Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Managing in a global context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Managing in a global context - Essay Example Fashions diffuse from region to another without encountering any barrier. On the political context, globalization has yielded democratic governance hence increasing citizens’ participation, as well as good governance. One of the most outstanding impacts of globalization in relation to economic aspects is its effects on the automobile industry. For the past three decades, the world has realized a revolution in the automobile industry in terms of production, purchase, use, and repair among others. There is a change in the way people access motor vehicles today compared to previous years when production and purchasing were pegged on certain parameters such as location and prices. Today, the production of the automobile takes place in nearly every developed nation. People no longer look to the East for the production, but most countries produce motor vehicles. Similarly, it has changed and influenced the automobile industry in the developing nations as well as the marketing strate gies. The rest of the paper will discuss the influence of globalization on markets and marketing strategies, global production and supply chain, current developments and key players among other issues. Globalization has greatly influenced the markets and marketing strategies of major players in the automobile industry. The major players include General Motors (GM), Toyota, Ford, Honda, BMW, Chrysler, and Volkswagen (Sturgeon 2009). All these key players operate in the global marketplace and compete fiercely for market share. The process of globalization has eased the production of vehicles due to increased sales. For instance, globalization promoted the establishment of overseas facilities and merger opportunities between giant automobile makers. This has led to increased production as well as marketing. The process of globalization has facilitated the key players to market their brands as well as to tailor the

Monday, October 28, 2019

Structures of Bacterial Tyrosinases

Structures of Bacterial Tyrosinases Tyrosinases oxidise phenolic hydroxyl groups of small molecules or large polymeric substrates such as proteins. Tyrosinases catalyse first the ortho-hydroxylation of the phenolic substrate and second its subsequent oxidation to quinone (Figure 1) with the concomitant reduction of oxygen to water. The reaction is chromogenic as the quinones produced can undergo further non-enzymatic polymerisation to form black eu-melanins and, when reacting with thiol groups, brownish pheo-melanins [14]. This process can be inhibited by antioxidants such as ascorbic acid, for example to prevent the browning reaction in food preparations [15]. Tyrosinase activity is generally measured by either determining the consumption of oxygen during the reaction or spectrophotometrically by following the increase of absorbance at 475 nm due to dopachrome formation. The cross-linking activity of tyrosinase on proteins is usually analysed by SDS PAGE, size-exclusion chromatography, UV spectroscopy or mass spectrom etry [16]. The active site of tyrosinases interacts with both the phenolic substrates and the co-substrate oxygen and it alternates among three different oxidation states. When in the oxy state, tyrosinase binds oxygen and is able to catalyse the hydroxylation of monophenols to diphenols, thus changing into the met form. The met form of tyrosinase is responsible for the oxidation of diphenols to quinones and the reaction turns the enzyme into the deoxy form that, upon binding molecular oxygen, returns to the oxy form. The met form is the resting state of the enzyme and it has been calculated that up to 85% of the enzyme is in this state when in solution [17, 18]. The inability of most of the enzymes in an enzyme population to act on monophenols explains why a significant lag phase is detected in the activity when monophenols are the substrate of the reaction. Bacterial tyrosinases have been divided in five types according to the organisation of domains and the possible requirement of a caddie protein for enzyme activity [12]. The necessity of a secondary helper protein (caddie protein) for secretion, correct folding, assembly of the copper atoms and activity of the enzyme is common to tyrosinases of type I, e.g. the enzyme from S. castaneoglobisporus and S. antibioticus [19, 20]. Type II tyrosinases are small, monomeric enzymes containing only the catalytic domain, which do not require additional helper proteins and are possibly secreted. An example is the tyrosinase from B. megaterium [6]. Type III tyrosinases are represented by the enzyme from Verrucomicrobium spinosum. Like the fungal tyrosinases it carries a C-terminal domain whose removal led to about 100-fold higher activity [21]. This supports the theory that the role of the C-terminal extension in plant and fungal tyrosinases is to keep the enzyme in an inactive form inside the ce ll [22-24]. Among the smallest bacterial tyrosinases reported (Type IV) are the ones produced by Streptomyces nigrifaciens (18 kDa) and Bacillus thuringiensis (14 kDa) [25, 26]. However, it is debated whether these proteins are true tyrosinases [12]. Type V tyrosinases include enzymes that do not carry the sequence features of tyrosinases but show features typical of laccase and have only marginal activity on tyrosine. For example, a membrane-bound tyrosinase active on the typical laccase substrate ABTS (NCBI ID: AAF75831.2) has been isolated from Marinomonas mediterranea. A tyrosinase with a classical substrate specificity that is activated by SDS (NCBI ID: AAV49996.1) has also been reported from the same organism [27]. Similar to catechol oxidases and the oxygen carrying haemocyanins, tyrosinases are type-3 copper proteins, containing two copper atoms in the active site. The absorbance spectrum of oxy-tyrosinases has a characteristic maximum in the UV region (330-345 nm). As reported for the structurally similar catechol oxidases, a fluorescence intensity maximum at 330 nm upon excitation at 280 nm is also detected [28, 29]. Copper is essential for the catalytic activity of tyrosinases. The crystal structure of these enzymes has demonstrated the presence of two copper ions in the catalytic core (Table 1). In all tyrosinases of different origins and in the haemocyanins each of the copper ions is coordinated by three histidine residues that are found in a characteristic pattern in the primary structure (Figure 2). In the tyrosinase from Streptomyces glaucescens, for example, the key role of histidines at position 37, 53, 62, 189, 193 and 215 in the coordination of copper, and thus in catalytic activi ty, was confirmed by the decrease of activity upon their substitution with other amino acids [30, 31]. Various additional residues have been identified to have a function in fungal and bacterial tyrosinases, either being essential for or modulating tyrosinase activity. Sequence analysis and various mutagenesis studies have been performed in order to identify the residues necessary for the activity of the enzyme. In tyrosinase sequences from plants and fungi, the N-terminal signal peptide, when present, is followed by a conserved arginine residue that marks the beginning of the central catalytic domain and that forms a pi-cation interaction with a conserved C-terminal Y/FXY tyrosine motif, where X is any amino acid [32]. These residues are conserved also in bacterial tyrosinases (Supplementary file 1). Substitution of the N-terminal conserved arginine (R40) has been reported to abolish the production of tyrosinase from V. spinosum [21]. Two single-amino acid substitutions have been reported to improve the catalytic activity of the tyrosinase from Rhizobium etli CFN42. The independent r eplacement of proline at position 334 and of aspartic acid at position 535 (Supplementary file 1) with a smaller residue such as serine (P334S) or glycine (D535G), respectively, led to a significant enhancement of the catalytic activity and melanin formation [33-35]. In the tyrosinase from B. megaterium, a single substitution of arginine by histidine within the copper B binding region (R209H) has been sufficient for a 1.7-fold improvement of the activity towards tyrosine (monophenolase) and for a 1.5-fold reduction of activity on L-DOPA (diphenolase), whereby the overall protein stability was not affected [36]. The crystal structure of the tyrosinase from B. megaterium showed that this arginine is positioned at the entrance of the active site in a flexible position and plays a role in the docking of the substrate [6]. However, the conservative substitution of the corresponding residue asparagine 190 to glutamine (N190Q) in S. glaucescens tyrosinase abolished the catalytic activity, indicating that this residue was possibly involved in hydrogen bonding at the active site [30]. Moreover, the conservative substitution of the residue aspartic acid 209 (D209E) has been reported to stabilise the oxy-form of the same enzyme [37]. To our knowledge, no study has investigated the role of the oxygen binding motif PYWDW [38] with regards to the affinity for oxygen in tyrosinase. The affinity for the co-substrate oxygen has been evaluated for the tyrosinase from Streptomyces antibioticus that carries the PYWDW motif. It was found that this enzyme had a three-fold lower dissociation constant (kD) for oxygen than the A. bisporus tyrosinase [39, 40] that carries a PFWDW motif, i.e. 16.5 ÃŽ ¼M compared to 46.6 ÃŽ ¼M. The analysis of the characterised bacterial tyrosinases evidenced the presence of functionally active variants of this motif (Supplementary file 1 and 2), e.g. PYWNY in the tyrosinase from M. mediterranea, PFWDW in tyrosinase from R. etli, PYWEW in the tyrosinase from B. megaterium, PYWRF and PYWNW in the tyrosinases from Ralstonia solanacearum. Mutational studies have also addressed the interaction of tyrosinases from streptomycetes and their caddie protein. In S. antibioticus, the two histidine residues at positions 102 and 117 of the caddie protein MelC1 have been found to be crucial for the biosynthesis of active tyrosinase [41]. The available crystal structures of bacterial tyrosinases and their mutant forms have been obtained from Gram-positive S. castaneoglobisporus and B. megaterium (Table 1). While the B. megaterium tyrosinase formed crystals containing only the enzyme, the S. castaneoglobisporus tyrosinase required the presence of a second protein, referred to as caddie protein, to stabilise its structure [4]. Moreover, the structure of the Streptomyces tyrosinase has been solved in different states of oxidation. Aiming at understanding the interaction between tyrosinase and caddie protein, tyrosinase has been crystallised in the presence of mutant forms of the caddie protein (Table 1). Likewise, the fungal tyrosinase from A. bisporus was crystallised as a tetramer in a complex with a second protein, a lectin-like protein [7]. Both intracellular and secreted bacterial tyrosinases have been isolated and characterised. For example, the tyrosinases from Streptomyces nigrifaciens, Bacillus thuringiensis, M. mediterranea, R. solanacearum and Thermomicrobium roseum were isolated from cell biomass and the ones from S. antibioticus, S. glaucescens, S. castaneoglobisporus, Streptomyces albus, B. megaterium, Sinorhizobium meliloti, Aeromonas media, R. etli and V. spinosum were either isolated from the culture medium or predicted to be secreted [19, 21, 25, 26,42-51]. The twin-arginine signal peptide is often found in cofactor-binding oxidoreductases that undergo complete folding in the cytoplasm prior to secretion to the periplasmic or extracellular space. Twin-arginine type signal peptides [52] could be identified in the N-terminal region of tyrosinases from R. solanacearum (34-amino acid long) and V. spinosum (33-amino acid long). A more detailed analysis of the sequence retrieved for the tyrosinase from R. etli a nd the alignment with the other sequences of tyrosinases (Supplementary File 1) suggests the possibility of incorrect open reading frame prediction. The true N-terminal methionine may be M112 (underlined in Supplementary file 1) as it aligns with the initial residue of the tyrosinase from R. solanacearum (number 15 in Supplementary file 1) and is followed by a predicted twin-arginine signal peptide of 31 amino acids [51]. Thus, we suggest that these proteins purified from the cell biomass but carrying a signal peptide for secretion are localised in the periplasm. Tyrosinases, also from bacteria, and their caddie proteins generally lack conserved cysteine residues (for comments see [11, 12]). The paucity of cysteine residues, and thus disulphide bonds, allowed, however, the isolation of tyrosinases with significant thermal stability, e.g. the enzyme from B. megaterium had an optimum temperature of 50Â °C [48]. A single cysteine residue is conserved in proximity of the second histidine residue of the copper A binding motif in the characterised tyrosinases from M. mediterranea, R. solanacearum, S. meliloti, R. etli and V. spinosum (Supplementary file 1). A cysteine residue at this position has been found to be covalently bound to a histidine residue two positions forward in, for example, the fungal tyrosinase from Neurospora crassa [53], the plant catechol oxidase from I. batata [8] and haemocyanins from the snail Helix pomatia [54]. The function of this unusual cysteine-histidine bond is not established, but it could confer structural rigidity to the copper-binding region and affect the redox potential [8]. Replacement of this cysteine residue (C84) with serine abolished the production of the tyrosinase from V. spinosum [21]. Type-3 copper proteins carrying six conserved cysteines (forming three in silico predicted disulphide bonds) and characterised by significant thermal stability have been reported in fungi [26]. No mutagenesis study has addressed a possible improvement of the thermal stability of bacterial tyrosinases by introducing disulphide bonds. However, in silico analysis revealed the possible presence of one disulphide bond in the tyrosinases from R. solanacearum and S. meliloti and two in the enzymes from M. mediterranea and R. etli (Dianna software, http://clavius.bc.edu/~clotelab/DiANNA). The tyrosinase from S. castaneoglobisporus and the one from B. megaterium share approximately 30% sequence similarity with a catechol oxidase from Aspergillus oryzae that showed a melting temperature above 70Â °C and a ha lf-life of 20 hours when incubated at 50Â °C [29]. It should be noted that the tyrosinase from A. media exhibits different sequence features when compared to the other enzymes. The sequence alignment with bacterial tyrosinases shows that none of the typical signature motifs (copper A and B regions, oxygen binding motif and tyrosine motif) are present (see Supplementary file 1). Moreover, this enzyme has a predicted 23-amino acid long signal peptide [50] and shows strong sequence similarity to bacterial periplasmic proteins that are responsible for the uptake of peptides and involved in nutrition and sensing of the environment [55].

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Insanity Defense :: A Crime Of Insanity

When someone commits a crime, he or she may use mental illness as a defense. This is called an insanity plea or insanity defense. What the insanity defense does is try to give the alleged perpetrator a fair trial. At least in extreme cases, society agrees with this principle. The problem is where do we draw the line. Under what circumstances is a person considered insane, and when are they not? The trouble with the insanity defense in recent years is the assumption that virtually all criminals have some sort of mental problem. One important point is that the crime itself, no matter how appalling, does not demonstrate insanity. Today, the insanity defense has become a major issue within the legal system. If the defendant is clearly out of touch with reality, the police and district attorney ordinarily agree to bypass the trial and let the defendant enter a mental hospital. On the other hand, if the defendant has no serious signs of mental illness, the defense attorneys will not attempt an insanity defense. This is because they know that juries are reluctant to accept it. Basically, the only way for a lawyer to prove his client’s insanity is to try to project what his client was thinking (or not thinking) at the time that the crime was committed. This is usually done by enlisting the testimonies of a psychologists or psychiatrists, who are known as â€Å"expert witnesses.† Both legal and mental health professionals have long struggled to establish a clear and acceptable definition of insanity. Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological or medical one. The Sarasons prefer to use the term â€Å"maladaptive behavior† instead of insane or insanity. Maladaptive behavior is, â€Å"behavior that deals inadequately with a situation, especially one that is stressful† (5). Adaptation is the way people balance what they do and want to do, and what the environment/community requires of them. Successful adaptation depends on a person’s stress (situations that impose demands on him or her), vulnerability (likelihood of a maladaptive response), and coping skills (techniques that help him or her deal with difficulties/stress) (5). Consider the recent school shootings as an example. Students who are teased and bullied are experiencing stress. Some students have low vulnerability and choose to talk about the situation with a parent or teacher, which is a good coping strategy.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Consumer behavior Essay

1. Why would someone shop on the internet ? buy an ipad ? eat at T. G. I. Fridays frequently ? -Because of the fast-paced world that we live in it would be more practical to shop through the internet because of its accessibility. Through online shopping customer can get the product and avail the services they need in just a simple click of button it saves them time and energy. An ipad is a tablet computer developed by Apple. It is smaller than a typical laptop, but significantly larger than the average smartphone. The iPad does not include a keyboard or a trackpad, but instead has a touchscreen interface , which is used to control the device. Due to it’s portability, accessibility, ease of use, and the great applications you can avail with it millions of people around the world are ipad user and hundreds are still planning to get their self one, so they can ride along in the bandwagon and be one with the trend. Having an ipad can also defined one’s social status so, even though it is expensive with it’s benefits and the image it can give to a person we find iPAD’s as a practical thing to buy. T. G. I. Fridays is an American restaurant chain focusing on casual dining. It offers it’s customers good food and an American dining experience though it maybe expensive compared to other restaurant but, it is a great place to relaxed after a hard days work. a) Why would someone else not make those purchases? -Other People find it much more complicated to shop through the internet and prefer the old fashion way of shopping, some find iPad’s expensive and impractical and other people find eating at an expensive restaurant just a waste of time and money and they just prefer to eat home cooked meal. b) How would you choose one outlet, brand and model over the others? – If they have a good ambiance and feel of their store, the sales person offers good service and if their product are worthy and reasonable enough for their price. c) Would others make choice the same way ? -I guess not, because other people prefer to go with products with cheaper prices.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Fair Value Accounting Essay

This paper attempts to answer the question: â€Å"Is it reasonable to blame fair value accounting for any of the Wall Street mess? † This paper in effect settle whether the use of fair value accounting by listed companies in the major stock exchanges in the US, particularly those found in Wall Street, which the caused fall in prices of the stocks of these companies, was required of companies without justification; hence, it should be blamed for the mess. 2. Analysis and Discussion Any mess in the Wall Street is defined for this paper as one causing the stock prices of companies list in major stock exchanges of the US to fall and that it resulted to losses to investors. To have reasonable basis to blame fair value accounting for any Wall Street mess, does not simply mean that fair value accounting was the necessary cause of fall in the prices of corporate stocks but that the requirement of fair value accounting must not be fair. The question that must be decided therefore is whether fair value accounting is fair as basis of valuing corporate assets, liabilities and equity. A situation or condition is fair if it gives what is due to a person. If the concept of fair value is used in the context of an asset purchased or liability assumed in business, fair value implies that said asset or liability must neither be overpriced nor underpriced whether perceived or otherwise. The law of economics would have fair value as one representing that market price or that equilibrium price of a product or service (Samuelson and Nordhaus, 1992) which is also the value of something from a seller that is not forced to sell or from a buyer that is not forced to buy. Investors, creditors, and other persons expect to be treated fairly as they enter into transactions in terms of value that they will give in exchange to what they will receive. To illustrate, a person or company planning to invest in stocks will appreciate what is fair if the said person or company will earn sufficient return above cost of capital in exchange for the risks being faced by such person or company (Brigham, 2002). To have what is fair, the investors must know the accurate and reliable information about of the company to guide them about their chances of gaining or losing money. These users deserve to have the opportunity to have the true or accurate value of asset, liability or equity being dealt with in a business transaction as basis for valuing the stocks that they will invest with. Financial reports prepared companies, as guided by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) accounting standard under fair value accounting, will provide these users the opportunity. Specifically, fair value accounting was made pursuant to FAS 157 as issued by US FASB for companies to reflect the accounting information on the real values of assets, liabilities and equity in the balance sheet as contrasted with presenting the information using the historical cost accounting (Meigs and Meigs, 1995). A group of analysts and portfolio managers actually formed part of those who influenced the passage of the fair value accounting for more relevant information in decision making (Chasan, 2008). Under FAS 157 defines fair value is defined as the price that would be received â€Å"to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants in a measurement date† (Sortur, 2007). If companies have restated their financial statements from historical cost accounting to fair value accounting, the purpose was laudable since in simple terms, the intention is to make the information more relevant, more accurate and more reliable for decision makers. If stockholders got affected in terms of lower price of stocks as a result of restatement of financial statements, the error was when they were made the purchase of their investments under the historical cost accounting. Since fair value accounting may also increase the value of the stocks if fair value is higher than cost, it could not be asserted that it should be blamed for the fall of prices but not praised for increased in price increase of stock prices. 3. Conclusion It can be concluded that it is not reasonable to blame fair value accounting for any of the Wall Street mess since fair value accounting is only bringing out what is fair to investors who deserved to know accurate and reliable information for making decisions. Fair value accounting is an accounting standard made by FASB that was made as a requirement from the corporation which must present truthful and reliable information for investors. As an alternative to historical value of accounting, fair value is expected to have present company more reliable information about their assets and liabilities in accordance with market prices. Its implementation may have caused companies to present their financial information and if the information presented were more truthful, the consequence of causing problems to companies should only be secondary to the purpose of providing objective and more reliable financial information. Any fall in stock prices from Wall Street may in fact have been caused by companies having to restate their financial statement pursuant to fair value accounting but the intention was to reflect to truer value of assets and liabilities of the corporations whose stocks got affected. Losers should not blame fair value accounting since the latter is just a guide to have more truthful information and they would have a change also of higher stock prices under fair value if warranted by market forces. If there was no basis for such more truthful information, then restatements of financial information using fair value would not have been made in the first place. If buyers and sellers are not being compelled to complete their transaction, fair value accounting must be held as fair and cannot be blamed for the mess. In fact, fair value accounting should have been introduced years ago for it could have saved some abuse and a lot of problems (Rees-Mogg, 2007). References: Brigham and Houston (2002), Introduction to Financial Management, Thomson-South Western, USA, 2002 Chasan, Emily (2008), Is fair value accounting really fair? {www document} URL, http://www. reuters. com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1546484120080226, Accessed November 21, 2008 Meigs and Meigs (1995), Financial Accounting, McGraw-Hill, Inc, London, UK Rees-Mogg (2007), Why FAS 157 strikes dread into bankers, {www document} URL http://www. timesonline. co. uk/tol/comment/columnists/william_rees_mogg/article2852547. ece, Accessed November 21, 2008. Samuelson and Nordhaus (1992), Economics, McGraw-Hill, Inc, London, UK Sortur (2007) Fair Value Measurement, The Chartered Accountant {www document} URL, http://icai. org/resource_file/96471564-1574. pdf, Accessed November 21, 2008

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Admissions Guide - Admissions Guide to Private Schools

Admissions Guide - Admissions Guide to Private Schools If youre applying to private school, you might be wondering if you have all the important information and know all the steps that you need to take. Well, this admissions guide offers some important tips and reminders to help you apply to private school. However, its important to note that even this guide isnt a guarantee for admission to the school to your choice; there are no tricks or secrets to getting your child into a private school. Just a lot of steps and the art of finding the school that meets your needs and where your child will succeed most. Start Your Search Early   It doesnt matter whether you are trying to find a place in kindergarten,  ninth grade in a college prep school or even a postgraduate year at a boarding school, its important that you start the process a year to 18 months or more in advance. While this isnt recommended because it truly takes that long to apply, but there are a number of things to consider before you even sit down to complete the application. And, if your goal is to get admittance at some of the best private schools in the country, you need to make sure that you are ready and have a strong background.   Plan Your Private School Search From the moment you ask yourself how you get your child into private school until the much-awaited acceptance letter arrives, there is a lot that you need  to do. Plan your work and work your plan. A great tool is the Private School Spreadsheet, which is designed to help you keep track of the schools youre interested in, who you need to contact at each school, and the status of your interview and application. Once you have your spreadsheet ready to use and you begin the process, you can use this  timeline  to stay on track with dates and deadlines. Keep in mind though, that every schools deadlines may vary slightly, so make sure youre aware of all the different deadlines. Decide if Youre Using a Consultant While most families are able to navigate the private school search themselves, some opt to engage the assistance of an educational consultant. Its important that you find a reputable one, and the best place to determine that is by referencing the IECA website. If you decide to contract with one, make sure that you communicate regularly with your consultant. Your consultant can advise you on ensuring that you choose the right fit school for your child, and can work with you to apply to both reach schools and  safe schools. Visits and Interviews Visiting schools is critical. You have to see the schools, get a feel for them and make sure they meet your requirements. Part of the visit will be the admissions interview. While the admissions staff will want to interview your child, they may also want to meet with you. Remember: the school does not have to accept your child. So put your best foot forward. Take some time to prepare a list of questions to ask, too, because the interview is also an opportunity for you to assess if the school is right for your child.    Testing Standardized admissions tests are required by most schools. The SSAT and ISEE are the most common tests. Prepare for these thoroughly. Make sure your child gets lots of practice. Make sure she understands the test, and how it works. Your child will also have to submit a writing sample or essay. Want a great SSAT prep tool? Check out this Guide to the SSAT ebook.   Applications Pay attention to the applications deadlines which are typically mid-January, though some schools have rolling admissions with no specific deadlines. Most applications are for an entire school year though from time to time a school will accept an applicant in the middle of an academic year.    Many schools have online applications. Several schools have a common application which saves you lots of time as you only complete one application which is sent to several schools you designate. Dont forget to complete your Parents Financial Statement(PFS) and submit it as well. Part of the applications process is getting teacher references completed and submitted, so make sure to give your teachers plenty of time to complete those. You will also have to complete a Parent Statement or Questionnaire. Your child will have his own Candidate Statement to fill out as well. Give yourself plenty of time to get these tasks done. Acceptances Acceptances are generally sent in mid-March. If your child is wait-listed, dont panic. A place might just open up. Article edited by  Stacy Jagodowski:  If you have more questions or need more information about getting into a private school, tweet me or share your comment on Facebook.

Monday, October 21, 2019

The Importance of an Independant Judiciary essays

The Importance of an Independant Judiciary essays The judiciary is the government branch that is concerned with the administration of justice. The judiciary is absolutely separate from the executive and the legislature, so it can check the concentration of government power. The independence of the judiciary is crucial in a democratic community because when judges are presiding over cases, there must be no interference and intimidation from any external forces. The independence issues touches upon the battle of authority and freedom. If the separation of powers did not exist, it would be impossible to try to prevent the authority from interfering in the administration of justice. With separation and independence, the basic freedoms of all citizens is at best guaranteed. It is up to the judiciary to carry out in accordance with the law. If the system did not have independence of the judiciary than the principles of rules and the law would be in jeopardy and other institutions of government would interfere in the administration of justice. One of the most important freedoms in the American judicial system is the right to a jury trial. This allows a minimum of six Americans, chosen from a list of registered voters, to determine a person's guilt or innocence through deliberations. They have the power to express the how society feels on the issue, as well as interpret and judge the laws themselves. If they feel that a law is unconstitutional, evil, or even unfair they can void it by declaring the defendant not-guilty. The power of the jury is huge and through time has become more just by decreasing the limitations to become a juror including race and sex. Part of the reasoning behind the right to a jury trial is to limit government power. Although judges should be fair and just, total power is too strong, and could be used to aid some people while harming others. As someone once said, "Power corrupts sometimes, but absolute power corrupts absolutely." Many people thought anarchy woul...