The Challanges of Marijuana Legalization Essay - 1855 Words

The use of marijuana for medical purposes has stimulated debate for many years. Some people find it beneficial, and believe it is the best way to relieve their chronic pain. There are a growing number of people who think marijuana is safe and think it should be legalized in small quantities for recreational use. Despite its illegality, marijuana has continued to be used by many people. Though some discount it as a harmful substance, there are many others who worry about increased criminal behavior, addiction and other health problems that can arise from its use. But more importantly they are concerned about the message teenagers would get if marijuana was legalized for recreational use. Since marijuana is a natural product many people may†¦show more content†¦As more responsibilities are heaped on teenagers, they are prone to find a way to deal with it, possibly drugs. It does not help that many people in authority, including some of our Presidents, have admitted to using ma rijuana at one time in their life. This acceptance of marijuana coupled with the pressures teens face on a daily basis is one reason that more teens are using marijuana. Because of the widespread use and acceptance of this substance, as well as the passage of several state medical marijuana laws, several research studies were conducted. These studies were analyzing whether new medical marijuana laws were causing an increase in teen use. The data from the research showed there was an increase in teen use over the last four years. One such study even revealed that it had increased in the youngest age group studied, eighth grade students (Anonymous). This increase in teen use is discussed in an article from Target News Reports that states â€Å"one in every fifteen high school seniors today is smoking pot on a daily basis† (Marijuana). These studies show a growing trend in teenage use of marijuana. It also indicates that legalizing marijuana, even for medicinal purposes, may pla y a role in increased teen use.However, there is some conflicting evidence from National Institute on Drug Abuse that demonstrate research over a period of ten years, 2001-2010, indicating that there has not been a

The Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease Essay - 1482 Words

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease that is seen in the elderly. It is the most common form of dementia, which is a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life (Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia). Alzheimer’s is one of the leading causes of death in America. Dementia and Alzheimer’s have been around for centuries, but Alzheimer’s disease wasn’t first described until 1906 by Dr. Aloysius Alzheimer. In the past, there was a stigma for elderly people with the disease and people with dementia and Alzheimer’s were seen as a burden on society. Society has only recently accepted and cared for people with the disorder. There are now treatments and research being done for dementia and Alzheimer’s, but no cure remains and many individuals still suffer from the disease. Future treatments for the disease include taking aim at significant aspects of the disease like fi ghting beta-amyloid plaques, recruiting the immune system, reducing brain cell inflammation, and studying the heart-head connection (Alzheimer’s Treatments: What’s on the Horizon?). There are other ways to possibly treat the disease in the future as well. Hopefully from looking at the history of the disease, how the disease affects the brain and body, and future treatments, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia will be a thing of the past. In the past, people with dementia and Alzheimer’s were locked away in institutions or shunned from society (Batsch).Show MoreRelatedThe Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease1421 Words   |  6 Pagesengulfed by a mysterious disease. The neurons being cut off and destroyed by two abnormal structures. First memory is affected gradually getting worse. Then one is unable to think properly, reason, and lacks of self control. 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AD is very tough on the loved ones of the person suffering from it because that person, most of the time has no idea what is going on or who their loved onesRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease : A Disease1304 Words   |  6 Pages10, 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s is a disease in the brain that affects a person’s memory, thinking, and behavior. It is the most common form of dementia and is common in adults older than 65. More than five million Americans are being affected by Alzheimer’s at this moment. Alzheimer’s comes in three stages; early, middle, and advanced. The disease is caused by the shrinking of the brain due to many risk factors and genetics. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are often confused becauseRead MoreThe Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease2364 Words   |  10 Pages1. Introduction Alzheimer’s disease is a prominent brain disease that effects a massive amount of individuals in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 60-80% of dementia cases, with no chance of being cured, prevented or decelerating over time (Alzheimer’s Association, 2014). AD is the most well-known form of dementia, causing complications in brain function in the areas of memory, thinking, and behavior (Alzheimer’sRead MoreThe Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease2246 Words   |  9 PagesINTRODUCTION Alzheimer’s Disease has been one of the top leading causes of death in our country. It is understood that this disease is identified as an excess of the protein amyloid-ß within an increase of plaque (Seneff, Wainwright, and Mascitelli, 2010). Additionally, as the brain ages, it gets used to the inflammation and oxidative stress, so it is important to take the right amount of antioxidant micronutrients like vitamin C and vitamin E as well as anti-inflammatory macronutrients such as

Mobile Query and Processing in Mobile Database Environment Free Essays

string(78) " all data that is highly related and likely to be queried in the near future\." MOBILE QUERY AND PROCESSING IN MOBILE DATABASE ENVIRONMENT Agustinus Borgy Waluyo1 1 Bala Srinivasan1 David Taniar2 School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University, Australia {Agustinus. Borgy. Waluyo, Bala. We will write a custom essay sample on Mobile Query and Processing in Mobile Database Environment or any similar topic only for you Order Now Srinivasan}@infotech. monash. edu. au. 2 School of Business Systems, Monash University, Australia David. Taniar@infotech. monash. edu. au Abstract Mobile database is a new context of database application in wireless environment. It introduces unique type of queries, and query-processing strategies that are different to traditional databases. We classify mobile database query into two categories, especially context-awareness query and adhoc query. Context-awareness query is further classified into location dependent, context dependent, and hybrid query. As for the query processing, we define three strategies namely mobile client, on air, and server strategy. Mobile client and on air strategy relates to caching strategy and broadcast strategy respectively. Finally, we include some challenges in mobile databases. 1. Introduction Recent advances in wireless technology have led to mobile computing, a new dimension in data communication and processing. Many predict a new emerging, gigantic market with millions of mobile users carrying small, battery-powered terminal equipped with wireless connection [1,2,10]. The mobile computing environment provides database applications with useful aspects of wireless technology, which is known as mobile databases. This advance technology has created a new age of nomadic database users. Basically, these users are simply accessing a database through a network. However, the network is now applied in wireless environment, and has several novel properties, which include user’s locations are constantly changing, the likelihood of losing connections is much greater than in a traditional network, and asymmetric communication environment in which the wireless bandwidth for uplink communication is smaller than downlink communication [11]. In general, mobile user communicates with a Mobile Base Station (MBS) to carry out any activities such as transaction and information retrieval. MBS has a wireless interface to establish communication with mobile client and it serves a large number of mobile users in a specific region called cell. In mobile environment architecture, each MBS is connected to a fixed network as illustrated in Figure 1(a). Mobile units or mobile clients in each cell can connect to the fixed network via wireless radio, wireless Local Area Network (LAN), wireless cellular, or satellite. Each of the wireless networks provides a different bandwidth capacity. However, the wireless bandwidth is too small as compared to the fixed network such as ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) can provide speed up to 155Mbps [7]. 55 Wireless Network Mobile Base Station Mobile Base Station Wireless Network High speed Wired Network Fixed Host Fixed Host Crossing Crossing Mobile Client Query Query Processing Strategy Data Repository Query Result 2 Mobile Base Station Mobile Base Station Query Taxonomy = Mobile Client = Wireless Network 1 (a) Mobile Environment Architecture (b) Query Application in Mobile Environment Figure 1. Mobile Environment Architecture and Query Processing Figure 1(b) depicts the query processing in mobile databases. Mobile client initiates a query, and retrieve the data from data repository. The data repository is available in the fixed network. The query is transmitted through wireless channel, and the result is obtained using certain query processing strategies. As can be seen in Figure 1b, a sign of number 1, and 2, which is attached in query taxonomy, and query processing strategy respectively, correspond to the main content of this paper. Driven by differences between wired and wireless environment results in differences of type of queries, query processing mechanisms as well as communication technology. It is the aim of this paper to provide comprehensive query taxonomy, and processing strategy in mobile databases. Figure 2 shows a detailed structure of this paper. Subsequent sections in this paper are organized as follows. Section 2 describes query taxonomy in mobile databases. Section 3 contains the query processing strategies, and section 4 discusses some challenges in mobile databases. Finally, section 5 concludes the paper. In this paper, the term mobile client, mobile device, mobile user, user and client are used interchangeably Location D ependent Q ueries C ontext Aw areness Taxonomy C ontext D ependent Q ueries Hybrid Q ueries A d Hoc Q ueries M obile Q uery and Processing M obile C lient Processing Strategy O n Air Server Figure 2. Structure of Paper 56 2. Query Taxonomy In this section, we classify type of queries in mobile databases. The queries can be entirely new and specifically applied in the wireless environment, while the other can be a common type of query in traditional databases. 2. Context Awareness The word ‘context’ implies a variety of aspects. [14] defines the word context into three categories namely computing context, user context, and physical context. Computing context relates to computing resources such as network connectivity, bandwidth, printer, and workstations. User context associates with user’s needs, preferences, roles, profile, and alike. Physical co ntext involves environment issue, which include lighting, noise, traffic, temperature, and humidity. [5] adds another category of context called ‘time context’, which refers to time of a day, week, month, year, etc. 6] defines context as either the aspect of physical world or condition and activities in the virtual world. It is further described that context information can either be transient when the context associates with the environment at a point of time or persistent when the context involves a history of transient context. In simple words, we can always define that context relates to who, when, where, and what. Context awareness creates a new class of applications in mobile computing. With context awareness, mobile device is expected to adapt constantly in a wide range of dynamically and continually changing situations. It is important for the device to be able to aware of the situation, environment, and tasks that the mobile client is performing as well as will be performing in the near future. The utilisation of context information in an application minimises the amount of user involvement in a service by providing related information. Having known the context of the query enables the device to pre-fetch all data that is highly related and likely to be queried in the near future. You read "Mobile Query and Processing in Mobile Database Environment" in category "Papers" With this query, client only initiates a single request and all related data will be retrieved implicitly. This technique avoids client to have multiple request that result in energy efficiency. Example: To find restaurants information in current region. The query will result of retrieving restaurants based on user’s preferences such as Italian, Chinese or fast food as well as pre-fetching maps, traffic and weather condition, which is likely to be queried next. Most applications have been focusing on location awareness rather than context awareness as a whole. Thus, we classify mobile database queries into location dependent queries, context dependent queries, and the combination thereof. 2. 1. Location Dependent Queries Location dependent query is a class of queries that are motivated by mobile clients. In this type of query, the location of the mobile client is a parameter of the query. The value of the location parameter can be provided by the client or a global positioning system (GPS). An example of this query is a traveler’s information system that provides information on hotels, restaurant, bars and the like, to motorists. Processing of queries must be based on knowledge of the user’s location. For queries services that are ahead of the current route, direction of motion and speed are necessary to be taken into account. Recent technology provides a new feature in automobiles, which offers 57 navigational aids as a built-in feature. In general, each location updates generate two direct costs, particularly transmission cost, which refers to the cost to inform the server of the new location, and server processing cost, which corresponds to the cost of updating the system containing the location of the mobile unit. The location parameter can be in any objects, such as taxis, trucks, and helicopters. This class of query can be further classified into two categories: (i) Continuous query, and (ii) On-demand query. Continuous query The continuous type of query includes real-time monitoring of mobile objects. This is different compared with conventional queries, which are based on an instant of the database at some moment in time. Real-time monitoring queries are continuous for monitoring purposes [3, 13]. Examples: (i) To request information about nearby tourist attractions, hotels, or shopping center while traveling. With this type of query, users only need to send a query once and notification of the updated information about nearby tourist attractions, hotels, or shopping center will be sent automatically as they move to different regions. ii) This query also helps tourists whenever they are close to a certain situation such as dangerous zone or traffic jam by providing some alerts to mobile user. Figure 3 shows an illustration of real-time query monitoring. In this application, the system must be able to provide the accurate query results and update them in real time whenever some mobile cl ients enters or exits the region defined by the query. This class of query can be referred as range-monitoring queries. The range-monitoring queries are removed from the system only when the user explicitly ends the query. Server End Query Query i Response i New Region Updated response i Region 1 Mobile Client 1 Moves to Region 2 Mobile Client 1 Figure 3. Continuous Query On demand query The on demand location dependent query is different from continuous query in a way that its database management does not manage the query but only the location of each mobile units in specified regions. Figure 4 illustrates on demand query. Every mobile unit is registered under one location server that manages the user profiles and is called the home location server. Location information of mobile clients can be stored at predefined sites like the user’s home location server in a network. Consequently, the search space for a user’s location can be reduced. However, when a mobile user crosses any boundaries of a cell, the information at the predefined site has to be updated accordingly. This type of query does not have to specify when to end the query since the server does not keep the query but the location [12]. Examples: To retrieve nearby hospital, police station or petrol station in the area. 58 Server Q uery i R esponse i Q uery j R esponse j Region 1 M obile C lien t 1 M oves to Region 2 M obile C lien t 1 Figure 4. On Demand Query When the parameter is an object, and mobile client requests an object that satisfies location criteria, then the situation becomes different. Figure 5 illustrates on demand query with location object parameter [8,15]. Examples: (i) Taxi operator wants to see how many free taxis are currently in a certain region. They can find free taxis and allocate them to another region that require more taxis or send them directly to the nearby customer. (ii) Tourists who come to the country, where there are no designated bus’ stops, nor timetable. They can utilize mobile device to retrieve incoming buses within a pre-defined time. Server Object Query Object Result Location Tracking Location Info Mobile Client Object Figure 5. On Demand Query with Location Object Parameter 2. 1. 2 Context Dependent Queries This type of query requires maintenance of an internal representation of user’s needs, preferences, roles, profile, etc. With these parameters, application will be able to decide the situation and task that a user is currently performing, and adapt to change of user needs and roles. This enables mobile device not to just retrieve the required information but also some other information that is highly relevant [6,8]. Examples: (i) Tourist wants to see list of restaurants in a town. Rather than retrieving the entire list of restaurants, the query retrieves the restaurants based on user’s preferences and need such as cuisine preference, price, occasion, etc. (ii) A business person wants to check the closest meeting schedule. The query retrieves the time as well as previous history of the meeting, people involved, client accounts, meal preferences, required data, etc. 9 2. 1. 3 Hybrid Queries Hybrid queries represent a combination of location dependent and context dependent queries. This type of query requires the system to maintain all parameters of context-awareness queries including location parameter. Examples: (i) A Traveler wants to find restaurants in the region that he/she will enjoy and within 10 minutes of current travel distance, (ii) A teenager wa nts to check movies in the nearby cinemas that he/she will like, and the show time can be met while considering current travel distance. These queries are very useful for nomadic users since it not only considers the users’ preferences and needs but also the location of the user. More sophisticated application utilizes a variety of sensors to monitor the environment as well as user’s action in order to provide assistance of the tasks being performed by the user. This application requires the ability to process data streams in real-time, analyze and interpret it precisely. The main point in context awareness query is to accurately analyze the environment and user’s intention, regardless of where the context information is obtained from. It is a difficult challenge since there is a possibility of conflicting data, and the need to have efficient processing to provide a useful application to the user. 2. 2 Ad Hoc Queries Ad Hoc queries are commonly utilised queries in traditional DBMS. This type of query explicitly mentions the required information in the query statement, and does not involve any context awareness information. Thus, the query result is only based on the actual query itself. Examples: (i) University student wants to retrieve his/her academic record or personal details. ii) Travelling sales person inquires about product availability, price, etc. 3. Query Processing Strategy We divide query-processing strategy for mobile databases into three parts, namely: (i) mobile/client strategy, (ii) on-air strategy and, (iii) server strategy. Mobile/clients strategy relates to how client manipulates and maintains the data in its cache efficiently and effectively. On-air strategy corresponds to data broadcasting stra tegies. With this strategy, the number of mobile users does not affect the query performance. Server strategy relates to designing techniques for the server to accommodate multiple requests so that the request can be processed as efficiently as possible. We claim that query processing for mobile databases is very much centered around the issues of caching, broadcasting, and scheduling. Figure 6 shows the architecture of query processing in mobile databases. 60 C Strategies lient OA n ir Strategies Server Strategies Figure 6. Query Processing in Mobile databases 3. 1 Mobile Client Strategy Mobile client’s strategy defines a number of strategies to maintain cached data items in clients’ local storage. As stated earlier, wireless communication channel in general suffers to narrow bandwidth while it is also inherently asymmetric communication, in which the downstream communication bandwidth from a server to the mobile client is much larger than the upstream communication bandwidth from clients back to server. Due to the above reason, caching of frequently accessed data items in a client’s local storage becomes important for enhancing the performance and data availability of data access queries. Another advantage of caching is the ability to handle fault tolerance. This is related to the characteristics of mobile computing in which each mobile client connects or disconnects from the network frequently. In some situation, the MBS may not be accessible due to problem like signal distortion. However, a query can still be partially processed from caches and at least some of the query results can be returned to the user [9]. Three main issues characterize a caching mechanism. These issues include caching granularity, caching coherence strategy, and caching replacement policy. Caching granularity relates to determining a physical form of cached data items. Caching coherence strategy or invalidation strategy involves cache invalidation and update schemes to invalidate and update an out-dated cached item [4]. Caching replacement policy is needed to retain the frequently accessed database items in a client’s local storage. The more effective a caching replacement policy in keeping the frequently accessed items, the better a query will perform and the more queries could be served during disconnection situation. 3. On Air Strategy In this scheme, the server periodically broadcasts the frequently accessed data items to clients through one or more broadcast channels, but the clients may not cache the data item of interest. This situation might occur when the client does not have enough memory or space to cache the required data. The behavior of this channel is unidirectional which means the server disseminates a set of data periodically, via this type of c hannel to a multiple number of users. A complete broadcast file is referred as a broadcast cycle. In this scheme, the client needs to listen to channel and filter the required data over the channel, which is also generally known as push-mechanism. Figure 7 shows on air query processing. 61 The advantage of broadcasting channel is its scalability. The number of users in the cell and the request rate do not affect the performance of the server. Thus, the utilization of bandwidth is better and the server workload is lower as compared with point to point/on-demand communication. Consequently, the power utilization of the client to retrieve information is also improved. However, it is very important to have good strategies to maintain the overall response time of the client to obtain information from the channel or else the advantages of data broadcast will be diminished. B ro ad cast C h an n el = listen in g to th e chan n el = retriev in g th e d esired data M o bile C lie nt Figure 7. On Air Query Processing 3. 3 Server Strategy This strategy considers the problem of pull-based broadcast scheduling where mobile clients send queries to the server through dedicated or point-to-point channel, server process the query, and send the result back to the client. The strategy concerns with broadcast and disk scheduling. Broadcast scheduling is to determine how queries to be served efficiently in the server considering a number of factors such as the length of the query, the wait time and the popularity of the items. Data scheduling is related to how data is placed on the disk that improves the query response time. The possibility of combining these two methods for query processing strategy is an interesting issue to be explored. B road cast server C ach e S erver D isk S erver T r a n sm itte r S erver Figure 8. Broadcast Server Architecture A database server is able to enhance the data retrieval performance by incorporating its own main memory and cache to store those database items frequently accessed by most mobile clients. Figure 62 8 shows architecture of broadcast server. A query can be processed either in the disk server or cache server. If the relevant data items have been retrieved earlier then the query is processed in the cache server. After processing a query, the results are transmitted to the transmitter queue, which subsequently send the data items through the wireless channel. 4. Challenges in Mobile Databases This section discusses some challenges in mobile database environment. The general concept that has been outlined in this paper contains an enormous issue to investigate. However, due to the limitation of page, only a few numbers can be mentioned. Location management is an important issue in mobile database research. Since the number of user population carrying mobile devices increases linearly with the service demand, the communication traffic for locating users also increases accordingly. This situation requires an efficient strategy for location tracking and management. Location management is a very essential factor in providing context awareness services. Context security introduces a new issue to be considered. Since context information may contain a very confidential and private data. It is necessary to ensure privacy issue protection for every user in a network. Caching management strategy, which includes caching granularity, caching coherent issue, and caching replacement strategy, requires a thorough investigation. A good caching management strategy is able to analyse, predict, and adapt to changing of user’s context in order to assist user in performing tasks. As for processing issue, data caching in mobile databases enable clients to obtain a high computing speed as server, by involving a much smaller data items volume. The asymmetric communication in mobile environment has made it a better reason to employ caching strategy. Broadcast scheduling is another issue to investigate. Generally, the more number of data to be broadcast, the more requests will be served from the data broadcast and this will reduce the chance of mobile clients to send the request to the server. However, at a certain point the advantage of the broadcast data will be diminished if there is too many data in the roadcast cycle. Consequently, it will severely affect the query response time since mobile users have to wait for considerably long delay before they receive the desired data. Therefore, it is essential to decide what data to be broadcast that serves most of the requests since the query access pattern is changed dynamically. 5. Conclusions Recent emergence of w ireless technology enables people to conduct activities, business, or transactions anywhere and anytime without any attachment to stationary computer like used to be. Nomadic people are now able to access email, news, weather, and query to the central database server using wireless devices. Mobile database focuses on the query issue that is the dominant operation in mobile computing. Since mobile database is a new dimension of database application, the type of query, query processing strategy, and communication technology that involves in the application are different than what applies in traditional databases. We have defined query taxonomy as well as query processing strategy in mobile databases. Query in mobile databases are categorized into context-awareness query and ad-hoc query. Context- 63 awareness query is further classified into location dependent, context dependent, and hybrid query. Query processing in mobile databases includes mobile client, on air, and server strategy. Mobile client and on air strategy corresponds to caching strategy and broadcast strategy respectively. Finally, we discuss a few challenges that open enormous opportunities for research in mobile databases. 6. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. ACHARYA S. , ALONSO R. , FRANKLIN M. AND ZDONIK S. Broadcast Disks: Data Management for Asymmetric Communication Environments, Proceedings of ACM Sigmod, pp. 199-210, May, 1995. BARBARA D. , Mobile Computing and Databases-A Survey, IEEE TKDE, 11(1):108-117, January/February, 1999. CAI Y. AND HUA K. A. , An Adaptive Query Management Technique for Real-Time Monitoring of Spatial Regions in Mobile Database Systems, 21st IEEE IPCCC, pp. 259-266, 2002. CHAN B. Y. , SI A. and Leong H. V. , Cache Management for Mobile Databases: Design and Evaluation, Proceedings of the International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), pp. 4-63, 1998. CHEN G. AND KOTZ D. , A Survey of Context-Aware Mobile Computing Research, Technical Report TR2000381, Department of Computer Science, Dartmouth College, November, 2000. EBLING R. M. , HUNT H. D. G. AND LEI H. , Issues for Context Services for Pervasive Computing, Proceedings of Middleware’01 Advanced Workshop on Middleware for Mobile Computing, Heidelberg, November, 2001. ELMASRI R. AND NAVATHE S. B. , Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3’rd Edition, Addison W. , U. S. A. , 2000. FRANKLIN J. M. , Challenges in Ubiquitous Data Management, Informatics, pp. 4-33, 2001. GODFREY P. AND GRYZ J. , Semantic Query Caching for Heterogeneous Databases, Proceedings of the 4th Knowledge Representation meets Databases Workshop (KRDB), pp. 61-66, April, 1997. 10. IMIELINSKI T. AND VISWANATHAN S. , Adaptive Wireless Information Systems, Proceedings of SIGDBS (Special Interest Group in Database Systems) Conference, pp. 19-41, October, 1994. 11. IMIELINSKI T. , VISWANATHAN S. AND BADRINATH B. R. , Data on Air: Organisation and Access, IEEE TKDE, 19(3): 353-371, May/June, 1997. 12. KOTTKAMP H. -E. AND ZUKUNFT O. Location-Aware Query Processing in Mobile Database Systems, ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 416-423, February, 1998. 13. KUBACH U. AND ROTHERMEL K. , A Map-Based Hoarding Mechanism for Location-Dependent Information, Proceedings of Second Mobile Data Management (MDM), pp. 145-157, January, 2001. 14. SCHILIT B. , ADAMS N. AND WANT R. , Context-Aware Computing Applications, Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pp. 85-90, December, 1994. 15. WOLFSON O. , ET AL, Databases for Tracking Mobile Units in Real Time, Proceedings of ICDT’99, pp. 169186, 1998. 64 How to cite Mobile Query and Processing in Mobile Database Environment, Papers

Dahl on Democracy free essay sample

What Underlying Conditions Favour Democracy? Page 145-165 We face two questions: How can we account for the establishment of democratic institutions in so many countries in so many parts of the world, and how can we explain its failure? A full answer is impossible; two interrelated sets of factors are undoubtedly of crucial importance. FAILURE OF THE ALTERNATIVES During the 20th century, the main alternatives lost out in competition with democracy. The monarchy, open oligarchy, hereditary aristocracy fatally declined in legitimacy and ideological strength. Though replaced by nondemocratic alternatives (fascism, nazism) they flourished briefly due to their defeat in WW2. Military dictatorships, mainly in latin America, fell due to economic, diplomatic and military (Argentina) failures. The main democratic antagonist (USSR) collapsed due to internal decay and external pressures. A final victory for democracy has not been achieved, nor was it close, see China. Middle eastern countries are still not democratic as well as some countries that reverted back to nondemocratic regimes as conditions were not favourable. Favourable conditions: Essential conditions for democracy 1. Control of military and police by elected officials. 2. Democratic beliefs and political culture. 3. No strong foreign control hostile to democracy Favourable conditions for democracy: 4. A modern market economy and society 5. Weak subcultural pluralism FOREIGN INTERVENTION democratic institutions are less likely to develop in a country subject to intervention by another country hostile to democratic government in that country. E. g. Soviet intervention prevented Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary from democratizing despite favourable conditions. The US: history of intervening in Latin America, overthrowing democratically elected governments to protect their economic interests in the region, for instance in Guatamala in 1954. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US started supporting development of democratic institutions in Eastern Europe. CONTROL OVER MILITARY AND POLICE Unless the military and police forces are under the full control of democratically elected officials, democratic political institutions are unlikely to develop or endure. The most dangerous internal threat to democracy comes from leaders who have access to the means of physical coercion: military and police. Military and police leaders must defer power to democratic officials. In central and Latin America, of the 47 governments, two thirds gained power by means other than free and fair elections, most often by a military coup. In contrast, Costa Rica has been a beacon of democracy since 1950. In 1950, Costa Rica eliminated the threat of a military coup by abolishing the military all together. CULTURAL CONFLICTS WEAK OR ABSENT Democratic political institutions are more likely to develop and endure in a country that is culturally fairly homogenous and less likely in a country with sharply differentiated and conflicting subcultures. Cultural conflicts can erupt in the political arena, and they typically do: over religion, language, or even dress-codes in schools. Issues like these pose a special problem for democracy. Cultural problems are often viewed as matters of principle from deep religious convictions, cultural preservation or group survival. They view them too crucial to allow for compromise, nonnegotiable. A peaceful democratic process requires negotiation, conciliation and compromise. In older democracies, they have managed to avoid severe cultural conflicts. Even if these differences exist, they have allowed more negotiable differences (i. e. economic issues). There are some exceptions. Cultural differences have been significant in the US, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Canada. How have democratic institutions been able to survive in these countries? Assimilation. The American solution, British colonists encountered new waves of settlers from Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, etc. By 1910, 20% of the population wasnt born in the US. They assimilated their dominant political loyalty and identity and became American. This was mainly voluntary or enforced by social mechanisms (such as shame) that minimized the need for coercion by the state. However, African Americans and Native Americans needed to be coerced to assimilate, if not this was followed by exclusion. This resulted in an irrepressible conflict; the Civil War. Deciding by consensus. Distinctive and potentially conflicting subcultures have existed in Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Each created political arrangements that required unanimity or broad consensus for decisions made by cabinet and parliament. The principle of majority rule yielded to a principle of unanimity. Consensual systems like these cannot be created or will not work successfully except under very special conditions. These include a talent for conciliation; high tolerance for compromise; trustworthy leaders capable of negotiating sufficient solutions; consensus on basic goals and values; a national identity that discourages demands for separation and a commitment to democratic procedures that exclude violent and revolutionary means. These are uncommon conditions, and may collapse under the pressure of acute cultural conflict (like in Lebanon, 1958). Electoral Systems. Cultural differences often get out of hand because they are used by politicians competing for support (Kenya 2012, Ivory Coast 2010). Politicians may deliberately appeal to members of their cultural group and ignite latent animosities into hatreds that culminate in â€Å"cultural cleansing†. To avoid this, electoral systems could be designed to change incentives of politicians: make conciliation more profitable than conflict. For instance, no candidates can be elected with the support of only a single group, they would need to gain votes from several major cultural groups. This needs to be included early in the process of democratization. Separation. When cultural cleavages are too deep to be overcome by any of the previous solutions, the final solution may be for cultural groups to separate themselves into different political units within which they possess enough autonomy to maintain their identity and achieve their main political goals (eg: Sudan, Montenegro, Kosovo). The Swiss solution has two requirements: citizens in different subcultures must be already separated along territorial lines, and second the citizens must have a national identity and common goals and values to sustain a federal union. In Canada, French Canadians want independence, however their territory isnt sufficient territorially divided. DEMOCRATIC BELIEFS AND CULTURE. The prospects for stable democracy in a country are improved if its citizens and leaders strongly support democratic ideas, values and practices. A democratic political culture helps to form citizens who believe that democracy and political equality are desirable. A substantial majority of citizens must prefer democracy and its political institutions to any nondemocratic alternative and support democratic leaders who uphold democracy. ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH A MARKET ECONOMY Historically, the development of democratic beliefs and a democratic culture has been closely associated with a market economy; it is a highly favorable condition for the consolidation of democratic institutions. Where most economic enterprises are WHY DEMOCRACY HAS SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD The 20th century turned out to be the Century of Democratic Triumph. That triumph should be viewed with caution. In many countries the basic political institutions are weak or defective. It is reasonable to wonder whether democratic successes will be sustained in the twenty-first century. The answer depends on how well democratic countries meet their challenges. One of these arises directly from the contradictory consequences of market-capitalism.

Psychological Issues free essay sample

Other more recent studies have been done within this area of research. Slater (2004) presented herself In nine different psychiatric facilities clamming that she was suffering from hallucinations. Her study will be used In comparison to the previous one. Procedure and Findings Rosenhans main study Involved eight pseudo-patients, none had a history of mental hilliness, (among them was a housewife, three psychologists, a psychology student, one psychiatrist, a painter and Rosenhan himself) who attempted to gain admission In 12 psychiatric facilities. The procedure began with the participants calling the hospitals for an appointment and complaining of auditory hallucinations. They said they could hear the words hollow, empty and thud, but that the voice was often unclear. They described their mental state precisely and all eight were admitted, seven being then diagnosed with schizophrenia and one with bipolar disorder. All not be added to their records. After being accepted, the pseudo-patients did not report any other symptoms. We will write a custom essay sample on Psychological Issues or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They acted normally around both staff and the genuine atients and always accepted the medicine that was given to them but did not take it. While the hospital staff failed to identify sanity and the participants were hospitalized from 7 to 52 days (with an average of 19 days) prior to being considered sane and being discharged. While the staff failed to identify sanity, 3 out of the 8 participants noticed that 35 out of a total of 118 real patients, suspected in some way that the pseudo-patients were not insane. Pseudo-patients normal behaviours were overlooked or misinterpreted. Slater, in contradiction to Rosenhans pseudo-patients, had been previously diagnosed with depression. Slater presented herself in nine psychiatric rooms clamming she heard the word thud (replicating some of Rosenhams procedure). This specific symptom was partly chosen because it raises concerns about the meaning of life. She was later on diagnosed with psychotic depression from all the hospitals and prescribed medication. Evaluation of the Procedure In Rosenhams research he used a field study. One of the strengths of doing so is that t is possible to gather both qualitative and quantitative data, so plenty of conclusions can be drawn. The participation observation method allows the participants from the first study to experience the world coming from a patient perspective while maintaining their objectivity. Although a strength in both Rosenhans and Slaters experiment is that it was used a wild range of psychiatric hospitals, allowing the results to be generalized, they lack realism. The fact that the psychiatric system can be tricked does not necessarily mean that it doesnt work effectively on genuine patients. Both Doctors and psychiatrists are most likely to make a type two error (this meaning, they are more likely to consider someone healthy as sick) than a type one (this meaning, diagnosing a sick person as being healthy). The studies methodology can also be evaluated in terms of ethnic. They both deceived the hospital and no member of staff gave consent on being a part of the study and/or being observed. However, a strength of both studies reliability, is that it was conducted in various hospitals, the same symptom was reported in all of them and the same diagnosis was given (in Rosenhams experiment, in 10 out of 11 hospitals). This shows the consistency on the diagnoses. And the fact that none of the participants on Rosenhams study had a history of mental hilliness makes in more reliable. The same does not happen with Slaters experiment which could have been deceived considering that Slater had previously been diagnosed with depression, which could have leaded her into acting in a way that would affect the diagnosis. When Rosenhan conducted this study the psychiatric classification was the DSM-II.

South AFrican anthem essays

South AFrican anthem essays Choose one song that for you that epitomizes South African Music. Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo. O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso, Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was composed in 1897 by Enoch Mankayi Sontonga , a teacher at a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg. It was one of many songs he composed, and he was apparently a keen singer who composed the songs for his pupils. The words of the first stanza were originally written in Xhosa as a hymn. In 1927 Samuel Mqhayi, a poet, later added seven additional Xhosa stanzas. Most of Sontonga 's songs were sad, witnessing the suffering of African people in Johannesburg, but they were popular and after his death in 1905 choirs used to borrow them from his wife. Solomon Plaatje, one of South Africa's greatest writers and a founding member of the ANC, was the first to have the song recorded. This was in London in 1923. A Sesotho version was published in 1942 by Moses Mphahlele.The Rev J L Dube's Ohlange Zulu Choir popularised Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika at concerts in Johannesburg, and it became a popular church hymn that was also adopted as the anthem at political meetings. For decades it was regarded as the national anthem of South Afrika by the oppressed and it was always sung as an act of defiance against the apartheid regime. A proclamation issued by the State President on 20 April 1994 stipulated that both Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and Die Stem, The Call of South Africa, would be the national anthems of South Africa. In 1996 a shortened, combined version of the two anthems was released as the new National Anthem, Official Version.There are no standard versions or translations of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika so the words vary from place to place and from occasion to occasion. Generally the f ...

Week8G Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Week8G - Essay Example Our mission is to provide easy access to cheap (used) books for students all over the world, with regards to the steadily increasing prices on the textbook market (YPB.com, 2012). There should be a vision statement that is the basis of the creation of the given mission statement. There is so much need for clarity on the main purpose of the project. Is it focused at selling the books to its target audience or to offer students a forum for discussion on textbooks and course content, share experience and network all over the continent? Change of a project should also not be initiated because it does not bring forth so much revenue. On the contrary, there should be a development strategy for better marketing and related issues to increase the market scope. It’s not practical to have such a large scope of market for a developing investment. The mission and vision should be smart, where the mission is specific, measurable, and also time bound. Stating that the service will aim to deliver anywhere in the world means there so mush need for an understanding of different course requirements from potentially thousands of academic institutions. This may take a million ears to achieve. The site needs to sell itself in terms of look and feel, so that it is easy to use and keeps interest from site visitors. By using existing customer purchase and search data, the site can offer a more personalised service and allow for people to find additional books which complement current ones. It can also tap into other social networks to help draw in more customers and promote itself at University fresher fairs with a fun image which will help people to remember them when later looking for their course books. Finally, although allowing for some fun and humour, the site needs to be seen as a place which can provide a good quality service and experience whilst maintaining an eye on keen pricing and offers to demonstrate affordability. Such a requirement barely gives

Web-base enterprise applications security guidelines Research Paper

Web-base enterprise applications security guidelines - Research Paper Example Furthermore, the project also provides certain approaches and guidelines that should be maintained in order to ensure security of web based enterprise applications. In the contemporary business environment almost every enterprise have online existence not only for providing information, but also for interacting with key stakeholders such as customers, clients and dealers among others through different web based applications. From online communicating application to electronic investment, enterprises are constantly spawning web based applications that provide increased access to vital information. Currently web based applications are regarded as lifeblood of today’s modern enterprises as they permit employees to perform crucial business activities. When these applications are allowed to access enterprise networks, they can easily share information. Earlier, when the web based applications were developed, the information security strategies were fairly simple to impose, nevertheless, modern enterprises are grappling with numerous security threats. Consumer driven tools have released a new trend of web based applications which can easily be breached and can simply evade the traditional enterprise network security barriers (Fortinet, â€Å"Controlling Web 2.0 Applications in the Enterprise†). As businesses are growing, enterprises are becoming more dependent on web based applications, the complex units are becoming more challenging to secure. Several enterprises secure their network through installing firewalls and ‘Secure Socket Layer’ (SSL) among others, but most of the web-based attacks are focussed on the application level, rather than network level and these security tactics are unable to prevent those attacks. Accordingly, the key motivation for undertaking this study is to devise certain guidelines in order to protect and secure the enterprise network. Additionally, the paper also intends to discuss approaches in order to enhance the

The Role of Soft Law in Contemporary International Law-Making Essay

The Role of Soft Law in Contemporary International Law-Making - Essay Example Treaty represents an agreement concluded by different countries and enforced by action. Soft Law is formed according to the state’s experience and pays much attention to the sense of obligation. Soft law in its turn represents the third source that appeared not very long ago. The top priority of this law is the protection of human rights, environmental protection, and preservation of ethical principles. It is essential to note, that contemporary international legislation is both treaty and soft and both sources efficiently function, resolve international controversies and regulate the relations between countries. Studying the literature in order to prepare the investigation it is possible to make a conclusion that the 20th century is characterized by essential development of the international legislation, and notwithstanding those treaties now is the main source, it is possible to say that both ethical principles and treaty are really efficient, can work together, and in addition, treaties can help create new principles in international legislation. It is still not known, what source is more efficient, but it is quite clear that treaty can’t and should not be more reliable that ethical principles which were generated by the society and accepted by it Studying the literature on the topic, one can I believe, that treaty, customary and soft law should function together and the choice depends on the case. Both soft and treaty law are very efficient in regulating international. Thus, taking into account that different sources of international law usually work together and are not taken separately, sometimes it is not possible to decide what source is more efficient. Therefore, the thorough investigation of the sources will be implemented in the given study.

Authentic materials as supplementary materials

Authentic materials as supplementary materials Plagiarism is a practice that involves the using of another persons intellectual output and presenting it as ones own. This includes the presentation of work that has been copied, in whole or part, from other sources (including other students work, published books or periodicals, or unpublished works or unauthorized collaboration with other persons), without due acknowledgement. A student found guilty of plagiarism will be subject to some or all of the following: Referral to Course Coordinator for: counseling; submission of further work; use of the services of Student Learning Unit; the placing of a record of the alleged infringement on the students file. Referral of the matter to the Head of School for: issuing of written warning; re-submission of work for assessment or the undertaking of another form of assessment such as an oral or unseen examination; allocation of a fail grade to part or all of the assessment; allocation a fail grade to the subject. Referral of the matter to the Dean for: suspension from the course; official disciplinary action by the University Disciplinary Committee Student Declaration I declare that this assignment is original and has not been submitted for assessment elsewhere. I declare that this assignment is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion. I give my consent for the electronic version to be examined by relevant plagiarism software programs. I have made a photocopy or electronic copy of my assignment, which I can produce if the original is lost for any reason. Signed: ___________ ____________ Dated: / / How to submit Your assignment Students are required to submit their assignment to their lecturer. This should be done in class, but can be done via email or via the mail with prior agreement from the lecturer. Students should ensure they are aware of how and when to submit their assignment by checking with their lecturer before the due date. How to Collect Your Marked Assignment Your work should be collected from the lecturer in class or from the VU-HANU Program Coordinator in HCM City, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha or in Hanoi, Ms. Nguyen Thai Ha. If work is not returned in class or prior to the end of semester please contact your lecturer or the program coordinator (Mr. Martyn Brogan ) More information about Plagiarism is available from the Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development Student Information Website: http://www.vu.edu.au/Faculties_and_TAFE/Arts_Education_and_Human_Development/Current_Students/Undergraduates/Faculty_Student_Forms/indexdl_88408.aspx TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction Research questions CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW Text book 2.1.1 Textbook Description 2.1.2 Textbook Evaluation 2.2 Authentic materials for ESP course book 2.2.4. The role of reading materials 2.2.1. Definition of authentic materials 2.2.2. The role of authentic materials 2.2.3. Advantages of authentic materials 2.2.5. The criteria of selecting reading authentic materials 2.3. Applying authentic materials in extensive reading program 2.3.1. Applying authentic materials in extensive reading program 2.3.2. Post-reading activities 2.4. Motivations 2.4.1. Definition of motivation 2.4.2. Factors effecting motivation CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Kind of research 3.2 Participants 3.2.1 The researcher 3.2.2 Selection of the subject 3.3 Data collection instruments CHAPTER IV: RESULD AND DISCUSSION OF THE DATA 4.1 Comparison of experimental and control groups reading proficiency after the experiment 4.2 Comparison of economics reading proficiency in the pre-test and post- test 4.3 Comparison of economic reading proficiency between two classes 4.4 Subjects preference of the post reading activities 4.5 Attitude to the post reading activities 4.6 Discussion and implication CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: The Pre-Test and Post-Test Appendix 2: Answer to the pre-test and post-test Appendix 3: The post program questionnaires Appendix 4: Result of the pretest and posttest ABSTRACT This research was carried out at faculty of economics at Luong The Vinh Univesity (LTV) to prove the assumption that authentic materials could enhance motivation of economic students in reading proficiency. Fifty 3rd year economics students at the faculty of economics at LTV University divided in to two groups serve as the subjects for this research. The target class uses the Market Leader- Pre- Intermediate as the course book with authentic materials as a supplement. The other class uses Market Leader- Pre- Intermediate as course book only. The research was conducted in the twelfth week of the syllabus with three teaching hours (of forty-five minutes each) per week. Authentic materials were the reading texts selected from different sources and were chosen by the researcher at the faculty of English and ensured of reliability. The same topics, similar types of exercise and teaching methods were designed by the researcher to evaluate proficiency levels of students in the 2 groups and to use them as evidence for the reliability of the assumption. The researcher uses pre-test, post-test and questionnaire as data collection instruments. Results from the experiment prove that the target grou p with authentic materials as supplementary materials to the course book was the group where student motivation in reading was significantly enhanced. The results of the research state that the role played by authentic materials in language classes, particularly in English for Specific Purpose (ESP) class was of great significance. Authentic supplementary reading materials are hoped to be used for the third- year students at economics faculty at LTV in the near future. With the result of this research, it is recommended that authentic materials should be used for English classes in general and third- year ESP classes in particular at economics faculty at LTV University. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction In Viet Nam, English for Specific Purpose (ESP) has long been considered as an important subject because of its practicality-related demand. To meet the demand of the real economic-social life, ESP is used in the curriculum of Vietnamese universities and colleges and Luong The Vinh University is no exception. At the University, ESP courses in different discipline areas such as Economics, Construction Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Foreign language and Tourism, Informatics Technology, and Agricultural sciences are taught with strong interests from the discipline students. In response to these interests of the students much attention has been paid to the use of ESP text books and materials that develop professional skills. Robinson , Nunan, (1991) assert that materials in general play a key part in language learning. Materials not only provide learners a wide range of useful and fascinating information but they also can play a part in enhancing learners motivation- one of the ess ential issues in language learning- thus, facilitating their acquisition (Dudley- Evan St John, 1998, Nonaka, 2001). However, collecting materials that best serve the learners interests and needs is an obstacle for many teachers. There arise such questions related to this obstacle as what teaching materials should be selected? Where a teacher should start? What a teacher should do to boost the motivation of the students and whether authentic materials boost motivation of students in reading. These questions should be considered as authentic materials can surely provide students with fresh knowledge, expose them to the world of authentic language, while they can bring the real world into the classroom and enliven the class (Martinez, (2002), Kaprova, (1999), Leloup Ponterio, (2000), Dumitrescu, (2000) ) The aim of this research is to investigate the role of authentic materials in enhancing third- year-students motivation in classes for non-English majored students, to be more specific, students of economics at LTV University. To investigate ways to motivate third- year economics students at LTV University to read by using authentic supplementary reading materials and To give recommendations on how to use authentic reading materials efficiently. To enhance economics students English reading proficiency and suggest ways to motivate the teaching of ESP in general and ESP reading in particular at LTV University as well as other universities that share the same mandate. The specific objectives of this research are as follows: to investigate the effects of the authentic supplementary materials on the students reading proficiency level. to find out about the students attitude to the use of authentic materials as a means to enhance motivation of students in post reading activities. This research is organized in 5 chapters, with a list of references and appendices. Chapter one: Introduction and research questions Chapter two: Literature review Chapter three: Methodology Chapter four: Findings and discussions Chapter five: Conclusion Research question Question 1: To test the assumption if there is a significant difference between the English reading proficiency level of the control group (students who do the course with the textbook only) and those of the target group (students who do the course with the textbook plus supplementary authentic materials). Question 2: To test the assumption of the role of authentic materials in enhancing students motivation in reading activities. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW English Reading Textbook 2.1.1 Textbook Description At LTV University, Market Leader Pre-Intermediate is the text book used for third year students of economics. This course book is written by Cotton. D., Falvey. D., Kent S. The course book consists of twelve units which can be completed in thirty two weeks with three periods of forty-five minutes per week in eight 4 per week 45 minutes class period each. The total time of 120 periods is divided equally in to two terms of the academic year. Third year economic students complete 4 periods and each period lasts 45minutes a week. The usual format of each unit is coherence among Starting up, Vocabulary, Discussion, Reading, Listening, Languages, Skill, and Case study. The book also contains four revision units, based on materials covered in the preceding three course book units. This course book is intended for pre-intermediate students taking the course of English in Economics. By the end of the term, students are designed to acquire and develop essential business communication skills: 1 Getting for information and note taking. 2- Making presentation, taking part in meetings, negotiating, telephoning, and using English in social situations. 3- Scanning and skimming, learning and increasing business vocabulary. Students are required to read book able to participate in class regularly and involve in the lessons, to do mid-term test at week 8th and the final test at the end of the term. 2.1.2 Textbook Evaluation Mentioning the issue of evaluating the textbooks Nunan (1988) provides his reader with valuable data resulting from evaluation, which may assist them in deciding whether a course needs to be modified or altered in someway; therefore adequate objectives may be achieved more effectively. According to Cunningsworth (1995: 15-17), there are four general guidelines with special emphasis on the syllabus and methodology such as the following. Guideline one: Course books should correspond to learners needs. They should match the aims and objectives of the language learning program. Guideline two: Course books should reflect the uses (present and future) which learners will make of the language. Select course books which will help to equip students to use language effectively for their own purposes. Guideline three: Course books should take account of the students the needs as learners and should facilitate their learning processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid method Guideline four: Course book should have a clear role as a support for learning. Like teachers, textbooks mediate between the target language and the learners. Looking at the English textbook being used at the LTV University, it is found that the main aims of the course book Market leader- pre-intimidate is to offer opportunities for either students or businesspeople to improve their English communication skills in general, their English for business purpose in particular. According to Richards and Rodgers, (1986: 66), the nature of communicative approaches is to (a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four languages skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication.. To realize these (ie. communicative competence and interdependence between language and communication), the course book being used at LTV University functions as the major supplier of teaching materials in 12 topic-based units and four revision units. Each unit consists of language review and vocabulary development activities. Additionally, key business functions are focused on a regular basis and students can practice the language which they have learned during the unit in the section on Case Study. In sum, the textbook is essential for teachers, business men and business students to cater for their needs. With regard to students following the course at LTV University, third- year economics students have studied some economic majors since they are students majoring in economics. Reading texts in the course book seem to be not challenging to them (as it is easy for them to acquaint themselves with English economic terms and vocabularies related to economics). However, evaluating the Textbook which is currently used for teaching ESP at LTV University is needed for ESP teachers to identify the strengths and weakness of a currently used textbook. 2.2. Authentic materials for ESP course book 2.2.1. The role of reading materials To all Vietnamese students in classes for non-language majors in general and to economics students at Luong The Vinh University in particular, reading is a task that they do everyday, it is an integral part of their work to pass the exam or to improve their knowledge. Karlin Kartin, (1998:2) states that Reading without reading comprehension is meaningless. Alderson (2000) defines reading as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an enjoyable, intensive, private activity, from which much pleasure can be derived, and in which one can become totally absorbed. How to collect materials plays an important part in developing reading skill. Referring to materials Alderson (2000: 28) defines reading materials as anything which is used to help to teach language learners.. Brown (1985: 139) defines materials as any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in classroom teaching. If the materials are interesting to students, they will be far more likely to want to read them. Dudley-Evans St Jo hn (1998:171) show some reasons why materials are used: (i) as a sort of language: (ii) as a learning sport: (iii) for motivation: (iv) for references. Materials then play a crucial role in exposing learners to the language, which implies that the materials need to present real language, as it is used, and the full range that learners requires. 2.2.2. Definition of authentic materials Wallace (1992: 145) defines authentic text as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦real-life text, not written for pedagogic purposes. (p.145), it is used for native speakers and contains genuine language. According to Peacock (1997) authentic materials are materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purposes in language communities. It means that they are aimed for learning proposes. Richards (2001) holds that authentic materials refer to the use in teaching of text, photographs, videos selection, and other teaching recourse that were not specially prepared for educational purposes. There are many different viewpoints which view authentic materials from different angles but all the authors share things in common in their definitions: Authentic materials refer to exposure to real language and its use in its own community, appropriateness and quality in terms of goals, objectives, learner needs, interest and naturalness in terms of realized and meaningful communication. 2.2.3. Advantages of authentic materials There are a number of books and journals which refer to the advantages of using authentic materials, especially in ESP brand. Firstly, authentic materials have a positive effect on learner motivation. One of the main motivations for learning a new language is to get closer to native speaker, to understand them better and to take part in their lives, authentic materials strongly utilize this motivation by their linguistic gentility and flavour of everyday life. Authentic text can be motivating because they prove that the language is used for real life purpose by real people. Nuttall (1996:172). When students are highly motivated, they prefer to work with authentic materials, finding it more interesting, more up to date than the text book. They can produce a sense of achievement (Martinez, 2002) Secondly, authentic materials provide exposure to real language. Many authors who support the use of authentic materials have shared idea of authentic materials: that are authentic materials provide students with language exposure- the benefit students get from being exposed to the language in authentic materials (Martinez, 2002). Authentic materials give students more chance to gain real information and real-to-life language that help bring the real world into the classroom. Authentic materials and media can reinforce for student the direct relationship between the language classroom and the outside world (Briton, 1991). The link between the classroom and real world enables students to comprehend the relationship between learning and practicing. Thirdly, authentic materials provide authentic cultural information. Authentic texts bring learners closer to the target language culture with the materials of native speaker. Books, articles, newspapers, and so on also contain a wide variety of text types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials (Martinez, 2002) Because of these benefits, authentic materials result in an overall increase in motivation, a more positive attitude towards learning as well as active involvement and interest in the subject matter. 2.2.5. The criteria of selecting reading authentic materials Three main criteria for selecting text suggested by Nuttal (1996:170) are useful in application of selecting authentic reading materials. Firstly, authentic reading materials are selected on the basis of suitability of content, which means that authentic reading texts should be suitable to learners age, background knowledge, interest and need. Authentic materials should interest the readers by providing new, interesting information through natural and learnable language that suits the course objectives. Furthermore, it should be the type of material that students will use outside of the class for enhancing students reading skill. They should fit the proficiency level of students; the input should be challenging enough to sustain their motivation so materials which are compatible to the proficiency levels of the students or slightly above the level of students should be collected. Kennedy and Bolitho (1984) strongly suggest the use of authentic materials appropriate to the conceptual level of learners. Authentic reading materials should be used in accordance with ability of students, with suitable tasks so they feel mor e confident more secure when handing authentic materials. They are designed not only for the purpose of entertainment but also for practice of reading skill as well. They should be applicable to the students knowledge of their foreign culture or to their functional needs. Secondly, authentic reading materials should match up with the criterion of readability. This refers to the combination of structure and lexical difficulty. It is important to know at which level the students language proficiency is in order to find out about what vocabulary and structures the students are familiar with and choose authentic reading materials at the right level balancing different levels of proficiency. How to choose materials appropriate to students is suggested by Widdowson (1990: 67) as follows: It has been traditionally supposed that the language presented to learners should be simplified in some ways for easy access and acquisition. (p. 67) besides, the sources of authentic reading materials are infinite. Teachers can collect them from the most common sources such as; internet, television, magazines, newspapers, literature and mammal but some of them are full of errors, typos, and spelling mistakes so teachers should check the quality of the materials while selec ting and consider the organization of the text are clear and the content appropriate with the text or not. More important, the impression authentic reading materials should make is: the students feel that they are interacting with quality materials because there is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an essential interaction between language and thoughtà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Goodman (1988: 12) Thirdly, authentic materials should meet the criterion of exploitability. These materials should facilitate learning. Authentic reading texts will be exploited if it can develop ESP reading skills with various kinds of activities that are designed not only for the purpose of entertainment but also for language practice. Davies (1984:192) gives an interesting explanation of what an authentic material really is: It is not that a text is understood because it is authentic but that it is authentic because it is understood. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Everything the learner understands is authentic for him. 2.3 Applying authentic materials in extensive reading program 2.3.2 Applying authentic materials in extensive reading program Nuttall (1996) regards an extensive reading program (ERP) as the single most effective way of improving skills in general. An extensive reading brings in students to be dynamic of reading as it is done in real life by including such key elements of real life reading as choice and purpose. And in fact, authentic materials have been defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦real life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes Wallace (1992) They are, therefore, written for native speaker and contain the real. Hedge (2000) indicates, before any training in the use of authentic materials can be effective, it may be the case that a certain level of language competence is necessary. Since reading extensively with authentic materials are the preeminent choice for the third year economics students who study English with a bit authentic environment. 2.3.3 Post-reading activities Post reading activities provide students a good chance to review, summarize, and react to the reading passage. Williams (1984), Greenwood (1988), and Jacob (2002)s hold that the purposes of the post reading stage, is (i) to consolidate or reflect upon what have been read, (ii) to relate the text to the learners own knowledge, interest, or view. Davies (2000) offers some activities in the final stage: discussing what is new or interesting in the text, discussing or debating the topic of the text if it is controversial; doing tasks on the language or the structure of the text, summarizing the text either orally or in writing. Jordan (1997:143) states that ESP students read for a purpose. To achieve the goal, the ESP teacher, should provide the students with different sub- reading skill though a big variety of reading activities dealing with contextual differences, rephrasing. The activities are engendered by the text and are used to extend its potential for meaningful language work, a variety of exercises follow the post reading selection. These are intended to help students acquire English reading skill. The exercises may be Asking students to do the close exercises which relates the text to individual personal details Asking students to summarize the economic reading text to list some sentences encouraging students to perform their ability about finding out the main ideas of the text, and make them possible to express their ideas in their own of words. Asking students to present what they have learned from the text in order to together make plans, monitor and review its progress. Asking student to write business letters or reports which activities provide an opportunity for students to apply their new vocabulary to an authentic and personally relevant. Asking students to play a role so as to persuade audients to involve in the activities. It is an important stage which assists students in linking up what they have read with their background knowledge and experience. Greenwood (1988) regards this stage as stimulating students reflection upon what has been read and enabling them to expand, and reinforce their perception. 2.4 Motivation So far, the role of motivation in second language learning has been the concern of many language researchers. They all agree that learners with positive attitudes towards the subject and high motivation are more likely to be successful when learning a second language. 2.4.1 Definition of motivation Crookes and Schmidt (1991) indicated that motivation is the learners desire that relates to the goal of learning a second language. In the same vein, Dornyei and Ottà ³ (1998) assert that motivation energizes human being and provides direction. Brown (2000: 160) adds motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something. Although motivation is very difficult to define in second language field, the main characteristics of motivation can be summarized as: (i) attitudes towards the learning a language, (ii) the desire to learn a language and (iii) motivational intensity. 2.4.2 Factors effecting motivation According to Oxford and Shearin (1994) there are twelve motivational theories or models, including those from social- psychology, cognitive development, and social cultural psychology, and identified six factors that impact motivation in language learning. Attitude Belief about your self Goals Involvement Environmental support Personal attributes Based on our discussion with colleagues, we learn that these factors are interrelated and if one of the factors is positively effected, all the other factors will accordingly be influenced and motivation is therefore increased. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 Kind of research In order to achieve the aim of the research, pre-experimental research is used by the researcher. Pre- experimental research used in this study is to find out how much students reading motivation improved with time and to investigate the effect of authentic materials on enhancing motivation of students in reading. Nunan (1990) stresses that experiments are often carried out exploring the strength of the relationship between the variables. Salkind (2006) points out those casual relationships between variables may be established with this type of research. 3.2 Participants 3.2.1 The researcher The researcher has been an experienced teacher of English for 8 years and been teaching English for business for more than four years 3.2.2 The selection of the subjects Fifty 3rd year economics students at faculty of economics, LTV University were divided into two groups as subjects for the experiment. They are both males and females aged from 20 to 22. They come from different provinces in Viet Nam especially many of them are from the southern area of the Red River Delta in the North of Viet Nam. They all had similar educational background. These students have been acquired the equal background knowledge and skills of English by studying General English for two years in a 240 hour teaching programme at the university. New Headway Elementary and Pre- intermediate has been adopted for the syllabus. In the third year, they have learnt ESP for four months before the experiment. Data collection instruments The experiments were carried out in two classes, which are called target group and control group. The target group uses Market Leader- Pre- Intermediate as course book and authentic materials as supplement The control group uses Market Leader- Pre- Intermediate as course book only. The research was conducted in the 12 weeks programmer with three teaching hours of forty-five minutes each. The researcher used the T-test to find out the mean (M), the standard deviation (Sd), and the ratio of each group to analyze the data collected from the research. The data needed were taken from a test which is used to identify the students achievements. The information on the students reading proficiency, motivation and attitude towards the evaluation were collected by a pre-test, and a post-test. The researcher uses the same test before and after the experiment to measure exactly the different level of reading proficiency of two groups before and after the experiment. The tests were taken from www.about.com and Cambridge University. The test is focus on such specific reading skill as Guessing vocabulary from the context Matching a word with its appropriate definition Comprehension Multichoice The test consists of 40 questions divided in to 4 part based in topic of economic plan, deliveries and suppliers, economic terms, business people. The period between the pre-test and post-test was 12 weeks. The time allowance for each test is 60 minutes and the test was delivered for both groups and then collected and graded by the researcher. Firstly, the researcher gave students a pre-test to find out about their level of reading proficiency without using authentic supplementary materials. A Post test was given to the students to find out about how much students improved the motivation in reading with time and to investigate the effect of authentic materials on enhancing motivation of students in reading from the research. Beside the tests, questionnaires were also used as data collection instruments so as to evaluate the experimenter techniques were used of the researcher and the materials. Questionnaires also were collected; the data of the questionnaires were only gathered in experiment class. Brown (1995) suggests that questionnaires are more efficient for gathering information on a large scale than other approach. The questionnaire consists of 12 questions divided in to four sections. The first section consists of 3 questions in order to get information on the attitude of stud

Visualizing Rhetoric Essay -- Philosophical Philosophy Essays

Visualizing Rhetoric I. Principles of Visualizing Rhetoric The idea for Visualizing Rhetoric began after being introduced to rhetorical thinking models, Richard Paul’s Critical Thinking model and the Constructivist approach to teaching. Its aims are to unite the visual and the verbal, the critical and the constructive; to present the student with a practical way to both break down and understand, and also build and communicate an argument. The underlying principle of Visualizing Rhetoric, put simply, is that all communication is rhetorical (McCroskey, 1993). Communication presupposes an audience and a source. Furthermore, the methods of logical thought borrowed from mathematics, and too often applied to composition – namely the premise/conclusion structure of the syllogism – are not suitable for communication. Another paradigm for thinking about arguments and communication must be used. Aristotle called this structure the enthymeme, or Rhetorical Syllogism (McCroskey, 1993). The Rhetorical Syllogism provides a shift from the purely logical mode in that it represents more accurately the way in which arguments are communicated from a source to a receiver. It adds to the premise/conclusion model (data/claim in rhetorical thinking) a third major element, called the warrant. The warrant is the bridge that the speaker uses to connect the data to the claim. In other words, the warrant is the underlying set of inferences (asserted or assumed) that connects the pieces of the rhetorical argument. It authorizes the relationship between data and claim (Toulmin, 1958). By adding this crucial and often missed piece to the compositional puzzle, one can see how it transforms an assertion into something tha... ...to two dimensions in organizing and examining their thoughts, they will be able to conceive of arguments as a structure built to communicate meaning. The structure, like any physical structure, has a goal and a purpose. Students can diagram the foundation of an argument, build different strands, and learn how to see connections between different elements. Works Cited 1. Booth, W. C. (1998). The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occassions 1967-1988. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2. McCroskey, J. C. (1993). An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication (8th ed.). Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon. 3. Toulmin, S. (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Works Referenced 1. Paul, R. (1990). Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World. Santa Rosa: Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Pet peeves

Pet peeves, everyone has them. Some people make their peeves known; others Just grit their teeth and keep their annoyance to themselves. My pet peeves Include my husband talking loudly In public on the phone, people using their phones In public, and the way people care for their kids. These are just a few of my pet peeves that I want to talk about. My husband is one of the worst about talking to loud on his phone in public. One day in particular comes to mind. We were going to walk into a restaurant, and his phone rang.He answered it and began to talk. I started to walk slower, hoping he would do the same. He did not even realize that he was almost yelling. As we were walking into the restaurant he continued to talk and people turn their heads to see who was talking so loudly. I was trying to get him to hurry up, but that was not happening. I could Just see other people around us looking at him wishing he would hang up his phone. He finally finished his call and hung up his phone. Th is does not happen often, but whenIt does I try to remind him that he has many pet peeves and his loud talking Is one of mine. It Is possibly my biggest pet peeve. Furthermore, phone etiquette in general is one of my pet peeves. Don't get me wrong, cell phones are great; I just really wish that someone would write a book on the proper way to use a cell phone. If there ever was such a book the author would be a millionaire instantly. Cell phones exploded on to the scene so fast and furious that many people did not have time to think. It is understandable for people not to understand proper phone etiquette.The ability to talk wirelessly to anyone, and everyone from almost anywhere in the world has been around now for many years. People should know that there is a proper time and place to use a cell phone. I can understand If a call comes Into a person's phone that Is an emergency. However It Is not an emergency If a friend has Just broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend. If one I s In a walling room of a doctor's office, or a public place people do not need to hear about y personal life problems.Be courteous to the ones around and, get up and walk outside to finish the call. I can promise that no one else wants to hear a one-sided conversation. Parents drive me crazy when they allow their children to scream and cry in a public place. I can understand some children have special needs and there is Just no way for a parent to soothe the child. The parent should still get up and take the screaming child outside or to the bathroom. My husband and I were at a restaurant the other day and there was a child crying and screaming at the top f his lungs.The mother just sat there and did nothing to try and soothe the child. We quickly finished our meal and left the restaurant. Parents should try and consider that not everyone cares to hear their child screaming and crying In public places. In conclusion I normally do not say a whole lot about the different things that g et on my nerves. I am typically the kind of person that Just goes with the flow. The loud talking on the cell phone, the lack of phone etiquette, and children crying and Pet peeves Pet peeves, everyone has them. Some people make their peeves known; others Just grit their teeth and keep their annoyance to themselves. My pet peeves Include my husband talking loudly In public on the phone, people using their phones In public, and the way people care for their kids. These are just a few of my pet peeves that I want to talk about. My husband is one of the worst about talking to loud on his phone in public. One day in particular comes to mind. We were going to walk into a restaurant, and his phone rang.He answered it and began to talk. I started to walk slower, hoping he would do the same. He did not even realize that he was almost yelling. As we were walking into the restaurant he continued to talk and people turn their heads to see who was talking so loudly. I was trying to get him to hurry up, but that was not happening. I could Just see other people around us looking at him wishing he would hang up his phone. He finally finished his call and hung up his phone. Th is does not happen often, but whenIt does I try to remind him that he has many pet peeves and his loud talking Is one of mine. It Is possibly my biggest pet peeve. Furthermore, phone etiquette in general is one of my pet peeves. Don't get me wrong, cell phones are great; I just really wish that someone would write a book on the proper way to use a cell phone. If there ever was such a book the author would be a millionaire instantly. Cell phones exploded on to the scene so fast and furious that many people did not have time to think. It is understandable for people not to understand proper phone etiquette.The ability to talk wirelessly to anyone, and everyone from almost anywhere in the world has been around now for many years. People should know that there is a proper time and place to use a cell phone. I can understand If a call comes Into a person's phone that Is an emergency. However It Is not an emergency If a friend has Just broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend. If one I s In a walling room of a doctor's office, or a public place people do not need to hear about y personal life problems.Be courteous to the ones around and, get up and walk outside to finish the call. I can promise that no one else wants to hear a one-sided conversation. Parents drive me crazy when they allow their children to scream and cry in a public place. I can understand some children have special needs and there is Just no way for a parent to soothe the child. The parent should still get up and take the screaming child outside or to the bathroom. My husband and I were at a restaurant the other day and there was a child crying and screaming at the top f his lungs.The mother just sat there and did nothing to try and soothe the child. We quickly finished our meal and left the restaurant. Parents should try and consider that not everyone cares to hear their child screaming and crying In public places. In conclusion I normally do not say a whole lot about the different things that g et on my nerves. I am typically the kind of person that Just goes with the flow. The loud talking on the cell phone, the lack of phone etiquette, and children crying and

Being Gay in America

The topic I choose to write about is being gay in America. This has been a rising topic in America. Homosexual people feel that they should have the same rights that heterosexual people have when it comes to marriage being at the top. What two people do with their lives is up to them but when they try and add another person into their lives, it changes the circumstances. Gays have been trying to fight for their rights for years. The Society for Human Rights in Chicago is the country’s earliest known gay rights organization. Wisconsin was the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders (InfoPlease). Just recently the military got rid of its â€Å"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell† policy allowing gays to serve in the military openly. I don’t see anything wrong with two people getting married to each other, but I don’t feel that hom osexuals should be capable to receive the same benefits of marriage like heterosexuals. If a gay person wants to be married then they should but they also should be taxed for being in a same sex marriage.I feel like they should get taxed because it is not natural for a man to be with a man or a woman to be with another woman. Two of the same sex cannot bear children therefore it is not acceptable to me. Homosexuals are trying to get the same equal opportunity as heterosexual marriages unless they are willing to pay some kind of payment. Under the Defense of Marriage Act made in 1996, it states that a gay married couple can take advantage of state laws with the benefits of marriage, but not any of the benefits by federal law (DOMA).The benefits that heterosexual marriages aren’t authorized to are social security, tax, estate, veteran and military, federal employment, and immigration. The law also states that marriage is legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no state may be required to distinguish same sex marriage considered to be marriage in another state. There are six states that consent same sex marriages which are Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont.Since most states don’t allow same sex marriage, many homosexuals have ended up going with civil union. Civil union is lawfully documented union like to marriage, but it is not marriage. It is the declaration of a partnership shared by a couple. Civil union isn’t recognized by the federal government and under the Defense of Marriage Act other states don’t have to oblige to recognize them. States that allow civil union are California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.If you are gay that is fine. What you do behind closed doors is your problem, but many gays are adopting children and raising kids into their lifestyle. In our society today, it has been a n all-time high of suicides due to bullying. Why would you want to put a child in that kind of situation where they will be picked on because they have two dads or moms? Cited Section 1. ) DOMA. www. domawatch. org. 28November 2011 2. ) www. hrc. org/issues. 28November 2011 3. ) INFOPLEASE. www. infoplease. com. 28November2011 4. )

Biography of Al Capone, Prohibition Era Crime Boss

Biography of Al Capone, Prohibition Era Crime Boss Al Capone (January 17, 1899–January 25, 1947) was a notorious gangster who ran an organized crime syndicate in Chicago during the 1920s, taking advantage of the era of Prohibition. Capone, who was both charming and charitable as well as powerful and vicious, became an iconic figure of the successful American gangster. Fast Facts: Al Capone Known For: Notorious gangster in Chicago during ProhibitionBorn: January 17, 1899 in Brooklyn, New YorkParents: Gabriele and Teresina (Teresa) CaponeDied: January 25, 1947 in Miami, FloridaEducation: Left grade school at 14Spouse: Mary Mae CoughlinChildren: Albert Francis Capone Early Life Al Capone (Alphonse Capone, and known as Scarface) was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina (Teresa) Capone and was the fourth of their nine children. From all known accounts, Capones childhood was a normal one. His father was a barber and his mother stayed home with the children. They were a tight-knit Italian family trying to succeed in their new country. Like many immigrant families at the time, the Capone children often dropped out of school early to help earn money for the family. Al Capone stayed in school until he was 14 and then left to take a number of odd jobs. Around the same time, Capone joined a street gang called the South Brooklyn Rippers and then later the Five Points Juniors. These were groups of teenagers who roamed the streets, protected their turf from rival gangs, and sometimes carried out petty crimes like stealing cigarettes. Scarface It was through the Five Points gang that Al Capone came to the attention of brutal New York mobster Frankie Yale. In 1917, 18-year-old Capone went to work for Yale at the Harvard Inn as a bartender and as a waiter and bouncer when needed. Capone watched and learned as Yale used violence to maintain control over his empire. One day while working at the Harvard Inn, Capone saw a man and woman sitting at a table. After his initial advances were ignored, Capone went up to the good-looking woman and whispered in her ear, Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment. The man with her was her brother, Frank Gallucio. Defending his sisters honor, Gallucio punched Capone. However, Capone didnt let it end there; he decided to fight back. Gallucio then took out a knife and slashed at Capones face, managing to cut Capones left cheek three times (one of which cut Capone from ear to mouth). The scars left from this attack led to Capones nickname of Scarface, a name he personally hated. Family Life Not long after this attack, Al Capone met Mary (Mae) Coughlin, who was pretty, blonde, middle-class, and came from a respectable Irish family. A few months after they started dating, Mae became pregnant. Al Capone and Mae got married on December 30, 1918, three weeks after their son (Albert Francis Capone, a.k.a. Sonny) was born. Sonny was to remain Capones only child. Throughout the rest of his life, Al Capone kept his family and his business interests completely separate. Capone was a doting father and husband, taking great care in keeping his family safe, cared for, and out of the spotlight. However, despite his love for his family, Capone did have a number of mistresses over the years. Plus, unknown to him at the time, Capone contracted syphilis from a prostitute before he met Mae. Since the symptoms of syphilis can disappear quickly, Capone had no idea that he still had the sexually transmitted disease or that it would so greatly affect his health in later years. Chicago About 1920, Capone left the East Coast and headed to Chicago. He was looking for a fresh start working for Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio. Unlike Yale who used violence to run his racket, Torrio was a sophisticated gentleman who preferred cooperation and negotiation to rule his crime organization. Capone was to learn a lot from Torrio. Capone started out in Chicago as a manager for the Four Deuces, a place where clients could drink and gamble downstairs or visit prostitutes upstairs. Capone did well in this position and worked hard to earn Torrios respect. Soon Torrio had increasingly important jobs for Capone and by 1922, Capone had risen up the ranks in Torrios organization. When William E. Dever, an honest man, took over as Chicagos mayor in 1923, Torrio decided to avoid the mayors attempts to curb crime by moving his headquarters to the Chicago suburb of Cicero. It was Capone who made this happen. Capone established speakeasies, brothels, and gambling joints. Capone also worked diligently to get all the important city officials on his payroll. It didnt take long for Capone to own Cicero. Capone had more than proven his worth to Torrio and it wasnt long before Torrio handed over the entire organization to Capone. Crime Boss Following the November 1924 murder of Dion OBanion (an associate of Torrio and Capones who had become untrustworthy), Torrio and Capone were seriously hunted by one of OBanions vengeful friends. Fearing for his life, Capone drastically upgraded everything about his personal safety, including surrounding himself with bodyguards and ordering a bulletproof Cadillac sedan. Torrio, on the other hand, did not greatly change his routine and on January 12, 1925, he was savagely attacked just outside his home. Nearly killed, Torrio decided to retire and hand his entire organization over to Capone in March 1925. Capone had learned well from Torrio and soon proved himself to be an extremely successful crime boss. Capone as a Celebrity Gangster Al Capone, only 26 years old, was now in charge of a very large crime organization that included brothels, nightclubs, dance halls, race tracks, gambling establishments, restaurants, speakeasies, breweries, and distilleries. As a major crime boss in Chicago, Capone put himself in the publics eye. In Chicago, Capone became an outlandish character. He dressed in colorful suits, wore a white fedora hat, proudly displayed his 11.5-carat diamond pinky ring, and would often pull out his huge roll of bills while out in public places. It was hard not to notice Al Capone. Capone was also known for his generosity. He would frequently tip a waiter $100, had standing orders in Cicero to hand out coal and clothes to the needy during the cold winters, and opened some of the first soup kitchens during the Great Depression. There were also numerous stories of how Capone would personally help out when he heard a hard-luck story, such as a woman considering turning to prostitution to help her family or a young kid who couldnt go to college because of the high cost of tuition. Capone was so generous to the average citizen that some even considered him a modern-day Robin Hood. Cold-Blooded Killer As much as the average citizen considered Capone to be a generous benefactor and local celebrity, Capone was also a cold-blooded killer. Although the exact numbers will never be known, it is believed that Capone personally murdered dozens of people and ordered the killing of hundreds of others. One such example of Capone handling things personally occurred in the spring of 1929. Capone had learned that three of his associates planned to betray him, so he invited all three to a huge banquet. After the three unsuspecting men had eaten heartily and drank their fill, Capones bodyguards quickly tied them to their chairs. Capone then picked up a baseball bat and began hitting them, breaking bone after bone. When Capone was done with them, the three men were shot in the head and their bodies dumped out of town. The most famous example of a hit believed to be ordered by Capone was the February 14, 1929 assassination now called the St. Valentines Day Massacre. On that day, Capones Henchman Machine Gun Jack McGurn attempted to lure rival crime leader George Bugs Moran into a garage and kill him. The ruse was actually quite elaborate and would have been completely successful if Moran hadnt been running a few minutes late. Still, seven of Morans top men were gunned down in that garage. Tax Evasion Despite committing murder and other crimes for years, it was the St. Valentines Day Massacre that brought Capone to the attention of the federal government. When President Herbert Hoover learned about Capone, Hoover personally pushed for Capones arrest. The federal government had a two-pronged attack plan. One part of the plan included collecting evidence of Prohibition violations as well as shutting down Capones illegal businesses. Treasury agent Eliot Ness and his group of Untouchables were to enact this part of the plan by frequently raiding Capones breweries and speakeasies. The forced shut down, plus the confiscation of all that was found, severely hurt Capones business- and his pride. The second part of the governments plan was to find evidence of Capone not paying taxes on his massive income. Capone had been careful over the years to run his businesses with cash only or through third parties. However, the IRS found an incriminating ledger and some witnesses who were able to testify against Capone. On October 6, 1931, Capone was brought to trial. He was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act (the main Prohibition law). The first trial focused only on the tax evasion charges. On October 17, Capone was found guilty of only five of the 22 tax evasion charges. The judge, not wanting Capone to get off easily, sentenced Capone to 11 years in prison, $50,000 in fines, and court costs totaling $30,000. Capone was completely shocked. He had thought he could bribe the jury and get away with these charges just like he had dozens of others. He had no idea that this was to be the end of his reign as a crime boss. He was only 32 years old. Alcatraz When most high-ranking gangsters went to prison, they usually bribed the warden and prison guards in order to make their stay behind bars plush with amenities. Capone was not that lucky. The government wanted to make an example of him. After his appeal was denied, Capone was taken to the Atlanta Penitentiary in Georgia on May 4, 1932. When rumors leaked out that Capone had been receiving special treatment there, he was chosen to be one of the first inmates at the new maximum security prison at Alcatraz in San Francisco. When Capone arrived at Alcatraz in August 1934, he became prisoner number 85. There were no bribes and no amenities at Alcatraz. Capone was in a new prison with the most violent of criminals, many of whom wanted to challenge the tough gangster from Chicago. However, just as daily life became more brutal for him, his body began to suffer from the long-term effects of syphilis. Over the next several years, Capone began to grow increasingly disoriented, experienced convulsions, slurred speech, and a shuffling walk. His mind quickly deteriorated. After spending four-and-a-half years at Alcatraz, Capone was transferred on January 6, 1939, to a hospital at the Federal Correctional Institution in Los Angeles. A few months after that Capone was transferred to a penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. On November 16, 1939, Capone was paroled. Retirement and Death Capone had tertiary syphilis, which could not be healed. However, Capones wife Mae took him to a number of different doctors. Despite many novel attempts at a cure, Capones mind continued to degenerate. Capone spent his remaining years in quiet retirement at his estate in Miami, Florida while his health slowly got worse. On January 19, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke. After developing pneumonia, Capone died on January 25, 1947, of cardiac arrest at age 48. Sources Capeci, Dominic J. Al Capone: Symbol of a Ballyhoo Society. The Journal of Ethnic Studies 2.33–50 (1975).Haller, Mark H. Organized Crime in Urban Society: Chicago in the Twentieth Century. Journal of Social History 5.2 (1971): 210–34.Iorizzo, Luciano J. Al Capone: A Biography. Greenwood Biographies. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2003.