Love in the Time Essay

The actions of human nature with regards to sexual drive and concepts of love are not easily explained using only conventional conceptual studies such as Evolutionary Sociology. For instance it is some how difficult to explain human behaviors such as celibacy, homosexuality, and adoption from these aspects. However, the evolutionary process is used to describe how humans came into being by a process of change over a substantial period of time. In this case, some human actions is viewed as direct results of certain behavioral evolution, which makes use of thorough studies of other primates and many other animals in the animal kingdom, with the aim of discovering linking keys to unlock some behaviors. On the other hand, some of the strongest concepts can be linked to Evolutionary Sociobiology where the evolutionary past of humans is a vital tool for the explanation of their present actions. Additionally, all concepts that humans act upon, not easily explained with evolution in today’s world, can be shown to be results of the interactions of an information pattern, held in each individual’s memory and which is capable of being passed to that of another individual. Thus, these ideas can be stored biochemically in human brains, but also can be transmitted in visually or orally, in writing, music, or TV for example. These facts are fundamental to the views of this paper, which is a stringent account aimed at exposing the influences of two seemingly dicey elements of human interactions, namely; love and lust. This paper presents its views with vital emphasis on the lessons inherent in two of Scott Fitzgerald’s publications; that is ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The Offshore Pirate’, as well as other vital resources which were consulted during this research. Introduction. Love can be defined as a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection. It can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, including pleasure (for example, one can be in love with a substance such as fashion, life style, car and so on) and in interpersonal attraction (such as falling in love with someone). The circumstance in which one falls in love with a particular entity can some times be strange. An instance of this is found in the fiction story ‘The Offshore Pirate’, in which one the characters (Ardita) fell in love with a stranger whom she met under an unforeseen circumstance, thus she didn’t hesitate to confess her feeling to him (Fitzgerald 29). Although the nature or essence of love is a subject of frequent debate, different aspects of the word can be clarified by determining what isn’t love. As a general expression of positive sentiment (a stronger form of like), love is commonly contrasted with hate (or neutral apathy); as a less sexual and more emotionally intimate form of romantic attachment, love is commonly contrasted with lust; and as an interpersonal relationship with romantic overtones, love is commonly contrasted with friendship, although other definitions of the word love may be applied to close friendships in certain contexts. On the other hand, lust is a shallow type of love known as Eros. Recent critics have tended to prefer desire or Eros over love not only because of the latter word’s association with sentiment but also because an earlier generation of Shakespeare scholars identified it with a state in which characters rise above the trammeling conditions of social, political, and economic relations (Schalkwyk 76). Thus, Lust is merely a variation of consciousness’s project to become its own foundation, a project that necessarily fails. How Can Love Be Identified? Love between humans can be identified in many ways, but the most common way is that it connotes a sense of steady friendship and faithfulness as well as the spirit of forgiveness even in the face of faithfulness. Just like the couple (Tom and Daisy) in Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ forgave each other’s flaws. Love is a subset of desires of which sexual acts such as kissing is an integral part. So it is not strange for one to develop such desires at first sight of what he or she wants or would love to have. Thus, the case of the nineteen year old ‘Ardita’ expressing her feelings for the young stranger she met (Fitzgerald 30). Love tends to bring together things that would naturally be in diversity, forcing these to rather identify what they have in common (Fitzgerald 23). Hence, it is a gateway to romantic relationships. A romantic relationship is an important part of many people’s lives, but not the whole. Balance is about understanding where your relationship fits into the life you have. A person who’s working 80 hours a week may genuinely not have time or energy for any kind of relationship at all. A person who’s raising children must consider their needs as well as his or her own. Emotional honesty (starting with that first time you confess love) isn’t achieved simply or quickly. It takes work, work that will go on for the rest of your relationship, both with yourself and with your partner. It also brings deep rewards in the form of closeness and trust. Signs of healthy relationships include being open to change, to the process of facing and accepting uncomfortable emotions. More than any other part of a relationship, the work of emotional honesty is founded in love. It takes a leap of faith to drop your defenses and trust your partner with the feelings, thoughts, dreams, ideas and words that are most essentially yours. Human Actions mentored by Love. Responsibility; this act includes having the time to devote to the physical capacity to carry out certain tasks. This requires a lot of time and sacrifice from all parties involved. Time, more often than not, is something that gets in the way of being able to devote oneself. Commitment; this involves boycotting all nefarious acts such as unfaithfulness, which tends to breach the contract instituted by love. Achieving Goals; this includes the ultimate goal of mastering the art of love as well as all the stepping stones along the way. Staying focused on the present is important, yet without an idea of where one is heading it’s easy to get lost. Confidence; love serves as an instrument that bestows confidence among it participants Patience; hand-in-hand with confidence, patience is needed to persevere through the low points. If martial arts were easy, everyone would do it. The same goes for love. Truly opening yourself to another, being vulnerable, and accepting the other unconditionally takes a lot of effort. It is a common misconception that â€Å"love should just come naturally. † Persistence; working closely with confidence, persistence requires having faith in the process of learning. That even though you don’t get it all now, if you keep at it, eventually you will. Action that Depicts Lust. Lust is a physical emotion that humans act upon in the heat of the moment. Yet few would fall in love with someone who didn’t turn them on, and that can lead to problems. Here are some tips to identify lust; †¢ If one only want to be with another person just to have sex, it’s lust. †¢ If one tries to describe his or her friend and can only talk about physical appearance and body parts, that’s lust. †¢ If a person doesn’t call or converse with the other party except when he or she wants physical pleasure, that’s lust. †¢ If one lies to someone in order to get into bed with him or her, that’s lust. It’s possible for an affair based purely on lust to develop into a healthy relationship based on love, but it doesn’t occur often. You may be better off spending your time with someone who sees and appreciates you with clothes on. Conclusion. Real love exists between equals. Neither partner is considered inferior or superior, though different roles may be assumed. One party’s wants, needs and fears are no more or less important, though they may at times be more or less urgent, than those of the second party. Both deserve time, energy, and resources. In summary it is important to note that humans are all animals being controlled by a conscience in one form or another. Its hard to have any proof of what it is actually. However, it is some form of a soul or divine presence or just a series of memes that have dominance in our minds taking over some of our functions to insure that the meme itself is able to survive as long as possible and to reproduce itself, spreading to other minds and trying controlling them in much the same way, truly acting like a virus for the computer that is our brain. Thus, memetics may basically provide a partial answer to how love or lust mentors our behaviors, just as evolutionary sociobiology, but do these two concepts complete the picture of human behavior? Maybe there is a part to us that is non-material a spirit or such that instead of being memetics controlling us, it controls us and memetics influences that. Something has to select the memes, decide between them and there maybe something beyond our comprehension to explain this. Works Cited John Armstrong, Conditions of Love: The philosophy of Intimacy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Diane Ackerman, A. Natural History of Love . New York: Random House, 1994. Fitzgerald, Scott F. The Offshore Pirate. Kessinger Publishing,2007. Fitzgerald, Scott F. The Great Gatsby. Schalkwyk, David. â€Å"Love and Service in Twelfth Night and the Sonnets. †Byline56(2005) p76.

The World Is Flat

Thomas Friedman in his recent book ‘The world is flat’ discusses a short history of globalisation in the twenty-first century. His discovering journey took him around the world to investigate the new concept in transnational business. He views himself as Columbus-like, but in a new modern word, in which he is searching for the sources of today’s wealth. Only to come to a rhetorical conclusion that the world is â€Å"flat† not round! His book, ‘The world is flat’ has been a subject to much criticism. His work was highly criticizes by Aronica and Ramdoo, (2006) in their book ‘The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Bestseller’. They point to the fact that Friedman does not use a single table or data footnote in his book. Friedman makes arguments by assertion, based on not documented facts, but makes his assumption based on stories from his journey around the world, visiting few places, and selected CEOs he visits on his journey.(Aronica & Ramdoo, 2006) Friedman in a research for his book visits India, where Nandan, the CEO of Infosys explains to him that; â€Å"the playing field is being leveled† causing Friedman to conclude that the world is flat. (Friedman, 2006 p.7) Friedman refers to a â€Å"flat world† in a metaphorical sense. He reiterates over and over again that â€Å"The world is flat†. In which he means that reducing barriers in trade and political and technical advances have made it possible to do business, instantly with any other businesses around the world, without the need to emigrate. It has allowed for parts of the world, which had previously been disconnected, like India and China, to compete in the world market. And that we are now connecting all the knowledge and expertise, using computers, email, fibre-optic networks and so on. Friedman argues that there are ten major forces that flattened the world, and describes each of the following â€Å"flatteners†. The fall of the Berlin Wall; or the work flow software; uploading; outsoursing; offshoring; insourcing; in-forming; and lastly he talks about steroids. Next Friedman delve into what he describes that the forces of flatness have resulted in â€Å"the triple convergence,† three additional components that acted on the flatteners to create a new, flatter global playing field. Friedman also states that â€Å"technology has made the world flat by removing geographical, hierarchical and other boundaries to trade†. In a flat world, Friedman writes, â€Å"you can innovate without having to emigrate. Yet, there are still many people in rural areas that have been left out and neglected of this global integration. People are migrating from rural areas to the big cities in search of jobs all the time, and this is what Friedman calls a ‘flat world’? Richard Florida,(2005) in his article ‘The World is spiky’ argues that â€Å"the globalisation has changed the playing field but it has not leveled it.†, Richard talks about â€Å"uneven distribution of the world’s population, light emissions, focusing on ‘peaks’ as of the cities that drive the world economy, and ‘valleys’ – places with little connection to the global economy.† Both authors seems to be right, but they both missing the point, using misleading metaphors. The paradox of these two metaphors is that the flattening of the world is creating a new prospect for even greater spikiness. Some would argue that it does not matter whether the world is spiky or flat. What does matter is where you live. Now, people have to compete and work harder than ever before. People in American are losing their jobs because someone on the other side of the world can do it faster and for less money. Technology makes it all more possible today to bring the world closer and make it more interconnected and interdependent.(Friedman, 2006) However, technological innovation by itself will never flatten the world, instead it tends to create inequalities by being inaccessible to less fortunate. Leamer (2007) in his critical review demonstrate that the technological revolution, economic integration and interaction increase the openness of trade and promote the production and transmission of information and knowledge in general. However, it is possible that increasing economic integration can lead to spatial agglomeration of economic activity rather than to a geographically ‘flatten pattern†. Process of globalization may as well wipe out space and distance between countries, then again, some will argue that in a global economy, competitive advantages are often heavily localized, arising from concentrations of highly specialised skills, knowledge and institutions. Friedman argues, that the world is getting flatter, incomes though, are not. Distribution of incomes within countries and between countries is growing greater. Nevertheless, all these arguments show that the world is not flat, never was and is not likely going to be in the near future. In second chapter, Friedman describes than Netscape went public and how Internet and World Wide Web came along and enabled more people to communicate and interact with more people anywhere on the planet, causing the Earth to flatten even more. In 2007 Foreign Policy magazine article, Pankaj Ghemawa, argued that ninety percent of the world’s web traffic, investments and phone calls are local, suggesting that Friedman has overstated the significance of the trends he describes. (Ghemawat, P. 2007). Friedman talks about ‘outsourcing’ of manufacturing and other processes to a foreign country to take advantage of less-costly labour. Outsourcing may indeed be good for the multinational corporations to stay competitive and survive, however, Arnica and Ramdoo (2006) in their book argue that, Friedman discuss in a favor of global corporations moving their operations overseas to exploit weak governments and cheap labor. Global corporations are not invested in the well-being of American workers and their local communities. Instead they go wherever they can to exploit cheap labor, lax environmental regulations and tax breaks. Stiglitz (2006) in his book points out that, the policy frameworks and laws are manipulated to be best suited for the industrial elites. Moving operations overseas is â€Å"cost cutting† to improve the financial performance of big corporations, without loyalty to one’s country. Their only loyalty is to increased profits and increased salaries of their directors. As a result of outsourcing, Many of American citizens, according to Friedman, are now worried about their careers, because some of the jobs they used to hold are now being performed outside the country for a much lower cost to their former companies. The reason behind the outsourcing is simply the cost. Indian workers can work for far less then American. The question is what will be the outcome of shipping all these jobs overseas? Some will argue that outsourcing less skilled work to emerging economies will raise living standards around the world. Workers in developing nations will get new and higher- paying jobs, and consumers in the U.S will be able to buy products that are cheaper than if they were made at home. Leamer (2007) argues that â€Å"it makes both parties worse off† saying â€Å"we get their wages and they get our culture. Outsourcing is occurring at a breathtaking pace, and as a result America is facing a big challenge because their jobs are at risk. Business services and finance is now at risk of being outsourced. And in the near future accounts, marketing and sales, and even human recourses will be shipped overseas in the name of cost saving. We are not only outsourcing business processes, but also moving process of innovations. Overall, this is good for global economy, but the U.S. workforce will face drastic career changes and pressures on wages subject to competition from foreign labor. Thus, what is good for some might not be good for others. Another example given by Mr. Friedman that stroked me is how Southwest Airlines let you issue your own boarding pass online twenty-four hours before the flight. What if you forget to print out your ticket? This is just a simple demonstration of declining quality of services a customer receives in a flatten world. I would argue that while the flat world has done extremely well for many industries and people around the world, Friedman but does not realized that the more flatten world brings many dark sides of globalisation along with it. The global financial system is more unbalanced, the threats of climate change are stronger and there is more international terrorism. The Friedman is reinforcing a wrong message to its audience for peace, loyalty and prosperity. Thomas Friedman points out that different parts of the world are now more connected because convergence of technology, information systems and telecommunications systems that created a ‘global platform’ is shrinking the world, and enabling each of us to reach around the world faster and cheaper than ever before! Yes, there have been some dramatic changes and transformation in the world economy, and we are now more connected than ever before, however the world is not flat. (Stiglitz, 2006). Stiglitz in his book ‘Making globalization work’ (2006) touches various aspects of globalization that is destroying the developing countries and their aspirations to provide a decent living to their citizens. He talks about egotistic intellectual property laws, the unfair trade mechanisms and many more critical points to complete success of globalization. Mr Friedman appreciates the existence of global poverty but fails to explain its structural and geopolitical causes.

Anything that relate to Macroeconomic Research Proposal

Anything that relate to Macroeconomic - Research Proposal Example It is observed that illegal Mexican immigrants are less likely to become US citizens. Mexico’s close proximity to the US and noticeable difference in the living standards or life quality between the two countries are the major reasons amplifying the rate of Mexican migration flow to the US. For many Mexican immigrants, just finding a job is the main goal of their migration to US. Statistical data indicate that the rate of illegal migration from communities all throughout Mexico to the US significantly increased during the 1980s. Undoubtedly, illegal immigration has notable effects on the US social system also. This paper will analyze whether or not the illegal Mexican immigration would benefit the US economy. History of Illegal Mexican Immigration The history of illegal Mexican immigration can be dated back to the mid-19th century. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo led to the end of Mexican-American War in 1848 and this treaty reduced the size of Mexico by 45% because Mexico was forced to surrender the land known today as California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah to the United States. Following the war, Americans had to recruit many workers to build a railroad and to enhance other infrastructure development activities. For this, Americans brought roughly 55,000 migrant workers to former Mexican territories during the period 1850-1880. American leaders were happy to welcome Mexican immigrants because those immigrant workers were willing to work under harsh conditions even though they were paid substandard wages. The immigration flow to the US particularly increased from 1910 with the Mexican revolution. During this period, nearly 50,000 Mexican people migrated to the US every year in order to find a job. American leaders welcomed Mexican immigrants with open arms until they realized that the employment difficulties caused was the result of the increased Mexican immigration. In response to the public protests, the US government forcibly deported almost 2 million Mexican immigrants, including native-born Americans, to Mexico in 1929. During the time of the World War II, United States was badly in need of labors and hence the country again encouraged Mexican immigration. Based on the Bracero Program mutually agreed by US and Mexican officials, Mexican workers again migrated to the US until 1964. Since then the US government and corporations has been indirectly encouraging Mexican immigration flow so as to meet their labor needs at cheap costs. As many authors point out, there is an unspoken agreement between illegal Mexican immigrants, the US government, and corporations. Statistics of Illegal Mexican Immigrants According to the American Community Survey, 11,478,000 foreign born Mexican immigrants were residing in the US as of 2009 (as cited in border relations, n. d.). Mexican immigrants constituted 29.8% of all immigrant populations in US in the same year. As Valdes (2012) reported in CNN July 13, report published by the Pew Hispanic Cente r indicates that over 58% of the identified illegal immigrants in the US are Mexicans. Surveys also report that Mexican illegal immigrants mainly reside in states including California, Texas, Florida, and New York. It is observed that the Illegal Mexican population tends to concentrate in a different set of occupations as compared to other illegal population. However, nearly 1.4 million Mexicans including documented and undocumented immigrants moved

People, Organisations and Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

People, Organisations and Leadership - Essay Example These can be explained by looking at the reasons the employees who left the organisation gave for leaving and then analyzing them using popular human motivation theories. The following literature looks at the reasons which the employees gave for leaving and the analysis. Managers who left indicated he following factors as contributing to their need to leave; Isolation As for the junior line managers, one of the main reasons that they gave for leaving was that they felt isolated and that they were not being involved in policy development. Two things arise from this. One of them is the fact that the executive managers failed to involve and consult the junior managers in the development of policies. It is an essential practice to always involve everyone in the organisation in any policy and strategy development process. Failing to do that will only lead to the employees feeling that they were left out in the process and this can increase the possibility of resistance to the strategies d eveloped (Hubbard, Taylor, and Pocknee 1996). At the same time, failing to involve the employees in development of policy and strategy development will only mean that the employees will most likely not agree with the changes (Turner and Crawford 1998). There is no new policy that does not involve a shift of the way the firm is operated. People generally do not like change. People do not trust change processes because they are never sure of how the process will affect their lives and work (Helen 2005). In this regard, people are built to naturally refuse and resist change. This could be the reason why the changes introduced did not work. The other reissue with failing to involve the line managers in the process is that the managers may have felt overlooked. According to Maslow’s law, people’s needs change as their lives progress. In this example for instance, the needs of an employee are not like those of a line manager. A line manager, apart from having a good job and a good pay, would like to have job satisfaction (Cooper, Funnell, and Lee 2002). This job satisfaction comes from knowing that he is respected and recognised by the senior management (Bangs and Schaper 2003). When this recognition is denied him by the senior management when management fails to consult him or her, they may have a feeling that they have not been not respected, and that thus have reduced job satisfaction. At the same time, recognition by the senior management is more likely to offer the manager a way to grow and advance in the workplace. Lack of respect from the juniors The junior line managers who left also talked about the fact that they did not feel respected by the employees they were managing. This can be a particularly big source of job dissatisfaction regardless of how much the managers were earning. Money is not the only satisfaction source in a job because there are other very complex issues affecting satisfaction and motivation (Grenway 2008). This issue is p robably connected with the above issue of isolation. The lack of respect from the subordinates could be because they know that their managers do not have the full backing of the senior management. According to the policy developed, line managers were supposed to have a closer monitoring of the employees in order to increase production. This may have increase worker dissatisfaction because as Turner and Crawford 1998 say, people do not like to be monitored

Working with the nurse in charge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Working with the nurse in charge - Essay Example The attitude of this nurse led me to the realization that just like the patients, the nurses that I will be working with in the future will have different characters and dispositions that I will also need to learn to adjust to if I am to have a successful working relationship with my nurses in order to ensure the proper treatment and overseeing of my patients assigned to them. We only had one patient to take care of so I assisted the nurse with the feeding and performed a head to to assessment of the patient while also doing my part in helping to medicate the patient.   The patient was a 94-year old female who was quite nice to the nurses. Prior to my approaching her, I was warned that she was having trouble distinguishing between persons, places, and the time. However, I did not pick up on any of those traits while I was interviewing her. Rather, I found her to be quite open and entertaining as she spent some time on her phone talking to her 73 year old son who was her primary car e taker. She asked me once to assist her in increasing the volume on her phone while she was using it. She was basically a very nice and cooperative patient who, at the end of my time with her asked me to do only one thing when I asked if there was anything else I could do for her. She replied, â€Å"Yes, just leave me alone.† She asked so nicely that I found myself smiling at her as I accomodated her request.   Basically, the 94 year old patient made what could have been the worst duty day of my life one of the best.  

IRISH POTATO FAMINE SOURCES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IRISH POTATO FAMINE SOURCES - Essay Example However, the increased population created scarcity in land. The number of people was exceeding the available land. The government had to device a way for diving land. The small plots that were issued by the government could only bear the very potato. Population increase and land scarcity can, on a perspective, be said to be the first negative impact that potato brought to Ireland. Since the small land could only contain the potato crop, the people of Ireland solely relied on this crop as the staple food and also as the only source of income from its sales. When the potato blight hit the country, the people had been caught unaware. As their crops were being helplessly destroyed before their eyes by the blight, distress captured the better part of them as they wondered of the available solutions. The blight was taking away the only source of life. The people started to starve due to lack of adequate food. Starvation made the people weak and vulnerable to all kinds of diseases. Typhus, Dysentery and Relapsing fever came upon them like plague (source 3). With the starvation and the emergence of the deadly diseases, life took a horrific turn on many common people. Hardship became a daily companion. The population had shifted their focus from potato farming to working on the public roads (source 2 & 3). A report by Wexford Independent describes the public as low income earner (source 3). The people were working in the extremely cold weather and their wages could not allow them to buy warm clothes. The cold caused the inflammatory of their lungs and fever. The poor salaries made the blanket a rare luxury for these people (source10). These people were also walking long distances and without food to eat. Most of them would drop and die while at work (source2). Thus, the root cause of their tribulations was cold and hunger. The poor Irish crowded the roads, begging

Women Organizations Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Women Organizations - Term Paper Example They have gird up their loins to fight back and find success. They are no longer the victims. Women have gained courage for fighting for their rights, their dignity, identity, freedom and several other factors. And the world has realized that the weaker sex is succeeding, amid the worst crises. Women organizations that fight for women rights uphold the cause of women who are negatively privileged. Organizations supply those valuable intangible tools that encourage women to support themselves and boldly fight for their rights. Women organizations that address women issues help women rebuild their communities and secure their futures. In the United States we can find innumerable women organizations that cry for women’s rights in different spheres of life. Such organizations also exist outside the United States. Almost all countries have organizations that serve as wings for women. These organizations uplift women and make them fight off oppression, violence and poor health. In t he United States Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) is one such organization that strives to uphold the rights of women. The organization attempts to advance the civil rights of women. They have been leading the legal fight for equality of women for more than thirty years. Since 1974, the organization is fighting to gain equal rights and opportunities for women. They attempt to protect and uphold the economic opportunities for females through advocacy and litigation. The litigation initiatives of the organization have helped women achieve the rights to equal opportunity. Passing the legislation will not cannot ensure that women get their rights. Cases should be brought to make sure that rights carried in the legislation are practically enforced. Litigation takes to greater protection of rights under the law. It is a true wake up call for the legislators. United States Equal Rights Advocates is a leader among the women rights associations. The organization aims to establish a world where w omen from all walks of life get good educational and economic opportunities. Women are expected to get equal representation in management and leadership positions. The organization aims women to have employment and workplace equality. The organization strives for women rights so that they are equally treated in private, public and nonprofit sectors. ERA envision a work environment where women are not segregated or oppressed. Equal Rights Advocates attempts to eliminate all illegal discriminatory practices that block the advancement opportunities of women. Equal Rights Advocates demand equal compensation for women. Women are also expected to access all types of occupations. According to Equal Rights Advocates women should get respectful and safe treatment in all spheres of life. The organization wants employers to give women a favorable work environment where women never encounter a harassment or segregation. Work environment must also comply with the safety laws and health rules. Eq ual Rights Advocates say that women should be assisted to gain a proper balance and work life and family life. Equal Rights Advocates demands sufficient family and medical leave for women. Pregnancy protection laws, paid family leave and paid medical leave are also demanded for. The organization keeps a toll-free Advice and counseling phone number so that people get the needed legal information. People can call them for legal information and help. Equal Rights Advocates strives to expand the educational and economic opportunities of women. The organization is a protector of women rights. The organization upholds the rights of negatively privilege women. According to the Executive Director of

Enterprise network architectures constraints Essay

Enterprise network architectures constraints - Essay Example The effective use, utilization, and reliance on enterprise network solutions do not require extra manual labor (Calcraft & Adams, 2007). That is been the case leaders in different organizations prefer using enterprise network solutions in order to save on costs and increased expenses incurred in hiring employees to solve such problems. Enterprise network solutions are considered being an important tool of modeling and reshaping business processes (Gammon, 2010). It is the understanding of organizational leaders that enterprise network technologies are playing huge roles in modern organizations. Such roles take account of mitigating risks through the implementation of designs, which are suitable to an organization, and improving the general performance of the organization to meet future goal. The most common network architectures take account of Collaboration Architecture, the Data Center and Virtualization Architecture and Borderless Networks Architecture (Wolfrum, & Christopher, 2007). These network architectures have been approved by CICSO, and so they are functional and operational in different organizations. The choice of any architecture largely depends with the leader of the organization and the purpose of using it in the organization. Taking a look at the Borderless Networks Architecture, it is evident that basic idea behind it is to develop networks that are capable to exist without any perceivable borders. Such network significantly helps to solve emerging problem easily and automatically. On the contrary, Data Center and Virtualization Architecture has the goal to augment business value all the way through, system excellence, technology innovation, and solution differentiation (Gammon, 2010). The collaborative architecture on the other hand is based on mixture of diverse technologies used in other architectures (Bergman & Steven, 2009). In that manner,

Challenges and security issues Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Challenges and security issues - Research Paper Example Therefore, the organization failed to follow the standards laid down in testing the product before releasing it to the market. That led to the soft ware problem. Laudon (2011) says that in regard to technology, MacAfee’s system failed to detect possible dangers the product was posing to consumers using the windows XP and Service Pack 3, which was widely used in desktop PC configuration. In this case, technological factors played a significant role in MacAfee’s soft ware problem. Question 2 MacAfee lost a significant number of its customers as a result of the software problem. Actually, the company lost loyalty of its key clients after their computers crushed as a result of antivirus updates. According to Laudon (2011), the company lost most of its customers as a result of management’s sluggish response to the crisis, and the company’s initial effort to ignore the issue’s impact to the consumers. MacAfee’s reputation in the corporate business environment was dented as a result of its misleading reaction to the technical hitches on its systems. On the other hand, consumers’ businesses were affected as a result of their computers being crippled. According to Laudon (2011), this slowed down the normal operation of consumers’ businesses; hence leading to loses and idle time in labor. ... This was contrary to the fact that a significant number of clients were affected. Question 4 MacAfee’s management should come up with a set of standards meant to ensure adherence to testing procedures. This will facilitate efforts meant to determining a product’s quality before being released into the market. According to Laudon (2011), this will help to curb any deterrent effect a product may have on consumers. Chapter 8: How Secure is the Cloud Question 1 With respect to the security problem of tracking unauthorized activity, this can be controlled using a cloud vendor. According to Laudon (2011), this is a public company whose mandatory requirement by law is to disclose how it manages information. On the other hand, the problem can be controlled by use of cloud vendor that allow subscribers to choose where their cloud computing work takes place. Question 2 People who contribute to security problems in the cloud include those who hack into data bases and try to access companies’ information. They do this despite the fact that information stored within the subject databases is unauthorized to them. According to Laudon (2011), these people pose a security threat to companies’ information as they subject them to unauthorized alterations. In addition, organizations contribute to unauthorized access as they fail to pay attention to their security practices. Laudon (2011) agrees that they fail to secure their infrastructure. Lastly, the high cost of technology contributes to security problems. That is because of the dynamics and high costs associated with advanced technology. Most firms cannot afford secure systems for them to store and back

The differences between Classical and Modern theater Essay

The differences between Classical and Modern theater - Essay Example In classical theaters, they were open air venues where performances could only be conducted at daytime in daylight (Walton 1987 pg 122-6). On the contrary, the modern theaters are permanent buildings with complete seats. The theaters use modern equipment to compliment the natural implements. The theaters are said to be built with padded seats with a complete enclosure. The performances of the modern theaters take place both at night right from the afternoons. The large part of the design and the presentation is formed by the artificial lights. The classical theaters could evolve to satisfy the ever changing specifications of the events acted (Walton 1987 pg 67-9). It was made in different shapes, sizes and had a variety of functions. While the modern theaters are unnecessarily complex, the classical theaters were just so simple with a great influence on any performance that was conducted on it. In terms of performance, the classical performances sometimes entailed performances that impact on moral negatively as opposed to the modern ones which are endeared towards the theme to the audience (Walton 1987 pg

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Analysis Essay Example for Free

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Analysis Essay Vladimir Nabokov’s choice of subject in his novel Lolita shocked readers, but that was essentially why he chose it. Beetz, states that Nabokov’s first inspiration for the novel came from a newspaper story about an ape â€Å"‘who after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature’s cage’ Nabokov said. As many critics have remarked Lolita is not about sex but about love. Even more it is about obsession-and the destructive power it can hold over the lives of its victims.†(Beetz 2481) Also with out the shock value of Lolita’s risque subject of the â€Å"love story† between a man and his twelve year old step daughter, the book most likely would not have become as famous as it is. As Serafin states, Lolita became very popular underground after it was banned in Europe. The taboo of it being banned mixed with Nabokov’s sparkling wit made Lolita a sensation.(338) As Hart says in the 1950’s peoples attitudes towards sex were still very puritanical and conservative.(158) By exploiting the scandalousness of the violation of the last sexual taboo, the relationship between an adult and child, Nabokov was able to really show the extent of the power of infatuation, love and obsession. As Nabokov shows in his novel Humbert Humbert knows what he is doing to Lolita is wrong, but his burning desire for her drives him to violate his own morals. He even used morals to try and justify his actions, â€Å"The moral sense in mortals is the dutyWe have to pay on mortal sense of beauty†(Nabokov 300) In this quote Humbert dilutes himself into thinking he has a moral obligation to appreciate the beauty that is Lolita, when in reality he has a moral obligation to leave Lolita alone and allow her to have a normal childhood. Another quote in which Nabokov shows how Humbert’s obsession controls him is the following; â€Å"I felt proud of myself. I had stolen the honey of a spasm without impairing the morals of a minor. Absolutely no harm done.†(Nabokov 65) In this quote he is referring to â€Å"pleasuring him self† while near Lolita with out actually touching her. The very nature of his actions show his desperation and it soon become apparent that Humbert’s twisted fantasies will not satiate his obsession for long and that he will act on it and â€Å"impair the morals of a minor†. By using the shock to readers of a relationship between an adult and a child, Nabokov successfully was able to show the extent of what obsession and love can drive a person to do. Humbert’s obsession lead him to ruin the lives of himself, Clare Quilty and the childhood of Lolita. Nabokov choose his taboo subject for Lolita to increase the impact of the character’s actions as driven by his own infatuation.

Factors Influencing Public Policy

Factors Influencing Public Policy As for a good government, the valuable public policy, which refers to the government action or inaction to deal with particular issues, can be regarded as one of the evaluation criterions. Thus, it seems that the process of policy making, turning the government political vision into the actual programs and actions in the real world (Cabinet Office, 1999), becomes significant which should be put on much more emphasis. Especially, good quality policy making depends on high quality information, derived from a variety of sources-expert knowledge; existing domestic and international research; existing statistics; stakeholder consultation; evaluation of previous policies and new research(Cabinet Office, 1999). The high quality information here mainly refers to evidence which becomes more and more important part for the policy making. Even more, the increasing use of various kinds of evidence by government has determined the central role of evidence in policy making for 21st century. The te rm evidence-based policymaking naturally comes up at the same time. Actually, the rise role of evidence in policy making does have its own reasons. As the development of modern society, the growth of well-educated and well-informed public cast their interest to the exact information provided by the government and ask why. Thus in certain distance, it facilitates the government to explore the precise data of all types with the help of developed information technology(Davies, Nutley and Smith, 2000). Whats more, an increasing demand on accountability in government spurs on the significance of evidence in a democratic society. Due to the above reasons, in UK the Blair Government, who was elected on the basis of What matters is what works, announced that to produce policies that really deal with problems, that are forward-looking and shaped by evidence rather than a response to short-term pressure, that tackles causes; not symptoms(Modernising Government, 1999 White Paper), and demonstrated that it was a good time for the new government to begin evidenc e based- approach to public policy (Gary Banks AO, 2009), At the same time, they built a new relationship between social science and government as well as pointed out that public policy had to be driven by evidence. So, what exactly does evidence mean? UK Cabinet office defines it as analysis of the outcome of consultation, costings of policy options and the results of economic or statistical modeling(Cabinet Office, 1999) According to Chambers Dictionary, evidence consists of results of systematic investigation towards increasing the sum of knowledge (Davies, Nutley and Smith, 2000). Both two definitions can be divided into four kinds serving for policy making: descriptive data, analytic findings, evaluative evidence, and policy analytic forecasts(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). Descriptive data is a tool to show objects condition, location, relation and direction of change. Consider, for instance, before the Hong Kong Government introduced the environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags, amount of data are collected to show the increasing danger brought by the plastic bags. 3-the average number of plastic bags is used by Hong Kong people per day. 13,503-the number of tons of solid waste is disposed of at landfills per day (EPD Hong Kong, 2009). 20 to 1000-the years are needed to decompose the plastic bag. From the exact data, government could clearly see the negative environmental affect caused by the plastic bag. Thus, governments policy is made on the basis of large and comprehensive data. The second kind is analytic findings which refer to the identified information conducted by an academic research and analysis system, discovering the relationship between factors and current situations(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). Also in the same policy-the environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags, after academic analysis, we can conclude that the low environmental consciousness of public endangers the situation of indiscriminate use of plastic bags. The analytic findings are the direction for seeking positive solutions in the process of policy making. Evaluation serves for directly examining the existing policies in other countries or places, and then selectively choo sing for own use. Taiwan, as one of the pioneers in environmental protection, provides valuable experience for the Hong Kong Government enacting the plastic bag levy scheme. After evaluating positive and negative sides of Taiwans Restricted Use Policy on Plastic Shopping Bags and Disposable Plastic Tableware (Our Groups Essay on Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags, 2009), the HK Government adopts the same policy of restricted use of plastic shopping bags while temporarily abandons the unavailable policy on plastic tableware. The last one is policy analytic forecasts. In common situations, analyst will calculate and predict the potential cost and benefits of the coming policy. The report of prediction will influence the final release of the new policy(Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001). In short, these four kinds of evidence are used as the basis of the government policy making. Nevertheless, no matter how important evidence is, in the process of policy making, its nature has several limitations and difficulties. According to Gary Banks research on evidence-based policy making, methodology the government choose, data deficiency or overload, evidence transparency, people who research and analyze evidence, and the limited time to do the data collection are all the potential factors to influence the effectiveness of evidence used in policy making(Gary Banks AO, 2009). Sometimes, quantitative data could be collected, but that does not mean they are the real valuable data needed. The increase use of plastic shopping bags has no necessary correlation with the heavy air pollution problem. Thus, the evidence for air pollution should directly from car emission, industrial emission, waste deposition, etc. People with diverse political value or interest could be not reluctant to accept the evidence which obeys their interest. Whats more, even for the policy makers, the y would like to set the mode of policy first and then look for confirmation evidence. In this sense, evidence only can be regarded as one of the crucial factors in policy making. It will be much more appropriate to call that evidence-influenced policy making( H.K. Wongs lecture note). In addition, other three main factors-political, economic and social factors, also have a intensive power to affect the complex process of policy making. Politics here concerns with political system and crisis. On one hand, as we know, the stable political system determines the usual way of the government policy making. From the first beginning of policy proposal to the consultation and to the final policy making, every step complies with a certain regulate with minor change. Moreover, the same as the steady political system, political ideology and beliefs also become the major elements to force the policy made(Philip Davies, 2004). On the other hand, crisis explosion becomes the direct primacord to urge the government to enact and implement a new policy in the immediate time. After the explosion of the global financial crisis, once the economic situation in Hong Kong got worse rapidly, and the Hong Kong Government carried out series of policy to stimulate the recovery and development of economy. In the 2009-2010 Budget, the government introduced several measures to ensure the stability of financial institutions and the market to bols ter public confidence in our financial systems, including the provision of liquidity assistance to the banking system and the establishment of a Contingent Bank Capital Facility(The 2009-2010 Budget of Hong Kong). Meanwhile, in order to decrease the unemployment rate caused by the financial crisis, the Hong Kong Government also sustained the provision of more than 60000 employment chances, increased the recruitment of civil servants, and closely cooperated with Guangdong Province to create more jobs(The 2009-2010 Budget of Hong Kong). Thus, it seems that in some certain situations, political factors are more available than evidence which needs time to collect and analyze. The economy is often closely connected with the politics. The long-standing development of economy should base on valuable policies. In every years policy address, economic policy is the most important one. According to the specific economic situations, the government have emphasised their policy on different aspects. For instance, when the Hong Kong market was heavily hit by the financial tsunami, the policy emphasis are placed on how to cope with it and how to recover this year. This is why the government make great effort to stabilize the financial system, support enterprises and preserve employment(2009-2010 Policy Address). Comparing to the previous year, there was no financial tsunamis hitting, the Hong Kong Government focused more on 10 large-scale Infrastructure Projects which aimed to improve Hong Kongs transportation and link up socio-cultural and business activities with more efficient transportation systems(2007-2008 Policy Address). When talking about economic factors, w e should notice that every policy is restricted within the government finance. As we know, if the budget of a policy is largely beyond the governments financial endurance after exact calculation and the cost effectiveness/efficiency system, the policy will be cut off. Social factors here include experience and judgement of policy makers, habit and tradition, pressure groups and consultants(Philip Davies, 2004). Normally, the experience and judgement of policy makers are precious conclusion on the basis on the previous policy success or failure, embodying rational capital and tacit knowledge(Philip Davies, 2004). They are consider as an influence factor. Actually, the use of experience and judgement often appears in the condition where the evidence is incomplete or non-existent(Grimshaw, et al, 2003). It can be regarded as a complement for evidence in the process of policy making. Habit and tradition constitutes another social factor affecting policy making. Some institutions stagnate due to the unchanging habit and tradition. They refuse to make and implement new policy to stimulate the development of themselves. To a certain extent, Changing traditional and habitual ways of doing things to accommodate the forces of rationality and modernity prese nts a major challenge for policy making(Philip Davies, 2004). The last social factor-pressure groups and consultants, increasingly influence the policy making in the current days. The fast development of think tanks in society, they have already deeply penetrated into the politics. Especially when a policy contradicts with think-tanks and pressure groups interest, their opinions are powerful enough to affect the policy making. In a word, all the above factors come together to influence the process of policy making. Evidence, political, economic and social factors supplement with each other, preparing for the fully consideration of policy making. However, factors come together here does not mean that every factor should become one necessary part in a policy. In most conditions, there are only two or three factors influence the policy making. Now, I will analyze how these factors come together to affect policy making within one case. Small Class Teaching in Hong Kong is a typical case which could prove many elements come together to influence policy making. As the development of modern knowledge-based society, more and more requirements are raised on education system and method. Especially, for the comprehensive development of younger generation, it is commonly supposed that small class with smaller number of students per class is much more helpful than the normal large class in primary and secondary school. As for the teachers in small class, they could reduce their heavy workload, pay more attention to every individual student and then teach students according to their ability. For the student, in small class they would have more opportunities to communicate with teachers and classmates, participant in class activities and get more immediate feedback of their own study from teachers(Group 2s Essay on Small Class Teaching). Since July 1998, an oral question on class size in primary and secondary schools was first raised by Hon Cheung Man-kwong in the Legislative Council. Till 2007, the Chief Executive finally announced that the small class teaching would be launch in 2009/10 school year in his 2007-2008 Policy Address. During the long period of policy making, in order to collect more resource as well as considering some controversy issues concerned with the small class teaching, the government conducted a pilot study in primary school with effectiveness strategies of class and group teaching in 2003/04 school year and another scheme in primary schools with high concentration of disadvantaged pupils with effect from 2005/06 school year. During the study, amount of feedback and quantitative data have been collected from teachers and students through the way of questionnaire. Qualitative data, carefully analyzed through systematic lesson observations and case studies, get a conclusion that schools and teac hers have not really benefited a lot from the small class teaching (Group 2s essay on Small Class Teaching). Even though the final result of the study has not been released to the public, from the aspect of evidence, it can be regarded as a good way to start. In addition, the evaluation and experience-learning on the basis of overseas experience is also a kind of evidence. The United State is a successful example on the implementation of small class teaching, who conducts specific cost-effectiveness analysis and fully considers the allocation of funds, the target popularity, the class size and so on(Group 2s essay on Small Class Teaching). From the aspect of social factors, most of academic and parents representatives concurred with the policy of small class teaching with the reasons that teachers should be professionally trained and care more about individual students need. Moreover, political parties such as Democratic Party and Liberal Party, also agreed with the implementation of this policy. Thus, a great major of stakeholders were unanimous the implementation of small class teaching which they believed students and teachers would benefit a lot from it. In this sense, the strong opinions for stakeholders have a certain impact on the whole policy process. From the aspect of political factors, in 2002, the Consolidating High Cost and Under-utilized Primary Schools policy was introduced by Education and Manpower Bureau, leading to a threaten to amount of teachers jobs. Thousands of teachers hold a march and protested against the policy in July 2003(SING TAO, 2003). This political pressure became one element to influence the making of small class teaching policy. Originally, the Hong Kong Government attempted to practice evidence-based policy making by conducting the pilot study, evaluating and analyzing the research as well as learning from overseas experience. However, political and social factors partially become the elements of affecting the policy making. Thus, evidence in this case is still the most important factor and the policy of small class teaching could be called evidence-influenced policy. To conclude, in the complex process of policy making, evidence as well as the political, economic and social factors constitutes the influence elements. On one hand, Evidence, by means of descriptive data, analytic findings, evaluative evidence, and policy analytic forecasts, occupies the most significant position in policy making. On the other hand, to some extent, the limitations and difficulties of evidence restrict the policys formation. It leads to the evidence-influenced policy, instead of evidence-based policy. Yet, the existence of the political, economic and social factors makes up the limitation of evidence in a certain distance. They all serve for the whole policy process. Reference Cabinet Office, 1999, Professional Policy-Making for the Twenty-First Century, Strategic Policy Making Team, London, Cabinet Office. http://www.civilservant.org.uk/profpolicymaking.pdf ( accessed on 18 November, 2009) Cabinet Office, 1999a, Modernising Government, White Paper, London, Cabinet Office. Carmen, Fiona, Helen, Gloria, Selin and Yvonne, November 2009, Group Paper: Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags Carol Hirschon Weiss, 2001, What Kind of Evidence in Evidence-Based Policy? Third International, Inter-disciplinary Evidence-Based Policies and Indicator Systems Conference, July 2001 http://www.cemcentre.org/Documents/CEM%20Extra/EBE/EBE2001/P284-291%20Carol%20Weiss.pdf (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Chau Kam Yan, Hon Heung-Kwan, Kung Tin Ho, Leung Lok-Sum, So Tsit, October 2009, Group Essay on Small Class Teaching Donald Tsang, 2007, Policy Address 2007-2008: A New Direction for Hong Kong, policyaddress.gov.hk, http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/07-08/eng/agenda.html (accessed on 20 November, 2009) Donald Tsang, 2009, Policy Address 2009-2010: Breaking New Ground Together, policyaddress.gov.hk, http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/09-10/eng/index.html (accessed on 20 November, 2009) Environmental Protection Department Hong Kong, 2009. Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags. http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/env_levy.html (accessed on 3 November, 2009) Gary Banks AO, 2009, Challenges of Evidence-Based Policy-Making, Australia Public Service Commission, http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications09/evidencebasedpolicy.htm (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Grimshaw, J.M., Thomas, R.E., MacLennan, G., Fraser, C., and Ramsay, C.R., 2003, Effectiveness and Efficiency of Guideline Dissemination and Implementation Strategies, Final Report, Aberdeen, Health Services Research Unit. H.K. Wong, 2009, Lecture Note 3: The Rhetorics and Reality of EBPM Hum Davies, Sandra Nutley and Peter Smith, 2000, Introducing Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Public Services, In What Works? Evidence Based Policy and Practice in the Public Services, Chapter One, 1-11, Bristol: Policy Press John Tsang Chun-wah, 2009, the 2009-2010 Budget, http://www.budget.gov.hk/2009/eng/speech.html (accessed on 19 November, 2009) Philip Davies, 2004, Is Evidence-Based Government Possible? To be presented at the 4th Annual Campbell Collaboration Colloquium, Washington D.C., 19 February 2004 http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/policyhub/downloads/JerryLeeLecture1202041.pdf (accessed on 20 November, 2009) http://www.singtao.com/archive/fullstory.asp?andor=oryear1=2003month1=07day1=21year2=2003month2=07day2=21category=allid=20030721a01keyword1=keyword2= (accessed on 20 November, 2009)

Concept of perceived effective leadership

Concept of perceived effective leadership The literature review will focus on two dimensions of literature. The first is to look at the kind of leadership that is termed as effective by looking at numerous definition of leadership and the conceptualization of leader effectiveness done by previous studies as well as conceptualization by Kouzes and Posner (2002) in which he measured effective leadership using his Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). The second is to look at the definition of integrity and how it is conceptualized and measured from the perspective of leadership. To this, the author wishes to use the Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS) developed by Craig and Gustafson (1998) as previous studies indicated that it is one of the reliable ways to measure integrity from perspective of leadership. Having the two components of this study defined, this paper also attempted to explain the theory underlying the relationship between the two components based on previous studies. This chapter critically and selectively reviews the concept of perceived effective leadership and perceived integrity in leadership and their relationship from published journals and articles. The author believes that this could be useful for understanding and the development of theoretical models. 2.2. Effective leadership As public organizations are facing an increasingly complex environment due to globalization, advancement in technology and communication, more diverse workforce, the need to meet and satisfy citizens and customers satisfaction through high-quality services, the outcry for effective leadership in public organizations has become crystal-clear though it has been contended that effective leaders with integrity are often lacking in organizations (Haberfeld, 2006; Rowe, 2006) to bring the desired impact. Previous research indicated that leadership is a complex process and leadership theories have been defined and developed substantially over the last decades and as claimed by Bennis and Nanus (1985) cited in Olu Oyinlade (2006) that leadership had been defined by researchers in over 350 different ways in the 30 years prior to 1985. This was also agreed by Bass in 1990 who stated that there seems to be many definitions of leadership than the number of researchers striving to study the concept. According to Conger (1992) also cited in Olu Oyinlade that so far there is no single agreed-upon definition as leadership is largely an intuitive concept and this is agreed by Bennis (2007) that recent research suggests there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. The most common so far of leadership theories are the traits theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory, and leader-member exchange (LMX), the transformational and transactional theory. Due to the vast definitions of leade rship, Bass (1990) cited in Schafer (2009) hinted and pinpointed some common unifying theory implying that leadership is the persuasive power and ability to influence group of people or individuals or other behaviours in an coordinated manner to achieve some pre-determined goal. Kouzes and Posner (2004) defined leadership by their followers and it involves a relationship between those who want to lead and those who choose to follow. They suggested that any discussion of leadership should follow this norm of relationship. Kouzes and Posners assertion for leaders and followers relationship is based on followers perception and they normally depend upon leaders for collective success. Thus, the implication to follow good leaders is high and to follow bad leaders is too costly as it cannot be denied that some leaders are often tempted and lured to manipulate their position for personal gain (Van Vugt et al., 2008). Previous studies on followers assessment of leadership focused on the behaviours associated with effective leadership and past findings also indicated that dimensions of what they call as effective leadership vary from instrument to instrument of research. To this, prior study by Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002) in citing Bass (1985) in their study on Perceived integrity of transformational leaders in organisational settings suggested that effective leadership can be related to transformational leadership behaviours of idealized influence, inspiring motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration which are very much admired and could become respected role-model. The researchers used Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS) by Craig and Gustafson (1989) to measure leaders integrity and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass (1985) to measure transformational leadership involving a sample 1,354 out of 6,025 managers throughout New Zealand and fou nd a strong positive relationship between perceived integrity and demonstration of transformational leadership behaviours. However, this study will not apply the MLQ as an instrument to measure effective leadership as it is criticised on the ground that it lacks ability to measure accurately and distinguish the four dimensions of transformational leadership from one another (Bycio, Hackett Allen, 1995; Tepper and Percy, 1994; Tracey Hinkin, 1998; Yammarino Dubinsky, 1994) although it has been widely used in many investigations of transformational and transactional leadership (Den Hartog, Van Muijen Koopman , 1997). Some theorists also raised questions regarding the notion that transformational leadership may not necessarily lead followers to higher ethical ground but instead may lead to unethical and immoral direction (Giampetro, Brown, Browne Kubasek, 1998; Yukl, 1998) as cited in Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002). This has given rise to another dimension of transformational leadership in what Bass and Steidlmeier (1999) called as authentic which refers to real ethical leader and pseudo-transformational which is unlikely to be ethical leader. This notion of transformational leader related to effective leadership will not be applied in this study as some researcher like Ciulla (1995) raised the issue of Hitler problem who argued that Hitler must not be in the same category as Martin Luther King, Jr. though the Nazis during his time might have treated him to be effective and transformational. The idea of charismatic leadership too will not be related to effective leadership in this study although Conger and Kanungo (1998) described charismatic leaders to possess all the qualities of vision, drive, passion and ability of leaders to inspire their followers into action. But Bass (1985) argued that charismatic leaders often lead to dictatorship than real leaders with inclusion of qualities such as narcissism, manipulation of people and defensiveness in the example such as Hitler and Mussolini. To this, Kouzes and Posner (1988) came up with their Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) to conceptualize leadership behaviours associated with leader effectiveness based on five dimensions of practices: Modelling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, Enabling Others to Act, and Encouraging the Heart. The construction of LPI is although not designed for transformational or transactional leadership styles, but the instruments contents of different scales may from subordinates point of view contains elements of transformational and transactional leadership styles (Fields Herold, 1997). Other studies indicated an increase in perception of effective leadership can lead to an increase in subordinate and organizational effectiveness. To this, researchers like Jaussi and Dionne (2004) in their study on Unconventional leader behaviour, subordinate satisfaction, effort and perception of leader effectiveness cited Bass (1990) claimed that an increased in perception of leader effectiveness can lead to elevated subordinate performance which in turn can enhance organizational effectiveness as one the three outcomes documented in previous leadership literature. As there are too many literatures associated with effective leadership, this paper only attempted to use the term effective leadership as derived by Kouzes and Posner (2002) through his Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and the dimensions that articulate and explain effective leadership. The reason as to why practices are selected rather than traits and characteristics of leadership is based on the understanding of leaders behaviour through the role theory that can provide insight and understanding on how roles and behaviours influence subordinates behaviour. Role has been defined as a socially specified pattern of behaviour that accompanies a particular position within a social context (Deaux Wrightsman, 1988) cited in Huse (1998). In another definition, roles are also the combination of expectations and performances on the part of those who are interacting with each other (Neal, 1983). Hooijberg and Quinn (1992) also stated that in order to increase their effectiveness, leaders may perform and execute variety of leadership roles and practices in the organizational setting. Another reason for the role theory to be accepted and not the traits theory is because previous literatures on the traits theory popularised in 1930s only explained leadership effectiveness by means of natural characteristics, skills and abilities such as self-efficacy, decisiveness, and interpersonal competences to be associated with organizational effectiveness. But this theory has been subjected to criticism on the ground that this theory lacks predictive power in linking leadership traits to performance (Stogdill, 1948). Consequently, in 1940s and 1950s, the leadership behaviour theory was introduced to explain leadership effectiveness based on leaders behaviours and practices they should play to provide new perspective on understanding leadership effectiveness (Steers, Porter Bigley, 1996) cited in Oyinlade (2006). The theory explains that the behaviour of the leader occurs within the context of various roles and practices the leader plays. This further justifies why leadership practices and behaviours are important to influence subordinates behaviour and this also helps to explain that the effectiveness of the leader is influenced by his/her roles obligations and expectations. 2.3. Measurement of effective leadership In a study done in 2008 to more than 1,000 police supervisors attending the FBI National Academy (NA) in Quantico, Virginia which involved 1,042 of the 1,071 (97.3 percent) NA attendees completed all or part of the survey, the survey concluded that efficacy of police chiefs who are effective leaders was most strongly linked with integrity, work ethic, communication, and care for personnel while ineffective leaders were characterized as failing to express these traits or were characterized as suffering from questionable ethics and integrity. The study revealed that 37.5 percent of respondents ranked honesty and integrity as the most important characteristics of an effective leader. The study also acknowledged that development of effective leaders and leadership practices is a persistent problem in policing (Schafer, 2009) A study done in 2008 involving a total of 1,000 high public school teachers in Amman, Jordan which studied the behaviours of their principals using Kouzes and Posners LPI has shown that 550 school teachers represent 55 per cent of the targeted respondents of 1,000 have assessed their principals as moderately practising Kouzes and Posners leadership practices model and identified them as transformational which is also associated with effective leadership (Abu-Tineh et.al. 2008). 2.4. Integrity Integrity is a concept commonly discussed in a formal and informal way and usually associated with leadership and organisational theory, but it is yet to be defined and theoretically understood (Rieke Guastello, 1995) as cited in Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002). Previous definitions on integrity indicated that integrity has been defined in different manner and in different forms due to different lines of research by previous researchers. This was conceded by Hooijberg et.al (2010) that the complexity regarding its meaning and interpretation makes it difficult to be understood. Hence, its broad dimensions had led to many researchers to associate it with ethics, honesty, trust, credibility, and character that have been used and applied interchangeably in many past literatures (Hooijberg et.al., 2010; Becker, 1998; Yukl Van Fleet, 1990); Kouzes and Posner (2002); Ciulla (2004). In 2007 and 2009, Palanski and Yammarino cited in Hooijberg et. al. who successfully found evidence of rela tionship between integrity and honesty also asserted that it involves matching deeds to words, a sense of morality and that it lies in the eyes of the beholder. This was shared by Kirkpartrick and Locke (1991) and Covey (1992) described integrity as walking the talk with no desire other than for the good of others. This was supported by Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman, (1995) by stating that integrity should be more than walk the talk but is associated to an individuals full commitment to underlying principles. For Kolthoff et al. (2010) stated integrity has its foundation in ethics and Lawton (1998) asserted that ethics and integrity encapsulate a code of conduct as basis for actions. Notably some examples of ethics violation in public organizations include lying, cheating, rule-bending, stealing public property, harming others and so on (Ciulla, 2004). For Van der Wal; Huberts; Van Den Heuvel and Kolthoff (2006), they described integrity within organizational context to constitute wholeness and in the Latin word -integritas which means acting according to moral values, norms and rules and which must take place within the context and environment in which one works or operates and accepted by the members of the organisation. For integrity also means trust as Bennis (1989) stated that integrity is the basis of trust and Simons (1999) in asserting that trust of subordinates in leaders behaviours is very important suggested behavioural integrity (BI) rather than self-perceived integrity or any statement on integrity as the main focus research on integrity to describe leaderships style and behaviours as there often mismatch between actual values and enacted values of leaders behaviour. The author duly admits that this has been the common flaw in public service where leaders normally ignore subordinates trust and in many instances they do not need subordinates trust as they probably feel proud to helm public organizations and hence could have acted on their own for selfish gain. It is here that mistrust and dishonesty exist within public organizations and as Kolthoff et al. (2010) pointed out that integrity is affected. Other researchers like Padilla, Hogan, and Kaiser (2007) also believed and argued that the occurrences of corruption, unethical and bad behaviours, mismanagement and so on perpetrated by people in position of power appointed in public organizations can be traced to issues of integrity. That is why integrity must be perceived as a moral courage and the will and willingness public servants ought to do and to go against what is not right and believes to be wrong (Kolade, 1999). How integrity is important for leadership? Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991); Kouzes and Posner (2002) cited in Hooijberg et.al (2010) asserted that integrity is not only good for organizations but also to be an important trait of leaders. Becker (1998) argued that excellent leaders are people viewed and perceived to be high in integrity because they do not want to gain something out of organizational resources for selfish reasons. This is consistent with Badaracco and Ellsworths (1990) notion that leaders with values and integrity normally make decisions in accordance with the enacted values of the organization and for Kouzes and Posner, (2002) added that leaders with integrity would be able to convince followers that they are worth to be followed. While Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) cited in Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002) also stated that integrity in leadership has become an increasing concern for business and organisations. To this, many theorists now believe that leadership without i ntegrity may put the organisations at risk, (Morgan, 1993; Mowday, Porter Steers, 1982; Posner Schmidt, 1984). Perhaps, the most important definition of integrity related to leadership was given by Tan Sri Mohd. Sidek Hassan who is the Chief Secretary to the government of Malaysia in his speech dated 25 Mac 2009 that integrity can be defined as continuous adherence to moral principles, honesty, wholeness, the quality of being unimpaired; soundness. He also reminded civil servants on the need to instil integrity especially on the role of leadership in public institutions in order to deliver high quality of service delivery (http://www.pmo.gov.my/ksn/?frontpage/speech/detail/1512. accessed 5th April 2011). From the so many definitions of integrity mentioned above, it is clear that integrity plays an important role in establishing and maintaining high ethical standards in public organizations but it must start with the top echelon of the organizations which must be perceived to have integrity as without it the whole system and existing reform measures will be meaningless. 2.5. Measurement of integrity Hogan and Kaiser (2010) in their study on How to assess (not to assess) the integrity of managers stated that various attempts have been made in the past to assess and measure integrity in leadership including using the Big Five Personality Theory as researcher like Allport (1937) and other moral philosophers linked leaders integrity to personality and they believed that leaders personality could influence individuals and groups behaviours. To this, measurement of leaders personality using The Big Five Personality theory was a questionable issue related to how sound the integrity test works with leaders (Howard Thomas, 2010) and although it can predict counterproductive work behaviour based on the three dimensions of personality theory: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability; but it does not measure counterproductive behaviours. Another critic for the theory was by Mischel (1977) who suggested that personality is most important in weak situations and of course in s trong situation it could provide solid cues about leaders appropriate behaviour which resulted in peoples supportive actions. Hogan and Kaiser (2010) also stated that another measurement technique linked integrity to leaders competency model theory and by using the data that delivered subordinates ratings of 672 directors and vice presidents employed by a Fortune 500 technology firm in the United States, this method defines integrity as a leadership competency and measures it using co-worker ratings of observed ethical behaviour. The test used 23-items to measure five competencies and integrity is one of them. The result of the competency test found that the behavioural ratings suggested only a negligible proportion of managers may have integrity issues and do not identify leaders with integrity issues as most of the items in the questionnaire only reflect the desirable end of integrity construct. The study also did not differentiate between high and low-performing managers, and hence cannot be used as an appropriate measurement to identify leaders with integrity issues. What have been done by previous measurements only focused on positive behaviours of managers that might not have been able to identify leaders with integrity issues. However, using Craig and Gustafson (1998) measurement technique of Perceived Leader Integrity Scale (PLIS) which focussed on perception of unethical behaviours of leaders using only a short version of 8-items questionnaire survey rather than 32-items, Hogan and Kaiser (2010) in their study using data from 80 employed MBA students at a university in the South-Eastern United States has proven that this technique is a reliable way of assessing leaders with potential integrity issues as correlation and regression analyses using the PLIS suggested that trust and leaders integrity is the primary determinant of employee attitudes and effective leadership perceptions. Apart from using PLIS, Hogan and Kaiser also used Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) developed by Stogdill (1963) in the study to assess the leaders effectiveness via two-factor of leaders behaviour, that is, Initiating Structure and Consideration scales (10-items for each scale) and found that PLIS is the strongest predictor of all the three predictors and another result indicated that leader perceived integrity was highly correlated with consideration rather than initiating structure which means leaders need to pay more attention to the needs of the subordinates. So, this study will use the PLIS to measure perceived leaders integrity from subordinates assessment in the focus area, that is, the selected Sabah states agencies in Kota Kinabalu. 2.6. Relationship between effective leadership and perceived integrity Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002) in their study on Perceived Integrity of Transformational Leaders in Organisational Settings involving 1,354 useable samples out of 6,025 managers in private and public organizations throughout New Zealand using both PLIS and MLQ to measure perceived leader integrity and effectiveness respectively found that there was positively significant correlation between leader perceived integrity and a range of leader effectiveness measures in which leader effectiveness was measured with items such as satisfaction with leadership, perceived leader effectiveness, extra efforts from followers and motivation of followers. A study done by Hooijberg et.al in 2010 involving 175 bureau chiefs and directors of a state government agency in the North-eastern USA taking part in a leadership-training program using 20-items survey of Competing Values Framework (CVF) to assess managers effectiveness through eight leadership roles: Producer, Director, Coordinator, Monitor, Mentor, Facilitator, Innovator and as Broker revealed that integrity has an above impact of leadership effectiveness followed by honesty and goal-orientation is the leadership role that bosses highly associated with leaders effectiveness. In addition to the above studies, other past literatures on the study of leadership focussed on the impact of leadership on organization and indicated it was the leaderships role to protect and enhance the invulnerability of public agencies to threats of integrity as suggested by Selznick (1957) that the integrity of the institution is vulnerable to corruption if the leader fails to protect the institutions distinctive values, competence and role. The importance of leaders to demonstrate integrity was also studied by Gray (1985) and Fiedler (1995) as cited in Huse (1998) who argued that leaders will inspire others when they demonstrated integrity. This shows that leadership with integrity is vital to protect organizations vulnerability to corruption as well as to inspire others to behave in a forthright and open-manner and lead the organization into the future which is part of leaders demonstration of integrity. The study by OECD in 2005 on Public Sector Integrity: A Framework for assessment regarding perception of integrity in all its member countries such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Germay, Japan and host of other countries indicated that integrity in public agencies starts at the top and through leaders actions and behaviour. Instilling a culture of integrity has to come from the top such as the senior management, head of department, governing board etc. Leaders in public organizations must keep integrity at the forefront activities so that employees can take their cues and examples from the top. Other research also has shown that supervisors or leaders are the primary influence on the ethical behaviours of their subordinates (Morgan, 1993; Posner Schmidt, 1984). Their contention is based on the belief that as integrity is also about ethical behaviours, this indicates that if leaders exercise ethical behaviour this will lead to larger implications on subordinates behaviours and behaviours of others in the organization. To this, an effective leadership must lead the initiatives to create an atmosphere where individuals in the organization feel safe to move forward to becoming an ideal and competitive organization. But this will depend on the leaderships beliefs in motivation and competitive spirit of all members in the organization on the adherence to values of honesty, ethics, and trust. What is important is a statement by Morgan (1993) who emphasized the ethical leaderships positive impact on organisational effectiveness will result in ethical development which is very important to the leaders success. Morgan also found that followers perception of leaders ethics was positively related to their perceptions of leaders effectiveness. 2.7. Summary of Literature Review Based on the numerous definitions of integrity given by previous researchers such as Becker (1998), integrity is conceptualized as similar to honesty, trust, ethics, matching words with deeds and actions, and a commitment in actions to set of principles and values. In other words, integrity is about something ethical and morality in words and in actions in accordance with existing norms, cultures, values, processes, rules and laws in which managers and leaders in public organizations must adhere to in order to create and maintain public trust. Previous studies indicated that effective leadership can be conceptualized and perceived using Kouzes and Posners (2002) Leadership Practices Inventory or LPI which emphasizes on leadership practices in five dimensions : Inspiring Vision, Model the Way, Challenge the process, Enable others to act and Encourage the heart. Recent study by Abu-Tineh et.al (2008) done in 2008 in Amman, Jordan involving a sample of 550 school teachers resulted in the school teachers assessed their school principals as having practiced Kouzes and Posners leadership practices and has identified them as transformational which is also related to effective leadership. The leaders integrity can be perceived by using Craig and Gustafsons (1998) Perceived Leader Integrity Scale of PLIS in which Parry and Proctor-Thomson in 2002 has conducted a study on a sample of 1,354 private and public managers in New Zealand using PLIS and found a moderate to positive relationship between perceived leader integrity and transformational leadership behaviours measured using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Other previous literatures also pinpointed to the needs for perceived effective leadership to possess moral values such as honesty, trust and ethics or in other words integrity to maintain trust and create followers positive perception of leaders effectiveness and integrity to bring the desired impact to the organizations.

The roles of pride and prejudice in Pride and Prejudice Essay -- Jane

Becoming an immediate success in the contemporary novel public in early nineteenth century, Pride and Prejudice has proved to be the most popular of Jane Austen's novels and remains a classic masterpiece two centuries later. The title itself describes the underlying theme of the book. Pride and prejudice, intimately related in the novel, serve as challenges to the cherished love story of Darcy and Elizabeth. It is interesting to see how these two nice people were blinded before realizing that they are an ideal couple. Material for situations, characters and themes in Jane Austen?s novels are founded in her own surroundings ? countryside, parishes, neighborhood. Although written in her early twenties, Pride and Prejudice reflects Austen?s thorough understandings of her society on the matters of money, marriage, behaviors and love. Let us look at the general ideas of what pride is and what prejudice is. Pride is a strong sense of self-respect, rather is to think of oneself higher than anyone and everyone else and prejudice is a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation. The novel was originally entitled First Impressions, which significantly contributes to the love story of Darcy and Elizabeth the way it goes. Pride and prejudice in the novel are all based upon the first impressions the two characters got from each other. Darcy, a quiet and rather cold noble man with large estates, is too proud of his position to pay attention to Elizabeth who is of poor social status while Elizabeth, a lively, pretty and clever girl, has prejudice against Darcy?s proud behaviors. It is in their first meeting pride and prejudice have shaped their relationship as it goes on later. Contrary to his wish, Darcy fa... ...hen Darcy puts aside his vanity to pursue his treasured love and Elizabeth is no longer too prejudiced to understand his feelings and behaviours, they are perfectly matched. I believe that they would share a happy life together, because their love comes from the appreciation of dignity, not money nor social position nor anything else of material values. Darcy and Elizabeth?s love seems to imply that Jane Austen views love as something independent from social conventions. There are nothing so powerful difficulties to their relationship as their own pride and prejudice. Once these internal obstacles fade away, they obviously become an ideal couple. They are equal in intellect, have attraction and tender love for each other, empathy and romance. With the central characters? beautiful love, Jane Austen suggests that you should only marry someone who is your soulmate.

Pablo Casals: Internationally Renowned Cellist Essay -- Biography Bio

Pablo Casals: Internationally Renowned Cellist Pablo Casals (sometimes called his original name Pau Carlos Salvidor Defillo De Casals) was one of, if not, the greatest cellists in history. Casals is easily recognized as one of the master soloists of classical music and he has many accomplishments in his many years as a public figure that have made him internationally renowned. Casals was born in Vendrell, Spain on December 29, 1876. He received his very first music lessons from his father (a music teacher), on the violin. A four years after that, at the age of twelve, Casals realized he would much rather play the cello instead, and begin lessons with that instrument. After nine years of study on the playing and the designing of the instrument at the Madrid Conservatory, Casals decided to improve the sound of the cello by making important modifications on the techniques of playing it. For this first accomplishment Casals made, which he thought of simply as "necessary to my performance", Pablo Casals was widely acclaimed as a master. He recei...

Winesburg Ohio Critical Analysis Essay -- Critical Analysis

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Written by Sherwood Anderson in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories, allows us to enter the alternately complex, lonely, joyful, and strange lives of the inhabitants of the small town of Winesburg, Ohio. While each character finds definition through their role in the community, we are witness to the individual struggle each faces in trying to reconcile their secret life within. A perfect example of two characters are Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson. The loneliness and illusion that encompass the lives of Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson are the result of the discrepancy between their own capacity for intimacy and affection and the inability of others to truly understand them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the short story, â€Å"Adventure†, Alice Hindman lives a life full of illusions and loneliness. Alice is a very quiet person on the exterior while a passion boils underneath. Alice Hindman is limited by life denying truths and guilty of allowing them to run her life. She believes in love and tradition absolutely. Alice’s blindness to the changing social mores limits her capacity to progress forward in life. She become consumed instead by the idea of herself and her memories. â€Å"It is not going to come to me. I will never find happiness. Why do I tell myself lies?† (Anderson 117). If she cannot have Ned, she will have no other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This extremity of emotion brings her to downfall. Her tendency to limit her own abilities by her nature of fixed habits or unmovable convictions isolates Alice from her community and distorts her features. She had once been a beautiful girl but grows into a woman with a head too large for her body. This is symbolic of her self-consumption, loneliness, and illusions. â€Å"I am becoming old and queer. If Ned comes he will not want me.† (Anderson 117). She grows to support the theme of life in death, living within her own imagination and memory to the point that her head is nearly expanding under the stress. She denies herself the reality of life by narrowing the experience to a dream world. By making absolute convictions and believing her own lies, Alice refuses to meld her worlds of dream and reality together. For example, Will Hurley, the man who walks her home from Church meetings, is an impostor into her narrowly constructed universe and thus she does no t want to... ...asy life. When a woman invades this life, he cannot compromise the two worlds once again and one must be destroyed. â€Å"Enoch Robinson is so open to the power of the feminine that he feels his own identity would be â€Å"submerged, drowned out† by any intimate relationship with a real woman.â€Å" (Rigsbee 435). Of course, Enoch’s attempts at happiness would be destroyed but the story lies in the story of Enoch’s absolute hold on his particular truths which cannot be maintained. Enoch continued to live a lonely life, full of illusions. â€Å"I’m alone, all alone here. It was warm and friendly in my room but now I’m all alone.† (Anderson 178).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson were two perfect examples of how a person can live a life full of illusions and loneliness. The main cause of their distorted lives was due to the inability of others to truly understand them. For example, Ned and Alice’s friends didn’t understand Alice and Enoch’s wife and art friends didn’t understand them. This caused them to make their own lives interesting, which they did by creating illusions, which also encompassed unwanted loneliness from Alice and Enoch both.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

The Rise of Antibiotics

The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections by_ Ricki Lewis, Ph. D. _ When penicillin became widely available during the second world war, it was a medical miracle, rapidly vanquishing the biggest wartime killer–infected wounds. Discovered initially by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne, in 1896, and then rediscovered by Scottish physician Alexander Fleming in 1928, the product of the soil mold Penicillium crippled many types of disease-causing bacteria. But just four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it. The first bug to battle penicillin was Staphylococcus aureus. This bacterium is often a harmless passenger in the human body, but it can cause illness, such as pneumonia or toxic shock syndrome, when it overgrows or produces a toxin. In 1967, another type of penicillin-resistant pneumonia, caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and called pneumococcus, surfaced in a remote village in Papua New Guinea. At about the same time, American military personnel in southeast Asia were acquiring penicillin-resistant gonorrhea from prostitutes. By 1976, when the soldiers had come home, they brought the new strain of gonorrhea with them, and physicians had to find new drugs to treat it. In 1983, a hospital-acquired intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Enterococcus faecium joined the list of bugs that outwit penicillin. Antibiotic resistance spreads fast. Between 1979 and 1987, for example, only 0. 02 percent of pneumococcus strains infecting a large number of patients surveyed by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were penicillin-resistant. CDC's survey included 13 hospitals in 12 states. Today, 6. 6 percent of pneumococcus strains are resistant, according to a report in the June 15, 1994, Journal of the American Medical Association by Robert F. Breiman, M. D. , and colleagues at CDC. The agency also reports that in 1992, 13,300 hospital patients died of bacterial infections that were resistant to antibiotic treatment. Why has this happened? â€Å"There was complacency in the 1980s. The perception was that we had licked the bacterial infection problem. Drug companies weren't working on new agents. They were concentrating on other areas, such as viral infections,† says Michael Blum, M. D. , medical officer in the Food and Drug Administration's division of anti-infective drug products. â€Å"In the meantime, resistance increased to a number of commonly used antibiotics, possibly related to overuse of antibiotics. In the 1990s, we've come to a point for certain infections that we don't have agents available. † According to a report in the April 28, 1994, New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have identified bacteria in patient samples that resist all currently available antibiotic drugs. Survival of the Fittest The increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance is an outcome of evolution. Any population of organisms, bacteria included, naturally includes variants with unusual traits–in this case, the ability to withstand an antibiotic's attack on a microbe. When a person takes an antibiotic, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, leaving behind–or â€Å"selecting,† in biological terms–those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply, increasing their numbers a millionfold in a day, becoming the predominant microorganism. The antibiotic does not technically cause the resistance, but allows it to happen by creating a situation where an already existing variant can flourish. â€Å"Whenever antibiotics are used, there is selective pressure for resistance to occur. It builds upon itself. More and more organisms develop resistance to more and more drugs,† says Joe Cranston, Ph. D. , director of the department of drug policy and standards at the American Medical Association in Chicago. A patient can develop a drug-resistant infection either by contracting a resistant bug to begin with, or by having a resistant microbe emerge in the body once antibiotic treatment begins. Drug-resistant infections increase risk of death, and are often associated with prolonged hospital stays, and sometimes complications. These might necessitate removing part of a ravaged lung, or replacing a damaged heart valve. Bacterial Weaponry Disease-causing microbes thwart antibiotics by interfering with their mechanism of action. For example, penicillin kills bacteria by attaching to their cell walls, then destroying a key part of the wall. The wall falls apart, and the bacterium dies. Resistant microbes, however, either alter their cell walls so penicillin can't bind or produce enzymes that dismantle the antibiotic. In another scenario, erythromycin attacks ribosomes, structures within a cell that enable it to make proteins. Resistant bacteria have slightly altered ribosomes to which the drug cannot bind. The ribosomal route is also how bacteria become resistant to the antibiotics tetracycline, streptomycin and gentamicin. How Antibiotic Resistance Happens Antibiotic resistance results from gene action. Bacteria acquire genes conferring resistance in any of three ways. In spontaneous DNA mutation, bacterial DNA (genetic material) may mutate (change) spontaneously (indicated by starburst). Drug-resistant tuberculosis arises this way. In a form of microbial sex called transformation, one bacterium may take up DNA from another bacterium. Pencillin-resistant gonorrhea results from transformation. Most frightening, however, is resistance acquired from a small circle of DNA called a plasmid, that can flit from one type of bacterium to another. A single plasmid can provide a slew of different resistances. In 1968, 12,500 people in Guatemala died in an epidemic of Shigella diarrhea. The microbe harbored a plasmid carrying resistances to four antibiotics! A Vicious Cycle: More Infections and Antibiotic Overuse Though bacterial antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon, societal factors also contribute to the problem. These factors include increased infection transmission, coupled with inappropriate antibiotic use. More people are contracting infections. Sinusitis among adults is on the rise, as are ear infections in children. A report by CDC's Linda F. McCaig and James M. Hughes, M. D. , in the Jan. 18, 1995, Journal of the American Medical Association, tracks antibiotic use in treating common illnesses. The report cites nearly 6 million antibiotic prescriptions for sinusitis in 1985, and nearly 13 million in 1992. Similarly, for middle ear infections, the numbers are 15 million prescriptions in 1985, and 23. 6 million in 1992. Causes for the increase in reported infections are diverse. Some studies correlate the doubling in doctor's office visits for ear infections for preschoolers between 1975 and 1990 to increased use of day-care facilities. Homelessness contributes to the spread of infection. Ironically, advances in modern medicine have made more people predisposed to infection. People on chemotherapy and transplant recipients taking drugs to suppress their immune function are at greater risk of infection. â€Å"There are the number of immunocompromised patients, who wouldn't have survived in earlier times,† says Cranston. â€Å"Radical procedures produce patients who are in difficult shape in the hospital, and are prone to nosocomial [hospital-acquired] infections. Also, the general aging of patients who live longer, get sicker, and die slower contributes to the problem,† he adds. Though some people clearly need to be treated with antibiotics, many experts are concerned about the inappropriate use of these powerful drugs. â€Å"Many consumers have an expectation that when they're ill, antibiotics are the answer. They put pressure on the physician to prescribe them. Most of the time the illness is viral, and antibiotics are not the answer. This large burden of antibiotics is certainly selecting resistant bacteria,† says Blum. Another much-publicized concern is use of antibiotics in livestock, where the drugs are used in well animals to prevent disease, and the animals are later slaughtered for food. â€Å"If an animal gets a bacterial infection, growth is slowed and it doesn't put on weight as fast,† says Joe Madden, Ph. D. , strategic manager of microbiology at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. In addition, antibiotics are sometimes administered at low levels in feed for long durations to increase the rate of weight gain and improve the efficiency of converting animal feed to units of animal production. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine limits the amount of antibiotic residue in poultry and other meats, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture monitors meats for drug residues. According to Margaret Miller, Ph. D. , deputy division director at the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the residue limits for antimicrobial animal drugs are set low enough to ensure that the residues themselves do not select resistant bacteria in (human) gut flora. FDA is investigating whether bacteria resistant to quinolone antibiotics can emerge in food animals and cause disease in humans. Although thorough cooking sharply reduces the likelihood of antibiotic-resistant bacteria surviving in a meat meal to infect a human, it could happen. Pathogens resistant to drugs other than fluoroquinolones have sporadically been reported to survive in a meat meal to infect a human. In 1983, for example, 18 people in four midwestern states developed multi-drug-resistant Salmonella food poisoning after eating beef from cows fed antibiotics. Eleven of the people were hospitalized, and one died. A study conducted by Alain Cometta, M. D. , and his colleagues at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois in Lausanne, Switzerland, and reported in the April 28, 1994, New England Journal of Medicine, showed that increase in antibiotic resistance parallels increase in antibiotic use in humans. They examined a large group of cancer patients given antibiotics called fluoroquinolones to prevent infection. The patients' white blood cell counts were very low as a result of their cancer treatment, leaving them open to infection. Between 1983 and 1993, the percentage of such patients receiving antibiotics rose from 1. 4 to 45. During those years, the researchers isolated Escherichia coli bacteria annually from the patients, and tested the microbes for resistance to five types of fluoroquinolones. Between 1983 and 1990, all 92 E. coli strains tested were easily killed by the antibiotics. But from 1991 to 1993, 11 of 40 tested strains (28 percent) were resistant to all five drugs. Towards Solving the Problem Antibiotic resistance is inevitable, say scientists, but there are measures we can take to slow it. Efforts are under way on several fronts–improving infection control, developing new antibiotics, and using drugs more appropriately. Barbara E. Murray, M. D. , of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston writes in the April 28, 1994, New England Journal of Medicine that simple improvements in public health measures can go a long way towards preventing infection. Such approaches include more frequent hand washing by health-care workers, quick identification and isolation of patients with drug-resistant infections, and improving sewage systems and water purity in developing nations. Drug manufacturers are once again becoming interested in developing new antibiotics. These efforts have been spurred both by the appearance of new bacterial illnesses, such as Lyme disease and Legionnaire's disease, and resurgences of old foes, such as tuberculosis, due to drug resistance. FDA is doing all it can to speed development and availability of new antibiotic drugs. â€Å"We can't identify new agents–that's the job of the pharmaceutical industry. But once they have identified a promising new drug for resistant infections, what we can do is to meet with the company very early and help design the development plan and clinical trials,† says Blum. In addition, drugs in development can be used for patients with multi-drug-resistant infections on an â€Å"emergency IND (compassionate use)† basis, if the physician requests this of FDA, Blum adds. This is done for people with AIDS or cancer, for example. No one really has a good idea of the extent of antibiotic resistance, because it hasn't been monitored in a coordinated fashion. â€Å"Each hospital monitors its own resistance, but there is no good national system to test for antibiotic resistance,† says Blum. This may soon change. CDC is encouraging local health officials to track resistance data, and the World Health Organization has initiated a global computer database for physicians to report outbreaks of drug-resistant bacterial infections. Experts agree that antibiotics should be restricted to patients who can truly benefit from them–that is, people with bacterial infections. Already this is being done in the hospital setting, where the routine use of antibiotics to prevent infection in certain surgical patients is being reexamined. We have known since way back in the antibiotic era that these drugs have been used inappropriately in surgical prophylaxis [preventing infections in surgical patients]. But there is more success [in limiting antibiotic use] in hospital settings, where guidelines are established, than in the more typical outpatient settings,† says Cranston. Murray points out an example of antibiotic prophylaxis in the outpatient setting–children with recurrent ear infections given extended antibiotic prescriptions to prevent future infections. (See â€Å"Protecting Little Pitchers' Ears† in the December 1994 FDA Consumer. Another problem with antibiotic use is that patients often stop taking the drug too soon, because symptoms improve. However, this merely encourages resistant microbes to proliferate. The infection returns a few weeks later, and this time a different drug must be used to treat it. Targeting TB Stephen Weis and colleagues at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth reported in the April 28, 1994, New England Journal of Medicine on research they conducted in Tarrant County, Texas, that vividly illustrates how helping patients to take the full course of their medication can actually lower resistance rates. The subject–tuberculosis. TB is an infection that has experienced spectacular ups and downs. Drugs were developed to treat it, complacency set in that it was beaten, and the disease resurged because patients stopped their medication too soon and infected others. Today, one in seven new TB cases is resistant to the two drugs most commonly used to treat it (isoniazid and rifampin), and 5 percent of these patients die. In the Texas study, 407 patients from 1980 to 1986 were allowed to take their medication on their own. From 1986 until the end of 1992, 581 patients were closely followed, with nurses observing them take their pills. By the end of the study, the relapse rate–which reflects antibiotic resistance–fell from 20. 9 to 5. 5 percent. This trend is especially significant, the researchers note, because it occurred as risk factors for spreading TB–including AIDS, intravenous drug use, and homelessness–were increasing. The conclusion: Resistance can be slowed if patients take medications correctly. Narrowing the Spectrum Appropriate prescribing also means that physicians use â€Å"narrow spectrum† antibiotics–those that target only a few bacterial types–whenever possible, so that resistances can be restricted. The only national survey of antibiotic prescribing practices of office physicians, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, finds that the number of prescriptions has not risen appreciably from 1980 to 1992, but there has been a shift to using costlier, broader spectrum agents. This prescribing trend heightens the resistance problem, write McCaig and Hughes, because more diverse bacteria are being exposed to antibiotics. One way FDA can help physicians choose narrower spectrum antibiotics is to ensure that labeling keeps up with evolving bacterial resistances. Blum hopes that the surveillance information on emerging antibiotic resistances from CDC will enable FDA to require that product labels be updated with the most current surveillance information. Many of us have come to take antibiotics for granted. A child develops strep throat or an ear infection, and soon a bottle of â€Å"pink medicine† makes everything better. An adult suffers a sinus headache, and antibiotic pills quickly control it. But infections can and do still kill. Because of a complex combination of factors, serious infections may be on the rise. While awaiting the next â€Å"wonder drug,† we must appreciate, and use correctly, the ones that we already have. {draw:rect} Big Difference If this bacterium could be shown four times bigger, it would be the right relative size to the virus beneath it. Both are microscopic and are shown many times larger than life. ) Although bacteria are single-celled organisms, viruses are far simpler, consisting of one type of biochemical (a nucleic acid, such as DNA or RNA) wrapped in another (protein). Most biologists do not consider viruses to be living things, but instead, infectious particles. Antibiotic drugs attack bacteria, not viruses. {draw:rect} *The Greatest Fe ar–Vancomycin* Resistance When microbes began resisting penicillin, medical researchers fought back with chemical cousins, such as methicillin and oxacillin. By 1953, the antibiotic armamentarium included chloramphenicol, neomycin, terramycin, tetracycline, and cephalosporins. But today, researchers fear that we may be nearing an end to the seemingly endless flow of antimicrobial drugs. At the center of current concern is the antibiotic vancomycin, which for many infections is literally the drug of â€Å"last resort,† says Michael Blum, M. D. , medical officer in FDA's division of anti-infective drug products. Some hospital-acquired staph infections are resistant to all antibiotics except vancomycin. Now vancomycin resistance has turned up in another common hospital bug, enterococcus. And since bacteria swap resistance genes like teenagers swap T-shirts, it is only a matter of time, many microbiologists believe, until vancomycin-resistant staph infections appear. â€Å"Staph aureus may pick up vancomycin resistance from enterococci, which are found in the normal human gut,† says Madden. And the speed with which vancomycin resistance has spread through enterococci has prompted researchers to use the word â€Å"crisis† when discussing the possibility of vancomycin-resistant staph. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci were first reported in England and France in 1987, and appeared in one New York City hospital in 1989. By 1991, 38 hospitals in the United States reported the bug. By 1993, 14 percent of patients with enterococcus in intensive-care units in some hospitals had vancomycin-resistant strains, a 20-fold increase from 1987. A frightening report came in 1992, when a British researcher observed a transfer of a vancomycin-resistant gene from enterococcus to Staph aureus in the laboratory. Alarmed, the researcher immediately destroyed the bacteria. Ricki_ Lewis is a geneticist and textbook author. _ {draw:rect} FDA Consumer magazine (September 1995)