Internal And External Sources Of Finance For Tesco Essay

A source of finance used by Tesco is retained earnings. Tesco re-invest a certain percentage of their end of the year profits back into Tesco, so they can improve it. Each year Tesco decide how much money they re-invest, this depends on the profit they make. Fixed assets: Another type of an internal source of finance for Tesco is fixed assets. Fixed assets are an asset that is not consumer or sold during the normal course of business, these are land, buildings, equipment, machinery, vehicles etc. These assets are very hard to convert into cash as it takes time to sell, Tesco would use these assets to fund future operations. Current assets: Current assets are a key financial source to Tesco’s business. Current assets are cash and other things such as inventory that can be converted into cash easily. An asset that will be in use for less than a year is a current asset as they transfer into money once sold. Tesco’s stock in their stores is a current asset as they transfer into money once sold. An essential thing for Tesco to ensure is to ensure that their assets aren’t lower than their current liabilities (debt) as this may force Tesco to close as they want to be able to pay off their debts. Working capital: Working capital can be both a good and a bad thing, this will depend on the debt a company has in this case Tesco. Tesco are a massive company so they will have a lot of working capital, this will ensure Tesco grow as they can expand their brand. Companies like new starts will have finances to expand and grow their business. In 2014 Tesco’s working capital reduced massively by over 300 million this will have an affect on their company in 2015. In this task I am going to write about what internal and external sources of finance are available to Tesco. Internal sources are funds that come from within the business. An example of an internal source is profits. They can be used to expand a business. Another way is to sell assets that the company don’t use to free up capital. External sources are found outside the business. An example of an external source would be a bank lending company money. External sources of finance (Tesco) Investments: An investment is when a person or persons invest their own money into a business, hoping to make a profit on their investment into the organisation. Tesco rely massively on investments just like any organisation. Tesco’s share prices depend on just how much is being invested into the company, and over the past year their share prices have dropped as the amount being invested has decreased. Warren Buffet who is an American billionaire, who made his fortune by investing said that â€Å" Investing in Tesco was a big mistake†. Ordinary shares: Ordinary shares, are shares within an organisation that any member o the oublic can buy. Tesco’s shares are currently selling for around  £189.75p , with Tesco buying the shares back at around  £190.05p, since the horse meat scandal, shares have decreased rapidly. Since November 2013 Tesco’s shares have declined drastically. Tesco are unable to buy back the shares at a price high enough to push customers to sell back, as the customers wouldn’t be making enough profit. Corporations: As Tesco are a corporation they can part-take in all the activities any corporation are involved in such as hiring new staff, sue other companies, be sued by other companies and also own their own assets. An asset that Tesco own is their very own oil plant in America Institutions: An institution of Tesco would be their bank. The institutions are companies that work with Tesco and that Tesco own. Any money that Tesco receive from the customers and clients of their bank, gets directly put in the profits.  The money they make from the institutions gets invested directly back into Tesco Business angels: Business angels are people who look to invest into new or successful businesses to try to make a profit. For Tesco business angels would’ve invented at the start of the companies journey in 1919. Business angels usually invest in companies around their home so they can check up on their investments. Government Grants: Tesco are Britain’s biggest supermarket and due to this they employ thousands. The government can give Tesco grants and money to invest back into Tesco. The government will benefit because if Tesco invest the money wisely they will have a successful year therefore the government will receive more tax. An example of Tesco receiving a government grant was in 2009 when they received  £5 million to open a new store in Glasgow. HP: Hire purchase is when a company or person lends out goods to companies for a short period of time, with added interest. Tesco could benefit if they were the company as they would lend out equipment, machinery, property and vehicles, as they would gain interest and also regain some of their investment into the product. Suppliers credit: Supplier’s credit is when a supplier offers the buyer the product they want on credit. This is like getting a loan of sorts as Tesco can pay at a later date. This benefits Tesco as they can order as much stock as they need even if they haven’t got the finances at that time. Sale and lease back: This is when Tesco sells something to a buyer such as equipment,machinery etc and the buyer leases the product back to Tesco immediately. This benefits Tesco as they can use the product without being tied down to the product  financially. To Tesco there is some tax benefits to leasing the product rather than actually owning the product. Tesco can sell the products and lease them back for a long period of time.

Modern Beliefs and Religion Essay

Children are influenced by the environment that they are subjected to. It is the responsibility of practitioners and other adults who are in contact with children to ensure that they are presented with positive ideas and images in order to support their moral and spiritual development. Task 1: A child’s spiritual development includes the development of their sense of self, their potential, their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and their motivation to achieve. Their moral development involves children gaining an understanding of the difference between right and wrong, a concern for others and the will to do what is right. They begin to be able to reflect on the consequences of their actions and learn how to forgive others and themselves. Moral and spiritual development is taught through all subjects of the curriculum and in particular RE and PSHE. Early years care practitioners help to support children’s moral and spiritual development throughout their early development stages. Practitioners help to do this by using inclusion, this is where they provide children with the opportunity to learn and develop through activities and other types of school work. However, the practitioners may need to amend activities to meet all the different children’s needs and requirements; e.g. a child with special educational needs may need work sheets in a certain font size to enable them to read it with ease. Another way in which practitioners may help to meet each child’s aims is to provide ability appropriate activities. It is important for early year’s practitioners to do this as the children will then realise that everyone can join in activities even if they have specific needs. This will result in the children feeling valued and building on their self-esteem. An early year’s practitioners should behave morally correct for the children to follow and look up to as a role model/example as children imitate and learn behaviour from others who are significant to them. To support children’s moral and spiritual development it is essential for the early year’s practitioner to praise and encourage children’s healthy behaviour. Practitioners should encourage children to tell the truth, keep promises, respect others, care for the less fortunate, and to accept responsibility for their own actions. Behaviour like bullying, lying, cruelty, irresponsibility, and selfishness should be expressed to the children as morally wrong, and it could upset or hurt other individuals. How care practitioners support moral and spiritual development through; The learning environment: The school, but mainly the classroom provides a suitable environment for promoting and supporting moral and spiritual development. Children learn to lead, use their initiative, and become disciplined through learning what is right and wrong. It will help to create positive personal relationships between children and adults, and they should be encouraged based on the value of and respect for every individual. The learning environment will help the children to be knowledgeable about the different celebrations that take place in a diverse society e.g. Diwali, Christmas, Easter and so on. Sensitivity: Practitioners should emphasis to children that they should values themselves and others as everyone has a place and a role within society. Also, the preparation for life within a diverse society should be included into the children’s teaching to ensure they are aware that there are many different cultures and beliefs living in one society. Another role the practitioners need to take is to ensure children are aware of the role of the family in society. Inclusive behaviour: This involved promoting values, for example, explaining to the children that they should tell the truth and not lie to other children or adults. With this children should respect others and treat people the way in which they want to be treated. Practitioners should include all children within the day to day activities and plan for those with extra specific needs. Considering spirituality even without a structured belief system: Children should be able to explore their own beliefs and think about what they may belief without the practitioners putting bias views on them. Practitioners should encourage children to look more deeply into their own belief and explain it is okay to have a different belief compared to their other peers. Task 2: Early year Practitioners must make sure that they are keeping each individual safe so that they don’t victimize any child in the setting regarding their religion or beliefs or any other structure in their life such as culture as this will destroy the child’s self-esteem or may begin to lose their beliefs. At placement each practitioner values each child to making sure that that they are not picking on any child because of their religion or beliefs. Practitioners must make sure that they include all children to the activities making sure that the children are in a diverse atmosphere at all times so the children will be able to follow their beliefs. The practitioners should set up activities that relate to a religion introducing the children to different religious celebrations etc. so that the Children would be aware of other religions around them. Practitioners should read books that include different religions for the children to gain more knowledge about there and other religions. At placement spiritual development is promoted as we have many books about religious celebrations such as; Christmas, Ramadan, Easter and many more. This teaches the children to respect other beliefs as they are aware of other religious festivals. At early years settings practitioners must persuade children to tell the truth and also telling them what will happen if they were to be lying to one of the practitioners. For the practitioners to be able to encourage children to tell the truth practitioners should have activities like role play for the children to take part in as by this activity the practitioner can show the children that it is bad to lie. Practitioners should also encourage discipline to children, such as if a child is doing the wrong thing such as ripping a book the practitioners that see it must talk to the child immediately and let them know that ripping a book is wrong and explain in detail for the child to understand. This way children learn from their mistakes what they did was wrong, by punishing the child for instance putting the child in time out will persuade them not to do it again. Care practitioners also need to teach children about valuing themselves and others around them. This will in return build an atmosphere in which peers respect one another and also respect members of staff/adults. Practitioners can help children grasp a sense of valuing themselves by praising them if they have done something good, for example, if the child helped to tidy up, or doing something extra than what they normally would do, then praising the child will make them feel good about themselves. The child will feel as though they have achieved something good and will therefore be happy with themselves. However, the practitioner may find it hard to teach the children to value others around them as children find it difficult to empathize how others feel and respect others when they are young. This mainly comes with age, but a firm grounding from the practitioner will help. Teaching them things like the common saying of ‘treat people how you want to be treated’. When children have been unkind to one another the practitioner may want to ask them questions like ‘How would it make you feel if someone did that to you?’ This will allow the children to begin to value others as they will realize that unkind actions may hurt or upset others.

Land Acquisition in Zambia

Due to the effects of food price crisis of 2007-2008, there was growing concern among the nations about the food security. There was surge in demand for food products by the food importing countries and subsequently food-producing countries imposed some restrictions on the food exports of food grains. In order to meet the growing demand of food and face increasing pressures on natural resources and water scarcity, the countries with land and water constraints needed an alternative means of producing food. Acquisition of farmland in the developing countries by these countries seeks to ensure food security. More on the land acquisition drive) These investments are not driven by the notion of comparative advantage in the large-scale production of indigenous crop (Mann and Smaller; 1; January 2010). The higher oil prices in 2007-2008 were another driver, which triggered interest of developed countries to acquire land for energy crops. Global financial crisis also encouraged investors to invest in foreign lands. The value of both food and fertile land was set to increase, making them an attractive new investment. Budgetary resources in developing countries may not be enough to meet infrastructural investment required to use the land to its potential. Some developing countries are seeking foreign investment to exploit their surplus land which is currently unused or under-utilized. This may lead to creation of jobs in rural areas and there may also be investment in health and education sector. Technology transfer by the investor countries may lead to increase in farm productivity. However these investments are not without trade offs. There are concerns about the impact on local poor people, who lack access to and control over land on which they depend. There can be local unemployment because of projects with imported workforce and high degree of mechanization. It will also lead to increase in regional land prices through soaring competition with regard to acreage and resources, and thus less access of land to poor people. Foreign investors can also emerge as strong competitors to local producers, especially small households. There is also risk of land conflicts in territories without well defined land titles (Bicker and Breuer; 37; April 2009). In some cases, the land leases are justified on the basis that the land being acquired by the foreign investor is â€Å"unproductive† or â€Å"underutilized. † However, there may be that the land is being used by poor for purposes such as grazing animals and gathering fuel wood or medicinal plants. These uses tend to be undervalued in official assessments because they are not marketed, but they can provide valuable livelihood sources to the poor. †(Von Braun and Meinzen-Dick; 2; April 2009) Large-scale land acquisitions may further jeopardize the welfare of the poor by depriving them of the safety-net function of this type. There can be misappropriation of arable land, displacement of indigenous people without compensation and migration to cities. So it is crucial to ensure that these land deals, and the environment within which they take place, are designed in a ways that will reduce the threats and facilitate the â€Å"win-win† situation for all the parties involved. According to Sustainable development innovation briefs (January 2010), â€Å"There are three sources of law governing foreign investment in agricultural land. 1) Domestic law 2) International investment contract 3) International investment agreements (IIAs) According to Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives of Republic of Zambia, Zambia has the best surface and underground water resources in Africa, with many rivers, lakes and dams. Sharing borders with eight countries, Zambia is centrally situated as a gateway to both southern and central Africa. This location is strategically advantageous by placing Zambia in a position to exploit the growing regional markets of SADC and COMESA, and be an active participant in regional and international agriculture trade initiatives (Source: The best of Zambia). Even with resource endowment for development of a wide range crops, livestock, and fish given the diversity of its agro-ecological zones, there was lack of cultivation because initially labour was forced toward mining sector. Urbanization kept the people to cities only. There was lack of infrastructure and utilities in rural areas which imposes a higher social cost in moving towards agriculture sector. The policies which took place were directed towards the development of mining sector, neglecting agriculture. It is generally seen that the developed countries are mainly with expanding industrial sector. These developed countries have initially accumulated the surplus in agriculture sector and then invested that surplus for expansion of industrial sector. So there is need to develop agriculture initially. Zambia is rich in mineral resources. To explore the potential there is need to develop agriculture sector. In Zambia, most farmers are insecure in the ownership of the land they work in. Less than 5% of them have leasehold title for their land. Most farmers pay rent to titleholders or have some kind of sharecropping arrangement with the title owners. Others depend on land owned either by the government or private owners, or on council or forestry land for their living. Those living in areas of customary land use do not need to be consulted before mining operations are allowed, and are usually not even aware of the possibility of placing land disputes before the Lands Tribunal (MacCuish and Frankel on behalf of Halifax Initiative Coalition). The efforts of the Agriculture Department to mark off ownership and use of agricultural areas were hindered by the lack of information about who owned the land. According to report of Global Times ( 9 September 2009), The Zambian government is to devise measures that would smoothen and quicken the acquisition of title deeds by prospective land owners, this was done in a bid to empower the less privileged people to own land in the country. The poor people can use land as collateral for them to access loans for land development. According to Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Zambia (26 January 2010), â€Å"Out of 75 million hectares land of Zambia, 43 million hectares (53%) is classified as medium to high potential for agriculture production. So far only 6. 02 (14%) of agricultural land is currently utilized. Irrigation total potential is 2. 7 million hectares out of which about 156000 hectares is under irrigation†. Framers are given a good price for grain but due to lack of market access the move is outweighed by poor infrastructure. Zambia endowed with rich natural resources needs investment by foreign investors to strengthen Zambia’s economic muscle (Zambia Mail dated May 11, 2010) Acquisition of land by the foreign investors is controversial and carriers many risks. Foreign investment can also be made through contract farming and out-growers scheme or joint venture or provision of infrastructure by the investor country. (David Hallam; 6; December, 2009) According to FAO (2001), â€Å"Contract farming can be defined as an agreement between farmers and processing/marketing firms for the production and supply of agriculture products under forward agreement, frequently at predetermined prices. The arrangements also invariably involve the purchaser in providing a degree of production support through, for example, the supply of inputs and provision of technical advice. The basis of such arrangements is a commitment on the part of the farmer to provide a specific commodity in quantities and at quality standards determined by the purchaser and a commitment on the part of the company to support the farmer’s production and to purchase the commodity†. In contract farming, farmers have to loose some freedom over the choice of crops they want to grow. The main commodities produced by small-scale farmers in Zambia under contract farming arrangements are cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar, paprika and fresh vegetables. Of late honey, livestock (pigs and dairy cattle) and organic products are also coming up. Likilunga; 3; December 2005) Nevertheless, joint ventures between foreign investors and local producers or their associations as partners might offer more spillover benefits for the host country. Mixed models are also possible with investments in a large-scale core enterprise at the centre but also involving outgrowers under contracts to supplement core production. Some governments have been active in encouraging foreign involvement in such enterprises, as in the Tanzanian sugar sector or the so-called â€Å"Farm Blocks† in Zambia (David Hallam; 6; December, 2009). Zambian government has embarked on a programme to open up viable farm blocks in various parts of country to be involved in primary production and value addition. In Farm Block Development, Government has to provide basic infrastructure such as road, bridges and electrification. The design of Farm block is as follow. There is one core venture of 10,000 Hectares with commercial farms of 1000-5000 Hectares and small holdings of 30-300 Hectares. (Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Zambia; 26 January 2010). The type of business model to be adopted depends on certain characteristics of the economy i. e. olitical and social conditions, specific circumstances, the commodity concerned etc. Land acquisition and commercialization of agriculture is favorable, when economies of scale are important or there is need for investment in infrastructure. Contract farming or outgrower scheme is desirable when there in need to involve small landholders, but in contract farming care should be taken that contracts are properly implemented and there is no exploitation of smallholders by the big firms. The litigation process in Zambia takes too long and therefore enforceability through litigation process is costly and therefore not resorted to. There is weakness of enforceability when contract is breached. Donor funding forms a big part of Zambia’s spending plan (The Africa report; October 2009). China, India, South-Korea and oil-rich gulf countries with land and water constraints are turning to Africa as food security blanket. Saudi Arabia is interested in area of agriculture in Zambia. China is proposing to acquire 5 million acres of land to grow jatropha. Jatropha is a perennial plant, which can be used as biofuel. Plantation have yield after 2-3 years. In the short run there will be loss but in long run there will be gains. Income generated from plantation will vary from year to year. Growing Jatropha needs long term investment, which is vulnerable to risk due to uncertainty in price, yield, labour cost and rate of interest. Biofuel can provide hedge against climate change. Jatropha can also be used as a substitute for expensive kerosene, fertilizer and diesel. It needs less water so there is no need of major irrigation facilities. Jatropha can be planted during spare time in idle or fallow land, for which lot of officially unused land and degraded bush land seems available. Cultivation of Jatropha on abandoned agricultural, deforested or degraded land has the potential to improve the nutrient content of the soil and reduce erosion. Thus, this may improve the value of the land. However, the expanding use of land for the Jatropha production, even though it is marginal land, could mean that people living in the area would have to find other places for collecting firewood, herbs and fields for pasture land etc. So the selection of land for production should be done very carefully. Land grab in Africa mainly for biofuels has serious implications for food security. This however but it depend on the ownership of the land and how much space the production of Jatropha takes up. Biodiesel is mainly used by developed countries. If the price of food grains increases, then the people in developing country will suffer. Food security could even decrease where land and water resources are commandeered by the international investment project at the expense of domestic smallholders or where foreign investments push up land values. There can also be worst case scenario that there is production of 100 unit’s energy biodiesel from the inputs of 127 unit’s energy. The advertising that agro-fuels will assist farmers is based on the notion that the decisions about the use of the land remain decentralized within the country. Farmers should be given free will to decide how to plant Jatropha to produce oil for lamps or sop or bio-diesel for their vehicles. But the scenario set up by the large corporations is not what is desirable. There is usurpation of huge tracts of African land for overseas consumption and if they ruin the ecosystem, they conveniently make a move to other areas (MS Zambia Newsletter August 2009). Production of Jatropha is mainly done by the Out grower schemes. It is found that mostly there were no formal contracts for production. Even if contracts exist, there was no enforcement. Even farmers are not satisfied with Outgrowing system. Firms promise to endow the farmers with technology but fail to turn up again to provide information on technical issues. Production is targeted toward export and fails to benefit Zambian people. This can be confirmed by the fact that there exist no refineries in Zambia. There is need to set up a monitoring committee which can observe that all the contracts taking place are implemented. Strict actions should be taken if contracts are not enforced. The land grabbing has become very sophisticated and the poor are bound to suffer. There is need to lobby government for some policy changes. Civil societies should come up for the benefit of small holders and there is need to sensitize and assist the poor access and legally own land. Building the capacity of small scale farmers and their organizations to be part of the new agribusiness dispensation through direct investments as well as in partnership with foreign investors is desirable. There is need to empower the rural communities’ access and communally own land through ‘Community land titles’ to protect them in the future land concessions. (MS Zambia Newsletter August 2009). There is need by government to put more conducive environment by setting up â€Å"small claims courts’. There is need for further training of small-scale farmers so that they can develop skills in negotiating for good prices for their commodities. (Likilunga; 12; December 2005) â€Å"Extensive control of land by other countries can also raise questions of political interference and influence. (David Hallam; December 2009). Government maintains secrecy in the deals involving foreign investors. This lack in transparency undermines government accountability and gives an opportunity for corruption. Some recently reported land deals were associated with allegations that investors had paid cash or in-kind contributions to business or other activities run by high government officials or even the president in a personal capacity (e. g. Hervieu, 2009), even where private ownership is formally recognized most of the land is controlled by state (Cotula, Vermulen, Leonard and Keeley; 69; 2009). It has been seen that incomes are very unevenly distributed in Zambia. â€Å"Bottom 80% of populations in terms of earning are reported to have acquired only 31. 3% of total income, while the top 20% of population claimed 68. 87% of total income†. (Zambian Economist, 31 May, 2008). Non availability of written agreement on land acquisition has created disputes in some settlement area. A vigorous consultative process on land acquisition has to be adopted o minimize these land disputes. It is required to have all the deals in the written form. Appropriate Resettlement policy should be in place and adequate compensation should be give to the displaced farmers. Farmers generally practice subsistence farming and the land of cultivation is scattered. Most of the rural population keeps on migrating within the country. The liberalization of the agriculture sector and other reforms in Zambia, were accompanied by the decline in cultivated land and maize production. The proportion of households selling to the market and concentration of serves in central areas was also reduced. (Sangrario Floro and Schaefer: 84; fall 1998). With privatization, subsistence farmers have to move out. Before the reforms, Government bore all the transportation expenses both within and between regions and gave huge fertilizer subsidy so the prices of food grain as same for all producers. After reforms of 1990s, it was found that the cost of production has increased drastically because of high transportation costs and removal of subsidies for fertilizer, forcing farmers to sell at farm gate only. Thus the supply to market was nil. Evidence can be taken from the copper mines in Zambia, which was privatized in 1991. Large tract of land was required for development of new mines. There was often negotiation with local chiefs for land. Local people were persuaded on the trust that they will be relocated to other areas. Most often interest of local people was in variance with that of investors. Sometimes the local chiefs enter into secret deals with investors and accepted bribes as an inducement to persuade their subjects to acquiesce to investors’ demands. Impact of large scale mining on local community has been negative. There were social conflicts, destruction of livelihood, dislocation and displacement of local communities and environment degradation (Simutanya, ISS paper 165; July 2008). In case of foreign investments, it is noticed that Zambians were not given many job opportunities and people were placed from permanent to rolling contracts leading to casualization of labour. If agriculture land is given in foreign hands, it can lead to similar consequences. Foreign investors are driven by profit motive. They generally us capital intensive techniques driving labour out of work force. They also try to minimize wages to capture more profits in their hands. Profit, rather than having any impact on Zambia economy, is placed in banks or re-invested in companies outside the country. But it is also seen that with privatization, all workers came as a union, there was increase in the minimum wages. It can also be expected from agriculture sector. If all agricultural workers work in a huge tract of land then even they can coordinate themselves and demand for better wages and better working conditions. ). The economical benefits were also marginal, leading to large inequalities. In 2009, more than 80% of Zambia’s foreign exchange earnings and 15. 9% of GDP came from copper mining. (iol. co. a: Zambia copper mines: More local benefits urged; April 2010). In 2006, the contribution of mining to PAYE[1] was 54%, to VAT[2] was 45% and to employment generation was 58%. (Source: Zambia Development Authority). But Zambia fails to influence World market prices. (Source: www1. america. edu) Fluctuations in copper prices can impact the whole economy. So there is need to develop agriculture sector also as a safety net. But in which direction policy should be made is yet to be decided. The policy recommendations should be such that it should not affect the social and environmental climate of the country.

Apple Company Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Apple Company Analysis - Essay Example The paper tells that Apple Inc. is the producer of the iTunes software program that is used to store and play music in one place. The company’s clients are varied with respect to the variety of products, for instance, educators, business organizations, and daily basis customers. Owing to its wide range of products, the company has the capability to target a wide range of customers, with most sales being conducted online and a host of others from direct sales, retailers and the company’s retail shops. The company has current operations distributed all over the world; in the United States, Japan, Europe, Asia Pacific and some parts of Africa. On April 1, 1976, three men, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne co-founded Apple Inc. The company did not receive immediate attention in the market but until 1984 when the company introduced the Macintosh computer. Jobs and Wozniak left the company in 1985 in pursuit of other goals. The company went ahead with the release of new computer models that were unique in style and more portable as opposed to other computer models. Even with these improvements, the company could not cement its position as a dominant computer manufacturing company across the globe and in 1997, one founder Steve Jobs rejoined the company when it was losing huge sums of cash. Apple released the iMac in 1998 and immediately gained profits with increasing market share thus turning the downward spiral of the company around. Apple’s revolution of the digital music distribution came with the introduction of the iPod in 2001 along with iTunes and in 2007, the company expanded its scope of production and entered the smart-phones world when it released the iPhone. Today, Apple is among the leading innovators in computer hardware and software, phones and a host of digital portable devices.

MHE507 - Bio-Terrorism, Module 3 - SLP, Bio-Terrorism preparedness and Essay

MHE507 - Bio-Terrorism, Module 3 - SLP, Bio-Terrorism preparedness and response - Essay Example Cases that involve air, however, are much harder to prevent, since air moves freely and unbarred anywhere. Since late 1992, a number of large, complex outbreaks have occurred in the United States. These include the epidemic of over 400,000 cases of waterborne cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, the outbreak of severe, unexplained acute respiratory disease now known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the Spring of 1993, the nationwide foodborne salmonellosis outbreak caused by contaminated ice cream that accounted for an estimated 250,000 cases in the fall of 1994, and the increasing problems posed by antimicrobial-resistant organisms in community and health-care settings. Epidemics of plague in India, Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Central Africa, avian (H5N1) influenza in Hong Kong, Hendra virus infection in Australia, and Nipah virus infection recently in Malaysia and Singapore required an international response. During the hantavirus, plague, and Ebola investigations, concerns regarding the possibility of bioterrorism were raised early in the investigations, though these concerns were not su pported by subsequent findings. Attacks are intentionally created to threaten individuals, or the government, to surrender to the needs and conditions of the attackers. And with bioterrorism as the tool, nobody is safe; nobody can run away, and nobody can be excluded. Not even the government or other high officials are safe if bioterrorism tools are to be used against them. What does the government do about bioterrorism? And what should be really done? One question at the break of an attack is this: Should the case be isolated, or should the information be disseminated? During an attack, the government has two options: to isolate the case and work on it privately, or to let the public know about it. The first case is done to prevent massive panic, which can heighten the fear of the masses. However, in the second case, where the people are aware of

Presentation Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Presentation Skills - Essay Example Communication is the purpose of a presentation, especially the reception of the audience. The presenter must be able to transmit the required information in a manner that is understandable and interesting to the audience, whether it be one person or an entire nation. When preparing a presentation it is essential to know your audience. By having familiarity with the audience's concerns and probable opinions concerning what you are going to say, one can be more relaxed during the actual presentation and not be sidelined by unexpected questions or responses. A presentation looks easy enough to do; and it should, it indicates that the presenter is an expert communicator well versed in the subject or material at hand. This ease comes from rigorous preparation before the presentation. Next comes the planning stage; a list is made regarding information and audio/visual aids to be used. A rough draft of the presentation is made and examined; it is critical to write the draft in order to organise one's thoughts and be able to strike out any superfluous or unnecessary information (University Of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1999). At this stage, any irrelevancies will be extracted and the logical sequence of the information can be constructed. In cases of doubt concerning content, good planning will propel the presenter to either find the answers or leave the information in question unsaid. The next stage of planning is deciding which aids to use and how many. This is where equipment in good working order is critical; an overhead projector, a laptop computer with projector, slides, video and recording equipment can fail during a presentation and this can spell disaster to the untrained or unprepared presenter. It is a good idea to have a backup plan in case of an equipment failure, such as printed poster boards and an easel. Knowing that there is a 'Plan B' will put the presenter at ease and relaxation is imperative to a good presenter. Next comes rehearsal. Some might think that rehearsing in front of a mirror is silly, but it is important to take note objectively of your own presentation skills. Can you listen to yourself well Even better is to rehearse in front of a video camera and play back the presentation, taking note of hesitancies or tendencies to exhibit nervous behaviour such as adjusting the necktie or twisting the ring. These behaviours detract from the presentation significantly. In assessing yourself prior to the presentation it is essential to be objective in critiquing your own skills. There is always room for improvement, no matter how seasoned the presenter. If you rehearse in front of colleagues, listen to their feedback and make the necessary changes well before the presentation date in order for your changes to be more natural to you. One item of interest to keep in mind is the fact that most people will only remember three things from your presentation (presentationhelper.co.uk, online, 09 October 2005). It is important to know what three points you want your audience to remember in advance and plan the presentation around those. One example of this interesting phenomenon is Winston Churchill's famous 'blood,

See below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

See below - Essay Example According to Feldman, individual rights must be balanced against social goals3 and he views human rights as being linked to the conditions necessary for a democracy; human rights â€Å"help to establish the conditions of free speech, tolerance, equality and mutual respect for people’s dignity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 4 Locke lays the foundation of a civil society upon the premise that people surrender their natural freedoms to a system of common laws in order that they receive the protection of the Government and it is this system of laws that restrains them from harming others to enforce their natural laws.5 In the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi atrocities, it was Winston Churchill who first pressed for â€Å"the environment of human rights† which led to the drafting and implementation of the Universal Convention of Human Rights.6 The Preamble to the Convention establishes â€Å"recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family† as the basis upon which its Articles are founded.7 There are 30 separate articles, all of which spell out the basic rights that are meant to be accessible to every individual, irrespective of the country to which he or she belongs8. The aim and objective of this dissertation is to examine the execution of human rights law and its application through the various regional instruments that have been spelt out in different parts of the world. This dissertation will also examine violations in human rights that have been taking place and how best such violations may be prevented. It will attempt to assess whether human rights are best protected on a universal, regional or national basis, from the point of view of the framework of the law and its execution. The Methodology that is proposed in this study is primarily a library based research effort that will examine existing international law and the developments in execution of human rights over the globe.

MicroEconomics Homework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MicroEconomics Homework - Essay Example For example, a product with really high elasticity will mean that you don’t value a product very much and hence it will have a low consumer surplus and vice versa. 2) Elasticity, simply, is the responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price. For example, when you levy a sales tax on any product its price increases. This price increase is going to decrease the quantity demanded of this product. The magnitude of change, however, will depend upon the elasticity of demand. For example, if sales-tax is levied on a product with inelastic demand, then quantity is not going to fall by a large amount and large revenue will be collected. On the other hand, if sales-tax is levied on a product with elastic demand, the change in price is going to decrease the quantity by a greater amount and revenue collected will be less. 3) I think that the government should charge those products with high price inelasticity of supply. This is because, if it levies taxes on products with high elasticity of supply, the suppliers would pressurize the government by supplying fewer amounts in the market and hence majority of consumers will be deprived of the product. So, it should charge a product with low price elasticity of demand so that supply does not change much and consumers get the adequate amount of product. 4) Simply, the perfectly inelastic demand and supply would ensure that imposition of tax is going to reduce the quantity in the market by smaller amounts and hence, this will result in little or no welfare loss. 5) In this case, consumer will bear a bigger burden of the tax because suppliers will easily pass it on consumer by supplying less, but consumers would encourage them to keep producing the same amount of cigarettes by paying a bigger share of tax. 7) In this case when price is more inelastic for suppliers and less inelastic for consumer, then the suppliers of a product

Justification Letter Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Justification Letter - Personal Statement Example Some of my clients in NY include Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG), Chase/Chemnet Network Services, Bear Stearns Corporation, Swiss Bank Corporation, Perot Systems Corporation, HIS/Chic Jeans, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers Corporation, COMDISCO Corporation, Manufactures Hanover Bank (MHT), M&M Mars Corporation, Coopers & Lybrand, MasterCard International, Home Life Insurance Company, IBM Professional Services, Witco Chemical Corporation, The CIT Group and The General Foods Corporation. I transferred to the Washington DC area shortly after 9/11/2001 to look for contract work with the Government. The position at KForce was only presented to me as a full time employment and not as a sub-contract with Base Technology Incorporated. Hence, I was left with no alternative other than accept the position as such. I am very happy with my current position at US Customs and the people I work with. However, I am not an active employee of KGS in that I do not help to promote the company on any proposals etc. I really do not have any close ties to them. I have a hard time working as an employee of any company and feel better and perform better as an independent contractor because that is how I have lived the last 25 years prior to moving to the Wash DC area. It is my fervent desire to function under contract with you through STS and formally resign from my services with KGS forthwith. I now look forward to the pleasure of your favorable response at the earliest. Thank you, Faithfully yours, Jerry Harding

Free Markets are Efficiency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Free Markets are Efficiency - Essay Example In addition, the paper also focuses on the criticism and arguments surrounding the free market concept. The efficiency of free markets surrounds the effectiveness of an economy in the allocation of resources. The efficiency of a free market is dependant on satisfaction of several conditions that permit the agents in that economy to trade freely and attain the market equilibrium in quantity and price. For the purpose of this paper, a free market is one that has negligible government interference, or no such interference (Argelis & Pitelis, 2008: 1). With this in mind, we may define a free market as a market where the agents engage in selling and buying activities on own consent, without any legal compulsion. The prices at which a trade transaction takes place, or the quantities traded are not under control (direct or indirect) of third parties in the market. In essence, this implies that the market operates without legal restrictions or regulations. Simply, a free market is one where buyers decide freely the commodities to buy and their quantities at the prices of the sellers and sellers choose freely the commodities they are willing to manufacture and sell at their price that they decide to sell. The first welfare theorem or the invisible hand proposes that a free market provides a channel through which an economic system is able to reach the ideal level of production. According to Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, the different traders, like butchers and brewers, do not offer their services out of benevolence, but with a consideration of their own gains (Chang, 2002:5). Kenneth Arrow and Gerald Debreu later mathematically confirmed this theorem, indicating that in the event that all possible gains are exhausted from the exchange, then the free market attains an equilibrium equivalent to the Pareto efficiency in allocation of resources. In economics, the allocation of resources is Pareto efficient if there is no other feasible allocation preference by one pa rty, and which the other party equally likes, therefore making any further mutual benefiting allocation impossible (Hayek, 1945). For instance, party A and party B engage in a trade exchange. After several exchanges with emphasis on their level of endowment, party A and party B will reach a position on the curve (B and C), which is the Pareto optimal point of resource allocation (Lott, 2007: 82). The curve demonstrates the dual benefits of both parties for both reaching an equilibrium benefit of transfer and guiding the economy towards an outcome that observes the Pareto efficiency. Fig 1: Pareto optimality graph. From http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/images/fig8_1.gif&imgrefurl=http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/08_construction_pricing_and_conctracting.html&usg=__d69xypDoP0EqqL9D0orgPd46Ezw=&h=399&w=404&sz=5&hl=en&start=3&sig2=s1ZXuuc1Dtp3tLmn-opTVA&zoom=1&tbnid=AORY7mH4F1EvoM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=124&ei=uZDpTrifAsqZiQfMnYWyBw&um=1&itbs=1 The Pareto-efficient outcome is only attainable on the certain conditions that are generally not applicable in practice, despite the mathematical proof by Kenneth Arrow and Gerald Debreu (Mankiw, 2009:153). These conditions include, but not limited to, imperfect competition like a monopoly, inevitable provision of public goods, presence of externalities, negligible transaction costs that are difficult to achieve, and social priorities that often favor a particular

Greek and spanish economy over the past three years Essay

Greek and spanish economy over the past three years - Essay Example The year 2007 saw one of the most devastating of all financial crises of all times, which swept over the entire globe. Greece was in a rather juvenile phase during that time as it had not gained ample experience over its past phase of recovery, when the nation had depended substantially on transfer payments from its neighbours. Hence, it was expected that the nation could not avoid a financial crisis. The Ministry of Economy of Greece expected a fall in the annual economic growth rate from 3.6% to 2.4% between 2007 and 2011. Prior to the shock, the nominal economic growth rate in Greece was found to be 4% in the first quarter of 2007. However, given the high rate of inflation integral to that of the nation, the real economic growth rate turned out to be much lower than was officially recorded. The true figures have been presented in the underlying graph. The annual average growth rate, adjusted for inflation, had been recorded at 0.95, 0.18 and -0.65 respectively during 2007 to 2009. These extremely low figures give a hint about the failure of the national government in reviving the economic conditions of Greece. In addition to the poor GDP growth figures, the problems of unemployment and inflation had plagued over the economy since 2007, though improvements have been made in various developmental aspects like those of education, poverty and health. The rate of inflation had reached a peak during 2008, when the average rate had lingered around 4% throughout the year, i.e., by the middle of the term of the newly elected ND government. Though the situation slightly improved by the middle of 2009, it again went unbound by the end of the year (refer to Figure 1.2). Philips curve model of inflation imposes the fact that the rate of inflation prevailing in a nation is inversely related to the rate of unemployment it is experiencing. A similar

An integrated critique of kozols and dawkins Essay Example for Free

An integrated critique of kozols and dawkins Essay AN INTEGRATED CRITIQUE OF KOZOL’S AND DAWKIN INTRODUCTION Richard Dawkins was born on March 26, in 1941. He is an ethnologist, an evolutionarily biologists and a popular writer in science. He also holds the Simonyi Chair, which is designed to promote the understanding of science to public at Oxford University. The first time Dawkins come into the limelight and became popular was after writing his book ‘The Selfish Gene’ in 1976. This book introduced the term ‘meme’ and consequently helped discover memetics fields. It also made ‘gene-centered view of evolution’ popular. Around 1982, he made significant contributions toward evolution science. THE SELFISH GENE BY RICHARD DAWKINS Richard Dawkin’s ‘The selfish Gene’ was a very popular reading and to some extent controversial on evolution. The book elaborates and goes deeper to discuss more about the theory of William’s first ever book to write ‘Adaptation and Natural Selection’. The theory discussed on this book is principal to William’s book. Richard introduced, ‘Selfish Gene’ to provoke and express his views on gene’s evolution. This view states that evolution acts on genes and when we select some organisms or a population, this selection is normally based on the type of genes. According to his book, an organism must evolve since it is the only way of maximizing its ‘inclusive fitness’, which refers to the total number of the genes which are transmitted globally, rather than the genes passed on by a particular individual. Consequently, a population tends to learn towards ‘Evolutionarily Stable Strategy’. (Richard, 1990) This ‘selfish gene’ came up with the term ‘meme’. ‘Meme refers to a single unit of human’s culture evolution which is analogous to genes. It suggests that this is a ‘selfish’ replication of human genes, and it can affect the culture of human in a totally difference sense. There is no doubt that ‘memetics’ evoked a discussion of meme since he published his book. ‘Meme’ is cultural information units, which can be transferred from one mind to another. Examples of memes are tunes, clothes fashion, catch phrases, pot making or building arches. â€Å"Meme’ is properly defined in the theory of memetic, which is comprised of information on culture in a unit theory; how evolution of culture or diffusion is blocked, how it propagates form mind to mind and the way a gene propagates from one person or from an organism to an organism. Where memes are multiple, they propagate as â€Å"memeplexes’. Meme complexes act as cooperative groups. (Richard, 1990) A ‘gene’ on the other hand, is a region that can be located and has a sequence called ‘genomic sequence. This corresponds to an inheritance unit that is closely associated with regions that play a regulatory function, the regions, which are transcribed, and other regions with functional sequence. The phenotype and physical development of organisms is believed to be productivity of genes, which interact among themselves and with their environment. Genes are generally inheritance units. A gene generally defines human or organism’s characteristic and the functionality of potential products. Genes do not define products but rather they contain regions. Eukaryotic organisms contain regions, which do not have coding regions and are called introns. These are taken away from RNA, which acts as the messenger in a process referred to as ‘splicing’. Exons are regions, which encode the products of gene. A total number of genes, which make a set, is called ‘genome’. The genome size of an organism is usually low in prokaryotes, which come in base pairs and the gene’s numbers. The theorists of meme state that meme evolve through natural selection, this is similar to biological evolution of Darwin through competition, inheritance, variation and mutation. THE ROLE OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION Cultural evolution and socio-evolution fall under the umbrella called ‘socio-cultural evolution’. It describes how societies and cultures have come into being over time. Cultural theories provide us with models to enhance our understanding on the relationship between our social structure, technologies and society values; and give reasons why and how they change gradually. They change to a degree to which specific mechanisms of social change are described. (Richard 1990) Around 20th and 19th century, there were approaches, which were aimed to give models for humankind evolution. The argument is that the social development of different societies is not in the same stage. The recent approaches of the 20th century emphasize on changes, which are specific to a society as an individual and turn down social progress and directional change. Archeologists and anthropologists use modern theories as the framework of socio-cultural evolution. Sociobiology and neo-evolutionism are some of modern approaches employed to cultural evolution. Richard Dawkins, the ethnologist discovered ‘meme’. According to his book, â€Å"TheSelfish Gene’ 1976, likened human’s cultural evolution unit to a gene. His argument was that replication happens in the culture, through in a different sense. Dawkins contends that meme, which resides in the brain represents units of information and it is the replicator that controls mutation in cultural evolution of humans. This forms a pattern, which has the power to influence surroundings, that is, it can propagate and possesses causal agency. However, his theory caused a heated debate among biologists, sociologists and scientists from other disciplines. Dawkins failed to given adequate explanation about the information units replicates, in organism’s brain, how it can control the behaviour of a human being and finally culture. It is apparent that it was not Dawkins intention to give the theory of memetics. Comprehensively in the selfish gene, he coined the word meme in a kind of speculative spirit. In the same sense, ‘unit of information was given different definitions by different scientists. (Richard 1990). MEME AND EDUCATION It is not entirely impossible though it is hard to debate the subject matter of the functions of emotions in education system if we are lacking the right words to sufficiently discuss the topic. This is the scenario when we reach a point of discussing the functional role of ‘emotional intelligence’ because it has got to do with the needs of our younger brothers and sisters as well as great grandchildren and become stochastically and mathematically proficient so as they can exist and fit in the competition which is characterized by technological advancement. Many educators are failing because they lack words such as ‘eipiphiny’ and ‘mehme’ and hence do not have words, which play an important role of ‘emotional intelligence,’ and how it relates to stochastic and mathematical literacy sufficiently and appropriately address attempts that can be made. The outcome is a system of education that is believed to be failing. If the kids can experience and feel eipiphinies and MEHMES, kids will definitely love maths, and see its relevance to their lives daily. It also contributes a feeling of self-confident. The key here is to create the terms mehme and eipiphiny. Introduction of mehme and eipiphiny may have a positive effect if incorporated in the meme selection process.

Impact of Women in Government for Nigerian Democracy

Impact of Women in Government for Nigerian Democracy TIJANI, FATIMAH. A TITLE: Impact of Women Involvement In Governance and Political Leadership, Towards the Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria: 1999 – 2012. AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY: The focus of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the impact of the Nigerian woman in the involvement in governance and Political Leadership towards the sustainable democracy in the last three dispensations 1999-2012. It is no doubt that in such a patriarchal society as our women expenses such a large percentages of discrimination and marginalization in their quest for active participation. However, despite the recorded achievements of women’s rights advocates such as Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, and Gambo Sawaba, there continues to be an underrepresentation of Nigerian women in leadership and political positions (Asase, 2003; Qualls, 2003). Various challenges such as gender roles and stereotypes as well as structure of the political environment in Nigeria militate against the full participation of women in political and public life. Additionally, severe hindrances of gender inequality such as the underrepresentation and discrimination as a result of cultural, social, and political norms empower men at their expense (Okome, 2006; Okunna, 1996). As a result women are struggling to gain access, have a presence or be influential in the political process of the country. They are often in a poorer position than their male counterparts in the various spheres of politics. Though a growing number of women are members of the various political parties in Nigeria, very few occupy executive positions in these parties, only very few are given the opportunity to contest for elective positions and even fewer are appointed as members of the ruling cabinet. To this end, the findings from this research may provide the following information to; to provide strategies to help decision-makers reevaluate or develop programs designed to improve the quality of life for Nigerian women towards active participation, to provide enabling channel for the empowering of Nigerian women towards gender equality as well as those in similar societies as they continue striving to obtain gender equity. To provide insights regarding the importance of including women in governance and Political leadership roles. Finally the study will also explore the various influences and presence of women in the last three dispensation in Nigeria and the roles they have played towards sustainable democracy in the country despite the little opportunity they are given. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The inferiority complex of the Nigerian women as to their active political involvement and representation constitute the crux of this Research. The gender stereotyping in Nigeria’s political system today has its genesis from the onset of colonialism in Nigeria. Making the western cultural notion of colonialism tied towards a patriarchal society which in turn is reflected in its male superiority within the Nigerians society today. The most crucial element of this research is that women are, and have been marginalized as well as sidelined in the political spheres of things in Nigeria and this current situation might cause some dangerous national catastrophe if not adequately managed. Indeed, women’s political involvement during the colonial times till date have contributed greatly towards shaping the Nigerian politics not only in democratic governance; but also during the pre-colonial era. Therefore, it will be unreasonable, and cruel to wish away the critical efforts of women in the making of Nigerian state while arrogating political powers to the male folk. It is also unjust to ascribe political seats only for the male folks in this state of globalization where the world is evolving and where the role, influence and charismatic preposition of the women in global politics is considered to be relevance and importance towards attainment of overall world peace, mutual co-existence and tranquility. In line with this I will be taking a look at the various stages of Nigerian political history and how women has been in some ways impacted to the sustainable democracy in Nigeria even when they are unimaginably sidelined, additionally ways to encourage their full participation into political posts in the country without prejudice. AIMS/PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: The followings are the reasons why I decided to embark on this research To examine the impacts of women in governance and political leadership towards the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria To elicit their challenges, experiences and contributions to the democratic process in Nigeria To look at the disparity between the involvement of women in governance, Leadership and politics in Nigeria, and to raise concern on the lack of gender equity in the transformed democratic practise in Nigeria enlighten about their human rights for involvement and participation. This research work will form part of the requirement for the degree of the Masters in International Relations. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: To bring to limelight ways/how Nigerian women are shattering the ceilings that limit and marginalize them in the Nigerian political scene. To provide information to help decision-makers reevaluate or develop programs designed to improve the quality of life for Nigerian women towards active participation. The findings from the study may provide insights regarding the importance of including women in governance and Political leadership roles. To serve as an avenue for further research study on the area of gender politics in the Nigerian Society. RESEARCH QUESTIONS What impact has the involvement of Nigerian women in governance and political leadership been able to add to the sustainable of democracy in the country? If more women participated in decision-making and active participation, what kind of difference would they make? What are the positions of political parties, government and other state institutions (including the three branches of government) on the role and participation of women in political and public offices? In what ways can women themselves contribute to reducing the challenges that hinder their effective participation in governance and politics in general? What lessons can be drawn from the research that would help decision-makers in general but especially political parties to address the problems of women’s participation in political and public life? What recommendations can be made to address the problems of women in politics and public offices? SCOPE OF STUDY: This study will be undertaken within the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Nigeria State. It will look into the impact of Nigerian women involvement in governance and political leadership towards the sustainable democracy in Nigerian politics within the last three dispensation i.e. from 1999-2012. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS According to Ogbeide (1996), hypothesis testing is a fundamental in activity in qualitative data analysis. The statement of a hypothesis take two means: null (H0) and research (H1). While null hypothesis indicates that there is no relationship between the variables under study, the research hypothesis indicated that there is a relationship between the variables. In this study two hypotheses will be tested as shown below: Hypothesis 1 H1: Women Involvement in Governance and Political Leadership, has been impactful towards the Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria H0: Women Involvement in Governance and Political Leadership, have not been impactful towards the Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria Hypothesis 2 H1: Women participation in decision-making will help faster development of the nation H0: Women participation in decision-making will not help the faster development of the nation. METHODOLOGY: In obtaining the required information for this research, the use of qualitative and quantitative means of data collections will be used, which means Data for the study will be carried out from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data will be administered through structured questionnaires on about 700 randomly selected female politicians, activists and professionals in government and dominant political parties cross-cutting through the six geo-political zones of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This will be done in order to capture and document a cross-cutting opinion of the targeted groups in the respective geo-political zones on the situation regarding women’s role in politics and the democratic process in Nigeria. Additionally, scheduled interview schedules will be conducted with 10 purposively selected respondents who occupied key political leadership positions whose experiences has facilitated the documentation of women’s involvement in politics and the democratic process in Nigeria from 1999-2011. The use of academic research books, journals, and writes up from feminist scholars will be highlighted. As such, this research will take its bearing from the feminist ideologies concerning the status of women. THEORETÄ °CAL FRAMEWORK This research study will take its theoretical prospect from feminist ideologies which is concerned with the status of women in every spheres in general. Feminists are of the view that in comparison to men, women occupy disadvantaged positions in most elusive dimensions of our life. The work of two feminists idelogist will be of importance here; Walby (1990; 1997) and Chafetz (1990) will be briefly examined here with particular focus on the relationships they perceive exist between domestic and public economic life with regard to the creation and maintenance of gender inequalities. A BRIEF OUTLINE: (THESIS STRUCTURE) This study will comprise of six chapters. The introductory chapter which will provide us with an overview of what the research is going to be, the objectives, literature review, research method and also samples arguments on why gender equality in politics is essential. Chapter two examines of the historical dimension and position of women in Nigerian political history dating back to its precolonial, colonial as well as postcolonial times till date. It seeks to creates insight on the various contributions of women in governance though Nigerian political history which will help the focus of this research. The third chapter will analysis the data collected based on the field research, and opinion of selected respondents via interviews and questionnaires. Chapter four on the other hand will be focusing on the impact of women involvement in Nigerian politics vis-a-viz their quest for political participation. This chapter equally introduces the three major political parties in Nigeria; and using them as case study in order to fully capture the scope of political transition period, this research analyzes the contributions of political parties towards the poor participation and representation of women since independence till date. It highlights their role in representative democracy such as practiced in Nigeria today as well as various avenues they use to hamper women’s advancement in politics. Furthermore the fifth chapter will be taking a broader insight into the impact, ways and contributions adopted by the women in Nigeria in the last dispensations to encourage gender equality in political scene, the various national as well as international policies amongst other things and how these measures have been implemented. This chapter will also analyze the impact these measures have had on women advancement in the country’s politics as well as the hindrances they have been face with. Finally, the concluding chapter, will highlight some observations, recommendations on the findings as well as recommendations from various respondents for further research study. ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Statement of the Problem Aims/Purpose/Objective of the Study Significance of the Study Research Questions Scope of the Study Hypothesis Methodology Theoretical Framework Delimitation (Scope) of the Study Literature Review Operational Defination of Terms Reference CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Introduction- Women in Nigerian Politics: An Overview 2.2 The 1979 and 1999 Nigerian Constitution and the Status of the Nigerian Woman in politics 2.3 Women in Pre-colonial Nigeria 2.4 Women in Colonial Nigeria 2.5 Women in Nigeria Today 2.6 The Problem of Colonial Legacy to Women’s Involvement in Nigeria Politics 2.6 Ferminist Theory in Perspctive 2.7 Arguments for gender-balanced Representation Reference CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY (DATA PRESENTAION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION) 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Research Design 3.3 Population 3.4 Sample and Sampling technique 3.5 Instrument for Data Collection 3.5.1 Personal Interview 3.5.2 Questionnaire 3.6 Data Analysis 3.7 Response to Questionnaire 3.8 Tabular Design of Questionnaire 3.9 Statistical Test of Hypotheses 3.10 Interpretation of Hypothesis 3.11 Summary Reference CHAPTER FOUR: CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS TO THE LEVEL OF WOMEN’S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA TODAY AND THE ROLE OF PARTY POLITICS 4.1 An Overview of the concept ‘Participation’ in politics 4.2 The rise and structure of political parties in Nigeria 4.3 A brief background of the three major political parties in Nigeria 4.4 The position of women in the Nigerian political parties 4.5 Ways political parties inhibit women in Nigerian politics Reference CHAPTER FIVE: CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN TO NIGERIAN POLITICS 5.1 Impacts of Nigerian Women Involvement in Nigerian Politics towards Sustainable Democracy 5.2 Barriers and Hinderances to Women Involvement women in Nigerian politics 5.3 Actors role in increasing womenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s political participation 5.4 Other contributions towards women empowerment and gender equality in Nigeria Reference CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 6.1 Summary 6.2 Conclusion 6.3 Recommendations 6.4 Recommendations for Further Studies

Role of Organic Geochemistry in Petroleum

Role of Organic Geochemistry in Petroleum A review on role of organic geochemistry in petroleum;  characterization and applications of different basins Harish Chandra Joshi Abstract Petroleum is a mixture dominantly of hydrocarbons with varying proportions of non-hydrocarbon constituents and traces of organometallic compounds. Generally Petroleum has an average composition of 85% carbon, 13% hydrogen, and 2% of sulphur, nitrogen and oxygen. The aim of study is to find out the physicochemical and genetic property of petroleum. In this study biomarkers, age specific biomarker and reservoir geochemistry can be used for the characterization, correlation and/ or reconstruction of the depositional environment as micro and macro fossils used by the geochemist. Keywords: Biomarker, Genetic Characterisation, Kerogen, Geochemical Fossils. Introduction The name geochemistry was first used by the Swiss chemist, Christian Friedrich Schonbein in 1838. Petroleum geochemistry is the application of chemical principles to the study of the origin, migration, accumulation, and alteration of Petroleum (oil and gas) and the use of this knowledge in exploring and recovering Petroleum. Organic chemistry is the branch of chemistry that deals with the distribution and composition of carbon compounds. Geochemistry is the study of the chemical composition of the earth, minerals, ores, rocks and also is the study of the origin of petroleum. The major tasks of geochemistry can be summarized as follows: The study of the relative and absolute abundances of the elements and of the atomic species (isotopes) in the earth. The study of the distribution and migration of individual elements in the various parts of the earth (the hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere etc.), and in mineral and rocks, with the object of discovering their distribution and migration. Exploration companies have used petroleum geochemistry in hydrocarbon exploration. The most and major objective of exploration geochemistry, is to reduce the risk of drilling dry holes. Petroleum geochemistry is based on the organic origin of the oil and gas whereby organic matter obtained from dead plants and animals. Organic matter is converted to hydrocarbons in the subsurface through various major three stages of transformations diagenesis, catagenesis and metagenesis. German scientist Treibs (1936) reveal a relationship between chlorophyll-a in living photosynthetic organisms and porphyrins in Crudes of petroleum. This link provides a strong evidence of organic origin of Petroleum. From the starting of the Precambrian till the Devonian, the unique primary producer of the organic matter were marine phytoplanktons. Since the Devonian an increasing amount of primary production has been contributed by higher terrestrial plants. At present cenario marine phytoplankton and higher terrestrial are estimated to produce about equal amounts of organic carbon. On increases the burial depth, porosity and permeability decrease, and temperature increases. Thus lead to the change a gradual halting of microbial activity and thus eventually called ‘organic diagenesis to a halt. As the temperature rises, thermal reactions become increasingly. This second transformation phase, called catagenesis, during the catagenesis kerogen begins to decompose into smaller, more mobile molecules. In the early stage of catagenesis, kerogens are still relatively large; these are precursors for petroleum and are called â€Å"bitumen†. In the late stages and final transfo rmation stage, called ‘metagenesis’. During metagenesis the principal products consist of smaller gas molecules. Further, kerogens formed from different organic matter, or under different diagenetic conditions, are chemically clear which has a significant effect on hydrocarbon generation. Characterization of crude oil by Analytical Methods Firstly sampling of crude oils is required for their characterization. Oil should be collected as a single- phase sample under pressure conditions as they are in reservoir. Therefore for the geochemical studies, crude oil samples are collected at the well head under atmospheric pressure. Under these conditions light hydrocarbons of crude oils are lost completely or partly. Light hydrocarbon fraction gives the ideas only about the abundance and constituents of the light end of the oil. It is normally observed that the most abundant characteristics hydrocarbons are commonly in the light fraction. For required minimizing the effects of sampling error the crude oil is distilled at 2100C. The heavier fraction is considered the foremost part of the crude oil. It is used to describe the chemical composition of a crude oil and also to compare it with other crude oils. Analytical Techniques in Petroleum Exploration Petroleum system (Demaison, 1994; Hunt, 1996) comprise all those geological elements and processes that are necessary for an oil and gas deposit to occur in nature. These main elements are a petroleum source rock, migration paths, reservoir rocks, seals, traps and the geological approach that design each of them. Such systems involve a genetic relationship between the source rock and the petroleum accumulations, but proof of that relation force a geochemical correlation. organic geochemistry techniques available include surface geochemical prospecting, source rock geochemistry, crude oil geochemistry, natural gas geochemistry, biomarker geochemistry, isotope geochemistry etc. Biomarkers in Petroleum Biological marker or shortened to Biomarkers (Seifert and Moldowan, 1981) are complex molecules derived from once living organisms they are found in sediments and oil and show little change in structure from their parent molecules (Peters Moldowan, 1993 and Hunt, 1996). These compounds are also called as geochemical fossils (Eglinton and Cavin, 1967) because of their origin from living organisms. Such compounds may be derived from terrestrial (mostly plants, marine pelagic (mostly plankton) and marine benthonic (algae, bacteria and other microbes). Biomarkers are generally, microfossils less than 30 nm in diameter and are highly variable in their stereochemistry i.e. the spatial arrangement of atoms and groups in their molecules. The common use of the biomarkers in petroleum exploration may be enumerated as follows: Biomarkers are present in both and oil a source rocks so they provide vital information for the oil-oil and oil-source correlation. Organic matter type (source of organic facies) Depositional environment Extent of thermal maturation Degree of biodegradation Information about the age of the source rock ÃŽ ± and ÃŽ ² Geometry of Biomarkers Steranes obtain from the diagenesis of natural products sterols. Diagenesis converts sterol via chemical dehydration and microbial reduction to a steranes cholestane. Cholestane molecule is drawn in three dimensions as follows. The hydrogen at the 3 position points up above the plane of the molecule and that at the 5 position points down below the plane (Peters and Moldowan 1993) Commonly Used Biomarkers in Petroleum Exploration Normal Alkanes: Normal alkanes are a homologues series of saturated hydrocarbons of general formula CnH2n+2. All linear n-alkanes from C1 to C40 and a few beyond C40 derived from different sources have been identified in crude oils. Iso- and Anteiso-alkanes: Isoalkanes are 2-methyl alkanes and quite a number of these have been observed in crude oils as have been the anteiso-alkanes, the 3-methlyalkanes. Iso and anteiso alkanes are associated with n-alkanes in plant waxes where they comprise a approximate number of carbon atoms (about 25-31) with an odd predominance Figure 1. Showing common biomarkers like paraffins, Iso and ante-isoalkane Acyclic Isoprenoid: These are special type of Iso-alkanes in which one methyl group is attached to every fourth carbon atom in straight. Isoprene (methyl butadiene) is the basic structural unit composed of carbon atoms that is found in all biomarkers. The most common isoprenoids are pristane (C19) and Phytane (C20). Figure 2. Common Isoprenoid biomarkers in petroleum Terpenoids: Terpenoids can be classified based on structural types into diterpenoids and triterpenoids Diterpenoids are categorized into bicyclic and tricyclic diterpenoids. Triterpenoids are grouped into tetra and pentacyclic. The most knowing are pentacyclic and among these are hopanes. Hopanes are pentacyclic triterpenoids comprised of four 6-membered and one 5-membered ring. There is a side chain which can contain upto 8 carbon atoms. Thus the series comprise of C27-C35 hopanes. They are believed to have originated from polyhydroxybacteriohopane. Figure 3. Structures of Common Triterpanes Figure 4. Structures of Common Tricyclic and Tetracyclic Terpanes Steranes: Steroids can be classified as aliphatic and aromatic steroids (mono, di- and tri-aromatic depending on the number of aromatic rings). Steranes are a series of aliphatic steroids. The sterols in all eukaryotic organisms are precursors to the steranes in sediments and petroleum. Like the hopanes, steranes are abundant in sediments, rocks and petroleum, because their precursors (Sterols) are so common in living organisms. Cholesterol has eight asymmetric centers and might be expected to show as many as 28 or 256 stereoisomers. Figure 5. Chemical Structure of various steroids Porphyrins: Porphyrins are characterized by a tetrapyrrolic nucleus proved to be inherited from chlorophyll, the green photosynthetic pigment of plants and animals ,hemin, the red pigment of animal blood. These tetrapyrrolic organometallic compounds reported of the vanadium and nickel in petroleum. The major types of fossil porphyrin are deoxophylloerytrapyrrole (DPEP) and etioporphyrin (ETIO) porphyrin structure. Age specific biomarkers If biomarkers characterise a molecular record of life, they can be used for age determination. Certain age specific biomarkers like Oleanane present in oils derived from late Cretaceous or Younger. C11-C19 Paraffins, Odd carbon number prevalence in oil from many Ordovician sources. 24-n-propylcholestane, High in oils from Ordovician sources.Thus the biomarkers transport to the sources has proved to be of great help in geochemical characterization of the oils/condensates. Reservoir Geochemistry The main aim of reservoir geochemistry is to understand the distribution and origin of the petroleum, water and minerals in the reservoir and account for their possible spatial and compositional variation (Cubitt and England 1995). A better understanding of the fluids in the reservoir conduct to a better understanding in an area and prioritization of exploration thrusts. The principle factors responsible for difference in petroleum composition are the effect of organic facies variations, progressive source rock maturation, migration fractionation, gravity segregation, oil/water contact and non-uniform biodegradation of oil across the field. However these effects have been normalized by using ratios of peaks corresponding to compounds of similar molecular weight in the C10+ region of the chromatogram. The study of reservoir continuity is also the focus of the geochemical characterization to trace the nature and depositional conditions of the source organics, identification of the oil families and thermal maturity of the oils/condensates. When a set of chromatographic peaks has been selected, a variety of techniques are available for grouping of this data. One way is to use a polar plot of selected ratios by a star diagram (polygon plot) by plotting each peak ratio on a different axis of polar plot. Each data point is plotted from the centre of the concentric circles outward. The points are then connected to create a star shaped pattern characteristic of each oil. Applications of geochemical characterisation Biomarker and non-biomarker geochemical parameters are best used together to supply the most authentic geological interpretations to help solve exploration, enlargement, production and environmental problems. Prior to biomarker work, oil and rock samples are properly screened using non biomarker analyses. The strength of biomarker parameters is that they provide more detailed information needed to answer questions about the source rock depositional environment, thermal maturity and the biodegradation of oils than non-biomarker analyses alone. Different depositional environments are characterized by different assemblages of organisms and biomarkers. Commonly accept classes of organisms include bacteria, algae, and higher plants. Biomarker parameters are also an effective means to determine the relative maturity of petroleum through the entire oil-generative window. Conclusion On the basis of above observation major conclusions which have been derived from the whole study are as follows: The presence of complete range of normal alkanes upto nC36 and in some cases upto nC40. The presence of biomarker in oil indicates that oil may be terrestrial or marine. The terrestrial nature of the source is also strongly indicated by the steranes. Reservoir geochemistry of oils has been used to demonstrate the lateral/vertical continuity/compartmentalization. References: Bhandari, A., Prasad, I.V.S.V., Kapoor, P.N., Varshney, Meenu, Madhavan, A.K.S., Pahari, S. and Singh, R.R., 2008. Depositional environment, distribution of source rocks and geochemistry of oil and gases, Krishna-Godavari Basin, Journal of Applied Geochem., Vol. 10 (1) pp 17-31 Bhandari, A., Prasad, I.V.S.V., and Dwivedi, Prabhakar, 2007. Stratigraphic distribution of hydrocarbons in the Sedimentary Basins of India. Symposium in Applied Geochemistry in the evaluation and management of onshore and offshore Geo sources. Journal of Applied Geochemistry, Vol. 9 (1) pp 48-73. Bhatnagar, A.K., Goswami, B.G., Rawat, G.S., Singh, Harvir and Singh, R.R., 2009. Geochemical characterization and reservoir fingerprinting to assess reservoir continuity in oils of Heera and South Heera fields, western offshore basin, India, Petrotech 2009 New Delhi. Cubitt, J.M., England, W.A., 1995. The Geochemistry of Reservoirs. The Geological Society London, pp 321. Demaison, G.J and Huizinga, B.J., 1994. Genetic classification of petroleum systems using three factors: charge, migration and entrapment. In: The Petroleum system – From source to trap (L.B. Morgan and W.G. Dow, eds), American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, pp. 73-89. Didyk, B.M., Simoneit, B.R.T.,Brassel, S.C and Eglinton, C., 1978. Organic Geochemical indicators of pale environmental conditions of sedimentation. Nature 272, pp 216-222. Eglinton, G and Calvin, M., 1967. Chemical fossils. Scl. Am. 216, pp 32-43 Hunt, J.M., 1979. Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, pp 617. Hunt, J.M., 1996. Petroleum Geochemistry and Geology. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York. Pandey, I.P., Joshi, H.C., Tyagi, Ashish Tiwari, Sadhana and Garg, Nitika, 2012. Study of the Parameters and Bio-Markers of Crude oils. Advances in Pure and Applied Chemistry, World Science Publisher, New York, United States, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp 49-53. Mackenzie, A.S., 1984. Application of biological markers in Petroleum Geochemistry, In Advances in Petroleum Geochemistry, Vol. 1, (J. Brooks and D.H. Welte, eds) Academic Press, London, pp 115-214. Mackenzie, A.S., Patience, R.L., Maxwell, J.R., Vandenbroucke, M and Durand B., 1980.Molecular parameters of maturation in the Toarcian shales, Paris Basin, France-1. Change in the configuration of acyclic isoprenoid alkanes, steranes, and terpanes. Geochimicaetcosmochimica Acta, 44, 1709- 1721. Peters, K.E., 1997. Modern Geochemical Tools for efficient exploration and Development, O.G.C.I. Training report, Oct. 20924, Mussoorie, India. Peters, K.E. and Fowler, M.G., 2002. Application of Petroleum Geochemistry to Exploration and reservoir management. Org. Geochem. Vol 33, pp 5-36. Peters, K.E. and Moldowan, J.M., 1993. The biomarker guide interpreting Molecular fossils in petroleum and ancient sediments, Prantice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ., U.S.A. Seifert, W.K. and Moldowan, J.M., 1978. Application of steranes, terpanes and Monoaromatics to the maturation, migration and source of oil. Geochem. Cosmochim., Acta 42, pp 77-95 Seifert, W.K. and Moldown, J.M., 1979. The effect of biodegradation on steranes and Terpanes in crude oil. Geochem. Cosmochim., Acta 43, pp 111-126. Seifert, W.K. and Moldown, J.M., 1980. The effect of thermal stress on source rock quality as Measured by hopane stereochemistry.Physics and chemistry of the earth, 12, pp 229-237. Smith,H.M., 1940. Correlation index to aid in interpretin crude oil analysis. U.S. Bureau of Mines, tech. Paper:610. Tissot, B.P. and welte, D.H., 1978. Pertoleum formation and Occurrence, Springer- Verlag, New York, pp. 699. Tissot, B.P and welte, D.H., 1978. Pertoleum formation and Occurrence, Springer- Verlag, Berlin. 22.Treibs, A., 1963. Chlorophyll and hemin derivatives in organic mineral substances. Angewandte Chemie, 49, pp 682-686. 1

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Essay -- Essays Papers

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born in 1806 in County Durham, England. She was the eldest of twelve children born to Edward Barrett Moulin Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, or "Ba", grew up in her family’s estate Hope End, Henfordshire. They were part of the upper-middle class, owning a successful sugar trade. Elizabeth began writing at a very early age. When she was twelve her father had her first epic poem "The Battle of Marathon" privately printed (Radley 15). She referred to this work as "Pope’s Homer done over again, or rather undone" (28). Her diary at this time in her life offered glimpses into her perceptive and expressive writing style. Three years later she became continuously ill. A doctor diagnosed her with a "nervous disorder" and gave her opium to ease her mind. She became a habitual user of opium throughout her life (17). In 1825 she published her first poem called "The Rose and Zephyr". It was published in the November 19th issue of the "Literary Gazette". Two years later her father’s business took a turn for the worse. The family was forced to move out of the Hope End estate and to Sidmouth, Devonshire. During this period of financial trouble Elizabeth’s mother suddenly died. Elizabeth became her father’s close friend and confidant. He relied on Elizabeth a great deal. He forbade his daughter to marry because he relied on her so much. In the years following her mother’s passing, Elizabeth had more of her works published. "An Essay a Mind with Other Poems", translations of Aeschylus "Prometheus Bound...and Miscellaneous Poems", and The Seraphim and Other Poems were published. The Seraphim was the first work published by Elizabeth in her name. T... ... and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1845-1846 (1969) Edited by Elvan Kintner, two volumes. Diary by E. B. B.: The Unpublished Diary of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1831-1832 (1969) Edited by Philip Kelley and Ronald Hudson. Invisible Friends (1972) The Correspondence of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1842-1845. Edited by Willard Bissell Pope. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Letters to Mrs. David Ogilvy, 1849-1861 (1973) Edited by Peter N. Heydon and Philip Kelley. Anthology Prometheus Bound (1833) Translated from the Greek of Aeschylus (from the Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=153) Useful Links The Victorian Web’s Elizabeth Barrett Browning Site: http://65.107.211.206/victorian/ebb/browningov.html Erin’s Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning Website: http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/browning.htm

The New York Crystal Palace Essay -- Architecture History

Missing image The New York Crystal Palace: The End of an Era So bursts a bubble rather noteworthy in the annals of New York. To be accurate, the bubble burst some years ago, and this catastrophe merely annihilates the apparatus that generated it. -George Templeton Strong It is unfortunate that the wonderful lithographs in our collection which depict the burning of the New York Crystal Palace are not in this online exhibition. They include a color lithograph by Currier & Ives which truly captures the excitement and confusion of that fateful night. However, the bird's eye view of the New York Crystal Palace exhibited here does justice to this amazing structure. The lithograph by Frank Leslie shows the extensive use of glass panes for which both the London and New York Crystal Palaces were given their names. It also shows the throngs of people that must have visited the New York Crystal Palace during the Exhibition, even though they were not numerous enough to make the building profitable for investors. The lithograph duplicated on this web site is about 20 x 13 inches. One is able to see the details much more clearly by viewing the original itself. As opposed to those lithographs which showed only a building with no background and no people, this image shows not only the city behind the Palace, but also the city within the Palace. In the background, one can see the various modes of transportation that visitors must have used to get to the Exhibition. The railroad runs across the top of the image, with a train in the upper left. Sailboats and steamboats move along the river, and horse-drawn carriages pull up to the front gates, unloading passengers into the crowd. The buildings behind the Palace fade away, but t... ...nd 2,000 people were in the building, but they were all evacuated in time by a heroic fire department that put saving life ahead of saving merchandise. Having been constructed almost entirely of iron and glass, with only a little wood near its base, and having been called "fireproof" at the time of its construction, the Palace faced the same sort of irony which the "unsinkable" Titanic faced in 1912. The enormous building burnt to the ground in less than half an hour. The building itself, though no longer standing, remains one of America's first and most interesting examples of glass and iron architecture. The exhibits of industrial and artistic objects, whether huge steam-powered machines, intricately decorated home furnishings, or marble statues, attested to the high degree of invention and skill that characterized the artistic expressions of ante-bellum culture.

Death Of A Salesman-The Flute As A Motif Essay

Death Of A Salesman The Flute as a Motif A motif is anything that occurs several times in the course of a literary work. Because they are repeated so often, motifs tend to show what is permanent in a character, a society or even the human condition. Even so, they also serve to establish a tone, a way of feeling about what is happening. In the story of â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† the flute serves as a vital motif throughout the entire play. Firstly, the flute is used to show failure to the past which Willy lived and it then begins to live it on the present. Throughout the play, it is clear to see in many of the scenes, where Willy beings to drift off that the flute appears most of the time. This is a way to show that Willy is having a â€Å"regression† or a sort of failure. On page 18 of the novel, â€Å"He breaks off in amazement and fright as the flute is heard distantly (Miller, page18). † This fact, that Willy breaks off, a sign of losing his temper and having one of his usual, but strange attacks, showing his sickness and the disturbance in his mind. The flute here is heard at a distance in order to show that Willy is slightly going out of his mind. Also, the flute is also a way for Willy to remember his father who was one of Willy’s most important role models. Throughout the play, it associates the playing of the flute with Willy remembering his father, who would make and sell flutes. So, while reminding him of his father, the flute takes him back in time to his young years and his childhood. â€Å"Father was a very great and a very wild-hearted man. We would start in Boston. And he’d toss the whole family into the wagon, and then he’d drive the team right across the country; through Ohio, and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and all the Western States. And we’d stop in the towns and sell the flutes that he’s made on the way (Miller, page 49). † So, this reminds him of his father and he wishes he could be just like him as he was â€Å"free† and fulfilled his goals and dreams. He’s remembering his childhood as he talks about the different places that they traveled. Furthermore, the flute is used to show disturbance within the mind of a character or â€Å"sickness† which Willy is suffering. It’s used to show the audience that Willy is sick and that his mind is also sick. Each time he dreams or drifts off to imagination, the flute is heard in the background or at a distance. â€Å"From the right, Willy Loman, the Salesman enters, carrying two large sample cases. The flute plays on. He hears but is not aware of it (Miller, page 12). † The connotation of the flute here is being used as a way to show disturbance within Willy’s mind because he is not aware of the flute although it is being played. â€Å"The flute has faded away. He sits on the bed beside her, a little numb (Miller, page 13). † Since the flute stops playing, he seems numb and seems to be imagining things, which is his sickness. Moreover, the flute is also used as a characteristic of Willy because each time Willy appears, the flute is there with him. Even at his death, the flute seems to be there in the distance. â€Å"A melody is heard, playing upon a flute (Miller, page 11). † The opening stage directions begin with the flute and it is connected with the character entering as Willy is the first character introduced to the audience. â€Å"Biff remains a slight distance up and left of Linda. She sits there, summoning herself. The flute begins, not far away playing behind her speech (Miller, page 139). † Here, the flute is being used as a characteristic of the character because Willy has already passed away and Linda remembers Willy. In remembering him, the flute plays. Hence, it represents the flute as a motif associated with Willy Loman. Lastly, â€Å"Only the music of the flute is left on the darkening stage as over the house the hard towers of the apartment buildings rise into sharp focus, and the curtain falls (Miller, page 139). † The play ends with the flute being heard in the background and once again Willy Loman is alone and dead while his family leaves. The flute still continues to play as the curtain falls. In conclusion, the flute is a vital motif in the novel â€Å"Death of a Salesman† because it represents many things. It is important in showing the failure to the past which Willy lived and it then begins to live it on the present. Also, the flute is also a way for Willy to remember his father who was one of Willy’s most important role models. Furthermore, the flute is used to show disturbance within the mind of a character or â€Å"sickness† which Willy is suffering. Lastly, the flute is also used as a characteristic of Willy because each time Willy appears, the flute is there with him. The flute has undeniably shown great importance and significance in â€Å"Death of a Salesman. † Bibliography: Miller Arthur. Death of a Salesman, Penguin Books, 1976.