Internet and Its Impact on Developing Countries

The Internet and its impact on developing countries: examples from China and India T. Kanti Srikantaiah Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois, USA and The Internet and its impact on China and India 199 Received February 1998 Revised March 1998 Dong Xiaoying Peking University, Beijing, China Introduction In the new information climate many countries are relying on electronic access to information through the Internet, which is revolutionising information management and information technology. Developed countries have improved their communication systems and are able to share information in a user-friendly environment.They have used the Internet in various sectors: †¢ agriculture; †¢ health; †¢ public sector management; †¢ industry; †¢ environment; †¢ telecommunications; †¢ trade; †¢ etc. The Internet is now penetrating developing countries. This paper discusses the role of the Internet in such countries, with specific reference to China a nd India. The Internet The idea of the Internet originated about 25 years ago at the US Defense Department Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to keep track of data through computer hardware and software. The Internet is now a complex web of networks connected with high-speed links cutting across countries.There are no set boundaries for the Internet in cyberspace. Recent statistics show 50,000 networks in more than 100 countries with more than 50 million users (MIDS press release). It is estimated that the rate of growth in Internet use is around 20 per cent a month. Currently the Internet is not proprietary and is available to anyone with computer access connected to the external world. Since the USA launched the information superhighway in 1994, the Internet has come to play an ever-increasing role in the vast information market in many countries (Table I). Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 9, 1998, pp. 199-209.  © MCB University Press, 1017-6748Asian Libraries 7,9 Country G-7 countries Canada France Germany Italy Japan Great Britain USA Africa South Africa Cyprus Tunisia Jamaica Senegal Egypt Mozambique Burkina Faso Cameroon Ghana Kenya Morocco New Caledonia Niger Swaziland Host Initial connection Country Turkey Indonesia Philippines India China Kuwait Malaysia United Arab Republic Kazakhstan Macau Fiji Uzbekistan Vietnam Lebanon Lithuania Latin America Brazil Mexico Chile Ecuador Peru Argentina Bermuda Venezuela Puerto Rico Costa Rica Guam Virgin Islands Nicaragua Panama Dominican Republic Host 22,963 10,861 4,309 4,794 25,594 3,555 6 994 1,136 1 0 153 3 1,128 2,761Initial connection 12/91 07/93 04/94 11/90 04/94 12/92 11/92 11/93 11/93 04/94 06/93 12/94 04/95 06/94 04/94 200 690,316 292,096 875,631 211,966 955,688 878,215 825,048 07/88 07/88 09/89 08/89 08/89 04/89 07/88 419 1,973 15 349 275 1,894 44 2 75 275 457 888 59 34 240 12/91 12/92 05/91 05/94 10/94 11/93 03/95 10/94 12/92 10/94 11/93 10/94 10/94 10/94 05/94 Asia and Middle East Taiwan 40,706 12 /91 Table I. South Korea 132,370 04/90 Distribution of hosts Israel 61,140 08/89 connected to the Internet Singapore 60,674 05/91 (1997): G-7 countries, Thailand 12,794 07/92 Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America Source of host number: http://www. w. com/zone/www/dist-byname. html, 1997 68,685 126 19,168 1,078 6,510 18,985 1,648 4,679 114 4,259 91 7 743 390 25 06/90 02/89 04/90 07/92 11/93 10/90 05/90 02/94 10/89 01/93 10/93 03/93 02/94 06/94 04/95 Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed, once said: It can be no accident that there is today no wealthy developed country that is information poor, and no information rich country that is poor and underdeveloped (Nagy, 1991, p. 57). This statement emphasises the importance of the Internet for developing countries.From an international perspective access to and use of the Internet is unbalanced; there are obvious gaps between developed and developing countries in terms of the numbers of nets, hosts and users. As a study from the Panos Institute indicated: The Internet and its impact on Table I provides data on hosts and connection dates for selected countries in China and India Africa, Latin America, Asia and Pacific, along with G-7 countries for comparison.Of the hosts 56 per cent were in the USA, 26 per cent in Europe, 16 per cent in Canada and Latin America, 12 per cent in Asia and the Middle East, and the remaining 1 per cent were in African countries. The G-7 countries took about 80 per cent of total nets connected with the Internet, and the number of nets in 55 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America amounted to only 5 per cent. According to another study, based on data from World Bank economic and social indicators, the correlation of Internet nodes with GNP per capita is 0. 88 per cent.Adjusted for population size, the country with the highest density of nodes for population was Switzerland. The USA ranked sixth, and India was one of the lowest. So the revolution in electroni c publishing and accessing is not really global (Jacobson, 1994). The timing of connection to the Internet is significant. For instance, while most developed countries obtained their connections to the Internet between 1988 and 1990, developing countries began around 1994-95. Even now many developing countries do not have Internet facilities. An approximate date of Internet connectivity for selected countries is also given in Table I.The World Bank has published data on various economic and social indicators for 133 countries. Table II shows data on population, literacy and GNP for selected developing countries and the G-7 countries. Tables I and II show a definite correlation among GNP per capita, population, illiteracy and number of networks connected with the Internet. The data show that the higher the GNP per capita and the lower the illiteracy rate, the greater the number of links to the Internet, whereas indicators such as higher population, higher illiteracy and lower GNP per capita accompany fewer connections to the Internet.For most developing countries Internet connections brought the golden opportunity of â€Å"leapfrog† development through participating and competing in global trade, sharing information globally in education, research and manufacturing/productivity sectors, and alleviating poverty, contributing to improved social and economic indicators. Information environment in China and India China and India are the two most populous countries in the world. With more than 2 billion people in these two countries, the market for the Internet is vast.In addition, both China and India are information-rich countries with a long tradition of learning, publishing and media activities. Both countries have recently experienced phenomenal growth in economic terms. According to a World Bank report, the annual average growth of GNP during the period 1985-94 in China and in India was around 7 per cent and 3 per cent respectively (World Bank Atlas, 19 96). Compared with other developing countries of the same scale, China and India have shown significant growth in the development here is a danger of a new information elitism which excludes the majority of the world’s population (John, 1995). 201 Asian Libraries 7,9 G-7 countries Canada France Germany Italy Japan United Kingdom USA Africa Cameroon Egypt Kenya South Africa Asia China Indonesia India Malaysia Thailand Latin America Argentina Brazil Mexico Peru GNP per capita in US$, 1994 Real growth rate, 1985-94 (%) Population, 1994 (’000) Growth rate, 1985-94 (%) Illiteracy rate, 1990 (%) 202 19,570 23,470 25,580 19,270 34,630 18. 410 25,860 680 710 260 3,010 530 880 310 3,520 2,210 8,060 3,370 4,010 1,890 0. 4 1. 7 1. 9 1. 3. 2 1. 4 1. 3 –6. 6 1. 6 0. 0 –1. 4 6. 9 6. 0 2. 9 2. 7 8. 2 1. 9 –0. 4 0. 6 –2. 5 29,121 57,726 81,141 57,154 124,782 58,088 260,529 12,871 57,556 26,017 41,591 1,190,918 189,907 913,600 19,498 58,718 34,180 159,143 91 ,858 23,331 1. 3 0. 5 0. 5 0. 1 0. 2 0. 3 1. 0 2. 8 2. 0 2. 9 2. 4 1. 4 2. 0 2. 0 2. 5 1. 6 1. 4 1. 8 2. 2 2. 0 * * * 3 * * * 46 52 31 – 27 23 52 22 7 5 19 13 15 Table II. Basic indicators for selected developing countries and G-7 countries Notes: – = not available; *according to UNESCO, illiteracy is less than 5 per cent Source: The World Bank Atlas (1996) Washington DC: World Bank ycle and in the utilisation of information technologies and information management. The steep decrease in the price of personal computers, proliferating software in Asia and the multimedia influx have contributed to growing markets and Internet use in China and India. Sales of PCs in these regions have expanded more than 20 per cent each year (Sherry, 1995, p. 71). A rating scale by the Gartner Group predicts a long-term potential for information technology in the Asian and Pacific region (Gartner Group, 1996).The rating is based on population, education, GDP, economic growth, government su pport to IT, popularity of IT, IT industry (and its competitiveness), the industry type and international perspective. Table III shows details for China and India, as well as selected countries for comparison. The total rating score for China was 75 and for India 58. In China the population of 1. 2 billion lives on 9. 6 million square kilometres. With its long civilisation and tradition of learning, and with its economy CountryEconomic Government Popularity Industry Total Population Education GDP growth support to IT of IT Competitive type International score 9 9 4 3 4 8 7 4 9 8 7 5 9 9 7 6 5 6 3 2 2 5 4 1 5 2 18 10 12 17 16 12 12 12 14 14 8 5 8 5 6 6 8 4 9 8 7 6 0 2 10 9 7 3 6 8 3 4 7 10 0 1 9 9 7 3 5 7 1 3 7 10 6 7 5 4 5 7 7 4 7 7 6 5 8 7 4 2 4 2 7 5 6 4 4 3 53 50 75 58 58 58 62 52 50 55 62 60 The Internet and its impact on China and India 203 USA 8 Japan 8 China 10 India 10 Indonesia 8 South Korea 6 Malaysia 3 The Philippines 6 Singapore 1 Taiwan 4 Thailand 6 Vietnam 6 Source: Ga rtner Group (1996), China Infoworld, Vol. 1, 29 July Table III. Long-term potential of information technology in Asian and Pacific countries growing rapidly since 1980, China has become one of the most powerful information resources and an integral part of the world information community. In 1995 there were 101,381 books, 7,583 kinds of magazines (4,014 are scientific and technical journals) and 2,089 newspapers (205 national and 844 provincial newspapers) published by nearly 600 publishers nationwide (Handbook of Press, 1996). There are 1,080 universities located in 29 provinces, and more than one million students graduate each year.There are 350,000 libraries of different types – public, university and school, research, military and labour union libraries. There are plans to have at least one library in each village and urban area in China by the year 2000. Government has always been the biggest information producer and consumer. A total of 34 information centres belonging to different central government departments, China Statistical Bureau, China Economic Information Centre and National Scientific and Technical Commission (NSTC) distribute and collect information from the central government at provincial, city and county levels.Chinese general information systems are divided into six categories: (1) information centres affiliated with the National Scientific and Technical Commission; (2) information centres belonging to central government ministries; (3) information centres of a provincial nature; (4) information centres of a specialised nature affiliated to regional governments; (5) information centres affiliated with state enterprises, universities and other research institutions; Asian Libraries 7,9 204 (6) information centres of non-governmental, regional, professional and similar bodies (Dong, 1995).Since 1994, the global upsurge of the information highway has influenced Chinese decision-makers. China’s information superhighway, consisti ng of â€Å"eight golden projects†, covers networks among universities, industry and state enterprises. The public need for the Internet and its potential are vast. India, which gained independence in 1947, covers a vast area of over 3. 2 million square kilometres and has a population of more than 900 million. In the area of information India is relatively rich, being the seventh largest publisher in he world. It also supports a flourishing book industry: some 11,000 publishers publish more than 18,000 monographs each year and there are more than 30,000 periodicals, of which 5,000 are in English. There are thousands of book-sellers, more than 196 universities and 8,100 colleges and research institutions. The student population in higher education alone exceeds 5 million. In Delhi alone, there are 360 booksellers, six universities, 80 colleges, approximately 40 research institutions and over 100 government agencies.Government offices and quasi-government offices at central, st ate, district, subdistrict and village levels produce and consume vast amounts of information. At the national level the main sources of information include: †¢ various line ministries; †¢ the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO); †¢ the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO); †¢ the Registrar-General of India (RGI); †¢ the National Information Centre (NIC); †¢ the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE); †¢ INSDOC; †¢ DELNET; †¢ Tata Energy Research Institution; †¢ the Centre for Science and Environment; and †¢ the Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI).There are hundreds of governmental bodies at state and local levels. The information output from these offices in the various sectors is considerable. In addition, information is created, acquired and disseminated in all manufacturing and service sectors. These sectors indicate the scope for the Internet in India. Over the years the demand for i nformation has increased in India and China. In India the market for information in English is enormous, as English speakers form a significant proportion of the literate population.They are generally wellestablished in economic and social terms and need information in paper and electronic forms. This is also reflected in the fact that the majority of newspapers and periodicals are published in English. India, one of the largest publishers in the world, exports many books and periodicals to countries in Asia and Africa and also to Western countries. It imports much printed The Internet and material from abroad. its impact on China has made substantial progress in information management.China and India According to a 1996 report, there were 1,038 databases covering both Chinese and English sources, representing an increase of almost 30 per cent since the previous survey in 1992 (Guide to Chinese Databases, 1996): 205 †¢ there were 41 per cent of databases concentrated in science , industry and technology; †¢ economy and business databases accounted for 28. 6 per cent, a considerable increase over the 1992 figure; †¢ social science took 15 per cent; †¢ general, 5. 6 per cent; †¢ law and medicine gained 3. 5 per cent; †¢ news and mass media took about 2. 9 per cent; †¢ databases with abstracts represented 66. per cent, and †¢ full-text and number databases took less than 30 per cent. With the inclusion of Hong Kong, China has become a superpower in information acquisition and dissemination, not only in Asia but also on a global basis. It is anticipated that demand for information in China will continue to grow in significant terms in the next decade. In both India and China access to the Internet will be extremely valuable. Internet connections In China the first TCP/IP link to the Internet was established in 1994, in the Institute of Higher Physics (IHEP), Chinese Academy of Science.The following are also connected with the Internet: †¢ Chinese Public Internet (Chinanet), established and run by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the backbone of Internet connection in Beijing. It is available through local post offices for a subscription. †¢ China Education and Research Network (CERNET), owned by the State Education Commission. In 1996 CERNET connected 100 universities nation-wide. Eventually, it will connect to all universities and will become the basis for the booming educational and research development. National Computing and Networking Facilities of China (NCFC), started in 1989 and was the first high-speed network funded by the State Planning Commission and the World Bank. In 1994 its international route was opened. †¢ Gi Tong Company Network (GBNET), established in 1994, and supported by the Ministry of Electricity, has more than 1,000 users. Over three years China has shown an increase in numbers of computers and Internet users. According to statistics provided by the Information Centre of Asian Libraries 7,9 206 China Internet, the number of Internet users increased dramatically between 1994 and November 1997.The number of hosts connecting with the Internet increased approximately 35 times, from 569 to 19,739. The number of users increased steadily from 1,600 in 1994 to 620,000 in 1997, coming mainly from education, science, business and government (Information Centre of China Internet, 1997). ChinaNet plans to cover 30 provinces, and nation-wide users will exceed one million (Ge, 1996, p. 161). Internet users are generally scientists, social scientists, academics, university students, researchers and technical experts with higher-educational backgrounds and proficient in English.Access is gained, primarily, through universities, scientific and technical institutions and corporations. In India Internet access was initiated in November 1986 through the Education and Research Network (ERNET), with assistance from the Government of India and the Un ited Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Eight institutions were involved: the five Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bangalore, the National Centre for Software Technology (CST) in Bombay and the Department of Electronics (DOE) in Delhi.The objectives included: (1) setting up a nationwide computer network for the academic and research community to promote research and development in India and abroad; (2) strengthening national capabilities in information infrastructure; (3) building specialised human resources through education and training to increase awareness of information resources available through the Internet; and (4) opening an India-USA technology gateway to provide a wide information base with other servers (ERNET, 1995).Three other internal service providers became involved at a later date: (1) SOFTNET by STP; (2) National Information Centre (NICNET); and (3) Gateway Internet Access Services (GIAS) (Ramakrishnan, n. d. ). By September 1996, India had more than 100,000 Internet users, 70,000 through ERNET, 15,000 through SOFTNET; 2,000 through NICNET and 8,000 through GIAS. User numbers are expected to grow to one million in the next three years; by then computer penetration will be around 10 million PCs.The education and research community has maximum penetration with 65 per cent, followed by business users of 25 per cent and other users of 10 per cent in the government and private households. A dramatic growth is expected once private sectors enter the Internet market. The city of Bangalore is expected to dominate the internal market because of its â€Å"electronic city†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ image (Ramakrishnan, n. d. ).Current issues and conclusions The Internet and There are three major areas of concern about the Internet that are significant in its impact on developing countries: China and India (1) national information policy; (2) regulatory framework and information infrastructure; and 207 (3) educa tion and training. National information policy Developing countries have a long tradition of oral culture; therefore, awareness of information sources in written form tends to be minimal.While national information policy in developing countries concentrates on trade, international relations, national security and technology, very little attention has been paid to accessing information electronically through the Internet and to deriving benefits. Developing countries, in order to achieve faster economic growth, should include in their official documents high-priority plans for implementing electronic information delivery systems. Policy statements should be integrated into national planning documents such as five-year plans and should be implemented on schedule.Sufficient funding should be allocated at the planning stage and should be made available quickly for implementation. Regulatory framework and information infrastructure The regulatory framework in developed countries enforces protection of investment, intellectual property and individual privacy in the information market. The legal framework addresses private sector involvement, skilled human resources, standards and implementation. In most developing countries regulatory frameworks concerning information do not exist.Although the rapid growth in information technology is changing methods of doing business at home, at work and in organisations in both developed and developing countries, regulatory frameworks have had very little effect on developing countries. While information technology, including telecommunications, has penetrated every market in the developed world, developing countries still view information technology as a means to support management information systems, finance and accounting facilities, and data processing.Computer penetration per capita in both China and India in the area of small office/home office (SOHO) is still not significant in relation to population numbers. Telecommunic ations still remain a major issue in both China and India. If information infrastructure were to cover the widespread Chinese and Indian populations, and technology were to be made available to access global information through the Internet, then the economic scene would be revitalised. Awareness of the Internet and its importance for policy makers xists only at the executive level, but unfortunately, not at the political level. This needs to be addressed urgently in both countries. Asian Libraries 7,9 208 Education and training Workforces in developing countries, as in developed countries, are changing from labour intensive to knowledge-based work. In developed countries, surveys have shown Internet use is associated with higher education. The same principle applies in developing countries. Thus, attention needs to be paid to improving literacy rates.It is the responsibility of governments, central, state and local, of learning institutions and civic associations to work together t o raise literacy levels in developing countries. The training of information professionals should be given priority. Trained information professionals will be able to utilise the Internet more efficiently and will be more effective in acquiring, organising and disseminating information. Often, developing countries are concerned about safeguarding their heritage of language and culture and supporting political systems.They are weary of foreign economic formats. Appropriate training for information professionals is an immediate requirement. Trained professionals can then educate the masses and take advantage of the Internet, sharing the dissemination of knowledge through cyberspace and adding value to the global information sector. The information revolution is real, and an information economy has already emerged, accelerating economic and social change. Information is crucial and is the central resource and basis for competition.The Internet will assist in development in the followin g ways: †¢ assessing the information capacity of the country and determining user needs, organising and synthesising information and providing access to internal and external information; †¢ disseminating information to meet the needs of the public and private sectors and the daily information needs of the general public. The two items are almost inseparable and have a symbiotic relationship. In developing countries it is urgent to train information professionals to support information infrastructure and information management.In the contemporary world, information is vital to all sectors. Thus, the role of governments in utilising the Internet is critical. First, it influences appropriate use of the Internet for social and economic change in the transition from labour-intensive production to knowledge-based information industries. Second, it defines public and private sector relationships and opens the market to a strong private information sector. Third, it redefines tel ecommunication policies to break down monopolies and to encourage competition among international and indigenous vendors.In conclusion, there is no single solution that can be applied, uniformly, to all situations in developing countries. Each case needs to be evaluated and customised to meet individual country needs. Priorities must be determined, depending on available resources. Indigenous resources should be harnessed and other resources tapped, including funding from international organisations. The Internet has considerable potential in developing countries: it is relevant to lobbying for more government support and budget allocation; it ffers delivery modes for the collection and dissemination of information; it may The Internet and be used to mobilise support among specialised ministries, universities and its impact on industries to produce and manage information, and to emphasise institutional China and India arrangements to influence policy makers and information purveyors to promote the Internet for the country’s development. References Dong, X. (1995), â€Å"The development and management of secondary information systems and services in China†, International Information and Library Review, Vol. 27, pp. 83-94. ERNET to Academic and Research Community (1995), brochure. Gartner Group (1996), â€Å"Information industry in Asia and Pacific is catching up and will become a main player in the 21st century†, China Infoworld, Vol. 41. Ge, W. (1996), â€Å"Internet in China: the state of art and perspectives†, China Computerworld, Vol. 9, September. Guide to Chinese Databases (1996), State Planning Commission and the State Scientific and Technological Commission, Beijing. Handbook of Press and Publ ication Statistics in China (1996), Press and Publications Administration, Beijing.Information Centre of China Internet (1997), â€Å"The current situation of Internet in China†, China Computerworld, Vol. 10, November. Jacobson, T. L. (1994), â€Å"The electronic publishing revolution is not ‘global’ †, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Vol. 45 No. 10, pp. 745-52. John, M. (1995), â€Å"Third world faces ‘information poverty’ †, CD News Bank Comprehensive, Reuters America, 11 October. MIDS press release: â€Å"New data on the size of the Internet and the matrix†, . Nagy, H. 1991), â€Å"Information technology in World Bank lending: increasing the development and development impact†, World Bank Discussion Papers, Vol. 120,World Bank, Washington, DC. Ramakrishnan, S. (n. d. ), head, Information Infrastructure Division, Department of Electronics, Government of India, New Delhi, personal communication. Sherry, A. (1995), â€Å"The East is wired†, Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 15. The World Bank Atlas (1996), World Bank, Washington, DC. About the authors Dr Dong Xiaoying is Associate Professor in the Department of Information Management at Peking University.She is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Asian Libraries. Address: Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. E-mail: [email  protected] bta. net. cn. Dr T. Kanti Srikantaiah is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, 7900 West Division Street, River Forest, IL 60305. E-mail: [email  protected] dom. edu 209

In the Romanesque Church the Interior Decoration Was More Important Than the Architecture. Do You Agree

Romanesque art and architecture we can see that there are many points for and against the statement ‘in the Romanesque church the interior decoration was more important than the architecture’. There are many surviving Romanesque churches throughout Europe which we can look to when discussing topics like this particular one. However, many of these churches have been redecorated, restored, extended in later periods or even just left in disrepair, but from looking at a wide range of buildings from different regions and countries we can get a general sense of what the buildings would have looked like at the time.In my essay I will discuss points in favour of the above statement, points against the above statement and also my own opinion on the subject. I will firstly discuss a few of the points in favour of the topic ‘interior decoration was more important than the architecture’. Looking at many Romanesque churches and buildings we can see that the interior deco ration is more important than the architecture. The first point, and example, is that the architecture was plain and basic, more about being structurally sound than aesthetically pleasing the viewers, and we can see this at Cuddesdon Church, in Oxfordshire.This church in England, even though the architecture and interior decoration are both modest compared with many other Romanesque churches, shows us that the interior decoration is more important than the architecture. The exterior stone walls are thick and undecorated. The architecture is exclusively for functional reasons, not decorative. There is a tower, west portal and south portal off this cruciform shaped church.However the interior decoration in this church was more elaborately considered and carried out than the architecture. One example to show this is the tower crossing, which has richly ornamented Norman arches. All the outer faces of the arches have two orders with angle half-rolls, except for the arch facing the nave. This has a hood with doghead stops, an outer order of zigzag, and an inner order with roll-moulding. In many of the Romanesque churches the interior decoration is elaborate, intricate and sophisticated.The patrons, architects and designers in the Romanesque period may have had the notion that the interior decoration was more important as that was where people would have worshipped, prayers would have been said and where ceremonies were held. Examples of this elaborate interior decoration can be seen in places such as the Cappella Palatina (Palermo), the Santa Maria in Trastevere (Rome) and the Eglise Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (Gourdon). These buildings have interior decoration features such as decorated capitals, fluting, vaulting, frescoes, arches, round blind arches and sculptural decoration.There are many other features of Romanesque interior decoration that add to the point that architecture was less important than the interior decoration. Maybe if the architecture really had been more important than the interior decoration, the Gothic style of architecture would have emerged sooner replacing the plain and basic architecture that was associated with the Romanesque style. The second point to discuss is that the interior decoration was not, in truth, more important than the architecture.The architecture of the Romanesque style could also be seen as carefully designed, well thought out and engineered. Even the most architecturally simple buildings would reinforce this point, because if the architecture was not considered as important, the exterior would be plain, different types of stones would not have been used, there would be no vaulting, no arches or any other structurally yet decoratively relevant features. The buildings would not be able to support towers, there would not have more clerestories or upper levels.There are then the Romanesque buildings where the architecture is startlingly intricate, elaborate and detailed. An example of this is the Egli se Notre-Dame-la-Grande, Poitiers. The west front of Notre-Dame-la-Grande is one of the finest Romanesque facades in France. It is flanked by turrets topped with conical spires, which, along with the rich sculpture, are the hallmarks of Poitou Romanesque architecture . The plan of the church consists of a central nave with aisles which is a common plan in Romanesque architecture of the province of Poitou.The sculpture of the West Front depicts many scenes; saints, prophets, creatures, foliage, the story of Jesus, the word of God spread by apostles and Christ in Glory. The inside of the church consists of a dim, barrel-vaulted nave with no clerestory, more narrow side aisles, a transept crossing capped with a tower, a diminutive choir, and a groin-vaulted ambulatory with radiating chapels. Other examples of buildings where the architecture is clearly not less important than the interior decoration are St. Martin's Cathedral (Mainz), Abbaye aux Hommes (Caen), Winchester Cathedral (Ham pshire) and LyonCathedral (Lyon). Some of the architectural features in these buildings include Romanesque towers, vaults, intricate exterior sculpture, high rising towers and outer buildings, ample windows and strong walls capable of reaching significant heights (without the use of buttresses). From looking at several buildings and different points of view regarding the statement ‘in the Romanesque church the interior decoration is more important than the architecture’, I can discuss my ideas and opinions regarding the above statement.In my opinion neither the architecture nor the interior decoration has priority or more importance over the other. I would say there is a parallel between the two aspects. The architecture allows for the interior decoration to be created, as it structurally supports the whole building and constructs features for the interior decoration to be created on, for example sculpture on columns and arches, mosaics and frescoes on ceilings and wall s, and stained glass windows which are structurally able to be placed there because of walls (and later buttresses).An example, in my opinion, of a Romanesque building where architecture and interior decoration are parallel in terms of importance is the Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire. Off the south aisle of the nave is the Prior's Door, which has a magnificent example of 12th-century Romanesque carvings. Dating from about 1150, its tympanum depicts Christ in Majesty held aloft by archangels and blessing the creatures of the universe. Two human heads peer down from the corners and the pilasters on the sides have medallions populated by various beasts and humans .This massive scale cathedral shows how both architecture and interior decoration were equally important, as both features were sophisticatedly designed. In conclusion, we can see that there are many different ideas about the statement ‘in the Romanesque church the interior decoration was more important than the architect ure’. In my opinion both features are equal, however the whole subject is open to debate for academics and art historians. Architecture can seem plain and incomplete without interior decoration, and interior decoration cannot exist without architecture.The fact that many buildings still survive help us to understand the Romanesque period and the art and architecture from that time. Yet as we have no firsthand experience with the buildings at that time we cannot characterize what the architects and engineers, or even just the viewers of the buildings, were thinking in regards to architecture versus interior decoration. ?Bibliography †¢http://www. sacred-destinations. com/reference/romanesque-architecture †¢http://www. wordiq. com/definition/Romanesque †¢http://www. sacred-destinations. com/categories/romanesque

Cultural Event: Pan’s Labyrinth

XI LIU Cultural Event Paper: Pan’s Labyrinth I like watching movies, and I want to learn about different cultures from different countries. So I attended the cultural event of 2012 Foreign Film Series at 7:00 pm in October 9th. I was so excited that the Art History Organization gave us a chance to watch a Spanish film called Pan’s Labyrinth. I had heard of it before, but I had never watched it. This film combined the fantasy world and the real world perfectly. That is to say, it is a film of magic realism.I was attracted by the plot of the film, and I was astonished by the director’s conception and the visual effects even though a few scenes were a little bit disgusting and scary. The background of the story was traced to 1944, five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Spain was shrouded under the haze of fascist dictatorship. Those who were communist party members and the democratic persons were hunted down and killed savagely by the army. The plot of t he movie develops with resistance against forces of General Francisco Franco, whose leader was Captain Vidal and who ruled Spain as dictator.The protagonist Ofelia entered a magic world with three challenges that Pan gave to her. The film opened with the sound of a faint melody which was accompanied by the sound of Ofelia’s breathing and the frames of blood streaming from Ofelia’s nose while she was lying on the ground. With the background of white words showing on the screen and the voiceover telling us Ofelia’s status of princess in underground realm, the story started. Ofelia, who was twelve years old, took her pregnant mother to the north to rendezvous with her stepfather Vidal, whose real identity was a fascist officer responsible for repression of the local guerrillas.The purpose of Vidal’s living with Ofelia and her mother was his flesh and blood son to be born, and Vidal’s only pleasure was to study all kinds of ways to torture people who w ere caught. After watching her cold stepfather doing evil for fun, her sick mother and witnessing violence, Ofelia, who was surrounded by loneliness and fear, became addicted to fantasy for consolation. She was led to a deserted mill which was the entrance to the labyrinth by an insect elf, and the labyrinth porter who had long horns with goats and transparent eyes was waiting for her arrival.Pan told Ofelia that she was actually a lost princess from the underground kingdom and she had to accept three challenges and complete the tasks in order to go back to her kingdom. The first task was to save an old tree. Because there was a huge toad living in the root of the tree, the tree was on the edge of death. She had to take out a golden key from the toad’s stomach. The second task was to use the golden key to retrieve a dagger. In that room, there was an evil creature sitting at a table with a feast of beautiful foods which she could not eat.She was within an inch of her life aft er giving in to temptation. At the same time, her stepfather began more offensive activities of killing people above ground. Ofelia’s struggling with nightmares blurred the boundaries of reality and fantasy. The third task was to use her half-blooded brother’s pure blood to open the door of underground. Ofelia refused this requirement due to her virtuous heart. She didn’t realize that her stepfather had followed her, and she got shot by him.The scene was back to the initial scene of Ofelia’s streaming blood from her nose lying on the ground at the start of the movie. The ending of the movie can be interpreted in two ways. If it was real, she rejoined the kingdom using her own pure blood and opening the door of entrance. If not, then she ended the movie happy and certain that she was going to a better place, with the dictator powerless to stop her. Pan’s labyrinth is a movie based in a real historical background. It is clear to show us the antiwar a ttitudes with the development of the two main plots.However, it combines the cruel reality and the beautiful fantasy world perfectly to indicate the damages and hurt of the Second World War from the angle of a girl’s point of view. The role of Ofelia represents the whole group of children who were the victims who suffered most at that time. They were eager to live in a world of fairy tale. However, the war destroyed their real dream, leaving despair, hate and agony. One of the director’s obvious artistic characteristics is that he did well in applying contrasts to achieve great artistic effects.He uses the nice fairy tale to contrast the cruel reality and the darkness of humanity. The scene at the end of the movie, which was the same as the beginning, gives me a deep impression of an innocence girl. Thus it clarifies the abhorrence to the war and spiritual sustenance of longing for beauty. The question at issue that Pan’s labyrinth brings to us is whether fantas ies can rescue us from fascism. Around this theme, the director set out two main lines of the plot; one is the reality and the other is the girl’s fantasy world. Three challenges that the girl aced with and the atrocities of Captain Vidal which center on the question at issue reveal that fantasies cannot rescue us from fascism finally. In terms of importance, relevance and sufficiency, a very famous writer Justin Zhang for Slant Magazine stated that this film used a large number of symbolisms of blood to unveiled Pan’s labyrinth god’s mysterious veil (Zhang 24). This movie provides us sufficient and detailed content to reflect the inhumanity of Captain Vidal and the innocence of the little girl. The military executed justice with brutality, violence, cruelty, and no respect for civil rights.The examples of Vidal executing the man that was telling the truth about hunting rabbits, the doctor without any trial, and shooting Ofelia for no real crime, in addition to the brutal interrogation methods, embodies the inhumanity of Vidal. When Ofelia’s mother was in dystocia, he chose to save his baby son’s life but not his wife. These examples are important and relevant to reflect the character of Vidal. The example of Ofelia’s giving up using her half-blooded brother’s pure blood to open the door to the underground kingdom indicates her essence of innocence.All these examples of Vidal and Ofelia are important and relevant to the question at issue and the purpose. Pan’s labyrinth is a movie with deep understanding and implications. At first, it conveys a meaningful anti-war topic. The three tasks that Pan gave to Ofelia were to see if she dared to question when she realized that she was wrong. Eating grapes without resisting temptation in the second task and her refusal of handing over her brother indicates that she was an innocent girl with a rebellious spirit. All the settings of the roles and scenes have their u nique meaning.For instance, the scene of Vidal having his mouth cut open by Mercedes is derived from a tradition of Chelsea Smile. British people will cut the traitors’ or the enemies’ mouth as the shape of smile for punishment. The painting of Saturn Devouring One of his Children which was drawn by Spanish painter Goya, hung on the wall in the room where Ofelia finished her second task, is derived from a legend of Greek Mythology. It’s a painting with dark humor to interpret anti-war means. The design of the name of the leading role Ofelia is from Hamlet, written by Shakespeare. This may imply the tragic destiny of the little girl.In short, it is a film that has deep meaning regarding anti-war believing, rebellious spirit and challenges. Not only does it set out an issue that is worth thinking, but it also eulogizes justice and bravery. All these symbolism and settings reflect on its depth and make it a perfect film. However, Pan’s labyrinth does not exi st. It was made up by the director, but it is based on a real background. It is precise in describing all the characters of the roles in detail. And, also, it describes the violent scene more directly, such as the face with bloody pile of flesh and the scene of Vidal’s sewing his own mouth which was cut open.It has a visual power to make us know the cruelty of the reality. The scenes switch with accuracy and precision so that we do not feel the movie boring and long. It arranges all three challenges which interlace with Captain Vidal’s atrocities within two hours. So, I think that the movie is a success in its precision of characterization and mysterious scenes. In all, I like this movie. It gives me both visual impact and strong emotional shock. It’s a fantasy story based on the real history. The fantasy world gives me an illusion of beauty, but the cruel reality makes me sober enough to rethink profoundly and see the history clearly.This movie arouses peopleâ €™s thinking about whether fantasies can rescue us from fascism. The director used the deep symbolism and settings to make the film more thoughtful and have anti-war meaning in depth. The film also gives me a chance to do some research on the background and analyze the implications that the director made. I wish I could watch more movies like this in the future. Work Cited Zhang, Justin. â€Å"The Esoteric Interpretation of â€Å"Pan’s Labyrinth†. †Ã‚  Slant Magzine. 06 2006: 24. print

Evidence Based Software Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Evidence Based Software Engineering - Essay Example BlueJ has been adopted to bring out teaching fundamental facts regarding object oriented programming. For one to learn object oriented programming without any difficulty, it will be important to use BlueJ. It is used to enable new learners get new concepts of Java programming in an easy way. The difficulties that are encountered in object oriented can be eradicated with the use BlueJ. BlueJ, like Eclipse, is used when programming applications in Java 2 Platform, and also the Standard Edition (J2SE). Developing simple programs is still possible as one can create objects and call methods that are associated with these objects using the user interface of BlueJ. The experience is simple and it is simple to understand classes and objects. Classes and objects are the building blocks that are required in programming. It is important to ensure that they are learning and adopted by new programmers. My friend will, therefore, require using BlueJ because the program is simple and does not have a lot of features (Kwan & Theodorou 2009). Another feature that is useful by using BlueJ programming language is the fact that there are UML diagrams which are manipulated by the learners as they write their programs. This enables users to interact with the program as they learn new facts about the objects and classes that are important in programming using the object oriented paradigm (Stoler 2004). Eclipse is a Java interactive development environment that is used when developing large programs. It has features that are complicated to novice programmers. It is important to use these features when the program will have to have the sophistication that befits it when it being used (Mahesh 2009). Between BlueJ and Eclipse, therefore, the one that fits the program that is being developed is BlueJ. The reasons that have been given are sufficient. BlueJ is used, mostly, for small programs. Their use fits a novice programmer (Papp 2001). Question 2 One particular problem that I found in u ndertaking step 2 of the evidence based software engineering methodology is that of getting articles which would address the problem I have. This is because there is no article I found that could talk exclusively about the two IDEs. Step two of the EBSE methodologies concerns about the search of the literature that will be used in the evaluation of the methodology of the Java development environments. The literature that I found in the search did not addressed the issue I was looking for. Most of the articles focused on the features of one IDE (Williams et al. 2008). Another challenge that I found while working on step two is that of the validity of data that I found. The information that I initially got from web search were not peer-previewed. It was, therefore, not easy to get information that would help I get the features of the two IDEs. Every time I got information that I thought would help, I found that the article did not mention the other IDE. Another challenge I found is th at the information in the articles was meant for teaching programming languages. It was hard finding information that would help in answer EBSE methodological question. Although this was the case I realized that it was important and beneficial at long last to have this approach and information (Stoler 2004). I found success, at long last, when I found literature that were helpful in the learning process.

E-Business security in your organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

E-Business security in your organisation - Essay Example It has over 3 million accounts, a quarter of which are active, and has total assets of $61 million (e-gold 4). For a decade-long company, it has not grown much compared to the largest online payment system, Paypal, which claims to do $60 million worth of transactions daily. e-gold transactions are 100 percent backed by metal deposits and are not reversible, which means that unlike credit card transactions, once a transaction is made there is no possibility that it can be cancelled. e-gold can be used to pay for transactions over other merchant websites and makes its money from maintenance fees that range up to 1 percent of the total transaction amount. Based on personal experience, the website is easy to use, getting an account is fast, and the fees are reasonable. The website (www.e-gold.com) is open 24/7 so account holders can transact anytime and anywhere. Users avail of e-gold for several types of transactions. They can have funds transferred to their e-gold account, and then have it transferred to a bank account in any currency using a reliable third party site like OmniPay or The Gold Shop. A user does this by simply logging on to a personal e-gold account, "spend" the desired amount (say, $1,000 worth of e-gold) into OmniPay, take note of the spend batch number issued for the transaction, log out of e-gold, log in to OmniPay, and fill up a bank transfer form with instructions to OmniPay to transfer the $1,000 that was "spent" or sold less fees to any bank account anywhere in the world. The funds take anywhere from two to five days to reach the bank account. Users normally tested the system by transferring small amounts, and when it worked they began moving bigger amounts of money. When someone anywhere in the world wants to pay an e-gold account holder, they give instructions to pay via e-gold by buying the e-currency and "spending" the amount to the user's account. The user can check his or her e-gold account from anywhere, even from a hot spot on a beach resort in the French Riviera, so they will know whether the payments have gone through or the funds have been transferred to the specified bank account. The user can then do transactions from there. This writer has been using e-gold for over a year now, and is happy with the service. This is the reason why this analysis on e-business security was done on this company, which has been only too happy to oblige and share information with me for this paper. Choosing the Standard One problem with selecting a standard to evaluate the e-business security issues of a merchant website is that there are too many standards to choose from. The main reason is simple: the chosen standard becomes a cash flow machine for the firm that develops it. There are several companies like Verisign, Oracle, IBM, and a host of other for-profit and not-for-profit institutions known by their acronyms: SEI, IETF, NIST, W3C, SAI, ISACA. The list is seemingly endless. The Europe-based International Organization of Standards is known for its ISO standards, the more famous of which are the ISO 9000 series used by companies to document their total quality management programs (Arnold 15). The letters ISO/IEC prefix its standards, which are adopted in both the U.S. and Europe. The British Standards Institute (BSI) is a similar organization that has several years of experience developing working standards for many industries. For these

Community Health Project Part 3-4 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community Health Project Part 3-4 - Assignment Example lity of 1 percent, by 2030 there could be dependent upon 26.8 million new instances of growth and 17.1 million malignancy deaths consistently, and in addition 80 million individuals living with cancer within 5 years of analysis. In 2007, there were in excess of 12 million new cancer cases, 7.6 million cancer deaths, and in excess of 24 million disease survivors globally. The most well-known cancer diagnosed universally were lung cancer (1.5 million), breast disease (1.3 million), and colorectal cancer (1.2 million). Lung cancer caused roughly (1.45 million deaths) positioned first in the mortality scale, emulated by stomach disease (800,000 deaths), and prostate cancer (680,000 deaths) (Resnick & Thompson, 2000). Among men, the most well-known reasons for disease mortality are lung, stomach, liver, colorectal, throat and prostate; among ladies they are bosom, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. This study compels the authorities to look for ways through which they address the problem amicably. As indicated above, rate, prevalence, and survival rates for particular growths uncover much about wellbeing value inside and between nations. This is less clear for poor-prognosis of cancer, for example, pancreatic disease, where generally little is thought about their reasons and the death rates for those diagnosed methodologies 100 percent around the world. Those tumors that are very defenseless to preventive measures, screening, and treatment recount an alternate story. Effortlessly treatable if women experience standard Pap screening cervical cancer is a reasonable situation where optional aversion and treatment can lessen a huge number of deaths of moderately young people around the world. Also, new information on the basic part of the HPV as an immediate reason for cervical growth has prompted improvement of viable immunizations against this disease, which has opened the likelihood of controlling and possibly dispensing with this malady – in any event in ranges

Analysis on the Global Strategy of Volkswagen Essay

Analysis on the Global Strategy of Volkswagen - Essay Example The cars underwent testing by the automakers and the Nazi troops. In 1938, they set up a plant in Wolfsburg to continue its massive production for the German people. However, the Second World War changed the car production of Volkswagen into a military vehicle. Volkswagen was named as Wolfsburg Motor Works while British desired to eliminate the beetle name. Despite their effort, Volkswagen remained in the history. The cars were produced to serve the countries involved in the war, which destroyed the future of Volkswagen (Gunnel 6-7). The future of Volkswagen became certain due to Heinrich â€Å"Heinz† Nordhoof as the general manager. Massive production of the beetle was distributed throughout France, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands. In 1949, British government returned the ownership of Volkswagen to Germany. The Volkswagen continued to produce car for commercial and luxury. It has achieved its goal to excel the â€Å"legendary mark† attained by the Ford Motor Comp any’s Model T. Moreover, the first design was altered to large car production. The popularity of Volkswagen increased with the introduction of the Golf GTI (â€Å"Brief Journey†). With its commitment to innovation, the Volkswagen continued to evolve in matching the preference of its customers. The main thrust of this paper is to analyze the global strategy of Volkswagen as the global leader in the automotive industry. ... By being number one, it means that Volkswagen has to surpass Toyota. According to The Guardian, Toyota was able to overshadow the General Motors, which was once the number one car dealer (â€Å"Toyota Holds†). The company aims to be the â€Å"global economic and environmental leader among mobile manufacturers† in 2018. To achieve the company’s goals, the Volkswagen attempts to innovate and utilize technologies but retaining the core aspect of customer satisfaction and quality. Second, the unit sales must increase above the average of 10 million cars a year since the market continues to expand. Third, the 8 % increase in the return sales of Volkswagen before tax to secure its financial situation, and its capacity to operate despite the crucial market environment. Lastly, the company aims to be the best employer among all companies, brands, and regions; hence, Volkswagen must create a first class team (â€Å"Strategy†). Furthermore, profitability is the main purpose of Volkswagen group, so that it remains viable in the car production. The economic condition affects their profitability, but they strive to achieve economic balance in their system. The capital expenditure must remain at the manageable position while the company achieves efficiency and flexibility. Global Strategy Multiple Brand-Strategy Multiple brand strategy is the common trend in the automotive industry. Volkswagen is divided into two forms: classic and sporty. The classic brands include VW, Skoda, and Bentley while sport brands involve Audi, Seat, and Lamborghini. Brand name is remarkably sensitive in the target market of the automotive industry (Schmid 3). That is why it is crucial

Vaccination for Babies 0-6 Months Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Vaccination for Babies 0-6 Months - Essay Example I. Objectives:  I. Objectives:  The participants should be able to: A. Assess their own knowledge/insights, feelings, and apprehensions regarding vaccination of babies B. Verbalize the value of vaccination in the well-being of a child C. Prepare a vaccination schedule for their babies III. Lesson A. Nursing DiagnosisThe nurse will ask participants to form a group of three and discuss what they know and how they feel about vaccination for babies. These questions will lead to an assessment of participants’ knowledge and feelings about vaccination.Guide Questions:1. What is the purpose of vaccination?2. What advantages/disadvantages will it bring?  3. What types of vaccination do you know?4. Did all your grown-up children undergo vaccinations? What illness did they have so far?B. Methodology1. Thought Bubbles – The participants (in triads) will write down their answers on the thought bubbles (Fig. 1).2. Cooperative Learning – Participants will exchange knowled ge to come up with answers to the questions in the thought bubbles.3. Class Discussion – each group will present its thought bubbles to the class.   C. Teaching Aids1. Illustration board or A3 size bond paper for the thought bubbles2. Markers3. Computer with Internet connection4. LCD projector5. A4 bond paper for printing schedules6. Computer printer D. ProcedureThe participants will answer the thought bubbles and present it to class. This activity will help the nurse assess their knowledge and feelings on vaccinations.

Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Literature - Essay Example The five natures or characteristics found in literature are subdivided into smaller segments to show the complex variety and types of works which have been produced by writers but the central points remain the same. These include: Knowing and understand these aspects allows an individual to apply the same to any work which is presented as literature and permits the examination of how that particular piece is constructed (Culler, 2000). Considering the longer of the two works, the Tell-Tale Heart is a fine example of gothic short story writing for which Poe is rightly famous. The story places an unnamed narrator with an old man who has a defect in one of his eyes which give it a cloudy appearance. The narrator is very distressed by the eye for some reason to the extent that he wishes to kill the old man. He stands night after night looking upon the old man as he sleeps but doesn’t kill him because the urge to kill settles down while the eye is closed. One night the old man wakes up and upon seeing the cloudy eye the narrator loses control and kills the old man. He chops up the body and buries it under the floor boards (Poe, 1843). When the police come to investigate, he remains calm and shows them around the house to clarify that there was no murder or accident. However, during the visit he starts hearing the heartbeat of the man he buried and becomes very agitated as it grows louder. The police do not hear anything but narrator himself is driven into frenzy and starts tearing out the floorboards to reveal the dead man’s body and his own guilt (Poe, 1843). If we apply the five characteristics, then all seem to fit very well into place with the story in question. First of all, the story and the events described therein are completely fictional although understandably scary and exciting. The language used is very suitable for

Gandhi's Views on Nonviolence VS Martin Luther King's Views on Essay

Gandhi's Views on Nonviolence VS Martin Luther King's Views on Nonviolence - Essay Example While Martin Luther King considers nonviolence as the fundamental code of life in all situations irrespective of the complexity of the circumstances, Mahatma Gandhi believed in a balance between violence and nonviolence to attain a holistic control over both the external and the internal factors influencing one’s life. This paper draws a comparison between the views of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi regarding nonviolence. Martin Luther King thought of the society as one unit in which if one is affected by the violence in some way, its consequences are borne by all people in the society indirectly. Therefore, the first and the foremost responsibility of every citizen is to feel this sense of belongingness and concernedness when somebody experiences violence. Martin Luther King believed that a nonviolent campaign basically consists of four steps; determination of the existence of injustice by collection of facts, dialogue, self-purification, and lastly, the direct action. None of these steps imparts the need for one to be violent in one’s attempt to eradicate violence from the society and spread peace. Even the â€Å"direct action† which apparently seems to be a little rough approach towards the resolution of the matter is not-so-rough in the real sense, as it is also nonviolent. Examples of the nonviolent direct action are marches and sit-ins. The only purpose of these nonviolent direct actions is to convince the other party to conduct dialogue and negotiations with the concerned party to ease the tension. While negotiation is a fairly effective way of reducing tension between two or more parties, the results are not always very objective and solid because of the non-seriousness of some people in the concerned groups. Unlike Martin Luther King, Gandhi has considered violence not only a useful but also compulsory way of attaining control over the external factors. â€Å"Violence is needed for the protection of things external,

What Are Good Industrial Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What Are Good Industrial Relations - Essay Example Industrial relations involve efforts to create workable solutions between conflicting objectives and values, between incentive and economic security, discipline and industrial democracy, authority and freedom, and between bargaining and cooperation (â€Å"Industrial Relations†, 2012). They not only affect the interests of labor and management but also the economy addressed by the government. They denote matters such as the right to organize, freedom of association, and collective bargaining and arbitration between various levels of the economy (Sivarethinamohma, 2010). As seen in the above definitions, industrial relations are chiefly the relations between employers and employees, reflecting the outcome of human resources management. Their main emphasis is to accommodate the interests of other parties and maintain a harmony through problem solving between employers and employees. Industrial relations are governed by policies, rules, regulations, agreements, mediations, acts an d awards concerning workplace and working community. Industrial relations analysts have described three major theoretical approaches that are different in explaining and analyzing relations at workplaces. These are pluralist theory, unitarism, and radical perspectives. Each one provides a unique understanding of relations at workplaces and therefore, uniquely interprets factors such as conflicts, the role of trade unions, and work regulation (Barbash & Barbash,

John Locke the State of Nature Essay Example for Free

John Locke the State of Nature Essay In the chapter five of The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke expresses his opinion about property. According to the Bible, all human being is the descendants of Adam and Eve, which mean that this world is common to all humankind. However, in order to that the property is significant to people, the property must be your own private property. The individuals are different from the land and other properties. Everyone is entitled to the private rights; the personal private property may be obtained by the working, and the personal private property is out of the scope of the public property. Therefore, through manual labour, the public properties become privatization. Nevertheless, the privatization of public property is limited; the way to obtain the private property is only in the situation that does not damage others will be accepted by others. Only under such situation that people have provided appropriate resources to others, can they gain own properties to achieve their satisfactory goals through contribution and work. God gives treasure to humans, but does not look forward to seeing humans using it improperly. God expects humans to share and use the treasure in proper way and by their own work. How much treasure people should earn should be decided according to how much they contribute and need. However, it is not ethical to get properties by violating others. When people cannot implement or distribute natural resources in proper ways, others turn such resources into their own properties via ethically appropriate implementation. The right of gaining property from work is prior than lands public-owned status, since most of what people gain is via their hard work instead of natural resources. Above all, if people are willing to work on and properly implement public-owned resource properly, such work will give property as a return. In addition, John Locke indicates that the reason why currency came out was people was making efforts on storing some resource which tended easily to go bad, and making them better use and higher profits. Currency does not have actual value, but its value is from the exchange of other resources. It is pointless to occupy extra property which exceeds the actual need and ability of using it, and is not honest either.

Marketing Analysis of Whale Watch Tourism

Marketing Analysis of Whale Watch Tourism Whale Watch- New Zealand’s Ultimate Marine Experience and the Nature-Tourism Market Question One Market Segmentation in the nature-tourism market can be defined as the process through which potential customers with similar needs and characteristics are grouped together so that a tourism organization can apply marketing strategies for the selected market segment efficiently (Oohlala, 2013). Segmentation also involves learning more about customers and making the heterogeneous market into a homogenous market (Bowker, 2014). Segmenting the New Zealand nature-tourism market is viable because it assists in understanding the needs and wants of customers, allocating marketing expenses efficiently, further developing products/services and developing marketing strategies more precisely (Grewal Levy, 2012). The two segments I will divide the domestic nature-tourism market are the: â€Å"Being There† and â€Å"Embracing Life† segments. Comprising of over a quarter of New Zealand’s adult population, ‘Being There’ is definitely an identifiable segment which is large and old. A majority of this segment are aged 55 years or older. They havea female majority and a high percentage of people living alone. The segment can be found throughout all over in New Zealand meaning that it is substantial. Members of this segment have a strong interest in gardening and reading. They also have a positive interest in visiting natural/scenic locations, and are most likely to be a member of church or rotary group. Members of ‘Being There’ are motivated to travel by a yearning to spend time with people they love and appreciate natural/scenic locations. This segment is most interested in sightseeing, natural attractions and walking/hiking and meaning it is a responsive segment for the nature-tourism market. As this segment is relatively wealthy, money is less of a barrier to travel meaning that it is a profitable segment. There are many viable marketing channels that can be used to reach this segment which makes it reachable. These include: Major daily newspapers, special media (e.g. gardening channels/magazines/groups), affinity groups (churches, Rotary, other voluntary groups) are all channels that can be used to reach this market. Another segment for the New Zealand nature-tourism market makes up nearly a quarter of the adult population making it a substantial segment, ‘Living Life’ shares a philosophy to live life to the fullest and embrace nature. This segment is identifiable with a majority of members being aged between 25 and 60 years old. This segment has a dominant family structure of couples with children. Members of ‘Living Life’ can be found throughout all over New Zealand which enables the segment to be substantial. Members of this segment are most likely to have hobbies such as mountaineering, tramping, sight-seeing, boating and gardening at home. This segment is very responsive because vacations are important to them and they holiday frequently within New Zealand. When holidaying in New Zealand, they take part in their favourite activities with their children and partners, away from the pressures of daily life. The ideal holiday for ‘Living Life’ is spending well-earned money on an above all family-friendly, and involves outdoor experiences, scenery and landscapes meaning it is a profitable segment which will spend money on nature-tourism. Key barriers to travel are the amount of annual leave available, work and family commitments. This segment is reachable through channels such as newspaper, media/online (e.g. golf, outdoor, boating, fishing), newspapers and fairs. Question Two In order to evaluate how Whale Watching’s product is perceived by potential customers, it is vital to deconstruct the product into four different levels. This is called the Total Product Concept and we will use this model to deconstruct the product Whale Watch is offering, and evaluate how the company is positioned within the nature-tourism market. Firstly, the Core Product is the fundamental benefit that responds to a potential customer’s need or wants (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele Waller, 2010). For Whale Watch the core benefit for a customer would be being able to observe whales in their natural habitat. This could be for recreational or scientific and educational purposes depending on the motive of the customer. Secondly, the Expected Product is the relative factors that delivers the benefit which forms the core product and fulfil the customer’s most basic expectations (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele Waller, 2010), Whale Watch offers an exciting up-close encounter with the Giant Sperm Whale in their natural environment. In a typical Whale Watch tour, the customer can expect to encounter a wide variety of sea-life and birds. Vessels are crewed by an expert team who are experienced in interacting with the whales. Whale Watch ensures that passenger comfort and safety are always high priority. These are all expected features of the product/service Whale Watch is offering to customers. The Augmented Product offers a combination of benefits that is not a part of the basic level of needs for the customer. It is at the augmented product level where marketers are able to significantly differentiate their products/services from the competition (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele Waller, 2010). Whale Watch is New Zealand’s only vessel-based whale watching experience and the 95% success rate of trips at Whale Watch means that they guarantee an 80% refund and is an example of an augmented service that gives a competitive edge over other companies. Furthermore, it is based in Kaikoura, the Whale Watching capital of New Zealand which provides a unique experience over other locations. Whale Watch is committed to the care and protection of the environment and seeks to minimise waste, promote recycling, use eco-friendly product and minimise their impact on marine life (Whale Watch, 2013). These factors are important for customers who really care about then environment and are conce rned with conservation and the preservation of nature. All these special features and facilities are factors that would help customers to choose Whale Watch over other competitors. The Potential Product of the Product Concept Model comprises all possibilities that could become part of the expected or augmented product. This includes features that are being developed planned as well as features that have not yet been conceived (Elliott, Rundle-Thiele Waller, 2010). In the future, Whale Watch could offer new tours such as swimming with dolphins swimming with whales which would offer a unique, up-and-close, more personal experience. Whale Watch will need to do research on how to bring this programme to life and keep safety measures in mind. Whale Watch seems to be using a differentiation positioning strategies using conservation, nature preservation and a unique approach to attract customers. Whale Watch’s positioning statement is used to succinctly convey their philosophies and approach: â€Å"Whale Watch Kaikoura is New Zealand’s ultimate all year round nature experience offering visitors an exciting up-close encounter with The Giant Sperm Whale† (Whale Watch, 2013). â€Å"We are visitors to the world of the whales and respect it as such at all times. As a Maori owned company, Whale Watch cherishes the twin values of hospitality to visitors and reverence for the natural world† (Whale Watch, 2013). Question Three A service is an act or performance offered by one party to another. They are economic activities that create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places as a result of bringing desired change .One of the unique characteristics of a service is that it is inconsistent meaning the service provider cannot provide exactly the same service every time (Brown, 2008). Applying this to Whale Watch’s situation, because of the nature of their service, Whale Watch cannot guarantee the same Whale Watching experience to customers for every tour. Depending on seasonal variations or even the weather on a particular day, every trip will offer a different kind of experience. Customers are not guaranteed to be able to see a consistent number of whales and sea-life on every trip because Whale Watch has little control over this factor. In some seasons of the year, certain animals will not appear at all and on certain days no whales may be sighted at all. Because Whale Watch offers a conservative and completely nature-based experience it cannot â€Å"force† a service and experience for the customer. In order to manage these challenges Whale Watch seems to have particular strategies to target and solve these challenges. Firstly, Whale Watch offers an 80% refund if a tour does not see a whale. Furthermore, Whale Watch staff constantly monitor the weather and respond professionally to any changes. This could a result in a tour being cancelled or safety restrictions placed on children or passengers with medical problems. This is because Whale Watch wants to promote passenger comfort and safety as their number one priority. Furthermore, Whale Watch would want to decrease the chances of a trip a day with bad weather conditions resulting in zero or minimal whale sightings. The on-board plasma screens display a virtual animated tour while the tour is actually taking place so customers will have a larger than life experience even though there may be inconsistency in actual whale and other sea-life sightings. Also, the professional guides and skippers are there in order to maintain consistency in a service with inconsistent characteristics. Whale Watch will make sure that the staff provide a high level of professional service with passenger safety and comfort as their number one priority. This is evident in their constant monitoring of weather and responding professionally.to any changes. Looking at Whale Watch’s philosophy and positioning statement, the company emphasizes that it is Maori owned which has a reverence for the natural environment and is dedicated to conservation, preservation and respect for wildlife. This is a factor that Whale Watch seems to be using to manage challenges of inconsistency of its services. Many customer’s especially nature-lovers and conservationists will respect the company’s philosophies and understand the unavoidable, inconsistent nature of services that Whale Watch is offering. Word Count: 1590 References Grewal, D., Levy, M. (2013). Marketing (1st ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin. Oohlala, R. (2013). Tourism market segmentation. Slideshare.net. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/reymarieoohlala/tourism-market-segmentation/ Whalewatch.co.nz. (2014). New Zealand Attractions | Kaikoura Whale Watching | Canterbury NZ. Retrieved from http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/ Brown, A. (2008). Alex Brown: teaching digital marketing and ending horse slaughter. Udel.edu. Retrieved from http://www.udel.edu/alex/index.html/ Bowker, M. (2014). Segmentation, targeting and positioning [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://cecil.auckland.ac.nz/

Labour Education And Extensive Employee Development Schemes Management Essay

Labour Education And Extensive Employee Development Schemes Management Essay I think its possible to examine both perspectives in this paper and then decide where you stand in the debate. In essence the assignment is asking you to consider how the various types of education that happen in unions (labour education tools courses, issues courses, etc.) and employment development schemes empower workers to participate in decision-making processes in the workplace (i.e. democratic systems). Do these types of education within unions facilitate a more equal relationship between employers and employees than the education or learning that happens in non-unionzied organizations? Is it possible for workplaces to be run democratically? How does education contribute to establishing equity, empowerment and democracy in workplaces (if it does at all)? Chapter 5 in Bratton et al. discusses many of types of education that unions offer, not only for stewards. While it might be difficult to go into detail about all these forms of education, the question is asking you to think about labour education broadly for workers and the labour movement. The topic of the strategic relevance of human resource management in organizational strategies and business ideals offers a deep foray into one of the main ingredient that successfully underpins the achievement of leadership and managerial objectives. This insight impels the ongoing scrutiny into one of the key leverage of our current human resource management identified as employee development schemes. This assignment begins with an examination of trade unions and strategic HRM issues, will continue with a snapshot description of labour education and workers empowerment as popular organizational initiative and its objective of combining education as a managements approach to workers empowerment. Trade unions and strategic HRM In the literature the new HRM model is depicted as unitary; it assumes that management and workers share common goals, and differences are treated and resolved rationally. According to the theory, if all workers are fully integrated into the business they will identify with their companys goals and managements problems, so that what is good for the company and management is perceived by workers as also being good for them. Critical to achieving this goal is the notion of worker commitment to the organization. This HRM goal has led writers from both ends of the political spectrum to argue that there is a contradiction between the normative HRM model and trade unions. In the prescriptive management literature, the argument is that the collectivist culture, with its them and us attitude, sits uncomfortably with the HRM goal of high employee commitment and the individualization of the employment relationship including individual contracts, communications, appraisal and rewards. Much of the critical literature also presents the new HRM model as inconsistent with traditional industrial relations and collective bargaining, albeit for very different reasons. Critics argue that HRM policies and practices are designed to provide workers with a false sense of job security and obscure underlying sources of conflict inherent in employment relations. According to Godard, historically a major reason for managers adopting progressive [HRM] practices has been to avoid or weaken unions. However, he does concede that it would also be a mistake to view progressive practices as motivated solely or even primarily by this objective (1994, p. 155). Yet other industrial relations scholars, taking a more traditional orthodox pluralist perspective, have argued that independent trade unions and variants of the HRM model cannot only coexist but are even necessary to its successful implementation and development. They argue that trade unions should become proactive or change champions actively promoting the more positive elements of the soft HRM model. Such a union strategy would create a partnership between management and organized labour which would result in a high-performance workplace with mutual gains for both the organization and workers (Betcherman et al., 1994; Guest, 1995; Verma, 1995). What is clearly apparent from a review of the literature is that this aspect of the HRM discourse has been strongly influenced by political-legal developments and the decline in trade union membership and power in the US and UK over the last two decades. Therefore when you read Chapter 12 and the literature, it is important to remember that the debate is set in the contextual developments in the USA and Britain. The idea of embedding worker commitment in HRM model has led to strong argument among writers, that, there is a contradiction between the HRM normative model and trade unions. In the prescriptive management literature, the argument is the collectivist culture, with them and us attitude, sabotages the HRM goal of high employee commitment and the individualization of the employment relationship. Moreover, critics argue that, high-performance-high-commitment HR strategies provide workers with false sense of job security, by hiding underlying sources of conflict, inherent in employment relations. However, other scholars with pluralist perspective argue that not only do trade unions andhigh-commitment HRM model coexist but are indeed necessary if an HPWS is tosucceed (Bratton and Gold, 2003: 60). In addition, other researchers like Sparrow and Hiltrop (1994: 25) in Morley et al., (2006)identified a shift from the HRM function and its associated terrain to a strategic role in other areas of HRM activity. Thus, the greater emphasis on the integration of the human resource function into strategic decision-making, a decentralization of much activity to line managers, and pre-occupation with industrial relations and collective bargaining, has made way for a more SHRM activities such as communications, human resource development, workplace learning, career management and human capital accumulation EMPOWERMENT Empowerment is a concept that gained immense popularity in the 1990s and looks set to continue as a popular organisational initiative in the twenty-first century. It is a managerial ideology in its own right as well as being used with other initiatives and strategies such as BPR, TQM and the learning organisation. It is strongly associated with culture change initiatives, delayering and restructuring, and usually involves devolving power and responsibilities to teams at workplace or customer level (Arkin, 1995). Defining empowerment Various one-dimensional definitions, of empowerment have emanated from the practitioner literature. Typical of this view is Cook and Macaulays (1997) definition of empowerment as a change-management tool which helps organisations create an environment where every individual can use his or her abilities and energies to satisfy the customer (p. 54). Its all-embracing nature skirts over issues of how employees use their abilities, and whether there are boundaries to responsibilities, the degree and type of power employees enjoy, power relations between employee, managers, individuals, teams, customers and the context of empowerment. Both Wilkinson (1998) and Lashley (1997) have commented that empowerment is influenced by historical, economic, social and political factors, and in attempting a definition the context in which it is practised must be considered. Wilkinson (1998) defines empowerment as a managerially led initiative: Unlike industrial democracy there is no notion of workers having a right to a say: it is employers who decide whether and how to empower employees. While there is a wide range of programmes and initiatives which are titled empowerment and they vary as to the extent of power which employees actually exercise, most are purposefully designed not to give workers a very significant role in decision making but rather to secure an enhanced employee contribution to the organisation. Empowerment takes place within the context of a strict management agenda. (p. 40) Empowerment is thus a managerially controlled phenomenon operating at a workbased rather than a strategic level within the organisation. Honold (1997) implicitly acknowledges this by seeing empowerment as control of ones work, autonomy on the job, variations of teamwork, and pay systems that link pay with performance (p. 202). She further divides empowerment into five groupings: leadership, the individual empowered state, collaborative work, structural or procedural change, and the multidimensional perspective that encompasses the other four categories. Multidimensional perspectives on empowerment Honolds (1997: 206) final category shows that one approach is insufficient for empowerment to be effective. Others believe that combining education, leading, mentoring and supporting, providing and structuring is more likely to enable empowerment systems to be successful. Human resource systems should also be fully supportive of these components, providing a contextual framework within which empowerment systems are able to operate. This means linking the empowerment process to the vision, goals and aims of the organisation, through HRD, reward systems and employee relations systems combined with adequate feedback measures. . Bratton John and Gold Jeffrey (2003) Human Resource Management: Theory andPractice third edition London: Palgrave Macmillan Morley Michael J., Gunnigle Patrick and Sullivan Michelle O, Collings David G. Newdirections in the roles and responsibilities of the HRM function Personnel Review Vol.35 No. 6, 2006, 609-617 Sparrow, P. and Hiltrop J. M. (1994), European Human Resource Management inTransition, Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead https://ulib.derby.ac.uk/ecdu/CourseRes/dbs/manpeopl/hold.pdf

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein :: Essays Papers

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Unbelievably Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein at the age of eighteen. This great work captures the imaginations of its readers. Frankenstein remains one of the greatest examples of Gothic literature. Unlike other Gothic novels of the time, however, Frankenstein also includes elements of Romantic writing, and therefore cannot be classified as soley Gothic. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist. The daughter of the British philosopher William Godwin and the British author and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Born in London in 1797, Mary was privately educated. She met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in May 1814, and two months later she left England with him. When Shelley's first wife died in December 1816, he married Mary. Mary’s first and most important work, the novel Frankenstein, was begun on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 as her contribution to a ghost-story competition. A remarkable accomplishment for such a young writer, Frankenstein was a success. No other work by Mary Shelley achieved the popularity or excellence of this first work, although she wrote four other novels, books of travel sketches, and miscellaneous tales. In 1818 the Shelley’s left England for Italy, where they stayed until Shelley’s death. Only one of Mary’s and Percy’s children survived, Percy Florence, and in 1823 Mary returned to England with him and concentrated on his education and welfare. The image of Mary Shelley presented by the biographers suggests an intensely private, imaginatively exuberant, yet also emotionally withdrawn figure, whose political melancholy and strong religious faith are intriguingly at odds with the optimistic rationalism of her famous parents, and her poet husband’s atheistic radicalism. The story of Frankenstein begins in the polar ice of the Arctic Circle. The ship of an English explorer, Walton, is trapped in the ice and is unable to travel. During the day the men on board spotted a sledge, driven by a huge man and drawn by dogs followed by Victor Frankenstein, a man in very poor condition. Walton nursed him back to health as the stranger told Walton his story. Victor Frankenstein was born in Geneva and at an early age showed promise in the natural sciences. Victor was sent to a university when he grew older, and that’s where he stumbled on to the secret of creating life. With great brilliance Victor created an eight-foot monster and gave him life through electricity. Once Victor had realized what he had done he panicked and left the creature. When the creature wondered into the city everyone he met screamed and ran away. Finally the creature found a place to live in a

Stability and bioavailability of different erythromycin derivatives :: essays research papers

1. Introduction Erythromycin is one of the most common used macrolide antibiotics. Over the years after Abbott introduced Erythrocin ® (erythromycin stearate) into the market, several generics and new brands have been introduced – generics in the form of different drug formulations and new brands in the form of different erythromycin salts. All these derivatives have the same pharmacodynamics and mechanism of action, but differ tremendously in their pharmacokinetics. This paper will give an introduction and a brief overview in the different stabilities and pharmacokinetics of the erythromycin salts and an introduction into new approaches in the field of macrolide antibiotics. Table of Contents 1. Introduction  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2 2. Erythromycin – a brief chemical description  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  4 2.1 Crystal structure and hygroscopicity  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  7 2.2 Mechanism of action  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  8 3. Derivatives of erythromycin base  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  9 3.1 Erythromycin stearate  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10 3.2 Erythromycin ethyl succinate  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  10 3.3 Erythromycin estolate  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  11 3.4 Comparison between erythromycin base and estolate  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13 4 Chemical derivatives of erythromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13 4.1 Roxithromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  13 4.2 Clarithromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  14 4.3 Azithromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  14 4.4 Dirithromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  15 4.5 Flurithromycin  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  16 4.6 Comparison of properties among the newer macrolides  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  17 5 Discussion and conclusions  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  19 References  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  21 2. Erythromycin – a brief chemical description Figure 2.1 Advertisement for eryped ® [3] Erythromycin belongs to the chemical group of macrolide antibiotics (macros [greek] = great, -olid as the suffix for lactones). It's microbiological activity mainly covers bacterial infections of the respiratory tract and other infections with gram positive bacteria. In the case of erythromycin base, the 14-linked lactone ring (Erythronolid) is conjugated with one basic amino sugar (Desopamine) and one neutral sugar (Cladinose). Figure 2.2 Erythromycin base showing the aglycon (red), the basic amino sugar (green), and the neutral sugar (blue) [2] Erythromycin was first discovered in 1952 in Streptomyces erythreus. The spectrum of activity is equal to penicillin. The antibiotic activity is linked to the presence of the desoxy sugars. There are three known forms of erythromycin. The structure of erythromycin-A is the most common used in formulations and differs from erythromycin-B in the hydroxyl-group in position 13 of the lactone ring. Erythromycin-C is missing the methoxy-group in the cladinose sugar. [8] Stability problems first were discovered when Erythrocin ® was found to contain not the declared amount of erythromycin stearate. The first stability problem with erythromycin is because of its deliquescence. This could be prevented if erythromycin is stored under accurate conditions. Erythromycin has a poor water solubility and solutions decompose quicker if temperature is increased. Figure 2.1 shows the chemical degradation of erythromycin. The formation of the hemiketal is a dehydration and leads to the inactivation and loss of antibiotic activity. This step is highly pH sensitive. Figure 2.3 Chemical degradation and inactivation of erythromycin [4]

What Factors affect Britains climate?

Weather is different in every country even city. Climate is the general weather conditions usually found in a particular place. Through climate we can judge the type of fruit or vegetables that grow in a certain area. The Mediterranean climate is good for growing citrus fruits and grapes. Where as the American climate is good for growing bananas and Indian and Pakistani climate is perfect for mangoes. Britain is an island country and is surrounded by sea which gives it a varied climate. We never actually know what the weather will be like, one day it might be sunny the next there might be rain. As we have such a variable climate its hard to predict in general we have warm summers and cool winters our summers our cooler than other countries because we are surrounded by sea but our winters are milder. The main influence on Britain's climate which are important are latitude , altitude ,distance from the sea, ocean currents and the prevailing winds. Latitude: Latitude is the position north or south of the equator measured from 0à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to 90à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. If you are on the equator then your latitude would be zero. If you are near the north pole your latitude would be nearly ninety degrees north and if you are more to the south pole your latitude would be almost 90 degrees south. The further away from the equator you are the colder it is. Therefore when we compare the UK with a country such as Egypt, Egypt is always hotter because its more nearer to the equator than UK. As you can see on the diagram Egypt is more nearer to the equator than Britain and is therefore more warmer.(the diagram is not accurate jus a rough estimation of where the two countries may be) as one gets above tropic of cancer or Capricorn, the climate becomes milder, with warm summers and cold winters. This is known as temperate climate and this is what the UK climate is referred as. At points furthest away from the equator, the climate is colder and is called polar. Altitude: Altitude is the height above sea level, the higher we go the colder it gets altitude may be measured in units such as metres or miles but is usually measured in feet. When I say the higher you go the colder it gets a mere example is on top of mountain peeks, the peeks are way high up and it is much much much colder there and therefore the air there freezes into ice or snow. In Britain there are a few mountains but we are surrounded more by the sea and therefore the mountains don't have a lot of effect in Britain. Other countries such as Nepal that have a lot of mountain ranges are very cold and I personally think its because of the mountains. The temperature falls by about 1 degrees for ever 100 metres above sea level. Distance form the sea: The sea is cooler than land during summer and warmer in winter because it conducts heat slower than land and cools down slower than land in winter. Land heats up faster than sea because its denser and has a bit of metal in it which is a very good conductor heat. The centre of continents are subject to a large range of temperatures. In the summer, temperatures can be very hot and dry as moisture from the sea evaporates before it reaches the centre of the continent. Distance from the sea has a great effect on Britain as you can see on the map that Britain is surrounded by water an therefore makes our summer cooler and our winters are much milder. Prevailing wind direction: prevailing wind direction means the direction wind comes from. Winds that blow from the sea often bring rain to the coast and dry weather to inland areas. Winds that blow to Britain from warm inland areas such as Africa (a warm hot area) will be warm and dry. Winds that blow to Britain from inland areas such as the Netherlands (cold region) will be cold and dry in winter. Britain's prevailing winds come from a south westerly direction over the Atlantic. The winds are cool in the summer and mild in the winter. Because Britain's wind comes from the south west this means it brings fairly warm air because it comes from near the equator. It also brings water vapour from the ocean(as it comes over the Atlantic ocean)- and that means more rain! Ocean currents: The North Atlantic Current (North Atlantic Drift and the North Atlantic Sea Movement) is a powerful warm ocean current that continues the Gulf Stream northeast. Ocean currents can have a great effect on tempratures either reduce it or increase it. The main ocean current that affects UK is the gulf stream. The gulf stream is a warm ocean current in the north atlantic flowing from the gulf of mexico. The gulf of mexico has a higher temprature than uk because its more closer to the equator where as uk is more futher away near the north pole. This means that the air coming from the Gulf of Mexico to Britain is also warm. However, the air is also quite moist as it travels over the Atlantic ocean. This is one reason why Britain often has wet weather. Some local factors affecting climate: There are some local factors which don't have a major affect but do in a way affect all climate such as the two following;One place may be warm and dry because it is sheletered by hills whereas another place may unmasked to wind and rain. Also electronic things, cars leting of gas and central heating also give out heat. So therefore the city is made to be more warmer than the countryside. Air mass Some part of the world is hot some is cold. The result is that the air moves around- like the air in a cold building when you turn on the heater or even the cooker in the kitchen. The air moves around the world in huge blocks known as air masses. An air mass can be thousands of km across. It can be warm or cold or any temperature but depending on where it came from. If for example an air mass comes from the north pole and moves over to the UK there will be cold and dry weather if an air mass coming from the equator (a warm dry place) there will be warm weather. Often two different air masses will meet and clash over the UK which causes sudden changes in weather. Many different air masses cross Britain. That's why our weather changes so fast but if an air mass stays very slow or stays in one place the weather stays the same for days. The weather does not change from day to day at the tropics and poles because they have the same type of air mass all year round. Conclusion: In conclusion, although many factors affect Britain some are more imporant than others. Like the direction in which the suns ray hit the earth (equator). How far away a place is from the equator (latitude) the height above sea level (altitude), the distance from the sea, the direction the winds come from and the ocean currents. But all of these are based on one major factor which I didn't mention the SUN. How the sun affects us is affected by the rotation of the earth, latitude and cloud cover. Cloud cover is affected by the wind, another important factor, and the wind is affected by what it has passed over and altitude. Mountains redirect wind or force it up to form clouds if the wind has passed over a warm sea it will warm and wet, and if it has passed over a cold land mass it will be cold and dry. The sea have a huge impact on the land masses. Minor factors such as how built up a place is can have a big impact but in small areas, and lastly the ocean currents also is realted to which sea it came from then where about the sea is(maybe near the equator). So the sun to me is main factor which affects all climste including Britain's but Britains climate is more or less linked with the factor; the distance from the sea which is as I mentioned before is realated to the sun in all ways. Where we live in britain (england) the temprature in winter is not much less than 0à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C and in summer not much higher than 32à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½C in the summer. Also the weather her is damp and there may be lots of sudden changes. Rain is fairly well distributed throughout the year, with February to march being the driest period and October to January the wettest. The Lake District is England's wettest region, receiving and average of 130 inches (330 centimetres) of precipitation( different forms of water falling from the sky) each year.