Both Stories Bestow Us Characters Essay

Both characters deserve our sympathy as they are all affected by class distinction. The title, â€Å"The stolen party† itself foreshadows the ending of the story and builds up tension. Rosaura in â€Å"The Stolen Party† is affected by her simply not knowing the verity that she would be affected by her going to the party, regardless of her mother revealing her the veracity and consequences of her going to the party. Although before her entering the party, Rosaura gives her skirt a â€Å"slight toss† This emphasizes her acute confidence in entering the party, as Rosaura assumes everything will be lovely. During the party everything appears to be very well to her eyes, as she thinks all the small little tasks, â€Å"Hotdogs†, â€Å"Orange Juice† and â€Å" The cutting of the birthday cake† given to Rosaura by Senora Ines, which boost her confidence, thinking she is responsible and feeling like a higher class person although the reality is that she is being used. Before the climax, Rosaura’s mother is highly apprehensive as they both reach the Climax, which is when they meet Senora Ines. When Senora Ines reaches out for the bill, this builds up even more tension causing, and then when she gives out the bill, standing â€Å"Motionless† This is the last advent of Sympathy and at simultaneously the ultimate sympathy felt by readers. towards Rosaura in â€Å"The Stolen Party†. In â€Å" The Martyr† The technique that contrasts from â€Å"The stolen Party† is satire, which are used by the ignorance of two characters Mrs. Smiles and Mrs. Hill. Other techniques that vary from â€Å"The Stolen Party† are use of italics, inverted columns, dialogue and parenthesis. Although there is a high difference in where the story takes place in â€Å"The Martyr† which is during the time of colonialism in Africa where prejudice comes from all the colonialists. This can be proven by how Mrs. Hills and Mrs. Smiles â€Å"Gossip† , â€Å"Criticize† and â€Å"Judges† the local Kenyan people, This causes the reader to feel sympathy for not only Njoroge but all the Kenyan people in general. The similarity in techniques in â€Å"The Stolen Party† and â€Å"The Martyr† are the titles which both foreshadow the ending of stories, which bring the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ultimate† Sympathy in both stories, Conflict again appears in both stories but differently as in â€Å" The Stolen Party† the conflict between Rosaura and Senora Ines is externally , this can be shown at â€Å" The look â€Å" Rosaura gives Senora Ines at the end. Rosaura and Njoroge both justify sympathy from the readers, but Rosaura is much younger than Njoroge, and isn’t aware of class distinction at all, while on the other hand Njoroge does not deserve the ending that happened on the other hand Rosaura has been warned numerous times by her mother. So, Njoroge does deserve more sympthay from the readers than Rosaura does. In conclusion to this essay, both characters generate sympathy from the reader’s successfully, although due to Rosaura’s naivety , and Njoroge’s ending generated more sympathy, since it could be avoided. The reader therefore can asses that Njoroge deserved more sympathy from the readers.

Stefan’s Diaries: Bloodlust Chapter 5~6

Chapter 5 A day later, the train screeched to a stop. â€Å"Baton Rouge!† a conductor called in the distance. We were getting closer to New Orleans, but the time was creeping by far too slowly for my liking. I flattened my back against the wall of the car, noticing passengers hastily packing up their belonging as they prepared to vacate their quarters, when my eye fell upon a green ticket, emblazoned with a large boot print. I knelt down and picked it up.Mr. Remy Picard, Richmond to New Orleans. I tucked it into my pocket and jauntily walked back through the train, until I felt someone gazing at me curiously. I turned around. Two sisters were smiling at me through the window of a private compartment, their expressions bemused. One was working on a piece of needlepoint, the other writing in a leather-bound diary. They were being watched with hawk-like intensity by a short, plump woman in her sixties, clad in all black, most likely their aunt or guardian. I opened the door. â€Å"Sir?† the woman said, turning toward me. I locked my gaze onto her watery blue eyes. â€Å"I believe you left something in the dining car,† I said. â€Å"Something you need.† I continued, copying Damons low, steady voice. Her eyes shifted, but I sensed that this was different from the way the conductor had responded to my words. When Id tried to compel the conductor, it was as if my thoughts had collided with steel; here, it was as though my thoughts were breaking through fog. She cocked her head, clearly listening. â€Å"I left something † She trailed off, sounding confused. But I could sense something in my brain, a sort of melding of our minds, and I knew she wouldnt fight me. Immediately, the woman shifted her bulk and stood up from her seat. â€Å"Why, ah, I believe I did,† she said, turning on her heel and walking back down the hall without a backward glance. The metallic door of the car closed with a click, and I pulled the heavy navy curtains over the little window to the aisle. â€Å"Nice to make your acquaintance,† I said as I bowed to the two girls. â€Å"My name is Remy Picard,† I said, surreptitiously gazing down at the ticket poking out of my breast pocket. â€Å"Remy,† the taller girl repeated quietly, as if committing my name to memory. I felt my fangs throb against my gums. I was so hungry, and she was so exquisite I mashed my lips together and forced myself to stand still.Not yet. â€Å"Finally! Aunt Minnies never left us alone!† the older girl said. She looked to be about sixteen. â€Å"She thinks we arent to be trusted.† â€Å"Arent you now?† I teased, easing into the flirtation as the compliments and responses volleyed back and forth. As a human, I would have hoped such an exchange would end with a squeeze of the hand or a brush of lips against a cheek. Now, all I could think of was the blood coursing through the girls veins. I sat down next to the older girl, the younger ones eyes searching me curiously. She smelled like gardenias and bread just out of the oven. Her sister–they must have been sisters, with the same tawny brown hair and darting blue eyes–smelled richer, like nutmeg and freshly fallen leaves. â€Å"Im Lavinia, and this is Sarah Jane. Were going to move to New Orleans,† the one girl said, putting her needlepoint down on her lap. â€Å"Do you know it? Im worried Ill miss Richmond horribly,† she said plaintively. â€Å"Our papa died,† Sarah Jane added, her lower lip trembling. I nodded, running my tongue along my teeth, feeling my fangs. Lavinias heart was beating far faster than her sisters. â€Å"Aunt Minnie wants to marry me off. Will you tell me whats it like, Remy?† Lavinia pointed to the ring on my fourth finger. Little did she know that the ring had nothing to do with marriage and everything to do with being able to hunt girls like her in broad daylight. â€Å"Being married is lovely, if you meet the right man. Do you think youll meet the right man?† I asked, staring into her eyes. â€Å"I I dont know. I suppose if hes anything like you, then I should count myself lucky.† Her breath was hot on my cheek, and I knew that I couldnt control myself for much longer. â€Å"Sarah Jane, I bet your auntie needs some help,† I said, glancing into Sarah Janes blue eyes. She paused for a moment, then excused herself and went to find her aunt. I had no idea if I was compelling her or if she was simply following my orders, because she was a child and I was an adult. â€Å"Oh, youre wicked, arent you?† Lavinia asked, her eyes flashing as she smiled at me. â€Å"Yes,† I said brusquely. â€Å"Yes, I am wicked, my dear.† I bared my teeth, watching with great satisfaction as her eyes widened with horror. The best part of feeding was the anticipation, seeing my victim trembling, helpless,mine. I slowly leaned in, savoring the moment. My lips grazed her soft skin. â€Å"No!† she gasped. â€Å"Shhh,† I whispered, pulling her closer and allowing my teeth to touch her skin, subtly at first, then more insistently, until I sank my teeth into her neck. Her moans became screams, and I held my hand over her mouth to silence her as I sucked the sweet liquid into my mouth. She groaned slightly, but soon her sighs turned into kittenish mews. â€Å"New Orleans, next stop!† the conductor yelled, breaking my reverie. I glanced out the window. The sun was sinking low into the sky, and Lavinias nearly dead body felt heavy in my arms. Outside the window, New Orleans rose up as if in a dream, and I could see the ocean continuing on and on forever. It was like my life was destined to be: never-ending years, never-ending feedings, never-ending pretty girls with sweet sighs and sweeter blood. â€Å"Forever panting, and forever young,† I whispered, pleased at how well the lines from the poet Keats suited my new life. â€Å"Sir!† The conductor knocked on the door. I strode out of the compartment, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. He was the same conductor whod stopped Damon and me just outside Mystic Falls, and I saw suspicion flash across his face. â€Å"Were in New Orleans, then?† I asked, the taste of Lavinias blood in the back of my throat. The ginger-haired conductor nodded. â€Å"And the ladies? Theyre aware?† â€Å"Oh yes, theyre aware,† I said, not breaking my gaze as I slipped my ticket out of my pocket. â€Å"But they asked not to be disturbed. And I ask not to be disturbed, too. Youve never seen me. Youve never been by this compartment. Later, if anyone asks, you say there may have been some thieves who got on the train outside Richmond. They looked suspicious. Union soldiers,† I invented. â€Å"Union soldiers?† the conductor repeated, clearly confused. I sighed. Until I had compelling under control, Id have to resort to a more permanent style of memory erasing. In a flash I grabbed the conductor by the neck and snapped it as easily as if it were a sweet pea. Then I threw him into the compartment with Lavinia and shut the door behind me. â€Å"Yes, Union soldiers always do make a bloody mess of things, dont they?† I asked rhetorically. Then, whistling the whole way, I went to collect Damon from the gentlemens club car. Chapter 6 Damon was slumped right where Id left him, an untouched whiskey glass sweating on the oak table in front of him. â€Å"Come on,† I said roughly, yanking Damon up by the arm. The train was slowing, and all around us passengers were gathering their belongings and lining up behind a conductor who stood in front of the black iron doors to the outside world. But since we were unencumbered by possessions and blessed with strength, I knew our best bet was to exit the train the same way wed entered: by jumping off the back of the caboose. I wanted us both to be long gone before anyone noticed anything was amiss. â€Å"You look well,brother.† His tone was light, but the chalkiness of his skin and the purpling beneath his eyes gave away just how truly tired and hungry he was. For an instant, I wished Id left some of Lavinia for him, but quickly brushed aside the thought. I had to take a firm hand. That was how Father used to train the horses. Denying them food until they finally stopped yanking on the reins and submitted to being ridden. It was the same with Damon. He needed to be broken. â€Å"One of us has to maintain our strength,† I told Damon, my back to him as I led the way to the last car of the train. The train was still creeping along, the wheels scraping against the iron lengths of track. We didnt have much time. We scrambled back through the sooty coal to the door, which I pulled open easily. â€Å"On three! One Two † I grabbed his wrist and jumped. Both of our knees hit the hard dirt below with a thud. â€Å"Always have to show off, dont you, brother?† Damon said, wincing. I noticed his trousers had been torn at the knees from the fall, and his hands were pockmarked with gravel. I was untouched, except for a scrape on my elbow. â€Å"You should have fed.† I shrugged. The whistle of the train shrieked, and I took in the sights. We were on the edge of New Orleans, a bustling city filled with smoke and an aroma like a combination of butter and firewood and murky water. It was far bigger than Richmond, which had been the largest city Id ever known. But there was something else, a sense of danger that filled the air. I grinned. Here was a city we could disappear in. I began walking toward town at the superhuman speed I still hadnt gotten used to, Damon trailing behind me, his footfalls loud and clumsy, but steady. We made our way down Garden Street, clearly a main artery of the city. Surrounding us were rows of homes, as neat and colorful as dollhouses. The air was soupy and humid, and voices speaking French, English, and languages Id never heard created a patchwork of sound. Left and right, I could see alleyways leading down to the water, and rows of vendors were set up on the sidewalks, selling everything from freshly caught turtles to precious stones imported from Africa. Even the presence of blue-coated Union soldiers on every street corner, their muskets at their hips, seemed somehow festive. It was a carnival in every sense of the word, the type of scene Damon would have loved when we were human. I turned to look over my shoulder. Sure enough, Damons lips were curved in a slight smile, his eyes glowing in a way I hadnt seen in what felt like ages. We were in this adventure together, and now, away from memories of Katherine and Fathers remains and Veritas, maybe Damon could finally accept and embrace who he was. â€Å"Remember when we said wed travel the world?† I asked, turning toward him. â€Å"This is our world now.† Damon nodded slightly. â€Å"Katherine told me about New Orleans. She once lived here.† â€Å"And if she were here, shed want you to make this town your own–to live here, be here, to take your fill and make your place in the world.† â€Å"Always the poet.† Damon smirked, but he continued to follow me. â€Å"Perhaps, but its true. All of this is ours,† I said encouragingly, spreading my hands wide. Damon took a moment to consider my words and simply said, â€Å"All right, then.† â€Å"All right?† I repeated, hardly hoping to believe it. It was the first time hed glanced into my eyes since our fight at the quarry. â€Å"Yes. Im following you.† He turned in a citcle, pointing to the various buildings. â€Å"So, where do we stay? What do we do? Show me this brave new world.† Damons lips twisted into a smile, and I couldnt tell whether he was mocking me or was speaking in earnest. I chose to believe the latter. I sniffed the air and immediately caught a whiff of lemon and ginger.Katherine.Damons shoulders stiffened; he must have smelled it, too. Wordlessly, both of us spun on our heels and walked down an unmarked alleyway, following a woman wearing a satin lilac dress, a large sunbonnet on top of her dark curls. â€Å"Maam!† I called. She turned around. Her white cheeks were heavily rouged and her eyes ringed with kohl. She looked to be in her thirties, and already worry lines creased her fair forehead. Her hair fell in tendrils around her face, and her dress was cut low, revealing far too much of her freckled bosom than was strictly decorous. I knew instantly she was a scarlet woman, one wed whisper about as boys and point to when we were in the tavern in Mystic Falls. â€Å"You boys lookin for a good time?† she said languidly, her gaze flicking from me to Damon, then back again. She wasnt Katherine, not even close, but I could see a flicker in Damons eyes. â€Å"I don't think finding a place to stay will be a problem,† I whispered under my breath. â€Å"Don't kill her,† Damon whispered back, his jaw barely moving. â€Å"Come with me. I have some gals whod love to meet you. You seem like the type of boys who need adventure. That right?† She winked. A storm was brewing, and I could vaguely hear thunderclaps in the far distance. â€Å"Were always looking for an adventure with a pretty lady,† I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Damon tighten his jaw, and I knew he was fighting the urge to feed.Don't fight it, I thought, fervently hoping Damon would drink as we followed her along the cobblestone streets. â€Å"Were right here,† she said, using a large key to unlock the wrought-iron door of a periwinkle blue mansion at the end of a cul-de-sac. The house was well kept, but the buildings on either side seemed abandoned, with chipping paint and gardens overflowing with weeds. I could hear the jaunty sound of a piano playing within. â€Å"Its my boardinghouse, Miss Mollys. Except, of course, at this boardinghouse we show you sometruehospitality, if thats what youre in the mood for,† she said, batting her long eyelashes. â€Å"Coming?† â€Å"Yes, maam.† I pushed Damon through the doorway, then locked the door behind us.

A research paper on cocaine Essay Example for Free

A research paper on cocaine Essay Research Paper (230) , Drug (166) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints ? Grown in the countries of South America, with Columbia being the most productive, the Erythroxylon Coca bush is the natural origin of cocaine, a central nervous stimulant. Its history is as rich and diverse as the people using and dealing the drug. Cocaine use dates as far back as the 16th century when it was used among Inca royalty. In the early 1800’s cocaine was introduced to Europe. Sigmond Freud wrote a song in its honor and famous author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde† during a six -day cocaine binge. In the early 1900’s cocaine was available to consumers over the counter. Its medicinal value was a relief for toothaches and congestion. Parke Davis advised their consumers of the effects of cocaine by stating that it â€Å"could make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain†. The use of cocaine found its way into other products like wine and the most famous of all, Coca Cola. Early production of Coca Cola contained 60mg of cocaine. Today, the popular soft drink still uses the leaves of the Coco Bush for flavor but the illicit drug has been removed (www.cocaine.org). The resurrection of cocaine use as a recreational drug began in the 1960’s, and was used mostly among the affluent because of its price. Movie stars, sport stars and the like give cocaine its mystique and draw; psychological and physical effects make it addictive. Changes in form and price make cocaine far more accessible and affordable. Today, there is no clear connection between the use of cocaine and education, occupation or socioeconomic status. Cocaine is generally sold as a hydrochloride salt, a fine white powder substance that is commonly referred to as â€Å"snow†, â€Å"coke† or â€Å"blow†. Street dealers of cocaine commonly dilute, or â€Å"cut† the drug with similar looking substances like talcum powder or with active local anesthetics and even sometimes with other stimulants like amphetamines. The purity of street cocaine, powder form, is about 75 percent. When the impurities of this form are removed, it is known as â€Å"freebase† or â€Å"crack† cocaine. â€Å"Crack† cocaine  is easier to find and less expensive to buy. Cocaine in any form can be found in almost every town and city. Research studies done in 1999 showed cocaine is used by over 3.7 million Americans 12 years old and over, with the highest rate among people 18 and 25 years of age. The use among people 35 years and older also continues to rise (www.cocaine.org). The effects of cocaine depend on the route of administration, the amount of consumption, the user’s past experience, and the circumstances under which its taken. The major routes of administration are snorting, injecting, and smoking. Snorting is inhaling the powder form through the nasal cavity. The drug enters the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting cocaine is using a syringe to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking cocaine is inhaling the cocaine vapors or smoke delivering large quantities to the lungs where it then enters the bloodstream as quickly as injecting. Cocaine interferes with the re-absorption process of dopamine that is a chemical messenger of pleasure to the brain. The effects are instant and intense but not long lasting (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The short -term effects usually make the user fell euphoric, energetic, and alert to their senses. It can decrease your anxiety and heighten your sexuality. Crack users have described the rush as a â€Å"whole body orgasm.† Or, a user can feel anxious or panic-stricken. The drug is a parody of heaven and hell. Often times the cocaine user craves other drugs. These symptoms appear quickly and disappear within a few minutes or a few hours. Physically, a person’s blood pressure, body temperature, heartbeat, and breathing accelerate, along with pupil dialation. In larger amounts the side effects intensify. The â€Å"high† might include feelings of paranoia, vertigo, and muscle twitches and physically a user might experience chest pains, nausea, blurred vision. Over time with continued use, the effects of cocaine gradually change. Irritability, restlessness, insomnia and paranoia replace the euphoria. Physically, the long- term user will lose interest in sex and lose weight. Those who snort the drug wear out their nasal septum while those who inject it risk the chance of contracting hepatitis or AIDS. Cocaine related deaths  are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Over time, to the user’s tolerance, the drug will build. To achieve the same effects as that of early usage requires larger doses of the drug. The user becomes psychologically dependent. The drug becomes pivotal to their thoughts, feelings and their daily activities. â€Å"Cocaine just made you feel really good. Then after you get done feeling really good then you start to get a Superman ego and that’s the beginning of the end.† (â€Å"Drug Wars†; A Frontline, PBS Production) Often times, cocaine addicts develop an illicit lifestyle to keep up with their drug habit. Cocaine’s influence leads a user to stealing from family, friends and even employers. The lifestyle of addicts becomes as corrupt as the organizations that produce and supply the product. Cocaine’s addiction has two sides: the love of the high and the love of the money. The US Government has estimated that cocaine trafficking takes nearly $80 billion a year out of our economy. In 1990, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) estimated about 20 Colombian organizations controlled most of America’s cocaine supply. Annual revenues of the Colombian drug trade have been estimated to be 5 billion dollars. The drug cartels existing today control every phase of the drug trafficking business. They manufacture, transport, distribute, and finance cocaine. Like many large corporations, the business involves bankers, accountants, and lawyers, wholesalers and retailers. More special to this business the cartel â€Å"payroll† also includes chemists, pilots and enforcers of security (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The cartels are structured in layers, at the center is the cartel manager or â€Å"kingpin†. Information shared among the members of the cartel is highly secularized. Only a choice few are privy to all the workings of the cartel. Those employees holding positions in the outer layers of the organization (the lawyers, accountants, bankers, and enforcers) reap the financial benefits of serving their bosses but are strictly put on a need to know basis. Cartels operating in the United States are referred to as â€Å"cells† which are â€Å"self contained organized units.† The Medillin Cartel was the first known, successful cartel of cocaine  traffickers coming from Colombia. It was established in 1978 and lead by Carlos Lehder. It used violence and intimidation to stay one step ahead of the justice system. The cartel bribed police officers with money or threatened them with death if they did not honor the cartel and look the other way when they did business. The Medellin Cartel was taken down in March of 1984. Carlos Lehder was arrested in 1987, tried in the United States and sentenced to 135 years without the possibility of parole. George Jung’s, the Medillin Cartel’s American contact, testimony against Lehder assured his conviction. In the 1990’s, on the heels of the Medillin, came the Cali Cartel. They are responsible for 70-80 percent of the cocaine coming into the United States and 90 percent of that entering Europe. Instead of violence and intimidation like their counter parts, the Cali operated their business using a subtle approach. Law enforcement has had difficulty in closing the Cali operations for many reasons. Their structure is different from that of the Medillin, as is their methods of smuggling. They are much more conservative. They only sell to people they know. The â€Å"home office,† which is the CEO and vice presidents, coordinate the cells. The cells contact the buyers usually by cellular phone or pager and arrange the time and place to distribute the drugs. Payment is made at the second meeting. When the deal is done, the home office is contacted and accurate records are kept by both (www.awesomestories.com). While the Colombians may monopolize the cocaine market, there are similar organizations in other countries. The Triads and Tongs of China, La Compania of Cuba, and the Yakuza of Japan are some other major drug trafficking organizations. They have successfully invested into legitimate American business. The one thing they all have in common: United States of America as a client base (www.cocainefacts.com). Cocaine touches many people on a variety of levels. It can completely change a person’s personality, for the worse. It spins a web of deceit and destruction. Physically and mentally the drug tricks you from recognizing reality. Euphoria tricks you into believing that the high is good, all the while the time bomb is ticking. Blowing up your mind is just a matter of time. Bailey, William J. Factline on Cocaine. 1995: Heller, Matthew. â€Å"Addicted to Love.† Los Angeles Magazine. Sept. 1999. A research paper on cocaine. (2016, Jun 25).

Working Capital Management Practices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Working Capital Management Practices - Essay Example ernal short term financing is secured to finance the working capital however; firms also tend to tie most of their productive funds with non-productive assets. Family Dollar- One of the most growing retain chain stores in US provides low overhead, self service retail stores. Founded in 1959, in North Carolina, Family Dollar is now one of the leading retail chain stores in US with over 6000 stores operating all over the US. Family Dollar is also unique and fast growing retail chain stores in US in the sense that its success is largely driven from the ease and convenience that it offers to its customers. Family Dollar offers low prices everyday and is on its way to become one of the leading retail chain stores in US. Last five years have witnessed one of the rapid growths in the history of Family Dollar as it expanded very fast and opened more than 4000 new stores during last five years. Family Dollar’s business model is based on effective and unique branding and merchandising strategy similar to neighborhood type of stores. It has collaboration with most of the major brands of the world which not only provides an opportunity to project itself as the leading brands of the world. This paper will discuss and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the working capital management policies of the Family Dollar. At the end, recommendations will also be provided as to how the firm can improve its working capital policies and how these recommendations can be implemented. Working capital requirements of every organization vary depending upon the nature of the industry as well as internal dynamics of the firm. However, roughly, it is often estimated at 25 to 40% of the total assets of the firm hence indicating a substantial amount of investment into assets which are typically unproductive in nature. (Glynn, Abraham, Murphy, & Wilkinson, 2008). Typically, the difference between the current assets and current liabilities of the firm is called working capital

Employee Relations(Japan and Great Britain) Essay

Employee Relations(Japan and Great Britain) - Essay Example Employee relations refer to the relations existing between the employers with his or her employee. In today’s working the environment, human relations are more important than people can realize. This means employee relations are a particular issue this days because every employee shares a given relationship with his or her colleagues at the place of work. The relation in the working environment can be between any person in the organization- it can be between coworkers, between the employee and his superior, between members of management among others. It is paramount in a working place employees share a healthy and productive relationship with one another to deliver their maximum output and the best performance (Purcell 1987, pp.533–548). For long, it has been echoed out those employees who are comfortable and satisfied with their places of work play a great role in making productivity increase in every organization. On the other hand, those set of employees who are not happy have the potential to bring adversity and loss to the organizational business because their level of motivation is not at par to enhance growth. Consequently, systems are put in place in different nations to create a conducive working environment between the employees and the top management. The main objective of employee relation programs is ensuring a satisfaction of employees to harness their full potential. When employees are satisfied, their output tends to increase by that leading o full organization growth and development. In this study, we will look at the two most distinct countries (Japan and United Kingdom) in terms of their practice of employee relations ( Gunnigle et al. 1998, pp.115–131). Despite the fact there is a long history of industrial relations in Great Britain, there have been numerous changes seen over the past years in the country. In recent times, in Britain, the degree of unionization and reduction in the number of unions has been noted.

Managing Across Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing Across Culture - Essay Example This article will discuss diversity management from the point of view of a wide-ranging definitional perspective, professional training and acquisition of information. Contemporary studies of multinational managers specify the foremost reasons for failure to operate competitively in a foreign nation which include the manager’s â€Å"inability to adapt rapidly to a different culture; personality or emotional characteristics and inability to cope with the complexity of work responsibilities posed by the overseas assignment† (Katz and Seifer 1996, para 4). Managerial shortcomings happen not merely in the classic multi-year expatriate missions but also in short-term, more focused tasks that are oftentimes vital to the prospect of the company’s success in overseas markets. Significant inefficiency is more likely to occur if managers without adequate understanding and appreciation of the host country’s culture are sent on foreign assignment. ... Apart from the nationality of the manager selected for the task at hand, selection, training and socialization aspects continue to be a crucial part of increasing managerial achievements (Dowling, Schuler & Welch 1994). It is a common agreement among multi-national firms that there is no alternative for on-the-job expatriate training in the premature stages of executive growth. For instance, Colgate-Palmolive, whose foreign sales correspond to two-thirds of the company’s annual sales of $6 billion, recognizes international managers as those who have attained considerable first-hand experiences in various environments (Lublin 1992). Therefore, a multi-national firm’s success profoundly depends on the capability and competence of expatriate managers. Hence, there is an urgent and significant need for a solid and useful training ground for the expatriates. Nevertheless, MNCs initially consult theories regarding expatriate training in order to come up with a viable activity -based management plan that would produce efficient, spirited and open-minded expatriate managers. Hofstede’s and Trompenaar’s Theory of Diversity Management Geertz Hofstede, equipped with a vast record of cultural information, examined the outcomes and discovered evident trends of difference and similarity among the feedback alongside the five cultural dimensions (Lucas 2006). His study was conducted with IBM employees only, which enabled him to ascribe the trends of national differences in culture, mainly eradicating the diversity issues in organisational culture. The five dimensions are: (1) power distance; (2) individualism; (3) masculinity; (4)

Titus Andronicus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Titus Andronicus - Essay Example The two sons are beheaded. Unsatisfied, she goes ahead and persuades her sons Demetrius and Chiron to rape Lavinia the only daughter of Titus. After raping her, they go ahead and chop off her tongue and hands so that she could not give them away to their crime. Eventually, Lucius, the only surviving son of Titus is prohibited from Rome. Nevertheless, he (Lucius) goes ahead and forms an alliance with Goths the enemy of Rome for purposes of attacking Rome. The new misfortune hits the tired, aged Titus with a great impact. Consequently, he starts acting awkwardly and everyone thinks that he has gone crazy. Given Titus awkward behavior, Tamora tries to capitalize on it via pretending to be the revenge figure, coming to offer him the needed justice on condition that he convinces Lucius, his only surviving son, to cease the Rome attack. Titus having faked his madness, lures her, captures her sons, murders them and creates a pie out of them. The pie is fed to their mother, after which Titus kills both Lavinia, his daughter, and Tamora. The main reason for Titus killing her daughter is to put an end to her suffering and shame over her rape. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to characterize the existing relationship between Titus and his only daughter Lavinia in Shakespeares Early Blood Titus Andronicus. In addition to that, I will give my own opinion about her killing (Shakespeare Sc i-iv). Play Analysis Titus Andronicus is the play tragic hero and the general of the Rome Empire. He is the father of Lucius and Lavinia. He spent his ten years fighting the enemies of Rome and winning reputation for his country. On the contrary, his heroic deeds have drained much out of him making him feel incompetent enough to lead his country despite the country’s desire to crown him the new emperor. First, he is held up by his countrymen as model of piety because of his staunch adherence to traditions. However, it is this strict reverence to tradition that inspires his enemies to stem up revenge against him. Being the play hero, he pursues his revenge to the end. Unfortunately, he dies in the process of seeking revenge. Lavinia is Titus Andronicus’ only daughter. She refuses to be made an empress by Saturninus because she had fallen in love with Bassianus. Chiron and Demetrius brutally rape and disfigure her in the forest. Eventually, she becomes mute and her presence on stage is quite horrifying. Robbed and deprived of her every means of communication, and her precious chastity, the play portrays her as one of the most incapacitated heroines. From the character analysis of Lavinia and Titus, it is evident that the two are very united as they seek revenge against those who have harmed them. Lavinia being unable to talk leads young Lucius, Marcus and Titus to a book giving description of rape, prompting his father and brothers to confirm that she was raped. To get the whole information regarding her rape, they hand her a stick so that she can identi fy who did the harm to her. Lavinia writes â€Å"Rape. Chiron. Demetrius.† This makes Titus seek revenge for their deed. Titus sends his young son Lucius to Demetrius and Chiron with a scroll and weapon describing the act (rape) in riddles. Titus revenge is engineered by his urge to bring justice to Rome. In doing so, he tells Demetrius and Chiron to their face that he knows what they did to her daughter

Answer my questions that i will attached Assignment - 1

Answer my questions that i will attached - Assignment Example This position of control is not a productive one – it â€Å"guarantees the owner a part in the process of production† (Marglin, 1974: 62) and ensures that the owner can accumulate wealth. Secondly, the factory system, Landes summarizes Marglin, was a disciplinary system only geared toward discipline, control and supervision of workers. Marglin goes further to argue that this was the primary focus of the factory: to ensure the power of the capitalist, rather than to maximize the economic or technological efficiency of the production process (Marglin, 1974: 84). To some degree, the arguments Marglin presents do present an approach diametrically opposed to those of Landes, and indeed seem to be largely ideological in their aim. He claims, for example, that factory work is necessarily alienating, because the producer must take orders from the capitalist in the factory system (ibid. at: 61). This alienation of the producer form his work also fits into the traditional social hierarchies of society, ensuring that only a â€Å"very few at the top of the pyramid† (ibid. at: 60) are able to attain self-expression in their work. Additionally, Marglin equates the wage-advance system to a kind of diabolical plan. The capitalist binds the worker legally to his â€Å"master† (ibid. ... He quotes particularly the work of Adam Smith, â€Å"The Wealth of Nations† in his argument to support reasons contrasting those of Marglin to explain the development of division of labor through specialization and the development of the factory system. Specialization may have been a necessity to ensure that the worker increased dexterity and efficiency in the execution of the job. Time was saved, as the producer would not have to set up the process, or re-set up the new task. With simplified tasks, the worker’s techniques could improve, to increase the efficiency of production (Landes, 1986: 587, 591). This argument is extended to explain the surge in new industrial invention: the repetitive tasks workers were completing suggested the invention of machines able to perform the same tasks. In factory setups, cheaper labor could be hired to perform more menial tasks, machines could supplement output and perform repetitive task, and the capitalist would benefit because the specialized worker’s output would consequently be greater (ibid. at: 604). The advantage for producers was that they would not have the energy, materials, space, tools and machinery or security and environmental costs related to industrial production (ibid. at: 604). The producer was also able to focus time and energy on the product manufacture only (ibid. at: 597, 598, and 604). It is evident, hence, that Landes proposes that the capitalist is integral to the process of production, not just an accumulative figure unrelated to the production process (ibid. at: 585). The employer organizes the process toward the production of a marketable product, ensures the sale and distribution of that product, and provides conditions – factory space,

Abortion and personhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Abortion and personhood - Essay Example Although highly controversial, the Roe decision, specifically, and the abortion debate, in general, continues to be one of the most significant issues, both from a theological and a moral perspective. When examining the use of the concept of personhood from an ethical standpoint, Gibson2 points out traditionally the debate surrounding abortion is, in actuality, a debate over whether a woman has the right to maintain control over her own body. Although there is little disagreement that women are afforded the right to choose, the right to privacy, the right to control their bodies and the right to self-determination, these distinctions become less clear when a woman wishes to execute these rights at the expense of a fetus. At this point, pro-life proponents would argue that the rights of the fetus outweigh those of the host (i.e. the pregnant female). Herein, lays the problem of basing the morality of abortion on personhood. According to Gibson when this is done there are three theoretical frameworks that are present each of which acknowledge and define personhood as occurring at different stages of fetal development. These three varying positions as to when personhood is present a nd translated into rights are the basic camps of the abortion debate. The first is that personhood and therefore the right to life is present at conception. The second, as argued by Aquinas, is that the right to life is present at some point after conception, but before birth. Lastly, the third position holds that the fetus does not possess any right to life, therefore personhood, until birth. Gibson notes that although these various camps of pro-choice versus pro-life differ as to their belief systems, both from a moral and theological standpoint, they all base these positions on the notion, directly or indirectly on personhood which, in effect, focuses not on the right of the woman but on the moral status of

Taking into account current theories and research on organizational Essay

Taking into account current theories and research on organizational culture and climate, critically appraise the role of organizational culture on the management of occupational safety and health - Essay Example As these different humans could only create a different working culture, the success rate will be minimal. And, if a common working culture, if correctly said, the perfect, feasible and winnable working culture is ‘operationalised’, through out the organization, the organization will be a success story. And, the script for this success story can only be scripted, by an effective leader. That is, leaders can only actualize an organizational culture and with it other associated culture or practices like quality culture, culture of time management, disciplined base culture and importantly safety culture. Safety culture in the sense, the organization and its leader as part of the organizational culture should incorporate occupational safety and health. So, this paper taking into account current theories and research on organizational culture and leaders’ role in it will critically appraise the role of organizational culture on the management of occupational safety and health. One of the important first tasks of a leader in an organization is the creation of a Culture. That is, the task of the leader is to create a working culture, embed the working culture in the working group and environment, sustain it and also rectify it, when faults occur. According to Edgar Schein (2004, p.17), â€Å"The culture of a group can now be defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems†. So, apart from policy formulation and decision-making, it becomes all more important to look at the other side of the leader, in culture creation. The leader, who as a founder of an organization need to create a culture, then as a managing director or CEO of an

Money and Morality Essay Example for Free

Money and Morality Essay MONEY AND MORALITY: Gifts of eternal truth in moments of the mundane By Cheryl Leis, PhD, Management Consultant/Practical Philosopher As inhabitants of this 21st century Western world, we all have to deal with money. We participate in the world of commerce as a means to obtain those things considered necessities of life. Money plays the role of the most commonly accepted means in this giving and getting from others. And the more money one has, the greater one’s power to regulate the particulars of survival – one’s own and that of others. We use money to participate in the exchange of products or services, individually and corporately – whether employed by or leading an organization. In some cases these organizations are publicly funded non-profits, and in other cases they are private, for-profit ventures. Money and morality is a topic that has surfaced on many occasions in my line of work. One such instance was during a contract with CBC TV to work on the development of a six-part national series titled: â€Å"Beautiful, Filthy Money and the Search for Soul. † The title itself speaks to the ambivalent nature of our responses to money and its presence in our lives. As part of the contract, I appeared as a guest on the panel, where I was asked to complete the following sentence: â€Å"Money is†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Yes, what is money? My response was: Money is a tool for finding out who we really are. What you do with money, and how you live with money’s presence in your life, tells a lot about your values. Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it: â€Å"A dollar is not value, but representative of value, and, at last, of moral values. † This is apparently pretty close to what Buddhists believe about money. There are times when many of us are faced with an imbalance between money and morality and find ourselves asking in some form or another: How we can put â€Å"Money† and â€Å"Morality† in the same sentence and not end up with an ethical contradiction? The incompatibility of these Mwords is an inherent, yet complex part of being human. And it is only when we face the truth of their incompatibility that we can come to understand the utter necessity of their coexistence. The challenge stems from the fact that there is both a spiritual side and a material side to our situation. When we don’t bring the spiritual side into dialogue with the material side, problems result. This is true for individuals as well as organizations. Think about Enron – what do you think their way of dealing with money says about the moral values that guided senior management there? Each of us could turn the question on our own lives. Money, in and of itself, is neutral. It has no intrinsic value, but is a mere yardstick of value, a means of measuring or comparing in the exchange of one thing for another. Money â€Å"belongs to the class of great mental inventions, known as 1 measures†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Measures of distance – the meter or mile – span the gulf between two things or places yet are not themselves things or places. Similarly, money brings things of different value together without becoming one or the other. † Because money is merely a way of measuring, it is in itself, therefore, not real. Thus, money is both neutral and unreal. Nevertheless, we often seem oblivious to this unreal nature of money and equate it with things that are very real, like our own values. But if, as Aristotle says, â€Å"[a]ll things that are exchanged 2 must be somehow comparable,† what are we saying about our perception of reality when we measure our sense of self-worth by our net-worth? While money is a measure of value, that value can change depending on what the market is willing to bear. It’s rather similar to the story of the emperor’s new clothes. As soon as we agree something no longer has value, our whole perception of it changes. This change in the perception of the value of something affects humans psychologically and emotionally. So when the value of stocks falls through the floor, people react in fear or paranoia. Conversely, when stocks rise like crazy, there is frenzy fuelled by hope and even greed. What then, motivates our relationship with money? With what intention do we strive to accumulate wealth? Do we recognize what our relationship with money says about our values? Money Obsessing For some the question of ethics and money leads down another path. In â€Å"Is Lucre Really 3 that Filthy? † Craig Cox, executive editor of Utne magazine, reflects on his own journey from disdain for the almighty dollar as a child of the 60s to becoming – of all things – â€Å"bourgeios,† earning money and learning to manage it. There was the example by a leading voice of the counter-culture of the day, Allen Ginsberg, who wrote in Howl! of burning all his money in a wastebasket. Times have changed – even for Ginsberg, 1. David Appelbaum, â€Å"Money and the City,† Parabola, Volume XVI, No. 1 (Spring 1991), 40. 2. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1133a 18. 3. Craig Cox, â€Å"Is Lucre Really That Filthy,† Utne Reader (July-August, 2003), 63. who â€Å"†¦of course, sold his papers to Stanford University for 4 nearly a million bucks. † The irony, points out Cox, is that social justice activists who want to eschew wealth in order to bring about social justice and help the poor are in fact helping people to attain the very thing they, the activists, abhor: a comfortable life. He sets up an interesting dilemma when he insists that â€Å"If you insist on embracing poverty in your own life, how do you become a credible advocate for folks who would do almost anything to 5 escape it? † True enough, there are those who become enslaved to money in their attachment to mere accumulation of more and more capital. However, there are also those who are enslaved to money in their ascetic avoidance of it. Both are obsessive behaviours: obsessed with having money or obsessed with avoiding it – like the alcoholic’s family that is obsessed with avoiding alcohol. In neither case is money at the service of the individual as a means of providing for the necessities of life; rather, the individual is at the service of money. Our emotional responses to this neutral thing called money often lead to an automatic attachment of value-statements. We grab on to labels such as â€Å"evil,† â€Å"bewitching,† â€Å"aweinspiring,† or â€Å"filthy lucre. † Respect for money is replaced with either worship or condemnation of it. Emotional and value-laden responses are also evident when conversation turns towards money and self-righteous posturing rises very quickly to the surface with comments like: â€Å"Well, I don’t soil my hands with money. † Or: â€Å"I certainly don’t 4. Ibid 5. Ibid work for money. † A lot of judging of others happens: â€Å"He’s just in it for the money. † Or: â€Å"She’d do anything for money. † This judgmental posturing also leads to ideological positioning. Anyone who focuses on making money is immediately dubbed a capitalist and conversely, anyone who speaks of communal sharing is dubbed a socialist. Subtleties are lost and conversation ends right there. No dialogue is possible. We move from love of money to love of ideology, where anyone who thinks differently than I do about money is immediately evil. Spiritual Moments of Mundane Existence To judge from one side or the other is to forget that we inherently have one foot in heaven and one foot in the mud of the earth below. The challenge is to live in both simultaneously. Living as a human being means learning to deal with money – whether one has a lot or a little matters not. It will do us no good to merely pursue a spiritual life unless we are living equally and simultaneously in the material world. Christians are exhorted to remember that even Bishops, or spiritual leaders, are told to balance both. â€Å"For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? † (1 Timothy 3:5) A life of wholeness, or one in which the spiritual and the material are in balance, guarantees freedom from distortion. Yet the need for wholeness is also at the heart of the contradiction. The spiritual and the material are of entirely different natures. Not only must they live in the same world, both the spiritual and the human sides of our existence must also have 2 their own identity and remain in full relationship with each other. We have to work at accepting this incompatibility for what it is. These are separate parts of who we are and of our daily existence. These separate parts are in a dynamic relationship one to the other, like notes in a beautiful song: you might have harmony, but you still have separate notes. If they are all the same note, there is not harmony, there is unison. Harmony has tension. It is beautiful because of the tension. Unison is nice, but harmony is richer. Morality And Business Just as it will not help us on an individual level to focus only on the one side of our nature at the expense of the other, likewise it will not help to divide our culture into the spirit-lead and others. It reminds me of a story I recently heard: Two men met for the first time, in of all places, a church on a Sunday morning. The one asked the other: â€Å"So what do you do? † To which the second responded: â€Å"I work as a director of XYZ division of a business. † â€Å"You’re in business? † quipped the first, who was a teacher, â€Å"Oh that’s too bad. † The work of the businessman was seen as inherently less worthy. How far could the conversation go after that? It is a difficult chasm. One finds a classic case of a religious-affiliated venture that refused to acknowledge that it must run itself like a business. After decades of mismanagement, the publishing house cried out to its constituency to get it out of a multi-million debt. One former board member was even quoted in a church publication as saying that this was seen as â€Å"a church venture, not a business venture. † The mistake lay in this eitheror posture. There was no acknowledgment that gifts and talents and skills of different sorts were needed. The disdain goes the other way too. One has only to think of the now infamous corporations like Enron or Livenet, where the situation is merely the reverse: a business enterprise that lacks spiritual sense, and results in moral bankruptcy. If our moral principles give us the framework within which we operate and the ability to continue operating depends upon financial viability, then integrity is automatically lost for any organization when either half of the morality and money equation is lost. Balancing the Equation Only when we pay attention and only when we come to recognize the true place and role we have allowed money in our lives, only then can we possibly hope to reach a deeper understanding of how important a balance between the material and the spiritual is. This deeper understanding may only come in flashes, only fleetingly. Yet the truth that is understood in an instant opens us up to the truth of our everyday actions and existence. In other words, we must become conscious, we must become aware of our human condition – this life lived in a dynamic balance between the spiritual and the material – and be attentive to both. But instead of giving the right amount of attention to those mundane and material aspects of life like taxes and monetary demands put upon us, we often get caught in a bias against money. We would rather point fingers and condemn in broad strokes than engage in dialogue of particular money matters. We would rather alienate than seek to understand. Instead of casting judgment or pretending we, personally, are above being affected by money, we need to face our human situation and recognize we live in two worlds simultaneously. Maybe then we would do a better job of living in both. â€Å"If great truth does not enter into our relation to money, it cannot 6 enter our lives. † And if we do not allow ourselves to face that truth, the negative aspects of our relationship to money will sneak up on us unawares. Bad debts, overdue bills, or an empty fridge will suddenly demand so much of our human attention that we will have no energy left to focus on matters of the spirit. Undeniably, it can be a challenge to live out our moral principles in the marketplace; it is inherent in the challenge of being spiritual and human at the same time. Not giving enough attention to either the spiritual or the material, on an individual or an organizational level, leads to bankruptcy, whether moral or financial. In his book, Business and the Buddha, Dr. Lloyd Field states, â€Å"greed is a choice. † We can choose to allow our insatiable desires to form our intentions or we can choose to recognize where our intentions are ultimately leading us. It is not money or wealth or even the capitalist system that is the problem, he argues. Buddhists regard wealth as neither bad nor negative. Rather, the problem sits plainly with us, human beings, and the intentions which we allow to motivate our thoughts, our emotions and our actions. It cannot be stated any clearer than said in this book: we are exhorted to â€Å"continually make the connection between money and human values. † And then the question that really gets to the heart of the matter: â€Å"What price do we put on our ethics? † We will need to move past our biases and disdain for those whom we consider to be on the other side of the money and morality equation and allow moments of eternal truth and even grace to infiltrate our discussions and our questions. When all gifts and skills are welcome and when integrity is our priority, then there will be the possibility of a true and dynamic relationship between money matters and morality. 6. Needleman, 265.

Explanatory essay of gambling addiction Essay Example for Free

Explanatory essay of gambling addiction Essay Its a rush, putting money to the felt and threatening the cards to obey. Gambling is quickly becoming one of the favorite activities for many Americans. Where else could you have this kind of excitement with the potential to make money instead of lose it? Only amidst the flashing and heat of the casino lights can a person really let their money turn their brain into an emotional feeding frenzy. This rush, like any other high, has psychological and chemical impacts to a person. You could link gambling to any other drug that equates to the violent excitement. This is exactly what the brain does, represents an action with a feeling, and for many people these feelings become an addiction. Compulsive gambling is a serious affliction that affects many people. While it may seem perverse to consider this a serious disease, realize that the consequences of compulsive gambling can dwarf that of any other addiction. For these people, once they start they just cannot stop, and like any addiction they build up a tolerance and experience symptoms of withdrawal when trying to abstain from gambling. For most people we can abide by certain guidelines, quell the whispers of our brain telling us to go for it and bet it all on this hand. What causes compulsive gamblers to lose control? There is no one reason to satisfy this question. However, with study patterns emerge, and we can recognize the psychological and chemical reasons for this handicap. So why the rush when instead of betting five dollars this hand you bet twenty? It has to do with drugs; specifically those produced naturally by your brain, which affect mood, emotions, etc. A recent study found that Hemodynamic responses in the sublenticular extended amygdala (SLEA) and orbital gyrus tracked the expected values of the prospects, and responses to the highest value set of outcomes increased monotonically with monetary value in the nucleus accumbens, SLEA, and hypothalamus. (Breiter et al. ) In this study, people were given $50 dollars and allowed to gamble with it while their responses were tracked. What the results basically said is that as the peoples expectancy of monetary gains went up, so did the chemical reactions in their bloods. This chemical imbalance when gambling is possibly the reason why many people are unable to quit gambling. It is true that the symptoms of many compulsive gamblers are equivalent to a drug-induced high. (Addictive Gambling). Like addicts of any drug, compulsive gamblers show signs of withdrawal and tolerance. After youve been betting the same amount for some time on a simple wager without making much money, you will start to look for ways to increase the betting pleasure. A simple strategy to do this is simply to bet more! When more is on the line there is more risk involved and more excitement. Another way these people can increase the risk involved is by lowering the stakes. Theres nothing more exciting than hitting a long shot. Compulsive gamblers would rather get bigger odds by trying to win a 10% shot than win a small amount with a 90% chance of winning. So as we have seen, the chemical attributes accompanying gambling can create an addiction, but the more interesting and relevant I think are the psychological impacts of gambling. By psychological impacts I mean how gambling affects the mind and actions of the compulsive gambler. This handicap is really defined as a disorder of impulse control. (Something 1). When most people go to gamble they bring with them rationality, and with rationality comes this innate ability to know when youve hit a limit. The disorder is the compulsive gamblers inability to set a limit and stick to it. So you have to ask yourself where is the line drawn? When does fun gambling become a maladaptive behavior? The Washington State Council on Problem Gambling sees it as this: A. Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior as indicated by five (or more) of the following: (1) Is preoccupied with gambling (e. g. , preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble) (2) Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement (3) Has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling (4) Is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling. (5) Gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e. g. , feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression) (6) After losing money gambling, often returns another day to get even (chasing ones losses) (7) Lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling (8) Has committed illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement to finance gambling (9) Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling] (10) Relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling. This list seems to be a slippery slope of symptoms. You might realize that this gambling can cause devastating effects to the life of a person. Committing crimes and trying to chase loses will cast a person into trenches of insurmountable debt and grief. There are so many people who do go to casinos and dont fall into debt. It makes you wonder what is different about these people that made them weak? Perhaps the answer is that Addiction is a way to escape from reality, from something that is either too full of sadness (such as living in a violent family) or too devoid of joy (an emotionally hollow life). Emotional trauma in early life may be at the source of many addictions. (Addictive Gambling). The reality of the world is overbearing sometimes, and thinking about spending millions of dollars in winnings in a fantasy life can help people escape. Whatever the reason it must be understood. Gambling will only continue to grow, and as fun as it is it must also come shackled with precaution.

Determination of Vitamin C in Tablets

Determination of Vitamin C in Tablets INTRODUCTION Nowadays, health has become the most important property of humans life. Commonly, diets with high contents of fruits are protective against several human diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and even cancer. Therefore, people are putting more and more attention on antioxidant substances such as vitamin C which is also known as ascorbic acid or more specifically L-ascorbic acid. Vitamin C is probably one of the most highly well known. Furthermore, people have become more aware to the importance of vitamin C. Hence, this causes the global market flooded with vitamin C fortified foods (Arya, Mahajan and Jain, 2000). The term of vitamin C is used as generic term for all compounds exhibiting qualitatively the biological activity of ascorbic acid. The molecular structure of vitamin C is C6H8O6 and the molecular weight is 176.1 (Ball, 2006). Vitamin C is highly polar and readily soluble in aqueous solution and insoluble in less nonpolar solvents (Fennema, 1996). It is an acidic compound due to the facile ionization of hydroxyl group on carbon 3 (pK1 = 4.17) while the hydroxyl group on carbon 2 is much more resistant to ionization (pK2 = 11.79). The structure of L-ascorbic acid is shown in Figure 1 (Ball, 2006). Ball (2006) also stated that ascorbic acid is easily and reversibly oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, forming the ascorbyl radical anion which is also known as semidehydoascorbate as an intermediate as shown in Figure 2. Dehydoascorbic acid possesses full vitamin C activity because it is readily reduced to ascorbic acid in the animal body. However, dehydoascorbic acid is not an acid in the chemical sense, as it does not have the dissociable protons that ascorbic acid has at carbon 2 and carbon 3 positions. One of the most important properties of vitamin C is that it is an antioxidant. Nevertheless, it has a wide range of antioxidant properties outside the body and can quench most biologically active radicals. It scavenges superoxide, nitroxide, hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide and will reduce vitamin E (Hickey and Roberts, 2004). It is also found to be a strong antioxidant as it helps to neutralize harmful free radicals (Izuagie and Izuagie, 2007). Vitamin C is an almost odorless white or pale yellow crystalline powder with a pleasant sharp taste and melting point of about 190Â °C. It is not a carboxylic acid but a lactone and ease of oxidation to the presence of an enediol grouping (Izuagie and Izuagie, 2007). Vitamin C is highly susceptible to oxidation, especially when catalyzed by metal ions such as copper(II) ion and iron(III) ion. The functions and activities of vitamin C are based on its properties as a reversible biological reductant (Hickey and Roberts, 2004). Vitamin C participates for the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of the body (Kleszczewski and Kleszczewska, 2002). Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that mostly found in fruits and vegetables. The main sources of vitamin C are citrus fruits, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and spinach. Vitamin C plays crucial roles in electron transport, hydroxylation reactions and oxidative catabolism of aromatic compounds in animal metabolism (Gazdik et al, 2008). Vitamin C can help to prevent and treat common cold, mental illness, infertility, scurvy, cancer and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). It is reported to lower cancer risk and also said to have important interactions with other vitamins. For example, excessive intake of vitamin A is less toxic to the body when vitamin C is readily available (Izuagie and Izuagie, 2007). Due to the great importance of vitamin C in human beings, the quantitative analysis of vitamin C has gained increased significance in several areas of analytical chemistry such as pharmaceutical and food applications (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Vitamin C is also used as an index of the nutrient quality for fruit and vegetable products. This is because it is much more sensitive to various modes of degradation in food processing and subsequent storage (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemero, 2004). It is well known that vitamin C is easily oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid in alkaline solutions, while it is relatively stable in acidic solution. Vitamin C of fruit juices is readily oxidized and lost during staying of the juices (Kabasakalis, Siopidou and Moshatou, 2000). In the food industry, vitamin C is used as food additive (Mai and Mohammed, 2004). It preserves and protects food from any colour changes and act as an important component of our nutrition as well. Vitamin C helps to prevent the degradation of soft drinks and juice which helps to retain their flavors. Hence, it increases the quality of food and nutritional value as well (Burdurlu, Koca and Karadeniz, 2005). Degradation of vitamin C undergoes both anaerobic and aerobic pathways. Qxidation of vitamin C in aerobic pathway occurs mainly during the processing of food whereas anaerobic degradation of vitamin C mainly during storage. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is one of the decomposition products of vitamin C and acts as precursor of brown pigments (Burdurlu, Koca and Karadeniz, 2005). Vitamin C degradation in packaged fruit juices depends mainly on storage temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen level, residual hydrogen peroxide,H2O2 left after the sterilization of packaging material and trace metal ions (Ozkan, Kirca and Cameroglu, 2004). Consequently, studies on vitamin C content in foods are important in relation to the control of nutritional labels, the update of food databases and the establishment of dietary reference intakes. Orange juice is probably the most globally accepted fruit juice and it is recognized worldwide as a good source of ascorbic acid (Sharma, Singh and Saxena, 2006). In addition, there are many analytical methods used to determine the concentration of vitamin C in the pharmaceutical samples which are colorimetric method, titration, enzymatic method, flow injection analysis (FIA) and high- performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Arya and Mahajan, 1997). Reflectometer is an instrument that can used to analyze many different types of test which include ascorbic acid test that is concerned in this project. It provides a simple and rapid determination of vitamin C content in many pharmaceuticals product. LITERATURE REVIEW Various methods used in determination of Vitamin C In recent years, the determination of vitamin C has become an important subject in the field of biochemistry and commercial foods. This is because vitamin C plays an important role in maintaining human health (Chen and Sato, 1995). Due to the importance of vitamin C in human beings, the quantitative analysis of vitamin C has gained a significant increase in several areas of analytical chemistry such as pharmaceutical and food applications (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). There are numerous methods for the determination of vitamin C in a variety of natural samples, biological fluids and pharmaceutical formulations. The methods for the determination of vitamin C are spectrophotometric methods and non-spectrophotometric methods (Arya and Mahajan, 1997). For non-spectrophotometric methods are such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), titration, enzymatic method and fluorometry (Arya, Mahajan and Jain, 2000). Direct spectrophotometry also has been applied to determine the vitamin C content in soft drinks, fruit juices, and cordials after correction for background absorption in the UV region. Flow-injection analysis (FIA) In FIA, there is no air segmentation and it is not necessary for a state of chemical equilibrium to be reached. The sample is introduced into a carrier stream as a discrete plug. The presence of a sample-carrier interface allows diffusion-controlled dispersion of the sample as it is swept through narrow-bore tubing to create a concentration gradient. The flow-through detector monitors the change in concentration of the reaction product, which is displayed as a well-defined peak (Ball, 2006). Flow-injection analysis permits a simple, rapid and sensitive method for the determination of vitamin C where its systems allow faster sampling rates and consumed fewer reagents compared with segmented-flow analysis (Kleszczewki and Kleszczewska, 2002). Memon, Dahot and Ansari had proposed a method by using mono 1, 10-phenanthroline-iron(III) complex as oxidant. This experiment was based on its reducing reaction on mono(1-10-Phenanthroline)-iron(III) to tris(1,10-Phenanthroline)-iron(II) (ferroin) and the absorbance of ferroin was monitored at 510nm through spectrophotometer equipped with a flow through cell (Memon et al, 2000). In this analysis single channel manifold is used as shown in Figure 3. The reagent stream is pumped at the flow rate 1.1mL/min via a peristaltic pump equipped with PVC pump tubing. The vitamin C sample is introduced into the reagent stream via a rotary teflon valve. A calibration curve for vitamin C in the range 0-50ppm was plotted from the results obtained by Memon, Memon, Dahot and Ansari which are shown in Figure 4. They also studied about the effect of reaction coil and reagent concentration. From the graph (Figure 5), the maximum intensity was observed at 50cm reaction coil. While the results of the effect of reagent concentration obtained is shown in Figure 6 indicating that the maximum signal could be obtained at 35% reagent (Memon, Memon, Dahot and Ansari, 2000). This method can be improved within certain limits by increasing the volume of the injected sample in flow injection analysis. The sensitivity is increased two fold with the increase of sample volume. As conclusion, since the time required for sample preparation is short and reagent consumption is low, hence the method is highly economical and is suitable to use on routine basis for determination of ascorbic acid in pharmaceutical preparations (Memon et al, 2000). Ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometry Direct ultraviolet spectrophotometry is a fast, simple and reliable method for the determination of vitamin C. This method can be done through alkaline treatment and the maximum absorption of vitamin C falls at 243nm at pH2 (Yanshan, 1997). The absorption of UV light by the sample matrix was the major problem in this method. Therefore, alkaline treatment method was found to be used as background correction in blank. This is because more than 95% of vitamin C will be destroyed in 10 minutes after alkaline treatment which is in the range of pH 12 to 13 (Salkic and Kubicek, 2008). UV spectrophotometry method was found to be applicable for most fruits, fruit juices and soft drinks except those that are unstable to alkaline treatment, and were deeply colored, or contained high concentration of caffeine, saccharin, caramel and tannic acid (Yanshan, 1997). To determine the total content of vitamin C in food samples, a well-established method was investigated by Khan, Rahman, Islam and Begum, 2006 by using the 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine methods (DNPH). This is a simplified method for the simultaneous determination of total vitamin C employed coupling reaction of 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine dye with vitamin C and followed by spectrophotometric determination. The spectrophotometric method involves the oxidation of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid by the action of bromine solution in the presence of acetic acid. Reaction between dehydoascorbic acid and 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine at 37 Â °C temperature for three hours will form an osazone. The solution is treated with 85% H2SO4 to produce a red color complex. The absorbance of all standards was measured at 521 nm by using a UV-spectrophotometer. The results obtained were taken to contruct a calibration curve (Khan et al, 2006). The calibration curve was constructed by plotting the concentration versus the corresponding absorbance as shown by Figure 7. The molar absorptivity, ? can be obtained using Beer-Lambert plots. The reliabilty of this method was justified by the calculations of the % of standard deviation and it was found to be varied within the range from 0.20 to 2.45%. The reliability of this method was also confirmed from the consideration of the following expected interferences (Khan et al, 2006). There are a few interferences that might affect the results. First, the interference was due to the diketogulonic acid. At higher pH, destructive oxidation hydrolysis might occur. This results in the opening of the lactone ring of the ascorbic acid and loose the vitamin activity. These processes are naturally occurred in fruits and some amounts of diketogulonic acid are presence in the fruits. Besides that, diketogulonic acid has keto group that might form osazone when react with DNPH. Hence, there is a chance of error in this method which may give false results (Khan et al, 2006). Another interference was due to the extracted glucose which contains similar structure like vitamin C. Therefore, some of the glucose may be extracted in the meta-phosphoric acid during the extraction of ascorbic acid from sample. Glucose may also cause the formation of colored complex with DNPH and gives the false result in the determination of vitamin C. This was proven in Figure 8 where there is no absorption peak around the interested peak at 521nm (Khan et al, 2006). As conclusion, the method is simple and excellent for the determination of total vitamin C in fruits and vegetables (Khan, Rahman, Islam and Begum, 2006). Fluorometric Method Fluorometric analysis has been used for ascorbic acid assay in pharmaceutical preparations, beverages, special dietary foods and even for human serum (Arya, Mahajan and Jain, 2000). This method had been reported to have successful application to a wide range of foodstuffs, including liver, milk, fresh and canned fruit, raw and cooked vegetables, and potato powder (Ball, 2006). Previously, fluorometric determinations of vitamin C have been developed based on condensation reactions of vitamin C with o-phenylenediamine and on the oxidation with mercury (II) of vitamin C to form quinoxaline derivative. The reaction products of these methods exhibit fluorescensce (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Figure 9 shows the reaction of the dehydroascorbic acid with 1,2-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride to form the fluorescent quinoxaline derivative 3(1,2dihydroxyethyl) furol[3,4-b]quinoxaline-1-one. The blank can be prepared by complexing the oxidized vitamin with boric acid to prevent the formation of the quinoxaline derivative. It is used to reveal any fluorescence due to interfering substances (Ball, 2006). Yusuf and Gurel have described a method by using Methylene Blue (MB) for the determination of vitamin C. This experiment was run by using a spectrofluorimeter to record the spectra and carry out fluorescence measurements. This method was used to determine the amount of vitamin C in the purified materials, specifically vitamin C tablets. MB is a member of thiazine dye group. It is widely used in many different areas. For example, a photo sensitizer is used to produce singlet oxygen in photodynamic therapy for the treatment of cancer. The highly colored oxidized form of MB can be reduced to be colorless leuco form, Leuco-Methylene Blue (LMB) which is shown in Figure 10. LMB is the reduced and colorless form of methylene blue (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). According to Yusuf and Gurel, the fluorescence bands of MB were obtained at 664nm for excitation state and 682nm for emission peaks. This was proven by the other researchers who also examined the emission bands at 682nm for MB and 452nm for LMB. In Figure 11, the emission peak of MB at 682nm increased due to the increase of its concentration. A linear relationship between MB concentration and intensity was obtained over the concentration range of mol L-1 MB (y= 49.082x + 94.46,r2=0.9969). The excitation peak of MB at 664 nm also linearly increased depending on the increase of its concentration (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). The studies of the effect of vitamin C on the fluorescence of MB is made to avoid any errors that might affect the accuracy of the results. In order to examine the effect of vitamin C on the fluorescence of MB at 664 nm, mol L-1 MB solutions, each solution was added with different concentration of vitamin C and were prepared under nitrogen (N2) atmosphere. This was shown in Figure 12 where the spectra were recorded at 664nm (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Figure 12 above shows the excitation intensity of mol L-1 without adding vitamin C was about 1000.0 and above. The intensity was decreased by the increase of vitamin C concentration in MB solutions (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Figure 13 shows the emission spectrum of mol L-1 MB as a function of time. Each spectrum was recorded at 1 minute intervals. The results showed that the fluorescence was not changed with time, reflecting that the fluorescence spectrum of MB was highly stable with time (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). In the redox reaction between ascorbic acid and MB, the ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, while MB was reduced to colorless LMB as shown in the following: The calibration curve was made based on the concentration of MB (mol L-1). The results indicate that the fluorescence intensity of the system is a linear function of vitamin C concentration in the range of mol L-1 and the regression coefficient is 0.9941 as shown in Figure 15 (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Table 1 below shows the tolerance towards different compounds that might cause interferences in this method. These compounds are usually present in most vitamin C tablets. The experimental results showed that the presence of hundred-fold excess of the all contaminant compounds and twenty-fold excess of citric acid did not significantly influence the determination of vitamin C using this method. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is no major interference caused by these compounds (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). So it is possible to use this method for direct determination of vitamin C in pharmaceuticals without separating the interfering materials. Table 2 lists the results obtained by the proposed method with triiodide method. It can be clearly seen that the results are in good agreement with the triiodide method (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Thus, the proposed method provides a simple and sensitive fluorimetric procedure by using MB for the determination of vitamin C. This experiment also shows that MB could be used for fluorimetric determination of vitamin C in vitamin C tablets although it has only slightly fluorescence property compared to LMB. Therefore, as conclusion, it can be explained that the fluorescence intensity of MB was more sensitive to determine vitamin C concentration (Yusuf and Gurel, 2005). Stability of Vitamin C in Orange Juice Vitamin C is very susceptible to chemical and enzymatic oxidation during the processing, storage, and cooking of food. The catalyzed oxidation pathway of vitamin C degradation is the most important reaction pathway for the loss of vitamin C in foods. Therefore, vitamin C of orange juice is readily oxidized and lost during staying of the juice (Ball, 2006). On the other hand, there are several factors that will also affect the stability of vitamin C in orange juice. The factors are such as the effect of vitamin E, pH, and parameters which include air, heat, water as well as prolonged storage and overcooking (Kabasakalis, Siopidou, and Moshatou, 2000). According to Ball, a meta-oxygen-ascorbate complex is formed in the presence of molecular oxygen and trace amounts of transition metal which particularly are copper (II) and iron (III). This complex contains a resonance form of a diradical that rapidly decompose to give the ascorbate radical anion, the original metal ion, and hydrogen peroxide. This radical anion will in turn reacts with the oxygen to give dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA). For anaerobic pathway of vitamin C which occurs in the absence of free oxygen, the degradation is caused by the formation of diketogulconic acid. As the rate of degradation is maximum at pH 3 to pH 4, therefore this pathway is mostly responsible for anaerobic loss of vitamin C in canned grapefruit and orange juices (Ball, 2006). Effect of vitamin E on the stability of vitamin C in orange juice Vitamin E is a fat soluble antioxidant that has four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. In nature, these four tocopherols and four corresponding tocotrienols are designated as alpha-(?), beta-(?), gamma-(?) and delta-(?) according to the number and position of methyl substituent in chromonal ring (Ball, 2006). The vitamin E functions as a biological antioxidant by protecting the vital phospholipids in cellular and subcellular membranes from peroxidative degeneration. Vitamin E mostly accumulates in body which are liver and pancreas. But unlike vitamins A and D, vitamin E is essentially nontoxic (Ball, 2006). Nagymate and Fodor (2008) have designed a method to study the effect of vitamin E on the stability of vitamin C. In this experiment, vitamin E stock solution was prepared by dissolving ?-tocopherol in absolute ethanol. The orange juice which contained vitamin E and vitamin C was used as sample. The storage temperature of the vials was 4Â °C and they were covered with aluminium foil to prevent the effect of sunlight. Besides, two different temperatures were used to examine the effect of vitamin E at that temperature which half of the samples were stored at 20Â °C. On the other hand, the additive effect of these vitamins was also examined but only cool samples (4Â °C) were used for this experiment. Two samples were prepared which one contained vitamin E stock solution and vitamin C stock solution while another contained only vitamin C stock solution. The samples were analysed once a week for five weeks (Nagymate and Fodor, 2008). The results of the stability of vitamin C show that the presence of vitamin E influenced the decay of vitamin C. Figure 17 shows that there were differences between samples with or without vitamin E. From figure 17, it can be clearly seen that the concentration of vitamin C without vitamin E fell down to 1.2mg/L on the second day. However, in the presence of both vitamins, the decay was also observed, but it was lesser. The concentration of vitamin C in the orange juice with vitamin E was 13mg/L in the fifth week. As a result, it seems that vitamin E stabilized vitamin C in orange juice at a determined concentration. This is because vitamin E delay the oxidation of vitamin C thus, enhances the stability of vitamin C in orange juice. The combination of vitamin C with vitamin E makes the orange juice more stable and slower the degradation of orange juice. This concluded that orange juice with vitamin E addition is a good way to preserve the vitamin C content during storage (Nagymate and Fodor, 2008). Effect of temperature on the stability of vitamin C in orange juice Vitamin C of fruit juice is readily oxidized and lost depends on the conditions of storage. There are studies about the determination of the amounts of vitamin C content in fruit juices under different storage conditions. Kabasakalis, Sipadou and Moshatou had done an experiment to determine the rate loss of vitamin C with respect to time and temperature of storage. A long-life and short-life commercial orange juice 100% without preservatives and fresh orange juice were used for analysis. In this experiment, the days before the expiration date were recorded in Table 3 and Table 4 to observe the loss of vitamin C in short-life and long-life orange juice 100% as the expiration date was approached (Kabasakalis, Siopidou and Moshatou, 2000). Table 5 shows the loss of vitamin C from fresh and long-life commercial orange juice 100% during a 31 days period, with measurements made every 1 to 3 days. The samples were refrigerated into containers which after the initial measurement remained either open or with closed cap until the next measurement. Based on the results shown in table 5, the magnitude of vitamin C did not differ significantly between open and closed cap for both juices. The commercial orange juice lost higher amounts of vitamin C compared with fresh orange juice. As reported, decreases of vitamin C upon storage did not correspond to increases of dehydroascorbic acid levels. In fact, there was an increase of dehydoascorbic acid levels in aseptically packaged orange juices. This means that the overall nutritional quality of orange juices is affected upon storage (Kabasakalis, Siopidou and Moshatou, 2000). The loss of the vitamin C in a commercial long-life orange juice 100% stored in refrigerator and non-refrigerated for a period of 10 days in open containers were shown in Figure 18 (Kabasakalis, Siopidou and Moshatou, 2000). According to Figure 18, non-refrigerated samples show higher percentage loss of vitamin C as compared to refrigerated samples. This is because the dehydoascorbic acid, the oxidized form of ascorbic acid was more stable at lower temperatures. Thus, the vitamin C, in the form of dehydroascorbic acid for refrigerated orange juice was well retained than non-refrigerated orange juice (Kabasakalis, Siopidou and Moshatou, 2000). Effect of hydrogen peroxide on the stability of orange juice Hydrogen peroxide, H2O2 is the primary chemical for sterilization of plastic packaging material used in aseptic system. Aseptic packaging technology is widely used by fruit juice industry for the production of shelf-life stable fruit juices. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation currently limits the residual of H2O2 to 0.5ppm, leached into distilled water, in finished food packages which stated in Code of Federal Regulations, 2000. However, during the sterilization of aseptic chambers or packaging material with H2O2, some residues will still be left on the packaging material or vapors generated during drying may get trapped inside the package upon sealing. These residues will then cause the degradation of vitamin C (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu, 2004). An experiment was proposed by Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu to determine the rates of vitamin C degradation in orange juice with or without addition of H2O2 at various storage temperatures. In this experiment, the orange juice sample was thawed at room temperature and sodium benzoate was added to prevent spoilage. The degradation studies were done at H2O2 with 0.5ppm concentration at 20Â °C, 30Â °C and 40Â °C respectively. At regular time intervals, samples were removed from the water bath or incubator (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu, 2004). Then, the predetermined amounts of diluted sodium hydroxide solution were added rapidly to the samples to halt the reaction between H2O2 and vitamin C. The samples were then rapidly cooled by plugging into an ice water bath and held at -30Â °C until analyzed for vitamin C content. Vitamin C concentration was measured by using HPLC method. Qzkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu had modified the method by blending the orange juice sample with metaphosphoric acid. The sample was filtered through a membrane filter and was analyzed using HPLC (Shimadzu brand) (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu, 2004).Vitamin C contents of orange juice were plotted for various temperatures at 0.5ppm H2O2 concentration which is shown in Figure 19 below. From Figure 19, the results show that at higher temperature, the rate of vitamin C degradation also increased. The addition of 0.5ppm H2O2 did not greatly increase the degradation of vitamin C. However, raising H2O2 concentration from 0.5ppm to 5ppm resulted in a tremendous increase in degradation rates which was recorded in Table 6. At 0.5ppm H2O2, the antioxidant substances in orange juice which was flavonols reacted with H2O2, thereby preventing the autoxidation of vitamin C. The protective mechanism of flavanols was mainly due to chelation of metal ions and action of antioxidant. Flavanols function as antioxidants by donating the hydrogen ions to reactive free radicals which may otherwise cause the autoxidation of vitamin C (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu, 2004). Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu also studied the degradation of vitamin C in the absence of H2O2. In this case, the activation energy, Ea was taken into account to determine the stability of vitamin C in orange juice. The temperature dependence of the degradation of vitamin C in orange juice was compared by calculating Ea and temperature quotients (Q10) at 20Â ° to 40Â °C from the following equation: These results clearly indicate that the rate of vitamin C degradation in the presence of H2O2 was slower at 30Â °C to 40Â °C than 20Â °C to 30Â °C. This indicates that at 30Â °C to 40Â °C, the least effect of temperature rise on vitamin C degradation. The results obtained for Ea shows that higher Ea in the presence of H2O2. This means that higher energy needed for the degradation of vitamin C. Therefore, the reaction time is slower and the degradation of vitamin C also slower. As conclusion, the effect of temperature on the degradation rates of vitamin C in orange juice was more pronounced at higher H2O2 concentrations. Therefore, greater vitamin C losses should be expected as residual H2O2 concentration and storage temperature increase in aseptically packaged fruit juices (Ozkan, Kirca and Cemeroglu, 2004). Effect of pH on the stability of vitamin C pH is a measure of acidity or basicity of a solution. pH is one of the primary factor that would affects the stability of vitamin C in orange juice. Hence, the pH value of the matrix has an influence on the stability of vitamin C. According to FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Human Vitamin and Mineral Requirements, Bangkok, Thailand, 1998, the vitamin C will decay if the pH higher than 4 (Nagymate and Fodor, 2008). Vitamin C is unstable in neutral and alkaline environments, therefore the higher the pH value and the longer the exposure, the greater the loss of vitamin C. This is because the higher the pH value, the faster the oxidation reaction of vitamin C and causes the degradation of vitamin C. Besides that, the increase in pH also related to deterioration of fruit characteristic which in this literature review, orange juice is more concerned. Table 8 below shows the pH value of the fruit juice with storage time (Ajibola, Babatunde and Suleiman, 2009). In this Table 8, the pH values of the orange juice were higher at room temperature and keep increasing from week to week. This study concluded that, though pH was significant for the stability of vitamin C, it was not the sole factor in controlling the deterioration of vitamin C in orange juice with storage life (Ajibola, Babatunde and Suleiman, 2009). On the other hand, the loss of vitamin C activity during oxidative degradation of vitamin C occurs with the hydrolysis of the dehydroascorbic acid lactone to yield 2,3-diketogulonic acid. This hydrolysis is favored by alkaline solution. Dehydroascorbic acid is most stable at pH 5.5 but decrease in stability as pH increases which is more than pH 5.5 (Fennmena, 1996). For example, half-time values of dehydroasorbic acid hydrolysis at 23Â °C were 100 and 230 minutes at pH 7.2 and pH 6.6 respectively as shown in Figure 20. At pH 5.0 or below, dehydroascorbic acid was quite stable which decayed by less than 3% over 4 hours. This experiment evaluated the effect of hydrogen ion concentration on delactonization of dehyroascorbic acid over the range of pH 3.0 to pH 8.0. The possible influence of the presence of oxygen was done by equilibrating the reaction mixture before and during the incubation with 100% oxygen or with 100% nitrogen. The results indicated no change in the decay rate of dehydoascorbic acid was obvious with these alterations of atmospheric conditions. The rate of dehydroascorbic acid hydrolysis markedly increases with increasing temperature but was unaffected by the presence of oxygen (Bode, Cunningham and Rose, 1990). Other researchers had proposed a method to determine the effect of pH on the degradation of vitamin C in orange j

How excessive Internet use increasingly inflicts negative effects on ou

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