Movie: Crash / Movie Review

Crash is a movie which tackles racial and social conflicts in Los Angeles, California. It was directed by Paul Haggis and it was released in the international market by the year of 2005. Haggis was inspired by a true to life event wherein his own car was carjacked in 1991. The story shows how human beings were born inherently good, yet as they grow older, people tends to have their own prejudices in life. Crash is a movie which depicts prejudice, racism, and racial norms. The location of the film was good in that Los Angeles is home to different people, of different culture and different beliefs.Crash begin when a number of people are engaged in a multi-car mishap. From then on, the audiences were brought to the day before the crash happened. It allowed the audiences to see the lives of the characters of the story, as well as the problems and the dilemmas they came across on that fateful day. An LADP cop was featured while he was attempting to get medical assistance for his sire. How ever, he encountered a problem with a black HMO clerk who would not allow in giving his sire consent to see a different doctor.This led to him turning his annoyance out on a black couple in the course of a traffic stop. Sandra Bullock, a rich girl, along with a District Lawyer (Brandon Fraser) was then on showed being carjacked by 2 black juveniles. In turn, Sandra released her fury on a Mexican locksmith who, at that point in time, was innocently working on the door locks of their house. Later on, the Mexican locksmith was once more deprived of hid own dignity by a Persian store-proprietor. The story depicts how each character shows their good side, only for the movie to later on show their negative side in the story.Crash, by Higgins portrays the way we tackle every facet in our daily lives which could be linked to the world’s class and racism. Each plot processions were constructed in such a way that tackles racism and class in the center. The movie itself allows the audie nce to relate to a variety of emotions. Higgins is exceptional by making supplementing each act with certain turn of fates which leaves the audiences in certain thoughts even after the movie was already over.Each characters of the story leads a complex life and though we were allowed a brief view of what their lives were, we were still unable to fully comprehend the intricacies of each character. The movie was constructed in such a way that it allows us the opportunity to relate ourselves with that of the characters. The film was successful in tackling the problems and hazards of stereotyping and racism in today’s society.They were able to accomplish this goal by inspecting personal apprehensions of other cultures, biases, marginalization, and racism from the numerous standpoints of the characters in the film. In a way, Crash dares its viewers to question the beliefs and biases they held within themselves. In the end, the movie was able to make a statement that each and every one of us has our own set of prejudices which at times leads us to making a wrong move or decision.In the short period of two days, the protagonists in the movie look as though they are interwoven with each other. The characters appear to be caught up with their personal encounters with racism. A good example of this would be the couple, Christine Thayer and Rick Cabot. When they arrived home after being carjacked, Christine was both frantic and disturb, she claimed to know better and believed that there is little chance of the same thing ever happening again.She even went as far as giving those two Black juveniles the benefit of the doubt. People tends to act the same way Christine did, after we experience something bad or traumatic we prefer to forget about the incident and move on. At times we even try to think why people do certain things. We would certainly feel better if we know that what they stole from us was used for good reason such as feeding their family than to think th at they did something terrible simply because they think that doing that thing is fun or the like.Another scene in the story which specifically points towards the issue of racism is when Matt Dillon pulled over a black couple for no apparent reason at all. If we were one of the couples surely we would be shocked to be pulled over when we know very well that we did not commit any crime. The couple does not have any inkling whatsoever that the only reason they were pulled over were linked with racism and Dillon’s anger towards the Black man who refused to allow his father to see another doctor.The movie was able to make us realize that we face the same instances on our daily lives. Although slavery was already abolished the long ago rift between the Blacks and the Whites still exists. This is all true to every people of different color all around the world. We are then faced with the issue of color. Is color that important for other race to be so racist with the other culture? Personally I believe that color is only skin deep and that is why I find it hard to fathom why people tends to go racist over that of people of other color or ancestry.However the movie made me realize that although I long ago believed that color is of no importance and that I went to great measure to be sure that I treat each people I come across as fairly as I can, I realized that I was not really all that fair with my dealings with other people. Sometimes, although we are unaware of it, we tend to get racist. In the film we were shown an episode wherein Sandra Bullock let out her anger on the Mexican locksmith fixing her door.This particular incident made me realize the fact that we actually tends to do things that way. We usually let out our frustration on other people especially if we believe that our rank is far superior to them. As I have mentioned before, though unaware, we sometimes commit racism towards other culture. Maybe it is all due to that hidden feeling lying somewh ere there for all of us. It maybe that belief or the inherent wish for our culture to be the best, it may have stemmed up from our inherent belief that our race is far superior to that of another. In reality, we are thrown into a world full of hostility and violence. In a way, I commend the ability of the movie to make its audiences question their own biases in life.For one, I never really thought that I am capable of racism until I started questioning myself if I could truly tell myself that I have never in my life, been racist.   Although the movie centered most of its theme on racism, and although it made its audiences aware of some reality in life, the movie in itself did not give any ways nor did they explained how are we going to fight racism. The fact that the movie gave us a sense of awareness may be enough and in a way it is good that it did not give us any tips regarding the matter. Personally I believe that we alone could judge or determine the proper ways to fight raci sm. The truth of the matter is racism still exists; it is still there although we refuse to acknowledge it. Racism is prevalent in every society that even the most open minded of people is caught in the act of doing it.The movie showed in detail our all fight against our personal demons. It was clearly portrayed that no matter what race you are you are guilty of the crime of racism. This is evident by the way Cjristine realized later on the movie that her problem did not arise from the Mexican locksmith and maid. Rather, the problem lies within her self. In fact, the maid proved to be a great friend in the end. The inherent goodness of mankind is evident all throughout the movie. In the end, human beings were just that-humans, capable of mistake yet also capable of compassion and understanding.This is highly apparent as each character changed some of their attitudes. For one, the very cop who insulted the woman in front of her husband was the one who saved her own life. Another inst ance was when one of the black juveniles who stole Bullock’s car liberated an illegal Asian immigrant which remained concealed in the van There was also an instance when people of different races and color were seen in the screen (each one of them have certain problem towards that of another). Certain offensive phrases were thrown towards each other, covert biases were disclosed, and political rightness was thrown.This is one of the things I admired in the movie, it is indeed invigorating to be able to hear and feel all of those emotions on a widescreen. However, although I could say that the film is good in its own right there are still certain things to which, I believe the film failed. Although the film gave us a chance to reflect, I still believe that the way it was made was all so typical. For one, the irony of the film is that the so-called racist cop ended saving the day of the woman he earlier insulted wherein the supposedly good cop ended up killing an innocent black man. It was all there, it was already expected that this particular twist of event was already foreseen and lost its surprise in the process.Another factor is that Haggis gave us a brief glance on each character in the story but that alone was not enough. It made the story more complicated since there are so many stories you need to link together to be able to decipher the story as a whole. The brief glance we have of the other characters been too short for us to fully gauge what kind of stuff they are really made of. Due to Haggis intense hope to link each story of the characters with each other (which produce too much coincidences and luck) he failed to ignite some interest in the characters individual lives.â€Å"Crash† indeed is a good title for the movie, since it already says it all – the fact that we crash into different people without realizing that no matter how different we are from that of another, in the end we were all one (unity in diversity). Towards th e end of the movie they played an assortment of extensive music which portrays everyone on the cast looking so touching and emotional while an indie-rock song plays in the background. Basically, this particular scene in the movie was meant for the audiences to have some kind of a self reflection based on the movie we have just watched.The brilliance on the film lies on the way Haggis portrayed racism. He did not went on portraying racism as a white man always abusing that of a Black, rather he went on to show that racism is a natural phenomenon and each and every one of us is capable of being a racist without even realizing it. He did not portray racism as a sin prevalent only to the whites rather he showed us that no matter what race you are in you could still be considered a racist at some point in time. The fact that the movie did not give any explanation or tips on how we are supposed to end racism made some feel rather irritated. However, that particular lack of advice could be viewed as Haggis acknowledgement of the fact that racism is inherent in all of us and as of the moment there is still no cure to solve this particular disease.One thing is for sure though, Haggis was successful in making us realize that we are all at fault in some point in time and thus, we do not have any right to judge other people (or accuse other people of racism for that matter) since we are all guilty of the crime. We certainly could not blame others and mock racism without insulting our very own selves. It is great how Haggis portrayed each character as someone who is annoying and made us feel certain kind of irritation towards them. However, as the film progress we see ourselves reflected on the characters themselves. We then on realize that the characters Haggis made were indeed us – humans who are inherently good yet acts bad depending on the situation which arises.  As a whole, the film made me realize my mistakes towards my attitudes when dealing with other peo ple. At times, when we are so down, when we loses hope, we failed to realize that we are exerting our anger towards innocent people and an abuse of power occurs. The film also made me realize that there lays goodness within each and every one of us. The fact that we are all so different yet so alike is a fact we often overlook. What good could too much similarity give to us? If we are all created all similar to each other then certainly there would be a lost in balance in the universe.That is the very reason why we are created alike and yet different from each other. There are things only some group of people can do. Not simply because you are different from me it already means that you are inferior and I am superior from you. The color of one’s skin and the like does not necessitate that we act all mighty and superior towards other races. For peace to prevail, the important thing for us to do is to learn to accept the views and beliefs of other people. By boxing ourselves on our own personal beliefs and cultures we fail to acknowledge the beauty that lies on other people’s culture.Although our beliefs are different from that of another we must still learn to listen and to respect their own beliefs. It does not necessarily follow that by listening and by respecting other people’s beliefs we are already accepting that belief as our own. In the end respecting other people’s view would serve the best of our interest in that we avoided hurting other people’s feelings, we avoided causing commotion and we attained peace.Reference:Crash. 2005. Marina Grasic, Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman.

Enforceable Contracts

Six Essential Elements of an Enforceable Contract In normal everyday life contracts are utilized for various situations and reasons. Some contracts are more binding as compared to others based on the six elements of offer, acceptance, consideration, the parties’ capacity to contract, the parties’ intent to contract and the object of the contract. This paper examines the above mentioned elements using a contract existing between a customer and a phone dealer.The phone dealer dealt with used but clean phones and because the customer could not afford a new phone, he approached the phone dealer who promised to deliver a functional and clean used smart phone at the price of $74 after two days. The payment was to be made after the delivery of the phone but on the condition that the phone would be fully functional and the customer could return the phone within the following week if it developed any problem.On the appointed day, the phone dealer delivered the phone as promised and the customer made the payment as he had promised too. After two days of using the phone the customer started to experience so many complications with the phone and it finally went off completely. When he returned the phone to the phone dealer, the dealer told him that once the phone was sold the customer could not return it. When the customer threatened to sue him for breach of contract, the dealer affirmed that there were no grounds because there was no written contract.The customer however went on with the suit because though the verbal contract between them was initially fulfilled through the delivery of the phone within the appointed time, it was breached when the dealer refused to accept back the phone within the agreed grace period. A breach of contract is defined as any form of violation that occurs on conditions contained in an enforceable contract. To ascertain the breach of contract the first step is affirming that a contract existed between the customer and the phone dealer. This can be done using the six elements of a contract.The phone can be identified as the object of the contract because it is legal ascertaining the enforceable nature of the contract. As per the first element the verbal offer of providing the phone within two days at $74 can be recognized as part of the binding contract between the two regardless of the fact that it was written. Under acceptance or genuine assent, the customer engaged in expressed acceptance of the offer within the stipulated conditions set by the dealer. The mutual promise between the customer and the phone dealer to eet their sides of the contract can be equated to consideration. Both the customer and the dealer had the capacity to contract because none was coerced into the agreement. The fact that both agreed to enter into the contract considering all the stipulated conditions, shows their intent to enter into the contract. The above clearly indicates that though no written contract existed between the d ealer and the customer, a verbal contract existed between the two of them and the dealer breached the contract by refusing to honor one of the stipulated conditions in the contract.The major two remedies that could be utilized to counter the breach of contract could be the dealer accepting back the phone and issuing the customer with another phone or refunding back his money as an out of court settlement because a court settlement can prove to be very expensive both on the dealer and the customer or the customer can go ahead and sue with the aim of acquiring a court settlement of the issue now that the dealer was unwilling to accept the first remedy.Though this would be costly on both of them, though the customer has better chances of winning the case because he can easily prove that though a verbal contract existed between them, it could be identified as an enforceable contract using the six essential elements of an enforceable contract. Based on this evidence the court will defini tely find the phone dealer guilty of breach of contract because he did not meet one of the major conditions of the contract between him and the customer.This will culminate into a stiffer punishment for the dealer which would have been avoided if he met all the conditions of the contract initially. In conclusion, though a verbal contract existed between the dealer and the customer, it can still be identified as an enforceable contract using the six essential elements of an enforceable contract and hence the phone dealer is liable for the breach of contract. References: Adamson, J. E. (2012). Law for business and personal use. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions Essay Example for Free

Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions Essay 16. Since we have the profits from all three scenarios we just to compare the present values of each scenario. We do not need to subtract anything from the present value since the costs have already been subtracted from profits. We can see that we have the highest present value of $290.87 when we use high advertising intensity. Therefore this is the recommended scenario. Q2. This question deals with margin analysis, we will look at incremental revenues and costs and see whether they are worth it. On the revenue side we have an increase on 9807700, however we also have incremental costs of television airtime, ad development and a loss of $6000000 in another division We can see that when we add up the incremental costs, they exceed the extra revenues by 317100. Therefore I do not recommend that this campaign to be undertaken. Q21. Producer —Producer. The Brazilian and five other producers are competing against the US Southern Shrimp Alliance. Both groups are competing to provide the customers with the best shrimps at the lowest cost. However currently the Brazilian Producers have an advantage with their lower labor, cheap land etc. Government and Market; According to the current scenario, the Brazilian Group would be choice of the market since they can produce it much cheaper. However, the Sourthern Alliance is trying to lobby the Government into imposing tariffs Brazilian Imports. Consumer Producer Rivalry; The American Seafood Distributors, which represent consumers of shrimp farming, are interested in having the lowest cost. They are supporting the Brazilians and can potentially choose not to buy from the US based shrimp farmers. Consumer – Consumer Rivalry; Is pretty low, since they have banded together to form the American Seafood Distributors. Five Forces Analysis: Shrimp Farming Industry Buyers have formed the American Seafood Distributors, which means they can ask negotiate in bulk and choose whether they buy from one firm or not. They apparently have very low switching costs. Since shrimp is still shrimp wherever it came from, the price value combination becomes very important. Possible Government Intervention. The shrimp farmers procure their supply from the sea. And really the shrimps have very little choice in the matter. There is plentiful supply, although it depends upon the weather and climate, therefore geographically specific. Also the fishermen who fish for the shrimp or the people who work in the farms demand lower wages for Brazilians but relatively high for the US based on the labour laws. Differentiation is low and competition is based primarily on price. There seems to be a high degree of concentration amongst the firms competing in the industry. Substitutes; There are various substitutes available within the product class. Instead of shrimps, consumers could go for other seafood such as fish. Or they could also choose to go completely different route and avoid Seafood altogether. Entry; Medium Economics of scale are necessary to harvest shrimps at a lower cost, and since there is bulk buying, network effects are also important. Q23. I would tell the owner that while owner did the right thing by incentivizing the manager, but the structure of the incentive needs to be changed. The owner has incentivized the manager to make sales, but has given no incentives to the manager to sell at a higher price. I would recommend that the owner should either set a minimum price on sales or, offer the incentive out of the profits e.g offer 2% of the profit on the sale which would ask. Q11. In the first case, a drop in price of components represents a change in the factors of production. Therefore this will result in a change in the ‘quantity supplied’. This means that the supply curve will shift to the right. Since there is no change in the demand curve, this means that the price will fall. (exh 1) In the second scenario, we have information that incomes are supposed to grow over the coming two years. Change in income produces a change in the demand curve. This is case; we know that RAM is a normal good, with people having income over $75000 buy nearly 1.3 times more. Therefore we can expect the price to increase. However, whether this final price is greater than the initial price (before the changes in supply and demand curve) is unclear and will depend upon how much does the supply curve shifted due to cost drop. Exh1exh2 Blue: Previous SupplyBlue: Previous Supply Red: New Supply Red: New Supply Green: New Demand Q13. First of all, the question misquotes the law of demand. When the prices of cigarettes are raised, the ‘quantity demanded for cigarettes will fall but the ‘demand for cigarettes will not’. The effectiveness of higher pricing will depend upon the cause of the higher pricing. If the price hike is due to a price ceiling by the governmen. then definitely the number of cigarettes demanded will decrease. However, cigarettes are very addicting, which means that the price elasticity if cigarettes is very low. So the drop in quantity demanded is very small. (exh 3). On a theoretical level, it is possible for the equilibrium price to remain the same but with lower number of cigarettes smoked. In this diagram, the red line is demand, while the blue line is supply, we can clearly see that even with a price ceiling, the number of cigarettes smoked as decrease very little. Q14. Well, in order to find out the equilibrium price and quantity I will equate the demand and supply functions. 175 – p = 2P -200. This gives us P = $125. Furthermore, at this price 50 pints of blood will be processed. In order to find the consumer surplus we will need to find the area underneath the demand curve. $175 Price The area of triangle A is the consumer surplus = Â ½ * (50) * (175-125) = 1250 The area of triangle B is the producer surplus = Â ½ * (50) * (125-100) = 625 Q15. Crude oil is the critical component in the refining process. The price of gasoline will rise dramatically due to the shift in the supply curve. Since the fuel has become more expensive, people will want to buy less of it and therefore will want to buy cars which are more fuel efficient. This will cause the demand curve for fuel efficient cars to shift to the left. Q16. Qs1 = 4P – 110 which gives me coordinates of (0, 27.5) and (-110,0) Qs2 =4.171P – 110 which give me coordinates of (0, 26.37) and (-110,0) Qd= 250 – 5P which give me coordinates of (0, 50) and ( 250,0) First let me find the equilibrium price and quantity by equating Qs1 and Qd. This gives me Pe = 40 Qe= 50 million. Also when I equate Qs2 with Qd I get the new equilibrium Pe2 = 39.25. Each customer saves 75 cents per month. Q10 of the assignment The price of an entry level DVD player is $25.70 on Ebay According to my estimate, the demand curve and supply curve have both shifted to the left. Demand Curve; Â  As opposed to 2003, in 2012 people have many more option in which to watch their movies. They can carry them on USBs, stream them over the internet, or rent them online from websites such as Netflics. All of these directly contribute to reduce the popularity of DVDs which are complements of Dvd Players. Since there are so many alternate channels to watch movies which offer better price and excellent quality, people will not demand as much of the product. Furthermore, the large amounts of substitutes will directly contribute make the demand much more elastic, so that at the slightest decrease in the price people will switch out Supply Curve; Due to mass production and advancements in technology one could expect that the supply curve should shift outwards. However, due to the number of firms which will pull out of this industry the supply curve will shift towards the left. There is simply not enough demand to sustain all these firms. ii)Besides the change in the number of suppliers, change in technology or a decrease in labour costs could affect the supply similarly Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions. (2017, Jan 07).

Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis Essay

Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis - Essay Example The essay "Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis" explores Walter Benjamin's thesis and Marcel Duchamp. Art has evolved since it was first discovered and the reason behind all these forms of evolution is to ensure that the production of works of art suit the aesthetic needs of the people to whom it is presented. A key point in global art history in terms of evolutionary art is the early 20th century when Benjamin Walter hypothesized and further came out with an essay on art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In this paper, the ways in which the work of Marcel Duchamp prefigures Walter Benjamin’s thesis in his essay shall be analyzed. Marcel Duchamp has been a major contributing icon to the work of art, especially in the 20th century. The 1887 French born had the opportunity of having his first exhibition in 1908 in what was termed Salon d’Automne through the influence of his brother . But since then, Duchamp took a lot of control over what he could do as an artistic personality. It is not for nothing that Perloff notes that Duchamp’s readymades now commands sky-high prices, with people applying for permission to reproduce some of his related images in a scholarly book on modernism paying as much as $200 apiece. This means that Duchamp has continued to remain a very influential figure in art since the 1990s and continues to dominate modern artistic theories. As far as the mechanical reproduction is concerned, a number of great pieces of art works could be attributed to Duchamp., most of which shall be discussed into detail in later sections of the paper. However, it is worth mentioning that the influence of Duchamp on art through the challenging commands of conventional thoughts he had over artistic processes gave so much scheme to what was yet to be born essay of Benjamin Walter3. Though it is said that Duchamp did not succeed in producing as many works of art as some of his predecessors and those that came after him, the fe w he did and some of his subversive actions predicted that he was a revolutionist of art who wanted the old aura to be replaced with a new one, which Walter later came to champion as a thesis in his essay. Overview of Walter Benjamin’s Thesis The major thesis of Walter Benjamin’s essay touches on the conceptualization that the form of technical reproduction of works of art that takes place today are not a modern phenomenon but that modernity has played a contributing factor in ensuring and enhancing much accuracy in the course of mass production4. Throughout the essay, this thesis is elaborate to more or less praise the role of modern artistic discoveries into making what used to be even better. The essay therefore analyses various for m of the development of mechanical visual reproduction including photography, stamping and engraving5. In each of these artistic practices, which in the opinion of Walter are not new but an exhibition of mechanical reproduction that has been with us for long, a new line of

Management by walking around Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Management by walking around - Essay Example However, managers involve in this exercise to further keep a finger on the operation of the organization. To enhance proper connection and communication purposes within an organization, the manager has to walk around and talk to the team, ask them several questions, work alongside them and be available to help in case need arises. Therefore, this paper elaborately brings out the discussions based on management by walking around. Practicing management by walking around can lead to the achievement of the following; Approachability; when the staff members see the manager just as an individual and not as a boss, the rate of transparency increases. The staff members become more open to explain the problems within the organization (Frase and Hertzel 11). The manager gets to know the issues before they build up to be problems. Accountability; the completion of the agreement is very easy as a result of interaction between manager and the staff team. Motivation among every member builds up since there is daily interaction (Frase and Hertzel 29). T. Productivity; creativity develops due to interaction and casual exchanges. Management by walking around facilitates informal discussions, and this compels people to come up with the new innovative ideas. As a result of interaction, people become excited when they can be heard; this leads to increase in their morale. More trust develops and buildup of business knowledge (F rase and Hertzel 49) Implementation of management by walking around involves relaxation, listening and making good observation more than the rate of talking. The manager ought to make active listening with the staff at large. Asking for feedback and ideas is the best policy (Frase and Hertzel 101). T. The implementation of this is completed by installing the ideas into everyone. Wandering around should be done proportionally by the manager regardless of job title of the staff. Moreover, questions have to be answered openly and with honesty and maintaining

It is now commonplace to claim that Boas and Malinowski were founding Essay

It is now commonplace to claim that Boas and Malinowski were founding fathers of anthropology in the US and Britain respectively. Choosing one or the other exam - Essay Example This recognition has a number of corollaries, including one that invites us to think about ethnographic texts -- and anthropology as a discipline -- in the terms we have traditionally used in periodizing literary history. Many of us now speak of a "Victorian" as opposed to a "modernist" anthropology. This essay represents an attempt to complicate the basic assumptions of this interdiscipline on a number of grounds, and from a number of different perspectives. First, I would like to trouble the border we often imagine existing between Victorian and modernist anthropology, a gesture which I hope will have its implications for the literary border as well. I am interested in this project not so much because I see periodisations as inherently misguided, but rather the opposite: because I think such distinctions are only as good as the specific historical instances that both support and challenge them. Second, I would like to challenge the largely textual basis of the grounds on which we may be tempted to delineate this border, and suggest that, having established the textual nature of ethnography, we may wish to turn our attention to other social and institutional similarities between ethnographic work and the artistic and literary practices of a given period. I am especially interes ted here in the changing conditions of intellectual labor in the epochal moment of the turn of the twentieth century. To address these issues I will take as my subject the early career of Franz Boas, who for various reasons has come to be regarded as the "father" of American anthropology (by which is really meant professional anthropology, a point to which I shall return at some length). Born in 1858 to a free-thinking Jewish family in Minden, Westphalia, and dying in 1942 after a lengthy career as the preeminent anthropologist in the United States, Boas could be said not only to have traversed centuries and continents, but to have charted a path from the German

Essay 1 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 19

1 - Essay Example This has frequently resulted to language barrier. I have ever wanted to be left alone. I had quit a number of problems that I had to solve. I had some exams ahead of me and my finances had drained. I decided to be serious and do the studies to make sure I pass the exams. I went into my room with the book, did my studies and revision. I recall this is the exam I highly improved. Music is one of my best in the literature field. When am stressed, bored, tired or even free I get myself either listening to music or singing some songs. Music resolves my moods and gives peace of mind. 2. Interpersonal skills are regarded as one of the essential skills in the modern society. Discuss how important it is to develop such skills and whether it is possible for people to be trained in this aspect. Interpersonal skills help in the interaction of one by one or even by groups. The skills bring people together as the individuals have the knowledge of how to relate and approach others. The skills generate courage to individuals to face others, drive away fear and create the societal cohesion need. Interpersonal skills induce team work as each party feels free when interacting with other parties. Leadership qualities are as well induced. It is possible to train people on interpersonal basis. The facilitator needs to just encourage group work and team work to the groups being trained. Out of class training as well helps people to mingle thus supporting the relationships among the individuals. The changes shall be seen in the cities of China. Technology diffuses to all States of the world. People are always ready for any unique change that benefits them. Ipods will make music portable and hence good. 1. I was visiting New York last week and noticed something I’d never thought I’d say about the city. Yes, nightlife is pretty much dead (and I’m in no way the first to notice that). But day life — that insane mishmash of yells, chatter, clatter, hustle and chutzpah that

The Finite Element Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Finite Element - Research Paper Example One of the main challenges in solving partial differential equations is to use equations which are approximate but numerically stable so that error accumulation does not cause the solution to be meaningless. The finite element method is an excellent technique for solving partial differential equations over complex domains. Application of the finite element method in structural mechanics is based on an energy principle, such as the virtual work principle, which provides a general, intuitive and physical basis. The finite element method originated as a technique used to solve stress analysis problems, but today it can be applied to a multitude of disciplines ranging from fluid mechanics, to heat transfer to electromagnetism. The buckle of a standard lap belt used in passenger aircrafts has been designed and is ready to undergo testing. In order to be released into the market, the strap system must be able to withstand a 450 kg tensile load. It is assumed that the weakest point of the design is the flat plate of the buckle. Thus, prior to engaging in a costly test scenario, a simple finite element analysis of the buckle is to be made to insure soundness of design, i.e. the material does not exceed its yield strength and no significant distortion occurs. Preparing the problem for analysis first requires definition of assumptions. Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of the buckle to be analy... thickness of the part (which is assumed to be constant) is believed to be small enough compared to the width of the part such that shell elements can be used. Displacements are expected to be relatively small such that a linear approximation will be valid. Figure 1 2.2 Material Properties The part is manufactured from 2.5 mm stainless steel plate with a Young's modulus of elasticity of 206 GN/m2, Poison's ratio of 0.3, and a yield strength of 580 MN/m2. Homogeneous and isotropic material was assumed with no discontinuities or residual stresses present as a result of manufacturing processes such as forging, rolling and welding. The material is assumed to have linear elastic properties. 2.3 Mesh A mesh that provides a good representation of the model is critical for an accurate solution; the elements must be well-shaped and close fit. For this analysis, the element type chosen was PLANE82, which is a 2D structural solid element. The element has 8 nodes, which increases calculation time over its 4-node counterpart but also increase accuracy of solution. Eight-noded elements are also known to be more accurate for modelling curved boundaries, which is where the areas of maximum stress were expected in the buckle. The PLANE 82 element type also offered the benefit of accounting for a thickness value in its input properties. Since maximum stress values were expected in the curved sections of the part, two meshing values were utilised, thus providing a denser mesh in critical areas. In the curved areas, a value of 0.25 was used, while 0.51 was used in the rest of the model. 2.4 Boundary Conditions Determination and application of boundary conditions is critical to the analysis. For this model, it was assumed that displacements would be small enough so as to not

Business contract of sale of goods Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business contract of sale of goods - Case Study Example This can be illustrated in the case of Thompson v. Robinson Gun makers (1955)2 here D purchased a standard Vanguard car from P and later P refused to accept the delivery of it. P's profit on the sale would have been 61 pounds, but D argued that they were not liable for this amount, since the profit would still be made when the car was sold to another customer. The court rejected this argument since the supply of this model exceeded the demand. Therefo0re if P had found another customer he could have sold a car to him in addition to selling a car to D. In this case where Roger is the driver of Reptiles-To-Go he is acting as a servant of the master, therefore any act arising from him during the course of his duty the master will be held liable .This means that Arthur who was hit by Roger will have to sue the master (Reptile-To-Go) for injury he sustained both in person and property. The rule here is that a master is held liable for the damages of his servants that are committed within the course of his employment .The tortuous act must be a wrongful way of doing what the employee is employed to do. In Limpus v. London General Omnibus Co.1862 3, a bus driver whilst racing a bus caused on the accident .his employees hold liable because he was doing what he was employed to do i.e. driving a bus although in an improper way (K Abbott, K. Ward man .Business law, 7th edition 2001) Contrast Beard v. London general omnibus Co. (1900)4 a bus conductor attempted to turn a bus around at the end of its route and in doing so he caused an accident. His employers were not held liable since he was employed only to collect fares and not drive buses. Therefore the employer will always be held liable for the acts of the servant even if the employee acts contrary to clear instructions. Rose v. plenty 19765 Q3. On the facts of case where Katie bought some nut that should have been suitable for feeding her pet pot -bellied pig Percy and they eventually died from the said nuts fall under sale by description. In this section the seller will be held responsible for any of the loss caused by the product in which he /she sold to the buyer and where the buyer relies on the seller's knowledge and skill .It is the duty of the seller to offer the buyer the best product that meets his/her description failure to which he will

Christian Ethics in A Complex World Essay Example for Free

Christian Ethics in A Complex World Essay In 2002 the book entitled â€Å"Choosing the Good: Christian Ethics in A Complex World† was by Dennis Hollinger was published. It gives an overview of the Christian ethics in today’s complicated world. It is indeed a precious and unique book that assesses the framework and perspective of Christian ethics in relation to social issues. The approach is designed to widen initial ideas about relations among different races, policies, human sexualities, economics and many more. The approach of the author is very unusual that made the book more likeable. Hollinger wanted to connect his beliefs to his readers in a way that he wanted to imply something in choosing to do what is good and right. In every social issue at hand there is always an equivalent step by step framework to be followed. The book’s weakness are the lengthy statements that bores readers easily, It may mislead readers since comprehension may be hard to acquire. It would be better if the author wrote it in a direct to the point manner. There are cases presented in the book that aids readers how to carefully analyze a real life scenario. It would be better for people not to complicate things as it is better if problems are looked down easily. In general the book is awesome since it tackles about foundations of ethical theories. Hollinger outlines much of the essential data needed so that readers will understand the areas of pastoral care, Christian ethics and its interconnection with public policy. An overall generalization is also given to see what does the author wanted to imply in this beautiful book. There were also judgments and ethical commitments presented in the second chapter of the book. The issues involving postmodernity and modernity treatment s discussed. But this is the chapter that lacks focus because vague explanations were given on how the society operates in modernity but does not make t in academics. The enticing part is that third part of the book presents figures about history tht guides readers on deciding in this contemporary world. A survey of recent Christian Ethics by Edward LeRoy is part of the book for readers to see an accurate statistics of the public’s opinion. Biblical ethics is also presented that shows a deeper connection of choosing to do the good things in life. The best reference is still the Holy Scriptures. Talking about culture and its relation to faith is also presented by Hollinger in this book. He cited examples like the delineation of Christ and Culture by Niebuhr and how the church is placed in the center of a more organized society. Christ should still stand up amidst the complexities of things I every culture. As the author concludes the book â€Å"the moral task before the Christian church today is immense. But God has called us, as he called Esther long ago in Persia, to be a divine presence for such a time as this† (Hollinger, 2002). For good to succeed it is our duty to devote our moral commitments against the complex world. It is in humility that people can find goodness and it is God who is the true foundation of everything we do (Hollinger, 2002, p. 272). The book is designed to let readers be aware that choosing good should incorporate a broad and deep understanding of the word goodness. Having reflections on the book made it easier for readers to understand what he is trying to point out. It is recommended to discuss a book like this in the classroom scenario so that all students ma practice the ethics of goodness inside the classroom and spread it outside as they grow. References: Hollinger, D. (2002). Choosing The Good: Christian Ethics in A Complex World. USA: Baker Academic

The poverty trap

The poverty trap SHORT ESSAY Topic: Getting households out of the poverty trap requires a greater focus on the â€Å"demand† side rather than the â€Å"supply† side. Introduction Despite the substantial amount of research undertaken to study the economic growth and development and analyse how it facilitates the poverty reduction, there has not been still one remedy discovered to make poor countries rich. Poverty continues to be the cause of suffering of millions of people around the globe, who are caught in a poverty trap. Azariadis and John Stachurski (2005) define the poverty trap as â€Å"any self-reinforcing mechanism which causespoverty to persist†. Those mechanisms causing poverty to persist can include, for instance, limited access to education, inadequate nutrition, lack of public health care, limited access to credit and capital markets, inefficient governance, social instability and poor infrastructure. We can use one of the listed mechanisms to illustrate the emergence of the poverty trap. Limited access to education leads to an increased level of illiteracy among the poor, which further determines the niche the poor can take in the labour m arket. Being uneducated, the poor is restricted to perform unskilled labour, which does not pay high wages and brings the poor’s income level down. Income deprivation subsequently leads to inadequate nutrition, limited access to education, etc. That is the trajectory poor households follow towards falling into the poverty trap. What are the ways to get households out of the poverty trap? There are two types of policies, â€Å"supply† and â€Å"demand† side policy interventions, which are applied to break the poverty trap. â€Å"Supply† side policies aim to directly provide services to the poor that may focus among other spheres of concern on education, health, or infrastructure, whereas the â€Å"demand† side policy proponents argue that first poor should demand these services, otherwise they are going to be ineffective. The author of this essay shares the latter point of view as well. Evidence suggests that enabling poor people to participate in determining services they need, their quality and quantity is critical in ensuring policy intervention’s success. To guarantee sustainability of the results there should be social accountability in place, which allows poor people to hold the government accountable for the decisions and choices it makes for the poor. We also build our argument based on a country example from Bangladesh, where a â€Å"demand† side financing intervention has outperformed a â€Å"supply† side financing intervention in the healthcare sector. Hence, this essay aims to argue that getting households out of the poverty trap requires a greater focus on the â€Å"demand† side rather than the â€Å"supply† side. Voices of the Poor Mani et al (2013) argue that being preoccupied with pressing financial concerns the poor have fewer cognitive resources to guide their choice and action; therefore, they are unable to take informed decisions due to their poor mental capabilities. Thus, taking this fact into consideration â€Å"supply† side policies are designed to help the poor to get out of poverty without hearing their voices. It is believed that the government can decide better what is needed to get the poor out of the poverty trap on poor people’s behalf. However, according to the World Development Report (2004), â€Å"public services often fail people – in access, quantity, and quality†. The report emphasizes that the main reason of the failed efforts of the developing countries to make services work for the poor is the extent to which poor people themselves are engaged in determining the quality and the quantity of the services which they are entitled to. Services can work better if â€Å"poor people are put at the centre of service provision by enabling them to monitor and discipline services providers by strengthening their voice in policymaking and by reinforcing the incentives for providers to serve the poor† (World Development Report, 2004). However, the â€Å"supply† side proponents will argue that a well-targeted strategy of the â€Å"supply† side performance incentives could on its own be enough to achieve the desired outcomes, for instance, drawing upon an example from Nicaragua where a conditional cash transfer program showed â€Å"significant improvements in immunizations, growth monitoring, and reductions in stunting† (Regalà ­a, F. and Castro, L., 2009). Upon completion of the program an evaluation was conducted to identify the impact the combined â€Å"supply† and â€Å"demand† side intervention had. The evaluation showed that combining â€Å"supply† and â€Å"demand† side policies can significantly increase the use of health services among poor households and improve health outcomes. Furthermore, the evaluation aimed to assess the impact â€Å"demand† side incentives alone played in this intervention. For this purpose, an evaluation about ten months after â€Å"demand† side incentives had been stopped in certain areas was conducted, and it revealed that take-up rates for preventive health care services still remained high. The evaluation explained this result by the possibility that the program strategy dramatically improved provider outreach activities during the initial stage of implementation and thus the access of poor households to health services, reducing the costs of time and travel to reach healthcare service delivery points was also improved. It is possible, therefore, that a well-targeted strategy of â€Å"supply† side performance incentives could, on its own, be enough to achieve and maintain high levels of health care service use among poor rural populations in Nicaragua (Regalà ­a, F. and Castro, L., 2009). Although this example shows that â€Å"supply† side policies on their own can be efficient in helping the poor to get better access to health care services, we need to bear in mind that this is only one example and, therefore, it cannot be representative of all â€Å"supply† side policy interventions. It is also stressed by the evaluation that the success of the program might be because provider outreach activities were improved; thus, we question here that should â€Å"demand† side incentives, such as incentives for health providers to develop efficient plans to expand coverage rapidly in underserved areas, were not there from the beginning of the program the outcome of the program could have been less successful. Sustainability and Social Accountability Designing policy interventions based solely on the â€Å"supply† side approach ensures less sustainability. When the poor are not knowledgeable enough about the policy intervention and, therefore, less concerned about maintaining the results of the policy once it is completed, the intervention will have a short-term impact. This is one of the concerns often raised by aid agencies (International Labour Organization, 2001). A policy intervention is regarded as sustainable in case it carries on indeterminately with no further donor involvement or support, whether it be financial or otherwise. With a greater focus on the â€Å"demand† side, this concern is more likely to be addressed. In particularly, focusing policies on capacity building of the poor in terms of educating them about their rights, public services they are entitled to receive, the role they can play in improving their livelihood, providing more information about the stakeholders involved in policy design and implementation, etc., can be conducive to poverty reduction and, hence, to sustainable development. For instance, Economic Development Institute (1996) suggests that non-governmental organizations can assist the poor to identify their needs and identify their priorities. These measures will build poor people’s capacity to demand services they need and hold policymakers accountable for their actions and policy choices. In other words, this will strengthen social accountability that relies on civil engagement, i.e. in which â€Å"the poor can participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability† (World Bank, 2004). This mechanism can function only through the demand side approach as it operates from the bottom-up (World Bank, 2004). It can be though argued that poor people caught in the poverty trap will be less concerned about social accountability when, for instance, they lack basic access to nutrition and clean water in the first place. Therefore, it is inefficient to consider developing soft skills of the poor until they have basic infrastructure, which would allow them to sustain their living and only then they can take a next step to improving their capacity and benefiting from social accountability. Poor people need immediate help today. Building capacity of the poor will take longer time to show its results. Additionally, the â€Å"supply† side of governance already uses certain measures such as checks and balances, administrative rules and procedures, auditing requirements, and formal law enforcement mechanisms to tackle the challenge of accountability. Indeed, â€Å"supply† side policies aim to address immediate needs of the poor. However, the intervention can be considered successful if it is sustainable. Relying on the present-bias, i.e. immediate provision of services â€Å"today† rather than investment in developing capacity of the poor for greater results in the longer term, does not guarantee sustainability in the long run. As a result, the poor can only temporary get out of the poverty trap and then again be trapped into poverty once the intervention is completed. Empowering the poor through social accountability enables sustainable development. While the supply based approach is an intervention that is limited to provision of services only and does not spread much beyond to improvement in governance, social accountability serves a multiple purpose and, therefore, has a long-lasting effect. As such, social accountability facilitates improvement in governance, ensures development effectiveness through a more-pro -poor policy design and, lastly, empowers poor people to demand goods and services they need most. As to the accountability measures used by the â€Å"supply† side of governance, evidences suggests that â€Å"these â€Å"top-down† accountability promoting mechanisms have met with only limited success in many countries, both developed and developing† (World Bank, 2004). As a result, social accountability measures described above are preferred. â€Å"Demand† Side Financing Furthermore, having analyzed a number of â€Å"supply† side interventions and behaviors of the poor we can restate that it’s crucial to focus more on the â€Å"demand† side interventions. One of the main sectors covered by the â€Å"supply† side polices is a healthcare sector. Studies show that despite considerable subsidies allocated towards the supply side the access to the health care systems among the poor remains low. To address this drawback new â€Å"demand† side financing mechanisms are introduced (Schmidt, J., Ensor, T., Hossain, A. and Khan, S., 2010). These mechanisms transfer purchasing power to the targeted groups for defined healthcare goods and services. This measure is aimed to increase poor households’ access to specified goods and services. In particularly, such mechanism was applied in Bangladesh, where a maternal voucher scheme was implemented. The scheme provided vouchers to poor women that entitled them to receive skille d care at home or a facility and also provided payments for transport and food (Schmidt, J., Ensor, T., Hossain, A. and Khan, S., 2010). The evaluation of the program suggests that the take-up of vouchers was more rapid when the scheme was implemented through the â€Å"demand† side financing than previously through the â€Å"supply† based financing. Authors of the report describe the earlier implemented scheme through the â€Å"supply† side financing as an â€Å"apparent failure†, when all resources were allocated to the supply side and it was assumed that those with need will be able to access services. While â€Å"supply† side financing schemes can improve their outreach to the poor by constructing hospitals in the remote rural areas or providing funds for transport or transport itself to reach hospitals in cities, and improving service quality, so that people can have easier access to public healthcare services. However, as practice shows that is rather challenging. Gupta, I., Joe, W. and Rudra, S. (2010)state that policymakers in developing countries have come to realize that public health services have not been achieving desired outcomes due to â€Å"a significant lack of efficiency, fairness in service provision and its quality†. Although, the â€Å"demand† side financing can be questioned with regards to the quality of healthcare services left to the providers’ discretion, the â€Å"demand† side interventions are implemented with an assumption that service providers are responsible for the service quality assurance, and if intervention beneficiaries are left to choose from a set of service providers, it is assumed that there is a considerable number of service providers to choose from. However, returning back to the example from Bangladesh we conclude that demand-side financing schemes are more effective based on the available data, which suggests that the rise in the voucher take-up appeared to be more rapid through the â€Å"demand† side financing scheme than through other non-demand side financing (â€Å"supply† side financing) areas. Conclusion In the course of this essay we aimed to emphasize that getting poor households out of the poverty trap requires a greater focus on the â€Å"demand† side interventions rather than the â€Å"supply† side interventions. In particularly, we highlighted the evidence proving this argument through examples of the assumed cognitive poverty of the poor, where practitioners on the contrary bring evidence that those interventions that involve the poor in determining the quantity and quality of services they need prove to be more efficient. We also brought up the idea of social accountability that is critical not only in ensuring effectiveness and efficiency of the poverty alleviation programs, but also in improving governance and maintaining sustainability of the policy outcomes. Finally, we dwelled into a particular example of a policy intervention from Bangladesh, which aimed to provide vouchers to poor women that entitled them to receive skilled care at home or a facility and also provided payments for transport and food. The evaluation of this intervention helped us to analyze the results of both â€Å"demand† side financing and â€Å"supply† side financing. We reconfirmed that evidence from Bangladesh also proves that â€Å"demand† side policies are more effective in reaching the poor and addressing their needs. Bibliography: Azariadis, C. and Stachurski, J. (2005). Poverty Traps,Handbook of Economic Growth. World Bank, (2004).World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People. Washington D.C.: World Bank. Regalà ­a, F. and Castro, L. (2009).Nicaragua: Combining Demand- and Supply-Side Incentives. Washington D.C. Economic Development Institute (1996).The Design and Management of Poverty Reduction Programs and Projects in Anglophone Africa: Proceedings of a Seminar Sponsored Jointly by the Economic Management Institute. Washington D.C. Mani, A. et al (2013). Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function. Science, 341(6149), p. 976-980. International Labour Organization, (2001).Mainstreaming Poverty Alleviation Strategies through Sustainable Rural Infrastructure Development. p.14. World Bank, (2004).Social Accountability: An Introduction to the Concept and Emerging Practice. Social Development Papers. Participation and Civic Engagement. Paper No. 76. Washington D.C.: World Bank. Gupta, I., Joe, W. and Rudra, S. (2010).Demand Side Financing in Health: How far can it address the issue of low utilization in developing countries?. World Health Report. Background Paper, 27. Schmidt, J., Ensor, T., Hossain, A. and Khan, S. (2010). Vouchers as demand side financing instruments for health care: A review of the Bangladesh maternal voucher scheme.Health Policy, [online] 96(2), pp.98-107. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.01.008 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2014].

Treatment is More Effective Than Jail for Drug Offenders Essay

One of the most profound problems that plagues our society is drug addiction. With drug addiction comes those who offend and have run-ins with the law. Our country deals with these drug-addicted offenders by placing them in jails for a year or longer, only to have them come back out to society when their sentence is over. They are still drug-addicts and so they return to the street only to commit yet another crime. From here the cycle of crime, arrest, jail, and return to society continues, solving absolutely nothing. Therefore, placing drug-addicted offenders in jails fails to confront the major problem at hand which is that of the drug abuse. If drug-addicted offenders were placed in drug treatment centers instead of being incarcerated, the problem of drug abuse would have a much higher opportunity to be flushed from the offender's life. Thus, the chance of that the offender would commit another crime for drugs would be reduced. The felonies that were committed by these drug addicts are usually due to the fact that they want to help fill their cravings for the drug. These drug addicts will commit crimes in order to support their addiction for the present moment. ?An estimated 61,000 (16%) convicted jail inmates committed their offenses to get money for drugs? (?Drug?). This is why when they are caught for committing these felonies and arrested, throwing them in jail is completely pointless. For one, what exactly will a few months or years do to these offenders? The sentence will most certainly not cure them of their addiction. Drug users pose major crime threats by robbing and stealing to support their habits, but treatment provides a greater potential than incarceration for dealing with the underlying addiction that drives t... ... of Rehabilitation: Promises and Perils of Drug Courts.? es1/nij/181412.pdf>. Riley, Mark. ?Move to Treat, Not Punish, Drug Addicts.? . Sacbee Local News. Furillo, Andy. ?Treat, Don?t Jail, Illegal Drug Users? Group Wants Measure on Ballot.? . Seven, Richard. ?Drug Court Gvies Addicts an Alternative to Jail.? /drugcort.html>. ?Summary Assessment of the Drug Court Experience.? s/spa/justice/publications/just1.htm>. ?Treatment is More Effective, Less Expensive That Jail for Drug Offenders, Says Doctors Group.? . Wood, Daniel B. ?Kinks in California?s Shift to Drug Treatment.? Christian Science Monitor.

The Tale of Robin Hood Essay -- Analysis, Sherwood Forest

THESIS STATEMENT Although only slightly factual in historical setting, the legends of Robin Hood have captivated the imaginations of young and old alike through the charming stories concerning the characters of Sherwood Forest. PURPOSE STATEMENT Through critical analysis and research concerning the legends and characters surrounding Robin Hood, this paper will present the theme of social justice for the common man as purported by the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. INTRODUCTION The tale of Robin Hood has evolved into one of the greatest legends of all time and has fascinated the minds of all who have heard about it. The stories surrounding Robin Hood and his adventures took place in the forests of Sherwood and Barnsdale dating back to the fifteenth century. The first question that comes to mind when dealing with this legend is who was the real Robin Hood? Amazingly, speculation regarding this question still exists today and the tale has survived more than seven hundred years. Now the real question has to be why is this â€Å"Robin Hood† such a fixating topic? Since there is such controversy over the real Robin Hood, for the most part he is a fictional character. He has now been adapted to a man of the movies where every director has a different vision of who he might have been. Their vision was usually of a heroic figure even though he could have more easily been considered a villain for what he did for a living. â€Å"†¦the image of Robin as a clever, lighthearted prankster gained strength. The tales in which he appeared as a highway robber and murderer were forgotten or rewritten† (Wickersham 12). It has a gotten to a point where now every child has a heroic vision of Robin Hood whereas the early ballads and oral tr... ...que. There is an explanation to why historians have obsessed over Robin Hood and it is not just to find out if there was a man who lived up to such surreal standards. He is a legend and loved by all for a reason and that is he was not afraid to stand up and fight for what he believed in. His message to the law and what we learn from his legend is clear. â€Å"It is a warning that injustice cannot be tolerated just because it is part of the system, for the anger which such injustice in the end awakens is unrestrained.† (Keen 218). Robin Hood lived motivated to fight against those he believed to be undeserving and in doing so he ended up standing up for the common man. This was his legacy in what he perceived as a noble quest for social justice. Real or imaginary, Robin Hood will continue to captivate the minds of all readers and his legend will never die.

From Baseball to Gymnastics :: Personal Narrative Sports Athletics Essays

From Baseball to Gymnastics Have you ever played baseball before? Is it just another sport to you? Well I have, and in the beginning it was just a sport to me. I remember as a young boy playing ball in the fields with only a few friends. Pretty much all we needed to play the game was a pitcher, a batter, and a fielder. The other players were mainly my brother Keith and a few neighbors around the block. Of course I was the youngest and the smallest, but this didn’t seem to bother them. We also played many other sports but baseball was my field of expertise. One summer, when I was eight years old, my mother came to me and asked how I felt about playing organized ball. At first I was unsure because I was used to my way of only three or more players, but not nine, on each team. Well the small amount of players we had was beginning to decrease. This was because the older guys were getting jobs and more importantly girlfriends. There wasn’t much else to do, so I decided to go for it, and joi n the league. This is what I wanted and I was going to be a pro someday. A few days later I went to register with my mom. She was so cool, because she did all the talking for me. I just hid behind her rear and listened, only peeking around timidly to see what I was up against. I wasn’t used to that many kids and was not about to talk to anyone, even though they were kids like me. I was shy that day but soon after began to open up. That was it, sign up was complete, and practice was just around the corner. My team the Toronto Blue Jays, had two weeks before our first game. During this time we had a chance to meet the coach and all the members of the team. We also had the opportunity of making fun of ourselves as we fumbled the ball around in a disorganized manner. Once again I had my doubts, but before long I gained friendships and a greater interest for organized Little League. I started off in the league as a Mustang, which was classified by age group.

Narayan Murthy’s Retirement Speech Essay

Different people run out of endurance and intellectual horsepower at different points of time. Some people drop out of the marathon since they do not see any value in an organization when their own time under the arc light is over. A leader’s responsibility is to recognize this, provide them opportunities outside the organization, and usher in suitable replacements. Infosys’ journey is replete with many such examples. The Essence of Leadership : Many intelligent people possess a high ego and low patience to deal with people less capable than themselves. Leaders have to manage this anomaly very carefully; counsel these errant people from time to time, and allow them to operate as long as they do not become dysfunctional and start harming the organization. If they do cross the threshold it takes courage to inform the individuals that their time in the organization is over and that they have to leave. However, one aspect that marks out a truly superior organization is the ability of its employees at all levels to be driven by values and to ensure adherence and compliance under any circumstance. No individual is high or important enough for an organization to put up with non compliance. Leadership by example is what creates trust in people to follow a leader. As long as a leader is able to show his or her sacrifice and commitment to a cause others will follow him or her I am glad we decided on respect from our stakeholders (customers, employees, investors, vendor, partners, government of the land and the society) as the primary objective of the company. I have seen hundreds of instances of such leadership-by-example at Infosys. A sense of ownership among employees is extremely important to build a long term future for a corporation. Such ownership comes from fair merit based and generous sharing of wealth and perquisites among each member of the company. This is my answer to many of my friends who wonder why when Infosys was founded I took a small percentage of my earlier salary while every other cofounder’s salary was increased by at least 10 per cent. The same friends tell me that they do not know of any other instance where as much as 10 to 15 per cent of the company equity was given to co-founders who had just 12 to 18 months of work experience. I do not know of any Indian company that has given away as much as Rs 50,000 crore (at current stock prices) of stock options to employees. Today; every Indian employee at every level who joined us on or before March 2010 is a stockholder of Infosys. The point I would like to make is that such acts demonstrate that our leaders walked the talk in sacrifice and commitment. Strategy is about ensuring sustained differentiation m a changing environment for better net income margins Differentiation without better net income margins is meaningless. In my opinion operating margins and earnings before taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are not appropriate measures. In fact the best measure of differentiation is the per capita free cash flow generated. Such cash flows bring cash to invest in better people research and development infrastructure training and better customer and employee confidence The famous Harvard historian Niall Ferguson says in his book Civilization: The West and the Rest that the six attributes that have made Western civilization dominant during the last five hundred years are ompetition, science, property rights, medicine, consumption and a good work ethic. I have been saying for many years now that the factors that differentiate a corporation from its competitors are an enduring value system open mindedness, pluralistic and meritocratic approach and practicing speed, imagination and excellence in execution. Leaders have to focus on creating such an environment. The Essence of Leadership : Leadershi p is about taking bold and firm decisions with incomplete information in an environment of uncertainty: Leaders who waffle do not inspire confidence in their people. It is important to use as much data and modeling as possible to eliminate clearly bad decisions. My decision to walk away from a Fortune 10 company when they contributed 25 % of our revenue was one such example of decision making under uncertainty. It was a tough decision that was taken so firmly and calmly that the head of sales at Infosys at that time thought I was not bothered about the future of the company! I had to explain to him that I did indeed agonize over it but that as a leader I could not be driven by panic since such an important decision required a calm and composed mind. Every leader must have a mental model of his or her business with at best five to seven parameters that determine sensitivity to revenue and net income. It is important to update that model suitably as the business landscape changes. Any leader who cannot quickly do such sensitivity calculation would not be able to take quick and bold decisions. Even today I carry and update the mental model of our business in my mind. Generosity is an essential part of a leader. It is the foundation on which teamwork is built. The ability to share the limelight with ones colleagues, the ability to step aside and give opportunity to younger people when they want that fame, power and glory: and the ability to provide a safety net of advice for them is an important aspect of strengthening the future of an organization. It is not easy to give up power, particularly when you have been the object of so much adulation. I must say that Infosys has done a good job in bringing two such transitions before I leave the portals of this company. What Makes an Organization Worldclass : Scalability is the true test of the endurance of an organization. The ability to grow successfully without losing quality productivity employee investor and customer satisfaction and the spirit of a small company is what makes Infosys a great company. We have grown from 50 customers to 620 customers from 10 projects to 6,500 projects from 100 employees to 130,820 employees from 100 sq ft to 28 million sq ft of built up space and from 100 investors to over 450,000 investors. Such a scalability exercise has been successful thanks to our PSPD model of operation. PSPD stands for Predictability of revenues, Sustainability of such predictability, Profitability of such realized revenues and Derisking. Predictability happens because of a good forecasting system that derives realistic data from the trenches and tempers it with the wisdom of senior business leaders. Sustainability refers to the systems that help the efforts of sales people beating the pavement and meeting customers to make the prediction true, the efforts of our delivery people to deliver quality products on time within budgets, and to the efforts of our finance people raising the invoice on time and collecting money on time. Profitability refers to the systems that help our people make value-based sales, follow rigorous budgeting exercises, control costs, get best value for money and ensure the agreed-upon profitability. Derisking refers to systems that identify risks in various dimensions of our operations – people, geographies, technologies, application areas and services – collect periodic data, review the risk levels and mitigate them. Innovation is the best instrument for creating sustained differentiation. However it must be accepted that revenues for a corporation come from well understood ideas and business models. For example, most of a bank’s revenues will come from borrowing money at a certain rate and lending it at a higher rate. Part of the profits from such models will be used for research and development to generate new ideas. A few of these ideas will be seeded and some of them will become mainstream revenue earners. Therefore, it is very important for a leader to focus on innovation particularly when the times are good. Customers put food on our table. Therefore, we have to have a laser focus on exceeding their expectations, being open and honest with them, and ensuring that they look good in front of their customers. Employees are the only instruments we have to make our customers and investors succeed. Therefore, we have to create an environment of openness, meritocracy; fairness, transparency, honesty and accountability amongst our employees. Our investors understand that businesses will have their share of up and downs. They want us, the management, to level with them at all times. Therefore, â€Å"when in doubt, please disclose† is a good policy for a corporation. Society provides customers, employees, investors, bureaucrats and politicians. Therefore, earning the goodwill of every society that we operate in is extremely important for us. Global benchmarking is a powerful instrument that helps us to improve our self-confidence, compete with the best global competitors and serve our customers better. Success and Failure – We are our best friend and We are our Worst Enemies : We Indians must recognize as we have done at Infosys that we are our main enemies. There is no external enemy. Our failures are because of our lack of commitment to our cause, our inability to accept meritocracy and our indifference to honesty and want of a good work ethic amongst our leaders. Performance alone is the key differentiator. This stems from my belief that performance leads to recognition brings respect and respect brings power. Therefore if India wants to be a superpower as we keep hoping the only instrument we have is performance. We have demonstrated that businesses can be run legally and ethically that it is possible for an Indian company to benchmark with the global best and that any set of youngsters with values hard work team work and a little bit of smartness can indeed be successful entrepreneurs. This way we have enthused millions of young men and women in India. This in my opinion is Infosys’ greatest contribution. I have realized that humility grace and courtesy are genuine only when you have power and glory. That is why the leaders at Infosys have practiced this time and again. Humility provides us the strength of mind to learn from people better than us. Grace and courtesy make us worthy competitors. They also remind us that such glory and power are ephemeral and give us the strength to handle the days when we too could lose our shine. The crucial things we have to do in the future are to recognize our weaknesses; be open-minded about learning from people better than us; learn from our mistakes and not repeat them; be humble, honest and courteous; benchmark with the best in every dimension; use innovation to perform at global levels; and create a worthwhile vision and improve every day. This is how our mantra of focusing on speed imagination and excellence in execution will take this company very far. I have absolutely no doubt about it. I wish Kris and my fellow Infoscions the best in their journey forward. The board has been kind enough to name me the Chairman Emeritus. Therefore, I will always be there to add value if asked. Thanks, Narayana Murthy

Research Papers in Computer Science Essay

Since we recently announced our $10001 Binary Battle to promote applications built on the Mendeley API (now including PLoS as well), I decided to take a look at the data to see what people have to work with. My analysis focused on our second largest discipline, Computer Science. Biological Sciences (my discipline) is the largest, but I started with this one so that I could look at the data with fresh eyes, and also because it’s got some really cool papers to talk about. Here’s what I found: What I found was a fascinating list of topics, with many of the expected fundamental papers like Shannon’s Theory of Information and the Google paper, a strong showing from Mapreduce and machine learning, but also some interesting hints that augmented reality may be becoming more of an actual reality soon. The top graph summarizes the overall results of the analysis. This graph shows the Top 10 papers among those who have listed computer science as their discipline and chosen a subdiscipline. The bars are colored according to subdiscipline and the number of readers is shown on the x-axis. The bar graphs for each paper show the distribution of readership levels among subdisciplines. 17 of the 21 CS subdisciplines are represented and the axis scales and color schemes remain constant throughout. Click on any graph to explore it in more detail or to grab the raw data.(NB: A minority of Computer Scientists have listed a subdiscipline. I would encourage everyone to do so.) 1. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (available full-text) LDA is a means of classifying objects, such as documents, based on their underlying topics. I was surprised to see this paper as number one instead of Shannon’s information theory paper (#7) or the paper describing the concept that became Google (#3). It turns out that interest in this paper is very strong among those who list artificial intelligence as their subdiscipline. In fact, AI researchers contributed the majority of readership to 6 out of the top 10 papers. Presumably, those interested in popular topics such as machine learning list themselves under AI, which explains the strength of this subdiscipline, whereas papers like the Mapreduce one or the Google paper appeal to a broad range of subdisciplines, giving those papers a smaller numbers spread across more subdisciplines. Professor Blei is also a bit of a superstar, so that didn’t hurt. (the irony of a manually-categorized list with an LDA paper at the top has not escaped us) 2. MapReduce : Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters (available full-text) It’s no surprise to see this in the Top 10 either, given the huge appeal of this parallelization technique for breaking down huge computations into easily executable and recombinable chunks. The importance of the monolithic â€Å"Big Iron† supercomputer has been on the wane for decades. The interesting thing about this paper is that had some of the lowest readership scores of the top papers within a subdiscipline, but folks from across the entire spectrum of computer science are reading it. This is perhaps expected for such a general purpose technique, but given the above it’s strange that there are no AI readers of this paper at all. 3. The Anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual search engine (available full-text) In this paper, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page discuss how Google was created and how it initially worked. This is another paper that has high readership across a broad swath of disciplines, including AI, but wasn’t dominated by any one discipline. I would expect that the largest share of readers have it in their library mostly out of curiosity rather than direct relevance to their research. It’s a fascinating piece of history related to something that has now become part of our every day lives. 4. Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints This paper was new to me, although I’m sure it’s not new to many of you. This paper describes how to identify objects in a video stream without regard to how near or far away they are or how they’re oriented with respect to the camera. AI again drove the popularity of this paper in large part and to understand why, think â€Å"Augmented Realityâ€Å". AR is the futuristic idea most familiar to the average sci-fi enthusiast as Terminator-vision. Given the strong interest in the topic, AR could be closer than we think, but we’ll probably use it to layer Groupon deals over shops we pass by instead of building unstoppable fighting machines. 5. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (available full-text) This is another machine learning paper and its presence in the top 10 is primarily due to AI, with a small contribution from folks listing neural networks as their discipline, most likely due to the paper being published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. Reinforcement learning is essentially a technique that borrows from biology, where the behavior of an intelligent agent is is controlled by the amount of positive stimuli, or reinforcement, it receives in an environment where there are many different interacting positive and negative stimuli. This is how we’ll teach the robots behaviors in a human fashion, before they rise up and destroy us. 6. Toward the next generation of recommender systems: a survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions (available full-text) Popular among AI and information retrieval researchers, this paper discusses recommendation algorithms and classifies them into collaborative, content-based, or hybrid. While I wouldn’t call this paper a groundbreaking event of the caliber of the Shannon paper above, I can certainly understand why it makes such a strong showing here. If you’re using Mendeley, you’re using both collaborative and content-based discovery methods! 7. A Mathematical Theory of Communication (available full-text) Now we’re back to more fundamental papers. I would really have expected this to be at least number 3 or 4, but the strong showing by the AI discipline for the machine learning papers in spots 1, 4, and 5 pushed it down. This paper discusses the theory of sending communications down a noisy channel and demonstrates a few key engineering parameters, such as entropy, which is the range of states of a given communication. It’s one of the more fundamental papers of computer science, founding the field of information theory and enabling the development of the very tubes through which you received this web page you’re reading now. It’s also the first place the word â€Å"bit†, short for binary digit, is found in the published literature. 8. The Semantic Web (available full-text) In The Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Tim, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes his vision for the web of the future. Now, 10 years later, it’s fascinating to look back though it and see on which points the web has delivered on its promise and how far away we still remain in so many others. This is different from the other papers above in that it’s a descriptive piece, not primary research as above, but still deserves it’s place in the list and readership will only grow as we get ever closer to his vision. 9. Convex Optimization (available full-text) This is a very popular book on a widely used optimization technique in signal processing. Convex optimization tries to find the provably optimal solution to an optimization problem, as opposed to a nearby maximum or minimum. While this seems like a highly specialized niche area, it’s of importance to machine learning and AI researchers, so it was able to pull in a nice readership on Mendeley. Professor Boyd has a very popular set of video classes at Stanford on the subject, which probably gave this a little boost, as well. The point here is that print publications aren’t the only way of communicating your ideas. Videos of techniques at SciVee or JoVE or recorded lectures (previously) can really help spread awareness of your research. 10. Object recognition from local scale-invariant features (available in full-text) This is another paper on the same topic as paper #4, and it’s by the same author. Looking across subdisciplines as we did here, it’s not surprising to see two related papers, of interest to the main driving discipline, appear twice. Adding the readers from this paper to the #4 paper would be enough to put it in the #2 spot, just below the LDA paper. Conclusions So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are a few things to note. First of all, it shows that Mendeley readership data is good enough to reveal both papers of long-standing importance as well as interesting upcoming trends. Fun stuff can be done with this! How about a Mendeley leaderboard? You could grab the number of readers for each paper published by members of your group, and have some friendly competition to see who can get the most readers, month-over-month. Comparing yourself against others in terms of readers per paper could put a big smile on your face, or it could be a gentle nudge to get out to more conferences or maybe record a video of your technique for JoVE or Khan Academy or just Youtube. Another thing to note is that these results don’t necessarily mean that AI researchers are the most influential researchers or the most numerous, just the best at being accounted for. To make sure you’re counted properly, be sure you list your subdiscipline on your profile, or if you can’t find your exact one, pick the closest one, like the machine learning folks did with the AI subdiscipline. We recognize that almost everyone does interdisciplinary work these days. We’re working on a more flexible discipline assignment system, but for now, just pick your favorite one. These stats were derived from the entire readership history, so they do reflect a founder effect to some degree. Limiting the analysis to the past 3 months would probably reveal different trends and comparing month-to-month changes could reveal rising stars.

A Uniformed Education Essay

Even though it is believed that students need to make life decisions based on their own standards, instead of the procedures and guidelines set for them, and that this is vitally critical for them as they grow into adults. Uniforms are a good idea as it causes students to focus on their academics and learning rather than on latest fashions or what the next student is wearing, also to respect themselves, their instructors and each other. Students are more likely to feel safe in schools with uniforms and they are also more inclined to attend classes and perform better academically. Faculty members in an inquiry believed that uniforms increased the learning climate by reassuring morality amongst students, augmenting the communication between teachers and students and bettering the administration of discipline. Many school officials agree that wearing uniforms helps decrease bullying and student detachment, and many educators are convinced that school uniforms increase students’ a bility to thrive in the classroom. As Huss (2007) states, â€Å"School uniforms are tangible; they are seen as a concrete and visible means of restoring order to the classrooms.† Uniforms cause change in appearance and performance while in class. First, students are more likely to feel safe in schools with uniforms and they are also more inclined to attend classes and perform better academically. Students perform better academically when they feel safe and are not threatened in school. There has been a lot of scrutiny concerning school safety, due to the increased activity and violence of gangs in schools. After taking note of these actions (increased violence and gang presence) officials are always considering ways to establish the security of the students and the faculty. King (1998) states, â€Å"Those who fear for their safety in school or on the way to school may not learn effectively, and they may turn to truancy as a viable alternative to facing daily threats of violence.† School safety, a  more disciplined student and student learning is believed to be the outcome if school uniforms would be enforced. Wearing school uniforms helps a school limit the wearing of gang colors, theft and school violence. Enforcing school uniforms should be taken seriously considering the ability of them making a student feel secure and safe to learn. When uniforms are required and worn it makes it easy to identify those that are not from the school or that are actually out of uniform by wearing regular street clothes. Students from schools where uniforms were required reported they did feel more safe and compelled to be concerned more about their education and succeeding in the classroom than to have to identify who was a member or which gang from day to day. King (1998) states, â€Å"Approximately one in four students reports worrying about becoming a victim of crimes or threats at school, and one in eight reports having been victimized at school.† The wearing of school uniforms should be expected in all schools and not just targeted areas; this would increase the true benefit of wearing unifor ms in our education system. Creating a system where uniforms are worn in all schools would limit the thought of a school that actually has a uniform policy in place as being considered a bad school or unsafe to send a child. Uniforms should not be associated with a schools safety and or truancy problems. The safety of our children should be a priority every day. Additionally, teachers in a study believed uniforms enriched the schooling climate by stimulating morality amidst students, augmenting the interactions between the teachers and students and bettering control. Similarly, of the 5,500 principals surveyed as attendees of the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ annual conference in February 1996, more than 7-% believed that requiring students to wear uniforms to school would reduce violent incidents and discipline problems. Moreover, greater than 80% of Long Beach Telegram readers supported uniforms. (King 1998) â€Å"A school reported the effects of wearing uniforms and in the first year alone crime decreased by 36%, sex offenses by74% and physical fights among students by 51%.† (King 1998) Students have shown to behave at a higher standard when in uniform and it also has been reported to have an effect on the interaction between a teacher and student. When in uniform students mannerisms are different and they carry themselves in a higher regard. It is believed that both the students and teachers operate based on the way they are dressed. A school  official has been quoted as saying â€Å"Students here understand why they are in school†; â€Å"Students work hard to complete their assignments†; and â€Å"Students in this school have fun but also work hard on their studies.† (Murray, R. K. 1997) This in no way means that all students will act accordingly and excel academically, but it would assist in creating an environment where both students and teachers were a ppreciative of their school and more considerate to each other. It is believed that teachers interact differently with students when they are clothed in a more uniformed manner. Students have also been noted as having better mannerism and more care in how they handle each other as well as the faculty. Finally, the most important reason uniforms are a good idea as it causes students to focus on their academics rather than on the latest fashions because â€Å"wearing uniforms helps students to get into â€Å"learning mode† and reminds them to respect themselves, their instructors and each other.† (Wade, K. & Stafford, M. 2003) The administrators instantly point out that normally; purchasing school uniforms for a school year can cost between $80 and $90 per child, this cost is lower than what parents would spend when having to buy the designer clothing that a student desires. So, a student and parent would be better off purchasing uniforms financially which is looked at as a bonus in these economic times. Students in a school that requires uniforms are less likely to feel or receive peer pressure because of their lack of the designer clothing that other families may be able to afford. In a climate where uniforms are mandatory your family’s financial situation is not noticeable thus making it a more comfortable learning environment. A parent was quoted saying, â€Å"I know I spent less money and needed far fewer items of clothing for my children when they wore school uniforms.† (Walmsley, A. 2011) This also lessen the occurrence of the morning fights between parents and students as to what to wear for the day the selection is simple and minimal at the same time. At this age youths are at the point of attempt to find their own individuality and ideas of what suits them clothes wise be it baggy or tight jeans, cartooned t-shirts, and political clothing. Getting away from wearing those types of clothing and requiring a uniform causes the student to not focus on what someone is wearing but instead their schooling and academics which is way more important. Fashion should take a backseat when it comes to your education. A youth’s individuality can be expressed in other ways if shown  and at the same time there should be limits set on the possibilities of accessories worn with the uniforms. Students have been intensely wounded and or killed for their designer shoes, clothing and accessories. School uniforms are believed to cut down on these occurrences. Being dressed in a different manner has been shown to cause a different reaction in class and in a student’s day to day life. School climate has been shown to be related to student achievement as well as how students behave and feel about themselves, their school, and other individuals. Furthermore, positive school climate has been identified as a characteristic of an effective school. Given the significant impact of school climate on student achievement, practitioners should consider these new findings when considering implementing a school uniform policy as a means of improving school climate and student behavior. (Murray, R. K. 1997) Requiring uniforms in schools changes the climate and the reaction to learning significantly. Walmsley (2011) states, â€Å"Because students dress in uniforms, they’re reminded that their â€Å"job† is to be a student.† A uniform causes a different behavior and creates such a reaction in the students that their attitudes ch ange automatically. On some occasions students have even decided to opt out of the days allowed for â€Å"street clothes† after they have experienced a school uniform environment. When dressed in street clothes students tend to behave in a manner of â€Å"play† and not take their education as serious. Just as stated before when in uniform â€Å"they’re reminded that their job is to be a student,† it’s presenting them with the idea that during these hours you are expected to give your all and not limit yourself in anyway and behave in a more professional or sophisticated manner much like if they were going to an actual 9 – 5 job this behavior is expected from them. Indeed, while wearing a school uniform does not allow for self-expression some think that students should make choices in regards to life based on their own personal values instead of the precedent and governance chosen for them and this is important for their own well-being and development as they con tinue to grow up. Anderson (2002) states, â€Å"four basic reasons for promoting school uniforms: 1) enhanced school safety, 2) improved learning climate, 3) higher self-esteem for students, and 4) less stress on the family.† Uniforms are a good idea as it causes students to focus on their academics and learning rather than on latest fashions or what the next student is wearing because  wearing uniforms helps students get prepared and ready to learn and it reminds them that certain level of respect is required of them towards their instructors, themselves and the other students. The use and purchase of uniforms can also improve Schools should provide a safe environment for learning. Wearing uniforms could be considered a form of good discipline and causing students to learn and adhere to rules. Calling for uniforms in schools can reduce violence and propel our students into a better category academically in the world as a whole. The wearing of a school uniform may not resolve all or any of the problems that occur day to day in our schools now but there are some other benefits to wearing them and those benefits should be taken into account. (Lester 106-12) With classrooms today needing a more respect for teachers and each other wearing school uniforms can help with that. Conformity should be painless with uniforms being incorporated in our education system, as the guidelines are definite and straightforward. References Anderson, W. (2002). School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies. Policy Report. Washington, D.C.: Office of Educational Research and Improvement. ERIC document ED 471 528. Huss, J. A. (2007). The Role of School Uniforms in Creating an Academically Motivating Climate: Do Uniforms Influence Teacher Expectations? Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 131-39. King, K.A. (1998, January). Should school uniforms be mandated in elementary school? Journal of School Health. p. 32. Murray, R. K. (1997). The Impact of School Uniforms on School Climate. NASSP Bulletin, 81(593), 106-12. Wade, K., & Stafford, M. E. (2003). Public School Uniforms: Effect on Perceptions of Gangs Presence, School Climate, and Student Self-Perceptions. Education and Urban Society, 35 (4), 399-420. Walmsley, A. (2011). What the United Kingdom Can Teach the United States About School Uniforms. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 63-66.