Case Study Havaianas: A Brazilian Brand Goes Global Essay

Question 1: What factors could explain the success of Havaianas in becoming a global brand? 1.) Stable and well developed economic background through acquisitions and expansions lead to a huge sandal market share * Sao Paulo Alpargatas exists since 1939, specialization in four business units: (sandals, sporting goods, industrial textile and retail) * Controling Shareholder (67%): Camargo Correa Group with operation in 20 countries * Acquisition of Companhia Brasileira de Sandalias (Dupà © brand) in 2006 leads to increased share in the Brazilian flip flop market * Acquisition of 60% of Alpargatas Argentina to expand in Latin America 2.) Long experience and know-how in manufacturing sandals and producing the special rubber * Own operational and logistic framework  * Extension of the manufacturing plant in 2007 ( capability to produce 212 million pairs of sandals annually) * Production in the northeast of Brazil, Santa Rita, in order to reduce costs, increase productivity and further streamline the logistic network * Headquters in Camargo Correas Centro Empresarial to optimize the administrative processes 3.) Product innovation * From one style with five colors to 509 new models of sandals and sport footwear * Different designs and colors * Special editions 4.) Product properties * Low price: affordable * Durability, robust * Comfortable * Trademark in 1962 * â€Å"shoes for the poor†, outside work (coffee bean pickers and blue collar  workers), all day shoes * For hot and humid weather 5.) Repositioning of the brand (1994) * Before: one style and five colors, poor point of sales execution and functional based advertisement, image of a cheap product that can be bought everywhere * â€Å"Havaianas Top†, matching sole and strap * in 13 colors * slight premium price * advertising showing upper class consumers and celebrities wearing Havaianas * upgrade through better packaging * new sales channels with more emotional context * Continuous product innovation * Launch of new designs (80 styles) * Incorporation of world fashion trends * Changing costumers * Opinion leaders, celebrities and upper class costumer wear Havaianas not only at home, but in many places and occasions * Free publicity from fans (international fashion and movie stars) * International fashion magazines, catwalk, MTV Music Awards and the Hollywood Oscars 2003 * Communication * 12% of the turnover was spent for marketing * Buzz marketing and advertising with electronic media * Local and international celebrities * Online advertising, youtube videos, †¦ * Co-branding: Havaianas was linked to ecological causes due to IPE limited editions and limited editions by famous artists, that financed â€Å"favela† projects Question 2: How far goes the company in terms of expanding the brand? 1.) 1960 export to Latin America 2.) 1990 tourism to Brazil increased and Havaianas were brought home 3.) 1998 big export to France * Europe (major markets are Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands) * At the Soccer World Cup of 1998 Havaianas with the Brazilian flag on the strap became an instant hit 4.) Communication strategy change * Europe, France * Independently managed markets (local entrepreneurs) * European subsidiary to harmonize the brand strategy, advertising, product and price positioning * In 2001 â€Å"Tudo Bem† was established as an official importer * Cooperation with leading designers from fashion to luxury * Sponsorships (events at trendy discotheques, fancy hotels, gyms) * Customize your own Havaianas * US * Havaianas became a â€Å"must wear† * In 2004 â€Å"Style West†, exclusive distributor, equipped celebrities and designers each season with the hottest colors * In 2007, entry in the US market with a guerilla marketing strategy * In order to catch college students, the brand had to be authentic, over-promotion can make a brand less cool * The US market is extremely interesting because of the huge price, that costumers are willing to pay: up to $30 * Asia * Countries with the ideal Havaiana weather: Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand * Hot and humid weather and similar footwear culture to Brazil * Philippines is the only market with an significant level of sales * Reason of Haivaiana the fail: Large middle class or below and many branded US, EU and Asian competitors as well as cheap and unbranded Chinese entrepreneurs * Japan * Fashion conscious and hot and humid weather * Limited editions exclusively for Japan with Chiso * Advertising and buzz marketing techniques 5.) 2007: 20.000 stores in over 65 countries Main markets: Brazil, US, Australia, Latin America Question 3: How sustainable is their competitive advantage? 1.) Consumers love the â€Å"Made in Brazil factor† * This is one of the most sustainable factors of Havaianas’ competitive advantage as long as the positive Brazilian image not changes 2.) Bigger size than its competitors: Economies of Scale * This success factor is hard to replicate and creates a sustainable competitive advantage as well as a cost advantage * Production in the northeast of Brazil, Santa Rita, in order to reduce costs, increase productivity and further streamline the logistic network * Headquters in Camargo Correas Centro Empresarial to optimize the administrative processes 3.) Bigger market share than its competitors: Expansion of the market share through the acquisition of other flip flop companies * Due to the Economies of scale  * Due to advertising and branding 4.) Unique brand positioning * Celebrities and opinion setters have already adapted the trend, this competitive advantage is effective and persuasive but only as long sustainable as Havaianas are not replaced by other footwear brands * Production in the northeast of Brazil, Santa Rita, in order to reduce costs, increase productivity and further streamline the logistic network * Headquters in Camargo Correas Centro Empresarial to optimize the administrative processes 5.) Continuous product innovation * Adaption to actual tendencies and trends is the best protection of keeping one’s reputation and market share. 6.) Top-secrete rubber recipe * Sustainable competitive advantage as long as there is no better recipe. 7.) Authentic comfort and quality * Authentic image not at least due to ecological conscious co-branding. Havaianas have the biggest market share because their customers are convinced of the quality, price (in Brazil) and fashionable emotional value. This package is one of the keys of the brand’s success and is only hard to replicate of its competitors.

Students Absenteeism

INTRODUCTION Absenteeism, according to Merriam- Webster dictionary means chronic absence. In the context of the school it is the habitual or intentional failure from going to school. It cannot be denied that every now and then, students may miss some school activities and lessons. But it becomes a problem if the student will be away from school for many days. Chronic absentee students are placed at a disadvantage both socially and academically. They miss out on critical stages of social interaction and development with their peers and at the same time impacts negatively on their academic progress.This can result to low self-esteem, social isolation, and dissatisfaction that could well have precipitated non-attendance in the first place. School absenteeism is an alarming problem for administrators, teachers, parents, and the society in general, as well as for the pupils in particular. Unaccepted absence has a negative effect on peer relationship which could cause absence. Also, prolon ged absence can have deleterious effects for the child in later life. Students who are absent from the school are at the risk of dropping out of school early.Absenteeism also affects the teacher’s ability present class work in sequential and organized way. This can have an effect on the progress of all the students attending the class. One way of addressing this problem is to identify the causes why students become truant from school. Once they are singled out, understood and analyzed, specific actions and measures can be undertaken. This will eventually redound to the better performance of the students, teachers, and the school in general. II. Background of the study Jason Caringal is a student who belongs to heteroclass.He is already third year and he is not a shy type and silent student. He tends to sleep when he wants, and commit absences without informing his teachers. He have been absent two days in a week and though he will come to school he seldom participate in schoo l activities. III. Review of Related Literature A child or student’s interest is the most basic element that makes a group learning system work in an organize way. From the head to the base members of this organization, the condition of one may affect the others.This kind of educational system is comparable to a series light connection where in the state of one greatly affect the others. Population and percentage within that population which causes negative feedbacks can be primary reason of a poor product. The group or classroom type of organized way of learning has given that impact to the community being the commonly used system. Its effectiveness has been proven and has never been out of fashion. The relationship between the student’s physical presence on the class discussions and their learning performance are greatly relative.Class participation is just one way of measuring a child’s learning ability. In a class, the teacher-student relationship is one of the most fundamental units in student’s learning. When a student misses a day of school he/she must have lost the chance to hear others, interpret and analyzing the lessons or joins the interaction within the class. This lost is being rooted to two different courses and varying factors under these courses. The inquiry might be a family situation or an individual problem. Then, under these courses are the factors that contribute to a child’s regular truancy.These may be finance concerns, disability, psychotic imbalance, poor school climate, family health, transportation problems, drug and alcohol use, and differing community attitude towards education, (Savers, D. et al, 2005). Absenteeism in one angle view point is one of the most common causes of degrading performances of the students. Especially to those who are included in the advance intelligence curriculum, absenteeism causes a great lose and may result to giving up an aimed position. It can also cause social repl etion especially when a class is composed of a great number of students.This habit causes a dilemma to the school administration when big figures are involve and may decrease the school’s performance. On the other hand, contamination of sickness and disease can be avoidable because of the absences of a person (Marburger, D. ,2001) A student’s attendance may be the grounds of the results of his or her learning performance. School administration and faculty may also affect the absenteeism rate of their student, and so as the population of those who practice absenteeism affect the administration and the school itself.Absenteeism in students affects their school performances especially when they are in a group or teamwork for their assignments and projects. Since grouping will help develops the students’ cooperative and ability to share and gain knowledge from their group mates will also miss the opportunity of gaining knowledge from the absent student (Koppernhaver , 2003). According to Schmidt in 1983, absenteesm affects the students’ ability to get high scores in examinations which can cause the decreasing of grades or the student may fail and will cause him/her to repeat the same year level.Students who have spent time attending lectures or classes have a significant, positive effect on students’ performance. Students that participated exhibited higher grades and scores in examinations of the student. Marburger states tat the difficulty inferring the effect of absenteeism on performance because, once a student is absent in a class, he or she may miss the opportunity of learning other techniques. He found out that missing in class progresses the likelihood of missing examination material covered that day compared to the students who were present in the class (2001).It indicates that persistent absentees at an inner-city school in South Wales had significantly lower self concept self-esteem, more deprived socioeconomic backgroun ds, lower intelligence level, and more educational problems to control groups. Suggest that remedial measures for absenteeism should focus on raising self-concepts and changing attitudes toward school (Reid K. , 1982). Absenteeism is the most significant factor to affect the functioning of assembly lines in the development of the School Administration.Those high level of absenteeism have negative repression colleges’ effect to the production of quality levels of well trained students because of work specialization. The analysis of hundred absentees reveals hundred of instances of negative effect of building well discipline students for the future. In contrast to the empirical evidence it confirms that absenteeism produce higher level of problems, that value specialization among student has been significant reduced in the students’ achievements (Mateo R, 1998). Here are some causes of absenteeism . Lack of Subject Interest 2. Lack of Personal Interest in studies. 3. Ava ilable opportunities for entertainment like malls, movie halls etc. 4. The mental capacity of a students does not matches with the the course opted. 5. Too much Pamperness from family. 6. The poor teaching skills of a teacher also keep away student from the school. 7. Lack of confidence 8. Ragging also cause absenteeism 9. Lack of allied activities also causes absenteeism like no sports program, no fresher’s or farewell parties ,no annual day celebration etc. 10.Poor food of canteen may also be consider as one of the reason for absenteeism. 11. Poor infrastructure facility in school such as no place in a library to sit is also one of the reason of absenteeism. 12 Excess of homework and sometimes fear from examination keep away students from school/college. 13 Preparation for the participation in TV shows in dance musical or acting,G. K. contest programs also increase the percentage of absenteeism. 14. Preparation for examination causes absenteeism. 15. If school or college is far off the percentage of absenteeism may increase. 16.Over expectation of parents also deteriorate the attendance of a student when s/he is unable to cope with parent nature of making comparison among their own children of with the friends of their child. 17. Too much socialization causes absenteeism. It mostly happens during teen age and college when the students forms a group to freak out . 18. Inferiority complex within student causes absenteeism. V. Solutions made by the Teacher to remedy the cause of the problem A. Counselling approaches As a subject teacherer I talk to him and gave some advices in regards with his attitudes.I explained to him that it is not good to be always absent because it will affect his performance. It will be very hard for him to cope up with different activities. B. Parental involvement programs Parents know everything that happened to their child, with this as a solution I seek an advice from our guidance and from my CT. I shared that there is a need to talk with the parents of the child. I told to my student who is related to him that I’m going to talk with his guardians, and if they can able to visit the schools during their free time.During the visitation we talk the problem of his son, it became clear to us real reason of his always being absent and I asked also for their help in order to minimize his absenteeism. C. Student – Centered Agreements My student and I made an agreement, that though he made absences he should make sure that he will complete all the outputs and requirements upon submission in order for him not to be late an all his task or responsibilities. We also agreed that he will not commit absences unless he cannot carry himself in school. VI. Results or FindingsAfter adopting several solutions, I came up with this result. Student’s attendance is always affected by the health condition. Once the student is not feeling well the tendency of it is to absent on their class. If the teacher di d not give any concern with the problem of the student, definitely the performance of the student will fail. Otherwise if the parents did not coordinate to the school in regards with their son, problem may really occur. VII. Recommendations Having the basis from the findings the researchers offer the following recommendations that can be taken into considerations: . The school administration with the parents of the concerned students must conduct and effective conference dialogue with the help of findings of the study. 2. Solutions to the different areas of difficulty due to absenteeism can be taken action by individuals in their respective fields. 3. Orientation and briefing on these students might be conducted to all least they would commit to absenteeism with the help of the study. 4. Removing Sickness Parents, teachers, can control sickness by emphasizing upon school students to maintain a high standard of cleanliness and health.Physical check up must be carried out as programme . These measures will not only check the absences but will improve the overall health of the school pupils. BIBLIOGRAPHY Internet Resources http: /Q/What_are_the_causes_of_absenteeism_of_students http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/absenteeism http://www. studymode. com/essays/Absenteeism-3-898789. html ACTION RESEARCH IN SOCIAL DIMENSION Submitted by: Kimberly Mae D. Rosales Jethro H. Salvan Sharmaine D. Fiedalan Angeli Rose E. Robles Shenalyn I. Ilagan Rolando L. Tampucao (ENGLISH MAJORS)

Alan Lightman’s “Progress” Essay

In Alan Lightman’s Progress; the writer believes that the general idea about advancement in technology being the measuring scale for society’s progress is a logical fallacy; the two ideas mentioned in this paragraph state Lightman’s self contradictory, yet relative and valid points. In the fourth paragraph Lightman states, â€Å"If progress is human happiness, has anyone shown that Twentieth- century people are happier than Nineteenth-century people?† Alan Lightman makes it clear that technological advancements are not a true indicator of society’s progress. He hints that a better indicator would be â€Å"human happiness†. I agree with the writer because happiness to me is the real measuring scale of progress. Technology has been evolving ever since man invented the wheel. In any given era or time in history the technology or know-how has always been of the highest level; it is only later on in history that makes technology of the past seem old or â€Å"out-dated†. Twenty-five years from now today’s technology will seem obsolete, even though at this present time it is the finest man can manage. Lightman’s second idea comes close to contradicting himself, but it still makes a valid point. The writer states, â€Å"Only a fool would claim that new technology rarely improves the quality of life†. Lightman challenges his earlier statement by indicating that technology improves the quality of life. This is a â€Å"slight† contradiction because if technology â€Å"improves the quality of life†, it aids in human happiness. It indicates that humans are happy when the quality of life is high. Indirectly, the writer points out that advancement in technology helps make people happy. I disagree with this due to the fact that a high-quality lifestyle is not the sole reason why people are happy. People find happiness in non-covetous things such as religion, family, reading, nature etcetera. Lightman’s contradictory ideas lay out a perfect platform for an obscured meaning of progress. In conclusion, there is no specific dimension (indicator) for progress, as the two issues mentioned indicate. Progress can not be specifically defined. The ideas also show the confusion in which the writer is himself in. As Einstein himself said, â€Å"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.†

Autism and Psychology

We have been designed from birth to need and trust and socialize with one another in various ways. Yet, why is it so difficult for some but not for others. I have a four year old Autistic son that also has severe developmental delays due to prematurity and birthing complications. There are days that he gets frustrated at not even being able to communicate basic needs or just wants to be in his own world, left to his own device. That for anyone is rough, but knowing I am his mother makes it worse. Social interaction is such an important part of growing as not only a human being, but also for the brain. Even from the beginning of time man has leaned on the premise of needing that companionship and contact with the world around them. Being from the South, you are instructed and taught from day one to be cordial and have social interactions regularly with others in and out of your class, race, or religion. But what if you cannot convey and relate to the social customs? Does that mean you are to forever be labeled as a deviant, eccentric, or antisocial? If it is funding that you have mental issues you don’t discuss them or you are forever looked at as a child. Traditionally, that means that these individuals were ostracized, stigmatized and even eliminated for the good of the whole, as the compromised the very fabric of society by proposing to build a group of individuals, somewhat like a cult, that were interconnected forever( Aronson, 1995). Animal test subjects have been well conditioned to run through mazes or pressed bars for food or to avoid electric shocks administered by researchers; likewise humans comply within similar consequences. Furthermore, it has also been documented that behavior motivated by external consequences is relatively short-lived, ceasing with the consequence is no longer available (Thompson, Iwata, 2001). This can even be seen when a mother is watching her children, and then steps out. The children understand to behave in both situations and the latter situation may have a punishment if that direction is not followed properly. Yet, as soon as the mother steps out, the non-conformist child will misbehave, only because of the punishment, even if the other sibling(s) is behaving themselves properly. Something stops a child like this from comprehending why this is wrong and what is truly acceptable. This may be in part to some issues with the connections to neuro-transmitters or lack thereof. Often times these children are not even motivated by reward systems, they will continue to misbehave at some point even when the mother returns, almost challenging her. Therefore, they will never be in society as an integral part, but as part of the problem. This, however, is not true for Autistic children. They wish to be the same, but again, the neuro-transmitters misfire and do not allow for them to ‘compare apples to oranges’. In 1943 Leo Kanner named such children as, socially withdrawn. He outlined the social disorder in 11 boys that he studied as an â€Å"autistic disturbance of affective contact† because of their apparent disinterest in other people and inability to be socially influenced (Kanner, 1943, in Frith, 1989). In spite of this, in 1984 the American Psychiatric Association, deemed this as a pervasive disorder, among others, and now it is simply known as Autism (APA, 1984). Over the past ten years Autism has been redefined again as the most complicated neurological disorder affecting the central nervous system of a large number of people. It is also the most confusing and pervasive of the developmental disorders as little is known for a cause, there is no cure, and treatments vary among individuals (Frith Happe’, 1994). The typical stereotype of an individual with autism describes a withdrawn, mute child with an inverted gaze engaged in repetitive activities or self-stimulatory behaviors, ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, ranges from severe to very mild(Mesibov Burack, 2001). Yet, the ones that have such disorders, have recently been labeled as Autistic due to lack of social prowess and extreme knowledge and fixation on one profession. These subsets of children can often times appear normal within the first year but start regressing in knowledge and skill, or not improving or gain skills at all. Eventually, one can build a wall to even keep family out, or fixate on something so hard it becomes an obsession or routine that if stopped could be mentally, physically, and socially detrimental(Kennedy Shukla, 1995). Although, it is also important to remember that individuals with ASD are not totally withdrawn, socially and may even interact from time to time, but this can be limited. I know as more going from hearing your child say ‘I love you’ and hug often, to once or twice week is difficult. The first time my son ran and hugged me and looked me in the eye was very emotional for me, but he did not understand. This leads to my next point: cognition. As I said before many ASD children do not understand emotions or are seldom empathetic. They may ask questions about the emotions you are showing but do not fully understand what you are telling them. This again is due to a misfiring of neuor-transmitters. That is why so many ASD children really like Thomas the Train. He teaches them emotions and what the facial expressions mean. My son now understand crying, anger, and excitement. Therefore, while they have a social desire, the interference in the cognitive system proves to be the main problem (Happe, 1999; Baron-Cohen, 1985; Dodge, 1980). Cognitive processing systems such as motivation, decision making and emotions are believed to be prompted when one responds to stimuli. These stimuli characterize the different mental states (desires, imagination, emotions, etc. ) that psychologists believe to be the cause of ones actions. Yet, without appropriately developed social cognition individuals have difficulty forming social relationships with others and this is evidenced by poor social behavior (Baron-Cohen, 2000). A study was designed to test this theory, and it found that 64% of individuals with ASD have first degree relatives with more extensive mental health issues, like major depression, and 39% had other social phobias (Smalley, et al, 1995). That being said, one can conclude that unlike other studies, ASD maybe a genetic disease mutated from other mental illness issues. This would also help the justice system that was once scandalized by improprieties of inmates due to a lack of knowledge. By understanding what type of ASD and the severity one can simply argue mental illness? Now I am not condoning every run out on the crazy defense, but if the shoe fits, why would we just put someone who is innocent into the system as done years ago. Think of the good old days when one could be simply thrown in jail for no id or not talking but if you have a mentally ill or developmentally disabled individual, and you put them in an environment that is rough, harsh, and not anything like their routine, it is no wonder why we had so many inmate suicides and still do inmates slip through the cracks continuously. But we may never see that happen due to public opinion. We as a society look at children with developmental delays or ASD as animals. I find it sickening. Or we think the parent does not discipline the child. Yet, due to lack of cognitive understanding, it would gain to reason why one does not benefit from punishing this type of child; they simply do not understand and are eager to please. Some may disagree but my son’s doctor actually explained to us that anything more than timeout/cool down period would be over his head. Even taking away toys would be ineffective. So the next time you are at a store take that into consideration. Now that I am off of my soapbox consider this: The acceptance of inadequacies in the empathizing process of individuals with Autism can offer more tolerance of the behaviors they display. Thus, they are not capable enough to calculate the conduct of others readily and we would expect an avoidance of impulsive situations. This is apparent in the outbursts and obsessive behaviors these individuals show in an effort to control and maintain routines in their environments (Dodge, 1980). Now some can point to sensory issues, needing to feel secure through various methods close to the five senses. A lot of the Autism community says that therapies for these aversions and how to cope will cause the ASD patient to understand, control, and manipulate to achieve a normal life. Nevertheless, the sensory struggles coincide with socio-emotional issues and are noted as early as infancy. Hence, the various longitudinal studies of infants later diagnosed with autism show empty eye gaze, poor response to name, aloofness, reduced looking-at-faces, and deficits in directing attention (Mottron Burack, 2001). And while it appears that these skills, as well as impairments in early social-communication skills and joint attention are present long before speech and mind blindness develop (Koegel Mentis, 1985; Shanker, 2004; Wing Gould, 1979). Additionally, developmental theories on attachment and affective responsiveness have suggested that children with impaired social emotional relating in infancy will not develop appropriate social understanding and as a result social interaction and communication skills will suffer (Kennedy Shukla, 1995). In spite of that, Supporters of the theory of mind suggest that people with Autism lack the ability to comprehend thoughts and experiences that occur outside of themselves (Happe, 1991). While I can see that, since my son gets stuck on one thing that happened and will talk about it for months as though it happened yesterday, the difficulty in understanding the mental thoughts of others often results in bizarre communication patterns (Happe, 1999). Thus, blindness and a clear lack of meeting of the minds, also appears to interfere with the ability to identify with others or to understand another person’s point of view (Shanker, 2004). So do we really know what people with Autism need, or are we just grabbing air in a world full of marshmallows? Bibliography American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV (1984). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. ). American Psychiatric Association. Aronson, E. (1995). The social animal. (7th ed. ). New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company. Baron-Cohen, S. (1985). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A fifteen year review. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg ; D. J. Cohen (Eds), Understanding other minds: perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 3-20). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dodge, K. (1980) Social cognition and children’s aggressive behavior. Child Development. 51, 162-170. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Frith, U. , Happe, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond †theory of mind. † Cognition, 50, 115-132. Happe, F. (1991). The autobiographical writings of three asperger syndrome adults; problems of interpretation and implications for theory. In U. Frith (Ed. ), Autism and asperger syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Happe, F. (1999). Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 6, 216-222. Kennedy, C. H. , Shukla, S, (1995). Social interaction research for people with autism as a set of past, current, and emerging propositions. Behavioral Disorders, 21, 21-35. Koegel, R. L. , Mentis, M. (1985). Motivation in childhood autism: Can they or won’t they? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 26, 185-191. Mesibov, G. B. , Adams, L. W. , ; Klinger, L. G. (1997). Autism: Understanding the disorder. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Shanker, S. (2004). The roots of mindblindness. Theory ; Psychology, 14, 5, 685-703. Smalley SL, McCracken J, Tanguay P. (1995). Autism, affective disorders, and social phobia. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 27, 60, 1, 19-26. Thompson, R. H. , ; Iwata, B. A. (2001). A descriptive analysis of social consequences following problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 169-178. Wing, L. , ; Gould, J. (1979). Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 11-29. Autism and Psychology We have been designed from birth to need and trust and socialize with one another in various ways. Yet, why is it so difficult for some but not for others. I have a four year old Autistic son that also has severe developmental delays due to prematurity and birthing complications. There are days that he gets frustrated at not even being able to communicate basic needs or just wants to be in his own world, left to his own device. That for anyone is rough, but knowing I am his mother makes it worse. Social interaction is such an important part of growing as not only a human being, but also for the brain. Even from the beginning of time man has leaned on the premise of needing that companionship and contact with the world around them. Being from the South, you are instructed and taught from day one to be cordial and have social interactions regularly with others in and out of your class, race, or religion. But what if you cannot convey and relate to the social customs? Does that mean you are to forever be labeled as a deviant, eccentric, or antisocial? If it is funding that you have mental issues you don’t discuss them or you are forever looked at as a child. Traditionally, that means that these individuals were ostracized, stigmatized and even eliminated for the good of the whole, as the compromised the very fabric of society by proposing to build a group of individuals, somewhat like a cult, that were interconnected forever( Aronson, 1995). Animal test subjects have been well conditioned to run through mazes or pressed bars for food or to avoid electric shocks administered by researchers; likewise humans comply within similar consequences. Furthermore, it has also been documented that behavior motivated by external consequences is relatively short-lived, ceasing with the consequence is no longer available (Thompson, Iwata, 2001). This can even be seen when a mother is watching her children, and then steps out. The children understand to behave in both situations and the latter situation may have a punishment if that direction is not followed properly. Yet, as soon as the mother steps out, the non-conformist child will misbehave, only because of the punishment, even if the other sibling(s) is behaving themselves properly. Something stops a child like this from comprehending why this is wrong and what is truly acceptable. This may be in part to some issues with the connections to neuro-transmitters or lack thereof. Often times these children are not even motivated by reward systems, they will continue to misbehave at some point even when the mother returns, almost challenging her. Therefore, they will never be in society as an integral part, but as part of the problem. This, however, is not true for Autistic children. They wish to be the same, but again, the neuro-transmitters misfire and do not allow for them to ‘compare apples to oranges’. In 1943 Leo Kanner named such children as, socially withdrawn. He outlined the social disorder in 11 boys that he studied as an â€Å"autistic disturbance of affective contact† because of their apparent disinterest in other people and inability to be socially influenced (Kanner, 1943, in Frith, 1989). In spite of this, in 1984 the American Psychiatric Association, deemed this as a pervasive disorder, among others, and now it is simply known as Autism (APA, 1984). Over the past ten years Autism has been redefined again as the most complicated neurological disorder affecting the central nervous system of a large number of people. It is also the most confusing and pervasive of the developmental disorders as little is known for a cause, there is no cure, and treatments vary among individuals (Frith Happe’, 1994). The typical stereotype of an individual with autism describes a withdrawn, mute child with an inverted gaze engaged in repetitive activities or self-stimulatory behaviors, ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, ranges from severe to very mild(Mesibov Burack, 2001). Yet, the ones that have such disorders, have recently been labeled as Autistic due to lack of social prowess and extreme knowledge and fixation on one profession. These subsets of children can often times appear normal within the first year but start regressing in knowledge and skill, or not improving or gain skills at all. Eventually, one can build a wall to even keep family out, or fixate on something so hard it becomes an obsession or routine that if stopped could be mentally, physically, and socially detrimental(Kennedy Shukla, 1995). Although, it is also important to remember that individuals with ASD are not totally withdrawn, socially and may even interact from time to time, but this can be limited. I know as more going from hearing your child say ‘I love you’ and hug often, to once or twice week is difficult. The first time my son ran and hugged me and looked me in the eye was very emotional for me, but he did not understand. This leads to my next point: cognition. As I said before many ASD children do not understand emotions or are seldom empathetic. They may ask questions about the emotions you are showing but do not fully understand what you are telling them. This again is due to a misfiring of neuor-transmitters. That is why so many ASD children really like Thomas the Train. He teaches them emotions and what the facial expressions mean. My son now understand crying, anger, and excitement. Therefore, while they have a social desire, the interference in the cognitive system proves to be the main problem (Happe, 1999; Baron-Cohen, 1985; Dodge, 1980). Cognitive processing systems such as motivation, decision making and emotions are believed to be prompted when one responds to stimuli. These stimuli characterize the different mental states (desires, imagination, emotions, etc. ) that psychologists believe to be the cause of ones actions. Yet, without appropriately developed social cognition individuals have difficulty forming social relationships with others and this is evidenced by poor social behavior (Baron-Cohen, 2000). A study was designed to test this theory, and it found that 64% of individuals with ASD have first degree relatives with more extensive mental health issues, like major depression, and 39% had other social phobias (Smalley, et al, 1995). That being said, one can conclude that unlike other studies, ASD maybe a genetic disease mutated from other mental illness issues. This would also help the justice system that was once scandalized by improprieties of inmates due to a lack of knowledge. By understanding what type of ASD and the severity one can simply argue mental illness? Now I am not condoning every run out on the crazy defense, but if the shoe fits, why would we just put someone who is innocent into the system as done years ago. Think of the good old days when one could be simply thrown in jail for no id or not talking but if you have a mentally ill or developmentally disabled individual, and you put them in an environment that is rough, harsh, and not anything like their routine, it is no wonder why we had so many inmate suicides and still do inmates slip through the cracks continuously. But we may never see that happen due to public opinion. We as a society look at children with developmental delays or ASD as animals. I find it sickening. Or we think the parent does not discipline the child. Yet, due to lack of cognitive understanding, it would gain to reason why one does not benefit from punishing this type of child; they simply do not understand and are eager to please. Some may disagree but my son’s doctor actually explained to us that anything more than timeout/cool down period would be over his head. Even taking away toys would be ineffective. So the next time you are at a store take that into consideration. Now that I am off of my soapbox consider this: The acceptance of inadequacies in the empathizing process of individuals with Autism can offer more tolerance of the behaviors they display. Thus, they are not capable enough to calculate the conduct of others readily and we would expect an avoidance of impulsive situations. This is apparent in the outbursts and obsessive behaviors these individuals show in an effort to control and maintain routines in their environments (Dodge, 1980). Now some can point to sensory issues, needing to feel secure through various methods close to the five senses. A lot of the Autism community says that therapies for these aversions and how to cope will cause the ASD patient to understand, control, and manipulate to achieve a normal life. Nevertheless, the sensory struggles coincide with socio-emotional issues and are noted as early as infancy. Hence, the various longitudinal studies of infants later diagnosed with autism show empty eye gaze, poor response to name, aloofness, reduced looking-at-faces, and deficits in directing attention (Mottron Burack, 2001). And while it appears that these skills, as well as impairments in early social-communication skills and joint attention are present long before speech and mind blindness develop (Koegel Mentis, 1985; Shanker, 2004; Wing Gould, 1979). Additionally, developmental theories on attachment and affective responsiveness have suggested that children with impaired social emotional relating in infancy will not develop appropriate social understanding and as a result social interaction and communication skills will suffer (Kennedy Shukla, 1995). In spite of that, Supporters of the theory of mind suggest that people with Autism lack the ability to comprehend thoughts and experiences that occur outside of themselves (Happe, 1991). While I can see that, since my son gets stuck on one thing that happened and will talk about it for months as though it happened yesterday, the difficulty in understanding the mental thoughts of others often results in bizarre communication patterns (Happe, 1999). Thus, blindness and a clear lack of meeting of the minds, also appears to interfere with the ability to identify with others or to understand another person’s point of view (Shanker, 2004). So do we really know what people with Autism need, or are we just grabbing air in a world full of marshmallows? Bibliography American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV (1984). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. ). American Psychiatric Association. Aronson, E. (1995). The social animal. (7th ed. ). New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company. Baron-Cohen, S. (1985). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A fifteen year review. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg ; D. J. Cohen (Eds), Understanding other minds: perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 3-20). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dodge, K. (1980) Social cognition and children’s aggressive behavior. Child Development. 51, 162-170. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Frith, U. , Happe, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond †theory of mind. † Cognition, 50, 115-132. Happe, F. (1991). The autobiographical writings of three asperger syndrome adults; problems of interpretation and implications for theory. In U. Frith (Ed. ), Autism and asperger syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Happe, F. (1999). Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 6, 216-222. Kennedy, C. H. , Shukla, S, (1995). Social interaction research for people with autism as a set of past, current, and emerging propositions. Behavioral Disorders, 21, 21-35. Koegel, R. L. , Mentis, M. (1985). Motivation in childhood autism: Can they or won’t they? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 26, 185-191. Mesibov, G. B. , Adams, L. W. , ; Klinger, L. G. (1997). Autism: Understanding the disorder. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Shanker, S. (2004). The roots of mindblindness. Theory ; Psychology, 14, 5, 685-703. Smalley SL, McCracken J, Tanguay P. (1995). Autism, affective disorders, and social phobia. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 27, 60, 1, 19-26. Thompson, R. H. , ; Iwata, B. A. (2001). A descriptive analysis of social consequences following problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 169-178. Wing, L. , ; Gould, J. (1979). Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 11-29.

Fluid mechanics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Fluid mechanics - Assignment Example (1) Continuity Equation: from the consideration of mass conservation one can show that the net volume of fluid per unit time always remains constant as the fluid is incompressible (no variation in density), giving us where HL denotes the Head Lost due to fluid resistance, and all other symbols expressing usual meanings. While the first term is known as Static Head or Pressure Head, the second term is called Velocity Head; and the third term, denoting the Potential Head is zero in our case as the height of the axis at the inlet and outlet is same. In order to verify the basic laws of fluid dynamics, we have used a Venturi Tube or Venturimeter as described in the figure above. The fluid (water in our case) is allowed to flow in through the left-hand-side valve and it goes out through the right-hand-side valve of exactly equal cross-sectional area. In between these two extreme ends, there exists 9 other locations along the axis of the Tube where capillaries are inserted to measure the Pressure Head of the fluid flow from the height of the water in each tube. Thus, one can measure pressure at 11 different locations along the axis of the Venturimeter which is assumed to be the zero Potential Energy line for the fluid. As soon as the fluid flows through the Tube, the total time taken by it to cross-over the horizontal length of the Tube is also noted using a stopwatch, to calculate the Volumetric Flow Rate after determining the total volume of water collected. Besides, the height of the water in each of the 11 different capillary tubes is also measured and tabulated in Tables 1-3 below, for 3 different volumes of inflows. We observe here as well that there exists mismatch in the Total Energy. Since the Total Energy at the inflow valve was 0.2793 and that at the outflow valve was 0.2402, the Head Lost due to fluid resistance may be calculated as Another important observation needing special mentioning is that of Head Lost due to flow

Living and Working in a Hypermedia World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Living and Working in a Hypermedia World - Essay Example Living and Working in a Hypermedia World What this means is that we will be living in a hypermedia world, and this will affect every corner of every aspect of our lives. The connection of billions of sites with social networks has been going on for some time now. Every commercial site wants to leverage the access to social networks and asks visitors to â€Å"like† them or log in using their FaceBook or other social network logon. The next step is to connect devices beyond smartphones and tablets, such as embedded chips in home appliances, automobiles and building systems (Research ). Social and machine data will be travelling the same routes synchronizing and upgrading the world. Literally every working machine will sport a chip to send and receive data over the Internet. Devices that control home environments and appliances will only be part of the mix. The media giants are planning to converge with their audiences. Voice controls will be everywhere, and libraries of books, magazines, videos and movies are already stored in the cloud for universal access. These are all available on home computer, tables, laptops, smartphones and smart TVs. Virtually anything equipped with a screen can be streamed to and listened to on Bluetooth headsets or speakers attached or wireless. Onstream Media CEO Randy Selman boasts that more than half of the Fortune 1000 are their customers (Kleinmann 87-87)(Kleinmann 87-87). Virtually all financial institutions are gearing up to offer total remote service via smart devices for their highly mobile populations. Paying for vending machine goods and various entry and travel tickets have been set up to connect with smart devices for some time now, and banks, S&Ls and brokers are jumping in not to be left behind by more cutting edge organizations, such as ING Direct and Netbank (Kleinmann 87-87). Other businesses are either in the second round of rethinking their Internet use, after initial dotcoms and second wave interactive sites they are all moving into social ne tworking, and social networking is mushrooming out of control. Maybe that’s a good thing. One cannot be certain at this point. People tend to prefer order to chaos, but chaos is also much more anonymous. So people flocked to what they thought was an anonymous medium due to the very vastness of the resources stored there. However, search engines are getting better and people who want to make money are getting craftier about sorting through it. The Internet represents ordered chaos, as it changes every nanosecond, but everything on it seems to be immortal. We have more knowledge (data in human usable form) available today on our little smartphones than existed in all the world’s libraries a century ago. The most valuable skill for the future will be the ability to find what one needs in this planet of data. The Internet not only survived 9/11, but it was the best available communications network in the US at that time. TV and radio news was â€Å"filtered†, phone and cell phone networks crashed, but the Internet stayed up and running, routing and rerouting around every bottleneck and crashed server . The messages all went through, even to recipients who could no longer receive them. The Internet has shown it is robust due to its wide dissemination and connected isolation. Each node on the Internet is separate, running on a different physical server and part of thousands of backbones. However, they are also all connected when running.

Foreign aid Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Foreign aid - Essay Example These countries constantly rely on the good will of the developed countries for their survival. Randel & German (2013) say that multilateral aid is the aid offered by other organizations such as financial institutions, associations and agencies to needy countries. Third world countries have been seen to acquire a lot of multi-lateral aid from institutions such as World Bank, IMF, amongst others. From the chart, the aid, the need for aid rises by the day. In Africa, the forms of Foreign in Aid range from loan assistance, emergency relief assistance such as drought, health assistance, food, water, technological assistance However, the status of Africa is worsening. Africa comprises of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). This relates to issues such as poor governance from their leaders despite the richness of the same in terms of resources and minerals. Knack & Brautigam (2004) say that Africa lacks the rule of law, corruption prevails; thus, poor accountability. Foreign Assistance will no doubt not save Africa’s situation. The poverty rates still persist despite the constant aid. Ayodele et al (2005) are wary of the fact that despite the set MDGs, development for Africa has a long way to go. Conclusively, foreign generally leads to slow growth as seen in the case of Africa. Evidently inflation rates are high in Africa despite the constant foreign