Photo Galleries' Masterpieces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Photo Galleries' Masterpieces - Essay Example Paris never looked that beautiful under the rays of the scorching sun. Natural beauty was at its best! Belin pictures were completely devoid of any form of aliveness. These twelve black and white gelatin prints housed inside this gallery soothed my nerves. These pictures of Paris showed different historical stages of this place. She took out the history and the personality of the objects and used these as an inspiration for her amazing photographs.   Valerie Belin was born in 1964 in Paris and held numerable exhibitions before this like the ones in Centre Georges Pompidou, Foundation Cartier pours l’art Contemporain, Museum of Modern Art, New York etc. Belin gave her pictures a weird mysterious look by combing two negatives together. there was no human presence in the pictures she captured it with a black and white effect, contrasting the light effects. Some details given to the photograph made it so mesmerizing and compelled me to ponder on Belin’s outstanding photography skills. She used modern technology in the best possible way and gave her pictures a more dreamlike pictorial effect. One viewed these pictures as drawings, not photographs due to their mystic beauty and artistic shades. At one corner of the gallery, crystal vases and glasses laid on the table. She scrutinized the light spectrum of these inanimate objects and focused on the primary process of her photography. The best of all were the pictures of D ancer at the lido, magicians and fruit basket.   Supernaturalism of Belin’s work was revealed through her pictures with a less documentary effect. She demonstrated her painterly view in these art pictures which were far away from naturalism which forced me to think of a question regarding the ambiguous scenes that were a part of these pictures. These were captured at oblique angles with perfection and made baroque and disquieting beauty a part of them. One thing I noted was that these pictures had illusions of the external world which made these images artificial and enchanted with fantasies.

Management Concepts in Hospitals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Management Concepts in Hospitals - Essay Example Milton Siepman when appointed as the Chief Executive of General Health System, associating with Adventist Health Systems, is confronted with numerous challenges. The major ones that demand urgent attention from Mr Milton are as follows. Problem 1: The major problem that worries the CEO would the rising cost of health care operations that would cause severe constrains on the initiatives of General Health's various community based programmes. As the objective of the system is to ensure the health facilities to the needy and the poorest of the society it is necessary that new approaches need to be devised to ensure the successful implementation of sustainable health care schemes. Options available: The options are also available with Milton Siepman to prepare General health system to tide over such a difficult phase. One of the methods that are envisaged is to have corporate partnership with the various leading drug agencies to support the health cover programmes as part of their corporate responsibility. These medicines would be exclusive to General Health programme and would be explicitly mentioned on the package as an acknowledgement for this noble initiative. This would also be supported by incorporating a preferential sale policy for the products of the above said companies in the pharmacies attached to these hospitals. This would help the corporate houses to boost their medicinal sales volume by creating exclusive sales of their medicines but at the same time using these locations to support the needy and poor by providing the low priced medicines. Appropriate quality control systems would also be enforced to ensure that reduction in cost don't lead to the loss in standards and quality. In addition to this, the hospital services would be projected as a major place for other corporate houses that are not related to medical and health care but could be convinced to take up the role of a partner for their community support services. Problem 2: Employing specialist doctors in most of the needed domains of health care is another issue that demand immediate intervention. With the higher salary and other remuneration required for such type of specialists, to employ them regularly is not a feasible solution considering the General Health's financial performance. But most of the poor patients are undergoing very agonizing moments due to their inability to avail their services due to the very poor economic status. Even the existing government support may not be adequate to give them a reasonable level of comfort to approach a very specialized health care provider. Options available: A massive campaign has been planned among various specialists working across different regions to cooperate with General Health Systems in this connection. It is indented to associate them for the out door health support services of General Health units. These doctors would be contacted and the nearest outdoor unit to their location would be equipped to avail their facility. The patients would be contacted earlier and the profile and the status would be sent to the doctor for an assessment. Based on the reports attached doctors could make a judgment on the list of patients they would prefer to give their service at lesser cost. Problem 3: Improving pain and palliative

Effects of chinas one child policy on women

Effects of chinas one child policy on women As the most populous country in the world, the Peoples Republic of China has been adopting the One-Child Policy since 1979 in order to improve the problem of overpopulation which is seen as an obstacle of the growth and development of the country. While the Chinese Government emphasizes its achievements of population control in China, the controversial policy has been widely criticized for its negative influences. This paper presents the One-Child Policys effects on the position of women. Womens position in this paper is basically defined by womens rights, freedom, respectability and social status .I will first briefly introduce the policy, then analyze both the positive and negative impacts with relevant data and statistics, and lastly come to a conclusion. The Policy and Population Growth Introduced in 1978 and implemented since 1979, the One-Child Policy is a family planning policy adopted by the Chinese Government in order to improve Chinas over-rapid population as to prevent its unfavourable effects on economic and social development of the country.(Information Office of the State Council Of the Peoples Republic of China 1995) The policy restricts married urban Chinese couples from having more than one child by imposing monetary penalties on families with extra children yet exemptions are allowed for couples who belong to ethnic minorities, live in rural area or do not have any siblings.(BBC News 2000) The One-Child Policy is considered successful in terms of its control on Chinas population growth as the birth rate in the county has been greatly decreasing since the introduction of the policy. (see Figure 1) Compared with 1970, in 1994 the birth rate dropped from 33.43 per thousand to 17.7 per thousand; the natural growth rate, from 25.83 per thousand to 11.21 per thousand; and the total fertility rate of women, from 5.81 to around 2à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦According to statistics supplied by the United Nations, Chinas population growth rate has already been markedly lower than the average level of other developing countries. (Information Office of the State Council Of the Peoples Republic of China 1995) Figure 1. Changes in the total fertility rate in China Source: National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (2006) Violation of Womens Reproductive Rights Despite its success in population control, the One-Child Policy gives rise to criticisms among which one lies in its violation of womens reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a subset of human rights first recognized at the United Nations International Conference on Human Rights in Teheran on 13th May 1986. According to the 16th article of the Proclamation of Teheran, Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children. Dixon-Mueller (1993: 12) suggests that reproductive rights can be defined as three types: 1. the freedom to decide how many children to have and when (or whether) to have them; 2. the right to have the information and means to regulate ones fertility; 3. the right to control ones own body. Reproductive freedom is the core of individual self-determination. The One-Child Policy does not only violate womens rights by limiting the number of their children but also leads to forced abortions in the country. Under the enforced policy, every 2.4 seconds there is a woman undergoing a forced abortion in China and this makes a total of about 35,000 abortions per day. (Phillips 2010: 1) Abortion is legal in China and as reported in China Daily in 2009, 13 millions of abortions are performed in China every year, which largely exceeds those performed in other countries such as the United States and Canada. (see Figure 2). There is a direct relationship between the One-Child Policy and Chines abortion rate. PostenYaukey (1992: 290) point out that the abortion rate in China increased by nearly 50% between 1978 and 1979 when the policy started being implemented. It is widely known that abortions can cause women health problems, not to mention its negative impacts on emotional and mental health. Ms. Reggie Littlejohn, president of Womens Rights Without Frontiers, criticized that The one child policy causes more violence toward women and girls than any other policy on the face of the earth. (Jiang 2009) Figure2. Abortion statistics in China, U.S.A., U.K., Canada and Australia Source: Jiang (2009) Unwanted Daughters and Sex-Selective Abortions A saying among peasants in China goes like this:The birth of a boy is welcomed with shouts of joy and firecrackers, but when a girl is born, the neighbours say nothing(WestleyChoe 2007: 2) In spite of Chinas modernization over the past decades, it is still common for Chinese parents to prefer sons to daughters. (Wang 1999: 197) Such a preference indirectly leads to sex-selective abortions as female fetuses are usually considered less precious than male ones, especially if the couples are allowed to have only one child. With fetal screening technologies such as ultrasound, amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling, the sex of unborn fetuses can be recognized before their birth. Such technologies and available abortions result in the possibility that couples selectively abort female fetuses in the hope of having a son instead.(WestleyChoe 2007: 3) Beside sex-selective abortions, Chinas infant mortality rate is another thing to look into. Generally the mortality of male infants is expected to be greater than that of female ones as male infants are biologically weaker than female infants.(Li, 2007: 2) This assumption is also proved by the worlds infant mortality rate by sex.(See Table 1) However, as shown in Table 2, China goes in the reverse direction. It is believed that this unusual tendency is caused by female infanticides and daughter abandonments resulting from the son preference. Table 1. Worlds infant mortality rate by sex 1980-2010 Source: United Nations Population Division (2010) Table 2. Chinas infant mortality rate by sex 1980-2010 Source: United Nations Population Division (2010) Gender Imbalance Blessing or Curse? Together with the increasing female infant mortality, there is a rising trend of the sex ratio in China since the implement of the One-Child Policy.(See Figure 3) It is estimated by the State Population and Family Planning Commission that there will be 30 million more Chinese man than Chinese women in 2020. (BBC News 2007) Because of the supply-and-demand law that supply decreases t and demand remains unchanged then the value of supply increase, some people assume that if there are less women in China their values and social status should naturally rise. However, this law would make sense only if the demand of women was high. Poon(2008) points out that when women become the minority in a male-preponderant society like China, China may face a period of unprecedented male aggression, which would likely render women as victims and womens status even more precarious and vulnerable to subjugation. Figure 3. Rising sex ratio and excess female infant mortality in China Source: Sun (2005) Womens Empowerment The Mistaken Focus It is always emphasized by the Chinese Government that the One-Child Policy helps promoting womens empowerment and improving womens position as they are freed from heavy burdens brought about by having many children(National Population and Family Planning Commission of China 2006). This claim contains two causal relations: 1) Because of the One-Child Policy women have fewer children. 2) Women have fewer children so they can spend more time on their career. Both of them make sense in a large extent, but is the One-Child Policy a must to control the number of womens children? Probably no. Despite that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the PRC, the One-Child Policy is never implemented in the city, where the social position of women is relatively high. As shown in Figure 4, the fertility rate of Hong Kong kept dropping even and was even lower than that of China. Of course one can argue that there are various factors contributing to Hong Kongs low fertility rate, yet one can also question whether the One-Child Policy is the only factor causing the decline in fertility rate and the rise of womens position. Figure 4. Fertility rates from 1960-2005 in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and East Asia Pacific Source: The United Families International (2010) The Single Child Generation The One-Child Policy does not only aim to decrease the birthrate but also to improve the quality of the new generation, the future pillars of China. It is commonly believed that having single daughters will raise the position of women as their parents provide them with better and more concentrated resources such as education and materials. It may be true in some ways, but Greenhalgh(2007.) points out that the One-Child Policy has produced the most materially and educationally privileged generation of young people in Chinese history who are spoiled and egocentric. Having been the focus of attention from the family throughout their growing-up years, these children are more dependent on others and easily hurt psychologically.(China Daily 2005) The new single-child generation in China has already concerning Chinese from the older generation. Do better resources necessarily create a better generation? If it does not, how can we expect a decline in qualities of children (both male and fema le) will result in better positions of women? Conclusion The One-Child Policy was claimed to be a short-term measure when it was first introduced in China.(Hesketh, Li Zhu 2005) Now that the policy has already been implemented for three decades, its negative consequences eventually appear and have aroused worries from the society. The policy negatively affects womens position as it violate womens rights and enhances the existing favoritism towards male children and it is not coming to an end yet. According to Zhao Baige, deputy director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, although it is said that the policy has been slowly being relaxed ,Chinas family-planning policy will remain unchanged until at least 2015. (Kumar 2010) (1631 words)

King Ramses II :: History

King Ramses II Ramses II Usermaatre Setepenre,third ruler of the 19th Dynasty,was born about 1303 B.C in the Eastern Nile Delta, following the death of his grandfather King Ramses I and Father Sethi I, was one of the longest reigning pharaohs of ancient Egypt.He reigned 67 years (roughly from 1290 to 1224 B.C), during the early part of his reign, Ramses fought to regain the territory in Africa and Western Asia that Egypt had held during the 15th and 16th centuries B.C in the beginning as coregent with his father, and lived for more than 80 years, which was very rare in those days.During his life he made quite a reputation as a builder and a warrior, but also as a ladies man.He had 5 or 6 main wives, mostly of all being Nefertari, but is known to have over 100 children with all of his wives.In Ancient Egypt people seems to have made fun of this fact. Ramses II is, however, best known for all the buildings he had constructed in his name across the country.Especially the monumental temples of Karnak and Abu Simbel , and his mortuary temple The Ramesseum give evidence of his love for Grandeur.In all of his monuments he had his name cartouche and texts engraved so deep that no successor would be able to remove it. Ramses’ energetic building activities led to a degrading of Egyptian art as far as the engraving of texts and images on temple walls was concerned, for he demanded the monuments to be erected with greater speed than usual.Otherwise carefully engraved texts and images with many beautiful details were now made superficially, a practice was unfortunately continued by his successors. His most famous military engagement is the battle of Kadesh against the Hittites, which took place Northern Syria, with whom the Egyptians had been struggling for many years.He seems to have escaped by pure luck, as his main force—the pharaoh himself commanding—was ambushed by the Hittites, and was only saved just in time by reinforcements while while retreating.Both sides claimed the victory of this battle, but it seems more likely to have ended in a status quo.Ramses II recorded his victory on several monuments, showing him slaying the Hittites in person.The problems between the Egyptians and the Hittites were finally settled several years later when Ramses married a Hittite princess. After he died, Ramses was buried in the famous royal necropolis of the Valley of the Kings, located in the hills on the west bank of the Nile River near modern of Luxor.

Developing Strategic Management and Leadership

Assignment on Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills Unit 1 Edexcel BTEC level 2 Extended Diploma in strategic Management and Leadership (QCF) Assignment Topics AC(1. 1)Explain the link between strategic management and leadership. AC(1. 2)Analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decision. AC(1. 3)Evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations. AC(2. 1)Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organizational strategic. AC(2. )Create a leadership strategic that supports organizational direction AC(3. 1)Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements. AC(3. 2)Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership. AC(4. 1)Plan the developing of leadership skills for a specific requirement. AC(4. 2)Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills. Note: The Chosen Organization for the Assignment is TESCO. [pic] Tesco is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom.It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919 and opened its first store in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, and Middlesex. The Tesco name first appeared after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E.Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname. Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer, Tesco has diversified both geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music down loads. Tesco is chosen for the assignment due to certain reasons. Tesco is one of Britain’s fastest-growing and most innovative retailers, recognized as one of the best companies to work for in the UK. Tesco gives their employees clear objectives and expectations.At the same time, they also allowed more freedom for individual initiative than most other retailers, as they believe that it is ultimately this sort of personal touch that can make all the difference to their customers. [Source: Tesco Website: http://www. tesco. com] Table of Contents |Task |Topic |Page | |AC(1. 1) |Explain the link between strategic management and leadership. |5 | |AC(1. 2) |Analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decision. 7 | |AC(1. 3) |Evaluate how leadership styles can be adapted to different situations. |9 | |AC(2. 1) |Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organizational |10 | | |strategic. | | |AC(2. 2) |Create a leadership strategic that supports organizational direction. |13 | |AC(3. 1) |Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements. |14 | |AC(3. 2) |Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership. 17 | |AC(4. 1) |Plan the developing of leadership skills for a specific requirement. |19 | |AC(4. 2) |Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills. |21 | |- |Reference |22 | |- |Bibliography |22 | AC(1. 1): Explain the link between strategic management and leadership.To explain the link between strategic management and leadership we should have a clear understanding of what these two terms actually mean. After understanding these two terms we can easily explain the link between them. Strategic Management: According to Barratt and Mottershead (2000), strategy is described as the way of achieving our objectives. Strategy enables us to ensure that all our work and things we do every day are going to help us in the long term inte rests of the organization. Strategic Management is the process of establishing and maintaining good strategies.Making and defining strategy is not enough, you will have to work out a plan for implementing that strategy in its true spirit. Good strategic management is plays a key role in approaching business opportunities and challenges. Leadership: There are different ways of describing leadership so it is very difficult to provide a single definition that fulfills the task. As Brindley and Buckley (2004) argued that, â€Å"Leadership has been identified as the process by which individual and group activities are influenced towards organizational goals†. The same thing is narrated in Business ManagementStudy Manual compiled by The Association of Business Executives (2007). They are of the view that, â€Å"Leadership is a process by which individuals are influenced so that they will be prepared to participate in the achievement of organizational or group goals. † While Marcouse (2008) narrates that, â€Å"Leadership, at its best, means inspiring staff to achieve demanding goals. † All these things emphasize on one basic idea and that is Inspiration or Influence. So we can say that Leadership is the art of getting things done by inspiration or influence of the leader on its followers while Management mainly depends on the analysis and ground realities.After all the discussion we came to the conclusion that Leadership and Strategic management are interlinked with some minor differences. In the case of strategic management we are trying our best to achieve some long term goals and the same is the case with leadership. In both cases we should have someone with a broad vision; either it’s a leader or a manager. The bottom line of all this discussion is beautifully captured by the golden words of Field Marshal Slim that (quoted in Business Management Study Manual), â€Å"Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: i ts practice is an art.Management is more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, methods, timetable and routine: its practice is a science. † AC(1. 2): Analyze the impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions. Leadership and Management Styles: There is famous saying that, â€Å"Change is the only unchangeable thing in nature† (Heller & Hindle, 2008). Similarly in our daily life things are changing rapidly and we have to adopt ourselves to these changes. We can’t say that we will remain in the same situation forever.We have to act according the situation. Similarly there certain ups and downs in organizations as well. So the managers and leaders adopt different styles for different situation. According to Whitcomb (2000), some famous and widely recognized styles are: a) Autocratic: In this style people are told what to do and how to do. They have no role in decision making. Once made, a decision must not be questioned. b) Democratic: In this style decisions are made on the views of as many people as possible that are involved. ) Passive: In this style people are given general directions on the tasks to be tackled and then left alone to achieve them in the way they think is best. d) Charismatic: In this style leader influences and motivates others because of his/her outstanding personality or character. As mentioned earlier, that these styles depend on certain situations and to be a good leader/manager you would have to adopt all of them. All these styles of management and leadership have certain impact on strategic decisions. The organizations led by Autocratic leader are basically Task Oriented.According to Jenkins and Hamman (2001), the advantage of such style is that the decisions are made quickly because people know where they stand. But the employees in such organizations are not happy to some extent because they have no role in decision making. As Barratt and Mottershead (2000) is of the opinion that in Au tocratic leadership the Work-force is not encouraged to think for itself, and emphasis is more on quantity than quality. While the organizations led by Democratic leaders have proved good because they are both Task oriented as well as Relationship oriented.But according to Barratt and Mottershead (2000) the decision making process is slow and that can be dangerous. And the organizations led by Passive style are Relationship oriented. And Marcouse (2008) is of the view that this only occurs when the manager is very busy or very lazy or has confidence on his/her team and knows what they are capable of. According to Whitcomb (2000), Charismatic style of leadership is very rare but can be very successful in the extent to which they can motivate others to do things to support them. AC(1. 3): Evaluate how leadership styles can be adopted to different situations.Leadership styles can be adopted according to the situations. For example; during a war a commander has to make quick decisions ( Brindley and Buckley, 2004), or in the case of a natural disaster there is no time for suggestions from the people, so autocratic style will be perfect. The bottom line is that for quick decision you should always go for the Autocratic style. In the case of a Research and Development Organization, employees are highly trained, skilled and professional people, so the style that best suits this situation is Laissez-faire.Because employees know what they are doing and what are their goals. And the situation that is the best candidate for Democratic style is a youth club planning for their summer camp. They will have to take suggestions from all the persons involved and then will make a decision. In this case the decision making process is slow but effective at the end of the day. AC(2. 1): Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organizational strategy in your chosen organization. Every single person on this earth is different.The difference may be in way of thinking, analyzing something, working or implementing something. Along the course of life humans made many theories about things around them, some of them were wrong and some proved successful. Human are called the most superior species on planet earth and this superiority is due to the fact that humans learn from their mistakes. So humans learnt a lot from their mistakes and devised new theories. In this task we are going to focus our attention on the different theories of leadership and management made during 19th and 20th century.Theories of management and leadership: According to Morris (1999), â€Å"The first-rate way of making a fool of oneself is to propose as new an approach tried and rejected by earlier generations†. There are a lot of ways of doing something, some of them have been tried before and some are not. So a successful manager always learns from the past experiences and tries not to repeat the mistakes. The 20th century has seen many theories of management applied to the organizations; some of them are described below. a) The Classical School: According to Morris (1999), this approach is ased on the main purpose and the structure of the organization. The organization is just like a machine, just feed the input and get the output. The role and position of every individual is defined. People are supposed to do things as mentioned by the higher level, human feelings are irrelevant. b) Bureaucracy: The main emphasis is on the performance and duties of the individuals. The duties of the all the individuals are fixed according to the area of their expertise. And like Classical School theory, human feelings are irrelevant. ) Systems Theory: This theory was developed in 1950s and 1960s. The theory is based on the working of a typical system. It takes certain input (raw material, people) and transforms them through a process into output (organizational goals). d) Human Relations Theory: This theory was developed in 1930s. The main theme of this theory is the human relations. The Association of Business Executives in Organizational Behavior mentioned that, â€Å"to understand and improve an organization, you need to understand the people who work for it. † ) Contemporary Theories: These theories are based upon the idea of sticking to the key functions of the organization and puts emphasis on going towards excellence. f) Contingency Theories: This theory emphasizes that there is no single particular way of running an organization. Everything is dependent on the situations through which the organization is passing by. Impact on Tesco: Tesco is one of the leading organizations, with a vision of providing people everything they need, under one roof at affordable price. Now we see the impact of the selected theories of management on the strategy of Tesco.The impact of Classical School theory on Tesco’s strategy is a bit disappointing because Tesco believes in excellence with the help of its employees. So the Classical Theory is surely going to inversely affect the strategy of Tesco. The Bureaucratic Theory’s impact is similar to the Classic School Theory. But this approach is providing a helping hand in organizing the overall working of the Tesco. But only defining the duties of the employees and organizing them is not enough. The Tesco’s strategy is to run the organization in a disciplined manner, keeping in mind the feelings of its employees.The impact of Human Relation Theory on Tesco’s strategy is not good enough. It should be kept in mind that this theory alone is not enough to provide any progress in long term. But the good thing about it is that it takes into account the ideas of all the employees. The Contemporary and Contingency Theories have a good impact on Tesco’s strategy. Both these theories are leading Tesco towards excellence. Changing the style according to the situation and sticking to the overall performance is surely good enough fo r Tesco’s progress in long term.AC(2. 2): Create a leadership strategy that supports organizational direction in your chosen organization. We have seen the impact of different theories of management and leadership on the strategy of Tesco. And we came to the conclusion that there is no single theory that can support Tesco’s strategy. Everything depends on the situation of that organization in a particular time frame. So in the case of Tesco the best strategy that supports organizational direction is the Bureaucratic approach along with a flavor of Human Relation theory.The Bureaucratic approach will be helpful in achieving the organizational goals and keeping everything on track. It will also help Tesco to maintain its day-to-day budgets in control and will make some serious profits for the organization. The Human relation approach will take into account the feelings and needs of the staff and the people attached with Tesco. It will ensure that the workforce is enjoyin g its time working with Tesco and take their work to perfection. This new combination will be very helpful in maintaining the discipline in the organization and will be very beneficial for the employees.So the working and the progress of Tesco will be very smooth. The people will be aware of their position and duty in Tesco and they will be free to work out a plan for performing their duties efficiently. Although this new leadership strategy seems a bit odd to many people but if it is implemented in its true spirit, it will be very helpful. AC(3. 1): Use appropriate methods to review current leadership requirements. There are certain methods available for reviewing the leadership requirements. Some of them are listed below.Blake and Moulton’s Managerial grid: According to Mullins (2005), Blake and Moulton’s Managerial grid is one of the several methods available for reviewing leadership requirements. According to this method, all managerial and leadership styles are re viewed on the basis of two main rules. 1. Concern for Results; and 2. Concern for People. In the first case, manager diverts all its energy on the accomplishing of tasks in given time. This is shown along the horizontal axis on the grid. While in second case, employees and their needs are given importance.And this is represented along the vertical axis of the grid. Barratt and Mottershead (2000) have narrated this grid as a Matrix of managerial styles. [pic] Figure: Blake and Moulton’s Managerial Grid (Source: http://www. gridod. com/images/LeadershipGrid. jpg) The numbers inside the grid indicate the degree of concern of the mangers. For example; managers with a rating of (9,1) practice Autocratic style because they show little concern for the employees. On the other hand, a rating of (1,9) depicts the behavior of a Democratic manager. It is also referred as â€Å"Country Club† management by some authors.According to my research and findings, the management style of T esco, on the basis of Blake and Moulton’s managerial grid, should be rated as (7,5). 360 ° Feedback: According to Mullins (2005), â€Å"The idea of 360 ° feedback involves an appraisal and feedback from different groups within the work situation – peers and subordinates as well as bosses, and possibly internal and external customers. † The main purpose of the 360 ° feedback is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of an individual or an organization. It may include a self-assessment questionnaire.This feedback helps in overcoming the weaknesses and exploiting the strengths of the organization. [pic] Figure: Mulins’s 360 Degree Feedback Cycle Source: http://recordtracker. net/images/pic_360. gif MBO (Management by Objective): Another common approach in reviewing leadership and management styles is Management by Objectives commonly known as MBO. According to Mullins (2005, p. 249), MBO is a system of management which is aimed at relating the organ izational goals to individual performances and development through the involvement of all levels of management.While Morris (1999), is of the view that the top manager should set an overall objective, and should convey it to the lower management for completion. MBO is potentially an attractive system. It provides an opportunity for staff to accept greater responsibility and to make a higher level of personal contribution. {Mullins (2005)} [pic] Source: http://leapcomp. com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/mbo-process-cycle2. gif Mc. Gregory’s Theory X and Theory Y: The figure defines both the theories in detail. The bottom line is that Theory X is Task oriented and Theory Y is Relationship oriented. [pic]Source: http://www. vectorstudy. com/management_theories/img/theory_x_y. gif AC(3. 2): Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership. A good leader is always prepared for the any kind of challenge. He acts quickly and accurately according to the given situation . We can say that a good leader takes the right decision at the right time. I have listed a couple of future situations here that will require a firm leadership. Conflict Resolution: You cannot stop conflicts from occurring between individuals and organizations. Sometimes these conflicts are useful and sometimes they are not.When I say useful, it means that sometimes new ideas are created from these conflicts. Or these conflicts point to a deficiency or a week point in the management of the organization. So they are helpful in pinpointing the lapses. On the other hand sometime these conflicts leave a bad impression. Whatever the reason is, conflicts should be resolved smoothly. So for the purpose of conflict resolution a leader should be there with a remedy. And it is then up to the leader to resolve that conflict in any way he likes; whether by choosing Autocratic style or by Democratic style.Merger and Acquisition: Another most important situation for an organization is merger or acquisition. It’s a really very difficult decision. You have to be very accurate in your calculations and should have a good insight of market trends. A leader with a vision and deep thinking is essential in this case. Either you are going for merger or going for acquisition, you should be able to foresee the state of your employees and organization in coming years. Recession: A couple of years ago there was no concept of recession on a large scale. But now many of the world’s most popular economies are facing difficult times.Now-a-days recession has become a worst nightmare for many people around the globe. And according to the economist it is the only chance for organizations to control their budget. So for recession there should be a strong leader with a clear cut policy. This is the worst case scenario and a true test of a leadership that how it overcomes recession. Adaptation for change in technology, taste and performance: Change is the unchangeable law of nature . And adaptation for change is very difficult for certain organizations and it may be due to many factors.One of the key factors is that many old employees don’t welcome change because they are used to work in old fashion and any change in technology, taste and performance is a bit difficult for them. So a sincere leadership is required for any change to become successful in organization, a leadership that is able to remove the ambiguities from the minds of all employees about the nature of the change. Natural Disaster: Another very important situation that requires a leadership is a natural disaster. During the period of a natural disaster many employees and organizations are in a state of ambiguity.They are unable to perform their duties efficiently. That’s why a firm and dedicated leadership is required, that is capable of overcoming the difficulties, and is capable enough to restore the confidence of the employees and organization. AC(4. 1): Plan the development of leadership skills for a specific requirement. There are certain skills that every leadership should possess. True leaders have these skills in their genes and others adopt them during the course of their life. But one thing is certain that these skills are present in all the great leaders of the world.The possession of these qualities is not enough; a good leader should be able to develop these skills and to be able to apply them in accordance with the requirement. A good leader possesses the right skills and uses them in the behavior that best suits the current situation. The main skill of a leader is its influence. A good leader always uses its influence on its followers to obtain the best results. Inspiration can bring huge changes in organizations. So a good leader should always try to develop and enhance its influence by empowering its employees. So this skill can be developed by self-help by learning from mistakes.A good leader should have good communication skills. He should be able to communicate easily with his team members. Now-a-days the world is becoming a global village and to become a good leader, one has to be able to understand the feelings of others. So a leader should practice more and more to master this skill. A good leader should always be adaptable to change. He should have a vision and he should try to introduce modern ways of getting things done. He should encourage his staff to use new technology and new techniques for their routine work. He should be confident and determined in his vision.So he should arrange seminars and workshops to convey his vision to his followers. A good leader should be unbiased; he should be able to manage diversity within an organization. He should be role model for all the employees from any origin. He should be punctual and honest. It’s only through his own punctuality that he can maintain discipline in the organization. A good leader should be able to communicate the policy and regulations of the o rganization to every single employee. And that can only happen when he first exercises them himself before communicating to others.He should be able to expand the organization in all ways possible. He should be able to appoint new staff and train the old staff according to the new technology. He should arrange training courses and other developmental activities for his company. He should also use his powers to keep the organizations on track. And most importantly he should use his power of rewarding for winning the heart of his employees. He should be a good speaker so that in any situation he is able to explain the position of organization in an effective manner.A good leader should possess good coordination skills for maintaining the integrity between different departments of the organization. Discipline should be the main thing for a leader and there should be no excuse for it. Because it is the main factor that can change the fate of the organization. A good leader should be hon est and well-wisher of its people. He should stick to his commitments and promises. A leader should be a good listener; it helps him in overcoming the weaknesses of the organization and sometimes gives him a chance to grab some new ideas as well. AC(4. ): Report on the usefulness of methods used to plan the development of leadership skills. There are certain methods that we can use to plan the development of leadership skills. One of the best methods is to call a meeting of the staff and ask about their ideas. The best method, however, is 360 ° feedback. It helps you in understanding your exact position in organization. Another widely used method is to gather as much information as you can about the life of great leaders. It will help you in adopting their skills and their secrets of the trade. Another way of developing leadership skills is to get familiar with your followers.It will help you in understanding their feelings and their needs, which in turn will help you in managing their needs. So we used different plans for the development of leadership skills including; seminars, meetings, training courses, self-help, learning from mistakes and a lot others. All these methods are very useful to plan the development of leadership skills. Seminars and workshops are very helpful in understanding the point of view of other people. Training courses help in understanding and overcoming new challenges. These courses help organizations to implement effective ways of getting things done.They also help in creating a learning environment in an organization. Meetings should be arranged regularly; this will help a leader in developing his communication and coordination skills. Another very important method is exchange visits. These are very helpful in developing leadership skills. These visits may be between different sections of the same organization or between different organizations. These are very helpful in developing the leadership skill of managing diversity. Refe rences: Barratt, Mottershead. (2000), Business Studies, Italy, G. Cannale & C. S. p. A Borgano T. se – Turin.Brindley, Buckley. (2004), Business Studies, A-Level Study Guide, Hants, Ashford Color Press, Gasport, Hants: Pearson Education Limited. Business Management Study Manual, The Association of Business Executives. Heller, Hindle (2008), Essential Manager’s Manual, London: A Penguin Company Marcouse, Surridge and Gillespie (2008), Business Studies for A Level, Third edition, Italy: Hodder Education. Morris, M. J. (1999), The First Time Manager, 2nd Edition, London: Clays Ltd, St Ives plc. Mullins, L. (2005), Management and Organizational Behaviour, 7th Edition, Essex; Pearson Education Ltd.The Association of Business Executives, Organizational Behaviour Whitcomb, A. (2000), Comprehensive Business Studies, 5th Edition, Essex: Pearson Education Limited. http://www. emeraldinsight. com/products/journals/journals. htm? id=sl (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://www. Tesco. co. uk (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://top7business. com/? id=2113 by Akhil Shahani (Accessed on 20th October, 2010) Bibliography: Greene, Stellman (2005), Applied Software Project Management, O’Reilly Inc. Jenkins, Hamman (2001), GCSE Business Studies, Italy: Hodder and StoughtonEducational Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn (2002), Organizational Behavior, 7th Edition, USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. http://www. ccl. org/leadership/pdf/research/LeadershipStrategy. pdf (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://www. emeraldinsight. com/products/journals/journals. htm? id=sl (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://www. nwlink. com/~donclark/leader/strategy. html (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://www. zeromillion. com/business/leadership-strategy. html (Accessed on 13th October, 2010) http://www. businessballs. com/leadership. htm (Accessed on 20th October, 2010)

Pangaea: the Ancient Supercontinent

Pangaea: The Ancient Supercontinent Throughout Earth's history, fragments of continental crust have floated across the planet's surface, pushed and pulled by plate tectonic motion. At times in the geologic past, these fragments (what we may now call continents) came together to form one large supercontinent, only to be broken apart once again by tectonic forces. The cycle of supercontinent construction and destruction took hundreds of millions of years. The most recently created supercontinent was Pangaea, which came into being about 300 million years ago.Panthalassa, a giant ocean, surrounded it. In just 100 million years, though, Pangaea began to break apart. Tectonic forces created a north-south rift in the super-continent, separating it into two new continents, Laurasia and Gondwanaland. As the new continents separated, the rift filled in with water, eventually becoming the present-day Atlantic Ocean. Laurasia, composed of the present-day continents of Asia, Europe, and North Ame rica (Greenland), occupied the northern hemisphere.Gondwanaland, composed of the present-day continents of Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and South America, occupied the southern hemisphere. The subcontinent of India was also part of Gondwanaland. By 135 million years ago, the breakup of Laurasia and Gondwanaland was underway, leading to the present-day locations of the continents. The forces that formed Pangaea, then broke it apart, are still at work. North America, South America, and Greenland are all moving westward.Australia, India, and the western part of Africa are all moving northward. Europe and Asia are moving eastward. The Atlantic Ocean is becoming larger, and the Pacific Ocean is becoming smaller. Although impossible to know when, at some point in the future, millions of years from now, the continents may well come together to form yet another super-continent. Beginning some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) beneath the surface and extending to a depth of 3,960 miles (6,370 kilometers), the very center of the planet, is Earth's core.Composed of the metal elements iron and nickel, the core has a solid inner portion and a liquid outer portion. Scientists estimate that temperatures in the core exceed 9,900Â °F (5,482Â °C), creating extreme heat energy. Were this energy not released in some manner, Earth's interior would melt. Circulating currents, called convection currents, carry the energy to the surface of the planet, where it is released. It is the release of this energy underneath the lithosphere that leads to the formation of the major geologic features on the surface of the planet.

Reading Comprehension Checklist and Questions for Students

Reading Comprehension Checklist and Questions for Students For special education learners, the difference between reading ability and reading comprehension can be stark. Many children who fall into the category of different learners struggle at various places in the reading comprehension process. Dyslexic students have trouble reading letters and words. Other students may find summarizing what they have read to be the hard part. And yet other students- including those with ADHD or autism- may read words fluently, but be unable to make sense of the arc of a story or even a sentence. What Is Reading Comprehension? Simply, reading comprehension is the ability to learn and process information from written sources. Its primary step is decoding, which is the act of assigning sounds and meaning to letters and words. But as simple as defining reading comprehension may be, it is notoriously difficult to teach. For many students, reading will give them their first glimpse into subjective understanding, as they realize that the information that they have gleaned from a text may differ from a fellow students, or that the picture they have drawn in their minds after reading a text will be different from that of their peers. How Is Reading Comprehension Assessed? The most common kinds of reading comprehension tests are ones in which students read a short passage and are asked a series of questions about it. Yet, for special education students, this method is fraught with the pitfalls outlined above. Moving from the process of decoding text to answering questions about the text can present challenges for children who cannot jump from task to task with facility, even if they are great readers and have strong comprehension skills. Sample Questions to Ask About Reading For this reason, an oral exam may bear more fruit than a standard written reading comprehension test. Heres a checklist of questions to ask a child about a book shes read. Their answers will provide you with a glimpse of their ability to comprehend. Consider these questions: 1.____ Who are the main characters in your story? 2.____ Are any of the main characters like you or like somebody you know? What makes you think so? 3.____ Describe your favorite character in the story and tell me why the character is your favorite. 4.____ When do you think the story takes place? Where do you think the story takes place? Why do you think so?   5.____ What is the funniest/scariest/best part of the story? 6.____ Is there a problem in this story? If so, how does the problem get solved? How would you have solved the problem? 7.____ Would any of your friends/family enjoy this book? Why or why not? 8.____ Could you come up with another good title for this book? What would it be? 9.____ What if you could change the ending of this book, what would it be? 10.____ Do you think this book would make a good movie? Why or why not? Questions like these are a great tool to incorporate into story time. If a parent volunteer or a student is reading to the class, have them ask one or more of them. Keep a folder with these questions and have your volunteers record what the students say about the book title theyve just read. The key to success in ensuring your struggling readers maintain a joy for reading is to ensure that the task following reading isnt unpleasant. Dont make answering a series of questions a chore that follows a fun or exciting story. Foster a love of reading by sharing your enthusiasm about what their book is all about.

Themes1 essays

Themes1 essays Matthew Sinrod Dr. Doyle Eng 102 5/5/98 "Themes in "The Grapes of Wrath" John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California February 27th 1902. He was the third of four children and the only son of John Ernst Steinbeck II, manager of a flour mill, and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, a former teacher. Steinbeck said of his youth, ("We were poor people with a hell of a lot of land which made us think we were rich people, even when we couldn't buy food and were patched.") Steinbeck used the area where he grew up as the setting for many of his stories. He attended Stanford University for a few years. He had to work to pay for his education, and sometimes took off one quarter to pay for the next. (He worked as a clerk in several stores, was a hand in a ranch, and even worked at the Spreckels Sugar Company where he gained knowledge of labor problems he would later write about in The Grapes of Wrath.) Other books by Steinbeck include Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, and Cannery Row. He died in New Yor k City on December 20th 1968. Sinrod 2 A constant theme in our story is the suffering of humans. As F.W. Watt says, (The primary impact of The Grapes of Wrath...is not to make us act, but to make us understand and share a human experience of suffering and resistance.) Steinbeck shows us that his characters, as well as all people must endure suffering as human beings. Humans suffer due to many factors. Religious suffering is one factor which is self imposed. (When we first see Casy he is explaining to Tom Joad how he left preaching, not merely because of the lusts that plagued him, but because religious faith as he knew it seemed to set up codes of behavior which denied human nature its proper and full expression) Religious suffering is perhaps epitomized in Jesus Christ, and Joseph Fontenrose believes the tragic character of Casey is believed to be the symbolic representation of Jesus Christ himself. (Jim Casy's initials are JC, and he retired to the wild ...

Interview with the DIY Author Podcast

Interview with the DIY Author Podcast Interview with the DIY Author Podcast Our co-founder Ricardo was interviewed by Chris Well from the fantastic DIY Author Podcast on the benefits of Reedsy to find freelance help and our upcoming features. Here are some cool highlights!Chris: How did the idea for Reedsy come about?Ricardo: The idea for Reedsy comes mainly from my co-founder Emmanuel and I because we’ve been following the industry for a while and from the reader perspective mainly we’ve really enjoyed the digital disruption brought by Amazon, with being one of the first adopters of Kindle in France, and we started thinking about this disruption from an author’s perspective and we’ve learned about self-publishing, and our first thought was, â€Å"Self-publishing’s great but how can you ensure the same quality in the books that are published by self-publishing authors?† And that quality was mainly assured by the editorial work and the design work and the work from all the people involved in an international publishin g company, and we thought let’s create a marketplace that brings this quality to self-publishing.Chris: You said there are other features that are being rolled out in the future, and in addition to imprint what else is going on at Reedsy?Ricardo: Well what’s coming very soon and it’s very, very exciting is brand new author profiles. Because all our freelancers have been enchanted by the design and the fact that they get all their information in a one-pager through their Reedsy profile. And lots of authors have asked us for something similar so we are currently building a one-pager for them where they can aggregate all their information from Amazon – so the books they have on Amazon – all their information from Goodreads – so we’ll have an integration with Goodreads – and also with all the traditional blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, so you can have your latest blog post also on your profile.Chris: For an auth or listening, what would you say is the number one reason that an author should come to Reedsy?Ricardo: I think the number one reason is because of how easy it is to use, and because of the assurance that you’re going to get quality, basically. So if you’re looking for any kind of service, you know that you’re going to find the ideal person on Reedsy because we have created a process that allows you to find the ideal person from the very first time, and not having to go through four collaborations with four different editors who don’t really work out exactly as you wanted.Listen to the podcast, or read the full transcript here!

Cuban Revolution of 1959 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cuban Revolution of 1959 - Research Paper Example Varadero and Havana were the Rich and Famous’ resort and casinos, gambling as well as prostitution, were commonplace. Most Cubans particularly on the rural areas however lived in an environment of atrocious repression and they experienced extreme poverty, they were uneducated and there were many illnesses among them among them. Cuban dictator Batista was in power during this time and his regime was very cruel and the peasants greatly suffered under this very difficult political situation, which greatly concerned Fidel Castro and he started planning on overthrowing Batista’s dictatorship (Habanera, 1). The Cuban Revolution started with the Moncada Barracks’ failed attack by Fidel Castro together with his brother Raul, on July 26, 1953. Castro expected the soldiers of Batista to be inebriated and stuporous when his revolutionary’s band would surprise them at dawn. He had 160 men and prepared them to attack the barracks’ main post. However, they ex perienced a terrific failure at Moncada and Batista forces either killed or captured almost all of the rebels. Together with the members of his band, Fidel Castro was arrested and they underwent trial and were convicted. During his trial on October 16, 1953, Castro presented a famous speech entitled History Will Absolve Me as a legal defense of himself, which became a major revolutionary document (Faria, 4 ). Faria further explains that the presiding judge specifically sentenced them to be imprisoned in the terrible old fortress prison of La Cabana where they would serve a sentence of fifteen years. However, Ramon Hermida, the Cuban Minister of the Interior, directed that they be sent to the newest Modelo Prison where they were treated favorably as political prisoners. After two years only, Batista pardoned Castro and his conspirators in a general amnesty release as a sign of national reconciliation. His supporters welcomed him as a hero and he organized his followers and formed the 26th of July Movement, in remembrance of Moncada attacks, before running away to Mexico for his safety, where he started training an army in preparation to wage a guerilla war against his rival Batista (Jacob & Wong, 3). During the same time during which the 26th of July Movement was created, various groups also increased their endeavors against the government of Batista – groups such as those connected to the former political parties stepped up their efforts in opposition to the regime of Batista. Additionally, angry at the refusal of Batista to consent to new and just elections in the ‘Civic Dialogue’ that he had held with his democratic rivals, The University Student Federation established the secret Directorio Revolucionario, which would assist them to fight Batista’s government more violently and more directly. In Mexico, Castro and his brother brought together the 26th of July’s supporters and members abroad, who engaged themselves in trainin g, collecting arms as well as raising money in preparation to attack Batista (Babun & Triay, 3). On December 2, 1956, in company with 82 others, Castro landed in Cuba using a small yacht called Granma. This was two days behind the schedule and a fighter plane that a naval frigate had set upon unfortunately spotted them, which forced them to dock at a swamp called Playa los Corolados (Babun & Triay, 4).

Is Global Warming due to Human Actions Research Paper

Is Global Warming due to Human Actions - Research Paper Example Thesis Statement Global warming has already spread across the world and damaging the earth and its people. Until and unless the people of the earth realize the result of the global warming and take corrective measures it would keep damaging the earth and a day would come when the earth would be full of carbon dioxide and it would be almost impossible to remain alive (ThinkQuest, n.d.). Discussion Change is a process which is always tough to adapt or accept, and when there are changes in the environment and in the nature, it is one of the biggest challenges to face. Changes in nature and environment alter the system of the living style, the weather, the habits, and the temperature. The term ‘global warming’ has become a threat to the world. The problem is more intense even than that of terrorism. Terrorism might affect a certain part of the world, but global warming is having its toll throughout the whole world. Global warming is causing change in the climate, in the natu re and society among others. The balance of the ecology and the environment is very much necessary, but the people of the earth are damaging the environment for their personal interests. The relationship between the nature and human being is based on the ‘Give and Take’ policy. If people are taking resources from the nature they are supposed to give it back to the nature as well. In other words, human beings are causing trouble for themselves by deforestation, by releasing fuel, and by releasing smoke among others. Global warming can be an effect of emission of gasses, but the main causes of global warming is the negligence of the human beings and lack of responsibility towards the society (Hansen, 2006). The Causes of Global Warming One of the major reasons to cause global warming is the ever increasing pollution. All over the world, there are about ‘164.0 motor vehicles per 100 people’ running on the streets (Nation Master, 2011), resulting in a high rate of carbon dioxide in the air. The other reason to cause global warming includes burning the fossil fuel, which also causes emission of large amount of greenhouse gas. Overpopulation of the world is the other cause of global warming. The modern world is focusing very much into the housing and property sector, which is resulting in deforestation. Cutting the trees causes more Carbon Di-Oxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Not only air pollution but the water and the land pollution are also reasons behind the global warming. Almost every river and cannel is getting polluted due to the continuous emission of the waste from the factories. The villagers use the water for washing cloths and utensils, and they dump all their garbage in the water. These can be certain other reasons to cause global warming (Houghton, 2004). The Effects of Global Warming Global Warming affects the world in many ways, but the major effect of the global warming is the change in the climate. The other effects of globa l warming are, damage in the ozone layer, which is allowing more sun rays and the ultra violate rays to enter the world, which is harmful for the people. It is also resulting in higher water level of the sea, which can cause tsunami anytime. The global warming causes a change in the climate of the environment, which can be noticed by extreme cold or extreme hot weather. The

FINAL EAM HIS. 101 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

FINAL EAM HIS. 101 - Essay Example Because of this, cities and factories were developed. The factories were responsible for the processing of the agricultural products. Growth of factories facilitated the development of commercial centers. It is also during this period that the phenomenon of enlightment was experienced. A number of scholars started emerging during this period. These scholars contributed to the development of research (McKay, 123). It was also during this period that the phenomenon of renaissance was experienced. Renaissance or re-birth contributed significantly towards the growth of commercial centers because it enabled the Europeans to widen their scope of thinking (McKay, 127). The development of the learning institutions such as universities also had a role to play as far as growth of commercial centers is concerned. Through universities, innovation and inventions rose drastically. This facilitated the growth of commercial centers. Increase in population is another factor that contributed to the growth of commercial centers. It is clear that Europe population stated rising significantly during this period. This was due to improved medical care. The rise in population demands of commodities and hence leads to the development of commercial businesses. Technological advancement is another factor that facilitates the growth of commercial centers. This is because the advent of technology facilitated the development of industries which in turn promoted the development of other commercial centers such as banks. In order to achieve this there was a great need of business expansion which in turn led to the rise of commercial centers (Coffin et. al, 259) The rise of these commercial centers in Europe brought several benefits to the population. The first benefit of development of commercial centers is that it leads to improvement of the living standards. This is because the people could get money through selling services or goods the rise of commercial

Numeracy in Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Numeracy in Action - Essay Example This shows that he can visually discriminate one object from another. Nathan can not do the same with numbers. He cannot even recognize which are numbers and which are letters. For him they just look like squiggles and strange marks. Support: Introducing numbers to children should expose them to the visual appearance of each number, the quantity it represents and even the strokes used when writing it down. Flashcards of numbers may be used to imbed the appearance of the number to the child’s mind while its name is repeatedly said. An effective method is teaching counting songs and when the number is mentioned, up comes the flashcard of that number. Children love singing and movement and incorporating these in their learning a concept becomes interesting and fun for them. A story that focuses on a particular number (ex: 2 friends found 2 birds eating 2 apples) is likewise interesting to listen to. A teacher may provide a coloring sheet with a big print of the specific number discussed. These methods may be used with Nathan. The strategies address various learning styles that may suit any child. The variety of activities address the needs of the visual (flashcards and story pictures), auditory (songs and st ory), kinesthetic (movements to songs) and tactile (coloring sheet) learners. Resources/ Materials used: number flashcards; CD’s of number songs (Five Little Monkeys; Five Green Speckled Frogs; There were 10 in the Bed.. etc.); number storybooks; number coloring sheet focusing on 1 number at a time, box of crayons. Case: Hannah has mastered identifying numbers up to 10 and visually comparing sets with more objects or less objects if the quantities are obvious (like comparing a set of 2 buttons with a set of 10 buttons). However, when asked to match a number with its quantity, she wouldn’t know what to do. She has mastered

Combating Compassion Fatigue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Combating Compassion Fatigue - Essay Example Adopting the definition by C. Figley, Sabo (2011) defines compassion fatigue as â€Å"natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other – the stress resulting from helping, or wanting to help, a traumatized or suffering person.† The suffering and trauma experienced by the patient would trigger a response on varied levels in the caregiver thus varied empathy and engagement abilities with theorists arguing on individuals possessing high empathic response and empathy levels to the pain, traumatic experience and suffering of patients as being more vulnerable (Bush, 2009). From the inception of the term compassion fatigue, it has been widely associated with burnout, not only from the workplace negative environmental stressors but also from the physical and emotional needs of the patients which contribute to the caregivers’ anger, depression, tiredness and ineffectiveness. With a long term exp osure to loss and trauma, caregivers would begin integrating their patients’ grief, fear and emotions which would increase their own emotional pain and stress. The theory behind vicarious trauma postulates that such exposure to trauma changes the caregiver’s perspective or cognitive schema with regard to life issues like control, self esteem and intimacy. Secondary traumatic stress would incorporate both vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue due to empathic engagement with the resultant behaviors and emotions resulting in acute stress disorder. Bush (2009) differentiates these noting that burnout involves emotional exhaustion, vicarious trauma involves cognitive schema changes and compassion fatigue involves loss of self. Warning Signs Although the symptoms associated with compassion fatigue vary from one caregiver to another, there are red flags that indicate its existence. Considering the five concepts associated with compassion fatigue, first, the cognitive sympto ms would include lowered concentration, rigidity, disorientation, preoccupation with trauma, minimization and apathy. Secondly, warning signs in relation to emotional consideration would encompass fear, numbness, anger, guilt, anxiety, powerlessness, hopelessness, depression, sadness, shock, troubling dreams experience and enhanced or blunted affect. Behaviorally, caregivers faced with compassion fatigue would be irritable, moody and withdrawn and would experience poor sleep, change of appetite, hyper-vigilance and nightmares. Those affected spiritually would question the meaning of life, lose purpose, question religious beliefs, lose faith and lose purpose. Finally, the somatic symptoms associated with compassion fatigue encompass sweating, breathing difficulty, pains and aches, rapid heartbeat, headaches, impaired immune system and difficulty in staying or falling asleep (Mathieu, 2012). Nature of Problems and their Causes Working environment has been widely referenced as a key co ntributor to compassion fatigue. Prolonged exposure to environments presenting stressors including lack of colleague and administrative support and understaffing would keep caregivers under a situation of constant isolation and alertness which eventually causes mental and physical exhaustion. Interestingly, Bush (2009)

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Qualitative and Quantitative Research - Essay Example This implies that the two methods are dependent on the data needed by a research and the subject of the research itself. In some cases, both of these methods can be used together. Pluralistic research is the term used to refer to a situation in which both the qualitative and quantitative approaches are mixed in one research project. The mixture of both of these research methods could result in a number of benefits and also come with costs or disadvantages to the researcher. This paper gives a review of the points of divergence between the two methods of research. Advantages and disadvantages of combining the two methods of research in one project are also given. From the definition of the two research method, significant differences are. This difference comes from the use of the method. While qualitative methods mainly try to give a justification of a phenomenon, the quantitative method aims at giving the amount of data to support or disapprove a hypothesis. This means that the data that will be obtained in a qualitative research is also of substantively different from the type obtained in quantitative research (Pierce 2008). In ordered to explain a fact or a phenomenon, reasoning is the only possible way to achieve this. The data that will be available, in this case, are descriptions of different processes or occurrence within a phenomenon. In the quantitative method, the data usually obtained gives a numeric value of the aspect being measured. This value can be the frequency of an occurrence or the magnitude of a phenomenon. As such these methods vary in terms of the data collected and the purpose of research. While the purpose of the quan titative method id to measure the numeric value of a phenomenon, the qualitative method aims ad delivering the meaning or the reason behind the occurrence (Bryman, 1988).

Combating Compassion Fatigue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Combating Compassion Fatigue - Essay Example Adopting the definition by C. Figley, Sabo (2011) defines compassion fatigue as â€Å"natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other – the stress resulting from helping, or wanting to help, a traumatized or suffering person.† The suffering and trauma experienced by the patient would trigger a response on varied levels in the caregiver thus varied empathy and engagement abilities with theorists arguing on individuals possessing high empathic response and empathy levels to the pain, traumatic experience and suffering of patients as being more vulnerable (Bush, 2009). From the inception of the term compassion fatigue, it has been widely associated with burnout, not only from the workplace negative environmental stressors but also from the physical and emotional needs of the patients which contribute to the caregivers’ anger, depression, tiredness and ineffectiveness. With a long term exp osure to loss and trauma, caregivers would begin integrating their patients’ grief, fear and emotions which would increase their own emotional pain and stress. The theory behind vicarious trauma postulates that such exposure to trauma changes the caregiver’s perspective or cognitive schema with regard to life issues like control, self esteem and intimacy. Secondary traumatic stress would incorporate both vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue due to empathic engagement with the resultant behaviors and emotions resulting in acute stress disorder. Bush (2009) differentiates these noting that burnout involves emotional exhaustion, vicarious trauma involves cognitive schema changes and compassion fatigue involves loss of self. Warning Signs Although the symptoms associated with compassion fatigue vary from one caregiver to another, there are red flags that indicate its existence. Considering the five concepts associated with compassion fatigue, first, the cognitive sympto ms would include lowered concentration, rigidity, disorientation, preoccupation with trauma, minimization and apathy. Secondly, warning signs in relation to emotional consideration would encompass fear, numbness, anger, guilt, anxiety, powerlessness, hopelessness, depression, sadness, shock, troubling dreams experience and enhanced or blunted affect. Behaviorally, caregivers faced with compassion fatigue would be irritable, moody and withdrawn and would experience poor sleep, change of appetite, hyper-vigilance and nightmares. Those affected spiritually would question the meaning of life, lose purpose, question religious beliefs, lose faith and lose purpose. Finally, the somatic symptoms associated with compassion fatigue encompass sweating, breathing difficulty, pains and aches, rapid heartbeat, headaches, impaired immune system and difficulty in staying or falling asleep (Mathieu, 2012). Nature of Problems and their Causes Working environment has been widely referenced as a key co ntributor to compassion fatigue. Prolonged exposure to environments presenting stressors including lack of colleague and administrative support and understaffing would keep caregivers under a situation of constant isolation and alertness which eventually causes mental and physical exhaustion. Interestingly, Bush (2009)

Maternal Behaviors and Their Effect on the Unborn Child Essay Example for Free

Maternal Behaviors and Their Effect on the Unborn Child Essay Pregnancy can be one of the most magical times in a woman’s life. There is nothing quite like taking care of the little person that is growing in the womb, and knowing that everything you do is going to have some kind of effect on that little person. For a vast majority of women, pregnancy is a magical time, one filled with awe and wonder. Pregnant women tend to take better care of themselves, making sure that they are providing the best environment for their growing child. Some women, however, do just the opposite and do not take care of themselves and thus harm the unborn child in their womb. There are several things that can have an adverse effect on the growing child. One of them is the mother’s nutrition. This is an easily adjustable factor, but one that some women don’t actually think about. When a woman becomes pregnant, according to www.americanpregnancy.org, she needs to consume roughly 300 more calories than normal in order to have a healthy pregnancy (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/pregnancynutrition.html). This will provide the extra nutrition that the fetus needs. If a mother does not consume enough calories, she is putting her child at risk of being malnourished. A poorly nourished infant is more likely to get sick, as they do not have the ability to fight off illness as well as a properly nourished child. There is also a possibility that undernourishment can have an impact on the mental development of a child (Feldman, 329). Proper nourishment is vital to proper development both in the womb and once the child is born. Another behavior that can have an adverse effect on the growing child is alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Alcohol is a teratogen, which is known to be harmful to human development (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/alcohol.html). Consuming alcohol during pregnancy can cause the unborn child to have fetal alcohol syndrome, or FAS. This condition causes the child to be of below-average intelligence, have facial deformities, and growth delays (Feldman, 309). According to www.marchofdimes.com, alcohol can also cause the baby to have sucking and sleeping problems, behavior problems, and speech and language delays (http://www.marchofdimes.com/pregnancy/alcohol_indepth.html). Even if a mother doesn’t drink every day, even a small amount of alcohol can have adverse effects. Fetal alcohol effects is another condition that a child can develop. With FAE, the child may have some, but not all the symptoms of FAS (Feldman, 329). When my husband and I were foster parents, it was suspected that our foster son had FAE. He did not have growth delays, necessarily, as he was the average size of a child his age, but he did have some intellectual delays, speech problems, and some behavioral issues. Over all, he was a wonderful child, he just needed some extra care and attention in certain areas to compensate for the places he lacked. Drug use is also a behavior that can cause adverse effects on an unborn child. According to www.marchofdimes.com, about 4% of women use illegal drugs during their pregnancy. These include marijuana, ecstasy, heroin, and other amphetamines. To me, that is a staggering number of women. There are many problems that a child faces if the mother used drugs during pregnancy. Premature birth and withdrawal seem to be the most common. There is also the possibility of birth defects, such as heart defects and cleft palates. The symptoms and long term effects of drug use vary depending on the type of drug that the mother used. Some drugs are by far worse than others, but all of them carry a risk. All of the drugs tend to carry a risk of learning disabilities, behavioral issues, and attention problems. There are even some legal drugs, things that you can buy over the counter that can have an adverse effect on an unborn child (Feldman, 329). Aspirin is one such drug. Using aspirin, because of its blood thinning properties, can harm the child and cause excessive bleeding during childbirth (http://drugs.about.com/lw/Health-Medicine/Womens-Health/Medications-to-Avoid-During-Pregnancy.htm). It would be advisable to consult with your doctor before taking any kind of medication while pregnant because any of them can have an adverse effect on the baby during different stages of pregnancy. I know for me personally, I don’t like taking anything other than my prenatal vitamins during pregnancy, because I’m fearful of what effect it could have on my child. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I almost refused to take Tylenol when I had a headache, because I was afraid it would do some harm. I’ve not been quite that way with my son, but I still avoid most medicines because I don’t want to risk doing any harm. Pregnancy is nothing short of a miracle, and should be treated as such. Providing a healthy environment for the baby to grow is of utmost importance, especially for the well-being of that child. Anything and everything that a mother does during her pregnancy has an effect on her unborn child. Getting proper nutrition and not using or abusing drugs or alcohol will help the mother have a healthy pregnancy and thus a healthy child. References: Feldman, Robert S. (2011) Essentials of Understanding Psychology, 9th Edition http://drugs.about.com/lw/Health-Medicine/Womens-Health/Medications-to-Avoid-During-Pregnancy.htm http://www.marchofdimes.com/pregnancy/alcohol_illicitdrug.html http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/pregnancynutrition.html

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company

Challenges to The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company Strategic Issues First Strategic Issue Walt Disney has experienced various strategic issues, and their strategic approaches have led to success. Its strategic management has identified the fact that their competitors could take advantage of the strategic weaknesses and pull the company behind in terms of market position. Although the issues are limited in such a successful company, they deserve maximum attention, as it is possible for them to act as threats towards the future welfare of the entire business. From a quick SWOT analysis, Disneys strengths are diversity and the surplus cash it attains from its business operations. Its weaknesses include the two strategic issues it is recently facing, its opportunities are expansion possibilities, and its threats include stiff competition. One of these strategic issues that Walt Disney has been facing is the loss of a good number of subscribers in the ESPN. Recently, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network of Disney is holding fewer consumers as compared to the past years when the company began. The major reason leading to this shift of customers to other internet programs that offer similar services is the fact that watching sports with Disney has turned out to be more expensive as compared to watching the same sports in other internet platforms. Its historical market position, which was high at that time, had been attained through appealing to customers regarding prices. When it is specifically about sports, there are different ty pes of customers. Both adults and youths across the globe have high interests in sports. However, the youths appear to have more time to invest in the sports as compared to the time adults invest. Therefore, the larger portion of customers consists of young people, who in most cases are jobless or flexible in terms their jobs. It is a fact that with their flexibility regarding careers, the youth does not earn a lot of money, meaning they will always take advantage of companies that deliver services at the least cost possible. When Disney was affordable, it appealed to the two categories of customers successfully by ensuring that it is the most affordable platform in the world. However, when the internet-based competitors found a way of broadcasting sports at lower prices and others free, Disney did not pay attention to the matching of these standards. For this reason, it lost the youths mostly to other companies. Losing its portion of youths to the competitors is a great issue, whic h, were it not for other strengths that exist in the business, would have caused the downfall of Disney as an international company. Second Strategic Issue The second strategic challenge that Disney is facing in the presence of its competitors is vitality in the market. Disney is dealing with entertainment, which is all about the preferences and tastes of customers. This dealing is capable of easily leading to its downfall if the companys management does not focus on the strategic approaches of satisfying the customers thirst in terms of what they have a passion for but does not exist in the market. In case the product exists already, it is the duty of the company to modify it and make it more interesting to the customers without altering the likes but scraping the dislikes. With this sensitivity, Disney has faced criticism every time it has a new release in the market as much as it faces motivating response. Bearing in mind that the two types of responses are from customers that the company takes as a duty to please, making changes to attract a larger portion of motivating customers than critics has been an all-time operational goal th at may or may never be achieved. It becomes worse when during its evaluation, Disney realizes a loss of positive claims having turned to critics. This is always a clear message from the public that the company has made an unpleasant release and if they take it for a trend, their market position will be at stake. This is how hard it is for Disney to maintain a good market position having concentrated on the customers taste and preferences alone. Other factors such as the cost of services make the situation worse than it already is. These two strategic issues only need to be attended to with the right approach in order to make the companys future bright (Rukstad Collis, 2009). Alternative Causes of Action Reduced Quality To address the above strategic issues and realize the best course of action, it is important that attention is afforded to the nature of the issues. This can be achieved through a value chain analysis that helps to indicate the companys operational strategy and goals. The loss of Entertainment Sports Program Network subscribers must have been brought about by a faulty strategy in the organizations way of setting its standards. To solve this, the company can buy the cheaper systems adopted by competitors. When other internet service providers decided to engage in innovative ways of lowering their prices, the company did not embrace this idea, as it looked out for maintenance of quality. As a matter of fact, the internet services providers decided to adopt new and cheaper facilities that enhanced this reduction of prices to reach out to the customers whom in their opinion, watching sports had become expensive. While doing this, the first and most essential side effect they were likely to experience is the reduction of quality. Reduced Prices The company can as well alter their operations in a way to slightly reduce their prices and maintain quality at the same time. As much these services were to be availed to customers at a reduced cost, they were also to be displayed at lower qualities as compared to those displayed by Disney. In this case, the market of the ESPN was split into two. There is the lower quality of services available for those that prioritize the amount of money spent on entertainment, and the other sector of the market generates high quality of services for people who do not mind spending a fortune for the sake of quality. With this division, it means that Disney is not ready to compromise its quality of output in order to lower prices and accommodate more customers. This is how it ended up with a limited number of customers as compared to its competitors providing services through various internet platforms. Reducing prices with maintained quality will help to maintain the current customers and to bring back those that it lost to competitors. Stable Products Thirdly, the fact that Disney deals with mainly entertaining products is the main cause of the fact that it is faced with a strategic issue of dealing with customers tastes and preferences. In its market, Disney has a chance of securing its competitive advantage through dealing with motivational and educative films more than the entertaining movies. An educative product is easier to deal with in the sense that it will have nothing to do with the judgment of the customers, and the success will all depend on the effort of the company towards gathering as much knowledge in its products as possible. This way, it is possible to predict the responses of customers to its new releases. Additionally, these types of products will maintain the types of customers that the company is appealing to, bearing in mind that the youths would embrace guidance and the adults too will help respond positively to pieces of advice offered concerning their business and social lives. Just to make the point clea r, it is for a fact that Disney has invested partly in these sectors, but the entertainment has taken a better part of its products. This has not only subjected it to the risk of customers responses based on their personal tastes and interests but also on the parental force against time wastage. Their cartoon products, for instance, are found to be excessively attractive to the children to the extent that they fail to attend to other demands such as academic works. This creates a force between the cartoon products and parents as they push the children to balance all aspects of life. On the contrary, parents also utilize the products in making promises and rewarding children whenever they want them to engage in or maintain good conduct. An example is a case where the children are motivated to work harder and perform better in class in order to be allowed to watch cartoon during their holidays. All it needs to do is buy facilities that will accommodate this type of production. This wo uld make their output stable, predictable and more profiting. All the above alternatives can be implemented in Disney to stimulate its line of business (Rukstad Collis, 2009). Recommendations Evaluation The alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services is a possible approach for the ESPN issue. This will allow them to avail the same quality of services to customers at an affordable price. This means that they will be appealing to both the customers that value quality more than cost and those that are out there negotiating for lower prices. In this situation, they will have attained competition perfection in the sense that competitors that offer services at lower prices as Disney does will not be providing as high quality as that of Disney. On this note, Disney can be boosted by other secondary factors such as making sure that there is a constant flow of game displays throughout the season. This means that they will be displaying sports events even when the companies with the poor quality of facilities will be facing breakdowns for one reason or another. Disney will be the home for custome rs who are not ready for interrupted sessions while watching matches. However, if Disney decides to follow suit as its competitors and produce low-quality products, it will be faced with the con of losing customers who value quality. These qualities of attraction will not only help Disney to retain its current customers but also bring back the youth it has lost as potential customers. This way, the current position of the company in the market will be maintained, and the opportunity to expand will have been utilized to make Disneys future more promising. As its only con, Disney will experience an added cost of operating. This is why, on a personal level, I would recommend the alternative of making strategic alterations to reduce the expenses of producing their products in order to lower the prices of their services as an approach for the ESPN issue. If the cartoons and other entertainment films do not appear to be interesting to customers as the company expects it, there will be a d ecline of the income, as the customers will not purchase the product. The worst con of it is the fact that previews that are displayed before the release of the product may lead to customers shying away from the product early enough. The advantageous purpose of these previews is to help the company predict the performance of the product in the market before it is released. The response of customers may help to detect the problem awaiting the release of a new product, but it will not help in offering a solution for the problem. Therefore, although the company will avoid tampering with its good historic reputation, it will not have evaded losses as the product has already been produced, making this alternative not good enough. This is an indication that there is not short cut towards evading this instability other than engaging in more products that will promote positional security in the market. Hence, to curb the second strategic issue, I would recommend that Disney takes advantage of its stability in the market to seize the opportunity of expansion through dealing with the products that it has not dealt with before. Feasibility On the other hand, if Disney decides to embrace the cheap facilities like competitors have one to tamper with quality only for the sake of prices, they will end up losing customers that value quality, which is the major con of this alternative. Secondly, they will have performed below their operational standards of consistently maintaining the high quality of its products. The only advantage of this alternative is the fact that it will earn back its lost customers who value cheap products. The fact that the disadvantages exceed the advantages, in this case, makes this alternative not feasible. The alternative of displaying previews does not help to find solutions for the instability of products. This means that the act will not have delivered the major expectation, thus, making it not feasible. Implementation Disney should make plans to reduce the cost of running and lower the prices of their high-quality goods. This will help the company to reach out to the customers who do not watch Disney sports because of the high prices. Secondly, it should begin to take steps towards embracing other types of products in the market in order to attain stability. Since one of the strengths of Disney Company is that it always has a substantial flow of capital, this means it has the capability to indulge in the line of other products as heftily as it has done with entertainment. Therefore, all that Disneys management requires is to make decisions based on the expansion strategies that concentrate on this mission as an operational goal. Offering other genres of films and movies will allow the company to attain stability in terms of its market position. Attracting the entire market with motivational and educative products is easier than the entertainment form of attraction. References Rukstad, M. G. Collis, D. (2009). The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King. Brighton: Harvard Business School.

Assisted Reproductive Technology Essay -- Science Reproduction Pregnan

Assisted Reproductive Technology In the United States in the year 2001, 40687 babies were born as a result of 107587 assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures (Wright, et.al, 2004). It has been estimated that one in six couples in the United States experiences some difficulty conceiving a child, and that 8.5% of married couples (2.3 million couples) in the U.S. are, in fact, infertile (Kilner, et.al, 2000; Wekesser, et.al, 1996). Assisted reproductive technology is becoming more widely available and efficient. In The Reproductive Revolution, it is stated that â€Å"considering the various configurations and technologies, there are at least thirty-eight ways to ‘make a baby’ today† (Kilner, et.al, 2000). But along with these innovations come many questions concerning the possible applications of these procedures. With the breadth and complexity of reproductive technology available today, it is important to explore not only the biological, but also the social and ethical implications of the se procedures. Procedures and Methods of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Artificial Insemination Artificial insemination is easily the oldest and simplest form of reproductive technology – it has been used for over a century. In this procedure, sperm, obtained through a donation of semen, are artificially introduced into the uterus to fertilize an egg that has been released naturally. Historically, this has been a very confidential procedure; anonymous donors are used, and often even the resulting children are unaware that they have different genetic and social fathers. The first sperm bank was established in the year 1950, and it is estimated that there could be around one million donor insemination adults in the United Sta... ...: Feminist Perspectives. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Cohen, C.B. (1996) New Ways of Making Babies: The Case of Egg Donation. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Kilner, J.F., P.C. Cunningham, and W.D. Hager. (2000) The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies, and the Family. Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Strong, Carson. (1997) Ethics is Reproductive and Perinatal Medicine: A New Framework. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Wekesser, C., et.al. (1996) Reproductive Technologies. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. Wright, V.C., et.al. (2004, April 30) Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance --- United States, 2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Surveillance Summaries. 53 (SS01), 1-20. Assisted Reproductive Technology Essay -- Science Reproduction Pregnan Assisted Reproductive Technology In the United States in the year 2001, 40687 babies were born as a result of 107587 assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures (Wright, et.al, 2004). It has been estimated that one in six couples in the United States experiences some difficulty conceiving a child, and that 8.5% of married couples (2.3 million couples) in the U.S. are, in fact, infertile (Kilner, et.al, 2000; Wekesser, et.al, 1996). Assisted reproductive technology is becoming more widely available and efficient. In The Reproductive Revolution, it is stated that â€Å"considering the various configurations and technologies, there are at least thirty-eight ways to ‘make a baby’ today† (Kilner, et.al, 2000). But along with these innovations come many questions concerning the possible applications of these procedures. With the breadth and complexity of reproductive technology available today, it is important to explore not only the biological, but also the social and ethical implications of the se procedures. Procedures and Methods of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Artificial Insemination Artificial insemination is easily the oldest and simplest form of reproductive technology – it has been used for over a century. In this procedure, sperm, obtained through a donation of semen, are artificially introduced into the uterus to fertilize an egg that has been released naturally. Historically, this has been a very confidential procedure; anonymous donors are used, and often even the resulting children are unaware that they have different genetic and social fathers. The first sperm bank was established in the year 1950, and it is estimated that there could be around one million donor insemination adults in the United Sta... ...: Feminist Perspectives. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Cohen, C.B. (1996) New Ways of Making Babies: The Case of Egg Donation. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Kilner, J.F., P.C. Cunningham, and W.D. Hager. (2000) The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies, and the Family. Grand Rapids, Michigan and Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Strong, Carson. (1997) Ethics is Reproductive and Perinatal Medicine: A New Framework. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Wekesser, C., et.al. (1996) Reproductive Technologies. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. Wright, V.C., et.al. (2004, April 30) Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance --- United States, 2001. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Surveillance Summaries. 53 (SS01), 1-20.