Smoking cessation (tobacco legislation) Assignment

Smoking cessation (tobacco legislation) - Assignment Example According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, â€Å"smokeless, or spit, tobacco has gone from a product used primarily by older men to one used predominantly by young men and boys. This trend has occurred as smokeless tobacco promotions have increased dramatically and a new generation of smokeless tobacco products has hit the market† (Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 2009). By leveling tax parity among all tobacco products, some of the allure of cheap smokeless alternatives is reduced. A secondary good from such an increase is that the further tax revenues that will be gleaned can be distributed among a host of current government programs intended on further tobacco education and health care funding for what remains the most preventable form of death in the United States (National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2010). As the use of tobacco products among the older demographic in the United States is relatively constant, it continues to grow among the nation’s youth. It is against this backdrop, as well as the multiplicity of health affects that smokeless and other tobacco products wreak on our nation that has prompted this letter. Please strongly consider taking action to stem the tide of cheap and readily available tobacco products in our nation and to our youth.

Teacher That I Like Essay Example for Free

Teacher That I Like Essay Friendly short Pay attendant with students Kind Handsome Knowledgeable Good solving the problem Funny Good explaining Good manner Implement High education entire The teacher that I like is teacher Don Sarom. I’m a student at Kids international school. At there I have a teacher. His name is teacher Don Sarom. He is the teacher that I like very much. He is very handsome but he is shorter than me and fatter than me. He is very friendly and funny also. When he is explaining he always has a fun that make we want to study with him. He always pay attendant with all the student in the class. When have some students that don’t understand he will explain them again and again until they understand clearly. And when he explains, all the students are tried to listen to him altogether. He is very kind also. When I have some problem that I don’t know how to do I always call to ask him and he always tell me all the time although hi is studying or busying also. He always has enough implement to teach. When have some problem that happen in the school or in the class he always find the good solving. And he is the good manner person also. When he speaks is make all the student listen to him and always think what that he speak because he is a high education person. I’m very like him he is always helping me all time that I have problem or also the entire student in the class. I will remember all the things that he has done to me. If the entire teacher is as same as him I think all the students are very happy to study.

Mapping the Human Genome Vision :: Essays Papers

Mapping the Human Genome Vision- In the past, the discovery of human disease genes has historically been an arduous undertaking. Extensive and exhaustive studies of genetic inheritance and pedigrees in generations of families led to the discovery of the color blindness gene on the Y chromosome in the early 1990's. As more biological tools became available, the pace of gene discovery increased. However, much of the biological laboratory practices were still rooted in intensively manual procedures. With the introduction of computing power in the mid-1980's, disproportionate amount of resources were being applied to hundreds of individual gene discovery efforts, such as Huntington's Disease and muscular dystrophy. It was with this realization that a large-scale effort at mapping the human genome was undertaken and in 1990, the Human Genome Project was deemed possible and launched officially by the National Institute of Health (Pollack 1,2). Presently, computers are being used to hold the vast databases of all the sequencing information for every gene of the human DNA strand. If computers were not available, the paper needed to contain all this information would stack higher than the Washington Monument, over 555 feet high. And this would only be for the data, not the analysis of that data. Imagine the nightmare of trying to find the correct gene pair, there are over 3.2 billion of them, in all that paper. But providing a database for the sequencing information of the human genome is only one way in which computers are helping in the mapping of the human genome. They also provide the computational power needed to speed the calculations for each gene as well as producing maps and the such for genetic information on each chromosome (Smith 14). In fact, Compaq Computer Corporation built specific technology enabling completion of the Human Genome. In the future, computing power will become greater and greater allowing for faster calculations and analysis of sequencing data. Also, there will be new robotics, micro-fabrication technologies and laboratory information management systems that will have to be applied to the challenges of the Human Genome Project (Bishop, 137). Furthermore, cutting edge researchers believe the really important discoveries won't come from looking at linear strands of genes but from examining the interaction between dozens of genes at once. Scientists could in theory use "biochips," arrays of hundreds of bits of your DNA placed in a silicon wafer, to examine how how a drug would interact with your particular biochemistry (Moore, 56).

If Beale Street Could Talk: The Story of Love and Endurance Essay

The topics of racial injustice and ethnic discrimination are extremely popular in literature. Writers of fiction exploit these topics, to shed the light on the difficulties a black person faces in contemporary America. James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is considered by critics as a brilliant representation of the racial and ethnic tensions in the American society. However, despite the profound racial implications, this book is primarily a love story. Certainly, James Baldwin condemns racism and imperialism and criticizes racial bias in criminal justice and social relationships. However, more than anything else, James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a complex example of a love story, in which two people deeply connected to each other face the pain of separation and successfully pass this test to their feelings and commitments. James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a successful example of a love story, in which two people deeply connected to each other face the pain of separation. Fonny and Tish are separated by the injustice and racial bias that are so characteristic of the American criminal justice system. However, not the injustice and racial bias but the pain and sufferings of a loving man and a loving woman shape the foreground of Baldwin’s story: â€Å"I always remember now, because he’s in jail and I love his eyes and every time I see him I’m afraid I’ll never see him again. So I pick up the phone as soon as I get there and I just hold it and I keep looking up at him. [†¦] I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass† (Baldwin 4). The fact of Fonny’s being falsely accused of rape is just a minor part of Tish’s personal experiences. Tish fights to release Fonny from prison not because she wants to prove the unfairness of the racial relationships in her society, but because she truly loves her man and wants to spend her life with him. The baby in Tish’s belly adds stimuli to her individual fight for happiness and turns Baldwin’s book into a story of love that can survive the most unbelievable hardships. Baldwin’s book is the story about love that evolves over Tish and Fonny’s lifespan. Tish’s memories bring the reader back to her infant and school years: her first encounter with Fonny, her experiences and perceptions about his personality, the development of their feelings toward each other, and the first understanding that they were meant to be together. â€Å"I thought of Fonny’s touch, of Fonny, in my arms, his breath, his touch, his odor, his weight, that terrible and beautiful presence riding into me and his breath being snarled, as if by a golden thread, deeper in his throat as he rode†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Baldwin 35). The way Baldwin describes Tish and Fonny creates a sense of a never ending happiness, which happens only once in a lifetime. Through the prism of her memories and experiences, Tish cannot but recognize the wonder of her own and Fonny’s feelings. She cannot but admit that â€Å"it’s a miracle to realize that somebody loves you† (Baldwin 36). Even if any racial and ethical dilemmas poison their lives, they are overshadowed and die away against the connectedness of their souls and spiritual beings. In the context of Baldwin’s story, racial discrimination and bias are useful only to the extent that emphasizes the miraculous nature of the relationship between Tish and Fonny. This relationship is equally complicated and perfect. Nothing can break their love. The future baby is, probably, the culmination of their feelings toward each other: â€Å"Love had sent it, spinning out of us, to us. [†¦] Something in me sang and hummed and then I felt the deadly morning sickness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Baldwin 41). These are the realities in the lives of any two people, who love each other and who, regardless of the social and racial difficulties, turn this love into the strongest stimulus in their movement to the ultimate happiness. Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a complex example of a love story, in which two people who are deeply connected to each other successfully pass a difficult test to their feelings and commitments. Fonny’s arrest and imprisonment is the first serious separation in the life of Tish. Tish feels the threat of losing Fonny. She is not afraid of loneliness, but she is afraid of losing her beloved man forever. She remembers the best moments of their relationship, and these memories give her strength to move forward and bring Fonny back home: â€Å"You know, that I’ve always been yours, right? – I said, ‘I never thought about it that way’. He said, ‘Think about it now, Tish. ’ ‘I just know that I love you’, I said, and I started to cry† (Baldwin 63). Love gives Tish trust and endurance; she is full of confidence that she will be able to win this fight against the injustice. In her talk to Victoria, Tish once again says that she knows Fonny is not guilty. Her argument is simple: she has known him all his life (Baldwin 141). Not the striving to change the society’s beliefs about race, but Tish’s true love and commitment to Fonny move her to the victory. In a similar vein, love is the only source of hope for Fonny: â€Å"Baby. Baby. Baby. I love you. And I’m going to build us a table and a whole lot of folks going to be eating off it for a long, long time to come† (Baldwin 163). With their love, as well as the hope and faith born out of their love, Tish and Fonny successfully pass the test of separation. Nothing but love supports them on their way to each other. James Baldwin’s book is a triumph of the sincere human feelings, which can successfully break the racial, social and injustice barriers in the way to never ending happiness. Conclusion James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is often considered as the bright description of American imperialism, racism, and ethnic injustice. However, the book is primarily a complex example of a love story, in which two people deeply connected to each other face the pain of separation and successfully pass this test to their feelings and commitments. The evolution of the romantic relationship between Tish and Fonny is at the story’s foreground. The fight against racial bias and the inconsistencies of the criminal justice system are of minor importance: nothing but love moves Tish on her way to releasing Fonny from imprisonment; nothing but love gives Fonny more hope and optimism. Love gives Tish and Fonny strength and endurance necessary to successfully pass the test of separation. In this sense, James Baldwin’s book is the triumph of the sincere human feelings, which can successfully break the racial and social barriers in the way to never ending happiness.

Advertising Through Social Media Essay

In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are â€Å"forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos). The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in turn has allowed them to better understand what people are looking for, and tailor both their products as well as their marketing efforts accordingly. One of the main advantages that social media has brought to businesses is the opportunity to advertise their products through this media. As a result, advertising through social media has proven to be more effective than that through traditional media outlets such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers etc. As stated by Stephen and Galak in their article The complimentary Roles of Traditional and Social Media in driving Marketing Performance, â€Å"Social media is a relatively new form of publicity, and yet the impact of more traditional forms of publicity on marketing outcomes has received disproportionately less attention†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (pg. #? ). Although Social media is a relatively new way of advertising, companies are finding it to be more lucrative and successful in driving sales than any other media. In this paper I will examine (i) the financial impact that advertising through social media has on companies,(ii) the targeted demographics for this type of advertising and (iii) consumers’ response to this phenomenon, whether it is positive or negative. Financial Impact of Advertising through Social Media As previously mentioned, businesses are moving away from traditional sources of advertising to more innovative ways that have proven to be more effective. Using the apparel industry as an example, companies are experiencing increased traffic to their websites thanks to their social media ads. They are taking advantage of these sites to further relationships with their customers: â€Å"Apparel brands and retailers that have invested time and resources into crafting a progressive social media strategy have been able to use the medium to further customer loyalty, raise brand awareness, spread advertising messages, create online communities, communicate directly with customers, and in many cases, drive sales† (â€Å"Apparel Industry† 1). Apparel retailers are only one example of an industry that has taken advantage of the reach that social media has. Research conducted by Swedish economists Dahlen and Colliander, on the effectiveness of blogs versus online magazines proves that blogs â€Å"generated higher brand attitudes and purchase intentions† than magazines did (pg. #? ). Their experiment was based on posting the same exact text on seven different blogs as well as seven different online magazines and testing their effectiveness in a scale of consumer response and purchases. The fact that blogs were proven more effective proves that even online traditional ads have lost their power. It is not a matter of posting an ad online, but rather building a sense of trust in costumers’ minds that will drive them to purchase form you. Customers today are faced with more options than ever before, that is why companies strive to maintain close relationships, to make it that much harder for customers to switch to another competitor. Social Media however is not only used to introduce a new product or advertise an existing one, it has also helped companies to regain their reputation after a scandal. After Toyota had to face their decline in sales because of the safety recalls, the company used a combination of Facebook pages and videos on YouTube to promote a â€Å"cool† couple that despite other’s beliefs drove Sienna cars and felt better than anyone else. The combination of these social networking efforts resulted in approximately 2,000 Facebook fans and 15,000 views on YouTube. Within a couple of weeks Toyota experienced an increase in sales, especially in their Sienna model (Taylor, 258). Toyota is a clear example of a company facing both a financial and reputation crisis that with the help of social media was able to regain some of their lost sales as well as their trust amongst its costumers. Clearly social media can have a direct impact on consumer purchasing patterns, and it has increased the amount of online shopping for several companies. Authors Chung and Austria examine in their article Social Media  Gratification and Attitude towards Social Media marketing Messages, the effect that this phenomenon has had on online shopping value: â€Å"According to the â€Å"2010 Social Media Report† from ForeSee results, 69% of online shoppers use social media. Fifty-six percent of shoppers indicate that they visit e-retail websites on a social networking site and that website visiting affects consumer purchase intention† (? ). Costumers find it convenient to visit a company’s Website after seeing an ad in any popular social networking site. It requires minimal effort form the customer and it signifies an important portion of sales to a company. However, Social Media has not only had a positive financial impact on a company, but as it rapidly grows it has now also become a cost for many businesses. Chung and Austria argue how marketers have noticed the increased importance of social media on the marketing mix (product, place, promotion and price). Companies are now opening jobs that focus exclusively on social media. This is an increased labor cost as well as an extra effort for the marketing department, however its proven effectiveness in driving sales outweighs the cost of implementing this department. Targeted Demographics The essence of Social Media is how it’s easily accessible to everyone, thanks to the Internet. It is a 24-hour business that runs in every part of the world. Although many professionals in the field have argued its acceptance and effectiveness, many could not help but notice that there is an age and demographic aspect of it. Not every potential costumer has access to the Internet as well as not all customers feel comfortable purchasing things online. Social Media is targeted to those generations who were born with technologies like this, and are comfortable using them. There are conflicting opinions in this matter, authors Stephen and Galak argue that social media has grown to be widely accepted amongst many age groups: â€Å"Furthermore, while social media was once the domain of younger, tech- savvy consumers who were faster to adopt new technologies, it is now generally considered to have entered the mainstream and covers a broad demographic spectrum with 75% of Internet-using adults in the United States using such social media† (? ). They argue that it is a mistake to believe that only tech avy customers would be influenced by social media, since now more than ever anyone with access to a computer has found it inevitable to come across advertising in popular networking sites. However in their article Friends, Fans and Followers: Do Ads work on Social Networks, authors Taylor et al. argue that â€Å"age and gender shape receptivity† (? ). They state: â€Å"As more advertisers integrate SNA [social networking ads] into their promotional mix, the need for these questions to be answered becomes apparent. Particularly with members of the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, whose digital-video recorder usage and aversion to print media make them an increasingly elusive target, SNA can be a highly effective channel of engagement† (? ). The effectiveness of an ad is not only based on where it is posted but also on who is looking at it. Companies have to pay attention to where they post their advertising based on aspects such as age, gender, location, etc. An ad for dentures that appears on an 18 year old kid’s Facebook page will most definitely not be as effective as an ad for a popular apparel brand. Although there might be certain demographics that affect the effectiveness of advertising through social media, it is inevitable to admit that social media users are a lucrative market that companies need to reach: In 2009, Facebook and Twitter both posted triple-digit growth in the number of users (comScore, 2010). Users appear to be spending more time on social networking sites as well, growing from an average of 3 hours per week in December 2008 to more than 5. 5 hours in December 2010 (Nielsenwire, 2010). To tap this growing market, advertisers spent an estimated $1. billion on SNA [social networking ads] in 2009, with totals for 2010 expected to grow by more than 7 percent (Williamson, 2009). During a single month in 2009, SNA accounted for nearly 69 billion advertising impressions, with 129. 6 million unique users (comScore, 2009). (Taylor, 260) Facebook and Twitter are only a few of the most popular networking sites, and these numbers reflect only the results from these two sites. If all social media outlets would be taken into account the market is even bigger, with more customers to reach. Consumer Response In addition to all the good things that have been attributed to advertising through social media, studies have shown that there is a percentage of customers who have stopped using social media in part because of the amount of advertising that fills these sites. It is impossible to open a popular social media site such as YouTube or Facebook and not feel bombarded by advertising. Most of these ads are trying to sell consumer products, but there is also an increase in the selling of services or the advertisement of not for profit organizations that are looking for support. Marketers have argued that as much as advertising through social media is effective, there is a fine line between effectiveness and annoyance: â€Å"according to one industry-sponsored study, only 22 percent of consumers had a positive attitude toward social media advertising—and 8 percent of consumers studied had abandoned an SNS [social networking site] because of what they perceived as excessive advertising (AdReaction, 2010)† (Taylor, 258). As costumers we all feel constantly approached by companies through their advertisements. It is not only online, but on a daily basis you will encounter companies’ marketing efforts all around. The initial intention behind social networking sites was giving people a chance to build online communities and share content with each other. However this has dramatically changed since now it is impossible not to feel attacked by all the ads. Another growing concern in the minds of consumers is privacy issues. The ads that appear on your personal Facebook page are carefully chosen by a system based on your age, gender, location and past â€Å"click-ons†. These ads are perfectly tailored to those targeted consumers to be more effective. However, having your information available to everyone and anyone is becoming an important issue for social network users. Brad Stone, columnist for the New York Times quotes: â€Å"‘When it works, it’s amazingly impactful, but when it doesn’t work, it’s not only creepy but off-putting,’ said Tim Hanlon, a principal at the consulting firm Riverview Lane Associates of Chicago. ‘What a marketer might think is endearing, by knowing a little bit about you, actually crosses the line pretty easily’† (? . It’s one thing to come across ads that are targeted to everyone and might or might not have an impact on you, but when you see something that looks like it is talking directly to you, it might have a negative impact. The increase in sales through the use of social media has also been attributed to the fact that customers feel like they are engaging in a conversation with other customers when they receive recommendations through social networking sites. Colliander and Dahlen quote: â€Å"In a 2009 article, The Economist reported that contemporary consumers use social media to help make purchases because they rely on â€Å"recommendations from friends† (The Economist, 2009). The word â€Å"friends† seems to indicate some sort of PSI. Are bloggers really friends, however? † Para-social interaction (PSI) refers to the illusion of a face-to-face relationship that is created online. Social media allows these kind of interactions. When reading a blog you might come across a recommendation of where to purchase certain products. These recommendations seem to come from a friend, since in blogs you will most often find the blogger’s name and other credentials. The question is however, are these people really bloggers? Or are they employees of that same company that are using social media to reach potential customers. Are they hiding behind another customer’s face? It is undeniable that people have begun to generate a negative response to advertising through social media for this exact reason. It has lost the essence of being an online community, to being another source through which companies look to improve their sales digits. Looking at all the aspects that deal with advertising through social media, I can’t help but ask myself a question: How much advertising is too much? When will that thin line between annoyance and effectiveness be crossed, and consumers will find themselves walking away from these online communities? Consumers have clearly manifested their discontent towards companies taking over their social network sites. It is an increased concern that information is available for everyone and anyone, and therefore consumers are more apprehensive to sharing their credentials as well as their thoughts online. Should companies start thinking of the effect that their excessive ads will have, and the negative response they might get. I personally believe that ads are unavoidable, however there is a need for stronger rights that protect customer privacy. Companies should not only make an effort to get to know their costumers by engaging in online conversations, but they should also respect the privacy of consumers’ information and refrain from over-advertising in popular social media sites.

Aught vs. Naught

Aught vs. Naught Aught vs. Naught Aught vs. Naught By Mark Nichol Aught and naught both mean â€Å"nothing.† Ought they to be antonyms rather than synonyms? Actually, aught means â€Å"something† or â€Å"anything†; it’s from the Old English word awiht, meaning â€Å"ever a thing.† (The second syllable is cognate with whit, meaning â€Å"very small thing,† and wight, meaning â€Å"living being,† though the latter is also used sometimes in an older sense of â€Å"ghost† or â€Å"spirit.†) However, the negative sense of the term is a result of false division, the same grammatical affliction that produced adder, the name for a type of snake, when the phrase â€Å"a nadder† was, over time, redivided as â€Å"an adder.† Aught in the sense of â€Å"nothing† derives from naught (from the Old English nawiht, meaning â€Å"not a thing†). Now, people sometimes therefore use aught when they mean naught. (Naught, by the way, is the root of the adjective naughty; to be naughty is to lack something- namely, compunction or moral character.) And though aught is often used in British English to mean â€Å"all,† it can also mean â€Å"zero,† as when someone refers to something having occurred in â€Å"aught five† (2005); it’s also used in American English to refer to the gauge of a wire or (alone and in combination with double and triple) of buckshot that fills a shotgun shell. Ought and nought are variants of aught and naught. Though ought is obsolete in this sense, nought persists in being used in place of naught, as in â€Å"noughts and crosses,† the British English name for tic-tac-toe. The sense of ought used in the first sentence of this post, meanwhile, is unrelated. Originally, in Old English and Middle English, earlier versions of ought served as the past tense of owe. The word lost this sense hundreds of years ago, but we still use it with to to mean should in the sense of advisability, consequence, expectation, or obligation in such sentences as â€Å"She ought to know better.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Meaning of "To a T"English Grammar 101: Verb Mood25 Favorite Portmanteau Words

Free Essays on The Scandalous Messages of James

â€Å"If the letter of James were sent to the Christian communities of certain countries that suffer from violence and exploitation, it would very possibly be intercepted by government security agencies† -Elsa Tamez James’ letter made many people suspicious. Even though it was probably written at the end of the first century, it did not make it into the canon until the end of the forth century. Even then it still faced challenges and criticism until after the formation of the canon. Even Martin Luther attacked the book of James, saying it was not faithful to the gospel of Christ, that it had nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. Martin Luther actually placed the book of James at the end of his German Translation of the New Testament. The books of Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation soon joined the book of James. Martin Luther detested these books so much that he did not list them in the table of contents. Even the modern editions of the German translation still has these books at the end, only now they are included in the table of contents. Even today, the book of James is still not as popular as other books. At some churches the letter is skipped because it makes the rich peo ple uncomfortable. The letter of James will probably always be criticized and unpopular for these reasons. There is no agreement of date, authorship, or geographical origin of the letter between scholars. Sophie Laws, a professor of the University of London, says that the author is someone who took the name of James, a pen name, which was a common practice in Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. Laws also states that the letter is from Rome, because of its similarity to other literature like 1 Peter and Clement of Rome. She dates the letter between 70 and 130 C.E. Peter Davids, a professor at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry believes the author is James, the brother of Jesus, and someone else edited it for him. Davids believes that the ... Free Essays on The Scandalous Messages of James Free Essays on The Scandalous Messages of James â€Å"If the letter of James were sent to the Christian communities of certain countries that suffer from violence and exploitation, it would very possibly be intercepted by government security agencies† -Elsa Tamez James’ letter made many people suspicious. Even though it was probably written at the end of the first century, it did not make it into the canon until the end of the forth century. Even then it still faced challenges and criticism until after the formation of the canon. Even Martin Luther attacked the book of James, saying it was not faithful to the gospel of Christ, that it had nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. Martin Luther actually placed the book of James at the end of his German Translation of the New Testament. The books of Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation soon joined the book of James. Martin Luther detested these books so much that he did not list them in the table of contents. Even the modern editions of the German translation still has these books at the end, only now they are included in the table of contents. Even today, the book of James is still not as popular as other books. At some churches the letter is skipped because it makes the rich peo ple uncomfortable. The letter of James will probably always be criticized and unpopular for these reasons. There is no agreement of date, authorship, or geographical origin of the letter between scholars. Sophie Laws, a professor of the University of London, says that the author is someone who took the name of James, a pen name, which was a common practice in Jewish and Greco-Roman literature. Laws also states that the letter is from Rome, because of its similarity to other literature like 1 Peter and Clement of Rome. She dates the letter between 70 and 130 C.E. Peter Davids, a professor at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry believes the author is James, the brother of Jesus, and someone else edited it for him. Davids believes that the ...

Lagging Behind

Lagging Behind Lagging Behind Lagging Behind By Maeve Maddox A reader writes: I keep seeing this: â€Å"lacked considerably behind when what is meant is lagged considerably behind. When I went looking, I also found many examples of lacking where the context calls for lagging. Here are a few: Incorrect: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lacking behind the top US healthcare sites Correct: Bad WPO ranking on most pages [are] lagging behind the top US healthcare sites Incorrect: Africa is clearly lacking behind [in foreign investment]. Correct: Africa is clearly lagging behind [in foreign investment]. Incorrect: Good research lacking behind fitness promises Correct: Good research lagging behind fitness promises The meaning of the verb lag in the idiom â€Å"to lag behind† is â€Å"to fail to keep pace with others.† Usually, the behind that follows lagging is a preposition that takes an object: One very controversial topic recently is how America is lagging far behind other nations in terms of quality of education.- Business Today. Sometimes â€Å"lagging behind† is used as a phrasal verb: U.S. lagging behind on gender equality.- CNN. The verb to lack means â€Å"to be deficient in quantity or degree.† For example: Customers with mental illness are lacking services due to decreased funding available to the local CMH. When your intended meaning is â€Å"to fail to maintain the desired speed of progress,† â€Å"to slacken the desired pace from weakness or sloth,† â€Å"to hang back,† â€Å"to fall behind,† or â€Å"to remain in the rear,† the idiom you want is â€Å"to lag behind.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comma After i.e. and e.g.Best Websites to Learn EnglishRite, Write, Right, Wright

Real Estate Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Real Estate - Research Paper Example In tandem with some good prospects for other GCC states, such as Qatar which is expected to benefit from the real estate boom fueled by its hosting of the World Cup in 2022, Kuwait is seen as enjoying a boost to its real estate sector in general moving forward, with positive signs in 2012. Of the three segments, residential, investment and commercial segments in Kuwait, it is the residential sector that has seen much growth in 2012, followed by the investment segment, and with the commercial segment trailing and exhibiting problems and poorer prospects overall relative to the residential and investment segments of the Kuwaiti real estate sector (Ejaz). Taking a step back, prior to the financial crisis of 2007-2008, it is worth noting that prospects for the Kuwaiti real estate sector were seen as very good by the mainstream investing public, with the real estate sector seen as being one of the key pillars of the Kuwaiti economy, together with oil and the Kuwaiti stock exchange. As it is at present, in 2007 the residential segment of the sector was seen as leading the charge of growth, with the investment segment behind it, and the commercial segment seen as doing relatively well too, during that time, with growth at an compounded annual growth rate of 18.8 percent for the period from 2000 all the way to 2006. We can see, moreover, that from the way the literature has segmented the Kuwaiti real estate sector, that industrial real estate translates to commercial real estate roughly, as this is the segment of the sector that is allotted to businesses. The investment segment, on the other hand, pertain to those properties that are allocated to being rented out to foreigners and other entities within the Kuwait society (Global Investment House KSCC). Moreover, taking the entire discussion in the context of the situation of the real estate availability in Kuwait, one sees that because of the government mandate to provide property/housing for all citizens of Kuwait, an d owing to the fact that just a tenth of the total land in the country is available for real estate activities, that two things are evident. One is that residential or non-industrial real estate dominates activities in Kuwait. Two is that there is less emphasis conversely on the industrial real estate sector in Kuwait, with Kuwaiti real estate firms focused instead on venturing into nearby regions for industrial real estate development due to the lack of land for such purposes in Kuwait. On the other hand, government is in charge of most of the industrial real estate development in the country, it seems, from the way the government has been spearheading the very large industrial projects in Silk City and in the islands of Failaka and Bubiyan, with the goal of uplifting the state of industrial development in Kuwait to make it on even terms with the level of business real estate development in the other GCC countries (Zawya). There are prospects for industrial real estate activities w ithin the free trade zone known as the Kuwait Free Trade Zone or KFTZ, which had been in operation since 1999, and have about 90 percent occupancy rates for companies who have on paper come to enjoy some of the benefits that do not accrue

'Gendered' realm' of international politics Article

'Gendered' realm' of international politics - Article Example There are circumstances that can make a woman feel like her sex is a trap of sorts, an anchor that weighs her down, and a chain that is like a tether which determines the circumference of how far she can go. The traditional mindset has clear guidelines of what the two sexes can and are meant to do. A man has the image of the leader, right from the home where he is the breadwinner and the head of the house (Tickner & Sjosburg, 2007 ) . This role playing is cast further afield to the institutions that run our societies; the man is considered to be the natural leader and the woman is the assistant. In what position does this leave the woman in these supposedly modern times where the force of modern liberation has 'opened' up opportunities for women in leadership' Are men and women on an equal platform when it comes to leadership opportunities, especially' The question of gender equity is all pervasive; it is not limited to certain aspects of life or work. The momentum has been gathering on the struggle for equal opportunities for women as there are for men. ... International politics is indeed a gender realm because there are still clich'd and stereotypical views on the role that women are meant to play in society. The acceptance of women being capable leaders has only gotten impetus in recent years (Ticker & Sjosburg, 2007). What are the indicators that international politics is a gender issue, how many female leaders are actively involved in international politics, what view do men and women themselves hold concerning the role that the latter play in international politics' Answering these questions will facilitate the understanding how international politics is a 'gendered realm'. Feminist theories on international relations International relations is defined by Halliday (1995) as being the study of the what constitutes the international system in terms of foreign affairs and interregional concerns, which are directed and seen to by heads of states, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations. Feminist international relations theory tries to analyze what the traditional role of women has been in international politics (Halliday, 1995). Feminists have advanced several theories as to why women have so far played such a small role in international affairs. These theories are diverse. When Enloe asks 'where are the women'' (Enloe, 2000) it is in a half ironic manner, because unlike her predecessors she acknowledges that there are women who play a part in international relations: as wives, secretaries, sex workers or even poster girls. But the role played by these women is one that is considered so minor it is no t worth noting. For too long, the women have remained stuck in these positions, watching from the

Creating the Decision Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Creating the Decision Environment - Essay Example This is happens because the group welcome outside opinions, so there is no objectivity. This can be prevented by always having a neutral party that hasn’t been part of the group. This brings insight to it, and also leaves room for questioning of that decision and with this, a better decision is made. (Virtualsoft, 2009) Belief in Inherent Morality of the Group: The group has a mindset that the decision they have made is moral and ethical, this is because the group assume that they have done right. To prevent this kind of problem. The group should give the same scenario to an anonymous group of different people and gauge their responses to tell whether their decision is right (Janis, 2009). Collective Rationalization: This happens when the group makes a decision and they believe it rational. This happens when the collection of material is highly selective and biased. This tends to leave out some information that does not fit into the groups’ decision and reason for the s ame. This can cause a big problem because when a decision is made without all the relevant information regarding is examined (Marlene & Antony, 1998). This is mostly because of the close mindedness in the group. This is can be avoided by bringing in experts to examine the problem and advise the group before a group decision can be made. With the inclusion of an expert, critical information is less likely to be omitted. Illusion of unanimity: When the group look to each other to confirm their theories without consulting or involving an outside source (Janis, 2009). This close-mindedness can cause problems during the decision making process. To avoid this, the leaders should not state preference initially. This influences the group and affects the decisions made. Self-Appointed mind guards: this is also as a result of close mindedness, and the avoidance of troublesome ideas, these mind guards are usually to protect the leader. To prevent this symptom, a devil’s advocate should be appointed within the group and the sole purpose should be to critique every decision and look for flaws in it. This individual should ensure that alternatives are explored extensively. Stereotyping: Excessive stereotyping is a major symptom of groupthink; this happens when the group members start forming and constructing negative stereotypes of other rival groups (Janis, 2009). This happens especially if the other group’s opinions or ideas are not the same as theirs. This leads to the group shunning any external input leading to a decision that is a result of close mindedness. This can be prevented in decision making environments by always discussing what is happening with others outside the group (Marlene & Antony, 1998). With this, diversity is brought into the group and the decision in question will have been vetted by different individuals not just the group members, this makes the decision so much better. Pressure for conformity: Another symptom of groupthink is the m embers pressure anyone in the group that expresses an opinion or argument that is against their beliefs or ideas. They make this member or members feel that they have to conform. They make them feel that expressing an idea different from theirs is a sign of disloyalty. So in situation where a member might have a differing opinion they do not express it because they want to

Database Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Database - Essay Example The developer should also specify the data type stored in the database. One should also specify the type of activity to be acted upon each and every screen. Workflows in any system determine the order in which tasks should be carried out and therefore in the database system we should also specify the workflows of the system. One should also specify who can enter delete or update data in the database system. The system should also meet applicable regulatory requirements in the organization. Non functional includes the ability to recover and back up data in the database to prevent loss during failure. Others include data security, privacy issues, privacy issues and minimum hardware and software requirements of the system that the database will run on. Non functional requirements also include performance and configuration requirements such as expected business volumes and system responsiveness. It should also ensure that the system is available for use for when needed. It should also ensure proper utilization on the resources of the computer i.e.; CPU cycles, disk space, memory, bandwidth. The database system should be portable across different platforms the system should also enforce. Finally it should ensure high performance. Certain tasks or features are more critical than others. The system should also be capable of maintaining its performance all through its lifetime. An electronic database provides a highly efficient way of storing data. Its advantages are considerable. It saves time; a properly designed database running on a powerful server can be searched through remarkably easily and within an extraordinarily short time. It also helps to save time lost during transfer of physical data from one office to another. Secondly, a database offers more security, file cabinets can be compromised, stolen, accidentally destroyed, or be misplaced. Databases add

Education in developing countries Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Education in developing countries - Assignment Example This part of investment by any firm can defines any part of then organization labor ability and it is very essential for the productivity of any firm. To be noted is that not the whole world population is referred to as the working population but only that portion that is able, willing and working on agreed wage rate. In any developing country and economy work force is a necessity that is required to propel its growth. This makes human capital very essential as it is cheap and readily available in the developing countries (Becker, 1993). Q.2 Explain some of the reasons why developing countries have not realized a greater positive development impact from their higher education programs. In this context, why should the development of a solid elementary education system take precedence over an expansion of the university system in developing countries? Developing countries need a solid base for elementary education because majority of the jobs are not technical. Industries are not well developed and casual works are the basis f their economy. Higher education though needed is for the few who are only needed to supervise the majority who only require elementally education and knowledge. Developing countries can import these few university graduates but it will cost more if they were to do the same for the unskilled human work force (Becker, 1993). Therefore, elementary education should be invested for more by these countries. Like wise due to underdevelopment and poor governance productivity of these nations is poor and they heavily depend on imports thus their production is for raw materials. Q.3 In developing countries higher educational facilities have tended to expand to the point where social benefits exceed private benefits. What is the economic explanation for this? Due to poor governance and unplanned occurrences social benefits have exceeded private benefits as organizations and external investor try to compensated the void. This has diluted the gap making these organizations bend towards social benefits rather than have private motives. This has made an economic impact as there is investment in the education sector that is very essential in the growth of any economy. Furthermore, there is direct investment that is injecting money directly into the economy as well as offering employment to the citizens. These institutions also pay taxes directly to the central government and this helps in the management of the economy through government expenditures. Q 4.Explain how a better-educated population will also tend to be a healthier, and vice versa, that a healthier population will tend to be better educated. In this context, how can an increase in human capital lead to an increase in GDP? Why might it not lead to an increase in GDP? Educated populations will always be healthier as this adds to their knowledge, experience and time management. Good investment options can only be made through well thought ides and these skills require educat ion in order for them to materialize. Higher education therefore contributes to a higher GDP for the developing countries as productivity is achieved and also by them using their own citizens cutting on importation of labor. However, this may not be the case if everybody acquires higher education as majority would not fit in their job description and as earlier stated the economies

Database Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Database - Essay Example The developer should also specify the data type stored in the database. One should also specify the type of activity to be acted upon each and every screen. Workflows in any system determine the order in which tasks should be carried out and therefore in the database system we should also specify the workflows of the system. One should also specify who can enter delete or update data in the database system. The system should also meet applicable regulatory requirements in the organization. Non functional includes the ability to recover and back up data in the database to prevent loss during failure. Others include data security, privacy issues, privacy issues and minimum hardware and software requirements of the system that the database will run on. Non functional requirements also include performance and configuration requirements such as expected business volumes and system responsiveness. It should also ensure that the system is available for use for when needed. It should also ensure proper utilization on the resources of the computer i.e.; CPU cycles, disk space, memory, bandwidth. The database system should be portable across different platforms the system should also enforce. Finally it should ensure high performance. Certain tasks or features are more critical than others. The system should also be capable of maintaining its performance all through its lifetime. An electronic database provides a highly efficient way of storing data. Its advantages are considerable. It saves time; a properly designed database running on a powerful server can be searched through remarkably easily and within an extraordinarily short time. It also helps to save time lost during transfer of physical data from one office to another. Secondly, a database offers more security, file cabinets can be compromised, stolen, accidentally destroyed, or be misplaced. Databases add

NIVEA Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

NIVEA - Case Study Example optimization, it is important for the company to ensure that its budget is well allocated so that it can effectively meet its objectives in meeting the objectives outlined in its marketing mix (Jaccard 2013). This includes ensuring that besides achievement of the objectives, it should have a good and reliable supply chain for delivering the products to markets at the most convenient times as needed by the customers. Having made a good household brand, it is the company’s duty to ensure that it consolidates on its management and marketing strategies to consolidate its market share in the increasingly competitive world. With proper planning, Nivea Company can manage to rely on the success of this brand by creating and implementing growth and development strategies (Nivea Visage Young 2015). One of the ways to achieve this goal will be a consistent market research, which will ensure that the company understands knows new competitors emerging in the market as well as their competitive strategies (Jaccard 2013). In this regard, Nivea Company will be better placed to develop counter approaches that will ensure that it retains its market share and competitive advantage. Another important approach that the company will have to implement includes understanding methods of employee satisfaction, which will ensure that it has a pool of highly dedicated employees, who can discharge their duties in the interest of the company (Nivea Visage Young 2015). This is because, in many instances, the success of a company does not just rely on the best and innovative strategies that it develops but rather, it is their full implementation. Having the best and productive staff is as good as having monopoly over an essential resource in the industry, thus excellent company success. As the company heads in the future, its managers have a duty to ensure that they develop growth strategies ad systems that will cement its position as the market leader in the industry. According to Jaccard

Handling Interpersonal Conflicts Essay Example for Free

Handling Interpersonal Conflicts Essay Have you ever been involved in an interpersonal conflict that was not necessarily handled in the most effective manner? During that occurrence did you notice that you and the other individual seemed to be on different pages after the fact? Being able to handle an interpersonal conflict in the most effective manner could potentially keep you and your significant others relationship close as opposed to tearing it apart. In the movie â€Å"Hitch†, Will Smith states, â€Å"Sixty percent of all human communication is nonverbal body language; thirty percent is your tone, so that means ninety percent of what youre saying isnt coming out of your mouth† (Lassiter, 2005). With this being stated, body language, tone, and verbal language are all things that must be particularly paid close attention too and effectively utilized, whether you are the speaker or the listener. While watching the movie â€Å"Hitch†, there were a few interpersonal conflicts that were not handled effectively. One specific conflict that was not handled effectively was when Sarah found out about Hitch’s career as a â€Å"Professional Love Doctor†. This conflict was not handled effectively for a multitude of reasons. Previously Hitch and Sarah were really â€Å"falling† for each other, being sincere, genuine, and in the â€Å"honey moon† stage. After the conflict was initiated, Sarah’s body language started to change. She began to deny Hitch’s kisses by turning away, she ruined the romantic wine moment by tipping the bottle up as opposed to drinking out of the wine glass that Hitch had already prepared for her, Sarah began to snarl, both Hitch and Sarah began to become aggressive in their actions by throwing food at each other out of anger, and Hitch insulted Sarah by telling her that she had a crappy newspaper. All of these actions are considered to be ineffective ones. While trying to choose a more effective route of handling this conflict so that the relationship remains close, one must show ositive body language, positive tone, positive verbal language, as well as a few other effective solutions. Solutions such as empathizing with one another by putting themselves in each other’s shoes, evaluating the message by waiting for the speaker to finish speaking before evaluating the message, not becoming emotional at the speaker, and showing more self-disclosure at the beginning of their relationship so that each other could grasp more of an understanding of each other’s background and career. Sole states, â€Å"While emotions are normal and are to be expected in conversation, especially when information of a personal or sensitive nature is being shared, it is helpful to hear the speaker out and to try to control these emotions until the remarks are finished† (Sole, 2011). If both Sarah and Hitch had done this, their argument most likely would have been invisible. They may have understood where each one was coming from and actually taken the time to hear what each other were trying to get across. Doing all of these things could help eliminate the interpersonal conflict that both Hitch and Sarah encountered. All in all, interpersonal conflicts have the opportunity to happen on a daily basis; however, being able to handle them in the most effective manner could potentially keep you and your significant others relationship close instead of tearing it apart. Remember, whether you are the speaker or the listener, you must always try to pay close attention to body language, tone, and verbal language as well. Being able to come together as one, empathizing with one another, evaluating the message, not becoming emotional and showing more self-disclosure with one another are some key concepts to eliminating potential interpersonal conflict amongst you and your significant other.

History Of Exhaust Fan And Ventilation Information Technology Essay

History Of Exhaust Fan And Ventilation Information Technology Essay Abstract An automatic ventilation system with an exhaust fan included with a supply fan is presented in this report. With this smart system being proposed, detailed annual energy-efficient operation strategies and methods of control for the air-handling unit are presented. Compare to the traditional type of exhaust fan, the proposed smart system shows that not only does it maintain the indoor air quality but also improve the energy efficiency. Due to the increased outdoor air, the proposed smart system can improve indoor air quality further. An external DC motor will be driven the fan. The reason why an external DC motor is used is because it is able to make the exhaust fan to have the ability of air exhausting and illumination. It also helps to reduce the noise and power consumption of the exhaust fan efficiently. So the proposed smart system is not only energy saving but also environmentally friendly. Acknowledgement This final year report is the end of my long journey in obtaining my Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Sunderland. I have not travelled alone in this journey. There are people who made this journey easier by offering different places to look to expand my theories and ideas. I should specially thanks to my supervisor, Mr Bob Young, for his great interest and assistance of helping me for preparation of this report. Besides, encouragements, supports and advices are continually given by him from the start. It helps me to develop an understanding of the subject thoroughly. Besides, I would also like to thanks to the staffs in the lab, Chris and George for their availability of resources, readiness and skills. Their help in finding the materials that are needed is invaluable. My project will not be in shape without their helps. Last but not least, my deepest thanks to my family, friends and others encouragement and constructive advices that have make the full support of my report completion. Chapter 1: Introduction Overview The purpose of this chapter is to give a rough idea of Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan (ICHEF) and how it integrates into and changes the lifestyle of human beings and most importantly, being green. The usual perception of an exhaust fan by the public is simply act as a ventilation system which ventilates the air in an area. But often there are things which are important and being neglected by the public, health. Cooking does not only produce aroma, it often produces more than that, particles of smoke, grease and combusted gasses which are not healthy to breathe in and is environmental pollutants. Food like pepper and onions also produce irritants which can be unpleasant to be continuously exposed to. Exhaust fan are used to remove these pollutants from the air in a specific area. Health, has been an important concern to all of us these days. Because of that, having lots of biological pollutants and dust mite in the living place may cause a serious threat to our health. Thus, the improvement of the indoor air quality is an increasing concern to many people. Molds and dust mites will grow at a high relative humidity and there is one area in the home where moisture is generated, kitchen. Thus, adequate control of moisture in the kitchen is necessary and important. It is generally known that global warming is a severe issue that is happening in the world right now which eventually will bring unwanted natural disasters due to the overheating in the atmosphere and dilapidates the ability of earth to deal with these situations accordingly. To save the world, a few methods are being suggested by ecologists. Energy saving, one of the most effective and most commonly applied by the industries, are used throughout the world in order to avoid the earth from overheating. As a result, the concept of energy saving is being applied in the project to reduce the use of power thus saving money as well. To achieve the goals mentioned above, integrated circuits and sensors are needed to provide aids to control the exhaust fan to either on or off and the speed of the fan according to the data received from the sensors. It is also a low-cost solution and differs from the already-in-market exhaust fan which will cost a fortune. Aims The primary aim for this project is to develop an intelligent cooker hood exhaust fan to make ones life easier with the help of electronic knowledge and most importantly environmental friendly due to energy saving. Objectives The objective of this project is to design a system or programme to determine whether to on or off the exhaust from the readings of the sensors by using MicroCode Studio Plus. An effective and low-cost hardware is designed with sensors attached onto it to obtain data. It will increase or decrease the speed of the exhaust fan according to the level of the heat and smoke detected. Chapter 2: Project Background 2.1 Overview This section presents the general information and history of exhaust fan. It also provides short statement and the application and the hardware which are constructed on Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan (ICHEF). Other than hardware, a brief of the software will be provided in this chapter as well. 2.2 History of Exhaust Fan and Ventilation As all of us understand that the purpose of ventilation is to reduce or dilute the indoor contaminants, the experienced engineers should determine how much air is necessary to dilute and reduce the contaminants to a desired level. The existence of ventilation and indoor air quality can be traced back to 17th century. However, concerns about the bad air go back much farther than that. One of the earliest reasons to implement the idea of ventilation is to ventilate the indoor air to a desired level and environment and it is probably still the same problem we have today as why we implement ventilation system in the house is to reduce and remove the products of combustion used for heat, light or cooking. People dated back to 17th undoubtedly learned very quickly that if one brought fire inside the house for cooking, one needed to take the smoke out. The design for ventilation has changed quickly over the time, but it has usually been associated with the indoor contaminants or biological pollutants that can cause health or comfort problems. Looking back into the archeological records, several examples can be found on how houses are built to accommodate ventilation and improve the indoor air quality. There are a few different approaches to deal with the use of fires in the roof. Back in 4000-5000BC, the Banpo villagers in China had implemented chimneys into their houses. The Romans put a hole in the middle of their houses roofs to suck the smoke out of the living place. The basket weavers pit houses found in Mesa Verde National Park, circa 750 AD, use the same approach. The Romans then invented and created a heating system called hypocaust heating system and it is usually for the big buildings. The hypocaust was then preceded and integrated into British parliament buildings in the late 1800s due to its superior heating design in that time. It works by getting the outdoor air into the hypocaust and gains heat from the fire and channeled all the way through the under floor channels and then go up through channels in the walls and vented to the outdoor which acts like a heating system. A system is also built in the late 1880s that uses a similar approach and directs the outside air to the building. The air from the outside is directed over the steam pipes in a heating chamber and conveys into the building. Exhaust openings in the upper reaches of the building provides a stack effect to pull the air through the building. But in year 1631, after one finds that bad indoor air quality can cause health problems, King Charles I ordered that the ceilings in the houses must be at least 10 feet high and that the windows should be higher than the width to allow rooms for ventilation. These improvements were slowly implemented into the buildings in the UK. After the great London fire of 1666, implementations of good ventilations were being speed up because a lot of houses were destroyed. Thus, it makes way for construction of bigger and better ventilated houses with chimneys and large windows which leads to have better indoor air quality when the air ventilates in the house. 2.3 Modern Background of Exhaust Fan and Ventilation With all the history in the previous section, we do of course have some modern background about the exhaust fan and ventilation. Nonetheless in the modern times which due to large demand in the world now, end-product of exhaust fans are being produced in a way of mass production. An american company specialized in kitchen exhaust fan, American Hood, has came out with some different products, ie, fire suppression system. It consists of smoke detector and fire alarm system and use a special wet chemical agent that provides quicker flame knockdown and superior fire prevention if extremely high level of smoke and temperature is detected. 2.4 Introduction to Microcontroller Figure 2.1 Microcontroller What is microcontroller? Microcontroller is sometimes called as a microcomputer or commonly called as MCU, is a kind of small or mini computer that you can find in almost all electronic devices and products. Some examples of common products that we have microcontroller built-in are microwave oven, handphone and etc. If there are buttons and a digital display in a product, chances are it also has a programmable microcontroller brain. Often, microcontrollers are called as an embedded microcontroller, it is mainly because they are often part of an embedded system and usually integrated into a larger device or system. Microcontroller is designed specifically for a particular tasks or jobs such as controlling a particular system which is different with the general purpose microprocessor, the one that is generally used in a PC. A typical microcontroller consists of an integrated CPU (Central Processing Unit), RAM for data storage and ROM for programme storage. Other than that, it also provides input and output interfaces on the same chip. It has its advantage because a general purpose microprocessor may require another addition chip to support similar function. 2.5 Introduction to PIC16F876A PIC, initials refer to Peripheral Interface Controller, is a type of microcontroller made by a company called Microchip. They are 8 bit microprocessors with small RAM, ROM and simple peripherals bundled on a same chip. The figure below shows the number of pins and functions of each pin. C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktoppic16f876a.png Figure 2.2 Integrated Circuit PIC16F876A The PIC16F876A was chosen for this project because it has the function of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) in the integrated circuit itself, which is located at pin 12 and 13. The PWM function can be set through the configuration during the progamme codes writing in the software. PWM will be explained more in details in the next few chapters. By using this integrated circuit, it helps to save the trouble and works to construct an external circuit to perform a similar function. 2.6 Introduction to L293D C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopl293d.gif Figure 2.3 Integrated Circuit L293D The L293D is a quadruple high-current half-H driver. It is designed to provide a bidirectional drive currents of up to 600mA at voltages ranging from 4.5V to 36V. Not only that, it drives the inductive loads such as relays, DC motors, solenoids as well as other high current or voltage loads in positive supply applications. In this project of Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan (ICHEF), L293D was chosen to drive one DC motor to show the speed of the motor driven by the frequency (PWM) from the microcontroller. 2.7 Introduction to MAX232 Figure 2.4 Integrated Circuit MAX232 MAX232 is a communication tool used mainly for serial commands to and from a flash rom. Besides, it is also an integrated circuit that changes the signals from RS232 serial port to signals that is compatible to use in TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic). The MAX232 is a duo driver and receiver and typically converts the RX (Receive), TX (Transmit), CTS and RTS signals. Figure 2.4 shows MAX232s structure and pin in/out of MAX232 chip. MAX232 chip was chosen for converting signals because it has long been used for microcontroller boards. It provides 2-channel RS232 port and requires external 10uF capacitors. 2.8 Introduction to Temperature Sensor (LM35) C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopLM35.jpg Figure 2.5 LM35 The LM35 is an integrated circuit sensor that is used to measure the temperature with an electrical output which is about the same compare to the temperature in degree celsius. LM35 acts as temperature sensor in this project. It was being chosen because it does not require any extra calibration or trimming to keep its accuracy to measure the temperature. There is another main characteristic of the LM35 which act as a temperature sensor is that it takes 60mA from its supply only. Since the main objective of this project is being green and save energy, LM35 was chosen instead of other type of thermistor. 2.9 Introduction to Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopvdiv1.gif Figure 2.6 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) A light dependent resistor (LDR) is a small semiconductor. LDR is used to recharge the light during different changes in light or made to turn a light on during certain changes in lights. One of the most commonly used areas that LDR implemented is in fire alarm system. It relies upon on the smoke which is produced in the event of a fire. When this smoke passes and covered the LDR and the amount of light falling on the LDR decreases, it will then send a signal to the microcontroller. Microcontroller will act accordingly from the pre-set programmes, in this case of the project, the microcontroller will drive the motor according to the data received. The aim of a LDR is to vary the brightness of a light in the different conditions. This can be described easily by the concept of a digital watch. Some watches get to glow in the dark so that it is possible to tell the time without pressing any buttons. It is the LDR that let the watch to know when it is dark and changes the emission level of the light accordingly. There are of course many good benefits and advantages to the LDR. A smaller amount of power will be consumed with the aid of LDR in many different kind of lights. It also helps lights to last much longer which is good for environment in a way. 2.10 Computer Interfacing Module Even though its easy especially when there is plug-and-play internal hardware solution for the computer, connecting some of the external tools or devices may still require a certain amount of technical knowledge and experience. There are generally two types of ways for data transmission, parallel and serial. Serial transmission has been chosen for this project. C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopDB9.jpeg Figure 2.7 Layout of DB-9 Female In the past, old type of computer used 25 pins connectors while in fact that only 9 pins were actually used. Thus nowadays most of the connectors are manufactured in 9 pins instead. Each of the 9 pins usually connects to a wire. Besides the two wires which are used for transmitting (TD) and receiving (RD) data shown in Figure 2.7, the other pin is for signal ground. The voltage on any other wire is measured with respect to the ground. So, the minimum number of wires of a connector to use for 2 way transmission of data is 3. Although it has been known that it works without the signal ground wire, it will degrade the performances and often with errors. There are more wires which are for controlling purposes and not for sending bytes. Even though all of the signal can share on one wire, but there is still a separate wire dedicated to every type of signal instead. C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopmax232.gif Figure 2.8 Connection of MAX232 and Microcontroller While communicating with different type of microcontrollers, one needs to convert the RS232 levels down to lower levels, usually 3.3V or 5V. Serial RS232 communication works with voltages -15V to 15V for high and low. On the other hand, TTL logic operates between 0V and 5V. Modern low power consumption logic operates in the range of 0V and 3.3V or even lower. The MAX232 chip from Maxim was the first integrated circuit in the market contains the necessary drivers  and receivers  to adapt the RS232 signal voltage levels to TTL logic. The reason why it became popular was because it needs only one voltage (3.3V or 5V) to generates the necessary RS232 voltage levels. . 2.11 MicroCode Studio C:Documents and SettingsUserDesktopscreen1.gif Figure 2.9 Layout of MicroCode Studio MicroCode Studio is integrated development software which has the capability to debug and was developed and used for microEngineering labs PICBASIC and PICBASIC PRO compiler. Microcode Studio is packed with a code explorer that helps to jump automatically to files, constants, variables, symbols, defines and labels, which are consisted in respected source code. Besides, there are too other features available in this software such as cut, copy and paste, undo and replace options. Not only that, it has the ability to correct and identify the assembler errors. It features views for serial output from the external of the microcontroller. The software helps the user to set up assembler and compiler options. Other than that, it has auto-search feature included in the software which helps the user to do all the work which is involved. It too has the error result window which helps to identify errors and correct them easily. The good thing about this compiler is that when the user clicks on the errors in the compiler, MicroCode Studio will automatically jump into the line location and it efficiently helps the users to know where and how to debug the serial output from the microcontrollers. Chapter 3: System Description 3.1 Overview This chapter focuses on the system design, description and illustration of block diagram of the Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan. Several descriptions of the systems will be explained in this chapter as well. 3.2 Introduction The system consists of mainly 4 parts, namely:- Temperature sensor (LM35) / LDR (act as a smoke sensor) and its readings The temperature sensor and LDR will sense the heat or smoke level. If the level exceeds the pre-set level, the fans will be activated automatically via the control of microcontroller. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) A LCD will be installed in the system to display the temperature reading and LDR values according to the data received. It is to give the user an insight or idea of what is the current values of temperature or light density at that particular time. Speed of exhaust fan by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) The speed of exhaust fan will be adjusted according to the heat level detected and generate the pulses accordingly. The speed may go higher only when the heat level is higher thus saving the wasted energy which is required to run the fans to full speed at all time. This type of exhaust fan differs from the traditional type of exhaust fan. The fans will then still be activated for a short period of time after the reading drops back to the pre-set heat level in order to remove all the excessive smoke or odour away. Driver Circuit A circuit by L293D to control DC motors with external power supply. 3.3 System Design Microcontroller (PIC16F876A) Temperature Sensor (LM35) Light Dependent Resistor Fans High Speed Low Speed LCD Display Determine speed according to heat smoke level Fans still on for a pre-set time Controller Circuit Figure 3.1 Overall Block Diagram of Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan The concept of Intelligent Cooker Hood Exhaust Fan is smart. It helps to reduce the workload of human beings and also it will save energy as well. The microcontroller which uses PIC16F876A serves as a main brain of the whole system. It uses 2 types of sensors which are the temperature sensor (LM35) and light dependent resistor (LDR). With the help of both sensors, data are easily received and displayed on the LCD Display with some aids of the programming. After the data are received and displayed on LCD Display, pulses will be generated by the function of Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) in PIC16F876A and it sends the signal to the controller circuit, DC motor in this case, and drive the motor accordingly to what the readings are being obtained. The fans should still be on for a period of time to ensure the remaining smell and odour are sucked away. 3.4 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a useful technique that controls the analog circuits with the aids of the processors digital outputs. It is employed in different types of areas. It is widely used from power control and communications to measurement and conversion. To control the analog circuit in digital way, it helps to reduce the cost of the system and most importantly, it reduces the level of usage of power consumption as well. 3.4.1 Duty Cycle PWM Signals Figure 3.2 PWM Signals of Varying Duty Cycles Figure 3.2 shows three different PWM signals. The upper figure shows a PWM output with a 10% duty cycle. It just means that the signal is on for 10% of the period and off the other 90% of the period, so the average is low. Likewise, the middle figure shows the analog signal value at 50% and lower figure shows 90%, so its average is half and high accordingly. If it is fully on, it requires 100% of the period while when it is 0%, it is off. 3.4.2 PWM Frequency The PWM signal frequency is important depending on the hardware that one is using. If the main purpose is to create a DC signal then the high frequency will be required (kHz) so that the low pass filter can eliminate the frequency component. To determine how high the frequency, it is to depend on how much frequency components are allowed at the output and how it is used. 3.4.3 Communication and Control One of the reasons why PWM is so popular is because that the signal remains digital at all times, from the microcontroller to the driver circuit. There is no Digital-To-Analog Conversion (DAC) is required. The noises in the signal will be reduced to minimum level because the signals are in digital form. Noises can affects digital forms signal only if it is great enough to change from Logic 1 to Logic 0 and likewise. PWM is often used for communication is mainly because PWM has the ability to increase the noise immunity over analog control. By converting the analog signal to PWM, it increases the length of a communication channel. An appropriate RC (Resistor-Capacitor) or LC (Inductor-Capacitor) network can remove the modulated high frequency wave form and return the PWM signal back to analog form at the recipient side. 3.5 DC Motor C:Documents and SettingsKLTDesktopelectric-motor.jpg Figure 3.3 DC Motor Almost all mechanical movement that surrounded us is caused by either an AC or DC electric motor. It converts the electrical energy into the mechanical movement. One needs to have a little background knowledge about electromagnet and electricity in general to understand how a motor works. 3.5.1 How It Works? In any kind of electric motor, in this case, a DC motor, the operation is mainly based on a simple electromagnetism. A magnetic field is then generated by a current carrying conductor. By doing so, it will experience a force proportional to the current in the conductor when it is placed in the external magnetic field. Everyone is well aware of playing the magnets when young. The opposite polarities attract, in this case, north and south pole. Vice versa, the same polarities repel, north-north and south-south. The operation of a DC motor has similar concept. The internal arrangement of a DC motor is outlined to compose the magnetic interaction between an external magnetic field and a current carrying conductor to generate rotational movement. Image Figure 3.4 Layout of DC Motor Almost all the basic DC motor has these six common parts in them, namely axle, commutator, rotor, stator, brushes and field magnets. In most DC motor, the external magnetic field is produced by high level strength of permanent magnets. The rotor rotates according to the stator which is stationary as well as two or more permanent magnet pole pieces. The windings of the rotor are being connected electrically towards the commutator. The above figure shows a common motor layout with the rotor inside the stator magnets. 2-pole motor in action Figure 3.5 Operation of DC Motor The relationships between the commutator contacts, the brushes and the rotor windings are that when the power is being supplied to the motor, the stator magnets will be incorrectly aligned, the rotor will rotates till it is aligned with the stators field magnet and polarities of the energized winding. The brushes will move to the next commutator contacts and next winding will be energized only when the rotor are in alignment. It can be given by the simple example of 2-pole motor. The rotation reverses the direction of current flow through the rotor winding, causing to the flip of the rotors magnetic field, making it to continue rotating. Image Figure 3.6 Inner view of DC Motor Iron core armature is commonly used in a DC motor as it has a few advantages. The iron core provides a strong and firm support to the windings, it is specifically important considering for the high torque motors. The core, in a way, also dissipate the heat away from the rotor windings very well that it allows the DC motor to rotate even harder. And most importantly, to construct an iron core is comparably cheaper than other type of construction. Unarguably, there are always pros and cons about almost everything. There are a few disadvantages about the construction of iron core. The high level of inertia in iron armature reduces the motor acceleration dramatically. This type of construction also causes the high winding inductances which reduce the life of the brush and commutator. Chapter 4: Circuitry Explanation 4.1 Overview This chapter is about the circuits that are used in this project. Circuit operation and the performance of the entire circuit are roughly explained in this chapter. All datasheets of the Integrated Circuits used in this project are attached in the appendixes section. Circuit diagrams for every part of the overall circuit in this project are provided so that the operation of the circuit can be understood easily by non-engineer readers. 4.2 Microcontroller Unit (PIC16F876A) Figure 4.2 Microcontroller Unit The PIC16F876A CMOS FLASH-based 8-Bit microcontroller consists of a 200 nanoseconds instruction execution, self programming, an ICD (In-Circuit Debugger), 2 comparators, 256 bytes of EEPROM data memory, 2 PWM functions and a UART. The main brain of this control unit replies upon on the PIC16F876A with a 4MHz resonator that produces the clock pulses which is required buy the targeted microcontroller. 4.3 Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) Figure 4.3 Circuit of Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) with MAX232 An UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) is a type of computer hardware that converts the data between the serial and parallel forms. UART is often used with other types of communication means such as, RS232. It is usually a single IC (Integrated Circuit) that used for serial communication or through peripheral device serial port. UART is usually used for embedded system such as microcontroller with RS232. Different interface equipment is usually used to change the logic level of the UART to and from the external signaling levels. It doesnt usually receiver nor generate the external signals which are used between the different types of equipment. 4.4 Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) Figure 4.4 Circuit of Light Dependent Resistor The circuit shown above is about the sensor of the circuit. LDR in this project is to activate the microcontroller. It acts as an input and will send the analogue data into microcontroller and microcontroller will determine the data received and perform a task accordingly. These values will be sent into microcontroller on PortA.0. 4.5 Temperature Sensor (LM35) C:Documents and SettingsKLTDesktopuntitled.bmp Figure 4.5 Circuit of Temperature Sensor (LM35) The power supply (Vcc) can be ranging from 4V to 20V depending on the project requirement, but 5V will be used in this project. To use the LM35 sensor, one can just connect the Vcc to 5V, Ground to Ground and the Out to the Analog-Digital Converter channel. The output varies with temperature obtained. The values will be sent to microcontroller via PortA.1. 4.6 Motor Controller (L293D) C:Documents and SettingsKLTDesktopuntitled.JPG Figure 4.6 Circuit Connection of L293D to Microcontroller The DC motor can be driven in clockwise or anti-clockwise direction depending to the requirements. To do so one first needs to connect the motor and find out the commands that are needed to give to the microcontroller to perform the specific rotation. Pin 1 and pin 8 will need to connect to 5V. Pin 3 and 6 are connected to the output which is DC Motor. Pin 4 and 5 are for grounding. Pin 2 and 7 act as an input which connect to PortC.7 and PortC.6 respectively. Pin 1 of the L293D will also connect to Pin 12 or 13 for Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) function in microcontroller. 4.7 Overall Circuit C:Documents and SettingsKLTDesktopoverall.JPG Figure 4.7 Overall Circuit Chapter 5: Materials 5.1 Overview The main purpose of this chapter is about the materials and tools that are used in this project whereby components, software and tools used will be listed for reference purposes. Budget and stores for all components are also listed at the end of this chapter as well. 5.2 Preface of Materials Used All materials used in finishing this project can be further categorized into 3 main groups of computer software, apparatus and electronic components. These 3 major groups of materials will be further discussed in following subchapters. 5.2.1 Computer Software Computer software used in this project is shown below. No. Computer Software Function 1. Live Wire Do the simulation of the circuit 2. Micro Code Programming for the Microcontroller 3. Microsoft Word Report typing Table 5.1 List and function of the software used to complete this project 5.2.2 Apparatus The table below shows the apparatus that required for c

Temptation and Survival in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Essay exampl

Temptation and Survival in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain faces choices as part of the Green Knight's game. The game is not the simple exchange of axe blows as it appears to be. It is actually a game of temptation and rule-breaking. In the end, Gawain fails this test given by the Green Knight and King Arthur's half-sister. When the Green Knight arrogantly rode into King Arthur's domain, he showed no respect for the celebrated knights. He rudely laughed away the praise he had heard of King Arthur as "the praise of you, prince, is puffed up so high" (Norton Anthology 1465). He also ridiculed the knights as they hesitated to accept his challenge. Gawain eventually accepted the challenge, but didn't fully understand what the test would actually be. In what was probably a rage of protecting King Arthur's honor, Sir Gawain chopped off the Green Knight's head and began the game. King Arthur's soldier didn't understand that this would be a game of rule following instead of a match determining warrior skills. The Green Knight is a charac...

Feminism in Pokemon

A Pokà ©mon or â€Å"pocket monster† is a popular anime that is based on the story of a young â€Å"Pokà ©mon Trainer† â€Å"Ash† in his journey to become a â€Å"Pokà ©mon master†. This means capturing and training Pokà ©mon to create an elite team of the strongest so that you can say you are master of all Pokà ©mon hence a Pokà ©mon master, this also consists of capturing every type of Pokà ©mon and completing your poke-dex (a electronic encyclopaedia on Pokà ©mon that automatically records the amount of different Pokà ©mon seen and caught).Whilst it may seem very friendly and childish the story is open to interpretation and could be viewed from a feminist standpoint to be actually misogynistic. The first female character introduced in the series is Ash’s mom, she is introduced as the stereotypical mother however if we look closer at her we can see how see is trapped in a life of servitude and loneliness. That is why she is so attached to her son. There is a clear absence of Ash’s father that is often left unanswered; this could be interpreted to mean that the mother figure in a boy’s life is far more important than that of the father.The reason that Ash father is not present throughout the series is left deliberately vague however there is a reference to him becoming a Pokà ©mon trainer and starting his own journey. With this information I would say that it isn’t that much of a leap to say that perhaps he abandoned Mrs Ketchum (Delia Ketchum). The fact that it is â€Å"Mrs† shows that she married Mr Ketchum who had abandoned her; she also took his name. She runs the only Pokà ©mon restaurant in Palet town and has to take care of her child Ash and in return she again is deserted by him as he leaves on his adventure.This however doesn’t seem to be an abnormality and shows that it is common for women in Pokà ©mon to be imprisoned by their â€Å"duties† and not free to follo w their dreams of becoming a Pokà ©mon trainer like the males, instead they become housewives however there is a sense of equality as women are given the liberty to start the adventure, if they are not burdened by their duties. However despite all her misery she is still expected for her only desires to be to help Ash and to serve him as it is her â€Å"duty†.The next female character we are introduced to is Misty, she is portrayed as a â€Å"tom-boy†, with romantic affections towards Ash, she desires to help Ash and serve him, although her ego would never admit it. Once she develops a character with greater dimensions she is forcibly removed from the story line by fading her into the background completely dissolving and any love interests between her and Ash showing that their relationship was meaningless and that she could simply be tossed aside. She is then replaced by another female companion for Ash, another â€Å"play-mate†.She is forced to stay with her sisters and stay in the gym. Again like Delia Ketchum she is forced to abandon her dreams due to her duties and is deserted by the man she loves. Another important female character is Jessy she is described as manipulative and is working in the evil cooperation of team rocket attempting to steal rare Pokà ©mon. James is her weaker male partner and Jessy is far more dominant. He is constantly forced to dress up in a disguise along with Jessy however Jessy disguises herself as the dominant male whilst James the female showing the symbolic difference in power between the two characters.This may be interpreted to be a positive sign as a woman may rise to the power of a man and a man sink to a woman but the very fact that this idea is conveyed shows a sexist ideology and is anti-feminist as it shows inequality within the sexes. In other words the idea that because Jessy is stronger she should be male and James is weaker and should be female is conveyed by their cross dressing. Woman in Pokà ©mon dress in skimpy clothing, including Misty who is supposed to be pre-teen. This could be interpreted to the liberation of women, as they are allowed to wear what they want when they want.However another interpretation is that they are viewed as mere sexual objects that are open to sexual flirtation, this is why Brock, who is a notorious womaniser, is constantly shown flirting with female characters throughout the show and is entitled to make passes on them. However this is quickly ended by Misty who would grab Brock by the ear and throws him to the ground. This may seem like a humorous practice however this could be interpreted into Brock showing sexual aggression and him seeing women as a mere outlet for his sexual desires.That is why Misty must quickly throw him to the ground to prevent him from enacting his dark desires. When Misty fades away another female companion comes along to prevent Brock, in other words they are a â€Å"Brock block†, but none are as aggre ssive as Misty. He often flirts with Nurse Joy, the fact that she is identical to all the other Nurse Joys shows that women in the poke-world that pursue a medical carer can be simply casted as the stereotypical â€Å"Nurse Joy†. A one dimensional character that is ruled by her emotions to help heal Pokà ©mon.Notice how it is â€Å"Nurse Joy† not â€Å"Doctor Joy† implying that she can only ever rise to a rank of a â€Å"Nurse† an assistant to a â€Å"Doctor†. He also flirts with Officer Jenny; she also is identical to all the other officer Jennys this shows that women in the poke-world that pursue a career in policing can be simply casted as the stereotypical â€Å"Officer Jenny† or â€Å"Nurse Joy. A one dimensional character that is ruled by her emotions to help prevent crimes. Although it is a relief that women can pursue a career in policing and medicine they are still thrown into the stereotype of the typical â€Å"Officer Jennyâ₠¬ .Also they are presented as loud and presumptive, believing that the Ash is often the culprit but within minutes apologising for her presumptive nature showing her ignorance and naà ¯ve nature. An interesting new aspect of Pokà ©mon is Competitions, Pokà ©mon Contests were first introduced early on and Contests originated in the Hoenn region. In them, Coordinators show how beautiful and skilful they and their Pokà ©mon can be. Showing that the very focus is on the trainers and Pokà ©mon’s appearance, this shows how judgemental and cruel the Pokà ©mon world really is.I would argue that it is similar to shows like â€Å"America’s Next Top Model†; these shows are fixated on broadcasting a false image of women and create an expectation that is impossible for women to measure up to. This was made explicitly clear in a banned episode of Pokà ©mon where Misty is forced to compete in a swimwear contest and is threatened by James who cross-dresses and wears inf latable breasts; this shows the emphasis on big breasts as a sign of beauty and worth in both our society and the Pokà ©mon society.Overall I believe Pokà ©mon is remarkably similar to our own society and the issues faced by women, although women are also allowed to start of their own journey and even join the elite four (The Elite Four are four Pokà ©mon Trainers who are regarded as the toughest in their regional Pokà ©mon League, short of the Pokà ©mon League Champion. Those who challenge the Elite Four must have won all eight Badges from that region and face all four and the current Champion consecutively without losing to any of them. there is inequalities that is not only caused by the double standards and expectations of women but by their lack of liberty and burdens of responsibility. If we look back at Delia Ketchum she is abandoned by Mr Ketchum and forced to look after Ash whilst maintaining a restaurant passed down to her from her mother and is never allowed to pursu e her dreams of becoming a Pokà ©mon trainer and model. She is not shown any sympathy or pity she is merely marginalised along with many other characters and this practice is ongoing, Misty was just another victim of this cruel system.

Spiritual Growth through Various Spiritual Disciplines

From time immemorial, spiritual growth has strengthened the faith of believers and has helped them become closer and made them believe more in their religious dogma. This is also evident in Christianity. From the time of Jerusalem’s height, discipline has always found a part in Christian beliefs and in strengthening the faith of the congregation. Over the years, people have learned that particular kinds of disciplines when practiced help them keep the connection between God and themselves open and help keep alive their passion towards God.It is worth noting early on that these spiritual disciplines are not the surest way to heaven and that there is no concrete account that they can even make you a holy person. On the other hand, being able to practice spiritual discipline can heighten your desire, awareness, and love of God by stripping down the barriers that you put up within yourself and other barriers that others have created for you that hinder you from being closer to God (Benner, 2002). A practice or activity can be considered a spiritual discipline when it takes a specific part of your way of life and turns it toward God.A spiritual discipline is, when practiced faithfully and regularly, a habit or regular pattern in your life that repeatedly provides you the opportunity to become closer to God, opens the practitioner’s heart to God and makes one malleable and open to spiritual guidance and opinion. Christian devotional practice is centered primarily on the holy trinity – Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit (Foster, 1998). In this study, we put special attention on a comprehensive analysis of spiritual growth through the practice of six kinds of discipline and how these are able to contribute to spiritual growth.In the succeeding parts of the paper, we will focus our study on spiritual disciplines such as meditation, prayer, fasting, study, service and simplicity. We will also provide a discussion of these particular dis ciplines and how they are able to make people grow closer to a perfection of relationship with Christ. The first part of the study is dedicated to a discussion of spiritual growth thru meditation. Essentially, meditation is subdivided into three parts: Concentration, Meditation and Contemplation. The first part of meditation is concentration.Concentration is being able to take special attention on a certain point, topic or area. It entails 100% of taking special attention on a single thought, in our case 100% focus to God. Meditation can be achieved by being able to clear one’s mind of unnecessary opinions and distractions as this can make it easier for people to be more connected to God. Concentration brings people to another level of consciousness that promotes for clearer thought and a heightened sense of feelings. This precursor must be achieved in order for people to become in a meditative state. The second stage of meditation is actually meditation itself.The uninterrup ted flow of one’s Attention, then, is Meditation. By being fixated in a single object, a person’s thought is totally focused on that object. This is the clearest and most important aspect of meditation. With this, the purest opinions and feelings are released between the person and God. Through meditation, God has a true and clear connection with the person that helps provide a clear and uninterrupted line of communication. Spiritual meditation creates for a very clear communication between God and the person, which promotes for better understanding of God and a first hand experience of God’s presence.This is also evident in order religious orders such as Buddhism that takes special attention on intense meditation to cleanse the mind and body of evil and wrongdoing. Through continuous Meditation, one becomes one with the object of one’s Concentration. The third level is contemplation. By means of meditation one is able to acquire a lot of pure experiences that has to reflect on and analyzed. Contemplation is a method that helps people clearly explain and analyze the events that had transpired during meditation.Contemplation often takes more time than the meditation itself, as it is important to clearly understand what the Lord has communicated to the person (Keating n. d. ). This can be in form of a group with a facilitator or contemplating alone. At any case, what is important is the resulting decision made that is important, regardless of contemplative medium. One can meditate by means of study. In studying, one is in a meditative state that is focused on the holy scriptures of God. With study, we are encapsulated within the scriptures of God’s word.In studying the word of God, we are led to deeper meditative state and we can gain more knowledge and be closer to God through his word (Beers, 2006). It has been said that pure existence can only be experienced when the mind becomes purely at ease with the environment he/she is in. In order for us to be truly one with God, we have to imbibe into our daily routine a portion of meditation in order to experience, even a little at the very least, pure existence and a unbroken line of communication with God in order to further develop our spirituality and relationship with God.With pure meditation, it is really hard to understand the words of God. Our opinions and speculations are like a veil covering our true Nature. In addition to this, a most serious problem is when we identify with a certain mind-structure, the personality or ego, and the body. But even with so much of this demystifying our meditative state, meditation is used to unveil our true Nature and relationship with the Lord, we might still continue to cling to this false personality and fear its dissolution (Foster, 1978).Since we cannot simply order the mind to be still, we give it something to hang on to. This is to facilitate effective meditation that would help us greatly in opening a pure lin e of communication with the Lord. Words designed for that purpose are called mantras. In Christianity’s case, a mantra can be of the form of a prayer or Christian ritual. The application of mantras during meditation is called transcendental meditation. Mantras are repeated mentally for the sole purpose to calm the mind, remove inhibitions and clear out any unnecessary opinions (Beers, 2006).By continually driving out unnecessary thought can the mind be completely â€Å"silent† and only when the mind comes to a complete standstill are we enabled to identify with the silent observer. Spiritual meditation is essentially a mental exercise that drives the mind to take special attention on the Lord in order to remove all opinions not relevant to the Lord and create a connection between him for effective communication and to further our relationship with the Lord. The next kind of spiritual discipline that is closely linked to meditation is prayer. The second discipline is pr ayer.Spiritual discipline is not spiritual discipline if there is no prayer, of course, is much more than a spiritual discipline; it is a way of life. However it should be noted that prayer, as with all spiritual disciplines, should never be taken only as a discipline and nothing more. It would be a rather low-voltage spiritual life in which prayer was chiefly undertaken as a discipline. On one hand, prayer is a very potent practice for opening our lives to God (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. d. ). In present times, it is very important to practice prayer as a discipline.In our culture today, a considerable margin of Christians’ attention span is severely impaired. In prayer we attend our minds to God, and all too often that attention lasts for a few seconds. We may be starting off with professing our faith by means of saying the Lord’s Prayer but it is not long before our minds tend to wander off and we start to forget who we had addressed in the first place (Tho mpson 2005). It is for this reason that we must undertake prayer as a spiritual discipline in order to enable ourselves to attain the single-mindedness necessary to attend to the God-who-is-present.It is also vital for us to understand that prayer, just as every other discipline, is a learning process. We will find ourselves distracted. We will notice our minds wandering among the countless concerns of the day. However, as we continue in the paths of prayer, our meanders will be shorter and less frequent. Prayer is conversation or communication with God. It involves both speaking and listening. So often we pray as if it were a monologue. But prayer is so much more than a one-way communication towards God.As a matter of fact, the most diligent person that practices the discipline of prayer knows that prayer is more about just listening towards God rather than talking to him. In addition, prayer is also about being open to God for change. Prayer is recognition that God is God and we a re not, and so in prayer we yield our desires to God's. As much as people might say it is, prayer is not at all complicated. Prayer is not just about saying the right combination of words and thought but it is the right orientation of our outlook towards God.In addition, prayers do not need to be flowery. Those kinds of prayers are either said in order to impress others or just to manipulate God. A prayer is not something that is done during mealtime, in times of church service or in times of distress. It is not just about bowing our heads, clasping our hands together, and closing our eyes. If we really consider the definition of prayer as something that is really paying attention to God, we really can conduct the discipline of prayer without actually stopping.What is important is that in whatever thing we do, we do it with the awareness that God is always there beside us (Thompson 2005). With that in mind, we can take special attention all of what we do and offer it to him. To pray without ceasing means that wherever we go and in whatever we are doing, we go and do with the awareness that God is always watching whatever we do. We listen through prayer and meditation for his opinion on everything that we do in our lives. We look at others and ourselves through His eyes.We ask God to show us the right path and the right decision for whatever we do. In prayer God invites us to join him in his community and wants us to lead our lives in his ways. The third part of the spiritual discipline is fasting. Biblically, fasting is abstaining from food, drink, sleep or sex to take special attention on a period of spiritual growth. Specifically, we humbly deny something of the flesh to glorify God, enhance our spirit, and go deeper in our prayer life. Christian fasting isn't some kind of a â€Å"work† that's commanded by Christ or required by Scripture.On the other hand, it doesn’t imply that fasting isn't suggested to be part of our spiritual growth. Fasting is often linked to prayer and meditation as well. Too often, the focus of fasting is on the lack of food. On the other hand, the purpose of fasting is to take our eyes off the things of this world and instead take special attention on God. Fasting is a way to demonstrate to God and to ourselves that we are serious about our relationship with Him. Although fasting in Scripture is almost always a fasting from food, there are other ways to fast.It can actually be as easy as giving up something temporarily so that you can better focus on God can actually be considered fasting. It is recommended that fasting be limited to a given period of time, more so when food is part of the fasting. It is important to note that fasting is never intended to punish the flesh but to let we take special attention on God (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. d. ). In addition, fasting according to scripture is not a prerequisite. However it is highly recommended. The only reason indicated within Holy Scri pture to fast is to develop a deeper relationship with God.Christian fasting is more than just not letting ourselves eat or deny ourselves of some kind of passion or thing that we crave for but it is a sacrifice of something that we hold dear in order to offer it to the Lord. Fasting imbibes humility and loosens us from the chains of worldly materials and needs. This concept of fasting is not a one-day thing – it is a lifestyle of servant living for God and others. The next kind of spiritual discipline that is the focus of our study is simplicity. Simplicity, as many people would have it, is not merely having less stress in life and having more fun and recreation.But, simplicity is a spiritual discipline that when practiced moves us closer to God and removes us from the chains of worldly possessions. Some people turn to God in order to simplify their lives. In some cases, this can happen but this would entirely depend on what God’s plans for you (Boa, 2001). But all to o often, God makes our lives more complicated. God continually tests us in order to determine our faith and love in him. As we are continually tested, God’s love then calls us to act. Part of what makes a Christian spirituality ‘simple' is that is has a single attention: Christ.All else radiates from there or is to be set aside. Spiritual discipline trains us to stay on course when our lives are rocked out of normality. But if we do not stay steady and stay the course, we lose our connection and ourselves to God. Christian spirituality helps make life simpler and happy to live. When we chase a wealthy life style, we thread a very difficult and often unholy affair: the standards keep on changing day in and day out, and our anxiety never ceases. That is why Christian contemplatives and mystics speak so often of detachment.By taking away the direction on acquiring and amassing wealth, we have more of ourselves made free in order to direct ourselves to take special attentio n on learning to love correctly, to meditate towards God, to provide the necessary aid to those that need it, to learn more about our Lord through scripture or learning how to depend on the Spirit. Simplicity guides to so many other spiritual disciplines such as giving time to others – service. By means of simplicity, you are actually attuned more to the needs of others and can actually help them, as you are not preoccupied with other material things in life.Service can also be a form of simplicity as you provide help to others. With service, you are closer to God as you fulfill one of the very tenets of Christianity, and that is not to just be closer to God but more importantly be closer and be in a communal relationship with the people around you (Ortberg 2004). In life, you cannot have everything. You always have to choose between something. You can't follow Christ and chase wealth. Most of the time these two paths go in extremely opposite directions. The simple life, the contented life, means that we have learned to trust God rather than worldly possessions.People currently worry so much about money that they forget the essential things in life. We think that money will take away all our worries but in reality money will only produce more and more worries. Take for instance the people that win the lottery and just go bankrupt. Riches and abundance are like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They come in reeling in the bait, they are clad as sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they then become the object of anxiety that in the first place they try to remove.Worldly possessions not only take away our concentration towards God but also make us closer to evil (Mcknight 2004). In conclusion, prayer, meditation, study of the holy scripture, service to one’s fellow men, simplicity and fasting all guide people who do these spiritual disciplines closer to God. Each on its own can contribute to making this person clo ser to God. It is also evident that each spiritual discipline leads to the other; moreover, everything is intertwined and every part of each spiritual discipline is founded on another kind of discipline.This is strongly apparent in existing studies and prescriptions that it is important to practice not just only one but many of these spiritual disciplines if one were to aspire to become closer to God. As a concluding remark, these disciplines are not made in order to be just followed and it will logically guide to being saved from eternal damnation. Instead, these are carried out in order to be a guide for us to be ever closer to God. We use these disciplines as tools to make us closer to God but inevitably, it will all redound to the choice we make whether or not we would want to authentically accept God in our lives.