Monday, October 14, 2019

Nonmetric Analysis of Jawbones for Sex Determination

Nonmetric Analysis of Jawbones for Sex Determination ABSTRACT AIMS OBJECTIVES Mandible is the strongest, largest, hardest most durable bone of the skull which retains its shape better than other bones in forensic study and exhibiting high degree of sexual dimorphism. To study the nonmetric characteristics of mandible such as the variations of shape of chin, lower border of mandible and shape of coronoid process and to distinguish between males and females. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The material for this study comprised of 90 dry adult human mandibles of known sex which was obtained from Department of Anatomy. The characteristic feature that allowed the sexes to be distinguished was the contour of the lower border of mandible, shape of the chin and shape of coronoid process bilaterally. RESULTS: Rocker-shaped mandibles predominated in males (58.9%), whereas most females (41.1%) exhibited a straight mandible. The shape of the chin in most males was generally Bilobate (45.5%), Square (43.6%), whereas the chin in females was Pointed (71.4%).Shapes of coronoid process observed were Triangular (41.1%), Rounded (31.1%), and Hook in (27.8%) with p value CONCLUSION: The nonmetric analysis of mandible used in this study could be used for sex determination. Key words: Forensic anthropological, Mandible, Non metric characteristics sex determination. Introduction In forensic investigation identifying the human remains is thought to be a first step is crucial for futher analysis.1 The sex determination in human skeleton is usually the initial step in the identification process as subsequent methods for age and stature estimation are sex dependent. The accuracy of sex determination depends on the completeness of the remains and the degree of sexual dimorphism inherent in the population.2 When the complete adult skeleton is available for analysis sex can be determined up to hundred percent (100%) accuracy, but in cases of fragmented bones which are usually found in mass disasters, obtaining cent percent (100%) accuracy in sex determination is difficult and it largely depends on the available fragmented bones of skeleton.1, 2 As evident from the earlier studies, the most dimorphic and easily distinguish portion of skeleton among sexes after pelvis is skull, providing accuracy up to 92%.1 But in cases where intact skull is not found, in sex determination mandible may play a vital role, as it is the most durable, largest, strongest , and dimorphic bone of skull.1-4 Mandible is very durable part of skull bone due to the presence of a dense layer of compact bone, and hence remains well preserved than many other bones. The shape and size of mandible reflects the dimorphism characteristics.1 Female bones are generally smaller and less robust than male bones.2 This characteristic feature of mandible helps in sex and age determination in medico legal cases. In anthropological excavations, the morphometric features of the mandible aid to determine the sex, age, food habits and race of the population and also helps to understand the cave dweller / human evolution.5 The relative development such as size, strength, and angulation of the muscles of mastication is known to influence the expression of mandibular dimorphism as masticatory forces exerted are different for males and females.6 The shape of the mandible can vary according to the different lifestyles and chewing habits .7Therefore, the morphological characteristics of the mandible vary among different ethnic groups. There are several causes of differences in the shape of the mandible between the sexes8. The shape and size of the mandible appear to differ between the sexes from the development of the deciduous tooth. Also, the size of the masticatory muscles and mandible appear to differ between males and females before birth9. The size of the ramus differs between males and females according to the stage of mandibular development and muscle growth.10,11 Furthermore, the mandible have different rate of growth in males and females.12,13 Because puberty occurs earlier in females than in males, sexual differences may manifest themselves in the skull and jaws of females earlier than in the later and longer maturing males.14 For the determination of the of males and females mandible many attempts have been made wi th help of metric standards.15-17 However, metric methods have their disadvantages by their requirement of a complete mandible. Using nonmetric methods, Bass18 found that the shape of the chin could be used to distinguish between males and females. In addition, Loth and Henneberg 19 in his reported cases showed that there is a large difference in the à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡exure of the ramal posterior border during male and female Africans that can be used to differentiate the sexes with 99% reliability. In addition, it was reported that there are discrete differences in the gonial à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡aring of the mandible between the sexes20. In this study we investigated the criteria that can be used to differentiate between males and females by using the non-metric characteristics of mandible such as variation of contour of lower border of mandible, shape of the chin and variation in shape of coronoid process in mandibles. MATERIALS AND METHOD The present study was undertaken on 90 dry adult, complete, undamaged human mandibles of known sex from the collection of Anatomy department. Out of 90 mandibles 53 were of males and 37 of females and were examined for the variations shape of lower border, shape of the chin and shape of coronoid process of both the left and right side of the mandible. The shape of the chin was classified according to the thickness of the mandible in front of and beneath the chin, the proà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ le of the chin according to amount of protrusion of the chin observed from the side, the contour of the lower border of the mandible was classified according to the depth of the antegonial notch, variations in the shape of the coronoid process in right and left sides of adult bones of both sexes were noted and tabulated. The nonmetric items observed in this study is as follows: 1. The contour of the lower border of the mandible (fig 1) Straight/rocker/undulating 2. The shape of the chin (fig 1) Bilobate/square/pointed 3 Coronoid process of mandible (fig 1) Hooked, rounded and triangular INCULSION CRITERIA: well-formed mandible EXCULSION CRITERIA: Fractured, deformed, bony growths of Coronoid process [osteochondroma] were excluded from the study. Data were analyzed using a chi-square test p value of 0.05 was obtained which showed that this study was statistically significant. RESULTS: Rocker-shaped mandibles predominated in males (58.9%), whereas most females (41.1%) exhibited a straight mandible. The shape of the chin in most males was generally Bilobate (45.5%), Square (43.6%), and Pointed (10.9%), whereas the chin in females was either Square (8.6%) or Bilobated (20.0%) Pointed (71.4%).Shapes of coronoid process observed were Triangular (41.1%), Rounded (31.1%), and Hook in (27.8%) with p value Discussion Differentiating features of males from females and the differences in ethnic groups by analyzing the morphological characteristics of bone is important in the à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ eld of physical and forensic anthropology. Sound bone is difà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ cult to obtain because the quality of bone deteriorates over time due to factors such as environment-induced erosion. In sex determination examination of the pelvic bone is the most accurate means, but this bone is rarely found intact. Skull is most easily distinguishing portion of the skeleton as a part of the skull mandible shares its own characteristics. The mandible is the strongest and largest bone in the human body and persists in a well-preserved state longer than any other bone. Hence mandibular characteristics are significantly useful for determining sex and race. The shape of the chin and the lower border of the mandible had a different shape between males and females in the present study. The shape of the chin is used widely to distinguish between the sexes, because the male chin is usually bilobate /square whereas the female chin is more pointed. Similar observations were made in the present study; specifically, 90.7% of males had either a bilobate or square chin, whereas 72.2% of females had a pointed chin. However, while the shape of the chin is more distinctive in males than in females, sex determination based only on the shape of the chin is not sufà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ciently reliable. The characteristic that was the most distinguishable between the sexes in this study was the shape of the lower border of the mandible. The lower borders of mandibles from males tended to be rocker shaped (58.9%), whereas lower borders of mandibles from females tended to be straight (41.1%) (Table1). Therefore, the shape of the lower border of the mandible may be used as a reliable index for sex determination. However, we believe that using only this characteristic is not sufà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ciently reliable for sex determination; instead, evaluating both the shape of the chin and the shape of the lower border of the mandible improve the precision of sex determination. When these two items were combined, 90.7% of males exhibited the characteristics of male mandibles (a bilobate or square chin and a rocker-shaped lower border of the mandible), whereas 77.2% of females exhibited the characteristics of female mandibles (a pointed chin and a straight lower border of the mandible, (Table3). Fe w males (9.3%) had a pointed chin and a straight lower border, which are characteristics of females, while 27.7% of the females exhibited mandibular characteristics that were characteristic of males (Table 3). Therefore, the probability of assigning the incorrect sex to a mandible when examining both the shape of the chin and the shape of the lower border of the mandible is very low. Moreover, the shape of the chin is the most distinctive characteristic in males (90.7%), whereas the lower border of the mandible is the most distinctive characteristic in females (77.2%). Therefore, we can determine the sex using the following two-step approach. During the à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rst step in determining sex based on the characteristics of the mandible, if the lower border of the mandible is rocker shaped, it is likely to be the mandible of a male, but if the lower border is straight, it is likely to be the mandible of a female; during the second step, if the chin of the mandible that has a straigh t lower border is bilobate/square, it is likely to be the mandible of a male whereas pointed and straight is likely to be of female. Shapes of coronoid process observed were Triangular (41.1%),Rounded (31.1%), and Hook in (27.8%) where Triangular and hook shape had slight male predilection and triangular and rounded had slight more of female predilection(Table 4).Issac B21reported in a study of 157 mandibles incidence of hook shaped was 27.4%, triangular 49% and rounded type 23.6%.He found the incidence of the rounded type almost equal in male and female mandibles, triangular type slightly more in the females, while hook type more in the male mandibles. Comparing with Issac B the incidence of hook type was closely similar to the present study, but triangular and rounded shape incidence observed was more in males and so the findings did not coincide with the author. CONCULSION The differences between the sexes and among ethnic groups the morphological characteristics of the mandible are determined by the environment and different growth patterns. Therefore, males and females can be distinguished based on the shapes of various parts of the mandible. We found that the simultaneous use of the shape of the lower border of the mandible and the shape of the chin is the best method of predicting sex with a rate of accuracy that is higher than 90% and the morphological variation of shapes of coronoid .Triangular shape of coronoid process is the most common presentation .Incidence of Triangular, Rounded and Hook shape were found more in the in male bones compared to female bones. The above findings could be of substantial significance for the anatomist, anthropologist and forensic researchers.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

What Does The Placebo Effect Say About The Mind-body Dilemma? :: Biology Essays Research Papers

What Does The Placebo Effect Say About The Mind-body Dilemma? When I was seven years old my family and I took my grandmother on a trip around northern India. It was her desire to make pilgrimages to the temples that were considered to be the holiest by the Swaminaryans, an orthodox sect of Hindus. At that time in my life, I couldn't even pretend to be interested in the activities occurring within the temples. Instead, I was mesmerized by my proximity to the wildlife that was lounging just outside of the actual walls of temples. In a two-week span of time I must have seen more than twenty temples, and by the end they all blurred together except for one. Although the temple itself was not magnificent, what was occurring inside has remained with me to this day. A male priest, who was sitting at the main alter, was pulling on elderly woman's hair causing her to scream hysterically. I discovered that the woman was suffering from a headache and was having it cured by the priest. More accurately, she was having the "ghosts" removed from her brain. For the individuals who were directly involved in the ceremony and for many of the people with whom I was traveling, exorcism was a perfectly legitimate way of curing an illness of the body. The cure had no pharmaceutical basis, but it was based in the people's belief system. The belief system for the circumstance that I witnessed was a ritualistic aspect of Hinduism. In the case of the exorcism, the individuals involved expected that the treatment would work, and as a result the treatment did work. The idea that people benefit from expectation alone is called the placebo effect, and it is not u nique to India or to the east. Placebos are medications or treatments that are benign and have no pharmacological properties 1)The Placebo Effect Real of Imagined. The category of placebo includes everything from the hair pulling I witnessed in India to the starch pills that millions of American women take along with their birth control. Until recently, placebos were considered important to Western medicine, in so far as they were part of a rigorous scientific method of testing and approving new medicine. In particular, a standard part of clinical trials is the division of patients into two categories. One category is given the medication being tested and the other is given placebo pills.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Political Critique of Race Relations in Alice Walkers Color Purple Ess

The Color Purple as Political Critique of Race Relations      Ã‚  Ã‚   If the integrated family of Doris Baines and her adopted African grandson exposes the missionary pattern of integration in Africa as one based on a false kinship that in fact denies the legitimacy of kinship bonds across racial lines, the relationship between Miss Sophia and her white charge, Miss Eleanor Jane, serves an analogous function for the American South. Sophia, of course, joins the mayor's household as a maid under conditions more overtly racist than Doris Baines's adoption of her Akwee family: Because she answers "hell no" (76) to Miss Millie's request that she come to work for her as a maid, Sophia is brutally beaten by the mayor and six policeman and is then imprisoned. Forced to do the jail's laundry and driven to the brink of madness, Sophia finally becomes Miss Millie's maid in order to escape prison. Sophia's violent confrontation with the white officers obviously foregrounds issues of race and class, as even critics who find these issues marginalized elsewhere in The Color Purple have noted. But it is not only through Sophia's dramatic public battles with white men that her story dramatizes issues of race and class. Her domestic relationship with Miss Eleanor Jane and the other members of the mayor's family offers a more finely nuanced and extended critique of racial integration, albeit one that has often been overlooked.(11)    Like Doris Baines and her black grandson, Sophia and Miss Eleanor Jane appear to have some genuine family feelings for one another. Since Sophia "practically . . . raise[s]" (222) Miss Eleanor Jane and is the one sympathetic person... ...nold, 1993. 85-96.    Sekora, John. "Is the Slave Narrative a Species of Autobiography?" Studies in Autobiography. Ed. James Olney. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. 99-111.    Shelton, Frank W. "Alienation and Integration in Alice Walker's The Color Purple." CLA Journal 28 (1985): 382-92.    Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Explanation and Culture: Marginalia." Humanities and Society 2 (1974): 201-21.    Stade, George. "Womanist Fiction and Male Characters." Partisan Review 52 (1985): 264-70.    Tate, Claudia. Domestic Allegories of Political Desire: The Black Heroine's Text at the Turn of the Century. New York: Oxford UP, 1992.    Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.    Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt, 1982.      

Friday, October 11, 2019

Parties’ Policy Platforms

With the voting date for the 2000 elections approaching, Americans are being bombarded with the policy platforms of the candidates. The two front runners and their lesser known rivals use every medium available to spread their ideas on major issues. It is because of their use of the media that voters are able to compare and contrast policy views of multiple parties. Using two important policy areas (for the purposes of this essay, we will continue to use public education and social security) we will discuss and analyze the views of the two major parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, and a Public education is a headlining topic during elections. The current public education system has allowed the United States to have one of the highest standards of living in the world, but could use some improving. The republicans believe that by providing public school students with private school vouchers, every child will have access to a high quality, indeed, a world-class education. (the Republican National The democrats believe that the republican idea of private school vouchers would offer too few dollars to too few children to escape their failing schools. The feel that vouchers would be pulling bucks out of the schools that need them most. Instead of vouchers, the democrats want to invest more in Americas crumbling schools, even if that means providing less tax cuts for American citizens. (the Democratic Committee The green party also is against vouchers, but believes in Equalize School Funding with Federal Revenue Sharing: Federal financing of all public education (instead of by regressive local property taxes) so that every school has the resources it needs to provide he highest quality education for every child. The Green Party website: Social Security is another publicized issue. While all 3 parties have expressed interest to save social security, the way they will go about doing it varies. The republican party platform says that they will continue to stop the annual raids on the Social Security trust funds by balancing the federal budget without that program†s surplus. (the Republican National Convention website: www. rnc. org) The democratic platform states that to build on the success of Social Security, Al Gore has proposed the creation of Retirement Savings Plus – voluntary, tax-free, personally-controlled, privately-managed savings accounts with a government match that would help couples build a nest egg of up to $400,000. Also, separate from Social Security, Retirement Savings Plus accounts would let Americans save and invest on top of the foundation of Social Security's guaranteed benefit. Under this plan, the federal government would match individual contributions with tax credits, with the hardest-pressed working families getting the most assistance. (the Democratic Committee On the issue of Social security, the green party platform does not go into much detail stating: The actuarial protection of social security is essential to the well-being of our seniors, and the maintenance of the system†s integrity is an essential part of a healthy community. (the Green Party website: www. greenparty. org) While they do not offer their plan for improvement, it is clear that they do not plan on letting the program die out. While the basic, raw ideas of improving education and saving social security are shared by the 3 parties, their plan of execution varies.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

What’s Gone Wrong with the Third Italy

Msc BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CONTENT Introduction p. 3 Early glitches of the SMEs within the industrial districts p. 5 Analysis of two of the regional clusters at stake p. 6 What went wrong? p. 7 Concluding remarks p. 9 References p. 10 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to determine to which extent the economic areas known as ’Third Italy’ have not managed to achieve the well-desired status. The local development model has been presented as the perfect small-scale flexible capitalist type that has adopted a post-Fordist mode of production (Grancelli, 2007).The economic cluster referred to as Third Italy, was founded in the post-war period (1950s and 1960s) when the global economy was going through hard times of recovery. In the north-east part of Italy a new type of firms was developed. The question may be put why didn’t the other two important industrialized districts known as First Italy (the industrial heartland of the North) and the Second Italy (the backward South) have become the regions of wealth and economic growth.The answer lies primarily in the cultural values: the local culture of entrepreneurship and cooperation (Boschma, 1998) that to some extent doesn’t apply for other Italian regions. The following figure displays accurately the industrial zone of Italy: According to Bagnasco (1977) from a economic point of view Italy was divided into the ’Three Italies’: the North-west, the big companies, was tagged as ’central economy’, the shallow regions of the South seen as ’marginal economy’ and the central-North-eastern regions- known as Third Italy- haracterized by the presence of small firms that are defined as ’peripheral economy’. Nonetheless, the way in which the Third Italy region was defined didn’t hide the real facts; when compared to the North-west typology, productivity per worker and work unit-costs were sensibly lower. But t his didn’t disable the central-north-east cluster to have a significant development process that is confirmed by: a reduction of agricultural employees, an increase in manufacturing workers, growth in resident population, and an upward trend in Italy’s industrial national product (Bianchi, 1998).The â€Å"Third Italy† region, also referred to as Emilia-Romagna, forms a north-eastern group of counties that propelled themselves to a position of prosperity between the relatively wealthy north-western triangle of Italy and the relatively impoverished Mezzagiorno region south of Rome (Walcott, 2007). Localized production centres utilize export-oriented niche specializations to create place-based economies supporting local firms. Related residents supply both low labour costs and endogenously accumulated capital.Light industrial products include foods, clothing, shoes, furniture, and metal work for a craft-based market. Building on a textiles and leather goods special ization, that demands rapid responses to a notoriously fickle fashion market, familial and other locally forged trust-based ties enabled local star â€Å"Benetton† to become an international fashion retail chain. Knowledge of the local market was so finely tuned that offerings were famously differentiated even within the same city (Walcott, 2007).External economies of place propelled tightly organized local regions to maximize returns based on clearly defined sectoral specialization. In one example clearly defying physical topography, Silicon Valley imitators sprang up around the globe as hopeful high technology havens. A real estate set-aside does not an industrial district make, however (Walcott, 2007). Early glitches of the SMEs within the industrial districts In the early 1990s the one of the menacing forces against the Italian industrial clusters was the post-industrial transition.The internationalization of the economy endangers the developing process of small-scale fir ms. One good argument is the external market that provides expanded multinational, multi-product, multi-market companies (Holland, 1987). Even if the European Union is trying to help out these businesses by adopting policies and programmes the structural problems are not accurately aimed (Dastoli and Vilella, 1992: 179). Firms part of the Italian industrial district were running short of breath confirming that the market by its self regulation has launched an attack to the ’small is beautiful’ saying.Innovation plays a key part in the life of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the industrial clusters. It is noticed a decline in the importance of factors sources of external economies) that empowered the initial outset of the firms. The long used external sources were starting to lose grip in the face of the needed environmental efficiency (Bianchi, 1998). The changes that had to be performed weren’t a walk in the park. According to Bianchi (1990): the local entrepreneurs’ social culture and the past history successes disable the belief of urgent innovation investment.Also, economic barriers have prohibited small firms to access the large scale research and development, marketing and etc. (Regini and Sabel, 1989). Furthermore, two additional problems sprung up from the innovation process that need to be taken into consideration: ’product innovation’ in those zone of production with a highly design content that subtracts the formal innovation side rather than the technological innovation, because the first one includes creativity, imagination and taste, factors that are not easily obtained in business-set like this.The other difficulty is process innovation meaning that adopting a higher technological labour focused system would both increase productivity and decrease costs (Bianchi, 1998). Hadjimicalis (Hadjimicalis, 2006) introduces a set of arguments that could nevertheless be the real ones behind Third Italyâ₠¬â„¢s downturn. ’The lack of attention to the role of state’ implies the obsolete focus on different direct and indirect protectionist measures and regulations as in the work of radicals Stoper (1997) and Scott (1988).The most important protectionist measures as the Multi-Fibre Agreement that went in favour for Italy’s blooming manufacturing industries. The regulatory decisions have protected Italy along with other countries from ’unlimited competition’ in garments and textiles from the menacing low waged countries in the Eastern part of the world. Another governmental intervention was the fiscal regulation which consisted the hedging the exchange rates for the lira due to the devaluations throughout the 20th century and one of them when Euro currency was adopted in 2001.An interesting fact is that all those authors that supported the theories behind Third Italy industrial clusters as (Asheim 1999, Becattini 1990, Cooke 1988) haven’t seen th e harsh reality of such a business type: poor working conditions and safety conditions, longer work hours and low paid working hours. All the other specific characteristics of the small-scale enterprises from the region as: flexibility, innovation and embbededness of small firms (Hadjimichalis, 2006). Another term that was used to explain the success of Italian IDs is ’social capital’.It is the theoretical concept that has been used by various authors. A good perspective is seen through the lenses of Hadjimichalis: ’From individuals to communities, from firms to families, from cooperation to competition, from working conditions to unions, from trust and reciprocity to corruption and from the success to the failure of a place, all are called social capital’, this explaining clearly the real trend of firms within the Italian industrial clusters. Analysis of two of the regional clusters at stakeThe most remarkable evolution oscillations can be outlined in Em ilia-Romagna and Veneto provinces, where ’industrialisation without breaks’ (Fua,1983) was followed by a third party strategy ’without breaks’ which means that the regions have gained the prestige of stability organisms within the frontier of national development. The Piedmont and Lombardy are also good examples for the comparative advantage of their early launch and the lasting predominance of their industries provided the solid foundations for a strong post-industrial transition (Bianchi, 1998).Tuscany, on the other hand, has badly faced up to the need to restructure during the 1980s. Its historical memory describes best the anti-industrial attitude of its ruling class. Differences between the two provinces within the Third Italy are clear. The Emilia-Romagna’s type of industrial development is seen as unique and deeply rooted in the region’s culture and entrepreneurial activity (Heidenreich, 1996) and when compared to Tuscany’s ina bility to cope with a model of development that seems inapplicable to the case.Table 1 underlines the two differences in between the two regions described above. What went wrong? The industrial district of Third Italy (IDs) have suffered severe changes during the early 1990s because of the demand fall for Made in Italy products along with the emergence of new lower waged Eastern Europe companies and developing countries (Grancelli,2006). The active devaluation of the lira due to the euro introduction had a significant impact on the upward trend of Italian exports.The small-scale enterprises that have set a foothold into the creation of the so-called Third Italy region, were basically family businesses which put all into a network bowl had formed the leading industrial area of Italy and a model to follow on by the emerging countries. Following the same idea it could be said that the demographic decline has started a process of ’social construction of the market’ (Bagnas co ;amp; Triglia 1984; Dei Ottati 1995; Provasi 2002).The financial global crisis has put its fingerprint on the actual Italian industrial districts, but those enterprises that could jump incremental innovation and ensure a competitive position globally had somewhat survived the impact (Whitford, 2001). The latter example of firms shows that they have created vertically integrated organizational blueprints, and made foreign direct investments in contrast to the swept out firms that have just relocated part of their production (Grancelli, 2006) to low pay working force or to attract foreign workers in the home production facilities.According to Hadjimichailis (2006) : The erosion of the Italian industrial clusters was made through: ’ Relocation of production in Eastern Europe in search of low labour costs’ and this gave birth to: a severe increase in unemployment percentages and adding the hiring of immigrant workers within the Italian borders. Hadjimichailis (2006) als o introduces the ’bloody Taylorism’ term which is used in relation to the destination markets of the Italian entrepeneurs, Eastern Europe countries.This is used in connection to the SMEs of Veneto which were thought to re-establish Fordist factories due to delocalization processes. One example is the relocated production quotas abroad which ranged from 23% to 45% that resulted in a decrease of 28% of employment, 38% of production units in the region. This being said, the following concluding remarks could be made: ’Fordism is not only alive and well at the global scale, but it also returns as a solution to Italian firms’ from the industrial clusters, which were the models of flexibility and industrial district mythology (Hadjimichailis, 2006 : 95).The eastern slide of some of the sub-contractors from the Third Italy confirms the ideology that coordination between subsidiaries abroad and the parent company could not be only made through tacit knowledge of skilled workers and technicians remains an important factor even in a globally set value chain (Biggero, 2006). Those actors that have relocated their business into the Eastern part of Europe, Romania or other Balkan countries are seen as ’extroverted actors’ that also maintained relations within the home country district (Tappy, 2005).An important technological disequilibrium was introduced in the late 1960s – plastic materials for ski boots – by the lively research of external knowledge through some of leading firms. Another challenge of the north-eastern industrial clusters is the superior technological level of the products and putting a foot in the door of appealing mergers and acquisitions. Old, traditional and family driven businesses that are identified within the Third Italy areas need to see the ever changing strategy patterns as to going from a production to design phase which could attract cost diminishing (Cooke, 1998).It must not be neglecte d the power created by the tight bonded social network that has nurtured its roots for more than 50 years and before de ’90s has raised economic analysts’ eye browses throughout the world. Concluding remarks In order to survive, Italian industrial districts need to be fulfilling the following two conditions: their social and geographical division of labour remains globally competitive as compared to similar areas, sectors and other forms of industrial production, and their internal system of social reproduction remains unchallenged. Hadjimichalis, 2006) Mergers and acquisitions with famous brand names could be live threats for the small business embedded firms from the industrial zones of Italy. The power of Fordism has not dawned; in fact there is an increase of business deployment using this theory mainly in the Eastern countries. De-localization breaks the mesmerizing effect of small-scale flexible companies and builds up the multinational company picture having ver tical integrated characteristics.The presence of a huge wave of non-EU immigrants also changes the parameters of the Third Italy’s rather stable local social structure, with a cap on immigrations that could preserve craft traditions and the reproduction of skills. Even though ’Third Italy’ concept is turning ethereal, the back stage offers the resources, specific capabilities and core competencies developed throughout the years by the district firms to achieve competitive advantage in their markets but also to allow their sub-parts within the industrial system (Schiavone, 2004).As theories claim Third Italy revolves around the social capital theories that also could be a driver for economic performance (Granato et al. , 1996). In addition to too little social capital, too much social capital could have a negative impact on economic performance (Boschma and Lambooy, 2002). Finally, it could be assumed that the process of rethinking and reorienting of Third Italyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s entrepreneurial and family based firms has done a significant change to whole industrial aggregate. References Asheim B. (1999), â€Å" Interactive learning and localized knowledge in globalising learning economies†.Geojournal 49(4):345–352 Bagnasco, A. ,Trigilia, C. (eds) (1984), â€Å" Societa e politica nelle aree di piccola impresa: Il caso di Bassano, Venezia: Arsenale Editrice. agnasco†, A. ,Trigilia, C. (eds) (1984), Societa e politica nelle aree di piccola impresa: Il caso di Bassano, Venezia: Arsenale Editrice. Becattini G. , (1990) â€Å"The Marchallian industrial district as a socio-economic notion. In F Pyke, G Becattini and W Sengerberger (eds) Industrial Districts and the Interfirm Co-operation in Italy† (pp 132–142). Geneva: ILO Bianchi, G. (1998), â€Å"Requiem for the Third Italy?Rise and fall of a too successful concept†, Entrepeneurship;amp; Regional Development, 10 (1998), 93-116. Biggero, L. (2006), â€Å"Indus trial and knowledge delocation strategies under the challenges of globalization and digitalization: the move of small and medium enterprises among territorial systems† , Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 18: 443-471 Boschma, R. A. , and Lambooy, J. G. 2002. â€Å" Knowledge, market structure and economic co-ordination: the dynamics of industrial districts. Growth and Change† 33 (3): 291-311. Boschma, Ron A. , Kloosterman R.C. (1998), â€Å"Learning from Clusters: A Critical Assessment†,  © 2005 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands. 139–168. Cooke P. , (1988) â€Å" Flexible integration, scope economies and strategic alliances: Social and spatial mediation†. Society and Space 6:281–300 Cooke P. , Morgan, K. (1998), â€Å" The Associational Economy†, Oxford: O. U. P. Dastoli, P. V. and Viclla, G. 1992â€Å" La Nuova Europa. Dalla Comunita all' Unione (Bologna: II Mulino) † Dei Ottati, G. (1995), â€Å"Tra mercato e com unita: Aspetti concettuali e ricerche empiriche sul distretto industriale†, Milano: F.Angeli. Fua, G. and C. Zacchia (1983) (a cura di), â€Å" Industrializzazione senza fratture, Bologna: Il Mulino†. Granato, J. , Inglehart, R. , and Leblang, D. (1996). â€Å"The effect of cultural values on economic development. 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Challenge and response in the Italian industrial districts†, Economy and Society, 30/1: 38-65. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Theory that appeared after the ‘Fordism’ period in which a mass consumer was targeted, products standardized and costs lowered. Post-Fordism’ is characterized by ‘flexible specialization’ based on dense networks of flexible, strongly related, mostly small and medium-sized firms in mainly craft-based industries that are concentrated in specialis ed industrial districts(Boschma,1998). [ 2 ]. Copyright 2010 privileges set. [ 3 ]. SME-small and medium enterprises [ 4 ]. Putnam’s work on Italy (1993), Porter’s on clusters (1998) [ 5 ]. (Casarino, 1996) – After the Industrial Revolution, a mechanical engineer called Frederick W. Taylor proposed a new way to organize factories and shop floors with what he called the â€Å"Scientific Management†.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Antarctica

White fields of snow, surrounded by ice covered mountains and no civilization around for miles. This may sound like a fantasy land but is the blank canvas of Antarctica. Some people think of it as an arctic waste land but I see it as an unexplored frontier. Antarctica is one of last places on the planet that has not been thoroughly explored. It gives the land a kind of mystery; like anything could exist there. It represents an older simpler time in the world, before industrialization, automobiles, and roads. People have not breached this still natural and wild habitat. This natural world holds a magnificent beauty that is unparalleled anywhere else. It is one of the last uncultivated places left in the world where nature still reigns, free from the influence of human kind.Antarctica intrigues me because I am also interested in what is new and developing. This land has the opportunity to be created into anything. Any kind of government or economy; a whole new way of life could be crea ted here. Any type of society could develop from a colonial government controlled by some world power or a new sovereign nation. The unknown ignites my imagination. It makes me ask the question what new advancement in technology can be found or scientific discoveries can be made? I am intrigued by the unknown and of all the places in the world Antarctica is the epitome of the unknown.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Ethics and Employees Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethics and Employees - Research Proposal Example There is also the general awareness that corporations have to look after all stakeholders that eventually curbs unethical practices. It has been concluded that leaders have a major role to play in creating conditions where the employees are not coerced into unethical practices that are in any case not acceptable by either the law or the society at large. The Objective of Business is to earn profits for its owners, the shareholders. But does it mean an open license for managers to serve their employers without regards to those who help them to achieve the profit motive they work for? Do ends justify means? Are there not other stakeholders; suppliers, employees, consumers and indeed the society which offers them the opportunity to work for profit? With ever present conflicts the managers need to perform a balancing act to satisfy all stakeholders. However the role of the employees is crucial in performance of their obligations, hence a special relationship is required to be developed. Without the trust of the employees and their involvement the business objectives cannot be achieved. Leaders at all level have to be conscious of the fact that they have to set examples of behaviour that will be emulated by their sub-ordinates. These actions have to in consonance with the company’s objective and at the same time have to be balanced right. This balancing is based on principles or ethics. It is becoming evident to business in America that ethical values need to be upheld and become institutionalized (Sims 1991) as this is the desired status by society in general. However the dilemma is squarely faced by the individual manager. He perceives his primary role to be looking after shareholder value (Vogel 1991) in preference to other stakeholders. Therefore they justify the moral result or implication of their unethical behaviour and