Indigenous Peoples Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Indigenous Peoples - Essay Example It is also this roots that makes the term Indigenous Peoples, not just ambivalent, but highly paradoxical. Definition of Indigenous Peoples The term Indigenous Peoples has been a subject of much debate but mainstream understanding indicates that people who lived in an area before the conquerors arrive are indigenous. This understanding, however, is muddled with confusion. Indians, for example, were in Louisiana before the arrival of white Americans but ask any American and they would claim original ownership of the land. A further understanding would most likely present two concepts: 1) The First People pertains to the original settlers of a country or area. They are also often called ethnic group or aborigines. 2) Cultural Difference is also used as a major differentiating point between who is indigenous and who is not. Languages, religion or spiritual belief, and socio-economic structure define who is indigenous to the culture In a bid to have a universal understanding of indigenou s peoples, a defition was developed by Jose Martinez Cobo in the Special Rapporteur on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. This was, for a time, accepted internationally (Sanders 214): "Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them, by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant or colonial condition; who today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic and cultural customs and traditions than with the institutions of the country of which they now form part, under a state structure which incorporates mainly national, social and cultural characteristics of other segments of the population which are predominant." However, the definition resulted to many questions and challenged many political, cultural, and s ocial beliefs. For one, the acceptance of the definition makes the identity of indigenous peoples dependent on the chronology of its social development. Next, classifying conquerors as people from other parts of the world effectively eliminates neighboring conquerors which may have been more prevalent before recorded history. The definition fundamentally assumed and solidified that the formation of identity, history and culture were dependent on when Europeans started colonizing different parts of the world. It was beyond simple. It was, in fact, unreasonable as it ignored the more organic formation of culture, history and identity that started hundreds, if not thousands of years before European colonizers. Essentially, the definition that was supposed to uphold the identity of a country was based on discrimination. So much, in fact, that even their definition had to be around the axis of the colonizers. Europeans had to arrive before the presence of culture is recognized. The defin ition may have been well-intentioned but the result only lead to further marginalization of people that should have never had to fight for their land. There is also the lack of framework on how culture, tradition and beliefs continue to persist even in the face of modernity and continuous strengthening of global hybrid community. What the definition did, though, is make provide a better and stronger mainstream understanding of the

Koyo Jean Internationalization Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Koyo Jean Internationalization Strategy - Essay Example The acronym PESTEL bears its origin from the combination of the first letters of these factors. Discussed under, are the various roles played by each one of these factors in the marketing of premium jeans in both South Korea and Brazil. To begin with the PESTEL Analysis of South Korea, the country enjoys political stability, though in the year 1997, there was a financial crisis in the same country, something which affected the country’s economic status. However, some strategies were laid down and in 1998, one year thereafter, the country’s economic status stabilized again. A few years later, the country’s technology also grew making it one the world’s largest technological markets. Socially, the country is characterized by an aging population due to both low fertility and population growth. Despite the low population, the country has a highly competent labour force that facilitates the production and commercialization of advanced technologies which in turn lead to the flourishing of the marketing of the Koyo Jeans designed by William Cheung. The complex and lengthy legal procedures discourage investors. When it comes to the environment of the country, there is unreasonable breach of emission standards. PESTEL Analysis of Brazil shows some similarities though, at the same time brings a few out some differences. Economically, the prices of premium jeans are high due to taxes. Socially, Brazil has a high population than South Korea, hence presenting a strong work force. The country is also technologically advanced hence able to compete favourably with other errant countries including South Korea (Keller & Price, 2011). Porter’s Diamond, named after Michael Porter is an analysis tool for assessing the ability of a country to compete internationally with respect to: factor endowments, firm strategy, structure and rivalry, related and supporting industries, Demand conditions. As discussed earlier, the populations of the two countrie s are contrasting in that South Korea’s Population is small while Brazil’s is large. The large population of Brazil plays a role in labour provision hence making it compete favourably. On the other hand, South Korea despite having a small population, the population is informed in matters relating to technology. This helps the countries to compete favourably. There is need for both countries to come up with long-term objectives so as to help them cope up with completion not just from each other but even from other like-minded countries; those dealing in the designing and marketing of premium jeans worldwide. One of the major strategies is the evident economic and political stability in both countries. The existence of other clothe industries in these countries also plays a significant role. The benefits accruing from the investment in both basic and advanced factors by related firms can spill over. This is characterized by the existence of other industries designing oth er kinds of clothes, which can be worn together with these premium jeans. The worldwide high demand for premium jeans, starting from the citizens of the designing countries (South Korea and Brazil) stimulates the production since this ensures availability of the market. Mode of entry Market mode of entry is a detailed plan designed by a company that shows how it endeavors to enter into a new market (Root, 1994). It is normally a complex decision to make because of its associated risks creating fear for most companies. Koyo jean's entry to South Korea and Brazil should opt to employ exporting, licensing, franchising or joint ventures. Joint ventures normally start

Effect of Temperature on Lipase Essay Example for Free

Effect of Temperature on Lipase Essay Theory The higher the substrate concentration the more quickly product is produced (rate of reaction  increases) until enzyme saturation is reached at which time more substrate has no further effect. Enzymes such as Catalase are protein molecules which are found in living cells. They are used to speed up specific reactions in the cells. They are all very specific as each enzyme just performs one particular reaction. Catalase is an enzyme found in food such as potato and liver. It is used for removing Hydrogen Peroxide from the cells. Hydrogen Peroxide is the poisonous by-product of metabolism. Catalase speeds up the decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide into water and oxygen as shown in the equations below. It is able to speed up the decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide because the shape of its active site matches the shape of the Hydrogen Peroxide molecule. This type of reaction where a molecule is broken down into smaller pieces is called an anabolic reaction. Hypothesis The prediction would be such that as the substrate concentration increases, the rate of reaction will go up at a directly proportional rate until the solution becomes saturated with the substrate hydrogen peroxide. When this saturation point is reached, then adding extra substrate will make no difference. The rate steadily increases when more substrate is added because more of the active sites of the enzyme are being used which results in more reactions so the required amount of oxygen is made more quickly. Once the amount of substrate molecules added exceeds the number of active sites available then the rate of reaction will no longer go up. This is because the maximum number of reactions are being done at once so any extra substrate molecules have to wait until some of the active sites become available. Variables Independent Variable(s) Concentration of substrate Dependent Variable(s) Rate of enzyme activity Control Variable(s) Temperature pH Pressure Apparatus S. No Item Qty. Size, Capacity, Amount 1 Graduated cylinder 1 500mL, 500cm3 2 Metal Stand 1 3 Catalase from Chicken Liver. Pour the hydrogen peroxide solution into the test tube containing the chicken liver and immediately put the cork with a transferring tube plugged into it connecting it to a rubber tube leading to a filled inverted graduated cylinder to measure the amount of gas in mL (cm3) formed. 3. Bubbles should start to rise up the tube and the water level in the graduated cylinder should move down. 4. Record the water level after every 30 seconds for a total period of 5 minutes. 5. Do the same for 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 12% and 14% and record the readings for them individually. When the concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide is increased, the rate of reaction increases at a directly proportional rate until the concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide reaches about 10%. If you double the concentration of Hydrogen Peroxide then the rate of reaction doubles as well. When the concentration is doubled from 8-16% the rate goes up from 1. 65-2. 97 Cm3 Oxygen produced per second, which is an increase of 1. 8 times. I would expect the rate to increase two times if the Hydrogen Peroxide concentration is increased two times because there are twice as many substrate molecules which can join onto the enzymes active sites. The reason that the number is less than two times could be put down to the fact that at 10% the Enzymes active sites may already be close to being saturated with Hydrogen Peroxide. There may also be some experimental error which causes the inaccuracies. After 10% the increase in the rate of reaction slows down. This is shown by the gradient of the graph going down. At this point virtually all the active sites are occupied so the active sites are said to be saturated with Hydrogen Peroxide. Increasing the Hydrogen Peroxide Concentration after the point of saturation has been reached will not cause the rate of reaction to go up any more. All the active sites are being used so any extra Hydrogen Peroxide molecules will have to wait until an active site becomes available. The theoretical maximum rate of reaction is when all the sites are being used but in reality this theoretical maximum is never reached due to the fact that not all the active sites are being used all the time. The substrate molecules need time to join onto the enzyme and to leave it so the maximum rate achieved is always slightly below the theoretical maximum. The time taken to fit into and leave the active site is the limiting factor in the rate of reaction. Limitations a) There is a slight delay between pouring the Hydrogen Peroxide into the catalase, putting the bung on and starting the stopwatch. This will slightly affect all the results but as I carried out all the three steps in the same way for all the experiments it should not make any difference to the overall result. b) It is also impossible to precisely measure out the amounts of Hydrogen Peroxide and catalase each time. As the scale on the pipettes shows the volume to the nearest mm3 the volume of the solutions that I used should be correct to the nearest mm3. The volume of gas in the test tube to start with is slightly affected by the amount which the bung is pushed down each time, if the bung is pushed down further then the volume in the tube will be less so the 30cm3 of gas is reached faster. c) Due to the fairly slow speed of our reactions it is only possible to measure the time of the reaction to the nearest 0. 1 second even though the stopwatch shows the measurements to the nearest 0. 01 second. d) Human errors such as inappropriate readings, time difference in readings, stopping flow of air by accidentally compressing rubber tube†¦ could also have been made

Causes of Workplace Accidents

Causes of Workplace Accidents Workplace accidents are generally caused by the unsafe behaviour of employees and the unsafe state of objects (Shi Wenwen, et al., 2011). In the past, root causes of those accidents were reported mainly in terms technological malfunctions and the human element tended to be ignored (Gordon, 1998). Technology and systems have become more reliable and the frequency of technological failures has diminished, there is little uncertainty today that human errors contribute to the majority of safety incidents within high risk industries (Baysari, et al., 2009; Skalle, 2014). The current research on the workplace accidents document that human errors are the root cause of up to 80% of incidents in high risk industries (Liping, 2003; Cullen and Anderson, 2005; Garret and Teizer, 2009; Ganguly, 2011; Quanmin, et al., 2011). As Reason (1997) indicated in an earlier research, it is expected, because human decisions and actions are not only involved in accidents, but also in the design, construction, operation, maintenance and management of complex systems. The significance of human factors contribution to safety has been demonstrated over the past two decades by the often-quoted examples of the contribution of human failures to the major accidents within the process industry such as Bhopal, Piper Alpha, Texas City refinery explosion, Esso Longford gas explosion and Texaco Milford Haven explosion (Hughes and Kornowa-Weichel, 2004). Given this demonstration, it is astounding that the importance of human factors in the safety management has not yet been extensively acknowledged within the high risk industries in the Middle East. There are scarcely any literatures exist within the Middle East on the relevance of human factors in safety management. Some elements of human factors such as training and motivation had always been received attention within the oil and gas industry; however, they have been deliberately managed as part of an integrated safety management system or with the rigour that their contribution to the risk requires. The term ‘human error’ is defined in several literatures (Norman, 1981; Reason, 1990; Sanders and McCormick, 1993; Salmon, et al., 2005). Reason (1990, p.9) defined human error as â€Å"a generic term to encompass all those occasions in which a planned sequence of mental or physical activities fails to achieve its intended outcome, and when these failures cannot be attributed to the intervention of some chance agency.† Salmon, et al. (2005, p.5) defined human error as â€Å"any mental or physical activity, or failure to perform activity, that leads to either an undesired or unacceptable outcome.† Dhillon Liu (2006) and Shi Wenwen, et al. (2011) point out that the causes of human errors are complicated, and the basic reasons can be one’s own unsafe psychological activities, physiological factors, environmental factors, insufficient safety training, poor design factors and inadequate procedures. The term ‘human factor’ is often referred as the thread that runs through the safety management system, the organisation for safety and the culture of a site (Cullen and Anderson, 2005). Cacciabue (2004, p.12) defined human factors as â€Å"the technology concerned with the analysis and optimisation of the relationship between people and their activities, by the integration of human sciences and engineering in systematic applications, in consideration for cognitive aspects and socio-technical working contexts.† The United Kingdom, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defined human factors as â€Å"environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety† (HSE, 2005, p.5; Ganguly, 2011, p.14). Hughes Kornowa-Weichel (2004) and Cullen Anderson (2005) highlight that it is important to integrate human factors from the early stages of process design and procedural development to reduce human failures. Hamilton, et al. (2013, p.5) state that â€Å"human factors integration is the principal method for applying human factors to the development of socio-technical systems across safety critical industries.† In this way, the integration helps to ensure that human factors methods and principles are applied appropriately and consistently during the system development in order to achieve a safe and effective design for end users. McLeod (2004) indicates that human factors maturity assessment of an organisation should be in terms of what action organisation takes to minimise the human contribution to incidents and the impact on the health of the workplace through the way it designs the equipment and implements its associated training and procedures. On the whole, the above discussed literatures put forward the claim that management systems, tools and equipment of an organisation to be designed with the potential capabilities and limitations of people in mind to run it safely and effectively as people are the integral and key features of the business systems. Therefore, the best practices of human failure prevention can only be attained when human factors are integrated into the procedural and system development phase rather than considering as a stand-alone activity. For this reason, the success rate of human failure prevention mostly depends on the level of human factors integration into the health and safety management system of that organisation. Background to the organisation Lamprell Energy Limited (LEL) is a leading provider of diversified engineering and contracting services to the onshore and offshore oil and gas and renewable energy industries. Based in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) and with the operations throughout the region, Lamprell has played a prominent role in the development of the energy industry within the Middle East for over 35 years. Lamprell has established a leading market position in the construction, commissioning and installation of rigs, process modules and top sides. The primary facilities of Lamprell are located in Hamariya, Sharjah and Jebel Ali all of which are located within the U.A.E. The facilities cover approximately 910,000 m2 with 2.2 km of quayside. The organisation employs approximately 2400 employees in the Jebel Ali facility where the research was conducted. Reason for the dissertation Health and safety is a core value within Lamprell businesses and a strong health and safety culture exist within the group. The health and safety management system is accredited by the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001:2007 standard. Surveillance audits are carried out by Bureau Veritas, a global leader in the management systems certification with a strong presence within the U.A.E. Kelvin Top Set root cause analysis tool and problem solving methodology is used within the organisation for the investigation of workplace incidents. This ensures that the root causes of all incidents reported within the organisation are systematically identified. An analysis carried out on all the lost time, restricted work, medical treatment accidents and root causes reported in the last 3 years within the Jebel Ali facility of Lamprell reveals that the accidents caused by the human failures are at an alarming rate. There were no fatalities reported during this period within the organisation. It was confirmed that accidents are classified based on the similar reporting criteria across all three years to ensure consistency of collected data. Figure 1. Total Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) and Human Failure Accident Frequency Rate from January 2011 to December 2013. Figure 2. The causes of human failure accidents from January 2011 to December 2013. As Figure 1 indicates, there was a rise in AFR in 2012 compared to 2011 and then dropped in 2013. Human failures contributed 76%, 82% and 83% to the total AFR in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. The causes of these human failure accidents were retrieved from Lamprell’s Single Incident Reporting System (SIRS) and illustrated in Figure 2. The pie chart shows that over half the human failure accidents were due to the noncompliance of procedures, poor competency and environmental factors. The high human failure accident rate and the nature of the causes of these failures are self-explanatory for assessing the human factors integration into the health and safety management system of Lamprell.

Discovering Mortality in Once More to the Lake Essay -- Once More to t

Discovering Mortality in Once More to the Lake E. B. White's story "Once More to the Lake" is about a man who revisits a lake from his childhood to discover that his life has lost placidity.   The man remembers his childhood as he remembers the lake; peaceful and still.   Spending time at the lake as an adult has made the man realize that his life has become unsettling and restless, like the tides of the ocean.   Having brought his son to this place of the past with him, the man makes inevitable comparisons between his own son and his childhood self, and between himself as an adult and the way he remembers his father from his childhood perspective.   The man's experience at the lake with his son is the moment he discovers his own mortality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The man had experienced adulthood, and therefore could never experience the lake as he did when he was a child.   Except for the sound of outboard motors, the lake was pretty much the same as it had been before.   "The only thing that was wrong now, really, was the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors" (White 153).   This "nervous" sound suggests the nervousness of adulthood; the anxieties that sweep through the minds of people who have matured.   The noise created by the outboard motors reflects the noise inside the man's consciousness.   Instead of the "sleepy" sound of the inboard engines used when the man was a child, there were now noisy engines, which cluttered the air around the lake.   These sounds constantly reminded the man of the restlessness of his adult life.   Due to constant obstacles like the sound of the outboard motors or the internal struggles that come with adulthood, the man could only return to the lake as a guest of his own mem... ...izes his or her mortality in the same way.   Some people realize their mortality when they are young, while others realize it an instant before they die.   I am unsure if I will ever experience this sensation as the man in this story did.   However, knowing that I will one day have to face the inevitable, makes me want to create a belief for what will happen after I reach my fate.   I feel I can relate to the way the man felt because I have yet to find answers for what, if anything, will be found beyond my mortality.   The unsettling feeling that I get when I seriously think about this probably compares to the feeling the man got when he realized his own mortality.   Some people calm this feeling by putting their faith in God.   Unfortunately, I cannot escape my suspicion that God is the invention of an animal that knows it is going to die, and it sends a chill up my spine.

What achieving a degree means to me :: essays research papers

â€Å"What achieving a degree means to me† Hello my name is ______________ I am a twenty nine year old married mother of two. I’ve been married for twelve years and I have an eight years old boy and a two years old girl. Since I was nineteen years old in the fall of 1991 I’ve attempted to earn a college degree attending first Tarrant County Junior College and second Weatherford College stop and starting back again several times over the years trying to reach my goal. In the summer of 1995 when my oldest was two my husband and I moved our mobile home on to new land, which required my assistance helping out financially. I started working for a great company that I loved, Auto Rail Services of Texas they are an afflation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway were I worked part time in the evenings doing data entry. Six months later I started working full time as the assistant office manager in charge of the day-to-day operations. I was sent to Tarrant County Junior College to gain a certificate in Microsoft Offic e applications. I continued to advance with in the company and enjoyed working there but in the July of 1998 the company suffered financially when Ford Motor Company moved there business to Union Pacific Railway, which caused downsizing in the company I was laid off. I contemplated going back to school after this but couldn’t financially afford to stop working full time. The following October I became pregnant with our second child and after her birth my husband and I decided to downsize our financial situation so that I could remain home with the baby. When the child was seven months old I took a part time position in my aunts security company where I assisted in the office and was able to bring my child with me. Not long after my aunts company was forced to go out of business, which caused me to relay on unemployment compensation, threw Texas Workforce Commission there I was informed I could return to college and receive assistance with childcare. I began all the necessary proceedings for the program and was informed before I could actually get the assistance I would need to pass the TASP test a mandatory test required before you are eligible to receive a degree in the State of Texas. Having passed all but the math section of the test I decided I would take a preparatory tasp math class.

Faith, Love, Time, and Dr. Lazaro Summarry by: Carlo

In this story, Brillantes confronts the most important questions of our lives as Christians: Does God exist? If so, what is the nature of God? I remember Tim telling me that Brillantes succeeds in telling a compelling story because he never preaches or subverts. That he allows the reader to experience, rather than solve, the problem of God’s presence or absence. The story is deceptively simple: An aging medical doctor and his young son are called in the middle of the night to minister to a poor family whose newborn baby has a terminal case of tetanus.The journey towards the family’s home, however, seems to take on a different level when it also becomes a spiritual journey, most especially for Dr. Lazaro, whose beliefs about and disbelief in God, faith, love, and time seem to haunt him with a pressurized intensity – and all because he sees a wide chasm between him and Ben, his son, in terms of how they see life: He has lost so much faith in God and life, while Ben – intent on becoming a priest – seems so infuriatingly fresh and positive.He has also lost his faith because he has been a witness to countless, seemingly random deaths: There is a patient with cancer, whose racking pain even morphine can’t assuage anymore; there is the baby who is now dying from tetanus; but most of all, there was his eldest son who, we later learn, committed suicide. From the latter, the Lazaro family â€Å"died† to each other as well. It made the doctor focus mechanically on his job, just to forget the pain, and his wife became more immersed in religion than in family.For Dr. Lazaro, what kind of God would allow pain? What kind of God would kill a baby? What kind of God would take away a son? Is there really a God? (Many of the students invariably answer that perhaps God allowed this to happen to test their faith. I happen to believe this as well, but I pose for them another gray area: â€Å"That may be true, but tell that to a dying man in excruciating pain, or to a father who has tragically lost his child. Sir, you are in pain because God is testing your faith. Seems cruel, isn’t it? ) These questions are compounded by the images and symbols that are replete throughout the story – that of loss, distance, emptiness, and dark ominousness: â€Å"a view of the stars,† â€Å"the country darkness,† â€Å"the lights on the distant highway at the edge of town,† a â€Å"humming of wires, as though darkness had added to the distance between the house in town and the station beyond the summer fields,† â€Å"the long journey to Nambalan,† â€Å"the sleeping town, the desolate streets, the plaza empty in the moonlight. And being the quintessential formalist narrative, the story contains several symbolism understood best through close-reading. There is, for one, the realization that Dr. Lazaro represents a kind of living dead. Besides the zombie characteristic invoked in th e first paragraph, his name easily evokes the Biblical â€Å"dead man brought to life†: Lazarus. There are also the parallels of the baby and Dr. Lazaro – that while the baby has actual tetanus, Dr.Lazarus, on the other hand, has tetanus of the soul: â€Å"It was as though indifference were an infection that had entered his blood; it was everywhere in his body. † He needs new life, we soon realize, and he needs to be resurrected from the dead. In a sense, his journey to Nambalan with his son becomes a journey in a quest for redemption – he has to save the body, to save an idea of himself and his place in the world. But there is also that other metaphor: of God as a futile God. As a doctor, Dr. Lazaro heals, which is very God-like, if you think about it.In one scene, Esteban, the baby’s bewildered father, calls the doctor over the phone, like the prayer of a desperate man to God. The distance between Esteban and Dr. Lazaro, through the humming of th e phone wires and the resulting bad connection, is a good metaphor for the distance between God and man. Can we call God? What if there is a busy signal? the story seems to say. But finally, Dr. Lazaro cannot heal the sick baby, who eventually dies –and we are left with this unsettling question: What does this say about the Great Healer?And yet, by the end of the story, it is spirituality that saves. As the defeated Dr. Lazaro leaves the dead baby on the mat, he sees his son Ben, the hopeful priest-to-be, go to the baby’s side and give it the final sacrament of Extreme Unction. And he finally sees his darkness, and his son’s saving light. Dr. Lazaro’s epiphany also becomes ours, but his quickly ends with abortive fear. In what is one of the most famous endings in Philippine literature. â€Å"Like love, there was only so much time. †