Ancient Art

Panel of Lions- Chauvet Caves Queen Nefertari Art history is a record of how people in the past lived, felt, and acted; it allows us a glimpse of a long ago deceased culture. To look at Ancient Greek art is to realize the importance and accomplishments of human beings. Though the Greeks used art to honor the Gods, it was those same Gods that were created in human image. Even their sculpture, pottery, and temples, were created under the fundamental principle of ar ©te, meaning to reach one's fullest potential. Without Rome's influence, we would not have concrete or the Pantheon, which is still in use today.While more secular and utilitarian in form, the Romans developed the use of the arch, the vault, and the dome, leading for a much grander form of architecture. From the Greeks example, the Romans developed mosaic decorations, which became a very important aspect of patrician domestic decoration. The Paleolithic Period is referred to as the Stone Age, mainly because stone artifacts are the only artifacts that have survived. In Paleolithic paintings, the images of humans rarely appear and when they do they are more simplified and abstract than the images of animals, which portray an expressive naturalism.Discovered by three cave explorers in 1994, the Chauvet Caves, located in the Ardeche region of Southern France date back to around 30,000 BC. The most famous cave findings in the world, this Pont d' Arc find holds the oldest known paintings. Painted in charcoal and earthen pigments, lifelike images of horses, rhinoceroses, tigers, and other animals that long ago became extinct show us what life was like for our ancestors. It has long been the belief of scholars that the purpose behind this naturalistic art was to bring the spirit of the animals into the rituals of the hunt.It is believed that he Chauvet Caves were used as a sanctuary where the Paleolithic people initiated their youth in ceremonies. This theory is based on both symbolic and metaphysical associ ations with the animals portrayed in these ancient cave paintings. The Chauvet Cave features a coveted scene of a pride of lions hunting together for bison; as this was a permanent place of inhabitation for man, this art represents a level of development for mankind. Chauvet Caves is divided into two parts. While the first part is mainly red images with some black imagery, the second part is mainly black images of animals.Along with the pride of lions is a painting of three horses More than 60% of the animals identified at Chauvet-Pont-d'-Arc were considered dangerous mammoth animals. These animals represent the animals that primitive man hunted at the time. It is surprising the amount of shading and perspective that went into the creation of these cave creations. These refinements contrast greatly with the images we are used to seeing. Egypt, known for such mesmerizing works as The Great Pyramids, had deserts on both sides of the Nile.Because of this, Egypt remained relatively unsc athed from utside influence for 2,500 years, leading to their own distinctive style of architecture, painting, and sculpture. While their religious belief focused largely on life after death, care and preservation of the body was essential for extending life beyond the grave. â€Å"Upon death, bodies of royalty and nobility were embalmed; together with accompanying artifacts, tools, and furniture, they were then buried in pyramids or in hidden underground tombs. Architects put great effort into funerary structures. As a result, most of what we know about ancient Egypt comes from such tombs†.Frank, 2010). Nefertari's tomb is considered to be one of the best preserved, most eloquent paintings of any Egyptian burial site. Discovered in 1904 by archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, he spent two years excavating both this site and other sites around the Valley of the Queens with limited success. Humanity and humidity, mixed with landslides and salt deposits, had left the tomb in dep lorable condition. In 1986, the Ministry of Culture and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization in Cooperation with Getty Conservation Institute were determined to complete restore Queen Nefertari's tomb.Queen Nefertari was believed to be King Ramesses II's favorite wife, and as such, he commissioned a beautifully painted tomb in a small rock-cut temple for her to be placed next to his own. It was located in the Valley of the Queens, which is located in Thebes. Reigning during the 19th Egyptian Dynasty, the queen's tomb consisted of several rooms and hallways with paintings of Queen Nefertari in various positions doing many different things. At the entrance is a depiction of a sun between Isis and Nephythys, which leads into an offering hall, with several paintings that show the Queen in worship and offering items to different Gods.

High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act

ARTICLE SYNOPSISThe â€Å"High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act† article is about the Supreme Court ruling in Free Enterprise Fund vs. PCAOB indicating that Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) will remain â€Å"fully operative as a law† with the exception to remove members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Prior to the SOX Act, the removal of member was said to violate the appointments clause of the Constitution. In addition to discussing the ruling, the following will explain how the Sarbanes-Oxley act affects ethical decisions in today’s business and the criminal penalties that it provides. ETHICAL DECISIONThe process of making decisions consists of ethical attribute that include integrity, transparency, and accountability. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has the effect of ensuring investor confidence through the existence of regulatory provisions effective in enhancing ethical standards. In the case of Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB shows the extent to which the issue of separation of powers is upheld. The main argument in the case was the excess power granted to the board as it was appointed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) other than the president. This means that the board had regulatory non-restricted power by the executive. According to the ruling, PCAOB has the power to continue overseeing public company audits with the intention of protecting investors interest (Jaeger, 2010).This is a major development as it relates to ensuring that proper measures supports the scope of executives ensuring that proper decisions are effective in  protecting the interests of investors. The court’s ruling indicated that PCAOB board members will be removed from office by SEC at will other than for good cause (Jaeger, 2010). However, other programs of PCAOB remain unaffected by the decision of the court.It is important to note that the enactment of the SOX Act is a major development that has ensured integrity in decision-making p rocess essential in protecting the integrity of investors. As a result of maintaining proper books of accounts and ensuring proper internal controls are in place, the SOX Act ensures ethical decisions are made enhancing the integrity and transparency. Ultimately, the impact of the SOX Act is to protect the interest of investors through prevention of accounting frauds.CRIMINAL PENALTIESThe SOX Act provides for various criminal penalties under certain sections. Section 802 of the SOX Act provides criminal penalties for influencing the United States agency investigation, which is also known as proper administration. The criminal penalty punishes any person who knowingly falsifies information or document with the intention of obstructing a particular investigation. An individual can be put in jail if found guilty of this criminal offense for a period not exceeding 20 years. Another criminal penalty under the SOX Act is retaliation against whistleblowers (Jaeger, 2010).This relates to an y person who takes harmful action against another person with the intention to retaliate. A fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years can be placed if a person is found guilty for this criminal offense. Section 906 of the SOX Act provides for criminal penalties for CEO or CFO financial statement certification. According to this section, any corporate officer who fails to certify financial reports is liable for a jail term not exceeding 20 years.Reference Jaeger, J. (2010). High Court Ruling Only Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Accessed

Homestasis - Thermoregulation and control of blood sugar Essay

Homestasis - Thermoregulation and control of blood sugar - Essay Example The hypothalamus effects changes in response to alterations in body temperature by activating adjustments to effectors in the form of muscles manipulating body hair movement and operation of the sweat glands. Hence, the human body’ temperature can only be regarded as stable provided that the heat produced matches heat lost. The sustenance of the temperature of the body at a steady level is paramount given that the living processes within the cells closely depends on the action of the enzymes that work effectively in a set of stable conditions, especially at optimal temperature and pH. Any alterations in the set properties influence the utility of the enzymes and can yield to the death of the cells, and, ultimately, the death of the whole organism. This stresses the significance of regulation and sustenance of a constant internal environment. Nevertheless, the internal environment may not be entirely constant as it may be tolerated to fluctuate, albeit at exceptionally constric ted limits. Indeed, temperature regulation is imperative given that the speed of metabolic reactions is directed by enzymes activity that only functions optimally at temperatures that neighbor body’s core temperature of 37Â °C. ... Devoid of enzymes activity, much of critical bodily functions would fail to take place at the required level, which leads to the death of the cells. Q2 How the body gain and lose heat The outside temperature mainly differs significantly as the day progresses; however, the body temperature ought to be sustained at the core temperature of 37Â °C. This is well demonstrated in Jamel’s case given must be sustained at a constant 37Â °C with minimal variations while the outside environment is bound to change (Sircar 2008, 697). Given that the temperature in New York City stood at 10Â °C and there is a possibility that the temperature fluctuated prior the race, during the race, and after the race, Jamel’s body must adapt to the changing external environment. This is achieved via a number of processes through which the body is subjected to, namely: vasodilation, sweating, shivering, and vasoconstriction (Sircar 2008, 697). During the race in which Jamel’s body temperat ure rises owing to the rise in metabolism, the sweat glands located within the skin are activated to secrete/release sweat on to the surface of the skin. The action of evaporation of sweat from Jamel’s body’s surface yields to rapid cooling of the body, which, in turn, yields a drop in body temperature. How Jamel’s body Generate Heat Body energy (heat) is essentially gained through the action of two critical methods, namely: energy generation through metabolic and energy acquisition from environmental. Jamel’s body heat generation and preservation are facilitated by a number of factors: (1) increased muscular activity such as via shivering, which entails the transfer of stored chemical energy, which yields to a net increase in body heat around the skeletal muscle that flows

Blue jet Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Blue jet - Case Study Example ent compartments such as first class and economy may seem like a good idea in saving costs but majority of the people do not appreciate the standard treatment hence preferring other airlines for that matter. Fatigue and burnout for the few employees is likely to occur what with the employees working being few and the turnaround time being shorter and having increased flight slots hence reducing resting time for the flight crew. JetBlue in a bid to cut costs has made their planes be less comfortable. This is because of more seats than gallery space hence leaving less room for stretching and movement. This may discourage long distance passengers despite the reduced airline costs. The harnessed of technology approach taken by the airline is the greatest of its opportunities as it has not only ensured reduced costs through developments such as electronic ticketing, VoIP, paperless cockpits among others but has continued to reduce time and save on other unnecessary costs hence ensuring more profits. The airline has started using secondary airports. While this may not be the same as using the other airports, it ensures that it has more flight slots as the traffic in these secondary airports is kept to minimal hence no congestion or competition. The decision to use of single fleet operation may seem as a weakness but the culminate advantages it has outdo the weakness aspect. The purchasing costs of the airplanes is lower, they require less maintenance and have a warranty of five years which is fairly good. This has ensured saving on other costs and the excess used to purchase more airplanes. Customer focus is another of the great opportunities JetBlue has. It has created a niche in customer focus with its services and low fare costs as well as reducing delay and baggage complains which has not only served to maintain its customers but increase new customers as well. Point to point flights has acted to increase the reviews and ultimately the number of customers

Islam & clash of civilizations Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islam & clash of civilizations - Term Paper Example If culture would be the main driving force, then what is culture? There could be hundreds of meanings just for a single world. Summarizing these meanings, it is defined as the collection of philosophies and concepts which are being shared by people. However, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) expounded on the meaning of the word as: â€Å"the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group, and encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together with value systems, traditions, and beliefs† (Dilworth & Maital, 30). With these presented to the public, what is happening after the Cold War is a product of diverse beliefs of people who were ruled by leaders who influenced them in having such views. Huntington also puts in a higher cultural grouping of people which is the civilization. He divided human kind into several major civilizations. Amongst these civilizations, what is more prominent especially in the news is the Islamic civilization. They are not just fighting for their civilization to be the strongest but they are also fighting that their religion is more superior to what is dominating the other civilizations (Huntington, 25; Gogstad, 1). There have been published materials that are pointing to the Islamic civilization to be the most susceptible in clashes towards the other civilizations. It was more likely that the clashes began with the Islamic civilization going against the West. One conflict though is that a country who belongs to the Islamic civilization is an ally of the West. This country is Saudi Arabia. The West imports its oil from Saudi Arabia which makes the West one of the key importers of its economy (Brooks, A27; Barber, 4-5; Chomsky). Huntington’s thesis was written in 1993 where the emergence of wars in the Middle East began. It was the time when the West

Managing Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing Operations - Essay Example The paper will therefore analyze the production strategy the managers should choose based on the total cost minimization objective as well as summarizing the information about the aggregate plan to be shared with the supply chain partners. Production strategy based on the Total Cost Minimization The total cost minimization normally occurs at appoint when the marginal cost (MC) curve cuts the average total cost (ATC) curve at its minimum point. This therefore means that, at the minimum point, marginal cost (MC) should be equals to the Average Cost (AC). In most cases, the decision problems are usually molded as being a cost-minimization problem, and therefore, in every network, models usually have a minimization objective. The reasoning behind this is that, in particular, the decision situations never influences the income, hence minimizing costs will increase the opportunities of maximizing the profit (Shim & Siegel, 2002). The production manager should choose on pricing-based as a p roduction strategy to help in making decision based on the total cost minimization. When managers use price-based strategy, the products are usually planned according to cost-plus pricing, value-based pricing as well as target-return pricing. All these are set in such a way that the new product in the market has a competitive advantage over other similar products. Therefore, when there is no overtime for employees, managers have to make sure that the time spent by those employees is compensated for as opposed to when they work on normal hours (Media, 2010). Aggregate Plan The aggregate forecasts of the tank loads for several flavors should be shared to various supply chain partners. The forecast contains the intended tank load production every month from May through September. The company’s production capacity every month is also very important information for the suppliers. The company’s maximum tank loads production in a particular month is 60 tank loads, in May the forecast is 50 tank loads, in June it is 60, in July 70, in August 90, September 80 and finally October 70.There are several months where the forecasted production in a month exceeds the company’s ability these are the months of July, August September and October. Therefore this information on the extra tank loads that the company needs is very crucial supply chain partners. This is because from the information they will get to know of any extra tank loads that the company might require in a particular month and therefore their services might be required. This will give them a chance to offer the company their services in terms of producing the extra tank loads that they have forecasted and yet they are not in a position as a company to produce (Shim & Siegel, 2002). The other Very important information that the supply chains need is the amount of money that is set aside by the company as cost of subcontracting as well as overtime production by various supply chains. Subcontr acting and over production by the suppliers who are available is $1600 and $1800 per tank load. Therefore with this information any supply chain that intends to supply the extra trainloads can be in a position to set a price for their tank loads. They will ensure that they come up with prices that will give them a chance to be chosen as the preferred supplier for the extra tank loads. They also need to know the cost of holding tank loads in a month as well as backordering if made by the company. This will help them make a

Behavioral and Socio-Emotional Approaches to Treatment and Research Proposal

Behavioral and Socio-Emotional Approaches to Treatment and Interventions for Individuals with Autism - Research Proposal Example Autism is a serious disorder affecting children. Thousands of parents in all parts of the world face the challenge of autism in their children. Much has been written and said about the nature and consequences of autism for children. Unfortunately, how to deal with autistic children remains a matter of hot professional debate. The complexity of the problem is associated with the fact that autism leads to the development of other, related disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder, language disorders, and even Tourette’s syndrome (Olney, 2000). Moreover, the complexity of autistic disorders mandates the development of unique, personalized approaches to individuals with autism. The current state of literature provides sufficient information to develop new and improve the existing interventions for individuals with autism. A combination of socio-emotional and behavioral approaches could become a valid response to the difficulties encountered by individuals with autism. Interventions and Approaches to Individuals with Autism: Historical Background Autism is rightly considered as one of the most complex and controversial neurological disorders affecting children. The history of autism research dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when scientific interest in the physical and natural sciences, as well as professional interest in psychology and social sciences rapidly increased (Schopler, 2001). Researchers in psychology and social sciences borrowed their research methods from physical sciences and scientific technologies (Schopler, 2001). More often than not, scientific methods were used to study complex cultural phenomena mediated by human and political changes (Schopler, 2001). At that time, the growing body of psychological literature was built on experimental studies and their results, but could not predict complex behavioral patterns in humans (Schopler, 2001). Autism represented a rare case, when a previously unknown disorder was saved from â€Å"the untested assumptions of psychodynamic theories that had prod uced a widespread misunderstanding of autism as a social withdrawal from emotionally cold parenting† (Schopler, 2001, p.10). The growing scope of the cognitive revolution and the rise of theoretical analyses brought renewed interest in the theoretical study of autism. Later researchers were no longer interested in autism as merely a stimulus-response mechanism but tried to look deeper into the nature of mental actions in individuals with autism, such as attending, comprehending, thinking, and feeling (Scholer, 2001). In the latter half of the 20th century, the study of autism displayed a number of parallel developments, including behaviorism and neuro-biological specificity (Scholer, 2001). New directions, including cultural psychology, were developed (Scholer, 2001). In 1995, the American Psychological Association was required to develop guidelines for the selection of the most appropriate interventions and therapies for psychosocial aspects of physical disorders and mental d isorders, and that was when autism came to the center of the research arena. Scholer (2001) writes that