Shareholder vs Stakeholder vs Market Failure’s Model

Business and ethics are often considered as opposite ends of a magnet, one in the means of seeking profit and other with the common assumption of refraining from profit maximization; so the question become is business ethics really an oxymoron? The usual perception of business ethics is very poor and pessimistic as many corporate executives say one thing yet do another. Although the maximization of self-interest and profit seeking is what drives the economy forward, but how should one’s actions be justified, is it ok to do as you wish as long as the law permits?Business managers along with other professionals have sets of ethical codes laid out and are to be followed. There is the bar set in place to monitor the practices of each individual lawyer; medical association for doctors as they perform medicine; and a ring to be worn to constantly remind the engineers of their professionalism and the potential consequences of their work (Heath). Managers on the other hand do not have an association to oversee the decisions they make, whether they are permissible by law or meet the moral obligations.However not having the standards on paper does not mean there aren’t any to be followed. In order to make justification for the type of behaviours business managers have and to outline the appropriate actions they should take, many ethical theories have been developed since. There are three that best represent the key perspectives in this matter; Friedman’s Shareholder theory, Freeman’s Stakeholder theory and Heath’s Market Failure Model of business ethics (Heath).Each of them is the pillars of which many other theories are based on but have very different and opposite views. The Shareholder theory suggests that manager has fiduciary duties to the shareholders only and must maximize profits as long as the law permits. The Stakeholder theory on the other hand suggests that managers have fiduciary duties to all stakeholders whom are positive ly or negatively affected by the decisions of the firm; shareholders are only of the stakeholders and their benefits cannot account for all.The making of one group’s benefits can only be made in conjunction of making all other stakeholders better too; shareholders are no more special than the suppliers, customers, employees and communities. Both the Stakeholder and Shareholder’s theories are biased towards different ends, one suggesting profits to be maximized for one group while the other stating that profits should be common good for all. Furthermore, the Market Failure Model of business ethics comes in between the two, yet containing arguments of both but in revised versions.I will argue in this paper that the Market Failure Model is the one that best describes the causes and effects of the business environment we have today and the role ethics play within it. First, an extraction and analysis of the Market Failure Model will be conducted and be used to explain why it is the best fit for the current business environment and ethics. I will then explain the shortfalls of the Shareholder and Stakeholder theories and why they lack considerations on a broader scope. Market Failure Model Market failure is the situation when the competitive market fails to provide an efficient outcome.In order for an efficient allocation of resources, there must be the absence of externalities, symmetrical information between buyers and sellers, insurance markets, and utility maximizing agents whom are rational when making decisions (Heath). However in the real world, the above conditions are rarely met and thus the idea of a perfect market becomes only ideal in theory but impractical in reality. In response to such failure in the market, two corrective phenomenons exist. The first being the creation of corporations which is organized in a system of hierarchy.Managers have fiduciary duty to follow legal as well as moral constraints to achieve profit maximization for members in the hierarchy, in this case the shareholders. Moreover, in order to achieve the highest profits for anyone in the market, they will need to compete in prices as well as product innovation. Many historical scenarios has proven that competition leads to economic advancements where without it would result in economic stagnation. China and India had been communist states in the past where there were minimum price competition and product innovations, the government had full control and attempted to effectively allocate resources.However such intervention only led to full economic stagnation and poverty for its people. By the late 80s, both the Chinese and India government returned control to the market itself where competition for profit resumed and thus the economies began to advance and has brought prosperity upon its people. This not only proved profit seeking, price competition in the market is rather healthy for the economy but also concluded that government interventions in the market can create unneeded deadweight loss.The second response to Market Failure involves preservation of the market transaction and is subject to legal and regulatory constraints (Heath). In a competing market, there are various strategies firms may take to maximize their profits. Strategies that involve only of lower prices, better quality and product innovation that would exist in perfect completion are referred to as preferred strategies whereas the ones involving pollution, misleading advertising, sale of products with hidden defects are called non-preferred strategies (Heath).From the Market Failure’s perspective, the ethical firms will refrain from using non-preferred strategies even if they are allowable by the loophole of the law and regulations. These firms seek non-preferred strategies because they bring easy and quick forms of profits, but it is also short lasting. â€Å"Misleading advertising stands to false advertising as deception does to fraud† (Heath). When firms adopt misleading advertisement for its products, it will bring short term profits before consumers realize they are being deceived.However when consumers do acknowledge the unethical behaviours of the business, they will switch products and by the word of mouth spread unfavourable comments of the firm; thus in the long run, such business behaviour is not practical as bad reputation leads to loss of sales and eventual closedown of operations. Profit seeking often bears negative conceptions due to the frequent exploitation of the market and flaws of the legal and regulatory systems.These firms fail to consider the moral obligations they must also endure. The analogy between â€Å"orporate social responsibility† and â€Å"Good sportsmanship† effectively compares and applies such concept. Having good sportsmanship does not only include not breaking the rules of the game but also refraining from exploiting the loopholes and flaws of the regulations. Taki ng basketball for example, unavoidable physical contact will occur during the game; however one should avoid purposely injuring other players just to win.Although certain teams do adopt such tactics like those firms using non-preferred strategies to make money, but most top ranked teams along with the most reputable firms still win by applying only of the preferred strategies. Attack on Shareholder’s Theory Milton Friedman’ Shareholder theory argues that there is a fiduciary relationship between the managers and shareholders; managers by all means possible and permissible by law, must maximize profits (Friedman). However recent corporate scandals proof otherwise.The case of Enron for example, where corporate CEO and president along with other top executives engaged in a sequence of deception behaviours to achieve the maximum profit, not for shareholders but for themselves. Even on the verge of bankruptcy, these top managers froze the shares held by common shareholders so they could sell out all their shares while everyone else will suffer the drop in price. This proved the willingness to break the law never mind moral obligations, in order to maximize the self-interests of the managers themselves.It is mistaken to trust the strength of the fiduciary relationship between managers and shareholders where the shareholders are without protection. One may argue that shareholders can simply fire the irresponsible manager, but as Enron proves, these managers can easily cheat shareholders without being found out until it is too late. Another shortfall of the Shareholder theory is the inconsideration for others who are also affected by the firm’s decisions. Lockean argues that shareholders are entitled to the profits as employee deserves their wages, but it is unconvincing because it only defines the legal obligations but not the moral (Heath). We have no legal obligation to give but do not mean we have no moral obligation to give to charity†( Heath) This quote from Heath suggests that even though it is not by law that we must be moral and has concerns for other, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t any moral and ethical codes to be followed. Attack on Stakeholder Theory The Stakeholder theory compared to the Shareholder theory argues that managers have fiduciary duties to everyone who are affected by decisions of the firm, including suppliers, customers, employees and many others (Freeman).It is true that consideration for these stakeholders are important when making business decisions however it doesn’t mean managers have fiduciary duties to all. Managers in corporations are trusted directly of property rights of shareholders with no alternatives and minimum protection against uncertainties. Suppliers, customers, employees and other stakeholder on the other hand have the ability to choose whether they are to be affected by the corporation.If suppliers refuse to agree to conditions and prices offered by firm, they may wish to supply to other firms instead; when customers refuse to pay for certain products or cannot agree to values (values referred to the corporate operations and its effects in the society) offered by the firm, they may choose not to purchase it’s products; and lastly employees may choose to resign from his position when conflict of interest and ethical concerns occur or may blow the whistle and expose the wrong doings of the firm to the public.Each group of stakeholders have their own alternatives in dealing with managers decisions and do not have property rights already invested and paid to managers for the outcomes of their performance thus they cannot be considered as having fiduciary relationships with managers. The major flaw of the stakeholder theory is that it assumes the stakeholders are not capable of making their own rational decisions and has left the responsibility of their wellbeing in the hands of others.The second shortfall of the Stakeholderà ¢â‚¬â„¢s theory is its short-term and narrow scope view of the matter and failed to consider the long-term strategies of the firm and wellbeing of the people. Walmart has been growing exponentially in recent years, but has also been experiencing much negative publicity like poor wages and benefits for its employees. When worker aren’t paid enough, the most common solution they seek is from the managers raising their wages.However most of these workers fail to realize they are only being paid according to their skill sets, rather than holding the managers and corporation responsible they should instead reflect on themselves and obtain higher education or more specialized skills to be worthy of their pay. If workers demand two or three dollars increase of their wage, they also need to consider the overall effects on the firm and not just themselves; it is not about a little more on one person’s pay cheque but the effect of thousands of workers and the incremental costs t hat a firm will bear.The market is competitive in nature, when firms fail to make profits, it will cease in existence in the long run. When the firm becomes bankrupt, all employees will lose their jobs and whom should be held responsible for that? Conclusion In conclusion, all three theories share different views of business ethics and the role of managers should take in it. Shareholder theory argues managers have fiduciary duty to shareholders only and should seek to maximize profits as long as it’s legally permissible; Stakeholder theory states managers have fiduciary duty to all stakeholders and must make ecisions so when certain stakeholders are made better off, the others involved must also be better than their original state. Both of these theories tries to outline what behaviours managers should take on a biased perspective yet fails to fit actual economic and market characteristics. Heath’s market failure model on the other hand suggests that managers do have f iduciary duties to shareholder only but should make decisions meeting their moral obligations as well, meaning adopting strategies that best benefit the firm and the society in the long run.Certain firms may donate to charity because they feel morally responsible or perhaps to cut taxes or simply for publicity; however in the overall wellbeing of the society, intentions matter but results matter even more. Firms that adopt non-preferred strategies will eventually break laws or be publicly criticized, will suffer losses in sale and be eliminated by firms applying preferred strategies because the market works to correct itself of its failures. Bibliography Heath, J. (n. d. ). Business ethics without stakeholders.In F. Allhoff & A. Vaidya (Eds. ), Business in Ethical Focus: An Anthology (pp. 110-126). Peterborough: Broadview. Friedman, M. F. (n. d. ). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In A. Allhoff & A. Vaidya (Eds. ), Business in Ethical Focus: An Antho logy(pp. 65-69). Peterborough: Broadview. Freeman, E. F. (n. d. ). A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation. In A. Allhoff & A. Vaidya (Eds. ),Business in Ethical Focus: An Anthology (pp. 69-78). Peterborough: Broadview.

Qa 380 Quiz 1

* T * PERFORMANCE measures that are established for a process are known as metrics. T * Once a process is identified, defined, evaluated, and redesigned, the benefits of the process analysis cycle are realized. F * A service blueprint is a flowchart of a service process that shows which of its steps has high customer contact. T * The general principle that 80% of a company’s revenue is generated by 20% of its customers is known as the pareto concept. * A fishbone diagram identifies which category is most frequently observed out of all the categories for which you have data. F . a voluntary system by which employees submit their ideas on process improvements is used in the: opportunity identification phase of process analysis 2. the step in process analysis that immediately follows the process documentation phase is the : evaluate performance phase 3. the resources that management assigns to improving or reengineering the process should: match the process’s scope 4. proc ess analysis focuses on: how work is actually done 5. an effective tool for showing steps of a service process with a high level of customer contact is: service blueprint 6. hich one of the following statements concerning flowcharts is NOT true. The dotted line of visibility separates activities subcontracted form those done in house 7. all of the following are steps in setting a time standard using the time study method EXCEPT: Consulting cost accounting data 8. the manager of a supermarket would like to know which of several quality problems to address first. A tool that would be most helpful would be a: perato chart 9. a restaurant manager tracks complaints from the diner satisfaction cards that are turned in at each table.The data collected from the past week’s diners appear 10. the first step of the systematic approach to process analysis is (opportunity) 11. process (scope) is the boundary of the process to be analyzed. 12. A voluntary system by which employee submit th eir ideas on process improvements is called a (suggestion system) 13. (Metrics) are performance measures that are established for a process and he steps within it. 14. A group of people, who are knowledgeable about the process, meets to propose ideas for change in a rapid-fire manner. Such a session is called (brainstorming)

Reaction Paper on Hidden Heads of Household

Alma Guardado Professor Turkon October 11, 2018 Reaction Paper on Hidden Heads of Household 1.Within Brazil, poor children are found in situations that they can't escape due to extreme poverty and globalization and even culture. Children are sometimes considered head of households, due to their parent's inability to contribute sufficient income, hence, they would be forced to assist. Like for instance, when a mother cannot work due to pregnancy or staying home to take care of the infants, children would be likely to work to replace their mother, â€Å"I realized that it was the littlest one who was getting the most money. So, I let them go alone, until today.† (Kenny, 1997, p.97) Due, to the low amount of employment available, families must move around frequently to available jobs, which most likely led them to overcrowded, violent favela nearby. Culture and politicians contribute into the factor that poor children within these situations, since children have the mindset that they are unskilled and must work in dirty conditions and politics would lie that they would help on â€Å"gas, light and water bills. However, they do not. They just wanted a vote. Children are forced upon their situation based on their family situation and poverty. 2.In Brazil, globalization and economy are global influences that foster child labor. Child labor was influence due to the increase of wealth, since it brought upon an increase of poverty and inequality. A global shift in production resulted into the growth of favelas, where more children were born into. In those horrible conditions they were forced to find a job at a young age to receive for in their plates every night. Also, due to the â€Å"increase of capital investment in factories† in Brazil â€Å"where the labor is cheap, labor laws are not enforced† brought upon more increase of children working there. Also, factory owners preferred children since they can pay them fewer wages. The increase of economy brought upon the desire of more workers to be able produce more goods. 3.As the author emphasizes how she will give details, and the problematic study will result into good results, I honest expected more. I felt it could be consider an exploitation method, but not a study that led to good result. Yes, it did help numerous programs to be formed, yet exploitation does the same. It did not impact the whole situation in a large extent, it pushed positively, but it did not force individuals to stop and wonder what they could do to change the problem. It does a good job, emphasizing the suffering young children are faced and provokes us readers to feel sympathy and heartache knowing what is happening to them. However, does not give valid results, since the programs are not enforced they are created, yet not pushed forward into action. The author herself can use the situation for her benefit for her research. There was no real solution for her study. 4.Global tourism is one of the issues that affect the lives of many children negatively and positively based on the description given in the book. Some children will arrive at 8 am at the tourist location, to beg for tourist for money, however, sometimes they frequently were only offered food, but the kids wanted money due to the easier way to split money among each other and be able to buy what they want with it and hang on to some. Another, positive aspect of tourism was that they brought employment to male children like guides, vendors and based on the satisfaction they might be able to gain extra money or food additionally from their fee for tours. But, for girls sometimes global tourism would be a negative aspect for them, since most of the time they could not have the same jobs as boys due to their physical appearance, hence, they would work in the sex industry. Sexual relationship with foreigners was in the hopes for young women, since it was a strategy for them to deal with poverty, and a desire for travel and material goods. Girls with low-esteem preferred foreigners to Brazilian men, since they thought they treated them better and believed in the hopes of opportunities would come around. In their perspective they believed they were happy since even if they lacked the formal education and financial safety net, they provided money to their family and felt some statues with their peers. The tourist industry brought exploitation of the poor children, however, at the same time brought hopes. 5.The author refers to â€Å"agent† they mean a representative of the whole community or household on their behalf. Specifically, the â€Å"agents† the author refers to is the children, since they are truly the spokesperson telling their own reality of the harsh situations they are facing. In fact, the children should be agents in crafting policies that affect their situation, since it directly affects them. They are the ones who are facing poverty, low wages and harsh conditions and sometimes even the responsibility to have to put money on the table for their family. A fourteen-year-old child should not have the responsibility to work and not be able to receive an education, so why shouldn't they be able to craft the policies that are affecting their own lives. It's not the politicians nor the high-income class or even the adults who are being directly affect, it's the children. They are the ones who are working and facing conditions that most individuals do not face at their age and no one really knows what goes on in their lives, since yes we can research about it, but it does not mean we face it every day like they do, so they should be ones who craft the certain policies rather than those viewing them â€Å"as sweet little victims.† 6. Globalization isn't a tool to eliminate child labor in Brazil or elsewhere. It may be able to increase the employment and even the earnings to poor households in developing countries. But, the more desire for export products led to an increase of demand for labor, however, not towards adults. Within factories, they would prefer children since they could pay them less for their labor. Also, their shortness was desirable, since â€Å"they could fit in small holes and under machines.† (Kenny, 1997, p.7) Adults would be unemployed, or those in Brazil will work along with their children in the mills or textile factories. Altogether, globalization brought a negative effect, since when Brazil created a minor code to restrict children into working only six hours, parents did not like the idea which didn't led to the enforcement, nor was there an elimination of child labor. Also, the global shift increased the growth of urban favelas, which led poverty becoming deeper in Brazil and those who most likely work in factories would live in poverty, due to their low income. Globalization brings a desire for interaction of economy and prosperity, with no consideration of how children are treated. There is a more focus on the products than those creating the products.Kenny, M. L. (1997). Hidden heads of households: Child labor in Northeast Brazil.

Language development High School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Language development High School - Essay Example This website takes into consideration the milestones that a child is supposed to by covering while moving forward year by year. The website gives a very detailed account of these step-by-step processes of the language development milestones in a child's growth. Moreover, this website addresses the parents of a child to pay attention to the language development processes of a child so that any discrepancy can be noted and compensated because according to this webpage, "Speech and language are tools that humans use to communicate or share thoughts, ideas, and emotions". The website is highly interactive as it elaborates on concerned points in question-answer format and provokes the reader to go through the simply put linguistic details about langauge development and its scope. Speech-language-therapy is a very technical website with regard to the issues of language development. The head-organizer of this website, Caroline Bowden (PhD, speech language pathologist) gives a detailed research account in connection with language development processes. The Dr. has listed a number of research-based articles on a number of issues with relation to early language development. ... http://speech-language-therapy.com/ Learner.Org It is a very sophisticated website basically focusing on human psychology the understanding of the complex psychological processes. However, this very website also examines in acute scientific detail the language development patterns in human being. It links the early language development of a child to the very complex psychological development and mental growth in humans. "Language is perhaps the most complex cognitive product we have"; as such one of the focuses of this research-based website is to study the organization of early language learning patterns in children so that organization of knowledge can be understood and transferred to adult learners. This appears to be the focal point of this website. http://www.learner.org/ Sldc.Net Speech and Language Development Center is another very useful website with regard to early language development and disorder in the speech patterns of children. Founded in the early 1955, the website is dedicated to the cause of developing better grounds for effective language learning in children. The major point of focus of this website is "on the abilities of the individual -- rather than the disabilities -- to provide all students the opportunity to succeed". Starting with the enrollment of only three young children, the organization has grown into a huge network of language facilitator. It now serves up to 300 students in the area of language development. As such the website provides a complete background about the progress of the organization. http://www.sldc.net/default.aspx]

Mathematical Analysis of Stress on Different Types of Teeth Research Paper

Mathematical Analysis of Stress on Different Types of Teeth - Research Paper Example I gained leadership, self-initiative and cooperative skills mainly from my work, volunteer experiences and several group projects I have implemented in different courses. Many people think that leaders are the ones who lead the rest of the group but my definition of leadership is slightly different from the conventional view. Donald McGannon, a prominent broadcast industry executive, states that â€Å"leadership is action, not position.†   I believe that true leadership comes from engaging every group member in decision making process and receiving the best outcome through communication and cooperation with others.  I gained leadership, self-initiative and cooperative skills mainly from my work, volunteer experiences and several group projects I have implemented in different courses. Many people think that leaders are the ones who lead the rest of the group but my definition of leadership is slightly different from the conventional view. Donald McGannon, a prominent broadc ast industry executive, states that â€Å"leadership is action, not position.†   I believe that true leadership comes from engaging every group member in decision making process and receiving the best outcome through communication and cooperation with others.  2. It is undoubtedly to say that we have made great advances in dental procedures and technology through the research during last fifty years. However, the public’s attitude toward dentistry has not been changed with those advances.

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ESCAPING SALEM - Essay Example In an attempt to find what she is suffering from – mind, it being an era that witchcraft was common -- Kate accuses others of bewitching her. Two women were finally put on trial. The book Escaping Salem takes the reader through the Connecticut court room. Witchcraft in a court room is more dramatic than one would ever imagine. The town’s people are scared of the act and its practice in the township, and this is a view that the judges are quick to point out to. Witchcraft poses a great danger to the society. However, how would Branch prove that the women actually were behind her ailments? Her accusations come from the fact that some evil spirit informed her about it. How would she prove this and how would she prove that the spirit were indeed factual? Escaping Salem offers an insightful revelation of life style in the early seventeenth century America. In addition, it offers proof of the existence of the white magic, an issue that has strongly been argued upon. The only pitfall that Godbeer‘s work seems to pose is the use of some of the photos that are manipulated. The photos are helpful in offering illustration and adding to the maps; the selected bibliography seems to provide some proof too. However, the use of the photos is overrated. This is a historical book and the images ought not to appear to be fictitious. In retrospect, the book is a must read for any undergraduate student of American History or Political Science. The insights it offers are indeed factual and one would relate them to the life of that

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Civil Rights Movement in America - Essay Example When it did, he was careful not to lose support from southern politicians by enforcing overly-liberal policies (Patterson, 2001, p. 122-123). This Democratic lack of action was still apparent over thirty years later when President Clinton placed the onus for reform on individual Americans, calling for change in "our minds and our hearts," rather than expending federal funds and energy to bring about change (Klinkner, 1999, p. 27). As a result, government interest in reform has disintegrated while its efforts for populace control have grown "through increased spending on the military, police, prison building, and mechanisms for surveillance" (Giroux, 2004, p. 212). When the government has acted on civil rights, it has often been a pale or nonexistent effort. In the summer of 1997, Clinton formed him Presidential Initiative on Race as a think-tank on how to address race and racial inequality. Steven A. Holmes quoted panel member Thomas Kean in The New York Times as stating, "There is a timidity on this question [of race] We were not encouraged to be bold." (as cited in Klinkner, 1999, p. 26-27). Clinton showed his concern for reform in word, but not in deed. Similarly, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was formed following the passage of Title VIII to receive housing complaints, but was not given to authority to act on them. This allowed the government to "do something" about unfair housing without any real action (Judd, 1999, p. 136). In fact, according to Giroux, the overall effect of modern conservatism has been to silence "any discussion of race in mainstream national politics by insisting on colorblind public policy" (2 004, p. 179). There are several instances in which the federal government has specifically shirked its responsibility to remedy racial inequalities. This was very apparent during the Reagan administration, when the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement came "to a standstill" (Fairclough, 2001, p. 332). Rather than citing governmental intervention as a possible solution, Regan claimed that it had been a problem, and went on to denounce student busing and attempt to eliminate the Department of Education (Patterson, 2001, p. 171), successfully pulling federal government away from domestic issues that sorely needed attention. His administration further claimed that "big government handouts had corrupted black communities by creating generations of cheats characterized by laziness, drug addiction, sexual excess, and a general taste for criminality and violence" (Giroux, 2004, p. 189). Even the Democratic Clinton administration rolled back government responsibility with its budget compromise of 1997, in which Clinton cut Medicare and Medicaid and endorsed tax cuts that mainly benefited wealthy Americans. In this one act, Clinton had practically undone the reform created by Roosevelt's New Deal (Klinkner, 1999, p. 11). Presidential administrations, however, have not been alone in turning their backs on racial equality; the judicial branch, since its rightward drift beginning with Nixon's presidency, has also negated the government's role in domestic

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Vitamin D - Essay Example ists accomplished both identification and characterization of the O104: H4 strain in time, including the sequencing of its genome, they have not been able to explain where and how it came from. Since the manifestations of the incidence, people have put up with the fear of whether or not the infection may re-occur, a factor that has affected agricultural farming and destabilized food security (Berg 49). Moreover, various entities have overtime emphasized the fact that it would be of great significance for the origin of the infection to be identified. Similarly, concerns have been raised regarding delay in the diagnosis as well as in communicating the risk to the public. This essay aims to look into the risk analysis process, notably some of the events that came up in the course of and after the infection, as well as some of the findings and conclusions that we can employ in the future in case of re-occurrences of the strain. Hazard identification refers to the process of establishing the association that exists between the pathogenic organism as well as the human population. In an ideal world, several strains inhabit the human intestine. For an E. coli strain to initiate an epidemic infection of the nature exhibited in 2011, it must have produced some toxic materials and at the same time been resistant to antibiotic. Upon further study, it was established that the 2011 strain exhibited both the O and H antigens, hence the naming O104: H4. The intriguing factor in the course of the infection was that eight cases of the O104:H4 strain had been registered prior to the 2011 infection in Germany, France, Korea, Italy, Georgia and Finland (Berg 53). The fact that the 2011 scenario was extremely severe yet the strain had been reported some time in the past shows that indeed various entities were at fault for letting the infection be that virulent. E. coli strain O104: H4 strain infection went on for quite a while as it had enhanced adhesion, fitness and survival

540 team paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

540 team paper - Essay Example That is, when both the companies announced their plans to merge, the financial issue that impeded the progress of the actualization of merger is the view, that, large stock transactions between HP and Compaq appear to be statistically more risky. So, immediately after the announcement, â€Å"H-Ps stock closed at $18.87, down sharply from $23.21 the previous trading day. On May 3, 2002, when the deal was officially consummated, the stock ended the day at $17.44† (Knowledge@Wharton, 2004). But, this skepticism and the initial problems were overcome by the HP management by looking at the positive aspects of the merger. That is, the HP management wished that through large stock transactions (which were considered risky in the first place), HP will be able to â€Å"achieve annual cost savings of $2.5 billion, which will add $5 to $9 to each HP share; and at the same time will increase earnings per share by 13% during the first year following the merger† (cybermedia India Onl ine, 2003). This positive response or strategy worked in favor of the merger in 2002. So, the outcome of the company’s positive response to the financial issue, and the resultant merger, is HP was able to dominate the sector of desktops, laptops, and servers in various world markets. But, on the other side, even after the merger, there was opposition from the scions of HP founders. That is, both Walter Hewlett, son of HP founder William Hewlett and David Woodley Packard, son of co-founder David Packard opposed the merger for various reasons including the risks caused by large scale transactions. But, now the merged entity is functioning smoothly without any major hindrances. Like in the Lester scenario, in which the merger plans between Lester Electronics and Shwang-wa does not actualize due to the financial issues, the merger plans between French companies, Gaz de France and Suez O. K. also gets

Hypothyroidism vs Hypertheriodism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hypothyroidism vs Hypertheriodism - Essay Example On the other hand, the symptoms of hyperthyroidism include palpitations, nervousness, goiter, tachycardia, increased sweating, and hypersensitivity to heat. Other signs are weight loss, weakness, increased appetite, and bowel motion. The eye symptoms related to hyperthyroidism include a moderate level of conjunctival injection, lid lag, staring and lid retraction (Parangi & Phitayakorn, 2011). To test for Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism, a TSH and FT4 blood tests are carried out. In this procedure, a radioimmunoassay test is conducted to measure the serum TSH levels. The tests results are the ones used to differentiate between the two disorders. In the case where the TSH level is above 4.5 mU/L and FT4, result is below nine Ï mol/L then illness is diagnosed as hypothyroidism. On the other hand, if the FT4 is above 25 Ï mol/L and the TSH level is below 0.4 mU/L then the patient suffers from hyperthyroidism (Higgins, 2012). In conclusion, both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are illnesses that affect the thyroid gland. Regular use of drugs that contain high iodine levels causes hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism in individuals with a condition like autoimmune illness (White, Garber, & Harvard Medical School,

SATS Air Cargo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

SATS Air Cargo - Essay Example Correspondingly, the organizational operations of SATS have also seen changes over the years owing to the changing nature of its customers. With the increasing number of customers in the cargo sector of the airline market, SATS initiated the SIA Superhub 2 also known as the Airfreight Terminal 6 in the year 2001 with an investment of around $270 million. This approach of the company accompanied it with the ability to handle 800,000 tonnes of cargo per year, which was also accounted among the biggest capacities during that time. Furthermore, the customers in the cargo handling sector of the airline industry have also become more attracted towards online web based operations in course of time. Contextually, SATS introduced the web-based cargo tracking services in the year 2003 in order to meet the changing expectations of the customers (SATS 20111). Increased Competition With the augmented number of operations of various companies in the cargo sector of the airline industry, the compet ition has become more intense. ... This step of the company ensured the loyalty of the customers with the company for a longer period of time. Moreover, in similar regard, it has also introduced a new brand promise to the customers, which further states as â€Å"One with you† (SATS 20111). Furthermore, since there are various numbers of companies offering similar kind of products to the customers, only effective or innovative services would ensure enhanced operational services for any company including SATS. To comply with this aspect, the company has been continuously changing its service offering patterns to the customers so that their valuable association with the company continues for a longer period of time (SATS 20111). Part 2- SATS Air Cargo Competition SATS DHL Singapore Airlines Market Share .0019% 11.49% .0.02% Share Price as of Submission .31% (2013) Singapore Exchange 1.03 % (2013) (Singapore Exchange n.d.) .48% (2013) (Singapore Exchange n.d.) Stock Turnover 27.70 (2013) (Singapore Exchange n.d.) 2 3.56 (2013) (Singapore Exchange n.d.) 35.50 (2013) (Singapore Exchange n.d.) Revenue 2008- S$1,062,094 2009- S$ 1,538,906 2010- S$ 1,729,131 2011- S$ 1,685,413 2012- S$ 1,818,992 (SATS 20112) 2008- S$ 7,474,908,000 2009- S$ 6,175,362,000 2010- S$ 7,525,278,000 2011- S$ 8,223,343,128 2012- S$ 8,405,745,600 (Deutsche Post AG 2013) 2008- S$ 186,245 2009- S$ 181,752 2010- S$ 145,834 2011- S$ 159,980 2012- S$ 169,157 (Singapore Airlines 2012) Resources People: The chairman of the Edmund Cheng Wai Wing was appointed in the year 2012. Apart from him, there are also some other crucial members altogether forming the management team of the organization. Brand Position: With more than 60 years of operations in the airline industry, the company has acquired the reputation to be called as one of

Enlightened Nationalism Essay Example for Free

Enlightened Nationalism Essay Such were the words of Alexis de Tocqueville in his mocking evaluation of Prussia’s Civil Code (Allgemeines Landrecht). As its rudimentary principles, the code according to him is basically those of the French Revolution but its real stipulations conserved the German ethnicity. This ongoing pressure involving new and old in Prussia is the subject of Matthew Levinger’s profound study on the efforts of Prussian leaders as they try to invigorate the nation between their defeat by the French in 1806 and the Revolution of 1848. While the rest of Western Europe (or the world for that matter) is developing in quite the same way, Prussia, the largest German estate of the 1st half of the 19th century, chose to embark on a special path of historical development or what is called as Sonderweg. It is because of this that most historians argue that the Germans lagged behind in modernizing their political institutions especially in that decisive historical moment in history. In Matthew Levinger’s book, he challenges the readers to rethink that general perception regarding Prussia’s history. His studies show that a profound and irre ¬versible political transformation (enlightenment) occurred in Prussia beginning in the Napoleonic era—right after the humiliating rout of the famed Prussian army by Napoleon’s forces (Levinger, p. 227). In the brink of annihilation, a group of Prussian leaders decided to mobilize the populace by uniting a rationalized monarchy and a politically active â€Å"nation†. They saw this mobilization as something that would make the monarchial estate stronger. Truly enough it enhanced the power of the monarchy, but it inhibited the formation of an effervescent parliamentary system of rule. In Levinger’s urge to understand why Germany chose a disastrous turn by embracing National Socialism between 1933 and 1945 ignited his interest in history and thereby writing this book. Like most works regarding German history, this book also has its roots in exile, but Levinger approaches the problem quite indirectly as he has only viewed the effects of exile remotely. Parts I and II of the book discusses about the concept of â€Å"nation† and part III shows how this concept came to play. Many questions and answers will arise from reading it. For one, the book does not only present answers to the question about what kind of country Prussia was but shows us the current state of living for most Germans during that time as well. The book gives us a reason to believe that even though this so-called â€Å"enlightened nationalism† was but a strand in Prussian political culture, it greatly influenced Prussian political evolution. It also provides an exciting insight about the controversial question whether there was a distinctive German path modernization. Another main query that will be answered here is to what extent were the political resistances in Prussia during this era were shaped by ideological influences as opposed to material forces? And even though, the analysis in this book is only about Prussia, it can also give us a great deal of information in understanding the ensuing 19th c. Germany and how nationalism in the rest of the world evolved. Moreover, it tells us about the products of â€Å"enlightened nationalism†Ã¢â‚¬â€a mixed legacy of positive outcomes and ill-effects. In contrast to the French Revolution, the Prussian reform movement did not want to abolish the old government in order to create a new one for their ultimate goal which we can call Pax Germania. They only tried to reconstruct on hand organizations by trying to instill radical and democratic principles into their framework. They tried to unite rationalized monarchy (from above, and for the people) and a politically active people (from below and for the king and fatherland). The enlightened nationalism brought about a legacy of political and public transformation in many aspects, most notably in education and administration. This key reinterpretation of Prussian history from the Napoleonic era to the Revolution of 1848 shows how modifications enthused by the enlightenment eventually forged an authoritarian political culture and a nation that later came to dominate Germany. The books well-documented insights do not only help us understand about Prussia but it also sheds new light on the birth of German nationalism—thus awaking a sleeping giant†¦only to fall from grace.

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict Politics Essay

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict Politics Essay After more than 50 years of war, terrorism, peace negotiation and human suffering, Israel and Palestine remain as far from a peaceful settlement as ever. The entire Middle Eastern region remains a cauldron waiting to reach the boiling point, a potent mixture of religious extremism, (Jewish, Christian and Islamic), mixed with oil and munitions. This paper is an attempt to trace the history of this age old conflict and analyse the viability of internationally suggested solutions. Owing to their history, going back at least 5000 years in time, the paper only throws light on the conflict, post 19th century. And this too, only a cursory overview of a timeline, rather than a detailed description. The paper also attempts to find the bones of contention between the two peoples, clearly laying out the issues and problems along with the need to resolve them. Finally, the paper analyses the two mainstream solutions suggested for resolution of this conflict, being the Two-State theory and the Bi-National State theory. IR theories of Realism and Liberalism are used to broadly analyse these two solutions applicability in the particular conflict. The practical difficulties in the existing political diaspora is highlighted to finally decide the viability. The limitations of the paper is that the complex issues involved do not give enough leeway to say decidedly that one solution is the right solution and the other, wrong. Also, though neutral tones have been imbibed throughout the paper, a humanistic tendency of bias towards the Palestinian cause seeps in, albeit subconsciously. Introduction The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the early 20th century. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between the Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman and then British rule. It forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict. The remaining key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement and finding a resolution to the refugee question. The violence resulting from the conflict has prompted international actions, as well as other security and human rights concerns, both within and between both sides, and internationally. In addition, the violence has curbed expansion of tourism in the region, which is full of historic and religious sites that are of interest to many people around the world. Many attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution, involving the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Jewish state or next to the State of Israel (after Israels establishment in 1948). In 2007 a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a number of polls, preferred the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of resolving the conflict. Moreover, a considerable majority of the Jewish public sees the Palestinians demand for an independent state as just, and thinks Israel can agree to the establishment of such a state. A majority of Palestinians and Israelis view the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an acceptable location of the hypothetical Palestinian state in a two-state solution. However, there are significant areas of disagreement over the shape of any final agreement and also regarding the level of credibility each side sees in the other in upholding basic commitments. Within Israeli and Palestinian society, the conflict generates a wide variety of views and opinions. This highlights the deep divisions which exist not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but also within each society. A hallmark of the conflict has been the level of violence witnessed for virtually its entire duration. Fighting has been conducted by regular armies, paramilitary groups, terror cells and individuals. Casualties have not been restricted to the military, with a large number of fatalities in civilian population on both sides. There are prominent international actors involved in the conflict. This paper details the history of the conflict, giving a purview through a timeline, rather than a detailed description. It also outlines the basic issues involved in the conflict and why their resolution is not cake walk. The two solutions proposed as a solution to the conflict is also analysed in depth, with reference to theoretical concepts of realism and liberalism in IR. The viability of these solutions are dealt with, in the current political scene, though with less insight into the actual political happenings. History of the conflict The origins of the Palestine problem as an international issue lie in events occurring towards the end of the First World War. These events led to a League of Nations decision to place Palestine under the administration of Great Britain as the Mandatory Power under the Mandates System adopted by the League. In principle, the Mandate was meant to be in the nature of a transitory phase until Palestine attained the status of a fully independent nation, a status provisionally recognized in the Leagues Covenant, but in fact the Mandates historical evolution did not result in the emergence of Palestine as an independent nation. The decision on the Mandate did not take into account the wishes of the people of Palestine, despite the Covenants requirements that the wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory. This assumed special significance because, almost five years before receiving the mandate from the League of Nations, the British Government had given commitments to the Zionist Organization regarding the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, for which Zionist leaders had pressed a claim of historical connection since their ancestors had lived in Palestine two thousand years earlier before dispersing in the Diaspora.  [1]  During the period of the Mandate, the Zionist Organization worked to secure the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. The indigenous people of Palestine, whose forefathers had inhabited the land for virtually the two preceding millennia  [2]  , felt this design to be a violation of their natural and inalienable rights. They also viewed it as an infringement of assurances of independence given by the Allied Powers to Arab leaders in return for their support during the war. The result was mounting resistance to the Mandate by Palestinian Arabs, followed by resort to violence by the Jewish community as the Second World War drew to a close. By 1947, largely through this massive immigration, the Jewish population reached a substantial 33% and owned about 6% of the land. Finally, in 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene. As per the Resolution 181  [3]  , the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state despite the fact that this group represented only about 33% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land. Jerusalem was to have been an international city shared by all peoples of the region. The Zionist movement embraced the plan whereas the Palestine (and other neighbouring Arab nations) saw the plan as extremely unfair and rejected it. This followed the first war which was to sow the seeds of future conflicts. The Arab League supported the Arab struggle by forming the volunteer based Arab Liberation Army, supporting the Palestinian Arab Army of the Holy War. On the Jewish side, the civil war was managed by the major underground militias the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi, strengthened by numerous Jewish veterans of World War II and foreign volunteers. By spring 1948, it was already clear that the Arab forces were nearing a total collapse, while Yishuv forces gained more and more territory, creating a large scale refugee problem of Palestinian Arabs.  [4]  Popular support to the Palestinian Arabs throughout the Arab world led to sporadic violence against Jewish communities of Middle East and North Africa, creating an opposite refugee wave. Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine, beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip, where the All-Palestine Government was declared by the Arab League on 22 September 1948. While the Jewish people were successful in creating their homeland, there was no Palestine and no internationalization of Jerusalem, either. In 1948 for example, Palestinians were driven out of the new Israel into refugee camps in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and other regions. At least 750,000 people are said to have been driven out (or ethnically cleansed, as some have described it).  [5]  It should be noted that many Jews were also expelled from surrounding Arab countries. Zionist organizations and even some Arab nations also encouraged many Jews to immigrate to Israel. As with Palestinians, expelled Jews often had their land and/or bank accounts and other property seized. In 1956, Britain, France and Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal fearing the loss of a major economic trading route entry point for the West to the rest of the Middle East. While Egypt was defeated, international pressure forced the withdrawal of the invading forces.  [6]   In 1967, Israel simultaneously attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan in a pre-emptive strike against the Arab troops along its borders. Israel captured key pieces of land, such as the strategic Golan Heights to the north on the border with Syria, to the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza strip from Egypt. In fact, Israel more than doubled its size in the six days that this war took place. Since then, negotiations have been around returning land to pre-1967 states, as required by international law and UN resolutions. Even today, the Palestine Liberation Organisation calls for a two state solution based on the pre Six Day War borders. In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur to attempt to regain the land lost in the Six Day War, but failed. This confrontation is also known as the Yom Kippur War. In 1978, the Camp David accords were signed between Israel, Egypt and the US, and Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in return for peace between them. To the US and Israel, this was a great achievement; Egypt was obviously not to be underestimated in its capabilities, so the best thing would be to ensure it is an ally, not an adversary. In 1978, due to rising Hezbollah attacks from South Lebanon, where many Palestinian refugees still were, Israel attacked and invaded Lebanon. In 1982, Israel went as far up Lebanon as Beirut, as bloody exchanges followed between Israeli attempts to bomb Yasser Arafats PLO locations, and Hezbollah retaliations. The infamous Shabra and Shatila massacre was carried out during this war. In 1985, Israel declared a strip of South Lebanon to be a Security Zone (not recognized by the UN). Many civilians were killed on both sides. Israeli forces were accused of massacres on many occasions. After 22 years, Israel withdrew in May 2000. One of the leading Israeli military personnel was the future Israel Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. In the late 1980s came the Palestinian uprising-the Intifada. While there was much of a non-violence movement initially, the mainstream media concentrated on the violence. Young Palestinians confronted Israeli troops with nothing more than sling shots and stones. Thousands were killed by the Israeli military. Many suicide activists killed Israeli soldiers and caused other damage. Many innocent civilians were killed on both sides. 1993 saw the Oslo Peace Accord, whereby Israel recognized the PLO and gave them limited autonomy in return for peace and an end to Palestinian claims on Israeli territory. With the signing of the Oslo Declaration of Principles, the PLO denounced violence and recognised the UN Security Council Resolution 242, thereby recognising the right of Israel to exist. In 1994, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, ending twenty seven years of occupation. They were replaced by a Palestinian police force. In April 1996, Israeli forces bombed Lebanon for 17 days, with Hezbollah retaliating by firing upon populated areas of Northern Israel. Israel also shelled a UN shelter killing about 100 out of 800 civilians sheltering there. The above merely gives a broad outline of the conflict, and a more comprehensive analysis of the underlying cause and various other issues couldnt be provided here due to the call of brevity. The Palestine Problem and the need for a Solution As the periodic bloodshed continues in the Middle East, the search for an equitable solution must come to grips with the root cause of the conflict. The conventional wisdom is that, even if both sides are at fault, the Palestinians are irrational terrorists who have no point of view worth listening to. Our position, however, is that the Palestinians have a real grievance: their homeland for over a thousand years was taken, without their consent and mostly by force, during the creation of the state of Israel. And all subsequent crimes on both sides inevitably follow from this original injustice. Whether it is the Deir Yassin massacre in which the Irgun and Lehi soldiers carried out the slaughter of innocent villagers including women and children, or whether it is the suicide bombings perpetrated on Israeli civilians and soldiers by Palestine based terrorist groups, both sides have used a previous occurrences as justifications for a fresh act of violence. After decades of bloodshed, there seems to be no right or wrong anymore. And misery hasnt ceased to exist for the innocent. The major issues that dominate the dialogues on the problem are: Refugees About 726,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in 1948 in the war that followed the creation of Israel, and additional Palestinians fled in 1967. There are now about 4 million Palestinian refugees. Many of them live in crowded refugee camps in poor conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Palestinians demand that these refugees should have the right to return to their homes in Israel under UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Israelis note that an almost equal number of Jews fled Arab lands to Israel in 1948. Israelis oppose return of the refugees because that would create an Arab Palestinian majority and would put an end to Israel as a Jewish state. Most Palestinian groups, including the Fateh, agree, and openly proclaim that resolution of the refugee issue by granting right of return would mean the end of Israel. Israeli Settlements One of the major barriers to the creation of two contiguous, sovereign states for Palestinians and Israelis is the existence and continuing growth of illegal Israeli colonies (widely called settlements) on land long recognized by the United Nations as part of Palestine. Despite a repeated international condemnation, the population of these settlements, which currently number 121, has grown by an average of 5% annually since 2001. That compares to an average growth of just 1.8% for the population of Israel proper. Israel has repeatedly refused to dismantle these settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, and has repeatedly fudged and violated various moratoriums on new growth. Palestinian State Originally formed to regain all of Palestine for the Palestinian Arabs, the Palestine Liberation Organization signalled that it would accept a two state solution in 1988. The Oslo accords were supposed to have led to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, but continued Israeli settlement and Palestinian violence and incitement degenerated into open conflict in September 2000. Mainstream Palestinians demand a state in the West Bank and Gaza. Right wing Israelis are opposed to creating a state, because, they claim, it would be a base for terror groups. In final status negotiations, the Israeli government agreed to a demilitarized Palestinian state with limited control over its borders and resources a state minus. Palestinian terror Almost all Palestinian groups were founded with the declared aim of destroying Israel by violence, and had a history of terrorist activities. Only the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) has renounced this aim officially. In 1993, the PLO signed the Oslo Declaration of Principles, renouncing violence and agreeing to honour UN SC Resolution 242, which implicitly recognizes the right of Israel to exist. In return, Israel allowed the PLO to enter the West Bank and Gaza strip, and Palestinians gained autonomous control of most of the population of these areas. Extremist Palestinian groups that objected to the agreements began a campaign of ambushes and suicide bombings against Israel. The Palestine National Authority claimed they could not control the dissident groups. Final status negotiations faltered in September 2000. Israeli Repression Israel responded to Palestinian violence at the beginning of the Oslo process by limiting the flow of Palestinian workers to Israel to prevent infiltration of terrorists, and by strict checks at border checkpoints. The border closing drastically reduced the Palestinian standard of living. Palestinians who did come to work were often subjected to humiliating searches and very long waits at checkpoints. Following terror attacks at the checkpoints, nervous IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers sometimes were too quick to open fire on suspicious vehicles, killing innocent civilians. Checkpoints around Jerusalem made it difficult for Palestinians to get to work in Jerusalem and to travel between Palestinian towns. The IDF has killed over 3,500 Palestinians  [7]  , demolished houses and uprooted olive groves. After a recent IDF study showed that the demolitions do not deter suicide bombings, demolitions of the houses of suicide bombers were discontinued, but houses are still demolished for other reasons. In addition to measures taken to ensure security, Israeli extremist settlers have harassed Palestinians, destroyed property, uprooted olive trees and killed several Palestinians in doubtful circumstances. The perpetrators are rarely identified and almost never prosecuted. Israeli Security The area of Israel within its pre-1967 armistice borders is slightly less than 8,000 square miles. The distance from Tel Aviv to the green line border of Israel (West Bank) is about 11 miles. Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other Israeli cities are within artillery range of any Palestinian state. Israel therefore insists on guarantees that a Palestinian state would be demilitarized. The West Bank has enormous strategic importance to any country wishing to invade Israel. Israel therefore insists on guarantees that the Palestinian state would not allow a foreign army to enter its borders, and has insisted on bases within the West Bank. Water The land has always had a scarcity of water. The Israel National Water Carrier has made possible a high population density and standard of living.  [8]  The carrier pumps water from the Sea of Galilee and carries it to areas in the center and south of Israel as well as for Palestinian areas. In one day it delivers the volume of water used in all of 1948, but it is not enough.  [9]  The aquifers that supply Israels central area lie in the West Bank. The Jordan river flows through territory that would be part of Palestine. Both sides need water for survival and development and want to ensure an adequate water supply from the limited resources available. Israel has reserved for its own use a large percentage of the water in West Bank aquifers The Two State Solution The current solution for Israel and Palestine suggests that Palestinians ought to have their own state, separate from Israel. In this way a Two-State solution might be reached. The method by which such a solution could be implemented involves a technical division of land with walls, earth mounds, road blocks and fences. This chapter discusses the so-called practical limitations of a Two-State solution. Notably it questions whether a Palestinian State is a viable option. Israel and Palestine combined are no bigger than South Africas Western Cape Province and yet, for such a small amount of land, the Two-State solution seeks the establishment of a Palestinian state, separate from the current Israeli state. Palestine itself is not one land mass. It is currently divided into two territories named the West Bank and Gaza respectively. Gaza has a western coastline on the Mediterranean Sea and shares borders with Israel and Egypt. Gaza is a relatively small territory, merely 45 kilometres in length. The West Bank is landlocked, sharing borders with Israel and Jordan. Although the West Bank is marginally larger than Gaza, it is not easy to freely access the territory as it is surrounded by a 723km concrete wall, 6-9 metres high in most places. The wall has been built by Israel to separate Israel from the Palestinian West Bank. But the wall does not follow the internationally recognised border between Israel and the West Bank. Rather, it cuts into the West B ank annexing 13% of the territory for Israel. The wall is characteristic of Israels selfishness in claiming Palestinian land. Despite the low percentage of land annexed by the wall, this portion of land is, nonetheless, highly fertile and densely populated mostly by Palestinian farmers. The livelihood of these farmers depends on the productivity of their land. Palestinians whose land has been annexed by Israel live in a so-called seam zone between the internationally recognised Israeli-West Bank border and the wall. These Palestinians who live in the seam zone are known as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). By definition they are person who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of armed conflict, violence, violations of human rights or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised State border.  [10]  Palestinians whose land falls in the seam zone are only permitted access to their farmlands during designated hours with a required permit. If a viable Palestinian state is to be cre ated, the status of these IDPs has to be resolved, either by Israel offering financial compensation for appropriating Palestinian land, or by moving the wall and thereby allowing Palestinian landowners to return. Both of these solutions are technical in nature and are indicative of the so-called rational approach taken by Israeli policymakers. The vexing nature of how to divide Israel and Palestine comes without even discussing Jerusalem, a city which is contested by Israelis and Palestinians. Jerusalem is home to an estimated 250,000 Palestinians and 200,000 Jews. While Israel claims Jerusalem to be its official capital, the international community treats East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory held by Israel under military occupation. Also, the international community does not recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Palestinians seek to secure a portion of the city as the political capital of a Palestinian State. Israel is, however, unwilling to relinquish any part of Jerusalem for a Palestinian capital. So, the obstacles faced by policymakers favouring a Two-State solution are obstacles of control: which areas are to be controlled by Palestinians and which areas are to be controlled by Israelis. In other words, the question for those concerned with the Two-State solution is how to delineate land which can be controlled by the state. State control over territory is a central feature of the Two-State solution and. This kind of control is termed sovereignty. Policymakers seek to divide Israel and Palestine into two separate states so that each may exercise supreme authority over its territory, without interference from the other. The means by which mutual non-interference is achieved between states is through a principle of so-called recognition. The term itself requires further explanation, in its relevance to the teaching and practice of IR. For IR theorists, recognition is commonly used to describe how states acknowledge one another. The most fundamental aspect of inter-state recognition is respect for each states sovereignty. The Two-State solution hinges on Israelis and Palestinians recognising each other as sovereign entities and thereby not interfering with one anothers domestic affairs. To problematize the notion of interstate recognition it is useful to consider Hegels views. Discussing the relationship between two individuals, a Lord and a Bondsman, he says, Each sees the other, and therefore also does what it does only in so far as the other does the same. Action by one side only would be useless because what is to happen can only be brought about by bothà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ They recognize themselves as mutually recognizing one another.  [11]   There is a perception that Jewish sovereignty is under threat due to the low ratio of Jews to Arabs in the Middle-East. So, in order to protect the identity of this small Jewish population, Jews are insulated within their own sovereign state Israel. Non-Jews living within Israel are viewed as a threat. The protection of Jewish sovereignty would explain why there are limited employment opportunities for Arab workers in Israel and why Arabs receive different education to Jews. Despite the fact that they share territory, it is evident that Israelis and Palestinians believe themselves to be separate nations and thus deserving of separate sovereign states. So the Two-State solution is seen as the so-called rational end for Israelis and Palestinians. Today, the two-state solution is widely accepted among Israelis and Palestinians and around the world. Even elements of the Israeli right are now resigned to the establishment of a Palestinian state, although their conception of the nature of that state is not acceptable to Palestinians. On the Palestinian side, even elements of the Hamas leadership have hinted that they would go along with a two-state solution if negotiated by Fatah leaders and endorsed by the public, as long as they did not renounce their ideological principles. However, a strong view is that neither side would be able to agree to a division that yielded the Temple Mount to the other side. As an attempt to break the stalemate, U.S. President Bill Clinton proposed dividing sovereignty of the site vertically the ground and area below coming under Israeli sovereignty, while that above the ground (i.e. the Haram al-Sharif containing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque) would be under Palestinian sovereignty. A similar idea was suggested for tunnels and elevated roads connecting communities. In the end neither side accepted the concept. The main point on which the two-state solution formula differs from those for an independent Palestinian state is that it calls for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. To achieve a two-state solution, the negotiations must address and resolve a number of core issues, including the borders of the Palestinian state, the citizenship of the new Palestinian state, the status of Palestinian refugees outside the final borders, and the status of Arab citizens of present-day Israel, besides the future of East Jerusalem. The Two-State Solution: An analysis using IR theories Israelis and Palestinians are clearly interspersed, yet the Two-State solution seeks to divide them into sovereign states. We have seen that the idea of sovereignty underpins the Two-State solution based on the distinct nationalities of Israelis and Palestinians. Sovereignty also forms the core of two IR perspectives that are used in the discipline: Realism and Liberalism. This is not to say that that Realism and Liberalism are the only IR theories that can be used to explain the Two-State solution. Rather, Realism and Liberalism are two of the foundational theories. Therefore it is useful to discuss the Two-State solution from the perspective of Realism and Liberalism. First, let us analyse the Two-State solution through the prism of Realism, the school of thought which has been given the greatest primacy in IR. Realism Realists believe that there is no moral standard which dictates how states should behave toward one another. The lack of an overriding ethical code to structure interstate behaviour is known as so-called anarchy.  [12]  For Realists, power dictates how states interact with one another. Because power relations are central to a Realist understanding of the international arena, states are sceptical of trust. So, instead of trusting one another states choose their alliances based on one anothers strategic value in so-called self-interested behaviour. Selfishness means that interstate warfare is inevitable. In the Realist understanding, the international arena is brutal and the only way to deter actors from going to war is if the costs of doing so outweigh the benefits. So, Realists reduce human interests to strategies or games, advocating that actors constantly seek to maximize their utility through negotiations, trade-offs and alliances. Realist Theory reduces the Israeli-Palestinian bilateral relationship to a power squabble, as each side attempts to gain the ascendency. In these circumstances relations become a ping-pong match of provocation and conflict is inevitable. For example, a Palestinian suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv market might be reciprocated by an Israeli incursion into the bombers West Bank village. Even cumulative small actions by one side can lead to one large action from the other for example, when numerous Qassam rockets, fired into Israel by Palestinian militants, result in an Israeli military offensive. Presumably then, in the Realist understanding, peace is achieved when the costs of going to war outweigh the benefits of doing so. However, a cost-benefit analysis of going to war can

Properties of Phagraphene via Hydrogenation and Fluorination

Properties of Phagraphene via Hydrogenation and Fluorination Modulation of electronic and mechanical properties of phagraphene via hydrogenation and fluorination Donghai Wu ab, Shuaiwei Wang ab, Jinyun Yuanab* Baocheng Yang ab, Houyang Chenc* a Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials, Huanghe Science and Technology College, Zhengzhou, Henan 450006, China b Henan provincial key laboratory of nanocomposite and application, Zhengzhou, Henan 450006, China c Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260-4200, USA ________________ Abstract: Recently, a new carbon sheet, phagraphene, was proposed by theoretical calculations [Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 6182]. In this paper, the hydrogenated and fluorinated phagraphene (denoted as H-PHA and F-PHA) sheets have been systematically studied using first-principles calculations. The results of formation energy, ab initio molecular dynamics, phonon dispersion and elastic constants confirm that the modified phagraphene sheets are thermodynamically and dynamically as well as mechanically stable. We find that hydrogenation or fluorination is an effective way to modulate the bandgap, and we also find that adsorption-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition and adsorption-induced semimetal-insulator transition occur. Configuration-dependent bandgap for partially H-PHA and configuration-independent bandgap for fully H-PHA are determined. Adsorption-ratio-dependent bandgaps of H-PHA and F-PHA are also identified. Calculated bandgaps from HSE06 and PBE functionals of fully H-PHA ar e larger than those of F-PHA, and they are comparable to thehydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene while they are larger than their corresponding graphene. Dependence of bandgaps of fully H-PHA and F-PHA on the tensile strain is investigated, and our calculations show that an insulator-semiconductor transition occurs upon increasing the tensile strain. Our results also determined that the mechanical properties are controllable by using hydrogenation and fluorination. The calculations of Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio reveal the functionalized phagraphene sheets possess suitable stiffness and resistance to volume deformation, and both are smaller than the pristine phagraphene. 1. Introduction Two-dimensional (2D) carbon-based materials have been attracting great attention due to their fascinating mechanical, thermal, electronic, optical and magnetic properties.1-11 In particular, graphene is the most representative example. Since synthetized by Novoselov et al.6 in 2004, graphene has been extensively studied for its robust stability,12 high crystal quality,13 captivating mechanical and electronic as well as thermal properties.14-18 The covalently bonded honeycomb lattice with perfect hexagonal symmetry of graphene plays a crucial role in forming Dirac cones,19 which gives graphene massless fermions, resulting in the anomalous quantum Hall effects,20 ultrahigh carrier mobility21 and other properties.22, 23 Recently, a new carbon sheet, phagraphene,19 composed of rings containing five, six, and seven carbon atoms, was proposed by theoretical calculations. It can be considered as a defective graphene.24 This planar carbon allotrope is slightly more unstable than pristine graphene while energetically more favorable than other carbon allotropes.19 The notable stability benefits from its sp2-hybridization and dense atomic packing structure.25 Zhang et al.19 have proven that the electronic structure of phagraphene has direction-dependent Dirac cones, which are robust against external strain with tunable Fermi velocities. This unique performance makes the phagraphene an advanced material for numerous applications in photoelectric technology. However, like graphene, the phagraphene suffers a major drawback of zero bandgap and rather robust gapless state, limiting its potential applications. In order to overcome this disadvantage, we use hydrogenation and fluorination to modulate its bandgap in this paper. Thanks to the surface unsaturated C-C dangling bond,26 the chemical modification by adsorbing non-carbon atoms on the surface is an effective way to create a bandgap and tune the electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties of graphene.14, 24, 26-32 Hydrogenation is not only the simplest and manageable adsorption but also the generating hydrides are promising hydrogen storage materials in energy field.33, 34 The fluorine atoms with ultrahigh electronegativity are adsorbed on the graphene surface forming fluorinated graphene, which have been investigated experimentally and theoretically.14, 35, 36 After adsorbing such atoms, the forming C-H and C-F bonds could give rise to the carbon atoms transforming their hybridizati on state from sp2 to sp3, 33 correspondingly, the structural and electronic properties would undergo dramatic alterations. In this work, by employing first-principles calculations, the effect of hydrogenation and fluorination on the bandgap opening of phagraphene sheet is examined. After hydrogenation or fluorination, the bandgap of phagraphene could be opened sizably, changing its electro-conductivity from Dirac semimetal to semiconductor or from Dirac semimetal to insulator. The structural stability and mechanical properties of the modified phagraphene sheet are also investigated. 2. Computational details All the first-principles calculations and abinitio molecular dynamics (AIMD) were carried out by density functional theory (DFT) with the projector augmented wave (PAW) method and performed by the Vienna abinitio simulation package (VASP)37 . The 2D periodic boundary condition was adopted and a vacuum space of 20 Ã… along the perpendicular direction of the phagraphene sheet was included in order to avoid the interactions between adjacent layers. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) of Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE)38 was applied as the exchange-correlation functional in most of the calculations. Meanwhile, to accurately calculate the band structures, the hybrid Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE06)39 was introduced. The Brillouin zone (BZ) was sampled using 2à Ã¢â€š ¬ ÃÆ'- 0.01 Ã…Ã ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 Monkhorst-Pack40 k-point mesh density, and the plane-wave basis set with cutoff energy of 600 eV was adopted. The total energy difference of 10à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢5 eV and forc e tolerance of 10à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2 eVà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ãƒâ€¦Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 were used for the convergence criteria of geometric optimization and self-consistent field. The phonon properties were calculated by the Phonopy package41 with force constants obtained by the finite displacement method.42 3. Results and discussion 3.1 Structural properties Figure 1 displays the structure of phagraphene19 together with its hydride and fluoride. The hydrogenated or fluorinated phagraphene (denoted as H-PHA or F-PHA) sheet is obtained by adsorbing hydrogen or fluorine atoms on both sides of the plane. For fully H-PHA and F-PHA, the ratio of C : H/F is 1 : 1. After optimization, the structures of both fully H-PHA (Figure 1c) and fully F-PHA (Figure 1d) are greatly distorted compared to pristine phagraphene (Figure 1a), resulting in low symmetry with a space group of P21/m (No. 11). The 5-6-7 carbon rings no longer remain in the same plane and become crumpled. The buckling height hb (i.e. the height between the bottom and top carbon layers) of fully H-PHA (0.856 Ã…, see Table 1) is larger than that of F-PHA (0.704 Ã…), and they are much larger than those of hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene (0.42/0.40 Ã…) and graphene (0.46/0.49 Ã…).12 The calculated C-C bond distances of pristine phagraphene in Table 1 are in agreement wi th previous calculations,19 indicating the computational method is valid. All the C-C bond distances in fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are enlarged compared to the pristine phagraphene, and are close to that of 1.546 Ã… in diamond43 while larger than that of 1.42 Ã… in graphene.1 These facts indicate the C-C bonds of phagraphene transform from the sp2-hybridization double bond to the sp3 single bond by hydrogenation or fluorination. The C-C bonds of fully F-PHA are longer than those of fully H-PHA, which can be explained by the depopulation of bonding orbitals between carbon atoms.27 The depopulation of these bonding orbitals stems from the electron transfer between carbon and hydrogen/fluorine atoms. The C-C bonds (C4-C4 in Figure 1) connecting the adjacent 5- and 7-carbon rings are enlarged to a greater extent than others, which is because of the repulsive interactions and steric effects between the adjacent two H/F atoms in the same side of phagraphene. The C-H and C-F bond di stances are approximately 1.11 and 1.38 Ã… (Table S1), approaching to the typical hydrocarbon and fluorocarbons compounds.44 Similar structure distortions and C-C bond elongation are found in hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene and graphene.12, 26, 44 3.2 Stability analysis To investigate the stability of H-PHA and F-PHA, the binding energy Eb and formation energyEf are calculated (definitions of Eb and Ef are given at Section S1 of Supporting Information). The values of Eb are -2.540 and -2.977 eV/atom for fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA (see Table 1), respectively, implying strong interactions between C and H/F. A possible explanation of the strong attractive interactions between C atoms (of phagraphene) and H/F atoms is that, by adsorbing H/F atoms, the C-H/C-F bonds are formed, and the C-C bonds of phagraphene elongate greatly, which could partially release the stress imposed by the 5-6-7 carbon rings.12 Another important factor for synthesis is the formation energy, which applies to measure the stability against molecular desorption from the surface.44 The negative Ef (-0.276 eV/atom for fully H-PHA and -1.615 eV/atom for fully F-PHA) means that the surface modification is exothermic process and the H-PHA (or F-PHA) has lower energy than that of pristi ne phagraphene and H2 (or F2) molecules. The Eb and Ef of hydride are larger than those of fluoride, which are in accordance with similar systems of hydrogenated/fluorinated graphene (-2.48 eV > -2.86 eV)27 and penta-graphene (-3.65 eV > -4.22 eV).12 It is noticed that the Eb of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are close, whereas the Ef of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA have huge difference. This is because of large difference in the dissociation energy of H2 and F2 molecules.27 The thermal stability is also important for H-PHA and F-PHA and is evaluated using the AIMD simulations with a 2 ÃÆ'- 2 ÃÆ'- 1 supercell and a time step of 1 fs for 5000 steps at room temperature (300 K) and 1000 K. Temperature (T) and total energy (Et) as functions of simulation time are plotted in Figures 2 and S1. T and Et converge to constants and the fully H-PHA and F-PHA keep their integrated structures during the AIMD simulations at the setting temperature. These facts demonstrate that hydrogenated or fluorinated phagraphene not only possesses robust thermal stability at room temperature, but also is resistant to high temperature such as 1000 K. In order to examine the dynamic stability, the phonon dispersion curves along the high symmetry points in the BZ and the corresponding phonon density of states (PDOS) are calculated  (Figure 3). No imaginary frequencies are found for both fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA, demonstrating that they are dynamically stable. There are three obvious acoustic modes in the bottom of the phonon spectra for the two structures, and the double degenerates arise along the XZ path of the BZ. These features are similar to the pristine phagraphene,19 graphene45 and its derivatives.12 From the PDOS, one can see that the H-PHA has a tremendous phonon gap of approximately 40 THz, while it is small for F-PHA (about 3 THz). The vibration frequency is inversely proportional to the effective atomic mass,12 thus the larger phonon gap of H-PHA than F-PHA may be attributed to the much lighter atomic mass of hydrogen than fluorine atom. Meanwhile, the narrow high frequency zone around 87 THz in Figure 3a is c orresponding to the C-H bond vibration modes of H-PHA, in accordance with the case of hydrocarbon.46 These C-H stretching modes are infrared active and useful in characterizing this compound.44 The low frequency range from 5 to 10 THz in Figure 3b mainly consists of the phonon modes of C-F bonds. The middle frequency range is dominated by the motion of C atoms. The C=C double bonds were broken by hydrogenation/fluorination, resulting in the disappearance of C-C vibration modes in the region of 40-50 THz for pristine phagraphene.19 3.3 Electronic structures In order to explore the electronic properties and bonding features, the band structures and density of states (DOS) of partially and fully hydrogenated/fluorinated phagraphene are calculated using both PBE and HSE06 functionals. As an example for partially H-PHA, 60% hydrogenation of phagraphene is chosen and four stable configurations (see Figure S2) are designed. The band structures of these configurations are shown in Figures 4 and S3. One can see that the band structures disperse greatly to single band, leading to the sharp peak appearing in the DOS at the EF. Meanwhile, a sub-bandgap located below or above the primary bandgap was observed. From calculations with PBE functional (Figure S3), the bandgaps of the four configurations vary from 2.65 eV (Figure S3a) to 1.72 eV (Figure S3b) to 0.93 eV (Figure S3c) to 0 (Figure S3d). The PBE functional usually underestimates the bandgap of materials.12 To obtain a more accurate Egap, the hybrid functional HSE06 is adopted. The calculated bandgaps with HSE functional in Figure 4 are 3.70 eV, 2.46 eV, 1.56 eV and 0.54 eV for the four configurations. Thus, one can conclude that the bandgap of partially hydrogenated phagraphene depends on configuration and adsorptio n-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition occurs. Such a functionalized 2D material with a proper bandgap has promising applications in optoelectronics and microelectronics.29, 47 The band structures and DOS of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are shown in Figures 5 and S4. From calculations with PBE functional (Figure S4), fully H-PHA and F-PHA have direct bandgaps of 4.29 eV and 3.23 eV, respectively. To examine the influence of configuration on the electronic properties, another four configurations of fully hydrogenated phagraphene (see Figure S5) are taken into account. The calculated band structures of the five configurations (Figures S4a and S6) are almost the same and the bandgaps are approximately 4.29 eV, indicating that the Egap of fully hydrogenated phagraphene is independent of the configuration. Similar behavior was found for fully hydrogenated graphene.27 We also calculated the band structures and DOS with HSE06 functional (Figure 5), and obtained that Egap for fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are 5.37 and 4.98 eV, respectively. These values are comparable to the Egap of hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene (5.35 eV and 4.78 eV) while they are larger th an those of corresponding graphene (4.97 eV and 4.74 eV).12 Obviously, the Egap of F-PHA is smaller than that of H-PHA. Similar results are found in cases of hydrogenated/fluorinated graphene26, 27 and penta-graphene.12Compared to the pristine phagraphene with zero bandgap, the surface modification via hydrogenation or fluorination can effectively tune its electronic structure from semimetal to insulator. Analysis of the partial DOS (Figure 5) reveals that, for H-PHA, the electronic states near the Fermi level (EF) are primarily originated from the C atoms, while they are dominated by both C and F atoms for F-PHA. Additional, from Figures 4 and 5, one can conclude that the bandgaps of H-PHA and F-PHA depend on the adsorption ratio of H and F atoms. We also examine the effect of strain on the band structures. The obtained stress-strain curves of fully H-PHA and F-PHA under biaxial loading (Figure S7) show that their fracture strains are 0.17 and 0.13, respectively. By changing the biaxial tensile strain, the bandgaps of fully H-PHA and F-PHA remain the direct gaps (Figures S8 and S9). Furthermore, upon increasing the biaxial tensile strain, the bandgap of fully H-PHA increases first and then decreases (Figure 6a), whereas the bandgap of fully F-PHA decreases monotonically (Figure 6b). These behaviors indicate that bandgaps depend on the strain. Strain-dependent bandgaps of other 2D materials were also determined previously.48-52 More interestingly, our calculations show that the bandgap of H-PHA reduces from 5.62 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.10) to 4.42 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.17) and the bandgap of F-PHA decreases from 4.98 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0) to 3.01 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.13), indicating that an insulator-semiconductor transition occurs with the tensil e strain changes. To visually describe the electronic structure of fully H-PHA and F-PHA, we calculate the charge density. As shown in Figure 7, the charges are redistributed after hydrogenation or fluorination. Compared to the charge densities of C=C bonds in pristine phagraphene (see Figure S10), the charge densities of C-C bonds in H-PHA and F-PHA are reduced. For H-PHA, the shared charges donated by hydrogen are mainly located between the carbon and hydrogen atoms. For F-PHA, a large number of charges are focused on the fluorine atoms. This difference is a consequence of the different electronegativity of hydrogen and fluorine. For a selected element, its attraction of electrons becomes stronger with higher electronegativity.53, 54 The electronegativity increases gradually from hydrogen to carbon to fluorine.53 Thus the charge transfer is from hydrogen to carbon atoms in H-PHA while it is from carbon to fluorine atoms in F-PHA, which is consistent with other hydrocarbons and fluorocarbons.12, 55-5 7 Moreover, the charge density between H and C is lower than that between F and C, implying the weaker C-H interaction than C-F. The Mulliken population analysis58 shows that the transfer charge amounts are approximately 0.22 and 0.33 electrons for H-PHA and F-PHA, respectively, manifesting the weaker bond strength of C-H than that of C-F. 3.4 Mechanical properties Since the ultrathin 2D phagraphene as well as its derivatives is susceptible to external influences, including mechanical deformation,24 it is necessary to develop an in-depth understanding of their mechanical properties for practical application. The elastic constants are calculated (definitions are given at Section S2 of Supporting Information) and the obtained results are tabulated in Table 2, together with the existing reference data24 for comparison. All the elastic constants of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA satisfy the mechanical stability criteria of C11C22 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ C122 > 0 and C66 > 0 for 2D sheets,3, 59 indicating that they are mechanically stable. The in-plane Youngs modulus (E) and Poissons ratio (ÃŽÂ ½) can be derived from the elastic constants using the formulas of E = (C112 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ C122) / C11 and ÃŽÂ ½ = C12 / C11.24 The E of fully H-PHA and F-PHA are 151.3 and 176.3 N/m (see Table 2), respectively, which are consistent with the results from the stress-strain curves (149.2 and 178.5 N/m for fully H-PHA and F-PHA, respectively). The Poissons ratio ÃŽÂ ½ of fully H-PHA and F-PHA are 0.078 and 0.152, respectively. Because the larger E implies the stronger stiffness and the larger Poissons ratio signifies the stronger incompressibility,24 the F-PHA has better stiffness and resistance to volume compression than the H-PHA, which may ascribe to the stronger C-F bonds than C-H bonds. Compared to pristine phagraphene, the E and ÃŽÂ ½ of H-PHA and F-PHA are significantly reduced. Such reduction may be related to their different charge density distribution and bond nature.12, 24 4. Conclusions In summary, we systematically study the structure, stability, electronic and mechanical properties of hydrogenated and fluorinated phagraphene sheets. Our results show that H-PHA and F-PHA are thermodynamically and dynamically as well as mechanically stable. The binding energy and formation energy of fully F-PHA are smaller than those of fully H-PHA, implying the stronger stability of F-PHA than H-PHA. After hydrogenation or fluorination, the bandgap of phagraphene is opened properly, resulting in an adsorption-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition or adsorption-induced semimetal-insulator transition. Strain-induced insulator-semiconductor transition is also identified. Our band structures demonstrate that bandgap of fully H-PHA is insensitive to the configuration whereas the bandgap of partially H-PHA is sensitive to the configuration. Adsorption-ratio-dependent of H-PHA and F-PHA is also determined. The obtained bandgaps from both PBE and HSE06 functionals of fully F-PHA are s maller than fully H-PHA. The charges are transferred from hydrogen to carbon atoms in the fully H-PHA while it is from carbon to fluorine atoms in the fully F-PHA. The positive Poissons ratios of fully H-PHA and F-PHA manifest that they can well resist the volume deformation.Both the Youngs moduli and Poissons ratios of the two phagraphene derivatives are significantly smaller than the pristine phagraphene. This investigation suggests that hydrogenation or fluorination is an effective strategy to modulate the electronic and mechanical properties of phagraphene for its possible applications in nanoelectronics. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21401064, 21206049 and 51472102), the Natural Science Foundation of the Education Department of Henan Province (15A150060), the National Natural Science and Henan Province United Foundation of China (U1204601), Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase), and Leading Talents for Zhengzhou Science and Technology Bureau (Grant No. 131PLJRC649) for supports. We thank the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou and the High performance Computing Center of Huanghe Science and Technology College for the computer time provided. References 1.A. H. Castro Neto, F. Guinea, N. M. R. Peres, K. S. Novoselov and A. K. Geim, Rev. Mod. Phys., 2009, 81, 109-162. 2.D. Malko, C. Neiss, F. Vià ±es and A. Gà ¶rling, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 086804. 3.S. Zhang, J. Zhou, Q. Wang, X. Chen, Y. Kawazoe and P. Jena, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2015, 112, 2372-2377. 4.Y. Liu, G. Wang, Q. Huang, L. Guo and X. Chen, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 225505. 5.L. Xu, R. Wang, M. Miao, X. Wei, Y. Chen, H. Yan, W. Lau, L. Liu and Y. Ma, Nanoscale, 2014, 6, 1113-1118. 6.K. S. Novoselov, A. K.

Abraham Lincoln Essay -- essays research papers

On February 12, 1809 a boy was born unto Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in a one room log cabin on Nolin Creek near Hodgenville, Kentucky. Who would know that this son of a farmer and a boy with not much education would grow up to be not only the 16th President of the United States but also one of the most famous speakers in history. I will chronicle for you some of the most remembered and effective public addresses of President Abraham Lincoln.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lincoln’s rise to presidency was a lengthy one. His first political speech came in 1830 after he and his family moved to Illinois where they settled on undeclared land along the Sangamon River; he was in favor of improving navigation on this river.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At age 24, Lincoln is elected to the Illinois General Assembly and begins his studies in law. Two years later he is re-elected to the Illinois Gen. Assembly and is now a leader of the Whig party. September 9th, 1836 Lincoln receives his law license and in June of 1840 he argues his first case before the Illinois Supreme Court. After being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, he delivers a speech on the floor of the House against President Polks war policy regarding Mexico. In March of 1849 he makes an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Illinois statute of limitations, but is unsuccessful and leaves politics to practice law. Lincoln’s aptitude in public speaking soon gains him a reputation as an outstanding lawyer and is nicknamed â€Å"honest abe†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1854 he decides to re-enter politics and is elected to Illinois legislature but declines the seat in order to try to become U.S. Senator; however he is again unsuccessful and does not get chosen by the Illinois legislature to be U.S. Senator.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Abe Lincoln was well known in history for his views on anti-slavery laws. On June 26th, 1857, he first speaks against slavery at the Dredd Scott ruling. Dredd Scott was an African-American slave whom was taken by his master, an officer in the U.S. Army from the slave state of Missouri to the free territory of Wisconsin where he lived on free soil for a long period of time. When the Army ordered his master back to Missouri, he took Scott back to that slave state where his master died. In 1846, Scott was helped by Abolitionist lawyers to sue for his free... ...shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.† The most famous and important Civil War Battle occurred over three summer days, July 1-3, 1863, around the small market town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln was outraged at the number of casualties and on November 19th delivers the Gettysburg Address dedicating the battlefield as a national cemetery. He spoke in his high, penetrating and in a little over two minutes delivered the address, surprising many by its shortness and leaving others quite unimpressed. â€Å"Over time, however, the speech and its words- government of the People, by the People, for the People- have come to symbolize the definition of democracy itself.† Unfortunately, Lincoln’s next tenure as President, is cut short by his untimely death. During the play â€Å"Our American Cousin† at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865, Lincoln was killed by a bullet to the head by John Wilkes Booth. President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning on April 15, 1865. The public addresses of Abraham Lincoln allow us to learn fundamental aspects of public speaking. Due to his outstanding ability to communicate, teaches us still today, the effectiveness of great speech communication.