Contract Negotiations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contract Negotiations - Research Paper Example Finally, the conclusion will sum up the thesis as well as the findings. A contract is a lawful agreement involving two or more parties. This means that contract negotiation is a process of talking about the stipulations of the agreement to reach a specified goal. Before attempting to negotiate a contract, one need to identify the main objectives for entering into the agreement, research on the present contract laws, build trust with the negotiators, and prepare for the entire negotiation by getting important figures and facts. Contract negotiators have immense skills and knowledge that help them to acquire a more appropriate and constructive contract for their clients (Garrett, 2005, pp. 18-21). Therefore, under the theoretical foundation, this treatise aims at describing the main areas of knowledge and skills that are important to ensuring success of a contract negotiator. It also details one strategy that an effective negotiator ought to consider to achieve a favorable contract. In addition, under the discussion part, relevant implications in regard t o contract negotiation will be analyzed. This discourse concludes that effective communication, critical thinking, active listening, legal and technical understanding, management, and social perceptiveness are some of the skills and knowledge that are required to guarantee a constructive contract. Research shows that the main job of a contract negotiator is to maximize value for their employers. Therefore, they need to be highly competent and possess particular skills and knowledge that are in accordance to their line of work. For instance, one of the main qualifications that they need to have to ensure a favorable contract is impeccable communication skills. This means that they must effectively articulate the needs of the organization and be in a position to win more clients. Moreover, they need to have a rich ground for knowledge and be critical thinkers. In that

Content-based Image Retrieval With Ant Colony Optimization

Content-based Image Retrieval With Ant Colony Optimization Content-based image retrieval with skin tones and shapes using Ant colony optimization Introduction: Due to the enormous pool of image data, a plenty of data to be sort out has lead the way for analyzing and dig up the data to acquire likely worthwhile information. Heterogeneous fields cover from commercial to military desire to inspect data in a systematic and quick manner. Outstandingly in the area of interactive media, images have the stronghold. There is no sufficient tools are available for examination of images. One of the points at issue is the effective pinpointing of features in the likeness and the other one is extracting them. NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF RESEACH PROBLEM Current techniques in image retrieval and classification concentrate on content-based techniques. It seek survey the contents of the image rather than thedata about datasuch as keywords, label or properties corresponding with the image. The term content refer to shades, appearance, textures, or any other particulars that can be obtained from the image itself. CBIR with skin tones is advisable because most net-based image search engines rely purely on metadata and this turn out a lot of waste in the results.Thus a system that can sifter images rest on their content with additional property i.e., skin tone would serve better list and return more specific outcomes. Various systems like the QBIC, Retrieval Ware and Photo Book etc., have a variety of attributes, still used in distinct discipline. The color features integrated with shape for classification, the color and texture for retrieval. There is no single feature which is ample; and, moreover, a single representation of characterist ics is also not enough. Sonith et al.[1996] describes a fully automated content – based image query systems. Ioloni et al. [1998] describes image retrieval by color semantics with incomplete knowledge. Mori et al. [1999] have applied dynamic programming technique for function approximated shape representation. Chang et al. [2001] describes information driven framework for image. Mira et al. [2002] describes fact content based image retrieval using Qusi – Gabir filler Vincent et al. [2007] have developed a fully automated content based image query system. Heraw et al. [2008] describes image retrieval will an enhanced multi modeling ontology. Taba et al. [2009] have used mining association rules for the feature matrin. OBJECTIVES Moreover, speed changes in industry and databases influencing our view and understanding of the problem over time and demanding alter in problem decoding approach. Consequently, further research is required in this field to develop algorithms for pick out images with skin tone and shapes, able to cope with ongoing technological changes. Investigation of effective images with skin tone and shapes based on pixel algorithms Extracting them based on optimization algorithms. Developing computational algorithms in extracting the images. The main objective is to study the Image Identification and Optimistic method of Image Extraction for Image Mining using Ant colony optimization .ACO, good solutions to a given optimization problem. To achieve this main objective, the goals are formulated as follows: To Study the Image Mining Techniques. To Explore the Approaches used in Selecting the Images To Explore the Extracting of the Features. To apply the powerful Techniques. To Analyze the Experimental Results. To Study the Optimization Techniques. To bring down calculation and taking out time. Work Plan: I will begin my research work by investigating different methodologies available in the literature and measure their applicability in different perspectives for common benefit. After that, I prefer to limit my research interest down from general to even more specific under the guidance of designated supervisor in the course so that it fits into university doctoral program curriculum. The research tasks are grouped year wise as follows. Year-1: Literature survey on various methods to get an idea of pattern matching, shapes and classification. Implementation of algorithms in order to gauge their applicability and scalability. Mathematical modelling of Ant colony Optimization considering new objectives and constraints existing in Image processing. Submission of a paper to a major conference Develop a detailed research proposal and give oral defense to get full registration of the course Year-2 Continue and refine the mathematical model to make the problem more actual Develop single objective optimization algorithms for effective extraction of Images. Start to develop multi objective optimization algorithms for extraction by considering large scale optimization and classification Submission of two papers to international conference and journals Year-3: Implementation of developed algorithms for analysis of images and optimization problems Submission of a paper to a major journal Completing a thesis based on the PhD project Taking part in active research groups. Publication of research work. REFFERENCES Beyer K et al. [1999]: Bottom-Up computation of sparse and Iceberg CUBEs. ACM SIGMOD. Carter R et al.[1983]: CIELUV color difference equations for self-luminoudisplays. Color Res. Appl., 8(4), 252–553. Chang SF et al. [1995]: Extracting multi-dimensional signal features for content-based visual query. SPIE Symposium on Visual Communications and Signal Processing. idoni J et al. [1998]: Image retrieval by color semantics with incomplete knowledge. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(3), 267-282. evich V et al. [2008]: Medical Image Mining on the Base of Descriptive Image Algebras. Cytological Specimen Case. In : Proc.of the International Conference on Health Informatics—HEALTHINF, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, 2, 66–73. Huan et al.[2008]: Image Retrieval ++ web Image Retrieval with an enhanced Multi-modality ontology . Kluwer Academic Publishers. Jaba Sheela et al. [2009]: Image mining using association rules derived from feature matrix. ACM, 440-443. Jain A [1991]: Algorithms for clustering data. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall. Jain A et al.[1996]: Image Retrieval using color and shape. Pattern Recognition, 29(8):1233-1244. James D [1993]: Content based retrieval in multimedia imaging. In : Proc. SPIE Storage and Retrieval for Image and Video Databases. Kantardzic M [2003]: Data Mining, Wiley-Interscience. MaW et al.[1997]: Tools for texture/color based search of images. SPIE International conference Human Vision and Electronic Imaging, 496-507. Mira P et al.[2002]: Fast content-based image retrieval using quasi gabor filter and reduction of image feature dimension. SSIAI, 178-182. Mori K et al.[1999]: Function approximated shape representation using dynamic programming with multi-resolution analysis. ICSPAT 99. Niblack W et al. [1994]: The QBIC project: Querying images by content using color, texture and shape. In : Proc. SPIE Storage and Retrieval for Image and Video Databases. Pentland A et al. [1996]: Content based manipulation of databases. Int. J. Comput. Vis., 18(3), 233-254. Rui Y et al. [1999]: Image retrieval: current techniques, promising directions and open issues. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, 10(4), 39-62. Shiaofen Fang et al. [2009]: Facial image classification of mouse embryos for the animal model study of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Proceedings of the 2009 ACM symposium on Applied Computing, 852-856. Smith J et al. [1996]: VisualSEEK: A fully automated content-based image query system. ACM Multimedia, 87-98. Vincent S et al. [2007]: Web Image Annotation by fusing visual features and textual information . SIGAPP’07,2007. Zaher Al Aghbari [2009]: Effective image mining by representing color histograms as time series. Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics, 13, 109-114. Zaiane O et al.[1998]: Mining MultiMedia Data. CASCON98: Meeting of Minds, Toronto, Canada, 83-96,. Zhang Ji [2001]: An Information-driven framework for image mining. In : Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA), Munich, Germany. Zhang Ji et al. [2001]: Image Mining: issues, frameworks and techniques. In : Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Multimedia Data Mining (MDM/KDD2001), San Francisco, CA, USA.

Scuba :: essays research papers

Scuba diving is an activity enjoyed by people all over the world. Scientists use it to study underwater life, police use it to train in case of emergencies, and many others do it just for fun. What many people don't know, though, is that scuba diving would be impossible without physics. Pressure, buoyancy, and force are big parts of diving. Pressure, the weight pushing on something, is a vital part of scuba diving. As a diver sinks deeper into the water, the pressure pushing on the person's lungs pushes harder. This can be very dangerous to a person's safety. While the water is pushing on the outside of the lungs, pressure in the inside of the lungs is pushing out. If this pressure isn't the same as the weight from the water pushing on the lungs, the diver could have breathing problems and possibly die. To equalize these two pressures, modern scuba gear is equipped with a device attached to the air hose called a demand regulator that controls the flow of air getting to the lungs, changing the pressure inside. Buoyancy, how easily a person sinks or floats, is definitely a huge part of scuba diving. It determines how deep a person stays underwater. To control this, divers wear weights and inflatable neckwear called buoyancy compensators. Depending on how many weights a person is wearing; they sink to a certain depth and stay there. The more weights, the farther down they go. The buoyancy compensator, once inflated, rises the person back up to the surface. The more accessories, such as weights, a person wears, the lighter they feel in water and the easier they sink. All kinds of forces can be associated with scuba diving. For instance, when a diver kicks his fins to move, he is applying a force on the water behind him. In turn, the water is applying a force back on him, causing him to move. Pressure is a force that pushes on a diver's lungs, air tank, and everything else in the water.

Onus of Ethical Lapses Lies on Business Schools

Concept Paper Seminars in HRM Final Project Bushra Fatima, MBA 2k8 13 May, 2010 th Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 2 Ethical Lapses in Businesses: Onus lies on B Schools? I joined NUST Business School two years back, after I did my engineering degree. The logical premise, I gave to justify my choice to enter a Business school was not that I was passionate about studying business administration in anyway, but was the fact that the MBA is a good add-on to my degree, ensuring better and well paying career options in the long run. In my view back then, a business school was meant to churn out managers, like so many medical and engineering schools that churn out doctors and engineers. By the end of my first semester of MBA, my perception was changed. Getting an MBA doesn’t make you a manager. Management is more of a practice, something that needs to be done outside the safe environment of Business school. According to one of my professors: â€Å"It’s like swimming; you cannot learn it by sitting cozy in an air-conditioned classroom listening to the lecture†. However, like most professions you need to understand the theory behind the practice. Hence, the case with teaching ethics in business schools and the responsibility of the institute to instill ethical values in the students is challenged. Business people act in unethical ways when they start evaluating the risk and rewards of being a moral person. Business school should teach that economic analysis is only helpful and proper when all of the options being considered are morally correct. Aristotle believed ethics was more than just learning a set of rules. Ethics was a way of living. â€Å"One becomes a lute player by playing the lute, one becomes a builder by building; likewise, one becomes courageous by doing courageous acts (a virtue for Aristotle)†¦ † Before I hold the business schools responsible for the ethical lapses that happen in the business world, let us delve into some reality check. Can ethics be taught? Studies show that MBA alters how students view businesses and their roles and responsibilities as managers. Students bring in their ethics and moral values which may be hard to transform all together but a slight change in attitudes may be infused in them during the course of study. However, even if the student learns complete theory associated with ethics, there is no guarantee that what he does outside the class would be in conformance with what he has learnt in class. Unless, the class learning is supported by a value structure of the student’s environment on campus and at home, a message of double standards is sent. That brings me to what the student really learns in the business school and what is emphasized upon during his tenure there. When a student is taught about leadership for example, the emphasis is on business leader’s gain in terms of wealth and building multibillion dollar enterprises rather than what they have contributed to the society or what change they have made for the betterment of humanity. The business schools tend to give a myopic view of success and leadership to the students equating success with monetary gain thus monetization of the concept of leadership. A profitable enterprise according to the business schools are ones which works towards increasing short term monetary gains for the shareholder instead of emphasizing on sustainable growth and benefiting all stakeholders in long term. Thus, indoctrination of money mindedness in done to the extent of poisoning the young mind to think ethics as old school philosophy which stands in the way of success. Overall business schools convey a subtle but lethal message of privilege. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 3 The business school teaching methodology that puts too much emphasis on case study system gives a false confidence to the student that he knows how to solve real life problems. He is encouraged to make use of the economic models without taking into account the variety of problems and issues that may arise as a result of those decisions. The application of the knowledge is taken as a means to a definite end without enabling him to do critical analysis. He is taught how to solve problems but he is not taught think about the side effects of his decisions. The cases highlight success stories and emphasize on numerical and financial aspects without focusing much on the nitty gritty humanistic details. Another problem is that each dimension of business is taught more or less in isolation. The marketing people emphasize on marketing aspects, the finance people emphasize on the financials and the human resource people see things through their own colored glass thus isolating the student from the intricate details of implications resulting from their skewed decisions. The ethics aspect in most case discussions is never emphasized and students are seldom told what not to do. It is important for the students to come up with smart solutions and strategies and they should be able to state their financial viability but nobody questions the ethical viability. For many students ethics equals to norms. Norms they say is how things are done usually which can mean that people can justify their actions just because it is largely acceptable. This leads us to the bandwagon and group think mentality which exists among students. As a society we function collectively. So if it is socially acceptable to bribe, people are going to do it without questioning morality of the action. Business schools, or for that matter any school of learning is responsible to bring a change in the trend of blind followership and enable critical thinking; thus, contributing to evolution of societies. We live in an ethically dysfunctional society. We don’t teach our children to be responsible citizens; instead we emphasize on competing and being the best. We teach children that it’s a jungle out there where survival is that of the fittest. When it comes to making a career choice, we impose that career is one which gives a better return on the money invested on education; thus, forcing them to take up careers not out of passion but out of economic need. This vicious cycle which starts at home makes young minds believe that being successful is equivalent to how much money somebody makes. The educational system also reiterates the same fact, when children are divided into art and science group, on the basis of the grades they get. Aptitude and intelligence is quantified by how much marks a kid gets. If somebody is in a profession such as teaching it is undervalued, because it pays less, and is often the perception that somebody who is a failure otherwise, ends up teaching. Little emphasis is placed on how one can benefit the society by adopting a certain profession; same is the case with people going to business schools. Business school students are there to benefit themselves. Through their induction systems business schools hunt for the overtly ambitious, people who are aggressive and who seek to reach the top at all costs. People who once out of the rigorous and fierce system seek quick success and try to win position of importance in top of the line firms. While business schools have excelled at producing graduates that demonstrate competence in engineering investment products based on complex mathematical models and implementing students exceptional ability at marketing and optimizing productivity, little has been done to enlighten the Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 4 student as to how to use his/her acquired intellectual virtues in a manner which promotes morality. Although students leave the university environment excelling with intellectual resources, there is no attempt being made to demonstrate how these attributes can be used to habituate excellence of character. Business schools tend to minimize their responsibility to indoctrinate students with a sense of moral obligation or a proclivity towards the pursuit of moral excellence. I am not saying that being ambitious is wrong. Somebody who is taking up MBA is supposed to be ambitious but that ambition running into raw greed is dangerous. The lust for success and narrow selfish gain is when a person is forced to resort to unethical behavior. The economic models taught at most business schools take away the humanistic element and talk about bottom line and how important is it to achieve that. It infuses a dog-eat-dog attitude among students. Altruism and social responsibility is ridiculed and called soft aspects and are often ignored. The responsibility of business schools starts from the induction process of candidates. They need to assess that people they are lining up to take up positions of power are ethically sound people and are bent on doing good for all the stakeholders instead of just making money and fame for themselves. Ethical values should be made part of the selection criteria and should have more weightage than brilliant academic credentials and qualifications. This is under the premise that you cannot transform ethical values of a person by teaching him ethics in classroom. So this is a better way to take out the bad eggs in the first place. The selection committee should see that the student is willing to work for the betterment of the society and this should reflect on his profile as part of his credentials. Also the candidate’s reference checks should be made and the information given on his profile should be verified in order to make a correct character assessment. However, even if the corrective system is in place it doesn’t ensure hundred percent that ethical lapses won’t happen. As long as there is bigger personal stake involved, unethical practices will take place. One would always question what is in it for them to act ethical, when the bigger gain and recognition goes to someone who cut corners and got away with it. The importance of teaching ethics cannot be ignored as it makes us question every action’s ethical validity. However, the responsibility of business schools is not just to preach ethics in the classroom but to infuse ethics at all levels and balancing the values taught with values practiced. The prevalent belief of innocent until proven guilty gives a chance to students to play around with the system and to get away with questionable behavior. Cheating for that matter is a tolerable action until you are caught. The competition is so tough that students tend to use all means whether fair or unfair to get good grades. For them, ethical are all those actions for which they don’t end up punished. The business schools like any other professional institution should have a â€Å"Hippocratic professional code of conduct† and anybody found to be going against it should be made to pay by dismissal from the profession altogether. In Pakistan where corruption has become a norm an element of change is needed and business schools can play their role in this regard. Top notch business schools should have the power to scrap the degree of those graduates who get involved in unethical behavior such as our ex-prime minister who was an IBA graduate and was alleged of being involved in money laundering. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 5 The curriculum in the business schools should not teach ethics as an isolated course, focusing on philosophy, which end up making the young minds more confused. Rather, ethics should be directed to instruct students to make ethically sound decisions based on rational thought measuring the implications in the real world. Students should be aware of the examples of those who did not comply with ethics and ended up losing everything including their reputation so that they know the dire consequences and think twice before engaging in questionable behavior. The strategy class for example should teach the students not just to build a strategic direction of the company in order to maximize short term profits but also to make choices which go hand in hand with company’s values that can guide their overall culture on the basis of which sustainable growth of an enterprise is achieved. The curriculum in business schools should be such that it encourages out of the box thinking instead of limiting and confining the thought to achieving profits that are investor and company centric. Courses should enable looking at the bigger picture, looking at not short term gains but long term implications on economic, human and environmental development. The purpose of business studies should not be just to prepare students to excel in the prevalent business world but also to find faults in it and try to evolve the system for the better. Business students should be able to criticize business model’s viability, they should be able to challenge the basic assumptions and redesign and re-engineer theories, which in the first place are responsible for the current economic crisis faced by today’s world. The business school curriculum should encompass courses that ignite student’s creativity and encourage him to innovate and come up with viable solutions which benefit the society. Projects with focus on solving global problems such as energy crises or greener planet should be encouraged, as they infuse a spirit of global leadership which is meant to bring a positive change. For a developing country like Pakistan such a focus is imperative as we have been a victim of the capitalist mind set in which the wealthy have become wealthier and the poor have become poorer. We are a debt ridden country and sustainable development is answer to all our problems. So, the top notch business schools are responsible to give back leaders who are focused on creating wealth not just for themselves but create an opportunity of living a better life for millions. To sum it all, the burden of responsibility of ethical lapses of business leaders lie on business schools as the system somewhat creates an unharnessed greed for personal success. This needs to be controlled through redesigning the curriculum and the existing environment, which teaches them to be responsible and creates ethically sound leaders instead of shrewd businessmen. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 6 MBA: In Spirit The MBA is meant to be a holistic degree one which infuses analytical ability, provides a sound based of practical knowledge on basis of which decisions can be made. The two year MBA program is challenging and rigorous which does not only infuses a spirit of competition in the student but teaches him to collaborate and work in teams to get greater success. The program is meant to groom a student’s leadership qualities and gives him courage and knowledge to pursue his ambitions. The MBA is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is a degree designed to give you the ability to develop your career to its fullest potential, at an accelerated pace. What will you get out of an MBA? Aside from a powerful life experience, the MBA degree should supply three main value propositions: Skills, Networks, and Brand. Skills These include the â€Å"hard skills† of economics, finance, marketing, operations, management, and accounting, as well as the â€Å"soft skills† of leadership, teamwork, ethics, and communication that are so critical for effective management. MBA students acquire these skills inside and outside the classroom. Since MBA programs attract people from very diverse industries and cultures, a program should be able to leverage these differences and translate them into learning opportunities. Networks An MBA degree program offers access to a network of MBA students, alumni, faculty, and business and community leaders. This network can be very useful when beginning a job search, developing a career path, building business relationships in your current career, or pursuing expertise outside your current field. For example, entrepreneurs need access to capital, business partners, vendors, and clients. Artsrelated businesses need access to funding and strategic management in order to position themselves to be relevant in the marketplace. Global businesses need access to local business cultures as they expand their enterprises to new territories. Brand The MBA degree is a recognized brand that signifies management and leadership training. The particular school and type of MBA program you attend also have brand associations that can help open doors based on the school's reputation. The strength of a school's brand is based on the program's history, its ability to provide students with technical skills and opportunities for personal growth, and the reach of its alumni and industry network. A powerful brand can give you the flexibility to make changes throughout your career. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 7 Concluding Note I believe that MBA should not have specializations in it. It should be a holistic degree in every sense covering courses critical in making organizational strategies. There should be emphasis on leadership and ethical practices. The intent of MBA should be to give the student confidence and help him in career growth. Critical Analysis of Human Resource Management It’s a cliche for organizations in today’s modern high performance corporate world to say that â€Å"people are our greatest assets†. But today the importance of it is all the more accepted. Human capital is a competitive advantage that competitors cannot imitate. So, human resource management and the practices associated with it have become accepted by managers in all forms of organizations as one of the most important strategic levers to ensure continuing success. The Origins Traditionally known as â€Å"personnel management†, was largely an outcome of increased government regulations regarding employment conditions, discrimination, employments rights, health and safety concerns etc. In many organizations today, this older notion of personnel administration still holds sway with its emphasis on rules and regulation. The modern concept of â€Å"human resource management† finds its roots in the 19th and 20th century by the end of the industrial revolution in United States. The notion of employee welfare came into light when managers started to face issues with work force control mainly due to influx of immigrants in the workforce. During this time methods of workforce control were devised and F. W. Taylor came up with the concept of scientific management. Later Henry Ford implemented this concept in his automotive factory. He also came up with the first ever employee welfare department which ensured that no part of employee’s life effected his/her productivity in the workplace. However the methods were more personnel control oriented. By the 1960s, the notion of personnel management had become well-established with a number of clear areas of responsibility attached to it including: †¢ Selection and recruitment †¢ Training and development †¢ Pay and conditions †¢ Industrial relations Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 8 Employee welfare †¢ Occupational health and safety. In the 1980s, the concept of human resource management began to gain ground. At the root of the new thinking about the management of people in organizations was the perception of the increasing competitiveness of the global economy. The success of large Japanese corporations in export markets for traditional western products such as cars and electronic goods in the 1970s and 80s took many western corporations by surprise. Studies of Japanese corporations emphasized the importance of effective people management in the competitive strategies of these organizations. The studies showed that Japanese employers performed far better than their western competitors in terms of labor productivity and in process innovation. The key to this success lay in the human resource management practices adopted by Japanese corporations such as Toyota and Matsushita. These practices became evident in western countries as Japanese corporations established manufacturing plants throughout Europe and North America. The human resource management practices which had been so successful in Japan were transplanted with great success to these overseas transplants. The practices included: †¢ Strict and rigorous selection and recruitment †¢ High level of training, especially induction training and on the job training †¢ Team working †¢ Multi-skilling †¢ Better management-worker communications †¢ Use of quality circles and an emphasis on right first time quality †¢ Encouragement of employee suggestions and innovation †¢ Single status symbols such as common canteens and corporate uniforms. The integration of these human resource management practices was to create an organizational culture that allowed workers to identify their own success with that of the corporation. Thus, organizational or corporate culture became an important element in understanding the competitive success of firms and was a major theme of management thinking in the early 1980s. These new human resource management practices and the emphasis on the creation and maintenance of corporate culture stood in sharp contrast to the regulatory view of personnel management that had emerged in the mid-20th century. In fact, many of the new practices were not seen as the exclusive province of the human resource manager but were viewed as the responsibility of line managers in organizations. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 The Criticism Although the roots of human resource management might be relatively clear historically, the term itself and the meaning of human resource management has been the subject of fierce debate amongst practitioners, academics and commentators since its emergence in the early 1990s. Some have simply substituted the term human resource management for perso nnel management and claimed that everything has remained the same. In some cases, this can be seen in the migration of job titles that took place in the last decade as the title of human resource manager has replaced that of personnel manager. Others have argued that human resource management represents a fundamentally new way of managing people at work that goes well beyond the old functional notion of personnel management and emphasizes the creation of a culture in the workplace that harnesses the commitment of individuals to the organization. Yet others, exasperated with the endless definitional debate that seems to surround human resource management, have argued that it is simply an illusion, a â€Å"hologram† behind which we may see many techniques and practices in operation but which is essentially determined by the observer. However, the notion of employee commitment is one which appears to be integral to many of the models and theories of human resource management that have appeared. This notion of harnessing the commitment of employees in organizations was first articulated strongly by Walton (1985) who described how modern organizations were moving their management styles from one based on control, to one based on commitment. Human resource management clearly encompasses the older regulatory hangovers, but goes much further in embracing the management of change, job design, socialization and appraisal as the key levers to achieve organizational success. Modern Human Resource Management The aims of human resource management today are not just integration with the business strategy of the organization, employee commitment, flexibility and quality, but takes commitment as a major integral element. â€Å"Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques†. The main assumptions underlying the modern concept of human resource management shows how much the concept has progressed from the ld notion of personnel management. Firstly, human resource management is clearly not simply the province of the human resource manager. Line managers play a critical role in human resource management and, in fact, could be argued to be the main Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 10 organizational exponents of people management. Second ly, human resource management is firmly embedded in business strategy. Unlike the personnel manager, the HR manager is part of the top level strategic team in the organization and human resource management plays a key role in the achievement of business success. Thirdly, the shaping of organizational culture is one of the major levers by which effective human resource management can achieve its objectives of a committed workforce. Thus, human resource management is concerned not only with the formal processes of the management of people but also with all the ways in which the organizational culture is established, re-enforced and transmitted. Challenges faced by HR as a Profession The sense that HR is somehow ‘failing to deliver’ is a central theme in the writings of a number of influential American writers. Jeffrey Pfeiffer (1997), for example, writing about the future of Human Resource Management, suggests that it would be wrong to conclude that the growing interest in HR and Human Resource Management necessarily means that the future of the HR function (in its departmental form) is bright: â€Å"My advice is to resist the temptation to believe that HR managers and staff in organizations have a rosy future or a future at all, because there are some profound problems facing human resources as a function within organizations, as contrasted with the study of human resources as a topic area that makes its viability and continued survival problematical. What has emerged so far in this critical perspective on HR is that many of the activities that HR professionals engage in appear not to be valued by managers and employees. This is because there is either no evidence that the activities actually achieve things that matter or because it is very difficult to prove that what HR does actually r esults in improvements in behavior and performance. If the latter is the reason, then the task of HR is to look carefully at the way in which it measures and evaluates effectiveness; if the problem is more to do with what HR does and how it carries out these activities, then the challenge it faces is more fundamental. The HR function is generally criticized to be an accomplice in trends such as downsizing and contingent work arrangements that are often blamed to undo much of the progress made in managing employee relationships in the past several decades. Also HR professionals are accused of showing lack of leadership in demonstrating the business impact of managing people effectively. Writers such as David Ulrich have suggested redefining HR role not by what it does but by what it delivers: results that enrich the organization’s value to customers, investors and employees. The four key roles that HR professionals need to play to deliver the contributions are as follows: ? A partner in strategy execution: This doesn’t mean that HR should take responsibility for HR and business strategy, which is rightly the domain of the chief executive, but that the head Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 11 of the HR department should be an equal partner with other senior managers and should ‘have a seat at the top table’. An administrative expert: This is about getting the basics right and adopting a much more instrumental approach to the use of procedures. The emphasis needs to be on the efficiency of the HR department — reducing its cost base and speeding up its cycle times, without compromising on quality or effectiveness ? An employee champion: This is about HR recognizing that work intensification and an increased sense of insecurity are becoming the new reality for many people and that this is associated with weakened levels of employee commitment. This, in turn, affects the preparedness of employees to contribute more than their contracted level of effort and performance. The role of HR here is to ensure that employees remain engaged and committed, or become re-engaged, either directly through the activities of HR or by HR working with line managers to ensure that they can create a positive psychological and emotional working environment. ? A change agent: According to Ulrich (1997), this role involves HR in building the organization’s capacity to embrace and to capitalize on change. Given that change is the norm for most organizations, the ability to implement and manage the change process is seen as critical to the organization’s ability to function during the change process and to reap the benefits from the changes that have been made. Reducing resistance to change is seen as a key HR contribution. Gaps between HR Academics & Practice There's an incontestable gap between what's happening in scholarly research and what's happening in the world of practitioner. However, there's consensus among academics and research-savvy HR professionals, that HR managers who follow evidence-based principles are best positioned to optimize the success of their organizations. Still, most HR professionals have little time, interest or tolerance for reading researches. Practitioners focus on solving problems and getting tasks done in time- and pressure-packed settings. Academics explore, contemplate and pursue research that can take three years or more before culminating in a journal article. HR practitioners don’t care about the theory behind the practices. They don't care why processes, tests, or other instruments or procedures work, just that they do. If wearing plaid instead of polka dots on Tuesday’s increases retention, they'll do it. According to a business school professor, â€Å"People want to Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 12 see cost-benefit analyses before they implement. It's not enough to know structured interviews will give you better-quality people. Practitioners want to see how it affects the bottom line. † Research and academic findings may not always have concrete outcomes. For practitioners ambiguity doesn’t help. They want concrete solutions supported with business outcomes something translated into profits, often missing in HR research. Academics tend to be interested in different subjects than practitioners. For practitioners, those subjects may be too theoretical or too esoteric, or may not be a need-to-know priority. But for academics, whose careers rise or fall on their success at achieving tenure and promotion, the topics are influenced by what the academic reward structure requires. Fault lies with HR curriculums. HR curriculums should develop the competency in all HR professionals to know what is and is not a scientifically based finding or conclusion. We need to audit our curriculums to make sure students are being taught to appreciate the importance of evidence-based management and the role of research in advancing HR. That requires basic understanding of math and statistics. Most undergraduate business and industrial psychology curriculums feature at least one course in statistics, and some observers say that should suffice. In recent years, faculty members have been reluctant to add more quantitative requirements to HR curriculums for fear of losing students. According to my observations most people choose HR because they are math-phobic. Also there is little emphasis on doing research and supporting it quantitatively. In most MBA programs graduate students are not being asked to do research or even read it. When I asked an MBA student his point of view about research, he said; â€Å"MBA students don't like reading research, so instead students are just discussing cases and practicing being a leader. The HR curriculum should be designed in a way that forces students to engage in consulting. Thus, forcing them to connect the taught courses with field knowledge and enabling them to do hands on research and get comfortable with statistics. This will force them to do analysis and make interpretations. Academics who moonlight as consultants are more likely to relate to the realities of the workplace. Encour age faculty and practitioners to develop and partner in research. Establish conferences or thinktank sessions that bring them together. Encourage exchanges. Cross attendance does occur, but not in enough numbers to create a shared comfort zone. Businesspeople should also cooperate with researchers to enhance body of knowledge and include practical aspects rather than unworkable theories. Another way to increase practical knowledge base is to support sponsored research. Corporations should invest in academics doing research that practitioners need. Experts agree that applied research should meet three criteria. It should be: ? ? ? Rigorous–conducted scientifically so the results can be validated and replicated. Relevant–directed at learning more about, furthering or solving some HR-related problem. Readable–accessible to practitioners who stand to benefit. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 13 Conclusion As a profession HR needs to defend its value by aligning itself with organization’s strategy and focus on achieving business strategy instead of just working as a support function. The HR academia suffers in terms of creating practical value because of its lack of collaboration with HR practitioners. The two can benefit each other and enhance body of knowledge which is far better applicable in real work environments.

To What Extent Does Democracy in the Uk Suffer?

Politics Essay To what extent does democracy in the UK suffer from a participation crisis? (25 marks) There are a lot of ways in which citizens can participate in politics in the UK without necessarily having to vote for example: joining a political party, boycotting, and even signing petitions and fund raising. However, there is an argument that there has been a participation crisis over the past years in the UK. A participation crisis is when less and less citizens take part in political activities; this can be shown in the decrease of voter turnout and the level of participation.On the other hand, there is an argument that there is in fact not a participation crisis because the turnout of voting is increasing and specific forms of participation are also on the rise. In this essay, I will be arguing whether or not the UK is suffering from a participation crisis and if we are suffering to what extent. The main concern about democracy in the UK comes from evidence of rising political apathy. Some people have seen this as nothing more than a ‘participation crisis’.Can democracy be classed as healthy when more and more voters every year seem to be unconcerned or reluctant to engage in political life? Deteriorating rates of voter turnout and falling levels of party membership despite there being opportunities for participation show evidence. There are three main reasons to show why there is a participation crisis in the UK. The first reason is the public. Due to people’s interest in materialism, individualism and lack of community, citizens fail to pull together and look out for each other, which decreases the interest and connection they have in politics.Decreasing rates in party membership and electoral turnouts is part of a process that’s seen less interest in political affairs as citizens seem to care more about themselves and family rather than their neighbours and society as a whole. The voting turnout over the past years has been inconsistent. During 1945 to 1992, the average turnout rate in the UK general elections was above 75 per cent. However in the 2001 general election, the turnout rate was 59 per cent, the lowest the turnout rate has ever been since 1918. This shows the interest citizens had in political affairs decreased drastically.The turnout rate did increase however, by the 2010 UK general election the turnout rate was at 65 per cent due to the first ever UK TV debate with the three party leaders: David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg even though it was still below the average turnout rate during 1945 to 1992. Similarly, party membership in the UK has also decreased over the years. For example the number of people that were registered to Labour party has fallen from over one million members in the mid 1950’s to around 166,000 members in 2009. Conservatives party membership has also fallen.The number of people that were registered to Conservative party has fallen from approx. 2. 8 mill ion members in the 1950’s to around 250,000 members in 2009. By 2007, less than 1 per cent of people across the UK belonged to political parties, from 7 per cent 50 years ago. This shows a decline in party membership which is caused by a decline in the voters’ loyalty towards political parties. Another reason why there is a participation crisis in the UK is the media. The media has a big impact and influence on citizens and the way they vote and support political parties.The media focuses on the political scandals, allegations, incompetence and policy failure of the parties which means that the good things about the leading politicians are forgotten about and the negative tend to be more popular. For example, the Sun newspaper has seemed to influence citizens about which party should be in power as each party the Sun has supported over the years has won in the general elections. This shows that the media has had an impact on citizens and their preferred party which cou ld be another reason why there is a participation crisis.The final explanation why there is a participation crisis in the UK is the politicians themselves. Politicians have been known to lack vision, and only really care about being elected in modern politicians and political parties as it is seen as just another professional career. Politicians have also been known to be over -concerned with the media and how they are portrayed rather than being concerned on how things are at the moment and what they can do to make things better.This creates an impression to citizens that politicians are less trustworthy and are all about presentation which causes turnout rates and party membership to decline. The growing idea for politicians to target key voters and citizens they feel might change parties is also a contribution to declining voter turnout rates as other citizens may feel like they aren’t as important or cared about and so decide to not vote or vote for a different party beca use the political parties are ignoring the voters in the majority of seats.The decline in participation rates may also be because of politicians and political parties being too similar to each other, which doesn’t give citizens much choice if both parties are appealing to the same targets and have the same policies. In previous years there were clear divides in the different parties and policies, which made it easier for citizens to choose which party they wanted in power. However for example, the Labour and Conservative parties have distanced themselves away from their traditional policies and targets and are now both focusing on Middle English citizens.In my opinion, there is much evidence for a participation crisis, although single issue politics is growing and pressure groups add to the democratic process as they give a voice to those who are ignored by the majority system. Party memberships have declined however pressure group memberships are growing. Voter turnout is de clining, fewer people feel naturally inclined to a particular party and even less take an active interest in politics due to rising income levels blurring class lines. Because pressure group membership, e petitions and direct action have increased I think this contradicts the idea of a participation crisis.To conclude, the British people have always been reluctant to get involved in democracy. Although forms of participation are constantly evolving; with the small minority who take a strong interest in politics turning more to action groups at the cost of parties, nothing has occurred since 1918 to change the fact that the majority give more priority to work, home, recreation and their private lives instead of public concerns. Many changes can be made to improve democracy however it may not work because Britons do not have an active involvement in politics.There are three main factors that could explain declining turnouts at election time, the electorate- society has become more mat erialistic, the media- they have caused enormous problems for the public to trust and put their faith in politics, and lastly politicians- they have done nothing to restore faith back into politics. The cause of participation crisis lies within the physical act of voting being out of touch with the public. Many of us are tied with jobs social life family life to find time to vote. Therefore voting becomes a burden.

child abuse and elder abuse Essays

child abuse and elder abuse Essays child abuse and elder abuse Essay child abuse and elder abuse Essay Child Abuse and Elder Abuse Child Abuse Child abuse is any abnormal behavior, which is directed towards a child and it usually takes many forms. The different forms of child abuse are child sexual abuse, pedophilia, physical abuse, child neglect, emotional neglect and failure to thrive. Most of these forms of child abuse could be very direct while the others are not very direct. Therefore, the forms that are not direct usually require a person who is not biased of anything and qualified to prove that there is child abuse (Emedicinehealth, 2011). The article â€Å"Morning the Life of a Beaten Toddler† describes a case of a child abuse, which was very horrific. It was a form of physical abuse where the foster mother companion of the child, Mrs. Oliver, beat her child who later died in the hospital. Mrs. Oliver was the companion of Ms Cummings who was the foster mother of the child. Mrs. Oliver used a metal rod or baseball bat to beat the child, who was eighteen months old, known as Louis Dewayne Mosely. The child, Mosely, sustained several injuries, which led to his death. â€Å"According to the police, Mosely, had been left in the care of Mr. Oliver, by Ms Cummings, the foster mother, in her apartment in Cypress Hill, Brooklyn† (Robbins, 2011). The most shocking part of the incident was that the child was only eighteen months and that he did not know anything and additionally, the child was very helpless, that is, he could defend himself from the activity. The form of child abuse, which was involved in this case, was physical abuse. This kind of abuse was very direct and the parent, Kysheen Oliver, intended to beat her child. Although, the reasons for beating her child are not yet known, there is no reason, which the mother can give to justify the acts of committing the horrific act of beating her child to death. It was clear that the mother used an object like that of a metal rod or a baseball bat to perform the physical abuse to the small child who was very helpless. In conjunction to the physical abuse of the child as form of child abuse, the foster mother also committed murder in the first degree. The medical examiners gave very conclusive results on how the boy died (Robbins, 2011). The boy died from injuries of the physical abuse, which were inflicted by the foster mother. Additionally, it can be said that the mother was not acting in defense of her dear life because she was beating a helpless child who did not understand what was happening and neither did the child have the ability to protect himself from the beating. To make matters worse the mother used an object to beat the small innocent boy. Therefore, the mother will have to answer on charges of child abuse in the form of physical abuse and committing murder. This kind of child abuse has affected several people who have been the victims of the death of the child. First, if the boy survived the physical abuse, he would have been affected very much. The boy would have grown up in fear and this could have even led to post-traumatic stress disorder due to the kind of physical abuse or violence that he has experienced in his life at that young age. Additionally, the social life of that boy could have been ruined because he would have lacked confidence in himself leading to him becoming a loner. However, since the young boy died, the victims of this physical abuse were the different people who attended the funeral and the foster father of the child, Mr. Oliver. First, Mr. Oliver has been hit by a lot of shock in disbelief due to the kind of abuse committed by his wife. He does not believe that his own wife whom he loved and trusted with their child could ever commit such a horrific crime towards their child. He has been affected emotionally and this will never live his mind. Additionally, the people who attended the funeral were hit by disbelief and they were emotionally disturbed that somebody could beat up a helpless child to death. However, it should not be forgotten that the mother of the child needs serious medical attention. Elder Abuse Elder abuse can be defined as any type harm, which is directed towards the older people. There are very many forms of elder abuse, which can be charged in a court of law. These forms of elder abuse are physical elder abuse, mental elder abuse, elder abuse neglect, and exploitation/financial elder abuse (Elder abuse foundation, 2011). They could be also direct or indirect where they need a person who is not biased and is very professional in determining whether there has been a form of elder abuse. It is worth noting that elder abuse occurs to those people who are elderly like the grandfathers and grandmothers. An example of a good case is in the article â€Å"Facing Up to Elder Abuse,† which was in the New York Times. The case is about an elderly person who was being abused by her own son. The elder woman, Anne DeBraw, describes the abuse, which has being going on for a couple of years (LeDuff, 1997). She remembers one incident when she was walking home and heard the footsteps of the prowler her roof. It was very dark and therefore, she could not clearly see who it was. Suddenly the prowler jumped from the roof towards her and attacked her. When the elderly woman is giving her story, she burst into tears because of the way she has been so terrified of the prowler and yet she could do nothing because the prowler was her own son (LeDuff, 1997). The prowler used to beat her and inflict injuries on her body. This had being going on for quite some time and she used to stay in fear without any help in her own home. The form of elder abuse involved in the case is physical elder abuse. The prowler has been attacking the elderly woman, his mother, by beating her up and causing physical bodily harm. The woman is about seventy-nine years old, making it a form of elder abuse. It makes it an elderly abuse because the prowler did this intentionally and the old woman did not provoke her in doing this. The most horrific thing is that the prowler beat up his biological mother causing injuries without even caring for her or having any feelings. On the same case, another form of elder abuse is the elder abuse neglect. The son shows this where he has neglected his own mother to the point of beating her up (LeDuff, 1997). This means that the son does not care about her mother in the fact that she is not able to do some of the things that she used to do to him when she was taking care of him as a child. Instead of helping her, he continuously beat her without any reason. This kind of neglect is the one that is making the elderly woman not to be able in protecting herself or even going forward and reporting this to the police. This is because the person who was supposed to be protecting her as neglected her and instead he is beating her up. Therefore, in a court of law, her son should be charged with elder abuse neglect because of the kind of treatment he accords to her own mother. To some point of view, it might be direct therefore, a professional person should be appointed to evaluate this form of elder abuse. Additionally, her son should be charged with physical elder abuse. This form of abuse is very direct because the evidence, which has been brought forward, is very direct. Lastly, the son can be charged committing assault on his mother. This is where he beats her mother intentionally. This elder abuse usually contains some effects, which affects the victims. In this case, the elderly woman is the victim of the case, she is very much affected by the situation to appoint where, and when she is telling the story, she burst into tears. This elderly woman has undergone serious emotional stress where she leaves in fear in her on home. Additionally, the woman is in shock because she cannot believe that her own son who she has brought up into a grown young man can beat her up without even having any feelings for her (LeDuff, 1997). Lastly, the old woman is very much affected because the people who are supposed to be protecting her and taking care of her have neglected her. Therefore, the old woman will continue to stay in constant fear not unless she gets medical help. References Elder abuse foundation, (April 20, 2011). Forms of Elder Abuse. Elder Abuse Foundation. Retrieved from: elder-abuse-foundation.com/html/forms.html Emedicinehealth, (April 20, 2011). Child Abuse. WebMD Inc. Retrieved from: emedicinehealth.com/child_abuse/article_em.htm LeDuff, C., (August 24, 1997). Facing Up to Elder Abuse. The New York Times. Retrieved from: nytimes.com/1997/08/24/nyregion/facing-up-to-elder-abuse.html?src=pm Robbins, L. (April 6, 2011). Morning the short life of a beaten toddler. The New York Times. Retrieved from: nytimes.com/2011/04/07/nyregion/07funeral.html?_r=1ref=childabuseandneglect

Schrenker Faked Death to Escape Financial Trouble

Schrenker Faked Death to Escape Financial Trouble Wealthy business owner and money manager Marcus Schrenker made headlines in January 2009, when he attempted to escape the consequences of frauding investors by parachuting out of his small one-engine prop plane in an attempt to fake his death. At one time, Marcus Schrenker had everything. He owned three investment consulting firms, lived with his wife and children in the exclusive Indianapolis suburb of Geist, in a $3 million dollar waterfront home that had a dock and a large swimming pool. Flying was a hobby of his and he owned two aircraft which he used to go on lavish vacations. But in January 2009, it all came crashing down. Idyllic Life on the Outside Marcus Schrenker was born on November 22, 1970.   He grew up in Merrillville, Indiana which is located in the Chicago metropolitan area. In 1989 Schrenker graduated from Merrillville High School, and then went to college at Purdue University. It was at Purdue that he met (former wife) Michelle, married and together they had three children together. As idyllic as the Schrenkers life appeared, there was also a dark side that those who lived with Marcus or around him were very aware of to the point of feeling discomfort when he was around. Schrenker would go from being friendly and charismatic to angry, unreasonable and combative. And, according to his neighbor Tom Britt in an interview with abcnews.go.com, episodes of this type of erratic behavior became more frequent as he grew older. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Schrenker did what many with this disorder do, he would often stop taking his medication, and Michelle, their children, and investors would end up paying the price. Savvy Financial Investor Turned Crook Schrenker owned three financial companies: Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services, and Icon Wealth Management.   His wife Michelle was paid $11,600 as the chief financial officer of the three companies and bookkeeper. She was also on the bank account of Heritage Insurance Services, which gave her the authority to write checks and withdraw money. But in 2008 Schrenker was under investigation in Indiana after several complaints were lodged by some of his investors, upset with how he was handling their money. Friends, the parents of friends and neighbors were among the investors that filed complaints. Michelle had also filed for divorce on December 20, 2008, after learning of her husbands infidelities with a woman who worked at the airport. Investors Supported Lavish Lifestyle Unknown to Schrenker, he had been under investigation for 10 years for various lawsuits that had been filed against him. Then on December 31, 2008, state investigators armed with a search warrant, seized computers, several plastic tubs filled with paperwork, the Schrenkers passports, over $6,000 in cash, and the title to a Lexus, from the Schrenkers home. On January 6, 2009, Schrenker was charged with unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful transaction by an investment adviser. Bail was set at $4 million.   According to Jim Atterholt, who was the State Insurance Commissioner, Schrenker charged investors exorbitant surrender charges after he moved them out of one annuity and into another. The investors were not told in advance about the fees.   Three days later, on January 9, Schrenkers company Heritage Wealth Management Inc. was issued a $533,500 judgment after a federal court in Maryland ruled in favor of OM Financial Life Insurance Co. The lawsuit contended that Heritage Wealth Management was involved in insurance irregularities and should have returned commissions of more than $230,000. Plane Crash   On Sunday, January 11, 2009, Schrenker flew off from an airfield in Anderson, Indiana in his single-engine Piper. He listed his destination as Destin, Florida. As he neared Birmingham, Alabama, he put out a fake mayday signal and told air traffic controllers that he had been badly injured and was bleeding profusely after the windshield of the plane imploded.Afterward, he put the plane on autopilot and parachuted out. Military jets attempting to intercept the plane reported that the door of the plane was opened, and the cockpit was dark and appeared empty. The jets followed the unmanned plane which crashed over 200 miles later in a swamp in Santa Rosa County, Florida, around 50 yards from a residential area.   After the crash, the plane was found somewhat intact. Investigators searched the plane and reported that there was no blood inside of it and the windshield was completely intact. Authorities put out a warrant for Schrenker arrest. On the Run Schrenker plan was to fake his death and make a run for it. On January 10, the day before he parachuted out of his plane, he drove to Harpersville, Alabama and stashed a motorcycle, money and other supplies in a storage facility. He informed the owner of the facility that he would return Monday. Once Schrenker parachuted to the ground, he made it to Childersburg, Alabama, where at 2:30 a.m. he asked for help from a private resident. He told the resident that he had been in a canoeing accident. He was given a ride to the nearest town and went to the local police station.   He gave the police the same story about being in a canoe accident, and after producing his (surprisingly) real identification, the police drove him to a hotel where he registered under a fake name and paid cash for the room. The following morning, after hearing about the plane crash and that Schrenker was on the run, the police returned to the hotel, but he was gone. Schrenker managed to walk undetected to Harpersville and retrieved his motorcycle then rode it a KOA Campground in Quincy, Florida. There he bought a tent site for one night, wood, a six-pack of Bud Light Lime and was given access to the campgrounds wireless access. Embarrassed and Scared On January 12, Schrenker emailed his friend, Tom Britt, and wrote that the crash was a misunderstanding and that he was too embarrassed and scared to return home, so instead checked into the hotel. He went on to say that he would soon be dead.   On the same day, a Hamilton County Superior Court judge froze both Marcus and Michelles assets. Capture The campground owners were contacted by the sheriff, who wanted to know if there was anything unusual going on there. They told the sheriff about the man who had checked in the previous day but had not checked out.  Soon afterward, U.S. marshals swarmed the campground and found Schrenker, barely conscious and incoherent, lying inside the tent. He had lost a lot of blood from a self-inflicted cut on his wrist and an area near his elbow. He was flown to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. On January 13, Schrenker was arrested and charged in federal court in Pensacola, Florida, with deliberately crashing his plane and making a fake distress call.   Trials and Sentencing February 5, 2009A man in Dothan, Alabama was granted $12 million after an Alabama judge ruled in his favor that Schrenker had sold him a defective airplane. June 5, 2009  Schrenker pleaded guilty to intentionally crashing his plane as a way to escape his mounting financial and legal problems. He was sentenced two months later to four years and three months in prison, $34,000 in restitution to the Coast Guard for its search and rescue efforts and $871,000 in restitution to Harley-Davidson, the lienholder of the plane. Schrenker later pleaded guilty to three counts of securities fraud and two counts of working as an investment banker without being registered. He was given a 10-year prison sentence to run consecutively with the previous sentence for the fake plane crash, and he also had to pay $633,781 in restitution. Six Years Later Schrenker was released from prison on September 18, 2015.

Why You Should Not Mix Alcohol and Bleach

Why You Should Not Mix Alcohol and Bleach Mixing alcohol and bleach is never a good idea, as the combination results in chloroform, a powerful sedative that can cause you to pass out. You should always be careful when handling these chemicals. Chemical Reaction Ordinary household bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, which reacts with ethanol or isopropyl alcohol to produce chloroform (CHCl3), hydrochloric acid  (HCl),  and other compounds, such as chloroacetone or dichloroacetone. Unintentional mixing of these chemicals could occur from trying to clean up a spill using bleach or from mixing cleaners together. Bleach is highly reactive and forms dangerous compounds when mixed with any number of chemicals, so its best to avoid combining it with other products. Dangers of Chloroform Chloroform is a dangerous chemical that irritates the eyes, respiratory system, and skin. It can damage the nervous system, eyes, lungs, skin, liver, kidneys, and other organs and may even cause cancer. The chemical is readily absorbed into the body through the skin and through inhalation and ingestion. If you suspect that you have been exposed to chloroform, remove yourself from the contaminated area and seek medical attention. Chloroform is a potent anesthetic that can knock you out. It is also the cause of sudden sniffers death, a fatal cardiac arrhythmia some people experience upon exposure. Over time, chloroform in the presence of oxygen (as in air) naturally degrades to produce phosgene, dichloromethane, carbon monoxide, formyl chloride, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen chloride. Even once the chloroform has broken down, you should avoid these chemicals. Phosgene, for example, is a notorious chemical agent. It was responsible for around 85 percent of the deaths from chemical weapons during World War I. Disposing of a Bleach and Alcohol Mixture If you accidentally mix these chemicals and need to dispose of the waste, dont try to neutralize it. First, use caution and do not enter the contaminated area if you smell chloroform, which has a heavy, sweet-smelling odor. Once the smell begins to dissipate, dilute the mixture with large volumes of water and wash it down the drain as quickly as possible. Acetone and Bleach Although this is a less common mixture, do not mix acetone and bleach, either, as this reaction also produces chloroform: 3NaClO C3H6O → CHCl3   2NaOH NaOCOCH3 Ultimately, mixing bleach with any chemical except water is an extremely bad idea. Bleach reacts with vinegar, ammonia, and most household cleaners to produce toxic fumes.

Love, Political Economy and the Importance of Private Property Essay

Love, Political Economy and the Importance of Private Property - Essay Example The difference between both the ancient writers is of viewing an issue from different perspectives. Rousseau is right in his perspective but Locke is not wrong when he deems property rights adding to the welfare of humanity in various ways. Rousseau has forcefully raised the issue of property while reflecting on property, the basis of modern politics. Rousseau finds the idea of right to private property quite disturbing as it promotes inequality among men and lacks the legitimacy. Both Rousseau and Locke are on the opposing sides on the individual right to property so much that Locke finds a solution to the political problem in the right to property while Rousseau finds it a cause of incessant misery of man. Rousseau’s criticism of the property right should not be considered as he is a supporter of communist viewpoint of getting away with private property. Actually, Rousseau is abnormally â€Å"realistic† to the limit of going against laissez-faire (Orwin and Tarcov 152). Rousseau wants government interference in limiting the desire to own property, to control inequality of luck, and to subdue the severe competition, and reduce the feeling of possession among people. On the other side, Locke considers the right to property as the right way to peace, as property right is more downright. Locke desires the economic system over the right to property to be deemed with reverence by the authority. A government provides security to the property owner, allowing the person to be least worried over any aggression to the individual’s property (Orwin and Tarcov 151). Locke, in the Second Treatise of Government, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in On the Origin of Inequality, address the notion of acquiring private property. Locke favors property rights of individuals by arguing that property rights encourage human rights. Locke views property from the perspective of human right. On the contrary,

Explaining a Concept Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Explaining a Concept Research Paper - Essay Example Spilbury (6) notes that same-sex marriage, which takes place between two people of the same gender, may occur either between two men, who are known as homosexual or gay, or homosexual women, known as lesbians, while heterosexuals are attracted to members of the opposite sex. The scholar also points out that for some; homosexuality is a gradually developing realization, while some say they knew they were homosexual from a young age. Many people find their attraction directed towards a member of the same sex for a while. This is perfectly normal and it doesn’t mean they are homosexual, though sometimes it may. The widespread of same-sex marriage within the United States and indeed over the whole world is rising with its legalization. According to a survey published in The Gay Law report in June 2013, 55 percent of Americans strongly favor or favor gay marriage, 44 percent oppose or strongly oppose gay marriage, 2 percent of the interviewees are unsure and gay marriage support ha s annually increased for the past two decades by 1 percent. The total number of gay couples at the time was 594,391. According to the report, in most cities, 1-4 percent of the population is made up of gay people, with metropolitan areas having the most concentration. In an article published in The Independent in the UK, one in 100 people in the UK are gay or lesbian according to statistics published on sexuality, and more than 480,000 consider themselves gay or lesbian. A recent research by the Associated Press showed that several states in the United States allow same-sex marriage. They include Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Washington and Vermont. The District of Columbia also issues licenses to same-sex couples. Massachusetts was the first to allow same-sex couples to wed. According to the article, same-sex couples have been marrying for almost 9 years within the state. The article reports that The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2003 ruled that it was against the constitution to bar same-sex marriages in the state. Same-sex weddings were allowed, starting from May 17, 2004. The research also shows that 30 states, including California, ban same-sex marriages within their constitutions. New Mexico law is however silent on the issue. At least 8 nations globally have legalized same-sex marriage, namely Canada, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Sweden and Spain. Religion and Same-sex Marriage There are various attitudes and arguments for or against same-sex marriages, mostly dictated by an individual’s or group’s religious background. According to Grill, Babst, and Pierceson (51), opposition to both same-sex marriage and same-sex relationships is most often defended for religious reasons and that both religion and sexual orientation are regarded, in theory, as private matters. Thus heterosexuality is considered the norm, and those whose practices, beliefs and identitie s diverge from the norm are marginalized, by being prevented from fully participating in public while open about their identities and beliefs. Christianity bases its moral stand on same-sex marriage on the biblical theory that one woman was created for one man, and that is therefore the way nature intended it. In the Islamic religion, same-sex marriages and relationships have got strong prohibitions. Newton notes that in

What does Nevada gaming policy Committee should consider that will Essay

What does Nevada gaming policy Committee should consider that will improve the gaming industry or the regulation of the gaming industry - Essay Example This paper will discuss ways that Nevada gaming policy committee should consider to improve the gaming industry or regulation of the gaming industry. Nevada gaming policy committee can improve gaming industry or the regulation of the gaming industry by enlisting outside directors. Although recruitment of outside executives is a challenge for licensed gaming corporations, outside managers with strong credentials in disciplines like marketing, finance as well as information technology can bring formidable contributions to a proprietor’s growth and management. It is a shame that most prospective outside managers have under no circumstances been accredited in the gaming industry. However, when such persons encounter the mandatory certifying procedure in all its complexity and scope, they frequently decline directorships in gaming corporations; they cannot validate undergoing the indiscreet background check as well as suitability investigation intended for a part-time duty. This occurrence shrinks the ocean of talented persons available to aid this crucial function for casino industry (Stewart 6). Nevada gaming policy committee can improve regulation of the gaming industry by removing redundant regulatory filings. Within different U.S. authorities, licensees have to file specific trimestral and yearly reports, which no longer aid a material monitoring purpose. In specific cases, the material within the reports, which generally are on management, finances and ownership of the licensee are available to controllers online or elsevia other licensee tenders. However, even when a report requests simply for such predictable information, the licensee has to formulate it with caution and authenticate its precision; gaming regulation enacts stiff fines for errors within any certified report. If every licensee in Nevada must file 5 unnecessary statements

A visit to a museum or art gallery exhibit Essay

A visit to a museum or art gallery exhibit - Essay Example Within these periods there was further designation based on the regions of their creation. Ultimately, the vases acted as a powerful example of artistry and ancient Greek history. Another thing I witnessed at the gallery exhibition was Marcia Gygli King’s "Cantilever, 1980". This exhibit was a mixed-media work. The work itself is part painting and part sculpture. In terms of art history this work is notable as it is demonstrative of a period of expression where artists began to experiment with the deconstruction of categories and produce hybrid works. Another prominent work I witnessed was Richard Dieben Korn’s "Ocean Park". This painting was a large landscape type work, except it was composed of figurative and abstract forms. While one thinks of abstract expressionism in terms of the messy Jackson Pollack type work, â€Å"Ocean Park† is a much more orderly work. In these respects one notes that the work is almost a hybrid of such artists that make great use of b locks of color, along with the abstract expressionist creation of emotion through figurative means of expression. The work is ultimately highly notable within art history as a unique piece of mid-20th century work.

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - Essay Example Nevertheless, one main issue remains to be satisfactorily resolved and it involves accurate measurement of the occurrence of plagiarism. Scholars have relied on student reporting of their own and their peers’ plagiarising behaviour in obtaining such measures. Although, scholars may obtain useful data this way, the method develops its paradox because it requires survey participants to offer honest reports regarding their dishonesty. Moreover, although self-reporting in any behaviour is problematic, self-reporting of dishonesty behaviour is extremely challenging and studies show that student responses are not congruent to their employed behaviours; nevertheless, the advent of plagiarism detection software made the task easier. The use of software that detect plagiarism by university lecturers enables the lecturers to perform what was previously difficult or impossible namely obtaining a clear picture of the extent of plagiarism in student assignments; moreover, the use of plagia rism software has deterrent effect on plagiarism. Despite the potential usefulness of the various plagiarism software and their unequivocally acceptance by the community of academicians, a backlash against their use seems to be underway as academicians consider the use of such software to control students. The scholar’s goal is to fill the gap between what students actually do instead of what they say they do with regard to plagiarism in assignments. The main strength in the research includes a collection of records on the form and extent of plagiarism over a period of five years in two main university assignments. However, the study had several limitations one of which is over reliance on Turnitin, which only matches material found on the internet. Materials of the university textbooks cannot be matched unless the material gets online in some form like through lodging a student’s assignment in the software’s database. Moreover, the database of Turnitin may be u nable to detect material within invisible web sources like password-protected databases or even customised assignments produced by writing companies. Another disadvantage is that the measurement process relied to a certain extent on the interpretation of the original report in conjunction with checking of the assignment script; hence, absolute objectivity cannot be claimed in the data. The disadvantage of the of a convenient sample like non-randomness and potential absenteeism in generalization are acknowledged; in addition, the study is limited to New Zealand where the data was derived and the findings indicate that they may not be generalised. The findings confirmed the established view that international students have high rate of plagiarism compared to domestic students because they not only topped in rates across students, but also were at the top of rating regarding verbatim plagiarism and were among students with high rate of extensive plagiarism. The notion that students wit hout experience are more prone to plagiarism was not fully supported in the study findings because students in year one submitted the smallest percentage of plagiarised script in the year of enrolment, while students in their fourth year of enrolment plagiarised extensively. From the present6ed data in the study, it is possible to develop a profile of

Teacher accountability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Teacher accountability - Essay Example It will also argue in favor of releasing these evaluation results to the public. Additionally, the paper will include the arguments that may oppose the inclusions of the above recommendations in the evaluation programs. Evaluation programs The implementation of change has been reluctant as teachers feel their efforts in the classroom are not effectively considered in the evaluation programs (Nathan, 2009). According to Nathan (2009), the activities in the classroom should be vastly included in the evaluation programs. The author further argues that the activities in the classroom can change the level at which students are exposed to quality education. Evaluation programs used in evaluating programs are; I. Classroom activities Classroom activities refer to the tutor initiatives created in the classroom setting. When evaluating teachers, their efforts in the classroom should constitute a majority of the tools used. This is because teachers spend most of their institutional time in cla ssrooms and acquiring instructor skills. This makes it fair for any evaluation process to greatly consider these efforts. Lareau (1987) argues that classroom evaluation should be the only tool to be considered when evaluating teachers; thirty percent inclusion in the evaluation programs would be important in understanding the ways in which tutors perform in classrooms (Lareau, 1987). Classroom activities make ups seventy percent of all the evaluation tools used on students (Nathan, 2009). Classroom activities include: Continuous assessment tests- written or oral test during mid-terms and the beginning of the term Student participation in group projects- this includes assessments on a student’s ability to work in a group and their success in it. Writing projects and research papers- this evaluates a student’s ability to carry out their own analysis on specific topic as guided by the tutor Routine assignments- routine assignments refer to activities assigned by teachers in regards to research question on a specific learning task Creation of assessment personal assessment tools- tutors help students develop personal assessment tools that help then evaluate their classroom progress Daily class attendance II. Feedback from principles In traditional evaluation programs, principals provided all the required information about teachers in a particular institution. A principal’s contribution can be based on friendship or any other social ills. In this case, principals should only provide the curriculum that an institution uses for verification of the teachers’ activities (Nathan, 2009). This is important because value-added data presented by teachers in the classroom are based on the institution’s curriculum which is mostly created and scrutinized by principles. This argument also supports the fact that value-added data should be included in the programs that evaluate teachers. III. Requirements from the curriculum Lareau (1987) argues that teachers rarely operate under their own consent, which means that the curriculum provided to them by the government is what they present to the classroom. The only way to be fair in evaluating teachers is through the consideration of the curriculum and how the curriculum is presented in the classroom. 30% of the value-added data based on the curriculum

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - Essay Example Nevertheless, one main issue remains to be satisfactorily resolved and it involves accurate measurement of the occurrence of plagiarism. Scholars have relied on student reporting of their own and their peers’ plagiarising behaviour in obtaining such measures. Although, scholars may obtain useful data this way, the method develops its paradox because it requires survey participants to offer honest reports regarding their dishonesty. Moreover, although self-reporting in any behaviour is problematic, self-reporting of dishonesty behaviour is extremely challenging and studies show that student responses are not congruent to their employed behaviours; nevertheless, the advent of plagiarism detection software made the task easier. The use of software that detect plagiarism by university lecturers enables the lecturers to perform what was previously difficult or impossible namely obtaining a clear picture of the extent of plagiarism in student assignments; moreover, the use of plagia rism software has deterrent effect on plagiarism. Despite the potential usefulness of the various plagiarism software and their unequivocally acceptance by the community of academicians, a backlash against their use seems to be underway as academicians consider the use of such software to control students. The scholar’s goal is to fill the gap between what students actually do instead of what they say they do with regard to plagiarism in assignments. The main strength in the research includes a collection of records on the form and extent of plagiarism over a period of five years in two main university assignments. However, the study had several limitations one of which is over reliance on Turnitin, which only matches material found on the internet. Materials of the university textbooks cannot be matched unless the material gets online in some form like through lodging a student’s assignment in the software’s database. Moreover, the database of Turnitin may be u nable to detect material within invisible web sources like password-protected databases or even customised assignments produced by writing companies. Another disadvantage is that the measurement process relied to a certain extent on the interpretation of the original report in conjunction with checking of the assignment script; hence, absolute objectivity cannot be claimed in the data. The disadvantage of the of a convenient sample like non-randomness and potential absenteeism in generalization are acknowledged; in addition, the study is limited to New Zealand where the data was derived and the findings indicate that they may not be generalised. The findings confirmed the established view that international students have high rate of plagiarism compared to domestic students because they not only topped in rates across students, but also were at the top of rating regarding verbatim plagiarism and were among students with high rate of extensive plagiarism. The notion that students wit hout experience are more prone to plagiarism was not fully supported in the study findings because students in year one submitted the smallest percentage of plagiarised script in the year of enrolment, while students in their fourth year of enrolment plagiarised extensively. From the present6ed data in the study, it is possible to develop a profile of

Hyperinflation in Germany Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hyperinflation in Germany - Essay Example Another factor which contributes to the cause was the reparations for the destruction caused after the World War I which had no returns. It was largely believed by Seflon Delmer that Germany's strategy of financing the war on credit basis leading to huge deficits caused the degradation of mark. The most important point to be noted is that Havenstien, Director of Reichsbank, whose inability to understand the causes for situation, instead of finding blamed it on reparations and increased the flow of money which is clear indication of deregulation from the economic point of view. Alex also argued on the role of industrialists in their effort to increase the inflation as most of the industrialists prospered during this period. All these factors laid the foundation for the rise of inflation in Germany during 1923 after World War I. (Alex De Jonge) During the period of hyperinflation, there was social unrest in the society. Alex in his articles using appropriate examples has tried to explain what the value of money was during this period and the government and capitalist intervention in regulation policies. Alex in his work mentioned that workers were paid five times a week due to weak performance of currency. From the economics perspective, the supply and demand are the most important factors and termed as wheels of the economy. Inflation is referred as a situation where level of prices increase and value of money declines. This was clearly reflected in the works of Alex De Jonge through an example of an author receiving advance payment for his work. But the time money reaches him, it is worth paying off the bills of postal charges. How much the value owed to the public can be understood from this example cited by Alex, wherein a Mayor presents a donation of 1,000,000,000,000 to Berlin couple, the value of which was no more t han half penny. The value of money was undervalued in such a way that currencies were found in gutter thrown away by the beggars. Due to the inflation crisis and loss on money value, many cities and individual firms started printing their own notes secured by food stocks and eventually gave rise to barter system of market trade after 500 years. This gives clear indication of laissez faire in the German economy where government's interference was almost negligible. Barter market gave rise to commodity value and commodities were exchanged giving rise to theft and burglary of mailboxes, door handle, telephone wires, shoes, etc. The article indentifies certain issues wherein government interference was necessary but did not act. The inflation was a period of prosperity wherein rich grew richer and poor were exploited heavily as in capitalist economy. Alex in his paper has tried to explain the causes and effects on Germany's economy which gave rise to once ancient barter system. The currency value lost its real value to such an extent that even beggars didn't had confidence in keeping it. According to Alex's view, Germany was cheaper to foreigners than to its own citizen. (Alex de Jonge) III. Socioeconomic and Political developments in Germany Post

Need for Accountability of Predatory Corporations

Need for Accountability of Predatory Corporations Abstract The increased power of non-state actors in developing countries has given multinational corporations considerable influence over the human rights of citizens. Corporations now have power within political economies and the ability to undermine democratic systems.[1] Governments within developing countries rely on corporate investment to support their economy. Due to the expansion of human rights violators, there has been an evolution in the way that transitional justice is implemented. Historically, international human rights laws have focused on the state when dealing with human rights violations. In response to this, international human rights laws or a legally-binding instrument need to be developed in order to hold corporations accountable. This paper will look into the actions currently in motion and the limitations victims may face. The existing tools that transitional politics use to deal with business enterprises that exploit breakdowns of humanity are traditionally international human rights laws. At this time, the framework used against corporations is not legally binding. This is due to the lack of current mechanisms to bring criminal charges against large transnational corporations. The Alien Tort Claims Act has been used in rare occasions and has resulted in settlements outside of court.[2] In an attempt to create voluntary guidelines, the US and European governments created the non-binding UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011. In 2014, the UN Human Rights Council passed resolution 26/09 that established the need for an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.2 This paper will look at the current evolution within corporate accountability in transitional politics and the weaknesses that were shown when corporations were found to violate human rights. This study will also analyze the effectiveness of various attempts made by international organizations and civil society groups towards implementing human rights accountability on corporations. Introduction Due to globalization, multinational corporations now have the ability to influence human rights practices in developing countries. This has been an issue of major concern due to the significant role corporations play in the national economies of these countries. In these instances, corporations can apply pressure to developing countries to lower national human rights standards.3 According to the democratic social justice organization, Global Justice Now, of the 100 largest economic entities in the world, 69 are corporations and only 31 are countries.[3] The issue of accountability of corporations for the protection of human rights has been largely overlooked and presents new challenges due to the new far-reaching impact corporations have gained over citizens.[4] However, the increased power of other non-state actors like NGOs has resulted in an evolution and increased liability of corporations for human rights violations during breakdowns of humanity. First, we will look at what predatory business behavior is. There are many cases in which the corporation is not the physical perpetrator in human rights violations. In the past, corporations have done this by economically supporting repressive governments, supplying governments or terrorist groups with weapons or materials, contaminating agricultural fields and drinking and bathing water, discriminating against workers, and water privatization.4 During breakdowns of humanity, transitional justice is implemented in order to obtain accountability for victims of human rights violations. Since transitional justices development in the 1980s, their goals have included holding perpetrators accountable, compensating for wrong doing, and preventing future abuses.[5] However, transitional justices goal for holding perpetrators accountable has been predominately focused on criminal prosecutions of individuals.[6]   The rule of law framework that actors use when implemented transitional politics is based upon international law, treaty bodies, and principles and guidelines. However, International human rights law (IHRL) has historically focused on powers only states can exercise and functions only government can fulfill. The gap between host state law, international law, and transnational corporate accountability has led to numerous unaddressed corporate human rights violations.   This study will look at the current framework used by state and non-state actors during transitions and the limitations, challenges, and gaps that exist. Due to increased economic power of transnational corporations, we will look at different levels of obligation focusing on the state and international level.   Finally, this paper will explore the effectiveness of present day efforts by the UN Human Rights Council and other non-governmental organizations and the increased potential for the Alien Tort Claims Act to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations specifically during times of transitional justice.[7] Research Question: How can or should businesses be held to account for predatory behavior around breakdowns of humanity? Thesis Statement/Hypothesis There has been a positive evolution in corporate accountability, however, current legal instruments are not sufficient in holding corporations that violate human rights during breakdowns of humanity accountable. Methodology of the Study The focus of the study will be corporate human rights violations in Africa from 2000-2016. Africa has seen an increased documentation and focus on the relationship between host governments, corporations, and human rights violations. We will focus on this time frame because there has been a noticeable evolution of corporate accountability within transitional justice since 2000. We will do a macro analysis and look at different cases within Africa, identify their patterns, compare key steps that they took, and analyze the outcome. This study will use large datasets and will undertake quantitative data analysis. We will study social trends and the measurable effects of particular policies. This study will explore the steps taken during the transitional justice process and why some instances were successful in obtaining a level of accountability and some were not. We will look at what laws and statues were used and the success of national law and international law. Data Collection Due to recent developments and existing research on this topic, this study will rely heavily on current articles and journals applicable to the study. Secondary analysis will be used to explore areas of interest without having to collect data ourselves in the field. This study will also analyze the existing legal international human rights system for corporate liability and accountability. Research will be collected from various journals, including: Business and Human Rights Journal, International Journal of Human Rights, Journal of International Criminal Justice, and American Journal of International Law. In addition, due to the currently evolving resolution, data will also be collected from the International Center for Transitional Justice, Business Human Rights Resource Centre, Human Rights Watch, United States Institute for Peace, UN Human Rights Council and UN Guiding Principles. Operationalization/Conceptualization Human Rights Within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), human rights are defined as inherent to human beings and can neither be granted nor taken away by any authority.[8] This issue of human rights violations is viewed as matter of domestic law that historically attracts attention internationally. The UDHR states that human rights consist of basic fundamental rights and freedoms.7 In brief, human rights violations have received international legal recognition through various forums. Throughout this study, the term human rights and the violations against them will be referring to the legal concept of the civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and collective rights laid down in international human right instruments.[9] Corporate Accountability Corporate accountability is the obligation for companies to be answerable for harming the community they reside in and liable for their human rights violations.9 The corporate accountability approach puts corporations in the role of duty-bearers within the framework of human rights.[10] Theoretical Framework The lack of corporate accountability during breakdowns of humanity has led to an abundance of literature seeking to explain the occurrence based on various theories. The Non-Aggressive Principle can be used to reinforce the significance of holding predatory corporations accountable for violations. Economist and political theorist Murray Rothbards formula for the Non-Aggressive Principle states that, No one may threaten or commit violence (aggress) against another mans person or property.[11] This principle is a code of conduct for peaceful living and holds that aggression against the person or property of others is always wrong.9 The Non-Aggressive Principle reinforces the requirement for accountability of aggressive corporate human rights violations during breakdowns of humanity. Literature Review Literature on corporate accountability during breakdowns of humanity has advanced greatly since the 1970s and is reflected by the creation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Draft Code of Conduct on Transitional Corporations.8   However, until the 1990s, the majority of advocacy was focused on the impact that corporations had on the physical environment rather than the human rights of citizens and communities in the areas of operations. The intensification of globalization and the amplified number of human rights abuses has resulted in increased research on the impact corporations have on citizens during breakdowns of humanity. This has resulted in the rise of large NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in reporting human rights violations by corporations and exposing the effects they have on citizens. In the early 2000s organizations and institutes like the International Center for Transitional Justice (2001), Impunity Watch (2004 ) and Transitional Justice Institute (2003) were formed to further pursue accountability for human rights violations during breakdowns of humanity. This study looks at publications by Stephen Bottomley and David Kinley. Their book, Commercial Law and Human Rights, delves into the relationship between non-state actors like corporations and human rights violations.10 This literature argues that corporations are prone to violating human rights. Their work assesses the relationship well, however, it touches on human rights norms in a general sense and it does not address the repercussions of violations or who is responsible for holding corporations accountable.[12] Additionally, the author does not analyze violations specifically during breakdowns of humanity. This study will also look at, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, by Andrew Clapham. Clapham details the evolution of corporate accountability and the legal subjectivity of transnational corporations.[13] However, it also does not look at specific violations during breakdowns of humanity. This study will use these two sources to further analyze how international and state law can hold corporations accountable during transitional justice. In 2002, the International Council on Human Rights Policy released a report on the obligations of states when business activity has an impact on the human rights of their citizens. This report looks into the current regulations by international and local government laws as well as lobbying by advocacy campaigns. They argue that corporate accountability currently depends on voluntary approaches. The authors conclude that international norms and laws are developing, but states should be primarily responsible for protecting human rights from corporations.[14] The report does not effectively evaluate how the mechanisms detailed within the project are used as a means of improving corporate accountability during breakdowns of humanity. It also does not take into account recent regulations and mechanisms available due to its creation in 2002. Nicola MCP Jagers published a book that focused on corporate accountability for human rights violations. The author argues that there needs to be internally legally binding regulations of corporations and focuses directly on the state.[15] The author analyzes the obligations under International Human Rights Law and international law. However, it does not take into consideration the recently created UN Guiding Principles or the UN Human Rights Council resolution 26/09.[16] This study will also look at Steven R. Ratners article on corporations and human rights. In this literature, the author argues that there are limits to holding states accountable for human rights violations.[17] The author looks at corporations as global actors and analyzes the problem of state action during breakdowns of humanity. However, it does not specify what mechanisms would be most effective to hold businesses accountable for predatory behavior. The International Center for Transitional Justice is a non-profit organization that specializes in helping transitioning states address legacies of major human rights violations.[18] In recent years they have helped train local activists in documentation of corporate human rights abuses. We will specifically look at various publications and the ICTJs role in countries that have faced human rights violations during breakdowns of humanity. The ICTJs current work will help show the evolution that has occurred within transitional justice and will provide current data on corporate violations. This will further support the literature on corporate accountability by providing current data during breakdowns of humanity. Morton Winston argues the importance of human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in their attempt to influence the behavior of corporations. Winston states that there are eight strategies that NGOs can use when dealing with corporations.19 This article concludes that national government needs to enact enforceable international legal standards in order to fully pursue corporate accountability, however, the literature does not detail who specifically will hold corporations accountable.[19] This study will incorporate the effectiveness of this strategy into our research. This study will also analyze the effectiveness of using the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) to hold corporations accountable. Michael Garvey argues the increased effectiveness of the ATS as a means to redress human rights abuses.[20] This study will look at the current issues with corporate liability and the advantages and shortcomings of the Alien Tort Statute. This paper will examine how businesses should be held to account for predatory behavior during breakdowns of humanity. I will focus on corporate human rights violations in Africa from 2000-2016. Africa is home to many multinational corporations and contains numerous conflict-affected areas with failed governments. There has been a noticeable evolution of corporate accountability throughout periods of transitional justice during this time. The literature suggests that international law is currently an inadequate method to obtain corporate accountability. This study will contribute by giving more focus to the recent evolution that has occurred within corporate accountability during transitional justice. It also seeks to assess and examine the avenues available under international law and recent international instruments to obtain accountability for corporations that violate human rights. Work Cited Carranza, Ruben, and International Center for Transitional Justice. Transitional Justice, Corporate Responsibility and Learning from the Global South. N.p., 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. Clapham, Andrew. Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors. OUP Oxford, 2006. Print Corporate Impunity: A Startling Ethical Anomaly? International Center for Transitional Justice. International Center for Transitional Justice, Mar. 08. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2017. Dodwell, A. (2016, September 12). Corporations running the world used to be science fiction now its a reality. Retrieved from Global Justice Now: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2016/sep/12/corporations-running-world-used-be-science-fiction-now-its-reality Forsythe, David P. The UN Security Council and Human Rights: Promising Developments, Persistent Problems. Journal of Human Rights 13.2 (2014): 121-145. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. Garvey, Michael. Corporate Aiding and Abetting Liability under the Alien Tort Statute: A Legislative Prerogative Boston College Third World Law Journal (Spring 2009) n.pag. Human Rights Historyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ » Corporate Accountability. N.p., n.d. Web. http://humanrightshistory.umich.edu/accountability/corporations/ 14 Feb. 2017. International Council on Human Rights Policy (2000) Beyond Voluntarism: Human Rights and the Developing International Legal Obligations of Companies availableat .(Accessed on 23/02/2017). Jagers, N.M.C.P., Corporate Human Rights Obligations: In Search for Accountability. Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 33.3(2002). Koskenniemi, Martti, Alfred De Zayas, and Steven Wheatley. Book Reviews. International Journal On Minority Group Rights 12.4 (2005): 421-430. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2017. McPhail, Ken. Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and Business Schools Responsibility to Teach It: Incorporating Human Rights into the Sustainability Agenda. Accounting Education 22.4 (2013): 391-412. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. Pagnattaro, Marisa Anne. Enforcing International Labor Standards: The Potential of The Alien Tort Claims Act. Vanderbilt Journal Of Transnational Law 37.1 (2004): 203-263. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Feb 2017. Ramasastry, Anita. Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability. Journal of Human Rights 14.2 (2015): 237-259. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. Ratner, Steven R. Corporations and Human Rights: A Theory of Legal Responsibility. The Yale Law Journal, vol. 111, no. 3, 2001, pp. 443-545., www.jstor.org/stable/797542. Rothbard, Murray N.. War, Peace, and the State (April 1963). Retrieved 2017-02-28. Santoro, Michael A. Business and Human Rights in Historical Perspective. Journal of Human Rights 14.2 (2015): 155-161. tandfonline.com.library3.webster.edu (Atypon). Web. Stephen Bottomley and David Kinley, Book Review: Commercial law and Human Rights, Osgoode Hall Law Journal 42.1 (2002). UN General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations, 217 (III) A, 1948, Paris,   art.1, http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. What Is Transitional Justice? International Center for Transitional Justice. International Center for Transitional Justice, Dec. 08. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. Winston, M. (2002), NGO Strategies for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility. Ethics International Affairs, 16: 70-87. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2017.x [1] Santoro, Michael A. Business and Human Rights in Historical Perspective. Journal of Human Rights 14.2 (2015): 155-161. tandfonline.com.library3.webster.edu (Atypon). Web. [2] Ramasastry, Anita. Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability. Journal of Human Rights 14.2 (2015): 237-259. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. 3 Dodwell, A. (2016, September 12). Corporations running the world used to be science fiction now its a reality. Retrieved from Global Justice Now: http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2016/sep/12/corporations-running-world-used-be-science-fiction-now-its-reality [4] McPhail, Ken. Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and Business Schools Responsibility to Teach It: Incorporating Human Rights into the Sustainability Agenda. Accounting Education 22.4 (2013): 391-412. Taylor and Francis+NEJM. Web. [5] What Is Transitional Justice? International Center for Transitional Justice. International Center for Transitional Justice, Dec. 08. Web. 11 Feb. 2017. [6] Carranza, Ruben, and International Center for Transitional Justice. Transitional Justice, Corporate Responsibility and Learning from the Global South. N.p., 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2017. [7] Pagnattaro, Marisa Anne. Enforcing International Labor Standards: The Potential of The Alien Tort Claims Act. Vanderbilt Journal Of Transnational Law 37.1 (2004): 203-263. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Feb 2017. [8] UN General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations, 217 (III) A, 1948, Paris, art.1, http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. 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