The Downfalls of Egalitarianism and Television - 989 Words

What would actually happen if everyone was forced to be equal? Kurt Vonnegut envisioned this in his masterpiece, â€Å"Harrison Bergeron.† The story is about â€Å"what would happen if a government or some other power takes this notion serious† (Mowery). The protagonist, Harrison, who is arrest for â€Å"exuberant individuality,† escapes from prison and goes on a national television station to declare himself emperor, only later to be killed by the handicap general Diane Moon. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron,† Kurt Vonnegut satirizes the movement toward egalitarianism and the effect of television on people. Egalitarianism can be absurd and detrimental to American society. In the story, heavy weights are put on strong people, and grotesque masks are put on†¦show more content†¦Literary Critic, Newton Minow, called television a vast wasteland of destructive or meaningless programs. Minow claimed that â€Å"instead of challenging people to think, telev ision programming was making it easier for people to avoid serious thought† (Hist. text). The uses of television desensitize Harrison’s Mother, Hazel. Although, she did shed a tear when she witnesses her son being murder on television, she said, â€Å"I forgot, it was something real sad on television.† Hazel became so numbed watching television; she forgot what she was crying about (Alvarez). In addition, one may determine that Hazel has attention deficit disorder because she is not to focus on anything (themes and cons.). According to Karen Wood, â€Å"Harrison Bergeron concerns with technological problems only as these problems express and explicate character- the character of the human race† (Karen Wood). In summary, the people gave up their individuality for the â€Å"good† of society of being equal. Vonnegut’s real point behind â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† is a serious attack on the idea of enforced equality (Mowery). At the end of the story, Vonnegut seems to say that there is no government capable of suppressing the individual completely. Rather, the inner strength of human nature at its finest is more powerful that ill-conceived laws (Mowery). In a criticism, Stanley Schatt describes when Harrison is dies, â€Å"It is the lost beauty, grace, and wisdom.† In summary, Today American society canShow MoreRelatedThe Downfalls of Egalitarianism and Television964 Words   |  4 Pagesserious† (Mowery). The protagonist, Harrison, who is arrest for â€Å"exuberant individuality,† escapes from prison and goes on national television station to declare himself emperor, only later to be killed by the handicap general Diane Moon. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron,† Kurt Vonnegut satirizes the movement toward egalitarianism and the effect of television on peo ple. Egalitarianism can be absurd and detrimental to American society. In the story, heavy weights are put on strong people, and grotesque masks areRead MoreMikahil Gorbachev: A Brief Biography Essay1529 Words   |  7 Pagesin this country.† Gorbachev also recognized that in order for the Soviet Union to successfully form international joint ventures and global standards, all sensitive employment issues that had been previously ignored had to be addressed. The egalitarianism of the Communist theory needed to be challenged, and uniformity of income regardless of performance had to end. Incentives were necessary in order to motivate worker competition in a fair environment. Therefore, Gorbachev initiated a wage reformRead MoreExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesspending reached a colossal $4.5bn by 2006. Companies recognised that well-informed patients were prepared to ask for drugs by name, creating a powerful ‘pull’ strategy (see Box 3). DTC was costly because of the vast target audience and expensive television advertising. 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The company is engaged in negotiations to expand its theme

Premarital Sex and Euthanasia Free Essays

Pros and Cons of Premarital Sex and Euthanasia Purpose: To Inform in debate form to the audience about the Pros and Cons of Sex before Marriage and the act of Euthanasia. Specific Purpose: To come to a better understanding about both topics and to sort out the main Pros and Cons of each topic individually. Thesis Statement: Sex before Marriage and Euthanasia have many fascinating facts and opinions to support one another. We will write a custom essay sample on Premarital Sex and Euthanasia or any similar topic only for you Order Now I will discuss the Pros and Cons, such as the advantages and disadvantages of each topic to better help my debate on each issue. Main Point 1 Pros of Premarital sex. a. The fulfillment of a sexual desire b. Beneficial to the relationship in a communcation level c. Acceptance from partner d. Fun and exciting Main Point 2 Cons of Premarital Sex a. Is morally incorrect b. The fear of pregnancy c. Guilt d. Lack of self-respect Main Point 3 Pros of Euthanasia a. Relieve extreme pain b. To terminate the feeling of a low life c. Frees up medical funds d. Freedom of Choice â€Å"The Right to Die† Main Point 4 Cons of Euthanasia a. Devalues human life and rights b. Medical degrees involved in causing death, rather then saving lives c. Mistakes can happen d. Lack of respect to religious beliefs Yes? No? Reading upon these two controversial topics statiscally the majority of society will come to agree on the rights of â€Å"Premarital Sex† and the â€Å"Right to Die† about 70% of opinions are based on the Pros and what this leads me to an unclouded understanding that society now a days main concern is receiving instant gratification. People are no longer patient and are loosing their cultural, social and self respect by agreeing to mainly the pros yet there is a bright understanding of it’s Cons which supports the morally correct decision to make and the religious aspect of both topics. Contribute to this websites and help support your opinion, don’t just let your idea and opinion go to waste! How to cite Premarital Sex and Euthanasia, Papers

Slavery Essays (1324 words) - Racism, Slavery In The United States

Slavery annon We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness (Thomas Jefferson). Slavery Slavery in America stems well back to when the new world was first discovered and was led by the country to start the African Slave Trade- Portugal. The African Slave Trade was first exploited for plantations in that is now called the Caribbean, and eventually reached the southern coasts of America (Slavery Two; Milton Meltzer). The African natives were of all ages and sexes. Women usually worked in the homes, cooking and cleaning, whereas men were sent out into the plantations to farm. Young girls would usually help in the house also and young boys would help in the farm by bailing hay and loading wagons with crops. Since trying to capture the native Indians, the Arawaks and Caribs, failed (Small-Pox had killed them), the Europeans said out to capture African slaves. They were shipped from Africa by the Europeans in what was called The Triangular Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This was an organized route where Europeans would travel to Africa bringing manufactured goods, capture Africans and take them to the Caribbean, and then take the crops and goods and bring them back to Europe. The African people, in order to communicate invented a language that was a mixture of all the African languages combined, called Creole. This language now varies from island to island. They also kept their culture which accounts for calypso music and the instruments used in these songs. Slavery was common all over the world until 1794 when France signed the Act of the National Convention abolishing slavery. It would take America about a hundred years to do the same (Slavery Two; Milton Meltzer). George Washington was America's hero. He was America's first president. He was a slave owner. He deplored slavery but did not release his slaves. His will stated that they would be released after the death of his wife (The Volume Library; 1988). Washington wasn't the only president to have slaves. Thomas Jefferson wrote, All men are created equal but died leaving his blacks in slavery. In 1775 black Americans were sent to fight in the revolutionary army. The British proposed that if a black man was to join their army, they would be set free afterwards. America originally planned not to let the blacks fight in the army, but when hearing this, let them enlist. Only Georgia and South Carolina refused to let them enlist, but paid for their racism when each lost 25,000 blacks to the British. The slaves returned on an honourable discharge after securing America's freedom, but not their own (Software Toolworks Encyclopedia; 1992). Slavery continued and so did the numbers of slaves trying to escape to the free states or into Canada. A runaway slave would be found by bloodhounds, trained to find black slaves. Then the slave, upon returning, would be executed or severely whipped. The Underground Railroad was a project that helped black slaves escape into Canada, especially Amherstburg. The system involved 3,000 white helpers and freed an estimated 75,000 people after the civil war. Slavery in the middle of the 1800's was abolished except for the rebellion states in the south. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued which made slavery illegal in the states that had rebelled and allowed black slaves to serve in the army and get other jobs, or continue to work on the plantations, as employees making money. The nightmare of slavery was over but a new one was to begin. One that was worse for it was prevalent but was secret and silent. One that exists today. One that does not shrink but rather grows. Racism was and is upon us. Racism I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character (Martin Luther King Jr.) Ku Klux Klan. Neo Nazis. The Aryan Nations. The American Nazi Party. What are these groups? Why are they present in a land of supposed equality of all men? They are there because there are millions of Americans that believe in their message of white pride. The African American population is growing and Americans are now a mixed group of people. Black people are white people's neighbours, doctors, friends. With a growing unity between the two

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients Free Online Research Papers Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic condition, which results in a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. The disease leads to loss of neurons in the striatum, with more severe neuronal loss as the disease progresses. The present study aims to investigate how such degeneration may affect social stereotyping. Perspective taking has been used by numerous authors to try and reduce stereotypes, and bias against groups outside of one’s own. It was hypothesised that due to degeneration of brain areas thought to be key to the process of perspective taking and reducing bias, that HD patients would be unable to use a perspective taking task to reduce their in-group bias. The participants for this study were nine HD patients attending the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital HD clinic, and fourteen control participants, matched for educational background. A number of measures were used, including a relative positivity scale andtrait overlap to measure in-group bias, and tests of prefrontal cortex function. Analysis showed no support for the hypothesis, with no significant differences found on the measures of relative positivity and trait overlap. However, a number of methodological problems are discussed, along with directions for future research. Introduction Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, degenerative illness, thought to affect between four to ten individuals of Caucasian origin in every 100 000 (Reddy, Williams and Tagle, 1999). The disease results in a variety of motor and psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms usually begin around the age of 40 to 50 years. In the early stages of the disease, these symptoms include fidgeting, clumsiness, dance like movements referred to as chorea, absentmindedness, depression, apathy, irritability and psychosis. As the disease progresses, these symptoms worsen, with speech deterioration, facial grimacing and the development of an inability to swallow. There is also a decline in cognitive functions, especially spatial deficits, and executive function (Brandt, Leroi, O’Hearn, Rosenblatt and Margolis, 2004). In its juvenile form, the age of onset is much earlier, and the symptoms more severe. The disease eventually leads to death. Snowden, Gibbons, Blackshaw, Doubleday, Thompson, Crauford, Foster, Happe and Neary (2003) also reported some social cognition deficits in patients with HD. In their study, HD patients were found to have deficit compared to controls in the comprehension and understanding of humourous cartoons and story vignettes, although these deficits were more pronounced in patients with frontotemporal dementia, another disorder affecting the frontostriatal systems. HD is an autosomal dominant genetic condition. The disease has been linked to a mutation of the IT15 gene on chromosome 4 (the Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group, 1993). The mutation of this gene causes the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat of the sequence CAG, which codes for the huntingtin preotein, to expand to over 36 repeats. This in turn causes the protein Huntingtin to fold abnormally (Li and Li, 2004), initiating a protective cellular response meant to prevent the build up of the Huntingtin protein. However, this response puts the endoplasmic reticulum of the mitochondria under stress (Rao and Bredesen, 2004), affecting mitochondrial homeostasis (Bezprozvanny and Hayden, 2004). This eventually leads to cell death. The number of CAG repeats is inversely proportional to the age on onset that the symptoms of the disease begin to manifest themselves (Andrew and Hayden, 1995). It has been suggested that the number of CAG repeats also correlates to psych iatric symptoms experienced by HD sufferers, however studies have failed to find any such correlation (Berrios, Wagle, Markova, Wagle, Ho, Rubinsztein, Whittaker, Ffench-Constant, Kershaw, Rosser, Bak and Hodges, 2001). Although the IT15 gene is found in many body tissues, the primary site of degeneration is the brain (Reddy at al, 1999), in particular the striatum. In the early stages of the disease, the dorsomedial striatum is affected, then as the disease progresses, there is more pronounced degeneration of striatal neurons, with damage spreading to the cerebral cortex. The localised pathological changes found in HD patients account for the symptoms it produces. The degeneration of the basal ganglia, in particular the striatum, affects all five of the frontal subcortical neural circuits, which have been summarised by Cummings (1993). These circuits begin in the frontal cortex, which then project to regions of the striatum, the globus pallidus and the thalamus (Tekin and Cummings, 2002). The disruption caused to the motor circuit accounts for the movement disorders seen in HD, the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit the executive function problems, the orbitofrontal circuit the depression, and the anterior cingulate circuit the apathy (Tekin and Cimmings, 2002). Cummings (1993) also reported HD patients with antisocial personality disorder, and suggested a link between HD and obsessive compulsive disorder, thought to be due to the degeneration of one of the frontal subcortical neural circuits. Previous work has highlighted the role of the prefrontal cortex in the capacity to attribute thoughts and feelings to others, therefor it is plausible that HD patients may have a problem in doing this. Ruby and Decety (2004) used a perspective taking task in their neuroimaging study to highlight the importance of the frontalpolar, the somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobe in distinguishing the self and the other. Furthermore, Ehlers and Bratt (1996) showed that patients with serious injury to the frontal lobes had a general lack of empathy and inability to see situations from a perspective other than their own. The ability to see the perspective of others and the reduction of stereotypes has long been discussed in social psychology. Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) cite the early writings of Allport in 1935 and his opinion that attitudes are ‘rigid’, and unlikely to be changed or modified unless ‘under the provocation of serious affective disorganisation’. However, recent theories have taken the view that attitudes are more fluid and subject to change (Dasgupta and Asgari, 2004). Being able to take the perspective of another (perspective taking) is essential for avoiding the over use of social stereotypes. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) investigated perspective taking in normal subjects. They found that perspective taking was an effective strategy for reducing bias against members of a social group outside of the participants’ own. Research using caregivers of cancer patients has also shown that perspective taking ‘helped to prompt adjustments down from a self orientated viewpoint’ (Lobchuk and Voruer, 2003). Davis, Conklin, Smith and Luce (1996) have also looked at perspective taking in normal participants. In their study, it was found that the use of perspective taking resulted in the participants attributing traits to novel targets that they had previously used to describe themselves. In the second part of their study, the participants were given a memory task as a distracter while completing the original perspective taking task. In this condition, it was found that there was a reduced overlap between traits assigned to self and the novel group. This would imply that persepctive taking is only effective if the perspective taking task is remembered clearly. Memory is an executive function. Using the assumption of executive function being controlled by the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit as proposed by Cummings and Tekin (2002), is it possible that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit, such as that caused by HD, could cause some patients to also have a reduced overlap in t raits assigned to a novel group and the self? Galinsky (2002) suggests that bias between out-groups and the self may be due to internal psychological processes, in particular categorisation and egocentrism. Work conducted by Filoteo, Maddox and Dais (2001) has shown that patients with HD perform poorly on categorisation tasks, such as simple line stimuli categorisation into one of two groups, leading them to conclude that HD causes deficits in learning categorisation rules. Furthermore, a neuropsychological theory of categorisation published by Ashby, Alfonso-Reese, Turken and Waldron in 1998 highlights the role of caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices in category learning. . A similar category learning deficit has also been found in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Ashby, Noble, Filoteo, Waldron and Ell, 2003), which has similar pathology to HD, affecting the brain areas involved in frontal subcortical circuits. The above evidence has illustrated a number of deficits and potential deficits in HD patients, linked to the degeneration of the striatum and frontal subcortical circuits. Given this evidence, the present study aims to investigate the potential deficits in ingroup bias and the effect of perspective taking to reduce in group bias in patients with HD. It is hypothesised that due to the degeneration of the striatum and associated prefrontal dysfunction caused by HD, and the loss of psychological functions associated with the damaged frontal subcortical circuits, HD sufferers will be unable to use a perspective taking exercise, similar to that used by Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000), to reduce their ingroup bias. This hypothesis will be tested using asylum seekers as an out group, as it is unlikely any of the participants will have had any direct contact with members of this group. Trait lists containing positive and negative items will be used to measure any bias. Method Participants Information packs about the study were sent to all patients attending the Huntington’s Disease clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, whom the Clinic Consultant deemed able to participate in the study (a copy of this pack can be found in Appendix A). All of these patients had a confirmed diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, via genetic testing. Of these, eleven patients volunteered to participate in the study. Two patients’ data was excluded from the data analysis due to failure to complete the experimental protocol. The remaining nine participants were four males and five females, with a mean age of 52.4. These participants were at various stages of the disease, however, due to time constraints, no formal measure of the severity of the disease could be taken. Control participants were recruited by opportunity sampling. A total of fifteen control participants were tested, of which one participants’ data was discarded due to a large number of outliers in their performance across all tasks in the experimental protocol. These participants had no diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, nor any family history of the disease. The fourteen control participants whose data was used were seven males and seven females, with a mean age of 59.4. Procedure Patients were tested either in their homes or at the Huntington’s Disease Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, in accordance with their preference. Patients were permitted to bring one friend or relative into the testing room if they desired. The control patients were tested in their homes. At the beginning of each testing session, all participants were asked to sign a consent form, and complete a short questionnaire regarding demographic information, including age, gender and educational background (a copy of this questionnaire can be found in Appendix B). Participants were then asked to complete each task from the experimental protocol (a copy of the protocol can be found in Appendix B). The testing session was recorded using a Dictaphone recording device in all sessions. After analysis, these recordings were destroyed. If any participant was unable to complete the pen and paper elements of the protocol due to reading difficulties or difficulties associated to their movement disorder, these sections were read to the participant and recorded by the experimenter. At the end of the testing session, each participant was debriefed, and given a debriefing letter to take away with him or her (a copy of this debriefing letter can be found in Appendix A). Measures FAS The FAS Word Fluency Test was used as a general measure of prefrontal cortex functioning. In this test, participants were asked to generate as many words as they could in one minute which began with the letter F, then repeat the task with the letters A and S. This test was used to assess if there was any significant difference in prefrontal cortex functioning between the patient and control groups. Emotional Stroop The Emotional Stroop tests were used to evaluate prefrontal functioning, and to measure reduction of in-group bias. This task was repeated before and after the perspective taking task. Three conditions were used; an XXXX condition, in which rows of XXXX were presented to serve as a control for the word conditions, neutral words, and words seeded with words salient to the out-group (asylum seekers). The words salient with the out group were gained via a pilot study. Initially, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were interviewed and asked to generate words they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The words collected from this pilot study were then compiled into a questionnaire used in a second pilot study. Again, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were used, and asked to tick the ten words from the list they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The ten highest scoring wo rds from this pilot study were then used in the stroop test. Words for the neutral and seeded conditions were matched for word frequency and word length. Perspective Taking Task A perspective taking task was used in order to try and reduce in-group bias. The participant was given a picture of a mythical asylum seeker, with a number of prompting words printed under the picture, and asked to ‘Adopt the perspective of an asylum seeker and imagine the day in their life as if you were that person, looking at the world through his/her eyes and walking in their shoes’, and describe a typical day in that persons’ life. The prompting words can be found in the experimental protocol, in Appendix B. Trait Lists Trait questionnaires were used to assess in-group bias before and after the perspective taking task. The trait list contained ten positive and ten negative traits, and the order of the words on the trait lists was randomised as such that the traits listed were not in the same order for the second presentation. Analysis Relative Positivity A measure of relative positivity was obtained. This was achieved by first subtracting the number of negative traits from the number of positive ones for each pair of trait lists (self on first presentation, out-group at first presentation, self at second presentation, outgroup at second presentation). This created a measure of positivity. The numbers generated from this exercise were then used in a second calculation. The positivity of the out-group before perspective taking was subtracted from the positivity of self before perspective taking. This was repeated for the after perspective taking results. Trait Overlap In order to gain the data for the trait overlap analysis, traits assigned to both the self and the out-group for each repetition of the task (before / after perspective taking) was measured. Where a trait was shared, a score of 1 was recorded, and where a trait was not shared, a score of 0 was allocated. Results FAS Word Fluency Test Table 1.1 Mean number of words generated in the FAS test. Group Mean number of words generated Standard deviation Patients 25.00 17.62 Controls 53.50 17.99 Participants in the patient condition generated fewer words (mean score = 25, SD = 17.62) than the control condition (mean score = 53, SD = 17.99). The 95% confidence interval for the estimated general population is between –12.64 and –44.36. An independent t-test showed that if there was no significant difference between the scores of patients and controls, this result would be highly unlikely (t = -3.737, DF =21, p

Tundra Land Biome Description and Characteristics

Tundra Land Biome Description and Characteristics Biomes are the worlds major habitats. These habitats are identified by the vegetation and animals that populate them. The location of each biome is determined by the regional climate. The tundra biome is characterized by extremely cold temperatures and treeless, frozen landscapes. There are two types of tundra, the arctic tundra and the alpine tundra. Key Takeaways: Tundra Biome The two types of tundra, arctic and alpine, have distinct differencesArctic tundra regions are located between coniferous forests and the north pole, while alpine tundra regions can be anywhere in the worlds high elevationsArctic tundra vegetation is mostly limited due to a number of inhospitable conditions.Tropical alpine tundra vegetation consists of a variety of short shrubs, grasses, ​and perennialsAnimals that live in tundra regions are uniquely suited to endure the harsh conditions Tundra The arctic tundra is located between the north pole and the coniferous forests or taiga region. It is characterized by extremely cold temperatures and land that remains frozen year-round. Arctic tundra occurs in frigid mountaintop regions at very high elevations. Alpine tundra can be found in high elevations anywhere in the world, even in tropic regions. Although the land is not frozen year-round as in arctic tundra regions, these lands are typically covered in snow for most of the year. This image shows permafrost melting in the arctic region of Svalbard, Norway. Jeff Vanuga/Corbis/Getty Images Climate The arctic tundra is located in the extreme northern hemisphere around the north pole. This area experiences low amounts of precipitation and extremely cold temperatures for most of the year. The arctic tundra typically receives less than 10 inches of precipitation per year (mostly in the form of snow) with temperatures averaging below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. In summer, the sun remains in the sky during the day and night. Summer temperatures average between 35-55 degrees Fahrenheit. The alpine tundra biome is also a cold climate region with temperatures averaging below freezing at night. This area receives more precipitation throughout the year than the arctic tundra. The average annual precipitation is around 20 inches. Most of this precipitation is in the form of snow. The alpine tundra is also a very windy area. Strong winds blow at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour. Location Some locations of arctic and alpine tundra include: Arctic Tundra North America - Northern Alaska, Canada, GreenlandNorthern Europe - ScandinaviaNorthern Asia - Siberia Alpine Tundra North America - Alaska, Canada, U.S.A., and MexicoNorthern Europe - Finland, Norway, Russia, and SwedenAsia - Southern Asia (Himalayan Mountains), and Japan (Mt. Fuji)Africa - Mt. KilimanjaroSouth America - Andes Mountains Vegetation Alaska Cottongrass. NCTC Image Library/USFWSÂ   Due to dry conditions, poor soil quality, extremely cold temperatures, and permafrost, vegetation in arctic tundra regions is limited. Arctic tundra plants must adapt to the cold, dark conditions of the tundra as the sun does not rise during the winter months. These plants experience brief periods of growth in the summer when temperatures are warm enough for vegetation to grow. The vegetation consists of short shrubs and grasses. The frozen ground prevents plants with deep roots, like trees, from growing. Tropical alpine tundra areas are treeless plains located on mountains at extremely high altitudes. Unlike in the arctic tundra, the sun remains in the sky for about the same amount of time throughout the year. This enables the vegetation to grow at an almost constant rate. The vegetation consists of short shrubs, grasses, ​and rosette perennials. Examples of tundra vegetation include: lichens, mosses, sedges, perennial forbs, rosette, and dwarfed shrubs. Wildlife A moose in the tundra. Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images/Moment/Getty Images Animals of the arctic and alpine tundra biomes must adapt to cold and harsh conditions. Large mammals of the arctic, like musk ox and caribou, are heavily insulated against the cold and migrate to warmer areas in the winter. Smaller mammals, like the arctic ground squirrel, survive by burrowing and hibernating during the winter. Other arctic tundra animals include snowy owls, reindeer, polar bears, white foxes, lemmings, arctic hares, wolverines, caribou, migrating birds, mosquitoes, and black flies. Animals in the alpine tundra migrate to lower elevations in winter to escape the cold and find food. Animals here include marmots, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, grizzly bears, springtails, beetles, grasshoppers, and butterflies.

Database Systems Concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Database Systems Concepts - Essay Example In addition, RAM is usually much smaller in size, about two to three orders of magnitude being frequent. (A rig that I know of has 8 Gigs of RAM and 2 terabytes of hard drive space, and the owner has room to expand to over 5 terabytes, which is roughly a three order of magnitude difference). Scheduling is almost entirely unnecessary. There is a need to compare the RAM disk and the main memory disk-cache, but this doesn't affect the choice of a scheduling algorithm for the hard drive because they are totally different systems and because scheduling on the RAM disk is only looking for buffer cache misses not main memory requests. Hard-disk scheduling considerations are totally different. Hard disks are much larger and they are not read constantly, and the head positioning must jump in order to handle different reads. The file system does store recently used blocks in a buffer cache in main memory, but this is only a partial time-saving maneuver. Caches have finite sizes and need to be purged constantly; in any respect, no one sticks to only a few things in cache. They are constantly opening up new pages, documents and programs, which requires accessing different parts of the disk. This means that scheduling for hard-disk use is at a premium: Indeed, one of the main slowing forces in Moore's Law exponentiation is the relatively anemic growth of hard-drive scanning speeds versus the memory size of hard drives. Different hard disk scheduling regimes have different benefits. When designing a scheduling algorithm, it is important to bear in mind parameters of functionality. These include power consumption, throughput, response time, flexibility for the end-user, and other factors. Again, the cache can only do so much in mitigating these problems, so the choice of how to approach hard disk scheduling has many inherent tradeoffs. One approach is FCFS, or First Come First Served. In this algorithm, operations are conducted in the order requested. This is very simple and elegant in many ways. However, the problem is that not all functions are made equal: Some functions, like Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a Windows computer or dealing with security threats, need to be scanned first. FCFS therefore doesn't have the costs of reordering the work queue, but it doesn't have the benefits either. FCFS cannot have starvation: Every request is serviced. But the performance is poor: It doesn't distinguish between the importance of needs, nor does it have any smart geography. If a end user wants to run six programs from every different side of the disk, FCFS will go in order, crossing immense redundant space and thus leading to slowdown. SSTF, on the other hand, prioritizes geography of the desk. It goes to the closest location on the disk first, no matter what. Again, this has the problem that there is no discrimination for important tasks. Scan time is reduced, but starvation is possible: The head could stay in one sector of the disk for too long if too many requests co me in. Direction switches also slow things down. SCAN goes from the outside to inside then the inside to outside. This has the advantage of being a uniform pattern and reducing variance, but it does lead to a lot of unnecessary scans (though not more scan time) which can be a power consumption issue. LOOK is a bit smarter: It stops going a direction where no requests exist. C-SCAN and C-LOOK use cylinders instead of a simple directional approach. This has the adv

More Effective Communications Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

More Effective Communications - Assignment Example The major problem today is that many companies are wasting their precious resources on ineffective communications that cause confusion among the customers or clients and result in costly customer dissatisfaction. Business communications are not just a simple subject for management studies but it involves a whole range of pre- and post-sale communications, including welcome kits, account statements, invoices, applications, policies, manuals, customer educational materials, announcements of changes in terms and much more (Lundy 2-11). There are several models to show that business communication is one of the most important aspects and is linked to profitability. Under the Universal Business Model (UBM), communication between the three basic functions of production, marketing and accounting increase profitability. For instance, if the marketing unit has not been informed by production as to what it currently manufactures or the amount of stock, the marketing unit may face a problem. Similarly, if manufacturing is not told by accounting what products are profitable to produce, they may operate at a loss. This kind of communication between different units of the same organization also plays a vital role in business communication (Universal Accounting ® Center n.pag. 2007). The importance of business communication and its link to profitability was expressed clearly from the results of Sage Research. Through the study, it was discovered that 22 percent of the organizations polled experienced monthly communication-caused delays-and 13 percent experienced such delays weekly. As a result of communications delays, there was a disruption in the efforts to streamline business processes or adopt the emerging "best practices".