Strategy Implementation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategy Implementation - Essay Example They need to update and improve their mission and visionary statements. A modification of their mission statement would be beneficial for them to create a new and improved business image. StilSim needs to fix its value statements and maintain them as well. Along with these, they need to create a list of stratagems to assist them in their success. To determine the risk factors that could hinder them, they should create a new organizational structure that also contains a plan of backup in the event that the new organizational structure implemented does not work. They would also benefit from a behavior controlling system, thus allowing StilSim to offer incentives and rewards to their employees, improving performance rates. Finally, StilSim needs to address the ethics problems they have and make plans for the issues that they currently have not addressed. If StilSim were to execute these changes, they would be able to be more competitive within the market and create a new period of reven ue. StilSim’s Mission and Vision Statements The name ‘StilSim’ is suggestive of the enthusiasm we have about our company. We have a large knowledge base about our people and recognitions that we have gotten from our workings in the market and in our community. In keeping with our individuality and enthusiasm, our name also implies the same. Currently, we have three operating offices in Ohio, where our staff is extensively knowledgeable of our clients’ accounts. They provide our clients with flexibility that no other company can. We have been operating for over 25 years and truly understand the trials of our chosen market, allowing us to provide the services that can exceed those tests. Value Statement Our values are simple and altruistic: Respect, integrity, honesty, quality, excellence and continued improvement are our commitments. We are committed to our clientele, which has been our primary focal point and number one priority in our service presentation . We honor our clients, partners, shareholders and employees, with a passion that provides exceptional results. To ensure quality of service and understanding, we provide all of our customers and employees with a handbook complete with all of the pertinent information about our company. Plan of Action In order for StilSim to implement the necessary changes, they must have a plan of action that is ascertainable. It will make certain that they are looking after our customers and ensuring that no one and nothing is left behind. The current plan of action is a low cost strategy that is perceived to allow them to move forward and be successful. StilSim believes that they need to update our technological base, as it is the original platform they started with. In today’s world, technological advances are in constant flux and for them to keep up with the times they must implement new technology in order to compete. To start, StilSim needs to upgrade their current database. This infor mation is imperative to be kept in a highly organized, accessible, manageable construct. An upgrade to the database will also allow the company to classify the information they have based on content. Another technological update that would be beneficial is the use of intranet. This will allow StilSim to communicate more efficiently within the company’s borders, improve communication in the sharing of data and improve employees’ knowledge of the company’s workings. StilSim would greatly benefit from voicemail, to

Climate Change In The Cradle Of Civilization History Essay

Climate Change In The Cradle Of Civilization History Essay The Fertile Crescent is a region in Western Asia, where ancient civilizations have developed. Population increases and intermittent dry spells in the region have resulted in agricultural innovations. The reason why this region is being called as Fertile Crescent is the fertile land and optimal climate conditions. Geographically speaking this area has been determined by Albert T. Clay as follow; The fertile crescent refers to an ancient area of fertile soil and important rivers stretching in an arc from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates. It covers Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. The Mediterranean lies on the outside edge of the arc. To the south of the arc is the Arabian Desert. On the east, the Fertile Crescent extends to the Persian Gulf. Geologically, this corresponds with where Iranian, African, and Arabian tectonic plates meet.  [2]   Furthermore, ancient history has showed us a positive correlation between fertile soil or appropriate climatic conditions and development of civilization. Therefore, Fertile Crescent which is also known as the cradle of civilization is the place where is believed to be home not only for the birthplace of various human civilizations but also other significant developments like writing and wheel. Appropriate climatic conditions are vitally important factor on development of civilizations. And the reason behind the occurrence of first civilizations in Fertile Crescent is the agricultural production that fed by the rain. Moreover, As a result of agricultural production and long term settlement, some of the first cities of human being on world have occurred in the Fertile Crescent. Many different civilizations like Natufians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Amorites, the Hittites, and  Assyrians have accrued in the  in this small region of the world. Researches on proxy records and excavations show the period of climate changes are often correspond to social change period as well. In other word, climate changes have crucial impacts on development of societies and its particularity. In this research paper, Im going to look over the major Climate Change in the Fertile Crescent from 10,000 B.C. to 2,000 B.C. Particularly, to con on how the climate influence agriculture and what kind of impact it had on civilizations that occurred in that region.   11,000 to 10,000 B.C. Younger Dryas 15.000 year ago, the impact of Ice Age chill extended into the heart of south-western Asia. From Greece to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean lay under the influence of north-easterly anticyclonic winds that blew from the high-pressure masses over the Scandinavian and Siberian ice sheets.  [3]  Even though there were regular rainfalls the weather was dry. Tauros Mountains in Turkey, Jordan rift valley and Sinai Peninsula were seasonal landscapes where most of the Ice Age Bands lived in. Main source of nutrition were seeds and fruits, which depended on seasonal rainfalls. When the great warming began, the northeasterlies subsided. Moister air flows from Atlantic and Mediterranean brought higher rainfalls. Warmer conditions after 13,000 B.C. saw a rapid increase in acorn-rich oak forests, documented in pollen samples from ancient lake beds in eastern Iran, the Jordan Valley, and other locations  [4]  . With the impact of great warming, small bands that lived over a vast area of Fertile Crescent become highly mobile. This means larger territories for hunters. When it comes about 11,000 B.C. a series of drought have occurred, which has endured for many generations: Younger Dryas. Younger Dryas is a major cooling and drying climatic event with global impact for human settlement, subsistence and influenced cultural developments at the origins of agriculture  [5]  . Several scientists have developed different theories about resolution of climatic and environmental reconstructions across the transition to agriculture and development of societies. One of the most accepted theory has been developed by Gordon Childe which is named as Propinquity Theory. Childe argues that a desiccation trend forced humans into close contact with plants and animals surrounding permanent water sources. However many theorists came later have disproved Childes theory. Natalie D. Munro express those pro-arguments against Childes theory as follow climatic instability introduced by the Younger Dryas reduced the distribution of cereal crops, lowered carrying capacity, and thus uprooted the sedentary way of life that began 14.5-13/12.8 thousand calibrated years ago  [6]   In order to lighten the relations between climate change and development of civilization during the period of Younger Dryas, different studies have been focus on settlement of Abu Hureyra(à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 11,500 B.C), which is located at Euphrates  valley in modern Syria. Natufians were the first known settlers of Abu Hureyra. It has been stated that Theres nothing particularly distinctive about Natufian toolkit: the people relied on the same simple hunting weapons as their neighbours and predecessors. But a glance at their artefacts highlights the importance of plants foods in their lives such as pastels employed for pounding nuts or numerous mortars  [7]  . Food like acorns and pistachios were vitally important storable surpluses for Natufians, which kept them in same location. For about 500 years, the Abu Hureyra people(Natufians) had meat supply from hunting gazelles as well. In the course of time, constant food surpluses created bigger communities. However, a rapidly growin g population brought conflicts over foods particularly in dry years. After about 11,000 B.C. the classic strategies of social flexibility and mobility no longer sufficed, not only Abu Hureyrans, but also thousands of people living elsewhere in southern Asia. According to Brain Fagan no longer could people simply move away to better-watered locations, or fall back on less favoured ones.  [8]  By passage of time, population located in many parts of Fertile Crescent have increased and they start to become less mobile. New permanent locations were defenceless to any rapid climatic shifts, particularly to long drought events. There are different theories on why and how the Younger Dryas has happened. One of the most accepted theory argues that the Younger Dryas was caused by a significant reduction or shutdown of the North Atlantic  thermohaline circulation. However, geological evidence is standing far away from this theory. In fact, what has been more important for people of Abu Hureyra and other small communities around Fertile Crescent was dramati c temperature fluctuation. People struggled to maintain their lives because they have stopped to gather fruits from trees, nuts from the forest which were in a not reachable distance anymore. Only 400 years later wild cereal vanished and even pistachios became less common. In the length of time, landscape became more arid and the people became familiar to drier weather. However, the fight between nature and mankind remained and they took the next virtual step of civilization. In about 10,000 B.C., people start to domesticate seeds (rye, einkorn, and lentils)  [9]  However, because of bigger population the problem of vegetation still remained. As a result, its necessary to underline that the extreme cooling of climate, Younger Dryas, could have great impacts on civilizations as it has impeded the progress of early civilization. 10,000 B.C. to 8,000 Domestication So far my research question has focus only on what happened during Younger Dryas event and pre-conditions for possible first farmers of mankind in history. But there are still remaining questions to be answer in order to reveal the relation between climate change and its consequences on civilizations. Todays advance technology and knowledge provides various way of travelling to past so as to understand the history of civilization. Recently, many different techniques/methods like tree rings, ice cores, mineral deposits, etc. have been developed by scientist for that purpose. Different ice core researches have provided us some of the most significant and exciting paleoclimate discoveries of the past. A research which has been done by an international team head by Richard Alley provided great information about climate records of hundred thousand years before present. Figure 1 provides information about snowfall and temperature ( °F) based on ice core data between à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 18,000 BC to today. Figure 1 Greenland last ice core climate record greenlandTempRecent.png Source: Alley, The Two-Mile Time Machine, 2001. The temperature records from Younger dryas period show a clear picture of big freeze in world climate. As it can be seen from the figure when it comes to about 11,000 B.C, temperature record on ice core shows a radical change in temperature. Around 9,500 B.C., warming resumed and that was the end of Younger dryas. As the temperatures rose the world became warmer. And inevitably Favourable climatic conditions brought steady improvements in the Fertile Crescent environment, which encouraged the growth and spread of wild plants and animals that constituted food supply for an increasing human population.  [10]   Going back to the late Natufian settlements, a possible picture of Abu Hureyra after Younger dryas would be like that: some men would still hunt the gazelles every spring but in a harder condition because of the over demand. However, climatic condition would be much more adequate for people because of warmer temperatures and increased rainfall. Pistachio and acorn trees would start to bloomed again and the forests which have been disappeared during Younger dryas would soon flourish again. In addition, Jared Diamond argues that in this period the hunter-gatherers of Abu Hureyra evidently knew the local wild plants and they used that knowledge to select and bring home only the most useful available seed plants.  [11]  However they were not aware of the fact of being the first civilization who domesticated the plant. The first undisputed archaeological evidence for plant domestication comes from the Levant, a region on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean which includes present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. At numerous sites throughout this area, evidence of the cultivation of emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, peas, flax, chick peas, bitter vetch, and barely has been discovered.  [12]  Assorted excavations from this area have the earliest determined date for plant (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 8,500 B.C) and animal (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 8,000 B.C.) domestication. However, Fertile Crescent was not the only location where domestication took place about that time. Surprisingly, dates for China are quite close to the Fertile Crescents as well. Wheat, pea, olive, dog, sheep and goat were the first plants and animals which have been domesticated in Fertile Crescent. On the other hand, rice, millet, pig and silkworms were the subjects of domestication in China. Mesoamerica (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‹â€ 3,500 B.C. ) has been another independent origin of domestication in history. Evidently, domestication revealed independently in different geographical location in the world; within a few thousand years. During my research I have realise that many scientists who developed theories on agricultural origins (like Gordon Childe, Ronald Wright, Charlie  Byrne,   Robert Braidwood etc.) have focus on the worldwide synchrony of domestication and they have turn to climatic and environmental changes as an explanation of first agriculture. Particularly, its well accepted that there were radical and rapid climate changes took place with the final recession of the ice sheets. However, these theories have not been enough strong to convince the argument of similar climatic and environmental instabilities have happened many times in the past without sparking agriculture. For that reason, personally I believe that instead of a universal theory of origins of agriculture regional explanation approaches are m ore logical. Except few scientists many archaeologists have agreed on the Fertile Crescent as the location for earliest agriculture. What make the Fertile Crescent being the birthplace early agriculture are undoubtedly the conditions. Frank Hole, an archaeologist in Yale University, described the precondition of Fertile Crescent for the plants domestication as follow: 1) foods of high quality are abundant and can be stored, 2) there is severe seasonal availability of these foods, 3) the territory is such that the people cannot override the limiting effects of seasonality on food resources through transhumance, 4) the territory or the resources themselves can be modified by humans to increase their yields, and 5) non-food commodities such as dung, wool, antlers, bitumen, obsidian, and so on, can be stockpiled  [13]  He believes that the most the most important pre-conditions are possibly number 2 and 3. Personally, I believe that the fact of being able know how to store the high quality seeds is the most important pre-condition for domestication. Archaeological evidence on development of storages methods before domestication period in Jordan Valley show us the importance of this pre-condition to us clearly. Overall, when the essential plant species occurred in the region, people of Fertile Crescent have join the progress plant domestication necessarily. They have learned to gather and process the plant foods in sufficient amount, safety method(s) to store them, and distribute them. Another factor that had impact on domestication has been the rise in the sea levels. Increasing evapo-transpiration at the end of Pleistocene led to the drying of lakes and a rise in sea levels also would have affected the abundance and pacing of resources  [14]  . This conditions push the late Natufians took the first brave step towards cereals planting. This development has been very important for human being because it enhanced a food supply system. On the other hand studies form Abbo et al. concludes as follow; We argue against climate change being at the origin of Near Eastern agriculture and believe that a slow but real climatic change is unlikely to induce revolutionary cultural changes.  [15]  However, factors related to climate change are not the only ones that had impact on the domestication. Cultural settings, changing of landscape and changes in plants and fauna are other factors which have shaped the domestication as well. 8,000 B.C. to 5,800 B.C. Spread of Agriculture and the 8.2ky Collapse After domestication took place in the Fertile Crescent spread of seeds became inevitable. Soon after food production arose there [in the Fertile Crescent], somewhat before 8000 B.C., a centrifugal wave of it [spread], appeared in other parts of western Eurasia and North Africa farther and farther removed from the Fertile Crescent, to the west and east.  [16]  According to Diamond, the rapid spread had reached different locations as in the figure. Figure 2: The spread of Fertile Crescent crops across western Eurasia Source: Diamond; 1997; 181. Diamond emphasizes that the because of the geographical characters of Eurasia spread of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent into Europe, Asia, and North Africa was much faster than in other parts of the world. Any civilization where domestication of plants and animals arrived they ensured steady food supply as well. Naturally, population rose and villages became bigger and bigger to cities. When people of different locations became farmer, in a short period some the small villages took their first step toward being the cradle of many civilizations. By 8,300 B.C., farming villages flourished on the Anatolia plateau in central Turkey, some of them close to sources of lustrous obsidian, fine-grained volcanic glass much prized for tool making and ornaments.  [17]  Approximately in 7500 B.C., one of the extraordinary settlements that flourished in Anatolia was Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k which covers 13 hectares. Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k was an enormous settlement because many early farming villages covered around only one hectare. Studies show people of Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k were advanced in cereal agriculture and method to store them. This led them to grow rapidly and develop their civilization further. Another village was settled in the Jordan Valley names as Jericho, which was about 4 hectares. As Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k, Jaricho was also advanced in agriculture. In addition, becau se of their locations both villages grew from the benefits of long-distance trade. Probably, socio-economic conditions of early agricultural settlements in Levant, northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Balkans and eastern Mediterranean increased steadily until about 6,200 B.C. However, when Earths surface warmed again second post-glacial climate event, which is known as Laurentide ice sheet collapse, took place. When a big ice sheet collapsed, enormous amount of meltwater flowed out to the Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic. This climate change led similar climate condition in Europe which happened during the Younger Dryas. Figure 3 shows Greenland ice climatic records extending to the last glacial maximum. In 6,200 B.C., the Lautentide collapse can be observed clearly. After the collapse, instead of warm and rainy weather of Mediterranean climate, Fertile Crescent occupied by colder and drier weather of northerner pattern. That was start of a disaster for many farming societies in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and even in Balkans. During the period of deglaciation that preceded the abrupt climate event of 6,400-6,000 B.C., a remnant Laurentide ice mass occupied Hudson Bay and served as an ice dam for glacial lakes Agassiz and Ojibway. The rapid collapse of ice in Hudson Bay allowed lakes Agassiz and Ojibway, which had previously discharged over spillways south-eastwards to the St Lawrence estuary, to drain swiftly northwards through the Hudson Strait to the Labrador Sea  [18]   Figure 3 Greenland ice climatic records extending to the last glacial maximum. Source: Fagan; 2004; 24 Research conducted by Shuman et al. about the event shows the result from lake level measurements and pollen data. Both data address the same result: a rapid climate change in North American happen because of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.  [19]  This rapid chance in climate is known as 6,200 B.C. or 8.2 kilo year(ky) event. In the same research authors questions the reason of the 8.2 ky event as well. Rapid transitions may result from abrupt changes in regional or global climatic controls that do not rapidly reverse whereas climatic oscillations appear to be the product of temporary forcing, such as meltwater pulses or glacial surges.  [20]   Another simulation research that has been carried out by various scientists on Rapid early Holocene deglaciation of the Laurentide concluded that during the 8.2 ky event melting water from Laurentide Ice Sheet rose the lakes Agassiz level about 1.3 and 0.7 cm of per year.  [21]  What is more important, a rapid rise in ocean level resulted floods at various places in the world. The results show a disastrous rise in global sea level which led to the flooding of the Euxine Lake and resulted a dramatic social change particularly in Southern Europe, Anatolia, and eastern Mediterranean Climate history proves that within about 4000 years the balances of climate changed again. The conditions push back the development of early civilizations again as it did during the Younger Dryas. Melting water from the Laurentide Ice Sheet resulted in Atlantic circulation again. However, there are controversial opinions about impacts of the 8.2ky event among historians and scientists. Some of them like Staubwasser and Weninger argue that there is a strong correlation between 8.2ky and cultural, social and economical changes in the Neolithic phase.  [22]  ,  [23]  They claims that the event had virtual impact on many of the farming villages including Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k, Jaricho, and Abu Hureyra for 400 years. Weninger et al. have put forward that the rapid spread of early farming to South-East Europe can be most plausibly understood as a direct and immediate reaction to abrupt climate forcing. The spread of early farming to South East Europe was extremely rapid and entirely synchronous with the catastrophic collapse of the ice dome above Hudson Bay at 8200 cal yr BP, many thousands of miles away  [24]  On the other hand, personally I think not many scientists have doubt about effect of this 8.2ky event on environmental settings. However, there are some suspicions about how this event affected developments of civilization. For instance, Weninger et al. proposed that the earliest pottery which has been discovered in Greece is associated with the incoming farming communities.  [25]  However, Budja, an archaeologist from University of Ljubljana, refuted this argument by claiming that potteries come out before the 8,200 B.P. within the hunter-gather framework at Danube Gorge, a region in Balkans.  [26]  Budja putting forth his argument by touching the first agriculture and animal domestication in Balkans but his argument has not been feeble because of lacking in evident. However, there are high number of scientist who believes that when 8,2 ky event happed farming villages were already settled near main European rivers. Furthermore, most probably, new climate condition pushed the farmers to the rivers and shore of lakes. Perhaps, people of Çatalhà ¶yà ¼k moved to western and southern coasts of Euxine Lake to remain their life at a place where the soil was still fertile and the weather conditions were favourable for farming. Unfortunately,  there is no reliable source of  information about these settlements yet. When it comes to the life in the Fertile Crescent, not much has been changed during the past centuries there. People were using the simple tools for agriculture and hunting. They did not have the knowledge and technical skills of using complex working tools. The distinction between role of the men and woman in society were still similar as after the Younger Dryas period. Fagan express the situation of societies in Fertile Crescent as follow: since people were still dispersed on patches of easily cultivated soil, they had space to pursue game, catch fish with traps and nets, and fora ge for grasses, fruit, tubers, and nuts in grassland and forest. Sedentary and farmers might be but their simple agricultural economy and regular depends on the game and wild plant foods gave them flexibility unheard of in later agricultural societies.  [27]  Overall, the 8,2 ky event has not been virtually determinative factor on development of the civilization in Fertile Crescent. However, when it came to 5,800 B.C., Atlantic circulation changed again, the moister conditions of Mediterranean weather turn back to the Levant. Before people of Fertile Crescents taking a further step trough path of civilization, another climate catastrophe happened in 5,600 B.C. 5600 B.C to 5400 B.C. Noahs Flood ? By 6,000 B.C., the last ice was coming to an end. The earths temperatures were raising consequently, North ice sheets were melting. That caused the rise of the World Ocean and pushing the Mediterranean Sea towards the Black Sea. One of the greatest natural disasters to affect humanity came in about 5,600 B.C. when the rising waters of the Mediterranean flooded the deep basin of the Euxine Lake, 150 meters below the Marmara, to form the Black Sea  [28]  . For a long time it has been recognized that because of the rise in Ocean level during glacial period, the Black Sea became isolated by Mediterranean and Marmara seas. Another hypothesis which has been widely accepted argues that Euxine Lake became the Black Sea by outflow from Mediterranean and Marmara Seas troughs Dardanelles channel and the Bosporus. However, in 1993 an American, Russian, Bulgarian and Turkish research team began to wonder if there could be a geological explanation for Nohas flood story and they concluded. This research team developed another hypothesis of an abrupt flooding of the Black Sea named as An Abrupt Drowning Of The Black Sea Shelf At 7.5 Kyr Bp  [29]  which argues that the Euxine Lake has been fed with the water coming from large massive ice in the far north. As a result the level of Euxine Lake rose dramatically within thousands of years. Its not difficult to think about the impact of this massive transformation on mankind lived in the region of Anatolia and Southeast Europe. Before coming to the possible impacts it is necessary to go into the details of this transformation. Figure 4 shows the water flows that passed from Euxine Lake/Black Sea trough Bosporus to Aegean and vice versa. Figure 4: Reconstructed Lake and sea levels between 17,000 to 7,500 B.P. Source: Ryan et al, 1997, 122. Note: Aegean (A), Sea of Marmara (M), and Black Seas (BS), and their connections/isolators via the Dardanelles (D) and Bosporus (B) The Laurentide collapse resulted in rise of Atlantic Ocean level until last glacial period. As it can be seen from the figure, in 7,500 B.P. the level of Mediterranean Sea was 15m lower than shorelines while this number was 30m in 9,000 B.P and 90m in 14,000 B.P. Moreover, as the Black Sea [Euxine Lake] was in very close vicinity to the Scandinavian-Russian ice cap, the melting water from the glaciers were supplied into the Black Sea through the major drainage system constituted by large European rivers (Danube, Dniepr, Dniestr and Bug)  [30]  By 5,600 B.C, Black Sea flood took place. Fagan described as fallow the Sea of Marmara was lapping at the edge of a shrinking berm. within days, the stream became a torrent, then a roiling waterfall flowing at over 90 km an hour. Soon the fertile deltas and river valleys vanished under water. The largest freshwater lake in the world rose at an average rate of 15 centimetres a day  [31]  . As it can be seen from the figure in a year late r the lake Euxine filled by the sea water came from Aegean and Marmara seas. In other word, Euxine Lake turned to be Black Sea in a short time period. This climate event has been related to the Noahs Flood by some scientists and editors of popular newspapers quite often. However, so far any hypothesis has not been enough to convince the scientific world. Going back to the main concern of this research paper, one of the greatest natural disasters that affect civilization was the Noahs Flood in about 5,600 B.C. And of course this climate event also had strong impacts not only on farming villages of Fertile Crescent, but also the settlements in Balkans and eastern Mediterranean. There are not enough sources to develop predicted results of the flood yet. But there is no doubted that such climate event may have been one of the most distractive event the earth have ever see. If Black Sea or Nohas Flood really did occur, it would be a monumental event in the development of civilization. I would have scared a large number of people to others part of the world and it would certainly change how later civilization would have evolved. Its uncertain how many people might have been affected by the flood. Probably, few hundred thousand of people have been affected by the flood. This number may not be so drastic if not taking account the world popul ation of this period. According to historian Luc-Normand Tellier from Quà ©bec University, before the appearance of agriculture total world population never exceed fifteen million inhabitants.  [32]  Overall, this event probably diminished a huge proportion of world population. Its believed that the spread of agriculture from Fertile Crescent to Europe, with migration of early farmers, in a short period is another consequence of the Black Sea flood. Probably, most of the early civilizations settlements, where the flood had reached have experience the harmful results of the flood like hunger, diseases, deaths, migrations. To sum up, this climate event had great impact on civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and other regions alongside. 5,800 B.C to 2,000 B.C. Climate Change and Sumerians The water [Black Sea flood] stabilized after about two years. Hundreds of villages lay deep below the now-saltwater sea. Settlements far inland now lay at the head of sheltered days or exposed to the fury of cold winter storms blowing onshore. But life went on as it always had, in a landscape dissected by countless rivers that led inland into an unknown terrain of endless for

Hamlet - A Eulogy Essay -- essays research papers

Dearest friends, family and the people of Denmark. We gather here today to mourn the loss of the noble prince, loyal son and true friend, Prince Hamlet. But we are not here only to mourn, but to reminisce the times we have spent with him, both the good and the bad and to remember him as the person he was. Prince Hamlet did not live a very fortunate, on the contrary his final weeks were filled with a tragedy none of us should have to bear, but he lived his life to the full and I am sure that he has, in some way touched the lives of all of us here today. Hamlet passed away young, a mere 30 years of age, and I sincerely regret that I will never be able to see such a fine young man take command of the throne and restore nobility to the state of Denmark. He was the son of the great King Hamlet, one of the best kings this country has ever seen, and Queen Gertrude, our countries finest lady who has also now sadly passed away. I am sure that all of you here today looked up to Hamlet as a fine young prince, but I knew him as much more than that. To me he was the best friend a man could have, loyal, witty, and extremely trustworthy. I remember the days back when we studied together in Wittenberg, we spent a lot of time together and he was always there to support and help me. He was always cheerful but quiet and had a quick wit, which fascinated me. Hamlet delighted in â€Å"flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table in a roar.† His ability to read my mind always astounded me, al...

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 29

â€Å"Elena!† Something was bothering her. â€Å"Elena!† Please, no more pain. She couldn't feel it right now, but she could remember†¦oh, no more fighting for air†¦ â€Å"Elena!† No†¦just let it be. Mentally, Elena pushed away the thing that bothered her ears and her head. â€Å"Elena, please†¦Ã¢â‚¬  All she wanted was sleep. Forever. â€Å"Damn you,Shinichi!† Damon had picked up the snow globe with the miniature forest when Shinichi found Elena's smudged glow radiating from it. Inside it, dozens of spruce, hickory, pine, and other trees grew – all from a perfectly transparent inner membrane. A miniature person – given that someone could be miniaturized and placed into such a globe, would see trees ahead, trees behind, trees in every direction – and could walk a straight line and come back to their starting point no matter which way they went. â€Å"It's an amusement,† Shinichi had said sullenly, watching him intently from under his lashes. â€Å"A toy, for children, usually. A play-trap.† â€Å"And you findthis amusing?† Damon had smashed the globe against the driftwood coffee table in the exquisite cabin which was Shinichi's secret hideout. That was when he had discovered why these were games for children – the globe was unbreakable. After that Damon had taken a moment – just one moment – to get hold of himself. Elena had perhaps seconds to live. He needed to be precise with his words. After that single moment, a long flow of words had spilled out from his lips, mostly in English, and mostly without unnecessary curses or even insults. He didn't care about insulting Shinichi. He had simply threatened – no, he hadsworn – to carry out on Shinichi the kind of violence that he had seen sometimes in a long life filled with humans and vampires with skewed imaginations. Eventually, it had gotten through to Shinichi that he was serious, and Damon had found himself inside the globe with a drenched Elena in front of him. She was lying at his feet, and she was worse off than his worst fears had allowed him to picture. She had a dislocated right arm with multiple fractures and a hideously shattered left tibia. Horrified as he had been to imagine her staggering through the forest of the globe, blood streaming from her right arm from shoulder to elbow, left leg dragging behind her like a wounded animal's, this was worse. Her hair had been soaking with sweat and mud, straggling over her face. And she'd been out of her mind, literally, delirious, talking to people who weren't there. And she was turning blue. She had been able to snap exactly one creeper with all her effort. Damon clawed up huge armfuls of them, ripping them from the earth viciously if they tried to fight or wrap around his wrists. Elena gasped in one deep breath just as suffocation would have killed her, but she didn't regain consciousness. And she wasn't the Elena he remembered. When he'd picked her up, he'd felt no resistance, no acceptance, nothing. She didn't know him. She was delirious with fever, exhaustion, and pain, but in one moment of half-consciousness had kissed his hand through her damp, disheveled hair, whispering â€Å"Matt†¦Find†¦Matt.† She didn't know who he was – she scarcely knew whoshe was, but her concern was for her friend. The kiss had gone through his hand and up his arm like the touch of a branding iron, and since then he'd been monitoring her mind, trying to divert the agony she was feeling away – away anywhere – into the night – into himself. He turned back to Shinichi and, in a voice like an icy wind, said, â€Å"You'd better have a way to cure all her wounds – now.† The charming cabin was surrounded by the same evergreens, hickory, and pines as grew in the snow globe. The fire burned violet and green as Shinichi poked it. â€Å"This water is just about ready to boil. Make her drink tea made with this.† He handed Damon a blackened flagon – once beautiful chased silver; now a battered remnant of what it had been – and a teapot with some broken leaves and other unsavory-looking things at the bottom. â€Å"Make sure she drinks a good three quarters of a cup, and she'll fall asleep and wake up almost as good as new.† He dug an elbow into Damon's ribs. â€Å"Or you can just let her have a few sips – heal her partway, and then let her know it's in your power to give her more†¦or not. You know†¦depending on how cooperative she is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Damon remained silent and turned away. If I have to look at him, he thought, I'll kill him. And I might need him again. â€Å"And if you really want to accelerate the healing, add some of your blood. Some people like to do it that way,† Shinichi added, his voice picking up speed with excitement again. â€Å"See how much pain a human can take, you know, and then when they're dying, you can just feed them tea and blood and start over†¦if they remember you from last time – which they hardly ever do; they'll usually go through more pain just to get a chance to fight you†¦,† he giggled, and Damon thought he sounded not quite sane. But when he had suddenly turned to Shinichi, he had to hold himself very still inside. Shinichi had become a blazing, glowing, outline of himself, with tongues of light lapping from his projection, rather like close-up solar flares. Damon was nearly blinded, and knew he was meant to be. He clutched the silver flagon as if he were holding on to his own sanity. Maybe he was. He had a blank space in his mind – and then there were suddenly memories of trying to find Elena†¦or Shinichi. Because Elena had abruptly been absent from his company, and it could only be the fault of the kitsune. â€Å"There's a modern bathroom here?† Damon asked Shinichi. â€Å"There's whatever you want; just decide before you open a door and unlock it with this key. And now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Shinichi stretched, his golden eyes half shut. He ran a languid hand through his shiny black hair tipped with flame. â€Å"Now, I think I'll go sleep under a bush.† â€Å"Is that all you ever do?† Damon made no attempt to keep the biting sarcasm out of his voice. â€Å"And have fun with Misao. And fight. And go to the tournaments. They – well, you'll have to come and see one for yourself.† â€Å"I don't care to go anywhere.† Damon didn't want to know what this fox and his sister considered fun. Shinichi reached out and took the miniature cauldron full of boiling water off the fire. He poured the boiling water over the collection of tree bark, leaves, and other detritus in the battered metal teapot. â€Å"Why don't you go find a bushnow ?† Damon said – and it wasn't a suggestion. He'd had enough of the fox, who had served his purpose now anyway, and he didn't care a bit about whatever mischief Shinichi might make for other people. All he wanted was to be alone – with Elena. â€Å"Remember; get her to drink it all if you want to keep her for a while. She's pretty much unsalvageable without it.† Shinichi poured through a fine sieve the infusion of dark green tea. â€Å"Better try before she wakes up.† â€Å"Will you justget out of here ?† When Shinichi stepped through the dimensional crack, taking care to turn just the right way so as to reach the real world, and not some other globe, he was steaming. He wanted to go back and thrash Damon within an inch of his life. He wanted to activate the malach inside Damon and cause him to†¦well, of course, notquite kill sweet Elena. She was a blossom with nectar untasted, and Shinichi was in no hurry to see her buried underground. But as for the rest of the idea†¦yes, he decided. Now he knew what he would do. It would be simply delicious to watch Damon and Elena make up, and then, during the Moonspire Festival tonight, to bring back the monster. He could let Damon go on believing they were â€Å"allies,† and then, in the middle of their little spree – let the possessed Damon loose. Show that he, Shinichi, had been in control all along. He would punish Elena in ways she had never dreamed about and she would die in delicious agony†¦at Damon's hand. Shinichi's tails quivered a little ecstatically at the thought. But for now, let them laugh and joke together. Revenge only ripened with time, and Damon was really quite difficult to control when he was raging. It hurt to admit that, just as his tail – the physical one in the center – hurt from Damon's abominable cruelty to animals. When Damon was in a passion it took every ounce of Shinichi's concentration to control him. But at Moonspire Damon would be calm, would be placid. He'd be pleased with himself, as he and Elena would undoubtedly have laid some absurd plot to try to stop Shinichi. Thatwould be when the fun would begin. Elena would make a beautiful slave while she lasted. With the kitsune gone, Damon felt that he could behave more naturally. Keeping a firm grasp on Elena's mind, he picked up the cup. He tried a sip of the mixture himself before trying it on her and found it tasted just slightly less nauseating than it smelled. However, Elena really had no choice, she could not do anything of her own volition, and little by little, the mixture went down. And then a dose of his blood went down. Again, Elena was unconscious and had no choice in the matter. And then she'd gone to sleep by herself. Damon paced restlessly. He had a memory that was more like a dream floating around in his head. It was of Elena trying to throw herself out of a Ferrari going about 100 kilometers an hour, to get away from – what? Him? Why? Not, in any case, the best of beginnings. But that wasall he could remember! Damn it! Whatever came right before it was a total blank. Had he hurt Stefan? No, Stefan was gone. It had been the other boy with her, Mutt.What had happened? Damn it tohell ! He had to figure out what had happened so he could explain it all to Elena when she woke up. He wanted her to believe him, to trust him. He didn't want Elena as a one-night bleeder. He wanted her tochoose him. He wanted her to see how much better suited she was to him than to his mousy, milksop brother. His princess of darkness. That was what she wasmeant to be. With him as king, consort, whatever she wished. When she saw things more clearly, she would understand that it didn't matter. That nothing mattered except them being together. He viewed her body, veiled under the sheet, with dispassion – no, with positiveguilt .Dio mio – what if he hadn't found her? He couldn't get the picture out of his mind of how she'd looked, stumbling forward like that†¦lying there breathless†¦kissing his hand†¦ Damon sat down and pinched the bridge of his nose. Why had she been in the Ferrari with him? She'd been angry – no, not angry. Furious was closer but so frightened†¦ofhim . He could picture that clearly now, the moment of her throwing herself out of the speeding car, but he couldn't remember anything before it. Was he going out of his mind? What had been done to her? No†¦Damon forced his thoughts away from the easy question and made himself ask thereal question. What hadhe done to her? Elena's eyes, blue with golden flecks, like lapis lazuli, were easy to read even without telepathy. What had†¦he†¦done to her that was so frightening that she would jump out of a speeding car to get away from him? He'd been taunting the fair-haired boy. Mutt†¦Gnat†¦whatever. The three of them had been together, and he and Elena had been†¦damn! From there to his awakening at the steering wheel of the Ferrari, all was a shimmering blank. He could remember saving Bonnie at Caroline's house; he could remember being late for his 4:44A.M . meeting with Stefan; but after that, things began to fragment.Shinichi , maledicalo! That fox! He knew more about this than he was telling Damon. I have always†¦been stronger†¦than my enemies, he thought. I have always†¦remained†¦in†¦control. He heard a slight sound and was by Elena in an instant. Her blue eyes were shut, but the lashes were fluttering. Was she waking up? He made himself turn down the sheet by her shoulder. Shinichi had been right. There was a lot of dried blood, but he could sense that the blood flow itself was more normal. But there was something horribly wrong†¦no, he wouldn't believe it. Damon barely kept himself from screaming in frustration. The damn fox had left her with a dislocated shoulder. Things were definitely not going well for him today. Now what? Call for Shinichi? Never. He felt he couldn't look at the fox again tonight without wanting to murder him. He was going to have to put her shoulder back in the socket alone. It was a procedure usually only attempted by two people, but what could he do? Still keeping Elena in an iron mind-grip, making sure shecouldn't awaken, he grasped her by the arm and began the painful business of dislocating the humerus even farther, pulling the bone away so that he could finally release pressure and hear the sweetpop that meant that the long arm bone had slipped back into the socket. Then he let go. Elena's head was tossing from side to side, her lips parched. He poured some more of Shinichi's magical bone-knitting tea into the battered cup, then lifted her head gently from the left side to put the cup to her lips. He let her mind have some freedom, then, and she started to lift her right hand and then dropped it. He sighed and tilted her head, tipping the silver flagon so that the tea trickled into her mouth. She swallowed obediently. It all reminded him of Bonnie†¦but Bonnie hadn't been so terribly hurt. Damon knew he couldn't return Elena to her friends in this condition; not with her camisole and jeans shredded, and dried blood everywhere. Maybe he could do something about that. He went to the second door off the bedroom, thought, bathroom – modern bathroom, and unlocked and opened the door. It was exactly what he'd imagined: a pristine, white, sanitary place with a large heap of towels piled, ready for guests, on the bathtub. Damon ran warm water over one of the washcloths. He knew better by now than to strip Elena and dump her in warm water. It was what she needed, but if anyone ever found out, her friends would have his beating heart torn out of his chest and staked on a pike. He didn't even have to think about that – he simply knew it. He went back to Elena and began to gently stroke dried blood off her shoulder. She murmured, shaking her head, but he kept it up until the shoulder at least looked normal, exposed as it was by torn cloth. Then he got another washcloth and went to work on her ankle. This was still swollen – she wasn't going to be running away anytime soon. Her tibia, the first of the two bones in the lower leg, had grown properly together again. It was more evidence that Shinichi and theShi no Shi had no need for money, or they could simply put this tea on the market and make a fortune. â€Å"We look at things†¦differently,† Shinichi had said, fixing Damon with those strange golden eyes. â€Å"Money doesn't mean much to us. What does? The deathbed agonies of an old rogue who fears he's going to hell. Watching him sweat, trying to remember encounters he's long forgotten. A baby's first conscious tear of loneliness. The emotions of an unfaithful wife when her husband catches her with her lover. A maiden's†¦well, her first kiss and her first night of discovery. A brother willing to die for his brother. Things like that.† And many other things that couldn't be mentioned in polite company, Damon thought. A lot were about pain. They were emotional leeches, sucking up the feelings of mortals to make up for the emptiness of their own souls. He could feel the sickness inside him again as he tried to imagine – to calculate – the pain Elena must have felt, leaping out of his car. She must have expected an agonizing death – but it was still better than staying with him. This time, before entering the door that had been a white-tiled bathroom, he thought,Kitchen, modern, with plenty of ice packs in the freezer. Nor was he disappointed. He found himself in a strongly masculine kitchen, with chrome appliances and black-and-white tiling. In the freezer: six ice packs. He took three back to Elena and put one around her shoulder, one at her elbow, and one around her ankle. Then he went back into the kitchen's spotless beauty for a glass of ice-cold water. Tired. So tired. Elena felt as if her body were weighted with lead. Every limb†¦every thought†¦lapped in lead. For instance, there was something she was supposed to be doing – or not doing – right now. But she couldn't make the thought come to the surface of her mind. It was too heavy. Everything was too heavy. She couldn't even open her eyes. A scraping sound. Someone was near, on a chair. Then there was liquid coolness on her lips, just a few drops, but it stimulated her to try to hold the cup herself and drink. Oh, delicious water. It tasted better than anything she'd ever had before. Her shoulder hurt terribly, but it was worth the pain to drink and drink – no! The glass was being pulled away. She tried, feebly, to hang onto it, but it was pulled out of her grasp. Then she tried to touch her shoulder, but those gentle, invisible hands wouldn't let her, not until they had washed her own hands with warm water. After that they packed the ice packs around her and wrapped her like a mummy in a sheet. The cold numbed her immediate feelings of pain, although there were other pains, deep inside†¦. It was all too difficult to think about. As the hands removed the ice packs again – she was shivering with cold now – she let herself lapse back into sleep. Damon treated Elena and dozed, treated and dozed. In the perfectly appointed bathroom, he found a tortoiseshell hairbrush and a comb. They looked serviceable. And one thing he knew for certain: Elena's hair had never looked like this in her life – or unlife. He tried to stroke the brush gently through her hair and found that the tangles were much harder to get out than he'd imagined. When he pulled harder on the brush, she moved and murmured in that strange sleep-language of hers. And, finally, it was the hair brushing that did it. Elena, without opening her eyes, reached up and took the brush from his hand and then, when it hit a major tangle, frowned, reached up to grasp a fistful and try to get the brush through it. Damon sympathized. He'd had long hair at times during his centuries of existence – when it couldn't be helped, and though his hair was as naturally fine as Elena's, he knew the frustrated feeling that you were ripping your hair out by the roots. Damon was about to take the brush from her again, when she opened her eyes. â€Å"What – ?† she said, and then she blinked. Damon had tensed, ready to push her into mental blackout if it were necessary. But she didn't even try to hit him with the brush. â€Å"What†¦happened?† What Elena was feeling was clear: she didn't like this. She was unhappy about another awakening with only a vague idea of what had been going on when she slept. As Damon, poised for fight or flight, watched her face, she slowly began to put together what had happened to her. â€Å"Damon?† She gave him that no-holds-barred lapis gaze. It said,Am I being tortured, or treated, or are you just an interested bystander, enjoying somebody's pain while drinking a glass of cognac? â€Å"Theycook with cognac, princess. Theydrink Armagnac. And I don't drink†¦either,† Damon said. He spoiled the entire effect by adding hastily, â€Å"That's not a threat. I swear to you, Stefan left me as your bodyguard.† This was technically true if you considered the facts: Stefan had yelled, â€Å"You'd better make sure nothing happens to Elena, you double-dealing bastard, or I'm going to find a way to come back and rip off your – † The rest had been muffled in the fight, but Damon had gotten the gist. And now he took the assignment seriously. â€Å"Nothing else will hurt you, if you'll allow me to watch over you,† he added, now getting into the area of the fictitious, since whoever had frightened or pulled her out of the car had obviously been around when he had. But nothing would get her in the future, he swore to himself. However he had blundered this last time, from now on there would be no further attacks on Elena Gilbert – or someone would die. He wasn't trying to spy on her thoughts, but as she stared into his eyes for a long moment, they projected with total clarity – and utter mystery – the words: I knew I was right. It was someone else all along. And he knew that under her pain, Elena felt a huge sense of satisfaction. â€Å"I hurt my shoulder.† She reached up with her right hand to grip it, but Damon stopped her. â€Å"You dislocated it,† Damon said. â€Å"It's going to hurt for a while.† â€Å"And my ankle†¦but someone†¦I remember being in the woods and looking up and it wasyou . I couldn't breathe but you tore the creepers off me and you picked me up in your arms†¦.† She looked at Damon in bewilderment. â€Å"Yousaved me?† The statement had the sound of a question, but it wasn't. She was wondering over something that seemed impossible. Then she began to cry. A baby's first conscious tear of loneliness. The emotions of an unfaithful wife when her husband catches her with her lover†¦ And maybe a young girl's weeping when she believes that her enemy has saved her from death. Damon ground his teeth in frustration. The thought that Shinichi might be watching this, feeling Elena's emotions, savoring them†¦it was impossible to bear. Shinichi would give Elena her memory back again, he was certain of that. But at a time and place most amusing to him. â€Å"It was my job,† he said tightly. â€Å"I'd sworn to do it.† â€Å"Thank you,† Elena gasped between her sobs. â€Å"No, please – don't turn away. I really mean it. Ohhh – is there a box of tissues – or anythingdry ?† Her body was heaving with sobs again. The perfect bathroom had a box of tissues. Damon brought it back to Elena. He looked away as she used them, blowing her nose again and again as she sobbed. Here there was no enchanted and enchanting spirit, no grim and sophisticated fighter of evil, no dangerous coquette. There was only a girl broken by pain, gasping like a wounded doe, sobbing like a child. And undoubtedly his brother would know what to say to her. He, Damon, had no idea of what to do – except that he knew he was going to kill for this. Shinichi would learn what it meant to tangle with Damon when Elena was involved. â€Å"How do you feel?† he asked brusquely. No one would be able to say he'd taken advantage of this – no one would be able to say he'd hurt her only to†¦to make use of her. â€Å"You gave me your blood,† Elena said wonderingly, and as he looked quickly down at his rolled-up sleeve, she added, â€Å"No – it's just a feeling I know. When I first – came back to Earth, after the spirit life. Stefan would give me his blood, and eventually I would feel†¦this way. Very warm. A little uncomfortable.† He swung around and looked at her. â€Å"Uncomfortable?† â€Å"Too full – here.† She touched her neck. â€Å"We think it's a symbiotic thing†¦for vampires and humans who live together.† â€Å"For a vampire Changing a human into a vampire, you mean,† he said sharply. â€Å"Except I didn't Change when I was part spirit still. But then – I turned back human.† She hiccupped, tried a pathetic smile, and used the brush again. â€Å"I'd ask you to look at me and see that I haven't Changed, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She made a helpless little motion. Damon sat and imagined what it would have been like, taking care of the spirit-child Elena. It was a tantalizing idea. He said bluntly, â€Å"When you said you were a little uncomfortable before, did you mean thatI should take some of your blood?† She half glanced away, then looked back. â€Å"I told you I was grateful. I told you that I felt†¦too full. I don't know howelse to thank you.† Damon had had centuries of training in discipline or he would have thrown something across the room. It was a situation to make you laugh†¦or weep. She was offering herself to him as thanks for rescue from suffering that he should have saved her from, and had failed. But he was no hero. He wasn't like St. Stefan, to refuse this ultimate of prizes; whatever condition she was in. He wanted her.

Principal Intern Essay

As I embarked into this higher education path I wanted nothing more than to be an administrator of an Elementary or Middle School in Texas. I was able to even envision myself in the school district I currently work in working in school administration at one of the schools I have taught at. I was fortunate on my internship year to have the position of being the instructional technology facilitator and was able to help more in depth with the administrators of my campus and learn the in and outs of the administration side of the school. Looking at all of this and having experienced it I am now thinking I am leaning towards more working towards becoming a department head or maybe the head of a academic department for the district. I am hoping the first step to this will be to become the department head for fifth grade on my campus and then moving towards becoming the English Language Arts and Reading department head. Eventually over time I hope to move into a more Reading Specialist position for a campus or even possibly a district. My ultimate goal is to move into the administration building and become a curriculum director for a district. As a leader I hope to accomplish many things to my employee’s and staff like being stronger leaders in the classrooms, stronger teachers, and being able to empower students for long term success. I have always wanted since I entered education to see the end result of my students to be a positive one and love to see the academic growth my students show over the course of a school year. I think that being able to show teachers and staff how to be and become strong leaders in the classrooms will help to majorly accomplish this goal. For me a leader is someone who listens and empowers its learners to learn in a way that fits their own personal needs and not necessarily the needs of the teacher themselves. I also think that using these techniques it will help teachers to become stronger educators in life and in the long run. Helping teachers, just like students, create a solid foundation is a great way to start them in the right direction and therefore it will be easier for them to lead themselves one day. And finally I would love to see in teachers, like I do with my students, long term success over the course of a year, two years and even ten years as they grow academically with the students. In Texas we are constantly changing the way things are being tested and handled. Being able to be a leader that is open to those changes will help me to accomplish my goals to the best of my ability while creating successful teachers and students. Reflective Practice In the beginning of these courses reflective writing did not seem to be an influential part of my learning process as a student myself. In my own classroom I did not use much reflective writing for my students because I saw it as time that I could be using on something else related to the content. Throughout the courses related to my master’s degree through Lamar University I have had to reflect in every course on what I learned throughout the class. At first I was skeptical about the reflective writing but as the course progressed I realized that by writing reflectively I was able to take the course material and transpose it into my own words. This helped me to have a clear understanding of what I learned and make it my own. One of the meaningful things that I feel I should have walked away from these courses is that the best way to become a leader is to create ownership for the staff, and I relate that to reflective writing. In my reflective writing I am walking away with a sense of ownership from my courses, and this helps to realize the main facts of what the course was about. Reflective writing now has a new meaning to me; it is now more of me creating my own ownership to the material presented in the course. I have even now find myself using reflective writing more and more in my own classroom and finding it a useful tool to assess what the students are walking away from my lessons with. To me reflective writing is a great tool to check students understanding of what was taught and what was learned. Reflective writing has had a significant influence on my practice currently in my classroom. Instead of using traditional quizzes and test I find myself using more reflective writings in my own classroom. It is a great form of writing to use to allow the students to use their own words to explain what they have learned in the classroom. In my future I plan on using reflective writing more and more in a leadership role for my staff to obtain information on how well the school is operating and working as a team. I feel that if my current principal used more reflective writing in our faculty meetings then he would have a better understanding of what is going on inside the campus. When I am a principal with my own campus I plan on using reflective writing responses in order to check if my staff walked away from staff developments with what was intended for them to learn and to also make sure that the training was effective or not to use on our campus. I would also like to implement a feedback process that involves reflective writing, which will allow staff to respond to any procedures implemented on campus that might need to be adjusted. By using this reflective writing process in the future I can make sure that my staff walks away with the knowledge they need in staff developments and in-services. This will prove to be an effective form of feedback for me and reflection on what skills they acquired. In Examining what we do to Improve our Schools Tool 8.1 the CARE Model: Planning Tool uses four steps to address change for the future the final step Evaluate allows the staff to reflective on the prior steps they have created (Harris). In this process the staff or administrator is to take steps into identifying and solving problems they are facing on campus. The first three steps are steps on how to implement and strategize the problem at hand. The fourth step in the CARE Model is to ‘identify the best ways to evaluate the implemented recommendations’ which is a way for the person(s) making the decisions can reflect on what they have created. In the same book Tool 8.2 (Harris) provides a list of reflective type questions to be answered to examine school improvement. These are great questions to guide someone’s reflection or at the very least jump start their reflection process so they have a starting point. An example of one of the questions asked in Tool 8.2 is ‘What am I doing to sustain improvement?’ These types of questions allow me as a future administrator to use for myself and others to reflect upon what we are doing as a team to create positive school improvement. Competency Development DOMAIN I School Community Leadership Competency 001- The principal knows how to shape campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. In this competency I learned many things on how to create a vision for my campus and how to make it happen. I found it is not only important to make your school have a vision or just a common goal but the process of getting to that vision is equally important. Competency 001 is the foundation for that solid house you want to build, without the foundation a house will eventually fall and break, just like a school would without a solid foundation. As a leader of my campus it is my duty to look into creating a climate that promotes higher level thinking and teaching. When I do obtain my own campus I will be using this competency to ensure that higher expectations are required. It is not just enough to create higher standards and expect people to follow them it is equally important to create them in such a way that they can become obtained. In order to make these goals and visions obtainable and reachable it is important not to just let one person make these decisions, but to allow all stakeholders to have a say in the creation and implementation of them. I found throughout all of my courses that the most important factoring in leading your staff and students in any direction is the ownership that they have in the school. It is important that all stakeholders have a clear understanding that each party involved was and is clearly represented. I know that I feel better implementing a plan that I took part in planning or know someone in the plan that had my best interests and the student’s best interests at heart. I found myself spending 23 hours on this competency with my principal and assistant principal. The majority of the time was spent prior to school helping the committees to set up the vision and goals. We then revisited the vision in the middle of the school year to adjust to the changes our campus faces. It was also important that my principal have me sit in on grade level meetings to see if each grade level had a clear understanding of what the vision meant for them and what it looked like in their classrooms and for their students. I would say in this section of the domains I believe that I am walking away with the most mastery because of all of the actual hands on time I got to spend working with my campus vision and missions. Competency 002 The principal knows how to communicate and collaborate with all members of the school community, responds to diverse interests and needs, and mobilizes resources to promote student success. In this section I learned the importance of correctly communicating with all staff, students, and community stakeholders for my campus. Although it was difficult at times to get parents to communicate and participate at school functions I was able to learn a lot about the process of correctly communicating with them. I was able to assist in almost every letter we sent home with students explaining our events. We not only had to have a copy in English but we also had to translate all letters in Spanish as well. Over the course of the year, logging over seven hours, as paper became more and more precious I was able to focus more on call outs over the phone system and also to work on maintaining accurate information on the schools website. I had a bit of the upper hand in comparison to others in these course because I was able to find ways through our website to communicate effectively with the community. In our many multicultural events we held on campus (Hispanic Heritage Art Contest, Black History Writing Contest, Math Night, and Science Night) I was able to have exposure to the positive effect it has on students through multicultural awareness. On this competency I spent around seven hours of internship time (I believe more logged hours were possible). Another wonderful thing I learned during this lesson was how to correctly manage school wide communication that took place on campus. I was very fortunate to have a very supportive principal who was willing to take me under her wing and allow playing a huge role in all activities on the campus. My principal always told me anything you would not say out loud make sure you do not put it in writing. She taught me through example and doing how to effectively write and create e-mails to be sent to the staff. I know now the importance of tone in my writing to ensure the way the e-mail is received it is received correctly. Competency 003 The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner. One of the most memorable things I will walk away from this course is the question to always ask myself â€Å"Is the decision to the question in the best interest of the child(ren)?† My mentors (principal, assistant principal, counselor, veteran teachers) taught me this valuable lesson that any decision, no matter the size, has to have the student’s best interest at heart. This is a great way to keep you in check to make sure you are being ethical and act with integrity in everyday decisions as a campus administrator. The legal portion of this competency comes with the knowledge of making sure to follow all state guidelines set for by the Texas Education Agency. One of the best ways I found to make sure you are following the rules legally is to ask questions. My internship supervisor, Sherry Gore through my eighteen internship hours, taught me to never be afraid to ask questions or research the answer before making a decision. The way she taught me this was not in a direct manner but more indirectly. By demonstrating to me on topics that she was unfamiliar with how she asked other principals or administrators to solve her problems I learned his valuable lesson. With the ever changing ways of education in the State of Texas, and the Country for that matter, it is important for an administrator to make sure they are up to date with all their knowledge about the laws concerning the education of the children in their school. It is also the responsibility of the principal to make sure their staff knows about any changes in laws and procedures. Making sure the staff knows of these changes it will make the transition to the new ones a smoother one for their campus and thus make the impact less stressful on the children. DOMAIN II Instructional Leadership Competency 004 The principal knows how to facilitate the design and implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessments; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance. One of the major witnessing to competency 004 was that of how our campus was having year after year to adjust to its ever growing numbers of bilingual and ESL students on our campus. Each year we a faced with the challenge of how to adjust to the growing numbers not only with resources but also with the staffing of these new positions needed. In all campus purchases, technology or academic workbooks, we find ourselves looking as administrators on the campus at what kind of Spanish and ESL supplements were available and how well they will work for our students needs. I found it very interesting in choosing our new reading textbooks in how different the Spanish supplements are for the different adoptions. As a person on the committee, logging over twenty-three internship hours, for our school to help us choose our next adoption it was made very clear to us at the beginning of the process that we needed to make sure we are considering not only the English portion of the textbook but the ESL materials are equally important. I knew going into it that the ESL supplements were important but it never crossed my mind how important it is to our campus. With my campus being one of two bilingual campuses it was important to my principal that our vote was heard at the district level when choosing the newest adoptions. The next step in this was implementing a new reading textbook while adjusting to the new district wide curriculum CSCOPE. It was my principal’s job to make sure that all of her staff was well aware of how to use the materials mandated by the district for our new instructional focus always keeping the students best interests at heart when training the teachers to prepare for our school year of academic success. Competency 005 The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain an instructional program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. All too often there is going to be a change in policy or educational law, and with these changes there is always going to be changes in educational practices that have proven to be effective. The older methods of teaching are not necessarily the best methods to be used to reach the students of 2011. This competency ensures that the principal keep up with the best practices and methods out in the world to use for the success of our students and staff. This includes making sure that the staff is up to date on the latest practices in teaching in new and exciting ways to reach children. I spent close to twenty-one hours working with my principal and instructional facilitators to ensure that our campus had what we needed to implement new teaching practices in our classrooms. This section requires a lot of research into the newest needs of the students and then the needs of the staff to meet those needs. One example of a staff development that I was part of implementing with the principal and instructional facilitators was when we had to move into a new online lesson planning system. This system was completely online and making paper lesson plans not necessary. It was my responsible to make sure the staff was trained in how to use this new system to its full potential. I had to attend training provided by the company ht owned the software as well as district training to show me how to show the staff how to use this new system. It was essential that the staff knew how to implement this program because it was soon to become a mandate by the district to improve district lesson plan sharing throughout the entire district. The essential great thing for the teachers was that of making teachers resources more readily available to district employees across the di strict. Competency 006 The principal knows how to implement a staff evaluation and development system to improve the performance of all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and apply the legal requirements for personnel management. With this area I feel I need a little more practice, and that is my fault in the internship hours and plan. I do however plan on using my current principal to help me to understand the evaluation process of a staff member. With only putting in eight hours into this area of focus I feel that I need to focus more on the PDAS system. I know the system as a teacher but I feel I need to works towards better understanding of the administrator side of the evaluations. I did focus my attention on part of this aspect as determining the needs of the staff and creating a staff development for the staff to grow from. With the help of the assessment specialist on my campus I found that we as a staff needed more focus on how to properly prepare the kids to take tests for a long period of time. We gathered information and tips for the staff to use while preparing the students for their long awaited TAKS tests. We then used a simple evaluation survey at the end of the training to evaluate the effectiveness of the training to meet the needs of the teachers and students. We produced a lot of reflective time for teachers to share their own experiences in the classroom that allowed students to work to their best potential. With the knowledge of the results of the survey we used the knowledge we gained to conduct follow mini-trainings to assess the needs of the staff after they implemented the practices. The reason we conducted the mini-follow ups was because of the survey evaluation at the end of the training said they enjoy the trainings we have but they need further help after we implement the training in our classrooms. Competency 007 The principal knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and problem solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment. Spending close to eighteen hours working on this competency it clear to see that this competency is an important one in relationship to the effectiveness of a campus. One major thing I learned from my principal was that you need to be organized enough to make sure you put together a quality interview to ensure that you put together a quality staff. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in the interview process of one of our future teachers. The before part of the process was the preparation in getting ready for the interview, my principal using the Gallup interview process so she must be organized and ready. During the interview quality questions prove to be the most effective in choosing future staff members. Following the interview there is a debriefing with the hiring committee to ensure that the newest staff member would be a good fit for our campus and our students. We then moved onto working with the staff and interviewing them on what needs to be improved on campus. The next step in this process for my principal and I was to look towards the staff and see how well they internalized or resisted change in our continuous improvements implemented at the campus. We had to look at what changes were the best for the students as a whole and the needs of our at risk students.

People Dont Appreciate The United States †Creative Writing Essay

People Dont Appreciate The United States – Creative Writing Essay Free Online Research Papers People Dont Appreciate The United States Creative Writing Essay Being a United States citizen is a great privilege to all that live here because of all the rights you have. Someone is not in control of you. You have the freedom of speech and the right to vote when you’re eighteen. And other countries don’t have that to offer. Some people don’t appreciate what the United States is offering to them and they take it for granted and think that it sucks and they think the other countries are better. They have no clue about a lot of things and we’re one of the best countries in the world. And I think that our country is great, I just don’t like where I live in this country, I mean its ok, but there nothing to do, but its fine, I guess. The United States is the best county I think and I hope people have more respect for our country and don’t think that we got it bad. We don’t have it bad, its there reason that it’s bad for them, not the United States, all they had to do is to go get a job. We have it easy compared to the people in Africa and South America, they don’t have a chance to get a job and if they do they would work for almost nothing I just hope they realize what we have and don’t take it for granted, and be proud to be a United States citizen. Not always complaining for what they don’t have and be more focused on what they do have in the United States. Research Papers on People Don't Appreciate The United States - Creative Writing EssayThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This Nice19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeBringing Democracy to AfricaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaDefinition of Export QuotasCapital PunishmentHip-Hop is Art

Cómo recuperar impuestos pagados en EE.UU. por turistas

Cà ³mo recuperar impuestos pagados en EE.UU. por turistas En Estados Unidos, los turistas internacionales pueden recuperar los impuestos que pagaron por sus compras pequeà ±as en solo dos –Louisiana y Texas. Adems, cinco estados – Delaware, Alaska, Nuevo Hampshire, Montana y Oregà ³n  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ no cobran impuesto a las ventas, por lo que deben tenerse en consideracià ³n a la hora de decidir en quà © estado comprar si se quiere ahorrar en impuestos. Cabe destacar que como en EE.UU. los impuestos sobre las ventas no es una competencia del gobierno federal no es posible para un turista internacional reclamar lo pagado en este concepto cuando sale del paà ­s, sino que se ha de ajustar a las reglas de cada estado. Es decir, hay una gran diferencia en este aspecto en relacià ³n a otros paà ­ses, por ejemplo, a la recuperacià ³n del VAT cuando un turista no comunitario sale de un paà ­s de la Unià ³n Europea. Puntos Clave: cà ³mo pueden los turistas reclamar un tax refund en EE.UU. Estados Unidos es, despuà ©s de Francia y Espaà ±a, el paà ­s que ms turistas internacionales recibe anualmente.Estados Unidos es el paà ­s donde los turistas internacionales ms dinero gastan.El impuesto a las ventas no es competencia federal, por lo que o es posible reclamarlo al salir del paà ­s.Solamente dos estados –Louisiana y Texas– reintegran el impuesto a las ventas a los turistas internacionales.En algunos estados es posible recuperar el impuesto a las ventas en compras mayores como, por ejemplo, yates, autos o camiones.En 16 estados existen vacaciones de impuesto a las ventas por 3, 5 à ³ 7 dà ­as. Texas Tax Back o cà ³mo reclamar en ese estado el reembolso del impuesto a las ventas En Texas el impuesto a las ventas es, con carcter general, del 6,25 por ciento. Sin embargo, ciudades y condados pueden incrementarlo de tal modo que puede llegar a pagarse un mximo del 8,25 por ciento de impuesto. Texas es junto a Louisiana los à ºnicos estados que permiten reclamar la devolucià ³n del pago de impuesto por compras menores como electrà ³nica, ropa, juguetes, etc. Para que un turista extranjero pueda presentar la solicitud de un tax refund por sus compras en el estado de Texas debe cumplir con los siguientes requisitos: Pasaporte de otro paà ­sVisa vlida o pertenecer a  Programa de Exencià ³n de Visas (VWP)Un I-94 vlido, que se puede imprimir onlinePresentarse en un Tax Refund CenterPresentar los recibos de las compras realizadas en los à ºltimos 30 dà ­asBoleto de avià ³n de salida de Estados Unidos o itinerarioLa tarjeta de crà ©dito con la que se efectuaron las comprasLa mercancà ­a de las  compras realizadas Adems, hay que tener en cuenta que solamente se admiten los recibos de tiendas que participan en el programa. Por ejemplo, Macy ´s, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Victoria ´s Secret, etc. Antes de comprar se puede consultar la lista completa de establecimientos partà ­cipes. Asimismo, para que los recibos puedan calificar para la devolucià ³n de impuestos es necesario pagar en cada tienda un mà ­nimo de 10 dà ³lares de impuestos.   El dinero ser reembolsado de una de las dos siguientes maneras: en primer lugar, se puede escoger un tax refund al momento, pero se paga una comisià ³n que puede llegar a ser la mitad del importe. En segundo lugar, en un plazo de seis u ocho semanas, mediante depà ³sito a la cuenta de Paypal del turista o mediante envà ­o de un cheque o reembolso a la tarjeta de crà ©dito. Los Tax Refund Centers pueden encontrarse en centros comerciales, outlets, aeropuertos e incluso grandes almacenes como Macy ´s. La gestià ³n llevar aproximadamente unos treinta  minutos. Finalmente, cabe destacar que el Texas Tax Back, que es la institucià ³n del gobierno estatal que maneja estos trmites, cobra 3 dà ³lares por la gestià ³n ms el 2,75% del total de las compras. Devolucià ³n de impuestos a turistas internacionales en Louisiana En este estado sureà ±o el impuesto a las ventas general es del 4,45 por ciento sobre el valor de la cosa o servicio comprado. Sin embargo, con el sobrecargo de ciudades o condados pueden llegar a un mximo del 11,45 por ciento. Las reglas para los turistas internacionales para obtener el reintegro de los impuestos son distintas a las de Texas . En Louisiana los requisitos son los siguientes: Compra en tiendas en programa Louisiana Tax Free Shopping.Mostrar pasaporte extranjero en momento de la compraSolicitar el folleto tax refund voucher Para obtener el reembolso los turistas deben presentarse en un Refund Center en el Aeropuerto internacional Louis Armstrong  de Nueva Orleans, el The Riverwalk Marketplace, en el banco Capital One en Lafayette y Shreveport. Al acudir en persona a los Refund Centers los vouchers entregados en cada una de las tiendas participantes en las que se hicieron compras, el pasaporte extranjero con visa vigente a menos que se pertenezca a un paà ­s en el VWP. En todo caso es imprescindible estar legalmente como turista en el paà ­s. Finalmente, debe mostrarse el ticket de avià ³n ida y vuelta para estancia en EE.UU. por un mximo de 90 dà ­as. Los reintegros de menos de 500 dà ³lares se entregarn al momento en efectivo. Por cantidades mayores se enviarn por cheque al domicilio del turista en su paà ­s de residencia. Finalmente, tambià ©n es posible solicitarlo por correo electrà ³nico escribiendo a LTFSrefunfinfobellsouth.net y seguir las instrucciones sobre adà ³nde enviar los recibos. Estados con vacaciones del impuesto a las ventas Ni en todo los estados se paga el mismo porcentaje de impuesto a las ventas, ni los mismos artà ­culos son gravados en todos los estados que tienen este tipo de impuestos. Adems, 16 estados tienen todos los aà ±os vacaciones del impuesto a las ventas, conocido en inglà ©s como sales tax holidays. Durante esas vacaciones, entre 3 o 7 dà ­as, no se pagan impuestos cada vez que se compra un artà ­culo incluido en la lista de cada estado y por el importe mximo autorizado. Est pensado para los residentes locales, pero tambià ©n pueden beneficiarse los turistas internacionales. Entre los artà ­culos incluidos en esas vacaciones destacan ropa, material escolar, electrà ³nica, computadores, electrodomà ©sticos eficientes y materiales de preparacià ³n para eventos como huracanes. Tax refunds para turistas internacionales cuando se compran autos, yates, etc Las reglas dependen de cada estado e, incluso, de detalles precisos del negocio. Por esta razà ³n se recomienda consultar directamente con la autoridad impositiva del estado en el que se realice la compra. Es tambià ©n una buena prctica asesorarse con un fiscalista de buena reputacià ³n con experiencia en exportaciones. Por à ºltimo, siempre es conveniente hacer las cuentas sobre si sale realmente ms barato al comprar en EE.UU. porque en artà ­culos como autos o yates si no se paga en ese paà ­s, se paga impuesto de importacià ³n en el paà ­s del turista. Consejos para turistas que disfrutan comprar en EE.UU. Si se viaja a Nueva York una de las formas de comprar barato ropa y accesorios de marca es enterndose de dà ³nde se realizan los sample sales. Y si el interà ©s de un turista internacional es comprar una propiedad como inversià ³n o para disfrutarla en cualquier parte de los Estados Unidos puede hacerlo pero es recomendable que conozco quà © comportamientos podrà ­an poner en peligro su visa de paseo. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal para ningà ºn caso concreto.

Effective Grad School Recommendation Letters

Effective Grad School Recommendation Letters Youve been asked to write a letter of recommendation. No easy task. What makes a recommendation letter good? Effective letters of recommendation have these 8 characteristics in common. 8 Simple Characteristics to Feature Explains how you know the student. What is the context for your evaluation? Was the student in your class, an advisee, a research assistant?Evaluates the student within your area of knowledge. Within the context in which you know the student, how did he or she perform? How effective is a research assistant?Evaluates the students academic capacity. This is easy if the student was in your class. What if the student is not? You can refer to his or her transcript, but only very briefly as the committee will have a copy. Dont waste space talking about the objective material they already have. Talk about your experience with the student. If a research assistant, you should have some grasp on his or her academic competence. If an advisee, refer briefly to your discussions and provide clear examples that illustrate academic potential. If you have little as academic contact with the student, then make a broad evaluative statement and use evidence from another area to support. For example, I e xpect Stu Dent to be a meticulous student, as he keeps very careful and accurate records as the Biology Club Treasurer. Evaluates the students motivation. Graduate study entails more than academic skills. Its a long haul that takes a great deal of perseverance.Evaluates the students maturity and psychological competence. Is the student mature enough to accept the responsibility and manage the inevitable criticisms and even failures that will accompany graduate study?Discusses the students strengths. What are his or her most positive attributes? Provide examples to illustrate.Its detailed. One of the most important things you can do in improving the effectiveness f your letter is to make it as detailed as possible. Dont just tell them about the student, show them. Dont just say that the student can understand complex topics or work well with others, provide detailed examples that illustrate your point.Its honest. Remember that although you want the student to get into graduate school, it is your name that is on the line. If the student really isnt a good fit for graduate study and you recommend him any way, the faculty at that school potentially could remember and in the future take your letters less seriously. All in all, a good letter is highly positive and detailed. Remember that a neutral letter will not help your student. Recommendation letters, in general, are very positive. Because of that, neutral letters are viewed as negative letters. If you cant write a glowing letter of recommendation, then the most honest thing that you can do for your student is to tell him or her and decline their request to write a letter.

Diversity and Equality in Organizations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Diversity and Equality in Organizations - Essay Example It depends upon management that how they convert those conflicts into cohesiveness and benefit the organization. Diversity is directly pertinent to creativity however; poor management of this does not only takes out creativity of the organization but also brings inequality. When an organization possesses diversity, it is very important for the management to organize it with equality if it wants to acquire its full benefits. When people belong to same background, have same age, possess similar qualifications and skills they have lesser conflicts and more cohesiveness (Agarin & Brosig, 2009, pp. 160-350). Nevertheless, this cohesiveness fails to bring creativity. This happens because they indirectly belong to the same group but when people have diverse background, different ages, and different levels of qualification, it becomes very difficult for them to accept each other. It is a very common phenomenon because even siblings in a house, who belong to same parents, take a lot of time t o accept each other then how can one expect from people who belong to diverse backgrounds to accept each other without conflicts. Due to these conflicts, many organizations refuse to implement diversity in their workplace, which does not create room for innovation in their organization. One thing that needs clarification is the difference between diversity and discrimination. Many organizations unintentionally promote discrimination instead of diversity. Discrimination is present in many forms, which are age, gender, race, disability, marriage, pregnancy etc. This report discusses each of these forms in detail. One form of discrimination that is very common in underdeveloped countries of the world is unfair attitude towards women. Many woman are discriminated if they are pregnant, employers directly discriminate women by asking them to leave their jobs if they want to have maternity leaves. However, organizations also discriminate indirectly so that they do not come under any legal prosecution for implementing inequality. Some times while communicating requirements of a job, organizations state that whoever applies for this job should be able to work for longer hours away from home (Bach, 2005, pp. 56-240). It is obvious that married women are unable to give longer hours away from home as they have to take care of their children and family. Even, unmarried women sometimes cannot give longer hours due to some restrictions. One cannot deny that for some jobs like salespersons’ job, it is very necessary to communicate these requirements. However, if an employer states these requirements just not to attract the women, it is unfair. Apart from these issues, discrimination also lies based on unequal distribution of pay to men and women. Salary does not only include the amount of money given to employees at the end of each month but also fringe benefits like provision of vehicle, utility services, domestic assistance services, medical allowances, entertainment allowances, travel allowances, holidays and the like. Even if men and women get the same amount of money but they get unequal fringe benefits they are discriminated. However, sometimes giving equal benefits is also unfair because men and women possess different set of needs therefore companies should try to first analyze those needs and give benefits accordingly (Bell, 2011, pp. 200-500). Organizations offer various pay

Diabetes Type 1 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Diabetes Type 1 - Research Paper Example The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are over 177 million cases worldwide and this number will increase to at least 370 million by 2030 (Gad et al., 2003). Further, the disease is associated with a series of secondary health complications. Diabetes Mellitus (DM) Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is characterized by persistent and variable hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels). Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), also known as insulin-dependent DM, childhood DM, or juvenile-onset DM, most commonly presents in children and adolescents. The typical age of onset is less than 25 years (Pepper, 2006). Also, in contrast to T2DM, T1DM occurrence is typically in individuals who are lean rather than obese (Myers, 2005). T1DM constitutes approximately 10% of all individuals with DM and occurs mainly in populations of Europe and North America (Champe et al., 2005; Gillespie, 2006). T1DM is increasing in incidence globally at a rate of about 3% per year (Champe et al., 2005). Like all t ypes of DM, T1DM is associated with increased risk for and a high incidence of certain complications. Hence, DM in general has been considered a syndrome of metabolic abnormalities (i.e. metabolic disorder of glucose, protein, lipids, water and electrolytes), microvascular disease (i.e. retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy), and macrovascular disease (i.e. ... T1DM patients are often young at the time of diagnosis. Although the pathogenic factors are active early on, complications usually develop later as the disease progresses and are not as common during early stages. Etiology of T1DM Type 1 diabetes is the result of the loss of ? cells, which subsequently leads to insufficient secretion of insulin. It is generally accepted that Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) is an autoimmune disease. The exact cause or causes of the disease are still unclear, however, a combination of genetic and environmental factors seem to be involved. Evidence for a genetic susceptibility to IDDM is shown through family studies. Approximately 6% of siblings of people with T1D will also develop the disease, as compared with a prevalence of .4% in the general population (Levin and Tomer 2003; Leoni 2003). Children of diabetics also have a higher risk of acquiring diabetes: about 3-6% of diabetic offspring get diabetes, compared with .4% of the general popu lation. Intriguingly, the gender of the diabetic parent also seems to contribute to disease transmission, with offspring of diabetic fathers being at a greater risk (about 9%) than those of diabetic mothers (about 3%). Data from twin studies (i.e. Levin and Tomer 2003; Leoni 2003) also seem to strongly suggest a genetic predisposition to IDDM. Concordance rates for monozygotic twins vary between 35 - 70%, while the concordance rates for dizygotic twins is about 11 %. These rates increase with the time since proband diagnosis; for example, concordance is 43% within 12 years of proband diagnosis, and 50% within 40 years. Age of proband diagnosis also seems to be a crucial factor: the concordance rate for twins of

Report of Collaboration Manager (interview) Essay

Report of Collaboration Manager (interview) - Essay Example Costco world headquarters are located in Washington and Korea home-office is located in Costco Yangpyung location. Costco in Korea also targets lower end customers by selling products at low prices, often at very high volume. Costco is experiencing rapid growth in its Asian business. Ever since Costco entered into Asian market, international outlets has experienced a sales growth of 7% in 2011 and Costco’s best performing store is in Korea. Costco does not provide multiple brands varieties where the item is essentially the same except when it has a house brand to sell, often under the Kirkland trademark label. Their distribution system focuses on a high volume of sales from single vendors, allowing further reductions in price and lower marketing costs. Through the collaborative manager interview report, more research and investigation was held on how Costco Korea implemented its business strategy in Korean market and successfully created the collaborative work environment in t heir distribution channel. In addition, the report focused on their collaborative strategy of how the company communicated with Costco buyers in order to meet local customer demands and requirements. In order to gain visibility into performance at Costco Korea, it was necessary to interview Korean branch of collaborative manager, Sung-Gu Ryu to gain his personal experience and perspectives on overall category of growth trends. Role of the CM in Helping the Organization Achieve Its Strategic Objectives Collaborative manager entails the working together of managers in an organization to achieve the goals and the objectives of the organization. Sung-Gu Ryu outlined the strategic objectives of Costco Corporation which gave directions to his role as the CM. To begin with, Costco Corporation operates on a best value and best price principle. This means that Sung-Gu Ryu has a role of developing and implementing quality assessment tools that aim at investigating the satisfaction of the cust omers with the quality of products being produced by Costco Corporation. Moreover, Sung-Gu Ryu has the role of ensuring that customers are satisfied with the price of commodities being offered compared to its competitors, in bid to offer the best price for its commodities. Acting ethically, is another strategic objective of Costco Corporation and Sung-Gu Ryu as the CM has a great role in ensuring that this strategic objective is achieved. Firstly, he ensures that the managers working in collaboration with him are managers of integrity and have a high moral standard. This ensures that their operations are morally and ethically upright as pertains to how they treat their customers, employees, suppliers and competitors. Moreover, it is the strategic objective of Costco Corporation to never lose sight of the reason why they are in operation. Sung-Gu Ryu being the CM has the duty of en-culturing the staff to this organization culture and ensuring that every employee knows the vision and mission of Costco Corporation. So as never to lose sight of this vision, it is embedded on products developed by the Corporation and Sung-Gu Ryu also comes up with slogans aiding in achievement of Costco Corporation’s strategic objectives. CMs background, Obstacles Faced, Process Used to Develop External Relationships and Achieve Significant Milestones Sung-Gu Ryu, is the manager who is bestowed with