Research Managing behavior in organization Essay

Research Managing behavior in organization - Essay Example 5 1- Leadership †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 2- Job-satisfaction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 3- Turnover intention †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 7 Literature review †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 Leadership styles †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 Correlation between leadership style and job satisfaction †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 9 Transformational Leadership: Positively impacting job-satisfaction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 10 Personality characteristics between lea dership style and job †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 13 Research methodology †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 15 Explanatory research †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 15 Research Process †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 15 Observation †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 16 Data gathering and Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 16 Developing Hypothesis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 16 Major findings †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 17 Leadership styles and job satisfaction correlated †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. ... Business organizations are social systems that require efficient leaders to lead others, especially in today’s highly complex business contexts as businesses face tremendous challenges including globalization of markets, rapid technological advances, hostile takeovers, economic uncertainty etc. One of the very significant factors determining business success is employee satisfaction as well as their performance and therefore most businesses in recent days give greater emphasis on those leadership strategies that can foster employee satisfaction and thus to retain and attract high-performing employees. Leadership is essentially a highly-valued commodity. Most management and business experts ask themselves what makes good leaders and which leadership quality keeps employees more satisfied. A manager or a leader can perhaps manage a single event in different ways, but it is highly important that this should never bring adverse impacts on employee performance and their satisfactio n in order to ensure they fully cooperate in doing the tasks. Research Contexts As business environments are becoming more turbulent and rigorously competitive, it is critical that businesses adopt management and leadership strategies that can lead to large scale changes. Transformational change, reengineering and quality management are some of the recent developments (Politis, 2005, p. 203) that suggest large-scale changes with people-centered ideology so that growing issues like employee dissatisfaction, stress, employee turnover can be effectively addressed and managed. Leadership is an important organizational element that plays vital role in business success. As it

The VW Resende Modular Consortium Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

The VW Resende Modular Consortium - Essay Example This essay discusses that  VW’s strategy of manufacturing trucks in Brazil could be defined as a Focus Strategy. Under a focus strategy the firm concentrates on one or a limited range of segment of the market. Thus did VW, by focusing its manufacturing process on trucks. Working in the automotive industry throughout the world, VW has made a decision to focus mainly on one segment of the automobile industry in Brazil. It was a truck production sector. While this strategy was different from the overall company strategy, VW had to act in a way that best fitted the organization’s competitive environment in Brazil. The company benefited from its specialization on truck segment by gaining strong competency in the production of trucks and some of their modules.  This paper highlights that  by going deeper to the Porter’s focus strategy, it is possible to assume that the VW’s Resende Modular Consortium was more closely related to the cost leadership focus. C ost leadership as a generic strategy does not imply that the company will market the lowest price product or service in the industry.  The main goal of the cost leader is to secure a cost advantage over its rivals, price competitively and relative to how its product is perceived by the customers and achieve a high profit margin.   By adopting cost leadership focus strategy on the Brazilian truck market, the VW Company was striving to satisfy its customer’s needs with up-to-date technologies and trucks of the highest quality of relatively low prices.

High School vs College Essay Example for Free

High School vs College Essay The transition from high school to college is sometimes difficult, but with a little knowledge and planning, students can make the transition very easily. There are some major differences between high school and college. There are differences in the teachers, the cost, and the personal responsibility involved. In high school, teachers are more helpful, there is relatively no cost, and although students are encouraged to be responsible, responsibility lies mainly with their parents. In high school, students have it pretty easy. Teachers are there to guide and help students, and often will stay after school, offer extra credit or extended projects to help in the learning process. Teachers also often communicate with students’ parents to ensure they know what is going on in the classroom. There is relatively little cost involved with public high school. There are participation fees for sports and a fee paid at the beginning of the year, but textbooks are provided free of charge. Some more hands-on classes will have additional fees, but most of these classes are electives and do not have to be taken. As far as personal responsibility, in high school, students are expected to behave as if they are preparing to be adults. They are given breaks from time to time, but are expected to behave as if they were training for the real world and to take their studies seriously. However, responsibility falls on the parents if a student is struggling in school or not attending classes. In college, teachers are not just teachers any more, the expenses are great, and personal responsibility is one of the lessons most hard learned. In college, teachers are not referred to as â€Å"teachers†. They are â€Å"instructors† or â€Å"professors†. They have high degrees of education in their field, and are passionate about their subjects, often striving for perfection from their students. College professors often do not accept late or sloppy work and some do not accept extra credit or projects. Many have so many students in a class that they often are not even aware who is or is not in class. College instructors never speak to students’ parents about grades; it is a violation of confidentiality. College is quite expensive, however. In addition to tuition, there are fees for books and supplies and labs. College textbooks can cost up to $150 per class. While parents usually help to offset the costs of college, personal responsibility falls solely on the student. Many students attend colleges away from home, so they need to begin doing their own laundry, cleaning, and cooking. Many will also work part-time or full-time jobs in addition to school to pay for the extras that their parents no longer provide. Personal responsibility is one of the lessons that college teaches students. Although they are both institutions of learning, high school and college are very different. They differ in the teachers, the cost, and the personal responsibility involved on the part of the students.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder :: Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD

The Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental illness that may develop in people after a horrible experience. This is a big reaction to extreme stress. There are many causes, symptoms, and treatments for the post-traumatic stress disorder. There are many causes this disorder has, and this includes: coming out of war, being raped, or attacked, child abuse, natural disasters, car accidents, and even people who witness traumatic events could develop this disorder. A person who has experienced a bad traumatic event has a better chance of developing this disorder than a person who experienced a less traumatic event develops. This works the same way with people who witness something horrible. Some people also have biological or psychological problems that make them more likely to develop this disorder. Or having anxiety disorders in their families that may have inherited genetics to react more severely to stress and trauma than other people. Persons early childhood experiences that made them feel that events are uncontrollable have a greater chance of getting this disorder. Some people are kind of like protected from this disorder by having a strong social network with their friends and family. In war veterans they call this disorder shell shock or combat fatigue. People with this disorder "relive" the event again and again though nightmares and memories during the day. They will sometimes have flashbacks where they will fall into their own world and relive images, and sounds from the trauma. Because of their extreme anxiety and distress from the event, they will try to avoid anything that would happen to remind them of it. They may seem emotionally numb, detached, irritable, and easily startled. They may feel guilty about surviving a traumatic event that killed other people because they now think that they should have done something. Other symptoms include trouble concentrating, depression, and sleep difficulties. Symptoms of the disorder usually begin shortly after the traumatic event, but some people may not show symptoms for several years. If left untreated, the disorder can last for years. Post-traumatic stress disorder can ruin someone's life. The emotional pain of reliving the trauma, the symptoms of the disorder may cause a person to think that he or she is "going crazy." People with this disorder may have angry outbursts at family members. At other times, they may seem to have no affection for their loved ones. Some people try to mask their symptoms by abusing alcohol or drugs. Others work very long hours to prevent any down periods when they might relive the trauma. Such actions may delay the onset of the disorder until these individuals retire or become sober.

Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming?

Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? A REVIEW OF THE FACTS APRIL 2007 AUTHORS James Wang, Ph. D. Bill Chameides, Ph. D. Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? The case for attributing the recent global warming to human activities rests on the following undisputed scientific facts: †¢ Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. †¢ Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 380 ppm.Current concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are unprecedented in at least the last 650,000 years, based on records from gas bubbles trapped in polar ice. †¢ Independent measurements demonstrate that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels and forests. The isotopic composition of carbon from these sources contains a unique â€Å"fingerprint. † †¢ Since pre-industrial times, global average temperatures have increased by about 0. 7? C , with about half of the warming occurring over the past few decades. The only quantitative and internally consistent explanation for the recent global warming includes the intensified greenhouse effect caused by the increase in CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The U. S. National Academy of Sciences—the independent organization of the country’s most renowned scientists established by Congress to advise the nation on scientific and technical issues—has concluded: â€Å"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. Some argue that the recent global warming is due to natural fluctuations and not to human activities. This argument and its fallacies are discussed below. Argument 1: CO2 is not coming from human activities CO2 has natural sources: volcanoes for example. All animals exhale it. How can human activities be affecting the concentration of CO2 on a global scale? The Facts Natural processes e mit large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, but they also remove it—at nearly identical rates.This balance maintained the concentration of CO2 at a stable level for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution. In the case of global warming, the question is: What is causing the increase in CO2 concentrations? The answer turns out to be incontrovertible. The isotopic composition of carbon in atmospheric CO2 provides a unique â€Å"fingerprint† that tells scientists that the lion’s share of the additional CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels. Argument 2: No one really knows why the climate variesThe global climate has fluctuated considerably over the Earth’s history, either for unknown reasons or because of â€Å"internal variability† in the climate system. We do not know enough about the climate system to attribute the present global warming to any specific cause. The Facts It is true that the Earthâ⠂¬â„¢s climate has exhibited wide swings over geologic time due to natural processes. However, scientists have reasonable qualitative explanations for most of the significant variations in 2 limate over geologic time;1 they can be largely attributed to specific processes, not to unknown internal oscillations. Many of the major climatic changes can be traced to changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). Others can be linked to specific events (such as the impact of a comet or meteorite or the assembly or breakup of supercontinents) that led to large changes in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases.For more recent times (the past millennium), scientists have been able to quantitatively attribute the major temperature fluctuations to changes in solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and human-produced greenhouse gases and particulate pollution. These natural processes can not explain the current warming. Argument 3: The Medie val Warm Period disproves global warming The current warming trend is analogous to the Medieval Warming Period (MWP). Since the MWP was obviously a natural event, the current warming is also likely caused by natural processes. The FactsThe Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century. 2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779).Their reconstruction produced the so-called â€Å"hockey stick† graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: â€Å"The†¦'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries. † The accuracy of the â€Å"hockey stick† graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 13) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are perhaps even more telling. Andean glaciers that have been intact for more than 5,000 years are now rapidly melting (Thompson et al. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , 103, 2006, pg. 10536). If the MWP was truly global, these glaciers would not have sur vived. More generally, it is a logical fallacy to argue that because the climate has changed in the past due to natural causes, the current warming trend must also be due to natural causes.The debate over the magnitude and causes of earlier climate change such as the MWP is of scientific interest, but it does not invalidate the considerable direct scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases have been causing the Earth to warm recently. Argument 4: Recent predictions of a new ice age disprove global warming In the 1970s climate scientists were saying an ice age was imminent. Now they say the Earth is warming. They don’t know what they are talking about. The FactsThe Earth’s climate for the past 2 million years has been characterized by ice ages lasting close to 100,000 years, punctuated by relatively short (10,000- to 30,000-year) warm periods or â€Å"interglacials. † The swing from glacial to interglacial is caused by changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun amplified by natural feedbacks involving greenhouse gases (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). The Earth entered the present interglacial about 10,000 years ago. All things being equal (i. e. , in the absence of a large human-produced source of CO2) it is highly likely that the Earth will swing back into a glacial period or ice age.But this will not occur for thousands of years. 3 As early as the 19th century, scientists recognized that greenhouse gases warm the planet, and that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide could lead to global warming on time scales of decades to centuries—much shorter than the fluctuations related to ice ages and interglacials. Around the same time, global temperatures began to increase and scientists became increasingly concerned that humans were interfering with the climate. In the 1950s the upward trend in global temperatures unexpectedly halted and temperatures declined somewhat.This led some scientists to become c oncerned about global cooling and, in turn, to headlines in the popular press about an imminent ice age. What the skeptics fail to admit is that within the scientific literature—as opposed to the popular press—global warming remained a serious concern. Many scientists of the time argued that whatever the cause of the cooling, natural or otherwise, it would be eventually overshadowed by the warming effect of carbon dioxide. In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences warned that a doubling of carbon dioxide would increase global temperatures by 1. 5 to 4. oC (Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, NAS Press, 1979) and shortly thereafter a resumption of the upward trend in temperatures was detected. Over the past quarter century, scientific research on global climate change has intensified, and programs on an international scale have been organized. More and more data are included in computer models that are capable of recreating past trends and more precisel y predicting future scenarios. We now know that the mid-20th century pause in global warming was caused by pollution from burning coal, which produced tiny particles or aerosols that blocked the energy from the sun.As aerosol emissions were controlled but greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase, the cooling effect of the aerosols was overwhelmed by the greenhouse gases, and global warming resumed. Argument 5: Scientists cannot â€Å"prove† current warming is not natural Climate scientists can not prove that the current warming is not due to natural processes and therefore can not claim with certainty that the warming is due to human interference. The Facts It is of course true that, in a complex system like climate, it is virtually impossible to prove a negative; i. e. that natural processes are not causing the current warming. What we can do is eliminate every possible natural explanation that can be posited. Thermodynamics tells us that the warming of the Earthâ€⠄¢s lower atmosphere must arise from one or more processes that supply excess heat to the lower atmosphere. Besides the greenhouse effect, the viable processes are (1) increased output from the sun; (2) increased absorption of heat from the sun due to a change in the Earth’s planetary reflectivity or â€Å"albedo†; and (3) an internal variation in the climate system that transfers heat from one part of the Earth to the atmosphere.Direct observations confirm that none of these explains the observed warming over the latter half of the 20th century. For example there has been no appreciable change in solar output over the past two decades (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Change in solar output from 1980 to 2005. Figure 1 shows the relative change in solar output determined from two of satellite measurements over a two-decade period. The data show variability in solar output corresponding to the 11-year sunspot cycle, but no secular trend. Source: After Lean and Froelich, 2006. 4 Satellite data reveal that the Earth’s reflectivity increased (causing cooling instead of warming) in the ’60’s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s and has decreased modestly since. 4 The overall warming from the recent decrease in reflectivity is also small compared to the greenhouse warming. In the case of internal variations, the ocean is the only viable reservoir of internal heat that could have caused the atmosphere to warm on decadal time-scales. However, observations show that the heat content of the ocean has increased instead of decreased over the past few decades (See Figure 2).This indicates that the atmosphere has been a source of heat to the ocean rather than vice versa. Moreover, the amount of heat increase in the ocean is consistent with what is needed to balance the Earth’s energy budget given the excess heating from the enhanced greenhouse effect and the amount of excess heat observed to be stored in the atmosphere (Hansen et al. Science, 3 08, 2005, pg. 1431). In other words, the amount of heat stored in the ocean over recent years matches the amount of heat that models predict should be trapped on Earth due to the increase in greenhouse gases. Figure 2.Change in heat content of ocean 1955 to 2005 Source: After Levitus et al. 2005. FIGURE 2 SHOWS THE RELATIVE CHANGE IN THE HEAT COTENT OF THE OCEAN FROM 1955 TO 2005 BASED ON A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF OCEAN TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS. THE DATA SHOW SHORT TERM VARIABILITY BUT A CLEAR UPWARD TREND ON DECADAL TIME-SCALES. Conclusion †¢ The Medieval Warm Period does not represent an analogy to the warming of the late 20th century, for which scientists have independent evidence of human causation, and the evidence strongly suggests that the MWP was a regional, rather than a global phenomenon. Our understanding of the climate system is sufficient to provide qualitative models for most global or hemispheric climatic variations over geologic history and quantitative models for variations over the past millennium. †¢ The Earth’s climate may return to ice age conditions in thousands of years, but this does not preclude devastating effects from global warming over the next few centuries. 5 †¢ All known natural explanations for the current global warming trend have been eliminated by direct observations.The human-intensified greenhouse effect provides the only quantitative explanation for the current warming trend. About the authors Dr. Wang received his doctorate from Harvard University and works as a climate scientist at Environmental Defense. He has published several peer-reviewed papers on the global methane budget and was the author of â€Å"The Latest Myths and Facts on Global Warming,† which was read into the congressional record by Senator John McCain in 2005. The report is available at http://www. undoit. org/pdfs/mythsvfacts. pdf. Dr. Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, is a member of the U.S. National A cademy of Sciences and has been named a National Associate of the National Academies. He is also an American Geophysical Union Fellow, and has received the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Award. Dr. Chameides has served as editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research and is the author or coauthor of more than 120 scientific publications and five books. He received his doctorate from Yale University. The explanations are qualitative instead of quantitative because we do not have quantitative data from these events in the distant past to construct their exact histories. It has been suggested based on temperature reconstructions and model simulations that the MWP may have been caused by increased solar activity or a dearth of volcanic activity. 3 th Because worldwide temperature measurements do not exist before the 19 century, temperature records before th the 19 century are based on reconstructions of the temperature from the variations in temperature-sensitive proxies (e. g. , tree rings, isotopes in ice cores). 4 These variations are possibly due to changes in the concentrations of atmospheric aerosols produced from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. 1 6 Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? A REVIEW OF THE FACTS APRIL 2007 AUTHORS James Wang, Ph. D. Bill Chameides, Ph. D. Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? The case for attributing the recent global warming to human activities rests on the following undisputed scientific facts: †¢ Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. †¢ Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 380 ppm.Current concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are unprecedented in at least the last 650,000 years, based on records from gas bubbles trapped in polar ice. †¢ Independent measurements demonstrate that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels and forests. The isotopic composition of carbon from these sources contains a unique â€Å"fingerprint. † †¢ Since pre-industrial times, global average temperatures have increased by about 0. 7? C , with about half of the warming occurring over the past few decades. The only quantitative and internally consistent explanation for the recent global warming includes the intensified greenhouse effect caused by the increase in CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The U. S. National Academy of Sciences—the independent organization of the country’s most renowned scientists established by Congress to advise the nation on scientific and technical issues—has concluded: â€Å"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. Some argue that the recent global warming is due to natural fluctuations and not to human activities. This argument and its fallacies are discussed below. Argument 1: CO2 is not coming from human activities CO2 has natural sources: volcanoes for example. All animals exhale it. How can human activities be affecting the concentration of CO2 on a global scale? The Facts Natural processes e mit large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere, but they also remove it—at nearly identical rates.This balance maintained the concentration of CO2 at a stable level for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution. In the case of global warming, the question is: What is causing the increase in CO2 concentrations? The answer turns out to be incontrovertible. The isotopic composition of carbon in atmospheric CO2 provides a unique â€Å"fingerprint† that tells scientists that the lion’s share of the additional CO2 accumulating in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels. Argument 2: No one really knows why the climate variesThe global climate has fluctuated considerably over the Earth’s history, either for unknown reasons or because of â€Å"internal variability† in the climate system. We do not know enough about the climate system to attribute the present global warming to any specific cause. The Facts It is true that the Earthâ⠂¬â„¢s climate has exhibited wide swings over geologic time due to natural processes. However, scientists have reasonable qualitative explanations for most of the significant variations in 2 limate over geologic time;1 they can be largely attributed to specific processes, not to unknown internal oscillations. Many of the major climatic changes can be traced to changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). Others can be linked to specific events (such as the impact of a comet or meteorite or the assembly or breakup of supercontinents) that led to large changes in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases.For more recent times (the past millennium), scientists have been able to quantitatively attribute the major temperature fluctuations to changes in solar activity, volcanic eruptions, and human-produced greenhouse gases and particulate pollution. These natural processes can not explain the current warming. Argument 3: The Medie val Warm Period disproves global warming The current warming trend is analogous to the Medieval Warming Period (MWP). Since the MWP was obviously a natural event, the current warming is also likely caused by natural processes. The FactsThe Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century. 2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779).Their reconstruction produced the so-called â€Å"hockey stick† graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: â€Å"The†¦'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries. † The accuracy of the â€Å"hockey stick† graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 13) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are perhaps even more telling. Andean glaciers that have been intact for more than 5,000 years are now rapidly melting (Thompson et al. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. , 103, 2006, pg. 10536). If the MWP was truly global, these glaciers would not have sur vived. More generally, it is a logical fallacy to argue that because the climate has changed in the past due to natural causes, the current warming trend must also be due to natural causes.The debate over the magnitude and causes of earlier climate change such as the MWP is of scientific interest, but it does not invalidate the considerable direct scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases have been causing the Earth to warm recently. Argument 4: Recent predictions of a new ice age disprove global warming In the 1970s climate scientists were saying an ice age was imminent. Now they say the Earth is warming. They don’t know what they are talking about. The FactsThe Earth’s climate for the past 2 million years has been characterized by ice ages lasting close to 100,000 years, punctuated by relatively short (10,000- to 30,000-year) warm periods or â€Å"interglacials. † The swing from glacial to interglacial is caused by changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun amplified by natural feedbacks involving greenhouse gases (Hays et al. Science, 194, 1976, pg. 1121). The Earth entered the present interglacial about 10,000 years ago. All things being equal (i. e. , in the absence of a large human-produced source of CO2) it is highly likely that the Earth will swing back into a glacial period or ice age.But this will not occur for thousands of years. 3 As early as the 19th century, scientists recognized that greenhouse gases warm the planet, and that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide could lead to global warming on time scales of decades to centuries—much shorter than the fluctuations related to ice ages and interglacials. Around the same time, global temperatures began to increase and scientists became increasingly concerned that humans were interfering with the climate. In the 1950s the upward trend in global temperatures unexpectedly halted and temperatures declined somewhat.This led some scientists to become c oncerned about global cooling and, in turn, to headlines in the popular press about an imminent ice age. What the skeptics fail to admit is that within the scientific literature—as opposed to the popular press—global warming remained a serious concern. Many scientists of the time argued that whatever the cause of the cooling, natural or otherwise, it would be eventually overshadowed by the warming effect of carbon dioxide. In 1979, the National Academy of Sciences warned that a doubling of carbon dioxide would increase global temperatures by 1. 5 to 4. oC (Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment, NAS Press, 1979) and shortly thereafter a resumption of the upward trend in temperatures was detected. Over the past quarter century, scientific research on global climate change has intensified, and programs on an international scale have been organized. More and more data are included in computer models that are capable of recreating past trends and more precisel y predicting future scenarios. We now know that the mid-20th century pause in global warming was caused by pollution from burning coal, which produced tiny particles or aerosols that blocked the energy from the sun.As aerosol emissions were controlled but greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase, the cooling effect of the aerosols was overwhelmed by the greenhouse gases, and global warming resumed. Argument 5: Scientists cannot â€Å"prove† current warming is not natural Climate scientists can not prove that the current warming is not due to natural processes and therefore can not claim with certainty that the warming is due to human interference. The Facts It is of course true that, in a complex system like climate, it is virtually impossible to prove a negative; i. e. that natural processes are not causing the current warming. What we can do is eliminate every possible natural explanation that can be posited. Thermodynamics tells us that the warming of the Earthâ€⠄¢s lower atmosphere must arise from one or more processes that supply excess heat to the lower atmosphere. Besides the greenhouse effect, the viable processes are (1) increased output from the sun; (2) increased absorption of heat from the sun due to a change in the Earth’s planetary reflectivity or â€Å"albedo†; and (3) an internal variation in the climate system that transfers heat from one part of the Earth to the atmosphere.Direct observations confirm that none of these explains the observed warming over the latter half of the 20th century. For example there has been no appreciable change in solar output over the past two decades (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Change in solar output from 1980 to 2005. Figure 1 shows the relative change in solar output determined from two of satellite measurements over a two-decade period. The data show variability in solar output corresponding to the 11-year sunspot cycle, but no secular trend. Source: After Lean and Froelich, 2006. 4 Satellite data reveal that the Earth’s reflectivity increased (causing cooling instead of warming) in the ’60’s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s and has decreased modestly since. 4 The overall warming from the recent decrease in reflectivity is also small compared to the greenhouse warming. In the case of internal variations, the ocean is the only viable reservoir of internal heat that could have caused the atmosphere to warm on decadal time-scales. However, observations show that the heat content of the ocean has increased instead of decreased over the past few decades (See Figure 2).This indicates that the atmosphere has been a source of heat to the ocean rather than vice versa. Moreover, the amount of heat increase in the ocean is consistent with what is needed to balance the Earth’s energy budget given the excess heating from the enhanced greenhouse effect and the amount of excess heat observed to be stored in the atmosphere (Hansen et al. Science, 3 08, 2005, pg. 1431). In other words, the amount of heat stored in the ocean over recent years matches the amount of heat that models predict should be trapped on Earth due to the increase in greenhouse gases. Figure 2.Change in heat content of ocean 1955 to 2005 Source: After Levitus et al. 2005. FIGURE 2 SHOWS THE RELATIVE CHANGE IN THE HEAT COTENT OF THE OCEAN FROM 1955 TO 2005 BASED ON A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF OCEAN TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS. THE DATA SHOW SHORT TERM VARIABILITY BUT A CLEAR UPWARD TREND ON DECADAL TIME-SCALES. Conclusion †¢ The Medieval Warm Period does not represent an analogy to the warming of the late 20th century, for which scientists have independent evidence of human causation, and the evidence strongly suggests that the MWP was a regional, rather than a global phenomenon. Our understanding of the climate system is sufficient to provide qualitative models for most global or hemispheric climatic variations over geologic history and quantitative models for variations over the past millennium. †¢ The Earth’s climate may return to ice age conditions in thousands of years, but this does not preclude devastating effects from global warming over the next few centuries. 5 †¢ All known natural explanations for the current global warming trend have been eliminated by direct observations.The human-intensified greenhouse effect provides the only quantitative explanation for the current warming trend. About the authors Dr. Wang received his doctorate from Harvard University and works as a climate scientist at Environmental Defense. He has published several peer-reviewed papers on the global methane budget and was the author of â€Å"The Latest Myths and Facts on Global Warming,† which was read into the congressional record by Senator John McCain in 2005. The report is available at http://www. undoit. org/pdfs/mythsvfacts. pdf. Dr. Chameides, chief scientist at Environmental Defense, is a member of the U.S. National A cademy of Sciences and has been named a National Associate of the National Academies. He is also an American Geophysical Union Fellow, and has received the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Award. Dr. Chameides has served as editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research and is the author or coauthor of more than 120 scientific publications and five books. He received his doctorate from Yale University. The explanations are qualitative instead of quantitative because we do not have quantitative data from these events in the distant past to construct their exact histories. It has been suggested based on temperature reconstructions and model simulations that the MWP may have been caused by increased solar activity or a dearth of volcanic activity. 3 th Because worldwide temperature measurements do not exist before the 19 century, temperature records before th the 19 century are based on reconstructions of the temperature from the variations in temperature-sensitive proxies (e. g. , tree rings, isotopes in ice cores). 4 These variations are possibly due to changes in the concentrations of atmospheric aerosols produced from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass. 1 6

The Effective Methods to Learn New Vocabulary

Shiyu Wang EDI 300 Dr. Pole 09/26/2011 The Effective Methods To Learn New Vocabulary Vocabulary is one of the three main elements of language, and it is the base of literature. Whatever people communicate with others by any language, and the first requirement is that people must have certain vocabulary. In study activities, teachers emphasize listening, speaking, reading, and writing, but students cannot learn without vocabulary. Vocabulary learning is a process of memorizing and recognizing. If students don’t have enough vocabulary, they will spend more time to read, and they are not interested in the books they read.Learning language base is very important in English teaching, and learning language base includes knowledge and skill. For accumulating vocabulary knowledge, and pointing to the difficulties to students, some researchers provide some methods below to develop the learning qualities. In the beginning, vocabulary learning includes two sides, and they are accumulatin g and understanding. The purpose of learning vocabulary is letting students handle every word, so the best method of learning vocabulary is by reading. If they handle the sentences, they will remember the words.One disadvantage of learning by rote is that all words are in alphabetical order, and student cannot be interested in those words because of no connection with their life. This will be a very passive activity, but memorizing is active. For example, people might remember name of the person they want to make friend with. That is not because you repeat it, but also you are memory activator. The other disadvantage is that even though people remember the meanings of the words, they cannot use them to write articles.In different language environment, one word has different meanings. So, using sentence frame to develop vocabulary is a better method. If you read a sentence every day, the value will be more than that people recite twenty words. Dr. Kesler â€Å"prompted students to c ontinue using the textual information to consider the word's meaning. After reading, we revisited the words in context and how often they appeared in the text. The students then refined and generated new possible sentences that we discussed based on new textual information. (Ted 2) Reading is good, but the sentences should be found in our favorite articles. Firstly, people must love that sentence, because understanding is the basic of using. For instance, when I read Mark Twain, one sentence is written like that â€Å"†¦constantly worries about money as her family teetered between near-prosperity and genteel poverty. † This sentence describes the family economic situation exactly. Because I love this sentence, I immediately remember the word â€Å"teeter†. Then, American sociologist, Dr.Hymes stated that only studying one language is not enough, students must have the ability of communicating by the language. They must understand how to use suitable methods to exp ress the true purpose, and this expression method depends on the social cultural background. The cultural background is abundant. Generally, learning vocabulary has the firm connection with learning cultural background. Therefore, during the studying process, we might meet many words related to culture, when we learn these words, we should know the culture around the words. For that reason, they are not separated.I am an international student in the USA, so I live in a totally different culture environment, so the same meaning word has different meaning and usage in different culture environment. For example, in American people mind, â€Å"week† is from Sunday to Saturday, but in Chinese culture, â€Å"week† is from Monday to Sunday. At the same time, in different culture background, every word have abundant cultural connotation except denotation. Therefore, people should communicate with others by mixing language and culture. On the other side, good culture knowledge can not lead people communicate with others.Reading a lot of newspaper, books, and movies can let students understand the suitable environment, and they can know the true meaning of the vocabulary, so they will have the ability to communicate with other people, and get the purpose of using the new words. Using new pictures to learn and review Next, teachers should develop the interests of learning words. For changing the boring learning methods, they must use several different teaching ways to let students are interested in new vocabulary by themselves. Firstly, teachers can use new pictures to learn and review, so they can use several pictures to lead students to learn.For example, they can create many kinds of picture cards to learn fruit and vegetable words. Those cards will catch children’s attention, and this will be the best time to remember vocabulary. Secondly, teachers can use real things. Students don’t like boring lecture, but several real things are close t o the reality life, so they can see and touch the objects, so they will develop their study interests, then teachers can teach new words with letting students look at the real objects. Thirdly, teachers can let students to sing songs.If teachers can compose the songs by the new words, they can let students sing with performance, and it will build a relaxing study environment. Fourthly, playing games is also a good method to let students have study interests, and it can change the boring language situation to be an interesting course structure that students can accept. Fifthly, teachers can use some simple drawing. When they draw the pictures, they will remember the words effectively. In Janet Towell’s E-journal named Fun with vocabulary, she also introduce many other interesting ways to learn vocabulary, like color shock.It â€Å"is a technique that was originally designed for right-brained, learning disabled students to help them remember sight words. Right-brained children seem to have a special sensitivity for bright colors. † (Janet 356) This way is using different colors with different letters, so it will be a best way to learn words. The other way she Word cross game show readers is onsets and rimes, and â€Å" this technique for developing phonemic awareness can help beginning readers quickly and effectively learn many sight words using word patterns. (Janet 356) Those methods are all good for students to learn new vocabulary. Last but not least, technology will be another effective methods to learn new vocabulary. Using new technology can imitate several situations, and in teaching process. Firstly, powerpoint can be used independently without other software. Powerpoint can link to video, flash, picture, and other audio records, and teachers can show the course content by several media. Powerpoint is very active, and it cannot only catch students’ attention, but also help student remember words well.Secondly, study is a process of structure knowledge and studying actively. Therefore, teachers should let students think continuously, and get knowledge by thinking. By looking flash, students will find that words can have their living power because changing can develop memory. Thirdly, teachers try their best to using the Internet resource. On the Internet, students can read some materials that are related to the content they need to learn. They will understand the textbooks deeply, and at the same time, they will develop their reading ability. Dr.Dalton thinks that â€Å"teachers can create a digital version of a vocabulary field trip using a free program called TrackStar. It allows you to collect a series of websites and annotate them so that students follow the online journal. † (Bridget 4) They also can use advantage of online word reference tools as teaching tools, for example, â€Å"the visual thesaurus website complement its freebased content with free information such as the Behind the Dictionary and Teachers at work. † (Bridget 4) Additionally, students can exchange their thoughts with other students on the Internet.In conclusion, Emily Dickinson writes a poem called A Word that â€Å" A word is dead When it is said, Some say, I say it just Begins to live That day. † So, learning new vocabulary can be very interesting, and there are many different effective methods to remember words. Fluent language cannot exist without huge vocabulary accumulating, so enjoying vocabulary is the basic of learning language well. Without vocabulary, reading, translating, and writing cannot continue. Language learning develops by practicing and repeating, so teachers must keep students’ passion.Interest is the best teacher. The effective method to make vocabulary learning active is a necessary way teachers must research. Works Cited The Reading Teacher. Newark, Del. , etc: International Reading Association, 1989. Internet resource. Reading Teacher. Newark, Del: Internation al Reading Association, 1900. Internet resource. â€Å"Games. † Photograph. Webshots. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. ;http://vocabulary. net/games/; â€Å"Basic Vocabulary Skills Cards. † Photograph. Webshots. 22 August. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. ;http://www. ssww. com/item/basic-vocabulary-skills-cards-LR1184/;

Top French Romance Films

Top French Romance Films Well, they say French is the language of love, so what better language to watch romantic movies in? Cyrano de Bergerac   A beautiful, touching, and humorous love story. Cyrano loves Roxanne but fears rejection due to his overly-large nose. Roxanne loves Christian, and he, in turn, loves her but does not have the ability to express his love. Cyrano helps Christian by expressing his love to Roxanne via Christian. This is the original film, made in 1950 in black and white. It has been remade a few times, including in the US as  Roxanne, with Steve Martin. Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre) Gerard Depardieu plays a soldier who returns to his wife after many years and has changed so much (in more than just personality) that his wife and neighbors are not sure its the same person. A beautiful love story as well as an interesting look at medieval France. Remade in the US as  Sommersby, with Jodie Foster and Richard Gere. Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) A classic French romantic movie, by Marcel Carne. A mime falls in love with a theater troupe actress but faces a lot of competition for her affections. Shot in black and white in 1946 (while Paris was under German occupation), but set in the 19th century. Its a must see! La Belle et la bà ªte (Beauty and the Beast) Youve probably seen some version of this classic French romance, but the original- in black and white- is by far the best. This beautiful, sensual film by Jean Cocteau is about love, inner beauty, and obsession, and is nothing short of a magical fairy tale. Baisers volà ©s (Stolen Kisses) This sequel to 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups) couldnt be more different to its predecessor. Antoine loves Christine, who is indifferent until her admirer falls for another women. Christine then realizes (decides?) that she does want him after all, and tries to woo him back. A very sweet movie by Franà §ois Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Là ©aud. Les Roseaux savages (Wild Reeds) Andrà © Tà ©chinà ©s 1994 film, set in 1964, is a beautiful coming-of-age story about four teenagers and their experiences with relationships and the effects of Frances war in Algeria. Beautiful cinematography and a great soundtrack, to boot. This film won 4 Cà ©sar awards. Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Full Moon in Paris) A wonderful romantic comedy and the fourth installment in director Eric Rohmers Comedies and Proverbs series. Louise (played by the talented Pascale Ogier, who tragically died the year the film was released) grows bored with her lover and decides to spice up her (love) life. Humor and tragedy ensue. LAmi de mon amie (Boyfriends and Girlfriends) Another from the Comedies and Proverbs series, this film looks at love and friendship. Which is more important: passion or companionship? Is boyfriend-swapping really such a good idea after all? Find out with this movie. Une Liaison pornographique (An Affair of Love) Dont let the ironic French title put you off; this is a beautiful, erotic love story about two people who meet looking for anonymous sex but end up finding much more. A beautiful and mysterious tale of love. LHistoire dAdà ¨le H (The Story of Adele H) The true story of Victor Hugos daughter and her obsession with a French lieutenant. Not a happy story, but certainly a beautiful and intriguing movie.