An investigation into the effect of social loafing

An investigation into the effect of social loafing The aim of this experiment was to measure the effect of two categories, group or individuals, and the effect they have on the performance of individuals. Participants were involved in the activity of unscrambling as many words as they could in the time limit of five minutes. The hypothesis is that the mean number of words unscrambled by participants working individually is higher than the mean number of words unscrambled by participants working in a group. The experiment consisted of 19 participants which included 10 males and 9 females. The rights of the participants were taken into consideration throughout the whole experiment. Nine of the participants who were selected randomly were divided into groups of three while the other ten participants worked individually. They were given a list of 26 words to unscramble. The number of words which they were able to unscramble in five minutes was then collected and counted to measure the performance of those who are working individually and those working in groups. The results show that the average number of words found for those who were working individually was 12.4 words while the average number of words found per individual who were working in groups were 5.22 words. This shows that the experiment supports the social loafing theory. The significance level were calculated to be p < 0.005. This means that the probability that the results were because of chance was less than 0.5%. The results were highly significant. Thus, according to the results of the statistical test, the research hypothesis is supported while the null hypothesis is rejected. The theory of social loafing is evident in a lot of situations in life. Social loafing is a reduction in effort by individuals when they work in groups as compared to when they work by themselves (Weiten, 2008: 491) Each person in a group usually tends to put in lesser effort than they would working alone. Max Ringelmann (1913) first came up with the idea of social loafing when he found that when a group of men were instructed to pull on a rope, they did not put in as much effort as when they were pulling alone. The force of the pull produced by the participants was measured by a strain gauge attached to the rope. When the group of men was led to believe that they had other team members helping them, he noticed that they tend to put in less effort than they normally would when pulling alone. Ringelmann stated that the amount of effort produced by each individual working alone was not the same as the average amount of effort put in by the individuals who believed that they were in a group. Another study which was used to investigate social loafing is Latanà © et al.s (1979). As cited by Weiten (2008), the study consisted of measuring the level of noise created by participants who were asked to either clap or cheer as loud as they could. A group of participants were told that they working in a group while another group was told that they were working alone. This was in fact not true, as the only purpose was to ensure that they believed that were actually working in a group. Consequently, the amount of effort that they produced individually was measured. From the study, Latanà © and his colleagues found that each person in a group tends to put in lesser effort when in a group than working alone. Research shows that the larger the group, the lesser the effort produced by each of the individuals. The reason is that when more people are assigned to an activity, the amount of work which needs to be produced is divided equally among more people and this consequently causes individuals to think that their effort is not as significant and their contribution is not evaluated suitably. As cited by Antony S. R. Manstead et al. (1995, 1996:275) in the book called The Blackwell encyclopedia of social psychology, Steiner, I.D. (1972) postulated that actual group productivity should always be lower than potential group productivity because of process losses due to poor coordination and low motivation. Furthermore, he added that the potential productivity is usually based on performance of individuals working alone. This study aims to support the social loafing theory. A group of participants will be divided into two categories: those working individually and those working in groups. The mean number unscrambled by participants in each category will be calculated. Their performance in the activity will show that social loafing does exist when working in a group. The experiment is a one-tailed experiment. Research hypothesis (H1): The mean number of words unscrambled by participants working individually is higher than the mean number of words unscrambled by participants working in a group. Null hypothesis (H0): There will be no significant difference in the number of words found in participants working individually than in a group. Method Design The type of method used in this experiment is an independent measures design. This was used to avoid practice effects. Each participant only took part in each condition once which means that both groups consist of different individuals. The independent variable is working individually or in a group. The dependant variable is the difference of performance in each condition. The environment that the participants were in was under controlled conditions. The activity is the unscrambling of words. This experiment is considered as a single blind experiment where only the experimenters know the hypothesis and aim of the experiments. Participants were given consent letters to sign and were briefed and de-briefed accordingly. Those who did not include their signature on the given consent letters prior to the experiment were not allowed to participate in the activity. Those who participated were given the right to withdraw at any point of time. The participants also remained anonymous througho ut the study. Participants The participants tested in this study consisted of 19 Year 6 students from a private school in Victoria. The participants consisted of 10 males and 9 females aged 11 to 13 years. The sample was an opportunity sample but the participants in each category were randomly assigned. The participants came from different backgrounds and cultures. This is to ensure that the experiment is fair and not biased. Materials List of 26 words to unscramble (Refer to Appendix ) Pen Stopwatch Briefing instructions (Refer to Appendix ) De-briefing instructions (Refer to Appendix ) Consent Letter (Refer to Appendix ) Procedure Participants are first briefed (Refer to Appendix ). Participants are randomly divided into two conditions. Half of the participants will be carrying out the activity alone and the other half is to be divided into groups of three to work on the same activity. Participants who are working individually are to sit far from each other to avoid communicating. The other participants who are working in groups of three are to be seated together but each group is to be seated far from another group to avoid communication between groups. Participants who are in the group category are asked to work as a team to unscramble the list of 26 words while the others will be working individually to unscramble the same set of 26 words. When the seating arrangement of all the participants are properly allocated, the list of 26 words is given faced down to the participants. Only one copy of the list will be given to each of the groups instead of one copy for each participant. The participants are then giv en a time limit of five minutes to quickly unscramble the list of 26 words. During the experiment, participants have the right to withdraw if they do not wish to participate. After exactly five minutes, they are asked to stop writing and the sheets are to be collected by the experimenters. Participants are then de-briefed. Results Table 1: Table shows mean number of words found in each category Participants working individually Participants working in a group Mean number of words found 12.4 words 5.22 words Standard Deviation 5.04 words 1.09 words Graph 1: Bar graph shows average no. of words found in each category Graph 1 shows that the average number of words found for those who were working individually were 12.4 words. The average number of words found per individual who were working in groups were 5.22 words. This shows that the experiment supports the social loafing theory. The standard deviation were 5.04 and 1.09 respectively. A Mann-Whitney U test was used in order to test the significance of the results as it is an ordinal level data, and it was an unrelated design. When tested, it was found that the probability that it was the independant variable that changed the dependent variable and not chance. The significance level were calculated to be p < 0.005 (Refer to appendix ). This means that the probability that the results were because of chance was less than 0.5%. The results were highly significant. Thus, according to the results of the statistical test, the research hypothesis is supported while the null hypothesis is rejected. Discussion The results shows that the research hypothesis has been supported. The mean number of words unscrambled by participants working individually is 12.4, higher than the mean number of words unscrambled by participants working in a group which is 5.22 words. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to show that the results were highly significant. This shows that the research hypothesis is supported and the null hypothesis is rejected. According to Ringelmanns study, the amount of effort produced by each individual working alone is not the same as the average amount of effort put in by the individuals who were in pseudogroups. He asserted that the performance of individuals working alone is much more than the average performance of individuals working in groups, which is called the social loafing theory. In this experiment, the social loafing theory is supported as the mean number of words unscrambled by individuals working alone is 12.4, which is definitely higher than 5.22 words, the average number of words unscrambled by individuals working in groups. The aim of this study was to measure the cause and effect relationship of the performance of individuals working in a group or individually. The result of this experiment relates to the study carried out by Latanà © and his colleagues as it supports the theory of social loafing. The reduction in performance of individuals when they are working in groups as compared to working individually is evident in both studies. There are several strengths in the experiment. One of the strengths of the experiment was that the subjects came from different backgrounds and cultures. This is a good as the cultural diversity of the participants was not limited. Also, the fact that there were approximately the same number of males and females is good. If there were a huge difference in females and males, the experiments would not be fair. Another strength of the experiment is that it was designed to be an independent measures design. This was to avoid practice effects. If the participants had taken part in both conditions, the results would have been affected. Though the research hypothesis was supported, there are several limitations in the experiment. As mentioned, the participants were between the ages of 11 to 13 as it was an opportunity sample. It was difficult to get a random sample as there are limited number students available and there was a time constraint. Another limitation of the experiment was that no extra precaution was made ensure that the participants did not cheat by communicating with each other. Though we did our best effort to ensure that they did not communicate with each other, it is not absolute that no one cheated. Also, during the experiment, as all the participants (whether in a group or individually) were in the same environment at the same time, there was a chance that some participants may have overheard the words unscrambled by another person. This component of the experiment was hard to control as no matter how much effort was put in to ensure it was a fair experiment, the participants did have a chance to cheat. With regards to the limitations of the experiment, there are a few areas of improvement. In relation to the sample itself, although the participants and the students were randomly assigned, we could have ensured that the sample were not an opportunity sample. Furthermore, instead of selecting ten males and nine females, it could have been better if there was exactly the same number of females and males. To counteract the problem of cheating, the environment that the participants were in (which was a classroom) could have been different. The experiment could have been carried out in an open space so that there is a significant amount of space between groups and the individuals working alone. This would ensure that there was less opportunity for the participants to cheat. Ethical considerations were taken into account in this experiment. The participants were allowed to withdraw at any point of time during the activity. The rights of the participants were met and they remained anonymous throughout the whole experiment. The participants were not deceived in any way as that would be unethical. The implication of this finding is that the results produced can be shown to teachers/instructors to prove that individuals generally work better alone than working in groups as they tend not to put in as much effort when working in groups. In majority of the groups, some individuals tend to slack off and let their other team members do the work. Some individuals may also think that their effort is not evaluated individually so they tend to put less effort than they would put in when working alone. This could further relate to employers in the work field. For further researches, the sample should be much bigger so that the experiment would have fewer limitations. Also, follow-up studies can manipulate the age groups and compare the difference in performance for various age groups. They could also investigate the effect of culture on the performance of individuals when working in groups. They could test the theory of: Asians generally tend to work well in groups unlike Westerns, who prefer to work individually.

Time Series Space Phase Qualitative Analysis and Application

Time Series Space Phase Qualitative Analysis and Application Dan CHICEA1 and Silviu REI2 ABSTRACT: In a coherent light scattering experiment using a laser beam and a cuvette containing a suspension the interference field has a boiling speckle aspect. Using a detector and a data acquisition system a time series can be recorded. A possible definition for the space phase of a time series is defined. The distribution of the velocities and the trajectory in the phase space are analyzed both for computer simulated samples and for recordings on two suspensions that have the average particle size measured using Dynamic Light Scattering procedure. The results reveal that the distribution of the velocities and the trajectory in the phase space can be used in a qualitative way to characterize the average particle size in suspension. KEY WORDS: time series, phase space, velocity distributions, suspensions 1 INTRODUCTION If coherent light is incident on a medium with scattering centers (SC hereafter) a non-uniformly illuminated image is obtained, currently named speckled image, having a statistical distribution of the intensity over the interference field. The speckled image appears as a result of the interference of the wavelets scattered by the SC, each wavelet having a different phase and amplitude in each location of the interference field. The image changes in time as a consequence of the SC hereafter complex motion of both sedimentation and Brownian motion [1-3]. This complex motion produces fluctuations of the image intensity in each location of the interference field, giving the aspect of â€Å"boiling speckles†. The speckled image can be observed either in free space and is named objective speckle or on the image plane of a diffuse object illuminated by a coherent source and it is named subjective speckle in [4]. The review paper [5] names the two types of speckled images as far field speckle and image speckle. In this work the objective speckle, respectively the far field speckle is considered, recorded and analysed. Although light propagation through disperse systems such as biological cells in suspensions or grouped in tissues has been studied extensively, especially using image processing techniques [6], [7] the scattering process modelling and characterization is not straightforward. Recording the far field fluctuations on a certain location using a detector and a data acquisition system will produce a time series. Time series have been extensively analyzed using different procedures. A widely used class of procedures start with the Fourier transform to produce the power spectrum density (PSD). The shape of the PSD depends of two parameters. Finding them using a least squares fit will provide information on the size and size distribution of the particles in suspension. Just some of the papers that describe in detail and report results found using the above mentioned procedure, currently named Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), are [8-12]. An alternative procedure to analyse time series, whether produced by a detector and a data acquisition system in a light scattering experiment or extracted from a recording using a charged coupled device (CCD) [13], in a qualitative manner, using the patterns of the time signal in the space phase, is presented in the next section. 2 SPACE PHASE The space phase (SP hereafter) is the collection of all states for a system. A time series is actually a vector x(i), i=1à ·n, containing the collection of values, intensity if we record a far interference field in a light scattering experiment, and n is the total number of recorded values. Typically, the values are recorded at equal time intervals, Δt=1/fs, where fs is the sampling rate of the data acquisition system. We can define a velocity at time t, hence corresponding to the value x(i) of the time series, as the variation rate of the time signal at that moment: (1) We therefore find a pair of [x(i), v(i)] for each value in the time series, a total of n-1 pairs. Each pair represents a point in the 2 dimensional space, which we can define as the space phase (SP) for the time series. First a simple algorithm to generate in a realistic manner time series that were recorded during a DLS experiment was established. A time series, as results from the Fourier analysis of the recorded data [8-11], can be modelled as an overlapping of harmonic functions of different frequencies. Moreover, the smaller the particles in suspension are, the bigger the turnover point is [8] in the PSD. With these facts in mind, a program to generate the time series with a sampling rate fs was written and used. The program generates a certain number nf (50 for the work reported here) of amplitudes ai in the range [1, 10] using a uniform random distribution, with a random initial seed, computed using the system clock. It also generates nf frequencies fi in the range [f1, f2] and initial phases φi in the range [0, 2Ï€] and the vector containing the moments ti with the desired number of values, equally spaced at Δt. Each value xi is computed using equation (2): (2) In [8-12] it is stated that the smaller the particles are, the bigger the frequencies are, therefore an attempt to simulate experimentally recorded time series for different particles in suspension must have different frequency ranges. Several time series were used in the simulation presented in this work and two of them were selected. We call the first s1, having the 50 frequencies generated in the range 100-200 Hz and the second s2 with the frequencies in the range 2000-2500 Hz. Each series lasted for 2 seconds and fs was 10000 Hz, thus having 20000 values each. Figure 1:A 0.5 s sequence of each series. The blue line is for s1 and the red line for s2. A plot of a 0.5 s sequence of each series is presented in Fig. 1. It reveals a faster variation of the s2 time series than in s1, as expected. The SP for the two time series, s1 and s2 is presented in Figs. 2 and 3. We notice the big difference in the SP shape. S1 that contains slower fluctuations is elliptic closer to a circle for this axes range selection while s2 that contains faster fluctuations is a prolonged ellipsis. The distribution of the velocity values v, in SP, for the two series, each value calculated with equation (1), is presented in Fig.4. We notice the difference between the two distributions, laying in being wider for the s2 time series containing faster fluctuations. Moreover, we notice that the distribution is symmetrical in both situation and the resemblance with the Gaussian is very good. Figure 2:The SP for s1. Figure 3:The SP for s2. Figure 4:The distribution of the velocity values v, in SP, for the two series. The blue line is for s1 and the red line is for s2. 3 RESULTS and discussion The results of the qualitative analysis presented in the previous section were compared with experimental results. A water sample from a river was extracted after a heavy raining and was analyzed using the DLS procedure described in details in [8 12]. The DLS results reveal that the average diameter was 0.134 ÃŽ ¼m. We name this time series rw1. After 24 h the sample was analyzed again and the average diameter was found to be 0.635 ÃŽ ¼m. We name this time series rw2. The average diameter increased because the inorganic suspensions, like sand and silt, which have the biggest concentration and smaller diameter, became sediment, while the organic particles having the density closer to the water density remained suspended. Fig. 5 reveals the SP for the experimental rw1 time series and Fig. 6 for the experimental rw2 series having bigger particles in suspension. Examining the two imagines we notice that the SP of rw1 appears to have more domains, as there are at least two groups of particles in suspension, the inorganic particles, having bigger concentration and the organic particles, which remained suspended. Figure 5:The SP for rw1. Figure 6:The SP for rw2. The other feature of the SP that appears to present differences was the velocity distribution. The distribution for the velocity distributions of rw1 and rw2 time series recorded during a DLS experiment are presented in Fig. 7. Examining the velocity distributions we notice that the distribution of rw2 is wider than the distribution of rw1. Moreover, we notice that the distributions cannot be viewed as simple Gaussian distributions but as a complex overlap of several distributions and this can be the result of the fact that the particles in suspension, both in rw1 and rw2 have a complex size distribution rather than a mono dispersed distribution, therefore the simple observation from Fig. 4 does not stand in all situations. Figure 7:The distribution of the velocity values v, in SP, for the two series. The blue line is for rw2 and the red line is for rw1. 4 CONCLUSION The SP was defined for a time series as the collection of all possible states. Several time series were generated using a computer code written for this purpose. The time series were the sum of 50 harmonic functions with random amplitudes, phases and frequencies, the last being generated in a certain interval. Two series with frequencies in the intervals 100 – 200 Hz and 2000 – 2500 Hz were generated starting from the assumption that the frequency of the fluctuations in a DLS time series strongly depends of the suspended particle size. A scatter plot in the SP and a velocity distribution are presented for each of the two samples. The simulation reveals that the plot of the SP can give a qualitative image about the particles assumed to be in suspension. The smaller the particles are and the narrower the particle size distribution is (reflected in smaller frequency range), the more prolonged the image in the SP is. Moreover, smaller particles (hence bigger frequencies) produce a wider velocity distribution. A narrow frequency interval produces a symmetrical distribution resembling very well a Gaussian. These qualitative conclusions are confirmed in part by the results of the same procedures applied on experimentally recorded time series during a DLS experiment. Using the two river water samples, we found the shape of the image of the SP appears to exhibit different domains if there are more types of particles in suspension. And more, the velocity distribution appears to be the sum of several distributions, under the same circumstances. These conclusions suggest a simple procedure that can be used in monitoring the evolution of the particle size in a suspension, as in sedimentation of particles in rivers, colloid aggregation or biological fluids. The shape of the space phase and the width and shape of the velocity distribution can provide qualitative information on the distribution of the average suspended particle diameter. Work is scheduled to simulate the time series in a more realistic manner, considering a complex size distribution of the suspended particles. Here are mentioned the institutes from where are the authors (Style 1, Times New Roman, 10 points, left, normal)[R1] 1 Professor, Ph.D., Faculty of Sciences, Department of Environmental Sciences, Physics, Physical Education and Sports, University â€Å"Lucian Blaga†, Sibiu, Romania 2 Physicist, M.S., Group Leader, Continental Automotive Systems, Sibiu, Romania E-mail: [emailprotected]; [emailprotected] 5 REFERENCES à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Coherent Light Scattering on Nanofluids Computer Simulation Results, Applied Optics, Vol. 47, No. 10, pp. 1434-1442, (2008). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, A Simple Algorithm to Simulate Nanoparticles Motion in a Nanofluid, U.P.B. Sci. Bull., Series A, Vol. 76, Iss. 2, pp: 199-206, (2014). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Radu Chicea, Liana Maria Chicea, Using Chodin to Simulate Coherent Light Scattering Dynamics on Biological Suspensions, Romanian Journal of Biophysics, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 157–170, (2010). à ¢- º Joseph.W. Goodman, Statistical Properties of Laser Speckle Patterns, in Laser speckle and related phenomena, Vol.9 in series Topics in Applied Physics, J.C. Dainty, Ed., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, (1984). à ¢- º David Briers, Laser Doppler, Speckle and Related Techniques for Blood Perfusion Mapping and Imaging, Physiol. Meas. 22, R35–R66, (2001). à ¢- º David Briers, Donald D. Duncan, Evan Hirst, Sean J. Kirkpatrick, Marcus Larsson, Wiendelt Steenbergen, Tomas Stromberg, and Oliver B. Thompson, Laser speckle contrast imaging: theoretical and practical limitations, Journal of Biomedical Optics 18(6), 066018(1-9), (2013). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Biospeckle Size and Contrast Measurement Application in Particle Sizing and Concentration Assessment, Romanian Journal of Physics, Vol. 52, Numbers 5-7, pp. 581-587, (2007). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, A Study of Nanoparticle Aggregation by Coherent Light Scattering, Current Nanoscience, vol. 8 issue 6, pp. 259-265, 2012, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/157341312800167704. à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Revealing FE3O4 Nanoparticles Aggregation Dynamics Using Dynamic Light Scattering, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials – Rapid Communications vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 1299 – 1305, (2009). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Nanoparticles And Nanoparticle Aggregates Sizing by DLS and AFM, D. Chicea, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials – Rapid Communications vol. 4, issue 9, pp. 1310 – 1315, (2010). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Emil Indrea, Carmen Monica Cretu, Assesing FE3O4 Nanoparticle Size by DLS, XRD AND AFM, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced MaterialsVol: 14,Issue: 5-6, pp: 460-466, (2012). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Revealing FE3O4 Nanoparticle Aggregation in Aqueous Suspension by Nonconventional Optical Methods, Journal of Optoelectronics And Advanced Materials Vol. 15, No. 9 10, pp. 982 – 988, (2013). à ¢- º Dan Chicea, Application of Whole Blood Coherent Light Scattering Dynamics Analysis Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials,Vol. 10, No. 8, pp. 2163-2167, (2008). 6 notation The following symbols are used in this paper: 1 ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING, VOL. 7,ISSUE 1/2009 [R1]Trebuie facut un review la povestea asta !!!

Toni Morrisons Sula - A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula Essay

A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula In The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction, Maxine Lavon Montgomery weaves a multi-faceted interpretation of Toni Morrison's Sula. Montgomery submits, "drawing upon an African cosmological system, Morrison maintains that although life in modern America is chaotic, it is possible to escape life in the West and recover the time of the black community's non-Western beginnings" (74). Though Montgomery makes a highly detailed argument advancing several significant ideas that are well worth acknowledging, her final conclusions exceed what can be clearly supported in Sula. Montgomery's first major heading of "Modern Chaos and Ancient Paradigms" (75) sketches her belief that "natural disasters, unexpected deaths, and continued racist oppression serve as bitter reminders of the near-tragic dimensions of life, for to be black in America is to experience calamity as an ever-present reality, to live on the brink of apocalypse" (75). She supports this statement with the origins of the Bottom... Toni Morrison's Sula - A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula Essay A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula In The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction, Maxine Lavon Montgomery weaves a multi-faceted interpretation of Toni Morrison's Sula. Montgomery submits, "drawing upon an African cosmological system, Morrison maintains that although life in modern America is chaotic, it is possible to escape life in the West and recover the time of the black community's non-Western beginnings" (74). Though Montgomery makes a highly detailed argument advancing several significant ideas that are well worth acknowledging, her final conclusions exceed what can be clearly supported in Sula. Montgomery's first major heading of "Modern Chaos and Ancient Paradigms" (75) sketches her belief that "natural disasters, unexpected deaths, and continued racist oppression serve as bitter reminders of the near-tragic dimensions of life, for to be black in America is to experience calamity as an ever-present reality, to live on the brink of apocalypse" (75). She supports this statement with the origins of the Bottom...

Essay --

â€Å"He must not take many wive,s or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.† ( Duet. 17:17 KJV) In today’s world many people have had different views and ideas on what polygamy really is, is it morally wrong? In this paper you are going to learn what polygamy is, who practices it, the affects that it has on children, wives and the husbands, risk factors, and most importantly why it is morally wrong. The world polygamy means the practice of having more than one wife. It comes from poly meaning ‘many’ and gamos meaning ‘marriage. Polygamy has been around for many years, and by many years, it’s been around since the biblical ages. In the Old Testament of the bible polygamy was allowed, not only was it practiced or allowed in the Old Testament but other cultures and religions practiced polygamy as well. These religions included Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. The Old Testament gives multiple examples of men being married to more than one wife at a time. The patriarchs Abraham and Jacob are known to be examples of righteous men who had several wives in the Old Testament. It is said that in ancient times when a man had more than one wife or wives and concubines(a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) these wives and concubines were segregated by position and authority within the husband’s family. The first wife held the highest position and it was to her first –born son that the husband’s inheritance was given. (www.bibleresearch.org) Although there and many reasons as to why people practiced polygamy, some of these reasons were family reasons, personal reasons, and religious reasons. Practicing polygamy you would share family responsibilities, more freed... ...KJV) â€Å"And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire , both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you ( Lev. 20:14 KJV) The first quote is stating that a man cannot be married concurrently to two women who are sisters, while the second quote prohibits a man taking a woman and her mother as wives, or they will be executed by fire. The quotes both go to show you in a religious way that polygamy was wrong, and still is. In Genesis 2:24 it says â€Å"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother ,and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh† . Note in that particular verse it says â€Å"wife† not â€Å"wives†, and that’s how it should be. There fore it is morally wrong to practice polygamy, and if one feels that it is not, maybe they should rethink their values, and what they consider morals to really be.

Rousseau, the Individual, the State, and David’s The Oath of the Horati

Rousseau, the Individual, the State, and David’s The Oath of the Horatii Rousseau’s view on the relationship between the individual and the state and David’s painting ‘The Oath of the Horatii’ are two different genres with the same views, having French Revolution as the connecting factor. David’s painting is not done for art sake but rather an art for the people sake. His painting does not include only aesthetic purposes but includes with ulterior motives. David has a preconceive notion in his mind and has decided to give a pictorial representation of the preconceived notion and exploits all his techniques to ensure what is in his mind. It is because of Rousseau’s impact of philosophy that David was able to use his medium of painting to achieve his purpose. In ‘The Oath of Horatii’, Rousseau’s impact on David is expressed very well in the David’s neoclassical style which is characterized by clarity of line, logical and balanced composition, restrained facial expression, bold effects of light and a minimum of distracting detail. It is very apt for David’s purposes since the style enhances and highlights David’s purposes in conveying his political messages. The Horatii were chosen as champions of ancient Rome (Audio-Visual Notes 2001) and the legitimacy of being chosen as champions suggests the power of the state. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a person or institution has authority if they are able to command others to do things. That authority is legitimate only if the person, or institution, possesses the right to command others. To be legitimate, the authority the state has over the people must come from the people themselves, and not from a single entity such as the king. Power that comes from such sources is usually referred to as naked power. In such a scenario, we cannot totally agree that the Horatii were comfortable with the title as champions. They might be indulged to obey the state because they ought to, or because they are afraid of the consequences. In contrast, they might be honoured to be chosen as champions of Rome and this title might influence them into offering their lives on behalf of the country. On the viewer’s left, a third of the vertical space is dedicated to three men, Horatii, who are sons to the man, Horatius. The lights flood across the scene onto the viewer’s right side, illuminating the main characters and presenting th... ...r heads are facing down with eyes closed with their backs slouching. These choices of colours, postures and gestures suggest that David wants to create the solemn ambience within the female figures and the contradiction of their particular will against the general will of the state. In Rousseau’s view, particular will is concerned with an individual’s advantage. The ladies may be convinced by their three brothers and their father to think that their particular will is the product of appetite while general will is the product of reason. Since a person acting on his appetite is slavish and bad, while a person acting on reason is noble and good, they should therefore obey the general will and allow their brothers to fight; even to the extent of having duels with their own family members. With the cross referencing between Rousseau’s views and David’s painting â€Å"The Oath of the Horatii† that has been presented, we can conclude that it is because of Rousseau’s impact of philosophy that David was able to use his medium of painting to achieve his purpose and this is evident through the pictorial representation in conveying particular will and the general will of â€Å"The Oath of the Horatii†.

Hop-in Food Stores Inc Essay

Hop-In Foods Stores has historically been able to rely on internal financing and long term debt in order to continue its growth. The continued growth is attributed to acquisitions of already established stores. Hop-In management has predominantly stayed away from starting up new stores from scratch due to high start up costs. They had found out that it was easier and more cost effective to buy up smaller stores in good locations. As of 1976 all of Hop-In’s expansion was financed by long term debt or equity shed out by upper management. Prior to 1976, Hop-In had had common shares outstanding, but was primarily traded only in Virginia. In order to continue the growth and expansion that management wanted they had to come up with additional funds. Equity financing was the answer to the Hop-In Food Stores need for the additional monies needed to cover growth costs. One of the main risks of IPO offerings is the risk of underpricing. This can be costly to both Hop-In and the investment bank. If the market decides that Hop-In’s value is worth more than initially offered stock prices with rise, leaving additional money that could have been raised by the company. This money â€Å"left on the table† could have been used to finance other investments or pay down any outstanding debts. The investment bank takes on the risk from the standpoint that they did not properly value the stock price. The underpricing of stock means that they did not maximize the money Hop-In could have raised. The reputation of not properly valuing IPO prices can lead to lost future business. In order to determine Hop-In’s new issue price, Mr. Merriman must first forecast the next five years of free cash flows. He should first create pro forma balance sheets and income statements. Once the financial have been forecasted the next step is to figure out what free cash flows are. This can be by multiplying EBIT*(1-tax), adding back depreciation, subtracting the change in capital expenditures, and also subtracting the change in net working capital. This will give you free cash flows for the year. These numbers need to be determined on a yearly basis of at least 5 years into the future. The next step is then to find out the WACC, aka r, of the company. This can be found by the equation, rd(1-tax)(D/V)+re(E/V). Once WACC is found all of the free cash flows need to be discounted back to present values. Another factor that must be found is growth. This can be discovered by doing a industry analysis to determine what the growth rate is expected to be. The growth rate is used to find the terminal value of Hop-In at its horizon date (5 years out). This terminal value is then discounted back to present value. The summation of all PV cash flows plus PV of the terminal value give you the value of the firm. The last step is to subtract the debt of the firm to land at the current equity value of the company. This equity value can then be divided by the number of shares outstanding or planning on being offered to come up with the IPO share price. Mr. Merriman has a difficult decision deciding what the final offering price will be. He has guaranteed a low value of $10 per share. He obviously wants it to close at a price higher than this because his firm will take a substantial loss since they will purchase all the shares from Hop-In Foods. Investment banks usually give a range of possible prices instead of a single definite stock price. This range will consist of the low value of $10, plus 6% in fees, giving a final low value of $10. 60. The high value is calculated by redoing the firm value analysis; taking away all debt and making it an entirely equity financing company. Doing the same before mentioned process will give you a high value. In the end Mr. Merriman should pick a final offering price right in the middle of the low and high value.

Learning From Failure: Biosphere Ii Essay

Biosphere II was a project done in Arizona received recognition on 26th September 1991. Eight people; four men and four women were used in the experiment. Biosphere 2 was an air tight structure with its base made of steel pan and surrounded by an above ground structure that was made of glass and steel. Inside the biosphere was all that could be found in the real world. There was a desert, a marsh, a rain forest, a savannah, an agricultural land, an ocean and human Habitat. This was in an effort of creating something close to the earth’s ecosystem. These people were to live on air, water and food produced by plants (Allen & Blake, 2007). The goals of the experiment were to determine the possibility of building an artificial biosphere and the potential of such biosphere surviving. Also incase the biosphere didn’t thrive then the causes would have been established. However, Biosphere II proved to be a great failure which had consumed a lot of resources in its establishment. Trouble started soon as the crew got into biosphere II. First, they experienced a shortage in oxygen supply hindering them from functioning well. The oxygen decreased to low levels such that more of it had to be injected into the system. When the crew were forced to pump in more oxygen into the system in order to sustain them, this indicated that biosphere II was not self reliant. At first they did not figure out what the problem was but they later discovered that was caused by carbon dioxide which had accumulated in the system. The carbon dioxide accumulated at a very high rate especially in the savanna and rain forest regions. This was associated with the presence of high organic matter which the microbes metabolized and in the process consumed a lot of oxygen resulting to high levels of carbon dioxide. It was also expected that the trees would play a very crucial role in regulating amount of carbon dioxide in the air and would have been able to supply the crew with sufficient oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. However, the plants did not seem to accomplish this role instead the level of oxygen kept on decreasing while carbon dioxide kept on increasing a phenomenon that was later discovered to have been caused by concrete that was used to build the biosphere II. Instead of carbon dioxide being used up by plants it reacted with calcium hydroxide a major component of concrete which resulted to formation of water and calcium carbonate. This was confirmed by the scientists after testing the walls and realizing that the inner surface of the walls had calcium carbonate levels which were ten times the level of the outer walls (Alling, Nelson &Silverstone, 1993). While making their selection, the scientists had chosen different species of animals, insects and plants that they thought would survive best in the biosphere II. However, by the end of the project only a few species had managed to survive. The rate of extinction was higher than predicted and most insect species got extinct which had a negative impact on the plants since they were no longer pollinated and thus were unable to propagate themselves. Statistics show that of the 25 species of small vertebrates present in Biosphere II only 6 survived by the end of the mission. However some species were favored by the environment in biosphere II. While others got extinct; ants, cockroaches and katydids flourished together with some plant species such as the morning glory. The morning glory grew vigorously that it almost choked the other plants. The crew had no alternative but invested most of their time working to get food. They experienced a shortage in food supply and faced hunger most of the time. Before the two year period ended the crew had grown 85 percent of the food they consumed and got the remaining15 percent food from their emergency supplies. Since they relied on sunlight which came through the glass to grow food, the winters of 1991 and 1992 affected the amount of food they could grow (Marino, Odum &Thomas, 1999). This proved that the project was incapable of sustaining an ecosystem that was balanced. They also faced various challenges some of which included shortage in clean water. This was as a result of pollution experienced in the water system. Many nutrients accumulated in the water systems therefore polluting it. They had to clean their water using algae mats. Other atmospheric imbalances followed suit where by levels of dinitrogen oxide in the air increased in an alarming rate such that the crew risked brain damage because vitamin B12was synthesized at an extremely slow rate (Allen & Blake, 2007). The experiments shortcomings were also seen when the crew quarreled. The members were supposed to work together as a group in order to bring out the best results but this never happened. Instead they split into groups comprising four members each and got to the point of not talking to each other except when it was necessary to run the biosphere. The lessons that can be learnt from this failed experiment come from the mistakes committed by the scientists. First we learn the importance of taking time to plan whatever we intend to do. Before attempting any thing one should take all measures required for proper functioning of the project. Also another critical factor to consider is the reliability of the materials and equipment to be used in the project (Alling, Nelson &Silverstone, 1993). If proper materials had been used in construction of the biosphere II then the problem of insufficient oxygen could not have occurred. The importance of using qualified personnel also arises. They used an architect who was incompetent this resulted to designing biosphere II with many faults. However what can be learnt from this experiment in general is the importance of relating well with each other. For any thing to succeed then there should be cooperation among people concerned this translates to excellent working conditions which leads to better outcome. References Allen J. & Blake A. (2007) Biosphere 2: the human experiment . New York: Viking publishers. Alling A. , Nelson M. & Silverstone S. (1993) Life under Glass: The Inside Story of Biosphere 2. Oracle: Biosphere Press. Marino B. D. , Odum H. & Thomas M. (1999) Biosphere 2: Research Past and Present Amsterdam: Elsevier publishers.