The Relationship Between Corporations and the Environment

The relationship between corporations and the environment is a tumultuous one. Corporations have abused and violated the environment for generations. These actions have now become unacceptable in our present society. There is growing concern for our natural resources; the world's forests, waterways, and air are noticeably tainted. In the last twenty years, the U. S. has become more vigilant in recognizing and passing acts to attempt to regulate and purify our environment. Between 1938 and 1986, twelve acts regarding business and the environment have been passed. The Food and Drug Administration established the first act in 1938. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was passed to regulate food and drug additives. The Delaney Clause in 1958 added the prohibition of the sale of foods containing human or animal carcinogens to the original act. The Wilderness Act of 1964 outlawed the development of wilderness areas and gave new procedures for the appointment of new protected areas. In 1969, the National Environment Policy Act created a nation wide environmental policy and the Council on Environmental Quality. A year later, the first legislation passed for the Clean Air Act. It was relegislated in 1977 and again in 1990. This act established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to control the enforcement of air quality standards. In 1972, both the Federal Insecticide and Rodenticide Act and the Clean Water Act were passed. They were relegislated in 1988; and 1977, 1981, and 1987 respectively. FIFRA requires the registration of every pesticide, certification and preconsumer testing. The Clean Water Act established standards for wastewater treatment, sludge management, and set discharge limitation and water quality standards. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects animals that are threatened or endangered. Relegislated in 1984, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 standardized the manufacturing, transportation, storage, treatment and dumping of solid and hazardous waste. Also passed in 1976 was the Toxic Substances Control Act, which delegates the EPA control over the assessment of risks involved in chemicals and recordkeeping. 1980 saw the passing of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Recovery Act, which brought liability upon the owners, transporters and sources of hazardous waste, and established the Superfund to help with cleanup costs. The Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act requires companies to publicly disclose all chemical and toxic hazards in their operations. 1 These acts have often left companies feeling as though their hands were tied. The Clean Air Act by 1989 managed to reduce air pollution to two thirds of the 1970's level. The Act achieves this through the use of permits to regulate the construction and production of major sources of pollution. The act specifies that a major source is one that emits 100 tons or more per year. This means that a factory can be built that emits 90 tons of pollution per year with out a permit. A permit is also necessary if you want to increase an existing factory that emits 100 tons by 25 tons. This act has its shortcomings. For example, a university wants to expand its heating plant. The administration has two options either modify the existing plant or build a new plant. The university's heating plant emits 100 tons of pollution, this means that they will need a permit. The modification would normally be more cost effective because it is a smaller job and would not take as much time to accomplish. The practicality of the situation would force the building of a new heating plant that is to be smaller than 100 tons of pollution. The reason for this is the delay, cost and uncertainty of the permitting process, which would drive the over all cost up. It is probable that the modification of the single plant would ultimately produce less pollution that the two separate plants. 2 The SARA, or Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act passed by the government as an addendum to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Recovery Act specifies that companies make public details of their storage and handling techniques. All firms manufacturing 300 specific chemicals must abide by this. Firms with ten or more full time workers must painstakingly report must report all chemicals released routinely. The quantity of the specific chemicals released into water, soil, and air, along with a listing of waste treatment efficiency must be made available to the surrounding community. It is difficult for companies to cite specific waste treatment facilities, for not many true ones exist. The public demands total removal of hazardous wastes and at the same time that the goods be produced with the same efficiency and quality. 3 The Clean Water Act is a system of minimum national standards for the discharge of toxins and hazardous waste into the environment. The rules given call for complicated technical decisions to be made by businesses. The fact that a company must comply with all new standards within a year causes for much loss and payment of fines. These acts do have negative effects upon businesses. However, corporations are finding advantages to environmentally sound procedures. Not only are environmentally friendly policies popular with consumers, but they can also save businesses a great deal of money. As the acts and their socially conscious agenda become more assimilated into the business world, business is working to gain advantage and minimize disadvantages. Many case studies support this idea. Corporations have discovered that they can often use environmental friendly programs and products to produce more profits. An excellent example of this is Ben and Jerry's ice cream company. The company began by making all natural ice cream on a very small scale in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. Natural food held great appeal in Vermont, even before it held nation-wide popularity. Soon, their product became extremely popular. Ben and Jerry's all natural products provided the first benefits of environmental-friendly policies for the company. Later, when two large manufacturing facilities were built in Waterbury and St. Albans Vermont, they decided to treat the waste created form their processing with a prototype solar aquatic treatment system. Like a wetland, the system combines solar energy with plants, algae and microbes to break down wastewater. Three â€Å"green teams† strive to ensure compliance with their priorities of managing their waste, conserving energy, practicing sustainability, finding renewable energy sources and forming environmentally positive community programs. Besides these positive actions, which attract many customers, other environmentally correct actions save Ben and Jerry's money. Instead of sending massive amounts of waste to the landfill, the company implemented procedures that minimize waste and reduce cost simultaneously. Cardboard waste is baled and sold or recycled, which saves the company $17,400 annually. Office employees must follow a recycling program to save energy, cost and trees. $235,000 a year is saved in recycling or reusing plastic buckets. As much as $250,000 a year will be saved from new energy saving devices incorporated by the company. There are environmentally positive aspects in every part of the company which prove Ben and Jerry's to be unhypocritical, for the environmentally friendly image they sell their products. Since their total sales were $97 million in 1991, it seems that this philosophy works and brings about a large customer base. 4 Other companies have found profit through environmentally safe Merck & Co. , a worldwide health product corporation for animals and humans, and specialty chemicals balances profit and responsibility even in the face of SARA. To maintain an inner accordance, Merck runs its operations with the same regard for health and well being that its products have. Merck has declared, â€Å"†¦ our commitment is to conduct our business worldwide in a manner that will protect the environment as well as the health and safety of our employees and the public. â€Å"5 Merck made formal its environmental commitment in 1990. In 1990, the company published a statement giving its environmental policies and goals. The progress toward these objectives was charted through periodic reports in a set five-year period. The objectives set by Merck were specific. The minimization of chemicals released into the atmosphere, in turn harming people, animals, the ozone layer, and causing acid rain and the greenhouse effect was one goal. Research to find new ways to minimize waste and conserve resources was a priority. Reduction of waste generation and self-sufficient waste treatment and disposal were another goal. Energy and resource conservation practices were to be utilized in its research, manufacturing and office facilities. Lastly, resource conservation was to be promoted through innovative product design and recyclable materials. 6 Merck, like all chemical producers, was directly confronted with SARA. Though the company is not forced to reduce emissions, its operation procedures go far above SARA suggestions and Clean Air Act regulations. Voluntarily, the company made a commitment to the EPA to follow these higher standards. Merck specifically vowed to reduce carcinogen air emissions by 90% at the end of 1991. Also, these air emissions were to be eradicated by 1993. Finally, Merck would reduce releases of corporate chemicals by around 90% of all direct releases and material transfers for off site disposal by the end of 1995. Merck had reduced all its worldwide releases of toxic chemicals by 50% from 1987 figures by the end of 1992. 7 The goals focusing on toxic waste processing and reductions were to be achieved through a strategic plan at division and plant levels. Divisions, plants and salaried employees directly or indirectly involved with manufacturing were to implement personal goals to help Merck achieve their overall goals. The eight plants under Merck's manufacturing division, along with the two manufacturing vice-presidents, were each accountable for the reduction and better management of waste in the plants. A central environmental resource staff coordinated and supported the effort. SOurce reduction was the biggest priority, followed by recovery/recycling/reuse, and waste management. Most of Merck's waste is non toxic. The toxic minority consists of primarily ethyl alcohol, acetone and methyl alcohol, used in manufacturing processes. The waste stream is boiled, the purified vapors condensed, and the liquid recollected. 90% is recovered for reuse. The remaining 10% is toxic waste. 8 Packaging components have experienced reduction in the interest of landfill space and resource conservation. Cotton wadding in drug bottles has been eliminated in the US. In Europe, there has been a 10% reduction in aluminum and foil waste. A conversion in Europe to standard blister packaging and high volume carton printing reduces waste and saves money. 9 New and more efficient equipment helps to reduce Merck's waste management problems. By standardizing and improving production, Merck is less likely to encounter problems with the FDA for making drug production changes. Approval for production changes is extremely time and cost consuming. Yield and product quality standards are on the same level as environmental standards. Merck, â€Å"takes responsibility for the total life cycle of materials we use and products we manufacture. â€Å"10 Merck keeps lines of communication open with the public concerning its environmental policies. By working with the Chemical Manufacturers Association's Responsible Care Program, Merck provides information to the public through a 1-800 number. The number is linked directly to Merck, where questions regarding Merck plants are answered. Emergency response systems are in place at factories, and for Merck transports. Literature regarding operations and safety procedures are distributed by Merck to keep the public informed. 11 Merck's environmental commitment extends to its corporate headquarters. Environmental preservation of woodland and wetlands upon the site was the priority. The 900,000 square foot hexagon-shaped building and the 700,000 square foot underground parking garage made a minimal effect upon the land. Awards and recognition were in order for this achievement. Kevin Roche, an architect known for designs that blend into the environment, was chosen for the project. The hexagon building surrounds five acres of forest, roads go over the land, and trees were moved rather than destroyed. They were nurtured in a nursery for as long as three years and then returned to the landscape. Energy saving features were utilized in the main building. All paper waste, the principal waste product, is recycled. 2. 8 tons of waste are produced per day, of which 8 tons are recyclable. 12 Merck has made an agreement with the Costa Rican Instituto Nacional de Biodivarsidad (INBio) to grant a million dollars to catalog the immensely diverse life found in Costa Rico. In exchange, Merck is granted the rights to any new medicines found. If a new medicine is found, the royalties will surpass the cost of the failure of the project. The diversity of Costa Rico is thought by scientists to contain more biodiversity then any other planet on earth. Many unknown animals and plants exist in Costa Rico and have yet to be discovered. Merck is training local people to take samples and perform extractions. INBio will analyze the samples. Merck will evaluate samples for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications. This mutual beneficent relationship will aid both the environment and Merck. 13 By improving their product, cutting their costs, and improving their public image, Merck has made a profit from environmental friendliness. The envirometal centered policy has opened up new markets and gained a competitive advantage. This compliance is expensive, but seems well worth the expenditure for the return. The EPA also has developed incentives in recent years for environmental policy compliance. The Green Lights program gives companies EPA support to drive down lighting usage, which accounts for over 20% of overall electrical costs. Software, financing information, lighting product consumer reporting is provided free of charge. Public recognition is given through public service ads, news articles, marketing materials, broadcast specials and videotapes. Computer manufacturers who install automatic â€Å"power down† on their computers join the Energy Star program endorsed by the EPA. Consumers and businesses look specifically for this symbol in many cases, causing a gain for the computer manufacturer. Variable Speed Drives for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems save 40% or more efficiency. The EPA has formed a special group buy to make them more affordable. Payback is within three years. Plans are on the board to endorse other â€Å"green† technologies this way. Refrigerators that are produced and function 30-50% more energy efficient then 1993 standards will receive a rebate. These are just a few incentives the EPA is providing. 14 Government and business have often debated over policies and laws. In the case of laws governing business practices and their effects on the environment, this holds true. The balance between being environmentally safe and still producing the quality and quantities needed is delicate. However, today's market makes environmental friendliness sellable, and the procedures involved often save businesses a considerable amount of money. Ben and Jerry's have utilized the market for environmentally aware products and combined it with their company philosophy. Merck has utilized the same business strategy and found ways to surpass SARA and other environmental acts. These businesses prove that being environmentally responsible is not only morally correct, but also profitable.

Media Analysis Essay Essay

I have chosen the movie Signs to do my worldview analysis on. First, I will discuss the worldviews that the main characters in the movie have. I will then answer the question of if the characters were true to their worldviews. I will also discuss the obstacles that the main characters faced that deterred the character or characters from living out their worldview. Lastly, I will describe mental, emotional, or spiritual reactions I had to the movie as well as explain if I agree or disagree with the worldview present in the movie. I will start by saying that the main character had a Christian worldview but in the beginning of the movie, due to a tragedy in his life, he had an atheist worldview. I know the main character, Graham, had a Christian worldview before the tragedy happened in his life because he was a priest. After the tragedy in his life he stopped being a priest and completely left the church. Graham told everyone to stop calling him father and upon a conversation with his brother Merrill about faith he told him that he did not believe in miracles. He also explained the things his wife told him right before she died as being the result of scientific reactions in the body rather than them having any real significant meaning for a special purpose. This is proof of Graham switching his worldview to that of an atheist. Graham’s brother, Merrill, had a Christian worldview all throughout the movie. I know this to be true for Merrill because he openly says during the faith conversation that he is de finitely a miracles man. I will now move on to the question of whether or not the main characters were to true to their worldviews. Merrill remained true to his worldview throughout the whole movie. I know this to be the case because he said he was a miracles man and he also prayed for his nephew when he was having the asthma attack and had no inhaler. Graham, however, was inconsistent with his worldview throughout the movie. First, he started out with an atheist worldview because losing his wife made him lose his faith in God. When his son started having his asthma attack he went back to praying and asked God to please not take his son away to. Graham then got his faith back from this experience with his son. After this experience Graham continues to pray in response to the alien spraying the poison gas in his sons face as well as that the inhaler and shot help him pull through. At the end of the movie it shows that Graham goes back to being a priest and starts living out his Christian worldview again. With that being said, I will now discuss the obstacle in the main character, Graham’s, life that caused him to avoid staying true to his Christian worldview. This obstacle was the loss of his wife. The death of Graham’s wife was not only hard for him because he lost her but because of how traumatic the accident was. This caused Graham to give up on his Christian faith and not believe in God at all. After the accident Graham stopped being a priest and stopped praying as well. This is why I know that it was the loss of his wife in particular that caused Graham to stop living out his Christian worldview. Lastly, I will now discuss the emotional, mental, and spiritual reactions I personally had about the movie. I felt very saddened over the loss of Graham’s wife because I could not even begin to know how awful it would be to lose a spouse. I also found it very sad to watch the children deal with the loss of their mother. The moment at the dinner table when they are all setting down to what they think could be their last meal together was also very moving and a very important part of the movie in my opinion. The whole family broke down and cried together and the moment when Graham pulled his brother Merrill over by the shirt to make him join in the hug made me cry. This part in the movie is the definition of family to me. The part of the movie that moved me spiritually was when Merrill told Graham he was tired of seeing his big brother lose his faith in God. My favorite part was when Merrill said that he never wanted to see the look in Grahams eyes again when he said they were having the faith discussion earlier in the movie. This part also made me cry and feel like cheering in agreement with Merrill. I also have to say that I strongly agreed with the Christian worldview in this movie, especially Merrill’s because even in great fear and tragedy he still remained true to his Christian worldview. In conclusion, I very much enjoyed watching this movie and it certainly moved and touched me emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.

Ethics, Corporate Governance and Social Responsible Investemtn Essay

Ethics, Corporate Governance and Social Responsible Investemtn - Essay Example A number of other major economies have however embraced the adoption of the enabling mode of governance and rejected the mandatory corporate governance. A number of differences exist between these two systems as outlined by Anand, (2005). Mandatory corporate governance is practiced in major states of the United States, a mandatory system provides guarantee that firms in this system will have to implement any reforms that market regulators put in place. This is contrary to the enabling governance where nothing guarantees a fair play and the enforcement of implementation of any changes. Enabling governance has the ability to ensure that there is compliance to regulatory mechanisms especially when it is implemented together with mandatory disclosure of organizations practices. Mandatory system is also slightly more costly to implement when compared to the enabling governance style (Anand, Milne, and purda, 2006). Mandatory corporate governance is majorly practiced in the United States w hile the United Kingdom practices the enabling kind of governance. Canada and Australia are other major countries that also practice the enabling kind of governance apart of the United Kingdom. The United States mandatory governance is however a blend of the two systems. In some states, companies are not compelled to adhere to the requirements but are required to make formal disclosure of the rules they have or have not adhered to. Firms that are cross listed in the United States are required according to the Sarbanes-Oxley act to submit their evidence of compliance to the mandatory governance regulation. The SOX regulation has a prohibition for ‘insider loans’ especially among companies listed under this act. Such companies must also ensure that they submit their balance sheets for each financial year (Anand, 2005). The mandatory corporate governance system of the United States also has a requirement for all companies listed under its stock exchange at the NYSE and NAS DAQ. They are required to include independent directors in the management board of the firms; the same policies are also practiced in Canada. Firms are required to submit their compliance statuses through proxy to the provincial commissions who are also mandated to ensure that there is strict formulation and administration of the guidelines (McCahery and Vermeulen, 2010). Under the enabling system as practiced in the UK, compliance with corporate guidelines is voluntary. Only companies that are listed in the London stock exchange are obligated by law to submit their compliance in their annual reports. The system as practiced in the United Kingdom has been adopted in Australia with a few modifications on the reporting mechanisms. The UK system also applies incentives that are meant to make firms disclose their compliance information; disclosure of information in the enabling system depends on the sensitivity of the information. In situations where firms feel that their competitors ma y benefit from exposure, such firms have the right to withhold their compliance (Anand, 2005). Enabling systems is also known as voluntary governance system, this is majorly because of the free atmosphere that it creates for its firms. Firms in this system can either chose to disclose their information or not to be based on their reasons; this is the system which is practiced in the

Moneyball. Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation by Beane Term Paper

Moneyball. Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation by Beane - Term Paper Example Some of the major baseball teams in the world include the Pirates, Red sox, Yankees that play in the Major League Baseball, the American League, or the National league. Subject to the publicity, stiff competition, and economies of money involved in this sport, team managers adopt various strategies to win most games. Moneyball by Michael Lewis is a book that seeks to divulge information on how baseball teams should conduct their businesses in order to remain effective. However, a review article â€Å"Who’s on First?† by Thaler & Sunstein (2003) draws some criticism on the book. This paper will hence examine and evaluate the review article â€Å"Who’s on First?† by Thaler & Sunstein (2003). Sabermetric-Based Player Evaluation The sabermetric-based player evaluation used by Beane was a great shocker to other executives in baseball. In his evaluation, Beane took interest on how much a player was likely to contribute to his team's chances using scientific anal ysis (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). In doing this, he relied on objective evidence rather than subjective evidence used by other executives. With the limits of human rationality and inefficient labor markets, Beane chose to ignore baseball's conventional wisdom in evaluating the performance of players to the surprise of other baseball executives. Indeed, in a conflicting situation between Beane and DePodesta's statistical methods of evaluation and other evaluation strategies by other baseball experts, statistical methods proved efficient to conventional statistics that were inefficient and often misleading (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). As a result, Beane produced an amazing performance despite working on lower payrolls compared to other baseball teams. Indeed, Beane’s team, the Athletics was ranked eleventh in payroll(out of fourteen teams) and fifth in wins in the American League in 1999 but jumped to twelfth in payroll and first in wins in 2002 to the shock of other baseball execu tives. Ideally, Beane evaluation on players proved that players drafted out of high school are much less likely to succeed than players drafted out of college. Hence, against the practice of other executives, Beane did not recruit any talent from high school. Nevertheless, the new recruits that other teams neglected became great performers and other teams ended up buying them from Athletics thus improving its payroll. His ability to evaluate and recruit first-rate talent without a lot of money and using statistical methods to replace the lost players was also a great shock to other executives. In addition, the way Beane evaluated the performance of players in the field was also intriguing to other executives. He notes that the use of errors to evaluate the fielding ability of a player is so crude (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). To this, he argues that a player may accumulate errors due to luck and thus in appropriation in evaluating his ability based on this. In addition, he notes that t here might be luck in batting many runs subject to playing in good teams or having many opportunities. All this was a negation to the conventional beliefs adopted by other executives. Most shockingly, is the fact that Beane’s statistical evaluation of players led to his team’s greater success on the American League although Athletics had a low pay roll. Subsequently, major teams in the league like Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are now hiring general managers who adopt Bean’s mode of evaluation (Thaler & Sunstein, 2003). Why Beane is Much More Effective in His Success Beane was much more effective in his success as compared to other baseball executives. This was subject to his statistical evaluation of players, disregard of the conventional wisdom in baseball, and

The role of ombudsman in ADR and its impact on sovereign government Coursework

The role of ombudsman in ADR and its impact on sovereign government - Coursework Example While usually asked by one party or the other to become involved, the ombudsman may take the initiative without being requested to do so. While formal definition of the role is not legally universally accepted, the description of the role is generally as stated and practiced within the limits and specifications of various legal systems and constitutions. Functioning on local, national and international level, the role of ombudsman is the purest and most effective form of alternative dispute resolution between individuals and more powerful entities. The Ombudsman: Concept and Mechanisms for ADR The role of Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) in resolving the grievances of private citizens has expanded over the years to achieve a status even among attorneys as a valid legal and useful practice. Rather than merely an alternative to costly litigation, it has resurrected ‘traditional notions’ about the use of negotiation and out of court settlement.1 Over the past two decades ADR has evolved into a complex arena for settling disputes, encouraged by the rise in popularity and acceptance of the ombudsman as prime impartial negotiator. With the increased use of ombudsmen, officials in this role can be found at all levels of government, as well as in settings of private industry and academia. Modeled on a long established Swedish precedent, the concept took hold in Europe the 1960s along with a growing ‘power to the people’ movement seeking redress for the average person against the powerful forces of government and industry in dispute situations. Ombudsman were to assist in achieving fairness by means of independence, unfettered access to records and persons, careful investigation, impartiality and the prestige of the office. Ombudsman today can be found in almost any official capacity where parties involved in disputes are in need of an impartial negotiator. Differences in the operational aspect among these negotiating agents often depend upon where he or she is expected to function, but always within the clearly defined parameters of impartiality and/or political neutrality. In the private corporate environment, the ombudsman may not only resolve differences between workers and employers, but often affect better conditions in the workplace that discourage extreme acts by the offended party or parties as a means to resolution. Mechanisms employed in these circumstances may prove simple or complex, depending upon the nature of the grievances or dispute, as well as the commitment and attitudes of the parties at odds. The goal, however, is always the same: a fair resolution to a conflict of interests that satisfies and is fair to both parties achieved in a non-litigious setting. In the public arena--as in disputes with government and public agencies—the ombudsman also functions as a bureaucratic monitoring mechanism. Basically, the activity in the public realm may be viewed as threefold: as stopgap measure to holding administrators accountable for treatment of citizens; as righting wrongs done to citizens, and as a tool to dissuade citizens from becoming alienated from the tangled government bureaucracy, rendering it, or seemingly so, more human and personal. As watchdogs, ombudsman look for potential government abuses, and at times, as is fair and appropriate to their role as impartial mediators, they can also vindicate officials unjustly charged in a grievance with wrongdoing.2 The position then is a hedge against what many citizens see as an all powerful bureaucratic

Drug use and Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drug use and Crime - Essay Example However, had he not been high it is likely the eight young women would not have died. While Speck's case might not be a good indicator of the relationship between drug use and crime, other authorities recognize the relationship. The Drug Enforcement agency has compiled statistics for years concerning the relationship between drug use and crime. A 1997 study of violence against Law Enforcement Officers conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that 24 percent of the assailants were under the influence of drugs at the time of the assault and that 72 percent had a history of narcotics violations. (Speaking out Against Drug Legalization, Drug Enforcement Agency fact Sheet 7) Far from being a victimless crime, Drug usage leads to other crime. The United States Postal Service investigated 29 incidents that resulted in 34 deaths in a period spanning thirteen years between 1986 and 1999. Twenty of the thirty-four perpetrators either had a history of substance abuse or were known to be under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs at the time of the incident. (Speaking out Against Drug Legalization Fact Sheet 7, Drug Enforcement Agency) Unfortunately, Richard Speck isn't an anomaly. Brenda Spencer, a sixteen-year-old high school student went on a shooting rampage January 29, 1979. The troubled teenager was frequently absent from school, was involved in several petty thefts and had a history of drug abuse. She killed two school employees and wounded several students and a police officer in her shooting spree. (World Encyclopedia of 20th Century Murder, Jay Robert Nash, Paragon House Page 533) A 1994 Journal of the American Medical Association article reported that cocaine use was linked to high homicide rates in New York City. The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimated that there were 53,000 drug related deaths in that year. The Vietnam War's death toll was 58,000 for an eight and a half year period.And it isn't just murder. According to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, drug use was linked to crimes against property in 26.9 percent of the reported crimes in 2002. This was an increase of 2.4 percent from just six years earlier. These crimes were committed to get money to buy drugs with. Of all crimes compiled for the report. 16.4 percent were committed to raise money for drugs in 2002, an increase of 1.3 percent from 1996 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Substance Dependence, Abuse, and Treatment of Jail Inmates, 2002, NJC 209588, July 2005. Approximately two of every five rapes or sexual assault committed against college students, the victims perceived the perpetrator was under the influence of drugs. Of all violent crimes against college students, persons perceived to be under the influence of drugs committed 41 percent. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Violent Victimization of College Students, 1995- 2000, NJC 196143, December 2003) The statistics become even grimmer when we look at probationers. The first national survey of adults on probation conducted in 1995 found that 14 percent of the probationers were on drugs when they committed their offense. Among those on probation 49 percent of the mentally ill used drugs or alcohol at the time of their offence and 46percent of others used drugs or alcohol at the time. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Substance Abuse and Treatment of Adults on Probation, 1995, NJC 166611,

Project Management in Arabian gulf Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Project Management in Arabian gulf - Term Paper Example the level of the state the following issues need to be taken into consideration: a) the resources required for the development of projects related to the public sector are usually limited, compared to the private sector where the needs of projects in terms of funding, staff or infrastructure can be covered easier; b) projects of the public sector are more difficult to be closely monitored due to the high bureaucracy that characterizes the particular sector; c) tight deadlines are often not welcomed in the public sector where the time required for identifying necessary resources or completing the paperwork related to the project can be extremely high; in the private sector where no such issues appear it is quite easy to avoid delays in the completion of a project under the terms that the resources required have been identified in advance and d) in the public sector the potentials for introducing changes in a project which is in progress are rather limited, since such initiative needs to be approved by the authority which gave the permission for the project’s beginning. Current paper focuses on the characteristics and the performance of project management in Arabian Gulf. The particular area is characterized by major construction projects, as explained below. Projects in other sectors are also periodically developed in the specific region according to the local needs. It is revealed that the performance of project management in Arabian Gulf is quite high with signs for further growth. Still, it is necessary that appropriate measures are taken so that the monitoring of these projects to be improved; in this way, the projects’ costs will be kept low while the chances for the successful implementation of these projects will be significantly increased. The paper has been divided into four parts. Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion sections of the project, as they are included in Part A and Part D, emphasis should be given on Part B, where explanations

Management 4330 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management 4330 - Essay Example Kathryn eventually leads the team to acceptance of their difference and corrections or criticisms from their individuals. In fact, the final retreat or meeting reveals a team that openly corrects one another. They follow her decision to correct other egocentric employees like Mikey, who could not take criticism from her peers (Lencioni 64). Therefore, Kathryn used trustworthiness as a tool to do away with mistrust problems like backstabbing and lack of openness. Effective teams nurture others and encourage team work and the attribute was missing in the previous leadership at Decision Tech. The underlying assumption is that teams that encourage group work outperform than individuals working alone. The attribute was previously missing in Decision since the members had bad relationships and poor communication. All problems within the company are as a result of the team’s inability to communicate clearly. Kathryn inherited a team where individuals are more self-centered and put their ego before anything in the company. For instance, Mikey, the head of marketing, has trouble communicating what she feels about others in the company (Lencioni 20). Others like Jan, with her experience in finance management, looks down on others and also treat company money like hers. When firing the head of marketing, Kathryn confirms that the manner in which the marketing head behaves affects the morale of the team. The new CEO also complains that Mikey doe s not consider how her behavior might affect others. The previous team was so self-centered that the members could not event confront each other in meetings. At the group formation stage, the team always develops some norms where some are good while others are bad (Whetten and Cameron 498). At Decision Tech, Kathryn inherited a dysfunctional group with unique behavioral norms. One of the behavioral norms in the previous team was is the illusion of invulnerability. The team believed did past success and was

The Bernard Madoff’s Fraud Essay Example for Free

The Bernard Madoff’s Fraud Essay Madoff’s scheme to defraud his clients at Bernard Lawrence Madoff Investment Securities began as early as 1980 and lasted until its exposure in 2008. Bernard carried out this scheme by soliciting billions of dollars under false pretenses, failing to invest investors’ funds as promised, and misappropriating and converting investors’ funds to benefit Madoff, himself, and others without the knowledge or authority of the investors. To execute the scheme, Madoff solicited and caused others to solicit potential clients to open trading accounts with Bernard Lawrence Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) on the basis of a promise from him. He promised to use investor funds to purchase shares of common stock, options and other securities of large, well-known corporations, and representations that he would accomplish high rates of return for client, with limited risk. â€Å"United states of,† 2009) Among other things, Mandoff marketed to clients and prospective clients an investment strategy referred to as a split strike conversion strategy. Clients were promised that Bernard Lawrence Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) would invest their funds in a basket of approximately 35-50 common stocks within the Standard Poors 100 Index (the SP l00), a collection of the 100 largest publicly traded companies in terms of their market capitalization. Mandoff claimed that he would select a basket of stocks that would closely mimic the price movements of the SP 100. Mandoff further claimed that he would opportunistically time those purchases, and would be out of the market intermittently, investing clients funds in these periods in United States Government issued securities such as United States Treasury bills. Madoff also claimed that he would hedge the investments that he made in the basket of common stocks by using investor funds to buy and sell option contracts related to those stocks, thereby limiting potential losses caused by unpredictable changes in stock prices. â€Å"United states of,† 2009) Madoff’s Illegal Business Behaviors Exposure Federal prosecutors filed a total of eleven charges against Bernard Madoff. The first of those charges was for securities fraud. The crime of securities fraud involves false claims of investment security holdings, and misinformation regarding stocks and brokerage advice. Sensational insider information is also considered a component of this criminal activity. Another major charge involved t hree counts of money laundering, both domestically and through international accounts. Money laundering is the funneling of revenue acquired illegally into new monetary arrangements, with the intent of concealing this revenue’s original origins. Plus, in connection with both his securities and investment adviser businesses, prosecutors also charged Madoff with mail and wire fraud. These offenses involve initiating schemes using either the United States Postal Service or telephone systems toward obtaining money and/or property in a false or unlawful manner. (Tomaszewshi, 2010). Perpetrators Involved in Bernard Madoff’s Fraud It’s certainly not uncommon for one’s son or daughter to enter into an identical business relationship as a successful family member such as a parent. However, in Bernie Madoff’s case this approach was taken to extreme levels of nepotism. Peter Madoff entered his brother’s firm in 1967, and as business prospered he began to accumulate several executive titles: Senior Managing Director, Head of Trading, and even Chief Compliance Officer for both the broker-dealer and more secretive investment advisor business models. Bernie’s sons Mark and Andrew joined the firm in the mid-to-late 1980s, and eventually were made co-directors of Madoff Securities International in London, England. Bernie’s nephew Charles joined up in 1978, and became the Director of Administration for the investment firm. And Peter’s daughter Shana was hired on in 1995, and served as in-house Legal Counsel and Rules Compliance attorney for the broker-dealer business. Other parties greatly impacted by Bernie Madoff’s activities were his business associates and their many clients over the decades. For example, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes themselves funneled over three thousand clients to Madoff’s investment advisory business. Madoff had consistently advised the pair to remain unregistered in their dealings. But when the SEC accused the duo of illegally selling securities, Madoff pretended ignorance of their activities, even though he had secretly instructed them all along. For their trouble, Avellino and Bienes were forced to pay a fine of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and shut their business down. Other notable business partners eventually left in the lurch by Madoff’s growing fraud would go on to include Jeffrey Tucker and Walter Noel of Fairfield Greenwich Group. Non-related people who had worked under Bernie Madoff also became tainted from the association following his arrest. This employee group includes those who may have had indirect dealings through Madoff subsidiaries like Cohmad Securities Corporation. However, the idea also applies to those employed directly, such as former executive assistants Elaine Solomon and Eleanor Squillari. Jeffry Picower was in industrialist and philanthropist who seemed to be a favored Madoff beneficiary, and made outlandish profits from his investments with Madoff. From 1996-2007 there were 14 instances of greater than 100% yearly returns and 25 of greater than 50%. From 1996-1999 his regular trading account made from 120-550% a year. Some evidence of backdating trades, instituted by Picower, has been presented by trustee Irving Picard. In December, 2010, his estate returned $7. 2 billion in profits to the government. Picower died before the settlement. Tomaszewshi, 2010) Motives of the Perpetrators The various perpetrators who were involved in Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme had different kinds of motives that were completely against the provisions evident in federal laws. Jeffry Picower had over twenty four different accounts with Investment Securities L of Jeffry Picower and his wife in Investment Securities LLC was to benefit from the cash windfall generated from devious deals according to reports; his investment into Madoff’s company was once worth over one billion dollars. Kirchner, 2010) Annette Bongiorno was a senior employee at Bernard Madoff’s illegal company and among her roles at the firm she was to brief investors concerning their returns which were all fictitious. Ezra Merkin was an investment expert who assisted Bernard Madoff to drain off extraordinary amounts of money from clients’ accounts and it later emerged that he had a conflict of interest in the Madoff company. With its headquarters in Connecticut, Fairfield Greenwich Company misled investors into buying stakes at Madoff‘s illegal firm and in return, the company received huge amounts of cash from Bernard Madoff. NBC, 2009) Frank DiPascali was also another essential figure in Bernard Madoff’s illegal investment scheme. One of the frauds committed by Frank is that he engaged in countless number of international money laundering activities to benefit Madoff’s scheme. In addition to this, DiPascali also gave Mr. Madoff expert advice on how to go about his illegal businesses without being caught or detected by the federal authorities. (Arvedlund, 2010) (â€Å"Bernard Madoff fraud,† 2012) Controls That Could Have Deterred the Fraud from Occurring Despite the fact that Bernard Madoff’s investment fraud was one of the largest to ever rock the United States of America, there are various strategies thatLC and he operated them closely with Barbara who was also his wife. The motive might have prevented or deterred the fraud from occurring. To begin with, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should have without delay acted on the numerous signals that it received from different quarters. As the main regulatory authority of American investment activities, it would have been easy to identify weaknesses in Bernard Madoff’s shady deals. A major loophole in the federal laws of the United States of America also had a significant input towards enabling Bernard Madoff’s illegal activities to spread at a very rapid rate; for instance, there is a provision that stipulates private companies in the United States should only pay 5% of their annual revenues. (NBC, 2009) (â€Å"Bernard Madoff fraud,† 2012) Implementations That Investors Should Have Used to Protect Themselves While some investors may yet believe they were tricked into believing Bernie Madoff’s elaborate confidence game, it is also arguable that there were means to protect themselves at their disposal. One method would be to practice due diligence whenever one is presented with new financial opportunities. Many investors were led astray on the poor advice of their won friends and family, which isn’t a fiscally sound means of verification. Independent research needs to be done on the workings of any financial organization, even those that are supposedly reputable on the surface. One should investigate third-party custodial relationships at investment firms, and review their auditing practices. (Tomaszewski, 2010) Another way to avoid fraud is to actively request documentation. Hand written notes from intermediaries are highly suspicious evidence that revenue is being transacted in a professional manner. Getting activity in writing must be joined to verifiable account numbers for auditing. Finally, a forceful amount of skepticism will often prevent one from falling into schemes which seem on the surface to be easy money generators. For instance, one should never believe the speculators on television. An unlicensed financial consultant is about as reliable an agent as allowing unreformed gambling addict free access to one’s personal treasury. Investors should not assume that overseers are actually doing their jobs, as even they might be in on the take. (Tomaszewski, 2010). The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Involvement Critics and popular journalists from prominent media houses in the United States of America have called into question the manner in which the Securities and Exchange Commission handled the fraud case involving Bernard Madoff. This is due to the fact that even the commission itself has acknowledged that it should have detected Madoff’s illegal activities as soon as they began. The first major mandate or responsibility of the Securities and Exchange Commission is to interpret the laws pertaining to federal securities; such as, the commission should have detected the fundamental flaws in Bernard Madoff’s investment activities at an earlier stage. The second major responsibility of the Securities How Madoff’s Fraud was Discovered and Identifiable Red Flags His business came to be under the doubts of various financial analysts as early as 1999. They believed that the returns claimed by the company were only theoretically impossible. But organizations such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) completely ignored the doubts and Madoff continued with his overtures for almost another 10 years. He finally got caught in December 2008. He was trapped after he confessed about his dishonesty to his very own sons. He confessed to his sons of his investment business being nothing but a big Ponzi scheme. His sons now reported his father’s fraud to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Though Bernie confessed to have had started his Ponzi scheme in the 1990’s, investigators think otherwise. They believe the Ponzi scheme and defrauding of investors had begun in the 1980’s itself. Now what actually happened was that in the very first week of December 2008, Bernie Madoff discussed his dilemma over having to pay his clients an amount of almost $7 billion as he didn’t have that much funds. Now within the very next two days Bernie told his sons that he made a huge profit and had decided to give away an early bonus, amounting up to $173 million. This confused the sons and they called for an explanation from their father. This is when their father confessed that his whole company worked through a â€Å"giant Ponzi scheme†. On December 11th 2008, Bernie Madoff was taken into house arrest. Had the stock market not had been in a sharp decline in 2008, who knows how much longer the fraud could have continued. (Degrace, 2011) After writing that Madoff offers the biggest due diligence lesson for investors, some argued that the red flags are only obvious in hindsight and wouldn’t have been so clear if one had to make the decision before Bernard’s admission of running a Ponzi scheme.

Linguistic Research Essay Example for Free

Linguistic Research Essay When does language begin? In the middle 1960s, under the influence of Chomsky’s vision of linguistics, the first child language researchers assumed that language begins when words (or morphemes) are combined. (The reading by Halliday has some illustrative citations concerning this narrow focus on â€Å"structure. †) So our story begins with what is colloquially known as the â€Å"two-word stage. † The transition to 2-word utterances has been called â€Å"perhaps, the single most disputed issue in the study of language development† (Bloom, 1998). A few descriptive points: Typically children start to combine words when they are between 18 and 24 months of age. Around 30 months their utterances become more complex, as they add additional words and also affixes and other grammatical morphemes. These first word-combinations show a number of characteristics. First, they are systematically simpler than adult speech. For instance, function words are generally not used. Notice that the omission of inflections, such as -s, -ing, -ed, shows that the child is being systematic rather than copying. If they were simply imitating what they heard, there is no particular reason why these grammatical elements would be omitted. Conjunctions (and), articles (the, a), and prepositions (with) are omitted too. But is this because they require extra processing, which the child is not yet capable of? Or do they as yet convey nothing to the child—can she find no use for them? Second, as utterances become more complex and inflections are added, we find the famous â€Å"over-regularization†Ã¢â‚¬â€which again shows, of course, that children are systematic, not simply copying what they here. Chomsky’s Influence Research on child language was behavioristic in the years that preceded Chomsky’s critique of Skinner, and his publication of Syntactic Structures: â€Å"though there had been precedents for setting problems in the study of child language acquisition at a more abstract, cognitive level by continental scholarsmost notably, Roman Jacobson (e. g. , 1941/1968)much of the research on child language acquisition at midcentury was influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the highly concrete, behaviorist orientation of B. F. Skinner and others. Two events were of major important in the change from behaviorist to cognitive thinking in research on child language. The first was Chomsky’s classic review (1959) of Verbal Behavior, Skinner’s major book-length work on the learning and use of language; the second Handout for Psy 598-02, summer 2001 Packer Two-Word Utterances 2 was the detailed longitudinal study of the acquisition of English by three young children conducted over a 17-month period by Roger Brown and others in the early 1960s (Brown, 1973). † Ritchie, W. C. , Bhatia, T. K. (1999). Child language acquisition: Introduction, foundations, and overview. In W. C. Ritchie T. K. Bhatia (Eds. ), Handbook of child language acquisition, (pp. 3-30). San Diego: Academic Press, p. 3-4 note 2. â€Å"A child who has learned a language has developed an internal representation of a system of rules† (Chomsky, 1965, p. 25). The psychologist’s task, it follows, is to determine what the child’s rules are. â€Å"The linguist constructing a grammar for a language is in effect proposing a hypothesis concerning the internalized system† (Chomsky, 1968, p.23). Up to the 1950s, people simply counted characteristics such as sentence complexity, proportion of grammatical utterances, etc. After Chomsky, the search was on for child grammars, assumed to be universal. Roger Brown’s Research In 1956 Roger Brown heard Chomsky for the first time, speaking at Yale. In 1962 he began a five-year research project on children’s language at Harvard University. The historical significance of Brown’s laboratory at Harvard can hardly be exaggerated. The names of students and colleagues who worked with Brown pop up all the time, to this day, in psycholinguistic research: the list includes Jean Berko Gleason, Ursula Bellugi, David McNeill, Dan Slobin, Courtney Cazden, Richard Cromer, Jill de Villiers, Michael Maratsos, Melissa Bowerman, Eleanor Rosche, Sue Ervin (now Ervin-Tripp), Steven Pinker. Brown set out to write grammars for each of the stages of language development, by looking at the distribution of forms and construction patterns in spontaneous speech. In most cases the data allow for more than one  grammatical description. â€Å"The description to be preferred, of course, is the one that corresponds to the way the speaker’s linguistic knowledge is structured, the one that determines the kinds of novel utterance he can produce or understand, how he constructs their meanings, and what his intuitions are about grammatical well-formedness† (Bowerman, 1988, p. 28) â€Å"Every child processes the speech to which he is exposed so as to induce from it a latent structure. This latent rule structure is so general that a child can spin out its implications all his life long. The discovery of latent structure is the greatest of the processes involved in language acquisition, and the most difficult to understand† (Brown Bellugi, 1964, p. 314) Brown collected samples of spontaneous speech from three children, given the pseudonyms Adam, Eve, and Sarah. The corpus of collected data can be found in the Packer Two-Word Utterances 3 CHILDES archive. Eve was visited from age 18m to 26m, Adam from 27m to 42m, Sarah from 27m to 48m. Dan Slobin described the project: â€Å"We paid close attention to the auxiliary system and to word-order patterns, because these had played a central role in Syntactic Structures. We kept track of sentence types—affirmative, negative, and questions—in which use of auxiliaries and word order would vary. Linguistic growth was assessed in terms of things to be added to childish sentences to make them adult-like: the additions of omitted functors (inflections, prepositions, articles, and the like) and transformational operations. We did not categorize utterances in terms of communicative intent—that is, in terms of semantics or speech acts or extended discourse skills—and so we did not look for growth in terms of additions or enrichment of such abilities. Our central concern was with syntax and morphology, with some later interest in prosody. We worried about such questions as whether child grammar was finite state or transformational, and whether syntactic ‘kernels’ were the first sentence forms to appear in child speech† (Slobin, 1988, p. 11). Mean Length of Utterance This simple measure of syntactic complexity was introduced by Roger Brown. Table 7. Rules for calculating mean length of utterance and upper bound (Brown, 1973, p. 54) 1. Start with the second page of the transcription unless that page involves a recitation of some kind. In this latter case start with the first recitation-free stretch. Count the first100 utterances satisfying the following rules. 2. Only fully transcribed utterances are used; none with blanks. Portions of utterances, entered in parentheses to indicate doubtful transcription, are used. 3. Include all exact utterance repetitions (marked with a plus sign in records). Stuttering is marked as repeated efforts at a single word; count the word once in the most complete form produced. In the few cases where a word is produced for emphasis or the like (no, no, no) count each occurrence. 4. Do not count such fillers as mm or oh, but do count no, yeah, and hi. 5. All compound words (two or more free morphemes), proper names, and ritualized reduplications count as single words. Examples: birthday, rackety-boom, choo-choo, quack-quack, night-night, pocketbook, see saw. Justification is that no evidence that the constituent morphemes function as such for these children. 6. Count as one morpheme all irregular pasts of the verb (got, did, went, saw). Justification is that there is no evidence that the child relates these to present forms. 7.  Count as one morpheme all diminutives (doggie, mommie) because these children at least do not seem to use the suffix productively. Diminutives are the standard forms used by the child. 8. Count as separate morphemes all auxiliaries (is, have, will, can, must, would). Also all catenatives: gonna, wanna, hafta. These latter counted as single morphemes rather than as going to or want to because evidence is that they function so for the children. Count as separate morphemes all inflections, for example, possessive {s}, plural {s}, third person singular {s}, regular past {d}, progressive {ing}. 9. The range count follows the above rules but is always calculated for the total Packer Two-Word Utterances 4 transcription rather than for 100 utterances. The title of Brown’s 1973 book, summarizing of a decade of research (his own and other people’s), was A First Language: The Early Stages. A follow-up was planned, describing the â€Å"later† stages, but never written. What is this book about? â€Å"It is about knowledge; knowledge concerning grammar and the meanings coded by grammar. The book primarily presents evidence that knowledge of the kind described develops in an approximately invariant form in all children, through at different rates. There is also evidence that the primary determinants of the order are the relative semantical and grammatical complexity† (58) Here is an early attempt to write a â€Å"syntactic† grammar of two-word speech, first describing only 89 observed utterances (Table 4), then going â€Å"beyond the obtained sentences to the syntactic classes they suggest (Table 5) (Brown Fraser, 1964, pp. 59, 61): Packer Two-Word Utterances 5 Brown’s Two Main Findings Two main findings are described in A First Language. 1. The â€Å"Semantic Look† of Stage I Speech First, that the organization of early word-combinations cannot be described in purely syntactic terms. Brown and his coworkers quickly had to change direction. Syntactic descriptions didn’t suffice. That’s to say, Stage I constructions couldn’t be satisfactorily explained either as â€Å"telegraphic† speech, or in terms of â€Å"pivot-open† grammar. Telegraphic Speech One of the first ways of characterizing 2-word utterances was to say that they omitted â€Å"function words,† such as articles, auxiliary verbs, inflexions, prepositions, and the copula (is). The words that are spoken tend to be nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and their order tends to resemble the order in what one presumes the adult sentence would be. These characteristics make early utterances sound like telegrams. But inflections are omitted too, and these are free in telegrams. And a few functors such as more, no, you and off are found. More important problems are that this description uses adult categories. And it doesn’t explain the productive character of children’s two-word utterances. Pivot-Open grammars Martin Braine suggested that children have simple rules they use to generate two-word utterances. Each pair of words selects one from a small set of words—called â€Å"pivots†Ã¢â‚¬â€that occur in many utterances, and always in a fixed position (either the first word, or the second). For example, â€Å"Allgone† is a first-position pivot: allgone egg, allgone shoe, but not shoe allgone. A second-position pivot â€Å"off†: shirt off, water off, etc. The choice of the second word is more â€Å"open. † Packer Two-Word Utterances 6 But â€Å"the rules simply do not fit the evidence; pivot words do occur in isolation, pivots occur in combination with one another, sentences longer than two-words are fairly common in I, and there is distributional evidence which indicates that more than two word-classes exist† (Brown, 1973, p. 110). Brown and his colleagues noted that adults â€Å"expand† children’s utterances. These expansions don’t seem effective in teaching the child anything new (Cazden, 1965). But they do provide important clues to the researcher. If one assumes that adult expansions are generally accurate interpretations of the child’s utterance, then pivot-open grammars are inadequate because they underestimate the child’s knowledge. (Both would simply be described as O + O. ) For example, Lois Bloom showed that when one attended to context the utterance mommy sock was used by her child in two different ways. The first could be glossed as â€Å"It’s mommy’s sock,† while the second could be glossed â€Å"Mommy is putting on your sock. † A pivot-open grammar would not be able to distinguish these two. From Non-Semantic (Lean) Grammars to Semantic (Rich) Grammars So Brown and his co-workers started instead to describe two-word utterances in semantic terms. They employed a process that Lois Bloom called â€Å"rich interpretation†: using all the contextual information available to infer what the child meant by an utterance. As Lois Bloom said, â€Å"evaluation of the children’s language began with the basic assumption that it was possible to reach the semantics of children’s sentences by considering nonlinguistic information from context and behavior in relation to linguistic performance. This is not to say that the inherent ‘meaning’ or the child’s actual semantic intent was obtainable for any given utterance. The semantic interpretation inherent in an utterance is part of the intuition of the child and cannot be ‘known’ with authority. The only claim that could be made was the evaluation of an utterance in relation to the context in which it occurred provided more information for analyzing intrinsic structure than would a simple distributional analysis of the recorded corpus† (Bloom, 1970, p. 10). The result was the identification of a small set of basic semantic relations that the children’s utterances seems to be expressing. The eight most common of these are summarized in the following table (cf. Brown, p.193-197): â€Å"Major Meanings at Stage I† Two-Word Utterance mommy come; daddy sit drive car; eat grape mommy sock; baby book go park; sit chair cup table; toy floor my teddy; mommy dress Semantic relation expressed agent + action action + object agent + object action + location entity + location possessor + possession Packer Two-Word Utterances 7 box shiny; crayon big dat money; dis telephone entity + attribute demonstrative + entity It seems that children when they first combine words talk about objects: pointing them out, naming them, indicating their location, what they are  like, who owns them, and who is doing things to them. They also talk about actions performed by people, and the objects and locations of these actions. Brown suggested that these are the concepts the child has just finished differentiating in the sensorimotor stage. This kind of semantic characterization of children’s speech continues in current research. For example, the following table is redrawn from Golinkoff Hirsh-Pasek, (1999, p. 151. ) The terminology differs a little, and Recurrence and Disappearance have been added (or at least were not in Brown’s â€Å"top eight†), but other than this the picture is the same. Two-Word Utterance Mommy sock Probable meaning expressed Possessor-possessed or Agent (acting on) an object Recurrence Disappearance or Nonexistence Action on object Agent doing an action Object at location Object and property Naming Possible gloss â€Å"That’s Mommy’s sock† or â€Å"Mommy, put on my sock† â€Å"I want more juice† â€Å"The outside is allgone† (said after front door is closed) â€Å"(Dad) is throwing the toy chicken† â€Å"The car is going† â€Å"The sweater is on the chair† â€Å"The dog is little† â€Å"That is Susan† or â€Å"Her name is Susan†. More juice! Allgone outside Throw chicken Car go Sweater chair Little dog That Susan What Grammar to Write? How to represent the knowledge that underlies children’s utterances viewed in these semantic terms? What kind of grammar can one write? Brown (1973) reviewed several possibilities are concluded that â€Å"No fully explicit grammar proves to be possible† (p. 244). Bloom wrote essentially syntactic grammars, which however included information necessary to give an appropriate semantic interpretation. Schlesinger (assigned reading) wrote a semantic grammar. Antinucci Paresi (optional reading) wrote a grammar that included some pragmatic information too. The following is a grammar for one of the three children Bloom studied: it â€Å"consists of (1) the phrase structure, (2) lexico feature rules, and (3) transformations (Bloom, 1970, pp. 67-68): Packer Two-Word Utterances 8 Packer Two-Word Utterances 9 Criticism of Interpretive Analysis An interesting criticism of these semantic analyses was made by Howe in 1976. Howe noticed a lack of consistency across semantic categorization of two-word utterances by Bloom, Slobin, Schlesinger and Brown, and suggested that the identification of semantic relations actually tells us more about adult interpretation of children’s speech that is does about what the child has in mind. â€Å"Overall, the existence of contradictions between the categories presented in Table 1, the fact that some of the categories are not always mutually exclusive and the fact that it is hard to demonstrate that some of the so-called ‘semantic’ distinctions are more than syntactic alternatives for expressing the same meaning, make it unlikely that Bloom, Brown, Schlesinger and Slobin have produced an adequate categorization of the meanings common to the speech of children at the beginnings of word combination or indeed of adults. [A]ll four writers tacitly assumed that the two-word utterances of young children always express a meaning adults might express using these words and hence their aim was to specify which of the meanings adults might express occur in the first word combinations† (Howe, 1976, p. 34). Howe asserted that (as she later put it) â€Å"there was no evidence that children at the beginning of word combination recognize a world containing agents, locations, and so on† (Howe, 1981, p. 443). It is interesting to read the next rounds of this debate: Bloom, Capatides, Tackeff (1981), Golinkoff (1981), and Howe’s reply (1981). Bloom is witheringly derisive (and seems to miss the point of Howe’s article), Golinkoff is more constructive. Howe accepts Golinkoff’s suggestion that non-linguistic data will show us how a child understands their situation, and she concludes that so far the research shows â€Å"that children do not discover that language encodes roles [played in actions and states of affairs, as distinct from entities involved in actions and states of affairs], until some time after their first word combinations† (451). But I  think there’s a larger point here that I’ll explore in class. Brown’s conclusions about Stage I Brown drew the following conclusions about Stage I: â€Å"The Stage I child operates as if all major sentence constituents were optional, and this does not seem to be because of some absolute ceiling on sentence complexity. In Stage II and after we shall see that he operates, often for long periods, as if grammatical morphemes were optional. Furthermore, the child’s omissions are by no means limited to the relatively lawful omissions which also occur in adult speech. He often leaves out what is linguistically obligatory. This suggests to me that the child expects always to be understood if he produces any appropriate words at all. And in fact we find that he would usually be right in this expectation as long as he speaks at home, in familiar surroundings, and to family members who know his history and inclinations. Stage I speech may then be said to be well adapted to its communicative purpose, well adapted but narrowly adapted. In new surroundings and with less familiar addresses it would  Packer Two-Word Utterances 10 often fail. This suggests that a major dimension of linguistic development is learning to express always and automatically certain things (agent, action, number, tense, and so on) even though these meanings may be in many particular contexts quite redundant. The child who is going to move out into the world, as children do, must learn to make his speech broadly and flexible adaptive† (Brown, 1973, p. 244-245). 2. The Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes in Stage II  The second major finding that Brown reported in A First Language was that â€Å"a set of little words and inflections begins to appear: a few prepositions, especially in and on, an occasional article, an occasional copula am, is, or are, the plural and possessive inflections on the noun, the progressive, past, and third person present indicative inflections on the verb. All these, like an intricate sort of ivy, begin to grow up between and upon the major construction blocks, the nouns and the verbs, to which Stage I is largely limited† (Brown, 1973, p.  249). Brown found that the 14 of these grammatical morphemes of English that he selected for detailed study were acquired in a fixed and universal order. These are the grammatical morphemes we discussed in an earlier class: affixes like –s, -ed, {PAST}, and small function words like on, in, the. We’ve already noted that these morphemes are omitted from the first word-combinations. Brown studied the way they are gradually added to a child’s speech. This takes place in what he called Stage II. The child begins to explicitly mark notions such as number, specificity, tense, aspect, mood, using the inflections or unbound morphemes. Of course, Brown was studying only three children, but the finding of invariant order has stood up when larger numbers of children have been studied. For example, de Villiers and de Villiers (1973) replicated his finding with a sample of twenty-one children. Brown offered evidence that the order of their acquisition was determined by their linguistic complexity. (That’s to say, the number of features each of them encoded.) (Though he noted too that children differ greatly in their rate of acquisition of these morphemes. ) Order 1. 2/3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Morpheme present progressive prepositions plural irregular past tense possessive copula uncontractible articles regular past tense third-person present tense regular Example singing; playing in the cup; on the floor books; dolls broke; went Mommy’s chair; Susie’s teddy This is my book The teddy; A table walked; played he climbs; Mommy cooks Packer Two-Word Utterances 11 11. 12. 13. 14.  third-person present tense irregular auxiliary uncontractible copula contractible auxiliary contractible John has three cookies She was going to school; Do you like me? I’m happy; you are special Mommy’s going shopping Brown examined each utterance is see whether it required any of these morphemes to make it fully grammatical by adult standards, attending to both linguistic and nonlinguistic context. E. g. , when the child points to a book and says that book, Brown inferred that there should have been a copula (‘s or is) and an article (a). Then he checked how many of these obligatory positions for each morpheme were actually filled with the appropriate morphemes at each age. Acquisition—defined as the age at which a morpheme is supplied in 90 percent of its obligatory positions—was remarkably constant across Brown’s three subjects. Why did Brown study these morphemes? Presumably because they are at first omitted. But more importantly, he was trying to test the hypothesis that children are taught grammar by adults. And Brown found that frequency of exposure (in adult speech) was not a predictor. For example, adults used articles more frequently than prepositions, but children acquired these in the opposite order. Brown suggested that linguistic complexity does predict acquisition. The morphemes differ in both semantic complexity (the number of semantic features encoded) and syntactic complexity (the number of rules each requires). For example, the copula verb encodes both number and temporality. These two types of complexity are highly correlated, so they cannot be teased apart, but in either case they predict order of acquisition. The other important change that occurs in Stage II is that, as utterances grow in complexity, the child begins to combine two or more of the basic semantic relations from Stage I: Adam hit ball = agent + action + object = agent + action, plus action + object The Other Stages of Language Acquisition Each of the five stages that Brown distinguished is named for the linguistic process that is the major new development occurring in that stage (â€Å"or for an exceptionally elaborate development of a process at that stage† p. 59). Thus we have: Packer Two-Word Utterances 12. Stage I. Semantic Roles Syntactic Relations. MLU: 1. 0 – 2. 0 agent, patient, instrument, locative etc. expressed (in simple sentences) by linear order, syntactic relations, prepositions or postpositions. Stage II. Grammatical Morphemes the Modulation of Meaning. MLU: 2. 0 – 2. 5 Stage III. Modalities of the Simple Sentence. MLU: 2. 5 Next the child forms transformations of simple declarative sentences: yes-no interrogatives, question request, negation, imperative. During the earlier stages children use intonation to mark different sentence modalities. Now they begin to use morphosemantic devices to mark negatives, questions, and imperatives. Stage IV. Embedding of Sentences One simple sentence will now become used as a grammatical constituent or in a semantic role within another sentence. Stage V. Coordination of Simple Sentences Propositional Relations Sentences are linked together with connector words. Individual Differences Brown also noted some individual differences among Adam, Eve, and Sarah. Two of the children combined V with N, and also used N for possession: eat meat, throw ball, mommy sock. But the child third combined V (or objects of possession) with pronouns: eat it, do this one, my teddy. These two strategies were found by other researchers too. Catherine Nelson called them pronominal nominal strategies (they have also been called â€Å"holistic analytic†; â€Å"expressive referential†), and noted that they could be seen in one-word utterances also: some children tend to produce single-word utterances that are nouns, other children tend to use social or personal words such as hi, bye, and please. Subsequent research has explored the connections between these strategies and later development, cognitive style, and input differences (cf. Shore, 1995. Individual differences in language development, Sage). However, these strategies converge over time. By MLU=2. 5, sentence subjects (agents) are typically pronominal, and predicate objects (patients) are typically nominal. Packer Two-Word Utterances 13 Directions After Brown By the mid-1970s grammar-writing was dying out. Incorrect predictions had discouraged researchers, as had the problem of indeterminacy: the fact that more than one grammar could be written. Interest was growing in other considerations: in the role of semantics; in cognitive precursors to syntax, and to language in general; in mother-child interaction; and in the pragmatic uses to which early speech is put. In the view of some people, linguistic structures and operations became neglected. 1. How Does the Child go from Semantics to Syntax? We’ve seen that Brown’s research found that the grammar of children’s early word combinations was better described in semantic than in syntactic terms. If this is so, how does a child make the transition from a semantic grammar to the adult grammar? Researchers continue to argue about this. Steven Pinker (1984, 1987) suggests that children use semantics to enter the syntactic system of their language. In simple â€Å"basic sentences† the correspondence between things and names maps onto the syntactic category of nouns. Words for physical attributes and changes of state map onto verbs. Semantic agents are almost always the grammatical subjects of sentences. This semantic-syntactic correspondence in early utterances provides a key to abstract syntactic categories of grammar. Paul Bloom has argued that children actually are using syntactic categories from the start, and he cites as evidence for this the fact that children will they place adjectives before nouns but not pronouns: big dog but not: * small she Some linguists have offered a syntactic description of Stage I utterances. They argue that at this stage children merely have a lexicon and a limited set of phrase structure rules in deep-structure. They lack functional categories such as INFL (inflectionals) and COMP (complementizers). No transformations exist at this stage: instead, elements of the deep structure are assigned thematic (i. e. semantic) roles to yield the surfacestructure. And they have proposed that the lack of grammatical subjects in Stage I utterances reflects the default setting of a â€Å"null-subject parameter. † (Since in languages like Italian and Spanish a subject is optional. ) Lois Bloom (1990b) has suggested that children simply have a more limited processing capacity at this age. Sentence subjects are often provided by context, and so can be safely omitted. Dan Slobin has proposed that â€Å"children create grammars in which clearly identifiable surface forms map onto basic semantic categories† (1988, p. 15). Packer Two-Word Utterances 14 For example, locative prepositions—in, on, under—are omitted in early child speech. They are used earlier in languages when they are encoded more saliently—as noun suffixes or as postpositions following nouns. At the same time, there is a common order of emergence across languages: simple topological notions of proximity, containment and support (in, on, under, next to), with locative relations embodying notions of perspective (back, front) always later. Slobin infers that â€Å"conceptual development provides the content for linguistic expression, while linguistic discovery procedures are necessary for working out the mapping of content according to conventions of particular languages† (p. 15). Slobin has looked carefully at the English grammatical morphemes—and their equivalents in other languages—to see how they are used before they are completely acquired (by Brown’s 90% criterion). He finds that children generally use the morphemes systematically, though their use is still â€Å"incomplete† by adult standards. For example, a Russian child applied the accusative inflection only to nouns that â€Å"were objects of direct, physical manipulation, such as ‘give,’ ‘carry,’ ‘put,’ and ‘throw,’ omitting the accusative for less manipulative verbs such as ‘read’ and ‘see. ’† Children will â€Å"organize systems of pronouns and case inflections; but, to begin with, children will organize these various forms to express particular, child-oriented speech functions† (p. 18). They are using the resources of the adult language to mark distinctions that are salient to them. Slobin has also proposed some â€Å"universal language-learning principles. † These are an attempt to explain observed cross-language regularities in order of acquisition. â€Å"According to Slobin, the child has certain concepts, based on cognitive growth, that are expressed through the language system. Using certain principles of acquisition, the child scans the language code to discover the means of comprehension and production† (Owens, 2001, p. 214-215). 1. Pay attention to the ends of words 2. Phonological forms of words can be systematically modified 3. Pay attention to the order of words and morphemes 4. Avoid interruption and rearrangement of linguistic units 5. Underlying semantic relations should be marked overtly and clearly 6. Avoid exceptions 7. The use of grammatical markers should make semantic sense Knowledge of Verb syntax Lois Bloom asserts that learning the argument structure of verbs, and the syntactic differences for different thematic relations is the foundation for acquiring a grammar. Verbs play a central role in further multiword utterances. Opinions differ, however, on how knowledge of verb syntax is acquired. Bloom suggests that the first verbs are those that name actions (do, make, push, eat). Nouns and pronouns take thematic roles (agent, object) in relation to these actions. Bloom says that this implies that children’s â€Å"theories† of objects, space, and causation are important here. Packer Two-Word Utterances 15 A few all-purpose verbs—â€Å"pro-verbs†Ã¢â‚¬â€are used for most early sentences. E. g. , do, go. With these, verb argument structures, verb inflections, and Wh-questions are learned. Subsequently, the child adds the syntax for negation, noun- and verb-inflection, and questions. And then moves on to embedded verb phrases (â€Å"drink [Mommy juice]†) 2. From Semantics to Semantics Language involves a great deal of categorization. â€Å"The forms of language are themselves categories, and these forms are linked to a vast network of categorical distinctions in meaning and discourse function† (Bowerman, 1988, p. 28-29).

Working With Special Populations

Working With Special Populations Spirduso et al. (2005) gives the definition of ageing as ‘ A process or group of processes occurring in living organisms that begins with birth and, with the passage of time, leads to a loss of adaptability, functional impairment and eventually death. Also Swain and Leutholtz (2002) define aging as a result in years of physical inactivity, and that much to do with the biological consequences of age is the sedentary lifestyles most aging people have. Those who remain physically active throughout life demonstrate much slower rates of physical decline than do the sedentary, and a growing body of research indicates that those who have been sedentary for many years can experience significant improvements by beginning an exercise programme even at very advanced ages (Fiatrone et al. 1990). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there is over 20 percent of the population in the United Kingdom over the age of 65 and by the year 2025 there is an overall projection that, that value will rise to almost as much as 30% of the population living in the united Kingdom to be over the age of 65 (Mcardle, Katch and Katch 2010). Research shows that when properly prescribed exercise, elderly people can significantly improve their aerobic power (Eshani 1987), muscular strength and size (Fiatrone et al. 1990; Frontera et al. 1988), and bone density (Dalsky 1989). Improvements in functional movements such as walking speed and stair climbing power have also been reported (Fiatrone et al. 1990). These results can reverse the effects of many years of physical decline and lead to greater independence and a much higher quality of life. More than half of elderly people have at least one disability or chronic condition, participation in a regular physical activity/exercise programme has many physiological health benefits including reducing the risk and lessening the impact of many chronic diseases (DiPietro, Caspersen and Ostfield 1995). Aging has numerous effects on organ systems in the body, effecting skeletal muscle, body composition, the cardiovascular system, the metabolic system, the respiratory system, the nervous system, energy expenditure and energy intake and also thermoregulation. These can all seem to be contraindications for exercising when elderly such as thermoregulation being affected this means there is a decreased ability to regulate body temperature when homeostasis is challenged; decreased amount of sweat per active sweat gland; reduced response to increased blood flow during exercise attributable to structure and response of cutenous blood vessels; inadequate ability to reduce splanchnic blood flow during exercise (Kenney 1997 and King, Martin 1998). In general, if an individual leads an active lifestyle it preserves and enhances skeletal muscle, strength and endurance, flexibility, cardio respiratory fitness and body composition for later life. Main Content Physiological Factors Cardiovascular Fitness + Training Since many elderly individuals have a low initial fitness level, it is prudent to begin exercise programmes at a low intensity and to progress gradually (Swain and Leutholtz 2002). Low cardiorespiratory fitness is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality (Blazer 1982). Low VO2 peak is associated with reduced ability to perform ADLs (activities of daily living) including climbing stairs and brisk walking (Birdt 1998). A small improvement in cardiovascular fitness is associated with lower risk of death. Healthy sedentary older men and women can increase their cardiorespiratory fitness by performing aerobic exercise training (Engels et al. 1998: Kuczmarski et al. 1994). Physical activities that the elderly population, should engage in are walking (indoors, outdoors, or treadmill), gardening, swimming (water aerobics), golf and cycling (White 1995). Combining strength with endurance training is also beneficial for the elderly individual. One study showed that after 6 months of combined resistance and endurance training, older healthy individuals increased their VO2 peak (11%) and their upper and lower body strength (Blazer 1982). The ability to carry out normal daily task such as carrying laundry, vacuuming and climbing stairs translated to carrying 14% more weight and moving 10% faster. Resistance Training Elderly individuals, including the oldest old and very frail elderly, demonstrate physiological adaptations to strength training (Kuczmarski et al. 1994). How much adaptation depends on the frequency, volume, mode, type of training and initial training state (Ferketich, Kirby and Alway 1998). Strength training has the potential to improve functional capacity and quality of life of the elderly person (Fiatrone et al. 1990). Most elderly individuals can participate in a resistance training programme that is individually designed. Those with hypertension or arthritis or at risk of osteoporotic fracture need to be assessed and evaluated by a physician prior to initiating resistance training programme (White 1995). A ACSM recommendation for the elderly that bears some scrutiny is the recommendation to use machines as apposed to free weights. Swain and Leutholtz (2002) evaluates that although it is true that machines require less skill, free weights have the advantage of teaching balance and greater neuromuscular control, which may be transferrable to real world activities. Furthermore they also talk about free weights being more superior by allowing the user to add small amount of weight onto their dumbbells i.e. 1kg whereas resistance machines normally have increments of 4.5kg or more which is a large leap when the user is frail, on the other hand ACSM realise that machines require less balance requirements and the risk of injury. Resistance training programmes lasting from 8 weeks to 1 year can increase muscle strength and mass in elderly, regardless of age and sex (Fiatrone et al. 1990). Psychological + Sociological Factors International Society of Sport Psychology (1992) states that â€Å"Individual psychological benefits of physical activity include: positive changes in self perceptions and well-being, improvement in self-confidence and awareness, positive changes in mood, relief of tension, relief of feelings such as depression and anxiety, influence on premenstrual tension, increased mental well-being, increased alertness and clear thinking, increased energy and ability to cope with daily activity, increased enjoyment of exercise and social contacts, and development of positive coping strategies.† Many older individuals do not have a spouse, close children or friends to rely on for socialization, assistance and support (Evans 1999). Although with age, social relationships may change from family to more formalized organizations or nonfamily members, many elderly live in social isolation and are very lonely. This is important because epidemiological studies have demonstrated a relationship between social support and physical health (Evans 1999). To add on to this it has been show that in several studies, lack of social support is a major risk factor for depression, morbidity and mortality (Engels et al. 1998). Participation in an organized training session provides an excellent opportunity for interaction between other elderly people and when organising a session it is been seen to do all activities as in one whole group to get a more major interaction between participants (Evans 1999). Also another method which could be used to improve social interaction for the elderly participating in a exercise program could include a ‘buddy exercise system where individuals are matched up with similar ability to perform their exercises together. Exercise Recommendations Physical activity recommendations for the elderly are updated regularly by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM 2000). High intensity activities such as running, rowing, aerobic/gravity riders, and stair steppers may not be appropriate unless the individual has a rare high fitness level. Low to moderate intensity exercise programmes can be performed daily. Higher intensity exercise sessions (>70% heart rate reserve) should only be performed 3 to 5 days per week (ACSM 2000). This allows for recovery days, which are more important for the older adult than the younger person as elders recover slower. Older individuals with a low exercise capacity may benefit from multiple daily sessions of short duration, whereas the more capable individual can benefit from three sessions per week with exercise bouts performed once per day (ACSM 2000). Elderly individuals who are unable to perform ambulatory activities may be candidates to perform seated chair activities, stationary cycling and water activities. T ai chi is seen to be one of the best activities for elderly individuals to undertake as it improves strength and balance according to Dalsky (1989). For the healthy older individual, it is recommended that exercise be performed minimally for 30 minutes but not beyond an hour in duration. If an individual beginning an exercise programme is predominately sedentary, has severe chronic disease, or has a very low fitness level, a minimum of 30minutes of continuous activity may not be possible. Sessions of as little as 10 minutes two or three times a day is appropriate in this situation. Health benefits are still obtained this way (ACSM 2000). National and Regional Strategies Summary Physical activity of light to moderate intensity helps to improve health, whereas moderate to high intensity physical activity with an emphasis on aerobic endurance improves cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2) as well as health in older individuals. Elderly individuals demonstrate improvements during resistance training by increasing muscle mass and strength; this improves gait, balance, and overall functional capacity and bone health this staving off chronic diseases such as osteoporosis and improve overall quality of life. There are also psychological benefits associated with regular physical activity and exercise. Dr. Robert Butler, former director of the National Institute of Aging states ‘If exercise could be put in a bottle, it would be the strongest medicine money could buy In general the elderly person can improve physical and mental health by performing regular physical activity, and this should be encouraged by all medical and exercise professionals. Ultimately, regardless of age or level of frailty, nearly all elderly persons can derive some physiologic, functional or quality of life benefit from initiating an exercise programme. 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(1988) Strength conditioning in older men: Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and improved function. Journal of Applied Physiology, 64:1038-1044. International Society of Sport Psychology (1992). Physical activity and psychological benefits: International Society of Sport Psychology Position Statement. The Physician and Sports medicine, 20(10), 179-184. Keen, W.L. (1993) The older Athlete: Exercise in hot environments. Sports Science Exchange 6:44. King, A.C. and Martin, J.E. (1998) Physical Activity promotion: Adoption and Maintenance. American College of Sports Medicines Research Manual for Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins pp 564-569. Knutzen, K.M., Brilla, L.R. and Caine, D. (1999) Validity of 1RM prediction equations for older adults. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 13, 242-246. Kuczmarski, R.J., Flegal, K.M., Campbell, S.M., Johnson, C.L. (1994) Increasing prevalence of overweight among U.S. adults. 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