ADOLESCENCE ADDICTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ADOLESCENCE ADDICTION - Essay Example She smokes marijuana twice a week, drinks alcohol one to two weekends a month, and she is starting to get addicted to cocaine. Maria’s diagnostic criteria would involve clear communication, intervention and treatment by various parties concerned. The type of substance use diagnosis that may apply to her involves the use of structured devices to accurately identify the type, of disorder or addiction she is suffering. Secondly, withdrawal effects might also have an effect in her alcohol and cocaine habits. Signs/symptoms showing that Terry is an addict are easily identified from his inability to perform his task at the workplace. He is a heavy drinker who often suffers from blackouts, he experiences mood swings that make him violent and angry, thus suffers from relationship problems with his girl friend. Lastly, Terry suffers from withdrawal problems as he unsuccessfully tried to limit his heavy drinking behavior with no success. Terry’s diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse are that he has been a heavy user for more than three years resulting to failure in accomplishing outstanding obligations at work (Rosner, 2012). The use diagnosis that might apply to Terry involves the development of tolerance to help him reduce the effects of the taken alcohol and cocaine. Withdrawal might also apply in Terry’s alcoholic and cocaine case. In my opinion, DSM-IV is not effective in the above cases since it raises a lot of confusion in its remission effects. DSM-IV will have negative impacts when applied on Maria and Terry because of the stigma associated to patients who are subject to its labeling. Secondly, the method might also lead to misdiagnosis since it has not been certified as being the best method for treating patients who experience similar conditions to Maria and Terry (Fauman, 2002). Conclusively, adolescence addiction is an emerging issue in the society affecting both the society and the individual who indulge into the addiction. Most

Untouchables Essay Example for Free

Untouchables Essay In the article Untouchable, Tom O’Neil tells us what being an untouchable is all about. By interviewing those labeled as untouchable, O’Neil finds a way to truly express to us what it’s like to be an untouchable and the true underlying complications that the seeming unbreakable caste system has projected on its cultural members. What are untouchables? Untouchables, or achutta, are the lowest ranking members in the caste system – or pecking order. O’Neil states that â€Å"untouchables are outcasts – people considered too impure, too polluted, to rank as worthy beings,† (ONeil, p. ). Interestingly, untouchables are not deformed or distinctively different from other Indians in any way. â€Å"Their skin is the same color. They don’t wear rags; they are not covered with sores. They walk the same streets and attend the same schools. † (ONeil, p. 2). Yet, O’Neil goes on to tell us that â€Å"[they] are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. † (ONeil, p. 1). Untouchables cannot hide from their status if they were born an untouchable – they will forever be an untouchable. â€Å"Untouchables may as well wear a scarlet tattoo on their foreheads to advertise their status. † (ONeil, p. 2). O’Neil goes on to quote Sukhadeo Thorat, a faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University and among the few Untouchables in India with a Ph. D. â€Å"You cannot hide your caste,† he says. â€Å"You can try to disguise it, but there are so many ways to slip up. A Hindu will not feel confident developing a relationship without knowing your background. Within a couple of months, your caste will be revealed. † (ONeil, p. 2). O’Neil tells us that Family name, village address, body language all deliver clues, but none so much as occupation. Untouchables perform society’s unclean work – work that involves physical contact with blood, excrement, and other bodily defilements as defined by Hindu law. Untouchables cremate the dead, clean latrines, cut umbilical cords, remove dead animals from the roads, tan hides, sweep gutters. These jobs, and the status of Untouchability, are passed down for generations. Untouchables are trapped at the bottom of a system that can’t function without discrimination. † (ONeil, p. 2). Stuck in a never-ending world of reject, untouchables are mistreated, disregarded, and held at an unremovable status throughout their life. What’s stopping this? Well, untouchability was abolished in India’s constitution in 1950 however, it is still a factor today. â€Å"Many people would point out that the crudest, most overt forms of discrimination have largely disappeared, the result of sporadic reform movements before and after India’s independence in 1947. It’s true that at least in the public sphere, Untouchables have made progress since the days – within living memory – when they were beaten if their shadow touched a higher caste person, wore bells to warn of their approach, and carried buckets so their spit wouldn’t contaminate the ground. Untouchables couldn’t enter schools or sit on a bench near a higher caste person. † (ONeil, p. 2). Yes, things have changed however, it isn’t quite changing drastically enough. Why? Because Hinduism, a religion held by many of these Indians, supports the idea of untouchability and provokes more societal authority than that of their constitution. O’Neil puts it best when he states The ancient belief system that created the Untouchables overpowers modern law. While India’s constitution forbids caste discrimination and specifically abolishes Untouchability, Hinduism, the religion of 80 percent of India’s population, governs daily life with its hierarchies and rigid social codes. Under its strictures, and Untouchable parent gives birth to an Untouchable child, condemned as unclean from the first breath. (ONeil, p. 1). With such a large percentage of India dedicated to these Hindu beliefs, it’s easy to see why breaking down this caste system is such a struggle. Although, the 1950 constitution has made some progress. â€Å"The 1950 constitution mandates a quota system that reserves seats in the federal legislature equal to the Untouchable share of the population: 15 percent. Reserved spots extend to positions in state legislatures, village councils, civil service, and university classrooms. † (ONeil, p. 2). Still, after 60 years since the constitution, only a small amount of progress has been made. Unfortunately, much of India’s caste system is still undoubtedly present. â€Å"†¦for all the laws and regulations on the books, the hard heart of caste remains unmoved. There are 160 million Untouchables in India – a country that trumpets itself as a model for developing nations. During the winter I spend in India, hardly a day passed that I didn’t hear or read of acid thrown in a boy’s face, or a wife raped in front of her husband, or some other act whose provocation was simply that an Untouchable didn’t know his or her place. (ONeil, p. 2). With such little urge to break apart Hinduism and the foundation many Indians built their daily lives on, it’s difficult to imagine any drastic changes when considering the rights of Untouchables, not just legally, but also socially. The acceptance of all castes and the abolishment of the caste system as a whole seems quite sadly far from the future horizon. Those with kinder hearts have tried to speak up and voiced their concern for Untouchables. One many of us are familiar with was Mahatma Gandhi. Even though Gandhi urged Indians to cease discriminating against untouchables, many feel that he failed. Historians say that Gandhi deserves great credit for pushing the issue of Untouchability onto the national stage and for lending his moral stature to the campaign to abolish it. Yet he never actually renounced the Hindu caste system, and the concrete results of his actions were few. Many Untouchables, particularly the educated ones, would love to knock him off his pedestal. Even the Harijan label (given to those in place of Untouchable) invokes pity rather than respect. (ONeil, p. 5). Not only did Gandhi’s lack of abandoning the Hindu caste system all together lead to few, if any, results his actions also lead many Untouchables to believe his efforts failed even farther. India’s â€Å"one true Untouchable hero† is a man name Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and he came into play during Gandhi’s â€Å"greatest perceived sin†. (ONeil, p. 5). Gandhi’s greatest perceived sin, however, was to undermine a man named Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Ambedkar pushed for a separate electorate. He feared that an assertive Untouchable could never win an election open to voters of all castes. He wanted Untouchable office-holders elected exclusively by Untouchables. Gandhi resisted Ambedkar’s position on religious principles, fearing that secular solutions to caste problems would destroy Hinduism. And in September 1932, when it appeared that the British would side with Ambedkar, Gandhi protested by entering a fast unto death. Ambedkar had little choice but to surrender after a few days as Gandhi weakened. Ambedkar won a guarantee of seats for Untoughables in the legislation, but Gandhi’s actions broke the momentum for radical change. (ONeil, p. 5). Since Ambedkar’s death there has been no Untouchable leader of the same comparison. There is only a small group of grassroots organizers spread throughout India. These organizers are helping the cause with every effort, however small it may be. Not only is this helping, medical training is also changing the lives of some Untouchables. Having health care for all members of the society is a huge help but what’s really shattering the grounds of the caste system are those health workers who are Untouchables themselves and are being accepted, opportunely or not, by those in a higher caste who need medical attention from whoever may be offering it. Salve and Sathe, two health workers, were members of the Untouchable caste. Building not only their confidence but also changing perceptions of those their helping is causing changes one step at a time. â€Å"[There was] much prejudice against Untouchable women like her. Discrimination was the hardest for me, and the hardest to fight,† states Salve. â€Å"I gave people love and affection. Slowly casteism goes away. † (Necessary Angels, p. 86). In her later year Sathe has also experience change. She had become the sarpanch, or leader of Jawalke – the city she had spent years caring for. There has also been changes in villages that Sathe, Salve, and their group does not reach. â€Å"More women are postponing marriage until 18, the use of contraception has reduced family size, and more girls are attending school. † (Necessary Angels, p. 77). Every change, however relatively minor or moderately large, is a change in the right direction. The suppression of those labeled Untouchable O’Neil compares to as slaves. A societal horror one familiar with our U. S. class systems can better fathom. With our racism and prejudices are we any better at all? Babulal Bairwa, an Untouchable landowner in the village of Chakwara says â€Å"I am clean. I don’t smoke or drink or eat meat. I work hard. I do everything right. Why am I Untouchable? † (ONeil, p. 7). O’Neil responds â€Å"Because he was born one. One hundred sixty million Indians serve this life sentence. † (ONeil, p. 7). Yes, we have grown much since the abolishment of slavery but is racism not still here? Will the discrimination ever be lifted of those people scared with the label of Untouchable?

Impacts of Child Labour in Developing Countries

Impacts of Child Labour in Developing Countries What are the causes and consequences of child labour amongst developing countries The child labour as a social and economic phenomenon has many aspects the most important of which seems to be the low level of financial growth that characterizes several countries which are commonly known as ‘developing.’ This paper illustrates the conditions that created the necessity of the child labour, and at the same time it presents the consequences of this situation as they can be observed through a series of specific facts and other types of empirical evidence that have been collected by the relevant sources of scientific research. The analysis of the problem, as described above, is followed by the presentation of a number of policies, which could help thelimitation of the problem to the most feasible level. The research done on this specific problem has revealed the existence of a high volume of relevant theories as well as of statistical data that have also been used to support the current paper. ÃŽâ„¢. Introduction The problem of the child labour has become a very important subjectof examination and research by the most of the internationalinstitutions especially the last decade. The reason for that is not the absence of this problem in the past but the development of the technology and the communication around the world that gave the opportunity for a series of long-lasting social problems to becomeknown to the international community. The extension and theimportance of the specific problem are severe obstacles towards its elimination. On the other hand, the creation of an international legal framework   asit has been expressed by the establishment of authorized bodies and the signing of a series of orders and Conventions, can considered as an important step towards the achievement of a solution.  Ã‚   We have to notice though that the best possible policy to thatdirection would have to compromise with the existence and the size ofthe problem avoiding to set targets that could not be achieved. Under the current circumstances, the child labour cannot disappear from the scene; it can just be reduced to a certain level (as this one is formulated by the social and financial conditions of each country). The main aim of this paper is to provide a detailed examination of the problem backed with a series of relevant data and other empirical evidence. The analysis of the current situation, as described in Chapter II, begins with the presentation of the background of the problem followed by statistical data and the views stated in the literature regarding the definition and the observation of child labour amongst developing countries. The policies that can be applied for the limitation of the problem are being presented in Chapter III. The investigation of the facts and the needs that created the phenomenon of the child labour cannot be achieved without the use of the literature (Chapter IV) that has been dealt with the specific matter mainly during the last years. The evidence that has been used to identify and interpret the problem,is presented in Chapter V. Finally, Chapter VI contains brief remarks on the problem as they have been extracted from the research done. II. The child labour in the international community – background, definition and areas of children exploitation The period in which child labour appeared as a social reality cannot be defined with accuracy. There are opinions that relate the beginning of the problem with the industrial revolution whereas other ones state that the child labour had first appeared in the nineteenth century. From an investigation that took place in Britain in June 1832, it seems that the phenomenon of child labour was known at that period and referred to children working as laborers mainly to factories butalso to other business activities. The above investigation (as it is analytically presented in Basu, K., 1999, 1088) was supervised by a British Parliamentary Committee and had as main subject the child labour in the United Kingdom at that period. Although Britain was in a rather high rank regarding the child labour – which can be explained by the fact that England was under development at that period of time –other countries that also had a remarkable industrial development likethe Belgium, the USA and the Japan, presented a similar image regardingthe work of children in the multiple sectors of industry (see also K.Basu, 1999, 1088-89). Moreover, the data collected for the measurement of the relevantpractices during the 19th century showed that child labour did notstart declining in Britain and in United States until the second halfof that century (L.F. Lopez-Calva, 2001, 64). The dimensions of the problem of child labour can create an important concern about the level of the life that a lot of children face but also about the financial situation of a large majority of families around the world. According to data collected by the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are approximately 250 million working children aged between 5 and 14, of which at least 120 million are involved in full-time work that is both hazardous and exploitative (seealso T. I. Palley, 2002). Although the so-called ‘developed’ countries have shown samples of tolerance regarding the child labour, the areas that seem to cultivate the problem are those with low level of economic   and industrial growth. In a relevant research made by D.K. Brown (2001) it seems that the major factor for the existence of the problem is the poverty. The capital market failure   of a specific country (as it is expressed tothe every day aspects of life, like the low level of schooling) isconsidered as another important element that co-operates the appearance and the extension of the phenomenon. When speaking for child labour we usually refer to any work by childrenthat interferes with their physical and mental development , i.e. anywork that keeps the child away from ‘childhood related activities’(Chandrasekhar, 1997). The above definition although containing ageneral view of the child labour, it cannot be applied under allcircumstances bearing in mind that a lot of differences may appear inthe context of ‘childhood related activities’ in dependance with the country and the cultural influences. In this case, a more specific description of child labour is considered as necessary. M. Majumdar(2001) divides the child labour into the following categories: a) the household work, b) non-domestic and non-monetary work, c) wage labour and d) commercial sexual exploitation and bonded labour. The child labour can be applied in many areas. As an indicative examplewe can refer to the report of the National Consumers Leage (NCL) which divides the possible areas of child labour into the followingcategories (refering to specific daily activities and regarding thedanger that they include): agriculture (is the most dangerous industryfor the young workers), working alone and late-night work in retail(most deaths of young workers in this industry are robbery-relatedhomicides), construction and work at heights (deaths and serious injuryresult from working at heights 6 feet and above. The most common typesof fatal falls are falls from roofs, ladders and scaffolds or staging),driver/operator of forklifts and tractors (tractor-related accidentsare the most prevalent cause of agricultural fatalities in the U.S.A.),traveling youth crews (defined as youth who are recruited to sellcandy, magazine subscribtions and other items door-to-door or on streetcorners, these youth operate under dangerous conditions and areunsupervised) (Occupational Hazards, Aug2004) III. Policies towards the limitation of the problem A fundamental measure for the limitation of the child labour is thecreation of legislation   that would impose a minimum work age and yearsof compulsory education. Although this solution seems rather in it’sdesigning, in practice it’s quite difficult to operate . The needs ofthe everyday life can often surpass the power of the legal rules, which have been structured usually after the examination and the analysis of specific events and cannot confront the problem to its whole area. One of the main problems that a family usually faces is the change inthe working situation of its (adult) members and the financial pressurethat usually follows. Of course, there is always the solution of funding (especially when the general financial market of a country offers such an option) . However, there are occasions that such an alternative cannot operate either because the country do not afford such a plan or the specific family do not have access to this plan. Under these circumstances, it could still be possible for the householdto tap internal assets. The presence of the father in a household, thepresence of an older person in the household or the capacity of the mother to enter into the market in order to work or proceed to another type of work (in a personal enterprise), all the above can be variables that can support the assets of a family even if the latter is suffered from strong financial difficulties (see also D. K. Brown, 2001, 766). Despite the theoretical character of the legislation, there could beother measures , more applicable   and feasible to be realized. Aneffort that has such a character is the increased spending on books,supplies, buildings and teacher training as it has been pursued by several governments   (D. K. Brown, 772). In cases that the child labour cannot be avoided, there could be somemeasures   to both to protect the children and help them to continuetheir school   (while keep on working). The design of specific schedules that would allow the children to attend school after their work could be proved very helpful towards this direction. Of course, such a plan contains a lot of requirements that need to be met . As an example we could mention the sufficiency of resources (teachers) that could workfor the extra time needed and – at the same time – the existence of afinancial strategy (and of the relevant money) for the payment of these resources. On the other hand, a problem that may arise is the lack ofequipment or capital for the premises of the school to be open forextra hours. And we cannot forget the danger that may be related withthe attendance late at night (especially in the case of the paper – thedeveloping countries). The phenomenon of the child labor has been examined and analyzed to the highest possible point by the use of the observation and theresearch in accordance with the existing legislation and the general rules that have been introduced from several countries aiming to the limitation of the problem. One of the most important studies regarding the child labour is this ofK. Basu and P. H. Van (1998) who tried to find and analyze the causesof this specific problem. After studying the results of the empiricalevidence they came to the conclusion that child labour was notconnected exclusively with external factors (i.e. employers) but it was mostly the result of internal (in the family) decisions and facts.Towards that direction, K. Basu   and P. H. Van examined first the view that child labour has been based on the ‘greed of employers who employthe children and the parents who send the children to work’. The above statement is first examined by the fact that in families, which can afford the non-work of children (i.e. when the income of the parents isconsidered as sufficient), the parents try to avoid sending theirchildren to work. This phenomenon appears even in very poor countries.Under the previous aspect, the child labour is connected with thefinancial situation of the family (usually income of parents) and not the interests of the employers. This assumption of the leading family’srole is also backed, according to K. Basu and P. H. Van, by the analysis of late nineteenth-century cencus data for Philadelphia whichwas made by Claudia Goldin in 1979. According to this analysis, when the income of the father is high the probability that the child will enter the labour market is low and this relation operates in a very tight interaction (the higher the wage of the father, the lower thechance of such a fact to get realized). Another empirical evidence that seems to back the views of K. Basu and P. H. Van comes from a research that was made on this issue (connection between the family’s decision and the child labour) by D. Vincent who studied working-class autobiographies. The results of his study showed that the children when working avoid to blame their parents but they tend to believe that it was the poverty that imposed their participation in the labour market.K. Basu and P. H. Van examined the issue of the role of the family’s decision to the child labour under the assumption that the decision ismade by a parent. They also admit that the results of their study may differ in case that this decision is made by another person (as stated by the theories which ask for the rejection of the ‘unitary model’ of the household). Regarding the role of the family’s decision to the child labour, J. G.Scoville presented a model of the above decision based on the use of mathematical symbols in order to represent the real facts. In his model, there are factors (such as the social or economic class, race,ethnicity, caste or color) that define the family utility function andin this way they can cause important implications to labour market segmentation (J. G. Scoville, 715) Regarding the existence and the extension of the child labour, M.Murshed states that two are the basic issues that need to be examined in order to achieve a comprehensive analysis of the problem. The first issue includes the mechanisms under which the family decides to send a child at work. The second one is the reason for which the employers demand child laborers. In order to explain the first issue, M. Murshed uses the theory ofBecker’s, known as ‘A theory of the Allocation of Time’, which presents a model for studying the household decision-making process. In the above model Becker’s suggests that the decision of the family is based to the needs of the household. Whenever an extra income is consideredas necessary, family decides to send the child at work. In this model both wages of children and adults contribute to family resources. As for the second issue, M. Murshed (179) argues that employer tend to demand child laborers because ‘they are less aware of their rights,less troublesome, more willing to take orders and to do monotonous work without complaining. Another factor is also that children work forlower wages and are not in a labour union because they work illegally’. M. Hazan and B. Berdugo (2002, 811) examined the dynamic evolution of child labour, fertility and human capital in the process of development. Their analysis is based on the following assumptions: a)parents   ‘control their children’s time and allocate it between labourand human capital formation’, b) parents care about the futureearning’s of their children, c) the income that is generated by children is given to parents’ and that d) child ‘rearing is time intensive’. According to their findings, in early stages of development, the economy is in a development trap while child labour is abundant, fertility is high and output per capita is low.   On the other hand, the increase in the wage differential (between parental and childlabour) ‘decreases fertility and child labour and increases children’seducation. As a final result, child labour tends to decrease as the‘household’s dependency on child labour’s income diminishes’. The ‘welfare economics’ approach tries to examine the child labour from the scope of investment and time allocation within the household. According to this theory, the time of the child (the non-leisure one)can be used either for school attendance and/or for work. The family makes a decision for the allocation of the child’s time (i.e. for one of the above mention activities) after the calculation of the difference between the marginal benefit of the child labour (i.e.earnings and saved costs of schooling) and the marginal cost (in terms of foregone return to human capital investment). If the first of the above elements is estimated as having a higher price than the second one, then the family decides the participation of the child to the labour market (see also M. Majumdar, 2001). The decision of the parents regarding the entrance of their children tothe labour market can – under certain circumstances – be unefficient.According to Ballard and Robinson (2000) the above decisions areefficient when the credit market is perfect and the intergenerational altruistic transfers are nonzero. On the other hand, when there are liquidity constraints or the altruistic transfers are at a corner,these decisions are considered as inefficient. A. Bommier and P. Dubois(2004) critically evaluated the views of Ballard and Robinson andargued that the decisions of the parents could be inefficient even ifthe credit markets are perfect and there are altruistic transfers. More specifically, they argued that when parents are not altruistic enough,there is a ‘rotten parents effect’ in which parents ‘rationally sacrifice some childhood utility’ and ‘choose a level of child labour that is inefficiently high’. V. Evidence related with the phenomenon of child labour The child labour has been the subject of a thorough study and research and there are a lot of theories that have been stated in aneffort to define the causes of the specific problem. Towards thisdirection there have been a number of facts or existing situations thathave been used to explain the relation of the child labour with somespecific factors . One of the most known reasons for the existence andthe increase of the problem is the poverty of the household which is related with the general aspect of the modern way of life (as it hasbeen formulated under the influence of the technology) and also the fact that parents when have a low level of income   do not tend to invest in the education of their children in order to achieve a high level of return (education can help to the improvement of the status of life through the increase of the level of consumption). We could also state that the income of the children can help toameliorate the conditions of life of the family and this could be thereason why the children tend to leave the school and work when their family is under severe financial pressure. This is an opinion that tries to explain the child labour through the life circumstances of a child and aims to smooth the negative consequences of the child labour. Although the poverty   is usually presented as the main reason for thechild labour , there are some aspects that need to be taken intoaccount when examining the problem. First of all, we cannot define withaccuracy the financial benefit of a family from a child’s work. Of course, child labour can help to the amelioration of the family’s financial situation, however it is not obvious how much worse off afamily would be if the children were in school. On the other hand, we could not specify the time needed for the economic development to beachieved in order for the child labour to be abolished. More specifically it seems that there is no consistent threshold of economic development, which preceded the decline of child labour to suggest the implied relationship between economic growth and declice of child labour (M. Majumdar). In such a case, the argument about the poverty criterion of child labour can loose its significant content. We should notice that, no matter which is the financial situation of the family,even in cases of exremely low level of living, the participation of thechild to a work that could characterized as ‘hazardous’ cannot bejustified as the protection of the child’s rights are a priority. Moreover, the child labour although can help temporarily to theconfrontation of the poverty – up to a specific point – however, it canalso create the basis for the development of property by generatingpoor people to the next generation. If the child returns to school theyhave more chances to a higher level of earnings in the future or at aleast to a job that will secure their living to certain standards(avoiding the condition of poverty). The combination of these two factors could also create a better investment and a greater security of income for the family by eliminating the obstacles of poverty. The relationship between the poverty and the child labour is not absolutely proved. S.E. Dessy and D. Vencatachellum examined the issue using a sample of 83 countries and found that the coefficient of correlation between the incidence of child labour and the logarithm of gross national product is –0.74. In this way, they were directed to the assumption that child labour declines with economic prosperity, as parents feel relaxed regarding the credit constraints. However, at a next level, they found that there are countries with similar levels of gross domestic product per capita that differ in the percentage of child labour. In fact, some of them report no child labour, where as others report a high level. This assumption is also in accordance withthe view of Anker (2000) who stated that although poverty is positively correlated with child labour, there are also other factors that can reduce the school enrolment rate of a country. Hussain M. and Maskus K.E (2003) used a series of data from 64 countries in the period 1960 – 1980 to investigate a series of testable hypotheses about the causes of child labour. Their research showed that the incidence of child labour is negatively related to parental huma ncapital and education quality, but it is positively correlated with education cost and also that countries with higher amounts of child labour tend to have lower stocks of human capital in the future. They also found that there is a convergence phenomenon between the level and growth of human capital, i.e. the lower the current stock of human capital, the higher is current child-labour use and the fasted is the growth rate of human capital. G. Hazarika and A. S. Bedi (2003), examined the relationship between the schooling costs and the extra household child labour supply and found that these two elements are positively related.   Moreover, the intra-household labour of children engaged in market work evaluated as unresponsive to changes in schooling costs. This happens maybe,according to Hazarika and Bedi because parents tend to consider children’s extra household labour and schooling as substitutes while they view intra household child labour activity differently. But if the parents could evaluate the intra-household child labour as an activity that offers more benefits than just an increase of the household consumption, then it could be a relationship between the intra-household child labour and the schooling costs. As for Pakistan(where this research refers) the intra-household child labour and schooling are not substitutes. We should also mention the importance of social norms and the cultureto the appearance and the extension of the child labour. The above analysis has to be done under different variables for the rural areas as opposite to the urban areas. Children that live in the first environment tend to help to the everyday activities in the farm and asa result, their work under these circumstances is presented as justified and necessary. As for the social norms, their role is considered as very important to the financial growth, as they have to power to influence the economic and social behaviour of the vastmajority of people. The most indicative example of their influence isthe fact that in areas where the work of children is accepted by thepeople, then the decision of a parent to send his child to work can bemuch more easy. Another very important aspect of the child labour is that is usually associated with the child abuse. Under this aspect, the reasons for the participation of the children to the labour market can be found in the demand of employers for cheap laborers and in the existence of selfish parents who do not mind sending their children to work if – in that way– there are more chances for them (parents) to rest. According to K.Basu and P. H. Van, although the child abuse does occur in allsocieties, the phenomenon of the child labour as a mass in most of developing countries is much more related with the poverty that characterises these countries. They refer to the example of England(late eighteenth and early nineteenth century) where parents had to send their children to work because they were obligated from the circumstances (poverty) to do so. VI. Conclusion The existence and the rapid extension of the phenomenon of child labour seems to be connected with the a series of external factors(like the low economic growth or the unadequate social policies of aspecific country) however it can be assumed by the analysis made abovethat it is also directly depended on the child’s ‘close’ social environment, i.e the family. It’s for this reason that the measures taken towards its elimination have to be referred into both these areas. The two sides have to co-operate and act simultaneously in order to confront this very important problem. The ‘solution’ (as it is often presented) of the child labour has to be interpreted under different criteria regarding the specific circumstances that it will have to occur. Although in certain occasions the entrance of the child in the labour market seems to be the only left choice, we have to bear in mind its particular physic and mental weakness (that follows its age) and evaluate the consequences for such a decision. In any case, we have to consider that a workplace that operates normally with the use of adult laborers can have negative effects when the issue refers to a child. Although the problem of the child labour is very important to its nature and its extension, the measures taken to its elimination don’t seem to produce any result. The conflict of interests towards its continuation has a great responsibility to it. And these interests refer to different parties (external and internal as mentioned above).This reality must be admitted and the efforts should be directed to the modification of the existing conditions trying not to confront directly the problem but asking the parties involved to participate to its solution by offering them a satisfactory exchange for their help. References Admassie, A., ‘Explaining the high incidence of child labour inSub-Saharan Africa’, Development Review, Dec2002, vol. 14, issue 2, p.251 Amin, S., Shakil, Quayes, M., Rives, J. M., ‘Poverty and otherdeterminants of child labor in Bangladesh’, Southern Economic Journal,April2004, vol. 70, issue 4, p. 876 Anker, R., ‘The economics of child labor: a framework for measurement’, International Labour Review, 2000, 139, 257-280 Baland, J.M., Robinson, J.A., ‘Is Child Labor Inefficient?’, Journal of Political Economy, 2000, 108, 663-679 Bommier, A., Dubois, P., ‘Rotten parents and child labor’, Journal of Political Economy’, Feb2004, vol. 112, issue 1, p. 240 Brown, D. K., ‘Child labour in Latin America: Policy and evidence’, World Economy, June2001, vol. 24, issue 6 Dessy, S.E., ‘Explaining cross-country differences in policyresponse to child labour’, Canadian Journal of Economics, Feb 2003,vol. 36, issue 1, p.1 Emerson, P. M., Souza, A. P., ‘Is there a child labor trap?Intergenerational persistence of child labor in Brazil’, Economicdevelopment cultural change, Jan2003, vol. 51, issue 2, p. 375 Hazan, M., Berdugo, B., ‘Child labour, fertility and economic growth’, Economic Journal, Oct2002, vol. 112, issue 482, p. 810 Hazarika, Gautam, Bedi, A.S., ‘Schooling costs and child work inrural Pakistan’, Journal of Development Studies, June 2003, vol. 39,issue 5, p. 29 Hussain, M., Maskus, K.E., ‘Child Labour Use and Economic Growth: aneconometric analysis’, World Economy, vol. 26, issue 7, p. 993 Kaushik, B., ‘The economics of child labor’, Scientific American, Oct2003, vol. 289, issue 4, p.84 Kaushik, B., Van P. H., ‘The economics of child labor’, The American economic review, June 1998, vol. 88, no. 3, p. 412-427 Kaushik, B., ‘Child labor: cause, consequence and cure, with remarkson International Labor Standards, Journal of Economic Literature,Sep1999, vol. 37, p. 1083-1119 Latin Trade, ‘Condemned’, Oct2004, vol. 12, issue 10, p.68 Lopez-Calva, ‘Child labor: Myths, theories and facts’, Journal of International Affairs, Fall 2001, vol. 55, issue 1, p. 59 Majumdar, M., ‘Child labour as a human security problem: evidence from India†, Oxford Development Studies, vol. 29, no. 3, 2001 Mattioli, M. C., Sapovadia, V. K., ‘Laws of Labor: core laborstandards and global trade’, Harvard International Review, Summer 2004,vol. 26, issue 2, p. 60 Murshed, M., ‘Unraveling child labor and labor legislation’, Journal of International Affairs, Fall2001, vol. 55, issue 1, p.169 News, The (Mexico), ‘Child labor in Mexico contributes almost 2 billion dollars to economy’, Sep 26, 2001 Occupational Hazards, ‘Group calls for reform of laws governing teen employment’, Aug2004, vol. 66, issue 8, p.15 Palley, T. I., ‘The child labor problem and the need forinternational labor standards’, Journal of Economic Issues, Sep2002,vol. 36, issue 3, p. 601 Payroll Manager’s Report, ‘International retailer is fined for child labor violations’, May 2005, vol. 5, issue 5, p.2 Professional Safety, ‘DOL issues final child labor rules for restaurant, driving roof’, Mar2005, vol. 50, issue 3, p.24 Puskikar, M., Ranjan, R., ‘The Joint Estimation of childparticipation in schooling and employment: comparative evidence fromthree continents’, Oxford Development Studies, Feb2002, vol. 30, issue1, p. 41 Scoville, J. G., ‘Segmentation in the market for child labor: theeconomics of child labor revisited’, American Journal of Economics andSociology, Jul2002, vol. 61, issue 3, p. 713 Xinhua (China), ‘Half Bangladeshi children malnourished: report’, 12/10/2004 Xinhua (China), ‘ISO countries ratify Convention to combat worst forms of child labor: ILO’, 24/5/2004 Xinhua (China), ‘Micro credit program launched to stop child labor in Bangladesh’, 30/10/2003 Xinhua (China), ‘Over 3 million child laborers in Pakistan’, Jul2002 Xinhua (China), ‘Asian countries to co-operate in eliminating child labor’, 3/3/2003 Walsh, M., Sager, I., ‘The world’s workers may catch a break’, Business Week, 14/3/2005, issue 3924, p.12 World IT Report, ‘India to abolish child labour after 2007’, 15/1/2004

Peyote Information :: essays research papers fc

Just a Drug? Throughout our entire lives we have always been told that drugs are bad. They have terrible consequences on our bodies, and can cause us to do things that we wouldn’t normally consent to do in a sober state. Drugs can have adverse and varying effects on people, but no matter what the drug is we have been made to believe that its use is bad. What if a drug was more than just a way to escape reality, or to feel good? Peyote is a drug that has had more than just physical use and meaning to people for over 400 years. It is used as a spiritual catalyst by many Native Americans, and is believed by them to cause a direct psychic link to God. People around the country have varying views on peyote use, but who can say that it is bad? If the drug does have bad effects on the body, Native Americans have surely accepted that as a reasonable tradeoff for the spiritual journey peyote brings. So is peyote as a drug, or it’s use in Native American religion, bad?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to understand and base an opinion on a religion that is centralized around a drug, you must first understand the drug itself. Peyote is a small, round cactus that grows in the southern US and Mexico. Rather than spines or spikes, peyote has fuzzy tufts that stuck out from it’s edges. Only about an inch of the cactus is viewable above ground, with the majority of it being the deeply buried, carrot-like root structure. The small portion that is above ground is harvested, and is referred to as the peyote â€Å"button†. It is consumed either freshly cut, or dried, and has some extreme effects on the body.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The effects of peyote are quite strong, and cause an array of feelings and emotional perceptions. According to www.xs4all.nl; â€Å"†¦ There is a feeling of strange intoxication and shifting consciousness with minor perceptual changes. There may also be strong physical effects, including respiratory pressure, muscle tension (especially face and neck muscles), and queasiness or possible nausea†¦ After this the state of altered consciousness begins to manifest itself†¦..among the possible occurences are feelings of inner tranquility, oneness with life, heightened awareness, and rapid thought flow†¦these effects will deepen and become more visual. Colors may become more intense. Halos and auras may appear about things. Objects

Intervention on Mary’s Crisis

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1994) says that those who are in crisis need immediate intervention through emotional first aid and support. Crisis intervention aims to improve health or resolve a personal conflict through an immediate, short-term psychotherapeutic approach. Mary is just the right person who is in need of immediate intervention. Her problems began when she discovered that she could not conceive a child due to some biological reason. She suffered from this because â€Å"she is incapable of doing something that is a simple biological function of being a woman† (Vasudev, 2005). This could be the reason why she thought she was a failure because she could not give her husband a child. In our society today, those who cannot bear a child are a laughing matter. Even during the times of our ancestors, a woman’s auspiciousness is measured by the number of children she has. This was considered an asset, especially when her children are male. Vasudev (2005) considered children as important for survival and for economic and social situations. He said, â€Å"People did not experience life to any depth with any other aspect except by bearing children. It’s as if you have not experienced life† (Vasudev, 2005). But he added that so many factors are involved, such as social, economic, emotional, physical and biological aspects. What has been embedded in the history of humans about child bearing is still observed today. A woman who cannot bear a child is considered unfortunate or outcast in our society. This was probably how Mary felt with the dilemma she was facing. To make matters worse for her, her inability to produce a child precipitated the bitter divorce between her and her husband. This only made her feel inadequate. This situation proved hard for Mary, especially when her second husband also wanted to divorce her. She blamed herself for losing her husband and his child because she thought she was not a better wife, despite her efforts in devoting herself to them. This indicated that she was crisis prone, as shown by her tendency to feel overly depressed by unfavorable events in her life. Greenwald (undated) explained that depression is caused by many factors, one of which is biological. Mary had problems with eating and sleeping. Another factor is psychological. Greenwald noted, â€Å"If you fail to live up to some internal standard of who or what you are supposed to be, some internal watchdog notes your failures and begins to let you know that you haven’t been all that you could be† (Greenwald, undated). Moreover, people tend to feel depressed because they think they haven’t done what they think they should have. This results to low self-esteem, as is the case with Mary because she could not conceive a child. She also blamed herself for the bad things in her life. Dr. Greenwald added that when important people fail to understand or recognize or appreciate, it could result to depression. Sometimes, this made a person feel that she is not good enough. Mary was sensitive to this since she had a history of divorce. Mary’s condition after learning of her husband’s plans showed that she was in a crisis. She was undergoing a strong, reactive depression, which is not normally experienced by someone who is upset. Moreover, it involved her health, her job and her self-esteem. She also indicated that â€Å"it would be better to be dead†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which showed that she was considering suicide as an option to end her dilemma. This is an indication that should not be ignored. It is important to let Mary know that someone cares for her, and that is me and it is why I’m there to help her solve her problem. I will use Roberts’ Seven Stage Crisis Intervention Model (2000) in conducting the intervention. After gaining her confidence and trust, I will conduct crisis assessment, including lethality. Is she depressed, lonely or suicidal? Is she safe or alone? Does she mean to harm herself? These questions should be asked with sensitivity. Assessment of danger must be throughout the intervention. I must establish rapport and make her feel at ease in telling me her problems. I will listen for important events and persons so that I know who and what are important to her. I will listen for significant changes, losses, disappointments and failures to identify the major problem/s. I will find out the trigger events so that I can think of strategies in helping her. Through active listening, I will ask about the feelings surrounding the people or events as she tells me her history. Questions include: â€Å"How did you feel about that?† â€Å"What were your feelings?† â€Å"What do you think about this situation?† â€Å"You might have been angry?† â€Å"Were you hurt about that?† It is also important that I listen for problems about anger. I should help the person discover if her depression was to do with unexpressed anger. â€Å"It sounds like you have problems expressing your anger.† â€Å"How do you vent your anger?† If anger is not the issue, I will look for other possibilities. If Mary tells about her depression on her first divorce, I can refer her to psychotherapy. I can also give support through validation. I will convince her that what she is feeling is ok and that she is not alone. She is worthy and can overcome her problems. She is stronger than she can imagine. I can tell her â€Å"I’d feel the same way if I were in your shoes† or â€Å"Of course I’d feel depressed; I think anyone would.† Then I will ask her the areas where she considers she excels. I will tell her that she is not a failure. She just needs to explore her feelings, ideas, skills and accomplishments. I can convince her to join any club or activities where she can use her talents, or to try calling her sister and family because I’m sure they care for her. I will point out resources that she may have forgotten. I can give her the power to make choices and opportunities for herself, and take charge. Mary found out that despite what happened, she can move on because she is strong. The time of feeling down is past; she must look for the brighter things and dedicate her energy to more important things. She felt thankful that she called that crisis hotline; although her problems were not over yet, she felt as though her burdens were lifted. REFERENCES Crisis Intervention and Domestic Violence National Resource. (undated). Roberts’ Seven Stage Crisis Intervention Model. Crisis Intervention Network. Retrieved on September 16, 2007 from http://www.crisisinterventionnetwork.com/intervention_roberts.html Greenwald, Barry. (undated). Loneliness, Depression, and Suicide. Retrieved on September 17, 2007 from http://www.uic.edu/orgs/convening/depress.htm Vasudev, Sadhguru Jaggi. (May 3, 2005). Barren Woman. Chennai Online. Retrieved on September 17, 2007 from http://www.chennaionline.com/health/yoga/2005/04yoga45.asp

How To Use Content Syndication To Boost Your Subscribers

How To Use Content Syndication To Boost Your Subscribers Promote your blog post. Sage advice for the content marketer. If you’re anything like me, writing a blog post takes time. Lots of it. In fact, this post took me about 15 hours to write. And now I have to promote it, too? Exactly when am I supposed to do the other work required to keep my business going? I’m in the process of launching a new company. I have a new website, a new blog, and a new product. And like all businesses, I wanted to get my marketing engine going but didn’t have time to spend hours both writing great content and promoting it. Over the years, I’ve developed three strategies to promote blog posts, drive traffic to your site, and collect emails even if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. In this post, Im going to share with you in detail what has quickly become my absolute favorite strategy for promoting a blog post in 20 minutes: Content syndication. How To Use Content Syndication To Boost Your Subscribers In No Time via @GregDigneoThe 20-Minute Traffic Strategy I just launched a new blog. No traffic, no email addresses, no backlinks. No nothing. If you’ve ever launched a blog of your own, I’m sure you know there is absolutely no truth to the axiom, â€Å"If you build it, they will come.† Back on April 6th, I published my first blog post called â€Å"How to Reach Over 1 Million People Through Guest Blogging.† This is the original post published on my blog. And for more than  three months, the post just sat there. I was getting pretty much zero traffic. It wasn’t generating traffic. It wasn’t collecting email addresses. It wasn’t being read. In order to promote the post, I decided to republish the post on the popular marketing blog, SteamFeed. A strategy called content syndication. As soon as I syndicated that one post to that one blog, I immediately started seeing a small (but steady) flow of traffic to my site. After I syndicated content, my traffic increased. And I even started collecting email addresses. Once people see your content, they'll know you write great stuff. That influences email subscribers. And the whole thing took just 20 minutes. Look, syndicating one post on one popular blog isn’t the silver bullet to content marketing riches.   Like everything, consistency over time can lead to big results. James Clear, of JamesClear.com, built his blog from 500 email subscribers to an email list of 100,000 people and 250,000 unique visitors per month  by syndicating  his content. All in less than 2 years. So let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to syndicate your content on another blog. How To Syndicate Your Content On A Popular Blog Unlike other promotion strategies, by the time you’re ready to syndicate your content, 95% of the heavy lifting is complete. The hardest part of the process is writing a great blog post. So let’s start there. Step 1: Publish a  great post. What makes content great? The truth is, great content is like a great work of art. It’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Great content is like a great work of art. It’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it.And the bar for great content is being raised every single day. What was considered â€Å"great† last week is average today. So instead of showing you how to write great content, the best I can do is give you 3 guidelines that have helped me write great posts. 1. Detailed How-To Post Leave no stone unturned. When you write a "how-to" post, you want to be as descriptive as possible. Make sure that you include every little detail about how to achieve a task.   At the end of the post, the reader should be able to replicate every single step without fail. For example, I would consider this a detailed â€Å"how-to† post. 2. Personal Experience People can always relate to a personal experience. We all struggle. We’ve all been down on our luck in some way shape or form. What makes for a really great blog post is when we open up about these struggles. We share a bit of our vulnerability. We open up and let people identify with us. Why? Because at some point in time, we’ve all been down on our luck, or we are all going through some struggle right now. 3.   Case Studies Which headline sounds more interesting? "How to get more traffic?" or "Case Study: How a brand new blog got 5,300 unique visitors and 230 email addresses in one week." I don’t know about you, but I’ll pass on the first headline and devour the second one. The â€Å"get more traffic† post has been done. A lot. It’s boring. But the nature of the case study headline is that it promises to give very specific tips, tricks, and strategies that I’m going to want to copy. Step 2: Create bonus material. The bonus content is designed to be complementary to your blog post in order to entice people to give you their email address. For example, in my guest blogging post, I created 3 pieces of content to put into a bonus. First, I turned my blog into a checklist. I hired a designer on Fiverr to make it look a little nicer. Since I’ve been guest posting for a while, I had a list of 101 blogs that accept guest posts. And finally, I gave away the copy for my highest converting byline and landing page and called it a â€Å"Traffic and Conversion Swipe file.† While it may sound like a lot of work to create all of this content, repurposing things that you have on your digital bookshelf will speed up the process. Recommended Reading:  Why You Should Give Free Content To Your Readers Step 3: Turn your post into a lead magnet. My main goal as a content marketer is to build an email list. However, not all of the traffic will go to a landing page. Quite a bit will go to your original post. Let’s make sure that we capture as many email addresses as possible. Here’s what I did: 1. Exclusive Blog Bonus Right before the first subheadline, I created an â€Å"exclusive blog bonus†. This is the bonus material that you created in step 2. Exclusive blog bonuses provide relevant content right in your blog posts in exchange for email addresses. In order to get access to the bonus material, the reader has to click on the link and enter their email address. This is what’s known as a content upgrade. As far as I can tell, Brian Dean is the pioneer of this strategy. I will repurpose this material multiple times during the content syndication process. 2. Customized Email Capture Form In The Footer A lot of blogs have email capture forms in their footers. But most bloggers don’t customize the form. This is a huge mistake. If someone spends 15 minutes reading your blog post, chances are they are interested in the topic and want to find out more. I used the WordPress plugin Thrive Leads to easily create a customized email capture form that complements the blog post a visitor just read. After reading a post on guest blogging, I figured it’d be natural to want a list of blogs accepting guest posts. Gather leads and promote your blog with exclusive blog bonuses. 3. Targeted Opt-In I’m not going to lie, I hate light boxes. But they work. So, I made a compromise. First, I created a targeted opt-in. Once again, unlike the generic opt-ins that you see on most blogs, this one relates directly to my post on guest blogging. And second, I set the box to only appear on the exit intent. This means that the popup will only appear when the person is about to hit the back button. I probably sacrifice a few conversions, but it keeps the reader experience clean. Exit intent light boxes or popups are great ways to capture leads as they leave your blog. Step 4: Find a blog to syndicate the content to. In the business space, there are quite a few blogs that are looking for content syndication opportunities. They are: Business2Community: A popular multi-author business blog. Social Media Today: A popular multi-author social media blog similar to Social Media Examiner. Business Insider: A popular business publication. Having a relationship with an editor will help your chances greatly. BizSugar: Popular posts featured on Bizsugar will get published on Small Business Trends AllBusiness: A popular multi-author small business website. Huffington Post: One of the largest blogging platforms in the world. Kristi Hines has put together a few more sites  that routinely syndicate content. If none of these blogs work for you, then you can always use Google. First, you can use the search query: â€Å"This blog was originally published on†.   This is because Google requires all syndicated posts to contain this message (or something similar). Second, you can use the search query: â€Å"Sites accepting syndicated content†. Other bloggers have curated sites for you. This will help you broaden your reach. Step 5: Pitch the editor. As in most instances, having a relationship with the editor of the popular blog will enhance your chances of getting the post accepted. For example, I had written several guest posts on SteamFeed before being able to syndicate content to the site. However, cold outreach can still work. It just takes some persistance. If it is a large blog such as Business Insider or The Huffington Post, the blog will have several editors. By doing a Google search, you should be able to find the name and email address of the editor that fits your niche. Here is the email script I’d use to syndicate my post: Subject: Syndicate This Post About Guest Blogging Hi (name of blog editor), I wrote the following post which details a step-by-step guide to getting a guest post accepted on a popular blog. I leave absolutely no stone unturned and I think that SteamFeed.com readers will love it. Here’s the link: (include the URL) If you enjoy it, I’d love to see it republished on your blog. Greg Tip:  Research the editor of the blog or who you are pitching to. One of the biggest turn-offs for editors  is seeing  that the person asking you for a favor didn't even take the time to look up your name. The Best Way To Syndicate Your Content In 20 Easy MinutesStep 6: Rewrite your conclusion. The only change that I made from the original post to the syndicated post is the conclusion. I built in a call to action so that people will get even more information on guest blogging. I borrowed this strategy from Bryan Harris  in order to help me increase the amount of email subscribers that I received. Here it is: Now let’s break it down: The first thing you want to do is wrap up the post (pink box). This is a way to tie everything together. As you can see, a sentence or two can get the job done. Next, you want to introduce the â€Å"Exclusive Blog Bonus† that you created for the original post. If you look at the green box, you’ll see I used three bullets to let people know exactly what they were going to get. Finally, you need a call to action. I used LeadBoxes from LeadPages to create a content upgrade so that people can download the bonus directly from the SteamFeed blog. They don’t have to go to a landing page! Step 7: Create a landing page. Now that you’ve gotten your content  syndicated on the blog of your choice, it’s time to create a high converting landing page. Here are 2 key components to a landing page that will convert traffic into leads: 1. A Relevant Offer Instead of sending them to a generic landing page, I would create an offer like â€Å"5 Ways Facebook Dark Posts Can Get You Cheap Traffic† or something like that. An offer like this is irresistible to a reader who just spent a considerable amount of time reading about Facebook ads. 2. Personalize It A personalized landing page can help you see a huge boost in conversions on your landing page. And it’s incredibly easy to do. For instance, let’s say I’ve just finished a post on Social Media Examiner. As soon as someone came from that post to my landing page, the first thing they would see is â€Å"Welcome Social Media Examiner Readers.† Neil Patel, of Quick Sprout fame, says that he sees a bump in conversion by 10% by personalizing  the landing page. Not too shabby for a few seconds of work. Step 8: Write your byline. I always write my byline last. That way, I can easily match my call to action to the offer that I created for the guest post. A byline should answer 3 questions: Who are you? What do you do? Where can I learn more about you? For instance, my byline was: Greg Digneo is the founder of Birchfield, a software company that helps content marketers build their email list through referrals. We are in beta. Click here for early access. Bonus: SEO implications I’m no SEO expert by any means. I know my way around backlinking a bit. And I can insert keywords into a post. But I would remiss if I left out the search engine implications of â€Å"duplicate content† in a post that is largely about duplicate content. When I was doing some research, I found a few things that will mitigate SEO issues. First, you should wait at least two weeks to syndicate your content.   This will give the various search engines enough time to index the original post on your site. Second, at the bottom of your post, add the sentence â€Å"This article was originally published on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Each blog will have its  own syntax. But you need to tell search engines that the article is duplicated content and show them where it is. Finally, if you have access to the WordPress editor, you can add your URL to the â€Å"Canonical URL† section in the Yoast SEO plugin. This will ensure that the syndicated post is linked back to the original. Tag your syndicated posts as canonical with Yoast. One More Thing†¦ When I first published my blog post â€Å"How to Reach over 1 Million People Through Guest Blogging†, I didn’t have an audience. No one was tweeting it. No one was sharing it. No one was talking about it. But when I syndicated my post on a popular blog, magic happened. People read it, 267 people shared it (and counting), and I got exposure to my startup. This is what my syndicated post looked like on SteamFeed. That’s the power of content syndication. Want 2 More Ways To Promote Your Post If You’re a Busy Content Marketer? As I've focused more and more time on my startup, I’ve had less time to promote my blog posts. Working as a content marketer for the past few years, I’ve created two additional effective promotion strategies that you can use to get traffic and collect emails for your business. I’ll go in detail how you can use these strategies to grow your business.  Click here and enter your name and email address and I'll shoot them over to you immediately.

German Pet Names Used to Address Family and Friends

German Pet Names Used to Address Family and Friends Germans often use animal names such as  Hasi  and  Maus  as terms of endearment for  loved ones, according to popular German magazines. Kosenamen (pet names) in German come in many forms, from the simple and classic Schatz  to cuter ones like Knuddelpuddel. Here are some favorite German pet names, according to surveys carried out by the German magazine Brigitte and the German website spin.de. Classic German Pet Names Name Variations Meaning Schatz Schatzi,Schatzilein,Schtzchen treasure Liebling Liebchen, Liebelein darling, sweetheart Se/r Sling sweetie Engel Engelchen, Engelein angel German Pet Names Based on Types of Animal Maus Mausi, Mausipupsi, Mausezahn, Musezhnchen mouse Hase Hasi,Hasilein, Hschen, Hascha (combination of Hase and Schatz) *bunny Brchen Brli, Schmusebrchen little bear Schnecke Schneckchen, Zuckerschnecke snail Spatz Spatzi, Sptzchen sparrow *In this context, these names mean  bunny, but they usually mean  hare. German Pet Names Based on Nature Rose Rschen, Rosenblte rose Sonnenblume Sonnenblmchen sunflower Stern Sternchen star English-Language Names Baby Honey German Pet Names Emphasizing Cuteness Schnuckel Schnuckelchen, Schnucki, Schnuckiputzi cutey Knuddel- Knuddelmuddel, Knuddelktzchen, Knuddelmaus cuddles Kuschel- Kuschelperle,Kuschelbr cuddly Germans love their pets, so it only makes sense that they would use pet names as terms of endearment for their human children, significant others, or other beloved family members and  close friends. Germans Are Animal Lovers More than 80 percent of Germans describe themselves as animal lovers, even if significantly fewer German households include a pet. The most popular pets are cats, followed by guinea pigs, rabbits, and in fourth place, dogs.  A 2014 Euromonitor International study found that 11.5 million cats were living in 19% of German households in 2013 and 6.9 million dogs were living in 14% of households. Other German pet populations were not mentioned, but we do know that Germans spend about 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) a year on all their pets. Thats a lot in a population of   86.7 million. The Germans willingness to spend big on pets is a reflection of the pets increasing importance as companions at a time when single-person or small households in Germany are growing at nearly 2 percent a year, resulting in increasingly isolated lifestyles. And Their Pets Are Beloved Companions Pets are considered beloved companions that enhance their owners’ well-being and quality of living, said Euromonitor. Dogs, which enjoy a high status and high profile among pets, are also viewed as supporting their owners’ fitness and health and as helping them to reconnect with nature on their daily walks.   The ultimate German dog is probably the German shepherd. But the very popular breed that has won the Germans heart seems to be the cute Bavarian dachshund, typically named Waldi. These days, Waldi is also a popular name for baby boys, and the dachshund, in the form of a small bobblehead toy in the rear window of a good many German cars, is a symbol of the countrys Sunday drivers. Waldi, the Name and the Olympic Mascot But in the 1970s, dachshunds were synonymous with the rainbow-hued dachshund Waldi who, as the first official Olympics mascot, was created for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. The dachshund was not chosen so much for this accident of geography but supposedly because it possessed the same qualities as a great athlete: resistance, tenacity, and agility. At the 1972 Summer Games, even the marathon route was designed to resemble Waldi.

Free Essays on Language Differences

The essays â€Å"Mother Tongue† by Amy Tan and â€Å"Public and Private Language† by Richard Rodriquez are recollections of both authors personal battles with language. Their stories are very different but each essay attempts to illustrate the personal struggle the two of them went through to discover their voice. The two of them battled with all the forms of language they had to learn. In their lives they were faced with having two forms of language, the â€Å"private† language that was only spoken at home and the â€Å"public† language that was for everyone else. For Richard Rodriquez his struggle was with English and Spanish alone. Amy Tan, on the other, was faced with different levels of English. In both essays there is discussion of public and private language. Each author defines it differently. Amy Tan defines her â€Å"private† language as a language of intimacy. â€Å"The English I spoke to my mother† (21). It seems to be what she uses with those that are within her family spectrum. â€Å"My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with†.(4) The way that Tan and her mother speak to each other is in a form of broken English, an English that comes from an immigrants comprehension of the language. This â€Å"private† language is like a secret code between Tan and her mother. It is the tie that kee ps them connected and close. Richard carries a different perspective of his private language. For Richard there is no explanation or clarification needed. Spanish is what his family speaks at home and to each other. His language is what ties him to his roots and his colture. Rodriquez identifies with his Spa... Free Essays on Language Differences Free Essays on Language Differences The essays â€Å"Mother Tongue† by Amy Tan and â€Å"Public and Private Language† by Richard Rodriquez are recollections of both authors personal battles with language. Their stories are very different but each essay attempts to illustrate the personal struggle the two of them went through to discover their voice. The two of them battled with all the forms of language they had to learn. In their lives they were faced with having two forms of language, the â€Å"private† language that was only spoken at home and the â€Å"public† language that was for everyone else. For Richard Rodriquez his struggle was with English and Spanish alone. Amy Tan, on the other, was faced with different levels of English. In both essays there is discussion of public and private language. Each author defines it differently. Amy Tan defines her â€Å"private† language as a language of intimacy. â€Å"The English I spoke to my mother† (21). It seems to be what she uses with those that are within her family spectrum. â€Å"My husband was with us as well, and he didn’t notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It’s because over the twenty years we’ve been together I’ve often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with†.(4) The way that Tan and her mother speak to each other is in a form of broken English, an English that comes from an immigrants comprehension of the language. This â€Å"private† language is like a secret code between Tan and her mother. It is the tie that kee ps them connected and close. Richard carries a different perspective of his private language. For Richard there is no explanation or clarification needed. Spanish is what his family speaks at home and to each other. His language is what ties him to his roots and his colture. Rodriquez identifies with his Spa...

Project Management Crosby Manufacturing Corporation Case Study

Project Management Crosby Manufacturing Corporation - Case Study Example The president of Management Cost and Control System (MCCS) had a meeting with department managers to solve the issue of MCCS reporting procedures. The government had just renewed the interest in the company, and therefore, there was a need to computerize the finance reporting methods, so as to compete fairly with other companies. Having taken over the leadership in 2005, Livingstone took a major stride in reorganizing the structure of the company leadership, this really worked well and they could now get large number of government contracts. The second strategy was to update the MCCS reporting procedure to ensure a sizable cash outlay to increase the business. The president then appointed Emary to be the planning project leader, even though he was not conversant with computers. Livingston’s Appointment The president of the company while appointing Tim Emary to head the project stated that he was doing so because of the importance of the project, and while acknowledging that Emary had little knowledge of computers, the president reiterated the fact that Emary knew how to make schedules and do the work well. With due respect for the president, being a leader who had seen the flourishing of MCCS since his appointment, his confidence in Emary boosted by his experience in leadership shows that he was right to pick Emary as the leader of the planning team; he was highly conversant with his staff and the capability of each one of them. He too wanted to achieve, and unlike in the previous year, he had now realized the mistake they had done. As indicated by the president, the leader to be was not computer literate, but other project team members were. Since the project was to be well scheduled and well planned, it was very necessary to have a mix of experience in the team, just as the presi dent had done. Emary was going to help much in planning and scheduling, while the rest were going to assist in computer skills and application. Project planning is a highly demanding and exhausting process; â€Å"the scheduler has to keep many activities, resources, calendars, logical relationships and constraints correctly, completely and currently stated in the schedule† (Hullet, 2009, p. 3). Emary in this case is assigned to collect information from the rest of the team and to combine them into a better project logic. Another major role to be played by Emary as a scheduler is to act as a middle man between the project team and the president; this is a typical role of a scheduler. He is also to ensure that the project schedule represents the desired plan and any changes that may be required later. To achieve this, Emary as a project scheduler will ensure that logical relationship and critical paths are well examined. As further argued by Hulett (2009), success in managing a project needs a complete and sensible project schedule;

Argument Analysis of a Modest Proposal Personal Statement

Argument Analysis of a Modest Proposal - Personal Statement Example First of all, one needs to emphasize the importance of satire as a major genre of the text.   It is not necessary to read other pamphlets of that period in order to understand that Jonathan Swift does nothing, but making fun of similar pamphlets and proposals. It is obvious that Swift does not really want people to sell children as food, but he dares to use such an outrageous concept in order to attract public’s attention and make himself heard. To my point of view, this approach works pretty well. There are grounds to assume that a seriously written pamphlet emphasizing the importance of funding solutions for economic and social crises would never become a subject of such heated discussions. Thus, at least one objective, which is to attract public's attention, was successfully achieved by the author. Second of all, Jonathan uses standard rhetoric approaches in order to be heard. He, thus, apply to ethos, logos, and pathos, in order to persuade people with different beliefs and convictions. As for his appealing to ethos, one can notice how many times Jonathan mentions ‘a very knowing American’ that can be considered an expert of a discussed issue. By doing this, the author makes an attempt to convince those who tend to rely on professional opinion instead of composing its own.   Of course, satiric nature of the pamphlet does not allow us to consider this reference seriously.  One must admit that Swift should be appraised for his mastership in this field.  

TIME MANAGEMENT Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

TIME MANAGEMENT - Research Paper Example There are no specific ways of managing time as it keeps on varying from one person to another. Hence, it is advisable that before one settles down for a specific guideline, it is advisable that a person works on numerous alternatives to achieve the best. Factors to Consider for Success in DBA Program In order to become a successful online student, a number of considerations and planning must be put in place and consider that a person has to allocate some time for his family, and leisure. DBA program is an online learning program that is totally different from traditional classrooms where students meet with their tutor for physical class interactions. Apparently, lack of class meeting, gives a student freedom to make his or her own decision on whether to participate or not. This makes a provision of flexibility, but restricts him or her to set aside time for personal studies. Unlike in a traditional class, most of the teaching is done through online moderation and notes are dispatched through websites. It is advised that the students should take their time to access and read these notes. In addition, a student should successfully go through technical orientation as a full orientation that exposes a student to technical use of the system. This enables the students to gain competency and skills of going through the software before the course actually commences. In turn, this minimizes the time that could have been spent in learning how to maneuver through the system during the course of training. Of importance to note is that, having a competency in the system enables the student to concentrate entirely on studies. Understanding the course outline and accessing course outline before the semester begins enable the student to get familiarized with the topics to be covered during that session (Rogers, 2009). Also, it is good to understand that most of the sites share similarities in the outline but the topic vary from one unit to the other. Students are expected to r ead and understand the syllabus and the concepts of what they are about to study. This enables them to depict the prediction of their expectations. Management and keeping up to date with time enables an individual to prioritize on course work (Allen, 2005). This should be followed by logging into the system at some specific hours at least every day. It is advisable to make a choice of such time when the mind is fresh as it enables defined study structure, and motivates towards achievement of goals. Pros and Cons of Online Learning Online education is considered convenient in the sense that, it can be effectively moderated beyond geographical boundaries (Inoue, 2007). Students do not have to attend lecture session as in traditional classes but can attend to a virtual class at definite location. It also offers new possibilities for learning with regard to presentation of information. However, it is limited to technological accessibility (Rogers, 2009). Affordable in terms of cost, a s tudent can attend a class session without incorporation of travel expenses (Bourne, 2003). Besides, it allows the student to work while still studying, over and above, allowing for technological expansion. Since most of the studies are done through the use of computers, students have the experience of additional

Project Portfolio Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Portfolio Management - Case Study Example The constraints of external environmental factors, changes in customer requirements and demographics and the financial and operational constraints would also be considered for the same. The project selection criteria would mainly be based on the continuously shifting needs of the customer groups in this industry in Florida, where the company is mainly located. Also, the strategic objectives of the company like the expansion of the business into new markets like Europe and Alaska, the increase in revenues by 10%, the expansion of customer services and the improvement of the customer satisfaction levels by 15% every year, would also be considered as the main project selection criteria. Apart from these, the cost control objectives of the company including the reduction of operating costs by at least 10% per year and the reduction of warehouse and overhead costs by at least 5% per year would be taken up as key selection criteria for the project portfolio management process. Thus, to ens ure that all these goals are met with, the Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) method is selected. The Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) method of portfolio management is selected for the company because this technique involves taking up a top down approach that helps to manage all the project intensive resources and activities across the company. This would help to streamline the different business decision units of the company by ensuring better integration of the operational, financial, human resources and corporate strategies of the company. Since, this method is an automated system and does not require manual work; therefore, it would be time and cost effective as well. The EPPM takes up a centralized top down approach of managing the project portfolios which ensures that all levels of employees are actively engaged in the project

Failures of Cross Border Mega Mergers Research Paper

Failures of Cross Border Mega Mergers - Research Paper Example According to Ghemawat and Ghadar (2000), global mergers are made for a completely misguided and wrong reason. I support the arguments that the two authors advanced in their article,’ dubious logic of global mega-mergers. Nothing more explains the wrong reasoning behind the mergers except the levels of their failures. There much that should, therefore, guide international businesses while considering an international merger. This paper provides illustrations to support my position on this matter. Failures in cross border mega-mergers Ghemawat and Ghadar (2000) argues that the wisdom of the ‘winner takes it all’ in globalization and mega-mergers is misplaced and has no empirical evidence to support it. The craze for globalization has had no significant impact on the financial strengths and growth of a given company. To them, there is a need for executives to stop pursuing the biases that have led them to make mega-mergers and cross border deals. Globalizations have different facets, which are more economically viable as opposed to needless expansion. Cross border mergers are viewed by investment analysts as a way of making entries into a foreign market, and several reasons explain the high number of cross border mega-mergers around the globe. However, the high number of failures and low business experienced after international mergers strengthen the stand taken by Ghemawat and Ghadar (2000). The significant number of cross border mega failure has resulted in increased studies to ascertain whether the craze for acquisition and mergers is outplaced. Ghemawat and Ghadar (2000) are of the view that the increased number of crossed border mergers and acquisitions are a waste of resources and time to the companies as they are bound to fail. The process of expansion into new borders and foreign lands has a number of economic factors that need to be put into consideration. These include the foreign currency of operation, the socio-cultural and politica l set up of the nation and the political stability; therefore, any organization must factor in all these factors before making a step towards acquisition and mergers in foreign states (Sudekum, 2009). In cross border mergers, companies that have their headquarters and operation bases in different countries and regions come together and merge their operations, this results into the merger of different political and social settings that affect the operations of a business. Political, social and economic differences between countries make globalization and cross border mergers a tough undertaking. Differences in the fiscal policies also present a number of challenges to companies operating in foreign settings. The harmonization of fiscal policies even in the European Union has not created a business environment that is economically and politically homogenous. International labor laws in organizations also differ significantly. This present challenges to companies operating in new econo mic and political setups (Hughes, 2012). In the process of finalizing cross border mergers, companies tend to overlook essential factors and this has created failures in a number of mega-mergers.

Executive Compensation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Executive Compensation - Research Paper Example This essay demonstrates that Stumpff (2011) lamented that in the past three decades, executive compensation has been on a steady rise contrary to the growth of the average salary for employees, companies’ profitability, and even the national economy. In particular, between 1984 and 2004, it is reported that the executive compensation had recorded as the steady growth of 8.5% annually whilst the growth of company’s profitability only grew by 2.9% annually and the growth of per capita over the same period was only 2.9%. Stumpff (2011) further added that by 2006, company executives were earning 400 times more than average employees in America and the compensation was seemingly pegged on the size of the company and not necessarily the performance of the company.In a natural sense, if executive compensation was a reflection of a company’s performance then there would have been an equal growth of employees’ compensation to reflect the increased profitability. Mo reover, if the executive compensation would have been directly pegged on the financial performance of a company then it would not have recorded a steady growth, this is because the cyclical nature of business performance would have equally meant that executive compensation fluctuates rather than remain steady.   Conclusively, this present study asserts that executive compensation does not necessarily reflect the financial performance of an organization and also at times, it is excess especially when a company is performing poorly.  

Project Portfolio Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Portfolio Management - Case Study Example The constraints of external environmental factors, changes in customer requirements and demographics and the financial and operational constraints would also be considered for the same. The project selection criteria would mainly be based on the continuously shifting needs of the customer groups in this industry in Florida, where the company is mainly located. Also, the strategic objectives of the company like the expansion of the business into new markets like Europe and Alaska, the increase in revenues by 10%, the expansion of customer services and the improvement of the customer satisfaction levels by 15% every year, would also be considered as the main project selection criteria. Apart from these, the cost control objectives of the company including the reduction of operating costs by at least 10% per year and the reduction of warehouse and overhead costs by at least 5% per year would be taken up as key selection criteria for the project portfolio management process. Thus, to ens ure that all these goals are met with, the Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) method is selected. The Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) method of portfolio management is selected for the company because this technique involves taking up a top down approach that helps to manage all the project intensive resources and activities across the company. This would help to streamline the different business decision units of the company by ensuring better integration of the operational, financial, human resources and corporate strategies of the company. Since, this method is an automated system and does not require manual work; therefore, it would be time and cost effective as well. The EPPM takes up a centralized top down approach of managing the project portfolios which ensures that all levels of employees are actively engaged in the project

Executive Compensation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Executive Compensation - Research Paper Example This essay demonstrates that Stumpff (2011) lamented that in the past three decades, executive compensation has been on a steady rise contrary to the growth of the average salary for employees, companies’ profitability, and even the national economy. In particular, between 1984 and 2004, it is reported that the executive compensation had recorded as the steady growth of 8.5% annually whilst the growth of company’s profitability only grew by 2.9% annually and the growth of per capita over the same period was only 2.9%. Stumpff (2011) further added that by 2006, company executives were earning 400 times more than average employees in America and the compensation was seemingly pegged on the size of the company and not necessarily the performance of the company.In a natural sense, if executive compensation was a reflection of a company’s performance then there would have been an equal growth of employees’ compensation to reflect the increased profitability. Mo reover, if the executive compensation would have been directly pegged on the financial performance of a company then it would not have recorded a steady growth, this is because the cyclical nature of business performance would have equally meant that executive compensation fluctuates rather than remain steady.   Conclusively, this present study asserts that executive compensation does not necessarily reflect the financial performance of an organization and also at times, it is excess especially when a company is performing poorly.  

International Law and Individual Rights Essay Example for Free

International Law and Individual Rights Essay The international law has been undergoing some evolutions since early and mid 19th century. The original international law laid a lot of emphasis on just the state as the custodian of individual rights of its citizens. (L. Oppenheim, 1912. )However, the law deemed inadequate to address individual rights, thus, following some developments, the law has undergone some transformations, which are aimed at promoting individual rights, regardless of their country, state, race, gender or religion. The main developments which have triggered these evolutions of the international law include the Holocaust, the Second World War and the establishment of international criminal courts mainly to try the perpetrators of recent genocides like the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda The Holocaust was a form of genocide, in which Germany, lead by Adolf Hitler, undertook the extermination of stateless Jews in Germany in which 6 million Jews were killed. Nazi Germany planned and implemented the Holocaust because of the domestic jurisdiction principle of the then international law, which prevented any other state from interfering when Hitler undertook the persecution of the Jews. This made the Geneva Convention which came into being between 1864 and 1949 as a result of efforts by Henry Dunant, realize that the law needed radical changes to enable the international community to intervene in domestic matters of a nation especially those linked to individual rights (Buergenthal, T. 978 and 1997) The need for further changes to the status of individuals under international law went a notch higher after the Second World War, in which many people lost their lives due to the state of anarchy which prevailed then. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt in his freedom speech called for a world order in which the world could be founded upon four freedoms namely freedom of speech and expression, International Law and Individual Rights 4 reedom of worship in any way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. This was followed by the formation of the United Nations in 1949, whose main concern, among others was to address the International law, so as to empower the international community to address large scale violations of individual rights. The international law was further to evolve with the establishment of international criminal courts mainly to try the perpetrators of recent genocides like the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda which took place in mid 1990s. A treaty to create the new international criminal court was formed in 2002, while the international criminal court was formally constituted in 2003, about six decades after the Nuremberg trials (R. K. Woetzel 1962) and the Holocaust. The main objective of this court is to ensure that nations revise their human rights aspects in their constitutions and more importantly, prosecute the leaders who oversee the violation of human rights. It can be seen that international law has undergone all these evolutions, which are all inclined towards protecting the rights of the individual, not just the nation.

Risk Of Falls Among Elderly Health And Social Care Essay

Risk Of Falls Among Elderly Health And Social Care Essay The loss of strength, balance, and mobility are no longer considered inevitable consequence of aging. Physiological impairments related to functional dependency are potentially reversible with appropriate exercise intervention (Morgan, 2005; Nelson et al., 2004). Furthermore strength training research programs have been especially helpful in improving balance, physical performance and reducing falls (Hoglund, Sadovsky, Classie, 2009; Kruger, Buchner, Prohaska, 2009; Nelson et al., 2004). Several interventional researchers have been conducted to prevent falls among elderly people (Judge, 2003; Kim, Yoshida, Suzuki, 2010; McMurdo, Millar, Daly, 2000). In this study we will examine a home-based training intervention to improve strength of muscles which can directly improve balance and reduce the risk of falls among community dweller elderly or through increased self-efficacy. Problem statement Risk of falls due to balance impairment among elderly people is reversely associated with muscular strength (Clemson, Cumming, 2004). Effectiveness of muscle exercise interventions to improve balance and reduce the risk of falls in aged people with high risk for falling have been a matter of controversial in different studies (Salminen et al., 2001). While some found exercise training programs successful in reducing the risk of falls (Cheung, Au, Lam, Jones, 2008; Clemson et al., 2010; Gobbi et al., 2009a; Nelson et al., 2004), others have found contrary results (Au-Yeung et al., 2002; Clemson et al., 2010; Rubenstein et al., 2000). The need for a home-based training exercise program is felt by some researchers (Kamide, Shiba, Shibata, 2009). Muscle strengthening exercise intervention by home facilities has its own advantages and disadvantages. Home-based exercise program, in comparison to clinic-based interventions which are very luxurious and seem to be very tempting and promising (Takano et al., 2010), sounds to be more feasible. As a matter of fact, the lack of public availability of high-tech facility in developing courtiers, transportation barriers for elderly, the problem of cost-benefit and cost effectiveness of any high-tech program are major barriers to use clinical-based exercise programming for elderly people (Nelson et al., 2004). Moreover, it is estimated that about one half of seniors aged 85 years or above rarely leave their homes and interventional trials targeting on those housebound aged are scarce(Ashworth, Chad, Harrison, Reeder, Marshall, 2005). Nelson et al 2004 summarized that a home-based exercise program in community-dwelling elders with functional impairment is feasible and effective in improving functional performance, despite limited supervision. They also added that home-based exercise programs that focus on strength and balance training improve functional performance in elderly people and should be promoted by the allied health community (Nelson et al 2004). Low price and organizational flexibility make it an alternative or a supplement to other forms of physical exercise and active lifestyle (Hinrichs et al, 2009) On the other hands, compliance, which is a major problem in centered-based exercise among elderly people, can be achieved by home-based programs. Previous researches emphasis that adherence to any exercise program is low among elderly people especially in long run (Campbell et al., 1997; Dishman, 1991; Gobbi et al., 2009b; Sturnieks, St George, Lord, 2008e; Sun et al., 2005). Blanchard 2008 stated that less than 15 percent of elderly people participate in center-based exercise program. He added that to achieve a larger number of participants, there has been a shift toward implementing home-based rehabilitation programs. Home-based muscular strength training can be considered as an alternative to expensive and low compliance clinical-based muscle training (Blanchard, 2008). There have been some problems in previous home-based programs. They still rely on most expert personnel who closely supervise their patients and provide them with high standard care at their home (Gardner, Robertson, McGee, Campbell, 2002; Nelson et al., 2004; Luukinen et al., 2007a). The others emphasize on individualized tailored programs (Clemson et al., 2010) which raises the cost of intervention program. Moreover, these programs, although were reported to be effective, lack in large scale randomization was the main limitation of the studies (Nelson et al., 2004). Moreover, because of low health literacy among Iranian elderly population, any home-based training intervention without proper supervision and adherence will not be able to achieve its objectives (Carpenter, 2010a). A well cited study suggested that elderly people need supervision to improve strength in a home-based setting (Baker et al., 2001). To overcome the problem of health illiteracy among elderly people we plann ed to involve participants adult children who have the most interaction with the client in training program to supervise him/her during training and fill up the log books. Fear of falling, a risk factor for falls, is being understood as an emerging public health problem (Denkinger et al., 2010; Hill, Schwarz, Kalogeropoulos, Gibson, 1996; Li, Fisher, Harmer, McAuley, 2005). Evidence suggests that both fallers and non fallers experience psychological problems associated with falls (Honaker, 2001). Previous researches have termed psychological factors as fear, diminished self efficacy and loss of confidence(Topping, 1994; Gai, Gomes, Jansen, 2009; Legters, Verbus, Kitchen, Tomecsko, Urban, 2006; Pednekar, 2007). In community dwelling elderly, a complex interaction has been found among fear of falling, falls self- efficacy, increased physical impairments and diminished functional ability and activity participation (Legters et al., 2006; Maxwell, 2006; Mihalko, 1997; Tinetti, Richman, Powell, 1990b; Pednekar, 2007). This interactive cycle encompasses fear of falling which leads to activity restriction and further decreasing physical capabilities such as functional mobility, balance and strength which leads to decreased confidence and fear of falling (Pednekar, 2007). A home-based training exercise should be directed toward strengthening weak muscles and balance. The consequence of muscular weakness and co-contraction is lack of confidence (Tinetti, Richman, Powell, 1990a) which makes elderly people loss their self-confidence and fear of falls (Hill et al., 1996). Fear of falling deteriorates the balance reactions and leads to increased risk of falls and increased risk of injury (Okada, Hirakawa, Takada, Kinoshita, 2001). Loss of confidence among elderly people results in functional limitations and may cause restriction in activity due to fear of falling, which is very common problem among community-dwelling older adults with or without experience of falls (Hansma, Emmelot-Vonk, Verhaar, 2010). Under a public health perspective, the access to home-exercise programs seems to be easier. Once implemented, a home-exercise program should be capable to reach a broad audience (Ashworth et al 2005). So, it is logical that improved muscular strength can result in self-confidence, reduce fear of falls, increase balance and decrease risk of falls. A great number of studies have proposed that only additional research with frail elderly individuals will help answer if home-based training would improve balance in older ages (Nelson et al., 2004; Baker et al., 2001). We, therefore, decided to test the hypothesis that an individual home-based muscle strength training in high risk individuals (60 years old and above elderly people with previous history of falls in last 12 months) would be feasible with minimal expert supervision and would result in clinically important improvements in balance and functional performance. The role of care givers in this study is to fill the log books, because most of the elderly subjects have health illiteracy. Significant of the study This dissertation contributes to the scientific literature in different interrelated ways. Firstly, the finding of this study can contribute to the body of knowledge in regard to falls among elderly. Falls have been explored by several researchers from different aspects; however it needs more scientific and empirical investigations to find out the ways to prevent the fall or alleviate the incidence of falls among frail elderly community-dwellers. To achieve a better understanding of falls, its consequences and prevention of falls, this area of research needs a richer body of knowledge to illuminate the way for other researchers to explore the ways to reduce risk of falls. Secondly, the findings of this study, practically, can contribute to alleviate the problem of falls among frail elderly people in community. This study looks the problem of falls from both biological (muscular strength) and psychological (self-efficacy) point of view. So, any falls prevention program has to consider the results of this dissertation as evidence to plan a comprehensive program on falls. In addition, finding of this dissertation can be used by falls prevention planners. All programs designed to prevent falls can benefit from this study, because it is planned to reduce morbidity and reduces burden of falls for person, family and healthcare services. American Geriatrics Society recommends some activities including exercise and/or physical to prevent falls among elderly people. Health professionals after orienting to the program can deliver and supervise the exercise training program for older people. The program has been tested as a single intervention but could be delive red in a multifactorial falls prevention program, too. Thirdly, the findings of this study can be used by other health practitioners in different disciplines to utilize exercise training to reduce the risk of falls among their elderly clients. So many other researchers have investigated the benefits of the exercise for other high risk groups such as patients with chronic diseases e.g. Parkinson Disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Stroke, Arthritis and other neuromuscular or articular diseases, depression, anxiety, etc. This study highlights the importance of exercise training among elderly people. Moreover, the current study is one of the first studies on the problem of falls in Iranian elderly community. In developing countries where sources are limited, the exercise program can be offered first to those with high risk e.g. history of falls, aged 70 and older. However, other aged people can benefit the advantages of this program. Objectives This study is planned to investigate the relationship between muscular strength to risk of fall among community dweller elderly people. To achieve this objective, the following specific goals are followed: To describe the subjects muscular strength, self-efficacy, fear of falls and balance before and after intervention To examine the relationship between subjects background variables, muscular strength, self-efficacy and fear of falls before and after intervention To examine the relationship between subjects muscular strength and risk of falls before and after intervention Hypotheses The home-based training exercise can improve muscular strengths among elderly people. Strong muscles can directly increase physical balance which is considered as proxy for decreased risk of falls among elderly people. Moreover stronger muscled can increase self-efficacy and reduce fear of falling and decreased risk of falls among elderly people. Definition of key words History of falls Conceptual: History of falls is previous experience of the event of falls. In this study, fall is an unexpected, involuntary loss of balance by which a person comes to rest at a lower or ground level (Kelly Dowling, ). Other researchers have defined falls as An unintentional descent that may or may not result in an injury, and in which any motion of descent may not necessarily result in a landing. (Berry et al., 2010). Operational: In this research, history of falls is defined as any report of falls incidence by which a person comes to rest at a lower or ground level, in subjects of the study. Any incidence of falls in last 12 months is considered as history of falls. Moreover, the number of falls during intervention is questioned. Data are collected by a questionnaire. In the questionnaire history of falls during last 12 months and causes of falls are questioned. No history of falls, one incidence of falls and two or more falls are categorized as non-faller, accidental faller and recurrent faller, consecutively. Fear of Falls Conceptual: fear of falling, first described as ptophobia, by Bhala, ODonnell, Thoppil, 1982, which means a phobic reaction to standing or walking and was subsequently classified by Murphy Isaacs in 1982 as Post fall syndrome (Jung, 2008). Operational: In this study Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) is used to assess clients fear of falling. It is a rating scale with 10 items to assess clients confidence in performing daily activities. Each item is rated from 1, meaning extreme confidence to 10, meaning no confidence at all. Participants with lower self-efficacy report avoiding most of activities because of fear of falling and get higher FES scores. On the other hands, participants with higher self-efficacy report less avoiding most of activities because of fear of falling and represent lower FES scores. Balance Conceptual: Benjuya, Melzer, Kaplanski defined balance as the ability to maintain an upright posture during both static and dynamic tasks (Bird, Hill, Ball, Williams, 2009). Operational: In this study balance is the subjects score in Berg Balance Scale. Total Score is varies between 0 and 56. In interpretation of Berg Balance Scale low, medium and high risk of falls are corresponded to 41-56, 21-40 and 0-20, respectively. Muscular strength Conceptual: Muscular strength is defined as the maximal ability of a muscle to contract and generate force (Hanney, Kolber, Schack-Dugre, Negrete, Pabian, 2010). Operational: operationally muscular strength in lower extremity and hand grip are assessed. For lower extremity muscular strength the chair stand test commonly used. The chair stand test is a physical performance test used to assess lower-extremity function. A 5 repetition test is a measure of strength (Ward et al., 2010). Subjects hand grip force score in their left and right hands will be recorded. Individual patients whose grip strength is less than the lower limit of the confidence intervals can be considered to be impaired grip (Bohannon, Peolsson, Massy-Westropp, Desrosiers, Bear-Lehman, 2006). Exercise Conceptual: A subset of physical activity. It is planned and repetitive body movement, which improves or maintains one or more components of physical fitness (e.g., cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, balance, flexibility)(Pate, 1995). Operational: operationally exercise is a set of muscular strengthening action used to increase balance in terms of Berg Balance Score (BBS) and reduce the risk of falls among participants of the study. Self efficacy: Conceptual: Bandura (1986) defined self-efficacy as, Peoples judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required attaining designated types of performances (p. 391). Self efficacy means ones self confidence towards learning. People usually engage in certain behaviors when they believe they are capable of implementing those behaviors successfully, this means that they have high self-efficacy (Bandura, 2007). Operational: In this study subjects scores in the Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale are considered as their self-efficacy. The Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale is a scale with 16 items; each item is rated from 0% (no confidence) to 100% (complete confidence). Clients are asked to rate the level of confidence that they will lose their balance in daily activities. Conceptual Model This study will be conducted based on a modern biologic theory called wear and tear theory and Orems self-care theory. In this study the wear and tear theory is used to explain why muscular strength and balance deteriorates during old ages. Orems self-care theory is utilized to explain how self-care through exercise can maintain and improve an old persons ability for balance and reduce the risk of falls. Moreover, Banduras self-efficacy explains the moderating role of self-efficacy between muscular strength, fear of falls and balance to risk of falls among elderly people. Proposed conceptual framework Background Age Gender Marital Status Education Mental status SES Chronic Diseases Medication Health literacy ADL/IADL Self-rated Health (IV) Muscular Strength Fear of Falls Self-Efficacy (DV) Falls Risk (Balance) Chapter Two There has been a lack of investigation on effectiveness of home-based exercise, since there have been few randomized control trials (RCTs) evaluating home-based exercise (Kamide et al 2009). Home-based exercise programs are thought to be effective in improving functional performance and balance in functionally impaired elders (Nelson et al 2004). It is demonstrated that participation in a supervised home-based exercise program was associated with significant improvements in exercise beliefs, including exercise self-efficacy and outcomes expectation (Matsuda, Shumway-Cook, Ciol, 2010). This study is trying to investigate effectiveness of home-based exercise on reducing the risk of falls among elderly people based on theoretical framework and review of related literature. This chapter is devoted to disclose two main sections of the dissertation. First, the theoretical framework of the study will be discussed and then the main related literature to this study will be reviewed. Theoretical Framework In this section, theories of wear and tear and self-care are introduced. The wear and tear theory explains the process of biologic changes during old ages which makes humans cells and tissues degenerated. Moreover, self-care theory explains how anyone (self-care agent) can exert some measurements and actions to maintain health and well being. Wear and Tear Theory Wear and tear theory of ageing was first introduced by Dr. August Weismann in 1982 (Salvi, Akhtar, Currie, 2006). The wear and tear theory of aging believes that the effects of aging are caused by damage done to cells and body systems over time. Essentially, these systems wear out due to use. Once they wear out, they can no longer function correctly (Giampapa Williamson, 2004). According to the theory, aging occurs through wear and tear that leads to the progressive accumulation of damage(Murphy Partrige, 2008) The theory postulates that the daily grind of life, in particular disuse or overuse, literally wears the body out, leading to disease states (tears). The degeneration of muscles, cartilage and eventual grinding of bone on bone is examples of the aging process on body joints, as wear and tear exceed the bodys ability to repair (MacWilliam, 2002). The wear and tear profile over the course of time determines such degradations as loss of information (genetic and epigenetic mutations during the life course), loss of structural integrity (increases in entropy), and breakdowns in the emergent property of complexity (Juckett, et al. 2009). Based on wear and tear theory, senile muscular muscles atrophy starts after middle ages, especially when muscles are disused or overused (Giampapa et al., 2004). The process of degeneration is associated with senile changes in body and progressively reduces muscular bulk. There are good evidences to support that type 2 muscles are more prone to degenerated than type 1 muscles (Mannion et al., 2000). Deterioration in muscular size and number in old ages causes muscular atrophy and in combination of other senile changes in other organs (neurons) (Klitgaard et al., 2008) eventually ends up a loss of muscular strength and balance disorder which may predisposes old people to risk of falls (Sturnieks, 2008). Lack of muscular strength and balance affects patients self-efficacy and make them more susceptible to falls (Campbell et al., 1997), because of fear of falls(Denkinger et al., 2010). Self-care theory Self care theory was given by Dorothea Orem between 1959 and 2001 with a unique philosophy that patients have different level of independently. Orems self-care framework is based on the three components of self-care deficit theory, self-care theory and the nursing system theory (Denyes, Orem, Bekel, 2001). Self-care is defined by WHO as activities individuals, families, and communities perform in order to enhance their health, prevent diseases, limit illnesses, and restore health (Klainin Ounnapiruk, 2010). These activities are undertaken by lay people on their own behalf, either independently or in participative collaboration with healthcare professionals. There are several examples for self-care behavior including seeking health-related information, exercising and consuming healthy diets (Klainin et al., 2010). Self-Care Agency Self-care agency, as defined by Orem (2001), refers to the power of individuals to engage in self-care and their capability for self-care. The person who uses this power or self-care ability is the self-care agent. Self-care agency is acquired and affected by family members and care giver. They specifically may affect the clients adherence to behavioral changes and treatment regimens and overall outcomes (Rutledge et al., 1999). There is a power component to self-care agency, which addresses the importance of knowledge, attitudes, and skills that enable the individual to engage in self-care (Kumar, 2007) Nursing System Nursing system are interventions needed when individual is unable to perform the necessary self-care activities and categorized in three distinct levels as follow: Wholly compensatory in which care givers provides entire self-care for the client. An example of this category is an elderly person hospitalized in critical care unit who need a care giver for his basic needs to survive. Partial compensatory in which a care giver and client perform care; client can perform selected self-care activities, but also accepts care done by the care giver for needs the client cannot meet independently. An example of this category is an elderly person who needs help for some activities such as ambulating, but is able to perform most activities by his own. Supportive-educative in which training is planned to help the client develop/learn their own self-care abilities through knowledge, education, support and encouragement. A good example of this category is educating the elderly client to perform exercise to strengthen the muscles or to teach how to do insulin self-injection. In this research, the third category of nursing system will be applied among elderly people to strengthen their upper and lower extremities muscle to improve their balance and reduce the risk of falls Review of literature A recent study, by Matsuda et al 2010, proposed that effectiveness of any exercise to improve physical function varies with level of frailty, format and intensity of exercise program, and kind of supervision. A systemic review summarized the best evidence for effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce the incidence of falls in older people living in the community, concluded that home-based exercises and Tai Chi were specific exercise programs that showed benefit (Carpenter, 2010b). Home-based exercise program among relatively healthy older adult are proven to be effective in functional performance than group-based programs. In an Iranian study researchers conducted a 12 weeks home-base exercise training in 40 -65 years old Iranian women to prevent osteoporosis and increase muscular strength and balance (Shirazi et al., 2007). In another study researchers conducted a home base training exercise on Parkinson disease patient. They concluded that individuals with Parkinsons disease can significantly improve functional performance measures utilizing a convenient, cost effective, home-based exercise intervention (Nocera, Gainesville, Horvat, Athens, 2008). Other recent studies on standing exercise and balance training program on balance confidence, balance performance, and gait in debilitated, ambulatory community-dwelling older adults supported that exercise can improve balance, However, definitive conclusions need to await validation from more rigorously designed studies before the present training program can be confidently recommended to physical therapists engaged in home care practice(Miller, Magel, Hayes, 2010). In New Zealand, the Otago Exercise Program is designed as a home-based training exercise with combination of strength, balance exercises and walking program to prevent falls. The program is individually designed program three times a week and progressed over time. Four randomized controlled trials in different setting disclosed the effects of training program among elderly people. In another supervised 6-week, multidimensional home-based exercise program, researchers found that the program was safe and associated with improvements in physical and exercise-related belief outcome measures(Matsuda et al., 2010). Some researchers have used some technical instrument to improve balance and reduce the risk of falls among elderly people (Runge, Rehfeld, Resnicek, 2000). However, any community home-based program should integrate the training into peoples everyday life. It would be feasible, economic and more acceptable for elderly people rather than high technical procedures. A randomized controlled pilot study with 12-week physical and/or nutritional intervention program was followed by six months of home-based exercises for the training groups, followed up with training diaries aiming to describe the effects of a physical training and nutritional intervention program on the physical activity level and activities of daily living (ADL) in frail elderly people found moderate correlations between increases in physical activity level and ADL as well as between the amounts of home-based exercises and ADL for the two training groups (Rydwik, Frandin, Akner, 2009). Another study found that a 6-month, home-based exercise program consisting of progressive strength training, balance exercises and general physical activity improves functional performance and balance in functionally impaired elders (Nelson et al., 2004). Finding of another study concluded that an exercise class even once every 2 weeks is very effective in enhancing physical function in ambulatory i ndividuals aged over 73 years, provided that it is supplemented by a home-based exercise program (Suzuki, Kim, Yoshida, Ishizaki, 2004). However they suggested a large scale study to confirm their results and to evaluate the most effective exercises for the prevention of falls. Researchers concluded that incorporation of exercises in daily life is important in maintaining an appropriate level of physical function in the elderly. Prevention of falls and injuries is not easy, however, because they are complex events caused by a combination of intrinsic impairments and disabilities (Kannus, Niemi, Parkkari, Palvanen, Sievznen, 2007) fall prevention in elderly people consists of regular strength and balance training, vitamin D and calcium supplementation, reduction of the number and doses of psychotropic medication, cataract surgery, and professional home-hazard assessment and management in people with a history of falling (Kannus, Sievenen, Palvanen, Jervinen, Parkkari, 2005). On the other hand, a single-factor intervention such as exercise could also reduce many impairments and disabilities and more distant risk factors for falling simultaneously. Muscle mass diminishes considerably between the ages of 20 and 80 years (Sturnieks, St George, Lord, 2008d). Sarcopenia is a common problem among elderly people and is associated with loss of muscle mass and strength (Iannuzzi-Sucich, 2002). Understanding age-related changes in the physiological systems imperative to balance is of importance to prevent falls in older people and reduce the injury-related burden on individuals and society (Sturnieks, St George, Lord, 2008c). It has been estimated that the human beings in their 4th to 8th decade of life lose approximately half of muscle mass and muscle strength (Spirduso, 2005). Senile muscular atrophy predominantly occurs in type 2 muscle fibers which ends up a degenerated muscular bulk in which remaining muscle mass is not only smaller and weaker but slower as well (Kostka, 2010; Faulkner, 1995). The most primary atrophy occurs in quadriceps, hamstrings and back muscles with the highest concentration of type II fibers (Kostka, 2010). It has also been consistently proven that power-generating capabilities of type II fibers is approximately four times more than of type I fibers (Faulkner, 1995; Metter, 1997). Muscular strength is typically maintained at peak levels until the fifth or sixth decade, after which accelerated losses occur, with strength decreasing approximately 50% by the age of 80 year (Sturnieks, St George, Lord, 2008b). Deficits in skeletal muscle strength, balance, and gait, being major causes of frailty and risk factors for falls, are equivalently and potentially reversible by exercise training (Suzuki et al., 2004). One proposed intervention for preventing falls and fall-related injuries in the elderly is exercise. If falls occur at least in part because of physical deficits in balance, strength, reaction time, and flexibility, then it is plausible to believe that exercise targeted to improve these deficits might result in fewer fall and/or injury events. The role of strength exercise in falls prevention is under investigation. In a recent study, researchers evaluated the balance and weight training to alter gait characteristics of elderly to reduce the likelihood of slip-induced falls. The results indicated decreases in heel contact velocities and the friction demand characteristics after 8 weeks of training, although fundamental gait characteristics, such as walking velocity and step length, were not changed (Kim Lockhart, 2010). Latham, et al 2003 in a randomized control trial found that among older people recently discharged from hospital quadriceps strengthening exercises failed to reduce falls rates and was associated with a significant risk of musculoskeletal injury (Sturnieks, St George, Lord, 2008a). A recent study investigating the effects of a multifactorial fall prevention trial on the specified risk factors of falling, incidence of falls and injurious falls did not find significant difference between control and intervention groups (Sjosten et al., 2007). However there are some evidences to support effectiveness of training program among elderly people (Kruger et al., 2009; Madureira, Bonfb, Takayama, Pereira, 2010) Review of literature reveals that self-confidence deteriorates because of muscular weakness and make old people to fear of falls (Davis, 1999; Evitt, 2003; Gai et al., 2009). Bandura in his book 1997 wrote that: People make causal contributions to their own psychosocial functioning through mechanisms of personal agency. Among the mechanisms of agency