Essay about Daniel Clowes Ghost World Argumentative...

Pictured on the back cover of the comic book Ghost World, by Daniel Clowes, are the two main characters of the book in full color. This strikingly significant image, surely shrugged off by most Clowes readers, represents worlds of diversity within the frames of the book. Sporting pink spandex pants underneath her goldfinch yellow skirt and a blue t-shirt to match perfectly, Enid seems to live her life outside the bubble. Shes a very dynamic girl, especially interested in her surroundings and people around her. On the other hand, Becky is dressed like a typical girl, with a long black skirt and a white blouse, thus representing her conforming presence in the world. Becky is much more passive than Enid, going with the flow of†¦show more content†¦To her right is the building with the window. Inside, the television is on with someone watching, but only the persons hand holding a drink is visible. After reading the book, you can infer that this scene represents the two worl ds in the comic book: the inside world and the outside world. Enid is outside the window looking and walking away from it, instead of walking towards and looking in. She does things differently from others, including her best friend, Becky. Enid is one to wear goofy outfits, weird looking masks, and dye her hair extreme colors. Her world is her own and to her it is real. On the other hand, in the first few opening frames, an obvious difference in attitude between Becky and Enid enlightens itself in their conversation. While Becky watches a corny stand-up comedian on T.V., Enid reads a magazine that she utterly despises for the trendy, stuck up prep school bitch audience that it caters to. It bothers her so much because its Beckys magazine, and it seems Enid is almost insulted that she bought it. Indirectly, Becky buying a magazine of the sort shows her place in the world that Becky, herself, lives in. The real world, the world which subscribes to trendy magazines and corny comedians and the like. The world which Becky accepts and Enid

Effects Of Smoking On The United States - 1026 Words

Summary The key aspect to be discussed is the fact that main reason for the significant decline in the number of smokers in the past decade still alludes healthcare researchers. Some better known causes however, include better insurance coverage to help smokers who quit the habit. An equally important factor is the execution of stricter laws prohibiting more smokers to smoke in public places. As identified by the CDC, the percentage of U.S adults who smoke cigarettes have has declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 16.8% in 2014. The evidence also suggests that smoking was noticeably ln 2014 than in 2013. Sources reported that tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease and death. Another essential point is that it kills 28,000 people every year in New York and afflicts nearly 600,000 residents with serious injuries directed to their smoking. In addition, smoking kills half a million Americans every year and costs about $300 billion dollars a year. Considering this report, it can be conclude d that real progress in helping American smokers quit as well as more progress is possible. According to Dr Laurent Greillier from Nord Hospital in Marseille said â€Å"nowadays, everyone knows smoking is a risk factor for developing several cancers especially lung cancer. Based on the findings of healthcare experts, it can be argued that anti-smoking campaigns get the maximum credit for the reduced number of smokers with is not entirely deserved of them. Researchers state that they are notShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Smoking On The United States1311 Words   |  6 Pagescigarette smoking is higher in the United States and kills more than 480,000 Americans each year (2015). In fact, cigarettes are harmful to smokers and nonsmoker, and the number of smokers rises day by day. Moreover, there are many harmful effects smoking has on an individual, such as heart disease, cancer, and the effect on nonsmoker and women, while it may cause an individual to feel relaxed, spend a lot of money and not be informed, it is harmful in the United States. The consequences of smoking areRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States1570 Words   |  7 PagesWorld-wide efforts have increased to alarm people of the danger in consuming tobacco products, both first hand and second hand. In recent years, reports have proven a decline in smoking. However, there are still millions of people that smoke in the United State of America. As a result, the effect of smoking has become a major health risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death, disease, and disability in the USRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States976 Words   |  4 PagesSmoking Smoking, the drug killer number one is everywhere at this time, even government and enough information, which we can get almost everywhere cannot stop some young people. What forces young people to smoke? Why they risk their health just for cigarettes. Is it the addiction what make them smoke, or it is a societal pressure, or it is something else ? The second important question is that, what is the major and minor effect of smoking. I have many experiences with smoking, because using of thisRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States905 Words   |  4 PagesPrevention (CDC), smoking kills more than 480,000 in the U.S. each year. In order to reduce this statistic, numerous controlling strategies are adopted by the government, which includes a limitation of tobacco advertising, and the prohibition of smoking in public areas. Meanwhile, several people are suffering from health issues caused by consumption of cigarette. It increases the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. The se three diseases are the leading causes of death in the United States (Taylor 8)Read MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States1841 Words   |  8 PagesIn the United States, tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable death. Chronic cigarette smoking is associated with many adverse health effects and 70% of adult smokers started smoking when they were adolescents. The World Health Organization’s definition of adolescence is a period of development that corresponds to the period between the ages of 10 and 19 years. This age group is vulnerable to initiate risky behaviors such as cigarette smoking. According to the Surgeon General’s reportRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States2439 Words   |  10 PagesIn the United States, tobacco smoking is by far the leading cause of lung cancer, which includes non-small cell lung cancer. About 80% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking, and many others are caused by exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking is clearly the strongest risk factor for non-small cell lung cancer, but it often interacts with other factors. Smokers exposed to other known risk factors such as radon and asbestos are at even higher risk. However, not everyone who smokes gets lung cancerRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States871 Words   |  4 PagesPathogenic role of smoking has been proved by many researchers in the world and in our country. Smoking 01 cigarettes himself losing 5.5 minutes of life. The average life expectancy of people who smoke less than non-smokers from 05 to 08 years. Smoking increases the mortality rate from 30 to 80%, mainly because of cancer (lung cancer), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease.... The degree of increased risk depends on the age of starting smoking (smoking as soon as the higherRead MoreThe Effects Of Smoking On The United States1639 Words   |  7 PagesSmoking is established as a recognized cause of cancer, lung disease, coronary heart dis ease, and stroke(US Public Health Service,1964,Doll R 1976,1994, US Department of Health and Human Services,1989).it is considered to be the single most important avoidable cause of premature morbidity and mortality in the world. WHO has estimated that there are about 1100 million smokers worldwide; this represents about one-third of the global population aged over 15 years (WHO,1997). About 73% of these smokersRead MoreEffects Of Smoking On The United States2197 Words   |  9 Pagesproducts for example cigarettes while ant-smoking campaigns are the activities and rally that the tobacco industries and other institutions or organization employ to oppose or curb smoking globally, example public education. The rate of smoking globally is on the rise if the current data is to go by the youths will be the most affected compared to adults, this trend is worrying and leaves us with many questions than answers concerning the future of the nations. Smoking has been identified as one of th eRead MoreEffects Of Cigarette Smoking On The United States961 Words   |  4 PagesThe facts are right there on the box; â€Å"Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema and may complicate pregnancy.† Almost all teen smokers say they regret beginning to smoke. Most smokers attribute the habit of smoking to the glamorization of smoking in the media, peer pressure, self-image, and easy access to tobacco; from stealing cigarettes from parents or having someone who is 18 buy the cigarettes for them. Teen smoking is on the rise and it is a problem. Cigarette smoke

Significance of Plastics Free Essays

Significance * Plastic bags are not renewable, which means they cannot be easily recycled like paper bags. They are made of petrochemicals, which is what makes them non-renewable and a risk to the health of the planet. They last for hundreds of years, all the while doing damage to natural habitats and killing animals that mistake them for food. We will write a custom essay sample on Significance of Plastics or any similar topic only for you Order Now The more plastic bags people use, the greater the chances of environmental damage. Effects * If not carefully disposed of, plastic bags can be devastating to animal life. DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) reported that 1,678,900 tons of plastic packaging was in the UK waste stream in 2001. Because plastic bags do not decay quickly, they stay in environments longer, causing more build-up on the natural landscape than a more degradable material like paper would. The Marrickville Council reports that over 100,000 whales, turtles and birds die every year as a result of plastic in their environment. Suffocation * Infants and young children have died as a result of playing with plastic bags. Every year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission receives about 25 reports of plastic bag-related infant death. Because of the thin, airtight material, infants can easily block their mouths and nostrils with the plastic bag and suffocate. Prevention/Solution * Abstaining from plastic bag use as much as possible will reduce the chances of accidental infant death, and it will reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment. A plastic bag is also reusable, though. It does not necessarily have to be thrown away after a single use. Try to use each plastic bag for as long as possible. This will help reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation. Expert Insight * Some experts want to ban the use of plastic bags entirely. Los Angeles has passed recommendations that will make them illegal in supermarkets by 2012. The British government sees plastic bags as a symbol for a throwaway society. They claim, â€Å"[Plastic bags] are a significant cause of litter†¦. Most of the rest of the 13 billion bags used each year end up in landfills. † Alternatives to Plastic Bags * Canvas bags are a smart alternative to plastic. Canvas can be washed and reused, and lasts up to 10 years on average. Bringing a few canvas bags with you to the store will greatly reduce the number of plastic bags in the environment. Paper bags are not as beneficial for the environment as canvas bags, but they are recyclable. Infants cannot suffocate on paper bags either. If you’re creative, you can make an old plastic bag into an arts-and-crafts project (see Resources). Read more: Disadvantages of Plastic Bags | eHow. com http://www. ehow. com/about_5072695_disadvantages-plastic-bags. html#ixzz1iCJusfTm How to cite Significance of Plastics, Papers

People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing free essay sample

Life is challenging. In order to be happy and successful, we need to prepare ourselves on many fronts. Although participating in enjoyable activities is always desirable, in my view it is also necessary at times to do things we do not enjoy. The bases for my view are personal, social and financial. Personally, doing things we don’t care for builds character and helps us mature. For instance, when parents have their first baby they are forced to give up their freedom in order to look after the child. There are times when parents barely get enough sleep and still have to get up and go to work in the morning. Similarly, when students are in school and university, they need to spend a lot of time studying. In spite of being tempted to go out with friends and attend parties, those who have self-control and keep their priorities straight are the ones who get high grades. We will write a custom essay sample on People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Through such life experiences people become stronger, wiser and more responsible. From a social perspective, we live in an interdependent world which imposes its obligations on us. Each person belongs to diverse social groups and plays various social roles. Each of us has to attend birthday parties, weddings and funerals to show we care about our fellow human beings. Participating in events for the sake of others teaches us to go beyond our own selfish needs and to share in the joys and sorrows of others. Financially-speaking, people need to work and spend to keep the local, national and international economy growing. We need to support our own family in particular and our community in general. In fact, most of us work many more hours than we would like to work. What propels us to continue working is our financial needs, commitments and obligations. Only in this way are we able to live comfortable lifestyles and save for our retirement days. In conclusion, life places huge demands on us. By participating in a wide variety of activities, both pleasant and unpleasant, we can discover more about our unique selves and live fuller lives.

Ap European History free essay sample

After reading and studying this chapter, you should be able to discuss the meanings of the term renaissance. You should be able to explain the economic context for the Renaissance, the new status of the artist in Renaissance Italy, and the meanings of the terms humanism, secularism, and individualism as applied by scholars to the Renaissance. Also, you should be able to explain how the Italian Renaissance affected politics, the economy, and society. Finally, be able to elaborate on the evolution of medieval kingdoms into early modern nation-states, and the spread of Renaissance humanism northward. Chapter Outline I. The Evolution of the Italian Renaissance A. Economic Growth as the Basis of the Renaissance 1. Venice, Genoa, and Milan grew rich on commerce between 1050 and 1300. 2. Florence, where the Renaissance originated, was an important banking center by the fourteenth century. B. Communes and Republics 1. In northern Italy the larger cities won independence from local nobles and became self-governing communes of free men in the twelfth century. We will write a custom essay sample on Ap European History or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 2. Local nobles moved into the cities and married into wealthy merchant families. This new class set up property requirements for citizenship. . The excluded, the popolo, rebelled and in some cities set up republics. 5. By 1300 the republics had collapsed, and despots or oligarchies governed most Italian cities. C. The Balance of Power among the Italian City-States 1. City patriotism and constant competition for power among cities prevented political centralization on the Italian peninsula. 2. As cities strove to maintain the balance of power among themselves, they invented the apparatus of modern diplomacy. 3. In 1494 the city of Milan invited intervention by the French King Charles VIII. 4. Italy became a battleground as France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Emperor vied for dominance. 5. In 1527 the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Rome. II. Intellectual Hallmarks of the Renaissance A. Individualism 1. Renaissance writers stressed individual personality, greatness, and achievement, in contrast to the medieval ideal of Christian humility. B. Humanism 1. The revival of antiquity took the form of interest in archaeology, recovery of ancient manuscripts, and study of the Latin classics. 2. The study of the classics became known as the â€Å"new learning,† or humanism. 3. Humanist scholars studied antiquity not so much to find God as to know human nature and understand a different historical context. 4. Humanists derided what they viewed as the debased Latin of the medieval churchmen. C. Secular Spirit 1. The secular way of thinking focuses on the world as experienced rather than on the spiritual and/or eternal. 2. Renaissance thinkers came to see life as an opportunity rather than a painful pilgrimage toward God. 3. Lorenzo Valla argued that sense pleasures were the highest good. 4. Giovanni Boccaccio wrote about an acquisitive, sensual, worldly society. Renaissance popes expended much money on new buildings, a new cathedral (St. Peter’s), and on patronizing artists and men of letters. III. Art and the Artist A. Art and Power 1. In the early Renaissance, corporate groups such as guilds sponsored religious art. 2. By the late fifteenth century individual princes, merchants, and bankers sponsored art to glorify themselves and their families. Their urban palaces were full of expensive furnishings as well as art. 3. Classical themes, individual portraits, and realistic style characterized Renaissance art. 4. Renaissance artists invented perspective and portrayed the human body in a more natural and scientific manner than previous artists did. B. The Status of the Artist 1. Medieval masons were viewed as mechanical workers/artisans. Renaissance artists were seen as intellectual workers. 2. The princes and merchants who patronized artists paid them well. 3. Artists themselves gloried in their achievements. During the Renaissance, the concept of artist as genius was born. 4. Renaissance culture was only the culture of a very wealthy mercantile elite; it did not affect the lives of the urban middle classes or the poor. IV. Social Change A. Education and Political Thought 1. Humanist writers were preoccupied with education for morality and virtue. 2. Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier (1528) presented an image of the ideal man as master of dance, music, the arts, warfare, mathematics, and so on. 3. Daughters of the elite received an education similar to sons and a few went on to become renowned painters or scholars. 4. In The Prince (1513), Niccolo Machiavelli argued that politics could not follow simple rules of virtue and morality—that it ought in fact to be studied as a science. B. The Printed Word 1. Around 1455 in the German city of Mainz, Johan Gutenberg and two other men invented the movable type printing press. 2. Methods of paper production had reached Europe in the twelfth century from China through the Near East. 3. Printing made government and Church propaganda much more practical, created an invisible â€Å"public† of readers, and stimulated literacy among laypeople. C. Clocks 1. City people involved in commerce had a need to measure time. 2. By the early fourteenth century mechanical clocks were widespread in Europe. . Mechanical clocks and precise measurement of time contributed to the development of a conception of the universe in measurable, quantitative terms. D. Women and Work 1. Early modern culture identified women with marriage and the domestic virtues. 2. Women were involved with all economic activity connected with the care and nurturing of the family, as well as working outside the home. 3. Women during the Renaissance worked in a variety of businesses—for example, sailmaking—and even in a few isolated cases managed large enterprises. Wealthy women were usually excluded from the public arena and instead managed their households. E. Culture and Sexuality 1. Women’s status in the realm of love, romance, and sex declined during the Renaissance. 2. Writers such as Castiglione created the â€Å"double standard†? women were to be faithful in marriage, while men need not be. 3. Penalties for rape in Renaissance Italy were very light. 4. In spite of statutes against â€Å"sodomy,† generally referring to male homosexuality, Florentine records from the fifteenth century show a lot of homosexual activity going on, usually relations between an adult male and a boy. F. Slavery and Ethnicity 1. In medieval and Renaissance Europe many Slavic, Tartar, Circassian, Greek, and Hungarian slaves were imported. 2. Beginning in the fifteenth century the Portuguese brought many black African slaves into Europe. 3. Within Africa the economic motives of rulers and merchants trumped any cultural/ethnic/racial hostility toward Europeans. They sold fellow Africans into slavery apparently without qualms. 4. Africans did not identify themselves as â€Å"black,† but as members of more than 600 different tribal and ethnic groups. 5. Black slaves were an object of curiosity at European courts. 6. The Renaissance concept of people from sub-Saharan Africa was shaped by Christian symbology of light and darkness? blacks represented the Devil. Race did not emerge as a concept until the late seventeenth century. V. The Renaissance in the North A. Northern Humanists 1. In the late fifteenth century students from northern Europe studied in Italy and brought the Renaissance home. 2. Thomas More (1478–1535) of England argued that reform of social institutions could reduce or eliminate corruption and war. 3. The Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) was an expert in the Bible and Greek language who believed that all Christians should read the Bible. 4. Francois Rabelais (1490–1553) ridiculed established institutions such as the clergy with gross humor in Gargantua. 5. Flemish artists came to rival the Italian Renaissance painters. VI. Politics and the State in the Renaissance (ca 1450–1521) A. Centralization of Power 1. Some scholars have viewed Renaissance kingship as a new form, citing the dependence of the monarch on urban wealth and the ideology of the â€Å"strong king. In France Charles VII (r. 1422–1461) created the first permanent royal army, set up new taxes on salt and land, and allowed increased influence in his bureaucracy from middle-class men. He also asserted his right to appoint bishops in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. 3. Charles’s son Louis XI (r. 1461–1483) fostered industry from artisans, taxed it, and used the funds to build up his army. He brought much new territory under direct Crown rule. 4. In England Edward IV ended the War of the Roses between rival baronial houses. 5. Henry VII ruled largely without Parliament, using as his advisers men with lower-level gentry origins. 6. Henry’s Court of the Star Chamber tried cases involving aristocrats and did so with methods contradicting common law, such as torture. 7. Although Spain remained a confederation of kingdoms until 1700, the wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon did lead to some centralization. Ferdinand and Isabella stopped violence among the nobles, recruited â€Å"middle-class† advisers onto their royal council, and secured the right to appoint bishops in Spain and in the Spanish empire in America. . Popular anti-Semitism increased in fourteenth-century Spain. In 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella invited the Inquisition into Spain to search out and punish Jewish converts to Christianity who secretly continued Jewish religious practices. 9. To persecute converts, Inquisitors and others formulated a racial theory? that conversos were suspect not because of their beliefs, but because of who they were racially. 10. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain.

The eNotes Blog Just How Many Books Are There Googles Massive Project to Count ThemALL

Just How Many Books Are There Googles Massive Project to Count ThemALL Books to the ceiling, books to the sky, / My piles of books are a mile high. / How I love them! / How I need them! / Ill have a long beard by the time I read them.   ~Arnold Lobel Have you ever wondered just how many books are actually out there?   Well, thanks to Googles researchers, now we know: 128,854,790.   (A number, of course, which will continually change.) Googles Herculean effort is aimed at cataloging and indexing all existing books. The goal is to ultimately have every piece of literature in the world digitized and searchable. The project had some prickly problems with which to contend from the beginning, starting with what actually counts as a book.   You can read more about how they arrived at what counts here. Despite the altruism on many levels of Googles meta-project, there are some concerns about having a private company being in charge of all the worlds data.   But their work will accomplish what governments and/or non-profit entities have not been able to achieve:   the free dissemination of data to the masses, one of the biggest changes of access to knowledge since the printing press.

Learning Theory Into Practice Project Assignment

Learning Theory Into Practice Project - Assignment Example It is, therefore, crucial to link this game of opening the student mind to appropriate theories such that the process of teaching them may be more appropriate and comprehensive. Business simulation games are also referred to as economic simulation games. These are games focused at on making sensible decisions by the players towards financial management by forming business (Williams, 2010). Since these games are geared to make the players rich, they are also known as tycoon games. They help the player who is also the learner to develop managerial stimulation of pure business simulations devoid of a construction element with emphasis on micromanagement (Klassen & Willoughby, 2013). They have a design of a numeric form although they capture the player’s attention by the rich graphics they employ. However, what makes this games be of more educative value is an accurate recreation of the real world events using these algorithms (Klassen & Willoughby, 2013). Either the player’s actions can lead to either a consequence or a well-expected outcome Currently, business simulation games form an eï ¬â‚¬ective method of learning in management. They provide a modern way of approach in teaching and imparting of knowledge to business students in the modern enterprise. It is true that these games also help to form and develop an enterprising culture in learning techniques of modern management (Ahmad, 2012). A person, who has been through this process, has an excellent probability to be a business manager, with the ability to make right decisions in the current condition of cutthroat market competition. When these individuals start work in management position they find themselves in a situation they can make better financial risks of own decisions (Ahmad, 2012). Therefore, this game forms a basis of a different but crucial form of training for teachers and students in management as future leaders. This is why it seems so important to use diï ¬â‚¬erent forms of

Jordanian Economic System History to Modern day Term Paper

Jordanian Economic System History to Modern day - Term Paper Example This research will begin with the economical history of Jordan. Jordan gained independence in the year 1946 when the United Nations declared the nation Independent from the rule of the British. If we delve into the economic history of Jordan, it becomes clear that Jordan since its independence in 1946 and its takeover by the West Bank has managed to position itself in a prominent place in world economy. Soon after the annexation, Jordan experienced a great level of economic growth in different areas as a result of availability of large arable lands and a large amount of supply of water from West Bank. It is to be noted that it is one of the most flourishing periods in the economy of Jordan. The annexation opened up the doors for economic prosperity for the nation as it now stood to gain an upper hand in agriculture. The country however experienced a slump period in its economy since Israel defeated and took over West Bank and sent the people of Jordan back from West Bank. Jordan suff ered a major set back due to this as it experienced a great deal of loss in terms of resources and materials. The Black September Civil war, that Jordan fought in September of 1970, to quash the Palestine military served to create a major set back for the economic growth of the region. The Black September civil war put a stop to the economical prosperity that the nation faced after the annexation. Soon after recovering from the civil war, the country again got back to its full form and had a stable growth until 1980s.    A Short Lived Boon in 1980    In the 1980s the country had a  considerable  boon in the economy due to the nation's  capitalization on the oil economy. Oil market is one of the biggest commodities in the world today and is mandatory to move industries and promote

Personal statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal Statement Example nd respected Business Schools in the United Kingdom, the International reputation of the department of Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations has attracted many local and international students, and I believe the institution will definitely offer one of the most intellectually stimulating environments to pursue my career goals. My interest in the study areas of marketing, public relations and advertisement was first aroused during shortly after I began my undergraduate studies in humanities foundation (Sociology, Media & Computer Information Technology) at Bellerby College, Oxford. Undertaking this course has not only enabled me to establish a solid theoretical foundation in communications and media but has also enhanced my quantitative as well as interpersonal skills. In addition, my preference for communication and sociology makes me to find public relations to be an instrumental field to my dream career of being a Communications and Media Manager in a well established organization. I am particularly enthusiastic to learn about how different business enterprises embrace varied social media utilities to remain relevant in face of the rapidly evolving marketing conditions. Besides, I want to learn about how a business’ responsiveness to social issues that unravel during its course of operation can impact the achievement of the overall strategic goals. I have also developed deep insights into ways of conceptualizing and developing creative communication actions for both advertisement and public relations. I posses exemplary skills in communication and media, which have been helpful in letting me tailor adverts in a way that suits the target group. Besides, I am proficient in matching different types of social media utilities with given audience in varied advertising contexts and marketing endeavors. In integrating these efforts into public relations, I believe that I will be better positioned to build cross-functional groups that are capable of executing

Carboxymethyl Cellulose On Blends Of Polyvinyl Alcohol Environmental Sciences Essay

Carboxymethyl Cellulose On Blends Of Polyvinyl Alcohol Environmental Sciences Essay ABSTRACT Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blends were prepared and found that Poly(vinyl alcohol) Poly(ethylene oxide) are inherently immiscible and therefore incompatible. So, a compatibilizer Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is added to PVA and PEO and the influence of CMC is studied on the compatibility of blends of PVA and PEO. It is found that on adding CMC, PVA and PEO become partially miscible. Here, we describe the preparation of PVA/PEO/CMC blends having weight percentage of CMC 5, 10, 20 wt% and the influence of concentration of CMC on the blends of PVA and PEO is studied and the miscibility of the blends was characterized by using wide-angle X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infra-red (ATR-FTIR) techniques. Also, swelling ratio of the different blends is studied. Keywords: Hydrogels; Polyvinyl alcohol; Polyethylene oxide; Carboxymethyl cellulose; Miscibility, Immiscible. *Correspondence to: Prof. Bhuvanesh Gupta, Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India. E-mail: [emailprotected] INTRODUCTION Designing new materials with improved properties is one of the main goals of the chemists. Two common ways are chemical synthesis and blending which mainly used to get a material with improved or new properties. Chemical synthesis is an unlimited method to get new substances with well-defined properties but it is often time consuming and not seldom costly. On the other side, blending is a well-known and simple method to combine the advantages of different materials [23,65], efficient way to prepare new materials with improved properties. [8] The blending of hydrophilic/hydrophobic polymers produce phase-separated composite hydrogels. Polymer blends exhibit superior and rare properties, unexpected from homopolymers. The physical, chemical and radiant methods can be applied to prepare polymer blends. [6] Polymer blends are physical mixtures of structurally different polymers or co-polymers, which interact through secondary forces such as hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole forces and charg e transfer complexes for homopolymer mixtures with no covalent bonding [34,36-38] that are miscible at molecular level. Polymer blend hydrogels are composed of water-soluble or swellable polymers, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) [25,26] poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) [24] and, other synthetic water-soluble polymers and degradable or nondegradable water-insoluble or swellable polymers, such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA) [25], poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PGLA). [24] The most common method used to blend polymers is through solvent-casting techniques. In this process, two or more polymers are dissolved in a mutual solvent and the blends are obtained by evaporating the solvent. The resulting materials have a microphase separated structure [25,26] and often improved miscibility via hydrogen bonding among polymers [24], resulting in transparent materials. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a water-soluble polyhydroxy polymer, used in practical applications because of its easy preparation, excellent chemical resistance and physical properties, appropriate mechanical properties [68,71], and it is completely biodegradable and cheap and the -OH groups can be a source of hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) and hence of assistance in the formation of polymer blends. Polyvinyl alcohol has excellent film forming, emulsifying, and adhesive properties. It is also resistant to oil, grease and solvent. It is odorless, nontoxic and has high tensile strength, flexibility, as well as high oxygen and aroma barrier. The chemical structure of PVA favors the formation of intramolecular [1] hydrogen bonding because of favorable disposition of relatively small -OH groups attached to alternate carbon atoms of PVA [20], thus it is used in the preparation of various membranes and hydrogels. Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymers having three-dimensional networks [27], and ar e most often defined as two-component systems where one of the components is a hydrophilic polymer and the second one is water. These have the ability to swell in the presence of water without dissolution because of a three-dimensional network joining as chains. The interactions responsible for water absorption by hydrogels include the processes of hydration, which is connected to the presence of such chemical groups as -OH, -COOH, -CONH2, -CONH-, and -SO3H, and the existence of capillary areas and differences in osmotic pressure. [67] PVA blends can be cast as films and applied as functional materials including biomedical materials such as dialysis membranes, wound dressing, artificial skin, cardiovascular devices and as vehicles to release active substances in a controlled manner. [69-71] PVA hydrogels have been studied extensively but their properties need to be improved further for special applications. [2,6,7] In order to improve or modify the properties of PVA hydrogels, PEO is used to blend with PVA to form hydrogels which is hydrophilic semicrystalline polyether with a glass transition temperature below room temperature, biocompatible, non toxic, non polar, non antigenic and non immunogenic [45] and is highly desirable in most biomedical applications requiring contact with physiological fluids. For these reasons, PEO hydrogels are applied as wound coverings, drug delivery systems, hemodialysis membrane [1], as a component of a tissue sealant [15,16] and as a coating for medical devices [17], both poly(ethyl ene oxide) (PEO) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) are industrially important polymers [75] and their blends can be of significant practical utility, but it is found that PVA and PEO are immiscible and incompatible blends [1, 75] which do not possess a tendency for extensive mutual solubility. [1] Also it is found that hydroxyl-containing polymers are self-associated and hence the competition between self association and interpolymer interaction plays an important role in determining the miscibility behavior of their blends. For example, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is miscible with three tertiary amide polymers poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) [54-58], poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) [59] and poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) [60], but is immiscible with another tertiary amide polymer poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOx). [61] PEO is etheric in nature. However formation of weak H-bonds between PEO and PVA cannot be ruled out. The C-O-C bond angle in PEO is normally 108Â ° and when a -OH group from a neighbouring PVA chain approaches the etheric oxygen atom in order to form a H-bond, the C-O-C bond angle deviates from 108Â ° so that the lone pair of the etheric oxygen is positioned nearer to the approaching OH from PVA. It would therefore be interesting to investigate the structure and thermal properties of the composites formed in the PEO-PVA system with different proportions of the components. We have found that mutual miscibility of PEO and PVA is likely to exist over only a small range of compositions. The mixtures otherwise seem to form only microscopically immiscible blends which do not possess a tendency for extensive mutual solubility. They are referred to as incompatible polymer blends or simply blends. [77] To make them compatible, a compatibilizer i.e. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is added. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) obtained from natural cellulose by chemical modification is a water soluble cellulose ether derivate [3] and is formed by its reaction with sodium hydroxide and chloroacetic acid. It has a number of sodium carboxymethyl groups (CH2COONa), introduced into the cellulose molecule, which promote water solubility. The various properties of CMC depend upon three factors: molecular weight of the polymer, average number of carboxyl content per anhydroglucose unit, and the distribution of carboxyl substituents along the polymer chains. The most important properties of CMC are viscosity building and flocculation. Among all the polysaccharides, CMC is easily available and it is also very cheap. It has high shear stability. The structure of CMC is shown in Figure 1. [78] Figure 1 Structure of (a) Poly(vinyl alcohol), (b) Poly(ethylene oxide) and (c) Carboxymethyl cellulose CMC has good water solubility, broadly used due to its low cost, biodegradability, biocompatibility [51] and lack of toxicity. [8,29-33] CMC is an ionic polyelectrolyte [30] that contains carboxyl groups and exhibits pH sensitivity as it has lot of carboxylic groups. [48-50] It has been used in several medical applications [10] and more recently as a component of an antiadhesion gel. [11,12] CMC and PVA in different ratios can be mixed homogeneously in an aqueous solution without evident phase separation, and this can be attributed to the interaction between the components. [49] The hydrogen bonds that form between the carboxylic groups of CMC and hydroxyl groups of PVA, and form semi-interpenetrating polymer networks [49] while with PEO, CMC undergoes micro phase separation to form a two-phase system. [9] Berg et. al. [9] found that the turbidity results of CMC/PEO gels are demonstrated by transparency data. It is found that gels prepared either from CMC alone or from PEO alone were transparent. However, for CMC/PEO composite gels, the transparency of gels changed as the ratio of the two components changed. The gel composed of equal amounts of CMC and PEO had the highest turbidity while the gel having 20% CMC has more than 90% transparency so 20% CMC concentration is taken as the optimized concentration for further studies. The polymer-polymer interaction for the miscibility is thought to be due mainly to hydrogen bonding between three hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose unit of CMC and the functional groups of the synthetic polymers PVA and PEO. However, since each of the three hydroxyl groups in the repeating unit of the cellulose is quite different in terms of regiochemistry and polarity, the hydrogen bond formation is not easily clarified. Kondo et.al. [47] proposed the mechanism for the development of interaction in the cellulose/PEO blend and showed that the hydrogen bonding between the C6 position hydroxyls and skeletal oxygen of PEO is more favourable, at first the two polymers are trapped to form a large adduct, which is a complex between cellulose and PEO, by the hydrogen bond, and the mobility of the molecules is restricted. Then another PEO molecule interacts with the adduct either by hydrogen bonding between the remaining free hydroxyls in cellulose and oxygen in PEO, or by Vander Waals b onding between PEO molecules. [79] The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the influence of concentration of CMC on the blends of PVA and PEO. In this article, we report the characterization of PVA/PEO/CMC blends by various techniques such as X-Ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, Differential scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermal gravimetric Analysis (TGA). EXPERIMENTAL Materials Poly(vinylalcohol) (PVA) of Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India having degree of polymerization 1700-1800 and molecular weight 1,15,000, Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) of Sigma Aldrich of molecular weight 3,00,000 were used. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) sodium salt of high viscosity was received from Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India. Distilled water was used for all experiments. Preparation of Blends of PVA and PEO Preparation of the pure film of PVA and blends of PVA and PEO were carried out in the following manner. PVA was dissolved in distilled water under constant mechanical stirring at temperature 60 -70 Â °C to get 5% PVA solution and then about 15 g. of PVA solution is poured to form layers 2 mm thick in a petridish at room temperature. The solution was first dried in air for 2 days and then in a vacuum oven at 100Â °C to remove solvent from it. Then, the blends of PVA/PEO/CMC were prepared by dissolving different concentrations of each polymer in distilled water, the total polymer concentration in the solvent remains 5% by weight. Water constitutes a suitable reaction medium, because PVA, PEO and CMC are soluble in water. Each polymer having concentration as shown in Table 1 were added in distilled water one by one and then dissolved under constant mechanical stirring at temperature 60 -70Â °C. As shown in Figure 2, it was found that blend solutions formed with CMC shows compatibility as compared to the solution having no CMC i.e. solution (a). It is clear from the Figure 2 that compatibility in the blend increases as the CMC concentration increases from 5% to 20%. These blend solutions were then poured in petridishes at room temperature. The solutions were first dried in air for 2 days and then in a vacuum oven at 100Â °C to remove solvent from it. The films so obtained are then characterized by XRD, TGA, DSC and ATR-FTIR techniques to determine miscibility. Table 1 Samples taken for characterization Figure 2 Solutions prepared from the polymer sample to test compatibility Swelling Ratio (%) All the samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) in film form were accurately weighed and placed in a beaker having fixed volume i.e. 50 ml PBS (pH 7.4) and then kept in a water bath undisturbed for a fixed interval i.e. 24 h. The samples were removed after 24 h., and the excess surface water is removed by pressing gently between filter paper and weighed. The Swelling ratio(%) i.e. SR (%), was calculated as indicated in Equation given below. SR (%) = (Ws Wd) / Wd x 100 where Wd is the weight of dry film, and Ws is the weight of swollen film. Density of blended films Density measurements of the samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) were carried out by taking into account the thickness of membranes of specific size by measuring thickness of the film by thickness tester and by measuring the weight of the sample. Weight in gram per cubic centimeter was represented as the density of the membranes. Wide angle X-Ray diffraction (XRD) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples are recorded in the 2ÃŽ ¸ range of 5-40Â ° on a Phillips X-ray diffractometer equipped with a scintillation counter. CuKÃŽ ± radiation (wavelength, 1.54 ÇÂ º; filament current, 30 mA; voltage, 40 kV) is used for the generation of X-rays. A polymer can be considered partly crystalline and partly amorphous. The crystallinity parts give sharp narrow diffraction peaks and the amorphous component gives a very broad peak. The ratio between these intensities can be used to calculate the amount of crystallinity in the material. Crystallinity (%) = (AC/AT ) X 100 Where AC is the area of crystalline part of the samples and AT is the total area of crystalline and amorphous part of prepared samples. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) The thermal stability of the prepared samples is evaluated by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) performed on a Perkin- Elmer TGA, using a nitrogen stream as purge gas, at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min within the range of 50- 600Â °C. For this, the prepared samples are firstly vaccum dried at 100Â ° C and then loaded in the crucible and the thermograms are run under nitrogen atmosphere from 50- 600Â °C. Attenuated Total Reflectance- Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR) Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier-transform infra-red (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques to investigate multicomponent systems because it provides information on the blend composition as well as on the polymer-polymer interaction. Infrared spectra of both the blends and the pure components were obtained using the films on an ATR-FTIR spectrometer. It is used to characterize the presence of specific chemical groups in the materials. IR spectroscopy of the thin films of samples are recorded on a Perkin-Elmer spectrophotometer in the wave number range of 650-4000 cm−1 using transmittance mode. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is done to study thermal properties such as melting temperature, glass transition temperature and melting enthalpies of dry samples. The DSC studies on the samples are carried out with a Perkin-Elmer DSC-7 system, in aluminium pans under nitrogen atmosphere. For this vacuum-dried samples were loaded, and the thermograms were run in the following temperature range under nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min. The weight of sample used in DSC was in the range of 5-10 mg. The melting temperature was obtained as the peak of the thermogram. The heat of fusion (ΔHf) is obtained from the area under melting thermograms. The heat of crystallization (ΔHf(crys)) of 100% crystalline pure PVA is obtained from the literature. The crystallinity of samples is obtained by the following expression: Crystallinity (%) =ΔHf/ΔHf(crys) X 100 where ΔHf is the heat of fusion of the sample obtained from the melting thermogram and ΔHf(crys) is the heat of fusion of 100% crystalline PVA and is taken as 150 J/g.[64] in high temperature DSC, all samples as shown in table 1 were heated from 50 to 150Â °C at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min, kept 5 min at 150Â °C, cooled to 50Â °C at the same rate, and kept 5 min at 50Â °C. Then, the samples were heated from 50 to 350Â °C at the same rate to record DSC curves. The thermal properties of the polymer blends were determined using two scans. The first heating scan, which was conducted to eliminate the residual water and solvent. The results reported in this work correspond to the second heating scan. In low temperature DSC, all samples as shown in table 1 were heated from 30 to 120Â °C at a heating rate of 10Â °C/min, kept 5 min at 150Â °C, cooled to -50Â °C at the same rate, and kept 5 min at -50Â °C. Then, the samples were heated from -50 to 230Â °C at the same rate to record DSC curves. The thermal properties of the polymer blends were determined using two scans. The first heating scan, which was conducted to eliminate the residual water and solvent. The results reported in this work correspond to the second heating scan. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Swelling Ratio (%) Figure 3 Effect of concentration of CMC on the Swelling Ratio (%) of the blends in PBS (pH 7.4) in 24 h. Figure 3 clearly shows that as the concentration of CMC increases from 0 to 20% in the blends of PVA/PEO/CMC, the Swelling Ratio of blends (%) increases. It is because as the concentration of CMC increases in the blends number of hydroxyl group increases thus increasing the interaction. Density Measurements Table 2 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Figure 4 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films As shown in Table 2 and Figure 4, it can be clearly concluded that there is not appreciable difference in the density of air dried films with the increase of the concentration of CMC from 0 to 20%. But as the concentration of CMC increases in the blends the density of air dried films slightly increases as the hydrogen bonding between three hydroxyl groups in the anhydroglucose unit of CMC and the functional groups of the synthetic polymers PVA and PEO increases, thus making the blend more dense. Also it can be seen that the density of pure CMC is more as compared to pure PVA and PEO. X-ray diffraction Figure 5 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure PVA, pure PEO and sample (a) Figure 6 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure CMC, samples (b), (c) and (d) X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the blends and the pure components are shown in Figure 5 and 6. It may be seen that pure PVA exhibits only a broad and shallow diffraction feature around the 2ÃŽ ¸ value of 16.9Â °, indicating the presence of low-degree crystalline ordering. PEO has two well-defined reflections at 2ÃŽ ¸ values 18.9Â ° and 23.2Â °. These reflections are consistent with literature reports on crystalline PEO. The blend (a) having PVA/PEO 90/10 shows only one reflection at 2ÃŽ ¸ values 19.8Â °. XRD analysis showed that CMC exhibits a very small crystallinity which can be seen in the Table 3 given below. Table 3 Percentage crystallinity calculated by XRD of samples In samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) as the concentration of CMC increases, the % crystallinity shows not much difference as shown in Figure 7 given below. But as shown in Figure 6 the merging of all the peaks of pure PVA, PEO and CMC shows that on adding CMC to the blend of PVA and PEO, the compatibility increases. Figure 7 Graph of percentage crystallinity vs concentration of CMC by XRD Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) Figure 8 TGA of thin films of samples for studying the effect of concentration of CMC on the thermal stability of the samples The thermal stability of the dry superabsorbent hydrogels was determined from 50Â °C to 600Â °C. Figure 8 shows the thermograms for different hydrogel compositions at various temperatures. Generally, in the initial stage of the thermograms from 50Â °C to 200 Â ° C, the weight loss was due to the dehydration process of the water contained in the hydrophilic hydrogels. From the figure 8, three degradation steps can be observed in PVA sample. The first weight loss process, is associated with the loss of absorbed moisture and/or with the evaporation of trapped solvent, the second weight loss process correspond to the degradation of PVA by a dehydration reaction on the polymer chain and the third weight loss process is due to the degradation of the polyene residues to yield carbon and hydrocarbons while PEO undergoes one step degradation. In samples a, b, c, d two step degradation process takes place. The hydrogels having concentrations equal to 100% CMC showed a single-step thermogram, whereas the major weight loss of ~ 50% occurred from 250 to 350Â °C. This weight loss was attributed mainly to the thermal degradation of the two component polymers of the hydrogel, whereas the weight loss up to 600Â °C was ~ 70%. This means that hydrogels having 100% CMC showed high thermal stability. On the other hand, the thermogram of blends is two-step thermogram. The first step was from 200 to 300Â °C, which was also attributed to thermal degradation of the side chains. The second step took place from 350 to 450 Â ° C with a major weight loss equal to 80%. This weight loss was attributed to some thermal degradation of the main chain C-C- bond of the hydrogel components. TGA of CMC showed two distinct zones where the weight is being lost. The initial weight loss is due to the presence of small amount of moisture in the sample. The second loss is due to the loss of CO2 from the polysaccharide. As there are COO- groups in the case of CMC, it is decarboxylated. Attenuated Total Reflectance- Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (ATR- FTIR) Figure 9 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples pure PVA and PEO Figure 10 FTIR of pure CMC powder Figure 11 Comparison of ATR-FTIR of blend (d) with pure samples From Figures 9, 10 and 11, in the IR spectra of the CMC, we can notice the characteristic bands of COO- at 1610, 1419 cm-1, COOH groups at 1055.9 cm-1, -OH at 1419, 1319.54 cm-1 and the ether groups at 1055.9 cm-1. It is worth to remark that in the CMC a part of the carboxylic groups are in acid form and a part in ionic form. The spectrum of CMC shows the stretching vibrations of at -CH-O-CH2 1055.9 cm-1. The band at 1610 cm-1 and 2878.37 cm-1 are assigned to the stretching vibration of the carboxyl group (COO-) and the stretching vibration of methine (C-H), respectively. Pure CMC displays two characteristic absorption bands at 1610 cm-1 and 1419 cm-1, which represents symmetry stretching and asymmetry stretching of COO− group, respectively. It shows a broad band at 3433.59 cm-1, due to the stretching frequency of the -OH group. The band at 2878.37 cm-1 is due to C-H stretching vibration. The presence of a strong absorption band at 1610 cm-1 confirms the presence of COO- group. The bands around 1419 and 1319.54 cm-1 are assigned to -CH2 scissoring and -OH bending vibration, respectively. The FTIR spectrum of pure PVA reference sample is shown in figure 9 and 11. It clearly reveals the major peaks associated with poly(vinyl alcohol). For instance, it can be observed C-H broad alkyl stretching band 2933.33 cm-1 and typical strong hydroxyl bands for intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonded band at 3286.66 cm-1. This vibrational band at 1140 cm-1 is mostly attributed to the crystallinity of the PVA, related to carboxyl stretching band (C-O). The band at 1140 cm-1 has been used as an assessment tool of poly(vinyl alcohol) structure because it is a semicrystalline synthetic polymer able to form some domains depending on several process parameters. The band at 1420 cm-1 is due to -CH2 group and at 1087.11 cm-1 is due to C-O-C group. The IR peak of interest in the C-O-C asymmetric stretch is at 1095.88 cm-1. This peak in the spectrum of blends has been shown to shift due to hydrogen bonding to PVA and CMC. The spectra obtained for blends are shown in Figure 12. Figure 12 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) From Figure 12 it can be concluded that all the blends show characteristic peaks of all the polymers present. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) The melting temperatures were determined from maximum in the melting endotherm, the glass transition temperatures were taken as the mid point of the heat capacity change. One of the most commonly used methods to estimate polymer-polymer miscibility is the determination of the Tm of the blend compared with the Tms of the two components separately. In the case where one component is crystalline, observation of a melting point depression of this polymer may also be used as evidence to support the miscibility of the polymer pair. Figure 13 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, PEO and CMC Thermal properties and crystallinity of the prepared samples are examined by DSC method (Figure 13 and Table 4). PVA exhibited a relatively large and sharp endothermic peak at 222.2Â °C, PEO at 70.2Â °C and CMC at 265.9Â °C. It is observed from Figure 14 that the melting point and melting enthalpies of the samples a, b, c, d are somewhat decreased from the pure PVA sample. This decrease in melting temperature might be related to a decrease in the crystallinity of the sample and proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend. Figure 15 shows the glass transition temperature i.e. Tg of the pure PVA sample. The melting points of the blends show that the interaction between CMC and PVA weakens the interaction between PVA chains and hinders the crystallization of PVA. Figure 14 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 15 DSC curves showing the glass transition peak of PVA Figure 16 DSC curves showing the melting temperature peaks of PEO and samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) PEO exhibited a relatively large and sharp endothermic peak at 65.5Â °C. It is observed from Figure 16 that the melting point and melting enthalpies of the samples a, b, c, d are somewhat decreased from the pure PEO sample and the melting peaks are widened. This decrease in melting temperature is also related to a decrease in the crystallinity of the sample and proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend as shown in Table 4. It was found that the melting temperature of PEO shifts towards a lower temperature when the PVA is added to the PEO, the change in Tm shows the change from semi crystalline to amorphous phase. Table 4 Percentage crystallinity calculated by DSC of samples Figure 17 Graph of Percentage Crystallinity vs Concentration of CMC In Figure 17, the percentage crystallinity data obtained by DSC for different polymer compositions (a), (b), (c) and (d) are plotted against compatibilizer CMC concentration, to clarify the effect of the CMC content on the crystallinity of the present system. This is also clear from the Table 4 given above that as the concentration of CMC increases in the blend the crystallinity % decreases this is due to the decrease in the proper alignment of the chains due to the interference of other polymers present in the blend. Figure 18 Graph of Melting Temperature (Tm) vs Concentration of CMC In Figure 18 and table 4, the Tm data obtained by DSC for different polymer compositions (a), (b), (c) and (d) are plotted against compatibilizer CMC concentration, to clarify the effect of the CMC content on the thermal property of the present system. It is clear from the figure that as the concentration of CMC increases in the blend the melting temperature firstly increases then decreases. CONCLUSIONS We have effectively produced PVA/PEO/CMC hydrogels via aqueous route. These hydrogel blends were properly characterized by using XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, TGA and DSC techniques. FIGURES CAPTIONS Figure 1 Structure of (a) Poly(vinyl alcohol), (b) Poly(ethylene oxide) and (c) Carboxymethyl cellulose Figure 2 Solutions prepared from the polymer sample to test compatibility Figure 3 Effect of concentration of CMC on the Swelling Ratio (%) of the blends in PBS (pH 7.4) in 24 h. Figure 4 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Figure 5 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure PVA, pure PEO and sample (a) Figure 6 X-Ray diffraction patterns of pure CMC, samples (b), (c) and (d) Figure 7 Graph of percentage crystallinity vs concentration of CMC by XRD Figure 8 TGA of thin films of samples for studying the effect of concentration of CMC on the thermal stability of the samples Figure 9 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples pure PVA, PEO and CMC Figure 10 FTIR of pure CMC powder Figure 11 Comparison of ATR-FTIR of blend (d) with pure samples Figure 12 ATR-FTIR of thin films of samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 13 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, PEO and CMC Figure 14 DSC curves showing the melting peaks of PVA, samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 15 DSC curves showing the glass transition peak of PVA Figure 16 DSC curves showing the melting temperature peaks of PEO and samples (a), (b), (c) and (d) Figure 17 Graph of Percentage Crystallinity vs Concentration of CMC Figure 18 Graph of Melting Temperature (Tm) vs Concentration of CMC TABLES CAPTIONS Table 1 Samples taken for characterization Table 2 Comparison of influence of concentration of CMC on the density of air dried films Table 3 Percentage crystallinity calculated by XRD of samples Table 4 Percentage crystallinity calculated by DSC of samples

Critical Themes in the Writings of Hemingway: Life & Death, Fishing, Wa

Critical Themes in the Writings of Hemingway: Life & Death, Fishing, War, Sex, Bullfighting, and the Mediterranean Region Hemingway brought a tremendous deal of what is middle class Americanism into literature, without very many people recognizing what he has done. He had nothing short of a writer’s mind; a mind like a vacuum cleaner that swept his life experiences clean, picking up any little thing, technique, or possible subject that might be of use (Astro 3). From the beginning, Hemingway had made a careful and conscientious formula for the art of the novel (Hoffman 142). This preconceived formula contained certain themes that recur with great frequency and power throughout Hemingway’s writings. Such themes include an obsessive fascination with life and death, an interest in fishing, war, bullfighting, a strange perception of sex and an unusual fixation on the Mediterranean region. In Hemingway’s writings, the symbols are implicit; they follow the laws of reality to such a degree that in themselves they form a whole story (Wilson 2). Hemingway’s hero’s battles consist of conquering dread, a dread which is connected with earlier experiences, and which appears as a fear of life or death. These two elements, life and death, seem to take two opposite forms, but in reality they are the same. Life ends with death, because death is a constituent part of life, therefore life includes death (Scott 24). If you follow the main lines through Hemingway’s writings, you will very easily discover that everything deals with a sick, mortally wounded man’s fight to overcome the dread arising from his meeting with life (Young 21). In Hemingway’s world, death begins in childhood, as described with unsurpassed mastery in the short story â€Å"Indian Camp.† This story tells of young boy, Nick, who is present while his father, the doctor, performs a cesarean section on an Indian woman, without anesthesia, equipped with only a jackknife and fishing leaders to sew the wound up with. The Indian woman’s husband lies in the upper bunk during the operation, with the woolen blanket drawn up over his head. When they lift up the blanket, he has cut his throat. It is here that Hemingway’s long autobiography begins; this is how it feels to be human. Nick, the hero, has received his wound. He is scared to death, and all of his later experiences are more or less repetitions... .... Detroit: Gale, 1973. 142. Geismar, Maxwell. â€Å"Ernest Hemingway: At the Crossroads.† American Moderns: From Rebellion to Conformity. (1958): 54-8. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 142. Fiedler, Leslie A. â€Å"Hemingway.† Love and Death in the American Novel. (1966): 316-17. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 143. Frohock, W.M. â€Å"Ernest Hemingway-The River and the Hawk.† The Novel of Violence in America. (1957): 166-98. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol.1. Detroit: Gale, 1973. 141. Oliver, Charles M. Ernest Hemingway A to Z. New York: Facts on File, 1999. Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway’s First War: The Making of â€Å"A Farewell to Arms.† New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976. Rovit, Earl. Ernest Hemingway. Boston: Twayne, 1963. Scott, Nathan A. Jr. Ernest Hemingway: A Critical Essay. Michigan: William B. Eerdman, 1966. Wilson, M. â€Å"Ernest Hemingway.† Lost Generation (1993). 16 Feb. 2001 {http://www.lostgeneration.com/hembio.html}. Young, Philip. Ernest Hemingway. Great Britain: The Oxford University Press, 1964.

Enager Industries

Enager Industries, Inc. Accounting Consultant’s Report  · Introduction Enager Industries, Inc. was a relatively young company that consisted of three divisions with distinct services and products. At the urging of CFO Henry Hubbard, Enager’s president, Carl Randall, had decided to begin treating each division as an investment center, so as to be able to relate each division’s profit to the assets the division used to generate it profits.  · Analysis However, several issues arose regarding this performance evaluation method and other management control choices. First of all, profitable new project at Consumer Products Division, whose return was 13% calculated from Exhibit 3, could not get approved from upper management because it could not reach the pre-determined universal target return of at least 15 percent, even if all the divisions had completely different line of business. This could potentially discourage product development managers’ incentive to engage in new projects. More importantly, the company could miss out the opportunity on new products in the long-run, although it might not have a large return right away in the short-run. Secondly, the president of the company, Carl Randall, was both puzzled and disappointed at the discrepancies among the performance evaluation parameters of the company in 1993. Both ROA and gross return dropped from 1992, while return on sales and return on owners’ equity increased. There were also discrepancies across different divisions, as Professional Service easily exceeded the 12% gross return target; while other two divisions, especially the Industrial Product division had a ROA that was only 6. 9%. These discrepancies could increase the difficulties for the top management to understand the performance, thus hindered manager’s ability to make good decisions. Last but not least, general manager of Industrial Product Division was put much pressure by Randall, the president, because the division â€Å"fell behind† compared to the other two in terms of ROA. The divisional general manager argued that they could have achieved a higher ROA if they had older assets as Consumer Products Division did, but Randall could not understand the relevance of the argument. This is not only a communication problem, but also an evaluation problem caused by the inappropriate treatment of the assets value that is used in calculating ROA. By analyzing the management problems mentioned above, in can be concluded that these problems are the consequences of several management control mistakes, including unreasonable target setting, inefficient method of performance evaluation, and problematic treatment of assets value. Top management of Enager should not set an identical goal for all the divisions since all the divisions engaged in distinct service or production. The nature of those distinct businesses certainly required different amount of assets to operate, and they would face different levels of competition, and they would surely have different profit margins. Therefore, it was unreasonable only using one single target return to evaluation all the new projects from all three divisions to determine if the projects were profitable. In the case, McNeil’s proposal was rejected because it did not meet the 15% target return. However, the new project did have a favorable residual income and demonstrated the a return of 13%, which can increase the EPS for the company. If any benchmark were to be set to evaluate the profitability of new projects, it should be carefully engineered according to specific situation that can be applied to specific division, with the comparison to other competitors in the industry or to past performance. For example, Enager can establish a standard costing system based on historical and external information (including financial information, market information, etc) that can allows management to create a standard profit level. A standard costing system can further allows cost and profit variance analysis, which can be a very powerful tool for management control later on. There were also too many confounding factors in calculating ROA in Enager’s case. Firstly, using net book value of assets (as shown in Exhibit2) in calculating the ROA would surely put those divisions with newer assets in disadvantage. With less depreciation, divisions with newer assets will have lower ROA due to a larger denominator of assets value. The more reasonable way in this case is to use the fair market value, which can better represent the assets’ value in producing profit. Secondly, it is unreasonable to allocate corporate expenses and assets to certain divisions based on divisional revenue. Since each division had different services and products, revenue could not be the basis of allocating those corporate expenses and assets that did not reflect performance of each division. These confounding factors may be able to explain those discrepancies Randall was confused about. As such, the use of ROA in this case is an ineffective method of performance evaluation.  · Recommendation Based on the previous analysis, the solution to this case is to implement a new method of performance evaluation since ROA is such an ineffective method of performance evaluation. One alternative worth perusing is to use the Balanced Scorecard method to evaluate division performance. Instead of measuring the performance only using financial data, Balanced Scorecard methods requires business units to be assigned goals and then measured form the perspectives of financial, customer, internal business and innovation and learning. For example, Enager can evaluate the divisions based on the quality of the products, level of innovation, employees’ contribution to the whole company, etc. Balanced Scorecard can be a very critical supplement to financial data because it is part of strategy planning. The Industrial Products group may no longer be under evaluated because of less-than-perfect financial data. Essentially, a Balanced Scorecard method allows the manger to see the big picture on the strategic level. A Balanced Scorecard method can also promote balances among different strategies in an effort to achieve goal congruence, thus encouraging employees to act in the organization’s best interest. Profitable new projects, like the one that McNeil had proposed, would have a chance of getting approved because it would benefit the company as a whole since it could increase Enager’s EPS. Another advantage of implementing Balanced Score card is that it promotes comparability among different divisions with distinct line of business. Unlike ROA, Balanced Scorecard taken in to accounts of different perspective of the business into account, since the comprehensive value of the division is reflected in the Balanced Score card design. By implementing Balanced Score card method, the upper management of Enager can obtain a broad-base view of the company in terms of goals and strategy. Although it requires additional work for executives to choose a mix of measurement that accurately reflect the critical factors that will determine the success of the company, it is a better alternative here than ROA as a performance evaluation method.

A Separate Peace The Dying Legacy essays

A Separate Peace The Dying Legacy essays By early 1918 in Russia, the Bolsheviks controlled only the north-western area of the Russian Empire (Petrograd and Moscow) together with the areas between and around them. Various opposition groups were formed against the Bolsheviks, under the new Provisional Government. The provisional government had proposed elections for a new assembly in late 1917; Lenin had seen that the Bolsheviks must act before this democratically elected government convened, but once in power, he allowed the elections to proceed. In the November 1917 polls, Bolshevik candidates won just under 25 per cent of the vote, while the moderate socialists polled over 40 per cent. Lenin sent his loyal troops to close down the constituent assembly the day after it convened. Russia was about to enter a bloody civil war, which was a culmination of the efforts of varied opposition groups to defeat the Bolsheviks, from which it would emerge into Leninist and Stalinist tyranny. The causes of the civil war are diverse. A confusion of governments and opponents existed, some based on minorities and nationalities. From these, the Lithuanians, Moldavians, and Ukrainians declared independence. There was a Polish dispute over rights of sovereignty which raised tensions between Poland and her communist neighbor that would lead to war. Moreover, leaders of anti-Bolsheviks known as the Whites went to rebellion with the aim of establishing a power base and advancing from it to the Bolshevik stronghold (Years of Change, 402). With the ideal of Russia one and indivisible (Alexeyev), the White forces consisted of three main groups: revolutionary groups hostile toward the Bolsheviks, former officers of the Imperial army resentful of betrayal at Brest Litvosk (T A Morris) and national groups seeking independence for their particular minority. Lastly, according to T A Morris, the revolt Czechoslovak Legion was the greatest catalyst of civil confl...

Motorola Phone Company

Motorola Phone Company Company history Initially, Motorola Corporation was a multinational company in the telecommunications industry and was based in the Illinois. However, the company was later divided into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions, with each operating as an independent company (Spencer, 2011). The move took place in early 2011 after the company ran into massive losses between 2007 and 2009.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Motorola Phone Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, of the two branches of independent companies, Motorola Solutions stands out as immediate replacement of the entire Motorola Corporation. The corporation was founded in 1928 and was initially known as Galvin manufacturing Corporation. Later in 1930, the corporation introduced a Motorola radio that was used in cars. The company was founded under â€Å"the stewardship of Paul Galvin together with bill Lear as the investor, who later created the brand name Motorola† (Spence, 2011, p.38). With massive developments in the line of telecommunication, Motorola demonstrated the first portable phone in 1973. The corporation continued in production and sale of mobile phone handsets, until when it was overtaken by the Nokia Corporation in 1998. Over time, the corporation was involved in a series of innovations in technology; for instance, production of the first GPRS cell phone in 2000, first wireless cable modem gateway in 2002, production of the first handset that used a Linux operating system and java technology in 2003 among many other innovations. After the split of the entire Corporation in 2011, Google purchased the Motorola Mobility later in the same year and it has its headquarters At Libertyville where it deals with the production of mobile handsets (Spencer, 2011). Company’s culture Researchers call for businesses to have their own, but unique styles in running day-to-day affairs of the organizations. The culture practiced within an organization is quite crucial as it determines a company’s direction towards achieving its goals and objectives. Culture incorporates several aspects that include the working environment offered to employees and the company’s vision (Mitchell, 2008). Vision and mission statements of an organization guide employees and the entire organization towards ensuring success. Within the culture of Motorola Mobility Company, many bureaucracies are applied within the company, hence causing more stress to employees. However, the company applies high technology in their production, hence the high quality phones marketed under the company’s brand name all over the world.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In trying to increase its efficiency, the company has been involved in constant reorganization since 1990s (Crockett Kharif, 200 8). During this time, many job relocations took place within the organization. For instance, many engineers were relocated to overseas branches in Europe, China, and India among other countries. However, the company values its employees for they form part of the entire company’s investment plan. Consistent and to some extent compulsory training is offered to employees to equip them with different skills and experience. Training is part of a development initiative taken by companies to ensure the wellbeing of employees. In addition, this move also acts as a form of motivation to employees as they are recognized and rewarded though not on a monetary basis. Value addition in employees also calls for improved quality of output, hence the overall success of the entire organization. However, things changed when the company replaced the good values it had acquired over time with bad ones. For instance, job security was not a guarantee, especially if one was not innovative. Random ch anges took place within the management and stringent measures were put upon employees, especially their modes of dressing and working hours (Crockett Kharif, 2008). Labor laws do not advocate for detrimental work environments, which cause stress to employees due to insecurity and long working hours. As for Motorola Mobility, this requirement was a complete opposite as employees worked for long hours without proper compensation, apart from the usual salary. Over the years, Motorola enjoyed success due to exemplary governance and leadership offered by the Galvan family. However, since its acquisition by Google, the management has been on the gradual change. For instance, employees are allowed to have fun after work and stringent regulations on modes of dressing were removed. After Chris Galvin left the company in 2002, employees did not receive the quality of training they could get in the past. In addition, the management team that took over did not put into consideration motivation of employees as they experienced unaccounted deductions, salaries postponement for months before payment, and bureaucracies were implemented in all sectors of the organization (Crockett Kharif, 2008).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Motorola Phone Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Although the culture depicted by Motorola is quite the opposite that of Google, Google Corporation is working tirelessly towards a positive change in the organization. Purpose After the split of the initial corporation, Motorola Mobility, which is currently owned by Google, deals with the production and marketing of mobile phone devices. The company utilizes various technologies and innovations to come up with mobile phone devices that suit various needs in the market. Apart from the production of mobile handsets, the company also produces tablets, wireless accessories, and a wide range of other accessories within the telecommunic ations industry. The company’s purpose is to bring together people through the utilization of innovative technologies to enrich their lives. In their production plans, the company ensures involvement of customers to ensure that various needs in the market are met, which is also a strategy towards implementing improvement in its products in future (Spencer, 2011). The company’s executive team Initially, the entire corporation ran under the leadership of Paul Galvin as the CEO and Bill Lear as an investor. The company’s management remained within the family as Chris Galvin took over from his brother. The company’s CEO assumed the responsibility of ensuring overall wellness of the corporation and that of employees. In addition, the CEO ensured that overall challenges of the organization were addressed and that all teams within the organization worked together to ensure success within the organization. In 2002, Chris Galvin stepped down as the CEO of the comp any leaving it under the leadership of Edward Zander. However, Zander went on to overhauling the management structure and came up with stringent rules that led to a near-downfall and poor performance of the company. After the acquisition by the Google Corporation, Motorola Mobility is currently under Denis Woodside as the chief executive officer. Under the CEO, there are senior vice presidents heading various sections within the company (Crockett Kharif, 2008).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Successes and failures of Motorola Phone Company Over the years, the company has been in a position to produce and sell high quality mobile devices that suit various needs of the market. Innovations in technology and provision of quality training to employees were attributed to the success that the company enjoyed in the past. In addition, the company has not lagged behind in the telecommunication industry. Production and marketing of smart phones and tablets was one of the crucial moves made by the company. During the era of Chris Galvin, the company had successfully implemented a plan that saw proper training of employees, hence a form of motivation, recognition, and empowerment (Crockett Kharif, 2008). However, the company along its history made various mistakes not only in connection to its culture, but also other areas, which resulted to poor performance witnessed between 2007 and 2009. Motorola’s culture comprised of bureaucratic procedures and most products were based on ideas from engineers and not consumer’s tastes and preferences. In addition, the company failed to provide job security to its employees among other complaints. On the other hand, the company failed to come up with and implement a proper marketing strategy (Crockett Kharif, 2008). However, these missteps hinged on the shoddy culture as depicted by the company. The company’s deteriorating culture led to its inability to produce and release phones as quickly as possible in the market. For instance, mid 1990s era was characterized by a shift from analogue to digital mobile phone devices in the market. However, engineers and the company’s management team failed to put a serious consideration on effects of such a shift. However, the corporation introduced digital phones in the market, but could not keep up with the competition posed by the Nokia Corporation (Crockett Kharif, 2008). Later on, the corporation invested in some sort of entrepreneurial skills that w ere implemented by various leaders. For instance, under the management of Edward Zander, the company improved its efficiency in production of slim phones. However, this success did not last for long when consumers shifted their focus from hardware and laid strong emphasis on software that ensures additional phone functionalities. The company also failed to enter into the 3G phone market, a step that its competitors had already taken and the company remained completely disconnected from the market (Crockett Kharif, 2008). Recommendations Since the company’s acquisition by Google in 2009, Mr. Jha took over as the company’s chairperson. He implemented various strategies aimed at overhauling the entire business culture that existed in the Motorola Corporation. For instance, he introduced casual wears to replace the strict dressing code that existed as he noted that the dressing code had nothing to do with the declining sales volumes (Crockett Kharif, 2008). Mr. Jha also worked hard to ensure consistent contact with the market, which involved a change on the company’s culture that was mainly engineering oriented; for instance, focusing on market need as they evolve from time to time. In this case, Mr. Jha implemented several improvements on the hardware and software to include the emerging developments to suit various needs of customers in the market. On the other hand, Google should focus on a recruitment drive to enrich the company’s human resources and tap upcoming and fresh talents. Mr. Jha realized the need to overhaul some of the members of staff and replace them with new employees. Some staff members that worked for Motorola Corporation failed to produce a new product for years, and this aspect underscores lost opportunities. In addition, some top talent and well performing employees had left the company for competitors like Apple Corporation and the like. The cost of hiring new employees can be quite high, but it is avoidable w ith the implementation of appropriate measures. However, the company should think of a motivation package and new ways to improve the existing workforce instead of conducting a fresh recruitment process. Reference List Crockett, R., Kharif, O. (2008, Aug. 6). Motorola: The New CEO’s Real Challenge.  The Economic Times, p.21. Mitchell, C. (2008). A short course in international business culture: Building your international business through cultural awareness. Petaluma, CA: World Trade Press. Spencer, A. (2011, Jan. 5). Motorola is split into two. The Wall Street Journal, p.38.

Case analysis of NO GO Railroad Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Analysis of NO GO Railroad - Case Study Example t hand, the cause of these problems include excess man power, resistance to change, HR policy is inappropriate, and guarantee-generated extra expenses (Brown, 2010). In order to respond to these problems, Dave Keller, the new communications is assigned the work of overhauling the structural configuration of the organization and to create an organizational development strategy. However, based on the traditional archaic procedures of resolving issues and the psycho-social effects of favoritism, gender insensitivity, and lack of communication at the place of work among employees and management, employees are more likely to present resistance to change. The areas of resistance include support system where employees are wary that the support they used to get from management would subside or vanish. Employees will resist the alternative of downsizing the labor force as this would mean laying off of some employees. Additionally, a change in organization policy may influence change resistance as some employees may experience side effects of the change – e.g. possible career stagnation. Lastly, due to workplace politics, employee groups are likely to influence change resistance based on historical events associated with the proposed changes (Brown, 2010). In order to resolve the identified challenges, the organization has the options of developing performance appraisal programs and management, human resource forecasting and planning, proper analysis of responsibilities, and the creation of training and development

India class structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

India class structure - Essay Example The ruling class or the dominant class is the most important and the most benefitted class. The dominant class determines the utilization of the economic surplus and majorly comprises of business bourgeoisie, rich landlords, politicians etc. Lying between these two extremes is the middle class who benefit partially from the growing economy and who also are major contributors to the labor force of the country. Another major important point of difference between the three is their contribution to the working force. The lower classes that provide most of the man power are engaged in physical work whereas the middle classes are engaged in most of the work that involves the government and private sectors and are huge contributors to the economy. The higher classes hold positions of importance but this class particularly contributes much less manpower but are particularly responsible for controlling and management of the other classes below it. The primary factor responsible for the three different class systems in India is determined by the economic surplus and the growing economy of the country and the contributions of each class too depends on the development and fully fledged of the annual

Google Documents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Google Documents - Essay Example It eliminates the need to e-mail documents to share with others and it can also be edited online by the shared users of the documents. The secured Google’s server is another great advantage of using the application and storing data without any worry of losing data due to hard disc crash or from virus attack (Electronic Portfolios, 2011). How to do things In order to use Google Documents the user need to have a Google Account. After logging into the system the user will be able to see the documents as show in the figure given below: Figure 1: Google Documents Window (Source: Mackenty, n.d. p. 2) The user will be able to create new documents; new spreadsheets and can also upload files from their own computer to the web database. Google docs are saved with tags which help to sort documents whenever needed by the user. Use of Google Documents Google Docs application can be used by any people ranging from students, coworkers or even for personal use like tracking daily works. Stude nts can use it to work in a collaborative manner for group projects. Teachers can use the application for keeping track of the grades and attendance or any data (Electronic Portfolios, 2011). Coworkers in an organization can use to share documents amongst themselves.

Kidulthood Essay Example for Free

Kidulthood Essay Kidulthood is a realist drama set in West London, made in 2006. It shows stereotype with teenagers and gender. Stand By Me is a film about four young teens going on a adventure to find a dead body. This film was made in 1986 but was based in 1959. The four boys lice in a small town in America. The youth and gender representation of kidulthood is that, it represents girls as being sex toys and that they need the opposite sex. A character which shows this is Becky (Alisas best friend). She always sells her body to men so that she can get stuff which shows that women are born to do these stuff. For instance in the film she gives an older man a blowjob for drugs. This evidence also shows that she is a sex toy for men. In conclusion Becky represents her gender as being lower than men because of her actions. Sam is the main antagonists in the film. He is represented as someone who everyone fears inside school and he always goes for someone who is less dominant. He represents his youth by showing that teenagers being a bad citizen around there area and people are not safe around them. My evidence is that he led to two murders in the film, one was Katie because of his demeanour towards her which led her to suicide and at the end of the film he hits Trife in the belly with a baseball bat. He represents his gender as boys being stronger and dominant than girls because he threatened his girlfriend with a baseball bat and he pulled Alisas her towards the end of the film. Overall he represents his youth and gender as boys nature is to be violent and have rough demeanour to girls and other people in his community. Jay is part of Trifes crew and he often uses women in the film. Jay acts big during the film but is often described as someone who is all talk and no actions. This is shown in the film when he kisses Sams girlfriend and he tells her he is not scared of Sam. But when Sam confronts him, he let him take his Gameboy. Jay represents his youth as teenagers have early sex with each other and this was shown when he tried to seduce Claire at Sams house. Also him and his crew pushed Sams mum on the floor which shows that most teenagers dont have respect for people. Also he represents his gender throughout the film by using women showing that boys can treat women however they like without their opinion. In conclusion Jay represents his youth and gender by showing that teenagers have lack of respect and boys can do whatever they want with girls. Chris from Stand by me is from a family who are criminals and alcoholics and most people stereotype about him due to his background. He represents his youth as twelve years old boy who smokes and uses a gun, also he uses foul language most of the time throughout the film. My evidence is that in the beginning of the film him and teddy smoke in the tree house at a young age and he stole a gun from his dad. Also he swore at one of the characters during the end of the film. In conclusion Chris represents his youth as young people always are a bad influence and most youth are always doing these activities not matter what age they are. Maybe for the fact that Chris was bought up in a criminal family could suggest his actions outside which could infer that the representation of youth depends on their surroundings. Also the fact that in Stand By Me they are going on a adventure to find a dead body indicates that they are clueless to be very excited and interested in a dead body, it also shows their innocence for the fact that they live in a small town where nothing really happens. In the kidulthood poster we see Sam with a baseball bat and standing up showing that he is one of the main villains of film because his position in the poster is more apart from the other characters suggests that everybody is scared of him and the baseball bat shows it. But in Stand By Me the prop is the gun held by Gordie but it does not show danger because he is wearing a cap and a backpack that could indicate that this was used for self defence, rather than the baseball bat in the Kidulthood poster because Sam is wearing a hoodie and his facial expression shows he is proud to have this baseball bat in his hand or in other hand to show this prop was made to harm people. The reason why we dont get a impression that the gun in Stand By Me was made to harm is that the quotes on top of the poster shows their childhood and what they do in life which is talking about sweets and life. But it could also represent that they act much younger than their age to be talking about is really childish. Furthermore there was no girls in the film Stand By Me which could highlight that the female gender are much more responsible, mature and better gender than them because they would not get involved in dangerous activities like the four boys got into to. Becky however shows the total opposite of what Stand By Me infers, she represents her gender as male being the dominant sex because she used a man to get money. As you can notice in the Kidulthood poster that the characters have no emotions on their faces and the mid shot of the picture shows more of the background which is dark to emphasise that London is not a place you would want to stay in whereas the Stand By Me background is more bright and one of the characters are smiling. The position of Trife and Alisa show a more of a husband and wife pose to indicate their role during the film.

Social Media And New Media In Ghana Media Essay

Social Media And New Media In Ghana Media Essay Social media is a growing phenomenon in our present information age. For many persons, particularly the youth, social media provides the platform to create, disseminate and share information with persons of shared ties. The power and influences of the social media phenomenon in shaping our world today cannot be overlooked. Its impact is witnessed as a coordinating tool for a significant number of the worlds political movements including the political revolutions that took place in the Middle East commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. Again in political campaigning, social media is credited to have contributed significantly to the electoral success of then candidate Barak Obama as his adoption of the technology facilitated his reach and garnered support from many young voters during the 2008 American presidential elections. The social media fad is believed to have enhanced cultural exchanges, created, maintained and deepened social ties in a significant number of social settings. F or quite a number of people, it is almost impossible to exist in our present world and not be affected by the social media phenomenon. It has become part of our new world which is driven extensively by information and communication. The social media application runs on the foot of the internet technology. The internet directs the manner in which communication is carried from place to place, person to person and culture to culture in our world today. It has become as ubiquitous as the human species and almost a measure of human civilisation. Researchers and scholars have divergent opinions of the impacts of the internet and new media technology on our world today. Their opinions are expressed broadly in utopian and dystopian perspectives and cover all aspects of life of which the technology is used. The utopians appreciate the Internet as potentially an enormous tool for good. The positive possibilities from the Internet include supporting the practice of democracy, human interactions, concerted political action, education, etc. On the other hand the dystopians, the cyberpunks and the alarmists, see danger in every digital project even an ultimate loss of our humanity. Understanding the internet and all its associated technology and applications requires an understanding of the dimensions under which the internet can be studied. Bell (2001) explains that there are three ways to understanding the internet or its synonym cyberspace. Bell describes the meaning of the internet or cyberspace under: a) material b) symbolic and c) experiential stories. He cites Stanley Aronowitz (1996) as providing the terms ontology, phenomenology and pragmatics to discuss ways of thinking about the internet technology. Material stories of the internet technology provide a historical understanding of how the technology came to exist and the transformations it has undergone. Whittaker (2004: Pp 13) explains that symbolic stories of the internet or cyberspace give literary and generic accounts most notably in cyberpunk but also in science fiction and other speculative fiction. Bell, citing Jordan (1999), provides an explanation to symbolic stories of cyberspace as the ways in which cyberspace are depicted in films and fiction. Therefore movies such as Robocop which prompted civic discourses over the use of robotics in solving human limitations, and The Matrix provide good examples to understanding symbolic stories of cyberspace. New media and social media New media tools, which are internet based technologies and applications provide platforms for social media tools to be used civic discourses. There is often the tendency to interchange the terms new media and social media. However, it must be noted that new media and social media mean different things though both exist in cyberspace and are associated with the internet technology. According to wiseGEEK new media denotes the various technologies that have emerged rapidly in our present millennium. The major types of new media include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs and video sharing sites such as YouTube. One of its most defining characteristics is interactivity. Social media, however, refers to online technologies and practices that are used to share opinions and information, promote discussion and build relationships (Crown 2009; 2). iCrossing (2008) indicates that social media shares the characteristics of Participation, Openness, Conversation, Community, and Connectedness are currently presented in the following basic forms Goode (2009) explains that social media facilitates citizens engagements in new forms of civic participation as they construct, archive, tag and reticulate news stories and political media content. Bakardjieva (2011) describes how blogs, a social media application and bloggers have become visible in the Bulgarian public sphere. In the Bulgarian scenario, the tool was adopted to protest against a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court to strip a territory in the south-east of Bulgaria of its status as a protected natural reserve. The countrys young people and environmentalist groups engaged in civic protests in the streets to challenge the decision as they organized and reported their actions by blogs, websites and text messages. The brief but centrally placed and well-attended civic actions obligated the Bulgarias mass media and parliamentarians to situate the issue on their agenda. http://edc.education.ed.ac.uk/sindhur/files/2010/09/Different-Media-and-modes-of-communication-Every-day-life.jpg  [1]   Figure : DIFFERENT MEDIA AND MODES OF COMMUNICATION-AN EVERYDAY LIFE PICTURE. The British government recognises how digital technology has transformed the way in which people communicate and share information at the local, national and international levels. To ensure that the potential of the transforming power is harnessed well enough to facilitate citizen engagement and proper governance, investments into providing adequate guidelines for civil servants to appreciate these changes so that they can operate effectively in a dynamic media environment. The British Government via new media tools and online access is tailoring its services to its public more conveniently all day and all week. The quote below is taken from the introductory chapter on connecting civil servants through social media in The Guide for Civil Servants (pp 11): Use of social media techniques is not restricted to government interaction with citizens or business. There is already a range of tools dedicated to encouraging discussion and sharing knowledge and best practice among civil servants. Social media and New media in Ghana Ghana has not been isolated from the global social media craze. Universally, Facebook is noted as the most popular social media platform and is most recognized in Ghana as well. Currently, there are about 1,436,560 Facebook users in Ghana, which makes it rank number 73 globally (Socialbaker 2012). The social networking statistics from Socialbaker illustrates that the penetration of Facebook in Ghana  is  5.90%  of the countrys population and  110.76%  in relation to the number of Internet users. The population of Facebookers users grew by more than  231,140  in the last 6 months. About 41% of Ghanas Facebook user population is between 18 and 24 years, an age group that can be found typically beginning university education or exiting into the professional world. Other social media like YouTube, twitter and LinkedIn are also popular among Ghanaians. Though their popularity is high among the youth and IT savvy persons, statistics on these social media applications are rather low or unavailable. No Ghanaian profile or account is listed in the top 200 global accounts. The same applies with YouTube and LinkedIn. Increasingly, the Whats App application and Blackberry messaging (BBM) which are described as social networking applications are also becoming popular platforms among Ghanaians for information dissemination. All the applications, Facebook, YouTube, twitter Whats App and BBM are available on mobile phone devices commonly referred to as smartphones. They are also on other portable new media gadgets such as ipads and tablets. Chart  [2]   Figure : User age distribution on Facebook in Ghana Ghana was one of the first African countries to get connected to the Internet in 1989-1990 however, the extent of use of the new media technology among Ghanaians is limited. This is a result of the underdevelopment of existing telecommunications infrastructure, though in recent times significant investments have been in developing them (Sey 2011). The investments have been supported by a national communications policy which highlights the Government of Ghanas commitment to accelerating the socio-economic development process of the country through ICT (Republic of Ghana, 2003, p. 14; cited in Sey 2011). In the wake of this policy, there has been considerable improvements in internet connectivity which begun in the early 1990s with the slow bandwidth dial up access to the now high speed broadband connectivity. Mobile phone telephony is not only big on the African Continent but equally the predominate mode of telecommunications in Ghana. Again because of the generally poor fixed line infrastructure. Ghanas National Communications Authority is cited to have announced a mobile telephony penetration rate of about 88.6% as at January 2012 with the leading service provider recording over 10 million subscriptions (Modern Ghana, 2012). Mobile phones in Ghana have varied uses aside its basic use for calls. Sey (2011) reports that in 2007 just over one fixed line existed per 100 inhabitants. Uses of new media in Ghana A number of several accounts have been given for the varied uses of the new media technology in Ghana. However, some research account that the application is appropriated to business and community development. Sey (2011) cites (Slater Kwami, 2005) who indicate that a substantial section of users get onto the Internet as an escape mechanism to connect with the Western world as a poverty reduction strategy. They add that the Internet provides some users with the means to reach people in Western countries who are perceived as potential sources of financial means for migration while others who do not anticipate physically leaving the country might content themselves with enjoying Western life vicariously through foreign content online. Sending e-mails, finding and communicating with pen pals, applying to schools abroad, watching movies, listening to music, and playing games are also some other uses that Ghanaians put the new media to use (Alhassan, 2004; Burrell, 2009; Daily Graphic, 20 03; Slater Kwami, 2005. Cited in Sey 2011). Political parties have also embraced the new media technology and are using social media particularly to grasp the attention of young people. A Communication official of the New Patriotic Party says the party adopts a writing style suitable for the social media in its messaging as the technology creates a better communication channel between the party and voters. The National Democratic Congress says the interactive nature of social media facilitates incorporating feedback from voters into the partys decision making processes (Boakyewaa Pokua 2011). Amongst Students of the University of Ghana, the most popular social media tool is Facebook. Its uses are varied from meeting new friends, sharing information on academic work, and updating family and friends with what is happening in ones life (Dentaa 2011). 2. Problem Statement There is recorded data on citizens disconnections from civic life in our present information society. These are noticeable among younger generations in Western democracies. The United States, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have all recorded younger peoples withdrawal in participating in conventional politics and government which constitute civic activities, in alarming numbers. Putnam (2000) argues that, Americans in the last three decades of the 20th century witnessed much less engagements in terms of political participation, charitable contributions, involvement in community organizations, and even participation in social activities with some of these trends obvious among college students. Despite a withdrawal from offline civic life, studies suggest interests in online civic engagements. As a fledgling democratic state, with a history of military dispensations that have stifled civic discourses and civil liberties, Ghana is on the brink of developing its democratic creden tials. The new democratic dispensation gives rise to civic participation in social and political discourses mainly through traditional media. Increasingly, young Ghanaians- a significant number of whom are enrolled in the universities, seek to master the use of the internet and more particularly social media tools to express themselves, explore their identities, and connect with peers. Hence there is opportunity to utilise the characteristics these online tools present to promote civic discourses amongst this group. The study thus seeks to ascertain the use of social media for civic discourses amongst students of the University of Ghana. Questions the study will speak to: Are students of the University of Ghana engaged in civic discourses via social media? What principles of civic discourses are seen in their social media engagements? 3. Background Social transformation is a common phenomenon in our human life and often characterises the conception of civilised society. A transformed society is one which may have at least undergone essential changes in its core institutions, economy, and the relationships between social groups or classes, the creation and distribution of wealth, power and status. Technology has played a key role in the transformation of society. Theorist like Marshal Mcluhan posit in determinist theories that technology changes society and recount human evolution from the Tribal age through Literate, Print and present Electronic age. But besides the influences of technology on social transformation, the contributions of social institutions cannot be overlooked, particularly universities. Universities have contributed significantly to the processes of social change and development. Stories of early civilisations recount the centrality of higher institutions of academic studies in the transformations that took place in those societies. The role of universities has been in generating skilled resources for labour sectors of social life and also in providing scientific investigations and solutions to social phenomenon. As the world rapidly changes and develops or perhaps becomes a lot more civilised, universities can be seen to take on the added role of encouraging and facilitating new cultural values. It is also plausible to see the institution involved in training and socialising members of new social elites. Thus the contributions of universities in fostering heightened awareness of and participation in civic discourses is one worth studying. The practice of citizens contributing in any way possible to how they are governed cannot be overemphasized. However the challenge to this has been in the sustenance of citizens interest in engaging in public activities which support contributions to governance. Evidences of Citizens having less time for public life abound in many countries, despite their resourcefulness in bringing more knowledge and skills to the market place of ideas. Reasons ascribed to citizens having less time for public activities include having less faith that government will be able to deliver on promises, more and more disconnect from community affairs because they seem to find the information, allies, and resources they need to affect an issue or decision they care about outside of the physical public space. A central tenet of Putnams bowling alone thesis holds that much of the decline of civic engagement in America during the last third of the twentieth century is attributable to the replacement of an unusually civic generation by several generations (their children and grandchildren) that are less embedded in community life. (2000, p. 275). He supports this claim with evidence that members of this older generation tend to exhibit consistently high patterns of certain forms of civic activity (membership in civil society groups, voting, and attending city government meetings, for example) throughout their lives. By contrast, younger generations (especially the current youth demographic) have by and large failed to develop comparable civic habits, preferring to spend the majority of their free time on wholly personal pursuits. While some very recent data on one type of civic engagement, voting, contradict this pessimistic assessment (Kirby Marcello, 2006), most of the relevant indicators point toward a greatly diminished Universities have frequently been regarded as key institutions in processes of social change and development. The most explicit role they have been allocated is the production of highly skilled labour and research output to meet perceived economic needs. But to this role may be added, especially during periods of more radical change, roles in the building of new institutions of civil society, in encouraging and facilitating new cultural values, and in training and socialising members of new social elites. 4. Purpose The purpose of the study is to identify civic discourse engagements of students of the University of Ghana via the social media. The study objectives are: to evaluate whether civic discourses take place among students of the university of Ghana. to identify the forms of such civic discourses students of the university of Ghana to ascertain whether such discourses conform to the principles for civic discourses. The study will thus provide data on social media uses for civic discourse interactions and make recommendations on the possibility of nurturing a generation of elites who adopt technology to further discourses that affect how they are governed and their society at large. Findings from the study can help in selecting and developing alternate communication channels for the promotion of civic discourse in Ghana and among an increasing youth population enchanted by the new media and its varied applications. 5. Significance The study is significant as it will support in identifying and exploring how applicable modern technologies can be engaged to facilitate civic discourses which are essential in beefing up processes of good governance and democracy. Traditionally universities have functioned as centres of teaching and research. In their teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. Students who graduate from the university ultimately work and live in societies. The university provides a heterogeneous environment which initiates students to diverse people and perspectives. There is a tendency that students may be more motivated and prepared to participate fully in civic life. Students interactions and experiences of diversity whether inside or outside of the classroom, have the possibility to introduce them to new ideas and to challenge their pre-existing views (e.g. Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, Gurin, 2002). As a result, students attitudes toward civic issues may shift in substantial ways, and they may become more involved in community service and political activities. 6. Methodology Various methods are available for conducting studies on Computer Mediated Discourses and civic discourses in mass communication research. The most familiar methods used have been surveys and content analyses. Within the domain of content analysis textual analysis, rhetoric and discourse analyses have been identified as probable methods to studying problems relating to civic discourses specifically or discourses generally. Surveys Survey as a research method denotes gathering information from a sample of individuals. Wimmer and Dominick (2011) explain two types of survey methods that can be used for research processes: Descriptive surveys and analytical surveys. A descriptive survey attempts to explain what exists at the moment. An example for this type of survey is that of broadcast networks frequently conducting surveys of their audiences to identify their programming tastes, evolving values and lifestyle variations that might affect their programming. Descriptive surveys thus examine the as it is situation in the area under study. An analytical survey attempts to describe and explain why situations exist (Wimmer and Dominic 2011). The approach ordinarily examines two or more variables investigating research questions or testing research hypotheses. From the results researchers can examine the interrelationships among the variables and develop explanatory interpretations. For example, television station owners survey the market to determine how lifestyles affect viewing habits or to determine whether viewers lifestyles can be used to predict the success of syndicated programming (Wimmer and Dominic 2011). Adopting a survey approach in conducting studies on social media and civic discourses will facilitate investigations into the problem in a realistic setting. For example newspaper reading, commenting on social happenings on television or radio and participating in political issues of governance, all of which are probable civic activities can be examined in their real environments other than in a laboratory or screening room where artificial conditions are generated if studied as experiments. Secondly, surveys allow researchers to collect data on and examine many variables including demographic variables and use a variety of statistics to analyse the data collected. Thus patterns of relationships of differences or closeness are possible to be deduced to enable positing hypotheses as well as provide explanations to the problem. Considering that a constraint to research is funding and costs associated to carrying out the research, the reasonable cost of surveys in relation to the amount of information gathered (some online surveys are free) makes it a useful and widely used method. Researchers are able to control their research expenses by selecting from mail, telephone, personal interview, group administration, and the Internet modes of surveys. Related to this surveys have no geographic constraints and they can be conducted almost anywhere. Probably a significant benefit for using surveys in research is the availability existing data which makes it possible to carry out a whole study without the use of a questionnaire or contacting a respondent. Data sources such government documents, class or students registration lists may be depended on as primary data sources or as supportive sources of information. However an essential shortcoming in the use of surveys is the inability to draw causal or non-causal relationships between dependent and independent variables. Thus for a study as this it is not possible to draw casual or non-causal relations between social media use and civic discourses. This is because independent variables cannot be manipulated the way they are in laboratory experiments. Without control over independent variables, the researcher cannot be certain whether the relationships between independent variables and dependent variables are causal or non-causal. Results from surveys may easily be considered bias in the event of inappropriate wording or placement of questions within a questionnaire. This thus means careful scrutiny of words chosen to solicit data and organized unambiguously would be required. This can be strenuous and time consuming. An example Where did you hear the news about the presidents death? is mildly biased against newspapers. The word hear suggests that radio, television, or other people is a more appropriate answer (Wimmer and Dominic 2011, pp 190). The possibility of including wrong respondents in survey research is almost not negligible. Respondents may claim to possess a characteristic necessary for the study but may in fact be deficient in that feature. A mail survey or Internet survey may be completed by a teenager when the target respondent is a parent in the household.