Learning experience : How someone could become afraid of the dentist Essay

There are many reasons someone could become afraid of going to the dentist. Majority of people become afraid of the dentist due to a bad experience they have encountered. Just to name a few: the dentist was a painful experience, the dentist made your teeth worse, etc. In my own experience, I was afraid of the dentist because of a horror film. At nine years old, my sister let me watch a horror movie called the dentist. It was about a mentally unstable dentist who tortures some of his patients. A year or so after I had seen this movie my mother surprisingly brings me to the dentist for the first time. As we were walking into the dental office I cannot help but to tremble and burst into tears because I could not stop thinking of the dentist from the movie. That day I only had my teeth cleaned and x-rays. My mother scheduled me to have cavities filled in the next month. My brother and sister taunted me by telling me scary stories about trips to the dental so the day I was scheduled to ge t my cavities filled. I decided to run away to the library and stayed there until closing. My mother had to reschedule my appointment for the following week. That time she made sure I went. Conditioning My conditioned stimuli were triggered by walking into the dental office my condition response was crying and trembling because I was afraid that the dentist would torture me, therefore, my unconditional stimuli were watching the dentist torture and kill his patients. My unconditional response was to be scared of all dentists and run away for a few hours so I would miss my appointment. Operant Learning My training experience could have occurred through operant conditioning since I did not quite understand that what you watch on television might not be real. If my mother had not forced me to go inside the dental office would still be petrified and I would have never gone to the dentist; my teeth would be in bad shape. Observational Learning The learned experience could occur through observational learning if my mom or anyone else I knew were scared of the dentist that would have also made  me afraid of the dentist because I would be observing their response to the dental. Another reason I might have been scared of going to the dentist was hearing my brother and sister tell me scary stories about how the dentist pulls your teeth out and you can feel every slight of pain. Reinforcement My mother dragging me into the dental office is where reinforcement was experienced. When my mother gave me no other choice except to get my teeth clean I then realize that the dentist was not so bad.

Cultural practices Essay

1. ) The article helped me gain a deeper understanding about how varied the effects of a drug can be to different patients. Whenever I see how hospital doctors with incoming patients ask what the details of their patient are, I used to think that mentioning the person’s ethnicity is not very important and I have always wondered why it was mentioned anyway. Now I believe that it is actually very important as the doctor administering specific drugs would have to cross reference them with the patient’s ethnicity in order to make sure that a drug that causes adverse effects for people of the patient’s ethnicity would not be administered and appropriate substitutes can be sought. 2. ) The article through the results that it presented gave me a different way of seeing the human body. Despite obvious outer differences such as skin color, height and build, and so on, I’ve always thought that the inner-workings of the human body are constant with everyone and that our reactions to medicines would be the same regardless of trivial differences. The article made me see that the differences that I once thought as trivial where medicine is concerned are not so trivial at all. There was thorough explanation of how cultural practices over long periods of time can alter respective physiological characteristics of people in such a way as to not only change external features but internal features as well, including reactions to different types of medicine. 3. ) Yes, the article has made me see that cultural and ethnic differences extend beyond superficialities and within the intricacies of humanc. It has changed my perspective in approaching problems concerning the applicability of medicines to humans such that I would now consider ethnicity and cultural practices as some of the factors that can significantly affect medical reactions. I believe that this has broadened my beliefs and made me better equipped in handling situations that I will face later on both in my education and in my career. Reference Does Ethnicity Influence Adverse Reactions to Drugs? Retrieved June 4, 2008 from: http://www. aafp. org/afp/20061015/tips/15. html

Rentier state theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Rentier state theory - Essay Example Monopolies- overreliance on external rent always comes at a cost. The fact that these parties involved may have in abundance the resources they engage in this kind of rent acquisition in itself may lead to adverse influence on the business behavior. This may lead to monopolization of the market since these resources are highly valued. The aspect of monopoly sets in when a nation enters a trade pact with your nation thus wanting to dictate the terms of trade. They may opt to be the only supplier of the resource thus monopolizing the economy. Trading restrictions- since the states involved are rich in certain highly valuable resources, they may decide to impose the terms of trade and even putting up some restriction measures to ensure they remain dominant. They restrict a party involved from engaging commercially with other nations. Solicitation of aids- States involved in rentierism may engage in a mutually benefiting way. They may engage in giving aids in order to get some political influence in that particular region or over the nation. This is majorly common with the United States who subsidizes project of other nations in exchange for influence. This may impact the business behavior by influencing its

International business and communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International business and communication - Essay Example This paper is a study of national cultures with particular reference to the work habits and practices that exist in Germany and Spain. It will specifically look at the Martinez Construction & Konstruction Drezehn case study in the process and analyze how differences in national culture had resulted in the particular situation that came about there. The term national culture denotes the shared values, beliefs and practices that are common to the people belonging to a particular country or region. Often a subject in anthropological and social studies, many definitions and view points about culture and national culture have evolved through the ages. â€Å"The term culture has various meanings, all derived from Latin meaning â€Å"which is cultivation of the soil.† (Jais, 27). Due to increasing diversity in the workplace, the concept of national culture has now become a part of business studies as well. A review of literature on the subject leads almost universally to the studies done by Professor Geert Hofstede on his studies on national identity in the workplace. Before going into detail on the cultural dimensions as conceived by Hofstede and other theorists, it would be pertinent to look at the factors responsible for the evolving of a work culture. â€Å"Culture is a metaphor which can be used to explore the identity of a business. It is about how others see the business, but also how the individuals who work there understand it. Culture offers us a powerful insight into the business and what it is like to work within it.† (An Introduction to Business Cultures). It should be noted that these factors are apart from those that have influenced individual culture through family and social interactions. The influence of leadership and vision that exists within a particular organization will be a dominant factor that helps a particular culture to evolve. The company tradition (depends on how long the

Plan for Establishing a Career Development Function HRD 420 Research Paper

Plan for Establishing a Career Development Function HRD 420 - Research Paper Example In this discussion, I will provide comprehensive information concerning my plans for the development of career function in the Transliners Company. I am a Human Resource Manager at a Company known as the Transliners; it is a transport Company that offers the Public local transportation services by use of Buses and Cars that are hired. The Company also transports luggage and other goods; I have conducted substantial research and found out that the transportation business is a very crucial and sensitive sector that requires personnel with properly developed careers. This will be the first step I will take in the development of the careers of the employees at the Transliners Company. It shall involve identification of the available capacities, knowledge and skills that are currently possessed by the employees (Rouda 2008). This assessment shall be undertaken through different five imperative steps involving: Conducting a gap analysis study which will provide data on available and lacking pertinent career development aspects. The second stage under needs assessment will be identification of the Company’s interests as well as the priority and the need for career development among the employees. Consequently, the third step will encompass identification of the possible employee performance challenges that may arise due to poor career planning. This step shall be followed by, undertaking a comparison by finding out future challenges that may occur among the employees if the career development function is not conducted. Finally, I will communi cate my findings to the top managers on the importance of a proper career development function in the Company. This shall involve the identification and evaluation of new ideologies, skills, experiences and knowledge that various employees possess and those that they would like to acquire. The objective of formulating the goals shall be driven by several questions such as:

French Opposition to the Muslim Veil (Headscarf) Essay

French Opposition to the Muslim Veil (Headscarf) - Essay Example Over the years, French legislators came up with law and approved it with a large majority banning any form of conspicuous signs of religion in public schools. The law prohibited the Islamic headscarf and excessively large crucifixes, as well as kippas (Ezekiel, 2006). The law has seen students being expelled, and public workers losing their jobs, especially for wearing hijab; consequently, the law seems to be against the hijab, but not the other sign of religion, as it is the only conspicuous piece of cloth or sign that cannot be concealed. In addition, it has led to discrimination against Muslim in certain aspects of their lives, such as jobs and even social relations in weddings and other public places and events. Parties Involved Those that are involved in the controversy of the French hijab are parties interested in human rights and religious interests. In this light, feminist groups are involved in the controversy due to the headscarf’s symbolism in the Islamic religion a nd the role it plays in the identity of Muslim women and girls. This is concerning women’s submission to men, and it concerns this party, as the veil is believed to influence the school system. In addition, they are interested in fighting for women’s rights as the headscarf in public schools will allow incorporation of Muslim practices into the school system and influence other students, as well as challenge the fight against violation of women’s rights. In addition, an ethical issue is raised at this point in relation to the persons charged with the responsibility of making decisions that cover the rights of women and freedom of choice in following that which they believe in, both morally and religiously. This is because the hijab is viewed as a piece of cloth that limits the freedom of women, and that wearing the hijab itself is not a choice. This issue complicates matters considerably complicated. Educators and educational stakeholders are also involved in th e controversy, and a majority are against the headscarf. This is following the debate on the social and cultural nature of the country in relation to religion. The argument is that France is a secular state making the headscarf a violation of the secular of this social and cultural state of the nation, and disrupts the state of harmony by expressing community affiliation making other interested parties in interacting with the said community locked out. The above two parties argue against the veil and have a strong basis for it despite the implications raised. However, they are the crucial voices involved in the entire issue. Rights The first issue is the violation of human rights despite French declaration of the universal human rights, which state that all human beings are entitled to their own religion, which goes together with the issue of religious expression. The headscarf is a form of self-expression relating to the Islamic faith and religion. The banning of the headscarf in p ublic by the law is in clear violation of the women’s rights, particularly with the support of the law, which was mainly for political reasons and did not have the best interests of the group in mind (Gendrot, 2007). Following the ban in France, where human rights are advocated in all aspects,

Does China threaten U.S. global economic dominance Research Paper

Does China threaten U.S. global economic dominance - Research Paper Example Some reports even said that China, as one of the E7 – emerging economies are projected to go beyond the G7 countries around 2032iii. But a lot of things could happen before 2030. Take the example of Japan who almost unseat the U.S. in 1980s, but speculations on this did not materialize due to excessive trade surplus similar to what China is in right now. What stands on the way of China for becoming number one, and being the world’s economic power? Let us take a look at the important demographics. Although China’s population today is 1,336,718,015, four times larger than the United States, its prime working age population of 20 to 35 years old continue to shrink because of its one child policy iv. Also, the vast majority of the population living in the rural areas is either very old or very young. Due to the large number of population, the huge cost of growth is expected to go up as demands for everything continues to go up. While it seems that China ranks close t o U.S. in terms of GDP, it cannot be said that it is a dominant power. It also shows that China is not necessarily richer, only bigger. In 2009, China has $9.872 trillion GDP while US has $14.72 trillion. In comparison, China has a GDP per capita of $7,400 and ranks 127th in the world, and it is dwarfed by the U.S. GDP per capita of $47,400, and is ranked as 10th in the world v. ... nges that should preoccupy the government aside from staking a claim of economic global dominance, such as: (a) reducing its high domestic savings rate and correspondingly low domestic demand; (b) sustaining adequate job growth for tens of millions of migrants and new entrants to the work force; (c) reducing corruption and other economic crimes; and (d) containing environmental damage and social strife related to the economy's rapid transformation† vii. It has been noted that development rests in the coastal provinces rather than in the interior; so much so that addressing the needs of 200 million rural laborers and dependents that have relocated to urban areas to find work is one of its problems Economic analysts view the China’s economic global dominance differently. Hugh Hendry,viii an economic adviser, argues that investors should not worry too much on the fallacy of China’s economic dominance. He said this will not happen because China, despite being the worl d’s largest creditor is also running a consistent trade surplus... It is recalled that this is the same scenario that devastated US in 1920s and Japan in 1980s so that investors are warned of the occurrence of same incident to China. There is no doubt that China’s exports have remained strong amid the difficulties of the global economy. In 2010, China’s exports grew to $1.506 trillion, as compared to its 2009 exports of $1.204 trillion and have further widened the trade surplus with U.S. by 46% to $28.7 billion. ix However, demand for Chinese goods is projected to decline because of the slow growth of U.S. economy and debt problems in parts of Europe. 20% of China’s products are exported to U.S., and the rest goes to Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Germany. China has not completely erased the

Medical Precision Systems Human Resources Management Case Study

Medical Precision Systems Human Resources Management - Case Study Example "A share is a unit of ownership. When you own a share you become a part-owner (shareholder) of a company and you will have the right to: receive any dividends paid on each share that you own; receive a copy or summary of the company's annual report A performance management culture exists at MPS and appraisals, remuneration, and promotions are highly performance based. Artley and Stroh (2001, p. 5) reports, "All high-performance organizations, whether public or private, are, and must be, interested in developing and deploying effective performance measurement and performance management systems, since it is only through such systems that they can remain high-performance organizations." For fifteen years MPS has been employing a total quality management (TQM) program. Ten employees are on a team and they elect their leader. Group, or team, leaders hold feedback sessions and report what they gather to the senior production managers. (Beardwell and Holden, 2001, p.742.) A great deal of time, effort, and money is involved in providing excellent training in teamwork, people skills, and job education. Along with all of this training, company benefits, and a caring staff MPS also offers recreational facilities, sports, and social events for its employees. The company has strong values and a clear vision and it lives up to its mission statement, "MPS-working for the health of America". (Beardwell and Holden, 2001, p.742.) In the early 1990s MPS took its business worldwide and expanded into Europe, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and France. The strategy had to be adjusted as the company was now global and the system had to cater to global commitments and developments. Although business on the production and marketing side were going well Last Name 3 and the United Kingdom subsidiary in Bath and the Swedish subsidiary in Uppsala experienced steady growth, the overseas HRM experienced many difficulties. Reports revealed there was much potential for the French subsidiary. ((Beardwell and Holden, 2001, p. 742.) The company faced some disadvantages of going global and the lack of success with HRM that other firms run into. These include, as listed on 03 October 2003 by easterangel-ga (a blogger on Google Answers): -Flexibility and change in mindset: Cultural taboos or sensitivities of the market -Level of commitment -Organizational structure: Ensure multinational legal compliance such as labeling, packaging, product safety, and liability laws) -Language barriers MPS's HRM worked for its home-based parent company but did not do quite as well with its subsidiaries. Expatriate managers exerted strong controls over employees in different countries based on goals in financial and production terms, which were set by the parent company, did not give the local subsidiaries much input. They did not have much say in business activities. (Beardwell and Holden, 2001, p.742.) Keeping unions out or making sure that their influence was kept to a minimum were the

International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Business - Essay Example 1. Introduction The French food retailer Groupe Auchan S.A. (Auchan) is one of the world’s top retail and distribution groups and the fourth largest food retailer in France with a market share of about 12 percent (Standard & Poor’s, 2011). It competes with European giants such as Carrefour and Casino. Auchan has a strong position in the hypermarket segment which contributes about 80% of the group’s revenues. In addition to intense competition, rising inflation has been holding back consumer spending in Western European markets. Auchan has expanded into several Asian countries and also in Central and Eastern Europe. India has a huge retail market but it has FDI restrictions and does not permit foreign companies into multi-brand retail. Auchan has been attempting to enter into India through a franchise agreement with Dubai-based Landmark Group. The Landmark Group, founded in Bahrain with a single shop, has grown into one of the largest retail organizations (Landmar k Group, 2012). Currently, the Landmark Group operates the SPAR hypermarkets and supermarkets in India but their agreement with SPAR is set to come to an end. Auchan Groupe intends to enter into a franchise agreement with the Landmark Group until India amends its FDI policy. As of now India does not permit FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in multi-brand retailing. 2. Rationale for choosing India India offers huge potential for the retail sector as the disposable income of the middle-class has been growing. FDI in different sectors has been increasing in India and the Indian currency (Rupee) has become strong in the international market. However, PEST analysis would help in evaluating if Auchan’s decision to enter India is a viable proposition. Political The political situation in India is unstable as it has a coalition government since no single party has clear majority. The industrial sector also faces opposition and the growth in agriculture has been slow. However, the role of the central government as the intermediary of the state governments is now ending (Mohan, 2006). This indicates that states now have autonomy while the growing middle-class favours liberalization. The business conglomerates in India have turned their attention to retailing (Deloitte, 2008). The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is the nodal agency for monitoring and reviewing the FDI policy in India on continued basis (Tyagi, 2010). Economic The Indian economy has undergone tremendous change. The Indian economy has recorded high growth rates and is an attractive destination for investments (IBEF, 2011). The Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.5% and is expected to contribute to the recovery of the world economy. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 8.5% during 2010-11 against 8% in 2009-2010. Over the next two years India is expected to attract FDI worth USD 80 billion according to a research report by Morgan Stanley as cited by IBEF. India’s reta il sector is expected to grow to $635bn by 2015 (Sengupta, 2008). At the same time, food retail is expected to grow to $1.6bn over the next five-year period (Srivastava, 2008). Social The modern cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore show evidence of modernization and adaptation to western standards under the influence of globalization (Pick & Dayaram, 2006). Growth and development in communications technology, development of transport infrastructure, widespread availability of western

Business Mgt Essay Example for Free

Business Mgt Essay Part I. Assume you have taken over responsibility to play the lead Information Technology (IT) management role in Magnum Enterprises. Your boss, Rachel Heigl, is Magnum’s CIO. The IT management group is comprised of six people who you will be supervising. Ms. Heigl is an enlightened manager, and she believes that if you are to carry out your responsibilities effectively, you need to work with her in defining your IT management role. As a first step, she invites you to write a short statement where you describe what you see to be your role as head of the IT management effort at Magnum. Proper IT Management requires researching and discerning information technology as a company resource guiding both operational and crucial company capabilities. Using information technology to maximize satisfaction of the customer alongside productivity and profitability will ensure that our competiveness with other business stays at a maximum. In turn IT can make business processes more effective and efficient to provide said resources to customers. The lead IT shall ensure performance of the company through managing technology while encompassing priorities of the business into the role. Striving to be a partner with great initiative this business will discover its leader will have accomplished and achieved what they desired. My first role of business would be to establish the parameters and to understand the IT knowledge areas. These are made up of development processes; management challenges information technologies, business applications and foundation concepts. Concepts of the foundation are making sure the role of information systems paired with business and technical concepts are a familiarity with the end user. Familiarity of concepts in entry level information systems bind with a competitive strategy can lead to an overwhelming strategic advantage. Educating Magnum’s team upon the significance of information technology with the three roles that the business world performs in order to combine business management, software, and hardware capabilities. At the Management level, decision making would lead to significant improvements for IT utilization. Business operations see information systems as a huge support to review and collect data from financial operations, managing manufacturing processes that are very sophisticated, tracking company inventory, and productivity. The use of metrics paired with identifying trends to assist the company in making informed decisions faster to provide information about our competitors. IT  is used quite often to provide a strategic support advantage for the company. Automated inventory and ordering systems an assist with the savings costs. With this information we would need to review our mission statement that identifies the company’s functions, provides oversight on the overall goal, a sense of direction, and guides decision making. Investigating and development towards understanding how we generate money and ensuring a customer base for our company. Envisioning the business plan, mission, with current IT structure and the ability to communicate with senior leadership will guide me with necessary tools to assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO). To ensure a strategic IT plan is created in which will be shared and implemented with my team. Planning to have Magnum’s team familiar with data resource management capabilities, hardware, networks, telecommunications, and software within the company is the second area of information systems known as information technologies. In today’s society PDA’s (personal digital assistants; IE. Blackberry’s ETC.) Personal computers and network servers are integral computer hardware and are crucial in our business environment. Being extremely knowledgeable is vital to our team troubleshooting and resolving hardware issues instead of having to call anot her company for maintenance. We have the ability to break down our company’s software into two categories, application software and system software. Both types normally off the consumer shelf as commercial software instead of having an employee on the team write the software codes for these programs. I plan to ensure my teams are extremely familiar with all software programs and have a firm foundation when troubleshooting and resolving technical issues. Additionally, if not already formed, I will institute a configuration control board and implement test scenarios to ensure future hardware and software being purchased will not have compatibility issues. Also a part of information technologies is data resource management. This is essential in sustaining and maintaining our company. We will require a database management system of good quality that is capable of data consolidating into a database in turn can be accessed my several program applications. Within the past fifteen to twenty years networks and telecommunications software have played a vital role. To ensure the expansion and growth for Magnum Enterprises, we will need out network to be consistent, reliable, monetary sufficient. I would prepare the team to  either install or review and change as needed our network management system that assists with traffic management, capacity planning, network monitoring, and security in essence that our system will grow and change with modern day business culture and practices as the company expands. In order to have the most dependable and proven with the cost of it a ring network should be put into place. The next area, development processes, deals with designing, planning, identifying ideas, and implementing information systems to meet potential business opportunities. It is critical that we ensure our business management capabilities alongside our hardware and software are integrated successfully within our company. Basis within t he development process and depending upon the circumstance, there are a couple of processes we want our team to employ as resolving problems com along with our business systems. Those processes are considered or known as the prototyping approach and he systems development life-cycle. The synopsis of prototyping involves quickly developing or constructing test modules of a desired system in which we will engage when we cannot determine or classify the end user requirements. These systems would be used to assist our personnel with the capabilities to design or create an information system that will be intuitive and easy to navigate for consumers. Prototyping involves four steps with the first being investigation and analysis step. This step, requirements grouped and defined. Second, is the analysis and design step in which a model is developed and constructed to meet consumer business requirements. Next, in the design and implementation, this finalizes the model that was tested and begins the initial installation. The last step to this four step process is implementation and maintenance, which would consist of the business system being accepted, used, and maintained. Prototyping advantages are: decrease in the development time, development costs and requires user i nvolvement. This generates higher satisfaction results. I plan to employ this type of approach to small initiatives. The next area is business application for information systems. This will consist of being familiar with commerce and business applications for our employees and which are used within the company to make strategic leadership and management decisions. A few of the most used business applications within a majority of companies are accounting, human resource management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial management,  and supply chain management. An Architectural picture of or IT business applications will ensure that I will have familiarity with all applications that we use. This approach will identify the current interrelationships, interfaces with customer, employees, business applications, and stake holders. We will then need to review the chart and see if there are any potential process improvements that we can make to integrate those systems cross functionally and keep operational costs to a minimum. The systems devel opment lifecycle employs the systems approach to create IT solutions. This lifecycle is often utilized for large applications and it is composed of five processes that I expect my team to know and become familiar when employing the systems development lifecycle: systems investigation, systems analysis, systems design, systems implementation and systems maintenance. The first process, systems investigation, involves project brainstorming, planning and performing a feasibility study. During the brainstorming and planning initiative, a project management implementation plan is created identifying the detailed steps that will be accomplished during the creation and development of the system. The feasibility study is critically important as this outlines all requirements for the system. It also explores four major areas, organizational, economic, technical, and operational feasibility, which determines if it’s worthwhile to invest in potential business ventures. In reviewing the organization’s feasibility, we need to determine if the system is in line with and supports our company’s strategic objectives. The economic feasibility identifies and evaluates the project’s tangible and intangible cost and benefits. Technical feasibility is assessed by confirming if the necessary hardware and software will be available or can be developed and tested before implementation. Operational feasibility is determined by the motivation, desire, willingness, and competence of the stakeholders (management, employees, customers and suppliers) to use and operate the proposed system. Systems Analysis consists of consolidating requirements and includes a detailed breakdown of the business needs and requirements of the organization. This starts with an organizational analysis from one of the business end users. This individual must be keenly aware of the organizational management structure, business requirements, and current IT systems operati ons and its proposed relationship with the newly created system. Some of the outputs generated from the systems analysis  include system flowcharts, data flow diagrams, and connectivity diagrams which aid in the development of the analysis report The next process, systems design, focuses on the design, process diagrams, business rules, and developing specifications for the hardware, software, data resources that will meet the proposed requirements for new business system. The three major outputs produced from the systems design phase are user data, interface, and process design. The fourth process of the systems development lifecycle is system implementation. This encompasses either acquiring the hardware or software or developing it from company resources and then testing the products in a test environment to see how well they operate and integrate with your existing IT architecture. If testing goes well, an implementation plan including training end users and developing system documentation will be accomplished prior to incorporating and execu ting this system within our IT architecture. The final process, systems maintenance consists of consistently monitoring and evaluating the newly implemented system. This also includes correcting errors and discrepancies not identified during the testing phase and continuously making system improvements, advancements and upgrades. The final area of information systems is management challenges. There are numerous challenges that our IT team may be faced with at Magnum Enterprises. One challenge is addressing our security concerns which involve several areas. For instance, our IT team needs be constantly vigilant and on the alert for potential competitors trying to or actually hacking into our systems to steal or damage our data. Additionally, we may also be challenged with setting up restrictions and locking down the network for personnel to only use the network and its software applications for official business. Ensuring that our software is controlled and that employees are not illegally making copies of software for personal use is another area of concern. Preventing virus attacks to our network and installing anti-virus software to diagnose and remove computer viruses is of utmost concern. Failure to maintain a secure network can potentially halt our business from being productive and resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Additional challenges the IT team may be faced with may involve expanding our infrastructure and network to address our growing business. Ensuring our network provides our employees accessibility to the data they need, wherever they require it, regardless of their location will test our innovativeness.  The company may not have a backup plan to allow it to operate effectively and efficiently in the event of a forced relocation. If that is the case, I will recommend to our management staff that we establish a continuity of operations plan enabling us to relocate with minimum impact to our business operations like a hot site for temporary functionality. In the dynamic world of IT we will always be faced with challenges, however, utilizing IT and being on the leading edge of new IT systems provides our business with many benefits and makes our organization more effective and efficient. For example, IT can be used to improve and promote new business processes such as creating an automated inventory system which will save money in additional labor costs. Another use of IT in making it more efficient and effective is that using certain software programs enables us to identify and target our top customers in terms of profitability to our business. In summary, IT enables our company to successfully plan, integrate, manage, and carry out strategies which lead to profit. Part II. Six months after you take over the lead IT management role at Magnum, the CIO, Ms. Rachel Heigl, is pleased with your work. She has just attended a meeting of Magnum’s executive committee (the committee comprised of the most senior managers of Magnum), where the CEO and Vice President of marketing have indicated that Magnum’s mediocre e-business capabilities must be strengthened. As CIO, Ms. Heigl is given primary responsibility in improving Magnum’s e-business performance. She in turn puts you in charge of a small task force comprised of representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. In order to advance and improve Magnum’s e-business performance operations, it’s vital I establish a cohesive team with representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. Their input and perspective is necessary and essential in developing a way ahead and strategic plan for the future of our e-busin ess department. Developing success with our e-business begins with marketing the company. Marketing is concerned with developing and creating an innovative plan so that the product or service can be promoted and sold. Promoting our products and services are key and critical in attracting new customers as well as maintaining our current customer base. It is important that I develop an understanding of the marketing role and how it can benefit  by using Information Technology systems. Marketing information systems support well established and e-commerce processes that sustain major elements within the marketing function and is described as a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control. The major components of marketing information systems include interactive marketing, sales force automation, customer relationship management, sales management, product management, targeted marketing, and market research. Two of the seven components I will be discussing are interactive marketing and customer relationship management. In our environment today, marketing information systems aid marketing personnel in a variety of tasks associated with branding products and customer service initiatives. For instance, interactive marketing is largely dependent on utilizing the internet, which permits the business and its customers and potential customers to become partners in developing, socializing, acquiring and advancing products and services. With the IT department enabling this type of communication, the company benefits from generating new ideas for other products and services as well as establishing strong customer loyalty. Another area within the marketing information systems is C ustomer Relationship Management (CRM). This incorporates and automates many customer service processes. It consists of utilizing an IT framework to construct, automate, and integrate marketing processes with the company’s business operations. CRM is usually comprised of a software suite that allows a business to provide efficient, effective and reliable service to its customers. Additionally, CRM permits a company to identify and target their most important customers as well as facilitate real-time customization of products and services based on the customer’s wants and desires. Understanding the marketing department’s views and concerns enables the IT department to implement and install an IT infrastructure that will be capable of supporting various information technologies. Some of the benefits that can be obtained from the marketing department are: an opportunity to increase sales and revenue, a chance to touch new market areas, 24/7 accessibility for the customer, and more flexibility and convenie nce for the customers. The production and operations function is supported by  manufacturing information systems. Manufacturing information systems are designed to be used specifically in an operations and production environment. Different types of manufacturing information systems consist of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), process control, machine control and robotics. CIM involves using computers to control the total manufacturing process, from design to distribution, to produce produces products of the highest caliber. Process control involves utilizing computers to oversee and control continuing physical processes. Machine control consists of using a computer based system to direct the actions of a machine. Robotics involves designing, constructing, and building machines that have the intelligence of a computer and human like physical capabilities. It’s key I understand how the operations representative depends on these information systems to operate effectively as well as their expec tations for these systems. Working together as a team will enable the IT and operations department to develop better ideas to increase the manufacturing and production process. Developing an understanding of all the accounting and financial based systems within our business and discussing these systems with the finance representative enables our IT and finance departments to plan effectively when troubleshooting and performing upgrades. These systems include but are not limited to order processing, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, cash management, investment management, capital budgeting and financial planning. The success of these systems is integrally connected with its information technology and services. For example, the order processing system â€Å"captures and processes customer orders and produces data needed for sales analysis and inventory control and the accounts payable system keeps track of data concerning purchases from and payments to suppliers. Communicating with the finance representative is essential in setting up or modifying these systems to meet the needs of our business. Any interrupti on or degradation in service can lead to severe damage to the business and financial services that Magnum Enterprises relies on to function and operate. As with any business, competitors are always looking for an advantage to get them ahead in their particular discipline or industry. Unfortunately, being extremely aggressive and ambitious can sometimes cloud your decision making capabilities to the point that you may  be committing breaking privacy laws and monitoring and copyright violations. As the IT lead manager for Magnum Enterprises, I’m charged with ensuring our network infrastructure and IT systems are operating proficiently. However, when it comes to addressing privacy issues from an IT perspective, opinions and viewpoints from a legal expert are necessary. In regards to privacy, several websites accumulate usernames and passwords and personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers without authorization from users. Applying internet monitoring technology within the workplace raises concerns about where the boundaries lie between personal use and public resource use. Copyright concerns and violations has become an issue with the development of the Internet and upgrades to technology. Discussing these concerns with a legal expert and implementing and adhering to strict guidelines will help prevent our company from committing these violations. In addition to the goals of strengthening the capabilities of the e-business, attention must be paid to some key technical challenges. Overseeing secure information throughout our business is extremely difficult to implement and maintain successfully. Key technical issues that may be encountered when re-engineering our e-business include privacy and confidentiality, authenticity, data integrity, access control, availability and infrastructure. Privacy and confidentiality involves businesses protecting and securing personal information while being stored or t ransmitted through email. This can be accomplished by utilizing encryption devices or firewalls. Authentication is used to confirm an individual’s identity and during e-business transactions, the purchaser and buyer wants assurance that proper identity is established. A secure way to assist with confirming identity to both individuals is to utilize a virtual private network. Data integrity means the data is correct and has not been altered while being stored or transmitted. The use of firewalls assists in preventing unauthorized users and safeguarding data. Another way to ensure data integrity is through the use of antivirus software which also aids in keeping your data free from viruses. Access control exists when you’re authorizing certain individual’s permission to restricted systems or data. Several measures that can help with access control include firewalls, access privileges, passwords, digital certificates and virtual private networks. Availability is an issue when customers and employers need information  without any disruptions. Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, data backups and the use of anti-virus software assist with ensuring data is always available. Our e-business infrastructure constantly needs to be monitored to ensure its meeting the needs of our business. An infrastructure that is unable to consistently support the network traffic load can potentially cost our company thousands of dollars in lost sales. If the network is continually slow, increasing the speed of the network backbone will assist in providing faster and reliable support for our customers. In addition to increasing the speed of the network backbone, implementing cross-functional enterprise systems will assist in improving critical business processes throughout Magnum enterprises. A final technical challenge is ensuring all of our systems are compatible and can operate on several different hardware platforms. By having this capabi lity, our operating costs from a technical refresh perspective will decrease. While strengthening capabilities and addressing technical issues, there are management challenges within the e-business that must be addressed. As discussed earlier, our team must be vigilant in addressing security challenges such as hacking into our systems, software theft, and protecting our software applications. In addition to security issues, there are ethical concerns that must be addressed. Privacy has always been a serious and contentious issue amongst employers and employees. For instance, computer monitoring is considered by many personnel to be an infringement on the employee’s privacy and shouldn’t be allowed. However, employers argue that since the computer is a company owned resource, they should be allowed to monitor the work of their employer. In reality, many employers are concerned as to whether or not the employee is actually working and producing or just goofing off and surfing the internet. Utilizing IT equipment at work has been mentioned to cause a variety of health issues which management must address. For example, if your job consists of being in front of a computer all day, some of the health problems you may experience damage to the neck and arm muscles, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, job stress, poor posture and poor circulation. Resolutions to some of these health concerns can be through the science of ergonomics. The objective of ergonomics is to devise and create safe health work conditions with the goal of decreasing health issues and increasing employee morale and work productivity. If  Magnum Enterprises has customers internationally, they also may be faced with political, geo-economic and cultural challenges. From a political concern, there are countries that have restrictions regulating or denying the transfer of data across their borders which can potentially result in customers or businesses from having to pay import or export fees. Geo-economic concerns involve issues such as identifying and locating personnel with IT skills to work at remote sites and communicating with personnel across all 24 time zones. Cultural challenges â€Å"include differences in languages, cultural interests, religions, customs, social attitudes, and political philosophies†. For example, if Magnum Enterprises was conducting a business transaction via a Video Teleconference it would be disrespectful to look them in the eye when introducing yourself. Before meeting an international customer, it would prudent to review their customs and courtesies to ensure a smooth business relationship. Improving Magnum’s e-business performance faces several challenges. Consulting with key department personnel from operations, marketing, finance and legal as well as addressing technical and management obstacles will assist me in charting a plan to put our e-business on the right track towards success.

Government Spending on Military vs Education

Government Spending on Military vs Education Evaluate the idea the government should spend less money on war and their military and other areas such as health and education. In every country, usually government takes very important decisions, sometimes which are very useful for the country to improve or increase their business and some of them, decisions create some serious problems, which have very bad impact on country development. The overall development of a country depends on ample of factors like, the country should be self sufficient in various factors like health care of people, education, safety and security of people. So somewhere government spends more money on education health system programs as they reckon and some other seem that it is better to spend money on their military and defence system rather than the education and health system, because they seem if government have strong defence military then they do not have any war problem and any other serious problems. Firstly, education plays a very vital role in the development of any country ,  which tells the right or wrong decision in our daily lives. Education also  requires equal attention because the present era is the era of technology from  the birth of a baby to cremation, there is technology. the proper use of  technological equipments and appliances require knowledge which can be  gained by educational ways. With the help of education, people go much better prepared to prevent disease and to use new health and safety services effectively. For instance, young people who have done or completed primary education are less than half as likely to contract HIV as those with little or no schooling. If mothers are educated then their children have more healthier children. So education is essential for overall development of  personality of a person and it is pivotal for inculcating good moral and  ethical values in the individuals so that people and their respective country can  flourish and climb up the ladder of success. Besides this, education helps in  sharpening the faculties(physical and mental) of and individual. Education is the  third eye of an individual because it acts as a beacon of light to enlighten the  path of individuals life. Moreover life without education is just like a ship  without sailor. Educated people can mould the countrys future because it  teaches the basic principles of living in the society. Education always brings  more opportunities for a youngsters and everyone learn lot of new skills  through education, so education makes a difference in life. But it does not  mean that only education is the most important part for a country and  government spend more money on it, also it means government also take care  about the education, because it is the part of our daily lives. Gignoux A (2002)  Secondly, also the proper maintenance of health of people should be given  paramount importance as an adage goes, h ealth is wealth. If citizens of a  country are healthy, then the country automatically advances on the road of  success because of increased productivity of citizens. Better health is central  to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution  to economic progress, usually healthy populations live longer than others, are more productive, and save more. For example, investments in roads can improveaccess to health services, inflation targets can constrain health spending and civil service reform can create more opportunities or limits to hiring more health workers. Health is the physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual well being of a person and not merely the absence of disease. Every country nowadays aims to provide best medical services to the people as technology has given birth to many diagnostic as well as treatment alternatives. As prevention is better than cure so a government should give priority to primary prevention than secondar y prevention because according to World Health Organization a medicine can not cure one problem rather creating more problems . Government should spend a more from of its budget on maintaining health of people. If people are healthy, then economy of country will increase drastically. Health can be flourished by proper sanitation amenities, clean drinking water, closed sewerage system and so on. Apart from it, health  check up should be conducted in schools. Moreover nutritional programs like mid day meal programs should be implemented properly. Several surveys related to health should be conducted. So health education camps should be organised by government, so that people can acquire knowledge about various diseases and how to prevent such disorders. For instance, healthy students can take more advantages in the class, because they learn very quickly and always remain active in the class, but on the flip side, unhealthy students can not afford so much information and get new ski lls and similarly, companies or industries usually invest more in the market, if they have strong, healthier and educated workforces. So it means, if have a improved disease environment, it also support the development in almost every sector. So government also spend more money on health and physical fitness of people, because health is the prominent issue in the progress of developing countries. On the flip side, military, paramilitary and police play pivotal role in maintaining law and order in the society as well as for establishing peace. The government of a country spend huge sum of money for the advancement of this sector. Preparing the military for security of people is imperative but to use that military forces for attacking other countries is totally devastating. Whenever a  country attacks other country, then the military force of that should be strong enough to oppose the attacking military forces. In the present scenario, the adage tooth for tooth and nail for nail prevails. So every country usually spend huge amount of money on strengthening its military so that the opponents malicious actions can be deterred. Recently in Iraq the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq) militant group spread violence and killed many innocent people because this group wants to make Iraq a Muslim country. So in order to crash the malicious connotations of such groups, the military force of a country should be powerful. In order to grab such violence the govt. of every country tries to strengthen the military forces. Moreover the military helps the citizens in case of natural disasters like flood, tsunami. But according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the World military expenditure in 2012 is estimated to have reached $1.756 trillion. This is a 0.4 per cent decline in real terms than in 2011 — the first fall since 1998. The total is still higher than in any year between the end of World War II and 2010. This corresponds to 2.5 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), or approximately $249 for each person in the world. Now a days, almost every country have a nuclear bomb, so if any country do not have a anti-nuclear defence mechanism, then it would be repeat, which was happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. That is why most of the countries spend lot of money on their military and some on new technology, because by using new tech nology, they seem that they can face any war of any country. So some countries still have so much expenditure  on their military services and on their new weapons to protect the country people rather than the other areas like health and education. In conclusion, it can be seen that Education enlightens each and every sphere of life, so government should provide free of cost education at least up to primary level. Apart from it, scholarships should be given to students to promote the  interest towards studies. Developed countries should give fee concession to the students. Also government should give proper attention towards military. Although there are many organizations like W.H.O, UNICEF, which work for maintaining universal brotherhood and peace, still the fear of attack by other countries prevail, due to which the government gives attention towards military development and to equip it with modern techniques like novel equipments, vehicles weapons and so on. So health, education and military or new technology are the main part of any country, so every country government should firstly see their weakness and spend more money on it. . [1] [1] Gignoux A (2002), Center For Global Development, retrieved on March 2002 from http://www.cgdev.org/files/2844_file_EDUCATON1.pdf Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2013), Military Expenditure, retrieved on 22 February, 2009 from http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending World Health Organization ( 2008 ), Health and Development, retrieved on 2-4 September from http://www.who.int/hdp/en/

Essay example --

â€Å"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith (Steve).† In other words, don’t give up your hope or goals because sometimes you will be successful due to luck. Founder of the prominent Apple Inc, Steve Jobs has led the company to success. Together with Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, they created the original, Apple Computer Inc. They contributed technological advances over the years which made devices affordable and convenient to everyone. Now, all Apple products proliferate around the world and is commonly used everywhere. Although Jobs has been through many rough times during his journey to success, his interest in technology, good decisions, innovative ideas, and persistence allowed Apple and himself to prosper. Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California 1955 (A E Networks). His biological parents were Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, however Jobs was put up for adoption and as a result; Paul and Clara Jobs picked him up and raised him (A E Networks). Jobs already has a rough start on his life. He was â€Å"smart, but directionless,† but that did not stop him from finding success in his adulthood (A E Networks). Steve Jobs’ interest in technology sprouted from his childhood hometown, Santa Clara County, otherwise known as Silicon Valley (Moisescot). The County is well known for their semi conductor companies that were filled with engineers working on electronics (Moisescot). This environment set a foundation to Jobs’ path to success. During high school, Jobs attended an electronic class in which he received help from HP’s co founder, Bill Hewlett, to get electronic parts and to get help on his homework (Moisescot). Eventually, due to his interest in this tech class, he worked at the HP fac... ...n the technological world. Furthermore contributing to this world, he realized that a touch screen can be applied to a phone, thus the iPhone was born (Moisescot). Again, it turned out to be a great seller and changed how people used their phones. Steve Jobs’ was extremely successful because he changed how people viewed technology. Furthermore, he brought success and fame to Apple which before was withering. Jobs life was like a rollercoaster; He had a slow start, but then found success. He dropped back down due to the hardships and conflicts at Apple then became widely successful on the new products. Even though he was kicked to the ground several times, in the end he always rose up in success. Jobs’ interest in technology, good decisions, innovative ideas, and persistence helped him get out of the hard times in his life, but eventually he found success in the end.

Gay Rights: Homosexuals Deserve the same Rights as Heterosexuals Essay

Homosexual people do not want to have special privileges. They just want to have the same rights as heterosexuals, nothing more, and nothing less. Homosexuals are a growing minority with nearly a million gays and lesbians identifying themselves as members of same-sex couples in the 2000 census. But the total gay population is much larger, since the census didn’t provide an opportunity for single homosexuals to identify their sexual orientation, and didn’t count gay couples who live apart (Mason 1). There are no legitimate reasons why homosexuals should not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Our country disgraces itself when it â€Å"[†¦] accepts homosexuality as a sufficient cause for deprivation of normal civil rights [†¦]† (Nava, Dawidoff 144). If a homosexual is United States citizen, they should receive the same rights as all other citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians deserve the right to marry, to not be discri minated against, and to be in the military. Marriage is ever changing. Wives are now equal rather than subordinate partners; interracial marriage is now widely accepted; and marital failure itself, rather than the fault of one partner, may be grounds for a divorce (Stoddard 32). With all of these changes would it not be accurate to say that legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriages is the next step? Marriage is more than a commitment to love one another. â€Å"Aside from societal and religious conventions, marriage entails legally imposed financial responsibility and legally authorized financial benefits. Marriage provides automatic legal protections for the spouse, including medical visitation, succession of a deceased spouse’s property, as well as pension and other rights† (Stoddard 4... ...cause there is no law stating it is illegal, but 48 states, all but Vermont and Hawaii, will not acknowledge a gay marriage. If a homosexual is United States citizen, they should receive the same rights as all other citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians deserve the right to marry, to not be discriminated against, and to be in the military. Does it seem fair to keep all homosexuals from what they justly deserve? References Jackson, Benjamin. â€Å"Anti-homosexual Crime†. Pages 1-2. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2002. Mason, Margie. â€Å"Census Figures on Same-Sex Couples†. Page 1. www.speakout.com. 8/8/01 Nava, Michael, and Robert Dawidoff. â€Å"The Ick Factor: Yes†. Taking Sides. Pages 144-151. 1994. Stoddard, Thomas. â€Å"Gay Marriage: Make Them Legal†. Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Pages 31 – 52. Bedford Books. Boston. 1996

natural born killers :: essays research papers

Natural Born Killers† is one weird-ass movie. With the weird actors and funky camera movements. It’s unforgettable. A trip into the mind of two serial killers. The film is real good, but I think it might be even better if you were drunk. You might be a little used to everyone acting weird and all the psychedelic colors. But since I am not old enough to do that yet, I’ll just review as how I saw it. Mallory (Juliette Lewis) has a horrible life. Her brother is a little jerk, her father molests her, and her mother does nothing about it. It’s horrible. But the film tries to make it a little funny by making her house look like a sitcom with the audience laughing (the whole movie isn’t like this). Then one day a young man named Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) comes to the front door of her house delivering fifty pounds of meat. They instantly fall in love. This is where the funky stuff begins. Mickey and Mallory brutally beat and drown her dad, and burn her mom to death. After that they go on a long murder spree, killing more than fifty people, they are finally caught by one of the best cops in America: Seymour Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore). Mickey and Mallory have been apart for a year. Both locked in separate cells in a prison ran by McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones). McClusky has assigned Scagnetti to transport Mickey and Mallory to another place to get a lobotomy done on each of them. But the night before they are sent out, a greedy reporter named Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) is giving Mickey a live interview on TV. Pretty soon, Mickey escapes and all hell breaks loose. This film proves to us how screwed up the world is from movies and television. Two innocent people who have been exposed to too much violence go crazy and kill innocent people. I really liked how the film told the truth and held nothing back. The great part is the last act in the prison. Genius stuff! Oliver Stone is a great director and I admire him. He actually makes you feel sorry for this guilty couple. Harrelson gives an awesome performance. Spectacular! After seeing him all goofy on â€Å"Cheers† I was really excited to see him like this. I found it odd that his dad did go to prison for being a hit man. natural born killers :: essays research papers Natural Born Killers† is one weird-ass movie. With the weird actors and funky camera movements. It’s unforgettable. A trip into the mind of two serial killers. The film is real good, but I think it might be even better if you were drunk. You might be a little used to everyone acting weird and all the psychedelic colors. But since I am not old enough to do that yet, I’ll just review as how I saw it. Mallory (Juliette Lewis) has a horrible life. Her brother is a little jerk, her father molests her, and her mother does nothing about it. It’s horrible. But the film tries to make it a little funny by making her house look like a sitcom with the audience laughing (the whole movie isn’t like this). Then one day a young man named Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) comes to the front door of her house delivering fifty pounds of meat. They instantly fall in love. This is where the funky stuff begins. Mickey and Mallory brutally beat and drown her dad, and burn her mom to death. After that they go on a long murder spree, killing more than fifty people, they are finally caught by one of the best cops in America: Seymour Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore). Mickey and Mallory have been apart for a year. Both locked in separate cells in a prison ran by McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones). McClusky has assigned Scagnetti to transport Mickey and Mallory to another place to get a lobotomy done on each of them. But the night before they are sent out, a greedy reporter named Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) is giving Mickey a live interview on TV. Pretty soon, Mickey escapes and all hell breaks loose. This film proves to us how screwed up the world is from movies and television. Two innocent people who have been exposed to too much violence go crazy and kill innocent people. I really liked how the film told the truth and held nothing back. The great part is the last act in the prison. Genius stuff! Oliver Stone is a great director and I admire him. He actually makes you feel sorry for this guilty couple. Harrelson gives an awesome performance. Spectacular! After seeing him all goofy on â€Å"Cheers† I was really excited to see him like this. I found it odd that his dad did go to prison for being a hit man.

High School vs. College: The Contrast

After four grueling years in that beloved institution where we spend the free and happy days of our unraveling lives, the high school, we are directed to climb a higher level of education called college. However, with its very high college dropout rate, most of America’s youth never know the difference anymore.Nevertheless, there are several points of comparison and contrast between the two education levels. The identification of these contrasts can be a necessary tool to aid those who have decided to take on an extra mile by pursuing a degree (Breitspecher, 2006).Personal FreedomLet us start drawing contrasts between high school and college in the aspect of personal freedom. Basically, high school is compulsory because it is usually offered free of charge. We really have no choice but to pursue high school, if we want to be called normal. However, pursuing the next level, which is college, is a prerogative.This is especially true in the US, where the number of those who pursu e college is dwindling. A probable reason for this is the more difficult and serious nature of the college level, and the escalating costs that it requires of those who dream of it (Murray State University, 2006).Further, the two has a contrast in terms of personal freedom in the sense of management, be it in time, finances, and activities. In high school, we usually live with our parents, and are therefore subject to their rules and regulations, which may involve curfews.Our teachers and the school administration are also in control of our time as we are basically given time schedules, and we are supposed to merely follow suit. For whatever activities we may want to join in, we must first ask the permission of our parents, and the school asks for their permission if they are school-based activities. Along with joining any activity, the money we will be needing for finance must be asked from our parents, and in that way, we are restricted to their bidding (Murray State University, 2 006).In college, people usually move out and live on their own. Then, we are left to do as we choose to. However, this independence is accompanied by certain responsibilities, moral, and economic restrictions. For one, we are free to join any activity of our choice.However, we are also held responsible for the consequences of our choices. We are also left on our own to spend our money for whatever purposes, but we are also held responsible to pay for our bills and purchase our basic necessities (Murray State University, 2006).Essentially, these contrasts on personal freedom stem from the society’s growing expectations for us. In high school, we are deemed in need of guidance so our parents direct, and in that sense control, our everyday details. In college, we are expected to have learned from our high school experiences, and mature enough to act responsibly when left on our own.As quoted from the movie Spiderman, â€Å"with great power comes great responsibility.† Col lege sure endows us with some degree of power over our own lives, but a great deal of responsibility comes along with it (Murray State University, 2006).ClassesThe second aspect in which high school can be contrasted with college is in the conduct of the classes. In high school, we are given class schedules, which consists of consecutive classes with minimal break times. In a week, the hours we spend attending those classes sum up to 30 hours, and this extend to 26 weeks.Classes are often in terms of one whole school year, wherein the teacher will closely monitor attendance, and matters of delinquency must be settled. We typically have around 35 classmates to endure the entire year with. We are also usually given the books we will need, and we are only concerned with passing our subjects, not graduating from high school because it is almost a sure thing (Murray State University, 2006).In college, things take on a different twist. You usually decide which subject you will take when, and thereby design your own time schedule. Only around 12 to 16 hours are spent inside the classrooms, and they can be during the evenings, typically sandwiched between vacant hours. However, these improvements are to serve the purpose of lightening the heavy coursework that college requires.Classes also practically last only half of the academic year, as the academic year is divided into two semesters. Knowing your classmates will be difficult since a class usually consists of 75 to a hundred students. You will have to allocate your allowance well or find extra source of finances since you will be expected to provide your own books, which will usually cost a lot. Attendance is not usually monitored, but your mentors expect you to know everything that’s going on in class.You must also work your way through graduation and device ways and means on how to satisfy the graduation requirements of your degree, unlike in high school where everything is almost a given and all you had to do is wait for the graduation ball (Murray State University, 2006).   

Analysis of Professional Development Plan Essay

The definition of professional development varies in school districts and educators agree that the term is ever changing and involves the use of technology. Some educators have said that the term has an operational definition. In the article, key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development, author John Wells offers the following definition for educators within the context of the technological age:Professional development†¦goes beyond the term training with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills, but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practices, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources. [This] definition of professional development includes support for teachers as they encounter the challenges that come with putting into practice their evolving understanding about the use of technology to sup port inquiry-based learning (p.2). Professional development may encompass various characteristics such as goals and outcomes aligned to the districts, relevant topics in trainings, opportunities for staff collaboration, development maintained by an on-site coordinator, high quality and professional training and evaluations to determine effectiveness of program. James Polk, author of traits of effective teachers, states, â€Å"the need for a strong professional development program is well established in research† (p.2). Mr. Polk (2006) cites a recent study of factors contributing to three aspects of the teaching process that, â€Å"teachers ranked professional development in the top third of importance on each aspect† (p. 2). In analyzing the professional development plan of my school district, Richland County School District One, I noticed several issues that were identified by Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk outlined several problems associated with the traditional in-service programs that are deemed ineffective. Mr. Polk (2006) states that:assumptions, such as periodic in-service being sufficient to develop new teaching methods and improve practice, teachers being able to learn by listening to a speaker, and professional development being a luxury  rather than an integral part of district improvement, are all negating factors in the implementation of patronization of training programs (p. 2). Mr. Polk further identifies research-based, more effective assumptions such as professional development should be perpetual, and school change involves external and internal organizations and personal development. In professional development programs, the instructions to teacher should be demonstrated or modeled, practiced with feedback and professional development should be integrated into the daily life of teachers. Mr. Polk (2006) states that â€Å"if professional growth rests solely on bimonthly, two-hour in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early, then any training received will unlikely be reflected in student mastery† (p.2). Richland County School District One’s (RSDI) professional development program has several components such as the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), Avatar, and classroom walkthrough. According to the Richland County School District One’s website, Plan Do Check Act is used in â€Å"designing curriculum and delivering classroom instruction, in providing student support services, staff goal setting and evaluation, developing any new program, product or process design, planning strategically and starting a new improvement project or implementing any change†. The Plan component is identifying the learning problem and gathering the needed data. The Do component is analyzing the causes and implementing the plan on a trial of pilot basis. The Check component of PDCA is gathering the data results of the solution and analyzing the data. The Act component is implementing the instruction for all students and modifying the improvement plan. Avatar is the district’s professional development management system that allows for teaches to sign up for trainings offered by the district. All the trainings are offered after school or in the summer; this contradicts the recommendation offered by Mr. Polk that professional development should be integrated into the daily life of the teacher during the school day. The classroom walkthrough team is a district employee, the principal, assistant principal, and the professional development on-site coordinator. The team conducts the classroom walkthrough by observing the instructional strategies of a teacher for a total of five to ten minutes. The teacher is not offered prior information or feedback on the classroom walkthrough to correct or enhance his instructional strategies. The Richland County School District One website offers the levels of engagement of the students who the team should identify during the walkthrough. The levels; Authentic Engagement, Ritual Engagement, Passive Compliance, Retreatism, and Rebellion and their definitions are cited on the web page but teachers would not know their level due to lack of communication from the classroom walkthrough team. The problem of the poor quality of professional development was identified in the South Carolina schools that I have researched. For example, in Richland County School District Two, the district’s professional development program mirrors Richland County School District One’s program by only focusing on providing monthly in-service trainings on half-days for students or summer in-service activities. Both districts also provide the occasional monthly state or national conference in the teacher’s subject area and online training, i.e. Educational Television. Richland County School District Two differs by offering their Richland School District Two’s Technology Education Collaboration Mentors Program. The program is for school-selected representatives from every school in the district. The program focuses on helping fellow staff members develop personal technology skills and integrate technology into their classroom. Besides this program, I was unable to find any difference from the two districts and the professional development training. Richland County School District One and District Two professional development programs consist of low quality training once a month, irrelevant topics, lack of feedback from teachers and administrators, and concepts but lack of implementation. The districts’ programs lack the scope, high quality, accessibility (besides the Avatar system in RSDI), relevancy, and feedback from students. The majority of the district’s professional development program is the poor quality program described by Mr. Polk; two-hour  in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early from school. Reference Polk, J. (2006). Traits of effective teachers. Arts Education Policy Review, 107, p. 23-30. Wells, J. (2007). Key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 15, p. 101-123. www.richlandone.org/ipda/Training_Tools/pdca.htm and www.richland2.org

Shoehorn Sonata Speech + Related Text

At age 15, you are thrown into a war, fighting for your life and your will to live is slowly diminishing. Are you scared? Probably, but you know that if you show fear, everyone will see you as being weak. This is what the main protagonists of both the play, Shoe Horn Sonata by John Mistro and the movie, Hunger Games directed by Gary Ross endured. Together with photographs, cinematic techniques and symbols, these texts represent the devastation of war, the bonds of friendship forged during a war and their respective will to survive.Friendship is defined as a relationship between friends. In Shoe Horn Sonata, when Sheila and Bridie first meet, it seems unlikely that they will ever be friends. They are complete polar opposites. Sheila cynical statement ‘People always get on when they’re tossed in together. I’d hardly call that friendship. ’, reinforces that Bridie and Sheila initially formed a friendship out of desperation to survive, not because there was mut ual affection for each other. Bitter tone is utilised to convey Shelia’s survival instincts are prioritised over tender friendship.Additionally the alliteration of tossed in together reflects how people in war have no choice of their companions, that it pushes them together in survival. Similarly in the Hunger Games , the friendships that Katniss makes with both Rue and are forged out of necessity and need rather than sentiment. Rue and Katniss team up as they both have valuable skills assets that the other would like to utilise to their advantage such as when Rue manages to take a weapon unnoticed using the trees. In many ways, an alliance with Rue is an alliance to District 11 which Katniss can use to her benefit.Peter and Katniss act as if they are lovers in a ploy for the audience as a means to survive as seen when Katniss receives a note from Haymitch asking ‘You call that a kiss? ’. The sarcastic tone makes Katniss realise that the ploy will be futile as if Haymitch is doubtful then others will be too. Both texts show that although they may not have been friends in normal circumstances, war has pushed them together and this has attributed to them surviving. Symbols are also used in both texts to represent the protagonists’ hope and survival.For example, the shoehorn in Shoe Horn Sonata is first seen when the girls are in the water and Bridie uses it to wake Sheila up and prevent her from drowning. In this scene, it a metaphorical and representative an object of survival and the will to live. As the play goes on, the shoehorn symbolises family for Bridie and sacrifice for Sheila but in the end it unites the girls and demonstrates that not only did they survive the war, they survived the effects of the war as well. Caramel is another symbol of survival.It was the only luxury the girls had during the camp and ‘it had to last till the end of the war’. The caramel was even important enough that it was written into the g irls’ wills. This conveys to the audience that the girls clung to the hope that they would eventually be released from the prison camp. On the other hand, in Hunger Games, the mockingbird pin was not only Katniss’s link to her district, but a symbol of her love for her father as well as her survival. The pin is a representation of a creature with a spirit of her own.By breaking free of the Capitol’s control this show that the Capitol does not have complete control of the districts. Katniss, like the mockingjay, has escaped from the Capitol’s clutches which is why the pin symbolises her survival and spirit. The photographs shown during interview in Shoe Horn Sonata support the dialogue and give the audience a visual representation of what the girls went through during the camp. In scene 7, you see visuals of what the prisoners looked like during the camp. They are emaciated, haggard and impoverish.The effects of the imprisonment of the innocent is clearly highlighted during these photographs. The stark black and white photos depicting the harrowing effects of mistreatment of innocents evokes sympathy towards the prisoners from the viewer and loathing for their captors. In contrast, within the Hunger Games, the film is seen as whirs and jolts with sharply edited scenes intercutting from perspective to perspective which represents Katniss’s inner turmoil and her agitation which accompanies those new changes.Her life is unpredictable and this is shown as the camera shakes around representing the sudden changes in her life and well as extreme long shots used to give the audience a general impression of the places she goes. Little detail can be seen in these scenes which corresponds to the insignificance of these places to Katniss. The audience witnesses the consequences of these changes but to everyone else, they are unable to see this because of the defensive stoic mask she wears.In conclusion, the protagonists in Shoe Horn Sonat a and the Hunger Games have survived horrors unimaginable to us and through distinctively visual techniques such as , photographs, cinematic techniques and symbols, we are able to grasp a small idea of what they have endured on their journey. Therefore, thus despite common circumstances being the catalyst for friendship in times of war, strife and horror they are able to triumph over their circumstances because of the sustenance that this unexpected friendship provides them.

Nintendo †Creative Product Promotion Essay

When Nintendo release a new console or game, they usually conduct a large marketing product to make their products appeal to the mass market. The first way that Nintendo advertise is through television, they usually have their advertisements shown throughout the day and in the evening in order to try to appeal to the family market because Nintendo’s products are usually targeted towards families and children. Nintendo in their television adverts try to make the view have the desire to buy the product, an example of this could be the initial marketing of the Nintendo Wii where the advertisements on television where an showing how people could become fitter by playing Wii games therefore making people desire the product. Another way that Nintendo used to advertise their products in the UK was through advertisements in newspapers and magazines. They used this form of advertising because it appeals to a wide range of people and also the adverts can be changed to suite the target audience of the magazines. Personal Selling Due to the millions of products they sell it is hard for Nintendo to personally sell their own products face to face, most of their products are either brought from the Nintendo online or brought through retailers. Personal selling is mainly done to customers buying from retail stores from the staff trying to sell customers more accessories. When the retailers were selling the Nintendo Wii the staff had a variety of different statistics given to them by Nintendo to show the customer how good the product is and how it can influence the day to day life of the customer. Sales Promotion When the Nintendo Wii came out Nintendo and some of the major retailers selling the product created competitions giving people the opportunity to win a Nintendo Wii, this then creates a buzz around the product and people become interested in what it is and then decide they would desire the product. Nintendo also used sales promotion in retailers where they funded demo stands where potential customers can use the product to see the benefits and decide whether they would like to buy the product, creating a stand for customers to try products is costly however opens up to a wide range of customers who otherwise may not be interested in the product. Public Relations Nintendo and other large companies that have association with creating video games often release statements, images and information in the media regarding the release of their new products. As I stated before in advertising Nintendo advertises its products in many different ways including Television, newspapers, magazines and various websites online. Direct Marketing Nintendo have a section of their website called â€Å"Club Nintendo†, this is where devoted customers and hear the latest news about Nintendo products and also collect stars which can be exchanged for rewards in the shop. Email newsletters are distributed to members of Club Nintendo telling them about upcoming products or evens, this is a great asset to Nintendo as a company because it allows them to build a solid customer base. Walkers Advertising Walkers main form of advertising is through television, this is because crisps appeal to a very wide group of people which affects almost all demographics. Walkers advertise by using ex footballer and television presenter Gary Lineker, this endorsement attracts attentions because Lineker is a well known celebrity and has a comical acting style within the adverts making them entertaining rather than giving information regarding the product. Another way Walkers advertise is through the press this is very important because it attracts a wide range of audience and does not single out one demographic. Personal Selling Due to the product not being large and expensive enough to make one sale make a big difference, walkers to not focus on personal selling. Walkers mainly concentrate on appealing to the mass market, they do this through mainstream advertising and often get involved in helping fund raising for various charity events such as comic relief and cancer research. Sales Promotion The major way that Walkers do sales promotion is through completions they advertise their competitions on television, press and on the packaging itself. Walkers have a separate website just for completions where customers can view and enter all the competitions. The latest competition that Walkers held gave customers the chance to win ? 50,000 through guessing the flavour of a packet of one of their mystery crisps. When deciding how to advertise this competition Walkers had to make a decision whether to advertise it on television, they saw it worthwhile to advertise on TV because if people saw the product in the supermarket without advertising on they may not know there is a competition so with the advertisement on the television then they will see the â€Å"? † on the packaging and be attacked to that product because they have seen it on television. Public Relations Walkers use public relations such as press interviews and articles when they are introducing an new product or altering a classic. More and more products are being cutinised for being unhealthy for the nation, Walkers have reduced the saturated fat in their products by 50% over the last decade whilst maintain the same taste, this has attracted much attention from the media as they see Walkers are working hard to develop new products that will aid the country to become healthier. Direct Marketing Walkers have a section of their website where customers can sign up and hear about the latest games, news and competitions through e-mail. This gives Walkers the chance to advertise there products cheaply and in greater detail to the people who enjoy the product.

The short stories The Tell-Tale heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Research Paper

The short stories The Tell-Tale heart and The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe both portrays the narrators' - Research Paper Example Poe, in many of his short stories, magnificently combines embellished vocabulary and strong thematic plots which creates a force compelling his readers to devote their attention into his works and gauge them in deep contemplation of the abysmal meanings and concepts embedded in the story. Some of his works are rich with repetition for a subtle emphasis of his point. His written works are cooked with phantasmagoric imagery, elusive foreshadowing, double-edged symbolism and skewed contextual implications (Long). There is thematic parallelism is his works such as the â€Å"Cask of Amontillado†, â€Å"The Black Cat† and â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart†. The common leitmotif of these stories evolve in the idea of murder, revenge, issues of sanity, and the dark spirit of perverseness and evil that enveloped the characters of his plot. The repetition of words that are subtly reminding the readers that the story is headed somewhere and the foreshadowing of events is consistent ly engraved in the events of the characters. Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado is a good exemplary for horrific suspense thriller scenes considered as one of the best short stories throughout history. The story is contextually rich with ironies nevertheless contributing to the plot’s consistency and complete unity of the elements. Every line and spoken dialogues of the characters, Montessori and Fortunato, contributes to the totality of the effect that Poe tries to convey to his readers. Some of the most noted ironies start with the name Fortunato meaning â€Å"fortunate†. The atmospheric ambiance of the calculated atrocious act of revenge of Montessori to entomb his enemy Fortunato to be executed in the height of gaiety is also an irony. There is no specification of the deed that Fortunato has done towards Montessori aside from the subtle allegations about insults hurled upon him which, being rich and famous, may have scarred his pride deeply. Thus the incorrigible punishment such as death should suffice (â€Å"Cask†). The lofty ironic scenes of the story makes the readers acclimate with intellect so as to comprehend their deeper meanings. Other paradox includes, Montressor’s words to Fortunato â€Å"you are luckily met†, the coat of arms and the Montressor’s remarks about the mason, the jingling of the bells to announce a death, their constant toast of wine as if in celebration in contrast with a coming death, the atmosphere gradient from the carnival feast from that of the path towards Hades, and the remarks of the characters â€Å"let us be gone† to signify death. The elemental ingredients of the short story exemplify perfect unity of Poe’s thoughts and real intentions. He directed to uncover the events through foreshadowing and double-sided meanings in their dialogues. Meanwhile, the total effect of the short story creates an eerie feeling to whoever perceives. The horrific appeal is so strong tha t anyone can get captivated with the play of words between the characters. Poe has indeed endowed such compelling murderous act quite so invincibly. His plot for murder is quite flawless, incriminating the enemy with raw avenging without a single pint of trace. Montressor has indeed lived a life with impunity not until five decades. Another Poe’s work, The Tell-Tale Heart, is yet another magnificent work. It is a profound psychological archetypal for paranoia and sanity. In fact, the story began with the narrator defending himself from the accusation that he is

Film Analysis and Breakdown Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Film Analysis and Breakdown - Essay Example The long shots zoom in and out of the various people in the clip, enabling the viewer to see their facial features and the emotions that they exhibit. Shot 3: Sound: The soundtrack was infamous Jazz music common to the New Orleans area, with no talking, to contrast the irony between the Big Easy of old, and the reality of the destruction facing the area today. Shot 4: Image: The Depth of Field was quite wide as the director was trying to capsulate the mood of the time and the breadth of emotion that the film was designed to attract. The camera angle casts a wide panoramic view of the destruction left in the aftermath of the hurricane. Images are quite horrific as we see the sheer volume of water the descending upon the region. Shot 5: Sound: There was no narration in this shot; rather, only music was employed as a means to draw in the viewer to the message of the film. The music depicts the heart and sole of the region, while the images in this shot cast a different tone. Shot 6: Ima ge: Finally, in this shot, we notice a diegetic sound as we are left with a vision of what the destruction must have felt like and the voices of the people as they realized what had become of their lives. Part Two: Individual Analysis When the Levees Broke is a documentary film developed to contrast the two images we have of the Gulf region. On the one had, we have an area that is fun-loving and associated with a party type atmosphere. Gaining the nickname ‘The Big Easy’, we have visions of Jazz music, racial diversity, coupled with racial divisions. This understanding is contrasted with the destruction experienced during Hurricane Katrina, the feeling of despair and neglect that was felt, and the seemingly hopeless feeling that the people had and continue to have to this day. This emotion is all bought out in the very first sequence of the film. The sequence I chose is the very opening footage of the movie. I chose this sequence because the message portrayed in the ope ning six shots contains the heart and the purpose behind the documentary. The filming is a spectacular mix of close up and panoramic shots that encapsulate life before and after the Hurricane. No shot is wasted during the opening sequence, as the view is taken on a journey through two different time periods. Documentaries are often designed to elicit emotion and to tell a story. This opening sequence certainly accomplishes this aim. In shots one and two, while there is nothing spoken, the music tells the story. There are great editing features employed here that cut between the massive flooding that occurred when the levees broke, yet we are then cut back to an earlier time when the area was beautiful and life was good. Shots three through five employ an editing technique that provides us with a comparison and contrast that make the film effective in communicating its intended message. The camera in these shots cut to close ups of people in various states. After the hurricane, the i mages are horrific and the viewer can feel the pain. During the cuts to an earlier time, that is contrasted with images of excitement and a better time. These shots give us a picture of the before and after of the Gulf Region and set the tone for the rest of the film. The music itself appears to be carefully chosen as well. Rather than shifting its message and tone, the jazz played during the opening sequence is a consistent representation and reminder of what the Gulf Region was, and hopes to once again become.