Thinking Critically †Poverty and Happiness Essay Example for Free

Thinking Critically – Poverty and Happiness Essay This paper takes the position that poverty is not necessarily equated with lack of happiness. Arguments supportive of this thesis are presented in this paper while being balance by arguments of the opposite view but with counter arguments to strengthen the position taken. One of best arguments that could be forwarded in support of the proposition taken is that people from poor countries are happier than from wealthier countries. While almost countries want to have economic progress as a battle cry of globalization, it may not necessarily mean that countries are also seeking happiness after. It could be misleading to argue that wealth is synonymous with happiness or expressed the other way, that poverty is synonymous with lack of happiness. The first argument to show lack of relationship between wealth and happiness is the higher incidents of suicides among richer countries than those from poor countries. If one compares a poor country like Philippines compared with richer countries like Singapore, Japan, Australia and US, one could just see there are more people committing suicides in richer countries despite the higher standard of living from the latter countries (WHO, 2008). If economic well being is an assurance of happier well being then why is the big difference in the number of deaths by suicides? Suicide is a voluntary or self inflicted and said event is a manifestation of lack of happiness. Psychologists would agree that happiness is difficult to measure but they would not disagree that suicide is a proof of lack of happiness and willingness to continue in life. It can be argued that the pressure to acquire more material wealth in more developed countries has created its own consequences. To cite an example, Singapore’s rapid economic success appears to have its social cost as a price. Life in said country has become a rat race for people who cannot just easily acquire resources for living as others. Think Centre (2007) cited the fear of being retrenched in job as a result of restructuring that could push the person to commit suicide. Singapore is noted to have a suicide rate higher than country like Thailand when life is reported to be much more comfortable in Singapore (Think Centre, 2007) . What could explain these things are the facts that the Singaporeans tend be striving harder, less tolerant of failures and overly materialistic (Think Centre, 2007). Given this situation it would be easy to establish the lack of connection between wealth (or poverty) and happiness (or lack of it). As a result of high-pressure living, the economic growth has not spread happiness to all hard-pressed Singaporeans. Many citizens do not have retirement savings and have been advised to work beyond 765 years to survive in this expensive city (Think Centre, 2007). Blinkered Thinker,( n. d) cited the case of the southeast Asian country of Myanmar , which borders Bangladesh, India, China, and Thailand, and which is among the poorest countries on the globe. Poverty was indeed found in Yangon as well as Myanmar but people in said places are noted to be the most hospitable and helpful tourist on earth with their smiles beating those of Thailand. It was therefore admitted that wealth can â€Å"reduce privation and some of the unnecessary sources of unhappiness, but happiness is a mood and not an economic state. † (Blinkered Thinker, n. d. ) This again confirms earlier statement that wealth is economic while happiness is social. It was however observed that in Myanmar that about 85% of the Burmese (Myanmar) people practice a form of Buddhism, which teaches that people happiness is attainable only by forsaking worldly desires (Blinkered Thinker, n. d. ). In this sense, materialism has become a contradiction of happiness. Zhang (2005) has argued that economics has failed to address this one fundamental issue until this very day. The author argued that â€Å"happiness† depends not so much on absolute wealth as relative wealth. There appears to be trade off actually between happiness and wealth as people would do more work for increase in wages but they will receive less leisure in return (Zhang, 2005). This could be easy to understand as wealth is material while happiness is social (Zhang, 2005), thus, thus the two need not go together. What is said by one person that he or she is happy does not necessarily mean what is really meant. Asking a person on whether he or she is happy may not necessarily give the correct answer as one could lie to hide guilt or deny the miserable feeling inside. In response to a study which tries to show a correlation between happiness and wealth (Wolfers, 2008), Arthur Engel, a blogger, who is a psychoanalyst from Brazil pointed out the difference between being happy and saying that one is happy. In admitting about the difficulty of measuring whether someone is happy or not, he criticized the method of asking respondent as not a good method to find out happiness. The blogger was saying that the respondent could always lie to cover up something and that there are just many factors that could influence the answers. The claim that a wealthier person is a happier, cannot therefore easily be accepted (Wolfers, 2008). The same blogger however posited that one who watches a documentary about poverty in Africa, or about rape victims, cancer hospitals, etc. may indeed find himself happier than those persons in Africa. The difficulty of measuring happiness is still there so what one feels for the seeming unfortunate people may not actually be felt by these people. But in realizing that if the suicide indices are used as measures, he agreed that â€Å"suicide is something almost exclusively committed by rich people. † (Wolfers, 2008) Another argument that would show the lack of relationship between poverty (or wealth) happiness (or lack of it) is the fact that lack of happiness could be a lot for both the rich and the poor. Another blogger to that economics of happiness reacted by quoting Herodotus who said, â€Å"Call no man happy until he is dead. † Expressing his disbelief of the analysis, because of bad methodology, vague terminology, too-eager conclusions, and failure to mention contradictory studies, which is believer to be many, the blogger was confirming the absence of relationship between wealth and happiness. This latter blogger however realized that the misery of having money worries which can seep into and poison every aspect of one’s life. She therefore admitted having enough money so that one does not have to worry, can really help but beyond that, she does not see any reason to believe, based on personal experience, that people with lots of money are that much happier than people with adequate money (Wolfers, 2008). On other point of view, it may be argued that wealthier people are happier people. Wolfers (2008) presented a paper that shows a correlation between happiness and wealth which was claimed to be the result of studies across countries in a number of periods. It could however be argued statistically that correlation is not the same causality. If applied to this case, there is no proof that happiness is causing people to become wealthy or that wealthier people are happier as result of better wealth. Moreover the responses were direct answers which may not really be reflective of the truth as respondents could always lie to hide some guilt. Since it is very hard to measure happiness, the result of the study could just not he held valid. It may be further argued that since everybody as a rule wants to be wealthy, should it not mean that happiness is desired as an effect? Everybody may just want to satisfy a need which cannot be misinterpreted as wanting to become wealthy but the result need not be happiness always. A human being is borne to have needs and that he or she has all the right to prepare for the future. There however is limit to what money can buy. It cannot buy a good sleep although it may be able to buy a good bed. I can buy amusement but it cannot buy happiness. It can be concluded that poverty and happiness belong to different realms. Although a correlation may be established between the two concepts, the relationship need not be causative as there other factors that must be considered including the manner in which happiness is measured. In certain cases, poverty may bring simplicity of attaining one’s satisfaction of one’s need and hence the struggle to have more is reduced and this could mean greater acceptability for events that are happening in one’s life. To have wealth is however not bad even in the absence of its necessary relation to happiness. Man is both material and social whereby he needs both material things and but at the end of the day, happiness appears to be ultimate desire of all people. If becoming wealthy or avoiding poverty is believed to be the means to attain happiness, the same should be respected as happiness is also personal and therefore a choice to be made. References: Blinkered Thinker (n. d) Poverty Equals Happiness? , {www document} URL, http://blinkeredthinker. com/2006/12/20/169/, Accessed May 2, 2008 Think Centre (2007) Suicide rate climbs despite good times (Insight Down South), {www document} URL http://www. thinkcentre. org/article. cfm?ArticleID=2877 , Accessed May 2, 2008 WHO (2008) Suicide Rates per 100, 000, {www document} URL http://www. who. int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/, Accessed May 2, 2008 Wolfers (2008) The Economics of Happiness, Part 4: Are Rich People Happier than Poor People? , New York Times {www document} URL,http://freakonomics. blogs. nytimes. com/2008/04/22/the-economics-of-happiness-part-4-are-rich-people-happier-than-poor-people/, Accessed May 2, 2008 Xianhang Zhang (2005) Poverty and Happiness, {www document} URL, http://www. mail-archive. com/[emailprotected] gmu. edu/msg00806. html, Accessed May 2, 2008

Calculations of Rare Earth (Y, La and Ce) Diffusivities

Calculations of Rare Earth (Y, La and Ce) Diffusivities First-principles calculations of rare earth (Y, La and Ce) diffusivities in bcc Fe Xueyun Gaoa,b,[*], Huiping Rena, Chunlong Lia,c, Haiyan Wanga, Yunping Jia, Huijie Tan a ABSTRACT: The impurity diffusivities of rare earth elements, Y, La and Ce, in bcc Fe have been investigated by the first-principles calculations within nine-frequency model. The microscopic parameters in the pre-factor and activation energies have been calculated. For the three elements, the first nearest-neighbor solute-vacancy interactions are all attractive, in which Y and La solute atoms more favorably bond to the vacancy. The solute-vacancy binding energy can be explained in terms of the combination of the distortion binding energy and the electronic binding energy, and the decomposition results of the total solute-vacancy binding energy suggest that the strain-relief effect accounts for larger portion of the binding energy for Y and La than that for Ce. The diffusion coefficients of Y are one order of magnitude larger than that of La, and predicted to be comparable to that of Fe self-diffusion. Compared with Y and La, Ce shows large migration energy and small solute-vacancy att ractive interaction, which accounts for the lowest diffusivity of this element. Keywords: Diffusion; Rare earth; Bcc Fe; First-principles calculations 1. Introduction In the past years, the addition of rare earth (RE) elements has been regarded promising in steels. A series of beneficial research for the development of rare earth addition have been focused on the purification and modification of inclusion, since RE elements are characterized by significant negative free energy changes for compound formations [1-3]. RE doping also improve the high-temperature oxidation resistance and the corrosion resistance of steels due to the reactive-element effect (REE) [4,5].In addition, the solidification, phase transformations, recrystallization behavior, of steel can be improved by adding RE [6, 7]. Knowledge of the above mentioned mechanism is essential to understand the influence of RE additions on the physical, chemical and various properties of steels. In spite of the progress so far in RE application, it is apparent that many questions still remain rather controversial. A thorough theoretical study on the diffusivities of RE elements in Fe-based alloy is still lacking, which is essential for understanding the effects of RE on the structure and properties of steel, and is also helpful for designing and preparing RE doped steels [8]. For the three commonly used RE elements, Y, La and Ce, to our knowledge, only the diffusion coefficient of Y has been reported [9]. The diffusion of substitutional-type solute is mainly controlled by vacancy mechanism. In this case, the interaction of solute atom with vacancy plays significant roles in understanding of the diffusion properties of solutes. To understand the microstructure evolution in bcc Fe alloy, DFT method has been applied in calculations of the binding energies of solute atom with vacancy [10]. Based on the nine-frequency model of Le Claire, Ding and Huang et al. [11,12] developed a computational framework to calculate the solute diffusion coefficients in bcc Fe, which presents an effective method in investigation of the diffusion properties in bcc Fe alloy. The purpose of this work is to investigate the impurity diffusivities of rare earth elements, Y, La and Ce, in bcc Fe by the first-principles calculations within nine-frequency model and the semi-empirical corrections for magnetization[11,13], calculate the associated solute-vacancy binding energies, migration energies, pre-factors and activation energies for these impurity diffusivities, as well as the self-diffusion coefficient of Fe, thus discuss the related factors of the diffusion coefficients. 2. Methodology The temperature dependence of diffusion coefficient D is expressed in the Arrhenius form D=D0exp(-Q/kBT), where D0 and Q are the pre-factor and activation energy, respectively. Below the Curie temperature, the self-diffusion and solute diffusion coefficients in bcc Fe deviate downward from the Arrhenius type relationship extrapolated from the paramagnetic state [14]. These deviations are attributed to the change of magnetization which affects the diffusion activation energy. To investigate the effect of magnetic disorder on the diffusion activation energy of spin-polarized metals, Ding et al. [15] reported a first-principles approach based on the spin-wave DFT method for studying the self-diffusion of bcc Fe and fcc Co, and the calculated values of ÃŽÂ ± agree well with the experimental data. More recently, by combination of the first-principle calculations and Heisenberg Monte Carlo simulations, Sandberg et al. [16] presented a quasi-empirical model to study the magnetic contribu tion to the self-diffusion activation energy of bcc Fe. Murali et al. [17] conducted a systematic study of the effects of phonon and electron excitations on the free formation energy of vacancy, the solute-vacancy binding energy, and the vacancy migration energy in bcc Fe. The authors then calculated the Fe self-diffusion coefficient based on the computed free energies, by employing the semi-empirical model presented in Ref. [18]. The diffusion associated data yielded by these methods are in good agreement with experiments. We employ the semi-empirical model to describe the dependence of the diffusion activation energy on the magnetization in the ferromagnetic state [18]: QF(T)=QP[1+ÃŽÂ ±s(T)2] (1) where QP is the activation energy in the paramagnetic state; s(T) is the ratio of the magnetization of bcc Fe at a certain temperature T to that at 0K, and has been experimentally measured [19,20]; the constant ÃŽÂ ± quantifies the extent of the influence of magnetic on activation energy, the measured value of ÃŽÂ ± for Fe self-diffusion is 0.156 [11].In the case of the solute species investigated in this context that have no measured ÃŽÂ ± values available, the values can be estimated from a linear correlation with the induced changes in local magnetization on Fe atoms in the first and second neighbor shells of a solute atom [21]. The first-principles calculations give direct access to the magnitude of the activation energies for self- and solute diffusion in the fully ordered ferromagnetic state (T=0K). Given the values of ÃŽÂ ± and s(T), we can compute QP through the relation , and QF(T) from Eq. (1). We based the diffusion calculations on the assumption that the mechanism of diffusion is primarily monovacancy mediated. The self-diffusion and solute diffusion coefficients on a bcc lattice can be expressed as following [11,22]: Dself=a2f0Cvw0 (2) Dsolute=a2f2Cvw2(-ΆGb/kBT) (3) where a is the bcc lattice constant, f0=0.727 is the self-diffusion correlation factor, f2 is the correlation factor for solute diffusion which depends on the relative vacancy jump frequencies around the solute atom. Cv denotes the equilibrium vacancy concentration, can be written as Cv=exp(ΆSf /kB)exp(-ΆHf /kBT), where ΆSf and ΆHf are the vacancy formation enthalpy and entropy, respectively, the harmonic approximation makes these two become temperature-independent constants. and kB is Boltzmanns constant. w0 and w2 are the vacancy hopping frequencies for Fe and solute atoms to exchange with a nearest-neighbor vacancy, respectively. Based on transition state theory (TST), the vacancy hopping frequency w is written as , where and are the phonon frequencies in the initial state and transition state, and the product in the denominator ignores the unstable mode; ΆHmig is the migration energy, gives the energy difference for the diffusin g atom located at its initial equilibrium lattice position and the saddle-point position. The solute-vacancy binding free energy ΆGb can be expressed as ΆGb =ΆHbTΆSb, where ΆHb and ΆSb are the binding enthalpy and entropy, respectively. The correlation factor f2 can be calculated using the nine-frequency model developed by Le Claire [13] which involves different jump frequencies of vacancies to their first neighbor position in the presence of the solute atoms, as illustrated in Fig. 1. In this model, the interaction of solute-vacancy is assumed up to second neighbor distance. The nine frequencies shown in Fig. 1 illustrate all of the distinct vacancy jumps in a bcc system with a dilute solute concentration, including the host Fe atom jump w0 without impurity. The detailed calculation procedures could be found in Ref. [11]. Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the nine-frequency model for the bcc Fe crystalline with a solute atom. The arrows denote the jump directions of the vacancy. The numbers in the circle represent the neighboring site of the solute atom. For convenience, we can represent the self- and solute diffusion equations (Eqs.(2) and (3)) in Arrhenius form to obtain the pre-factor and activation energy of diffusion. By combining the above Eqs., the diffusion coefficient for Fe self-diffusion and solute diffusion can be expressed as: (4) For self-diffusion, the pre-factor is, and the activation energy given as . Also, the solute diffusion coefficient can be expressed in an Arrhenius form with the pre-factor is, and. The first-principles calculations presented here are carried out using the Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package(VASP) with the projector augmented wave(PAW) method and the generalized gradient approximation of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functional(GGA-PBE) [23]. All calculations were performed in spin polarized. The computations performed within a 4à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´4à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´4 supercell including 128 atoms. The binding, vacancy formation and migration energies were calculated with 300eV plane-wave cutoff and 12à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´12à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´12 k-point meshes. The residual atomic forces in the relaxed configurations were lower than 0.01eV/Ã…. The transition states with the saddle point along the minimum energy diffusion path for vacancy migration were determined using nudged elastic band (NEB) method [24] as implemented in VASP. We adopt the harmonic approximation (HA) to consider the contribution of normal phonon frequencies to free energy. The normal phonon frequencies were calcu lated using the direct force-constant approach as implemented in the Alloy Theoretic Automated Toolkit (ATAT) [25] package. Similar cutoff energy, k-point mesh size and supercell size used for the total energies were used for the vibrational calculations. 3. Result and discussion Table 1 illustrates our calculated energies for vacancy formation, migration and binding, as well as the constant ÃŽÂ ± for solute species, the associated paramagnetic activation energies and fully ordered ferromagnetic activation energies for both self- and solute-diffusion. For pure bcc Fe, the vacancy formation energy and migration energy obtained here are consistent with the reported range of values, ΆHf=2.16-2.23 eV and ΆHmig=0.55-0.64 eV [11,26,27]. For Y impurity in bcc Fe, the calculated vacancy binding energy in full ordered ferromagnetic state also compare well with the previous first principles work [28], in which ΆHb=-0.73 eV. It can be seen that Y and La have smaller activation energy than that for Fe self-diffusion, while Ce is predicted to have a lager value of activation energy than that for Fe self-diffusion, in both the ordered ferromagnetic and paramagnetic state. Table 1 Vacancy formation energy ΆHf , solute-vacancy binding energy ΆHb, migration energy ΆHmig, the ferromagnetic activation energy and the paramagnetic activation energy QP; the variable dependence parameter of activation energy on magnetization ÃŽÂ ±. Fe Y La Ce ΆHf(eV) 2.31 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ΆHb (eV) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ -0.69 -0.66 -0.43 ΆHmig (eV) 0.54 0.09 0.17 1.09 ÃŽÂ ± 0.156 0.088 0.038 0.125 (eV) 2.85 1.71 1.82 2.97 QP (eV) 2.47 1.57 1.75 2.64 Solute-vacancy binding energy plays a crucial role in understanding solute diffusion kinetics. Table 2 presents the binding energies of Y, La and Ce atoms with vacancy in their 1nn, 2nn and 3nn coordinate shells. From Table 2 it can be seen that referring to the first nearest-neighbor solute-vacancy pairs, the binding energies are all negative, which implies the solute-vacancy pairs are favorable. Specifically, Y and La impurities are computed to have higher values of solute-vacancy binding energies -0.69 eV and -0.66 eV in 1nn configuration, respectively, while that for Ce is -0.43 eV. Correspondingly, we found that Y, La and Ce atoms relax towards the 1nn vacancy by 22.3%, 19.6% and 12.2% of the initial 1nn distance (2.488 Ã…) after the structure optimization. The interactions of the solute-vacancy pair at the 2nn shells tend to be smaller in magnitude than that of 1nn, and that of Ce-vacancy predicted to be repulsive. The interactions of the 3nn solute-vacancy are relatively we ak, indicating that the interactions of the solute-vacancy are local. According to Le Clair model [13], in the situation that the interactions of the first and second nearest solute-vacancy neighbors are appreciable, the nine different jump frequencies should be considered. To obtain information on the origin of these attractive behaviors, we decompose the total binding energy into the distortion binding energyand the electronic binding energy as [29] . The distortion binding energy can be obtained by the distortion reducing of the bcc Fe matrix when a solute atom and a vacancy combine to form a solute-vacancy pair, and can be expressed as: (5) where and can be calculated as follows: after the supercell containing a solute-vacancy pair (or a substitutional atom) has been fully relaxed, the solute-vacancy pair (or the substitutional atom) is removed from the system, then the total energy can be calculated. denotes the total energy of the pure bcc Fe supercell, and denotes the total energy of the supercell containing a vacancy. Then can be calculated from . The calculated solute-vacancy binding energies of 1nn, 2nn and 3nn are shown in Table 2, along with the energy decomposition for 1nn solute-vacancy binding. The distortion energies (-0.31 to -0.65 eV) for all solute elements(Y, La and Ce) are negative, and much bigger than their corresponding electronic binding energies (-0.04 to -0.12 eV). This implies that the distortion energy accounts for a major part of the total solute-vacancy binding energy, i.e. the strain relief effect contributes significantly to the interaction between the impurity atom and the vacancy, esp ecially for the solute Y and La, which accounted for 94.2% and 97.0% of the total binding energy, respectively. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between the binding energy and the distance of the solute-vacancy, and the lattice relaxation around the vacancy is local. For the case of Ce-vacancy , specifically, we found that Ce atom relax away from the 2nn vacancy by 4.3% of the initial 2nn distance, which leads to the positive binding energy. Table 2 Decomposition of the total solute-vacancy binding energy into distortion binding energy and electronic binding energy. Units are eV. Solute element Y La Ce ΆHb (1nn) -0.69 -0.66 -0.43 (1nn) -0.65 -0.64 -0.31 (1nn) -0.04 -0.02 -0.12 ΆHb (2nn) -0.16 -0.21 0.10 ΆHb (3nn) -0.06 0.09 -0.05 The calculated migration energies of the different vacancy jumps corresponding to the paths in Fig. 1 are listed in Table 3. The migration energies of w2 jump for Y and La are lower than that of w0 jump for host Fe atom (0.54 eV), while the migration barrier of Ce in bcc Fe is higher than that of Fe self-diffusion. The migration barrier of w2 jump for Y is 0.09 eV, comparable to the reported value of 0.03 eV and 0.02 eV [9, 30]. The results indicate that there is a correlation between the binding energy of solute-vacancy and the migration energy, i.e. the strong attraction of solute-vacancy in 1nn configuration gives rise the low migration energy of the corresponding vacancy jump. For the three solute atoms, because of the strong attraction of 1nn solute-vacancy, the migration barriers of which the 1nn vacancy jump away from the solute atom, i.e. w3, w3, and w3, are higher than that of the opposite jumps, i.e. w4, w4, and w4, as well as that of Fe self-diffusion in pure bcc Fe. And t he same tendency can be found in the results of jump w5 and w6. Table 3 Migration energies for different jumps in the presence of Y, La and Ce in bcc Fe matrix. Units are eV. Jump Y La Ce w2 0.09 0.17 1.08 w3 1.81 1.84 1.55 w4 0.91 0.99 0.92 w3 0.93 1.23 1.07 w4 0.04 0.03 0.08 w3 0.86 0.92 0.87 w4 0.12 0.05 0.11 w5 0.94 0.98 0.89 w6 0.69 0.67 0.82 The correlation factor f2 is related to the probability of the reverse jump of a solute atom to its previous position [31]. Table 4 lists the calculated values of correlation factors for Y, La and Ce at representative temperatures of 850, 1000 and 1150K. The correlation factor of Y is 3.3ÃÆ'-10-5 at 1000K, close to the value of 1ÃÆ'-106 obtained by Murali [9]. For the three elements, the correlation factors of Ce have the highest values, and the correlation factors of La are one order of magnitude lower than that of Y. Therefore, Ce atom is the most difficult to return back to its original position in the temperature range of our investigation. Including the smallest binding energy, highest migration energy and correlation factor, provides an explanation for the low diffusivity of Ce atom. Table 4 Correlation factors (f2) for Y, La and Ce solute-diffusion at representative temperatures of 850, 1000 and 1150K. T(K) Y La Ce f2 f2/ f0 f2 f2/ f0 f2 f2/ f0 850 6.4ÃÆ'-106 1.111 2.9ÃÆ'-107 1.264 0.379 1.373 1000 3.3ÃÆ'-10-5 1.070 2.4ÃÆ'-106 1.223 0.381 1.370 1150 1.2ÃÆ'-104 1.034 1.4ÃÆ'-10-5 1.188 0.383 1.367 Table 5 lists the calculated diffusion activation energies and pre-factors for Fe self-diffusion and Y, La and Ce impurity diffusion. For pure bcc Fe, we find our calculated results are in good agreement with the published values. For Y impurity in bcc Fe, the calculated activation energy in full ordered ferromagnetic state is lower than the previous first principles work, and the pre-factor is as much as two orders of magnitude lager than the reported value. The experimental or calculated diffusion coefficients of La and Ce are not available to the best of our knowledge. For the case of experimental investigation, due to the very small solubilities of La and Ce in iron, the measured data may be affected by segregation of solutes, grain boundary, other impurities and the method of detection. Besides, the theory calculations, e.g. molecular dynamics (MD), first-principles etc. have not been applied widely in the study of RE contained steel yet, so the fundamental data of RE elements i n iron, such as the potential functions of Fe-La and Fe-Ce, is lacking. Table 5 Activation energies in the fully ordered ferromagnetic state () and paramagnetic state (QP), along with diffusion pre-factors for Fe self-diffusion and impurity diffusion of Y, La and Ce in bcc Fe. Reference (kJ mol-1) QP(kJ mol-1) D0(m2/s) Fe Present work 275.3 238.1 2.99ÃÆ'-10-5 Huang et al. [11] 277 239 6.7ÃÆ'-10-5 Nitta et al. [32] 289.7 ±5.1 250.6 ±3.8 2.76ÃÆ'-10-4 Seeger[33] 280.7 242.8 6.0ÃÆ'-10-4 Y Present work 165.9 159.9 1.09ÃÆ'-109 Murali et al. [9] 218.1 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ 8.0ÃÆ'-107 La Present work 175.6 169.2 2.88ÃÆ'-1010 Ce Present work 286.3 275.8 7.66ÃÆ'-106 Fig. 2 presents a direct comparison between the calculated and published temperature dependent diffusion coefficients for Fe self-diffusion and Y solute diffusion. For Fe self-diffusion, the calculated values are in good agreement with Huang et al. [11] and Nitta et al. [29], but smaller than the measured d

Ambulance Drivers during World War I :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Ambulance Drivers during World War I World War I allowed for the emergence of many new types of warring equipment. The airplane proved to be very useful and successful. The armored tank became an integral part of an army. However, one of the many new innovations that is frequently overlooked is the introduction of the ambulance. Even though ambulances were used as early as the 1480’s, they were first predominantly used in World War I. The main reason for this is the advent of the automobile. The first vehicles designed as ambulances were first used in 1792 by the French Army (Prose & Poetry). These were usually wagons pulled by slow animals, such as oxen. Because the ambulances were slow in addition to the rough terrain they had to pass through in battlefields, most patients were likely to die from the trip itself (Prose & Poetry). Additionally, the ambulances had bad reputations. They were considered as â€Å"driven by civilian drunkards and thieves who ran when they heard the guns† (qtd in Prose & Poetry). With the introduction of the automobile, the image of the ambulance changed. The ambulances were faster and performed their job much better. The novelty and the speed made driving an ambulance more acceptable to members of the better educated class in the United States (Prose & Poetry). This allowed ambulance organizations to recruit volunteers from ‘better’ schools, such as Harvard and Yale. Ironically, since the automobile was still new many recruits had to first learn how to drive. Because of the number of better educated volunteers, there were a significant number of famous authors that were ambulance drivers during World War I. They included Ernest Hemingway, W. Somerset Maugham, and E.E. Cummings (Literary). Three predominant volunteer ambulance groups were active in World War I: the American Field Service (AFS), Norton-Harjes, and the American Red Cross. When the United States entered the war, the AFS and Norton-Harjes merged into the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps (Literary). Many of these volunteer groups recruited drivers directly from colleges and universities around the United States.

Hamlet: Hamlet The Idealist :: Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

Hamlet: Hamlet The Idealist In Hamlet, Elsinore is a society which people are seen acting in a deceitful manner in order to gain personal measures and prestige. These people mask their true in intentions to acquire selfish desires. In doing so they develop a theme of the discrepancy between the way things appear and their true realities. Hamlet, on the other hand, is an honest, moral individual trapped in this deceitful society. Hamlet is faced with the dilemma to either lower himself to their level by utilizing deception, or leave wrongs unrighted by remaining true to himself. In Hamlet, the theme of appearance versus reality is prevalent in Hamlet's decision between his morals and his father as he decides to utilize the deceit of his society, starts recognizing it in others and finally in using it to avenge his father. When Hamlet is introduced he is seen acting as he feels and this is what prevents him from repaying in kind for his father's murder. Hamlet grieves over the loss of his father so long and intensely that no one understands, for Gertrude and Claudius tell him he needs to move on like they have done, yet Hamlet can't understand this. His actions are reflections of his true feelings while the rest of his peers seem to be ignoring their grief. When Hamlet finds out that he is supposed to kill Claudius for his father he becomes distraught. This is because Hamlet's morals won't allow him to kill even if it releases Old Hamlet from his purgatory. He later realizes that he must start appearing differently than usual in order to carry out his father's word. Hamlet decides to put on an "antic disposition" and in doing so has started becoming deceitful. He is trying to mask his true feelings in order to prepare himself for his dilemma. When Hamlet starts being deceitful he starts to recognize the deceit in others and how they make themselves appear differently from their realities. Hamlets decision to put on an "antic disposition" was not honest to himself but he felt that he must appear differently than he feels to fulfill his needs. Hamlet first recognizes the deceit in Claudius after his father visits. Claudius committed the sin of fratricide (especially horrendous in this Christian society); but was now enjoying the fruits of his sin at the cost of his community. He tricked Elsinore into thinking he was a good king who stepped in to save the kingdom, yet in reality he was the cause of all the trouble. Claudius knew he had done wrong, for he later laments his action, but was now

The Reader :: Literature Literary Text Papers

The Reader In the academic study of literature very little attention has been paid to the ordinary reader, the subjective individual who reads a particular text. David S. Miall and Don Kuiken, in their paper The form of reading: Empirical studies of literariness state, Almost no professional attention is being paid to the ordinary reader, who continues to read for the pleasure of understanding the world of the text rather than for the development of a deconstructive or historicist perspective. The concerns that an ordinary reader seems likely to have about a literary text, such as its style, its narrative structure, or the reader's relation to the author, the impact on the reader's understanding or feelings - such concerns now seem of little interest. In this paper I should like to study a few kinds of reader and the subjectivity of their responses to the objectivity found within literary texts, quoting some views found within reader-response criticism. Before I begin, I should like to consider what is meant by the term 'literary text', and what is meant by the objectivity of it. According to Terry Eagleton, [1] the definition of 'literary', as advanced by the Russian formalists, (who included in their ranks are Viktor Shklovsky, Roman Jakobson, Osip Brik, Yury Tynyanov, Boris Eichenbaum and Boris Tomashevsky), is the peculiar use of language. Literature is said to transform and intensify ordinary language, deviating from the everyday colloquial tongue. The literariness of the language spoken could be determined by the texture, rhythm and resonance of the words used. There is a kind of disproportion between the signifier and the signified, by virtue of the abstract excesses of the language, a language that flaunts itself and evokes rich imagery. Eagleton argues that what distinguishes the literary language from other forms of discourse is the way it 'deforms' ordinary languages in various ways. Under the pressure of literary devices, ordinary language is intensified, condensed, twisted, telescoped, drawn out and turned on its head. [1] According to Wolfgang Iser, [2] a literary work has two poles; the aesthetic and the artistic. The artistic pole is the author's text, and the aesthetic is the realisation accomplished by the reader. Hence the literary work cannot be considered as the actualisation of, or identical to, the text, but is situated somewhere between the two. Iser speaks of the text as a virtual character that cannot be reduced to the reality of text or to the subjectivity of the reader, and it derives its dynamism from that virtuality.

Intercultural communication Essay

Perception in psychology is defined as a process of obtaining information through one’s senses and interpreting that information as something meaningful. Perception can either be programmed into or learnt by a brain, or it can be formed due to one’s culture. Culture based perception is in some way influenced by experiences of culture and environment. For example, a person’s perception of right and wrong may be based on the norms of the society he lives in. Some characteristics of the American culture and their examples Individualism – American youth ‘move out’ to gain independence and to build their lives. Equality – providing equal opportunities to candidates during job recruitment processes. Materialism – the culture of recycling and having garage sales depicts how Americans value material goods and don’t waste resources. Science and technology – strong encouragement for science projects during schooling, and promoting it through movies and television. Progress and change – research and development in various fields is strongly supported by the government, so that the country may continue to be progressive and become a pioneer in every field. Work and leisure – as much importance as work is given in the American culture, there is equal attention paid to leisure and recreation – as is evident through the countless getaways and recreational family parks present in the country. Competition – incentive plans at work, and similar reward systems during education promote the notion of healthy competition among the Americans. Work, Dress, Sex and Status In America, work and productivity are considered important to achieve a high standard of living which is why the annual number of work hours has been increasing every year. Dressing habits tend to be highly informal – concepts like â€Å"Casual Fridays† at work reflect this part of the American culture. Sex education is imparted at an early stage to students to increase awareness about and to minimize sexually transmitted diseases. The culture of discriminating based on social status has been fading out as the notion of equality has started to spread more powerfully. Theories by Hofstede, Hall, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck to Analyze Culture These theories and the studies that had been conducted by these people, in my opinion, are quite useful in this age of globalization and ever-diminishing boundaries. They highlight the importance of differences in cultures worldwide, while also highlighting the similarities and therefore helping cross-culture psychologists find a common set of human values. Bibliography Mick Underwood (2006) CCMS – Communication studies, Culture studies, Media Studies Infobase by Mick Underwood. Retrieved on February 20, 2007 from: http://www. cultsock. ndirect. co. uk/MUHome/cshtml/index. html Wikipedia (2006) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on February 20, 2007 from: http://en. wikipedia. org.

Crazy Eddie, Inc. financial fraud case Essay

Crazy Eddie was an American retail store chain run by the Antar family, which was established as a private company in 1969 in Brooklyn, New York by businessmen Eddie and Sam M. Antar. The fraud at Crazy Eddie was one of the longest running in modern times, lasting from 1969 to 1987. Crazy Eddie became a known symbol for corporate fraud in its time, but has since been eclipsed by the Enron, Worldcom and Bernie Madoff accounting scandals. Commencement of fraud The fraud began almost immediately, with the management of Crazy Eddie underreporting taxable income through skimming cash sales, paying employees in cash to avoid payroll taxes and reporting fake insurance claims to the company’s carriers. Eddie Antar, the CEO of the company who was the mastermind in the fraud, was skimming money from sales taxes that he only partially remitted to the government, while using part of the money to give steep discounts to customers. Much of the rest of the money he used to fund a partying lifestyle, while secreting a fortune at home and abroad. He also repackaged used and damaged electronics and resold them to customers as new. When electronics companies refused to supply him because he was selling the products to his customers below list price, he instead sourced the products from suppliers in other countries on the gray market. He used massive sales promotion strategy to promote his company’s name and products. The television ad of the company was very much popular that time. The company began to grow rapidly and had several branches across the country. As the chain grew in size, the Antar family started planning for an initial public offering (IPO) of Crazy Eddie and scaled back the fraud so that the company would be more profitable and get a higher valuation from the public market. This strategy was a success and Crazy Eddie went public in 1984 at $8 per share. The final phase of the Crazy Eddie fraud began after the IPO and was motivated by a desire to increase profits so the stock price could move higher and the Antar family could sell its holdings over time. Management now reversed the flow of skimmed cash and moved funds from secret bank accounts and safety deposit boxes into company coffers, booking the cash as revenue. The scheme also involved inflating and creating phony inventory on the books and reducing accounts payable to boost profits at the company. Concealment of fraud The electronics chain used the young, inexperienced, undereducated and under skilled auditors for the audit purpose. The chain was able to fool young auditors by showing them inventory stock rooms filled with empty boxes of electronics gear, while distracting them with attractive female workers so they wouldn’t bother to look at what was inside or behind the stacks of boxes. They had a concept that if the auditor was wearing a suit, it was sure he wasn’t going to get it dirty by moving the boxes. Eddie Antar was the mastermind behind the various schemes and hired his relatives to work at the electronics chain to help aid and abet the fraud. Eddie Antar paid for his cousin Sam E. Antar to learn accounting so he could eventually work at the growing company’s small auditing firm, Penn and Horowitz. In 1981, Sam passed the CPA examination with a 90% and scored in the top 1% in the country. He later became the Penn and Horowitz Company’s CFO in 1986. All the family members were bound together by a culture of crime and were working as a team for commitment and concealment of crime. Exposure of fraud The company was making so much money that Eddie Antar was having trouble finding places to put it. He ran out of hiding places in his office and home, and eventually began traveling to Israel and Switzerland to stash the money in secret bank accounts. However, the scheme began to unravel when his wife found out he was cheating on her, and the family took sides in the dispute. The fraud was finally uncovered in 1987 after the Antar family was ousted from Crazy Eddie after a successful hostile takeover by an investment group. The acquirer found out how overvalued Crazy Eddie really was and hired another outside auditor to look closely at the books. Crazy Eddie limped along for another year before being liquidated to pay creditors. Eddie Antar, the CEO of Crazy Eddie, was charged with securities fraud and other crimes, but fled to Israel before his trial. He spent three years in hiding until he was eventually tracked down by authorities in 1992 and extradited back to the U.S. to face criminal charges. Antar and two other family members were also convicted for their role in the fraud. In 1997, Antar was sentenced to eight years in prison and paid large fines. He was later released in 1999. Crazy Eddie Red Flags The red flags in the Crazy Eddie, Inc. financial fraud case which could notify the potential fraud were as follows:- The tight knit Antar family ruling Crazy Eddie had virtual absolute control over all aspects of the business. Very poor audit trails and documentation. Major self-dealing transactions and related party transactions by family members. Substantial increases in wages from below market wages before the company went public. In 1985, an attempt was made to falsify certain store inventories which was uncovered by the auditors. The auditors accepted an excuse that it was not sanctioned by management. Substantial increases in gross margins, profits, inventories, debit memos etc. from prior periods for no logical reason. Significant volume of outstanding deposits in transit at fiscal year end. Individual deposits in transit extremely high in relation to normal amounts at fiscal year end. Unusually high inventory volumes in stores where physical counts were not observed by outside auditors. Inventories in many individual stores were in excess of space capacity. Major differences between amounts confirmed from vendors for accounts payable and amounts reported on Crazy Eddie’s books and records. Use of â€Å"gross margin method† to value inventories during interim periods instead of taking interim inventory counts. Change of accounting methods for purchase discounts and trade allowances in 1987 from cash basis to accrual basis noted in footnotes with no accounting adjustments. Small CPA firm that conducted Crazy Eddie audits before (then big eight firm took over audits) had a significant revenue base from Crazy Eddie. Controller and later CFO for Crazy Eddie (Sam E. Antar) worked for small CPA firm that audited Crazy Eddie books. Biggest Crazy Eddie Audit Errors The reason, Crazy Eddie was able to conceal and commit the fraud for such a long time could be the inefficiencies of the auditor and the government to uncover the fraud. The government, auditors and investors were fooled by the company’s flamboyant founder and CEO, Eddie Antar and his family. Some of the biggest Crazy Eddie Audit Errors were as follows:- Assuming a proper audit can be conducted in the absence of credible internal controls. Under  educated, under skilled, and under experienced audit staff. Over using audits as training grounds for inexperienced audit staff. Lack of investigative or forensic accounting skills by auditors. Failure to ask proper questions to the concerned persons. Assuming the answers to good questions as correct without verification. Failure to ask follow up questions. Lack of professional skepticism. Allowing company staff to distract auditors from doing filed work by engaging in social conversations, thereby wasting time during audits so they have to rush their work in the end to meet the audit deadline. Failure to simultaneously observe inventory counts in all locations. From 1984 to 1987, the auditors did not observe all store inventories or inventories at all locations. Failure to take copies of full inventories taken when leaving the premises. Failure to conduct proper test counts of inventories by relying on company staff to count boxes and allowing company staff to take possession of test counts to make copies on behalf of auditors. Failure to follow through on analytical test issues. Failure to conduct all required analytical testing. Failure to conduct sales cut off testing at year end. Failure to examine items listed as deposits in transit at year end. Failure to age accounts payable. Failure to conduct adequate verification of accounts payable balances. Failure to contact vendors when major discrepancies were identified as vendors sent back verification requests. Failure to secure audit work papers left on premises during the audit by leaving keys to trunks containing audit documents on company premises. Allowing company personnel to view audit work papers in process. Auditors signed off on financial reports to outside directors and allowed the issuance of financial statements before the fiscal year 1987 audit was completed and backed into the numbers. Auditors made misrepresentations to the outside directors about certain questionable practices and directions from the outside directors to investigate them. Auditors made misrepresentations to the SEC about directions from the audit committee to investigate questionable accounting practices. The auditors  failed to follow up on recommendations of Crazy Eddie’s outside counsel law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind to investigate irregularities concerning sales to a trans-shipper in 1987. The auditors disagreed with recommendations by Crazy Eddie’s outside counsel law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind to provide more detailed disclosure on Crazy Eddie sales to trans-shippers and other issues. The Fraud Triangle The Crazy Eddie, Inc. financial fraud case, if linked up with the fraud triangle, following result can be obtained:- a. Incentives/Pressures Greediness Desire of Luxurious Lifestyle Expensive extramarital relationships of Eddie Antar Pressure to maintain social status Pressure to sustain in competitive market b. Opportunities Lack of internal and external controls Lack of audit trail Inability of the auditors to judge performance quality Lack of outsiders’ access to information c. Rationalization Sam Antar, former CFO of Crazy Eddie gave a statement, – â€Å"we committed crime simply because we could. Criminologists like to analyze white collar crime in terms of the ‘fraud triangle’ — incentive, opportunity, and rationalization. We had no rationalization. Simply put, the incentive and opportunity was there, but the morality and excuses were lacking. We never had one conversation about morality during the 18 years that the fraud was going on.† This statement shows that there was no rationalization used while committing the fraud, we could assume that following rationalizations could have been used by them:- Whatever they were doing did not hurt anybody else. Whatever they were doing was not wrong. Moral justification like, â€Å"Everyone else is doing it, so it must not be so bad to do this† could have been used. References 4 Massive Frauds You’ve Probably Never Heard Of. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/12/four-unknown-massive-frauds.asp A Convicted Felon Speaks Out about White Collar Crime. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whitecollarfraud.com/947660.html Crazy Eddie – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Eddie Crazy Eddie Masterminds [Video file]. (2012, January 7). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP8iO5lvCoU Weirich, T. R., Pearson, T. C., & Churyk, N. T. (2010). Accounting & auditing research: Tools & strategies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.