score, based on a new dataset provided by Institutional Shareholder Services. Gov-Score is a composite meas