CD for Holden Essay

How have you been? I have actually missed you a lot. The other day, I took a road trip with my parents and I thought of you. I remembered how you told me you wanted me to burn a CD with music for you. Thus, I listened to my iPod the whole way and selected many cool songs that I think you would like. Please get back to me and tell me which ones you liked and all. Also, I know you told me to only put around 10 songs but I could not contain myself and I chose 16 of them. I hope you will like them, because to tell you the truth all of these songs kill me. The first song I chose to put in the CD is â€Å"3 Cigarettes† by The Sleeping. Besides the beat and instruments that are cool as hell, the lyrics really remind me of you. First of all, there are the obvious connections to cigarettes, which seem to be one of your passions. Also when he says â€Å"I have been drinking more and eating less† reminds me of you. It is pretty much all that you have done lately, smoked, drank, and thought of Jane. Just remember that just like they say â€Å"we don’t have to blame ourselves† you should not blame yourself for everything that has been happening. Finally, the line â€Å"Do you care? Are you there? Are you listening?† kills me and I am sure it will kill you too. It is calling for people’s attentions, it is calling all those phonies and it makes me wonder if anyone really cares about me. I am sure it will make you feel the same way too. The next song I chose was â€Å"Through the Glass† by Stone Sour. I think that this song is talking about an insider who became a stranger and now they are looking from the outside back in. This makes me think of you because many times throughout your life you have alienated yourself. You just look from the outside as time passes by and sometimes you feel like going back in, and being an insider again but you don’t. The phrase â€Å"I’m looking at you through the glass; don’t know how much time is passed. Oh God it feels like forever† makes me think of you a lot. Because you are always thinking about how quickly time passes by. It seems like you have been alienating yourself for a long time now, it feels like forever. The next song on your CD is â€Å"Tears in Heaven† by Eric Clapton. I just had to add this one. I know that you are really sensitive about your brother’s death and all, and you don’t like talking about it. However, I think that the sooner you face reality the better it will be for you and everyone. This song was made for his son who died. He was very meaningful to Eric Clapton just like your brother Allie was to you. I know you so well, that I am sure that you have wondered about many of the things that this song is stressing about. Such as if Allie would remember your name, and if it would all be the same. Also, there is a bigger picture to it. I remember about an specific conversation with your sister Phoebe you told me about. She asked you to name one thing you really liked and you said you really liked Allie. I think you should listen to lines such as â€Å"Cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven† and â€Å"Cause I know I just can’t stay here in heaven†. The bigger picture that these lines are showing and I am trying to prove to you is that as much as you love Allie you have to let him go. You are both in different worlds now, and wherever he is, you don’t belong there. At least not yet. Holden, you should really get on with your life and just keep with you all of the good memories you have with Allie but let him go. It is the best thing to do. I am sure you will enjoy quite a lot the next song I picked out for you. It is a classic by the great band Pink Floyd. This one is called â€Å"Another Brick in the Wall†. You might have heard of it already. The meaning of the song is to say that in school they treat us all the same and they do not respect that everyone is a separate and different individual. Pink Floyd is saying that this is all â€Å"false control† and they are putting all the students together and trying to make them all the same, therefore losing their individualities. I can tell that you will agree with these lines, and that they will really kill you. When they say â€Å"All in all it’s just another brick in the wall†, the meaning is that every single one of us students are just a tiny brick of the wall of hypocrisy, superficiality, and shallowness that they are trying to build. â€Å"They† are the ones that you every so often refer to as the â€Å"phonies†. That is what I think this song is criticizing, phonies who try to make everyone be the same. They try to make everyone be like them. Hopefully there are still people out there, like me and you, who are going to fight this and knock down this â€Å"wall of phonies†. The next song I picked is called â€Å"Boys Don’t Cry† by The Cure. It makes me think of you and Jane. When I listen to it, I think of how you like Jane so much and she is the only girl that you truly care about but you won’t tell her. Just like the song is describing, you often say â€Å"I would†¦Ã¢â‚¬  You mention things that you would do, such as give her a buzz, and visit her, and ask her on a date. However, you never do any of it. The line â€Å"boys don’t cry† is obviously making a critic to some boys like you, who would rather hide their feelings and appearing tough instead of telling the truth and possibly crying. I love the line â€Å"I try and laugh about it hiding the tears in my eyes† and the one â€Å"I try to laugh about it; cover it all up with lies†. Both of these lines are very strong. They also show things that you do. You often act all nonchalant and like giving Jane a buzz is just something you would do any d ay. However, I think it is much deeper than that. You are scared of being rejected by her because she is the only one you care about. So, you just act casual and cool about it and lie and hide your feels for her. The next song, â€Å"The Permanent Rain† by The Dangerous Summer follows the same line as the one before. I think that just like the singer is saying, â€Å"I won’t let this die†, you shouldn’t let what you have with Jane die. You and her both have a really strong connection and bond. I think it would be very sad if you did not do anything about it. I think you should go and tell her how you feel. It is really the best thing to do. When he says, â€Å"I know it’s not helping to hear me say: I wish it was me in the car the other day† really makes me think of you as well. Even though you have never actually told her about it, you have wondered for a long time about her and Stradlater in his teacher’s car. You wonder about what happened and you cannot help but wish that it were you with her in the car instead of Stradlater. Finally, when the line â€Å"You know it meant a lot, but I was just a kid† comes up it seems like it was wri tten for you. You were both too young to fully understand the connection that you both had. Now, I think you are old and mature enough to understand it and your relationship with Jane should mean even more if you tell her how you feel. The next song, however, is not about Jane. It is about High School, hence the name â€Å"High School Low† by Say Anything. Just like you, the guy in the song is sixteen. He is also worrying about things such as the whole high school experience, and girls. I find there is even a connection to you when he says, â€Å"My teacher says that I’m brilliant†. It reminds me of how Mr. Spencer would try and get the best out of you. He did not say you were brilliant, however, he acknowledge that you had so much more potential than the one you were showing with your poor grades and test scores. The passage about looking at pictures of himself when he was a child can also be compared to you. I know that you have often thought about how it is such a horrible experience having to grow up and all, but we will get to this topic later. To do with the whole grades issue, he also says â€Å"My grades look pretty damn low. I want to motivate myself, but how the hell am I supposed to work†. This is something that is so similar to you that it could have come out of your mouth. At the same time that you realize that your grades are low and you need to make an effort, you don’t know how to. You are confused about what you should do that would motivate yourself. I remember you told me that when your psychoanalyst asked you if you would apply yourself when you got back to school in September you said you did not know. I mean of course you want to, but as you said it yourself, you are not able to tell how you are going to behave. One phrase that is constantly repeated is â€Å"take me away†. Just like you, this boy wants to run away from these high school days and from all the â€Å"phoniness† and move on to a better part of life; be it the past or the future. Speaking of phonies, this is what my next chosen song is about. It is called â€Å"Mutiny!† by Set Your Goals. This song is clearly criticizing people. In my opinion, it is criticizing the phonies. What leads me to think this way is when things such as â€Å"superior, you are inferior† and â€Å"heroes have betrayed† are said. This is talking about people who think that they are better than other s when they really are nothing special. It is also talking about how people can just betray you and change all of the sudden. Finally, the line â€Å"I will find the line and cross it every time† reminds me of you. It reminds me of how you many times alienate yourself as a form of protection. Therefore, I think that crossing the line is a symbol for you of that crazy red hunting hat you wear. You wear it to prove your point and to show people that you don’t care and you’re fine with being different. This is nothing else but a way of â€Å"crossing t he line†. The next song I chose is called â€Å"Flake† and it is by Jack Johnson. In case you don’t know, a flake is someone who says that they will go somewhere or do something and then they don’t. Am I the only one who sees a resemblance here to you?! Yes, I am going to start talking about Jane again. You seriously have to stop saying that you will call her, unless you are actually planning on doing it. Otherwise, you are just flaking. The strong line â€Å"It seems to me that maybe pretty much always means no† is what I feel sometimes when you start talking to me about her. You say that you might call her if you feel like it. Now, I am starting to see it as something you just have to say to feel good about yourself, to show that you have the power to call her. I think you should not â€Å"flake† Jane. Besides that, it is a great song and I really love the instrumental and the beat for it. I am sure you will love it too! The next song I picked is a slow one. I find it truly beautiful. It is called â€Å"Cannonball† by Damien Rice. It is also a love song. What I think it is talking about is about someone whom he really loves but that he cannot be with for a reason or another. He talks about how he remembers the girl all the time, and the things that remind him of her. I think that the way he feels about this girl is just like how you feel about Jane. It reminds me of how you remember her because of little things such as how she always kept her kings on the back. This song also brings up the issue you have of lying and it claims that the issues he had to face in life when dealing with love are the ones that made him be like that. It also reminds me of you when he mentions that â€Å"It is not hard to fall when you float like a cannonball† because you can often be very â€Å"heavy† and therefore you sink into your issues like a cannonball sinking down in an ocean. My favorite like on this song, however, has to be the last one. It says â€Å"when you know that you just don’t know†. I think it is talking about when people are confused and how it takes courage, to even admit that you are lost. â€Å"Speed of Sound† by Coldplay is also sort of a slow song. The main point to this song is that it is talking about time. I think that Coldplay is trying to show how everything moves so fast, like the speed of sound. Time goes by too quickly, Holden. I know you have already realized that before, considering how you have told me countless times and made me notice that once we notice everything has already happened. This song could have been sung by someone who is waiting on a platform and they are noticing how fast things happen. It also talks about the issues we all have with dealing with this fast-moving time. Be prepared because this next song I am about to introduce to you will kill you. I am serious. It is called â€Å"Forever Young† and it is by Alphaville. It is impossible for me to listen to it and not think of you. The main point to this song is the fact that we all get old. The singer obviously wants to be â€Å"forever young† just like you! You tend to resist the natural process of maturity and growing up. It seems like you want to be forever young without having any responsibilities or having to deal with any problems of adulthood. I think this is mostly because you are scared. You are scared of what awaits for you, and it all sort of mystify you. That is why you invent that you do not want to be an adult because it is a world of phoniness. It is your way of running away from the fact that you are actually scared of growing up because you do not have a clue of what any of it is like. A line on this song that I find really interesting is â€Å"Some are like water, some are like the heat, some are a melody and some are the beat†. I think that this line is talking about the people that make our life what it is. The people that are there for us. I think that water is a symbol for the people that are a bit colder and the heat for the ones who are warm. The people who are a melody are the ones, like Jane, who come every once in a while and they completely change how you were before, just like the melody of a song. The â€Å"melodies† of someone’s life are not always there, but we can never be the same after they leave. Finally, the beat is a symbol for the people who are there to support you in your life constantly, just like the beat in a song. It is also impossible to be the same without the â€Å"beats† of our life, such as Phoebe, because they are the ones that we can call whenever we need. I think you will really enjoy the next song I picked. It is called â€Å"Marching Bands of Manhattan† by Death Cab for Cutie. First of all, the main reason of why it reminds me of you is the whole New York experience. I know how much that city describes you. I am sorry but I will have to bring old Jane up once again. I think that this song is mostly talking about how he wants to be with someone that doesn’t know how they feel. I think that this is your type of song, and I hope you will like it. If you like it, you should look up more songs by Death Cab for Cutie, they all send like this and have wonderful lyrics. Well, this is pretty much all, I hope you enjoyed the songs I chose and you will take some of the advice I gave you. Remember to get back to me and tell me what you thought of them. Oh! Also, I hope you like the cover for the CD! I know how crazy you have been about those ducks on Central Park and I just thought you would enjoy that. Love, Deb P.S. The two other songs I added were songs I found searching on the internet that were inspired by The Catcher in the Rye and I thought that they would be interesting to add.

Course work 2 Essay

Introduction: The dynamics of any industry determine what factors will impact the demand and supply of a particular good or service being bought or sold in that particular market. Some of the major factors that affect the demand for most kinds of products or services include: consumer tastes, income levels, availability of substitute goods and their prices, availability and prices of complementary goods, future price expectations and the general level of literacy of the population and population growth. The other aspect of any market would be the supply side; how do the supply side factors impact the market for goods or services. For instance some major factors include technological advancements, cost of production, the number of suppliers and regulatory framework. A combination of these demand side and supply side factors determines the prices that markets ultimately charge from consumers given that the markets are allowed to function in a free market setting. Technology Market: In particular the Computer Market. When we discuss the computer market in isolation we must understand that it is affected greatly by the overall technology market which plays a critical role in determining which new products and services will be offered by these computers and how will these computers be manufactured in the future. Technology has revolutionized the way we do business and other activities around the world. A significant contribution of technological revolution is the machine we call: a computer. From the time of the first computers and up till today we have witnessed remarkable change. For starters let’s just talk about the change in size of the computers. The point here is that ever since the advent of the computing machine and later the full fledged computer we have since tremendous amount of changes that have occurred along the revolution. These changes have had an impact on both the price of the computer and also on the cost of production of a modern day computer. Demand Side Factors The growth in different technology products such as hand held devices, laptops, desk top computers, I-pods, I-pads, E-books, and PDAs are some examples of what the consumer of today’s world has been buying and accepting for some time. The important factor here is that most technological products are not market oriented rather they are product-led or developed with a perspective of generating enough interest and demand from the market as opposed to the idea of providing products which are required by the market. The demand for computers in specific can be divided into two broad categories firstly the demand from the corporate world or offices and secondly from home users who demand desktops. When companies around the globe started to employ and use desktop computers in the 1980s and 1990s; one could see a revolution taking place that would forever change the workplace. These companies converted there existing manual operations on to computers and resultantly we saw dramatic changes in efficiency levels and the ability of companies to become more productive increased many folds. (Samuelson, 2005) This change in the way companies work led to computers becoming a need for majority of the companies in different sectors such as manufacturing, services and primary related industries. The computers, especially desktop computers had become a necessity for companies by mid-90s and onwards. This factor had made computers an important part of any firms capital requirements. (Samuelson, 2005) As far as the households were concerned computers soon after they were being mass-produced in the 80s become a necessity because of the change in the societal factors and requirements at workplace and schools demanded households to have computers at home. During these similar times (80s and 90s) income levels of the middle class households also increased on yearly basis. This was especially the case in the developing countries such as India, China and Brazil. The income levels were also rising in the developed countries which also warranted the increase in demand for computers. We saw that through the 1990s and 2000s the demand for complementary goods and services to the computers also increased. For instance the internet warranted the need for routers, wireless networks and other devices that were mandatory for office work and households. Similarly camera equipment that could connect them to PCs, mobile cables and other many products and services that were used in conjunction with the PCs were being increasingly demanded. We also saw the strength in the demand for substitutes and a consistent fall in their prices. For example a direct substitute of a computer is a handheld device which could be used for most of the purposes that a computer might offer. Even though these substitutes were available yet people ensured that they have at least one personal computer. This strength in demand is a result of the many features that a computer provides over some of its substitutes such as printing options, scanning, and video conference and so on. These added advantages and features have made computers an absolute necessity for the modern home. Another important factor that has played a critical role in increasing the demand for computers is the future expectations of technology and uncertainty. Because people feel that in the near future more emphasis will be given on efficiency and productivity it is imperative to keep up to date with the present technology. The combination of all these factors have created a scenario where by computers have become a part of the daily life of all individuals of the modern age. The internet has only helped the cause of the computers and we see that computers are an essential part of the workplace as well as the home of a particular individual. Supply-Side Factors The technological leap in the latter half of the last century has changed the way work takes place in a typical office of a manufacturing plant today. The reason is simple: the computer and technologies related to the computer. Not only have computers made it easier for companies to make products faster but they have also made companies more flexible and technology hungry. The supply of computers has been increasing at a great pace not only because of high demand but also due to technological changes that are taking place at all times. Between 1990 and 2002 there was a large decline in the prices of computer chips; this in part explains why computers prices were still falling even though demand continued to rise during that period. An important factor to understand here is that after the initial increases in the demand in the early 90s soon there was a surplus scenario in the chip market secondly, the rapid change in technology meant that older machines were quickly becoming obsolete hence pushing the prices even further down. (Lipsey and Chyrstal, 2007) Source: http://www.oup. com/uk/orc/bin/9780199286416/01student/interactive/lipsey_extra_ch03/page_01. htm In the diagram above we see that the prices of chips continued to fall between 1990 and 2002 except for the 92-95 period when the prices actually went up slightly the reason for the rise could be explained as the shift in the demand curve to the right as a result of the increase in the demand for complementary software that required high speed computer usage during this time; such as multimedia programs or other gaming and educational programs. The decline in the chip prices also explains the fact that cost of production was also declining rapidly during this time and that more and more suppliers of computers were entering the market. This increased competition for customers meant that prices had an even bigger drop. The increased competition also meant that firms that produce computers try to compete on cost as well as brand image. In an overall analysis of the supply-side of the computer and technology market we would say that prices have had a consistent downward pressure because of declining cost of production and a constant and rapid change in technology. There are a number of other important factors such as the availability of other important devices that have caused the prices of computers to fall down such as cheaper motherboards and RAMs. (Lipsey & Chrystal, 2007) Competition is also an important factor in determining the quality and prices of products such as computers. We see that competition has impacted cost of production by a large amount; many firms that manufacture computer and related devices have introduced more and better technologies that are cheaper and faster in processing data. In a lot of ways the market expects and demands computers which are cheaper and faster as we move into the future. This is because businesses and individuals know that computers are meant to reduce the time taken to complete work and achieve this objective in a cost effective way therefore more and more people and businesses demand cheaper computers.

Article summary Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Semiconductor manufacturing - Research Paper Example These, however, largely depends on the source of the plasma. The available electric fields for this process is often externally applied though can also be internally generated as a result of the buildup of charge in the growing film surface or in the film itself. The electric fields (EF) are key to the process being that the transport of the charged particle, that is electrons and ions, between the plasma and oxide surface plus the oxide layer is largely dependent on their resulting effect. Fig 4 a) from [22] Shows an example of a relation of Si-O bond. It exactly shows FWHM, ?, of the Si–O bond stretching mode as a function of annealing temperature for SiOx (x ? 0.15) and (Si, C)Ox (x ? 0.15 and C ? 10 at.%) thin films. The oxidation rate in plasma anodization and oxidation is controlled by the oxidant transport through the growing-oxide layer. Usually, the externally applied electric fields often rise to over 1MV/cm. The oxidant transport and the strong electric fields come together to result into a plasma-assisted oxidation rates at significantly low temperatures and pressures with each being below 600oC and 1 Torr respectively. At atmospheric temperatures, more than 900oC, and pressure, dry oxygen usually have similar rates as those achieved in the process. Oxidation flux of silicon-silicon diode interface can be altered by varying the plasma parameters which includes power, frequency and pressure, and also changing the design of the reactor. This is so because these alter the anodization current and the electron concentration. Fig 4 b) from [22] Shows the log-log plots of the oxide thickness against oxidation time for O2 Remote Plasma Assisted Oxidation of Flat and vicinal Silicon. Advantages Remote-plasma assisted oxidation help in minimizing the duration and number of steps of high temperature processes to allow for the reduction of thermal budget involved with the fabrication of the present and future Integrated Circuits (ICs). It is also a low t emperature alternative that can be considered instead of the high-temperature processes. Concurrently, the fabrication of various thin-film transistors (TFTs) which are largely used in many flat panel displays requires the availability of low temperatures. This is because of the glass substrates that the displays use and therefore the need to perform a remote-plasma assisted oxidation of silicon. 2. SMIF boxes (pods) and Front Opening Unified Pods (FOUP) used to transport wafers during semiconductor device manufacturing. Standard Mechanical InterFace is a standard that has been adopted for the facilitation of transport of wafer. It is a technology dated back in 1980 and used in cleanroom environments as well as in the fabrication of semiconductor wafers. The SMIF boxes were originally designed in Hewlett-Packard by a group of engineers called ‘micronauts’. It is used to transport wafers during the manufacture of semiconductor device. It functions to isolate wafers from getting contaminated through provision of a mini environment with controlled parameters which include pressure, airflow and particle density. It is a completely sealed SMIF box and is therefore essential in moving wafers between different tools or minienvironments. Moreover, unlike the ‘ballroom’ concept by which an extremely clean environment, ultra-clean, is generally created in the whole room. The SMIF pods are kept

Male youth suicide in the UK and its emergence as a social problemin Dissertation

Male youth suicide in the UK and its emergence as a social problemin the 1990s in related to press - Dissertation Example The effects of the portrayal of male suicide in the prominent UK publications, The Times and The Guardian, will be presented, detailing how media coverage of this subject has affected the suicide rates of male youth in order to set up the research question that will be examined in more detail in the M2 project. I have chosen The Times and The Guardian as the two referential publications for my research because they are both quality publications that have already gone through the process of tabloidization and currently can be relied on to provide accurate, quality information. The public believes they treat current affairs fairly seriously, so, they are important in forming views and peoples opinions. 2 Suicide Defined Establishing a comprehensive definition for what qualifies as ‘suicide’ is quite difficult, since the most common definitions of the word and the technical definition used by the Coroner’s office in England and Wales diverge. The most common definiti ons of ‘suicide’ are expressed in the following context: a. â€Å"The act of deliberately taking one's own life† (Frankish and Jeffereys). b. ... officially published suicide figures are collected from coronial investigations that take place in cases of unexpected or sudden deaths, and involve post-mortem reports, psychiatric records of the victim, and the social history as denoted by the friends and family, and suicide letters, if any (Sainsbury & Jenkins, 1982). A coronial verdict leaves a large scope for various probability factors, like suicidal behavioural tendencies noticed previously, records of psychiatric problems, associated social events that may have lead the victim to commit suicide, or a suicide note. There are also certain amounts of variations in the certification procedures, as the suicide certification in the UK is based on the coroners’ verdicts that are founded on public inquests; while in Germany, suicide cases are certified only by the general practitioners (Cantor, 2000). Often the problems in delineating suicides like drug overdoses, motor crashes where there was only one passenger (Phillips, 197 7), or death by drowning (O’Donnell & Farmer, 1995), makes it difficult for the investigators to arrive at a conclusion (Cantor, 2000). These aforementioned types of deaths are very often termed as accidental (see Figure 2), and owing to lack of any strong evidences, like a suicide letter, the deaths cannot be termed as presumably suicide (however there are differences based on the coroners’ choice). Thus, we find that, due to lack of evidences, suicides may be registered as ‘accidental’ deaths from unknown causes, unlike deaths by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation that are seen as conclusive evidence of suicide (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Deaths from ‘Suicides’ and ‘Undetermined Injury’ in England in 2008 (Gunnell, 6). Here the variations in the processes adopted for suicide

A Final Recruitment Plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Final Recruitment Plan - Coursework Example Companies either have their own human resource management department to handle the recruitment process or outsource recruitment agencies for conducting the recruitment activity on behalf of the company. It is a very important function for any organization, so the management has to always make sure that they recruit the best candidate for the vacant position. It is very important to select the right person for the job because the human resource is the most important resource for the company. This is why recruitment and selection process is complicated in nature and requires skillful planning (Clarke, 1996, p. 1-2). Recruitment is the process in which the potential talents are located and approached by the organization. The function of this process is to develop a pool of qualified and experience individual so that the section and decision-making strategies can be effectively implemented. It is the tool for placing the right person in the right place at the right time at a right price. Recruitment in organizations are no more organized or conducted in the traditional manner. It is delivered through a scientific approach, where the exercise is an opportunity to analyze the job and update the job description along with the specification of the individual. Recruitment Plan The perspective from which employment was viewed earlier has changed. It is no longer a life-long agreement between the employer and his employees. The employer cannot bind his / her employees. So it is very important to present a fresh view of the company and its policies in the recruitment advertisement, for attracting talented and qualified candidates. This is also known as marketing the job or floating the job in the market. In this study the job vacancy is for the position of the Accountant Technician in the department of Patient Accounting. It is very important to develop a recruitment plan before starting the process of recruitment. The plan would include: The objective for the recruitment The strategies of the company for recruitment to achieve the goal: The strategies of the companies differ The steps to be taken, the responsible person and the due date for the task. Documentation that would be needed during the various stages of the recruitment process. It is important for the human resource team to set goals before recruitment. In the Patient Accounting department the goal was to appoint a person for handling the accounting and administration functions. He/ she would answer to the mails, receive the phone calls and communicate with the clients along with entering the data and maintaining the financial records. This was the purpose behind creating a position in this department to hire a person. The success rate of the recruitment would be depending upon the effectiveness of the advertisement. So the language and the tone of the advertisement should be carefully developed and revised. The subject matter of the advertisement should be crisp and precise so that it inc ludes the main motive of advertisement that is very brief introduction of the company and what it deals with, the job profile vacant and its description, the contact details of the responsible person and the company and also the dates, time and venue details if the company is organizing a walk-in interview. The advertisement would also include the salary range for the available position, and other allowances if any. In the study the job vacancy is for an Accounting Technician and hence the job description would include the activities that an accounting technician would have to perform

IT Infrastructure Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

IT Infrastructure - Coursework Example Typical service examples include storage, application access, printer services, file sharing and direct access to the raw computing power associated with the server. Often, this type of infrastructure will have one or additional client computers establishing connections to a central server via an internet connection. So widespread are the things that a client/server infrastructure can do. Typical examples include the following. First, it allows for use of servers to administer an entire network set-up including setting of access rights plus resource allocation. Consequently, an organization will need a lower number of support staff to administer centralized security accounts compared to other situations where access rights are to be configured on individual computers. Second, it provides an avenue for more efficient backup services ahead of possible data loss. In that case, an organization reduces worries in an event of data loss impairing the business operations. Finally, a client/server infrastructure can improve an organization’s change processes considering that a mere server upgrade can suffice in upgrading all client machines. Even though, it is possible to use the client/server infrastructure in programs resident on an individual computer, the concepts turn more useful in the network arena. In such a situation, the client initiates a connection that targets the server via an internet-based Wide Area or Local Area Networks (WLAN or LAN). After the server has met the client-submitted request, the connection gets terminated. Clients use browsers to seek for resources or services from the server. A distributed infrastructure (DI) refers to a set of heterogeneous networked computers that coordinate and communicate their actions through passing of messages. The operation of a distributed infrastructure is such that the distribution remains transparent in the user’s

Tui Mod 6 Self Reflective Paper Essay Example for Free

Tui Mod 6 Self Reflective Paper Essay As I reflect back on the last two months I start to think of what I have learned while in OPM300, Introduction to Operations Management. In this essay I will discuss the following topics, what I learned the most in this class, something’s that I didn’t really catch on to and how I can improve. One important thing that I learned in this class is if you don’t have a good logistical support then your business can fail quickly. After spending numerous hours on research for Wal-Mart Stores I caught on to the fact that in order for that sore to be so successful the management has to know when to place its order for restock, stay on top of inventories and know when to get rid of a product that’s not selling. Without a good logistical support department Wal-Mart would surely fail. In Module 4 I didn’t not grasp the concepts you were describing on AON and AOA Network Conventions. I spent about an hour going through the slides and couldn’t grasp the process being displayed on the slides. Where these the answers to the previous slides concerning Pert and CPM? My research habits this past semester have been less than stellar. I would find my mouse clicking on topics that had nothing to do with what I was trying to research and instead of reading material on the topic that I was researching I found myself reading the news or sports. I am going to have to find a way to isolate myself and focus on the main topic and not get side tracked so easily. Over all I think that this was a great class. The material was all there and the Session Long Project helped me understand some of the Operational Management processes that happen inside a store that I would have never thought of before. References: 1. http://www.webhostingreport.com/learn/amazon.html 2. www.amazon.com

Accessibility and usability: Web technologies

Accessibility and usability: Web technologies Abstract: The relationship between accessibility and usability can be a contentious issue especially with the advent of new web technologies. Does accessibility have an adverse effect on usability and vice versa and is this in anyway affected by new web technologies? With the advent of new web technologies it is thought by some that the two supposedly bipolar methodologies of web design and evaluation contradict one another even more. In order to determine if this is in fact true this paper will look at the effect of new web technologies on accessibility and usability and the current practices in each of these areas. This paper considers various views on this topic, compares definitions and methodologies and concludes that even when using new web technologies, embracing both sets of practices and recognizing their points of similarity, it is still possible, with considered and judicious use of new web technologies to make a web design that is both usable and accessible. 1. Introduction Some accessibility practitioners believe that by applying new web technologies to a web design, that because of the added level of complexity, they create another barrier to disabled people (Everett 2006). Some usability practitioners believe that by enforcing accessibility practices that the interactivity will in some way suffer (Koch 2002). In terms of new web technologies is this still the case. Is there any merit in these beliefs? Can common ground be found to achieve the some kind of balance? There appears to be a lack of clarity of what constitutes a usable web site and misunderstanding of what constitutes a truly accessible website. The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between usability and accessibility by firstly looking at the differences between them and where they overlap. We will then need to understand current thinking on the relationship between accessibility and usability and how it is affected by current web technologies. Will Web Standards and new web technologies have an effect on accessibility and usability? With the advent of Web standards (Featherstone et al. The Web Standards Project 1998) and updated web accessibility guidelines (Henry et al. W3C 2008) it has become easier for developers to create sites that are more usable and accessible. This paper will also investigate technologies such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)(Garrett 2005), and whether this will have any further effect on the relationship between accessibility and usability 2. Definitions and methodologies 2.1 New web technologies (Web 2.0) The concept of Web2.0 began with a conference brainstorming session. Members noted that far from being unviable after 2001, when many online businesses collapsed, the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites appearing regularly (OReilly 2002). Web 2.0 websites are characterized by their rich and interactive content. This is in stark contrast to the static HTML. By using scripting technologies such as JavaScript an AJAX (Garrett 2005) it is now possible to create web-based applications that resemble desktop applications with the advantage of being able to access them from almost anywhere. Through the use of scripting libraries it is now possible to add interactive desktop-like interface items to web pages and provide the ability to allow users to make changes to current content. Core characteristics of Web 2.0 web sites are (OReilly 2002): Web Services, not packaged software (Web applications) User control over data sources that become more comprehensive the more people use them (Wikis) Users trusted as co-developers (Wikis, blogs) Harnessing collective intelligence Software available to almost any device (Mobile Apps) Lightweight user interfaces and development models With all of these new technologies and coding techniques, what effect do they have on the relationship between accessibility and usability? Web 2.0 has the potential to enhance usability due to the added ability to create a more rich and interactive environment for the website user. However with all of these new technologies, can they be interpreted by assistive technologies used by disabled users? Have disabled users been considered? Will methodologies such as design and evaluation need to change? 2.2 Accessibility The web gives people with disabilities the ability to do things that they would be unable to do via any other avenue. The web offers them freedom and independence. However, all of these possibilities are removed if a web site is not created in an accessible way. Essentially accessibility can be defined as access for everyone no matter what disability they suffer from (Berners-Lee, via Henry W3C 2009). Other have a more flexible approach such as Clark (2002) where he suggests that allowances of for disabled users should be made to make a website accessible. Another term used in connection with Accessibility is Universal Design, which incorporates elements of usability with the goal of making websites or any product as usable as possible by as many people as possible without requiring adapted or specialized design. (Mace 2008) The guidelines by which most accessibility practitioners develop and evaluate websites is Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 which are updated standards developed by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These are written to accommodate new technologies and provide better and more comprehensive help for developers and designers when trying to make websites accessible. These standards consist of 12 guidelines that are organized under 4 principles: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. For each guideline, there are testable success criteria, which are at three levels of priority: A, AA, and AAA with all A guidelines having the highest priority (Caldwell et al. W3C 2008). The four principles of the WCAG 2.0 guidelines can be explained as follows (Caldwell et al. W3C 2008): Perceivable Web content should be made available to any or all of the senses sight, hearing, and/or touch Operable Interface objects such as forms, controls, and navigation must be operable independent of the input method Understandable The sites content, information and interface must be understandable to the target audience Robust Sites can be used reliably by a wide variety of user agents such as web browsers, mobile devices and assistive technologies The W3C also lists various methods for evaluating websites for accessibility to determine their compliance with WCAG (Abou-Zahra et al. W3C WAI 2008). Various methods including preliminary reviews, manual and automated evaluation tools, are used to determine compliance. When developing websites whether with new technologies or not it is recommended that Web Standards coding practices should be used to attain conformance with WCAG 2.0. Web standards are technologies and practices established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), along with other groups and standards bodies for creating and interpreting web-based content. By making use of these technologies it is possible to create web content that benefit a greater number of users and at the same time making this content usable in the long-term regardless of technology changes (Featherstone et al. WASP 2006). The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed an Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (ARIA) in order to make rich internet content more accessible for people with disabilities (Henry et al. W3C 2009). This suite is currently not fully supported in all user agents (browsers) and AJAX libraries (Henry et al. W3C 2009). Will updated accessibility practices be able to enhance or be incorporated into usability practices? 2.3 Usability The generally accepted definition for usability in ISO 9241 states: the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use Usability is defined by five quality components (Nielsen 2003): Learnability: Ease with which a basic task can be completed at the first attempt. Efficiency: The speed with which a task is performed Memorability: The ease with which an interface will be remembered. Errors: The number and severity of errors Satisfaction: The level of enjoyment or pleasure when using an interface An extension of usability is the term User-Centered Design (UCD) (Preece et al. 2006), where users are involved throughout the lifecycle of website developments by using structured methodologies in order to determine and meet all the needs of the target user (Usability.gov 2009). Some of the techniques used include (Usability.gov 2009): Usability testing Representative users are observed while attempting to complete set tasks. Notes on the observations of user behavior and comments are made. Card sorting Participants arrange and even label cards representing site content into logical groups and categories to inform the information architecture of a site design. Individual interviews Individual participants are interviewed typically for 30 minutes to an hour either in person, by telephone, or by any means available which allows conversation. These interviews can be formal or informal and do not involve observation. Contextual interview or field studies Contextual interviews are similar to user testing because the users are observed, however they are not given a set of task but are rather observed in there natural environment. Observers also take notes. Surveys These are used to obtain data from large groups of people in a relatively short time and are normally used to gather user requirements. They can also be used for summative usability evaluation. Focus groups These are usually a discussion among eight to twelve current users or potential users or stakeholders of your site conducted by an experienced moderator. Focus groups typically lasts approximately two hours and covers a range of topics that are decided on beforehand. Task analysis Is used to determine the typical tasks that users perform to achieve a particular goal. Work patterns are studied and broken down to provide a list of tasks and the order in which they are performed. Prototypes Are representations of your website/application shown to users in order to inform the design and determine any major defects before proceeding with further development. These can range from paper drawings (low-fidelity) to near complete products (high-fidelity). Expert evaluations Experts are asked to evaluate sites for usability employing various methods such as heuristic evaluation where sites are evaluated against a set of usability principles. Other methods such as Cognitive walkthroughs and pluralistic evaluation are used (Preece et al. 2006). Will usability practices need to include accessibility practices in order to include people with disabilities or will doing this minimize usability of web products? 3. Relationship 3.1 Would disabled users also benefit if usability practitioners considered accessibility guidelines as part of the efficiency and satisfaction of a site? By analyzing the definitions for accessibility and usability to understand their relationship to one another we can see that accessibility focuses on the making allowances to improve the experience for a particular group of users whereas usability focuses on the effectiveness, satisfaction and efficiency in achieving a specified goal of a particular user when using a website. We can see here that the goals are similar albeit with a slight difference in focus. Disabled users can be considered a group of users with varying needs however; in many cases they are not considered when websites are being built (Disability Rights Commission 2004). If a site is not accessible to a user it will obviously not be an enjoyable or effective experience (Clark 2002). With usability the target audience is determined by means of usability techniques such as questionnaires, surveys and focus groups (Preece et al. 2006). However in many cases accessibility practitioners do not attempt to determine the level of use by a particular disability group for a specified website (Chandrashekar et al. 2006). Some work has been done in this area, however the uptake has not been as expected (Sloan 2006). In addition when websites are developed the focus of the accessibility effort is placed on the needs of blind users without bearing in mind the needs of other user groups such as those with colour-blindness or low vision. This is mainly due to a lack of awareness of what disability groups exist, besides blind users, and the varying difficulties encountered by these people. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines attempt to cover these areas but without being able to see these users encounter problems there is little impact and therefore less motivation to cater for these users. From this we can deduce that disabled users should be included as a potential target group and this should be determined by incorporating usability techniques into web accessibility practices. 3.2 Should both sets of guidelines and principles be adopted by both sets of practitioners or should a single Universal set of guidelines be used? If we compare the most commonly used guidelines of both parties we can see that there are similarities. Usability practitioners commonly make use of Nielsens usability heuristics to perform expert evaluations (Nielsen 1994): Visibility of system status Information should be given to the user via appropriate and reasonably timed feedback Match between system and the real world Language and terms that are familiar to the target audience should be used. Information should be presented naturally and logically. User control and freedom If a user makes a mistake they must be able to exit the function easily or undo the action without being confronted by confusing and unnecessary screens or dialogs. Consistency and standards The system should be consistent in terms of words to indicate actions, navigation and the system should use conventions that the user is accustomed to. Error prevention Always attempt to prevent the error in the design instead of providing good error messages Recognition rather than recall System elements, actions and objects should always be visible or easy to retrieve in order to alleviate the need for recall of previous actions or instructions. Flexibility and efficiency of use The system should be flexible enough to accommodate experienced and inexperienced users. The system should be configurable to allow access to frequently used actions. Aesthetic and minimalist design Only important and relevant information should be displayed in dialogues. Irrelevant or unnecessary information will detract or diminish the visibility of important information. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Messages and suggested solutions to problems should be written in language that is plain, precise and constructive. Help and documentation If necessary, documentation should be focused, concise, concrete and easy to locate Now let us expand on the four principles of the WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines mentioned in section 2.1(WCAG 2008) and point out any similarities between these and Nielsens heuristics. Perceivable Web content should be made available to any or all of the senses sight, hearing, and/or touch. Usability guidelines for Visibility of System Status, Recognition rather than recall (Nielsen 1994) will fail for the disabled user if the items in the site are not perceivable. Operable Interface objects such as forms, controls, and navigation must be operable independent of the input method User control and freedom and Flexibility and efficiency of use (Nielsen 1994) guidelines are not satisfied if they are not operable. If a site is very complex or unattractive it can be difficult to operate therefore it should make use of Aesthetic and minimalist design (Nielsen 1994). A site cannot be operated if it does not apply Consistency and standards (Nielsen 1994). Understandable The sites content, information and interface must be understandable to the target audience User control and freedom, Consistency and standards, Error prevention (Nielsen 1994) cannot occur if the content is not understandable. Help and documentation (Nielsen 1994) is necessary to improve understanding. It also not possible to Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors (Nielsen 1994) if the site cannot be understood. Robust Sites can be used reliably by a wide variety of user agents such as web browsers, mobile devices and assistive technologies. In many cases minimalist design (Nielsen 1994) of a website will allow for web standards-based coding techniques to be employed which will allow it to be used on a variety of devices. Also be easier to follow platform conventions in terms of Consistency and standards (Nielsen 1994). As we can see there is an overlap between the two sets of principles. This overlap in principles could be the reason that Thatcher et al. (2003) where he suggests that accessibility issues are a type of usability problem hence accessibility is a subset of usability. Conversely Universal usability as conceptualized by Shneiderman (2003) where usability problems are thought of as a subset of accessibility problems, which expands the scope of usability to include disabled users in usability evaluations. However it is suggested the relationship between accessibility and usability isnt simply a case of applying a universal approach but that issues also be grouped into categories (Petrie et al. 2007). These being: Problems that only disabled users experience are referred to as pure accessibility problems Problems that only able-bodied users experience are referred to as pure usability problems Problems that both groups of users experience are referred to as universal usability problems The use of a universal set of guidelines is a good starting point however they will need to be refined to include the various accessibility and usability problems encountered by disabled and able-bodied users. 3.3 Should accessibility professionals employ usability practices? Usability practitioners employ numerous methods to determine the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of a project whereas accessibility practitioners will use various techniques and methods to achieve compliance with a set of guidelines. User testing is used by both sets of practitioners, more so by usability practitioners (Chandrashekar et al. 2006). However the difference being that usability practitioners will use this method early on and throughout the design process (Preece et al. 2006 p412). Accessibility practitioners will employ this method at the end of the project. Both groups make use of design guidelines (section 3.2). However guidelines are possibly not the most effective way of evaluating accessibility or usability as they are to be used as guidance but cannot by their nature guarantee the desired results. There are similarities between the accessibility and usability principles with accessibility guidelines being more technical in nature (Kelly et al. 2007), as they require websites to present a particular level of coding. However there are a number of non-technical accessibility guidelines. It is often thought that by making use of accessibility guidelines or universal design techniques that a site will be accessible by all. However this is not necessarily the case (Petrie 2007). Usability guidelines can also present problems (Spool 2002). As with the use of any guidelines they can conflict with one another, they can be misinterpreted and misapplied and they do not guarantee results. In practice accessibility experts will evaluate web sites against guidelines as opposed to user testing. However this has also been found to not be the most effective way of making a website accessible as shown by Disability Rights Commission (DRC) investigation, into website accessibility for disabled people. The study found that designers could not be expected to understand and repair the problems that disabled users experience when visiting a website. To overcome this problem the report suggests that disabled users should be directly involved in the development process (Disability Rights Commission 2004). Guidelines are important from a technical standpoint however it is also important to recognize that the guidelines cannot accommodate all users all of the time. The areas where the guidelines are not practical or important need to be clearly identified and alternate methods need to be identified in order to achieve accessibility (Kelly et al. 2007). Since the publication of the WCAG 2.0 in 2008, however, there are a variety of success criteria and methods suggested that could be used to achieve accessibility (Henry 2008). This being the case guidelines for measuring accessibility is still used predominantly because of the difference in cost between an expert evaluation and user testing and the availability of participants. It is often difficult to get a broad spectrum of users with varying disabilities and therefore accessibility practitioners inevitably end up repeatedly utilizing the same participants for disabled user testing. The reason cost is an issue is due to the fact that accessibility is not built into the project from the beginning and that many do not view it as being of great importance as the number of disabled users is thought to be proportionately very low in comparison with non-disabled users. However there is a strong business case for including disabled users. Christopherson (2007) states: The combined spending power of the 10 million people with a disability in the UK amounts to  £80 billion. There are 6 million people in the UK with dyslexia, with severe cases numbering around 4 million. Many users do not class themselves as disabled even though they may often suffer from disabilities that arent physically manifested such as age related issues, colour-blindness or cognitive difficulties. Some websites do not cater for older devices. By not including disabled users fully may exclude many users from a website which could mean a significant loss in revenue. In many cases accessibility testing is normally regarded as something that can be quickly done at the end of a project in order to comply with the legal obligations of a project. This approach to web accessibility is very shortsighted and potentially costly. If accessibility problems are encountered at the end of a project they can be very difficult to rectify after the fact. As is now recognized in the usability field, it is more efficient and cost effective to include usability evaluation from the beginning and throughout a project. This should also the case for accessibility evaluation as promoted by Henry (2007) in his book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design. The main chapters deal with: The importance of building accessibility at the beginning and throughout the project Including disabled users and not relying only on standards and guidelines Tips on how to deal with disabled users It is better to involve disabled users throughout the lifespan of a project rather than relying on guidelines alone. By involving disabled users practitioners may be able to determine accessibility issues and usability issues which may have been otherwise missed in usability testing (Petrie 2007 pp 405). Accessibility professionals should not adopt usability principles if they are only going to rely on guidelines. However the usability practice of including actual users in evaluation and design from the start and throughout a project should be adopted. 3.4 What effect do new technologies have on usability? As stated earlier (section 2.1) new web technologies can enhance usability. Is this statement true? Does the ability to add more interactivity to a website improve the usability? According to Nielsen (2007) Web 2.0 technologies add more complexity to a website where it is sometimes not necessary and divert design resources. In his report he found amongst other things that: Internet applications were too complex Community content has too few users on the Internet Features merged from different websites (Mashups) can cause branding confusion Application type websites will benefit most from the use Web 2.0 technologies. Most other websites have very few repeated actions thus not requiring the use of this technology. Therefore as Nielsen (2007) states that efficiency is not as important as simplicity and that modest use of Web 2.0 technologies can be of benefit, however the benefits of advanced features have little effect in improving the users experience. If used modestly new technologies can be beneficial for certain types of user experience such as web applications. 3.5 What effect does new technologies have on accessibility? In a study by Hailpern et al. (2009) it was found that Web 2.0 applications force blind users to adapt to an inaccessible use model, although the evolution of technologies such as WAI-ARIA (section 2.3) and AJAX (section 2.3) may change this in the future. Some believe that Web 2.0 will make it more difficult to create accessible websites. Christopherson via Everett (2006) states that if accessibility is not kept in mind there is a greater chance that Web 2.0 will cause problems for disabled users. Basically Web 2.0 adds a further level of complexity, both in terms of accessibility and usability and this will need to be considered throughout the design process if these technologies are going to be used. 4. Conclusion To make sites that are usable and accessible we will need to change our thinking of usability. Is your site still usable if sighted people can fully and conveniently use it but it is a frustrating exercise for a blind person? (Clark 2003) In understanding the concept of an accessible site we have to understand what an accessible site is. A disabled persons experience of a website does not have to be identical to that of an able-bodied person. If accessibility features are simple and well written they should be unnoticed (Clark 2002). Clark (2002) reiterates, Equality is a misnomer. Equivalency is the goal. As can be seen from the above discussion there is an overlap between the definitions and methodologies employed by accessibility and usability practitioners and that there is scope for accessibility guidelines to be employed by usability practitioners and vice versa. However this is not simply a case of making a universal set of guidelines, as firstly accessibility and usability issues cannot be universally grouped and that there are distinct groups of accessibility issues. Secondly the use solely of guidelines is fraught with controversy and do not necessarily guarantee that a site will be accessible or usable. Involving users both disabled and able-bodied throughout the project lifecycle is the most effective approach in achieving the most usable and accessible product. Involving disabled users is also makes good business sense. Web 2.0 technologies do have an effect on the relationship between accessibility and usability. For them to not have a negative effect they need to be used with discretion always bearing in mind that they add a level of complexity for both able-bodied and disabled users. Therefore we can conclude that that by embracing the techniques and methodologies and recognizing points of similarity between usability and accessibility practices, and with modest and careful, considered use of new web technologies a web design can be made both usable and accessible. References Abou-Zahra, S (ed) (2008) Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility: Overview. Worldwide Web Consortium, Web Accessibility Initiative. Available at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html. Accessed 7 December 2009. Caldwell, B, Cooper, M, Reid, LG Vanderheiden, G (2008) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/. Accessed 7 December 2009. Christopherson, R (2007) Making the business case for accessibility. AbilityNet. Available at: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/webbusinesscase. Accessed 7 December 2009. Chandrashekar, S, Fels, D, Stockman, T, Benedyk, R. (2006) Using think aloud protocol with blind users: A case for inclusive usability evaluation methods. Proceedings of the 8th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on computers and accessibility, Portland, Oregon Clark, J (2002) Building Accessible Websites. New Riders. Available at: http://joeclark.org/book/. Accessed 7 December 2009. Disability Rights Commission (2004) The web: access and inclusion for disabled people. Available at: http://joeclark.org/dossiers/DRC-GB.html. Accessed 7 December 2009. Everett, C (2006) Web 2.0: A step backwards for accessibility? ZDNet.co.uk. Available at: http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/0,1000001991,39284428,00.htm. Accessed 7 December 2009. Featherstone, D. Gustavson, A. Sims, G (1998) Working together for standards The Web Standards Project. Available at: http://www.webstandards.org. Accessed 7 December 2009. Garrett, JJ (2005) Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications. Adaptive Path. http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000385.php. Accessed 7 December 2009. Hailpern, J, Guarino-Reid, L, Boardman, R, Annam, S (2009) Web 2.0: blind to an accessible new world. Proceedings of the 18th international Conference on World Wide Web (Madrid, Spain, April 20 24, 2009). WWW 09. ACM, New York, NY. Henry, SL (2009) W3C: Accessibility. Worldwide Web Consortium. Available at: http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility. Accessed 7 December 2009. Henry, SL (2007) Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design. Madison, WI. Available at: http://www.uiAccess.com/JustAsk/. Accessed 7 December 2009.

Thomas Paine and Common Sense :: Papers

Thomas Paine and Common Sense In early 1776 the sentiment surrounding the idea of revolution was evenly divided in Britain's colonies in America. The feelings were split evenly between those for a revolt, those opposing it and those who were neutral. In January 1776 Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense. The ideas and theories expressed in the pamphlet were very compelling and thorough. Compelling enough to sway much of the undecided colonists to agree that revolt is the necessary course of action. Paine states in the introduction to Common Sense "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at fist a formidable outcry in defense of custom." This argument is not one of listing injustices or even reasons for revolt but it does provoke the reader to decide if his thoughts are genuine or from not thinking critically about the times and situations. Now that we my "suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English Constitution," the faults shall be found. Paine argues one theoretical position that could influence those loyal to the King himself. If the British constitution is a system of checks and balances and the commons are the check on the king then this infers, "That the king is not to be trusted." This brings to light an underlying fault with the way the British system of government is arranged. Paine is against a divided form of government. He feels that simpler government is best. That way the people know whom to hold responsible. He also feels the king did not get better with the creation of a chambered government only subtle. He later states that the system, "hath all the distinctions of an house divided against itself." He then again makes the argument that the loyalists have not opened their eyes to the faults of the British form of government. Paine says that those in favor of the current for m of government feel that way "more from national pride than reason." Paine contends that there is no reason to feel loyalty to Britain. He feels that all the actions of Britain are in its self-interest. He feels the colonies would not need defending if Britain would not bring its enemies to the colonies. There would not have been a French and Indian war because the colonies would not be enemies of the French.

Essay --

Introduction Before the inevitable fall of the mighty Third Reich, several Jewish prisoners were unwillingly forced into deadly, horrifying experiments orchestrated by the Nazis. These helpless individuals underwent what most would call gruesome and inhumane procedures for the benefit of Nazi research and development. Others would, perhaps surprisingly, call them not gruesome, but necessary. The Nazis simulated scenarios they might find their soldiers in during and between combat periods, and used the Jewish people as test dummies in place of their own. This way, they thought, they could acquire data that would help them in the long run without sacrificing their own soldiers, since the Jews were to be executed later anyway. There has been a long going debate over the ethical problems of using the acquired data for modern scientific applications. Description of View There are two main sides of the controversy, one being for the data's use, and the other against. The data was the result of many different experiments, some of which were †¢ measuring a person's response to exposure to...

College Student Loans Skyrocket Essay -- essays research papers

If you're counting on government student loans to get you through college or graduate school, count on paying them back. The Education Department has become one of the toughest debt collectors around. Over the past decade, the agency has steadily expanded its arsenal for dealing with former students who don't repay. A 1998 change in federal law made it extremely difficult for people to escape student loans through personal bankruptcy. The Education Department also can now seize parts of borrowers' paychecks, tax refunds and Social Security payments without a court order, a power similar to the IRS's. Access to a government database of newly employed workers has enabled the department to make much more effective use of private collection agencies. And it can go after even decades-old student loans, because there's no statute of limitations on them, unlike most consumer debt. As a result, the Education Department collected $5.7 billion in defaulted student loans in the past fiscal year, more than twice as much as in 1998. For current loans that go into default, the department now projects it will ultimately retrieve every dollar of principal, plus almost 20% in fees and overdue interest. The aggressive approach has sparked an outcry from some borrowers, consumer advocates and even some bankruptcy-court judges. They complain that the department runs over some former students who have suffered reversals of fortune. Some who favor a softer stance argue that student loans are ...

Developing a Philosophy of Leadership Essay

A leadership philosophy is the way we see ourselves as leaders. This philosophy guides our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts. Our philosophies are influenced by external and internal forces. We can change who we are as leaders by simply changing our philosophy of leadership. Leadership philosophies can change as you grow to understand yourself within the context of leading. Creating or finding your leadership philosophy means that you must explore and reflect upon your personal values, assumptions, and beliefs about leadership. Personal values are qualities or characteristics that you value. You would rather leave an organization or step down as a leader than violate your values. Your values guide your intentions and they influence how you lead. When your personal values are clear and you are conscious of them, you create a solid foundation for leading. Assumptions are ideas that are assumed or believed to be true. As a leader it is important to understand what assumptions fuel your leadership thinking. Often leaders are not aware of the assumptions because they are operating from certain paradigms that will not allow them to see assumptions. Reflection into one’s leadership is an excellent way to uncover assumptions. Beliefs are ideas that we hold to be true; they shape our realities. If a leader believes that the only individuals in an organization that can make decisions is the management staff, then that belief will influence how the leader treats others. Beliefs can also be unconscious; they are for us a habitual way of thinking and acting that it doesn’t cross our minds that our beliefs may be prohibiting us. The following is an exercise to help you create, find, or define your personal philosophy of leadership. Exercise 1: Identifying Your Leadership Values From the list below, pick five core values that you feel describe and guide who you are as a leader. You may choose other values that are not on this list. Place them in the following chart and answer the questions in the matrix. 1. Write down two stories of leadership. One story should describe a positive experience you’ve had with leadership and the second story should describe a time when you had a negative experience with leadership. 2. In the space below, write down your definition of leadership. 3. Using your definition of leadership, please elaborate how you first came to understand (or know) your leadership definition. 4. Describe who are the individuals or organizations that influence your leadership definition. For each of the questions in this section, ask yourself: 1. What were my assumptions? 2. What influenced my assumptions? 3. Would others (co-workers, friends, supervisors) see the situations I described differently? Exercise 3: Understanding Your Leadership Beliefs Answer the following questions about leadership beliefs. By reflecting on these questions, you will find what beliefs you hold about leadership. 1. Can people who have caused others harm be leaders, e.g. Adolph Hitler? 2. Should leaders have certain qualities to be able to lead? 3. Who decides who leads? 4. How do leaders gain credibility? 5. In general, is there something good about leadership? 6. What do you think is the purpose for leadership? 7. Is leadership behavior developed through personal experiences or through external forces? For the questions above, write down one statement for each question that best illustrates your belief about that question. For example, if you answered #6 with: The purpose of leadership is to provide vision, guidance, and bring people together for a common good. It unites people and gets them to join together for a goal, then your belief statement may be: I believe that leadership provides a vision to create a common good. Write a statement for each question. These statements will be used in combination with the other activities to create a philosophy of leadership for you. Exercise 4: Finalizing Your Leadership Philosophy Now that you’ve identified your leadership values, uncovered your leadership assumptions, and understand what beliefs guide your leadership thinking, you are now ready to write statements reflecting your leadership philosophy using the responses above. Statements about your leadership should be written in the present moment not in the future tense. Creating â€Å"present moment† statements helps you to internalize and visualize your philosophy as it is happening now, not in the future or the past. Your leadership philosophy should be a statement that consists of your responses from the above exercise. It doesn’t have to include everything, but it should encompass the general idea of what you’ve written. It doesn’t have to be formatted in a certain way – just whatever makes sense to you. You can write one sentence statements or you can write a story explaining your philosophy. Start with an initial draft of your philosophy and write it down. Revise it as often as you need. Remember, your philosophy can change depending on where you are at with your leadership. After you’ve finished, type out your philosophy on a nice sheet of paper and frame it. Add pictures or artwork to your philosophy. Place it in an area where you will see it all the time; this will serve as a reminder to you to remain true to your leadership. The following is a sample philosophy statement consisting of one sentence statements. Remember, you can write your philosophy in any way that makes sense to you. My Leadership Philosophy is†¦ I believe that leadership is a journey that consists of followers and leaders. I balance my work and personal success. I always help people to find the best in themselves. I spend time reflecting on my leadership and its implications on others. I value integrity in personal and professional development. I respect leadership from different perspectives and ways of knowing. I listen with respect and gratitude to others.

Confidentiality of Health Information Essay

1. Should corrections be date and time stamped? Yes, it is very important to keep track of when changes are made to an individual’s medical records. Any correction made to confidential medical information should be time and date stamped. In addition, the name of the person who makes the changes should be recorded with the time and date change. should there not be a note of who makes changes to the medical record. An example of the negative consequences of not date and time stamping medical records, electronic or otherwise, is that in a court of law, one’s medical records could be inadmissible due to this simple negligence. A medical malpractice case, in which the patient deserves compensation for being diagnosed incorrectly, or not diagnosed at all, could hinge on this incredibly important detail. Whether or not the patient’s medical records was date and time stamped, as well as signed by the individual working on the patient’s electronic medical record. 2. When should the patient be advised of the existence of computerized databases containing medical information about the patient? A patient should be advised of the existence of computerized database containing medical information about the patient , before the patient’s physician releases said information to the entity keeping the computer bases. All medical information must be shared with the patient before any treatments are performed, so that the patient may give their informed consent for the treatment or procedure to be administered. If patients were unaware of the existence of their medical information stored in computerized database, they obviously would not have the knowledge to access their own records, which is highly unprofessional and detrimental to the patient’s health care in the future. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), patients have the right to know where their records are being stored and who has access to them for safety and privacy of the individual. 3. When should the patient be notified of purging of archaic or inaccurate information? States â€Å" procedures for purging the computerized data base of archaic or inaccurate data should be established and the patient and physician should be notified before and after the data has been purged.† It is essential that the patient and physician always know what is going on with their confidential medical records. Care must be taken to make sure that the medical record are never accidently mixed with other computer based record. With technology growing faster than most of us can keep up, most of today information is on computer. Either being stored on a disk, on websites, or even online storage . The American Medical Association (AMA), has issued opinion 5.07 confidentiality for computers. 4. When should the computerized medical database be online to the computer terminal? The computerized medical database is online to the computer terminal only when authorized computer programs requiring the medical data are in use. According to the (AMA ) policy, External individuals or organizations should not have online access to these computerized database. containing identifiable data from medical records patient. Access should be controlled through security measures. Some examples of these are encryption of the file, password to gain access to the file, or other user identification. In addition, leaving a terminal online to the database when it is not necessary can make it easier for hackers to get into the system. 5. When the computer service bureau destroys or erases records, should the erasure be verified by the bureau to the physician? I believe that when the computer services bureau destroys or erases the record, the physician should be notified in writing that it has taken place. Before records can be destroyed or erased the bureau has to establish that the physician has another copy, of some form, in his possession. The patient and the physician have the right to know any little alteration on any record. This will help in knowing what information has been erased and what significance it has as far as patient’s medical process is concerned. 6. Should individuals and organizations with access to the database be identified to the patient? Yes, all individuals and organizations with some form of access to the computerized databases, and the level of access permitted should be specifically identified in advance. Full disclosure of this information to the patients is necessary in obtaining consent to treatment. patient data should be assigned a security level appropriate for the data’s degree of sensitivity, which should be used to control who has access to the information. The patient has the right to know who have an access to his/her information and why. This will for the respect of the patient’s right to privacy and confidentiality. 7. Does the AMA ethics opinion mention encryption as a technique for security? Yes, the computerized data systems have a compromising information security. The (AMA) opinion is that â€Å" there should be controlled access to the computerized database via security procedures such as encryption (encoding), passwords, and other user identification including scan able badges†. Confidentiality agreements should be made with other healthcare professional whom the office networks with encryption is recommended if the network entails public channel of communication such a radio waves, telephone wires, and microwaves. This will increase the changes of information confidentiality. 8. In regard to electronic medical record (EMR), what is the policy for disclosing authorized data requested by third parties? The patient must give consent in writing authorization for disclosing any information about his/her medical record. the individual or groups requesting the data required to obtain the expressed consent of the patient. The dissemination of confidentiality medical data should be limited to only those individuals or agencies with a bona fide use of the data. As well as the fact that, the third parties receiving the Electronic – PHI , do not have the authorization to disclose the information to additional sources. Then , the database should disclose the least amount of E-PHI possible to serve the purpose , while also limiting the period of its use. Finally, the policy for disclosing the E-PHI is clear, the database must acquire consent for the dissemination of the least amount of information possible , the database must maintain the patient’s confidentiality, and, the third parties receiving the data may not disclose the data to any other organization or individual. American Medical Association, (AMA) opinion 5.07. REFERENTS: www.ama-assn.org/ Search box type, opinion 5.07 www.ahima.org/ www.ama-assn.org/ama/category

Emphasise the tragedy in Death of a Salesman Essay

A symbol is defined as ‘an object or action that represents an idea, function or process,’ essentially anything which ‘stands for’ something else. When viewed in relation to the Aristotelian model of tragedy in Poetics, Miller’s rich use of symbolism in Death of a Salesman contradicts a key premise within Aristotle’s tragedian theory, labelling the tragic hero’s hamartia as the cause for their downfall. Miller uses symbols to explore the motifs of success, freedom and failure, as well as to help shape our view of his characters. Throughout the play Miller emphasises the strength of these symbols through the way they affect the Loman family and in particular Willy, whose obsession with the American Dream – and all that it encompasses – brings him to his tragic end. We may consider Willy to posses the tragic flaw of hubris, which will only assist the interplay of the material and figurative symbols Miller creates to entrap Willy within his beliefs, leaving him unable to escape. Inherent throughout the play is Miller’s heavy use of symbols to convey meanings such as hope, struggle and self-worth. Significantly, symbolism assists the tragic imagery as a crucial element of Miller’s stagecraft. Miller elaborately constructs the perfect conditions for Willy’s downfall in several key ways including his use of music, the motif of dreams and symbolic props. His first method is the recurring element of music applied through his stage directions. The melancholy ‘melody heard, played upon the flute’ starting from Act 1 resonates with the atmosphere and is Miller’s structuralism technique of oscillating to and from Willy’s reflection of the past. The natural element of this symbol alludes to his father’s influence as a flute-maker, and its use during Willy’s introspection could suggest an alternate, more successful life pursuing in craftsmanship instead of being a salesman under the impression of becoming ‘well-liked. ’ It acts as the transition between imagination and reality, setting the scene as we witness the bold symbol of Willy’s unfortunate circumstance. Furthermore, the flute symbolises Willy’s faint connection with the natural world, clearly illustrated by the stage directions as he enters Scene 1: ‘The flute plays on. He hears but is not aware of it’ By not being ‘aware,’ one may consider this ‘melody’ to be a calling which Willy attempts to mentally suppress. Additionally, Miller introduces his tragic hero with an afflicted perception the moment he is presented to the audience. Structurally, Miller develops this further as Willy gives us an account of his journey home, stating ‘I almost forgot I was driving. ’ This disregard for his surroundings and safety illustrates just how easily his physical and mental stability can be compromised. Alternatively, one may associate Willy’s captivation by the ‘thick’ trees and ‘warm’ sun with the almost hallucinogenic connotations of nature, or what he may be describing as ‘such strange thoughts’, with the road possibly symbolise Willy’s suspension between responsibilities and his sense of nirvana, a road he confronts ‘every week of my life. ’ The use of nature is significant to the settings created by Miller. As the curtain rises and reveals the Loman house, he ensures that ‘We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides. ’ The way they enclose the setting directs our attention to the ‘fragile-seeming’ house and emphasises Willy as the ‘Low-man’ intended by his name. One may interpret this as a pathetic fallacy, alluding to their sense of isolation and vulnerability, the former of which being a traditional trait of the tragic hero. However, the way Miller isolates the entire Loman family reflects the way the American dream was an influence to many people’s lives and is not merely a unique flaw in Willy. The setting created by Miller corresponds with Aristotle’s unity of place, stating that ‘a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography. ’ This appropriately fits within the Aristotelian model as it focuses less on the power of external conflicts, but rather the intrinsic and non-progressive world view Willy is unable to escape from. This peripheral is sharply contrasted by Miller’s references to the ‘jungle’ through Ben, who despite being dead before the play begins, remains a big influence to Willy and his search for capitalism. The jungle’s symbolic connotations of ‘wild freedom’ and ‘liberty’ epitomises all that opposes the American dream. One could also argue that they represent the opportunities Willy rejected due to his hubris, his uncompromising faith in the American dream. Rollyson explores this idea and states ‘Willy is only as solid as the society in which he tries to sell himself,’ and everything from his view of America as ‘the greatest country in the world’ to his idolisation of ‘David Singleman’ suggests that the American dream is something he is deeply ‘sold’ into. Through Miller’s use of a non-linear narrative, the audience gains a greater understanding of the way symbols are established and the development of the setting in which they manifest. Willy’s recollection of the past makes us aware that the apartment buildings replaced their natural surroundings, most notably the ‘two beautiful elm trees,’ the presences of which echo through the repeated appearance of leaves around their home. The construction of the apartment buildings has rendered their neighbourhood lifeless, and Willy’s statement ‘The grass don’t grow any more’ may reflect on the state of poverty throughout the United States, induced by the Wall Street crash. He adds that ‘they massacred the neighbourhood,’ with the lexical choice ‘massacred’ highlighting the ruthlessness of the industrialisation which compromised their way of life. The ambiguity of ‘they’ may echo Willy’s lack of perception over who is truly responsible for the desolate state of their economy, represented by both Willy’s failure as a salesman and their home environment, isolated, unable to flourish. At this point, the audience should understand the power of these symbols, which are shown to have direct influence over Willy’s life by compromising his mental stability. Willy’s ‘two large sample cases’ symbolise his wasted efforts attempting to fulfil the role of a successful provider. Their physical weight acts as a pathetic fallacy to represent Willy’s emotional heaviness and an appeal to the audience’s sympathy. Linda’s first words express her anxiety of him potentially smashing the car, symbolising mobility. The irony is that no matter how far he drives to work, he doesn’t seem to get anywhere or achieve anything beyond his mundane routine. Miller immediately contrasts this real symbol in their present timeframe with a mentally-constructed symbol from Willy’s past, exposed to us through Willy’s inner thoughts: ‘That funny? I coulda sworn I was driving that Chevvy today. ’ This juxtaposition of past and present tenses helps create the feeling of disorientation which we would expect Willy to experience. The Chevrolet symbolises status and success, even described by Willy as ‘the greatest car ever built’ only for him to later contradict himself by asserting that ‘they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car! ’ We may identify Willy’s tragic flaw as his willingness to base his very existence on material goods. Miller’s extensive use of such symbols reflects the obsessive nature of Willy and this effective literary technique acts as a vehicle to draw our attention to the flawed society of 20th-century America, totally preoccupied with the relentless pursuit of the tragic American dream. It is at the end of Act 2 when we discover that the car, a symbol of progression and modernity, becomes no more than an instrument for Willy’s suicidal downfall. Throughout Willy’s internal conflict, Linda remains a symbol of emotional security, whose unconditional love sees past his lack of success. Her pivotal speech ‘Willy Loman never made a lot of money†¦ So attention must be paid! ’ mirrors the Chorus of Greek tragedy, acting as an interlude during which the audience reflects on the progression of the play. Linguistically, her repetitive use of negatives ‘not’ and ’never’ emphasise his lack of achievement and simplicity as a character. She is heavily conscious of the tragic fate Willy is heading toward, and her devotion to him is shown as she mends her stockings. Structurally, this is placed immediately after Willy’s scene with The Women whom is treated with new stockings. Miller juxtaposes Willy’s infidelity with the shame he feels being unable to provide successfully – shown as he acts ‘angrily’ at the sight of them. The motifs of hope and dreams symbolise the search for the unobtainable, a fundamental flaw in Willy’s characterisation. With the working title The Inside of His Head, Miller originally intended to make the setting itself a physics manifestation of Willy’s internal mental state, with the stage layout resembling the shape of a head. One could argue that Miller’s use of ‘imaginary walls-lines’ – which characters walk through instead of the doors as to indicate a recollection of Willy’s past – would show a comprised mental structure within Willy’s psyche. Although these externalities largely influence Willy’s behaviour, we must also consider him as symbolic, as he represents the struggling everyman whose belief in the flawed American dream is slowly killing him. Miller’s use of symbols within Death of a Salesman allows us to witness exactly how Willy, a tragic character bounded by ‘his temper, massive dreams and little cruelties,’ becomes progressively more influenced by both his thoughts and surrounding environment. By stimulating our senses and heightening dramatic tension, it is a quintessential device used to enhance the audience’s understanding and sense of sympathy toward this tragic character so mentally distorted by this ideal, without which there would be no tragedy to interpret. As a play famously described as ‘a time bomb expertly placed under the edifice of Americanism,’ Miller makes a great effort to illustrate his beliefs of the American Dream as a corrupt ethos by showing its tragic effect on the common American man.