Partner Selection in Joint Ventures Essay

Achieving constant business growth, in terms of size, sales, technology, skills, profits, and a host of other factors is the undeniable primary priority of most business corporations in today’s intensely competitive business scenario. Spurred by constantly changing technological, economic, and political conditions, most business managements continue to look towards achieving constant all round growth, not just to obtain competitive advantage and to satisfy their stakeholders, but also to fuel market prices of company shares, business valuations and the concomitant increases in performance bonuses and management remuneration (Beamish, 1988). Businesses have traditionally grown through strategies of internal growth and acquisition, acquisitions often enlarging the size of businesses manifold, much more in fact than organic internal growth could ever have done (Beamish, 1988). The recent acquisition of Arcelor by the Mittals of London is illustrative of how an acquisition can propel a company to the forefront of an industry in terms of size, sales, geographic spread, and profits. Capital acquisition, though undoubtedly the most effective vehicle for achieving strategic growth requires significant resources and is unfortunately not a very viable option for most companies, especially those which are young, dynamic, ambitious, and look towards achieving fast growth through enlargement of geographical spread, entry into new territories, accessing of new and more sophisticated technology, and enhancement of product portfolio (Gannon, 1993). Swallowing smaller businesses not being very possible for such organizations, their route for growth leads them towards forging alliances with other business firms through various arrangements, be they strategic alliances, representations, franchises or joint ventures (Gannon, 1993). Joint ventures (JVs) allow two business firms, irrespective of their legal status, (private/public stock corporations or partnerships) to come together through a legal entity in which both companies contribute equity and share in the control and profits of the venture. Very obviously joint ventures have many advantages (Geringer and Hebert, 1989). They enable and empower companies to increase and improve their operations by using their strengths, spreading costs as well as risks, enhancing financial access and strength, achieving economies of scale, and accessing technologies and markets (Geringer and Hebert, 1989). The JV process opens up companies to new thoughts, helps in increasing competitive advantages and enables them to achieve their strategic goals through the creation of synergies with other organizations, acquisition of technologies and skills and diversification of activity (Geringer and Hebert, 1989). With such a range of advantages to be gained from the activity the setting up of joint ventures has come to form an integral part of the corporate strategy of most progressive and ambitious companies. Definition of Problem Whilst joint ventures have become an accepted, popular and much used mechanism for the attainment of a number of strategic objectives of different companies, their rate of success ironically continues to be low (Harrigan, 1988). Some management experts, who have in the past attributed this low success rate to basic incompatibilities between different cultures and attitudes towards business, are at a loss to explain why the failure rate of such activity continues to be high even for ventures between companies that belong to the same country (Harrigan, 1988). To take the issue a step further there have also been occasions of JVs failing between two companies, not just of the same country but also of the same group (Harrigan, 1988). Although many such ventures do progress to doing business and making profits, their overall achievements tend to be less than what was originally envisaged, such mediocre results often leading to loss of partner interest, the relegation of the venture to that of a less important activity and subsequently to the search for buyers for the business (Beamish, 1988). International joint ventures of course fare even worse, a fact that has led many experts to wonder whether the establishment of joint ventures are strategically sound decisions or fall into the category of basically risky business decisions whose success depends on the playing out of a number of unpredictable factors (Beamish, 1988). One of the major reasons leading to failures or their less than happy performances of joint ventures, management experts believe, lies with the coming together of wrong people, or to put it in the perspective of one of the partners, the wrong selection of a JV partner (Geringer, 1988). Research Objective This research paper aims to investigate the various issues that are considered during the selection of JV partners, particularly the strategic reasons that are involved in the formation of international joint ventures, the areas of difficulty and the potential points of conflict that could occur between partners during the course of the JV, and the different issues that need to be considered at the time of selection of partner and the sealing of the JV. Methodology and Structure The methodology for researching this paper follows from the framing of the research objective and deals with the most appropriate means of accessing relevant data. Such methodology involves choosing between adoption of quantitative or qualitative research methods and deciding whether to obtain data from primary and/or secondary sources. Quantitative methods, being best suited for research papers that require data to be obtained from many respondents, are not appropriate in the present context. Considering the complexity of the issue being investigated, the subjective nature of information to be analysed, and the interpretation required, as also the need to answer â€Å"how† and â€Å"why† questions, the paper calls for the adoption of qualitative methods. The methodology entails collection of information from secondary and primary sources through the study of available literature on the subject, the bibliography at the end of the paper listing the various publications studied for the purpose. Whilst the study would have been qualitatively enhanced by direct 121 interviews with managers with experience of international joint ventures, such interviews are difficult to arrange at this moment because of the economic crisis and the tremendous disturbance in the corporate world. The paper thus depends exclusively upon a study of the relevant literature for arriving at the findings. Information available on JVs, although extensive and qualitatively rich, is fragmented, and information has had to be obtained from various sources. Whilst the paper is limited by lack of information from individuals with direct first hand experience of joint ventures, efforts have been taken to consult a variety of information sources from different authors and institutions for purposes of cross validation and verification. The review of literature is taken up in the following section, which in turn is followed by an analysis of the findings, conclusions, and suggestions.

Kelloggs vintage ad

In the early sass's, a well-known cereal brand, Kellogg, put out an advertisement for a new product it was producing, vitamins. The ad shows a well-dressed husband standing with his wife, both of whom look happy. The man Is wearing a suit, and the woman Is dressed to clean with her apron on and hand duster. The ad shows the husband saying, â€Å"So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks. † On the bottom right hand side, you see a little comic of the husband and wife again speaking to each other. The husband says, â€Å"Gosh, honey, you seem to thrive on cooking, cleaning and dusting and I am all tuckered out by closing time.What's the answer? ‘ The wife responds, â€Å"Vitamins, darling! I always get my vitamins. † This ad is trying to portray the man as hard working and tired, but a woman who, though she is also hard working, isn't tired, and is ready to please her man when he comes home. Kellogg is using sex appeal and gender roles to attract its consumer s; however, this ad would be ineffective today because of its use of logos, ethos, and pathos. Back in the sass's, it is known that woman were the ones that did all the cooking and cleaning throughout the house, while the husband went to work. In the Kellogg ad you see a woman thatIs ready to clean and a man who has Just returned from work. The ad Is portraying a man holding his wife from behind saying â€Å"So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks! † On the bottom right hand side of the ad you see the husband and wife again, this time facing each other, but again he is holding her. With the husband asking his wife how she seems to thrive on the cooking and cleaning because by the end of the day of work he is all tuckered out. The wife answers by saying, â€Å"Vitamins, Darling I always get my vitamins. † You get the idea that the woman will always be ready for the man.Especially with the way the husband is holding onto her. You can also get a glimpse of the gen der roles that are being viewed. During that era woman had to stay home and maintain the house while the man went to work to make the money. On the left hand side of the ad, there is a tiny Image of a Kellogg PEP cereal box. By looking at the ad you would not know It was supposed to be about cereal. When looking at an advertisement you indirectly come across three approaches to the argument; logos, ethos, and pathos. When you look for the logos you are looking for the reason, or logic, behind the ad and what is making it appeal to the reader.Looking at the vintage Kellogg ad, there are bold letters at the bottom saying, â€Å"Vitamins for pep! Pep for vitamins. † By reading that statement you want to assume that you are looking at an ad for vitamins. If you were to take your vitamins, then you would have the energy that you would need to do your daily tasks, and to also please your husband. The logic would not work today because taking vitamins does not give you substantial h ealth benefits. It is more like that placebo effect, in which people believe that it is doing something for you, but in the long run it is not doing anything t all.Ethos Is the credibility of the ad, so you are looking for the reputation, experience, and Its values of the advertiser. The ad Is showing how Kellogg PEP Is a good source for energy Like vitamins. So you can see that the brand of Kellogg and the reliability of vitamins are an excellent source of nutritional supplement. The brand of Kellogg and the belief that vitamins could give you what your regular diet you the energy that you were made to believe once did. Pathos is the emotion ad is portraying. It uses feelings, desires, and fear to influence your reader.The woman in he picture looks energetic and ready to go do the cooking and all the household chores, such as laundry, dishes, dusting, mopping, etc. The wife feels better than the man after a long day of hard work, and that she is ready to go to please him. With the wife having all the energy, she will be able to perform the acts that her husband desires to make him happy. The pathos would not work today because women do not just stay home and cook and clean. Today woman have more say in the way things are done. Kellogg used ethos, logos, and pathos to attract their consumers.Kellogg sees the idea of taking your vitamins as a supplement to give you energy to do your household chores, and for the woman to please her man. They are using sex appeal to attract more consumers. In that time woman were only allowed to wear dresses to look sexier. The ethos, logos, and pathos would not work today because of their use of sex appeal and gender roles. Today, women are able to go to work and not Just be a stay at home wife. Women have more options. By looking at the advertisement, you would not know that it was about Kellogg if it did not have the little logo box in the bottom left corner.

Psychology of Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Psychology of Diversity - Essay Example Wiki’s leadership traits are inherent and her family has been custodian of ‘ceremonial treasures’ used in Yurok cultural rituals. She firmly believes that education is the vital tool that would not only raise the living standard of the American Indians but it would also help propagate the rich cultural heritage of the tribe and bring it on the world map. Wiki’s efforts were recognized and school initiatives that prepare the disadvantaged students to get secondary school diploma and college credits are being funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Wiki’s assertion that ‘this is the frontline of our civil rights movements’ tells the sorry state of American Indians in a country that is considered the be one of the most developed and technologically advanced nations of the world. American Indians got this name when Columbus landed in America in 1492 but thought that he has reached India and named the brown skinned people as Indians. Since that time, the American Indians have existed in diverse geographical locations, having their unique customs and cultural identity but unfortunately, they have not yet been absorbed into the mainstream American society. One can glean from the article that they have yet to become true citizens of the country. The whites have maintained a racial divide within the society through deliberate use of powerful lobby of the whites and financial advantages that they enjoyed over their less privileged counterparts. The Native Americans and blacks were not allowed to participate in social activities and even education was denied to them so that they would remain unequal socially and economically. It is indeed, ironical that month of November is celebrated as ‘National American Indian Heritage Month’ and the government and non-government agencies honor American Indians for their contribution and

Criminal justice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal justice - Assignment Example In 1934, the Supreme Court was given the authority to draft rules of federal procedures. The Judiciary Act also had a provision for the establishment of circuit and districts. The circuit courts were later abolished in 1911 (Schmalleger, 243). Congress later established a District Court for each state that had jurisdiction over maritime and admiralty cases along with minor criminal and civil cases. The president was given the power to appoint an Attorney General for each district and for other new states that were to be established. A dual court system is whereby the judicial system is administratively divided into two systems independent of the legislature and executive. The two systems are the federal court system and the state court system. The reason for this judicial system is that it was expensive and time consuming for federal courts to listen to individual cases that affected only a few people. The state courts were created so that these case are heard and judged on quickly and efficiently. The federal and the state court systems are divided into the following layers. Special jurisdiction courts which handle only specific kind of cases like the tax and bankruptcy courts and the family courts. The other layers of the judicial system include the Trial Court, the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court. There exists a number difference between the state court and the federal court systems. One is that state courts are established by the state while the federal courts are created by the federal government. On jurisdiction, state courts have a wider jurisdiction over the cases that they could hear, unlike the federal courts which are limited to specific cases listed in the constitution or provided by Congress. State courts handle criminal cases for crimes committed within the borders of the state while crimes committed across state borders are dealt

Organsiational Behaviour Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organsiational Behaviour Assignment - Essay Example In order to achieve this, OB it interprets people-organization relationships existing in any organisation in terms of the whole person, organization, and social system. The main objective of OB is to develop better relationships by achieving organizational objectives, human objectives and social objectives. From its definition, it is clear that OB encompasses many topics that are critical to an organisation such as human leadership, change, behaviour, teams among others. In order to address all these areas, OB requires contributions from various fields. This brings out one character of OB, that is, it is a multi-disciplinary field. There are various disciplines working in the field of OB that have made contributions to the subject. These are psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology and political science. These are the major behavioural science Contributions of various disciplines to OB. Psychology Psychology is a science that seeks to understand, measure, explain and ev en change the behaviour of people and animals. The major concern for psychologists therefore is to study of the behaviours of individuals in an attempt to understand them. People in psychology who have contributed significantly and continue to add to the knowledge of OB are counseling psychologists, personality theorists, earning theorists and most important, organizational and industrial and psychologists. Psychology has contributed to OB through many contributions that assisted in forming the study of OB. Examples of areas of contribution include motivation, leadership, learning. personality, perception, training, job satisfaction, performance appraisal, individual decision making. One of the contributions of psychology to Ob is that it has provided a means of measuring leadership effectiveness. according to Baron (2007), psychology has provided various ways of measuring leadership. In relation to this, it has provided way of developing statistical models of behaviours and attribu tes that make up an effective organisational leader. Job satisfaction is among employees is important as it determines the effectives of the organisation. Psychology has contributed to this area by providing a secret oh now an organisation can exploit its employees. Braksick (1999) explains that on how an organisation provides an opportunity and environment to bring out the best in its workforce is certainly its ability to explore the psychology of its employees. Individual decision-making among the members of an organisation affects an organisation. Psychology reveals that the tendencies to make the right decisions or those that will benefit the organisation are attributed to the psychological and the cognitive state of the individual. The statistical works of psychology relates to attitudes of members and this is an important contribution to OB. it directs that how an organization is to reward and manage its members and create policy must include their mindsets and align them to t he objectives of the organization. Psychology has had on important contribution how to achieve optimal performance and efficiency in an organisation by touching on work design so as to meet organisational goals. Through psychology, the management of an organisation is able to understand that the interconnection of an employee and their environment include temperature climate, machinery and that associated stressors

Source evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Source evaluation - Essay Example study were subjected to writing as well as reading assessments and the parents were given a set of questionnaires to fill in information regarded their views on video games. The parents were to do some analysis as well as to take up roles in the study behavior of their children as to see if what they had been instructed to undertake were actually true over a period of four months. (Weis, Robert, and Brittany C. Cerankosky, 12-17). They then filled in another set of questionnaire at the end of the four months and those results were heavily relied upon by the two psychologists to come up with their final analysis and conclusion. The study revealed that young boys who did not own video games put their parents under pressure to buy them such items. Upon receiving them, they become their main source of addiction. They noted that boys who had acquired the system began to register low academic performance in schools. Their research proved that video games were not appropriate among school going boys who could no longer concentrate in their studies thus having lower reading and writing scores. Video games have caused a displacement in the after-school activities such as artistic games that had a lot of positive impact on the academic performance of students. This book is of great importance to this research owing to the fact that it expands on the role of video games on academic performance among children. The article was published in Sage on 18th February 2010 which makes it very relevant for the purpose of this study. They developed an understanding on the correlation between playing of violent video games and violent antisocial behavior in the society. The book considers how playing video games may lead to children and the youth acquiring violent attitudes. The relationship between the two variables is best evident among children who spent a lot of time playing the games. There are fewer factors to cause alarm in the video gaming industry provided that adequate steps

What is Economics Issues Affecting The Economy As A Whole Essay

What is Economics Issues Affecting The Economy As A Whole - Essay Example The second part of economics deals with the problems rising in the global arena. Humans have unlimited wants but there are limited resources to produce it and when we say resources this is basically referred as the four factors of productions that are used in producing wants. Human race is like an ever hungry beast whose wants are unlimited but there are limited resources to produce it. This issue is referred as scarcity because these resources like oil, mineral, gases take millions of years to form and human beings consume it with a century. (McConnell, 2011) We all know that every human possess some basic needs and beyond these needs there are wants that is only demanded to gain pleasure or to derive satisfaction. Humans have no end to their wants but due to limited income we are forced to make choices as we cannot have whatever we want so we have to select the things we can afford and make sure that the thing we have selected gives us most benefit. When a choice is made one thing is given up in order to obtain what we have selected. The next best alternative that we gave up in order to obtain what we have selected is called opportunity cost. For example between a bike and an I-Phone 5 an individual chooses a bike in this case the I-Phone 5 is the opportunity cost. The concepts in economics can be factual or value based. Objective and fact based information is referred as Positive Economics while value based and subjective information is related to the Normative Economics. Positive economics could be tested and proved or disapproved while the Normative Economics are opinion based. (McConnell, 2011) Macroeconomics and Microeconomics Before we go into further analysis it is very important to dis cuss about the two major branches of economics and that is differentiating between Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. These two branches have many basic common ideas and methods in common, the difference lies in the level to which they are studied and the way they are perceived. Microeconomics focuses on individual consumers, workers and firms each of which is too small to have an impact on the national economy. Macroeconomics avoids this distinction among many different kinds of goods, firms and markets that exist in the economy and instead focus on aggregate. For example, in their analysis macroeconomists do not care whether consumers are buying VCRs or DVD players, beef or chicken, Pepsi or Coke. It focuses on summing up individual variables to obtain economic wide totals called aggregation. (McConnell, 2011) Issues affecting the economy as a whole Studying about the structure of the economy is a part of Macroeconomics that studies the performance of the national economy and help s in designing policies that government use to influence the economy. (McConnell, 2011) There are certain issues that affect the economy and the main ones are: Business Cycle Growth in an economy is never smooth, it

Greek mythology discussion questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Greek mythology discussion questions - Assignment Example On the other hand, a legend cannot be passed on to become a myth because myths have to originate from legends. Therefore, the reverse is impossible. The United States of America is characterized by a number of religious beliefs, which include Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all having different religious practices and beliefs. However, it is also evident that these religious groups do not perform their common rituals while in the U.S. as compared to other nations. This is because, in the U.S., there is a massive cultural assimilation that has led to the loss of various cultural rituals and languages as compared to other nations. Additionally, high profiling of people by the government bar people like Muslims from practicing their rituals due to the fear of being attached to terrorism activities. If Big Bang and law of nature were part of the intelligent design, then most people will not believe that these processes led to the creation of the solar system and everything that happens on Earth are all controlled by a supernatural being (Graves 267). The idea of apocalypse is a common thing to all cultures because everybody believes that one day the world will come to an end (Graves 184)). This is usually justified by death that is a ritual performed in all cultures. On the other hand, most cultures believe that death is a means of punishing those who offend the Supernatural being. Therefore, it is advisable to the good in order to survive. The idea of apocalypse is spread in order to instill fear in people so that they learn how to do good in order to survive death. The Ancient Romans had no myths because they did not try to humanize their deities with their personality and actions (Graves 87). It is until they met Greeks that their divine being underwent transformation. They were particularly influenced by the stories in the Greek myths. This is the reason they adopted Greek gods and gave them their own names. Numinous experience does not only happen

RELATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

RELATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN - Essay Example For any Organization, be it profit or non-profit making, to achieve its intended mission, a lot of work needs to be done to sustain a comfortable employee-employer relationship. No one should take this matter lightly because through this link, Suggestions, demands and expectations are passed and their replies channeled. Problems would most likely arise if employees of a particular company go up in arms over certain working conditions, delayed salaries and wages and inevitably, be an issue for the management such as strikes that just occur under their noses (Rose, 2004, pp 30 - 35). Sometimes organizations build their goodwill for years and they can not allow anything or anyone to just wreck it all. In the wake of creating, an employee relation, Workers Unions, Trade Movements and Welfare Societies advises them on the importance of joining them. These are activists who work closely with government to cater for the needs of the country's employees. Their mandatory goal being to pressurize for good reforms on laws, regulations and the constitution that governs them. (Euro found, 2008). In Britain, unions keep on pushing for better deals basing their argument on the current economic trend. It would therefore, be without these unions, very hard for people to come out and ask the government for considerations. The whole union concept is to apply civilized ways in addressing matters that arise every now and then. It involves pushing diplomatically, rather than having employees take to the streets, demanding recognition, as key players in the daily development of different sectors that lead to the total country's economic growth. These Unions also endorse sanctions to employers who appear to be treating their employees unfairly. They educate Companies and Organizations on the ethical point of their relation. Do others good the same way you expect to be done unto. The role that unions play in Britain is not to be ignored. (Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR, 2008).The strategies and efforts by these Unions can in fact be rated as militant. I say so, becaus e their activities involve; revolutionary, support and activism. Playing as the watchdogs, it also ensures not only that changes are done but are adhered to the latter. Their efforts can be termed as peaceful and radical, though at times aggressive. It is due to this characteristic that employees in Britain find it important to part of at least a union. They term their working style as assertive since most of their rights are put to check by the authority in concern. There are allocations regarding the number of welfare societies one can join. Of course there is no limitation to only a single one. (Salamon, 2000, pp5, pp8-12). Firms that deal with Human Resource management appropriately will witness the good it has done to them. People want to be associated with unions that are clearly instituted to avoid misunderstanding .At this point, it is indistinguishable to acknowledge that a good number of Britain's Unions have proved their worth, they are worthy. With their protocols comprehensively tabulated, it leaves no doubt; they are the correct handlers of matter concerning employees. Though there is still a long way to go, the efforts already

Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Entrepreneurship - Essay Example But many economists have proved that the usefulness of the term is not just limited to â€Å"starting of one’s business† (Sobel, 2008), it is more than that. From then the meaning has become more prominent and understandable to everyone. Entrepreneurs are the individuals who start business and operate their business and are fully accountable for the profit or loss in their business. For example if a person who intends to be a successful entrepreneur has to possess few important qualities. Success in business is ascertained by the innovation and the types of actions that are taken in the course of the business. To be a successful entrepreneur a person has to think about innovation. Innovation is needed because the market is becoming competitive and there exist a number of competitors. In order to stay one step ahead of the competitors entrepreneurs have to be innovative and have to take the right business concepts to deal with the business (Sobel, 2008). Entrepreneurship - Definition Stevenson has defined â€Å"Entrepreneurship† as the search for new opportunities with the resource constraint. Whenever an entrepreneur recognizes that there is a small window of opportunities they grab it and try to exploit the opportunity as far as possible. According to Peter Drucker, entrepreneur is defined as someone who searches for change, adopt that change and exploit those changes as an opportunity (Grebel, 2001). After introducing a business an entrepreneur should show progress in order to attract more resources so as to bring the business to a stable condition from where he/she can think of making the best business. The opportunities that the entrepreneurs seek may entail: embracing an innovative product constructing a new business model which can bring in success to the business creation of a more improved version of the existing product Target new set of customers with the existing products (Eisenmann, 2013). Example of entrepreneurship The example of entrepreneurship can be given through the basic steps that are followed to start a new venture. They are as follows: Creating a business plan: This is a very critical part of the process where an overview of the business should be made along with the industry background. It also includes the type of product/services the business is looking forward to launch and the business model they are going to use. The main focus is on the market segment they are going to address their products to. The trend of the market is also analysed in order to get the whole picture of the market. This is basically done to make sure that whether the trend will make profit for the business or will hurt the business. The start-up cost is also estimated in the business plan so that they do not face financial uncertainties and face loss. Choosing the Business approach: This is the testing stage for the previous step. The step tests whether the customers will buy what they have planned to sell. The best way to do so is to communicate with the potential customers and see their reaction about the product. The reactions in this initial stage indicate whether the company will be successful or not. Raising the capital for the business: This stage is a very critical stage for the entrepreneurs as they have to face the problems of raising capital for the business. Investors are reluctant to invest in the venture at first without checking whether the business is viable or not. Choosing the legal structure: If the investment is made by the

Personal Values And Ethics Of An Italian Essay Example for Free

Personal Values And Ethics Of An Italian Essay Values are defined as â€Å"the deepest beliefs and we sentiments we subscribe to†. Every person has values that they put into practice in their lives whether they realize this or not in other words we all apply values in our day-to-day lives both consciously and unconsciously. An individuals’ set of personal values guides him or her on how to live his or her life. Once these values have been implemented, they enable the implementer to achieve great things in life that they would otherwise not have been able to accomplish. Once an individual has implemented his or her personal values in his or her life, these values then energizes the individual and enables him or her to tackle issues that were previously seen as impossible in other words personal values allow an individual achieve what they dream of. Once a person has identified the values that are important to them they go further and develop strategies to be used in implementation of these values. Upon implementation, these values are said to be able to work wonders in a person’s life in that the person now has a direction in life that guides them in making decisions that are in line with their overall aim. When one identifies a mission philosophy or belief that is meaningful to them in their lives, then that becomes their value. There many categories of values whereby they are ranked as either commonplace or those that is special and psychological. An individual day-to-day life including relations with others and how they approach their work is determined by their personal values. These values are the ones that determine the success of an individual in whether action they dedicate themselves to. Once they are applied it becomes very easy for the person to excel in the workplace and personal life. They are said to have the ability to multiply the impact of an action and in turn the consequences of the act. Italians are very religious people and the biggest percentages of them are Catholics. They follow the tenets of the Catholic Church very strictly. They are very emphatic on the importance of the family and especially the mothers. They come together as families as often as possible and even conduct their businesses as a family. The men are always seen as the bread winners in the house and the women are to take care of the family in all ways. Being brought up in such a setting has shaped my values in to confirming with a lot of the traditional that I found when I was born and grew up in. In 1884, the Italian Republic made an agreement with the Vatican regarding religious education in schools. There was then a provision made that ensured that there would be religious teachings offered in all schools that are below the university level (http://www. beginningwithi. com). Since Italy is a catholic state, it therefore means that these teachings are mostly catholic in nature. This therefore ensures that all Italians who are born and bred in Italy have an option of getting religious teachings in school. It was however noted that not everyone is a catholic or even a Christian. This then led to need to make these teachings optional to those who wanted to learn. Those whose parents did not want them to learn had an option of refusing to allow their children not to learn. Since my family was and still is a very strict catholic follower, I never had the option to even refuse to attend these lessons. In fact this was seen as an added advantage since I would be able to learn more about Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary alongside the various teachings found in the bible. This would in the long run make me a better Christian and it actually did. Having grown up in a catholic family and also an extended one made my personal values to develop in a way that enables me cope with then. My personal values include success commitment fairness faith family feeling hard work and tolerance. The church I have grown up in has taught me to have faith in what I do and in god and hop that all will end well. This has sustained me all through my life especially at times when I feel emotional and psychologically unstable. At these moments I prefer to go to church and say prayers to calm me down. It has also taught me to be committed and this is what has enabled me to hold one position for 15 years in the same store. In Italian culture, one tends to live with the extended family and this is expected of all people. It is customary for the grandparents to care for their grandchildren which they d thus one has to cope with having a house full of relatives and this makes one tolerant. This has gone a long way in enabling me work with other employees without losing my temper. In under standing their weaknesses I am able to correct them without causing the formation of negative altitude towards me and weakness I am able to correct them without causing the formation of negative altitudes towards the job and me. When correcting their mistakes, I do so just as I would if it were my family member and this makes them feel appreciated and thus workers are motivated. I am currently studying for my B. S in criminal justice. The desire to study this course was prompted by my belief in fairness. I have a very strong conviction that everybody of what his or her previous life has been like. As a Christian I believe that any person can change given the chance. It is also true that there are quite a number of people who are wrongfully accused and convicted and it is necessary to correct such wrongs. By learning the different theories propounded in the course study. I can be able to use them in my workplace and in my day-to-day life to blame where it his not due I avoid unnecessary confrontations with other people. In my 15 years of working at the Vons Grocery store, I have met a number of personalities made a positive impact in my life. Michelle Valverda and Shielha Mosley. These people have taught me how to deal with other employees in order to maximize their output. They have taught me the value of success. It has been clarified in my mind what success really means and not just in monetary terms but also in emotional, psychological and physical well-being. These two people have reminded me the importance of leading a round life without neglecting any part of my life since all are important and are required in measuring the success of an individual. When I joined college to study for the criminal justice course, I met other people who added to my list of personal values. One of them is Ian Barrimond who is a fellow student. He has strengthened my value of tolerance because he is becoming more enjoyable when I do not keep getting angry with people for minor mistakes. Furthermore Ian is really committed to his studies and thus has introduced a new value to my life that is commitments. Apart from attending college he has a very demanding job that does not leave him with much time for himself yet he still manages to find time to dedicate his studies. My teacher is also a major influence to my list of values since he is always insisting on the necessary of hard work. Steven Fraitas insists that only by hard work can one be able to achieve what they want from life. The other major influences in my life are my parents who have always insisted on the family unity. They have never allowed my siblings and I to be on bad terms with each other for long and they have always ensured that any problem that crops up among us is quickly resolved before it goes too far. Also they have used the many family gatherings that we hold to invite all of us including the members of the extended family to make sure that we all remain close. None of us feels like a stranger or outsider because we have never been allowed to have time to drift apart to a point of becoming strangers to each other emotionally. This has made me become even more committed to my own family in the hope that it will be as unified as the family that I grew up in. I work hard so as to provide for my family and make sure that they live as comfortably as I can make them. This is encompassed in the value of family feeling. In Italian culture, one tends to live with their parents long after they have reached the age of maturity (Giannotti E. Rocchi R. 2004). It has been argued by some people that this makes them vulnerable to emotional and mental instability. I beg to differ with this conclusion because instead of destabilizing me this has made me a stronger person in aspects in life. There is an assumption that we should all be married at a certain age but by waiting until the right moment allows one to be able to choose the right partner in life. This is important because in the catholic church one is not allowed to divorce and thus it is necessary to choose someone who one will be able to stay with for the rest of their lives. I am among those people who lived with their parents long after the time that is set as standard for people to move out of their parent’s house. I can testify to the benefits that I reaped from this. Since almost all my brothers and sisters were also living with my parents, we were able to develop our relationship into our adulthood. Not only have we remained close with my brothers and sisters but also with my parents. Since I did not start my family until I was old enough to appreciate what I needed in a spouse, I am then able to treat my spouse the way it has always been in the Italian culture. I was also able to learn a lot from my parents on how to live in peace and harmony in the same house with your spouse.

Implementing an Electronic Health Record System

Implementing an Electronic Health Record System Implementing Electronic Health Record System Based on HL7 RIM -Reusing the RIM Model Archetypes Nancy Mittal Abstract: It is difficult to exchange healthcare information between different HealthCare Systems. Health Level Seven is a universal standard to facilitate the communication between different HealthCare Systems. Electronic Health Record System is a software platform that store patient health data which maintained by hospital and medical practice. Health Level 7 Reference Information Model was studied to provide the interoperability between different HealthCare Systems. In this paper, we studied about the various version of Health Level Seven standard including HL7 v2.x, HL7 v3.0, HL7 RIM. This paper focused on how the existing structure of HL7 is improved by reusing the HL7 RIM classes such as Act, Role, and Entity etc each are associated with set of attributes. It explains to modify the existing structure of HL7, need to modify the HL7 RIM because HL7 RIM model provide the structure of HL7. This paper also explained the role based queries are performed by the interested stakeholders like pati ents, doctors and hospitals. In this new structural form, role based information is maintained in the centralize database. This research fills the gap between skilled and semi-skilled users and query is performed on role base. Keywords: HL7, RIM, Role, Archetypes 1. Introduction: With the continuous development of health records, maintain and exchange the information in different HealthCare systems has become unavoidable. So, the communication between different hospitals or between different HealthCare system need to improved. Electronic Health Record is a repository of health information in a digital format about an individual patient or population managed by hospitals or medical practice that shared across different HealthCare Systems. It reduces the chances of data replication. More organizations adopt EHR; physicians, nurses and clinicians have greater access to patient information which helps in accurate diagnosis and complete data helps to ensure the best possible care. Electronic Health Record (EHR) system is needed to focus on two requirements: dynamic involvement of different hospitals, patients and HealthCare Systems And the way of maintaining the information. Standard compliant EHR provide facility of communication and to exchange information of patients between different hospitals, doctors, HealthCare systems. Each patient has his own queries respective to their role in the system. The query interface is designed to provide the effective knowledge among different kind of patients, hospitals. Health Level Seven: Heath Level Seven is a standard developing organisation accredited by ANSI (American National Standard Institute) founded in 1987. HL7[1] name refers the top layer of the OSI (Open System Interconnection) layer protocol for the health environment. HL7 specifies a number of various standards health information and also provide communication between different HealthCare System. Standard are the set of rules that allow information to be shared in standardized and reliable manner. HL7 messaging standard: There are two main HL7 messaging standard HL7 v2.x and HL7 v3.0. HL7 v2.x is also called as pipe hat. This standard provides the interoperability specification for health and medical transaction. HL7 v2.x message format are in human readable ASCII and non XML encoding syntax. It supports administrative, logistical, financial as well as clinical messages. HL7 v3.0 provides the interoperability specification for health and medical transaction based on RIM (Reference Information Model). HL7 v3.0 message format based on XML encoding syntax and also on HDF (formal methodology) and object oriented principle. It supports only clinical data. Movement from HL7 v2 to HL7 v3 is that v3 would be model driven methodology means v3 standard support healthcare workflows through modelling; the end result maximize reuse and increase consistency in HL7 specification. Another[2] HL7 v2.7 supports all HealthCare department data for exchange between different HealthCare systems. It reduces the custom interface programming. But it is not plug and play; and not support transaction processing feature. Table1.Difference between HL7 v2.x and HL7 v3.0 HL7 RIM[3] (Reference Information Model): The HL7 Reference Information Model provides the structural information of HL7 in the form of information classes. HL7 RIM is an object oriented model to make compatible the HL7 specification interoperability to all domains. It is important part of the HL7 v3.0 development model. It increases precision and reducing implementation costs. HL7 RIM is based on UML (Unified Modelling Language). Reference information model has five components: Subject Area (major part of am model), class (about which information is collected), Relationship (relation between classes), attribute (information about class), and data type (specification of the format of an attribute). RIM has six main important classes: Act- It represents actions that are executed by entity. Entity: These are the physical things that take part in health care. Role: Role that entity plays as they participate in health care Participation: It represent context for an act such as who perform, for whom and where. ActRelationship: It represents the relationship between actions. RoleLink: It represents the relationship between roles. 2. Related Work: Electronic health record system based on health level seven, and HL7 used to provide the communication between different HealthCare systems, most of the research studies show perplexing which is further discussed in this paper review. Tung Tran, Hwa-Sun Kim[[1]] studied the research on,†A Development of HL7 Middleware for Medical Device Communication† to developed HL7 compliant middleware. Researcher used HL7 as a middleware to facilitate data transfer to information system in hospitals. Middleware has capability of receiving data from monitoring device and converting into HL7 data type format. It receive raw data from medical devices and convert to HL7 data and passed to HIS based on HL7 interface engine. Li-Fan Ko, Jen-Chiun Lin, Chi-Huang Chen, Jie-Sheng Chang, Faipei Lai[[2]] concluded the research on,†HL7 Middleware Framework for Healthcare Information System. Researchers introduce HL7 and web services standard into framework which is basically Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). HL7 directly transmitted data over transport layer protocol TCP/IP: for small application HL7 message over TCP are simple and easy to implement; for larger application, system become complex and attacker increases. This research solved that problem by introducing web services which provide interoperation between software systems. Jennifer Munnelly[[3]] in his research study on, HL7 Healthcare Information Management Using Aspect-Oriented Programming focused the modification in application department without the requirement modification into complete structure by using HL7.Researcher suggested introduce HL7 functionality into exiting application without any modification through AOP. Wooshik Kim[[4]] studied the research on, Integration of IEEE 1451 and HL7 Exchanging Information for Patients’ Sensor Data showed the IEEE 1451 concerned with smart transducer and having plug –play capabilities. Patients wear sensors that measure the patient’s status in real time and transmitted these data to remote sites such as hospital. HL7 accepted this kind of data and interpreted with various online sensor data. Pasquale De Meo[[5]] studied on, Integration of the HL7 Standard in a Multiagent System to Support Personalized Access to e-Health Services. In this paper, he presented a system which has multi agents to maintain patients in seek of health related services in e-health care by using various algorithms PPB, DS-PPB, AB. This proposed system increases the quality service and effectiveness. Maqbool Hussain[[6]] concluded his research on, Healthcare Applications Interoperability through Implementation of HL7 Web Service Basic Profile studied all phases of web service component that implement HL7 Web Service Basic Profile. It is branch of the transportation subsystem progressed at NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Pakistan. Naeem Khalid Janjua[[7]] in research study presented work on, Digital Health Care Ecosystem: SOA Compliant HL7 based Health Care Information Interchange and proposed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based HL7 system design for patient information and showed the translation from HL7 V2 to V3 and mapping between database and user query. Sara Gaion[[8]] researched on, Design of a Domain Model for Clinical Engineering within the HL7 Reference Information Model. This paper develop a DIM (Domain Information Model) by providing the HL7 RIM to clinical engineering in a particular domain. This paper represent clinical engineering information in the HL7 RIM (Reference Information Model) with the reason of developing a HL7 v3 RIM model based on DIM (Domain Information Model) dedicated to CE(Clinical Engineering) by reuse of standard healthcare information models and show the process of repairing and maintenance of device used in hospital. N.A. Mamani Macedo[[9]] studied the research on, Electronic Health Record: Comparative Analysis of HL7 and Open EHR Approaches. This paper showed the comparison between HL7 and openEHR to automatism a Patient’s Record in any hospital which adopted: HL7 and OpenEHR. The method includes analyzing each way, defining some criteria of evaluation, design a comparative chart. 3. Design model: The work is defined with the specification of the hospital and the relative attributes and the functional specification. It defines the role and requirement to specify the functional dependencies and its requirements. The role is defined for all the interested patients and hospitals and all interested users are connected to it along with their specified roles. The hospital is responsible for the information updating as well as to generate the query that queried by patients to obtain the information access about the patient, disease or diagnose. Complete information is defined in the form of centralized repository. Model is in the form of a query interface in which the communication to the system and different hospitals maintain the information in different way so that the mapping is required between the query set and the hospitals. To establish this mapping, the structural constructs for the system are defined so that the functional based information transition will be take place. Steps in implementation model First step is role identification and analysis: Users in this system are patients and hospitals(health organization). Role is defined for all the interested users ,patients and hospitals and they are coonnected to it along with their hospitals. Second step is role specific query generation: Hospitals is reasponsible for the information updating as wel as to generate the query that queried by patients to obtain the information access about the patient,disease and diagnose. Third step is query filteration and mapping done by RIM model: Complete information is defined in the form of centralized dataset.Model in the form of query interface in which the communication to the system and diff hospitals maintain the information in diff way. So that mapping is required between query set and hospitals. Last step query result are extraced. 4. Conclusion: In changing the structure of HL7 and increasing the reusability over existing HL7 RIM model by reuse the RIM model archetypes. HL7 standard facilitate to exchange and sharing the healthcare information among different hospitals or in between different healthcare systems. We concluded that we extract the existing HL7 RIM model and improve the reusability over existing model by reusing the classes of RIM model and implement the user interface to accept request from different users and process the role base Queries. References: [1] Health Level Seven (HL7), http://www.hl7.org. [2] Explorative study of healthcare data Interchange standards [3]http://www.openhre.org/local/rim202/rim.htm#Acts-sbj [[1]] Tung, Kim, Cho,† A Development of HL7 Middleware for Medical Device Communication†, Fifth International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications [[2]] Li-Fan Ko, Jen-Chiun Lin, Chi-Huang Chen, Jie-Sheng Chang, Faipei Lai,† HL7 Middleware Framework for Healthcare Information System†. Basically framework is service oriented architecture (SOA)†. [[3]] Jennifer Munnelly, HL7 Healthcare Information Management Using Aspect-Oriented Programming, International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, pp 1 – 4 ¸2009 [[4]] Wooshik Kim, Integration of IEEE 1451 and HL7 Exchanging Information for Patients’ Sensor Data, J Med Syst, pp 1033–1041, 2010 [[5]] Pasquale De Meo, Integration of the HL7 Standard in a Multiagent System to Support Personalized Access to e-Health Services, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, pp 1244 1260, 2011 [[6]] Maqbool Hussain, Healthcare Applications Interoperability through Implementation of HL7 Web Service Basic Profile, Sixth International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, pp 308 313 ¸2009 [[7]][7] Naeem Khalid Janjua, Digital Health Care Ecosystem: SOA Compliant HL7 based Health Care Information Interchange, 3rd IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies, pp 329 – 334, 2009 [[8]] [8] Sara Gaion, Design of a Domain Model for Clinical Engineering within the HL7 Reference Information Model, IEEE Workshop on Health Care Management, pp 1 6 , 2010 [[9]] N.A. Mamani Macedo, Electronic Health Record: Comparative Analysis of HL7 and Open EHR Approaches, Pan American Health Care Exchange, pp 105 – 110, 2010

Deforestation: Review of Literature

Deforestation: Review of Literature Deforestation is not a new phenomenon and it has been continued since centuries but its repercussions were not known in the medieval or later periods. Its repercussions have shown great diversity of threats not only to mankind but also to the earth and the scientists and other organizations have been keenly working on its limitations. There are some parts of the earth which are richer in forests than the rest of the world and Amazon is one of them. In Amazon deforestation is taking place at extensive level and there are no precautions being taken in this regard many researches have shown the abyssal magnitude of the issue. Gabrielle Ferreira Pires and Marcos Heil Costa have rightly said that the deforestation in the Amazon can alter the climate of the region and they are of the view that the deforestation can result in to the bioclimatic envelop such as savannas. Using the research conducted by Gabrielle Ferreira Pires and Marcos Heil Costa can be of very much help in the research regards as they have researched the precipitation effects and the sub regional effects of deforestation separately. (Pires Costa, 2013) Similarly carbon emission at extensive level and forest conversion and wood harvesting are not in equilibrium in the Amazon and the research conducted by Masek, Cohen, Leckie, and Wulder has shown the rates of extraction of the carbon di oside from the factories and other organizations and also the rate of deforestation. They have also given the intent about the Aforestation and reforestation which can change the cliamtic structure. They have discussed elaborately the climate changes occuring in the Amazon due to excessive carbon di oxide emission and this research can be helpful while researching for the deforestation in the Amzaon. (Masek, Cohen, Leckie, Wulder, 2011) The dire need of wood is also important and the wood products which are circulated throughout the world are also essential yet living in good and healthy conditions is most important and Page, Werf, Morton, and Pereira have given in insight n this subject by telling that the forests of the Amazon are less suitable for such commodities and hence they should not be wiped of from the earth as they are of lesser use than the wood found else where in the world. They have given reasons and arguments about their research and this research can be of great help while reseraching for deforestation in Amazon. (Page, Werf, Morton, Pereira, 2010) R. E. Dickinson and his fellows have given the tropical conditions of the Amazon area and the flora and fauna of the Amazon has been discussed. The research which they have conducted can be used in the research for the deforestation of the Amazon as their research can help in many regards from climatic attitude of Amazon to types of plants present in the forests of the Amazon.(Pitman, Henderson-Sellers, Dickinson, Durbidge, KennedyK., 1993). On the same note, an extensive research has been conducted which was for the carbon stocks and fluxes and this research was conducted during the time period of 1985-2009. This shows the amount of research work which has been incorporated in the research by the group of scholars including Toomey, Roberts, Caviglia-Harris, and Cochrane. Their research work can be modified and used in the deforestation in amazon research work. (Toomey, Roberts, Caviglia-Harris, Cochrane, 2013) Talking about forest vegetation in Amazon, Deborah Lawrence has given an abstract which shows that the vegetation in the forests in Amazon can impact upon the surroundings to a great extent and this also shows that the process of deforestation is harmful for the climate of Amazon. The research has been conducted in this manner that there are expert opinions as well as suggestions for the climate of the Amazon and this research can be used in the research paper of deforestation in Amazon. (Runyan, DOdorico, Lawrence, 2012) An explanation with regards to rainy season in Amazon has been given in a research paper which shows the diurnal range of rainfall in the amazon and the effects of deforestation on the rainfall. This research elaborates the impacts of deforestation on the climate of the Amazon and its surroundings and the typical climate of amazon is changing with the changing times. (Butt, Oliveira, Costa, 2011). R. Yang and G. K. Walker have also researched on the same phenomenon like Nathalie Butt and others did and said that the rainy season in the Amazon has decreased to a greater low. In furtherance they have showed through their research that reforestation in the Amazon can only happen if deforestation is stopped at first phase and evapotranspiration decrease which will cause more rains. This research can be used in the deforestation in Amazon research paper. (Sud, Yang, Walker, 1996). Another research in this regard has been conducted adding to the previous research a comparison of the wet season in the Amazon with a dry season in the Amazon. The authors have conducted a thorough research which has showed that deforestation in the Amazon and its suburbs has disturbed the ecology of the suburbs and the Amazon itself to a relatively greater extent and the wet season which was deemed to stay away from Amazon has been being experienced in the Amazon. (Biggs, Dunne, Domingues, Martinelli, 2002) Bibliography Biggs, T. W., Dunne, T., Domingues, T. F., Martinelli, L. A. (2002). Relative influence of natural watershed properties and human disturbance on stream solute concentrations in the southwestern Brazilian Amazon basin. Water Resources Research, pp 251-255. Butt, N., Oliveira, P. A., Costa, M. H. (2011). Evidence that deforestation affects the onset of the rainy season in Rondonia, Brazil. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1545-1560. Masek, J. G., Cohen, W. B., Leckie, D., Wulder, M. A. (2011). Recent rates of forest harvest and conversion in North America. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 158-184. Numata, I., Cochrane, M. A., Roberts, D. A. (2010). Biomass collapse and carbon emissions from forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, pp 365-398. Page, Y. L., Werf, G. R., Morton, D. C., Pereira, J. M. (2010). Modeling fire-driven deforestation potential in Amazonia under current and projected climate conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, pp 225-246. Pires, G. F., Costa, M. H. (2013). Deforestation causes different subregional effects on the Amazon bioclimatic equilibrium. Geophysical Research Letters, 3618–3623. Pitman, M. J., Henderson-Sellers, A., Dickinson, R. E., Durbidge, T. B., KennedyK., P. J. (1993). Tropical deforestation: Modeling local- to regional-scale climate change. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres , pp 7289–7315. Runyan, C. W., DOdorico, P., Lawrence, D. (2012). Physical and biological feedbacks of deforestation. Reviews of Geophysics, pp 224-245. Sud, Y. C., Yang, R., Walker, G. K. (1996). Impact of in situ deforestation in Amazonia on the regional climate: General circulation model simulation study. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, pp 7095–7109. Toomey, M., Roberts, D. A., Caviglia-Harris, J., Cochrane, M. A. (2013). Long-term, high-spatial resolution carbon balance monitoring of the Amazonian frontier: Predisturbance and postdisturbance carbon emissions and uptake. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, pp 400–411.

The Key to the Protection Against Tyranny in the American Constitution

Tyranny riddles many forms of government, such as oligarchy, absolute monarchy, dictatorship, autocracy, and totalitarianism. In May of 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia gathered to create a stronger central government -- while avoiding the tyranny that so many other forms of government had allowed for. James Madison, of one those very same delegates, defined tyranny as â€Å"The accumulation of all powers...in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many...† in Federalist Paper #47. The key to the protection against tyranny in the American Constitution was the way in which power was divided. The Constitution guarded against tyranny by making provisions for federalism, the separation of powers, checks and balances of power, and fairly equal congressional power. In the Constitution, central and state governments received power that was shared and split in a federalist system, preventing tyranny of one over the other. Madison put forward his idea of federalism in Federalist Paper #51. â€Å"...the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments...The different governments will each control each other, at the same time each will be controlled by itself† (Doc. A). A Venn diagram derived from the Constitution shows that the central government controlled national affairs such as war, foreign trade, and foreign relations, and states controlled internal affairs such as establishing public services and regulating in-state businesses. The shared powers included taxes, loans, and laws. Despite Madison’s bias towards the federalist system (rarely does one truly attack one’s own political treatise within it) in his quote, the apportioning of powers shows that neither the central or st... ...ny of a branch by setting controls on each branch set by the other branches. Fairly equalizing representation in Congress protected the power of small states overall while preserving that of larger states. However, the framers may have mistakenly given the power to prevent tyranny to the government, not the people. The framers crafted a delicate system, but one that focused on creating strong inter-governmental relations. Since the first Constitution was drafted, power slowly began shifting to the national government. If the branches wished to control more, it would not matter if they controlled each other because they would all move together. The focus on creating a government as far away as possible from despotic in a group of white, mostly wealthy, and educated landowners may have prevented the creation of the sort of tyranny-free system the people wished for.

Carl Friedrich Gauss :: essays research papers

Carl Friedrich Gauss   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who dominated the mathematical community during and after his lifetime. His outstanding work includes the discovery of the method of least squares, the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, and important contributions to the theory of numbers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Born in Brunswick, Germany, on April 30, 1777, Johann Friedrich Carl Gauss showed early and unmistakable signs of being an extraordinary youth. As a child prodigy, he was self taught in the fields of reading and arithmetic. Recognizing his talent, his youthful studies were accelerated by the Duke of Brunswick in 1792 when he was provided with a stipend to allow him to pursue his education.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1795, he continued his mathematical studies at the University of Gà ¶ ttingen. In 1799, he obtained his doctorate in absentia from the University of Helmstedt, for providing the first reasonably complete proof of what is now called the fundamental theorem of algebra. He stated that: Any polynomial with real coefficients can be factored into the product of real linear and/or real quadratic factors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the age of 24, he published Disquisitiones arithmeticae, in which he formulated systematic and widely influential concepts and methods of number theory -- dealing with the relationships and properties of integers. This book set the pattern for many future research and won Gauss major recognition among mathematicians. Using number theory, Gauss proposed an algebraic solution to the geometric problem of creating a polygon of n sides. Gauss proved the possibility by constructing a regular 17 sided polygon into a circle using only a straight edge and compass.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Barely 30 years old, already having made landmark discoveries in geometry, algebra, and number theory Gauss was appointed director of the Observatory at Gà ¶ttingen. In 1801, Gauss turned his attention to astronomy and applied his computational skills to develop a technique for calculating orbital components for celestial bodies, including the asteroid Ceres. His methods, which he describes in his book Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium, are still in use today. Although Gauss made valuable contributions to both theoretical and practical astronomy, his principle work was in mathematics, and mathematical physics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  About 1820 Gauss turned his attention to geodesy -- the mathematical determination of the shape and size of the Earth's surface -- to which he devoted much time in the theoretical studies and field work. In his research, he developed the heliotrope to secure more accurate measurements, and introduced the Gaussian error curve, or bell curve. To fulfill his sense of civil responsibility, Gauss undertook a geodetic survey of his country and did much of the field work himself. In his theoretical work on surveying, Gauss developed

Teacher and Student Relationships :: Education Discipline Essays

The teacher student relationship is very important for children. Children spend approximately 5 to 7 hours a day with a teacher for almost 10 months. We ask ourselves what is considered a good teacher? All of us have gone through schooling, and if fortunate had a favorite teacher. A positive relationship between the student and the teacher is difficult to establish, but can be found for both individuals at either end. The qualities for a positive relationship can vary to set a learning experience approachable and inviting the students to learn. A teacher and student who have the qualities of good communications, respect in a classroom, and show interest in teaching from the point of view of the teacher and learning from a student will establish a positive relationship in the classroom. I will be focusing on the relationship between the student and teacher, involving a setting in the primary grades, which I have found second grade to be extremely important for the student to gain a po sitive attitude for their future education. Children have different strategies for learning and achieving their goals. A few students in a classroom will grasp and learn quickly, but at the same time there will be those who have to be repeatedly taught using different techniques for the student to be able to understand the lesson. On the other hand, there are those students who fool around and use school as entertainment. Teaching then becomes difficult, especially if there is no proper communication. Yet, teachers, creating a positive relationship with their students, will not necessarily control of all the disruptive students. The book, Responsible Classroom Discipline written by Vernon F. Jones and Louise Jones discuss how to create a learning environment approachable for children in the elementary schools. According to the Jones, â€Å" Student disruptions will occur frequently in classes that are poorly organized and managed where students are not provided with appropriate and interesting instructional tasks† (101) . The key is, teachers need to continuously monitor the student in order for him or her to be aware of any difficulties the student is having. Understanding the child’s problem, fear, or confusion will give the teacher a better understanding the child’s learning difficulties. Once the teacher becomes aware of the problems, he or she will have more patience with the student, thus making the child feel secure or less confused when learning is taking place in the classroom.

Muted Group Theory and Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”

When Walt Disney released its adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s â€Å"The Little Mermaid,† it had become a box-office hit.   Yet, the movie captured the attention not just of young girls back in the late 1980s, but sociologists and anthropologists as well since the movie became a perfect example of what they had termed as the â€Å"muted group theory.†Ã‚   In this paper, the concept of the muted group theory as proposed by Cheris Kramarae will be discussed as well as supporting evidences seen in society in general and in the movie of Walt Disney’s â€Å"The Little Mermaid.† Kramarae’s Muted Group Theory According to Cheris Kramarae, language is something that was constructed by man.   The words and thoughts of women are ignored in our society.   Because of this, it is difficult for women to express their experiences as opposed to men.   Kramarae further stated that language does not serve all its speakers in an equal manner regardless of the culture because women are not as free as men to say what they want, when they want and where they want. Men have a dominant control of society and how the members of society should express themselves. As such, different terms are used to describe tasks done by both males and females even when they are doing the exact same thing.   It is also because of this that most sexual suggestions that are considered degrading are usually referring to women than to men (Anderson & Haddad, 2005; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Prentice, 2005; West, 1983).   In order for women to express themselves to others, they must do so as how males express themselves (Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Rogers. 1978; Stets & Burke, 1996). The concept that women are a muted group was first proposed by Edwin Ardener.   Edwin Ardener was an anthropologist who discovered that a group becomes mute due to the lack of power that is experienced of a group with a low status.   Ardener called the theory the muted group theory because these muted groups are liken to black holes since they are muffled, overlooked and invisible (Griffin, 2003; Prentice, 2005; Rogers, 1978). Muted Group Theory in Today’s Society Although today’s society stresses on equality between the male and female genders, various sociologists, linguistics and anthropologists have gathered substantial evidences to show that the muted group theory proposed by both Ardener and Kramarae are still evident. In a classroom which is composed by both male and female, female students tend not to speak as confidently as their male classmates. They also speak in class less frequently than males.   In events that the females do participate in class, they do not talk as loud or as candidly as males do. This is because it is the social norm that females should be polite and restrained while the males are assertive and vocal (Anderson & Haddad, 2005; Canada & Pringle, 1995; Epstein, 1986; Walker, Ilardi, McMahon & Fennel, 1996).   Because of this norm instilled in women at an early age, women more often avoid confrontations and direct disagreements even after completing their academic degrees (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992). In the workplace, women tend to be subordinate to men.   For example, women in the military are not deployed in combat as often as men.   In the academic community, most of the academic departments and schools of knowledge recognize the contributions of men rather than women (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Walker, Ilardi, McMahon & Fennel, 1996).   Also, what many would be considered as a powerful speech when used by man will not to be as effective if the same speech is delivered by a woman (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Epstein, 1986; West, 1983). In the study of cultures and societies, research would only focus on the information given by male informants and would ignore the information received from female informants since the researchers assumes that women are less articulate than men, causing anthropologists not being able to understand women.   As a result, interest in female roles and status had slowly diminished since many researchers view males were more important in society than females (Ardener, 1985; Prentice, 2005; Rogers, 1978). Muted Group Theory in â€Å"The Little Mermaid† When Kramarae began her research on the muted group theory, she used cartoons as the basis of her study (Griffin, 2003).   For this paper, the cartoon that was selected is Walt Disney’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s â€Å"The Little Mermaid.† This paper will be focusing on one scene in the movie which is that between Ariel, the mermaid who wanted to become a human more than anything in the world, and Ursula, the sea witch.   After an argument with her father, Ariel visits Ursula in her lair under the impression that she could be able to give her the very thing her heart desired: to become human and to be with the human prince Eric. Ursula told her that she is will be able to make her into a human being for three days.   In order for her to be able to remain human permanently, she would have to be kissed by the prince as a symbol of his true love for her.   If she fails, she would go back to being a mermaid.   As payment for this, Ursula demanded Ariel her voice (Clements & Musker, 1989). As previously mentioned, one of the premise of Kramarae on the muted group theory, in order for a woman to be able to express herself, she must do so the way how men express themselves (Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003; Rogers. 1978).   This is clearly explained by the character of Ursula: The men up there don't like a lot of blabber.   They think a girl who gossips is a bore.   Yes, on land it’s much preferred for ladies not to say a word and after all, dear, what is idle prattle for?   Come on, they're not all that impressed with conversation.   True gentlemen avoid it when they can. But they dote and swoon and fawn on a lady who’s withdrawn. It’s she who holds her tongue who gets her man (Menken & Ashman, 1989). Here, Ursula had advised Ariel what a human woman should be like.   Since Ariel mentioned that she would want to remain human and the only way to get that is for the prince to fall in love with her, the only way for her to do so is to act like a proper human woman would. Indeed, the accepted norms in human societies are based on the activities, values and expressions of males.   Hence, the means of how women interact with others are considered to be improper (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Stets & Burke, 1996). In the movie, Ariel has been known for her beautiful singing voice.   This made Ariel more superior than anyone in the kingdom.   It was because of her voice that she is not only the favorite of King Triton among his daughters, but also the reason why in spite of her age, she is looked up upon by her siblings (Clements & Musker, 1989).   Ariel’s ability to sing can be likened to the way how a woman would express herself in society. The ability for a woman to express herself as a woman would give her a separate identity and thus give her a superiority that may rival that of a man, or even surpass it.   Furthermore, her ability to save Eric’s life during the storm shows how a woman could be able to surpass the capabilities of a man given the opportunity. By stripping her of her ability to sing, Ariel is also stripped of the very thing that would set her apart from everyone else, her ability to sing.   This is the very thing reason why women are considered a muted group by many sociologists and anthropologists.   The act of a man listening to a woman would mean that the man would be denouncing their dominant position in society because men view discussions initiated by women as not to have any importance (Dras, 1986; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003). For this reason, cultural establishment had prejudged and excluded art, poetry, plays and films created by women (Ardener, 1985; Epstein, 1986; Griffin, 2003) since it is a way for women to express themselves through various forms.   Also, since she had been used to swimming, being given legs made her vulnerable since she is not able to do things on her own.   As such, the roles of Eric and Ariel have become reverse with Ariel becoming dependent to Eric to teach her how to walk, showing his dominance over her. Conclusion Initially, the muted group theory would appear to be sexist in nature since it puts females at a disadvantage in society.   Given the premises proposed by both Ardener and Kramarae, however, the muted group theory sheds light on the reason why society even today still refers to women as the â€Å"inferior sex.†   The muted group theory had proposed that the gender difference experienced in society particularly in how women express themselves lies on the fact that society is a patriarchal society, meaning that society’s norms and values are based on the norms and values of the male gender.   Movies such as Walt Disney’s â€Å"The Little Mermaid† have shown that in spite of the ability of the female gender to express itself, society prohibits them to do so. References Anderson, D. M. & Haddad, C. J. (March 2005). Gender, voice, and learning in online course environment. Journal of asynchronous learning networks, 9(1), 3-14. Ardener, S. (October 1985). The social anthropology of women and feminist anthropology. Anthropology today, 1(5), 24-26. Canada, K & Pringle, R. (July 1995). The role of gender in college classroom interactions: a social context approach. Sociology of education, 68(3), 161-186. Clements, R. & Musker, J. (Directors). (1989). Walt Disney's the little mermaid [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures. Drass, K. A. (December 1986). The effect of gender identity on conversation. Social psychology quarterly, 49(4), 294-301. Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think practically and look locally: language and gender as community-based practice. Annual review of anthropology, 21, 461-490. Epstein, C. F. (Winter 1986). Symbolic segregation: similarities and differences in the language and non-verbal communication of women and men. Sociological forum, 1(1), 27-49. Griffin, E. (2003). A first look at communication theory, 5th Ed.   New York: McGraw-Hill. Menken, A. & Ashman, H. (1989). Poor Unfortunate Souls [Recorded by Pat Carroll]. On Walt Disney's the little mermaid: an original walt disney records soundtrack. California: Walt Disney Records. Prentice, C. (2005).   Third party candidates in political debates: muted groups struggling to express themselves. Speaker and gavel, 42, 1-12. Rogers, S. C. (January 1978). Woman's place: a critical review of anthropological theory. Comparative studies in society and history, 20(1), 123-162. Stets, J. E. & Burke, P. J. (September 1996). Gender, control, and interaction. Social psychology quarterly, 59(3), 193-220. Walker, H. A., Ilardi, B. C., McMahon, A. M. & Fennell, M. L. (September 1996). Gender, Interaction and Leadership. Social psychology

An Analysis of Movies Armageddon

Among the movies that were released and made it big at the box-office in 1998 were the Armageddon and Saving Private Ryan. Although the first is a science-fiction and the second is a war movie, making their presentation of the use of film technology different, both films are pictures of totally predictable elements – loud noises and frequent explosions. The two movies both presented battle scenes – against the asteroid in Armageddon while it is a battle among soldiers in Saving Private Ryan. Best remembered from the two films were the elements of sparks, noise, vibrations, shouting, running, screaming, fighting, fire, tremors, crashes and collisions. The difference in their cinematography and editing aspects depicted the use of their own film techniques and technology.Saving Private Ryan has Tom Hanks and Matt Damon as the main actors. The Steven Spielberg war film told about the character of James Ryan (Damon), who has parachuted into France during the Allied invasion of Europe, has just lost three brothers in combat. Government policy dictates that he should return home lest his family be deprived of its entire male offspring. A team of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Hanks) and fresh from the beaches of Normandy, is assembled to find and save Private Ryan.The use of film techniques was manifested with the way how Spielberg and his crew recreated the arrival of Allied forces at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, by using water-level and then ground-level handheld cameras during a 24-minute sequence of especially graphic carnage. McKenzie noted the use of seamless SFX and advanced film-making techniques, the terrors of battle massacre are splattered onscreen. The viewing public find themselves totally absorbed in the war horror, â€Å"with the dizzying and expert use of a variety of techniques, including hand-held cameras, the speeding up of the often unrelated images, frantic editing, and varying film stock. Spielberg's gifted Oscar-winning cin ematographer, Janusz Kaminski brought a compelling war-newsreel look to a lot of the images† (McKenzie, 2005).Another technique is when the film started off with the title Saving Private Ryan. It started off like this to show the title of the film and show what the film is going to be about. In some films they show a bit of the film and then show the title. But Spielberg didn't want to do this. This showed the film might be really exciting and interesting to watch. The Saving Private Ryan title was written in white lettering against a black background. The black background symbolizes the people who died in the war while the white lettering symbolizes those soldiers who fought in the war and emerged as winners.Cinematographer Kaminski employed many different techniques during filming to set the mood of a given scene. During the opening sequence, for example, the film is overexposed a bit to give a sense of a documentary-like feel to the scenes. The camera work is often hand hel d and jerky too, heightening the sense of realism during the scene. But the disc handles all this easily and is a testament to the work being done by the folks over at DreamWorks.Saving Private Ryan is nothing but a demonstration of cinematographic skills in a totally inappropriate context. Why does film documentary style, with a shoulder-held camera to capture the chaos, yet so formally stage the scenes and with bodies perfectly falling into full frame, dying perfect deaths? This is because everything onscreen told the audience what came first in the making of the movie: more than the war, its aesthetics possibilities.In Schlosser’s review, Spielberg and his skilled band of technicians studied the photo archives and documentaries very carefully. Then they carefully re-created the settings, the shootings, the sounds and furies. And on the seventh day, they decided to superimpose some silhouettes (Schlosser, 2000).The science-fiction film Armageddon, which top-billed Bruce Wil lis and directed by Michael Bay, started when the space shuttle is destroyed in outer space and NASA astronomers discovered that a meteor shower is pelting away at earth and that a huge asteroid, the size of Texas and capable of destroying the planet is headed for a direct hit with the planet. With all options too fantastic to implement before collision, NASA decides to recruit the world's best deep core drilling team (oil drillers) to land on the asteroid, drill a hole, drop a nuclear bomb into the hole, then take off and remotely detonate the bomb.For the drill team, they select Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his crew that includes tough guy-softie Bear (Michael Clarke Duncan), brilliant smart-ass Rockhound (Steve Buschemi), A.J. (Ben Affleck) the overeager fiancà © of his independent daughter (Liv Tyler), and spacy Oscar (Owen Wilson). It's a race against time to get the drillers trained, land them on the asteroid and get the hole drilled before earth is destroyed.Aside from t he futuristic aspect of the movie, its other strong points are editing and cinematography. From sweeps around the NASA conference room to quick close-ups, from split-second backgrounds to the simulated, striking aerial view of the double launch, the camera work told the story with stylistic, often frenetic motion.The film’s use of advance technology saved the script which was the result of the well-shot but terribly clichà ©d montages, many showing Bay's vision of a type of classic America, people listening to news of the coming catastrophe, gathered in a Mayberry-like barber shop or sitting in vintage pickups, near American flags and farmhouses. Another technique evidence is the one shot of a group of boys who even runs past a clapboard store sporting a faded campaign mural of JFK.Bay directed this stuff with a sure hand and a lot of slow motion effects. His visuals are actually quite amazing, including the spectacular lift-off of the two shuttles. Side-by-side, the image i s from far away, as the spaceships race off, leaving a trail of smoke behind. Bay is a good director for color pictures, using oranges and yellows effectively. The cinematography is excellent, and the editing is fast-paced. The special effects are top-notch, blowing away anything seen in that other comet film. The opening sequence is one of the best moments in the film, and one shocking moment occurs when a meteor plows into a city and you see it completely wiped out from the top of Notre Dame.The work by Blue Sky|VIFX for the opening shot ARMAGEDDON is brilliant. In a single shot, asteroids pummel the earth, creating huge fireballs that envelop the camera, wiping on the film's main title graphic. The camera swoops by the earth, revealing the massive destruction of the meteor shower, allowing the audience to fully examine the effect of this disaster. Geological inaccuracies aside, the shot is quite memorable. Explosion elements seem in scale, and the slow camera movement is quite bo ld–all in all, an exciting prelude for things to come.The two films used the theme of human sacrifice. For Saving Private Ryan, it was the sacrifice of a team of soldiers for a single human being while Willis’ sacrifice in Armageddon was in order to save the world and all the people living in it. Although set in different societies – a community torn in war and a world face with asteroid, both showed the importance of having to sacrifice and even to be killed just to save either one person or mankind. Saving Private Ryan pictured that in a war-torn society, the soldiers are destined to sacrifice their lives notwithstanding if these are for the sake of only one or many people.Armageddon was also a manifestation of giving up a life but this time to save not only one single human but the whole mankind. The two movies told the lesson of a society of such human beings are worth sacrificing for and that it is only through the value of each and every human being that a society achieves value itself.The audience who liked these two films is assumed to be of giving value to human life. Although different in genres, the audiences were moved that the film gave credit not just to the technology and techniques used but more so of the theme and lesson behind the aesthetics of the films.ReferencesMcKenzie, Edward (2005). Saving Private Ryan (World War II Collection) (1998).Schlosser, Eric. (January 2000). On Saving Private Ryan. Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 27. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/27/savingprivateryan.html

Research Paper About Daily Activities of Nurses in Hospital.

1. 0 INTRODUCTION I propose to study the attitude, knowledge and experiences of nurses on prioritizing comfort measures in care of the dying patient in an acute hospital setting. I am particularly interested in this field as I worked in a hospice during semester break where palliative care of the dying concentrated on the quality of life of the patient. When the prognosis for the patient was imminent death, care was focused on reducing the severity of the disease symptoms rather than vainly trying to stop or delay development of the disease itself or provide a cure. When the prognosis for a patient is imminent death, hospice care concentrates on the quality of life of the patient, reducing the severity of the disease symptoms rather than vainly trying to treat the disease itself. To assist in delivery of this type of quality end-of-life care to patients in acute hospitals the Alor Setar Hospital developed a Hospice Friendly Hospital programme (HFH). This HFH developed the Quality Standards for End-of-Life Care in Hospitals to set out a shared vision for the type of end-of life care that each hospital should aim to provide. This development is significant as almost 50% of those who die in Kedah die in hospital and care of the dying in Alor Setar hospitals, while regarded as good, is described as ‘care at the end of life’ rather than ‘end-of-life care’ because the care seems to lack an effective palliative care component† LITERATURE REVIEW To investigate international perspectives on end-of-life care, the current international literature was reviewed using the key themes of identifying the dying phase, comfort care and symptom control for the dying patient. It was conclude from the literature review that nurses and medical staff often differed in their approach to care of the dying patient and this hindered effective delivery of end-of-life-care. Education on end-of-life care was recommended in the literature as being a solution to the problems in delivering this care even though research had not been done on the status quo in education. RESEARCH PROBLEM Before planning such specific education programmes, it would seem necessary to conduct research studies to establish the education and training levels of nurses and doctors in end-of-life care and to establish if attitudes and experience also influence the medical and nursing models in the delivery of this care. This research proposal is concerned with the nursing model and it proposes to establish what influences the nurse’s approach in delivering end-of-life care. METHODOLOGY A quantitative approach using a descriptive design is proposed for this study. Questionnaires will be used as the data collection method with a simple random sample of 200 staff nurses employed in a Alor Setar hospital being selected as participants in the study. RESEARCH QUESTION The research problem leads to the following research question: â€Å"What are the attitude, knowledge and experience of nurses on prioritizing comfort measures for dying patients in an acute hospital? † OBJECTIVES (i) To establish the attitude of nurses on prioritizing comfort measures for dying patients. ii) To establish if nurses’ knowledge of prioritizing comfort measures for dying patients is adequate. (iii) To establish if nurses’ experience in prioritizing comfort measures for dying patients is significant. 2. 0 METHODOLOGY Introduction to Research Methodology The methodology selected for the proposed study will be detailed here. The planned research design, methods of sample selection, data collection and analysis of results will be explained. Ethical consi derations for this particular research study will also be detailed. It is hoped that the chosen methodology will generate useful information through the collection and analysis of data on the attitude, knowledge and experiences of staff nurses on the effect of comfort measures in care of the dying patient in the acute hospital setting. Research Design The research design of a study outlines the basic approach that researchers use to answer their research question (Polit & Beck 2010). To meet the aims and objectives of the study it is important that the researcher selects the most appropriate design for achieving the aims of the study (Parahoo 2006). The quantitative approach arises from the belief that human phenomena and variables in human behaviour can be studied objectively (Parahoo 2006) and so this approach has been chosen as an appropriate research method. Quantitative research uses a fixed design that organises in advance the research question and a detailed method of data collection and analysis (Robson 2007). It is proposed that this survey will collect details of the current attitude, knowledge and experience of nurses on comfort care of the dying patient. The method of data collection chosen is a written questionnaire, allowing large sample size without major expense, to produce quantitative data that can be analysed by statistical computer programmes, Population/sample Parahoo (2006, p. 258) defines a population as â€Å"the total number of units from which data can potentially be collected†. The population in this study will be staff nurses working in the acute hospital setting in Ireland. This population will be delimited to a homogenous group of subjects through inclusion/exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria †¢ Registered general staff nurses who work in the acute-care setting. Exclusion criteria †¢ Staff nurses working with children †¢ Agency staff nurses Staff nurses, fitting the above criteria, from a large Dublin acute hospital will be chosen as a smaller convenience group of the target population. It is then proposed to select a simple random probability sample (from the convenience sample). Proctor et al. (2010) maintain that the use of probability sampling in quantitative research reduces errors and biases in the study. Sampling is the process by which researchers select a proportion of the target population, as the study population, to represent the entire unit. It is more practical and economical to work with samples rather than with large target populations (Polit & Beck 2010). The researcher will obtain the names of all eligible nurses from the Human Resources Department in the hospital. This list of nurses will form a sample frame from which the researcher will select nurses at random by assigning a number to each name and ‘picking the numbers out of a hat’. Data collection Quantitative data are collected to classify and describe attributes, behaviours and activities of populations according to Parahoo (2006). Data collection should be objective, systematic and repeatable (Lacey 2010). Robson (2007) maintains that a researcher should use the simplest manner of collecting the data to get answers to the research question and should not collect any more data than necessary. Mindful of these conditions the data collection instrument selected for this study is a questionnaire. Questionnaires A questionnaire is a method of data collection that asks participants to give written or verbal replies to a written set of questions (Parahoo 2006). It is a quick,convenient and inexpensive method of collecting standardised information . A questionnaire can be used to collect information on attitudes,knowledge and experience of staff (Parahoo 2006). A structured writtenquestionnaire that uses a quantitative self-report technique, as outlined by Polit & Beck (2010), will be used to collect data in this study. The questionnaire will have three parts (see Appendix ). Part A of the questionnaire will use a Likert-type scale to gather data on the attitudes of nurseson the effect of comfort in care of the dying. The questionnaire will consist of positively and negatively worded statements with six different response options ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Positive statements are scored one to six (one for strongly agree through to six for strongly disagree) and scores are reversed for negative statements. The score for each item will be reported individually. Parts B and C will use a fill the box format and will gather data on the knowledge and experience of nurses on comfort care of the dying respectively. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION According to Polit and Beck (2010), researchers must deal with ethical issues when their intended research involves human beings. Ethical approval will be requested in writing from the Director of Nursing (as gatekeeper) and the Hospital Ethics Committee of the hospital involved in the research . As gatekeeper, the director of Nursing must be made aware of all nursing research taking place in the organisation to monitor the effect of all such projects taking place. She will also need to be convinced of the value of the research and the competency of the researcher (Lee 2005). The main ethical principles that will be considered in conducting this research study are respect for persons, confidentiality and beneficence /non-maleficence. 3. 0 PROPOSED OUTCOME Following this proposed study, a report will be compiled discussing all aspects of the research process including the results, limitations and benefits. It is anticipated that the results of the study will give an indication of nurses’ attitude, knowledge and experience in the domain of comfort care of the dying in Ireland and indicate where interventions are needed through education, training or management. It is also anticipated that the findings of the research study will reveal if other factors such as attitude or experience impact on the effective delivery of care of the dying patient. It is anticipated that these results will contribute to recommendations in future nursing practice, nurse education and research and that this will in turn move palliative care higher up on the agenda of the nursing profession in general. This study will have limitations as it will be conducted in only one acute hospital. It will give a general overview of the current attitude, knowledge and experience of nurses in this hospital. The researcher recommends that other studies, both quantitative and qualitative be carried out in hospitals in other Irish cities so that a more general picture could be established of end-of-life nursing care in acute hospitals in Ireland. Qualitative research is explanatory and descriptive in nature and so it could help in determining the nature of the phenomena being studied (Barroso, 2010) and consequently give a more complete picture of care of the dying. It is the intention of the researcher to share the findings of the study with management of the partaking hospital and the schools of nursing and midwifery in Ireland. It is hoped that this will highlight the necessity of planning on-going education and training for nurses in end-of-life care. To present the research report to a broader audience the researcher intends applying for publication of the study report in relevant nursing journals. Time Scale A clear and practical time scale is necessary to facilitate the organisation and coordination of each stage of the research process and the successful integration of the stages (Cormack, 1991). An 18 month period is proposed as the time frame for this study and a detailed integrated time plan is included in appendix . Resources An estimated budget account for the proposed study is outlined in appendix. 4. 0 APPENDIX Part A: Questionnaire on attitudes Directions: Write your opnion whether agree or not. 1. Nurses are capable of identifying that a patient is dying. 2. I would not like the responsibility of identifying a patient as dying. 3. Nurses cannot cease routine care for the dying patient without permission from a doctor. 4. The length of time taken to care for a dying patient is vitally important. 5. Nurses should not give dying patients honest answers about their condition. 6. End stage palliative care does not do anything for the patient. 7. The focus of care should be adapted when death becomes imminent. 8. When a patient has been identified as dying a ‘do not resuscitate order’ should be placed on his/her chart. 9. Nurses play a key role in helping patients die in comfort. 10. Comfort care for the dying patient should not replace routine nursing practice. 11. I would not like to care for a dying patient. 12. Comfort care will enhance the dying patient’s quality of life. 13. Specialist palliative care teams are never necessary to deal with a dying patient. 14. Symptom control for the dying patient is not the nurse’s responsibility. 15. When nursing a dying patient it is good practice, when possible, to frequently ask them about symptom control. 16. Symptom control guidelines are necessary for delivering optimal end-of-life care. 17. Nurses cannot manage symptom control in the dying phase. 18. The dying patient’s physical needs should be decided by them when possible. 19. Dignity of a patient is not more important that effective care. 20. Administration of opioids by means of a syringe driver is often an essential measure in symptom control. Part B: Knowledge Questionnaire Please answer all the following questions by ticking the appropriate box to indicate the answer you consider to be correct. Tick one box only. 1. The decision that a patient is dying should be made by a multidisciplinary team. Correct __ Incorrect__ 2. There is a need for specialist palliative care teams to be involved with every dying patient. Correct__ Incorrect__ 3. The dying person should not be allowed to make decisions about his/her physical care. Correct__ Incorrect__ 4. Treatment procedures should be continued even when the patient is dying. Correct__ Incorrect__ 5. Routine nursing practice should not take precedence over a patient’s comfort. Correct__ Incorrect__ 6. Dehydration is a normal part of the dying process. Correct__ Incorrect__ 7. Frequent repositioning of a dying patient is not always desirable. Correct__ Incorrect__ 8. When a patient is diagnosed as dying current medication should be reassessed and non-essentials discontinued. Correct__ Incorrect__ 9. Use of opioids is appropriate to control pain for the dying patient. Correct__ Incorrect__ 10. Symptoms of increased chest secretions and terminal agitation are unavoidable in dying patients. Correct__ Incorrect__ 1. Regulation of bowel movements is often a problem for a dying patient. Correct__ Incorrect__ 12. Retention of urine is more likely than urine incontinence in the dying patient. Correct__ Incorrect__ 13. All dying patients will be at high risk of skin breakdown. Correct__ Incorrect__ 14. Breathless is a common symptom in the dying phase. Correct__ Incorrect__ 15. Gene ral comfort care should not take precedence over skin care. Correct__ Incorrect__ 16. Maintaining a fluid balance record for the dying patient is important. Correct__ Incorrect__ 17. The dying patient should not be coaxed to eat. Correct__ Incorrect__ 18. It is appropriate to control pain in the dying phase by use of both analgesia and sedation. Correct__ Incorrect__ 19. An acute episode in a chronically ill patient may represent a terminal event. Correct__ Incorrect__ 20. Reducing the respiratory rate can relieve breathlessness for the dying patient by reducing anxiety. Correct__ Incorrect__ Part C: Experience survey Section 1 Please answer each question by ticking the appropriate box. 1. Please indicate your number of years nursing experience. 1-5 years 5-10 years 10-15 years 15-20 years >20 years 2. Have you received pre-registration education in end-of-life care? Yes No 3. Have you received post-registration education in end-of-life care? Yes No Section 2 35 The following section concerns your experience in delivering comfort care to dying patients. Please indicate your answer to the question by placing a number in the box which corresponds to your experience (see answer guide). Answer guide: 0 1 2 3 4 5 never 1– 5 times 5–10 times 10–15 times 15– 20 times > 20 times 1. I have been present as a nurse when a patient has died. 2. I have been in charge of nursing care for a dying patient. 3. I have used an integrated care pathway for end-of-life care. 4. I have been part of an interdisciplinary team that identified a patient as dying. 5. I have collaborated with an interdisciplinary team in delivering end-of-life care for a dying patient. 6. I have nursed a dying patient with a do not resuscitate order. 7. I have set up a syringe driver for subcutaneous administration of anticipatory prescribed medications to a dying patient. 8. I have administered prescribed opiate drugs to a dying patient to control pain. 9. I have administered prescribed drugs to a dying patient to control respiratory secretions. 0. I have administered prescribed drugs to a dying patient to control breathlessness. 11. I have been involved in cessation of artificial hydration for a dying patient. 12. I have been involved in cessation of artificial feeding for a dying patient. 13. I have dealt with nausea and vomiting episodes for a dying patient. 14. I have managed constipation problems for a dying pat ient. 15. I have inserted a urinary catheter to manage urine retention for a dying patient. 16. When caring for a dying patient I have been involved making the decision to cease routine care and focus on comfort care. 7. I have managed physical comfort measures for a dying patient with the provision of an air mattress. 18. I have discussed the prognosis of dying with a patient in the dying phase 19. I have acted as advocate for a dying patient when he/she needed their wishes to be heard regarding treatment. 20. I have negotiated a cessation of diagnostic interventions for a dying patient Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. I sincerely value the important contribution that you have made to knowledge development in this area.