Aviation Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aviation Security - Essay Example Besides screening the passengers and the carry-on baggage, the screening of checked baggage is also carried out. The motive behind the checked baggage screening is to detect the presence of bombs. No one can deny the possibility of terrorism onboard and it is imperative that proper security measures be taken. Such screening procedures are the primary sources of detecting any threat before hand and ensuring security of both the passengers as well as the aviation staff. Both the metal detector and the X-ray machine were found to be only as effective as the individuals operating them. It was discovered that the large volume of passengers going through the screening process produced the "assembly line" syndrome, causing security personnel to become much less vigilant. This coupled with terrorists' success in disguising weapons by dismantling them and distributing them among themselves, made it all too easy to circumvent this security measure. The biggest challenge is to prevent the civil aircraft from becoming a weapon of destruction. Until the September 11 attacks, the airport terminal was viewed as the first line of protection for commercial aviation against the most dangerous types of terrorist action. Based on available evidence, it is unknown whether the September 11 assailants used devious means to avoid detection of what they were carrying through pre-board screening or whether they had any "inside" help, but it is clear that under the then governmental rules and operation procedures they could have legally boarded the aircraft with the implements that they eventually used as weapons. In the wake of September 11, remedial attention focused on the carry-on screening system. There was an attempt to provide a tighter definitional mesh to screen-out potential "dual-use" utensils that could be used as weapons from being introduced into the passenger cabin. There was also a growing realization that the system was not working effectively to begin with. The more the public learned about the system the less they wanted to fly. The more the private companies lobbied to keep their markets, the more irresponsible they seemed. The more it became apparent that the governmental department with the mission to oversee this system had utterly failed, the more giving the actual operation of the screening to the same governmental department became a litmus test for security correctness. In words of Hiltzik, 2001, on September 11, "The system worked the way it was intended.... For three decades, it has been preoccupied with looking for guns and explosives rather than for dangerous people. That ... was its vulnerability. The terrorists did not breach the nation's airline security system, they slipped through its loopholes." (Hiltzik, 2001) Thus, a second type of screening has found renewed attention: scrutiny of passenger bona fides and greater focus on those with suspicious backgrounds. It is just common sense that people boarding an aircraft, and thereby gaining access to a vulnerable part of the national transportation infrastructure, should meet certain

A Critical rationale for the delivery of the PE, School Sport and Club Essay

A Critical rationale for the delivery of the PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) initiative - Essay Example Inadequate delivery of professional services to the members of public. Lack of support for health education on the part of some teachers, parents and administrators (Reidy, 2008, p. 31) Recent findings suggest that some trends such as drug and alcohol use are major contributory factors to increased health challenges in the world. Other factors that have made the situation worse include tobacco use which predisposes to users to cancer. Also, sexual behaviours, and dietary behaviours have contributed to more serious issues. U.K. has continued to fight health issues by coming up with different approaches to regulation, enforcement and incentives for compliance. There are different priorities and policies which have resulted in various differences existing between the health services systems. In addition there are private health sectors that which are considerably smaller to cater for the financially well up (Campbell, 2011, p. 40). For instance, in England most health care is provided for by the National Health Service which is accounted for in the Department of Health’s budget. Each of these systems provide health care and ambulance services for emergencies especially when patients are not able to use public means of transport. More so dental services are provided through private dental practices and dentists have no mandate to inflate the standard rate to offer the services. Other most outstanding features of UK health services are lower waiting time for the patients. This ensures that there is no delay while patients wait for services. This is a big contrast in relation to most African countries which lack such clearly defined medical services and schemes. Children are subject to higher incidences of exposure to health issues due to their behaviour and physiology. 1in every 10 children suffer from diagnosable mental health conditions. More so, most children in U.K. suffer from obesity which is a condition

Project management Essay Example for Free

Project management Essay Introduction Project Management is an art of managing the resources in such a way that the project gets completed within the scope ,time and constraints defined for the project .Project is one time –activity to create an unique product or service. A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. This project involves opening a new multi cuisine intercontinental five star hotel restaurant in Kuwait satiating the tastes and desires of people belonging to various ethnic backgrounds. Using the project management principles we would like to break down this project into 4 different phases which are as follows 1- Defining Stage 2- Planning Stage 3- Executing 4 Delivering – cannot be practiced due to lack Of time. However, we will be running through those phases in the coming 4 – 5 Months as we proceed in the project. Under the first two phases we have main topics to cover as follows DEFINING PHASE This multi cuisine restaurant which will be opened at the heart of the city in Kuwait will have wide variety of cuisines e.g. European, Chinese Japanese, Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. 2. Specification The restaurant will have 350 seats and the Kitchen is Open, all the cooking stations are in the restaurant seating area .The design is being done by a leading Japanese designer Super Potato The area of the Restaurant is 1600 square metre. Mission vision Mission Statement To provide delicious and good food for everyone ,with high quality ingredients To serve safety, healthy and clean food to the customers To provide excellent and quality products and services To provide a healthy environment for employees and customers (Mission statements) Vision: To offer affordable price to the customers. To deliver safety and clean food to the customers. To engage in charitable doings and provide healthy food https://sites.google.com/site/pbsrestaurant/vission-statement Measures of success (project management): 1- Clearly identify and explain project scope and schedule. 2- Having a clear communication channel with team members and customers. 3- To abide by the budgeting planned. C. Project Scope Studying the project scope will help identify the project broad parameters. The Following include project scope checklist that must be defined: The scope of the project is to or carry-out restaurant in the heart of Kuwait city. The project will be initiated in 2014 and come to completion in August 2015 The project will be considered completed when the restaurant is able to conduct point of sales. The project is slated to cost no more than $750,000 a. Project Objective: Gabris Lounge Restaurants objectives for the first three years of operation include: Keeping food cost fewer than 35% revenue. Keeping employee labour cost between 24-29% of revenue. Stay as a small restaurant with excellent food and service. Averaging sales between $1,000,000-1,500,000 per year. Promote and expand Leave it to Linda Catering in New Jersey New York City. Expand our marketing and advertising in New Jersey and New York. Achieve 12% return on investment to investors for the first two years and 15% for the next three years b. Deliverables: The project will have 6 milestone phases: research; procurement; renovation and styling; advertising, staff and grand open. The primary deliverables in each phase are as follows: Deliverables: i) Research Phase: (a) Market Research (b) Vendor Acquisition Contracts (d) Interior Design plans (e) Exterior Design plans (f) Site proposal plan (g) Menu Development ii) Procurement Phase: (a) Location Acquisition (b) Obtain health permits and register business (c) Kitchen equipment iii) Renovation and styling: (a) Demolition (b) Construction (c) Repair (d) Equipment Installation (f) Janitorial Needs iv) Advertising (a) Radio/TV (b) Newspaper/ Phonebooks (c) Posters Flyers (d) Website v) Staff (a) Personnel acquisition (b) Employee Training Material (c) Employee Training (d) Work Scheduling (e) Janitorial Staffing vi) Grand opening: (a) Conduct advertising campaign (b) Stock food stuffs and dry goods (c) Establish restaurant flow and timing (d) Train employees (weekly.com) Tasks Responsibilities The setting up of restaurant involves several tasks which are outlined below: 1) Choose a Restaurant Name Probably the most fun step in opening a new restaurant. Select a restaurant name that means something. It can be a reflection of your theme or location. i.e. An Italian restaurant called Giovanni’s or it can be called after the owner, such as Paula Den’s Savannah Restaurant, The Lady Son’s. 2) Find Financing This is the step that stops most people from actually opening their own  restaurant.. Although it is increasingly harder to get financing for a restaurant, it is not impossible. Between banks, small business agencies and private investors, financing is possible. But you need to show up to your interview prepared and Professional, showing potential investors that you know what you are doing. 3) Apply for Licenses and Permits Many licenses and permits take several weeks, even months to be approved. So as soon as you know you are good to go with your financing, you should start filling the paperwork. Common licenses and permits for restaurants, regardless of state include liquor licenses, sign permits and workers compensation. Apply for necessary licenses Heath department, Food manufacturer Water department, Business license, Sales use tax, Liquor license 4) Design the Restaurant A large empty space quickly fills up when you start adding commercial kitchens, walk-in refrigerators, a bar, rest rooms and waiting area. The design of a restaurant should be a balance between aesthetics and seating capacity. 5) Restaurant Menu A well-written restaurant menu should be both descriptive easy to read and have a clear keeping practicality in mind. , uncluttered layout. A few things to avoid on a restaurant menu include clip art and too many disclaimers. 6) Stock you Restaurant Once you have your restaurant design down, you can start purchasing commercial kitchen equipment and furniture for your dining room and other areas in the front of the house. To save money, consider buying used equipment, as well as leasing certain items. Commercial equipment with the Energy Star logo can cost more at first, but Usually pay for them in as little as one year. 7) Hire Restaurant Staff As you get closer to opening day you need to begin hiring for both the kitchen and floor. Kitchen staff, wait staff and bartenders are all integral parts of any restaurant, and you want to hire the perfect person for each position. 8) Advertising about the New Restaurant Advertising is a must for most new restaurants. Supplement traditional advertising, such as newspapers and radio ads, with new media. Don’t overlook the power of a good website for your restaurant. Use social media sites, like Twitter, MySpace and Face Book, to spread the word about your new place. 9) Pass Final Inspection During the final inspection, plan check staff makes sure that all necessary corrections have been made and the facility has met all re-quirements, including food safety certification and food handler training. If the facility passes final inspection, then the plan check staffs grants final written approval to operate and issues the public health permi C. Milestones: The milestones applied in this project are pointed on Microsoft Project Management Schedule attachment it includes the start time, deliverables and the steps involved in Preparing our project. Local finalization, POP false ceiling, Order system testing, Preparing Housekeeping schedule, Registration of license for foodbsuiness and sale of liquor, E. Limits and Exclusions: 3.5 Constraints: There are possible constraints associated with various tasks, which means that there is date set by which a task Must be completed. (1) Vendor Acquisition: Without the appropriate vendors we will not be able to acquire the goods and Services needed to launch the restaurant. (2) Location Acquisition if not completed in time we will not be able to acquire the various permits necessary. (3) Cannot start demolition and renovation of facility without the preconstruction permit. (4) Supplier delay in goods and services can delay renovation and opening. (5) Contractor resources limitations (6) Delivery of equipment (limits constraints) Work Break Down Structure Project planning a) Staffing 1 General Manager FRONT OF THE HOUSE BACK OF THE HOUSE 10 FLOOR MANAGERS 3 BAR MANAGEMENT 50 WAITERS 25 BUS STAFF 20 HOSTS/ATTENDESS 20 BARTENDERS/SOMMELIERS TOTAL 128 TOTAL 2 EXECUTIVE CHEFS 1 LOGISTICS/STORE MANAGERS 2 KITCHENMANAGERS/SOUS CHEFS 12 LINE CHEFS 8 KITCHEN PORTERS 1 ORGANIC GARDEN CURATOR 5 HORTICULTURE STAFF 1 BUTCHER 1 PASTRY CHEF 2 EXPIDITERS 5 DISHWASHERS TOTAL 40 b) Budgeting TIME COST ESTIMATIONS Important Assumptions The financial plan depends on important assumptions, most of which are shown in the following table as annual figures. The key underlying assumptions are: We assume a slow-growth economy, without major recession. We assume that there are no unforeseen changes in the expectancy in the popularity of our restaurant. We assume access to investments and financing are sufficient to maintain and fulfil our financial plan as shown in the tables. We recommend using Live Plan as the easiest way to create automatic financials for your own business plan. Projected Balance Sheet The projected Balance Sheet is quite solid. We do not anticipate difficulty meeting our debt obligations providing that we achieve our specific goals. Project Executing 1. Status reports: Our restaurant project is moving on the right way as we are moving in an organized and planned life span. Finding the location, budget and cost planning, licensing and certifications, decorations, staffing and buying supplies; each task is planned to start and finish in way that not to delay our project implementation. Everything is moving within our project budgeting plan in order to not face any shortage or any failure. We are trying to implement our project in a way with low cost. We used the available man power s in interior design major in decorations; we used low cost workers for painting and implementing the decorations Also, we asked to provide us with its clinic for emergency cases. Water and electricity to be under responsibility as it is part of the contract 2. Changes: In our Restaurant project we may not have serious changes among our implementation step. Because, our location should be stable as it is which is opening for a long run basis.. The changes may happened because of new government laws, and increasing in supplies costs. Those changes may happen for all business and projects which will have a direct solution from the government. Busy Babies Project Management 3. Quality: we have chosen specialized chefs and cooks maintain international standard them safe and have taken all the necessary measures to maintain safety standards and regulations, 4. Forecasts: our restaurant will be a grand success and be popular especially in Kuwait . It may increase  popularity as it will be as a part of our services for people point of view which will increase our focus on especially families. Also, after reaching high popularity in we may open new branches in other cities in Kuwait. Risk management The six principal risks identified, together with details of controls, mitigation and assurance plans are summarised belowLoading embed code†¦ Ãâ€" This activity has also been shared with your LinkedIn network Undo LinkedIn share Settings We have emailed the verification/download link to . Login to your email and click the link to download the file directly. Top of Form To request the link at a different email address, update it here. Close Validation messages. Success message. Fail message. Bottom of Form Check your bulk/spam folders if you cant find our mail. Loading Risk Mitigation controls Monitoring and assurance Current trend Health and safety risk: serious health or provenance issue relating to food. The expertise of members of the procurement, food development and safety and security teams. Stringent food safety policies and a detailed sourcing policy. New traceability and testing requirements introduced in respect of processed meat. NSF, an independent company, carries out regular audits on all suppliers to measure their performance against a range of health and safety standards. Health and safety is a hurdle on the WIN card. Regular updates are provided to the management boards and to the Board. Stable Market risk: improvement in competitor financial health and/or competitor activity can result in a loss of market share. Actions to outperform the  competition are developed on a strategic and tactical basis. Significant customer research is carried out with Premier Inn,. The customer insight received is used to develop action plans. Monthly reports are produced by each business for the Board. Relative market share information and timely trading performance data is produced and monitored by the executive teams and the Board. Premier Inn Stable Restaurants Stable Costa Improving Financial risk: significant increase in the costs and expenses Constitution of new Committee and its advisers, as well as the, have significant expertise in the area and provide good quality oversight. The advisors and the Company report regularly to the Board on the funding level and investment strategy of the fund. Third–party risk: third–party failing and consequently breaching the terms of a significant contract or giving rises to a privacy of contract claim.  Credit control checks are carried out on parties to significant contracts, along with the continued auditing and monitoring of those contracts. Regular reviews are carried out on the potential for privacy of contract claims Asset management team and credit controllers monitor risks. There is a regular review of the debtors’ registers by the management boards. Financial controllers review status at half and full–year. Operational risk: loss of key employees. It is important that the Company continues to offer key employees appropriate levels of reward and recognition in order to retain them.. The Group HR function monitors the number of key employees leaving the Company and conducts exit interviews to understand the reasons. Succession plans are reviewed regularly. Operational risk: data security breach resulting in the loss, or improper access to, customer or confidential data. The expertise of the IS team in protecting the systems and network. IS security training has been delivered to employees. Legal advisers monitor new legislation and advise the IS team. Systems are continually monitored for irregular activity. The disaster recovery plans are reviewed by the Audit Committee. Project Delivering: Resources and staff release: Where project materials/equipment have been reallocated to other projects and tasks reassigned to team members and staff. Lessons learned: Form an essential part of the project delivery phase. It helps answer the following Questions during project delivery. Did the delivered product / solution meet the project requirements and Objectives? Was the customer satisfied? Was Project Schedule Met? Was the Project completed within Budgeted Cost? Were the risks identified and mitigated? What could be done to improve the process? So, the service we are providing have met the project requirements and objectives and Customers are very satisfied with our services and the environment that we provide for The project has been completed within the schedule and budget and never exceeded it. Risks were identified, managed and reduced. What could have made the process even better are more time and better team Cooperation But these are some suggestions we think it helps for next year or in future. We can reduce the cost by having some deals with companies for supplying the necessaries for this project Conclusion In the conclusion we witnessed the importance of abiding by the framework of managing a project. The frame work assisted in identifying where our key weaknesses and strengths are and the budget status. We already identified the need of this service through previous marketing analysis and have used the Project Management strategy to help make this project a success. We defined all the aspects related to the defining and planning phases.

Case study: Relational Aggression

Case study: Relational Aggression Adolescents today face many challenges with regard to both academics and peer groups. Unfortunately, one aspect of peer relations is aggression, and many times we often only think of physical aggression. However, relational aggression can also characterize the peer interactions of adolescents, and thus it has gained more attention in research. Relational aggression can be defined as a purposeful act that an individual carries out intentionally in order to inflict harm upon another individual through a social relationship (Bowie, 2007). The present literature review will discuss some of the research that has demonstrated how relational aggression contributes uniquely and negatively to social-psychological adjustment problems in youth (Crick, Ostrov, Werner, 2006; Prinstein, Boergers, Vernberg, 2001; Reynolds Repetti, 2010; Rose Swenson, 2009). The protective factors identified by research that appear to mitigate the negative effects of relational aggression will also be discussed. Being popular (Rose Swenson, 2009), having a close friend (Prinstein et al., 2001), and having a positive academic self-concept (Taylor, Davis-Kean, Malanchuk, 2007) have all been found to act as protective factors in the face of relational aggression. Lastly, relational aggression in the context of school will be examined. Given that relational aggression makes unique contributions to social-psychological adjustment problems in the absence of such protective factors, it would be valuable to explore whether or not relational aggression also has unique negative effects on academic engagement and achievement. This could have important implications for prevention and intervention efforts, as well as educational policy and classroom management strategies. Since the conception of research on relational aggression, researchers have found that engaging in relational aggression can have negative effects on various social-psychological adjustment outcomes for adolescents. A study by Crick et al. (2006) targeted a sample of 224 children, who were part of a larger longitudinal study, as they progressed from third to fourth grade in order to examine how relationally aggressive behavior affected childrens social-psychological adjustment over time. The authors hypothesized that relationally and physically aggressive children would exhibit increased levels of both internalizing and externalizing difficulties. They also expected that relational aggression would create distinct psychopathological symptoms from those that are associated with physical aggression. Participants completed a self-report measure about physical and relational aggression, as well as prosocial behavior. Participants teachers filled out a survey to assess childrens social-ps ychological adjustment. Results indicated that relational aggression is indeed a significant indicator of childrens risk for future social-psychological adjustment problems, and that the outcomes of relational aggression are unique compared to those of physical aggression. The authors call for additional, similar studies to improve prevention and intervention programs that address both physical and relational aggression in boys and girls. Similarly, a study by Prinstein et al. (2001) examined the association among relational and overt forms of aggression and adolescents internalizing and externalizing symptoms and behavior in a sample of 566 adolescents in a New England high school. The authors hypothesized that relational aggression would be distinctively associated with depressive symptoms, loneliness, self-esteem, and externalizing behavior. Another significant hypothesis was that having a close friendship would buffer adolescents from the negative social-psychological adjustment outcomes that are associated with relational aggression victimization. Several self-report questionnaires were administered to the participants that respectively measured overt and relational aggression and victimization, depressive symptoms, loneliness, self-esteem, externalizing symptoms, and close friend social support. Results demonstrated that adolescents make a distinction between overt and relational forms of aggression and victimiz ation. Relational aggression was found to have its own unique effects on victims, including higher levels of depressive symptoms, higher levels of loneliness, and lower global self-worth. The hypothesis was supported that having a close friend did act as a buffer against negative psychological adjustment problems associated with relational aggression. A study by Reynolds and Repetti (2010) gathered descriptive information from 114 girls in a Los Angeles public high school about the forms, frequency, perceived motives and functions, and types of emotions felt when relationally aggressing or when being victimized. An online survey was utilized that elicited scale ratings and descriptive responses from the participants about their experiences as both perpetrators and victims of relational aggression. The results showed that every participant reported being involved as both a perpetrator and a victim in each form of relational aggression at least once in the past year. The most frequent form reported was talking behind another girls back, while the next most frequent behaviors were spreading rumors about a girl and intentionally ignoring her. The most frequently reported function was trying to get back at someone. Additionally, the participants reported that ignoring, as compared to rumors and exclusion, was related to the strongest n egative feelings experienced at the time of the incident, like sadness. Ignoring emerged as a unique form of relational aggression in this study, which merits further investigation. Implications of this and similar studies demonstrate that intervention and prevention efforts should focus on the most frequently reported behaviors by adolescents. Due to the evidence suggesting that relational aggression has unique, negative effects on social-psychological adjustment in children and adolescents, it is important to look at what protective factors might exist for children and adolescents that buffer these negative effects. In addition to the finding that a close friend can buffer the negative effects of relational aggression (Prinstein et al., 2001), other protective factors have been identified through research. For example, a study by Rose and Swenson (2009) looked specifically at perceived popular adolescents who relationally aggress and whether or not their participation in relational aggression leads to emotional adjustment problems. The authors studied a sample of 439 students in seventh and ninth grade in the United States. It was hypothesized that perceived popularity would moderate the association between relational aggression and internalizing symptoms. Peer nomination surveys were used to assess peer status and aggres sion, and the Childrens Depression Inventory was used to assess internalizing symptoms. Results demonstrated that perceived popular adolescents who relationally aggress do not experience emotional adjustment problems, but youth who were perceived as less popular did experience elevated internalizing symptoms. This finding suggests that popularity acts as a buffer against the negative effects of relationally aggressive behavior. For this reason, the authors discuss future directions in research that could examine which other variables protect popular, relationally aggressive peers from experiencing internalizing symptoms. Similarly, Cillessen and Mayeux (2007) also investigated peer status and aggression, however they did so around the transitions from elementary to middle school, and from middle school to high school. They looked at how these constructs are related to adolescents academic and social expectations in their new school system. The total sample size was 2,434 with students from fifth, sixth, eighth, and ninth grade. The authors hypothesized first that pre-transition expectations and post-transition perceptions of academic and social functioning would be moderately correlated. Secondly, they hypothesized that both social preference and perceived popularity would be positively correlated with social expectations, and thirdly, that both overt and relational aggression would be positively associated with social expectations. Participants completed a sociometric assessment that measured social preference, perceived popularity, overt aggression, and relational aggression. Participants also comp leted a set of self-report questionnaires that measured pre-transition expectations and post-transition perceptions of academic and social functioning. Results demonstrated that their first hypothesis was correct. They also found that popular adolescents had more positive expectations of transitions, and also rated themselves as doing better socially after the transition. Relational aggression was negatively correlated with the academic functioning of sixth grade girls. No other main effects were found for relational aggression. Consequently, the authors called for more research on relational aggression in the social and academic lives of students, especially for girls. Relational aggression can have impacts on the development of friendships as well, as demonstrated by Sijtsema et al. (2010) in their longitudinal study. They examined how aggression in different forms and functions (instrumental, reactive, overt, relational) impacts friendship development in a sample of 337 participants, ages 12 to 14 years. The authors hypothesized that instrumental, relational, and overt forms of aggression would be associated with making friends who are equally aggressive. They also hypothesized that reactive aggression would predict a high number of unidirectional friendship nominations in which the aggressor nominates others, but is never nominated by others. Additionally, the authors hypothesized that social influence effects will appear uniquely in relational aggression contexts. Various questionnaires were administered to the participants to gather information about friendship networks, previous acquaintances, and occurrences of instrumental, reactive, overt, and relational aggression. Results demonstrated that all four conceptualizations of aggression had unique and meaningful effects on friendship selection and social influence during early adolescence. Of particular interest was that relationally aggressive adolescents selected similarly aggressive friends, and that relational aggression was subject to social influence. Therefore, it was found that relational aggression uniquely affects early adolescent friendships, regardless of the function of the relationally aggressive behavior. Given that relational aggression can occur in school contexts because that is where peer groups are situated, it is important to examine various aspects of the schooling experience in order to better understand why relational aggression occurs. Accordingly, Totura, et al. (2009) conducted a study that used an ecological framework to examine how middle school students (N = 2,506) perceptions of their family and school contexts moderated their involvement in and the effects of bullying and victimization. The authors hypothesized that students with internalizing and/or externalizing problems would be less likely to be categorized as bullies and/or victims if they had a stable family context, and if their school had high levels of support and monitoring. They hypothesized that students would be more likely to be identified as bullies and/or victims if their school and family contexts were characterized by low levels of support, monitoring, and school belongingness. The investigators used student and teacher surveys to measure bullying and victimization, internalizing and externalizing problems, family functioning, school bonding, adult monitoring at school, aggressiveness of the school climate, and academic performance. Results of this study demonstrated that there are many relations among emotionality, bullying, and students perceptions, as well as some significant gender differences. One result particularly important result is that bullies and bully/victims exhibited lower academic achievement and were less bonded with school. This points to a potential area of research that explores whether or not increasing childrens academic engagement, achievement and bonding with school can actually decrease relational aggression. Another important implication of this study is that it demonstrates how important students perceptions of their environment are and the impact that their perceptions can have on their experiences with bullying and victimization. Furthermore, Taylor et al. (2007) explored how self-esteem and self-concept may influence aggression in a school setting. The authors used a diverse sample of 842 children, which was part of a larger longitudinal study, in middle schools in an East coast state. The authors hypothesized first that students with negative academic self-concepts would be more likely to aggress in school than children with more positive academic self-concepts. Their second hypothesis was that students whose high academic self-concept is threatened would be more likely to aggress at school. The study utilized interviews and self-report questionnaires from both the participants and the participants primary care givers to measure the constructs of aggression, self-esteem, academic self-concept, and academic performance. Results supported the authors first hypothesis in that low academic self-concept was correlated with increased aggression in school. However, their second hypothesis was not supported. These findings are significant because they demonstrate that if we can increase childrens academic self-concepts, perhaps aggression would decrease. All of the studies mentioned above have made significant contributions to the study of relational aggression, specifically with regard to the social-psychological effects of relational aggression, protective factors, how relational aggression impacts friendship development, and how school contexts can impact relational aggression. These studies all have some analogous strengths and limitations that can point us to future directions in research. Longitudinal methods were used in the study by Crick et al. (2006), as well as the study by Sijtsema et al. (2010), demonstrating definite strengths for these two studies. However, Crick and his colleagues did mention that a limitation of their study was that the interval was only one year, and so future studies would benefit from having longer time intervals to see how relational aggression affects children through different developmental periods. Sijtsema et al. (2010) acknowledged that a limitation of their study was that peer relations wer e examined with respect to school grade, so aggression that occurs outside of school might not have been captured in the study. Both studies by Prinstein et al. (2001), and Totura et al. (2009) addressed the fact that their cross-sectional designs were an inherent limitation. Specifically, Totura et al. (2009) stated that the cross-sectional nature of their study prohibits researchers from determining which came first, internalizing and externalizing difficulties or bullying/victimization. In this way, future longitudinal studies would be exceptionally beneficial to the field so that we can further examine what factors lead to engaging in relational aggression. Similar to the study by Totura et al. (2009), the study conducted by Rose and Swenson (2009) discussed a limitation of their study that the results cannot speak to causation, only to correlation. Their study did have two important strengths in their sample size and their use of validated measures of depression and anxiety. The study by Totura et al. (2009) also had a very large sample size at N = 2,506. The study by Prinstein et al. (2001) used a very ethnically diverse sample. Future studies would benefit from also making every effort to obtain a diverse sample in order to best understand relational aggression in adolescents. Additionally, future studies would benefit from including school transitions and perceptions, like Cillessen and Mayeux (2007) did in their study. A limitation of their study was their exclusive use of self-report measures, which will be discussed later in this literature review. The authors did acknowledge, though, that future research would benefit from including more objective measures of social and academic outcomes. Lastly, a strength of the (2010) study by Reynolds and Repetti was that the investigators collected novel, descriptive data through an online survey that informed them of the unique experiences of relational aggression among high school girls. A limitation of this study was its relatively small sample size (N = 114), and the fact that the stud y only addressed girls. All of these studies (Crick et al., 2006; Prinstein et al., 2001; Reynolds Repetti, 2010; Sijtsema et al., 2010; Taylor et al., 2007; Totura et al., 2009; Cillessen Mayeux, 2007; Rose Swenson, 2009) actually used self-report questionnaires as at least part of their methodology. Self-report methodologies are certainly valuable, however future research would benefit from the use of different methodologies as well, as suggested by Cillessen and Mayeux (2007), in order to ensure that we understand relational aggression from multiple perspectives. Crick et al. (2006) also used teacher reports in order to assess the childrens social-psychological adjustment. Equivalently, Totura et al. (2009) used teacher surveys in addition to student surveys to measure bullying and victimization, and internalizing and externalizing symptomology, in addition to other various constructs. Rose and Swenson (2009) used peer nomination surveys in order to assess peer status and aggression, and this was in a ddition to the self-report measure used to assess internalizing symptoms. Taylor et al. (2007), in addition to having the adolescents complete self-report questionnaires and having their primary caregivers complete surveys, also interviewed the adolescents themselves. The use of interviews could provide valuable in-depth information about the experiences that children and adolescents have with relational aggression. Another methodology that has not yet been utilized in past research is focus groups. This could involve having six to eight adolescents talk about their experiences with relational aggression. Methodologies like focus groups and interviews would be extremely valuable when used in addition to self-report, peer-report, teacher-report and/or parent-report surveys. In this way, researchers would be able to gather information from a variety of sources in order to understand relational aggression. Few studies have addressed how relational aggression might impact the academic achievement and engagement of adolescents. Exceptions to this include the study by Totura et al. (2009) that investigated how middle school students perceptions of their family and school contexts moderate their involvement in and the effects of bullying and victimization. Importantly, the authors defined bullying as engaging in the following behaviors: kicking/pushing/hitting, name calling, teasing, socially isolating others, and spreading false rumors (Totura et al., 2009, p. 579). In this way, the authors do capture important aspects of relational aggression. The results of this study have important implications for future studies that look at how relational aggression impacts academic achievement and engagement. Moreover, Taylor et al. (2007) investigated how self-esteem and academic self-concept influence aggression in a school setting. However, a limitation of this study is that the researchers opera tionalized aggression as acts of aggression that resulted in formal school discipline, although they acknowledged the various forms of aggression and the fact that not all aggression results in formal discipline. It must be addressed, though, that acts of relational aggression might not have been captured to the full extent in this study. Nevertheless, the methodology used and the results found in this study provide support for promising directions in the research of a possible link between relational aggression and academic achievement. Overall, the studies mentioned above utilize similar methodologies in order to address various aspects of relational aggression. The studies above investigated how relational aggression affects social-psychological adjustment adolescents, what protective factors exist to buffer adolescents from the negative effects of relational aggression, how engaging in relational aggression affects friendship development, and lastly how a few school-related constructs affect ones experience with relational aggression. The purpose of this literature review was to provide an analysis of what research has been done with regard to relational aggression. Because it has been shown that relational aggression has unique, negative effects on the social-psychological adjustment of adolescents, it is imperative that we examine what other negative effects might be a result of engaging in relational aggression, either as a perpetrator or as a victim. Specifically, research on how relational aggression impacts academic engagement in the classroom, and consequently academic achievement, would be very valuable. School bonding and school spirit are other constructs that could be explored. If a negative association is found between relational aggression and academic engagement, this could have implications for educational policy and school behavioral management systems. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to explore whether or not increasing the academic self-concept of an adolescent would cause a subsequent decrease in their engagement in relational aggression. Future studies would benefit form utilizing multiple methodologies, including interviews or focus groups in order to gain a deeper understanding about what it is like to experience relational aggression. The area of how relational aggression might impact academic engagement has yet to really be explored, and so studies in this area would be indispensable in informing research and also practices in the field.

Analysis of Superstitions :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Superstitions Mysterious happenings are all around us today. I personally have done extensive studies in the histories of many of these superstitions, from the common to the absurd. Science tends to claim that all superstitions are pointless, and, in some cases, I agree, such as the fear of black cats, but the fact of the matter is that some superstitions come from a rich pre-Christian background. Many superstitions have been doubted since the rise of science, but it has been said that "In spite of advances and science, people are still superstitious." First, today's superstition is yesterday's magick; second, many people still practice the old ways; and finally, even common people practice. Superstitions are a part of our everyday lives and always have been. First, today's superstitions are yesterday's magick. Magick is the term practitioners use to describe the direct but subtle influence over reality; magic is a term for stage tricks. Long before the age of science, magick was a common element in every religion, even Christianity. Even science in its beginning, was based on old magicks like numerology, begun by Pythagoras, and alchemy. Since then, we have several leftovers from the old ways, my favorite of which is knocking on wood. The ancient Celts (pronounced Kelts) began this practice as a way of thanking the wood fairies, who were seen as mostly responsible for good luck. Today, when speaking of one's good fortune, it is common to knock on wood, though most people do not know why. Despite science's attempts to turn the old ways into useless or forgotten superstitions, the remnants of them are still around. Second, many of us still practice magick, roughly 10,000 in America. Collectively, the religion is known as Wicca, though not all Wiccans practice magick, and not all of those who practice magic are Wiccan. Obviously, the scientific community would prefer to believe that we are either insane, delusional, or con-artists, but none of that is true. I have seen magick work and have done it myself. In fact, my favorite way to gain the trust of a new friend is by granting him or her one wish, as long as the wish is not too grand; as I said before, magic is subtle.

Eating Disorders and the Media Essay -- Female Body Image Weight Healt

Eating Disorders and the Media What if you were surrounded by media messages telling you that, â€Å"people will like you more if you have the perfect body† or â€Å"being perfect makes people like you† ? How do you think young female teenagers would interpret these messages that the media are portraying? 81% of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat, of being considered ugly. Why do you think ten year olds would ever care about how they look? It’s because of the media implying that being slim is beauty. Due to the media’s brainwashing, poor self-image is one of the main causes of eating disorders in adolescent girls. The media sells products, not opinions nor facts. They will sell you anything, telling you that it will make you slimmer and that being skinny is the way to go. When we see models and celebrities on commercials and in movies, we often wish that that was us in that body, because the media has made everyone so obsessed with their own bodies. The media makes young female teenagers feel guilty if they are slightly overweight. Models are beautiful, skinny, they have the right size thighs, hips, and butt. They are models but they are not role models. They are everything teenagers want to be, because of the television they watch and the magazines that they read. The media are always telling them that being thin is considered beautiful. This sends a wrath between females and their impression of what beauty really is. Some females will go to any length to try to be that perfect body weight person. Such a person doesn’t even exist. For there is no perfect weight for which females should strive to achieve. Although there are many young females who will restrict what they are allowed to eat & when they are allowed to eat it. They will exercise compulsively and self effectuate vomiting. Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overeating are three of the major eating disorders that infatuate young minds. Female teenagers see bingeing, dieting and vomiting, a way out of actually doing a workout and getting into shape. There is a widening gap between girl’s self-image and society’s messages about what girls should be like. The media uses television, magazines and subliminal messages to attract people. They have playboy models advertising for cars, boats and body lotion. They use a women’s body to advertise for their products. The media doe... ... they need to resolve, like the depression of not being happy with themselves. Of going through many procedures to make them look â€Å"thin† or â€Å"ordinary† because they can no longer be happy with themselves because of the media’s interference with adolescent girls images. Anorexia and bulimia are one of the main causes along with the media as to why adolescent girls are always slightly underweight and devastating skinny. If the media didn’t interfere with adolescent perceptions, maybe one half of fourth grade girls wouldn’t be on a diet. Intense fear of becoming fat and distorted body images aren’t the kinds of thing we want our adolescents girls to become. To think about their appearance and weight 24/7 isn’t right. The media should stop publicizing young female bodies and telling them what beauty is perceived to them. They should think of all those adolescents girls that they send into depression or force to become bulimic, just because they wish to make money. The media brainwashes too many of adolescent girls, making them think about their body in relation to models who have unmistakably the â€Å"perfect body†. Making them think that you have to be thin in order to be beautiful.

Global Software Piracy Case Study

MGT 440 International Buisness Name of the case: Global Software Piracy Prepared by: xxxx Date 16-03-2010 Executive Summary: This case is taking software piracy under the light that explained at the end of the third chapter of the book International Business environments and operations by Daniels in the 11th edition. Software piracy is the mislicensing, unauthorized reproduction and illegal distribution of software, whether for business or personal use. When someone copies software without buying the appropriate number of licenses, it is copyright infringement. Individual copying software for a friend is a form  of software piracy. Types of software piracy may include: end-user piracy, pre-installed software, Internet piracy, and counterfeiting, online auction piracy. Q1. What is the relationship among the various governments, institutions, organizations, and companies in developing legal codes to combat software piracy? Companies, industry associations and governments developed arrangement and legal codes to deal with software piracy. Governments have been passing and enforcing laws supporting copyrights. The effort to condemn software piracy led to more governments joining the effort, associations such as BSA (Business Software Alliance) have members in more than 70 nations. All this effort can’t really provide significant results in the future. Other method has to be considered as well. Narrowing the gap in price of the legal and illegal copies, my encourage consumers to go for the legal copies. Other solutions is the introduction of new technologies that would limit if not kill software piracy, such as the introduction of cloud computing. Q2. In your opinion, should software companies, industry associations, home governments, or transnational institutions take the lead in aggressively negotiating with the governments of countries with high piracy rates? Why? Reading up the case, you can see the enthusiasm that most governments shown in form of enforcing laws or taking actions as well. So, what I think is instead of pushing governments to negotiate with other high rated piracy countries may lead to more complexity in their political relationships. It would be better if complies make enquires by themselves or by watchdog associations such as BSA. Other methods are through international trade channels. In the case with countries of high piracy rates, adjustments to their copyrights laws made above their accession to the WTO, china for example. Q3. Can the software industry expect to contain and control software piracy without eventually relying on governments to take a more active role? Why would the software industry dislike greater government regulation? Yes. I think software industry can contain and control software piracy without eventually relying on governments to take a more active role. This is done through technology innovation. The introduction of cloud computing has opened the door to a future with no software piracy. Cloud computing  is  Internet-based  computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity. Software are to be rented or incensed by paying a fees on the user of software and no such piracy is possible in this world, unless newly discovered! Q4. In your opinion, what rationale do you think consumers in high theft countries (see Table 3. 6) use to justify software piracy? Similarly, what ideas or conditions lead consumers in lower theft countries to respect IPRs? Consumers in high theft countries tend to be more of a collectivists kind of cultures where is sharing is on of its primary features. While Consumers in high theft countries are individualistic. Q5. What sorts of political or legal solutions should the software industry lobby governments to apply to the piracy problem? Software companies should convince governments to enforce laws and legal actions in case of violations to the copyright laws. And keep pursuing international regulators such as WTO to establish piracy policies and protect the intellectual rights.