Review Questions Essay

1. What are club drugs? What are some of the factors that support the use of club drugs? Club drugs are synthetic drugs that are typically used in bars, nightclubs, raves, and other gatherings, some factors that support the use of these are the setting of raves and nightclubs. 2. What are screening tests? Why are they used? Screening tests are nonspecific and help a forensic scientist identify several particular drugs that the substance is likely to be, these tests are used to narrow possibilities and eliminate others. 3. What are color tests? Why are these tests used? Color tests are test that use a chemical reagent to the drug and observing whether or not the material changes color, these tests are used to show the screening of drugs but not specifically. 4. What are microcrystalline tests? What information do they provide? Microcrystalline tests involve exposing the substance to a reagent and then examining the color and morphology of the crystals that form. This test can be done quickly and the drug does not need to be separated from any other substances that it is with. 5. What is spectrophotometry? How can this be useful in identifying drugs? Spectrophotometry tests use UV lights to distinguish drugs from one another. Because different drugs react differently to the UV light, it helps identify them. Critical Thinking Questions 1. Why are forensic scientists an important part of drug cases? Forensic scientists are an important part of drug cases because they help discover the drugs at the sight, and what drug it may be, using multiple tests. If someone possesses a drug forensics can prove whether they in fact did possess drugs. They can also test to see in a person is under the influence of a drug. 2. If you were a forensic scientist and you were called to a crime scene to see if drugs were present, what would you do to determine this? I would first do a color test, and then a spectrophotometry test, because all drugs have a different reaction to the UV light. 3. Why is it important for forensic scientists to have as much information as possible about the place where a possible drug substance was found?

Comparative Education Essay

France has a highly organized educational system, which is divided into primary, secondary and tertiary (college) education. Primary and secondary education is usually imparted at public schools although a strong network of private schools also exists. All educational programs in France are regulated by the Ministry of National Education. Schooling in France is mandatory as of age 6, the first year of primary school while secondary education consists of college for the first four years after primary school and the lycee for the next three years. The baccalaureat is the end-of-lycee diploma that students must attain and is comparable to British A-Levels and American SATs. Students have a choice of sitting for the baccalaureat general which is divided into 3 streams of study, the baccalaureat technologique or baccalaureat professionnel. Higher education is funded by the state and fees are very low. Students from low-income families can also apply for scholarships. Academic councils called academies are responsible for supervising all aspects of University education in a given region. ANALYSING TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION THROUGH THE CURRICULAR EVOLUTION AND THE INVESTIGATION THEMES France Twenty years ago, many of them started with this new concept: introducing technology education (TE) in our curriculum. From this point, we developed many project implementing this new subject area and we built progressively meaningful to this area. The aim of this paper is to present this evolution from the French viewpoint with some interest to compare with foreign experiences. We present this evolution through two perspectives: the curricular evolution and the place ofinvestigation. Briefly, we can observe through the French national curriculum a phase of Epistemological delimitation, followed by a phase of activities definitions, arriving, recently, to a phase of activities defined as applied sciences without poor link to the initial epistemological definition. Over these factual dimensions, we can analyze this evolution as the weakness of the knowledge meaningful expressed in the national curriculum, weakness that reinforce the weakness of the TE in front of other subjects as math, literature, foreign language†¦ Many works tried to analyse this particular approach but their audience never really get out the little sphere of TE investigators. A birthday is more the occasion to open perspective and project some ideas and the experience taught us that the position of TE is more a question of social positioning through the knowledge than a question of purposed activities’ interest. 1. CURRICULUM EVOLUTION IN FRANCE The aim of this paper is to present you some aspects about Technology Education in the French school. French schooling has two levels. Primary school starts at the age of three and lasts until the age of eleven, in three cycles: the initial learning cycle (children three to five years old), the basic learning cycle (five to eight years), and the fundamental learning cycle (eight to eleven). Secondary school is divided into two main cycles: middle school (ages eleven to fifteen) and high school (fifteen to eighteen for general education or fifteen to nineteen for vocational training). Technology education was implemented at each of these two levels in the early eighties. 1. 1 THE FIRST CURRICULUM 1. 1. 1 Some elements about the general background The main idea of French schooling is the progressive elaboration of the different school subjects. Understanding the world of children goes hand in hand with organizing that world in different knowledge areas, from the general view to the particular description given by the different subjects. Technology education, like that of science, history, or geography, appears as a school subject specific to the middle school level (Ginestie, 2001a). The second idea of French schooling is the concept of project pedagogy. The introduction of this pedagogy in the Eighties was a departure from a traditional idea that the academic and dogmatic transmission of knowledge is the sole approach to teaching. Under the pressure of a massive rise in number pupils in middle and high schools, project pedagogy was presented as a possible solution to meeting the needs of the diversity of pupils, addressing their individual needs, and developing pupil autonomy (Ginestie, 2002). It was in this context, in 1985, that technology education was introduced in France as a part of science and technology education in elementary schools, as a new subject for all pupils in middle schools and as an optional subject in high schools. We can note four stages of organization of technology education between 1985 and today. 1. 1. 2 1985-1991: the implementation of the first curriculum Technology education was conceived of as a new subject and took the place of MTE (manual and technical education) in terms of hours, classrooms, and teachers. The curriculum emphasized the industrial environment, leaving little room for home economics and craftsmanship (COPRET, 1984). It had two different elements that made these references plain. On the one hand, the general part of the course described the overall goals, context, and aims of technology education in France. The aims were in terms of pupils’ attitudes towards technology (as related in many papers, e. g. de Vries, 1994; Jones, 1997; Compton & Jones, 1998; Gardner & Hill, 1999; Dugger, 2000) and in terms of the social and professional world of industrial production (this idea can also be found in many papers all over the world, e. g. Kantola et al. , 1999). It offered a broad perspective to prepare pupils for professional training. At that time, the middle school became the intermediate cycle where pupils had to make their own personal plan for school, and technology education was responsible for indicating possible career choices. On the other hand, general goals were broken down into concepts and skills. This second element of the curriculum described the organization of concepts based on four domains of reference: mechanical construction, electrical construction, and economics management and computer science. Clearly, the chosen references oriented technology education in Jacques Ginestie Analyzing Technology Education the world of industry towards electro-mechanical production, to the exclusion of other possibilities (Ginestie, 2001b). The main problem in introducing the TE curriculum has been to link the general aims to the specific fields (Sanders, 1999; Ginestie, 2004). These difficulties appeared with in-service teacher training programs. Earlier, the French Ministry of Education strongly affirmed the principle that TE was not a compendium of a little mechanics, a little electronics, and a business management with different aspects of computer science as a binder. To link these subjects together, teachers have had to connect general aims and specific concepts into an overall pedagogical project (Ginestie, 2005). Many in-service teacher training programs develop this orientation rather than aiming simply for the acquisition of specific knowledge. The implementation of technology education has not been reduced to the simple substitution of cooking or handicraft lessons by lessons in mechanics, but the true construction of a â€Å"new world† (Ginestie, 2003). Many original curriculum experiments were conducted at the same time to develop new teaching approaches (differential pedagogy, autonomous work, cooperative work, personal projects, etc. ) and to integrate the new references to industry, the market economy, and new labor organizations by taking into account the needs, design, production, marketing, use, and rationale of industrial methods. The major plan was to combine the pedagogical project with a theoretical industrial project method (IPM). We can note comparable initiatives in the UK at the same time (e. g. Hennessy & Murphy 1999). 1. 2 THE CURRICULUM EVOLUTIONS 1. 2. 1 1992-1999: Introduction of the Industrial Project Method (IPM) At the beginning of the Nineties, IPM appeared to be a good solution for implementing TE in the middle schools. Certainly, IPM has taken an overwhelming place in TE leaving no other alternatives for organizing technology education courses. This position was made official with different additions and modifications to the initial curriculum. The main decision to use IPM was published in 1992 by the French Ministry of Education. This method allows for the simultaneous definition of content and method for organizing the teaching learning process in TE. Everything was done so that each TE teacher plans and organizes a new project each year for each group of pupils. 1. 2. 2 1999-2004: The second curriculum Three problems arose that reduced the role of the project in TE. First, projects were mainly single production projects without any real progression from one year to the next. Secondly, the teachers’ profile evolved considerably during this period, with a large increase in new graduates from the advanced technological universities. Thirdly, the union of industrial science and technique, with teachers exerting pressure to open the curriculum to new technologies and new patterns of labor organization. The implementation of the new curriculum took four years, from 1996 until 1999. These changes tried to organize the relationship between the respective roles of the project and the concepts. For the first three years of middle school, pupils have to make different modules of the whole project, but they do not have to make all of it. The teacher’s task is to focus the attention of the pupils on specific points. During the last year, the pupils have to do a complete project (Ginestie, 2001c). The IPM is always a very strong frame of reference for TE in middle school (Ginestie, 2002). 1. 2. 3 2005: And so long, another change. There is actually a new phase of curriculum change. The Ministry of Education wants to promote the pupils individual choices about their future and by consequences the study they have to do. We can observe a real reduction of the TE as general and Jacques Ginestie Analyzing Technology Education Page 3 cultural subject. The general aspects are more and more developed as applications of sciences; the general method is not the process of design and technology but more and more the process of observation and experimentation (as we can find it in sciences education). The main knowledge properly identified as technological knowledge is banished and the first draft of this new curriculum promote the links with the scientific knowledge. The IPM is still a reference but it is more an object to study more than a method to use with pupils. 2. CONDITIONS OF STUDY IN TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION As we can see briefly, the TE curriculum is unstable as we can note through these major changes since the first writing. These changes are not linked with the technological evolution but mainly due to the lack of understanding about the place of TE in the general systems and to the misunderstanding about the aims of this subject and the knowledge taught. This lack of knowledge’s definition is patent when we observe the structure of the curriculum. This question of knowledge is not so easy to solve. Entry through analysing the conditions of study about TE’s knowledge supposes, in terms of questions for research, a strong agreement with two points: o There is some thing to study in technology education; o There would be multiple study conditions, perhaps different. These two points don’t make evidence. A majority of opinion is that TE is simply a kind of mix between handicraft activities and elements to highlight vocational training choices (Ginestie, 2000; Chatoney, 2003; Brandt-Pomares, 2003). In this posture, all the knowledge comes from sciences and TE is only a question of activities or applications. Evidently, this kind of entry weakens the position of TE as school subject and the recent French evolutions must be understood like this. It is the radical opposite we choose to work in our laboratory. First orientation we choose is to understand the significance of the anthropological approach. 2. 1 THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH The anthropological approach allows registering knowledge in a theory of the activity and in a social field identified. The articulation between task and activity is incomplete if we do not speak about the manner to make. The manner to make relieves of the technique employed by the person to realise the task, that it is appointed by the situation or by him. The articulation between the task and the technique defines a know-how that expresses the manner to realise a determined task type (Ginestie, 1995). To get off this private organization either to account for the activity, or to clarify the manner to make, supposes the utilisation of language mediation. To tell the manner to make necessitate proceeding to an extraction of the individual praxis to elaborate a praxeological organisation, significant of the manner to realise the type of tasks and the context in which these tasks are registered. In fact, it concerns to give the senses in the typical articulation between tasks and techniques by elaborating a field of meaning in connection with a technology, perhaps with a theory. It is this elaboration of meanings on the practice that defines, in the anthropological perspective, knowledge. This approach allows rendering account organisations of knowledge as relationships between praxis, taken in the senses of the activity oriented to finality, and a field of significations that allows referring practice to a technology and/or to a theory (Ginestie, 2001c). The epistemological entry is interested in the nature of knowledge (well obviously in the evoked anthropological perspective above) and to the demarcation of a field of reference (Ginestie, 1997). Some articulations allow thinking these fields, objects to know that are fastened there and the manner of which they are or been able being, taken into account in the framework of a technology education: i. The world of technical objects, their mode of existence and social organizations by and in order that these objects exist so as to register the technological education in the human and social activity field; ii. The articulations between functioning, function, structure, form in the senses of a lighting of interdependences and the different manners to describe an object; iii. The articulation design, production, utilisation notably for marks given on process put at stake in each of terms, but equally, of a more global manner, either in a specific approach on an object, or from an evolutionist viewpoint, in a perspective of an history of technical activities; iv. The articulation object, activity, language in an ergonomic inscription (from the thing to the object, the object to the tool, the tool to the instrument) as revealers of the bonds between gestures and techniques, techniques and technologies. The report to techniques is thought in this framework as a demarcation; the report to languages notices the elaboration of symbols (in a relationship meaning, meant) but equally tools to think the world of technical objects and to act in this world. Well obviously, this qualification of fields is a bit coarse, it needs to be specified, notably if we want to be able to read existent curricular organisations, perhaps to propose evolution of these organizations. The curricular approach is one way to understand the knowledge’s organizations for teaching purposes. The problem is not the transposition of praxis but the transposition of praxeological organizations. It is not difficult to ask to pupils making something, but it is difficult allowing them to construct the meaningful on what they make. Certainly, the important instability of our curriculum is based on this difficulty to elaborate this meaningful. Furthermore, the curricular entry is envisaged here as one of the stages of the didactic transposition process: that the placement in text of teaching objects in an prescriptive aimed that has to organize the teaching activity, to the breadth of the production of these teaching objects in the framework of the class to elaborate some objects of study for pupils, objects of study that are going to determine activities of pupils. This placement in text defines the matter to teach and induces the manner to teach it. 2. 2 SCHOOL INSTITUTIONALIZATION We can thus notice the specification and identification work that operates in this process of scholastic institutionalisation. School institution is characterized as the placement of interactions, surely tensions, between three poles: the pupil, the professor and the knowledge. As soon as we wish to describe these interactions, we are confronted with a problem of methodology, methodology that derives of course the framework in which place our study. Thus, analysing the conditions of the study is going to concern us in what the school institution puts to the study and the manner that’s this study functions. This crossing of analysis rests on the articulation between task and activity: o The task is significant to the knowledge put at stake in the elaborated situation by the teacher in the framework that is fixed (curricular organizations, conditions of exercises, particular constraints, etc. ); o The activity is significant to the work undertaken by the pupil to progress in the task that is appointed it by the teacher and representative of the knowledge’s learning process. Jacques Ginestie Analyzing Technology Education Page 5 It concerns to define a framework of analysis that allows looking the functioning of a teaching situation (Ginestie, 1992). The initial framework, elaborated by these analyses method, does not prejudge of: o Knowledge put at stake, their presence or not and their school form; o Organizations elaborated by the teacher so as to organize conditions of the study of these knowledge; o Activities developed by the pupil that are induced by the organization put in game for this study. These two cross analyses, task and activity, characterize the interactions between three complementary existing logics but that can also appear as rival: the logic of subject, the logic of teaching and the logic of learning. The first one follows from knowledge organisation and requires an epistemological study; the second one takes in account the professional activity of the teacher considering his organisation, his style, his manner to do, the professional gestures he develops; the last one can be highlight by the learning theories, specifically the viewpoint of socio-constructivism theories. Many works have shown the incidence of these logics on the school situations and how they are inscribed in different references and different temporality. In fact, stressing these three logics in a school institution can be looked of different manners. But, for ourselves, we are really interested by what it happens in a class; specifically, we try to analyze the effects produced by this placement in tension (Ginestie, 1996). On the one hand, this approach allows the identification of the organisational and structural elements that act and interact in the process of teaching-learning. In this perspective, the task appears as the preferential expression of the teaching’s logic. It express simultaneously what is at stake, the context in which it is situated, what it is waited and what it is necessary that the pupil makes to achieve the task. In this senses, the task is a concentrated expression of a totality of values, models, elements of theories, knowledge that base the subject’s references and that identify the teacher in a teaching population. The analysis of the task is therefore significant how curriculum is implemented, in the particular intimacy of a specific class. It is equally significant activities that it induced at pupils. It is also characteristic of the epistemological, curricular, didactical or pedagogical presupposition (Ginestie, Brandt-Pomares, 1998). On the other hand, the passage to the real supposes to put in stake an analysis of the activity of the pupil. His perusal of the task, the manner he has to organize its activity and to orient its actions, what it takes in consideration and what it does not see even, allow characterising his learning process. In this perspective, we can notice difficulties that he meets, the manner whose he processes them, adopted strategies and the planning of his different actions (Ginestie, Andreucci, 1999). Reading activity through the description of the task allows proceeding pupil’s activity with some precise characteristic elements of the task. We can value difficulties met by the pupil and identify which are relevant to the context (the formulation of the task, the organization of conditions of the study, the use of models, materials, etc.) and which notices obstacles to the learning (Amigues, Ginestie, 1991). 3. SCHOOL ORGANISATION AND PUPIL’S WORK Organizations implemented at school, in the classroom and by the teacher have a direct influence on the work of the pupil and on the result of this work. Concerning the technology education (but it is not specific for these subject), it is important to specify and to define what is waited from the pupil, recourses he disposes to get there, the manner whose he gets there. Therefore, we have to understand the evaluation the Jacques Ginestie Analyzing Technology Education Page 6 nature of the goal, the manner to get there but also the breach of the goal; everything that allows to bring in front understanding about the process of knowledge’s transmission-appropriation. From this point, we are not in a curricular approach that has for object to define contents of teaching and to determine goals to reach; we discuss goals fixed by the institution, their institutional pertinence, their coherence in a scholastic organization datum. Of course, the temptation is great to believe that we could have act on prescription as to reduce these gaps. The evolution of curriculum shows that this kind of actions is limited because it enters in social negotiations that the research can illuminate to defect to inspire them, even to affect them. 3. 1 TASK ANALYSE Our entry by the situations is an analytic viewpoint to render real situations of classify or in a prospective perspective to think possible evolution. For that, the crossed analysis task-activity presents a good framework. The task’s analyze gives some understanding about the placement in text (or the placement in word) of the object of study. This placement in text constitutes one of the last stages of the didactical transposition, stage in the course of which the teacher anticipates and executes the production of the object of study that it makes return in its class. Many indicators allow characterising some ingredients of the organisation that it counts to put in place: o The nature of knowledge that he exhibits,  o The display of the result expected at the end of the sequence, o The spatial and temporal organization type that he puts in act, o The strategies that he gives to orchestrate the activity of pupils, o The different levels of evaluation on which he counts to lean (evaluation his activity, the progress of his sequence, the activity of pupils, the breach of results), o The devices of mediation and remediation that he envisages, o etc. Others indicators allow to notice explicit or implicit models that he uses for the organization of this production: o model of the logic of pupil learning organized around acquisition of competence noticed to the breadth of significant observable behaviours versus a constructivist approach based on the elaboration of knowledge; o Model of the activity of pupils according to a logic of smooth away difficulties versus a logic of confrontation to obstacles; o Model of the teaching organisation according to a logic of guidance of the action of the pupil versus a logic of problem-solving; o Model of the organization of knowledge references that one can caricature in a binary alternative: in technology education, there is nothing to know versus there is only knowledge. The construction of these models supposes the elaboration of a strong theoretical reference by which we can predict the appearance of the objects of study and how they become into school organisations. Of course, we front three different viability risks: one is an instant risk about what’s happen with the course that is going to unfold here, at this hour, in this  classroom, with this teacher and these pupils; second is a progression risk about what happen in the duration of the class, the articulation of the different sessions and their succession; third is durability risk about the permanency of a teaching at such level, in such class, in such context, according to evolution, development, interaction with the other subjects as a kind of general educational ecology. Jacques Ginestie Analyzing Technology Education Page 7 . 3. 2 ACTIVITY ANALYSE The analyse of the activity, as for it, tries to understand the logic of pupils in their evolution to achieve the task that is confided them and the manner of which they adapt conditions organised by the teacher. Retained indicators refer directly to theories of the apprenticeship, notably through: o The strategy they adopt, o The manner to organize their actions, o The manner to notice and to anticipate difficulties and to overcome them or to avoid them,  o The manner to notice or not constraints imposed by the situation and to take into account them or no, o etc. Analysing the activity of pupils is a powerful tool that allows to notice, to qualify and to valorise gaps between what the teacher waits them, what they obtain really and the manner that they use to reach this result. It concerns, on the one hand, to give indicators of efficiency of a device concerning learning and, on the other hand, indicators on the manner to conceive plan. To adopt a criterion of efficiency of plan put in place by teachers is not easy. That supposes to place the question of the acquisition of knowledge by pupils to the heart of the educational act, what is not without consequences in TE. This challenge is important if we want to reinforce the position and the role of the TE as a general education subject. Through our French experience, but also through some related experiences in different countries, we have change of period. The first time of innovation and implementation is definitively done. Many countries know a decrease period with disaffection for TE: decrease of budget, reduction of school time devoted to the subject. At the same time, more and more teams develop investigation in TE. May be, we have to diffuse the results of these investigations and to develop the support that we can provide to the teacher but also to the curriculum designers, this is our challenge to bring our contribution to TE. ICT and Education in Indonesia Harina Yuhetty I. Introduction  In the beginning globalization is fully believed to be able to lead to greater economic development in the sense of greater market scale, which in turn will increase the gross national product. So people believed that poor countries or third world countries will develop faster, thus the economic gap between the rich developed countries and the third world countries will diminished. However, facts show the contrary. It is true that the gross national product of countries will increase, but the gap between the income of the rich and poor countries is also getting wider. The main reason for this gap is the extra-ordinary growth of information as a result of the development of communications and information technologies in northern developed countries which have full control of these technologies. This information boom enables multinational companies to compete with changes in market demands, new products and new technologies, which in turn can boost the economy of a country, increase its efficiency and win global dominance. On the other hand, in third world countries which are also known as southern hemisphere countries, they have difficulties to seek, to receive, to process and to produce information. The lack of appropriate information at the right time will result in low productivity, low quality research works, and waste of time to pursue information and even to do research which actually had been done by others or in other countries. Indonesia as a third world country has a great concern over this deficiency and believe that the digital divide should be reduced so that there will be an economic recovery. The Indonesian government is determined to utilize the information technology effectively to support efforts to increase the national competitiveness. This aspiration is reflected in the Indonesian Presidential Decree Number 50 year 2000 about the establishment of the Coordination Team of Telemathics of Indonesia. This team consists of all the ministers in the cabinet including the Minister of Education. Its tasks are among others to define the government policy in the area of telemathics; to decide the phases and priorities of development in the area of telemathics and its uses in Indonesia; to monitor and control the implementation of telemathics in Indonesia; and to report the development of telemathics in Indonesia to the President. The government realizes that the success of the development and utilization of telemathics depends mostly on the infrastructure which can provide easy access, and also ensure availability of information and subjects. To meet these three provisions, a competent human resources is a necessity. That is why the preparation of qualified human resources is given priority, because it requires hard work and takes time. Meanwhile, we also know that scarcity of and low quality human resources in the area of Information and Communications Technologies can delay mastery of communication and information technology. As such, the government through the Minister of Efficiency of State Apparatus as Head of the Coordination Team of Telemathics of Indonesia in his letter number 133/M. PAN/5/2001 had drawn up a Five-Year Action Plan for the Development and Implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Indonesia. This plan among others includes a plan for the implementation of the use of telemathics in the area of education starting from 2001 until 2005, which includes: * Develop collaboration between ICT industry and ICT educational institutions through training and R & D collaboration, and found a network for skill and capacity development * Develop and implement Curricula of ICT. * Use ICTs as an essential part of the curricula and learning tools in schools/universities and training centers * Establish distance education programs including participation in Global Development Learning and other networks * Facilitate the use of internet for more efficient teaching and learning From this action plan we can see that the emphasis of human resources quality improvement is especially geared on the provision and expansion of education of human resources in ICT area. Besides that, utilization of ICT for education and learning purposes, as an effort to fill digital divide, which in turn is hoped to be able to improve the national competitiveness to revive the economy is another emphase. II. ICT in Indonesia As mentioned above, the success of utilization of ICT is among others depends on the infrastructure which includes the telecommunication network, the availability of internet facilities and the use of internet. In general the development of ICT in Indonesia nowadays is less encouraging compared to the developed countries, or even compared to neighboring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and others. To give a general picture of the ICT condition in Indonesia let us consider the data quoted from the Center for Research and Application of Information and Electronic Technologies of the Office for the Research and Application of Technologies, 2001 as follows. A. Public Telephone Lines for 203,456,005 populace 1. The number of Telephone kiosks 228,862 2. The number of Telephone booths 345,307 3. Telephone patrons 6,304,798 B. Internet 1. Internet Service Providers 40 2. General Access Speed rate of ISPs 15 KBPS 3. Patrons of ISPs 511,000 with 1,980,000 users ( < 1% of Indonesian population).

The Things They Carried Essay

The Things They Carried Essay Number Three Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, is a novel composed of war stories from the Vietnam War. O’Brien tells the stories of not only himself, but stories from the men with whom he fought alongside. The main idea of the book is what these men carried, which was not only tangible objects, but emotions as well. Digging deeper into this meaning, many of the stories were changed from their true and factual selves to half true and half fictitious stories based on that person’s emotions at that time. Many writers, such as Tim O’Brien, find more truth in fiction than on the actual occurring event.In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried there is a blurred line between fact and fiction and the real Tim O’Brien and Tim’s character. Tim’s character represents his truth from his emotional views and the narrator Tim tells what really happened. Tim O’Brien’s charac ter in The Things They Carried looked in the faces of the dead, but in reality he did not have the strength to look into the faces of the deceased. He could call this his own truth because his emotions are what he was writing down. All he did was take the way that he felt and added details and faces to events that actually occurred.For most people this is their own truth. Everybody has their own truth because memories are driven by emotion and the emotions can sometimes temporarily or even permanently block out what really happened and a story from factual events is created. Throughout the majority of the novel Tim uses character Tim over narrator Tim, but he does occasionally distinguish fact from emotions. During the instance when O’Brien’s daughter asks him if he has ever killed a man O’Brien hesitates in a truthful answer. It seems as though he is greatly conflicted because he feels as if he has killed a man, but he never actually killed a man.It is as if by him being a part of the war and not helping the dying men it is a fault of his that he could not help to save them by stopping it. His emotions told him he was a murderer who looked in the face of his victim, who was a young boy he created a life story for; when in reality that boy was never his kill. To the reader it seems that he is contradicting himself, but in actuality he is differentiating between himself and his emotional character. In the chapter, â€Å"How to Write a True War Story,† O’Brien tells the reader about the blurred line between fact and fiction.He tells us what a true war story is and what it is not. According to O’Brien a true war story is never moral, instructing, or uplifting. He also tells us that in a true war story, â€Å"it’s difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. † He also tells us that it is â€Å"a hard an exact truth as it seemed. † This is where the lines become blurred. As it seems f rom the way O’Brien speaks, men do not have the courage to witness entire incidences such as Curt Lemon’s death. He writes that they watch pieces of it, close their eyes, and open them some more. Everything they remember seems true to them based on the facts.Readers may never truly know what happened, but they do know what that person was feeling based on the way the story was told. There is no clear line between fact and story for author Tim O’Brien. To him the lines blur together from time apart from the event and remembering the emotions felt. His novel The Things They Carried represents this idea through its use of storytelling. All of his short stories pieced together to create the novel each represent a different form of truth for different men along with Tim. O’Brien was successful in using this blurred line between fact and story for his war stories.

El Derecho Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

El Derecho - Essay Example A crane is a bird. Then consider: The crane is used to lift heavy things. The meaning gets twisted depending on the usage. The same is true for El Derecho. In Spanish, as an adverb, the term when translated to English means straight, upright, or directly. Or if used in a sentence, Derechos could mean a straight path, as in â€Å"The children walked straightly to the room† But as a noun, the term is no longer used to describe a direction, but rather it refers to the â€Å"right† of a person. Erichsen, Gerald, a Spanish Language Guide (n.d.), explains that the word, when used as a noun would mean another thing and not specific to direction, but more on the rights of a person such as morals, customs, principles, or according to law. The word can also come in a plural form such as â€Å"derechos†, or derechas. So if one would refer to human rights, it is correct to call it â€Å"derechos humanos† for human rights’. When â€Å"derecha† is used, Er ichsen said it connotes political affinity, such as opposite of the â€Å"left† political party, or ‘right wing’. Vernor Munoz Villalobos, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education (2010) used the term â€Å"derecho humano† on her paper to describe a human right to have an education.(UN General Assembly, New York, 2010) . The word has a clearer meaning when used as an adjective because it is specific such as right, opposite of left, straight or upward or in brief, it gives a specific direction, like â€Å"linea derecha†, that means straight line. In news reporting, El Derecho is used as a super storm prediction and a criterion for severe wind gusts. It is a word coined by the NOAA-NWS-N CEP Storm Prediction Center that describes â€Å"derecho† as a long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. This could be related to my above description of the word because of the straight damage direc ted in one direction. Thus the Storm Prediction Center calls it a ‘a straight-line wind damage’ or Derecho (John, Roberts, et. al. 2012). The word Derecho was created by a physics professor in Iowa University in 1888. Reportedly, it was said he chose this term to describe a thunderstorm-induced straight line winds as an analog to tornado. The Center so far has used the word to classify storm according to its behavior and damaging winds. It has also become an important word used in meteorological forecasting. As such, â€Å"derecho’ has been an adapted term for storm news reporting, like D.C. Derecho, Maryland Derecho, Derecho Storm, etc.(Debonis, Mike. 29 June 2012); the Intense storms called Derecho as reported by Accuweather.com, July 2, 2012 (author not mentioned) and a rare Derecho storm reported by Aron Harris of ABC news, July 2, 2012 As to usage to signify a â€Å"right†, the United Nations used the word â€Å"Derecho al Desarollo† to mark t he 25th Anniversary of Declaration to the Right to Development (Naciones Unidas) The usage of the word is limitless and some even used the word to name organizations, title, etc. Take for example, the international partners of Catholic for Choice in Latin America, a Catholic Organization that has named their organization as â€Å"Catolicas por El Derecho a Decidir (CCD) in Latin America†( Catholics for Choice n.d.). I will not discuss here the purpose of the organization since it is beyond the scope of my topic. A Spanish newspaper for European press has adapted the name El Derecho for its publication because it is mainly concerned on the legality and rights of people (El

Coursework Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Coursework - Case Study Example As already mentioned, the business will serve organizations interested in optimizing their web rankings. It services will cover an extensive range of activities including on-site and off-site SEO services. During the first year of operations, focus will be on marketing aimed at building a strong client base. Other than conventional market practices, quality services to existing clients will form the basis of our services marketing initiative. The business will then expand to attain regional status and eventually global over time. During the first three years, the business will direct lots of resources towards marketing. A large portion of the content will be done in-house during these 3 years. This will however not be a problem considering that the stakeholders are experts in the field of the business. It major source of revenues will be offering of SEO services to website owners. However, it will also earn some revenues through advertisements and affiliate programs. The will officially be launched on the 16th of august with an initial capital investment of  £100,000. The projected sales revenue for the first 3 years will be  £10000,  £30000 EUR, and  £50000 in year 1, year 2 and year 3 respectively. These will however be discussed in detail in the financial section of the business plan. As already mentioned, XYZ Solutions will provide website owners with high impact e-marketing strategies. These services are meant to help organizations increase their web presence and reach out to more of their target audience. XYZ Solutions does not just attract traffic to the respective websites but rather attracts the right traffic with a potential of turning them into sales where sales is the prime objective of a site. The services are purely aimed at having client’s websites ranked high on search engines based on specific keywords. The organization applies both conventional and technical skills to

Police Recruit Qualifications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Police Recruit Qualifications - Essay Example However, if there is no certificate, then the police department would also accept a transcript of the applicant (â€Å"Background Information†). In this line of police work, it is extremely important for the applicant to be physically fit, so that they can participate actively in defense tactics, which is a training process, and also in other physical activities. To test the physical fitness of an applicant, he is tested in aerobics, strength and how flexible he is; for physical fitness, there are procedures set by the commission. However, if the applicant doesn’t pass the physical fitness test, then he would be ineligible for admissions in the academy. The applicant should be the citizen of the United States of America and must know how to read and write the English Language. Whether the applicant is an American citizen or not, can be known of the history of the resident’s previous addresses, for the last ten years. Moreover, if the applicant has a military record, then the condition to apply in an academy is that he should have a record of honourable discharge and the fair employment laws would also apply here. Here, the applicant has to submit a certificate issued by the Military Service Record, and it should be considered as the only acceptable proof. The applicant needs to have a driver’s license, before they are hired; the driver’s license must be of Washington State or the state in which they are applying for. For example, if an applicant wants to be hired in the Seattle Police Department, but lives in Washington, he has to get Seattle’s driving license; even though at the time of applying, the applicant wouldn’t have the license, it is compulsory for him to show the license in case he is hired. A driving license is essential because driving is an essential part of the police department (â€Å"Seattle†). There shouldn’t

Achievement of Modern Bureaucracies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Achievement of Modern Bureaucracies - Essay Example In an extreme form bureaucratic organizations fail to do what they are supposed to because rules and regulations are applied so rigidly that employees lose sight of what their job is. Bureaucracy, as a sociological concept, was originally developed by Max Weber, one of the first sociologists to consider the role of individuals in relation to the structural determinants of social action. Much of his work was concerned with the notion of â€Å"rationality†, which he used to explain the development of Western society which was increasingly based on science and calculation. Bureaucracy, combined with the growth of large organizations throughout the nineteenth century, led Weber to conclude that the decisive reason for the advance of bureaucratic organization was its purely technical superiority over any other form of organization. In short, it was a description of an ideal type of organization. Not ideal in the sense that it was perfect or one that should be aimed for, rather that its structure contained specific elements that characterized it as a bureaucracy and which were necessary to manage the organizations of the day. This occurs in part because public bureaucracies sometimes perceive themselves as guardians of the national interest: there is the idea that they embody ideals that transcend the policies of particular government: they can develop a character of their own and become set in their ways and difficult to change. In these circumstances professionals can be more concerned with their own survival than with the broader aims of providing for needs of the consumers of their service. This can be observed in the barriers that can exist between the different wards and departments and the lack of co-operation that ensues. The study of spatial separation is called proxemics; it involves the exploration of different practices and feelings about interpersonal space within and across cultures. In the United States, general practice allows intimate communications between close friends to occur at very short range. Conversations with acquaintances are often held at a 3-4 feet personal distance. Work-related discussions between colleagues may occur at a social distance of 4 to 12 feet with more impersonal and formal conversations in public occurring at even greater distances. Not only it is important to know and observe common practice with regard to the nature of the underlying relationships (intimate, friendly, work-related or casual) between two parties; it is also imperative that these practices be adapted for cultural differences. In some societies, sharply different practices prevail. For example, Latin America and Asian cultures generally favor closer distances for personal conversations; and workers in Arab countries often maintain extremely close contact. Therefore, sender should be aware of cultural norms and the receiver's preferences, and make an effort to understand and adapt to them. Bureaucratic Power Political conflict does not end after a law has been passed by Congress and signed by the president. The arena of conflict merely shifts from Capitol Hill and the White House to the bureaucracy - to the myriad departments, agencies, and bureaus of the federal executive branch that implement the law. Despite the popular impression that policy is decided by the president and Congress and merely implemented by the federal bureaucracy, in fact policy is also made by the bureaucracy. Indeed, it is often remarked that "implementation is the continuation of policy making by other means." The Washington bureaucracy is a major base of power in the American system of government - independent of Congress, the president, the courts, and the people. Indeed, controlling the bureaucracy has become a major challenge of democratic

Groups and organizations promoting racial equality Essay

Groups and organizations promoting racial equality - Essay Example However, efforts made by numerous players gradually allowed the incorporation of the Native Americans into the civilized American society. Over the years, federal legislations and other amendments have allowed the establishment of greater racial equality for the Native Americans and other minority groups. By doing so, the government institutions have been successful in implementing equal rights for all citizens of America. While many historical texts have been produced from a White perspective, the Native Indian perspective has rarely been produced until recently. The revived interpretation has allowed the world to vie Native Americans as being oppressed individuals who have been enslaved in their own home land while the invaders and colonialists have formed an imperialist government over them. The perspective of viewing the Native Indian as a â€Å"good man† was the result of various historical products including films. The civil rights movements allowed the Native Americans to raise their voices for their own rights as equal citizens of America. Native Americans have experienced America from a time of colonial rule to civil rights as US citizens. Although the Native Americans still inhabited the same land, the fact that there were cultural differences between them and the White Americans could not be ignored. The first question which the reformers faced was about incorporating the highly distinct Native Americans in the American society thereby forming a national identity rather than a horde of uncivilized people. Attempts to assimilate the Native Indians as part of the American society involved recruiting young Native American boys into boarding schools so as to enable them to gradually lose out their native cultural essence and adopt an American way of living (Flavin, 4). US history saw a series of laws, rules, regulations, tribal laws, treaties, and other jurisdictions. The United States Constitution as well as the Trade and Intercourse Act regulate d any economic activity carried out with Native Indian tribes and granted power to the President along with the Senate to make agreements with the tribes (Stancel, n.pag.). By the end of the French-Indian War, the Constitution was adopted and this brought the Indian tribes under the government’s rule. Three departments were set up including Northern, Southern, and Middle, each being headed by a commissioner whose duty was to maintain harmonious terms with the Indians (Cohen & Ickes et al., 9). This was also done so as to discourage the local Indians to participate in the revolt against the Whites. Passed in 1887, the Dawes Act or the Allotment Act gave the President the power to break the reservation land which was being held by tribal members (‘Dawes Act†, n.pag.). According to the law, land which had not been allotted to Native Americans would have to be sold to the government which would then be opened for farming. However, this resulted in Native Americans bei ng dispossessed of their lands. Apparently, the law was meant to provide greater property rights to the Native Indians however many Native Indians saw a reduction in their land holdings. Further laws limited their rights and economic dealings by giving more power to the President and Senate to regulate treaties with tribal Indians. The Indian Bill of Rights also

Liyuna-HBS-Essay 1 3 4-1011-ec19970 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Liyuna-HBS- 1 3 4-1011-ec19970 - Essay Example With my effective communication skills and self confidence I convinced the team’s coach on the idea and got the lead role in the new form of dance. Height turned to be a limiting factor once again, as for my passion in modeling. Though I could use my height as an advantage to be a part-time model in high school, I didn’t meet the height requirements to be a model when it came to the university level. However this couldn’t stop me from achieving my dream towards modeling, as I turned myself into a coach and a team builder. I not only successfully chased my dream but also helped others to do the same by establishing university’s first modeling association. This personal accomplishment added much to my confidence in turning the impossible to possible. Accomplishments have a better value when it serves towards ones social commitment. In February, 2008 my neighborhood in Tianjin saw agitations from small shop owners as the government had forcefully relocated them as a part of the Olympics project .Most of them had entered into long term contracts with their landlords and had spent ample money on restructuring the shop which was not compensated for. However their protest was hardly leading towards any result. In spite of joining them in the protest which lacked a direction, I decided to use my negotiation skills developed in business environments to intervene in the issue. I discussed in detail the problems of the shop keepers which were wide and vivid ranging from location to inventory. On the other side I analyzed the government’s blueprint of the new street and time schedule for reconstruction .Resultantly I developed a compensation plan which was approved by the shop keepers as well. This professional approach made room for discussion and finally the plan got approved. The accomplishment was made possible as I could successfully transfer my business skills into a social situation and this is counted as substantial because it

Strategic Management Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic Management Analysis - Essay Example .................6 Sociological Factors..........................................................6 Technological Factors........................................................7 Industry Analysis...............................................................8 Threat of New Entrants......................................................8 Threats of Substitutes.........................................................8 Bargaining Power of Buyers..............................................8 Bargaining Power of Suppliers..........................................9 Competitive Rivalry...........................................................9 Section B: Starbucks Strategic Analysis........................................10 Internal Environments........................................................10 Resources & Competencies of Starbucks...........................10 Current Strategy of Starbucks.............................................12 Value Chain Analysis.......................... ................................12 Financial & Competitive Position of Starbucks..................13 Section C: Strategic Fit †¦..............................................................15 Strengths of Starbucks.........................................................15 Weaknesses of Starbucks.....................................................15 Opportunities from the External Environment....................16 Threats †¦........................................................... .......19 Introduction Starbucks corporation is a worldwide coffee chain company that has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington State (Schultz and Howard, 2011). It is the largest company of its kind and as of March 2009, it had 16,680 stores with 38 years of experience in the coffee business (Clark, 2009). Starbucks has a presence in over 61 countries and has the core of its operations in the United States (Schultz and Howard, 2011). The US operations include over 13,000 stores which offer various forms of services to the American public. The Mission of Starbucks is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.† (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). The vision of the company is to provide the best quality coffee to customers through ethically sourcing for the best beans. They aim at embracing diversity to create a good work and business environment in which they would engage fully and connect with customers by pro viding perfect beverage (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). Starbucks also aims at providing the highest levels of returns to their shareholders whilst they remain responsible to their stakeholders, viz customers, partners and the wider community (Starbucks Mission Statement, 2012). This paper provides a strategic fit analysis of this global coffee company. The components of Starbucks Corporation is analysed in this paper to provide an overview of the strategic elements of the company. Section A: Market Analysis In this section, we will examine the macroeconomic elements and the microeconomic environments to identify the business sphere within which Starbucks' US unit operate within. External Environment Macro-environmental analysis can be done through what is known as PEST analysis, which involves

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES TOWARDS APPLYING ELECTRONIC- Essay

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES TOWARDS APPLYING ELECTRONIC- GOVERNMENT - Essay Example Applying modern technology in governmental operations or what is now called E-Government is a change for modernization in all activities, procedures and governmental treatments. Furthermore, it is simplifying and specifically changing the operations from traditional systems to technical (electronic) systems for raising the level efficiency of administrative work and the standard of performance. This is achieved by computerizing the system to save time, efforts and money in the national standard. Moreover, the computerized government operations are not for a specific category, rather it includes all the citizens and business establishment. This modernization has a number of aspects in its type, mean and models with its procedures and steps to be carried out between the administrative governmental organizations and business sector (Ibrahim 2004). The concept of E-Government is as a way through which the government offers its services to the citizens of its countries and the electronic business sector by making use of modern technology without the applicant service to transfer between the governmental units. Even though, the concept of E-Government has become the name for progress and administrative distinguishing but it faces some conceptual and practical human and environmental challenges which reduces the growth in this field and hinders its application in a correct manner. Therefore, the governmental organizations seeks to achieve the benefits of E-Government through strategic plans to raise the effectiveness of the management in all its aspects and quantitative and species factors (Alhabib 1992). The strategic plan is considered the corner stone of the application of E-Government in the private and public organizations. This strategic plan basically emphasizes the importance of human resource. It aims at getting the efficient individuals to work in different jobs and to benefit from their efforts according to the quantitative and species factors

Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map Essay Example for Free

Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map Essay Balanced Scorecard: Part of a system that translates strategy into action. Also, gives a balanced view in four perspectives of how well an organization is driving execution and how successful the results are. The four perspectives in the balanced scorecard and strategy map give executives a more balanced view of their organization. Strategy Map: Represents how an organization will execute its strategy. The Strategy Map shows the objectives needed to execute the strategy and casual links between objectives. It can also be a tool for clear communication and help identify the â€Å"critical few† metrics to monitor strategic execution. Examples: The first of the four aspects contained in the Balanced Scorecard is the Customers. Finding ways to appeal to your customers can be a tough task, but it is one that has to be assessed. For my company, we will have to differentiate between trying to be the broad differentiator or trying to be the low-cost leader. Customer complaints and concerns can also be an issue, so we will want to monitor and record all of those statements to ensure customer satisfaction. In order for us to succeed financially, we have to make sure that we are presenting ourselves well to our shareholders. Do we want to achieve a certain earnings per share or a certain income figure? Our goal this year may be to break even or reach a certain revenue level. Whichever the case may be, we will have to be firm in what we are trying to accomplish. The financial section of the scorecard looks at the company’s financial goals and how they are meeting the goals both currently and in the future. For my company, it will be the most important metric because we want to show our  shareholders the exact progress and growth of the company accurately. Our company will want to continue to grow and have the ability to adapt and improve. In order to do so, we will have to provide detail metrics to track our growth and expansion if there is any. Metrics may include employee retention rates or even the number of training hours for full-time employees. As an organization, it is necessary to adapt to a changing landscape through employee training, learning, and development. With these metrics we can look into the future of the organization, instead of taking a snapshot of how the organization is performing right now. To satisfy our shareholders and customers, we can either sell a large quantity of items at a low price or focus completely on a high quality product that comes at a premium price. Both strategies could be effective, but we will only be able to choose one to fulfill the vision of what we want the company to be in the future. The Strategy Map and Balanced Scorecard go hand in hand and are vital platforms that all companies need to be successful. I like to compare it to the checks and balances system that our government has had in place since its birth. The balanced scorecard monitors finances, performance, growth, and vision while the strategy map makes sure that all of these metrics are organized and focused towards achieving our companies’ goals. References Person, R. (2013). Accelerating Strategic Performace. In Balanced Scorecards Operational Dashboards With Microsoft Excel (2.nd ed., p. 6, 7, 8). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley ;.

Family Are Involved In The Care Decision Process Nursing Essay

Family Are Involved In The Care Decision Process Nursing Essay According to Eilbert Lafronza Partnerships comprise of a social system or individual based agreement between participating organizations to collaborate on a common goal in which benefits and risks, as well as resources and power are shared fairly. Patients and families cannot entirely be involved in the care decision process unless they have established a solid partnership between their health care providers i.e Doctors, Nurses, General practitioners etc . (McQueen :2000).2 Some of the way that patients and their families can be involved in the care decision process is by making informed decisions on: Whether the patient wants treatment or not: Selinger (2009)3 states that the patient has every right to make an informed decision on the right to determine what investigations and treatments to undergo, and this decision must be respected by all doctors, nurses and caregivers. Whether the patient wants to complete a Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) form or not: Healthcare professionals have an important role in helping patients to participate in making appropriate plans for their future care in a sensitive but realistic manner, making clear whether or not attempted CPR could be successful. Helping patients to reach a clear decision about their wishes in respect of CPR should be regarded as a marker of good practice in any healthcare setting (British Medical Association (BMA), the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) : 2007)4 And finally, what right the patient has to be involved in decisions about their medication. The National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care( 2009)5 states that patients have a right to be involved in decisions about medicines to the extent that they wish and it is the role of health professionals to facilitate and support patients in their involvement in decision-making and to support patients in taking medicine if the decision has been to prescribe. Patient and family partnerships are very important in the care decision process because without them numerous problems may arise. Some of which are: self-discharge, readmission, deterioration of condition and death. (Smith and Hider: 2009)6 According to Gott et al. (2000)7 successful patient partnerships are those in which the patient and healthcare practitioner meet as equals with different expertise. The doctor or nurse has the medical knowledge and skill, but the patient has personal knowledge and skill. This is useful because it provides two different perspectives which in turn will provide the best outcome for both the patient and the healthcare provider. For the most part, patient and family involvement is beneficial to the care process because the patient knows their own condition the best and if we assume that they are close to their family and share their struggle with managing their condition/disease with them then they too know what the patients condition well. Anderson and Funnell (2009)8 state that patient and family involvement in care decisions revolve mostly around decision making and empowerment. Patient involvement in decision-making is now generally regarded as a feature of good quality health care. Many health professionals, institutes and government policies such as the Department of Health (2007)9 now advocate that patients should be involved in some way in decisions about their health care. According to the RCN (2003)10 empowering patients is a central element of nursing care, by forming a solid patient- nurse partnership, and encouraging the patient and their family to be part of the decision making process, this allows the patient to feel empowered and in control of various aspects concerning their health. However according to a study carried out by Dickerson (2004)11 shows that although patient and family involvement is crucial in care decisions, various authors might argue that a lot of patients search for and find information/new treatments about their illness/ condition on non-credible sources such as the internet, magazines and social media and believe that whichever fact or new never trialled before treatment they read or hear about might be a diagnosis to their symptoms or a solution to their illness. The study showed that many patients (50%) relied on friends and family to navigate the Web, and most of patients reported that the information that they sought was unrelated to their clinical visit. This study shows that although patient and family partnerships are crucial to the care decision process, some patients and their family take the wrong path when seeking information about their condition, this is usually after a clinical encounter for diagnosis and/or reassurance or beca use of dissatisfaction with the amount of detailed information provided by the health professional during the encounter. (Kaimal AJ et al. :2008)12. According to McMullan (2005)13 Health professionals are reacting to the more Internet informed patient in some of the following ways: The health professional either feels threatened by the information the patient brings and responds defensively by asserting their expert opinion (health professional-centred relationship). Or, the health professional and patient collaborate in obtaining and analysing the information (patient-centred relationship) (Pautler et al. : 2001)14. Although the health professional almost always comes to a decision to progress with the latter option, feeling threatened and being defensive about the internet based information being presented to them by the patient and their family is usually the health professionals first reaction. An alternative approach would be for the health professional will guide patients to r eliable health information websites. It is vital that health professionals acknowledge patients search for knowledge, that they discuss the information obtained by patients and guide them to reliable and accurate health websites. It is suggested that courses, such as patient informatics are incorporated in health professionals education (Sommerhalder et al. : 2009)15. The Department of Health (2003)16 states an effective discharge as A process and not an isolated event. It has to be planned for the earliest opportunity across primary, hospital and social services, ensuring that individuals and their carers understand and are able to contribute to care planning decisions as appropriate. Here we see the DOH (2003) describing an effective discharge as one that co-ordinates all of the services needed by the patient in order for the patient to have input on the discharge and for everything to be ready for the patients discharge. Nurses and other health care professionals recognise that planning for patients hospital discharge during the inpatient stay sets the stage for effective and therefore successful self-care management at home. (Nosbusch et al.:2010)17. According to the Wales NHS effective discharge policy document (:2009)18 an effective discharge constitutes of the following 6 principles: Communication when it comes to the transfer of care process, it is important that good communication consists of mutual understanding and having a common language between everyone involved. This requires effective dialogue and sharing of up to date information amongst patients, carers, providers and commissioners. Casey and Wallis (2011)19 state that Nurses and the nursing staff are at the core of the communication process: they assess, record and report on treatment and care and handle information sensitively and confidentially .To establish a healthy nurse- patient relationship, good communication is crucial. As a nurse, building a close rapport with your patient is one of the ways to make your patient feel listened to, understood and involved in their care. Good communication is vital in the process of decision making. Jonsdottir et al. (2004) 20 state that communication skills are one of the most imperative aspects of nursing, considering that nursing always is two-folded with b oth task-oriented and relational aspects. A nurses communication skill is an essential requirement for patient participation in decision making. Communication discrepancies have been recognised as one of the major barriers to partnership building between nurses and patients (Keatinge et al. 2002)21. Good communication in the care decision process is vital In order to achieve a seamless discharge for the nurse, patient, the patients family and all other healthcare practitioners/Multidisciplinary team (MDT) members involved. The NHS Trust Discharge policy (2010)22 states that before planning a discharge, the nurse and other healthcare practitioners must decide and inform the patient and their family on whether it is a simple discharge: one that involves minimal disruption to the patients activities of daily living, does not prevent or hamper a return to their usual place of residence and will not require a substantial change in support offered to the patient or their carer in the comm unity. Or whether it is a Complex Discharge: A discharge process that deviates from the simple discharge pathway and requires complex coordination of services to enable safe discharge. To ensure that the patient and their family is involved in the care decision process of discharge, the nurse and other clinicians must be certain that an effective and well-timed discharge plan is put in place. The main objectives of this will be to plan, inform, liaison and negotiate to ensure a smooth discharge for patients and their families. Supporting this is the need for an early establishment of what the discharge dates might be, including pre-admission planning, effective communication between individuals and across settings, good clinical management plans and the alignment of services to ensure continuity of care(DOH :2010)23. Assuming that it is a simple discharge, once the discharge plan has been put into place and is carefully explained to the patient and their family, the patient can then begin to contribute in the decision making process alongside the nurse and members of the MDT team.( Shepperd et al. :2010)24. Some of the ways a patient can contribute in the decision making process when it comes to discharge is to work alongside the nurse and members of the MDT team in order to inform and help them assess whether the patient can- Obtain and self-administer medications- the patient should inform the nurse and other clinicians (such as pharmacist) on what regular medication they take, what form they prefer their medication: liquidised, dosette boxes etc. How well the patient performs self-care activities, and does the patient eat an appropriate diet or otherwise manage nutritional needs and whether the patient is able to attend any follow-up outpatient appointments (Bull and Roberts: 2001)25. Atwal (:2002)26 states that ensuring that the patient and their family have full involvement in making the above decisions and steps to be discharged from the hospital will gi ve the patient a sense of control and therefore empowerment and in turn guarantee an organized discharge as well as patient satisfaction and the nurse feeling confident that they have done their best for their patient and therefore feel fulfilled in their role as a nurse. It is prominent that a patient must be an active participant in his/her empowerment, signifying that Nurses cannot empower patients: the role is to facilitate and support the empowerment (Laverack :2005)27. .

Concepts of Information Security: Politics and Technology

Concepts of Information Security: Politics and Technology The nothing to hide argument has become a very important debate recently. Now, nearly everything we do leaves an electronic trace which along with data mining, can be used to see what we are doing, and even predict our behaviour. With the recently passed Investigatory Powers Act 2016 in the UK (HM Government, 2016), 48 different agencies will have access to communication data, bulk personal data and other information with the purpose of increasing our national security. The acts main aim is to increase security against acts of terrorism, but this comes at the cost of peoples privacy. The most common argument in favour of mass surveillance is that if you have nothing to hide you should have nothing to fear, and if you are acting in an illegal manner than you deserve to be punished, and having this surveillance is there to protect us and our country. Whereas conventional armys movement can be tracked using radar, satellites and drones, terrorists dont have a navy or air force, making this means of gathering information about an attacker irrelevant. Another potential means of gathering information would be inside information, whether it be an informant or someone managing to infiltrate the organisation. However, unlike organised crime, a terrorist attack has the potential to take many lives, and it only takes one successful attack to do so, meaning one successful attack is one too many. Government surveillance can therefore be argued as the best way of protecting a nation as it means conversations can be followed and behaviours can be predicted. (Doyle, 2011). Daniel Solove has said that between the advances in technology and the government surveillance, that there are similarities with George Orwells 1984, and although not as extreme as in the book, it is still possible to track people even if they are just walking around the corner. Along with data mining of information which could be thought of as trivial, the government are predicting whether a person is a terrorist based off purchase histories along with other personal information. Whilst this sounds like it could be useful, what happens when someone is misidentified as a terrorist and added to a no-fly list or arrested? (Doyle, 2011). The European Union has also stated the surveillance on this scale is illegal, and that only targeted information gathering I justified, but with the UK leaving the EU, this will not be a problem for them soon, and will join China and Russia in being a mass surveillance state (Agerholm, 2016). Overall I feel that mass surveillance is not necessary, with targeted surveillance being adequate, and with the lack of a response from the public when this law was first announced, it has shown the government that they can get away with it, and sets a precedent going forward, making me ask the question, When does it stop? When will they have enough information? As much as George Orwells 1984 was a work of fiction, I feel like we are slowly moving in that direction, and if we get there, will there be a way back? Assira CAPTCHA The Asirra CAPTCHA was proposed at ACM CCS 2007 and works by showing the user 12 pictures of cats and dogs, with the user having to select the cat images and none of the dog images. A human can do this within 30 seconds 99.6% of the time, whereas algorithms find it much harder to differentiate between cats and dogs. Basing image classification off colour features gives a 56.9% accuracy, giving an overall probability of 0.2% to solve an Assira CAPTCHA. Assira has a database of over 3,000,000 images of cats and dogs which continues to grow. 13,000 images were collected by having a script which was left to run overnight, that would refresh and download the 12 images from the Assira research page. The images were manually classified into 3 classes of cat, dog and other. A support vector machine(SVM) classifier was used due to having the ability to extract linear combination of features, its predictive power and its scalability. 5-fold cross-validation was used to measure the accuracy of the SVM classifier, with 4 partitions used for training and the last one used to validate the results. The SVM classifier was trained on a combination of colour and texture features. Both the colour and the texture features estimate whether the picture is a cat or dog. An average of the colour and texture features is taken, with a weighting of 1/3 to colour and 2/3 to texture. Images of cats were mapped to the value of 1.0 and dogs to -1.0, meaning if the average returned a positive value, the SVM classifier would predict the image to be of a cat, whilst a negative number would result in a dog. This system resulted in a classifier with 82.7% accuracy, giving a 10.3% probability of breaking the Assira CAPTCHA, which despite being a lot lower than a human, was more than 50 times more successful than the predicted 0.2% for machine vision attacks. Using a token bucket system will greatly help to improve the robustness of the Assira CAPTCHA. Given that a human has a 99.6% success rate, giving a total of 3 attempts before having to complete 2 successful Assira CAPTCHAs greatly reduces the chance of it being broken via machine vision, without reducing the usability for a human too significantly. (Golle, 2008) Impact of Artificial Gummy Fingers on Fingerprint Systems Biometrics is a form of single factor authentication used to identify someone. Fingerprints are one of the most common forms of biometric authentication, with them being used for PCs, smart cards and portable devices. Silicone fingers as well as inked fingerprints on paper where tested before the experiment, finding that all capacitive sensors and some optical sensors rejected the silicone finger, and the inked paper was accepted on one of the systems. A fingerprint system captures data from the finger via a sensing device, extracts features from the data and encrypts it, then stores this information as a template with some personal information. When someone then uses the system, the scan is compared to the database of stored finger data and outputs an acceptance results if there is a matching template. The sensor detects the difference between ridges and valleys of the fingerprint, with optical sensors detecting the difference in reflection, whilst a capacitive sensor detects the difference in capacitance. There are several different attacks that can be performed against a fingerprint system including a criminal forcing the live finger to be used on the scanner, an attack against the authentication system with an unregistered finger, the use of a severed fingertip, a genetic clone of the registered finger or an artificial clone of the finger. To make an artificial finger an impression must first be made of the live finger. The impression of the fingerprint is a mirror reflection of the live finger, meaning the impression can be used as a mould to make the artificial finger. It can also be done by capturing the image of a residual fingerprint with a digital microscope and then making a mould to make the artificial finger which is made from gelatine. Both types of gummy fingers were accepted by the 11 different fingerprint systems used in the experiment, with varying probabilities between 67% and 100%. The number of samples was too small in this experiment to compare the different types of fingerprint systems, but there is enough evidence to show that gummy fingers can bypass this type of biometric security. (Matsumoto, T., Matsumoto, H., Yamada, K. and Hoshino, S, 2002) The best way to improve security would be multi-factor authentication. A finger print falls under the something I am category, so taking something from the something I own category, such as a key fob or card, along with the something I know category, such as a password means that if one of these protective measures is compromised, there are still two other factors an attacker must take into consideration before being able to access the information they are trying to acquire. FREAK SSL/TLS Vulnerability The Factoring RSA Export Keys (FREAK) vulnerability in Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and its successor Transport Layer Security (TLS) was discovered in March 2015 by Karthikeyan Bhargavan and his research team. TLS and SSL are protocols which were designed for secure data transfer between a client and a server through authentication, encryption and integrity. (Muscat, I. 2016), (Caballero, J., Bodden, E. and Athanasopoulos, E. 2016). The vulnerability allows for a man-in-the-middle attack through an implementation error. The vulnerability was due to a US law which restricted RSA public key sizes to 512 bytes. SSL and TLS used ciphersuites with weak keys which were marked eligible for export. If a client is tryhing to connect to a trusted server, the man-in-the-middle attacker can replace the ciphersuite with an RSA_EXPORT ciphersuite of the message sent from the client to the server. The server then responds, and again, the attacker replaces the ciphersuite with an RSA ciphersuite which gets forwarded to the client. The server then sends a strong, 2048 bits, RSA public key which the client receives. The server then sends a ServerKeyExchange message with a weak, 512-bit RSA public key. The client responds with its ClientKeyExchange, ClientCSS and ClientFinished message, which the attacker can use to find the private key. The attacker can then decrypt the pre-master secret from the Client-KeyExchange. The attacker then sends a ServerFinished message to complete the handshake. This works because of a bug in a state machine composition, the message is not rejected and is silently accepted, and the servers strong public key is replaced with the weak public key in the ServerKeyExchange. (Beurdouche, B., Bhargavan, K., et al. 2015). In order to protect against this attack, server administrators would have to remove all RSA export cipher suites from their accepted cipher suite collection. Installing a browser that doesnt support RSA export cipher suites is the best way for clients to protect themselves against FREAK attacks. (Caballero, J., Bodden, E. and Athanasopoulos, E. 2016). DDoS Attacks Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are relatively simple, but can be extremely powerful. They are the most advanced form of DoS attacks. They work via packet streams from different sources. The attacks make use of large numbers of coordinated hosts to overrun a critical resource of the target. Depending on the scale of the attack, or the measures put in place to prevent such an attack, the victim could suffer damages from system shutdown, to total loss of service. They are so strong due to not trying to break the system hey are attacking, meaning traditional security mechanisms arent effective, instead causing damage through lethal traffic. When performing an attack, the attacker must select agents to perform the attack. The machines need to have a vulnerability that allows the attacker to gain access with enough resources for the attack. Then the attack must find vulnerabilities in the security of the agents machines to put in the malicious code. The attacker then communicates with handlers to see what agents are running and when to upgrade them. After all of this is done, the attack can commence. There are several different types of DDoS attacks, some of which include: Flood attacks send large amounts of IP traffic to a victim, congesting the bandwidth of the system. Depending on the volume of packets sent, the target can experience reduced system speeds, to crashing the system. Amplification attacks exploit the broadcast IP address found on most routers to amplify and reflect the attack, sending messages to a broadcast IP address. The router sends the packets to all the IP addresses within the broadcast address range. A reflector attack requires a set of predetermined reflectors. These can simply be scattered on the internet. The reflected packets are normal with a legitimate source and cannot be filtered. Protocol exploit attacks use a specific feature or implementation bug of some protocol on the victims system to consume excess resources. Malformed packet attacks use incorrectly formed IP packets and are sent to the victim to crash the system. There are two classifications for DDoS defence. The first one is based on activity deployed. Intrusion prevention aims to stop the attack from being launched in the first place. Intrusion detection means a host computer and network can guard themselves against being a source of an attack as well as being a victim. Intrusion tolerance and mitigation accepts that it is not possible to fully prevent or stop DDoS attacks, so aims to minimise the damage caused by them. Intrusion response identifies the attack sources and blocks its traffic. The second classification splits the DDoS defence into three categories. Most systems designed to fight DDoS attacks have been designed for the victim network as they suffer the greatest impact of an attack. Intermediate network defence is more effective, as they can handle the attack traffic easily and trace back to the attackers. Source network mechanisms aim to stop attacks before they enter the internet. (Douligeris, C. and Mitrokotsa, A. 2004) Wireless networks are easier to attack than wired networks, with DoS attacks by scrambling the bands of frequency that are used. The best way of defending both bandwidth depletion attacks and resource depletion attacks is to design a defence mechanism that detects and responds to the attack. A proposed technique to defending the attacks is the use of a flow monitoring table at each node. By monitoring the previous sending rates with the current rate, they can detect an attack if both rates become the same, in which case the packets from those nodes are discarded. (Arunmozhi, S.A. and Venkataramani, Y. 2011) Bibliography Agerholm, H. (2016) Snoopers charter dealt blow after EUs highest court rules indiscriminate government retention of emails is illegal. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/snoopers-charter-eu-court-ruling-illegal-investigatory-powers-act-emails-david-davis-a7488041.html (Accessed: 22 December 2016). Arunmozhi, S.A. and Venkataramani, Y. (2011) DDoS attack and defense scheme in wireless ad hoc networks, International Journal of Network Security Its Applications, 3(3), pp. 182-187. doi: 10.5121/ijnsa.2011.3312. Beurdouche, B., Bhargavan, K., Delignat-Lavaud, A., Fournet, C., Kohlweiss, M., Pironti, A., Strub, P.-Y. and Zinzindohoue, J.K. (2015) A messy state of the union: Taming the composite state machines of TLS, 2015 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, . doi: 10.1109/sp.2015.39. Caballero, J., Bodden, E. and Athanasopoulos, E. (2016) Engineering secure software and systems: 8th international symposium, ESSoS .. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j6vWCwAAQBAJpg=PA125dq=FREAK+SSL/TLS+Vulnerabilityhl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwjlkuXEr8TRAhWhKMAKHQWMBjMQ6AEIOjAB#v=onepageq=FREAK%20SSL%2FTLS%20Vulnerabilityf=false (Accessed: 15 January 2017). Douligeris, C. and Mitrokotsa, A. (2004) DDoS attacks and defense mechanisms: Classification and state-of-the-art, Computer Networks, 44(5), pp. 643-666. doi: 10.1016/j.comnet.2003.10.003. Doyle, T. (2011) Daniel J. Solove, nothing to hide: The false tradeoff between privacy and security, The Journal of Value Inquiry, 46(1), pp. 107-112. doi: 10.1007/s10790-011-9303-z. Golle, P. (2008) Machine learning attacks against the Asirra CAPTCHA, Proceedings of the 15th ACM conference on Computer and communications security CCS 08, . doi: 10.1145/1455770.1455838. Investigatory Powers Act 2016 2016, c. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/pdfs/ukpga_20160025_en.pdf (Accessed: 22 December 2016). Matsumoto, T., Matsumoto, H., Yamada, K. and Hoshino, S. (2002) Impact of artificial gummy fingers on fingerprint systems, , pp. 275-289. doi: 10.1117/12.462719. Muscat, I. (2016) Web vulnerabilities: Identifying patterns and remedies, Network Security, 2016(2), pp. 5-10. doi: 10.1016/s1353-4858(16)30016-2.

How does H.G Wells create suspense in The Cone? Essay -- English Liter

How does H.G Wells create suspense in The Cone? There are numerous techniques that an author can use to create interest and suspense when writing a gothic story. Examples of these are short sentences, pathetic fallacy, and emotive language. However Wells then goes on to combine this with a romantic element, and incorporates a crime of passion into the story. So not only does Wells use the gothic genre and its techniques to create tension, but also that of the romantic genre. This story is written in the third person, which works superbly as it gives an overview of the opinions of all the characters and their thoughts. For instance Wells writes, ‘She had an impulse to warn him in an undertone, but she could not frame a word. â€Å"Don’t go!† and â€Å"Beware of him!† struggled in her mind, and the moment passed.’ This technique allows us to connect with more than one of the characters and understand the different points of view, and feelings emerging from them. In a way it prevents the reader from becoming overly bias, because they can see situations from more than one persons perspective. The story starts with a description, using long sentences and scores of adjectives, ‘The night was hot and overcast, the sky red, rimmed with the lingering sunset of midsummer†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ This sets the scene in a serene way that leads the reader into a false sense of security, a beautiful night with two lovers talking in lowered voices. However on reading the story retrospectively the opening paragraph could be viewed differently. The sky could be interpreted as angry, or brooding. It could be ominously setting the scene for things to come, it already informs us that the story is set a night, could this be the first gothic element to... ...e word cone is mentioned over twenty times and is featured in the title. Therefore I think that Wells really wants us to take notice of this and start speculating on how this affects the end of the story, of course, once read we discover that the cone is actually the piece of machinery that kills Raut, and finishes the story. At the very end of the story Horrocks’ conscience comes back to him and he says, ‘Oh god! What have I done?’ This shows that he is not a cold-hearted murderer and it shows the reader that perhaps normally he would have been a nice man, but under the circumstances was pushed to do something he wouldn’t have normally done. In conclusion it appears that Wells uses many gothic styles throughout the story to increase tension. He uses description, long sentences, passion, and betrayal. This creates a very gothic and interesting story.

Personal Growth Experience :: essays research papers

Personal Growth Experience   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a mother I have cared and tried to push my son’s education so that he can succeed in his life. I came from a large family in Brazil. I wasn’t the only child; I learned to share, how provide for myself, and for my 3 sisters, and 3 brothers. My father was a serious man; he had a job, and still came home to provide for all of us. During dinnertime he insisted that everyone had to be home and had to sit down at the table and talk about their day. This was a must in my family too. The reason why he had that rule was because he was a religious man, and meals should be shared with the family as well as conversations. No one had any choice of not sitting at the table, unless we didn’t want to eat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I had a child, I waited for the right time to have one. I didn’t want to rush into motherhood responsibility until I had everything in order to support my child. My husband had to find a job, and so did I. We had a house, a car, and jobs to support my child; we were ready. When my child was born, I chose to go to the United States of America, so that my child can have a better life. In Brazil, the education is not challenging, and not recognized in other parts of the world as a higher education. For him to have a better education, a better standard of living, and for him to have what we never had, we had to give up our lives in Brazil. As the years went by I was always there for my son. Through my eyes as he grows older, he is still the little boy that I held in my arms for the first time. In his teenage years I have seen him grow further away from me. Every day when he gets home he goes to his room without talking to me, or saying anything about his da y. I guess that is what all kids go through in these years, because of the stage of exploration of new things in life. Like driving, video games, girls, and puberty. I still love my son, and even if he doesn’t want to talk to me then I guess he has everything in order in his life.

Evaluating Business Communication

When communicating with different levels of a company it is important to chose the most effective and appropriate source of communication. In addition, ethics should be considered in how and what information is being presented. This report will review two documents from members of an accounting team advising the sales manager and marketing manager from Riordan Company about the results of the review of JJJ’s financials. By reviewing these two documents, the effectiveness of the sources and attention to ethics can be examined. Appropriateness and Effectiveness of the Documents Document 1 is a Memorandum to Dana, the Marketing Manager. This source is formal enough to present Dana with the review of JJJ Company’s financials. Although Document 1 is an appropriate source, the document is not effective in presenting Dana with all the information that matters to her. JJJ Company’s financial status is clear but the effect this has on marketing channels is not fully detailed. Instead, the paper focuses solely on profits; this focus is more appropriate for the Marketing Manager. Document 2 is an e-mail to Mark, the Sales Manager. E-mails can provide about the same level of formality as a memorandum so this source is also an appropriate choice to a Marketing Manager. An IM would have been too informal to provide this information to a manager and a report would have provided more information than needed by a marketing manager but appropriate for an ad hoc committee or CEO. Like Document 1, the financial status of JJJ Company is clearly defined but unlike Document 1, ethical boundaries are surpassed. Attention to Ethics Document 1 stays within the boundaries of not revealing too much information reserved to higher ups such as he CEO. It clearly states the financial instability of JJJ Company but it does not confirm that the acquisition is not going through. The writer understands that the confirmation should come from the CEO. Document 2 provides more information that should have been provided. The first paragraph in Document 2 states, â€Å"William CEO would like to get this acquisition, only if it means a profit to the company. William would like to see bigger dividends for the shareholders†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The writer should have omitted mentioning opinions that came from the CEO, if the CEO found this information to be important for the Marketing Manager to know he would need to be the person presenting this information. Conclusion It is significant to choose an appropriate source of communicating with different people of different levels within a company. Choosing the correct source will allow the presenter to communicate necessary information in an efficient manner. Regardless, of what sources is used, ethics need to be considered in how and what information is being presented. Deciding the level of formality and the extent of the depth and detail of the information are key factors in presenting an ethical bound business communication.