A Message to Garcia Essay Example for Free

A Message to Garcia Essay Written by, Elbert Hubbard, is a story written about trying to find the ideal messenger, or employee. And in many cases is hard to find even when it comes to a simple task, in this case, delivering a message. Hubbard goes on to explain that some individuals, when tasked with such a job will make it rather difficult. They will either ask questions, â€Å"who is Garcia? Where is he? Why can’t you do it? Have someone else do it.† Hubbard points out the most common flaws or unwanted qualities of employers when all he, or any employer are looking for is someone who is hard working and can be trusted with an important task regardless of what it is. And that is the type of worker that no employer can afford to lose. No matter when you are, regardless or your occupation, type of company or size, there will always be the workers that are replaceable, irreplaceable, or those who no one will hire. Hubbard explains the vast majority or employees that are in the work force. Lazy, irresponsible, untrustworthy, or are just plain worthless. However, the search for that one who will work hard even when no one is looking is rare to find, and that when he is found, he cannot be let go. After reading this book, it makes one realize, and actually look at whom they work with now, or in the past and see whom or how many actually fall into the category or workers Hubbard described. I for one was able to actually put faces with some of the examples given. More important than that, was looking at where I fit in, or which one describes me the best. Hardworking and the one that is rare and every employer is looking for, sure we would all like to think that but the reality of it, may not be as close as we would like to think. When tasked with delivering a message to Garcia, I would think it be natural for one to ask, â€Å"where is he†, such information is key. Rather than blindly searching for a man named Garcia with out so much of a direction. Does a question make one any less of their overall work ethic? I would think not, but when it comes to questioning the motives and  what is in the letter is completely different. Irreverent questions to the task at hand are unnecessary and would be seen as lazy or nosy. Overall it was an interesting book that makes you think other wise of not only yourself, but also those you work with all well. I would recommend any employer to have their employees read this book for they start working. That way it gives them something to think about, think about themselves and which type of employee they truly want to be. Also gives them an idea of what that employer is looking for in their workers, that way there is no question about what is expected. â€Å"He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.†

Possible theories for crime: Nature versus Nurture.

Possible theories for crime: Nature versus Nurture. Crime is a matter of popular interest and focus; it is everywhere you look from newspapers to cinemas. Criminal acts have the ability to repel and fascinate us at the same time. When violence occurs we want answers. One of the questions people often ask when hearing of a crime, whether it be burglary or murder, is why? What causes criminal behaviour? Unless we know what causes an act of violence it is hard to put it behind us. The search for the causes of crime continues to form the basis of most criminological studies. There are numerous explanations for crime; biological, economical, geographical, psychiatric, psychological, sociological. However, broadly speaking these causes generally fall into two basic schools of thought, nature and nurture, and while most of us will embrace notions from both sides, some criminologists tend to lean more in one direction than the other. Psychological theories of crime hold the view that individual differences in behaviour may make some people more predisposed to committing criminal acts. These differences may arise from personality characteristics, biological factors or social interactions. As there are so many theories for criminal behaviour this paper will focus on the biological and environmental factors, which may account for the growing social problem of violent and antisocial conduct. It was an urgeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.a strong urge, and the longer I let it go the stronger it got, to where I was taking risks to go out and kill people-risks that normally, according to my little rules of operation, I wouldnt take because they could lead to arrest. Edmond Kemper (cited on http://www.crimelibrary.com) Where does this urge come from? Do we all possess it and if so, what stops some people from committing crimes, whether it be murder, as in this case, or something less, whilst others cannot control this urge. It could be said that criminals have no control over their impulses, whereas we do; no matter how angry we get there is something that stops us from taking this anger out on other people. According to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) all humans have natural drives and urges repressed in the unconscious. More importantly he also claims that all humans have criminal tendencies. It is through the process of socialisation that these tendencies are curbed by the development of inner controls that are learned through childhood experiences (Eysenck, 1977). Maybe the thing that stops us is the thought of the punishment we would receive if caught, or maybe it is morality or social programming. It may even be that we are afraid that if we commit a crime and are caught, we risk losing the social bonds that we have with other people, as they will then think less of us. Humans are knowledgeable people who understand a great deal about the conditions and consequences of what they do in every day life (Farrell, Bowling, 1999). Once convicted of a crime and in court, there is an increased emphasis upon the free will and moral responsibility of the offender for their actions. However the conception of the offender being genetically at risk has now emerged. There have been numerous studies carried out on twins to determine whether genetic influences play a part in criminal behaviour. Christiansen (1977) reported on the criminality of a total population of 3,586 twin pairs from Denmark. He found that 52% of the twins were concordant for criminal behaviour for identical twin pairs, whilst 22% of the twins were concordant for fraternal twin pairs. These results suggest that identical twins carry some form of biological characteristic that increases their risk of becoming involved in criminal behaviour (McLaughlin, Muncie, Hughes, 2003). However, the thought that criminal behaviour is due to genetics poses many questions. At a personal level, people wonder about how much actual choice they have over their lives. Accepting genetic causes for their traits can relieve guilt about behaviour they want to change, but cannot. According to Gibbons (1968), the genetic theory indicates that inherited traits are specific in nature, i.e. so that a person inherits green eyes and blonde hair. However criminal behaviour is not specific, it covers a wide range of criminal activities from petty theft to mass murder. Also, many criminals engage in a range of these activities, not always one specific type of crime, therefore how can the genetic theory account for this variability? It could be suggested that criminals inherit general tendencies to break laws. However criminals do not break all laws, they obey to most. It is very difficult to demonstrate any feasible mechanism for the inheritance of criminality (Eysenck, 1977). A disorder such as Cystic Fibrosis is a disorder produced entirely by hereditary causes. The cause is known and understood and the presence of the disorder can be determined with accuracy. With this in mind, what kind of structure can be imagined to underlie the cause of crime? What is criminal in one country may not be criminal in another country; the purchasing of marijuana is legal in Amsterdam whilst illegal in many other countries. Also, what is a crime at one time may not be a crime at another time, i.e. it is a citizens duty to kill in war but outside of war it is a crime. People are able to understand the differences in situations like these. What some people do find difficult is the thought that a gene or chromosome may cause the difference between a criminal and a non-criminal (Eysenck, 1977). In a study carried out by Bernhardt (1930) on two groups of siblings, group one had both parents as none criminal, but criminality was among the grandparents or other close relatives, and the second group had no criminal parents or other relations. He found twice as high a crime rate among siblings in group one, than in group two, and postulated that this difference must be endogenously caused, as both groups of children grew up in non criminal homes. As can be seen from this study, it is difficult to eliminate environmental factors. There is always the possibility of direct influence from grandparent to grandchild. It may also be assumed that grandchildren of criminal grandparents are exposed to less favourable environmental influences via the intermediate parental link. Plus, the probability that the environment the parents create for their children is much the same as the grandparents created for the parents, is very likely. The biological side of criminal behaviour can be studied through mental patients. In a ten year follow up of criminality in Stockholm mental patients, Belfrage (1998) found new evidence for a relationship between mental disorder and crime. The study was carried out on 1056 mental patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, affective psychosis or paranoia. After they had been discharged from mental hospitals in 1986, they were followed up ten years later. It was found that of those who were forty years old or younger at the time of discharge, nearly 40% had a criminal record, compared to less than 10% of the general public. According to Soothill, Peelo and Taylor (2002), on a typical day, four mentally disordered offenders are admitted from the courts to Broadmoor hospital, Rampton hospital or Ashworth hospital on hospital orders. Also, about one offender a day is transferred after sentence from a prison service establishment to a hospital. However some criminologists regard biological evidence with alarm. Nelkin and Lindee (1995) believe that genetics, in relation to crime, deflects attention from the need for social reform, education and rehabilitation in tackling the violence in society. The study carried out by Komiya (1999) highlights the importance of environmental factors, such as families, schools and companies, concerned with the individual. This study was concerned with looking at the low crime rate in Japan in relation to the cultural background. It found that reasons for low crime rate were due to factors such as low unemployment, high educational standards, strict justice in relation to the control of firearms and drugs and the certainty of arrest, self-discipline and the high level of self-control. This latter is regarded as the strongest weapon for survival in Japan and they learn the value of self-control at a very early stage in life. It is the most important stage of socialization in Japan, whereas in Western countries a self of sense is most important. The socialization in Japan happens through/in families, schools and companies. In the family, children are under strict discipline. They learn to accept parental authority; therefore they are driven by parental expectations. There is lots of body contact i.e. bathing with parents. This is the opposite of Western families who encourage their children to have their own bedroom. In the school there are lots of regulations and children also have peers. The companies provide security i.e. lifetime employment, medical support, retirements benefits. For this, Japanese workers must accept strong informal social control by their company. As can be seen through this study Japan has a strong sense of security and an infinite number of repressive rules. These two elements act together to produce high levels of self-control, which acts as a strong force restraining people from committing crimes. The Japanese legal culture contributes to the prevention of crime by controlling the individuals behaviour. This is the opposite to the Western worlds emphasis on the permissive nature of rules and the relative freedom of action. According to Komiya (1999) this suggests there is a trade off between low crime rates and a strong awareness of freedom. If individuals have a strong sense of responsibility, a society can lower its crime rate without undermining freedom. It could be said that a persons environment depends to a certain extent on his/her own choice (Horwitz, Christiansen, 1983). It could also be that some individuals within certain areas are drawn into crime (McGuire, Mason, OKane, 2000). A case in which the latter may apply is institutional upbringing. There seems to be a stigma attached to children raised in an institute; they are labelled as social deviants. However it must be remembered that children placed in these institutes, before being removed to the institute, are already in a rather threatened situation. Therefore it should be expected that these children would show increased delinquency rates. However once a person is stigmatised by a label, the response is often to fulfil the label given and commit further acts of deviance. To take a quote from http://www.crimelibrary.com, I have several children who Im turning into killers. Wait till they grow up. David Berkowitz This illustrates how much of an impact the environment in which a child grows up in has later on in life. Reading this quote would definitely worry criminologists who believe that the environment shapes a person and influences later life choices. Some parents believe that by being harsh on a child will toughen the child up. Instead, it often creates a lack of love between parent and child that can have disastrous effects later on in life. If a child does not bond with his/her carers there is no foundation for trusting others later in life (http://www.crimelibrary.com). Bowlby (1957) carried out a study on 44 thieves at a psychiatric clinic. He believed that a long separation from the mother during the first five years of a childs life is a leading cause in the development of socially incapable, troublesome and delinquent personalities. Other studies claimed that the absence of the father might also create an equally dangerous risk (Horwitz, Christiansen, 1983). Andry (1955) found tha t the absence of the father was as equal a risk as the absence of the mother, and re-established the father as an equally important figure (Horwitz, Christiansen, 1983). Either way, both researchers found that parents are very important in the development of children. A criminal can often be heard blaming his/her actions on a number of traditional explanations; childhood abuse, genetics, exposure to traumatic events and perceived social injustices to name a few. However the problem with this is that many people have been exposed to one or more of these traumas, yet they do not turn to crime. Maybe it is an interaction of a number of factors. Yet in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, who had an apparently normal upbringing, environment does not seem able to explain the behaviour displayed. If there is a genetic explanation, it is difficult to explain, as we do not see entire families of, in this case, serial killers. Another aspect of crime, which is of interest, is understanding how and why offenders stop committing offences. This is crucial for the development of effective crime prevention and criminal justice practises. Without a theory as to why people stop offending it is difficult to know which policies and practises are best needed to stop it. Some criminologists believe that by searching for the causes of criminality, the attention is taken away from the pressing task of crime management (McLaughlin, Muncie, Hughes, 2003). This essay has only just begun to skim over the causes of criminal behaviour. As can be seen it would be difficult to credit one theory for the explanation of crime, there is a continual interaction between both genetic an environmental factors; they are functionally interdependent. No one study carried out can be said to provide conclusive evidence for either genetic factors or environmental factors (Horwitz, Christiansen, 1983). However if genetics were to be seen as the cause of criminality, this would pose future problems; it may lead to genetic screening for the interest of risk assessment. This could lead to genetic discrimination, which could then lead to loss of employment or denial of insurance or other benefits (Rose, 2000). If crime were due to genes, the individual would not be to blame yet they would be punished through the mentioned ways. There must be something in the child himself which the environment brings out in the form of delinquency. This quote by Aichorn (Gibbons, 1968) demonstrates the importance of both nature and nurture acting together. Certain aspects of each theory help us to understand the criminals behaviour, and it is through this interaction that we are able to further our knowledge on criminology. Awareness of Students in Junk Food Consumption | Proposal Awareness of Students in Junk Food Consumption | Proposal Izyan Hanim Binti Ibrahim THE AWARENESS OF STUDENTS IN PUSAT PERMATA PINTAR NEGARA IN CONSUMING JUNK FOOD CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION World Health Organisation has stated that the dispersion of disease mainly is caused by the unhealthy eating lifestyle (As cited in CSE 2012). However, the adolescence really love eating junk foods including burgers, carbonated drinks, instant noodles, French fries, hotdogs, sweets, potato chips and biscuits (Arya Mishra 2013). According to Arya Mishra (2013), they have classified adolescence stage into three stages which early adolescence, ranging from 11-14 years old, middle adolescence, teenagers of age 15-17 years old and lastly late adolescence that have ages of 18-21 years old. Those stages are the most important stages in human life cycle because during early adolescence is the emotional management stage due to it is a puberty level. Moreover, in the middle adolescence is the try-and-error stage because teenagers tend to try many new things and experiences and last but not least teenagers will figure out his or her future plan during the late adolescence stage. The study has stated that wrong consumption of nutrients at this level will result a prolong impacts to them. Students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara are the gifted students and their specialties should be preserved. This study will survey the awareness level of them in taking in the junk foods to make them realise how dangerous is the action. Students who live far away or without parents have higher tendency to consume or buy junk foods. A study has discovered that foods rich in nutrient have higher price index in marketing fields compared to the unhealthy foods like junk foods ( Deakin University 2008). Finally, this research project will reveals the frequency of those students in consuming junk foods from schooling session until living in the dorms session with others. Despite all of this, the researcher will investigate how the examination year will affect the frequency of their consumption towards junk food in order to enhance the cognitive level. BACKGROUND Junk foods are categorised as any types of meals that can be prepared in short time and does not require much energy to make it (Johnson et al. 2012). However, Escalante et al. (2004) has stated about the intake of beneficial nutrient decrease as the consumption of junk food increase in children’s meal. This is one of the implication the over exposed children to the junk food advertisement continuously in front of television. For instances, the advertisement that make a non-stop promotion is Koko Krunch, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co and biscuits. Yosifon(2006) also support this claim about the effect of advertisement in monopoly the young generation’s mind. In addition, World Health Organisation (WHO) has come out with a result those actions is one factor that contributes to the increase of statistical analysis on the Body Mass Index (BMI). Company of junk food will target the new generation as their marketing customers to exploit the profit (Yosifon 2006). Junk food is rich with salt, trans fat, sugar and many chemical contents as their preservative and addictive agent. Monosodium glutamate is the most well-known food addictive agent in junk food. Monosodium glutamate is one of a dangerous chemical that always being related with the development of cancer cell. As has been stated before, junk food is a food rich with fat. The consumption of high fat meals will make the signal of appetite-supress is being ignored and leads to increase of appetite and gaining weight (Johnson et al. 2012). Not to be forgotten, Johnson et al. (2012) also have made a study on the effect of junk food on brain. The study has proved that junk food can reduce the volume of brain. The reduction of brain capacity will lead to the neuro diseases. For students, the ability to memorise is important for the process of cognitive. So, the risk to be effected with Alzheimer’s disease should be lower by taking care of intake of junk food and aware with the intake of nutrients. 2 As conclusion, this research mainly wants to study the awareness of gifted students in the consumption of junk food and to determine whether examination year will affect the consumption of junk food in their diets. PROBLEM STATEMENT Teenagers are the main target for any company of junk food to be their customers. So, junk food has becomes one of their favourite food. Besides, the problem that has been observed by the society about this issue is the source to get this junk food can easily bought by the students and there is no restriction. For examples, many types of junk food can be bought from the vending machines, school canteens and the nearby grocery shop (Datar Nicosia 2009).As students; they should spend the money wisely. So, they eat junk food because it is affordable and cheap. However, obesity cases among the young generation is rising up and continuously year by year (Escalante et al. 2004). PURPOSE OF RESEARCH The purpose of conducting this research is to study the awareness level among students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara in consuming junk food in their diets. Junk food contains many types of chemicals and the most well-known chemicals present in that food is monosodium glutamate. Monosodium glutamate can produce an addictive flavour that enhances the taste of the foods (Husarova Ostatnikova 2013). As students, the frequency of taking junk food will be investigated by the researcher and to determine whether the examination year for Form 5 student, that will facing Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, will control them from taking the junk food. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To determine whether students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara aware about the intake of junk food. To study the frequency of students consuming junk food. 3 To investigate whether the examination year will affect their intake of junk food. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The research questions are: Does the students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara aware about the intake of junk food? How frequent is the students consume junk food in their life routine? Does the examination season will affect the intake of junk food among the students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara? RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS Alternative hypothesis, : The examination will affect the frequency of consuming junk food by the students. Null hypothesis, : : The examination will not affect the frequency of consuming junk food by the students. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH This research is mainly done because teenagers nowadays are known as junk food generation because there are many of them that take in junk food as their main dishes every day. So, this research is one of a step towards reducing the intake of junk food especially among the students. The significance of this research is to enlighten the society about the dangerousness of junk food in harming the health. Besides, this research will highlight the seriousness 4 level of consuming the junk food in diets of students. LIMITATIONS The samples of this research are just from a small population of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara which have a total number of students of. Due to small population, the sample used for this experiment will be a small sample size. The small sample size may not have a statistical support due to insignificant result of the finding for this research project. DEFINITION OF TERMS The definition of each main concept in the research is as follows: AWARENESS The awareness of students in Pusat Permata Pintar Negara in this research is about how they control the intake of junk food even they know its implication on health. Moreover, it becomes serious when students tend to chewing something during study or revise in the night. FREQUENCY The frequency of eating the junk food gives an idea to the readers about the number of consumption of junk food per day or per week. COGNITIVE The ability of students to understand their studies CONCLUSION The awareness of students in Pusat Permata Pintar Negara should be investigated through this research since they are the gifted students that need to preserve their specialities. Through this survey, maybe next research can study how to raise their awareness and decrease the consumption of junk food. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION Junk food is defined as any food that contains less in nutrients but rich in the inappropriate things such as the preservative and the additive agents. Junk food can contribute to obesity and encourages the eaters to skip their breakfast because of improper meals time (Gopal et al. 2012). The study by Gopal et al. (2012) has claimed about the bad effect of consuming junk food that the society does not realise is about the decreasing absorption of calcium in humans. Based on the survey by Gopal et al. (2012), their outcome of survey has shown that the biggest factor for the students to consume junk food probably is because of the taste of junk food itself. Almost 70% of the eaters agree with this factor and unfortunately almost half of them never care about the long-term effects. 2.2 CHEMICALS IN JUNK FOOD Chemical in junk food has a high glycaemic index and will suppress the appetite of the eaters. In addition, chemicals in junk food can higher the level of sugar more rapidly compared to other type of food (Vartanian et al. 2007). Monosodium glutamate, MSG, is a well-known chemical agents used in junk food and many studies has been conducted by using the animals as the samples to prove its effect on health. The usual experiment was conducted to study the implication on reproductive organs, central nervous system and adipose tissue (Husarova Ostatnikova, 2013). Overconsumption of junk food can reduce the size of lumen within age 30 and has a high risk to be attack by the coronary disease (Johnson et al. 2012). 6 2.3 METABOLIC SYNDROME Metabolic syndrome is defined as any disease that can lead to heart attack. For examples, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and obesity (Alberti et al. 2006). Husarova Ostatnikova (2013) has stated that chemical contents used in junk food can interrupt the metabolism process in humans’ body. â€Å"Junk food can increase the parameters of insulin, fatty acid and triglycerides in serum† (Husarova Ostatnikova 2013). They has been added that monosodium glutamate can increase the production of bile and the most dangerous element regarding this food addictive is it can change the structure of ovaries and fallopian tube. Besides, MSG can cause headache but the studied show there is no relationship between asthma and the uptake of junk food. Not only that, medical staff at Harvard University and University of Murcia can make the young men to distorted their reproductive system and development because the sperm produced will be the unhealthy sperm to fertilize with the ov um( Johnson et al. 2012). 2.4 PREVIOUS RESEARCH A study has proved that junk food’s nutritional content is approximately has zero content of nutrition. Furthermore, it has a large quantity of trans fat. Trans fat acts like the saturated fat which contributes to the increase in the statistics of obesity (Johnson et al. 2012). A statistical by World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that 2.8 million of humans were killed yearly due to the problems of body weight or obesity. This implication of junk food has been supported by British Heart Foundation (2014) that excess consumption of junk food will higher the risk of obesity. As the obesity has stated in an individual life, he or she will has a higher tendency to be infected by mane other diseases. The most common disease is the coronary disease. Not to be forgotten, illness that related to the obesity is high blood pressure, diabetes type II and development of cancerous cell. A recent article by Gutierrez (2014) states that junk food makes the eaters become addictive to it and the addictive level is like craving for heroin. In addition, the article also has claimed about the effect of over consumption of junk food will make the person will 7 refuse to the healthy meals and they prefer to starve themselves. When chemical content from junk food was entered the human body system, the biological content of brain will be deteriorated (Michelle 2014). It has been added that the entire body system will be interrupted especially the digestive system due to inappropriate digestive flow. A report by the Military Leaders for Kids (2010) has come out with a statement by the army that want all sources of junk food to be eliminated in school compounds either in canteens or vending machines. However, as a started step in order to remove the sources, conspiration between American Heart Association and the beverages companies was setting up to decrease 88% of the calories present in their product that will be in the school compound in United States. 2.4 CONCLUSION Consuming excess salt, sugar and many other unbeneficial needs to be controlled at the early age because obesity in young age will has a high probability to develop into adult obese (British Heart Foundation 2014). The awareness level of students in Pusat Permata Pintar Negara in consuming junk food should be studied so that next research can be conducted to find the appropriate ways in increasing their awareness. Students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara are the gifted students that need to be preserved their intellectual level. 8 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN Survey research method will be the research design for this study. 162 copies of questionnaires will be distributed among the students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The samples will be divided into three groups which is Form 4, Form 5 and Asasi Pintar students. Those groups have 54 samples each and a total of 162 students will be involved. There are three different levels of students because the researcher want to know whether the examination year will affect the consumption of junk food which is Form 4 students are not in examination year, Form 5 students are in examination year (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) and Asasi Pintar students are in the post-examination year. The questionnaire that will be distributed is from the Codman Academy. 3.2 RESEARCH PROCEDURE Based on Krejcie and Morgan table, the researcher can decide an appropriate number of samples. With the total number of population which is 280 students, Krejcie and Morgan table shows that the number of samples that should answer the Codman Academy questionnaire that will be distributed is at least 162 students. The result of the survey will have a valid result for the researcher to analyse. The questionnaire that will be distributed is taken from Codman Academy Junk Questionnaire Survey which already has its own validity. Therefore, pilot test is not necessary in this study . The questionnaire will be distributed among students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. There are 15 questions involving questions on frequency of consumption of junk food by students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara. The duration for collecting the questionnaires with the answers will be about 5 days. 9 The questionnaire will be analysed and the researcher will study on the frequency of consumption of junk food. In addition, the frequency of the Form 5 students for the intake of junk food will be compared with respondents from Form 4 and ASASIpintar students because the researcher wants to investigate about the effect of examination year on the frequency of taking junk food. 3.3 SAMPLE AND POPULATION 3.3.1 RESEARCH POPULATION The population for this research is the students of Pusat Permata Pintar Negara, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia that will answer the questionnaire. The total number for the population is 280 students including Form 4, Form 5 and Asasi Pintar students. 3.3.2 INCLUSION CRITERIA FOR THE STUDY SAMPLE The samples should be studying in Form 4 and Form 5 because they already pass the maturation stage in thinking skill. So, the answer can be more relevant and it is more valid to analyse it as the research result. 3.3.3 EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR THE STUDY SAMPLE Students which are in Foundation phase or in Form 1 level cannot be selected to answer the questionnaire because some of them have matured but some of the students still have the immature way of thinking. So, the answer will be the irrelevant answers. The lecturers or teachers are excluded from the sample because the researcher want to study the awareness in the consumption of junk food among the students due to they are known as the junk food generation. 10 3.3.4 STRATIFIED SAMPLING METHOD The population will be grouped based on the age and the level of studying in school either the students are from Form 4 (16 years old), Form 5 (17 years old) or the post Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia candidates which are in ASASIpintar (18 years old). The sampling method will be conducted from each of the age of students’ ages. 3.4 INSTRUMENT 3.4.1 KREJCIE AND MORGAN TABLE This table gives the researcher a guideline in choosing the number of respondents needed for a certain number of population. The study will be conducted in Pusat Permata Pintar Negara which has a total number of 280 students including Form 4, Form 5 and Asasi Pintar students. So, a valid number of samples needed are 162 students. 3.4.2 CODMAN ACADEMY JUNK FOOD QUESTIONNAIRE Codman Academy Junk Food Questionnaire is taken as the questionnaire for this survey. The language used for this questionnaire is English language because it is a universal language. So, the respondents can answer the questionnaire without any obstacle due to language. 3.5 DATA ANALYSIS The result from the questionnaire will be analysed by using the statistics software known as SPSS. Results will be presented through frequency counts and other descriptive statistics. From the analysis, the researcher can get the statistical analysis on the result of the awareness of students in Pusat Permata Pintar Negara towards the intake of junk food. The hypothesis testing will be done by the researcher to make a decision. The decision is either to reject the null hypothesis or fail to reject null hypothesis. Microsoft Excel 2010 will be used to tabulate the data. 11 3.6 PRELIMINARY BUDJET 12 REFERENCES British Heart Foundation. 2014. Briefing: Junk food marketing to children campaign Husarova, V. Ostatnikova, D. 2013. JMED Research. Monosodium Glutamate Toxic Effects and Their Implications for Human Intake: A Review 2013(2013):1-11 Vartanian, L.R., Schwartz, M.B. Brownell, K.D. 2007. American Journal of Public Health. Framing Health Matters 97(4):667-675

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Engineering Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Engineering Essay Even though high performance liquid chromatography is a widely used technique for extractions of analytes in many classes, SFC has clear advantages over it. In HPLC a substantial amount of organic solvent is generated with each extraction, which then needs to be disposed. However, the disposal of the organic solvents is expensive at $5 $10 per gallon, whereas SFC uses considerably less or no organic solvent which leads to a decrease in analysis costs [1]. In replacement of organic solvents an inert environmentally friendly mobile phase is used, often carbon dioxide which can be collected from the atmosphere, as it is energy efficient in the isolation of the desired products [2]. Also without the use organic solvents the product is more concentrated compared to HPLC where the solvent must be evaporated, without the need to evaporate any solvent there is a reduction in energy and labour costs [2]. SFC is similar to gas chromatography (GC) in that it has a lower viscosity and higher diffusion coefficient than HPLC which allows for quicker, more efficient separations as it more effective at entering porous solid materials than liquid solvents. The separation time can be cut down from hours or days to a few tens of minutes [3]. As seen in Table 1, supercritical fluids lie between liquids and gases, which allows for SFC to use features of both HPLC and GC. Due to supercritical fluids having gas like and liquid like density it has a greater solvating power so SFC has a larger molecular range which includes non-volatile molecules which methods like GC do not include [1, 4]. Also, unlike GC which does not analyse thermally unstable compounds, SFC is able to due to the low critical temperatures of supercritical fluids such as carbon dioxide (31oC) [1] ; an advantage of supercritical fluid carbon dioxide is that it has a varied solvating strength that allows for selective extractions [5]. Along with this by altering the temperature and/or pressure it is possible to achieve higher selectivity. The range of detectors is also wider for SFC compared to GC or HPLC this is because in SFC the mobile phase can be liquid or gas like, so GC and HPLC detectors can be used [1]. For example SFC with flame ionization detection (FID) can provide quantification of resolved materials with a sensitivity of 0.1 ng [4]. Due to the range of detectors available for SFC and the low critical temperature of the carbon dioxide mobile phase, the detection and analysis of thermally labile compounds has been successful [3, 5]. Another advantage SFC has over HPLC is separation of chiral compounds, in HPLC the process is very time consuming, in SFC however, due to the lower viscosity of the supercritical fluids, the chiral separation can be run at a flow rate of up to 5 times faster than that of the HPLC all while avoiding pressure build up. The higher flow rate of SFC consequently means that the productivity is higher than HPLC methods [2]. When used in large scale extractions, fluid carbon dioxide can be recycled and then reused this minimize the amount of waste generated [3]. Property Gas Supercritical Fluid Liquid Density g/cm3 (0.6-2) x 10-3 0.2-0.5 0.6-1.6 Diffusion Coefficient cm2/s (1-4) x 10-1 10-3-10-4 (0.2-2) x 10-5 Viscosity g cm-1 s-1 (1-3) x 10-4 (1-3) x 10-4 (0.2-3) x 10-2Table 1: Comparison of Properties of Supercritical Fluids, Liquids and Gases [1] Due to the fact that SFC has features of both GC and HPLC, SFC has diversity in the columns that can be used which are either open tubular (GC) or packed (HPLC). In packed column SFC by choosing suitable column dimensions and particle size [6], this can cause an increase in the number of theoretical plates (over 100,000) [2, 6]. Further advantage is SFC is very clean; mobile phase contaminants are usually trace quantities of other gases. The mobile phase is very free of dissolved oxygen and is not particularly reactive and the mobile phase is easily and rapidly removed [2]. A disadvantage of using carbon dioxide as the mobile phase is it does not elute very polar or ionic compounds; this is overcome by using an organic modifier. However, there are some disadvantages of SFC these include that if molecules are highly polar they are not soluble in the mobile phase. Usually SFC only moves a small amount of a large specimen onto the column Limited availability However, these limitations have been overcome through instrumental modifications that more appropriately address purifications of micro-scale and nano-scale quantities of physiological molecules. More sophisticated 2D systems (2D-SFC) allow for the interfacing of 2 SFC columns having different column coatings or packing and thus provide for orthogonal separation capabilities [2]. Instrumentation used in SFC Originally, SFC instruments were based on HPLC designs with some modifications, however now the design includes a pumping system, modifier module, post-column nozzle and a separator detector [2]. The mobile phase in SFC is pumped as a liquid and then heated up past supercritical temperature until it reaches the supercritical region. The mobile phase passes through the injection valve before the sample is introduced, which carries the sample into the analytical column. To ensure the mobile phase stays supercritical, pressure restrictors are placed at the sides of the detector or at the end of the column. The pressure restrictors are heated as too avoid clogging [7]. As SFC uses a supercritical fluid as mobile phase, there are two possible types of column setup; one setup is HPLC like which consist of two reciprocating pumps these allow the mobile phase to mix and the introduction of a modifier, a packed column which are placed in an oven the detector used is an optical detector and the pressure and flow rates can be controlled separately [7]. Packed column SFC has recently become popular again over the past decade due to drug discovery and the pharmaceutical industry, as it offers the use of an environmentally friendly mobile phase, carbon dioxide, decrease in waste generation and provides purified materials even on a large scale, when used for drug discovery packed SFC is usually coupled with a mass spectrometer detector [2, 8]. In SFC there are lower eluent viscosity and higher diffusion coefficient which as a result lead to an increase in efficiency and a shorter separation time, the low viscosity causes only slight pressure drops which in tu rn allows for the flow rate to be quicker (3-5 mL min-1) compared to that of HPLC (typically ~1 mL min-1) [1, 8]. The other column setup is capillary SFC which is an extension of GC that includes a syringe pump and a capillary column inside a GC oven with a restrictor with a flame ionisation detector (FID), however, in capillary SFC the flow rate of the pump controls the pressure of the system [6, 7]. Other detection methods are also used for capillary SFC one method is Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. Capillary SFC is used for high separation power and is more suited for fluids with low density. However, capillary columns have some limitations these include sample loading capacity, detection limits and quantitation [6, 7]. As mentioned FID is mostly used for capillary SFC, although in certain cases FID can be used with packed column SFC when a non-flammable mobile phase is used. However, the mobile phase that is used is usually carbon dioxide which requires an organic modifier to deactivate any unbounded silanol groups in the stationary phase [10] thus causing the mobile phase to become flammable this in turn causes a high background signal and a loss of sensitivity. Alternatively, modifiers like esters or lower alcohols can be used in packed column SFC in order to improve the elution of polar compounds [9]. However, to avoid the use of modifiers, open-tubular capillary columns can be used, since silanol groups are not present in the stationary phase [10]. Compared to capillary columns, packed columns display higher efficiency per unit time; also separations can be transported directly from analytical or preparative liquid chromatography (LC) to SFC. Moreover, a standard liquid chromatograph can easily be converted into a supercritical fluid chromatograph [11]. It has was found that certain separations that were developed on a 50 ÃŽÂ ¼m i.d. capillary column can be repeated with the same or better performance on a 1 mm i.d. (microbore) packed column. The packed column system has the additional advantage of yielding excellent peak area precision. It is also shown that the combination of water and formic acid is an effective modifier for CO2 which can be used with FID [6]. A study using the water and formic acid modifier was conducted by H. E. Schwartz et al. formic acid is used as it has low background noise and therefore is more favourable, however another problem arises when using this modifier and that large gradient humps appeared during the run, these were most probably because of organic impurities in formic acid. A way round this problem is that water is added to the carbon dioxide via the use of an aquafier system, the aquafier system used by H. E. Schwartz et al. was a 15 cm x 4.6 mm i.d. silica column (100-200 mesh) that was saturated with ca. 40% w/w water. The column was placed between the pump outlet and injection valve. A test mixture of the formic acid and water modifier was performed by H. E. Schwartz et al. and prodcued the chromatogram as seen in Figure 1[6]. Figure 1 Chromatogram of a test mixture of formic acid/water/CO2 mobile phase. Peak identification (from left to right): n-eicosane, anthraquinone, n-triacontane, tocopherol acetate, cholesterol [6]. In Figure 1 the baseline rises this was due to the pressure program used, however due to the addition of water to the mobile phase which prevented the accumulation of formic acid on the head of the column no hump is visible. In Figure 1 it can also be seen that all the peaks have good shape and resolution even for the more polar compounds like anthraquinone, tocopherol acetate and cholesterol [6]. Mobile phases and stationary phases used in SFC In SFC the density of the mobile phase is about 200-500 times greater to that in gas chromatography. Compounds with high molecular weights are not usually detectable in gas chromatography, however with the density of the mobile phase being greater they can therefore be chromatographed [12]. A wide range of compounds have been tested for use as SFC mobile phases, however, a variety of these required special conditions, and would therefore not be suitable. This resulted in carbon dioxide CO2 being used as it was easily obtainable, low cost and safe [13], along with the critical temperature being 31oC and critical pressure being 73.8 atm [14]. A problem with CO2 as a mobile phase in a packed column is that if CO2 mobilizes a species then there is a possibility that the compound will be irreversibly adsorbed onto the column, this is because of the high activity of most sorbents, this does not happen in capillary SFC as inert fused silica open-tubular column are used. To avoid adsorption onto the column, surface activity needs to be decreased; this has been achieved by using modifiers [14]. There are two main reasons why modifiers are added to the mobile phase, first is that only a small amount of modifier is added in order to deactivate the sorbent active sites, second is when the modifier is added in higher concentrations (level of modifier needed is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥1%)it improves the solubility of the analyte in the mobile phase [14]. One problem with using modifiers is they have a high response when a FID is used; this high response causes an increase in the baseline. The alternative to using FID which helps relieve this problem is the use of a ultra-violet absorption detector, although it is not as applicable to organic compounds compared to FID [14]. This is only true for packed SFC, as when capillary SFC is used most separations are done using only CO2, which is compatible with FID. Having only CO2 as the solid phase can cause slight defects on the chromatograms such as very broad peaks and not well resolved, as well as longer retention times, this is solved by adding a small amount of water to the mobile phase, hence improving the peaks and decreasing the retention time [12]. Modifiers which can be used with the mobile phase include methanol, acetonitrile, chloroform and formic acid. Methanol is the most popular modifier being used in both packed and capillary SFC, even though the addition of water speeds up elution of polar compounds in capillary SFC [12]; methanol has a greater effect when used with silica-packed columns [14]. The solubility of methanol, acetonitrile and chloroform in CO2 was studied by K. L. Maguire and R. B. Denyszyn, they found out that when the pressure is below 90 for methanol/CO2 there was little effect on solubility, but when raised above 90 there was a substantial increase. Acetonitrile/CO2 had very little pressure dependence but small temperature dependence. Finally, chloroform/CO2 both pressure and temperature had a small effect on solubility, when either was raised the solubility of chloroform increased [14]. Research by G. L. Pariente and P. R. Griffiths showed when carboxylic acid groups were present in the analyte the retention time was greatly increased while still using CO2 mobile phase. The cause of this could be due to that the solubility of these polar molecules is low and the solvation is not great enough to overcome the strong hydrogen bonds. The alternative mobile phase used was chlorofluorocarbon (CCl2F2), in comparison to CO2 which had a capacity factor greater than 20 for isophthalic acid; CCl2F2 had a capacity factor of 3.9. These results suggest that CCl2F2 has sufficient free energy of solvation to overcome the hydrogen bonds [14]. Even though CO2 ­ is the most extensively used mobile phase it is no more polar than hexane [15], so alternatives including CCl2F2 have been investigated, however the critical temperatures must not be too high as one of the main advantages of SFC is that elution can take place at mild temperatures. Another example is ammonia (NH3), as it possesses a high dipole moment and relatively low critical temperature, however supercritical NH3 reacts with siloxane linkages and when left for an extended time the siloxane stationary phase for capillary SFC breaks down too [14]. Therefore, a more useful way of eluting polar compounds is CO2  ­and the use of a modifier [15]. For packed SFC more or less all of the stationary phases used in HPLC are used in SFC, most of these are silica-based, chemically bonded or encapsulated, or polymeric [8]. Evaluation of stationary phases of SFC was originally carried out by Schoenmakers et al. this was however, only done using pure CO2 as the mobile phase, and certain phases did not perform well, if a modifier was used these phases would have performed better. When CO2 and a modifier is used as a mobile phase the stationary phase also becomes modified in that both CO2 ­ and the modifier adsorb onto the stationary phase. Depending on the stationary phase depends on the level of adsorption, for CO2 all phases adsorb the same but more polar phases adsorb more modifier than less polar phases. This causes the stationary phase to become more polar than the mobile phase, which in turn will cause polar solutes to interact more with stationary phase increasing retention time. Other stationary phases that have been studied include octadecylsiloxane-bonded silica (ODS), cyanopropylsiloxane- bonded silica, divinylbenzene-ODS, polydimethylsiloxane and porous graphitic carbon (PGC) stationary phases in supercritical [8]. In capillary SFC a problem arises in that normal GC stationary phases dissolve in the supercritical fluid mobile phase as they have a high solvating power. In order to correct the problem a non-extractable stationary phase is needed, examples of this are bonded phase where the stationary phase is attached to the column to surface groups via covalent bonds and cross linked phase where polymer chains within the stationary phase are attached to each other. In order to create non-extractable stationary phase, the process of coating must be undertaken, there are two types of coating, dynamic and static. The most favoured for SFC is static, as dynamic can lead to poor column efficiency and a thick stationary phase is not possible. In static coating the stationary phase is first dissolved in supercritical fluid and forced into the column, to avoid the removal of the phase cross link phase is used as it occurs between the polymers and not between polymer and substrate, and therefore can be applied to glass and fused silica columns [16]. Conclusion

The ‘Glutamate Theory’ of the Pathogenesis of Schizophrenia Essay

Introduction: There is immense study on the role of glutamate in Schizophrenia. Even so to date the current antipsychotics do not control major glutamatergic action albeit a study at the NMDA receptor location such as the glycine transport inhibitors may give new novel evidence for the discovery of future antipsychotics (Olney et al., 1999) The Dopamine hypothesis of Schizophrenia The dopamine (DA) theory of schizophrenia has subjugated the effort to justify the behaviours Schizophrenia is a psychiatric bedlam relating to the messing up of routine thinking, sentiment and every day activities. Egan & Weinberger (1979) described schizophrenia as when a subject or an individual is unable to differentiate what is genuine and unreal. The clinical characteristics of the various disarray of schizophrenia commonly come into view in the late adolescence or the early adulthood. Schizophrenia can exhibit either positive or negative or both signs. Whereas the positive sign is characterised by paranoia, false principles or hallucination, the negative aspect is marked by depression, withdrawal from communal connections. But pleasing of social responses shortfall in attention and memory are ascribed to cognitive effect. Generally, schizophrenia is considered to be neurodevelopment unrest rather than neurogenerative disorder (Harrison et al., 2003). There are several divi sions in the brain that can be affected by schizophrenia. The atypical function of the basal ganglia is considered to play a role in paranoia and hallucination. The frontal lobe of the brain plays a role in problem solving and reasoning. Conversely a schizophrenic will have a deficiency in the lobe and as result, having difficulty in forecast and coordinating. Adjustment... ...ts. Neuroscience, 90(3), 823-32. Kim,J.S.,Kornhuber,H.H.,Schmid-Burgk,W.,Hlozmuller,B.(1980) Low cerebrospinal fluid glutamate in schizophrenic patients and a new hypothesis on schizophrenia. Neuorocience Letters 20:379-382 Kotter, H. (1994) Postsynaptic integration of gluamatergic and dopamine signals in the striatum. Progression in Neurobiology. 44:163-196 Olney, J. W., Newcomer, J. W., & Farber, B. B. (1999). NMDA receptor hypofunction model of schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 33: 523-533. Stanley, J. A., Williamson, P. C., Drost, D. J., Carr, T. J., Rylett, R. J., Malla, A., Thompson R. T. (1996). An in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of schizophrenia patiens. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 22(4), 597-609. Weinberger, D.A (1993) Connection approach to the prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuropsychiatry. 5:241-253

Hypothetical Southern White Reaction to the Distribution of the Montgom

This source was published just after, and is referring to, the arrest of Rosa May Parks on December 1st, 1955. Parks was arrested for refusing to move from her bus seat for a white passenger when asked to by the racist bus driver, James Blake. The two had met before in 1943 when Parks had boarded Blake?s bus from the front door, which was for whites only. Blake told Parks to exit the bus and re-enter from the rear door where she was supposed to but as Parks got off of the bus, Blake drove off leaving her to walk home. This defiance by Parks had created a major turning point in civil rights by sparking the start of the civil rights movement. This source shows us what life was like for the black community, specifically black women, in the southern states of America. The source is a picture of a leaflet distributed in 1955 by the ?Women?s political council,? an anti-segregation group, calling for a boycott on the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The involvement of women in politics only angered the white segregationists further. The boycott, which was originally intended to last only a single day, lasted for a total 381 days and it only ended when the American Supreme Court ruled that segregation on the buses was unconstitutional. This would have had a rather large impact on the business economy within Montgomery and possibly even Alabama. Montgomery subsequently changed its laws so that buses were integrated. Even though the supreme court ruled that segregation on the buses was unconstitutional it did not overturn all of the segregation laws. The leaflet repeats the phrase ?Don?t ride the buses to work, to town, to school of anywhere on Monday? to drive home the point to the reader that a major boycott was about to start. During... ... the Ku Klux Klan the people living in that area had taken on board the message of acting as a community and instead of hiding away in their houses from the convoy, which was what the Ku Klux Klan expected, many blacks came out into the streets and waved at the cars as they passed by. Most southern whites were ?pro segregation? and would have been outraged by the distribution of this leaflet. The fact it was distributed by women only added to the hate that the whites felt. To most of the southern ?pro segregation? whites, blacks were just slaves and subordinates. This level of solidarity and unity within the black community would have shocked all of the southern segregationists. I believe the whites also felt scared as the black community was beginning to have some power and influence over the economy, and I think that made most white segregationists feel insecure.

Mexican Daily Life Essay

There are a variety of common courtesies that Americans should observe when in Mexico. Some of the important issues of cultural etiquette are described herein. When in Mexico Americans should refrain from calling themselves â€Å"Americans. † Mexicans consider themselves Americans too since the whole continent is called America. Another part of Mexican culture that may be shocking to American’s traveling there is the way machismo is verbalized by male members of Mexican society. Making sexual or derogatory remarks at women is a typical part of the culture and should not be seen as harassment. Wearing a wedding band and mentioning children usually will stop these types of comments. Attempting to speak Spanish even if your Spanish is not good is appreciated. When speaking in English slang and idioms should be avoided. Using broken English does not aid communication and can be seen as offensive. Many Mexicans speak English but many more read English. If possible, a written copy of what you are saying should be provided. Mexicans do not often say no because it is considered impolite. Consequently, it is important that you recognize this and look for other clues as to what the real answer is. If a Mexican says maybe it is a good indicator that the answer is definitely no. Asking for a yes or no response to a specific question repeatedly is tolerated but you must be patient because it will take a while before the real answer comes out. People stand much closer to each other in Mexico. It is considered unfriendly to back up when a Mexican approaches you in conversation. You must be aware of the tone of voice you use when in Mexico. Using a quick pace or a sharp or forceful tone will make you come across unfavorably. Eye contact is not as direct or long as in the United States. Mexicans are status conscientious so what you wear or what you drive makes a clear statement about who you are in society. When attending a social event you should arrive 30 minutes late. Arriving earlier is considered rude. At small parties your host will introduce you. At large parties you may introduce yourself. When dining you should not sit until you are told where to sit and you should not eat until the hostess starts. It is polite to keep both of your hands visible while eating and to leave some food on your plate when finished. Only men are permitted to give toasts. The traditional greetings used in Mexico vary depending on the sex of the participants and the amount of time they have known each other. It is important to greet each member of a group individually. Women will pat each other on the forearm or shoulder as an initial greeting where men use the handshake in situations where they are greeting someone for the first time. Handshakes consist of a gentle grip and a quick sharp shake. After men develop a relationship hugs or back slapping called abrazo replace the handshake. Women will progress to a series of air kisses on the cheek. Air kissing is also the appropriate greeting between a man and a woman who know each other. The first kiss is in the air near the left cheek and the second is in the air near the right cheek. Unmarried women receive an additional kiss as a wish for marriage. Receiving an abrazo or air kiss is an indicator that you have been accepted into the group. These traditional Mexican greeting are indicative of gender characteristics. Females are supposed to act open while men are expected to act closed. Foreigners should politely accept these greetings from Mexicans but should not initiate a move from one greeting to the next. This is especially important for an American man who is greeting a Mexican female. The American man should never initiate the air kisses as it may be interpreted as sexual advance which damages the women’s honor and her partner’s machismo. Women are even expected to initiate a handshake with men. It is important to wait until invited to call a Mexican by his or her first name because of the emphasis on formal hierarchy with in the society. Until then you should use the correct honorific (Senor, Senora, Senorita) and the family name. If you do not know if a woman is married or not you should use Senorita followed by her family name. In oral communications you should use the father’s family name only. In written communications it is appropriate to use the father’s family name first followed by the mother’s family name. A respectful smile is always appropriate during greetings. Saying goodbye in Mexico is very similar to the process used for greetings. The host will walk the guest to the door and the goodbye will be said with the same procedure as the greeting. If you received a handshake, abrazo, arm pay or air kiss upon arrival expect the same upon leaving. Etiquette about who initiates the goodbye is the same as for greetings. It is polite to thank your host for the good time. Gift giving in Mexico is very similar to gift giving traditions in the United States. When invited to a Mexican’s home, it is considered polite to bring a gift of sweets or flowers. White flowers are a good choice because they are viewed by Mexicans as uplifting. Red flowers are not appreciated because they are used when someone is sick. Marigolds should not be given because they symbolize death. Gift wrapping does not carry any special significance. Gifts are opened immediately in the presence of those who gave them. It is appropriate to respond enthusiastically. Gifts are not used very often in Mexican business. However, bringing a small gift from home to a business partner you have worked with before is okay. Another accepted use of gifts in business is to give chocolates to the secretary. Since gifts are not used frequently, giving chocolates to the secretary will usually help future business run smoothly as you will be favored. It is extremely important for American men who are presenting females with gifts at work to state that it is from the wife or family. Presenting a gift to a female from a male may be seen as a sexual advance. Colors have been assigned definitions since the Aztec empire in Mexico. However, the definitions of what each color means has changed a lot since then. In the Aztec empire green was a symbol of royalty, white meant death, yellow was a symbol for food and blue symbolized sacrifice. Today’s definitions for colors are representative of Mexican cultural conventions. Warm deep colors that reflect the landscape are used in decorating. Bright reds and yellows are fiesta colors. Today white symbolizes purity. White items are believed to have the ability to ward off black magic. Red stands for unity and protection. Using a red handkerchief to cover your mouth when passing a house where someone has died or been sick is believed to protect you from illness or death. Yellow is a mourning color. Consequently, marigolds are planted in cemeteries. Dark blue is also a mourning color. When attending a funeral Mexican’s are expected to wear dark blue. Green is a symbol of independence and hope. Humor is understood and appreciated in Mexico. Situational humor as well as â€Å"slap-stick† humor are enjoyed. Humor that demeans someone to advance someone else can only be used in limited contexts to promote machismo and, consequently, should be avoided. Jokes using Mexican stereotypes or dealing with the Alamo and Mexican-American War are not appreciated. Since humor in Mexico involves many social nuances, it may be better to avoid trying to intentionally make jokes. However, if your host makes a joke smiling and laughing are expected. Mexicans typically work a 5. 5 day work week with 8 hour days Monday through Friday from 9-5 o’clock and a half day on Saturday. Mexican law requires that the work week does not surpass 48 hours per week and that lunch hour which is from 3 to 4 o’clock must be paid. However, this schedule varies by the type of business. For example, government workers often work the entire 48 hours in a five day workweek and take off for lunch at 2 o’clock for two hours. Consequently, government workers often work very late into the evening. It is very important to establish a friendship with a Mexican business partner before getting â€Å"down to business. † As a result friendly conversation on home life is often mixed into business conversations as a way to get to know people. Breakfast and lunch are good times to have mixed discussions that can lead to better business. However, Mexicans work to live not live to work so business talk should be left out of social situations unless initiated by the Mexican. Between 8 and 11 million children under the age of 15 are working in Mexico, approximately 20% of the population of children. This number does not include children working on farms. Although it is illegal to employee children under the age of 16, it is still commonly practiced in Mexico because children provide a cheaper source of labor. Many children use fake ID’s to obtain employment because of the financial need of the family. Businesses are not usually punished for illegally employing minors. Alcohol is used regularly in Mexico. The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18. There are responsible drinkers and alcoholics in Mexican society. Approximately 13% of the population has experienced alcohol dependency. Unfortunately incidents of alcoholism are rising. Alcohol is used disproportionatly by men because of Mexican gender roles which promote risky behavior for men and conservative behavior for women. Alcohol is permitted in both business and social settings. In business alcohol is most appropriate during lunch or diner meetings. Mexican leisure activity is similar to that of the United States. Mexicans enjoy television, concerts, movies, picnics, shopping and sports. Soccer is the most popular sport. Businesses that provide picnic tables and soccer fields for use by employees on their lunch hour are viewed very positively by Mexicans. Fiestas, birthdays and traditional holidays are also enjoyed by all members of Mexican society. The types of leisure activities that Mexicans enjoy do not vary for the different income levels. Only the amount of time and money one can invest in these activities varies from one class to another.

Confidence Intervals

The confidence intervals represent upper and lower bounds of variation around each reference forecast. Values may occur outside the confidence intervals due to external shocks, such as extreme weather, structural changes to the economic system, geopolitical events, or technology development. The confidence intervals increase in width throughout the forecast period due to the increasing level of uncertainty in each subsequent year.The upper and lower bounds were based on one to two standard deviations of the historic values, indicating at least a 68 percent probability that future values would be expected to fall within the confidence interval. The confidence interval for the first forecast year is based on one standard deviation and grows linearly until it reaches two standard deviations, or a 95 percent probability. =====================================================================================For example, if we have polled a number of respondents from the home owners let†™s say 3500 respondents, and from those only 1190 are using electricity to heat their homes, this means that 34. 0% are using electricity to heat their homes, p? = 1190/3500 = 34. 0%. And we know that a second sample of 3500 home owners wouldn’t have a sample proportion of exactly 34. 0%. If another group of home owners has taken and we found that they have a sample of proportion of 38. 0%, So the sampling proportion will be the key to our ability to generalize from our sample to the population.Now, we know that the sampling distribution model is centered at the true proportion, p, of all home owners who use electricity to heat their homes. But we don’t know p. it isn’t 34. 0%. That’s the p? from our sample. What we do know is that the sampling distribution model of p? centered at p, and we know that the standard deviation of the sampling distribution is SE(p? ) = v p? q? /n = v(. 34)(1-. 34)/3500 = 0. 008 Because our sample (3500) is large, we know tha t the sampling distribution model for p? should look approximately like the one shown below The sampling distribution model for p? s normal with a mean of p and a standard deviation we estimate to be v p? q? /n. because the distribution is normal, we’d expect that about 68% of all samples of 3500 home owners taken in a specific time would have had sample proportion within 1 standard deviation of p. and about 95% of all these samples will have proportions within p  ± 2 SEs. But where is our sample proportion in this picture? And what value does p have? We still don’t know! We do know that for 95% of random samples, p? will be no more than 2 SEs away from p. so let’s reverse it and look at it from p? ’s point of view. If I am p? there is a 95% chance that p is no more than 2 SEs away from me. If I reach out 2 SEs, or 2 x 0. 008, away from me on both sides, I am 95% sure that p will be within my grasp. Of course, I won’t know, and even if my interva l does catch p, I still don’t know its true value. Now, We don’t know exactly what proportion of home owners using electricity to heat their homes, but we know that it’s within the interval 34. 0%  ± 2 x 0. 8%. That is, it’s between 32. 2% and 35. 6%. † this is getting closer, but we still can’t be certain. We can’t know for sure that the true proportion is in this interval-or in any particular range.We don’t know the exactly the proportion of home owners that use electricity to heat their homes, but the interval from 32. 4% to 35. 6% probably contains the true proportion. † We’ve now fudged twice—first by giving an interval and second by admitting that we only think the interval â€Å"probably† contains the true value. That last statement is true; we can tighten it up by quantifying what we mean by â€Å"probably. † We saw that 95% of the time when we reach out 2 SEs from p? , we capture p, s o we can be 95% confident that this is one of those times, after putting a number on the probability that this interval covers the true proportion,We are 95% confident that between 32. 4% and 35. 6% of home owners using electricity to heat their homes, this is now an appropriate interpretation of our confidence intervals. It’s not perfect, but it’s about the best we can do. Level of Confidence = 95% =1- ? = 0. 05 Sample size (n) = 3500 Sample proportion (p? ) = 0. 34 P complement (q? ) = (1-0. 34) = 0. 66 Sample standard error of a proportion = SE(p? ) = v p? q? /n = v(. 34)(1-. 34)/3500 = 0. 008 Z Score(1 – ? ) = Z Score95% = NORMSINV (1 – ? /2) = NORMSINV (1 – 0. 025) = NORMSINV (0. 975) = 1. 96 Width of Half the Confidence Interval = Z Score(1-? *  S(q? ) = 1. 96 *  0. 008 = 0. 01568 Confidence Interval Boundaries = p? +/- Z Score(1-? )*S(p? )= 0. 34  ± (1. 96) * (0. 008) = 0. 34  ± (0. 01568) = 0. 32432 to 0. 35568 = 32. 43% to 35. 57% We can be 95% certain that the percentage of home owners using electricity to heat their homes is between 32. 43% and 35. 57% 0. 01568 0. 01568 0. 316 0. 3243 0. 332 0. 34 0 . 348 0. 3557 0. 364 0. 316 0. 3243 0. 332 0. 34 0 . 348 0. 3557 0. 364