The Genetics of autism, a complex human disease Dissertation

The Genetics of autism, a complex human disease - Dissertation Example The paper tells that autism is not a disease condition but it displays genetic and non-genetic basis. Autism encompasses a wide range of developmental disorders and therefore it is considered as the autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) regarded as an extensive variety of behavioural provinces involving- lack of social interaction by the child; inappropriate language and communication skills; diminished activities. Research studies carried out for the past 5 decades now establish the fact that autism is the result of multiple interaction of genetic factors. Considering the epidemiology of autism, various environmental factors encompassing exposure to toxic chemicals such as teratogens which are responsible for causing developmental abnormalities, perinatal abuse, infections during prenatal phase involving rubella and cytomegalovirus, epilepsy are the most probable reasons that is known to be responsible for causing autism. Studies also reveal the association of autism with frequency

The Nature of the Bureaucracy Essay Example for Free

The Nature of the Bureaucracy Essay Many Americans today have a negative perception of the federal bureaucracy. They consider it a huge, immovable object that hinders progress and intrudes on their lives. Most Americans believe the federal bureaucracy has grown in the last few decades to an enormous size. This is a misperception. Since the 1960s, the size of the federal bureaucracy has been very stable. By contrast, however, state and local bureaucracies have grown steadily since World War II, reflecting the increasing extent to which federal programs are administered by the states. Most Americans also feel that the federal bureaucracy is very wasteful. Whistle-blowers and reports of abuses fuel this perception of waste, which does sometimes occur. The late Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin was famous for his Golden Fleece awards given to departments and individuals for wasteful spending he found in the bureaucracy. Senator Proxmires focus on spending abuses helped end many wasteful and unwise practices. Writing in the first decades of the twentieth century, the German sociologist Max Weber theorized on governments, institutions, and bureaucracies. Weber believed that bureaucracies function to implement the policies of elected government in a rational, efficient, non-partisan manner. He felt that workers in bureaucracies develop specific expertise and technical knowledge that could not be acquired in the relatively short tenure of elected or appointed policy makers. He also felt that they possess critical knowledge about the history and practice of their agency within the larger framework of government and society and that they provide continuity from one administration to the next, which is essential for an orderly transfer of power under rule of law. Leadership may change, but the engine of government does not falter on account of having a new driver in a government that possesses a strong bureaucracy. Weber identified the structure of a bureaucracy as a hierarchical pyramid with levels of rank and power and a single director at the top. He said bureaucratic jobs tend to require specialized knowledge, such as accounting, statistics, economics, or health care. Obtaining a position within a bureaucracy is ideally based on merit for performing the job rather than on other factors, such as being a friend or relative of someone with pull or being owed a political or financial favor. Modern theorists feel that while Weber made some good observations about bureaucracies, he did not sufficiently address the manner in which bureaucracies function in government. Bureaucracies tend to resist change because change uses resources and introduces unknown elements into the system. For this reason, a bureaucracy is often at odds with elected officials and their appointees, who by contrast often get elected or appointed on a promise to implement change. To minimize the effects of leaders who come and go, a bureaucracy will tend to seek power of its own and uses its power, for the most part, to maintain the status quo. When asked to change, bureaucracies often respond with a request for more people and resources rather than with a plan to restructure or become more efficient. In this way, bureaucracies can become large, cumbersome, and complex if they are not required to account for their own practices. Bureaucracies tend to be monopolistic because it makes little sense to have more than one government agency performing the same function. Complaints about bureaucratic monopolies are generally the same as for corporate monopolies—without competition or some strict means of regulation, a monopoly becomes inefficient at best and tyrannical at worst. Government bureaucratic monopolies can have competition from private sources. The U.S. Post Office, Amtrak, and NASA are all government monopolies. Until recent decades, the U.S. Post Office was by law the only carrier of mail and parcels. Private companies that felt they could deliver packages at a profit lobbied for a change in the law to allow pr ivate carriers. Now there are several parcel delivery companies that are very successful and profitable.

Sectionalism And The Breakup Of The U.s Essay -- essays research paper

Sectionalism and the Breakup of the U.S Throughout the early 1800's the country was split in many areas over many issues. Some of the more severe clashes between differing groups resulting from such issues as slavery, expansion, and internal improvement. With all of these controversial topics to worry about along with the vast diversity in the nation, caused separation and tensions throughout the country. The most prominent of the previous topics was slavery. This was an issue in the days of the bible and continues to be an issue in the middle 1800's. The divisions in the country brought about by slavery seem to be categorized into two main groups, abolitionists, and slave holders. These two groups also were divided geographically for the most part due to the South's need of slaves for cheap, and reliable man power, and the North, as it was not an agriculturally based economy and needed little in the way of unskilled laborers. It was very easy for the North to bash the South's slavery because their economy did not depend upon slavery. They had no slaves, no need for slaves, and saw slavery as inhumane and unlawful. The south, however, depended upon slavery as a basis of production, and the only way to operate large farms at the time, primarily being the large cotton plantations of the south. Several people tried to resolve the issue of slavery with compromises and bills that set clear rules and laws to appeal to both sides. The most prominent being the Missouri compromise. This document set the standard for slavery at the time. It also managed to further divide the country into two opposing groups geographically separated by the 36 degree 30 minute line. The bill clearly stated that no states above the proposed line shall have slavery, with exception to those already in existence. This meant that all new states being brought into the country from the west had a choice to have slavery if and only if they laid below the line. Obviously, the south did not really like the idea, as it allowed the northern non-slave states to outnumber the southern slave-states in the south as far as representation in the government was concerned. Another part of the slavery controversy was the moral issue and weather or not it w... ... sides. We see the best example of this in the Maysville Road article. There was a dispute over the proposed road, and weather or not it should be built with federal money. The government claimed that the road was for the benefit of the mail, and allowed easy passage through the mountains of Kentucky. Many people did not like the idea still because it represented federal money being distributed in unequal amounts to different states, along with non uniform benefits. This quickly set defined boudaries between the political parties of the time, and started a vast amount of tension between the two parties. By the end of the dispute, the opposed(Federalists) came out on top, and the road was never built, but it shows the first, strong, divergence in the populous of our nation since its conception. All of the above examples are all representative of issues of the time which played a large roll in sectionalism, and the breakup of the United States. Over the long run, it is a miracle that, with the vast spectrum of people in the country, we have managed to stay together, through thick and thin, driven by one common force, "Freedom."

Imagine you are Directing Essay

Introduction I intend to study the Crucible by Arthur Miller. I will be looking at act 3, through the eyes of a director. The character I will mainly be focusing on is Abigail Williams, a late teen who had committed adultery with the well thought of, John Proctor. The play was written in 1952 and was an allegory of the political state of America under the supervision of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The play was set in 1692 in a god-fearing, puritan village that was isolated in the east of Massachusetts. This play is based upon the Salem witchcraft trials, two centuries before the book was written and therefore the location of the play was thought of to be masking the anti-communist message it was portraying. The basis of the play is of a group of young female teens that had danced in the woods within the hours of darkness. Yet because of the beliefs that these acts were closely related to witchcraft, the readings of the bible would instruct them to hang all those who participated. Yet to avoid their own prosecution the blame was passed to many innocent people, including a West Indian slave, who because of her colour and belief in spells was an easy target and another was the wife of John Proctor. John himself then becomes the main suspicion of practicing witchcraft after the tables are turned once again. He was asked to give names of those he knows of having connections with the devil to save his own life, he refused to answer their questions as did Miller when he was summoned before McCarthy’s ‘House Un-American Activities Committee. This was very similar to the condition of America around the early 1950’s when the country was in a situation of corruption. Many innocent people had come to a gritty end, after ‘scapegoats’ that were part of McCarthy’s ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’, could prove them guilty on the flimsiest of evidence. Stage Design I have chosen the below layout because I believe it gives the best possible chance for all of the characters to be seen and heard clearly throughout this act. Dramatic Techniques As a director the dramatic techniques of Miller Display complete essay The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Northanger Abbey Characters Essay

Second of which, it is also important to note that the social identity theory claims that every person enacts multiple identities that functions in every social context such as for instance, mother, professor, volunteer, that could be drivers of buying actions (p. 11). The behavioral decision theory that is under the umbrella of the social identity theory claims that choices of consumers are often made in accordance with their attribute values. Closely related to this is the attitude theory which emphasizes consumer expectancies and evaluations on a particular product belief (p.11-12). The figure below presents consumer goals in terms of their buying preferences. It could be seen that the core reason that determines why such and such consumers buy certain products is primarily due to their life theme and values. In effect of these, their life themes and values deeply influenced how they are going to deal with their life projects, current concerns and consumption intentions. Finally, the benefits sought and the feature preferences are also considered as the end goal of the being and doing hierarchy. Figure 3:   A hierarchical model of consumer goals Source: Ratneshwar, Mick and Huffman (2000, p. 14) Life themes and values are the personal ideas of being and the highest goal in a person’s framework. A terminal value is a belief that is considered as an end in itself such as freedom r wisdom. These types of values are like existential concerns that every customer has to deal with their daily lives which are rooted on their personal histories (p. 15). Themes and values in one’s life are the core conceptions of the self. These values are deeply embedded, interconnected and central in order to maintain integrity of the self-system. Corollary with this, these values are relatively stable and accessible as well and could be activated easily in almost any circumstance. As such it could be said that themes and values serve as a yardstick or standard guide to lower-order goals and actions (p. 17). Current concerns such as activities, tasks or quests are also vital in a consumer’s buying behavior. For instance, activities or life projects that a customer wants to engage into like gardening, being an animal rights advocate and the likes influences them to buy certain products that are in accordance to such goals (p.18). 2. 5 CSR and Purchasing Decisions The link between CSR and consumer purchasing decisions is something that has a direct relationship. It has been said by Varadarajan and Menon (1988) that it is very relevant for consumers to first be educated on a particular company’s level of social responsibility before they could incorporate such on their pattern of behavior. This is important so that consumer purchasing decisions could be affected by the CSR programs that a company is employing. The notion of cause related marketing which is a way for companies to support non profit organizations by allotting a certain percentage of their sales to the former is one of the most effective way of doing the aforementioned (Mohr and Webb, 2001, p. 45). Albeit, it should be noted that although CSR has been highly exercised by most companies, the biggest inhibitor of the latter’s success is lack of consumer awareness on a particular company’s CSR program. However even if this is the case, there is a growing evidence that a lot of consumers are desiring to know more about how companies conducts their businesses. The purchasing information that was given by Council on Economic Priorities in 1994 tells that consumer interest on CSR has been steadily growing (Mohr and Webb, 2001, p. 45). 2. 6 Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty Customer satisfaction is difficult to understand and it is define in different ways. Many researchers argued that there is a difference between the customer satisfaction, which is gained from tangible products and intangible services. The difference is because of the intangibility of the services and the failure to separate production and consumption. Therefore, customer satisfaction from services and goods may come from and influenced by different factors. Hence, should be considered separately and differently (Veloutsou, C. et al, 2005). Two issues should be considered when looking customer satisfaction in services whether it is conceptualized or transaction specific or cumulative (Hoest, V. and Knie-Andersen, M. , 2004). Customer satisfaction has been perceived as not the sole determining factor for a loyal customer base (Griffin and Herres, 2002, p. 2). During the 1980s and the 1990s, the notion of customer satisfaction which is weighed in terms of providing quality customer service and excellence has been perceived as providing good financial results and repeat purchase. A study conducted by Forum Corporation (Stum and Thiry, 1991, p. 34) claimed that 40% of the customers who participated in the study claimed to be satisfied with a particular product found it easy to shift brands without any hesitation. As such, it has been perceived by Griffin and Herres (2002; p.4-5) that the true measurement that should be used in repeated business is Customer Loyalty. Customer loyalty focuses more on consumer behaviour than attitude. When a particular client is loyal to a brand, such a person is more particular in conducting purchase behaviour that is relatively more non random. A client who is loyal to a brand has developed a particular justified belief on which and what to buy from whom. More importantly, the notion of loyalty implies a purchase that occurs for a particular duration, which does not occur less than twice. Also, it could be significantly noted that the decision to purchase could be made by one or two or more individuals. As such, it could be the case that the decision making to buy a particular product could be a compromise, hence explaining one of the key reasons for one’s loyalty for a particular unit. There are two important factors that are closely associated with brand loyalty and these are customer retention and total share of customer. The former describes the duration in which a particular company has the business of a client. The rate of customer share on the other hand is equivalent to the percentage of a customer’s budget that is spent with the firm. For instance, a company is said to have 100% share of a customer’s budget if the latter spends his or her entire budget with a particular firm. As such it could be said that customer retention and percentage of customer’s budget is very important; however, there might be instances wherein a customer is prevented by certain laws to purchase just from one vendor such as government accounts. Gustafsson and Johnson (2000; p.50) presented a model which would effectively measure customer satisfaction. Satisfaction in terms of the model is perceived as â€Å"customer’s overall evaluation of the purchase and consumption experience with a product, service or provider†. The model presented by Gustafsson and Johnson (2000) appears to be different from transaction-specific portrayals of customer satisfaction that normally leads to repurchase. The model focuses on the importance of Customer Lens or the perspective of a customer on a particular brand, most especially how it benefits them. The lens of the customer will allow the organization to take a view of their product as it appears on the market place and not really how their organization perceives it (Gustafsson and Johnson, 2000, p. 5). It has been argued by Gustafsson and Johnson   (2000) that customers’ decisions to repurchase a particular product are deeply influenced by their overall purchase and consumption from a particular company or brand. In addition, customer satisfaction could pave the way for an enhanced reputation and an increase of brand equity for a particular organization. Such in turn could further attract customers that could have further increase the market share of a particular brand. 2. 7 The Body Shop International, PLC Values The Body Shop International PLC has five corporate values: Against Animal Testing, Support Community Trade, Activate Self Esteem, and Protecting our Planet (The Body Shop International plc a, 2007). 2. 7. 1 Against Animal Testing The company strongly advocated for the banning of the test of cosmetics on animals. In addition, the company prides itself due to its strict compliance of the internationally recognized Humane Cosmetics Standards (The Body Shop International plc b, 2007). As such it has been implementing a so-called â€Å"fixed cut-off date† to all of their ingredients. Such means, that the company does not and will never test their cosmetics on animals, hence calling it an â€Å"immovable fixed date† (The Body Shop International plc c, 2007). More importantly, the company has also assured that their products could also be suitable for vegetarians. This means that the company does not use any ingredient that is perceived to cause harm to animals (The Body Shop International plc c, 2007). In effect of this, the Body Shop has been awarded on 2006 as the Best Cruelty-free Cosmetics by the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals). (The Body Shop International plc b, 2007). The advocate of Body Shop to ban animal testing is stretched even by the company supporting researches that could bring about alternatives against animal testing. In 2004, the Body Shop Foundation has awarded the Centre for Alternatives to Animal Testing at John Hopkins University ? 20 000 in order to support the university’s research in finding other ways to test cosmetics   (The Body Shop International plc b, 2007). 2. 7. 2 Support Community Trade Body Shop’s support for community trade focuses on the use of natural ingredients and handcrafted products from skilled people and was brought for a reasonable prize for more than 20 years on over 24 countries and 31 suppliers (The Body Shop International plc e, 2007). In another perspective, community fair trade provides workers in marginalized countries to earn a reliable wage that could help them build their futures (The Body Shop International plc d, 2007). More importantly, the community trade that Body Shop made from the aforementioned also provides the company the assurance that it has been purchasing ingredients in which they know where came from (The Body Shop International plc d, 2007). As such, it could be said that the company has been spreading not only its monetary assets but also its intellectual investments as well fairly among countries most especially to the ones which needed it most (The Body Shop International plc d, 2007). 2. 7. 3 Activate Self Esteem Body shop also deeply upholds basic feminist values. Their motto: â€Å"Know your mind, love your body†; communicates the individuality of all women and the disregard to false promises, hype, and jargons of cosmetics and a fixed standard of beauty (The Body Shop International plc f, 2007). More importantly, the body shop emphasizes the importance of self awareness, self-confidence, self-growth and self-acceptance. As such it deems self respect while focusing on diversity, acceptance and empowerment (The Body Shop International plc g, 2007). 2. 7. 4 Protecting our Planet Protecting the planet is the last among the five core values of Body Shop. This value is deeply connected on the advocate of the company in using natural ingredients. Body Shop believed that through the use of natural ingredients and through helping on the ban against cosmetic test on animals, they are helping to protect the environment (The Body Shop International plc h, 2007). Furthermore, Body Shop also supports the use of renewable sources through the use of Forest Stewardship Council certified wood products. I

A Brazilian America essays

A Brazilian America essays Freedom is often an ambiguous concept for Americans. While America is considered the home of the free the idea is not meant to encourage citizens to do anything they please or desire. If this were the case, then there would no form of structure and organization, which allows chaos to eventually ensue. In order to prevent such a thing from happening, a government is established. A government can set up laws and regulations to facilitate living in an environment where citizens have certain freedoms. Every citizen, however, must acknowledge that with every action comes a reaction. In other words, breaking a law or regulation leads to certain consequences such as imprisonment or even death. Gerry Spence, author of Easy in the Harness, illustrates how ultimate freedom demands a perfect vision of reality, one too painful for the healthy to endure... Pure freedom is pure terror (806). Therefore, inevitably, an American citizens freedom is somewhat limited to begin with. Aside from civil rights, what happens to an individuals personal freedom, like choosing their own fate? Terry Gilliams movie Brazil, demonstrates how the population of one society is deeply affected by an overly controlling government. The film follows the character, Sam Lowry, in his struggle of living in a society governed by a secret agency that discourages love since it disrupts efficiency. Essentially, the people in Brazil have their freedom stripped away from them as they are gradually being dehumanized. The society in Brazil is plagued by an extremely cautious government, which is now becoming increasingly noticeable in America. The government depends on the faith the citizens have in it, which in turn afflicts the citizens as they are no longer free individuals, but pawns to their government instead. The events of September 11 perpetuated a movement in which the U.S. government took action to eliminate terro...

Writing an A+ Essay Essay Example

Writing an A+ Essay Essay Example Writing an A+ Essay Essay Writing an A+ Essay Essay An essay is nothing new in the writing world. Students and writers all alike have tried to prefect this since the dawn of ancient Japanese literature. Now we have what happens to be the â€Å"Holy Grail† of all the ways to write an essay. This method is said to be easy as pie! You can think of it this way your body paragraphs should be P.I.E. The acronym P.I.E. stands for point, illustrate, and explain. Each paragraph though out your essay should contain each of these factors.Point is the purpose or claim of the paragraph. Illustrate is examples, quotes, evidence, and proof that demonstrates , supports, and illustrates the point and last the writer must explain the importance of all the examples, quotes, evidence and proof to ensure the readers understand the significance of each. There is not a set amount of each needed but the point should be the smallest portion of each paragraph. Most of the paragraphs information should explain, and support the point. Now let’s take a deeper look into the factors that make up an exemplary paragraph. The â€Å"P† section of your paragraph is a point that is the claim or position of the paragraph. This should be an opinion that can be argued. The point should be in the first sentence of the paragraph and it shouldn’t be vague. There should only be one point per paragraph. All the information in the paragraph should support and tie it all into one major point. The â€Å"I† is section of the paragraph should show support to the thesis statement of the entire essay. This should be done with examples, quotes, and evidence about the point. When illustrating the thesis statement you should be highly selective when choosing your quotes, examples, and other forms of this they should only support the thesis statement. Be sure not to quote-bomb the reader. You want to be able to explain all your supporting evidence to the reader. Don’t forget always to give credit to the references that you use in your

Rules for the First Week in College

Rules for the First Week in College Your first week in college is one youve likely been looking forward to for a long, long time. That first college week, however, can be gone in an instant and if youre not careful, some of the choices you make during those critical few days can lead to major problems later. Just keep these 10 rules for your first week in college in mind ... and have fun! Dont Hook Up Its smart to give yourself (at least) a one-week delay before hooking up. Its much easier to regret not hooking up than it is to regret it and have to face the person every day for the next 4 years. Just give yourself a little time to get your bearings before doing anything you might unknowingly regret later. Dont Start a Relationship Youre at college to learn, explore, try new things, and overall challenge yourself. Starting a relationship right off the bat may hamper some of the flexibility youll need. Is it a good idea to start a relationship? Of course, if its a healthy one. Is it a good idea to do it during your first few days on campus? Maybe not. If this person is the love of your life, can you wait a few weeks? Of course. Go to Class Hmmm ... no one takes attendance, you were up super late, and theres somewhere else on campus youd rather be this morning. Think twice before skipping class, however; its much more crucial for you to go to class in college, and the first week is especially important if you want to meet other students, have the professor know you, and not get dropped because you didnt show while others are on a waitlist. Get the Basics Done During orientation, you probably have a long list of stuff to do: Get an ID card, set up your email/campus login, meet your adviser. Skipping on these to-dos is a definite bad idea during your first week. After all, if you think youre busy now, imagine how much harder doing these items will be once your classes are in full swing and youre behind. Make Sure Your Financial Aid is in Good Shape If the financial aid office needs a copy of something, you have a question about your loans, or you need to sign some documents, make sure your tush makes it to the financial aid office sooner rather than later. Doing so is much easier than having to explain to your parents that youve been kicked out of school because you lost your financial aid due to a technical glitch. Get Your Books and Readers ASAP You dont necessarily have to buy them from the campus bookstore there are lots of other options available but you do have to get them. And quickly. College classes move much faster than high school ones, so staying on top of the reading is incredibly important. Get a Job if You Need One There is x number of students and y number of jobs. You dont need to be a math major to realize that the sooner you start looking (and applying), the better your options and choices will be. Watch Your Alcohol Intake As most folks know, alcohol is pretty readily available in college, even for the under-21 crowd. Be smart with the choices you make around alcohol, both for your dignity and your own safety. Get Your Classes Set You may be wait-listed on some classes or registered for too many because you arent sure what you want to keep. Either way, make sure your class schedule is set as soon as possible, that you finalize the paperwork before the add/drop deadline, and that the units youre carrying are enough to maintain your financial aid. Start the Semester Off with Good Eating Habits It sounds so minor, but eating healthy in college really can make a difference. Besides helping you avoid the legendary Freshman 15, eating healthy as soon as you arrive can keep your immune system up, give you the energy you need, and help set great habits for the next few years of your college life.

Strategic cost management case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic cost management - Case Study Example It is not surprising that the plant manager describe their process as â€Å"better than anyone else† because it is guaranteed with speed and high quality, as well as reduced cost. To compete with such companies, it is important to have enough capital reserves to also engage in strategies like promotion. The paper will therefore look at how with the cost reduction strategy, the company is offered sufficient funds that were cut down from actual production cost to gain competitiveness and profitability. Firm’s competitive strategy Much of the emphasis of competitive strategy for California-Illini (CI) is placed on the ability of the company to produce high quality products at a speed that meet consumer demand and cost that meet consumer pocket. In effect, a consumer determinant strategy on demand and cost reduction is used as competitive strategy. Generally, this is a strategy that identifies the scarcity of consumers on the target market due to the number of competitors a mong which existing consumers may choose from (Bernanke, 2006). Knowing that the consumers are not many in number, a consumer determinant strategy generally aims at presenting the consumer with exactly what the consumer requires from the manufacturers in terms of production and cost. The question of whether the strategy used by CI seems appropriate will be answered from several perspectives. The first is to take a quick competitive analysis, based on which a question of the viability of the strategy against other competitors will be asked. Generally, CI is in the same market as other multinational horticulture companies like Simpson and Simpson Inc, and Garages Ltd. These are companies who base their competitive advantage on brand equity and high inflow of cash from other sectors of their business, making it possible for them to run expensive promotions and publicities. What is more, the strategy to add quality and speed to production is highly appropriate even that when supply from customers does not meet their demand, they would switch to other competitors. It is always important to note that the industry in which CI finds its self is one that is based primarily on seasonal production. In effect, one must not wait for seasons to pass before orders made can be honored (Fairlie, 2009). Cost reduction strategy at CI From the above, the cost reduction strategy can be said to have been generated by the need to be competitive and also increase the revenue of the company through reduced internal speeding. When calculating revenue or profit that companies like CI make, emphasis is not only placed on income but on expenditure as well. The fact that CI has been found to make an average annual sale of $13 million alone cannot be accounted in judging the company as a very profitable one. Rather, it would be important to balance this income with expenditure. Commonly, manufacturing companies like CI spend most of their expenses on the production aspect of the supply chai n (Gartner, 1985). In effect, a cost reduction strategy that will ensure that production takes place at a more reduced cost always becomes beneficial. The need to be customer focused was also another motivation for opting for the cost reduction strategy. This is because when cost of production is lower, manufacturers always have the luxury of pegging the prices of their products lower because of a reduced

Information Systems Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Information Systems Plan - Essay Example The Information management system of Fitness center automates the above functionalities and allows the users to choose their daily schedules and exercises, with pre-calculated measures and to - do lists. The Sophisticated system offers alerts on regular tests and cholesterol levels giving clarity on health progress. The users can also enter complete laboratory test results, inoculations and medications, which can be kept as their personal digital health record. The combination of weight readings, meals, exercise, supplement or medication, test results, personal notes and detailed one-step charts and graphs for grams of nutrients, calories consumed and burned, exercises, any measurement or test, medications or supplements taken and more. The IS can also be configured with more user-friendly features like alerts on upcoming tests, doctor appointments, tutor schedulers, due dates for payments and balances in accounts. Such type of IS offers integrated member information on a common plat form through a real time integration of data resources. The potential areas for ... Purpose: The purpose of the Fitness Center Management module is to address the needs of health and fitness management institutes in tracking their visitors, fitness center members' information, payment, and equipment inventory and maintenance. Systems development Systems development is the activity of creating new systems or modifying existing ones. It refers to all aspects of the process from identifying problems to be solved or opportunities to be exploited to the implementation and refinement of the chosen solution. The information system to be established in an organization is considered as Project Management in development terms. The system development project is responsible for determining the objectives of the information system and delivering a system that meets these objectives. Many system development teams use a project manager to head the systems development effort and the project management approach to help coordinate the systems development process. A project is a planned collection of activities that achieves a goal, such as promoting the activities of fitness plant or developing a new decision support system. Besides completing the project on time and within the specified budget, the project manager is usually responsible for controlling a project's quality, training personnel, easing communications, managing risks, and acquiring any necessary equipment, including office supplies and sophisticated computer systems. The roles involved in IS of a Fitness center: Setting priorities and selecting projects typically requires the involvement and approval of senior management. When objectives are set, planners consider the resources necessary to complete the projects, including employees (systems analysts, programmers, and

PR Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

PR Assignment 2 - Essay Example Most of the employees are familiar with the people working in public relation department therefore it becomes quite easier for them to communicate their grievances (Dennis). 2. Fernando Figueredo, head of multicultural practice for Porter Novelli, suggests that there are some unique characteristics shared by three major minority groups. These groups include Hispanics, African and Asian Americans. 3. These three groups are going to control majority of the businesses of USA. Frequent immigrations to USA on part of the people belonged to these groups suggests that USA is regarded as a platform from where entrepreneurs can unleash their potential. Corporations in general while FMCG’s in particular should start to recognize these groups as a separate market segment which have different needs and wants as compared to their American counterparts. Therefore marketers should try to reach Hispanics, Africans and Asians in a culturally relevant manner. This technique will support the re-purchase behavior of consumers. There are many corporations which are trying to reach consumers in the way they want. Mc Donald and Pepsi are among such corporations. Therefore it can be concluded that diversity among consumers should be viewed as an opportunity to earn more profits rather than considering it a threat (Dennis). 4. The use of social networking websites is growing at an exponential rate. The workplace is also not safe from use of social networking websites. Therefore employers have to take steps so that employees can concentrate on the work. I believe that employers are right if the are blocking the social networking websites during office hours. Employee is expected to give his full time and energy when he or she is on the job. 5. Employee should not consider it something negative because office timings are those timings in which he has to contribute towards the overall productivity of the organization. If I will not be allowed by my

1-page Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

1-page Marketing - Research Paper Example For example, annual percentage growth rates of GDP at market prices based on the U.S dollars, in 2010-2014, was 2.2%. Various factors and trends affect a company and this tend to bring some of the implications to the business such as state of the economy, technology, basic characteristics customers have in common like age and shifts in popular opinion which are strongly influenced by the media. Environmental issues also affect an industry in a great way. There has been a difference though in U.S in those three years as technology has progressed, there is access to distribution of channels, and also access of essential unique services. While different companies have different products, they have to make them saleable in the face of current and potential competition, thus they need to evaluate ways to be attractive to the industry. For example, they should have unique products compared to other companies, so as to gain the buyer power also for the customers with the knowledge of new trends and emerging channels, which offers an opportunity to develop a competitive advantage of major purchasers in future years. For example, the U.S. percentage of the export of goods and services as from 2010-2014 was 13.5, which shows an improvement in its estimated share, thus the growth of the industry. Feenstra, Robert C, Joseph E. Gagnon, and Michael Knetter. Market Share and Exchange Rate Pass-Through in World Automobile Trade. Cambridge (1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. 02138: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1993. Internet

(you can choose 1 of the 3 topics underneath) Essay

(you can choose 1 of the 3 topics underneath) - Essay Example Different economic outlooks emphasizes on particular components of capitalism in different places. The government is said not to have control over the market and the significance of individual property rights. The government should have some regulations to protect monopoly in the markets to avoid individual capital accumulation in addition to property and power. Capitalism is based on production of products for profit purposes, the allocation of market-based resources and on accumulation of capital as well. According to Lynch (2005), in 1990s, Russia underwent an astonishing revolution that changed from a communist dictatorship into a multiparty democracy whereby the leaders are chosen in interval election periods. Its economy was changed into a capitalist based-markets and private owned property. The army based in Europe withdrew in a peaceful manner and the countries became independent. Some years down the line, the Russia had become a catastrophic failure in 1990s as a span of misfortune for its people. Hancock, & Logue (2000) emphasizes that, Russia is not a middle-income country since it does not struggle to overcome its socialists past and find a place for itself in the world, but is seen as a collapsed state and a criminal one too. By 1999, Russia became a looted and bankrupt state of chaos. It was also known to be the most world’s virulent and the most corrupt country than any other. Economic performance in Russia was seen to be a tragedy of historic proportions, which could only lead to economic collapse hence lack of employment thus resulting to poverty. Later in 2003, the country seemed to have a glimmer of optimism whereby President Bush praised president Putin’s effort for trying to transform Russia into a country in which freedom and democracy as well as rule of law thrives. This praising talk did not show its fruits for a long time, the Russian prosecutors arrested the oil tycoon in late 2003 and it was seen to be ruled by power hungry

1-page Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

1-page Marketing - Research Paper Example For example, annual percentage growth rates of GDP at market prices based on the U.S dollars, in 2010-2014, was 2.2%. Various factors and trends affect a company and this tend to bring some of the implications to the business such as state of the economy, technology, basic characteristics customers have in common like age and shifts in popular opinion which are strongly influenced by the media. Environmental issues also affect an industry in a great way. There has been a difference though in U.S in those three years as technology has progressed, there is access to distribution of channels, and also access of essential unique services. While different companies have different products, they have to make them saleable in the face of current and potential competition, thus they need to evaluate ways to be attractive to the industry. For example, they should have unique products compared to other companies, so as to gain the buyer power also for the customers with the knowledge of new trends and emerging channels, which offers an opportunity to develop a competitive advantage of major purchasers in future years. For example, the U.S. percentage of the export of goods and services as from 2010-2014 was 13.5, which shows an improvement in its estimated share, thus the growth of the industry. Feenstra, Robert C, Joseph E. Gagnon, and Michael Knetter. Market Share and Exchange Rate Pass-Through in World Automobile Trade. Cambridge (1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. 02138: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1993. Internet

Critical thinking paper Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical thinking paper - Case Study Example This is also aggravated by some situations in which consumers and managed care organizations have less understanding on the role played by APNs. This only implies that aside from its full obligation to patients for remarkable health care, there is also a need for APNs to understand prevailing policies coming from the government and other health care providers such as insurance company. This is to ensure that everything will be properly understood by APNs so as they can explain and elaborate well everything to their patients regarding financial considerations. At the bottom line, this would ensure continuation of a good relationship with the patients. This only implies that APNs must not only focus on providing actual and quality health care, but other substantial information that will substantially influence the standard of their service. Ethical issues are those that conform to standards which are accepted and thus it is consistent with agreed principles of correct moral conduct. Part of the moral considerations among advanced practice nurses (APNs) is to consider care as central to maintaining nurse-patient relationship (Cox and Hill, 119). The established relation between the nurse and patients is a primary way in which the later can participate fully in the care program. APNs are always facing dilemmas when it comes to issues concerning about health care financing. At some point, this has affected the nurse-patient relationship. Considering that APNs have moral obligation and that is to provide quality care, it is undeniably true that they faced ethical dilemmas. However, this can only be understood by giving proper information to patient and his family. Patients and family deserve significant information other than the actual health care service itself. This can be successfully implemented if APNs must also focus on other social concerns especially when it comes to financial considerations. The whole thing must be essentially

How to establish the communication Essay Example for Free

How to establish the communication Essay Everyone has different needs and styles in which they communicate. There are also many different ways in which we may establish these communication needs, wishes and preferences. A good way to begin to understand a patient’s needs, wishes and preferences is to read their notes and history’s to see if this contains any relevant information. For example, if I read that a patient has hearing problems, I would then know to make sure that I speak to the patient clearly and slowly and look at them so they can read my lips. Other ways to establish communication needs, wishes and preferences is by interacting with the patient and through conversation I learn how to best communicate with the patient. It is also important to remember to be clear and concise in all forms of communication, especially when working with people with learning disabilities, where they might get confused if I speak too quickly or use too complex language. It may benefit, if this is the case, to use your body language to help explain what you are trying to say and to emphasise the tone of the conversation. Also, pictures can be used to help the patient and myself understand. For example, one of my patients uses cards that display what emotions they are feeling, they will use these to communicate how they are feeling. In the past, I have worked with a patient who is deaf. For me to establish what her needs were, I first spoke to the nurse in charge and they informed me she was deaf, however, could sign or write things down. As I could not sign, our preferred form of communication was writing, which after spending time together worked quite well.

Seven Eleven Japan Supply Chain

Seven Eleven Japan Supply Chain Established in 1973, Seven-Eleven Japan open its first store in Koto-ku, Tokyo, in May 1974. In 2004 it was owned by the Ito-yokado group, which also managed a chain of super markets in japan and owned a majority share in southland, the company managing seven-eleven in the United States. Seven-Eleven Japan realized a phenomenal growth between the years of 1985 to 2003. The Competitive strategy of Seven Eleven Japan is to provide High-availability of a variety of reasonable products at reasonable prices. The total of the visits number per year for all the Japanese people is almost 35 times, that means each Japanese go on average 3 times a month to a Seven Eleven Outlet. When it started in Japan the new concept of this store was incredibly famous, everybody liked the concept of Seven Eleven. The convenience store supply chain can be responsive if they focus on what the customer wants. 7-eleven knows who is buying which product and at what time, it knows it because the system is really efficient. For each customer the cashier pushes a button with the approximate age, and the cash register the time and the kind of product that the client just bought. Now the system knows who, where and what is sold at any time of the day, the supply chain can be really responsive and offer the good where it is needed. The first online network was established in 1979, so it proves 7-eleven Japan was in front of all others about technologies and supply chain management. Of course they take some risks doing this, because the population can be bored or move. 7-eleven has to be careful about the needs every day, and has to react really quickly to all kind of problems they have to face up. In japan, 7 eleven adopts a strategic fit with the customers; they attempt to know what they need, where th ey need it and when they need it. Every single person is important in statistics for them; they really care on the demand. The main risk for them is the potentially high cost concerning the transportation. I think when you are a huge industry like 7-eleven in Japan, more than 12  000 retailers; you cant focus on every single person. Be the biggest company of outlet stores include that you cannot have a micro supply chain. The biggest risk is that you cant follow the demand, you will be able at the beginning, but after a few time in the market the demand will become huge. It is too much work and if you cant follow, the customers will go to another retailer. 7-eleven must be able to manage with uncertainty. In order to support its supply chain seven-eleven started to remodel the transportation in their supply chain. The number of trucks was really high, and they could use fewer trucks to do all the transportation work. They have different kind of trucks for different kind of goods ( frozen food, warm food †¦). The supply chain worked hard every day to find a way to optimize the facilities, and it worked. Now the store order in the morning and receive in the afternoon, everything is really flexible. The location of the store is based on where the demand is, so they are not looking to open an outlet everywhere, but where people need it and where they will sell more products. They want to optimize the space where they are located. In less than 10 years they did a lot of progress in technologies, and more in inventory management. Now everything can be controlled on computers, and they know what they need. They work with some companies in order to have the best infrastructure. All the stocks depend on local customer demand, each stores have a different stock. Seven-eleven does not allow direct store delivery in Japan but has all products flow through its distribution center. One distribution center works with 50 to 60 retailers, so each store doesnt have to kee p in a huge amount of goods that they dont sell. For some years they know what is sold in which store, so its easy for them to know which items each store needs. Direct store delivery is more appropriate when the store knows it will sell the product in a short period of time. It also is more appropriate when the store wants the good really quickly, because the customers dont want to wait too much when they really need something. Seven-eleven is known to sell and have almost everything you need, so it is better not to let shelves empty, it is also not good for the trade reputation if people can see empty space in the store. We can say that all these shelves crowded of stuffs show that the supply chain is really well manage. Seven eleven used the franchise system in Japan; of course it is much easier to franchise the store because if you have too many stores you cannot handle everything. This system counts over 68 percent of the revenue from operations. It supported Seven Eleven stores to have a high-density market presence. Using the franchise system, Seven Eleven got six advantages of the market dominance strategy. First, it boosted the distribution efficiency because they opened more retailers, so the distribution center could be closer from an important amount of stores. Second, Improved brand awareness, of course more store you have and more famous you will be, so people finding seven eleven stores everywhere thought it was secure and a good brand. Third, increased system efficiency, if we have a lot of people working on the system and using it, of course it increases the efficiency. Fourth, enhanced efficiency of franchise support services, in the market dominance the number of stores is really imp ortant, so more you are in and faster your support services increase. Fifth, Improvement of the advertising effectiveness, in Japan in some places we can find a lot of seven eleven, that means there is a lot of advertising because people are using them to buy anything. Sixth, Prevent competitors entrance into the dominant area, managers instead of opening their own retail store, they use the seven eleven franchise system because it is much easier to start and to be in the dominant area at the beginning. As we can see now the franchise system is really important for seven eleven Japan, the system is pretty simple. Both parts, the franchise owner and seven eleven Japan, have responsibilities. First the owners have to manage the store and the staff, make orders and maintain the store appearance. In another side Seven eleven Japan manages almost everything in developing the store, orders and accounting. Seven eleven also provide advertising and pay 80 percent of the utility cost. Seven eleven had more than 12  000 stores in Japan. In 2004 the size of the regular store increase from 125 to 150 square meters. The total size of all the seven eleven stores in Japan is about 1  530 square kilometers, it means almost 15 times the Paris size. It is huge for a country small like Japan. Seven Eleven Chain offers more and more services every year, besides products. They gradually added a variety of services that customers could obtain at its stores. They started offering other services in 1987; the system was offering you to have to possibility to pay your Tokyo Electric Power bills. Later the people could pay other bills, like gas, insurance, and telephone. This service attracted millions of additional customers every year. Another example that is in 1995 they started to accept payment for mail order purchases. Another huge service that they offer is to have an ATM in the shop; they started offering this in 2004. The ATM project was huge, because they started to instal l in 75 percent of the retailers, with the goal to achieve 100 percent ATM installation. The 7-dream concept arrives at the right time, because in 2000 the internet is starting to be well used by customers. In Japan people work a lot and really hard, so sometimes that understandable they like to shop on internet, choose what they want and pick it up at their convenience store. The 7-dream concept is really useful, but the delivery system is likely more successful in a country like the United States, where people love to have the product directly deliver at their homes. Seven eleven in the United States it is the second largest market in the world for seven eleven. Even if at the beginning several 7-eleven were shut down. The number of retail stores grown after 1998, because the distribution structure was completely different from the Japanese system. In fact in the USA we can see that DSD (direct store delivery) are pretty common, it was awkward to see that in Japan. The fresh products obliged 7-eleven to use CDCs (Combined distribution centers), because it was super important to be able to deliver real fresh products like sandwiches, bakery, and bread in time to the stores. At this time Seven Eleven tried to introduce a new concept in the convenience store system, they wanted to be different than a normal gas station.

Critical Reviews of Brave New World Essay -- essays papers

Critical Reviews of Brave New World Since the original publishing of Brave New World, the book has stirred up a brew of controversy. It has received many reviews both positive and negative. In this paper I will provide examples of both and look at the reasons behind them. My first review is a negative one. In the review the reviewer states as his main reasons for disliking the book are the obnoxious characters and plot holes. A few examples of this are that Bernard Marx is unhappy with his life and wants to expand his mind yet all he does is take random vacations to the Savage Reservation. The author of the review compares this to saying, â€Å"I’m having a bout with depression. I’m going to Iran,† then jumping on a plane and going. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. The author believes that there are many other more exciting plot possibilities if Bernard just stays home and actually does something. Also, the circumstances surrounding Linda annoyed the author of this review also. He feels Linda is obnoxious and feels that the savages would have either gotten her out of the reser...

Affect of Women in Advertisement Essay

Abstract Due to advertisement clutter in the 21st century customers are exposed to a variety of advertising appeals that aims to influence their attitudes towards a wide range of products and services. Many companies worldwide are using women as an object to attract and influence consumers’ attitudes towa rds the products they sell. Women appear in huge number of advertisement as a sexual object or as attractive decorative model standing nearby a product, even when the sexual image has little relevance to the advertised product. This article looks at Jordan ian male consumers’ attitude towards using women in advertisement. Results reveals four factors tend to influence consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement. Culture, control, and emotion were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement, while there was no significant influence for women appearance on consumer attitude towards using women in advertisement. In general Jordanian male consumers’ were opposed to exposing, exploiting and objectifying the woman and her body in advertisement. Introduction Research on advertisement featuring sex role focused on how content and imagery affect cognitive responses and attitude toward the advertisement, which in turn affect attitude toward the brand and purchase intention (Jaffe, 1994; Leigh and Whitney, 1987). Attitude toward advertising can be defined in general as learned tendencies to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner to advertising in general (Lutz, 1985; Mackenzie and Lutz, 1989). The link between attitudes, intentions and behavior has been explained primarily by Ajzen (1985, 1988), Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). This theory is based on the assumption that human beings usually behave in a sensible manners where they will take into account information available to them and consider the consequences of their actions. Thus people are expected to act in accordance with their intentions. The personal factor is the attitude toward the behavior, which is the individual‟s positive or negat ive evaluation of performing the behavior of interest. Whereas the social determinant of intention is the person‟s perception of social pressure to perform the behavior under consideration. People generally intend to perform a behavior when they evaluate it positively and belief that important others think they should perform it. Advertisements perceived as contentious will not be effective in capturing the attention of people or changing their attitudes towards the advertised products (Michell and Al-Mossawi, 1995). Based on that, it‟s very essential to choose the appropriate advertisement strategies employed in advertising which range from informational to emotional. Among those designed to stir emotions or rouse particular feelings, we can find fear, humor, warmth, novelty, contrast, animation, music, and sexual arousal. According to Reichert et. al. (2001) sex appeal advertising invokes any message, which, whether as brand information in advertising contexts or as persuasive appeals in marketing contexts, is associated with sexual information. It has long been an accepted belief that this form of advertising is very effective at attention-grabbing, considered by some commentators as a powerful step in reaching one‟s target market, especially in the current clutter of 21st century marketing and communications (Reichert & Lambiase, 2003). Sexual economics theory (SET) is a stimulating theory about sexuality that combines the idea of gender differences in sexual attitudes with social exchange theory, which S precher, (1989) conceptualize as two or more parties that each give up something with the aim of getting back something of greater value. Much research suggests that sex as an end in itself is less valued by women than men (Baummeister et al., 2001). Ther efore, sexual economics theory posits that women possess substantially greater negotiating power than do men in the context of a sexual exchange. Based on this theory, the current study will focus on men and the way women are used to persuade them in adver tisement to influence their attitudes. Using women in advertisement as a sexual appeal has transferred women to a marketing instrument by many firms. Women are used as a material mostly in advertisements (Bayraktar, 2011). In many advertisements, the ideal woman is an object that exists to satisfy men‟s sexual desires. Many researchers have shown that women in advertisements are portrayed as sex objects (Baker, 2005). Advertisers feature provocative images of sexually attractive women in ads (Reichert, 2 002). Sexual appeals in advertisements consist of a variety of elements models. Courtney and Whipple (1983) describes sexuality in advertisements as sexuality in the form of nudity, sexual imagery, innuendo, and double entendre used as an ad object for dif ferent kinds of products. Reichert (2002) reveals that common forms of sexuality in ads includes nudity (dress), physical attractiveness, seductive behavior and interaction, innuendo, and other factors such as setting, context and camera effects. While Lambiase and Reichert (2003) propose that there are five types of sexual content in ads: Nudity, sexual behavior, physical attractiveness, sexual referents, and sexual embeds. Ramirez and Reichert (2000) propose that viewers consider physical characteristics the most sexual in ads and the sub-categories of these characteristics are clothing, attractiveness and body. Table 1 shows the categories of women appearance in advertisements and their meanings in USA. It‟s noteworthy to say that women misrepresentation in advertisement is a world wide phenomenon. In India, for example, Bag and Roy (2010) bring up various reasons behind unaccept ed representation of women in advertisement, such as poverty where still a number of women, particularly young girls with intolerable economic misery compelled to represent themselves in different forms of uncultured version for survival. To the contrary some rich women’s do it as a hobby, just to get mental or psychological satisfaction through modeling, front page sensational attraction in different popular magazines. Globalization is another factor responsible for misrepresentation of women in advertisement. Being attracted to western culture, teenager girls have been adopting western style in their garments and manners and hence, they have been losing their own culture and tradition, social values and moral character. Consumerism, which tries hard to inc rease the consumption of people, is another cause of such unaccepted representation. Much consumption means much economic profit which a group of people highly want. Profit maximization has escalated the introduction of women in a number of advertisements of different companies in television, magazine, T.V., Cinema, Newspaper, Cartoons, painting and even in the Internet to attract customers from different age groups. The different types of women representation in advertisement are presented below. Representation through Television- There is a lot of representation of women in advertisement through T.V. which affect common people and children adversely. It is obvious that visual indecent representation of them has been perverting psychologically all youth. Representation through Newspaper- Newspaper is another source of representation in indecent manner. Readers from almost all age group are intensely influenced while observing and reading those undesirable advertisements. Representation through Magazine- Similar examples will be cited in several advertisements in several reputed magazines where the honor of women have not only been despoiled simultaneously people are being psychologically endangered. But interestingly, by virtue of human instinct, neither presenter nor consumer is realizing its adverse impact. Other forms of Representation- There are other forms of uncultured representation which we can find rarely but have both internal and external effects on common people. Despite fewer in number, such representations are noticed in different sorts of paintings, hoarding hanging or fixed in cities and towns, and even displayed in Internet. Painting of undesirable quality is often displayed in cinema hall for greater publicity. Similarly, a lot of painters draw naked or half naked figures, which may have inner good meaning, but it is a matter of question how many people are finding that inner good meaning and how many are taking those adversely. Research Problem and Significance Very few studies tries to explain the influence of using women in advertisement based on cultural factors. Researchers have either concentrated on or compared dissimilar cultures, such as the U.S and Japan or they have focused on similarities or differences on similar cultur es, such as Great Britain and Australia (Al-Olayan and Karande, 2000). Many researches explain ads by using Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions or Hall‟s high and low typology and other country specific variables. Culture dominates communications, such as langu age, traditions, beliefs and music (Al-Olayan, & Karande, 2000). Therefore, the main motivation behind this article is to identify the influence of using women in advertisement on male consumers‟ attitude in Jordan. This study is conducted in a Muslim country where Shariah (Islamic Law) prohibit the use of sexual appearance or body in a way to attract or convince consumers with company products, brands or services. This study is significant for the reason that there is no any study has been done in this field regarding this issue. Another reason for doing this study is to increase our understanding of the Arab societies, and in this case Jordan. Research Objectives The objectives of this research are: 1) To identify the factors that may affect male Jordanian consumers‟ attitude towards using women in advertisement 2) To examine consumers overall attitude towards using sexy women in advertisement Theoretical Background Culture and Advertisement Marketers need to observe the cultural traits, environments, norms, beliefs, and values of a particular country or region to obtain an understanding of whether their future behaviors will be perceived as ethical (Haque et al., 2010). For example, companies advertising their products or services in different countries should be aware of a country‟s existing norms concerning role portrayals and the way these organizations affect these norms (Gilly, 1988). Clow and Baack (2009) maintained that culture, religion and value system determine the levels of nudity, sexual references, and gender specific issues that are permitted in a country. Several differences have also been recognized across countries for men and women appear in different settings and for different products. Women are more likely to be portrayed in domestic environment as sex objects, while men are more likely to be portrayed being occupied. In Sweden, for example advertisers show men and women in greater variety of nonworking roles than in the U.S.A and Germany and women in Asian countries are less likely to be shown as sex objects (Das, 2000). Since in many Middle Eastern countries, sex and gender issues are taboo subjects, sexual appeals are not used in advertising and even sexually related products are difficult to advertise (Bryant, 1998). Muslim nations tend to reject any kind of nudity and any reference to sexuality and other gender -related issues. Any hint of sexuality or display of the female body is strictly forbidden. In Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, women must be shown in family settings. They cannot be depicted as being carefree or desirable to the opposite sex. Marlin (2008) conduct a study on how culture affects advertisement, he used an advertisement showing a sexy picture for Paris Hilton, the famous model wearing a bikini and asked respondents to writ e their reactions. About 27% had positive reactions, 45% had negative reactions and 28% were indifferent. For this advertisement some respondents were confused whether it is an advertisement for a burger or for a car. The results show that different cultures imply different reactions, some of the comments the respondents wrote were: †¢ Unrealistic, bizarre (German respondent) †¢ It is not about the product, they are selling a lifestyle (Iranian respondent) †¢ Nice, interesting (French respondent) †¢ Too much naked skin (1 Ethiopian and 1 Swedish respondent) †¢ I am discussed, angry and feel fat (Swedish respondent) †¢ Too naked, too unrealistic (Moroccan respondent) †¢ Sexistic (Swedish respondent) †¢ Inappropriate, bad taste (French respondent) †¢ It is totally unnecessary for the object of advertising (Swedish respondent) Muslim countries are not the only ones with restrictive advertising for sex appeals. Many Christian countries such as Ireland, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and the Philippines have similar standards. 184 While in Canada, France, and Sweden, sexism should be avoided in any advertising directed toward children (Boddewyn, 1991). Based on that, understanding how religious beliefs influence the attitude towards the advertising is of great importance to international advertisers and advertising agency managers in their efforts to improve advertising effectiveness without offending or alienating their target audience. It‟s important to comprehend that Islamic social philosophy is based on the belief that all spheres of life: spiritual, social, political, and economic form an indivisible unity that must be thoroughly imbued with Islamic values. Advertisement and Women in the Muslim world The aim of this section is to give an in-depth understanding on the nature and position of women and advertisement in the Muslim world to help and benefit marketers and the advertising producers in the Muslim world to gain a profound understanding of Muslim values. As a starting point, it‟s important to note that the Holy Quran does not prohibit advertising (Al-Makaty et al., 1996). Some advertisements use religious terminology to reassure consumers of the Islamic integrity of products and services. For example, in a television advertisement, a Saudi Investment ba nk in Egypt had used religious terms to show that it had no unlawful transactions and that all of its financial products Shariah compliant. The use of selected Quranic injunctions and words can enhance the mood of the advertising communication to make it more appealing to Muslim consumers. Luqmani et al. (1989) provide an example of a manufactured water pump that uses a verse from the Quran in advertising. Although it is obviously welcome to keep in mind that the Islamic regulations related to business and marketing, appropriate implementation of precise Islamic terms is crucial. Contrary to this, a business may face unexpected troubles in gaining markets in Muslim populous areas if some how its advertisements create feelings that are inconsistent with religious sensitivities. In such a context, the most potential and contemporary issues in Islamic markets should be carefully introduced, developed, and offered through appropriate advertising and communication messages which meet the commitment of ethics as gu ided in the Islamic Shariah. For example, the Islamic system encourages moderation in living, while prodigality and waste are denounced. Costly promotional efforts and massive commercial advertisements by businesses are considered unnecessary. Producers of advertisements must make sure that their advertising campaign does not overstep any social or legal norms. Little attention has been paid on the exposure of advertisement in the Arab societies. Except from investigations in Saudi Arabian ads, there is only one study that has examined the cross-cultural differences in advertising content in other countries in the Middle East and only one study of the portrayal of Egyptian women in television commercials. Luqmani et al., (1987) study focused only on the influence of Islam on advertising content and regulation in Saudi Arabia while Michell and Al-Mossawi, (1999) study focused on message contentiousness among Gulf Co-operative Council countries, and showed that religious Muslims scored lower in terms of recall and were unfavorable towards contentious advertisements relative to lenient Muslims. The findings suggest that there is a difference in perceived controversial elements in advertisements between a devout and a lenient Muslim. These findings also highlight the importance of matching creative execution and message content to a society‟s socio-cultural environment. Michell and Al-Mossawi claim an offensive advertisement will not be effective in capturing an audience‟s attention or changing his/her attitudes. Both of these studies revealed the importance of understanding the Islamic religion in relation to effective advertising. In particular, Luqmani et al., assert that unconventional advertisements must obtain prior approval from religious authorities. While in Malaysia, Unilever‟s used an ad for Pond‟s skin lightening moisturizer showing a Malay college student using the product for a fairer complexion to attract a boy‟s attention. The ad is deemed offensive to the Muslim ethnic culture (Haque et al., 2010). In addition to the above mentioned facts, the women‟s status is debated among traditional Islamists, reformist Islamists and feminists, secular or Islamic. The traditional Islamists are clear about the male-female differences and insist on the distinct sex roles. They view women as emotional, sentimental and weak humans whose duty is in the household. The traditional Islamists take every verse in the Qur‟an as a source of protection of women and see women as minors that need to be protected by superior men. In return the woman will nurture the family and try to please her father, brother or son, or whoever may be the head of the household. The woman has a responsibility to maintain the honor, reputation and status of the family. Traditionally, a man‟s hon or depends on the extent on the virginity of his sisters, wife and daughters, and widows divorcees‟ sexual continent. 185 The Islamic reformists believe that the inferiority is only in relation to the woman‟s physical strength and weaker autonomy, thus she is capable of participating in all spheres or public and social life. Modern and liberal reformists are trying to accommodate the Islamic rules with the realities of modern times. The feminist view is a secular movement whose aim is to achieve equality for women. The roots of this movement consider the woman as totally subordinated to the man and that the veil is a symbol of this. Advertising in Jordan Jordan‟s media sector has seen significant privatization and liberalization efforts in recent years. Based on official rack rates, research firm Ipsos estimated that the advertisement sector spent some $303m towards publicity in Jordan‟s media, 80% of which was spent on newspapers, followed by TV, radio and magazines. In recent years, Jordan has also seen a spectacular rise in the number of blogs, websites and news portals as sources of news information. The increasing diversification of Jordan‟s media boosted advertising revenues and private initiatives. Recording growth of 30%, 2007 turned out to be yet another outstanding year for Jordan‟s advertising industry. Following nearly a decade of double-digit growth, the Jordanian advertising had some catching up to do with the rest of the region in terms of average expenditure per capita. Since 2000 total ad spend increased from $77m to $303m in 2008, an increase of 260%. The Jordanian telecoms sector was the biggest ad spender in 2008, accounting for around 20% of the market, followed by banking and finance sector (12%), services industry (11%), real estate (8%) and the automotive sector (5%). Research Design In order to measure Jordanian male consumers‟ attitude towards using women in advertisement , male respondents between 18-55 years were selected. The survey instrument included a list of 22 statements from which respondents were asked to indicate their level of personal acceptance on a five-point scale, where 1 means â€Å"Strongly Disagree† and 5 means â€Å"Strongly Agree†. Statements from 1 -17 was designed to measure factors affecting consumers attitude towards using women in advertisement. Most of the statements were adapted from earlier studies, for example (Al Makaty et al. 1996; Nordà ©n 2006; and Baker, C.N. 2005). While statement 18-22 were designed to measure consumers overall attitude towards advertisements. The statements were adapted from earlier studies as well such as (Usman, 2010; and Ashill, 2005). Respondents belonging to different demographic groups in terms of education level, marital status and profession were considered in the study. The sampling frame for the study was male consumers living in west of Amman. For respondents‟ selection, simple random sampling procedure was adopted. Questionnaires were filled by the respondents. The total number of respondents was 450. The responses received were 353 (80.5 per cent). Cronbach alpha reliability analysis was conducted for the items included in the study. The internal consistency – Cronbach alpha value for reliability of the questionnaire was found to be 0.74. All items were well above the 0.70, which was the commonly accepted threshold (Nunnally 1978). Respondent Profile Respondents from different parts of west Amman were asked to fill in the questionnaire. Table 2 depicts a summation of the study‟s respondents‟ demographic information. As per research objectives all the respondents are male consumers. Of the 353 respondents, 79.0 per cent were less than 25 years of age. A larger number of respondents were unmarried (74.4 per cent) the maximum respondents fell into this age group, since youth is the target market and they are the ones who pay maximum attention to the advertisements. Out of the remaining sample, only 2.3 per cent were above 55 years of age. The remaining 29.5 per cent belonged to the age group of 26–55 years of age. The larger number of r espondents was unmarried (74.4 per cent), and this could be attributed to the young age of the respondent. In addition most of them 78.5 percent were with undergraduate education. The maximum respondents in the category „profession‟ belonged to the student group with a major share of 68.2 per cent and the remaining 31.8 per cent included businessmen, executives and others. The overall composition of respondents included in the study was young, unmarried and students.

English Language and Composition

AP ® English Language and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions About the College Board The College Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made up of more than 5,900 of the world’s leading educational institutions and is dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education.Each year, the College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success — including the SAT ® and the Advanced Placement Program ®. The organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy on behalf of students, educators and schools.  © 2011 The College Board. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, SAT and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board.Admitted Class Evaluation Service and inspiring minds are trademarks owned by the College Board. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. Permission to use copyrighted College Board materials may be requested online at: www. collegeboard. org/inquiry/cbpermit. html. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. AP Central is the official online home for the AP Program: apcentral. collegeboard. om. 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION SECTION II Total time—2 hours Question 1 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Locavores are people who have decided to eat locally grown or produced products as much as possible. With an eye to nutrition as well as sustainability (resource use that preserves the environment ), the locavore movement has become widespread over the past decade.Imagine that a community is considering organizing a locavore movement. Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that identifies the key issues associated with the locavore movement and examines their implications for the community. Make sure that your argument is central; use the sources to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely summarizing the sources.Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc. , or by using the descriptions in parentheses. Source A Source B Source C Source D Source E Source F Source G (Maiser) (Smith and MacKinnon) (McWilliams) (chart) (Gogoi) (Roberts) (cartoon)  © 2011 The College Board . Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -2- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source A Maiser, Jennifer. 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. † Eat Local Challenge. Eat Local Challenge, 8 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Dec. 2009. The following is an article from a group Weblog written by individuals who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced locally. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction. Locally grown produce is fresher.While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer’s market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase . This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? ’Nuff said. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be rugged† or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it’s the farmer who brings local apples to market or the baker who makes local bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling â€Å"Name brand† fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space—farms and pastures—an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. Jennifer Maiser, www. eatlocalchallenge. com  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -3- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source B Smith, Alisa, and J. B. MacKinnon. Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.New York: Harmony, 2007. Print. The following passage is excerpted from a book written by the creators of the 100-Mile Diet, an experiment in eating only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius. Food begins to lose nutrition as soon as it is harvested. Fruit and vegetables that travel shorter distances are therefore likely to be closer to a maximum of nutrition. â€Å"Nowadays, we know a lot more about the naturally occurring substances in produce,† said [Cynthia] Sass. It’s not just vitamins and minerals, but all these phytochemicals and really powerful disease-fighting substances, and we do know that when a food never really reaches its peak ripeness, the levels of these substances never get as high. † . . . Yet when I called to confirm these facts with Marion Nestle, a professor and former chair of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, she waved away the nutrition issue as a red herring. Yes, she said, our 100-mile diet—even in winter—was almost certainly more nutritious than what the average American was eating.That doesn’t mean it is necessary to eat locally in order to be healthy. In fact, a person making smart choices from the global megamart can easily meet all the body’s needs. â€Å"There will be nutritional differences, but t hey’ll be marginal,† said Nestle. â€Å"I mean, that’s not really the issue. It feels like it’s the issue— obviously fresher foods that are grown on better soils are going to have more nutrients. But people are not nutrient-deprived. We’re just not nutrient-deprived. † So would Marion Nestle, as a dietician, as one of America’s most important critics of dietary policy, advocate for local eating? Absolutely. † Why? Because she loves the taste of fresh food, she said. She loves the mystery of years when the late corn is just utterly, incredibly good, and no one can say why: it just is. She likes having farmers around, and farms, and farmland.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -4- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source C McWilliams, James E. â€Å"On My Mind: The Locavore Myth. † Forbes. com. Forbes, 15 J ul. 2009. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following is excerpted from an online opinion article in a business magazine. Buy local, shrink the distance food travels, save the planet. The locavore movement has captured a lot of fans. To their credit, they are highlighting the problems with industrialized food. But a lot of them are making a big mistake. By focusing on transportation, they overlook other energy-hogging factors in food production. Take lamb. A 2006 academic study (funded by the New Zealand government) discovered that it made more environmental sense for a Londoner to buy lamb shipped from New Zealand than to buy lamb raised in the U.K. This finding is counterintuitive—if you’re only counting food miles. But New Zealand lamb is raised on pastures with a small carbon footprint, whereas most English lamb is produced under intensive factory-like conditions with a big carbon footprint. This disparity overwhelms domestic lamb’s advantage in transportation energy. N ew Zealand lamb is not exceptional. Take a close look at water usage, fertilizer types, processing methods and packaging techniques and you discover that factors other than shipping far outweigh the energy it takes to transport food.One analysis, by Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, showed that transportation accounts for only 11% of food’s carbon footprint. A fourth of the energy required to produce food is expended in the consumer’s kitchen. Still more energy is consumed per meal in a restaurant, since restaurants throw away most of their leftovers. Locavores argue that buying local food supports an area’s farmers and, in turn, strengthens the community. Fair enough. Left unacknowledged, however, is the fact that it also hurts farmers in other parts of the world.The U. K. buys most of its green beans from Kenya. While it’s true that the beans almost always arrive in airplanes— the form of transportation that consumes t he most energy—it’s also true that a campaign to shame English consumers with small airplane stickers affixed to flown-in produce threatens the livelihood of 1. 5 million sub-Saharan farmers. Another chink in the locavores’ armor involves the way food miles are calculated. To choose a locally grown apple over an apple trucked in from across the country might seem easy. But this decision ignores economies of scale.To take an extreme example, a shipper sending a truck with 2,000 apples over 2,000 miles would consume the same amount of fuel per apple as a local farmer who takes a pickup 50 miles to sell 50 apples at his stall at the green market. The critical measure here is not food miles but apples per gallon. The one big problem with thinking beyond food miles is that it’s hard to get the information you need. Ethically concerned consumers know very little about processing practices, water availability, packaging waste and fertilizer application.This is a n opportunity for watchdog groups. They should make life-cycle carbon counts available to shoppers. Reprinted by Permission of Forbes Media LLC  © 2010  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -5- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source D Loder, Natasha, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald. â€Å"The Problem of What to Eat. † Conservation Magazine. The Society for Conservation Biology, July-Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.The following chart is excerpted from an online article in an environmental magazine.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -6- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source E Gogoi, Pallavi. â€Å"The Rise of the ‘Locavore’: How the Strengthening Local Food Movement in Towns Across the U. S. Is Reshaping Farms and Food Retailing. † Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, 20 May 2008. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. The following is excerpted from an online article in a business magazine.The rise of farmers’ markets— in city centers, college towns, and rural squares—is testament to a dramatic shift in American tastes. Consumers increasingly are seeking out the flavors of fresh, vine-ripened foods grown on local farms rather than those trucked to supermarkets from faraway lands. â€Å"This is not a fringe foodie culture,† says [Anthony] Flaccavento. â€Å"These are ordinary, middle-income folks who have become really engaged in food and really care about where their food comes from. † It’s a movement that is gradually reshaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.The local food movement has already accomplished something that almost no one would have thought possible a few years back: a revival of small farms. After declining for more than a century, the number of small farms has increased 20% in the past six years, to 1. 2 million, according to the Agriculture Dept. . . . The impact of â€Å"locavores† (as local-food proponents are known) even shows up in that Washington salute every five years to factory farming, the Farm Bill. The latest version passed both houses in Congress in early May and was sent on May 20 to President George W.Bush’s desk for signing. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but it passed with enough votes to sustain an override. Predictably, the overwhelming bulk of its $290 billion would still go to powerful agribusiness interests in the form of subsidies for growing corn, soybeans, and cotton. But $2. 3 billion was set aside this year for specialty crops, such as the eggplants, strawberries, or salad greens that are grown by exactly these small, mostly organic farmers. That’s a big bump-up from the $100 million that was earmarked for such things in the previous legislation.Small fa rmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed, and some of them can obtain crop insurance. There’s money for research into organic foods, and to promote farmers’ markets. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the bill â€Å"invests in the health and nutrition of American children . . . by expanding their access to farmer’s markets and organic produce. † Reprinted from the May 20, 2008 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek by special permission, copyright  © 2008 by Bloomberg L. P.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. ollegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -7- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Source F Roberts, Paul. The End of Food. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Print. The following is excerpted from a book about the food industry. [T]he move toward local food, for all its trendiness (the more adamant adherents, known as â€Å"localvores,† strive to buy products that have traveled the least â€Å"food miles†), highlights one of the problematic pieces of the modern food economy: the increasing reliance on foods shipped halfway round the world.Because long-distance food shipments promote profligate fuel use and the exploitation of cheap labor (which compensates for the profligate fuel use), shifting back to a more locally sourced food economy is often touted as a fairly straightforward way to cut externalities, restore some measure of equity between producers and consumers, and put the food economy on a more sustainable footing. Such a shift would bring back diversity to land that has been all but destroyed by chemical-intensive mono-cropping, provide much-needed jobs at a local level, and help to rebuild community,† argues the UK-based International Society for Ecology and Culture, one of the leading lights in the localvore movement. â€Å"Moreover, it would allow farmers to make a decent living while giving consumers access to healthy, fresh food at affordable prices. † While localvorism sounds superb in theory, it is proving quite difficult in practice.To begin with, there are dozens of different definitions as to what local is, with some advocates arguing for political boundaries (as in Texas-grown, for example), others using quasi-geographic terms like food sheds, and still others laying out somewhat arbitrarily drawn food circles with radii of 100 or 150 or 500 miles. Further, whereas some areas might find it fairly easy to eat locally (in Washington State, for example, I’m less than fifty miles from industrial quantities of fresh produce, corn, wheat, beef, and milk), people in other parts of the country and the world would have to look farther afield.And what counts as local? Does food need to be purchased directly from the producer? Does it still count when it’s distributed through a mass marketer, as with Wal-Mart’s Salute to America’s F armer program, which is now periodically showcasing local growers? The larger problem is that although decentralized food systems function well in decentralized societies—like the United States was a century ago, or like many developing nations still are—they’re a poor fit in modern urbanized societies.The same economic forces that helped food production become centralized and regionalized did the same thing to our population: in the United States, 80 percent of us live in large, densely populated urban areas, usually on the coast, and typically hundreds of miles, often thousands of miles, from the major centers of food production.  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -8- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSSource G Hallatt, Alex. â€Å"Arctic Circle. † Comic strip. King Features Syndicate, Inc. 1 Sept. 2008. Web. 12 July 2009. The following is a ca rtoon from an environmentally themed comic strip. ARCTIC CIRCLE  © 2008 MACNELLY. DISTRIBUTED BY KING FEATURES SYNDICATE  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -9- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 2 (Suggested time—40 minutes.This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. She delivered the following speech before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Read the speech carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies Kelley uses to convey her message about child labor to her audience.Support your analysis with specific references to the text. We have, in this country, two million childr en under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states. No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years.Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age. They are in commerce, in offices, in manufacturing. Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.In Alabama the law provides t hat a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours, and Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state. North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night. In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night.And they will do so tonight, while we sleep. Nor is it only in the South that these things occur. Alabama does better than New Jersey. For Alabama limits the children’s work at night to eight hours, while New Jersey permits it all night long. Last year New Jersey took a long backward step. A good law was repealed which had required women and [children] to stop work at six in the evening and at noon on Friday. Now, therefore, in New Jersey , boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.In Pennsylvania, until last May it was lawful for children, 13 years of age, to work twelve hours at night. A little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon, and could work in the mill from six at night until six in the morning, without violating any law of the Commonwealth. If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised? Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil. No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation. The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in the knitting factories.They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills. Children braid straw for our hats, they spin and weave the silk and velvet wherewith we trim our hats. They stamp buckles and metal ornaments of all kinds, as well as pins and hat-pins. Under the sweating system, tiny children make artificial flowers and neckwear for us to buy. They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us. We do not wish this. We prefer to have our work done by men and women.But we are almost powerless. Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition. For myself, I Line 5 45 50 10 55 15 60 20 65 25 70 30 75 35 80 40  © 2011 The Colleg e Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -10- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both. What can we do to free our consciences? There is one line of action by which we can do much.We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children. No labor organization in this country ever fails to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of the children. For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil! 85 90 95  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org.GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. -11- 2011 AP ® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS Question 3 (Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score. ) The following passage is from Rights of Man, a book written by the pamphleteer Thomas Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a supporter of American independence from England. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay that examines the extent to which Paine’s characterization of America holds true today.Use appropriate evidence to support your argument. If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing g overnment on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into ordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. . . . Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults. STOP END OF EXAM  © 2011 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. org. -12-