“Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” (Genocide) Essay

Introduction â€Å"In 1994 Rwanda experienced the worst genocide in modern times. The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutus that took place in 1994 in the East African state of Rwanda. It is considered the most organized genocide of the 20th century. Over the course of approximately 100 days (from the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6 through mid-July) over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged from 500,000–1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country’s total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62.† (â€Å"Rwandan Genocide†) History between the Hutu and Tutsi people â€Å"In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to defeat the Hutu-led government. They began the Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime, with support from Francophone Africa and France, and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with support from Uganda. This exacerbated ethnic tensions in the country. In response, many Hutu gravitated toward the Hutu Power†(â€Å"Rwandan Genocide†), an ideology propounded by Hutu extremist, with the prompting of state-controlled and independent Rwandan media. â€Å"As an ideology, Hutu Power asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave the Hutu and must be resisted at all costs. Continuing ethnic strife resulted in the rebels’ displacing large numbers of Hutu in the north, plus periodic localized Hutu killings of Tutsi in the south. International pressure on the Hutu-led government of Juvenal Habyarimana resulted in a cease-fire in 1993. He planned to implement the Arusha Peace Agreement.†(Rwandan Genocide) â€Å"The assassination of Habyarimana in April 1994 set off a violent reaction, during which Hutu groups conducted mass killings of Tutsis (and also pro-peace Hutus, who were portrayed as â€Å"traitors† and â€Å"collaborators†). This genocide had been planned by members of the Hutu power group known as the  Akazu ( Hutu extremist ) , many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government; the genocide was supported and coordinated by the national government as well as by local military and civil officials and mass media. Alongside the military, primary responsibility for the killings themselves rests with two Hutu militias that had been organized for this purpose by political parties: the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, although once the genocide was underway a great number of Hutu civilians took part in the murders. It was the end of the peace agreement. The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front restarted their offensive, defeating the army and seizing control of the country.†(Rwandan Genocide) Overview of the Rwandan Genocide with International Response â€Å"After the Hutu presidents plane is gunned down on April 6. Hutu gunmen systematically start tracking down and killing moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders. The deputy to the U.S. ambassador in Rwanda tells Washington that the killings involve not just political murders, but genocide. The U.S. decides to evacuate all Americans. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda, is told by headquarters not to intervene and to avoid armed conflict.† In the next few days, â€Å"evidence mounts of massacres targeting ordinary Tutsis. Front page stories newspaper stories cite reports of â€Å"tens of thousands† dead and â€Å"a pile of corpses six feet high† outside a main hospital. Gen. Dallaire requests a doubling of his force to 5,000. Nearly 3,300 Americans, French, Italians and Belgians are evacuated by troops sent in from their countries. On April 15th Belgium withdraws its troops from the U.N. force after ten Belgian soldiers are slain. Embarrassed to be withdrawing alone, Belgium asks the U.S. to support a full pullout. Secretary of State Christopher agrees and tells Madeleine Albright, America’s U.N. ambassador, to demand complete withdrawal. She is opposed, as are some African nations. She pushes for a compromise: a dramatic cutback that would leave a token force in place. April 16th, The New York Times reports the shooting and hacking to death of some 1000 men, women and children in a church where they sought refuge. Day 12, By this date, Human Rights Watch estimates the number of dead at 100,000 and calls on the U.N. Security Council to use the word â€Å"genocide.†Belgian troops leave Rwanda; Gen. Dallaire is down to a force of 2,100. He will soon lose communication lines to outlying areas and will have only a satellite link to the outside world. By April 25th,Gen. Dallaire is down to 450 ill-equipped troops from developing countries. He works to protect some 25,000 Rwandans who are at places guarded by U.N. forces. He still hopes the Security Council will change its mind and send him forces while there is still time.†(Ghosts of Rwanda) â€Å"On May 1st a Defense Department discussion paper, prepared for a meeting of officials having day-to-day responsibility on the crisis, is filled with cautions about the U.S. becoming committed to taking action. The word genocide is a concern. â€Å"Be careful. Legal at State was worried about this yesterday — Genocide finding could commit [the U.S.] to actually ‘do something.†(Ghosts of Rwanda) â€Å"Bureaucratic paralysis continues. Few African countries offer troops for the mission and the Pentagon and U.N. argue for two weeks over who will pay the costs of the APCs and who will pay for transporting them. It takes a full month before the U.S. begins sending the APCs to Africa. They don’t arrive until July. Seven weeks into the genocide, President Clinton gives speech that restates his policy that humanitarian action anywhere in the world would have to be in America’s national interest:†The end of the superpower standoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds. Now the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflicts, from Rwanda to Georgia. Whether we get involved in any of the world’s ethnic conflicts in the end must depend on the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake.†(Ghosts of Rwanda) â€Å"Eleven weeks into the genocide, with still no sign of a U.N. deployment to Rwanda, the U.N. Security Council authorizes France to unilaterally intervene in southwest Rwanda. French forces create a safe area in territory controlled by the Rwanda Hutu government. But killings of Tutsis continue in the safe area.†(Ghosts of Rwanda) â€Å"By July 17th, Tutsi RPF forces have captured Kigali. The Hutu government flees to Zaire, followed by a tide of refugees. The French end their mission in Rwanda and are replaced by Ethiopian U.N. troops. The RPF sets up an interim government in Kigali. Although disease and more killings claim additional lives in the refugee camps, the genocide is over.†(Ghosts of Rwanda) Day 100 An estimated 800,000 Rwandans have been killed. The Aftermath â€Å"In anticipation of a Tutsi retaliation, approximately 2 million Hutus, participants in the genocide, and the bystanders, fled from Rwanda to Zaire (now called Congo), Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. Thousands of them died in disease epidemics common to the squalor of refugee camps, such as cholera and dysentery. The United States staged the Operation Support Hope airlift from July to September 1994 to stabilize the situation in the camps.†(Rwandan Genocide) â€Å"The presence of 2 million refugees in eastern Zaire helped destabilize the already weak country, whose corrupt president, Mobutu Sese Seko, allowed Hutu extremists among the refugee population to operate with impunity. In October 1996, Mobutu’s continued support of the Hutu militants led to an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in eastern Zaire (supported politically and militarily by Rwanda), which marked the beginning of the First Congo War, and led to a return of more than 600,000 Hutu refugees to Rwanda during the last two weeks of November. This massive repatriation was followed at the end of December by the return of 500,000 more from Tanzania after they were ejected by the Tanzanian government. Various successor organizations to the Hutu militants operated in eastern DR Congo until May 22, 2009.†(Rwandan Genocide) â€Å"Mobutu was overthrown in May 1997, and Zaire’s new leader, Laurent Kabila, renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kabila’s relationship with his Rwandan allies quickly turned sour, and in August 1998 Tutsi rebel forces, supported by Rwanda and Uganda, launched another rebellion. This led to the Second Congo War, killing 5 million people from 1998 to 2004. Rwanda today has two public holidays commemorating the incident, with Genocide Memorial Day on April 7 marking the start, and Liberation Day on July 4 marking the end. The week following April 7 is designated an official week of mourning. One global impact of the Rwandan Genocide is that it served as impetus to the creation of the International Criminal Court, so that ad hoc tribunals would not need to be created for future incidents of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.†(Rwandan Genocide) Works Cited 1.) â€Å"Rwandan Genocide.† Wikipedia. N.p., 20 Apr 2013. Web. 4 Sep 2013. . 2.) â€Å"Genocide.† New Oxford American Dictionary. 2008. 3.) â€Å"Ghosts of Rwanda.† Frontine. PBS.org: PBS, Chapel Hill, 04 Apr 2004. Web. 10 Sep 2013. . .

Benefits of Volunteering Abroad

The Benefits of Doing Volunteer Work Abroad Being a volunteer abroad does not give you monetary compensation for the time spent working. However, the time spent on volunteering abroad can improve the community and the world at large. The unselfish work that you do has innumerable benefits – for both oneself and others. Although you may not receive a fat cheque for the effort that you put in undertaking volunteer work aboard, there are many indirect benefits volunteering for work abroad. Here are some of the benefits of doing volunteer work abroad In everyday life you experience situations that call for your help. A passion to help others can be fulfilled by volunteering for work abroad. Committing your time and energy to the cause that you care about will bring you immense satisfaction. Improving Your Skills There are two things which are important in every individual's life: a) Change and improvement in one's skill b) Sharing the skills, knowledge and experience with others When you do volunteer work abroad you get a chance to do both. Each person that you interact with when you volunteer has some skill and knowledge to impart. You get to learn more and more things about the issue that you support. You can get an opportunity to practice the new skills that you learned while volunteering. Also, you get an opportunity to pass on the knowledge that you have. The satisfaction of sharing your knowledge with co-volunteers and children can be rewarding. 1 / 3 The Benefits of Doing Volunteer Work Abroad Make New Friends You can make many new friends when you do volunteer work abroad. The volunteers and employees of non-profit organisations are often some of the kindest people you can meet. These people are always ready to help, no matter what the problem. These people are unselfish and live in the hardest of conditions to make the world a better place. They are the best people you will come across, so make sure you value your friendship with them. You also get to meet people from diverse backgrounds that you may never get an opportunity to meet in your daily life. Feeling good about helping others Have you ever given a meal to a stranger or helped someone who is sick? If you haven't, then I suggest you give it a try. If you have helped someone, then you know how it feels to help others without expecting anything in return. You get the same feeling when volunteering abroad for a cause that you care about. You will feel good when you help someone. Over time, you will realise that you are addicted to helping others and you want to devote as much time as possible to helping others. Make a Difference The fact that you can make a difference in someone else's life will give you immense satisfaction. Volunteering aboard will give you an opportunity to help others. Putting in time and effort will help in: a) Making a difference in someone else's life b) Making the community and world at large a better place to live in. This effort that you put in will have a long-lasting impact on the community. 2 / 3 The Benefits of Doing Volunteer Work Abroad Confidence Building When you volunteer for work abroad you face many new challenges. These challenges help in developing your skills and improving your self-confidence. Also, you have so many people to help you that you learn a lot from them. These experiences will help you to deal with difficult situations in everyday life. So, volunteer for cause that you believe and help improve yourself – and the world. 3 / 3

Financial markets subject Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Financial markets subject - Research Paper Example Our analysis relates to the determinable impacts of the GFC on the middle-eastern financial markets with specific focus on the financial markets of Qatar and other Gulf Cooperation Council members. The widely known cause of the recession is the collapsing of the housing bubble in the US in 2006; the bubble was created as a result of lenient credit terms and easy initial availability of housing mortgages, based on the perception that property prices are always likely to appreciate. The initiation of easy credit was made by certain US based banks following the inflow of funds from the booming Asian markets. Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), that were relatively recent financial instruments, promised residential properties as the security against default; this gave further incentive to the banks to lend out customized loans. The collapse, which resulted from rising interest rates leading to a multitude of defaults, caused a significant drop in the prices of securities that were co llateralized with the housing market. This, in turn, resulted in several financial institutions facing the risk of solvency as speculations regarding huge liquidity shortage rose, causing a great stir in the stock markets world-wide, ending up in record-setting lows (Rashwan, 2012). However several economists debate that financial markets in the middle-east, specifically the GCC countries, were somewhat shielded from the devastative impact that certain Western economies faced. Our analysis will highlight reasons on whether it would be fair to conclude this and if so, on what grounds can we claim economies relating to the gulf cooperation council as any different. Project Objectives: To present a brief reasoning behind the Global Financial Crises 2007-2009 To assess the difference between the impact of the Global Financial Crises on the western markets and in the GCC Countries To determine reasons why the financial markets in Qatar and other GCC countries responded to the crises diff erently To assess whether Islamic financing investments have a contribution to the lesser risk exposure of the gulf markets To draw conclusions on whether there are possibilities for western markets to open up avenues of introducing alternative financial instruments following the impact of the GFC Literature Review: We intend on looking up related literature in order to analyze the impact of the GFC on the middle-eastern financial markets, to devise a conclusive analysis on what factors were responsible for the relevant markets to react differently than most of the West, and to formulate deductive reasoning on whether an alternative form of financial instruments might prove to be a securer investment on the macroeconomic level. To obtain supporting information we will take assistance from a combination of primary as well as secondary sources of information, focusing primarily on related articles and scholarly journals. With the GFC being one of the major contributors for financial d ownturns in history, we hope to obtain appropriate market information that will be sufficient enough for us to reach conclusive grounds by the end of

Characteristics of Leaders Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Characteristics of Leaders - Research Paper Example The main characteristics of leadership such as self-confidence, good communication, humility, interpersonal influence, trustworthiness, forerunner, sense of humor, dynamism, authenticity, readiness to be held responsible and ability to maintain cordial relations with the people are presented in detail in this paper. The world has witnessed several great leaders. Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela are some of the examples. The qualities they treasured in their life are also briefly discussed in this paper. The last part of this paper discusses the difference between the leaders and managers. The leaders are very innovative and creative while the manager works mechanically. The term leadership is familiar to all the groups, family, society, organizations, companies etc. There are several definitions for leadership. A single definition of leadership does not give a comprehensive view of this quality of a human being. So we have to take a set of definitions of leadership to have an understanding about it. Leadership could be defined in the following ways. First figuring out what is right, then explaining it to the people, as opposed to first having people explain to you what is right, and then just saying what they want to hear.† (DuBrain, 2009, p.3). From the given definitions of leadership we can assume some leadership qualities and characteristics that are required for a leader. The first definition gives interpersonal influence and communication as the two main characteristics of leadership. These are the most important two qualities required for a leadership. Interpersonal influence means the ability of a leader to conquer the heart of their followers. The leader should be friendly among his people their by maintaining his commanding power. Instead, he has to develop the skill of influencing people to get in tune with the objectives of the group or the

Electricty Grid retailer Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Electricty Grid retailer - Assignment Example 4). Increase the ease and reduce the cost to operate PHEV. Electrical Power: How the Electricity Retailer Can Reduce Consumption During Peak Periods with Low Carbon Footprint Energy Technology Electricity is a secondary source of energy. Electricity is transformed from the combustion of coal and fossil fuels into a secondary source, which can be used and effectively and efficiently transmitted by means of power transmission lines to the consumer. Electricity can also be generated by means of the combustion of biomass. Other primary sources from which electricity is transformed are: natural gas, solar, hydro, geothermal, wind and nuclear sources. The electricity which is generated from the combustion of coal, natural gas, fossil fuels and nuclear sources is non renewable. Electricity is also generated from renewable sources such as: hydropower, wind, biomass, geothermal and solar (Need.org n.d.). The cost of generating electricity varies between 2.2 pence per kilowatt hour to 3.2 penc e per kilowatt hour for the electricity producer. The least expensive means of deriving electrical power is from a combined cycle gas turbine. The most expensive means of deriving electrical energy through combustion is the coal fired integrated gasification combined cycle plant. Open cycle gas turbines which operate on the combustion of natural gas are the most well suited for new electrical generating facilities. The best candidates for fulfilling electrical power generation requisites at peak duty are the open cycle gas turbines. These open cycle gas turbines are adaptive, reliable and are capable of being efficiently ignited when the demand for electricity reaches its peak demand. An open cycle gas turbine can generate electricity at 3.2 pence per kilowatt hour when operate continuously. When operated solely at periods of peak duty, the open cycle gas turbine generates electrical energy at 6.2 pence per kilowatt hour (Royal Academy of Engineering n.d.). The operating cost of ren ewable energy sources is more expensive than the constant cycle gas turbine, the pulverized fuel steam facility, the circulated fluidized bed steam plant and the integrated gasification combined cycle. Fluctuation of electrical power generation in the renewable energy sources is a limiting factor in the output generation of electrical power. The cost of generation of electrical power varies from 3.2 pence per kilowatt hour to 7.2 pence per kilowatt hour. The cost of generating electrical power is diminished when there is no standby generation from non renewable sources. An onshore wind farm generates electrical energy at a cost of 3.2 pence per kilowatt hour, notwithstanding the standby generation of electrical power from non renewable sources. In the provision of a standby electrical generator operating from non renewable sources, the cost of generating electricity from an onshore wind farm is 5.4 pence per kilowatt hour. The kilowatt hour cost of generating electrical power from w ave and marine technologies is consistent at 6.6 pence per kilowatt hour, with or without a standby electrical generation resource (Royal Academy of Engineering n.d.). The analysis of consumer demand for electrical energy by the electricity retailer requires constant demand data on a monthly, daily and hourly basis. This data may be evaluated by two means: daily and by the maximum or minimum electrical power consumption. The patterns of demand

Primary Critical Anaylysis of Edward Albee's The Zoo Essay

Primary Critical Anaylysis of Edward Albee's The Zoo - Essay Example In the play "The Zoo Story" by Edward Albee in 1958 first performed in Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt, 1959. The "zoo" imagery runs throughout the play and the actual crisis emerges from the sentence that Jerry enters saying "I've been to the zoo". Jerry reflects a "great weariness" and questions the verisimilitude of "social prosperity" and "happiness" that the optimism that seem to surround the American Dream. The isolation and the confinement of his free life becomes the curse of the modern society. He is free to remain condemned, and hardly can share a relationship with even an animal. The one-act drama revolves around the concept of the 'zoo' that belies the 'Disneyland' of American promise of superabundance and civility. My present concern in this paper is to analyze the questions that Jerry raises and how he escapes through his death. On a fine Sunday afternoon Peter sits on a park bench reading a book, just when Jerry enters looking a bit tattered and ragged. He starts a conversation with Peter which takes a violent turn after Jerry goes into a detailed analysis of his life at his apartment, and his relationship with a dog the story that he names "THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG!". The dialogues about his personal life and that of the present turn seamy which ultimately takes a dangerous note when he starts telling Peter what exactly he saw in the zoo. Peters request to leave becomes ridiculous when Jerry starts to tickle him without reason, almost bordering on absurdity. While continuing with his zoo story Jerry challenges Peter repeatedly to leave the bench and hits him on his hand. Angry at the illogicality of Jerry's response he starts a fight and ultimately falls into Jerry trap when he picks up his knife and Jerry lunges on him killing himself. Jerry dies with a fitting parody of a prayer. The speech of Jerry borders on madness and implicitly becomes a subversive force to unsettle the middle-class morals that seem to be the binding force of the American bourgeoisie. Jerry questions traditional concept of roles as he confuses "wife" with "parakeets", "cats" and often compares Peter's household with a zoo that makes a mockery of marriage and human relationships. Most importantly it becomes a satire against the concept of the "family" as portrayed by the popular American image, like the "The Brady Bunch", a sitcom aired between 1969 and 1974. Clearly Jerry and peter represent two different worlds.1The typical archetype of "good old mom" and "good old pop" are just ideals that the society forces on us and thus Jerry says that the empty picture frames that should have framed another picture perfect moment is just a sham and his family history is just another terrible "middle-European joke". Again he scandalizes middle-class morality by professing that he was "once" a homose xual and graphically gives a detailed encounter of his landlady and the "pretty little ladies" who are just an embodiment of carnal "desires". This is a mockery of the prudery as he says "People looked up. It always happens when I try to simplify things; people look up" Jerry is not stupid, infact he is quite learned since he tragically says that he is "howling because [he] is alive". Characters like the hellish dog, the "colored queen",

Criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Criminology - Essay Example The thing is that the majority of crimes can be referred to the minor ones and that is why they simply may not be reported to the police. It is unreasonable to think that crimes occur extraordinary seldom, they happen all the time because it is a mundane thing. It is well-known that crime rate increases when under the following social disasters as: war, crisis, unemployment, famine etc. Despite this, the Routine activity theory proves that it is not always the case. For example, when the World War II was finished, the western states were flourishing, the standard of living was raising and the economy stabilized and showed good results. At the same time the crime rate increased drastically. Felson and Cohen explained this in the following way â€Å"the prosperity of contemporary society offers so much opportunities of crime: there is much more to steal† (Cohen and Felson, 1979 ). This theory has become the issue of disputes among criminalists and sociologists, the later believing that only social changes can bring about the increase or decrease of the crime rate. There are some types of crimes that can be perfectly explained with the help of Routine Theory. The first is the copyright infringement. It is understandable that such factors as the rate of unemployment and the society prosperity do not influence this type of crime. People usually commit it when they have an opportunity or sometimes because of unawareness. For, example, a person gets the handwriting of some scientific invention. He\she may take some ideas from it without signifying the original author. It happens because the opportunity arose or juncture happened. To such kinds of thefts can be referred the following ones: peer-to-peer file sharing, corporate crime and employee theft. There is a definite approach on crime prevention that originates from the Routine activity theory. Crime prevention Theory â€Å"focuses on reducing crime opportunities rather than on the

Blogs seem to be helping reorganize political debate along more Essay

Blogs seem to be helping reorganize political debate along more partisan lines - Essay Example Today, not only do those central to the leadership of America participate in the practice, including politicians like Howard Dean and Wesley Clark, but the mainstream media in an attempt to grow stronger connections with its audience, and give the news a seemingly interactive feel. Blogs allow individuals who otherwise would not have a voice to express their opinions and provide more effective feedback to their leaders. However, blogs, with their phenomenal success, have also created a situation where Americans are becoming more aware of their political views, and thus are becoming more polarized. In America’s liberal democracy, this may not be the best course proceeding forward into uncertain times. Ultimately, blogs which focus expressly on political matters have a greater power to polemicize and polarize than to unify and unite—making it questionable whether the benefits that blogs bring to political discourse are really worth the costs of such influence in the long run. Bloggers are regularly courted by politicians for endorsements for their ability to shape election news (Sappenfield). But given the enormous rise in the popularity of blogs, until recently there was surprisingly little information on those who actually use them. Lately, a study found that roughly thirty-four percent of Americans read blogs, with fourteen percent of those respondents saying that they have particular interest in political blogs. The study found the following facts about that subset of the population: that they (1) are more likely to have a college degree, (2) are more likely to identify with one side of the political spectrum, (3) are more likely to vote, and (4) are more likely to support candidates either monetarily or in conversing with others. Of that subset, almost nine-tenths of them read fewer than five blogs, and almost ninety-four read only blogs that come from one side of the political

Ethical and Legal Issues Essay Example for Free

Ethical and Legal Issues Essay Nurses make legal and ethical decisions when caring for patients; decisions that need to be made carefully because the decisions could possibly change a patients life. There are theories to explain how to problem solve ethically and the theories are not based on emotion (Guido, 2006). This paper will discuss the relationship between legal and ethical issues and ethical theories, examples will be provided. Ethics can be described as principles and standards that are a guide to conduct used to elevate the standard of compliance (Judson Harrison, 2010). Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos ethics explains actions as right or wrong in respect to cultural principles and values. Moral values are personal beliefs that are intertwined with ethical actions and behaviors (Guido, 2006). Ethics, similar to values, are individualistic and they come from our experiences, culture and actions. While ones values or moral ethics may be different, the nurses ability to conform to a patients ethical behavior is important (The VA leads change toward Integrated Ethics approach, 2008). The legal system was created to establish policies to protect the public (Judson Harrison, 2010). The laws that are set can be changed when evidence suggests amendments are necessary. The relationship between law and ethics is apparent when discussing a patients healthcare decision that goes against the norms or beliefs of the healthcare provider. An example would be the patient exercising his or her right to refuse treatment for a disease process that will result in imminent death, such as a patient in renal failure refusing dialysis (Guido, 2008). Shannon (2008) discussed the differences of legal and ethical decisions as morally ordinary and extraordinary treatment related to the provision of assisted nutrition and hydration, particularly for patients in a permanent vegetative state (p.894). Metaethics is a nonnormative ethic that attempts to describe the implication between moral concepts or statements and the justification of why something is regarded good or ethically correct. Normative ethics understand standards of behavior and application of these behaviors in life. Normative ethicsbranch out into two broad categories called deontological and teleogical theories (Guido, 2006). Deontological theories focus on the intended action not the consequences of ones actions (Guido, 2006). The theory focuses on the dignity and sense of duty of the individuals and finds the relationship between the person and the action. Deontological theories are divided into two subcategories; act deontology and rule deontology. Guido (2006) states that act deontology is based on the personal moral values of the person making the ethical decision, whereas rule deontology is based on the belief that certain standards for ethical decisions transcend the individuals moral values (p. 4). Teleological theories are based on the simple concept, right actions have good consequences and bad actions have bad consequences. This theory suggests the act of right or wrong is directly related to the consequence of the action. Utilitarianism stems off of teleogical theories, explains that consequences count and acts are determined by the consequence. Some utilitarians believe that the moral rightness of a consequence is determined by the greatest number of good or the least harm and suffering (Guido, 2006). Considering the moral rightness is based on greatest number to benefit from the greatest good, actions based on the utilitarianism theory can often be unethical and illegal. Nurses in acute care settings are faced daily with ethical issues and concerns. Shannon (2008) examines the terms morally ordinary and extraordinary in respect to patients in a permanent vegetative state (p. 894). It is thought if we can keep the body alive we should, capacity generated obligation but there is a compromise in human dignity, making this both a legal and ethical dilemma (Shannon, 2008, p. 894). Euthanasia and end of life care often cause a lot of animosity, as they have been distorted by general public. Shannon (2008) states, Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expect outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal  of over-zealous treatment (p. 898). This statement defines euthanasia in its most accepted form withdrawal of treatment. This makes the act legal, but is it ethical to withdraw treatment that was started to sustain life, knowing that the result ends in death?Another example of an ethical issue in an acute care setting is preserving organs for donation in a patient who is pronounced dead following a cardiac event. Organ donation is a personal choice that can be expressed though written consent by the donor. Although, if there is no documentation of the patients wishes, family members have to make the decision in the event of unexpected death. Is it legal and ethical to maintain the body of a patient who has died in order to keep the organs viable while waiting for the familys decision (Bonnie, Wright, Dineen, 2008)?When a patient has been declared dead according to neurological criteria hospitals will maintain organ viability while awaiting family decision about donation. Procedures are started post-mortem by a transplant team to determine candidacy for donation. Medications are started and additional lines are inserted. All of which are done after the patient is declared dead. This is legal in many states, in fact there is a statute called the immunity clause to protect the health care workers from any liability, but is it ethical (Bonnie, Wright, Dineen, 2008)? According to Bonnie, Wright, and Dineen (2008), Organ preservation in cases of uncontrolled cardiac death violates no legally protected interest of the family members. It does not constitute mutilation of the body and falls comfortably within the general principle that hospitals have no duty to deliver corpses to families in their exact condition of death (p.744). Consider this statement and place an ethical emphasis on your thought process. Healthcare workers are not legally bound to deliver the bodies of their loved ones in the exact condition of their death. In conclusion, through cultural norms, behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes the ethical behaviors of healthcare workers are analyzed. The governing bodies of healthcare such as the American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association mandate healthcare workers to uphold ethical values in his or her practice. The legal system maintains the right to investigate and examine decisions made by healthcare practitioners when decisions appear unethical or perhaps unlawful. The various ethical theories provide  direction for healthcare practitioners and ethics review boards with decision-making processes. References Bonnie, R., Wright, S. Dineen, K. (2008). Legal authority to preserve organs in cases of uncontrolled cardiac death: preserving family choice. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from EbscoHost Database. Guido, G. W. (2006). Legal and ethical issues in nursing (4 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Judson, K. Harrison, C. (2010). Law and ethics for medical careers (5th ed). New York,NY: McGraw-Hill. Shannon, T. (2008). Unbind him and let him go: Ethical issues in the determination of proportionate and disproportionate treatment. Theological Studies, 69, 894-917. Retrieved April 29, 2009, from MasterFILE Premier database. The VA leads change toward Integrated Ethics approach. (Cover story). (2008, December). Medical Ethics Advisor, Retrieved May 1, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Book of Acts Essay Example for Free

Book of Acts Essay The Book of Acts The book of Act was written by Saint Luke. The date of the writing is uncertain, but most scholars favor the period 8-90 A. D. Some people think that Acts represents normative guidelines for the New Testament church for all times. In this view I think it is agreeable for the book of acts just shows the ideal church with corresponding beliefs and values. This kind of church should be present to all even up to the present times. This book, in which St. Luke records the actions of the apostles, particularly of St. Peter and St. Paul, (whose companion in travel he was,) is as it were the centre between the Gospel and the Epistles. It contains, after a very brief re-capitulation of the evangelical history, a continuation of the history of Christ, the event of his predictions, and a kind of supplement to what he had before spoken to his disciples, by the Holy Ghost now given unto them. It contains also the seeds, and first stamina of all those things, which are enlarged upon in the epistles. The Gospels treat of Christ the head. The Acts show that the same things befell his body; which is animated by his Spirit, persecuted by the world, defended and exalted by God. In this book is shown the Christian doctrine, and the method of applying it to Jews, heathens, and believers; that is, to those who are to be converted, and those who are converted: the hindrances of it in particular men, in several kinds of men, in different ranks and nations: the propagation of the Gospel, and that grand revolution among both Jews and heathens: the victory thereof, in Spite of all opposition, from all the power, malice, and wisdom of the whole world, spreading from one chamber into temples, houses, streets, markets, fields, inns, prisons, camps, courts, chariots, ships, villages, cities, islands: to Jews, heathens, magistrates, generals, soldiers, eunuchs, captives, slaves, women, children, sailors: to Athens, and at length to Rome. Others view it as only descriptive for the 1st century church. Descriptive in the sense that it only describes the pattern and how the church worked during that period of time. The term Acts is not used, as it is sometimes with us, to denote decrees or laws or having to describe it, but it denotes the doings of the apostles. It is a record of what the apostles did in founding and establishing the Christian church. It is worthy of remark, however, that it contains a record of the doings of Peter and Paul. Peter was commissioned to open the doors of the Christian church to both Jews and Gentiles, and Paul was chosen to bear the gospel especially to the pagan world. As these two apostles were the most prominent and distinguished in founding and organizing the Christian church, it was deemed proper that a special and permanent record should be made of their labors. While some think that it is both a normative guidelines and a description of the church of the 1st century. At the beginning of the book the author states his purpose and that is to explain to Theophilus, and to the world, how Christianity arose and began its sweep across the earth. By this time Christianity appeared to be on the way to becoming a world religion, and some account of its beginning was needed so that it might appeal to cultured and learned people. It talks about the Day of Pentecost, empowered by the Holy Spirit; the apostles take the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the Mediterranean world. The title is misleading, for Acts is not a record of all the original disciples of Jesus. The book gives the early history of Christianity from Christ’s ascension outside Jerusalem to Paul’s visit in Rome. Chapters 1-12 stress the work of Peter in Judea and nearby lands, mainly among Jews. Chapters 13- 28 tell of the far- ranging missionary preaching of Paul, mainly to gentiles. In my opinion it is a normative guideline for the New Testament church. In the book of Acts, it is shown how the people and the believer should act before God. All antiquity is unanimous in ascribing this book to Luke as its author. It is repeatedly mentioned and quoted by the early Christian writers, and without a dissenting voice is mentioned as the work of Luke. The same thing is clear from the book itself. It professes to have been written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, Ac 1:1; was addressed to the same person, and bears manifest marks of being from the same pen. It is designed evidently as a continuation of his Gospel, as in this book he has taken up the history at the very time where he left it in the Gospel, Ac 1:1, 2. It also shows that the Holy Spirit is really with His people if they will ask from it, for the Holy Spirit will be their comforter and friend. The church nowadays should be guided by the Holy Spirit for a strong foundation. The gospel should be well delivered and evangelized throughout the world by the believers. They should acts upon what is right just like what Paul and Peter did in the book of Acts where in they weren’t afraid to spread the good news among all people. This book has commonly been regarded as a history of the Christian church, and of course the first ecclesiastical history that was written. But it cannot have been designed as a general history of the church. Many important transactions have been omitted. It gives no account of the church at Jerusalem after the conversion of Paul; it omits his journey into Arabia, Gad 1:17; gives no account of the propagation of the gospel in Egypt, or in Babylon, 1Pe 5:13; of the foundation of the church at Rome; of many of Pauls voyages and shipwrecks, 2Co 11:25; and omits to record the labors of most of the apostles, and confines the narrative chiefly to the transactions of Peter and Paul. References: 1. Book of Acts. New Standard Encyclopedia. Volume 2. Pages 355-356. 2. Youth Bible. Holy Bible Contemporary English Version, Global Edition. Pages 861-871 3. Acts of the Apostles. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Acts_of_the_Apostles

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading Researchers believe that awareness and monitoring of ones comprehension processes are critically important for skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring processes are often referred to as metacognition. Recent researches show that metacognitive strategies differentiate between effective and ineffective learners i.e. the more a student knows about how he learns, the better he will learn. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To this end, 113 third/forth year Iranian college students majoring in English translation/literature, aged around 21-36 were selected to participate in this study. They took part in a Nelson test of proficiency, and a critical reading comprehension test. They also completed a questionnaire, namely Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data analysis through Pearson Correlation Coefficient formula showed that there is a significant relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their critical reading ability. The findings can have implications for EFL learners and teachers in developing an authentic, interactive and learner- centered environment in their reading classes. Key words: Learning strategies, Metacognition, Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, Critical reading 1. Introduction The recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in developing critical thinking skills of students in order to improve their thinking and learning abilities and help them to succeed in their educational goals. Improving students critical thinking skills will help students: a) improve their thinking about their course work b) use sound thinking on tests, assignments, and projects in their courses c) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they are at college d) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they move to the workplace. The term critical thinking when used by educators has varied meanings in different contexts-whether in formal logic courses, where it has a precise meaning; when applied to arguments or in casual discussions in a faculty lounge about students struggles to grasp the course content, where the term is used more loosely to simply mean good thinking (Pierce, 2005). Before proceeding any further, an account will be provided as how critical thinking has been defined in literature: As stated by Thomson (1996), the critical thinking tradition, which derives from both philosophy and education, originates in the USA. Some of its foremost American proponents were John Dewey, Edward Glaser, and Steven Norris; in Britain, the name most closely associated with critical thinking is that of Alec Fisher. In Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives (2002), Janet Donald (quoted in Keller 2008) presents a variety of approaches to thinking based on the work of different academic disciplines. She provides a working model of thinking processes in higher education in which she describes a perspective on different methods of inquiry. The working model offers a set of procedures followed by most disciplines, including: description, selection, representation, inference, synthesis, and verification. Under each topic on this inventory, then, she lists subtopics indicating their relation to the diverse inquiry methods she previously connected to academic areas. In a later summary of the most important thinking processes used generally across disciplines, she lists separately Identify the context and State assumptions, then reduces her previous set of common procedures to those of selection, representation, and synthesis. In Maclellan and Soden (2001, quoted in Keller 2008), we see the following set of critical thinking skills: a) unpacking concepts-ability to unpack or break down ideas, concepts or theories; b) recognizing contradictions-differentiating between viewpoints and counterarguments; c) development-explaining a phenomenon, joining ideas together to form lines of arguments; d) providing evidence-supporting or justifying assertions; e) examining implications of evidence-generating hypotheses about consequences or examining the relationships between key factors; f) alternative interpretation-questioning or challenging an interpretation of the evidence and offering an alternative. After the above review on what critical thinking is, now we turn to critical reading. A major issue in education today is the concern about students ability to read critically and to evaluate the material. Critical reading is taught as a sub-skill of comprehension with appropriate exercises. Critical reading enjoys several features which make it appear rooted in critical thinking. Among the features we can mention the followings listed by students counseling service of Salisbury University: a. previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. b. contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. c. questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content. d. reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. e. outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. f. evaluating an argument: Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact. g. comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better. Furthermore, Burmeister (1986, qtd in Cherney 1986) defines critical-creative reading and thinking as requiring the skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. He adds that such cognitive abilities require readers or thinkers to reason using techniques of formal logic or at least to be consciously aware of the thought processes they are using. Analysis, according to Burmeister, requires the examination of parts of the whole; synthesis is the act of combining or unifying elements into a coherent whole and evaluation requires the establishment of standards and also a judgment as to the goodness of fit of the idea. Burmeister considers evaluation to be the highest level of the cognitive domain. (p.256) The researchers assume that metacognitive strategies are among the strategies which can foster critical thinking and hence reading. However, it sounds reasonable to ask why such a relationship is felt. To answer this question an attempt will be made to clarify metacognitive strategies. Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) state that many studies recognize the role of meta-cognitive awareness in reading comprehension, whether one is reading in the native language or a second language. Indeed, the consensus view is that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as meta-cognition, which can be thought of as the knowledge of the readers cognition relative to the reading process and the self-control mechanisms they use to monitor and enhance comprehension. Auerbach and Paxton (1997) and Carrell et al. (1989), for example, consider meta-cognitive awareness-planning and consciously executing appropriate actions to achieve a particular goal-to be a critical element of proficient, strategic reading. Such meta-cognition, according to Auerbach and Paxton (1997), entails knowledge of strategies for processing texts, the ability to monitor compr ehension, and the ability to adjust strategies as needed (pp. 240-41). Furthermore, Taylor (1999) defines meta-cognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the ability to make correct inferences about how to apply ones strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably. (p.126) To increase their metacognitive abilities, students need to possess and be aware of three kinds of content knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Declarative knowledge is the factual information that one knows; it can be declared-spoken or written. An example is to know the formula for calculating momentum in a physics class (momentum = mass times velocity). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something, of how to perform the steps in a process; for example, knowing the mass of an object and its rate of speed and how to do the calculation. Conditional knowledge is knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy and when not to use it; why a procedure works and under what conditions; and why one procedure is better than another. For example, students need to recognize that an exam word problem requires the calculation of momentum as part of its solution. (Paris, Cross and Lipson, 1984. qtd. in Pressley 2002). This notion of three kinds of knowledge applies to learning strategies as well as course content. When they study, students need the declarative knowledge that (1) all reading assignments are not alike; for example, that a history textbook chapter deals with factual information differs from a primary historical document, which is different from an article interpreting or analyzing that document. They need to know that stories and novels differ from arguments. Furthermore, they need to know that there are different kinds of note taking strategies useful for annotating these different types of texts. And (2) students need to know how to actually write different kinds of notes (procedural knowledge), and (3) they need to know when to apply these kinds of notes when they study (conditional knowledge). Knowledge of study strategies is among the kinds of meta-cognitive knowledge, and it too requires awareness of all three kinds of knowledge (Pierce, 2003). Many of the current studies recognize the role of awareness in reading comprehension. Reading strategies are of interest for the way readers use them to manage their interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Rigney, 1978). Reading in second language reading suggests that strategies improve reading comprehension. Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, how they make sense of what they read and what they do when reading comprehension is difficult (Singhal, 2001). Indeed researchers agree that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as metacognition, which is used to monitor and enhance reading comprehension (Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995; Alexander and Jetton, 2000; Pressley, 2000). Recent researchers (Cohen, 1998, Anderson, 2002, Santana, 2003) show that the strategies that mark the true differences between effective and ineffective learners are the metacognitive strategies. In spite of the fact that many of the previous studies have obtained information about learners strategies and reading process, few of them have examined readers metacognitive awareness of reading strategies ( Singhal, 2001). Considering the important role of metacognitive reading strategies in reading comprehension with suspicious eye, this study is designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness reading strategies and critical reading ability and to view the notions of meta-cognitive awareness strategies and critical reading in the same horizon. For this purpose, we also need to have references to critical thinking because, as was mentioned above, critical reading roots in critical thinking. 1. 1. Statement of the problem For the improvement of critical reading, instructors should teach a variety of strategies that research has shown to be effective, like: generating questions and answering them, writing summaries, writing elaborations and using organizing strategies. The preceding strategies already seem to have been taken into account by Iranian teachers and learners. However, a potential problem in applying the mentioned strategies in reading comprehension can be the absence of meta-cognitive awareness about them. Hence, the researcher assumes that a set of meta-cognitive strategies can strengthen the above line of activity and foster the progress of critical reading. 1. 2. Research Question Is there any significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability? 3. Statement of the hypothesis The null hypothesis underlying this proposal is that there is not any significant relationship between meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. 2. Method 2. 1. Participants A community sample of 130 male and female participated in this study in the second semester of 2010 majoring in English language literature and translation in Qom Islamic Azad University. They were all in their third and forth year. These students were asked if they would volunteer to participate in the study. Out of 130 participants who completed the questionnaires and tests, about 113 participants were accepted to participate in the study. 2. 2. Measure and Procedure The researchers visited the classes to administer one questionnaire and two tests. A total of 130 students were instructed to answer the proficiency test in one session and to the critical reading test and MARSI questionnaire at a later session. Students rated the items of MARSI, using a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (I never do this) to 5 (I always do this). From this population, some students were eliminated because they had not properly completed their questionnaires. The general proficiency test (Nelson test, 300 B) comprised 50 multiple-choice and vocabulary items. The total score of the test was 50 and one point was assigned to each correct answer. The critical reading comprehension test consisted of four passages with 4 or 5 multiple-choice items for each passage. So the 20 items were scored by one point for each correct answer. Then the score for all items were added and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this test was between 9 to 18. For scoring the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, the procedure proposed by Mokhtari Richad (2002) was used. A score was assigned to each answer which ranged from 1 to 5: never or almost never=1, occasionally=2, sometimes=3, usually=4, always=5. Then the scores for all items were added up and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this scale was between 46 to 146. 3. Data analysis To carry out the statistical analysis of the study, several statistical techniques were utilized: to calculate the reliability of the Nelson test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. In order to estimate the reliability of the critical reading comprehension test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. Considering the point that the participants will be assigned interval scores both for their meta-cognitive awareness and critical reading ability, the statistical analysis was Pearsons product Moment Coefficient of Correlation. Also, the reliability index of the translated version of MARSI was assessed by applying Cronbach alpha (a) formula. After administrating the instruments with the main subjects of the study and correcting the papers, the ultimate scores on critical reading comprehension test and MARSI were calculated and entered into SPSS. 3. Results In order to be certain of the homogeneity of the participants of the study in terms of language proficiency, a general language proficiency test (Nelson test) was utilized. The test was extracted from Nelson English language tests by W.S. Flower and Norman Goe (1976). It composed of 50 multiple choice grammar and vocabulary items. Through the pilot study, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated and the following result was achieved: Table of reliability statisticsof the Language Proficiency Test (Nelson) Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .899 50 As it is noticed, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated as .89 through the pilot study among 42 students, so the test enjoyed the acceptable reliability. The present study, also used a new self report measure, the Meta cognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari Richard, 2002), which is designed to assess adolescent and adult readers awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading materials. According to the author of MARSI, the major purposes of developing of this inventory were to devise an instrument that would permit one to assess the degree to which a student is or is not aware of the various processes involved in reading and to make it possible to learn about the goals and intentions he or she holds with coping with reading tasks. As a result of employing this inventory, the second statistical procedure was to estimate the reliability of the translated version of Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) administered to the subjects in the pilot study. Table of reliability statistics of the translated version of MARSI Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .799 30 According to table 4. 2., the reliability index of the students answers to the MARSI, assessed by applying the Cronbach alpha (a) formula, was 0.79. In order to assess the participants ability in reading critically, a test of reading comprehension, extracted from a model TOEFL, was applied. The reliability of this test administered to the subjects in the pilot study was estimated to be: Table of reliability statistics of critical reading comprehension test Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .748 18 It is necessary to add that in order to validate the critical reading comprehension test, basically four steps were taken such as checking the content validity, face validity, criterion related validity, and construct validity. The procedure for each step can be found in the following in details. The test was compiled according to the recommendation of Alderson and Urquhart (1984). Four different texts were selected. The texts were found from among the materials suggested for preparation of language learners for TOEFL test. Of course it was evident that not any passage could qualify: the passages had to be of an independent entity and understandable without a larger context. However, the main principle in text selection was to find text types that Iranian students of English were likely to read critically. I also consulted my supervisor to ensure the content validity of the passages and also to get confident that the questions could not be answered without reading the passages critically. The texts found were also sent to my advisor to make sure if there were any specific issues to be reconsidered. At the end of each passage, four or five questions were asked. Answering to the questions would be almost impossible without reading the test critically. The text chosen represente d the following text types: a scientific text from a field relevant to Chemistry; a text containing materials about body language and communication; a passage about the sinking of the luxurious ship, Titanic ; a biographical passage about an influential citizen of the United States, John Muir. In addition to improving the test items through item analysis (item facility, item discrimination and choice distribution), the face validity of the test was examined in qualitative terms. The students in the pilot study were asked to state their reasons for estimating the reading test as being critical or not. The comments (40 students) were rather divided. Some disliked the test but many of them liked it. Those who liked it wrote that it required imagination, and cleverness and a few compared taking the reading test with doing philosophical reasoning. Those who disliked the test mostly argued that it required to test other abilities besides language proficiency (e. g. imagination). Some complained that the test was too difficult and that they could mainly perceive the structure of the sentences. For criterion related validity, the researcher followed the same procedure as Assar (2008). With the help of the Nelson language proficiency test and by running correlation between these sc ores and those obtained from the improved reading test, among 32 students who participated in the pilot study, the concurrent validity of the test was established with an index of 0.71. Finally the critical reading test was construct-validated. To this end, the researcher took a process oriented approach following the picture depicted by Hirano (2008) and devised a questionnaire based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The questionnaire was piloted among 40 students. First, they took the critical reading comprehension test, and immediately after they were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire. Through a frequency count, it was discovered that the test had led to a critical reading successfully. The following table shows the result of the students answers to the fifteen questions in the devised questionnaire by the researcher based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The results in the Mean column show the average score for each of the fifteen questions calculated based on a liker scale for each question ranging from 0 to 3. Table of reliability statistics for the reliability of critical reading questionnaire Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .624 15 It is necessary to mention that after the reliability of the questionnaire for process validation of the reading comprehension test was calculated, the researcher tried to revise some of the questions. It is, therefore, hoped that further studies through the revised questionnaire will provide more reliable results. Finally we come to the research question, which was concerned with relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To investigate this question, the Pearson product correlation coefficient was run. The result of statistics is presented in the following table: According to the above table, correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. By using Pearson product correlation coefficient formula, the correlation between the two variables was estimated as .70. That is, there is a significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability. The results have been illustrated in the following scatter plot graph: Graph/Scatter plot for Correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies The above scatter plot illustrates the correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies including 113 subjects. Variable 1 (Y axis) is related to meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies in an interval scale up to 130; variable 2 (X axis) is related to critical reading ability in an interval scale from zero up to 20. 4. Discussion This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability of Iranian students majoring in fields of English translation and literature. The statistical results proved that there is a significant relationship between the two variables of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. So the present study has found evidence that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. The results of this study can be compared and contrasted with those of other researchers. For instance, findings of the present study are in congruity with the study conducted by Parson (2002) whose major purpose of his study was to investigate the strength of the relationship between the use of metacognitive strategies and critical reading ability of the students. It was conducted, specifically, to test the effectiveness of a teaching procedure designed to improve critical reading ability by training students in metacognintive strategies. He discovered that the students who were instructed with this metacognitive training package (questioning, summarizing, predicting and speculating on the authors intended tone and purpose) should become more aware of their own mental processes and will demonstrate not only increased critical reading ability, but also increased general comprehension ability. Also, qualitative improvement noted in subjects strategy use provided sufficient evidence fo r further study into the effectiveness of this training procedure. Furthermore, the findings could indirectly support Icmezs (2009) findings who suggests that in a critical reading course, developing a competence in critical reading skills evokes curiosity and the novelty essential for students with high levels of proficiency. Finally, we can conclude that our findings here is in line with what Ajideh (2009) suggests, that poor readers in general lack effective metacognitive strategies and have little awareness on how to approach to reading. They also have deficiencies in the use of metacognitive strategies to monitor for their understanding of texts. In contrast, successful L2 readers know how to use appropriate strategies to enhance text comprehension. 5. Conclusion As mentioned previously, among the tools that students use to learn a second language, learning strategies have been given a crucial role in all academic studies. Language learning strategies have been known as a factor that differentiates successful language learning from unsuccessful language learning. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the necessity to examine human personality in order to find solutions to the perplexing problems in language learning. It is evident that a student uses language learning strategies while he is under the influence of many linguistic, cognitive, and affective factors. Thus, such an intertwined network can provide an answer to the wide individual differences within the classroom. Also, the ability to critically analyze written materials has long been recognized as being crucial to the educational process. In this study, it has been tried to explore the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. With respect to the research question, it was found that when the students show more metacognitive awareness of strategies, they can read more critically and therefore it is more probable that they score higher on reading comprehension test. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there is a meaningful relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their performance on critical reading comprehension test. Therefore, metacognitive strategies could provide the missing link between cognitive processes and critical reading ability. Metacognition refers to ones awareness of and control over his/her own mental processes (Brown, 2007). Consequently, it is worth mentioning that the relationship demonstrated here is only part of a complex picture, which reveals just some of the factors operating in mind of our students that warrant investigation. It should be mentioned that language learners strategies and their effect in the process of learning is a highly complex issue. Therefore, metacognitive strategy awareness may not be just the only aspect of this achievement in learning; rather, we need to investigate other types of language learning strategies and look at what helps the students to increase their ability in achieving the best results. 6. Implications The present study has found evidence which supports previous research findings that demonstrated that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. So based on the above results, the finding of the study can have implications for teachers in reading classes. To be more specific, training good readers means more than just improving their knowledge about language structure and general study skills, and it needs raising their awareness of metacognitive strategies for critical reading. Also the results in this study may have implications for reading comprehension assessment. As mentioned before, critical reading skills are essential for the students with high level of proficiency. That is the higher the level of proficiency, the higher the ability for critical reading. Therefore, one of the factors to be included in the assessment of language proficiency can be the ability to read critically especially at higher level of proficiency.

Essay example --

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common diseases in the world with more than 1.7 million Americans suffering from one each year, making it the most frequently occurring brain disorder today (1 mond paper). mTBI is defined as a brief change in mental status or consciousness due to a blow or jolt to the head (project) and can cause a wide range of symptoms, ranging from short to long term and those symptoms affecting cognition, emotion, sleep, and the physical well-being of the person with a TBI. Neuroplasticity involves changes in neural pathways and synapses that make up for changes in behavior, the environment, and resulting body injury. It can occur on many levels ranging from small scale effects, like cellular changes, to grand scale effects, like cortical remapping. (Wiki?) A consequence of this effect is that brain activity associated with a specific function can move to a different area of the brain to make up for the deficiency in a particular function. This process is thought to occur normally throughout the brain and recently, it has been thought to occur in response to brain injury as well. Researchers are interested in the differential involvement of brain regions and the alteration of cortical networks due to these injuries (slob paper). Due to the inability to create new neurons in the brain, researchers have proposed a hypothesis that synaptic networks re-organize based on the task and previous experience to meet task demands. This paper explores the hypothesi s that persons with TBI recruit additional cerebral resources, the process of cortical rearrangement, to meet demands placed on the brain. The original overview of this hypothesis was that cortical changes ... ...with larger sample sizes so that sample subtypes can differ. By examining different subtypes, from injury severity to the magnitude of behavioral improvement (kaka), better more accurate results can be obtained while helping to validate the cortical rearrangement hypothesis. Other longitudinal studies should be done to examine the validity of biomarkers on cortical rearrangement as determining if these biomarkers are effect tools for treating TBI is also crucial for future research. Biomarker studies should also be completed with a greater number and range of subjects along analysis by a more advanced statistical software (mond). The cortical hypothesis has very important implications for future research. With further supporting research, this idea could change the way that traumatic brain injuries and maybe even neurodegenerative disease are examined and treated.

Genetic Testing :: Genetics Disorders Diseases Papers

Genetic Testing Genetic screening uses a variety of laboratory procedures to find out if a person has a genetic condition or disorder or is likely to develop a disease based on his or her genetic makeup. Individuals may wish to be tested if the family shows a history of one specific disease such as Huntington's Disease or breast cancer, if they show symptoms of a genetic disorder which could be improved by early diagnosis, or if they are planning a family and are concerned about the possibility of passing on a genetic trait to their offspring. This last type of screening can look at the parent's genotype or look at the genotype of the fetus or newborn. This type of screening can also look for a specific disorder or can be done as a general test for common disorders as in prenatal testing or more commonly newborn screening. Genetic tests use techniques to examine genes or markers near the genes. Direct testing for diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and Sickle Cell Anemia come from an analysis of an individual's specific genes. A technique called linkage analysis, or indirect testing, is used when the gene cannot be directly identified but can be located within a specific region of a chromosome. This testing requires additional DNA from an affected family member for comparison. Because each person's DNA is unique (except for identical twins), genetic tests also can be used for individual identification ("DNA fingerprinting"). This technique is often used in forensic work, where samples from a crime scene such as blood or semen could be used as incriminating or acquitting evidence. Genetic testing is a complex process, and the results depend both on reliable laboratory procedures and an accurate translation of results. Tests also vary in sensitivity, that is, their ability to detect mutations or to detect all patients who have or will develop the disease. Interpretation of test results are often complex even for trained physicians and other health care specialists. Types of Genetic Testing Carrier Identification includes genetic tests used by couples whose families have a history of recessive genetic disorders and who are considering having children. Three common tests include those for cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and sickle-cell trait but more tests are coming on the market at a very high rate. Norman Frost of the University of Wisconsin Madison Medical School says, "Potential new genetic tests roll off the conveyor belt of the human genome project almost once a week " (2).

The Essential Element to Be a Financial Planner

â€Å"Describe the essential element to be a successful financial planner in Hong Kong and China. Explain the challenges of practicing ethical financial planning in Hong Kong and China. † Successful financial planning Successful financial planning Establishing trusting relationships with clients Establishing trusting relationships with clients Strong reputation Strong reputation Professional and ethical behavior Professional and ethical behavior Strong financial planning knowledge Strong financial planning knowledge Strong interpersonal skills Strong interpersonal skillsFinancial planning has become much more important over the decade in Hong Kong and China. Many graduates and other people with professional financial planning knowledge engage into the field of financial planning. Being a successful financial planner, certain conditions should be fulfilled to respond the demand of clients and general public. Figure1 Conditions of successful financial planning As figure1 stated, a successful financial planner should establish trusting relationships with their clients which require strong reputation of those financial planners.There are three main elements to construct the strong reputation to the clients, including strong financial planning knowledge, strong interpersonal skills and professional and ethical behavior. Financial planners are required to have the all-round knowledge. They are expected to evaluate all aspects of the clients’ financial needs including consumption, income and wealth analysis, insurance, retirement life, tax and estate planning. They should provide value-added services to fulfill the needs of the clients accordingly. Also, there are some microeconomic and acroeconomic factors would affect the performance of the investment portfolio. A professional financial planner should have related knowledge for clients’ best interest. In Hong Kong, the financial market is well-developed . It is easy to find a large range of fina ncial products to invest. Plenty of choices imply that financial planners should understand the nature of each product to suit the client’s need. To increase public confidence in the financial planning, many banks and insurance companies require their staff to take the CFP examination.As for China, Chinese government has opened the financial market over the years which lead to the changes of the Chinese circumstance frequently. So financial planners in China are required to receive related education to enhance the public confident on financial planning. Taking the example of China taxation system, there were several changes in tax incentive for foreign business and individual income tax. Financial planners in China should aware these changes and modify their tax planning quickly for their clients.Interpersonal skills are essential to financial planners. Because they have to collect the data from their clients to make recommendations to their clients. When collecting data from their clients, financial planners should show their integrity and competence to convince the clients. It can be better to set the financial goal for their clients. Chinese people would not disclose their private information to the stranger easily. It hampers financial planners to help their clients to pursue their financial goals.Financial planners who serve for Chinese people should use their interpersonal skills to get close with their clients and collect more information. Many successful salespeople suggest making friend with the customers and clients. Caring with client’s needs help financial planners to make a close relationship with their clients. For example, one child policy in China makes the citizens to concern more about their retirement life. A financial planner can gain client’s trust by sharing their knowledge on retirement planning and making suggestions.Professional and ethical behavior is the third important element for financial planners to gain repu tation. Nowadays, more people concern about the ethical practice in financial sector, especially after the financial tsunami. Integrity can build trust with the clients and gain reputation. CFP Board set the â€Å"Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility† which includes several principles – integrity, objectivity, competence, fairness, confidentiality, professionalism and diligence. Without these principles, a financial planner cannot establish a well relationship with their clients.To fulfill these three elements, a financial planner can gain good reputation among their clients and establish trusting relationships with them which make him or her to be a successful financial planner. CFP mark is the qualification recognized by Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). A financial planner needs to fulfill certain conditions – education, examination, experience and ethics. Every financial planner would face ethical challenges when practicing financial plann ing. There are some examples for challenges of practicing ethical financial planning in Hong Kong and China.There are complex financial products in Hong Kong and China. It is hard to compare these new and complex products with the traditional one. The aim of financing planning is to provide professional services to suit the needs of their clients. Ethical practice means doing the right thing. A structured product can generate higher cash flow than treasury bonds in the blooming economic. However, it incurs higher risk for the client’s investment at the time. For the financial planner, it is difficult to say for certain that those new and complex products are better than the tradition investment tools.And it makes the decision-making to become harder. Another ethical challenge is the method of compensation. In US, most financial planners are compensated via a combination of fees and commissions. Comparing with the financial planners in Hong Kong and China, many of them are com pensated by commission and low basic salary. Commission is a motivation which drives financial planners to maximize the asset value of their clients. Higher growth rate of the asset value implies higher commission that planners can earn. However, commission-based compensation would bias financial planners to perform a risky portfolio.Instead of concerning clients’ interest, planners would pursue his or her own benefit for survival. Because the basic salary might not be enough for living. In Hong Kong and China, financial planners may face the pressure from their employers or supervisors. They have to meet the monthly quota of some â€Å"recommended† products. In general, they receive high commission by selling these products. Different from the salespeople, financial planners are advising their financial planning to their clients but not selling it. Those â€Å"recommended† products may not be suitable for their clients’ situation and needs.It goes agains t the principle that a financial planner should put client’s interest in the first priority. In conclusion, financial planners have to deal with many ethical dilemmas in reality. When a professional financial planner is facing the difficulty at work, he or she can still put their client’s interest on first and avoid the trap from those unethical practices. In the future, it is expected that the field of financial planning will grow extensively in Hong Kong and China. And there will be more professional financial planners to engage into this field.

Fddi and Cddi

C H A P T E R 8 Chapter Goals †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Provide background information about FDDI technology. Explain how FDDI works. Describe the differences between FDDI and Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI). Describe how CDDI works. Fiber Distributed Data Interface Introduction The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) specifies a 100-Mbps token-passing, dual-ring LAN using fiber-optic cable. FDDI is frequently used as high-speed backbone technology because of its support for high bandwidth and greater distances than copper. It should be noted that relatively recently, a related copper specification, called Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI), has emerged to provide 100-Mbps service over copper. CDDI is the implementation of FDDI protocols over twisted-pair copper wire. This chapter focuses mainly on FDDI specifications and operations, but it also provides a high-level overview of CDDI. FDDI uses dual-ring architecture with traffic on each ring flowing in opposite directions (called counter-rotating). The dual rings consist of a primary and a secondary ring. During normal operation, the primary ring is used for data transmission, and the secondary ring remains idle. As will be discussed in detail later in this chapter, the primary purpose of the dual rings is to provide superior reliability and robustness. Figure 8-1 shows the counter-rotating primary and secondary FDDI rings. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 8-1 Chapter 8 FDDI Transmission Media Fiber Distributed Data Interface Figure 8-1 FDDI Uses Counter-Rotating Primary and Secondary Rings Primary Secondary FDDI Concentrator WAN Standards FDDI was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X3T9. 5 standards committee in the mid-1980s. At the time, high-speed engineering workstations were beginning to tax the bandwidth of existing local-area networks (LANs) based on Ethernet and Token Ring. A new LAN media was needed that could easily support these workstations and their new distributed applications. At the same time, network reliability had become an increasingly important issue as system managers migrated mission-critical applications from large computers to networks. FDDI was developed to fill these needs. After completing the FDDI specification, ANSI submitted FDDI to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which created an international version of FDDI that is completely compatible with the ANSI standard version. FDDI Transmission Media FDDI uses optical fiber as the primary transmission medium, but it also can run over copper cabling. As mentioned earlier, FDDI over copper is referred to as Copper-Distributed Data Interface (CDDI). Optical fiber has several advantages over copper media. In particular, security, reliability, and performance all are enhanced with optical fiber media because fiber does not emit electrical signals. A physical medium that does emit electrical signals (copper) can be tapped and therefore would permit unauthorized access to the data that is transiting the medium. In addition, fiber is immune to electrical interference from radio frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Fiber historically has supported much higher bandwidth (throughput potential) than copper, although recent technological advances have made copper capable of transmitting at 100 Mbps. Finally, FDDI allows 2 km between stations using multimode fiber, and even longer distances using a single mode. FDDI defines two types of optical fiber: single-mode and multimode. A mode is a ray of light that enters the fiber at a particular angle. Multimode fiber uses LED as the light-generating device, while single-mode fiber generally uses lasers. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-2 ct840801 1-58705-001-3 Chapter 8 Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI Specifications Multimode fiber allows multiple modes of light to propagate through the fiber. Because these modes of light enter the fiber at different angles, they will arrive at the end of the fiber at different times. This characteristic is known as modal dispersion. Modal dispersion limits the bandwidth and distances that can be accomplished using multimode fibers. For this reason, multimode fiber is generally used for connectivity within a building or a relatively geographically contained environment. Single-mode fiber allows only one mode of light to propagate through the fiber. Because only a single mode of light is used, modal dispersion is not present with single-mode fiber. Therefore, single-mode fiber is capable of delivering considerably higher performance connectivity over much larger distances, which is why it generally is used for connectivity between buildings and within environments that are more geographically dispersed. Figure 8-2 depicts single-mode fiber using a laser light source and multimode fiber using a light emitting diode (LED) light source. Figure 8-2 Light Sources Differ for Single-Mode and Multimode Fibers Laser light source Single mode Multimode LED light source ct840802 FDDI Specifications FDDI specifies the physical and media-access portions of the OSI reference model. FDDI is not actually a single specification, but it is a collection of four separate specifications, each with a specific function. Combined, these specifications have the capability to provide high-speed connectivity between upper-layer protocols such as TCP/IP and IPX, and media such as fiber-optic cabling. FDDI’s four specifications are the Media Access Control (MAC), Physical Layer Protocol (PHY), Physical-Medium Dependent (PMD), and Station Management (SMT) specifications. The MAC specification defines how the medium is accessed, including frame format, token handling, addressing, algorithms for calculating cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value, and error-recovery mechanisms. The PHY specification defines data encoding/decoding procedures, clocking requirements, and framing, among other functions. The PMD specification defines the characteristics of the transmission medium, including fiber-optic links, power levels, bit-error rates, optical components, and connectors. The SMT specification defines FDDI station configuration, ring configuration, and ring control features, including station insertion and removal, initialization, fault isolation and recovery, scheduling, and statistics collection. FDDI is similar to IEEE 802. 3 Ethernet and IEEE 802. 5 Token Ring in its relationship with the OSI model. Its primary purpose is to provide connectivity between upper OSI layers of common protocols and the media used to connect network devices. Figure 8-3 illustrates the four FDDI specifications and their relationship to each other and to the IEEE-defined Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer. The LLC sublayer is a component of Layer 2, the MAC layer, of the OSI reference model. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 8-3 Chapter 8 FDDI Station-Attachment Types Fiber Distributed Data Interface Figure 8-3 FDDI Specifications Map to the OSI Hierarchical Model Logical link control Media access control FDDI standards Physical layer protocol Station management Physical layer medium ct840803 FDDI Station-Attachment Types One of the unique characteristics of FDDI is that multiple ways actually exist by which to connect FDDI devices. FDDI defines four types of devices: single-attachment station (SAS), dual-attachment station (DAS), single-attached concentrator (SAC), and dual-attached concentrator (DAC). An SAS attaches to only one ring (the primary) through a concentrator. One of the primary advantages of connecting devices with SAS attachments is that the devices will not have any effect on the FDDI ring if they are disconnected or powered off. Concentrators will be covered in more detail in the following discussion. Each FDDI DAS has two ports, designated A and B. These ports connect the DAS to the dual FDDI ring. Therefore, each port provides a connection for both the primary and the secondary rings. As you will see in the next section, devices using DAS connections will affect the rings if they are disconnected or powered off. Figure 8-4 shows FDDI DAS A and B ports with attachments to the primary and secondary rings. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-4 1-58705-001-3 Chapter 8 Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI Fault Tolerance Figure 8-4 FDDI DAS Ports Attach to the Primary and Secondary Rings Primary Primary Port A Port B Secondary Secondary FDDI DAS An FDDI concentrator (also called a dual-attachment concentrator [DAC]) is the building block of an FDDI network. It attaches directly to both the primary and secondary rings and ensures that the failure or power-down of any SAS does not bring down the ring. This is particularly useful when PCs, or similar devices that are frequently powered on and off, connect to the ring. Figure 8-5 shows the ring attachments of an FDDI SAS, DAS, and concentrator. Figure 8-5 A Concentrator Attaches to Both the Primary and Secondary Rings FDDI Concentrator DAS SAS SAS FDDI Fault Tolerance FDDI provides a number of fault-tolerant features. In particular, FDDI’s dual-ring environment, the implementation of the optical bypass switch, and dual-homing support make FDDI a resilient media technology. ct840805 Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 ct840804 8-5 Chapter 8 FDDI Fault Tolerance Fiber Distributed Data Interface Dual Ring FDDI’s primary fault-tolerant feature is the dual ring. If a station on the dual ring fails or is powered down, or if the cable is damaged, the dual ring is automatically wrapped (doubled back onto itself) into a single ring. When the ring is wrapped, the dual-ring topology becomes a single-ring topology. Data continues to be transmitted on the FDDI ring without performance impact during the wrap condition. Figure 8-6 and Figure 8-7 illustrate the effect of a ring wrapping in FDDI. Figure 8-6 A Ring Recovers from a Station Failure by Wrapping Station 1 MAC B A Station 4 Ring wrap Ring wrap Station 2 A MAC B B MAC A A B Failed station Station 3 Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-6 1-58705-001-3 Chapter 8 Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI Fault Tolerance Figure 8-7 A Ring also Wraps to Withstand a Cable Failure Station 1 MAC B A Station 4 Ring wrap Station 2 A MAC B B MAC A Failed wiring Ring wrap A B Station 3 When a single station fails, as shown in Figure 8-6, devices on either side of the failed (or powered-down) station wrap, forming a single ring. Network operation continues for the remaining stations on the ring. When a cable failure occurs, as shown in Figure 8-7, devices on either side of the cable fault wrap. Network operation continues for all stations. It should be noted that FDDI truly provides fault tolerance against a single failure only. When two or more failures occur, the FDDI ring segments into two or more independent rings that are incapable of communicating with each other. Optical Bypass Switch An optical bypass switch provides continuous dual-ring operation if a device on the dual ring fails. This is used both to prevent ring segmentation and to eliminate failed stations from the ring. The optical bypass switch performs this function using optical mirrors that pass light from the ring directly to the DAS device during normal operation. If a failure of the DAS device occurs, such as a power-off, the optical bypass switch will pass the light through itself by using internal mirrors and thereby will maintain the ring’s integrity. The benefit of this capability is that the ring will not enter a wrapped condition in case of a device failure. Figure 8-8 shows the functionality of an optical bypass switch in an FDDI network. When using the OB, you will notice a tremendous digression of your network as the packets are sent through the OB unit. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 ct840807 MAC 8-7 Chapter 8 FDDI Fault Tolerance Fiber Distributed Data Interface Figure 8-8 The Optical Bypass Switch Uses Internal Mirrors to Maintain a Network Station 1 Station 1 B A B A Failed station Optical bypass switch â€Å"normal configuration† Station 4 A B Optical bypass switch â€Å"bypassed configuration† Ring does not wrap Station 2 A B Station 2 A B Station 4 A B A B A B Station 3 Station 3 Dual Homing Critical devices, such as routers or mainframe hosts, can use a fault-tolerant technique called dual homing to provide additional redundancy and to help guarantee operation. In dual-homing situations, the critical device is attached to two concentrators. Figure 8-9 shows a dual-homed configuration for devices such as file servers and routers. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-8 1-58705-001-3 Chapter 8 Fiber Distributed Data Interface FDDI Frame Format Figure 8-9 A Dual-Homed Configuration Guarantees Operation Concentrator Concentrator File servers Routers One pair of concentrator links is declared the active link; the other pair is declared passive. The passive link stays in backup mode until the primary link (or the concentrator to which it is attached) is determined to have failed. When this occurs, the passive link automatically activates. FDDI Frame Format The FDDI frame format is similar to the format of a Token Ring frame. This is one of the areas in which FDDI borrows heavily from earlier LAN technologies, such as Token Ring. FDDI frames can be as large as 4,500 bytes. Figure 8-10 shows the frame format of an FDDI data frame and token. Figure 8-10 The FDDI Frame Is Similar to That of a Token Ring Frame Data frame Preamble Start delimiter Frame control Destination address Source address ct840809 Data FCS End delimiter Frame status Token Preamble Start delimiter Frame control End delimiter FDDI Frame Fields The following descriptions summarize the FDDI data frame and token fields illustrated in Figure 8-10. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 8-9 Chapter 8 Copper Distributed Data Interface Fiber Distributed Data Interface †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Preamble—Gives a unique sequence that prepares each station for an upcoming frame. Start delimiter—Indicates the beginning of a frame by employing a signaling pattern that differentiates it from the rest of the frame. Frame control—Indicates the size of the address fields and whether the frame contains asynchronous or synchronous data, among other control information. Destination address—Contains a unicast (singular), multicast (group), or broadcast (every station) address. As with Ethernet and Token Ring addresses, FDDI destination addresses are 6 bytes long. Source address—Identifies the single station that sent the frame. As with Ethernet and Token Ring addresses, FDDI source addresses are 6 bytes long. Data—Contains either information destined for an upper-layer protocol or control information. Frame check sequence (FCS)—Is filed by the source station with a calculated cyclic redundancy check value dependent on frame contents (as with Token Ring and Ethernet). The destination address recalculates the value to determine whether the frame was damaged in transit. If so, the frame is discarded. End delimiter—Contains unique symbols; cannot be data symbols that indicate the end of the frame. Frame status—Allows the source station to determine whether an error occurred; identifies whether the frame was recognized and copied by a receiving station. †¢ †¢ Copper Distributed Data Interface Copper Distributed Data Interface (CDDI) is the implementation of FDDI protocols over twisted-pair copper wire. Like FDDI, CDDI provides data rates of 100 Mbps and uses dual-ring architecture to provide redundancy. CDDI supports distances of about 100 meters from desktop to concentrator. CDDI is defined by the ANSI X3T9. 5 Committee. The CDDI standard is officially named the Twisted-Pair Physical Medium-Dependent (TP-PMD) standard. It is also referred to as the Twisted-Pair Distributed Data Interface (TP-DDI), consistent with the term Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). CDDI is consistent with the physical and media-access control layers defined by the ANSI standard. The ANSI standard recognizes only two types of cables for CDDI: shielded twisted pair (STP) and unshielded twisted pair (UTP). STP cabling has 150-ohm impedance and adheres to EIA/TIA 568 (IBM Type 1) specifications. UTP is data-grade cabling (Category 5) consisting of four unshielded pairs using tight-pair twists and specially developed insulating polymers in plastic jackets adhering to EIA/TIA 568B specifications. Figure 8-11 illustrates the CDDI TP-PMD specification in relation to the remaining FDDI specifications. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-10 1-58705-001-3 Chapter 8 Fiber Distributed Data Interface Summary Figure 8-11 CDDI TP-PMD and FDDI Specifications Adhere to Different Standards FDDI Media Access Control (MAC) FDDI physical layer (PHY) FDDI Station Management (SMT) Twisted-pair wire PMD Single-mode fiber PMD Multimode fiber PMD Specification for CDDI Summary The Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) specifies a 100-Mbps token-passing, dual-ring LAN architecture using fiber-optic cable. FDDI is frequently implemented as a high-speed backbone technology because of its support for high bandwidth and greater distances than copper. Review Questions Q—What are the benefits of using FDDI instead of CDDI? A—Longer distance, no RFI, no EFI. Q—What role does the DAC play in the FDDI network? A—The concentrator is a dual-attachment station device and ensures that when single-attachment station devices—such as PCs—are turned off, they do not interrupt the network ring. Internetworking Technologies Handbook 1-58705-001-3 ct840811 8-11 Chapter 8 Review Questions Fiber Distributed Data Interface Internetworking Technologies Handbook 8-12 1-58705-001-3