Intercultural Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Intercultural Paper - Essay Example This culture simply identifies itself with codes of conduct that promote love and respect with the main aim of maintaining modesty and purity. Institutions lead to the establishment of norms that support individual survival in a social setting. Stability and functionality of society depend upon roles and responsibilities that are created and defined by different institutions. However many societies may differ, they all have institutions that influence the culture or rather the way of life of individuals. Religious institutions for instance control behaviour and determine the actions of individuals. The religious institution that defines the Hindu culture comprises of various religious practices of which people are expected to abide by. Being the most dominant religion in India, the religion emphasizes with humility, respect, purity and modesty. There are various religious practices that promote these four doctrines. For instance, touching people’s feet is considered a sign of respect. Touch the feet of individuals who are considered to be holy is considered a sign of humility (WordPress, n.d). Hindus also consider i t a tradition to offer gifts to priests and gurus as a sign of appreciating the spiritual blessings they receive. Religious institutions in the Hindu Culture consider purity to be of great essence. Purity takes three forms: purity of body, purity of thoughts and purity of deeds. In their daily activities, Hindus protect this purity through following their religious codes of ethics and living wisely (Sharma, 2002). Religious offerings are usually given to deities from time to time. These offerings are usually in the form of food or flowers. Sniffing of offerings is not allowed based on the belief that sniffing is meant for the gods. All items that are intended to be offered for offerings are cleaned and covered as a sign of purity. Their temples and shrines are

Definitions and Causes of Intellectual Disabilities

Definitions and Causes of Intellectual Disabilities Task 1 1.1 Give 2 definitions of intellectual disability in accordance with a recognized source. Definition 1: â€Å"Intellectual disability means a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information and to learn and apply new skills (impaired intelligence). This results in a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning), and begins before adulthood, with a lasting effect on development.† (World Health Organization, 2014) Definition 2: â€Å"Intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviour as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This disability originates before the age of 18.† (American Association on Intellectual and Development Disabilities, 2008) 1.2 Using a definition of intellectual disability give 2 examples of how this impacts on the person’s adaptive skills: Conceptual skills such as reading time, counting money, reading and writing, expressing something are affected. Practical skills such as mobility, meal preparation, using telephone or mobile and daily living skills such as eating and dressing up are also impaired. Using a definition of intellectual disability give 2 explanations of how this impacts on the person’s cognitive ability: An intellectually disabled person has problems in thinking and reasoning things to make sense of them and utilize that information or advise in the daily living. Such as person also has problems in interpreting the tone in the voices speaking to them and communicating properly with other people. Task 2 2.1 Give 2 examples of causes of intellectual disability that occur before birth and describe two (2) main characteristics of the effects. E.g.1 Genetic Disorder Chromosome abnormality or disorder in the genes can lead to intellectual disability before birth. (American Association on Intellectual and Development Disabilities, 2008) Main Characteristics: One of the examples of Intellectual Disabilities due to genetic disorder is Downs Syndrome. Downs Syndrome occurs due to abnormality in chromosome 21 whereby there is an additional Chromosome 21. It can occur in any family of any race, religion or culture. Babies or children with Downs Syndrome depict small chin, almond shaped eyes and a around face as physical characteristics. Such children will also have a oversized tongue and much shorter limbs. Another type of disability caused by genetic disorder is Prada Willi Syndrome. With Prada Willi Syndrome, there is abnormality in chromosome 15. There is a minute gene deletion in the chromosome 15. The reason for this deletion is remains unknown. People with such disability tend to suffer from food craving and weight gain mainly. E.g. 2 Brain development Caused by environmental factors such as consumption of alcohol by the mother during pregnancy, drugs, infection, other environmental toxins and unknown factors. Brain or portion of it is damaged due to exposure to such elements. (American Association on Intellectual and Development Disabilities, 2008) Main Characteristics: An example of such is Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, caused by exposure to alcohol intake during pregnancy by the mothers. There is interference by alcohol in the delivery of food (nutrition) and oxygen to the brain, which affects the brain development and the connection of brain to the other organs of the body. These children have shorter than average height, have small head and small eyes with low birth weight and have flat face too. Exposure to environmental toxins such as methyl in the air (whereby methyl molecules replace hydrogen in the air) leads to Fragile X Syndrome. Children with Fragile X-Syndrome would have been affected by DNA rearrangements and this is more common in males. These children or males generally tend to have large testicles. 2.2 Give 2 examples of causes of intellectual disability that occur during or immediately following birth and describe 2 main characteristics f the effects. E.g. 1 Low Birth Weight Children with low birth weight can also be impaired and classed under intellectual disability. Source: (Centre for Disease Control, 2013) Main Characteristics: The child with low birth weight of basically below 2.5kg but especially below 1.5kg have great risks and chances of having cerebral palsy. It is not really a c cause rather a risk factor. Such a child has problems in balancing her/himself due to cognitive impairment. Children with low birth weight can also develop or be affected by epilepsy (World Health Organization, 2012). Perinatal injury factors such as low birth weight leads to brain damage. These people tend to have involuntary episodes of seizure, which can be several at times. E.g. 2 Trauma Brain injuries or trauma can also lead to many intellectual disabilities. This can vary in degree yet leave a huge impact. Traumas at times can be prevented but there are certain times it can not be. Source: Auckland Goldstar Institute (2014), Powerpoint slides 23-27) Main Characteristics: One of it is epilepsy. The brain damage due trauma can lead to epilepsy. People with epilepsy have involuntary movements of the body. This could be referred to as episodes of seizures. Such children/clients may be devoid of awareness of their environment and can also be unconscious for sometime. Another of the intellectual disabilities caused by trauma is cerebral palsy. The brain injury during birth affects a persons’ ability to move and coordinate. Such clients have problems with bladder or bowel movements. It is difficult to control these. 2.3 Give 2 examples of causes of intellectual disability that occur during childhood years and describe the impact of the day-to-day support needs of the person. E.g. 1 Infections Infections such as Meningitis can lead to epilepsy. Meningitis affects the brain directly and can be taken as a cause of epilepsy. (Source: Auckland Goldstar Institute (2014), Powerpoint slide 23) Impact: The client will have convulsions now and again. This is due to the brain damage from meningitis infection. There could be partial seizures, which would be eventuating from a small part of the brain being affected. E.g. 2 Exposure to Environmental Factors We are exposed to many factors or toxins in the environment on daily basis. Some of these factors can lead to Autism. (Source: Auckland Goldstar Institute(2014), Powerpoint slide 33) Impact: Have difficulty in speaking, can be repetitive with words or have flat tone of voice. Hence, they experience hardships in communicating with many people. They find it hard to socialize with large groups of people. This can lead to these clients feelings isolated and as they are unable to develop or make friends. Task 3 Describe conditions frequently associated with intellectual disability. Condition 1: Epilepsy Cause: Epilepsy, another of those common intellectual disabilities has been related to many causes. While some times it is unknown, the known factors are: genetics serious head injuries or severe head trauma hypoxia or lack of oxygen during birth infections such as encephalitis and meningitis Main Characteristic 1: Such clients can experience convulsions or seizures. Seizures may be partial. This happens due to injuries to the brain whereby the part of the brain controlling body movements is affected. Main Characteristic 2: The person/client may also lose awareness of presence in a place and happenings around it. This also happens due to brain effects resulting from any of the causes. Physical Support: Need help in ensuring correct administration of medications, monitoring of that these medications are taken, tending to any effects or side effects. Safety of such clients is paramount as these clients have seizures and involuntary body movements. Thus, these clients as well as the family (or whanau) need to be educated on what it is and the management (this includes ensuring safety, taking care of other needs, medication intake, taking appropriate steps when a person has seizures) a of epilepsy. A safe environment that is free of and hazards is also needed. The airways of any person having seizures should always be kept open. Social support: Clients need encouragement and positive response to help them maintain their dignity during and after seizures. These clients also need motivation and support to help them get into studies and be educated. Since epileptic clients can get socially shy and may not mix around with others, they need constant support and encouragement to help them be in contact and maintain communication with her/his friends and co-workers. Cognitive support: Epileptic clients can end up losing a lot of learning hours and opportunities due to seizures. They thus experience difficulties in learning. This can and often leads to needing additional teaching support in terms of using devices such as visual aids, diary for appointments, calendars, memory aids and even a 1 to 1 teacher support. These support modes will be really helpful to them. Condition 2: Spinal bifida Cause(s): Spinal bifida, which is a before birth is a condition whereby a person has incomplete brain, spinal cord and/or meninges development. The type and location of the malformation denotes the severity of the condition as to where it is mild or severe. While the cause is generally unknown, it can be possibly related to genetics, folic acid deficiency in diet and also environmental factors. Main Characteristic 1: People with spinal bifida can experience bladder or bowel control loss. They have lack of control on them urinating or defecating, on the amount and when they do it. Main Characteristic 2: Feeling of muscle weakness or paralysis below the region where the incomplete closure (cleft) or malformation has occurred. Thus, as a result they can also feel loss of sensation in the region below the affected area. Physical support: A person with spinal bifida needs assistance with mobility. Walkers or wheelchairs will be required for such people as they have affected lower limbs or are paralytic. Additional support from occupational therapists or physiotherapists may be required together with additional environmental adaptation. Medical or surgical interventions can be required for such clients. Social support: Accessibility to community based activities and appropriate transportation support is required for such people. Education and work opportunities support also need so that they receive similar treatment as other people and so that these people can also advance in life. As they may feel shy because of their condition, they will need activities of sports or recreation so that it can espouse them to make friends and socialize with other people. Cognitive support: Hydrocephalous (build up of fluid in the brain) can interfere in learning process. Even surgical interventions can lead to missing school whereby learning is disrupted. Hence, additional support in the forms of having home based learning with tutors and supplementary efforts from teachers in school become mandatory. Condition 3: Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Cause: the prime cause of this condition is alcohol exposure to the foetus while in the utero. The leads to brain damage and problems with growth. The delivery of oxygen and necessary nutrition is disrupted by alcohol and this affects tissue and organ development including the brain. Main characteristic 1: Some of the physical characteristics of the such people are low birth weight, small head and small eyes. This can be basically happening due to lack of nutrition to the foetus. Main characteristic 2: Language and speech delays are also experienced by these people as brain functions and development had been affected by lack of oxygen. Physical Support: Health care staff support in forms of physiotherapists and speech therapists will be required to assist such people. These staff will help to overcome the difficulties of language, pronunciation and speech. Social support: As these people have problems with their speech and language they could hesitate in interacting and socializing with other people. Trainings for social skills, interaction and communication with family, friends and others could be very helpful. The clients could improve in confidence and interact with them more. Boosting of confidence and encouraging independency related activities could also provide the necessary support. Cognitive support: Supportive educational activities could be organized with these clients to enable them overcome their speech problems and learning. Language problems can also be addressed through this support. Special education teachers and speech therapists could play vital roles in addressing the needs of such clients. References: American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2008), Frequently Asked Questions on Intellectual Disability and the AAIDD Definition, AAIDD Information, American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, pg. 1 Auckland Goldstar Institute (2014), Intellectual Disability, Powerpoint Slides4-36 Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), Celebral Palsy, Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Centre on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov CCS Disability Action (2013), Spinal Bifida, Types of Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.ccsdisabilityaction.org.nz Prader Willi Association of New Zealand (2014), What is Prader Willi Syndrom? Retrieved from www.everybody.co.nz World Health Organization (2012), Epilepsy, Fact Sheet No999, Geneva. Retrieved from www.who.int World Helath Organisation (2014), Mental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva. Retrieved from www.euro.who.int

Dialysis Encephalopathy: A Complication of Chronic Renal Failure Essay

Dialysis Encephalopathy: A Complication of Chronic Renal Failure The neurological problems that patients with chronic renal failure face are relatively new to the medical world. Although dialysis was technically feasible in the 1940’s, it has only been since 1960 that techniques and equipment have been developed to make long term dialysis available as a practical treatment for end stage renal failure. Further, it has only been since 1973 when Medicare legislation was amended to include patients with chronic renal failure; and the expansion of hospital dialysis services in addition to the emergence of private outpatient hemodialysis clinics, that hemodialysis has become available for the vast majority with end stage renal failure. By increasing services to many more patients, our experience with the problems associated with long term dialysis has grown. All body systems, including the central and peripheral nervous system, are affected by chronic renal failure and its treatment. We have developed an understanding of the long term effects of chronic hemodialysis and the physiological effects are still being studied, but some of the long term complications of chronic renal failure are still unknown. The neurological problems encountered in patients with chronic renal failure may be acute, such as dialysis disequilibrium syndrome. Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome is caused by abrupt changes in the osmotic pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid during dialysis. Chronic complications, such as uremic peripheral neuropathy and dialysis encephalopathy, also known as dialysis dementia, are also well documented. This paper will focus on one of those neurological complications of chronic renal failure namely dialysis encephalopathy. .. ...imental Aluminum Encephalopathy. Acta. Neuropathol., 50:19-24, 1980. 6. Asbury, A. K., McKhann, G., Mc Donald, D. Diseases of the Nervous System. Vol. 2, W. B. Saunders Company: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich ,Philadelphia, 1992. 7. Nissenson, A. R., Fine, R. N., Gentile, D. E. Dialysis in Chronic Renal Failure. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1984. 8. Knochel, J. P. and Eknoyan, G. (Edt.) The Systemic Consequences of Renal Failure. Grune and Stratton, Inc. New York, 1984. 9. Geary, D. F. et. al. Encephalopathy in Children with Chronic Renal Failure. Journal of Pediatrics, 96: 41-44, 1980. 10.Rosati, G., De Bastiani, P., Gilli, P., and Paolino, E. Oral Aluminum and Neuropsychological Functioning. J. Neurol., 223: 251-7, 1980. 11.De Broe, M. E. and Coburn, J. W. Aluminum and Renal Failure. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Boston, 1990. Dialysis Encephalopathy: A Complication of Chronic Renal Failure Essay Dialysis Encephalopathy: A Complication of Chronic Renal Failure The neurological problems that patients with chronic renal failure face are relatively new to the medical world. Although dialysis was technically feasible in the 1940’s, it has only been since 1960 that techniques and equipment have been developed to make long term dialysis available as a practical treatment for end stage renal failure. Further, it has only been since 1973 when Medicare legislation was amended to include patients with chronic renal failure; and the expansion of hospital dialysis services in addition to the emergence of private outpatient hemodialysis clinics, that hemodialysis has become available for the vast majority with end stage renal failure. By increasing services to many more patients, our experience with the problems associated with long term dialysis has grown. All body systems, including the central and peripheral nervous system, are affected by chronic renal failure and its treatment. We have developed an understanding of the long term effects of chronic hemodialysis and the physiological effects are still being studied, but some of the long term complications of chronic renal failure are still unknown. The neurological problems encountered in patients with chronic renal failure may be acute, such as dialysis disequilibrium syndrome. Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome is caused by abrupt changes in the osmotic pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid during dialysis. Chronic complications, such as uremic peripheral neuropathy and dialysis encephalopathy, also known as dialysis dementia, are also well documented. This paper will focus on one of those neurological complications of chronic renal failure namely dialysis encephalopathy. .. ...imental Aluminum Encephalopathy. Acta. Neuropathol., 50:19-24, 1980. 6. Asbury, A. K., McKhann, G., Mc Donald, D. Diseases of the Nervous System. Vol. 2, W. B. Saunders Company: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich ,Philadelphia, 1992. 7. Nissenson, A. R., Fine, R. N., Gentile, D. E. Dialysis in Chronic Renal Failure. Appleton-Century-Crofts, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1984. 8. Knochel, J. P. and Eknoyan, G. (Edt.) The Systemic Consequences of Renal Failure. Grune and Stratton, Inc. New York, 1984. 9. Geary, D. F. et. al. Encephalopathy in Children with Chronic Renal Failure. Journal of Pediatrics, 96: 41-44, 1980. 10.Rosati, G., De Bastiani, P., Gilli, P., and Paolino, E. Oral Aluminum and Neuropsychological Functioning. J. Neurol., 223: 251-7, 1980. 11.De Broe, M. E. and Coburn, J. W. Aluminum and Renal Failure. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Boston, 1990.

John Proctor Tragic Hero Essay

In society today, most people can be themselves. Most do not feel the need to hide who they truly are anymore while some still can only â€Å"half express [themselves]† because they are embarrassed of the â€Å"idea which each of [them] represents† (186). I feel as if there is still too little emphasis on self-reliance and individualism in America today, because some are still ashamed of themselves and rely on others too much. As the years pass, fewer people discriminate, but there are still many that still do, causing others to â€Å"half express [themselves]† (186). Gays and lesbians are afraid to come out of the closet because they were told that it wasn’t right to be anything but straight. Society made them feel ashamed of themselves. They might give off hints and their friends might be able to tell, but they would never actually come out. If individualism was stressed more, gays or lesbians would no longer need to hide who they truly are. Even worse, proposition 8 restricts the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples only. They would be accepted, but as of now, they are not because there is not enough emphasis on individualism. â€Å"No kernel of nourishing corn† will just appear out of thin air; only â€Å"through [their] toil bestowed† will something of that sort happen (185). People can’t expect to receive something when they didn’t work for it. For example, homeless people depend on other people’s sympathy and donations to survive. Rather than getting off their butts and finding a job, they sit around waiting for help to come to them. If self-reliance was strained some more, maybe we’d have less homeless people standing in corners begging for money in the world. They’d be out looking for jobs, but in the meantime, there are homeless shelters and soup kitchens to help them, until they can get back on their feet because there is not enough emphasis on self-reliance. If Emerson were still alive today, he would be disappointed, but he would feel as if he got most of his message through. Even though some are still a little uncomfortable with whom they are and too dependent on others, most people aren’t afraid to show off their individuality or depend on themselves. In society today, there is not enough emphasis on self-reliance and individualism because people still depend on others for help and are afraid to show their true colors. If life was based on Emerson’s ideas, the world would be full of hardworking citizens and discrimination would not exist.

Influence Media Has on Teens

Influence Today’s Media Has on Teens Every day teens watch TV and see movies that glamorize violent and inappropriate behavior. On the covers of magazines are spray-tanned, models or celebrities that teens idolize. Physical appearance is exaggerated by the media, and is seen by teens, as more important than intellectual abilities. Boys and girls between the ages of 13-18Teens feel that they need to be just as beautiful as the super models, or just as muscular as the professional athletes.I believe that the Media has a negative influence on teens; it promotes foul language, teen fights, and popularity contests. Some people believe that the Media is not the cause of the way teens look or act. They believe that the appearance and actions of teens is their choice. Media content may give violent youth a way to express their rage, but people believe that it does not actually cause that rage. While it is true that rage comes from a variety of things, teens look to magazines and TV fo r inspiration.Some teens even look at how to live their lives, instead of being unique individuals and living a life of their own. Magazines like People and OK are the main sources for celebrity information. The main reason teens read these magazines, is for the celebrity gossip. â€Å"Britney Spears shaves her head,† â€Å"Kourtney Kardashian, Pregnant Again! † Sadly, this is what teens read, and for most of them; especially girls, they are reading about their celebrity role models.If a teen is reading about someone they look up to and see that; for example, that person dyed their hair pink, chances are the teen might also dye their hair pink. Remember the phrase, â€Å"Monkey see, monkey do? † Well, that statement sums up the influence that magazine’s can have on teens. Reality television, like MTV’s popular shows â€Å"Jersey Shore† and â€Å"The Real World,† display violent/inappropriate behavior and foul language. Both shows are about guys and girls that have never met before, who all come together and live in the same house.These shows have a negative influence on teens because every episode that is aired features sexual content, the cast â€Å"partying hard† every night, and cast members being violent and disrespectful towards each other or other people. Shows that glamorize sexual promiscuity and reward selfish, scheming contestants, teach teens that these qualities and behaviors are desirable. The Media negatively influences teens and creates animosity amongst them. Teens are at a point in their lives where they are trying to discover who they are.To copy what they read in magazines and watch on TV comes a lot easier to them, rather than finding themselves on their own. If magazines and TV were to talk about more positive things and promote â€Å"average-looking† people, teens would be able to relate it to their own lives. (Miller, 2010) The topics of MTV’s reality shows portray ina ppropriate behavior and lifestyles. Nevertheless, it would be a great idea if teens shut out reality TV and gossip magazines from their lives. They would have a lot more free time to find themselves. Plus, there’s enough drama in high school as it is, they don’t need to be watching and reading about more.

How to Separate the JavaScript in Your Web Page

How to Separate the JavaScript in Your Web Page When you first write a new JavaScript the easiest way to set it up is to embed the JavaScript code directly into the web page so that everything is in the one place while you test it to get it working right. Similarly, if you are inserting a pre-written script into your website the instructions may tell you to embed parts or all of the script into the web page itself. This is okay for setting up the page and getting it to work properly in the first place but once your page is working the way that you want it you will be able to improve the page by extracting the JavaScript into an external file so that your page content in the HTML isnt so cluttered with non-content items such as JavaScript. If you just copy and use JavaScripts written by other people then their instructions on how to add their script to your page may have resulted in your having one or more large sections of JavaScript actually embedded into your web page itself and their instructions dont tell you how you can move this code out of your page into a separate file and still have the JavaScript work. Dont worry though because regardless of what code the JavaScript you are using in your page you can easily move the JavaScript out of your page and set it up as a separate file (or files if you have more than one piece of JavaScript embedded in the page). The process for doing this is always the same and is best illustrated with an example. Lets look at how a piece of JavaScript might look when embedded in your page. Your actual JavaScript code will be different from that shown in the following examples but the process is the same in every case. Example One script typetext/javascript if (top.location ! self.location) top.location self.location; /script Example Two script typetext/javascript! if (top.location ! self.location) top.location self.location; // /script Example Three script typetext/javascript /* ![CDATA[ */ if (top.location ! self.location) top.location self.location; /* ]] */ /script Your embedded JavaScript should look something like one of the above three examples. Of course, your actual JavaScript code will be different from that shown but the JavaScript will probably be embedded into the page using one of the above three methods. In some cases, your code may use the outdated languagejavascript instead of typetext/javascript in which case you may want to bring your code more up to date to start with by replacing the language attribute with the type one. Before you can extract the JavaScript into its own file you first need to identify the code to be extracted. In all three of the above examples, there are two lines of actual JavaScript code to be extracted. Your script will probably have a lot more lines but can be readily identified because it will occupy the same place within your page as the two lines of JavaScript that we have highlighted in the above three examples (all three of the examples contain the same two lines of JavaScript, it is just the container around them that is slightly different). The first thing you need to do to actually extract the JavaScript into a separate file is to open a plain text editor and access the content of your web page. You then need to locate the embedded JavaScript that will be surrounded by one of the variations of code shown in the above examples.Having located the JavaScript code you need to select it and copy it to your clipboard. With the above example, the code to be selected is highlighted, you do not need to select the script tags or the optional comments that may appear around your JavaScript code.Open another copy of your plain text editor (or another tab if your editor supports opening more than one file at a time) and past the JavaScript content there.Select a descriptive filename to use for your new file and save the new content using that filename. With the example code, the purpose of the script is to break out of frames so an appropriate name could be  framebreak.js.So now we have the JavaScript in a separate file we return to the editor where we have the original page content to make the changes there to link to the external copy of the script. As we now have the script in a separate file we can remove everything between the script tags in our original content so that the /script;script tag immediately follows the script typetext/javascript tag.The final step is to add an extra attribute to the script tag identifying where it can find the external JavaScript. We do this using a  srcfilename  attribute. With our example script, we would specify srcframebreak.js.The only complication to this is if we have decided to store the external JavaScripts in a separate folder from the web pages that use them. If you do this then you need to add the path from the web page folder to the JavaScript folder in front of the filename. For example, if the JavaScripts are being stored in a  js  folder within the folder that holds our web pages we would need  srcjs/framebreak.js So what does our code look like after we have separated the JavaScript out into a separate file? In the case of our example JavaScript (assuming that the JavaScript and HTML are in the same folder) our HTML in the web page now reads: script typetext/javascript srcframebreak.js /script We also have a separate file called framebreak.js that contains: if (top.location ! self.location) top.location self.location; Your filename and file content will be a lot different from that because you will have extracted whatever JavaScript was embedded in your web page and given the file a descriptive name based on what it does. The actual process of extracting it will be the same though regardless of what lines it contains. What about those other two lines in each of examples two and three? Well, the purpose of those lines in example two is to hide the JavaScript from Netscape 1 and Internet Explorer 2, neither of which anyone uses any more and so those lines are not really needed in the first place. Placing the code in an external file hides the code from browsers that dont understand the script tag more effectively than surrounding it in an HTML comment anyway. The third example is used for XHTML pages to tell validators that the JavaScript should be treated as page content and not to validate it as HTML (if you are using an HTML doctype rather than an XHTML one then the validator already knows this and so those tags are not needed). With the JavaScript in a separate file there is no longer any JavaScript in the page to be skipped over by validators and so those lines are no longer needed. One of the most useful ways that JavaScript can be used to add functionality to a web page is to perform some sort of processing in response to an action by your visitor. The most common action that you want to respond to will be when that visitor clicks on something. The event handler that allows you to respond to visitors clicking on something is called  onclick. When most people first think about adding an  onclick  event handler to their web page they immediately think of adding it to an a tag. This gives a piece of code that often looks like: a href# onclickdosomething(); return false; This is the  wrong  way to use  onclick  unless you have an actual meaningful address in the  href  attribute so that those without JavaScript will be transferred somewhere when they click on the link. A lot of people also leave out the return false from this code and then wonder why the top of the current page always gets loaded after the script has run (which is what the href# is telling the page to do unless false is returned from all the event handlers. Of  course,  if you have something meaningful as the destination of the link then you may want to go there after running the  onclick  code and then you will not need the return false. What many people do not  realize  is that the  onclick  event handler can be added to  any  HTML tag in the web page in order to interact when your visitor clicks on that content. So if you want something to run when people click on an image you can use: img srcmyimg.gif onclickdosomething() If you want to run something when people click on some text you can use: span onclickdosomething()some text/span Of  course,  these dont give the automatic visual clue that there will be a response if your visitor clicks on them the way that a link does but you can add that visual clue easily enough yourself by styling the image or span appropriately. The other thing to note about these ways of attaching the  onclick  event handler is that they do not require the return false because there is no default action that will happen when the element is clicked on that needs to be disabled. These ways of attaching the  onclick  are a big improvement on the poor method that many people use but it is still a long way from being the best way of coding it. One problem with adding  onclick  using any of the above methods is that it is still mixing your JavaScript in with your HTML.  onclick  is  not  an HTML attribute, it is a JavaScript event handler. As such to separate our JavaScript from our HTML to make the page easier to maintain we need to get that  onclick  reference out of the HTML file into a separate JavaScript file where it belongs. The easiest way to do this is to replace the  onclick  in the HTML with an  id  that will make it easy to attach the event handler to the appropriate spot in the HTML. So our HTML might now contain one of these statements: img srcmyimg.gif idimg1 span idsp1some text/span We can then code the JavaScript in a separate JavaScript file that is either linked into the bottom of the body of the page or which is in the head of the page and where our code is inside a function that is itself called after the page finishes loading. Our JavaScript to attach the event handlers now looks like this: document.getElementById(img1).onclick dosomething; document.getElementById(sp1).onclick dosomething; One thing to note. You will notice that we have always written  onclick  entirely in lowercase. When coding the statement in their HTML you will see some people write it as onClick. This is wrong as the JavaScript event handlers names are all lowercase and there is no such handler as onClick. You can get away with it when you include the JavaScript inside your HTML tag directly since HTML is not case sensitive and the browser will map it across to the correct name for you. You cant get away with  the wrong  capitalization  in your JavaScript itself since the JavaScript is case sensitive and there is no such thing in JavaScript as onClick. This code is a huge improvement over the prior versions because we are now both attaching the event to the correct element within our HTML and we have the JavaScript completely separate from the HTML. We can improve on this even further though. The one problem that is remaining is that we can only attach one onclick event handler to a specific element. Should we at any time need to attach a different onclick event handler to the same element then the previously attached processing will no longer be attached to that element. When you are adding a variety of different scripts to your web page for different purposes there is at least a possibility that two or more of them may want to provide some processing to be performed when the same element is clicked on. The messy solution to this problem is to identify where this situation arises and to combine the processing that needs to be called together to a function that performs all of the processing. While clashes like this are less common with onclick than they are with onload, having to identify  the clashes in advance and combine them together is not the ideal solution. It is not a solution at all when the actual processing that needs to be attached to the element changes over time so that sometimes there is one thing to do, sometimes another, and sometimes both. The best solution is to stop using an event handler completely and to instead use a JavaScript event listener (along with the corresponding attachEvent for Jscript- since this is one of those situations where JavaScript and JScript  differ). We can do this most easily by first creating an addEvent function that will add either an event listener or attachment depending on which of the two that the language being run supports; function addEvent(el, eType, fn, uC) { if (el.addEventListener) { el.addEventListener(eType, fn, uC); return true; } else if (el.attachEvent) { return el.attachEvent(on eType, fn); } } We can now attach the processing that we want to have happen when our element is clicked on using: addEvent( document.getElementById(spn1), click,dosomething,false); Using this method of attaching the code to be processed when an element is clicked on means that making another addEvent call to add another function to be run when a specific element is clicked on will not replace the prior processing with the new processing but will instead allow both of the functions to be run. We have no need to know when calling an addEvent whether or not we already have a function attached to the element to run when it is clicked on, the new function will be run along with and functions that were previously attached. Should we need the ability to remove functions from what gets run when an element is clicked on then we could create a corresponding deleteEvent function that calls the appropriate function for removing an event listener or attached event? The one disadvantage of this last way of attaching the processing is those really old browsers do not support these relatively new ways of attaching event processing to a web page. There should be few enough people using such antiquated browsers by now to disregard them in what J(ava)Script we write apart from writing our code in such a way that it doesnt cause huge numbers of error messages. The above function is written so as to do nothing if neither of the ways it uses is supported. Most of these really old browsers do not support the getElementById method of referencing HTML either and so a simple  if (!document.getElementById) return false;  at the top of any of your functions which do such calls would also be appropriate. Of course, many people writing JavaScript are not so considerate of those still using antique browsers and so those users must be getting used to seeing JavaScript errors on almost every web page they visit by now. Which of these different ways do you use to attach processing into your page to be run when your visitors click on something? If the way you do it is nearer to the examples at the top of the page than to those examples at the bottom of the page then perhaps it is time you thought about improving the way you write your onclick processing to use one of the better methods presented lower down on the page. Looking at the code for the cross-browser event listener you will notice that there is a fourth parameter which we called  uC, the use of which isnt obvious from the prior description. Browsers have two different orders in which they can process events when the event is triggered. They can work from the outside inwards from the body tag in towards the tag that triggered the event or they can work from the inside out starting at the most specific tag. These two are called  capture  and  bubble  respectively and most browsers allow you to choose which order multiple processing should be run in by setting this extra parameter. uC true to process during the capture phaseuC false to process during the bubble phase. So where there are several other tags wrapped around the one that the event was triggered on the capture phase runs first starting with the outermost tag and moving in toward the one that triggered the event and then once the tag the event was attached to has been processed the bubble phase reverses the process and goes back out again. Internet Explorer and traditional event handlers always process the bubble phase and never the capture phase and so always start with the most specific tag and work outwards. So with event handlers: div onclickalert(a)div onclickalert(b)xx/div/div clicking on the  xx  would bubble out triggering the alert(b) first and the alert(a) second. If those alerts were attached using event listeners with uC true then all modern browsers except Internet Explorer would process the alert(a) first and then the alert(b).

Battle of Jutland Essay Example

Battle of Jutland Essay Example Battle of Jutland Essay Battle of Jutland Essay Battle of Jutland Prelude The Battle of Jutland was fought on May 31 June 1, 1916, in the North Sea near Jutland (a mainland north of Denmark). The battle itself was between Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer commander of the High Seas Fleet of the Kaiserliche Marine (part of German Fleet), and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe commander of the Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy. The overall goal of the German fleet was to trap and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet due to insufficient numbers to engage the entire fleet at one time. Keep in mind this was part of a larger strategy to break the British naval blockade so they may once again allow German merchant ships to operate again in the North Sea. On the other hand the Royal navy focused to destroy the High seas fleet or keep the German force bottled up and away from British shipping lines. Setting The Battle took place in the Northern coast of continental Europe in between the southern flanks of Norway and Sweden and north of Denmark. Most of the battle occurred during the night, in the middle of the North Sea where 250 ships attended the battle. Forces, Commanders and Strategy Each fleet had two main Admirals, Admiral Franz Hipper and Reinhard Scheer led the High Seas Fleet, and Admiral David Beatty and John Jellicoe led the Royal Navy. The Royal battle force had a strength of twenty eight battle ships, nine battle cruisers, eight armored cruisers, twenty six light cruisers, seventy eight destroyers, a minelayer and a sea plane carrier (151 ships in total). The High Seas battle force had sixteen battleships , five battle cruisers, six dreadnaughts, eleven light cruisers, and sixty one torpedo boats (99 ships in total). The German strategy was to divide and conquer: by staging raids into the North Sea and bombarding the English coast, they hoped to lure out small British squadrons and pickets which could then be attacked and destroyed by superior forces or submarines. What they intended was to send out submarines of the British Naval Port, then send out a fast battle cruiser force to attack the British coast, if all went well the British response to the attacking force would be weakened by the submarine ambush and hoped the British destroyers would be incapable to operate for anti-submarine operations. Not knowing the Germans objective, The Royal Fleet positioned themselves to cut any attempt by the Germans to enter the North Atlantic, or the Baltic through the east, by taking up a position off Norway where they could possibly cut off any German raid into the shipping lanes of the Atlantic, or prevent the Germans from heading into the Baltic (southern part of North Sea). The Battle Both fleets sailed in a similar formation, with a scouting squadron of battle cruisers sailing ahead of the main battle fleets. The battle falls into five main phases. The first came when Admiral Beatty, commanding the British battle cruisers encountered their weaker German equivalent under Admiral Hipper and chased them south towards the main German fleet. The second phase saw Beatty flee north, pursued by the German Dreadnoughts. So far, both sides thought the battle was going to plan, although a design flaw led to the destruction of two British battle cruisers. Now, in the third phase the Germans. ere involved in a chase that would end with the destruction of the British battle cruisers, however they found themselves under bombardment from Jellicoes battle fleet, which they had thought to be too far north to intervene. The heavy British guns quickly forced Scheer to order a retreat, but then Scheer made what could have turned into a grievous error, turning back, possibly hoping to pass behind Jellicoe, and escape into the Baltic. However, Jellicoe had slowed down, and the German fleet found themselves crossing in front of the British fleet, and in ten minutes of gunfire suffered twenty seven heavy hits while only inflicted two. Once again, Scheer ordered a retreat. Finally, in the last phase of the battle, in a night of intense fighting, German lighter ships covered the retreat of the German battleships, while Jellicoe lost time after turning to avoid a potential torpedo attack. Aftermath After the battle the Royal Navy lost six thousand ninety four men, five undred ten wounded, and one hundred seventy seven captured. Lost three battlecusiers, three armored cruisers, eight destroyers, about one hundred fifteen and twenty-five tons of ships sunk. At the end of the battle the Royal Navy had maintained their numerical superiority, and had over twenty dreadnoughts and battle cruisers still able and ready to fight, while the Germans had ten. The Germans fleet lost two thousand five hundred fifty one men, and five hundred and seven wounded. Lost one battle cruiser one dreadnaught four light cruisers and five torpedo boats, about sixty one thousand one hundred and eighty tons of ship sunk. Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Neither submarines nor aircraft played any part in the battle, despite the plans of both sides. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers. While the Royal Navy suffered more loses, the battle effectively ended any threat from the High Seas Fleet, which now knew it could not contest control the North Sea with the Royal Navy. Impact / Significance The Battle of Jutlandwas was the only major naval battle of World War I; it became the largest sea battle in naval warfare history in terms of the numbers of battleships and battle cruisers engaged, bringing together the two most powerful naval in that time. The great fleet which Kaiser Wilhelm II (Germany’s last Kaiser) had been obsessed with, and which had done so much to sour relations between Britain and Germany had proved to be a blunted weapon. Despite that, the battle disappointed Britain, and the hard fought draw at Jutland was not appreciated until much later, while the Kaiser claimed a German victory.

10 Tips for Getting Along With Your College Roommate

10 Tips for Getting Along With Your College Roommate You may have grown up living with lots of siblings, or this may be your first time sharing your living space with someone else. While having a roommate inevitably has its challenges, it can also be a great part of your college experience. Follow these ten tips to make sure you and your roommate keep things pleasant and supportive throughout the year (or even years!). 1. Be Clear About Your Expectations From the Beginning Do you know in advance that you hate it when someone hits the snooze button fifteen times every morning? That youre a neat freak? That you need ten minutes to yourself before talking to anyone after you wake up? Let your roommate know as soon as you can about your little quirks and preferences. Its not fair to expect him or her to pick up on them right away, and communicating what you need is one of the best ways to eliminate problems before they become problems. 2. Address Problems When They're Little Is your roommate always forgetting her stuff for the shower, and taking yours? Are your clothes being borrowed faster than you can wash them? Addressing things that bug you while theyre still little can help your roommate be aware of something she may not otherwise know. And addressing little things is much easier than addressing them after theyve become big. 3. Respect Your Roommate's Stuff This may seem simple, but its probably one of the biggest reasons why roommates experience conflict. Dont think hell mind if you borrow his cleats for a quick soccer game? For all you know, you just stepped over an uncrossable line. Dont borrow, use, or take anything without getting permission first. 4. Be Mindful of Who You Bring Into Your Room- and How Often You may love having your study group into your room. But your roommate may not. Be mindful of how often you bring people over. If your roommate studies best in the quiet, and you study best in a group, can you alternate who hits the library and who gets the room? 5. Lock the Door and Windows This may seem like it has nothing to do with  roommate relationships, but how would you feel if your roommates laptop got stolen during the ten seconds it took you to run down the hall? Or vice versa? Locking your door and windows is a critical part of keeping safe on campus. 6. Be Friendly, Without Expecting to Be Best Friends Dont go into your roommate relationship thinking that you are going to be best friends for the time youre at school. It may happen, but expecting it sets both of you up for trouble. You should be friendly with your roommate but also make sure you have your own social circles. 7. Be Open to New Things Your roommate may be from someplace youve never heard of. They may have a religion or lifestyle that is completely different from your own. Be open to new ideas and experiences, especially as it to relates to what your roommate brings into your life. Thats why you went to college in the first place, right?! 8. Stay Open to Change You should expect to learn and grown and change during your time at school. And the same should happen to your roommate, if all goes well. As the semester progresses, realize things will change for both of you. Be comfortable addressing things that unexpectedly come up, setting new rules, and being flexible to your changing environment 9. Address Problems When They're Big, Too You may not have been totally honest with tip #2, or you may suddenly find yourself with a roommate who goes wild after being shy and quiet the first two months. Either way, if something gets to be a big problem quickly, deal with it as soon as you can. 10. If Nothing Else, Follow the Golden Rule Treat your roommate like youd like to be treated. No matter what your relationship is at the end of the year, you can take comfort knowing you acted like an adult and treated your roommate with respect. Dont think you and your roommate are going to be able to work it out? It can be easier than you think to address your problems and, ideally, find a solution that works for both of you.

American Natural History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American Natural History - Essay Example These eras are characterized in the essay based on the environmental situation of the Americas and its ways of improving the nature. Lastly, a comparison of the previous and past concepts of improving the nature will also be briefly discussed in this essay. The Colonial Period The Columbian Era October (1492-1502) The highlight of the environmental history of the United States started with Columbus’ arrival in San Salvador. Changes in the Land, written by William Cronon, documented how Columbus’ and other colonists’ arrival marked the beginning of people’s different attitude towards the environment. Columbus’ â€Å"Columbian Exchange† made possible the exchanges of diseases, plants, animals, and others that strengthened the link between Europe and America (Magoc 6). Loss of lives was a result of the natives’ willingness and active participation in trading. Mercantilism, which entails the extraction of natural resources for trading, exi sted between the native Indians and the colonists. By saying so, the gradual destruction of the native Indians’ environment was a result of their willingness in forging trading with the colonists which entails extraction of anything that can be exchanged to the Europeans. In other words, the natives were not forced to engage in trading; they simply did what they think could serve their needs. The precolonial and colonial period were marked by an abundance of natural resources, or as Cronon suggests, â€Å"limitless and overflowing† resources (168). The natives believe that their resources are endless, but the arrival of the Europeans made their beliefs changed. The colonists instilled in them the idea that nature’s abundance is limited. Nature, by all means, can be altered, diminished, or affected depending on how and to what extent the resources are used. Furthermore, land ownership has also altered the way the natives view possessions. The Europeans made them believe that even lands can be traded. The natives’ relationship with the land is a transient one, something that made them utilized the land based on how much it can provide them in a given period of time. What they believed to be traded with the colonists is not the land itself, but the rights associated with its use, such as the rights to till and hunt. However, that is not how the Europeans viewed mercantilism. This is enough to say that complacency and confidence towards the Europeans eventually started the destruction of the environment. Using land to trade is environmentally devastating because no one knows how it is going to be utilized. Altering them for mercantilism purposes destructs the whole naturality of the land. Worse, when one gets benefits from the land after a commercial venture, he or she is not satisfied and wants even more from changing the land. Humans are innately not contented creatures. The evidence, as documented by Cronon, was the European’s demand for fur bearing animals and beaver. As a result, beaver’s population diminished and affected the ecological balance. In Cronon’s words, â€Å"Beaver dams provided a natural alteration of the ecosystem. Eliminating the dam makers meant recreating the environment† (107). When there were acres of arable land, colonists also flocked the area, and this created a

Journals 578 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Journals 578 - Essay Example It was especially interesting to find that the military established a brotherhood for soldiers, where each person was to protect the other. Many soldiers express joy when killing their enemies, yet the author indicated that these emotions are far from joy because when killing the enemy most soldiers have no fear and feel like they cannot be harmed. The author also stated that many soldiers face a psychological condition where they feel that they have changed. This can be seen through their actions, yet they feel unconnected to their bodies and minds; this makes it hard for them to find a rational explanation to their behavior. The author also pointed out another fact that was interesting to me, which was that most people killed in conflict with the USA are referred to collateral damage, yet when American soldiers are killed they are referred to as innocents who lost their lives. Not only that, many policies created by the leaders come from using the religion and culture of other nati ons as a threat to the USA. This is done to reshape the image of these countries to the public toward a negative perception so that people will start viewing them as enemies. Chapter (1-8) The author of the book indicated that it is important to include women in the field of politics, yet many women who are involved in the political sphere do not have their opinions taken into consideration by their male peers. This can be connected to the idea that men are viewed as stronger than women, who are considered to be weaker and more peaceful. I believe that it is important to respect the opinions of women because this will not only help people to view politics from a different perspective but it will also help to understand and recognize crimes committed against women in conflicts. Indeed, the author indicated that many women do not report that they were are sexually assaulted or raped. As a result, it is hard for human rights organizations and the United Nations to recognize acts of rap e as a serious issue. I believe that if women are more involved in making policies then more victims of rape and war will be encouraged to talk about their issues. Moreover, the author pointed out that Laura Bush focused on liberating the women of Afghanistan. However, in my opinion, and similar to what I pointed in my QIP, Laura Bush focused more on liberating women from wearing Burqa instead of focusing on their freedom. Indeed, many movements and policies are made to benefit women, yet they mostly fail. I believe that organizations and policymakers tend to view these issues from their own perspectives and not from the perspectives of the affected women. As a result, they end up making policies that do not suit the needs of those women. In addition, this leads to an emphasis on the importance of negotiation between two parties, as it helps each party to understand each side's opinion and then respect that opinion. In addition, I was also impressed with the veracity of non-violent movements that women have led all over the world. This takes me back to the film we watched in class, â€Å"Pray the Devil to Hell.† The film shows that when women start to protest the motive was to get rid of violence in their countries. They were able to satisfy their goals by using religious and faith communities to gather as many women as they could find. What was really interesting to me was

Implication of Bad Managerial Ethics in Enron Term Paper

Implication of Bad Managerial Ethics in Enron - Term Paper Example On the other hand, the failure of a business venture can be attributed to upholding unethical values such as deception and complacency. Ethics can be understood well by paying special attention to the Enron scandal. This paper discusses the implications of unethical practice. It begins by bringing out the unethical practices that occurred at Enron and the implications. To begin with, the Enron scam, unearthed in 2001, eventually caused the collapse of Enron, an Energy Corporation based in the United States and the complete closure of an accounting and re-organization firm called Arthur Andersen. Apart from being the mega insolvency reorganization in the history of the United States during that time, Enron was also regarded as the huge audit failure. Enron problems owe their origin to Jeffrey Skilling, who created a group of executives that used accounting loopholes, specific purpose entities and negative financial reporting to hide huge amount of dollars in the form of debts that cam e from scrupulous deals as well as projects (Swartz & Sherron, 2004). Chief Financial Manager Andrew Fastow together with other managers not only confused Enron’s management board and accounts committee on highly vulnerable accounting practices, but also forced Andersen to overlook the issues (Collins, 2006). Shareholders lost eleven billion dollars (Schein, 2005), when the price of stocks at Enron that had gained a peak of ninety dollars per share as of mid 2000, dropped by less than one dollar by the close of 2001.The United States Securities and Commission of Exchange started an inquiry, and rival competitor from Houston, Dynergy wanted to buy the firm at a subsidized price. The deal collapsed, and in2001, Enron petitioned for insolvency under chapter eleven of the US Bankruptcy Law (Cruver, 2003). Furthermore, the implication was that many managers at Enron Corporation were arrested for a several charges and later put behind bars. The auditor at Enron, Arthur Andersen, wa s proven guilty by a District Court in the US. However, when the decision was rescinded by the United States Supreme Court, the firm had lost many customers. Workers and shareholders got limited returns from lawsuits, despite forfeiting billions in form of pensions as well as stock prices. As a result of the scam, new rules and laws were passed to increase the validity of financial communication for public firms. The unethical events that took place at Enron included embracing a culture which regarded innovation coupled with unlimited ambition to be vital factors that produced good returns within a short time. However, this theory focused on the short term aspect rather than long term whereby achieving maximum profits becomes cumbersome. This forces employees to bend the rules until the limitations of ethics are ignored in the quest for success (Toffler & Jennifer, 2004). It is worth noting that Enron enjoyed a lot of success initially by raking in a lot of earnings as well as cash flows. Therefore, in order to maintain this trend they resorted to join a faulty network of partnerships and also employed questionable auditing procedures. Enron managers thought that it was the best path for the organization. The crucial question that comes out of this initiative is whether it was ethical for the executives to pursue that course. In my view, it can be said that to some extent it was given the fact that the company realized a lot of earnings. However, to a large extent the behavior depicted by the executives of Enron constituted the highest violation of ethical values since it is responsible for the collapse of Enron. In addition, my

The Legacy of Joe and Rose Kennedy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

The Legacy of Joe and Rose Kennedy - Essay Example Since Rose spend most of her time with her children, she was initially the most influential parent and the children all adopted her moral, Catholic ways. Joseph Kennedy, on the other hand, would earn his influence over his children by amassing the wealth required to build the basis of a family fortune. Joseph Kennedy and the unregulated stock market of the 1920's were made for each other. With nerve and intelligence he ruthlessly manipulated the market and used collaborators and compliant journalists to boost the stock artificially. At its peak, Kennedy sold the stock and reaped the benefits. He told friends that he needed to make this easy money fast - "before they pass a law against it" (Whalen 49).Kennedy moved to Hollywood in 1926, leaving Rose to come with the strains of the household and raising their growing family. Of Hollywood Kennedy told friends, "This place is a gold mine" (Whalen 121). He made another fortune turning out low-budget movies with cast-off stars and plenty of garish publicity. Off-screen Kennedy soon became interested in the most seductive Hollywood actress of them all, Gloria Swanson. In turn, Swanson wante d Kennedy to manage her affairs. Within a short time they became lovers (Whalen 121). This is the start to an interesting trend in Kennedy history, as not all the Kennedy men would remain loyal to their wives, and two of the brothers, Robert and John, would eventually fall in love with the most beautiful actress in Hollywood history-Marilyn Monroe. Whether or not the children knew about the affair, and whether or not it had any influence on their later actions, is difficulty to say. However, it does certainly establish the fact that Kennedy men of both generations would have a soft spot in their... No other political family in history has ever had this much public interest form around them as the Kennedys did, mainly because no other political family has ever been quite as interesting. This essay demonstrates political mystique, that all began with a wedding ceremony, when Joseph Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzpatrick on October 7, 1914, and through triumph and tragedy they shaped one of this countries most politically prominent families of the 20th century. The Kennedy legacy, that is the main topic of the essay does live on, mostly at the present time through Ted Kennedy, who continues to be active in the Senate and whose legacy reflects upon that of his father’s and brothers’. Ted is also still Catholic, a fact Rose would be proud of. However, the other sons and daughters of Joe and Rose Kennedy certainly also were influenced by their parents, as can be seem in their political drive and acceptance of, or rejection of, the Catholic religion. Rose and Joe hea vily influenced their children, as most parents do, however, they had the money and power to actually forward their children’s careers, which they did. Whether politics was always a Kennedy ambition or only Joe’s ambition is difficult to say, as it seems Joe did want all of his sons to go into politics. Rose’s influence can also be seen in the children, as John Kennedy, for instance, would become the first Catholic President. Therefore, the influence of Rose and Joe Kennedy helped to spur a dynasty of America’s royalty, the Kennedys.

Accounting for leases is problematic and the current standard (IAS 17) Essay

Accounting for leases is problematic and the current standard (IAS 17) does not always reflect the substance of transactions - Essay Example These arrangements have become increasingly unique and complex, both as stand-alone arrangements (i.e., leases only) and as part of more complicated contracts (i.e., power purchase contracts). Such uniqueness and complexity place enormous pressure on companies to capture and report these arrangements in their financial statements in such a way that the financial statement users understand these transactions and their impact on the companies’ balances. With such a demand for transparency and complete financial reporting, the companies and the rest of the business world have focused their attention on the accounting standards for leases as such standards set the tone for how these leases should be accounted for in the financial statements. One such standard formulated for leases is International Accounting Standards 17. International Accounting Standards (IAS) 17, Leases, the accounting standard for leases, was formulated by the IAS Board or IASB to stipulate the proper accounting policies and disclosures applicable to leases. Paragraph 4 of IAS 17 describes a lease as an arrangement or a contract wherein the lessee is given the right by the lessor to use a certain property for a given period of time. In return, under the same arrangement, the lessee will pay the lessor for the use of such property. Lease accounting and the related disclosures, for both the lessor and the lessee, are covered by IAS 17. According to IAS 17, there are two kinds of leases: the finance lease and the operating lease. A finance lease, as defined by IAS 17, is a lease wherein majority of â€Å"all the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the asset† being leased is transferred by the lessor to the lessee. The substance of this kind of leasing arrangement is that the lessee, according to Alexander, et. al., â€Å"would be in the same position, both economically and in terms of production and

Describe and assess the listener's experience of two different Assignment

Describe and assess the listener's experience of two different composition or two performances of the same composition - Assignment Example How the melodic lines interweave in the songs differs too (Vazsonyi, 15). Another important aspect of the assessment is the melody; the melody range of the two songs can differ with the timbers, and the rhymes. This can also be noticed by the audiences. â€Å"Cups† two song versions differ in rhyme and timbers as well. The differences in the melody can be relatively minor, but play a role in the differences of the two songs. The parallel transpose and the simple transpose can be noted too in the two pieces when they are performed (Vazsonyi, 15). The mood in the song can be noticed by the audience, this depends also on alterations that are made on the two pieces when done. These alterations can be done in the melody that is in the rhymes or the timbers of the song â€Å"cups† the melody of the original can be intact compared to the song sung again. Harmony can also affect the differences monitored by the audiences in the tone and notes. Another aspectual difference that can be noticed by the audience is the randomness, stochastic and chance. Randomness can be different based on how the singer wants it to appear. The first instance can be unintentional randomness, which can contribute to bad music this can be due to the guitarist or any other person adding extra notes to the music the second instance is the intended randomness, this can be done to improve the quality of the music by the singer. The intention is to introduce random variations that make the singing particular by varying the music content this can also be noticed in the two â€Å"Cups† pieces. The elements of randomness can be based on chance; this is brought out by the singer waiting for the opportune moment to begin another melodic line or the moment that the drum mist plays an extra note. Stochastic composition is noted in the cups song`s beats, which are very randomly thought and extraordinarily done. This brings out the element of the musics beauty in random thoughts that the composer uses

Accounting for leases is problematic and the current standard (IAS 17) Essay

Accounting for leases is problematic and the current standard (IAS 17) does not always reflect the substance of transactions - Essay Example These arrangements have become increasingly unique and complex, both as stand-alone arrangements (i.e., leases only) and as part of more complicated contracts (i.e., power purchase contracts). Such uniqueness and complexity place enormous pressure on companies to capture and report these arrangements in their financial statements in such a way that the financial statement users understand these transactions and their impact on the companies’ balances. With such a demand for transparency and complete financial reporting, the companies and the rest of the business world have focused their attention on the accounting standards for leases as such standards set the tone for how these leases should be accounted for in the financial statements. One such standard formulated for leases is International Accounting Standards 17. International Accounting Standards (IAS) 17, Leases, the accounting standard for leases, was formulated by the IAS Board or IASB to stipulate the proper accounting policies and disclosures applicable to leases. Paragraph 4 of IAS 17 describes a lease as an arrangement or a contract wherein the lessee is given the right by the lessor to use a certain property for a given period of time. In return, under the same arrangement, the lessee will pay the lessor for the use of such property. Lease accounting and the related disclosures, for both the lessor and the lessee, are covered by IAS 17. According to IAS 17, there are two kinds of leases: the finance lease and the operating lease. A finance lease, as defined by IAS 17, is a lease wherein majority of â€Å"all the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the asset† being leased is transferred by the lessor to the lessee. The substance of this kind of leasing arrangement is that the lessee, according to Alexander, et. al., â€Å"would be in the same position, both economically and in terms of production and

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Philosophy - Essay Example I would ask journalists to interview me. I would begin organizing a protest movement. We would begin to apply pressure on the decision-makers. If no results were forthcoming, I would take more drastic, and perhaps illegal, action. I would blockade government buildings. I would try to shut down the government through peaceful means as protestors recently tried to do in Wisconsin. I would help lead the students on a strike march to Sacramento. Throughout this whole process I would feel justified to take these actions because I would see the government's policies as illegitimate and undemocratic. The only response to those kind of policies is to protest and cause maximum disruption. Part 2 Socrates makes a number of very intelligent points to Euthyphro. In my situation, I have said that the policies of the government are not just. This injustice is what motivates me to take actions against the government. I have a definition of justice in this context which would be something like this: in a financial crisis, the burden of cuts should be shared somewhat equally across society; it is unfair to pass all of the costs on to students who have very little money to begin with. I understand that not everyone would agree with this idea.

The role of the European Parliament

The role of the European Parliament INTRODUCTION The division of powers among an executive, a legislature and a judiciary (Montesquieus tripartite system, The Spirit of Laws, 1748) is the common feature of the national democratic systems. The Parliament/National Assembly as a voice of the people can be considered as the institution that legitimizes system as a whole. Every country has its own parliamentary system, recognized and identified by the citizens. The European Parliament as the EU level legislature was created on the model of its counterparts. However its perception is significantly different. One can compare the internal organization of both, national and European Parliament, status of their members or party system but what undermines all the comparisons is the context in which these bodies are placed. The role of the European Parliament is determined by the nature of the EU and its sui generis character ‘a political system on its own right. It decides on the role of the institutions, division of competences and in ter-institutional relations that differ from those at the national level. Lack of traditional government has a significant impact on the position of the European political parties within the system. There is no executive to identify with nor to oppose to. The European party system is based on two competing principals that posses different resources to shape behavior of ‘their MEPs [agents]- national parties and the European political parties. EU is very often contested because of the lack of the legitimacy. The importance of the European elections is diminished because of the lack of electoral connection with the public and dominance of the national issues (second order elections). The internal procedures as well as decision making process are too complex to be entirely understood by an average citizen. As a consequence there is a different environment for the parties to operate in at the national and the EU level. It generates diverse level of cohesiveness, abilities to control, sanctions and rewards. All these factors decide on the way political parties organize at each level collectively or individually and what are the incentives that determine their choice. Are they in fact weaker in the European Parliament if compares to those in the domestic parliaments in Europe? If it is the case what are the main reasons that make them weaker? Which of the lsquo;principals has more influence? I will argue that due to the different constitutional structure of the EU lack of government performance of the European parties is less apparent than those at the national level. As a consequence the incentives for collective party organization can be indeed considered weaker than it is a case for the domestic parliaments. However evaluation of these incentives cannot be oversimplified. These two levels are interlinked and mutually dependent. Growing cohesiveness within the political groups can be a merit of both: national and European party levels. Importance of the EP (especially after the Lisbon Treaty) draws more and more attention to what does happen in the EP. Its growing power provides national parties with additional incentives to organize collectively at the supra-domestic level in order to maximize effectiveness of their actions. Firstly I will emphasize the main features of the European party system, its structure, mechanisms and levels of collective organization. The first part will be divided in two sections: brief presentation of the nomenclature used in the context of the European parliamentary system and theory of two principals the system is based on. Secondly I will present common incentives for collective party organization, that can be found at both levels. In the third part, I will focus on European dimension of these incentives. Forth part will contain a comparative analysis of two levels: national and European presenting the main differences. Given to the information, presented in the prior chapters, in the fifth one, I will answer what determines voting behavior of the MEPs and internal-party cohesiveness. In the last, sixth part, I will come to concluding statements. I. EUROPEAN PARTY SYSTEM STRUCTURE AND MECHANISMS Structure of the party system in the European Parliament is characterized by its multiplicity of organization levels and actors involved. First of all there are national party delegations which join the European political parties (transnational parties or Europarties) which then create European political groups. These two first levels may result in third although less official one at which political groups cooperate together in order to minimize the influence of other political groups or to build a common front against the other EU institutions such as the Council or the European Commission. Thus one could describe internal organization of the European Parliament as two and a half or three level transnational party system (see Figure 1.1). I.1. DEFINITIONS The European party system is characterized by the complexity of nomenclature which needs to be clarified in order to understand the party organization. Starting from the first component of the structure. National party delegations can be defined as entities within the transnational parties in the EP consisting of MEPs from the same national party. Transnational parties are the group [s] of representatives within a given institution that typically come from the same party family. According to Lindberg et al., in the EP, these transnational parties are also commonly referred to as (transnational) party groups. However, it has to be mentioned that these transnational parties, albeit they create transnational political groups, they are not the equivalent of the latter. In most cases political groups are composed of more than one political party. Not every MEPs belongs to the party that creates the group unaffiliated members. Political groups are not allowed to take part in the campaign for the European elections and cannot be established if the proposed membership consists of MEPs from only one member state. Functioning and organization of the European parties has its legal basis in the Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding. I.2. TWO PRINCIPALS THEORY The principal-agent theory is frequently used by the scholars to describe the relations among the actors involved in the EU policy-making process, namely: institutions and members states. The central problem analyzed [in this theory] is that one actor (the principal) needs to delegate tasks and resources to another actor (the agent) who will take action on behalf of the principal but who has interests and objectives of his or her own. Agent cannot observe the actions of its principal, thus its control abilities are very limited. It creates a serious incentive problem and a necessity of the sanction mechanism to ensure expected outcomes. Principal-agent interaction applies also to the European Parliament. There are two party principals that possess specific resources to shape the behavior of their MEPs. Quality of these resources determines the influence and efficiency of the principals. National parties (principal 1) can use their control of candidate reselection and their control of the process of European elections to influence whether an MEP is elected to the parliament in the first place. European parties (principal 2), in turn, can use their control of resources and power inside the parliament to influence whether an MEP is able to secure his or her policy and career goals once elected. What does the two-principal theory mean for the effectiveness of the European party system? What does it say about the interactions within the system? According to David Marquand, European party system, in order to be fully democratic and effective has to be based on Europe des partis where politics is structured through a party system, and not on Europe des patries where politics is structured around national identities and governments. It would guarantee a higher level of internal cohesiveness and secure the policy objectives. In the European Parliament, there is however a significant pressure from the national parties which may have a strong impact on the final decisions of one MEP or another. When the power of the EP is at stake, MEPs have strong incentive to vote together to acquire more power relative to other EU institutions , to ensure a counterbalance. However, the national parties may be encouraged to exert more influence over their MEPs because of the growing legislative power of the EP. Hence, it can be argued that there will be an increased intervention by national parties to control the activities of their European re presentatives. The functioning of the EP depends to a great extent on the interactions between two principals and the influence of one or/and the other. These interactions are, in turn, determined by a lot of factors. Among the others one can mention: issue covered, circumstances, institutional context and strategies applied by the particular groups. Different incentives offered by them evoke different behavior. Incentives for collective party organization can be common for both levels: national and European, separate or may create a sort of   toolbox of the incentives that are taken out of the box, when there is such a need. II. COMMON INCENTIVES FOR COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION Collective organization is one of the concept which can be applied to a lot of spheres of political and social science. It refers to the logic of collective action of Mancur Olson and its theory of groups. The main purpose of the collective organization is to reduce transaction costs of what can be achieved by joining the group whose members share the same interests. The most evident form of collective organization in political parties context is the coalition-building. According to John H. Aldrich, political parties are institutional solutions created by rational utility-maximizing legislators to reduce the transaction costs of collective decision-making and solve the internal collective action problems they face in the legislature. There are two main common incentives for collective organization: reduction of transaction costs and solution for collective action problem. Building a coalition is a very time-consuming and demanding process that includes the costs of putting together a proposal, identifying coalition partners and forging a compromise acceptable to a sufficient majority. Going through all these stages every time a party looks for an ally is too risky and does not guarantee sufficient level of influence after all. The existence of political parties reduces these costs by allowing the actors concerned to ‘pre-pack like-minded legislators and form more stable coalition patterns. Coalition-building solves also the problem of collective action in decision making process. Through organizing themselves into a majority party, legislators can receive a higher pay-off in terms of policy then they could achieve as individual legislators. Being a part of a majoritarian coalition is the only way to have enough influence in order to pass a legislation that would secure the policy objectives. Every coalition, once built, has to be cohesive, otherwise it will not play its expected role. Voting behavior of the coalition members determines its power and effectiveness. Transnational character of the political groups, however, can easily impede the internal cohesiveness. There two groups of the reasons that can be mentioned. First one, having its sources in systemic differences as to the political culture, traditions, habits, mentalities, political scene stability (bi- or multipolar), level of dependence on national authorities, attachment to domestic parties, importance of national issues etc. Second one concerning individual features such as personality, knowledge about the issues concerned, language barrier which can hinder the access to informal source of information as well as the informal inter-MEPs relations. The list of the reasons is not exhaustive one. It shows, however, the importance and influence of the national system on the behavior of the MEPs who have been brought up by each particular system. The question arises what can be done in order to ensure a satisfactory level of cohesiveness? What are the instruments that can be used to control voting behavior? The EU party system does not have such an advanced sanction mechanism as it is the case in the domestic parliaments in Europe. Therefore, establishing party leadership seems to be the most effective, if not the only one, solution to compensate this deficiency. There are two possible scenarios that can be applied by the parties. According to the first one, parties can establish a transnational party together with like-minded legislators in order to reduce transaction costs of legislative decision-making. There is no centralized party group leadership and collective action problem of maintaining party unity can be solved through repeated actions. Alternative option assumes the establishment of party group leadership with monitoring capabilities and disciplinary power. These two scenarios give the legislators incentives to fo rm transnational parties at the European level in order to increase their influence over policy outcomes. Apart from having influence on policy-making ‘policy seeking incentive, scholars distinguish two others: ‘re-election and ‘office-seeking. Together, they form a sort of the incentives triangle which defines the collective party organization (see Figure 2.1). It depends on the particular system which incentive is more likely to be used. In the domestic parliamentary system ‘re-election is particularly important one due to a great impact of national parties on future career of their MEPs. It has to be born in mind, that this incentives triangle is characterized by mutual dependence on the one hand and inequality on the other. According Thorsten Faas, their relations can be described ‘clear lexicographic order. He underlines importance of re-election goal as the one that decide on the existence of the two others. ‘Without re-election, there is neither office, nor policy. It confirms the importance of the domestic parliamentary system and preliminary incentive it offers. Once, however, re-election is achieved, it creates further incentives that can be applied at the EU level. III. INCENTIVES FOR COLLECTIVE PARTY ORGANIZATION AT THE EU LEVEL ‘Transnational parties are (†¦) a product of national parties, who created and sustain the transnational parties to serve their own policy goals in the European Parliament. Thus, it is in the national parties interest to ensure the cohesiveness in once created supranational platform. ‘Each national party is unlikely to obtain its policy objectives by acting alone. They need an access to transnational level which would open a ‘window of opportunity through which they could pass their goals. Transnational parties ‘help national parties and MEPs, structure their behavior. These two levels of party organization are characterized by interdependence based on mutuality of interests and benefits. National party as an essential subcomponent of transnational party on the one hand. Transnational party as a useful platform and a source of behavior structure on the other. Apart from these inter-related incentives, falling partially in Principal 1 and Principal 2 resources, one can mention other, reserved only for MEPs once they have been elected (See: II.2. Two principal theory; Principal 2). The most important one is allocation of leadership position within the EP. Party groups ‘control important assets within the EP such as committee positions, rapporteurships for writing legislative reports, and plenary speaking time. ‘The most salient reports are allocated to the most loyal MEPs. Another incentive, however less important, is the control of the parliamentary agenda by the MEPs. They do have an influence on what can be included in the agenda, but they cannot decide on whether one issue or another can be kept of the agenda. The larger party group is, the greater influence on allocation of leadership position and agenda control it has. Using the allocation position power as well as (limited) agenda control one can argue that European poli tical groups are able to ‘enforce party line and mobilize its members to unified voting. While analyzing incentives for collective party organization at the EU level, institutional context has to be mentioned. Behavior of the institutions and their members is to a great extent determined by inter-institutional competition. Each of them seeks to preserve its position on the institutional arena and ensure its influence on the issues concerned. In other words, the inter-institutional competition system is based on counterbalance mechanisms that help the institutions prevent the dominant position of one of them. This is the case also for the European Parliament, whose power has been systematically enforcing by the treaties, moving the EP form its position of purely consultative body (Treaty of Rome) and to the one of an active player the decision-making process (veto power). The ordinary legislative procedure introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, entered into a force in 2009, makes the role of the EP even more significant. Collective organization within the EP as well as voting c ohesiveness help the EP to reduce the importance of two other institutions, namely the Council and the Commission. Another level of the competition which is very present in the EP concern party groups. Inter-party group competition determines voting behavior within the groups increasing cohesiveness. It is in the interest of the political groups to ensure a strong position vis à   vis other groups. Following the general rule bigger can more, creating bigger and more influential platform enables the groups to be more competitive and to constitute a counterbalance to the others. As S. Hix et al. argue, ‘the incentive to form and maintain powerful transnational party organization is fundamentally related to political competition inside the European Parliament (†¦) It pays to be cohesive because this increases a partys chance of being on the winning side of a vote and thus to influence its final outcome. IV. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INCENTIVES IN DOMESTIC PARLIAMENTS IN EUROPE AND IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Among the consequences of the distinct nature of the nation state on the one hand and the European Union on the other (see: Introduction, pp. 1-2) one can find differences between incentives for collective party organization accessible at both levels. The reasons maybe divided into groups which touch upon different aspects: nature of the European election, re-election capabilities, sanction instruments, constitutional structure and general perception of political parties performance at both levels. Domestic parliaments are perceived as the ones that offer their deputies more incentives than it is the case of the European Parliament, where ‘the role of the political parties is much less apparent.Reif and Schmitt coined the term of ‘second-order national elections to underline the importance of the national issues in the election campaigns in Europe. One can also mention very low turnout, ‘weak electoral connection between citizens and European legislators, no ‘brand name at the EU level ‘since candidates do not use a common European label, but the label of their national party. Taking into account these factors, ‘the nature of elections does not [seem to] provide an incentive to act within a cohesive party group that is as strong as in genuine national election. Internal functioning of the EP shows an important role played by the national electoral systems as well as strong a ‘connection between the MEPs and their national parties. The national parties constitute ‘the main aggregate actors in the European Parliament. There are lots of aspects justifying this statement. These are the national parties that nominate the candidates to the European elections. They decide also ‘which of their MEPs will be returned to the European Parliament. ‘National party leaderships have a dominant influence on the future career prospects of the MEPs, both within and beyond the EP. National parties decide which of their MEPs they will support for key committee position and offices inside the parliament and also whether MEPs will be chosen as candidates for national legislative and executive office. There is a clear list of incentives and goal that may be achieved. The most important one is ‘re-election. The lack of this particular incentive to offer at the EU level weakens significantly the position of transnational parties in comparison to their national counterparts. Level of the voting cohesiveness determines the effectiveness of the transnational groups once they are established. It decides if they are able or not to ‘ensure political accountability and consistent decision-making.Domestic parliamentary systems have at their disposal greater sanctions for the behavior contradictory to the party lines. Taking into account what national parties can offer, there is too much to lose if one decide not follow their instructions (cost and benefits analysis). One of the relevant instruments available at the domestic level is the confidence vote attached to a legislative proposal. It can be used by the governmental party or coalition in order to ensure (party) voting cohesion.On top of that, ‘the cabinet, with its prerogatives in the legislative process, is formed along partisan lines and the portfolios are distributed by party leaders. It shows that political parties ‘are crucial at all stages of the making of public policy. The sanctions mechanism within the European Parliament is developed enough to exert an effective influence on voting behavior of the MEPs. There are two instruments which has to be mentioned. Political groups can control their members through ‘whips or by ‘group coordinators in case of the committees. The second one at the disposal of the political groups is ‘the ultimate sanction of expelling an individual MEP or national party delegation from the group. However, political groups make use of this possibility only in extreme cases.Decision of the expulsion ‘has to be supported by a majority of all MEPs in the group and is only credible if expelling the party would not weaken the political group compared with its opponents in the parliament.Importance of the available instruments is limited by their rather theoretical dimension. If we assume that the transnational parties are responsible for the growing cohesiveness within the political groups, the threat of us e of the sanction itself should be sufficient in order to ensure an obedience of the MEPs. However, if these are the national parties which determine the voting behavior, these sanction instruments lose their raison dà ªtre and should be regarded as rather simple provision. Differences between two levels concern to a large extent the constitutional structure. The one of the EU ‘does not (†¦) resemble the structure of a parliamentary system.First of all, there is no traditional government to support, discredit, refer to: identify with or oppose to. No executive ‘which can enforce party unity via a vote of confidence.Only possibility at the EPs disposal is ‘the power to vote the European executive (the Commission) through vote of no confidence. However, the necessary majority (two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of the component MEPs, art. 234 TFEU) is very difficult to achieve. Furthermore, the Commission ‘[is not] recruited from a majority coalition within the EP.It has no power to dissolve the Parliament, even for the budgets rejection which would normally have happened in the national systems. One can say that both positive and negative incentives from the part of the ‘executive are very li mited. Nothing to be afraid of and nothing to strive for. Performance of European political groups is weakened by limited abilities of agenda control (in comparison to the domestic parliaments). ‘No transnational party can use agenda control powers in order to keep policy issues which divide the party from arising in the legislative decision-making process (†¦) even if [this particular party holds] a sufficient majority of votes'(see Section III, p. 7). It is the European Commission that has an exclusive right to initiative. The European Parliament can only submit the proposal for legislative act, which then is considered by the Commission. The same applies to the transnational parties in the Council. Thus, Lindberg et al., argue that ‘partisan control of the legislative agenda is only possible if a political camp dominates all three legislative bodies in the EU, namely: the Commission, the Council and the Parliament. Table 1 Party effects on legislative decision-making National parties Transnational parties Electoral arena Selection of representatives European Parliament Yes No Council Yes No Commission Yes No Legislative arena Legislative organization European Parliament Mixed Mixed Council No No Commission No No Intra-institutional decision-making European Parliament Yes Yes Council Mixed Mixed Commission No No Intra-institutional decision-making Mixed Yes (preliminary evidence) Source: B. Lindberg, A. Rasmussen, A. Warntjen, ‘Party politics as usual? The role of political parties in EU legislative decision-making, Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 15, Issue 8, 2008, p. 1114. V. DETERMINANTS OF THE VOTING COHESIVENESS INSIDE THE EP Different factors that determine the voting behavior inside the EP refer us to the theory of two principals mentioned in the second part (see pages 3-4). Which of them has a greater impact on how the MEPs vote: national parties of transnational groups? What does prevail: national loyalty or partisan alignments? Do they necessarily oppose to each other? One can assume that MEPs take their decision being well informed and fully aware of the context of the decisions, their content as well as their consequences. However, a significant part of them are being taken without this knowledge and rationally based analysis. Instead of it, other factors influence the MEPs and their final decision. Three of them seem to be the most important. First, personal relations among the MEPs established as a result of socialization. It concerns especially those first-time elected deputies who are not very familiar with organizational structure of the EP. They are often forced to rely on somebody else while taking the decision. Somebody who, for different reasons, they decide to trust while taking decision. Second, content of the issue discussed and its impact on a vote. If the outcome of the decision is particularly important from a countrys perspective, one could expect that MEP to be well informed about the issue. Then probability that he or she will vote in accordance to the national party line is higher, either. Third, time the decision is taken. One can argue that MEPs are more likely to vote in line with their European party/political group when the leadership positions have not been allocated yet. In other words, it is difficult to apply the well know rule of ‘stick and carrot if the carrot does no longer exist. ‘Despite frequent criticism of the lack of strength of the EP party groups, it is shown that they achieve relatively high and rising levels of cohesion.However, there is no clear answer on ‘whether it is mainly the transnational or the national parties that act as the principals of the MEPs.At least three observations can be made to show the relations between them. First, ‘national political parties make up the European parties strategically choose to vote together and impose discipline on their MEPs even when their preferences diverge. Doing so, they want to secure their ‘long term collective policy goaland not necessarily ‘the immediate outcome of particular vote.Second, MEPs rarely vote against the European party line. Mostly because a ‘high level of consensus between European political groups and national parties rarely forces them to make that choice. Third however, if the conflict between two principals appears they will chose the national on e. One can say that ‘MEPs are ultimately controlled by their national parties rather than European political groups. Importance of the national actors in determining the cohesion of the European parties depends on ‘how closely [nation parties] follow Parliamentary debates and how often the offer guidance to their own members. The national parties are more likely to be directly involved ‘when they are opposed to the group vote or when the issue is of particular national concern.Voting against the majority within the political group does not simply pay if the rate is not high enough. The same applies for the roll-call voting where votes (Yes, No, Abstain) are published in the parliaments official minutes.Votes that are usually taken by roll call concerns decision of rather political nature (not technical one). It gives an extra incentive to ‘show loyalty to the European political groups. Existing studies of roll-call voting confirm this statement showing that ‘MEPs are likely to vote along transnational party lines than national lineswhen such a method is applied. ‘Though the Parliament is organized