Monday, September 30, 2019

Building a Supportive Vocabulary Learning Environment

To every learning curriculum, it is a fundamental requirement to provide a sustainably befitting environment at the background to ease the flow of assimilation and aid the mission accomplishment of a prolific study. Without an enabling environment, the efficiency of the learning result is significantly reduced. Though avoidable, many unrefined teachers still take with levity, the necessity of creating an environmental aura that permeates the mind of learners involved towards creating a smooth psychological linkage to understanding the vocabulary lesson (Diller & Karl, 1978).Supportive Tools  Firstly, we design a befitting structural arrangement that reflects some basic expectations concerning the vocabulary to be studied, the choice of which ranks common in preference of usage (Foss & Lenzini, 1999). The pictorial representation (e. g. on the wall) enables learners to access unrestricted support; demonstrating how tongue or the entire â€Å"buccal† cavity (mouth) is expected to be positioned while a particular sound is being pronounced. The pictorial representation should equally demonstrate practical situations where each word is most appropriately in day-to-day events.In buttressing the importance of this structural or pictorial design as a supportive learning tool, researches have shown that new vocabularies are best understood by exerting a subconscious effort sequel to the first pronunciation exposure in class (Holden, et al. , 1998). The sub-consciousness is characterized with the absence of stress, sensual tension or urgency demand to study within a restricted period. The presence of pressure brings a sense of active competition among other colleagues in class.The slow learners, the average and the fast learners are the three classes of learners that must have their interest managed on the overall while determining the contextual modalities of supportive environments to be considered (Foss & Lenzini, 1999). Moreover, it is of importance to recog nize the use of student-to-student interactive class session in learning foreign vocabulary. This creates an enabling environment where learners can share and gain views from one another. This in a great sense, is a complementary learning tool to teachers own method.The teacher here, logically listen and gain from diverse ways of interaction that exist in this session of students’ group discussion. The specific style of teaching to adopt will be gotten from preponderances of events as they unfold (James L. B. , 2001) One-to-many Learning Support Scheme In this scheme, each learner on rotation is given an assignment to present a topic to other co-learners in class. Preferentially, suggestion of a multi-media projection could aid teaching. Here comes a research among students in science class, a class of 50 students was given an assignment to treat 10 topics within a course.The modality involved allotment of a topic to a group of 5 students within which they are equally expecte d to further divide the topic into sub-headings. Other remaining 45 students follow suit in their respective groupings. The examination result for this method of teaching was taken for over a period of 5 years, with the mean and mode recorded. The result showed a wide grade-gap between the first three best students and other members of the class. The mean was high but students within this range were found scanty (James L. Barker lecture, 2001).One-to-many learning scheme shows that the method could only help the confident students to perform even better at the expense of other colleagues. The other group members does belong to the same class but perhaps, limiting study to what they actually present and not bordering to probe other students’ presentation to perfect understanding from the first exposure in class. Participative/Interactive Class Session Another proposed scheme suggests a modality where members of the class have no formal presentation for others to listen.But rat her, everyone prepares for the task ahead of the class and involve in a general discuss. All opinions are accommodated by the supervision of a tutor in charge. In furtherance to the earlier research for another five years, findings were taken from another set of 50 students with different learning environmental supportive modality. In this scheme, no student is expected to teach the other colleague but rather each student contributes one after the other to the pending discussion on the vocabulary lesson.In this way, the teacher set the ball rolling by introducing the topic and secondly in guiding against shifting of focus to irrelevancies. The reciprocal interactions give a supportive environment that deposit in each student a personal sense of meeting the huge challenge to perform up to expectations among peers (Kinsella, K. , 1995). The result of the later five years shows students having a higher mean gradient. The mode was slightly reduced, an indication pointing that only minor ity members of the class understand on the average with one-to-many learning support.Conclusion When discussing vocabulary skills, some basic essentialities are necessary; a listening, speaking, reading and writing acts. Other recently identified skills include description, narrating and summarizing skills among others. All supportive environments must focus on ensuring these necessities. Having an enabling environment in assisting the students reading culture is most important especially when learning an unfamiliar vocabulary, hence, the derivative of interactive study guide is just a perfect one to make learners actively involved.Findings had also shown that students usually get frustrated over time if encouragement and assistance are not near. Conclusively, teacher could equally assist in instilling the culture of reading; this is the strongest individual tool. References Diller, Karl Conrad (1978). The Language Teaching Controversy. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House. Foss, C. R. , P. , & Lenzini, J. J. (1999). Textual and pictorial glosses: Effectiveness on incidental vocabulary growth when reading in a foreign language. Foreign Language Annals, 32 (1), 89-113.Holden, Susan; Mickey Rodgers (1998). English language teaching. Mexico City: DELTI. James L. Barker lecture on November 8th 2001 at Brigham Young University. Kinsella, K. (1995). Understanding and empowering diverse learners in ESL classroom. In M. J. Reid (Ed. ), Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom (pp. 70-86). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Koda, K. (1997). Orthographic knowledge in L2 lexical processing: A cross-linguistic perspective. In J. Coady & T. Huckins (Eds. ), Second language vocabulary acquisition (pp. 35-52). New York: Cambridge Universit

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Economic Systems Essay

Socialism Socialism is an economic system where all the economic decisions are made by the government or a central authority. There will be no private property rights since the government officially owns all resources. It is also known as a command economy or a planned system. Socialist economics refers to the economic theories, practices, and norms of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems. A socialist economy is based on some form of social ownership, which includes varieties of public ownership and independent cooperatives, over the means of production, wherein production is carried out to directly produce use-value sometimes, but not always, coordinated through economic planning and a system of accounting based on calculation-in-kind or a direct measure of labor-time. The term socialist economics may also be applied to analysis of former and existing economic systems that call themselves â€Å"socialist†, such as the works of Hungarian economist Jà ¡nos Kornai. Socialist economics has been associated with different schools of economic thought, most notably Marxian economics, institutional economics, evolutionary economics and neoclassical economics. Early socialism, like Ricardian socialism, was based on classical economics. During the 20th century, proposals and models for planned economies and market socialism were based heavily on neoclassical economics or a synthesis of neoclassical economics with Marxian or institutional economics. look more:  what is the basic economic problem essay Characteristics 1 Public ownership of resources All the resources are owned and operated by the state or the government in the interest of society as a whole. This is to ensure equal opportunity of all citizens regardless of their income. Public ownership also aims to fully utilize the country’s resources. 2 Central planning authority The central authority is responsible for making economic decisions for society. The authority plans and allocates resources between current consumption and investment for the future. 3 Price mechanism of lesser importance Socialism gives less importance to market forces. Prices are fixed by the government and not determined by demand and supply. Private profits are not allowed and public interest is emphasized in the command economy. 4 Central control and ownership A socialist economy is a fully planned economy where the government intervenes in all aspects of economic activity. The government controls production, consumption, and the distribution of goods and services. Merits of Socialism 1 Production according to basic needs Production in a socialist economy is mainly directed at producing the basic needs of the people such as food, clothing and building materials. It is not determined by the purchasing power of the rich in society. The phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer does not exist in the socialist economy. 2 Equal distribution of income and wealth There is no difference between the rich and the poor. This system provides equal opportunity for all citizens in earning an income. Wealth is also equally distributed since private enterprise is limited 3 Better allocation of resourses Under the socialist system, the planning authority will allocate resources between current consumption and future investment. 4 No serious unemployment or recession/ inflation The unemployment rate and inflation are usually taken care of by the government to ensure economic stability in the country. 5 Rapid economic development In a socialism system, the economy grows faster. The main factors responsible for the rapic economic growth are the full utilization of resources, planning and quick decisions. 6 Social welfare The government will provide all citizens of the country with full social security benefits such as pension, accident benefits and others. Since the government is concerned, labour dispute and wastage of resources do not exist in a socialism system. Economic Decisions in a Socialistic System What to produce In Socialism, planning authorities decide what to produce. The Central Planning Authority will collect detailed statistics on the resource availability in the country and link it with national priorities. If the planning authority has a choice of producing computers using more labour or more machinery. How to produce The Central Planning Authority also decided on the techniques to be used in the production of different goods and services. The choice is between traditional and modern technique of production. For example, the planning authority has a choice of producing computers using more labour or more machinery. For whom to produce The distribution of the national product is decided by the Central Planning Authority. The distribution of various commodities among citizens is done through a set of administred fixwd processes. Necessity goods are fixed at lower prices, and luxury goods at higher prices. The purpose of these fixed prices is to reduce inequalities in the distribution of income. Demerits of Socialism 1 Lacks of incentives and initative by individuals Individuals have no profit motive. This will lead to economic inefficiency since jobs are provided by the government and individuals are not motivated to work harder. 2 Loss of economic freedom and consumer sovereignty Under a socialist economy, the central planning authority or the government directs all economic activity. There is no choice given to the consumer and they accept whatever public enterprise produce. There is little variety in the goods and services produced and availability is restricted. Limited private organizations exist in a socialist economy. 3 Absence of competition Since there are limited private enterprises, less research and development (R&D) activities are carried out. This results in low quality products since there is no competition. Socialist economies in theory Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert identify five economic models within the rubric of socialist economics * Public Enterprise Centrally Planned Economy in which all property is owned by the State and all key economic decisions are made centrally by the State, the former Soviet Union. * Public Enterprise State-Managed Market Economy, one form of market socialism which attempts to use the price mechanism to increase economic efficiency, while all decisive productive assets remain in the ownership of the state, e.g. socialist market economy in China after reform. * A mixed economy, where public and private ownership are mixed, and where industrial planning is ultimately subordinate to market allocation, the model generally adopted by social democrats e.g. in twentieth century Sweden. * Public Enterprise Employee Managed Market Economies, another form of market socialism in which publicly owned, employee-managed production units engage in free market exchange of goods and services with one another as well as with final consumers, e.g. mid twentieth century Yugoslavia, Two more theoretical models are Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar’s Progressive Utilization Theory and Economic democracy. * Public Enterprise Participatory Planning, an economy featuring social ownership of the means of production with allocation based on an integration of decentralized democratic planning, e.g. stateless communism, libertarian socialism. An incipient historical forebear is that of Catalonia during the Spanish revolution. More developed theoretical models include those of Karl Polanyi, Participatory Economics and the negotiated coordination model of Pat Devine, as well as in Cornelius Castoriadis’s pamphlet â€Å"Workers’ Councils and the Economics of a Self-Managed Society†. Additionally, Jà ¡nos Kornai identifies five distinct classifications for socialism: * Classical / Marxist conception, where socialism is a stage of economic development in which wage labour, private property in the means of production and monetary relations have been made redundant through the development of the productive forces, so that capital accumulation has been superseded by economic planning. Economic planning in this definition means conscious allocation of economic inputs and the means of production by the associated producers to directly maximise use-values as opposed to exchange-values, in contrast to the â€Å"anarchy of production† of capitalism. * Walrasian / Market Socialist which defines socialism as public-ownership or cooperative-enterprises in a market economy, with prices for producer goods set through a trial-and-error method by a central planning board. In this view, socialism is defined in terms of de jure public property rights over major enterprises. * Leninist conception, which includes a form of political organisation based on control of the means of production and government by a single political party apparatus that claims to act in the interest of the working class, and an ideology hostile toward markets and political dissent, with coordination of economic activity through centralised economic planning (a â€Å"command economy†). * Social Democratic concept, based on the capitalist mode of production, which defines socialism as a set of values rather than a specific type of social and economic organisation. It includes unconditional support for parliamentary democracy, gradual and reformist attempts to establish socialism, and support for socially progressive causes. Social democrats are not opposed to the market or private property; instead they try to ameliorate the effects of capitalism through a welfare state, which relies on the market as the fundamental coordinating entity in the economy and a degree of public ownership/public provision of public goods in an economy otherwise dominated by private enterprise. * East Asian model, or socialist market economy, based on a largely free-market, capital accumulation for profit and substantial private ownership along with state-ownership of strategic industries monopolised by a single political party. Jà ¡nos Kornai ultimately leaves the classification of this model (as either socialist or capitalist) to the reader.[16] What are the disadvantages and advantages of socialism? Advantages of Socialism * In environments with plentiful resources, socialism provides all members with their survival needs, creating a stable social environment. * Members that cannot participate economically – due to disabilities, age, or periods of poor health – can still impart wisdom, emotional support and continuity of experience to the system. * Freedom from work provides opportunity for some societal members to explore non-economically-productive pursuits, such as pure science, math and non-popular arts. Disadvantages of Socialism * Since there is no culling and no economic advantage to working harder, socialistic systems provide no inherent incentive to participate. This makes socialism internally unstable. * Due to a lack of incentives, socialistic systems tend not to be competitive, making them externally unstable. * In times of plenty, immigrants are drawn to the free resources offered by socialistic systems, while potentially adding nothing economically productive. * In times of scarcity, resentment of non-economically-productive members of society increases, causing a destabilizing effect on the society and economy History of socialist economic thought Values of socialism have roots in pre-capitalist institutions such as the religious communes, reciprocal obligations, and communal charity of Mediaeval Europe, the development of its economic theory primarily reflects and responds to the monumental changes brought about by the dissolution of feudalism and the emergence of specifically capitalist social relations. As such it is commonly regarded as a movement belonging to the modern era. Many socialists have considered their advocacy as the preservation and extension of the radical humanist ideas expressed in Enlightenment doctrine such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Limits of State Action, or Immanuel Kant’s insistent defense of the French Revolution. Capitalism appeared in mature form as a result of the problems raised when an industrial factory system requiring long-term investment and entailing corresponding risks was introduced into an internationalized commercial (mercantilist) framework. Historically speaking, the most pressing needs of this new system were an assured supply of the elements of industry – land, elaborate machinery, and labour – and these imperatives led to the commodification of these elements. According to influential socialist economic historian Karl Polanyi’s classic account, the forceful transformation of land, money and especially labour into commodities to be allocated by an autonomous market mechanism was an alien and inhuman rupture of the pre-existing social fabric. Marx had viewed the process in a similar light, referring to it as part of the process of â€Å"primitive accumulation† whereby enough initial capital is amassed to begin capitalist production. The dislocation that Polyani and others describe, triggered natural counter-movements in efforts to re-embed the economy in society. These counter-movements, that included, for example, the Luddite rebellions, are the incipient socialist movements. Over time such movements gave birth to or acquired an array of intellectual defenders who attempted to develop their ideas in theory. As Polanyi noted, these counter-movements were mostly reactive and therefore not full-fledged socialist movements. Some demands went no further than a wish to mitigate the capitalist market’s worst effects. Later, a full socialist program developed, arguing for systemic transformation. Its theorists believed that even if markets and private property could be tamed so as not to be excessively â€Å"exploitative†, or crises could be effectively mitigated, capitalist social relations would remain significantly unjust and anti-democratic, suppressing universal human needs for fulfilling, empowering and creative work, diversity and solidarity. Within this context socialism has undergone four periods: the first in the 19th century was a period of utopian visions (1780s-1850s); then occurred the rise of revolutionary socialist and Communist movements in the 19th century as the primary opposition to the rise of corporations and industrialization (1830–1916); the polarisation of socialism around the question of the Soviet Union, and adoption of socialist or social democratic policies in response (1916–1989) and the response of socialism in the neo-liberal era (1990- ). As socialism developed, so did the socialist system of economics. Utopian socialism The first theories which came to hold the term â€Å"socialism† began to be formulated in the late 18th century, and were termed â€Å"socialism† early in the 19th century. The central beliefs of the socialism of this period rested on the exploitation of those who labored by those who owned capital or rented land and housing. The abject misery, poverty and disease to which laboring classes seemed destined was the inspiration for a series of schools of thought which argued that life under a class of masters, or â€Å"capitalists† as they were then becoming to be called, would consist of working classes being driven down to subsistence wages. Socialist ideas found expression in utopian movements, which often formed agricultural communes aimed at being self-sufficient on the land. These included many religious movements, such as the Shakers in America. Utopian socialism had little to offer in terms of a systematic theory of economic phenomena. In theory, economic problems were dissolved by a utopian society which had transcended material scarcity. In practice, small communities with a common spirit could sometimes resolve allocation problems. Socialism and classical political economy The first organized theories of socialist economics were significantly impacted by classical economic theory, including elements in Adam Smith, Robert Malthus and David Ricardo. In Smith there is a conception of a common good not provided by the market, a class analysis, a concern for the dehumanizing aspects of the factory system, and the concept of rent as being unproductive. Ricardo argued that the renting class was parasitic. This, and the possibility of a â€Å"general glut†, an over accumulation of capital to produce goods for sale rather than for use, became the foundation of a rising critique of the concept that free markets with competition would be sufficient to prevent disastrous downturns in the economy, and whether the need for expansion would inevitably lead to war. Socialist political economy before Marx Charles Fourier, influential early French socialist thinker A key early socialist theorist of political economy was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. He was the most well-known of nineteenth century mutualist theorists and the first thinker to refer to himself as an anarchist. Others were: Technocrats like Henri de Saint Simon, agrarian radicals like Thomas Spence, William Ogilvie and William Cobbett; anti-capitalists like Thomas Hodgskin; communitarian and utopian socialists like Robert Owen, William Thompson and Charles Fourier; anti-market socialists like John Gray and John Francis Bray; the Christian mutualist William Batchelder Greene; as well as the theorists of the Chartist movement and early proponents of syndicalism. The first advocates of socialism promoted social leveling in order to create a meritocratic or technocratic society based upon individual talent. Count Henri de Saint-Simon was the first individual to coin the term â€Å"socialism†. Simon was fascinated by the enormous potential of science and technology, which led him to advocate a socialist society that would eliminate the disorderly aspects of capitalism and which would be based upon equal opportunities. Simon advocated a society in which each person was ranked according to his or her capacities and rewarded according to his or her work. This was accompanied by a desire to implement a rationally organized economy based on planning and geared towards large-scale scientific and material progress, which embodied a desire for a semi-planned economy. Other early socialist thinkers were influenced by the classical economists. The Ricardian socialists, such as Thomas Hodgskin and Charles Hall, were based on the work of David Ricardo and reasoned that the equilibrium value of commodities approximated producer prices when those commodities were in elastic supply, and that these producer prices corresponded to the embodied labor. The Ricardian socialists viewed profit, interest and rent as deductions from this exchange-value. Das Kapital Karl Marx employed systematic analysis in an ambitious attempt to elucidate capitalism’s contradictory laws of motion, as well as to expose the specific mechanisms by which it exploits and alienates. He radically modified classical political economic theories. Notably, the labor theory of value that had been worked upon by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, was transformed into his characteristic â€Å"law of value† and used for the purpose of revealing how commodity fetishism obscures the reality of capitalist society. His approach, which Engels would call â€Å"scientific socialism†, would stand as the branching point in economic theory: in one direction went those who rejected the capitalist system as fundamentally anti-social, arguing that it could never be harnessed to effectively realize the fullest development of human potentialities wherein â€Å"the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.†. Das Kapital is one of the many famous incomplete works of economic theory: Marx had planned four volumes, completed two, and left his collaborator Engels to complete the third. In many ways the work is modelled on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, seeking to be a comprehensive logical description of production, consumption and finance in relation to morality and the state. It is a work of philosophy, anthropology and sociology as much as one of economics. However, it has several important statements: * The Law of Value Capitalist production is the production of â€Å"an immense multitude of commodities† or generalised commodity production. A commodity has two essential qualities firstly, they are useful, they satisfy some human want, â€Å"the nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference,† and secondly they are sold on a market or exchanged. Critically the exchange value of a commodity â€Å"is independent of the amount of labour required to appropriate its useful qualities.† But rather depends on the amount of socially necessary labour required to produce it. All commodities are sold at their value, so the origin of the capitalist profit is not in cheating or theft but in the fact that the cost of reproduction of labour power, or the worker’s wage, is less than the value created during their time at work, enabling the capitalists to yield a surplus value or profit on their investments. * Historical Property Relations Historical capitalism represents a process of momentous social upheaval where rural masses were separated from the land and ownership of the means of production by force, deprivation, and legal manipulation, creating an urban proletariat based on the institution of wage-labour. Moreover, capitalist property relations aggravated the artificial separation between city and country, which is a key factor in accounting for the metabolic rift between human beings in capitalism and their natural environment, which is at the root of our current ecological dilemmas. * Commodity Fetishism Marx adapted previous value-theory to show that in capitalism phenomena involved with the price system (markets, competition, supply and demand) constitute a powerful ideology that obscures the underlying social relations of capitalist society. â€Å"Commodity fetishism† refers to this distortion of appearance. The underlying social reality is one of economic exploitation. * Economic Exploitation Workers are the fundamental creative source of new value. Property relations affording the right of usufruct and despotic control of the workplace to capitalists are the devices by which the surplus value created by workers is appropriated by the capitalists. * Accumulation Inherent to capitalism is the incessant drive to accumulate as a response to the competitive forces acting upon all capitalists. In such a context the accumulated wealth which is the source of the capitalist’s social power derives itself from being able to repeat the circuit of Money–>Commodity–>Money’, where the capitalist receives an increment or â€Å"surplus value† higher than their initial investment, as rapidly and efficiently as possible. Moreover this driving imperative leads capitalism to its expansion on a worldwide scale. * Crises Marx identified natural and historically specific (i.e. structural) barriers to accumulation that were interrelated and interpenetrated one another in times of crises. Different types of crises, such as realization crises and overproduction crises, are expressions of capitalism’s inability to constructively overcome such barriers. Moreover, the upshot of crises is increased centralization, the expropriation of the many capitalists by the few. * Centralization The interacting forces of competition, endemic crises, intensive and extensive expansion of the scale of production, and a growing interdependency with the state apparatus, all promote a strong developmental tendency towards the centralization of capital. * Material Development As a result of its constant drive to optimize profitability by increasing the productivity of labour, typically by revolutionizing technology and production techniques, capitalism develops so as to progressively reduce the objective need for work, suggesting the potential for a new era of creative forms of work and expanded scope for leisure. * Socialization, and the pre-conditions for Revolution By socializing the labour process, concentrating workers into urban settings in large-scale production processes and linking them in a worldwide market, the agents of a potential revolutionary change are created. Thus Marx felt that in the course of its development capitalism was at the same time developing the preconditions for its own negation. However, although the objective conditions for change are generated by the capitalist system itself, the subjective conditions for social revolution can only come about through the apprehension of the objective circumstances by the agents themselves and the transformation of such understanding into an effective revolutionary program Anarchist economics Anarchist economics is the set of theories and practices of economics and economic activity within the political philosophy of anarchism. Pierre Joseph Proudhon was involved with the Lyons mutualists and later adopted the name to describe his own teachings. Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought that originates in the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market. Integral to the scheme was the establishment of a mutual-credit bank that would lend to producers at a minimal interest rate, just high enough to cover administration. Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value that holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive goods or services embodying â€Å"the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility†. Receiving anything less would be considered exploitation, theft of labor, or usury. Collectivist anarchism (also known as anarcho-collectivism) is a revolutionary doctrine that advocates the abolition of the state and private ownership of the means of production. Instead, it envisions the means of production being owned collectively and controlled and managed by the producers themselves. Once collectivization takes place, workers’ salaries would be determined in democratic organizations based on the amount of time they contributed to production. These salaries would be used to purchase goods in a communal market. Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin, the anti-authoritarian sections of the First International, and the early Spanish anarchist movement. The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin, influential work which presents the economic vision ofanarcho-communism Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers’ councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle: â€Å"from each according to ability, to each according to need†. Unlike mutualism, collectivist anarchism and marxism, anarcho-communism as defended by Peter Kropotkin and Errico Malatesta rejected the labor theory of value altogether, instead advocating a gift economy and to base distribution on need. Anarchist communism as a coherent, modern economic-political philosophy was first formulated in the Italian section of the First International by Carlo Cafiero, Emilio Covelli, Errico Malatesta, Andrea Costa and other ex-Mazzinian Republicans. Out of respect for Mikhail Bakunin, they did not make their differences with collectivist anarchism explicit until after Bakunin’s death. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an anarchist communist position, advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need. Ironically, the â€Å"collectivist† label then became more commonly associated with Marxist state socialists who advocated the retention of some sort of wage system during the transition to full communism. After Marx Marx’s work sharpened the existing differences between the revolutionary and non-revolutionary socialists. Non-revolutionary socialists took inspiration from the work of John Stuart Mill, and later Keynes and the Keynesians, who provided theoretical justification for (potentially very extensive) state involvement in an existing market economy. According to the Keynesians, if the business cycle could be solved by national ownership of key industries and state direction of their investment, class antagonism would be effectively tamed a compact would be formed between labour and the capitalists. There would be no need for revolution; instead Keynes looked to the eventual â€Å"euthanasia of the rentier† sometime in the far future. Joan Robinson and Michael Kalecki employed Keynesian insights to form the basis of a critical post-Keynesian economics that at times went well beyond liberal reformism. Many original socialist economic ideas would also emerge out of the trade union movement In the wake of Marx, â€Å"Marxist† economists developed many different, sometimes contradictory tendencies. Some of these tendencies were based on internal disputes about the meaning of some of Marx’s ideas, including the ‘Law of Value’ and his crisis theory. Other variations were elaborations that subsequent theorists made in light of real world developments. For example the monopoly capitalist school saw Paul A. Baran and Paul Sweezy attempt to modify Marx’s theory of capitalist development, which was based upon the assumption of price competition, to reflect the evolution to a stage where both economy and state were subject to the dominating influence of giant corporations. World-systems analysis, would restate Marx’s ideas about the worldwide division of labour and the drive to accumulate from the holistic perspective of capitalism’s historical development as a global system. Accordingly, Immanuel Wallerstein, writing in 1979, maintained that â€Å"There are today no socialist systems in the world-economy any more than there are feudal systems because there is only one world-system. It is a world-economy and it is by definition capitalist in form. Socialism involves the creation of a new kind of world-system, neither a redistributive world-empire nor a capitalist world-economy but a socialist world-government. I don’t see this projection as being in the least utopian but I also don’t feel its institution is imminent. It will be the outcome of a long social struggle in forms that may be familiar and perhaps in very few forms, that will take place in all the areas of the world-economy.† Meanwhile other notable strands of reformist and revolutionary socialist economics sprung up that were either only loosely associated with Marxism or wholly independent. Thorsten Veblen is widely credited as the founder of critical institutionalism. His idiosyncratic theorizing included acidic critiques of the inefficiency of capitalism, monopolies, advertising, and the utility of conspicuous consumption. Some institutionalists have addressed the incentive problems experienced by the Soviet Union. Critical institutionalists have worked on the specification of incentive-compatible institutions, usually based on forms of participatory democracy, as a resolution superior to allocation by an autonomous market mechanism. Another key socialist, closely related to Marx, Keynes, and Gramsci, was Piero Sraffa. He mined classical political economy, particularly Ricardo, in an attempt to erect a value theory that was at the same time an explanation of the normal distribution of prices in an economy, as well that of income and economic growth. A key finding was that the net product or surplus in the sphere of production was determined by the balance of bargaining power between workers and capitalists, which was in turn subject to the influence of non-economic, presumably social and political factors.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Child and adolescent health Essay

The two most important factors influencing adolescent’s developments are psychological and environmental factors. As they grow, they are influenced by environmental factors such as religion, culture, Schools and religion. The psychological factors that influence their development includes cognitive and emotional factors (Hall & Braverman, 2014). In the western society, what is missing that would benefit health promotion for the adolescents is a focused attention on the diseases most adolescents experience, and the risk factors with their root causes. Moreover, another missing factor in the western society is emphasis on prevention since mostly they concentrate on curing or treatment than prevention, yet prevention is cost effective (Merrick, 2014). The health problems faced by the adolescents impact their health and wellness in several ways in their lifetime. An adolescent who uses tobacco, has unhealthy eating behavior, uses alcohol and other drugs, has inadequate exercise or engages in sexual behaviors that may result to sexually transmitted infections’ and unwanted pregnancy may negatively impact their lives (Hall & Braverman, 2014). Some of the effects of the health problems faced by the adolescents which may impact their health and wellness include lung cancer, obesity or underweight, high blood pressure, and even contracting the incurable HIV virus or being early mothers. There are several areas that must be addressed when taking sexual history of adolescents. According to Hal & Braverman, (2014), â€Å"5 Ps† are used as a general guide for taking the sexual history of adolescents. Partners- questions should ask the sex, number and concurrency, sex partners of the adolescents Practices-the nurse should explore sexual activity types that the adolescent pained engages in such as oral, anal and anal sex Protection- the questions should ask about the teenager’s use condoms and the circumstances making it easier or harder to use he condoms Past history of STD-the nurse should ask about the STD history of the teenager. These includes whether the teens has ever contracted the STDs in Pregnancy. Prevention-lastly, the nurse should ask the teenager whether they want to be pregnant and discuss the future and current contraceptives (Hall & Braverman, 2014). In conclusion, psychological and environmental factors are the two most important factors that influence adolescent’s developments. Focused attention on the diseases experienced by the adolescents and emphasis on prevention is lacking in the western society. Moreover, there are several health problems adolescents face that impact their health and wellness in several ways in their lifetime. Lastly, when taking sexual history, one need to consider the partners, practice, and protection, past history of STD and prevention. References Hall, C., & Braverman, P. K. (2014). Hot topics in adolescent health. man, P. K. (2014). Hot topics in adolescent health. Merrick, J. (2014). Child and adolescent health yearbook 2013. Source document

Friday, September 27, 2019

Article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Article review - Essay Example All these machines are used for surveillance, tracking and identification purposes. They offer many benefits from efficiency to speed to strong analytical power. However, they continue to sacrifice more on the right to privacy. This paper discuses the issue of privacy verses individual safety. The patriotic act is an act that is supposed to protect innocent American citizens from terrorist attacks. It gives the law enforcement agencies all the power necessary to use any means and tools at their disposal to investigate drug trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime. This act gives the law the right to use surveillance in their investigation against terrorism This act also give different government agencies to share among themselves pertinent and relevant information (Bennett, 2007). Under this act, and the bank secrecy act, the FBI and special agents from IRS are allowed to access information from the records of financial institutions to investigate and monitor any activities that s eem suspicious without alerting the financial institution (David, 2009). Many argue that public surveillance help in the solving of crimes committed, and this they say is far much valuable than the intrusion by the government. Senior citizens tend to support the governments move in public surveillance (Locker, 2008). ... This surveillance does not take place in the open but takes place in private with no or little oversight by the courts by the public or the congress. Through this power, to collect massive details of private conversations and data, the government security agencies like the FBU and the NSA apply the use of computer programs to make predictions and likes about the behavior of people (Lyon & Zureik, 2006). The government is able to compile dossiers about innocent citizens though the use of sensitive data. This data is stored in government databases, and the names of many Americans end up inaccurate and bloated in the watch lists, which determine if the individual can fly on commercial airlines or renew passports. Dragnet surveillance undermines individual rights to privacy and the freedom of speech, religion and association (Penenberg, 2001). The issue of privacy and surveillance has been a hot topic for debate in the media houses. The government and a large percentage of the citizens a re not on the same terms when it comes to this issue. The government argues that it is its duty to protect the citizens of the country against any threat, be it domestic or foreign. The most effective means of ensuring that this duty is performed is through the use of surveillance to predict behaviors and notice communication patters that may lead to the averting of a terrorist attack of an incident that will infringe on individual security or the security of the nation at whole (Wright & Hert, 2012). Security has been increased at the airports due to the threat that this industry faces from terrorists. This industry has employed the use of new and the latest technology that include the use of biometric scanners. These are machines that are used for recognition purposes. They can

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Litigation, Civil Procedure, Discovery of Documents Essay

Litigation, Civil Procedure, Discovery of Documents - Essay Example The client company, over the last decade, has obtained reports and studies which confirm that there is a link between the toxic fumes and the increasing rate of asthma in the local residence. The problem concerns to devise a strategy so these reports and documents may not be not available to the plaintiff. STRATEGY: As evident from the above problem, the main concern of the company is that these reports and documents should not be available to the plaintiff for proving the allegation against the company. This can be done by adopting the strategy of ‘Retention of the Documents’ and by the privilege. The case of Rolah Ann McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia can serve as a guideline to adopt these strategies as the said case demonstrated successfully that through these strategies documents harmful to the company mighty be retained (destroyed) or declared privileged so the plaintiff or the court may not require these documents to exhibit for inspection, to avoid any legal ruling. These policies are discussed below separately to view their implications and results. Let us begin with examining the case of McCabe v. BATAS in brief and the strategies adopted. Rolah Ann McCabe v British American Tobacco Australia: The fifty-one year old plaintiff had lung cancer which she alleged had been caused by smoking the defendant’s cigarettes over approximately four decades. She sued the defendant for damages arising from the defendant’s negligence related to the marketing and sale of their cigarettes. The trial judge ordered that the defence of the defendant tobacco company be struck out and that judgment be entered for the plaintiff. He criticized the defendant for its failure to comply with discovery orders that had been made during the proceeding. BAT was unable to comply with this court order to produce documents because it had over a period of years prior to Mrs. McCabes’s action destroyed large quantities of documents.

Shakespeare's Tragidy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Shakespeare's Tragidy - Essay Example Finally, they all have to have a tragic flaw, usually something related to their source of pride. These three character traits combined lead the character to his or her downfall through a three-step process. This process begins with the first event, the mistake in judgment or action that will eventually cause his ruin. The second event is when the hero realizes finally where he made his mistake. The final event is the reversal of fortunes the hero experiences as a result of his mistake, experiencing the consequences of his mistake (â€Å"Aristotle†, 1998), which was usually a surprise to the audience but perfectly logical. With this definition in hand, it is easy to see how Shakespeare’s plays, such as Julius Caesar, Hamlet and King Lear fit within this definition. In the play Julius Caesar, the character Marcus Brutus emerges as a tragic hero because he fits all of the above criteria in character and action. When the play opens, Brutus is seen as one of the only senators to be capable of putting the interests of Rome above his own. He tells Cassius, â€Å"What means this shouting? I do fear the people do choose Caesar for their king ... yet I love him well† (I, ii, ll.85-89). This shows his ability and establishes his noble nature above the other men who are all scheming for their own self-interest. However, he is able to discern some level of deceit in other men because he seems very sure of his own noble opinions; that he is always on the side of correct action because he keeps his eye on what is best for the people. He is easily convinced of his own better judgment by Cassius who also suggests that the best course of action would be to kill Caesar. Brutus demonstrates that this is his motive for action when he says, â€Å"If then t hat friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more† (III,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The Impact of Rising Healthcare Cost on Employer Benefits Essay

The Impact of Rising Healthcare Cost on Employer Benefits - Essay Example One of the most strongly affected employee benefits due to increasing healthcare costs have been retirement benefits. The most common retirement benefits that employers provide to their employees are pension, gratuity fund, healthcare and provident fund. These benefits help in ensuring that the retired employees either have a consistent stream of income or a reasonable amount available to them once they have left the organization. Although the number of benefits offered to employees varies from employer to employer, yet on a larger scale the trend in the industry has been affected negatively. The relationship between healthcare costs and retirement benefits has been inversely proportional. The rise in the former has lead to a decrement in the latter. In many cases the impact has been so grave that employers have had to completely cut down on certain benefits like entitlement to healthcare after retirement, pension and gratuity fund. During interviews with managers and employees at different organizations, it was observed that the inflation in the cost of healthcare has lead to immense dissatisfaction among employees. ... Statement of the Nature of the Issue and its Origins The burgeoning cost of healthcare has affected employers' healthcare coverage plans and other benefit policies. Of all the benefits issues the most severely affected and neglected one has been that of retirement plans. In the past companies used to provide full coverage of employee retirement benefits but now an increasing number of employees have to bear the burden themselves. Employees are spending more time at work to earn more in order to meet the demands of the current life style. Improvements in living standards have caused an increase in expenditure on the whole. Owing to this, retirement benefits play an important role in enabling retirees to maintain life styles as they used to lead during employment. In the past, employers assumed all the risks which came with the benefit plans they offered to their employees. They also made significantly large contributions to these plans. However, with the passage of time, they have been shifting the risks on their employees and minimizing the contributions as well. Over the past 10 years the inflation in healthcare costs has been unacceptably huge. Pension fund which was already facing a continuous decline was hit hard by this. A pension fund is a sum of money paid regularly as a retirement benefit. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of rising healthcare costs on the decline in the provision of retirement benefits by employers. It primarily emphasizes the cut down in pension funds to which the employee was initially entitled. Literature Review By several measures, health care spending continues to rise at the fastest rate in history. In 2005 (the latest year data are available), total

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Cineplex Entertainment - The Loyalty Program Case Study

Cineplex Entertainment - The Loyalty Program - Case Study Example The essay aims to outline the recommendations of Sarah Lewthwaite, the market director for the Cineplex Entertainment, to the committee of senior executives. The presentation contains persuasive arguments regarding loyalty program development campaign, considering the movie industry, which is having inconsistent revenues each year. Cineplex entertainment was founded in 1979 as a small chain of movie theaters. In 2005 Cineplex acquired its largest supplier and become the Canada’s largest film exhibiter. The market share of Cineplex after that acquisition jumped up to 40 million visits of customer per day. Cineplex also started giving value added services to its customer like food at branded concession counters, arcade games, etc. In the same year they also expanded their strategies and entered into new markets which generated customer traffic and boosted their revenue per day. Although the revenue appreciated a lot in the year 2005 compared to the previous years but cost of operation got high as well which shrined the net income of the company. Cineplex Entertainment had issued Elite cards to the customer which offered them rewards like free movie viewing after they accumulate a certain number of points. Cineplex had no CRM capabilities which could help them in driving customer traffic. According to the survey in 2005, 95% respondents wanted to have movie reward offer back. Considering that option for further investment Sarah Lewthwaite gave option of starting a loyalty program to the committee. Cineplex needed a loyalty partner because creating their own data system it would have cost them about $5.5 million in the first year. So they looked went on to look for a partner. Flight Miles, having 72 percent of Canadian active members, had the top loyalty program in Canada. Flight Miles can give Cineplex an opportunity to get access to their data bank of seven million customers which would certainly help them in targeting their market. Flight Miles program would cost yearly about $5 million and $0.09 on every point issued to the customer. Flight Miles executives offered Cineplex $250,000 to make the deal more attractive. Scotiabank approached to Cineplex as a potential partner for the loyalty program. It is amongst the top five bank of Canada having 6.8 million customers and 950 branches in Canada. The Scotiabank proposed a 50-50 cost sharing and expected naming rights on three theatres. They offered a three card reward strategy as well. The estimated cost portion of Cineplex w as about $3 million in the first year and $1.7 million and $1.9 million in the later years. Sarah Lewthwaite has now three options to look for loyalty program and had to work on them to finally get the best option. She will have to see the benefits as well as the constraints of the three options. She also restructured the reward program. Sarah performed a sensitivity analysis in the concession revenue per guest which might increase by 5 to 15 per cent and also thought of having a nominal one time or annual membership fee of $2 to $5. Sarah Lewthwaite also knew the fact that only 40 per cent of the points earned by the customer in the loyalty program would be redeemed annually. Lewthwaite then drafted reward structure that contained a preliminary list of four options but she was not sure that which option will click in the customer mind. Loyalty program required a data base vendor who could manage the

Monday, September 23, 2019

Construct and analyze a Financial plan based on management's strategic Term Paper

Construct and analyze a Financial plan based on management's strategic intent - Term Paper Example Thus, one purpose of strategic intent is to forecast a firm's financial statements under some specific conditions.   Since total assets must equal the sum of total liabilities and owner's equity, any imbalance will require management action. Having forecasted the amount and timing of the imbalance, a financial manager can arrange for financing (such as bank loans or stock offerings) or investment (such as marketable securities) long before the need becomes critical. Strategic intent statements help general managers in overall planning (employment and inventory levels, for example) and problem solving. As forecasts are developed, a manager can analyze the results to identify potential trouble spots and plan accordingly. Finding problems and trying out solutions on paper, months in advance, is much preferred to learning about the problem first hand in real time. Similarly, by â€Å"seeing† into the future with strategic intent statements, a manager can anticipate opportunities and prepare to exploit them long before the window of opportunity begins to close. In addition to being a planning tool, strategic intent statements, in tandem with actual results, can be used to evaluate performance and make midstream corrections. Variance analysis, a comparison of the plan with actual performance, helps a manager analyze firm performance during the budget period, gauge strengths and weaknesses, and make interim adjustments to the plan. The accuracy of strategic intent statements is limited by the validity of the assumptions used in creating them. Often a series of statements is developed by making different assumptions about sales and about the relationship between sales and the balance sheet accounts. This is called a sensitivity analysis. The resulting set of statements suggests the most likely outcomes for the firm and a range of financing needs. After building a balance sheet statement based on expected sales, a manager can then use sensitivity analyses to an swer questions such as how the company's financial needs will change if sales are 10 percent below their expected level, etc. Since the hotel industry is a fairly competitive one, the hotel managers need to be excellent. With the income and financial statements at their disposal, the managers will make strategic decisions that will be founded on fact since Proforma balance sheets are created by forecasting the individual account balances at a future date and then aggregating them into a financial statement format. Account balances are forecasted by identifying the forces that influence them and projecting how the accounts will be influenced in the future by such forces. Sales, company policy, and restrictive debt covenants are often significant forces. An annual data has been provided which has to be focused for 36 months and monthly income statements and balance sheets and a strategic intent provided as well. With such information at their disposal, the managers will make a firm st rategic decision on their new acquisition. 2.0 ANNUAL BUDGETED INCOME STATEMENT INCOME STATEMENT Total revenues $ Annual room revenues 209,523 Annual food and beverages 113668 Other revenue 328433 Total 14792023 Variable cost annual 8,531,040 Fixed cost annual 8,728,500 Total 9,582,604 Operating

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The Teacher as a Hero Essay Example for Free

The Teacher as a Hero Essay T here are heroes and heroes, national and local. Some of them are born, others are made. Many are still living while many others have long been gone. It is to the latter that monuments and museums were built to keep alive their memory in our hearts and mind. Public buildings, parks and plazas, streets and a few provinces have been named after them. Important dates and events are usually marked red in the calendar to remind us of their birth or death anniversary. During the celebration of these events, program speakers take turns extolling to high heavens whatever good they had done for the country. Sad enough the hero who is apparently taken for granted and therefore unsung is the poor teacher. Not having a pedigreed name, she has no influence, no power. She is regarded as belonging to the marginalized sector of society. Tactless people look down on her with contempt saying, â€Å"She’s only a teacher. † After all, unlike OFWs, teachers do not contribute to the national economy. What many do not seem to realize is that a teacher is truly a hero in her own way. For a teacher is not only about her lesson plans, her teaching methods, strategies and techniques. A teacher is also about her personal character, her values and her attitude. And more importantly a teacher is also about her missionary work which entails a great deal of sacrifice on her part and her family. Indeed, the pro-bono services that she renders involve numerous risks to life and limb. We have heard of teachers who were kidnapped for ransom, forced into marriage under pain of bodily harm, physically abused and the unfortunate, even beheaded. I remember a male teacher who reprimanded a student for provoking trouble in class. That afternoon the huffy father with fire in his eyes sought the teacher in school and mercilessly hacked him to death. I had a relative who was summoned to the Comelec office in Manila and made to explain her inadvertence to affix her signature on a pair of election forms. The financially distressed teacher was forced to take a long-term loan which she used to pay for her transportation fare, board and lodging while in Manila. In the meantime her family had to be sparing and frugal in order to tide them over until such period that the loan was fully paid. While other government employees are off after five, the teacher spends long hours of work at home writing lesson plans, checking test papers or preparing visual aids and similar teaching devices. Compared to those who work in the comfort of their office, thousands of our teachers go on long hours of journey to their far-flung stations over hill and dale, many times in harsh weather condition. It is no wonder that many of these teachers become decrepit long before their age or they get pitifully sick before retirement from the service. And yet their take-home pay is a mere pittance. Any increase in their starvation salary comes far apart and in trickles because this is dependent upon the members of Congress who remember the teachers only on election time. Come May of next year teachers will again be called upon to man the electoral ramparts of our democracy. They will be there to help safeguard the sanctity of the ballot, armed only with the nobility and integrity of their profession. Whatever people say to the contrary, the teacher as a hero is ready to lay down her life for the sake of country sans a loud flourish of trumpets. I salute our teachers as heroes, living or dead! ANTONIO A. MORAN of Camalig, Albay is a retired general education supervisor of the Department of Education.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Site Directed Mutagenesis of Subtilisin

Site Directed Mutagenesis of Subtilisin Introduction Subtilisin is a monomeric protein serine protease, which is produced by Gram positive bacteria and fungi.(1) Serine proteases are a subgroup of carbonyl hydrolase. These carbonyl hydrolases can be naturally occurring or recombinant. Naturally occurring carbonyl hydrolases consists of subtilisin matalloproteases, serine carboxypeptidase and thiol proteinase. In case of recombinant carbonyl hydrolase, the sequence coding for the wild type enzyme is altered to produce a mutant either by insertion, substitution or deletion of amino acid. Proteases are a diverse class of enzymes having several biological functions and specificities. The catalytic machinery of these enzymes is attributed to subtilisin and mammalian chymotrypsin related bacterial serine protease.(2) They are responsible for cleaving peptide bonds found in proteins. The proteases play an important role in cell wall turnover and are maximally expressed in the stationary phase. Serine proteases have molecular weights ranging f rom 25,000-30,000. They are inhibited by diidopropylfluorophosphate but are resistant to EDTA ( ethylene diamaine tetra acetic acid.) (3) The amino acid sequences of several subtilisins like subtilisin Carlsberg, subtilisin BPN, and subtilisin DY are known. Subtilisin BPN is a 275 amino acid serine protease, which is secreted by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. This enzyme is industrially important and its gene has been cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis. This molecule has two enzyme binding sites- one of the site binds weakly to cations and the other one binds calcium with high affinity. These calcium binding sites are common characteristics of microbial proteases since they contribute towards kinetic and thermodynamic stability. Subtilisin is majorly used in industries wherein the environment contains high levels of metal chelators which remove the calcium from subtilisin , thus reducing its stability. It would be highly beneficial to create a stable subtilisin which would be independent of calcium. These mutated subtilisin enzymes will have an enhanced stability even in the presence of detergents and chaotropic ag ents. X-ray crystallographic analysis of mutants revealed that the conformational changes due to the mutations are localized, with very less distortion of the backbone structure. Thus a large increase in stability can be obtained with very minor changes in the protein structure. Mutants can be created by deletion, addition or substitution of amino acids at positions 75-83. The deletion of amino acids 75-83 has shown to eliminate the calcium binding site while still retaining its enzymatic activity. However, calcium free subtilisins are susceptible to proteolysis. This can be overcome by converting the active site serine 221 to cysteine (S221C). This allows the protein to fold without any auto-degradation by proteolysis. A recombinant DNA was created which encoded an active subtilisin protein without the ability to bind to calcium. The protein had no codons which specifies amino acids 75-83 and had certain additional stabilizing mutations at the N-terminal amino acids 1-8 or the ÃŽ ± helix amino acids 70-74 or the helix turn amino acids 84-89. Suitable host cells were transformed with an expression vector containing this DNA segment. Upon culturing the host cells the enzymatically active subtilisin mutant was expressed and recovered.(1) Fabric cleaning compositions containing subtilisin BPN mutants The ability to hydrolyze proteins can be exploited by incorporating these proteases as an additive to laundry detergents. Most of the stains on clothes are proteinaceous and these enzymes can efficiently aid in their removal. The amino acid sequence of the protease is responsible for its characteristics. The subtilisin BPN variants have modifications at 2-3 amino acid positions. This variant has an increased hydrolytic power and decreased adsorption to an insoluble substrate as compared to the original subtilisin. A decreased adsorption to the substrate results in a better cleaning performance. In subtilisin BPN, the amino acids ranging from position 199-220 form a large exterior loop on the molecule. This loop plays an important role in mediating the adsorption of enzyme to the surface bound peptide and mutations in this region will affect the adsorption. The substituting amino acids in case of a mutation are either neutral or negatively charged. The substituting amino acid for position 199 is mostly His, Ala, Cys, Pro, Glu, Asp, Gly, Asn or Gln and for position 207 is Glu or Asp. The cleaning compositions comprise of 0.001-1% of one or more enzyme variants. The enzyme variants can be used along with other conventional ingredients to produce efficient fabric laundry composition. These fabric cleaning compositions also contain various zwitterionic or anionic surfactants, hydrotopes, dyes or pigments, primary or secondary alcohols, chelating agents and brighteners. Fermentation: The Bacillus subtilis cells having the subtilisin mutant are allowed to grow till mid log phase in LB glucose broth and is then inoculated into a fermentor. The cells are grown overnight at 37ËÅ ¡C. Chloramphenicol is added for the antibiotic selection of mutagenized plasmid. The cells are removed from the broth by centrifugation The enzyme is purified by affinity adsorption or cation exchange chromatography. The active enzyme concentration is determined by the pNA assay. ( para nitro anilide) This assay measures the rate at which pNA is released as the enzyme hydrolyses the substrate. The rate at which the yellow colour is produced is measured at 410nm with the help of a spectrophotometer and is directly proportional to the enzyme concentration. The total protein concentration can also be estimated by determining the absorbance at 280nm. (4) Production of subtilisin variants Techniques used in microbiology, molecular biology, protein purification and recombinant DNA technology are all used in developing a subtilisin variant, which is a part of dish washing and fabric cleaning compositions. Cassette mutagenesis method for production of protease variants The gene encoding the protease is sequenced The sequence is screened for a point at which desired mutation can be made The sequences flanking this region are checked for the presence of restriction enzyme site so as to replace a short segment of the gene with an oligonucleotide which will then encode various mutants. The gene is mutated by primer extension The oligonucleotides are synthesized to have the same restriction sites, eliminating the need for synthetic linkers to create the restriction site. The genes coding for serine proteases of B.amyloliquefaciens, B.subtilis and B.licheniformis can be used as targets for mutagenesis. The gene can be inserted into a suitable vector and introduced into a host strain ( Bacillus PB92) for expression and production of mutant proteases. These mutations / substitutions enhance the performance and stability of subtilisin in detergent compositions. These serine proteases can be used in the form of granules and liquid composition both in laundry dishwashing and cosmetic applications. These enzymes are often in the form of encapsulated particles in order to protect it from the other components. Encapsulation also improves the enzyme performance and helps in regulating its availability. The encapsulating material can be derived from carbohydrates, silicates, polyvinyl alcohol, borates, PEG or paraffin waxes. Fabric cleaning performance by Blood Milk Ink microswatch assay. (BWI) This assay is performed on a microtitre plate. Samples of the subtilisin variants and reference subtilisin are obtained from filtered culture broths. 10ul samples of the enzyme are added to the BWI swatch plate along with 90ul of working detergent solution. The plates are incubated for 30 minutes. 100ul of the supernatant is transferred into a new microtiter plate and its absorbance is measured. Control wells contain the detergent solution without the protease sample. The measurement at 450nm tracks pigment removal and at 600nm tracks turbidity and cleaning. The performance index (PI) of the variant is calculated. PI compares the performance of variant and reference enzyme at the same protein concentration. PI>1 the variant is better than the wild type. PI=1 variant and standard have the same performance PI

Friday, September 20, 2019

John F. Kennedy and the Civil Rights Movement Essay -- Black Civil Rig

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States. During his campaign he had promised to lead the country down the right path with the civil rights movement. This campaign promise had brought hope to many African-Americans throughout the nation. Ever since Lincoln, African-Americans have tended to side with the democrats and this election was no different. The Kennedy administration had noticed that the key to the presidency was partially the civil rights issue. While many citizens were on Kennedy’s side, he had his share of opposition. Malcolm X differed on the view of the President and observed that the civil rights movement wasn’t happening at the speed Kennedy had pledged. Malcolm X possessed other reasons for his dislike of John F. Kennedy and his brothers, especially Robert. The Kennedy government stood for racial liberalism and Malcolm X argued their true intentions for the civil rights movement weren’t in the best interest of the black population. This tension streamed both ways. John Kennedy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation felt that Malcolm X had become a threat to national security. James Baldwin has written essays that have included the repeated attacks on the white liberal and supports Malcolm in many of his theories and actions. Malcolm X became one of the leading figures during the civil rights movement with his great ideas and speaking abilities. Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X led the Nation of Islam in the United States. The Nation existed as a growing organization and the government felt that it would turn into a violent association. The FBI became intensely interested in Malcolm after his joining with Elijah Muhammad and began to tap Malcolm X and try to find charges against him so he... ...s an informant! Works Cited Baldwin, James. â€Å"Down at the Cross.† 1995. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998:296-347. ---. â€Å"To Be Baptized.† 1995. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 404-474. ---. â€Å"White Man’s Guilt.† 1995 James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 722-727. â€Å"Civil Rights.† Congressional Quarterly Almanac 17 (1961): 81. Evanzz, Karl. The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm. NY: Thunder’s Mouth, 1992. Handler, M.S. â€Å"Malcolm X Scores Kennedy on Racial Policy.† New York Times 17 May 1963:14. Jenkins, Robert, ed. The Malcolm X Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002. Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Separate Peace Essay: Self-Examination in A Separate Peace :: Separate Peace Essays

Self-Examination A Separate Peace opens as Gene Forrester returns to Devon School, a New England prep school, about fifteen years after he was in attendance there. World War II had just begun then and he remembers the Summer Suicide Society--an organization founded by his best friend, Finny, which devotes itself to initiating members by having them jump from the tree into the river. Gene and Finny always had to take the first jump from the tree. As time goes on, Gene begins to resent Finny because of his athletic talents and on one occasion, he jounces the limb so that Finny will fall. Finny's leg is shattered, preventing him from playing any sports, but Finny refuses to believe that Gene could have done this, even though Gene confesses. When Finny returns to school, he wants to develop Gene into a good athlete for the 1944 Olympics. As one of the many examples of opposing elements contrasted with each other, Gene tells Finny that sports are not important because of the war, which Finny refuses to be lieve. A while later, some boys from the prep school take Gene and Finny to a big assembly room, where they want to clear up the matter of Finny's broken leg. Gene realizes that he is being put on trial, Finny refuses to answer any questions because he trusts his friend, Finny leaves the room agitated, slips on the stairs, and breaks the same leg again. At the hospital, Finny has a changed attitude and asks Gene why he pushed him out of the tree. Gene says the act was a blind impulse. Later that day, Finny dies when some Q~i~ bone marrow gets into his bloodstream. Looking back on the experience, Gene believes that he was never very interested in the war because he was waging his own personal war between the acceptance of the clearly defined prep school values and Finny's laid-back values. He had killed his enemy at school. Knowles' book focuses on the adolescent period of life. Adolescence is a very confusing time of life, primarily because a person fluctuates from wanting to be a child and being innocent to wanting to be an adult and questioning life. Knowles emphasizes that both worlds of adolescent and adult life share many similarities and overlap often--they are not separate entities. Even in the green, neatly kept paradise of Devon School, there existed some areas of uncontrolled wilderness.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Essay --

According to Niccolo Machiavelli’s, The Prince, there are five traits that make up a successful leader. The five traits that are necessary in determining a leader’s success involve being feared, being virtuous, having the support of the people, having intelligence and the use of arms. In this paper, I will argue that the Duke Vincentio of William Shakespeare’s, Measure for Measure, is an ineffective leader because he loses virtue acting deceitful and spying on his subjects as a friar. Also, when he realizes that his people do not fear him, he allows for Angelo to come so that he can win their respect by becoming the better option of the two. It is portrayed by his constant presence in the play as the friar, that instead of earning the support of his people, he treats them as puppets and himself as the master puppeteer. The people do not fear the Duke so he tries to win them over another way; he selfishly puts Angelo in power, knowing that Angelo’s faults will make the Duke look like a better leader. The duke is a soft ruler and cannot bring himself to punish his people when they commit a crime. When his loses the respect and fear of his people, he puts Angelo in charge of the people, knowing that he may not be fit for the task. The duke may have saw putting Angelo in power and dressing as a friar as a way to establish law and order in Vienna but still being the merciful leader he is known as. When the Duke asks Lord Angelo to take over, Angelo refuses and says that his skill must be tested some other way first. The Duke responds by saying: My haste may not admit it; Not need you, on mine honour, have to do With any scruple: your scope is as mine own, So to enforce or qualify the laws As to your soul seems good. Give me you... ...e is going to tell next to deceive his power. Throughout his presence in the play as the friar, the Duke is never recognized as his true self. This portrays an intelligent man, experienced in the art of scheming and lying. Niccolo Machiavelli would classify the Duke as an ineffective ruler because he fails to uphold virtue when constantly deceives his subjects. The duke may be intelligent in his scheming ways, but this is the only on of Machiavelli’s five traits that the Duke portrays throughout the play. His people does not fear the Duke Vincentio as Machiavelli believes a good leader should be and he tries to steal the respect of his people by putting a harsh ruler into power. His huge role in the play both as his role as the friar and the Duke, shows that instead of earning the support of his people, he treats them as puppets and himself as the master puppeteer.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Business Plan for a New Energy Drink Company Essay

1. Table of Contents 2. Introduction 3. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights. 4. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc. 5. Product: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits. 6. Market, Sales, and Development: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc. 7. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results. 8. Management: Describe the organization and the key management team members. 9. Goals and Strategies: 10. Summary of Financials: Make sure to include at the very least your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables. 11. Conclusion Company Description Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company was started in North Dakota as a small producer, packager, and distributor of a unique energy drink. Through our natural products, good customer relationships and catchy advertisements we have grown to distribute our product to all fifty states in the U. S. Our customers include service stations, vending machine companies, grocery stores, restaurants, and bars. We are hoping to expand to all of Australia within the next year. Company Ownership Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company is a private, family owned producer and distributor of Pocket Aces Energy Drink. The owners and operators are Bruce, Terry, and Casey Willis. Company History Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company has been in business since 2006. Our company is finishing its third year of operation. The current facility was built specifically for producing, packaging and distributing the product. It is located outside of Williston, ND and provides the area with 200+ jobs. Product. Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company has five flavors of all natural energy drinks. The original formula and four other flavors, strawberry, orange, pomegranate, and our newest hit pineapple banana. Competitive Comparison Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company has set itself aside from other energy drink companies by using only natural components and refusing to draw on ingredients taken from animals, like taurine which is taken from the tissues of many animals especially those from the sea (Common). Another aspect of Pocket Aces Energy Drink that sets us apart is our unique packaging. We use aluminum bottles with screw on lids. They are 100 percent recyclable and don’t have to be consumed all at once. There is no other energy drink packaged like ours at this time. Market, Sales, and Development The energy drink market has many competitors. There are hundreds of brands that claim to give that needed energy boost. Pocket Aces main competitors right now are Red Bull, KMX, and Full Throttle (Comparison). The recent energy drink trend in North America has grown out of the massive popularity for Red Bull, one of the first energy drinks on the North American scene post-Jolt, from a small Thai producer, which still has about 47% of the market share (Brief). The Australian energy drink market is very similar to the market in the United States. Although, there is one more energy drink in Australia to compete with. V is an energy drink brand produced by Frucor Beverages Ltd since August 1997. It held 53 percent of the market share in Australia in 2003 (V). Pocket Aces intends to market all of the energy drinks flavors they have by targeting college students first and then moving to all ages. We intend to appear as an attractive alternative to their drink of choice with our recyclable bottles, great taste, and the fact that we don’t get any of our ingredients from animals. We will first approach major service station chains and then advance to vending machine companies, grocery stores, restaurants, and bars. Management Team Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company is organized into three strategic departments: production and shipping, marketing and sales, and finance and administration. Bruce Willis is the CEO/President of the organization. He is in charge of the finance and administration. Bruce Willis, 54 has been an entrepreneur since he graduated in 1969 from Minot State University, Minot ND with a degree in business management. After owning several gas/service stations around rural North Dakota, he decided to start up his own business developing a new energy drink that tasted good and was all natural. Terry Willis is Vice President in charge of sales and marketing of Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company. Terry, 26 graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University in 2006. She has a Bachelors degree in Marketing and hopes to take over for her father when he chooses to retire. Casey Willis is Vice President authorized to handle the production and shipping aspects of the corporation. Casey, 50 worked as a factory manager for Marvin Windows for twelve years before venturing to start this new business with her husband. She supervises all the production and shipping employees and also is head of the continuous improvement team at the plant. Goals and Strategies Our main strategy at this time is to appeal to potential sellers and buyers of Pocket Aces Energy drink in Australia. We sell an exceptional version of the typical energy drink. To communicate this to the Australian market we will use personal selling, targeted advertisements, and online communication through our updated website. Five Year Plan In five years we plan to be an international company with production factories in all of the major countries we sell to. Our workforce will have increased to meet the needs of the customers. We also hope to build our own recycling plants near all of our facilities. Ten Year Plan Our plan for ten years is to continue growing to all parts of the world. We hope to have the major market share in all of the countries we sell too. Also Pocket Aces Energy Drink Company anticipates expanding our product line and being a major sponsor of sports events like surfing, motocross, and the X games. Summary of Financials. References EnergySip. com. (2007). Brief History of Energy Drinks. http://energysip. com/history. html EnergySip. com. (2007). Common Energy Drink Ingredients. http://energysip. com/ingred. html FactExpert. com. (2005). Comparison of Energy Drink Products. http://energydrinks. factexpert. com/881-energy-drink-comparison. php Wikipedia. org. (2009). V (drink). http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/V_(drink).

Monday, September 16, 2019

Isokinetic Muscle Strength In Patients Health And Social Care Essay

The intent of this survey was to measure the lower appendage isokinetic musculus strength, to find affected musculus groups and their dependance on motion speed, and to happen out the relationship between musculus strength and clinical badness, every bit good as musculus strength and falls, in Parkinson ‘s disease ( PD ) . Twenty-five patients diagnosed with PD and 24 healthy voluntaries were enrolled in this survey. The lower appendage musculus strength was evaluated with an isokinetic ergometer. Clinical position was examined in conformity with the Unified Parkinson ‘s Disease Rating Scale ; autumn history was besides recorded. We have observed that there was a important lessening in isokinetic musculus strength in the patient group, particularly in both of the hip and articulatio genus flexors and extensors. It has been found that reduced musculus strength was independent of speed, and correlated with clinical badness and falls. In decision, motion velocity-independent lower appendage isokinetic musculus failing has been observed in patients with PD, particularly in the articulatio genus and hip articulations. Therefore, the rating of isokinetic musculus strength may be a utile tool for the appraisal of clinical badness and falls in PD. Keywords: Parkinson ‘s disease ; Isokinetic ; Muscle strength ; Lower appendage1. IntroductionParkinson ‘s disease ( PD ) is a common neurodegenerative status in which patients typically experience troubles such as awkwardness of motions ( bradykinesia ) , stiffness of the musculuss ( rigidness ) , shudder, balance perturbations, and progressive lessening in motor functions.1-3 When combined with multiple other factors, decreased musculus strength can take to falls among aged patients, doing breaks, joint disruptions, terrible soft tissue lesions, and caput trauma.4,5 As a back uping fact, the autumn rate is higher among those with PD compared to healthy aged persons, harmonizing to the clinical image of the disease.4,6 Muscle failing is one of the chief symptoms of PD.7 In recent clinical tests, decreased musculus strength has been observed in patients with PD.8-12 Kakinuma et al.12 measured the isokinetic musculus strength on articulatio genus extension and i ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡exion, and they observed isokinetic strength decrease on the side that is more greatly affected by PD. In another survey, Nallegowda et al.9 tested the bole, hip, and ankle flexor and extensor musculuss ‘ strengths utilizing isokinetic measuring, and reported a lessening in strength in all the flexor and extensor musculus groups. Pedersen et al.10 obtained lower isokinetic homocentric torsion consequences compared to command topics on quantitative appraisal of dorsii ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡exors. Inkster et al.11 observed that decreased strength at the hip muscles is an of import subscriber to the trouble in lifting from a chair among patients with PD. Finally, Nogaki et al.8,13 hypothesized that musculus failing in PD is likely to depend on motion speed. In contrast to the isokinetic ratings mentioned supra, there are some surveies in which quantitative isotonic and isometric musculus strengths have been evaluated.7,14,15 So far, there has been no survey in the literature that evaluated the isokinetic strength of the hip, articulatio genus, and ankle articulations together. There are some limited surveies, nevertheless, that evaluated the musculus groups at different isokinetic speeds in the lower extremity13, every bit good as the correlativity between musculus strength, and clinical position and falls9 among patients with PD. In this survey, we evaluate the lower appendage flexor and extensor isokinetic musculus strength at the hip, articulatio genus, and ankle articulations in patients with PD. We aim to happen out which musculus groups and motion speeds of the lower appendage are more greatly affected by the disease, and we seek to detect the relationship between musculus failing, and clinical position and falls.2. Materials and Methods2.1. Patients This survey was designed as a cross-sectional, controlled survey. The patients included in this work were from the outpatient clinics of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Neurology Departments, and were diagnosed with PD harmonizing to the United Kingdom Parkinson ‘s Disease Society Brain Bank criteria.9 The survey was approved by the local ethical commission at the Inonu University School of Medicine and carried out in conformity with the rules in the Declaration of Helsinki. Written consent was obtained from all the participants. Twenty-five patients ( 17 males and 8 females ) were included in the survey. The average age of the patients was 62.1A ±10.3 ( with a scope of 42-81 ) old ages. All patients were at Hoehn & A ; Yahr phase II or III, and were having intervention for PD. None of the patients had any serious orthopedic, neurological, vestibular, or ocular upset that could impact their musculus strength, and all of them could walk unsupported. Twenty-four healthy voluntaries ( 13 males and 11 females ) with no orthopedic, neurological, or other diseases constituted the control group, which was age-matched with the patient group. 2.2. Appraisals 2.2.1. The Unified Parkinson ‘s Disease Rating Scale ( UPDRS ) and Hoehn & A ; Yahr presenting Patients were assessed with the usage of the Unified Parkinson ‘s Disease Rating Scale ( UPDRS ) portion II ‘activities of day-to-day populating ‘ ( UPDRS-ADL ) and portion III ‘motor scrutiny ‘ ( UPDRS-ME ) 16, and Hoehn & A ; Yahr staging.17 2.2.2. Fall history We used a standard definition for autumn, which is â€Å" accidentally coming to rest on the land, floor, or other lower degree. â€Å" 18 For the interest of coherence with the definition, coming to rest against furniture or a wall was non accepted as a autumn. The figure of falls was determined utilizing self-reported autumn events during the past 6 months. 2.2.3. Isokinetic musculus strength Isokinetic musculus strength trials were administered in the forenoon before the patients took any medical specialty. Patients foremost warmed up for 10 proceedingss on a bike dynamometer with a burden of 1 W/kg. We used the Biodex System 3 Pro ( Biodex, Inc. , Shirley, NY, USA ) isokinetic ergometer for the isokinetic measurings. During the trials, the patients were stabilized with seat belts in order to supply joint stabilisation and to forestall them from falling off the trial chair. All trials were performed on both appendages. The isokinetic protocol consisted of trials at three angular motion speeds of 90, 120, and 150 degrees/sec at 10 revolutions per minute, with a 5-min remainder period between trials. We followed the same process for hip flexion-extension, knee flexion-extension, and ankle plantar/dorsiflexion. The articulatio genus and mortise joint trials were performed in a seated place, while a supine place was used to find hip flexure and extension strength. All trials were performed for homocentric musculus strength every bit good, where the maximal extremum torsion ( Nm ) was recorded at each angular velocity.9 2.3. Statistical analysis We used the SPSS 16.0 package for statistical rating of the trial consequences ( SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA ) . The normalcy for uninterrupted variables in groups was determined by the Shapiro-Wilk trial. We used Student ‘s t-test or Mann-Whitney U trial for comparings, whereas Spearman ‘s rank correlativity trial was used for analysis of informations. For correlativity analysis, the mean musculus strength was calculated at 90, 120, and 150 degree/sec angular motion speeds over the entire values for the hip, articulatio genus, and ankle musculuss. A p value of less than 0.05 was taken as the degree of significance.3. ConsequencesThe descriptive features of the patient and control groups are presented in Table 1. It can be observed from the tabular array that there was no statistically important difference between the two groups in age, weight, and tallness. The average disease continuance was 5.6A ±3.9 ( with a scope of 1-15 ) old ages. Fifteen patients ( 60 % ) were in Hoe hn & A ; Yahr phase II, and 10 ( 40 % ) were in phase III. In the patient group, the UPDRS ME and ADL tonss were 26.3A ±12 and 8.9A ±5, severally. During the last 6 months, the figure of lumbermans in the patient group was 12 ( 48 % ) , compared to merely 4 ( 16.7 % ) in the control group ( P & lt ; 0.05 ) . The mean figure of falls was found to be 0.9A ±1.1 in the patient group and 0.2A ±0.5 in the control group ( P & lt ; 0.001 ) . The isokinetic musculus strength of the patient and control groups is shown in Table 2. At all speeds, the musculus strength of hip flexors ( P & lt ; 0.01 ) and extensors ( P & lt ; 0.05 ) was found to be significantly less in the patient group. Similarly, compared with the control group ( P & lt ; 0.05 ) , we observed a important lessening in the musculus strength of articulatio genus flexors and extensors in the patient group, irrespective of the speed. Furthermore, the isokinetic extremum torsions of ankle plantar- and dorsiflexor musculuss exhibited significantly smaller values at certain motion speeds in the patient group ( P & lt ; 0.05 ) . We observed a considerable relationship between musculus strength and figure of falls ( P & lt ; 0.01 ) . The correlativity between musculus strength and Hoehn & A ; Yahr phase was statistically important. There was besides a strong correlativity between musculus strength and all UPDRS tonss ( P & lt ; 0.01 ) . However, there was no correlativity between musculus strength and disease continuance.4. DiscussionThe lower appendage musculus strength is known to hold a outstanding consequence on mobility. So far, there have non been any surveies in the literature that evaluated the overall flexor and extensor musculus strength in the hip, articulatio genus, and ankle articulations in patients with PD, although several surveies have evaluated the musculus strength in merely one or two articulations separately10,12,13. In this survey, we assessed musculus strength with an isokinetic ergometer in an effort to find which musculus groups were more greatly affected, and at which of the evaluate d motion speeds, and to measure their correlativity with clinical position and falls. While many surveies have evaluated isokinetic musculus strength before ( off province ) and after ( on province ) medicine, we chose to prove all the patients in the forenoon after backdown of medicine ( off province ) . The chief ground for this pick is to govern out the effects of medicine while measuring the musculus failing that exists as portion of the nature of PD. The positive effects of antiparkinsonian agents on musculus strength have already been shown in many studies9,19 and are outside the range of this survey. Nallegowda et al.9 evaluated the isokinetic musculus strength at the bole, hip, and ankle flexor and extensor musculuss at 90, 120, and 150 degree/sec angular speeds, which are the same as the 1s used in our survey. They found a important difference in all musculus groups between patients who did non take medicine and the healthy control group. In contrast, we evaluated the articulatio genus flexor and extensor musculus strength alternatively of the bole flexor and extensor musculus strength. As a consequence, we observed a important failing in all hip and articulatio genus musculuss at all evaluated speeds, every bit good as in mortise joint musculuss at some certain speeds. There was besides pronounced musculus failing in the hip flexors compared to the other musculus groups. Hip flexors are the major gas pedals in the swing stage of the gait.20 The trouble in gait induction in patients with PD may lend to the apparent failing of the hip flexors. However, Bartels et al.21 suggested that freeze of pace was non correlated with bradykinesia. Alternatively, ankle musculus strength is more of import in forestalling falls and for proper pace. Less terrible mortise joint musculus failing than the other musculus groups demonstrates the importance of other factors like proprioception. Zia et al.22 pointed out the damage of joint place sense in patients with PD. These consequences suggest the possibility of different underlying diseased mechanisms. Pedersen et al.10 evaluated the mortise joint dorsiflexor isokinetic musculus strength both concentrically and eccentrically, and found significantly lower values for the homocentric musculus strength at all motion speeds compared to the control group, while the bizarre musculus strength was different from the control group merely in male patients. Kakinuma et al.12 separated the topics into two groups harmonizing to their holding more- or less-affected appendage, and found that the isokinetic musculus strength decreased at both the slow and fast motion speeds during the early period of the disease. They besides observed that the difference in musculus strength between the more- and the less-affected appendages decreased in the advanced phase of the disease. Our survey and the surveies mentioned above 9,10,12 demonstrated no relation between the reduced musculus strength and the motion speeds. Nogaki et al.13 found a important lessening in the peak torsion of the isokinetic musculus strength compared to the less-affected appendage at high motion speeds but no difference between the two appendages at lower motion speeds. Therefore, the observation of increased musculus failing at higher motion speeds, which was proposed in the survey by Nogaki et al.13, is comparable with the determination in our survey. Although Corcos et al.23 indicated an asymmetric distribution of musculus failing, our survey has shown the common musculus failing in patients with PD to be similar to those found in the survey by Nallegowda et al.9 In some studies9,13, the importance of the cardinal consequence on musculus failing was emphasized, but the consequence of immobilisation was non considered in patients with PD. The effects of immobilisation on musculus failing should be noted, particularly in aged patients with PD. Assorted surveies reported the hazard of falling in those with PD to run from 38 to 70 % 2,4,9. Our consequences sing the per centum of patients who have suffered from falls were similar. There was a important relationship between falling and musculus strength, but we have non come across any surveies on the association of musculus strength with falls in patients with PD. Some authors24,25 have observed musculus failing at lower appendage as a hazard factor for falling. Therefore, the hazard of falling may be examined in connexion with lower appendage isokinetic musculus strength in patients with PD. We found a pronounced correlativity between musculus strength, and UPDRS ME and ADL tonss. Since the UPDRS ME and ADL tonss are related to clinical position, we had already expected to happen such correlativity between these parametric quantities and musculus strength. The UPDRS is a often used measuring for measuring the clinical state of affairs of patients with PD.26 Given the important correlativity between musculus strength and the UPDRS, isokinetic musculus strength may be used to measure clinical position of patients. Disease patterned advance in PD was evaluated utilizing Hoehn & A ; Yahr presenting. Increased disease badness ( a†°?stage III ) leads to more pronounced locomotor system abnormality.27 Most of our patients were in Hoehn & A ; Yahr phase II. As can be seen in Table 3, there appeared a important correlativity between isokinetic musculus strength and Hoehn & A ; Yahr phase. Muscle failing in our patients was non outstanding, as they were at an early phase of PD. It seems musculus failing is related to clinical badness instead than disease continuance. The chief restrictions of our survey are the unequal figure of patients and the absence of lower speeds, such as 60 degrees/sec, at which isokinetic musculus strength could be evaluated. In drumhead, we found a important lessening in bilateral hip, articulatio genus, and ankle flexor and extensor isokinetic musculus strength, which was particularly outstanding in the hip muscles at 90, 120, and 150 degree/sec angular motion speeds. In add-on, we detected a relationship between disease badness and musculus failing. Furthermore, a important correlativity was besides present between musculus strength, and UPDRS ME and ADL tonss. Finally, there was a pronounced association between musculus strength and figure of falls.5. DecisionsTaking the consequences of our survey into consideration, we have shown that although musculus strength decreased in the lower appendage, particularly in the hip and articulatio genus, musculus failing was non associated with the speeds at which it was evaluated in this survey. We have demonstrated that the rating of musculus failing degree may be a utile tool for the appraisal of clinical badness and autumn hazard in patients with PD. It should be noted, nevertheless, that conflicting old consequences and the deficiency of specific criterions necessitate farther surveies.RecognitionThe writers would wish to thank Associate Professor Saim Yologlu ( Department of Statistics, Inonu University School of Medicine ) for his sort part to this survey.