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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Married vs Single Essay

Most people would agree that getting married is a happy occasion. People think their lives are going to be better when they get married because the husband and wife are going to spend their times together. However, some people think when they are single, their lives are going to be better because of they have more freedom than when they get married. Some of the differences are social relationships and free time. The first difference is social relationships. For example, people who are married are together until they get divorced or until death. Married couples have social relationships with their children when they talk and express their inner feelings. Also, that is how parents have close relationships with their children. On the other hand, single people are living different lifestyles when I come to social relationships. In fact, single people are having social relationships when they are talking with a friend or boyfriend/girlfriend. Single people can make their own decision about who or who not to have a social relationship with. The second difference is free time. To better explain, people who get married are responsible to spend quality time with their family. They also have to spend time assisting their children with their homework. Truthfully speaking, responsible husbands or wives need to spend time together in order to avoid future problems. In contrast, single people spend their free time anyway they want to. If truth needs to be told, they don’t have to make any commitments toward anybody. Finally, married people have a busy time with their family such as working, shopping, and they can’t spend too much time with friends. In contrast, single people have their school, work, and shopping, and they have a lot of freedom to hang out with their friends In brief, married and single people are very different in many ways. As I have shown it in the above paragraphs, they are not similar in their relationship as well as their free time. In my opinion, people who believe that married people and single people are alike are fooling themselves. It is important to remember that married and single people don’t have much in common.

Biography of Eva Beem

Jennifer Grijalva P. 1 February 28, 2012 Biography Of Eva Beem Eva Beem was the daughter of Hartog and Rosette Beem. She was born on May 21, 1932, in Leeuwarden, Holland. When she was eight-years old,and she was in the school when the Germans invaded Holland in May of 1940. Her father was a high school teacher in the small city of Leeuwarde, in northern Holland. When the Germans invaded. They immediately embarked upon steps to separate the Jews from the rest of the population.Beginning in October 1940, they was liquidated Jewish businesses and banned Jews from most professions. The Dutch population resisted the anti-Jewish measures enacted by the Germans. But the Germans reacted brutally, and were able to break up most organized resistance. Many Jews were forced into restricted ghetto areas on July of 1941, and after May of 1942, all Jews had to wear the yellow star.Beginning in mid-July of 1942, the Germans began rounding up Holland's Jewish citizens. They were first taken to transi t camps, and from there to death camps in Poland. Father's of Eva decided that the family would go into hiding, because they felt that the children would be safer posing as non-Jews in a rural village, Eva and her younger brother were sent to the village of Ermelo with a Christian family, to risk death to save them, but the Nazi found them.Eva was given a new name and identity, she was known as Linni De Witt, and she was attended to the school along with the other village children. Eva Been and her brother Abraham were killed in gas chambers. She and her brother die on February of 1944. She was only 11 years old when she die in the gas chambers,and her brother was only 10 years old when he die with her sister Eva.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Science Fiction and Empire on Environmentalism

One of the main aspects of science fiction that sets it apart of almost all other genres is its ability to influence the direction of humankind. By stimulating a reader’s thoughts of the possibility of different futures, not only does science fiction serve as a popular source of entertainment, but it also encourages one to analyze the possible prospective effects of the generation’s powerholders’ and their decisions.As a science fiction writer himself, Isaac Asimov once said, â€Å"Intelligent science fiction writers attempt to look at world trends in science and technology for plot inspiration and, in doing so, they sometimes get a glimpse of things that later turn out to be near the truth† (Asimov, page 79). Through the use of empires as the powerhouses of society, SF books like War of the Worlds and Foundation dig deep into the question of what would happen if societies continued to allow the progression of destructive and commercial technologies.Frank Herbert’s, Dune, also questions the future of the universe while shining a spotlight on the clash between humanity and the environment. By providing a glimpse of the future as a product of current technological change, science fiction helps an audience examine which way they want to shape the progression of human kind, and therefore provides a unique service to the world. Since the beginning of time, the purpose of technology has been to enable one to do something that otherwise would be impossible.Technology is an incredibly powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. Serving as a symbol of power, positive technological development will generally distinguish a good empire from an evil one, in both the real world and the world of science fiction. In the novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, a Martian invasion leaves a previously invincible British Empire in ruins. The aliens violently expressive a total disregard for human life and the environment of earth. Weapons, called Heat-Rays are used against the humans and completely destroy everything in their way.These laser guns were a good prediction of future military technologies, resembling those of mass destruction known today. The book’s use of mass destruction of both the human race and the environment draws attention to our own planet’s possible future if nuclear weapons were ever to be placed in the hands of enemies with merciless hostility. Perhaps one of the most famous SF writers of all time, Isaac Asimov has also expressed his distaste for destructive technologies. â€Å"The Earth faces environmental problems right now that threaten the imminent destruction of civilization and the end of the planet as a livable world.Humanity cannot afford to waste its financial and emotional resources on endless, meaningless quarrels between each group and all others. There must be a sense of globalism in which the world unites to solve the real problems that face all gro ups alike† (Asimov, page 5). However, his book, Foundation, serves as an interesting contrast to the imperialistic warfare from The War of the Worlds. Focusing on a trend that the ideal progression of civilization may one day reach, this book introduces a pacifistic society in which violence is considered the last refuge of the incompetent.However, the environments depicted in Foundation are inconsistent with Herbert’s conception that a peaceful universe will also be rich in ecology. Given that violence was spoken as a thing of the past, and taking into consideration the environment of planets like Trantor consisted of civilization under a steel dome, this may further imply that violence and mass destruction have already taken their toll on universe of that time. This may suggest that total destruction of nature, by evil technologies, was what finally convinced humanity to become a pacifistic universe.Asimov’s use of ecology as a sacrifice made in order for peace among mankind questions if future pacifism will be possible before the misuse of technology annihilates Mother Nature forever. Conserving the environment seems to be a popular theme in SF, especially after the publication of Dune in 1965. This book depicts a future universe where even though a nuclear holocaust of the human race is not an issue, other powerhouses’ affairs continue to dominate in priority over the environment of planets. Dune encompasses an interesting parallel that would almost exactly predict current issues.Global wide controversy that major industrial accidents have significantly negative impacts on global environmental degradation is one of the main concerns among environmentalists today. These risks include human induced climate change, ozone depletion, and the loss of biodiversity, and if remain ignored will lead to the inhabitability of earth. Dune’s harsh desert environment may not have been a result of human interference with nature, but the f ailure to proliferate a lush green ecosystem, because of an empire’s concern of profit off the spice trade, does express concerns of global industrialization.This planet, originally known as Arrakis, is described as the empire’s wasteland, while at the same time being the most valuable planet in the universe. This inverse relationship between commercial gain and ecological richness advocates a need for major change in the distribution of power in a globally economy, especially aiming to put a halt to exploitation of earth’s natural resources by industrial power-head’s. Dune ultimately criticizes commercial empires for valuing profit over concerns for ecology, and above all pressures for change that will benefit the common good of humanity. What distinguishes us human beings from all the less advanced forms of life on earth is that, having at last become conscious of the challenge of survival, we have consciously undertaken to shape our own future. This re quires us to look ahead, even beyond the span of any single generation† (4). This quote, published by the Council of Foreign Relations in a journal for Foreign Affairs, surprisingly has no intentional relationship to SF. It does, however, coincidentally represent not only the current impact of science on progression of humanity, but also embodies the underlying theme of Foundation.Foundation is focused around a character named Hary Seldon, who uses the science of Psychohistory to predict the future of mankind. While conducting his research, Seldon discovers that the Galactic Empire, which is currently in power, will soon fall, and a new empire will not arise for thirty thousand years. Knowing that the time between empires will be nothing but barbarism, Seldon initiates a plan to create a compendium of all human knowledge, called the Encyclopedia Galactica, that will ultimately decrease the time of the dark age to one third of its original prediction.Seldon’s goal to imp rove the quality of life for the people of the collapsing empire, through knowledge, is significantly similar to environmentalists’ research efforts to prevent the demise of earth’s ecosystems. Considering that crisis aversion through science has very much come to life, it can be concluded that SF can, to some extent, predict the future. A nuclear physicist, by the name of Dr. Ron Nielson, coincidently posses many of the characteristics of Seldon in Foundation, almost as if Hary had come to life. In 2005, Dr. Nielson published a book called The Green Handbook: Seven Trends Shaping the Future of Our Planet, which he described as an essential reference for anyone who cares about the future of the planet. It surveys not only the deterioration of our physical environment but also economic, social, and political trends that give an understanding as to how these critical issues can be addressed. There are many similarities between Dr. Nielson and Hary Seldon, but the most me aningful quality would be that both scientists advocate change in humanity for a cause that they will not be alive to redeem the benefits of.Unlike industry officials, who are only interested in immediate commercial gain, these two men embody the characteristics of a true SF hero; one who protects of the progression of the future of humanity. The hero of Dune, Paul, is a character of interesting complexity that also strives to change trends in the ecology of his planet, much like Dr. Neilson. Paul is different from his family and social class in the sense that he feels a great connection to the environment, similar to those of the native people of Arrakis, called Fremen.The Fremen dream of a surreal utopia in which the harsh desert environment is metamorphosized into a lush self-sustainable ecosystem, in which the scarcity of water is no longer an issue. With the help of the Fremen and an ecologist named Kynes, Paul is victorious against his greedy rival, the Baron Harkonnen. Paul e xhibited characteristics exactly opposite of the Baron’s ruthlessness. When a sandstorm endangered workers in the spice mines and a large shipment of spice, Paul did not hesitate to sacrifice the spice for the lives of his people.The book places a special stress on the absence of a sense of altruism and respect for nature in the antagonist’s character and empire. Herbert’s characterizations, that embody the struggle of good versus evil, are suggestive that drastic policy changes must be met by either a change in morals and values of the people in charge, or a complete overthrow of authorities by advocates who have righteous intentions for the future of mankind. The association of the word ‘utopia’ with the notion of nature makes the theme of environmentalism even more obvious in this novel.The novel is strongly suggestive that environmental problems of today cannot be ignored any longer. Frank Herbert and Dr. Neilson share a common objective of advo cating environmentalism through their writing. The difference is that Herbert incorporates it into fictional pieces of literature, while Neilson chooses a more scientific and direct path of expression. Herbert’s use SF literature, to push for a green movement by society, shows how SF can be used as a tool to improve scientific literacy and knowledge of future concerns associated with our current usage of technology. Science fiction ses a blend of entertainment and science to create, what some might, call more effective means of scientifically educating an audience. The impact of science fiction does not just stop at a mere introduction of scientific problems to the public. Plots of science fiction often offer possible plans of action to induce change and progression in a positive direction. In both Dune and Foundation, government or politics was used to bridge the gap between what was happening and what needed to happen. In these novels, as well as in real life, possesion of high political power is almost always a requirement for initiating radical change.In Dune, Paul inherited his father’s position and power. By joining forces with the Fremen, Paul became the leader of a mini-empire in hopes to put an end to the exploitation of the planet’s resources by the evil Harkonnens. It was not until Paul was named the new emperor of the universe, however, that his plans to change the planet into a garden paradise could finally begin. Dr. Neilson chose to end the preface of his book encouraging policy-makers, decision-makers, and journalists to use their influences and lifelong experiences to help steer away from the future taking an undesirable course of events.However, this encouragement does not give a concise solution the problem he lists in The Green Handbook. Applying concepts from the three SF books being analyzed, the process to change the course of the seven trends that Neilson feels are slowly degrading our planet, a high position of pow er among policy changers must first be obtained. A book by Michael Howes, called Politics and the Environment: risk and the role of government and industry, gives intense incite to what further needs to be done to save our planet.This book focuses on meeting the challenge of undoing environmental risks with more technical innovation and economic reform. It also shines a light on the roadblock that people who deny that there is any serious risk are causing, mainly those who benefit from industry. The struggle between those interested in commercial gain and those who attempt to advocate change to benefit the environment is realistic problem often portrayed in SF. Dune, Foundation, and War of the Worlds all express a common concern for what impacts destructive technologies, like weapons and exploitative industries, may have on the future of mankind.These books also seem to preach that good motives and compassion for humanity are qualities of good empires, while evil ones are still focu sed on the use of violence and greed. The power placed in the hands of the most influential people of the empire is also a symbol of responsibility of those to always make decisions for the greater good of humanity. Governments of today’s nations could effectively avert future ecological crisis on earth by balancing power scientists and big industry officials. The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom† (Asimov, pg 13). By taking a glimpse into the future, politicians that value the earth’s well-being can be the change needed to save the planet, ultimately making them heroes like Paul and Seldon. In this case, science fiction may also be useful tool in impacting the public to push for changes from politicians. The ability of the genre of SF to really impact the future of technology makes it the most relevant type of literature in current time.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Knowledge of Minds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Knowledge of Minds - Essay Example This way our mind goes through several experiences which enables the mind to exercise and imagines various objects which in our real life we often found close to reality. It is our mind that asks us to believe in paranormal activities, unsolved mysteries because it creates an impression before us which one way or the other our subconscious believes. Therefore we can say that humans despite having no idea of mind possess the capability to have in depth knowledge about the objects and instances the mind creates. Our mind acts as the gateway to human wisdom and ideas that flow and allow themselves to be accepted by us. Therefore the thoughts that come to us, the ideas we generate and the emotions we are overwhelmed with are all the objects that our mind allows us to perceive and we perceive them. However it depends upon inner extent to how much we are able to drink all the knowledge that our mind creates for us. Berkeley also claims that intuitive knowledge can also be achieved from our mind. For example, he says that if a table exists, it means it has been experienced, that is it is present whether one utilizes it or not. If one person does not get the chance to see the table, does not mean that anybody has accessed it. By some how the table is seen by some one. Abstract ideas are not the ultimate creation of the minds alone, abstractness exists. Berkeley uses the 'spirit' for such abstractness which as far as I have understood is the ability of human mind to feel paranormal activities. I have named abstractness as 'paranormal' because often it appears for a millisecond that we consumed with abstract thoughts which we don't believe. These are all the mind capabilities to show us living or non living objects this way. This is similar to the above example of table, that if a table or an object exists it is not possible that it exists in void, it is real. And since the table is real, therefore our mind is able to process its image, its length, breadth, colour and shape. However the more clear the sense of touch, smell and colour is, the more we allow our minds to perceive better but in order to allow our mind, we need to be 'free' to think and consider various abstractness and imaginations that our mind creates before us. Therefore it is our mind that provides intuition to us in this manner and this is evident from the fact that we have imaginations, abstractness and impressions. In reality we do not have such capabilities to image or to make an impression of something. It is the capability of our mind to shape our intuition before us. Berkeley suggests that it is practically not possible for us to divide our visions of perception. One cannot divide the senses through which it can perceive objects. The word 'rose' make us think of a rose with colour, stem and leaves. If for some reason we divide our abilities to think only the flower, not leaves or fragrance, it would be abstract. If one trains his mind to perceive this way he can no longer continue with the same abstract perception for the impracticality of the subject. That means our

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Customers' and firms' views of using drones in business Essay

Customers' and firms' views of using drones in business - Essay Example A drone resembles and acts like an airplane. Lack of a pilot flying the drone is the major difference between a drone and an airplane. A person in a certain station controls a drone. The individuals are responsible for monitoring areas covered by the drone. In addition, the individual controls the movement of the drone. Drones are common among the military and army squads as they use them to survey enemies’ movement. They also act as bombs for attacking enemies. Development of drone abilities attracted executives who used for surveying areas that was not within the businessperson reach. Therefore, the drone has been of great service as it save time. Businessperson, use the drone for purposes such as delivery, providing internet services, news, photography, agriculture, population and monitoring public service.1 Apparently, the firms using drone and consumer have different views considering the use of drones in business activities. Some view them as advantageous while some view them as a disturber. Nevertheless, it depends on the service the drone offers to the individual. This paper attempts to views and explains the difference and similarities between the customers and the firm’s view on the usage of drones in business activity. The paper also adds the differences that firms and customers have while viewing the usage of drones in the business. It adds that the difference in people view is the main reason for the difference in how people view drones. Despite the many benefits of using drones in business, some firms and customers complain of the services produced. Some firms view the usage if drone in business and efficient. They lay their view upon the fast services produced when using the drone especially when delivering products. It is clear that most firms have experienced a challenge when delivering products and services to consumers in time when delivering products locally. The main problems that firms experience is a

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Miss Spider's tea party Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Miss Spider's tea party - Essay Example The ballet group itself is a non-profit entity, and its laudable programs are funded completely by donations and powered by volunteers in the main. This makes the event doubly meaningful and worthwhile, first because of the goodwill and the eminently good intentions of the group, and second because of the excellent production and the merits of the artistic show itself (Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet; Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet (b)). The story itself is straightforward, and a delight to watch on stage. Miss Spider is preceded by a reputation for eating bugs, and so has a difficult time making friends and being able to invite neighbors for tea. This is a recipe for loneliness, and the story in a way is about this loneliness and the walls that people and bugs erect among themselves, motivated by fear and impressions that may not correspond with reality. All sorts of bugs in the neighborhood resisted the charms of Miss Spider and chose to stay away, and even the ants could only stay for a short while. It took a helpless wet moth, who couldn’t escape if it wanted to, for the rest of the neighborhood to know how harmless and contrary to stereotypes Ms. Spider was. Her act of kindness towards the moth convinced them to finally stop by Miss Spider’s house and stay. There is much to the production that can be recommended for all children. The story itself is instructive with regard to how to deal with peop le in the outside world, to see without blinders and to give people a chance, and more importantly, to not be deceived by appearances. People are good and bad, and with caution and the guidance of elders, the outside world can be engaged in. On another level, the production also emphasizes the importance of friendship. This production has many hooks to the course. It is a worthwhile addition, for instance, to the library of children’s literature that can be recommended to students. That it has been staged by an organization with a

Monday, August 26, 2019

Manufacturing and Production Enterprises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Manufacturing and Production Enterprises - Essay Example CIM involves use of other independent technologies like the computer in all sections of the business making it easier to monitor the progress of each section and monitor process flow. Information sharing to any employee demanding it for effective decision-making if made easier. On implementation, businesses implement it differently and use tools that are dependent on diverse factors affecting the business (Markert & Backer, 2009). This makes it more of a manufacturing philosophy than a technology since it is adopted differently by different organizations to suit their demands. CIM does not include a specific implementation process or predetermined structure that is to be adopted by any organization intending to use the strategy. There are no specific technologies that are identified to be part of the setup. With no specific implementation structure, CIM is more of a management strategy that intends to assist businesses integrates their existing technologies to achieve quality products. An integration of electrical, information and mechanical subsystems makes it possible for management personnel in design and manufacturing to communicate with each other using computer workstations (Markert & Backer,

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Supply chain management in new zealand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Supply chain management in new zealand - Essay Example This fundamental approach particularly in the food management in New Zealand is characterized by the integration of research in the actual Supply Chain Management. This is evident how the consumers have become integral parts of climate or consumer survey in order to ensure awareness of their increasing demand. Not only that. The systematic trainings and programs given to producers in line with food safety solutions and biosecurity solutions are moves that are paving the way for sustainability. In other words, the current state of supply chain management in New Zealand with the aid of individual entities like AgriChain Centre is helping the nation towards the achievement of sustainability that could integrate safety and quality in food production. It is clear that sustainability in food production is the bottom line of this, which further takes New Zealand to unite the concept of supply chain management in a most efficient and systematic manner. The significant proof concerning this claim, as already stated, is visible from how research has become fundamental component in the entire process of obtaining sustainability in the food production. Supply chain management is a broad area of concern, but one important point in doing this is to ensure that the external relationships between the players in the entire supply chain are in good shape and under control for optimum achievement of target goals and objectives. In fact, the processes across the supply chain and the development of supply chain relationships are characteristics of supply chain management (Jespersen & Larsen, 2005, p.14). All of these characteristics are able to take place in New Zealand if we based it on how AgriChain Centre involves itself into the actual agricultural production in participation with private and public sectors and the consumers. In this process, there

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Collaborative online learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Collaborative online learning - Essay Example The purpose of collaborating online is to enable learners to interact with each other, to help them share knowledge, and to facilitate them in exchanging thoughts through using online portals (Geiss & Roman, 2013). Online learning incorporates collaborative learning which is recognized as a great and worthwhile opportunity, not only in terms of allowing access for fellow students, but also in giving them chances to work together so to make theor learning take place online more effectively, as compared to the traditional face-to-face class (Tsai, 2011). Generally, collaboration is now recognised as one of the most essential skills that are necessary for learners to function effectively within an online community. It is necessary that we know how students learn, communicate, and how the increasing functionality of technology is raising the bar of communication and collaboration (Sulisworo, 2012). By definition, collaborative learning refers to certain environments in which learners engage in a common and authentic task and the methodology applied therein, and in which each peer is dependent on and accountable to the others in the group or team (Tsai, 2011). Bouroumi and Fajr (2014) defined collaboration and cooperation as "teaching strategies that allow students to interact with each other and work together in order to learn more efficiently" (p.66). Cullen, Kullman, and Wild (2013) also mentioned that the practice of collaboration involves "a situation where two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together, and it ha s strong support from a range of theoretical perspectives including motivation, cognition, and social cohesion" (p. 426). Collaborative learning has also been defined as a pedagogy in which learners come together, usually in groups, and grain in their learning as a result of mutual cooperation. In this arrangement, each

Friday, August 23, 2019

500 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

500 - Essay Example Here I will assign the extra time by seeing the nature of the activity. The main purpose of this section is to streamline the time and allocate the enough time resources project. Now I will discuss critical and non-critical activities, and their effect upon the shortest time needed to complete the project. Like we can save time from the activity of â€Å"call for nominations† we can have 3 days from this activity. Then in the â€Å"organize record sheets† task we can save 2 days. From the â€Å"ask for officials to volunteer† task we can have 2 days. We have saved overall 7 days out of 71 days project. In this project of the sporting event I have discussed the main events and tasks that we have to carry out regarding overall project implementation. Here I have tried to carry out activities in such a way that the there is no conflict among the activities in any scenario. Here I have also implemented the project management activities like WBS, OBS and

Kafka Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Kafka - Essay Example He had 2 brothers who died that affected him so much, but he was blessed with sisters. He was sent to a German school and was not Czech. He speaks much Czech when he was a child but had mastered the German language as he finished school. His mastery of the language is seen in his literary works (http://www.kafka-franz.com/kafka-Biography.htm). The work of Franz entitled "The Metamorphosis" is one of his remarkable works. Literary works like that of Kafka is an example of heavily influenced by the artist own life struggles and reflection. In the story, the main character was Gregor Samsa a traveling sales man who is already a burnt out of his job. He was torn between his responsibility with his parents about the job he is into and being free to do other things. He was transformed one morning to a bug and woke up late for work. He was suddenly thinking of what was happening to him lately was grieving for the hassles he gets from his work and the relationships he gets from people who only come and go and is always volatile and not intimate and permanent ( Kuper, 2003). The story written by the author is a mere of his own sad life. Franz was linked into many women for one night stands, sex, flirting. There was no such intimate relationship for him before he got married.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Conservative dominance in the years 1951 to 1964 Essay Example for Free

Conservative dominance in the years 1951 to 1964 Essay The main reason for conservative dominance in the years 1951 to 1964 was labour disunity?† Access the validity of this view I agree with this statement as the labour party leaders were ageing. The labour leaders were from the pre-war era therefore it meant that they were not in touch with the population. This led to labour disunity throughout the years as it caused Attlee to retire, he found that he couldn’t understand what the young wanted. For the public they left their trust with the labour party and put it in the conservatives as they felt that labour had failed to create the consumer revolution that everyone had hoped for. By 1951 the public were also fed up with the rationing that they still had to endure even though the war had ended 6 years ago therefore this helped the conservative dominance in those years. Another reason as to why labour disunity was to blame for labour dominance was the growing split in the party caused by the Bevanites and Gaitskillites. The split in the party was due to Gaitskell introducing prescription and dentistry charges. Bevan supported the left wing of the party whereas Gaitskell supported the right wing of the party and followed Attlee in becoming the next leader of labour government. The split led to disunity as Gaitskell didn’t have the full support of the party; his ideas were always going to be argued against. Another reason why the split caused disunity in the labour party was to do with the trade unions. The trade unions were supporting the left wing of the party; this was a problem particularly during the Scarborough conference in 1960. Frank Cousins was the leader of the one of the most powerful unions, TGWU (transport and general workers) and was an extreme left wing. He led fierce opposition to Gaitskell over Britain’s nuclear weapons. Gaitskell wanted Britain to have nuclear weapons because of the looming threat of Russia, during the cold war; they could wipe out countries at any time. At the party conference in Scarborough Frank Cousins opposed Gaitskell’s leadership over the labour party and in particular nuclear weapons. He challenged Gaitskell over his decision not to refect unilateral disarmament. This caused disunity in the party because it showed to the public how weak the labour party was if a trade union leader, who had no power within the party was able to dictate what they did. It showed to them that someone who was a small minority was able to gather a lot of power. It was humiliation for Gaitskell because it showed he wasn’t able to control what was happening to the party. Alsoà ‚  disunity in the party was due to the fact that the left wing of the party was closely associated with CND (campaign for nuclear disarmament). The left wing side of the labour party were in favour of nuclear disarmament and being connected with nuclear disarmament scared many labour supporters. Many people were not in favour of nuclear disarmament as it was at the height of the cold war and they were scared of a nuclear war happening; this link between the CND and the labour party could have led to many voters turning away from the labour party in the 1959 election. Another reason which could have turned people away from voting for the labour party in the 1959 election was the association of CND being anti-government. Their ‘unilateralism’ became a powerful magnet for anti-government protest in some ways it almost was seen as a substitute for opposition in government. With many labour left-wingers associated with one of the most powerful pressure groups in Britain it made people question the ideas that the labour government had and their ability to run the country. The final reason for a split in labour disunity was clause four. Clause four was the commitment to nationalisation of everything which was a step towards socialism and communism. Gaitskell put forward the idea to abolish this clause and labours commitment to nationalisation to nationalisation. He was impressed with the way Germany had dumped their commitments to Marxist ideas in their party conference in 1959. Many people including the left wing of labour opposed this ide a and Gaitskell had to back down from his idea. With events happening in the world connected with socialism and communism, the abolishment of clause four was linked to the ideas of radical socialism which scared people as it was too close to communism for their liking. However it wasn’t just the labour disunity that caused the conservative party to remain dominant. The conservatives had strengths of their own that they used to the best of their ability. When conservatives came into power in 1951 it marked the end of the austerity era and the start of the post war boom. From 1952 most economic indicators pointed upwards with the boom in car ownership, home ownership increased, helped by the easy access to cheap mortgages and food rationing ended completely in 1954. Harold Macmillan who was then the housing minister fulfilled the election pledge of getting new homes constructed above 300,000 per year. The age of affluence helped keep the conservatives dominant in politics as it meant the public saw that party  as the ones who could make a change. Also the conservatives keeping their promises meant the public would respect them. In the run up to the 1955 election Butler was able to boost conservative election prospects with a ‘give-away’ budget. This meant for people in the middle classes would be provided with  £134 million in tax cuts. For these middle classes it meant an overwhelming support in favour of the conservatives because of the classes that might not have been able to afford the consumer goods were given a chance to. For the conservatives in the 1955 general election the public mood was what was described as a ‘feel good’ factor. They wanted the continuation of the consumer goods and therefore they would continue to vote for the conservatives as they saw them as the party who would be able to offer them it. Another reason for conservative dominance was that the national press was overwhelmingly in favour with the conservatives. During the 1955 election this helped win support and it also helped during Macmillan’s time as prime minister. Macmillan seemed to have the media in the palm of his hand using the new political opportunities that were provided by the television. With the conservative party gaining wide spread coverage throughout the country and labour not, it meant people knew more about the conservative party. With the national press focusing on the conservatives it gave them enough attention to win the elections crushing labour in every defeat. An important reason for the conservative dominance was the personalities that led the party. Winston Churchill gained his reputation for leading Britain to victory during the war. However during his post war leadership he was very much absent and Anthony Eden the acting prime minister led the conservatives. Eden was the first prime minister that the public felt they could understand what they wanted. Anthony Eden was said to have ‘represented contemporary manhood.’ This led the public to believe that for the first time after the war they would receive the benefits that they wanted. Eden has also many progressive ideas in domestic affairs however in the end this was his downfall. The Suez crisis split the conservative party and for the first time it looked like they would be weakened and labour would take power however it didn’t. Eden was resigned in 1957 and Harold Macmillan who led the campaign to abort the Suez crisis emerged as prime minister. He restored the party unity and in the 1959 led the conservatives to another win in the election. Macmillan from 1957 showed  his aura of confidence and political mastery. This showed to the public that the politicians and leaders in the party were strong willed and would do anything in their power to protect their country. This gave the conservatives the respect that they needed to go on and win the elections. Overall I think that although the labour party were weak, and this weakness led to the conservatives dominating politics and government; conservative dominance was due to the power that the leaders had. The people saw that this party was able to give them everything they wanted with the age of affluence. Also conservatives made sure that labour supporters would change sides as they gave respect to the labour’s post war consensus. With keeping with the post war consensus it showed to the people they were leaders who knew what they party wanted and not the ageing leader s in the labour party.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Mobile commerce | An introduction

Mobile commerce | An introduction CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) can be widely defined as â€Å"any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated and/or completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device†. (R. Tiwari, and S. Buse. 2007)Business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile commerce (m-commerce) refers to consumers sharing information and purchasing products and services from sellers with their mobile devices (Balasubramanian et al. 2002). With the continuous development of telecommunication technology, mobile services ranges from email receiving and sending, shopping for goods and services, playing online interactive games, trading stocks and shares, reserve tickets, conduct banking and monetary transactions and even link to social networking sites to connect with friends.Mobile commerce constitutes payment for such goods, services and information. Users access a website or wireless access protocol (WAP) by entering the web address (URL) of the particular products required via the mobile phone browser. Text messaging (SMS) is another way users can ‘communicate with third party service provider. Depending on the tangibility of the product, the delivery of the product can be in the form of physical collection or downloaded digitally into the mobile devices. 1.1 Evolution of Mobile Commerce Finland is the ‘birthplace of Mobile Commerce. In 1997, the first SMS-activated Coca Cola vending machines was installed in Helsinki. Same year, mobile-based finance and banking service were also launched. Finland is also the place where the first sales of digital content, ring tones were downloaded to mobile phones, were made. In 1999, Philippines and Japan commenced a national commercial platform for mobile commerce, known as SMART and i-Mode respectively. Subsequently, mobile commerce associated services begun to sprout rapidly in other markets, from mobile parking in Norway, to sales of train tickets via mobile phones in Austria to the purchase of airline tickets in Japan. From 2002, public transportation commuters in Helsinki are able to purchase tram and undergrounds train tickets via mobile phones. The cost of the tickets is the same as those bought from a machine but without the queue. In Colorado, it is one of the first few places whereby one can order movie tickets and pay via mobile phone. A dedicated counter is arranged for the pick-up. Mobile vouchers or coupons are visible in many countries from Finland, Spain, Germany, and United States to Japan. The promotional items offered on discounts ranges from laptops to McDonalds. Ring tone and wallpaper downloading have been one of the first widely used mobile commerce services. Some mobile services providers offer mobile news services, such as headlines, sports, weather, sports to mobile subscriber, sometimes free when sponsored by mobile advertiser or at a monthly subscription cost to the user. Small-scaled mobile commerce doesexist in most markets, from SMS voting in reality shows like ‘American Idol to participate in promotion lucky draws to downloading mobile ringtones. External environmental factors do play a part in promoting the mobile commerce growth. Worldwide expansion of digitalisation and automation of sales proceduresin the e-business and e-commerce on the Internet allow easier transference to the mobile commerce environment. 1.2 Technology Mobile commerce is actualised by a series of interlinked technologies such as networking, embedded systems, databases and security. (Siau et al, 2003). Mobile devices, wireless systems and softwares enable a faster transmission of data, along with reliability and security. Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is the second generation (2G) after the analogue cellular era. It is the basic circuit-switched system whereby users need to dial in to maintain connection. The 2.5G technologies consist of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data GSM Environment where they make used of existing infrastructure but faster in terms of sending speed. This generation of mobile technology is meant for transference of multimedia and broadband applications. The third generation (3G) uses the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), which strives to provide higher bandwidth, faster transmission of voice, text, video, and multimedia for data-concentrated applications. UMTS allows users to be constantly connected to the Internet and its services worldwide, regardless of the devices (mobile or computers) used. As such, the mobile device can be integrated with functions of other equipment such as television, newspaper, organiser, computer and even credit card. In order to access web information to the mobile devices, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was designed. As an open and global standardisation for mobile applications, WAP aimed to connect and communicate mobile devices with other devices over wireless network on an interactive and real-time interface. Global Positioning System (GPS) uses a satellites system orbiting around the earth and is particularly useful location technology. It is essential to location based mobile commerce based applications, as it offers relevant information dependent on location. 1.3 Role of channel provider The roles of the 3G operators are more obvious than the voice-centric 2G. In fact, how these operators facilitate their roles will determine the adoption of mobile commerce. The carrier or Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the entity that delivers the data to and from the user. The initial stage of 3G-standardisation process started with dual layer model, the pure carrier and service and/or connection provider. It is viewed that this model will continue with carriers bring the main subscription provider. The gateway or portal is the entity centred to the services range. It is still unclear whether carrier will control it wholly. Regardless, it is definite that the number of content provider will increase. The role of banks in mobile commerce is considered critical since ease of payment is one of the determinant factors in adoption of mobile commerce. Certification authority is the entity that guarantees the transactions between the origin and destination. In addition to the above mentioned infrastructure requirements, a smartcard called UMTS Subscriber Identity Card (USIM) is compulsory in every device n order to make phone calls. The basic functions for USIM are security via shared secret key, personal information manager, and SIM toolkit applications. USIM is also a platform for applications or features such as public key security content copyright control, specification and cookies, data or application cache, authentication of users and plastic roaming. 1.4 Development of Mobile Commerce The extensive availability of Internet-accessible mobile phones is slowly creating a community of mobile commerce users. It is expected that this community might exceed the PC community. (Ahonen, 2002) With technology such as WAP or 3G, it is believed that electronic commerce information and/or interactive content will be adapted to the mobile commerce environment. While the majority of mobile commerce opportunities and purchases are business-to-consumer (B2C), the possibility of business-to-business (B2B) still stands. It is predicted that business users and their requirements will be fulfilled by the 3G services. A report by Accenture in 2001 â€Å"Future of Wireless†, has suggested that most business activities are easily accommodated for mobile commerce. With the rapid spread of mobile commerce, mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola and LG had began to develop WAP-enabled smart phones to exploit on the market potential. Interestingly, it was the introduction of Apples iPhone mobile commerce based systems like FanGo that the platform started to move into actual applications instead of SMS systems. The key advantage of mobile commerce services is the mobility of conveniences. Mobile commerce allows users the ability to execute transactions regardless of the location and time. With such uniqueness, mobile commerce has experienced relatively greater success in markets like Japan in regards to individual adoption rate. In comparison, this novelty technology has yet to achieve widespread popularity in other markets like the USA, Australia and Singapore. Mobile commerce actualise the possibility of accessing information at anywhere and anytime. It provides users the chance to access the Internet regardless of location (subject to the network coverage of mobile internet operators), the ability to identify a single mobile devices location (Global Positioning System) and to retrieve and/or update information whenever needed. The features of mobile commerce can be categorised into the following: Ubiquity. The most distinct advantage of mobile commerce is its ubiquity. With internet-enabled mobile devices, users can obtain any information required. Also, the emerging mobile commerce applications allow users to engage in activities such as instant messaging, linking to social networking websites, conducting financial transactions or looking up for weather news. Dissemination: The wireless infrastructure that support instantaneous delivery of data to mobile devices allows an efficient distribution of information to a population. Personalisation. With the massive amount of information available on the Internet, it is important that the content users receive is relevant. Mobile commerce companies can create applications that allow customizable information and services applicable to users. Localisation. Another significant feature will be the ability to identify users physical location with prompted the creation of location-based applications. The Sekai Camera created by Tonchidot is one example of how far such applications can go. (Figure) Source: http://popupcity.net/2009/01/tag-the-world-share-spaces/ CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND 2.1 Mobile Commerce in Singapore Mobile commerce innovations were also introduced. June 2001, Coca-Cola partnered with SingTel on a Dial-a-Drink scheme to enable consumers to buy drinks from the vending machines via SMS, cost of the drinks will be credited to their phone bills. M1 has a similar development with Yeo Hiap Seng too. The largest taxi fleet company, ComfortDelgro, started a free SMS taxi booking service. This service, aimed to better match demand and supply, offers commuters an alternative channel to book a taxi apart from the â€Å"call-a-cab† scheme. Another interested application of mobile commerce will be the audience polling. When television station and/or web-based TV reality contests was newly introduced into the local media scene, audience support through SMS voting was a common trend. Although the hype is fading, SMS voting is still an alternative for media contests on top of online voting. It is evident in the Singapore Blog Awards 2009 where Rednano Mobile, the mobile platform of rednano.sg, powers SMS voting. Increasingly, real-time SMS service like messageLIVE provided by SingTel are used at events where audience can participate in lucky draws, comment, etc via SMS and it will be instantaneously reflected on screen. SMS transaction has been seen in local television charity shows such as the President Star Charity Show. It is observed that mobile payment method plays an important part to the success of mobile commerce. There had been several mobile payment initiatives launched in Singapore. Local banks have started rolling out mobile banking services way back in 2001. TELEMONEY by [emailprotected] Pte Ltd has also implemented mobile payment systems for retail and parking charges at Suntec City. NETS, too, phase in YW8 whereby moviegoers can reserve and purchase Eng Wah cinema tickets. However, the demand for these services was so low that some services ceased to exist. One of the main reasons for the unpopularity then was the complex usage procedure for mobile payments. Users first have to register and remember a sixteen-digit personal identification number. After which, users will be required to either send Short Message Service (SMS) or dial a specific number to confirm any purchase. Such inconveniences make mobile payment schemes difficult to gain prevalence. Nonetheless, there have been ongoing efforts to improve the telecommunication technology such as Near Field Communications (NFC) and mobile scan technology to facilitate mobile commerce. NFC allows users to make payment by tapping their mobile devices against a reader. Mobile scan technology involves the using of camera in mobile phone as barcode reader. Mobile barcodes are commonly used for information or service request or content from a website. It can be promotion details, discount voucher or code via SMS or MMS, or ring tone, MP3, or game download or activation, or click to buy human agent, or purchase concert or travel ticket. The set up costs is usually the responsibility of the products company while partnering with a mobile payment service provider. While Mobile commerce now remains at infant stage, there are a myriad of companies looking into SMS-based applications and WAP. The InfoComm development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has on-going research to identify the current local mobile commerce industry status and thereafter implemented several initiatives to encourage and support companies on mobile applications and/or platform development. At the official opening of imbX 2009, it was announced by Minster Lui Tuck Yew that the government intend to allocate $1.73 billion for new infocomm projects. Part of these projects will include the deployment of contactless point-of-sale terminals via NFC to promote electronic payment adoption and developing of applications on mobile commerce platform, location-based services and novel original mobile services. It is observed that service provider in the mobile commerce value chain, such as the wireless application providers, mobile operators, and other players, have been swift to introduce applications to the mass-market. However, the rate of adoption has been somewhat pale. 2.2 Statistics As of June 2009, Singapore has a mobile penetration rate of 130.6%. It is very common to for consumers to own more than one mobile device each. The mobile penetration rate has been on a steadily increase since 1997. 2009 also indicate an uprising trend lest for the stark drop of 3.2% in June 2009. While the mobile subscriptions averaged around 64000, the number of 3G subscriptions has increased over the past six months. Despite the positive increment, the market share of mobile commerce has yet to pick up similar pattern. Singapore pales comparison to Japan wheremobile commerce is a huge success, attributing more than $400 million in revenues yearly. NTT DoCoMos popular i-mode service allows users to buy soft drinks from vending machine, pay for food at fast food restaurants, and shop at online shops like Amazon.com, and buy most of goods via DoCoMos billing system. Companies like Visa also offer m-commerce services in Japan. Chart 2.1: Mobile Penetration Rate of Singapore, Q1-Q2 2009 Source: Statistics on Telecom Services for 2009 (Jan Jun), IDA Singapore. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20090304182010.aspx Chart 2.2: Singapore Mobile Market Source: Statistics on Telecom Services for 2009 (Jan Jun), IDA Singapore. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20090304182010.aspx Chart 2.3: Mobile Penetration Rate of Singapore, Annual, 1997-2008 Source: Statistics on Telecom Services for 2009 (Jan Jun), IDA Singapore. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20090304182010.aspx CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 Mobile Commerce Process Mobile commerce consists of users participation in transactions via mobile terminals. From a users point of view, retrieving and sending information and purchasing products are regarded as the basic steps to mobile commerce. Most mobile commerce studies focused mainly on the purchasing stage but customers are involved in receiving and transferring information at the pre-purchase stage. Receiving information consists of conveying of information from seller to users mobile device. As it is important for customers to know about the products, make comparison between products and then make buying decision. Transferring information represent the directing of information from user to sellers. The information can be used to describe product and services requirements, registering, providing feedback and offering payment and/or delivery details. Purchasing is the act of buying products and services via mobile devices in return of monetary returns. The act of placing orders can be done through Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) properties of mobile device. It does not include making order by calling the seller from mobile phone. 3.2 Mobile Commerce Adoption Activators and Inhibitors There are a significant number of studies carried out to identify and predict the upcoming activators and inhibitors of mass-market mobile commerce adoption. As seen in the review here, different authors have highlighted different factors as key activators/inhibitors to the adoption of mobile commerce. Gillick and Vanderhoof (2000) suggest five broad-natured inhibitors, namely the technology, standardization of industry, the business case, expectations of consumers, security and reliability. The last factor is one of the most commonly quoted. Most authors have quoted the lack of security and privacy could be the main obstacle to the growth of mobile commerce. E-Mori conducted a multi-market study for Nokia Networks and it was found that the lack of perceived need (Signorini, 2001), conservatism, and perceptions relating to the reliability and security of the technology are the main hurdles to adoption of mobile commerce; while convenience and control are found to be the key determina nts of demand. Buellingen and Woerter (2002) emphasize four vital success factors for the use of mobile services transmission rate, personalisation, data security, and user friendliness. Based on a survey by Strong and Old (2000) propose that ease of having ubiquitous Internet access will be the most essential for customers to engage in mobile Internet applications. The authors noticed substantial obstacles to rapid adoption to mobile Internet in the future are lack of awareness in content and application, high operating costs and the unfavourable comparison towards mobile Internet in terms of small screen size, awkward input, poor search functions, unstable or expensive connections, etc. On the other hand, many studies disputed on the fact that mobile commerce may encounter considerable growth with non-Internet adopters because of the lower costs and ease of usage with mobile devices involved. (MÃÆ' ¼ller-Versee, 1999; Vittet- Philippe and Navarro, 2000; Ropers, 2001) Vittet- Philippe and Navarro (2000) and Green (2000) believe that ‘user-friendly is the main point for mobile commerce adoption. As such, the limitations like small screen size, low bandwidth and the basic functions of mobile devices influence the design of mobile commerce applications interface. Likewise, the survey conducted by Carlsson and Walden (2002) noted that slowness in speed of service and small screen size of mobile phones attributed to the hindrance in mobile commerce adoption. On the other hand, Langendoerfer (2002) assumes that technological matters such as technical environment and mobile devices will not be the main reason for the slowness in widespread usage of mobile commerce. Rather, the concerns of users such as privacy and security have a larger influence on the slow take off. Shuster (2001) hypothesize that pricing will definitely have an influence on mobile commerce adoption. â€Å"Improved mobile devices, user-friendly shopping interfaces, effective applications and services, reduced prices, secure transactions, high bandwidth and network coverage† are the list of key success factors for escalating mobile commerce adoption from the online survey by Vrechopoulos et al (2002) It is also highlighted from a consumer survey (Anckar, 2002b) that mobile commerce adoption is driven by â€Å"convenience and flexibility to daily routines rather than excitement and entertainment†. It is also found out that consumers regard the function to fulfill instantaneous and time-sensitive needs as important adoption drivers of mobile commerce. Prior research has somewhat indicated that the main factors influencing the decision to adopt mobile commerce related to the services or device features has gone beyond the traditional function of a mobile phone, i.e. one-to-one voice communication. In line with this theory, consumer will be encouraged towards mobile commerce based on the fact that mobile device in transforming into a personal device, via which various transactions and activities can be carried out. 3.3 Traditional models Several studies have been carried out using conventional adoption theories and models like the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TBP). However, the main conclusion drawn by many authors was that traditional models are lacking to derive significant deduction on the determinants of individual adoption or rejection of mobile commerce. According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), the behaviour prior to any act (behavioural intentions) is established by variables like Attitude, Subjective Norm and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC). A users attitude linking to using mobile device to obtain, transmit information and purchase is believed to influence the users intention to carry out the three behaviours. Subjective norm is believed to have the same effects on users too. PBC is a factor of intended users behaviour via increasing insight of control, assurance and ease of performing act. Based on the research by Pavlou et al, (2007), the model of m-commerce adoption emphasize largely on â€Å"technology adoption (perceived usefulness and ease of use), technological characteristics (mobile device display features, mobile device portability, and mobile site navigability and download delay), information characteristics (mobile site informativeness, information protection, and personalization), and consumer characteristics (mobile users skills)†. TAM has influence many information system based findings (such as Lee et al., 2002; OCass and Fenech, 2003) pertaining to information technology adoption in set or mobile environment. Although many studies are in favor of TAM as a model to explain the decision of acceptance, it is still uncertain if the model is entirely appropriate with regards to different channels. The decisions to adopt mobile commerce are very different from the decision to adopt technology for carrying reasons. Firstly, users adopt mobile commerce as a new channel of commerce rather than as technology per se. Second, mobile commerce may consist of transactional and non- transactional element. This means that adopters intent to engage in mobile commerce should be viewed holistically. (Pavlou, 2002) As such, we need differentiate between the various levels of mobile commerce adoption as we study consumer adoption decision. Third, Eikebrokk and Sorebo (1998) pointed out that TAM is generally applied to singular target situation, based on the assumption that potential users are only faced with one specific technology. It is therefore argued that to acquire valid forecasts and justifications of technology acceptance with TAM since users are presented with situation whereby they can choose among alternative channels. Fourth, it is argued that TAM itself is imperfect as it does no t considered the influence of social factors in the adoption and usage of new technology or system. This shortcoming has to be taken into consideration when examining the adoption factors. Last, TAM assumes that usage is free and voluntary, that there are no obstacles to prevent user from adopting any technology as long as wanting to do so. This has lead to criticism from several researchers (Mathieson et al, 2001) and prompted some authors to supplement TAM with theories that hypothesize perceived risks as a pre-condition to the mobile commerce adoption. Pavlou (2002) emphasizes that the proliferation of the Internet has brought uncertainty and risk in the adoption of system. It therefore require the integration of variables that capture concepts in current technology adoption models by reflecting that trust and perceived risk are directly linked to the intent to transact via mobile devices. One reason for the inadequacy of traditional models is that the relationship between users and mobile commerce has not been clearly defined. Past methods only analysed the interaction between the users and the technology or between people in a network connections. On the contrary, mobile commerce users interrelate in three directions, in technological aspect, as members of networks and as consumers. These three roles need to be incorporated in order to achieve a greater understanding of mobile commerce adoption. The adoption of mobile commerce the interaction of consumers and sellers via mobile transactions is different from the usual electronics commerce due to the nature of location-independence, instantaneous real-time exchanges, the distinctive interface of mobile devices, and the unique aspect of mobile devices like small screen size and low bandwidth. Therefore, mobile adoption is not merely an issue of usability of system or acceptance of technology. It should include several consumer pre-purchase actions such as researching for information, providing details and act of purchasing using mobile devices. This paper will re-examine present literature of voluntary adoption of m-commerce services by individuals to emphasize the need to approach the three aspects of mobile commerce together in order to attain a holistic comprehension. The current mobile commerce industry of Singapore will be evaluated based in this research. It will enable stakeholders of the mobile commerce industry to gain informative insight on the acceptance of mobile services. Hence, this will result in wiser decision-making in terms of business strategies and provision of the product and services. CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 4.1 Survey The self-administered survey was hosted online on speedsurvey.com, under the domain http://mobilecommercesingapore.speedsurvey.com/. The reason for having such an unsupervised survey technique was that the 16 questions were simple to understand and followed a direct logic. The respondents are made up of 12 females and 24 males and all the respondents own a mobile phone. They survey instrument covered 16 questions pertaining to the users insight and purpose associated to mobile commerce and also their experience with the mobile commerce and mobile Internet. In this paper, there is a section in the questionnaire where the respondents were requested to specify to what extent does they agree or disagree with the statement related to the considered significance of different proposed benefits and obstacles to mobile commerce. The data collected were used to identify the activators and inhibitors that cover critical or non-critical factors that impact consumers decision in adoption or not adopting mobile commerce. 4.2 Results and Discussion Over 41% of the respondent have a bachelor degree and about 50% of them holds a master or doctorate degree. All the respondents own a mobile phone and about 75% have Apple iPhone. This will mean that their service provider is SingTel since the Telecommunication Company has a monopoly on the distribution of the Apple iPhone until 2010 when the other 2 Telecommunication Company will also have the distributor rights. Incidentally, it is reflected from the data collection that the most common item purchase via mobile is the phone applications. Also known as widgets, these applications can be downloaded on the iApps or iTunesstore via the phone Internet browser. In terms of frequency, it is has the most recent item purchase. More then 40% of the respondent has purchase widgets for the past 1 week. Out of the 36 respondents, 34 of them has purchased (buy/order/reserve/download) item at least once for the past 12 months. None of them has bought items off the vending machine via the mobile p hone. The purchase of other items such as requesting for information and buying multimedia content by SMSto a specific 5-digit number are rather sporadic. Over 40% of the respondents agree that using mobile commerce saves them time, with the other 30% strongly agreeing. There are about 70% of them who see that using mobile commerce is fashionable and trendy. With regards to the mobile commerce being an invasion of privacy, there are equal responses from those who agree, strong agree and disagree. However, about 80% of the respondents think that it is safe to make purchases using mobile commerce. The majority of the respondents agree that they have the necessary means and resources to use mobile commerce. Same, the respondents also agree that they will seek information about the new product or services. Among those that had never performed a mobile transaction before, the reasons mainly evolved around unawareness. Mostly, they are do not possess enough information to get started or use it, or no idea how much it will cost. It is much preferred to use other devices such as computer or payment kiosks such as SAM or AXS to perform the transaction. It is commonly believe that mobile commerce is expensive and will cost too much. However, it is indicated that they are willing to try to mobile commerce mainly if it was easier to obtain information from the Internet via mobile phone. This will also comprise of ease of access to rich media on mobile devices and user-friendly navigation on their mobile devices. 4.3 Limitations of the survey The data collected from the survey is highly non conclusive for several reason. Firstly, the size of respondents is less than 50; therefore the results are not substantial. Secondly, the profile of the respondents is too skewed towards certain segments; mainly male that has Apple iPhone. Hence, the data is not representative enough. Thirdly, the structure of the survey was not well organised. The lack of logic and guided instructions, which is critical in self-administered survey, may somewhat confused respondent. 4.4 Suggestions for future research It is seen that Apple iPhone may be a boosting factor for the future mobile commerce phenomenon. The intuitive design and ease of navigation of the iPhone may propel more and more users to perform mobile commerce transaction. Also, with the fact that all three Telecommunication Companies are offering iPhone from 2010, it is believe that the market share of iPhone will expand rapidly. It is therefore suggest that an iPhone focus study may be undertaken in the future to better understand the effect of iPhone, iPhone applications, iApps, and iTunes store on mobile com Qualitative and Quantitative Research on Fear of Crime: Rape Qualitative and Quantitative Research on Fear of Crime: Rape Research Portfolio Introduction The beginning of this portfolio will be introduced by two main types of crime data. They come in the form of qualitative and quantitative. They both show and represent crime in different way, and it also gives a clear idea of how crime has a big impact. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but this portfolio will examine their differences along with their similarities. They both have something to offer researchers and can also be mutually exclusive. Following this, the portfolio will include a personal observational experience that explores the process of effective data collecting. The method of observation has many strengths yet many flaws, and obtain qualitative data. This final part of the portfolio will also examine the sexual violence in relation to gender, with research to support it. It will use statistics to weight up and support the argument. Portfolio Part 1: The Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitate Research. There are two types of data when it comes to research; Qualitative and Quantitate. Quantitative data is the process of managing the natural world through a mathematical formula, especially statistics. Crowther (2007, p.72) suggests that ‘Quantification is, inescapably, about counting the number of cases. There is a belief that the number of cases provides a reliable measure of a particular aspect of the social world’. Quantitate data is fact and cannot be questioned; in contrast to this qualitative data is more difficult to define as it focuses on getting quality rich data that gives great understanding. One major debate of Qualitative research is whether statistics and numbers can tell us anything of important or substantial about social life. Crowther (2007, p.76) proposed that ‘Quantitative data does not capture the complexity of human experience. It is not possible to deal with human emotions and subjectivity. Statistics are not facts that exist independently o f human interpretation: they can only be made meaningful as part of an interpretive process.’ Quantitate research tends to be on a relatively large scale, having large amounts of numerical data and using statistical procedures to analyse the data and reach conclusions; it tries to find ‘representative samples and generalizable finding’. In contrast to this qualitative research tends to have much smaller samples, and therefore is on a much smaller scale (Newburn, 2007, pp.898-899).Qualitative data is ‘large, unwieldy database of transcripts, fieldnotes and/or documents and the aim of this discussion is to explain how these data can be managed and analysed. However, unlike quantitative data, there can be no clear-cut and widely accepted ‘rules’ or procedures for qualitative analysis’ (Crowe and Semmens, 2006, p.176). A Quantitative research method is surveys. They are extremely large scale and can be sent out to almost anyone, most people have participated in a survey in their lifetime. Surveys obtain data through a standardised questionnaire and although they are primarily used for large amounts of quantitative data, they can also have a qualitative element (Newburn, 2007, p.899). One of the most common form of survey is postal survey, they are extremely easy, cheap and simple. Postal surveys are self-completed, which may explain why the response rates are very low; even if someone may be interested in completing the survey they may just forget, as it is not a top priority. In contrast face-to-face interviews have a much greater compliance and also they can sort out any misunderstandings the participant may have about the questionnaire (Newburn, 2007, p.900). Telephone surveys are in the middle postal and interview surveys, as they are more personal than postal but less expensive than face to fa ce. This method has practical issues, such as how will the researcher obtain the numbers to have generalised data? Even after overcoming this obstacle there is still the issue of mobile phones being turned off and going through to voicemail. The last type of survey of internet based surveys, they are also cheap and easy but like telephone surveys if depends on whether the researcher has the appropriate contact information like emails; internet based surveys also compare to postal surveys as the response rate is very low (Newburn, 2007, p.901). Surveys are known for being easy but Crowe and Semmens (2006, p.131) suggest that ‘this apparent simplicity can, however, be deceptive since your chosen means of administration is not guaranteed to produce reliable results, or a high response rate’. There are three types of interviews; structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. Structures falls into the quantitate category whereas semi-structured and unstructured fall into the qualitative category. Structured interviews are planned out with set questions without deviation and are ‘good at finding number of time an individual has been a victim of crime over the past 12 months. But cannot tell the subjective experience of victimisation’ (Crowther, 2007, p.100). Unstructured research allows the investigator an understanding of depth and detail and how participants perceive matters. Each question is open ended with no structure and the interview is very much like a conversation, but with the interviewer steering the interview with a topic guide (Newburn, 2007, p.904). Semi-structured falls in-between structured and unstructured, as t is fairly formal with a basis of questions, but can deviate and explore in further detail; the interviewer does not feel bound and lea ves room for the respondent to talk. Both semi-structured and unstructured ‘give more room to express own values and attitudes’ (Crowther, 2007, p.101). These methods are extremely time consuming and tend to have small samples, making it hard to generalise the findings. Portfolio Part 2: A Reflection on the Experience of Conducting an Observation Crowe and Semmens (2006, p.101) suggested that ‘knowledge of natural world is gathered through systematic objective and repeated observations of naturally occurring phenomena’. This form of data collecting is largely a product of qualitative data. We place ourselves in an environment and simply watch the behaviours of others; taking into consideration the context we detect how an individual in behaving and why they are behaving like that. This gives us incredibly rich and vivid information that simply cannot be oppressed into stats and figures. Kawulich (2005) states that ‘observations enable the researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses, providing a â€Å"Written photograph† of the situation under study’. The observation was conducted in a bus station over a one hour period on the Saturday 2nd May 2015. The main topic of the observation was to examine what behaviours people were doing and scrutinise why. In terms of weather, the afternoon of the 2nd was cold and raining, as a result of this the majority of people were wearing larger winter coats with hoods; a lot of people were carrying umbrellas and had damp clothing and hair. As the bus station is in the centre of Leeds we can assume that the majority of people there did not live in the centre and were possibly having a Saturday shopping day or a ‘day out’; and were travelling home. The bus station was very busy and full with constant movement, and what was interesting was that it seemed quiet from what you would expect of a heavily crowded room. Upon observing the room it was noticed that the atmosphere of the bus station was calm and patient. Many of the individuals were seated quietly waiting for their bus or checkin g the times and showed no elevated emotions, they gave off a sense of cool and composed. There seemed to be a social expectation of behaviour when others entered and exist the bus; Individuals in the bus station waited for those to exit the bus, but always formed a line at the door in a ‘first come first serve’ mentality; it appeared that everyone followed the ‘rules’. Upon arriving at the bus stop it was noticeable that the room was very large and long, so deciding a place to conduct the observation proved to be difficult. In order to try and get a full experience and be in equal distance to everything, the observation was carried out in the centre of the bus station, seated as if waiting for a bus; and as the observation was open and unstructured there was no behaviours that were expected. In the observation it was conducted as the investigator was a participant-as-observer; this included sitting waiting for the bus, but not participating with the behaviour of everyone surrounding, such as getting on an off the bus (Crowe and Semmens, 2006, p.101). Data was collected in the form of note taking, balancing observation and writing equally. To make the note-taking for efficient, abbreviations were used; and only words that were contained necessary information and words that were necessary for the sentence to make sense were used. Because the bus stat ion was so busy it made it impossible to see and record every event and behaviour that happened. Because the room was in constant movement, it was difficult to record certain patterns of behaviour (Crowe and Semmens, 2006, p.110). In terms of success, the method of note-taking proved to be well organised and easy to refer back to, but one thing that could have been improved was how much information could have potentially been recorded. If the observation was to be repeated a possible improvement could be move around the bus station after certain time lapses, to ensure the full bus station was covered and recorded in comparison to sitting in the centre doing a 360 ° surveillance. Another possibility would be to bring an assistant observer(s) that recorded an area designated to them; this method may cover a much larger range of qualitative data. Observation as a data collecting method can be very time consuming, having it been said that to have a valid observational research study, it should have a minimum of a year of research, but meanwhile it does generate rich qualitative data. This method arises certain ethical issues, recording and using information of their behaviour can be seen as an invasion of their privacy; as researches, in an open observation, do not ask for consent. It can be argued that if an individual knows they are being recorded, then they will change their behaviour to what they think is ‘right’ and ‘acceptable’, wanting to please the researcher. This concludes that the data gathered is unreliable and unusable as it is not genuine (Crowe and Semmens, 2006, p.114). Portfolio Part 3: Analysing Crime Statistics Describe Sexual Violence in relation to gender. Newburn (2007, p.818) suggested that men have a much greater risk of being a victim of violent crimes than women do. A survey study in 2004 recorded that ‘women had a 6.3% chance of becoming a victim whereas men had a 14.6% chance’. Although these studies suggest men are more likely to become the victim of all violent crime, it has been found that women have a much greater risk to ‘intimate violence’ (Newburn, 2007, p.819). According to the Office for National Statistics (2013) a CSEW Survey, similarly found that ‘young women were much more likely to be victims of sexual assault in the last year’. The British Crime Survey found 6% of women reported non-sexual partner abuse, 3% reported sexual assault and 9% reported stalking; And in 1991 a survey discovered that one in four women had experienced rape-attempted rape in their lifetime (Newburn, 2007, pp.819-820). The Guardian (2013) states that between ‘2009/10 and 2011/12 there were an esti mated 78,000 victims of rape per year in England and Wales – 69,000 females and 9,000 males’. In the last 30 years there has been a significant increase in the awareness of rape. Studies that were conducted in the 70’s have shown that women who reported rape were seen more as complainants than an individual making a serious claim; Officials were highly unsympathetic. Women were given a list of things not to do, such as ‘don’t go out alone at night’, ‘Don’t use public transport at night’, ‘Don’t take shortcuts’, ‘Don’t cross commons or parks on your way or use alley’, and finally ‘don’t walk down badly lit streets’ (Newburn, 2007, p.822). This advice has been highly criticised with many stating it takes away the woman’s independence and implies that women are the ones at fault if they do not follow the ‘rules’. These rules, although are a precaution, make women feel that if they do any of these things, then they will surely be a victim on sexual assaul t. This can be seen in the SPSS graph below as in both columns ‘very worried’ and ‘fairly worried’, it is significantly higher than in the men’s column; presenting that there is a distress in women that they have been subjected to. In correlation with this theory Russell Pond (1999, p.82) states that victim surveys have opened up a whole new line of enquiry, leading to the fear of crime debate. This concept has become a serious tool of social control, and has become more of a problem than crime itself. One major aspect of the fear of crime is the assumption that men are less likely to admit fear. Maguire et al (2007, pp.387-389) suggested that in terms of society men have a pressure telling then to be ‘masculine’ to be strong and brave and have little fear. This is carried onto the crime world, men are expected to be dominant and reject abuse. This idea can be seen in the SPSS Graph below; the vast majority of males are either not very worried or not worried at all. This can imply that men feel they will be judged if they admit to fear so they chose their answer based on what is expected of them. The Level of Worry That Males and Females Have on Being Raped. One issue with the fear of crime debate is defining fear, how do we measure fear? Fear usually correlated with risk and danger which can be seen with men going out and consuming alcohol; this is a risk, but men will admit to little fear (Pond, 1999, p.82). Men are more likely to act in risk-seeking behaviours than women. Walklate (1995) suggests that fear is a ‘gendered phenomenon’. She states that the fear of crime is ‘†¦rooted in a male defined rationality based risk management view of fear which cannot tap the kinds of experiences that underpin women’s responses’. Pond (1999, p.83) also refers to Farrel et al who suggested that crime was significantly misinterpreted in the way it is recorded. He said ‘Their suggestion is that quantitative methods based on surveys give a greater incidence of fear than qualitative methods based on interview’. In an extremely controversial argument made in Patterns in Criminal Homicide (1958) by Wolfgang, he defined victim-precipitated offences as those ‘in which the victim is a direct positive precipitator in crime’. Amir suggested that one fifth of rapes were victim precipitates where: ‘the victim agreed to have sexual relations but retracted; or did not resists strong enough; or entered vulnerable situations sexually charged’ (Pond, 1995, p.78). At the time was a new emerging feminist movement, of which was highly critical of this approach. Conclusion In conclusion we can see the clear differences between qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative focuses on numeric data and with what is countable, whereas qualitative tends to focus on words and meaning. These two types of data are very different but the measures and methods we use to obtain them can occasionally go hand in hand, complimenting each other. The data obtaining method of observation was very educational as it displayed a personal experience of what went right and also how improvements could have been made, for example moving around and creating a large radius of observation would have improved and made diverse data. The final chapter it was found that women have a much greater chance of rape and sexual violence happening to them. But it also showcases that women are more worried about it; as more pressure and attention is placed upon them to avoid it, creating a slight sense of paranoia. Bibliography Crowe, I. and Semmens, N. (2006) Researching Criminology. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill. Crowther, C. (2007) An Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillian. Kawulich, B. (2005) Participant Observation as a Data Collection Method. Forum: Qualitative Social Research [Online], Vol 6 (2) May, Chapter 2. Available from: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/466/996> [Accessed 6 May 2015]. Maguire, M. Morgan, R. Reiner, R. (2007) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Newburn, T. (2007) Criminology. Devon: Willan Publishing. Office for National Statistics (2013) Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences, 2011/12 [Online]. London. [Available from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/focus-on-violent-crime/stb-focus-onviolent-crime-and-sexual-offences-2011-12.html#tab-Introduction-and-sources> [Accessed 7th May 2015]. Pond, R. (1999) Introduction to Criminology. Winchester: Waterside Press. The Guardian (2013) Rape: crime and punishment [Online]. [Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jan/11/male-female-rape-statistics-graphic> [Accessed 7 May 2015]. Walklate, S. (1995) Gender and Crime. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Mental Health of Canadian Indigenous People

Mental Health of Canadian Indigenous People Author: Sarah E. Nelson, Kathi Wilson Journal: Social Science and Medicine (2017) This article focuses on the literature in relation to mental health of the indigenous people in Canada. Indigenous people contribute to 370 million of the worlds population spread over more than 70 different countries (WHO, 2007) and are known by different names all across the globe. It is strongly believed by many scholars that an unequal burden of mental illness is being carried by the indigenous people all around the world. According to a number of studies it has been seen that colonialism and the process associated with it play an important role in determining the health of indigenous population internationally. This study was carried out since not much research has been done on the mental health of indigenous people in Canada. Something that connects the indigenous people all around the world is the experience of colonialism even though the experience and the history differ greatly in various location and indigenous population. Health issues such as infant mortality, high incidences of acute or chronic pain, and injury have been associated by the international literature with social inequalities like poverty and racism emerging from colonialism. It has been indicated by research around the world that we should be careful when concluding about the occurrence of mental illness without taking into account the colonial process. Studies related to the mental illness of indigenous people in Canada like elsewhere is being taken up by settlers who follow colonial and non indigenous concepts and epistemologies. They also raised concern about the fixity of colonialism in health care system, which creates a problem for the indigenous people who need health care services especially for mental illness. The aim of this study was to identify the extent of research on mental health of indigenous people in Canada, find out the gaps which may exists in the studies whichÂÂ   have been done, and determine the extent to which mental health research is representative of indigenous populations and geographies in Canada. This study was carried out in 5 stages. First, the research question was identified followed by finding out studies relevant to it, selecting them, collecting the data, and combining and summarizing the results. Studies were collected from 11 data bases and 2 indigenous- specific journals. The articles were grouped under social determinants of mental health, mental health services, prevalence of specific type of mental illness, mental health promotion, mental health research and the impact and effect of colonialism on mental health of indigenous people. Out of the 223 selected articles, majority of them emphasized on the different sides of colonialism as a factor of mental illness which exhibited the colonial plan in policy decision. This study does not include the grey literature. Excluding such literature might led to overlooking at important strategies which may be practiced by various organizations. However the authors of this article believe that the 223 articles reviewed in this study give a gist of the research being carried out on indigenous people in Canada. Colonialism is a major issue addressed in this study in relation to mental health research. The term colonialism is used to indicate the effect of colonialism rather than the structure itself. This can lead to misinterpretation of the term and cause a narrowed understanding. Interactions with different aspects of colonialism by the indigenous people vary and it is important to maintain this diversity and deal with it accordingly even though they all share the common effect of colonialism. There are only a few interventions which are culturally accepted. It is therefore very important to look deeply into the interventions and mental health programs wh ich are beneficial and accepted by the indigenous community. When seeking help for mental treatment they feel stigmatized and when is it accompanied by racial discrimination and experiences of colonialism, it becomes even more difficult for the indigenous people to get them self treated. It is important to evaluate which programs and mental health practices are favorable for various indigenous groups. This article has immensely broadened my view and knowledge about the mental health of indigenous people not only in Canada but all over the world. The huge effect of colonialism is not restricted to an individual but passes on from generation to generation. Culture plays a very important role in maintaining the health equity in different populations. The side effects of colonialism can be minimized by analyzing it as a cultural problem rather than a political, social or economic affair. Even in the 21st century it is sad to know that the indigenous remain extremely aloof from the mainstream society even though they are the origins of their respective place. Article 2 Author: Luke Allen, Julianne Williams, Nick Townsend, Bente Mikkelsen, Nia Roberts, Charlie Foster, Kremlin Wickramasinghe. Title: Socioeconomic status and non-communicable disease behavioural risk factors in low-income and lower-middle-income countries: a systematic review Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2017) This article focuses on the socioeconomic status and non-communicable disease behavioural risk factors in low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs) which comprises of 39 countries. One of the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to reduce the premature deaths caused due to non-communicable diseases (NCD) by a third by 2030. The mortality rate due to NCD is reducing by 1.8% in Brazil per year because of the spread and extension of primary health care. Thus it can be seen that the premature deaths due to NCD can be reduced to a significant amount by implementing government policies which focus on reducing behavioural risk factors. (WHO, 2007) 70% of the global deaths occur because of NCD. The relation between socioeconomic status and non communicable diseases is well understood in the high income countries but how behavioural risk factors are spread among the low-middle- income countries remains uncovered. This article aims to review systematically the relation between the socioeconomic status and harmful use of alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy diets and physically inactivity in LLMICs. For this study, 13 databases were looked into. The studies that were included were from LLMICs showing data on various measures of socioeconomic status and use of tobacco, alcohol, diet, and physical activity. The exclusion criteria included studies that restricted equating between more or less advantaged groups. Age or language was not the criteria for exclusion of a study. A narrative way for data synthesis was used due to high heterogeneity. 4242 records were reviewed out of which 75 met the assigned criteria which comprised of 2135314 individuals, who were older than 10 years of age. This study was carried out in accordance with PRISMA and Cochrane guidance. Studies included in this review were of moderate to high quality having a cross-sectional and survey based approach. After systematically reviewing the records, it was found that the low socioeconomic groups had a higher prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use and low intake of healthy diet when compared with the high income gr oup. On the other hand, less physical activity and more consumption of processed foods were seen in people form high socioeconomic group. The socioeconomic indicators that were used were income, wealth or assets, state defined poverty, literacy, education, occupational status and class, caste, job seniority, and researcher defined socioeconomic status. This was the first systematic review conducted within LLMICs which analyzed the socioeconomic distribution of all 4 major behavioural risk factors. Using this broad range of socioeconomic factors enabled the researchers to find a significant difference between casts, classes, sexes, occupational groups, and educational strata. Looking at the dietary findings, there was a direct relation seen between the socioeconomic status and intake of healthy diet. Low socioeconomic status group consumed more amount of processed food in high income setting and the opposite was seen in the LLMICs. Coming to physically activity, it was seen that rural low socioeconomic groups work in jobs which require more physical activity in LLMICs. In cities, this relation in reversed. As the study is heterogeneous, it needs careful interpretation and the findings cannot be seen as absolute. Because of the huge data collected it was difficult to reach to the depth of each risk factor. More than half of the countries classified as LLMICSs were not seen in their search results and this was a major finding as well as a weakness. Half of the studies were in relation to India which proves to be high quality evidence but these results cannot be generalized to all the LLMICs. Hence it is necessary to conduct more research to find out if the results found in this study are true even where close observation does not take place. Strategies which are implemented by the policy makers and national development agencies in areas where the premature deaths occurring due to NCD is more, should be evaluated to check if they are appropriate to their setting and should implement their plan accordingly. The government can play an important role by improving the rate of literacy, standa rd of living, income along with the heath conditions as it is clearly seen that the low socioeconomic conditions are related to non communicable risk factors. Even though data is not available for all the LLMICs, appropriate and immediate action should be takes for countries where data is available. References: Nelson, S. E., Wilson, K. (2017). The mental health of Indigenous peoples in Canada: A critical review of research. Social Science Medicine. World Health Organization. (October 2007). Media centre: health of indigenous peoples. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs326/en/ Allen, L., Williams, J., Townsend, N., Mikkelsen, B., Roberts, N., Foster, C., Wickramasinghe, K. (2017). Socioeconomic status and non-communicable disease behavioural risk factors in low-income and lower-middle-income countries: a systematic review. The Lancet Global Health, 5(3), e277-e289. World Health Organization.( 2017).media centre: non communicable diseases prematurely take 16 million lives annually, WHO urges more action. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/noncommunicable-diseases/en/