BTEC Business Essay

Shell is a multinational oil and gas company with around 87.000 employees in more than 70 countries. It is one of the world’s most valuable companies. Shell was started by Marcus Samuel back in 1833, he was a shopkeeper in London. In 1907 they merged with The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. 1.1.1&1.1.2 Having a lot of offices/petrol stations all around the world makes them a global business and it’s a private business because it’s not owned by the government. Their goal is to make more money than they spend, so Shell is a profit business. Shell is in all three sectors because they dig oil (Primary Sector, they produce the oil (Secondary Sector, and lastly they sell it as well at their petrol stations. Their products are mostly oil and gas but they also have services for example, you can fill your tires with air, you can use their hoover or make use of their carwash. 1.1.3 Shell is a PLC so the liability for debts is on the company. To be considered a PLC you’re business is probably formed and owned by shareholders. Other shareholders can buy their stock quite easily. They have a lot of shareholders. As a shareholder of Shell you aren’t responsible for the debts, may the company go bankrupt. Unicef Unicef which stands for United Nations International Children’s Emergency is a massive organisation that tries to help children all over the world, not only to have an education but to protect child’s right in overall. 1.2.1&1.2.2 Unicef has offices all over the world, it’s a global organisation. Almost every country has an office from Unicef. The Government helps for two third of the organisation’s funds and the other part is from the millions of people that supports Unicef which makes it for the bigger part a public organisation. It’s a non-profit organisation, because they don’t want to make a lot of money for themselves but to raise money to help the children  who for example can’t go to school because they don’t have the money for it or even because they don’t have schools at that place. Unicef is subjected in the tertiary sector because they serve services to help the children. 1.2.3 It’s a Charity Partnership, as a charity you have to register and must produce annual accounts that are available to be viewed. P2 Stakeholders of Shell 2.1&2.2 A stakeholder is anyone that has an interest or is affected by a corporation. 1.Customers: The customers are the one who buy or uses the products and services of Shell. – They want shell to have the best oil, gas and services so that what they pay for those things are worth their money. -Shell wants the customer to keep coming back to them, because without the customers Shell wouldn’t earn any money. 2.Employees: The employees are the one who works for Shell. – They want to have the security of being employed, getting paid and also the opportunity for promotions. – Shell wants the Employees to do their best because they are kind of representing Shell. For example, if they are rude to customers then the customers may not come back to Shell because of that. 3.The shareholders: The shareholders are the one who owns a part of Shell. – The shareholders want to see their share of profit to increase. – Shell wants them to increase the money. 4.Trade Unions: Trade Unions represent the interest of groups of employees. – With the trade unions employees want to accomplish their interest like get higher wages. – Shell wants to find out the interest of groups of the employees so they can improve it and keep their employees happy. 5.Local And National Communities: Local and National Communities are the ones who represent Shell. – Shell has pipelines in Nigeria which can be very dangerous and cause local pollution, therefore community leaders represent important interest groups. – Shell wants them to represent Shell positively. 6.Suppliers: Suppliers are people who provides Shell’s products. (For example the things they sell at they’re petrol stations, not the oil/gas as they produce that themselves.) – They want to feel valued by Shell and they want steady orders and to be paid at their worth. – Shell wants the suppliers to deliver the right orders and that the products are in best condition. 2.3&2.4 Stakeholders of Unicef 1.Staff members: Staff members ensures that everything is going smoothly, both in offices and on field. – They want to see the results while being in field, for example, to see the kids go to the school they have built. – Unicef wants the staff members to do their best and see the best results. 2.Goodwill Ambassadors and Advocates: Goodwill Ambassadors and Advocates are celebrities that funds Unicef. – They want to use their fame positively and help as many kids as they can with their money. – Unicef gets more known because of those celebrities. With their help people acknowledge their campaign. Plus, they are good volunteers with enough money. 3.Young Leaders: Young Leaders are young adults or teens that are helping out with the campaign as well. – Young leaders wants to help out children or teens that are maybe just a few years older than them, sometimes because they feel bad for those children. They have it better so they want to help out. – Having young leaders in the team is a positive outcome because this motivates others from the same age to do something to help children out, too. 4.Teachers: Volunteers that want to teach children in for example Africa. -Teachers wants to volunteer so they feel good about themselves helping the children to get better education or just an education at all. They want to be send off in a secure place, though. And not in, for example, a war zone. – Unicef needs Teachers because otherwise building schools are no help at all if there’s no one to teach those children something. 5.Suppliers: Those are the ones who supplies the school books etc. – They want to feel valued by Unicef and wants clear orders from them. – Unicef wants the suppliers to deliver the orders to be in good quality and to be delivered on time. 6.People who gives their contribution to the collectors:  They give money to the collectors to help out. – For example, they want to think they helped out building that school in Africa. – Unicef need those people to help out to get more money so they can help out more. P3 Organisational Chart of Shell 5.1 Shell is organized by function, geographical areas, product groups and type of customers. Shell’s functions are divided in three groupings: Upstream, Downstream and Projects & Technology. Upstream manages the manufacturing and search crude oil and natural gas. Downstream also manages the manufacturing and are responsible for the marketing department. Projects & Technology does the research and projects for new products. Shell is, as mentioned before, a global company, having offices all over the world. The Upstream only is already divided in Upstream Americas (for Americas), Upstream International (for Europe, Asia/Middle East/Russia, Oceania and Africa. This is because it can function better and they can focus within that country/continent. They can focus on the culture and interest within that country/continent. They are also organized by products as you can see above. They are divided by gas, fuels and lubricants and chemical products. This way each group can specialize in their own product and make it better. Shell has a lot of customers, like the one who drives daily to and from their work or a big airplane company or the F1 team. They use different products or amount of products, so Shell organized it this way that the airplane company gets a different price than a normal man who drives daily to and from their work. 5.2 My Royal Dutch Shell would look at the amount of profit they made the year before. How much oil and gas they posses and there is on earth. We’ll look at how much we sell our products and how much our variable costs are and if we can make our variable costs less and our prices higher. Would we lose customers if we do that or not? We will do an internal researches for how much oil there still is on earth. With this information we can go further with our strategic plan. If the oil is decreasing for example, we will look  for alternative solution. Shell will look for what’s going on in each country. For example, everyone is really busy with being environmentally conscious, so we’ll think of a way other than greenpeace to show that we are not too bad for the environment. We will look at how the economy is growing or deflating. If it’s growing we can make the price higher, and if it’s deflating we don’t necessarily need to put the prices lower as Shell’s product is something that everyone constantly need. (Oil) Looking at what the concurrent position, at how they are doing is also something to consider. Organisational Chart of Unicef 5.3 Unicef is divided by directors. They have the executive Director who is in charge of the whole organisation. And other directors that are in charge of for example the Human Resources or the supplies. So Unicef is organized by function. Unicef has different regional directors. For example, there’s the Dutch Unicef Director, or the UK Unicef Director. . Working a lot on field (different countries) it’s easier to have regional offices. This makes Unicef function better as Unicef represent itself in 190 countries, each country with different values. So each country director/manager can focus on how to reach the people Unicef is also organized by geographical areas. Unicef focuses on different type of ‘products’ which are actually the different services. Although all is about children, the subjects are different. They have child survival and development, Basic education and gender equality, Children and HIV/AIDS and Child protection. They divided those subjects so they can specialise more and give the help that the child needs better. They also sell small things, kind of reminds me of souvenirs, the profit they make from these goes to the campaign funds. 5.4 Unicef will look at how they’ve succeeded at their projects so far, how many donations they get each year, how many members/volunteer they’ve got and what their next step needs to be depends on what is going on with the people around the countries they help or even which country they’ll need to help next. Once they have all those information, they’ll look at how they can  get more projects. To get more projects done, they’ll do more research so that they can give people more and more information and can attract more people to help them out. Unicef should show on the media what they’ve achieve so far and that the money people donate are really helping out. This way we’ll get more donation, so more profit to finish projects. P4 Fulfilling The Purpose of Shell 6.1 Shell’s purpose is to make as much profit as they can. Being organized by function they can put people who are specialised by those functions and make their product even better. The geographical structure helps to get to know what they need to do to get the attention of each country. Because each country has different laws, values and culture they can do their research way better if each group specialised in one specific country. Shell can make their advertisement focused on each country. Focusing on the different customers they can make special offers for different customers. Making these offers they can make sure that the customer will come back to them and can cause word to word advertisement. Splitting up different products types helps customers to know where to find what when they come to buy products from shell. Having different products means they need to make sure everything is from the same quality, the best quality. So by dividing their products and putting people who specialised on those product they know they have the best quality. Which will make customer come back to them. To be structured good, Shell uses the chain of command. It helps shell to make sure that they get the tasks that you need to do and that it doesn’t go to a different department. Fulfilling The Purpose of Unicef 6.2 Unicef’s purpose is to help as much children in need as they can. Being geographical organized helps them to fulfil their purpose because this way they can focus on what each country needs. For example, one country needs more school instead of help with HIV/AIDS. Focusing on different product type helps as well. This way, people knows exactly for what they are donating. Same as Shell, Unicef uses the chain of command so that people get the right tasks. Using Goodwill Ambassador helps them achieve their purposes, too. For example, having Selena Gomez as an ambassador is great help for them in the media. She’s really big in the entertainment industries and is a role model for a lot of teens and young adults all over the world. She indirectly advertises Unicef when she tweets or talks about how she’s an ambassador. Having different directors for each function helps as well as they can specialise on what they are doing in that sector. They can give the people ‘underneath’ them better instructions.

Busy Bee Essay

In this crazy world, everyone is busy with their work, going to school, or doing something for the survival of their lives. A busy bee defines a person who is busy in his/her life and barely has time for their personal and social life. This kind of lifestyle is really complicated and hard to live. A busy bee is a behavior in which a person has little time for friends, is focused on their career and also has a lifestyle of either being a single or can barely provide time for family. First of all myuncle who owns 12 dunking donuts barely has time for his family. He sees his kids or communicates with them once or twice in a week. For him, his business life is more important than his social life with his family. He ought to give first prefrence to his business to make more ‘n’ more money on his bank account. In addition, Olivia Pope from Scandal, to me reflects the behavior of a busy bee. In the show, ‘Scandal’, she appears to be very busy, handling five cases a day, and there is always something going on that she needs to take care of it. As the definition says, she is shown as having no personal life, and mostly she is in the office solving cases since she does as a job as a fixer. Busy bee behavior can also exhibit influential behavior. The bad feeling between what is, and what could be, talks to our frustrations and stirs us into wide awake Influence.I chose this behavior to write about because I can connect to this behavior in such manner that since morning to night, I am running around the whole day to take summer classes or running errands or working. I also uncover some of the valuable realities of how my mind can either work for me or against this influencial being busy behavior. It’s only the weekends I can go back to my normal lifestyle, talk to my family and relax myself. Though Stephen R. Covey famous American educator and author has define busy bee in above mention phrase, â€Å"We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.† To conclude, the behavior of the busy bee is my favorite from all the other behaviors listed because being busy makes me feel like I am accomplishing something from life, it doesn’t give me a chance to get bored and watch shows like sorrow or happiness and it gives me the encouragement to be busy in life. The behavior of a busy bee is an exceptional and unique way to keep going in life. That’s why William Blake said, â€Å"Get busy living, or get busy dying.†

Ap Human Geo-Rate of Natural Increase Essay

When a country has rapid growth such as Uganda it means that it’s a developing country. A country such as Germany is a developed country because it has a negative rate of natural increase. The rate of natural increase is the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate of a population. The rate of natural increase for Uganda is 3%. The doubling time for Uganda is 23 years. The doubling time for Germany is that ere is no doubling time. This is because Germany’s rate of natural increase is -0. 2%. Uganda’s GDP is $1,390, GDP is the average salary for one person, in one year. Germany’s GDP is $27,820. Uganda’s health care spending is $57 per person. The health care spending that one person would spend in Germany is $2,820. The female education in Uganda is 13% that are enrolled in secondary schools, in 2004. Females that are enrolled in secondary schools in 2004, in Germany is 88%. In conclusion Uganda is a developing country and it’s living standard are poor. Meaning that health care isn’t there medical care in Uganda, so they can’t spend the money on it, and even if it was there, most people in Uganda would not be able to afford it since the GDP is only $1,390 per person, per year. Overall Uganda has women with little education, because they stay at home, taking care of the children. Germany is a developed country, with a pretty high standard of life. Intern meaning that health care is in Germany, and most people do spend money on it. Overall Germany has women with an education, meaning more people have money to spend on things. As a whole Germany and Uganda are very different counties, and have very different living standards.

Media production Film and Tv Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Media production Film and Tv - Essay Example This means that the current media landscape is mostly working towards getting more people to be involved and participate in the interaction. Such interaction between the media and participates can also be defined as the liveness that has been traditionally marked by the bringing of global events to the attention of a nationally situated populace. However, the notions of liveness are becoming more complicated with the development of mobile phones, blogging and social networking (Hirst, 2014, 32). Acknowledging, the purpose to get a critical picture of the changing liveness, this essay will firstly present a general description of the current media landscape. Following this, this essay will critically investigate how liveness is changing the current media landscape. Furthermore, the present essay will continue to examine how our relationship to liveness is changing the current media landscape. Finally, what has been discussed in the present essay will be concluded in the end. It is beneficial to get a general knowledge of the current media landscape before investigating how liveness and our relationship to it are changing the current media landscape. First generated by Goldmark, new media refers to the notion that is constantly changing. As a matter of fact, the current media landscape is mainly characterized by new, which can be understood from four fronts. The "new" characteristic can be demonstrated by new notion, a new pattern, new effectiveness, and new value. Specifically, the new notion refers to the reducing of boundaries between traditional media, boundaries between countries, communities, and industries, and boundaries between information providers and receivers. The new pattern refers to the pattern transformation from the point-points pattern of points-points pattern, which enables every individual to have the opportunity to get involved in information broadcasting, and can further enhance public participation

Proposal for Smart Phone Application based ordering for Subway Research Paper

Proposal for Smart Phone Application based ordering for Subway Sandwiches - Research Paper Example The report also elaborates on the technical as well as business approaches required to be considered when applying the proposed mechanism along with the likely changes to be witnessed after its implementation. Challenges and the subsequent measures required to be considered have also been addressed in this report along with recommendations and a high-level implementation plan. 2. Background of the Company Subway is an American restaurant chain founded in the year 1965, by Dr. Peter Buck and Fred DeLuca. Today, the restaurant chain is situated in around 98 countries and 34,000 locations all around the world. The company has its regional offices in Brisbane, Miami and Singapore (The Ultimate Software Group Inc., 2000). The products which are offered by this restaurant chain principally fall in the category of submarine sandwiches. It has also been offering pizzas to its customers in certain areas. Subway has been operating for around 46 years and is often ranked as the largest chain of submarine sandwiches in the world. The company has been rewarded with several awards for its superior products and services which are provided to its nationwide and international customers (Doctor's Associates Inc., 2009). 3. Business Problems In today’s highly competitive market scenario, technology and better communication with the target customers have become quite essential for companies to obtain better advantages and growth prospects. However, based on this context, Mr. Van Hout, the technological officer of Subway, stated that with the power of technological assistance, the sales and the profitability of its stores can be increased substantially. Fundamentally, it has been due to its lacuna in incorporating technology in its customer service procedure that the customers have to face problems when placing orders which has been principally associated with the time-consuming delivery process of the organization. Applying the traditional delivery process, the customers ne ed to wait in long queues which in turn tend to hamper their satisfaction level by a large extent affecting the productivity as well as on the reputation of the company (Journalistic Inc., 2013). Hence, incorporating technological innovations such as smart phones to enhance customer relationship in Subway can prove highly beneficial for the company. 4. High level Solution In order to mitigate the restrictions or rather the limitations witnessed by Subway and its customers, incorporation of developed technology application can prove to be highly beneficial. The application can be downloaded by the customers in their smartphones to be used for placing orders in a time-efficient and cost effective manner. Correspondingly, the stores will be equipped with advanced computer systems to receive, interpret as well as analyze the data collected in relation to customers’ requirements for the use of staff members. It is expected that the technology development will minimize the time-con straints in the delivery process rendering greater satisfaction to the customers and thereby rendering competitive advantages to the company so as to increase its revenue growth substantially over the long-run. 5. Benefits of solving the problem With the incorporation of the technology, it is possible for the staffs to take orders and place it in a time-effective way which shall in turn enhance the quality of customer service in Subway and likewise encourage better

Movie Gattaca Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Gattaca - Movie Review Example to second-class citizen status and find that they cannot reach their goals, and their dreams severely impeded because society just cannot tolerate them and will obstruct their every hope and aspiration. They also suffer psychologically and emotionally because society not only treats them as pariahs but look at them as pitiful and scornful creatures. But this society itself is grossly myopic because it fails to see defect such as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who suffered polio and yet campaigned and won the presidency or heptathlete Jackie Joyner Kersee who was asthmatic and yet ruled them all in Olympic heptathlon and the long jump for decades. The list is long and includes Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller. The list goes on and on and probably include our own ancestors who shone and stood out despite physical limitations stressing the point that the most valuable thing is not what is evident to the eyes. MOVIE SYNOPSIS It is in the above backdrop that Vincent (Ethan Hawke), who was born In-Valid, meaning that because of poverty his parents could not afford to allow the foetal Vincent to undergo pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and DNA selection and thus be genetically engineered with superlative traits from both mother and father, was caught in a trying situation. As such, Vincent cannot qualify for professional jobs such as being an astronaut, which he dearly desired but had to content himself with menial jobs such as the cleaning job at Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, the NASA type of the future era. Unlike his brother Anton, who has the whole world in front of him, Vincent found out that because society practically shut the door in front of him, he had to work double time- learning, working and dreaming to remove the barriers placed before him. Instead of resigning himself to his fate, he saved money, led a frugal life while scavenging

Buddhism Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Buddhism - Annotated Bibliography Example In addition, Buddha’s do not believe that in life there is something like fate and urges that human beings are the drivers of their own lives whereby, every human being has the capacity and ability to liberate themselves from any suffering that one might be going through. The nature of self entails the act of awareness or having some consciousness. However, the nature of the self is not specific to awareness of any kind but it tends to be very general. The nature of the self may involve certain things such: feelings, imagination, intuition, memory, thoughts to mention just but a few. This means that the preposition of awareness may not properly define the content of the nature of the self because awareness tends to have some limitation. In addition, the nature of the self is not limited to anything just the same way that human being have unlimited desire in life. For example, human being are never satisfied with what they have, they always want to work hard to earn more money to meet their unlimited desires, in the same way that the nature of the self is not limited to consciousness or awareness as discussed. The main aim of self is the realization of individual personal identity. The Sri Raman asserted that the nature of self entails a fabrication o f mind whereby, self awareness may involve realization of oneself . Philosophers Aristotle and Plato tried to substantiate whether the soul, minds and the body are separable from each other and whether the soul is immortal upon human death. Whereby, Aristotle assertions supported the eastern religion of Buddhism that the nature of the self as an activity and that self exist within human being but it is separable from the human body. Aristotle added that self when a person dies, both the body and the self perish. He further substantiated his assertion using a knife as an example. The knife was considered as the body that has a soul whereby,

EXPERIENCES OF NURSES WORKING IN PALLIATIVE CARE Dissertation

EXPERIENCES OF NURSES WORKING IN PALLIATIVE CARE - Dissertation Example (Harris, Flowers, Noble, 2011) In a qualitative study by (Brajtman, Higuchi, McPherson, 2006) they looked into the matter related to the challenges the nurses face in palliative care, to explore their experiences in caring for patients with terminal delirium and their families. This qualitative research will emphasize the importance of qualitative interviews as most powerful method for understanding the experiences and meanings related to the topic. This study was conducted in a palliative care unit located in a large Canadian city hospital for 5 nurses working in an interdisciplinary palliative care unit and 4 nurses form palliative home care nursing team located in the same city. Few interview questions have been generated for the nurses to proceed with the qualitative study. Based on the questions results which has been found are like most of the participants said that they experience distress while caring for palliative care patients. They said that if they gather convenient skil ls and knowledge in the identification and diagnosis they can help to support the patient in better way and family during disturbed conditions. Understanding the unique nursing experience is very much important in the process of providing the nurses with required support to make them strong and help them to provide care in challenging situations. Nurses also identified their team members as most major source of support. They also mentioned that effective teamwork would help them to deal with palliative care patients and their families more efficiently. There is need for proper education and training for the nurses to face challenges with palliative care patients. Lack of education may experience in serious stress for these nurses in care of the dying people and their families. It is important to check that nurses should receive appropriate knowledge, skills and support to care for this patient (Brajtman, Higuchi, McPherson, 2006, pp.6-7). Thus from this study we can understand that proper opportunities should be provided to the nurses so that they can face challenges confidently. The support of organization, teammates and family will enhance the quality of care. The number of sample chosen here is very small. A primary research should contain minimum 20 samples to carry on with a proper research. But here amount is very small which is not very good to conduct a research. A larger sample would have been beneficial to obtain greater depth of data as there was no clear evidence to overcome the challenges. White, et al (2004) found similar trends in his study. He explored with qualitative descriptive study using semi structured interviews with nurses caring for palliative care patients. Here 9 experienced palliative care nurses were interviewed. The participants here explained about their experience and challenges they face regularly. The nurses reported that they have enormous impact on their work and personal lives. The nurses here describe about two types of su fferings, physical and emotional or psychological. Most of the nurses reported here that they try their best to relieve a patients suffering and when they cannot help the patient with such condition they get a feeling of helplessness, distress, frustration and a sense of failure. Some of the nurses also mentioned that they did not want to dwell with those things and thus tried to go back home with a fresh

Business plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Business plan - Essay Example However, unless marked costume jewelry, the majority of all jewelry at the store will be upscale or certified fine-crafted gold and diamond jewelry, which will cater to a wide variety of potential customers. Second Street Recovery is owned and operated by Panayiotis Gavriel who will manage all of the business aspects of the company including administrative, bookkeeping, generic management, inventory and sales recording. This self-managed business philosophy will keep labour costs low and provide the owner with more flexibility in daily business operations. Second Street will require an initial capital infusion (long-term loan) in the amount of  £33,575 at start-up. These costs will cover initial insurance, rent deposits, legal expertise, and generic office expenses necessary to operate the company at start-up. The chart below identifies the start-up capital and justification for launch of Second Street. The chart below identifies the expected customer demographics for Second Street Recovery as well as projections for growth over a five-year period, based on expected population increases in the London region. The market analysis chart identifies the percentage of customers which maintain the buying potential to utilise Second Street services, presented in pie chart format. There are currently six to ten competitors in the local region which provide similar pawn services and jewelry resale, making this a very saturated marketplace. For this reason, Second Street Recovery must create a marketing-focused organisation to make Second Street products the foremost name in jewelry, furniture and pawn services. Prouness (2007) describes product positioning from a marketing perspective, which involves creating a connection between the product and the customer by appealing to their unique preferences and lifesyle choices. Product positioning allows a

Officer Selection and Recruitment Process Essay Example for Free

Officer Selection and Recruitment Process Essay There are varying components that go into officer-recruitment and the selection-process. This paper will outline many general concerns for consideration into a law enforcement branch and then focus more on a specific agency and policy once all normal or formal recruitment procedures are addressed. Most law enforcement agencies generally start with a application process that weeds out applicants that do not fit into the general criteria or job experience, and education requirements. The minimum eligibility requirements depend on the level or category of agency you are applying to and what standards need to be met to qualify you for the position. Some of these minimum qualifications are United States citizenship, vision assessment, drivers license, and being somewhere in between the minimum and maximum age at the time you are admitted to the academy. Other parts of this process depend on if you are looking at employment at a local or federal policing agency. Most Local agencies carry an education requirement of a high school degree or at the very least a General Education Diploma (GED). On the other hand federal agencies can ask for a increased education requirement of a bachelors degree in a related field that they desire or a higher masters degree in a discipline that the agency requires. Minimum eligibility requirements imply exactly that; the smallest amount of qualifications you are expected to meet prior to application for employment. Meeting this minimum eligibility does not entitle you to the position or guarantee you to be any closer to employment to the position than any other person may be all this means is that you meet the basic criteria for the possibility of employment at the given agency. Once you meet the minimum requirements for eligibility then you are one step closer to the goal of employment in a law enforcement agency but that’s when the real part of the selection process actually begins. Selection processes do not include everything but are merely a broad spectrum of knowledge and understanding that officers need to adhere to, to furthe r move them along from just an application to the rest of the hiring process. Applicants must pass a written examination, pass a physical abilities exercise, complete a background investigation, and a psychological and other medical examination to qualify. Federal enforcement bureaus also have several step oral interview processes and most likely a polygraph test is required after the background investigation is completed. During a background investigation you are most likely asked detailed questions that are meant to disqualify you later in the process if you were to provide a false response. These truth questions are made to thin the applicant pool and will exclude you from further opportunities even if you do well on any other portion of your examinations. The beginning of the process after the application is submitted is generally a written aptitude test that has to be completed. Assuming the recruited officer passes these standardized tests, the next hurdle is physical agility and endurance testing.Depending again on the size of the agency for which you have tested, it might take quite a while for you to get your test results. The reasons may vary, but whatever they are, you can expect to eventually receive a notification with you r test score. If you are informed that you did not pass, you may receive information on how to appeal your result. In the interest of brevity, this discussion assumes that you passed the test and have been placed on what is generally called the eligibility list. These test examine are comparable to how a police officer may fair during daily tasks. Examples of what you physical activity that you will be asked to exhibit are equivalent to a military Physical Readiness Test (PRT), these are activities such as a minimum time you are able to finish a mile and a half run, sit-ups, push-ups, and basically a confidence course test with obstacles that you may have to maneuver to catch a perp. If recruited officers are in top physical condition and have a body mass equivalent to their height this should not be a issue but because of society being more sedentary this has actual become a major issue in the recruitment process. Completing the physical requirements step brings you to an evaluation of your background and history. Aspects of your life that can be checked are medical, military, school records, employment history, credit history, past criminal record and your driving record. Usually the background investigation coincides with taking a polygraph in most organizations that I have dealt with personally. The polygraph is used as an after action to determine the validity and truthfulness of your statements during the application process. This is meant to determine your strength of character and usually if you fail a poly then you will not be considered for employment. After all of these examinations policing agencies have to take further precautions with employment than most civilian organizations, agencies ask for a psychological and medical evaluation. The medical exams are needed to determine your immediate and long term health and whether or not there needs to be any concerns about how you will perform during any challenges that may arise in field. Agencies are mostly concerned on if you have any withstanding ailments or injuries that could shorten your law enforcement career. Also a major factor during your medical examination is if you have 20/20 vision or normal vision without any color blindness that could hinder your ability to complete normal job functions. The psychological examination normally had two separate parts, the first being a written questionnaire and the second being a meeting with a actual psychologist or psychiatrist who interviews determine you mental health and what you are susceptible. Lastly in the recruitment process is the personal interview which can already have been done through knowledge of some of your other interviews and assessments that were taken to this point. Mostly this portion is just to assess your communication skill set and your responses to predetermined set of questions. Interviewing agencies may be in a board format or a single interviewer but this is meant to assess your answers to difficult but pertinent questions concerning law enforcement actions and situations and create a stress on the interviewee. Interviewers compare recruits on how they handle the stressful situation and according to their line of questioning and if it remained correct throughout the interview. The specific agency that interests me is Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), all of this criteria provided fits into the same selection process that they have implemented. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service a federal agency tasked with protecting military members and their families and any other civilian personnel that has ties to the navy. NCIS protects naval equipment, technology, and the communications networks of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. NCIS personnel number over 1,200 Special Agents, 900 other civilian professionals, and 200-plus military service members all over the world to prevent terrorism, protect our national intelligence, and decrease criminal activity across the United States and over 40 countries around the globe. There are only minute differences such as the training opportunities that make a NCIS Special Agent candidates much more specialized in handling all possible situations that may arise as a federal law enforcement officer both at home in country (CONUS) or abroad (OCONUS). These agents must complete several training programs to include the Criminal Investigators Training Program (CITP) and the NCIS-specific Special Agent Basic Training Program (SABTP) at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), Glynco, GA. Later opportunities may include specialized training in Polygraph and Credibility Assessment (PCA) techniques, procurement fraud, forensic science, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, leadership and languages. (NCIS) Working with the military and dealing with classified information and investigations another need that happens during their back ground investigation is to get adjudicated to a top secret security clearance. These officer-recruitment and selection-process are pain taking and rigorous but meant to weed out the undesirable or inexperienced applicants that just don’t quite fit the criteria needed to be a successful officer of the law. The requirements that are set forth make each agencies personnel that much wiser in a given situation and give them the satisfaction that they are one of the few to make it through such an extenuating selection process.

Impact of Stress on Health and Well-being of the Individual

Impact of Stress on Health and Well-being of the Individual The objective of this assignment is to define holistic and define stress, and discuss the impact of stress on the health and wellbeing of an individual. Firstly the writer will look at holistic approaches and define stress. The writer will also look at how stress effects the individually biologically, psychologically and sociologically. Finally the writer will discuss approaches to managing stress. The term â€Å"Holistic or Holism† derives from the Greek word meaning entire, whole, total. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursing (2014) defines â€Å"Holistic† as an approach to patient care in which the psychological, physiological and social factors of the patient’s condition are taken into account, rather than just the diagnosed disease. Holistic medicine is not a separate medical or treatment method, but it is an alternative philosophy regarding the approach to health. This holistic nursing approach originated in the United States of America and was formally introduced to the United Kingdom in 1977 and was seen as an alternative approach nursing rather than the traditional orientated task approach. Florence Nightingale herself encouraged holistic care; she recognised how important the environment and a multi directional approach was, rather than a one- dimensional therapy process. According to Dossey (2008) Health is a multifaceted complex concept, it relates to an individual’s well-being in a given environment, and is defined by pathology and the traditional biomedical health approach, holistic care looks at treating the underlying causes and not just the superficial ones. Barker (2004) also states the holistic model of care is widely accepted in the field of nursing, it favours a comprehensive in-depth assessment of entirety rather than the medical approach which just studies the disease in the patient. The holistic care approach takes into consideration all the persons individual psychological, sociological and mental health needs. Every man, women and child consists of a body and mind, and any changes in a person’s life will eventually cause changes in their existence. Aggleton and Chalmers (2000) describe holism as the fundamental wholeness of human beings. Hogston and Simpson (1999) define the holistic nursing process as a systematic problem solving framework that enables the nurse to plan care accordingly targeting the specific needs of the individual. The holistic approach has two focal factors. The first factor treats the individual as a separate entity, secondly the holistic approach analyses the psychosomatic approach of a disease and magnifies it by putting the patient in a specific time, along with their needs and quality of life. Alfaro-LeFevre (1998) described the holistic nursing process as a five stage framework comprising of: Assessment: to collect data regarding health status and monitor for evidence of health problems. Diagnosis: to identify actual and potential health issues. Planning: to determine therapeutic interventions and achievable goals. Implementation: to put plans into action and observe response. Evaluation: to assess the outcomes, to check if goals have been achieved or whether changes need to be made. A holistic approach to health makes prevention vitally important as finding a cure, this continuous model of care can extend over an individual’s life. The holistic approach drives to manipulate fundamental determinants of health that occur and this offers an upstream attack on threats to health. This may be the best approach and outcome in coping with the unhealthy lifestyles and the ageing and longevity of life in the population in the 21st century. These determinants contribute to a rise in stress, which can contribute to a rise in other diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and other long standing mental health problems. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursing defines stress as â€Å"any factor that threatens the health of the body or has an adverse effect on its functioning, such as injury, disease, overwork, or worry. Constant stress brings about changes in the balance of hormones in the body. Selye (1976) describes stress as a unifying concept; it is a non-specific r esponse to a huge variety of stimuli. According to Edwards and Cooper (1988) stress should be discussed in terms of stimuli, responses and the relationship between them. Stress is actually part of modern life; at times it may become a useful tool and serve a purpose. Stress can motivate you for promotion at work, or push you to run that last mile of a marathon. Nevertheless if you lose control and dont get to grips with your stress, it can become a long-term problem and it can have a severe detrimental effect and interfere with your job, family life, and health. The causes of stress differ for every individual. Everyone has different stress triggers; we are open to various amounts of different stimuli. Beckwith (1996) states defining stress, its causes and symptoms are just as complicated. It is often characterized as a reaction to modern and social factors, stress is a disruption in an individual’s physiological and psychological homeostasis that force them to deviate from u sual functioning in interaction with their jobs and work environment. Stress is defined by Auerbach (1996) as a three way relationship between demands on a person, that person’s feelings about those demands and their ability to cope with those demands. Stress can effectively destroy the quality of life for the individual, his or her family and for society as a whole, it has become as dangerous as pollution to modern society Srivastava (1999). Some people thrive in the pressure cooker of life. Stress is a personalized experience and can vary extensively even in the same identical situation for different reasons. Some individuals can perform and complete many duties at the same time and have a list of things to do that would stretch and overpower most of us. Every individual has different stress triggers. How person A copes to how person B copes is completely different. A simple example of a daily stressor is the journey to work, college or school. Person A who is sitting in th e traffic, will sit and become very angry at the long delay, but Person B sitting in the next car accepts that there is lots of traffic and copes with the situation. The same stressor or stimuli, but two completely different reactions to the same situation. Stress level will differ based on your personality and how you respond to situations. The same situation can arise in any individuals life, whether it be moving to a new home, a heavy workload, too much responsibility, working long hours, studying for exams or simply leaving the house. Snyder, Lefcourt and Herbert (2001) state, Stress resides neither in the situation nor in the person, it depends on a transaction between the two. Barlow (2000) states suffering from stress, anxiety or phobias can disrupt daily routines, limit work efficiency, reduce self-esteem, and place a strain on relationships. Individuals will do whatever they can to avoid the uncomfortable and often-terrifying feelings of anxiety. Bourne (2011) supports Barl ow by stating people with specific phobias, or strong irrational fear reactions, work hard to avoid common places, situations, or objects even though they know theres no threat or danger. The fear may not make any sense, but they feel powerless to stop it. Specific phobias according to Sylver, Lilienfeld and Laprairie (2011) can cause stress, the threat of a terrorist attack, global warming, dogs, cats, bees, wasps, spiders, germs, heights, driving, public transport, flying, dental or medical procedures, and even elevators. People with phobias realize that their fear is irrational, and even thinking about it can often cause extreme anxiety. According to Beidel Turner (1998) while some phobias develop in childhood, most seem to arise unexpectedly, usually during adolescence or early adulthood. Their onset is usually sudden; you have no control over these events and they may occur in situations that previously did not cause any discomfort or anxiety. All of these factors can lead to stress. Stress is a worrisome illness. Stress has numerous faces, and sidles into our lives from many directions. No matter what the causes are, stress can put the body and mind under extreme pressure. Constant or chronic stress can have real physical effect on the body. It weakens the immune system, increasing the individual’s vulnerability. Stress engulfs the body and saturates it with stress hormones. The heart thumps, muscles tense, breathing quickens and the stomach churns. 1

Mitochondrial Dna And Genetic Evidence Biology Essay

Mitochondrial Dna And Genetic Evidence Biology Essay Introduction: The Out of Africa model, also referred to as the African origins, total replacement, Noahs ark or Eve model is one model suggesting the origins of humankind. This model hypothesizes that the evolution of the modern humankind from their archaic ancestors occurred in one place at the one time. It suggests that modern humans arose as a new species about 150,000 years ago and that this took place in Africa. It was after this speciation event that the modern humans moved out of Africa, replacing all non-African archaic populations. Africa was identified as the origin of Homo sapiens because of the high genetic diversity among Africans. It is much higher than the genetic diversity of other populations around the world. The further away, geographically, from Africa the less genetically diverse the populations are. The last regions to be settled, for instance South America and the Pacific Islands, have the lowest genetic diversity. This review will focus on the evidence obtained from mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomal DNA. Both mtDNA and Y-chromosomal DNA are non-recombinant and their inheritance is easier to analysis than for other parts of the genome. MtDNA is only inherited through the maternal line and can therefore be used to determine the female lineage. Analysis of mtDNA revealed a series of population bottlenecks and a progressive loss of diversity moving away from East Africa. The Y-chromosome is passed from father to son and can be used to determine the male lineage. The Y chromosome does not undergo recombination because it is so different from the X chromosome that they dont swap information. This means that the Y-chromosome passed on is the same in father and son (unless it undergoes mutation) making it useful for studying the male lineage. Mutations of both mtDNA and Y-chromosomal DNA accumulate at a fairly constant rate over time, making them useful for estimating the time of human population sp lits. Mitochondrial DNA is also a very good indicator of migration routes and range expansion due to its high distribution and variation. The first lineage to branch off from mitochondrial eve is the L0 haplogroup. The L1, L2 and L3 haplogroups are all descendant of this L0 lineage and are largely confined to Africa. L3 subdivided into the macro haplogroups M and N. These are the lineages found outside of Africa with a low frequency in Africa. The Y-chromosomal haplogroup DE is limited to Africa. Haplogroup F originated in either North Africa or in South Asia. If it originated in North Africa it would indicate a second out of Africa migration. There are two possible scenarios for modern humans dispersal out of Africa. The first suggests a single migration in which only about 150 people left Africa by crossing the Red Sea. The second possibility is that there were two migrations out of Africa. Haplogroup M left by crossing the Red Sea, travelling along the coast to India taking the Southern route. Haplogroup N is thought to have followed the Nile from East Africa, headed north and crossed into Asia via the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Historical Background: Charles Darwin was one of the first to propose the idea that the ancestor of the modern human originated in Africa. In his book The Descent of Man he proposed that all living organism originated from a common ancestor and he outlined his views that man descended from apes. He stated that in each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is, therefore, probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now mans nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere. But it is useless to speculate on this subject, for an ape nearly as large as a man, namely the Dryopithecus of Lartet, which was closely allied to the anthropomorphous Hylobates, existed in Europe during the Upper Miocene period; and since so remote a period the earth has certainly undergone many great revolut ions, and there has been ample time for migration on the largest scale. Here he is saying that if his theory of common descent was correct and that man really did descend from apes then it would be likely that man originated in Africa as Africa was the region inhabited at that time by apes. Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam: Mitochondrial eve is the matrilineal most recent common ancestor, estimated to have lived about 200,000 years ago. All living peoples mitochondrial DNA is descended from hers. She was thought to have lived in East Africa and her discovery supported the theory that all modern humans originated in Africa and migrated from there. Y-chromosome Adam is the patrilineal most recent common ancestor, estimated to have lived between 90,000 to 60,000 years ago. He was also believed to have originated in Africa. The original paper supporting the Out of Africa theory was written by Cann et al in 1987. In which they found evidence that the MRCA lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago. They studied mitochondrial DNA from one hundred and forty seven people between five different populations, African, Asian, Australian, Caucasian and New Guinean. They found that out of the one hundred and forty seven mtDNA mapped, 133 were distinct from each other. Using the parsimony method they constructed a tree relating the 133 types of human mtDNA and the reference sequence: Figure 1: Genealogical tree for 134 types of human mtDNA. The tree accounts for the site differences observed between restriction maps of these mtDNAs with 398 mutations. No other order of branching tested is more parsimonious than this one. This order of branching was obtained by ignoring every site present in only one type of mtDNA or absent in only one type and confining attention to the remaining 93 polymorphic sites. The computer programme produces an unrooted network which was converted into a tree by placing the root (arrow) at the midpoint of the longest path connecting the two lineages. The numbers refer to mtDNA types found in more than one individual. (both figure and text taken from Cann et al, 1987) This is a tree of minimum length. On this tree there are two primary branches, one composed of Africans only and the other composed of all five populations studied. From this tree it was suggested that Africa was the source of the human mitochondrial gene pool. This is because two of the primary branches lead solely to African mtDNAs and the second branch also leads to African mtDNAs. The common ancestor a must be of African origin in order to minimise the number of migrations that occurred. This tree also indicates that every population except for Africa must have multiple origins. For example, mtDNA type 49 is New Guinean but its nearest relative is not New Guinean and is in fact Asian. New Guinea seems to have been colonised by at least seven maternal lineages. This seems to be the same for all other populations apart from Africa. By assuming that human mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence accumulates at a constant rate they were able to work out that the common ancestor, Mitocho ndrial Eve of all surviving mtDNA types existed 140,000 to 290,000 years ago. The mtDNA results do not show when the migrations out of Africa took place. Nuclear DNA studies carried out based on polymorphic blood groups, red cell enzymes and serum proteins showed that differences between racial groups are smaller than within and that the largest gene frequency differences are between Africans and other populations. This supports the Out of Africa theory because it suggests that the human nuclear gene pool also originated in Africa. (Cann et al, 1987) The Genetic Evidence: The technique used to deduce the colonization pattern of the world is coalescence. This theory is a population genetics model based on the genealogy of gene copies and favours the Out of Africa theory. It describes the characteristics of the joining of lineages back in time to a common ancestor.This lineage joining is referred to as coalescence. The theory provides a way of estimating the expected time to coalescence and establishing the relationships of coalescence times to population size, and age of the most recent common ancestor. This theory makes use of the fact that genetic drift over time will result in the extinction of lineages. This means that any sample of DNA markers will coalesce to a common ancestor when looking backward from the present day generation. The limitation of this theory is that all genetic variation coalesces to the MRCA and as a result the population history before this MRCA is unknown. Genomic phylogenetics reconstruction is necessary to assume the dispe rsal routes of early modern humans. Mitochondrial DNA evidence: A study was carried out by Ingman et al describing the global human diversity in humans based on analyses of the complete mtDNA sequence of 53humans of varied origins. They created a neighbour-joining phylogram on complete mtDNA sequences: Figure 2: Neighbour joining phylogram based on complete mtDNA genome sequences (excluding the D-loop). The population origin of the individual is given at the twigs. Individuals of African descent are found below the dashed line and non-Africans above. The node marked with an asterisk refers to the MRCA of the youngest clade containing both African and non-African indivdulals. (Both figure and text taken from Ingman et al, 2000) In this tree, the three deepest branches lead to exlusively African mtDNAs and the fourth deepest branch contains both African and non-African mtDNA. The deepest branch provides excellent support for the origin of human mtDNA in Africa. The amount of mtDNA sequence diversity among Africans is more than double that of non-Africans. This suggests that ther is a longer genetic history for African mtDNA than for non-African mtDNA. The star shaped phylogeny of the non -African sequences suggest a population bottleneck. This is more than likely associatd with the colonisation of Euroasia from Africa, in which the previous populations are replaced with the modern humans dispersal into Euroasia. The figures below show the mtDNA mismatch distributions for Africans and non-Africans The mtDNA from the non-Africans show a bell-shaped distribution , indicating a recent population expansion. The mtDNA from individuals of African origin show a ragged distribution, indicating a constant population size. Figure 3: Mismatch distributions of pairwise nucleotide differences between mtDNA genomes (excluding the D-loop) a) African; b) Non-African. (Both figure and text taken from Ingman et al, 2000) The initial Homo sapiens population dynamics and dispersal routes remain poorly understood. The mtDNA phylogeny can be collapsed into two sister branches L0 and L123456 (L15). The L15 group is more widespread and has given rise to almost all mtDNA lineages found today. The non-African genetic diversity being formed from two subclades of the L3 branch, M and N. Some of the L clades show significant phylogeographic structure in Africa, such as the localization of L1c1a to Central Africa and L0d and L0k to the Khosian people.(Behar et al, 2008) Analysis of the complete mtDNA sequences of Khosian people suggests the divided from other modern humans no later than 90,000 years ago. This reveals evidence for the existence of an early maternal structure in the history of Homo sapiens. L0abfk split over 133,000 years ago. Since this split the expansion of L0d, L0k, L0abf and L15 clades have progressed in an uneven way. L0d and L0k localized in South Africa, giving rise to the Khosian people and L0abf and L15spread all over the world giving rise to all non-Khosian populations. These maternal southern and eastern populations remained isolated from each other for a long period of time. This isolation suggests the formation of small, independent populations in Africa instead of the previously thought uniform spread of modern humans. (Behar et al, 2008) Mitochondrial DNA L haplogroups: Single nucleotide polymorphism studies have shown that human mitochondrial DNA can be classified into groups of related haplotypes. An early paper by Chen et al analysed mitochondrial DNA variation in Africa, revealing continent specific groups of mtDNA haplotypes (haplogroups). There is an HpaI site gain at nucleotide pair (np) 3592 which is found in sub-Saharan populations with a low frequency in populations which have been known to have mixed with Africans. The mtDNA that contain the HpaI site at np 3592 form the most divergent mtDNA haplogroups in the world. Continent specific polymorphisms characterize mtDNAs from European, Asian and Native American populations. These continent specific polymorphisms have a high frequency in one continental population and are specific to either European, Asian or Native American populations. These mutations took place after the genetic separation of the ancestral population that formed the modern human ethnic groups. The oldest and the largest haplogroup in each continent is usually the one that is the most divergent. All the mtDNAs associated with the HpaI site gain at np 3 592 all come from the same common ancestor. These cluster in the L haplogroup. This haplogroup is subdivided into theL0, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 and L6 sub-haplogroups by additional polymorphisms. The L haplogroup and L1 and L2 sub- haplogroups are said to be of ancient origin due to their dominance in sub-Saharan populations. The ages of these haplogroups were determined from the assumption that nucleotide substitution accumulates at a constant rate. The age of haplogroup L is between 98,000 and 130,000 years, haplogroup L1 is between 86,000 and 113,000 years and haplogroup L2 is between 59,000 and 78,000 years. Comparison of the sequence divergence of the L haplogroup determined that the African haplogroup is the most divergent. The approximate ages for the continent specific haplogroups agree with the theory that all modern humans have a common ancestor from an ancestral population in Africa. These ages also agree with the suggested times of dispersal and migration of the modern human populations into the other continents. The age of the haplogroup L could indicate that this haplogroup originated before modern humans dispersed from Africa. However, the haplogroups L1 and L2 were not carried from Africa by the modern human populations that migrated to the Middle East and Asia. Instead another haplogroup must have participated in this migration. There are mtDNAs that do not contain the HpaI site gain in np 3592. These were found in sub-Saharan populations and suggest that there were some mtDNAs without the 3592 HpaI site that originated in Africa. They are widely distributed in sub-Saharan populations and most likely have an ancient African origin. These mtDNAs are similar to mtDNAs in Europe and Asia and seem to be the only mtDNAs carried out of Africa by migration of the modern humans. They gave rise to the non-African modern human populations and are now know to be haplogroup L3. This paper exhibits data that confirms that there was a high sequence divergence w ithin Africans compared to the rest of the world thereby supporting the Out of Africa Theory. There is less sequence divergence in Asians than in Africans. Native American populations have the lowest values of sequence divergence. (Chen et al, 1995) The minimum coalescence age for modern humans has been estimated to be between 156,000 and 169,000 years before present. Analysis of the L haplogroup has been carried out in order to find those sub-haplogroups involved in the migration of modern humans out of Africa. The L0 haplogroup is the earliest descendant of mitochondrial Eve and is a sister group to the L1 haplogroup. L0 is subdivided into L0a, L0d, L0f and L0k. L0a is thought to have originated in Eastern Africa and is dominant in Ethiopia. The idea that east Africa is the most likely region for L0a variation is further supported by the phylogeny of the L0 clade. L0d and L0k originated in Southern African. L0f is rare and confined to East Africa. The relationship between L0d and L0k is still uncertain. The first ancient split from this into L1b/c occurred over 120,000 years ago. The L1 haplogroup is divided into L1b and L1c. L1b is common in Western Africa and L1c is frequent among central African Bantu speakers. See figure__ for the relationship between these two haplogroups. FIG. 3.-Phylogenetic tree of mtDNA genomes (excluding the d-loop) obtained by maximum likelihood Bayesian analysis. The split into the L2 lineage occurred in Africa over The L2 lineage is divided into two sub-clades L2a1 and L2b. A mutation at np12693 characterizes the L2a1 clade. Ethiopian L2a1 sequences contain mutations at the np 16189 and the np 16309. L2a1c contains mutations at np 16209, 16301 and 16354. L2a1a has a mutation at np 16286. L2a1a is found mostly in South-Eastern Africa. The split into the L3 sub-clade occurred over 59,000 years ago in Africa. The most frequent of the L3 sub-clades is the L3f haplogroup. This haplogroup seems to be confined to East Africa. However, there is an occurrence of variations of this clade in West Africa indicating an early dispersal of the L3f1 lineages. L3f1 is characterized by two mutations in its coding region. The L3 haplogroup is subdivided into three clades, L3i, L3x and L3w. Haplogroup L3i contains a transition at np 7645. It was also found to occur within a sister group of W haplogroup lineages in Eurasia. The L3x haplogroup is characterized by transitions at nps 6401, 13708 and 16169. This haplogroup is very frequent among Ethiopians, especially among the Oromos. It can be sub divided into two clades, L3x1 and L3x2. These two clades are confined to the Horn of Africa and the Nile Valley. The L3w haplogroup contains substitutions at nps 15388 and 16260. This haplogroup is confined to East and North-eastern Africa. L 3b and L3e haplogroups are found in West Africa and Bantu-speaking populations in South-east Africa. The L3d haplogroup is mostly found in Western Africa. It is divided into the two sub-clades L3d1 and L3d2. The L3d1 sub clade has a high frequency in South-East Africa. L3d2 is characterised by transcriptions at nps 15358 and 16256. These occur in Western Africa. Ethiopian L3d2 lineages contain a transition at np 16368 and this is not found anywhere else in Africa. The L3 clade is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to African clusters of the L1 and L2 haplogroups. L4 is an early branch from L3. It is divided into two sub-clades by three coding and three control region markers. Substitutions at nps 195, 198, 7376, 16207 and 16260 characterise the L4a1 haplogroup. L4g was previously named L3g but it was found to share ancestral character states at nps 769 and 1018 with haplogroup L4a. It is mostly found in Ethiopia. L4a and L4g have high haplotype frequencies and sequence diversity in Ethiopians.The L5 haplogroup is divided into L5a and L5b. L5a is found almost exclusively in East Africa. L5 b on the other hand is spread through Southern Africa.The L6 haplogroup contains six coding transitions and one control region transition. This haplogroup is thought to have originated in East Africa. It is a sister clade of the L2, L3 and L4 are all frequent there, giving support to this theory. The mtDNA tree splits at its core layers into branches that carry exclusively African sequences and just one, L3, which the Africans share with the rest of the world. All non-African mtDNA lineages are derived from just two branches, M and N, branching from the root of the L3 haplogroup. These also give rise to a number of sub-clades specific only to African populations. The N haplogroup gives rise to a daughter clade, R, which is also a founder of extant non-African populations. The first informative split in the mtDNA tree with regards to phylogeny occurs at the level of L3/M, N, R clades. The next informative split in the mtDNA tree distinguishes all major continents excluding America beneath the M, N and R founders. The M and N Haplogroups: The M1 haplogroup has a high frequency in Ethiopia. It has two subclades, M1a and M1b. M1a contains a transition at np 16359. It can be found in Near Eastern, Caucasus and in European populations. The M1b group is smaller and confined to East Africa. Both M1a and M1b are rare in North Africa. Another clade, M1c, is present in Northern Africa, the Canary Islands and the Near East. This clade is characterized by a transition at np 16185. The N (preHV) haplogroup is the most frequent in Ethiopian lineages. This lineage occurs in populations in the Near East, Southern Caucasia and North Africa. Y-chromosomal DNA evidence: The Y chromosome Consortium (2002) tree was updated in a paper by Karafet et al in 2008. This tree identifies the 18 major clades, A to R, in the Y chromosome tree. There are five paragroups that were not based on a derived character and they represent the interior nodes of the tree. There are 243 different mutational events that give rise to 153 non recombining Y chromosome haplogroups. The C and FT haplogroups were united by the P143 mutation. These haplogroups contain lineages that are not usually found in sub-Saharan Africa. The C-FR chromosome must have been carried out of Africa early on in the dispersal out of Africa. The IJ clade is joined by seven mutations and the NO clade is joined by six mutations. The M lineage is joined to two K haplogroups by the P256 marker into the M super clade. Diagram p4 from the revised Y chromosome haplogroup tree. Two mutations, M91 and P97, identify Clade A. This clade is one of the most base haplogroups on the Y-chromosome tree and is almost entirely confined to Africa, being most frequent in Khosian, Ethiopian and Sudanese populations. Clade B is characterized by four mutations and is also almost completely restricted to Africa, mostly confined to sub-Saharan Africa with the highest frequencies in Pygmy populations. The C haplogroup is identified by five mutations. It has not been found in African populations and may have an originated in Asia after the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa. Haplogroup D is defined by two mutations. This haplogroup is also thought to have originated in Asia as it has not been found anywhere else. These lineages are found almost completely in Central Asia and Japan with a low frequency in Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Clade E is identified by 18 mutations and is the most mutationally diverse Y chromosomal haplogroup. These are found mostly in Af rica with moderate frequencies in the Middle East and low frequencies in Central and South Asia. The FT clade is defined by 25 mutations. The F* paragroups has a low frequency in India. The G clade is identified by two mutations and is divided into two subclades, G1 and G2. This clade is mostly present in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus Mountains. Haplogroup H is characterized by one mutation and is divided into two subclades, h1 and H2. This group is almost exclusive to the Indian subcontinent. Clade I is characterised by six mutations and is sub-divided into two subclades, I1 and I2. This clade represents two of the major European Y chromosome haplogroups with clade I1 being found mostly in Northern Europe and clade I2 is widespread in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Clade J is defined by three mutations and is divided into two major subclades, J1 and J2, and also contains a paragroup J*. These lineages are found at high frequencies in North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia, Pakistan and India. Haplogroup K is defined by the derived state at four sites and the ancestral state at the mutations that characterize the L, M, NO, P, S and T lineages. There is a paragroup K* and four different lineages characterized by five mutations. The K1 haplogroup is found at a low frequency in India and the K2, K3 and K4 haplogroups are found in Oceania, Indonesia and Australia. The L haplogroup is characterized by six mutations and the majority of this haplogroup is found in India, with the L haplogroup also being present in the Middle East, Asia, Northern Africa and along the Mediterranean coast. The M superclade contains 19 internal mutations. This lineage is confined to Oceania and eastern Indonesia. The N haplogroup is defined by 10 mutations and is restricted to Northern Eurasia. Clade O is defined by four mutations and is a major haplogroup in East Asia. It is also found at a low frequency in Central Asia and Oceania. Haplogroup contain s the Q and R lineages. Clade Q is characterized by the M242 mutation and is distributed in North Eurasia with a high frequency in some Siberian groups. It is also found in Europe, East Asia and the Middle East and is the major lineage in native Americans. Cade R is defined by eight mutations and is the major y chromosomal lineage of Europeans. Clade S is defined by three mutations and is mostly found in Oceania and Indonesia. Clade T is identified by six mutations and is divided into two subclades found at a low frequency in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The two primary splits in this tree lead to the A and B haplogroups, both of which are restricted to Africa. These are genetically diverse and have sub-haplogroups geographically distinct from each other. The remainder of the deep structures of the phylogeny are characterized by three sub-clusters that coalesce at the root of the CR-M168 node. These represent all the African haplogroups and all the non African haplogroups. There is a shared presence of the De haplogroup in Africa and Asia. The C haplogroup is a non African haplogroup and is widely distributed in East Asia, Oceania and North America. The haplogroup F-M89 is another non African cluster that is distributed all around the world. The F* and H haplogroups are restricted to Asia, the I haplogroup in Europe and the J haplogroup in the Middle East. Apart from the A and B haplogroups all other Y chromosome haplogroups descend from one ancestral node, CDEF which is defined by the mutations M168 and M294. This node is split into the C, DE and F haplogroups and these make up the majority of African and non African affiliated chromosomes. Due to the fact that the A and B haplogroups originate in Africa it was proposed the CDEF node also originated in Africa. An African origin of the DE haplogroup was supported with the detection of the DE* chromosome in Nigeria and by the recognition of the D-M174 haplogroup. See figure8d page 555 from Underhill It was proposed that two independent founder types D and CF evolved out of Africa (see figure above) The common ancestry of C and F founder types was supported by a single mutation, implying the diversification of CF from DE was shortly followed by they split of C from F. Although the D and E haplogroups share a common ancestry there is a geographic distance existing between the two of them. The D haplogroup is widely distributed in Asia and the E haplogroup is frequent in Africa. This suggests long term isolation and extinction of descendants in the area between Africa and Asia. Upon analysis of the Y chromosome it is clear that North Africa is genetically similar to the Middle East and there is a clear genetic difference between North-Western Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa and Europe. The lineages most prevalent to North Africa are absent in both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. E3b2 is most common in North Africa, R1b is common in Europe and E3a is common in many sub-Saharan areas. This suggests that there was limited gene flow between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. E3b2 is rare outside of North Africa and the other dominant haplogroup J* in North Africa reaches its highest frequency in the Middle East indicating that there was gene flow between these two populations. It has been proposed that the J haplogroup originated in the Middle East. The M35 lineage is thought to have originated in East Africa due to its high frequency and diversity there. It is thought to have given rise to the M81 lineage, E3b2, that is found in North Africa. (Arredi et al, 2004) Exodus from Africa: The migration out of Africa is thought to have occurred over 100,000 years ago and is believed to have led to the later colonization of the rest of the world. The first evidence of the existence of modern humans outside of Africa has been dated to over 80,000 years ago. However, this was an isolated incidence and is thought to represent an early offshoot that has since died out. Successful migrations are believed to have occurred between 45,000 and 75,000 years ago. There are two scenarios describing modern humans dispersal from Africa. The first suggests a single migration event took place. This theory proposes that only about 150 people left Africa crossing the red sea. This is because only the descendants of one lineage, L3, are found outside Africa. The M and N haplogroups are rare in Africa and seem to have arrived recently. This may be a result of mutations in the L3 haplogroup arising in East Africa just before the dispersal out of Africa or may have arisen shortly after the m igration from Africa. The second scenario suggests a multiple dispersal model. This indicates that the M haplogroup crossed the Red Sea, travelled along the coast and arrived in India and the N haplogroup headed North, trailing the Nile and crossed into Asia through the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. This group divided and went in several different directions. Some went east into Asia and others went to Europe. This scenario might clarify why the N haplogroup is predominant in Europe and the M haplogroup is absent. Mitochondrial evidence for the dispersal from Africa: Mitochondrial DNA analysis of present day African lineages points to a rapid population growth in the ancestral African population. Studies revealed a peak in African populations about 80,000 years ago with similar peaks in Asia and Europe somewhere between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. This evidence shows a rapid increase in the African population much earlier than in Europe or Asia indicating expansion in Africa due to dispersion from a small population to other parts of the continent. There was an expansion of the L2 and L3 mitochondrial lineages about 80,000 and 60,000 years ago. Population diversity among African populations: There seems to be limited haplotype sharing among northern, eastern and Sub-Saharan Africans. Some haplotypes are common in one area but missing from the others. Chromosomes with the PN2 T and DYS271 A alleles are common in both northern and eastern Africa. These have been divided into different haplotypes, one of which bears the M81 mutation and is present in some Northern African populations and absent in Eastern African populations. There has been a population expansion in Northern Africa suggested by the age and the high frequency of the M81 haplotypes in north-western Africa. The spread of haplotypes 22 and 24, both of which contain the DYS271 allele, has erased pre-existing genetic differences among different regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Haplotypes 22, 24 and 41 have an extremely high frequency in Sub-Saharan Africans. It is thought that haplotype 41 was involved in the expansion of Bantu-speaking populations from western Africa into southern Africa. This is supported by the fact that the variance of haplotype 41 is much higher in the central western Africa than in southern Khosians. This is also true for the 22 and 24 haplotypes. An Eastern African origin: The oldest remains of modern humans were found in eastern and southern Ethiopia and have been dated to over 160,000 years ago. Eastern Africa is thought to be the origin of the earliest migrations of modern humans out of Africa. The M haplogroup has been found in high frequencies in Ethiopia and Asia. The presence of the Asian mtDNA haplogroup M is unique to Ethiopia. These two regions have a different variation o

Organizational Behavior Trends Essay -- Human Resources

Organizational Behavior Trends Outline: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Definition of OB and related terminologies. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Role of decision making in OB environments. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Conflicts involved in decision making processes in organizations. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rifts between managerial level staff and operations level workforce. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stakeholders in decision making in a corporate hierarchy. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Self-inflicted ethical dilemmas and differences, causes for it. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Values and goals affecting causing ethical dilemmas in OB 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Globalization and its strategic alliances. 9.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Impact of technological advancements in organizational environments. 10.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Techno stress and other stress factors in organizational environments. 11.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Survey results of organizational stress and prevalence. 12.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pros and cons of stress factors. 13.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Resources Abstract:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This paper will provide a basic description and evaluation of the trends in Organizational Behavior (OB). It then goes on to expound on the influence of ethical behavior on decision making in an organization and its prevalence in modern day corporate environment. It also explores the ethical area of Organizational Behavior and how it can cause friction in the organization stemming from personal and career oriented causes. The final parts of this thesis speak about work stress and technological aspects of OB. Firstly one must know what OB is. It’s an interdisciplinary field of study and practice, investigating the impact of individuals, groups, structure and environment on behavior within organizations. The primary concern of OB is with people, what they do and how their behavior affects individual, group and organizational performance. Life is full of decisions. Each day, people are faced with different problems requiring answers and solutions. Decision making is the process of defining problems and choosing a course of action from among alternatives. Decision making at best is a challenge for employees in general and managers in particular. For example, many decisions management faces turn out to be ethical decisions or have ethical implications or consequences. Once we leave the realm of relatively ethical-free decisions (such as which production method to use for a particular product), decisions quickly become complex, and many carry with them an ethical dimension. Decision making in itself is not a simple p... ...t" or "a great deal." This survey also revealed that most workers make a direct connection between workplace stress and accidents or illnesses. The majority of those surveyed agreed that stress is a leading cause of accidents and mistakes in the workplace (78%), and that people who experience a great deal of stress have higher absenteeism (76%). Workers also believe that high levels of stress cause or exacerbate illnesses. The majority of people surveyed (74%), also agrees that three-fourths of all illnesses seen in medical practices are caused or made worse by stress. Despite the negative effects of stress, which range from on-the-job accidents to adverse impact on personal lives, nearly two thirds (63%) of all workers feel there is nothing that can be done about stress which it's something people have to get used to. Bibliography 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ronald R. Sims - Ethics and Organizational Decision Making: A Call for Renewal. Quorum Books - Westport, CT, 1994. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ronald R. Sims - Managing Organizational Behavior. Quorum Books: Westport, CT, 2002. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.doit.wisc.edu/news/story.asp?filename=38&print=1 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.kensington.com/html/1393.html

Rights of Leadership: The Propaganda of Race and Class During the Aboli

Rights of Leadership: The Propaganda of Race and Class During the Abolitionist Movement Henry Highland Garnet and William Lloyd Garrison were two of the most instrumental leaders of the Abolitionist Movement. Their social backgrounds and experiences were responsible for contrasting the two leaders and influenced their approaches, beliefs and solutions to the abolishment of slavery. Their opinions and approaches were voiced in terms of the role of the political process, the role of moral persuasion and the role of violence as a means to an end. Though both Garnet and Garrison shared a common interest in the anti-slavery movement they differed greatly in their rhetoric and advocacy styles and techniques. Garrison, who was from a poor New England family was involved from an early age in the business of publishing as an apprentice to a printer, a job that laid the foundation for what would later be a career as editor of the Liberator, a paper that actively addressed controversial issues about the eradication of slavery. Although Garrison addressed issues concerning the eradication of slavery, he also focused on other causes such as temperance and women's voting rights. Due to his involvement in advocating for many other reforms, his critics accused him of being unfocused on the issue of abolition. Oppositely, Garnet focused solely on the elevation of the Black community which included a more extreme and active means to end slavery. Garnet, who escaped slavery with his family to the North, was still subject to racial violence. One incident that exemplified the racial aggression was when his house had been looted and his sister had been arrested as a "fugitive from labor." This event in the early part of his life was an introdu... ...Korngold, Ralph. Two Friends of Man: The Story of William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips and Their Relationship with Abraham Lincoln. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1950. Nye, Russel B. William Lloyd Garrison and the Humanitarian Reformers. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1955. Pillsbury, Parker. Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles. Concord, 1883. Rogers, William B. "We are All Together Now" : Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and the Prophetic Tradition. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. Ruchames, Louis, comp. The Abolitionists: A Collection of Their Writings. New York: Capricorn Books, 1963. Schor, Joel. Henry Highland Garnet: A Voice of Black Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century. London: Greenwood Press, 1977. Walters, Ronald G. The Antislavery Appeal: American Abolitionism After 1830. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

The Plot Against the Giant

The poem talks about three girls plotting against a giant. The first girl plans that when his yokel comes maundering, whetting his hacker, the first girl will run before him. She will diffuse the civilest of odors out of geraniums and unsmelled flowers. The girl expects that this will check the giant. The second girls plan is to directly run before the giant. She will arch cloths besprinkled with colors that are as small as fish-eggs. The threads of the cloth will abash the giant. Lastly the third girl calls the giant la pauvre. She will also run before the giant with a curious puffing. He expects the giant to bend his ear to her puffing and that’s when she plans to whisper heavenly labials in a world of gutturals. This will undo the giant. The Plot of against the Giant is a poem published among Steven Wallace’s other poems under the book Harmonium which was published in 1923. The poem has a lot of playfulness and imagination but one would wonder who Wallace’s giant was. He could mean someone else or the giant could be himself. The poem consists of three parts. This could mean three approaches or three aspects or three techniques or three different experiences or stories all together. First line goes when this yokel comes maundering, yokel means an uneducated person, they are also known as bumpkins standing for unsophisticated country people. In fiction, yokels are usually depicted as gullible and easily conned. On the contrary, they may be viewed as straightforward and simplistic, and therefore seeing through sophisticated pretenses. Maundering can mean either wander aimlessly or talk indistinctly or speak rapidly. So the first line mean the first girl is waiting when the giant whom she calls a yokel comes to wander. The poem continues, whetting his hacker, I shall run before him, Diffusing the civilest odors Out of geraniums and unsmelled flowers. It will check him. Whetting is sharpening. With the continuation, the first paragraph suggests that the first girl will run to the giant when he is wandering without care sharpening his hacker. She plans to run to him and pour out and spread freely the nicest smelling odors from geraniums and unsmelled flowers and this will check the giant. The second girl says, I shall run before him, Arching cloths besprinkled with colors As small as fish-eggs.The threads. Will abash him. This suggests that she will run to the giant bending clothes toward the giant sprinkled with colors as small as fish-eggs. The threads will disconcert and embarrass the giant. While the third girl says, Oh, la†¦le pauvre! I shall run before him, With a curious puffing. He will bend his ear then. I shall whisper Heavenly labials in a world of gutturals. It will undo him. This suggests that she will run to the giant with an interesting but short forceful exhalation of breath or a short sudden gust of wind. This will make the giant bend his ear. The third girl will then whisper heavenly labials. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth. Sounds like this will undo the giant. The poem has a lot of imagination, symbolism and subtlety. It even has playfulness.   Each girl represents certain dealing or a plan: the subtlety of fragrances, the colorfulness of the besprinkled cloths and the magic of sound.   Another way of understanding the poem is seeing the visions of the poet himself. The Giant could be Steven Wallace himself and the gist of the poem is basically women plotting against him. If Wallace had been fond of women during his days – we can only speculate. He must have composed the poem out from pure imagination or thoughtful observation or it could be that the poem came out from a true-to-life experience. With this premise we will them come to view the poem differently and perhaps more maturely. As I’ve mentioned the three girls can mean different approaches of woman to a man or how woman respond to man. Before we get to the details of the poem lets touch a little on the word giant. Why Wallace did choose his hero to be a giant? Why not a winged-angel or perhaps Superman? It could be possible that in Wallace mind he perceives men in general as giants, of course not in the physical sense but in the gender sensitive sense. Another point of consideration is when the poem was created. The poem was written when society was highly patriarchal. It could be very possible that Wallace views were highly influenced by a male-dominated society that time. This could be the reason why he sees men in general or himself as super beings – superior to ordinary man. He used a giant as his hero in the poem to portray this supremacy. However, Wallace was aware of the consequences of using a giant for a hero or maybe it is exactly what he intends. Just like Goliath in the Bible, though he is a giant he was defeated by a child in the person of David. Wallace might have seen this perspective and opted to mold his character into a Giant and multiplied his David into three. Evident in the poem is Wallace’s bias on woman. He used the word plot against –and to plot against is something adversarial. As upfront as this title, the walls have been divided. Wallace then sees women as the enemy. The three dames represent a battle Wallace’s giant needs to overcome. First is the art of subtlety – using the sense of smell. It is common knowledge that scents and perfumes are women essentials. As much as women loves wearing it – men loves smelling it. The poem speaks of this with the first girl using all the civilest odors from geraniums to the unsmelled flowers. This suggest that the girl used the scents to check the giant out. She used the scents to weaken the giant. We should take note that the first girl was careful when to release these odors – only when the yokel is maundering. It is not done all the time, timing is everything. Second is the use of color and of clothes. If this is effective in taming a man then it is much effective now. It doesn’t only tame or abash a man it can be used to intimidate though today’s playing field doesn’t play much on the color nor on the cloth but a lot has been attributed to style. I would say attitude counts too. Third is the use of sound. Sound can have different effects on people. It depends on the kind and quality of sound we hear. The poem speaks of heavenly labial sounds. To me this suggests sensuality. These sounds can be the ahhs and the ohhhs or can be a moan or a groan that surely is very powerful letting the third girl call the giant la pauvre. It wouldn’t be a wonder because labial sounds are mostly guttural thus instinctive. The effects of these sounds are expectedly instinctive in nature too. The Plot Against the Giant First Girl When this yokel comes maundering, Whetting his hacker, I shall run before him, Diffusing the civilest odors Out of geraniums and unsmelled flowers. It will check him. Second Girl I shall run before him, Arching cloths besprinkled with colors As small as fish-eggs. The threads Will abash him. Third Girl Oh, la†¦le pauvre! I shall run before him, With a curious puffing. He will bend his ear then. I shall whisper Heavenly labials in a world of gutturals. It will undo him. (From â€Å"Harmonium,† 1923)

Important Element in the Story’s Significance Essay

In the two short stories, â€Å"Little Things† by Carver and â€Å"The End of Something† by Hemingway, both authors make the title significant to the story’s message. The title â€Å"Little Things† is somewhat ironic in that the word ‘little’ could refer to the baby or could in fact be calling their argument petty, even though the child that they are fighting over is a major issue. This irony is significant to the story because even though the parents appear passionate about their infant, the argument clearly lies deeper. The title â€Å"The End of Something† could also refer to a number of things. In this story many things are coming to an end. The end of the mill and the town at Horton’s Bay, the end of Nick and Marjorie’s relationship, the end of their fishing trips and the end of their day. Both stories are about the end of relationships however, in â€Å"Little Things† the breakup is angry and violent whereas in â€Å"The End of Something† the breakup is calm and brief. The story â€Å"Little Things† is about the violent breakup of two parents. It is implied that they are married but Carver does not explicitly state this. The opening paragraph describes the weather and the time of day, which reflects the mood of the piece, the darkness of the evening mirroring the dark mood inside the house, â€Å"it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too. † This shows that although the mood was dark, it was not completely pitch black outside implying that there may still be a slight glimmer of hope for the young couple that is soon introduced. As the fight and the emotions become more reckless and brutal the light begins to fade, showing that all hope is lost. The characters in the story are not named. This gives their predicament a deeper sense of urgency and immediacy. This is used to great effect as when we first meet the man and women, the absence of names throws us directly into the middle of their quarrel. In this piece there is no need to build up the characters with a descriptive foreplay as it is not important to the story, making it more urgent. However in â€Å"The End of Something† we feel more sympathy for the characters as we have learned about them in more detail. From the line â€Å"he was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came through the door,† we can deduce from the subtext that these people are in some kind of long-term relationship, and the second line of the same paragraph draws attention to the fact that they are having a heated argument. It is extremely common that in short stories a lot of information is insinuated rather than being clearly stated and so the reader must draw a meaning from the subtext. The woman is the first to speak. Carver does not use speech marks at all during the story in order to draw more immediacy to the article. The first line of speech â€Å"I’m glad you’re leaving! I’m glad you’re leaving! Do you hear? † shows that although the woman appears to be angry at her partner and glad that he is moving out it is easily noted that she in fact feels exactly the opposite. This is illustrated by the repetition of the line â€Å"I’m glad you’re leaving† showing that she is trying to reassure herself that she doesn’t need him. This shows irony. The woman continues to barrage the man with slurs, â€Å"son of a bitch†, obviously in an attempt to provoke his attention and convince him to stay. When she states â€Å"you can’t even look me in the face can you? † it is blatantly obvious that the man has had some kind of affair. The woman fails in catching the man’s attention and therefore when she spies the baby’s picture on the bed she takes it, out of spite. The man follows her; turning off the bedroom light as he leaves symbolising the end of their relationship, â€Å"looked around the bedroom before turning off the light. † The baby is also not named showing that although it is the child that they are fighting over, the battle about more and the baby is merely a pawn in their game of spite or revenge. The man states â€Å"I want the baby. † This immediately provokes maternal instincts from the mother who rushes to keep her child. The infant is continuously referred to as ‘the baby’ or ‘this baby’ showing that their child is solely an object that the couple are focusing their anger on. The man’s request for the baby is not because he necessarily wants the child from love but more because he sees it as a prize that he can win over the woman. Gradually their battle becomes more physical and violent as the man tries to take that baby from the woman, â€Å"in the scuffle they knocked down a flowerpot. † The baby senses the tension in the room and starts to cry which adds to the anxiety and desperation in the mood of the text, â€Å"the baby had begun to cry. † Throughout the rest of the story Carver intensifies the atmosphere by using urgent and effective words such as â€Å"screaming,† â€Å"red faced,† â€Å"gripped† and â€Å"hurting†. Nearing the end of the story the light is involved again, â€Å"the kitchen window gave no light,† this line exemplifies that there was no hope left for the couple and the baby. The lines become shorter to add to the fierce battle that the couple is suffering. The man and the woman both grab the child and pull it in different directions in a hope that one will triumph but we do not know the victor. The last line â€Å"in this manner the issue was decided,† leaves us pondering a number of possible out comes. The man or the woman may have succeeded in snatching the infant for themselves or they may have pulled their baby in two. If so the story appears to be a parody of the biblical story ‘The Two Women and Solomon’, in which a man offers to cut a baby in half to settle a quarrel between two woman as to who the mother of the baby is. In this story we are left with an ambiguous end. It is very common in short stories that the resolution of the story is left undecided, again leaving the reader to make their own conclusion from the clues given. The second short story â€Å"The End of Something† is also about the end of a relationship, however it is handled in a calmer and less violent manner. The first paragraph sets the scene of a calm deserted bay, once a busy lumbering town, now reduced to a citizen-free ghost town. The couple, Nick and Marjorie, are rowing through this bay in a calm fashion â€Å"they were trolling along the edge of the channel bank,† but they soon head towards â€Å"dark water† which shows that they are heading towards trouble. They are rowing soundlessly until Marjorie breaks the silence and begins to talk about the old mill on the shore, describing it as â€Å"our old ruin†; this shows that their relationship stretches back a long way. Nick answers unenthusiastically. Marjorie tries to keep up the conversation describing it as a castle, which shows that she sees ‘their’ ruin in a fairy-tale manner. However Nick is still distant which makes Marjorie have to work hard to keep their conversation alive. Marjorie appears to love everything about their fishing trips. She obviously loves Nick very much and is enjoying spending time with him, â€Å"She loved to fish. She loved to fish with Nick. † Clearly Nick is quite qualified at fishing and Marjorie tries to make him feel good by putting him in charge and asking him questions to boost his ego, â€Å"‘They’re feeding,’ Marjorie said. ‘But they won’t strike,’ Nick said. † By this Nick means that he will not strike that night. The couple carries out their actions of fishing with scarce communication and we can tell that something is clearly upsetting Nick as Marjorie is trying to provoke conversation but to no avail. When Marjorie questions Nick â€Å"What’s the matter Nick? † he replies â€Å"I don’t know. † The couple set out a picnic on the beach but we can tell that Nick is merely going through the motions as he says â€Å"I don’t feel like eating† and all it takes is one line from Marjorie and he agrees.