Taiwan Facts Essays - Republic Of China, Republics, Taiwan

Taiwan Facts title = Taiwan Facts Taiwan, officially Republic of China, island (in 1994 est. population was 21,299,000), 13,885 sq mi, in the Pacific Ocean, separated from the mainland of S China by the 100-mi-wide (161-km) Taiwan Strait. The capital is TAIPEI. Other major cities include KAOHSIUNG, Tainan, Taichong, and Chilung. About one quarter of Taiwan's land area is cultivated; rice, wheat, sugarcane, and sweet potatoes are the most important crops. In the 1970s industry replaced agriculture as the major export earner. Light industry is the major manufacturing sector, with electronics far ahead. Other manufactures include electrical equipment, chemicals, motor vehicles, and machinery, and service industries are beginning to be more important. The main natural resources are woods and other forest products. Religions include Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Taiwan was first settled by the Chinese in the 7th century, the island was reached by the Portuguese in 1590. It was held by the Dutch in the 1640s, and by China's Ch'ing dynasty from 1683. Occupied by Japan after the First Sino-Japanese War , Taiwan remained in Japanese hands until 1945. When CHIANG KAI-SHEK and the Nationalists, or Kuomintang, were kicked from mainland CHINA by the Communists, they shifted the seat of their government to Taiwan. The U.S. long supported and aided the Nationalists, but in the 1970s Taiwan's international political position had eroded. In 1971 it lost China's seat in the UN to the People's Republic of China, and in 1979 the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the Nationalists to establish relations with the People's Republic of China, although keeping good economic and cultural ties. Martial law, in effect since 1949, was lifted in 1987, and many jailed political dissidents were freed. Pres. Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988 and was succeeded by LEE TENG -HUI, a Taiwan native. In 1991 Lee ended emergency rule, which had permitted the domination of the National Assembly by aging mainland delegates elected in 1947. In elections in 1992 the Kuomintang retained control of the assembly, but the major opposition party won a third of the seats.

Needing the Unnecessary Essay Example

Needing the Unnecessary Essay Example Needing the Unnecessary Essay Needing the Unnecessary Essay The luxury craze is breaking into the lives of people of all socioeconomic groups and beginning to spread around the globe. Nowadays, even the average American can drive a Mercedes Benz, shop at elite retail boutiques and enjoy a massage. What was once considered a luxury item is now considered a staple. For virtually any product out there, there is a designer alternative or luxury upgrades that everyone strives to obtain and outdo their pier, pushing normal standards to those of higher and sometimes ridiculous standards. By looking into any standard English dictionary for the meaning of the word conspicuous, one gets a variety of lexicographic entries including â€Å"eye catching†, and â€Å"prominent;† but the word acquires a significantly different connotation in the context of â€Å"consumption† when it clearly indicated the phenomenon of â€Å"wasteful and lavish consumption expenses to enhance social prestige. Based entirely on observation, more than a hundred years ago, Thorstein Veblen (1899) proposed that American rich were spending a significant portion of their time and money on unnecessary and unproductive leisure expenditures and coined the term conspicuous consumption to describe the behavior; this linguistic construct has been used so widely that it has entered into popular English lexicon only in this particular sense of the term (Oxford English Dictionary). Luxury spending, over the last several years has been growing four times faster in the United States than anywhere else. Political leaders characterized the increasing desire for luxury items vital to the health of the American economy as a whole. All layers of society are experiencing and participating in the necessary consumption of unnecessary items and services that have become so readily available to everyday consumers. Luxury is everywhere and is almost impossible for us as consumers to avoid. We see luxury in storefronts, advertisements, radio, and much more. We imagine ourselves surrounded by the luxury items we see in hopes of one day if not already possessing those items. We as Humans are consumers by nature, always desiring more. So many products are claiming luxury status today that the credibility of the category itself is strained: for example, Kmart offers cashmere bedspreads, the name â€Å"pashmina† had to be invented to top cashmere. This would not have happened if luxury items were not so accessible to all classes of society. No we are not rational when it comes to spending and consuming the luxury items out there. In fact, we as consumer are more irrational than rational, with most everything purchased being made on impulse. It is important for us to rethink the separation between production and consumption, for they are more alike than separate and occur not at different times and places but simultaneously. That is the underlining question and what James Twitchell has shown us.

Fitness Center Information System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Fitness Center Information System - Assignment Example The system would take care of all those and keep the latest details about performance and other measures such as future interests. They form a major part of the system and handle a lot of tasks relating to the members activities and alignment to several other programs and future interests. They interface with the management giving valuable information regarding members and their interests which needs to be taken care from time to time. The new methodologies and equipments need to be identified for the growth of their customer base so that they stay competitive in the business. The management of The Fitness Center needs to analyze at every moment what is to be done for furthering the interests of the members and to identify the upcoming requirements and the feedback from the members about the center and the environment. The fitness consultants also interact with the management to identify collectively the innovations which will keep the company competitive over others. The above information can be collected from the company members and the consultants in the form of interviews and questionnaires designed to fetch the required information so as to get the overall view of the system and the interaction of the various parts. PrSystem Analysis It outlines the various models which need to be developed to get an inner depth of the system and the interaction of its various processes. Process Modeling: Process modeling involves graphically representing the processes which capture, manipulate, store and distribute data between a system and its environment and between components within a system (Hoffer, 2002). The following is the Data flow diagram of the entire system and its relationships with other entities: Figure 1: Data flow Diagram of the entire system. The following are the information about the various symbols used in the above diagram: Oval - It is used to depict the Information system to be interfaced. Rectangle - It is used to denote the various entities involved in the entire system. Rectangles with one open side - It is used to show the place to store the information derived from the various entities and the Information system itself. Arrows - It shows the direction of the information flow. Labels - It gives a brief about the nature of the information or message passing. Conceptual data modeling : A detailed model that captures the overall structure of organizational data while being independent of any database management system or other implementation considerations (Hoffer and Navathe, 2002). Figure 2: Entity Relationship Diagram (Clearly showing communication between them) The following are

Performance appraisals Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Performance appraisals - Research Paper Example Performance appraisals are aimed at the smooth accomplishment of organizational goals by monitoring employee behavior and enhancing employee productivity. This paper deals with the various aspects of performance appraisals including its use in the workplace, its subjective and objective nature, legal and ethical issues, advantages and disadvantages, and suggests possible alternatives. Performance appraisals in the workplace Performance appraisals play a pivotal role in the management of organizations. Performance appraisals serve a large variety of purposes within organizations. The management often uses performance appraisals for taking important decisions on promotions, rewards, transfers and terminations of employees, for identifying training and development needs, for validating selection and development programs, and for providing timely feedback to the employees on their performance (Robbins 228). Performance appraisals offer a unique opportunity for managers and supervisors to evaluate the performance of their employees and to improve their performance by timely feedbacks or interventions. For Chukwuba, performance appraisals play two potentially conflicting roles within an organization. The first of these roles is â€Å"to measure performance for the purpose of rewarding or otherwise making administrative decisions about employees† whereas the second is ‘development of individual potential’ within the organization (Chukwuba 3). Both these roles are essential for the overall growth and development of the organization. It is the responsibility of the supervisors to guide, direct and motivate the subordinates through appropriate performance appraisals. However, self-appraisals, peer appraisals, subordinate appraisals, customer/client appraisals, and multiple raters are also proved to be significant in various organizational settings (Jennifer 255). Performance appraisals yield employee satisfaction and enhance their performance when the ir work is appreciated or rewarded. On the other hand, it can also put an end to undesirable behavior among the employees. Objective and subjective performance appraisals Performance appraisals can be of two types-objective or subjective. While objective performance appraisals are based on facts subjective performance appraisals are based on individuals’ perceptions. As such objective measures appear to be more valid and reliable. However, it is a fact that the actual performance of an employee cannot completely be evaluated based on facts or statistical data alone. Therefore, effective management system makes use of both objective and subjective performance appraisals. Objective performance appraisals are results-oriented as the focus is on facts or statistical data whereas subjective measures are â€Å"based on individuals’ perceptions and can be used for appraisals based on traits, behaviors, and results† (Jennifer 254). While objective performance appraisals value the performance of employees in terms of their sales, business, achievements, profits or growth in income subjective evaluation takes into account such aspects as the efforts made by the employee, the attitude of the employee and his/her behavior. For instance, the

OPERATION MANAGEMENT (specialize in comparative operation management Essay

OPERATION MANAGEMENT (specialize in comparative operation management - Essay Example The nature of offerings of KFC is different from McDonald's in the sense that majority of KFC's ingredients include deep fried wholesome chicken pieces and fries. Immediately behind the counter, there is a temporary storage of ready to serve chicken pieces, in temperature controlled glass environment. This serves the purpose of Work in Progress Inventory. Step 2: the first person in the production line reads order and passes the raw, materials to the next level. For example if it is chicken pieces, then he passes the full pieces, if its hot shots he passes the right amount to the net level. It can be seen that the operations of KFC are almost similar to the operations of Mc Donald's. As mentioned earlier, the primary difference between KF and Mc Donalds' offering is that all KFC offerings contain chicken. As per quality policy the chicken has to be fresh. Due to this the role of Temporary Storage (behind counter)is very crucial for KFC. It has to satisfy the following requirements: Mc Donald's has and advantage on KFC in the sense that it does not require too much movement of workers as the sandwich is processed along a line of processing.

The Chikungunya Virus: Symptoms and Causes

The Chikungunya Virus: Symptoms and Causes Chikungunya virus, also known as Chikungunya fever, is most often found in urban areas of India and also in other countries such as Africa and other regions in Southeast Asia. They tend to appear in very crowded areas, which allow transmission of the virus to be more efficient. It is a single stranded, enveloped RNA virus that is a part of the genus Alphavirus (Riezebos-Brilman). All Alphavirus are transmitted to Humans through infected mosquitoes, which for Chikungunya virus in particular, does not cause as deadly symptoms as does other viruses. Although Chikungunya has not been reported to cause death in Humans, its symptoms can still affect some individuals adversely. These symptoms can be long-lasting; however they seem to eventually disappear. There is not one specific treatment for Chikungunya fever, but it can be treated separately by each symptom (Chikungunya). Even though there are not any specific treatments for Chikungunya fever, there are many prevention methods or strate gies that can be used to avoid mosquitos. In order for Chikungunya virus to gain entrance into Humans, it must first infect mosquitoes. Mosquitoes become infected by biting Humans that are already infected with Chikungunya virus and the mosquitos can then infect Humans who are not infected. Specifically the vector that mainly transmits the infection is the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which are also known as the yellow fever mosquito (Chikungunya). After Aedes aegypti spreads the infection to Humans by biting into the skin, the virus primarily does all of its replication in the cytoplasm. It starts off by attaching its surface protein to the host cells receptor on its plasma membrane where it then enters the cell by endocytosis and transported to endosomes. Uncoating of the capsid occurs by acidification which involves a change in pH eventually causing the capsid to uncoat. The capsid is a regular, icosahedral, twenty-faced structure that holds the genome. The genome is comprised of a positive single-stranded RNA, which is theref ore classified as Baltimore class IV. When the genome is free of the capsid, it can skip transcription and go straight to mRNA processing (because it is a positive strand) and translation in the cytoplasm. A crucial step that initiates translation involves eIF2-alpha, which allows normal-house keeping genes to shut off. Also, during translation, the first ORF is translated, which encodes for four particular proteins (nsP1, nsP2, nsP3 and nsP4) that makes replicase (a viral protein). Replicase forms the negative strand intermediate (42S RNA) and which will then in turn create more positive stranded RNA. After translation, the capsid is assembled by ribosomes and the lipid-protein envelope (only proteins in envelope are glycoproteins) is assembled at the plasma membrane where it egresses the cell by budding (Riezebos-Brilman). Upon replication of Chikungunya virus, there are many symptoms and diseases that affect Humans. Most symptoms start to show within one to twelve days and sometimes symptoms do not even show. One of the most common symptoms that first appears is fever (which is why is it commonly known as Chikungunya fever). Fevers can be as high as 104ÂÂ °F, which can last from days to weeks. Other common symptoms that appear in the beginning of infection are fever, chills, vomiting, joint pain, headaches, vomiting, swelling of joints, bleeding/hemorrhage, fatigue, muscle pain, and rash (Bhowmikb). One symptom in particular that is the most often seen symptom is arthritis. The word Chikungunya comes from an African root that means bend over, which is refers to arthritis (Just The Facts: Chikungunya). Even though almost all of these symptoms can be prolonged (days to weeks to even months), they eventually disappear. The virus lipid envelope is what allows the immune system to detect it. The symptoms are very similar to Dengue, which is seen in the same areas as where Chikungunya virus is present and also which is why Chikungunya virus is often misdiagnosed as Dengue. The only way to differentiate the difference between Dengue and Chikungunya virus is by performing a blood test (ELISA), which can be time consuming. Although it is important that the two diseases are distinguished from one another, many doctors use the symptoms to distinguish between the two viruses simply for the fact because blood testing takes too long (Chikungunya). Even after diagnoses, the virus or disease cannot be treated because there is no vaccine or a particular antiviral treatment. For the most part, symptoms are individually treated and medications such as ibuprofen, paracetamol, or naproxen are suggested to relive symptoms of fever, headaches, aching. Often times NSAIDA pills are given to those who are infected to treat only certain symptoms. There have been a few clinical trials in the making. One for example, is a prototype vaccine that has been successful in monkeys, but will soon be tested on Humans later this year. The vaccine is live and it allows the immune system to recognize the outer layer of the virus but does not allow the immune system to recognize the virus genome (which essentially prevents replication from occurring). They then isolated antibodies from the virus and put them into mice, which were also protected against the virus (Maugh). Since there are only clinical trials in the making as of now and since there is not one specific treatment, it is highly recommended, that fluids are frequently taken. An abundance of rest is also recommended and also infected people should avoid staying out doors from other potential mosquito exposure. Avoiding potential mosquito exposure will essentially help to avoid transmission rate in a given region to rise. It is a good idea to have prevention methods in mind since there is not a specific treatment for Chikungunya fever. An example of a prevention method is using mosquito repellents containing DEET (Bhowmikb) or Picaridin on clothes and on the skin. Also when staying indoors, a well-netted/screened area or air conditioned areas would help prevent transmission. When outdoors, on the other hand, wearing long clothing that covers most of the skin can help prevent mosquito bites. Also, getting clear of any source of mosquitos around living areas would help prevent mosquito existence vastly. Areas such as birdbaths, standing water from flowering pots, barrels, and pet dishes would clear a large source of mosquitoes (Chikungunya). Large sources where mosquitoes usually exist are urban areas because Humans are good reservoirs for the virus. Those areas that are especially surrounded with poverty, environmental tragedies (such as natural disasters), tropical climate predominantly year round, and areas where public health is corrupted are prime spots for mosquitos and are also good spots for a virus to transmit by mosquito-Human-mosquito. Many third world countries are targets for Chikungunya fever. Countries such as India, Pakistan, South Africa, and the Philippines have been seen with problems with this particular disease. In areas where there is an abundance of mosquitos and where poverty has flourished, nets or screens are usually used to prevent mosquitos from entering households. Since there is an abundance of the disease in third world countries, there is an issue of money. Most of these countries cannot afford to provide every household with screening or net and therefore transmission becomes easier. Not only is location an issue but demographic is also. Anyone who is bitten by a mosquito is at risk for being infected, but some people show symptoms more than others. For instance, some individuals do not show any symptoms. This is primarily seen in children. Pregnant women can be at risk for passing it to their children. They can be infected at any time of their pregnancy but they are usually only at risk for passing it to their child if it is in their bloodstream during the time of delivery. Also, mortality rate is very low and is rarely seen but it does increase with increasing age. Perhaps the reason why Chikungunya fever is a problem in various countries around the world is due to the fact that there is no actual treatment and there is only medicine available to help ease the symptoms. Also it seems as if there have been various clinical trials (Dwivedi) arising due to a recent rising epidemic in countries such as India and South Africa. Though this virus is not viewed as detrimental compared to other viruses to populations because of low mortality rate, it still has been arising symptomatic problems in certain people, such as those who experience joint pains or swelling of joints for years (Chikungunya). Not only are the symptoms themselves a problem, but the fact that they can last for so long and they that they can cause multiple symptoms at one time. Since the virus does tend to show up frequently in third world countries money tends to be an issue. There are so many families whom come from poverty and cannot afford to pay for medication that requires to be taken over such a long period of time. Therefore if there were a specific treatment for Chikungunya virus, then maybe is would not be an epidemic in certain countries.

The Last Samurai Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea of honor is different to many people. The dictionary defines honor as, That which rightfully attracts esteem, respect, or consideration; self-respect; dignity; courage; fidelity; especially, excellence of character; high moral worth; virtue; nobleness; specifically, in men, integrity; uprightness; trustworthiness; in women, purity; chastity. [1913 Webster]. However in the film The Last Samurai, the idea of honor seems to differ between the different people in each culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Americans equate honor with how many battles have been won. Not necessarily how the battles are won. We are introduced to the idea of American culture changing the Japanese way by first being shown the Japanese buying advanced weaponry from the Americans. Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise was revered with utmost respect for his victories in the civil war and against the Indians. However through out those battles many innocent people were killed. These facts however did not stop the American government from awarding him many medals of Honor, and thus leading to his recruitment by the Japanese emperor to train his armies. No medals however could stop the nightmares that Algren would have every night as he replayed the dishonorable things he had done in past battles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Japanese people were attempting to begin adapting to a western style of life. The government tried to take the samurai way of life out...