Pregnancy and Progressive Treatment Options

Part 1. The practice that I want to have is an OB/GYN. The reason why I want to have an OB/GYN is because I am fascinated with how babies are born, and what goes into everything during pregnancies. It is an absolute miracle. My practice will be a little more involved than most OB/GNY’s. I guess you could call it a â€Å"one stop shop† OB/GYN. I know that from my personal experience of having children, I always had to go to different places to get certain things done. Just for example, in order for me to get an ultrasound I would have to go to a hospital, my OB/GYN did not really do them there.And when I needed to get blood work done, I had to do to Quest to have blood drawn. And when I had to deliver my baby, I had to go to the hospital. Now the OB/GYN that I have in mind I will have all of that there. There will be an area of the doctor’s office for women who need to get blood work done, another area to do ultrasounds, and believe it or not, another area to deli ver the baby. The type of people that I will have working at my practice will be first and for most, the OB/GYN. In other words, the baby doctor. That will be the person who checks on the pregnant woman throughout her pregnancy, and the person who delivers as well.The next will be nurses. They are the ones who will help the doctor’s, and help take care of the patients. The next will be the ultrasound technicians. The people who will be giving the girls their ultrasounds. The other people that I will have be working there are the technicians who will do your blood work. And of course there will be the girls who work behind the desk, the assistants who schedule appointments, file the paper work, things like that. I almost forgot to clarify that my OB/GYN will only be for pregnant women. I think that it makes it easier that way, just to focus on one thing.And that is the type of practice that I will have. Part 2. Missions Statement As a premier medical group in Bristol Pennsylva nia, our goal is to provide current, quality comprehensive medical care to a large number of area women in their pregnancy. We continuously strive to create a patient to doctor relationship that goes beyond today’s standard, partnering with our patients through education, diagnosis, progressive treatment options and ongoing care, while providing the best care to our pregnant patients. Making them feel comfortable as much as possible.

Marketing and Fitness Center Essay

Our fitness is located in Cockeysville, Maryland, and provides fitness services to people of all age, level, and expertise. The main purpose of â€Å"Our Fitness† is to promote healthy lifestyles by providing knowledge on nutrition and exercising habits. â€Å"Our Fitness† is well known for it’s excellent services and aims to extend the business by providing two additional services. First, we will start fitness classes for people above 55 years old. These fitness classes are conducted to provide a comfortable environment for people above 55 to promote exercising habits and healthy lifestyles. Second, our fitness center will have our own restaurant next to the fitness center specifically designed for the members. Our fitness center’s restaurant will provide low fat, low calorie, and high protein and fiber food specially designed for promoting healthy eating habits. Strategically, Our fitness’s primary market target will consist of people over 55 and mostly retirees. Our secondary target market includes college and high school students. a. Three ways that determined these products and/or services would be the most feasible and potentially profitable for the company to add are: 1. Placement 2. Trends 3. IS the profit margin large enough to make money but small enough for your â€Å"target audience† to afford? Placement Placement or location is one of the most important factors in attracting and retaining customers. Everybody prefers easier and more convenient way to purchase products or services. Therefore, â€Å"Our Fitness† uses the placement approach to connect the products and services with the customer by making services and products more convenient and more accessible to the customers. Our fitness is located in the business area as well as densely populated  residential area with three different universities and one community college. On the other hand, there are only two fitness centers in the area with very expensive membership and maintenance service fees. Overall, this fitness center will be in the center of public places. At the same time, Our fitness center’s restaurant will be only one diet concerned restaurant in the area. Therefore, using competitive advantage through the introduction of two new services will help to retain old members as well as to attract new members in the area. 2. Trends People want to live longer and look good following healthy habits. It is very important to identify the market trends to assess the market potential. Understanding the market trends helps to respond according to customer behaviors as well as to develop sustainability. On the other hand, it also helps to analyze our competition and market potential. Different fitness centers are using different approaches to attract new members as well as to retain existing members. We have to understand that new members want new services. It is not possible to satisfy the consumers without understanding their needs. There is a fierce competition in the market to increase customer satisfaction by introducing new products/services. At the same time, there are many unsatisfied consumers who always change producers or owners because of unsatisfactory service or products. In our case, we even lost many members because of same services since last couple of years. So, we introduce our products/services as a result of customer survey and market research. Our market research and survey strategy will play a vital role to grow our target market in the future. 3.Is the profit margin large enough to make money but small enough for your â€Å"target audience† to afford? The profit margin is large enough to make money because we have young people who spend a great amount of money on food. You also have the retirees who spend a huge amount of money on good health. Also, these days people are more health conscious and follow healthy habits. Exercising and healthy eating are the main priorities of many people. The target audience will be able to afford it because it is a comfortable environment that promotes exercising habits and a healthy lifestyle which allows positive energy to follow. b. Competitive advantage is created through the understanding of your competitors and their products and services. One of the competitive advantages of Our Fitness is fitness classes especially designed for people over 55 as well as restaurant service for members with unique menus and special price. All fitness centers provide classes and specialty training but many do not have classes that target an older age audience. We want our members to feel more comfortable working out and training with people of the same experience level. On the other hand, people over 55 are the ones who spend more money on healthcare, and we aim to reduce their healthcare costs by engaging them with age specific and specialty classes. Our on site restaurant will provide nutrition rich health foods and diet services to members as well as other guests. It will be restricted to members only after one or two years, because we are using the restaurant as advertising to increase membership. A2. I will focus on newspapers for advertising, which reach a broad, geographically-targeted market. These ads will be focused to attract people who are 55 or older because they rely heavily on newspapers. Newspaper advertising is low-cost and involves short timelines. At the same time, this type of marketing channel will reach the total circulation, even if only a portion fits our prospective profile. I will also use Facebook as a marketing tool; Facebook is still, far and away, the most popular, with the most evenly-distributed demographics of any social media platform. Facebook is the only social media platform that you need, no matter what field your business is in. The main reason to use Facebook to advertise is the use of Facebook by all age people. In addition to ease of use, Facebook ads and business pages are cost effective, reliable, and very quickly disseminated to all users. Finally, we will rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising, as personal reviews are often the most trusted form of information. This marketing tool can also be used to reach the secondary market, visiting colleges and advertising our job opportunities as well as membership benefits. A3. Price is the value that you exchange for a product or service. Pricing objectives should align with the company’s goals and can be affected by factors such as competition, consumer reaction, and other regulatory requirements. Generally, other fitness centers charge $59 per month as service fee and $55 per personal training class in the area. So, we need to provide service for lower prices than our competitors. On the other hand, it is very important to understand the demand of product or services before pricing because there is a direct relationship between price and demand. Our main pricing objective is to maximize the revenue and quantity. This objective helps to maximize long-term profits by lowering costs and increasing market share. Penetration pricing will be used to maximize the sales of quantity by means of a low price. First, we will cut the one time member fee for all new members, so that they have to pay monthly fee only, which will be $39.99 per month. At the same time, for new members and existing members, who are 55 years or older, will have to pay only $15 per fitness class. The price may be gradually increased after establishing market share and customer loyalty. We will use cost-plus pricing method because it makes easier to calculate the selling price for our services/products. Since, our production cost per membership per month is $20.00, and $4 per fitness class. Therefore, our profit per person in membership is $20 and $11 in fitness class per person. Our goal is to add 100 new members in the first month and increase to 500 within next six months. Therefore, our revenue will increase by $2000 from membership in the first month. Similarly, we will provide competitively cheaper price for foods and drinks comparing to local restaurants. We will also offer promotional pricing, discounts and coupons for the restaurant and fitness center to attract more customers. Our overall goal will be to maximize the number of consumers to increase the quantity of sale. If we can maximize the number of consumers, then we can maximize the revenue as well as profit. A4. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of technologies, strategies, and practices used by companies to manage customer interactions and improve customer relationship. The main goal of CRM is to improve  business relationships with customers by retaining customer retention and increasing sales growth. Ngai stated that â€Å"the purpose of CRM system is the building of relationships in order to affect the customer acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability† (Ngai, 2005). I would like to use Salesforce as CRM system. Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system, and doesn’t need special installation and hardware. This system can be very cost effective by keeping IT cost low. CRM system like Salesforce can track the history of customer interactions and helps to grow our business. The system track includes calls, emails, presentations, meetings, or even the further step to close the deal. Salesforce can also track the deal details including the worth, competitor, and the stage of deal with automatic deal updates at a glance to close the deal. Salesforce can drive the process, productivity, and consistency by using sales app to map the sales and forecasting stages. It is equiped with quoting capabilities to track the quantity, standard and quoted price, product code, and expected sales in a given period. In addition, company’s e-mail, phone or website can be used to track customer inquiries and history of their activities. Salesforce provides customer relationship data with automatic updated instant access of full customer history of all communications. It also helps to create customized pitch documents about consumers and prospects and can focus sales staff’s attention on the right consumers. Cross-selling and up-selling opportunities become clear through better understanding of consumers and increase their satisfaction. Satisfied consumers are likely to become loyal consumers and common referrals. It can also be beneficial to the customer because it can provide email updates, alerts, referrals, discount coupons, and special events and promotions. Overall, Salesforce tracking system will be very useful in controlling and managing the inquiries and sales of products and services. A5. It is not possible to open any new business without incurring risks, and opening a new restaurant with established fitness center is no different. Financial risk is one of the most difficult risks associated with any new business. â€Å"Financial risk has been defined as any risk that has a direct impact on net cash flows† (Cabedo and Tirado, 2004). This includes problems  related to price, credit, inflation, liquidity, and potential losses due to changes in financial markets and defaulting large scale debtors (Meulbrook, 2000). There are also risks with opening a new restaurant. Our Fitness center require a large amount of capital upon opening, in order to hire additional staff, purchase high-end fitness equipment, and advertise the restaurant to local fitness and healthy food seekers. Personal injury is another significant risk of operating a gym and adding fitness classes especially to people of 55 or older who are more prone to injury. Aside from the legal aspect, injuries in our gym could cause a bad reputation, particularly if they are recurring. It is critical to maintain a good reputation to sell our fitness services and get people into our restaurant. At the same time, improving the quality of our existing services along with adding new specialty services and products is very critical, and is one of the most important aspects of business. Factors such as product contamination, product safety, business integrity, and failure to maintain high standards, may reduce demand for our business. The reputation of the company plays a vital role in our forward progress. Therefore, poor product quality or services may damage our reputation and could limit business activities as well as increase our operating costs. On the other hand, there is always a risk of substitute of products and services in the market. It is very important to study the market and meet consumer needs before launching any new business. A6. The most common risk associated with not launching the new products or services will be the lack of competitive advantage at the Our Fitness center.  Introducing new services and opening a new restaurant will provide the competitive advantage that we seek and will help to expand the business and satisfy existing members. Customer preferences and tastes change with time, it is necessary to meet their needs and tastes to increase the demand for our products/services. Therefore, the new restaurant will aim to compliment our new services/products and satisfy consumer demands. If we are unable to launch the new services/products into the market and meet the consumer needs, then it will not only negatively affect Our Fitness’s financial performance but it may increase by operating costs, and change  consumer perceptions about our existing services Innovation can be a key differentiator between Our Fitness and our rivals. Therefore, if Our Fitness will not launch new services then, it might run the risk of losing ground to competitors, losing key staff, decreased membership, or simply operating inefficiently. As a whole, Our Fitness financial performance could be adversely affected without new products/services, and in the end lead to its closure. References Cabedo, J. D. and Tirado, J. M. (2004), â€Å"The disclosure of risk in financial statements†, Accounting Forum, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 181-200. Meulbrook, L. (2000), Total strategies for company-wide risk control, Financial Times, London. Ngai. 2005. Customer relationship management research. Marketing intelligence & planning, 23 (6): 582-605. he Feasibility Study’s Purpose ï‚ · Evaluate the nature, scale and economics of constructing an indoor recreation center within the Area ï‚ · Identify the potential audience/supporting membership of an indoor recreation center within the Area ï‚ · Assess what amenities/programming would be most logical to provide as part of a recreation center ï‚ · Explore the physical characteristics of various sites on which the recreation center could be constructed 1 Evaluate potential funding sources available to support short-term and long-term Recreation Center alternatives

Graffiti Art, Mural Art and Banksy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Graffiti Art, Mural Art and Banksy - Essay Example Graffiti is said to be street offshoots of murals, and are commonly called urban or street art, or street subversions. Majority of graffiti are only tagging, where only words or messages are inscribed, shouting to the public the artist’s pent-up emotions and discontentment, and are executed on walls of areas where heavy, constant human traffic is present like underground subway stations, earning graffiti another name, underground art. Underground, which refer to its under-the-surface location, and underground, which pertains to the very nature of its being illegal. Its legal counterpart, murals, has historical and artistic value and has existed since time immemorial. There have been discoveries of pre-historic paintings and carvings in caves, and in tombs of ancient royalties commemorating their lives and their reign. In Europe, old churches sport magnificent frescoes which are believed to date as far back as the 15th century. It was only in the 1920s, when murals began to be commissioned for public buildings in Mexico, that murals became public, and have become outlets for socio-economic realism and community concerns. Three leading Mexican muralists namely Diego Rivera, David Alfonso Siquieros and Jose Clemente Orosco, popularly and collectively called â€Å"Los Tres Grandes† or The Three Greats have been credited with greatly influencing the works of other muralists in the Mission District, San Francisco Area, the central hub of Latinos doing graffiti works. Graffiti became the underground vogue.... Graffiti is said to be street offshoots of murals, and are commonly called urban or street art, or street subversions. Majority of graffiti are only tagging, where only words or messages are inscribed, shouting to the public the artist’s pent-up emotions and discontentment, and are executed on walls of areas where heavy, constant human traffic is present like underground subway stations, earning graffiti another name, underground art. Underground, which refer to its under-the-surface location, and underground, which pertains to the very nature of its being illegal. Its legal counterpart, murals, has historical and artistic value and has existed since time immemorial. There have been discoveries of pre-historic paintings and carvings in caves, and in tombs of ancient royalties commemorating their lives and their reign. In Europe, old churches sport magnificent frescoes which are believed to date as far back as the 15th century. It was only in the 1920s, when murals began to be commissioned for public buildings in Mexico, that murals became public, and have become outlets for socio-economic realism and community concerns. Three leading Mexican muralists namely Diego Rivera, David Alfonso Siquieros and Jose Clemente Orosco, popularly and collectively called â€Å"Los Tres Grandes† or The Three Greats have been credited with greatly influencing the works of other muralists in the Mission District, San Francisco Area, the central hub of Latinos doing graffiti works (Drescher). Graffiti became the underground vogue during the hip-hop generations of the 80s and the 90s, although graffiti artists’ tagging deeds have been

Two assignments Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Two assignments - Assignment Example This is not to downplay a department but to find the root cause. It is clear that it a manager must be cognizant of these elements and try to bridge any discrepancies that occur. In that efforts, the supervisor’s motives for wanting the information should not be retaliation but to improve the process overall. The focal point of all this should be to enhance the process itself into a seamless manner, not to point fingers at each other. â€Å"Successful leaders such as IT managers are excellent deflect attention away from them and encourage others to voice their opinions.† It is clear that the IT manager must lead their team to the right goals and understand this data to analyze for the well-being of the organization itself. As an IT manager, doing a case analysis is important even for security and social engineering purposes. When it comes to securing these elements, human flaws are always a huge issue. Social engineering has plagued many organizations because attackers have found constructive ways to loop into the system. Social engineering for user domains should be based on layering approach. For instead, spoofing is conducted on regular basis for a user account domain password, which can expose vulnerabilities in the system itself. The job of the IT manager therefore is to rectify these issues if it hurts the organization in any shape and form. This cannot be conducted without understanding the root cause of the department failures. Registration system stakeholders will be students, administrators, teachers and registration office. If a student drops the class, the registration gets affected because they have to pool this resource out to someone. If a teacher does not teach a class, students get affected because of the entity relationships that are created. In order to be very comprehensive in the interview process, it

Public policy problem statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Public policy problem statement - Essay Example ance and lack of concern for the lives of others has turned urban squares into crime dens where criminals with sadistic motives target innocent civilians. As a corollary, the main objective of this document is to establish the most significant factors of enhancing safety in urban squares and to devise a plan for resolving the safety problems. This will be achieved by making a comparative analysis on three outstanding theorists’ perspectives concerning the area under discussion. An urban square should be able to host strangers from different backgrounds and at the same time ensure the safety of the individuals and property within its precincts (Jacobs, 1961, 30). The Pleasance of a place is contingent to its ability to protect the inhabitants from menaces and physical harm as well as psychological protection from insecurity, fear becoming a victim of crime (Gehl, 2008, 162). The concept of a safe urban square can be best defined in contrast with the concept of an unsafe urban square. Insecurity can be looked at from two different perspectives: i.e. the objective and subjective perspectives. From an objective perspective, Insecurity take account of all factors that impedes the safety of an individual, such as aggravated burglary, murder, violent assaults, sexual harassment among others. On the other hand insecurity from a subjective point of view requires a broad-spectrum judgment of an incident in terms of regional safety and space. Insecurity and poverty are two phenomena that are very interrelated. This is because leads to social disorders such as robbery, violence, assault and the like (Salehi, 2008, 107). A plan aimed at ensuring a safe and secure urban square should include elements of both safety (protection against arson, environmental pollutions, car accidents and other unanticipated natural events) and security (prevention against crime targeting individuals and their properties e.g. sexual harassment, robbery with violence among others (Salehi, 2008,

Rule of Law - UK law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Rule of Law - UK law - Essay Example This drawback was recently remedied substantially, albeit not completely, by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.1 For instance, there is now a Supreme Court under Part 3 of the law which has taken over the judicial powers of the House of Lords which used to have appellate jurisdiction. Being then all under the Queen, the rule of law was said to be hinged on her sovereignty in the parliament which makes laws and on her sovereignty in the courts which interpret and apply the law. From within this ambit was derived the structure of the so-called twin foundations. While it is true that the duties and functions of the Queen are more ceremonial, there are still aspects over which she wields power which she may exercise at will. Important examples are her needed assent for the final enactment of a bill into law and her influence over the appointment of the Prime Minister and the other members of the cabinet because of the need for the Queen's formal consent. Although reduced in the course o f history, the supremacy of the monarchy can still be felt. As a matter of fact, there were, and still there are, moves to abolish it on the strong suggestions that it is inutile and hugely expensive.2 Some claim that a democratic standard republic will be a better and effective form.3 Another aspect in the United Kingdom government worth pondering is that it does not have a complete written set of codified laws and that includes its own constitution. Case laws which are actually compilations of decided or accepted jurisprudence have a lot to do in the law-making processes which are, ironically, borne out of judicial pronouncements. This means that what the courts resolved would become laws. Stated straightforwardly, therefore, the makers of the law interpret the law in the event of a controversy or in incidents where there are doubts in construing that particular law. Incidentally, with the new Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the new Supreme Court may be able to thresh out all the possible hitches. Since the high court started working only on October 1, 2009, a lot of patience is needed until the intended reforms are made effective slowly and gradually in the mainstream of justice administration. Along this line, it can be hoped in large part that the new law for constitutional reform will bring about positive changes.4 The twin foundations of the Queen's sovereignty During one of the deliberations of the constitutional reform bill, the Law Lords had the occasion to mention the ruling in X v Morgan Gramplan (Publishers) Ltd. which enunciated the principle that the rule of law in the United Kingdom is founded on both the Queen's sovereignty in the parliament which is charged with the enactment of laws and the Queen's sovereignty over judicial proceedings particularly those administered by the House of Lords in its duties anent appellate jurisdiction.5 It has always been debated if the somewhat irregular or abnormal circumstance contradicts the precepts on separation of powers. It is like taking exceptions on one person being the prosecutor, the judge and the executioner. The notion has a direct correlation with the

Ethics in Cyberspace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics in Cyberspace - Essay Example Following the explosion of internet popularity, there is the transfer of power struggles all over the world to the internet. All internet users ranging from businesses, private users, search engines, as well as any probable information source are making an attempt of controlling, manipulating, biasing, while, at the same time, censoring their information found on the internet in case they recognize it or not. As a result, the public gets to view a number of issues or events, which might be altered or not altered at all, thereby easily bending views in frightening manners. There are several computers based ethical dilemma; one set of matter deals with the emergence of various new ethical dilemma, or those taking new form, as a result of increase in Internet and Social Networking. Presently, there are various ways of gaining information concerning others, which were inaccessible, or available with ease, prior to the rise of computers. Therefore, ethical issues concerning storage of pri vate information are presently turning into an ever rising problem; this gives rise to the problem of selling this information for monetary benefit. This leads to distinctive ethical situations with regard to access, security, as well as the utilization of hacking within positive, as well as negative situations. Circumstances relating to the copyright breach of software, movies and music tend to be a hot topic with the increase in file sharing programs like Napster. The ethical questions arising from software piracy are whether it is immoral to copy software movies or even music. ... This happens to be a clear definition of the concept of an Opt-In against Opt-Out situation (Tavani 2010, p.25). Following the explosion of internet popularity, there is the transfer of power struggles all over the world to the internet. All internet users ranging from businesses, private users, search engines, as well as any probable information source are making an attempt of controlling, manipulating, biasing, while, at the same time, censoring their information found on the internet in case they recognize it or not. As a result, the public gets to view a number of issues or events, which might be altered or not altered at all, thereby easily bending views in frightening manners. There are several computers based ethical dilemma; one set of matter deals with the emergence of various new ethical dilemma, or those taking new form, as a result of increase in Internet and Social Networking. Presently, there are various ways of gaining information concerning others, which were inaccess ible, or available with ease, prior to the rise of computers. Therefore, ethical issues concerning storage of private information are presently turning into an ever rising problem; this gives rise to the problem of selling this information for monetary benefit. This leads to distinctive ethical situations with regard to access, security, as well as the utilization of hacking within positive, as well as negative situations. Circumstances relating to the copyright breach of software, movies and music tend to be a hot topic with the increase in file sharing programs like Napster. The ethical questions arising from software piracy are whether it is immoral to copy software movies or even music. Apart from that, questions

Digital technology and Education Research Proposal

Digital technology and Education - Research Proposal Example At the same time, the institutions of higher education learning have been challenged to respond to the needs of globalization, as well as the knowledge economy in order to prepare the competencies and skills of the 21st century which require changes in teaching practices and curriculum. This has created demand for competence and more transparent performance and accountability in research and teaching. Nevertheless, some policy makers perceive digital technology as an effective tool that will help in managing most of the changes and will act as a transformative tool in both teaching and learning. The 20th century has witnessed massive globalization of education. For instance, the total high education enrolment worldwide stood at 100 million in 2000s. This was 200 times higher than the enrolment at the beginning of 20th century. The number is estimated to reach 125 million by 2020. This globalization is normally characterized by huge diversification of the student enrolment since even the student from low economic backgrounds can work as part time students. Internationally, there has been massive enrolment of students especially in UK, US, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The students normally demand flexibility in teaching and learning processes. The traditional school leavers demand more flexibility in their formal education, hence the name â€Å"digital native† grown and matured with the digital technologies and are still surrounded and immersed in digital technologies in their daily activities. Therefore, the current research will investigate the effects of digit al technology on today’s business. Today’s students have not changed just incrementally from the traditional ones but have changed in slang and styles when compared to the previous generations. There has been a big discontinuity that has fundamentally changed things until it is absolutely impossible to go back. This discontinuity

Budgeting issues in criminal justice systems Essay Example for Free

Budgeting issues in criminal justice systems Essay One of the reasons why jails still exist despite overcrowding is the budget allotted for the criminal justice administration. But the sudden rise in the number of prisoners posed a problem when it comes to budgeting. The article on policies and procedures of correctional facilities operated by the Multnomah County clearly shows that it has been experiencing financial shortage due to faulty budgeting. The article shows that it is very expensive to accommodate a prisoner, which costs $157/day in Multnomah County. This is expensive compared to the rate of jail systems in other counties. This was attributed to the labor contracts which resulted to raised labor costs, extraordinarily high medical costs which led to high cost of the overall system in jail, ineffective jail staffing pattern, abuse of sick leave, overtime and compensatory time and increase in the Sheriff’s budget. Aside from all of these, the Multnomah County has a very expensive juvenile detention facility. It costs $401/day to accommodate a juvenile. The article further shows that the Sheriff’s Office has practiced budgeting techniques which hid the management practices of the organization. This resulted to difficulty of finding out the different organization functions. Even the district attorney’s office has to seek the help of a financial analyst to make sense of the financial outline of the jail system. What the county requires is a program called â€Å"priority-based budgeting. Each department of the jail system must present program offers for the county commissioners to fund. However, some of these program offers are rejected. The Sheriff’s office has a total of 66 funding program offers that the county commission has approved. The priority-based budgeting was applied so that the commissioners can make an informed decision from an accurate financial picture of the different programs. This enabled the commissioners to be knowledgeable in whether funding or rejecting a particular program. The article concluded that the outside help of a financial consultant was necessary to analyze the Sheriff’s costs and budgets. It was noted that â€Å"it is a natural and understandable inclination of a government agency† to do the budgeting practices discussed in the article. The DA’s office thought that similar practices have been done by other government agencies in the county. It was suggested that the commission should collaborate more with the Sheriff. The county commissioners should understand the operations that they fund so that the problems might not occur again. The workgroup of the jail systems should focus on the Sheriff’s cost reporting and budgeting practices so that they can partake in any decisions to make. The commission should also found a work group that will inspect the jails and report frequently to the commissioners. This work group must consist of representatives from the law enforcement agencies in the county, the County Chair, the County Commissioner, the United States Attorney, the administrator for the federal facility at Sheridan, representatives from the business community, a representative from the medical community, the Department of Corrections, an independent financial analyst and the District Attorney. The law also requires that the county should include the state Department of Corrections in every operation of the local jails. However, whatever responsibilities the Department of Corrections is assigned by the law should not be carried out by the Sheriff’s Association. The article strongly advises that a healthy relationship must be established between the county Sheriff and the Board of Commissioners. Any solution to the problems must start from this perspective since all other problems stemmed from a breakdown to that relationship. The other article addressing budgeting issue is titled â€Å"Will part-time prison cut crime or costs? † by Nick Morrison. The article says that British Home Secretary David Blunkett proposed that some inmates be given freedom on weekends to relieve the growing population of prisoners in jails. Those inmates who are dangerous could be provided with electronic tags and they could stay out of jail for a month. They could also work during the week and spend the weekend in jail. Many questioned this proposal whether it is a way to fight the crimes or to cut costs, particularly Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust. He sees this proposal as the government’s admission to defeat in solving crimes, even though Blunkett promised to be tough on car-jackers and phone thieves. Brennan thinks that it has to do with money problems and not reducing crime why Blunkett allowed this kind of arrangement for the prisoners. It was hard for the government to spend a lot of money in keeping prisoners. Moreover, Brennan argued that it is more important to keep the prisoners in jails and out of the streets to protect the victims of crimes and the public, even though it is expensive to do so. Apparently, Blunkett’s proposal did not make this possible. Criminals were allowed on the loose, and they could strike again since they have freedom. With the growing population of prisoners in jails, Brennan says that the criminal justice system is no longer effective. A crisis in the criminal justice system has to appear before people do something to solve it. He recognizes that the problems will be harder to solve later on. Even more, there were less police officers on the beat to prevent crimes even though these crimes have been getting worse for many years now. The government also has not done something to reduce crime. He couldn’t see how Blunkett’s proposal could solve any of the problems. Brennan mentions that the country has more people inside prisons than any countries in Europe. He says it is so because there are more crimes here than anywhere else. The government, he adds, has resorted to different measures to solve the rising number of crimes. Sadly, none of these measures worked, and this showed a â€Å"disgraceful record on crime and law and order. † On the other hand, the Howard League for Penal Reform agreed with Blunkett’s proposal. The spokeswoman says that â€Å"anything †¦to reduce the prison population is a good thing. † She added that the programs set to keep the prisoners with a two or three months term away from their criminal behavior are not often available, that’s why they offend the second time after they are released. The article recommends that a community penalty is more effective as a form of punishment for the prisoners than sending them over to prison. The article quotes Brennan recommending that the government should deal with the crimes head on rather than making lots of promises and pledges that it cannot meet. People should also be aware of these problems and how serious they are so that they can be a part in solving them. Brennan is correct in saying that criminals should be sent to prison whether it is expensive or not. The most important thing to consider here is the protection of the public from these offenders. The government should look more into these problems because this is getting worse every year and it has bad records of crime. The government should also look into the budgeting systems of the federal and local governments. It should consider that budgeting systems can be a part of the ineffective services it offers to the public. Changes in budgeting systems should be an important part in reform. REFERENCES Morrison, Nick. (2002, February 05). Will part-time prison cut crime or costs? Newsquest (North East Ltd. , p. 8. Available at: http://yukon. actx. edu:2083/libweb/curriculum/do/document? set=topicgroupid=1requestid=conquesttopicresultid=48ts=57673F035D3E975120F685A75E3514BA_1187860483640urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B76740234. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. (2006). Independent review of policies and procedures of correctional facilities operated by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. Available at: http://www. mcda. us/articles/GJ_CORRECTIONAL_FACILITIES_2006. pdf.

Indian Business Environment Essay Example for Free

Indian Business Environment Essay Abstract One of the major objectives of Indian banking sector reforms was to encourage operational self-sufficiency, flexibility and competition in the system and to increase the banking standards in India to the international best practices. The second phase of reforms began in 1997 with aim to reorganization measures, human capital development, technological up-gradation, structural development which helped them for achieving universal benchmarks in terms of prudential norms and pre-eminent practices. This paper seeks to determine the impact of various market and regulatory initiatives on efficiency improvements of Indian banks. Efficiency of firm is measured in terms of its relative performance that is, efficiency of a firm relative to the efficiencies of firms in a sample. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has used to identify banks that are on the output frontier given the various inputs at their disposal. The present study is confined only to the Constant-Return-to-Scale (CRS) assumption of decision making units (DMUs). Variable returns to scale (VRS) assumption for estimating the efficiency was not attempted. It was found from the results that national banks, new private banks and foreign banks have showed high efficiency over a period time than remaining banks. II. Reforms and Banking system In the post liberalization-era, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated quite a few measures to ensure safety and consistency of the banking system in the country and at the same point in time to support banks to play an effective role in accelerating the economic growth process. One of the major objectives of Indian banking sector reforms was to encourage operational self-sufficiency, flexibility and competition in the system and to increase the banking standards in India to the international best practices 4. Although the Indian banks have contributed much in the Indian economy, certain weaknesses, i.e. turn down in efficiency and erosion in profitability had developed in the system, observance in view these conditions, the Committee on Financial System(CFS) was lay down. Reserve Bank of India has implemented banking sector reforms in two phases. The first reform focused on introduction of several prudential norms, major changes in the policy framework, and formation of competiti ve atmosphere. The second phase of reforms began in 1997 with aim to reorganization measures, human capital development, technological up-gradation, structural development which helped them for achieving universal benchmarks in terms of prudential norms and pre-eminent practices. The Financial sector reforms were undertaken in 1992 based on the recommendations of the CFS. Later, The Narsimham Committee has provided the proposal for reforming the financial sector. The committee also argued that ‘economic reforms in the real sector of economy will, however, fail to realize their full potential without a parallel reform of the financial sector. It focused on several issues like, releasing of more funds to banks, deregulation in interest rates, capital adequacy, income recognition, disclosures and transparency norms etc. However, financial sector reforms focused on improving the competitive efficiency of the banking system. The financial reform process has commenced since 1991 which was made the banking sector healthy, sound, well- capitalized and become competitive. The competitive pressures to improve efficiency in the banking sector has resulted in a switch from traditional paper based banking to electronic banking, use information technology and shift of emphasis from brick and mortar banking to use of ATMs. INDIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IN BANKING INDUSTRY Indian banking industry, the backbone of the country’s economy, has always played a key role in prevention the economic catastrophe from reaching terrible volume in the country. It has achieved enormous appreciation for its strength, particularly in the wake of the worldwide economic disasters, which pressed its worldwide counterparts to the edge of fall down. If we compare the business of top three banks in total assets and in terms of return on assets, the Indian banking system is among the healthier performers in the world. This sector is tremendously competitive and recorded as growing in the right trend (Ram Mohan, 2008). Indian banking industry has increased its total assets more than five times between March 2000 aThe overall development has been lucrative with enhancement in banking industry efficiency and productivity. It should be underlined here is financial turmoil which hit the western economies in 2008 and the distress effect widened to the majority of the other countries but Indian banking system survived with the distress and showed the stable performance. Indian banks have remained flexible even throughout the height of the sub-prime catastrophe and the subsequent financial turmoil. The Indian banking industry is measured as a flourishing and the secure in the banking world. The country’s economy growth rate by over 9 percent since last several years and that has made it regarded as the next economic power in the worldnd March 2010, The Indian banking industry is measured as a flourishing and the secure in the banking world. The country’s economy growth rate by over 9 percent since last several years and that has made it regarded as the next economic power in the world. Our banking industry is a mixture of public, private and foreign ownerships. The major dominance of commercial banks can be easily found in Indian banking, although the co-operative and regional rural banks have little business segmentIn the post liberalization-era, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated quite a few measures to ensure safety and consis tency of the banking system in the country and at the same point in time to support banks to play an effective role in accelerating the economic growth process. One of the major objectives of Indian banking sector reforms was to encourage operational self-sufficiency, flexibility and competition in the system and to increase the banking standards in India to the international best practices. Although the Indian banks have contributed much in the Indian economy, certain weaknesses, i.e. turn down in efficiency and erosion in profitability had developed in the system, observance in view these conditions, the Committee on Financial System. Reserve Bank of India has implemented banking sector reforms in two phases. The first reform focused on introduction of several prudential norms, major changes in the policy framework, and formation of competitive atmosphere. The second phase of reforms began in 1997 with aim to reorganization measures, human capital development, technological up-gradation, structural development which helped them for achieving universal benchmarks in terms of prudential norms and pre-eminent practices. The Financial sector reforms were undertaken in 1992 based on the recommendations of the CFS. Later, The Narsimham Committee has provided the proposal for reforming the financial sector. The committee also argued that ‘economic reforms in the real sector of economy will, however, fail to realize their full potential without a parallel reform of the financial sector. It focused on several issues like, releasing of more funds to banks, deregulation in interest rates, capital adequacy, income recognition, disclosures and transparency norms etc. However, financial sector reforms focused on improving the competitive efficiency of the banking system. The financial reform process has commenced since 1991 which was made the banking sector healthy, sound, well- capitalized and become competitive. (CFS) was lay down. Liberalisation of India’s banking sector †¢ Liberalisation of India’s banking sector begun since 1992, following the Narasimhan Committee’s Report (December 1991) †¢ Important recommendations of the Committee were – [i] reduction of statutory pre-emptions (SLR and CRR) [ii] deregulation of the interest rates [iii] opening up the sector to foreign and domestic private banks [iv] adoption of prudential regulations relating to capital adequacy, asset classiï ¬ cation and provisioning standards Service firms such as ITC Hotels and ANZ Grindlays Bank found direct marketing very effective in retailing customers and weathering competition. †¢ The Indian banking system is growing in a robust manner. †¢ The Indian banking system complies with international standards of prudential regulation. †¢ The Indian banking system is opening up for entry of foreign banks. †¢ Despite the growth, Indian banking system is not entirely inclusive. †¢ There is good opportunities for the banking industry – domestic and foreign – for expansion to ï ¬ ll the gap. A decade after the Narasimham report was published and in the light of new challenges from the norms laid down by the WTO and Basel II, it is imperative to have a close look at the performance of banks in the last decade or so to assess the success of the reform process. INDIA inherited a very weak banking system following Independence. However, the nationalisation programme (1969) helped this sector achieve remarkable success in many respects. The stability among depositors, penetration into rural India and the consequent reduction in poverty and diversification out of agriculture were some of its laudable achievements. Given the predominantly bank based nature of financial system, the banking industry gained the reputation of one of the most protected in the country. However, in the 1990s a chain of events such as introduction of modern technologies, competition from new players in the liberalised market place, and enhanced emphasis on governance to protect shareholder interest changed the way banks conducted business. The Indian banking sector with its diversity of ownerships — State Bank of India and its associates, nationalised banks, private domestic banks and foreign banks also faced a similar set of challenges. Although the public sector banks acquired a dominant presence thanks to the regulatory environment, several of them performed poorly in the late 1980s. To preserve the soundness of the financial system, especially the banking segment, the Government set up the Narasimham Committee. The Committee (in 1991) made far-reaching recommendations that formed the basis of banking reforms. Some of the comprehensive reform measures suggested included: Stricter income recognition and asset classification, higher capital adequacy ratio, phased deregulation of interest rate, lowering statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and cash reserve ratio (CRR), entry deregulation, and branch-de-licensing. These measures mainly aim to improve the efficiency/profitability of banking industry. A decade and half after the Narasimham report was published and in the light of the World Trade Organisation and Basel II norms, it is imperative to have a close look at the performance of banks in the last decade or so to assess the success of the reform process. Performance indicators Commonly-used measures to assess the performance of the banking industry are: Return on Asset (ROA), Operating Profit Ratio (OPR), Net Interest Margin (NIM), Operating Cost Ratio (OCR) and Staff Expenditure Ratio (SER). The first two are generally considered profitability measures, while the others, the efficiency indices. These five measures have been considered in this analysis for two sub-periods: Pre-liberalisation (1992-1995) and post-liberalisation (2000-2003). The total number of banks considered for two sub-periods were 64 (eight State Banks, 19 nationalised banks, 19 private banks and 18 foreign banks) and 87 (8, 19, 28 and 32 respectively). Overall performance improvement A comparison of performance indices during the study period reveals that the reform measures helped to improve the overall performance of industry. This is reflected in the improvement of all performance indicators barring the net interest margin (see Table). Interestingly, the ROA, treated as a proxy for risk-adjusted return, increased from (-) 0.28 per cent in the pre-liberalisation period to 0.79 per cent (against more than 1 per cent in other merging markets such as Singapore, Malaysia and Korea) post-liberalisation, indicating a significant rise in the ability of banks to convert their assets into net earnings. Another interesting aspect is that despite a marginal fall in the net interest margin from 2.84 to 2.73 (which might be due to policy change), the banking industry has managed to improve its OPR by increasing its non-interest fee-based income and reducing its operating costs/staff expenses. The evidence indicates that after the reform initiation period, the banks have increasingly been providing off balance sheet items such as derivatives, which generate major part of non-interest income. The proportion of operating costs/staff expenses has declined mainly due to computerisation and the voluntary retirement scheme. The property rights theorists believe that the private banks are more efficient than their counterparts in the public sector. This view is corroborated by the public choice theorists who argue that the specific X inefficiency factors are more prevalent in the public sector, irrespective of market conditions. Further, many cross-country findings report an increased government ownership as a deterrent to the development of the banking system. The Indian banking scenario seems to be consistent with the above, as the privately owned (foreign as well as domestic) banks seem to be superior to their public counter parts with respect to all performance indicators except the NIM. Despite a fall in their OPR and NIM between 1992-95 and 2000-03, the private banks successfully managed to reduce their operating expenditures, particularly the staff expenditures, thereby successfully maintaining their status. Among private banks, the foreign banks seem to be superior in terms of three out of five the criteria used. Within the public domain, the State Banks tend to be superior with respect to ROA, OCR and SER, while the nationalised banks seem to show better performance in terms of OPR and NIM. Thus, although there is a significant improvement in the overall performance of banks as one moves from the post-reform period to the late-reform period, one finds certain anomalies such as a fall in the NIM (except in the case of the nationalised banks), a fall in the ROA of private domestic banks, a reduction in the OPR of private domestic and foreign banks and a rise in the OCR/SER of foreign banks. Convergence or divergence Apart from the overall improvement across the board, another important criterion to evaluate the success story is to check whether the competitive force has led to any convergence in the performance of different ownership groups in the post-liberalisation period. Exposure to the competitive forces is often argued as a panacea to shake poorly performing banks out of their slumber. Although the public banks compared poorly with private banks during the initial period, they made a significant improvement in the later period by responding well to the new challenges of competition and consolidation, mostly following a gradual and cautious approach. The pay off is well reflected in the increase in their ROA, OPR and NIM. Some possible reasons for the better performance of public banks could be they still undertake most of the government borrowing programmes, thereby generating significant fee based income; the market discipline imposed by the listing of most public sector banks has also probably contributed to this improved performance; and ï‚ · the reform measures have changed their business strategies particularly greater diversification of non-fund based business and emergence of treasury and foreign exchange business. The study reveals that the OPR across four ownership groups tend to converge. The NIM tend to converge across private and public sectors while the OCR continues to remain significantly different across ownership groups. The above analyses indicate that the banking sector performs reasonably well with respect to the goals set by the Narasimham Committee, particularly in the context of the poorly performing banks and showing some encouraging signs to meet the Basel II norms by 2006. However, one should not go over board in reading these numbers to evaluate the success of the Indian banking sector, particularly from the perspective of a developing economy such as ours. Policy-makers should be extra cautious in giving free a reign to the banking sector in pursuing profit and risk based strategies. Recent trends in non-synergy based consolidation, growing disinclination to lend money towards productive purposes and to the unprofitable sectors such as agriculture, self-help groups, infrastructure and to small and medium sized enterprises, its growing engagement in non-productive treasury operations and conspicuous consumer lending will seriously impair the role of banks as public instruments of development. Therefore, maintaining a balance between these two objectives will remain a challenge to the banking sector for some time to come. Bibliography- * www.thehindubusinessline.com * iimahd.ernet.in/assets/snippets/ *

Theories of How Individuals Interact in Groups in HSC

Theories of How Individuals Interact in Groups in HSC 2.1 Write an assay explaining theories of how individuals interact in groups, particularly applying them to teams that work in your Health and Social Care setting. The relationship between classical Grounded Theory (Glaser, 1978; Glaser Strauss, 1967) and the interpretive tradition of Symbolic Interactionism is strong and historical. Although this relationship has been discussed in previous publications as a given limited literature has explained the connections between their silent assumptions and concepts precisely and thoroughly (Chenitz Swanson, 1986; Crotty, 1998; Speziale Carpenter, 2007). Bruce Tuckman (1965) developed a 4-stage model of group development, this is his theory on how Health and Social Care professionals should be working effectively in managing human resources. The four stages of his theories are; Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing and also added a fifth stage of model to group development after 10 years which is Adjourning. The fifth model is when a professional breaks the knot and leaves the group without informing anyone. Forming: The group comes together and gets to initially know one other and form as a group. Forming is when a new set of Health and Social Care professionals are introducing one another by communicating and interacting in a group. They exchange information and set a target to be met as successful team work. The manager will need to set a clear guild to the Health and Social Care workers and it must be followed effectively so the colleagues avoid any misbehaviours and prevent from problems arising between each other in a team work. Forming is where a big group of Health and Social Care professionals are depending on one particular individual whom is a team leader or their role model, this person will have a huge responsibility in guiding the group of Health and Social Care professional to the right path in their carer to pass their activities. An agreement on team aims other than received from team leader. In this team individuals are not certain of their own role or responsibilities as they are all depending on one person who is the team leader. The team leader has skills and knowledge and must be willing to answer all the questions about the team purpose, activities and external relationships. Individuals test tolerance of system and leader directs to telling mode as he is in charge of the team and tells everyone to do what he wishes. Storming: A chaotic vying for leadership trialling of group processes. Storming is when a group of members dont agree with each others decisions, team members attempt to establish themselves in relation to another member in the team or team leader, who might receive challenging behaviour from a team member in disagreeing with decisions made. At this stage issues are developed over members having their own views rather than a whole team agreeing to one point of view. A team will only have conflict rising when they are not working effectively and the team leader is managing the group following the guild lines.   The improvement guide: a practical approach to enhancing organizational performance (GJ Langley, RD Moen, KM Nolan, TW Nolanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 2009 books.google.com). Norming: Eventually an agreement is reached on how the group operates (norming) The third step, norming, is where the team members fall into agreement over the solutions for their team. In this step, the team members are able to talk openly about their opinions and have the ability to adjust their behaviour to avoid conflict. The team members agree on the teams values, rules, professional behaviour and methods of work (Armstrong, 2006). Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives. The final step, performing, is where the team fully understands, co-operates and supports one another, thereby working as a single unit rather than individuals. Teams that have reached this step display high levels of motivation, knowledge, competence and autonomy (Armstrong, 2006) Adjourning: The process of without informing the group, that is, letting go of the group structure and moving on. This is the fifth and last step Bruce Tuckman (1965) developed which breaks the team apart without any signals showing. References Aldiabat, Khaldoun M; Le Navenec, Carole-Lynne. The Qualitative Report; Fort Lauderdale16.4 (Jul 2011): 1063-1080. http://search.proquest.com/openview/55df192e1247c417cbc00ba1b141ca1d/1?pq-origsite=gscholarcbl=55152 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01933928808411771?src=recsys

Tuberculosis Prevention Essay -- Biology Medical Biomedical Disease TB

Tuberculosis Prevention There are several ways to prevent tuberculosis. One is to control existing infections from those infected including people, pets, and cows. Unfortunately, more than 1/3 of the population has tuberculosis, making it hard to contain every case of tuberculosis. The BCG vaccine exists, but it is not very useful in countries like the US. The body’s defenses against tuberculosis are effective but fail once the immune system becomes suppressed. Antibiotics can be used to help prevent tuberculosis, but tuberculosis quickly grows resistant to antibiotics. Much needed research is being done to find a way to fight off and prevent tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has plagued mankind for a long time. This disease, which was previously believed to be eradicated, has once again shown up and begun attacking the lives of many humans. Tuberculosis infects a third of the population and kills a fraction of them. Many approaches have been used including different varieties of infection control, bodily defenses, and treatments to try to protect humans from tuberculosis. The best way to prevent tuberculosis infections is to contain the source of tuberculosis. The most common source of tuberculosis infection is from infected humans. By diagnosing, containing, and treating people with latent tuberculosis before they get active, contagious tuberculosis, tuberculosis can be quickly contained. Once someone has been diagnosed with TB, they should be placed under isolation. All TB isolation rooms must have a lower air pressure when compared to the outside corridors. This ensures that air enters the isolation room from hallways and adjacent areas and leaves only via planned outside exhausts†¦ Vertical displacement ventilation can also be u... ...ingfield: Charles C Thomas, 1943. 4.) Means-Markwell, MC, USNR, LCDR Melissa. Prevention of tuberculosis. Aug 2000 Postgraduate Medicine. 16 July 2006 . 5.) Mylonakis, M.D., Eleftherios. PPD skin test. 10 June 2006 MedlinePlus. 26 July 2006 . 6.) PetPlace Veterinarians. Tuberculosis in Dogs. 2006 PetPlace. 26 July 2006 . 7.) Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR , William C.. Tuberculosis Skin Test. 18 Sept 2005 MedicineNet, Inc.. 23 July 2006 . 8.) Tuberculosis. 21 Dec 2004 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). 16 July 2006 .

Teacher Expectations Essay -- Education

The intervening years since court-mandated desegregation of schools have not eradicated the existence of achievement disparities for ethnic children, especially for Latin American and African American students (McKown & Weinstein, 2008). In fact, there is an extensive body of research that suggests that students from minorities do not perform well in the current American public school system (Tyler, Boykin, & Walton, 2006). McKown and Weinstein (2008) note that one often cited contributor to the achievement gap is teacher expectations. The use of the term teacher expectations has been a source of consternation and anger for some educators because of its connection to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy (Jussim & Harber, 2005). These prophecies are â€Å"erroneous teacher expectations [that] may lead students to perform at levels consistent with those expectations (Brophy & Good, 1974; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968)† (Jussim & Harber, 2005, p. 131). Jussim and Harber (2005) detail the controversy that has gone on for more than 40 years over self-fulfilling prophecy. They asserted that, in general, educational psychologists have tended to stress the limited efficacy of teacher expectations to influence students; while, social psychologists have taken the opposite position which asserts both the â€Å"substantial power and pervasiveness of self-fulfilling prophecies† (p. 138). Two of their major conclusions in this regard (a) Self-fulfilling prophecies do exist, and (b) their affects are typically small (Jussim & Harber, 2005). This would seem to be a tidy conclusion to a prolonged controversy; the answers, however, are not so simple or straightforward. There are other issues that complicate matters and must be considered whe... ...3 McKown, C., & Weinstein, R. S. (2008). Teacher expectations, classroom context, and the achievement gap. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 235-261. Retrieved from http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-school-psychology/ Thomas, J., & Stockton, C. (2003). Socioeconomic status, race, gender, & retention: Impact on student achievement. Essays in Education, 7. Retrieved from http://www.usca.edu/essays/archives.html Tyler, K. M., Boykin, A. W., & Walton, T. R. (2006). Cultural considerations in teachers’ perceptions of student classroom behavior and achievement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 998-1005. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Zehavi, N., Bouhadan, R., & Bruckheimer, M. (1987). A model of relating teacher expectations and student difficulties. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 13, 185-192. doi: 10.1016/50191-491X(87)80032-9

Jade Peony

Belonging When someone is said to be Canadian, it does not just mean being one who lives on this land, or has lived on this land long enough to obtain this citizenship, it means living the Canadian life, it means waking up in the morning wearing a ton of layers and going outside in the freezing cold to do whatever a person needs to do during the day, to be Canadian it also means to belong. Canada is known for the diversity of culture, religion, color, and beliefs, as well as our ability to be able to create a status acceptable to everyone, making Canada, despite our individual diversity and differences, to be united as one. However, what we don’t realize is that Canada has not always been this way; this is the perspective that Wayson Choy expresses through his novel â€Å"The Jade Peony†. His text and word play emphasizes on a world so unknown, yet so important to not only our history, but to our understanding of what our ancestors of our various ethnic origins fought through every day of their lives to create the world in which every day we take for granted. Where he lays his emphasis on our history is not from the point of view of the adult, but through the eyes of the children who, today, are our fathers and grandfathers. Divided into three major chapters, Wayson Choy begins the narration of his history through the eyes of Jook-Laing, a five year old beautiful girl of Chinese origin born in Canada after her family immigrated to Canada. Isolation is slowly starting to become a major theme in the novel, not only created by the Canadian Government, but by her very own family. The Canadian Government in the 1940's, the time period the novel takes place, created harsh laws against immigrants, making it near impossible to live happily: one was never to leave the household, as immigrants must live within the same household even when one becomes married, as well as harsh laws on illness, where, if one were to become sick with any illness- even as innocent as a cold- if the government found out, â€Å"The Vancouver Health Inspection Board†¦ posted on our front door, a sign boldly visible from the street: condemned† (p. 32). However, Jook-Laing's family's old heritage and Chinese beliefs create the deepest isolation as they shun the idea of traditional Canadian society, where Poh-Poh, elder and Jook-Laing's Grandmother, describes this life as â€Å"poison to young China girl-child† (p. 17). Jook-Laing's young and highly dream-filled spirit inspires her to dream of the perfect world- a perfect world she never gives up on as play and her â€Å"movie-star daydreams† (p. 37) have caused her heart to grow and know that, deep, inside, Canada is a better place than China, no matter what Poh-Poh says to her about her heritage. However, despite her strong instinct, conflict arises as person versus person/society is introduced when her powerful instinct and her Grandmother's words â€Å"You not Canada. You never Canada. You China. Always war in China† (p. 37) make her isolated from becoming her own person and trapping her in a world she knows is not true to her heart. As a major authority figure of the household, Poh-Poh is never corrected or disagreed with, causing Jook-Laing to feel alone in her internal battle between what she is told and her faith in Canada. Further, Jook-Laing, along with her other two step-brothers, are strongly looked down upon by their strict, old heritage grandmother, who constantly reminds them of her feelings towards them: â€Å"This useless only-granddaughter wants to be Shirlee Tem-po-lah; the useless Second Grandson wants to be cow-boy-lah. The First Grandson wants to be Charlie Chan. All stupid foolish! † (p. 40). With Poh-Poh's interrogance towards her grandchildren's play, it creates further isolation from the norm of society and themselves, along with isolation from their desire to be a child. Despite her Grandmother beginning to shape the role of the antagonist of the story, Jook-Laing makes a deep connection with an old family friend, Mau-lauh Bak, who not only understands the importance of play, but embraces and cherishes Jook-Laing for her ability to be free in a world so sour towards them. that connects Jook-Laing to the theme of belonging. The second part of the story speaks about Jung-Sum, the kid who was adopted due to the fact that his parents have died from a young age â€Å"I TAKE CARE OF MY SELF’ (p. 2). Jung also starts off in the novel isolation for as he doesn’t want his new family to take care of him. But Jung started to box and that is where he found a sense of belonging. Sek- Lung also fell into the same isolation theme from Canada and as well from his family, he was in belief that Poh-Poh was still coming to visit after she had died, and the whole family did not believe the fact, that’s when Sekky fell into the same pattern of isola tion. But it was Sekky that had the most sense of belonging to Canada towards the end of the book, because Canada is a multicultural community there is all kinds of races that live in this great country, and Sekky was a big hater of the Japanese â€Å"I have to remember they are the enemy† (p. 189) but when he meets Meiying, and she introduces him to Kaz her Japanese boyfriend, he gets to like him. This shows that the world revolves around hate but once you get to know people, a person’s perspective might change. Sekky finally found his belonging in Canada.

Cause and Effects essay Essay

There is no doubt that education is essential to people’s lives. Having a good educational background is an important factor to get a good job and to work effectively. However, one of the saddest issues in today’s society is the college dropout rate in many college or university remains very high. Some people are successful because they have the motivation and determination to graduate college; others are less lucky because they start college and feel as if they lack the preparation, desire, discipline or ability to succeed academically or persevere until a degree has been earned. This leads to quite a situation–to find the support needed to continue or to dropout? Whether you’re realizing that college isn’t for you, family issues, laziness or even debt, understanding some of the common causes and effects of quitting college may aid in the decision. College is an investment. Students either pay for college themselves, possibly with family support or scholarships, or with financial aid. Many students drop out of college because they can’t or don’t want to take on any more student loan debt. The consequence of dropping out at this point is that you have already piled up sizable debt and loan payments (students who drop out of college are required to pay back a portion of their federal-aid funds such as the Pell Grant) that you have to begin paying back several months after you quit school, yet you don’t get the payoff of a degree. Many financial aid administrators feel that the government shouldn’t penalize poor students for dropping out of college, and nor should lower-income students have to â€Å"punch a clock† in order to receive their grant money. Satisfying all the academic requirements and paying all your bills is both necessary and sufficient for being eligible to graduate. In addition to any debt you must repay, your earning potential without a degree is much lower to degree holders. Thus many college dropouts struggle to cover short-term bills and expenses, and find it difficult even to consider saving up money for a home. A college dropout earns about seven percent less than someone with an associate’s degree and about thirty-two percent less than someone with a bachelor’s. College dropouts face more limited career options than graduated peers. A bachelor’s degree commonly  opens the door to entry-level positions in many industries and career fields. As a dropout, your access to many jobs that require a college degree is limited to compete for jobs against people who hold degrees, even when a degree is not required. Job opportunities aren’t the only things that push people to college, sometimes it comes from a progenitor. Some students attend college under pressure from parents or to make their parents proud, not always making themselves happy in the process. In these cases the decision to drop out is not always warmly received. In fact, some students are told that they can’t return home after dropping out, which can only build on more stress. The expectation is that they will get a job and enter the â€Å"real world.† However, to get a job with good pay is hard to find without a degree, and most people don’t realize that. Another reason for dropping out of college is if there was a death in the family or someone you were close to falls ill. A death can cause depression which will eventually make you lose focus of your studies and you’ll end up either failing out, or dropping out. Dropping out can negatively affect relationships with significant others, as well. Recent studies show that divorce rates were significantly lower for college graduates than those without degrees. Having a great academic background can take you a long way, and you can learn how to work adequately in the future. To ensure a successful future, one must strive and have the incentive to succeed. Unfortunately certain things happen and some students have to drop out. It could be a personal choice, or it could be a sacrifice they have to make. In instances where it would be a choice, the students feel as if they’re working towards a dead end and have the lack of motivation. Knowing the reasons and the consequences can help others understand the decision that was made.

Our Emotions Diary

Identifying and measuring our emotions is difficult because it is not easy to objectively assess what we are feeling at that specific situation for emotions are subjective experiences. To accurately identify the range of our emotions and to classify it correctly takes greater control and self-awareness that I could not possibly muster. I have tried to identify the emotions based on the situations that triggered it. The James-Lange theory of emotion said that we first have physiological responses to a situation and only then will we interpret those experiences to determine the present emotion (Zajonc & McIntosh, 1992).Which is actually how most of us respond to an situation, like when I knew I felt anxious because I was feeling uneasy by getting late for class. On the other hand, I also felt confused on whether I got it mixed up; whether I experienced the situation and then the physiological arousal together with the emotion occurred at the same time, the Cannon-Bard theory supports t his explanation although they did not give much importance to the thoughts that occur during that experience (Stein, Trabasso & Liwag, 1993).Although, we get to experience a myriad of emotions and in varying degrees, some emotions are easier to identify like happiness and anger, while differentiating being upset from being sad is difficult. I could categorize it according to whether it is positive or negative and when I smiled I knew that I was happy at that time. Facial feedback theory says that the facial changes that occur in response to an event cues our brain and then define what kind of emotion we feel at that moment (Strongman, 1996).I also observed that we tend to respond to facial expressions, like when a person burst into tears we know that she is sad or afraid. With this activity, I learned that emotions, physical arousal, cognitive thoughts, and our brain interact together to produce different emotions. As to how all these element interact remains to be discovered, which I think will always be an aspect that will remain a mystery. References Stein, N., Trabasso, T. & Liwag, M. (1993). The representation and organization of emotional experience: Unfolding the emotion episode. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions (pp. 279-300). New York: Guilford. Strongman, K. (1996). The Psychology of Emotion: Theories of Emotion in Perspective, 4th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Zajonc, R. & McIntosh, D. (1992). Emotions research: Some promising questions and some questionable promises. Psychological Science, 3, 70-74.

Expanding the multicultural debate Essay

The authors use three specific examples to substantiate their arguments – first, the habit of the Japanese macaques to wash sweet potatoes; second, how an infant chimpanzee learns the American Sign Language from its mother; and third, the utilization of tools by wild chimpanzees. Primatologists in Japan found an unusual behavior that originated in a female Japanese macaque and was imitated by others in her troop in a short while. This female, known as Imo, began to wash sweet potatoes in the river before eating it. Soon she began to hold the potato in the stream of water with one hand and scrub it with the other hand. This novel behavior spread among the members of the troop in a very specific pattern. It was observed that young monkeys learned a new behavior faster than adult monkeys. It was also seen that female moneys learned a skill or habit faster than male monkeys, the reason for this pattern being that females have a greater tendency to stay within a group and participate in kin transmission of knowledge. A culture of washing sweet potatoes was thus transmitted from mother to child across a whole troop of macaques. Scientists in the United States of America studied the acquisition of the American Sign Language (ASL) by chimpanzees. Washoe was a chimpanzee raised since its birth as an ordinary American middle class child by a pair of foster parents who spoke with her and between each other only in ASL. By the time she was 51 months old she had an entire repertoire of signs to answer questions like what, who, how, when, whey, where, etc. The same experiment was repeated with four other chimpanzees and similar results were obtained with them. After Washoe moved to a lab she raised a baby chimpanzee named Loulis. Washoe taught Loulis ASL. His vocabulary comprised of 51 signs by the time he was 73 months old. Use of basic tools to crack open nuts and fruits has been observed in the chimpanzees living in West Africa. Those reared in captivity also showed this skill. When a group of chimpanzees who did not know to use anvil-like and hammer-like tools, were placed with three others who did know how to use stones as tools. It was found that this particular skill spread rapidly among the chimpanzees. The young ones learned it faster than adults and females learned it faster than the males. It was also found that those chimpanzees motivated by others in the group to use stone tools learned the skill better than those chimpanzees that lacked motivation. The author concludes that non-human primates are cultural beings even though they do not speak a language. He says that ‘animals’ and ‘humans’ are not different in principle. Charles Darwin placed human beings alongside animals to indicate the continuity of species. Therefore, says the author, there must be a radical revision in the manner in which animals are ethically treated and that they must be dealt with using the same moral principles that human beings use in dealing with other human beings. There are many evidences that both support and oppose the claim that non-human primates are cultural beings who entail the same treatment as human beings on an ethical level. The main focus of the supporting evidence has been on how primates learn new behaviors and skills. They learn by observation, instruction, social conflict, and group learning (Poirier & Hussey, 1982). While human beings also learn behaviors and skills in a similar manner, they are said to be set apart by the fact that they are still learning, and therefore differ from primates on an evolutionary basis (Farb, 1978). In other words, natural selection has decided the optimum amount of learning required by primates to survive in the wild. Innovation and learning have much to do with the evolution of the primate brain (Reader & Laland, 2001). Increased brain size did influence the learning skills of primates and their ability to innovate. Yet, the reverse is also possible. The evolution of the primate brain has depended on their ability to learn in various ways. It was not only greater brain size that allowed primates to acquire technical knowledge, but technology also enhanced brain evolution (Whiten and Byrne, 1997). Another argument goes that human beings are more adapted to culture compared to other species (Tomasello, 1999). Cultural adaptations might have started when children began to articulate new linguistic symbols. This must have set in place an entirely different cognitive apparatus compared to that of non-human primates (Tomasello, 1999). Language as an indicator of culture has been studied extensively (Cheney & Seyfarth, 1996). It is understood that many species of monkey posses language skills that might be considered to be precursors of human language. Vervet monkeys are known to communicate in signs comprising of a semantic structure (Seyfath et al, 1980). In this respect they can be considered to have a linguistic culture like human beings do. Culture has been defined in many ways. This definition of culture can be applied only to human beings, â€Å"†Culture †¦ is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other ca- pabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society† (Tylor, 1871). According to this definition culture is a domain of human beings (Holloway, 1969). While human beings and non-human primates both learn different skills and behaviors, they differ in the manner in which that experience is organized. Social structure alone cannot be used to say that non-human primates and human beings are both cultural species because all species have a social structure of some sort or the other. Human beings differ from other species in their ability to create arbitrary and abstract rules that shape social relations in manner than transcends all biological ties. Other criteria such as the ability of primates to resolve conflicts have been used to show that primates are not all too different from human beings (Greenberg et al, 2000). Yet this resolution comes with a clause. Aggression is common in social groups such as non-human primates. Chimpanzees are known to live in peace in their groups but are easily provoked into aggressive behavior (Goodall, 1986). Reconciliation usually occurs when an older member of the tribe intervenes. Some scientists define what elements must be used to specify culture – labels, signals, skills and symbols (van Schaik et al, 2003). According to a study done on orangutans and chimpanzees, it was found that only human beings possessed all the foul cultural elements, that is, the labels which signify preferences and ability to recognize food or predators and do not require much innovation; signals to social transmit messages particularly of group value; skills that entail technology and innovation; and symbols that were more sophisticated signals that became characteristic of a group. Orangutans and chimpanzees possess only the first three elements. Culture is a very abstract term when used to describe phenomenon that cannot be quantifies such as the ability to create art and sculptures and literature that are quite characteristic of the life and times of the creator. In an evolutionary and biological system where skills and semantics are measured, non-human primates can be considered to be cultured but when the cognitive functions are observed, culture appears to be truly the domain of human beings. References: Farb, P. (1978). Humankind. New York: Bantam Greenberg, M. , Pierotti, R. , Southwick, C. H. & Waal, F. B. M (2000). Conflict and Resolution in Primates-All Too Human? Science, 290 (5494). 1095-1097 Poirier, F. E. & Hussey K. K. (1982). Nonhuman Primate Learning: The Importance of Learning from an Evolutionary Perspective. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 13(2), 133-148. Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N. (2002). Social Intelligence, Innovation, and Enhanced Brain Size in Primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(7), 4436-4441. Seyfarth, R. M. , Cheney. D. L. , & Marler P. (1980). Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. Science, 210, 801-803 Tomasello, M (1999). The Human Adaptation for Culture. Annual Review of Anthropology, 28, (1999), 509-529. Tylor. E. B. (1871). Primitive Culture. London: Murray Whiten, A. & Byrne, R. W. (1997) Machiavellian Intelligence II. Extensions and 30. Evaluations. Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge, U. K. Van Schaik et al (2003). Orangutan Cultures and the Evolution of Material Culture. Science, 299 (5603), 102-105.

Armistice Day has Lost its Meaning

A look at why Armistice Day has currently lost meaning for American society. This is an argumentative paper that deals with the lost meaning of Armistice Day, or as it is better known, Veterans Day. The author argues that this American holiday has lost significance and meaning as a memorial day.With 500,000 cheering, flag-waving spectators lining the way, and thundering drums flanked by nostalgic Glenn Miller swing music on the autumn air, tens of thousands of proud American warriors marched out of the past and up Fifth Avenue in New Yorks largest Veterans Day Parade since the end of World War II.This 1995 parade was a victory of sorts due to the fact that, in recent years, Veterans Day observations have become, as Robert McFadden says,desultory at best, with spectators often limited to passers-by walking their dogs or heading out for a quart of milk(On Parade).This parade was evidence of a revival in veteran appreciation, and a renewal of Veterans Day as a much celebrated American holiday.But while this parade can be used to model a renewal in ceremony and e nthusiasm, the true meaning of Veterans Day, or Armistice Day as it was originally called, has been lost.

Students are required to write a report using correct report writing Essay

Students are required to write a report using correct report writing and referencing techniques on a topic of there choice. Topi - Essay Example We were not connected by the fact that we were social scientists, but by Bollywood. Because of that Bollywood song, I felt a cultural kinship with this man. (Gowricharn cited in Assisi, n.d.). The difference between the East and West is ingrained in the difference between the Hollywood and Bollywood respectively. Hollywood films are characterized by their quality of cinematography, action and graphics. On the other hand, Bollywood films are famous for their songs, tragedy and drama. These elements mark the history of the respective nations that are associated with them. Technology is the strength of USA and arts and crafts are the strong areas of the Indian culture. India has seen a long history of Moughal rulership. Moughal kings were very fond of songs and dance. Listening songs was their favorite pastime. The same culture was passed down the line to everybody in the society. That was the time when West was busy exploring the nature and making technological advancement. The British industrial revolution of the 19th century opened the gate to technological advancement and the trend spread far and wide everywhere in the West including America. The influence of British industrial revolution of the 19th century was so widespread because Britain ruled a lot of countries in the world. Over the centuries, West has reached the apogee of technological advancement. Today, they make use of the best quality cameras for making their movies like The Master Course. â€Å"The Master Course is a powerful system of single-camera blocking and an unprecedented language of camera work, that may fundamentally change the way you direct† (Hollywood Camera Work, 2011). That is why, they come out far better in graphics, effects and print than Indian movies do. However, Hollywood movies lack songs. Every movie that is made in Bollywood has at least five to six songs. People normally place more emphasis upon the effects and quality of print that reflects in the Hollywood films an d tend to underestimate the songs that are the strength of the Bollywood movies. This is primarily an outcome of the influence of the West that has dominated the East for a major part of the history. A lot of Bollywood movies copy the stories or ideas of the Hollywood movies whereas the same cannot be said for the Hollywood movies. In this sense, Hollywood is far more original as compared to Bollywood that has tried to imitate Hollywood a number of times. A potential example of this is the movie Omkara that was released a couple of years ago in Bollywood that is actually a Hindi version of the play Othello written by Shakespeare. Indian filmmakers have changed the names of the characters, but the starting alphabets remain the same which also serve as a hint that the movie is based on Othello. For the character Lago in Othello, there is Langra Bhayya in Omkara. Othello is played by Omkara. Desdimona’s character is played by Dolly. Similarly, other first alphabets of the names of all other characters have been maintained as such. The fact that Bollywood has copied Hollywood a number of times also reflects the Indian psychology that has historically been inspired by the West. Indians wear pant shirt like Americans but Americans don’t wear kurta dhoti like Indians. Most Indians learn and speak English but there is only a small number of Americans that tend to learn and speak Hindi. The difference

Top 5 internet privacy myths about social media debunked Term Paper

Top 5 internet privacy myths about social media debunked - Term Paper Example To start with, several online social networks prompt the users to provide truthful information about their identity. For example, Facebook, which currently the most popularly used social network website in the world, allows users to provide detailed information concerning who they are on the profile page. Despite this requirement, Facebook has attracted a large number of users meaning that many people do not mind sharing such personal information. However, there have been several cases where social network users provide false information concerning their identity, something that has not been positively received by other social network users. Of more significance, truthful identification of social network users is beneficial to the webhost companies. Despite the fact that different social network websites provide varying privacy levels to their users, many of these social companies encourage their clients to provide truthful information concerning themselves to the level they can be comfortable with. For example, when using facebook, one can opt not to fill the entire information requested for in the profile page. By encouraging members of social networks to provide truthful information, webhost companies have been able to effectively manage the modes of conduct of members in their social network websites. This is because people tend to portray a positive image to the public when they can be easily identified by others. Additionally, proper and truthful identification in social networking websites has been backed by various legislations that seek to protect the public from harmful activities carried out in social networks. In most cases, people with malicious intentions like to disguise their identity to the public in order to reduce their chances of being identified easily. For example, people with false identification in online social networking sites do not find it hard to

Human Cognition and the Brain Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Cognition and the Brain - Case Study Example Phineas P. Gage was a railroad employee who went through a serious brain damage when metal pierced through his head, destroying the frontal lobe areas of his mind. This brain damage was expected to impose severe impacts on his feelings, attitudes and behaviors, transforming him in a wild and unstable level, so intense so that his friends even mentioned that he was not even the person he once was prior to the accident. At the time that this happened to the medical world, Gage's situation resulted to developments in the medical belief of the operations and portions of the human brain concerning the human feelings and behaviors. Gage's situation is mentioned as among the initial proof recommending that serious injury to the frontal lobes of the human brain could change elements of attitudes and behavior and will have an impact on the communicative abilities. Prior to this case the frontal lobes were commonly perceived to possess very minimal responsibilities in attitudes (Fleischman, 2004). With respect to current medical research, a serious injury to the brain especially in the frontal area by an object that has dimensions of more than an inch in diameter and has a weight of more than ten pounds, would definitely make living impossible for the person, since this would mean a lethal destruction to essential brain parts, which include the superior sagittal sinus. Nonetheless, Gage was able to make it through the serious accident and added miseries because of an infection developed. Gage was eventually discovered to have exhibited radical shifts in attitudes and perceptions. Gage's situation is mentioned as among the initial proof recommending that serious injury to the frontal lobes of the brain could change elements of human behavior and have an adverse impact in the proper communication between people. Prior to this situation the frontal lobes were generally perceived to have very minimal responsibilities in human attitudes. Medical expert Antonio Damasio has studied thoroughly on the case of Gage, and including other people he has devoted his time which, in his own opinion, had the same brain damages. In an idea he pertained to as the somatic marker theory, Damasio recommends a connection between the frontal lobes, human behavior and logical choices of a person. He views Gage's situation as having an essential responsibility in the field of nerve science, stating that Gage's case was the essential foundation of the field of the scientific foundations of human attitudes. While researches by Hanna Damasio and his assistants recommended a serious damage to the frontal lobes, a recent research by Ratiu and his assistants formulated on a scan of Gage's head implies that the degree of Gage's brain damage must have been not so serious at all as what is known today (Bradberry, 2005). It is normally recommended that Gage's situation hastened the improvement of a medical procedure called frontal lobotomy, currently a rare medical operation that results to an erratic behavioral response and attitude developments. Nevertheless, past research investigation does not look very positive to validate this hypothesis. It looks like that perception of Gage's brain d