Importance of context

Significance of setting Significance of Context For me setting is the key from that comes the comprehension of everything (K. Noland) Word setting, taking its underlying foundations once again from Latin contextus, is characterized as the situation or realities that encompass a specific occasion or circumstance. Setting is a basic piece of our regular day to day existences, it assumes a key job in making the correct importance in each type of correspondence between the source and its beneficiary. These incorporate everything running from a straightforward paper article to most surprising instances of high craftsmanship. Movie is likewise a workmanship, despite the fact that, an exceptionally youthful one, yet the unpredictability of film makes it straightforwardly identified with information on various sorts of setting. In this paper I will connect with these sorts of setting, film hypothesis setting and socio-verifiable setting specifically, to attempt to demonstrate that it is so indispensable to comprehend the significance of setting in the craft of film. To accomplish this, I decided to assembled the contention s upon crafted by one of the most bizarre and troublesome movie producers of the past age, Andrei Tarkovsky. Engraving on his tombstone peruses: â€Å"To the man who saw the angel†. Andrei Tarkovsky was viewed as a work of art, who brought such a great amount to the way of life of film, that his dreams and perspective turned out to be a piece of human brain. Ingmar Bergman, in one of his meetings, stated: â€Å"Tarkovsky is for me the best, the person who created another dialect, consistent with the idea of film, as it catches life as a reflection, life as a dream†. Also, by and by, this is totally obvious. His movies are much over some other film of his time, they are rich with substance, detail and concealed significance much like Beethovens music or Da Vincis compositions, however from our century. He raised the specialty of film to a level which was just accomplished in workmanship like music or writing. Maybe the most observable movies Tarkovsky has ever dealt with are Solaris (1972) and Stalker (1979). Albeit two movies were viewed as an improvement of each other, because of likeness of the issue, the two of them are unfathomably unique regarding setting. While Stalker is connected with interesting film hypothesis, just as socio-authentic occasions in Soviet Union, Solaris draws in with pretty much each and every film hypothesis existent in that specific decade. Contextualizing these two movies will assist the watcher with seeing them from alternate point of view and to comprehend past account meaning. As a rule, most basic sort of setting utilized in Tarkovskys films is autobiographical.ã‚â In each hello there picture he figured out how to incorporate little piece of his own life, some portion of his adolescence. Anyway Solaris appears to have acquired minimal measure of Tarkovskys life account, likely in light of the fact that it was outshone by one dumbfounding authentic occasion entire world was discussing first man in space. Man who did it (Yuri Gagarin) was Russian, what before long had become a gigantic pride for then solid and developing Soviet Union, it likewise exceptionally impacted the topical component of Solaris, in any case, it didnt become the fundamental focal point of the film. Tarkovskys vision was one of a kind, he never attempted to show all the logical realities behind the excursion to space, he concentrated on human soul, which was available in various structures, components, recollections of Earth all through the spaceship. He additionally didnt attempt to depict the individuals of future, it was sufficient for him, that they are still exact same people. Profound space venture was only an image for a similar excursion to the very soul of a man for him. Notwithstanding his contentions with the writer of the book film depended on, Stanislaw Lem, Tarkovsky changed the first content by including a little melancholic grouping of primary character investing some energy in Earth, meandering around his dads â€Å"dacha†, himself, and the camera, in the earliest reference point of the film. This is the place information in movie form hypothesis setting steps in. Just semiotics and psychoanalytical hypotheses can clarify those small subtleties executive appeared in this scene, which, whenever remained all alone, wouldnt bode well. The individuals who didn't understand the significance of hypotheses included were stating that nothing was going on in this Earth scene, yet no, it is life, in its most splendid hues and most flawless structure, that occurred there. With this little and guiltless scene Tarkovsky figured out how to give a type of physical fulfillment of Earths being: sound of downpour, morning voice of flying creatures, livi ng fire, his dads house, brimming with recollections and family photos. Everything that is left unnoticed when it is available, and turns out to be horrendously significant when it is no more. He figured out how to show how lovely and agreeable Earth truly is, contrasted with immense cold universe. Long takes and mis-en-scenes are additionally pushing the image toward authenticity hypothesis, while dreamlike issue of contact with a goliath creating mind, which happens to be the Ocean, makes a compared contextualisation. Recollections, dreams, images, signs, resistances and illustrations they all structure semiotics and psychoanalytical speculations, and they are for the most part prevailing in Tarkovskys pictures. His legends were craftsmen or searchers, just as bastard youngsters, deserted houses, which, in Russian old stories, are against the backwoods (where fallen angels rule), were frequently appeared as focal pictures, mix of components (water, fire, wind and nature) were cons istently present, treatment of light, face reflections, nature sounds, compared pictures and obviously craftsmanship are all Tarkovskian â€Å"signatures†. Every one of these hypotheses are additionally present in Stalker, anyway this film is increasingly well known of having a more extensive scope of socio-true to life and socio-authentic impacts. Before the decade's over picture was made in, time of cutting edge Soviet communism saw its end, thus called stagnation time of Soviet Union had started. Stays of Stalinism were additionally present, trailed by Siberian detainment for specialists who demonstrated their imaginative opportunity to an extreme. The right to speak freely of discourse was additionally missing. To make it more clear, society was apprehensive and had issues with conviction and expectation; these have likewise become issues of Stalker. Be that as it may, for Tarkovsky, the relationship of the person to history is focal. In Stalker, yet in a large portion of his photos, Tarkovsky will in general location our sentiments, instead of incite need to confirm the rationale and validity of the occasions behind the screen. â⠂¬Å"Highly instinctive reactions in the watcher, rather than activating thoughts intended to help a specific demeanor toward society and history† is the thing that moved Tarkovsky in making Stalker. Three heroes: essayist, teacher and stalker all are dependent upon inescapable individual feeling of Soviet history. One of them looks for motivation, another searches for a disclosure, and the last one is looking for trust. Every one of the three are lead into some strange room, situated in the core of purported â€Å"Zone†. The Zone is vigorously monitored, and maybe was named after an atomic hole which occurred in that time of Soviet Unions history. Tarkovsky in his book â€Å"Sculpting In Time† composed: †People have frequently asked me what The Zone is, and what it represents The Zone doesnt represent anything, anything else than everything else does in my movies: the zone is a zone, its life†. This secretive spot is utilized to speak to expectation and conviction for the individuals who look for it. Without conviction, the this room doesn't exist, and the marvel they are searching for is likewise only a vacant space. As a result of this Tarkovsky admirably evades any physical contact with this marvel. None of the three heroes have really observed the secretive room, so they return from their excursion with nothing. This permits a wide range of various implications and understandings to be relegated for The Zone separately in the unpredictability of the executives vision. Maybe it wasnt so significant for Tarkovsky to show how author could discover a motivation or educator would discover a revelation, most p resumably he needed to tell the crowd the best way to represent something you have faith in with everything that is in you. In any event, when each and every shot of his image spoke to sharpness of soviet power and absence of both inventive and creative opportunity, Tarkovsky attempted to restore the expectation, expectation and desires individuals had of Soviet government, which let them down. Despite the fact that to accomplish this the executive utilized components of not all that normal oneiric film hypothesis. In its unique circumstance, all fantasies and fanciful effects in Stalker become connecting with for the watcher. Urged to search for the concealed significance, underneath the story, crowd comprehends the occasions in its own appearance. This oneirism is made by utilizing long following shots and chromatic interpretation, restricted to Eisensteins montage, what is depicted in Tarkovskys book: â€Å"the film picture appears during shooting and exists inside the edge, while altering unites shots which are now loaded up with time†. Furthermore, decelerated dedramatized still shots likewise add to such fanciful state of mind. That is observable in a scene, where each of the three heroes sit in one of the Zones chambers, frustrated by understanding that the spot they were scanning for isn't â€Å"the room where everybodys most genuine want will be grantedâ₠¬ . By utilizing dreams Tarkovsky endeavors to â€Å"reach into our deepest sentiments, to remind us, blending our spirits like a disclosure that is difficult to decipher in a specific way†. Fanciful shots make their own story stalkers changing want to escape from something authoritarian, severe into something different, where there is place for opportunity. Andrei Tarkovsky wasnt the man of science or rationale, he generally attempted to reach through his movies with the crowds deepest sentiments, feelings and soul. Maybe this isnt precisely the path comprehension of certain setting works, since it is increasingly identified with rationale and structure, however attempt to envision how unique would both of these photos look like if there was no histor

A Plane Really free essay sample

The unmistakable Indian transport horn, a blend of a piercing elephant and a trumpet, ambushed my eardrums once more. It was four in the first part of the day and the rainstorm was in full power. I was in a trans-Atlantic flight-initiated haze and would have successfully get this last leg, from Mumbai to Cochin, done. Our transport from the universal to the household terminal was ended by something, and the driver appeared to be irritated by it. As the horn cackled once more, I gradually started to perceive what was obstructing our direction. From between the obscurity and sheets of downpour, listlessly came the type of a†¦ 747. Our small air terminal transport was shouting at a kind sized fly. The fly was not tuning in. Now, I regularly would have begun to seethe over the sat around idly, the inadequacy of air terminal authorities, the craziness of berating a plane to get of a runway for a transport, etc. We will compose a custom article test on A Plane? Truly? or on the other hand any comparable subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page This time, I just reclined and grinned. What achieved this frightening change? I can't refer to a particular â€Å"Aha!† second or an extraordinary occasion. Rather, what I can say is that life in India step by step ground down my overstated feeling of significance and fretfulness. That my sentiment here in America is, at any rate, regarded, caused my inner self to develop only a bit. I am not saying that I turned into a self-enchanted crazy person, however I began to offer my feeling on most everything that crossed my way. True to form, this irritated loved ones. In India, nonetheless, it’s an alternate story. The amazingly enormous measure of suppositions in the world’s biggest popular government makes it very simple for your voice to get lost in the midst of the general racket. This can have an extremely lowering impact. At the point when my supposition got one of a ceaseless stream of conclusions, I started to see the complexity between my claim and everybody else’s realism. For instance, I went with my grandma, my folks, and my auntie and cousins to a neighborhood shopping center to purchase a birthday present for my little cousin. The shopping center was alright, however the washrooms were not the cleanest I had ever observed. I approached the administrator to reveal to him this. By and large, I ought to have acknowledged precisely why my whole family was going to blast out chuckling. Be that as it may, no, I walked up to him and educated him regarding my grievances. â€Å"So get a mop.† That’s it. End of story. Indeed, even my folks were shocked at the curtness of the chief, however that’s life in India. I’m as yet hurting from that blow, however positively. I never believed that my spontaneous conclusions were constantly cherished, yet I never truly imagined that they were that irritating either. This experience didn’t cause that disclosure promptly, yet it planted some uncertainty in my bra in. I started to keep my mouth shut all the more frequently and saw how no one announced that they missed my feelings. This set off a moderate chain of musings about my different propensities, ones that I had never thought of as especially needing change yet could be grinding to other people, particularly my relatives. Thus, while in India, I did whatever it takes not to grumble about the two mile trips that took seventy five percent of an hour or the streets that resembled the outside of the moon. Rather, I at long last discovered best piece of those excursions, their raison d’etre. This permitted me to process the entire experience of living in India, both the incredible and the horrendous.

Decisions, Decisions..

Decisions, Decisions….. Ahh Pi day. Its an important day for nerds worldwide, but its perhaps most important for some future nerds here at MIT (not to be confused with nerds from the future here at MIT). As Im sure you already know, decisions day (D-Day from here on out) is upon us and for the prospective students that means sweaty palms, quickened paces, and anxiety that WebMD cant explain (the likes of which you wont see again until prom) and bandwidth-crippling refreshes of https://decisions.mit.edu/verify.php. If this sounds like you, then you are who Im talking to right now. Theres just one thing you need to do between now and tomorrow: Dont Panic (and remember your towel) You see, MIT is a great many wonderful things, and its the place I love being at the most (a good thing since I spend most of my waking hours here â€" most of my sleeping is done when Im on vacation =] ). It is not however the end-all deciding factor of whether or not youll be happy for the rest of your life though. Somehow I missed that when I was applying so I hope you guys dont. D-day is a day of extremes, lots of people will be ecstatic to get their decision; many more will be disappointed. If you dont get it, dont sweat it. Really. The admissions office is a well-greased machine that is incredibly efficient at figuring out whos gonna be happy to be here or not. Their job is in some ways to look out for you. Theres a certain relationship the two of you have: Admissions knows MIT very well, but you not so much. You know yourself pretty well (at least I hope you do you live with you!), but you dont really know how MIT is. You might think to yourself oh but I know so much about MIT! and that might be true, but you dont know about being at MIT. And thats what Admissions knows about. MIT is hard. Almost anyone knows that, but the way its hard is a bit more transient. Its tough now even to explain, but I distinctly remember my first week real week here I thought, I get it, I know why people wouldnt want to come here. Its not for everyone. So in short, if you dont get in, dont worry. It doesnt mean youre not destined to do great things, nor that youre forced to be unhappy at some other college because youre not good enough. On the contrary, if you dont get in its a good indication that this probably wasnt the best choice for you. From here on out, changes in your life are dramatic and fast. It doesnt seem like two years ago that I was driving home from the bank thinking about what the computer screen would tell me Id do for the next four years of my life. Before you know it, it will be you guys wholl be amazed by how far away just two years ago seems (and Ill be graduatingEEP!). But no matter where you end up going to school, take it by the horns. Carve out a niche for yourself, join clubs, talk to professors, explore and think. Those are the qualities that will make your life as an intellectual enjoyable no matter where you go, and those are the qualities you already haveâ€" just dont forget about them. MIT is a tool you can use for your education, but there many others that can do the job as well. Youre in charge though; its your life. Make something of it. (also feel free to read what I wrote before decisions last year: http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/about_tomorrow.shtml) Good luck, so say we all!

Differences Between Society And Human Body - 1341 Words

Theoretical Theories Tania Garcia Modesto Junior College Sociology has three major theoretical perspectives, which are functional analysis, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory. It is where sociologist will develop some theories to explain why that theory works the way it works. By using these three perspectives sociologists will, â€Å"†¦study social events, interactions, and patterns, and they develop theory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Griffiths et al., 2015, pg. 14). These three perspectives will explain a lot of different aspects of socializing in life, which there are similarities and differences of functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. The first theory is functional analysis, which is in the Macro†¦show more content†¦Also, another structure is social facts, which is the way of thinking and acting formed by the society. Some social facts are laws, values, religion faiths, moral regulations, and social currents. However, functionalism focuses completely on the institutions with little regard of the importance of the individual. It is so focused on maintaining the equilibrium of the society, but with little change it is modeled and has no conflict that can occur, which the structure of the society adapts just enough to find the stability again. The next theory is Conflict Theory, is a way of studying society that focuses on the inequalities of the different groups in the society. Karl Marx believed that a society evolved through several stages and they were feudalism, capitalism, and socialism. This theory is in the Macro level and Karl Marx says he, â€Å"†¦saw society as being made up of individuals in different social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Griffiths et al., 2015, pg. 16). Karl pointed out the continuous competition for power between different classes and society. Social class was a major cause of change in the world of society. According to the Grinnell website, â€Å"He believed that any stage of history based on exploitative economic arrangements generated within itself the seeds of its own destruction†

Itunes Music ( Apple ) Store Entered Into The Music Market

ITunes music (Apple) store entered into the music market in 2003. However, prior to Apple s entry into the digital world of music, the industry was fighting this new wave of music getting released to customers. However, with Apple s release of its iPod digital-media player (2001) and adding the iTunes Store in 2003, they became the gatekeeper of digital downloads. Consequently, they promptly became supreme inside this new swim lane of the music industry. The key player that allow this was the iPod, MP3 players, and Apple s own iTunes software which all interfaced, thus making them one of the industry most popular amongst technology favorites and consumers. However, the music companies did not take too kindly to this, they were at odds†¦show more content†¦Apple used the concept of variable pricing upon their entry into the world of digital music, in their efforts to identify the structure of pricing and to implement pricing strategies which would promote downloadable data. Variable pricing affects the different cost of a merchandise based on the preferences of the manufacturers. While this varies from flat pricing model, where just one fixed price is utilized for those items that are alike. Take the content of purchasing songs, all cost one price and all movies will cost another. Apple captured the music industry with its entry of variable pricing through the iTunes music store. Nevertheless, this pricing tool (variable) was not welcome with open arms by music executives in the industry, but Apple demonstrated its pricing influence in delivering a product and winning over executives as a result of this pricing strategy and that its policy was here to stay. Offering consumers more choices through the use of variable pricing is a great strategy model. Not only can consumers purchase songs they have never purchased through the Apple’s Music Store, Apple also control how they increase the price, which can tremendously affect its revenue. There are articles and reports that have been published on Apple and how they have over 70 percent control of this market base in the United States when it comes to downloading music. Having such a large market sector, as well as providing easy on the go music options to listen to,Show MoreRelatedInnovation in Apple1044 Words   |  5 PagesInnovation in Apple, Inc. Part I: Thinking a technological innovation Apple Inc, is incorporated in 3 January 1977 as a multinational corporation which serves as a manufacturer and designer in the consumer electronics sector. Their focus point is production, marketing and support service of personal computers, computer hardware and software portable mp3 players, portable video players and finally mobile phones with the multimedia function. 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Short Personal Statement by a Geology Student Free Essays

Short Personal Statement by a Geology Student Growing up in Canada with a life-long fascination for Canadian geography, I have always been interested in returning to the country. Although my family moved to the US before I entered high school, I have always kept my eyes turned north, especially in recent years as I began to read journal articles about research conducted on John Evans Glacier, located about 80? N latitude. Graduating next semester with a B. We will write a custom essay sample on Short Personal Statement by a Geology Student or any similar topic only for you Order Now S. in computer science and engineering and a minor in geographic information systems, I am interested in attending the University of Alberta for graduate study. Geographic information systems (GIS) is a field especially suited to investigating spatial patterns, modeling diverse scenarios, and overlaying spatial data. This semester, in my advanced GIS course, Spatial Data Structures and Algorithms, I am part of a team developing a temporal database and program for tracing historical trading data. My computer science skills have also been put to use in two summer internship projects, where I acquired proficiency with using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology, now favored by NASA in its current 10-year study of Greenland and changes in the ice cap extent. Through my coursework and project experience, I have also accrued skills in using Arc/Info, ArcView, Microstation, and RDBMS software packages, and I am equally comfortable programming in Visual Basic, C++, and Java. For my graduate research project, I would like to investigate methods for improving current GIS data models to better incorporate time as a variable in studying climate change. Changes in glaciers and polar environments occur rapidly, and these changes become important indicators of broader, potentially catastrophic, global changes. By developing and applying temporal GIS methods to glaciology, I can contribute to improved spatio-temporal analysis techniques for studying the polar environment and glaciers. Also, I can discern which temporal methods serve as the best predictors and provide benefits to the GIS research community that apply to areas other than glaciology. My long-term goals are to enter the GIS field as a consultant or to extend my research and earn my Ph. D. at a program of international reputation. Having advanced experience with temporal GIS technology would make me a valuable consultant to a company, especially in the twin burgeoning fields of computer science and GIS. In applying to the University of Alberta, I recognize your strengths in both computer science and glaciology, and the recent application of these areas to field research at Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada, is especially appealing to me. With my deep-rooted interest in Canadian geology and recognition of the quality of your university programs, I hope you will give my application every consideration. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Paleontology Student From an early age I was fascinated with fossils. My respect for ancient life has always included an admitted partiality for the study of vertebrates. Upon taking my first college-level paleontology class I knew without a doubt that I had chosen the right path. The study of fossils has never felt like unwarranted labor, but an opportunity to learn about these creatures that lived so long before our time. Throughout my geology coursework my ears have always pricked up at the mention of the word fossil. My college education has been a means to entering the study of vertebrate paleontology. Naturally when the time to choose a thesis project came, I made sure that I would do mine in the field of paleontology, working directly with fossil specimens. My project involves the taphonomy, stratigraphy, and identification of a middle-Ordovician coral bioherm as well as its bryozoan constituents. The research is now well under way, involving many aspects of a sound paleontological study: sampling, analysis, identification, and finalization into a report. Fossiliferous rock samples were acquired from the field, cut at proper orientations, polished, and peel section slides produced from them. My analysis of these slides led to identification of the specimens utilizing the established literature. Fossil specimen photography will soon follow. The abstract from this research project has been submitted in time for the Northeastern Section Meeting of the Geological Society of America in March. From this project I will take away an understanding of how to conduct a proper paleontological study and I will write a thesis. My aspirations for study in vertebrate paleontology are primarily in understanding what fossil specimens can tell us about how ancient vertebrates lived, interacted with their environment, and evolved through time. More specifically, my research interests within the field include employing morphology in the phylogenetic analysis of major evolutionary bifurcations such as that involving theropods and birds, exploiting biogeography to better understand vertebrate expansion and speciation, and the use of functional morphology and biomechanics to understand vertebrate movement. My long-term goals are to educate others and spur interest in vertebrate paleontology while conducting research. The position of professor would encompass these goals as well as allow me to publish and maintain a successful presence in the field. The program at the University of Chicago would prepare me extremely well for what I ultimately intend to do in life. The works of professors within the Division of Biological Sciences, the Department of Geophysical Sciences, as well as the Field Museum are impressive. I appreciated meeting Dr. Paul C. Sereno during his visit at Mythic University in December 2004, and I find his approach toward exploration and his application of cladistics in phylogenetic studies indispensable to the field of vertebrate paleontological study. From this correspondence I feel the research that I would conduct at the university would not only be interesting and rewarding, but give me experience in the field to then apply toward my ultimate goal of becoming an academic professor. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Internship Application Essay by a Geography Student Prior to coming to Mythic College, I had a very skewed view of what geography was. When I thought about geography, visions of memorizing all fifty state capitals and exercises of filling in the world map came to mind. Freshman year, I enrolled in Geography 20 (human geography) simply because it was the only honors class that fit in my schedule. Instead of being bored, I was stimulated to think of the world through a different focus, through the lens of a geographer: to view people and places and examine how each relates to the other. Suddenly, I was thinking of everything in this fashion. When walking to class, I would ponder why the paths were designed the way they were and how this affected the different flows of traffic. I found that geography addresses my varied academic interests well. It offers me a balance of physical, social, and cultural studies. Therefore, it was a natural progression for me to pursue geography as a major. Throughout my geography experience at Mythic College, I have gained skill in Geographic Information Sciences, which has given me great insight in many fields. For one, I obtained a greater understanding of how the US Census is calculated and this enabled me to be a more informed enumerator. Now, I find myself completely captivated by the various elements of geography and how they all are interwoven in a nexus of relations with historical, economic, physical, social, and cultural nodes. For my Honors Thesis next year, I will be exploring the Rothschild family to see how they fit within these various geographic realms. I am fascinated by how this family began as foreigners and within a few years was able to build a banking empire and become leaders in the economic world. As part of my thesis research, I intend to travel to the various cities where they lived and make observations on both economic and social grounds. After I complete my undergraduate education in geography, I hope to work for an organization that incorporates geographical education and exploration. I hope to be able to write articles and essays that would be used to increase geographical awareness as well as educate people about lesser-known cultures in the world. I also intend on participating in the Peace Corps and speculate about earning a law degree. I wish to participate in the Geography Intern Program with the National Geographic Society because, in short, it would be the fulfillment of my dream. It would enable me to work in an environment with people who share similar interests, providing me with an opportunity to contribute to a product that reaches a broad audience of people who subscribe to the magazine, visit Explorer’s Hall, or glance through a National Geographic book. It would provide me with the practical experience that would aid me tremendously in pursuing my future goals, and reveal paths I might otherwise never discover. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Fellowships Application Essay by a Materials Science Student As a master’s student, I am currently working in the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) in the Ferroelectrics group spearheaded by Dr. John Teacher. In my research group, we are attempting to design microwave-active materials to facilitate the procurement of a low-powered miniaturized solid-state antenna. I am personally interested in what role highly polarizable ions in the prototypical Perovskite-type crystal structures can play in tunable microwave antennas. Barium Strontium Titanium Oxide (BSTO) in tandem with non-electrical oxides has recently been used in phase array antennas. The addition of non-electrical oxides, for example, magnesium oxide (MgO), has improved the tunability and adjustable electrical properties of the BSTO over wider ranges, as well as improved the impedance matching of the antenna/air interface. Empirical studies suggest that doping BSTO with MgO lowers the impedance by lowering the permittivity of the composite, in turn lowering the insertion losses over appreciable ranges of microwave frequencies. With the aid of the materials science graduate fellowship, I would like to develop this technology and apply it to the miniaturization of solid-state lowpowered antennas in my Ph. D. graduate study. In my previous work experience at the Space and Naval Warfare System Centers San Diego (SSC-SD), I worked side by side with engineers to design innovative communication devices for the Navy. In particular, requirements relating to interoperability, transmission security, and multifunctionality were approached in several ways as teams brainstormed concepts. Based on this experience, my interest in telecommunications and data transmission, coupled with my background in engineering, will provide me with the tools necessary to address tomorrow’s communications issues. Mythic University is a strong research institution with talented faculty and state-of-the-art facilities. My familiarity with Mythic University’s faculty and facilities allows me to avoid many of the pitfalls commonly associated with getting a Ph. D. My current lab and the Department of Electrical Engineering have several professors who have overlapping interests, with graduate students often using equipment in both labs freely. This is exactly the type of environment where I can easily merge the two disciplines. In the long run, I want to be as versed in electrical engineering as I am in materials science so that I can contribute to a research and manufacturing facility in the areas of communication and related fields. This desire comes with precedence: I can remember junior year attending one of my first major ourses taught by my current mentor, where he suggested that a ceramist should also be versed in electrical engineering in order to be effective. The seeds planted then are now ready to bloom. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Student Applying to the Teach for America Program Why do you seek to join Teach For America? One of the principles of my religion, The Baha’i Faith, is service. Therefore, after high school and before I started college, I traveled to Ecuador to do a year of service through the Baha’i Faith. Through this experience, when I entered college I felt a few years older than the average freshman because I had gained a great deal of the knowledge, life experience, ability to deal with difficult situations, and the ability to live alone in another country. I owe much of my success in college to that year of my life. Now that my undergraduate education is coming to a close, I explored the idea of going to another country again. Then I realized how much service was also needed in the United States. I realized that I could use my skills of a second language, Spanish, my teaching experience, my love for math and science, and my drive to serve and make a difference right here in my own country. Skills are only of benefit if you put them to use to help all of humanity. I would love to join Teach For America to put into practice my skills and help to motivate and inspire the same thirst for knowledge that was instilled in me through my parents from the time I was born. What would make you an effective corps member? I strongly believe that one of the most important elements for the academic success of any child comes directly from the involvement and enthusiasm of the parents. In San Joaquin, Ecuador, I taught Virtues Classes at a school of all boys from grades kindergarten through 7th grade for 9 months. During this time I not only had to learn a completely new language, but I also had to use it to teach coherently in a short period of time. As part of my work, my teaching partner and I developed a program for the parents of the children in our classes. We invited all the parents to learn about the principles we were teaching their children such as honesty, generosity, justice, and kindness. I gained a great deal of experience dealing with uninvolved or upset parents. Based on these experiences, I believe I would be most useful in an area with a high Latino population because of my ability to communicate directly with the parents in either English or Spanish. I am a very outgoing and self-motivated person and have no trouble stepping into difficult situations to help mediate them. I believe that we need to give children of every race, cultural, and socioeconomic background the opportunity to grow up with an education. I promote the need to value education and put energy into making it fun. I welcome the opportunity to facilitate a positive learning environment and communicate with students and parents in two languages. As I graduate college, the best way for me to put into practice the principles that I uphold is to serve as a teacher in the Teach for America program. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Neuroscience Student—2 pages Personal Statement Janet Lerner I sat in Dr. Wiley’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh, poring over files of records about HIVinfected human brains from which we had tissue samples. I had just learned how to read the autopsy reports, looking for key words and descriptive phrases the doctors had written that might disqualify the samples as potential candidates for our study. We were looking for HIV-positive human brain tissue samples that either had been diagnosed as having HIV encephalitis or not having encephalitis (to be used as a control). My objective was to find samples that had HIV encephalitis, but no other complicating disorders such as cytomegalovirus, bacterial infection, or meningitis. This was a more difficult task than one would perceive because the HIV infection often leads to the development of opportunistic infections that would not normally be of concern in patients without HIV. As I sifted through one manila folder after another, entering data into an Excel spreadsheet, I became aware of the fact that many of the brains we had were from patients who were only a few years older than I. I was twenty years old at the time, and after having to epeatedly enter â€Å"19† or â€Å"23† into the Age column, I began to realize that AIDS had literally taken these peoples’ lives. I could not even imagine what it would be like to be 17 years old knowing that I had a fatal disease. They would never be able to have the career of their dreams, go on a trip to Italy, or graduate from college. Life wa s taken from them before they fully experienced it. The above summer internship inspired me to want to help people with fatal diseases such as AIDS. More specifically, I knew I wanted to conduct research on the molecular basis of disease. One of the projects I worked on during that summer was developing a diagnostic procedure for HIV encephalitis using PK11195, a ligand for the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor present on the mitochondria of macrophages. The fundamental design of the experiment and its applicability to human disease left me intrigued. From then on, I wanted to attend graduate school so I could have the opportunity to better peoples’ lives through research as a biomedical scientist. After consideration, I realized that I am interested in taking more than one approach to answer scientific questions. Many fields of science interest me, including immunology, biochemistry, genetics, and pathology. I have always been extremely fascinated by the nervous system and its vital link to human disease. Having had three research experiences as an undergraduate, I feel prepared and excited to begin my path of research and study. Thus, I am applying to the Graduate Training Program in Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania because it is an interdisciplinary program that would allow me to serve people through biomedical research and help me achieve my goals. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ page 2 Penn’s graduate program in neuroscience is one of the most prestigious in the world. As the home to many of the greatest researchers in the field, Penn’s educational opportunities would meet my greatest expectations. The research done by Dr. Robert Doms, who is currently investigating the cellular biology of membrane proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis, is of particular interest to me. My experiences using molecular biological techniques to study intracellular protein localization make his approach very appealing. I am specifically interested in studying the ? -secretase complex and its effects on the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Dr. Doms’ research has the potential to help millions of people with Alzheimer’s disease, and I would welcome the opportunity to work with him. Beyond my desire to attend Penn for academic reasons, Penn also appeals to me on a personal level. After spending four years in the rural setting of Mythic College, I am ready to live in a new, urban setting. Living in Philadelphia would be perfect for me because it would allow me to experience life in a major city while still in reach of my family’s home in Reading. I would be very excited to be surrounded by the academically and culturally rich environment at UPenn, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Student in Medieval Literature—2 pages Medieval literature is a passion that has enveloped me since I read Chretien de Troyes’ Lancelot during my freshman year. In this Arthurian romance, Chretien represents Lancelot as conflicted—a chivalrous knight whom one expects to find only in myth, yet in violation of the code of honor, desirous of his lord’s queen. I began thinking of the tales of the Arthurian knights as more than legendary—as potentially credible historical accounts. Soon, I wrote a paper on Gawain’s rhetoric as a means to elicit specific responses in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Gawain’s rhetorical strategies and their manipulations ultimately lead him to a deeper personal recognition and self-acceptance. This early exercise alerted me to the pleasures of working with languages of the Middle Ages. My academic interest in Celtic Studies was piqued when I learned of Ogam stones in my Literature in the Natural World class. Ogam is not a spoken language, rather, a code of inscriptions that gave the Irish language an alphabet and supplied the Irish people with a means of writing on stone, wood, and other natural elements with relative ease. Ogam is also found in many manuscripts, where it is both written and read in a manner different from that employed when it is found on stones. As an aspiring academic in Medieval Literature, I recognize that knowledge of the literature of medieval cultures is vitally important. Irish literature, including Ogam inscriptions and manuscripts, is therefore essential to a medieval scholar. The Frenchman Gregory of Tours said of the humanities in medieval Europe, â€Å"Culture and education are dying out in every city in Gaul . . . People often complain ‘Alas for our times, literacy is dying among us. † While Gregory’s testimony may have been true for much of Europe, where culture floundered in the midst of war, he neglected to speak of Ireland, the country where literature and language flourished during this era and later became known as the â€Å"Land of Saints and Scholars. † Three of the most impressive medieval manuscripts were created in Ireland: The Gospel s of St. Willibrord, which is on display in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, The Book of Kells, and The Book of Durrow, both of which are displayed in Trinity University’s Library. Last May I had the pleasure of meeting with Professor Damian McManus, head of Trinity University’s School of Irish, who presented me with a copy of his book A Guide to Ogam. I met with him to discuss the graduate opportunities available in Old and Middle Irish Language and Literature at Trinity University. Dr. McManus has many research initiatives, although these are open only to students who have previously worked with Early Irish studies. During our meeting, he suggested that I first conduct my studies with Dr. Kim McCone at the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, and then return to Trinity where I can further pursue a research degree under his guidance. After obtaining the necessary fundamentals of Old and Middle Irish language, I will be better equipped to study Ogam stones and to read the inscriptions, which would enable me to study another field of academia: epigraphy. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ 2 The National University of Ireland at Maynooth provides the opportunity to create one’s own program. This would best prepare me for future graduate research in Ogam stones and would allow me to enhance my knowledge of medieval writings by including both Irish literature and the English, French, and Latin literature that compose much of the western medieval canon. Professor McCone, whom Dr. McManus regards as one of the â€Å"finest scholars in the field of Early Irish,† is the head of NUI Maynooth’s Department of Old and Middle Irish, and personally helps international students to construct a program to suit their needs during their study in Ireland. In order to prepare myself for Ogam studies with Dr. McManus, I plan to complete a oneyear program of study leading to an M. A. in Old and Middle Irish Studies, which would consist of the standard canon of Medieval Irish Literature, Old and Middle Irish language, and a class devoted to the women of Medieval Ireland. This class specifically catches my interest because a study of medieval women is integral to a full understanding of the Middle Ages, as many Irish scholars were monks, living in monastic settlements such as Clonmacnois and Glendalough, where women were forbidden. That NUI Maynooth offers a class devoted to medieval women— often prohibited from studying at these monastic centers of education—exhibits the department’s intent in providing students with a balanced history of Ireland’s Middle Ages. There is no doubt that Ireland’s wealth of medieval literature boasts women writers comparable to Marie de France, whose â€Å"Lanval† was the first piece of medieval literature written by a woman that I studied. While attending university in Maynooth and learning the early Irish language, I would also have the invaluable opportunity of learning from my distant cousin, who resides in Maynooth. She has taught modern Irish in schools for years and would tutor me in modern Irish language while I study Old and Middle Irish with Dr. McCone. This unique prospect would allow me to study the development of Irish from its beginnings to its modern form, a development which I am currently studying in an Honors English seminar on the history of the English language. Because I am now tracing the development of English, I will already have many of the skills necessary to study the evolution of the Irish language. Clearly the journey of a young scholar is more complete with an understanding of other cultures, specifically those relevant to the student’s chosen field of study. I look forward, therefore, to studying the ancient, medieval, and modern ideas and languages of Ireland in situ. Is d’Eirinn me. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Student in Education Seeking a Scholarship—2 pages Beinecke Scholarship Personal Essay by Janet Lerner Passion drips from the lips of the preacher at the pulpit. Passion shakes on the shoulders of the general during war. Passion clings to the moist brow of the attorney during a heated courtroom debate. The passions of others, like lawyer and activist Thurgood Marshall, have opened doors for me as an African-American woman. I am grateful for Marshall’s work over 50 years after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, which pushed racial integration in schools and defended the concept that â€Å"separate was inherently unequal. † The devotion of others has inspired and humbled me, and it is with this same passion that I honor education and service to others today. My passion for education is steeped in the notion that I believe it literally saved my life in the form of opportunities that took me out of an unsafe environment. Growing up on the south side of Chicago in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods was difficult, and I understand now it could have been much worse. Gangs had a wealth of power, drugs permeated the streets, and young girls were cautioned to watch for â€Å"Stranger Danger. † I could not play outside, so instead I read. I made friends with Alice in Wonderland, or Huck on the Mississippi, Pip in England, and John Steptoe’s â€Å"Black Cinderella†Ã¢â‚¬â€Nyasha in Zimbabwe. My mother, seeing the passion for knowledge in me as a young child, enrolled me in a magnet elementary school on the other side of Chicago, to which I would ride the bus for two hours a day. There I flourished and soon I was recruited to test for entrance into the Pre-International Baccalaureate Program, a curriculum that prepared gifted and talented students for the International Baccalaureate Program in high school. I had been given an opportunity to pursue a high quality education in a public school, a chance some African-Americans, in their devotion, had died for to guarantee. The passion I have to serve others has its roots in my high school experience, during which I noticed some pivotal points of interest. At my high school, African-American students composed a small percentage of those placed in gifted education, with most students being labeled â€Å"regular education students,† who were poor pupils from the area’s housing projects. They had fewer resources and opportunities to pursue college preparatory work when compared to their white or wealthier counterparts, and it was no secret that the â€Å"regular† kids were at the bottom of the totem pole. It became clear to e as I listened to others berate them that they were not expected to go on to college. As an African-American student in a gifted program, I had access to a wealth of resources. I felt angered that my peers were excluded from the smorgasbord of knowledge, which many others were encouraged to partake in freely. It was the first time I was mature enough to see the ine quities of education, my prized and valued yellow brick road. Passion to enact change welled in my stomach and stayed there. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. du/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ 2 As a beginning college student at rural Mythic University I continued to experience injustice. Professors seemed surprised at my academic abilities, students questioned my worth by muttering â€Å"affirmative action† under their breaths, and white people openly stared at my brown skin on the street. My passion for change had no choice but to evolve into action. I joined professional organizations like the College of Education Student Council to voice my concerns, and I formed a new organization, the Multicultural Education Student Association, when they were not addressed. Through this organization I was able to form support groups with other students and mentor first-year students of color in the college. As my education progressed, I decided to fight injustice intellectually in the study of the politics, economics, and sociology of education, which revealed the reasons why and how disparities occurred in education and society. In my senior year, I will explore these disparities in my honors thesis research, which focuses on the ability of students of color and low socioeconomic backgrounds to transition from community college to four-year institutions. Researchbased evidence is a powerful tool to enact change, and I look forward to gathering this evidence during an upcoming summer internship, during which I will interview students of color about their experiences. Currently I challenge myself socially by removing myself from comfort zones. An example of such is my study abroad experience to occur in the fall semester, 20xx. I have committed to completing my student teaching requirement at Bognor-Regis University, on the southern coast of England, amidst a culture of people I have never been exposed to, thousands of miles from home. Despite some admitted nervousness over the challenge of this experience, my passion for success drives me to overcome any obstacle and achieve success in every area I venture. My graduate school experience will be used to seek out knowledge (for which my thirst can never be quenched) and for research. My research interests include studying factors that affect equal access to educational resources for students of color in grades K-12 and equality of student access to higher education. These interests will guide the creation of projects that will lead to real-life applications. I will also pursue a master’s degree, then a doctorate in Public Policy with a concentration in education and urban planning. My long-term goal of becoming a policy analyst for the government’s Department of Education would give me the opportunity to help develop effective public policy in these areas of interest. W. E. B. Dubois said that a â€Å"talented tenth† of educated African-Americans could go forth to enact social change for the oppressed. I believe I am a living example of Dubois’ passionfilled dream. My passion has given me the power to propel that social change in an often unjust society. For all of those denied opportunity I want many more to receive it. If awarded the Beinecke Scholarship I would use this support to explore, research, and contribute treasures to the field, valuable not only for their intellectual depth, but also because of their social implications for a better society and America. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by a Student Applying for Online Education—2 pages In my work as an Air Force pilot during the seven years since graduating college, I’ve continually found ways to show how the tools of a professional geographer can be used to help my organization do its job better. My experiences in combat since the fall of 20xx have only reinforced this assertion. A revolution, driven by information, is underway in war fighting. The ability to collect and analyze information is as important to today’s soldier as mass and maneuver was to Clauswitz. Battlespace situational awareness and the subsequent ability to shape the battlespace is an intrinsically geographic problem. During WW I, observers in hot air balloons and biplanes handsketched the location of enemy emplacements. That ‘eye-in-the-sky’ evolved into modern satellite imagery and signals intelligence. Historically, the wealth of collected data has been diminished by the time and expertise necessary to analyze it and the organizational stovepipes through which it was disseminated. In contrast, Operation Enduring Freedom saw the first use of real-time sensor-to-shooter links over the mountains of Afghanistan. Unmanned USAF Predator aircraft, hosting a suite of multispectral sensors, were deployed to loiter over and survey areas of enemy activity. Decisionmakers and front-line operators used those dynamic images to swiftly identify and attack the enemy. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), for the first time, deployed personnel to front-line units. NGA teams’ know-how and communication suites allowed combat commanders to reach back and exploit all of the agency’s spatial data and technical expertise. Commenting on this theme in NGA’s Pathfinder magazine, Major General Roger Over states, â€Å"That’s exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t know that until you showed me. † As a geographer, I understand that our community views problem-solving through a unique lens. GIS gives the professional geographer powerful tools to collect, analyze, and exploit spatial information. Unfortunately, many leaders and decision-makers are unaware of the speed and flexibility the geographer can bring to problem solving. I’ve served as an Air Force pilot for the past six years and have logged several hundred combat hours during operations in Southwest Asia. I’ve experienced first-hand the power of well-applied spatial data in battle. During mission planning for a flight to a hostile dirt landing zone in southern Afghanistan, I used NIMA’s computerized fly-by products to familiarize my crew with the area. Squadron tacticians merged our planned route and altitudes with images based on DTED and satellite data. These images gave me the invaluable experience of, virtually, having been there before. Later in the same mission, adverse weather blocked our planned route of flight. Using his onboard laptop, my navigator overlaid the day’s air coordination plan depicting air refueling tracks and combat ‘kill-boxes’ with a tactical chart of the area. We safely avoided those danger zones and successfully completed the mission. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ My expertise in flying, particularly airlift operations, puts me in a position to appreciate both the support our mission receives from geographers today and to envision the possibilities that exist through technical advances and more flexible organizational collaboration. I think that the most significant roadblocks to realizing these possibilities are fiscal constraints and ignorance within my own profession al community about what the professional geographer brings to the fight. Personally, I can do little to affect Congressional funding. However, my military experience, wedded with a more advanced background in GIS, would help me to bridge the military and geospatial communities. GIS and the geographers’ approach to problem solving promises decision makers, at all levels, unprecedented situational awareness across any layer of the battlespace. I don’t expect the military to begin training squadrons of GIS wizards. However, it’s become increasingly important that a broader cross-section of people within our force understands how individual pieces of the puzzle can benefit from the geographer’s tools. That message can be delivered through cooperation among agencies like the Air Force’s Air University, the Air Mobility Warfare Center, the NGA, and Mythic University’s e-Education Institute. I imagine a ‘geoinfo-awareness’ course for officers attending Army Command and General Staff college or the Air Force Weapons Instructor school, proctored by a capabilities expert from NGA, and hosted on-line by our own geography department. The on-line format would allow an infinitely customizable curriculum outlaying the power of filtering information and solving problems within a spatial context. Moreover, the on-line forum, unconstrained by classroom space or time zones, would both enable and encourage professional collaboration across the military’s often rigid organizational and functional lines. That kind of collaboration, linked with an awareness of capabilities, yields success when the ever-changing demands of conflict require innovative solutions. I’ve articulated my professional motivation and logic for pursuing an on-line MGIS degree through Mythic University’s innovative program. More personally, I’m excited to find this opportunity to become a more expert geographer while continuing my active duty military service. My experience as an Air Force pilot has been both enriching and adventurous, but I miss the intellectual challenges I faced as an undergrad. I see unlimited opportunities to put my professional experience and academic interest to good use, and the MGIS program promises a means to do so. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ Short Personal Statement by an Engineer Applying to a Master’s Program—2 pages As General Manager, I am currently the head of safety and health for a multi-national industrial minerals mining company. A tour of a meat packaging plant as a teenager, and the many hazards that required control within that environment, solidified my decision to become a safety and health professional. During that tour, I witnessed workers using large knives while preparing the meat for packing, unguarded rotating machinery, the cattle being euthanized with loud bolt guns, and was shown pictures of worker injuries by the safety and health manager. Motivated by that early experience, I have remained strongly committed to this profession for years and I derive great satisfaction from facilitating improvement within the construction, industrial, and mining environments and protecting miners. Seven years after graduating from the Safety Engineering Technology program at Mythic College, a member of Polytechnics Canada, I began the process of becoming a Certified Safety Professional. This endeavor involved a two-year concerted effort of balancing study and work. During late 20xx, I earned the Certified Safety Professional designation from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Since then, I have maintained my designation through earning sufficient continuance of certification points by attending and presenting at national professional conferences, such as those sponsored by the Society for Mining and Metallurgical Engineering and the American Industrial Hygiene Association. Evidence of my ability to solve problems and think â€Å"outside the box† may be found in my initiation of formal research projects with engineers and scientists from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). During 20xx, I initiated a seven-year research project with NIOSH which culminated in the development of a quick, safe, and effective technology that allows workers at mineral processing operations to clean their dustsoiled clothing periodically throughout the workday. A former Bureau of Mines report documented a 10-fold increase in worker dust exposure on a number of separate occasions from dusty work clothes. This technology, referred to as the â€Å"clothes cleaning booth,† can significantly reduce worker exposure to dust and is gaining traction within the mining and industrial industries. Since 20xx I have also initiated NIOSH studies involving ergonomic interventions and Age Awareness Training. The objective of the Age Awareness Traini ng is to increase worker awareness regarding physical and mental changes associated with the aging process – the more aware workers are of these changes, the better equipped they are to avoid injury and illness. Most recently, I have initiated a project with NIOSH with the objective of merging real-time aerosol monitor data with web cam videos for the development of state of the art training materials. My intent is for the training materials to visually quantify how small changes in work practices can significantly impact personal exposure levels to dust. The objective of this research and development project is to lower worker exposures to respirable dust. 1 Cecala, A. B. E. D. Thimons. Impact of Background Sources on Dust Exposure of Bag Machine Operator. BuMines IC 9089, 1986, 10 pp. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ 2 During my career as a safety professional, I have gained extensive experience evaluating personal workplace exposures to potential toxic materials, to include development of control measures as needed. The potential toxins I have evaluated and controlled have included quartz, cristobalite, asbestos, diesel particulate matter, welding fumes, and radiation. Other physical hazards I have often evaluated and controlled include noise, heat, cold, and illumination. I have also managed an extensive occupational health program for approximately 3,000 miners as well as developed and managed a robust internet-based safety and health data management program which is used on a daily basis by our mining operations globally. I am a strong believer in continuous improvement, both within the working environment and professionally. My professional development converts irectly into improvement of the working environment which translates directly into safer and healthier miners. Attaining a Master of Science degree in Industrial Hygiene from Montana Tech is the next step in my professional development process. My two primary reasons for continuing to advance my professional development are (a) to prepare myself to become a Certified Industrial Hygienist, and (b) to improve my ability to quickly and effectively identify and control hazards. Achieving an MS in Industrial Hygiene from Montana Tech would most certainly derive benefit for me and the workers I endeavor to protect. If admitted, as I have effectively demonstrated in attaining my Certified Safety Professional designation, I would successfully balance work and studies and eventually become a graduate Montana Tech would be proud to call one of its own. These pages were downloaded from Writing Personal Statements Online, available at https://www. e-education. psu. edu/writingpersonalstatementsonline/ How to cite Short Personal Statement by a Geology Student, Essay examples

Philosophy - Animals Are Our Friends free essay sample

There is no clear consensus about animals as friends. Animals can be our friends: They fit into the definitions of being friends: We share genuine bonds. We care for, trust and help each other. We don’t treat each other as tools. There is a shared bond between animals and us – we share weal and woes – celebrating joy and going through difficulties as one. Furthermore, â€Å"A dog is a man’s best friend. † We care and look out for each other – Trained animals for handicapped individuals assist their masters, whereas their masters will provide them with love and care. Both help each other, like friends do. There is mutual trust regardless of circumstances. We do not take animals as tools since they are our friends – we see arguments for vegetarianism on the unacceptability of eating animals, our friends. Animals may not be our friends: This is because human control over animals is extensive (like when their pets eat, exercise, etc. We will write a custom essay sample on Philosophy Animals Are Our Friends? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ) It will then become guardianship instead of friendship. Therefore, we are labeled as â€Å"pets† and â€Å"owner† and not â€Å"friends†. Humans also treat animals as tools for mutual benefits. Some animals are taken as sources of food and materials, some for experimental purposes. For instance, many people eat meat of the animals and use their outer coverings. This is not the way we treat our friends. There are limits to our friendship with animals. We may not be able to communicate with them as they do not speak in the same way human beings do. This might affect the relationship between humans and animals. Thus, there might not be virtue friendship between humans and animals.

Adult Scoliosis Research Paper Example

Adult Scoliosis Research Paper Example Adult Scoliosis Paper Adult Scoliosis Paper Introduction All spines have curves, but the spine develops curves in the wrong direction sideways. It is natural for the spine to curve forward and backward to a certain degree; giving the spine an S-like shape. When a persons spine twists to develop an S-shaped side-to-side curve, then this condition is known as scoliosis. A 14th century woman who suffered from scoliosis, Limburgs Museum Venlo A scoliosis curve can occur in different areas of the spine. The abnormal curve can occur in the thoracic spine, the lumbar spine, or both areas at the same time. The curves can range from10 degrees to more than 100 degrees. The degree of curvature from the normal is a measure of the severity of scoliosis is. It helps the surgeon decide what treatment to be given. Curves less than 40 degrees will be treated without while curves above this amount might require a surgery. Diagnosis Scoliosis if suspected in an adult, appropriate treatment plan can be developed after a thorough diagnosis. History To make a proper diagnosis and rule out other possible conditions, history of patient is taken in the first step. Family History Scoliosis tends to have a genetic cause. The doctor want to know if anyone else in your family has scoliosis. Date of Onset – Time when first noticed the appearance of your spinal condition. Measured Curve Progression This is be measured by comparing new X-rays with old ones, measuring the rib hump, or changes in height. Presence or Absence of Pain If there is pain, doctor needs to know where and what brings on or induces the pain, and if there is any pain that radiates away from the spine, it usually comes from irritation of the nerves as they leave from the spine. Bowel or Bladder Dysfunction If you are having problems when you urinate or have a bowel movement it could signal the presence of serious nerve damage. Physical Exam A physical examination is performed. During the exam, the spine specialist will try get an understanding of the curve in your back and how it is affecting you. The provider will measure the size of the rib hump deformity and the flexibility you have bending in certain directions. Finally, your nerves will be tested by: checking your sensation, your reflexes, and the strength of your muscles. Additional Tests Usually, after the examination, X-rays will be ordered that allow the provider to see the structure of the spine and measure the curve. With scoliosis the following images may be taken: Front view, Lateral view and Lateral bend and Traction films Depending on the outcome of your history, physical examination and initial X-rays, other tests may be taken to look at specific aspects of the spine. The most common tests that are ordered are: the MRI scan to look at the nerves and spinal cord; the CAT scan to get a better picture of the vertebral bones; and special nerve tests to determine if any nerves are being irritated or pinched. Treatment for Adult Scoliosis Adult scoliosis has a variety of treatment options. The first choice of treatment for adult scoliosis is always going to be conservative. Spinal surgery will always be the last choice of treatment due to the risks involved. Conservative treatment that is commonly recommended includes: medications, exercise, and certain types of braces to support the spine. Physical Therapy Exercise and Physical therapy is an important part of treating adult scoliosis. A well-designed exercise program can also provide pain relief in many patients. A physical therapist will develop an appropriate exercise routine for your case. It is essential that you stick to the plan. Surgery Surgery for adult scoliosis carries relatively high risks. For this reason, surgery is only recommended when the risks are far outweighed by the expected benefits. Surgery will not be recommended for most cases of scoliosis, particularly in curves of less than 40 degrees. Surgery may be recommended in the following situations: * Pain The most common reason for surgery is pain relief for increasing, chronic discomfort. About 85 percent of adult scoliosis surgeries are done to relieve severe pain. * Progression of Curve Progression of the scoliosis deformity is another reason for considering surgery. If the curvature continues to worsen, and it gets beyond 40 to 45 degrees, surgery may be suggested. * Cosmetics In most cases of scoliosis, surgery will not be recommended simply for the sake of appearances. However, in some cases, the scoliosis causes physical deformity that is unbearable to the patient. Possible Complications/Problems with Surgery. There is a risk of complications with any surgery. When surgery is done near the spine and spinal cord these complications if they occur can be very serious. Complications could involve subsequent pain and impairment and the need for additional surgery. Doctor can evaluate your condition and inform you of the risks of any medical treatment he or she may recommend. In addition, the surgical treatment of adult scoliosis may result in two special complications: Flat-back Deformity The lumbar (lower) spine naturally has a C-shaped curve called lordosis. When the vertebrae in the lumbar spine are fused together, this lordosis curve may be lost, leaving the patient with a flat-back deformity. However, the loss of curve may not appear right after surgery. In fact, if the surgery it is done in a young person, the loss of lordosis may not appear until sometime between the ages of 30 to 50. Pseudoarthrosis The term pseudoarthrosis means false joint. A surgeon uses this term to describe either a fractured bone that has not healed or an attempted fusion that has not been successful. A pseudoarthrosis usually means that there is motion between the two bones that should be healed, or fused, together. When the vertebrae involved in a surgical fusion do not heal and fuse together, there is usually continued pain. The pain may increase over time. The spinal motion can also stress the metal hardware used to hold the fusion. The screws and rods may break, leading to an increase in pain. A pseudoarthrosis may require more surgery to try to get the bones to heal. Surgeons may add more bone graft, replace the metal hardware, or add an electrical stimulator to try to get the fusion to heal. Conclusion Journal of the American Medical Association (2003) published a 50-year follow-up study in the lifelong physical health, including cardiopulmonary and neurological functions and mental health of idiopathic scoliosis patients are comparable to those of the general population. Larger curves carry a higher risk of progression than smaller curves, and thoracic and double primary curves carry a higher risk of progression than single lumbar or thoracolumbar curves. In addition, patients not having yet reached skeletal maturity have a higher likelihood of progression. Females have a greater risk of progression. References 1. Adult Scoliosis | University of Maryland Medical centre http://umm. edu/programs/spine/health/guides/adult-scoliosis#ixzz2eJF7wEMP 2. Weiss HR, Scoliosis-related pain in adults: Treatment influences, European Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 3/3 (1993): 91–94. 3. Scoliosis Research Society website Prepared and submitted to FRS Training Centre by Biju John Tutor: Anita Greene.

7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage

7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage 7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage 7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage By Mark Nichol How do you make sure you’re writing right? Crafting prose is mostly a matter of using the right words for the job. Here are some steps to help you achieve that goal. 1. Look up the definition of an unfamiliar word and be sure you understand the meaning before you use it. It’s easy to deploy a word you’ve just read or heard, mistakenly believing you understand its definition or its connotation, only to confuse or accidentally mislead your readers. Always double-check a term you’ve never used before. (Consider doing the same with words you’ve used before and think you know.) 2. Search a thesaurus or a synonym finder for the precise meaning, taking care to notice the different connotations of similar words. Flag stock words and phrases, and thumb or click through a print or online resource to select a more exact or accurate synonym. But be alert to seemingly similar words with distinct senses. 3. Keep your writing clear and coherent, and avoid pretentious or overly formal language. Write to communicate, not to impress. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Don’t dumb down, but don’t let your writing get in the way of your message. There’s a fine line between elegance and pomposity. 4. Select the strongest nouns and verbs before you select adjectives and adverbs. Words that modify nouns and verbs can enhance clarity of thought and vividness of imagery, but if they upstage the words they’re supposed to support, strengthen the actor and action words. When you do so, an adjective or adverb may no longer be necessary. 5. Seek opportunities to use repetition for rhetorical effect while, at the same time, you watch for careless redundancy. Take care that you don’t repeat yourself unless you do so to emphasize your point. 6. Read your draft aloud to help you refine grammar and usage. If something doesn’t sound right to you, it probably doesn’t read right to your audience, either. Recitation of your writing is time consuming, but that’s how you find the awkward wording or phrasing you didn’t stumble over in your silent review. 7. Ask someone else to read your writing and critique it. People you draft to read your draft need not offer solutions to problems of grammar, usage, organization, and logic; they can simply highlight problematic words, phrases, sentences, and passages, and offer more detail if necessary while leaving the problem solving to you. This last step isn’t practical for every writing task or assignment, but if a piece of prose is important enough to you, and you have a reliable, word-savvy person on hand, ask to borrow their eyes and the brain attached to them. (You, of course, will reciprocate when called on.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesWork of Art TitlesEducational vs. Educative

Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Question - Essay Example I think, however, that this does not necessarily do a very good job of illustrating her point. When you boil it down to the fundamentals, the similarities in the scene consist of a person a) having two black bags and b) rushing to meet a deadline. The differences, however, are significant. The deadlines are different – a lecture and an airplane. The person in the play has a big black bag in addition to the carry on, instead of just the carry-on. If someone did a poll of all plays written, there would certainly be many instance of someone rushing somewhere with a black bag. And that Lewis chose to highlight this particular scene means that it seemed especially flagrant to her – one usually selects the best evidence to support one’s point. So, while the broad sweeps of this play seem to copy her life significantly, if the details are no closer than this I would say that it is possible the play is in fact original, and uses her life in acceptable

Magic Carpet Airlines Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Magic Carpet Airlines - Case Study Example They used the League of Flight Attendants to articulate their issues with the management. The other stakeholder in the case was Magic Carpet Airlines team that represented the company with whom these issues were being addressed (Kennedy, 2007). Compensation was one of the major problems in this situation. The base wages for Magic Carpet Airline’s flight attendants were relatively low and the data that they collected from Monthly Labor Review helped them conclude that the base wage was not matching the cost of living that had gone up. The airline’s flight attendants observed that the company’s wage scheme was fixed and was contended for a five-year wage review (Guasco, 2007). Job security was the other major issue in this situation. The flight attendants felt that they risked losing their seniority if the deal between Magic Carpet Airline and RCA went through. The company did not provide a clear way of reassuring its flight attendants that their contract was binding and this made them feel like they could lose their jobs anytime (Kennedy, 2007). The third major problem in this situation was working conditions. The company assigned its flight attendants a prolonged trip trading lead-time of five days but they felt that it should be reduced to one day. The company provided $6 monthly for the maintenance of flight attendants’ uniforms but they felt that the about needed to be raised to $20 (Shell, 2006). The fourth major problem in the negotiations was the disparity between the wages and wok rules, and Magic Carpet Airline’s financial performance. The league of flight attendants demanded for the harmonization of the company’s wages with its financial performance. I would recommend that the League of Flight Attendants utilize quarterly meetings with the board of directors of the company in order to discuss their issues. This would provide a platform for them to air their grievances before they escalate. Secondly, I would

The Child Protection Process

The Child Protection Process The following are the skills needed in order to work with parents and with the family as a whole: ability to work in partnership with parents; ability to be honest and open even when the information you have to share is unpleasant or painful; ability to communicate with adults; ability to negotiate; ability to provide counselling, warmth, empathy, understanding; ability to tolerate peoples pain and anger; ability to work effectively with groups. Two skills will be explained further. Starting with the ability to provide empathic understanding, this relies on the ability of the worker to imagine what the service user may be experiencing, relating it to his/hers experience. Empathy also draws on the ability of the worker to be an active listener. As for the ability to be honest, it is known that some parents are not always honest with social workers, particularly when there are issues of abuse (Department of Health, 1991a; Reder et al; 1993), but it is important for social workers to honest in all dealings with parents. Sometimes this is difficult particularly when sharing difficult decisions with the parents, such as the decision to hold a child protection conference. The process of child protection work is set out in the Working Together guidance (HM Government, 2006a), which is to be followed in conjunction with the Assessment Framework and any local procedures and protocols. Under s47 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a duty to make enquiries when there is reason to believe that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm In the case of Bethany where a section 47 enquiry is being considered, a strategy meeting should be held immediately, involving social workers, police, and any other relevant personnel such as referring professionals or when necessary those with medical or legal expertise. Apart from sharing information, the principle focus of the strategy meeting is on planning. This might include coordinating with the enquiry with any criminal investigation, dealing with any immediate issues of safety, deciding what information may be shared with parents and whether any medical examination are required. When a childs name is placed on the child protection register, the conference will appoint a lead professional (usually a local authority social worker) and a core group, comprising family members and relevant professionals who have the responsibility for developing and implementing the child protection plan. This plan will be reviewed at further conferences, initially within three months and six months thereafter. Depending on the degree of risk reduction, these subsequent meetings may decide to remove the childs name from the register. Research on core groups has identified challenges very similar to those facing conferences, especially in ensuring meaningful participation (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006.) From their study of a hundred and twenty conferences, Farmer and Owen (1995) argued that the dominant focus was on assessing risk, with minimal time devoted to planning and little subsequent reappraisal. They expressed concern that plans often failed to offer therapeutic help to children or to address the needs of parents (including women subjected to domestic violence). More recent research has suggested that, although practical and therapeutic services are generally appreciated by parents, they are often not forthcoming (CSCI, 2006). In this respect, Scourfield and Welsh (2003) argue that child protection work is dominated by a neo-liberal emphasis on monitoring and exhorting parents to change or face losing their children. Despite these difficulties, and re-abuse rates of 25-30%, studies in 1990s found that in roughly two thirds of cases, childrens wellbeing improved while on the child protection register (DH, 1995). Failures of communication and co-ordination between professionals have been a recurring theme in child maltreatment scandals, but eliminating them has proved a daunting challenge. One major concern has been to strike a balance between spreading responsibility for child protection as widely as possible while ensuring there are clear lines of accountability. For example, there have been moves to make child protection everyones business (Scottish Executive,2002; HM Government,2006b). In England and Wales, s11 of theChildren Act 2004 and s175 of the Education Act 2002 created a general duty for a range of public bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Working Together (HM Government, 2006a: 39-73) sets out various requirements for organisations to nominate key professionals to co-ordinate child protection work at their particular level (Murphy,2004), while the Children Act 2004, s12, creates a duty on professionals to notify any cause for concern to the information-sharing index. Training, especially on an inter-professional basis, has also been recognised as crucial to facilitating communication and co-ordination (Glennie,2007). Yet, despite the many positive developments in relation to co-ordination, the challenges remain significant (Murphy,2004). Different professional roles and training generate particular ways of seeing in respect of assessment and these are likely to be reinforced by agency cultures (Birchall and Hallett,1995). In practice, this often means different thresholds for assessing significant harm and consequent tensions when these views are not shared by others (Stanley et al;2003). Duties to co-operate have co-existed with increasing pressures on individual professionals and agencies and unsurprisingly, it has often proved difficult to engage those for whom child protection is not regarded as part of their core business (Francis et al; 2006). Responsibilities have thus tended to remain with social workers, with some evidence that other professionals may seek to avoid involvement in child protection work (Harlow and Shardlow, 2006). Inter-professional relationships are also affected by issu es of power and status and may be based on generalised or even stereotypical views of others. In relation to communication, there are two related challenges to be faced. The first is that confidentiality, which has both interpersonal and professional dimensions. Thus, individual practitioners must address issues of confidentiality in light of their relationship with service users, but professional cultures and agency rules will also shape what information must (not) be kept confidential. A second, broader challenge is to decide from the massive volume of information gleaned which items are to be exchanged, with whom, and in what form, something that ultimately relies on professional judgement but is also influenced by inter personal processes (Reder and Duncan, 2003). Finally, it should be recognised that all the above challenges can be exacerbated by staff turnover and by agency reorganisations. Reflecting the growing concern not only that resources were directed more to child protection services than to preventive and support services but also that there were weaknesses at strategic and operational levels about how professionals jointly supported children and their families, the government established requirements for inter-agency collaboration in the 2004 Children Act. Under sections 10 and 11 of this Act, the Director of Childrens Services is accountable for collaborative partnerships across agencies involved with the wellbeing of children to assist professionals to coordinate services focused on prevention and early intervention and, where appropriate, to plan and develop joint services. In March 2007, the government published a review of family policy resulting from an extensive consultation with providers of services, young people and parents to lay the foundation for government spending over a three-year cycle from 2008 (HM Treasury and DFES, 2007). As part of the Every Child Matters agenda, the government is aiming to address the imbalance in the allocation of resources between prevention services and protection services and also to develop a more effective multidisciplinary framework of professional skills to enhance the effectiveness of prevention services. Two broad aims are to develop the resilience of children to adverse factors in their family and social circumstances and also to address the needs of families caught in a cycle of low attainment. The goal is to increase the provision of preventive services but where necessary to require resistant families to use the services by setting consequences for parents through forms of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Parenting Orders. The intention is to enable local authorities to use additional funding flexibly to develop services provided either directly by the local authority or through multidisciplinary settings such as extended school services or childrens centres for younger children. The policy review commissioned four areas of sub-review: developing preventive approaches, children and families at risk through low attainment; needs of disabled children; needs of young people. These policy aims will inform not only funding streams to local authorities, child health and education but also expectations about workforce skills developments (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk) Families say that they value the social worker who helps them find their solutions to family problems. This approach takes into account service users anxieties about sharing family information with professionals and harnesses the familys strengths to build self-confidence and more sustained solutions. The whole family approach, family focused and child centred is central to working with children and their families in a multi-agency setting. Social workers bring a broad knowledge and skills base and are able to move beyond functions into solutions. They need to influence those other agencies surrounding the child to adopt a more collaborative strength-based approach. An approach that respects the family but does not condone the behaviour towards the child or the childs behaviour is likely to enable the family to respond to early intervention and to take up services offered rather than being driven to use the services by compulsion. However, social workers cannot at times avoid compulsion, through either a child protection plan or court proceedings. Families need to know what sanctions may follow if there are serious concerns about a child that they do not address. Communication about options and consequences from the outset of intervention is central to good practice. Such clear communication is also needed for other agencies that may be involved. Families and children should not need to repeatedly share with professionals from different settings the difficulties they are experiencing. A key skill social workers bring to their practice is the capacity to understand the issues from the familys standpoint. Social workers need to take into account the impact of poverty, social marginalisation, discrimination and poor health on parenting capacity and childrens development. Social workers are the bridge to enabling other professionals to acknowledge the need for services and their responsibility to provide suitable services. Clear communication is a prerequisite to establishing good partnerships with children, the family and the professionals involved. Work needs to be planned around time to listen, time to reflect and time to establish relationships with the child and the parents at a pace that works for them. Communication means not only using language that families understand, so that terms familiar to professionals are properly explained and examples given, it also means establishing in what way they wish to share information. This principle needs to be embedded in the practice of all the professionals delivering services to the families. Some families may wish to use an appropriately skilled interpreter. Some may want to share with the social worker the task of making written records or completing assessment forms. Other families may feel unable to say that written records disenfranchise them because of limited literacy skills. Services plans should be transparent and should clearly set out which agencies are involved, what is being provided, for how long and what are the consequences of not using the services. Plans need to be reviewed regularly and families need to know who has responsibility in multi-agency plans to deal with disagreement, to account for lapses in service provision and to ensure that reviews are held. For families the governments proposals under the Every Child Matters agenda create the possibility of improvements in accessing services across agencies. However, joint planning and commissioning will only be effective if parents, families and children are consulted about what services are useful to them. Services delivered through extended schools and childrens centres need to be innovative and harness the skills of the third sector to deliver not only universal services but also services for children with additional and specialist needs. Social workers and their managers are well placed to drive forward more effective ways of working directly with families: the risk is that processes designed to ensure accountability will create unnecessary barriers for skilled professionals who want to work alongside families to support them to find solutions. in 2000, the New Labour government published the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and Their Families (DH et al; 2000). The Framework was to be applied to all assessments under the Children Act 1989, whether for children in need (s17) or where significant harm was suspected (s47). The Assessment Framework (DH et al; 2000:10-16) sets out the following key principles: Assessments should be child centred, rooted in child development; ecological in their approach; ensure equality of opportunity; involve working with children and families; build on strengths as well as identify difficulties; are inter-agency in their approach to assessment and the provision of services; are a continuing process, not a single event; are carried out in parallel with other action and providing services; are grounded in evidence-based knowledge. Any assessment of a child and his family which aims to understand what is happening to a child has to take account of a childs developmental needs, the parenting capacity to respond to those needs, and the wider family and environmental factors. Together these form three systems whose interactions have direct impact on the current and long term wellbeing of a child. The Assessment Framework represents a way of trying to capture the complexity of a childs world and beginning to construct a coherent approach to collecting and analysing information about each child. The Framework should be rooted in understandings of child development. Contemporary thinking about childrens needs has evolved over several decades and reflects a mixture of theoretical influences and evidence derived from research studies.Taylor (2004) identifies the following needs: basic physical care, affection, security, stimulation, guidance, control and discipline, responsibility, independence. As assessment has become increasingly rationalised, it has become more common to adopt a balance sheet approach, often couched in terms of risk factors i.e. the increased probability of a particular (negative) outcome and protective factors that decrease its likelihood. An important factor behind the increasing interest in parenting has been a focus on the impact of mental health problems, substance misuse and domestic violence on parents and, in turn, children. Research in the 1990s suggested that these played an important role in many child welfare cases, especially when present in combination, but that they were neither well understood nor addressed in practice (Cleaver et al; 1999). They are relevant in two main ways. First, background knowledge of the impact is an important factor in decision making and second, there may be particular implications for the process of assessment and how it is managed. While each of these areas has distinctive characteristics, there are also common treads. One is that assessment demands a careful balancing act to avoid over or under reaction.Thus, despite heightened risk to childrens welfare, it is important to recognise that those suffering from mental health and other problems do not necessarily make poor parent s, and that the majority of their children grow up without major ill-effects (Cleaver, 2002). An adult who violently assaults another adult in the home is, in fact, also abusing children who may see, hear or be aware of that violence. Hughes, 1992, found that in 90 per cent of cases of domestic violence, children were in the same or the next room. This indirect abuse, is a form of emotional abuse, and actually one of the more severe forms. (Bearing in mind that emotional abuse and neglect are closely related, we might also see it as neglect of the childs needs.) Children are exposed to feelings of terror, grief, impotence, and to the realisation that adults on whom they may rely for safety, security and protection are either, incapable of protecting even themselves, or, capable of dangerous violence towards those they are supposed to protect (Kelly, 1994:44). Since the implementation of the Adoption and Children Act in December 2005, the Children Act 1989 definition of significant harm has expressly included impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of anot her. A crucial element of the Framework was to emphasise the interconnectedness of the three domains, drawing on the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner (1979). In essence, Bronfenbrenner construes the factors influencing the childs development as a series of four concentric circles, which he refers to as systems ranging from the childs immediate environment to the broadest social context. The microsystem describes any setting where the child is an active participant, typically the family, school, peer group or immediate neighbourhood. The mesosystem comprises relationships between microsystems, for example between home and school. Finally, the macrosystem comprises the broader social environment in which children and families live, including cultural values, customs, economy and laws. Arguably the most influential theoretical framework within assessment and child social care more broadly is that based on attachment. Originally derived from the work of Bowlby (1953), attachment theory emphasises the importance of relationships between children and parental figures, especially mothers. Bowlby was particularly concerned with the negative consequences of lost or poor attachment which led to maternal deprivation. Subsequently, his work attracted criticism for its gendered assumptions and ethnocentricity, but having fallen out of fashion, attachment theory was rediscovered during the 1990s (Thoburn, 1999) and its importance was made explicit in the Assessment Framework. Fahlberg (1994) has defined attachment as an affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through space and time and serves to join them emotionally. She argues that the development of attachment occurs through a cycle of arousal and relaxation, wherein the child becomes aroused through needs such as food or comfort, but relaxes once these needs are met by the attachment figure. Repetition of the cycle develops trust and a sense of security for the child. Fahlberg also points to a positive interaction cycle, where play and humour make interaction enjoyable and mutually rewarding and attachment is strengthened. The longer-term importance of attachment is that it should provide children with a secure base from which to explore the social world and give them an internal working model for relationships based on trust. Although open to change through later experiences, these models exert a strong and often enduring influence over the lives of children and adults (Howe,2001). Needless to say, such processes do not always follow this path and, while a complete absence of attachment is rare, insecure attachment may affect up to half of the population (Howe,2001). Building on Ainsworth et als (1978) work, insecure attachments are customarily divided into three categories: anxious avoidant (detached), anxious resistant (ambivalent) and disorganised/controlling. Each is associated with specific attachment behaviours, such as the reaction to separation, and wider patterns of behaviour. Howe (2003) argues that attachment behaviours reflect how children make sense of adults both emotionally and cognitively and are typically adaptive responses to their care environment. Within assessment, therefore, attachment behaviours can give important insights into childrens well-being and development, while the theory may help to explain the factors that lie behind them and to gauge the potential for change. Understanding attachment is particularly pertinent when temporary or permanent removal of a child is being considered, both in terms of recognising the effects of removal and the importance of maintaining contact between children and birth family members including siblings (Sanders,2004). Information on attachment can be gleaned from interviews, direct work with children, from other professionals and perhaps most importantly observation, but as Howe (2003) warns, assessing attachments is a complex task that requires experience and cautious handling. Explanatory accounts of child maltreatment have emanated from all the major schools of psychology. Their primary focus rests with individual perpetrators, but to a greater or lesser extent they also address ideas of intergenerational transmission, examining the ways in which the childhood victims of maltreatment may become perpetrators as adults. Although they enjoy little support, there are also pre-psychological theories rooted in biology and ideas of instinct (Corby, 2005:156-158). Psychodynamic perspectives (broadly derived from Freudian psychology) emphasise developmental stages and the formation of personality as these stages are negotiated (Mc Cluskey and Hooper, 2000). In relation to child maltreatment, attention has focused on how a parents own childhood may influence their capacity to recognise and meet childrens needs, whether they have acquired a rigid personality, become easily frustrated or have difficulty in controlling aggression. This is evident in the case of Bethany where behaviour appears at first sight to be neglectful or abusive but seems in fact to be the result of genuine ignorance about the needs of a child or the role of a parent. Some adults may have lacked appropriate role models while growing up; some are very isolated and have little access to sources of advice. When there seems to be a lack of knowledge or of parenting skills, an appropriate form of intervention is education: the provision of advice, information, instruction or role models. Social learning theory focuses on how behaviour is learned through processes of observation, conditioning and reinforcement. In line with the theory, intervention would focus on identifying these patterns and seeking to modify them through behavioural therapy, perhaps by working on avoiding triggers for maltreatment or reinforcing appropriate parental responses. Throughout her childhood, Bethany witnessed violence hence repeating the same behaviour as an adult. A basic feature of anti discriminatory practice is the ability to see that discrimination and oppression are so often central to the situations social workers encounter. The fact that social work service users are predominantly from disadvantaged groups is unlikely to be seen as a key issue. However, what anti discriminatory practice teaches us is that discrimination and oppression are vitally important matters and, if we are not attuned to recognising and challenging discrimination, we run the risk of, at best condoning it and, at worst exacerbating and amplifying it through our own action. Overarching both the 1989 and the 2004 Children Act is the 1998 Human Rights Act which requires agencies with responsibilities for child health, education and welfare services to comply with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights. Of particular relevance is Article 8, respect for private and family life. This Article does not give an absolute guarantee to family life and therefore to services to support a family to bring up their children. It is a qualified right, and the State and its agencies have to balance the childs entitlement to grow up cared for by their family, who may need support services to do so, against the duty to protect the child and, where necessary following a fair and transparent process, to remove the child from the family. The duty on the Director of the Childrens Services to plan with other agencies to commission and provide support services to promote childrens wellbeing must comply with both international obligation and domestic law to ensure that service provision is non-discriminatory