Day After Tomorrow

FTER Hollywood cinema and climate change: The Day After Tomorrow. Ingram, David. In Words on Water: Literary and Cultural Representations, Devine, Maureen and Christa Grewe-Volpp (eds. ) (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2008). Climate change, like many other environmental problems, is slow to develop, not amenable to simple or fast solutions, and caused by factors that are both invisible and complex (Adam 17).Making a narrative film about climate change therefore does not fit easily into the commercial formulae of mainstream Hollywood, which favour human-interest stories in which individual protagonists undergo a moral transformation before they resolve their problems through heroic action in the final act. Can such classical narratives mediate an issue as complex as climate change without being not only inadequate, but even dangerous, lulling their audience into a false sense of security about our ability to deal with such problems?Ecocritic Richard Kerridge observes that a British journalist responded to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 by framing it within the familiar narrative of the Second World War, with its emphasis on ‘a successful outcome and a narrative closure'. For Kerridge, such narrative strategies may be an overly reassuring way of representing environmental threats, and reveal therefore that the ‘real, material ecological crisis' is ‘also a cultural crisis, a crisis of representation' (Kerridge 4).Yet, as Jim Collins argues, ‘mass-mediated cultures', including those of popular Hollywood cinema, are characterised by ‘semiotic complexities of meaning production', which leave even popular, generic texts open to multiple interpretations (Collins 17). Film theorist Stephen Prince describes a Hollywood movie as a ‘polysemous, multivalent set of images, characters, and narrative situations', which therefore constitute what he calls an ‘ideological agglomeration', rather than a single, coherent ideological position (Prince 40).This polysemy may arise from the Hollywood industry's commercial intention to maximize profits by appealing to as wide and diverse an audience as possible by making movies which, ideologically speaking, seek to have it all ways at once. One consequence is that, when we theorize about the effects popular movies may or may not have on public awareness of environmental issues, those effects are more complex, and less deterministic, than is often assumed is some academic film theories.This essay will explore the range of meanings generated by The Day After Tomorrow (2004), which frames the issue of anthropogenic climate change within the familiar genres of the disaster and science fiction movie. Ideological analysis of the film, combined with a study of its audience reception, suggests that even a classical Hollywood narrative can generate a degree of ideological ambiguity which makes it open to various interpretations, both liberal and conservative. Th e ideological ambiguity of The Day After Tomorrow derives in part from the way its narrative mixes the modes of realism, fantasy and melodrama.A realist film will attempt to correspond to what we understand as reality, mainly through the optical realism of its mise-en-scene and the sense of psychological plausibility produced by both its script and the performance of its actors. Melodrama, on the other hand, will simplify character and heighten action and emotion beyond the everyday. Hollywood movies tend to work by moving between these two modes of representation. Some genres, such as science fiction and horror, also move between realism and fantasy, a mode which exceeds realist plausibility by creating a totally fictive and impossible diegetic world.As a science fiction movie, then, The Day After Tomorrow deliberately blurs the distinction between realism and fantasy. The narrative begins from a scientifically plausible premise: the melting of the Artic ice-cap, caused by anthropo genic global warming, cools the North Atlantic Current, colloquially known as the ‘Gulf Stream', and thereby affects the weather in the Northern hemisphere. The movie then extrapolates from this premise beyond even the worst-case scenarios proposed by climate scientists.The switching off of the thermohaline current generates a global superstorm, as a result of which an ice sheet covers Scotland and a tsunami floods Manhattan. The movie's literary source, it is worth noting, was The Coming Global Superstorm (1999), by Art Bell and Whitely Streiber, whose television talk show on the paranormal suggests an interest in the ‘parascientific'; that is, in speculation beyond what is provable or falsifiable by scientific method. When interpreted literally, that is, as realism, The Day After Tomorrow clearly violates notions of scientific plausibility.The basic climatology in the movie is inaccurate: hurricanes can only form over large bodies of warm water, not the cold seas found in high latitudes, where polar lows are the main storm systems. The movie also distorts the science of climate change, mainly by accelerating the time frame within which its effects take place, and by making them much worse than predicted. Any slowdown in the thermohaline current would take a period of years, at least, and probably centuries, rather than the days featured in the film.Moreover, even if the North Atlantic Current did switch off, average temperatures would still be likely to rise, rather than fall, because of the greenhouse gasses already in the atmosphere (Henson 112-5). The film's central narrative, in which government paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) walks in sub-zero temperatures all the way from north of Philadelphia to the New York Public Library, to rescue his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhall) who is sheltering there, is thus impossible: neither would survive such low temperatures.For helicopters to freeze in mid-air, temperatures would not only be too cold for snow, but also too cold for human survival. Burning books in a library would be insufficient to keep people alive. Such implausibilities are worth pointing out, not because cinema audiences necessarily take what they see as scientific truth, but because science fiction often provides an opportunity to learn some real science. Indeed, as we will see later in this essay, environmental groups used the release of the movie as a ‘teachable moment' on the science of climate change (Leiserowitz 6).The two-disc DVD edition of the movie includes a documentary on the science of climate change; screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff commented on its release that, although ‘our primary concern' in making the film ‘was entertainment rather than education. On the DVD, there's room for both'. Acknowledging that the time frame he created for the movie was accelerated for fictional purposes, and that the ‘superfreeze' was ‘purely a cinematic device', he added that ‘t he political, agricultural and societal consequences of a sudden change in the ocean currents would still be catastrophic' (Nachmanoff 1).To dismiss The Day After Tomorrow purely for its scientific inaccuracies, then, clearly misses the point of the movie, which is to use realist elements of climate science as a starting point for melodrama and fantasy, so that it can dwell on the spectacle of extreme weather, appropriate for a blockbuster disaster movie, and also invite the audience's emotional engagement with the human-interest story that becomes the main focus of narrative. It is to these elements in the film that we will now turn.As a ‘natural disaster' melodrama, the film works on an opposition between nature and civilization, and invites an ambiguous identification on the part of the viewer: in Hollywood terms, we are invited to ‘root for' both nature and civilization at various points in the narrative, although the values of civilization eventually become the domi nant ones. Before that happens, however, the scenes of extreme weather make the experience of environmental apocalypse strangely attractive. As Maurice Yacowar observes, the natural disaster movie ‘dramatizes people's helplessness against the forces of nature' (Yacowar 218).The set pieces of extreme weather in The Day After Tomorrow reveal the sublime power of wild nature: violent, chaotic, powerful beyond human control, and therefore exciting and seductive. Environmentalist Paul Hawken writes that the concept of doomsday ‘has always had a perverse appeal, waking us from our humdrum existence to the allure of a future harrowing drama' (Hawken 204). As Stephen Keane points out, although disaster movies regularly feature television news reports commenting on the events that are taking place, they do not go on ‘to make the critical point that we are all electronic voyeurs' (Keane 84).The Day After Tomorrow follows this pattern. The audience's complicity in seeking cin ematic thrills in the scenarios of mass death and destruction caused by the weather is encouraged, rather than questioned, by the movie itself. Indeed, such thrills are the raison d'etre of its genre. Yet the aesthetics of the sublime have always been based on vicariousness; if we take pleasure in the destructive forces of nature, it is from the safe distance of our movie seats, where we are in the position of voyeurs, rather than of victims.This construction of victimhood in the disaster movie depends on narrative alignment: when people die, we do not dwell on them, nor on the bereaved people they leave behind. Typical of the disaster genre, the focus of nature's destructiveness in The Day After Tomorrow is the city. Hollywood disaster movies, writes Geoff King, share with millennial groups ‘a certain delirious investment in the destruction of the metropolis' (King 158). When a series of tornadoes attack Los Angeles, the mise-en-scene focuses on familiar landmarks: the Hollyw ood sign, the Capitol Records building, and a billboard advertising the model Angelyne.Screenwriter Jeffrey Nachmanoff observes on the DVD commentary that preview audiences greeted the moment where the Angelyne sign flattens the television reporter with cheers and applause (Emmerich). The sense of retribution is difficult to avoid: perhaps there is poetic justice in the media figure, parasitical on other people's suffering, finding his nemesis in Angelyne, the model and aspiring actress who paid to advertise herself on her own billboards, and thus became for some emblematic of the meretricious values of the city.As Mike Davis observes, Los Angeles is often given special treatment in apocalyptic narratives. ‘No other city,' he writes, ‘seems to excite such dark rapture'. Unlike other cities, the destruction of Los Angeles ‘is often depicted as, or at least secretly experienced as, a victory for civilization' (Davis 277). Geoff King draws upon Mikhail Bakhtin's notio n of the ‘carnivalesque' to account for such moments of ‘licensed enjoyment of destruction', based on an ‘overturning of cultural norms' (King 162). But the destruction is too cruel, as well as unfocussed and generalised, to be simply an anti-authoritarian gesture.As Susan Sontag noted, science fiction films provide a ‘morally acceptable fantasy where one can give outlet to cruel or at least amoral feelings' (Sontag 215). Freud's notion of the ‘death wish' thus better captures the dark side of such fantasies. For Freud, such aggressions were natural drives that need to be controlled; art provides catharsis for such anti-social instincts. Patricia Mellencamp draws on Freud to argue that American television is both ‘shock and therapy; it both produces and discharges anxiety' (Mellencamp 246).The disaster movie works in a similar way, mobilising and exploiting our negative drives and emotions. But are there unconscious meanings specific to the natura l disaster movie? One reading of such movies is as ‘revenge of nature' narratives, which enact a fantasy of nature getting its own back for its mistreatment at the hands of human beings. Psychoanalyst Karl Figlio draws on the theories of Melanie Klein to argue that scientific thinking itself is an act of repressive violence towards Nature. ‘Nature killed,' he writes, ‘is nature in a vengeful mood, a primitive retaliatory phantasy that fuels apocalyptic forebodings.The more scientific the culture, the more it is at the mercy of irrational fears, and the more it is dependent on scientific protection from them' (Figlio 72). He cites Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an ‘extreme example of scientific mapping that calls forth revenge from nature' (75). According to this reading, then, when we watch nature getting its revenge, we as viewers are able to purge our guilt about its degradation. However, as Yacowar notes, the moral attitude of the typical disaster movie is ambiguous. Poetic justice in disaster films,' he writes, ‘derives from the assumption that there is some relationship between a person's due and his or her doom'. However, this notion breaks down when the ‘good die with the evil' (Yacowar 232). The Day After Tomorrow works according to these generic expectations, with Nature at times appearing amoral in its destructiveness, and at other times, a force of moral retribution and punishment. The arrogant businessmen who bribe the bus driver, and the corruptible bus driver himself, get their comeuppance when they drown in the tidal wave that engulfs Manhattan.Jeffrey Nachmanoff reveals in the DVD commentary that, in an early draft of the script, the businessman had been negotiating an insider deal with the Japanese businessman killed by the hailstorm in Tokyo (Emmerich). In the final version, the latter lies to his wife on his cell phone moments before his death. The ethical critique in these scenes fits into the ideological agenda of many disaster films. As King writes, such films ‘include an element of criticism of capitalism, but this is a gesture that for the most part leaves its core values largely intact.A few ‘excesses' are singled out, such as the greedy cost-cutting that undermines the integrity of the eponymous star of The Towering Inferno, leaving the remainder mostly untouched' (King 153). In The Day After Tomorrow, then, greedy, self-interested individuals are punished. Yet innocent people also die in the movie, including the climate scientists who freeze to death in Scotland, led by the avuncular Terry Rapson (Ian Holm), and Jack's friend Frank (Jay O. Sanders), who falls to his death through the roof of a building, after cutting his own rope to prevent his friends from endangering their lives in trying to rescue him.These are figures of heroic sacrifice, also central to the disaster genre, because they bring out the redemptive aspects of the apocalypse. The film does not stat e clearly where the British royal family stand in this hierarchy of innocence and guilt: what is clear, is that death by climate change is no respecter of class privilege and wealth. The disaster movie, then, is about which values are the key to survival. The rescue of the innocent, French-speaking African family is thus crucial in einforcing the movie's ethical hierarchy based on racial, national and gender differences: they are saved by the white American woman (Laura), who in turn is saved by the white American male (Sam), thereby enacting in miniature two important themes in the movie. The most important of these is the narrative of male heroism and redemption. Melodrama, writes Linda Williams, is about a ‘retrieval and staging of innocence' (Williams 7). In this film, the melodramatic plot of father rescuing son makes the moral point that hard-working fathers need to take a more active role in bringing up their sons.The movie implies that, although millions of people may be dead, if one American family can be saved, then at least some good has come out of the eco-apocalypse. This message is more liberal, or at least not as unambiguously patriarchal, as in earlier disaster movies. In keeping with Stephen Prince's notion of ideological agglomeration, mentioned earlier, although Jack's wife is a doctor, she ends up playing the role of surrogate mother to a seven-year old boy with cancer, separated from his parents by the storm.The movie can thus be interpreted as either liberal (she is a doctor) or conservative (she is placed in the stereotypical female role of nurturer). The second important theme in the movie is the United States' self-appointed role as global protector-policeman. The rescue narrative trumpets the frontier values of male physical heroism, strong leadership and individualism, encapsulated by the iconic image of the torch of the Statue of Liberty emerging from the waves of the tsunami that engulfs Manhattan.However, America's role in w orld politics is also questioned by a more liberal discourse in the movie, when American refugees are forced to flee illegally into Mexico, in an ironic reversal of the real politics on the national border. This ironic reversal is itself made ambiguous, though, when later the United States government writes off all Third World debt, but in return, wins the right for its citizens to live as ‘guests' in those countries. It should be noted that not all Hollywood movies with environmental themes are as individualistic in their proposed solutions as The Day After Tomorrow.Some have endorsed more collective forms of action, even in narratives led by strong individuals: an image of placard-waving protestors recurs in Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995) and Fly Away Home (1996) as a sign of collective resistance. Ultimately, The Day After Tomorrow prefers American notions of liberal individualism, which it turns into universal values by identifying them with human civilization as a whole. Indeed, civilization, rather than wild nature, becomes the real object of audience identification by the end.The choice of the New York Public Library as the place of sanctuary and rescue is significant in this respect. One of the survivors makes sure he preserves the Gutenberg Bible from burning, not because he believes in God, he says, but because, as the first book ever printed, it represents ‘the dawn of the age of reason'. ‘If Western civilization is finished', he adds, ‘I'm going to save at least one little piece of it'. Ultimately, then, the movie celebrates reason and science as the values most central to Western civilization. Unusually for a Hollywood disaster movie, scientists are neither evil nor incompetent.As Yacowar notes, specialists in disaster movies, including scientists, ‘are almost never able to control the forces loose against them'. The genre thus serves ‘the mystery that dwarfs science' (Yacowar 228). This is also true of The Day After Tomorrow, in that the scientists are unable to contain the devastating effects of climate change once they have begun. ‘Ultimately,' writes ecocritic Sylvia Mayer, ‘the movie makes the point that the most advanced and dedicated scientific work is still powerless against the forces of nature once they are unleashed' (Mayer 111).Nevertheless, the scientists are the heroes of the movie. Their advice on the risks of climate change was ignored by the politicians until it was too late. As the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration angrily tells the Vice-President: ‘You didn't want to heat about the science when it would have made a difference'. The scientists' computer models prove correct: in the movie, unlike in real life, climate science provides the clear, certain and unambiguous knowledge necessary for survival.Moreover, advanced technology is ultimately a force for good. Jack is able to locate his son in the Public Library un der the frozen wastes of Manhattan because of his friend's portable satellite navigation system (which, of course, would not work in such a massive storm). He is also seen driving a hybrid Toyota Prius earlier in the film. Reason, science and technology thus win the day. However, as Sylvia Mayer also notes, the movie stops short of simplistically advocating a technological fix for environmental problems as complex as climate change (Mayer 117).The values of civilization finally triumph over the destructive forces of wild nature when the pack of wolves, which escaped from Central Park Zoo earlier in the movie, return to attack Sam and his friends when they are searching for medicine and food. That the wolves are computer-generated special effects only adds an extra layer of irony to the triumph of civilization and benign technology in the movie. Indeed, the movie itself can be seen as a paean to the imaginative power of Computer Generated Imaging.In Eco Media (2005), Sean Cubitt argu es that The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2002-3) can be read as a celebration of the computer technologies from which it was made, which are an artisanal mode of production that demonstrates a creative place for technology within ‘green' thinking. There is an ‘increasing belief', he suggests, ‘that through the development of highly technologised creative industries, it is possible to devise a mode of economic development that does not compromise the land' (Cubitt 10). The thematic resolution of The Day After Tomorrow is ambiguous, however.The ending of the movie follows the recurrent pattern of the genre identified by Geoff King, in which ‘the possibility of apocalyptic destruction is confronted and depicted with a potentially horrifying special effects/spectacular ‘reality', only to be withdrawn or limited in its extent' (King 145). Typically, then, destruction is extensive, but total apocalypse is prevented at the last moment. The superstorm passes, the reby confirming Jack's earlier opinion that the storms will last ‘until the imbalance that created them is corrected' by ‘a global realignment'.Gazing at a beautiful, calm Earth, an astronaut in the International Space Station comments that he has ‘never seen the air so clear'. In Winston Wheeler Dixon's phrase, this could be the ‘exit point for the viewer' that disaster movies invariably provide (Dixon 133); the moment where the audience is let off the hook with a simplistic, evasive solution to the seemingly intractable problem explored in the rest of the movie. To return to the question posed at the start of this essay, does such an ending merely encourage evasion, denial and complacency in regard to issues such as anthropogenic climate change?Dixon argues that contemporary American cinema serves those who ‘wish to toy with the themes of destruction', from movies about atomic apocalypse to those that flirt with Nazism. This cinematic ‘cult of d eath', he concludes, is ‘the ultimate recreation' for an exhausted, media-saturated culture, a cult which ‘remains remote, carefully contained within a box of homicidal and genocidal dreams' (Dixon 139). But the ideological ambiguity of The Day After Tomorrow, as well as its audience reception, suggests that the process of interpretation is more open and varied than this.From an environmentalist perspective, the melodramatic ending of the film is ambiguous. No matter what human beings do, it appears, the Earth will heal itself. According to this reading, the message of the movie is that, because the storm eventually passes, we don't need to worry. This message resembles the right-wing appropriation of the Gaia hypothesis; that is, the idea, proposed by the British chemist James Lovelock, that the Earth as a whole is a self-regulating system in a natural state of homeostatic balance.In his 1999 book Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists, Peter Hube r used the concept of Gaia to justify a conservative manifesto that called for the dismantling of existing environmental regulations. The ‘most efficient way to control' pollutants such as greenhouses gases, he argued, ‘is not to worry about them at all. Let them be. Leave them to Gaia' (Huber 128). The notion of Gaia, we should note, is not the sole property of New Age environmentalists or deep ecologists.According to this interpretation, the movie appears to endorse the idea that humanity, through a combination of ingenuity, courage and chance, can survive whatever Nature may throw at us, an argument used by conservatives like Huber to justify a non-interventionist approach to environmental issues. It is a mistake, however, to assume that the final moments of a movie, when narrative closure is achieved, dictate its overall meaning. An analogy may be drawn here with the critical analysis of the role of women in film noir.As Janey Place argues of the female characters in films such as Double Indemnity (1946), ‘it is not their inevitable demise we remember but rather their strong, dangerous, and above all, exciting sexuality' (Place 48). In a similar way, the most memorable images in The Day After Tomorrow are probably the scenes of extreme weather. The main advertising image for the movie showed the shot of the hand of the Statue of Liberty held above the storm surge: an image of survival which at least includes a sense of struggle, rather than the calm, reposeful Earth revealed at the close of the film.Indeed, the above interpretation of the film as conservative is contradicted by its more explicit message, which advocated liberal political reform in the election year of 2004. Early in the film, Vice-President Becker, played by an actor who bears an obvious resemblance to Dick Cheney, refuses to listen to the advice of scientists on global warming, arguing that to take action would harm the American economy. In another reference to George W. Bush's presidency, we are told that the administration in the movie has also refused to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.At the end of the movie, Becker, now President, appears on television to apologise to the nation out of a newfound sense of humility: ‘For years we operated under the belief that we could continue consuming our planet's natural resources without consequence. We were wrong. I was wrong'. Perhaps the most unbelievable part of the whole movie, the President's public apology confirms the words of the African-American homeless man earlier in the film, who refers to people with their ‘cars and their exhausts, and they're just polluting the atmosphere'.The disaster has been a wake-up call for America, and the new start will allow for the changes in lifestyle necessary for a more sustainable future. The government will also change its attitude to the Third World from one of arrogance to gratitude. In these moments, th e movie works as a secular form of jeremiad; ‘secular' because the environmental catastrophe is not seen as punishment from God, but as human-created. Opie and Elliott argue that both ‘implementational and evocative strategies' are necessary in successful jeremiads, and cite Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) as a powerful exemplar (Opie and Elliott 35).The Day After Tomorrow also uses both pathos and rational argument to convince its audience of the need to take steps to avoid environmental catastrophe. Critical speculation on the effectiveness or otherwise of making a disaster movie about global warming can draw on the conclusions of an empirical study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research of the reception of the movie in Germany. This found that the movie did not appear to reinforce feelings of fatalism in its audience. Less than 10% of the sample agreed with the statement, ‘There's nothing we can do anyway', whereas 82% preferred, ‘We hav e to stop climate change'. Reusswig). Indeed, the Potsdam study makes hopeful reading for environmentalists. It found that the publicity surrounding the film triggered a new interest in climate change, and raised some issues previously unfamiliar to audiences, such as the role of oceans in global warming. A similar study of reception in the United States concluded that the film ‘led moviegoers to have higher levels of concern and worry about global warming, to estimate various impacts on the United States as more likely, and to shift their conceptual understanding of the climate system toward a threshold model.Further, the movie encouraged watchers to engage in personal, political, and social action to address climate change and to elevate global warming as a national priority'. However, whether such changes constituted merely a ‘momentary blip' in public perceptions remained to be seen (Leiserowitz 7). These empirical studies are important because they show that audienc e reception is a more complex and variable process than it is sometimes taken for in film theory. According to some versions of psychoanalytic ‘subject positioning' theory, Hollywood movies like The Day After Tomorrow tend to render spectators passive.Under the influence of Bertolt Brecht's theories of narrative, film academics such Colin McCabe and Steven Heath argued that only modernist or avant-garde narrative techniques can produce a more active (even revolutionary) film spectator. As the 1992 textbook New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics puts it, psychoanalytic film theory ‘sees the viewer not as a person, a flesh-and-blood individual, but as an artificial construct, produced and activated by the cinematic apparatus' (Stam 147). In his book The Crisis of Political Modernism (1999), D.N. Rodowick exposes the flaws in such thinking. The politics of political modernism, he writes, assume ‘an intrinsic and intractable relation between texts and their spectators, reg ardless of the historical or social context of that relation' (Rodowick 34). But film viewers are flesh-and-blood individuals, and when they are treated as such by film theorists and researchers, the phenomenon of film reception becomes more complex and nuanced, and less deterministic and stereotyped, than that imagined by subject positioning theory.Empirical audience research shows that we do not all watch the same movie in the same way, and that audience responses are complexly determined by a long list of variables, such as nation, region, locality, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race and, last but certainly not least, individual temperament. When we look at the public reception of The Day After Tomorrow, then, it is clear that different interest groups appropriated the movie in different ways.Both sides of the public debate about climate change interpreted the movie within a realist framework, either positively or negatively, and produced selective readings in order to fur ther their own agendas. Patrick Michaels, one of the minority of scientists who stills rejects the idea of human-created climate change, pointed out the scientific flaws in the movie, and damned Hollywood for irresponsibly playing into the hands of liberal environmentalists by exaggerating the threat of global warming (Michaels 1).Liberal-left environmental campaigners also understood that the movie's foundation in science was flawed. However, they found its scientific exaggerations and inaccuracies less important than what they saw as its realistic portrayal of the American government's denial of the scientific evidence for global warming. As former Vice-President Al Gore put it, ‘there are two sets of fiction to deal with. One is the movie, the other is the Bush administration's presentation of global warming' (Mooney 1). Gore joined with the liberal Internet advocacy organization MoveOn. rg, which used the movie's release as an opportunity to organize a national advocacy ca mpaign on climate change. Senators McCain and Lieberman also used the movie to promote the reintroduction of their Climate Stewardship Act in Congress (Nisbet 1). Greenpeace endorsed the ‘underlying premise' of the film, that ‘extreme weather events are already on the rise, and global warming can be expected to make them more frequent and more severe'. It summed up its response to the movie with the line: ‘Fear is justified' (Greenpeace 1-2).The use of this movie to encourage environmental debate suggests that it is perhaps only if Hollywood movies like The Day After Tomorrow are people's sole, or even main, source of information on the environment that we should worry. As Sylvia Mayer argues, Hollywood environmentalist movies ‘have the potential to contribute to the development of an ‘environmentally informed sense of self' that is characterised by an awareness of environmental threats, by the wish to gain more effective knowledge about them and by a d isposition to participate actively in efforts to remedy the problem' (Mayer 107).In this respect, a classical, Hollywood-style narrative does not necessarily inculcate or reinforce a feeling a complacency or denial it its audience. In any case, no narrative can be as complex as the reality to which it refers; all art is a process of simplifying, selecting and giving shape to reality. Classical narrative forms and genre movies such as The Day After Tomorrow can focus thought and provide an imaginative and provocative response to environmental crisis. WORKS CITED Adam, Barbara (1998), Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards, Routledge, London and New York.Bell, Art and Streiber, Whitely (1999), The Coming Global Superstorm, Pocket Star Books, New York. Collins, Jim (1989), Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Post-Modernism, Routledge, New York and London. Cubitt, Sean (2005), Eco Media, Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York. Davis, Mike (1998), Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Henry Holt and Co. , New York. Dixon, Wheeler Winston (2003), Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema, Wallflower Press, London and New York.Emmerich, Roland, director (2004), The Day After Tomorrow, 20th Century Fox, Two-disc DVD. 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Yacowar, Maurice (1986), ‘The Bug in the Rug: Notes on the Disaster Genre', in Barry Keith Grant (ed), Film Genre Reader, University of Texas Press, Austin.

Overview of accounting analysis Essay

1. A finance student states, â€Å"I don’t understand why anyone pays any attention  to accounting earnings numbers, given that a ‘clean’ number like cash from operations is readily available.† Do you agree? Why or why not? I disagree with the finance student, because net income forecasts future cash flow and is informative. a. Net income forecasts future cash flow better than current cash flow, and does so by recording transactions associated with cash consequences when the transactions occur, rather than when the cash is received or paid. To compute net income, the effects of economic transactions are recorded on the basis of expected, not necessarily actual, cash receipts and payments. b. Net income is informative when corporate managers have better information than outside investors. Corporate managers use accrual rather than cash accounting to prepare financial reporting and determine net income. Since accrual accounting helps managers to record past events and forecast future events, net income gives superior information. 2. Fred argues: â€Å"The standards that I like most are the ones that eliminate all management discretion in reporting – that way I get uniform numbers across all companies and don’t have to worry about doing accounting analysis†. Do you agree? Why or why not? I disagree with Fred, because the elimination of delegation of reporting to management will create chaos and misinterpretation of financial statements. Corporate managers know how to apply and judge business transactions using the accrual accounting framework. They have inside information and make appropriate judgments to convey that information to investors and forecast future performance. If this discretion is eliminated, managers will be unable to make use of inside information in reported financial statements. However, since investors view profits as a measure of a manager’s performance, some managers have an incentive to use their accounting  discretion to distort reported profits by making biased assumptions. Also, the use of accounting numbers in contracts between the firm and outsiders provides a motivation for management manipulation of accounting numbers. Therefore, the delegation of financial reporting decisions to managers has both costs and benefits. Accounting rules and auditing are mechanisms deigned to reduce the cost and preserve the benefit of delegating financial reporting to corporate managers. 3. Bill Simon says, â€Å"We should get rid of the FASB and SEC, since free market forces will make sure that companies report reliable information.† Do you agree? Why or why not? Free market forces do not make sure that all companies report reliable information. Bill assumes that corporate managers do not disclose unreliable information and that they share inside information with outside investors. In real life, managers disclose false information and investors don’t detect inside information right away. Therefore, FASB and SEC force managers to disclose reliable information and comply reasonably with U.S. GAAP standards. 4. Many firms recognize revenues at the point of shipment. This provides an incentive to accelerate revenues by shipping goods at the end of the quarter. Consider two companies, one of which ships its products evenly throughout the quarter, and the second of which ships all its products in the last two weeks of the quarter. Each company’s customers pay 30 days after receiving shipment. Using accounting ratios, how can you distinguish these companies? Both companies will have the same amount of revenues and expenses in their income statements. However, their balance sheets will show different amounts. At the end of each quarter, the company that ships its products evenly throughout the quarter should have higher cash and a lower accounts receivable balance than the company that ships all its products in the last two weeks of the quarter. We can distinguish between these companies using the following accounting  ratios: a. Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio = Sales Accounts Receivable The company that ships its products evenly throughout the quarter and has steady sales will have a higher accounts receivable turnover ratio. b. Accounts Receivable Days Ratio = Accounts Receivable Average Sales per Day The company that ships its products evenly throughout the quarter and has steady sales will have a lower accounts receivable days ratio. c. Cash Ratio = Cash + Short-Term Investments Current Liabilities The company that ships its products evenly throughout the quarter and has steady sales will have a higher cash ratio. 5. A. If management reports truthfully, what economic events are likely to prompt the following accounting changes? a. Increase in the estimated life of depreciable assets. If managers find out that the actual life of the depreciable assets lasted longer than was expected, managers will increase the estimated life of depreciable assets. b. Decrease in the uncollectible allowance as a percentage of gross receivables. The firm will decrease the percentage of uncollectable allowance when it receives orders from reliable customers. In contrast, the firm will increase the percentage of uncollectable allowance when it receives orders from unreliable customers. c. Recognition of revenues at the point of delivery, rather than at the point  cash is received. A firm could recognize revenues at the point of delivery rather than at the point of cash receipt when its customer’s credit improves or its customer’s cash payment is not a risk. d. Capitalization of a higher proportion of software R&D costs. A firm will capitalize a higher proportion of software R&D costs when the firm has established the technical and commercial feasibility of the asset for sale or use. For example, technical and commercial feasibility may be established when the firm completes the software and either uses it or sells it and is able to demonstrate how the intangible asset will generate future economic benefits. 5.B. What features of accounting, if any, would make it costly for dishonest managers to make the same changes without any corresponding economic changes? Opinion of third parties. Auditors provide a clean opinion of a firm’s financial statements. If the changes in the accounting policy are reasonably consistent with economic changes, auditors will not provide a clean opinion of the financial statements. Accrual reversal effect. Aggressive capitalization of software R&D expenditures will increase net income in the current period, but the later writing-off of capitalized R&D costs will decrease net income in the following period. Lawsuit. If a firm discloses false financial information and its investor loses because of that information, the firm will pay legal penalties. Labor Market Discipline. The labor market for managers will discipline those who are perceived as unreliable managers in dealing with external parties. 6. The conservatism principle arises because of concerns about management’s incentives to overstate the firm’s performance. Joe Banks argues: â€Å"We could get rid of conservatism and make accounting numbers more useful if we delegated financial reporting to independent auditors, rather than to  corporate managers.† Do you agree? Why or why not? I don’t agree with Joe Banks, because if we delegate financial reporting to independent auditors rather than to corporate managers, we will decrease the quality of financial reporting. Auditors don’t have all the inside information that corporate managers have when the economic reality of the firm is displayed. Furthermore, the way managers and auditors assess a firm is different. Auditors could apply accounting standards to assess business transactions in a mechanical way rather than using their professional judgment, leading to poor quality financial reporting. For example, everybody agrees that market-value accounting provides relevant information; however, auditors are concerned more about the audit liability. 7. A fund manager states: â€Å"I refuse to buy any company that makes a voluntary accounting change, since it’s certainly a case of management trying to hide bad news.† Can you think of any alternative interpretation? Voluntary accounting change could happen because business circumstances have changed in the firm. For example, unusual increases in receivables might be due to changes in a firm’s sales strategy, or unusual decreases in the allowance for uncollectible receivables might be reflecting a change in a firm’s customer focus. Therefore, an analyst should use qualitative information such as the evaluation of the context of the business strategy and economic circumstances, and not deliberately interpret the firm’s accounting change as earnings manipulation. 8. Fair value accounting attempts to make financial information more relevant to financial statement users, at the risk of greater subjectivity. What factors would you examine to evaluate the reliability of fair value assets? We should examine the fair value hierarchy to evaluate the reliability of fair value assets. Level 1 is the most reliable in terms of valuating fair value assets because it is based on quoted prices, like a closing stock price in the Wall Street Journal. Level 2 is the next most reliable and would rely on evaluating similar assets or liabilities in active markets Level 3 is the least reliable level because it requires a good deal of judgment and is based on the best information available (such as a company’s own data or assumptions) to arrive at a relevant and reliable fair value measurement. Financial statement users can trust prices in liquid markets as long as observable inputs such as level 1 and 2 reflect quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities. In level 3, we encounter unobservable inputs.

Word of the Day

Omnipotent- unlimited authority or influence a. The king was an omnipotent force in the kingdom. 2. Asunder- into parts, torn apart a. Cats asunder mice for dinner. 3. Usurpation- to seize, take hold of through force, without rights, infringement a. The usurpation of Poland by Germany was unexpected. 4. Evinces- to clearly display, show evidence a. Clearly, the note evinces that you are guilty. 5. Abdicated- to cast off, to formally relinquish a. The queen abdicated her power due to her old age. 6.Perfidy- being faithless or disloyal, treachery a. The perfidious servant became a double agent for the enemy. 7. Magnanimity- lofty spirit, bear trouble calmly, display noble generosity a. The dog displayed much magnanimity in rescuing the young drowning boy. 8. Acquiesce- to accept, comply, submit a. The submissive girl always acquiesced to her overbearing mother. 9. Countenance- mental composure, facial expression a. In despite of his pain, the man maintained his countenance. 10. Accosti ng- to approach and speak to in a challenging or aggressive way a.Marry, in an accosting way, approached Jessica to start a fight. 11. Supinely- with the face upward, an indifferent manner a. Supinely, the king ignored the requests of the farmers. Part A: Dear Corporate America, You are making us fat. You are making us fat through your trans-fat-rich foods complete if, and only if, they contain enough saturated fat to clog our arteries and heart. It is the foods that you are creating that are resulting in the downfall of American health. Daily, processed foods asunder any nutritional integrity that we possess.In a way, such corporations, producing unhealthy foods, are an omnipotent force that usurper our everyday lives in an effort to produce revenue. We acquiesce to societal norms by ingesting the slop that corporations like you produce; yet, we are the ones making the decision to put poison into our bodies. You do not accost us and force feed us your food; nay, we enthusiastically devour crunchy chips out of shiny bags without considering the lifetime consequences. You are the devil snake tempting us with fruit, and we are Eve: innocent and blissfully unaware of the future effects that your fruit will have.While it is not your responsibility to ensure that people are consuming your food responsibly, it is your fault that foods that cause atherosclerosis and heart attacks are even available. While the American public does need to change its thoughts about nutrition, large corporations need to change their ingredients and their mentalities. Respectfully, part a: French fries are delicious. Truly, they are a staple food in the American diet. Any American that doesn't regularly partake in the consumption of fries is essentially omitting perfidy.To date, McDonald's is an omnipotent leader in the fast food world. Other fast food chains may try to accost the spread of McDonald's' successful corporation, but they are forced to acquiesce to the standards that have al ready been set. Recently, there has been much debate over the use of healthy foods and their practical use compared to unhealthy, fatty foods. Many have evinced data concerning heart disease and other health problems. These people are in favor of creating healthy alternatives for regular fast food buyers to choose.However, it is my belief that by implementing healthy choices will not change the lifestyle of people that are accustomed to eating fatty foods every day. Americans should make their own food choices and be actively aware of what they are consuming; supinely choosing meals anymore is not an option. It is not the duty of the fast food restaurants to change America's eating habits. Those that wish to live a long and healthy life need to abdicate unhealthy foods from their life and make a true lifestyle change.

Management - Public Personnel Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management - Public Personnel - Assignment Example These resources can either be local based, state based or internationally based. The functions of public personnel today can be extensively classified into 4 different areas namely: planning, sanctions, acquisition and development. To be effective, theses functions are implemented through different organizations such as state, federal, local government and NGOs (Disalvo, 2010). Four trends affecting Public Personnel Today The four trends that affect the performance of public personnel today are governance changes, economic changes, technological changes in the work environment and the role that is played by citizens in the process of governance. First and foremost, the changes experienced in the economy have resulted in paradigm shift from national to global, production to delivery of service and finally from public commitment to limited commitment. For instance, in the majority of the urban areas, more than half of the human resources are from private organizations and not the gover nment agencies. Also, in most of the states, the number of employees within the private security organizations far outnumbers those of the local police departments. On the second point that affects the changes in the governance structure, the government is being redefined and this redefining includes, changing the perception of the government relationship with its citizens including focusing attention on the citizen whereby the citizen is regarded as a customer. It also involves the creation of a government that requires less to operate but does more in terms of service to its citizens and its general performance. Thirdly, we look at the effect of technology and the workplace. Technology and the workplace environment are a source of concern in the area of public personnel. The area of Public personnel has been widely impacted by the changes that have been experienced in the field of Information Technology. From the introduction of concepts such as cyberspace to the creation of the m any platforms with which communication can now take place, advancements in this field have impacted greatly in public agencies. The way that employees of public agencies carry out their day to day functions has greatly changed due to the impact of information technology. It has also resulted in diversity among the employees and affected their work ethics and other previously held values. Finally, we look on the aspect of the role played by citizens in their governance; it is evident that citizens are now playing a vital role in governance. This is because citizens are do not only perform the role of being recipients of government services, but they are also actively involved in governance by making contributions to policies and other legislation that will directly affect their lives. This participation by citizens also ensures that the values of democracy are upheld by the government (Robinson & Kary-Siobhan, 2002). Four strategies needed to create a diversified workforce Diversity in the human race is a fact that cannot be understated in any form. When we come to the workplace environment, diversity can be seen in terms of age, gender, nationality, and race etc. It is imperative to understand this diverse nature in the workplace and this implies recognizing and also encouraging this fact in addition to appreciating the uniqueness of everyone in such an environment. The strategies needed for the creation of a diversified workplace include: increase in the

Six Steps Involved in Conducting a Job Analysis of a Nursing Position Assignment

Six Steps Involved in Conducting a Job Analysis of a Nursing Position - Assignment Example Further, the job analysis process helps in the determination of what a given job entails including the location, title, summary, working conditions, equipment, possible hazards and the material that the potential or existing employees will require to undertake the job  (Dessler, 2008). The first step in the job analysis process is to collect information concerning the job. Several methods can be used the collection of data about a given job. These methods include seeking the input of subject matter experts, reviewing classification standards and position descriptions, and going through occupational studies. Others include interviewing employees doing the job, letting employees fill questionnaires and observation. Nurses in emergency rooms specialize in the provision of critical medical care, as well as, specialized forms of treatments to patients who are severely ill or injured. They are involved in the provision of treatments to patients who suffer from life-threatening conditions. Of all the responsibilities emergency room nurses are involved in, undertaking the blood work is the most critical. This is because patients who visit this area lose blood at a high rate due to the kind of circumstances that they face before coming to the hospital. Further, the cleaning of lacerations is required, as well as, rapid assessment of patients. To begin with, emergency room nurses ought to be fast and efficient in their duties. This duty needs individuals that can work in blood-filled areas comfortably. Further, nurses in emergency rooms need to have been adequately trained with good academic abilities. Nurses need to be adequately trained so that they can have the relevant skills to clean up lacerations. This procedure requires near perfection, and this can be provided through adequate training. Further, nurses ought to have personalities that will allow them to work in areas with horrific sites. This personality is important because severely ill or injured individuals visit emergency rooms. Speedy, but efficient individuals are also required in the emergency rooms because of the pressure of the job.  Ã‚  

Service Learning Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Service Learning Journal - Essay Example I hoped learn how the elderly folk felt about the situation, how they managed to cope with different people and form new relationships so late in their lives. When I arrived on the first day, I had to go to the administration offices, and they had a vet check out my dog. The dog was healthy, I strolled over to the park/park where many of the senior citizens were resting under shady trees and some playing chess. I had not been in the park for more than 3 minutes when three elderly women beckoned me with charming smiles. One of them was on a wheelchair, and I helped her put the dog on her lap, she seemed immensely pleased and brushed it coat contentedly with a wistful look. She told me that she liked pets because they never judge, besides, her pets did look down on her because of her disability like people used to do before she came here. From this, I surmised that, at some point people had discriminated because of her condition. The fact that she was sitting with her friends now groom ing dog and seemingly enjoying herself brought to mind the ideas of Ruth Benedict on ethical relativism. While her disability made her looked down upon among â€Å"normal† people, here among many elderly and some with worse conditions she was accepted, and no one discriminated her (Benedict 49). I spent most of the afternoon with the woman and her friends she was quite talkative and told me a great deal about her past, I observed that, despite the fact that she was by far the frailest and of the trio, she seemed to have authority, and they seemed to take every word she said very seriously. This juxtaposed her story about being neglected and ignored by her family, she said that her life was much easier here than at home, and nurses and orderlies were exceptionally kind and ensured she took her medication. In my opinion, it embodied action oriented ethics since the nurses were ensuring they give her and the rest of the patients in need of drugs get them since not doing the same would result to absconding their moral and official duty hence(Taylor). The next day I did not go to the park, but walked to the cafeteria with my dog, I sat with two elderly men, but unlike my friends of the previous day, they preferred to talk to me and did not pay the dog much attention. I asked them if they would not rather stay at home and be looked after by their families, one of them told said that he asked his son to take him home because he felt he was being a burden since the young man was starting a family and had his hands full. The other was very happy about the situation and told he would rather have stayed at home, but his children had convinced him to go home and they would visit him frequently, which they rarely did. He realized it was just a ploy to get rid of him, but though it hurts him, he would rather remain with his new friends. I realized that the residents felt differently about being away from their families, and when some felt they were burdening their fa milies, others felt they had been betrayed. However, all who I met well happy living with their peers though some were nostalgic about their homes. I talked for a while with the men, and they bought me a cup of tea and taught me a few clever chess moves. I took Sally who was busy chewing at the buttons in Lewis’s shoes, I had tried to stop her, but the old man said it was quite all right and seemed to enjoy the

Analytical Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analytical Science - Essay Example Others are counterfeit drugs and outright fake ones. The need of the drug regulations was necessary so as to guarantee that there was efficiency safety, and superiority of drugs in addition to exactness and the correctness of the drug information that are available to the society (Habet, 32) . The work was not aimed to rank the countries under the study against any criterion. Rather, the aim was to synthesize their experiences and later draws conclusions on generic from countries that were participating and others get to learn from them. There was a systematic study was done of drug regulations and its surroundings across countries and there was shed a new illumination on the state of affairs of the country. these was so since there needed to provide a new perspective about the constraints it was facing, and also provide the options on the way to advance the means the method was to function. The structures of drug regulations that exist today that is the drug regulatory, laws, evalua tion boards, quality control laboratories, informational centers have evolved over with time. In this process the scope of the regulatory powers and legislative had gradually expanded, in regards to both the increasing complexity of the increasingly sophisticated pharmaceutical sector, and the perceived requirements of the society (Foroutan, 69). In other countries, the enactment of the comprehensive drugs regulations was as a result of the crisis-led change, when the society demands led then the adoption of laws that are restrictive so as to provide greater safe guards to the society. The drug regulation body is a society policy that response to the perceived requirements and the problems of the society. Consequently, the laws need to be upgraded to keep up the pace of the changes and the new challenges in the surroundings (Pika 24). The laws ought to be protective to the society from dubious and harmful drugs and practices. They need to be inclusive adequate to cover up all areas of pharmaceutical activities in the country. These include the herbal or homeopathic drugs they ought to be legal mandates that are imposed on the importation of drugs. The essay laid down the conclusions on generic from the weakness and strengths of different types and then identifies the features that affect the performance of the regulation of drugs. The government acted as the guardian of controlling the private powers in the public purposes. These have ensured the efficacy, safety and the quality of drugs that are available to the society was the main aim of the drug regulation. If the goals based on regulatory were to be achieved, then the appropriate structures were to be invented and the correct activities carried out acquire the desired goals. The rapid HPLC method for Analysis Temperature (Â °C) Old Formulation Methylprednisolone Conc. (ppm) New Formulation Methylprednisolone Conc. (ppm) 30 45.21 Â ± 3 46.1 Â ± 2.100 40 41.34 Â ± 4.2 40.45 Â ± 4.123 50 40 Â ± 3.54 39 Â ± 5 60 35.67 Â ± 6 38.987Â ± 4 70 37 Â ± 2.456 37.34 Â ± 3.654 80 21.567 Â ± 3.234 36.321 Â ± 1.567 90 23 Â ± 5 37.23 Â ± 5.012 Â   Â   Â   Temperature (Â °C) Formulation 1 Methylprednisolon

Field of business and accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Field of business and accounting - Essay Example Even presently, I will not pay for any product that I consider unnecessary although those products are the popular items amongst youngsters. My friends always persuade me to buy an Ipod, but this item for me is considered an unnecessary purchase because I will not use it that often; I can play music whenever I want to, such as at home and in car. Gradually, I have developed an interest of trade and hence saving money. For me, learning is a process of attaining knowledge, value and skill; not only through study but also through working experience. As a result, when I started to see that I had an interest in the business field that was the time when I decided to work for my uncle’s company for a few months before I thought of pursuing my career in the United States. Although I worked as  the receptionist there, I learned that in order to accomplish a job, the same required diverse skills as well as knowledge from different individuals and more than that communication forms up as an important skill in the field of business nonetheless. In the year 2005, I started working in my father’s company as an accounting assistant. My job was to make a simple statement of different accounts, create wire and transfer money to those companies that we dealt with because I was one of the authorities in my fathers company. Other than that, I started to learn how to use information systems to track financial performance. Since working as an accountant assistant consumes a lot of time.

MGT Week 9 SA Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGT Week 9 SA - Research Paper Example When a particular question has to be answered, as in the case study of Florida State University, triangulation methods are suitable. The mixed approach study revealed how different methodologies can be combined to enhance research results’ validity. Qualitative researches are more suitable for exploring broad matters whether it is a perspective or a particular question while quantitative researches are more useful for results that can be measured or calculated. Observation is a key tool that is used in qualitative researches for getting the required information. Personal observation in qualitative research methodology adds reliability to the results because minor details are taken into account that are normally missed out in quantitative methodology. When a mixed approach is used to carry out the research, benefits of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies are combined which enhance the research. For example, use of observation and interviews in addition to surveys helps the researchers uncover more facts to draw the conclusions

China in the World Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

China in the World Economics - Essay Example This is because China holds the key to regional cooperation and integration in East Asia. Thus, facilitating the projection of the EU's soft power to East Asia could become a priority for the new EU member states. The policy of the EU towards China is a multilevel engagement policy. Furthermore, it is a mixture of bilateral and multilateral approaches.2 This partnership is not strategic in the military sense. Yet, the issue of the lifting of the European arms embargo against China indicates that hard security issues have entered EU-China affairs. The Premier of the State Council of the PR China, Wen Jiabao, has coined the term 'comprehensive strategic partnership'. Wen defines the term in the following way: "By "comprehensive", it means that the cooperation should be all-dimensional, wide-ranging and multi-layered. It covers economic, scientific, technological, political and cultural fields, contains both bilateral and multilateral levels, and is conducted by both governments and non-governmental groups. By "strategic", it means that the cooperation should be long-term and stable, bearing on the larger picture of China-EU relations. It transcends the differences in ideology and social system a nd is not subjected to the impacts of individual events that occur from time to time. By "partnership", it means that the cooperation should be equal-footed, mutually beneficial and win-win. ... Politically, they share much in common as both belief in multilateralism, pursue democracy in international relations and work for safeguard the authority of the United Nations. China's integration into the global economy will further accelerate with its recent accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Numerous key sectors of China's burgeoning economy, such as banking and finance, are being forced to open up and liberalize, regardless of whether they are prepared. Beyond economics, China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, possesses intercontinental-range nuclear weapons, and has become gradually more active in a host of regional and multilateral organizations. There is considerable debate about the size of China's economy relative to that of other economies. The value of Chinese exports has increased rapidly in recent years, and it is now the world's third largest goods exporter after the US and the EU.4 The total value of China's goods exports in 2005 was $762 billion, nearly 10% of the world total, compared with $593 billion in 2004, an increase of 28.4%. It has also become the world's largest importer, with goods imports valued at $660 billion, or 8.2% of the world total. China's trade in goods surplus was $102 billion for the whole of 2005 (4.6% of GDP), more than triple the previous year's surplus of $32 billion (1.7% of GDP).5 In spite of all such impressive figures, development is certainly not peaceful in China at present and the dangers inherent in political and economic decentralization are many. China's rapid economic growth, its increasing competitiveness and its growing goods exports have raised concerns in the EU and the US.Ã ‚  

Sarahs Key Essay Example for Free

Sarahs Key Essay The dance ‘The Oppression of the Jewish Race’ was based on the stimulus ‘Schindlers List’ directed by Steven Spielberg. The dance is in narrative structure based on the journey of the Jewish race from freedom to oppression. The feelings within this dance vary. In the first section, the dance begins with a light playfulness where happiness and hope are portrayed by the dancers. This hopefulness gradually fade however, as the dance steadily progresses into bleakness and has a numbing quality to it. The dancers continue in this despair with outwards signs of pain being expressed. The feeling in the end section of the dance is one of utter hopelessness and anguish. The dance concludes with this feeling as it is how the Jews felt by the end of the Holocaust and as many of their lives ended when the Holocaust was taking place during World War II. This was the motivations that the choreographer used to choreograph this dance. The overall choreographic intention is to convey the oppression of the Jewish race. Through five sections of the dance this is displayed as each section gets progressively worse in a narrative structure that depicts different parts of the Schindlers List movie the stimulus. I was given the role, by the guest choreographer, of a teenage Jewish girl who is a similar age to me. Using the Stanislavski techniques I developed my character for each section of the dance. In the beginning I am happy and free, using emotional memory to get into character before I begin dancing. As the dance progresses my character becomes less and less happy and free. By the second section, I have lost all emotion and my movements are no longer free but more mechanical. My facial expressions slowly transform into those of pain and my movement reflects this as they are bound. When in the gas chambers I brought the idea of pain in my movements and expressions as my character passes away. I brought the understanding of what the Jewish race would have gone through during this time, through my character. Section 1 – The Beginning The beginning section of the dance is acting. There are seven dancers on stage, each interacting with someone. One dancer (a small boy character) runs onto the performance space from stage left to find his toy car, which he finds and then plays with. Another dancer runs on from stage right (a small girl character) with her toy doll. The boy then snatches the doll away from the girl and teases her with it as she chases after him. The boy’s mother then enters (third dancer to enter the stage) from stage left and tells off the boy for being mean to the girl. The girl’s mother then enters the performance space and supports the girl as she is apologised to by the boy. At the same time as this apology is taking place. A grandmother and her granddaughter are making their way through the space beginning from upstage right. This is when I enter the performance. I run onto the performance space from upstage left, waving as I enter. I move through the space to interact with two of the other dancers, by hugging both of them as they are my grandma and friend. I then walk down stage with the grandmother and friend and my focus is on the other dancers who are greeting each other, the mood is light and free. The dancers then make their way down stage to form a line. They then take whatever prop that they have with them (e. g. the car for the boy) and have it in their hand. Activity One Choreographic Intention The dance ‘The Oppression of the Jewish Race’ was based on the stimulus ‘Schindlers List’ directed by Steven Spielberg. The dance is in narrative structure based on the journey of the Jewish race from freedom to oppression. The feelings within this dance vary. In the first section, the dance begins with a light playfulness where happiness and hope are portrayed by the dancers. This hopefulness gradually fade however, as the dance steadily progresses into bleakness and has a numbing quality to it. The dancers continue in this despair with outwards signs of pain being expressed. The feeling in the end section of the dance is one of utter hopelessness and anguish. The dance concludes with this feeling as it is how the Jews felt by the end of the Holocaust and as many of their lives ended when the Holocaust was taking place during World War II. This was the motivations that the choreographer used to choreograph this dance. The overall choreographic intention is to convey the oppression of the Jewish race. Through five sections of the dance this is displayed as each section gets progressively worse in a narrative structure that depicts different parts of the Schindlers List movie the stimulus. I was given the role, by the guest choreographer, of a teenage Jewish girl who is a similar age to me. Using the Stanislavski techniques I developed my character for each section of the dance. In the beginning I am happy and free, using emotional memory to get into character before I begin dancing. As the dance progresses my character becomes less and less happy and free. By the second section, I have lost all emotion and my movements are no longer free but more mechanical. My facial expressions slowly transform into those of pain and my movement reflects this as they are bound. When in the gas chambers I brought the idea of pain in my movements and expressions as my character passes away. I brought the understanding of what the Jewish race would have gone through during this time, through my character. Section 1 – The Beginning The beginning section of the dance is acting. There are seven dancers on stage, each interacting with someone. One dancer (a small boy character) runs onto the performance space from stage left to find his toy car, which he finds and then plays with. Another dancer runs on from stage right (a small girl character) with her toy doll. The boy then snatches the doll away from the girl and teases her with it as she chases after him. The boy’s mother then enters (third dancer to enter the stage) from stage left and tells off the boy for being mean to the girl. The girl’s mother then enters the performance space and supports the girl as she is apologised to by the boy. At the same time as this apology is taking place. A grandmother and her granddaughter are making their way through the space beginning from upstage right. This is when I enter the performance. I run onto the performance space from upstage left, waving as I enter. I move through the space to interact with two of the other dancers, by hugging both of them as they are my grandma and friend. I then walk down stage with the grandmother and friend and my focus is on the other dancers who are greeting each other, the mood is light and free. The dancers then make their way down stage to form a line. They then take whatever prop that they have with them (e. g. the car for the boy) and have it in their hand. Each dancer, in time with the music, kneels down and places their prop on the ground and has one last moment with it. The dancers focus stays on the ground as they all stand up and then simultaneously they raise their heads, their focus up and out. This concludes this section. I learnt this section by getting into character and portraying the emotions that a teenage Jewish girl would. I interact with the other character and I had to really make sure that I used ensemble awareness when getting into the line so that there was equal space between the dancers next to me and to be in a straight line. I portray the intentions of the dance by interacting with the other dancers, showing my relationship with them – this portrays that Jewish race was free to be who they are. My interaction with my prop shows how the Jewish race is still holding on to its individuality but has to eventually let it go. Section 2 – Free Motif This section involves free and flowing movements. The focus of the dancers is all on the movements as it begins with a series of retire step with arms open and moving in a circular motion (half of the dancers go upstage and the other half continue to move toward stage right along down stage), into a drag turn with the left leg and foot is out and the arms are extended on a diagonal, with the body on a tilt. The dancers then run forward and reach toward the sky before they bend and contract their bodies, running backwards with their arms curved alongside their torsos. This is followed by many flowing movements, with the opening of arms, reaching out and looking up. The section finishes with the dancers dropping to their knees with their arms out in front of them. As they get up the pain on their faces begins to show as they enter into the Hitler salute and lifting the right leg at the same time and then coming together to shuffle along with our hands placed on one another shoulders. This ending of the section shows the Nazi regime tightening and sending to Jewish people to concentration camps, their freedom being taken away from them. This section also involves many contemporary contractions and I have had to work on ballet technique. When practising the retires I needed to focus is on pointing my feet, keeping my left arm extended in second and staying up on releve. Through the use of focus and expression I brought the idea across that I was free yet not happy as I know that something is wrong, being in the ghettos. Section 3 – Mechanical Motif The dancers facial expressions in this section are completely blank when completing the dance moves, almost, no sign of any emotion, almost like a robot. Their focus is directly out or in the direction they are moving to. This reinforces the idea that they are losing the very essence of who they are, their humanity and individuality and are beginning to live as though they are like machines. This section is performed through twice. The first time it its completed is in complete unison, the second time they are dancing the same movements but repeated different moves three times so it looks like each dancer is doing something different though they all end at the same time. This section involves a series of isolations of the arms, feet, legs and body as the dances move mechanically. After the isolations is a back bend. The dancers place their hands on the small of their back; tilt back and head facing the sky. This is the only place in this section when the dancer’s faces show expression – pain, with mouths open to show the intensity of it. The dancers then hunch over with knees bent, walk forward and then stand up with hands clasped up by their shoulder, before they drop to the floor. Once on the floor the dancers sit back on their knees and circle round in a back bend and then stand up. This whole sequence is repeated as stated before except for the circled backbend and that concludes this section. I had to practice the sharpness of the movements and keeping myself void of Each dancer, in time with the music, kneels down and places their prop on the ground and has one last moment with it. The dancers focus stays on the ground as they all stand up and then simultaneously they raise their heads, their focus up and out. This concludes this section. I learnt this section by getting into character and portraying the emotions that a teenage Jewish girl would. I interact with the other character and I had to really make sure that I used ensemble awareness when getting into the line so that there was equal space between the dancers next to me and to be in a straight line. I portray the intentions of the dance by interacting with the other dancers, showing my relationship with them – this portrays that Jewish race was free to be who they are. My interaction with my prop shows how the Jewish race is still holding on to its individuality but has to eventually let it go. Section 2 – Free Motif This section involves free and flowing movements. The focus of the dancers is all on the movements as it begins with a series of retire step with arms open and moving in a circular motion (half of the dancers go upstage and the other half continue to move toward stage right along down stage), into a drag turn with the left leg and foot is out and the arms are extended on a diagonal, with the body on a tilt. The dancers then run forward and reach toward the sky before they bend and contract their bodies, running backwards with their arms curved alongside their torsos. This is followed by many flowing movements, with the opening of arms, reaching out and looking up. The section finishes with the dancers dropping to their knees with their arms out in front of them. As they get up the pain on their faces begins to show as they enter into the Hitler salute and lifting the right leg at the same time and then coming together to shuffle along with our hands placed on one another shoulders. This ending of the section shows the Nazi regime tightening and sending to Jewish people to concentration camps, their freedom being taken away from them. This section also involves many contemporary contractions and I have had to work on ballet technique. When practising the retires I needed to focus is on pointing my feet, keeping my left arm extended in second and staying up on releve. Through the use of focus and expression I brought the idea across that I was free yet not happy as I know that something is wrong, being in the ghettos. Section 3 – Mechanical Motif The dancers facial expressions in this section are completely blank when completing the dance moves, almost, no sign of any emotion, almost like a robot. Their focus is directly out or in the direction they are moving to. This reinforces the idea that they are losing the very essence of who they are, their humanity and individuality and are beginning to live as though they are like machines. This section is performed through twice. The first time it its completed is in complete unison, the second time they are dancing the same movements but repeated different moves three times so it looks like each dancer is doing something different though they all end at the same time. This section involves a series of isolations of the arms, feet, legs and body as the dances move mechanically. After the isolations is a back bend. The dancers place their hands on the small of their back; tilt back and head facing the sky. This is the only place in this section when the dancer’s faces show expression – pain, with mouths open to show the intensity of it. The dancers then hunch over with knees bent, walk forward and then stand up with hands clasped up by their shoulder, before they drop to the floor. Once on the floor the dancers sit back on their knees and circle round in a back bend and then stand up. This whole sequence is repeated as stated before except for the circled backbend and that concludes this section. I had to practice the sharpness of the movements and keeping myself void of expression of emotion during this section so that I could effectively portray the end of the Jewish races freedom through my movements. Section 4 – Bound Motif This section has the dancers focus mostly on the hands. There is a mixture of point and flexing of the feet as the hands are cupped. The dancers then contract and then lift up, back flexed and hands flat above head. Then the chest and stomach concaves as the dancers turn and then lift their leg. They then swoop the arms while bending to the right. The dancers then swing around to push out their cupped hands. They then turn again, still with the arms cupped and circle their head around while raising the cupped hands. The dancers then walk back into a cluster as this section conclude. I had difficulty alternating between flexing and pointing my feet and I had to practise this to be able to show the bound movements that are the constriction that the Jews are going through. Section 5 – Gas Chamber Scene This is the section where all of the dancers act/dance their death in the gas chambers. Our black dresses are taken off and the dancers are ‘naked’. Each of the dancers begins by raising their heads in unison as if to look at the ‘shower heads’ that release the gas. The expression is a mixture of hope and utter despair. The music then drops and the dancer’s shoulders hunch over and it is if they had been punched in the stomach. All the dancers then interact with one another as they slowly die. The last person dies as the violin ends, with a single lifted hand that comes shakily down as the dance ends. This death symbolises how the Jews dies as one group, their dignity stripped away and their race slandered. I had to practise this is a lot with another dancer and working together to try and project the death of our characters. This help to show the intention of how they still helped each other even as they were dying. When I performed I used weight bearing in the death scene as I hold one of the dancers who fall onto me. This is to show the support that the Jews are still giving one another. Throughout the different sections my focus varies from out at the audience, to my hands and then focusing on the different movements. This is to enhance the ideas of going from freedom to oppression. There are many relationships with the other dancers through interaction with the other dancers. This is particularly in the beginning section and in the death scene. I interact with two of the dancers at the beginning as I hug them and walk with them. In the death scene I hold one of the dancers and then with my ‘grandma’ we clasp hands and hold her. expression of emotion during this section so that I could effectively portray the end of the Jewish races freedom through my movements. Section 4 – Bound Motif This section has the dancers focus mostly on the hands. There is a mixture of point and flexing of the feet as the hands are cupped. The dancers then contract and then lift up, back flexed and hands flat above head. Then the chest and stomach concaves as the dancers turn and then lift their leg. They then swoop the arms while bending to the right. The dancers then swing around to push out their cupped hands. They then turn again, still with the arms cupped and circle their head around while raising the cupped hands. The dancers then walk back into a cluster as this section conclude. I had difficulty alternating between flexing and pointing my feet and I had to practise this to be able to show the bound movements that are the constriction that the Jews are going through. Section 5 – Gas Chamber Scene. This is the section where all of the dancers act/dance their death in the gas chambers. Our black dresses are taken off and the dancers are ‘naked’. Each of the dancers begins by raising their heads in unison as if to look at the ‘shower heads’ that release the gas. The expression is a mixture of hope and utter despair. The music then drops and the dancer’s shoulders hunch over and it is if they had been punched in the stomach. All the dancers then interact with one another as they slowly die. The last person dies as the violin ends, with a single lifted hand that comes shakily down as the dance ends. This death symbolises how the Jews dies as one group, their dignity stripped away and their race slandered. I had to practise this is a lot with another dancer and working together to try and project the death of our characters. This help to show the intention of how they still helped each other even as they were dying. When I performed I used weight bearing in the death scene as I hold one of the dancers who fall onto me. This is to show the support that the Jews are still giving one another. Throughout the different sections my focus varies from out at the audience, to my hands and then focusing on the different movements. This is to enhance the ideas of going from freedom to oppression. There are many relationships with the other dancers through interaction with the other dancers. This is particularly in the beginning section and in the death scene. I interact with two of the dancers at the beginning as I hug them and walk with them. In the death scene I hold one of the dancers and then with my ‘grandma’ we clasp hands and hold her. Activity Five Technique Contemporary ballet is a form of dance which incorporates elements of both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and use of Pointe work from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines of ballet technique. Many of its concepts come from the ideas and innovations of 20th century modern dance, including floor work, balletic movements and turn-in of the legs Most contemporary ballet focuses on the movement rather than a storyline, though this dance is an exception. Contemporary ballet does not focus on symmetry, and having a stage that is unbalanced is characteristic of the style. It focuses more on a physical interpretation of a theme. Contemporary ballet dancers curve, twist and bend their upper bodies, which is different to ballet, which is all about having perfect posture and control. This dance has a series of contemporary ballet based movement like contractions, curved backs, flexed feet and abstract movements Activity Five Technique Contemporary ballet is a form of dance which incorporates elements of both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and use of Pointe work from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines of ballet technique. Many of its concepts come from the ideas and innovations of 20th century modern dance, including floor work, balletic movements and turn-in of the legs Most contemporary ballet focuses on the movement rather than a storyline, though this dance is an exception. Contemporary ballet does not focus on symmetry, and having a stage that is unbalanced is characteristic of the style. It focuses more on a physical interpretation of a theme. Contemporary ballet dancers curve, twist and bend their upper bodies, which is different to ballet, which is all about having perfect posture and control. This dance has a series of contemporary ballet based movement like contractions, curved backs, flexed feet and abstract movements Two movements/moments that I found difficult: Moment/Movement one: I had to work quite a lot on my retire in the second section. I needed to make sure that my left arm is support and is strong in second position. I also to make sure that my left foot connects with my right leg on the side of my knee. I need to focus on my left hand as my right arm is circling around. In the performance, because I practised them, I performed this movement with clarity and confidence, whilst think of how I practised it. Moment/Movement 2: In the beginning I had to work on becoming my character, the teenage Jewish girl who is happy and free. Using Stanislavski techniques, I remembered a time when I was feeling happy and free, using my emotional memory to get into character before I begin dancing each practise. During the actual performance I got into character before entering the performance space, remember how I was happy and free from the practises prior to the performance. Breath My breath is used to show my emotion in the dance. In section one and two my breath comes easy and is free flowing like the movements. In section three it is sharp and restricted as the movements and isolations are causing this. In section four and five my breath is laboured and shaky as I am in pain and in despair. Two movements/moments that I found difficult: Moment/Movement one: I had to work quite a lot on my retire in the second section. I needed to make sure that my left arm is support and is strong in second position. I also to make sure that my left foot connects with my right leg on the side of my knee. I need to focus on my left hand as my right arm is circling around. In the performance, because I practised them, I performed this movement with clarity and confidence, whilst think of how I practised it. Moment/Movement 2: In the beginning I had to work on becoming my character, the teenage Jewish girl who is happy and free. Using Stanislavski techniques, I remembered a time when I was feeling happy and free, using my emotional memory to get into character before I begin dancing each practise. During the actual performance I got into character before entering the performance space, remember how I was happy and free from the practises prior to the performance. Breath My breath is used to show my emotion in the dance. In section one and two my breath comes easy and is free flowing like the movements. In section three it is sharp and restricted as the movements and isolations are causing this. In section four and five my breath is laboured and shaky as I am in pain and in despair.

Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man Essay Example for Free

Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man Essay For this assignment, you will be analyzing two more short stories, â€Å"Battle Royal† (which is the first chapter in Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man) and â€Å"The Birthmark.† As you read, reflect on the ways each depicts characters that are deemed socially unacceptable because of their outward appearances. Please write a comparison/contrast essay of 1000 words or more discussing the questions below. Remember to begin your paper with an engaging introduction and clear thesis statement, develop each point in the body of your paper using examples and quotes from the stories, and conclude your paper with a restatement of your thesis and closing remarks. Also, be sure to maintain your credibility by including in-text citations and a reference list correctly formatted in APA style. Setting: Describe the settings of both pieces and identify how the eras in which they take place—with their distinct societal attitudes and customs—affect the main characters? Characters: â€Å"Battle Royal:† Discuss the young man and his grandfather. Why do we never learn the young man’s name? What do the grandfather’s dying words reveal about him? â€Å"The Birthmark:† Describe the main characters: Aylmer, Georgiana and Aminadab. What is important to each? Point of View: In which point of view (first- or third-person) is each piece told? If the point of view in â€Å"Battle Royal† was changed, would it have made the story more effective, or less so? Symbolism: â€Å"Battle Royal:† Analyze the deeper meaning of the following: the â€Å"battle royal† itself, the naked blonde, and the young man’s dream at the end of the story. â€Å"The Birthmark:† What does Georgiana’s birthmark signify, first to her and then to Aylmer? What does alchemy represent in the story? Themes: What are the main themes/messages of each piece? What, in other words, do you think the authors, Ralph Ellison and Nathaniel Hawthorne, are trying to communicate about life and human nature in their respective stories? Fear: What role does fear play in both pieces? Discrimination: Both stories address physical appearance, specifically one’s  skin, and the way people may discriminate against others because of external characteristics they deem inferior. Compare and contrast how discrimination and prejudice are presented in â€Å"Battle Royal† and â€Å"The Birthmark.† Final Thoughts: Author Tim O’Brien wrote, Thats what fiction is for. Its for getting at the truth when the truth isnt sufficient for the truth. Talk about how literature might give us â€Å"truer† insights into the human experience by appealing to our senses, emotions and empathy. Describe a situation in which you or someone you know may have been discriminated against because of appearance, gender, race or another attribute. What did the experience teach you? Please submit your assignment.

Comparison of Nursing Theories

Comparison of Nursing Theories Jessica N. Baker The grand nursing theories are too abstract to effectively guide practice, but they can provide a world view. Middle range theories, on the other hand, are less abstract, but are more easily linked to practice. Compare and contrast these two types of theory and how they can be used to inform ANP practice using one grand theory and one middle range theory as examples. Nursing theories are organized frameworks of concepts and purposes to guide nursing practice (Risjord, 2010). Two types of nursing theories are grand nursing theories and middle range nursing theories. Grand nursing theories encompass all aspects of the human experience and allow for general application whereas middle range theories are less abstract and are more specific (McKenna Slevin, 2008). Although there are similarities and differences between grand nursing theories and middle range theories both types of theories can prove to be useful when informing advanced nursing practice (McCrae, 2012). Grand nursing theories are broad in scope and relate to larger areas of nursing such as promotion of health for all individuals in a society (Powers Knapp, 2011). Although broad and non-specific, grand nursing theories provide several implications for advanced practice nursing. It is widely known that healthcare is constantly becoming more complex at an exponential rate. Because of rapidly increasing complexities the abstract nature of grand theories can be useful for complex phenomena relevant to nursing such as aging populations and complex disease states (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson, 2012). Grand theories can highlight the complexities of these and other complex issues concerning for advanced practice nursing in a global society (Im Ju-Chang, 2012). By using grand theories the advanced practice nurse can view each client both as an individual as well a part of larger systems (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson). One grand theory that can be used to guide advanced nursing practice is Neuman’s systems model. This theory uses prevention as the basis for health promotion and it provides a holistic and comprehensive approach to maximizing client health by focusing on stressors that influence the relationship between the client and the environment (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson, 2012). The environment is comprised of five interrelated biological, mental, environmental, social, and spiritual variables (Neuman Fawcett, 2012). The role of the nurse is to retain stability in the client-environment relationship through three levels of prevention (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson). These include primary prevention that occurs before the client experiences a reaction to a stressor, secondary prevention that occurs after the client experiences a reaction to a stressor, and tertiary prevention that occurs after the client has been treated through secondary prevention methods (Skalski, DiGerolamo, Gig lotti, 2006). Using Neuman’s systems model the advanced practice nurse can clearly identify appropriate interventions at different stages of disease processes (Lee, 2014). By discussing the five environmental variables with patients, partnerships can be created to mutually create goals (Skalski, DiGerolamo, Giglotti, 2006). The advanced practice nurse can also promote prevention through client education and counseling (Neuman Fawcett, 2012). Like grand nursing theories, middle range theories provide several implications for advanced practice nursing. Middle range theories can be described as the link connecting research and practice (Fawcett Garity, 2009). Middle range theories can be descriptive, explanatory, or predictive and each plays a role in informing and guiding advanced nursing practice (Fawcett, 2005). When compared to grand nursing theories, middle range theories have a narrower scope, greater levels of specificity, and greater ease of concept application (Powers Knapp, 2011). A middle range theory that influences advanced nursing practice is the theory of optimal client system stability. This theory was derived from the grand theory of Neuman’s systems model as described above. This theory has only one proposition and that is that stability represents system health (Neuman Fawcett, 2012). This theory is useful because interventions by the advanced practice nurse are linked to client outcomes (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson, 2012). There are multiple applications when age, health status, and stressors are identified (Risjord, 2010). One such example is a study of fatigue in patients with diabetes by Casalenuovo (2002) that examined the relationship between stress, well-being, and fatigue. In this study the author concluded that interventions aimed at enhancing client well-being reduced fatigue. Both grand and middle range theories are sets of interrelated concepts to guide thinking in advanced practice nursing (Risjord, 2010). However, there are many differences between these two types of theories. Grand nursing theories consist of conceptual frameworks to provide broad insight useful for general practice. Because of the level of abstraction they are usually not easily testable (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson, 2012). Grand theories are often developed through insightful appraisal and considerations. Middle range theories are narrower in scope and are a bridge between grand theories and nursing practice (Fawcett Garity, 2009). Because middle range theories are less abstract and their concepts are more easily operationalized they allow for hypothesis testing. Middle range theories are often evolved from grand theories, literature reviews, and clinical practice making them more specific to nursing practice (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson). Despite multiple differences, both grand theories and middle range theories have a role in informing and influencing advanced practice nursing. Grand nursing theories define the role of nursing and separates nurses within the infrastructure of health care professions whereas middle range nursing theories guides the nurse to considerations when making clinical decisions (Florczak, Poradzisz, Hampson, 2012). The different types of theories provide different advantages for practice. These two types of theories are complementary and each type can contribute to advanced nursing practice and knowledge (Risjord, 2010). References: Casalenuovo, G. A. (2002). Fatigue in diabetes mellitus: Testing a middle range theory of well-being derived from Neumans theory of optimal client system stability and the Neuman systems model. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63(5), 2301B. Florczak, K., Poradzisz, M., Hampson, S. (2012). Nursing in a complex world: A case for grand theory.Nursing Science Quarterly,25(4), 307-312. Fawcett, J. (2005). Middle-range nursing theories are necessary for the advancement of the discipline.Aquichan,5(1), 32-43. Fawcett, J., Garity, J. (2009). Evaluating research for evidence-based nursing. Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis. Im, E., Ju-Chang, S. (2012). Current trends in nursing theories. Journal of Nursing Scholarship,44(2), 156-164. Lee, Q. (2014). Application of Neumans system model on the management of a patient with asthma.Singapore Nursing Journal,41(1), 20-25. McCrae, N. (2012). Whither nursing models: The value of nursing theory in the context of evidence-based practice and multidisciplinary health care.Journal of Advanced Nursing,68(1), 222-229. McKenna, H. P., Slevin, O. (2008).Nursing models, theories and practice. Oxford: Blackwell. Neuman, B., Fawcett, J. (2012). Thoughts about the Neuman systems model: A dialogue.Nursing Science Quarterly,25(4), 374-376. Powers, B., Knapp, T. R. (2011).Dictionary of nursing theory and research. New York, NY: Springer. Risjord, M. W. (2010).Nursing knowledge: Science, practice, and philosophy. Chichester, West Sussex: Blackwell. Skalski, C., DiGerolamo, L., Gigliotti, E. (2006). Stressors in five client populations: Neuman systems model-based literature review.Journal of Advanced Nursing,56(1), 69-78.