Water for Elephants

The story follows Jacob Jankowski who was an old man living in a nursing home, as he looks back about a time that defined his life. In the 1930’s, 23-year-old Jacob’s life changed drastically. One minute he was finishing his Veterinarian degree at Cornell and planning to follow his father in the family business. The next his parents passed away in a car wreck, turning his world upside down. Jacob walked out of his final exams and hopped town, climbing on the first train he could. He quickly found out that it was no ordinary train. It belonged to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a travelling circus. With no financial prospects and no place to go, Jacob landed a job as the show’s veterinarian. Travelling with the circus had its ups and downs. He had a place to stay, food to eat and animals to look after. But his sleeping quarters were with the horses and a cranky clown, and money was never guaranteed. Jacob’s superior, August, seemed like a nice guy. But his true colors came out when times got tough. And worst of all, Jacob fell in love with the beautiful performer Marlena, who just happened to be August’s wife. Number of Pages: 325 Setting and Time Era of Novel: Story takes place in a traveling circus and is in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Character #1 Name: Jacob Jankowski Role in the Novel: Jacob is the narrator through the whole story who talks about his life in a circus. Description: In Water for Elephants there are two parts to Jacob Jankowski, one when he is older and the other when he is younger. The older Jacob Jankowski, 90 or 93 years old, relates his experiences with the ‘Benzini Brothers Circus’, back in 1931, to Charlie, a present day Circus manager. The younger Jacob is a 23-year-old young man who must leaves his studies, as a Cornell University veterinary student, after losing both of his parents in a car accident. Out of desperation and grief over his loss he jumps onto a train that happens to house the ‘Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth’, thus beginning his involvement with the circus. After his involvement in the circus Jacob starts to fall in love with Marlena who is married to the circus head animal trainer, August. Character #2 Name: Marlena Rosenbluth Role in the Novel: Marlena is married to August who is the head animal trainer for the ‘Benzini Brothers Circus’ and is also the star performer in the circus shows. Description: Marlena is the star performer of the Benzini Brothers circus. She married August Rosenbluth, against her parents’ wishes, and ran off with him to join the circus. Marlena endures her husband’s unusual behavior, which is not always the most pleasing in any way but eventually finds comfort with Jacob after they form a bond with Rosie the circus’ new elephant. Character #3 Name: August Rosenbluth Description: August is Marlena’s husband and the head animal trainer. He is alternately charming and brutal, both to the humans and animals aboard the Benzini Brothers train. Later in the book, it is explained that he is a paranoid schizophrenic. Themes and motifs: The book, Water for Elephants, has a symbolic study of human need for love and acceptance. The primary symbols are revealed through unique characters that struggle to feed deep internal desires. Rosie, the elephant, is a big and powerful symbol. More than just being a performing animal, Rosie reflects the desperation of so many Americans during the Great depression. Being in the hands of August, Rosie lives a passionless life. When she reaches for more, drinking the sweet circus lemonade that she craves rather than the water that she requires for sustenance, she is beaten into submission. August’s cruel message is clear that the circus is no place for independent passions. Symbols: Water – A symbol of purification, which is portrayed many times. Before Jacob jumps on the train the book states: When I first submerged my feet into frigid water, they hurt so badly I yanked them out again. I persisted, dunking them for longer and longer periods, until the cold finally blistered. † ?Train tracks – Are a symbol of choosing one's direction in life. For instance, the book states: â€Å"This is so odd†¦ I'm running beside a moving train in the middle of nowhere†. Their Society and Culture: In Wa ter for Elephants, the society and culture is pretty much exactly how it was in the 30’s. Because it was the time of the Great Depression, people did everything they could to make their lives happy. Book Review: I personally loved everything about this book! Other readers may find themselves churning through this book at a quick pace, eager to see what lies ahead, and then slowing down as they realize the book is coming to and end. Or at least that’s what I was doing. Water for Elephants is a book that can be read over and over again, recommended and handed off between friends; it begs to be discussed and mulled over. With lines of startling beauty, haunting and graphic scenes and finely drawn characters that dance off the page, readers can dip in and out of the novel, immersing themselves in Jacob's memories. The book is a beautifully written and extensively researched story, and is often surprising and funny. I highly recommend Water for Elephants if you’re looking for an enchanting story with adventures that place the reader alongside Jacob and his wild transfer into adulthood. Definitely a must read! Summary of the Novel: Water for Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, tells the story of a man named Jacob Jankowski, who leaves his life as a Cornell University veterinary student after losing both his parents in a car accident, and jumps onto a train that happens to house the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. After a short confrontation with Blackie, a bouncer that stops stowaways, and Camel, a limp old worker, promising him a job and an audience with Uncle, the ringmaster, Jacob decides to stay aboard the train. Since his parents have died in an automobile accident, and he has not a home to call his own, he decides to remain with the circus. Jacob is employed as the show’s veterinarian and he faces a number of challenges in dealing with the head trainer, August, while also learning how to function in the hierarchy of the circus and falling in love with August's wife, Marlena. Jacob Jankowski, a ninety year-old man who lives in a nursing home, tells the story as a series of memories. As the memories begin, Jacob Jankowski is twenty-three years old and preparing for his final exams as a Cornell University veterinary student when he receives the news that his parents were killed in a car accident. Jacob’s father was a veterinarian and Jacob had planned to join his practice. When Jacob learns that his father was deeply in debt because he had been treating animals for free as well as mortgaging the family home to provide Jacob an Ivy League education, he has a breakdown and leaves school just short of graduation. In the dark of night, he jumps on a train only to learn it is a circus train. When the owner of the circus, Uncle Al, learns of his training as a vet, he is hired to care for the circus animals. The head trainer, August, is a brutal man who abuses the animals in his care as well as the people around him. Alternately, he can be utterly charming. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August and his wife, Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love. August is suspicious of their relationship and beats Marlena and Jacob. Marlena subsequently leaves August, which is the precipitating event leading to the ultimate demise of the Benzini Brothers circus. As the story climaxes, several circus workers who were red lighted off the train come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance. In the ensuing panic, August is killed. As a result of this incident, which occurred during a circus performance, the circus is shut down. Marlena and Jacob leave, along with several circus animals, and begin their life together. Water for Elephants The story follows Jacob Jankowski who was an old man living in a nursing home, as he looks back about a time that defined his life. In the 1930’s, 23-year-old Jacob’s life changed drastically. One minute he was finishing his Veterinarian degree at Cornell and planning to follow his father in the family business. The next his parents passed away in a car wreck, turning his world upside down. Jacob walked out of his final exams and hopped town, climbing on the first train he could. He quickly found out that it was no ordinary train. It belonged to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a travelling circus. With no financial prospects and no place to go, Jacob landed a job as the show’s veterinarian. Travelling with the circus had its ups and downs. He had a place to stay, food to eat and animals to look after. But his sleeping quarters were with the horses and a cranky clown, and money was never guaranteed. Jacob’s superior, August, seemed like a nice guy. But his true colors came out when times got tough. And worst of all, Jacob fell in love with the beautiful performer Marlena, who just happened to be August’s wife. Number of Pages: 325 Setting and Time Era of Novel: Story takes place in a traveling circus and is in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Character #1 Name: Jacob Jankowski Role in the Novel: Jacob is the narrator through the whole story who talks about his life in a circus. Description: In Water for Elephants there are two parts to Jacob Jankowski, one when he is older and the other when he is younger. The older Jacob Jankowski, 90 or 93 years old, relates his experiences with the ‘Benzini Brothers Circus’, back in 1931, to Charlie, a present day Circus manager. The younger Jacob is a 23-year-old young man who must leaves his studies, as a Cornell University veterinary student, after losing both of his parents in a car accident. Out of desperation and grief over his loss he jumps onto a train that happens to house the ‘Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth’, thus beginning his involvement with the circus. After his involvement in the circus Jacob starts to fall in love with Marlena who is married to the circus head animal trainer, August. Character #2 Name: Marlena Rosenbluth Role in the Novel: Marlena is married to August who is the head animal trainer for the ‘Benzini Brothers Circus’ and is also the star performer in the circus shows. Description: Marlena is the star performer of the Benzini Brothers circus. She married August Rosenbluth, against her parents’ wishes, and ran off with him to join the circus. Marlena endures her husband’s unusual behavior, which is not always the most pleasing in any way but eventually finds comfort with Jacob after they form a bond with Rosie the circus’ new elephant. Character #3 Name: August Rosenbluth Description: August is Marlena’s husband and the head animal trainer. He is alternately charming and brutal, both to the humans and animals aboard the Benzini Brothers train. Later in the book, it is explained that he is a paranoid schizophrenic. Themes and motifs: The book, Water for Elephants, has a symbolic study of human need for love and acceptance. The primary symbols are revealed through unique characters that struggle to feed deep internal desires. Rosie, the elephant, is a big and powerful symbol. More than just being a performing animal, Rosie reflects the desperation of so many Americans during the Great depression. Being in the hands of August, Rosie lives a passionless life. When she reaches for more, drinking the sweet circus lemonade that she craves rather than the water that she requires for sustenance, she is beaten into submission. August’s cruel message is clear that the circus is no place for independent passions. Symbols: Water – A symbol of purification, which is portrayed many times. Before Jacob jumps on the train the book states: When I first submerged my feet into frigid water, they hurt so badly I yanked them out again. I persisted, dunking them for longer and longer periods, until the cold finally blistered. † ?Train tracks – Are a symbol of choosing one's direction in life. For instance, the book states: â€Å"This is so odd†¦ I'm running beside a moving train in the middle of nowhere†. Their Society and Culture: In Wa ter for Elephants, the society and culture is pretty much exactly how it was in the 30’s. Because it was the time of the Great Depression, people did everything they could to make their lives happy. Book Review: I personally loved everything about this book! Other readers may find themselves churning through this book at a quick pace, eager to see what lies ahead, and then slowing down as they realize the book is coming to and end. Or at least that’s what I was doing. Water for Elephants is a book that can be read over and over again, recommended and handed off between friends; it begs to be discussed and mulled over. With lines of startling beauty, haunting and graphic scenes and finely drawn characters that dance off the page, readers can dip in and out of the novel, immersing themselves in Jacob's memories. The book is a beautifully written and extensively researched story, and is often surprising and funny. I highly recommend Water for Elephants if you’re looking for an enchanting story with adventures that place the reader alongside Jacob and his wild transfer into adulthood. Definitely a must read! Summary of the Novel: Water for Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, tells the story of a man named Jacob Jankowski, who leaves his life as a Cornell University veterinary student after losing both his parents in a car accident, and jumps onto a train that happens to house the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. After a short confrontation with Blackie, a bouncer that stops stowaways, and Camel, a limp old worker, promising him a job and an audience with Uncle, the ringmaster, Jacob decides to stay aboard the train. Since his parents have died in an automobile accident, and he has not a home to call his own, he decides to remain with the circus. Jacob is employed as the show’s veterinarian and he faces a number of challenges in dealing with the head trainer, August, while also learning how to function in the hierarchy of the circus and falling in love with August's wife, Marlena. Jacob Jankowski, a ninety year-old man who lives in a nursing home, tells the story as a series of memories. As the memories begin, Jacob Jankowski is twenty-three years old and preparing for his final exams as a Cornell University veterinary student when he receives the news that his parents were killed in a car accident. Jacob’s father was a veterinarian and Jacob had planned to join his practice. When Jacob learns that his father was deeply in debt because he had been treating animals for free as well as mortgaging the family home to provide Jacob an Ivy League education, he has a breakdown and leaves school just short of graduation. In the dark of night, he jumps on a train only to learn it is a circus train. When the owner of the circus, Uncle Al, learns of his training as a vet, he is hired to care for the circus animals. The head trainer, August, is a brutal man who abuses the animals in his care as well as the people around him. Alternately, he can be utterly charming. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August and his wife, Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love. August is suspicious of their relationship and beats Marlena and Jacob. Marlena subsequently leaves August, which is the precipitating event leading to the ultimate demise of the Benzini Brothers circus. As the story climaxes, several circus workers who were red lighted off the train come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance. In the ensuing panic, August is killed. As a result of this incident, which occurred during a circus performance, the circus is shut down. Marlena and Jacob leave, along with several circus animals, and begin their life together.

Allen Ginsberg

His parents, Naomi and Louis Ginsberg, named him Irwin Allen at his birth in Newark, New Jersey, in 1926. Twenty-nine years later, in San Francisco in 1955—when he began to write Howl— he liked to think that he was in a cosmos of his own creation. In fact, he was still very much connected to his parents. Wasn't Naomi a madwoman, and wasn't Howl about madness? Didn't Louis write apocalyptic poetry, and wasn't Howl an apocalyptic poem, too? His parents haunted him in the months just before he wrote Howl—they appeared in his dreams, and he wrote about them in his journals and unpublished poems from that period.Moreover, they provided the germinating seeds for Howl— madness, nakedness, and secrecy. Few poets have quarreled with their parents as intensely as Ginsberg quarreled with his, and few young men have turned those quarrels into poems as remarkable as Howl and Kaddish. His quarrels were with himself as much as they were with Naomi and Louis, and in the q uarrels with himself he expanded the possibilities not only for himself, but for American poetry, as he pushed against the limits of literary caution and conservatism that characterized the times. If ever there was a poet in rebellion against his own parents it was Allen Ginsberg.And yet if ever there was a dutiful poet it was also Allen Ginsberg. The son carried on the family heritage even as he railed against it. For decades, Louis Ginsberg had been far more famous than Allen. The elder Ginsberg taught poetry at Rutgers and played a leading role in the prestigious, though stodgy, Poetry Society of America. He had two books of poems to his name, dozens of poems in anthologies, and publications in most of the leading literary magazines. Then, in 1956 and 1957, with the advent of Howl, attention suddenly shifted from father to son. Allen was the bright new star in the literary firmament.Never again would Louis outshine his son, though for a brief time in the late 1960s and early 1970 s, father and son shared the stage and gave poetry readings together from California to New Jersey. Other fathers might have bridled at a son who was more famous than they were, and other sons might have used their fame to berate their fathers and settle old scores. Allen's fame brought him closer to his father; now that he was famous he could pay homage to Louis and his work. In â€Å"To My Father in Poetry,† which he wrote in 1959, he acknowledged, at long last, his father's influence on his own work—something he had long ignored and long denied.He heard his father's voice in his own voice. Louis was delighted that his famous son respected him. The father-son love feast notwithstanding, they disagreed as strongly as ever about politics, poetry, sex, and the self. In â€Å"To Allen Ginsberg†Ã¢â‚¬â€one of his best poems—Louis compared his son to Theseus, the legendary Greek hero who slew the Minotaur, and expressed the hope that Allen would find his way through the labyrinth of his own self until he found his own genuine identity. Allen was well aware of his various selves, but unlike Louis, he felt that no single self was truer than another.They were all parts of himself and equally valid. What was essential, he argued, was to be detached, to remain in flux and never become fixed to any one identity. (Morgan, Bill 4-10) Surely, fame would have taken a far greater toll had he not understood that â€Å"Allen Ginsberg† was a fiction. His ability to remain detached from any one fixed identity had helped to make Howl an extraordinary poem. In Howl, he was the paragon of the protean poet. In the moment of creation, he was everyone and he was everywhere, from Alcatraz to Madison Avenue.He was himself, and he was also almost everyone else in the poem. He could become one with the angel headed hipsters and with the Adonis of Denver. He was Moloch and he was Carl Solomon, too. His ability to remain detached from â€Å"Allen Ginsberg † enabled him, in large part, to go on writing extraordinary poems in the wake of Howl—overtly political poems as well as deeply personal poems—including â€Å"Death to Van Gogh's Ear! † â€Å"At Apollinaire's Grave, † and, of course, Kaddish, which he started in 1956 and continued to work on in Paris and in New York in 1957 and 1958.Living in Europe deepened his vision of both Europe and America and helped him understand the experience of a generation of European immigrants like his mother who were born in the Old World and came to the New World. Now he could imagine what it must have been like for Naomi Levy to leave Russia, travel across the Atlantic, and arrive in New York, the strangest of cities. He could transcend his own resentment and anger and see his mother as a beautiful woman in her own right. And he could put himself on the sidelines and put his mother at the center of his poem.In Allen's view, the White House and the Pentagon tolerate d mad dictatorial developments everywhere on the face of the earth. Of course, he disapproved of Soviet-style mind control and brainwashing, and he rejected official Communist Party ideas about literature and the arts, and about the obligation of the artist to serve the needs of the people. He would never write for the Communist Party or for the people, he proclaimed. No matter what country he lived in, he would always write for himself or he would write for no one.The Soviet Communist Party had driven Mayakovsky into madness and suicide. It surely would drive him mad, too. Meanwhile, America was driving him mad. The function of television, he insisted, was to control people, and he denounced it at every opportunity. By 1961 he would write about the deadliness of TV in Television Was a Baby Crawling toward That Death chamber, a long angry poem in which he proclaimed that he could never tell his own secrets on TV and that television kept vital information a secret from Americans.In t he late 1950s he argued that the USSR wasn't as evil as the talking heads on American television made it out to be. He was convinced that the USSR was a great nation, that Russian writers were as original and creative as writers anywhere, and that communism had tried & succeeded in improving material living conditions. He didn't want a communist society in the United States, but he wasn't opposed to communism in the Third World. He thought a great deal about America during his sojourn in Europe.He became increasingly anti-American, and yet there was something uniquely American about his anti-Americanism. In many ways he was the archetypal innocent abroad, the idealistic young man making the grand tour, the wide-eyed tourist who fell in love with almost everything about the Old World, and came to detest almost everything about the New World. Europe was a â€Å"great experience. Like hundreds if not thousands of Americans before him, he found Paris â€Å"beautiful† and he was tempted to â€Å"expatriate & settle down.† And, like so many other Americans, he loved the Latin Quarter and the little cafes where the existentialists smoked, drank, and talked, and where you might catch a glimpse of Jean Paul Sartre, if you were lucky. Europeans were genuine intellectuals, he decided. They cared about ideas, he insisted, whereas making money was the American thing, and there were no moral standards. Even New York, the most European of American cities, paled by comparison with Paris, Rome, and Florence. From the vantage point of Europe, New York looked hard, closed, commercial, and ingrown.Europeans were less materialistic than Americans, he thought, and less racist, too. â€Å"Europeans have more better personal relations with Negroes than Americans have, † he concluded. In Holland, â€Å"big black nigger looking spades† dated â€Å"nice white girls, † he noted, and no one paid any attention. Yes, he was still using racist language, st ill trying to shock his father, and he would go on using racist language for some time to come. Even as late as 1966, in the midst of the civil rights movement, he would use racial epithets in Wichita Vortex Sutra. No one challenged him, or scolded him.(Rothschild, Matthew 34-35) By the mid-1960s he was largely beyond reproach. In 1967, for example, when he read in London, the British poet Ted Hughes described him as the prophet of a spiritual revolution, and one of the most important men of the twentieth century. From Hughes's point of view, Howl was the single work that began a global revolution in poetical form and content. It had, indeed, broken all sorts of verbal barriers, and Ginsberg went on breaking them when he described himself as â€Å"queer† or wrote about his own body and his bodily functions, or used words like niggers† and â€Å"spades.† In the late 1950s, the Europeans he met seemed less repressed than Americans about sex and race and about langu age, too. They were far more verbally liberated. About the only thing he didn't like in Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. At first he imagined that European Catholics belonged to a mystical secret society that provided a wonderful sense of community. Gradually, however, he changed his mind and came to feel that the Roman Catholic Church operated like the secret police in a totalitarian society, and that Rome was in the business of mind control and censorship.All those medieval cathedrals depressed him, while the Renaissance inspired him, especially the art of Michelangelo, which depicted â€Å"naked idealized realistic human bodies. † Europeans seemed more artistic and far more poetic than Americans—Americans hated poetry and poets, he insisted— and he pursued poets and the legacy of poetry, too. In Italy, he visited mad Shelley's grave, plucking a few tender leaves of clover and mailing them to Louis, who was delighted to receive them. There were visits to living poets, too, especially W.H. Auden, whom he had adored when he was an undergraduate at Columbia, and whom he had been trying to meet for years. He loved to be in the company of famous people, especially famous writers and musicians, and for years he would seek out celebrities, from Ezra Pound to Bob Dylan and the Beatles, though celebrities also sought him out. Now, with the fame that Howl had furnished, and with all the notoriety that the media provided, he could knock on doors and find himself ushered into tea or served a glass or two of wine.What he wanted was adulation and acceptance. (Pollin, Burton R. 535) When he died, Columbia College Today, the alumni magazine, published a cover story about him by the poet and critic David Lehman. Eventually Trilling changed his mind about Ginsberg's work and included two of his poems, â€Å"A Supermarket in California† and â€Å"To Aunt Rose,† in his comprehensive anthology The Experience of Literature, which was publis hed in 1967 and used widely as a textbook. Ever since Ginsberg wrote Howl in the mid-1950s, he had wanted to be included in the canon, and now he was.Of course, he was delighted that it was none other than Trilling who made a place for him. The inclusion and validation was exhilarating to Ginsberg. (Harris, Oliver 171) Bibliography †¢ Harris, Oliver. Article Title: Cold War Correspondents: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Cassady, and the Political Economy of Beat Letters. Journal Title: Twentieth Century Literature. Volume: 46. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 171. †¢ Morgan, Bill. The Works of Allen Ginsberg, 1941-1994. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1995. †¢ Morgan, Bill.The Response to Allen Ginsberg, 1926-1994: A Bibliography of Secondary Sources. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996. †¢ Pollin, Burton R. Article Title: Edgar Allan Poe as a Major Influence up on Allen Ginsberg. Journal Title: The Mississippi Quarterly. Volume: 52. Issue: 4. Publication Year: 1999. Page Number: 535. †¢ Rothschild, Matthew. Article Title: Allen Ginsberg: ‘I'm banned from the Main Marketplace of Ideas in My Own Country. Magazine Title: The Progressive. Volume: 58. Issue: 8. Publication Date: August 1994. Page Number: 34+.

Harley Davidson Cultural impact of media on women Research Paper

Harley Davidson Cultural impact of media on women - Research Paper Example People are easily updated with the happenings around them through those media as writers, bloggers, newscasters and columnists relay the information to the viewers. Sometimes those relayed information may not be the whole truth at all as sometimes works of fiction do affect the rituals and culture of people. Massive influence may be achieved through mass media and sometimes those become the avenue for negativities in the society to flourish. The widespread of the influence of the negative practices in the society may be attributed to the media that may be intentional or unintentional. It is considered as intentional when people truly want to influence others with their deeds and beliefs that may pose risks and hazards to the society and considered as crimes. Other activities that may be seen in media but are not considered crimes but may challenge the border that separates the morally acceptable beliefs and immoral ones. The cases that may arise from mass media that are in the bounda ry of right and wrong are the issues of gender and sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, divorce, no religious affiliation, and roles in the society. In particular, the paper will talk about the effects of media to the lives of women especially in the cultural aspect. Harley Davidson would be the subject for the media effects on women as that company endorses motorcycles and how it blends into the culture of women. Then several questions may have arisen from the motorcycle craze and its influence on the female gender. Does it make women more masculine? Does it encourage violence and other negativities in the society? What are its other impacts? Does motorcycle craze give any positive influence to the society as a whole? Will gender roles be greatly affected? The three previous studies about the effects on women would include â€Å"Girl Power† and Participation in Macho Recreation: The Case of Female Harley Riders by Catherine Roster, Subcultures of Consumption: An Ethnography of t he New Bikers by John Schouten and James McAlexander, and Examining Gender Images, Expectations, and Competence as Perceived Impediments to Personal, Academic and Career Development by Lorraine Wilgosh. The study of Roster talks about the women empowerment gained from the inclusion of some women in motorcycling sports which is played mainly by men. On the other hand, the study of Schouten and McAlexander goes into the culture of consumerism and an analysis was done on how it brings about the change in the society and behaviors of people especially for bikers. The last study was about the discrimination, stereotyping and societal imaging of what women should be and those effects upon the development of young girls. Other sources that will be used for the study are Older Women, Liberation and Lifestyles: Self-Care and Other Care, Depicting outlaw motorcycle club women using anchored and unanchored research methodologies, and Brand Morphing: Implications for Advertising Theory and Prac tice. Method The study was done by looking at the previous studies from background, methods to results, analysis and conclusion. It did not utilize primary sources and did not have any actual experimentation and first-hand data gathering as it relied purely on the theories and results laid down by the previous studies and reports. It made use of the six journal articles mentioned in the background section of the paper. Each source had its own contribution

Chile and copper mining Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chile and copper mining - Research Paper Example The nation is now considered one of the fastest growing economies in the 1990s as it has successfully survived moments of economic instability3. It is a nation which currently faces the challenge of having to diversify its copper-dependent economy into other sources of income and of implementing a more equal distribution of wealth4. As for its geography, Chile has a ribbon like shape which has given the country a diverse climate. Its northern parts (Atacama) are dry deserts; its center, exhibits a Mediterranean weather; and its Southern areas experience snowy weather5. Most of Chile nationals have a mixed Spanish and indigenous descent6. In 2010, the country had an estimated population of about 16.6 million, with the median age of the citizens at 31.7 years, and with a population growth rate of 0.881%7. Its rate of urbanization is also estimated at 1.3% based on 2005 to 2010 estimates. Most of its citizens are Chilean nationals, and its ethnic groupings include white and white Amerindians at 95.4%; Mapuche at 4%; and other indigenous groups at 0.6%8. The country’s religions include Roman Catholics at 70%; Evangelicals at 15%; Jehovah’s Witness at 1.1% and other Christians at 4.6%9. Their languages include Spanish, Mapudungun, German, and English10. The country’s literacy rate is at 15 years of age. Basic economic facts about the country reveal that its nominal GDP is at 169.5 billion US dollars with a GDP per head of 10,123 US dollars and an annual growth of 4.0%11. The Chilean peso is pegged at an average of 1US$ to 529 pesos. Their inflation rate is at 0.5% and their unemployment rate is at 7.7%12. Their major industries include copper mining, as well as gold, nitrates, molybdenum, iron, and silver mining13. In considering the country’s foreign relations, Chile has had historical conflicts with its neighbors for many years now.

Nespresso marketing research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nespresso marketing research - Essay Example This research design consisted of exploratory research done using a local pilot survey by the researcher. A questionnaire design was used due to its in expensive, convenient, and extremely efficient way of collecting a large amount of sample data and varied information from the target audience. In addition, its simplicity and convince in matters pertaining beverages, restaurant dinning behaviors, and consumer interests were taken to be advantageous in this marketing research. The research design included a wide variety of close ended questions intended for the espresso consumer related to the research objectives, and were guaranteed to provide positive required results. The underlying technology of Nespresso originated from Geneva, and Nestlà © the mother company acquired commercial rights in 1974. The idea was to combine the rich market dynamics with technology and experience to come up with a unique product for a specific target market. However, this was marred by a number of tech nical problems that threatened to stall the project such as production and distribution costs which were higher that the turnover. Through highlighting such pitfalls, and identifying potential challenges as the market grows this report hopes to place Nespresso in a better position to grow and gain a competitive advantage. Marketing objective In the process of defining the scope of this marketing research, quite a number of areas were identified as crucial and critical for the growth of the organization. A careful review if the most important areas gave way to the isolation and identification of the following key points as the research objectives. To determine the frequency of using Nespresso products by the target market To determine which service and or products offered by the organization best satisfy market demands

Quiz 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Quiz 3 - Essay Example The signings comments are used to emphasise important of legislation. For example, a piece of legislation had been passed on the time when it is needed the most, or it serves to solve some pressing problem at the time (Woolley and Peters). The United State emphasis and practise individualism more than collectivism because the former drives people to produce more and thus the economy of the country is always growing. However, collectivism leads to laxity among some individuals who are not willing to work as hard as other people. Therefore, this phenomenon is experienced even in politics where Politician’s and stick to their party ideology. This obstructs opportune moment of collective bargaining and bipartisan legislation. A legislative veto is an administrative law that is passed by a majority of congress to object or nullify an executive order (Cornell University Law School). For example, The Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act requires a Congressional veto for it to be effected. The act was published in August 5, 1983 even after it has been found unconstitutional by the Supreme

Geographical Market Area of Life Telecom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Geographical Market Area of Life Telecom - Essay Example We are an avant-garde alternative telecommunications provider with fully converged IP architecture and selective use of wireless technologies as well as an optimized and technologically superior delivery of integrated services of Voice, Internet, Video, Surveillance and many single broadband connections. Telephony, Broadband Internet Connectivity, Advanced IPTV and Video Services, Advanced Communication (video conferencing and live even video streaming) Tele-Surveillance (large, small and medium-sized business, small offices and homes) Broadband Wireless (hotspot Wi-Fi) Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Life Telecom’s competitive advantage is built on the execution of its commitment: dependable delivery of advanced wireless services and breakthrough technological solutions backed by dedicated 24/7 network management support. We are a distinguished company in Bahrain and one of the few worldwide; to optimize the extensive use of IPs for the integrated deployment and management of voice, data, video, and value-added services over wireless networks. With us, no limits can hold you back from realizing your goals and â€Å"make your dreams come true†. The core product of Life Telecom for its initial rollout consists of a list of services including connectivity through the ISP providers. This is referred to as the Infrastructure Business Service. Life Telecom’s products and services are divided into three (3) main categories namely Wireless services, IP services (VPN, VoIP) and ISP related services. In the following phases, once the network is constructed, Life Telecom will introduce business services as a value-added service which can add value to Life Telecom subscribers including Web Applications and Web Consultations, etc.

Evaluation of Batman Begins Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Evaluation of Batman Begins - Essay Example Plot summary The plot revolves around Bruce Wayne’s past (childhood and life in exile), his return to Gotham City to achieve his aim. He joins Carmine Falcone’s group and gets trained at the League of Shadows. When he came to realize that the evil forces are trying to destroy Gotham City, he decides to save the same. With the help of Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne transforms himself to Batman, a superhero. The following events include Batman’s fight with evil forces like Dr. Jonathan Crane, Ducard, and his ultimate victory. Three criteria and its importance to evaluate the movie Three criteria used to evaluate the movie Batman Begins are: Story Line, Light effects and Sound effects. This standard to evaluate the movie is important because it helps to have deeper understanding of the same, beyond a typical superhero film. Julian Darius describes the sound effects of the movie Batman Begins as â€Å"echo that of horror movies† (82). In the movie Batman Begins, the director gave ample importance to the Storyline (human beings with superhuman powers, fight between good and evil and the ultimate victory of good over evil), Light Effects (to portray a virtual real environment) and Sound Effects (to portray a superhuman world).

Recommendation of options that are available for Singapore Airlines Essay

Recommendation of options that are available for Singapore Airlines for their future strategy direction - Essay Example These services include variety of services ranging from cargo facilities to engine repairing packages as well. In this context, it can be stated that SIA has been implementing product development strategy with utmost concern towards its long run competency and sustainability. The major subsidiaries of SIA in this regards are the SIA Cargo, SilkAir as well as Tradewinds Tours and Travels among others. In addition, SIA has also been implementing the market penetration strategy by developing the products along with the offered services on a continuous basis. In this regards, SIA allows discounts of almost 50% on the â€Å"Exceptional Value Deals† during the holiday seasons focusing mainly upon the seasonal travellers (Kenny, 2009: 153-196; Kumar & Phrommathed, 2005: 50-97). However, in comparison to all the aforementioned strategies, SIA have been extensively concentrated on the diversification approach as its future strategic direction which is quite likely to influence a few noteworthy risk factors in relation to its operations. For instance, if a business organisation diversifies on a continuous basis and in an extensive way, it may result in increasing complexity at the operational level and likewise creating a negative impact over the productivity level of the company. Therefore, it can be advised that SIA should render equal importance to the product development strategies as well with the intention to fortify the product life cycle and simultaneously boost its profitability in the national as well as international market. This would facilitate SIA to develop its existing products and also aid the group to introduce new products for the current market. It is worth mentioning in this context that the company can also opt for market penetration and market development strategies. However, each of these strategic options is noted to possess certain limitations

The First Industrial Revolution Essay Example for Free

The First Industrial Revolution Essay The two most significant social consequences of the First Industrial Revolution were the emergence of the Bourgeoisie and the rise of factories. As a result of new developments in machinery and the formation of factories, the division of the labor force drastically changed. No longer were people born into their crafts; however, they were able to choose factory work as their profession, and wealthy land owners were no longer able to count on the possession of large tracts of land as a form of wealth. The land owners either transitioned into becoming factory owners, or they faced bankruptcy due to lack of production which resulted from people born on their land leaving when they came of age to seek better paying positions in factories. The specialized craftsman were being forced out of existence by factories which could not only produce better goods, but they were able to, in some cases, triple the production of products previously produced by the specialized craftsman. Many people were choosing to become machine operators because the work was easier in the sense that they were able to work in all day long instead on only daylight to dawn, and this increased production led to the formation of the Bourgeoisie. The Bourgeoisie was the newly created middle class that was all but non-existent before the First Industrial Revolution. These positions came into existence due to the increased production of products that needed to be sold to the public. The Bourgeoisie was primarily shop owners, and their ability to market products to the public resulted in their dramatic increase in wealth and status within their local communities. These shop owners basically became the intermediary between the factory owners and the local populace, and their importance resulted in a new power struggle with the Factory and land owners. The Bourgeoisie caused the explosion of Capitalism in Europe and the rest of the world. The shop owners were able to rise above poverty by being able to supply everyone with goods that were previously only available to the wealthy. Being able to provide these items as a result of factories increased the wealth and influence of the Middle class businessmen, and Capitalism was born. Industrial Revolution and Capitalism In a nut shell, Price claimed the Industrial Revolution created the division of labor (2004). The Division of Labor is perfectly encapsulated by the Henry Ford model of the assembly line (Price, 2004). Each worker on the assembly line only needs to know how to attach or inspect the operation of their assigned part on to the object as a whole, and not how to assemble the entire product. This allows for any unskilled person to be taught how to attach their doodad onto the doohickey without knowing what the doohickey does or operates. This is capitalism in the basic form of the ideal. Capitalism desires economic efficiency, thus the assembly line is a perfect example of the rise of unskilled factory workers and the decline of skilled craftsmen during the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism. The rise of Capitalism assisted in increasing the chasm which already existed between the wealthy and the poor. The newly created middle class also rapidly becoming wealthy as a result of the new commerce, and were able to spend more time perusing the leisure activities before only enjoyed by the rich. Capitalism naturally had it opposition from all sides, the wealthy, the middle class, and the increasingly poor. This opposition was able to take root within the poor and lower middle class as they were the ones who were not able to benefit from the huge profits caused by inflation increasing faster than wages. The new theory of communism was developed from the combination of feudalism and Asia produced items. The Link between Communism and Capitalism and the Development of Communistic Theory The disparity between the classes, the rich and the poor, was increasing by leaps and bounds every day. The demand of the rich factory owners to increase production thus increasing profits without any concern for the actual workers and their working conditions could be linked to Karl marks theory of communism (Price, 2004). The development of Communist theory naturally grew out of the ill-treatment of workers participating in Capitalism (Gates, 2011). Factory workers were dehumanized, dishonored, and treated as possessions by the factory owners (Gates, 2011). The consequences of the deplorable conditions of the employees created fertile beds for the theory of communism to take root and germinate (Steven, 2009) In Capitalism, individuals can earn wealth, own their own property, and production abilities, and everyone has the right to produce products. In Communism, the wealth, property, and production all belong to the state and are communal property. Communism vacuums up all the land, assigns someone to manage the production, and dictates what will be produced, for example: corn, wheat, or beans. At harvest time, the crops are harvested, processed, and shipped out to the central distribution warehouses to be doled out at the leisure of the state and not necessarily as needs demand. The people who grew and harvested the crops do not get to keep any for their personal use. In Capitalism, each individual or corporation owns the land, decides what is to be grown, and who ever can afford to purchase the harvested product can purchase it, and some or all is kept for the use of the owners. Communism does not encourage free thought of the individuals as they might realize that there could be profit to be made. Capitalism encourages individuals to think for themselves. This freedom of thought allows for each person to have the ability to encounter a problem, and creatively generate a solution that might benefit others for the right price. These two differences are what have allowed Capitalism to flourish over the past several centuries, and doomed Communism for failure almost before it was allowed to germinate as a viable way of life. References Gates, L. (2011, March 11). capitalism/communism History Discussion. Study Guides, Lesson Plans, Homework Help, Answers More enotes.com. Retrieved January 5, 2013, from http://www.enotes.com/history/discuss/capitalism-communism-93289 Price, R. G. (2004, January 29). Division of Labor, Assembly Line Thought The Paradox of Democratic Capitalism. rationalrevolution.net Making sense of history, economics, politics, philosophy, and war. Retrieved January 5, 2013, from http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/division_of_labor.htm Steven (2009, December 14). Capitalism and communism Gilles Dauv | libcom.org. libcom.org. Retrieved January 5, 2013, from http://libcom.org/library/capitalism-communism-gilles-dauve

Properties of Poly(B-amino Ester)s

Properties of Poly(B-amino Ester)s The poly(b-amino ester)s, a class of biodegradable cationic polymers, were firstly  prepared by Chiellini in 198340. These polymers were based on poly(amidoamine)s  developed in 1970 by Ferruti41, that contain tertiary amines in their backbones and  can be synthesized by a simple Michael addition reaction of bifunctional amines  and bisacrylamides. However, the interest over the use of poly(b-amino ester)s rised  significantly after its use as transfection reagent at Langer Lab in 200042. The development  of poly(b-amino ester)s emerged by the need to develop a cationic polymer  for gene delivery with high transfection efficiency and long-term biocompatibility  including hydrolyzable moieties easily degradable into non-toxic small molecule  byproducts. The synthesis of this polymer can easily be accomplished: without  necessity of independent preparation of specialized monomers; the use of stoichiometric  amounts of expensive coupling reagents, or amine protecti on strategies prior  to polymerization42. The main general objective of the work of mentioned research  group was to develop a polymer-based non-viral vector more efficient and less cytotoxic  than other cationic polymers used at that time for this purpose (such as,  polyethylenimine (PEI) or poly(L-lysine) (PLL)). In fact, poly(b-amino ester) approach exhibited a particularly attractive basis for  the development of new polymer-based transfection vectors for several reasons: the  polymers contain the required amines (positive charges to complex genetic material);  readily degradable linkages (by hydrolysis of ester bonds in the polymer backbones  may increase the biodegradability and biocompatibility); and multiple analogues  could be synthesized directly from compounds commercially available (easy and inexpensive  synthesis) allowing to tune polymer properties (like buffering capacity)42. Besides being used as transfection vector, PbAEs has been also applied in others  biomedical areas, such as delivery systems for drugs43;44 or proteins45;46, magnetic  resonance imaging agents47;48, or as scaffold for tissue engineering49;50. Synthesis and main physicochemical properties of poly(b-amino ester)s The poly(b-amino ester)s are easily synthesized by the conjugate addition of a primary  amine or bis(secondary amine) and a diacrylate, in a one-step reaction without  any side product that need be removed through further purification steps. It can be  prepared without solvents, catalysts, or complex protecting group strategies42;51. Depending on the ratio of monomers during the synthesis, poly(b-amino ester)s  can be tailored to have either amine- or diacrylate-terminated chains. An excess of  either diacrylate or amine monomer results in a prevalence of acrylate- or amineterminated  poly(b-amino ester)s, respectively52;53. The synthesis is performed either neat (solvent free) or in anhydrous organic  solvents to mitigate hydrolytic degradation during synthesis42;54. Normally, experiments  using solvents occur at lower temperature and over long periods of time  compared to solvent-free formulations. Table 1.3 summarizes the main reactions for  the synthesis of PbAE and the obtained properties such as molecular weight, polydispersity  index (à ), solvent solubility or yield. The most common solvents used are dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), chloroform  (CHCl3), or dichloromethane (CH2Cl2)57. However, others solvents have also been  used, such as methanol, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) or N,N-dimethylacetamide  (DMA)59;61–63. The solvent used has influence on the final molecular weight of the  PbAE. For example, the use of CH2Cl2 typically yields higher molecular weight  polymer compared to THF42. On the other hand, solvent-free polymerizations maximize monomer concentrations,  thus favoring the intermolecular addition over intramolecular cyclization reaction64. The absence of solvent also allows rising temperature resulting in a higher  reaction rate and a lower viscosity of the reacting mixture, assisting to compensate  the higher viscosity found on the solvent-free systems. The combination between  increased monomer concentration and reaction temperature resulting in a reduction  in the reaction time64. The solvent-free reactions also allows the generation of higher  molecular weight polymers, besides increasing the reaction rate and obviating the  solvent removal step53;64. After polymerization, PbAE can be precipitated, normally in cold diethyl ether,  hexane42, ether65 or ethyl ether58 and/or then dried under vacuum57;65. Frequently, PbAEs are immediately used or stored in the cold conditions (4 _C52;66;67, 0 _C62, or  -20 _C68–70). Some PbAEs should be also kept airproof due to its strong moisture  absorption ability and easy degradation71. Concerning to the biodegradation and biocompatibility, PbAEs have been shown  generally to possess low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility42;52;61;55;72. Different  studies have suggested that PbAEs are significantly less toxic than currently available  cationic polymers, such as, PEI and PLL51;64. Nevertheless, the increase of the  number of carbons in the backbone or side chain is associated to the increase of the  cytotoxicity73. PbAE degrade under physiological conditions via hydrolysis of their  backbone ester bonds to yield small molecular weight b-amino acids biologically  inert derivatives42;51;55;74. Some results revealed that the degradation rate of poly(b  amino ester)s was highly dependent on the hydrophilicity of the polymer, i.e., the  more hydrophilic the polymer is, the faster the degradation occurs75;76. In Table 1.4 are summarized the main characteristic of PbAEs which make them  a promising polymeric non-viral vector for gene delivery. Combinatorial libraries a fast and efficient way to evaluate different poly(bamino ester)s A fast and efficient way to study the relationships between structure and function  in particular material that could be prepared with different reagents is using combinatorial  libraries. Due to promising preliminar results of PbAEs as non-viral vectors,  Langer research group reported a parallel approach for the synthesis of hundreds of  PbAEs with different structures and the application of these libraries to a rapid and  high throughput identification of new transfection reagents and structure-function trends. For this purpose, major contributions have been reported52;53;57;66;67;72;75;77;78  not only exploring the possible structure/function relationships, but also imposing  an assortment of monomers (amines were denoted by numbers and acrylates by latin  alphabet letters) used in order to facilitate cataloging of different PbAEs (Table 1.5  and Tables A.1 and A.2 (Appendix A)). The first initial library screening was synthesized in 2001 by Lynn51. 140 Different  PbAEs from 7 diacrylates and 20 amines were prepared with molecular weights  between 2,000 and 50,000 g.mol-1. From this, polymers C93 (Mw = 3180 g.mol-1) and  G28 (Mw = 9170 g.mol-1) revealing transfection levels 4-8 times higher than control  experiments employing PEI. At same time, it was observed that for transfection efficiency,  high molecular weight was not an important parameter. This work was then  completed in 2003 by Akinc57, where biophysical properties and the ability of each  polymer/DNA complex to overcome important cellular barriers to gene deliver were investigated. As previous experiments, complexes formed from polymers C93 and  G28, revealed higher levels of internalization compared to †naked† DNA, displaying  18- and 32-fold more internalization, respectively. In contrast, the majority of the  polyplexes were found to be uptake-limited. Regarding d iameter and zeta potential,  out of 10 polymer/DNA complexes with the highest internalization rates, all  had diameters lower than 250 nm and 9 had positive zeta potentials. By measuring  the pH environment of delivered DNA through fluorescence-based flow cytometry  protocol using plasmid DNA covalently labeled with fluorescein (pH sensitive) and  Cy5 (pH insensitive) it was possible to investigate the lysosomal trafficking of the  polyplexes. The results demonstrated that complexes based on polymers C93 and  G28 were found to have near neutral pH measurements, indicating that they were  able to avoid acidic lysosomal trafficking. In the same year, Akinc64 studied the  effect of polymer molecular weight, polymer chain end-group, and polymer/DNA  ratios on in vitro gene delivery. For this purpose, 12 different structures were synthesized  based only in two different PbAE (C28 prepared from 1,4-butanediol diacrylate  and 1-aminobutanol and E28 prepared from 1,6 -hexanediol diacrylate and  1-aminobutanol) (Figure 1.6.) These structures were synthesized by varying amine/diacrylate stoichiometric ratios, resulting in PbAEs with either acrylate or amine end-groups and with molecular  weights ranging from 3,350 to 18,000 g.mol-1. Polymers were then tested, using high  throughput methods, at nine different polymer/DNA ratios between 10/1 (w/w)  and 150/1 (w/w). Concerning terminal groups, it was found that amino-terminated  polymers transfected cells more effectively than acrylate-terminated polymers. In  contrast, none of the acrylate terminated PbAEs mediated appreciable levels of  transfection activity under any of the assessed conditions. These findings suggest that end-chains of PbAE have crucial importance in transfection activity. Concerning  molecular weight effect, highest levels of transfection occurred using the higher  molecular weight samples of both amine-terminated C28 (Mw _13100 g.mol-1 and  E28 (Mw _13400 g.mol-1). Regarding the optimal polymer/DNA ratios for these   polymers, it was observed a markedly difference, 150/1 (w/w) for C28 and 30/1 for  E28. These results highlighted the importance of polymer molecular weight, polymer/DNA ratio, and the chain end-groups in gene transfection activity. Moreover, it  has found the fact that two similar polymer structures, differing only by two carbons  in the repeating unit, have different optimal transfection parameters emphasizing  the usefulness of library screening to perform these optimizations for each unique  polymer structure. Meanwhile, in 2003, Anderson52 described, for the first time,  a high-throughput and semi-automated methodology using fluid-handling systems  for the synthesis and screening of a library of PbAEs to be used as gene carrier. A crucial feature of these methods was that all process of synthesis, storage, and  cell-based assays were performed without removing solvent (DMSO). By using these  methods, it was possible to synthesize a library of 2350 structurally unique, degradable  and cationic polymers in a single day and then test those as transfection reagent  at a rate of _1000 per day. Among PbAEs tested, it was identified 46 polymers  that transfect in COS-7 as good as or better than PEI. The common characteristic  among them was the use of a hydrophobic diacrylate monomer. Moreover, in the  hit structures mono- or dialcohol side groups and linear, bis(secondary amines) are  over represented. From data obtained from this library, Anderson67, in 2004, continued  his study developing a new polymer library of >500 PbAE using monomers  that led higher transfection efficiency in the previous studies and optimizing their  polymerization conditions. The top performing polyplexes were asses sed by using  an in vitro high-throughput transfection efficiency and cytotoxicity assays at different N/P ratios. As previously observed, the most promising polymers are based on  hydrophobic acrylates and amines with alcohol groups. Among those, C32 stood  out due to higher transfection activity with no associated cytotoxicity. The efficiency  to deliver DNA was evaluated in mice after intra-tumoral (i.t.) and intra-muscular  (i.m.) injection. The results revealed important differences. While by i.t injection  C32 delivered DNA 4-fold better than jetPEI R , a commercial polymeric non-viral  vector, by i.m. administration transfection was rarely observed. C32 was then assessed  for DNA construct encoding the DT-A (DT-A DNA) deliver to cells in culture  and to xenografts derived from androgen-sensitive human prostate adenocarcinoma  cells (LNCaP). Results showed that DT-A DNA was successfully delivered and the  protein expressed in tumor cells in culture. In hu man xenografts, the growth was  suppressed in 40% of treated tumors. The fact of C32 is non-toxic and it is able to  transfect efficiently tumors locally and transfects healthy muscle poorly turned it as  a promising carrier for the local treatment of cancer. From here, a panoply of results based in PbAE combinatorial library appeared. In  2005, Anderson53, prepared a new library of 486 second-generation PbAE based on  polymers with 70 different primary structures and with different molecular weights. These 70 polymers were synthesized using monomers previously identified as common  to effective gene delivery polymers. This library was then characterized by  molecular weight of polymers, particle size, surface charge, optimal polymer/DNA  ratio and transfection efficiency in COS-7 of polymer/DNA complexes. Results  showed that from 70 polymers with primary structures, 20 possess transfection activities  as good as or better than Lipofectamine R 2000, one of the most effective commercially  available lipid reagents. Results also revealed that, in general, the most  effective polymers/DNA complexes had In 2006, Green79, synthesized, on a larger scale and at a range of molecular  weights, the top 486 of 2350 PbAEs previously assessed52 and studied their ability to  deliver DNA. These PbAEs were tested, firstly, on the basis of transfection efficacy in  COS-7 cells in serum-free conditions, and then, the 11 of the best-performing PbAEs  structures were further analyzed. The transfection conditions were optimized in human  umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in the presence of serum. In this  study, the influence of the factors like polymer structure and molecular weight, and  biophysical properties of the polyplexes (such as, particle size, zeta potential, and  particle stability throughout time) were studied. The results showed that many of  the polyplexes formed have identical biophysical properties in the presence of buffer,  but, when in the presence of serum proteins their biophysical properties changed differentially,  influencing the transfection ac tivity. Concerning to the size, the results  showed that in spite of all vectors condensed DNA into small particles below 150 nm  in buffer, only a few, such as C32, JJ32 and E28, formed small (_200 nm) and stable  particles in serum. C32, JJ32 and E28 revealed also high transfection activity both  in the absence of serum in COS-7 cell line as in the presence of serum in HUVEC  cell line. Moreover, C32 transfected HUVECs in the presence of serum significantly  higher than jetPEI R and Lipofectamine R 2000, the two top commercially available  transfection reagents. The 3 mentioned PbAEs share a nearly identical structure. The acrylate monomers of these polymers, C, JJ, and E, differ by only their carbon  chain lengths (4, 5, and 6 carbons, respectively). Similarly, amines 20, 28, and 32  differ also by only the length of their carbon chain (3, 4, and 5 carbons, respectively). For example, polymers prepared with the same acrylate monomer (C) in which itwas increased the length of the carbons chain of the amine monomer resulted in  an increased transfection efficacy (C32 (5 carbons) > C28 (4 carbons) > C20 (3 carbons))  of these polymers-based polyplexes. Interestingly, this study reinforced C32  as the lead PbAE vector and revealed other potential two, JJ28 and E28, which previously  showedto be poor vectors. On the other hand, C28 and U28, previously  recognized as an efficient transfection reagent, were found to transfect inefficiently  HUVEC in serum. By constructing a new library of end-modified PbAE, the research  was continued78 in order to understand the structure-function relationship  of terminal modification of PbAE in transfection activity. For this purpose, it was  used twelve different amine capping reagents to end-modify C32, D60 and C20. The  choice of these 3 PbAEs was based in their transfection activity: C32, the most effective; D60, an effective transfection reagent with a significantly different structure  from that of C32; and, C20, a poor transfection reagent but with similar structure  to C32 differing only in the length of the amine monomer. The results showed  that some PbAEs-based vectors (C32-103 and C32-117) were able to deliver DNA by  approximately two orders of magnitude higher than unmodified C32, PEI (25,000  g.mol-1) or Lipofectamine R2000, and, at levels comparable to adenovirus at a reasonably  high level of infectivity (multiplicity of infection = 100). Once again, it was  demonstrated that small structural changes influence greatly gene delivery, from biophysical  properties (such as, DNA binding affinity, particle size, intracellular DNA  uptake) until final protein expression. From these 3 polymers assessed, C20 was the  one who transfected cells much less effectively, although it has seen a remarkably  improvement with end-modifications. As expected, C 32-based polyplexes, based on  C32-103 and C32-117, revealed the higher transfection efficiency enhancing cellular  DNA uptake up to five-fold compared to unmodified C32. Interestingly, and in a  general way, terminal modifications of C32 with primary alkyl diamines were more  effective than those with PEG spacers, revealing that a degree of hydrophobicity at  the chain ends is an added value for these polymers. Another interesting fact in terminal  modification of C32 was that at least a three carbon spacer between terminal  amines is necessary to obtain an efficient gene delivery. For example, results showed  that C32-103 transfection efficiency is 130- and 300-fold higher than C32-102 on the  COS-7 and HepG2 cell lines, respectively. As the molecular weight was the same,  this result demonstrated the critical role of the chain ends in transfection activity. In order to better understand the role of the chain ends in transfection efficiency  a new library of end-modified C32 was synthesized by Zugates80 in 2007 using 37  different amine molecules to end-modify the PbAE. In a general way, it was observed  that polymers end-capped with hydrophilic amine end groups containing  hydroxyls or additional amines led to higher transfection efficiency. On the other  hand, terminal-modifications with hydrophobic amines containing alkyl chains or  aromatic rings proved to be much less effective. Concerning to cytotoxicity, terminal  modification with primary monoamine reagents (independently of functional group  extending from the amine, such as aromatic, alkyl, hydroxyl, secondary and tertiary

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are Murder :: Euthanasia Physician Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia is Murder Euthanasia - is it killing or letting die? In the last thirty years, this has been a highly controversial topic, the worldly morals versus the Christian. Although there are certain instances where it is justifiably considered to be letting die, it is essentially murder. Euthanasia comes from a Greek word, meaning "easy death," and is now often associated with the infamous Dr. Kevorkian. There are three types of euthanasia - what doctors consider to be "letting the patient die," for instance taking both conscious and unconscious patients off of life support, not reviving the patient in case of a heart failure, et cetera. There is also assisted suicide. Dr. Kevorkian and his suicide machine have made themselves known through this technique. The machine injects a lethal dosage into the "patients" blood stream, killing then painlessly within ten minutes. The first type mentioned above is known as "active voluntary euthanasia." This is where a conscious, mentally competent person, usually with a severe physical ailment, loses the will to live. Many have said that keeping them alive is just prolonging their death, a form of cruel and unusual punishment. They may ask that life support equipment be disconnected so that they can die quickly, painlessly, with dignity. Most doctors are trained to try their best to defeat death, or at least try to delay it as long as possible. But if the patient is hopelessly ill, and would prefer to die, the doctor may consult the hospital ethics committee, and take him or her off of life support. When taken to court in these issues, the doctors defend themselves in saying, "I didn't kill him, I let him die." This is illegal throughout the United States and the rest of the world, but it still is a common occurrence. The second type, "passive voluntary euthanasia," is done when a terminally ill patient's or a patient in a persistent vegetative state's (PVS) family chooses to take their loved one off of life support. A PVS patient has no self-awareness or any awareness of their surroundings because the cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, id dead. The brain stem, the part of the brain that controls the major organs of the body, still works, though.

Arthur Miller :: essays research papers

â€Å"Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay for a house. You finally own it, and there’s no one to live in it.† This line was from the 1949 play Death of a Salesman. In his early years Miller wrote plays, but none of them were produced. Death of a Salesman was not his first success, but was still widely admired. He grew to become one of the century’s greatest American dramatists. However this title was not easily achieved. After growing up in Harlem and working the Brooklyn Navy Yard to becoming a Pulitzer Prize winner, Arthur Miller is held with high respect. Miller had a lifelong dream. That dream was to become a famous playwright. With a lot of hard times and struggles, he reached his goal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Miller went through college with many failed and unpublished plays. Still, he never gave up hope. Finally he hit one success which kept him on the Broadway stage for several decades to come. Arthur Miller is a New York born American playwright who developed a reputation by dealing with political and moral issues through his plays. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg with it comes to the story of Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was a good man, and with a good man comes character strengths. He always put forth the effort to judge a man by his rightful position and his fair play. He also attempted to judge a man by his moral sanity and his welfare of the community (Foner and Garraty, 1). Miller never judged someone based upon a first impression. He made great attempts to know people thoroughly before finally judging them. This was one of the greater strengths he posses in life. This helped him build the reputation that stuck with him over the years and that he became known for.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, Miller had a contradicting weakness along with his strength. He had an eagerness to express his judgement, which became a downfall for him. â€Å"This one weakness lead to showing his views and opinions openly. This often interrupted the more subtle interplay between social and psychological ways that others were accustom too† (Foner and Garraty, 2). Miller was good in giving it time to accurately know a person before judging him, but often showed his views too eagerly, which did not come off well to the public.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In all the years Miller wrote plays, he had one goal in mind when he wrote.

An Analysis of Robert Ji-Song Kus Leda Essay -- Leda Essays

An Analysis of Robert Ji-Song Ku's Leda      Ã‚  Ã‚   In Robert Ji-Song Ku's short story "Leda," the main character, Sorin, leads a life of imitation. He applies himself to his graduate studies in comparative literature a little too readily: he compares not just text to text; he also compares his life to text, to "works of literature" (Wong 281). If his life does not match that of at least one literary character on several levels of interpretation, whether emotional, physical, or mental, he changes his behavior so that it will. For example, he begins to "smoke and drink - heavily...simply because every one of Hemingway's heroes did it. For a while I drank only vodka martinis in public because I read that James Bond drank it exclusively ... I ... also smoked [his] particular brand of cigarettes" (280). In "Leda," the two influential "oeuvres" (280) are Junichiro Tanizaki's The Bridge of Dreams, a "haunting retelling of the Oedipal myth" (281), and the story of Leda, in Greek mythology. Both have extensive influence on Sorin, and their influences intertwine in his behavior to the extent that it is difficult to separate and identify each.    "Leda" is primarily an Oedipal tale thanks to the influence of Bridge, but, as Sorin "frequently finds himself doing things, saying things, and make certain choices [because] ... some of the most intriguing characters in books have done the same," he mixes Oedipus with Zeus, Castor and Pollux to produce the character he becomes when interacting with Leda, his lover. Oedipus, of course, is the Greek dramatic character who, when he discovers he has married his mother and has had children with her, gouges his eyes out. Zeus is the philandering Greek father of the gods who, according to Greek l... ...or having lived his life vicariously.    Works Cited "Castor and Polydeuces." Microsoft Encarta Online. 27 February 1999 http://encarta.msn.com/index/conciseindex/54/05444000.htm. "Cheju Island." 17 February 1999 http://www.chejuinfo.net/index_e.html. Criss, P. J. "Leda." 17 February 1999 http://www.cybercom.com/~grandpa/ledax.html. Hefner, Alan G. "Zeus." The Encyclopedia Mythica. 27 February 1999 http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/z/zeus.html. "Leda and the Constellation Cygnus." Department of Engineering, University of Michigan. 17 February 1999 http://windows.ivv.nasa.gov/mythology/cygnus.html. Webb, Ruth H. "Leda." 17 February 1999 http://www.princeton.edu/~rhwebb/leda.html. Wong, Shawn, ed. Asian American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996.      

Creative writing about George and Lennie Essay

Stumbling through the wet grass the two came frantically running, looking behind them at every few strides, breathing hard, disturbing the green grass and disrupting the harmony of the birds sitting in trees chirping and whistling the final songs of the day, while dogs barked and people shouted far behind them. A voice could be heard shouting above the crowd â€Å"They’re headed for the fields, com’on! † George grumbled, breathing frantically â€Å"Damnit!†¦ com’on you crazy bastard, they near got us! † â€Å"I’m trying George, I swear but I’s tired† Lennie wheezed. The two were passing fields, when they came to an irrigation ditch, George thought about it and he pulled lennie into the ditch with him. â€Å"Get your head down! † George shouted but lennie didn’t do a thing, George annoyed, shoved him under the murky water, they could hear the shouts getting closer and the dogs growling. A man said â€Å"Where the hell did they get to? † another close to him said â€Å"The dog’s ave lost the scent they musta went thru that ditch and off into the woods, no way we could get them now† â€Å"Damn†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ ok everyone back to the town for a head count then we can all go home, its getting late† With these words saw George give a sigh of relief as he gently surfaced bringing lennie with him, George taking his hat began to wring out the water, lennie copying his movements did the same, George set his crease and made his way quietly up the bank of the ditch, peering over the edge he watched torch light and man slowly disappear toward weed under the setting sun, he turned back to lennie, â€Å"Now why the hell did you touch that gals dress? Com’on you better have a good excuse or I’ll clobber ya! † Lennie was whimpering like a fearful puppy â€Å"Honest George I dint mean no wrong, I jus wanted to feel her dress† George yelled â€Å"why? Lennie? Hmm? What so good about that dress? † lennie cowered in his jacket his shoulders covering his cheeks â€Å"It was so purty George, it was red colored and soft as a rabbit, you know how I likes rabbits George† Seeing the glow in his face when he said it made George calm down, he remember who lennie was, he settled down do a smile â€Å"Ya big lummox, one day your gonna get us some real trouble, but you’re my responsibility so we gotta stick close† lennie returned a half hearted grin still slightly frigtenened â€Å"Ok George† George got up to look around once more, he spotted an old barn not far from the ditch they were in. â€Å"Right com’on now we get us some shut-eye then try and get us some work, some place† Lennie’s face lit up remembering what this all lead up to â€Å"An I get to tend the rabbits George! Huh? Huh? † â€Å"Yeah, yeah but we gotta get us a stake first† George replied George and lennie had settled down in the old barn, its walls were white with paint peeling, the roof was held up by 3 beams across the top and toward the ground, the winds outside made the barn creak eerily and lennie was having trouble sleeping, the ground was scattered with straw and the only thing in the barn was some sacks, tools and a work bench, it was less a barn than a shed. â€Å"George? George you asleep † â€Å"What? † â€Å"George cant you do somethin’ about the wind? † â€Å"No, now go to sleep, have to wake up early tomorra'† George said still half asleep â€Å"Sorry George† lennie said, eventually the morning came. â€Å"lennie! Lennie! Wake up! Com’on we gonna miss the damn bus! † â€Å"ok George, ok† lennie said as he packed his bindle and sorted himself, and hurried off with George They had gotten to the stop just in time, they paid their fare, and were on their way to get some work at.

Qualitative article critique Essay

INTRODUCTION There are a number of factors that contribute to effectively conducting qualitative research. It is not only choosing the right field setting or well-formulated research question that counts, but also the reliability of the evidence and the skills of the interviewer make tremendous difference to the outcome of a qualitative research. †Qualitative research involves the scrutiny of social phenomena.†(Gubrium and Holstein 1997, p.11-14). Qualitative researchers look beyond the ordinary and try to understand how participants understand themselves or their world.. Unlike in quantitative research, when conducting a qualitative study, the researcher is considered as the main instrument for data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation (Paisley & Reeves, 2001). The next few pages will critically analyse the qualitative research articles of ‘Russell, L. (2005) It’s a question of trust: balancing the relationship between students and teachers in ethnographic fieldword’ and ‘Kamenou, N. (2008) Reconsidering Work-Life balance debates Challenging Limited Understandings of the ‘Life’ Component in the Context of Ethnic Minority Women’s Experiences(British Journal of Management, Vol. 19, S99-S109). Look more:  problem definition essay 1. RUSSELL, L. ‘IT’S A QUESTION OF TRUST: BALANCING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK.’ THE AUTHOR IS A â€Å"YOUNG ETHNOGRAPHER RESEARCHING TEENAGERS† (P.193). WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES HER AGE MAKE? In this particular field study, the age of the ethnographer Russell, L. had both a positive as well as a negative impact on the research. This field research was conducted in a naturalism way, this means that the researcher inquires the lives and perspectives of the targeted population as accurate as possible in their natural setting (Gubrium and Holstein, 1997). The researcher Lisa Russell was a young, novice, female, white, northern English ethnographer investigating the sensitive topic of student resistance (Russell, 2005:181). Spradley (1979) refers to ethnography as â€Å"the work of  describing a culture† with the aims â€Å"to understand another way of life from the native point of view†. To get more trust and reliable data of the â€Å"studied culture†, the more similarities of characteristics between the ethnographer and the researched would be an advantage because this could decrease the differences between them. With this as well, the researcher could prepare herself to adapt to the situation that she would be researching. Lisa Russell has the great advantage of her gender, nationality, use of language, size and age to naturally blend in as a member of the studied group, because ethnography relies heavily on observations of interactions and interviews with participants in naturally occurring situation. â€Å"My age helped me engage in and indeed understand discussions† (p.194). Making use of her â€Å"naivety and young age†, her own personal â€Å"reserved† disposition and her figure of being â€Å"smallness in height and build† (p.195), which is not much difference with the teenagers (Lisa mentioned her age is between 23-24 at time of researched), these personal characteristics of the ethnographer has resulted in interaction and a matter of trust that she has experienced with the students. Lisa Russell adapted the role transaction of moving into least adult role in a different way (p.193). As she recaptures her secondary years were not far behind her current phase of life, Lisa was not frightened with certain things she perceived as she was able to relate to her own schooling ‘familiarity’ during those secondary years when she describe â€Å"my novice naivety acted as a benefit when trying to manage impulsive and sometimes shocking behaviour of students† (Russell, p.182). Age also contributed to the way students react to the ethnographer along with what he or she is and is not allowed to do (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983). This characteristic has worked in Lisa favor, as the students felt unthreatened and therefore more open to express themselves. Also because shadowing and observation is more reliable and efficient if a researcher is unnoticeable and does not affect the behavior of the focus group. Whereas in this study, Lisa’s age is at advantage to observe the researched group and efficiently gather data collection, as a young ethnographer she will face the difficulties of being Lisa being inexperienced, since a  crucial characteristic of ethnography is the characteristic of â€Å"holistic† which means interpreting the data as a whole in order to get a basis for explanation about the gathered information. Assuming that this is her first research as an ethnographer carrying out a field study, subjectivity is a limitation of ethnography. The way ethnographers interpret the field study experience will vary a lot. There is not a set list of answers to choose from but rather the use of notes made by the investigator and later interpreted and categorized by the investigator. The limitation of ethnographic research with reliability is caused by the fact that ethnographic research occurs in natural setting and focuses on processes (Wiersma 1986 and Burns 1994). The accurate replication is very difficult to achieve because an event in natural setting cannot be reproduced. While reflecting to Wiersma (1986) and Burns (1994) about the difficulties of accurate replication of findings, Lisa’s age could be a drawback, because she is a novice ethnographer with limited experience and her abilities to process and evaluate her findings and evidence (interviews, field notes and recordings) could be subjective and a challenging job for a novice. 1.2 WHEN IS A RESEARCHER NO LONGER A NOVICE? WOULD HER RESEARCH HAVE BEEN BETTER DONE BY SOMEONE WITH MORE EXPERIENCE? A novice ethnographer is a beginner researcher who just started in the field of ethnography. Like in any other career function, practice is required to become an expert in the field of choice. To make errors and mistakes will contribute to further understanding and deeper knowledge. To my understanding, a researcher is no longer a novice when the ethnographer is able to observe and participate objectively and subjectively in a field research. Additionally the ethnographer should be able to analyze and interpret the gathered data effectively. It is difficult to conclude whether an ethnographer with more experience would have done the research better. When considering the fact that Lisa took the role as a ‘participant as observer’ (Gold, 1958), she had an advantage of her characteristics: †my quiet, reserved disposition and smallness in height and build influenced the way students and teachers  related to me. I faded into the background. Students would often forget my presence; sometimes teachers and other students mistook me for a student.† (Russell, p.195). This shows that despite that at the time of research, Lisa was a novice researcher she was able to transform herself into the ‘participant as observer’ role, which gave her access to more insights and reliable information. The researched group and the ethnographer established a matter of trust and even build intense relationships (Russell, p.196). Hence, Lisa was able to collect observation and vision of the researched group. â€Å"Being a qualitative researcher, one should note the important linkages between theories and methods, reviews key qualitative methodologies, and highlights challenges and the opportunities† (Gephart, 2004). Referring to Gephart (2004), one might argue that the research data evaluation would have been analyzed and linked better by an ethnographer with more experience. Though in my opinion, a more experienced ethnographer might not have been able to collect as much insight as Lisa, because the researched group might have behave differently, so if a more experienced researcher would conduct the field work, I suggest it would be best to do it covertly. 1.3 IN THIS RESEARCH PAPER WHAT DO YOU LEARN ABOUT: A) THE RESEARCH SUBJECTS AND B) THE RESEARCHER? By critically analyzing the research paper, it informs us that the research subjects were studying at three different sites, namely: two in Birmingham and one in Sydney. As the research topic was to investigate the complex and sometimes contradictory culture(s) of student resistance to schooling (p. 181), students aged between 14-16 were selected carefully chosen by the schools. What is significant about the researched group is that they were skeptical in the beginning when Lisa arrived; it had to be made clear that Lisa would not †telltale†, nor report their behavior to teachers. Names like the â€Å"follower† and â€Å"leech† suggest that during the initial stages the students did not accept Russell as she shadowed them all around. But gradually she  managed to gain one of the most vital aspects of the study – ‘trust’. The researched group proved trust in Lisa because she witnessed inappropriate and illegal activities, such as damage of school property, theft and taking drugs. The fact that students did change their behavior means also that Lisa became invisible to the researched group. What we have learned about the novice researcher is that Lisa used an adaptive approach towards the research and considered how various aspects of her personal disposition affected her entire study. â€Å"Researchers’ reflections on their actions and observations in the field, their impressions, irritations, feelings and so on, become data in their own right, forming part of the interpretation,† (Flick, 2005:6) The researcher’s ability to build relationships and develop rapport with subjects is crucial.† (Thorpe & Holt, 2008:151) In her article, Lisa repeatedly puts an emphasis on her age and naivety, this shows that these facets of her personal characteristics contributed her to engage in discussions and activities with the students, which if she was older wouldn’t have been able to do. Her proximity to their age made it easier for both herself and the students to be able to relate and confide to each other. At the same time it was challenging for Lisa to establish the same bond with the teachers and she felt exceptionally uncomfortable in staffroom conversations. In my opinion, she put a lot of dedication and time into cognizing the narratives and behaviors of the students and failed to do the same with the teachers. Nevertheless when she progressed to the third school her â€Å"heightened confidence and greater experience’ (Russell, 2005:188) made it easier for her to relate to and interact with the teachers. 2. KAMENOU, N. (2008) RECONSIDERING WORK-LIFE BALANCE DEBATES †¦. BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 19 S99-S109. 2.1 THE AUTHOR APPEARS TO HAVE HAD DIFFICULTIES RECRUITING INTERVIEWEES (SEE ESPECIALLY P.S102). WHY, FOR EXAMPLE, MIGHT AN ORGANIZATION WITHDRAW â€Å"FROM THE STUDY CLAIMING â€Å"RESTRUCTURING WAS IN PROGRESS†? (P.102). â€Å"Qualitative research interview seeks to cover both a factual and a meaning level, though it is usually more difficult to interview on a meaning level† (Kvale 1996, p.32). â€Å"Work-life balance means that individuals have ‘successfully’ segmented or integrated ‘life’ and work so as to achieve a satisfying quality of life, overall satisfaction and less strain or stress around juggling conflicting role demands.† (Blyton et al., 2006:2). â€Å"The work-life balance equation† (Kamenou, 2008:S99) is finding harmony between of a number of aspects ranging from career, obligations, family, pleasure and culture. In this article, the researcher argues about the topic: â€Å"on ethnic minority women’s experiences of managing their work and personal lives.† (Kamenou, 2008:S99). Nicolina Kamenou, gathered data via semi structured, in depth interviews primarily with ethnic minority females. Information of ethnic minority men, white women and white men was also collected as comparability. The researcher faced challenging difficulties in obtaining interviewees; only three out of the twenty organizations that were invited â€Å"responded positively to the invitation† (Kamenou, 2008:S102). Ensuing, one of the three organizations disengaged from the research claiming ‘restructuring was in progress’. A research by Spencer (1982) suggests that organizations may restrict access to the organization because they perceive it as a risk, which might endanger their reputation. A possible reason of withdrawal of the company is that the research topic is delicate and related to company’s policies and perspectives concerning ethnicity, culture, religion and class. By granting insights to these sensitive matters, organizations endanger themselves to harmful publicity to the organization’s reputation. A noticeable fact is that the organization that withdrew from the research †published and considered themselves leaders in diversity† (Kameno u, p.102). Hence, this research subject should be of high interest to the organization. Also cooperation to the research could have been positive publicity assuming that the company indeed was a †leader in diversity†. Hence, disengagement of the organization could be a result of hidden narratives of the company, which are not supposed to be revealed. For  example, Kamenou’s article reveals John’s opinions (black Caribbean, Application Manager, Heath Trust, age 34): ‘he did not dress in more traditional clothes because he is afraid that his colleagues might be threatened or have issues’ (Kamenou, p.106). This statement made by John could be interpreted as racism within the company, which consequently could lead to a huge scandal or even a lawsuit. Thorpe & Holt (2008) argue about the importance of informed consent. Participants in a study should be informed about the research objective, participant’s rights to confidentiality and anonymity and what will happen to the data and what parties will have access to it. I believe that when people or organizations are informed about their rights of informed consent, the number of participants in a study will increase significantly. The large finance company that withdrew from the research might have participated in the research if they could get anonymity and total secureness that the companies name would not be published. 2.2 WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS WHERE FORMAL ACCESS HAD BEEN GRANTED AND THE â€Å"INDEPENDENT‟ GROUP? Kamenou (2008) invited 20 organizations, of which 2 organizations accepted to participate. Additionally she invited ‘independent groups’ from personal networks so that involvement of subjects from different sectors, qualifications and occupations could enrich the data. Each group would have their own various inputs to the research, and data could be more valid. Personal networking is seen as one of the best ways to get granted access to an organization Carr and Worth (2001). The main obstacle about formal access to an organization is that there might be a matter where companies ask the employees not to unveil certain information about the company or the narratives in the organization. Subsequently there is a high possibility of fear, where the employees do not want to disclose information that could threaten their jobs. However, if the case were that the employee was an acquaintance of the researcher, there would have been confidentiality between the researcher and the interviewee, which would make the interviewee more open and honest during the inquiries. According to Spradley (1979), people who feel comfortable, safe, and valued are more forthcoming than  those who are only considered as sources of information. There is definitely a difference between the interviewed groups, in particular the data richness and disclosure of information between the â€Å"people in organization where formal access had been granted† and the â€Å"‘independent’ group†¦identified through personal networking† (Kamenou, 2008, p.s102). Qualitative research interviews partly consist of open-ended questions, this allows the interviewer to question and inquire further on the answers and likewise, interviewee can share thoughts and experiences. Kamenou (2008, p.s103) argues that â€Å"the semi structured, in depth nature of interview conducted with all participants allowed them the time and space to reflect and discuss their experiences in their own words† (Harvey, 1990; O’Dwyer, 2005) and helped to reduce possible biases in the research process. 2.3 WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE AUTHOR? HOW MIGHT THE IDENTITY OF THE AUTHOR HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE TO THE RESEARCH? In the article the author doesn’t describe herself, neither does she mention on how she could have influenced the research. The article is different from Russell’s ethnography paper, which accentuates strongly on personal observation and self-reflexivity but less on the statistical information. Analyzing her own processes during the fieldwork, Lisa claimed; â€Å"the researcher should employ a reflexive attitude to understand how the interaction between the researcher and the researched, and the researcher’s autobiography, influence the data collected† (Russell, p. 197). The identity and background of the author does have an effect on the research outcome, involving in what is called observers’ bias. Observers’ bias is referred to as the aspect to where the researchers know the objectives or the hypotheses and consequently their knowledge affects the observations and gathered data. Based on the understanding of the researcher about the issue, they will absorb the observations and interviews in which they are interested. It is also likely that researchers unintentionally adjust what they observe from the participants, and mold it to their own perspectives. Therefore, the potential risk is the possibility of misunderstanding or failure to present the accurate perceptions and opinion of participants about the research subject. A way to decrease observers’ bias and to overcome the risk of  revealing misinterpreted data is to use additional observation methods such as blind experiments, tape records, and multi-observers. Using these ‘extra’ tools during the field study could be used as evidence of validity or reused as secondary data for another study. CONCLUSION After critically analyzing both articles of Russel (2005) and Kamenou (2008), I have learned that qualitative research adopts different and various knowledge claims, research strategies, and methods of data collection and analysis. If the research processes are handled carefully it could provide a deeper understanding of the research topics. Qualitative analysis compiles the study of perception, meanings, emotions and behavior, which aim to present original, truthful insights about various human and cultural phenomena. By studying the papers and participating in the seminars, I gained insight and knowledge about the difficulties and challenges faced when carrying out a field study. The various external and internal influences have a crucial impact on qualitative studies and should not be underestimated. The article by Russel (2005) shows us a research conducted by a novice ethnographer, with emphasize on the uncertainties and challenges of her research. Contrast to Russell’s article, Kamenou’s article provides readers with her observations, interviewee’s view and personal life experience, the various responses and the causes of such behavior. I can conclude that both articles are both very interesting and significant. Despite the fact that there were some errors made during both studies, there is no fixed guideline of how to conduct a †successful’ qualitative study. In a way we will always try to understand the unknown, even though it is obvious that every individual has its own unique behavior and perspectives. BIBLIOGRAPHY Blyton, P., Blundson, B., Reed, K., & Dastmalchian, A. (2006) _Work-Life Integration: International Perspectives on the Balancing of Multiple Roles_, 1st ed. New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLIAN Burns, R.B. (1994). _Introduction to Research Methods._ Melbourne: Longman Cheshire. Carr, E., Worth, A. (2001) _The use of telephone interviews for research. Nurse research 6_: 511-525. Flick, U., (2005) _An Introduction to Qualitative Research_, 2nd ed. London : SAGE Gephart, R.P. (2004) ‘_Qualitative research and the_ _Academy of Management Journal_’, _Academy of Management Journal_, 47 (4), 454-462. Gold, R. L. (March, 1958) _Roles in Sociological Field Observations, Social Forces_, Vol. 36 Issue 3, p217 Gubrium, J.F. & Holstein, J.A. (1997) _The new language of qualitative method_. New York: Oxford Hammersley, M. and P. Atkinson (1983), Ethnography: _Principles in Practice_, London and New. York: Routledge,: page 2, 72 – 77. Harvey, L. (1990). _Critical Social Research_. London: Unwin Hyman. Jensen, Klaus B & Nicholas.W. Jankowski (1991): _Handbook of Qualitative_ _Methodologies for Mass Communication Research_. London: Routledge Kamenou, N.(2008) _Reconsidering Work-Life Balance Debates._ British Journal of Management, 19 s99-s109 Kvale, S. ,(1996) ,_’Interviews An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing_, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications,’ Paisley, P. O., & Reeves, P. M. (2001). Qualitative research in counseling. In D. C. Locke, J. E. Myers, & E. L. Herr (Eds.), _The handbook of counseling_ (pp. 481-498). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Russell, L. (2005) _It’s a question of trust: balancing the relationship between students and teachers in ethnographic fieldwork._ Qualitative Research Vol. 5 (2) 181-199 Spencer, G. (1982) _Methodological issues in the Study of Bureaucratic Elites: a case study of West Point. In Burgess, R.G. Field Research: a Sourcebook and Field Manual_. London: George Allen & Unwin. Spradley, J.P. (1979). _The Ethnographic Interview_. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Thrope, R. Holt, R. (2008) _The sage dictionary of qualitative management research._ Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications Wiersma, W. 1986. _Research Methods in Education: An Introduction._ Newton: Allyn and Bacon.