Assignment 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

2 - Assignment Example University of Oregon track coach Bowerman wanted lighter and more resilient racing shoes for his runners. One of them, Phil Knight, was trying to devise a marketing plan to fulfill a school project. During his trip to Japan, Knight met with a Japanese shoe manufacturer. He told them his company, Blue Ribbon Sports, would distribute the manufacturer’s running shoes in the USA. Knight was able to sell $8,000 worth of Japanese-made running shoes. Later, Knight and Bowman named changed their company’s name to Nike. (A brief history of Nike, n.d.) Almost a decade after Nike was created Microsoft was invented by well-known software developers Bill Gates, Paul Allen and their friends because of their love for computers. Gate and Allen successfully wrote and sold a software program to Altair manufacturers. After this, they decided to form Microsoft. (The history of Microsoft, 2001) Even if I know how these brands were created, I would still buy their products. I believe in thes e brands. The quality of their products is always satisfactory. I think because of their status in the industry, the companies will always try to make excellent products. References: A brief history of Nike. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~class/am483_97/projects/hincker/nikhist.html on May 10, 2011.

Environment degradation in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Environment degradation in China - Essay Example China has faced an enduring and remarkably quick economic development since its liberalization in 1978. Despite the fact that having considerably improved the lifestyle of the large part of the population, the economic progress has resulted in severe environmental predicaments, such as widespread water and air pollution, solid waste accumulation, high air pollution and water scarcity in urban areas. The situation of the environment is still deteriorating and posing, in several areas, problems to economic development. Between 1980 and 1993 urban water use soared by 350 % and industrial consumption twice over the period (World Bank, 2001)1. Demand for water has been growing at the time when several regions of China faced water scarcity, major water pollution, and reduced groundwater tables besides flood and famine damage. These factors have deteriorated the deficiency of water resources, augmented costs of water purification, and in cases where suitable infrastructure has not been present, endangered the safety of drinking water, consequently the health of the population. They also had critical impacts on the safety of industrial and agricultural manufacture and led to losses in fishing business. It is expected that the yearly economic loss from water pollution in China reaches 1.5-3 % of GDP, having more major impact than floods and famine (Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2000)2. These issues are especially severe in northern China and in the catchments of the three rivers namely Huai, Hai and Huang. These three catchments comprise around 35 % of total GDP and include the economically and politically vital Beijing-Tianjin region. Yet the major causes of water pollution are industrial wastewater release, raw municipal sewage discharge and non-point pollution from agriculture. Of late, non-point water pollution, which emanates from fertilizer and pesticide overspill, and release from intensive animal production businesses, is becoming critical and can be expected to rise even further. Quality of Surface and Coastal Water & Groundwater The chemical and organic quality of the surface water is normally low. The main pollutants are raw material from domestic and industrial sources, industrial hydrocarbons, light lubricating oil, plant nutrients and heavy metals. Bacteriological pollution is

Effect of Binocular Cues Removal on Skill Abilities

Effect of Binocular Cues Removal on Skill Abilities How the removal of binocular cues affects males and females skill ability performance Abstract: To test whether skill ability was impaired when binocular cues were removed, participants completed a buzz-wire task under three different conditions. Participants completed this task using binocular vision or with vision in their dominant or non-dominant eye only. As well as this, to test the hunter-gatherer hypothesis that females will perform better than males at a the task as it used near-sight vision the sample was divided into males and females. The results found that participants performance was consistently enhanced when they completed the task using binocular vision rather than monocular vision, however there was no significant difference found in performance between genders. The results from this experiment suggest that binocular cues do have an importance in performing skill ability tasks but this performance does not differ between genders. Introduction: Numerous research into vision has shown that individuals have binocular cues which allow them to perceive three-dimensional images and judge the distance of objects. Due to the eyes different position on the head each eye perceives an image slightly different in terms of its location, this is known as binocular disparity. Therefore when viewing an object the brain combines information it receives from both eyes, it is this disparity which when converged together allows an individual to recognise depth. Studies such as Loftus, Servos, Goodale, Mendarozqueta Mon-Williams (2004) investigated the difference between binocular and monocular vision in various tasks that involved prehension. Their results found that binocular information provides an important role in the position of the hand relative to target, this suggests that binocular vision provides information which helps individuals judge distance. Research has also found that participants are better at skills that involve movements of the body when they have binocular vision rather than monocular vision. Oliver, Weeks, Lyons, Ricker Elliott (1998) studied participants ability to catch a ball when using binocular and monocular vision. As expected, participants consistently performed better when they had binocular vision, supporting the theory that binocular vision provides an individual with additional information about distance and depth of objects. Research has found an advantage in binocular vision in prehension and movement tasks, however the aim of this study is to look at the difference between binocular and monocular vision when participants have to perform a task that involves them using a tool. A study conducted by Read, Begum, McDonald Trowbridge (2013) aimed to look at participants performance on task which involves them using tools. Participants completed a standard Morrisby Fine Dexterity Test, a modified Morrisby Test and a buzz wire task, they completed the task with binocular vision or vision in their left or right eye only. Results found that participants performance was enhanced when they used both of their eyes to complete the task, furthermore, the binocular advantage was greater in tasks that required them to use a tool. It can be argued that research in to the advantage of binocular vision ignores the differences across genders. Abramov, Gordon, Feldman Chavarga (2012), found that previous research repeatedly neglects the idea that there may be gender differences in vision. Out of approximately four-hundred studies they found that only a small percentage of studies (23.4%) took in to consideration gender differences within their samples. Many other sensory modalities, such as audition, has found sex differences, suggesting that it is likely that there will also be a difference in vision. Abramov et al (2012) conducted research that found sex differences in vision; the hunter-gatherer- hypothesis can be used to explain this difference. The hypothesis suggests that due to the different roles males and females had in early hunter-gatherers , males have adapted to be better at far-sight vision whereas females adapted to be better at near-sight vision. This is because in the past males were seen to be the more powerful gender so would take on the role of hunting possible prey, while females gathered food from nearby. It could be argued that this difference in early-hunter gathers resulted in a gender difference in terms of vision. This study will replicate the buzz wire task used in Read et al (2013) study in order to investigate whether participants ability to use tools is impaired when binocular depth cues are removed, as well as looking at gender difference within performance. This will provide advancements on Read et al (2013) and provide further research on the binocular advantage which occurs on tasks that require an individual to use tools. The study expects that overall, participants performance will be enhanced when they have binocular vision rather that monocular vision, moreover, there will be an expectancy for females to perform better than males throughout all tasks. Method: Participants: Forty-one males and forty-three females students were recruited to take part in the experiment. Half of the students took part as a compulsory part of their second year of Psychology, the remaining half were recruited by opportunity sampling. Apparatus: A buzz wire task , based on a childrens toy, was used to complete the experiment. This involved a wire (74cm) which travelled across a base (35cm). In order to make the test more challenging the wire was curved and adjusted to construct a three dimensional shape. Participants were provide with glasses which had one side blacked out with tape, the glasses were reversible so the same frame could be used for each condition. The time it took for participants to complete the task was timed manually using a stopwatch. Design: This experiment used a within-subjects design which consisted of three levels. There were two dependent variables within this study, how long it takes participants to complete the tasks and the amount of times they came into contact with the wire. The independent variables was whether participants completed the task using binocular vision or with vision in either their dominant or non-dominant eye. The experiment was counterbalanced to avoid extraneous variables, participants were randomly allocated to one out of a possible six orders in which they completed the task. Procedure: Participants first had to identify their dominant eye before completing the experiment. To do this the participants had to hold their thumb at arms lengths and align it against a vertical line. They were then told to shut each eye one at a time, the eye which the thumb appeared most aligned with was classed as their dominant eye. After identifying the dominant eye the participants were then told which order they had to complete the experiment. Participants then completed the experiment three times, either without the glasses (binocular vision), or wearing the glasses so that their dominant or non-dominant eye was covered (monocular vision). The experiment involved participants guiding the wire loop around the complex track trying to be efficient but accurate. Each time the participant came into contact with the track a buzzing sound occurred, indicating that the participant had made one error. Results: Each participant produced a total of six scores, three scores represent how long it took the participant to complete the task (time score) and a score of how many times they came into contact with the wire (buzz score) for each of the three levels. All participants scores where then combined together to produce an average time and buzz score for each of the three levels. These averages are represented in figure 1 and figure 2. Figure 1: Participants mean and (standard deviation) of how long to complete the buzz wire task in seconds Figure 2: Participant mean (standard deviation) for the amount of times participant came into contact with wire A paired samples t-test was conducted to test whether there was a difference between participants performance when using their dominant and non-dominant eye in how long it took them to complete the task. The t-test found no significant difference in how long it took participants to complete the experiment, t (83) = 1.010, p = .316, suggesting that no matter which eye they used it had no effect on how long it took them to complete the task. As there was no difference found, participants times score on the dominant eye and non-dominant eye condition were combined together to produce an overall monocular time score. This times score had a mean (standard deviation) of 40.33 (19.35). However, a paired samples t-test did find a significant difference between the amount of times participants came into contact with the wire when using their dominant and non-dominant eye, t (83) = 2.313, p = .023., this suggest that participants came into contact with the wire significantly more when using their non-dominant eye rather than their dominant eye. To test whether participants performance was impaired when binocular depth cues were removed a t-test was conducted between participants buzz score in the binocular condition and their buzz score when using their dominant eye t (83) = 11.580, p t (83), 13.183, p A significant difference was also found when comparing participants time score in the monocular and binocular condition, t (83) = 7.069, p In order to see how much improvement participants made when using binocular vision rather than monocular vision a ratio was calculated. To do this each condition was divided by one another. The ratios found that in the binocular task participants on average were 1.4 times more quicker at completing the task in the monocular condition. They also made 2.6 times more errors when using their dominant eye rather than both eyes and made 2.9 times more errors when using their non-dominant eye rather than both eyes. The data file was then divided into males and females in order to test for any gender differences in their performance throughout the study, the means and standard deviation are shown in table 1 and table 2. To test for any significant difference numerous independent t-test were performed. No significant difference was found when comparing males and females time score when they completed the task using only monocular vision, t (82) = .419, p = .676. Similarly, no significant difference was found between genders time score in the binocular condition t (82) = 1.744, p = .085. Suggesting it took males and females the same amount of time to complete the task. Moreover, there was no gender difference found when comparing participants buzz scores in the binocular condition, t (82) = .961, p = .340, the dominant eye condition t (82) = .280, p = .780 or the non- dominant eye condition t (82) = 1.047, p = .298. From this we can assume that there was no gender difference in performance throughout the entire experiment. Table 1: Mean and standard deviation on how long it took males and females complete the experiment in seconds with monocular and binocular vision. Table 2: Mean and standard deviation of how many times male and female participants came in to contact with the wire in each of the conditions. Discussion: As results found that performance was consistently enhanced when using binocular vision rather than monocular vision, it supports the hypothesis that an individual skill ability is impaired when depth cues are removed. This is consistent with Read et al (2013) who also found a greater advantage when using binocular vision in terms of the the number of errors made and the time taken to complete the experiment. Similarly, this experiment found that participants took the same amount of time in completing the experiment, irrespective to whether they used their dominant or non-dominant eye to complete the experiment. However, unlike the results of Read et al (2013) this experiment found a significant difference between participants performance in the non-dominant eye and dominant eye conditions in the amount of times they came into contact with the wire. This difference found between these experiments could be due to the different methodological measures that were use. Read et al (2013), timed how long the participants wire hoop came into contact with the wire whereas in this experiment the amount of times the participant made the game buzz was recorded. Measuring the amount of times the participant made the game buzz can be criticised for being subjective. This is because what is classified as one buzz can differ between experimenters or across participants. To minimize the subjectivity of this experiment if it was to be replicated it could adopt methods used in the Read et al (2013) study by timing how long the participant stayed in contact with the wire. Furthermore, where this experiment found that participants were 1.4 times quicker at completing the task when using both eyes rather than one eye, Read et al (2013) found that participants were only 0.3 times faster in their experiment. This suggests that their experiment found a smaller binocular advantage. This difference may be due to the different participants used in these experiments. Read et al (2013) used participants from a large range of ages (seven to eighty-two), whereas this study consisted mainly of young adults. Previous research has found that there may be a difference in brain activity when being shown visual information, Sutija et al (1990), suggesting that there may be a difference in the visual process individuals go through at different ages. If this study was to be replicated on participants from a variety of age groups, it would allow comparison to be made directly between specific ages, providing a more representative sample. The hunter-gatherer hypothesis proposes that female participants would perform better than male participants in this task as females are arguably better at near-sighted vision. However, results found no significant difference between genders throughout the entire experiment, this is unsupportive on the proposed hypothesis. To test this hypothesis further, an experiment could be conducted which measures males and females performance in tasks which involves recognising a moving object. It would be expected that males would perform better on tasks that involves identifying a moving object. Furthermore, to test the hypothesis, participants performance on a task that involves using far-vision could be tested, again we would expect males to perform better on this task. It could be argued that no gender difference may have been found within this experiment as a results of males and females adapting to modernised society. Males and females now have similar roles within society and so previous hunter-gatherer roles such as hunting for prey are no longer needed. Furthermore, it can be argued that the sample used in this study (students), would be very familiar with the buzz wire game regardless of their gender. Previous exposure to playing this game may have influenced their performance and minimised the gender difference that may have occurred. This study has provided further evidence and supported previous studies in the idea that binocular vision has an advantage over monocular vision. Furthering the understanding in the way in which vision works helps develop further treatment to those who suffer from visual impairments and allows psychologist to develop measures suitable for testing individuals visual capabilities. Learning the importance of binocular cues not only explain vision but provides further information on the link between what we see and a process of the human brain. Reference: Abramov, I. G. (2012). Sex and vision 1: spatiotemporal resolution. Biology of Sex Differences, 3,1-14. Loftus, A. S.-W. (2004). When two eyes are better than one in prehension: monocular viewing and end-point variance. Experimental Brain Research,3,317-327. Olivier I, W. D. (1998). Monocular and binocular vision in one-hand ball catching: interocular integration. Journal of Motor Behavior , 10, 343-351. Read, J. B. (2013). The binocular advantage in visuomoter tasks involving tools. iPerception,4, 101-110. Sutija V.G, F. A. (1990). Age and binocular advantage: A VEP assessment. Optometry and vision science: official publication of the American Academy of Optometry, 2, 111.

The Iliad of Homer Essay -- essays research papers

The Iliad of Homer Honor is something men and women have fought for century after century. Even now, thousands of American and British men are fighting in Iraq, near to where the Trojan War was to have taken place. These men fight for the greater good. They fight for those in Iraq who are unable to fight for or otherwise defend themselves. They fight for honor. The characters in the Iliad are motivated by their own form of honor, or arete, known similarly as the Homeric Code. And it is because of this code that the Trojan War began. The characters in this story are shown to possess arete, but some have different ideas as to how vastly and to what rate it should be respected. And because of this, many a man’s honor is disturbed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Homeric Code can be defined as â€Å"unwritten rules that guide the conduct of the Homeric Heroes.† For the Homeric Heroes, success means survival and greater honor; failure means death and removal from the struggle for honor. What the Heroic code means is that honor is more important than life itself. It is obvious throughout the books that the characters of high honor are the ones that ignore warnings to stay away from danger, battles, and the like. Courage, physical abilities, and social status are also important contributions to the Homeric code. To truly understand this code and the true dedication to it as told by Homer, means becoming accustom to the values kept by those in this story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ...

Globalization and Fashion Essay

In the 19th century, countries started trading more, because it was right after the Great depression of the 1930 when mass production became more accessible. The reason for this was the advance in technology. Improvement in technology has made life in many certain extents easier, not only for trading, but for many other aspects of human life. Meanwhile technology is getting so advanced that it has a great influence on cultures. With globalization, all the cultures in the world are fading away and giving their place to one major common culture. Evidence of this can be seen clearly in fashion. From planes to the Internet, people and their culture are strongly connecting with each other. To  this date people travel from one country to another for various reasons including business, touring and education. Some of business people are the buyers of great fashion departments. They have a major influence on bringing different culture from one country to another. For instance, a trend in Europe transfers to North America from tourist who has traveled to Europe and buyers of department stores who choose the items. On the other hand, buyers are strongly concerned about what is going to sell and what is not. If the garment that they are buying for is for United States of America, it must be more practical than something, which they transfer from New York to Europe. The reason behind that is that culture of fashion in America is more practical than the culture of fashion in Europe. In American life style practicality has a strong voice, therefore, it is a better target market for casual wear. People tend to wear more comfortable clothes, such as jeans, sportswear, t-shirts, as well as converse shoes[1]. A good advertisement on the Internet has a worldwide impact, which can lead to a new trend. Most women in the world are very vulnerable to these beautiful new items shown on the Internet advertisement; they catch new trends and mix them up with their own home country fashion. The spread of globalization will bring changes to the countries it reaches, but change is very important part in everyone’s life. The Internet has proven a big part in projecting traditional culture. Various reports have showed that the world trade in goods with cultural content increased over the years. Magazines are one thing that has always been there and has always been a strong way of communication between cultures. Today’s world of commercials and advertisements has made a huge diversity in the world of magazines. Magazines such as Vogue have had a major role in changing the fashion world. Vogue was first published in 1910 in Britain, but now there are vogue in Italy, France, Spain, and America[2]. The strongest and most influential one of all is Americas Vogue People tend to pick up new trends from such sources every day in every single place in the world, but since English is the most spoken language across the globe,  American Vogue sells the most and it automatically transfers American fashion more around the world. Satellites and TVs are just as influential as magazines. For example, Fashion TV was found in 1997 in France as the first fashion only international network. In later years even in countries in the Middle East, some fashion channels were created and changed the whole country’s fashion. People copy all the new western trends, and try to use them as much as possible even though they have some restrictions in how they are supposed to dress in Muslim countries. For example, all Iranian woman follow the European  fashion[3]. They are forced to cover up their hair but they are still very much fashionable and dress nice. The effects of globalization on culture has also been perpetuated through music. Music has been termed as one of the strongest culture that has taken over a large number of young people across the globe. The different music genres including gangster rap, hip-hop, RNB, rock, reggae and others plays an important role in creating a global culture. This has been made possible by technology and media including MTV, You Tube as well as other social networks in the internet. More particularly, the hip-hop culture is a wave that has dominated in various countries[4]. Today, every young man and women want to associate with a particular hip-hop star and imitate and adore their dressing code, style and even speaking. Hence, a college boy in New York living under the footsteps of Tupac Shakur (A popular hip-hop pioneer) is no different to a peer in China or Africa idolizing the same. As a result, these young men share the same fashion mode of wearing jeans, necklaces famous as ‘bling bling’, and even earrings as part of their accessories[5]. Similarly, the fashion trend goes beyond clothing. Globalization has made people in the world adopt a particular fashion of identity. The influence of media also blamed for brainwashing people’s identity. The contemporary woman as depicted in western movies is slender with long legs. This has influenced several young women to emulate this style to an extent of undergoing cosmetic surgery. Likewise, an ideal man portrayed in the movies emphasizes a well built masculine figure which has also influenced the lifestyles of many young men around the world. There has been concern that globalization is synonymous with Americanization. The western particularly American culture is highly idolized all over the world. The fashion trends in America spreads more quickly and are readily embraced in all countries with music, Hollywood celebrities and even models playing as agents for perpetuating American fashion to the rest of the world. The internet has enabled the transfer of the American culture to the global community. In conclusion, Globalization has a major affect in world’s fashion. Sources such as Internet, telemarketing and advertisements tend to change peoples  perspective about fashion. People pick up trends from such sources and sometimes mix them up with their own ideas and cultural restriction. Globalization is sometimes associated with Americanization due to the large adoption of American fashion in virtually all aspects of lifestyles. Globalization has transformed the diversified culture in the world into one single culture, the global culture. Hence, the world has become a global village sharing everything including fashion and culture. Bibliography Anthony Giddens. Runaway World: How Globalization is Shaping our World. New York: Sage, 2003. Dress – Globalization Of Fashion retrieved Dress – Globalization Of Fashion [accessed May 4, 2010] Ian Condry and Shara Rambarran. Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2006. Kai Hafez, Alex Skinner. The Myth of Media Globalizations. New York: Polity, 2007. Kolawole A. Owolabi. Globalization, Americanization   and Western Imperialism. Journal of Social Development in Africa. 16, No. 2 (2001): 71-92.

Pros and Cons on Death Penalty Essay

Ms. Pat Johnson ENG-099 Pros and Cons of Assisted Suicide: Argument Essay When death is knocking at your door, do you answer or ignore the call? Unfortunately, some people answer the call willingly. Euthanasia is painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma. All motives are compassionate for a patient, whether the killing is by a direct action, such as a lethal injection, or by failing to perform an action necessary to maintain life. The euthanasia movement started in l935 in Britain, in l938 in the U S A, and in l980 in Canada (catholicapologetics). Opinion polls show average support of 60 percent in the USA, 74 percent in Canada, and 80 percent in Britain (catholicapologetics). Many people disagree that death is a decision upon GOD but, why make a person suffer more pain being alive? Today, many people are against euthanasia because; they feel that it is murder. This is because there are certain cons of euthanasia that compel them to think this way. Firstly, medical science has made great advancements in the recent years. There is almost always a cure available for a disease. So euthanasia should not be kept as a viable option. One of the other cons of euthanasia is that sometimes there is pressure from family members who want to induce death for their own gains. The doctor may get influenced by the ideas that are put forward by them. In that case it becomes very difficult to decide whether euthanasia was completely necessary or was influenced by the family members. Sometimes even medical science cannot predict with certainty the fate of a patient. In such cases, euthanasia would mean snatching away the chances of a patient’s survival. There are many cases where mercy killing has often been misused. To prevent such manhandling euthanasia should be prohibited. Something that concerns the life of a person should not be left in the open for people to play around with.