Experiences of divorced women versus divorced men Research Paper

Experiences of divorced women versus divorced men - Research Paper Example Because gender differences are constructed and reflected in daily interaction, the experience of marriage is quite different for men and women. The same is likely to be true of divorce.† (Amato, 2004, p.207) It then becomes interesting to look at how divorce affects the two genders. The following passages will argue that despite conventional notions about divorce being more traumatic for women than men, in reality both genders have an equally tough time of it, albeit in different areas. Firstly, statistics released by U.S. Census Bureau shows that while divorce rates hovered around the 2 percent mark during the 1980s, it has shot up to more than 15 percent currently. One should remember that this statistic excludes those people who remarried again. So, if divorce were to be counted even if the current marital status has changed, then a mind-boggling 60 percent of American adults have gone through this painful event in their lives. But since in advanced societies women tend to b e economically independent, they are better able to handle the period post divorce than women in the rest of the world. That women are able to handle the crisis is not to say that their standard of living does not fall. Statistics point out that the responsibility of rearing children can sap away financial resources of the woman, although the ones getting regular alimony stand a better chance of sailing through the crisis. Also, compared to recently divorced men, recently divorced women have less labor force experience, putting them at a disadvantage in availing of job opportunities. (Amato, 2004, p.207) Public support for divorced mothers are also limited, at best offering modest help for a short period of time. As a result of this condition, most divorced women think that the only sustainable solution to their problems is through remarriage, which they usually do within a few years of divorce. Of course, in the case of men, there is no noticeable decrease in their standards of liv ing post divorce. Social adjustment is another area where the genders fare differently. Social acceptance of divorce is gaining ground steadily and today there is less stigma attached to the idea of divorce. But at the same time, in the period following a divorce both men and women are experiencing decreased social support and companionship. This is particularly true if they have custody of children. It is also learnt that there are common problems faced by both divorced men and women: â€Å"Between employment, household management, and child care, single parents have little time left over for establishing and maintaining social networks. Also, divorced people often find that they have less in common with married friends. In addition, whereas married people can draw on the spouse's family for assistance and companionship, divorced individuals typically find that former in-laws withdraw over time. Furthermore, divorced people have a high level of residential mobility which tends to disrupt relationships with neighbors, friends, and community organizations. Overall, divorced and separated individuals report smaller social networks and less social support than do married individuals.† (Amato, 2004, p.208) There is also the important aspect of psychological adjustment post divorce. Divorce can be an emotionally upheaving event and can entail acute emotional distress. Older studies have shown that women are more psychologically affected compared to men,

Audre Lorde Essay Example for Free

Audre Lorde Essay On page 388 of the class’s anthology there is a work by Audre Lorde entitled â€Å"Power. † What interests me about this work is how Lorde expressed her poem(s) with a meaningful purpose; she expresses and explores pride, love anger, fear, racial and sexual oppression, urban neglect and personal survival. In connection, the question that I want to research is, where does Audre Lorde get her inspiration to write? Audre Lorde a self-styled black, lesbian, warrior, poet; dedicated her life to addressing the injustices of racism, sexism and homophobia. She had a creative talent of confronting these issues through her writing. Audre writes poetry, essays and autobiographies, she has a great impact on American and African-American literature, feminist theory, and gender studies. Audre, whose original name was Audrey Geraldine Lorde; at the age of four she learned how to talk while she learned to read. Audre’s mother taught her to write and during that time Audre dislike the way her name was spelled, she didn’t like the tail of the â€Å"Y’ hanging down below the line, so she would omit it; she loved the evenness of Audre Lorde. This inspired Audre to write a part autobiography and part revisionary myth called Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. I loved the way she opens with a beautiful question of spiritual and intellectual indebtedness, â€Å"To whom do I owe the power behind my voice, what strength I have become, yeasting up like sudden blood from under the bruised skin’s blister? † Zami tells the story of- as Audre said it â€Å"coming out blackened and whole,† in the story she expresses her identity as a fierce black lesbian woman, she talks about becoming a loving woman, a poet, a creator of self-authored words and perceptions. In Lodre’s words â€Å"Zami† is a â€Å"biomythography† which is combining history, biography, and myth. She also focuses on her developing lesbian identity and her response to racism in the white feminist and gay communities, and to sexism and homophobia in the African American community. The elements that make the book so good are its personal honesty and lack of cockiness, characteristics that shine through her writing. When reading about her experiences and her life story she shows an exquisite imagery, she talks about her West Indian heritage and its shows in her pictures and use of words. In Lorde’s poem â€Å"Power† she uses her poetic prose to express her feelings of anger and fury over an unfortunate incident that happened in New York City in the late 1970’s. She expresses her outrage and disgust at a racist society that allowed a child’s death to be buried with no true justice. Growing up in Harlem Lorde understood the difficulties that people encountered when race was involved. In â€Å"Power† it seems like she is trying to use her poetic gift to stand up for these racial injustices and try to make a difference. She wanted to be heard, instead of just using rhetoric and the use of effective writing, it was like she was searching for the â€Å"power† she has as an African-American woman poet, to make people hear and really think about racial injustices. â€Å"Power† is a poem that has two different levels of meanings, literal and nonliteral. Literal because the narrative poem is literally about Clifford Glover, a ten year old African- American boy from Queens who was shot by a Caucasian police officer that was acquitted by a jury. Nonliteral, because it has a more poetic intent; Audre’s reaction and feelings of fury and disgust over that incident. She mixes this racial injustice with her own furious and unsatisfied feelings in this piece. When reading this poem I had to reread it a few times so I could really understand the emotions and meanings in each stanza. The first two stanzas are about Lorde’s feelings and images she sees due to this violent tragedy; she expresses her natural woman instinct that children must come first in a blunt and short poetic verse. The third stanza tells the story of Clifford Glover’s death and the proof of the racial insensitivity displayed by the police officer. The fourth stanza talks about the trial of the officer and the jury that granted him an acquittal. It was a jury made of mostly white men and one African- American woman. The last stanza goes back to Lorde’s feelings about the injustice that the boy received and her fury over it. She shares her thoughts of what awful acts she might perform if she doesn’t use her own power as an African- American woman with a poetic gift to find the difference in poetry and rhetoric. When Lorde heard the verdict she was so furious about the incident she thought she was going to drive her car into a wall, so she had to pull over and jot down her thoughts, which inspired her to write this poem. In conclusion the answer to my question is that Audre Lorde gets her inspiration to write from her personal life experiences, the wrongs that are being done around the world and the injusticeness that occurs till this day in our society. She feels the need to express her thoughts so that other people around can actually open their eyes to see what’s really going on in the world. I like that Lorde wasn’t afraid of what people may have thought about her writing as long as she expressed what she felt was right and honest. Anatol, Gisele Liza. Border Crossings in Audre Lordes Zami: Triangular Linkage of Identity and Desire. MaComere: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars 4 (2001): 130-41. Landy, Alice. The Heath Introduction to Literature sixth Ed. Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print The Lorde Compendium: Essay, Speeches, and Journals, introduction by Alice Walker, Pandora (London), 1996.

Analysis :: Science Writing Papers

Analysis "We scientists can no longer leave the problem to others. Indeed, it has been ours to solve, and all of society is now paying for our neglect." "Resistance to science is born of fear. Fear, in turn, is bred by ignorance. And it is ignorance that is our deepest malady." These were some of the strong statements made in Michael J. Bishop's "Enemies of Promise, " that lead me to think and analyze his piece of work. Michael Bishop, a professor of microbiology at University of California, San Francisco, begins his article by stating that even though science has solved many of the problems people have or had, there are still many who do not believe in science. In addition, there are people who study science and think that science is just "politics by other means." Thus, declaring that science and its "truths" are just "socially constructed fictions." Bishop believes that science offers more to us than we think and that it is "the best way to learn how the world works." Garcia 2 Bishop is alarmed about postmodernists, who believe science is just another "politics by other means." He thinks they are being ignorant and feels uneasy that postmodernists are being joined by other voices that are against science. Various scientists are also becoming critical of science and they believe that science is not diminishing the societies problems. Others have complained that science is "no longer contributing to health improvement." Some people are not happy with what science has accomplished. "The source of these dissatisfactions appears to be an exaggerated view of what science can do," claims Bishop. What seems to be the case is that, scientists have declared the problems of the society and have told the society what to do about some of the issues, but it is the society that is not tackling the problems. The other dilemma that faces the science is that, sometimes scientists have no control over their research and they have to let research take it's own course and time. Much of the health problems that have not been solved are being blamed on research systems like NIH (National Institutes of Health) that supposedly "demands compromise, rewards mediocrity and actually punishes initiative and originality." Bishop believes that NIH, a research system he has been in support of, is being put down and what is said about NIH, he believes it to be wrong.

Strength of Association

Strength of Association In research. Several principles have been shown to affect the strength of association between stimuli. Based on your own experiences in learning, provide an example of each of the following principles of association: contiguity, frequency, and intensity. Select one of your examples. Describe how a deferent principle of association might explain this example. Contiguity- Association by contiguity refers to the belief that our ideas, memories and experiences are link together when Is frequently experienced with the other, because tit contiguity the closer in time two events occurred. He more likely or strongly they would be associated. (Lieberman, 2012). When I was a little girl I would get into my mother's makeup and use her lipstick to draw on the bathroom wall. This upset my mother so she told me to stop doing this, but oddly enough I continued. As time went on she to spank me and say No when I did this, but when she would wake up and tint the bathroom walls clean tort my art work she would smile and say good girl. Then she would reward me with markers and other art supplies.I began to understand that if did what she said she would be happy and think I was a good girl and I would get art supplies for my good behavior. Frequency- With frequency this is an event or situation that would happen repeatedly. The frequency of association states that the more often two or more things occur together the more they will be associated together. An example that comes to mind Is that as a teen my mother would wake me up early In the morning everyday, which Is pretty hard, but In doing so she would get me a French vanilla cappuccino.I begin to feel every time I wake up n the morning I would get my lovely French vanilla cappuccino. I associated mornings and I guess my mother with a coffee beverage. Intensity- With intensity it involves stimuli. It is associations involving emotional or traumatic events. It occurs when I see places from the past that re mind me of a traumatic event. Trauma and memory form a generalization of fear as stimuli, which resembles those present during a traumatic event. (Lessee, Rabin, Heeler, Laughing, Garage, Pine, ; Grilling, 2010). When AAAS II years old my hip slipped out of place and AAAS in so such pain.I had been diagnosed for hip dysphasia. I was in tears form the pain that had increased over the previous year. By time got to the hospital was at my worst and I was put in the waiting room form six in the morning to 12 in the afternoon, before I was seen, then had x-rays done. By six in the evening I was fed up with the hospital and the staff and just wanted to go home, but I was forced to stay for emergency surgery the next mooring. After this situation I never really liked going to the hospital, because It reminds me of the pain I felt as a child.With my first example I would say it could fall into frequency, because the more I did one thing the more I did one thing such as drawing on the wall I would get spanked. So because of the frequency of the two together I begin to associate one with the other due to it happening do often. Reference Lieberman, D. A. (2012). Psychology of learning. San Diego, CA: Bridgeport Education ‘ Off C. (2010). Personalization of conditioned fear as a pathogenic marker of panic disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(1), 47-55. Retrieved from the Protest database.

Definitions And Functions Of Micro Finance Economics Essay

Microfinance is viewed to be a remedy against poorness in the universe. In each state and part holding diverse demographics, microfinance is being utilized to battle poorness. It is a quite recent construct in banking and fiscal sectors. Microfinance is to assign really little loans to hapless people with the purpose of helping them to get down their ain endeavors so as they can come out of poorness. That is microfinance is non a manus out, alternatively it is a manus up that permit the hapless, largely adult females, to achieve uninterrupted fiscal victory. The Journal of Microfinance describes it as what â€Å" is arguably the most advanced scheme to turn to the jobs of planetary poorness † ( Woodworth and Woller, 1999 ) . The General Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, stated in 2002 that microcredit is a critical anti-poverty tool and a wise investing in human capital ( Annan, 2002 ) . â€Å" Microfinance has evolved as an economic development attack intended to profit low-income adult females and work forces. It refers to the proviso of fiscal services to low – income clients, including the ego employed † ( Ledgerwood, 2000 ) . Microfinance is defined as formal strategy designed to better the well being of hapless through better entree to salvaging and services loans ( Schreiner, 2000 ) . The word â€Å" microcredit † was non existing before the 1970ss. But now it has turn out to be a buzz-word among the development practicians. It is usually characterized as doing little loans available straight to small-scale enterprisers to enable them either to set up or to spread out micro-enterprises and little concerns. Microcredit is usually applied to aim groups that would otherwise non measure up for loans from formal establishments. This includes the bulk of those populating below the poorness line ( Commonwealth Secretariat, 2001 ) . Microcredit differs from microfinance in that microcredit refers to really little loans for uncompensated borrowers with small or no collateral, provided by lawfully registered establishments. Currently, consumer recognition provided to salaried workers based on automated recognition marking is normally non included in the definition of microcredit, although this may alter. Whereas Microfinance typically refers to microcredit, nest eggs, insurance, money transportations, and other fiscal merchandises targeted at hapless and low-income people. Microfinance is a extremely common manner of loaning as batch of people require to borrow money quickly and in small sum. In the instance of macro loans, Bankss enquire about the individual ‘s recognition history and people have to go through through tonss of processs before the blessing of the loan sum.CHARACTERISTICS OF MICROFINANCEHarmonizing to ( Murray, U and Boros, R, 2002 ) , there are many activities and features are included in microfinance. Some are: Small sums of loans and nest eggs. Short- footings loan ( normally up to the term of one twelvemonth ) . Payment agendas attribute frequent installments ( or patronize sedimentations ) . Installments made up of both chief and involvement, which is amortized over the class of clip. Higher involvement rates on recognition ( higher than commercial bank rates but lower than loan-shark rates ) , which reflect the labour-intensive work associated with doing little loans and leting the microfinance mediator to go sustainable over clip. Easy entryway to the microfinance intermediary saves the clip and money of the client and permits the intermediary to hold a better thought about the clients ‘ fiscal and societal position. Application processs are simple. Short processing periods ( between the completion of the application and the expenses of the loan ) . The clients who pay on clip become eligible for repetition loans with higher sums. The usage of tapering involvement rates ( diminishing involvement rates over several loan rhythms ) as an inducement to refund on clip. Larger loans are less dearly-won to the MFI, so some loaners provide big size loans on comparatively lower rates. No collateral is required contrary to formal banking patterns. Alternatively of collateral, microfinance mediators use alternate methods, such as the appraisals of clients ‘ refund potency by running hard currency flow analyses, which is based on the watercourse of hard currency flows, generated by the activities for which loans are taken.MICROFINANCE CLIENTS?Microfinance is established as an efficient manner to eliminate poorness by offering fiscal services to those hapless people who can non make or are ignored by Bankss and fiscal establishments.HOW DOES IT WORK?Poor people have necessary accomplishments and cognition to get down their ain endeavor, the lone thing is that they do non hold resources ( particularly finance ) to make so. Thus microcredit helps them to carry through their vision by supplying them with micro loans. Harmonizing to Ahmad ( 2000 ) , it is acknowledged that people populating in poorness are innately capable of working their manner out of poorness wit h self-respect, and can demo originative potencies to better their state of affairs when an enabling environment and the right chance exists. It has been noticed that in many states of the universe, micro-credit programmes, give entree to little capitals to people populating in poorness. Microfinance is an promising tool for economic development, poorness decrease, authorising of low income communities and giving a new function in micro-entrepreneurship ( Mondal, p.1-3 ) . The MFIs take into history the demand of their clients refering micro loans so as they can transport on their endeavors. There are two types of microfinance borrowers ; Micro borrower and Micro enterpriser. A micro borrower has mind like capitalist who is intend to derive net income while making concern. Therefore a micro borrower gets fundss from MFIs, and after reimbursing, they will obtain fundss once more but merely if the intent is to gain net income and non any entrepreneurial accomplishment. In contrast, a micro enterpriser financess his concern and brings modernism, originality and differentiation from others ( Mondal, p.3 ) . Microfinance bestow authorization to adult females. Misra ( p.3 ) describes empowerment as a strength to the people and self administration. He quoted â€Å" Empowerment builds autonomy and strength in adult females, fixing them towards garnering the ability to find the pick of life. This adds to the bid over resources outwit insubordination and mean their societal function. † Harmonizing to PREM, WB ( 2002, p.11 ) , â€Å" Authorization is the enlargement of assets and capablenesss of hapless people to take part in, negotiate with, influence, control, and keep accountable establishments that affect their lives. †MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONSA microfinance establishment ( MFI ) is an organisation that offers minor loans to the destitute people. The model of the loan differs from organisation to organisation as every establishment has their ain processs and conditions to provide credits. However, the nucleus intent is to allow fiscal aid to the underprivileged. When speaking about MFIs, we can believe about non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) which besides provide loan installations to the hapless. During the 1990s, many NGOs were converted into formal fiscal establishments so as to entree and on-lend client nest eggs, as a consequence bettering their outreach. There are besides other sorts of microfinance establishments such as recognition brotherhood or concerted lodging society. These organisations are different in every state ( Rehman, 2007 ) . Nowadays even commercials Bankss are traveling towards the construct of microfinance. They are making this to pull new patronages who wants to get down a concern but does non hold plenty support to make so.CHARACTERISTICS OF MFISFormal suppliers are sometimes defined as those that are capable non merely to general Torahs but besides to specific banking ordinance and supervising ( development Bankss, nest eggs and postal Bankss, commercial Bankss, and non-bank fiscal mediators ) . Formal suppliers may besides be any registered legal organisations offering any sort of fiscal services. Semiformal suppliers are registered entities subject to general and commercial Torahs but are non normally under bank ordinance and supervising ( fiscal NGOs, recognition brotherhoods and co-ops ) . Informal suppliers are non-registered groups such as revolving nest eggs and recognition associations ( ROSCAs ) and self-help groups. Ownership constructions: MFIs can be government-owned, like the rural recognition co-ops in China ; member-owned, like the recognition brotherhoods in West Africa ; socially minded stockholders, like many transformed NGOs in Latin America ; and profit-maximising stockholders, like the microfinance Bankss in Eastern Europe. The types of services offered are limited by what is allowed by the legal construction of the supplier: non-regulated establishments are non by and large allowed to supply nest eggs or insurance. ( www.cgap.com )ISLAMIC MICROFINANCEAccepting or paying involvement while loaning or borrowing money is out harmonizing to the Islamic jurisprudence. However the borrower will portion the net income that he will obtain from his concern with the loaner. Money is non an plus for gaining net income ( Duhmale, Sapcanin, p.1 ) . Islam emphasizes on societal, ethical, moral factors for distribution of wealth and usher towards societal and economic justness. Islam encourage net income instead than involvement because gaining net income evolve productive activity and involve in net income and hazard sharing between loaner and borrower ( Dhumale, Sapcanin, p.1-2 ) . The intent of Islamic microfinance is to supply little loans to hapless people without involvement. This construct benefits the borrower as microfinance involvement rates are comparatively high. There are several agencies to continue with the interest-free microfinance but we will speak about three of them which are: MUDARABA ( Participation Financing ) Here trade takes topographic point between the loaner and the borrower. No involvement will be charged, nevertheless net income will be shared by both the loan supplier and the borrower. Harmonizing to Zaher, Kaber, â€Å" Mudaraba is a trust based funding understanding whereby an investor ( Islamic bank ) entrusts capital to an agent ( Mudarib ) for a undertaking. Net income will be shared on an agreed ratio and the contract is similar to a western type of limited partnership where 1 is shooting money and the other one controls the concern. In instance of losingss, the loaner receives no return and the borrower no recompense for his work ( Segrado, 2005, p.11 ) . MUSHARAKA Harmonizing to Segrado ( 2005 ) , â€Å" Two parties provide capital for a undertaking which both may pull off. Net incomes are shared in pre-agreed ratios but losingss are borne in proportion to equity engagement † . As we can see, here it is non established on net income sharing but depends on rating and disposal competency and portion in concern. MURABAHAH Here the loaner will buy goods and sell them to the borrower after adding a sensible net income. The loaner will remain the owner of the goods until imbursements are cleared. Dhumale, Sapcanin ( p.10 ) describe Murabahah as â€Å" the Murabahah contract is similar to merchandise finance in the context of working capital loans and to renting in the context of fixed capital loans † .MICROCREDIT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATIONTHE GRAMEEN MODELThe footings â€Å" microfinance † and â€Å" micro recognition † were non on screen before 1980s 0r 1990s ( Robinson, 2001 ) . It all started with the return on Muhammad Yunus to Bangladesh after learning in the U.S for a few old ages. In 1974, during a trip in a comparatively hapless small town in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus came across Sufiya, a stool shaper, who had to borrow money from a local loaner so as to purchase natural stuffs. She had to refund the loaner with high involvement rates which sometimes exceeded the initial sum. After refund, she was left with practically nil to run into her basic demands. Dr. Yunus was disappointed by what he saw and lent a little sum of money to 42 rural basket-weavers. He found that his action encouraged them to work more and they were enthusiastic to refund their loan ( Roy, Mark A, 2003 ) . After two old ages, there came the constitution of the Grameen Bank where Dr. Yunus introduced the â€Å" Grameen Model † which is now the cant in the universe of microfinance. Since its start in 1976, it has grown to over 1084 national subdivisions in over half the small towns of Bangladesh. The construct of this theoretical account is to supply loan installations to hapless people, particularly adult females, so that they can transport out their little endeavors and pull off their support ( Roy, Mark A. , March 2003 ) . The process of the â€Å" Grameen Model † is that borrowers should organize a group of five members. After the loan application, the first two people will obtain the loan. If they repay their loan successfully, so the other two members will acquire their loan sum. The last member will be granted the loan when the old two members clear their debts. If this group was a good remunerator, therefore they will be eligible for future loans. However, if one of them fail to pay the loan, the whole group will be disqualified for farther loan ( Rehman, 2007 ) . As we can see, the attack of group loaning is applied. This attack has many advantages. First, members of a group are acquainted to each other, hence if one is absent in the group meeting, another one can pay its installments. Furthermore in South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, there exists some sort of societal force per unit areas. If a member of a group does non refund his loan, he will be pressurized by the other members and besides his vicinity will acquire to cognize about it. So he will hold to do an attempt to refund his loan to avoid this sort of state of affairs ( Sengupta, Aubuchon, 2008 ) .A

Deaf Culture essays

Deaf Culture essays Deaf people, like hearing people have their own culture. Not only d they have there own language but a separate culture then hearing people. The deaf culture is very important to the deaf community in this paper I will tell you some examples of this amazing culture. Many people of the hearing community might think of a deaf person as handicapped but if you called a deaf person this, they would be offended. Deaf people do not think of them self as disabled or handicapped. They prefer to call them selfs by this only for social, political, or economical needs. Many hearing people think that deaf people should learn to lip-read and learn how to speak so hearing people can understand them. Deaf people like to think of them selfs as having nothing more then a language barrier, such as we would think for someone who spoke Spanish instead of English. Also phrases such as deaf and dumb and deaf and mute and hearing impaired are considered offensive to many people in the deaf community. Hard of hearing or just Deaf are preferred by most deaf people. There are a few different types of sign language that a deaf person might use. The most common is ASL (American sign language) when signing in ASL you uses a different grammatical structure. Also In ASL you do not sign every word, words like it, the, is, a, an, etc. are not signed. Another language used is Pidgin signing. With Pidgin you leave out the small words and articles but you use the exact word order. Another is exact English; with this you sign every word, and in the same order as you would in spoken English. ASL has existed since late 1700s. French sign language and British sign language existed in Europe before ASL began. A lot of ASL comes from French sign language. When Europeans came here to settle they brought their deaf culture. When speaking to a deaf person, no matter what type of sig...

Helping Verbs

Helping Verbs Helping Verbs Helping Verbs By Maeve Maddox A reader of the post on the uses of the past participle wonders, How did English come to require helping verbs? Isn’t that unusual among languages? Helping verbs are not unique to English. Also called â€Å"auxiliary verbs,† helping verbs are common in analytical languages like English. (An analytical language has lost most of its inflexions.) Auxiliaries are used with main verbs to help express grammatical tense, mood, and voice.    tense: forms or modifications (or word-groups) in the conjugation of a verb to indicate time (past, present, or future). mood: a form or set of forms of a verb in an inflected language, serving to indicate whether the verb expresses fact, command, wish, conditionality, etc.; the quality of a verb as represented or distinguished by a particular mood. For example, the sentence â€Å"Get thee gone!† is in imperative mood because it expresses a command. For the difference between tense and mood, see †Mood vs Tense.† voice: a category used in the classification of verb forms serving to indicate the relation of the subject to the action. For the difference between active and passive voice, see â€Å"Verbs Voice.† A highly inflected synthetic language like Latin, on the other hand, combines tense, mood, and voice into a single compounded word. Take, for example, the English sentence â€Å"I had sung.† Each of the three words conveys a significant piece of information. The free-standing pronoun I identifies the subject as the speaker; the past participle form sung, with the helping verb had, places the action in the past previous to another action. All of these ideas are expressed by one Latin word: cantaveram. Helping verbs rock. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar 101 category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:English Grammar 101: All You Need to KnowEmail EtiquetteUsing "May" in a Question

The Contribution of Academic Institution in Childrens Well-Being

The Contribution of Academic Institution in Childrens Well-Being Hashtag: #makesafehappen Reducing Childhood Deaths through Awareness and Responsiveness The tagline â€Å"The #1 Cause of Childhood Deaths is Preventable Accidents† from #makesafehappen or Make Safe Happen campaign probably touched the heart of many. It is, in fact, encouraging us to act and become responsive and better parents to our children. There are two important issues associated with thousands of childhood deaths: The large majority of parents or about 76% are not aware of the issue of the deadly effect of â€Å"preventable† accidental injuries acquired at home.   The majority of parents or 63% lack the drive to do more about their children’s safety. In short, since the most probable solution to reducing childhood deaths from preventable injuries at home is awareness and enthusiasm of children’s guardian, the job then is to educate and motivate parents. There are many ways to educate parents but the most effective in terms of scope (a home visit is time-consuming strenuous for health workers) and motivation is to conduct parenting classes where parents can come, work together, share each other experiences, get motivated, and learn in one location. You may be interested in: Moral Failure in Academic Institutions The Limits of Academic Freedom The Value of Academic Debate The Scientific Basis for Defining Seasons Is High IQ a Guarantee of Academic Success? The Contribution of Academic Institution in Improving Children’s Well-Being Many are unaware that aside from basic literacy and numerical skills, the academic institution is deeply involved in other matters concerning children and forever contributing to the improvement of children’s well-being. Let us start with the more obvious. The institution gave us the knowledge and skills that we need to meet the requirements of our chosen profession. This profession is now helping us to support the needs of our family, secure our children’s welfare, and others in need. The academic institution is the core of scientific research and producing thousands of scholarly papers aimed to improve children’s well-being. These include research and useful findings associated children’s growth, disease, mental health, parenting and childcare, learning and skills, behavior, nutrition, and more.  Moreover, the findings of these academic papers are reliable and actually used in improving children’s lives for many years. For example, academic researchers on influenza enable the U.S. Centers for Disease Control or CDC to create a strategy to prevent the spread of flu, which is now a common practice of childcare providers and other early childhood care programs. Similarly, the source of United Kingdom’s healthy eating standards and bullying prevention policy for children, are academic case studies and statistical data. The sources used by #makesafehappen or Make Safe Happen are survey results and statistical data collected and analyzed using scientific methods developed by academic intellectuals. For example, the content in their safety tips are jointly developed by two leading children safety oriented organizations that are generally using information from national statistics and scholarly journals such as â€Å"Etiology and Outcome of Pediatric Burns† study of Morrow Smith (1996), â€Å"Tap water scald burns in children† by Feldman et al. (1978), and others. It is quite clear that the actual contributors in children’s wellbeing are academic papers researched and published to improve children’s well-being. Moreover, some of these academic sources were published many years ago and therefore solid evidence of the enduring commitment of the academic institution to children’s well-being.

Susan Smith Murderer Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Susan Smith Murderer - Research Paper Example Susan Smith was married to a David Smith from March 15th 1991 to May 1995 with whom they bore Michael Daniel (on October 10th 1991) and Alexander Tyler (on August 5th 1993). She killed both of the children on October 25th of 1994 by letting her 1990 Mazda Protà ©gà © roll into the nearby John D. Long Lake, drowning the children inside. At the time of the incident, the first born child Michael Daniel Smith was only 3 years old while his smaller sibling, Alexander Tyler Smith, was only 14 months old (Russell & Stephens, 2000). The case attracted worldwide attention with Susan Smith at first claiming her innocence and stating that a black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her two children, making away with her vehicle in the process. On national television, she cried for the rescue and return of her children but following thorough investigations and nationwide searches, she confessed her crime. Even from the onset of the investigations, law enforcers found her testimonies rather wanting and conflicting and begun strongly suspecting that she knew of her children’s whereabouts. When she and her husband were subjected to a series of polygraph tests, all the results indicated that she was lying about not knowing her children’s whereabouts (Smith & Calef, 1995). But perhaps the biggest breakthrough in the case was when she stated that lights at the intersection where she stopped only turn red when a car approaches on the intersecting road (her purported reason for stopping at the intersection) but since she had earlier claimed that no other cars were on the road at the time, she was deeply conflicting her testimonies. Finally, investigators found the children’s bodies in Lake John after searching surrounding lakes and ponds (Rekers, 1996). The rational choice theory/ choice theory/ rational action theory is a framework for comprehending and modeling social and economic behavior. The rational choice theory, pioneered by George Homas, attaches

Consultants Report Telecommuting at IBM Indiana Essay

Consultants Report Telecommuting at IBM Indiana - Essay Example Half of the company’s business volume was spread out worldwide. It was in the mid-1980s, however, that the company started to have problems. The profits of the company had started to plunge down. Analysts concluded that the reasons behind the downfall were not many but were strong enough to shake an established company. They were: the bureaucratic and slow-moving setup of the company, maintenance of old business strategies and reluctance to replace them with newer ones, incorrect assessment of business risks. As said by Ducker (1993), it is a business sin to sacrifice tomorrow’s opportunity on the altar of yesterday. This was precisely the reason why IBM got off-track its road to success. Though IBM did try to cope up with the growing trends of the market by introducing a PC in the market almost overnight after Apple introduced the first PC in the mid-1970s but they could actually never get out of the MAINFRAME mask that they had put on themselves. Then the time came wh en IBM was being administered by JOHN AKERS who was a career IBMer in the ear 1985. Since the downfall of the company had already begun several steps were being taken by the administered in order to downsize the company. A summary of the downsizing of the company can be viewed in the attached table. The administered however resigned in the year when despite all his efforts the company continued to lose stocks and suffered major losses in the year 1992.Louis V. Gerstner then replaced the former head of the company. Further downsizing of employees was then consented upon by the management of the company. The establishment of the company’s office in the state of Indiana was an evident example of the problem the company was facing overall. The Indiana office reduced its number of employees to about 30% in the year 1992. The General Manager Operation s for the State of Indiana was foreseeing another cut in the number of employees.  

Assume the responsibility of the director of Environmental Protection Essay

Assume the responsibility of the director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). List the most important actions for dealing - Essay Example According to the Think Quest Library (2011), â€Å"Eutrophication is the situation in which excess fertilizers are being washed into the rivers causing the water to contain excessive amounts of nutrients.† To check this, there should be improved education among farmers to resort to the use of organic farming. In organic faming no artificial fertilizers are applied to the soil. Next, there should be a conscious effort to beautifying our beaches. As much as this can have additional benefits of improving tourism and promoting recreation, it would also ensure that the water bodies around the beaches are clean. Finally, there should be regulations to ensure that industrialists who channel their liquid and solid waste to water bodies but in place recycling technologies that will ensure that waste produced are recycled for use instead of throwing them into water bodies. Dealing with air pollution The first action to deal with air pollution would be centered on industrial pollution as these accounts for the worse cases of air pollution.

How to do research project on management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

How to do research project on management - Essay Example There are numerous means of conducting qualitative research, methods such as focus groups, surveys as well as interviews. To facilitate the process of uncovering insightful findings, the author opts for a multi-method approach for a research strategy allowing for several methods of collecting the data. For the purpose of the study, surveys were used in conjunction with telephone interviews. To triangulate these primary data the author has also accessed the websites of the organizations for their core values, mission statements, messages and other secondary data as internal company records including organizational structures, annual reports etc. Such data can be â€Å"qualitatively analyzed† provided the â€Å"relevance to the study topic† is present. In designing surveys, it is important to establish the purpose of the survey and consider the key variables, which are being identified and how the data gathered will be analyzed. Having considered these aspects, 4 semi-str uctured descriptive questionnaires focusing on organizational culture, key HRM practices and two dimensions of work-related values were drawn up to facilitate the study. The questions were formed by employing relevance trees tactics keeping the focus on the key hypothesis being explored. The aim was to give proper direction to the research. The questionnaires were piloted with the aid of colleagues, so that the instruments clarity as well as effectiveness was assessed and adjustments were made to certain wording and removing technical jargon.

Credit Squeeze Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Credit Squeeze - Essay Example The long-term decisions and techniques include the Capital Investment Decisions . These are the decisions about which investment is received by the projects weather to finance that investment with debt or equity and when; or whether to pay shareholders with the dividends. Whereas short-term decisions can be listed under the 'Working Capital Management heading. The Corporate Finance deals with current assets and current liabilities short-term balance with focus on inventories; managing cash and short-term borrowing. It must also be noted that Corporate Finance term is also related with investment banking. The service which an investment banker offers is to typically evaluate the investment projects so that investment decisions could easily be made by the bank. (Aswath, n.p., n.d.) There are various definitions given to corporate finance by countries around the world. For instance, corporate finance in the US is used to cover a much wider area for describing techniques, activities, and decisions, which deal with many features of a company's capital and finances. While in the UK, the term 'corporate finance' covering a comparatively smaller area, tends to attach itself with much increased capital transactions so as to create and develop larger businesses. Also in the UK corporate finance, is frequently associated with ownership change in a business, and to some extent connected to corporate transaction that is a potent cause of the development of a new equity structure i.e. a shareholder base, the connected issue of the exchange or purchase of debt or equity. The transactions that are covered are of the following types: Seed raising, and start-up or development of capital expansion. 1. The sale or acquisitions of private companies, the mergers & demergers. 2. Takeovers of public companies (mergers, demergers including both public & private deals). 3. subsidiaries or divisions - typically backed by private equity i.e. similar of companies or buy-in & buy-out management. 4. The issues of equity by firms, having the companies flotation on an established stock exchange so that the capital for development and restructure ownership is raised 5. Capital raising for the refinance and restructure of businesses through other forms of debt, equity, and related securities 6. The financing of joint ventures like, public as well as private partnerships; privatisations project finance, and infrastructure finance 7. The secondary equity issues, either through private placing or via further issues on a stock market. 8. Restructuring and raising debt, when particularly linked to the types of above listed transactions. (Shean, n.p., 2005) What is Credit Squeeze The term 'Squeeze' denotes a period of tight monetary policy; borrowing is tight due to high interest rates. The tight monetary policy, a term opposite of 'easy monetary policy ', is a policy of the central bank intended to curtail inflation by depleting the commercial bank reserves and resulting into

How to do research project on management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

How to do research project on management - Essay Example There are numerous means of conducting qualitative research, methods such as focus groups, surveys as well as interviews. To facilitate the process of uncovering insightful findings, the author opts for a multi-method approach for a research strategy allowing for several methods of collecting the data. For the purpose of the study, surveys were used in conjunction with telephone interviews. To triangulate these primary data the author has also accessed the websites of the organizations for their core values, mission statements, messages and other secondary data as internal company records including organizational structures, annual reports etc. Such data can be â€Å"qualitatively analyzed† provided the â€Å"relevance to the study topic† is present. In designing surveys, it is important to establish the purpose of the survey and consider the key variables, which are being identified and how the data gathered will be analyzed. Having considered these aspects, 4 semi-str uctured descriptive questionnaires focusing on organizational culture, key HRM practices and two dimensions of work-related values were drawn up to facilitate the study. The questions were formed by employing relevance trees tactics keeping the focus on the key hypothesis being explored. The aim was to give proper direction to the research. The questionnaires were piloted with the aid of colleagues, so that the instruments clarity as well as effectiveness was assessed and adjustments were made to certain wording and removing technical jargon.

Sakru japan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sakru japan - Assignment Example Intercultural differences, ambiguity, poor communication, as well as inconsistency could be the major possible cases of the cultural problems experienced in the company. The effects of these problems include hostile and completely unpleasant working environment for workers. This reason calls for a cultural training program aimed to solve cultural problems in the company. Through the cultural program, intercultural problems in the company would be solved through cross-cultural training. This would be done by organizing seminars in which workers from various racial and cultural backgrounds can familiarize with one another. Workers without the Japanese cultural background can learn about the local culture from this kind of interaction. Encouraging employees to work closely with people of different cultures in order to learn about such cultures would as well solve this problem. The training would inform employees about the importance of experiencing various cultures. One of the advantages is the enhancement of communication among employees and customers, which furthers solves yet another problem, the poor communication problem in the company. The problem of inconsistency among employees’ productivity is a major cultural problem that would be solved through the cultural training program. The program would encourage employees from different cultural background to work closely and assist one another. This not only encourages friendship but also makes workers adopt different working styles that can maintain their high performance. The Japanese are generally hard working people, which mean that poor performance can only be attributed to lack of motivation.

Alternative Medicine Essay Example for Free

Alternative Medicine Essay The widespread use of alternative medicine nowadays has driven scientists to study it and understand the reasons of the high demand for unconventional treatment. According to Zollman C, and Vickers A. (1999), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can be defined as therapeutic and diagnostic disciplines which are exogenous of the institutions where modern methods of treatment are exist and taught. Eisenberg D. (1993), defines CAM as â€Å"medical interventions which are commonly not taught at medical schools and not generally provided at hospitals in the US†. These two definitions are not fully satisfactory because, firstly, some forms of CAM which were tested by scientists and appeared to be safe and effective and found a place in conventional medical mainstream. Secondly, CAM is not about medical intervention, which means impacts of taken drugs. The majority of CAM is based on psychology, spirituality, sociology and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which make trials difficult. However, despite the fact that conventional medicine is scientific based and proven by science, many people still use alternative medicine instead or as a compliment to the modern one. Research shows that the majority of the patients at an Accident and Emergency department used to refer to some forms of CAM. (Waterbrook A.L, 2008). Other studies show that over the period of the last 20 years an increase in interest in CAM was observed. Approximately 30% of the UK population (Ernst, 1996) and almost the same in the USA (Kuhn, 1999, Wooton and Sporber, 2001) have used alternative medicine. Referring to these sources it is seen that the demand for CAM remains high nowadays; however, the importance here is not to evaluate the reasons why people still use alternative medicine but to prove or disprove the outweighing advantages of CAM over conventional medicine. The key point is to understand what there is about CAM that differentiates it from modern health care. It is argued that individuals to date embrace CAM because it meets consumer needs and provides health care without any side effects, curing an illness completely not just minimizing the pain for a short period. However, despite the popularity of CAM, the effectiveness cannot be fully trusted and thoroughly tested, whereas, conventional medicine is based on s cience study and research and scientifically proven. The aim of this essay is to compare and contrast two approaches of medical health care and to prove that advantages of modern medicine outweigh those of alternative methods of treatment in many aspects  and to show that CAM has many disadvantages which have been revealed during surveys. First of all, it is better to learn the history and some forms of unconventional medicine to have background knowledge on it. While modern medicine developed due to science evolvement, CAM always existed from many centuries ago till these days. It takes roots from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)found on herbal remedies also including psychological, spiritual aspects in their treatment. In contrast to modern medicine, TCM focuses not solely on disease but also on maladjustment of human body and whole functioning process. The most commonly used forms of CAM are herbal therapy, health food and vitamins consumption, massage, relaxation techniques, chiropractic, acupuncture and placebo (Sutherland L.M , 1994). According to the type of treatment they provide, CAM practitioners can be put into four groups, although there is no defined way of classification for unconventional treatment. The first, psychological and spiritual group comprises faith healers, mystics providing paranormal healings and those who use specific methods affecting human psychology such as hypnosis, mental imaging and laughter therapy. Those, who advice herbal remedies, vitamin and multivitamin supplements and particular diets like macrobiotic diet, are in the second, nutritional group. The drug and biologic category includes highly trained specialists in the drug, various chemicals and vaccine use. It can be injections to improve the immune system, injections of animal live cells and homeopathy. The fourth group consists of chiropractors, touch and massage therapists and acupuncturists, where treatment involves some physical forces. There are also other treatments which are problematic or incapable of being classified, such as iridology, aroma therapy and the identification of internal illness by examination of the eye iris (Rubel A, Murray R, 1992). Increasing popularity of CAM and reasons driving people to choose unconventional medicine as a compliment to conventional one or instead of it can be clearly explained. First of all, some people refuse from modern health care because of dissatisfaction with it or with the physicians, particularly when a prognosis offering no hope for a patient is announced or when a patient experiences revulsion or painful effects of treatment. Dissatisfaction with health care provider is also can be one of the reasons of using CAM. Studies at University of Limpopo revealed that patients were disappointed with attitudes of doctors. They claimed that  physicians did not provide sufficient time for consultation, some of which were only 10 to15 minutes. In addition, it is argued that health care providers behaved as if they were cognizant of everything and often not explaining about illness and not providing information about treatment (Ogunbanjo G, 2008). This might be the reason of disappointment and stimulating people to seek alternative treatments. On the contrary, approach of homeopaths was likely to be preferred by patients. According to the research done by professor Gboyega Ocunbanjo at University of Limpopo (2008), relationship between patient and CAM practitioner played more crucial role what than type of treatment was used. Homeopaths supported patients not only physically but morally, they spent more time on discussion of the problem than mainstream medicine doctors did, relationship was person-to-per son, rather than patient and physician (Ogunbanjo G, 2008). Consequently, the patients felt themselves more independent and respected by practitioners and made further visits. However, results of this study revealed no potential advantage of CAM, but only psychological aspect of it. It showed significance of relationship between CAM practitioner and patient and moral support given by homeopaths, missing any proofs on real treatment of alternative medicine. Other studies also showed that reasons of switching to CAM depended more on personal belief in paranormal, extra-sensory and spirituality rather than dissatisfaction with conventional medicine. Survey held by Custers K et al (2009), exposed that preference of CAM was based more on paranormal belief among general public than attitudes towards science. Many CAM practitioners prevailed that alternative therapies disobey severe restrictions of reductionist research. They state that their services are individualized, natural, taking into account mental and social aspects, rather than just the symptoms of illness, and justify a radical change in the approach of surveys. However, these arguments are built on misinterpretations, and often dealing with the obstacles requires giving the meaning of the research question and afterward obtaining optimal research equipment which corresponds it. For instance, randomized controlled clinical trials are the least prejudiced approach for discovering a genuine answer, if some form of CAM is aimed to be tested for effectiveness (Ernst E, 2000). Still the central question occurs there designed to establish the future role of the CAM in the mainstream health care. Each form of CAM must be  tested by scientists, because some of them are harmless but others not and some are effective, whereas others can be pure placebos and even dangerous for human health.In 1992, an Office of Alternative Medicine was established in the National Institutes of Health to test unconventional remedies. Results were no comforting, because 28 methods of treatment out of 30 research grants that the office gave have had outcome in â€Å"final reports† in 1993 (National Institutes of Health, 1992). However, probably after six years Medline search found that only 9 of the 28 research grants were published. Five of them were in two journals which are not in the list of the 3500 journal titles in Countway library of Medicine’s collection (Chou C.K, McDougall J.A, Ahn C, Voru N, 1997). None of the remained four alternative remedies was teste d by clinical trial that would allow making any summary on the efficacy of a complementary treatment (Reid S.A, Duke L.M, Allen J.B, 1998). Another research hold by Ernst E (2000), revealed the failure of more than 100 different alternative therapies recommended for treatment of asthma. Ideology of CAM intentionally disregards biologic mechanism, often discredits modern science and bases on ancient practices and herbal remedies which are in some way considered being at the same time more effective and less hazardous than modern methods of treatment. Before 20th century, majority of herbal remedies were botanicals, obtained from plants. For instance, purple foxglove was discovered to fight edema, the opium poppy to be helpful for cough, pain and diarrhea, and cinchona bark to reduce fever. However, human cost for taking therapies with botanicals was great, because, firstly, they had negative impacts on human body, causing another illness. Secondly, doses of botanicals were random, due to unknown amount of active components (Angell M, 1998). More significant, most of herbal remedies did not work at all, and some even were dangerous or might cause death. One could only distinguish between advantageous and ineffective or toxic botanicals through anecdotes received by word of mouth (Angell M, 1998). The beginning of the 20th century brought dramatic changes to human healthcare due to huge advance in medical science. The foundation of methods of the identification and purification of the active components in botanicals made their efficacy and safeness greater. After morphine was released from opium poppy, digitalis from the purple foxglove and quinine from cinchona bark, treatment became effective without harming human body  and other functions (Angell M, 1998). Further of medical advances are remarkable. As example, treatments with heparin, aspirin, beta-adrenergic blockers and thrombolytic agents have decreased mortal rate from myocardial infarction; nucleoside analogues and a protease inhibitor combination can repel the origins of AIDS in people with HIV; childhood leukemia in most cases can be cured by a cocktail of cytotoxic drugs. In addition, the beginning of the 21st century was the key period of invention of vaccines fighting many epidemic scourges, such as poliomyelitis, measles, diphtheria, hepatitis B and some forms of pneumococcal pneumonia, including the foundation of efficient an tibiotics curing many other health problems (Coppes et al, 1998). To support these statements, it is seen that United States has experienced dramatic increase in the life expectancy of the country, approximately by three decades. Partly, the reason for that is better sanitation and living standards, but mostly, due to advances in health care (Coppes et al, 1998). One may state that conventional medicine also based on anecdotes, which are published in peer-reviewed journals. However, these case reports are completely different from the anecdotes of CAM. Journals publishing about modern medicine are reviewed and assessed by experts. Hence, they describe well-structured new opening in a defined terms. If, for instance, a journal received paper of a patient’s recovery from pancreas cancer after taking rhubarb diet, publishers would demand documentation of illness and its scope. They would ask for other patients, who did not regain after rhubarb diet, and might propose trying testing the method on other diseased people. After the results of these and other requirements are satisfactory, journal might publish a case report – not as an announcement of a treatment, but as a suggestion of a hypothesis th at ought to be tested in a formal clinical trial. In contrast to modern medicine, anecdotes about unconventional treatments lack such documentation and peer-reviewing as they are usually published in magazines and books for public reading (Angell M, 1998). Angell M, (1998) argues that herbal remedies may also be sold without any knowledge of their mechanism of action. According to DiPoalo and his colleagues’ report (1998), herbal mixture named PC-SPES, where PC stands for prostate cancer and spes is the Latin word for â€Å"hope†, has sufficient estrogenic activity. Estrogens are defined as a group of any steroid hormone, which activate changes in female  reproductive system, after which female secondary sexual typical features develop in human (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/estrogen, 2011). Despite this, PC-SPES is still sold as helping patients’ immune system, who have prostate cancer which is disobedient to estrogen treatment (Alternative Medicine Digest, 1997). Consequently, a lot of men receiving PC-SPES have taken uncertain quantity of hormonal treatment without being informed. Complementary and alternative medicine is not always cheap and may even require more expenditure than conventional medicine. Researches in 1984 estimated that patients’ annual expenditure on unconventional health care was 10 bill ion dollars in the US (Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging, 1984) and the results of the surveyin 1997 showed 1.6 billion pounds annual expenditure in the UK on CAM (White A, Resch K, Ernst E, 1997). According to Eisenberg et al (1998), 1990s research results estimated that number of visits to CAM practitioners in the US was 425 million, whereas number of call on to conventional health care providers was 388 million in the same year. Annual expenditure on CAM was approximately $ 13.7 billion, in compare to $12.8 billion spent annually on whole hospitalizations in the US in 1990. Another survey held in the US in 1997 considered out-of-pocket expenditure on alternative medicine to be $27 billion which was equal to out-of-pocket expenditure for all modern medicine services (Eisenberg et al, 1998). Indeed, some forms of alternative medicine are more expensive than modern health care. One reason for that might be individual approach of the practitioners towards patients. Homeopaths may receive high fees from patients visiting them. Second reason can be increasing belief in CAM among people, which drives them to use it more and try other alternative remedies. Individuals start to recei ve herbal treatments, consult homeopaths and visit CAM practitioners very regularly, including them into their lifestyle, which is costly in the long-run. To conclude, it is seen that CAM has many disadvantages in compare to conventional medicine, which depends on science and study research. First of all, most forms of CAM failed clinical trials as being hazardous, ineffective and some even being able to cause death in particular cases. Secondly, botanicals such as opium poppy and purple foxglove helped to cure cough and edema, respectively, at the same time destroying human body due to content of active toxic components. In addition, CAM is based on anecdotes,  which are received by word of mouth or published or books for public reading. It cannot be fully trusted, because of not being tested or failure in formal clinical trials. One cannot be sure in efficacy of alternative medicine, as the case with PC-SPES, which despite containing great amount of estrogens is sold to prostate cancer diseased people till these days. Ultimately, research revealed that annual expenditure on CAM was higher than for conventional medicine in the UK an d the US. In contrast, modern medicine is scientifically proven and provides only those treatments which passed clinical trials. The treatments are published only in peer-reviewed journals and are not announced as a cure, but are suggested as possible treatment. Conventional medicine can be trusted and it shows real treatment. The most significant advantage of conventional health care is the increase in the life expectancy of people due to advance in medicine. Also, illnesses which had no cure in the past, like child leukemia, heart related diseases and most forms asthma can be treated now. Therefore, there should be no alternative to modern medicine, because advantages of it are clear, while there is still discussion on unconventional medicine. Some forms of CAM might be used as compliment to conventional medicine, but not as alternative to it. People should be more informed about CAM and its inefficiency to provide effective and safe health care as modern medicine does.

Aquinas And Boethius Free Will And Divine Foreknowlegde Philosophy Essay

Aquinas And Boethius Free Will And Divine Foreknowlegde Philosophy Essay This philosophical inquiry is without doubt a major one owing to the very fact that it touches a very significant area of philosophy that has been addressed by a big number of great philosophers; the conception of free-will and divine foreknowledge as addressed by Boethius and St. Thomas of Aquinas. These two philosophers have contradicting views regarding the concepts under consideration and it is therefore important to make a clear understanding of them both but with an emphasis on Thomas who seems to give appealing conclusions compared to Boethius. The paper will be structured in a very clear and concise manner, with part one starting with the introduction to the two philosophers. Then afterwards, will be addressed the concept of free will as discussed by Thomas Aquinas. This emphasis again is not accidental but well calculated owing to the fact that the views of St. Thomas are by far better and reasonable compared to those of Boethius. Like any other superb philosopher, Aquinas pays strong attention to logic and this is going to be observed in the manner that he presents his work. He ensures that he does not end up in self-contradiction, or self-deception. SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS St. Thomas Aquinas was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Order.He was born in Aquino c.1225, and was an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus (the Angelic Doctor) and Doctor Universalis (Universal Doctor).  [1]  He is frequently referred to as Thomas because Aquinas refers to his residence rather than his surname. He was the foremost classical supporter of natural theology, and the father of the Thomistic school of philosophy and theology. He considerably influenced Western thought, with much of modern philosophy being as a reaction against, or in agreement with his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law and political theory. His works include the Summa Theologica and the Summa contra Gentiles. St. Thomas is one of the 33 Doctors of the Church, and the greatest theologian and philosopher of the church. Pope Benedict XV declared: The Church has declared Thomas doctrine to be her own.  [2]   Thomas joined the Dominican Order at the age of 13, an issue that did not please his family who had expected him to become a Benedictine monk.  [3]  Family members became desperate to dissuade Aquinas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans. At one point, two of his brothers hired a prostitute to seduce him, but he drove her away, wielding a burning stick. According to legend, that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his determination to remain celibate.  [4]   Aquinas was sent to study at the University of Paris Faculty of Arts in 1245, where he most likely met Dominican scholar Albert Magnus  [5]  . In 1252, he returned to Paris to study for the masters degree in Theology.Aquinas was more a theologian than a philosopher, and his references regarding philosophers rather refer to pagan rather than Christians.  [6]   BOETHIUS Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius is his full names. He was born about 480 CE to an aristocratic family that was of Christian foundation. He studied under the influence of the Neo-Platonist Proclus and his disciples for thirteen years. Proclus died in 485, and then shortly his father died. Consequently Boethius lived under the care of Symmachus from whom Boethius married his daughter Rusticiana.  [7]   Boethius lifetime goal was to translate Aristotles complete works, as well as Platos dialogues, wherefore he considered that the two could be harmonized due to their agreements on major philosophical points. In 510 he became consul under the Ostrogoth Theodoric who was by then king of Italy. At 520 Boethius was appointed master of the offices, heading all the government and court services, and at 522 both his two sons too, became consuls. Boethiuss work conception of free-will and divine foreknowledge can be found in his work, The Consolation of Philosophy which is actually a work of literature that is written in a form of prosimetrical apocalyptic dialogueà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and contains five Books, which are written in a combination of prose and verse.  [8]   Aquinas Epistemological view: Aquinas believed that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act.  [9]  However, he believed that human beings have the natural capacity to know many things without special divine revelation, even though such revelations occur from time to time, especially in regard to faith.  [10]   The Question of Free-will Does man have free-will? What is free-will -a power, an act, or a habit? If it is a power, is it appetitive or cognitive? If it is appetitive, is it the same power as the will, or distinct? Thomas argued that man possesses free-will for without itcounsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain.  [11]  He logically proceeded to expound on this by first observing how some things acted devoid of judgment; a stone moving downwards, similarly those things too that dont have knowledge. Additionally, in Thomas view some agents act from judgment, but their judgments are not free, such as a brute animal. Thomas, while expounding on this assertion gives an example of a sheep, which upon seeing a wolf, judges that it is a thing to be avoided, an act that is from natural and not free judgment, since it makes this judgment from natural instincts and not from free judgment. Man on the other hand, acts from judgment, due to the fact that by his apprehensive commandhe judges that something should be avoided or sought.  [12]  Therefore, Thomas view is without doubt, correct when he continues to emphasize that man acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various things because this judgment, contrary to that of brute animal that originates from natural instincts, it results from a process involving comparison in the reason. However, can we say that mans free will is power? This is a question posed by Thomas in his discussions regarding free-will. In answering this he notes rightfully that even though free-will strictly speakingsignifies an act, commonlyThomas calls it free-will, that which is the principle of the act by which man judges freely.  [13]  It is arguably, in the light of Thomas, that in humans the principle of an act is both a habit and a power due to the fact that when we say that we know something, we do so by knowledge and by the intellectual power. Hence free-will has to bea power or a habit, or a power with a habit.  [14]  This affirmation is considered in two ways. First, if free-will is a habit, then it has to be a natural habit; this is because, for man it is natural to have a free-will. For things that come under free-will, there is no natural habit since we are inclined naturally to things that have natural habitsTherefore; it is not a habit in any way. Secondly, habits are defined as that by reason of which we are well or ill disposed with regard to actions and passions  [15]  ; since by temperance; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦we are well-disposed as regards concupiscences, and by intemperance ill-disposed: and by knowledge we are well-disposed to the act of the intellect when we know the truth, and by the contrary ill-disposed. But the free-will is indifferent to good and evil choice: wherefore it is impossible for free-will to be a habit. Therefore it is a power.  [16]   Thomas, regarding free-will as an appetitive power, asserts that the appropriate act of free-will is choice. This is because of the fact that we can decide to take one thing and refuse the other. It is thenceimportant that we deliberate the nature of free-will, by analyzing the nature of choice. Regarding choice, there is a strong agreement between two things; one on cognitive power, and the other on the appetitive power.Concerning the cognitive power part, there is needed to have counsel, through which according to Thomaswe judge one thing to be preferred to another  [17]  . Concerning the appetitive power, Thomas asserts that it is required that the appetite should accept the judgment of counsel.  [18]  It is in this respect that Thomas counters the Aristotelian conception of choice; that it is not clear whether choice belongs in principle to the appetitive power or the cognitive one because according to him choice is either an appetitive intellect or an intellectual appeti te.  [19]  However Aristotle inclines to its being an intellectual appetite in the process of describing choice as a desire proceeding from counsel.  [20]  This follows from the reasoning that the means to an end is the proper object of choice. Additionally, then, choice is what Thomas refers to as the nature of the good; the useful: this follows from the premise that since good is considered to be the object of the appetite, then it is logical that principally choice is an act of the appetitive power; hence free-will is an appetitive power. Consequently, can we say that free-will is a power distinct from the will? It is rightly argued in the light of Thomas that intellectual apprehension takes into consideration both the intellect and reason, and with regard to intellectual appetitive, we will have free-will which is actually the power of choice as correctly explicated in Thomas Summa. This connection is correctly observed in both the objects and respectful acts. Thomas gives an illustration of what it means to understand when he continues to note that understanding implies the simple acceptation of something (whereby) we say that we understand first principles, which are known of them without any comparison.  [21]  However, regarding reasoning, as Thomas points out, means to come from one thing to the knowledge of another: wherefore, properly speaking, we reason about conclusions, which are known from the principles.  [22]   Divine Foreknowledge by Boethius and Thomas Aquinas The issue of the foreknowledge of God is a mystery that St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Boethius all struggled with. Divine foreknowledge involves the idea that the will of God enunciated itself most expansively in divine foreordainment, whence the plan of salvation is an essentialportion. Consequently, Christ was, apparently, predestined. This, of course, means that God discerned that evil would come into the world and that Jesus had to redeem mankind. Nonetheless, while God knew that evil would come into the world, he also willed an end, and in this his action can be seen as perfect. To safeguard his own freedom, God caused events contingently, without necessity, implying that he had free causation. God, therefore, predestined contingently. In this way, we can understand that God was not the captive of his own action, but remained free.  [23]   Boethius Consolation, Freedom and Divine  Foreknowledge Regarding divine foreknowledge, initiallyproposes the problem of divine foreknowledge as anissue for further philosophical debate. In this case, hequestions on how God happens to have dependable foreknowledge concerning contingent future events as knowledge requires necessityIn reference to Boethius, if God necessarily knows that an individual will excel in school at some future time, then it seems that the individual in question cannot fail to excel, implying that he is devoid of free-will and that excelling is not contingent. However, it is outrageous to repudiate the freedom of the will in Boethiuss view, since this could signify the absence of vices and virtues.  [24]   This problem has been philosophically addressed in chapter VI which involves a distinction between simple and conditional necessity. First, in the case of simple necessity there is a connection between it and nature henceat this point it is a necessary truth meaning that man is a rational animal.  [25]  On the other hand, conditional necessity is not tied to the nature, but rather to some contingent state of affairs and on a particular moment. As an example, if for instance, I saw Johnstanding. Upon seeing him, it is conditionally necessary that he bestanding because he is standing at that time, but there is nothing in his nature that forces him to be standing. A moment later he can choose to seat. This conditional necessity is sufficient for me to have knowledge that John is standing. Thus my present knowledge and Johns contingent willing to stand are thus perfectly compatible. However, there arises a problem with define foreknowledge in the sense that it asserts a conditional necessity of both present and future state of affairs. Thus, for philosophyto resolve Gods infallible foreknowledge with future contingents, it proposes a widely significantexplanation of eternity. Accordingly eternity is the whole, simultaneous and perfect possession of boundless life, which becomes clearer by comparison with temporal things  [26]   Philosophy expounds on eternity by basing the conception of divine experience of time in divine simplicity.Under this understanding, it is correct to note that when it comes to Gods experience, there is no past, present and future of time;instead all temporal events are present concurrently to Gods simple knowledge. Thus, correct reasoning says that if you should wish to consider his foreknowledge, by which he discerns all things, you will more rightly judge it to be not foreknowledge as it were of the future but knowledge of a never-passing instant  [27]  . God can have infallible knowledge about what James will do in the future, because God, in his simple eternal knowledge, already sees James doing it. Thus, the infallibility of Gods knowledge is established on a conditional necessity, which preserves the contingency and freedom of James willing and choosing. Moreover, prayer and human morality remain necessary as acts of free human creatures. One can be punished for acting wrongly most likely because one had the freedom to do the alternative. Similarly, it is possible to petition God; this does not mea Gods mind about what he has already decreed to do in the future changes, but just because God does things simultaneously that is from his point of view with seeing our prayers in the present -from the human perspective. Thence, this also leaves open the possibility of an Augustinian free-will theodicy, since Gods knowledge of future evil choices does not imply that God causes the wicked to be wicked.  [28]   However, the Boethian solution contradicts the first premise of the rudimentary argument: (1) Yesterday God infallibly believed X. What Boethian solution denies is not that God believes infallibly, and not that God believes the content of proposition X, but that God believed Xyesterday. Boethiuscontended that God is not in time and that God has no temporal properties, so God does not have beliefs at a time. This argument unfortunately therefore unfortunatelynotes that God had beliefs yesterday, or has beliefs today, or will have beliefs tomorrow. God cannot be taken to have believes on certain moments, the way humans tend to do. And thus, the way Boethius describes Gods cognitive grasp of temporal reality, all temporal events are before the mind of God at once. To say at once or simultaneously is to use a temporal metaphor however on the contrary Boethius is clear that it illogical to think of the whole of temporal reality as being before Gods mind in a single temporal moment. But a more concise and logical argument comes from Aquinas who, though adopted the Boethian solution as one of his strategies out of theological fatalism, using some of the same metaphors as Boethius. As an example to this, we have metaphor of circle analogy, in which the way a timeless God is present to each and every instant is matched to the way in which the center of a circle is present to each and every point on its circumference. In contemporary philosophy probably the most well-known defenders of the idea that God is timeless are Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann (1981), who apply it explicitly to the foreknowledge dilemma (1991). Most objections to the timelessness solution to the dilemma of foreknowledge and freedom focus on the idea of timelessness itself, arguing either that it does not make sense or that it is incompatible with other properties of God that are religiously more compelling, such as personhood. I have argued that the timelessness move does not avoid the problem of theological fatalism since an argument structurally parallel to the basic argument can be formulated for timeless knowledge. If God is not in time, the key issue would not be the necessity of the past, but the necessity of the timeless realm  [29]   CONCLUSION From the above analysis is very important to conclude with an affirmation of the philosophical concepts as advanced by Thomas. The Thomistic philosophy offers superior reasoning in terms of freedom and knowledge. The arrangement is logical and devoid of contradictions as it has been observed in other philosophers, Boethius being no exception. I therefore conclude this paper with an affirmation that men have free-will but this free-will doesnt dispute Gods omniscience because Gods perspective is not mans perspective, due to His Supremacy.

Essay --

Sam Gourley rotherham Being a mechanical design engineer is not easy, however mechanical design engineering is one of the oldest and most respected engineering disciplines. Some skills that a mechanical design engineer will use in an average day are: math, physics, and chemistry principles, not to mention their imagination.With a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, one could focus on standard menial duties such as a machine operator on the factory floor, yet with this degree and additional specific education, the same person would be able to move into advanced disciplines or work a combination of the two. (A manager on the factory floor.) In mechanical engineering you can make between $46,432 and $106,848 annually. Some advantages to mechanical engineering are that you get to design and or build the products of tomorrow, such as: touchscreen devices, personal supercomputers, online social networks, and electric cars. Though this sounds like a dream job mechanical engineering does have its disadvantages, it includes using math and physics, and may require excellent management skills to organize resources. At minimum, mechanical engineering uses math and physics principles to help design product components with specific functions. (Such as the gears of an analog clock.) These skills are used by multiple industries; including medical, automotive, architecture, (e.t.c) No matter the project, most mechanical engineers are responsible for a single component of a system. Although smaller companies often depend on a single mechanical engineer for work that needs to be done, it’s common for larger companies to have entire teams. Though, in the case of a complex system, several mechanical engineers will usually work toge... ...part of a team that designs the first teleporter. Imagine discovering new ways to harness energy. Imagine creating the first personal consumer spacecraft. The imagination is the limit. In manufacturing industries, mechanical engineers may organise the installation of new equipment and plan schedules for regular servicing and overhauling of all the machinery and equipment involved. Mechanical engineers need excellent management skills to organise resources like people, money and equipment. Projects can vary significantly, from researching and developing medical products (such as mechanical hearts) to improving production processes in large oil refineries. Depending on the employment market in your area, it may be possible to enter the profession at technician level as an apprentice, for which a GCSE ( General Certificate of Secondary Education) will be required.

Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 2

Beside her, Jake growled again, but Maggie only heard it distantly. No one else even lookedtoward them. I can't believe how well I'm taking this, Maggiethought. Something's wrong with me. I'm not hysterical at all. Her mind had gotten hold of the idea quiteclearly, but there was no reaction in her body, no terrible feeling in her stomach. An instant later itswept over her, exactly what she'd been afraid of. A wash of adrenaline that made her skin tinglepainfully and a horrible sensation of falling in her stomach. A numbness that started in her cheeksand spread to her lips and jaw. Oh, please, she thought stupidly. Please let it notbe true. Maybe he's just hurt.That would be allright. He had an accident and he's hurt-but notdead. But if he were hurt her mother wouldn't bestanding there screaming. She would be on her way to the hospital, and nobody could stop her. So thatdidn't work, and Maggie's mind, darting and wheel ing like a frightened little animal, had to go back to Please don't let this be true. Strangely, at that moment, it seemed as if theremight be some way to make it not true. If sheturned around and sneaked back to her bedroombefore anyone saw her; if she got into bed and pulled the blankets over her head and shut hereyes†¦ But she couldn't leave her mother screaming like this. Just then the screams died down a little. Her father was speaking in a voice that didn't sound at all like his voice. It was a sort of choked whisper.†But why didn't you tell us you were going climbing? If you left on Halloween then it's been sixdays. We didn't even know our son was missing†¦.† â€Å"I'm sorry.† Sylvia was whispering, too. â€Å"Wedidn't expect to be gone long. Miles's roommatesknew we were going, but nobody else. It was justa spur-of-themoment thingwe didn't have classeson Halloween and the weather was so nice andMiles said, hey, let's go out to Chimney Rock. And we justwent†¦.† Hey, let's go.He used to say that kind of thing to me, Maggie thought with a strange, dazed twinge.But not since he met Sylvia. The male sheriff was looking at Maggie's father.†You weren't surprised that you hadn't heard from your son since last Friday?† â€Å"No. He's gotten so independent since he movedout to go to college. One of his roommates calledthis afternoon to ask if Miles was here-but hedidn't say that Miles had been gone for almost aweek. I just thought he'd missed a class orsomething†¦.† Maggie's father's voice trailed off. The sheriff nodded. â€Å"Apparently his roommatesthought he'd taken a little unauthorized vacation,†he said. â€Å"They got worried enough to call us tonight-but by then a ranger had already pickedup Sylvia.† Sylvia was crying. She was tall but willowy, fragile looking. Delicate. She had shimmering hair sopale it was almost silvery and clear eyes the exactcolor of wood violets. Maggie, who was short andround faced, with fox-colored hair and brown eyes,had always envied her. But not now. Nobody could look at Sylvia nowwithout feeling pity. â€Å"It happened that first evening. We started up,but then the weather started turning bad and weturned around. We were moving pretty fast.† Sylviastopped and pressed a fist against her mouth. â€Å"It's kind of a risky time of year for climbing,† the female sheriff began gently, but Sylvia shookher head. And she was right, Maggie thought. It wasn't thatbad. Sure, it rained here most of the fall, but sometimes what the weather people called a high pressure cell settled in and the skies stayed blue for amonth. All hikers knew that. Besides, Miles washt scared of weather. He wasonly eighteen but he'd done lots of hard climbs in Washington's Olympic and Cascade ranges. He'dkeep climbing all winter, getting alpine experience in snow and storms. Sylvia was going on, her voice getting more jerkybreathless. â€Å"Miles was†¦he'd had the flu aweek before and he wasn't completely over it. Buthe seemed okay, strong. It happened when we were rappelling down. He was laughing and joking andeverything†¦. I never thought he might be tired enough to makea mistake†¦.† Her voice wavered turned into a ragged sob and the ranger puthis arm around her. Something inside Maggie froze. Amistake?Miles? She was prepared to hear aboutasudden avalanche or a piece of equipment failing. Even Sylviafalling and knocking Miles off. But Miles makinga mistake? Maggie stared at Sylvia, and suddenly somethingin the pitiful figure bothered her. There was something odd about that delicatelyflushed face and those tear-drenched violet eyes. Itwas all too perfect, too tragic, as if Sylvia werean Academy award-winning actress doing a famousscene-and enjoying it. â€Å"I don't know howit happened,† Sylvia was whispering. â€Å"The anchor was good. We should have hada back-up anchor, but we were in a hurry. And he must have †¦oh, God, there must have beensomething wrong with his harness. Maybe thebuckle wasn't fastened right, or the carabiners might have been upside down†¦:' No. Suddenly Maggie's feelings crystalized. It was asif everything came into focus at once. That's impossible. That's wrong. Miles was too good. Smart and strong and anamazing technical climber. Confident but careful. Maggie only hoped she'd be that good someday. No way he'd buckle his harness wrong, or clip his ‘biners upside down. No matter how sick hewas. In fact, no way he'd go without a back-upanchor. I'mthe one who tries to do things like that,and then he yells at me that if I'm not careful I'm going to have an adventure. Miles doesn't. So it meant Sylvia was lying. The thought came to Maggie on a little wave ofshock. It made her feel as if she were suddenlyspeeding backwards, or as if the room were receding from her very fast. But why?Why would Sylvia make up such a terrible story? It didn't make any sense. Sylvia had a hand half covering her eyes now.†I looked for him, but †¦there was icefall†¦a crevasse†¦Ã¢â‚¬  No body. She's saying there's no body . With that, a new wave of heat swept over Maggie.And, strangely, what made her certain of it was Sylvia's eyes. Those violet eyes had been turned down for mostof the time Sylvia had beentalking, fixed on theSpanish tiles in the entry hall. But now, as Sylviagot to the last revelation, they had shifted toward Maggie. Toward Maggie's feet. They fixed there,slid away, and then came back and stayed. It made Maggie glance down at her own feet. My socks. She's staring at my socks. One red and one blueand she's noticing that. Like an actress who's said the same lines oftenenough that she doesn't even need to pay attention to them anymore. All at once, hot anger was burning through Maggie's shock, filling her so there was no room foranything else. She stared hard at Sylvia,whoseemed to be very far away but very bright. And inthat same instant she knew for certain. This girl is lying. She must have done something-something terrible. And she can't show us Miles's body – or maybethere isn't a body because he's still alive. Yes! Maggie felt suddenly lifted by hope. It is alla mistake. There's no reason for Miles to be dead.All we have to do is make Sylvia tell the truth. But nobody else in the room knew. They wereall listening asSylvia went on with her story. Theyall believed. â€Å"I didn't get out before the weatherhit†¦.I hadto stay in the tent for three days. When I got out Iwas so weak, but I managed to signal to some climbers. They saved me, took care ofme†¦.Bythen it was too late to look for him. I knew there was no chance he'd made it through thatstorm†¦.† She broke down completely. The ranger began talking about weather conditions and recovery efforts, and suddenly Maggie'smother was making strange gasping noises andsinking toward the floor. â€Å"Mom!† Frightened, Maggie started toward her.Her father looked up and seemed to realize for thefirst time that she was there. â€Å"Oh, Maggie. We've had some bad news.† He's trying to take care of me. But he doesn'trealize†¦I've got to tell him†¦. â€Å"Dad,† she said urgently.† L isten. There's something-â€Å" â€Å"Maggie,† her mother interrupted, stretching outa hand. She sounded rational, but there was something wild in her eyes. â€Å"I'm so sorry, baby. Something awful has happened-â€Å" And then she fainted. Suddenly Maggie's fatherwas staggering under dead weight. And then theranger and one of the sheriffs were brushing pastMaggie. They were holding her mother up, and hermother's head was lolling, moving around on aboneless neck, and her mother's mouth and eyeswere part open and part closed. A new kind ofawful feeling came to Maggie, making her weakand giddy. She was afraid she would faint herself. â€Å"Where can we-† the male officer began. â€Å"There's the couch,† Maggie's father said hoarselyat the same time. There was no room for Maggie.She could only stand out of the way and dizzilywatch them carryher mother. As they did, Sylvia began murmuring. It tookMaggie a moment to focus on the words. â€Å"I'm sosorry. I'm so sorry. I wish there was something †¦I should go home now.† â€Å"You stay right here,† the female officer said,looking toward Maggie's mother. â€Å"You're in no condition to be walking anywhere. You'd be in the hospital now if you hadn't insisted on coming herefirst.† â€Å"I don't need a hospital. I'm just so tired..:'The officer turned. â€Å"Why don't you go sit in thecar?† she said gently. Sylvia nodded. She looked fragile and sad as shewalked down the path toward the squad car. It wasa beautiful exit, Maggie thought. You could practically hear the theme music swelling. But Maggie was the only one with the chance toappreciate it. She was the only one watching asSylvia reached the car †¦ and paused. And then turned away from it and continued ondown the street. And the end credits run, Maggie thought. Then she thought, she's going to her apartment. Maggie stood frozen, pulled in two directions. She wanted to stay and help her mother. But something inside her was utterly furious and focused and it was screaming at her to follow Sylvia.Instinct had always been Maggie's strong point.She hung there for a moment, with her heartpounding so hard that it seemed to be coming out-of her mouth. Then she ducked her head andclenched her fists. It was a gesture the girls on her soccer teamwould have recognized. It meant that Steely Neelyhad made up her mind and was going to rush inwhere smarter people feared to tread. Look out,world; it's stomping time. Maggie whirled and dashed back down the hallinto her bedroom. She slapped the light switch on and lookedaround as if she'd never seen the place before.What did she need-and why did she always keepit so messy? How could she find things? She kicked and pulled at a pile of bath towelsuntil a pair of hightop tennis shoes emerged, thenshe jammed her feet in them. There was no timeto change her pajama top. She snatched a dark blue jacket off the floor and found herself, just fora moment, nose to nose with a photograph stuckinto the frame of her mirror. A picture of Miles, on the summit of MountRainier. He was grinning and giving the thumbs upsign. His hat was off and his auburn hair was shining in the sun like red gold. He looked handsomeand a little wicked. Scrawled in black marker across white snow was†For the bossiest, nosiest, stubbornest, BEST little sister in the world. Love, Miles.† With no idea whyshe was doing it, Maggie pulledthe picture out of the mirror. She shoved it in herjacket pocket and ran back down the hall. Everyone was gathered around the couch, now.Even Jake was nosing his way in. Maggie couldn't see her mother, but the lack of frantic activity toldher that there wasn't any crisis going on. Everyoneseemed quiet and restrained. It'll just take a few minutes. It's better for me notto tell them anything until I'm sure. I'll probablybe back before they even realize I'm gone. With that jumble of excuses in her mind, sheslipped out the front door to follow Sylvia.