Checkpoint kinases (CHK2) Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Checkpoint kinases (CHK2) - Lab Report Example According to the figure 3,the list indicates several transcripts from the same gene and different SNP effect.The reason to this is as shown in the figure 4 which has all the splice variants(27) of the CHK 2 gene.In the figure 4 ‘‘protein coding† implies that the transcript encodes a CHK 2 protein variant. The reason why we see GAA/GAG yet the SNP was T/C change is that it is a silent mutation whereby GAA and GAG code for glutamic acid.Also the reason why the new C(GAG) is more frequent in some populations is because there was a successful mutation. Basing on the analysis above, we can see that the SNP resulted to silent mutation. By definition, silent mutation is a type of a point mutation that leads to a codon which codes for different or same amino acid but without any functional change in that particular protein. Hence, it does not cause change in the sequence of amino acid, thus, the protein will remain functional. In this regard, they are taken to be evolutionarily neutral. In relation to this, the CHK2 SNP (T/C) is considered to be silent mutation because the sequence of the protein which is GAA/GAG remains unchanged. Therefore, its function remains the same. It can therefore influence splicing because the nucleotides sequence has been altered. While most of the RNA transcripts from protein encoding genes of the human genome are related to physiological splicing, pathological splicing has been found in cancer tissue (Berge et al, 2010). The Chk2 is known to be a multi-organ susceptible gene that provides a barrier to tumorigenesis to maintain a genomic stability, and this gene has found mutated in both hereditary and somatic cancer. Despite the fact that other genes’ alternative splice forms have been found to have a negative impact on the wild type molecules, the CHK2 splice protein variants function is still not clear(Berge et al, 2010).For instance, the mRNA splice variants for Chk2 gene

Musical Concert Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Musical Concert Summary - Essay Example My preference for music 'intelligent' music was the other but not minor factor. The concert took place at the Campus Center lobby, on Sunday, November 11 and was scheduled to start at 3:15pm. The Trombone Ensemble and Jazz band under the direction of Ronald Stitt presented a total of twelve pieces, with the Trombone Ensemble presenting three and the lively Jazz band the other nine. I arrived to find an almost packed Campus Center Lobby and was soon convinced that this concert was going to be good. The Trombone Ensemble comprising of retired Professor Emeritus of History, Jonathan Helmreich along with some students opened the evening with J.S Bach's "Chorale". As the soul stirring piece filled my being, I took in the intense yet relaxing ambience the melody had created. Clad in their black and white tuxedos, the Ensemble displayed great artistry and mastery of their instruments. The night reached a crescendo for me with the second piece, Mozart's' famous "Ave Verum Corpus". This was already my favorite Mozart work and the performance of the Ensemble was most breathtaking. They rounded up the first half of the concert with another good performance, the Hooper and Magliocco piece "So, You Wanna Play Trombone," After an interlude, the Allegheny College Jazz band opened with Carl Strommen's "The Opener", this lively start ensued for the rest of the performance as the Jazz Band continued with "I remember Clifford" by the soloist Mike Faix, Christina Dastolfo's "In the Wee Small Hours". The concert closed with a standing ovation after the performance of "Superstition", a Mike Tomaro piece. An encore performance of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" was given by the Trombone Ensemble. Concert 2: Recital IV with Pianist Alec Chien My experience with Jazz band and the Trombone experience was rivaled by an earlier episode at Pianist Alec Chien's performance of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. The concert which took place at Allegheny College's Shafer Auditorium, was a sixth in a seven-concert series featuring, Chien who was Artist in Residence at Allegheny College. Professor Chien's demonstration of his mastery of Beethoven's work started a little after the pre-announced 7 pm, because the turnout had be underestimated and provisions had to be made to accommodate the eager guests. The last in the series of events is scheduled to be concluded with another free concert in the spring of 2008 at the same venue. The program started with Sonata Number 5 in C Minor, Opus 10 Number1; Chien standing briefly under the lights, bowed briefly before he sat, his delicate touch running through the keys as he concluded this number reminded me of my very first reaction to Beethoven's work; listening, hardly breathing and startled. Chien progressed with the Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Opus 10, No 2 and the Sonata No 7 in D Major, Opus 10, No 3. He delivered with pomp and a nostalgic finality Beethoven's last piano sonata, the Sonata No 32 in C Minor, Opus 111. Chien's performance was greeted by three standing ovations. The concert which was to celebrate Allegheny College family week, left me motivated, spirited and saddened. For me, Beethoven's Sonata's seemed to indicate a familiar despair prevalent in today's world. Chien himself seemed completely taken over by mixed emotions as he took a bow before the applauding audience. Overview The

The New Brutalist Architecture Anthropology Essay

The New Brutalist Architecture Anthropology Essay New Brutalist architecture is the outcome of a British architectural ethic named New Brutalism. According to Peter and Alice Smithson, the term was coined from a newspaper paragraph heading which, by poor translation of French, called the Marseilles Unità © by Le Corbusier Brutalism in architecture[1]. The Smithsons anointed their own British brand of Modernism by adding New both because they came after Le Corbusier and also in response to the style of the Architectural Review which at the start of the 1950s sunned many articles on the New Monumentality, the New Empiricism, the New Sentimentality etc.[2] Thus, New Brutalism was set to up be the direct line development of the Modern Movement. According to Banham (1966), whilst the terms Brutalism and New Brutalism are often used interchangeably, it is important to distinguish the meanings of the two terms as this paper will be focusing on the latter. Brutalism, though a British term, refers to an architectural aesthetic that is characterised by sticking repetitive angular geometries, and where concrete is used. A building without concrete can achieve a Brutalist character through a rough blocky appearance, and the expression of its structural materials, forms and services on its exterior. Another common theme is the exposure of the buildings functions in the exterior of the building. Banham (1966) summarises the key characteristics of Brutalist architecture as formal legibility of plan, clear exhibition of structure, direct and honest use of materials and clear exhibition of services. Thus, Brutalism casts back in time to include Le Corbusier as one of its important contributors. On the other hand, New Brutalism was coined before any New Brutalist architecture was built. It is an ethic, not aesthetic and is associated with socialist utopian ideology supported by Peter and Alison Smithson and the Team 10 group of architects amongst which they belonged. It is more related to the theoretical reform in urban theory proposed by CIAM than to bà ©ton brut. Thus, having originated from entirely different, organic theoretical doctrines, the British brand of Brutalism has considerable differences to Brutalist architecture from the continent. New Brutalism was born in the post-war era, almost exclusively in the Architects Department of the London County Council (LCC) the only place where young graduated architects such as Peter and Alison Smithson and many   from the Architectural Association school (AA) could find work in London. Many architects who have returned from the world had fought to make the world safe but the economic terms of the price of victory was heavy and the country faced long periods of austerity resulting in shortages, a shortfall in housing and social services. It was a time of benevolent socialism and commitment to the welfare state following the election of the Labour Government in 1945. The government had assumed responsibility for the welfare of the people in a way that would have been unthinkable in the 1930s.[3] Many houses of the working class poor that were in the centre of large industrial cities such as London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham have been destroyed. In London, Abercromb ie and Forshaw published the County of London Plan which described the challenge faced by the government. The report recognised that there is abundant evidence that for families with children, houses are preferred to flats. They provide a private garden and yard at the same level as the main rooms of the dwelling, and fit the English temperament.[4] But, to put everyone in houses would result in the displacement of two-thirds to three-quarters of the people. The planners wished to minimise the out-movement of jobs. They settled on 136 persons per acre which based on the research they did put one third of the people in houses, and some 60 per cent in eight- and ten- storey flats; about half of families with two children will go into flats, but even this density meant the overspill of 4 in 10 of all people living in this zone in 1939. Furthermore, there was the sense of lesprit nouveau of making a fresh start after the cleansing effect of the war. The London architectural debate was fractionized; largely between the student generation and practicing establishment architects. The Establishment architects tended towards Socialist political alignment, with the welfare state architecture of Sweden as the architectural paradigm. For the whole generation of graduating architects from the AA were strongly influenced by the ideas of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe; the Ville Radieuse and the Unità © dHabitation suggested a model to be applied by good hard socialist principles in good hard modernist materials.[5] They felt the Establishment architects were tending towards what they saw as a softer and more humanist Modernism, a retreat from the pre-war, heroic form of Modernism[6]. The Architects Department at the LCC provided a model in the early years; it had an unusually free hand, because the Ministrys ordinary co st sanctions did not apply to it[7]. It first produced the great Corbusian slabs which culminated in the only true realisation of the Radiant City in the world the Alton West estate in Roehampton[8]. The New Brutalists concept of order is not classical but topological: its implementation on a site could have involved judging the case on its merits (i.e. land form, accommodation required, finance available) rather than in accordance with a pre-established classical or picturesque schema.[9] Thus, they distinguish themselves from the earlier Brutalists such as Le Corbusier who proposed in his 1925 Plan Voisin to bulldoze most of central Paris north of the Seine in order to replace it with a hard of identical sixty-story towers. The Swiss architect was working in an inter-war Paris of exuberant, chaotic and often sordid everyday life[10] when the city was racked by disease and slums. He believed in centralising order (The design of cities was too important to be left to citizens[11]). His plans always relied on his famous paradox: we must decongest the centres of our cities by increasing their density; in addition, we must improve circulation and increase the amount of open space. T he paradox could be resolved by building high on a small part of total ground area[12]. This vision required clearing entire sites (WE MUST BUILD ON A CLEAR SITE! The city of today is dying because it is not constructed geometrically[13]). In war-torn London, the New Brutalists had the luxury of bomb-cleared sites but they also had a greater awareness for the historical fabric of the place-the designers of the Barbican estate built around St Giles church which survived the bombing and designers of Park Hill in Sheffield preserved old street names from the slum for their elevated walkways. Le Corbusier developed his principles of planning most fully in La Ville Contemporaine (1922) and La Ville Radieuse(1932). The plans differed in their recommendation for social distribution. The Contemporary Citys clearly differentiated spatial structure was designed to reflect a specific, segregated social structure: ones dwelling depended on ones job[14]. The residential areas would be of two types: six-storey luxury apartments for professional white collar workers (e.g. industrialists, scientists and artisits), and more modest accommodation for workers, built around courtyards, with less open space. These apartments would be mass-produced for mass-living. The apartments would all be uniform, contain standard furniture and be collectively serviced much like a hotel. Le Corbusier also designed entertainment and cultural complexes close to the middle-class in the centre of the city. The blue collar workers would not live like this. They would live in garden apartments within satellit e units. A different and appropriate sort of green space, sports facilities and entertainments would be available for these residents. Many aspects of New Brutalist architecture echo ideas from the Contemporary City. Income segregation has been practiced to different extents; the Barbican estates apartments vary between elaborate and fashionable layouts on the affluent south side (where the tenants were mainly city workers) and simpler layouts and designs on north side where social housing is concentrated[15]. Furthermore, whole out of town social housing estates such as Thamesmead have been built to resemble Le Corbusiers satellite units. By the time of the Radiant City, though the tenets of the Corbusian religion remained unchanged, there were important theological variations.   Everyone will be equally collectivised and live in giant apartments called Unità ©s. Every family will get an apartment not according to the breadwinners job, but according to rigid space norms: no one will get anything more or less than the minimum necessary for efficient existence. Everyone will enjoy collective services such as cooking, cleaning and childcare. Similarly, New Brutalist architects have tried to logically work from basic human needs in order to distinguish the necessary from the unnecessary and thereby simplifying existing architectural conventions to create an efficient living or working space[16]. However, rarely have they attempted to create truly mixed-income neighbourhoods, having concentrated on social housing estates. Although the recent redevelopment of Park Hill estate in Sheffied is mixing affordable and commerci al residential housing in the Brutalist estate, it cannot be said that mixed-income communities were a tenet of New Brutalism. Brutalist architecture quickly became the official architecture of the Welfare State. Criticisms of its severe problems took a very long time to come. In order to see why, it is important to appreciate how bad were the original dense rows of smoke-blackened slums that the towers replaced. Six years of war had reduced those parts of London and the great provincial cities to a sinister squalor. For two decades, any social disbenefits of modernist planning and its transformation of the town passed largely unremarked[17]. Criticisms rapidly became deafening in the 1970s after the subsidy system had been recast and local authorities were already phasing out their high-rise blocks. Though the outburst was triggered by the collapse of a building in a gas explosion, the majority of the complaints were eloquently summarised by Kenneth Campbell, who was in charge of housing design at the LCC and GLC from 1959 to 1974, to be the lifts (too few, too small, too slow), the children (too many), and the management (too little)[18]. Most importantly, critics like to point out that the true cause of all such problems, of which Corbusier is a fully culpable as any of his followers, was that the middle-class designers had no real feeling for the way a working-class family lived[19]; in their world [children] are not hanging around the landing or playing with the dustbin lids[20]. Chapter Two Dreams v Reality Inside the Minds of Brutalist Architects The sin of Corbusier and the Corbusians thus lay not in their designs, but in the mindless arrogance whereby they were imposed on people who could not take them and could never, given a modicum of thought, ever have been expected to take them[21] Corbusian Brutalism and New Brutalism suffered very much similar design failures, and the two have often been combined or confused in ridicule. However, this chapter points out that New Brutalism should not be indiscriminately blamed for deigning solely for the ideals of the middle-class, or that the designers similarly imposed the designs upon such unwitting residents without considering their social-economic needs and lifestyle. With ambition for a new approach to modernist architecture, the New Brutalists sought to exploit the low cost and pragmatism of mass produced materials and pre-fabricated components[22], mixing uses instead of segregation (as in Le Corbusiers design of La Ville Radieuse), designing specific to location and purpose and to use their signature elevated walkways which they named streets in the air. A satisfactory analysis of the architecture would evaluate the performance of such design features one by one, in essence performing an autopsy and separating the healthy organs, from the moderately healthy and the failed. After the procedure is over the pathologist may wonder why certain failed organs were designed in a way that may have been responsible for putting them in the line of trouble. To understand this we will look at what the architects were trying to achieve and the sources that influenced them. Peter and Alice Smithson wished to achieve the Virgilian dream the peace of the countryside enjoyed with the self-consciousness of the city dweller into the notion of the city itself[23]. Thus, unlike Ebenezer Howard who created the garden cities to combine the benefits of the countryside with the utility of city services, the Smithsons wished to take the garden city back into the city. They sought control and calm as key qualities in the modern city. They were also inspired by the flood of new consumer technologies and advertising. The Smithsons felt Le Corbusier was the first to put together the world of popular and fine arts towards the end of his life in Unità © dHabitation in Marseilles. They felt he viewed historic art possibly the classical origins of heroic architectural principles not as a stylistic source but as a pattern of organisation, and a source of social reform and technological revolution[24]. The Smithsons themselves recognised that advertising was making a bigger contribution to the visual climate of the 1950s than any of the fine arts. Advertising was selling products as a natural accessory to life and is packed with information for the average man it had taken over from fine art as the definition of what is fine and desirable by society. They recognised that the mass produced consumer goods had revolutionised the house without the intervention of the architect. However, they also felt that pre-fabricated buildings built for utility and not aesthetics (e.g. schools and garages) have adapted to the built environment a lot better to the existing built environment than buildings designed by fine art architects. Thus, in context of the desire to create calm and safe dwellings for the city dweller, architectural should be developed for the machine-served city. As with the majority of architects of their age, the Smithsons were profoundly influenced by the architecture of Mies van der Rohe. The Smithsons in particular stated that they were profoundly changed by two of Rohes themes: 1. To make a thing well is not only a moral imperative, but it is also the absolute base of the pleasure of use 2. The machine-calm city. No rhetoric, just ordering of elements to effect a gentle, live, equipoise ordinary quality. Neoclassicism.[25] The first point touches on the material aspect of Rohes love for perfection of detail and the use of the finest quality of materials, with the greatest care. The Smithsons felt Rohe had a special feeling for materials as luxury the observer is made aware of the essence of each material[26] Interestingly, this focus on the existential qualities of concrete and the keenness to use the material for its physical characteristic has enjoyed a recent revival in architecture. Conversely, there is debate with regards to the reason why the Smithsons and the Modernist architects before 1980s used the material so liberally. Sarah Williams Goldhagen believed that the Smithson did employ concrete for its physical properties whereas Adrian Forty argues that such conclusions are misguided in part because the Smithsons themselves tried to appeal to a later audience by discussing their earlier works in a new light in their publications. Forty believes that the Modernist architects of per-1980s were p rimarily interested in the form of their structures; further that in the ordinariness of their forms and the unremarkable, smooth and grey expanse of concrete they sought to achieve an abstract formlessness, as if literally urging the structure to disappear with irrelevance. Thus, concrete was not chosen because it was concrete, but rather because it had the properties the architects desired. The latter explanation seems to be the case of the Smithsons in 1974 when they wrote that many old cities the feeling of control is derived from the repetition of the use of materials on every roof, the roofs having been built at the same pitch, with similar roof lights etc. This suggests that perhaps the repeated use of concrete in so many parts of the building was not motivated by its suitability but by the need to repeat and extend control. The Smithsons were keen for their repetition of elements to seem to derive from the intention of the whole, rather than seeming to have been designed as one separate entity which is then repeated. They found that a repetition with subtle differences used by Rohe in creating a large at-the-whole-community-scale central open space was life-including[27]. They also felt that a building is more interesting if it is more than itself if it changes the space around it with connective possibilities but by a quietness that until now our sensibilities could not recognise as architecture at all. They felt a sense of wellbeing can be found if the built-form and the counterpart space are locked together[28]. The recognition that a building is not alone, that it exerts an influence on its surroundings and needs to interact with it to be successful seems now far off from the emphasis of todays planning policies for high quality, inclusive design which should integrate into existing urban form and the natural and built environments[29]. However, what sounded similar is very different in practice as we can see in Robin Hood Gardens, a project by the Smithsons where they consciously incorporated their vision of inclusive design. We can see that the buildings were definitely designed with the central space in mind they are even curved according to the landscape features. However, the estate does not integrate with buildings of the surrounding areas very well in terms of scale or layout. Critics state that it failed to come to terms that existing spatial fabrics held memory and value[30]. People adapt slowly to change a building that nods to the original fabric will aid the adaptation process . This design fails to be inclusive for the surrounding areas that are outside the architects control and thus does not fall into the broader scope of todays standard of good design. However, an earlier project by the Smithsons was a widely held success for integrating well within and introducing variations to the City of London. This was the Economist Plaza which was completed in 1964. A group of three office towers built on a picturesque piazza to allow pedestrian movement independent of the road system with street level access to services and shops, it broke the London tradition of the closed block, and may be considered the precursor of later office developments such as Broadgate[31]. However, its success was also attributed to restraint that was sensitive to context, by the use of stone instead of concrete to assimilate choice of material of older buildings nearby, and designing on the basis of an ancient Greek acropolis plan to maintain with the scale and governing lines of tr adition-bound St Jeremys Street. The successful features of this project also marked a retreat from Brutalism to the restrained Classicism of Mies van der Rohe[32]. The Economist Plaza is an example of how the Smithsons usually go about the designing process they conducted length research into the working practices of the journalists of the Economist magazine in order to create the most efficient structure. Their aim was for their buildings to be specific to their location and purpose[33]. They also took inspiration from the works of others. At the time when the Smithsons were compiling their entry to the Golden Lane housing competition between 1951 and 1953, they had contact with the Hendersons who were conducting social studies in the East End of London. This steered their reading of the city towards a form which reflected the structure of human association. This led to their radical suggestion that the street and housing blocks might multiply in a random and biological way to form a network overlaid on the existing city in a way reminiscent of molecular patterns or fractals. Thus, the topography or the context of a specific site would mould the disposition of the project. The idea of a network is based on the Smithsons belief that a community cannot be created by geographic isolation which, they feel, was the mistake made by English neighbourhood planning (through grouping around an infant school, community centre or group of shops), and the Unità © concept of Le Corbusier[34]. They aspire to aid social cohesion through the looseness of grouping and ease of communication. They felt the quintessential role of the planner is to create a sense of place by encouraging the creation of non-arbitrary groupings and effective communication, making possible groupings based on the family, street, district, region and city apparent. To maintain the looseness of grouping and the ease of communication, density must increase as population increases. The Smithsons believed that we must build high to avoid eating up farmland and creating congestion and increasing travel time on the roads. The architects recognised that high-rise living led to problems such as deprivation of outdoor life, the ineffectiveness of vertical communication, and difficulty in forming friendships for the lack of horizontal communication at the same level[35]. And so they proposed an ambitions vision of a multi-layered, city, leaving on the ground the support networks such as freight and utilities. In large cities, such things as light industries, workshops, clinics, shopping centres and small hotels could easily be located on raised levels: integrated with the deck-dwelling pattern the hope is that the advantage of close physical proximity will draw people to the clearly different districts of the city cause an urban revival a new city in which the home will be very much the centre of all activities[36]. The council house in the UK should be capable of being put together with others in a similar sort, so as to form bigger and equally comprehensive elements which can be added to existing villages and towns in such a way as to revitalise the traditional hierarchies, and not destroy them. The architects felt that building imitation market towns both inside and outside cities deny them the right to be urban forms because they do not engage with the pre-existing community to which they have been attached. The architects were also interested in achieving clarity between private and public space, much like Le Corbusiers Unità © which preserved the individual in seclusion while giving expression to the communal life and faith of the Order with a double-height collective space, and links through the balconies with the world outside. The interior street provides an enclosed world of neighbours whilst the shopping arcade and the roof space belong to and give expression to the total community.[37] The Smithsons were keen to preserve this divide: From the moment the man or child steps outside his dwelling our responsibility starts for the individual has not got the control over his extended environment that he has over his house[38].     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Smithsons entry for Golden Lane failed but their design laid the foundations for the development of streets in the air. The streets in the air are a reinterpretation of East End bye-law streets because the Smithsons saw that such traditional streets in the East End function well as a main public forum for communication, as a playground for children and provide open space for public gatherings and large scale sociability in working class Britain. To fulfil these functions in a Brutalist apartment block, Le Corbusiers rue intà ©rieure-the double-loaded, long, dark corridor on the inside of the building will need to be moved to the exterior. They will be 12 foot wide, continuous and reach every part of the development. At Park Hill estate, Sheffied, the architects even made sure that original Victorian street names were kept and neighbours from the original slum area where the estate replaced were housed next to eachother. This contributed to the initial popularity of the estate b ut it could not stop problems of crime and dilapidation following. It is interesting to compare the fates of Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill. The vertical circulation system and access from streets in the air were said to make the Robin Hood estate unpopular[39]. However, it was also blamed for disagreeing with the Smithsons idea at Golden Lane of housing elements forming networks or clusters and the Team 10 premise that a buildings first duty is to the fabric in which it stands by having been divided into two building blocks. They do not demonstrate, by combining into a longer entity the potential for a city wide pedestrian network[40]. On the other hand, Park Hill estate does join up into a large entity but its 12 foot decks were in turn blamed for providing quick getaways for burglars and other criminals. Neither building realised the dream of the elevated community utopia. Does this suggest that streets in the air in actuality never got off the ground? The Barbican estate offers safe and secluded elevated decks with beautiful views over the e state but it does not serve as a social gathering place for the residents nor a playground for the children. It seems somehow it is extremely difficult to recapture the East End feel in the Smithsons signature design feature. At the CIAM conference in 1953, they attacked the decades-old dogma propounded by Le Corbusier and others that cities should be zoned into specific areas for living, working, leisure and transport, and that urban housing should consist of tall, widely spaced towers[41]. The Smithsons ideal city would combine different activities within the same areas. However, the legacy of CIAM and of Le Corbusier was a significant burden and will take time to wear off[42]. By the close of 1960s, there was a shift from the raw Brutalism of the 50s to a gentler and more refined form of architectural language[43]. Team 10s urban productions were marked by a distinct retreat from the early mobility-driven solutions to solutions based on the metamorphosis of inherent qualities of existing urban structures where large open sites were concerned; or rehabilitation and reuse of existing structures combined with new small-scale interventions, were existing structures are concerned. In effect, many of the so called Post-Modern revolutions of 1970s, including participation, rehabilitation, restoration, preservation, and political reorganisation, had been pre-dated by Team 10s thinking during 1960s.[44] Does this suggest that the New Brutalists finally acknowledged the mistakes of their designs and retreated? Such an interpretation would have ignored the context of 1950s where a quick solution was needed to re-house many people from bombed out regions in the centre of industrial cities and putrid slums. However, haste is a lazy excuse for questionable design. It cannot be ignored that the hard concrete aesthetic and morphological autonomy in part alienated Brutalist works from their residents and ended up forming ghettos for housing for the lower classes. In fairness, many estates in Britain were brought off the peg by local authorities too lazy or unimaginative to hire architects and planners of their own[45] that resulted in appalling dimness and dullness[46]. But, the original designs from New Brutalist architects also proved to be design disasters. Despite their efforts to accommodate the working class into their towers, they designed buildings with features that were highly uns uitable for such residents and eventually drove them away. Chapter 3 Design Failures According to R. K. Jarvis[47], Le Corbusiers urban design principles belong to the artistic tradition in urban design, sharing the umbrella term with Camillo Sitte, Gordon Cullen, Roy Worskett and the Ministry for Housing and Local Government in London which designed the post-war British towns and villages. From first appearances, such principles could not be more different. Sittes emphasis artistic principles in city building is the direct aesthetic antithesis to modernists conception of Order by pure geometry; and neither would have tolerated the rows of front-and-back garden semi-detached houses of post-war England. Martin Kreigers Review of Large Scale Planning[48] sets out three binds the set of limitations of particular attitudes that are common with all urban designers of the artistic tradition. Firstly, the desire for a formal, general model which will provide a scientific foundation for planning analysis and proposals can be seen just as clearly beneath Sittes sensual and overwhelmingly visual impressions as Le Corbusiers utilitarian explanations of the benefits of international-style living. Guidelines, whether calling for That the centre of plazas be kept free or WE MUST BUILD ON A CLEAR SITE!

Compare and Contrast Billy Budd versus Bartleby Essay -- American Lite

A Comparison/Contrast Analysis of "Billy Budd" and Bartleby" Several comparisons and contrasts can be made concerning the two stories, Billy Budd and Bartleby, written by Herman Melville. The setting of the two stories reveals an interesting comparison and contrast between the British Navy on the open sea, and the famous Wall Street of New York. The comparison and contrast of characters, Billy Budd, Captain Vere, and Claggart in Billy Budd, and the `narrator' and Bartleby in Bartleby, at times are very much alike, and also very different. The conflict, climax and resolution of the two Melville stories contain similarities and differences. These two stories, on the exterior, appear to be very different, and on the interior are alike, especially if trying to analyze the stories by interpreting the symbolism that Melville may be trying to reveal in his writing. This essay will analyze the similarities and differences in Billy Budd and Bartleby. The first analysis of these stories will be comparing and contrasting the setting. To compare the setting of the two stories, much like the decline of the British naval supremacy in the world due to over-expansion, and especially mutinies, which were taking place throughout the Navy, mostly because of over worked conditions, extended enlistments, and impressments of non-volunteers, on Wall Street, there was a conflict between wage laborers and capitalists in the form of strikes and violence in the street. The conflict leads to the forming of trade unions to resist the methods of factory production and wage labor. The setting can also be compared because of the limited mention of the surroundings, until the very end when Billy Budd, after being hanged, has hi... ...tuttering. In conclusion, this essay analyzes the similarities and differences of the two stories written by Herman Melville, Billy Budd and Bartleby. The settings, characters, and endings in the two stories reveal very interesting comparisons and contrasts. The comparison and contrast also includes the interpretation of the symbolism that Melville used in his two stories. The characters, Billy and Bartleby, could even be considered autobiographical representatives of Herman Melville. Work Cited Harris, Laurie Lanzen, ed. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Herzberg, Max J., ed. The Reader Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1962. Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. Beaver, Harold, ed. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972.

Miss Representation

Hattie Godine English 1302 Essay 3 Today’s statistics shows women and young girls in the media areas of television, has more attention placed upon them, and it’s not always in a positive way. In the documentary film Miss Representation the portrayal changes the way the public and some men would view women. These magnitude effects of the role of women have had for many years. Some organizations and commercial ads display women and girls with the idea that their beauty lies in beauty products and tanning machines along with cosmetic products.Researchers have proven concerns that many support the idea of the detrimental harm that this attention brings to our society. Are women of today’s generation being exploited as nothing more than sex objects? Records show that the United States is still very below in average for women holding how power governmental positions. Miss Representation movie is no longer just a movie film, but has become a complete campaign to instill the empowerment for women and young girls. The campaign will add challenges to people who have made attempts on transforming our culture for the advancement of all kind.All through the campaign, you will become educated in one form are another. From Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin running for the first Women president of the United States it shows that our society still has a long way to go. We have not yet made it to the point of women having equal rights as men do. There is more to the story than Miss. Representation presents, because there are 65% of women that suffer from many self-afflicting diseases, Things such as simply not being the right shape, color of skin and height creates a hold different prospective on the matter.Example like eating disorder behavior has double against young women in the past century. (Health Day News reports) Almost two-thirds (65lpercent) of young American women report disordered eating behaviors, and 10 percent report symptoms of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. ) Copyright 2013 ABC News Internet Ventures Yahoo – ABC News Network. Television too has taken on a new twist to young girls as they view ifferent shows like American Next Top Model and some Reality shows they feel this is the direction that our lives should be based upon and this is the way a girl are women should like thru a television lens. Viewing too much television puts our young children at sufficient harm’s way. Stat’s show viewing TV 10 hours each day is much too dangerous mentally. It also becomes very addictive for our young people. When Sue Katz states that I just question how crucial the dream of â€Å"power and influence† is to most women today. ` As she stated it’s the movie is getting its air time but what really is the message that is being sent out to the public.As Ms. Newsome interviewed several governments official that are females have open views about women in pol itics and what their limitation have been so far in the chain of command. Women should be of equal concerns with issues, such as pay equality as well. We can work the same average hours as a man can expect the same pay along with some times long hours to get the job done. It’s a choice that some females make for themselves. Education does play a sufficient role in what type of career are profession you want to take and pay received with that career. Often time’s women are looked over because of sexuality.The pay wage gap is very real the economy has been a slow process in recovery and women that are not fortunate enough to be homemakers and take care of school age children are subjected to taking only minimum wage jobs and earning a lot less money than men. Abortion laws is another tip of ice bird that can been a challenging topic of pro anti-abortion rights for women. Some people who willingly support the federal ban on laws about abortion issues believes that the gov ernment has taken on the responsibility of perhaps protecting the unborn fetus, and that is not the Right of the government officials.Women should be able to make the decision of if they choice to abort an unborn child. Unless there is a life threating situation that endangers the child or the mother the decision should be left in the hands of the parents. Adapting the laws in the United States Constitution clearly leaning toward the support Overturned the Constitution Roe V. Wade. Chief Justice John Roberts & Justice Samuel Alito made it clear that the pro-Rue is under scrutiny interpretation of the standard of Casey, the was believed to be about anti-abortion movement continues to lose its balance ground level in the areas of politics and court.Women Rights from the abolition movement of the 1800s is of many women of all walks of life beginning with SNCC and SCLS but the more traditional groups are NAACP women were treated like second class citizens. Some of these women believed t he women liberations groups were radical. There were three key events that took place to form new movements for women equal rights in the 60’s. The American Women, released in 1963 recognized widespread Discrimination against women in all walks of life.The Civil Rights movement and publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, which many women would questions their own lives and status in society and concluding there was something wrong. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based not only on race but also on sex. Some of the Senators in Congress still jokingly view its addition as a means to dishonor the total act and guarantee its defeats against discrimination. In the year of 1966 Equal Opportunity Commission did not enforce laws as it applied to sex discrimination, and female activist was immediately formed the National Organization for Women.NOW was molded very closely after the NAACP. They worked very hard within the systems to stop discr imination. Women can be portrayed better in the lime light of the media by giving us the same privileges that are given to males. That includes the powerful position in politics and leadership in government. Some of the media coverage that views on television shows, video dancing, and film producing sexist toward women and their bodies makes it difficult for respect to be valuable.Only seeing the sexy side of a woman not the knowledge she may hold within her personality. Diverse advisement coverage of women is known worldwide with a lot of information. Society along is mostly shaped with influence buy what we look like as women not what we think. And that can be taken as direct criticisms. Our values are and should be measured in ways better used to see, think and feel. Women are constantly portrayed in sexually ways and we continue to be seen as sex object, and this is a violation of our human rights.Research shows targeting areas of imagines in a more positive effect on our selves . Effecting Self-esteem issues for women sometimes of not feeling as beautiful and not to compare themselves with other females who look ideally thin and more beautiful. Cited sources as follows: (Cilvilbiliberty about. com/od/abortion/a/abortion2012. htm) (http://www. typepad. com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c7a9753ef0168ea9b7cdb970c) (Sabato) (Sabato)sexucalityhttp://www. policymic. com/articles/4439/are-women-in-the-media-only-

Essay on Venture Capital †Motivations For Corporate Venturing

1. Introduction Traditionally, the interest of companies in creating venture funds was influenced by the venture capital climate. Increased rates of corporate venturing activity recorded in the 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s were in correspondence with the flourishing venture capital investments (Narayanan et al., 2009). Despite the deterioration in private equity investment owing to the fall of the dot-com sector in early 21st century, corporate venturing is still considered to be an important business activity in large business organisations (Gailly et al., 2014). However, corporate venturing is marred with complexity including the disconcerting array of existing corporate venturing forms (Guerrero & Pena-Legazkue, 2013). As Garg (2013) argues, for many years, large business organisations have been cautious about the idea of corporate venturing. Some have witnessed a failure of their venture initiatives while others have given up so easily. Generally, the lifespan of corporate venturing initiative is aro und one year (Basu & Wadhwa, 2013). Even business organisations with a strong capital base have struggled to utilise knowledge that is gained from start-up initiatives (Basu et al., 2011). Certainly, it is not easy to run a corporate venture capital successfully. However, as the rate of discontents in research and development increase, corporate venturing is gaining respect and appreciation in the business world (Masulis & Nahata, 2009). To clearly position the reasons that motivate organisations to consider corporate venturing, it is imperative to analyse the concept of growth and development as a result of the effectiveness of research and development initiatives at the organisational level. 2. Venturing and Firm Innovativeness Ideas that are innovative can be produced via internal R&D or access externally through activities such as corporate venture capital initiative. Companies must not limit themselves to in-house R&D as a source of innovativeness. In spite of the high prevalence of internal R&D as a source of innovativeness in many business organisations from a historical perspective, a decision to limit an organisation to sourcing its innovativeness from internal R&D has its limitations (Srivastava & Agrawal, 2010; Guerrero & Pena-Legazkue, 2013). As research on economic-based industries suggests, monopolies lack efficiency which results in the costs associated with inefficiency being passed down to the final consumer (Narayanan et al., 2009; Napp&Minshall, 2011). This idea is also recognised in corporate entrepreneurship research. Specifically, Gaba and Bhattacharya (2012) argued that elevated R&D expenditure at the organisational level is an indicator of internal inefficiencies and elevated agency co sts rather than successful innovative initiatives or antagonistic risk-taking approaches. Therefore, it is necessary for corporations to eliminate the monopoly enjoyed by their R&D units. Economics positions the existence of competing players as a source of efficiency when compared to a monopoly state (Basu et al., 2011). At organisational level, structuring of corporate innovative initiatives can be realised through the development of several R&D centre or supporting various technological initiatives through approaches such as corporate venture capital. Furthermore, research has raised concerns over the possibility of collusion pitfalls in cases where the number of players is limited (Napp & Minshall, 2011; Basu & Wadhwa, 2013). This can be addressed by offering a significant geographical dispersion of R&D centres. Indeed, according to Gaba and Bhattacharya (2012), having numerous research sites that are geographically distributed enhances corporate innovativeness by providing assistance in disabling organisational inertia, offering variety, and ultimately speeding up th e development of new capabilities and technological advancement. The option of multiple technological activities that is founded on corporate venture capital initiatives is also common among various leading companies on a global scale in the recent past. A decision to introduce the concept of competition in processes that generate organisational innovativeness has been found to eliminate inefficiencies in organisational innovativeness activities (Maula et al., 2009). Agency theory emphasises on inefficiencies that emanate from contracting associations between a firms engaging another firm to undertake certain activity on its behalf, which entails a decision to delegate a significant decision-making authority to an agent (Srivastava & Agrawal, 2010). The consideration, in this case, is that both players in the contract are rational, self-interested, risk-averse, and opportunistic. Consequently, the opportunistic behaviour of the agent may not be in agreement with the best interests of the principal (Garg, 2013; Bruneel et al., 2013). The agent†™s opportunistic behaviour is manifested via adverse selection, moral hazards, and hold-up (Cumming & Johan, 2010). In addition, any form of misalignment that exists between the principal’s and the agent’s interests implies enduring loss by the principal (Maula et al., 2009; Souitaris & Zerbinati, 2014). A typical situation where an agency problem is applicable is the case of a relationship between business managers and owners (Cumming & Johan, 2010). However, this situation can easily be applied to the relationship between a firm’s R&D unit and its top management. In this case, the internal R&D unit is positioned as an agent of the firm’s top management that is involved in technical advancement. Therefore, selection process that is adverse may be a significant issue if the R&D unit initiates a project that extends beyond its expertise. The issue of moral hazards is common in cases where actions taken by an agent cannot be verified which is a common occurrence in complex research and development projects, where observable results rather than behaviours that cannot be verified is the solution (Narayanan et al., 2009). Hold-up challenges may emerge when internal projects that are not successful are not suspended from corporate funding even when the outcomes are useless in spite of significant corporate expenditure. Therefore, a decision to create a corporate venture capital initiative is a solution to some of the problems associated with agency challenges. Specifically, corporate venture capital plans provide internal R&D units with a significant challenge over their monopoly on generating organisational innovation. According to a research done by Basu et al. (2011), challenging the monopoly by internal R&D unit on innovation production has assisted several business firms to directly move into successful business initiatives that would have been assumed under normal internal R&D situation. As much as corporate venturing is considered to be dangerous due to the threat of opportunism (Garg, 2013), a decision to limit innovative activities to internal R&D unit is more problematic (Cumming et al., 2009). The challenges associated with monopolies are just part of the challenges. Without sufficient level of diversity, strategic renewal, which is considered a major entrepreneurship, can never be reali sed. Development of corporate venture initiatives is, therefore, significant in minimising moral hazards and adverse selection (Maula et al., 2009). Allocating an organisation’s funds to a corporate venture is a significant threat to the availability of funds that can be applied in internal R&D projects, which spurs competition based on the economic perspective analysed above. 3. Motives that Drive Corporate Venturing Research has established that a corporate venture capital fund is more flexible, can move faster, and is generally cheaper when compared the conventional research and development in assisting an organisation in the process of responding to changes in business models and technologies (Maula et al., 2009; Napp&Minshall, 2011). According to Garg (2013), such a fund can be used in the process of stimulating demand for a firm’s products. Furthermore, corporate venture capital is an investment that may earn a company a return that is attractive. It is, therefore, a tool that is used by a firm in capturing ideas that ultimately influence the future of an organisation. There are various benefits that come with venture capital including faster response, better analysis of business threats, easier disengagement, enhanced investment impacts, increased demand, and higher returns.3.1. Venturing and Business ResponseThrough offering an inside perspective of new technological areas as well as an approach that can lead to possible ownership and use of novel ideas, corporate venturing allows businesses to swiftly respond to changes in the market. In a study done by (Narayanan et al., 2009) about venturing initiatives, it was established that companies that were able to make successful financial investments experienced better success levels. Consequently, such development capabilities that are experienced under venture capital initiative take a longer period of time to be realised if done by a firm on its own and is generally more expensive (Souitaris & Zerbinati, 2014). Given the resources and time needed to modernise research facilities and recruit researchers with the right skills and expertise, expanding a firm’s internal research and development can be generally painstaking (Phan et al., 2009).3.2. Venture Capital in Threat ManagementVenture fund can be used by an organisation as an approach to gathering intelligence, which assists the firm in protecting its elf from emerging threats to its competitiveness in the market. For instance, Analog Devices, the silicon-chip specialist formulated a venture program in the 1980s focused at investing in a variety of competing technologies (Basu et al., 2011). The goal, in this case, was to collect strategic information at a lower cost. The process resulted in a discovery that it was difficult and expensive to make chips using non-silicon materials. This resulted in a hike in Analog’s market valuation. In this case, the decision to utilise corporate venturing program offered the company a source of insurance. In this case, if the alternatives that the company had opted to explore had been viable, it was covered from the risk of being faced out of the market by its competitors. Conventional approaches to research and development does not offer data that can be used in predicting sources of competitive forces. Specifically, most corporate research and development units focus on projects that a re narrow which can result in neglect of areas that can cause a significant disruption from external competitors. Accordingly Phan et al. (2009) argue that most business managers in firms with versatile internal R&D functions face challenges when it comes to determining whether their companies are blindsided with regard to new innovative developments that may threaten their competitiveness3.3. Venturing and Easier DetachmentAnother positive aspect of venturing that is related to the ability of a firm to speed up its response to threats and change is that it offers organisational management a faster approach to detach from investments that appear to be doomed to fail. In particular, many firms find it challenging to abandon innovations that are not very good but are developed internally (Rohrbeck et al., 2009). Such projects can remain in a firm’s product development for many years resisting termination. This can well be illustrated by Nokia’s continued focus on develo ping its mobile phones based on the Symbian operating system even when most of its competitors had opted to go into free fall, which negatively affected the competitiveness of Nokia in the market. The relationship that exists between firms and their venture funds which is arm’s-length is advantageous in this respect. In particular, as much as a firm may be reluctant to terminate an initiative that is unpromising, the presence of co-investors provides a platform for forcing the decision.3.4. Venture Capital and Increased Impacts of InvestmentVenture Capital provides business firms opportunities for combining their capital with other venture capitals, which results in the magnification of the effects of an investment to a firm. These benefits are particularly apparent in cases where technological uncertainty is significantly higher. The iFund, which was supported by Apple Company and introduced in the market by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venerable VC firm, provides an illustration of this case. This investment enabled Apple to build applications for its new mobile phone products at the lowest cost possible. This was in contrast to the case of Nokia, which was a major market rival to Apple Company whose operating system, Symbian was unsuccessful and very costly. As a result of the success of the iFund, similar such initiatives have been positioned by many other companies including famous venture capital developments such as Facebook and Research in Motion.3.5. Venturing and Market DemandVenture firm provides a firm with several sources of leveraging. This can be illustrated by the iFund case. In particular, a decision by venture capitalists to promote the development of technologies that were reliant on the parent firm business platforms results in increased demand for the firm’s products. This approach was considered by Intel Capital in the late 1990s when it founded a capital that speeded the adoption of Intel’s next generation c hips in the market (Rohrbeck et al., 2009). This fund was invested in numerous hardware and software makers who were mostly Intel competitors and their products capitalised on the power presented by the new chip developed by Intel. These investments resulted in the accelerated adoption of Intel chip within a short period of time. Intel capital was also involved in seeding firms that were developing wireless internet products founded on a platform that had been championed by Intel. This resulted in rapid adoption of wireless products from Intel in the following years, which illustrated the success of the company in applying corporate venturing in creating a network of wireless actors.3.6. Venturing and ReturnsResearch has also established a financial benefit that is associated with venturing. Specifically, the main objective of any venture capital initiative is to generate revenue for the partners. With regard to corporate venture capital, the main goal is gaining a strategic advant age in the market, which ultimately culminates in increased profitability as much as the initial income generated as a result of the venture itself is insignificant with regard to the bottom line of corporate firms (Masulis & Nahata, 2009). Business organisations introduce value in start-ups that they find, which is commonly in the form of resources, skills, and reputation (Phan et al., 2009). This also changes the perception of the new entity’s prospects in the face of external investors. Public and private equity investors generally believe that start-ups that are founded on venture capital will be absorbed by the investors at an attractive valuation. Accordingly, Basu et al. (2011) established that business start-ups that are funded by corporations are more likely to attract more attention among high-quality players in the market when compared to ordinary start-ups. It also emerged that such start-ups that are backed by corporate venture funds have a better performance wit h regard to stock price when compared to those that are backed by traditional investment groups. 4. Conclusion The analysis of the corporate venture capital and its significance in the business world demonstrated a clear picture of its implication in growth, development, and competitiveness of business organisations in the wake of a globalised business environment. Specifically, it was apparent that corporate venture capital initiative could be applied by business organisations in increasing their innovativeness and the general firm efficiency and ultimately their competitiveness. Consequently, corporate venture capital initiatives demonstrate entrepreneurial aspects that are associated with significant effects on business corporations. Consequently, based on the deeper analysis of the strategic aspects of corporate venture capital investments, this paper has affirmed that it plays a strategic role in competitiveness and sustainability of corporate entities in the contemporary business settings hence an attractive initiative in most corporations. 5. References Basu, S., & Wadhwa, A. (2013). â€Å"External venturing and discontinuous strategic renewal: An options perspective.† Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30(5), pp. 956-975. Basu, S., Phelps, C., Kotha, S. (2011). â€Å"Towards understanding who makes corporate venture capital investments and why,† Journal of Business Venturing, 26(2), pp. 153-171. Bruneel, J., Van de Velde, E., & Clarysse, B. (2013). â€Å"Impact of the Type of Corporate Spin?Off on Growth.† Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(4), pp. 943-959. Cumming, D., & Johan, S. (2010). â€Å"Venture capital investment duration.† Journal of Small Business Management, 48(2), pp. 228-257. Cumming, D., Fleming, G., &Schwienbacher, A. (2009). â€Å"Corporate relocation in venture capital finance.† Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(5), pp. 1121-1155. Gaba, V., & Bhattacharya, S. (2012). â€Å"Aspirations, innovation, and corporate venture capital: A behavioural perspective.† Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 6(2), pp. 178-199. Gailly, B., Da Gbadji, A. G., & Schwienbacher, A. (2014). â€Å"International analysis of venture capital programs of large corporations and financial institutions.† Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Forthcoming. Garg, S. (2013). â€Å"Venture boards: Distinctive monitoring and implications for firm performance.† Academy of Management Review, 38(1), pp. 90-108. Guerrero, M., & Pena-Legazkue, I. (2013). â€Å"The effect of intrapreneurial experience on corporate venturing: Evidence from developed economies.† International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 9(3), pp. 397-416. Guerrero, M., & Pena-Legazkue, I. (2013). â€Å"The effect of intrapreneurial experience on corporate venturing: Evidence from developed economies.† International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 9(3), pp. 397-416. Masulis, R. W., &Nahata, R. (2009). â€Å"Financial contracting with strategic investors: Evidence from corporate venture capital backed IPOs.† Journal of Financial Intermediation, 18(4), pp. 599-631. Maula, M. V., Autio, E., & Murray, G. C. (2009). â€Å"Corporate venture capital and the balance of risks and rewards for portfolio companies.† Journal of Business Venturing, 24(3), pp. 274-286. Napp, J. J., &Minshall, T. (2011). â€Å"Corporate venture capital investments for enhancing innovation: challenges and solutions.† Research-Technology Management, 54(2), 27-36. Narayanan, V. K., Yang, Y., & Zahra, S. A. (2009). â€Å"Corporate venturing and value creation: A review and proposed framework.† Research Policy, 38(1), pp. 58-76. Phan, P. H., Wright, M., Ucbasaran, D., & Tan, W. L. (2009). â€Å"Corporate entrepreneurship: Current research and future directions.† Journal of business Venturing, 24(3), pp. 197-205. Rohrbeck, R., Dohler, M., & Arnold, H. (2009). â€Å"Creating growth with externalization of R&D results—the spin?along approach.† Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 28(4), pp. 44-51. Souitaris, V., & Zerbinati, S. (2014). â€Å"How do corporate venture capitalists do dealsAn exploration of corporate investment practices.† Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 8(4), pp. 321-348. Srivastava, N., & Agrawal, A. (2010). â€Å"Factors supporting corporate entrepreneurship: an exploratory study.† Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 14(3), pp.163-171.