Gunshot Residue Aanalysis Essay Example for Free

Gunshot Residue Aanalysis Essay When a firearm is discharged, residues from the bullet’s force, the primer, cartridge case, firearm itself and the powder from the propellant are expelled from gaps in the guns working parts (Pepper, 2005: 118). These particles are known as gunshot residue (GSR) or firearm discharge residue (FDR) and are composed of partially burnt and un-burnt propellant powder, particles from the ammunition primer, smoke, lubricants, grease and metals from the cartridge. GSR’s are mainly deposited on skin, the hand in which the weapon was fired, on clothing, the entrance wound of victim or any other local target materials present at the crime scene. The major primer elements are lead (Pb), barium (Ba) and antimony (Sb) usually all three elements are present on the hand after firing. Less common elements include aluminium, zinc, copper, silicon and potassium. Organic and inorganic compounds are also present in GSR’s. Organic compounds are found in propellant powder and primer mixtures whereas inorganic compounds derive from primer mixtures. GSR particles are formed when the pin strikes, the primer cap and mixture is ignited creating high levels of temperature and pressure within the cartridge. The increase of temperature melts the primer mixture and the three elements are produced by vaporisation. As the primer mix ignites the propellant powder, an increase in pressure and temperature occurs and the bullet is released from the firearm barrel. The particles involved in this process form as liquid droplets which instantly solidify due to the quick increase of temperature followed by instant cooling. The discharge of firearm can deposit residues on all persons present and not just the person that fired the gun, the analysis as to who fired the weapon must be made with precaution because any hand or body part that was close to the fired weapon may have residue appearing consistent with having fired the weapon. The cartridge case, bullet and bullet coating contain specific elements that can also be detected such as zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu). There are three classifications of GSR particles which take on characteristic morphologies of GSR, regular spheroids, irregular particles and particles that form a layer of lead surrounding an inner core. The collection of GSR should be carried out instantly because GSR evidence can easily be destroyed just by washing your hands and once examined it is generally spherical in shape. Strong evidential value of all three elements must be found by specialised equipment to confirm a gun had been fired by specific suspect(s). Electron microscope (EM) is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to create an image of the specimen being analysed, it is capable of much higher magnifications and is able to see much smaller objects in detail. They are large, expensive pieces of equipment, and require a lot of skill and training to operate EM. All electron microscopes use electromagnetic and electrostatic lenses to control the path of electrons. The design of an electromagnetic lens is a coil of wire around the outside of a tube through which one can pass a current, creating an electromagnetic field. The electron beam passes through the centre of the coil of wire and down the column of the EM towards the sample. Electrons are very sensitive to magnetic fields and are controlled by changing the current through the lenses. There are two types of EM, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Transmission electron microscopy involves a high voltage electron beam emitted by a cathode and formed by magnetic lenses. The electron beam that has been partially transmitted through the thin specimen carries information about the structure of the specimen.This information is then magnified by a chain of magnetic lenses until it is recorded by hitting a fluorescent screen, photographic plate, or light sensitive sensor such as a camera. The image detected is displayed on a computer. SEM is a technique that uses a beam of electrons to produce magnified images of sample by detecting secondary electrons which are emitted from the surface due to excitation by a primary electron beam. The electron beam is scanned across the surface of the sample with detectors building up an image by mapping the detected signals.The beam that impacts with the sample produces 3-dimensional (3D) images of the surfaces at high levels of magnification. SEM can also reveal the actual surface details of the particles with known examples of GSR, the large particles of partially burnt powder and spheres of residues analysed can appear to be from contaminated materials and not just from the specimen. In SEM, backscattered electrons (BSE) form due to collisions between incoming electron and the nucleus of the target atom where electrons are being knocked off. BSE are used to detect contrast between areas with different chemical compositions where heavy metal elements appear brighter in the ima ges formed and lighter metal elements appear darker. SEM has the ability to be coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS or EDX) to provide information about the elemental composition of the sample being analysed. To date the most successful technique is SEM/EDX, which concentrates on the inorganic particles of GSR. This technique not only allows much of the elemental composition of individual particles to be produced but to also enable images that show morphology and the characteristics of GSR (Jackson et al, 2011: 317) . This is important because these two techniques allow GSR particles to be uniquely identified and the discovery of a suspect may appear to be guilty of a crime. Particles will either be identified as possibly being GSR or shown not to have fired the weapon. The advantage of using this technique has the ability to analyse individual particles of GSR typically the three elements lead, barium and antimony can be identified easily using this technique.(Jackson et al, 2011: 315) The EDX technique detects x-rays emitted from the sample during bombardment by an electron beam to characterize the elemental composition of the analysis, features as small as 1 ÃŽ ¼m or less can be analys ed. When the sample is bombarded by the SEMs electron beam, electrons are knocked off from the atoms to the samples surface. The electrons from the ground state are filled by electrons from a higher state which creates an electron hole so that an x-ray is emitted to balance the energy difference between the two electron states. The number and energy of the x-rays emitted from a specimen can be measured by an energy dispersive spectrometer; this gives information direct to the energy difference. The data can be interpreted in various forms from its composition to the x-ray spectrum. SEM/EDX cannot determine whether a person discharged a weapon on any occasion.Thedisadvantages of using this technique are that it’s cost effective, limited availability and a significant amount of training is required to operate the machine as it’s considered to be a specialised piece of equipment (Bell, 2006: 447). SEM examines specific particulates under high magnification whereas EDX allows elemental analysis of samples. SEM/EDX is the preferred method of GSR analysis as it shows in current study that the use o f this technique has increased from 21% to 26% (Ronald et al, 1996: 195) this shows how reliable and accurate it is to use. Positive results are always produced and when providing evidence in court it is less frequently challenged by the judge. Over 72% of laboratories that analyse GSR use SEM/EDX and search more than 50% of the stub; this is composed of aluminium and is an electrically charged conducting tab which is directly placed into the SEM/EDX machine without sample pre-treatment (Ronald et al, 1996: 197) to start the analysis.EDX extends the usefulness of SEM in that elemental analysis which can be performed within regions as small as a few cubic micrometres. All elements from the periodic table can be detected with this type of method. There are many other methods that have been applied to identify both organic and inorganic GSR analysis but it depends on which method you use. Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), x-ray micro-fluorescence, colour/spot testing, inductively coupled plasma (ICP), neutron activation analysis (NAA), gas chromatography (GC) and atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS). TOF-SIMS was determined to have many advantages over SEM/EDX but because of its lack of high resolution imaging it could not reach its level of expectation. TOF-SIMS analyses smokeless black powders because of the high vacuum conditions inside the instrument but was reported to be unsuitable for volatile components such as nitro-glycerine (NG), which is a liquid substance made from glycerol, nitric and sulphuric acid.(Oliver et al, 2010) References Books 1. Suzanne Bell (2006). Forensic Chemistry. USA: Pearson Education Inc. 447. 2. Andrew R.W Jackson and Julie M. Jackson (2011). Forensic Science. 3rd ed. London: Pearson Education Inc. 311-317. 3. Ian K. Pepper (2005). Crime Scene Investigation: Methods and Procedures. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: McGraw-Hill Company. 118. Journals 4. Ronald L. Singer, 1 M.S.; Dusty Davis, 2 B.S.; and Max M. Houck, 3 M.A. (1996). Journal of Forensic Science. A Survey of Gunshot Residue Analysis Methods. 41 (2), 195-198. 5. Oliver Dalby, B.Sc, David Butler, MSc and Jason W. Birkett Ph.D. (2010). Analysis of Gunshot Residue and Associated Materials-A Review. Journal of Forensic Sciences. 55 (4), 924-926 930-931. Websites 6. http://www.jic.ac.uk/microscopy/intro_em.html accessed Thursday 13th December 2012 at 11.12pm 7. http://mee-inc.com/eds.html accessed Wednesday 19th December 2012 at 3.09pm

City of Angels :: essays papers

City of Angels The film City of Angels depicts the existence of an angel watching over a doctor who is deeply shaken by the loss of one of her patients, thus making the reality of angels on earth a possibility for me. Not only does this film make me seriously consider the existence of celestial beings, but I now believe in the possibility that a guardian angel is looking after me. The belief in such beings can be comforting during times of need and in matters of life and death. City of Angels portrays the grace of Heaven meeting the beauty of Earth. Two souls, one mortal and one celestial, must struggle with their willingness and their need to sacrifice everything familiar for the sake of love. Seth is the guardian angel who watches over Dr. Maggie Rice. After learning that it is possible for an angel to become mortal if his love for a woman is deep enough, he realizes the strength of his love for Maggie and agrees to fall from heaven to be with her. Until I watched City of Angels, the thought of invisible beings guiding and protecting me was not a major interest of mine. At the age of eight my uncle, whom I was very close to, passed away, and his death was tragic. Being young and not understanding the concept of death, I had endless questions. â€Å"Where do people go when they die?† â€Å"Is there really a heaven or hell?† â€Å"Are their souls still on earth, just not visible to humans?† Providing some explanation to my uncertainties, the scene in the film involving a library book with a mysterious origin suggests one method in which angels could convey subliminal messages. Seth leaves the book with a section marked for Maggie to consider the existence of angels around her. This scene gives me the sense of spiritual beings roaming earth after death. So where is my late uncle now? In contrast with the belief that a person’s soul travels to Heaven or Hell after death, I feel that my uncle’s soul is still nearby. It is clear that my uncle is my guardian angel. Similarly to the scene in City of Angels where Seth leaves the book on the nightstand to send a message, I have felt as though my uncle was present in a time of concern. City of Angels :: essays papers City of Angels The film City of Angels depicts the existence of an angel watching over a doctor who is deeply shaken by the loss of one of her patients, thus making the reality of angels on earth a possibility for me. Not only does this film make me seriously consider the existence of celestial beings, but I now believe in the possibility that a guardian angel is looking after me. The belief in such beings can be comforting during times of need and in matters of life and death. City of Angels portrays the grace of Heaven meeting the beauty of Earth. Two souls, one mortal and one celestial, must struggle with their willingness and their need to sacrifice everything familiar for the sake of love. Seth is the guardian angel who watches over Dr. Maggie Rice. After learning that it is possible for an angel to become mortal if his love for a woman is deep enough, he realizes the strength of his love for Maggie and agrees to fall from heaven to be with her. Until I watched City of Angels, the thought of invisible beings guiding and protecting me was not a major interest of mine. At the age of eight my uncle, whom I was very close to, passed away, and his death was tragic. Being young and not understanding the concept of death, I had endless questions. â€Å"Where do people go when they die?† â€Å"Is there really a heaven or hell?† â€Å"Are their souls still on earth, just not visible to humans?† Providing some explanation to my uncertainties, the scene in the film involving a library book with a mysterious origin suggests one method in which angels could convey subliminal messages. Seth leaves the book with a section marked for Maggie to consider the existence of angels around her. This scene gives me the sense of spiritual beings roaming earth after death. So where is my late uncle now? In contrast with the belief that a person’s soul travels to Heaven or Hell after death, I feel that my uncle’s soul is still nearby. It is clear that my uncle is my guardian angel. Similarly to the scene in City of Angels where Seth leaves the book on the nightstand to send a message, I have felt as though my uncle was present in a time of concern.

Martha Stewart: A Brand in Crisis

1. Stewart repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, despite the conviction and failed appeal, yet she still says she did nothing wrong. Is this the right strategy? Yes, admit your mistakes, learn from them and move on but don’t continue to make them over and over again. Stewart demoed that she engaged in any improper trading when she sold her shares of ImClone stock (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2007, page 345). Stewart claimed she had previously issued a â€Å"stop-loss† order to sell her 3928 shares; she also called her friend Sam Waksal, but could not reach him. However, Stewart’s explanation that she unloaded her stock because of a pre-arranged sell order collapsed when Douglas Faneuil, the broker’s assistant who handled the sale of the ImClone stock for Stewart, told Merrill Lynch lawyers that his boss, Peter Bacanovic, had pressured him to lie about a stop-loss order. 2. Did Stewart’s actions justify the subsequent sentence to her and those around her? Despite her reputation and business successes, Stewart was indicted in 2003 on criminal charges and faced several civil lawsuits to her sale of the ImClone stock (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2007, page 344). Stewart sold the stock on December 27, 2001, one day before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to review ImClone System’s cancer drug Erbitux; the company’s stock tumbled following the FDA’s announcement. On June 4, 2003, a federal grand jury indicted Stewart on charges of securities fraud, conspiracy (together with Bacanovic), making false statements, and obstruction of justice (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2007, page 346). At her trial, the indictments for securities fraud were dropped, but the other indictments were prosecuted (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2007, page 347). Stewart faced humiliation and some prison time but examples have to be set when running a company. You just can’t do what you please because you own it and not face the consequences. 3. Compare other executives’ wrongdoings versus Stewart’s. Discuss why MSLO is or is not different from what happened at companies such as Enron and Tyco. Enron’s demise caused tens of billions of dollars of investor losses, triggered a collapse of electricity-trading markets, and ushered in an era of accounting scandals that precipitated a global loss of confidence in corporate integrity (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2007, page 328). Now companies must defend legitimate but complicated financing arrangements, even legitimate financing tools tainted by association with Enron. Executives in these positions have a duty to protect the investors and shareholders of the company. Consumers put their trust in them for results and their ethical standards should be top priority. Enormous evidence of book-cooking and scandals involving WorldCom, Enron, Andersen Consulting and now Xerox, combined with Martha Stewart's embroglio over dumping ImClone stock last year, have caused growing skepticism among consumers about big brands in an already shaky economy that's trying its best to rebound. â€Å"The overall impact of the corporate financial scandals are going to cause consumers to question the ethics and the corporate behavior of many corporations,† said Lynne Doll, president of Rogers & Associates, a crisis communications firm in Los Angeles. (Hein & Cassidy, 2002). The investigation of Ms. Stewart's trading of ImClone stock continues. But at issue is perhaps less the outcome of the investigation than the more mystical question of what this does to the brand-a subject on which brand experts are more pessimistic than marketers. â€Å"An important element of the brand is authenticity,† said Don Pettit, president-CEO of brand identity firm Sterling Group. â€Å"A lot of Martha's credibility is built on her integrity and authority, and that's exactly what's being called into question. â€Å"

Values of Effective Leader

Exploration Paper Topic: Values Structure of assignment: 1. Introduction 2. Research 3. Results of research 4. My view on values in terms of management 5. Conclusion 6. References 1. Introduction Paying attention to our values helps us to: ? become self-aware ? make ethical decisions ? prioritize our tasks ? develop credibility as a leader Reasons why values are important to managers: 1) Understanding one's own core values is essential to becoming self-aware. And self-awareness helps us to understand how people perceive us; also it allows us to identify the personal qualities that we would like to change.Values influence our choices, but our choices also influence our values with time. If we don’t pay enough attention to examining the correspondence between our actions with our values, our actions may be guided by immediate concerns and instant gratification rather than our values. Process of changes in values takes a lot of time, but usually it begins with changes in behavior . Over time, we start to take for granted the choices that we repeatedly make even if they are initially inappropriate with our values, and our values begin to float as well.Clarification and requalification of our personal values can stop that float. 2) People who internalize and act on standards of justice and human rights achieve a high level of moral development, and they make ethical decisions. During our lifetimes, we pass through different stages of moral development. Small children, at the preconventional level of moral development, make choices on the basis of the immediate consequences of their decisions. People who have not developed further than the preconventional level of moral development, only choose an ethical alternative if it's in their immediate personal interests.People who step forward to the conventional level of moral development make decisions on the basis of the formal rules and informal norms of their social context, and will choose ethical alternatives ev en at the cost of forgoing their self-interests. The small percentage of people who progress to the highest level of moral development, the postconventional stage, make decisions on the basis of human rights, fairness and justice. Such people are willing to close the eyes to their self-interests and may even break society's rules and norms in order to act according to their principles.People who achieve the postconventional level of moral development are trustworthy; it’s difficult to bribe them and they are not pressured by peers. 3) An understanding of one's personal values is useful for time management. The majority of us has the opportunity to do more things than we'll ever have time to do. Consequently, we have to choose the tasks we will work on thoughtfully. An understandable picture of our personal values allows us to rank the tasks on our â€Å"to do† lists according to its importance for us. 4) Having a clear set of personal values helps us to build the relia bility and trust that assists leadership.The most challenging times for leaders are times when they must lead others into something new. Transformational leaders are able to influence their followers to increase their faith and follow them into the unknown; they build trust. We are more tending to trust people when we understand their values, and see that their actions are harmonious with those values, because we can predict how they will act. Today, companies are confronted with different normative expectations from their environment and are expected to be socially responsible.The discussion about responsible behaviour of companies is based on the increasing importance of values in business context. Important element of the choice of motives for human action is the set of values of the person involved in the action. In small and medium-sized enterprises which are human being-shaped more strongly than big companies, the question of values propagated and lived in the company refers d irectly to mangers. There was one research conducted in co-operation between the International Graduate School Zittau (Germany) and the Technical University in Liberec (Czech Republic) in the period of March – September 2006.It considers the question of what values are significant for small and medium-size companies’ managers and owners and how they manage to bring their personal moral values into harmony with the company’s interests. It focuses on personal values as broad concepts examining their importance in the context of the entrepreneurs’ or managers’ personal lives on one hand, and in process of making a decision and actions inside the company on the other hand. 2. Research Method and context of research Small and medium-size companies were determined by the number of employees; companies were selected from the following business area: Industry ? trade ? service sector ? public and state authorities ? non-profit organizations ? counselor ? e ducation The statistics was collected by personal interviews using a standard approved questionnaire. The interviews were hold only with personnel responsible for decision-making: with the company’s owner, director or manager. The questionnaire covered a variety of areas of business ethics such as: ? perception and evaluation of the business ethics ? ethical values ? ethical/unethical behaviours ? attitudes towards unethical behavior perception of unethical behaviour ? role of success in unethical behavior In questions focusing on personal and company’s ethical values, categories defined in beforehand of 20 values were used to evaluate their importance in the process of decision-making. Connection between personal and company’s values was calculated by Likert scale[1]. As a point of departure for the analysis of categorical variables, percentage frequency tables were used to describe the importance of personal and company ethical values. . Results of reserch The significance of personal values Owners and managers are not just business people; they are also human beings. They have their deep personal values and that are unlikely to change in a short period of time. To investigate the owners’ and managers’ personal values importance, 20 values focused on the objective that one would like to achieve were selected from different areas of value system. Respondents were asked to tick five the most important and five the least important values.According to survey: [pic] The majority of asked owners and managers consider health (86 percent) and family (76 percent) to be the most important personal values. Other personal values that have got comparatively high number of answers were reliability (51 percent), integrity, honesty (42 percent) and trust, reliance (40 percent). About one third of respondents stated responsibility (34 percent), money, financial success and prosperity (31 percent), and education (29 percent) to be one of ver y important values.The least important values with the lowest frequency of answers (stated by less than 10 percent respondents) were commitment (2 percent), individualism (3 percent), discipline (6 percent), openness, frankness (9 percent), and credibility and trustworthiness (10 percent). Also survey showed that reliability was perceived to be more important personal value for companies operating in the industry, trade and service sector than to non-profit organizations, state and municipal authorities, education or consultancy companies. The significance of business valuesAlike the personal value system, the importance of values in term of corporate management and culture was studied by the research. Respondents were asked to tick five values that in their opinion are the most important in their business activities and decision-making processes. Also, they were asked to mark five the least important values in managing their business. According to survey: [pic] Comparing to persona l values, the importance of values in management is not so clear. The highest achieved number of answers (65 percent) was showed in professionalism and quality.Just about 50 percent of respondents said that reliability (53 percent), and relationships, co-operation and team work (51 percent) are important values in their management. Roughly one third of respondents believe that integrity, honesty (36 percent), responsibility (35 percent), focus on success, profit, prosperity (32 percent) and flexibility (30 percent) to be very important values in business operations. The least important management values were individualism (2 percent), tolerance (3 percent), openness, frankness (5 percent), discipline (6 percent) and respect, acknowledgement, justice and fairness (7 percent).Concurrence of personal and business values Growing competition and unstable business environment force managers to look for the highest possible return on each investment and develop strategies that can increase companies’ profits and success. This puts high pressure on companies’ owners and managers. In order to fulfill all requirements, owners and managers are often have to make decision and act at variance with their believes and personal values.For this reason, the research examined how difficult it is for owners and managers of small and medium-size enterprises to bring their personal values in concurrence with their business values, and under what circumstances they would make a decision that would be against their personal moral values. Respondents were asked to mark if they agree or disagree, using Likert scale, with six statements that show complexity in keeping their business decisions and actions (business values) in concurrence with their personal values.Over a half of respondents agreed that for owners and managers it is difficult to behave according to ethical norms and values either because: ? it is not possible to fulfill expectations of people (agreed 70 perc ent of respondents), ? conditions in the market are not adjusted for ethical behaviour (69 percent), ? there is danger that competition will be stronger (67 percent), ? there are no ethical regulations in the company (50 percent). Also, about 57 percent of respondents agreed that it is not difficult to act according to personal ethical values but in order to achieve company’s objectives, it is inconvenient.Roughly 49 percent of respondents agreed that it is not difficult to combine their personal and business values, even though it is uncomfortable for them. What's more, the survey showed that about 3 percent of respondents would always and 31 percent maybe act against their personal values if they could increase success and profit of the company whereas, in case of the company bankruptcy more respondents would be certainly (about 25 percent) or very probably (47 percent) willing to step on their personal values.Approximately 84 percent of owners would act against their perso nal values in order to save their company from bankruptcy, comparing to 72 percent of managers and 69 percent of directors. 4. My view on values in terms of management Value is a choice of that you think is important in the present. Values are not something that can be seen. They can be recognized only by studying reactions and attitudes that motivate your behavior. Values and personal life positions are formed under the influence of experience on the stage of person and in the long term may be inappropriate or even destructive.Children are closely watching their parents and see how they behave in times of black and white stripes of life. Bearing in mind and sensing behavior of parents in a calm and tense moments, the often begin to imitate their parents. Children also react to how they are treated, and are seeking ways to overcome the certain problems that arise. Child perceives, mimics, experimenting. Some things he drops and develops a certain way of behavior for himself. Heads o f companies are not insulated from each other in their work.They are influenced by the values existing in a particular social group, especially the views and personal outlook of the senior managers. Due to the need to remain to the style adopted by the corporation, individual managers have problems. The relation between personal and corporate attitudes may vary from support to dissent. Managers with blurry personal values are not tend to doubt their own values and also, in most cases, they tend to ignore data that disagree with their values. They have tendency to be inconsistence.Often, can’t take a quick decision when it s needed and don’t want to take a key position in the dispute, or in making important decisions for the company. Thus, they are trying to shift responsibility to others and to avoid situations where they are expected to explain the decision they made. Managers with clear personal values, on the contrary, often doubt their own values; they are very ser ious about the role of values in decision making. They are able to change their values under the influence of perceived data and experience and are open to talk about it and discuss with colleagues.They are always ready to take the responsibility for decisions made according to their personal values and enthusiastically accept views of colleagues that are different from their own. They are truly trying to understand others' views. These managers are always reliable in making decisions. Both, in everyday life and at work, they always rely on their beliefs and act according to them. Usually, such managers become more effective leaders of organizations, employees tend to listen to them and appreciate them and trust their choice (decision). 5. ConclusionIt is hard to make a standard list of corporate values, because the organizational culture is almost always a mix of original values, attitudes, norms, customs, traditions, behaviors and rituals that are unique to this organization. The purpose of common values is to unite people in groups, to create a powerful force in achieving goals. This aspect of values is widely used in organizational culture, because it allows people to achieve goals. As shown by different studies around the world, today’s qualified employee wants to receive from the organization more than just money.The materialization and impact of a number of social factors led to the formation of a great class of the today’s employees, the expectations are very different from those that dominated in the previous generation. Nowadays, workers are counting not only on financial success, but also tend to psychologically feel comfortable in the organization, and on cultural values which match their personal values. Each organization carries out its activities according to those values, which are essential for its employees.While creating an organizational culture social ideals and cultural traditions of the country should be taken into account. Moreover, for an absolute understanding and assimilation of values in an organization, it is important that the corporate values vary within the organization. The gradual acceptance of these values will allow members of the organization to achieve stability and success in organizational development.References: 1. http://community. livejournal. com/marketing_club/14212. html 2. http://www. fin. ru/management/practice/man_today/lichn. shtml 3. http://www. summittraining. co. uk/news-detail. asp? fldNewsArticles_ID=126 4. http://www. ipsihologia. com/? p=206 5. http://quality. eup. ru/MATERIALY7/ckk. html ———————– [1] A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in survey research. When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement. (www. wikipedia. org)

Internet Censorship Essays - Internet Memes, Free Essays

Internet Censorship Essays - Internet Memes, Free Essays Internet Censorship Mr. Speaker, distinguished members of the house, The opposition concedes that proctecting children and to enable adults to avoid material which offends their personal & community standards should be one of the goals of the government. Having said that, we must find realistic and practical solutions in order to address this issue. Is regulating the internet the answer? Before answering this question, there are many factors to be considered. As the member of the opposition has stated, no single set of standards is appropriate to all users, how can we regulate and deem whats appropriate for one, everyone is different. What one may find offensive on the net, others may not. By restricting the flow of information on the internet, the public will not be able to obtain every possible information which is available to them. Although there will always be certain sites which emits offensive material, it gives us a true balance of our society. By making the internet a perfect world will mislead the publics perception of our true society. Mr. Speaker, the public should have the right to choose which kind of information he or she would like to view. The users should be given the responsibility of private censorship. Like in other cases, adults must provide children with a safe and supportive environment in which to play and learn in. This can be done by subscribing to a filtered Internet Service Provider or by installing a filtering software, it should not be required as the Honorable Prime Minister is proposing. Self-censorship should be decided by the users themselves and not regulated by the government. The Prime Minister has also maintained that there needs to be a rating authority for websites on the internet. Mr. Speaker, although this may seem appropriate, it would be almost impossible to implement. We must remember that unlike print media, one of the advantages of having the internet is to let individuals who have no access or who cannot afford a publisher, the opportunity to be heard. With the amount of information uploaded every second onto the internet, it would be very hard for a rating authority to anaylize these uploads. If a suitable rating must be given before any information is to be displayed on the internet, webmasters would have to wait a considerable amount of time before their work can be viewed over the internet. Mr. Speaker, as my member of opposition as stated, by banning or blocking out certain websites will result in a high social cost, this can be controlled locally, but not on a global scale. The effect would be minimal if not noticeable, and the cost of implementing this would be very high. There are no practical ways of restricting the users, in an era of extreme information fluidity in which every barrier to information can be by passed in several ways will make it very hard for the government to make such a restriction on the internet. Any knowledgeable user can log online and use a different proxy server to by pass these barriers. The Minister of the Crown has expressed there are harmful informations available on the internet which should be regulated. Getting information, such as instructions to build a bomb can certainly cause harm to the public if it is in the wrong hands. However we must realize that by taking such information off the internet will not be the answer. These harmful information can be obtained through many other mediums. Mr. Speaker, information of how to build a bomb can be obtained at your local library, banning certain information on the internet will not be the solution. Stopping and capturing individuals who present harm to the society should be the issue, it would be ignorant to name the Internet as the scapegoat. As for regulating copyright materials on the internet, the government has not proposed any practical and realistic ways to go about this. Problems for the protection of the rights of the different industries, be it music, print and so on, should be addressed. But once again, The Crown presents a false image to the public, regulating the internet to uphold copyright will not solve the problem at hand. Mr. Speaker, the internet presents a minicul porportion of

Uncovering the Archaeological Remains of Tipis

Uncovering the Archaeological Remains of Tipis A tipi ring is the archaeological remains of a tipi, a dwelling type constructed by North American Plains people between at least as early as 500 BC up until the early 20th century. When Europeans arrived in the great plains of Canada and the United States in the early 19th century, they found thousands of clusters of stone circles, made of small boulders placed at close intervals. The rings ranged in size between seven to 30 feet or more in diameter, and in some cases were embedded into the sod. The Recognition of Tipi Rings The early European explorers in Montana and Alberta, the Dakotas and Wyoming were well aware of the meaning and use of the stone circles, because they saw them in use. The German explorer Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuweid described a Blackfoot camp at Fort McHenry in 1833; later plains travelers reporting the practice included Joseph Nicollet in Minnesota, Cecil Denny at the Assiniboine camp at Fort Walsh in Saskatchewan, and George Bird Grinnell with the Cheyenne. What these explorers saw was the people of the Plains using stones to weigh down the edges of their tipis. When the camp moved, the tipis were taken down and moved with the camp. The rocks were left behind, resulting in a series of stone circles on the ground: and, because the Plains people left their tipi weights behind, we have one of the few ways that domestic life on the Plains can be archaeologically documented. In addition, the rings themselves had and have meaning to the descendants of the groups which created them, beyond the domestic functions: and history, ethnography, and archaeology together ensures that the rings are a source of cultural richness belied by their plainness. Tipi Ring Meaning To some plains groups, the tipi ring is symbolic of the circle, a core concept of the natural environment, the passage of time, and the gloriously endless view in all directions from the Plains. Tipi camps were also organized in a circle. Among Plains Crow traditions, the word for prehistory is Biiaakashissihipee, translated as when we used stones to weigh down our lodges. A Crow legend tells of a boy named Uuwatisee (Big Metal) who brought metal and wooden tipi stakes to the Crow people. Indeed, stone tipi rings dated later than the 19th century is rare. Scheiber and Finley point out that as such, stone circles act as mnemonic devices linking descendants to their ancestors across space and time. They represent the footprint of the lodge, the conceptual and symbolic home of the Crow people. Chambers and Blood (2010) note that tipi rings typically had a doorway facing east, marked by a break in the circle of stones. According to Canadian Blackfoot tradition, when everyone in the tipi died, the entrance was sewn shut and the stone circle was made complete. That happened all too often during the 1837 smallpox epidemic at the Akà ­Ãƒ ­Ã¢â‚¬â„¢nisskoo or Many Dead Kà ­nai (Blackfoot or Siksikà ­tapiiksi) campsite near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta. Collections of stone circles without door openings such as those at Many Dead are thus memorials of the devastation of epidemics on Siksikà ­tapiiksi people. Dating Tipi Rings Untold numbers of tipi ring sites have been destroyed by Euroamerican settlers moving into the Plains, purposefully or not: however, there are still 4,000 stone circle sites recorded in the state of Wyoming alone. Archaeologically, tipi rings have few artifacts associated with them, although there are generally hearths, which can be used to gather radiocarbon dates. The earliest of the tipis in Wyoming date to the Late Archaic period circa 2500 years ago. Dooley (cited in Schieber and Finley) identified increased numbers of tipi rings in the Wyoming site database between AD 700-1000 and AD 1300-1500. They interpret these higher numbers as representing an increased population, increased use of Wyoming trail system and the migrations of Crow from their Hidatsa homeland along the Missouri River in North Dakota. Recent Archaeological Studies Most archaeological studies of tipi rings are the results of large scale surveys with selected pit testing. One recent example was in the Bighorn Canyon of Wyoming, the historic home of several Plains groups, such as the Crow and Shoshone. Researchers Scheiber and Finley used  hand-held Personal Data Assistants (PDAs)  to input data on tipi rings, part of a developed mapping method combining remote sensing, excavation, hand-drawing, computer-assisted drawing, and Magellan Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment. Scheiber and Finley studied 143 oval tipi rings at eight sites, dated between 300 and 2500 years ago. The rings varied in diameter between 160-854 centimeters along their maximum axes, and 130-790 cm on the minimum, with averages of 577 cm maximum and 522 cm minimum. Tipi studied in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were reported as 14-16 feet in diameter. The average doorway in their  dataset  faced north-east, pointing to the midsummer sunrise. The internal  architecture of the Bighorn Canyon group included fire hearths in 43% of the  tipis; external included stone alignments and  cairns thought to represent meat drying racks. Sources Chambers CM, and Blood NJ. 2009.  Love  they  neighbour: Repatriating precarious Blackfoot sites.  International Journal of Canadian Studies  39-40:253-279. Diehl MW. 1992.  Architecture as a Material Correlate of Mobility Strategies: Some Implications for Archeological Interpretation.  Cross-Cultural Research  26(1-4):1-35. doi: 10.1177/106939719202600101 Janes RR. 1989.  A Comment on Microdebitage Analyses and Cultural Site-Formation Processes among Tipi Dwellers.  American Antiquity  54(4):851-855. doi: 10.2307/280693 Orban N. 2011.  Keeping House: A Home for Saskatchewan First Nations Artifacts.  Ã‚  Halifax, Nova Scotia: Dalhousie University. Scheiber LL, and Finley JB. 2010.  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Domestic campsites and cyber landscapes in the Rocky Mountains.  Antiquity  84(323):114-130. Scheiber LL, and Finley JB. 2012.  Situating (Proto) history on the Northwestern Plains and  Rocky Mountains. In: Pauketat TR, editor.  The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p 347-358. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195380118.013.0029 Seymour DJ. 2012.  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹When Data Speak Back: Resolving Source Conflict in Apache Residential and Fire-Making Behavior.  International Journal of Historical Archaeology  16(4):828-849. doi: 10.1007/s10761-012-0204-z

Analysis Of Ford Motor Companys Balance Sheet Assignment

Analysis Of Ford Motor Companys Balance Sheet - Assignment Example   Equity refers to the difference between total assets and total liabilities (Fridson et al 2011).  Purpose of the balance sheet  The main purpose behind the preparation of financial statements is to allow major decision makers to assess the present condition of the company and make changes as needed. Balance sheet, therefore, gives users an idea of the company's financial position along with presenting what the company owes and owns. It also indicates how the economic resources contribute by shareholders and lenders are used in the business. It helps investors to determine the financial standing of a company (Fridson et al 2011).  Creditors and banks use the balance sheet to make decisions on loans to be extended to the company. Also, stock investors use the statement of financial position to uncover whether the business represents a good investment. Balance sheet indicates trouble areas for the company such as back taxes owed or chronic late payment fees for bills (Peterson & Fabozzi, 2012).   How it reflects the company’s financial status  Statement of financial position often sums up the liabilities, assets and the owners' capital as a specified point in time. Analysis and review of the balance sheet show the current financial health of a company. Subtracting total liabilities from total assets results into stockholders' equity, this is the net worth of the company. Balance sheet, therefore, shows the value of the company (Ittelson, 2009).