Nepotism Essay Example

Nepotism Essay Nepotism is favoritism shown by somebody in power to relatives and friends, especially in appointing them to good positions. The chief complaint in a company that operates through nepotism is the patent lack of fairness. It is perceived as favoritism of a relative that can cause dissatisfaction among workers and lower morale. Employees seem to have less incentive to perform their responsibilities diligently and proficiently if they feel that the path to promotion is undermined by nepotism. Very few laws regulate nepotism at either the state or federal level. Some consequences of nepotism may increase your risk of being sued for discrimination or hostile work environment (hrhero 2009). Nepotism usually leads to an inferior work product. The employees who are majority of the time rewarded and promoted because of their relationships with management are likely to be under qualified for the positions they are expected to fill. They do not perform as well as those who deserve the position. That could cause an attrition of leadership skills at the senior level of the corporation and also contribute to the demoralization of more deserving candidates. Nepotism can take place in politics where a person with a political position either passes on their position or gets employment for a member of their family. Another type of nepotism that occurs is within the educational system, when a family member is admitted on the basis of their family’s history at the school applied to. We will write a custom essay sample on Nepotism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Nepotism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Nepotism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer A business could be sometimes suspected of nepotism when certain family members of higher-ups are promoted, hired, or given raises while other employees remain in their own positions. When an employee is fired and a family member of business leaders takes the position, it could be considered nepotism. Some businesses have serious rules about banning nepotism, which includes not having spouses or family members working in the same department or company. Nepotism may be extremely taxing for people who meet at work and go on to get married. On the discretion of the company the couple will have to change departments, or if in the service someone in the relationship will have to leave the service or be transferred to another location. Some businesses and organizations provide polices, and handbooks on nepotism. Laws regarding political nepotism vary from state to state (criminal lawyer2009). Several colleges and universities have a policy on nepotism as well. Along with the policies they enacted, they have procedures for people to follow. When you are applying for jobs, or upon receiving a job you have to notify the supervisors if you have a relative or spouse that works in the organization also. For example, the County of Santa Barbara retains the right to refuse to appoint a person to a position in the same department, division or facility, in which his or her relationship to another employee has the potential for creating adverse impact on supervision, safety, security or morale, or involves a potential conflict of interest. Their policy applies to all individuals in a relationship, from marriages to step parents, and children. Santa Barbara does not discriminate in its employment and personnel actions with respect to its employees and applicants on the basis of marital or familial status It also, applies to those of an immediate family to extended members. Their procedure is that the relatives have to be separated. They have to notify their head supervisors, and it is up to them to give one of them a different position. Some policies prohibit the hiring of an employees relatives under any circumstances, while others only prohibit it if there would be a direct or indirect reporting relationship between the two related individuals. Some private sectors and public sectors have a policy. Both private and public will have you sign an agreement or have you go through training, and the in the training they will state the relationship statues as part of the ethics training. Majority of the nepotism polices, laws and regulations are prepared at Universities and colleges. Upon your employment of the job, there is an agreement that you will have to sign stating that you agree not to date anyone with the company means. If dating is occurring then you are to report it to the supervisory, and it will be handled by them. The University of Houston, in their faulty handbook policy if you violate their policy than you are subjected to receiving a fine and removal from the office. An employee, who violates this policy, whether by knowingly permitting or knowingly accepting employment in violation of these regulations, is subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from employment (uhcl 2009). With their procedures you are also required to fill out a form of Personal data sheet upon employment. On that sheet you are to name your spouse if applicable, and all relatives as well, even if they are extended family. The employee is to turn the data sheet into the human Resource office, when the information is entered into the system, if relationships are discovered then department head, or supervisory is notified. After being notified by the resource department, than the department head will take necessary action to prohibit the situation from going any further. Employers may create anti-nepotism policies to avoid employee discrimination charges. Anti-nepotism can work against well-qualified individuals as well. The anti-nepotism that occurs when two people working together get married and one or both of them are fired. A business may also choose to not hire someone who is very qualified for a position because that person is related to someone in the company they might not receive the job, they do receive the job, and then they cannot work in the same location as their spouse. Anti-nepotism rules in public organizations have led to law suits based on anti-discrimination statutes and the U. S. Constitution. Some employees defend anti-nepotism rules as a business necessity, arguing that married co-workers are a potentially disruptive influence in the office. In several reviews of federal and state court decisions suggests that married co-workers rarely prevail in such cases. Several public sector organizations restrict working relationships between family members by means of anti-nepotism rules. The restrictions may be moderately narrow in some agencies, only forbidding public officials to appoint their own relatives or spouses to offices or positions. Other agencies, restrictions are much broader, prohibiting family members from working in the same department or even in the same organization. There are also criticisms of the anti-nepotism. One is anti-nepotism rules typically focus on the modern character of the marriage relationship. One argument is that dual career marriages tend to be more egalitarian than two paycheck families where the wife works to supplement the household income but does not aspire to a lifelong professional career. Another is that while they are neutral on the surface, i. e. , apply to both husbands and wives, in fact they end up adversely affecting married women, because women generally enter the labor market on a permanent basis later than men. Third criticism is that anti-nepotism rules interfere with the marital relationship. According to this perspective, in small communities where professional opportunities are limited, restrictions on married coworkers may force two people to choose between marriage and career (Cohen 1989). References Cohen, Linda J. (1989). Anti-nepotism rules: The legal rights. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from , Web site: www. allbusiness. com Criminal law (2009). Nepotism. Retrieved June 5, 2009. from , Web site: www. criminal-law-lawyer. com Hrhero (2009). Nepotism and its Dangers in the Workplace. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from , Web site: www. hrhero. com Sbcountyhr (2009). Nepotism Policy. Retrieved June , 2009 from , Web site: www. sbcountyhr. org Uhcl (2009). Nepotism. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from , Web site: www. prtl. cl. edu References Cohen, Linda J. (1989) Anti-nepotism rules: The legal rights of Married-Coworkers. Retrieved June 6, 2009. www. allbusiness. com Criminal law. (2009) Nepotism. Retrieved june 5, 2009. www. criminal-law-lawyer. com Hrhero (2009). Nepotism and its Dangers in the Workplace. Retrieved June 6, 2009 www. hrhero. com Sbcountyhr (2009). Nepotism Policy. Retrieved June 6, 2009 www. sbcountyhr. org Uhcl (2009). Nepotism. Retrieved June 6, 2009 www. prtl. cl. edu

How to Improve ACT Science Scores 7 Tips From a Perfect Scorer

How to Improve ACT Science Scores 7 Tips From a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you struggling with ACT Sciencescores between 14-24? You're not alone - hundreds of thousands of other students are scoring in this range. But many don't know the best ways to break out of this score range and get 26+on the ACT. Here we'll discuss how to improve your ACT Sciencescore effectively and why it's so important to do so. Put these principles to work and I'm confident you'll be able to improve your score. Brief note: This article is tailored for lower-scoring students, currently scoring below a 26 on ACT Science. If you're already above this range, my perfect 36 ACT Sciencescore articlewill be better for you as it contains advanced strategies. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring high is a good idea, what it takes to score a 26, and then go into ACT Science tips. Stick with me - this is like constructing a building. First you need to lay a good foundation before putting up the walls and windows. Similarly, we need to first understand why you're doing what you're doing and what goal you're aiming for, before diving into tips and strategies. In this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 26. But if your goal is to get to a 24 or lower, these tips still equally apply. Understand the Stakes At this ACT score range, improving your low ACT Sciencescore to a 26 range will dramatically boost your chances of getting into better colleges. The reason? A 26 puts you at the 83 percentile, well above the national average of all ACT test takers. This is roughly equal to a 1200 out of 1600 on the SAT. Let's take a popular school, University of Massachusetts Amherst,as an example. Its average ACT score is a 27. Its 25th percentile score is a 24, and 75th percentile is a 29. Furthermore, its acceptance rate is 63%. In other words, a bit more than half of all applicants are admitted. This is a decently competitive school - almost half the people are rejected, and the lower your score, the greater the chance you'll be rejected. In our analysis, if you apply with an ACT score of 21, your chance of admission drops to 25.4%. This means you have a 3 in 4 chance of being rejected! But if you raise your score to a 26, your chance of admission shoots up to 57.7% - over double the chances of admission, for just 5 points of improvement. And because your ACT Science score factors into your ACT composite score, raising your Science score will really help raise the average of your total score. In fact, if you raise your ACT Science score by 4 points, your Composite score will increase by a whole point. It's really worth your time to improve your ACT score. Hour for hour,it's the best thing you can do to raise your chance of getting into college. Curious what chances you have with a 26 ACT score? Check out ourexpert college admissions guide for a 26 ACT scoreto see what colleges you're competitive for. Know That You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy, feel-good message you find in a fortune cookie. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably capable student can score a 26 on ACT Science. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if you don't consider yourself a science geek, or you got a B in Biology, you're capable of this. Because I know that more than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how strategically you study. Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you get the sense that many questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? It's purposely designed this way.The ACT is a national test, which means it needs to be a level playing field for ALL students around the country. It can't discriminate against students who never took AP Physics (or whose schools don't even offer AP classes). Therefore, the ACT can't test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP Physics.The ACT Science sectioncan't ask you to solve cold fusionor build a rocket to get to Mars. So it HAS to test scientific concepts that every high school student will cover: how to interpret data graphs, what the scientific method is, how scientific theories disagree from each other. This leads to the big secret of ACT Science. The Big Secret: You Don't Have to Know Much Actual Science Many students who study ACT Science are intimidated by the mistaken impression that they need to know a lot of science to get by. The reality is the opposite - it's much more about reading comprehension, understanding graphs, and logic. Now, it SEEMS like you need to know a lot of science, because there will be weird scenarios you've never seen before, from dinosaur claw sizes to how clouds affect soil temperature. These may seem intimidating because you've never learned this in school. Here's an example graph: You've probably never seen a graph like this before in school. The thing is,every other high school student in America hasn't seen this graph before either! The ACT expects you to solve questions for this graph through the skills you've learned in high school - looking at two axes, understanding how a plot works, and getting data values from the graph. This is good news for you: if you can practice the basic skills tested on ACT Science, and you know what types of questions will be asked, you'll do a great job on the section. I guarantee it. Just to prove this to you, further down we're going to understand this graph and go through a few sample questions. The key to improving your ACT Science score is to: Learn the types of questions that the ACT tests, like the one above Put together the concepts you already know to solve the questions Practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let's see how many questions you need to get right a 26 in ACT Science. Disappointed with your ACT scores? Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically. What It Takes to Get a 26in ACT Science If we have a target ACT score out of 36 in mind, it helps to understand how many questions you need to get right on the actual test. The ACT Science section has 40 questions on it. Depending on how many questions you get right, you'll get a Scaled score out of 36. Here's the raw score to ACT Science Score conversion table. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw 36 40 27 32 18 16 9 5-6 35 39 26 30-31 17 14-15 8 - 34 38 25 28-29 16 13 7 4 33 37 24 26-27 15 12 6 3 32 - 23 24-25 14 5 2 31 36 22 22-23 13 10 4 - 30 35 21 21 12 9 3 1 29 34 20 19-20 8 2 - 28 33 19 17-18 10 7 1 0 So if you're aiming for a 26, on this test you need to get just 30 questions correct. This is just a 75% on the test! Also, keep in mind that you'll be able to GUESS on a lot of questions. Because there are only 4 answer choices, you get a lot of questions right with a 25% chance! So here's an example. Let's say you know how to solve just 27 questions for sure. You guess on the remaining 13, and get 4 of them right by chance. This gives you a raw score of 31, or a scaled score of 26! This has serious implications for your testing strategy. In essence, you only need to answer 2/3 of all questions right. In school, this would be a D, but on the ACT, this can get you to your ACT score target! We'll go into more detail below about what this means for your testing strategy below. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 26. For example, if you're scoring a 22, you need to answer 8-10 more questions right to get to a 26. Once again, if your goal is a score below 26, like a 24, the same analysis applies. Just look up what your Raw Score demands above. OK - so we've covered why scoring a higher ACT Sciencescore is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Hopefully, getting to a 26 on ACT Science doesn't seem so tough at this point! Now we'll actually get into actionable ACT Science tipsthat you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. ACT Science Tips to Get a 26 ACT Science Tip #1: Don't Waste TimeUnderstanding Useless Details Tell me if this sounds familiar: you're reading an ACT Science passage, and it's so overwhelming trying to understand every detail of whatever obscure thing they're telling you about. This is by far the biggest time waster for most students - and because you only have 35 minutes to get through 7 passages and 40 questions, time is a huge factor in ACT Science. Here's the truth: ACT Science passages are full of scientific details that don’t actually matter to answering the questions. This is especially true of all those complicated graphs you see. You literally don't have to understand many of the details to get every question correct. The ACT does this on purpose to confuse you and make the test harder, and to show you what real scientific research kind of looks like. But you aren’t reading a science journal – you’re answering ACT Science questions. A common mistake people make is to try too hard to understand the passage in its entirety. They want to understand every detail in every chart. Trying to understand the entire passage is a HUGE waste of time because most of the passage isn’t going to have a question asked about it. This is true in ACT Reading, and it’s even more true in ACT Science. So what should you do instead? Skim the passage and understand the passage at a very high level. Answer these two questions only: What’s the main point here? What’s the figure showing? That’s it. When I read ACT Science passages, I don’t understand the deep details of what’s happening. I get the gist and I move on to the questions. Let’s try an example from a real ACT Science passage. I’m going to show you how useless most of the passage is and how little you need to understand to answer the questions. My skimming: There is a lake. The lake sediment tells us about the climate in the past. They mention average temperature for figure 3, so that’s probably what the main point is. There’s a weird oxygen symbol 18O, but all I need to know is that SMALLER values mean COLDER. This is a map showing 3 sites. We’ll probably be looking at samples from these 3 sites. Otherwise, I don't care right now where the sites are, how big the lake is, or whether I can see my house on this map. I'm ignoring all the fine details. This shows us a cutaway section of the lake, with the 3 sites from Figure 1. The y-axis is elevation. The key shows that each colored section is a different layer. Lake clay, glacial till, bedrock. The layers change as you move across the graph. How exactly they change I’m not going to care about until I get asked about it. I have no idea what the hell â€Å"glacial till† is but I’m not going to worry about that, since I’ll bet the ACT isn’t going to ask me to define it. Here's abunch of graphs designed to be confusing. Well, they all look about the same. We’ll just look at Site 1. The y-axis shows depth, so the further down, the deeper into the earth we go. The x-axis shows the 18O thing. From left to right, this value gets larger. What Site 1 shows is as you go UP in depth, you get a LARGER 18O value. That's all I'm going to care about for now. Now look at the other 2 Sites. Site 2 looks about the same, except for a glacial till line higher up. Site 3 looks the same as Site 1 - curve goes up and to the right. And now there’s this formula. I’m not even going to bother with this crap until they ask me a question about it. Notice from my notes that I really understand the passage only at a 30,000 foot level. I’m not getting bogged down in details, and I’m not understanding every detail of every graph. Doing that would be a waste of time. Just to convince you this high level of understanding works, we’re actually going to answer all 5 questions for thispassage. Look at the Key on the right. Lake clay is gray. Where is it thinnest? Winnipeg, F. You literally didn't even have to read the passage to solve this! You could have solved it just by looking at the picture. We want to find the SMALLEST 18O value, which means it’s more on the LEFTside of the graph. From the dots we see that’s going to be at the BOTTOM LEFTof the figure. Choice C. Once again, you barely had to read the passage to solve this! It's just figuring out where the dots are. OK, so figure 2. We start from Grand Forks on the right, then move to Site 3. Lake clay, the gray piece, gets THICKER. They say this in the question, and we see it in the figure. The question asked about glacial till, the striped layer under it. It gets THINNER as you go from Grand Forks to Site 3. So thickness DECREASES, choice J. Yet once again, you barely had to know the passage to solve this! OK, we want the elevation of the TOPof GLACIAL TILL at each of 3 sites. Glacial till is the STRIPED layer. At Site 1, the top is 200. At Site 2, the top is 205ish. At site 3, it’s 180 ish. Answer choice C is the only one that fits these values. YET AGAIN you barely had to know the passage! To rephrase: it rains. Water gets to 3m deep. What is the 18O 3m deep? Look at figure 3 at a depth of 3m. In each figure, it’s around -15. Answer J. Finally, surprise surprise, you didn't have to know the passage at all to answer this question. EASY PEASY. Notice all the crap we didn’t have to care about: In the passage, we didn’t have to care about how old the lake was or how it formed. Wedidn’t have to care about what 18O means about temperature. We didn’t use Figure 1 at all. Stupid map. In figure 2, we didn’t care at all about bedrock. Also, we only needed to care about how the layers changed when we were asked about it. In figure 3, we didn’t have to care at all about how Site 2 had a glacial till layer. We sure as hell didn’t have to know what the formula meant. I hope you get the point. So much of each passage is USELESSto getting the questions right. The stupid ACT knows this, and they WANT you to get bogged down. â€Å"Oh gee, I wonder what bedrock is? How might they ask questions about this?† â€Å"Boy this formula looks real tough. What is 18O, and what is 16O? What’s groundwater and what’s standard water? Why multiply by 1,000?† You can waste so many minutes trying to make sense of the entire passage. If you have time management problems, skimming the passage can be a huge time savings for you! Again, when you read the passage focus on only two questions: What is the MAIN POINT of the passage? What is the MAIN POINT of each figure? I’ve started yelling more just because of how angry this test makes me. So let me take a deep breath. Moving on†¦ Bonus:Want more helpful tips like this? Check out our new ACT Science prep book. If you liked this lesson, you'll love our book. It includes everything you need to know to ace ACT Science, including deep analysis of the logic behind ACT Science questions, a full breakdown of the different passage and question types, and tons of expert test-taking and study tips. Download our full-length prep book now: ACT ScienceTip #2: Understand What ACT Science Actually Tests ACT Science stands out as the most structured and predictable section on the ACT. What I mean by that is ACT Science has 3 passage types, and each passage type has specific question types associated with it. This is unlike ACT English, where all 5 passages have all sorts of random question types associated with it. To do well on the ACT, you HAVE to predict the questions and passages that you're going to see on test day. Here are the passage types and question types associated with them: 3 Data Representation Passages - describes a study, heavy on graphs and charts Read-the-Graph Questions Interpreting Trends Calculating Values 3 Research Summaries Passages - describes an experiment with multiple parts Experimental Design Hypothetical Experimental Changes Interpreting Experiments 1 Conflicting Viewpoints Passage - 2 or more scientists disagree Understanding Viewpoints Comparing Viewpoints Remember what I said about ACT Science testing basic skills you've learned before in school? This is it - reading graphs, the scientific method, and comparing viewpoints. Here's a helpful writeup of the 3 types of ACT Science passages and an overview of question types. Your job is to understand these skills, figure out what you're weak in, and drill those skills until you've mastered them. Does this sound intimidating? Our PrepScholar ACT program does the hard work for you by dividing up the entire test into specific skills you need to master. For every skill in ACT Science and every other section, you'll get a focused lesson and a quiz customized to your skill level. This is how I studied for the ACT and got a perfect score, so that's how I designed our prep program to work. If you could use help breaking down the ACT like this, definitely check out our PrepScholar ACT program. ACT ScienceTip #3: Learn How to Read Graphs By far the most important single skill on ACT Science is knowing how to read graphs and charts. Nearly half of all questions on the test will relate to reading a graph and making sense of it. Often, the graph will be in a totally unfamiliar subject you've never learned about. The units will be weird, and the shape of the graph might be weird. Don't worry about this - the graph isweird for every other student in the country too. The ACT does this on purpose so that students with advanced science knowledge don't have a huge advantage on the test. For example, if the ACT showed problems from AP Physics, people would riot - it's unfairly discriminating against students whose schools don't have AP Physics. But if the ACT shows a graph about sabertooth tiger tooth sizes, this is OK - almost no one will have seen this graph before, so everyone's on more level footing. If you've been overwhelmed by graphs before, this is important to sink in - ACT Science is designed so that YOU are fully capable of understanding everything you need to answer the questions right - if you learn the right skills. So how do you actually read a graph? The three most important steps you need to understand every single graph are: Skim the intro text. Often the passage will tell you literally "Figure 2 is about X" and this is a big head start. (Like I said in Tip #1, though, don't get bogged down in details.) Read the axes. What does the x-axis represent, and what changes as you move from left to right? What does the y-axis represent, and what changes as you move from bottom to top? This tells you what is actually being shown. Understand the general shape of the graph. Where is it going up or down? If there are multiple lines shown, how do they differ? I mean GENERAL - don't memorize every detail, just get a sense of what's going on. Let's apply this with the following real ACT Science passage. OK - so it's about photosynthesis, which you may remember from AP Biology. It's how plants use sunlight to generate glucose (sugar).We also hear about wavelength, which is a property of light. We can see that Violet light has a shorter wavelength than Red light. Here's Figure 2: Let's step through the 3 steps: Skim the intro text.Here it tells us figure 2 "shows the average rate of photosynthesis at various wavelengths, as a percent of the average rate of photosynthesis at 670 nm." So we get a hunch for what the graph is showing - how fast photosynthesis happens, at different wavelengths. Read the axes.The x-axis shows wavelength, and as you move from left to right, the wavelength gets larger. The y-axis shows rate of photosynthesis, and as you move from bottom to top, the rate gets bigger (which means photosynthesis happensfaster). Understand the general shape of the graph.Generally, I see two peaks and a big valley in between. Remember, higher on the y-axis means faster photosynthesis. This means that photosynthesis happens really fast at two wavelengths, and really low in the middle (around 540 nm). Again, few people have ever seen this graph before - or if they have, they've probably forgotten it. Now you understand it just as well as anyone else. With this in mind, we can try answering a question! Let's rephrase the question. "At what wavelength is photosynthesis faster than it is at 670 nm?" Let's rephrase it even more simply. "At what wavelength is the graph higher than where it is at 670 nm?" Because we understood what the y-axis was showing, we know that HIGHER UP means FASTER PHOTOSYNTHESIS. So first, let's find out how fast photosynthesis is at 670 nm. It's right around 100. (Actually, it tells you this in the intro text: "Figure 2 shows the average rate of photosynthesis at various wavelengths as a percent of the average rate of photosynthesis at 670 nm." Naturally, the value at 670 nm should be 100%. You don't have to know this, and I didn't dwell on it since it's not critical to know.) OK, now we look at where the rate of photosynthesis is higher than 100 at the 4 points: 400, 430, 630, and 700 nm. I show these with orange dots here: It's pretty clear that the only dot higher than 100 is at 430 nm. So B is the answer. What we just went over is exactly how you can approach every single graph on the ACT Science section. Some graphs will be more complicated than this, but the principles are really all the same. You CAN understand every graph in ACT Science. If you keep practicing these skills over and over again, you WILL become much better at getting more questions right. Trust me. Want to learn more about reading graphs on ACT Science? Read our complete guide to How to Read Graphs, Tables, and Data on ACT Science. ACT Science Tip #4: Understand Your Weaknesses, and Keep Drilling Them You only have a limited amount of time to study for the ACT. You need to get the biggest score improvement possible for every hour you study. To get the biggest score improvement, you need to understand where your greatest weaknesses are. Then you need to keep drilling those weaknesses with practice until you solve your weakness. This makes sense, doesn't it? Most students actually actively avoid improving their weaknesses.As a result, they waste a ton of time studying without any actual improvement. Why is focusing on your weaknesses so hard to do? A few reasons: Diagnosing your weaknesses requires a lot of analysis and discipline.To do this right, you need to categorize every practice question you do by skill, score how many questions you get right on each skill, and figure out which skills are best to work on. This is pretty laborious and tough to do right. It's a lot more enjoyable to work on things you already do well.Would you rather eat ice cream or cabbage? In ACT prep, ice cream is working on skills you're already good at - it feels great to knock questions out of the park and get high quiz scores. Unfortunately, this is a false sense of confidence - you're ignoring all the weaknesses that are actually bringing down your score. You should be eating your cabbage by working on weaknesses, which takes a lot more mental energy and is unpleasant since you keep making mistakes. But it's the only way to get better. Even after you find your weaknesses, it's not clear how you should improve on them.Let's say you find out you have problems with interpreting experiments. How do you get better? Do you do a bunch of practice questions? Which questions do you use? How do you teach yourself the right skills? You have to overcome these problems to really drill down on your weaknesses.This is really the only way to get better. But it's the foundation to how I designed our ACT prep program at PrepScholar. Here's a step by step guide on how to find your weaknesses: Categorize every practice question you take by skill, especially for practice tests. You can find every skill listed in our Ultimate ACT Science Study Guide.Try to categorize as accurately as possible. Keep track of how many questions you got right and wrong in each skill. You can use a notebook or a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Identify the skillsyou're missing the most number of questions in. Don't just focus on the % correct - what really matters is how many more points you can get by mastering that skill. For example, there might be a really uncommon skill that shows up just once on every test. Even if you get 0% of those questions right, it's not lowering your score much. It's much better to work on the skill that appears 10 times per test that you're getting 50% of questions right on. Find the best resources to train your weakness. You need a way to 1) learn the underlying skills, 2) find practice questions to keep drilling that skill. Unfortunately, as I'll discuss below, there aren't that many great books for ACT Science available. Sound overwhelming? It is a lot of hard work, but it's the most effective way to improve. Most students don't take the time to do this, which is why they don't improve their score. However, doing this well really does take a lot of energy and discipline.In PrepScholar ACT, we do all of the above steps automatically for you so you can focus on actually learning.You'll avoid the hard organizational work of finding your weaknesses and gathering practice problems, and focus on actually learning the skills to improve your score. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT prep program, PrepScholar. It does all of the hard work in finding your weaknesses and giving you the exact lesson you need to get better. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work.When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty ACT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: ACT Science Tip #5: Use Only High-Quality Practice Materials ACT Science is an odd section. You take weird scientific concepts and papers, distill them into a high school-friendly format, and ask very specific types of questions to test science reasoning skills. This means that test prep writers have a lot of ways to go wrong. Unlike other ACT sections like Reading or Math, ACT Science has woefully few ACT books to prep from. In fact, I can't recommend ANYpublished ACT books - all the ones I've seen so far are pretty terrible. They all suffer from one or more of these problems: The passage is inappropriate. It's either too easy, too difficult, too short, or uses unnecessary jargon. Official ACT Science passages have a very specificfeel to them. The questions asked aren't stylistically correct. They might test interpretation of graphs in the wrong way, or it doesn't have the right bait answers that ACT Science has to trick you. They don't teach you the fundamental skills underlying the questions. If it's just a book of practice questions, it's not enough. This is often a problem because ACT prep companies hire people who are too unskilled or too advanced to write ACT Science material. If you hire PhD's in science who are super smart but don't know the ACT well, you'll produce ACT Science content that will be way too difficult. So where can you get great practice materials? The very best source of practice questions is official ACT practice tests. These are official tests previously administered to real students. There are some problems with just using these tests though. They aren't organized by skill, which means it's hard to find problems to drill a specific skill like Interpreting Experiments or Comparing Viewpoints. Also, there aren't that many official tests available (up to 10 or so), and you want to save some of these tests to gauge your ACT score. Finally, practice tests don't actually have any instructional material - they're just a bunch of practice questions. If you need lessons to teach you how to actually read graphs and understand ACT science, you won't find that here. If you want to supplement with more ACT Science questions, you might consider our program PrepScholar. To make sure we produce the highest quality questions possible, we broke down the test into its individual skills and categorized every wrong answer type and question type possible. You can see some of this in our Ultimate ACT Science Prep Guide. I also hire only the best ACT content writers - these people usually have years of deep tutoring experience, went to Ivy League schools, and know the test inside and out. Even if you don't use PrepScholar, make sure you find a source of great source of ACT Science materials somewhere. ACT Science Tip #6: Track Your Time Per Passage and Question Tell me if this sounds familiar - in 35 minutes, you don't even make it through the entire section. You just try your best and answer as many questions as you can, then guess on the remaining questions at the end. ACT Science has tough time pressure.You only have 35 minutes to get through 7 passages and 40 questions. Even I, a perfect ACT scorer, find ACT Science to have pretty tough time pressure. Furthermore, unlike ACT Math, the questions and passages aren't arranged in difficulty. Therefore, you can't predict ahead of time which questions are going to be harder, and just skip the hardest questions. This means you need to hustle to get through all the passages and questions. But there's good news. Remember what we said above? To get a 26 on ACT Science, you can miss 10 questions. This means you don't have to fret about getting every question correct. In fact, there are some questions that are so hard that you will never get them right, no matter how much time you spend. Therefore, I have tworecommendations: Spend no more than 1.5 minutes reading each passage. This takes 10.5 minutes away from 35 minutes. From my tip above, you already know that you don't need to actually read the entire passage to answer the questions. Spend no more than 30 seconds trying to answer each question. This takes away another 20 minutes. If you get stuck on a question and have no idea how to solve it, MOVE ON. You do NOT want to spend 90 seconds on one question - that's time better spent getting more questions right. When done right, this gives you a few spare minutes to go back to some tough questions and try to get them right. See a question that you have constant trouble with? Feel free to skip it and come back to it later. As you practice, it might help to have a timer by your side. 90 seconds for reading a passage passes a LOT more quickly than you would expect. ACT Science Tip #7: Don't Worry About Memorizing Science Here's my final tip. A lot of students try to study for ACT Science by reviewing their old class notes from biology, chemistry, and physics. The problem is, ACT Science isn't really a test on science. It's a scientific reasoning test, based mostly on scientific data you've never seen before. Aside from a few questions about basic scientific concepts (like natural selection and electrical charges), nearly everything else can be answered without a deep foundation in the subject matter. For example, look at the photosynthesis example from Tip #3 - you technically don't even need to know what photosynthesis is, and you could answer those questions. The few scientific concepts you likely already remember - but if not, here's all the actual science you need to know for ACT Science. So put aside your textbooks and notes from high school - they're not the best way to study for ACT Science. The best way, as we've discussed throughout this tips guide, is to focus on the test: Understand what's tested on ACT Science Know how to approach ACT Science passages - don't get stuck in the details Understand your skill weaknesses, and drill them Practice time management so you can get through all the questions Summary Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT Science score. If you're scoring a 17, you can improve it to a 22. If you're scoring a 21, you can boost it to a 26. I guarantee it, if you put in the right amount of work, and study like I'm suggesting above.Notice that I didn't actually teach you any sciencecontent. I didn't point to any facts or formulas that will instantly raise your score.That's because these one-size-fits-all, guaranteed strategies don't really exist. (And anyone who tells you this is deceiving you). Every student is different.Instead, you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored.This is really important to your future. Make sure you give ACT prep the attention it deserves, before it's too late, and you get a rejection letter you didn't want.If you want to review any of the strategies, here's a list of all of them: Tip #1: Don't Waste TimeUnderstanding Useless Details Tip #2: Understand What ACT Science Actually Tests Tip #3: Learn How to Read Graphs Tip #4: Understand Your Weaknesses, and Keep Drilling Them Tip #5: Use Only High-Quality Practice Materials Tip #6: Track Your Time Per Passage and Question Tip #7: Don't Worry About Memorizing Science What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read my corresponding guides for other ACT Math sections: Get a 26 in ACT English, ACT Reading, and ACT Math. What's a good ACT score for you? Read our detailed guide on figuring out your ACT target score. Want a bunch of free ACT practice tests to practice with? Here's our comprehensive list of every free ACT practice test. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Are families adapting or declining Research Paper

Are families adapting or declining - Research Paper Example Moreover, the living spaces that developed close to factories and other worksites were expensive and could not be expanded as had previously been done in the rural setting. It came to be that when people lives around others who were strangers to them, their families became a refuge for them from the strange new environment in which they lived (Lasch 168). Despite the lack of any significant industrial growth in developing countries, the development of mass media, education and other services had a hand in the creation of modern families. An example of this is in some African countries where there has been a movement towards abandoning the traditional practice of polygamy and this is being replaced by monogamy due to the strengthening of marital bonds. Furthermore, the strengthening of the bond between the parent and the child over any other familial relationships has ensured that the nuclear family has developed and this is also due to the fact that emphasis is being put on what the parents owe to their children instead of what the latter owe to their parents (Coontz 9). The modern family has also seen a decrease in the number of children born within it and this can be described because of the declining death rates among children. The declining child death rates also leads to a decline in the birth rates, because parents are now more secure because they know that there are enough resources available today to ensure that their children survive. Another reason for this is the fact that the economic conditions of today do not allow parents to have more than a few children at a time because they cannot afford to have more even if they wanted to. This results in not only fewer children, but it also means that there are fewer ties to the extended family and this in turn means that in subsequent generations, there will be fewer uncles, aunts and cousins than in previous generations. Therefore, it can be said that the current economic factors as well as the small numbe r of children being born are not sufficient to sustain the type of extended family that existed before in our society (Cherlin 19). When it comes to the matter of whether the modern family is doing better than how the institutional family did, then the answer would be yes. This is mainly due to the changes that have been brought about by the modern lifestyle and these include an increase in the family’s income, a decrease in the mortality rates, an increase in life expectancy, a high nutritional status, more educational opportunities, among many others. Modern families are therefore better off with these changes than they were without them despite the fact that the institutional or extended family is collapsing. The demise of the extended family is a consequence of its members trying to adapt to the modern way of life and it is a fact that its decline and eventual fall is inevitable. It can be claimed that the modern family has come because of the commoditization of the famil y life. In order for the economy to remain profitable, ways have been devised to ensure that almost everything, especially human activity, has been turned into a commodity or a form of commodity. This commoditization of life has increased the rift between family members because some activities that used to be done exclusively within families have now

Bulla Ice Cream Situation Analysis Research Paper

Bulla Ice Cream Situation Analysis - Research Paper Example The first commercial ice-cream was produced in Australia in 1907 (Unilever, 2010). Streets ice-cream marked the beginning of the ice-cream industry in Australia in 1920 (Unilever, 2011). This was subsequently taken over by Unilever and is now one of the biggest and best known manufacturers with brands such as Magnum, Paddle Pop and Blue Ribbon. This was the first ice-cream available on sticks and today Magnum sells about 1 billion units per year. 2. Market Statistics Positive change in both value and volume in the Ice-cream sales (Appendix A) in Australia suggests that economic downturn ash not impacted the sales of this luxury food item. Sale has increased by about 9% in value 2 years from 2007 and about 5% in volume. However, there have been significant increases in the sales of tubs (23.2% by volume) while the sales of multipacks and desserts have declined. Again, while Nestle and Unilever have seen declining sales, Bulla’s sales in two years has increased almost one hundre d percent. All other brands such as Weis and Sara Lee have seen sales decline over this period. Amongst the popular brands those of Nestle – Peters Original and Peters Light & Creamy have steadily declined. Brands such as Bulla Real Dairy, Bulla Ribbon and Bulla Creamy Classic have almost doubled in two years. Bulla Ribbon has registered the highest growth (more than 100%). 3. Business Environment Political Australia has very low risk of political stability and the country ranks third in the world for political stability (NSW, 2011). This makes it a safe investment location. Australia is a constitutional democracy based on federal division of powers. Economical Australia offers an environment that encourages freedom of speech and freedom from internal control (MIEPA, n.d.). Business investment and foreign entrepreneurship is encouraged in all sectors. Despite economic downturn ice-cream continues to be an affordable indulgence for the Australians leading to a sustained growth of 3% in 2010 (Euromonitor International, 2010). The ice-cream industry shows an increase at an annualized rate of 2.3% to $485 million in the five years through 2010-11 (Ibisworld, 2011). Socio-cultural – health and wellness products are in high demand and shape the performance of indulgence and impulsive purchase such as increase-creams (Euromonitor International, 2010). This is the reason that despite constrained consumer spending sales remained robust. Impulse ice-cream is identified as a quintessential activity in Australia and a key aspect of Australian life. However, as the consumers have become health-conscious innovative product lines and adapting to changing consumer trends has become important. Technological Australia has the latest technology in ice-cream production and research is an on-going process in Australia. Competition Unilever continues to dominate the entire Asia-Pacific market in ice-creams having 8.6% of the total market share (Appendix B). Nestle and Bulla Dairy are the other two main contenders in this sector 4. Bulla Ice Cream analysis Bulla Dairy is an Australian-owned family business that constantly introduces new products based on technological innovation. Started in 1910, the organization sells its products all over Australia and also exports throughout Asia and the Pacific region. It has diverse range of products categorized into Retail, Foodservice, Route and Export. Yoghurt, ice-creams, cheese and cream are its specialties.

Juv. Deliquency - Assignments 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Juv. Deliquency - Assignments 3 - Essay Example What was the outcome of law enforcement efforts? If so, describe these efforts to the best of your ability, if not, should law enforcement have gotten involved? Police officers have used many informal techniques of social control (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014). With this, it is apparent that the law enforcement was at some point was utilized in any manner to try and control delinquent’s behaviours. However, due to the fact that there are still many informal techniques that could be used along the way, then it is implied that the outcome might not be that promising at some point. In fact, the reason why there are many cases like those of Aylin Gutierrez is that the law enforcement may have failed to critically consider the bottom line of the social context linked to the delinquent behaviours of the concerned individual. For this reason, Aylin Gutierrez may have never received the relevant help coming from the law enforcement, because her case is relevant to a more personal consideration, which is linked to how her immediate environment, the family has contributed to her prevailing case of delinquent behaviours. As of the moment, the department of law enforcement had not effectively organised the juvenile crime prevention efforts (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 2014). This implies that Aylin had also not received much attention prior to how her delinquent behaviours could have been prevented at some point. In the first place, the case of Aylin is a bit too personal, but there was a form of abuse coming from her parents. In this manner, the law enforcement should have been involved. However, the law enforcement department did not have much knowledge about her case, because of the unavailability of feedbacks or remarkable opportunity to know the social events that are going on at every home. For this matter, in order for the law enforcement to get involved in preventing delinquent

Phytochemical screening

Phytochemical screening Discussion 5.1. Phytochemical screening Phytochemical screening provides basic information about the medicinal importance of the plant extract. In this study phytochemical screening and quantitative estimation of the chemical constituents of S. asper and L. procumbens shows the presence of various metabolites including reducing compounds and free radicals scavenging compounds such as flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, coumarins, tannins, cardiac glycosides anthraquinones, and phlobatinins. Tannins possessed spasmolytic activity in smooth muscles cells, free radical scavenger and antioxidant (Tona et al., 1999). Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds like quercetin 3-O-glucoside, rutin have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties while saponins are glycosides possessed antimicrobial and inhibit Na+ efflux, by blockage of the entrance of the Na+ out of the cell, reducing congestive heart failure (Abou-Donia et al., 2008). Various studies revealed that natural and synthetic derivates of alkaloids and have possessed medicinal importance includes analgesic, antisplasmodic and bactericidal activities, antioxidant and are useful in renal disorder (Okwu and Okwu, 2004). Our results agree with investigation of Sofowara, (1993) during characterization of medicinal plants. The total phenolic contents of Sonchus asper and Launaea procumbens was measured using Folin-Ciocalteu method. Phenolics compounds present in fruits and vegetables have received considerable attention because of their potential antioxidant activities (Pan et al., 2008). Phenolic compounds react with phosphotungstic and phosphomolybdic acids present in the folin-ciocalteu reagent (Amin Yazdanparast, 2007), amino acids, proteins, organic acids, sugars and aromatic amines causing interference in determination (Meda et al., 2005; Roura, Andres-Lacueva, Estruch, Lamuela-Ravents, 2006) but in this investigation, S. asper and L. procumbens were dried before extraction while ascorbic acid was lost during drying process and amino acids, proteins and sugars can be removed from the extraction solvents. Thus, interference from ascorbic acid or other compounds like amino acids, proteins and sugars should be very little. In the present study these plants possessed contents of phenolic compounds in ranges from (88.3Â ±2.1) to (432.8Â ±2.93) mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE mg/g extract) in LPHE and LPME followed by (95.6Â ±1.7) to (332Â ±1.53) in SAHE and SAME respectively. Similarly high flavonoids content was found in methanolic extract of Sonchus asper (15.2Â ±0.76) followed by LPME (13.98Â ±0.87) mg rutin equivalent/g extract. The presence of phenolic and flavonoids compounds, possess diverse biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-atherosclerotic activities. These activities might be related to their antioxidant activity (Chung, Wong, Huang, Lin, 1998). Phenolic compounds may contribute to antioxidative action (Duh et al., 1999), inhibitory effects on mutagenesis and carcinogenesis in humans (Tanaka et al., 1998). Several phenolic compounds like tannins present in the cells of plants are inhibitors of many hydrolytic enzymes such as proteolytic macerating enzymes used by plant pathogens. Other compounds like saponins also have a ntifungal properties (Aboaba and Efuwape, 2001; Mohanta et al., 2007). This study indicates that the presence of these bioactive compounds in the various fractions of plant might be responsible for their antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, allelopathic and cytotoxic activities. 5.2. Elemental and nutritional analysis of medicinal plants Wild growing leafy vegetables play an important role in the diet of inhabitants of different parts of the world. The proximate analysis of Sonchus asper and launaea procumbens shows that their leaves are a good source of metallic elements, protein and sugar. Due to the possession of these constituents, consumers are more benefited when they use these as a substitute of sugar in various food preparations. These values were found to be comparable with or higher than those of commonly used vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and cabbage. Potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium are nutritionally important, were found in reasonable amount in the leaf. These inorganic compounds play an important role in the maintenance of normal glucose-tolerance and in the release of insulin from beta cells of islets of langerhans (choudary and Bandyopadhyay, 1999). Some other metallic elements such as selenium, zinc and manganese are considered as potent antioxidant micronutrients increases immunity and prevent many diseases mediated with oxidative stress and free radicals. Iron is essential element in the synthesis of hemoglobin, presence of appropriate concentration in these plants play important role in nutritional disorder such as iron deficiency anemia (Talwar et al., 1989). Similar investigation was reported by Tadhani, M and Subhash, (2006) during the preliminary studies on stevia rebaudiana leaves for phytochemical and mineral screening. Undoubtedly, there is growing interest in natural sources of nutrients and health-promoting compounds. Within these compounds, polyphenols and antioxidants have special attention, which is understandable because of their role as potential protective and preventive molecules against chronic ailments, such as atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart disease, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, cancer, osteoporosis and in the entire aging process (Aruoma, 2003; Coruh, Celep, Ozgokce, 2007; Dasgupta De, 2004). 5.3. Chromatographic evaluation of flavonoids Flavonoids are rarely present in free in plant extract. These are found in combination as esters, glycosides or are bound to the cell wall. For this reason, before HPLC analysis, hydrolysis of glycosides or esters was necessary, so that phenolic compounds can be identified, since a considerable fraction is in bounded form. Moreover, BHT, a powerful antioxidant, was added to prevent degradation of phenolic during hydrolysis (Nardini and Ghiselli, 2004). In the present study the thin layer chromatography investigation was justified by high performance liquid chromatogram which reveal that SAME composed of three compounds orientin, rutin, hypersoid, SAEE showed vitexin, orientin, rutin while SABE hypersoid, vitexin. SACE possesses vitexin and SAWE possessed hypersoid however SAHE showed one for hypersoid. Chromatogram of LPME composed of five compounds catechin, orientin, rutin, hypersoid, myercitin. LPCE showed five known compounds catechin, rutin, vitexin, hypersoid, and myercitin whi le LPEE showed two compounds orientin, hypersoid and LPWE showed 2 compounds catechin, vitexin. LPBE showed 2 compounds catechin and vitexin, while LPHE shows unknown compounds. Results of Gudej and Tomczyk, (2004); Male et al., (2006) are in accordance to our study. The TLC results of Poukens-Renwart et al., (1992) showed the presence of vitexin, orientin and aglycone flavonoids in the bagasse and leaf extracts, and in the juice samples, which supports our results. Previous studies indicated that flavonoids were a potent antioxidant agent, quenching radicals, singlet oxygen and hydrogen peroxide (Bourgou et al., 2008). For that, natural antioxidants such as polyphenols are often added to foods to stabilizethem and prevent off-flavor development and have considerable interest for their potential role as functional foods or nutraceuticals (Espin et al., 2007). The mechanism by which antioxidants protect food from oxidation is by scavenging of free radicals via donation of an electron or a hydrogen atom, or by deactivation of metal ions and singlet oxygen. Gallic acid, for example, has been widely used as additives to avoid the degradation of foods and is known to have anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, and anticancer activity (Soong and Barlow, 2006). In addition, vanillic acid is a phenolic derivative known to possess antimicrobial, anti-filarial and hepatoprotective activities (Singh et al., 2006). The results reported by Ksouri et al., (2009) s how similarty with our results during polyphenolic characterization of Tamarix gallica L. using same mobile phase. 5.4. Antimicrobial and antitumor potency of extracts The results of our screening assays justify the use of the investigated plants in the Pakistani ethnomedicine. The findings shows that Gram negative bacteria such as Staphylococcus areus was inhibited by MIC of LPCE (2.5ug/ml), LPME (1ug/ml), LPEE (2.5 ug/ml) and SABE (5ug/ml), SAME (2.5 ug/ml), SAWE (5 ug/ml) respectively while MIC of E.coli includes LPME (2.5 ug/ml), LPEE (2.5 ug/ml) and SAME (5 ug/ml) however Klebsiella pneumoniae growth was by MIC range of LPEE , LPBE , SAHE , SAME were (1ug/ml) and SAEE was (5ug/ml) respectively. In case of gram positive bacteria LPME, LPBE (5ug/ml), SAME (2.5ug/ml) showed MIC against Micrococcus lutes, while Bacillus subtillus was inhibited by LPBE, LPME, LPEE, SAME and SAEE with MIC (1ug/ml), however LPBE, LPME, SAME and SAEE inhibited the growth of Enterobacter aerogenes with MIC (5ug/ml) respectivelythat the plant possesses MIC of antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor potential. LPME and LPWE of Launaea procumbens and SAME of Sonchus asper showed activity against E.coli. Staphylococcus areus was inhibited by LPCE, LPME, LPWE and SABE, SAME, SAWE respectively. Fractions of Launaea procumbens including LPHE, LPEE, LPME, and LPWE markedly inhibited the effects of Klebsiella pneumoniae while SAHE, SAME, SAWE showed inhibition against them. Bacillus subtillus was inhibited by LPBE, LPME, LPWE and SAME, SAWE while Micrococcus lutes and Enterobacter aerogenase was controlled to by LPME, LPWE, SAME and LPWE, SABE respectively. Our MIC results agree with results reported by Ndhlala et al., (2009) during characterization of Antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and mutagenic investigation of the South African tree aloe (Aloe barberae). Narod et al. (2004) reported that antibacterial activity of hexane, methanol and water extract of leaf and stem of Toddalia asiatica were active against Gram-negative and Gram positive bacteria. They found that the MIC of methanol extract against Staphylococcus aureus was 2 mg/ml. Duraipandiyan and Ignacimuthu, (2008) reported the same results during screening of antibacterial activities of various fractions of traditional medicinal plant, Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam. The MIC values of the Flindersine compound isolated from same plant against bacteria Bacillus subtilis (31.25 ug/ml), Staphylococcus aureus (62.5 ug/ml), Staphylococcus epidermidis (62.5 ug/ml), Enterococcus faecalis (31.25 ug/ml), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (250 ug/ml) respectively. Algiannis et al. (2001) proposed a classification based on MIC values of antifungal activities of extracts, where extracts with MIC up to 500 ug/ml are considered as strong inhibitors, 600-1500 ug/ml as moderate inhibitors and those with MIC values above 1600 as weak inhibitors. In this study replicate results of antifungal show that all fractions showed some extent of antifungal activity at 200 ug/ml concentration of various fractions, however growth of Aspergillus niger was markedly inhibited by methanolic and ethyl ace tate fraction of both plants, while F.solani was inhibited by butanolic, methanolic and water fraction of Launaea procumbens and Sonchus asper. Similarly Aspergillus flavus was inhibited by butanolic, methanolic, water fraction of Launaea procumbens and while water fraction of Launaea procumbens, ethyl acetate and methanolic fractions of Sonchus asper showed siignificant growth inhibition respectively. These results suggest that methanolic extracts of Sonchus asper and Launaea procumbens were more efficient to inhibit bacterial growth than fungal one, probably in relation to their active molecules. Several studies attributed the inhibitory effect of plant extracts against bacterial pathogens to their phenolic composition (Baydar et al., 2004; Rodriguez Vaquero et al., 2007) and might be presence of saponins which have antifungal properties (Aboaba and Efuwape, 2001; Mohanta et al., 2007). Kabuki et al. (2000) reported that the antimicrobial spectrums of the crude catechins were more effective against gram-positive bacteria than gram-negative bacteria. This tendency of tannin could be explained by that the structures of cell envelope, including cytoplasmic membrane and cell wall component, are different between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria possess an outer membrane surrounding the cell wall, which restricts diffusion of hydrophobic compounds through its lipopolysaccharide covering. Without outer membrane, the cell wall of gram-positive bacteria can be permeated more easily and tannins can disturb the cytoplasmic membrane, disrupt the proton motive force (PMF), electron flow, active transport and coagulation of cell contents (Burt, 2004). Therefore, the structural difference of bacteria plays an important role in their susceptibility. Crown-gall is a neoplastic disease of plants, in which autonomous plant tumor cells are produced from normal, wounded plant cells by the action of bacteria-borne tumor inducing plasmids. The method is independent of antibiosis (Fadli et al., 1991). It is caused by a specific strain of Gram-negative bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Pelczar and Reid, 1965). As certain mechanisms of tumorigenesis, such as the intracellular incorporation of extraneous nucleic acids, are common in both plants and animals (McLaughlin, 1991), the fundamental concept of developing this method was that the antitumor drugs might inhibit the initiation and growth of tumors in both animal and plant systems. Data of the present study reveal that all fractions of L.procumbens and S.asper show antitumor activity with exception of water and chloroform fractions of S.asper however methanolic fraction of L.procumbens with IC50 (13Â ±0.2 Â µg/ml) and S.asper (45Â ±1.7 Â µg/ml) were markedly control crown-gall t umor formation and their IC50 value is near to control indicated the use this plant species for the prevention and/or treatment of cancer. Hussain, Zia and Mirza, (2007) reported that methanolic extract of Fagonia cretica L. shows potent antitumor activities as compare to control, which supports our results. The results documented by Turker and Camper, (2002); DAS et al., (2007) are in accordance to our results. The results of present study supports the traditional usage of the studied plants and suggests that some of the plant extracts possess compounds with antimicrobial and anticancer properties that may be used as antimicrobial and anticancer agents in new future drugs for the therapy of cancer and infectious diseases caused by pathogens. 5.5. Phototoxic and cytotoxicity effects of plans Cytotoxicity screening models provide important preliminary data to select plant extracts with potential antineoplastic properties for future work (Cardellina et al., 1999). In the present study the order of LD50 of brine shrimps LPBE > LPME > LPEE > LPHE > LPWE > LPCE and SAME >SABE > SAEE > SAWE > SAHE > SACE was reported. Our results showed that the brine shrimp survival is inversely proportional to the concentration of the extract used. The extracts with LD50 values higher than 200 mg/l in the brine shrimp test can be considered inactive (Anderson et al., 1991), but in the present study almost all of our extracts possesses LD50 less than 200 mg/l and are markedly effective in removing foreign cell and could be used as chemopreventive anticancer, however chloroform fraction of Launaea procumbens, n-hexane and water fraction of Sonchus asper was inactive, showed no significance cytotoxicity activity and LD50 value are greater than 200 ug/ml (200 mg/l). Our results agree with the reports inferred by Hussain et al., (2008) during screening various fraction of Nepeta juncea through brine shrimps cytotoxicity that only water fraction showed activity. Zaidi et al., (2006) studied that methanolic fraction of Arceuthobium oxycedri exhibited 100% cytotoxicity for brine shrimps at high dose level, with LC50 of 8.3ÃŽÂ ¼g/ ml. its cytotoxicity might be responsible for the damage it causes to this fossil species. Cyrus et al., (2008) reported no correlation between antibacterial and cytotoxic activity during screening of Kenyan medicinal plants. The plant fraction that was lethal to brine shrimp nauplii showed low inhibitory activity against bacteria. From the plant extracts, only Ajuga remota Benth (LC50 Recently scientist have focused to increase the crop production to meet the needed of world population, but unfortunately, crop yield losses every year due to insects and plant diseases caused by various pathogens (Fletcher et al., 2006), slow biodegration of herbicides (Barnard et al., 1997). To control these shortcomings researchers have focused on allelochemicals and bio-herbicides, produced by plants themselves. The phyototoxic results of all fractions of both plants shows that they inhibited the growth of reddish root as well as shoot as compare to non treated control plant. Water, methanolic and butanolic fractions showed marked growth inhibition of root and shoot while n-hexane and ethyl acetate fraction of both plants showed moderate effects. Our findings showed similarity with results reported by Javaid et al., (2009) that water extract of Withala somnifera and Datura alba possessed some bioactive compounds which significantly inhibited the growth of root and shoot of Rumex dentatus L. highly competitive weed in wheat during allelopathic screening. Similar investigations was found by Kordali et al., (2008) that essential oil isolated from Turkish Origanum acutidens and their phenolic compounds completely inhibited the growth of seedling and roots and possessed antifungal activity when compare to standards compounds. 5.6. Scavenging of free radicals and medicinal plants Oxidation is a necessary process for human beings for energy production; however during normal metabolism oxygen consumption, through many enzymatic systems produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide anion radical, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide. In small amounts, these ROS are beneficial in signal transduction and growth regulation. However large amount of ROS produced oxidative stress, attack many molecules such as protein, DNA and lipids (Halliwell Gutteridge, 1999). Human beings possessed a system of antioxidant enzymes which scavenge and terminate directly ROS radical-mediated oxidative reactions they may be used a method of prevention of aging-associated diseases and health problems. In addition to antioxidant enzymes, non enzymatic compounds also take part in removing of ROS such as vitamin c, vitamin E and ÃŽÂ ±-topherol in addition to exogenous antioxidant compounds such as polyphenols. This has led to an accelerated search for antioxidant compounds, the identification of natural resources, and the isolation of active antioxidant molecules. Antioxidants have been detected in a number of agricultural and food products including cereals, fruits, vegetables and oil seeds (Adom, Sorrells, Liu, 2003; Netzel, Netzel, Tian, Schwartz, Konczak, 2007; Yu, Perret, David, Wilson, Melby, 2002). Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and propyl gallate (PG) have been widely used as antioxidant s in the food industry (Nawar, 1996). However, the safety of these synthetic antioxidants has been questioned. BHA has shown to be carcinogenic and BHT has been related to internal and external hemorrhaging at high doses in rats and guinea pigs (Ito et al., 1986). These findings increased the interest of consumer in natural food additives for effective uptake of antioxidant compounds as alternative source for scavenging of antioxidant compounds. Data of the present study revealed that various fractions of both plant show marked scavenging potential. Among them methanolic fraction of both plants indicated that this is more active in scavenging of 1, 1-diphenyl 1-2-picryl-hydrazyl, 2,2 azobis-(3-ethylbenzothiozoline-6-sulphonic acid), reduction of reduction of Mo (VI) to Mo (V) and inhibiting the oxidation of linoleic acid and subsequent bleaching of b-carotene. Similarly superoxide radical, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide most reactive and induces severe damage to adjacent bio molecules are scavenges effectively, as well as possesses a good metallic reducing and iron chelating properties. Our result shows similarity with the investigation of Hagerman et al. (1998) and Falleh et al., (2008). The results obtained by Duenas et al., (2006) and Kilani et al., (2008) also support our investigations. 5.7. Free radicals and changes of body and tissue weight The present study revealed that highly significant variation was observed in body weight and % increase in body weight. CCl4 and KBrO3 treatment of rats significantly decreased the body weight as compare to the non treated control group. Okada et al., (2003) reported the significant decrease in the body weight of rats by oral administration of CCl4. These results are in accordance with Lin and Lin, (2006) that CCl4 treatment causes a significant decrease in the body weight of the rats as compared with control rats. The results of Noyan et al. (2006) were also similar to our findings, in which they find the significant decrease in the body weight of mice groups treated with CCl4 intraperatonialy. Khan and Ahmad, (2009) reported that the treatment of male rats with CCl4 for 16 weeks caused a significant loss in the body weight, which was restored by methanolic extract of Digera muricata. These studies justify the decrease in the body weight of rats due to CCl4 and KBrO3 which was significantly recovered in the present study with the treatment of various fractions of Sonchus asper and Launea procumbens. Our result opposes to the findings reported by Farombi et al., (2002) that KBrO3 treatment to rat decreases the body weight non significantly as compare to control group. Cadenas and baria, (1999) reported that 80 mg/kg b.w. KBrO3 administration for 8 hours in rats non significantly decreased the body weight as compare to control rat, but our results controverses than these findings due chronic administration of KBrO3 as well as kidney weight of the rats was significantly increased when compared to control. This increase of tissue weight was balanced by administration of Resver atrol, Meltonin, vitamin E and PBN . Data of the present study revealed that tissue weight of various organs was increased in the CCl4 and KBrO3 treated rats as compared to control groups and DMSO treated rats. These increases were significantly ameliorated by post-treatment of various fractions of Sonchus asper and Launaea procumbens. Lin et al., (2008) injected 20% CCl4 for six weeks twicely, reported that liver and spleen weight was significantly increased as compared to control. They studied that these elevation was significantly restored by feeding rats with 200-1000mg/kg b.w. Solanum nigrum plant extract. Jodynis-Liebert et al., (2008) reported that Aquilegia vulgaris extract attenuates carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis and increase of liver weight in rats. Farombi et al., (2001) reported that a single dose of KBrO3 (300 mg/kg b.w.) insignificant changes the liver weight, as was compared to control group rats. Results of Adewole et al. (2007) are also in accordance to our study, in which CCl4 treatment significantly increased the weight of the kidney as compared to control. Our result was supports by treatment of rats with KBrO3 three times a week for 4 weeks resulted significant increase in kidney weight as compared to control rat which was modulated by biflavonoid (kolaviron) isolated from Garcinia kola (Farombi et al., (2001). Administration of various concentration of in the Big Blue rats showed that high doses of the chemical caused significant decreased in body weight while kidney of the rats was significantly increased when compared to control, however less amount of dose showed insignificant variations prove that low of amount of KBrO3 is not toxic as well as mutagenic (Yamaguchi et al., (2008). Decrease in body weight with CCl4 and KBrO3 treatment in this experiment might occur due the degeneration/necrosis of body tissues while increase in the weight of various tissues accounts d ue to the fatty accumulation, lipidperoxidation as well as fibrosis and inflammatory response of the organs. Response of the cells might change and adaptation increase by the protective effects of the rutin and various fractions, results in the recovery of the bodily and organs weight. 5.8. Serum marker enzymes and oxidative stress The areas of dietary modification and chemoprevention show considerable effective approaches for oxidative stress and are a focus on the research of these days. It has been found that some edible plants as a whole or their some portion have protective effects against various disorders including oxidative stress and cancer (Aruoma, 2003). Various studies have shown that several mutagens and carcinogens cause generation of oxygen free radicals, which play a major role in emergence of cancer especially promotion stages of carcinogenesis (Sun, 1990). We are of the opinion that for the assessment of protective effects of pure chemical or extracts, it is more important to change the response of the cells rather than priming the cells against the insult. On this base rats were treated with CCl4 (3 ml/kg b.w.) and KBrO3 1 ml/kg b.w. (20 mg/ml) and after 48 h with various fractions of S. asper, L.procumbens and rutin. In the present study, biweekly treatment of CCl4 and KBrO3 for 4 weeks resulted in acute pathological levels of ALT, AST, ALP, LDH and lipids profile in serum. It was suggested that CCl4 and KBrO3 metabolites through lipid peroxidation of hepatocytes cause acute injuries, cell membrane integrity was altered and the enzymes in hepatocytes leaked out. Similar elevated enzymes activities were and changes in lipids profile observed by (Sreelatha et al., 2008) in serum of rats treated with chemicals and these levels relapsed towards the normal level in rats treated with CCl4 plus rutin and various fractions of S. asper and L.procumbens. Similar investigations were reported by Singh et al. (2008) while working on hepatoprotective effects of potato peel against CCl4 induced hepatic injury in rats. Farombi et al., (2002) studied the protective effects of kolaviron against KBrO3 induced hepatotoxity and nephrotoxicity in rats, repoted that kolaviron significantly reversed the enzymatic change s of serum level. Serum albumin is the predominant serum protein, which reflects the synthetic function of the liver. Data of the present study reflected that CCl4 and KBrO3 intoxication produced a significant reduction in albumin serum levels compared to control group similar to other findings (Venukumar and Latha, 2002). In the present study administration of rutin and various fractions of plants produced a significant increase in protein and albumin level. This coincides with the other studies (Dang et al. 2007; Lin et al. 2008) where plant extracts had reversed the protein and albumin towards the normal level. Bilirubin is a brownish yellow substance found in bile produced during old RBCs breakage. Total and direct bilirubin tests are used for identification of liver damages. Increased levels of total or direct bilirubin may be due to jaundice, liver tubes blockage or bile ducts, cirrhosis. Our results showed that CCl4 and KBrO3 significantly (PS. asper and L. procumbens as well as rutin. Same result was reported in other studies (Rafatullah et al., 2006). Similar investigations were reported by Singh et al. (2008) and Sreelatha et al., (2008) while working on hepatoprotective effects of extracts against CCl4 induced hepatic injury in rats. Results of different studies have shown that various enzymatic and non enzymatic systems have been developed by eukaryotic cells to cope with oxygen free radicals (Recknagel et al., 1989; Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2000). However when oxidative stress is developed then the defense system become insufficient (Halliwell and Gutteridge, 2000). Medicinal pla nt materials also composed of different amounts of antioxidants which play main role in controlling various pathological condition including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases and lipid peroxidation (Martin et al., 1993, Agbor et al., 2001). These results indicated that various fractions and rutin are helping in response and adaptation of the hepatocytes possibly via the presence of flavonoids, saponins, phenols and tannins in various fractions. Urine analysis may provide information regarding the status of kidney function and acid base balance (Free and Free, 1972). During normal condition urobilinogen are not excreted into the urine unless any pathogenesis. Urobilinogen; is the end product of conjugated bilirubin after it has passed through the bile ducts and been metabolized in the intestine. The presence of high levels of urobilinogen, urea, creatinine and albumin in urine are the main indication of kidney injuries induced through CCl4 and KBrO3 treatment (Pels et al., 1989; Farombi et al., 2002; Ozturk et al., 2003; Ogeturk et al., 2005; Simerville et al., 2005). Specific gravity and pH of urine correlates with urine osmolality and was affected with chemical administration (Khan et al., 2009). Our results showed that CCl4 and KBrO3 significantly increased serum urea, serum globulin, RBC and WBC showing renal injuries. Glomerular haematuria is typically associated with erythrocyte cases, dysmorphic red blood cells and significant proteinuria. The serum creatinine level does not rise until at least half of the kidney nephrons are damaged or destroyed (Bhattacharya et al., 2005). The glomerular capillary wall is permeable only to substances with a low molecular weight. Once filtered, low-molecular-weight proteins are reabsorbed and metabolized by the proximal tubule cells. High level of proteinurea and haematuria in urine of this study showed the nephrotoxicity induced with CCl4 (Ogawa et al. 1992). The present study revealed that oral administration of different fractions significantly improved creatinine and urobilinogen, and decreased the elevated levels of proteinuria and haematuria. Present study revealed that administration of KBrO3 and CCl4 caused marked impairment in renal function along with significant oxidative stress in the kidneys. Serum creatinine, urobilinogen, BUN, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin concentrations were significantly higher in the CCl4 treated rats which are consistent with lower creatinine clearance (Adewole et al., 2007; Bhadauria et al., 2008). Rutin and various fractions of L. procumbens and S.asper signifi

Essay --

Each of the following '' Life Coaching'' aims is being defined, and each has the description of how it's useful in helping the client to promote self-awareness and personal development. It is worth mentioning that these aims being discussed, is from what I understood from the ''Life Coaching'' manual, (CMIT, 2010). Aim One: ''Life Coaching'' builds a'' joint venture'' where the Life coach guides the client to apprehend their full potential, and attain success in the different aspects of life. How it will help and be useful for the client? The Coaching process would create a tuneful balance for all aspects of the individual's life, in addition to developing comprehensible paths which would transfer the client into a brighter future. Aim Two: ''Life Coaching'' process depends on the growth of a special relationship between the coach and the client. The ''Life Coach'' manages this relationship and designs the appropriate coaching program for it. The later coaching program focuses on the future rather than looking to the past. How it will help and be useful for the client? The coac...