Metaphysical Poetry Essay

In the view of some critics, poems of this period have ‘delighted, puzzled and alienated readers’. What do you consider to be the demands and rewards for the readers of Metaphysical poetry? Refer in detail to at least three poems from this section of the anthology. You should consider the argument of the poems and the poet’s choices of language and verse form. Metaphysical poetry bases its ideas on explaining an extended metaphor, often on important and intellectual subjects such as the transience of life, mans relationship with God and love, in a context that entertains readers rather than boring them. This extended metaphor is known as the metaphysical conceit. It is often subtle, and therefore to some readers can be overlooked. However, for the readers who are able to uncover it, it can provide a deeper insight into the true meaning of the poem and can also make them question their own views on the subject, this is the reward intellectual readers receive from reading metaphysical poetry. Metaphysical poetry is often directed at intellectual readers. Some phrases in the poems would require prior knowledge to understand. This means that not all readers would be able to grasp the true meaning of the poem, or would overlook phrases. For example, in To His Coy Mistress Marvell uses several biblical references, such as ‘I would love you ten years before the flood’. This refers to Noah’s ark, and the flood depicted in the Bible. By using this image he is expressing that he would love her ten years before the beginning of time, and this is a subtle but strong compliment to his love. He also uses another biblical reference, ‘And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews’. Those with prior knowledge would understand the idea that the Jews will never convert. The speaker in the poem is saying that she could refuse him forever and he would still love her. A reader who does not have biblical knowledge would surely overlook these phrases, but a reader who understands the strong compliments in this statements would have a much more enjoyable read of the poem, and would discover an extra level of meaning. This is one of the rewards of reading and understanding Metaphysical poetry. The idea of religion works in metaphysical poetry more than just in references to create subtle ideas. Religion is a common topic in Metaphysical poetry. Poems such as Love by George Herbert are based entirely around religion. In this poem, the speaker describes his interaction with God. This image of God is also personified as Love, and may suggest that God is love. Again, some readers may overlook this, and not realise that the person described in the poem is actually God. The way we can see that this figure is God is due to the use of lexis from the semantic field of religion. Words such as ‘sin’, ‘soul’, ‘Lord’ and ‘serve’ are all present, and this lexis is common in religious literature. The idea of religion works both ways, however. In To His Coy Mistress, although there is some reference to religion – as discussed earlier – there are also several phrases that don’t give an image of religion. The phrases ‘deserts of vast eternity’ is used to describe the afterlife, and this is an image that many Christians would not believe to be the afterlife. Marvell is suggesting a different view from the idea that everyone will go to either Heaven or Hell, an advanced view for a man living in an extremely religious time. One major device metaphysical poets use is the idea of a metaphysical conceit. All the metaphysical poems uses a metaphor to compare dissimilar things. For example, in Robert Herrick’s To Daffodils people are likened to daffodils, in relation to the transience of life. He uses phrases such as ‘haste away so soon’, and ‘We have short time to stay as you’. He is saying that, like daffodils, people will die too. This is a strange concept, but as you read the poem you begin to understand his logic. It would take a sophisticated mind to understand the ideas Herrick presents, but those who do understand would receive a deeper understanding of his argument. Structurally, Metaphysical poets use structure to present ideas in a clear and logical fashion. The ideas are often complex, and so, like an essay about a complicated topic, structure helps the reader understand. One common form of structure is to separate the poem into parts, each with an argument that leads to a clear conclusion. In To His Coy Mistress Marvell separates his argument into three parts. In the first part he describes what he would do if he had all the time in the world, how he would ‘adore each breast’ for two hundred years. However, in the second part he describes how he does not have that amount of time to adore her, and that she would die long before, and ‘worms shall try that long-preserved virginity’. In the final part Marvell concludes that as he does not have the time to adore her how he wishes, she should yield to his passion. This is a developed argument in three parts, and is a form of syllogism. It helps the reader understand the intent of the poem in a similar way to using paragraphs would in an essay. Rhythm is also used in metaphysical poetry to express the writers values. In To Daffodils the writer is presented as a person who has an unusual lack of trepidation for death. The opening quatrain is written in a mixture of iambic tetrameter and trimeter. This gives it a childish and nursery rhyme like rhythm. This helps to show the reader how the writer is uncaring about the situation, and is almost nonchalant about death. The line ‘stay, stay’, puts a halt to the childlike rhyme, but in a way could be perceived to make the first stanza sound almost like a lullaby. This makes the poem seem very calm and simple, feelings not usually associated with death and the transience of life. Feeling the effects of this rhythm show the reader the true feelings of the writer in a way many would not see. In conclusion, the metaphysical poets used many different devices to hide away many of the main ideas of their poems. Whilst many readers can understand the basic idea of the poem, they will not gain a full understanding of the point the poet is trying to make unless they have the knowledge and understanding required of a reader of Metaphysical poetry. For this reason, many will feel puzzled and alienated, whilst others will be truly delighted once they have gained the deeper understanding.

Religion…True or False? Essay

For many people religion represents a commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance. Within this commitment encompasses a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, practices or system of beliefs held to with ardor and reliance. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut introduces a religion known as Bokononism, which epitomizes a standard foundation built upon nothing more than â€Å"foma! Lies!† (Vonnegut 191). Bokononism focuses on man’s need for a God, even though Vonnegut believes there is no such thing. He expresses his beliefs of Divine Province, while making fun of Christianity, satirizing the notion that all religions are nothing more than lies. Religion gives many people a feeling of security because they believe that a divine power watches over them and promises them salvation and either happiness or the chance to improve themselves in a life after death. Bokononism is a religion based on lies, while Christianity is a based around the life and teachings of Christ and the sacred scripture of the Bible. Hence, the question is whether or not society bases religion, mainly Christianity, upon nothing more than â€Å"foma† itself. Bokononism breathed life when first founded by a Negro man named Lionel Boyd Johnson. The name Bokonon surfaced due to the fact that it rendered to be the â€Å"pronunciation given the name Johnson in the island’s English dialect† (Vonnegut 108). Bokonon creates the religion for the people of a small Caribbean island called San Lorenzo; he then makes it a point that â€Å"he and his religion be outlawed, and that those caught practicing it [are] to be killed† (Lundquist 37) by punishment of being hanged on the dreaded hook. Such an atrocity becomes enacted so the people will be happy and totally content, for by taking part in the religion that all people on the island practice, they partake in a rebellious action and can take the focus from their horribly useless lives. The idea is for that the religion and the government to constantly oppose each other, with Bokonon the virtuous prohibit, hiding from it all. The doctrines that make up Bokononism consist of a â€Å"language itself [that] is amusing, [yet] serves to outline an approach to life that has considerable appeal† (Lundquist 37) in which assists in capturing the true essence behind the religion. Coincidentally resembling Jesus and the bible, Bokonon relies on his vast variety of language, and his Books of Bokonon. His language consists of several significant key concepts such as a karass, which is a â€Å"team [of people] that do[es] God’s will without ever discovering what they are doing† (Vonnegut 2), thus revealing that â€Å"if you find your life tangled up with somebody else’s life for no very logical reasons†, writes Bokonon, â€Å"that person may be a member of your karass† (Simons 45). In The Books of Bokonon, Bokonon mainly comprises them of calypsos and such on religion, life, and perceptions. More importantly however exists the theory of Dynamic Tension. Such a theory embodies the belief of good versus evil, and maintaining the ongoing tension between the two. To draw a parallel, is the incident of the Garden of Good and Evil within Christianity. Christianity happened to be instituted on the existence and philosophy of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ’s life began after he was baptized by Saint John when he thirty years old. He set out with a certain ambition, being that he sought to announce that â€Å"the Kingdom of God was coming, and that it had begun to arrive even as He announced it† (Callan 2). Jesus established this ambition both verbally and physically by utilizing His phenomenon and philosophies. In addition, Jesus also preformed many miracles, in which he made reputable as to the benefit of other people not Himself. Among such miracles include: changing water into wine, walking on the sea, healing sick people, alleviating the pain of the suffering, restoring sight to the blind, and restoring to the disabled people the ability to use their limbs again (Callan 2). Overall, most Christians of society believe that Jesus portrays the bona fide savior that will, in the end, resuscitate humanity. Bokononism starts with a creation event, which mocks the Christian creation account. In Bokonon’s tale of creation God creates man and woman out of mud, rather than dust, and he concludes by allowing them to define their own purpose. While the difference between dust and mud seem insignificant, the purpose for humanity may be quite different. Bokonon tells man that his purpose in life is defined by himself, and not by God. Here on the opposite end of this, Christianity holds that every person’s purpose in life bestows to bring honor and glory to God, whether provided by preaching the good news (Gospel) or by practicing good works toward man, and letting the glory of God shine outward through them (Callan 1). Compared to Christianity, Bokononism does not specifically talk of man’s fall into sin, however, it does somewhat infer that Bokonon first preached on the folly of understanding and the hollowness of truth and human stupidity, which he ultimately won the people of San Lorenzo over with. Bokonon preached on man’s sin right from the beginning, similar to what may be depicted through the garden of Good and Evil in Christianity. â€Å"As helpful as Bokononism [was], as devoid of false pieties as it [was], as concerned as it [was] with human decency and the necessity of having a sense of purpose† (Lundquist 39) it, in the end, is nothing more then the notion of living â€Å"life by the foma that make[s] you brave and kind and healthy and happy† (Simons 39). Christianity often refers to good works as the doctrine of Sanctification (Knight 5). This doctrine begins with the understanding that man is sinful, and will be sinful until the day he dies. Regardless of what man does or tries to accomplish on earth, he will always be sinful, and will continue to fall into sin lurching ever so quickly toward eternal death and damnation (Knight 5-6). Vonnegut seems to perceive, like many, that Christians feel because they are spotless before the eyes of the Lord, that they can thus do what they please. The Holy Spirit corroborates work in a Christian’s life, and may even be responsible for the faith which breeds within a Christian. The basic principle behind sanctification is that the death of Christ, which the Holy Spirit has given faith in, is the inspiration and the power which pushes a Christian to do good works. Hence, this encompasses the doctrine of daily life, one which a Christian yearns to practice every day, and yet may be constant ly faced with a road block, the road block of sin. â€Å"Bokononism is a philosophy of flow, resisting entropy and harrowing the fixities that reduce societies to monomaniacal obsessions† (Simons 47) of harmless untruths. Bokonon â€Å"worships the human above all other values,† (Simons 45); however, at the same time relishes in the fact that the joke of â€Å"maintaining order† through the religion of Bokononism, serves as a joke being played on humanity thus revealing human stupidity. Bokononism denotes the joke on Christianity, every characteristic of Bokononism can be designed to mock Christianity in some manner or another. Bokonon insists that his own religion, which he created, is filled with lies and based on nothing else, yet all of the Island of San Lorenzo believes in Bokonon (Lundquist 135). Ultimately, â€Å"Bokononism refuses to blink at the hard truth of a reality it cannot alter, it nevertheless fictionalizes that reality† (Simons 40). Bokononists have to hide their religion, because the world hates and despises them for their beliefs. Much akin to the Bokononists, who are condemned to an oath of silence, Christians have to hide their voices and beliefs as well. Christians over time have been forced into hiding, because they are not considered â€Å"politically correct† and Bokononists have been shoved into hiding so as not to touch the â€Å"souls† of their feet, known as the art of Boko-Maru (Vonnegut 135). Simultaneously, they all enter a hiding, a hiding from the world which hates what it does not know, and what it does not know is good, and love. On the whole, Christian faith portrays the notion about seeking and knowing Jesus Christ with all facets of the human character. It corresponds to loving Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; therefore, certain individualistic and legitimate fallacies are flip sides of an error to the concept of Christianity. Underlying the error of the individualistic fallacy is the presumption that Jesus demands on societies lives in which can be satisfied by societies own efforts. The legitimate fallacy holds that there are possibly some set of rules of behavior which can be kept to earn a way into Jesus’ favor. Then, the next step of the fallacy can be established by insisting that, as long as society keeps Jesus’ rules and, thus, please Him, they are free in all other things to live their lives in their own way, entirely for their benefit, without further considering Him. We all look for ways to please Jesus, and avoid eternal punishment by simply keeping rules, with minimal actual contact with Him and without ever giving ourselves to Him. Nevertheless, this does not work that way, and the result of society pursuing religion in this way is usually horrendous, and furthermore is not a religion based on â€Å"foma†, or a certain principle, but based on a relationship with Jesus Christ. Prepositional Phrase Subject Verb Infinitive Phrase Adverb Clause Participial Phrase Adj. Clause -ly Adverbs Conjunctive Adverb Gerund Phrase Works Cited Callan, Terrance D. â€Å"Jesus Christ.† 31 May 2003. . Knight, Kevin. â€Å"Catholic Encyclopedia: Character of Jesus Chris.† May 31 200. . Lundquist, James. Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1977. Simons, John L. â€Å"Tangled Up in You: A Playful Reading of Cat’s Cradle.† Kurt Vonnegut. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990. Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1963.

Causes of World War 2

Out of all the wars that the world has gone through, none has been more devastating as world war II. But what caused this war? Well, world war II had six major causes: anger over the Versailles Treaty, the failure of peace efforts after world war I, the rise of Fascism, the goals of Hitler, the isolationism by America and Britain, and the re-armament of Europe. This paper will go over each of these causes individually and then draw some conclusions about world war II. Plagiarism Detection >The first cause of world war II was the intense anger over the Versailles Treaty. Germany was very angry over two things and the first of which was the many territorial losses they had to endure as a result of the treaty. They lost two cities on the French-German border and as per Wilsons thirteenth point Poland was re-formed with access to the Baltic Sea, which went right through Germany. Giving Poland Sea access split Germany into two parts, the main part of Germany, and a small portion to the No rth of the Danzig corridor. The Danzig corridor really inflamed Germany for many years, but they really could not do anything about the situation because they lost world war I. Another country that was angry over the Versailles Treaty was Italy. They were angry because they thought that the land that they had received as a payment for their participation in the Allied effort against Germany did not offset the cost of the war, nor did it satisfy their ambitions to grow. The final country that was angry over the Versailles Treaty was Japan. They were also a victor over Germany and they wanted to gain control over China as reward for their participation in the war. This, however, did not happen and they were angry over the situation.The second cause of world war II was the failure of the many peace efforts that occurred after world war I. The League of Nations, which was one of Wilsons fourteen points and part of the Versailles Treaty, was a forum in which nations could settle their di sputes with one another. The problem was that the League did not have any real power. The only thing it could do was try to persuade the offending nation to concede and if that did not work out they could impose economic sanctions on that country. But the league had so little power that the sanctions it passed were normally ignored and it could do nothing from that point on. Another failed peace effort was the Washington Conference. At this conference the principal naval powers agreed to limit their navies according to a fixed ratio. But again none of the powers really went through with their agreement. Yet another failed peace effort was the Locarno Conference. This conference produced a treaty between France and Germany stating that the border between the two countries was guaranteed. However, we know that this treaty failed because Germany invaded France during world war II. The final failed peace effort was the Paris Peace Act. At this conference all of the major countries, excl uding Russia, and many smaller countries agreed that war was not a national policy and stated that they would try to resolve problems through diplomatic means. The only way that war was acceptable in this act was by means of self-defense. These did not directly cause world war II, but they made it possible by their obvious lack of power. Countries still did not trust each other enough to follow through with the good ideas that they had.The third cause of world war II was the rise of Fascism. Fascism was a movement that began before world war I, but did not become a serious political power until Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government in 1922. Under Mussolini Italy became a Totalitarian government where labor unions were abolished and political opponents were killed or silenced. This caused many things to happen to Italys social and economic problems. The first of these problems was the lowered living standard of the Italian people. The people lost their eight hour wo rk day protection and their wages were lowered by the government. Mussolini acknowledged that the living standard had gone down, but explained it by saying that the Italian people were not used to eating much anyway, so they would not feel the lack of food as badly as others. Another thing the Fascist government caused was an increased birthrate in Italy. Mussolini wanted women to have more children so that he could create a larger army in the future. In this way he felt that he could have a large army by the time he was ready to go to war for more land. Mussolini used tactics much like the communists in that he had total control over all of the Italian population and could have people killed whenever he wanted. Italy, however, was not the only country to fall under Fascism. Germany adopted this form of government only it was called national socialism. Its leader was Adolf Hitler and it called itself the Nazi party. The Nazi party differed slightly from Mussolinis government in that the Nazis were more racist and believed that it was their destiny to make the world subject to the perfect German people. They were particularly hateful to the Jewish people, which was proven after they started to exterminate all of the Jews within central Europe after world war II started. These events did not directly cause world war II, but they brought us to the brink of war. People that listened to these dictators believed that these men could bring them to world domination.The fourth cause of world war II was the goals of the German dictator, Hitler. He had a vision of the German people becoming a master race and dominating the entire world, but he also knew that he could not achieve all this during the war he intended to start. He, however, had two major goals which was to bring all of central Europe together and form a larger Germany and to create more room for Germany to grow by taking over Poland. His first move was to test the other European powers by inserting troops in to Germanys coal mining area next to France. This was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles and Hitler wanted to see how far he could push his adversaries before they would strike back. If Britain had not been so passive to Hitler they might have stopped this war before it ever started. They, however, allowed Hitler to do this because they did not want to start another war. Hitler then pushed the European powers further and further until he invaded Poland and Europe had no choice but to react.The fifth cause of world war II was American and British isolationism. After world war I America turned away from Europe and went back to its domestic problems. The American people did not want anything to do with European affairs because many of the debts that were accrued during the war were not being paid and Americans were very bitter. Britain also turned to its domestic problems and did not want to interfere in Continental Europes problems. If one or both of these countries had attempted t o stop Hitler when he first came into power he probably would have been thrown out of office and world war II might have been prevented. Plagiarism Detection >The final cause of world war II was a direct result from all of the previous causes, and that is the rearmament of all the European powers. Tensions started to increase as Hitler tested the European powers and most if not all countries began to increase their armies and navies. This brought war closer because it meant that the government leaders were prepared to use force to resolve the problems that Hitler was causing, and it raised tensions even higher than they already were.In conclusion, world war II was not an extension of world war I, but world war I was a big cause of world war II. Most of the causes of world war II came out of the Treaty of Versailles, and if that treaty had been better there might not have been world war II. Nevertheless, world war II happened and we can only learn from the mistakes we see from the pa st.

Trategic Marketing Plan of amung Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Trategic Marketing Plan of amung - Essay Example In other wordÃ'•, when marketing their productÃ'•, whether locally or globally, firmÃ'• need to create a Ã'•ucceÃ'•Ã'•ful mix of:* the right product* Ã'•old at the right price* in the right place* uÃ'•ing the moÃ'•t Ã'•uitable promotion.Product DeciÃ'•ionÃ'•A product iÃ'• defined aÃ'•: "Anything that iÃ'• capable of Ã'•atiÃ'•fying cuÃ'•tomer needÃ'•". Then the product iÃ'• the central point on which marketing energy muÃ'•t focuÃ'•. Finding out how to make the product, Ã'•etting up the production line, providing the finance and manufacturing the product are not the reÃ'•ponÃ'•ibility of the only marketing function. It iÃ'• alÃ'•o concerned with what the product meanÃ'• to the cuÃ'•tomer. Marketing, therefore, playÃ'• a key role in determining Ã'•uch aÃ'•pectÃ'• aÃ'•:* The appearance of the product - in line with the requirementÃ'• of the market* the function of the product - productÃ'• muÃ'•t addreÃ'•Ã'• the needÃ'• of cuÃ'•tomerÃ'• aÃ'• identified through market reÃ'•earch.BuÃ'•ineÃ'•Ã'•eÃ'• needs to regularly develop new productÃ'• and marketÃ'• for future growth. A uÃ'•eful way of looking at growth opportunitieÃ'• iÃ'• theAnÃ'•off Growth Matrix which Ã'•uggeÃ'•tÃ'• that there is four main wayÃ'• in which growth can be achieved through a product Ã'•trategy:(1) Market penetration - IncreaÃ'•e Ã'•aleÃ'• of an exiÃ'•ting product in an exiÃ'•ting market(2) Product development - Improve preÃ'•ent productÃ'• and/or develop new productÃ'• for the current market(3) Market development  

Confucious and the golden rule, East meets west Coursework

Confucious and the golden rule, East meets west - Coursework Example From the Chinese philosopher’s perspective, a person who does not want to be hurt should not hurt others. On the other hand, Jesus implies that if you do not want to be harmed, do good to others because if you are good, then other people will give you back the same treatment. As an individual, I live by the same rule of Jesus because I strongly agree that people should be active participants in their community in making it a peaceful and harmonious place to live in. I recognize the view of Confucius that people should not do to others what they do not want others do to them. However, I am more inclined to strongly concur with Jesus’ point of view because it is not only stated positively but it also encourages an active participation of a person. I firmly believe that we need to stay away from doing dreadful things as Confucius interjects but in order to minimize if not eliminate awful situations, we have to actively do excellent things. According to Tao, the best man benefits all things just like water does. Where there is water, life abounds and the same is true with the best man. Tao says that the best man is selfless, able to benefit the people around him and does not compete with them. Instead, he is able to see identify a need and does something to meet the need without thinking about what he should gain from it or what he is going to lose if he needs to spend a lot of time and money in accomplishing the task. The best man, despite his commendable attributes will remain humble and simply continues to exist influence his community in a positive manner. Humility is that place which Tao says the water goes to which all disdain. Indeed, through the different centuries, only a handful strove to do good and still remain quiet about what they did. Most people set their goals high and do mighty works and above all their achievements, they want to be recognized and exalted. Nevertheless, the best man takes a different route. He gives

Analyze a website and present a case to the court Essay

Analyze a website and present a case to the court - Essay Example The area effect of explosive weapons causes death and injury not only to military combatants, but also to civilians, such as children, women and old people who clearly do not pose threat. This kind of harm is unacceptable because it has no justification. Although at present, there is no specific international treaty that prohibits the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas, except perhaps for the use of cluster bombs which are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, their use nevertheless, contravene basic human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which should be abided by all members of the United Nations, proclaims that every person has the right to â€Å"life, liberty and security of persons.† Moreover, under the Geneva Convention of 1949, those who do not take direct part in a war are considered non-combatants and are therefore, must be, among others, free from violence to life and prison. Similarly, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court proscribes any attack against civilians. It is accepted principle under the international humanitarian law that the direct targeting of civilians violates the customary laws of war. The use of explosive weapons clearly breaches the principles enshrined in these treaties and customary laws.

Ionic Liquid and Multicomponent Reaction Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ionic Liquid and Multicomponent Reaction - Thesis Example Among the many chemical species whose reactions can be catalyzed by variants of this method include ketones, and alcohols. Ionic liquids oxidize alcohols faster than conventional solvents, (7), (14) and are useful for both ÃŽ ±,ÃŽ ²-unsaturated ketones, (15) and diketone derivatives. (16), (17), (18)   , (19)  Ã‚   Of course, multi-component reactions involving these, or aldehydes, amines, carboxylic acids and isocyanides are typical of an Ugi reaction. The isocyanides themselves being critical to the four-component reaction. (20)   As well as being central to Passerini-type reactions. (4)   In addition, ionic liquids are useful for isomerizations, sugar acetylation, (21) the Baylis-Hillman reaction, (22) other high-temperature organic syntheses, given high thermal stability. (When dicationic) (23)   Within Ionic liquids, yields can be relatively high for stereochemistry-retained vinyl chalcogenides, (24) and N-substitution of alkyl halides, and various chlorides. (25)   Just a few of the reactions possible with ionic liquid multi-component processes are listed below: Alkylation, The Michael reaction, Knoevenagel condensation, and at least four others, not to mention both two-step, and multicomponent domino reactions, for a start. (13)   Ionic liquids are superior in the carbonylation of some halides. (26)   Several sources discuss these reactions in terms of efficiency, and the lessening of environmental impact. (16), (13).

Cases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cases - Essay Example There is a set of outlined mitigating circumstances in terms of FWA, which should be taken into account in the process of considerations about an employee’s dismissal (the personal and economic situation of the employee, the employee’s unblemished record, genuine remorse and contrition). The article â€Å"Fair Work Australia: unfair dismissal, at the employer’s initiative and demotion† by Carol Andrades and Ryan Carlisle Thomas deals with the Fair Work Australia Full Bench decision, which is focused on the factors, which should be taken into account in the process of an employee’s dismissal. On the example of a pregnant woman, who had many difficulties in the process of her work, it is shown that the employer did not take into account her special needs and concerns and as a result, this woman experienced an efficient decrease in remuneration. The employer made an emphasis on an employee’s incompliance with the terms of the contract and the employee had to accept the repudiation. This case illustrates a harsh, unjust and unreasonable dismissal and the employee, who was awarded $25,821 compensation. Question: which factors should be taken into account in order to avoid an unfair dismissal of an employee? There is a need to focus on de facto and de jure agreement of a contract; the assessment of the contract repudiation, the â€Å"termination at the initiative of the employer† means and the cases, when a demotion constitutes a dismissal. The article â€Å"Social media dismissals: work/home dividing line blurred† by Joe Catanzariti deals with a role social media plays in the process of an employee’s dismissal. There is the first case, which deals with the employee, who posted a negative commentary on his Face book page about his employer. Fair Work Australia did not support an employee and a decision to fire

Emblazoned symbols of decadence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emblazoned symbols of decadence - Essay Example By using various symbols as literary devices in the poem, the poet is able to successfully illustrate what he felt like and the painful processes he underwent as he lived the life of a prisoner within the harsh confines of a remote relocation camp. The powerful imagery and relatable concepts Okita manages to muster out of concrete nouns help him to masterfully paint mental pictures of what he and 110,000 other Japanese Americans emotionally went through from 1942 to 1946. Being forced into internment camps was a very invasive and demoralizing experience for Japanese Americans, and Okita eloquently captures the essence of how they felt by relating this hardship to a turtle’s smashed shell, which symbolizes not only the gutted houses they had to leave behind, but their squashed pride and self-respect. the middle of the poem, Okita relays how his neighbor Jimmi described the way people prepared turtle soup in the deep south as a way to symbolize what he went through as a result o f being displaced, â€Å"A huge sea turtle ─ take a sledge hammer to the massive shell, wedge it open with one simple, solid blow till the turtle can feel no home above him, till everything is taken away and there is nothing he will carry away from this moment,† (Schmidt and Crockett 331). Without the poet spelling it out, the reader can easily see that victims of internment camps underwent a painful process similar to that of a turtle being stripped of his shell, which represents the security of his home. The reader understands that once the shell (home) is taken away and destroyed, much of the defenseless victim’s identity and self-worth is stolen away, as well. The vivid imagery of the turtle, which symbolizes both Japanese Americans (body) and their ravaged homes (crushed shell), is used as a precision instrument to artfully and poignantly depict the tragedy that wartime prisoners endured. Okita also goes on to use a barbed wire fence as a symbol to draw an image of the harsh conditions faced by detainees, as well as the different perspective from which they viewed life. The poet draws on the past pleasure he took in counting stars from his home in Fresno, California, where he often sang with the joy it brought him - gazing at the celestial wonders. He then describes the stars he sees in his Arkansas internment camp, which are accompanied by the sharp, unattractive stars made from barbed wire fences, â€Å"The nice thing about counting stars is you can do it just about anywhere . . . Even in a relocation camp miles from home, even in Jerome, Arkansas where a barbed wire fence crisscrosses itself making stars of its own - but nothing worth counting, nothing worth singing to,† (331). The barbed wire fence symbolizes the constraints from enjoying the world the way it was meant to be, while the fake stars it forms are symbolic of how internment camps provide horrible substitutes for real (enjoyable) life on the outside. These litera ry conventions give the reader a better grasp of what life was really like inside the confines of the camps. Lastly, Okita uses the imagery of his family’s car before and during his internment to symbolize the condition of the detainees and their lives. He creatively does this while recounting about his mother, â€Å"At night, she’

Management at Apple Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management at Apple - Research Paper Example Apple Company is located at Cupertino, California was established in 1976 and deals in personal computers, computer software other consumer electronics such as iPods, iPads, iPhones and tablets among others. In addition, the company has about 60, 400 permanent workers with 2,800 part time spread in more than ten countries and operating in about 357 retail stores with a present $65.23 billion â€Å"It plans to open a total of 25 stores in China by the end of 2011† (Head, 2007). Furthermore, Apple Company being a technology organization has used the location-based services strategy. This involves using an advertising platform that sends various offers to its clients from the nearby shops and restaurants. Similarly, Apple Company has been able to increase its sales and profits through venturing into the international markets such as China and Japan. In addition, departing from the domestic market to enter the international market by Apple has lead to reduced costs of production a nd the ability to trade in various markets hence lessening the dependency on one market. Supply chain management Supply chain management involves the organization and control of assets such as equipment, human, components and relationships such as customers, staff and suppliers among others in the production and delivery of customer’s commodity from unprocessed product to completed product as competently as possible. Apple Company is known to conduct its sale with a minimal physical supply sales chain. Instead, Apple uses digital supply chain involves distribution of digital media such as video or music though electronic medium from the provider to the client. For instance, through its virtual stores, Apple has been able to generate about $ 1 billion from iTunes sales only. â€Å"This can be considered as the first step by Apple towards implementing agility in its supply chain† (Sanders & Reid, 2007). In addition, the company has the ability to make sales worth more th an I billion of MP3 files without factors of physical supply management such as material sourcing, production, warehousing and transportation among others. These sales extend to iPhone mobile that do not use the normal supply chains. There are numerous advantages that are enjoyed by Apple in its usage of digital supply chains. For instance, increase in margin of hardware sales, increased maneuvers in the market because of higher flow of cash and the ability to provide what is on demand at right time. Therefore, because of this innovative idea of modern supply management, competition has increased among IT companies such as HP, Dell and IBM adopting and improving their methods. On that note, Apple has come up with its new design of supply chain called product lifecycle management (PLM). It is a programmed software that allows manufacturers from around the world to process the products they want using a collaborative design. â€Å"Thus the equation of achieving agility in supply chai n versus risk in meeting demand had to take shape for Apple† (Lebreton, 2007). Similarly, it permits the manufacturer to share and manage complicated design and commodity detail that aims at ensuring the proper development process of commodity. Inventory management Inventory management involves indicating the shape and percentage of completed products an organization has to sell. Numerous factors affect inventory of management of Apple Inc. Company. For example, there are the physical place of the

Australias forward defence policy Essay Example for Free

Australias forward defence policy Essay ?Interact with History Question: The Australian policy of forward defence was based on the notion that it was better to fight potential enemies in Asia rather than wait and have to fight them on Australian soil. Write a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in which you either support or oppose the concept of forward defence'. Dear Sydney Morning Herald, Im writing to you today in order to discuss the main reasons in which I support the concept of forward defence. During the 1950s and 1960s the fear of communism remained the political issue that gripped Australia. The governments defence policy was dominated by the idea that sending troops overseas to fight against possible enemies was the best way to prevent a war from being fought on Australian soil and I agree with this idea. Like the war in Korea, the outbreak of war in Vietnam was seen as the result of communist aggression. Australia extremely feared the domino effect which was believed to mean that if one nation fell under communist domination, its neighbours would fall like a line of dominos. So the decision to send Australian troops to fight in Vietnam war was at the time a smart strategic idea and not at all surprising given the belief that the takeover of South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia. On April 19th 1965 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced Australian involvement in Vietnam and stated We do not and must not overlook the point that our alliances, as well as providing guarantees and assuring for our security, make demands upon us. I believe Australia needed to continue the fight against Communism far from our soil because it would connote the most disastrous defeats abroad and the most incredible difficulties for its friends and allies desiring to help them. Defence alliances were so important because with Australias vast territory and small population it would not of been able to survive a surging communist challenge abroad without the cooperation of powerful friends including in particular U. K and U. S. A. The forward defence policy was a brilliant policy, Australia showed a sign of loyalty to a powerful ally the U. S. A which was a diplomatic gesture aimed at ensuring that Australia could call on her allies for protection in the event of a Communist attack on Australian soil. This strategy was based on the belief that Australia could be most effectively defended if any threat was met and fought before it reached Australian shores. I support this policy one hundred percent and am glad Australia ensured it.

A Review On Alcoholic Detection From EEG Signals

A Review On Alcoholic Detection From EEG Signals Abstract: This review covers advances of the past decade, in the development of EEG signal processing algorithms for alcoholic detection. In recent years, various computational approaches have been proposed to detect alcoholism from EEG recordings. In this paper, we review some of those approaches, and discuss their limitations and potential In part I, an introduction to the effect of alcohol on EEG is discussed briefly. We review some of the known effects of alcohol on EEG signal in part II. Some of the exiting state of the art signal processing techniques for alcoholic detection in EEG recordings are discussed in part III. A review of various signal processing methods used to classify alcoholics and controls is done. The potential and limitation of such computational approaches are discussed in part IV. A discussion on the potential use of EEG as a biomarker for alcoholism and as a mass screening tool is also discussed .At the end of the paper, we conclude by briefly addressing the future challenges and open problems in part V. PART I Introduction Alcoholism is a social bane that is affecting the human life in all aspects. Not only it causes damage to the human brain and other organs of the body in various ways, it also brings about a lot of difficulties and discomfort to an alcoholic person in his/her social life. A lot of research has gone into finding the ill effects and the extent to which it damages the human body. Some of the harmful effects include lack of coordination between body and mind, loss of vision, imbalance in walking, incoherent speech, memory slips, depression to name a few. These effects can be observed after only a few drinks and they may vanish once the person gives up drinking. However a person who is addicted to drinking large quantities of alcohol for a long time may be affected with these effects that persist for a longer time and severely damage one or more organs of the body. The way in which alcohol affects the brain and the probable reversal of the ill effects caused by heavy drinking on the brain still remain as hot topics in alcohol research [1]. Some of the factors that determine the extent to which alcohol affects the brain are: i) quantity and how frequently a person drinks ii) the age of the subject at which the habit of drinking started and how long it is being continued iii) subjects age, education, gender, genetic predisposition and family history of alcoholism iv) possibility of prenatal exposure and the overall health condition[47]. Heavy drinking not only affects the human brain but it also damages other vital organs of the body. It is also found that females are more affected than males in the way the alcohol consumption damages the various organs of the body. For example, a few years of heavy drinking in women cause cirrhosis [48] cardiomyopathy [49] and nerve damage [50] than in alcoholic men. However, the studies on sensitivity of females brain to alcohol-induced brain damage as compared with males, have not shown any conclusive results [1]. Alcohol intake combined with poor general health condition or with severe liver disease causes damage to the human brain in an indirect manner. For example, thiamine deficiency is common in people with alcoholism which is a result of poor overall nutrition [1].  A large percentage of alcoholics suffer from thiamine deficiency and some may even develop severe brain disorders such as [51] Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (WKS) [52]. The symptoms of WKS include mental confusi on, oculomotor disturbances and difficulty with muscle coordination, forgetfulness and frustration and have difficulty with walking and coordination [53] . One of the organs that severely gets affected by long term alcohol consumption in large quantities is the liver. In a person with a history of heavy long-term drinking, the liver s function is to breakdown alcohol into harmless by-products and flush them out of the body. However, the liver may get damaged due to excessive alcohol intake, leading to liver cirrhosis. This condition of the liver can harm the brain, leading to a potentially fatal brain disorder called hepatic encephalopathy [54].Some of the effects of Hepatic encephalopathy are disturbances in sleep patterns, mood swings, personality changes, anxiety, depression, attention deficits, difficulty in coordination like shaking of the hands ( asterixis). In the worst case, patients may slip into coma ( hepatic coma), which can lead to death. It is indeed difficult to diagnose these effects as related to hepatic encephalopathy. New imaging techniques assist researchers to study specific regions of brain in such patients, which helps them in knowing exactly how hepatic encephalopathy progresses. The studies have confirmed that at least two toxic substances, ammonia and manganese are responsible for the development of hepatic encephalopathy. The severely damaged liver cells allow these harmful toxic products to enter the brain, which in turn harms the brain cells. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy may lead to physical, learning, and behavioural problems in the developing fetal brain. The most serious of these problems is the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children with FAS may have distinct facial features [1]. FAS infants growth may be lesser than average. They may suffer from microcephaly. In infants with this syndrome, only a fewer neurons may be present or a fewer neurons may function properly. This will lead to problems in learning and behaviour for a long term. All alcoholics do not experience the ill effects of alcohol consumption in a similar manner to the same extent. The source of the disease may be different for different patients. This makes it difficult to pinpoint any one parameter as responsible for the brain disorders found in alcoholics. That is why, one of the active areas of research is to study why some patients are vulnerable to brain deficits while others are not [55]. Most alcoholics suffering from cognitive disorder improve in the structure and functioning of the brain within a year of abstinence [56-58].This may not be true in all cases. Therefore clinicians must devise different types of treatment methods to cater to different patients. They use brain-imaging techniques to determine the course and progress of treatment over a period of time. Researchers use imaging methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), positron emission tomography (PET), and electrophysiological brain mapping. These methods provide precise and accurate information on structural, functional and biochemical changes in patients brain over time. Sometimes, two or more brain imaging methods are used together to correlate the results and monitor when a chronic alcoholic patient stops drinking and again after long periods of sobriety ,the possibility of relapse of the drinking habit in the patient [59]. The process of memorization and retrieval depend on factors such as attention and motivation [60]. MRI of brain assist the physicians to study the effects of long time abstinence from alcohol on memory and attention, as well as changes that take place when drinking habit relapses. The aim of these studies is to differentiate between the alcohol-induced permanent effects on the brain and those which are reversible with abstinence. PET imaging assists researchers to visualize, in the living brain, the damages associated with heavy alcohol consumption [61]. This also enables scientists to analyse alcohols effects on neurotransmitter systems, brain cell metabolism and blood flow within the brain. These studies on alcoholics have shown the frontal lobe disorders, which are responsible for various functions associated with learning and memory and deficits in cerebellum which controls movement and coordination. PET can also be used for monitoring the effects of alcoholism treatment on the a ffected parts of the brain and may give new directions in developing medications to rectify the chemical deficits found in the brains of people with alcohol dependence. Numerous studies have shown the ill effects of alcohol on the human brain by observing and analysing the electroencephalogram (EEG) of the alcoholic subject and compared with that of a control subject. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a simple non invasive tool that records the brains electrical signals by placing electrodes on the scalp. These signals show real-time activity as it occurs in the brain. Many studies have shown that the effect of alcohol on the human brain can be perceived by processing the recording the EEG of an alcoholic subject. The single channel EEG recordings of a control and an alcoholic subject are as shown in fig 1.It can be observed that the time series EEG data of both control and alcoholic subjects are not clearly perceptible to the bare human eye. However, with the help of certain signal processing techniques either in the time domain or frequency domain or time-frequency domain or spatial domain techniques, the latent features can be extracted to identify the effects of alcohol on the human brain. As an illustration, the PSDs of the EEG of both control and alcoholic subject are as shown in fig2. From this it is very clear that the power contained in various frequency components are different for both control and alcoholic subjects. C:UsersMUDocumentsMATLABeeg_epilep_codestime_series_data.jpg C:UsersMUDocumentsMATLABeeg_epilep_codespsd_c_a.jpg Fig 1.Time series EEG data of control Fig2. PSD plot of EEG of control and alcoholic subjects and alcoholic subjects Many alcoholic men have low amplitude of their P3 components (fig 3). P3 amplitudes in alcoholic women reduce to a lesser extent than in men. The uniqueness of the reduction in P3 component among other symptoms is that even after the patient drops the habit of drinking alcohol, this reduction in P3 persists[63].Therefore this parameter can be thought of as a biomarker for alcohol dependence rather than an effect of alcohol consumption. There are many studies conducted on the reduced P3 amplitudes of young people who are not exposed to alcohol but their fathers being alcoholics [64, 65].Therefore, P3 can be used as biomarkers to help recognizing people who may be at greatest risk for developing problems with alcohol. graph Fig 3 . P3 amplitude in control and alcoholic subjects (Courtesy:[1]) Compared to other imaging methods discussed above, electrophysiological methods such as EEG processing for detection of alcoholics has a lot to offer in terms of mobility and cost involved. Hence it can be used as a mass screening tool for the underprivileged with a history of alcoholism. PART II Effect of Alcohol on EEG recordings Studies have shown that some of the major effects of alcohol on EEG are: i) enlargement of frontal negative occipital wave component ii) increase in ventricular and sulcal CSF volumes iii) Reduction in p300 component iv)Reduction in pre frontal cortical excitability v)Reduction in the amplitude of Error related negativity vi) Binge drinking effect on ÃŽ ´ and fast ÃŽ ²waves vii) Reduction in the power of EEG signal in frontal region and enhancement of ÃŽ ¸ waves . viii) high ÃŽ ² and ÃŽ ¸ power in the resting EEG, abnormalities in eye movements, in saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks. These effects, however, are not always easily detectable. There tends to be a large variability from patient to patient. As a result, none of these phenomena allow at present to reliably detect the effect of alcohol at an early stage. Many recent studies have concentrated on how to improve the sensitivity of EEG for detecting alcoholism. In the following we briefly review some of these studies. A. Enlargement of frontal negative occipittal wave component Way back in 1990, Jerald Varner et al., reported a study of alcoholic organic syndrome patients using the occipital wave components of the event related potential (ERP) as an electrophysiological parameter [3]. The study was conducted on normal, Korsakoff, and alcoholic dementia patients. The frontal negative occipital wave was observed to be increased in alcoholic organic brain syndrome patients and it was concluded that it was probably due to an attention deficit, indicating a probable frontal lobe dysfunction. B. Increase in ventricular and sulcal CSF volumes Adolf Pfefferbaum et al., [4] quantified brain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volumes derived from computed tomography (CT) in alcoholics and controls. The results showed that the ventricular and sulcal CSF volumes in alcoholic patients were greater than was expected for their age. This also proved the previous results obtained from a similar study using CT and MRI showing greater vulnerability of the aging brain to alcohol. The absolute ventricular volumes were similar in MRI and CT, while MRI results showed larger sulcal volume estimates than the CT. It was concluded that MRI slice thickness and its resolution to partial volume effects led to this increase in sulcal volume estimate. C. Reduction in p300 component Shirley Y. Hill et al., studied the effect of alcohol on the p300 component [9] .According to this study , it was found that only patients(female) with comorbid depression had a reduced p300 amplitude ,while there was no difference in other alcoholic and control subjects(male and female) . From this study, it was also concluded that the P300 amplitude reduction seen in children prone to developing alcoholism seems to represent a delay in neuron development that normalizes as they grow into adulthood. In another similar study, Michio Hada et al., used bootstrap analysis method in which P3a current source density (CSD) maps showed distinct topographic mapping between alcoholics and control subjects in all the brain regions [10]. More sources and sinks were seen in the alcoholics than in the control subjects for P3a. The reduced P3a amplitude and sinks in alcoholics coupled with less specificity in their CSD maps, suggested disorganized less efficient functioning of the brain. This suggests a probable underlying CNS hyper excitability in alcoholics due to cortical disinhibition . D. Reduction in pre frontal cortical excitability Seppo Kahkonen et al. [13], reported the effects of alcohol on the prefrontal cortex in nine healthy subjects using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) activated electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Changes in EEG activity lasting up to 270 ms post stimulus were observed as a response to activation by TMS. The changes were observed more prominently at anterior electrodes suggesting the reduction in excitability in the prefrontal cortex due to alcohol. E. Reduction in the amplitude of Error related negativity A study by Clay B Holroyd et al., indicated that alcohol consumption reduces the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN)[14] component of the event related potential(ERP), a sharp negative going signal that occurs in the EEG at the instant when an incorrect motor response starts ( ie.,error commission). F. Binge drinking effect on ÃŽ ´ and fast ÃŽ ² waves Kelley E Courtney et al. evaluated the spectral power in the ÃŽ ´ and fast ÃŽ ² waves of EEG recordings of young undergraduate university students who varied in their binge drinking history [18].The aim of the study was to characterize the effects of binge drinking on central nervous system(CNS) neuroelectric activity in male and female undergraduate subjects. The EEG recordings of these subjects showed enhanced spectral power in the ÃŽ ´ (0-4 Hz) and fast- ÃŽ ² (20-35 Hz) bands for the high-binge drinkers. Although the dependence of fast- ÃŽ ² power on binge drinking still remains unclear, the change in fast- ÃŽ ² power indicates that EEG spectral pattern of high-binge drinkers is similar to that of alcoholics. This study indicated that the relative enhancement in fast- ÃŽ ² power may be used as a biomarker for potential future alcoholism even in the absence of familial alcoholism. G.Effect on ÃŽ ²,ÃŽ ¸ ,ÃŽ ³ waves ,eye movement disorders and saccadic inhibition Wu Di et al., discussed the change in the power of EEG signal in various parts of the brain after consuming alcohol , resulting in harmful effects on different parts of the brain and the body[19]. It was observed that while in the frontal region the power of the EEG signal decreased with the increase in the quantity of alcohol intake, the power of the EEG signal in central, occipital region increased. This study also revealed that while in the frontal region, the alcohol intake caused a transformation in the fast wave with decrease in the power of EEG signal, the fast wave reduced with an increase in the power of EEG signal in the central and occipital region. It was also observed that while the effect of alcohol in the frontal region indicated nerve stimulation of alcohol in this part, making drinkers to become excited after alcohol intake, in the central and occipital region, the effect of alcohol consumption led to an inhibitory action on the neuron cells, resulting in the weakeni ng of the body coordination and eyesight. Further it was noted that increase in alcohol intake resulted in ÃŽ ¸ waves generation and gradual enhancement as the subjects were in state of drowsiness and the central nervous system(CNS) of the subjects was inhibited. At the same time, ÃŽ ± and ÃŽ ² waves were seen to gradually enhance and the region of these waves expanded after consuming alcohol. The study also indicated that the correlation between parts of brain decreased gradually because the clustering of the EEG signal was separated gradually into small clusters with increased alcohol intake. From this observation, it was concluded that too much drinking may lead to the decrease of balance, stability between the parts of the brain. S. Campanella et al., [41], studied various physiological parameters such as continuous EEG, oculomotor measures, cognitive ERPs and event-related oscillations that are affected in chronic alcoholic patients compared to healthy controls. This study was aimed at identifying links between these physiological parameters, altered cognitive processes and specific clinical symptoms. The result of their study showed:(1) high beta and theta power in the resting EEG, suggesting hyperarousal of CNS (2) abnormalities in smooth pursuit eye movements, in saccadic inhibition during antisaccade tasks, and in prepulse inhibition, suggesting disturbed attention and abnormal prefrontal inhibitory cortical dysfunction; (3) decreased amplitude for cognitive ERPs situated along the continuum of information processing, suggesting that alcoholism is associated with neurophysiological deficits at the level of the sensory cortex and not only disturbances involving associative cortices and limbic structures; and (4) decreased theta, gamma and delta oscillations, suggesting cognitive disinhibition at a functional level. Ajayan Padmanabhapillai et al.,[71] investigated the early evoked gamma band response in male adolescents at high risk and at low risk groups for a visual stimulus. The results indicate that the deficient early evoked gamma band response may indicate the risk of development of alcoholism and could be a potential bio marker for future addiction to alcoholism. David A. Kareken et al., [72] used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine how family history affects the brains response to subjects preferred alcoholic drink odours (AO) as compared to appetitive control odours (ApCO). This study suggested that a family history of alcoholism and brain exposure to alcohol odour in heavy drinkers differentially affect the way in which brain responds to alcohol cues. H.Whole-genome association study on EEG waves Variation in resting EEG is associated with common, complex psychiatric diseases such as alcoholism, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders although it can not be used as a diagnostic tool for any of them. Such traits appear to be dependent on the underlying molecular processes than on clinical symptoms, and points to an alternative method for the identification of genetic variation that characterize complex psychiatric disorders. Colin A. Hodgkinsona et al.,[39], performed a whole-genome association study on alpha (ÃŽ ±), beta (ÃŽ ²), and theta (ÃŽ ¸) EEG power in a Native American cohort of 322 individuals to maintain the genetic and environmental homogeneity of this population. Three genes SGIP1, ST6GALNAC3 and UGDH were nominally associated to variability of ÃŽ ¸ or ÃŽ ± power. SGIP1 was estimated to account for 8.8 % of variance in ÃŽ ¸ power and this association was replicated in US Caucasians, where it accounted for 3.5% of the variance. Bayesian analysis of prior probability of association based upon earlier linkage to chromosome 1 and enrichment for vesicle-related transport proteins established the genuineness of the association of SGIP1 with ÃŽ ¸ power. It was also found that the association of SGIP1 with alcoholism provides validation of the use of EEG as an endo phenotype for alcoholism. I.Effect of alcohol on facilitation effect The aim of this study by P. Maurage et al., [32], was to study cross modal (auditory-visual) processing while the subjects were given an emotional stimuli and specifically the auditory-visual facilitation effect. Twenty patients suffering from alcoholism, and 20 healthy controls were asked to identify the emotion (anger or happiness) displayed by auditory, visual or auditory-visual stimuli. The stimuli were designed to elicit a facilitation effect (namely, faster reaction times (RTs) for crossmodal condition than for unimodal ones).It was observed that the alcoholics showed less significant facilitation effect compared to their healthy counterparts.This lack of facilitation effect may be used as a biomarker for an impaired auditory-visual processing in alcoholics. PART III I. Signal processing techniques for detection of alcoholism in EEG signal The Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a bio signal containing information about the state of the brain. The latent information present in the EEG signal may not be visible for the human expert and any subtle variations hence cannot be observed and monitored as and when it occurs. Especially in the time series EEG data, subtle variations can not be perceived by human eye. In such a situation the computational approach becomes very important to extract any such micro variations in the EEG recording, containing significant information about the status of any pathology present. Also, since EEG is an inexpensive method and due to its portability, it can be used as a powerful mass screening tool. EEG signals are the signatures of neural activities. They are captured by multiple-electrode either invasively or non-invasively, over the cortex under the skull, or certain locations over the scalp, and can be recorded in different formats. The signals are normally presented in the time domain, but by applying simple signal processing tools such as the Fourier transform to perform frequency analysis and some imaging tools to visualize EEG topographies , the brain activities can be visualized in frequency or spatial domains respectively. Various time domain, frequency domain, time-frequency methods, statistical signal processing technique such as Wavelet transform [5], Recurrent Neural network [6], nonlinear systems [7], logistic regression [8], spectral densities of DWT coefficients [16], etc., and chaotic signal processing techniques [2] are used to study the pathology of brain such as epilepsy. These techniques are also used to classify between alcoholic, non-alcoholic and epilept ic subjects. In recent years, several research groups have started investigating the potential of electroencephalograms (EEGs) for detecting alcoholism and study the short term and long term effects on the brain. There have been many algorithms developed so far for processing EEG signals. Some of the operations include time-domain analysis, frequency-domain analysis, spatial-domain analysis, and multiway processing. Also, several algorithms have been developed to visualize the brain activity from images reconstructed from only the EEGs. Separation of the desired sources from the multisensor EEGs has been another research area. This can later lead to the detection of brain abnormalities such as epilepsy and the sources related to various physical and mental activities. In this section, some of the signal processing techniques applied to EEG signal for the detection of alcoholism is reviewed. A. Extraction of spectral band power and parametric methods Ong, Kok Mang et al, have shown that VEP (visually evoked potential) could be influenced by long term alcohol abuse [20]. The power spectral density of the recorded VEP was estimated using Burg algorithm (parametric analysis) and the extracted Gamma band power was used as features to train the neural network to classify the alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The authors claim that classification result of 97.50% accuracy has been achieved, to discriminate alcoholics from non-alcoholics.Kok-Meng Ong et al., have proposed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method for the optimization of the selection of a subset of channels for single trial Visual Evoked Potentials (VEP) signals [23]. The proposed method was successful in optimizing a subset of channels that guaruntees high classification accuracy of alcoholics and non-alcoholics Another similar study by Ramaswamy Palaniappan et al., show that the difference of VEP signals between alcoholics and non-alcoholics can be observed using two spectral power ratios in gamma band (37-50 Hz) extracted from seven channels. This result implies that gamma band spectral power could be used as a biomarker on the lasting effects of long-term use of alcohol on visual response though the studied alcoholics have been abstinent for a minimum period of 1 month. Here Genetic algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the selection of subset of the feature set and classification is done with Fuzzy ARTMAP (FA) classifier [11], using VEP signals. The seven spectral bands of VEP signals are extracted using infinite impulse response (IIR) band-pass filters with constant gain and uniform bandwidth. Spectral power in these bands is calculated using Parsevals theorem and used as features to train the FA and ML-BP classifiers. The proposed technique discriminates alcoholics from non-alcoholics wit h high accuracy. In continuation of the previous work, Ramaswamy Palaniappan et al., in their work have derived second order autoregressive (AR) coefficients [21] to discriminate alcoholics using single trial gamma band Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) signals using 3 different classifiers: Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP (SFA) neural network (NN), Multilayer-perceptron-back propagation (MLP-BP) NN and Linear Discriminant (LD) function . Here elliptic filtering was used in the gamma band spectral range on single trial VEP signals. The average classification errors of 2.6%, 2.8% and 11.9% were obtained from LD, MLP-BP and SFA classifiers. The high accuracy of LD classification results show the effectiveness of the proposed method to discriminate between alcoholic subjects and controls. Several improvements were proposed to previous work of automated classification of alcoholics and non-alcoholics [24] by the same author. In the previous paper, MLP-NN classifying energy of gamma band VEP signals gave the best cla ssification performance using 800 VEP signals from 10 alcoholics and 10 non-alcoholics. Here, the dataset was extended to include 3560 VEP signals from 102 subjects: 62 alcoholics and 40 non-alcoholic. The classification performance was improved by i) increasing the gamma band spectral range ii) Multiple Signal Classification algorithm was used to obtain the power of the dominant frequency in gamma band VEP signals for feature extraction iii) the use of the k nearest neighbour classifier. The performance was validated by a 10-fold cross validation classification. Modification resulted in an improvement in the classification percentage from 94.49% to 98.71% in maximum averaged CVC accuracy. In this paper by Ramaswamy Palaniappan [30], a method is proposed to discriminate chronic alcoholic from non-alcoholic subjects while the subjects were sober. Energies of EEG signals in multiple gamma bands were used as features while the subjects were asked to do a picture recognition task .A neural network was used for classifying chronic alcoholic subjects from controls. Leave one out cross validation strategy revealed that alcoholics could be discriminated from non-alcoholics with accuracy of 94.55%. This study shows that the energy in gamma band spectral energy can be used as a biomarker for screening of alcoholics. The classification of chronic alcoholics from non-alcoholics using the EEG is studied in this paper by A Shahina et al., [27].Weighted Linear Prediction Cepstral Coefficients were extracted from the VEP and used as discriminating feature vectors. Auto associative neural network was used to classify these vectors into alcoholics and non alcoholics. A recognition accuracy of 52.5% is achieved. This shows that all the 64 channels do not have the same discriminatory attributes causing a reduction in the accuracy levels. Hence the authors conclude that in order to improve the classification performance, there is a need for the optimization of the number of channels to be considered for classification. In this study by Tugce Balli et al., [31], they investigated the electrophysiological differences between alcoholic and control subjects using two different approaches namely complexity and energy analysis. The EEG data used in this study were recorded from 77 alcoholic and 44 control subjects while the subjects were performing delayed matching to sample object recognition task for three types of stimuli. The experimental paradigm evokes object recognition, visual short-term memory and decision making abilities. The results indicated that all regions (i.e. frontal, central, temporal, parietal and occipital) in the brain exhibit more complexity and less energy for alcoholic subjects as compared to controls. When different visual stimuli pairs were compared among alcoholic and control subjects, the results from energy analysis showed group wise differences in occipital and parietal regions. These results provide a strong indication on the impairment in brains electrophysiological activ ity for alcoholic subjects due to a history of long term alcohol abuse. Chronic alcoholism is classically associated with major deficits in the visual and auditory processing of emotions. However, the cross modal (auditory-visual) processing of emotional stimuli, which occurs most frequently in everyday life, has not yet been explored.

Intercultural communication language

Intercultural communication language CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction A literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. The literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge on a particular topic. The literature review can be just a simple summary of sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. Therefore, this chapter will discuss published information in a particular subject area. In addition, this research also will discuss sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. This chapter details the relevant secondary data obtained to present various works published by various authors in many different countries. The literature review usually precedes a research proposal, methodology and results section. This chapter is organized according to several components. This chapter will focus on the intercultural communication is affected by language use in un iversity for different ethnic groups. The independent variables like languages proficiency, language conflict, acculturation motivation to learn, and interaction potential about communication languages and too much documentation will be studied.(Virginia, 2002) Definitions Language A language is considered to be a system of communication with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language (APA Style, 2009). Ethnic groups The term ethnic means of or pertaining to a group of people recognized as a class on the basis of certain distinctive characteristics such as religion, language, ancestry, culture or national origin (Babylon, 1997). Intercultural communication This is in many ways similar to group communication, but the role of groups is taken by ethnic cultures. However, as it is used in communication studies, intercultural communication tends to describe the relations between members of different ethnic groups and languages, and interacting in an international context (Kwintessential, 2009). Efficiency A relatively efficient process either requires fewer inputs or produces more outputs compared to a similar process, to achieve the objectives of the process (Dave Chaffey, 1997a). Effectiveness Effectiveness is very similar to efficiency, but the measure is related to some enterprise objective rather than the technical quality of output. Therefore, the effectiveness measure of a business process can be indicated by the resource inputs needed to produce a level of an enterprise objective (Dave Chaffey, 1997b). Teamwork spirit A joint action by two or more people, in which each person contributes with different skills and express his or her individual interests and opinion to the unity and efficiency of the group in order to achieve common goals (Buzzle, 2000). Independent variables A manipulated variable in an experiment or study which is the presence or degree determines the change in the dependent variables. The independent variable is the element that is subject to arbitrary (not random) change, in order to test the results. An independent variable is a hypothesized cause or influence on a dependent variable. One way to distinguish these variables is to ask yourself what you are wanted to learn from this research (Wikipedia, 2009). Language proficiency Refers to the degree to which the student exhibits control over the use of language, including the measurement of expressive and receptive language skills in the areas of phonology, syntax, vocabulary, and semantics and including the areas of pragmatics or language use within various domains or social circumstances. Proficiency in a language is judged independently and does not imply a lack of proficiency in another language (Wren, 2009). Acculturation The exchange of cultural features that results groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first hand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct (Kottak, 2007). Motivation Motivation is defined as communicating to an internal force that actuates a behavioral pattern, thought process, action or reaction. Negative forces or positive forces can act as actuators (Speechmastery, 2009). Language Proficiency Martin and Nakayama (1999), communication is the most rewarding one as well teaching us that culture always changes and the most important quality for work on intercultural society. Because of the internal and external influences, intercultural communication is important because people from different cultures have been encountering each other. Communication is a interpretive, symbolic, transactional, contextual process of difference between people is large and important to create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about the regarded as competent behaviors that should be used to create shared meanings. The theories in philosophy of languages will make a distinction between two communicative challenges (Hale and Wright, 1997; Ludlow, 1997). The first concerns need to have a platform of a shared language (Burge, 1979; Peacock, 1992). According to Fodor (1992) and Nordby (2003), imagine the reindeer herder and some government official can represents the interests of the public having a dialogue about the idea of turning the relevant areas into national parks. The way to understand language is shaped by the overall beliefs and socio-cultural contexts. It is obvious that the herders and the officials respective understandings the sufficiently similar for their associating and the same meaning with the same expressions (Burge, 1979). Most respondents believe that the proficiency of language is Latvias inhabitants must know the Latvian language. More than two year, they need to improve their Latvian language. Thus the attitude of Latvian language is positive. This is supported towards growing the proficiency in Latvian among non-Latvians. Inhabitants of Latvia may improve inter-ethnic relationships, constant process and, promote the process of integration and communication between each others (Bratt, 1994). The communicative similarities and differences across cultures provide is to understand the cross-cultural misunderstandings occur, and misunderstanding can be reduced in future intercultural encounter. The individual made the communicative adaptations when they move between cultures provides cross-cultural adaptation models, and they can informative indexes to understand cross-cultural newcomers dynamic status of intercultural transformation (Kim, 2001). According to Bartlett and Johnson (1998), the English is a sort of creoles language. It is more difficult for native speaker rather than non-native ones to understand. The use of English in multinational companies is that able to master the foreign languages tend to centralize communication within the company. Because of the few problems they have in making acquaintance with all kinds of people and interacting with then in a competent ways. This centralization of communication is often associated with a concentration of power into the hands of who can cope with communication in an autonomous way. Therefore, language skills may become an important tool in internal company politics with consequent significant strategic potentialities. Students learn second language may possesses skills ranging from conversational fluency acquired from contacts with the second language-speaking world to formal knowledge obtained in second language as a foreign language classes in their countries of origin. For example, High schools students are learning English as a second language in U.S. classroom. The extent and type of prior knowledge is an essential consideration in planning instruction. For example, a student with informal conversational English skills may have little understanding of English grammatical systems and may need to specific instruction in English grammar (Eric, 2000). Language Conflict In different social-cultural contexts, teachers and students face different challenges, such as power and control, local structural conditions, language policies, ideology, and discursive rules that generate practice of inclusion and exclusion (Bertein, 1996; Phillpsom, 2001). Teachers and students in a foreign context will lack familiar frames of references. Therefore, they may find the situation such as unfriendly, unwelcome, inhospitable, and confusingly varied and unpredictable (Holliday, 1994) and may fail to recognize and meet both experiences, public, and personal theories may often lead to misunderstanding and frustration. According to Dyke (1985), the language conflict is a worst problem in Latvia. Regarding this conflict, the psychological factors are importance because Latvian language is a national symbol of Latvians as an ethnic group. Besides that, a part of Russians and Russian speakers the reversal from dominant to minority position is not acceptable. In the Baltic Data House survey data, the language conflict between Latvian speakers and Russian speakers is most obvious. Stereotypes of the ethnic identities, the all ethnic are a rapist rejects the suggestion that this applies to personally act as catalyst of misunderstanding and communication difficulties. By dissociating, these stereotypes the interviewees support the argument that not all member of an ethnic group are alike. The ethnic groups are heterogeneous, and then the conflict of language will easy occur in the group (Bennett, 2004). In intercultural communication, people often believe for granted because they have grown up in the culture and think their way is the best. In this case, they tend to transfer their own cultural values and beliefs to the situation of intercultural communication as guidelines for their behavior, so that misunderstandings or ineffective communication arise. Jensen and Longreen (1995), the negative transfer of deep-structure culture arises in such aspects as cultural values, thought patterns, religious beliefs and ethnics. Turner (1982), in different ethnic groups has a different value on group membership or individual self-determination. As a result, a member of ethnic group may think someone from a different ethnic group with different values for politeness is rude. When this misunderstanding is occur without correction, this situation can escalate into a negative labeling of all members in the group. This can be a major source of negative ethnic stereotypes. Worldwide migration induces multicultural contact in societies, including health care. The multicultural contacts and communication are often complicated by language barriers, and obstructions are caused by different culturally defined views and perceptions. According to Kleinman, (1995) both physician and patient need to exchange each others perceptions about the patients illness in order to achieve understanding and agreement about diagnosis and treatment. Lack of understanding and agreement is assumed to lead to less compliance and a reduction in perceived quality of care. Communicating in English is confronted with a psycho-cognitive situation where his/her native linguistic and cultural schemata conflict with the English schemata dominant in international professional communities. Forced to negotiate and redefine cultural, the identity is to successfully communicate in international and intercultural settings. Furthermore, cultural interaction in international communities and organizations suggest the possibility of hybrid communicative schemata in which a new set of cultural values and identities-functional to communication in the wider community. This is created in response to communicate internationally. This is a counterpart of the ongoing process of economic globalization of which it is both an expression and an instrument. (Hofstede, 1991) Stranger person will commonly interaction the stereotyping (Gudykunst, 2005). When people are group, they will perform the positive or negative evaluations to these groups. Turner (1982), groups with people identify are evaluated positively or negatively. This is regularly recognized as ethnocentric attitudes, biased, or prejudice (Togeby, 1997; Brown, 1995). According to Tajfel (1978), the negative evaluations can create problems in an interaction when people need a positive self-image. Acculturation and Motivation to learn According to Chan (1997); Kennedy (2002); and Hu (2002), it is well acknowledged that Chinese students are extremely diligent, high achieving, hardworking, respectful, cooperative, trustworthy, persevering, and disciplined. Chinese students learning seriously and they show the respecting for the English native speakers in a hope to learn real English and get the best from them (Boyle, 2000). In their learning, Chinese students tent to exhibit a high degree to improve their knowledge of both western culture and the English language through diligent study and practice, and this can be a very stimulating motivation from a teacher. Trueba (1988) argued that the conditions for effective learning are created only when the role of culture is recognized. The used in the settings is under which learning are taking place. The environments should recognize the importance of culture in specific instructional settings and attempt to integrate the home and school cultures into the teaching pedagogy. When cultural conflicts arise, they should be resolved instead of being dismissed. A research study on the cultural identities of an ethnic group in China called the Miao. The undergraduate students of Miao and their life in the university, is an institution dominated by the majority Han Chinese and revealed that even when placed in a different learning environment. The strong cultural identity of the Miao students allowed them to draw on this affiliation for an increased motivation to succeed academically. Learning a second language is not detract. In fact, it is enhanced their pride in their identity and strong affiliation to their ethnic group. This study is important implications because it shows that being empowered in a new learning environment and do not necessitate forsaking ones own culture and language; indeed their empowerment in a new society depended on their being Miao and retaining their identification and affiliation with Miao traditions, culture and language (Trueba and Zou 1994). The importance of the host language in intercultural communication is self-evident. Effective of cross-cultural communication can take place when the language appropriate to a given society is as least minimally used and comprehended. According to Taft (1957), The function of language in intercultural communication is to facilitate ones cultural learning and to permit maximum group participation. Research has largely supported the generalization that the learning of the host language accelerates acculturation (DeFleur and Cho, 1957; Breton, 1964; Chance, 1965; Richmond, 1967; Graves, 1967; Price, 1968). Similarly, fluency in English is considered to be the most important determinant of a sojourners exposure to the American mass media (Richmond, 1967). Cross-cultural communication is attempts to link the variations in communication behavior to the cultural contexts. It also provides the conceptual tools to understand culture and communication influences the communications. The latter is relatively a new area and seeks to understand the changes in individual communication behavior that are related to the process of acculturation and communication interaction. This approach has provided a substantial body of literature dealing with stages, patterns and outcomes of adjustment. Intercultural communication helps to comprehend daily events in the multicultural world from the depth of social-cultural, especially cross-cultural level (Ting-Toomey, 1993). According to Poppy et al. (1996), adapting to a new culture may be taken much time for newcomers. Children generally acculturate more rapidly and easily than their parents. It is important to note that there are varying degrees or levels of acculturation which students and their families may be experiencing at any point in time after arriving. The degree of acculturation can accelerate or delay learning in school. This is equally important that there is no right or wrong with regard to acculturation and any fix nature to any. The labels simply describe a cultural condition and psychological experienced in the process of acculturation. Since the 1980s, the concept of integrativeness has been extended to identification the general cultural and intellectual values associated with the speakers of other languages and the explaining the attraction toward languages in countries. Motivation is one of the most studied aspects of learning. Social psychologists working in Canadian bilingual programs, Robert and Wallace Lambert (1972) considered that the motivation is the primary enhancing or blocking communication between cultures. For many years, integrative motivation was regarded as the desirable motivation for foreign students. Alicia Pousada (2006), some Puerto Rican students being like Americans is important because they may attend English-only schools, listen to English language music, travel to the U.S. Some have U.S.-born and/or raised parents or relatives, and plan to live or study in the U.S. in the future. For others, English is viewed solely as a tool for obtaining a good job. Their motivation is instrumental rather than integrative, since there is little desire to emulate Americans, even though cultural imitation or syncretism may occur unconsciously. English and Americans are totally foreign, somewhat frightening, and perhaps repugnant, as they represent a perceived loss of local Puerto Rican mores and a form of cultural homogenization. Interaction Potential Intercultural communication competence can improve by the communication apprehension. Beamers model did not make a clear distinction between competence and sensitivity and targeting developing intercultural communication competence (Beamer 1992). In there studies, intercultural communication competence was treated generally as the knowledge, motivation, and skills for effective communication. (Spitzberg, 1989; Wiseman, 2001). Herring (1990) presented that nonverbal communication was part of communication. Cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications must be reduced and increasing the cultural differences awareness in nonverbal communication patterns. Herring noted that many ethnic groups use nonverbal communications to expressions their feeling and attitudes. The incorporation of nonverbal communication in current and new counseling techniques could result in more appropriate and effective cross-cultural counseling. Nowadays, the cultural competency is very important. We are not longer confined to out national and cultural borders. We mix with people from different cultures, ethnicity, religions and colours on a daily basis. According to Belay, (1993), to make this intercultural experience work on all levels from education to business and to the government, we have to develop basic skills in intercultural communication and understanding. Shorris (1992) makes the point that umbrella labels such as Latino obscure important differences between Latinos of different countries of origin, thus confronting standard concepts of ethnic groups. Bershtel and Graubard (1993) discuss the role of religion in defining ethnicity, and also challenges students to consider intersections between race and ethnicity. Ethnic identity is not a constant throughout the life course. Feiler (1991) served to cover Japanese culture. He wanted to reflect an international perspective and to bring the discussion of interaction of language and ethnicity outside of the American context. He also shows how one must understand the underlying logic of a culture, not just its language and local customs, and interaction potential between ethnic groups. Anderson (1990) serves to address both Euro-American and African American ethnic groups. In a study, he focused on interactions between Euro-American and African American ethnic groups in public spaces in an urban setting. He showed students how nonverbal communication works through the lens of ethnicity and colour, and how social class and race affect the use of public spaces and urban territories. Thomas (2000), inability to speak the same language presents significant obstacles to understanding will occur the stressful and it must be for the many international students in colleges and university throughout the United States who must expend considerable energy listening and trying to decipher the content of messages; little energy is available for the nuances and subtleties of the interaction. The important concept in intercultural studies is intercultural sensitivity. That has been confused or treated indiscriminatingly and not yet fully understood with intercultural communication competence and intercultural awareness (Chen and Starosta, 2000). Intercultural awareness, intercultural adroitness, and intercultural sensitivity is an umbrella concept that subsumes by intercultural communication competence and representing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspect of intercultural communication competence and respectively. The multidimensional conceptualization makes it possible into how knowledge, motivation, emotion, and behavior may interact with each other. These elements may contribute the overall level of intercultural communication competence of the communication subjects. Thus, the insightful clues for rigorous research and theoretical framework will development the effective training programs for intercultural sensitivity. Roux (2002) argued that successful educators are effective communicator and culturally competent in cross-cultural encounters. Communication can be a useful source of intercultural knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse students if managed proactively by the teacher. Therefore, teachers should be sensitive to the potentially problematic outcomes of intercultural communication in the culturally diverse class. Otherwise, communication could be a source of frustration, intercultural conflict, misapprehensions and ultimately school failure. Cross-cultural communication is complex and potentially problematic on education. A rich repertoire of verbal and nonverbal behavior to the intercultural situation will effective capabilities to react sensitively to fellow communicators from other cultures is a necessity in education (Linda, 1997). Chen (2002) explored perceptions of intercultural interaction. The study addressed the connection between perceptions of intercultural communication and intercultural interaction satisfaction. The most common aspect that was realized the inability of the students to identify mutual topics of mutual interest. This was probably mutual the lack of familiarity with the partners culture. This factor was labeled common ground to reflect this characteristic of intercultural communication. Communication satisfaction was affective construct that reflected participants emotional reaction toward their interaction. In terms of the degree it had met or failed to their expectation. The competent intercultural communication was predicted the high communication satisfaction. Summary The beginning of this chapter two is basically about the brief overview flow of the chapter. Then followed by the discussion on informational literature review which the main content of this chapter. In this section, it focuses on past research that provides useful information for the progress and development in this research paper. In addition, it also exposed the readers with the knowledge and understanding towards the intercultural communication that is affected by language use in university for different ethnic group. After that, this chapter goes on with the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable of this research, which is a really short and simple summary for the extensive literature review. Finally, this chapter ends with the summary for this whole chapter.

Essay --

2.2. Usage of Credit Cards versus Debit Cards Undoubtedly, if credit cards are compared to debit cards, then studies have shown that there are some perceived barriers that create hindrances in the adoption of credit cards far and wide. Rysman (2009) used the data from Survey of Consumer Finance, conducted by Federal Reserve Bank and applied Regression analysis technique to control all the related explanatory variables. Results confirmed that age and income are strong predictors in payment choice. However, Reward programs do not have a major influence on the overall usage of debit and credit cards. Additionally, payment size has U-shaped relationship with credit and debit card; credit cards are mainly used in low dollar amount and debit in high dollar amount transactions. Several studies have also kept their focus on the consumer choice of using debit cards as compared to other payment methods. A study found that credit card revolvers are more probably to use debit card and less probably to use credit cards, as compared with the customer who repay their balance each month. These both groups are different in their perception of payments, like revolvers have the perception that debit cards are not for the ease of use and acceptability but for the budgeting purpose and for control over money (Sprenger & Stavins, 2008). In addition, Zinman (2004) collected the data from approximate 4,000 US Households Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2001, to figure out the consumer choice among Debit and Credit card at the Point-of-Sale. Results indicated that debit-card users rationally choose to use debit rather than credit for minimizing transaction costs and for not facing a binding credit limit. King (2005) analyzed the reasons that why consumer... ...(2003) surveyed internet users in 2001 to analyze the choice of payment instrument at point of sale (POS) and for bill payments and found that consumers who easily adopt new technology are more prone to use electronic payment channels. Results also depicted that factors like transaction value, bill’s frequency and physical characteristics of POS (cashier presence and self-service) determine the choice of payment mode. On the other hand, Nnaemeka, Ernest and Onuoha (2011) examined the level of plastic money usage and found that despite the popularity of plastic money in payment methods, cash usage is still leading over the e-purse (electronic purse) usage in Nigeria. The reasons for the result found in study are, risk to security, privacy, customer inertia (psychology effect), illiteracy and lack of operational facilities (less number of â€Å"Point of Sales† terminals).