Today’s Country Differences in Accounting Standards

Today’s Country Differences in Accounting Standards There are five main influences on a country’s accounting system. Having a different system of accounting is like having a different culture for countries. There are many different things that dictate how an accounting differs. The relationship between business and providers of capital, political and economic ties with other countries, inflation accounting, level of development, and the national culture are the five influences on accounting systems. Relationship between business and providers of capitalFirms can gain capital from numerous sources; selling stock and shares is one way or borrowing from a bank is another. How each country’s firms gain capital has to do with what type of accounting system the country has. The United States is full of people wanting to invest in a company or buy stock in a company. Not only do we have television stations dedicated to the stock market, but as a business student we hear about it constantly. The U. S. tries to use their accounting system to inform individual investors about the firms they want to invest in.There are other countries that use banks more to gain capital. In these cases the accounting system is geared towards the government and the banks that provide the majority of the capital. Political and economic ties with other countries Politics and a country’s economic system can have a big effect on an accounting system. These two factors seem to bring accounting system together rather than apart. NAFTA and EU have both brought the countries involved together. They have put into practice norms throughout each accounting system to make them more uniform.Inflation Accounting Inflation is a big factor when deciding how to approach an accounting system. Inflation accounting is all about the historic cost principle. It says that currency is not losing its value due to inflation. â€Å"If inflation is high, the historic cost principle undere stimates a firm’s assets, so the depreciation charges based on these underestimates can be inadequate for replacing assets when they wear out or become obsolete (Hill, 2011, p. 635). † Level of Development Developed countries seem to have everything easier.They are able to acquire more capital and business. They have more highly educated and skilled workers. The more developed countries seem to have it all and the less developed countries with the smaller businesses have taken notice. Smaller, less developed countries tend to copy or attempt to copy the larger, more developed countries in their accounting systems. This can cause problems because the less developed countries do not have all of the resources necessary to have an accounting system fit for a well-developed country. National CultureA country’s culture comes into play in accounting systems when thinking about uncertainty avoidance. A country’s uncertainty avoidance is either high or low. High un certainty avoidance means a country is less likely to take risk and rules and regulations. Low uncertainty avoidance means the country is willing to take risk. The country’s with a low uncertainty risk need to make sure that their finances are in top shape so they are more likely to have accountants audit their firms (Hill, 2011). Works Cited Hill, C. W. (2011). International Business. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Myer-Briggs Type Indicator Essay

The Myers-Briggs type indicator is a psychological test that is based on the theories of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung. The test divides people into 16 distinguishable personality types, based on high and low scores on four â€Å"scales† (Zemke, 1992). On the basis of their answers on the test, individuals are classified as extraverted or introverted, sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving (Langton, Robbins and Judge, 2013). The MBTI has been used by many organizations around the world to assess communication styles of their employees and potential hires. Trainers and organization development specialists frequently use the MBTI in team building and communications training (Zemke, 1992). In a report released in September 1992, the National Research Council Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance concluded that trainees see their MBTI results as â€Å"true† and valuable. Eighty-four percent of army officers said the MBTI confirmed what they already knew about themselves. A significant percentage believed they would find this confirming feedback valuable in their work relationships (Zemke, 1992). The MBTI test can also be used by educational institutions such as Yorkville University to assess their students personalities and how they would approach the learning environment. Different personalities approach online learning in different ways (Russell, 2002). On an individual level, I believe that the MBTI can help an individual track their development in many different areas of their lives including work, family and other relationships. After completing the seventy-two question quiz, my results were quite consistent with my feelings. I received the results ESFP with Extraversion being 89%, Sensing at 12%, Feeling at 38% and Perceiving at 22%. Extraversion is defined as a personality factor that describes the degree to which a person is sociable, talkative and assertive. Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and order. Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous (Langton et. al, 2013). I have completed previous tests through other University courses as well as through organizations and my results have always been towards extraversion. As in the above case, I was again leaned more towards extraversion than any other of the personality types. I believe that the MBTI can sometimes be inaccurate based on an individuals mood and attitude when taking the test. In-spite of its popularity, the evidence is mixed as to whether the MBTI is a valid measure of personality – with most of the evidence suggesting that it is not (Langton et. al, 2013). The one problem with the test is that it forces a person into one type pr the other but some individuals may be both introverted and extraverted to some degree. Overall, I believe it is a good general psychological test that companies should incorporate when hiring or promoting new individuals. REFERENCES: Langton, N., Robbins, S. P., and Judge, T. A., (2013). Organizational Behaviour. Concepts, Controversies, Applications Sixth Canadian Edition. Pearson Canada Inc. Russell, A. L. (2002). MBTI(R) personality preferences and diverse online learning experiences. School Libraries Worldwide, 8(1), 25. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 217753532?accountid=142373 Zemke, R. (1992). Second thoughts about the MBTI. Training, 29(4), 43. Retrieved from http:// search.proquest.com/docview/203389471?accountid=142373

Administering Desktop Clients

Course number CIS 293, Administering Desktop Clients, emphasizes Windows client administration tasks in a network-based environment. Topics discussed include installation and configuration of desktop clients, user management, resource management and security.These topics are the subject of a number of Microsoft Certified exams I have taken, all of which have training and experience requirements attached. I believe that my training and experience as a Microsoft Certified Professional, including the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer endorsements, is an exceptional demonstration of my competence in the topics covered in CIS 293.The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) certification, which I achieved in 2005, included two exams, as well as credit for previous exams I had taken. The first, Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment for an MCSA Certified on Windows 2000 (Exam number 70-292), included mos t of the topics included in CIS 293.The second exam, Planning, Implementing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment (Exam number 70-296), also covered the content of CIS 293. Previous knowledge of administering desktop clients was included in the tests and training taken to achieve my MCP and MCSE certifications.In addition to the exams required for the MCSA certification, I was also required to have live experience administering Windows 2000 or 2003 in a medium to large scale networked environment.The first exam for my MCSA certification, Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment, was an updated exam available because I had previously achieved the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification on Windows 2000.In order to be eligible for the exam, I was required to have experience administering client and network operations in a medium to large-scale computing environment of 250 or more users, including responsibility for network servi ces, messaging, email and print services, proxy servers, firewall, Internet and intranet connectivity, and client computer management, as well as remote user connectivity.This exam covered areas such as administering user, computers and group accounts in a Windows 2003 Active Directory-based environment, using the Group Management Console to enforce group policies, resource and security management, Terminal Services, and Software Update Services.User management training for the exam included learning how to create and modify user accounts, singly and in groups; change passwords; and use Active Directory to manage users. Additionally, the exam covered use of the Group Management Console, a Group Policy tool that allows for easy management of user groups.Resource management training included discussion of NTFS file permissions and ways to change the owner of a file or directory; it also included such tasks as creating and using security templates and using security templates to config ure NTFS file permissions and using the Security Configuration and Analysis utility to audit and correct current security settings.Terminal Services configuration and control was also included in the MCSA certification exams. The training included such tasks as using Remote Desktop Client to troubleshoot user problems and using Software Update Services to keep all clients on a network up to date and functioning properly.The exam Planning, Implementing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment covered a number of areas included in CIS 293. A substantial portion of this exam consisted of learning to plan, implement and troubleshoot User and Group policies.It also included such client administration duties as Active Directory planning, execution and maintenance, and design of an authentication strategy including such possibilities as a SmartCard reader. Security monitoring, certificates and public key infrastructure design were also discussed.My certification as a Microsoft Cer tified System Administrator indicates experience in administering desktop clients that is both broad and deep, encompassing all aspects of system administration, including those listed in the course description as well as many more.I have training and experience configuring and using desktop clients, remote troubleshooting using Remote Desktop Client as well as using other Terminal Services tools, using Active Directory and other methods to create and modify users and user groups, using the Group Management Console to create and maintain groups, administering resources and designing and implementing security policies and many other client-based administration tasks as well.On the strength of my multiple Microsoft Certifications, as well as the training, experience and knowledge required to gain these certifications, I believe that I should receive credit for the course CIS 293: Administering Desktop Clients.

Local Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Local Practice - Essay Example Even as minority ethnic groups may deem equality of treatment in healthcare, it has to be acknowledged that differences in physiological makeup make it prudent to offer differentiated healthcare. Furthermore cultural practices also call for a differentiation of healthcare since, different local practices result into differentiated healthcare needs. Discussion Engagement in Risky Behavior Risky behavior is in many instances an important predictor of the health of a population. While human beings acknowledge that risky behavior is a cause for poor health it is also a fact that instances of obesity as a result of engaging in the risky behavior of eating of junk food still exists. There are other risky behaviors such as smoking and drinking which despite education on their effects still continue to unexplainably show high rates of prevalence among the American population. The same may also be said of cultural practices which though proven to be negative continue to be adhered by certain populations. While some cultural practices lead to negative and risky behavior, the cultural practices of some ethnic groups have the opposite effect. A good example of this is the prohibition of alcohol and tobacco among the Amish and the prohibition of alcohol among the Arabs. On the other hand the immigrants in America are led to alcohol consumption due to the stress of attaining the American dream.

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic management - Essay Example The mission is the organization's reason for being. It defines what the company has set out to do. It is broken down into objectives or concrete goals that the company has to reach in order to accomplish its mission. Each goal needs a strategy and a strategic plan for implementing and evaluating the level of accomplishment of the plan. In order to make the strategic plan, a study of both internal and external environments need to be conducted to define the company's strengths which can be used to achieve the objectives, take advantage of opportunities, minimize weaknesses and threats; the company's weaknesses which must be addressed or minimized in order not to detract from achieving the objectives; the opportunities in the external environment which can be taken advantage of; and the threats in the external environment which should be addressed so as not to affect achievement of the objectives.This paper conducts a SWOT analysis of Able Corporation's major competitors - Smith & Whit e Corporation and Matakume. It attempts to anticipate these competitor's strategic responses to specific weaknesses by recommending strategies. The SWOT analysis and the anticipated recommended strategies should be helpful to Able Corporation in charting its strategic course of action with regards its major competitors.Strategic management at the business unit level involves defining the mission and objectives, conducting a situation analysis, formulating strategies, implementing them, and controlling the process through measurement and evaluation. Once objectives are specified, the company has to analyze its current to be able to devise a strategic plan to reach the objectives. An environmental scan has to be performed for both internal and external environments. SWOT analysis is a simple framework for generating strategic alternatives from a situation analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT framework was introduced in the 1960's by Lear ned, Christiansen, Andrews, and Guth in their book, Business Policy, Text and Cases. SWOT classifies the internal aspects of the company as strengths or weaknesses, and the external factors as opportunities or threats. Internal analysis for evaluating the company's strengths and weaknesses revolve around factors such as company culture, company image, organizational structure, key staff, access to natural resources, position on the experience curve, operational efficiency, operational capacity, brand awareness, market share, financial resources, exclusive contracts, patents and trade secrets. Opportunities and threats may arise due to changes in the external environments. External analysis, therefore, may involve factors such as customers, competitors, market trends, suppliers, partners, social changes, new technology, economic environment, political and regulatory environment (NetMBA 2007). Using SWOT analysis, two companies, Smith and White Corporation and Makatume Corporation, will be analyzed to address specific strategic management concerns. For Smith and White Corporation, a strategy shall be recommended to address one specific weakness, with brief recommendations for implementation and evaluation, as well as notes on ramifications. For Makatume Corporation, a strategy shall be recommended to address the higher voltage issue without proposing a shift to higher voltages production. S&W SWOT Analysis Smith & White Corporation (S&W) is a very large and aggressive domestic manufacturer of a full line of moderate quality professional and consumer tools. It is a multi-national conglomerate that has dominant shares in all the markets in which it operates. S&W's strengths include: (1) Its aggressive company culture. It uses massive amounts of national advertising to maintain and build brand equity which has made the company a multinational conglomer

Medication Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Medication Management - Case Study Example Dr. Mack's prescription could have been helpful with regards to its aim to alleviate the problems; however, most of the prescribed drugs, despite its aim to cure one problem, tend to complicate the others. Simvastatin could aggravate muscle cramps which have been presented by the patient. Simvastatin aims to lower blood cholesterol, and since the referral does not clarify if it was monitored, I would suggest that it would be necessary to do so. for the patient's worsening ischaemic heart disease, a maintenance drug such as Nifedifine (Calcigard) should be prescribed assured non-sensitive to it. However, blood pressure must be monitored because it is contraindicated to those with low systolic blood pressure. It should also be taken into consideration that Aspirin can worsen poor kidney function and breathing problems such as asthma. However, if the need for such drug persist, interic coated aspirin must be use instead; hence, the effect of Aspirin with regards, to her digestive problem (reflux) would be minimized. Ditropan despite its aim to solve stress incontinence should not be administered to patients with untreated glaucoma. Moreover, the patient presents gastric reflux that needs extra caution upon use of such medication. Seretide has been found to lower blood potassium level, thus monitoring of such blood electrolyte is necessary.

Ambiguilty and meaning in the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essay

Ambiguilty and meaning in the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Essay Example No, not very clear" (21). There are several sub-meanings in the novel that can be interpreted in several ways. The story in itself was narrated in a non-conventional way that there was a story within a story adding to the ambiguity of the narrative. But the most prominent ambiguity in the novel is moral ambiguity because its standard and application in the novel was uncertain that it is difficult to tell what constitutes right and wrong, good and evil because these standards were unclear and not easily understood in the novel. One of the most prominent ambiguity in the novel is Kurtz and the circumstances about him. Marlow first heard about Kurtz during a meeting with the accountant of the Company on his way to Congo making him a subject of a subject in a novel or a story of a story as Marlow, the protagonist of the story narrates about him. At first Marlow was somewhat impressed by the reputation Kurtz as he was described as â€Å"very remarkable person† (37) in the novel. Bu t as the novel progresses and as more information was revealed about him, his character becomes blurry that it is difficult to describe his circumstances. ... And perhaps being a novel, maybe device some unusual way to extract vengeance from him for his brutality. But no, he was strangely revered by the natives and was even treated like a god. In his deathbed, natives even surrounded him when Marlow paid Kurtz a visit. And even he felt kinship with the natives that the attack on Marlow’s boat was made with the prodding of Kurtz as revealed by the Russian trader so that Kurtz will not be found and perhaps, to be left alone with the natives. These circumstances blur the logical sequence of morality that you will be hated if you harm people. Instead, Kurtz seemed to be adored by the natives whom he used to slaughter for ivory. The use of words and description of places is also ambiguous that made the novel quite difficult to understand. Congo which is a part of Africa and Africa in general was referred to as the real heart of darkness as the title of the novel suggests but it is also described to be not as dark and gloomy as the coloni sts place such as London and Belgium. This run counters to the common view that we are accustomed with that Africa was supposed to be uncivilized and therefore darker and the Europeans which were supposed to be educated and civilize were supposed to be the bearer of light. But this was negated in the narrative because it was Europe that was darker and not the heart of darkness which was Congo. Here, the standard of what is morally desirable is blurred because the place that was assigned to be the heart of darkness was not after all darker but in fact better than Europe which we used to think as civilized. The ending of the novel was also ambiguous.

Gregory Pappy Boyington and the Black Sheep Squadron Essay

Gregory Pappy Boyington and the Black Sheep Squadron - Essay Example This sport later on became his favorite. Wrestling became his favorite past time such that he would usually challenge others for a fight which oftentimes resulted to big ones that left him and the others injured ("Major"). He then continued practicing the sport until he graduated from Lincoln High School ("Colonel"). Moreover, he continued playing the sport even when he got into college in the University of Washington in 1930 ("Major") where he took a bachelor's degree majoring in aeronautical engineering. He became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in the university. He also joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) as well as the swimming team. Continuing wrestling as his favorite sports, he was once a one-time holder of the Pacific Northwest Intercollegiate middle-weight wrestling title ("Colonel"). It was also in the university when he met his first wife whom he married right after his graduation in 1934. Helene, his first wife, gave birth to his first son ten m onths after their wedding. ("Major") Even in college, Boyington had worked during his summer vacations in mining and logging camps in Coeur d'Alene until eventually he was hired by the Coeur d'Alene Fire Protective Association in road construction and lookout work ("Colonel"). Boyington's military career started in college when he served as an ROTC member for four years. He was then appointed as a cadet captain and eventually assigned especially in the 630th Coast Artillery Reserve as a second lieutenant where he actively served his duties for two months in 1934 in Fort Worden, Washington. He enlisted and went on active duty in the Volunteer Marine Corps Reserve for barely a month on June 13 to July 16, 1935. While inactive in his duties, he had become a draftsman and engineer for the Boeing Aircraft Company of Seattle. It was on 18 February 1936 that he accepted an appointment as an aviation cadet in the Marine Corps Reserve, and was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, for flight training ("Colonel"). The transition of Boyington's career in the Marine Corps had been very consistent even when it was at this point when he started to gain his love for alcohol. Being with the other fliers who had been partying hard, he became more and more addicted to alcohol. His alcoholism has also escalated since it was at this point when he had discovered his wife's fooling around. It was then at this point when he had earned and established his bad reputation in the Marine Corps - a hard-drinker, brawler, friendly, yet always ready to wrestle with anybody. However, even with such bad record, Boyington's great skill in flying was noticed in those times ("Major"). In March 11, 1937, he was sent to Quantico, Virginia for Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force where he was assigned as the Naval Aviator. He was even promoted further to second lieutenant. Then, in order to accept a second lieutenant's commission in the regular Marine Corps, he had to be discharged from the Marine Corps on July 1, 1937. From then on, he was further transferred to San Diego Naval Station after he had completed his studies in Philadelphia. He was among those groups who took over and fixed the problems regarding the different aircraft carriers such as the USS Lexington and the USS Yorktown. He then returned to Pensacola on November 4, 1940 when he was

Poverty reduction in Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Poverty reduction in Brazil - Essay Example It is essential to adopt development strategy in order to achieve global prosperity, freedom, dignity, peace and equity along with sustaining progress already achieved. In order to carry out the study Bolsa Familia program, an initiative to combat poverty has been selected as the case. This case has been chosen for the further study as it is the major social program in the Social Protection System in Brazil. Moreover, Brazil has been selected as the country in concern for the study because Brazil by the end of the first decade of 21st century has emerged as one of the rapidly growing economies in the world. Moreover, Brazil has over the years engaged in conducting researches on poverty and inequality, thus there has been certain prominent changes witnessed by the country in the last decade that have drawn significant attention (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, â€Å"Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programs in Comparative Perspective †). (ii) THES IS STATEMENT The local adoption of the Bolsa Familia program failed to promote the desired outcome. ... offers monthly transfer to poor families with children to extent of 15 years of age and/or pregnant woman as well as the program provides monthly transfer to extremely poor households irrespective of their composition. The Bolsa Familia program was launched on October 2003 by the government of President Lula da Silva under the Provisory Rule n.132 which was transformed in the law n. 10.836 in January 2004. The program is primarily a unified form of four major programs including Bolsa Escola, related with minimum income grant for primary education; Fome Zero and Bolsa Alimentacao, two major income subsidies associated with food security; and Vale Gas, a grant to help poor families buy cooking gas. The primary reason behind the implementation of the program was to achieve the objectives towards effectively combating hunger, poverty and inequalities through monetary transfer related with meeting the basic needs of household comprising health, education, food security and social aid. The program also aimed at promoting social inclusion for emancipation of the beneficiary household by assisting them to overcome vulnerable situations in which they are living (Soares, Ribas and Osorio, â€Å"Evaluating the Impact of Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Cash Transfer Programmes in Comparative Perspective†). The program is implemented in a decentralized manner in almost all the Brazilian Municipalities. It implements unverified method of testing that is conducted at the municipal level to select its beneficiaries. The program is firmly directed towards poor and indigent families who have per-capita income R$ 60 (US$ 33) and R$120 (US$66) (Souza, â€Å"Poverty, Inequality and Social Policies In Brazil, 1995-2009†). Correspondingly, those households with per-capita income of R$ 60 (US$ 33)

Creating an Emergency Response Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Creating an Emergency Response Plan - Essay Example In any case, the wildfire is able to reach the factory the engineers of the factory are aware of the extent of damage it would cause and even the potential threat it would pose to the employees, and the community living nearby the factory. Therefore, the office of the factory engineer will be in-charge of implementing this emergency response plan and the maintenance department will play a supporting role because in normal circumstances the factory engineer devises plans, which are forwarded to the maintenance department where other junior engineers and technicians can implement the plan (Fema, 2008). One of the steps the engineer could take is to create a barrier surrounding the factory, which will prevent fire from spreading into the factory. This would be achieved by cutting all the grass within 10 meters from the wall and making a pavement around the wall, additionally, grass will be cut down inside the factory compound. Secondly, the factory engineer will select strategic locations where water taps will be placed within the compound in order to help put off fire in case the fire is able to reach the compound. Thirdly, plan would involve putting fire extinguishers within strategic locations inside the factory and ensuing there are no leakages of any toxic chemical. Lastly, the plan will also involve both departments (engineering and maintenance) training the factory staff about fire safety measures. FEMA. (2008). Producing emergency plans: A guide for all-hazard emergency operations planning for state, territorial, local, and tribal governments (CPG-101). Retrieved from http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/docs/cgo/Week%203%20- %20Producing%20Emergency%20Plans.pdf Accessed on

International trade Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

International trade - Assignment Example In 1984, both in foreign exchange and Turkish currency, gold market was established. Greater restructuring of the gold sector took place in the nineties when impediments in the way of imports/exports were removed by means of new and better decision making. Milestone was achieved when the Istanbul Gold Exchange was established in 1995 to organize gold trading (Istanbul Minerals and Metals Exporters’ Associations 2011). Canada and Turkey are very good trading partners. For the year 2012, Canadian total exports to Turkey totaled 512,204 thousand Canadian dollars. The major item exported was Iron. Other commonly traded export items from Canada to Turkey include coal, oil and petroleum, newsprint, nickel, aluminum and motors and engines (Industry Canada 2011). The imports from Turkey were up to 884,779 thousand Canadian dollars. In top 25 items imported, gold occupies the first position with 143,839 thousand Canadian dollars. Other product groups commonly traded between Turkey and Canada under imports constitute trucks, Iron and its alloys, dry nuts, cruise ships and angles, bars and rods of steel (Industry Canada 2011). According to figures and statistics from government bodies (Library of Parliament 2011), Turkey is Canada’s 3rd largest export nation (when talking of Middle East) and the 24th largest across the globe. In terms of imports, Turkey stands at 4th position in providing items to Canada. Since 2001 and till 2008, value of Turkey receiving Canadian exports has skyrocketed at a pace of 33% annually. In terms of investment and services, Canadian imports from Turkey for 2009 were to the tune of $111.0 million and basically comprised of travel services. The exports ran to $174.0 million and included services like government, transportation, travel and commercial. Demography: As per 2010 figures and facts, population of Turkey is 72.5 million with

Exposure to Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Exposure to Stereotypes Essay â€Å"Stereotypes are stubborn beliefs, overgeneralizations, myths, and distorted information about groups of people that shape people thinking and form the basis of prejudice. Stereotypes are projected through the media, become part of the collective consciousness, and are used to justify discrimination (York, 2006). † The media plays a huge influence on stereotypes, whether it is pertaining to race, gender, culture, or even socioeconomic status it is still influencing the views of those who are exposed. As I researched for this paper I realized that I have been so overexposed to these stereotypes that I may have never recognized them without it being pointed out. This paper will discuss the influence that the media has on stereotypes, and strategies that could be used to counteract these influences. Children between the ages of 2 and 5 spend an average of about 32 hours a week in front of the television watching movies and television, and children between the ages of 6 and 11 spend about 28 hours a week in front of the television (No Author, 2010). With that being said, I think that our biggest influence on children is television and movies. Although children’s television shows seem to be making a more conscious effort when it comes to equality among race, there are still subtle influences that many parents may not recognize are being taught to their children. I think that the biggest stereotypical area I have seen on television have to do with gender. Even 30 second commercials can make a lasting impression on children. When thinking of commercial about teddy bears and toy cars it is easy for most people to determine which commercial girls would play in and which commercial boys would play in. As children grow and remember what is presented to them they begin to believe that girls and boys are different and that they deserve different things. Learned stereotypes extend into the school setting, and, if not recognized and handled early on, can also extend into adult life and the work atmosphere. Teachers often see stereotypical events play out in their classroom daily. Children may not want to play with their peers because they are a boy, or because they speak differently, or because they look different. This can have a huge impact in the classroom on social skills including self-esteem, problem solving skills. At this young age students are learning which of their peers are the bullies and which are the bullied. They are learning which students have power, and which students are powerless. In a study on gender stereotypes within the classroom there is evidence that stereotypical influences are not just found on the television screen, they are also found in the classroom in textbooks, and even sometimes presented by teachers. In this study a woman named Erinosho analyzed 76 science textbooks. In the pictures found in the textbooks 75. 6% showed males, and 24. 4% showed females. Erinosho observed that females were often presented as hairdressers or secretaries, while males were often presented in professions like doctors or engineers (). Exposing children to these subtle stereotypical pictures only make it more difficult to overcome issues with stereotypes in the school setting. There are a few great strategies that teachers can use inside of the classroom in attempt to counteract the stereotypes that children are regularly exposed to throughout their daily lives. Teachers can make subtle moves such as adding culturally diverse materials to the classroom, ensuring that housekeeping areas are appealing to both males and females, and adding dolls to the classroom that present our differences. Teachers can also put up pictures in the classroom of different cultures, races, and genders working together equally to achieve a common goal. In my opinion the best way to counteract stereotypes is to take the bold move and openly talk about our differences and similarities as a class. Students should have the chance to discuss their cultures and beliefs openly amongst their peers. As educators we can oversee the discussion and ensure that the children are learning from each other and not taking the opportunity to put each other down. As children learn they are different they will quickly learn that they are also very similar in more ways than one. It also may be beneficial to involve parents. Having educators, students and parents working together to accomplish is usually very helpful to any situation. No matter what precautions we take children are going to be exposed to stereotypes regularly. Parents and teachers can work together so that children are also exposed to the idea that through our differences all people are people and deserve to be treated and thought of as the same.

Benefits of Tumeric Research Study

Benefits of Tumeric Research Study Results of the study revealed that Turmeric was indeed effective.The t-test results show that t Stat is larger, (6.219209872) than t Critical, (2.262157) this is a significant difference and demonstrates we are 95% sure of pain reduction in using Turmeric. (statistical-significance, 2014) Outlining the response to treatment with turmeric, the first seminal paper was published in 1949 in Nature and it discussed the effects of turmeric on the human body and different diseases, turmeric contains curcumin.It has displayed good therapeutic potential against a number of human diseases. The common points coming out of the study revealed good safety, tolerability, and non-toxicity, with doses up to 8 g per day. Poor bioavailability and limited adverse effects reported by some investigators are a major limitation to the therapeutic utility of curcumin. (Subash, Gupta, Sridevi Patchva, Bharat, 2012)Using black pepper containing piperine added to curcumin increases its bioavailability by 2000%, using the same amount of curcumin.   (turmeric-bioavailability, 2016) Comparing the results to other research, there were six clinical trials consisting of a total of 377 patients, comparing the use of curcumin to placebo in patients with depression.From the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, there was a score of 95% confidence interval and significant anti-anxiety effects were reported in 3 of the trials, there were no adverse events reported.There was limited evidence on long-term efficacy and safety of curcumin as the duration of all available studies ranged from 4 to 8 weeks. Curcumin appears to be well-tolerated and safe, it provided the expected results among depressed patients. Planned larger duration controlled trials and larger sample sizes are required with follow-up studies. (Ng , Koh, Chan, Ho, 2017) Curcumin is the main active ingredient of turmeric, it has a yellow colour, the uses are for cooking along with being a remedy for treatment and prevention of inflammatory diseases, it displays strong anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activities Inflammation, be it acute or chronic, plays a major factor in some of the following diseases, obesity progression, type II diabetes, arthritis, pancreatitis, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases and   certain types of cancer. Turmeric has a long history of use in Ayurvedic medicine for the treatment of inflammatory disorders. (Shehzad, Rehman, Lee, 2012) Dietary supplements for osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) require ingredients with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. From a search of 16 clinical studies three supported the use of cats claw used alone or in a combination for osteoarthritis (OA). Two others for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with omega-3 fatty acids and supported. (Rosenbaum, OMathà ºna, Chavez, Shields, 2010) Anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin for rheumatoid arthritis, turmeric rhizome has been used medicinally in China and India for thousands of years, the active ingredient is curcumin, which is available worldwide. Preclinical studies point to mechanisms of action that are predominantly anti-inflammatory and antineoplastic, (acting to prevent, inhibit or stop the development of a tumour). Early human clinical trials demonstrated beneficial effects for dyspepsia, peptic ulcer, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, uveitis, orbital pseudotumor, (swelling of tissue behind the eye in an area called the orbit) and pancreatic cancer. Curcumin is well-tolerated; the most common side effects are nausea and diarrhoea. (Asher Spelman , 2013)Recent studies confirm curcumins low bioavailability, this has been known for some time, by pairing with black pepper which contains piperine, bioavailability is increased by 2000%. (turmeric-bioavailability, 2016) The significance of turmeric as a treatment approach. In a study titled, A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin patients with rheumatoid arthritis, forty-five patients were selected at random into three groups, group 1 patients receiving curcumin (500 mg), group 2 taking diclofenac sodium (50à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ °mg) and group 3 taking the combination. The primary study endpoints were a reduction in Disease Activity Score (DAS) 28, the secondary endpoints included American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for reduction in tenderness and swelling of joint scores. The researchers found all three treatment groups showed statistically significant changes in their DAS scores, the curcumin only group showed the highest percentage of improvement in overall DAS and ACR scores. More importantly, curcumin treatment was found to be safe and did not relate with any adverse events. (Sayer, 2013) Two possible research issues, one being to run trials with piperine added to the turmeric and measure results with piperine vs without piperine. The second issue would be to see is what effect the added piperine has on adverse effects. References Asher, G. N., Spelman , K. (2013, March). pubmed/23594449. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23594449 Ng , Q. X., Koh, S. S., Chan, H. W., Ho, C. Y. (2017, February 21). pubmed/28236605. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28236605 Rosenbaum, C. C., OMathà ºna, D. P., Chavez, M., Shields, K. (2010, April 2016). 20232616. Retrieved from pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20232616 Sayer, J. (2013, December 26). turmeric-extract-found-superior-blockbuster-drug-rheumatoid-arthritis. Retrieved from https://www.greenmedinfo.com Shehzad, A., Rehman, G., Lee, Y. S. (2012, December 22). pubmed/23281076. Retrieved from pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23281076 statistical-significance. (2014, April 1). Retrieved from iwh.on.ca: https://www.iwh.on.ca/wrmb/statistical-significance Subash, C., Gupta, Sridevi Patchva, Bharat, B. (2012, November 12). articles/PMC3535097. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3535097/ turmeric-bioavailability. (2016, January 1). Retrieved from dailyhealthpost.com: https://dailyhealthpost.com/improve-turmeric-bioavailability/ turmericforhealth.com. (2013, September 14). Retrieved from health-benefits-of-black-pepper-and-turmeric: http://www.turmericforhealth.com/turmeric-benefits/health-benefits-of-black-pepper-and-turmeric

Diversity Statement - The Appalachian Mountains :: College Admissions Essays

Diversity Statement - The Appalachian Mountains    I was raised in an ultra-conservative Pentecostal Holiness church in the Appalachian Mountains. There were snake handlers in our church. It was thought that it tested one's faith to pick up a poisonous snake -- God wouldn't allow it to bite you if you had faith. However, I was always afraid that to pick up a snake would greatly increase God's propensity to smite me via death by snakebite. I did not have enough faith. I've never encountered a miracle -- I've never had a dream come true. I therefore can't help but lack faith.    To my great fortune, I've had many people help me along the way who didn't have to and who stood nothing to gain by helping me. Teachers gave me after-hours help; when I didn't know how I would pay for school, the financial aid office gave me a scholarship. These people helped me for no reason other than the mere fact that I am a human being, worthy of help when in need. Although I didn't have faith, they gave me hope.    This is why I have worked at a local homeless shelter for the past two years.   I feel like I can do the same thing -- help a person or two merely on the basis of our shared humanity. I enjoy paying back some of the help society has given me. I teach a computer class at the shelter, but everyone gets free therapy on the side. Most of those people aren't different in some essential way from the homed or those who have jobs, but life has often dealt them a losing hand to begin with. I tell them that I also had a losing hand, but I never gave up hope. Often, hope is all I had -- but it was enough to keep me pressing onward.

The Genetics of Autism Essay -- Autism in our DNA

Autism is a condition, or "disorder" that affects many people. Autism strikes at will, when and where it wants. Unlike Downs Syndrome or other birth "defects," Autism leave no marks on those that it strikes. In fact, Autism takes pride in the ability to infiltrate a child's life, while leaving him or her strikingly handsome. Many people may not even know that Autism is there. They blame the child for what it cause him or her to do. This is Autism and it do as it please. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a general term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. They can be categorized, in many ways, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination and attention and physical health issues such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances. Some people with ASD thrive in music, math, visual skills and art. The acute signs of autism and symptoms of autism tend to appear between the ages of 2 to 3 years old. (Autism Speaks) http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LCvYe3MSx68/T6f9sZRTw1I/AAAAAAAAFcE/ZEIaXXZohkw/s1600/autism-spectrum-conditions.jpg Figure 1 Figure 1 shows the variants of autism spectrum disorders. In many cases children are either diagnosed with either Autism or PDD-NOS (Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified). Statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identify around 1 in 88 American children are diagnosed with autism, additionally exhibiting that autism is four to five times more prevalent among boys than girls. Regime autism statistics suggest that prevalence rates have incremented 10 to 17 percent annually in recent years. ... ...was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, which is a type of autistic disorder that is utilized for "rigorous and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal convivial interaction, but the criteria are not met for a categorical autistic disorder. In the early components of this year, his parents had genetics test done on him to optically discern if his twin brother could possibly have the trait to have autism. It was found that he has the Fragile X Syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is associated with the expansion of the CGG trinucleotide reiterate affecting the Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene on the X chromosome, resulting in a failure to express the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which is required for mundane neural development. Absence of FMRP in turn leads to abnormalities in brain development and function. Works Cited autismspeaks.com

Project Management is an Art Form NOT a Science Essay -- Business, Case

Project Management: Art to the Rescue! "Is project management more of a science or more of an art form?" Introduction Today’s business executives are asking their managers and employees â€Å"to do more†¦ with less†. Fewer Project Managers are leading more projects with poor results, the latest Standish Group – Chaos Report shows that only 28% of IT projects succeed. Many believe that the key to Project success in not applying technical management principles, but rather, more artful soft skills such as communication and creativity. (Belzer, 2004). This case study will present and discuss why the application of soft skills will help today’s stressed-out Project Managers implement successful projects. Not only must projects be deployed on time and within budget, they must ultimately bring value to the stakeholder. Often times relating this information to the project sponsor requires creativity rather than a montage of colorful Gantt charts and graphs. The truly gifted Project Managers are those that can apply the systematic hard skills in an artful manner by using soft skills. To that end, some systematic or science related management skills will be discussed, along with the soft skills and how they are used together to successfully manage projects. Scientific Approach Systematic or â€Å"hard† skills such as Gantt Charting or diagramming are just some of the tools Project Managers use to track project activities. While they are important to project success they are not the end all. Successful Project Leaders know the winning formula for combining hard skills with soft skills. A thorough understanding of the technical system to be deployed allows project leaders to break the project down into many smaller tasks. Assign... ...also qualities of successful managers. Good leaders apply artistic traits to scientific tools in order to effectively manage complex projects. Bibliography: Kate Belzer (2004) Project Management: Still More Art than Science Andrew D. Brown, Matthew R. Jones (1998) Doomed to failure: narratives of inevitability and conspiracy in a failed IS project. Organization Studies, Winter. Michael Greer (1999) 14 Key Principles for PM Success. Chapter 6: Planning and Managing Human Performance Technology Projects, "Handbook of Human Performance Technology, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Craig Schiff (January, 2004) Maximize Business Performance: Getting Started: The BPM Project Life Cycle Paul Worthington (2001) Case Study – Developing Project Management Skills in Managing Death March Projects. Working paper, School of Business, Curtin University, Perth, AU

Oriet Gadish – Ceo of Bain & Co

I ended up working for the number two person in he military after the chief of staff. It was a pretty exciting place to be because all of the Information-?everything actually-?was coordinated through there. I learned to deal with an awful lot of Information, to be very responsible, and to work long hours. But also, when there were events going on, I was in the war room, which is a pretty confined space, and I learned to have respect for other people but also not to be intimidated by them, because they're people. I think that really helped me later on throughout my career.I also saw people making really important decisions, life and death decisions, and I realized that you can always afford to have perfect Information, 100 percent of what you need, In order to make a decision. Later on, when I think about the way we do business at Pain, where we emphasize providing clients with solutions that are practical rather than perfect and where we often have to make decisions based on imperfec t information, I think back to those days. And it just reinforces the idea that you can always have perfect information in order to make a decision.I think I was tongue to understand that fully at the time but it has certainly Influenced me. The army also exposed me to all different kinds of people. The Israeli army brings together people from many different cultures because Israel Is very much an Immigrant country; it still Is. The Israeli is a little bit European, a little bit Middle Eastern, a little bit American, and within those broad groups there are so many different cultures as well. From Europe, for example, the Israeli is a little bit German, a little bit Polish, a little bit French, a little bit-?you name it.And so I learned to be aware of different cultures and to tolerate deferent opinions. And somehow I hind all of that influenced me as well, although again I was probably too young to register It at the time. After the army, I got my undergraduate degree In psychology at the Hebrew University. I then started my doctorate, decided that's not what I wanted to do and, long story, I ended up in the United States at Harvard Business School. The HUBS Experience My MBA has played an incredibly important role in my career.I wouldn't be where I am today without it. Saddles -1- Initially, I set out to earn a Doctorate in Business Administration (DAB) and planned to get an MBA along the way. I had imagined I was going to teach. So I started with the combined program that four or five of us got into, which meant you could do the MBA and the DAB in four years. Just to be on the safe side, I decided to finish the MBA first. After that, when I started my DAB, I decided that business was not something I wanted to teach. It was something I wanted to practice. O walkout an MBA, I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing at all and I might not even be in this country. HUBS was, in effect, the only school I applied to, mostly because it didn't require a background in economics or other subjects as most business schools did. I also had a friend who had studied at HUBS, and when he talked about the experience it seemed very interesting. So I decided to submit an application. I actually wrote it in Hebrew and had somebody translate it for me. Then, Just to be on the safe side, I also took that application to Wharton and they accepted me, literally, on the spot.They were also going to give me a scholarship, but I would have had to study statistics during the summer and I decided I didn't want to do that. So I came to Harvard, which didn't give scholarships for the MBA program. Also, inflation was really high at the time so it was expensive to take out a loan. But because I was also in the DAB program, I got a scholarship for my doctoral work, which, when I didn't finish the DAB, became a standing loan. That was the only way I could afford HUBS and get through the program. HUBS was my introduction to the United States.I would read cases with my di ctionary. I still remember the first case. It was eleven pages including the exhibits and it took me six hours to read. I was pretty desperate because literally every second word I had to look up in the dictionary. And the dictionary didn't give any business meaning to most of the words. For example, the dictionary described he word â€Å"contribution† as being something about giving to nonprofit organizations. So reading the cases was extremely time consuming and hard. And then I would take my dictionary to the classes or to exams. Exams were the worst.It would take me three times as long to read an exam. I'd always sit in the first row and if it was a really long exam, I'd write at the end, â€Å"This took me three hours and twenty-five minutes to write, but here's what I would have done had I had time to actually run the calculator. † In class, I forced myself to speak even though that was difficult too because of the language. If I couldn't find a word, I'd use six words to express the idea. I Just had to force myself to do things like that and that's how I learned English. I also had never seen television, but I'd heard about advertisements.We didn't have TV advertisements in Israel; there were none. So I went to a classmate's dorm room and I would turn on the TV to see what the ads looked like. I also had never been to a large supermarket. So I went to a supermarket to see what it looked like and how products were set up and so on and so forth. One time, we had a final exam on cereal, something that I had never tasted. I still don't like it, but at the time, I didn't know what it was and I couldn't imagine there were sixteen varieties and why would you want more? I also had no idea who Johnny Carson was.So I was learning quickly about the United States and its culture, and I was learning the language. I had no problem when there was a case in Turkey or almost anywhere international. But I had a problem when Johnny Carson or cereal was part of the case. Gaudies -2- In school, I paid almost no attention to the fact that I was a woman. I had enough challenges: learning English, figuring out business issues, figuring out how to study even though I couldn't read English as quickly as my peers. In fact, I had one course where the cases were forty or fifty pages long.I went to the professor and I said, â€Å"Are there any particular cases that I should read? Because I can read each one of those every day Witt my Angels n. † Ana en salad , â€Å"Well, winy don't you Just all T ten class I thought to myself, â€Å"Well, I don't intend to. † And I did, actually, get an excellent grade in that class. I studied all different areas of business as well. I think it was important for me to not get too focused on any one area at that early stage. Had I completed my doctoral program, I would have focused on marketing because I was interested in that.But instead I took a broad mix of courses in my second year. I benefited from that and, actually, that absolutely has helped me throughout my career. I learned that you should be able to focus on one or two things and be extremely good at them but if you lose your curiosity about other things you're not going to be good even in the few things you focus on. You'll be much too narrow minded or much too narrowly focused. The other interesting thing about HUBS was the case method. The first class I as in, I thought, â€Å"This is nuts. † Then I realized that it was a great teaching method because it forces you to be involved.It forces you to be a part of the discussion. It forces you to listen to the way other people think about a problem. You're active as opposed to Just passively listening to a lecture. And it allows you to draw on things that are not in the case but that maybe you learned that morning in marketing. I am on the HUBS Visiting Committee and every now and then they teach a case. I Just love it. I really enjoy it. And again, almost alw ays in real life you make decisions based on imperfect information† to some degree, and the case method is a good exercise to prepare you for that.Early Career It's very hard when you are Just coming out of an MBA program to figure out what life is really going to be like and bid for a Job. But I was drawn to consulting because of the problem-solving part of it, which has always been my interest. And what I loved about Pain and Company was how practical it was. It was not about reports; it was about results. It's still not about reports. It's still about results. I have still never looked at a report. I don't think there is any other consultant who can say that.And it was very clear, when Bill Pain talked about the company, that he and the other people at Pain were passionate about results. Focusing on results calls for a different way of doing consulting. Now, mind you, I could barely write good English so the idea of not writing reports was a big plus for me. But I liked the idea that you really were thinking about results and implementation and not Just a report. That causes you to think about how you're going to communicate with clients, what you're going to communicate, and how perfect the information has to be to find a workable solution.That's different from happily consulting, where the focus is to convince clients that the solution is theirs and that it's the right solution for them so they Gaudies -3- will implement it. At Pain, it was all about solutions and implementation, and that appealed to me. Bill Pain had been the number two guy at Boston Consulting Group (BCC) and, by all accounts, was going to be running BCC eventually. But his idea of focusing on results was at the time a fundamentally different way of approaching consulting.BCC focuses on ideas and on developing tools that we all still use today and I give them credit because they're fantastic tools. But Bill wanted to take it a step further and not Just leave clients with ideas. He wanted to focus on results, not reports. That was revolutionary at the time. Changing course for a boat that was working very well-?and BCC was doing extremely well and was very highly regarded -?would not nave Eden easy. So 3111 tarter Nils own consulting Tall. I Nat was ten Pain I Joined and that's how we differentiate ourselves from our competitors.Being anchored in this idea of results not reports keeps us focused. So we're constantly asking ourselves, when I call Monday morning at 8:00, what is the client actually owing to have to do in order to make our recommendations happen? The case is not finished unless we know what steps he's going to take to implement the solution. And there's something I call the 80-100 rule, which means you don't want a 100 percent perfect solution if an organization at this time in its history cannot implement it. It's better to have an 80 percent solution if the organization can implement it.Eighty times one is eighty; 100 times zero is zero. This practical approach, focusing on strategy and results, is what we call our â€Å"True North. † And with that you have meeting you can evolve around and build on. Everybody in the organization knows that that is the core of what we do. You can build new practices, you can experiment with new ideas, you can also move very quickly and change, as long as you know that this is the focus that you're all working toward. And I think it has served us very well. First Client My first major client was a company in the steel industry, which was, at the time, an uncommon place for a woman.I worked in the steel industry for about five years. We worked on all different aspects of the industry, but at the end of the ay one of the things we figured out was how they could save an awful lot of money by continuously casting almost 100 percent of the steel. At that time, there was some continuous casting going on, mainly in Japan, but it was more common to reset the production processes for every different type of steel needed. We discovered, however, that if the company could move to continuous casting, they would be able to save between $80 and $100 per ton.The issue was that in order to continuously cast steel, you could use only one mix. But there are many different varieties of steel, requiring different mixes, that different customers need. There are different alloys you add to steel to make it higher quality, lower quality, stronger, softer-?whatever. But we thought if we could reduce the number of steel varieties and the number of mixes used, we could introduce continuous casting and save a lot in the production process. That was unheard of in the United States. Gaudies -4- Everybody said, â€Å"No, customers won't want it. So I went and talked to customers and found that they actually would be happy to do that. We found that there were a lot of customers who were perfectly happy to take a higher-quality steel as long as they didn't have to pay much more for it. The n I was stuck with a metallurgist who said that it could not be done. He explained to me why there are 300 different kinds of steel. I didn't know anything about metallurgy but I went through all of the varieties of steel and had him explain to me what each one of those steels was meant for and then I asked questions and triggered him to think. If we added aluminum to this, would this still satisfy this kind of customer? † He said, â€Å"Oh, yes, that would be much higher quality than they need. † We were able to bring the number of varieties down room 300-and-some to thirty. By the end of the discussion, the guy absolutely believed I knew metallurgy, which I did not. It was Just this practical way of working. The company did indeed build a continuous caster, and they did indeed save a lot of money, and they did indeed turn around from being number I don't know what to Deluge under one In proactively In ten country.I gnat's an example AT ten work we 00 at Pain. It's inv igorating to have real impact like that. Being a Woman in Business The first time we met with both the CEO and the SCOFF of the steel company, I had two presentations to give. I was with one of the founders of Pain. My manager was there too. In fact, I was the most Junior person there. At one point, the SCOFF was talking about how he was going to arrange a tour for us of the other steel companies. In the steel industry, companies shared a lot of information with each other. They still do in order to prevent accidents and so on, for safety reasons.Anyway;ay, the SCOFF was talking quite enthusiastically about arranging a tour for us and then he stopped and froze. He was looking at me and then he said, â€Å"Well, I don't know about Root. † Nobody had any clue what he was talking about. Then he said, â€Å"Well, you see, women are considered bad luck in our industry,† and everybody froze, the CEO and all the people in our group from Pain and Company. I Just turned around and said, â€Å"Well, in that case, I think that you should make sure that I go to every single one of your competitors. † That broke the ice and that was it.I went on to work in the steel industry for five years. I loved it. They even made a special hat for me. It said, Root Gaudies and then it said, â€Å"The Little Light Will Lead Us,† because my name Root comes from the Hebrew word for light. I was definitely one of the guys and I enjoyed it. Actually, there was one other funny story. In the steel industry, people used to use a lot of four-letter words. At the beginning, people would realize I was there and it would make them uncomfortable. They say, â€Å"Oops! I'm sorry. There's a lady in the room. † I remember once sitting in a room with the guy who later became the CEO.And he said something that had a four-letter word in it, and suddenly he said, â€Å"Oh, there's a lady in Gaudies -5- the room. † And he turned to me and he said, miss, and as I wa s saying to you yesterday, Root,† and he repeated it again so he actually made a point, which is kind f fun. Another time, there was a big meeting and this was clearly holding everybody up. So I looked for the right time and I used one of those four-letter words in a sentence the way they did, and that was it. They were comfortable talking again. And then we were Just working and moving forward together.I thought, if that's the language here, then that's fine. The lesson I learned was never to take it personally when somebody thought that a woman couldn't do something, whether it was a client or even a colleague at Pain. For example, once at Pain, very early on, one of the menders, one of the managers, and I were visiting a client. At one point, the founder said, â€Å"Dan, why don't you go and talk to X? Root, why don't you go and talk to-?oh! Actually, I'm not sure how he'd react to a woman. † I didn't say anything then but the next day, I knocked on his door and said , â€Å"Did you realize what you did yesterday? And he said, â€Å"No. What did I do? † I told him and then I said, â€Å"l completely understand. But if I don't get a chance, then none of us, not Pain, not you, and not l, will ever know if I can actually talk to people like that and if we can have a productive conversation. He was very thoughtful. And the next time we went together to a meeting, he gave me a chance to have an important conversation. The conversation went well and that was that. I had taken some responsibility for managing the situation. I hadn't gotten upset. And I knew that this was not personal. It was the same with clients.I'd walk in Ana teen would always assume Tanat I was ten most Junior person. I learned to use either a sense of humor or other little tricks to force them to forget that I was a woman and to Just focus on what we were doing. One time, for example, I was with he CEO of a company in the Midwest. I'd actually been on the case for a while . I was a manager. I had a brand new consultant with me, a young guy named Paul. We were sitting talking with the CEO. I would ask a question and the CEO would listen to me and then he would direct his response to Paul. It made it difficult for us to really engage in a discussion.So when the CEO went out to say something to his secretary, I told Paul, â€Å"Every time I ask a question, when I'm done, Just look at me, so the guy will get tired of looking at your ear. He'll have to look at me as well. † And, honest to God, Alfa an hour later, the guy was Just looking at me and we had a good discussion, and we continued to have good discussions after that. I never had to say a word. You can have a sense of humor. You can know that it's not personal. And you can Just find creative ways to solve the problem. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that you deliver. That's not unlike what guys have to do.And frankly, in most cases, once people get over the fact that you're a woman and start focusing on what you're saying and what you're doing and the results that you provide, the fact that o'er a woman is completely forgotten. It's like in the steel business. After a certain point, I don't think they could even remember that at one point in time that they even thought about me being a woman versus a man. The Automotive Industry Later, I worked in the automotive industry with a major car company. We started with two little projects but quickly discovered something not related to either one of those Gaudies -6- projects.We realized there was too much complexity in the number of options for cars being offered. Basically, you could have any combination of options you wanted. So the car manufacturers were producing cars with all kinds of options, and not necessarily based on market studies of the combinations customers preferred. So there were either too many cars that people were not particularly interested in or it would take a year to get your ca r with the options you wanted. We calculated that there were about ten billion combinations of Just about every car line they had and that was, of course, absurd.That didn't make sense for suppliers, for dealers, or for manufacturers. So we came up with a program to reduce the number of combinations of cars made in the plant from ten billion to Just fourteen. If somebody wanted a special car, they could still order it but it would take longer. To reduce the number of combinations so dramatically, we went back and looked at all the cars that were purchased. From all of that data, we figured out which combinations people preferred. Our findings were pretty intuitive actually. The salespeople said the dealers would hate it.In fact, the dealers were ecstatic because too often they had cars sitting on the lot that nobody wanted. The customers liked it because we had figured out the options they tended to prefer so they weren't walking away with options they didn't really want. And of cou rse the manufacturing team loved it because you could save a hell of a lot of money by streamlining production and limiting the number of combinations you had to manufacture. Initially, neither the salespeople nor the marketing people liked it, because they really believed that customers wanted all Kolas AT pitons.From ten time AT Hoar, when you could n â€Å"any color you wanted as long as it was black,† to Sloane, where you could have absolutely anything you wanted, the industry had gone from one extreme to the other. To make a long story short, we were able to convince the marketing and sales people that this would work. And eventually we were able to come up with this program, which reduced the time to delivery from months and months to days. And throughout the entire system, from the suppliers to the manufacturers to the dealers, we ended up saving this company on the order of $9. Billion a year. This was in the late sass. I'd say the company was proud of our work and we were proud of our work. We learned some of this from Toyota and Ionians. But you learn from wherever you can. If you're really good at what you do, you learn in one industry from what somebody doing in another industry. That's one of the benefits of working on a broad set of issues in diverse industries and always bringing them into whatever you're doing. Hard Times at Pain After all of these years, I think dwelling on precisely what happened is kind of irrelevant.The fact is that the founders of Pain started to take some money out. They had some bad advice from an investment banker and they took too much money out of the company. That meant the company was burdened with a lot of debt relative to its size, with a very high interest payment going forward. The model they had used was based on the company growing at a refit of 50 percent a year. Although the company had grown at Gaudies -7- that rate in the past, it was, of course, not practical. To make a long story short, that was a n unsustainable model.The first inkling the rest of us had of the situation was when the founder fired people, which was a complete break in the unwritten social agreement that existed at Pain and Company. Because we're a consulting firm and this was an SOP, the labor department eventually made the whole transaction public. That's how the rest of us learned what, exactly, was happening. After that, we had to turn around the company without the founder. But I'll give Bill Pain credit; he was the first one to realize that he had made a mistake. He asked Mitt Rooney to come and help and then Bill Pain worked hard to try and help turn the situation around.The founders had to give back some money. We had to negotiate with banks, and so on and so forth. But it's a situation that very few service firms have ever survived. In fact, we were told by an investment bank that we were not going to survive. But we asked Mitt Rooney, who was then head of Pain Capital and had been Vice president of Pain and Company, to come back. He really helped us negotiate tit the banks and handled other issues related to the situation so that the rest of us could focus on our clients and on our people, since those were the only assets we had left.Reputation is the third asset a company like ours has, and that was shaky given the fact that the story was in the news. So the rest of us focused on clients and on our people. We worked hard too to make sure that our most important people didn't defect. Headhunters were calling every single person in the company. We also focused on our clients. Our existing clients knew what we were doing to resolve the rises so we were okay there. It was more difficult when we went to beauty contests Tort prospective new clients Ana our competitors would leave ten latest Fortune or Forbes or whatever saying what was going on at Pain.It was getting those new clients that mattered most to us. And that's what we focused on. Internally, we had a few defections. But when I think back, there was only one major defection, in terms of the key people, that I really felt bad about. So we managed to avoid mass defections. I remember one day somebody came into my office and said, â€Å"l want to talk to you about a Job offer. I was vice president, and I was a real open door, so these people felt comfortable talking to me. And I thought, in this particular case, this guy is so much better at consulting than he would be at what he was going to do, and I said that to him.He said, â€Å"Well, but I don't want to be the last one here. Everybody's talking to headhunters. Isn't that right? † I realized he was right. So I called every headhunter I was talking to and said, â€Å"Don't call me,† which was actually taking a risk. I decided to stay with Pain and Company unless things fell apart. So the next time somebody name into my office and said, â€Å"Everybody's talking to headhunters,† I was able to say in all honesty, â€Å"Well, I' m not. I'm absolutely committed to staying here. † Soon after, the first guy came back to me to tell me that he too had decided to stay at Pain after I told him I wasn't going anywhere.And I asked him to do something that was very counterintuitive. I asked him to go out and tell people that he had received a Job offer, that he had seriously considered taking it, that he had in fact said yes to the offer Gaudies -8- and that he had decided instead to stay with Pain. He said, â€Å"I can do that. You don't do those things. You don't want people to know. † I said, â€Å"What? You told me that everybody's talking about leaving, or at least talking to headhunters, but nobody talking about the fact that they have decided to stay.I think it's a pretty powerful story. † So he hesitated, and then he agreed to spread the word about his decision. That was the beginning of a reversal of what could have been a mass defection. I then became chairman, but I perceive the leaders hip of this firm as a partnership. The partnership really is what comes first when we think about our governance. I was chosen through a selection process by all of the partners. The key criteria centered on people who are very good at what we do in our business.Throughout the history of Pain and Company, our selection of leaders centers on the people here who have the most impact with clients. We wanted a chairman who would serve as a role model in that. So in our company, people in senior positions continue to work with clients and not Just to sell but also to do the real consulting work. I still have clients I work with, and it's the only way to (a) keep me interested, (b) keep me up to date on what's really going on with clients, with our company, with our team, etc. And (c) keep the consulting we do strong.If you take senior people away from the consulting, which they are good at, and shift them to doing only administrative work or selling or public speaking-?all of which we do too of course-?then their experience is not available to the clients and it's not available as mentoring to your own team. So I agreed to become chairman on the condition that I would be able to continue to work with clients. I think that sets us apart from other professional service firms. Today, all of our senior people, the ones who are the most highly regarded, continue to work tit clients and, most importantly, they want to continue to work with clients.The clients are always canalling. I en problems are always canalling. So Its Important to keep learning. This is a pretty exciting business because of that. And, in my case, I play an international role as well. I work with international Coos. And I mean I really work with them, I do not Just interact with them. It's very exciting to see how Coos think, how government and business interact in different countries, how culture affects business, etc. It's fascinating. I love the international aspect of my work. I Just sis I didn't have to travel so much for it. I don't like to travel, but I love what I do when I get there.In terms of time management, I used to say that I spend 70 percent of my time with clients. That's probably true but I probably work more than 100 percent of my time. But really you don't break it up that way. When I'm abroad, for example, I might do client work in the morning. Then I might talk to U. S. Clients in the evening or talk with my secretary about administrative issues. I meet with our people in our various offices to talk about their clients or internal issues. I might be giving a beech in Germany, for example, and then work with people from the office on the way over there.If you have a lot of energy, you can put a lot of things together. It's not a precise science. It is not even a precise art, but it is an art. You Just have to have a lot of energy and to really love what you're doing. Gaudies -9- Critical Success Factors I don't tend to think about myself much. I'm very goal oriented when I go forward. But I think a big part of what consulting does has to do with psychology and learning to really listen to what people are saying both verbally and nonverbally. Having a â€Å"True North† has also been key. It has kept us focused on strategy and results as inseparable.Strategy combined with results is very powerful. Strategy without results is meaningless, and results without strategic thinking may not be very productive or useful. So combining almost everything we do with strategic thinking and results is critical. There were times when we actually had to fight to keep that. We had a lot of discussions about it. We ended up calling it our â€Å"True North,† and today it is Just part of the language here and part of how we think about critical decisions. We'll say, â€Å"This is a real true-north question,† when we have a really difficult decision to make.We have even â€Å"resigned† from some pretty lucrative projects when we didn't believe that results were going to happen. We do it with dignity, after a lot of discussion, but those are hard things to do. For example, a large Fortune 50 company got into trouble. We were asked to come in and help them. We helped them turn around financially but we also saw they had to turn around strategically. This was one of our major clients. We were involved in almost every aspect of their business. Anyway;ay, the papers were writing about what a great turnaround they were doing, and so on and so forth.The CEO was on the cover of all kinds of magazines. But strategically, we believed that they could not be involved in the four businesses they were in-?that, eventually, they would not be able to sustain that business model. There was one business they clearly should have gotten out of, but it was part of the legacy of the CEO, and he didn't want to get out of it. We did all of the analysis and all of the people in the organization agreed with us. But we couldn't convi nce the CEO. For six months, I had discussions with him. We had data. We Ana eve n Eng. Ana teen we Salad, â€Å"Well, In Tanat case, we Delve Tanat you can't thrive.You may not even survive long-term. † We suggested that they might want to sell themselves to somebody at that point, and we identified who might be the best buyer for them. Instead of going that route, they continued on with the four businesses. We decided to tell the CEO what we thought, that not moving in a more forceful strategic way could cost him the company. Since he didn't budge, we said we would resign, although I asked him for permission to go to the board, which, to his reedit, he let us do. One of my colleagues and I went and presented our views to the board.The board was split but eventually decided to side with him, and that was that. We resigned. Less than a year later, they came back to us and said, Mimi were right, and could you please help us now. † At that point, they had no option but to sell. They would not have been prepared to sell had we not pushed for that earlier. And we might not have suggested that had we not been following our true north. We really told them what we believed and even though there were lots of other things we old have continued to work with them on-?for tens of millions of dollars-?we really decided that was not the right thing to do.When they came back to us, we helped them sell. The social issues had Gaudies -II- been resolved by then. There was less money than they could have gotten the year before, but the shareholders still did pretty well. As the CEO and SCOFF said later on, â€Å"If it weren't for your guys and your willingness to stick to what you believed, we probably would be bankrupt. † If you have a true north and a set of core values that you stick to, you will end up making decisions that have short-term costs. But I believe, at the end of the day, they will have a long-term value.It's not something you do easily. And i t feels horrendous-?first because you feel like you failed to convince a client to do something, which is what consulting is all about, and second because of the short-term costs. It's a hit to the collective pocketbook and to your own. But when you have a true north like we do, it's really what allows you to deal with internal divisions and external adversity at the end of the day, and I think we're very lucky that we have that. I think it can create a distinctiveness from your peers or your mediators, and I think that's invaluable.Changes in the Industry I think the world has come back to where it was before the e-craze. There used to be consultants who were mostly focused on IT. There are companies that are focused mostly on informational stuff. And there are companies that are focused, as a headline, on strategy. That's where we are except that we have always focused on the operations side as well as the strategy side of a business. We believe you can't do one without the other. And then there was a period during the e-craze when everybody tried to do everything. We didn't and I think it has served us well.

Dollard & Pavlov Case Study Personality Psy

Jon Britton Personality Psychology Dr Humbert Case Study #10 3-18-2013 Dollard & Pavlov The first and foremost primary drive shown by Jack is in the form of wanting to maintain a stable life. He has worked himself into a suitable position in the restaurant business and he is driven to succeed by not wanting to fail. His biggest fear is to fail and be a ‘loser’ so this is his main primary drive and it is working well for him.The way that he reduces this primary drive is he begins to take classes in college in order to advance further in the restaurant industry. These classes will enable him to get a degree and then he will be able to make more money and gain a more stable position. His primary secondary drive is roughly parallel to his primary in the sense that his fear of not succeeding is driving him to do something outside of his normal operating procedure, that is taking classes in college at an age where he feels that he is too old to do so.Once he starts to partake in the classes he finds that he is doing better than he could have imagined which further compliments the secondary drives at work. There were definitely cues which helped Jack step outside of his normal boundaries, it came in the form of hearing some of the younger people where he works talk about being in school and getting their degrees.This helped to motivate Jack in making his decision to take the classes, probably because it made him feel younger, and gave him a greater sense of accomplishment when he finally did make the decision to take the classes. The four main processes underlying the classical conditioning model according to Pavlov are unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response. These four components, can work in unison to produce the precise conditions necessary for a classical conditioning experiment / environment to take place.

Discuss Marxism and Functuionalism and Compare

Compare Marxist and Functionalist Perspectives Compare and Contrast Functionalist and Marxist Perspectives Sociology is a systematic way of studying the social world. It seeks to discover the causes and affects of intercommunication and interaction that arise in social relations. â€Å"The science of society† was developed as a discipline in the 19th Century by Auguste Compte, a French philosopher. For him, common sense and the obvious would not suffice; he wanted to build scientific theories based on critical awareness of society. The two main stems of sociological concepts are Positivism and Phenomenology. Both Functionalism and Marxism are Positivist theories. This means that philosophies are built by using scientific research methods to create structural perspectives. Positivism is called macro sociology because it looks at society holistically; it also emphasises the power of Society and how this effects man’s behaviour. Positivism was a philosophy from the Modern Era when society was industrial, England’s culture untolerating, the mass media conservative and pro-establishment. Role in society was extremely important; it was traditional and genders specific. Functionalism provided a static view of society. It was rooted in the work of Emile Durkheim, a French Sociologist and during the later stages, Talcott Parsons. Although functionalism was not a dominant theoretical perspective in sociology until the 1940s and 1950s, it first emerged during the 19th Century. Marxism was founded by a German philosopher, economist and sociologist, Karl Marx. Fredrich Engels also contributed to development the works. Marxism offered a radical alternative to the functionalism perspective and was developed in the 1970s. Both perspectives of Marx and Durkheim, aspired for a Utopian society. Functionalism views society like a biological organism. The parts or institutions of the organism or society function appropriately to ensure the whole structure works efficiently and effectively. The whole has greater power than the individual parts. The three main aims and objectives of functionalism are to maintain order, stability and equilibrium in society. Marxism became increasingly influential due to; the decline in functionalism, its promise to provide answers (which functionalism did not) and its mood reflected that of the times. It originally consisted of three related ideas: a philosophical view of man, a theory of history and an economic and political program. The basic principal was that production equals social enterprise. Man needs to produce food, materials, etc†¦ for survival, and in doing so; man enters into relations with other members of society. From a functionalist perspective, the main parts of society (its institutions such as education, religion and the family) are the foundations for social structure. These institutions have interconnected roles and interrelated norms to form a complete system. All of the institutions have a role to meet the functional prerequisites (society’s basic needs). Integration between the parts is necessary so therefor integration is a functional prerequisites in itself. Social relations are organised, in result of values providing general guidelines for behaviour. Functionalist, Talcott Parsons set out four functional prerequisites essential for society: Goal Attainment- setting goals, e. g. Government/Education, Adaptation- development of material world, e. g. Mass Media/Industry, Integration- promoting harmony and social solidarity, e. g. Religion/Family, Latency- meeting individual needs to satisfy demand, e. g. Family/Mass Media. From a Marxist view, the force of production is the collective term for all things needed for production. The means of production are those parts of production which can be legally owned (land, machinery, and slaves†¦ . Society’s infrastructure was made up of the forces of production plus the social relations. The Superstructure includes the institutions of society and is shaped by the infrastructure. This therefor means that the institutions are primarily determined by economic factors. Marxism relates class not to income or family like functionalism does, instead it is measured on how much land, mach inery†¦ is owned and controlled- so it depends on the means of production. The person(s) who had the most means of production are the ruling class. The ruling class produces the dominant ideas in society. Their domination relies heavily on the exploitation and oppression of others. The employer to employee relationship of exploitation is concealed by ideology. Some accept the ruling class conflict as natural and so are lulled into false consciousness. Functionalism relies on social stratification. Kingsley Davis, an American Sociologist and Demographer said â€Å"As a functioning mechanism society must distribute its members in social positions and induce them to perform the duties of these positions†. Without this casting of society’s members, the institutions would be unbalanced and equilibrium could not be reached. Functionalism sees this as a positive and inevitable aspect of society. In Marxism, the lower classes are exploited because they can be. Social change in Functionalism occurs when one of the institutions alters in some way. These changes only come about when society requests it. These changes in institutions cause society to behave, inevitably different. Marx believed all historical societies contain basic contradictions: the exploitation of one social group by another. Perhaps in a way, Marxism is perhaps a little more realistic than functionalism. Therefor, they cannot survive in the existing form. The major frictions are between the forces and the relations of production. A great deal of the wealth, produced by the workforce is appropriated in the forms of profit by the Capitalists- the ruling class. The wages of the workers are not equivalent to the wealth they produce and so the ruling class was exploiting and oppressing the working class. Marx predicted a new and final epoch. A society that would have complete equality. There would be no new force of production but the relations of production will be transformed. The ownership of production would be collective, as the members of society would share the wealth. The ruling class would no longer exploit or oppress the workers. It is interesting how Functionalists see people as unequal a positive thing and Marxists believe it a negative one. Functionalism fails to recognise social change, contrasting to Marxism which recognises and aspires to it. It is a conservative ideology which ignores the dysfunction’s and assumes every institution is positive for society. Marxism, on the other hand, accepts conflict and the arising social problems. The perspective tries to understand how to overcome societies problems by looking back over history and learning from past mistakes. Functionalists assume that everyone in society is in agreement and shares norms. It believes in the power of the institutions to socialise its members so well that deviance is rare. However, every society has deviants and so this statement is a little too confident. Functionalism shows us clearly the primacy of culture and socialisation via the social institution. Marxism underestimated the resilience of Capitalism, for example, Americas tragedy on the 11th September 2001.

Historical Criticism of Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog”

Russian short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog (1899) is a brilliant exposition of how society's laws and institutions hinder an individual's quest for freedom and happiness (RadEssays, n. pag.). According to the poet and critic Dana Gioia, the style in which the short story was written was consistent with the emerging trends in nineteenth-century short story writing (Gioia, n. pag.).On one hand, it was based on the â€Å"anti-Romantic realism of Maupassant with its sharp observation of external social detail and human behavior conveyed within a tightly drawn plot† (Gioia, n. pag.). On the other, it also mirrored the â€Å"modern psychological realism of early Joyce in which the action is mostly internal and expressed in an associative narrative built on epiphanic moments† (Gioia, n. pag.). Hence, Gioia considered The Lady with the Dog, along with his later works, as a turning point in European literature (Gioia, n. pag.).The short story 's main character, Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov, was a man whose life was trapped early by society and the institution of marriage (RadEssays, n. pag.). During the 1900s, Russian society, just like all other societies, believed that marriage is a sacred institution (BookStove, n. n. pag.). To go against this norm (by committing adultery) meant facing social condemnation and ostracism (BookStove, n. pag.). However, Russia's upper classes only paid lip service to this rule – marriage for them was more of a convennient way to establish and secure fortunes and bloodlines (BookStove, n. pag.). Therefore, while they paraded themselves in public as respectable and happily-married people, they secretly engaged in extramarital affairs to temporarily escape the harsh reality of being trapped in a loveless marriage.Gurov was no exception. Although his real interest lay in the arts (he graduated with a degree in this field), he was forced to take up a â€Å"dignified† job in a bank (Chek hov, n. pag.). To make matters worse, his parents had set an arranged marriage for him with a woman he described as â€Å"unintelligent, narrow (and) inelegant† (Chekhov, n. pag.) – simply put, a woman he did not love. As a result, Gurov was miserable, â€Å"bored and and not himself†¦cold and uncommunicative (in the society of men)† (Chekhov, n. pag.).But feminist critcs argued that the real reason for the scorn he felt towards his wife was that she was an â€Å"outspoken woman who considers herself an intellectual† (Answers, n. pag.) – Gurov was intimadated with assertive women and preferred a woman whom he could control (Answers, n. pag.).Just like many other Russian upper-class men of his time, Gurov found solace in extramarital affairs (BookStove, n. pag.). For him, these liasons were more than just outlets for lust – they were manifestations of his protest against the society which condemned him to a â€Å"pitiable† existen ce (BookStove, n. pag.). Although Gurov openly labelled women as â€Å"the lower race† (Chekhov, n. pag.), he â€Å"could not get on for two days together† without them (Chekhov, n. pag.). His treatment of and philosophy towards women reflected the hypocrisy of Russian society with regard to the issues of love, marriage and infidelity (BookStove, n. pag.).Gurov came across an ally in his latest mistress, Anna Sergeyevna. Just like him, Sergeyevna was also a prisoner of her marriage – she got married young (20 years old), but soon regretted having done so (ECheat, n. pag.). She no longer loved her husband, regarding him as a â€Å"flunkey† (ECheat, n. pag.). In sharp contrast to Gurov’s wife, Sergeyevna was â€Å"soft and childlike, weepy and vulnerable, even a bit ‘pathetic’† (Answers, n. pag.) – the ideal Russian woman of the 1900s (Answers, n. pag.). Eager to live a single and uncommitted life once again, she feigned il lness and went to Yalta, a well-known health resort in Russia (Answers, n. pag.).Free from the unhappy situation of their respective families, Gurov and Sergeyevna carried out an illicit affair in Yalta (Answers, n. pag.). Although Sergeyevna initially felt guilty after Gurov kissed her for the first time, she was already in love with him by the time she returned to S (ECheat, n. pag.). Chekhov used symbolisms to decribe the intensity of their passion for one another. The moon, a timeless symbol of fertility, symbolized the birth of Gurov and Sergeyevna's affair (Openpapers, n. pag.). Sergeyevna's pet Pomeranian, meanwhile, represented the dependency, loyalty and amusement that they were looking for in their respective spouses, but found in one another (Paperstarter, n. pag.).When Gurov and Sergeyevna resumed their normal lives, it was then that they realized how much they missed and loved each other (ECheat, n. pag.). After meeting again in a theater, they decided to continue their clandestine affair. They secretly met in Moscow (Gurov’s hometown) â€Å"once in two or three months† (Chekhov, n. pag.).But Gurov and Sergeyevna eventually got tired of hiding like theives just to maintain their relationship. When they had their usual rendezvous at Sergeyevna’s room at the Slaviansky Bazaar hotel, they discussed â€Å"how to avoid the necessity for secrecy, for deception, for living in different towns and not seeing each other for long at a time† (Chekhov, n. pag.). But they were unable to come up with a clear solution (ECheat, n. pag.).Indeed, Gurov and Sergeyevna’s illicit liaison was a no-win situation. True, they had found real love in each other. But in a society that abhors relationships such as theirs, they were left with three options: run away, tell their respective spouses the truth or end the affair then and there (ECheat, n. pag.). Divorce was out of the question – in 1900s Russia, it was a social taboo, along with adultery (Answers, n. pag.). Divorced people were met with the same social denunciation and isolation bestowed on adulterers and adultresses (Answers, n. pag.). The open-ended conclusion added more credibility to the short story’s theme – the choice between being true to one’s self or adhering to what society believes to be correct.Chekhov’s other writings also echoed the animosity between an individual and society. In the short story Betrothed (1903), the protagonist, Nadya, was engaged to Andrey Andreyich, a man whom she didn’t love (Chekhov, n. pag.). She had no other choice – Russian women during the 1900s were not allowed to study or to work outside the home. Hence, marriage appeared to be Nadya’s only ticket to economic advancement (Eshbaugh, 3).But her perspective changed when Aleksander Timofeyich (fondly called â€Å"Sasha†) arrived from Moscow to visit her family. Upon learning of Nadya’s engagement to And reyich, Sasha warned her about the lifeless existence that is the result of an arranged marriage (Eshbaugh, 3).â€Å"Only enlightened and holy people are interesting, it's only they who are wanted. The more of such people there are, the sooner the Kingdom of God will come on earth†¦ Dear Nadya, darling girl, go away! Show them all that you are sick of this stagnant, grey, sinful life. Prove it to yourself at least (Chekhov, n. pag.)!†Despite Nadya’s initial misgivings, she heeded Sasha’s words. With his help, she fled to St. Petersburg, where she attended university (Eshbaugh, 3). Nadya eventually realized that she made the right decision in relying on herself instead of on marriage to achieve happiness (Eshbaugh, 3). Even her family ultimately supported her choice – their letters to her were â€Å"resigned and kindly, (as if) everything seemed to have been forgiven and forgotten† (Chekhov, n. pag.).Betrothed was â€Å"the last published work of Chekhov and thus his dying words to his literary audience† (Eshbaugh, 3). In a way, this explains its optimistic ending. If in The Lady with the Dog, Chekhov exposed the futility of society’s norms of â€Å"marriage for monetary gains (and) living an idle life without purpose and without love† (Eshbaugh, 3), in Betrothed, he imparted that if man can create society and the status quo, he can also change them.Works CitedChekhov, Anton. â€Å"The Betrothed.† 2008. Ibiblio.org. 11 March 2008 . Chekhov, Anton. â€Å"The Lady with the Dog.† 2008. Online-Literature. 11 March 2008 . Eshbaugh, Ruth. â€Å"Literary Analysis of The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov.† 21 June 2007. AssociatedContent. 11 March 2008 . Gioia, Dana. â€Å"Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Lady with the Pet Dog’.† 1998. Dana Gioia Online. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"Anton Chekhov, ‘The Lady with the Dog’.† 2008. RadEssays.com. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"A Review of Lady with a Pet Dog by Anton Chekhov.† 4 July 2005. ECheat. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"The Lady with the Dog.† 11 July 2007. BookStove. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"The Lady with the Dog (Anton Chekhov).† 2007. PaperStarter. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"The Lady with the Dog by Chekhov.† 2008. Openpapers. 11 March 2008 . â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog (Criticism).† 2008. Answers.com. 11 March 2008 .