Friday, November 29, 2019

The sport that changed my life free essay sample

What experience during my high school years made me a better person? The obvious choice would have to be football. One of the most fun activities I ever participated in during high school. In fact, this sport helped me to come out of my shell and become the confident and courageous young man I am today. I’ll admit I wasn’t too thrilled about attending high school. The thought of going to school with over 1800 kids frightened me to the extent that I couldn’t sleep the night before the first day. So many thoughts ran through my head. Will I make any friends? Will high school be as hard as I thought it might be? And the worst thought had me quivering in my pants: girls. Will any girl ever go out with me? I mostly kept to myself and was mostly ignored because of my shy and quiet voice. We will write a custom essay sample on The sport that changed my life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page one attribute I proud of was my natural athleticism. Sports always came natural to me and gave me chance to really show off my stuff. The problem was I just couldn’t seem to find a sport I could stick with for very long which made give up on playing any sport. This was until my 10th grade year. One of my best friends that I grew up with was trying out for the football team and wanted me to join him. I seriously thought he was joking. There was no way skinny guy like was going to play a contact sport but I gave it a try. I’ve never regretted my decision for a moment. In just a few short months gained muscle tone, a heavier build. I made a great deal of many new friends and I’m happy to say I haven’t had any trouble with the ladies.

Monday, November 25, 2019

What the future will be like essays

What the future will be like essays What the future will be like? This question worried and is worrying people. We know almost everything about the past; it has been written a lot of books about the past. Future does not program. We can only conjecture what the future will be like. Now, we live in the world of technology. Every day new technology appears, ranging from mini-CDs that contain entire encyclopedias to giant space telescopes that can send photographs of distant stars back to Earth. Technology has the greatest influence on the daily lives of average people. By this time we can work and take care of personal business without living the house, people even start on-line romances in the chat rooms, every man who have enough money can explore the space. For the last hundred years the biggest spurt of scientific and technological revolution has been done. And what differences will be in technology in next hundred years? By this time a lot of difficult tasks are doing by the robot. In the future robots will replace a lot of professions. Housekeepers, baby-sitters, sick-nurses, hospital nurses, secretaries, waitresses, sellers, street-cleaners, taxi drivers will be replaced by robots. As distinct from sick-nurses and hospital nurses, robots will spend all time with patient. Robots will help patient to move, it will watch closely after state of health and transmit data to the doctor. Most of the surgical operations will be carried by robots. Even our house will be big robot. It is a very good example of the future house in the short- story of Ray Bradbury, There Will Come Soft Rains. Robots in the house will be smart to make our lives as comfortable as it possible. They will take care about our children, cook food, clean the house, pay our bills and take care about our pets. Robots will understand human speech and they will be able to receive all orders by the Internet. Robots will wage war. There wil l be fighting ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Managerial economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managerial economics - Essay Example There are also who are involved with the broadcasting of the music. With the beginning of the year 2000, the sales of recorded music started to drop. Nonetheless, the selling of live music started to increase and has been important in increasing their revenues. The fall of sale of the music can be attributed to the rise of the internet and use of CDs (Gerd 28). The recording company will thus own the recordings and this will be as specified in their contract. Traditionally, the recording company is known to provide the recording artist with an advance payment for his music. It is the duty of the AR department of the recording company to market and sell of music. When it comes to the physical media, the company will have to pay another company to manufacture and distribute the physical music recordings (Paul 31). The issue of piracy has had greater impacts in the sell and distribution of music. There have been instances where a musician’s music ends up in the internet and him or her receiving no payments for his work. The EMI group is the largest recording company in the UK. Research carried out by the Nielsen SoundScan group reported that the EMI group represented a 10 percent of the Music business in Europe (Arango 30). This was in the year 2005. The other percentage has been dominated by US based recording companies. At the end of 2004, the same research company estimated the global market value of music to be around 30 to 40 billion US dollars. The total sales of the CDs, MP3s and music videos were around 3 billion US dollars (Feinstein 72). The EMI recording company only gained 9.5 percent of that amount. According to another report when it came to the end of 2005, the EMI recording company had managed to increase its global competitiveness to 13.5 percent (The Wall Street Journal, 1). This is when compared to other big recording labels like Sony Music Entertainment (29 %) and the Universal Music Group at

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Research report Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Report - Research Paper Example An understanding of these web-technologies will require a research report in order to understand them. Ajax and Google analytics will be examined and investigated in order to provide an understanding and finally implement them in the product. Functional and non-functional requirements will be addressed in the research report. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Review of Literature and Technologies 5 System Requirement Analysis 9 Project Rationale 9 Functional Requirements 10 Non-functional Requirements 13 Booking Websites Design Patterns 13 The technologies that will be used 15 CSS – Cascading Style Sheets and HTML 5 15 JavaScript and JQuery 16 AJAX 16 PHP and MySQL 17 Proposed Methodology 17 Summary or Conclusion 18 Introduction There is no doubt that since the 1960s, the internet has matured has now become one of the most common technologies used in the world. It has nonetheless become a valuable and new form of communication that has effectively collapsed all physical and geo graphical barriers. There are many reasons given for its success, one of them is the simplicity of its architecture which can be summarised as being a network of networks. Clients can make request to a computer via several protocols such as TCP/IP, Domain Name Servers (DNS) are used to lookup URL requests and translate words into IP addresses. One of the key recent milestones in the internet has been the emergence of internet 2.0. The benefits of this have been exploited by developers and corporations and thus the explosion of apps such as Skype, video on demand, API’s and interactive games have become one of the most common features of internet usage today. Other advantages include not having to refresh a whole page, page state can be maintained and inputted text is also saved (Campesato & Nilson 2010). All of these factors ensure a much smoother experience for the user. In this regard, the internet has become a more competitive marketing tool in the tourism and hospitality industry (Doolin et al. 2002). It has today become a common feature for travellers and tourists worldwide to rely on the power and capability of the internet powered by web 2.0 technologies to interact with businesses all over the world. They are able to gather information on prices, offers, packages, and destinations online or from the internet, conveniently, at least, at the comfort of their homes, offices, or even while on the move (Gaona et al. 2013). The latter is facilitated by the advanced in technology with regards to the capability of handheld devices including smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers (Greenspan 2004). Further, many hoteliers, and tour operators are regarding the internet/web as the new, cost-effective, and efficient distribution, marketing and customer care environment; thus most of them are taking advantage these e-services, specifically, online booking or reservation system. In order to facilitate the development of a system which can meets its goals a nd is also efficient, research suggests that the different elements of the system such as the interface code, server side scripting code and database code be separated. This is a common theory which industry has adopted because it allows people with different skills to develop a system simultaneously. This concept or is often termed N-tier architecture (B’Far 2005) and will be incorporated into the project. Developing online booking systems has many advantages both for the client and the business that provides online

Monday, November 18, 2019

Supporting families and carers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Supporting families and carers - Essay Example Lizzie’s level of commitment is however more compared to that of her siblings as most of the time she is taking care of her sick mum. As a result of this, she gradually becomes socially isolated. This paper is a discussion of social isolation in relation to supporting families and carers. This is the state in which an individual experiences a need for increased level of association with others, but is not able to make contact with them (Larsen and Lubkin, 2009). Because human beings are social in nature, they have a need for social interaction. Interacting with others and spending time with them offers a person a sense of belonging, thereby making life meaningful to them. The need for social support is an aspect that is firmly connected to social isolation. According to Larsen and Lubkin (2009, p. 88), social support is the â€Å"social context or environment that facilitates the survival of human beings by offering social, emotional, and material support needed and received by an individual†. As mentioned earlier, life becomes meaningful through interaction and spending time with others, being able to enjoy common activities such as sports and going out with peers, having a clear mind as well as feeling free and being free among other things. In the case of Lizzie and her siblings, enjoying such things has been made impossible by their mother’s illness. Being a young carer, Lizzie seems particularly affected as she is even unable to concentrate in class as portrayed in the short film. When she gets back home from school and finds her mother’s cup of tea exactly where they left it with her siblings, she can’t help but worry and rush upstairs fearing the worst. Lizzie and her siblings live very different lives compared to their peers. While their peers are able to get early to school and begin classes in time, Lizzie and her two siblings are always late. This doesn’t happen on a few occasions, rather it happens every

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Combination Adjuvant Platform for Human and Animal Vaccines

Combination Adjuvant Platform for Human and Animal Vaccines A novel combination adjuvant platform for human and animal vaccines   Ravendra Garg, Sylvia van Drunen Littel-van den Hurk Volker and Gerdts Abstract Adjuvants are critical component of vaccines. They are being used to enhance and extend the overall immune response, to drive the response towards a specific type of immunity, and to reduce the need for multiple booster immunizations. Here we report the development of a combination adjuvant platform consisting of three immune stimulators, namely host defence peptides, polyphosphazenes and PolyI:C/CpG ODN. The adjuvant platform was co-formulated with a variety of human and animal vaccines and tested in mice, pigs, sheep, koalas, and fish. When co-formulated with a wide range of viral and bacterial antigens including Bordetella pertussis, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Chlamydia trachomatis and influenza antigens, a single immunization induced 100-1,000 fold stronger humoral immune responses (IgG, IgG1, IgG2a), a much earlier onset of immunity, a clear shift towards a more balanced or Th-1 type of response and extended duration of immunity of up to two years in some cases. The vacc ines were highly effective in neonates of less than 7 days of age and provided complete protection against a lethal challenge with B. pertussis or RSV. Furthermore, the polyphosphazenes in this combination allow the assembly of microparticles that when lyophilized were stable for several months. Intranasal immunization with these microparticles induced strong mucosal immune response in the upper respiratory tract. Moreover, the adjuvant platform was highly effective in the presence of maternal antibodies. In summary, we developed a novel vaccine platform for neonates, which provided more balanced, long lasting and fully protective immune responses in neonates after a single vaccination only. Introduction Vaccine provides huge public health benefits for reducing the burden of infectious diseases. Live vaccines generate effective immune responses but have been associated with a number of safety concerns, including improper attenuation and reverting back to virulence.   Nonliving vaccine antigens i.e. whole, inactivated viruses and specifically recombinant or highly purified subunit vaccines are often weakly immunogenic and need adjuvants to enhance the immunogenicity of vaccine based on antibodies and effector T cell functions to prevent infection. Adjuvants are critical components of vaccines, usually used to stimulate faster, stronger, and long-lasting immune responses to vaccines. It has various roles in vaccine formulations i.e. enhance immune responses to vaccine antigens, provide faster onset of immunity, improving immune responses to immunization in infant or elderly populations, whose immune system are immature or waning, dose sparing, either reducing the quantity of antigen required in the vaccine preparation or reducing the immunization schedule (Coffman, Sher et al. 2010). Adjuvants are absolutely required in subunit vaccines due to the poor immunogenicity of such antigens. There is no single universal adjuvant which can cover all the vaccine requirements. Using single adjuvant has a number of limitations, including induction of weak, improper, and short lived immune responses. For example, alum and MF59 (Kenney and Edelman 2003) are the universally approved adjuvant for human vaccines. Both normally induce a Th2 biased immune responses but not cellular immune responses which required for immunity against intracellular infections. In many novel adjuvant technologies, using multiple adjuvants in combination often act synergistically by stimulating and activating a various type of immune cells. Combination of adjuvants platform is promising and beneficial for suboptimal vaccines and particularly advantageous for vaccines against specific and more susceptible populations, such as neonates and the older adults. In some aspects, the neonate immune system is similar to that of the elderly, both having diminished anti-microbial activity by immune cells, reduce d antigen uptake and presentation by antigen presenting cells and compromised adaptive immune responses (Simon, Hollander et al. 2015). Strong adjuvants may provide an approach to boost immune responses in the both neonates and elderly populations. Most of the studies have combined a delivery system with an immunostimulatory adjuvant, especially combinations with the TLR agonists and MPL. Combination adjuvants have only recently been vigorously explored. Some combinations have been tested in humans and large animals and have yielded promising results. Recently, we developed a novel combination adjuvant platform (TriAdj) which is highly effective with wide range of animal and human vaccine. Novel Combination adjuvant platform for animal vaccines: Veterinary vaccines have been used for several of years, and have an important role in protecting animal health, animal welfare, food production, and public health. They are a cost-effective method to prevent animal disease, improve the food production, greatly reducing the need for antibiotics to treat food and companion animals and reduce or prevent transmission of zoonotic disease to human. Interestingly, the challenges related with vaccinating animals are stability, low cost, ease of administration etc., require new solutions in vaccine development. Freund introduced a combination of mineral oils and bacterial cell components (Freunds complete adjuvant) for the improvement of vaccine immune responses (Freund et al., 1937). However, many nations are not using the Freunds adjuvant in animals due to its reactivity and side effects. Alum and emulsions based formulations have been successfully used since long time in a wide variety of animal vaccines. However, with an advanced underst anding of the immune system, many new adjuvants (Saponins, Liposomes, virosomes, particle based and TRL ligand) have recently been developed for veterinary applications. A wide range of adjuvants has been successfully used in commercial vaccines for animals and several new technologies are currently in preclinical development. Over the past decade, we have seen several new combination adjuvants, typically contain two and three individual adjuvant components, including MF59â„ ¢ (Novartis Inc.), ASâ„ ¢ (Glaxo Smith Kline Inc.), IC31â„ ¢ (Valneva Inc.) etc. We recently developed a novel combination adjuvant platform (TriAdj) that is contained of three components, namely toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist either PolyI:C or CpG ODN and an immunostimulatory host defense peptide (HDPs) in polyphosphazene carrier system (Kindrachuk, Jenssen et al. 2009; Garg, Latimer et al. 2013). Synthetic PolyI:C and CpG ODNs are well known potent adjuvant with various vaccine antigens and have been shown to enhance immune responses by activating monocytes/macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells and B cells, and induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines   (Krieg 2002; Trumpfheller, Longhi et al. 2012). The second component, HDPs are derivatives of natural host defense peptides, which are cationic amp hipathic peptides with microbicidal, chemotactic and/or immunomodulatory properties (Yeung, Gellatly et al. 2011). HDPs are involved in a range of immune functions including immune cell recruitment (neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages, T cells and mast cells), innate immune activation, and wound healing (Jenssen, Hamill et al. 2006). The third component, polyphosphazenes are synthetic water-soluble biodegradable polymer with immunostimulatory properties, and forms non-covalent complexes with variety of viral and bacterial antigens and/or other adjuvants to enhance their stability, immunogenicity and allow multimeric presentation (Mutwiri, Benjamin et al. 2007; Andrianov, DeCollibus et al. 2009; Kovacs-Nolan, Latimer et al. 2009; Awate, Wilson et al. 2012). When vaccine antigens were co-formulated with this combination, we found much faster onset of immunity, highly effective even after a single immunization and significantly long lasting, robust, protective immune responses against variety of animal pathogens including bovine viral diarrhea virus, bovine respiratory syncytial virus and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. The combination adjuvant is stable, cost effective and highly effective in a variety of animals including pigs, sheep, cattle, koalas, cotton rats and mice (Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2011; Khan, Waugh et al. 2014; Snider, Garg et al. 2014; Garg, Latimer et al. 2015). For example, formulation of E2 protein of bovine viral diarrhea virus with TriAdj resulted in strong humoral and cell mediated immune responses, leading to significant protection following pathogen challenge of calves (Snider, Garg et al. 2014). Fusion protein of bovine respiratory syncytial virus co-formulated with TriAdj developed significantly higher antibod ies and interferon gamma secretion (Kovacs-Nolan, Mapletoft et al. 2009). Similarly, formulation of S1 domain of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, and outer membrane protein of chlamydial major   with TriAdj enhanced humoral and cell mediated immune response in pig and koalas respectively (Khan, Waugh et al. 2014; Makadiya, Brownlie et al. 2016). Novel Combination adjuvant platform for human vaccines: Several combination adjuvants consisting of a variety of immunomodulators such as Immune stimulating complexes (ISCOMs), montanides, nanoemulsions, and Adjuvant Systems have been developed in recent years and are currently being tested with human vaccines in preclinical and clinical trials. The novel adjuvant platform, TriAdj was co-formulated with various human vaccines and tested in mice, pigs, sheep, koalas, and fish. This adjuvant platform is highly effective against a variety of infectious diseases. TriAdj was shown to promote the induction of strong immune responses to various viral and bacterial antigens in multiple animals. For instance, TriAdj in combination with fusion protein of human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), mediated the induction of robust, balanced and long-term protective immunity by stimulating long-lived neutralizing antibodies, memory B and CD8+ T cells against hRSV (Garg, Latimer et al. 2013; Garg, Latimer et al. 2014). In addition, mucosal vaccination with TriAdj formulated antigen induced both systemic and local immunity in neonates, even in the face of maternal antibodies (Garg, Latimer et al. 2015). Similarly, when TriAdj was used with pertussis toxoid of Bordetella pertussis, strong and protective immune responses were found in both mice and pigs against lethal infection with B. pertussis (Gracia, Polewicz et al. 2011; Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2011). Furthermore, the vaccine formulated with TriAdj induced a prompt onset, longer duration than existing commercial vaccines and effective after a single vaccination even in the presence of maternal antibodies. (Polewicz, Gracia et al. 2013). TriAdj platform was also formulated with influenza virus antigens or chlamydia antigens, which induces strong immune responses in vaccinated animals (Kindrachuk, Jenssen et al. 2009; Shim, Ko et al. 2010). The combination of adjuvants was also shown to be suitable for maternal immunization. Vaccination of pregnant animals with TriAdj formulated human vaccines resulted in efficient transfer of maternal antibodies and protection from subsequent challenge of the offspring (Elahi, Buchanan et al. 2006; Garg, Latimer et al. 2016). These results indicate that maternal immunization with TriAdj formulated antigens might be an alternative, safe and effective approach to provide protection against pathogens in newborn and young infants. Furthermore, the adjuvant platform can be formulated into microspheres (100 nm to 2 ÃŽ ¼m) to enhance the mucosal and syt emic immune response following intranasal vaccination (Garlapati, Garg et al. 2012). The TriAdj is expected to have multiple applications for the development of vaccines against multiple respiratory pathogens and possibly other infectious agents. Mechanisms of action of novel Combination adjuvant platform: A number of mechanisms of action were identified for this novel combination adjuvant. For example, TriAdj as a mucosal adjuvant increased antigen uptake by dendritic cells, improved dendritic cell maturation, and more efficient transported to local draining lymph nodes to present the antigen to T cells   (Garg, Latimer et al. 2013). TriAdj with antigens promoted the production of chemokines, cytokines and inflammatory cytokines, followed by recruitment and activation of several immune cell populations including dendritic cells, macrophages and neutrophils to the upper and lower respiratory tract, that leads to strong and long-term   protective immune responses of this novel adjuvant formulation (Sarkar, Garg et al. 2016). This was further correlated to the induction of local humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, including production of large numbers of IgA secreting memory B cells as well as effective memory CD8+ T cells. TriAdj also promoted increased germinal centre react ions and effective B cell activation and development in the lungs following mucosal immunization (Garg, Theaker et al. 2016). References   Andrianov, A. K., D. P. DeCollibus, et al. (2009). Poly[di(carboxylatophenoxy)phosphazene] is a potent adjuvant for intradermal immunization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(45): 18936-18941. Awate, S., H. L. Wilson, et al. (2012). Activation of adjuvant core response genes by the novel adjuvant PCEP. Molecular immunology 51(3-4): 292-303. Coffman, R. L., A. Sher, et al. (2010). Vaccine adjuvants: putting innate immunity to work. Immunity 33(4): 492-503. Elahi, S., R. M. Buchanan, et al. (2006). Maternal immunity provides protection against pertussis in newborn piglets. Infect Immun 74(5): 2619-2627. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2014). Vaccination with the RSV fusion protein formulated with a combination adjuvant induces long-lasting protective immunity. J Gen Virol 95(Pt 5): 1043-1054. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2015). The respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with a novel combination adjuvant induces balanced immune responses in lambs with maternal antibodies. Vaccine. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2013). Induction of mucosal immunity and protection by intranasal immunisation with a novel respiratory syncytial virus vaccine formulation. The Journal of general virology. Garg, R., L. Latimer, et al. (2016). Maternal immunization with respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with a novel combination adjuvant provides protection from RSV in newborn lambs. Vaccine 34(2): 261-269. Garg, R., M. Theaker, et al. (2016). A single intranasal immunization with a subunit vaccine formulation induces higher mucosal IgA production than live respiratory syncytial virus. Virology 499: 288-297. Garlapati, S., R. Garg, et al. (2012). Enhanced immune responses and protection by vaccination with respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein formulated with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide and innate defense regulator peptide in polyphosphazene microparticles. Vaccine 30(35): 5206-5214. Gracia, A., M. Polewicz, et al. (2011). Antibody responses in adult and neonatal BALB/c mice to immunization with novel Bordetella pertussis vaccine formulations. Vaccine 29(8): 1595-1604. Jenssen, H., P. Hamill, et al. (2006). Peptide antimicrobial agents. Clinical microbiology reviews 19(3): 491-511. Kenney, R. T. and R. Edelman (2003). Survey of human-use adjuvants. Expert review of vaccines 2(2): 167-188. Khan, S. A., C. Waugh, et al. (2014). Vaccination of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) with a recombinant chlamydial major outer membrane protein adjuvanted with poly I:C, a host defense peptide and polyphosphazine, elicits strong and long lasting cellular and humoral immune responses. Vaccine 32(44): 5781-5786. Kindrachuk, J., H. Jenssen, et al. (2009). A novel vaccine adjuvant comprised of a synthetic innate defence regulator peptide and CpG oligonucleotide links innate and adaptive immunity. Vaccine 27(34): 4662-4671. Kovacs-Nolan, J., L. Latimer, et al. (2009). The novel adjuvant combination of CpG ODN, indolicidin and polyphosphazene induces potent antibody- and cell-mediated immune responses in mice. Vaccine 27(14): 2055-2064. Kovacs-Nolan, J., J. W. Mapletoft, et al. (2009). Formulation of bovine respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide, cationic host defence peptide and polyphosphazene enhances humoral and cellular responses and induces a protective type 1 immune response in mice. The Journal of general virology 90(Pt 8): 1892-1905. Krieg, A. M. (2002). CpG motifs in bacterial DNA and their immune effects. Annu Rev Immunol 20: 709-760. Makadiya, N., R. Brownlie, et al. (2016). S1 domain of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus spike protein as a vaccine antigen. Virol J 13: 57. Mutwiri, G., P. Benjamin, et al. (2007). Poly[di(sodium carboxylatoethylphenoxy)phosphazene] (PCEP) is a potent enhancer of mixed Th1/Th2 immune responses in mice immunized with influenza virus antigens. Vaccine 25(7): 1204-1213. Polewicz, M., A. Gracia, et al. (2011). Influence of maternal antibodies on active pertussis toxoid immunization of neonatal mice and piglets. Vaccine 29(44): 7718-7726. Polewicz, M., A. Gracia, et al. (2013). Novel vaccine formulations against pertussis offer earlier onset of immunity and provide protection in the presence of maternal antibodies. Vaccine 31(31): 3148-3155. Sarkar, I., R. Garg, et al. (2016). Formulation of the respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein with a polymer-based combination adjuvant promotes transient and local innate immune responses and leads to improved adaptive immunity. Vaccine 34(42): 5114-5124. Shim, D. H., H. J. Ko, et al. (2010). Efficacy of poly[di(sodium carboxylatophenoxy)phosphazene] (PCPP) as mucosal adjuvant to induce protective immunity against respiratory pathogens. Vaccine 28(11): 2311-2317. Simon, A. K., G. A. Hollander, et al. (2015). Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age. Proc Biol Sci 282(1821): 20143085. Snider, M., R. Garg, et al. (2014). The bovine viral diarrhea virus E2 protein formulated with a novel adjuvant induces strong, balanced immune responses and provides protection from viral challenge in cattle. Vaccine 32(50): 6758-6764. Trumpfheller, C., M. P. Longhi, et al. (2012). Dendritic cell-targeted protein vaccines: a novel approach to induce T-cell immunity. Journal of Internal Medicine 271(2): 183-192. Yeung, A., S. Gellatly, et al. (2011). Multifunctional cationic host defence peptides and their clinical applications. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences: 1-16.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

Name of the book - India Grows at Night by Gurucharan Das I haven’t read any of the two Gurucharan’s previous books. Besides, this is the first book I will be reviewing for Developmental economics. The title of the Book only caught my attention for two reasons. First it reminded me of the famous speech by Jawaharlal Nehru â€Å"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.† His speech somewhat depicted the reality as India only started to develop at night. Second, it gave me some sort of insight of what I might come across in this book. It’s more of a statement which leads us towards the realness of our country. He begins the first chapter with the example of Haryana and Gurgaon. The unexpected rise of the neglected and underdeveloped Gurgaon in becoming a â€Å"Millennium City â€Å"and the surrender of a would-be planned city Faridabad, later even struggling to capture up with India’s first wave of modernization. It was discussed how private player s took charge in Gurgaon- which arose without an effective state whilst Faridabad with a proper functioning state, withered. Indian model was discussed – which was different than the rest of the world as India got democracy before capitalism. By the end of this chapter, das speaks about the shortcoming of the state and how to move from the private success and public failure in order to become a successful nation. In the next chapter he talks about the Anna Hazare’s movement and how a weak government was shaken to its core by a strong society. Delay in implementation of projects like POSCO – which had been caught in the web of red tape for 5 years. He also mentioned how 168 projects of Coal India had been awaiting clearance – which led to powe... .... In the last section he concludes by giving suggestions on what should be done and redefines the definition of a Strong state and mention that a state is required to grow - no matter how many inefficiencies it may have, he writes â€Å"a weak state is better than no state at all". This book is a brilliant piece by Gurucharan Das, which talks about India’s impressive economic rise despite the presence or rather the absence of a state. With its narrative approach it is easy for readers to understand. Das takes you on a journey beyond 1900 and gives a glimpse of our past and present in order to understand the lacunae that India is facing. The part I disliked is he stressed a lot more in explaining the relevance of a strong state. But this book attempts to show us a path which could help the state deal with governance shortfall effectively. Nishant Sharma Radio stream

Monday, November 11, 2019

Corporal Punishment Argument Essay

Corporal Punishment Argument Essay Corporal Punishment should not be enforced to teach children from misbehaving. To spank and to hit children in todays society Is considered morally wrong but often unpracticed. There is a fine line between abusive hitting and spanking your child on the caboose. Parents who hit their children wither at home or in public leave mental and physical scars that could untimely influence violent behavior in children. Children who are physically punished at home hardly ever learn their lesson.Researchers from the Catalog of Physiologic Study have proved that punishing a child through corporal punishment only leads to more misbehaver. Instead, by confronting them in a calm matter has shown to work better by 35 percent, rather than hitting. In addition, by taking away something that the child possess dear to their hearts for a certain period of time forces them to behave in an orderly manner. For example, when a child runs up a cell phone bill, it would make m ore sense to take away the cell phone rather than physically spank the child and allowing them to keep the cell phone.By keeping the cell phone, children are more likely to take risks. Although, by taking away the phone children understand if they were to take another risk they would jeopardize not having a phone. Society can be viewed as extremely hypocritical. Their viewpoints on public corporal punishment can be seen as evil. More than 90 percent of the community disagrees with corporal punishment while they are in public, but only 15 percent will practice what they preach in their homes. This leaves about 85 percent of parents who exercise spanking in the comfort of their own homes.This hypocritical trait is what leads to frustration in parents and confusion in children. Many times the frustration from not being able to punish children in public leads to a more severe punishment at home. This is often seen when teachers notify higher authority when they see or suspect some sort of violence in their student’s homes. A child who receives corporal punishment undergoes more stress and emotional discomfort than any parent might from contributing punishment. The children’s helplessness can lead to more violent behavior; In addition, most children grow up to mimic the methods of discipline from their own parents or guardians.In 2008, child services survey announced that children who had been spanked at a younger age were at high risk of emotional damage, which often resulted to a poor and unsuccessful future. In addition most children loose respect and become accustomed to being hit by their parents. Most children aren’t fazed by others emotions because of their adapted ways. Spanking and hitting children are not the only idealistic methods to solving problems. The many viewpoints from parents, society and children are important to follow inorder to have a child who

Saturday, November 9, 2019

English Football and Its Economy

Introduction In English 92 professional football clubs are registered in 4 divisions. There are 20 clubs in the Premiership League, which is the first division league, below Premiership League, there is a League called Championship League, which is the second division league and there are 24 teams, the third division league is called League One even though it is not the first division and there are also 24 clubs, and the bottom league is called League Two and 24 teams are registered. Today, it is said that the English Premiership League is the wealthiest league in the world. If you are football lover Roman Abramovich is the name you would certainly know, who is one of the most famous owners in England or even in the world. He was named Person of the Year in 2003, and now he is ninth richest person in Russia and fifty-third richest in the world. He is estimated to have had invested in Chelsea Football Club more than 440 million pounds since he took over in June 2003 until January 2006. Moreover, Abramovich spent 50 million pounds for a record British transfer fee on Spanish footballer Fernando Torres in January this year. There was also big takeover of the club ownership in August 2008. Manchester City Football Club was purchased by Abu Dhabi United Group who is a United Arab equity company owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Minister of Presidential Affairs for the UAE. After the takeover they immediately signed high profile players such as Robinho for a British record of 32. 5 million pounds at that time. Following year Manchester City spent more than 100 million pounds on players. For one of the most famous football club Manchester United Football Club, they are ranked the third richest football club in the world. English football is not all about money. Of course the quality of football is undoubtedly at the top level but what is making English football more exciting is football fans in England. It is said that the football fans are very passionate and fanatical. On the other hand, their excessive passion towards their local football club sometimes make things very dangerous. Their excessive acts eventually lead to hooliganism. 1985, there was a controversial incident in Brussels when Liverpool Football Club played against Italian team Juventus in Champions League, and 39 people were killed and 400 people were injured in this tragedy. In this case study, we will look deep into the economy of major football clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester United as well as Manchester City. We will also look into history of hooliganism. Introduction of Professional English Football As it is briefly explained in Introduction, Professional English Football League is formed with ninety-two clubs divided in four leagues. There are twenty teams in the top league, English Premiership, the Premiership clubs are as follow: Arsenal Football Club, Aston Villa Football Club, Blackburn Rovers Football Club, Bolton Wanderers Football Club, Chelsea Football Club, Everton Football Club, Fulham Football Club, Liverpool Football Club, Manchester City Football Club, Manchester United Football Club, Newcastle United Football Club, Norwich City Football Club, Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club, Stoke City Football Club, Sunderland Association Football Club, Swansea City Football Club, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, West Bromwich Albion Football Club, Wigan Athletic Football Club, and Wolverhampton Wanderers Manchester United won the league in 10-11 season. On the other hand, there was an intense relegation battle in Premiership League. In Premiership League regulation, three teams automatically go down to the league below, which is Championship League. Bottom three of season 10-11 were West Ham United Football Club, Blackpool Football Club, and Birmingham City Football Club For the Championship League, there are twenty-four teams, the teams who belong to Championship League season 11-12 are: Barnsley Football Club, Birmingham City Football Club, Black Pool Football Club, Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, Bristol City Football Club, Burnley Football Club, Cardiff City Football Club, Coventry City Football Club, Crystal Palace Football Club, Derby County Football Club, Doncaster Rovers Football Club, Hull City Football Club, Ipswich Town Football Club, Leeds United Football Club, Leicester City Football Club, Middlesbrough Football Club, Millwall Football Club, Nottingham Forest Football Club, Peterborough United Football Club, Portsmouth Football Club, Reading Football Club, Southampton Football Club, Watford Football Club, and West Ham United Football Club For the League 1, there are also twenty-four teams, the teams in League 1 are: Association Football Club Bournemouth, Brentford Football Club, Bury Football Club, Carlisle United Football Club, Charlton Athletic Football Club, Chesterfield Football Club, Colchester United Football Club, Exeter City Football Club, Hartlepool United Football Club, Huddersfield Town Football Club, Leyton Orient Football Club, Milton Keynes Dons Football Club, Notts County Football Club, Oldham Athletic Association Football Club, Preston North End Football Club, Rochdale Association Football Club, Scunthorpe United Football Club, Sheffield United Football Club, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Stevenage Football Club, Tranmere Rovers Football Club, Walsall Football Club, Wycombe Wanderers Football Club, and Yeovil Town Football Club For the League 2, again, there are also twenty-four teams, the teams in the League 2 are: Association Football Club Wimbledon, Accrington Stanley Football Club, Aldershot Town Football Club, Barnet Football Club, Bradford City Association Football Clu b, Bristol Rovers Football Club, Burton Albion Football Club, Cheltenham Town Football Club, Crawley Town Football Club, Crewe Alexandra Football Club, Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club, Gillingham Football Club, Hereford United Football Club, Macclesfield Town Football Club, Morecambe Football Club, Northampton Town Football Club, Oxford United Football Club, Plymouth Argyle Football Club, Port Vale Football Club, Rotherham United Football Club, Shrewsbury Town Football Club, Southend United Football Club, Swindon Town Football Club, and Torquay United Football Club History Of Hooliganism in football The hooliganism in football is said to be first introduced around 1960’s. Historical hooligans were called â€Å"roughs†. They caused trouble at matches throughout the 19th century. Some extreme cases the roughs attacked referees and visiting players. In the 60’s football as a sport began to get more media attention, so did the fights and disorder. In the 60’s hooligans were more organized than it is today. We do not see outrageous incident frequently nowadays. European Cup final in 1985, when Liverpool against Italian side Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, 39 fans mostly Italian were killed. English clubs were banned from participating in European Cup for five years, and Liverpool were initially banned for 10 years but later reduced to six years. 14 of Liverpool fans received conviction for involuntary manslaughter. What Makes A Person Hooligan Name of hooligan is said to come from the Irish word â€Å"houlie†, which means a wild and spirited party. Definition of hooligans is quite vague, this is because the word â€Å"hooligan† was created by media in 60's. On the dictionary, it is stated â€Å"rough and lawless youth†. However, this statement does not really explain who the hooligans are in football. Hooligans come to watch the game with extremely strong local prides. This kind of extreme fans does not appreciate away fans to come in to their local territories. Hooligans usually have strong feelings towards their supporting club. On top of that, hooligans love and enjoy to be involved in football disorder that they come to matches with intention of riot, which they think it cool to do. Most of the times, the incidents happen before or after the matches on the street or in pubs. There are three types of hooligans: 1. Hooligans who come to a match with intention of vandalizing. 2. Hooligans who do not make themselves get involved in actual violence but set up commotion. 3. Hooligans who do not start a riot by themselves but get involved in a riot by seeing others are doing so. From our point of view, hooligans are who disrupt the peace of matches and vandalize both away fans and policemen, and properties around and inside the stadium such as cars, pubs, and houses. In terms of organized violence between hooligan gangs, a feeling of community, tribalism, and enjoyment of being involved in disorder are obviously in evidence. Can The Football Hooliganism Be Defeated The approach taken by the British authorities to reducing football hooliganism has been largely reactive: Increasing sophisticated policing, surveillance and monitoring techniques, segregation of fans, and restriction on alcohol etc. The British Government has also introduced specific legislation to cover acts of hooliganism. While such measures are evident elsewhere in Europe, the German, Dutch, and Belgian authorities, in particular, have been more proactive in their approach to the problem. The development of a scheme called â€Å"fan’s coaching† appears to have had an impact on levels of violence in certain areas. There is, however, a general lack of initiative from the major football clubs in Europe. While German clubs are involved to an extent in the â€Å"fan coaching† schemes, elsewhere there is little contact between club officials and the fan groups. For instance, Urawa Reds have a strong bond between club officials and supporters. It is suggested that local â€Å"fan’s forums†, which allow genuine dialogue between officials and supporters may help to reduce some of the problems. Causes Football hooliganism and the ‘ultras’ movement are too complex to be attributed to one cause only, yet there are several ways that lead down the path of violence. Most hooligan organizations are located in poor neighborhoods, where people have less opportunity for entertainment and they choose to go to football matches. Troubled with their lives, they prefer to spill their rage and anger on the pitch and on the stands instead of try and work on achieving more. A common cause for hooliganism in the past was alcohol but nowadays no professional club allows any kind of alcohol to be sold at the stadium or in a radius of several hundred meters. Another reason while people go wild during football games is city rivalries. The so-called derbies are often filled with a lot of excitement and tension and the losing team’s supporters are not happy to see their team sink. There are also organized gangs called football firms that go to matches with the single purpose of fighting with other firms from the city rivals. Conclusion English football industry is very active in terms of the movement of money on players’ transfers. As it has been mentioned, after the take-over of Manchester City Football Club in 2008, Abu Dhabi United Group has invested more than 44o million pounds on players. For the first transfer window, which was in summer 2008 after the take-over, Manchester City spent almost 79 million pounds. Following summer they spent almost twice as much of 120 million pounds. Last summer they spent around 90 million pounds. Having been taken over Manchester City have been better and better as a team. They finished 3rd last season, which means they are qualified to play at Champions League. The Background of Chelsea Football Club seem to be similar to Manchester City. Chelsea were purchased by Roman Abramovich who is a Russian Billionaire. Since the take-over in June 2003, Abramovich is estimated to have spent about 475 million pounds. On the first season for Abramovich Chelsea finished second in Premiership, and they concrete themselves as regular in top three. Next season Chelsea won the first league champion honour under new owner within two seasons. After the take-over by Abrmovich Chelsea have won three champion titles in total and they compete in Champions League every year. Unlike these two clubs, Arsenal have different kind of ownership. Arsenal’s parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, operate as non-quoted public limited company. They have comparatively small amount of budget they can use on transfers. Each season Arsenal has been spending 10 million pounds. However, Arsenal is undoubtedly successful in terms of quality of football and players. The reason for this is that Arsenal have good eyes on prospective young players. Arsenal have been successful on players without investing enormous amount of money to win the title. Thiery Henry, Cesc Fabregas, and Jack Willshere are all grew under Arsenal manager Arsene Weger. In 03-04 season they managed to win the title, but one game at either Premiership or Champions League, starting players were all foreign players from outside the U. K. They had good young talents but from outside home country. There may be impression if the club is wealthy they can buy star players and they can eventually win the league. Like Manchester City and Chelsea they have been successful on transfers, they can relatively buy any player unless players’ attached clubs refuse to negotiate. However, before it was only Chelsea who used to be rich as a club many expensive players went to Chelsea because of high salary but today, after Manchester City’s take-over Chelsea and Manchester city seem to be in competition. There are also other foreign owners in Premiership, for instance, Aston Villa is now in hand of Randy Lerner who is also the owner of American Football team in America. Liverpool was also sold to New England Sports Ventures. Premiership seems such an attractive field in terms of business for foreigners. On the other hand, there are many clubs that go into administration. Crystal Palace and Portsmouth are the good example. Portsmouth went into administration during 09-10 season they were deducted nine points. Crystal Palace also went into administration last year and deducted ten points from Championship League. Premiership is said to be the richest League in the world, however, at the same time there is always a chance to fail big time as well. Media is always on hoe the money is moving within football field, but we have to see football substantially and know football is not all about money. Hooliganism Conclusion We have learned that many clubs are taking actions to combat this problem. This may be because if the supporters cause some incidents, destroy properties and injure people, that club will be heavily fined, and for the worst case, they would be banned to participate in a competition. As I have mentioned earlier, 1960’s was the peak of football hooliganism. It can be seen that actions taken by clubs has been successful, however, it is still difficult to zero the hooligans. Hooliganism is a part of the culture for British in particular. Furthermore, as long as the exaggerated media report this extent of football disorder excessively, there would still be people who will be influenced by it.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Soul of Dell Essay Example

Soul of Dell Essay Example Soul of Dell Essay Soul of Dell Essay The â€Å"Soul of Dell† was created Kevin Rollins was serving as the Senior Vice President of strategy and noticed Dell had a culture that needed to be changed. This culture was, â€Å"created a culture of stock price, a culture of financial performance, and a culture of whats in it for me? throughout our employee base (Zellen, 2004). Between Rollins and Michael Dell the â€Å"Soul of Dell† was created. This is now the corporate philosophy for Dell and has been since 2000. The purpose of The Soul of Dell is to define the kind of company Dell is and where they aspire to become. The Soul of Dell serves as a guide for their actions around the world, and ultimately forms the basis of their winning culture. † The core elements of The Soul of Dell are: Customers: We believe in creating loyal customers by providing a superior experience at a great value. We are committed to direct relationships, providing the best products and services based on standards-based technology, and outperforming the competition with value and a superior customer experience (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). The Dell Team: We believe our continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity each team member has to learn, develop and grow. We are committed to being a meritocracy, and to developing, retaining and attracting the best people, reflective of our worldwide marketplace (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Direct Relationships: We believe in being direct in all we do. We are committed to behaving ethically; responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner; fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other; and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Global Citizenship: We believe in participating responsibly in the global marketplace. We are committed to understanding and respecting the laws, values and cultures wherever we do business; profitably growing in all markets; promoting a healthy business climate globally; and contributing positively in every community we call home, both personally and organizationally (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Winning: We have a passion for winning in everything we do. We are committed to operational excellence, superior customer experience, leading in the global markets we serve, being known as a great company and great place to work, and providing superior shareholder value over time (Soul of Dell, n. . ). There are different levels and forms of communication. James S. O’Rourke IV and Jaba Mukherjee Gupta listed four different levels in our book. Those levels were intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and mass or public (Rourke, 2010, p. 26). Once Dell implemented The Soul of Dell the interpersonal communications between Dell and Rollins changes significantly. When they signed internal communications instead of signing â€Å"Office of the Chairman† or any level title they were now signing â€Å"Michael† and â€Å"Kevin† (Rourke, 2010, p. 0). Dell also used Mass and Public media when they announced the Town Hall Meetings, Platinum Council, or even during the help they provided after September 11, 2001. Within communication there is the sender, receiver, message, medium, code, feedback, noise, and effect. All these factors play a part in how the message is communicated and received. In the case of Dell the management (sender) gave the employees (receiver) their first taste to The Soul of Dell through the intranet (medium) (Rourke, 2010, p. 28). This happen through what Dell called â€Å"Splash Screens† (code) and this particular screen was the first screen they saw with new products or messages. Using all these different areas to make sure they are working right you need to evaluate your feedback (what the audience is telling you about the message), noise (how many messages are you putting in one place), and the effect (is your audience getting the message) (Rourke, 2010, p. 28). Even though the employees got the messages and update through the intranet it was also responsibility of their immediate manager to train and teach them about The Soul of Dell. In October of 2002 there was a phone interview with a Dell manager that said the following about The Soul of Dell, â€Å"I actually know non of the key tenets [of The Soul of Dell], but would guess they have something to do with maintaining work-life balance, building a long-term career time here, valuing diversity, and leadership† (Rourke, 2010, p. 92). In this case Dell spent all this time as the sender, but did not evaluate if the receiver understood the message. Dell should do a better job of evaluating the message and the new corporate philosophy. The high level managers of Dell want to live by The Soul of Dell and have the employees live by these values as well, but in order to do so they need to find a medium that will get the appropriate message across. References Rourke, J. S. (2010). Management communication: a case-analysis approach (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, N. J. : Prentice Hall. Soul of Dell | Dell. (n. d. ). Dell aâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" The Official Site | Dell. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from dell. com/content/topics/global. aspx/corp/soulofdell/en/index? c=us;l=en Zellen, B. 2004, September 1). Getting In Touch With Dells Culture: Youve Got Soul! Analyst Insights EnterpriseInnovator. EnterpriseInnovator. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from http://enterpriseinnovator. com/index. php? articleID=3844;sectionID=269 Appendix Leslie Eggleston 12397 E Tennessee Dr, Aurora, CO 80220 (720) 878-8840 - [emailprotected] com February 9, 2011 Ms. Elizabeth Allen Dell Inc. One Dell Way Round Rock, Texas 78682 Dear Ms. Allen, I woul d like to start off my introducing myself to you. My name is Leslie Eggleston and I am an independent management consultant that works for High Class Consultants. I am based out of Denver, CO and travel to different Fortune 500 and help out the upper management. Mr. Michael Dell asked me to evaluate The Soul of Dell and come spend some time at different locations and report directly to you with my findings. After visiting several locations it has come to a shock to me that over half of the staff that I interacted with did not know the purpose of The Soul of Dell or they had never heard of it. In order for Dell to live my theses values I would recommend having a training just on The Soul of Dell with the orientation and test all the employees yearly to make sure they retain the meaning. Another issue that I found is the communication between the different segments. It is great that the upper management signs only their first name, however this sometimes can cause confusion to the other employees. In the intranet portal the message seems to get lost with all the advertisements of the new products and specials that are going on. I would suggest making the first page focused on The Soul of Dell and have links to different pages of information. This will help remind the employees about the corporate philosophy. Overall I believe Dell is a great company and has upper management that believes in the employees and the product. Feel free to contact me with any questions and we can discuss my finding in more detail. Hope you are doing great and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Leslie Eggleston

Monday, November 4, 2019

Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Communication - Essay Example Cultural decisions establish correct or acceptable behavior by determining individuals’ positions with regard to one another and with regard to other aspects of the social and natural environment. Thus the way we seem to â€Å"naturally† feel toward family members, authority figures, or the environment is determined by well-established traditions that arise from cultural decisions regarding the appropriate relationships between people as well as with other living things. For example, while domination of humans over nature is the norm in American and other Western cultures, in other contexts such as some African cultures, the appropriate position of humans with regard to nature is harmony and coexistence (Communication & Cultural Diversity Lecture). The prevalence of cultural decisions in controlling behavior over the long term often leads to a tendency to believe that the culture-specific view is the â€Å"right† view. From within one cultural perspective, the different values and beliefs of another culture or co-culture tend to seem misguided or wrong, leading to ethnocentrism (Communications & Cultural Diversity Lecture). It is easy to think of extreme examples where another culture’s beliefs are clearly abusive or otherwise harmful to society, but ethnocentric attitudes are probably more common and exceptionally dangerous when directed against less severe differences of opinion. Anthropological theories of culture are extremely useful and easily applicable to the mini-societies we call workplaces. By applying anthropological concepts to businesses, a new discipline called Business Culture theory emerges. The valuable insights of Business Culture theory offer an excellent method with which to evaluate potential employers, and by doing so determine to what extent the culture of a business is consistent with our own values. Evaluating the culture of a business requires that we analyze the workplace environment and

Saturday, November 2, 2019

The Creative Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

The Creative - Assignment Example This product is portable and would promote the integration of technology and enable access to the hotel services through an electronic device (Nyheim, McFadden & Connolly, 2005). It would allow the customer the customer to manage the hotel services before arrival, upon arrival and within the booked room. The product targets different segments of the market such as the hotel industry and home movers. The company will differentiate prices according to the needs of different target markets. However, the product will face competition from companies that offer tour travels, apps that enable the customers to book a hotel in advance. On the contrary, due to the numerous advantages the device brings, it will overcome the challenges. HosTech will need to engage in extensive advertising and promotion activities. The promotion will be through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, blogs and Company website. The messages will market the product and more so, it will act as a platform to encourage customer loyalty by involving them in open discussion forums about the MRD. Furthermore, the message acts as a marketing tool to ensure the customers that the product is high-end and does there is no cuurent technology to beat