Exploring the Possibility of Updating the Cosmological...

Exploring the Possibility of Updating the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God The term cosmological comes from the Greek language, meaning ‘world’ or ‘universe.’ The argument is based on facts about the world. The topic of cosmology refers to the study of the universe. The cosmological argument begins with a general claim about the physical universe e.g. that some events have causes and that there must be a supernatural agent to somehow explain this fact. The argument seems to say that there cannot be an infinite series of causes, they have to stop somewhere. One scholar who supports this idea is St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas invented the ‘five ways’ by which he tried to demonstrate†¦show more content†¦Although, we also have no reason to believe that they are false. The five ways also asks how can the cosmological argument avoid contradicting itself. For example, if nothing causes itself how can there be a first cause, which does not require a cause other than itself. The cosmological argument can work on the assumption that the cause of existing things is not a thing, in which case the above contradiction would disappear. Leibniz put forward the cosmological argument. He argues that the ‘great principle’ of this argument is that â€Å"nothing takes place without a sufficient reason.†[2] Leibniz went onto formulate a version of the cosmological argument similar to, but also different from that of Aquinas. In place of Aquinas’ idea that every event has a cause, Leibniz observed that every event must have a sufficient reason for its existence, since nothing happens without a reason. But everything can also be explained with reference to something else within the world. Therefore the reason why there is something at all rather than nothing must come from outside the world. For a sufficient reason to account for such things there must be a being, which is able to create existence. Such a being must exist of itself because there is something rather than nothing. Therefore a necessary being exists, which we call god. Copleston formulated three

The Use Of Gmo Foods - 1279 Words

The use of GMO s Biotechnology offers a variety of potential benefits and risks. It enhanced the food production by making plants less vulnerable to drought, frost, insects, and viruses and by enabling plants to compete more effectively against weeds for soil nutrients. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are defined as organisms (except for human beings) in which the genetic material has been altered in a way which doesn t occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. GMO s have widespread applications as they are used in biological and medical research, production of pharmaceutical drugs, experimental medicine, and agriculture. The use of gene technology in food production has become interesting due to increased needs of food as well as its improved quality with the application of gene technology to plants and animals, goals can be achieved more quickly than by traditional selection. Consequently, ethical dilemmas are opened concerning the eventual negative effects of production of gene tically modified food. It seems that supplementation of nutraceuticals and wild foods as well as wild lifestyle may be protective, whereas western diet and lifestyle may enhance the expression of genes related to chronic diseases. In a few cases, it has also improved the quality and nutrition of foods by altering their composition. However, the use of biotechnology has also raised concerns about its potential risks to the environment and humans health. For example, someShow MoreRelatedThe Use Of Gmo Foods1145 Words   |  5 PagesThe use of GMO s Biotechnology offers a variety of potential benefits and risks. It enhanced the food production by making plants less vulnerable to drought, frost, insects, and viruses and by enabling plants to compete more effectively against weeds for soil nutrients. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are defined as organisms (except for human beings) in which the genetic material has been altered in a way which doesn t occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. GMO s haveRead MoreGenetically Modified Foods And Seeds1590 Words   |  7 PagesThrough the continuous use of chemicals, preservatives and processing of foods, the connection between nature and one s plate has been abandoned. GMOs or genetically modified organisms have been another key factor into the nation’s struggle. These modified foods and seeds were created with the future of the food industry in mind, yet they have been proven to create harmful effects. GMOs have been at the root of the major food issues wit hin America. The use of GMOs within the food industry needs to declineRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Gmos849 Words   |  4 Pagescontamination of everyday foods. Americans are especially concerned about Genetically Modified Organisms. So, are they good or not? According to NewsELA, PRO/CON: Is it time to label GMO foods? GMO foods? Andrew Pollackmays Genetically Engineered Crops are Safe, Analysis Finds, and Janet Renees Benefits you get from a GMO they talk about the merits and the demerits of GMO crops. GMOs are plant or animal products that have been reengineered in a lab. Scientists use the DNA of bacteria, virusesRead MoreShould Labeling be Required for GMOs? Essays1218 Words   |  5 PagesShould Labeling be Required for GMOs? The debate over genetically modified foods continues to haunt producers and consumers alike. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are foods that have been modified through bioengineering to possess certain characteristics. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance traits such as increased resistance to herbicides or increased nutritional content (Whitman, 2000). The debate continues to grow as to whether these genetically altered foodstuffsRead MoreEffects Of Pesticides On The Health Of An Individual1747 Words   |  7 PagesAlthough there are given benefits to the use of GMOs for crop production, such as the longer lasting produce, easier farming, and more appealing crops. We also see a negative affect to the ways in which GMOs can affect the health of an individual. The use of pesticides to kill off any insect that would instead be eating the crops, have immune qualities and thus the dosages of these pesticide are being increased more every season. An example of how pesticides are used in farming today is with theRead MoreThe World Is Witnessing A Food Revolution1216 Words   |  5 PagesThe world is witnessing a food revolution. Man s way of producing food has evolved from hunting and gathering to conventional farming, to now using genetic engineering to produce GMOs, otherwise known as Genetically Modified Organisms. Genetically modified foods are a topic of controversy among many in the United States and around the world today. Debates arise regarding the use of GMOs and the safety of them, but what exactly is a GMO? GMOs are crops whose genes have been artificially manipulatedRead MoreProposal For A New Food Law1274 Words   |  6 Pagesmanufacturing organic, non-GMO foods. Organics’R’us is known for their food around the world, and prides themselves on creating safe, and readily available foods for many different people. Organics’R’us has recently become concerned with the actions of the government i n passing a new food law. This new food law would require a food company to lab their food with a QR code that people would then scan to find out if a specific product contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As a company, we feelRead MoreThe Us Without Gmo Essay1359 Words   |  6 Pages The US without GMO GMOs, (genetically modified organisms) have been a topic of interest in the social eyes for years. Since they’ve been created, many people have voiced and written about their opinions on GMOs, and whether they are dangerous or not. Created to expand the genetic diversity of crops and animals, many don’t know whether GMOs are good or bad, and neither do researchers. Though there hasn’t been any evidence claiming whether GMOs are good or bad, it has certainly not stopped theRead MoreDetecting Genetically Modified Organisms in Food Samples1193 Words   |  5 PagesGenetically Modified Organisms (GMO) is organisms whose genetic makeup has been altered through recombinant DNA technology, thus producing something different from the species. There exist various examples of genetically tailored organisms comparing transgenic animals, plants, fish, as well as microorganisms like parasites, fungi and bacteria. A particular example would be an introduction of the insulin g ene of human into E. coli to give rise to human insulin. Nowadays, GMOs are developing and being usedRead MoreGenetically Modified Organisms ( Gmos )1420 Words   |  6 Pagesthe foods Americans consume today are unhealthy and harmful to the human body. Many foods available are not natural or â€Å"real† because they are genetically modified. 80% of the food we consume are processed and genetically modified. Genetically modified foods are created from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs are plants or animals that have been genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses, and other plant and animals. GMOs are used because it enhance the flavor of foods, extends

Crimes against information system analysis Free Essays

Cyber crime or computer crime is a type of crime that occurs through the internet. This type o f crime has become very common in modern times and many people have been conned money and other valuables. This kind of crime has grown to be high profile to the extent that governments around the world are devising and implementing strategies and policies in a move to curb this kind of crime. We will write a custom essay sample on Crimes against information system analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Some of the most common types of internet crime include financial theft, fraud, intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, spamming, spread of computer virus, software hacking among others (Grabosky, 2006). This paper will review the Nigerian Money Scams also called Advanced Fees Fraud or 419 Scams. The Nigerian scam is one of the most popular types of internet scam around the globe. It has been described as the widest ranging, cleverly planned and bizarre fraud schemes in the world in the recent years. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Interpol and Scotland Yard describe it as preposterous, amateurish and plainly crude (Lohr, 1992). The scam involves the sending of bogus letters with a promise of big pay offs. The target of this fraud usually receives an Email that claims to be from Nigeria or another West African country. Initially its target was businessmen but these days, the target also includes average citizens due to the low cost associated with email communication and transactions. The content of the email includes an illegal proposal, a money laundering proposal or a legitimate and legal business proposal. It includes offers of help whereby the sender wants some assistance in shipping out oil from Nigeria, romance, some supposedly deposited money in your account, a bequest left a will in your name. Others include claims overpayment of a contract by the Nigeria Government and therefore a need of a front man to get the overpayment out of Nigeria or an invite to transfer a huge amount of money, usually in US Dollars to your personal offshore account (Nigerian scams, 2000). After the recipient of this message responds positively, the sender then proceeds to advice him what else he requires to do. The purpose of the initial letter is to set the stage and is considered the opening ground to test the waters. Goal of the criminal The main intention of the criminal is to confuse you into thinking that whatever you are being drawn into is a lucrative business opportunity and a highway into instant riches. Even though, the arrangement appears questionable but very few people look at it that way. Therefore the first letter makes sure that the recipient is left with no doubts and that he or she is assured, and confident of the fact that the deal will be very success and that he is not in no way risking himself or herself. The allegations presented by these scammers are in such a way that you will be naturally cautious but deep down you, you will be praying softly and wanting hopefully that the deal is genuine. Another element associated with these emails is a sense of urgency (Gill, 2005). Either that the government is closing in or that the job of the sender is at risk. Therefore, his request is that the deal may be closed as son as possible. Their methodology is that they make sure that the recipient of the mail counts him or herself lucky because he has been singled out from billions of people the world over. And so as much as this deal may look suspicious, the receipt is left with the urge of gaining millions of shillings for doing what? Absolutely nothing. Even to the most skeptical people, they take the next step or sending an email, which will not cost you any risk at all and in return, might make you a multi millionaire. The feeling that being a rich man is only an email away is what makes people respond to this mail. After making that call or sending the email, the sender pleads with you to make this as secret as possible because he or she is taking a great risk in communicating with you. He emphasizes on the secrecy in that any disclosure might lead to the transaction of the transfer of funds being incomplete. As the recipient, you don’t see any harm in maintaining secrecy, confidentiality, utmost sense of purpose and maturity as it is what it will be asked of you by the sender (Lohr, 1992). After this communication, documents actually arrive to you. Official documents from the central bank of Nigeria together with documents from the firm of your newly appointed Nigerian lawyers. This is what convinces most people of the authenticity of the proposal as they contain the Nigerian Government Letter head (Gill, 2005). After you are satisfied of the authenticity of the transaction, you are then asked to pay some money to cater for unexpected taxes or contract fees demanded by the central bank of Nigeria, transfer of funds fees or fees to cater for the attorneys acting on your behalf. The sender assures you that those are things that he is not in control of. For example, he may tell you that the lawyers want 5% of the whole money or $200,000 in advance in order to continue with the transfer. Being a wise person, you smell a rat and say no way. It is then after sometime that the sender contacts you again and tells you that he has been able to negotiate with the lawyers and they have brought down their fees to say $100,000. He convinces you that it is nothing compared to what you two are going to gain. But since you are a wise person, you say no way (Lohr, 1992). It is then that he calls you again and tells that even though he is a poor guy, he is ready to sell his only house to raise $30,000 if you are in a position of raising the rest. He cannot forget to remind you that it is a loan he has advanced to you and that you will refund it to him once you receive the money. Here, you see the commitment and you ultimately send the money and you wait for your cash. You even start planning for holiday. After two days, you are informed that there have been some few problems and that the inside man is asking for a small bribe. After paying the initial amount, you become the ultimate milk cow. More requests start coming your way for you to send in more money. At this juncture, you are faced with two options: either send more money as demanded or risk loosing the promised millions and the money you have already sent. In this way, you are a prey and tens or even hundreds of dollars may be swindled from you (Gill, 2005). Each amount of money that you send is regarded as the last amount but eventually, there rises some ‘temporary difficulties’, ‘errors’ or ‘complications’ that you are prompted to solve. This may go on for months until you run out of money or until you give up. But these scammers will not stop there. If you show signs of giving up, they remind you of the ultimate prize awaiting you. The asking of these â€Å"advance fees† is the ultimate objective of this scam. That’s why it is referred to as the Advance Fees Fraud (Gill, 2005). Once a victim has sent in more and more cash, he gets hooked up to the scam and the more he believes that it is not a scam but that it is a real deal. The denial of most victims that they have been conned is what drives them to make just one more payment and their windfall happens (Nigerian Scams, 2000). There are even instances whereby one is invited to Nigeria and you are taken through real or fake government offices. The fake government offices include many government support staff and you are left with no doubt. In some instances, victims have confessed going to the directory, looking up the number of the alleged government officiate and finding it there. On calling, it is received by the very same person who he has been in contact with. There are some victims who have been invited to go to Nigeria. They are told that a Visa is not necessary and in that case, they bribe an airport official for you to enter Nigeria. On entering you are told that it is illegal to be in Nigeria without a passport (which is true) and this is used to coerce more money from you (Lohr, 1992). Mechanism to discourage these crimes The federal bureau of investigations has but in some mechanisms in bid to stop these fraudsters. The FBI has warned the public to be wary and not fall into this trick. In this regard, the public has been warned to be skeptical of any email or letter from persons claiming to be Nigerian government officials or any other foreigner asking for help with regard to transfer of large sums of money. The public has also been advised not to believe in the promise of large sums of money once they cooperate (FBI, 2010). Many countries have put in legislations that require citizens to report any form of 419 emails. In general, the governments all over the world are committed to ending this vice. There have also been developments of Internet Technologies which aim at stemming the advancement of the Nigerian Advanced Fee Fraud scams. Through the use of this technology, law enforcement officers are in a position to cooperate internationally and therefore are able to track these scammers, obtain the necessary evidence and prosecuting them (Lohr, 1992). References FBI. (2010). Internet Fraud. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www. fbi. gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes. htm. Gill, P. (2005). About. Com. The Top ten internet/ Email Scams. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://netforbeginners. about. com/od/scamsandidentitytheft/ss/top10inetscams. htm Grabosky, P. (2006). Electronic Crime, New Jersey: Prentice Hall http://www. nytimes. com/1992/05/21/business/nigerian-scam-lures-companies. html. Lohr, S. (1992). Nigerian Scam’ Lures Companies. Nigerian Advanced Fee Fraud Detection, Education, Eradication. The New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www. nextwebsecurity. com/ Nigerian scams. (2000). Schemes, Scams and frauds. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www. crimes-of-persuasion. com/Crimes/Business/nigerian. htm. How to cite Crimes against information system analysis, Papers

Disaster Policy and Politics-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Briefing paper based on the given scenario and can also add some references from the internet related to this. Answer: Introduction A potential earthquake shook the East and West of the coastal regions of Republic of Avengers on Sunday 5th of January 2020 at around 03:58 hours. It has affected the livelihood of the people living in the region resulting to a huge loss of life and property. The potentiality of the earthquake was estimated to be 7.1 on the Richter scale. A second earthquake affected the region at 6.5 Richter scale at 05:21 hours after the impact. It has afflicted a terrible blow on the livelihood of the people living in the regions. The report is focused on understanding the different situation that is faced by the people as a result of the earthquake and thereby produce a briefing paper based on the primary investigations. On the other hand, it helps in determining the after-effects of the earthquake and the recommended actions that might be taken by the government in order to provide aid to the afflicted inhabitants of the region. Situational report The earthquake has affected the densely populated area of Gotham Province affecting the lives of the people. Reports confirmed that some 60% of the villages of the Gotham province is affected through the atrocities of the earthquake. The village and the household properties of the individuals and the State are destroyed through the earthquake that has affected the regions which falls near the epicenters of the earthquakes. It is estimated that over 3,550 people got killed as an impact of the earthquake and some 25,000 homes and public property got destroyed. The death toll is still rising as the hospital and the healthcare facilities are unable to access the remote villages where the impact was huge. The reported injuries were around 7450 people in all the villages and there are people trapped under the debris. It has affected the mortality range of the region fatally. The earthquake triggered massive landslides at Smalville and Nathan, which again affected the livelihood of the peop le living at the region. The available healthcare facilities of the region are also destroyed though the earthquake that affected the region. The after effects of the earthquake left the people unaided by the healthcare facilities. On the other hand, the region has only one hospital, which is left crowded with the afflicted victims of the impact. It is estimated that some 1,500 people are admitted top the hospital and several more are at the waiting list. It has affected the mortality rate of the people in the region. The catastrophic situation has affected the livelihood of the people and snatched away their properties. On the other hand, the government offices and the other business centre were found emerged in the debris. It has affected the business and the trade of the region. Situational analysis According to Sylves (2014), the after effects of the disaster is based on the infliction of diseases that affects the livelihood of the people. In this case, too, diarrhea and other infections like cholera, dysentery and the like have affected the health of the people who have faced the impact. The sanitation and hygiene of the region is being compromised through the impact of the earthquake. It has affected the livelihood of the people and thereby reduced the standards. Some populations in the remote regions have been reported to be affected by diseases that have cost the lives of the people living in the region. Smalville Village has a concern with the water pipeline, which used to provide water to the community there. However, the earthquake has disrupted the pipeline and affected the only source of the fresh water that could be retrieved by the communities in the region. There are television podcasts that portrayed the chaos in Smalville as the inhabitants of the area was portrayed to be fleeing the region as a rumor of tsunami shook the place. However, the rumor was stopped awhile at its initial stage through the weather forecast that were undertaken by the news media that there are no chances of a tsunami that could have been triggered through the earthquake. The survivors of the fatal earthquake found shelter in the neighborhood villages. It has affected the livelihood of the neighborhood village due to the pressure on the resource use of the region. Some families are reported to build their own tents at the high terrains to keep themselves away from the atrocities of the earthquake. The monsoon weather worsened the situation of the region. It has enhanced the chances of the landslide that might be faced by the region subsequent to the violent earthquake that is being faced by the region. The weather condition has brought about deterioration in th e situation of the region. Rapid needs assessments The degradation in the health statistics and the worsening of the situation, the president of the nation is taking steps in order to overcome the impact. In order to overcome the impact that is being created through the earthquake, the president has planned to take up certain decisions and thereby send off aid to the afflicted communities. The disaster management steps that are being undertaken by the president in the immediate response of the earthquake are being stated in this section of the report. It will help in the proper understanding of the different management strategies that is being implemented as per the needs of the situation. The President of the Republic of Avengers has engaged the proper functioning of the army to help in evacuating the victims and the panicked citizens. It will help in locating the people who are trapped under the debris. Waugh (2015) stated that the engagement of the well-trained force helps in minimizing the time that is required by the normal people to reach out to the afflicted. Therefore, in this case, the engagement of the Rapid Action Force will be helping in order to rescue the people who are afflicted and deceased by the sudden attack of the earthquake. On the other hand, the proper functioning of the RAP will be helping to ensure the lives of many entrapped citizens. The mobilization of the different forces has helped in undertaking the rescue functions based on the requirements of the people. The engagement of the Provincial and the State governments into the matter has helped in the mobilization of the victims. On the other hand, the involvement of the NGOs has helped in ensuring the supplies of food and medical aids to the victims of the earthquake attack that is being undertaken by the region. Pelling (2012) stated that the proper positioning of the human resource that is willing to work for helping out the distressed people will also be helping in order to maintain the evacuation process. The proper identification of the evacuation process and the involvement of the trained personnel into the matter will be helping in undertaking the efficient functioning of the evacuation. Assigning a team of experts who are well acquainted with the steps that are required to be taken in order to facilitate the proper management of the disaster will be helping in enhancing the functioning based on the plans. Tseng and Chen (2012) stated that the proper understanding of the disaster management is based on the understanding of the severity of the impact and the manner in which it affects the livelihood of the people. Avvenuti et al. (2014) stated that the application of the EARS (earthquake alert and report system) will be helping in keeping the people aware of the atrocities of the earthquake that might affect their livelihood. Understanding the capability of the rescue team and sending out helicopters on a survey will be helping the disaster management team of personnel to track the afflicted regions and the people who are struck in the impact of the earthquake. It has affected the proper functioning of the management of the team members and thereby helps in adding to the effectiveness of the team functions that are being undertaken by the team. The capability of the team has helped in enhancing the understanding of the different factors that affects the functioning of the management team in effectively managing the situation. Conclusion Therefore, from the above situation analysis it can be stated that the proper undertaking of the disaster management helps in managing situations of the crisis more effectively. On the other hand, the proper evaluation of the disaster will be helping the personnel in understanding the situation and the manner in which the proper evacuation activity could be undertaken by the teamwork. On the other hand, the proper functioning of the team depends on the seriousness of the impact. Again, the understanding of the type of attention required by the afflicted victims of the earthquake helps in the determination of the aids and the medical facilities will be helping to support the livelihood of the people who are affected by the outbreak of the impact. The steps that are taken by the government agencies and the NGOs help in determining the proper functioning of the rescue team based on the needs of the victims and the severity of the impact References Avvenuti, M., Cresci, S., Marchetti, A., Meletti, C., Tesconi, M. (2014, August). EARS (earthquake alert and report system): a real time decision support system for earthquake crisis management. InProceedings of the 20th ACM SIGKDD international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining(pp. 1749-1758). ACM. Pelling, M. (2012).The vulnerability of cities: natural disasters and social resilience. Routledge. Sylves, R. (2014).Disaster policy and politics: Emergency management and homeland security. CQ Press. Tseng, C. P., Chen, C. W. (2012). Natural disaster management mechanisms for probabilistic earthquake loss.Natural Hazards,60(3), 1055-1063. Waugh, W. L. (2015).Living with Hazards, Dealing with Disasters: An Introduction to Emergency Management: An Introduction to Emergency Management. Routledge.

18 Signs You Took High School Way Too Seriously

You worked night and day to get into your dream school, believing that your high school career was the most important thing in the world. When your parents and friends told you to relax and take a breather, you never understood why. Does that sound like you? If so, youll probably recognize these signs:1. Getting an A- is the end of the world. Don’t even bother convincing me it’s okay.2. You didn’t know what life was like outside honor roll. A photo posted by Chynna Cherese Dudley (@ohsweetblindness) on Sep 10, 2015 at 2:43pm PDT 3. School nights are sacred. 4. And you believed weekends were created for you to get ahead on homework. 5. Dating was a waste of time and a distraction you couldn’t afford. 6. Group projects are the worst, because everyone assumes you’ll do all the work. 7. Which is true, so you rather be grouped with people who don’t even try. 8. If you weren’t the president of every club in high school, you were at least on the executive board. 9. In fact, you wish Hermione’s time turner was real, so you dont have to rush to all your commitments. 10. You didn’t get home till 8PM every day, just in time for all the homework you needed to finish. 11. You even ate dinner in the car after varsity practice ended to save time. 12. You feel super guilty about procrastinating on social media for 30 minutes. 13. Teachers stopped calling on you in class to give others a chance. 14. But when it comes to student responsibilities, you’re always the chosen one. 15. No matter how much you study, you still have a breakdown before every test.16. And claim that you didn’t study enough, and you’re going to fail. 17. But of course, you get an A. 18. ...and then college happened! We know youre still getting a 4.0 GPA, but it just doesnt matter to you as much as it used to! Access 60,000+ successfulcollege application filesuploaded by college students (they get paid when you view them). is a community of students helping students. Our goal is to bring much-needed transparency to higher education.

7 Strange But (Probably) True Jobs of the Future

7 Strange But (Probably) True Jobs of the Future The career landscape changes with the times. Just as jobs making buggy whips and horse carriages eventually gave way to jobs in the automobile industry, time keeps ticking forward,with some interesting and unusual new jobs predicted for the future. In the world of supply and demand, finding a new job niche is limited only by imagination, so it will be fun to see what the future brings. Food EngineeringAs the world population continues to increase and people need food sources,  engineers will be needed to create appealing bio-meat products and cross-bred plants that  produce more crops that are sturdier and are more resistant to pests. In addition to engineers, other jobs may become available in this industry: think  drone operators to monitor large swaths of planted production areas and agriculturists for urban areas to grow food for local consumption.Virtual Tour FilmographerVirtual tours are already around- all you have to do is go online to take a tour of the Louvre in Paris or the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. This business opportunity is growing as people film everything from extreme sports to  visits to natural wonders and museums. This type of job will expand in the future as photographers spread out around the globe to film the more and more exciting adventures that you can enjoy vicariously from the comfort of your own home.Crowdfunding OrganizerThe process of crowdfunding, usually accomplished by using social media, is a way for a company to gather start-up funds for a new business or project idea or for a charity to get donations or to kickstart an educational project. Because crowdfunding usually has a time limit to gather donations, a crowdfunding organizer’s job is to maximize donations during that period by offering promotional advice.Privacy SpecialistIn this age of technology, privacy has become harder to maintain,  and safeguarding your own  privacy is a real concern. A  privacy specialist ensures that a cli ent is using the most up-to-date methods to ensure security of digital information such as credit cards and personal identification from theft.Corporate Reorganizer/DisorganizerThis strange sounding job title is for an individual who works as a reorganizer for businesses that haven’t kept up with the times and appear old-fashioned and lackluster. A  corporate disorganizer upgrades systems and finds new processes that bring the company up-to-date and streamline its functions, bringing it into a new era.Architectural 3D SpecialistThe architectural 3D specialist will be a busy individual in the future. As 3D technology increases, printable houses can add a new dimension to building. Construction of a house can be accomplished in a day, a possibility that  may be used to clear and rebuild in blighted areas or construct new developments in a short time.Custom Organ DesignerNo, this organ isn’t the same kind you might see in an old horror movie. This type of job designs customized organs for people  who need body part replacements. As scientists study ways to reproduce organs by using living cells, organ replacement is closer to reality than you might think.New jobs are always being invented, and the future may bring some surprises and opportunities.

Project Management Crosby Manufacturing Corporation Case Study

Project Management Crosby Manufacturing Corporation - Case Study Example The president of Management Cost and Control System (MCCS) had a meeting with department managers to solve the issue of MCCS reporting procedures. The government had just renewed the interest in the company, and therefore, there was a need to computerize the finance reporting methods, so as to compete fairly with other companies. Having taken over the leadership in 2005, Livingstone took a major stride in reorganizing the structure of the company leadership, this really worked well and they could now get large number of government contracts. The second strategy was to update the MCCS reporting procedure to ensure a sizable cash outlay to increase the business. The president then appointed Emary to be the planning project leader, even though he was not conversant with computers. Livingston’s Appointment The president of the company while appointing Tim Emary to head the project stated that he was doing so because of the importance of the project, and while acknowledging that Emary had little knowledge of computers, the president reiterated the fact that Emary knew how to make schedules and do the work well. With due respect for the president, being a leader who had seen the flourishing of MCCS since his appointment, his confidence in Emary boosted by his experience in leadership shows that he was right to pick Emary as the leader of the planning team; he was highly conversant with his staff and the capability of each one of them. He too wanted to achieve, and unlike in the previous year, he had now realized the mistake they had done. As indicated by the president, the leader to be was not computer literate, but other project team members were. Since the project was to be well scheduled and well planned, it was very necessary to have a mix of experience in the team, just as the presi dent had done. Emary was going to help much in planning and scheduling, while the rest were going to assist in computer skills and application. Project planning is a highly demanding and exhausting process; â€Å"the scheduler has to keep many activities, resources, calendars, logical relationships and constraints correctly, completely and currently stated in the schedule† (Hullet, 2009, p. 3). Emary in this case is assigned to collect information from the rest of the team and to combine them into a better project logic. Another major role to be played by Emary as a scheduler is to act as a middle man between the project team and the president; this is a typical role of a scheduler. He is also to ensure that the project schedule represents the desired plan and any changes that may be required later. To achieve this, Emary as a project scheduler will ensure that logical relationship and critical paths are well examined. As further argued by Hulett (2009), success in managing a project needs a complete and sensible project schedule;

Compare&contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Compare&contrast - Essay Example Though I love writing, yet I used to feel handicapped where expression, translating and grammar were concerned. However, I did not lose heart but tried my best to keep up with it, by widening my vocabulary and clearing major doubts with my professors who were so encouraging. Gradually, as time went by I found that there was positive improvement both in my speech as well as writing abilities. When comparing the two languages, I came across many major contrasts between them and this is the reason why a Chinese person speaks English in a different manner. One such contrast between the two is the use of verb endings such as ‘ed’ or ‘ing’ which is not found in the Chinese language and this makes it difficult to use a sentence with the correct tense. Another major contrast I found was the use of articles like ‘the’ and ‘a’ especially when used in front of a noun. For example, an English speaking person would say – ‘The mango is good’ while a Chinese person would say – ‘Mango is good’. Another challenging aspect when comparing both languages is the use of ‘s’ for plurals in English. This is not the case in Chinese because they convey number based on the context of their sentences. There are also major contrasts where pronunciation and sounds are concerned. The sounds in the Chinese language do not exist in the English language and vice versa. These and many other contrasts really pose very challenging to international students but as we make ourselves more familiar with the language it becomes much easier. In the beginning, it seemed a hard task to write with good expression and not make mistakes but Professor Waluconis has been so patient and encouraging and I feel satisfied that I learned a lot from his classes. I have learned how to organize my thoughts and write a thesis statement which brings out the main ideas in a piece of writing. My speaking and writing abilities

Research problem that facing some student in the univ Paper

Problem that facing some student in the univ - Research Paper Example They have simplified complex problems and tasks, and with the advent of internet the computer technology has literally shrank the whole world into a global village. Loads of information is accessible to a wide number of people due to the computer technology. The field of education has also changed a lot due to the advent of computers. The whole educational system is now dependant on computers. Whether uploading one’s assignments or whether communicating to other fellow students, computers have enhanced the educational standards of the pupils. The knowledge that is now at student’s disposal is vast and this aids in learning of students. With the advent of computer technologies, there is no doubt that our lives have become comfortable, but this is only one side of the picture. The issues that the world is facing now due to computer technology are also significant. This technology has brought with itself great amount of troubles for the society. These troubles are increasingly making people think whether this technology has some real benefit or not. The educational sector is also facing technology related problems and these problems are increasing day by day. University campus is the main area that is affected by computer technologies. New and better equipment is at the disposal of the people that makes life faster and easier. But the same universities are now encountering with technology issues and especially computer related issues on campuses. The increasing use of computer has made our lives dependant on the technology and any interruption or breakdown of this technology can be very disturbing for the university staffs as well as the students. It is therefore very important for us to identify the problems students and university staff is facing and provide a solution that will make lives easier for them. This is the main aim of this research. But for that purpose it is very important to identify the computer related

Designing The Perfect Leadership Development Experience Education Essay

Designing The Perfect Leadership Development Experience Education Essay Leadership development is improving the qualities of leadership. This can be achieved by Planned and systematic efforts (Groves, 2007 cited in Amagoh, 2009). Leadership development programme is similar to the learning organization concept which focus on facilitating change, empowerment, knowledge sharing, opportunities for learning development and promotes leadership development. (Amagoh, 2009) Nowadays companies struggle with leadership development. They send the top performing employees to attend few leadership development workshops seminars and expect the participants to be the leaders in a week or so. This does not work as expected since personals have different characteristics and abilities. National wide financial have found four kinds of people who engage in this type of development programmes. They are reluctant leaders who have all the necessary skills to be a manager but not confident that they would be effective leaders. Second type is arrogant leaders who believe they have all the leadership skills but lack those skills. Third category is unknown leaders who have the right leadership skills but since they are not good at developing relationship, they fail to be selected as effective leaders. Finally the workaholics which we come across very often (Griffin, 2004). In my individual leadership development programme I have to first identify myself among the four types. Even though occasionally I have played the role of a leader, it makes me to think whether I could be in a leaders position of an organization? This more sounds like a reluctant leader. Initializing the development programme can be based on major leadership traits, which are intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity and sociability. Intelligence Studies found that leaders have higher intelligence compare to non-leaders (Zaccaro, Kemp and Bader, 2004, cited in Northouse, 2007). Intelligence helps in solving the critical problems effectively. I believe intelligence partly come from birth and partly by continuously involved in activities which could boost it. This can also be acquired by observation. Self-confidence This is one area which I focus to improve that in turn will help in chairing an organization. Leadership is all about influencing the followers in order to achieve the vision. Self-confidence is necessary to assure that the way leader influence is appropriate. Determination This includes initiative, persistence, dominance and drive (Northouse, 2007, p. 20). Determination will direct the followers in a desirable path in order to achieve the vision. Integrity This refers to honesty and trustworthiness. Developing the integrity skills will enable confidence in others, which in turn enables delegation, and thereby followers feel ownership and motivated. Sociability Leaders one of the main tasks is to develop and maintain relationships within and outside the organization. Therefore, skills such as being friendly, outgoing, courteous, tactful and handling issues diplomatically are essential to be an effective leaders. Stevens, (n.d. p.42) says managers wear square hats and learn through training. Leaders wear sombreros and opt for education. Some of the learning through education to become an effective leader are understating, generating ideas, questioning, looking for processes rather than content, initiating strategies, long term focus, risk taking, open minded, skill of imagination, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ therefore the leadership development programme should highlight the above aspects. Bennis, (2009,) says on becoming a leader the first thing is to identify is knowing yourself. He has also identified four lessons of self-knowledge (Bennis, 2009, p.52) You are your own best teacher Accept responsibility. Blame no one You can learn anything you want to learn True understanding comes from reflecting on your experience I would say the basic mantras for me to become a leader will be the above four lessons. I would also use integrated solution approach and some other common senses. Integrated solution approach This includes eight steps (Weiss and Molinaro, 2006, cited in Amagoh, 2009). Developing a comprehensive strategy for development Designing the development activities according to organizational and global challenges. For example, compare to the earlier days the social interaction among different nationalities are a must in order to perform as an effective leader. Being in Dubai, in a routine basis we would meet around 180 nationalities where each of them are different. According to Bennis (n.d., cited in The emirates center for strategic studies and research, 2002) the new leadership should understand and practice the power of appreciation, keep remind the people of what is important and generate sustain trust. Use the leadership stories. This is one of the excellent learning which I consider. Reading and understanding different leaderships styles and world-class leaders way of leading will help in enhancing the skills of leadership. Understanding both global and local individuals needs. Using emergent design and implementation will also enable development. Understanding the culture. Focusing on critical moments of leadership life cycle. Applying a mix of methodology will enable development. On top of the above, importance have to be given for personal growth, understanding the concepts, learning through feedbacks and mistakes, skill building, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ will also enable development (Allen and Hartman, 2008, cited in Amagoh, 2009). In answering, How would you know it was effective, I would say if the leadership effectiveness is achieved, it is obvious that leadership development plan was effective. And on the other hand we should also understand leadership development is not one time learning rather it is an ongoing learning process. Therefore, any inefficiencies or neglected skills once identified can be learned. The way we do business around the globe has changed in past dramatically and it is also evidence that the change is continuing. To cope up with the challenging dynamic world leaders has to continuously sharpen their skills. One of the example which I would quote is the professional organizations like CIMA (UK) and ACCA (UK) have introduced programmes called CPD (continuing professional development) to keep members connected with the current and changing world. Leadership effectiveness can be defined as successfully influencing followers in order to achieve the organizational vision (Vardiman et al, 2006; Bodinson, 2005 cited in Amagoh, 2009). Effective leadership is one of the competitive advantages of an organization. In addition, the effective leader determines the organizational performance and growth who are expected to establish vision and strategies, maintain relationship and manage change in order to ensure the organizational growth and survival within the competitors. In conclusion, leadership development programme has to be designed by considering various aspects and skills needed to be an effective leader. In addition, continues progress monitoring and identifying lacking skills will enable to plan the next step of the development programme. We should also understand and accept the fact leadership development is not a one time learning but it is a lifelong learning. Sangeeven

Scholarship Essay :: essays research papers

I am here Ever since I was a young kid I have always been interested in movies. My grandma, who was full of the wise the life experience left, always knew about my interest in movies. She feed my vain for the art. Even though her religion, she professed Adventist of seven-day religion, didn’t let her go to the cinema, she always found the way to took me to the cinema. She and I enjoyed watch movies. We used to sit in the darkness room, with our faces illuminated from the reflection of the light which rebooted from the screen, both absorbs in the plot of the movie which made us laughed or cried. After the movie, while we went back to her home, she started to talk about the movie. She had a particular point of view where the main story wasn’t the most important part of the movie, instead she showed me to enjoy the stories behind the main story, the movies’ details. I was fascinated with her stories about other people in the movies, the second character stories. I always, inv olved by the excitement of the moment, started to create my own movies, my own characters, my own stories, and I know now that that part of our secret visited to the cinema, were the part that she most enjoyed. Those days are part of my most values memories. The legacy that she left me is still alive. For many different circumstances I couldn’t study film before now. But I never give up about my dreams of being a film director. At the aged of nineteen I joined a theater company. It was the most near reference that I have to gain experience about how to produce a show. Cinema studies were very expensive at that time. I worked with the theater company for twenty years. During that time I fell in love, I raised my family, I learned a lot about production, acting, directing, lighting and sound. I traveled to many countries and worked and participated in many different theater festivals; Spolleto in Italy, Cadiz and Madrid in Spain, FIT England, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New York, Chicago, German and Colombia. While I was working there my major motivation was gain a lot of experience for the moment when I will make a movie. I never stop thinking about being a film director. All these ele ments have given me a very broad outlook, with varying degrees of knowledge in a range of topics. Scholarship Essay :: essays research papers I am here Ever since I was a young kid I have always been interested in movies. My grandma, who was full of the wise the life experience left, always knew about my interest in movies. She feed my vain for the art. Even though her religion, she professed Adventist of seven-day religion, didn’t let her go to the cinema, she always found the way to took me to the cinema. She and I enjoyed watch movies. We used to sit in the darkness room, with our faces illuminated from the reflection of the light which rebooted from the screen, both absorbs in the plot of the movie which made us laughed or cried. After the movie, while we went back to her home, she started to talk about the movie. She had a particular point of view where the main story wasn’t the most important part of the movie, instead she showed me to enjoy the stories behind the main story, the movies’ details. I was fascinated with her stories about other people in the movies, the second character stories. I always, inv olved by the excitement of the moment, started to create my own movies, my own characters, my own stories, and I know now that that part of our secret visited to the cinema, were the part that she most enjoyed. Those days are part of my most values memories. The legacy that she left me is still alive. For many different circumstances I couldn’t study film before now. But I never give up about my dreams of being a film director. At the aged of nineteen I joined a theater company. It was the most near reference that I have to gain experience about how to produce a show. Cinema studies were very expensive at that time. I worked with the theater company for twenty years. During that time I fell in love, I raised my family, I learned a lot about production, acting, directing, lighting and sound. I traveled to many countries and worked and participated in many different theater festivals; Spolleto in Italy, Cadiz and Madrid in Spain, FIT England, Canada, Australia, Mexico, New York, Chicago, German and Colombia. While I was working there my major motivation was gain a lot of experience for the moment when I will make a movie. I never stop thinking about being a film director. All these ele ments have given me a very broad outlook, with varying degrees of knowledge in a range of topics.

Digital Fortress Chapter 14

Becker gazed down at the cadaver. Even hours after death, the Asian's face radiated with a pinkish glow of a recent sunburn. The rest of him was a pale yellow-all except the small area of purplish bruising directly over his heart. Probably from the CPR, Becker mused. Too bad it didn't work. He went back to studying the cadaver's hands. They were like nothing Becker had ever seen. Each hand had only three digits, and they were twisted and askew. The disfigurement, however, was not what Becker was looking at. â€Å"Well, I'll be.† The lieutenant grunted from across the room. â€Å"He's Japanese, not Chinese.† Becker looked up. The officer was thumbing through the dead man's passport. â€Å"I'd rather you didn't look at that,† Becker requested. Touch nothing. Read nothing. â€Å"Ensei Tankado†¦ born January-â€Å" â€Å"Please,† Becker said politely. â€Å"Put it back.† The officer stared at the passport a moment longer and then tossed it back on the pile. â€Å"This guy's got a class-3 visa. He could have stayed here for years.† Becker poked at the victim's hand with a pen. â€Å"Maybe he lived here.† â€Å"Nope. Date of entry was last week.† â€Å"Maybe he was moving here,† Becker offered curtly. â€Å"Yeah, maybe. Crummy first week. Sunstroke and a heart attack. Poor bastard.† Becker ignored the officer and studied the hand. â€Å"You're positive he wasn't wearing any jewelry when he died?† The officer looked up, startled. â€Å"Jewelry?† â€Å"Yeah. Take a look at this.† The officer crossed the room. The skin on Tankado's left hand showed traces of sunburn, everywhere except a narrow band of flesh around the smallest finger. Becker pointed to the strip of pale flesh. â€Å"See how this isn't sunburned here? Looks like he was wearing a ring.† The officer seemed surprised. â€Å"A ring?† His voice sounded suddenly perplexed. He studied the corpse's finger. Then he flushed sheepishly. â€Å"My God.† He chuckled. â€Å"The story was true?† Becker had a sudden sinking feeling. â€Å"I beg your pardon?† The officer shook his head in disbelief. â€Å"I would have mentioned it before†¦ but I thought the guy was nuts.† Becker was not smiling. â€Å"What guy?† â€Å"The guy who phoned in the emergency. Some Canadian tourist. Kept talking about a ring. Babbling in the worst damn Spanish I ever heard.† â€Å"He said Mr. Tankado was wearing a ring?† The officer nodded. He pulled out a Ducado cigarette, eyed the no fumar sign, and lit up anyway. â€Å"Guess I should have said something, but the guy sounded totally loco.† Becker frowned. Strathmore's words echoed in his ears. I want everything Ensei Tankado had with him. Everything. Leave nothing. Not even a tiny scrap of paper. â€Å"Where is the ring now?† Becker asked. The officer took a puff. â€Å"Long story.† Something told Becker this was not good news. â€Å"Tell me anyway.†

How Can Resourcing and Development Add Value in the Modern Workplace Essay

According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, Assistant Professor at Lincoln University, â€Å"leadership is about capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own value and visions clearly but not impose them. Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantial improvement rather than managing change. In the modern workplace, a good leader can lead the team to success and vice versa. The importance of a good leader in an organization cannot be doubted. However, one of the most challenging issues in the modern workplace is keeping talents. Talents or leaders may leave the organization for better offer or higher rate of pay. If no successor to drive it once the leader or key person leaves, the organization may get into troubles. In order to maintain the morale and loyalty for the other employees, another good, competent with respect of others should be appointed as leader. Other than leaders, junior grading employee should also be prepared to develop their career to some senior positions. This can explain why a career management (include succession plan for experienced staff) is so essential in an organization as a way of people sourcing. Career management is the combination of structured planning and the management choice for one’s own professional career. It is a process for employees to become aware of their interests, values, strengths and weaknesses, to get information about job opportunities within the organization, helps to identify the career goals, establish an action plan to achieve the career goals. Succession plan is a process to identify and develop internal potential employee to fill up the key or critical organizational positions. The main purpose of succession plan is to ensure the availability of competent, capable and experienced employee to prepare to be appointed to those positions when they become vacant. Succession planning meaning that prepare the experienced employees to undertake some key roles, focus on leadership continuity and sharing knowledge, provide a more effective and efficient monitoring and tracking of employees’ proficiency levels and the skill gaps and counter the increasing difficulty of recruiting talents externally. Succession plan is a very important and necessary part of an organization to reduce risk, create a proven leadership model, increase employees’ working morale and help the business to run smooth continuity and expand. Both people sourcing way are aids to develop talent and long-term growth, improve the capabilities and overall performance of workforce, create employee retention, meet the career development requirement of existing employee and improve support to employees throughout their employment. Career management is important in the eye of the organization and the employee. From the organization’s view, the failure to motivate their employees to plan for their career may result in shortage of employees to fill up the vacant, lower the employees’ commitment and inappropriate use of money which allocated for the training and development programs. From the employee’s view, lacking of career management may result in frustration, having a feeling that they are not value in the organization and unable to find some other suitable employment when the job nature changed, no matter due to mergers, acquisitions, restructuring or downsizing. The outcome for a successful career management includes employees’ personal fulfillment, goals achievement and a newly promotional theme in the modern workplace which is work-life balance. Different practices of people sourcing method can be used in different size of an organization. Entrepreneurship, partnership and limited company are some practices of forming an organization. Entrepreneurship means the one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. The most obvious formation of entrepreneurship is to start a new business. Entrepreneurship means that the business is run by an owner which call entrepreneur. Partnership is similar to entrepreneurship other than the organization is managed by at least two or above owners. Limited company means it is an organization which shareholders whose liability is limited by shares. Entrepreneurship is usually some small business and has fewer employees than limited organization which runs large business. If the business runs smooth and expand, entrepreneurship can turn into a limited organization. After choosing the right method of people sourcing within an organization, the organization can benefit from different kinds of advantages. With the right practice of people sourcing method in the right size of organization, the organization will be added value. Add value† can mean contributing directly to organization goals and deliver business objectives. Every organization has its goal and objective because these goals and objective can help the organization to define business and drive itself to success. Since the organization’s goal and objective are uses to lead itself to success, all the policies and procedures should follow its direction, including its employee sourcing way. Thomson, a pioneer in the old print economy, helped to create the electronic age with online system and CD-ROM products. One of the goals of his company, Thomson Corporation, is to become the dominant global e-information and solutions business. In order to make the growth strategy become successful, Thomson has to keep some key employees and motivate some junior employees because he believes that the essence to have employee retention includes creating a satisfying an challenging work environment, maintaining the right fit between the employees and their jobs and making sure that his employees have the right tools to perform their jobs successfully. Another goal of his company is to facilitate employees’ career development. In order to achieve this goal, Thomson had to educate his employees that career opportunities are available within the company and he had made it easier for employees to move within the company. By executing the career development within the company, Thomson had developed an online career center for his employees. The website includes seven hundred to nine hundred jobs listing every month. His employee can go to this website and choose specify preferred locations and full time or part time job. Meanwhile, a personal search agent would notify the employee whenever a new opening related jobs or career interests are posted automatically. The website had been developed to include self assessments so that the employees can decide whether they if they have the required skills. If the employees found that he needs some education or training to quality for a position, the website will link them to some courses. The design of the website is a kind of career management for the employees which can retain and motivate employees. After that, their supervisor will conduct performance appraisal annually to review their performance. As the career management systems start from self assessment, reality check, goal setting and finally the action planning, every employee in Thomson Corporation develop their career through the above steps. Self assessment refers to the use of information by the employees to found out their career interests, values, aptitudes and behavioral tendencies and it usually involves some psychological tests. In Thomson Corporation, employees can identify their occupational and job interests, e. . work in different types of environments and identify the relative value they place on work and the leisure activities through the career centre. Through the self assessment, employees may start to consider where they are in their careers, identify the future plans and assess them to fit in the current job with available resources. Reality check means the information that the employees receive about how their organization evaluates their knowledge and skills which help them to fit into organization’s plan. The said information is given by their supervisor as part of the performance appraisal process which included the performance review and employee’s career interests, strengths and possible development plans. Goal setting mean the process of employees developing short term and long term career objective. The goals usually relate to desired positions, level of skill application, work setting or skill acquisition. Employees in Thomson Corporation may have chance to achieve skill acquisition through specify training. Besides, development plan may be written out after the performance appraisal. The development plans include the descriptions of strengths and weakness, career goals and development plans for reaching the career goals. Action planning means how the employees determine their way to achieve short term or long term goals. An action plan usually involves in enrolling to some training courses, conducting information interviews or applying for a vacant within the organization. The information in the website is useful for ensuring the employees’ abilities, skills and nterests matches their jobs. If there is a mismatch, the website will provide some related training information and courses details for them to develop their skills. Other than the employee can benefit from such activities, the organization will benefit from the systems too. Firstly, it can reach a large number of potential job seekers after they post a vacant. Secondly, the website had provided detailed accessible information about the jobs which can facilitates employees’ development. Employees will then aware of what knowledge and skills are needed for the job. Thirdly, the system encourages employees responsible for an active role in the career management. This is congruent with a psychological contract and protean career. Career management is uses for junior grading employees and succession planning is designed for experienced or senior employees. Career management is usually applied to some small entrepreneurship and succession planning is applying to some large size limited companies. As large companies usually divided into few sections and each section will be managed by a line manager, an effective succession plan should be used. Motorola, Inc is an electronic and wireless communications company. In 1991, Motorola restructure itself and set out some new objectives and goals. Meanwhile, Motorola had promoted a succession plan named Organization and Management Development Review (OMDR). The objective would be diversity and sought to accelerate the advancement of women and minorities within the organization. The company goal which is within ten years the number of women and minorities at all levels of management should be representative of the number of women and minorities in the available talent pool. They also made a commitment that every year that at least three women and minorities would be appointed as vice-president among the twenty to forty people. In OMDR, the process of identifying the high potentials would be requires each section to submit a list of candidates in four categories: white men, women, minorities and technical staff. The succession plans are prepared for each high potential and their progress within the organization is being tracked. If the high potential leave or fall out of the list in the future, their supervisor must explain why this would happen. In order to counter the erception that most of the women and minorities are still in the feeder pool, a replacement chart had identifies some key positions and three people who could fill each one was developed. The first priority would be an immediate successor. The second priority would be a person who should success the incumbent if the organization had three to five years to prepare. The third priority would be the most qualified woman or minority candidate at that time, in addition to any women or minorities had already on the first two priorities. Women and minorities must be included even needs to hire externally. Besides the replacement chart, there are some other key elements of the program such as career planning. All individuals would receive a guidance to set out the career goals and develop some strategies to achieve them. The guidance of the program is give by managers through some informal mentoring and through the organization’s women’s leadership conference. In this case, Motorola had show the linkage between the succession planning initiative and the organization’s business goals which emphasis was placed on the business success that can flow from having a socially diverse workforce. Since Motorola sees diversity as a business initiative and not only human resources department but all line managers are responsible for the program’s implementation. Senior managers are required to keep tracking of the representation of women and minorities in their units. The succession planning is then effective because of the cooperation of all employees. Effective career management and succession plan can drive small size company or large size company to success through adding value to it. It can help the employers and employees to fulfill the company objectives and goals. In order to make the plan effective in the company, the below ten points should be noted. First, the organization must define the targets and goals clearly. It should set a time frame and numbers creates impetus for action. Without a clear direction, employee may not know what or how they should do to go for success. When the employee knows the company objective and goal and the time frame, they can set out their own career development plan. Second, the organization should define the details and meaning of the succession plan to include the widest talent pool. Succession plan is not yet common in modern workplace. High potential will be attracted to work in those companies with succession plan in order to get higher achievement. Third, the organization should inform the employee about the succession plan and to let them know that they should be ready all the times. It is because when they are on the radar, they will ask more questions about their development and it is harder for them to be lost within the organization. Fourth, the organization should implement the career management careful and have strategic planning for targeted individuals’ career development. Since being identified is not enough, the organization should consider the potential benefits of encourage informal mentoring. Fifth, the organization should ensure there is strong leadership and commitment from senior management. This is because initial and ongoing personal involvement of the director is an important criterion to lead the plan to success. Sixth, the career management and succession plan must be integrate into the business objective and positioned as a response to the business need. A clear linkage between the business goal and the desired results of the career management will help to gain commitment from the organization and employee. Career management must be success when it portrayed as a core issue. Seventh, the organization should make all the line managers accountable for the success of the initiative. Since the career management is a business initiative, all employees should be responsible and accountable for its delivery, especially the line managers. Eighth, the organization should encourage the employees to take an active role in the career management. The organization should let the employee know that the career management is a tool to help them to get higher achievement which is benefiting them. Ninth, the evaluation should be an on-going one which uses to get improvement. Tenth, career management should be linked to other human resources practices such as performance management, training and recruiting systems. The organization may evaluate the career management through several outcomes. First, the reactions of the managers and the employees who use the career management can be determined through some surveys. Second, some more information with objective related to the results of the career management system can be tracked such as the time needs to fill up a vacant, the percentage of usage of the system. Talent management is a new direction in the modern workplace. Career management and succession plan can help both the small size organization and large size organization to add value through contributing directly to organization objective and goal. In order to success, all organization should focus on the career development of employee more than business since employees are the most valuable assets within an organization

buy custom AAP Issues Statement and Bibliography Assignment essay

buy custom AAP Issues Statement and Bibliography Assignment essay Ethics Ethical conflicts occur while the dealings of one person or a group of people mess about with the welfare of another person, or the society at large. Sorry to say, but ethical decision-making models, no matter how highly structured, cannot effectively portray the complication of moral predicament. Consolidated Northern Company is not an exception and had the following ethical issues. Wrongful Termination The Consolidated firm formulated a plan to outright fire five workers without giving reasons; it also offered early retirement to five others, which they were aware they would refuse. Wrongful termination is both illegal and unethical issue. The society leans on to wrongful termination as inconsiderate, unfair or unacceptable. Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that it is illegal. Some countries do not protect employees from wrongful termination and therefore, remain legal. In fact, companies have a big deal of flexibility in the present employment regulation that permits them to employ and terminate with a great deal of liberty. The employer should give acceptable reasons for termination to the employee for the termination to occur. There are a number of issues of wrongful termination which are unethical and illegal. Discrimination It is well thought-out to be unjust termination if employers fire you based merely on gender, ethnicity, disability, or any other discriminatory causes. Defamation of Character The company filed for bankruptcy to serve as an excuse to fire the mployees. The company can also defame the employees, this occurs when the boss deliberately insult your character in order to defend your execution, this is unjust and is believed to be wrongful termination. For instance, the employer can make a false allegation concerning burglary or a different illegal doing in order to have a defense for sacking you. One may likely have an unfair termination case. Poor Communication The Consolidated Company was supposed to give its employees and the military at least 60 days notice of its departure from US operations. Though the notice would have numerous unwelcome consequences, it was important to allow them for both psychological and economical preparation. This is unfair to employees and the government military since it would lead to unnecessary planning. Like in any relationship, communication is essential to build a strong business relationship. Communication can be enhanced in practically all workplace, regardless the diligence or size. Communication is the only best way for information to efficiently and effectively spread all over the company in order employees can be knowledgeable to the level that they necessitated to properly accomplish their purpose. Poor communication not only leads to confusion but also lead to poor production. The employees lack information for the suitable achievement of their assignments. Normally, poor communication is a consequence of selfishness with employees; they hold the information to themselves not considering the fact that other people require that information. The employees need to be up-to-date with the current position of the company. They shoould be well informed of the companys plans and activities the company intends to undertake in the future. It is very important to overcome the issue of poor communication in the work place. When resolving issues within the company, the executive should be considerate and give ample time to enable the employees prepare adequately for the consequences. Corporate fraud Fraud is an extraordinary expression which is used to incorporate different immoral acts which may transpire within a company. This may include general corruption, misappropriation, or still political irresponsibility. The consolidated company committed fraud by rewarding the administrators in Argentina and Columbia government. This was unacceptable since this company produced harmful chemicals which could be harmful if they leaked to local ground water. Long firm fraud is most dangerous form of corporate fraud, it occurs in a legitimate business grounds, and then few unethical personnel lead to defrauding over time. This fraud activity occurs without the consent of all employees in the firm. It only takes only a few key players to make a fraud. The Consolidated Company began on relatively legitimate purpose, since it wanted a notable credit history and strong interaction with the military and other creditors. However, once they laid this stable foundation, they started making sub standard products and later they manufactured landslides. They even made a decision to run away without the creditors consent. These acts are unacceptable and wrong since they have negative impacts to the victims. Most long firm frauds take to establish, operate, and then terminate. This prevents the legal action to be taken against them. Buy custom AAP Issues Statement and Bibliography Assignment essay

Roman Republic Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Roman Republic - Research Paper Example The differences between Catliana’s approach and those of other factions will also be assessed. The Caitlian conspiracy occurred during a background of economic and social problems that had been plaguing Rome for more than a year. Living conditions were deteriorating for many Italian peasants, levels of debt were rising and so were the numbers of the urban poor; additionally, small farms were declining and there was a shortage of men available to serve in the army.(Cicero and Shapiro ) A radical Roman politician named Lucius Sergius Catiliana was responsible for gathering together a group of Roman nobles who were disaffected, together with farmers who were disaffected in a conspiracy which aimed to overthrow the existing Government at Rome, so that they could take control of the Italian peninsula. This was a Republican Government that was in power while the proconsul Pompeii the Great was out campaigning in the Near east, together with a majority of the military units that had accompanied him there. Catiliana and his band of rebellious followers were present in the capital Rome, as well as in the province of Eturia. The existence f the conspiracy was uncovered by the conservative, optimate consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero and he successfully drive Catliana and his followers out of Rome. Church (no date) has provided a detailed description of the conspiracy that was organized by Catiliana in his book titled â€Å"Roman life in the days of Cicero†. The actual conspiracy was preceded by an earlier one that aimed to assassinate the new consuls. Church (no date) points out that Catliana was born into a noble family, which had however, fallen into poverty. During the days of Sulla, individuals from similar families that had been former noblemen but had descended into poverty, decided to come together to seize power once again. Catliana was cruel and wicked,

Being Black in the 1950's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Being Black in the 1950's - Essay Example Being black in the 1950s meant that one had to cope with a discriminative education sector. Blacks had to travel long distances to school, which were scarce and were often poorly constructed, lacked books and other equipments, and had small classes that were crowded and that were taught by few unqualified teachers who had to be black. The whites however had many well-built and well-equipped schools taught by qualified white teachers. A Black man graduating from the aforementioned schools would therefore be unable to compete for opportunities with the White man and therefore the systems was partly designed to ensure that the White man remained superior to the Black man. A Black man would not get a good job and whenever he got one, he was given lower salaries than the Whites were. A survey done in 1950 showed that a Black man would get almost half of the Whites’ salary for the same work and position. This discrimination was extended the public sector and political offices â€⠀œ the white had put laws and practices to deter a black man from ascending to power or being elected. Such measures would include paying of taxes before being registered to vote and since Blacks were poor, they could not afford this and many were therefore locked out. There was also an illiteracy test for people who wished to be registered as voters. This locked out many black men who could not afford education due to poverty and this minimized the chances of black men voting their fellow blacks in. This meant that the blacks had no representation and therefore, they were not involved in making laws. The white man therefore made laws that did not favor the black man. A Black man also endured racism even in public places. For instance, he could not use the same public utilities as the White – there were public toilets for the Whites and others for the blacks. A black man could not enter the same joints and restaurants with the whites. He had to endure poor and low cost facili ties and utilities wherever he went. The transport industry is another place where the black man was discriminated. The black man, as if to affirm his position in the society, had to sit at the back rows of buses with their seats marked â€Å"colored people.† In some states like Alabama, there was a law that whenever a white man lacked a seat, a seated black man was supposed to give his seat to the white. Any black who dared oppose these rules was taken to court and subsequently jailed, as it was the case with Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person. She was jailed, sparkling the blacks’ bus boycott of 1955. A black man was subject to torture, intimidation and oppression whenever he tried to resist any discriminative law or tried to liberate himself. The whites had formed fear-inflicting groups like Ku Klux KIA, which attacked the opposing blacks, tortured them and scared them while concealing their identity. They would burn a black man’s h ouse, destroy their properties or even kill them. In 1955, the whites burned and destroyed the house and property of Martin Luther while he led the bus boycott. He himself was incarcerated. Earlier in the year 1954 when the blacks’ Supreme Court declared that segregation in schools illegal, the group and some youths organized attacks and demonstration to scare off any black man who dared set foot in a whites’ school. Many were scared away and only the brave remained.

Role of Management Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Role of Management Accounting - Essay Example Apart from collecting, recording and reporting the financial matters, the main role that the managerial accounting plays is of the budget. The budgets are a major aspect of an organization. It is the vital organ in the industry that controls the overheads and makes certain the preparation of an organization for the upcoming period and challenge. Budgets function as analysts that outline the prospect as to how the company is going to dwell in the upcoming phase. Without a strategic planning, an organization cannot carry on. The budget helps the company to ensure that the spending limits are adequate. Speaking about the managerial and financial accounting, the basic difference between them is that the managerial accounting interprets the people working in a specific organization. It analyzes the work that is going on and also plans for the work that would take place, aiming for a better future of the company as they do so. Whereas, the financial management relates to the effective use of money that can be utilized and maximize the value of the firm as well. They are the base on which the profit making of the whole company depends. They are the protectors of the company’s assets and strengthen the accountability, exhibiting on how the financial supplies are utilized. Thus, managerial accounting plays a fundamental role in the success of an organization. It requires awareness and skills to outline the challenges that are faced by the company. Overcoming them and organizing them helps a business to prosper and interact with other business organizations more fluently and more

The American Revolution as a European Movement Essay Example for Free

The American Revolution as a European Movement Essay The American Revolution was and always will be the most important piece of history for the United States of America. It was definitely revolutionary. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century was one of these paradigm historical shifts, challenging the traditional notions of authority by investing reason with the power to change the human condition for the better. The Enlightenment also shows that the American’s colonies were influenced by European ideals and political developments, and in turn the American’s colonies also influence Europe. Across the Atlantic, the Enlightenment had a profound impact on the English colonies in America and ultimately on the infant nation of the United States. â€Å"The Enlightenment challenged the role of religion and divine right and this helped Colonial America to see that it was possible to challenge the King and divine right. The movement challenged the role of God and allowed people to see that they were important and had the ability to shape their own lives. (â€Å"The Great Awakening†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , Journal) In many ways, the new United States was the Enlightenment, for its leaders could actually implement many of the ideas that European philosophers could only talk idly about. First, the Enlightenment helped to shape the colonies was in terms of religion. With the Great Awakening came a new understanding of America’s early relationship to God and the Church. Instead of one all-powerful church that almost required membership, Protestant ideals based on Enlightenment principles of free will and freedom from institutions allowed people to choose membership in a church rather than be forced into one. Although during the Enlightenment there was a very secular focus, in America this was not the case. The colonies were still very religious but they used the ideas of their freedom to choose that were based on the Enlightenment. Instead of being tied to one religious authority, there were many choices in the colonies and people had a right to choose how to establish and maintain their connection to God. Much of what colonists wanted to do with politics had a greater influence coming from Britain. Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke both had great influence on American thinkers, with Locke being the more influential as Hobbes solution was not the thing the American founders wanted. Locke was far more optimistic, stating that all humans were capable and that they strove for the betterment of the world. John Locke believed that natural laws say that every person has certain basic rights, and he argued passionately for freedom of religion. He wrote that every person has the natural right to defend his â€Å"life, health, liberty or possessions. John Locke argued that because we have so much doubt about so many things, each person should have as much freedom as possible. Because we really don’t know the best way to organize and improve our society, all people should make their own decisions about what they want to do with their own lives. When Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he echoed Locke, writing about â€Å"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have become the central themes of American Revolutionary philosophy. † (Morton, Joseph C, 143) The American Revolution had much influence beyond the political boundary of the new nation. Many liberal movements in Europe took heart from the accomplishment of the American Declaration of Independence, the war itself, and the creation of a new government to replace the British rule over the old colonies. Many peoples wished to either overthrow the idea of monarchy or, at least, establish a constitutional monarchy. The French Revolution was inspired by many of the ideals of the American Revolution When the French people heard of the revolt in America they realized they didnt have to live under tyranny. They started the revolution in hopes of becoming an independent country. The French fought alongside the Americans against the English to accomplish a democratic, independent nation and the declaration of independence France was bankrupt at the time, so the people were very poor. Meanwhile they saw their monarchs in all their wealth and began to see them as tyrants. The stories of the French soldiers that had fought in America, like the Marquis de Lafayette, loved the American notion of liberty and began to support similar reforms in France. As James mentioned â€Å"Lafayette was one of the first people to advocate a National Assembly, and he worked to make France a constitutional monarchy. †(James) Revolutionary ideas turned into real plans of attack. They wanted to rid themselves of a monarchy ruled by the royals, clergy and aristocrats. In conclusion, Enlightenment thinking, economics, and geography all helped in some way toward an American revolution. Also, Enlightenment thinking helps the American colonists to know what they want in a government.

Microbial Mats: A Bioreactor of Lithification

Microbial Mats: A Bioreactor of Lithification Microbial mats: a bioreactor of lithification and an indicator of Earths evolution Introduction Microbial mat is a general term that is used to describe a variety of microbial communities that are found at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces such as estuarine environment and salt marshes (Krumbein et al., 1977; Nicholson et al., 1987). Bacteria and archaea are two main microbes forming the layers. Microbial mats contain a variety of different but essential trophic groups including primary producers, consumers, and decomposers. This is why even though microbial mats are, to an extreme extent, geographically small, they are ecosystems from an ecological perspective. Microbial mats are dynamic ecosystems in which a wide range of metabolic processes take place. Inside this tiny ecosystem, different physical and chemical environments are distinguished by a variety of gradients, include but not limited to light, oxygen and sulfide (Visscher and van den Ende, 1994). The gradients may not be always constant. For example, oxygen concentration may have varied from diurnally to seasonally. In some aquatic systems, it will drop from supersaturated to undetectable within a few centimeters. The light penetration depth is fluctuated because of change of seasons or just with cloud covering. All these temporal environmental oscillations mentioned above, will result in coupled reactions, that are critical to the biogeochemical cycle, like reduction and oxidation of elements such as carbon and sulfur. Therefore, heterogeneity of microbe habitat is a common character that exhibits among all microbial mats.   Microbial mat ecosystems can be viewed as a semiclosed system which require little more than sunlight to function, as such it is efficient in all kinds of reactions and element cycling. The relatively simple but functional structures make it, to a certain extent, easy to reach equilibrium and mass balances. Generally, microbial mats tend to have high rates of oxygenic photosynthesis, aerobic respiration, sulfate reduction, and sulfide oxidation (Canfield and Des Marais, 1993; Revsbech et al., 1986), when compared to other benthic ecosystems. A classical view of a microbial mat (Figure 1)(Visscher et al., 2000) is that a fixed sequence of microbial groups exists: starting with oxygenic cyanobacteria as a surface community, underlain by oxygenic phototropic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria as subsequent layer (Krumbein, 1983). This view, however, was later questioned and revised. Structure and the layers are not a result of different metabolic reaction types, on the contrary, they might be found in association with the cyanobacterial layer. Some research showed that the sulfur reducing bacteria was also found in the surface layer (Frà ¼nd and Cohen, 1992; Visscher et al., 1992). Microbial mats and mineral interaction In microbial ecosystems, when the precipitation rate of minerals is faster than that of dissolution, lithification will occur. Precipitations mediated by microbial mats is not limited to carbonates but also constituted by other minerals, such as gypsum and anhydrite (Ehrlich, 1998). Among all these precipitation types, carbonate precipitation is perhaps the most important process as it is directly related to the global carbon cycling. Therefore, in this section, a main focus will be put on sedimentary biofilms in hypersaline environments to help with the interpretation of the rock record. 2.1 Stromatolites and carbonate precipitation Stromatolites are lithifying organic sedimentary structures formed by microorganisms (Figure 2). Carbonate precipitation activities of microbial mats are trapped and recorded in stromatolites layered structures. As such, microbial mats can be viewed as bioreactors (Dupraz et al., 2004a). The stromatolites structure is characterized as an alternating soft and hard layers whose heights ranges from a few centimeters to two meters. The evolutionary processes of stromatolites remain largely uncharacterized (Zavarzin, 2002). There are two major hypotheses. Des Marais (1997) speculated that microbial lithification is a result of by-product of microbial metabolism. On the other hand, McConnaughey and Whelen (1997) suggested that this could be directly related to the consequence of microbes harvesting energy from protons released during calcium carbonate precipitation. However, regardless of origin, stromatolites have thrived for a long history that could be seen as a major evolutionary advan ce for us to study the Earths early history and global biogeochemical cycles. Cyanobacteria have played a crucial role in carbonate precipitation as shown in Figure 3. Two microbially as well as physicochemically controlled factors determine carbonate precipitation: the saturation index (SI) and exopolymeric substances (Lozano-Garcà ­a et al.). SI = log(IAP/Ksp), where IAP denotes the ion activity product (i.e. [Ca2+]*[CO2-]) and Ksp, the solubility product of the corresponding mineral (10-6.37 for calcite at 25 °C, 1bar atmospheric pressure and 35 PSU salinity (Zeebe and Wolf-Gladrow, 2001)). If IAP > Ksp, the solution is supersaturated, and when SI > 0.8, calcite carbonate tends to precipitates (Kempe and Kazmierczak, 1994). Or else, calcite carbonate will dissolve. The [CO32-] depends on the carbonate equilibrium, which comprises three species as followed: H2CO3, HCO3 and CO32-. In another word, pH is influencing the precipitation. Therefore, before investigating how microbial metabolism affect the CaCO3 precipitation, understanding production and consum ption of inorganic carbon and the environmental pH change is a prerequisite. EPS act as a chelator for cations and the template for crystal nucleation (Costerton et al., 1995; Decho, 2000). It is constantly modified by including but not limited to UV radiation, pH and microbial degradation (e.g. through hydrolysis, decarboxylation). 2.2 Microbial mats and lithification Contemporary microbial mats, vertically laminated ecosystems, resemble the layered sedimentary structures of stromatolites. As such, they have been attracting extensively research interests for being analogues for stromatolites. Shown in Figure 3, there are 6 different functional groups of microbes exist in microbial mats. From top of the figure to the bottom are: Cyanobacteria act as primary producers, which are believed to affect the trapping and biding of sediments; Aerobic heterotrophic bacteria, which gain energy from oxygen respiration and organic carbon; Anoxygenic phototrophs, mainly purple and green bacteria, which using HS- for photosynthesis; Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB), which respiring organic carbon with SO2- while producing HS; Sulfide oxidizing bacteria (SOB), chemolithoautotrophs that oxidize HS with oxygen or nitrate while fixing CO2; fermenters, using organic carbon or sulfur compounds as electron donor and acceptor. However, this view of the mat composition is facing challenge because nucleic acid sequences will undoubtedly reveal more diverse and complex community structures than the simple classified ones. Cyanobacteria is more like an important mediator of biogeochemical cycle of the mats ecosystem. It produces oxygen for the whole system to be functional (Fenchel, 1998). As mentioned before, the mat ecosystem is very efficient and productive. The relatively high photosynthetic rates, which shows a diurnal fluctuation, will reach its peak in the afternoon. Aerobic heterotrophs respire during the daytime when there is abundant oxygen, thereby creating an anoxia environment at twilight. Fermenters degrade complex organic molecules into smaller ones and benefit the SRB. SOB and anoxyphototrophs have contributed less to carbon fixation comparing with cyanobacteria and the role of fermentation remains ambiguous. All these activities above have resulted in steep vertical geochemical gradients with extreme diel fluctuations (Figure 3). To understand the role of microbial mats in precipitation and dissolution, it is important to determine both the abundance and metabolic activity of these key functional groups. Because the quality and quantity of EPS are largely determined by the metabolic activity of the community. In the previous researches, several microbial mat systems have been found to produce carbonate phases: travertine in hot springs in Yellowstone (Fouke et al., 2000), dolomite in Lagoa Vermelha, Brazil (Vasconcelos and McKenzie, 1997) and Salt Pan, Bahamas (Dupraz et al., 2004a). However, there are still mats that will no lithify or fossilize. So here comes the question, what determines the lithification potential? A previous study, using a combination of geological and microbial techniques, of lithifying microbial mat systems in hypersaline lake system was carried on in Salt Pan in Eleuthera, Bahamas (Dupraz et al., 2004a). The lake is not deep with an average depth less than 60cm. From the shoreline towards the center of the lake, a gradient from lithifying mats to jellylike soft mats exists (Figure 4). The shallow water column was found to contain cyanobacterial pigments that efficiently quench the sunlight. Not surprisingly, the photosynthesis, aerobic respiration, sulfate reduction are generally higher and geochemical gradients are steeper in the shallower lithifying mats. Moreover, EPS is easily destructed by strong UV radiation in shallower mats. This process helps with removing inhibition of precipitation by releasing more Ca2+ into the environment. The combination of these processes benefits carbonate precipitation. 2.3 Microstructure of precipitation and EPS UV radiation will cause browning reactions, dehydration and alkalinity. However, EPS production in stromatolite mat can prevent damages such as desiccation of the mat, retains essential nutrients, and provides water channels for transporting metabolites and signaling compounds (Costerton et al., 1995; Decho, 2000). Decho, A.W. et al. (Decho et al., 2005) had shown that EPS production in a stromatolite mat accounted only for 8% of 14HCO3uptake during the light, and a rapid turnover followed during the dark. They concluded that despite the fast rate of production, the net EPS production was low. The production and consumption are in equilibrium. Once being hydrolyzed, EPS components were readily consumed by the mat community, particularly anaerobes instead of aerobes. This is somehow surprising that when Schizothrix EPS, xanthan, or sugar and amino acid monomers and polymers that comprise EPS were supplied in mats, stimulation of anaerobic heterotrophic activity stimulation was greater than aerobic heterotrophs activity (Decho et al., 2005; Visscher et al., 2000). The combined action of fermentative organisms and SRB could be responsible for this high consumption rate. Oxygen levels are influenced by the rapid and extensive diurnal fluctuations as well as cloud cover and O2-consuming cell clusters in the EPS can produce anoxic microenvironments, therefore, the anaerobic pathway plays an important role in microbial EPS degradation. EPS can not only release Ca2+and HCO3 during microbial alteration, but also influence chemical gradients, which will in turn affect the mineral phases. The EPS matrix preferably slows down the mobility of hydrated Mg2+, therefore, temporarily increase relative abundance of Ca2+(Figure 5). The delay of Mg diffusion would lead to a decrease of the Mg2+:Ca2+ ratio of mineral products forming inside the EPS (Verrecchia et al., 1995). As mentioned above, changes in the amount or type of EPS could influence the rate of precipitation or types of crystals formed. 2.4 Microbial metabolism and saturation index Simple redox reactions form the basis of microbial metabolism. These metabolic reactions often involve C and either O, S or N (Figure 3;(Fenchel, 1998)). Daytime and nighttime metabolism of the six key functional groups is typically different, especially when it is influenced by oxygen and sunlight. Chemical alterations of the microenvironment that result from different metabolic reactions might change the alkalinity and thus facilitate carbonate precipitation or dissolution (Visscher and Stolz, 2005). Microbial mats have a high metabolic activities, thus it is not surprising that the rapid SI changes, despite the internal buffering capacity of the carbonate system, would result in a chemical alteration of the microenvironment. High rates of cyanobacterial photosynthesis cause a rapid depletion of CO2, which challenge the resilience or reestablishment of the carbonate equilibrium, and the increasing alkalinity will results in carbonateprecipitation through removal of the Hthat is pro duced in the latter reaction. It should be noted that in these reactions, organic carbon is assumed to be CH2O and different outcomes are expected with different organic compounds. For example, CO2produced bythe decomposition of carboxylic acids, will potentially increase the carbonate alkalinity by CO2degassing(Visscher et al., 1992). As such, this could probably explain why heterotrophic aerobes have been shown to precipitate carbonate. Microbial mats as an indicator of sulfur evolution The sulfur cycle has evolved over the long history of the Earth, with the concentration and the isotopic fractional abundance much different between Precambrian and contemporaneous environment (Cameron, 1982). The surface environment of the early Earth was basically reducing. Little atmospheric oxygen existed. Even though it is still under debate how the oxygen was produced at first, a majority of researchers believe that the history of atmospheric oxygen and seawater sulphate are closely linked (Habicht and Canfield, 1996; Ohmoto et al., 1993; Walker and Brimblecombe, 1985). Sulphate in Archaean and early Proterozoic sediment was found to be consistent in 34S depletion, which is similar to meteorites and mantle-derived igneous rocks (Cameron, 1982; Monster et al., 1979). Moreover, sulphate level was found to positively influence the rate of 34S depletion as lower levels sulphate (