DEATH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DEATH - Essay Example He does this as a gesture of remembrance, to hopefully keep his brother from focusing on the negative aspects of him being away, and instead remember the fond times the two of them had shared in the car. When Henry finally leaves, the car seems to be the only comforting semblance for Lyman, of the times they had spent together. The images of a healthy, happy Henry are embodied in the spirit of the red convertible, and these special memories are what keep Lyman from digressing into sorrow. Some of the relaxing and content thoughts Lyman conjures up are ones where they had no specification of destination, during the summer when there were traveling in the car. â€Å"We took off driving all one summer,† and the story goes on to show how happy and at peace they both were, finding spots in areas where they felt â€Å"so comfortable†, Henry is depicted as feeling at ease enough to fall, â€Å"asleep with his arms thrown wide† (Erdrich 2002). Lyman continues to grasp onto these visual memories he brings up, in anticipation of those same feelings for when his brother will finally return. The car itself is what symbolizes the bond between the two of them, even with a gre at distance of separation dividing them. Finally, Henry returns home in the story but it’s obvious he has changed; things are just not the same. â€Å"Henry because quiet and restless† (814). Often he secluded himself and although he was there, his mind seemed to be somewhere else. It appeared war and the white mans culture had taken its toll on him and all that was there for him was ugliness. This is evident in the story when, one night they all gather around the dinner table and beforehand, Henry has bit down into his lip so hard from frustration that he sits with blood dribbling down his chin, theorizing how badly he wanted to be done with American ways, in his mind and in his life (817). This is representative

Detroit Electric Essay Example for Free

Detroit Electric Essay 1. What organizational structure do you believe is being used to produce Detroit Electric vehicles? Detroit Electric concentrates theirs efforts on research and development of the motor, vehicle design, marketing and distribution. The company does not produce cars; the actual manufacturing of cars is outsourced. From the case I conclude that technology design is the core business of Detroit Electric. Technology changes rapidly and therefore Detroit Electric has to be flexible in conditions of change and uncertainty. Technical excellence and efficient use of resources is the key to compete and to avoid wastage as the cost of RD is high. Based upon the above observation, I believe that the organizational structure used is the matrix model. 2. How has differing organizational structures influenced the pace of development between these two companies? Ford and Detroit Electric are both car companies. The major difference is that Ford manufactures cars whereas Detroit Electric does not. Ford’s organizational structure will most likely resemble other manufacturers’ structure, i. e. functional departmentalization. A major disadvantage of this structure is that because specialists are working with and encouraging each other in their areas of expertise and interest, organizational goals may be sacrificed in favor of departmental goals; hence, the inability to coordinate efforts amongst competing department to achieve the goal of producing electric vehicles. Detroit Electric’s matrix structure on the other hand gives the organization the flexibility to respond to challenges faster in conditions of change and uncertainty; hence their relative pace (fast)in developing electric cars. 3. What issues may arise from this cooperative arrangement of international companies? The first issue is control. How does Detroit Electric ensure that their exact specifications are followed by their licensees? Regular audits will have to be conducted and these audits are costly. Who will bear responsibility if problems arise (faulty products) due to failure of any of its licensees do not follow procedures? The second issue is differences in objectives. For example, Detroit Electric’s performance and quality standards objectives may differ from their licensees.

A world of work Essay -- essays research papers

A WORLD OF WORK Outsourcing means that companies hand work they used to perform in-house to outside firms. ADVANTAGES: v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  bring down costs à ¨ lift profits and boost growth v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  specialisation Due to the advance in technology products have become more complex which made it difficult for one company to do all the work itself. In order to manage the complexity of these products the astute idea of outsourcing represents an ideal solution (e.g. car industry) DISADVANTAGES: v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  drain of jobs, v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  higher organisational costs à ¨ overview, Some years ago this phenomenon used to be hailed as a wonder of the new economy. Nowadays the opinion is less exuberant. Same forces of globalisation are blamed for relentless export of jobs from rich to poorer countries (depressing proof for the declining competitiveness in engineering skills) GLOBALISATION A network between businesses all over the world is established in order to make use of the strengths of different technologies and cultures. NEGATIVE ASPECTS: v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  fierce competition, v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  anxiety among people, v  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  possibilities of expansion for smaller companies are restricted (monopolies) The movement of work abroad agitates worriers in the West and is a cause of concern among the public. Global business work is farmed out to other companie...

American Modernism

Has modernism any relevance to the South of the world? Black people have always united together in order to create and maintain positive definitions of Blacks. The most important and common form of this racial union has been Afro-American folk culture: the musical, oral, and visual artistic expressions of Black identity that have been handed down from generation to generation. The Harlem Renaissance, whose spirit Hurston's work reflects, was a manifestation of this bonding, although it had many false revolutionaries and failed in some respects to realize its radical potential.The modernist black writers who arose in the first three decades of the twentieth century introduced a new stereotype into American literature. Zora Neale Hurston wrote as a Black woman about her own experiences and therefore, in some way, spoke to the general Black female experience in America. Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) offers an excellent source for demonstrating the modern Black fema le literary tradition. A large and chief part of Hurston's career took place during the Harlem Renaissance, which began in the twenties while she was attending Howard.Hurston's best work, especially her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, is the product of a Black female folk aesthetic and cultural sensibility that emerged from the best revolutionary ideals of the period. It also anticipates the comparable renaissance in black women’s literature. Despite, or perhaps because of, these achievements, Hurston, like many Black women writers, has suffered â€Å"intellectual lynching† at the hands of white and Black men and white women (Brigham 23).Their Eyes Were Watching God appeared at the tail end of what is termed in American literature as the American Modernism. Roughly between 1917 – the end of World War I – and the 1930 stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression, throngs of southern African Americans migrated north -a migration that technically began as early as 1910 – primarily to the northeast for economic and social reasons, escaping more overt and often violent manifestations of tensed black-white race relations.A time when â€Å"the Negro was in vogue,† this was a time of cultural celebration of blackness – black visual arts, black music, black intellectual thought, black performing arts, and black identity (Hemenway 34). Leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance challenged black authors and artists to define African American life beyond the prescribed boundaries of stereotype and caricature, sentimentality, and social assimilation. Arguably a movement among intellectuals, the Harlem Renaissance proved spiritually and aesthetically liberating for African Americans and established global connections with an African past.Hurston's accent on rural common folk of the south both challenged and continued some of the essential tenants of the Harlem Renaissance: national and global communi ty, self-determination, and race pride. The most concentrated place of this cultural explosion was Harlem (New York). Published in 1937, Hurston most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was not immediately famous. In fact, the novel was largely mistreated and greatly criticized by her black male contemporaries, because it allegedly presents blacks in stereotypical ways that white readers enjoyed and encouraged of black writers.This criticism was particularly harsh from those who thought that Hurston should be writing more overtly protest pieces about whites as blacks' enemies. While Hurston does not center around white people in the novel, their Jim Crow presence is apparent from the opening through the closing pages. The novel was not printed some thirty years after its initial publication. In 1971, it was reprinted but again was not printed by 1975. In 1977, Hurston's novel was on the top of reading lists among American colleges and universities and continues that even tod ay (Kenner 234).Their Eyes Were Watching God is the story of Janie, a black woman of mulatto ancestry, in search of spiritual liberation from patriarchal control. The format of the book is Janie's telling of her own story in her own voice as she remembers the details of her own life. As the narrator, Janie has an authority that even the readers cannot challenge when they want details, particularly technical details, that Janie does not remember or choose to share.While Janie's story is on many levels gender and racially related -readers never forget that Janie's grandmother was a slave or that the characters are living during Jim Crow segregation in the period of the 1930s and 1940s – much of Janie's social relations within the community of black people is gender specific. Her plot is mainly based on others' opinions of how a woman should live, what a woman and especially a woman her age should and should not be doing. Moreover, Janie in the narration is one of a person who i s able to self-define and to transcend restricted boundaries ultimately through communal storytelling rituals (Lemke 90).One of the new ways in which Hurston demonstrated alternative ways of writing is that she often collapsed the boundaries between fact and fiction. The cultural and contextual situatedness of Their Eyes Were Watching God reflect a Black woman's interpretation of social reality in the sense in which the ‘real world' is constituted, in terms of personal and cultural experience, is likely to be at variance with the interpretation of these notions by Euro-American males.Central to appreciating Zora Neale Hurston's genius, versatility, and identity politics is knowing the ways in which she frequently stepped over disciplinary boundaries in her practice of anthropology, intermixing social science with the humanities so many years in advance of what we now call postmodernist practices within anthropology. Hurston's lifelong concern with the self and its limitations (those imposed from without and from within) is, of course, the natural, perhaps even the proper subject of an autobiography. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the narrator observes that â€Å"Pheoby [is] eager to feel and do through Janie †¦ and Janie [is] full of that oldest human longing -self-revelation† (18). Pondrom claims that the â€Å"adoption of myth as a principle of meaning and order is Hurston's most important link to modernism† (1986:201). For Pondrom, Hurston's utilization of myth links her to the modernist writers approaches of Eliot, Yeats, Joyce, Pound, and Crane. Pondrom writes that Hurston's â€Å"'mythic method' links her even more powerfully to the great female modernists, who found myth a means to affirmation of the self rather than simply a stay against disorder.†For Pondrom, Hurston takes a place among H. D. , Stein, and Wolff â€Å"in a current now [mid-1980s] being recognized as fundamental to the modernist movement† (202). Pondrom discusses overlaps between Their Eyes and Babylonian, Greek, and Egyptian mythologies. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, she writes how everyone is drawn â€Å"on stage† in the cross-gender verbal jousting: â€Å"The girls and everybody else help laugh. They know it's not courtship. It's acting-out courtship and everybody is in the play.The three girls hold the center of the stage till Daisy Blunt came walking down the street in the moonlight. † Showing the proximity of immersion and recuperation images in Hurston's diasporic underground, the African rhythm infuses the dramatic scene: â€Å"Daisy is walking a drum tune. You can almost hear it by looking at the way she walks† (1995:229). Janie's experiences in Their Eyes Were Watching God take place in relation to Hurston's deepening appreciation of the ordering potential of black culture and its West African underpinnings.Her juxtaposition of sunrise/set images and the chaotic and cosmopolitan experiences of modernity recalls accounts of Yoruba mythology cited early in the twentieth century from divination priests in Badan, Nigeria. In â€Å"The Religion of the Yoruba† Leo Frobenius records a myth invoking this structure: Long, long ago, when everything was in confusion and young and old died, Olodu-mare (God) summoned Edshu-ogbe and said: â€Å"Create order in the region of the sunrise. † To Oyako-Medyi: â€Å"Create order in the region of the sunset. † Next morning Edshu-ogbe created order in the east and in the evening Oyako-Medyi created order in the west.(1973:188–89) From the external correlatives of several scenes to her explicit invocation of Esu/Elegba, in Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston's points of reference for Janie's emerging consciousness are markedly West African. In ways that echo the narratives recorded by Frobenius, Hurston uses sunrise and sunset descriptions as a changeable and timeless witness to chaotic developments in the plot of the novel. After Janie's initial march through Eatonville creates a swirl of envy, Phoeby enters through â€Å"the intimate gate with her heaping plate of mulatto rice† (1995:176).As Janie reflects on her experience and prepares to tell her tale, Hurston's sunset provides the backdrop: the â€Å"varicolored cloud dust that the sun had stirred up in the sky was settling by slow degrees† (178). When Janie tells Phoeby about living under Nanny's and Logan Killicks's control, Hurston uses the deepening night to underscore the danger in the tale and the telling: â€Å"the kissing darkness became a monstropolous old thing† and Janie â€Å"saw her life like a great tree with†¦Dawn and doom in the branches† (181– 82).On the morning of the conflict with Logan Killicks, the â€Å"sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers† (199). In the scene in which Janie awakes after having spent the night alone, wondering, while Tea Cake sp ent her money on a party, the sunrise is paranoid, â€Å"sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark† (272). Hurston images the false calm before the final storm â€Å"even before the sun gave light dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man† (301).The first moments of Janie's excavation are imaged as she connects the mysteries of her emerging consciousness to the eternal rhythms of movement and variability: â€Å"mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods—come and gone with the sun† (236). Hurston's new technique in Their Eyes combined the excavation of consciousness with an improvised relationship to a living tradition that she encountered during her research in New Orleans and Haiti. Central to her mythic method is Hurston's brilliant use of Esu/Elegba in relation to the patterns of Janie's descent and emergence.Hurston's novel Their Eyes offers an e xcellent source for demonstrating the value of an interdisciplinary approach to Black women's culture in general and American Modernismin particular (Awkward 23). Hurston locates her fiction strongly in Black women's traditional culture as developed and displayed through music and song. In presenting Janie's story as a narrative related by herself to her best Black woman friend, Pheoby, Hurston is able to draw upon the rich oral legacy of Black female storytelling and mythmaking that has its roots in Afro-American culture.The reader who is aware of this tradition will understand the story as an overheard conversation as well as a literary text. The struggle between communal relationships and modern institutions is the core of Hurston's blues critique in Their Eyes. Janie appreciates Starks's store as a social center (Baker 98). But she is chronically inept at the tasks that relate to the business. Is Hurston implying that Janie is stupid? Unlikely. Instead, for Janie, selling things in the store distracts her from the essential rhythms of nature and the homegrown power of stories that take place on the porch.In Hurston's narration, the natural beauty of the South and the communal cool squeeze the business of the store from both sides: Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sundays. The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn't have to sell things. When people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. (Hurston 1995:215)As the sense of social decay and the power of modern economics increases their hold on people's lives and as Janie moves outside of her middle-class economic position in Eatonville, Hurston's blues images become collective, intensify, and grapple openly with the forces of fragmentation. As a new season opens on the muck, Hurston images the economically and e xistentially threadbare workforce and the hard times: Permanent transients with no attachments and tired looking men with their families and dogs in flivvers. All night, all day, hurrying in to pick beans.Skillets, beds, patched up spare inner tubes all hanging and dangling from the ancient cars on the outside and hopeful humanity, herded and hovered on the inside, chugging on to the muck. People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor. (282) But heeding Pound's warning to devise an adequate technique or â€Å"bear false witness, † Hurston depicts the economic ‘dehumanization’ in relation to the humanizing forces of living cultural traditions: â€Å"Blues made and used right on the spot. † On â€Å"the muck† the blues voices pierce through the â€Å"mud which is deaf and dumb† as â€Å"the jooks clanged and clamored.Pianos living three lives in one. Blues made and used right on the spot. Dancing, fighting, singing, crying, laughing, w inning, and losing every hour. † Instead of the urban realist's trope of ever-warm boardinghouse beds used three shifts per day, in Hurston's vision the keys never get cold, â€Å"pianos†¦live three lives in one. †Refusing to resolve the struggle between the â€Å"deaf mud† and â€Å"live muck, † she concludes the passage with an asymmetrical image of â€Å"rich black earth clinging to bodies and biting the skin like ants† (282).Ambiguous and improvised, impulses swirl through Hurston's modernist schema of the mud and the muck. She leaves no fixed path, no pro-forma method for descent. â€Å"Permanent transients† ride the crest of the wave where Wright's â€Å"walleyed yokels† are long since washed over and submerged by his ideological approach to the blues horrors in his memory. Instead, Hurston's excavation of â€Å"the muck† explores uncharted personal and communal territory. Janie's improvised diasporic modernist quest advances with the mantra that â€Å"new words would have to be made and said† (200, 268).At the end of Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston describes Janie in a space of continuing diasporic modernist process. In connection to various relationships, Janie explored the patterns of inner and interpersonal experience and met many of Esu/Elegba's challenges at the communal and personal gates (Pavlic 234). She excavated new depths in her consciousness and from these depths she examined her relationship to social space with deepened insight. In death, Tea Cake becomes an ancestor and joins the patterns of Janie's consciousness.Alone in her house again, Janie opens the window to allow Tea Cake's presence to come to mind. Hurston emphasizes the modernist dimensions of ancestry. They inform the combination of communal and solitary processes and present guidance which, at best, can mitigate against the pitfalls of Afro-modernist seclusion. Hurston describes Tea Cake's ancestral presenc e now combined with her own energy (the wind) and with Janie's asymmetrical space of communal loneliness: â€Å"The wind through the open windows had broomed all the fetid feeling of absence and nothingness.She closed in and sat down. Combing road-dust out of her hair. Thinking† (1995:333). As an ancestor, Tea Cake will continue to â€Å"live† in the images of Janie's mind but, possibly in tribute to Tea Cake's performative skill, Janie's telling of the story to Phoeby demonstrates she is not isolated in Afro-modernist seclusion. Unlike Hurston's other characters, Janie is capable of articulating the depths of her experience in interpersonal terms. Hurston emphasizes how the combination of sense impression and thought prevent abstraction of the ancestors: â€Å"Of course he wasn't dead.He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking† (333). The close of the novel seems romantic and resolved; however, Tea Cake' continued ancestral prese nce will disrupt the resolution. Esu/Elegba's role doesn't cease in death. Janie will have to pursue the patterns and enable Tea Cake to overcome the â€Å"dogged† stasis that caused his demise. Janie will have to feel the wind and share the thunder. The descendant becomes part of the redemption of the ancestor, because Esu/Elegba will return (Pavlic 243).In Their Eyes, Zora Neale Hurston, is using modernism to bring her intellectual characters out of their isolation and into contact with the needs, concerns, and traditions of black people generally. Zora Neale Hurston’s fiction, especially her novels, leads us to examine ourselves in relation to the world around us. Without exaggeration, her novels enlarge both our minds and our hearts. Hurston, however, would not make such a claim; instead, she would keep moving towards some goal to be reached, some project to be started.Her anxious restlessness about herself and her work makes her a very contemporary writer, a moder nist who tried to enlarge the very notion of what it is to be American. She wrote about traditional subjects—love and loss, displacement and home, failure and triumph—at the same time she attempted to redefine our notion of American culture. Their Eyes Were Watching God offers us the same vital contrasts and the same struggle to reconcile the harp and the sword.Works CitedAwkward, Michael, ed. New Essays on â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God. † New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Baker, Houston. Blues Ideology and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.Brigham, Cathy. â€Å"The Talking Frame of Zora Neale Hurston's Talking Book: Storytelling as Dialectic in Their Eyes Were Watching God. † College Literature Association 37, no. 4, 1994.Frobenius, Leo. â€Å"The Religion of the Yoruba. † In Leo Frobenius: An Anthology, ed. E. Naberland, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1973.Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.Hurston, Zora Neale. Novels and Stories. New York: Library of America, 1995.Kenner, Hugh. A Homemade World: The American Modernist Writers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Lemke, Sieglinde. Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.Pavlic, Edward M. Crossroads Modernism: Descent and Emergence in African-American Literary Culture. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 2002.Pondrom, Cyrena. â€Å"The Role of Myth in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. † American Literature 58, no. 2, 1986.

Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass as self-made men Essay

‘Autobiography’ of Benjamin Franklin states that apart from being one of the founding fathers of United States, he was a philosopher, scientist, inventor, a leading writer, publisher and a diplomat too. A person with so many specialties in his personality is rarely seen and when we read the whole book, which has 14 chapters, we come to know that Benjamin Franklin was completely a self-made man. He gained expertise in each field he worked because he did everything in his life with all his interest. Benjamin gives a good description of his life in Philadelphia and his keen interest in literature and hilosophy in this book. He also had interest in religion prevailing in America during colonial and revolutionary period. He wrote the first five chapters of the book in England in 1771 and after 13 years i. e. , probably in 1884-85 he continued it when he was in Paris. Later when he returned to US in 1788, he completed the book giving the account of his life till he is 57 years old i. e. , till 1757. One year after Benjamin Franklin’s death, in March 1791, his autobiography was published in Paris. Benjamin was born in Boston in 1706 as his father’s 15th child out of 17. When he was a chool going child he wanted to become a minister but later he dropped this idea as he had great interest in reading and writing. For the first few years, Benjamin apprenticed his brother but soon moved to Philadelphia and worked there for some time. While staying in Philadelphia, Franklin made friends with well-known political figures and then moved to England. Here he stayed for 18 months with James Ralph who was a good friend of his but later he estranged with him. Then in 1726 he returned to America where he started a debating club in a very short time and called it the Junto. After two years, with the help of tools and knowledge gained in England, he turned ‘The Pennsylvania Gazette’ into a flourishing publication after taking it over from Keimer. In 1730 Benjamin married his beloved, Deborah Read and had two children. Franklin did printing work for the government holding small positions during 1730s. Later he became postmaster of Philadelphia and also started Poor Richard’s Almanac. He invented Franklin stove by the end of 1730s. 1740s saw him working on various projects like fire brigade, police force, university of Philadelphia and even public works like street weeping service too. After retiring from printing business in 1748 he conducted various scientific researches on lightning. He was honored with degrees from Harvard and Yale in 1753 and he turned out to be the Postmaster General of America. Next year saw war breaking out between England and France and he participated in the war by drafting proposals that helped bring funds for the war. However the ‘Autobiography’ is left unfinished and is written only up to 1757. The first chapter of his ‘Autobiography’ is addressed to his first son, William Franklin who was born nearly one year after his marriage. He writes, Dear son: I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the enquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapter one, Lines 1-3) First chapter includes his present work and the reasons behind choosing it, some description of his ancestors’, about his early life and his attachment towards reading books. In chapter six, Benjamin mentions a lot of such incidents that made him decide to be simply honest in his dealings in life. The philosophical lines in chapter six are, I grew convinc’d that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I form’d written resolutions. Which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived. (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapter six, Paragraph 21, Lines 1-2) Thus we find that Benjamin Franklin worked on lot of projects and expertised his knowledge in various field with the help of his own experiences of life. He met various people and read variety of books too, which further helped him develop a sense of esponsibility and duty as well also morality and self-improvement. â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave† is a book with eleven chapters that gives us the picture of Douglass’s life as a slave and how keen he was to become a free man. His book has played quite an influential role during the ‘abolition movement’ of early nineteenth century in United States. The first chapter starts with the information that Douglass is unaware of his date of birth and seems sad about this fact. Then he explains that he lost his mother when he was only seven-year-old but he was taken far away from his mother even before that. He had no idea about who was his father but according to most people he must have been the son of his owner who was a white man. The first time when Douglass could see the brutal side of slavery was when he saw his Aunt Hester being whipped. The following two three chapters describe the life of slaves of that time and how they were treated along with farms’ structure also. A very important and mentionable point here is the description of the singing of the slaves and this makes the reader have a good deal of admiration for Douglass as he knows far better that slaves are forced to do everything. Douglass mentions incidents of extreme brutality with slaves even if they spoke truth. He also makes the reader aware of how slaves were taught to behave in front of their owners. In chapter five he starts with life in Baltimore as he was taken there and also mentions that had he not been taken to Baltimore, he would have been slave for the rest of his life without having the feeling of making himself free. Here he started to feel that he could also have better hopes for future and mentions his new mistress, Mrs. Auld as a very kind woman initially but in due course of time turned malicious. Douglass learned to spell small words and read a little bit from Mrs. Auld and he tried to develop his new skill whenever he found time and opportunity. The following two chapters describe his life in Baltimore and how he learns to read and write for himself and the sufferings due to this skill for him. In chapter six he mentions the difference in the treatments of a city slave and rural slave. He writes, I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference, in the treatment of slaves, from that which I had witnessed in the country. A city slave is almost free man compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Chapter six, Paragraph 4, Lines 1-2) When Douglass was probably ten or eleven years his master died and with the division of property he was sent to the family of Master Hugh. For some time he was moved from one master to another which he extremely hated but had no option other than to follow the instructions of his present master. During these different voyages, Douglass made up is mind to flee from this kind of life and tried to take an account of the direction he was traveling so that it would help him run away from there. He had very hard time with the kind of work he was allotted and he was even whipped almost weekly just because he was awkward with the work. All this crossed the limit of patience for Douglass and one day when his master Covey tried to tie him he fought and won. After this incident he was never beaten. Douglass was then sent to another farm where he made friends with other slaves and also taught them to read and write. Here he planed to escape with some of the slaves but was caught and sent to jail. After being released from jail he was sent to learn some trade in Baltimore and he worked as a trainee in a shipyard. Here also white men abused him and his master was kind enough to make him work as a caulker and not go back to the shipyard again. He was even given wages for his work but he had to give them to Master Auld. He writes, In the early part of the year 1838, I became quite restless. I could see no reasons why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my toil into the purse of my master. When I carried to him my weekly wages, he would, after counting the money, look at me in the face with a robber-like fierceness, and ask, â€Å"Is this all? he was satisfied with nothing less than the last cent. He would, however, when I made him six dollars, sometimes give me six cents, to encourage me. It had the opposite effect. (Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Chapter eleven, Paragraph 3, Lines 1-3) Somehow Douglass manages and finds his own job and escapes from there and moves to Massachusetts. He mentioned very little about this escape in order to protect the names of persons who helped him in this work. After this he met his fiance and started working on his own. He then joined an antislavery get-together and fought for the issue from that time onwards. Within four months of the publication of the book, â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave† in 1845, it made a sale of five thousand copies. Douglass sailed to England after the publication of his book and remained there for next two years, as he feared to be recaptured by his legal master. This book eventually gave him the liberty to work for himself and people now believed in the story of his past. He then started a black newspaper too.

Financial Analysis of the G4S Company The WritePass Journal

Financial Analysis of the G4S Company Executive summary: Financial Analysis of the G4S Company Executive summary:Financial adaptability:PROFITABILITY RATIOS:Return on capital employed (ROCE)2007Gross profit margin:Net profit margin:Short term liquidity ratios:Current ratio:Acid test ratio:Operating efficiency ratios:Inventory turnover period:Trade receivables collection period: Trade payables payment period:Capital structure ratios:Gearing ratio:Interest Cover Ratio:Solvency Ratio:Fair value accounting:Equity approach:Income Approach:Full fair values:Argument for fair value Accounting:Fair Value Accounting Advantages:  Comparability of financial information:  Argument against fait value accounting:Fair Value Accounting Disadvantages:ReferencesRelated Executive summary: The G4S Company is the largest security services provider in the United Kingdom  Ã‚  Ã‚   that specialises in all aspects of security, including the deployment of security officers, monitoring, crisis management, planning and training, and security advice. It is part of Group 4 Securicor PLC and was established from the merger between Securicor and Group 4 Flack’s security businesses. The company provides specialist security services to more than 5,000 customers across a range of sectors, including commercial services, events, facilities management, industrial, financial and professional services, public sector, retail and transport. It also manages the security for 41 companies in the FTSE 100 and provides real solutions to customers, including Woolwich Building Society, IBM, Virgin Atlantic, and Bridgnorth Aluminium.The company is a member of British Security Industry Association (BSIA), Security Industry Authority, National Security Inspectorate (NSI), SITO, IATA, AOA, Fi re Protection Association (FPA), Confederation of British Industry (CBI), British Quality Foundation, and European Aviation Security Association.   G4S plc collectively with its subsidiaries and joint venture companies primarily supplies range of business services that encompass secure solution and cash solutions to both government agencies and commercial businesses.   Though first joined the stock market in 2004, G4S plc currently floats in the London Stock Exchange as one of the top 100 companies listed in the London Stock Exchange in 2007 (G4S Company) Financial adaptability: G4S has strong operating activities; this is due to significantly increase in cash inflow generated from operating activities, from  £373m in 2008 to  £ 509m in 2009. The firm has also invested heavily on financing investment; consequently this has had a negative effect on the cash and cash equivalent, this may have contributed to the fall in the cash equivalent from  £56m to  £38m.   The firms have decided to spend less on investing activities; consequently the net cash inflow from investing activities has fallen down significantly from  £504m in 2007 to  £184m in 2009. Therefore since the firm can generate revenue from operating activities, this will enable the firm to adapt to any new business venture. PROFITABILITY RATIOS: Return on capital employed (ROCE) 2007 2008 2009 8.83 % 6.81 % 8.22% G4S ROCE is with the median range compare to other firm in the same sector. The ROCE slightly fell in 2008 from 8.83% to 6.81%. This was due to increase in capital employed from  £2148.3 million in 2007 to  £3402.6 million in 2008. Also contributing to the fall was the increase in profit before interest and tax from  £217m to  £264m However G4S ROCE slightly increased in 2009 to 8.22%. This was due to the fall of fixed asset from  £3402.6 million in 2008 to  £3316.5 million in 2009. This may contributed to the increase in ROCE. Furthermore PBIT has increased from  £264m to  £303m. Gross profit margin: 2007 2008 2009 22.38% 92.99 % 21.91% G4S gross profit margin plummeted in 2008 from 22.38% to 92.99%. This was due mainly to the increase of gross profit from  £ 1,005 m to  £ 5,527m, compare to the slightly increase in revenue from  £ 4,490.4m to 5,942.9m. This indicates the firm is relatively depended on cost of sales to generate profits. However G4S gross profit margin fell significantly in 2009 from 92.99% to 21.91%. This was due to the fall of gross profit from  £ 5,527m in 2008 to  £ 1,536m in 2009. Even though revenue increased from  £ 5,943m to 7,009m in 2009, this did not affect the fall in the gross profit margin. Since the firm is operating exceptionally in relation to generating profit through gross profit activities. This indicates the firm is profitable since it can generate profit from its own activities. Net profit margin: 2007 2008 2009 4.83 % 4.45 % 4.32 % G4S net profit margin has fallen in the last three years.G4S net profit margin slightly reduced in 2008 from 4.83% to 4.45% this was due to the increase in profit before tax the company had to pay compare to previous year. G4S paid interest in 2008 of  £ 264m compare to 2007 of  £ 217m. Also the revenue significantly increases in 2008 from  £ 4,490m to  £ 5,943m. The ratio fell again in 2009, once again contributing to the fall in net profit margin was due to increase in tax and interest G4S had to pay from  £264m to  £303m. The fall in the ratio may be due to the fall in cost of sales, since, despite the significant increase in revenue from  £5,943m to  £ 7,009m, this did not affect the fall in the ratio. This indicates the firm is profitable since the revenue has increased in the last 3 years. Short term liquidity ratios: Current ratio: 2007 2008 2009 1.25 1.28 1.25 G4S current ratios were lower in 2007 compare to 2008, this indicates the firm have financial problem in the short term. However G4S current ratio has slightly increased in 2008 from 1.25 to 1.28, this was due to increase in current assets from  £ 1,528m to  £ 2,174m, and current liabilities increased from  £ 1,220m to  £ 1,694m. Since current asset are higher than current liabilities, this implies the firm has no financial difficulties in the short time. However the ratio fell in 2009 from 1.28% to 1.24% this was due to decrease in current assets from  £ 2,174 m to  £ 1,847m; this was mainly due to fall in bank and deposits from  £562m to  £308m.   Also the current liabilities fell down from  £ 1,694m to 1,482m. This was mainly due to reduce of bank overdraft from  £283m to  £183m. Acid test ratio: 2007 2008 2009 1.19 1.23 1.21 G4S acid test slightly increased in 2008 from 1.19 to 1.23, this was due to the increase of inventory from  £57.1m to  £85.5m. The actuality that the differences between the current and acid test ratios is not too high this indicates that G4S stocks are not that high. The stocks are worth around  £85.5m; but since current assets are  £ 1527.5, that’s not a huge level of stock holdings. Also the increase in current asses and current liabilities contributed to the increase in current ratio. However the ratio fell down in 2009 from 1.23 to 1.21, this was due to descend of inventory the firm holds from  £85.5m to  £ 77.8 m. also contributing to the fall was the reduction of current assets from  £ 2,174 m to  £ 1,847m.   Additional this indicates that G4S has good financial situation that it had before. Operating efficiency ratios: Inventory turnover period: 2007 2008 2009 78.64 69.51 90.08 G4S inventory turnover ratio has fallen in 2008 by 9 days. This indicates efficient management of inventory because the inventories are frequently sold. Moreover, revenue significantly increases in 2008 from  £ 4,490m to  £ 5,943m. Furthermore this indicates the firm requires high level on inventory in order to operate the business. Since the inventory has increased from  £57m to  £86m. The ratio increased significantly in 2009 by 20 days.   This was due to the high increase of revenue from  £ 5,943 m to  £ 7,009m, also the inventory fell down from  £86m to  £78m, and this was due to reduction on holding stock from  £23m to  £16m. Trade receivables collection period: 2007 2008 2009 62 72 59 In 2009, the trade receivable increased from 62 days to 75 days. This was mainly due to significant increase in trade debtors from  £ 763 m to  £1,171m. This may indicate the firm policy is to allow more credit in order to generate more sales. This contributed in fall in cost of sales from  £ 3,485m to  £416 m. However G4S trade receivable collection fell down in the year 2009 from 72 days to 59 days this shows the firm policy of efficient management to reduce debt. The increase could be due to slightly increase in trade debtor collection from  £ 1,171 m to  £1,127 m Trade payables payment period: G4S trade payable payment period fallen down in 2008 from 11 days to 12 days, this was due to the increase in payment period form  £137.m to  £197m this resulted in the increase of 1 day payment period. This indicates the firm policy is to collect the creditors too quickly. Since the firm revenue increased in 2008 from  £ 4,490m to  £ 5,943m, the firm should allow more time for collection from creditors.Trade payables payment period: However in 2009 the firm reduced the trade payables payment period from 12 to 10 days, this resulted in reducing the payment to creditors from  £197m to  £192 m. is clear that G4S has efficient control of its creditors. Although G4S may miss out on extra cash discounts from the creditors for paying late. Although the revenue increased from  £ 5,943m to 7,009m, this did not affect the ratio to fall down. Capital structure ratios: Gearing ratio: 2007 2008 2009 144.98% 193.48% 176.43% G4S gearing ratio has a higher gearing ratio compare to other industry. The gearing ratio dramatically increases in 2008 from 133.98% to 193.48%. This was due to significant increase in long term loan from  £ 1,369m to  £ 2.455m, which affected the increase in creditors in order to finance the business. However the ratio fell down in 2009 to 176.43%, this was due to reduction in long term borrowing, also contributed in fall of gearing was due to reduction in   current liabilities from  £ 1,694m to  £ 1,482m. This indicate the firm is too dependent on borrowing in order to finance the business, since the firm has high gearing ratio, therefore the firm could enter liquidation if they don’t solve its debts. Interest Cover Ratio: 2007 2008 2009 2.48 2.40 2.54 In 2008 the interest cover was slightly reduced from 2.48 to 2.40, this was due to a dramatic increase in interest charge from  £ 217 m to  £264 m. However the interest cover ratio reduced slightly in 2009 from 2.40 to 2.54, this was due to the increase in PBIT from  £264m to  £303 m, which the business incurred. However the interest cover slightly increased from 2.40 to 2.54, this was due to profit before interest slightly increased from  £ 454m to  £499m. G4S has a low interest cover which may not be enough to pay off its interest in difficult economical times and could consequence face bankruptcy. Solvency Ratio: 2007 2008 2009 29.57% 25.59% 27.24% G4S solvency ratio reduced in 2008 from 29.75% to 25.59%. This was due to increase in total asset from 3,676m to 5,577m. Also the increase of share holders’ funds from  £1,087m to  £1,427m contributed to fall in the ratio. This indicates the firm is too dependent on borrowing in order to finance their business. However the ratio fell down in 2009 to 27.24%, this was due to slightly fall in total assets from  £ 5,577m to  £ 5,164m; this was due to reduction of current assets from  £2,174m to  £1,847m and also the fall in shareholders’ funds, from  £1,427m to  £1,407m, may have   contributed to increase in solvency ratio. This indicates the firm is solvent, since it has higher total assets compare to total liabilities. Fair value accounting: â€Å"Fair value is the amount for which an asset could be exchanged or a liability settled between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm’s length transaction†. (IAS 39)   Starting out from the idea that the best estimation of the fair value is the market price of the asset or liability in quires, and attitude in mind that this price does not exist for all items, or if it does exist it may not always be reliable, it is essential to lay down some ordered procedure that institution can follow when making their estimates. Based on IAS 39. The continuation of published prices in a dynamic market is the best indication of fair value and when it exists, should be used to value the financial asset or liability. A financial instrument is deemed to be quoted on an dynamic market if the listed prices are regularly and easily available If the market for a financial instrument is not active, the financial institutions should find out the fair value using a valuation technique incorporate all the factors that participant in the market would consider when establish the price and which is familiar with accepted economic way used to set the prices of financial instruments. In a perfect market, fair value equals practical market price. If there is no active market, fair value is an estimate of value in use. The IASB differentiates between three levels for estimating fair values: Using quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in active markets whenever that information is available (market values); If quoted prices are not available for similar assets or liabilities, fair value should be approximated using quoted prices of similar assets or liabilities with market equivalents. If quoted prices of identical or similar assets or liabilities are not available or not objectively determinable, fair value should be estimated using valuation methods based on present value techniques of future earnings, or cash flows and valuation techniques. Fair value of an asset usually is based on the judgment of future cash flows of the entity, which means that the same asset can be measured differently for two companies because of different borrowing rates and managerial appraisals. Thus, the reliability of fair value estimates declines with the shift from liquid markets to non-traded items. Botosan et al. (2005) provided a concise summary of the extant academic literature on The relevance and reliability of fair value estimates in financial statements. They suggest (Citing Barth, 1994, Petroni Wahlen, 1995, and Nelson, 1996, amongst others, in Support) that: â€Å"The evidence generally shows that fair values obtained from actively traded markets are more reliably associated with share prices than those derived from thinly traded markets or internal estimation models .Supporters of fair value accounting argue that, the fair value accounting measurement is relevant than the historical cost accounting as it provides up to date information in line with market and it takes in to account to economic adjustments to the acquired cost. Many accounting academics’ argue that the fair value method shows the economic realities that are avoided by the historical cost accounting†. Calculating fair value of an asset or liability Equity approach Mixed approached Income approach Full fair value approach Equity approach: All unrealized fair value changes are admitted in a revaluation reserve when transaction is realized. According to IAS 116 realized holding gains do not affect the income statement. Mixed approach: Changes on unrealized fair values are transferred into revaluation reserve however; changes on realized fair values are reflected in income statement instead of equity according to IAS 39. Income Approach: Gains or losses resulting from changes in fair values are usually reflected in the income statement. Full fair values: Changes made in every fair value are recorded in the income statement including internally generated goodwill. Self produced goodwill is the difference between the equity values of the firm and book value of the firm. Argument for fair value Accounting: Supporters of the market value accounting argue that the fair value accounting measurement is relevant than historical cost accounting as provides as up to date information constant which market with market and it takes in to account economic adjustment to the acquired cost. Many accounting academics argue that is method shows the economics reality that is avoided by historical cost accounting. Valuing all financial instruments by their fair value will allow stakeholders of the financial statements to gain a fair and true view of the companys true financial conditions as only fair value shows the economic situation and the changes in them. However, historical cost-based accounting indicates the conditions that happened when the transaction took place and any possible changes in the price do not appear until the asset is realized. Although, the well-known application of fair value offers a more as good as and consistent valuation Framework, as financial instruments are valued at the same time and according to the same standard. The Traditional model, on the other hand, does not allow comparisons easily made. Companies similarly financial instruments, with the same cash flows and risks, can show different values on their Financial statements according to the moment in time when they purchased the Justification of the full fair value model is draws upon the criticism that may be leveled against the mixed valuation model, where some instruments are recorded at historical cost and others according To their fair value. In the mixed model the criterion for valuing an instrument at its cost or market value Do not depend on the character of the instrument but on whether the companies intends to hold it Long term or trade it; this is strictly related to the difference between the instruments to old banking activity and the asset trading portfolio. Thus, if the mixed model is applied, similar instruments may be valued differently and have a Different result on the financial position and the income statement. Moreover, the difference between, the credit portfolio and the trading portfolio may vary from one company to the next, and therefore Make it difficult to compare financial statements. Lastly, the mixed model creates advantages for a degree of accounting principles that, The categ orization rules might be interpreted so as to categories assets and liabilities so that it is possible to apply the most advantageous valuation criterion, in detriment to the quality of the information And, in short, the ability of financial statements to show the economic reality of the company Reliably and objectively, Fair Value Accounting Advantages: Market value measurement is more important to stake holders are it reflects market price of the asset and the liabilities It provides more transparency for the users if all financial instruments can be measured at fair value stake holders can achieve grade advantages (Jackson 2000) Reliability of fair value accounting Financial information’s must be   reliable when it   must show faithful   economic reality of the transactions, regardless of its legal form, as well as being prudent, free and complete   from errors. For this reason fair value should not be applied to all financial instruments as it is not possible to get reliable values for some as important as loans   and deposits acquired, as there are no active markets for most of them, nor are there adequate valuation techniques allowing them to be estimated reliably.   Comparability of financial information: Stakeholders of the financial information should able to investigate a companys financial statements timely basis and compare them with similar industry to analyses the companys financial position, Changes in its financial position and performance in similar terms. Familiar situations and events must therefore be treated in a similar way. Whereas the mixed model may head to conditions in which similar instruments are given different Valuations because they were bought at different times, the results obtainable by this method are parallel and similarity comparable with one another. However, applying fair value would, in many cases, involve a degree of bias in the preparation of these financial statements which would make assessment more difficult. Given that companies may use different models with considerably different assumption to find out the fair value of different financial instruments, both the fair Value and the implication for the income statements of different companies coul d be very difficult to compare. Although, users of financial information are familiarized to the mixed model and understand it Perfectly well, having developed technique that use the historical cost information to assess the Company’s situation and estimate future cash flows.   Argument against fait value accounting: There are wildly held views on fair value accounting that the suitability of applying the criteria of fair value to instruments held in asset management. However, this method is vigorously rejects for the valuation of the non current asset and financial liabilities. In order to be useful as the basis for rational economic decision-making, financial information must be reliable, comparable and relevant. The criticism mainly on these features and the force obtaining the advantages of the fair value process would have constancy of the system as a whole Fair Value Accounting Disadvantages: Fair values and invaluable it is subjective of managers and directors and agency theory indicates that managers and directors usually keep their advantages of un very volubility to the manage financial report ( Ramanna Watts 2007)   when fair value on asset liability is not available fair value is measured based estimated by using best   available   information and technique available in the circumstances however most oven difficult occur when choosing estimated of fair value by using in appropriate models. E.g Cash in hand or using assumptions that is not reflect the risk of asset (Jackson 2000) References cemla.org/pdf/acp/dp-0607-bde-eng.pdf. accessesed 5th of may 2011, time. 23:43 Melville, A international financial reporting practical guide. ACCA global   reviews Fame G4S financial analysises.

Statistics Coursework Essays

Statistics Coursework Essays Statistics Coursework Essay Statistics Coursework Essay I have been asked to examine the students attendance figures from all year groups (7, 8, 9, 10 and 11) at Hamilton Community College. I will be investigating whether the age of the students affects their attendance figures at school and does it affect their learning and exam results as well? To start my research, I was given the attendance figures by the school for all of the year groups for the 2003 2004 academic years. I will then start to process data (attendance figures) firstly by reducing the amount of data that I will have to process using the method of stratified sampling. By using stratified sampling I will then only use a fair amount of data according to the percentage that Im comfortable with. I will only be using 20% of the attendance figures from each year. A scientific calculator is used, to randomly select attendance figures that I am going to use, so that the new set of statistics isnt bias and isnt affected by my conscious decision. Using the new set of data, I will collate the data in frequency tables (to display all of the frequency distributions), in order to enable easy interpretation and analysis. Secondly, after collating the data, I will then display the new set of data in forms of graphs/diagrams and charts so that it will be easier for me to compare and study the figures. From these graphs/diagrams and charts, I will calculate the central tendency for all the year groups (mean, median) and also the dispersion of each year group by calculating the quartiles (upper quartile, lower quartile and interquartile range) which will also ensures that the figures that I am going to process and compare are only the true average (middle 50% of the data). It is vital for me to choose the most appropriate graphs/diagrams or charts to display the datas properties effectively and clearly. Graphs like the normal distribution curves are ever so important in these type of investigation especially because the graph itself summarise so many vital information such as the Thirdly, I will then analyse all of the results that I will get from the calculations and evaluate it against my hypothesis. I will analyse all of the data in a more depth by doing standard deviation and Spearmans rank correlation coefficient that will allow me to compare and analyse the data properties using different methods. Finally, I will then come to a conclusion stating whether the age does or does not affect the attendance of the students and their learning at school. Hypothesis Does the age of the students affect their attendance at school? There is a probability that there is a small relationship between the age of the students and their attendance figures at school or there is no relationship at all. However, the students appreciation of the importance of their attendance figures does and this is why (in my opinion) the attendance figures vary between students. Nevertheless, the students that are within their exam years should have a much higher attendance percentage than those who dont. In my opinion, age does not affect the attendance of the students at all. I think the attendance figures of the students at Hamilton totally depends on the students environment and maturity in terms of their understanding of the importance of their attendance figures at school (e.g. for future reference when their career year approaches). However, even though it seems like the Year 11 GCSE students tend to come to school much more often or supposed to attend school everyday than the Year 7s, to me, this doesnt have any relations with age at all. Just because the student is a Year 7 pupil, that doesnt mean that their attendance figures are going to be really low. This also applies for the GCSE students (Year 10s and 11s); just because the student is taking their GCSE it doesnt mean that their attendance is going to be a full 100% (even though it should be like that). A Year 7 pupil could have a 100% attendance figure just like a Year 11 student and it doesnt have to relate to age at a ll. A 6, 10, 12 and even 15-year-old students can still have a stunning 100% attendance figures at school just by having that one important reason of why they have to come to school everyday (and again it might not have anything to do with age at all). So, I do not believe that the age of the students affect the attendance at school. Does attendance affect the students learning and their exam results? There is a relationship between the attendance of the students and their exams results. Students who comes to school often or everyday, to learn, tend to improve and have much better exam results than those who dont. I believe that the attendance of a student does affect their exam results. For students who come to school everyday learns more than the students who dont attend regularly. Therefore, more education equals better exam results. But, there are some students, who do not come to school as often as they should but still get good results (naturally clever as people would say it). This is true and I agree. However, I think these extraordinary students must have another form or way of learning when not at school (the student might be an independent learner for example). But for those who are not an independent learner and still get wonderful exam results, they might concentrate hard in lessons when they are actually in school and absorbs everything that they learn. So, basically overall, I think the attendance of the students does affect their learning and exams results. Plan 1. In order for me to investigate this problem, I was given a secondary type of data of the attendance of all the students in Hamilton Community College in the 2003 2004 academic years from Year 7s to Year 11s. It would be unreasonable and difficult for me to use all of the data given, as it will consume a lot of time during the calculation process. Because of this Ive decided to use the stratified sampling method to handle the vast amount of data. This way, it does not only reduce the amount of time for me to process the data, it also reduces its quantity. The attendance figures of all of the students will be divided according to the year groups they belong to in ascending order (0% 100%). I will then label them from 1 to how many attendance figures there are in the year group (1, 2, 3267). By using a scientific calculator, I will use the RANDOM button to randomly select 20% of the total attendance figures in the particular year. This way, the new set of data will not only be much smaller, but also ensures that I have a fair proportion of responses from each year and it is not bias as it is done without my conscious decision. 2. The new stratified data will then be investigated, compared and analysed with each other to see whether it matches with my hypothesis. Since that the data is a grouped, continuous data, below are the graphs/diagrams and charts that I will be using to display the data clearly: 2.1 Cumulative frequency polygons A cumulative frequency polygon shows the trend of growth of continuous data. It is also useful for estimating how much more or less there is than a certain amount. So, I will be able to estimate the averages much easier using these graphs rather than using tables. By using cumulative frequency polygons, I can also calculate the quartiles of the data, which will not only measure the spread of the data but also display the central 50% of the data (excluding the highest and lowest value interquartile range). This could be shown much evidently by using the box and whiskers diagram. 2.2 Box and whisker diagram The box and whisker diagram will be used to stress the quartiles and also to show its (shape) distribution whether it has a symmetrical distribution, negative skew or positive skew. It also shows the median of the data. Box and whiskers diagram can be easily compared with each other to see which year group have a stronger (higher) percentage of attendance during the academic year. 2.3 Histograms I am going to use histograms instead of bar charts is because the data Im using is a continuous grouped data. Histogram uses the area of the bars to represent the frequencies rather than the heights like normal bar charts. It may have equal or unequal intervals. A histogram with equal intervals is a frequency diagram (only the height of the bars vary), however, a histogram with unequal intervals, the area of each bar is proportional to the frequency of each class and the height of the bars are based on the frequency density. By using histograms, I am then able to see the shape of the distribution, whether it has a symmetrical distribution and positive or negative skew. 2.4 Standard deviation Standard deviation is the square root of a variance. Variance is a measure of spread that uses all of the data. By doing the standard deviation I am then able to see the Normal distribution for each year and also compare them with each other and see much more clearly which year group have a higher attendance figure. 2.5 Spearmans rank correlation coefficient The spearmans rank correlation coefficient is going to be used for the Year 9 attendance and their SATs results to see how they correlate with each other. This will prove whether attendance have an effect on their exam results or people who get good results are just naturally clever. 2.6 Normal distribution Normal distribution is a family of distributions that have the same general shape. They are symmetric with scores more concentrated in the middle than in the tails. Normal distributions are sometimes described as bell shaped. 2.7 Scatter diagrams The relationship between two variables can be shown through scatter diagrams. By using scatter diagrams, I am able to see the correlation clearly and state whether the variables have any sort of relationship together. However, this can be looked at in depth with spearmans rank correlation coefficient. 3. The reason of why I am using ever so many graphs/diagrams and charts is because I believe that you cannot display all of the information you want to display by using a single graph in this investigation. Further more, the more (appropriate) graphs/diagrams and charts I do, the more information Ill receive on the attendance of each year group. Also, I will be able to compare the results in a much better way and give a more specific answer towards the research. 4. Using all of these diagrams I will then compare all of the students attendance for each year. Then I will also analyse all of these graphs and diagrams and actually come to a conclusion that tells me all the information I need (e.g. which year group have the best attendance figures) for this investigation. 5. With this final conclusion I will compare it against my hypothesis and evaluate it to see whether it has any connections towards my hypotheses I worked out earlier. Finally, I will then state whether or not the final statement has anything to do with the hypotheses. Below is the secondary data Ive received of the attendance of the school according to each year.

Van Der Waals Forces Definition

Van Der Waals Forces Definition Van der Waals Forces are the weak forces which contribute to intermolecular bonding  between molecules. Molecules inherently possess energy and their electrons are always in motion, so transient concentrations of electrons in one region or another lead electrically positive regions of a molecule to be attracted to the electrons of another molecule. Similarly, negatively-charged regions of one molecule are repulsed by negatively-charged regions of another molecule. Van der Waals forces are the sum of the attractive and repulsive electrical forces between atoms and molecules. These forces differ from covalent and ionic chemical bonding because they result from fluctuations in charge density of particles. Examples of van der Waals forces include hydrogen bonding, dispersion forces, and dipole-dipole interactions. Key Takeaways: Van der Waals Forces Van der Waals forces are distance-dependent forces between atoms and molecule not associated with covalent or ionic chemical bonds.Sometimes the term is used to encompass all intermolecular forces, although some scientists only include London dispersion force, Debye force, and Keeson force.Van der Waals forces are the weakest of the chemical forces, but they still play an important role in the properties of molecules and in surface science. Properties of Van der Waals Forces Certain characteristics are displayed by van der Waals forces: The forces are additive.The forces are weaker than either ionic or covalent chemical bonds.They are not directional.The forces act only over a very short range. The interaction is greater when molecules draw closer.Van der Waals forces are independent of temperature, with the exception of dipole-dipole interactions. Components of Van der Waals Forces Van der Waals forces are the weakest intermolecular forces. Their strength typically ranges from 0.4 to 4 kJ/mol and act over distances less than 0.6 nm. When the distance is less than 0.4 nm, the net effect of the forces is repulsive as electron clouds repel each other. There are four major contributions to van der Waals forces: There is a negative component that prevents molecules from collapsing. This is due to the Pauli exclusion principle.Either an attractive or repulsive electrostatic interaction occurs between permanent charges, dipoles, quadrupoles, and multipoles. This interaction is called Keesom interaction or Keesom force, named for Willem Hendrik Keesom.Induction or polarization occurs. This is an attractive force between a permanent polarity on one molecule and an induced polarity on another. This interaction is called the Debye force for Peter J.W. Debye.London dispersion force is the attraction between any pair of molecules due to instantaneous polarization. The force is named after Fritz London. Note even nonpolar molecules experience London dispersion. Van der Waals Forces, Geckos, and Arthropods Geckos, insects, and some spiders have setae on their foot pads that allow them to climb extremely smooth surfaces, such as glass. In fact, a gecko can even hang from a single toe! Scientists have proposed numerous explanations for the phenomena, but it turns out the primary cause of the adhesion is the electrostatic force more than van der Waals forces or capillary action. Researchers have produced dry glue and adhesive tape based on analysis of gecko and spider feet. The stickiness results both from tiny velcro-like hair and also the addition of lipids, which are found on gecko feet. Gecko feet are sticky because of van der Waals forces, electrostatic forces, and lipids found on their skin. StephanHoerold / Getty Images Real-Life Spiderman In 2014, DARPA tested its Geckskin, a material based on the setae of gecko footpads. A 100-kg researcher, carrying an additional 20 kg of gear, scaled an 8 m (26 ft) glass wall using two climbing paddles. The goal is to give military personnel Spiderman-like abilities. Scientists have found a way to use van der Waals forces to help people cling to smooth surfaces, such as glass and walls. OrangeDukeProductions / Getty Images Sources Autumn, Kellar; Sitti, Metin; Liang, Yiching A.; Peattie, Anne M.; Hansen, Wendy R.; Sponberg, Simon; Kenny, Thomas W.; Fearing, Ronald; Israelachvili, Jacob N.; Full, Robert J. (2002). Evidence for van der Waals adhesion in gecko setae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (19): 12252–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.192252799Dzyaloshinskii, I. D.; Lifshitz, E. M.; Pitaevskii, L. P. (1961). General theory of van der Waals forces. Soviet Physics Uspekhi. 4 (2): 153. doi:10.1070/PU1961v004n02ABEH003330Israelachvili, J. (1985–2004). Intermolecular and Surface Forces. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-375181-2.Parsegian, V. A. (2006). van der Waals Forces: A Handbook for Biologists, Chemists, Engineers, and Physicists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83906-8.Wolff, J. O.; Gorb, S. N. (18 May 2011). The influence of humidity on the attachment ability of the spider Philodromus dispar (Araneae, Philodromidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1726): 139–143. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0505

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 43

Assignment - Essay Example ticular good such as generators spikes up after natural disasters such as hurricane, its price will naturally go up because virtually all people would need a generator in the area that lost power due to the hurricane. There will be people who are willing to pay for premium prices just to get the generator and in effect, that will raise the prices. Without government intervention during state of emergency, the dynamics of the market will take over. For example, if the supply of generator is 100 and the demand suddenly increased to 1000, its typical price of let say $100 will shot up to even a thousand because the demand curve increased without increasing the supply curve. When the government intervenes however the market will be distorted because it is forcing the price to remain at its previous level even if the demand curve is increased. But this is not necessarily bad because the demand is also temporary. Eventually, when normalcy returns to a disaster struck area so will the price because the excessive demand will be

Net-centric Computing and Information Systems Essay - 1

Net-centric Computing and Information Systems - Essay Example While describing the structural details of the wireless networking protocol the tutorial also significantly addresses the issue of security vulnerability that is associated with the said protocol. Since the protocol is not guided or guarded by wires or fixed connections it is often said to have substantial susceptibility to noise and other unseen deflections. Similarly, the protocol also does not ensure secure data transfer because since it is prone to interferences, then it can also be prone to unauthorized access to private information being passed over it. Another drawback associated with the Wireless LAN protocol is that despite all the technological advancements, the current data transfer rate over it is comparatively significantly lesser than that over the Local Area Network (LAN). The Wireless networking protocol 802.11has revolutionized the concept of connectivity among individuals. Thus this has had amazing effects on the corporate world as well. The need of the hour for businesses that involved the need to get network connectivity anytime and at any place within a particular set up without the restriction of physically laden networking wires in the premises have been addressed with the emergence of this protocol. Run time connectivity within business environments is not possible via wi-fi enabled computing devices that can be secured by binding the identity of hardware logged on to the system by pre-registering their MAC addresses. It was interesting to realize the concept behind the much prevalent wireless internet connectivity that has become so very common the world over. It was an informative and interest capturing tutorial indeed. The tutorial studied addressed the most integral concepts of today’s world: ‘Computer Security’. Ever since the advent of the concept of connecting computing devices over a network the concept of

The relationship between job satisfaction and employee motivation Literature review

The relationship between job satisfaction and employee motivation within an organisation - Literature review Example Motivation â€Å"Motivation is the force within the individual that influences or determines behaviour† (Marquis and Huston, 2008: p422). This means that motivation is about the things that are within an individual that causes him to to do something or forces him to do thing. â€Å"Motivation determines the reinforcement value of the outcome† (Kalat, 2010 p62). This means that motivation is what makes a person to get more value to a given activity. Motivation is what adds value and makes a given project or activity more important to a person. It makes you want to do something at a given point in time ahead of another. The motivation process involves what incites, creates an interest and sustains that interest in a given action (Armstrong, 2009 p249). The element of motivation is about how people get interest in a given activity and causes the individual to remain focused on how to attain the end. Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is based on interest (Haines et al, 2008: 443). This is about the willingness of people to accept a given activity ahead of another based on what they feel within themselves. This makes intrinsic motivation a psychological matter rather than a tangible matter that can be felt and quantified in the conventional sense. â€Å"Intrinsic motivation comes from within a person† (Kossowski, 2007). This means that intrinsic motivation is about the things that influences a person from inside. In the human resource management parlance, this involves the things that causes an individual to add more to organisational objectives based on his or her personal choice and inspirations. It is however incited by things around a person and can be varied on the basis of the things that goes on around a given person (Kossowski, 2007). The concept of intrinsic motivation is controlled by the fact that people behave to attain satisfaction as an inherent end in itself and not a means to an end (Wlodkowski, 2011). This means that int rinsic motivation causes a person to gain satisfaction from a given action rather than what s/he will get from the activity in question. Intrinsic motivation in the workplace is what causes a person to attain his job specification. And as a person attain the job specifications, s/he gets important satisfaction in itself. Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic motivation on the other hand revolves around the external benefits and inspiration that a person might get from a given activity (Marquis and Huston, 2009). Extrinsic motivation is induced by the things that happens from the outside and has very little to do with the internal factors that causes a person to tilt towards a given act ahead of another. Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors and this includes rewards , money and grades that a person would attain for accomplishing a given task (Jelencic, 2009). This means that extrinsic motivation has to do with what a person would be given for a given activity. Thus the individua l complete the activity because of the prize. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction has several facades and angles through which it could be examined and analysed. Locke defined job satisfaction as â€Å"a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experience† (1976: p271). Job satisfaction can be see as the joy and pleasure

OP-ED articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

OP-ED articles - Essay Example The USA president Obama has said that he will look to build consensus in the international community before intervening in Syria (Nicholas and Adam). This necessary means that all major western powers such as Russia , France and UK need to agree on the need for intervention. However whenever USA is asked to send its military to a foreign land in order to ‘liberate’ the people of the country, the voices of those who matter the most are never heard. In this article I will try to bring the spotlight on these voices – the average citizen of USA who pays for the military intervention, the soldier who has to lay down his life and the people of the country who are being ‘liberated’. ... So much amount of public money going down the drain is downright criminal when Congress is telling us that it does not have any money to spend on health, education and social security. How do the citizens of USA benefit by sponsoring these wars in distant foreign lands? What do we gain? No one has ever asked this question. It is time to do so. I think it should be made mandatory for a referendum to be held for intervening in wars which do not belong to us. The decision to bring democracy to distant lands should be a democratic one. If the people vote a yes in the referendum, then the President should be free to intervene in Syria. The people may make a wrong decision but at least it will be their decision, not the decision of NATO or a war hungry president. If we are paying for these wars, it is the USA soldiers who are dying in these wars.2220 USA soldiers have laid down their lives in Afghanistan (Icasualties.org.) and 4488 young soldiers have been killed in the Iraqi war (Antiwar. com.).As so many of them lay down their lives, it is just that they also have say in which wars to fight and which ones to avoid. Some people may say that as soldiers they have no right to have a say, it is the prerogative of the elected legislature. I agree that it is the prerogative of the legislature and the President of USA to declare wars; and I also agree that soldiers when they join the army agree to serve our nation without any question. But we have made an army to defend our country and fight our wars; not to liberate Syria or Libya. An army man will be more than happy to lay down his life for his motherland but why should he kill himself for people he has never met and who mean nothing to him. The death of our soldiers when there is no threat

Patronage & Clientelist Politics Presentation Essay

Patronage & Clientelist Politics Presentation - Essay Example However, upon a closer inspection, it you will realize that these institutions have nothing compared those found in the western countries. Simply put, they lack validity because no one trusts they are fulfilling any social contract to serve neutrally on behalf of each and every citizen. South Africa has civil services, or bureaucracies, but yet again, they are badly "patrimonialized" to their core, and only few (if any) bureaucrats uphold the societys interests before their own individual benefits (Lindberg, 2008). To be brief, there is no separation between the public and the private in South African politics. You will wonder on why this remains so. It could be for the reason that the British colonial rule never left adequate liberal democratic institutions fully installed in the last almost two decades, or it could be because the independent state of South Africa moved too hastily toward authoritarian decree. Opinions vary, and no one has the definite answer to the problem. What is undeniable, however, is that South African and other African governments are highly centralized politically. Power is not dispersed or diffused properly among the distinct branches of government. They lack "checks-and-balances" (Myers, 2008). There lacks presence of pluralism in their civil society individuals and diverse society interest cannot influence the public policy. In South Africa, only elites are paid attention to, and rivals- reformists are oppressed. Political opposition parties, for instance, are often beleaguered. Or, if a challenger or rival does manage to go past the oppression, they become eas ily subject to co-option (known also as co-optation) whereby their threat is defused by being offered a position in the state structure. There, they are used as political machines. Although there are vibrant inequalities within these clientelistic relations, the patrons suffer considerable constrictions. In

OP-ED articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

OP-ED articles - Essay Example The USA president Obama has said that he will look to build consensus in the international community before intervening in Syria (Nicholas and Adam). This necessary means that all major western powers such as Russia , France and UK need to agree on the need for intervention. However whenever USA is asked to send its military to a foreign land in order to ‘liberate’ the people of the country, the voices of those who matter the most are never heard. In this article I will try to bring the spotlight on these voices – the average citizen of USA who pays for the military intervention, the soldier who has to lay down his life and the people of the country who are being ‘liberated’. ... So much amount of public money going down the drain is downright criminal when Congress is telling us that it does not have any money to spend on health, education and social security. How do the citizens of USA benefit by sponsoring these wars in distant foreign lands? What do we gain? No one has ever asked this question. It is time to do so. I think it should be made mandatory for a referendum to be held for intervening in wars which do not belong to us. The decision to bring democracy to distant lands should be a democratic one. If the people vote a yes in the referendum, then the President should be free to intervene in Syria. The people may make a wrong decision but at least it will be their decision, not the decision of NATO or a war hungry president. If we are paying for these wars, it is the USA soldiers who are dying in these wars.2220 USA soldiers have laid down their lives in Afghanistan (Icasualties.org.) and 4488 young soldiers have been killed in the Iraqi war (Antiwar. com.).As so many of them lay down their lives, it is just that they also have say in which wars to fight and which ones to avoid. Some people may say that as soldiers they have no right to have a say, it is the prerogative of the elected legislature. I agree that it is the prerogative of the legislature and the President of USA to declare wars; and I also agree that soldiers when they join the army agree to serve our nation without any question. But we have made an army to defend our country and fight our wars; not to liberate Syria or Libya. An army man will be more than happy to lay down his life for his motherland but why should he kill himself for people he has never met and who mean nothing to him. The death of our soldiers when there is no threat

Class size and student learning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Class size and student learning - Research Paper Example All the same, those that approve of the shrinking of class sizes fight for the benefits that it could have on the success of students within these smaller classes. The greatest benefit of shrinking the size of classes is that students would be able to receive more one-on-one communication with the teacher. The teacher will have the opportunity to understand the academic strengths and weaknesses of each student (Chen, 2008), which can help them find and use various methods to help them teach. After the subject has been taught, if a handful of students are still unable to grasp the topic, the teacher will be able to find more time to address the needs of each individual student. This could prove to be especially beneficial to at-risk students. With fewer students, the teacher would also be given more time in which to teach their subject, whether to the whole class or individually, until everybody is able to properly comprehend what is being taught. The teacher will be able to find more available time to implement various teaching techniques and instruments, such as labs or other specialized instruction, to aid the students in understanding the subject matter. With a small class size comes a general lack of disciplinary problems (Vanderlee, 2009). There would be fewer students to present distractions to fellow students and to the teacher. As such, a teacher would be able to spend more of their time teaching than tending to the disruption of troublemaking students. Likewise, students will find it easier to focus more on their work than on the distractions caused by their peers. When there is less distraction in the classroom, there will be more time dedicated to learning and to making sure that everyone is at the same level of understanding as the rest of the class. This not only applies to the teacher, but to the students as well, who will be able to direct their attention onto the primary reason for being in the classroom, which is to learn. Without distractions, the teacher will either be able to get through lessons quicker, while still being able to slow down their pace of teaching when it is demanded of by one or more of the students. Finally, students are more likely to participate in class activities and discussions if the size of the class is smaller. This is mainly due to the fact that students often feel more comfortable when there are fewer people around. With fewer students in a single classroom, there will be an increased sense of closeness between the students and the teacher (Blatchford, 2003), which can come in handy as students begin to rely on each other for help, especially when the teacher is aiding another student. There is also less pressure for the students to impress their fellow classmates, providing them every opportunity to really engage in what is going on within the classroom. When a student actively participates, they are presented with the best chance of fully grasping what they are being taught. They are also a ble to receive the proper feedback when they are more vocal in class discussions, which can be used to further determine if more studying or practice activities are required. The greatest concern about decreasing class size is the extensive cost of doing so, and the fact that most schools do not readily have the resources to make it happen.

African-Americans Fighting for Equality Essay Example for Free

African-Americans Fighting for Equality Essay African-Americans have been fighting for equality and freedom every since they were taken from Africa as slaves. They were stolen from their families and separated only to be servants to others as they were belittled, beaten, put down and treated as nothing. Many things have changed over the centuries, but African-Americans still fight everyday for different types of acknowledgements and equality. They have fought hard over the centuries to end segregation, discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil rights. Through the Civil Rights Movement African Americans played important roles American history with courage, strength, and struggling to live equal in America. We have learned about important people and events throughout history, but the fight against discrimination, segregation and isolation have not always been focused on. This paper will highlight how some of the well known and unknown people contributed towards the Civil Rights Movement, in which continues to be fought in present time. â€Å"Racial segregation was a system derived from the efforts of white Americans to keep African Americans in a subordinate status by denying them equal access to public facilities and ensuring that blacks lived apart from whites† (Lawson, 2009). Slaves lived in quarters far away from the master houses on the plantations, the only ones that lived in the house were the special chosen. â€Å"By the time the Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) that African Americans were not U. S. citizens, northern whites had excluded blacks from seats on public transportation and barred their entry, except as servants, from most hotels and restaurants. When allowed into auditoriums and theaters, blacks occupied separate sections; they also attended segregated schools. Most churches, too, were segregated. † (Lawson, 2009). Rosa Parks was famous for her courage to stand for her right to sit where ever she wanted on a bus, but she was not the first or only one to make this choice. There was a fifteen year old girl that was arrested nine months earlier, but she was not attributed to the act because of her status of being a foul mouth tomboy and getting pregnant right after the incident (Young, 2000). Also when Rosa Parks was approached by the bus driver to move there were other African- American people sitting next to her, but because she spoke up first history gives her credit and was noticed by Dr. Martin Luther King. It needs to be known that many people were courageous in their act to fight for equal rights. Basically Parks was at the right place at the right time, â€Å"Parks arrest sparked a chain reaction that started the bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement that transformed the apartheid of Americas southern states from a local idiosyncrasy to an international scandal. It was her individual courage that triggered the collective display of defiance that turned a previously unknown 26-year-old preacher, Martin Luther King, into a household name† (Younge, 2000). Dr. Martin Luther King name goes down in history as the most well known activists through the years. He was known as a non violent activist, in which he adapted the philosophy from Gandhi, which was respected not only by the black race but also by all other races. King’s speech â€Å"I Have a Dream† became what African-American’s live by for centuries to come. Also there was the, â€Å"We Shall Overcome† speech on August 23, 1963. King’s words at the capital that day were a defining moment of the Civil Rights movement† (Bowles, 2011). King fought for civil rights until the day he was killed. There was a protest at Fisk University in Nashville in which three students was disgusted at the fact blacks could not sit at the lunch counters to eat. C. T. Vivian, Diane Nash and Bernard Lafayette protested with others in Nashville on April 19, 1960. â€Å"Nash confronted Mayor Ben West. In what she calls a divine inspiration, she asked the mayor to end racial segregation. He appealed to all not to discriminate. She asked him if he meant that to include lunch counters. He sidestepped. She said, Mayor, do you recommend that the lunch counters be desegregated? West said, Yes, and the battle was won. Within days, integration began† (Weier, 2001). While civil rights activists were fighting on the home front, African American men and women honorably performed their duties in two world wars. They bravely entered a military that was at odds about their presence and the appropriate roles for blacks. While more than 400,000 African American soldiers were going through basic training, receiving their assignments or facing the enemys bullets in World War I, riots against black citizens were escalating in the United States. By the time the Second World War ended, over one million black forces returned home to the U. S. equivalent of apartheid. Yet, with the knowledge of conditions at home, black soldiers still distinguished themselves in battles for freedoms, which they were unable to enjoy (Blakely, 1999). Discrimination was popular in the 1900’s and African-Americans stood up to be treated as equal Americans as the whites, especially in the World War II. â€Å"While willing to fight for their country, some also made a stand against discrimination while they served. For example, on April 12, 1945, the U. S. Army took 101 African American officers into custody because they directly refused an order from a superior officer. This was a serious charge because, if convicted, they would face the death penalty† (Bowles, 2011). They wanted to get acknowledged for their bravery and accomplishments in the war just the white soldiers. America waited decades for the African –American soldiers of the World War II to get the proper acknowledgements they deserve, which was too little too late. â€Å"These men were willing to die for the country; they were not eligible for many of the honors for their service. Though many deserved it, no African American could receive the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for bravery. Bill Clinton corrected this error 50 years later, bestowing the medal on seven men, but just one, Vernon Baker, was still alive (Bowles, 2011). These men were known as the Tuskegee Airmen and most of them died before receiving their honors. There were numerous movements and people, even African-American women whom had a hand in battling for equality. They had to fight not only for equality from racism, but also dealing with being judged by their gender. â€Å"The Womens Service Section (WSS) investigated federally controlled railroad stations and yards at the end of World War I. Few women worked in car cleaning before the war, and railroad management preferred to block women workers, especially African Americans, from gaining any kind of foothold in railroad work. African American women were the single largest group of railroad car cleaners during this period but they were routinely denied adequate facilities, including toilets, locker rooms, and dining facilities throughout the railroad system. By raising the issues of facilities, workers rights, and public health, these women shaped federal policy and widened the agenda of the WSS to include a direct attack on segregated workplaces† Muhammad, (2011). Black women wanted to have the same rights as others for going to school with safety and security. â€Å"In Brown v Board of Education (1954) the Supreme Court reversed its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. They held that school segregation was inherently unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This case marked the end of legal segregation in the US†. There were other significant African-American movements that changed history. â€Å"Starting in the 1960s, blacks in Akron began to push for an end to discrimination using various tactics, such as political action, workshops, and employment drives. Opie Evans edited the Akronite and began pushing for changes in his magazine. Protests widened to include sit-ins and other demonstrations† (McClain, 1996). African-Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr . and Malcolm X have become icons of the 1950’s and 1960’s, but the organizational skills and grassroots activism of women such as Ella Baker , Septima Clark , Rosa Parks and Fannie Lou Hamer propelled the movement forward to many successes and inspired a new generation of activists. African-Americans have come a long way fighting for equality and freedom every since the slavery time. They won their freedom and more equality than the ever had along with ending segregation. Many things have changed over the centuries, but African-Americans still fight everyday for different types of acknowledgements. They have fought hard to end segregation, most of discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil rights. References Blakely, Gloria. (1999). The 20th Century in CP Time: 1900-1949 We are a People. Sentinel,p. A8. Retrieved July 16, 2012, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 490544881). http://proquest. umi. com/pqdweb? did=490544881sid=2Fmt=3clientId=74379RQT=309VName=PQD Bowles, M. D. (2011). American History 1865- Present, End of Isolation, San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved on June 11, 2012 from https://content. ashford. edu/books/AUHIS204. 11. 2/sections/sec3. 7 Lawson, S. F. (2009). â€Å"Segregation. † Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe. National Humanities Center. Retrieved on July 16, 2012 from http://nationalhumanitiescenter. org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/segregation. htm | | Mcclain, S. R. , (1996). The Contributions of Blacks in Akron: 1825-1895, A Doctoral Dissertation, Retrieved on july 17, 2012 from http://www. ci. akron. oh. us/blackhist/timeline/index. htm Muhammad, R. (2011). SEPARATE AND UNSANITARY: African American Women Railroad Car Cleaners and the Womens Service Section, 1918-1920. Journal of Womens History, 23(2), 87-111,230. Retrieved July 16, 2012, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2377762701). http://proquest. umi. com/pqdweb? did=2377762701sid=3Fmt=3clientId=74379RQT=309VName=PQD Weier, A. (2001). She Socked Segregation Civil Rights Leaders Still Inspires Students, Madison Capital Times. Madison, WI, Retrieved July 27, 2012 from ProQuest. http://search. proquest. com/docview/395202519? accountid=32521 Younge, G. (2000). She Would Not Be Moved. The Guardian. London, UK. , Retrieved July 28, 2012 from ProQuest. http://search. proquest. com/docview/245609939? accountid=32521.