Leadership Capabilities Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Leadership Capabilities Assignment - Essay Example To succeed in today’s workplace and achieve a successful career goal, leadership skill is essential. This exercise has enabled me to understand my capability as a leader and see which areas I need to work on more to become a better, more effective leader. The first step of this exercise was to take a number of tests (questionnaires) that revealed my true leadership skill. Based on these skills, I created a leadership profile for myself, recognizing the styles I am most likely to use when in a leading position. Finally, I have identified key strengths and weak areas, based on which I have created a doable recommendations plan for myself. Results of Leadership Questionnaires 1. Leadership Traits Questionnaire The first questionnaire tested my leadership traits: fourteen important leadership traits have been indentified in this test and I was required to ask others (mostly friends and acquaintances) to rate me on those traits, followed by a self rating. The results compared my se lf-rating with the average rating that others gave me. Trait Raters    Self Rating 1 2 3 4 5 Average Articulate 2 3 5 4 3 3.4 5 Perceptive 4 3 5 3 4 3.8 2 Self confident 3 3 5 4 3 3.6 5 Self assured 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 Persistent 5 3 5 4 5 4.4 4 Determined 5 3 5 4 4 4.2 4 Trustworthy 5 4 4 5 3 4.2 4 Dependable 4 5 5 4 4 4.4 5 Friendly 3 5 5 5 5 4.6 5 Outgoing 4 5 5 4 5 4.6 5 Conscientious 5 5 4 5 5 4.8 5 Diligent 4 5 5 4 5 4.6 5 Sensitive 4 4 5 5 4 4.4 5 Emphatic 4 5 5 5 3 4.4 5 My self-rating and the average rating by others had a margin of  ±0.6 points on eleven of the traits, including outgoing, emphatic, sensitive and dependable. The ratings perfectly matched only once for self-assured. However, there were marked differences in three traits: for articulate and self-confident, my self-rating was 5 (highest possible), whereas the average scores given by others were 3.4 and 3.6, which fall in the average category. On the other hand, my self-rating for perceptive was 2, whereas others gave me an average score of 3.8 on this specific trait, markedly higher than my self-perception. Based on the results, I realize that most of my perceptions about my leadership traits are similar to what others think of me. 2. Skills Inventory The second test was for Skills inventory which measures three important leadership skills in a person, namely technical, human and conceptual skills. Based on my answers, my scores were: Skill Score Technical 19 Human 12 Conceptual 21 My scores for conceptual and technical skills are significantly higher than the score on my human skills. It is important to mention that in lower management, technical and human skills are most important. In middle level management all three are of equal importance. In upper level management, technical skills aren’t as important as human and conceptual skills. Based on the test results and this interpretation, I have a weakness in human skill. Human skill is one key skill that is required at every phase in one’s career as well as personal relationships. This area represents a key weakness that I need to proactively work on. 3. Style Questionnaire The style questionnaire tested which leadership style I predominantly use between task and relationship styles. Style Score Range Task 42 High Relationship 43 High My scores for both styles ranked ‘high’, displaying my tendency to use a combination of the styles with emphasis on both tasks and relationships. I prefer to

Balanced Scorecard Assignment Research Proposal

Balanced Scorecard Assignment - Research Proposal Example The objectives of the business can be classified under four different heads such as financial objectives, customer value objectives, internal operations objectives, learning and growth (employee) objectives. c) Customer value: The objective is to add value to customer through supply of quality products at reduced rate. It also aims to keep up the value and business ethics by following business strategy helpful to appealing the customers. a) Measure of process performance: The objective is to attain higher performance efficiency. The process should be capable of producing the product at minimum cost and time requirements while ensuring higher quality of product. c) Operations: The objective is to attain maximum return on investment by reducing the cost of production and improving the production efficiency. Advanced production technology will be adopted for the production process for ensuring lower production cost with higher quality. Presentation of the strategic objectives of the business along with its metrics and targets by using balanced score card provides insights into the performance targets of the business. It helps to inform the organizational personnel about their role in improving the business performance. Discussion of the strategic objectives by segmenting it under each different heads makes clear the role of each department of the organization towards the business performance

Strategies and Technology to Determine Chicken Freshness

Strategies and Technology to Determine Chicken Freshness 2.0Â  INTRODUCTION Recently, there have been various inventions of sensors to detect the freshness of food. A chemical sensor means that a tool that convert chemical information into an analytically useful signal. The device acts as an analyzer (Hulanicki et al, 1991). Smart or intelligent packaging has been the result of using such sensors into the food packaging technology. Smart packaging uses chemical or biosensor to observe the quality and safety of food from the producers and relay the outcome to the consumers. Time-temperature indicators, ripeness indicators, chemical sensors, biosensors and radio frequency identification are some of the examples of components in smart packaging (Kuswandi et al, 2011). 2.1Â  Chemical Sensor in Determining Chicken Cuts Freshness Chicken is a highly perishable food, as it usually deteriorates within a week of slaughtering, even when it is put in storage chiller systems. Chicken spoilage is mainly due to microorganisms (Kuswandi et al, 2013). Microorganisms in broiler chicken are heterogenous. The common microorganisms in aerobically stored, chilled poultry meats are Flavobacteria, Shewanella putrefaciens, Acinetobacter spp., Corynebacteria spp., Moraxella spp. and fluorescent pseudomonas (Amaut-Rollier et al, 1999). Biogenic amines (BAs) are generated by the growth of decarboxylase-positive microorganisms under favourable conditions to enzyme activity. Many Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp. and certain lactobacilli, enterococci and staphylococci are active in the formation of Bas. The amount of amines formed depends abundantly on the type of microorganisms present. The formation of amines, including BAs is primarily a product of the enzymic decarboxylation of specific amino acid due to microbial enzyme activity (Kuswandi et al, 2013). The amino acids can also suffer oxidative deamination, decarbozylation and desulfurization, resulting in gases such as NH3, CO2, and H2S. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is generally known to be produced during microbial growth. (Rukchon et al, 2014) Quantifying chemical changes could provide information on the degree of spoilage. A number of indicators have been proposed to analyse the quality of meat, including BAs, volatile bases, nucleotide breakdown products, volatile acidity and CO2. Thus, these compounds can be taken as quality indicators of chicken freshness during storage (Rukchon et al, 2014). 2.2Â  Problem Statement Increasing of production of poultry meat and products are significant throughout the world in the last decade. Chicken and poultry products are famous because of their specific sensory attributes and the tendency of the public to consider white meat are healthier than red (Balamatsia et al, 2005). Nowadays, demands for the freshness and safety of food products by the consumers are increasing continuously (Kuswandi et al, 2013). However, spoilage of chicken and poultry products has become a burden to the producers plus it can bring a health hazard to the consumers, since poultry meat may contain pathogenic microorganisms (Economou et al, 2009). However, with the invention of smart packaging, which can observe the quality and safety of food and relay the result to the consumers. The sensors used in the packaging come with variety of functions, such as monitoring the freshness, pathogens, leakage, carbon dioxide, oxygen, pH, time and temperature. The technology is beyond the existing standard technologies, which are control of weight, volume, colour, appearance and etcetera (Kuswandi et al, 2011). Colour changes of pH dyes such as bromothymol blue, bromophenol blue, bromocresol purple, methyl red, bromocresol green, methyl orange, methyl yellow, phenol red can be detect acidic/basic volatile compounds, as they display an irreversible change in colour. These are some of the indicators that can be used to make sensors to detect chicken freshness. The sensors then can be stickered or paste onto the packaging (Rukchon et al, 2014). 2.3Â  Objectives The goal is to satisfy the increasing demands of customers, to be able to produce fresh goods, or at least providing scientific evidence informing the customers of the condition of the product, and not based on oral evidence only, as the seller or producer can just fabricate the truth. The objectives of this study are: To investigate the relationship between the numbers of microorganisms and level of spoilage To develop an indicator to monitor the freshness of chicken 3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1Â  Smart Packaging Smart packaging are packaging that can do more than traditional packaging, in terms of storing, protecting and providing information about the product (Kerry and Butler, 2008). Smart packaging can provide information about the condition (i.e. level of spoilage, freshness of content) of the contents of the pack through colour coding, wireless information, or etcetera. Smart packaging is quite different than active packaging. While active packaging will be activated when it is triggered, smart packaging is more to an indicator of microbial growth, physical shock, leakage or microbial spoilage (Intelligent and Active Packaging Opportunities in Specialty Papers, 2009). Smart packaging can switch on and off according to changing external or internal conditions. Then, it will inform the status of the content to the customers (Butler, 2013). 3.1.1Â  Indicators for Meat Freshness Indicators of freshness can provide direct information from the outcome of chemical changes or microbial growth in food. The production of freshness indicator in meat products depends on the types of product, related spoilage flora, conditions of storage and packaging system (Kerry, 2012). Table 1:Potential indicators in detecting meat freshness (Kerry, 2012) Potential indicators Components to detect Colour-based pH indicators Microbial metabolites Ethanol Fermentative metabolism of lactic acid bacteria Volatile compounds (e.g. dimethylamine, biogenic amines) Muscle-based product decomposition Myoglobin based freshness indicator Hydrogen sulphide, a breakdown product of cysteine Majority of meat freshness indicator are colour change indicator that gives its result according to microbial metabolites that are produced gradually during spoilage (Kerry, 2012). 3.1.2Â  Sensors for Food Pathogens and Contaminants The easiest microbial contamination presence that can be detected indirectly is by measuring changes in gas composition in relation to the microbial growth, by using gas sensor. The increase in CO2 concentration can determines microbial contamination only in packages that do not contain CO2 as a protective gas. The indicators are usually colour changing, that can be based on chromogenic substrates of enzymes produced by the microorganisms, the consumption of certain nutrients or the detection of microorganism itself. One of the examples is the use of nanostructured silk as a platform for biosensors. This silk has quite a lot of advantages, as it is edible and biodegradable, and it can also be integrated within the packaging of products itself. Conducting polymers, one of biosensors can be used to detect the gases released during microbe metabolism. Biosensors are produced by inserting conducting nanoparticles into an insulating matrix, and the change in resistance correlates to the total amount of gas released. These sensors are evolving to detect food borne pathogens through quantification of bacterial cultures (Kuswandi et al, 2011). 3.2Â  Examples of Indicators 3.2.1Â  Methyl Red Methyl red is a pH indicator. The methyl red/cellulose membrane functions as a freshness sensor to detect freshness or spoilage of chicken. It is based on increase of pH, because the amounts of volatile amines that are produced in the package increase gradually making the pH increase as well. Following this, the sensor will change colour from red to yellow as an indicator for spoilage, and it is of course visible to the naked eye. Since the pH of fresh chicken meats is around 5.50 and the pH of spoilt chicken meat is considered above 6.0, the increasing of pH will take place during the deterioration of chicken meats, as the volatile amines are increasing gradually (Kuswandi et al, 2013). Figure 1:Â  The colour changes of methyl red/cellulose membrane versus time of chicken cuts stored at room temperature (Kuswandi et al, 2013) Figure 2:Â  The colour changes of methyl red/cellulose membrane versus time of chicken cuts stored at chiller temperature (Kuswandi et al, 2013) 3.3.2Â  Colorimetric Sensors Array An electronic nose (e-nose) is a tool that can recognise specific components of a smell and examine its chemical makeup to distinguish it. E-nose consists of a system for chemical detection like array of electronic sensors and a system for recognising pattern, such as a neural network (WhatIs.com, 13 November 2014). E-nose system is composed of many non-specific sensors, and an odour stimulus produce characteristic fingerprint from the sensors array. Fingerprints patterns from known odour are then used to make a database, and teach the pattern identifying system so that unknown odours can be recognised and classified (Chen et al, 2014). A low-cost colorimetric sensors array was fabricated, using printing chemically responsive dyes on a C2 reverse silica-gel flat plate, along with a specific colorific fingerprint to identify volatile compounds. AdaBoost-OLDA, a combination of orthogonal linear discriminant analysis (OLDA) and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) is a classification algorithm that was also proposed to use with the colorimetric sensors (Chen et al, 2014). Figure 3:Â  Schematic diagram of E-nose system based on a colorimetric sensors array (Chen et al, 2014) Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) is one of the best indicators to differentiate between fresh and spoilt poultry. In China, above 15 mg/100 g of TVBN is considered spoilt meat (Chen et al, 2014). Figure 4:Â  Reference measurement results of TVBN content for all samples (Chen et al, 2014) Figure 5:Â  Differences images for fresh chicken sample (a) and spoilt chicken sample (b) (Chen et al, 2014) Figure 5 is the difference of images for the fresh and spoilt samples, by subtracting the initial from the final image. As mentioned earlier, each difference image has its own specific fingerprint. The sensors array which contain the selected metalloporphyrins dyes have responded sensitively to many of volatile organic compounds such as tryptamine, putrescine, cadaverine and other biogenic amines during chicken spoilage. The extra dyes which consist of three pH indicators have responded to hydrogen sulphide and organic acids such as lactic acid. All of the spoilage process can be recorded on the change of chemical responsive dyes (Chen et al, 2014).

Abortion :: essays research papers

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, and induced abortion is when a woman makes the decision to have her pregnancy ended in a surgical or medical way. The social conflicts arising from abortion have been around since the procedure was invented, and have risen since 1973 when it became legal after the Roe versus Wade decision. Communities are constantly battling over the issues of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life and how far into a pregnancy is too long to have the procedure performed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several reasons that a woman may choose to abort a pregnancy. She may not feel she is ready to become a parent, or cannot support a baby at her current level of income or immature age. She may not want to be shunned upon by becoming a single parent or letting anyone know that she is pregnant and sexually active. An older woman might be dealing with the issues of already having enough children or she or the fetus could have a health problem. Another common occurrence of a woman wanting an abortion could be if she falls victim of rape or incest. The necessity of abortion within these circumstances draws great conflict from different points of view, especially those pertaining to religion. Many people have different ideas concerning which conditions are valid reasons to abort a pregnancy, while others feel the procedure is wrong no matter what.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All women, and even men, can be affected by this social conflict. According to Planned Parenthood, Nearly half of all women will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. About five million women in the U.S. become pregnant every year. Half of those pregnancies are unintended, and 1.2 million end in abortion. Promiscuous women Nicholson  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Page 2 using abortion almost as a form of birth control are the ones that bring about the most conflict of interest. Women living in inner-city areas with a high crime rate are more susceptible to become victims of rape, and therefore seek relief through abortion should a pregnancy occur. Abortion is a common social problem worldwide. Approximately 210 million women around the world become pregnant each year. Out of all of these pregnancies, 80 million are unplanned, and 46 million will end in abortion. Internationally, the lifetime average is about one abortion per woman (After Three Decades). â€Å"In the United States, following the Roe v.

Modest Mussorgsky and His Sunless Song Cycle

Modest Mussorgsky and his Sunless Song Cycle Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was one of the biggest innovators in Russian music during the Romantic Period. Constantly striving to achieve a distinctive Russian musical identity, he never once hesitated to defy the orthodox qualities and trends of western music. Born March 21, 1839, into a wealthy family living in Karevo, Russia, it was not long before Mussorgsky discovered his love for music. He began playing piano at the age of 6 and showed promising development. However, he was obliged to take on the family tradition of serving in the military, and was sent to cadet school when he was 13.After 4 years, he successfully graduated and was sent to serve at a military hospital in Saint Peterburg. Here, he became close with several other composers including Mily Balakirev, who heavily influenced Mussorgsky to learn more about music. The two worked together over the next few years developing his musical intelligence. After only several months, in 1858, Mussorgsky suffered from an emotional crisis, forcing him to resign from his commission, and devote his time entirely to music composition. He began to develop as a composer but was unfortunately preoccupied as his family’s fortune began to dwindle.He was forced to accept a low-level civil service position in order to help manage his family’s estate. In 1863, Mussorgsky returned to Saint Petersburg and began composing his first opera. During this time, he was exposed to a heavily creative and intellectual atmosphere where a variety of artistic and scientific ideas were brought to his attention. He soon came to embrace the ideal known as musical realism. With this mind set, Mussorgsky sought to depict life through music as it was truly lived. He rejected the repetition of symmetrical musical forms just as life itself is completely unpredictable.His style came to be known as erratic and exhibited a raw sense of individuality. Unfortunately, this concept of †˜real life’ hit him especially hard when his mother passed away in 1865. This was a profound moment in Mussorgsky’s life, one that may have pushed him into the downward spiral saturated with alcohol, depression, and hopelessness that would eventually follow. By the late 1860’s, his music had circulated well enough to earn him the right of being grouped with Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsavok, and Borodin as a part of Russia’s â€Å"Mighty Handful†.However, he had yet to compose a successful opera. In Autumn of 1868, after abandoning his two previous attempts at Salammbo and Marriage, Vladimir Nikosky suggested that he compose an opera for Alexander Pushkin’s drama, Boris Godunov. Mussorgsky gladly accepted the challenged and began almost immediately. Despite the opera being rejected by the State Censor (arguably not once but twice), nearly 6 years later, his masterpiece was ready to be shared with the world. The premier took place January 27, 1874, but to his dismay, it received a number of hostile and negative reactions.Even his good friend and fellow â€Å"Mighty Hand† member, Cesar Cui, was unimpressed and proceeded to minimize his accomplishment with a scathing review describing it as an â€Å"immature work†, and that it â€Å"trespassed against the conventional musical grammar of the time†. Mussorgsky was deeply impacted by the public reaction. It nearly destroyed his self-confidence, and summoned what I believe to be the dark and pessimistic force that inspired his song cycle entitled â€Å"Bez Solnsta†.Literally meaning â€Å"sunless†, or â€Å"without sun†, Bez Soinsta was a series of 6 songs Mussorgsky composed to accompany a variety of poems written by his close friend and part-time roommate, Arseni Golenishchev-Kutuzov. As the name implies, the overall mood of Sunless is rather bleak. Its music and lyrics especially evoke a continuous feeling of loneliness, hopelessnes s, insomnia, and boredom. From a psychological standpoint, one could say that this entire song cycle is a direct representation of the mental state associated with depression and its symptomatic effects.I believe Mussorgsky chose to compose these songs when he did to reflect his degrading mental state of mind, which ultimately led to his demise. The first song of the cycle, consisting of only 17 bars, is entitled â€Å"Within Four Walls†. With its sparing accompaniment, this musically subtle piece tends to center around pedal D (first in the bass, later in the mid range, and then returning back to the bass). The melody blends a combination of recitative and aria with arching lines of infinite yearning and at times fierce dissonances.These unexpected harmonies are inevitably brought back to the unyielding D, all the while saturated with irregular phrase length and fermatas to perhaps allude to the unpredictability of life. Deceptive cadences of endless misery, combined with so mber poetic lyrics such as â€Å"†¦an impenetrable darkness, irresponsive darkness†, this song seems to radiate a sense of profound pessimism that can only be explained by the mental condition of Mussorgsky at the time. Though only lasting a mere 11 bars, Mussorgsky’s second song of the cycle, â€Å"Thouh Didst Not Know Me In The Crowd†, goes further harmonically than any other composer would be capable of.Frequently ending in foreign, unresolved chords, this perfect blend of heightened recitatives and fervent melodies do justice to the associated lyrics provided by Kutuzof. The poetry seems to express and bewail the indifference of the world as personified in the disinterest of a former lover. The brief poetic phrasing is as follows: You have not recognized me in the crowd. Your glance did not say anything, but I felt wonder and fright when I caught it. It was only a moment, but believe me, within it I re-lived again, all the delights of past love, all the bitterness of oblivion and tears!Details regarding Mussorgsky’s love life are sparse, but one can only assume that such words drenched in hopeless bitterness and overwhelming sorrow pertained some relevance to his current love affairs at the time. Mussorgsky’s third song in the cycle is entitled â€Å"The Noisy Festival Day Is Ended†. At the time, he was working in the forestry department of The Russian Government as a clerk. Earning little income, and being constantly preoccupied with pointless tasks, his frustration grew, as he was increasingly distracted from his real life as a composer.One of the more expansive Sunless songs, this 40 bar piece exhibits a variety of textures and gestures. Opening with a recitative, Mussorgsky continues to a lyrical middle section, where falling modal sixths are introduced. Finishing with an aria like finale, the song seems to convey no other emotions than hopeless longing and passionate despair. He expresses yet another day wasted, â€Å"over is the idle and idle and clamorous day† and another night sleep deprived, â€Å"but sleep escapes from my eyes†. But what has brought about this dissatisfaction? Could it be his unfulfilling job that distracts him from his true passion of music composition?Or perhaps it is a woman who disturbs him so, â€Å"I am bored with this dead crowd†¦ Only one shadow, the only one of all, appeared to me, breathing with love†. â€Å"Boredom† is the fourth song in Mussorgsky’s Sunless song cycle. As the name suggests, throughout the 29 bars, he repeats the opening statement a total of three times (making it a strophic song). However, it would not be very stylistic of Mussorgsky to restate this initial melody without some sort of change or variation. For each repetition, he modifies the music slightly to appropriately reflect the changes in the text.During the third repetition, the music seems to take a more fierce and tragic approach tha n that of the first and second phrases. The lyrics here also seem to indicate a powerful sense hopelessness and despair as Kutuzov writes, â€Å"Be bored. From birth to the grave your path is written beforehand: Drop by drop you’ll waste your powers. Then you’ll die. † Talk about depressing. At this point in time, Mussorgsky was drinking heavily, and seemed to idealize his alcoholism, perhaps viewing it as an ethical or aesthetic habbit. This of course led to increased isolation and depression, which is undeniably presented through songs such as this one.His fifth song, â€Å"Elegy† appears to be related in some way to the negative reaction of the public in response to the recent premier of his opera, Boris Godunov. As discussed earlier, even his close friend and respected fellow member of Russia’s â€Å"Mighty Handful† betrayed Mussorgsky with a brutal review of the piece. â€Å"Elegy† begins nicely as the fluttering piano gently com pliments and symbolizes the â€Å"Silent star flickering, lonely, through the veil of clouds†. Arguably, this represents Mussorgsky’s opera at the time of its approval, waiting for the â€Å"veil of clouds† to be lifted in order to shine for all of the world to see.Later, the music changes drastically as a series of angry, dissonant and chromatic octaves relentlessly pound away as the poetry describes what I believe to be the public’s reaction to his take on Boris Godunov. â€Å"†¦And I hear in the distance life’s discordant noise, laughter of the soulless crowd, the muttering of treacherous feuding†. Mussorgsky’s anger and frustration in response to the premier of his opera are clearly and effectively depicted here through his music. The last song of his Sunless cycle is entitled â€Å"By The River†. Throughout the piece, a stationary bass line with its insistent half step supports a eries of extreme chromatic harmonies. There is a strange contradictive sense of stability and illusion to the piece, something which becomes even more prominent when compared to its poetry. Throughout the text, the line between sanity and madness and crossed, and you find yourself at the threshold of death. The poetry seems to essentially be a suicide note. The river acts as a means to an end, possessing â€Å"†¦magical secrets in them† (what happens after you die). â€Å"When it calls into the depths, I want to jump without hesitation† (suicide).The hopeless yearning and disheartening lyrics correspond with music nearly as dark and mysterious as the river portrays. In the years that followed, Mussorgsky’s mental and physical decline only worsened. The inability to resist drinking, combined with a series of deaths among his closes friends caused him great pain and sorrow. In 1880, he was terminated from the governmental service, and in 1881 he declared to a friend that there was, â€Å"nothing left but begging†. It seemed as though Mussorgsky had given up: on music, on himself, on life. Sure enough, not long after the fact, he suffered from a series of seizures and was hospitalized.An impoverished son of nobility, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky died on March 28, 1881, just a week after his 42nd birthday. His unfortunate struggle with alcohol, and criticisms from the public eye, inspired a dark and despairing approach to music during his final years. Additionally, his interest and devotion to musical realism led to an unorthodox and controversial style, the critical reaction to which, he was unable to cope with. Sunless, with the help from Kutuzov, remains one of the bleakest works in the art song repertoire. Bibliography: Articles: http://www. recmusic. org/lieder/assemble_texts. tml? LanguageId=7&SongCycleId=60 http://www. allmusic. com http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Boris_Godunov_(opera) http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Modest_Mussorgsky http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki /Sunless_(song_cycle) Songs: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=CKZwPYhXbbA http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=8KOvp0ienUI http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=tUXZ59hs2l8 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=YU481pqyo54 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=ym367Z_XJ-k http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Raqo8RQL9i0 Scores: http://www. musicaneo. com/sheetmusic/sm-4310_sunless_without_sun. html (^yes, I bought it†¦)

Business and Economics (Matewan)

Matewan is a story which focuses around the violent labor disputes which occurred in the West Virginia coal fields in 1920. During these days, there was no benefits and job security for workers as the Stone Mountain Coal Company displays. Due to the efforts by the workers of the coal fields to form a union, the Stone Mountain Coal Company publicized to their workers that those who were in unions were to be replaced and pay cuts would be rationed out. Outrage ensued between the workers and the new African American workers that were being brought in.However, Joe Kenehan, who worked for the United Mine Workers, decided that if the replacement workers joined the union, the company had to accept it as they wouldn’t have workers. In order to stop the idea of a labor union, the coal company sent C. E. Lively to investigate the workers undercover. Lively then brings in two armed agents from the Baldwin-Felt Detective Agency handle the work he cannot as he is undercover. This entire si tuation escalates into a violent shootout and reinforcement agents from Baldwin-Felts came to evict workers who were part of a labor union.A total of nine people were killed during the shootout where workers just wanted to have basic rights. Apparent ethical issues are portrayed throughout the movie. In today’s society, labor unions are prominent and respected. Undercover agents are not being sent in order to destroy the unions which are protecting rights of workers. Corporations back in 1920 did not want to deal with the cost of fair pay and protecting their workers. Until OSHA was enacted, most companies sought to find the cheapest form of labor.Also, the event of a shootout due to workers wanting their jobs to be secure is unexplainable. Money and power corrupts the minds of humans and fallouts such as the one which occurred in West Virginia between coal field workers and the Stone Mountain Coal Company. As stated in lecture nine, America is a materialistic country. Most o f the citizens overlook the value in everyday things others may long for their entire lives but attain it. The advancement of technology, and the accessibility of nearly any luxuries, has caused degeneration in the virtues of American’s minds.Overlooking the necessities to sustain a basic life, the people of the nation look towards the excess. One can easily live without the newest tablet device, yet they shall still buy it. The worst part of that is how that same person with the tablet may also be getting their ends meet by using food stamps. Americans have embedded their mindsets in the goal of obtaining materialistic items to keep themselves content, all the while forgetting the values humans have been contempt with for centuries.