Cochlear Implants - The Future of Clinical Remediation of Hearing Loss Essay

Cochlear Implants - The Future of Clinical Remediation of Hearing Loss - Essay Example Hearing loss is the inability to hear and can be caused by genetic factors or illnesses. This condition makes the lives of the people with it a living hell. They are usually discriminated by the society, making it difficult to have their issues and concerns addressed. This has been the case scenario for many years, and the deaf have a reason to smile. Technological advancement has brought a possible solution to their woes. Cochlear imp0lant promises to make the deaf listen to others and respond to them accordingly. This solution will make it possible for the deaf to integrate into the mainstream society. In fact, some experts are confident that the future of clinical remediation for hearing loss is the cochlear implants.In fact, some experts believe that cochlear implants hold the future for the hearing loss problem because of advancement in technology and research. There are many researchers in the world who are researching on the different aspects of hearing loss. The hearing loss foundation website has listed more than twenty scientists and researchers working on different hearing loss projects (Hearing Loss Foundation, 1). Their findings will provide a better approach to not only managing hearing loss but also curing and treating the problem. Some believe that research on cochlear will provide information on how to cure hearing loss problems that are not cochlear dependent, for instance, genetic hearing loss (Wilson and Dorman, 15).

Justice John Paul Stevens Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Justice John Paul Stevens - Case Study Example One of the most important factors of this case is the dissenting opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Stevens stated that the judgment reached by the court was a strained decision which was also supported by a reading which was unpersuasive. He continued to say that the decision had overturned a precedent which had stood for a long time and also that the court had bestowed the law in a dramatic upheaval. Stevens states that it was notable of the amendment because it had omitted any of the statement of the needs that were associated with the individual's rights to utilize firearms when hunting or also in self defense and that this rights were present in the Declarations of Rights of Pennsylvania and Vermont (Gary, 2008). The dissent of Justice Stevens can be seen to be focused on four points of disagreement. One of the point of disagreement is that the Founders did not intend to make the individuals rights in possession of guns an aspect of the Second Amendment and if they intended it they would have made that clause expressly in the Second Amendment. The other point of disagreement is that the preamble concerning the militia and that the exact phrase which mentions to keep and bear arms is only applicable to the state militias only and not all individuals according to the Second Amendment.

An RSA-Type OTP Generator

An RSA-Type OTP Generator An RSA-Type OTP Generator Aiswarya Vinayachandran,  Sivasankar M Abstract Simple and secure authentication protocols are in great demand due to the ever expanding use of internet for financial and message communications. Multifactor authentication, in particular 2Factor Authentication (2FA) is preferred to static passwords-only authentication. One Time Passwords (OTPs) play a vital role in the construction of 2FA protocols. In this paper, an efficient OTP generation algorithm, based on RSA scheme is discussed. Implementation and computational issues related to the algorithm are also discussed. Keywords: Authentication, RSA, One Time Password, LFSR, Primitive Element 1. Introduction These days, almost all our day to day activities, starting from buying vegetables to booking a movie ticket depend on internet. As highly private data is being communicated between the server and the client, secure protocols are required for protecting these transactions from attackers. Over the years, we realized that encryption methods alone are not sufficient to secure online transactions. Hence evolved the idea of sending some message each time personally to the user and prompting him to send back the message along with his/her password to complete the transaction. This provides a second layer of security and strength to the existing concept of static passwords. In this paper, we present a way to generate OTPs, based on RSA type exponentiation. This research paper is organised as: Section 2 explains authentication process; Section 3 briefly discusses the conventional way of OTP generation; Section 4 is the proposed algorithm; Section 5 discusses about the randomness in the generation of the OTPs; Section 6 analyses the operational complexity and security of the proposed algorithm; Section 7 gives some concluding remarks. 2. Authentication Authentication is the process of identifying the legitimate user [1]. The identity is proven by various cryptographic methods where the user has to enter some input to the system. This can range from simply entering a password to more complicated security mechanisms like biometrics, strings displayed by tokens, key encryptions. Based on this input, the system will identify and authenticate the person. After authentication, comes authorization, where the system identifies the various privileges available to the user. Only authorized users can get access to the data as not all the users will have the same privileges. Some users will be allowed to only read the data while some users will be allowed to read as well as modify it. 2.1. Message Authentication Message authentication is used to check if the received message has been tampered in the middle of the communication channel. Message authentication is used to protect the integrity of the message wherein the receiver should be notified if any bits in the message are modified, removed or extra bits are added during the communication. This is achieved by sending a message digest – usually hash of the message will be the digest – together with the message. If the receiver also is obtaining the same digest over the received message then he/she can be sure of the integrity of the message. 2.2. Entity Authentication Entity authentication is the process in which an entity (machine/human) in a distributed network will get belief on another entity (machine/human) based on a key already established between them. The idea is that the key is kept secret and only the two genuine communicating entities know the secret key. Machine authentication is achieved through the verification of digital credentials or digital certificates. Digital Credentials are like a machine provided ID and password or a digital certificated issued by a Certifying Authority (CA). It is like a digital passport that provides trusted identification. Digital Signature is a mathematical technique used to validate the authenticity of a digital document, software or a message. It is used to identify whether a communication is impersonalized. Human based authentication relies on at least one of the three key factors: something the user knows (a password or an answer to a security question), something the user possesses (an object for authentication, say smart card), and something the user is (behavioural or physiological characteristics of the individual say, finger print and retina scanning). 3. Conventional OTP Generators OTP is an authentication technique, which comes in the second layer of authentication protocols after static passwords. An OTP is valid only for a single transaction. Even if an attacker succeeds in decrypting the password of a user, he/she has to get the OTP generated to validate the transaction. Since OTP is based on randomness/collision resistance, it is very difficult to guess an OTP. Even if the attacker succeeds in acquiring an OTP, he may not be able to predict the next OTP. OTP generation is based on hashing algorithms. Hashing is an irreversible process, i.e. for an input we can get the output, but with the obtained output we cannot get back the input. Even if an attacker obtains many OTPs, it is of no use as he/she cannot find a pattern to guess the seed used to generate the OTPs. An OTP is valid for a limited time, generally two to fifteen minutes based on the web site’s restrictions. Also in online transactions, while entering an OTP, a user is allowed to make errors only a limited number of times, say twice or thrice, which again adds to its security. A most common way of generating a sequence of OTPs[2] is described in Algorithm 1. Algorithm 1: Conventional OTP Generation Algorithm Note that the weakness of the OTP mechanism lies on the channel used to send the OTP and the security of the device to which the OTP is send. It will be advisable to secure the device with some biometric credentials making it totally safe. 4 Proposed RSA type OTP Generating Algorithm After the invention of public key cryptography, encrypted communication reached the next level. In general, public key cryptography relies on some hard mathematical problems like Integer Factorisation Problem (IFP), Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) [3]. As our proposed OTP generation is based on RSA crypto-system, we briefly do a recap of RSA encryption [4]. 4.1 The RSA Algorithm The Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithm is one of the popular and secure publickey encryption methods. The security of the algorithm relies on the fact that there is no efficient way to factor very large numbers. Using an encryption key (e, N), the algorithm is as follows: Choose two very large prime numbers, p and q; Set N equal to p.q. Choose any large integer, d, such that gcd(d, à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(N) ) = 1. Find e such that e.d = 1 (mod à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(N)); The encryption key (e,n) is made public. The decryption key d is kept private by the user. Represent the message as an integer between 0 and (N-1). Encrypt the message by raising it to the eth power mod n. The result is the cipher text C. To decrypt the cipher text message C, raise it to the power d mod n 4.2 Proposed OTP Generation Technique: Our proposed algorithm is based on RSA encryption/decryption process and is described in Algorithm 2 below. Algorithm 2: Proposed Algorithm The above procedure can be represented by a schematic diagram as in Fig.1. Fig. 1. Architecture of the Proposed Model 4.3. A Comment on the Selection of N and the Possible Number of OTPs Present day OTPs are of generally 6 digits in length. Hence they can range from 000000 to 999999, totalling to 10,00,000. This is so, as we have 10 choices (numbers 0 to 9) for every digit and hence 10.10.10.10.10.10 = 106 = 10,00,000. If we incorporate a module to condition that the first two most significant digits should be non zero, even then 9.9.10.10.10.10 = 8,10,000 OTPs are available. In our proposed algorithm, if we require 6 digit OTPs, we can select N close to the integer 999999. For example a choice of 991 . 997 = 988027 will be sufficient for our implementation. As the number of bits used to represent a 6 digit decimal number is approximately 20 bits (log2 999999 =19.93156713), we need to select a 20 bit RSA number for our algorithm. Note that, a 20 bit RSA crypto system can be easily broken by the present day computers when e and N are known outside. But here as the attacker does not know N and a, he/she cannot guess the next OTP, which is some random number that lies b etween 1 and N-1.The only information that the attacker can get is the current OTP, which is some 6 digit number. 5. Randomness in the Generation of the OTPs from ZN* Considering the demand for OTPs and the computational expenses of different exponential algorithms, it is advisable to follow a systematic approach for the selection of the random number aà ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½ {1, 2,†¦ ,N–1} .We propose two convincing methods for the selection of a. 5.1. Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs): LFSR is a mechanism for generating random numbers based on the initial seed given to it. So if we start with a non-zero 20 bit string, the LFSR can generate all the other 220–1 20-bit strings. We refer to [5] for some basic facts about LFSR. An LFSR of length L consists of L stages 0,1 , †¦ , L-1, each capable of storing one bit and having one input and output and a clock which controls the movement of data. During each unit of time the following operations are performed; (i) the content of stage 0 is output and forms part of the output sequence; (ii) the content of stage i is moved to stage i 1 for each i, 1 ≠¤ i ≠¤ L – 1; (iii) the new content of stage L – 1 is the feedback bit s which is calculated by adding together modulo 2 the previous contents of a fixed subset of stages 0,1, †¦ , L – 1. We note that for an n-bit LFSR connectionpolynomials are available, where à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦ is the Euler’s totient function. So, for a six digit OTP, i.e. for a 20 bit string, we have = 24,000 choices. With each connection polynomial, we can generate all the 20-bit strings in different random ways. Since we have 24,000choices, we can assign a single connection polynomial for a single customer, and OTPs generated for each customer will be in entirely different pattern. 5.2 Primitive Roots: Another mechanism for generating 6 digit random numbers is by using the concept of primitive roots.We refer [6] for the concepts related to cyclic groups and generators/primitive elements..Let p be a prime number. Consider Zp*. Let gà ¯Ã†â€™Ã… ½ ZP*. As i vary from 0 to p–1, by computing gi mod p, we can generate all elements in Zp*. Here g is called the primitive root/generator of Zp*. As we have selected an RSA number N, which is not a prime number, to follow this kind of random number generation, we can N as a prime number very close to 999999. For example, N = p = 999983 will be sufficient. It is a known result that, if g is a primitive root, then gi is also a primitive root if gcd (i,à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(p))=1. Hence we are available with à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(p)) generators [6]. Hence if N = 999983 (a six digit prime), we have à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦(999983)) =493584 generators which means we have sufficiently large number of primitive roots at our disposal. 6. Computational Complexity and Security of the Proposed Algorithm The proposed algorithm is an RSA-type algorithm which uses modular exponentiation for its computation. The modular exponentiation operation generally consumes a considerable amount of time for large operands as it consists of a series of square-and-multiply operations under a modular value. For a particular user, e will be fixed. Hence the time complexity for ae (mod N) is O(log2e). As RSA is a widely implemented cryptosystem, improvements in modular exponentiation algorithms are evolving very frequently [7]. Though the proposed algorithm uses the concept of RSA with a 20-bit modular (where as the current standard is 256 to 512 bits), since a, e, N are not known publicly we achieve security through obscurity. 7. Conclusions and Future Works In this paper, we have proposed a new method to generate OTPs and discussed the possible ways of implementing it practically. There may exist other novel methods with less time complexity. Incorporating new methods we can design more efficient algorithm for generating OTPs. The possibility of generating alphanumeric OTPs will be also explored, in future. References [1]Bruce Schneier, â€Å"Applied Cryptographyâ€Å", Wiley Publications, 2002. [2] L. Lamport, â€Å"Password authentication with insecure communication,† Communications of the ACM,vol.24,no.11, pp.770-772,1981. [3] Neal Koblitz, â€Å"Towards a Quarter Century of Public Key Cryptography†, A Special Issue of Designs, codes and Cryptography, Vol. 19, No. 2/3, Springer, 2000. [4] Rivest R. L. ,Shamir A.,Adleman L., â€Å"A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-key Cryptosystems†, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 120-126, 1978. [5] Alfred, J., Van Menezes Paul, C., Oorschot, S., Vanstone, A. â€Å"Handbook of Applied Cryptography† , CRC Press LCC (1996) [6] James K Strayer, â€Å"Elementary Number Theory† ,Waveland Press, 2001. [7] Gueron, Shay and Krasnov, Vlad , â€Å" Software Implementation of Modular Exponentiation, Using Advanced Vector Instructions Architectures† , LNCS Vol. 7369, pp.119-135, Springer, 2012.

False Hope in King Lear :: King Lear essays

False Hope in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout Shakespeare's King Lear, there is a sense of renewal, or as L.C. Knights puts it, "affirmation in spite of everything," in the play.   These affirmative actions are vividly seen throughout the play that is highly infused with evil, immorality and perverted values.   These glimpses of hope seem to provide the reader with an underlying notion of human goodness that remains present, throughout the lurking presence of immorality and a lack of values. However, in the end it is questionable if these are true revelations, and if the affirmative notions are undermined, and thus less significant than the evil in which they are engulfed.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Act I Scene I, the first glimmer of hope is revealed in the play at a time of madness, corruption and despair.   In this scene, King Lear has created an environment of competition that promotes false flattery, among many other things as he divides his kingdom in relation to the amount of love his daughters profess to him.   King Lear in his willfulness and arrogance does not see the error that he makes in equating love with reward, in this competitive environment.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cordelia is the only one of the three sisters who cannot fully participate in the competition to gain her father's inheritance by engaging in false flattery.   Instead of trying to out due her sisters, she merely describes her love in relation to their filial bond.   Although her father views this as a degrading insult and banishes her, it is shown that through her filial bond, she loves her father with more depth and sincerity than her eager, self absorbed sisters.   Cordelia emerges amid the moral depravity and social decay as one who is honest and true to her beliefs.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In banishing his daughter Cordelia from the kingdom and taking away her inheritance, King Lear is destroying the natural order of society.   She is left abandoned by both her father and her presumed suitor, Burgundy.   Yet Shakespeare rewards Cordelia's noble character with another suitor, the King of France. Despite all that has occurred in relation to being left destitute and friendless, France gladly accepts the estranged Cordelia as his bride to be and applauds her

Yann Martel

Canongate reveals Martel's Holocaust tale Listen Select: : BOOK NEWS Canongate has exclusively revealed details of the forthcoming novel by Yann Martel, his first since the 2002 Man Booker-winner Life of Pi was published eight years ago. Entitled Beatrice and Virgil, the book is due for publication next June. It is being released simultaneously by Knopf Canada, Random House imprint Spiegel & Grau in New York, Text Publishing in Australia and Penguin India.The story follows Henry, who on being posed â€Å"a puzzle that he cannot resist† is pulled into the world of taxidermy, and the lives of the eponymous characters–a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey called Virgil. Canongate said the book, which tackles the topic of the Holocaust, â€Å"takes us somewhere truly unexpected and shocking†, asking â€Å"profound moral and philosophical questions about the nature of love and evil†.Jamie Byng, managing director and publisher of Canongate, said: â€Å"Life of Pi was always going to be an extremely tricky book to follow up, not least because of the expectations of Yann's many fans. â€Å"Thankfully, Yann has risen to the challenge by writing another exceptional novel, a wildly imaginative and multilayered story that engrosses from the first page and leaves you asking questions long after you have turned the last. I was stunned by Beatrice and Virgil and all of us at Canongate are enormously excited about taking this book to as many readers as we can. The publication will be supported by â€Å"an impressive PR and marketing campaign†, which will include consumer and social media advertising, widespread media coverage, author interviews, an extensive online campaign and events and festival appearances across the UK. Retailers are now being invited to pitch for signings. Canongate has â€Å"high hopes† for the book, as Life of Pi remains the most successful Booker winner ever. The publisher repackaged the title this July, whic h Canongate said trebled sales when compared with the previous year. ~~~~~~~~

The single-gender classroom is making a newfound acceptance

The single-gender schoolroom is doing a newfound credence among pedagogues looking to give their pupils the border on high-stakes trials. Bing an early adoptive parent of single-gender schoolrooms Mr. Rich Buford looked at the current research for a manner to implement this into his schoolroom. Bing a advocate of this manner of learning Mr. Buford sees no job with this instructional manner every bit long as there are safeguards taken to guarantee that one sex is given the same advantages as the other. One survey that Mr. Buford looked at came from American Secondary Education in which they point out that looking at other states around the universe could give us an penetration into the result of a single-sex schoolroom. Another writer stops merely short of denouncing any grounds that supports the thought, and claim that it is no different than dividing based on race ( Rycik 2008 ) . However there is some grounds that proper direction and appraisal can hold a immense impact on pupil ac complishment ; particularly for male pupils. Another survey Mr. Buford came across stated that most instructors will prefer one gender over the other based upon outlooks of the gender. They will pass more clip with the male childs on male child topics ( math, scientific discipline ) and with misss on miss topics ( reading and linguistic communication ) ( Abbeduto & A ; Symons pg.3 ) . It was Mr. Buford ‘s experience that worlds like to plume themselves in their achievements and when a instructor sees that a pupil is really strong in a topic it is really satisfying. However when a instructor sees a pupil fighting with a topic it can be hard to travel through those turning strivings with the fighting pupil. Peoples love to win and detest losing, and a pupil that is non acquiring it seems to do the instructor feel like they are unqualified as a instructor so the instructor may unconsciously disregard it. This is shown in one survey where the instructor has a fellow instructor clip them on the sum of clip they spend on misss vs. male childs and the consequences were conclusive 80 % to boys and 20 % to misss, during a male child topic ( math ) and he even knew he was being timed ( Sanders & A ; Nelson pg.11 ) . While Mr. Buford was making his research he wondered if the schoolroom was all right to hold college girls but the direction and appraisal could be done with confer withing from another instructor from the opposite sex. In the 1990 ‘s California tried a similar pattern but it failed ( Protheroe 2009 ) , but this does non hold to be the destiny of today ‘s reformation of the public school system. Mr. Buford believes it is a great thought that could assist a big sum of kids receive the proper instruction they need. It seems that most of the resistance comes from females that remember the educational inequality of the yesteryear. However the same inequalities are found in today ‘s schools it is merely non talked about because it is the male childs who are acquiring the short terminal of the stick. 80 % , yes 80 % of school dropouts are male childs ( Tyre 2005 ) . In this modern twenty-four hours schooling is greatly geared towards misss and their acquisition manners, a s immature work forces are shown the door to go forth school. This is non the mistake of the misss it is merely that the bulk of schools are taught by adult females in 1986 it was at 69 % female instructors, in 2005 it was 82 % and still turning ( Feistritzer, & A ; Haar, 2005 ) . A immature male child does learn otherwise than a miss, that is a given, but with over 70 % of LD pupils being male it is no admiration they have a difficult clip larning the manner a female would. Teachers teach the manner they learn ( Tyre 2005 ) , so if the instructor is female it should be a given that she would be best suited to learn females. This is non to state that females can non learn males, and the contrast of sentiment is greatly needed in all topics. However it would be really hard to larn Chinese from person who merely speaks Chinese. It does non do the instructor a bad instructor or the pupil a bad pupil, nevertheless pupils would be best suited if a instructor who besides spoke English was traveling to learn them Chinese. This linguistic communication barrier could be fixed by holding a male instructor in the schoolroom learning the male childs and a female instructor learning the misss. But with budgets being patched together it is non executable to propose that every schoolroom have two instructors. Mr. Buford wanted to cognize more if this could even work and if so how could it be done in the confines of the school system regulations where he was learning. This looked like an chance to acquire to cognize other instructors better. He wanted to acquire a point of position from a fellow instructor who happened to be female. He asked Mrs. Nash the 9th class Psychology instructor to assist him on something, she said yes. They met during his be aftering hr and went over her appraisal and he asked if she would do any alterations to it. That following hebdomad Mrs. Nash came back to Mr. Buford with the same appraisal but asked different inquiries. Mr. Buford passed his appraisal out to the male childs and Mrs. Nash ‘s appraisal out to the misss. None of the pupils knew that there were different trial, and when he graded them he was really pleased with the consequences. The misss did better than of all time before in his History category normally good known as a female strong topi c. With the transition of Title IX in 1972 adult females have seen immense additions in educational accomplishment ; while work forces have seen their additions non merely autumn, but they have been significantly lower than that of adult females. ( Spencer, Porche, Tolman 2003 ) .The inquiry that keeps coming up in hiss research is why? Why are immature work forces self destructing in this new and â€Å" equal † educational age, while adult females are deriving by springs and bounds? This goes back farther than this research has clip to allow, but it starts in the simple school and carries itself on to higher instruction. The foundation of a great pupil starts at place, but besides those first few old ages of schooling have such a great impact on pupils that it forms a permanent feeling for the remainder of the pupil ‘s lives. In simple school the opportunities of holding a male instructor are about 15 % if you ‘re lucky ( Robinson, Gillibrand 2004 ) . This poses no m enace to females but for immature work forces it can be a really hard procedure thought, and moving like a miss. There are clear and distinguishable differences between male and female. Not good or bad, merely different. If you are told 85 per centum of the clip that the manner you were moving was inappropriate so you would likely believe that there was something incorrect with you for holding these thoughts as being desirable. You are told to be quit when you want to speak. You are told to sit when you want to stand. You are told to analyze by yourself when you want to cognize what your friend thinks about job # 3. This is what most immature work forces go through every twenty-four hours in the public school system that was built by females and for females. The male childs do non suit in and they know it ( Frawley 2005 ) . Their manner of being is non wanted in the school and they know it. They are loud, full of energy, and inquiry everything ; it is most instructors ‘ worst incubus. The bulk of instructors are female and so the educational civilization is rather different than from that of a school that would hold been founded by males ( Kirschenbaum 2007 ) . Look at the differences between the public school system and that of a military academy and that is the difference between what a male centered school would look like and the modern school system that promotes muliebrity and devalues maleness. Since the transition of No Child Left Behind ( NCLB ) the United States public school system has been the mark of reform from all sides of the political aisle. The American populace has been told that our school system is in shambles, and that America is losing its prestigiousness around the universe as an educational human dynamo. What NCLB does will non assist the public school system, but instead it will damage it beyond fix, it punishes schools with low trial tonss by taking off funding to that school ( Schroeder 2001 ) . The logic to this act is foolish at the least. To state to the populace that if your school is proving ill we will cut support to your school and give it to a school that is executing good and this will go forth no kid behind. Most grownups can state you that male childs and misss are different, and the differences do n't halt when you leave school. Men and adult females think, act, hear, see, and smell otherwise ( Tyre 2005 ) . The standard schoolroom is really girl friendly which is non a bad thing if you ‘re a miss. However the primary ground for this survey and its significance of it is the immense disparity between male childs and misss when it comes to education, more specific is primary instruction ( Wills 2007 ) . When you foremost acquire introduced to education you have small else to compare it to and the first few old ages have an impact that can find whether you will be a success or a failure ( Campbell 1997 ) . The instruction system wagess subject, conformance, and attentiveness qualities that most parents and instructor know are much more familiar with misss than male childs. Boys violin, drama, and battle. ( Poe 2004 ) . This impression that male child ‘s behaviour is incorrect or looked down upon as where the miss ‘s traits are what are thought to be wanted by the instructor in the schoolroom creates an ambiance of ill will and bitterness. In general most instructors would wish a pupil that raises their custodies, work softly, and choruss from break you would be speaking about the traits of a female ( Flannery 2006 ) . This is non to state that male childs are incapable of run intoing these outlooks for a instructor, but how it is perceived by the instructor will wholly depend upon their sex ( Myhill and Jones 2006 ) . Research As Mr. Buford looked through the different articles in being in the library at UCM he noticed some reoccurring subjects that are seemed to be the footing for his statement that the construction of the modern school puts maleness on test while doing feminist traits deemed desirable and conventional. He looked at the unintended effect of the feminist motion the school system and its gender prejudice towards female personality traits. Then there is NCLB which because of the landmark statute law there is such a new involvement in individual gender schoolrooms as a manner of progressing all trial tonss for a school territory. If boys think and procedure otherwise than misss, how can at that place be a fit criterion in schools that are at odds with the manner boys do it? Mr. Buford besides looked at the biological differences and the new engineering and its impact on the altering perceptual experience that there is more of a familial make-up of societal and larning traits of male and females than what was before perceived as being an engineered trait. So why now? After all these old ages of doing schools gender impersonal and endeavoring for equality among pupils why are we looking at turning back the clock and traveling to a single-gender schoolroom? It is because of the failure of male childs in the modern schoolroom. With merely 70 % of male childs graduating high school and merely 40 % traveling on to college there is a immense job that if non corrected early could be black for our state ( Poe 2004 ) . Sing that this has been an issue for many old ages it is in our history that gender equality was non ever that equal, so females have a right to be leery of a alteration that could hold an impact on them. Mr. Buford asks if the recoil of feminism to do a jeer of our immature work forces so that they are non equipped for the hereafter? The best solution to all jobs is to happen the win-win scenario that all pupils are able to accomplish to their possible. From the 1940 ‘s until the 1970 ‘s the feminisation of the public school system has put males at a disproportional disadvantage ( De Haan 2010 ) . With legion empirical surveies that have looked at the impact on gender in the schoolroom it was no easy undertaking to sift through the rubbish to happen something worthwhile. With the transition of NCLB in 2001 schools started looking at ways to better trial tonss, and one thought that took root was the individual gender schoolroom ( Gillis 2005 ) . There have been many individual gender schoolroom pilot plans since 2001 ‘s transition of NCLB. Most seem to come from countries so despairing for better trial tonss that they try anything to assist their school. In Mississippi the pilot plan had small significance in alterations to prove tonss when compared to their opposite numbers that were in coed schoolrooms. However there was a immense difference in the sum of subject referrals given to boys in the individual gender schoolroom ( Gillis 2005 ) . It is known by most male instructors that immature male childs will move a spot otherwise when in the presences of immature ladies. As we ( male instructors ) were one time immature male childs and can certify to this type of behavior alteration in forepart of females. Another pilot plan in Florida showed that male childs in coed schoolrooms tested for province written exams merely 37 % passed, but the male childs who were in individual gender schoolrooms had a humongous 86 % base on balls the same test ( Flannery 2006 ) . Since there was ne'er a right to vote motion for males, nor a civil rights motion for white males the bulk of educational reform has looked at the impact on females and minorities in the last 50 old ages ( Warrington and Younger 2000 ) . This has made happening research a one sided undertaking that is hard to divide from historical generalisations that there is no demand to look at the impact on males because they have historically done good in standardised trials. However when you look at the graduation rates and college entryway statistics you see a different image and it looks black for immature work forces ( Martino, Mills, and Lingard 2005 ) . These differences are merely acquiring worse as the old ages base on balls on, is it any surprise that boys have been holding a hard clip in school when it is taught in a feministic manner. Bing that primary schools are typically taught by female pedagogues the ideals that are identified as maleness are normally deemed unwanted ( Martino, Meyenn 2002 ) . When immature work forces are made to experience as they, or their thoughts about what is good or merely does non suit with the modern school civilization ; how can you anticipate much else? Work forces are make bolding and brave and in the universe of male childs these are traits that are more than a stage of who we are it is a badge of award to be brave. In the eyes of females this is merely butch bunk that needs to be eradicated like a malignant neoplastic disease that is unwanted. As boys mature and get down to experience like a existent foreigner in their school they go one of two ways. Either they conform to the school, or they venture off and ne'er to return. There is small that needs to be said as these immature work forces know that they are non wanted in school, this is non an alibi for the high dropout rate but instead a existent account of the disaffection that immature work forces feel when they enter school ( Tyre 2005 ) . Biological Differences of Males and Females So are at that place biological differences between the manner males and females learn, or are these differences institutionalized into immature people at a clip when they are most acceptable. The feminist motion had a much larger moving ridge than what was first seen. The changeless debasement of the male function theoretical account as an egomaniac that needs to be fixed is bombarded to all of us through the T.V. ( Rycik 2008 ) . Young male childs are different than misss, but is at that place something else at drama when you have about 75 % of all kids that are labeled as acquisition disabled are male childs ( Poe 2004 ) . This would likely non be a important statistic, but most of those that are labeled end up in particular instruction categories. From this initial label there is a slippery incline that pupils go down and normally ends with long-run harm. The overexploitation of psychiatric drugs on immature work forces is making living deads out of these male childs and has done small to assist work out the job of bad behaviour ( Rycik 2008 ) . The job is non the immature work forces, but the impression that there is something incorrect with them because they do n't sit still, work softly, or behave likeaˆÂ ¦well like misss ( Poe 2004 ) . There is more to being a cat than most females might cognize ; work forces ( and male childs ) have a learned behaviour to maintain emotions to themselves. This is at odds with females as they are prone to opening up about their feelings ( Flannery 2006 ) . There could be a batch of jobs in the pupils ‘ life and it gets exacerbated by a instructor or parents who want this child fixed. They have good purposes but their proactive solution really makes affairs worse. As a instructor Mr. Buford gained an apprehension that most jobs will work themselves out this is nature at its finest. When we mess around with Mother Nature we get pupils that are stoned out of their head, because they were told that they have a job and it is non their mistake they merely need drugs ( Sadker 1999 ) . The job that was being investigated was whether male child and misss would larn better in a individual gender schoolroom environment vs. the now standard college girl schoolroom, or something of a loanblend that Mr. Buford is suggesting for his schoolroom. The writer looks at a six or so different research from assorted organisations that have findings that are in support of single-sex schoolrooms and opposed to the thought. The topics from one survey were 5,000 eighth-grade pupils from New Zealand ; another was two high-schools in Australia one all misss one all male childs ( Haag 2000 ) . In the New Zealand survey they used a longitudinal survey that had controlled for single features of socioeconomic position, and the type of school the pupils went to. The Australian research was a 10 twelvemonth survey in which the pupils passage from single-sex schoolrooms to coeducational schoolrooms ( Haag 2000 ) . The New Zealand survey after using the controls back into history found there was no difference in accomplishment from a individual gender schoolroom or a coeducational schoolroom. When controls were in topographic point they found a large addition in achievement peculiarly in misss. The Australian survey says that the pupil ‘s self-identity at first declined but after 5 old ages went back to normal degrees ( Haag 2000 ) . The decisions to these two surveies were that co-educational schools are merely every bit effectual as individual gender schools. The article goes on and points to other research that is more positive in its findings on individual gender schools, but it is summed up in the sum-up when she says â€Å" Finally, the research, while inconsistent in its appraisals of whether single-sex instruction is â€Å" better † than coeducation for misss, does uncover countries of consensus on specific indexs, which may function as get downing points for farther research into how single-sex schools affect educational results. â€Å" ( Haag pg 2 ) . Very small figures are shown as in statistical informations that they present in the article in which they give an overview of the research that was already done. They do little in looking at the impact on male childs which would be a failing in the research. One cardinal strength is the survey in Australia in which they follow a group of male chi lds and misss for 10 old ages and expression at their results from the passage between these two different options for how we teach our pupils. Looking at all of the research on this topic you get a sense that this has been tried before and looking at landmark surveies gives us insight into the possible effects that a individual gender schoolroom would hold on pupils. This topic is non a new thought it has been practiced for centuries and known that dividing pupils on the lines of gender was seen as a existent game modifier ( Parker, Rennie 2002 ) . Looking at the different ways scientific discipline is learned by male childs and girls the survey in Australia has found its manner across the pool and given the United States a difficult expression at why they are so different. The survey done by Parker and Rennie looked at pupils between the old ages of 8 and 12 across 10 different schools. They spent two old ages roll uping informations and looking at peculiarly the difference between male childs and girls trial tonss in math and scientific discipline. They stop short of stating that there was a significant difference in the classs but the importance of the survey was that it showed a direct correlativity in the assurance that the pupils had in the topics when the antonym ‘s sex was non in the schoolroom ( Parker, Rennie 2002 ) . Decision This research gives us insight into the ideas and thoughts of how best to turn to the educational spread that exists between male childs and misss. Feminism brought manner to major reforms in how schools would be taught ; no longer would adult females hold to take a back place to work forces and their aspirations. The overexploitation of feministic ideals in the public school system has made instruction favour the behavior traits of females while holding everything that is masculine as unwanted. Research by many bookmans inquiries why male childs are falling behind particularly with consideration to college attainment. There have been encephalon scans done on male childs and misss and scientifically turn out that boys think, act, listen, and see otherwise than misss. Single gender schoolrooms are nil new in respects to instruction, but the oncoming of feminism brought with it the impression that male childs and misss are the same. Newly discovered functional magnetic resonance imagings make it possible to state that biologically they are really different, and perceive life in a different manner. Male childs have ever been seen as the Rebels, the criminal that thread that all right line between condemnable and vigilance man. So the self-image that immature work forces have about themselves is traveling to be really different from that of what a female thinks. For case most immature work forces feel that it is their responsibility to support their female parent from any and all menaces. That is why immature males will contend one another for naming each other ‘s ma a bad name. This is likely unlogical to most females and drives decision makers and instructors alike up a wall, nevertheless if you were to inquire most immature males in privaten ess they would understand that those are evidences for a battle. Male childs are taught that contending is a really barbaric signifier of job resolution, yet to those same male childs it is deemed worthy and shows a natural line of leading. The masculine nature of male childs is self apparent from early on ; they think and act in a manner that can merely be understood by other males. So so I ask why are most marks of maleness removed from school and deemed unwanted. Whether right or incorrect is non the inquiry. There is nil incorrect with being male and our traits should be accepted or even channeled into something that can still hold the immature adult male experiencing likeaˆÂ ¦well a MAN. Possibly they do n't believe like a female, or move feministic and that should non be evidences for a diagnosing for ADD or to be put on medicine. We are all alone, larning and behaviour is no different in that each kid has a set of conflicts that they must get the better of and it is the occupation of the instructor to assist them mount their mountain. We can non logically cognize what tools they will necessitate to mount that mountain unless we take stock list of what they have and what they need. This requires a considerable sum of clip that honestly most instructors do non hold. A male instructor has a better apprehension of male pupils demands than that of a female instructor, merely because he one time was a immature male child and thinks and Acts of the Apostless likewise. This is non a sweep on female instructors at all it is more demoing that the deficiency of maleness in the school system is the biggest job that is confronting male childs and their educational ends.

Mary Shelleys description of the monster Essay Example

Mary Shelleys description of the monster Essay Example Mary Shelleys description of the monster Essay Mary Shelleys description of the monster Essay At the beginning Shelley contrasts his beauty and his wretchedness. Mary Shelleys description of the monster reduces the good things and increases the bad things which makes our first impression of the monster as being horrific Mary Shelley writes: His teeth of a pearly whiteness which were of a Horrid contrast with his watery eyes Mary Shelley is using Victor Frankensteins first impression of the monster was clearly horrific. You could tell from the first time Victor looked at the monstrous creation properly and he straight away knew the evil he had created. One of the first words of Victor Frankenstein upon seeing the monster was Beautiful, great god Frankenstein was infact being ironic as his creation was indeed not beautiful. He is completely despondent: The beauty of my dreams vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart Mary Shelley uses such words to make us feel that this is such a monster that is so horrid that it will turn the heart black with disgust even to look at it. Mary Shelley gives us an early indication that this monster is not going to be such a first-class monster but a wicked one. This also agins shows us that she is very intelligent because of the way she uses the language. This quote explains everything about how Dr Frankenstein felt. Frankenstein also makes us think in negative ways towards the monster because he uses very effective and powerful words such as: Demonical corpse, miserable monster and ugly wretch This lets us know that he is regretting the creation and he comparing it with devils and demons. Victor Frankenstein is so scared of the monster that he leaves it and doesnt look back. This also shows Mary Shelleys intelligence because she uses very effective words to describe the monster. Our impression of the monster changes later in the novel when Frankenstein the monster tells us his side of the story. Mary Shelly emphasizes the positive aspects of the monster at this stage. After the monsters creator runs away from him. The monster goes out into the world. His first encounter with humans arnt the best of encounters because at first sight of the monster they straight away judge the monsters by its looks and start beating him and throw missile weapons at him, for example: grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons Mary Shelley is showing here that this monster didnt obviously look like how human beings do, this also show the wretchedness of the monster, it is also giving a simple message which is dont judge a book by its cover. We find out what the monster is really like when he goes and lives in a hovel near some cottagers. Mary Shelley writes about how he helped them at night when the cottagers were asleep. The creature speaks of how he: Often took tools. The use of which I quickly discovered and brought home firing sufficient for the consumptions for several days This showed he had a caring side to him and when he saw that the cottagers were having trouble he went and helped secretly by cutting the wood for them and doing several other things. Mary Shelley also writes about how the monster learns to speak and learns new words by listening to the cottagers, particularly Felix who teaches his girlfriend Safie to speak English. The creature says: I discovered the names that were given to some of the most familiar objects of discourse, I learned and applied the words. We start to feel sorry for the monster when he discovers that he is nothing like other people and that he is completely different to them in looks, height and strength. At this point we feel sorry for him because he talks about how his going to present himself to the cottagers. Frankenstein the monster says: their grace, beauty and delicate complexions, but how was I terrified when I viewed myself in a transparent pool!

How to Make a Colored Campfire

How to Make a Colored Campfire A campfire always adds warmth and excitement to an outdoor experience, but you can easily kick it up a notch by coloring the flames. There are several ways to achieve the effect, so you can choose one that works best for you. Sprinkle Chemicals on the Campfire You can buy little packets of chemicals to sprinkle over a campfire to make colored flames, but its easy to make these yourself. Simply add chemicals to a zipper plastic bag and add them to the fire. Its best to add chemicals after youre done cooking, to avoid any chance of accidental contamination. These chemicals arent very toxic, so they wont produce dangerous smoke or harm the ground. white - magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt)yellow - sodium chloride (table salt)green - borax (laundry booster or roach powder), boric acid powder (disinfectant), or copper sulfate (algae treatment)blue - copper chloridepurple - potassium chloride (salt substitute)pink - lithium (from a battery) or lithium chloridered - strontium nitrate or strontium chloride (in emergency road flares)orange - iron oxide (rust) Most of these chemicals you can get at a grocery store. Others you can order online. There are also many more chemicals that produce colored fire, based on the flame test, but be sure to check how safe one of these other chemicals is before adding it to a campfire. A word of advice: if you can, avoid adding yellow (sodium chloride) because it will overpower all the other colors! Anyway, a campfire is mostly orange and yellow, so you dont really need those colors. My personal preference is just to use copper sulfate. Why? The salt manages to produce almost the entire spectrum of colors all on its own, plus copper is already present in relatively high concentration in soils. Its also pretty easy to find. Burn Driftwood If your campfire is located near the beach, you can get a colored fire simply by burning driftwood. Driftwood produces an eerie blue to purple flame. The natural salts that have soaked into the wood to produce the color also produce a smoke that isnt good to breathe, plus you should not cook over a driftwood campfire, but on a still night, the effect is breathtaking. Add Chemicals to Paper, Sawdust, or Pinecones Another way to make a colored campfire is to add pre-treated paper, sawdust, or pinecones to the fire. Make a mixture of the desired material with one of the coloring chemicals and a small amount of water or rubbing alcohol. Some chemicals dissolve better in rubbing alcohol, producing better results. Let the chemical solution soak in ​for several hours or overnight. Allow your material to dry. You may want to spread it out a bit to speed up the process. You can pack it in a paper or plastic bag, and carry it with you on your camping trip. Toss a treated pinecone, handful of sawdust, or crumpled sheet of treated paper into the campfire to color the flames.

Proven MBA Essay Tips for Outstanding Application

Proven MBA Essay Tips for Outstanding Application Proven MBA Essay Tips for Outstanding Application Writing an MBA essay in order to get into a business school is more about expressing your true self than following any sort of predetermined set of rules. However, it’s good to keep in mind that even though you are not restricted in your writing, it’s still a good idea to think twice about everything you want to include in your application essay. Luckily, there are some proven MBA essay tips that can help you get on your way and start writing that application paper. Let’s take a look at some of them, and keep in mind that you should adapt each one to who you are and what business school you are applying to; don’t take them for granted. Research your school Assuming that you’ve settled with applying to a particular business school, it’s important to do some research before writing your MBA essay. Every school has a different set of expectations and knowing what they are will give you a competitive edge towards other applicants. You can even go a step further and do some research about the school itself. Including some of these facts subtly in your application essay will show the admission board that you are a person who does their own research and does a thorough job of choosing his or her future school. This will make them feel grateful for your initiative. Reflect and plan ahead Writing your MBA essay might take longer than you think, since it will require that you sit down and talk with yourself. That’s right; you need to get to know the real you in order to write a perfect application essay, MBA or not. Think about everything you’ve been through so far and what makes you tick. Why do you want to go to business school? Why that particular school? Every answer that you come up with should go to your notepad for further use once you start writing the actual MBA essay. Fortunately, there are sources out there that can give you useful MBA essay tips on what the admission office will look for the most. Take your time to carefully plan your application essay and not rush anything before you are confident that you are ready. Be constructive and critical The most important element of your application essay is the section in which you list everything you are good at and not so good at. This is the part where you put your ego on the side and be very honest with yourself. No one is perfect, and realizing that you’re not perfect is the first step in knowing who you are and becoming better at it. Business schools are always on the lookout for self-aware and self-confident people who are willing to improve themselves and not let their inner pride take over. Modesty and humble thinking will always win over pride, so make sure that you have a good balance of both. Be yourself when you write your application essay. You are applying for business school, but you’re also human and you are allowed to convey feelings and express thoughts. Forward-thinking and visionary students are always welcome at any business school. Write cohesively You will want to say a lot of things in your MBA essay and it’s important that all of it feels like a whole. You can’t start your application paper with one tone of voice and end it on a completely different leg. This will show that you are nervous and unsure of yourself. While that may be the case with many applying students, there are services out there that help students format and proofread admission essays in order to make them presentable. You can write whatever you are obliged to write and send them your paper in order to make it more cohesive. Just keep in mind that you can do the same by yourself as well; all you need is a clear head and some online research about what an MBA essay format should look like. Answer the questions Try not to lose yourself in your thoughts when you write your MBA essay. The questions given to you on the application should be the guidelines for your application essay. The school wants you to answer questions in the most direct way possible, and often these questions are not easy. â€Å"Where do you see yourself in ten years time?† is anything but easy to answer. What’s even worse than not answering is writing something completely different and losing the point of your answer. It’s also a good idea to be unique in the way you write your answers. Try to use synonyms and critical thinking by describing your personal skills in a new way. If you’re an avid reader, this shouldn’t be a problem, since reading is the best way to expand your vocabulary and give you new ways of expressing your thoughts. You need to read and reread each question carefully in order to get a better understanding of what is being asked of you. Some MBA essay samples out there might give you a clearer picture of how you should write your paper, but keep in mind that anything you write should be your original thought. Don’t quote and paraphrase anyone; try to answer the questions with your own thoughts. This will show the admission board that you are honest and self-aware individual who is not afraid of who he or she is. Ask for help Whether it’s your parents, your school counselor or a favorite professor; be sure to ask for help and plenty of it. The people who know you will give you fresh insight into who you are and what kind of people skills you have. Since you’ve decided to go to college, many people will be happy to approach you and give you MBA essay tips since this could be the factor that makes or breaks your application essay. Make sure to ask for help from anyone that you think might give you any form of useful advice. Another good way of ensuring that your MBA essay is written correctly is to have your professor read it and gives you feedback. After all a professor will tell you exactly what he or she would look for in an application essay. Once you are satisfied with your writing, it’s time to check your MBA essay format one more time before submitting it. Make sure to check the paper for any grammar or proofreading errors. These will make you look unprofessional, and business school admission boards don’t like unprofessional applications.

Providing Quality Service Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Providing Quality Service - Assignment Example The first step in involving guests in providing quality service in the industry is being able to understand the guests that are in the industry’s target market to the most possible extent. Ideally, this understanding comprises of the typical demographic breakdown of age, gender, race and the location of the visitors. Also, there are the emotional breakdowns of their feelings, beliefs, attitudes are, the kind of experience they require, want, also expect the tourism industry to deliver. Also, there is the understanding of guest’s capacities that is, their skills, knowledge and abilities so as to coproduce the experience (Hyde, Ryan & Woodside, 2012). Providing quality service normally needs the interaction between the service provider and the guest. The interaction can be a belief encounter between the guest and the server. The interaction can be face-to-face, on the web, over the phone, by mail or via texts. When it is a face-to-face interaction, the employees have to be trained on how to coproduce the experience in a orderly manner. For instance, a restaurant may train its servers to train guests on the right manner of cooking using a Fondue pot. When the experience takes place at the time of consumption, then the industry has to plan to make sure that fresh, inexperienced, untrained and informed customers receive a similar service, experience quality plus value that the recurring, experienced, trained and informed ones received (Waalen et al., 2004). As every guest is different, the industry cannot expect each of them to take the same amount of time or resources in gaining experience. Being able to accommodate the variability in customer divergence is how the industry would make crucial contribution by researching carefully and planning thoughtfully to adjust the service experience offered to every customer. Different situations in the service delivery call for different plans in the

Facebook for career growth Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Facebook for career growth - Assignment Example The facebook, and other examples of social media of the current age, has provided employees all over the world, an opportunity to sell themselves as a ‘brand’ to the employers of their choice. They can, without any hassle of travelling or spending money, market their resume online, get information, job description and job specification, and even start working there and then. This is a very common practice in case of home-based jobs such as freelancing and data entry work. Sometimes, they employee may even get a chance to pick people of their requirement by just checking out their personal details in the profile section. The platform also offers various pages and groups formed by businesses and consulting groups in order to provide the job placements and career growth opportunities. The network building, learning about the industry news and trends, getting informed about events and conferences, and connecting with people of similar interest are the features that facebook offers to the employees as well to employers (Nicole, 2010). For the employers of either a profit or non-profit organization, facebook serves as a platform to provide valuable communication, trust, stakeholder engagement and even donations in the long run. The brands of different organizations are advertised and marketed to the consumers in the form of products and services. Some buy, others sell. The individuals can obtain a real-time and unbiased view of the market in one click. The exchange of ideas amongst the mobilized communities assists the employers and employee decide the scope of a certain career in the job market. It is undeniable that â€Å"social media encourages strengthened relationships and the virtual tools available today can enhance career associations† (HE s4). However, it is worthwhile noting that use of facebook for career growth primarily depends on the ability to utilize the features on

David Contracts Written Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

David Contracts Written Project - Essay Example In this similar concern, it can be affirmed that both the parties can be benefited from making a contract. It has to be enforceable by law. Though contracts can be of verbal or written type, preference must always given to the written contracts as they are quite uncomplicated to confirm in front of law (Dervort 107-108). DISCUSSION OF CONTRACT ELEMENTS Contracts are a kind of legally binding agreement by both the parties to a contract. Parties to a contract must know and understand that the agreement is enforceable by law. Contracts which are unlawful are void and not enforceable in the court. One of the important pre-conditions of the development of a contract is its legality (Cheeseman 1-250). Offer is principally viewed to be an expression of readiness which especially makes by an offeror with the intention of getting the offer duly accepted by an offeree. It is worth mentioning that offer is often viewed to be one of the initial as well as one of the influential elements of a con tract. Offer is duly considered to be an important contract element as it is viewed to be the initial step in entering into a particular contract (Dervort 107-108). It can be viewed that when an offeree agrees upon the offer which provides by an offeror, then it certainly becomes an acceptance. With the completion of acceptance process, both the parties come under a specific contract. Without the acceptance, contracts can never be formed. It is to be stated that an acceptance can be in both forms i.e. written or oral. Consideration is typically considered to be an act of a contract process. With the significant concern of consideration, individuals making a contract promise to perform or abstain from performing certain act. It has been apparently observed that consideration comprises either harm to the promisee or a benefit on behalf of the promisor. In the contract agreement, consideration plays an important role for the promises made by both the parties. Specially mentioning, it h as to be enforceable by lawful regulations (Dervort 107-108). There are many countries, which set a standard age for the age of majority. For most of the nations, it is 18. Any age below the age of 18 is called age of minority. There is an Infancy Doctrine made for the minorities. This doctrine states that minors need to be protected from the unscrupulous behavior of the adults. Minors can also rescind the contract as per as this doctrine is concerned. In the matter of writing, a contract needs to be formal and properly signed, expressed and with implied reference (Cheeseman 1-250). Contracts have to be legal and thus they must be presented and proved at the court. Contracts are generally viewed to be ‘meeting of the minds’ as two or more individuals can enter into a particular contract. In terms of legality, contracts need to be presented to another party without using fraud, threatening or other illegal activities. In order to determine the contract element i.e. legal ity, it is to be stated that the prime intention of a particular contract must be for a lawful purpose. The general law of contracts and many state statutes protect individuals who lack contractual capacity from having contracts forced especially on them. The requirement of parties accent needs to be real and genuine (Dervort 107-108). On the other hand, the contract element concerning meeting of the mind

Do We Need Better Gun Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Do We Need Better Gun Control - Essay Example Because violence can be attributed to many unsavory and unavoidable causes, therefore common people prefer to put the blame on guns and drugs, objects that seemingly take people away from their miseries. Therefore, guns are a â€Å"consequence of the violent strain in culture, as well as a contributory cause† (Jacobs, 2002, p.214). Need of better gun control: the pros On moral grounds violence can never be advocated under any situations. Even in cases of racial unrest or mugging, the morally acceptable way of protests is non-violent resistance. Although defense for self is necessary it is however not wise to use guns. When a criminal is armed with a gun while attacking a person, it is dangerous for that person to pull out a gun as this may result in â€Å"greatly increasing the chance that one or more parties will be injured or killed†. Since it is the responsibility of the police to protect the private citizens, therefore it is their right to be armed so that they are able to fight with armed criminals (Sather, 1999, pp.264-265). There is also the issue of concerned risks among the older population who has ownership of guns. In countries like America and Canada ownership of guns is increasingly becoming popular among the older adults, many of whom acquired their licence to use guns at their young age. Since this section of population is aging, cases of dementia is not uncommon which rises the risk of holding and using guns or any kind of firearms. Unlike other activities like driving a car, there are fewer regulations to guide the proper use of guns among the older people. The matter is of grave concern particular for those older adults who have declining faculties but are yet not declared incompetent by a court of law. Although there are certain classes of people who are considered ineligible to hold ownership of guns, there is no restrictions on upper age limit (Greene et al., 2007, pp.406-407). Of late, many people who are crazy and homicidal possess guns and the result is that there are numerous killings of innocent people. In such cases, it is inevitable that there should be stringent gun control measures. (Stein, 2012) After conducting a survey in America, the data was analysed to determine the level of risks associated with keeping guns at home. People who keep guns at home are likely to die from homicide or commit suicide than those people who do not have possession of guns. This is because â€Å"guns are highly lethal, require little preparation, and may be chosen over less lethal methods to commit suicide, particularly when the suicide is impulsive† (Dahlberg et al., 2004, p.935). There have been many occurrences of tragic massacres in countries like England, America and Scotland which are indirect results of legal ownership of handguns. In 1998 there was one shooting incident in a school in Jonesboro, where one of the young boys involved was trained to use handguns by his family from a very early age. If o wnership of handguns is outlawed then such incidents will almost certainly decline even if they are not altogether eliminated. With lesser circulation of guns, the young boys will have fewer opportunities to use guns (Sather, 1999, p.265). Need of better gun control: the cons In this modern world the number of criminals is on the rise and this makes the regular law-abiding citizens more vulnerable. Gun-related crimes are increasing at an alarming rate especially in the United States and

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH Essay

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH PROVIDED) - Essay Example In one of his speeches, Robespierre claimed that â€Å"the Constitution establishes that sovereignty resides in the people, in all the individuals of the people. Each individual has the right to participate in making the law which governs him and in the administration of the public good which is his own†.1 To a large extent, virtue for Robespierre was a matter of politics and had to work for the benefit of the masses. Robespierre did not simply assert that every individual was a citizen, but granted citizens a broad range of individual and social rights, irrespective of the amount of fortune they possessed.2 Robespierre was confident that the amount and scope of the individual rights did not have to depend on the amount of money an individual was able to invest in his country.3 Otherwise, such a position would deny the relevance and meaning of virtue, equality, and justice in the human society. The humanistic nature of Robespierre’s beliefs was difficult to ignore, and it produced a multitude of positive effects on the development of the political and ethical consciousness in France. As part of his political and individual evolution, Robespierre slowly transformed and expanded his beliefs about virtue. By 1791, he no longer perceived virtue as a combination of sovereignty, equality, and justice in the masses. For Robespierre, virtue came to exemplify a sophisticated framework of attitudes and decisions that continuously affected the lives of the thousands in France. Robespierre slowly came to associate virtue with patriotism. The latter, at times, bordered on nationalism. He was willing to reach a compromise with the à ©migrà ©s and promote eternal fraternity, peace, and amnesty in France.4 For Robespierre, peace, fraternity, and amnesty were the principal preconditions for avoiding military conflicts with the perceived enemies.5 Robespierre moved even further, by denouncing the King’s political and military power:

Amazon.com - Not Your Average Bookstore Case Study - 3

Amazon.com - Not Your Average Bookstore - Case Study Example For example, one can book the latest Harry Potter book on internet and get it immediately as it is released. It has exploited technology to have a definite and advantageous position within the industry Amazon has used disruptive technology to run its business because it helped transform traditional bookstore in physical format to a virtual store where people can access books of their choice without actually holding them physically. The conceptualization of a virtual store is innovative strategy that has changed the very concept of market. Disruptive technology broadly refers to a new concept that disrupts existing market and creates a new one with more value. Amazon has taken business and marketing to a new level where time and space have become irrelevant. Access to goods and products has become easier and selling and buying more convenient, both for buyers and sellers. It is like mobile phones which has redefined communication. Amazon has been constantly innovating to maintain its customers’ loyalty by personalization and customization to their changing preferences. It has been able to create a one stop shopping experience for the customers and also welcomes personal recommendations and reviews. By providing customers with unique experience of book world where customers not only buy what they want, Amazon has also been able to earn customers’ commitment and loyalty by ensuring that their recommendations are incorporated within the broader strategy and goal of the business. For example, it has started Amazon3 on the recommendations of its customers and provides them with virtual space to store the personal data or books. Amazon’s e business model primarily relies on exploiting technology to meet customers’ changing preferences and uses them to constantly evolve. From a mere virtual book store, it has evolved into a comprehensive service center offering people storage in cyber space to

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH Essay

Enlightenment Virtue in Robespierre's Writings and Speeches (RESEARCH PROVIDED) - Essay Example In one of his speeches, Robespierre claimed that â€Å"the Constitution establishes that sovereignty resides in the people, in all the individuals of the people. Each individual has the right to participate in making the law which governs him and in the administration of the public good which is his own†.1 To a large extent, virtue for Robespierre was a matter of politics and had to work for the benefit of the masses. Robespierre did not simply assert that every individual was a citizen, but granted citizens a broad range of individual and social rights, irrespective of the amount of fortune they possessed.2 Robespierre was confident that the amount and scope of the individual rights did not have to depend on the amount of money an individual was able to invest in his country.3 Otherwise, such a position would deny the relevance and meaning of virtue, equality, and justice in the human society. The humanistic nature of Robespierre’s beliefs was difficult to ignore, and it produced a multitude of positive effects on the development of the political and ethical consciousness in France. As part of his political and individual evolution, Robespierre slowly transformed and expanded his beliefs about virtue. By 1791, he no longer perceived virtue as a combination of sovereignty, equality, and justice in the masses. For Robespierre, virtue came to exemplify a sophisticated framework of attitudes and decisions that continuously affected the lives of the thousands in France. Robespierre slowly came to associate virtue with patriotism. The latter, at times, bordered on nationalism. He was willing to reach a compromise with the à ©migrà ©s and promote eternal fraternity, peace, and amnesty in France.4 For Robespierre, peace, fraternity, and amnesty were the principal preconditions for avoiding military conflicts with the perceived enemies.5 Robespierre moved even further, by denouncing the King’s political and military power:

Kant and Descartes Essay Example for Free

Kant and Descartes Essay â€Å"Idealism is the assertion there are none but thinking thing beings. All other things, which we believe are perceived in intuitions, are nothing but presentations in the thinking things, to which no object external to them in fact corresponds. Everything we see is just a construction of the mind. † (Prolegomena). Idealism maintains that there are no objects in the world, only minds. According to idealism, the existence of outer objects is uncertain and ambiguous. Idealism is the group of philosophies asserting that actuality is fundamentally mental, or otherwise intangible. Kant holds the belief that objects only exist as perceptions is fundamentally idealist. The argument begins by making the point: our senses never enable us to experience things in themselves, but only know their appearances. This idea depicts space and time as empty forums to determine how things appear. Kant discusses how math consists of synthetic a priori cognitions, or the ability to provide new information that is necessarily true, and its relation to geometry. Kant believes there is some form of pure intuition innate within us. This innate intuition is what allows us to identify different notions without reference to sense experience. In the opinion of Kant, the possibility of mathematics rests upon the possibility of â€Å"synthetic propositions a priori†. (Prolegomena). There is a priori certainty of geometry. A priori knowledge or justification is independent of all experience. A priori judgments are based upon reason alone, independently of all sensory experience, and therefore are applicable with universality. According to Kant, â€Å"Geometry is based upon the pure intuition of space. † (Prolegomena). We cannot have any perceptions of objects if not in space and time. Kant declares, â€Å"it must first exhibit its concepts in intuition, and do so a priori, in an intuition that is not empirical, but pure. † (Prolegomena). Geometry, as the innate intuition of space, derives from the sequential moments of our innate intuition of time. If space were not built into of our innate composition, two things with all of the same properties would be in every way identical. Space and time are not properties of the objects in things themselves, but rather, qualities of our knowledge of the things. Space and time are referred by Kant as the â€Å"modes of representation†, or â€Å"forms of sensibility†, of objects. (Prolegomena). Kant believes inner experience is all that we can be certain of and that the e? ects can only conclude the existence of the external world has on us. If space and time are subjective, then everything in space and time are subjective. If space and time were things in themselves that we could only understand by reference to experience, geometry and math would not have the a priori certainty that makes them reliable. If space and time do not belong to the things themselves, and we cannot know anything in space and time, then we don’t know the things in themselves. As a result of this, Kant says that appearances are â€Å"That is pure space is not at all a quality of things in themselves but a form of our sensuous faculty of representation, and that furthermore all objects in space are mere appearances†. (Prolegomena). This declaration regarding things being tangible reveals Kant’s view of transcendental idealism, faces the issue of things existing at all, directly. Immanuel Kants most influential contribution to philosophy is transcendental idealism. Transcendental idealism is fundamentally a doctrine about space and time. The idea is we cannot perceive things in and of themselves directly; what we perceive must first be interpreted by our senses, then by our sensibility and understanding. Though Kant has argued that we cannot perceive things in themselves, but only appearances of things, Kant believes intuition, and the senses control our perception. And anything, which we may perceive, is made up entirely of appearances. Kant argues, subsequently, things themselves in some way cause these appearances. Kant maintains that things in themselves, independent of our perception, exist, and that they are the source of what we do perceive. All other things, which we think are perceived in intuition, being nothing but representations in the thinking beings, to which no object external to them corresponds in fact. Representations of our sensibility can be said to be reflections of our mind. Kant makes this claim stating, â€Å"The understanding intuits nothing but only reflects. † (Prolegomena). This proposes the question regarding idealism, because something cannot be fully understood, does it still exist? Unlike Idealism, which generally manifests skepticism, the existence of things is crucial to Kant’s philosophy. However, Kant insists we cannot know anything about these things purely through their appearance. Kant asserts: â€Å"which is unknown to us but is not therefore less real. † (Prolegomena). Kant is claiming this ideal is contrary to idealism. Descartes decided that he could throw all things into doubt except that he was thinking and doubting. This supports the concept of idealism because it emphasizes the centrality or importance of the mind. Descartes, like Plato and Augustine divided his world into two areas. For Descartes the two areas were the cogito and the Deity. Rationalists, like Descartes, aim to escape the confines of the mind by constructing knowledge of the external world, the self, the soul, God, ethics, and science out of the simplest, indubitable ideas possessed innately by the mind. Descartes argued that knowledge came from the mind, or idealism. It was Descartes’s idealism that would force him to his separation of the mind and body. Descartes believes in the ability to deny the existence of the physical world. Kant’s major disagreement with Descartes would be in postulating an existential reality outside of the mind. An object does not depend on a mind perceiving it for it to exist though the mind does depend on the transcendental categories to perceive of those objects in a meaningful way. â€Å".. Desire this idealism of mine to be called critical. But if it be really an objectionable idealism to convert actual things into mere representations†. (Prolegomena) Kant expresses his impulse to change transcendental idealism to critical idealism at the end of this section.

Functionalist Concepts Of The Nuclear Family

Functionalist Concepts Of The Nuclear Family Murdock (1949) studied 250 different societies and concluded that the family is so functional to society, that it is unavoidable and universal since neither the individual nor society could survive without it. He argued that every nuclear family has these four essential functions without which society could not continue sexual, reproductive, and economic and education. All these four functions are essential according to Murdock without sexual and reproductive no member of society would be there, life would stop if there was no economic function that is family providing for its members and without education, socialisation would not be there hence absence of culture. Murdock has been criticised for not considering whether the functions of the family could be performed by other social institutions and he does not examine alternatives to the family. Parsons (1955) studied the modern American family in the 50s. He argued that there are two basic and irreducible functions of the family, these are, the primary socialisation of children which Parsons sees as a responsibility of the family to shape the childs personality to suite to the needs of society. The second function is the stabilisation of adult personalities, the family gives adults the emotional support necessary to cope with the stresses of everyday life. (Taylor and Richardson etl 2002). Parsons as with Murdock has been criticised for showing the picture of the family as attuned children and compassionate spouses caring for each others needs. There is a natural division of labour within the nuclear family, roles are segregated positively and everyone carry out different roles, for example the instrumental male, whose role is to provide for the family thus the bread winner and expressive female whose role is to provide warmth, love and care for children at home. Based on Biology the woman is the child bearer therefore has to look after the child, this role maintains social stability. Family patterns have changed with time such as cohabitation, rise of reconstituted families and increase in single or lone parent in western family life and changes in the law on divorce have made it easier to obtain. Functionalist theory has been criticised to have concentrated on the family being positive and gives little attention to its weaknesses while in feminism the nuclear family is oppressive to women due to gender distinctions in domestic duties. Functionalists argue that the family is of equal profit to everyone, however Marxists argue that society developed by the need of the capitalist economy. It is the bourgeoisie who benefits not the whole society. Functionalists focus too much on the significance that the family has for society and disregard the sense family life has for individual. Radical psychiatric argue against functionalism for ignoring the negative aspect of the family like domestic violence. Functionalists also ignore different types of families by focussing mainly on nuclear family. Interactionist David Clark (1991) identified four types of marriage arguing against functionalist, not all families are the same. Functionalist depicts everything as positive in the family while radical psychiatric looks at the negative side of the family. Feminism is a conflict theory that sees the family as patriarchal. Men gain more in a family than women. They view the family on a macro scale. Feminists shows how men dominate social relationships thus symmetrical conjugal roles is seen as an allegory. Feminist argues that Men oppress women through domestic violence, the economic involvement to society made by womens domestic labour within the family. Liberal feminist Wollstonecraft (1792) wanted equality for women in terms of rights, liberties and vote by the change of law and policy. Radical feminists like Millett (1970) argue that the organisation of society enables men to dominate women. They believed that gender distinctions are politically and socially constructed therefore wanted radical reforms and social change. Kate Millet invented the term The personal is political meaning everything in society is political. Radical Feminists think not just patriarchal men that benefit from family but all men. Sociolist feminists look at gender as the basis. Sociolist Marxists combine gender with class. They argue that there is a dual oppression for women that they have to go to work as well as work at home. Marxists feminist believe that the destruction of the capitalist society brings equality to everything. Lesbian feminists believe society forces them into heterosexuality so that men can oppress them. They challenge heterosexuality as a means of male supremacy. Humanist feminists argue that society only allows men to self-develop not women and that society distorts womens human potential. Marxist feminist Bentson (1972) argues that family responsibilities make male workers less likely to withdraw from labour, with wife and children to support. Ansley (1972) sees the emotional support in family, stabilises male workers thus making them less likely to take their frustration out on the system. Feeley (1972) sees the family as a dictatorial unit dominated by the husband and also the family values teach obedience. Children learn to accept hierarchy and their position in it. Greer (2000) is a radical feminist who believes that family life continues to disadvantage and oppress women. She points out Britain has very high divorce rate thus less stability in families. Marxist feminist like functionalist they tend to ignore the diversity of modern family life assuming everyone lives in heterosexual nuclear family. They paint a very negative picture of family life possibly exaggerated. Unlike functionalists who see male and female roles being different but equal, Marxist feminists believe that men dominate family relationships. Feminist theory discards functionalist view that society as a whole is benefited by socialisation in the family but rather men benefits more. Women are portrayed as passive victims of exploitation, it does not take into account women who abuse men by fighting back. Functionalist believes that norms and values benefits society while for feminist they benefit men more for example obedience, women being obedient to men. Feminists focus on nuclear family only and the negative aspect of it. Increase in awareness of womens rights has influenced the norms of society. Marxists views of family sees socialisation process results in the spread of a ruling class philosophy, whereby individuals are deceived into accepting the capitalist system and the supremacy of the capitalist class thus hegemony.Bourgoisie benefits by creating a labour force and proletariat continue to be exploited. Engel s (1972) argued that bourgeois nuclear family as an institution which oppressed women. They were seen mainly as children bearers, economically dependent to their husbands and remain faithful to them. According to Engels the family is designed to control women and protect property thus men needed to know their children in order to pass on their property. Marxists say the family serves capitalism in four ways. The family acts as a safety valves for the stress and frustration of working class men, the family as a unit of consumption buys the goods and services provided by capitalism. Women domestic work is unpaid which benefits capitalism and lastly the family socialises children thereby reproducing both labour power and acceptance of capitalism false consciousness. Zaretsky (1976) analysed that the family is one place where male workers can feel they have power and control. This helps them accept their oppression in wider society, furthermore Zaretsky sees the family as a main prop to the capitalist economy. Marxists view of divorce in families is seen by increased economic pressure from unemployment this may place added strain and also family members living longer could increase pressure on relationships. Marxists decline the functionalist view that society based on value consensus and thus benefits all. Instead they see the welfare of powerful groups influencing the way society is controlled. Marxist view ignores family diversity it sees the nuclear family as being simply determined by the economy. This theory reproduces conflict between classes bourgeoisie and proletariat while in factionalists family operates as united everything benefits society. Capitalist system is dominated both economically by rich at the expense of the poor but seen as a fair system by functionalists that works together in the interest of all members causing limited conflict in society. Anthropologists have suggested that the emergence of the nuclear family did not actually coincide with emergence of capitalism. Somerville (2000) argues that Zaretsky exaggerates the importance of the family as a protection from life in capitalist society. As with functionalism reproduce social stability, Marxism produces labo ur force and feminism produce patriarchy. Interactionism also known as interpretive humans are seen as symbolic creatures meaning we define what is around us through signs and language. They study families on a micro scale instead of generalising the whole population, they also look at what family live is actually like rather than how it should be or how it is assumed to be.Interactionists view families as different and unique thus there is no one way of family life, like other perspectives would suggest. The way a family behaves and interacts is based on interpretation of meanings and roles. We are products of our culture what we take as common sense or reality varies according to the culture we live in. Goffman (1969) compares life to drama, we are actors who take on roles and act them out as public performances. Each role has its own script which tells us how to act and what cues to expect from other members involved in our interaction. Bauman (1990) argues that roles and relationships learnt in the family are essential to shaping our future. Not all families are close and warm family metaphors are often used to represent closeness, for example using the term brother and sister amongst members of political organisations. Kellner (1964) looked at socially constructed roles in a marriage, argues that the reality of marriage is an ongoing construction which needs to be reaffirmed, negotiated and renegotiated. Clark (1991) conducted a study of how couples constructed a meaningful marriage. He identified four types of marriage. Drifting marriages where meanings and ideas of the future are unclear, surfacing marriages often made up of people who have been married before, establishing marriages newly wed couple for long term future and lastly struggling marriages financial problems often from unemployment causes tension and anxiety. The conjugal roles in interactionism show that the roles of husband and wife are constantly evolving. For example both husband and wife working and sharing domestic tasks. Interactionist view families on a micro scale so can discover how individuals make family life based on interactions with each other. They are not interested in generalisations about family life but seek to understand how families are unique. They go further than the common sense view of families that functionalism believes in and look at the meanings of what family life is actually like. Unlike functionalism, Marxism and feminism where there is a set function of the family, interactionism is different for there is no one set function of the family. Families can differ based on their interactions, meanings, roles and culture. The discovery of four different types of marriage offers an opposing argument to functionalism, not an ideal nuclear family. It has been criticised while concentrating on meanings, motives and action it ignores the wider structures in which families operate and are shaped. Sometimes generalisations of families are useful as they allow the development of political social policy. Interpretive approaches try to comprehend the family from the perspective of its members. This research should give you an insight on how the families have changed with time. From different views and approaches, understanding families from traditional way of views to modern familys ways of view.

Nickel Essay -- essays research papers

Nickel is one of the most important elements on the periodic table. It has plenty of history, as well as a huge importance to society. Its has unique chemical, physical, and geological properties. Nickel is used commercially in abundance, as it is used anywhere from simple art products such as ceramics to complex structures such as tubing for desalination plants. It is even used in the American five-cent coin, the "nickel".Nickel was discovered by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, in Sweden, during the year 1751. Mr. Cronstedt discovered nickel in a mineral called niccolite. He originally planned to extract copper from this new mineral but got none at all. This is why nickel, at first, was called "false copper". Instead, Cronstedt got a silvery-white metal, which was eventually used for other things. The origin of the name "nickel" is a derivative from the German word "kupfernickel", meaning "Devil's Copper" or "St. Nicholas's Copper".The chemical properties of nickel are as follows: Nickel has the atomic number of twenty-eight. The atomic symbol of nickel, "Ni". It has the atomic weight (mass) of 58.70, to be exact, 58.693. It occurs in five stable isotopes. Physically, nickel is a lustrous silvery-white and takes on a hard polish. It is a hard metal, malleable, ductile, and slightly ferromagnetic. Its melting point is at 2651 degrees F, and its boiling point is at 5275 degrees F. Also, nickel is a fairly goo...

External Factors Affecting a Business Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing

External Factors Affecting a Business INTRODUCTION EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE COMPANY'S BUSINESS AND PROSPECTS There are many factors that affect the Company's business and the results of its operations, some of which are beyond the control of the Company. The following is a description of some of the important factors that may cause the actual results of the Company's operations in future periods to differ materially from those currently expected or desired. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to introduce the external factors affecting the jeans industry from a business view. 1. GENERAL ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRY CONDITIONS Any general economic, business or industry conditions that cause customers or potential customers to reduce or delay their investments in the jeans industry could have a negative effect on the Company's strength and profitability. For example, a softening of demand for jeans ware may result in decreased revenues (or at least declining revenue growth rates) for jeans manufacturers in general and the Company in particular and may result in pricing pressures for products that the Company sells. 2. COMPETITION The jeans industry is highly competitive. The intense competition inherent in the industry could result in the loss of customers or pricing pressures. 3. INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES The Company's future growth rates and success are in-part dependent on continued growth and success in international markets. As is...

Analyse the Strengths and Weaknesses of Spain by 1516 Essay

There were considerable differences between the Hispanic kingdoms within the Iberian peninsula. It was divided by language and religion, governed by different political institutions and ruled by monarchs with conflicting foreign interests. Both Aragon and Castile had very little in common. The economies varied in strength in different parts of Spain, for example Catalonia was in decline whilst Valencia was in the recovery stage. The marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand in 1469 dramatically changed the course of Spain. The Queen was a determined and quick-witted woman, with a ‘street-fighter’s instinct for survival’. She guaranteed privileges to nobles and town authorities, promised to restore law and order and was the only claimant with an undisputed right to the throne. Ferdinand played a role in leading Isabella’s troops against the Portuguese and French invasions and recaptured rebellious towns, all helping to stabilise the crown. His brother also aided Isabella by commanding the Hermandad meaning that although his father died, no Aragonese nobles contested the crown. Royal authority had declined during the weak rule of Henry IV and it needed to be asserted and there was also the problem of law and order (lots of disorder in Castile due to the 5 years civil war). There were still supporters of Joanna; a minority of the nobility had fought against Isabella e.g Marquis of Vienna. The Hermandad at least brought some justice to the countryside, which benefited Castilian towns as well as law-abiding landowners. Hermandades had never been controlled so extensively by the Crown, it significantly contributed to the improvements in local administration. Corregidores were also having an impact (administrators of cities and districts with both administrative and judicial powers). They were used by the Catholic Monarchs to strengthen royal authority rather than revive local responsibility Ferdinand and Isabella travelled extensively in Castile. They spent relatively little time in Aragon in his 37-year reign (7 years). This was a very important means of asserting royal authority by showing themselves to their subjects and establishing an effective working relationship with their nobility and to discipline any troublemakers. Ferdinand and Isabella visited every Castilian town at least once. Ferdinand tried to increase royal authority over Aragonese towns by trying to introduce new procedures for the election of municipal offices. His idea of sending royal governors to towns was rejected preventing royal authority encroaching. Isabella was able to have a greater effect on improving local administration than her husband. She tried to protect, by intervention, town people from impressive nobles and nominated jurados to sit on town councils. She persisted with the idea of Corregidores in towns, despite opposition, and the number of towns with them increased (Toledo for instance enjoyed a long period of peace largely due to Gomez Manrique, its Corregidore.). Their authority varied, some governed entire regions, and others had a limited impact. However, overtime they became more corrupt lowering the standards of local administration. The civil war left deep scars and required close supervision to work effectively. Both Isabella and Ferdinand dispersed justice personally. The Hermandad was unpopular and it demanded taxation on local people for its maintenance. It was officially dissolved in 1498 as nobles increasingly disliked it (didn’t want too much crown influence). The crowns political strength lay into relationship with the nobility. Ferdinand and Isabella however, due to incompatible promises in the 1470’s, were in a different situation as some families expected rewards for their role in the civil war. This often contradicted what Isabella had said about protecting the rights of the towns. Isabella decided to harness the power of the nobility and tried to regain land given out by Henry IV. Isabella and Ferdinand on a smaller scale in Aragon gave the nobles rights to collect sales tax and confirmed their exemption from direct tax. This guaranteed their social and economic position. Also nobles who had fought against Isabella in the civil war were given fair agreements such as the Marquis of Vienna in order to preserve social stability. Those on her side were awarded with for example dukedoms guaranteeing their continuing support. Although some nobles maintained control of regional politics, which was a big threat to the crown as they had no standing army, whereas most nobles kept retainers. An example of when the crown and nobility worked together to ensure the stability of the country was the Granada between 1482 and 1492. Some of the nobility actually served in the war and fought on behalf of the crown against the Muslims. The war helped to enhance royal prestige. However, outbreaks of civil disorder and violence in Castile in the early years of the sixteenth century suggest that royal administration was beginning to break down. Nobles became better educated and there was an emergence of letrados (lawyers). Most Castilian and Aragonese peasants enjoyed a period of relative prosperity, with wage rises, stable prices and plenty of employment in the countryside. Town life was changing rapidly, Castilian merchants experienced a dramatic increase in trade and commerce, which led to a growth in business and rising prosperity for those in work. However, due to an increase in population town authorities were faced with the problem of vagrancy where people wonder from place to place and don’t usually have a home. The Catholic Monarchs intended to enhance the welfare of their subjects. They maintained the Mesta’s monopoly and continued wool trade, which was high in demand in the Low Countries. Taxes on wool and sheep and the establishment of trade links with America (gold bullion), proved extremely beneficial. Maintaining the quality of Castile’s coinage and establishing a currency common to both kingdoms, monetary if not economic unity was achieved. Overseas trade was strengthened with Venice as a base, and the financial status and prosperity of Barcelona recovered from the effects of the civil war in the 1460s. However the Spanish economy had a number of weaknesses, poor communications (bad roads, mountainous), a network of internal customs duties and inland tolls and resistance to state intervention in effecting changes in agriculture, guilds and industry. Regionalism was a very powerful force and applied to the economy. There was no significant attempt to integrate the two economies, for example, trade with Americas was a Castilian monopoly (intensified hostility between two kingdoms, threat of inflation and decline in currency). The only measure that was taken was the standardisation of the currency in 1497. The Spanish Crown failed to protect and promote its native industries and focused too much on exportation of wool than developing its textile industry. Also, the persecution of the Conversos and Jews (many of them were skilled craftsmen) damaged wool trade, while the silk trade was damaged with war in Granada (mudejars were main producers of silk, many were killed while others emigrated). Spanish wealth and commercial gains from the New World could potentially fall through due to its lack of incorporation.