Saturday, August 31, 2019

Business Management of Bama Company Essay

This paper is a summary of Bama’s business management. It primarily discusses the strategy planning of the company and subsequently the strategy deployment. In the strategy planning of Bama, the predominant aim is to go into the range of improvement approaches and practice for personnel in terms of their way in to the attribute and situation of the environmental foundation of the company. The more precise purposes are to differentiate various plans and procedures of progression, delve into the effects for individuals in terms of the ideas of approaches to the different settings, and environmental exposure. A means of perpetuating it, as a result, entail another progression, valuing fairness over cost-effective expansion and involvement over influential organization. Additionally, novel and innovative spaces of advancement analysis, fundamental growth concepts, and restructuring progression are summed up. From the strategic market planning incorporated in Bama, the company may come up with good relationship marketing study. Consumer examination responds to principal inquiries concerning every definite item for consumption or service offered in the market. Crucial contender investigation and Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis may be applied. By this SWOT study, it characterizes the classification and taking the full advantage of the strengths, curtailing the weaknesses, making the most out of opportunities, and offsetting the threats (Dev & Schultz 12). The yield of Bama’s company examination will help its various business ventures in forming relationship marketing ideas and purposes. On the other hand, in the strategy deployment, the actual use and operation from the strategic planning are applied. The advantages of this strategy deployment consist of an evaluation of the actual business practices of Bama, a recognized consumer base, and constant help with foundation actions like selling and procurement. In employer-employee relationships, companies like Bama is well-planned to recognize and execute new and inventive means to get rid of the leadership disparity between the recent actualities and the leadership required to accomplish the emergent vision. Closing that disparity will entail leaders in the workplace to uphold the commitment, vigor, and guts and cultivate the knowledge expertise and aptitudes necessary to tackle the complications in the recent time. Another is to stimulate the professional side concerning the constant learning and enhancing the essential knowledge to handle successfully and to set up managerial principles and new functional configurations with dedication of energy and resources to build up productive, synergistic relations with the members of the company or enterprise. On the other hand, it is necessary from time to time to move back, obtain a slight point of view, and carry out certain critical performance of strategy. The wide-ranging range of tactical arrangement takes in each and every item for consumption or service that a venture of the company presents every single market they serve both interior and external variables, and manufacturing, research, pecuniary elements, and other managerial fundamentals required for success.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Recruitment and Selection Practices of Bdo

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PRACTICES OF SELECTED EMPLOYEES OF BANCO DE ORO IN STA. ROSA LAGUNA A Research Proposal Presented to Faculty of the College of Business Administration and Accountancy De La Salle University – Dasmarinas In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration By Gelle, Jerica Joyce S. May 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, the researchers give thanks to God Almighty for the wisdom and strength to finish this study. To the light, our God, who guided us through the way.To the following, grateful acknowledgement is also expressed. Dr. Oscar P. Lacap Jr. their God-given mentor. They take this opportunity to express their profound gratitude and deep regards forhis exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of this research proposal. The blessing, help, and guidancegiven by him time to time shall carry them along the way in the journey of life on which they’re about to embark. To their friends and families, they were a great source of support and encouragement.The researchers thank them all and wish them all the best in their lives. To their mothers and fathers, for their warm,kinds encourage, and love. To every person that gave them something to light their pathway, they thank them for believing in them. Gelle, Jerica Joyce S. TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARIESPage Title Page i Acknowledgement ii Table of Contents iii List of tables iv List of figures v Chapter 1. THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction 1 Background of the Study 2 Theoretical Framework 3 Conceptual Framework 4 Statement of the Problem 5Hypothesis of the Study 6 Significance of the Study 7 Scope and Delimitation 8 Definition of terms 9 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Foreign Literature 11 Local Literature 13 Foreign Studies 15 Local Studies 20 3. RESEARCH METHODLOGY Research Design 27 Population Frame and Description Respondents 28 Research Instrument 29 Data Gathering Procedure 30 Statistical Treatment of Data 31 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES Letter to Respondents Questionnaire Curriculum Vitae LIST OF TABLE Table Title/Description Page 1Response Code20 Perception of the firm Respondents 26 on the Extent of Implementation to Green Management Practice 3Summary of Assessment of the Extent26 Frequency of Implementation of Green Mangement Practice LIST OF FIGURES FigureTitlePage 1 Approaches to Being Green 4 2 Research paradigm of the study 5 3 Demographic Profile Distribution of the Firm- Respondent According to Nature Business 23 4 Demographic Profile Distribution of the Firm-Respondent According to Years of Operation 24 5 Demograhic Profile Distribution of the Firm-Respondent according toNumbers of Employees 25 Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. In simple words recruitment can be defined as a ‘ linking function’-joining together those with jobs to fill and  those seeking jobs. (Edwin B. Flippo) For a successful recruitment of managerial or professional candidates most of the organizations recruitment practices include a systematic analysis of the job and the  labor  market  situations.Recruitment  is  vital  to  any management process  and failure in recruitment can create difficulties for any company including  an  undesirable  effect  on  its  prosperity  and unsuitable levels of staffing or skills. Inadequate recruitment can lead to labor shortages, or problems in  management decision making. Recruitment  is  however  not  just  a  simple  selection  process  but  also requires management decision making and wide-ranging planning to employ the most suitable manpower in an organization. Some people use the term â€Å"Recruitment† for employment.These two are not one and the same. Recruitment is only one of the steps in the entire employment process. And some of them use the term recruitment for selection. These are not the same also. The function of recruitment precedes the selection function and it contains only finding, developing the sources of prospective employees and attracting them to apply for jobs in an organization, whereas the selection is the process of finding out the most suitable candidate to the job out of the candidates attracted (i. e. ,recruited).Formal definition of recruitment would give clear cut idea about the function of  recruitment. Competition among business organizations for recruiting the best potential has increased focus on modernization, and management decision making. And the selectors aim to recruit only the best candidates who would ensemble the corporate culture, ethics and climate specific to the organization. The procedure of recruitment does not however end with application and selection of the right people but involves maintaining and retai ning the employees  chosen.Despite  a  well drawn plan on recruitment and selection and involvement of qualified management team, recruitment processes followed by companies can countenance significant obstacles in implementation. This research proposal is performed to let us have an idea on the effects of recruitment, how it affects the profitability and synchronization of the organization, and if improved recruitment policies in an organization would lead the organization to vigorous and elevated market. Background of the StudyAs of 30 September 2012 Banco De Oro has grown to be the largest bank in the Philippines in terms of assets, loans, and deposits. It leads market positions in most business lines. Banco De Oro today represents a firm consolidation of distinct strengths and advantages built over the years by the entities behind its history. Banco De Oro is an institution that honors its past, continues to improve on its present, and moves towards the future with confide nce and strength. It is a full service universal bank with one of the widest distribution networks.It has the ability to provide a complete array of industry-leading products and services including Lending (corporate, middle market, SME, and consumer), Deposit-taking, Foreign Exchange, Brokering, Trust and Investments, Credit Cards, Corporate Cash Management and Remittances in the Philippines. Through its subsidiaries, the Bank offers Leasing and Financing, Investment Banking, Private Banking, Banc assurance, Insurance Brokerage and Stock Brokerage services. Banco De Oro has been noted of its above average business growth.BDO is a member of the SM Group, one of the country's largest and most successful conglomerates with businesses spanning between retail, mall operations, property development (residential, commercial, resorts/hotel), and financial services. Although part of a family conglomerate, BDO’s day-to-day operations are handled by a team of professional managers and bank officers. Banco de Oro includes 740 domestic operating branches and 1,545 ATMs here in the Philippines. They also do services internationally they have 1 branch in Hong Kong and 19 remittance or representative offices in Asia, Europe, and United States.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Image of Fool in King Lear: from Page to Sage

The Fool – from text to screen. The concept of a fool in Shakespearean plays is nearly as popular as the very figure of a fool used to be in Middle Ages at royal courts and some private households of aristocrats. The characters that could be described as fools appear in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (Feste) and As You Like It (Touchstone). And there is of course the most famous of the fools, named simply The Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear – the one with reference to whom this essay is created. A fool, according to Encyclop? ia Britannica was a person, often retarded, handicapped, dwarfed or mad, kept on court for luck and amusement of his patron. Due to his questionable mental abilities he was given license to mock persons of nobility, even the king himself. The origins of his function are sought for in the tribal scapegoat, who served as a sacrifice alternative for the king. Probably for that reason he was endowed with some attributes prescribed to a king such as a bauble (mock scepter) and a motley coat. His entertaining function was marked by other attributes in his possession such as a coxcomb, bells and a horny or ass-eared hood.All those gadgets, apart from arousing amusement, served one more purpose – they made a jester stand out from all the other individuals. Even though some critics tend to perceive the Fool in King Lear as a character crucial to understanding of the play and the significance of particular characters, others are more inclined to categorize him as one of the minor characters. At some stage of King Lear’s development the figure of the Fool was even altogether removed from the play, which may constitute some indication of how different were the attitudes towards the importance of his presence in the play within the course of time.As far as transposition of the text of the play into the film script is concerned, it is particularly worth noticing that cinematic space juxtaposed to theatrical space s hows some vital dissimilarities, among which are different attitude of a producer towards presumable reactions of the audience, the supremacy of the camera’s angle over spectator’s inclination to see what takes their fancy and the possibility of creating more articulate spatial setting. Also G.Wilson Knight considers the screening of any play an outstandingly challenging quest and warns against two main failures that may occur in the production. The first one may be described as mechanical failure, when the director is trying to put the main emphasis on the melodrama, into which the play is turned, while the second one is described by the author as ‘the would-be ‘symbolical’ production’, in which some significant enigmatic and sometimes supernatural values are blurred or not displayed at all.He reports to have heard Juliet’s potion speech, which he found, by the cause of a thunder introduced arbitrarily by the scriptwriter, utterly dist urbed and demolished. He expressed a conviction, that Shakespeare would have arranged a thunder in that place, if that had been what he had intended to. Knight argues also that ‘the sounds – words and additional effects – are (.. ) given’ and all that a director or a screenwriter or particular actors are expected to do is to pour life into them and arrange a proper setting for them.So much for the possible area of scrutiny as far as some comparison between the text and the screen versions is put to question. Of course some temporal or verbal ellipses are inevitable as they are undeniably a part of producer’s license, as well as a kind of a landmark in every screen production, though the vital parts of the play should not be omitted in order to preserve the original character of the artwork.Having still some features of the analysed productions left to scrutinize, the focus may be put on the extratextual and non-verbal factors such as the costumes, t he age of the actors playing Fools, their sex, the overall attitude towards the outer world as well as their demeanour towards other characters in the play that is not strictly implied by the original text. Some leaps in text as far as they are not dictated by thrift in time of production may also prove indicatory for the moulding of the character of the Fool.If the text strays slightly from the original, this might also constitute an evidence of some deliberate interference within the character’s creation. Questions has been long posed what might be the actual age of the Fool. Maggie Williams is one of the advocates of the thesis that he ought to be presented as a young boy, which she justifies by Lear’s frequently addressing him as ‘boy’ and also by his vulnerability to poor weather conditions during the tempest, his fear at the sight of Edgar disguised as Poor Tom as well as his extraordinary attachment to Cordelia which proved itself in his pining afte r her departure .Williams’ conviction, though not isolated, is not entirely shared by some circles of literary critics and a number of producers, who tend to bestow the role of the Fool to more experienced and aged actors. Such is the case with both productions: King Lear, directed by Jonathan Miller released in 1982 and King Lear, directed by Trevor Nunn released in 2008. The character of the Fool is played in both of them by middle-aged actors: in Miller’s film it is Frank Middlemass born in 1919 and in Nunn’s film it is Sylvester McCoy born in 1943.Both actors were at their 60s at the time of each film being shot. In actuality the fool could not have been intended as a child (due to his frequent bawdy innuendos and banters), neither could he be equated to an old man, as it seems, but actually some screen versions of a play managed to picture him as one quite successfully. What can be inferred from the very text of the play is the fact that the Fool was the cl osest companion of the King.The evidence of that could be the fact of Lear’s desperate need for the Fool’s company, when he asks his servants to summon him four times in the act I scene 4 intermittently amid occupying himself with other affairs (interviewing Kent, then Oswald, then a Knight and at the end Oswald again), although, as he claims, he haven’t seen him for two days, which is not an extraordinarily long period of time. He also accompanies King from then on in every venture even in the worst conditions of the tempest until the end of act III scene 6, when he mysteriously disappears.Moreover, the text makes it evident, that the King and the Fool are in close intimacy, the indication of which is Lear’s constant addressing Fool as ‘my boy’, ‘lad’, ‘my pretty knave’ as also this line of his spoken during the storm: ‘Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart/ That’s sorry yet for thee. â€℠¢(3. 2. 70-71). Another clue derived from the text pertains to the Fool’s mental disposition. He is probably neither mad nor retarded in any way, which is marked by Kent’s words: ‘This is not altogether fool, my Lord’ after Fool had made it clear to the King that he had no more titles left but this of a fool.Also Gonerill seems not to underestimate Fool’s power in his actions taken against her in his many quips. She calls him ‘more knave than fool’ (I. 4. 269), which may imply that she lets him know that she can see through his witticisms and reveal his real intentions which basically come to dissuading King from trusting his daughters. This and other functions in the play, such as comforting Lear and presaging him from superfluous faith and expectations put in his daughters with aid of ‘folk-wisdom’ are ascribed to the Fool by S.L. Goldberg, who highlights also Fool’s passivity in the course of action and his pathos expressed by his loyalty and heightened feelings, being the spur of his actions. But Goldberg foreworns from over‘sentimentalizing’ Fool, as he is also ‘clear-eyed’ and knows that ‘facts and ideals are always and always will be at odds’, which he tries to express in his wry witticisms, for which Lear calls him a ‘bitter fool’ (I. 4. 119).His figure can be also perceived as a relic of ancient Greek chorus, commenting on other characters and the plot, but presumably his main function comes down to making exertions to entertain the king, or ,as Kent calls it in some moment of the play, ‘to out-jest his heart-struck injuries’. Some of these functions were amplified in particular cinematic productions and others were diminished or even expunged. This is to be analysed with reference to the abovementioned cinematic productions. Apparently in Miller’s King Lear the character of the Fool is more accentuated than in the other production.He is a kind of an old fellow, loyal to his master, who cares for his fate and is not able to come to terms with his fatal misstep of giving away his royal authority and his land to his ungrateful daughters and even worse error of disinheriting and repelling Cordelia. He acts as though he had a strong feeling of responsibility for the king and his providence and as he was striving for something more than just a mere profession of court jester. All his behaviour gives the impression that he assumes the pose of a fool solely in order to remain beside the king regardless the changeable circumstances.Being a court jester allows him to reproach the king, sometimes in extremely harsh words, which make the king look like an idiot. However, what is worth highlighting is the fact that he never does it to impress the king’s escort and other surrounding him people, but he addresses the king directly as though he was his personal counsellor. His own jokes do not amuse h im, what can be easily deduced from the fact of his ability of assuming a grave facial expression almost instantly after making some jests and fooling about.Perchance this alongside with uttering some statements unpleasant to king’s ears earns him an opinion of a ‘bitter fool’, as Lear calls him (I. 4. 119). Given this one may come to a conclusion that he forces himself to play the role of the fool as this seems to be the only way to rebuke the king and talk him through to common sense without falling out of favour as Kant did after speaking the words of truth to his seigneur. The case is utterly different with another Fool – the one played by Sylvester McCoy in Nunn’s film. He is by no means a sedate adviser caged in the uncomfortable disguise of a fool.He is a ‘fool-blooded’ fool, who actually enjoys his position on the court and aspires for nothing more. His confidentiality with the king is verily striking, especially when the specta tors see him sitting in Lear’s lap, patting his face, sleeking his hair or kissing him in a childlike manner. If the title ‘nuncle’ customarily used by court jesters in addressing the king sounds derisively spoken by Middlemass’ Fool, the same word articulated by McCoy sounds as though a child was addressing his real uncle. His jovial and at times childish behaviour contrasts with his bawdy innuendos and gestures.Unlike Middlemass’ Fool, he enjoys being the life and soul of a party, entertaining king’s escort and jesting with them. He is fond of making fool of himself, playing the spoons using them as castanets, singing and cheering others up. Moreover, he is not eager to put himself at risk. As he speaks to Goneril, he quiets himself down in order not to utter an offence. Also the last words, that Fool was meant to speak about Goneril at her court and within her presence were cut out. So were many other lines originally spoken by the Fool. T his omission sometimes results in Fool’s appearing to be talking nonsense.Passing over Fool’s lines may also have another effect: the Fool appears in the whole play as a character of secondary importance, whose only purpose is to entertain the king and his comrades. And he does it, deriving pleasure from it. As it has been illustrated, the approaches towards the Fool in literary critique and cinematography were numerous and sundry, some of them conventional and others more innovative, but definitely each one of them bore some intrinsic artistic values, which cannot be fully apprehended without scrupulous scrutiny, which couldn’t have been contained within the volume of these few pages.Nevertheless the character of the Fool in two analysed above productions was given a closer insight. Two actors performing the role of the Fool in collaboration with the directors of each production created two different images of this figure. One of them was an image of a wise old man, whose role of a king’s personal adviser and tutor required a disguise of a court jester; a ‘bitter fool’, whose witticisms were wry, acute, sardonical, but whose exertions were aimed at only one goal – to save the king: from ill-advised decisions, from madness, from despair.The other one was a full-blooded fool, whose fondness of playing for laughs and entertaining others was tangible and whose, sometimes shocking, intimacy with the king could be explained only by mental impairment. This proved that the creation of a character is not entirely and solely dependent on the source text of a play, but is largely affected by the artistic vision and the license of a producer as well as by the original and individual skills of an actor. Works cited: 1. Davies Anthony, Filming Shakespeare’s Plays.The Adaptations of Laurence Olivier, Orson Wells, Peter Brook and Akira Kurosawa, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh 1994. 2. Encyclop? dia Britannica Online, s. v. â€Å"fool†, accessed May 27, 2012,http://www. britannica. com/EBchecked/topic/212748/fool. 3. Goldberg S. L. , An Essay on King Lear, Cambridge University Press, London, New York 1974. 4. King Lear, DVD, directed by Jonathan Miller (1982; British Broadcasting Corporation, Time-Life Television Productions) 5. King Lear, DVD, directed by Trevor Nunn (2008; Richard Price TV Associates Ltd. 6. Knight G. Wilson, Shakespearean Production with Especial Reference to the Tragedies, Faber and Faber LTD, London 1964. 7. Shakespeare William, The Tragedy of King Lear, Halio Jay L. ed. , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh 1997. 8. Williams, Maggie. Shakespeare Examinations. Ed. William Taylor Thom, M. A. Boston: Ginn and Co. , 1888. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. (27. 05. 2012) . Sara Wilczynska ——————————————– 1 ]. See for exampl e: Williams, Maggie. Shakespeare Examinations. Ed. William Taylor Thom, M. A. Boston: Ginn and Co. , 1888. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. (27. 05. 2012) . [ 2 ]. See for example: Goldberg S. L. , An Essay on King Lear, Cambridge University Press, London, New York 1974, pp. 84-92. [ 3 ]. i. e. in Nahum Tate’s amended version of King Lear from 1681; see: Introduction to: Shakespeare William, The Tragedy of King Lear, Halio Jay L. ed. , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh 1997, p. 36. [ 4 ].See: Davies Anthony, Filming Shakespeare’s Plays. The Adaptations of Laurence Olivier, Orson Wells, Peter Brook and Akira Kurosawa, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Oakleigh 1994, p. 8. [ 5 ]. Ibidem. [ 6 ]. Knight G. Wilson, Shakespearean Production with Especial Reference to the Tragedies, Faber and Faber LTD, London 1964, p. 47. [ 7 ]. Ibidem, p. 54. [ 8 ]. Ibidem, p. 48. [ 9 ]. Op. cit. Williams, Maggie. Shakespeare Examinations†¦ [ 10 ]. See: Shakespeare William, The Tragedy of King Lear: ‘Where’s my knave? my fool?Go you and call my fool hither’ (I. 4. 38); ‘Where’s my fool’ (I. 4. 42); ‘But where’s my fool? ’ (I,4. 60-61); ‘Go you, call hither my fool’ (I. 4. 66) [ 11 ]. Op. cit. Goldberg S. L. , An Essay on King Lear†¦ , pp 90-91. [ 12 ]. Ibidem, p. 90. [ 13 ]. Ibidem. [ 14 ]. Ibidem. [ 15 ]. It becomes particularly visible when the Fool says to the king: ‘If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time. ’. When Lear asks for the explanation, Fool replies: ‘Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise’ (I. 5. 33-36) [ 16 ].As in the case when he complains at being whipped for holding his ‘peace’ (meaning being silent in contradistinction to telling truth or telling lies as his earlier words suggest), speaking which he reaches to his crotch, as if he was peeing . [ 17 ]. The words that spoken by the Fool could have enraged Goneril were such: ‘A fox, when one has caught her,/ And such a daughter,/ Should sure to the slaughter,/ If my cap can buy a halter’ – McCoy’s Fool does not speak these words, as he probably is intended by the director as a harmless and joyful character. [ 18 ].Like when he says : ‘All that follow their noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there’s not a nose among twenty but can smell him that’s stinking’ (2. 4. 63-65) as an explanation for why Kent should be put in the stocks for asking for the reason of King’s escort being so diminished. The rest of the lines from this speech is simply left out, so that it may look like the Fool was talking poppycock. The same situation occurs a while earlier when Fool declares with a blank stare: ‘Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way’ (2. 4. 43). Similarly the rest of the lines is left out.

Purpose of Criminal Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Purpose of Criminal Laws - Essay Example For example, a child that fails to clean their room would receive â€Å"punishment† in the form of extra chores or loss of other things they normally enjoy. For criminal law, it is no different, except that the consequences of their actions involve a loss of privilege on a greater scale, such as by imprisonment or fines (Banks, 2009). Again, if there were no punishments, there would be no reason not to commit crimes; therefore, some type of consequences must be handed out. Criminal laws seek to set consequences for and punish those that have carried out a crime by means of deterrence, as well as incapacitation, incarceration, restitution, and retribution. People are â€Å"deterred† from actions when they refrain from carrying them out because they fear or do not want the consequences that come with the action (Banks, 2009). Criminal laws aids in this because they not only define what the laws are that cannot be broken but also set out the punishment that each law brings with it. In a state with a death penalty, for example, if someone does not wish to be punished by death, they will not commit a crime that leads them down that path. Thus, the criminal laws have done their job both in setting out the action and the punishment for it, because it has kept people from committing crimes due to the consequences imposed. Though some question the validity of deterrence and call for stiffer penalties in certain laws (Banks, 2009), the fact remains that deterrence is a reason that criminal laws exist. Another reason that criminal laws exist is retribution. Simply put, retribution means that whoever has gone against the laws of society deserves to be punished, and it will bring a measure of peace, if not pleasure, to those that were wronged to see punishment happen. Systems of retribution for crime have long existed, with the best known being the Biblical proverb of â€Å"an eye for an eye† (Banks, 2009). While retribution is known to be confused with revenge, it has been pointed out in law and in argument that the difference between the two is very defined: retribution involves limits set according to the seriousness of the wrongs done to society, whereas there is no limit to revenge (Banks, 2009). Take again the case of the criminal who chooses to murder and take a life in a state that has the death penalty. If convicted, they will pay with their own life through execution. One cannot argue that this is, in fact, an example of â€Å"an eye for an eye† logic in punishing someone who has done wrong. Criminal laws also exist to provide incapacitation and incarceration measures for those that choose to go against the laws of society. Incapacitation is a theory of â€Å"incarceration†, arguing that some criminals need to be separated from society not only for what they might have done but also to protect those who have not done wrong from this individual. It is seen as a good punishment for those that commit crimes be cause while they are incapacitated, or incarcerated

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Organizational Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Organizational Leadership - Essay Example This argument further leads us to the role of emotions in leading the organizations and how leadership, coping with the emotions, can carve out success for the organization on the competitive arena. This also important because of the fact that following shame and other emotions, leadership can effectively help organizations to the face the reality not about themselves but of their competition too. The argument regarding the shame within the organizational context is also important in the sense that shame has the tendency to motivate organizations to hide their vulnerabilities therefore making them weaker by avoiding truth about themselves. A good leader therefore needs to have the guts and the courage to face reality about the present circumstances of the organization which he or she is leading. The role of emotions and shame within the context of leadership therefore encompasses many different variables such as the role of the leader in organization and the personality of the leader and how the leadership can help achieve the realization for the organization to face the reality about itself. In order to explore the question of where does the leadership come from, it is necessary to understand the actual meaning and structure of leadership. In psychology the phenomenon of leadership has traditionally been associated with in-group dynamics of social interactions. In any group, regardless of its size, members differ in their degree of social influence over one another: " the person who exerts the most influence on the rest of the group thus affecting group beliefs and behaviour is usually addressed as leader" (Hollander, 1985: 14). This definition of leadership allows the reader to grasp the essence of leadership, but it is only one of the numerous of definitions that have been proposed in the literature. Thus, the second edition of The Handbook of Leadership by Bass lists more than 130 definitions of leadership (Bass, 1985: 12). Absence of agreement amongst the scholars is partially due to different methods employed to explore the phenomenon, partially due to the different objectives pursued by scholars who define leadership, and partially due to the variations in theoretical approaches. Thus, Bass (1985) specifies 13 major approaches: leadership as the focus of group processes, as personality attribute, as the art of inducing compliance, as an exercise of influence, as a particular kind of act or behaviour, as a form of persuasion, as a power relationship, as an instrument of goal achievement, as an emerging effect of group interaction ('leadership exists when it is acknowledged or conferred by other members of the group), as a differentiated role, as the initiation or maintenance of role structure, or as some combination of all these approaches (pp. 6-10). One of the earliest approaches to understanding leadership was to search for personality traits that caused some people and not others to become leaders. As a result, early definitions (beginning and first half of the 20th century) tended to view leadership as an innate personal quality of the leader, in line with such highly individual qualities as sense of humour, persistence, or piety. Following this tradition, researchers specified certain traits that made leaders. Some of these were

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Classical Opera and Popular Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Classical Opera and Popular Music - Essay Example The combination of sound and rhythm are particularly important in music as they enable people to relate to music and drive out the desired intention. Historically, music has been used to make life lively, entertain people and pass messages to the community. Music has gone through stages from the simple forms of art to the complex technologies that are used today to come to compose and record songs. This paper will discuss the evolution of music from the classical opera style to the modern popular music, and elaborate on the similarities and differences of the two music forms. Classical opera was introduced by the Greek and Roman societies, and was related to their scientific and cultural practices of the time. During this time, there were no inventions in drama and music (Naxos). However, religion and tradition had great influence on music of the day since during occasions related to the two there were performances that highlighted music. Classical opera is a form of art that incorpo rates lots of orchestral, lyrical and theatre techniques. Classical opera evolved over time and combined dissimilar genres to be become a form of music. Although it was performed on stage by using the stage, acting and costumes, the words in the operas were sung in order to make the audience more attentive so that they could get the message being passed and enjoy the performance. In classical operas, there existed two forms of singing, recitative and aria types of dialogue. Recitative operas consisted of harmonic conversation that was not accompanied by melody and the aim of this singing was coming up with a plot. Aria reefers to music that was accompanied with a melody and emotional attachments meant to capture the eyes and ears of the audience. In the early nineteenth century, the two forms were joined to form the arioso style, which combined melody and singing. Another component of opera is musical accompaniment, which was used to set the mood for the performance, and this enable d the audience to connect the scenes in the opera. Classical Opera music first came into existence from performances called ‘intermedi’, which were started to celebrate important events such as weddings or holidays (TheatreHistory). The performances were accompanied by simple musical accompaniments that had single lines of melody for catching the attention of the audience. This practice was known as monody and had originated from a prior style known as madrigal, which was a form of singing that used a polyphonic strategy but became outdated. The performances of this age of opera were undermined by some irrelevant scenes, and this stunted advancement of drama and music. A German composer, Christophe Gluck came in to help people fix music into lyrics and he played a significant role in the advancement of opera. This made performances to be dramatic since there was a relation between the performance and the musical background. This purged the recitative opera and music was used for expression. One of Gluck’s compositions was the Orfeo ed Euridice, which was a tragic based mythology from Greece that is still performed in cinemas today (Fuller). In this composition, he made action important in performance since they could help people associate with the scenes. The audiences were prepared for the later scenes from the preceding scenes and this significantly improved drama. The other famous opera is the Magic Flute in which singing was accompanied by dialogue, and this enabled

Monday, August 26, 2019

Advancements in Nanotechnology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Advancements in Nanotechnology - Research Paper Example Both nanoscience and nanotechnology represent almost perfect fulfillment of contemporary science for a number of reasons. It has continuously been characterized as a "new Frontier" (Barben et al, 2008), an "emerging field", "emergent, highly interdisciplinary field," a "transdisciplinary research front" and a "rigorous scientific field" with "many signs of protodisciplinarity" (Milburn, 2004). It eradicates the limits between research and development and practical application as well as between science and engineering field, having formed at the intersection of several fields in science and engineering. Since the late 1990s nanotechnology has witnessed extensive investment and attention from corporate and governmental sectors as "a linchpin for creating economic wealth and solving a vast number of societal problems" (Barben et al., 2008, p. 982). Nanotechnology and nanoscience united efforts of governments, venture investors, NGOs, and small enterprises.Bainbridge (2004) explained th at there are two very different nanotechnology movements in existence today. One is closely tied to chemistry, physics and materials science, based in research institutions and working to create actual technical breakthroughs. The other is based largely in science fiction literature, but has a profound influence on the perspectives of people who are not scientists or engineers. Nanotechnology, according to N. Katherine Hayles (2004), has become a potent cultural signifier attracting scientific research, along with entrepreneurial interest, government funding and fictional speculation. It represents "not so much a theoretical breakthrough as a concatenation of previously known theories, new instrumentation, discoveries of new phenomena at the nano-level, and synergistic overlaps between disciplines that appear to be converging into a new transdisciplinary research front" (p.11). Nanotechnology is a relatively new field, but over the past decade it has already strongly influenced the reorganization of the disciplinary landscape of science and engineering worldwide (Schummer, 2007). It is an emergent field "taking form at the interstices of several fields of science and engineering" (Wajcman, 2008) (p. 816). Nanostructures have been studied in a variety of contexts throughout scientific history. Colloidal solutions, block copolymer microdomains, integrated circuits, scanning tunneling microscopes, the molecular and microstructure of steel and aluminum alloys, and the crystal structures of countless proteins and cellular structures provide just glimpses of the numerous nanostructures that chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and biologists have studied for decades (Ozin & Arsenault, 2005). Over the past decades, scientific investigations have grown increasingly broad and encompassing, with many research efforts relying on techniques and insights from neighboring fields to address ever more complex challenges and to pursue ever more enticing opportunities (Foster, 2009). Consequently, a new paradigm of truly interdisciplinary research has emerged that promises to accelerate the generation of knowledge not just at the nanoscale, but in the entire scientific endeavor. Whereas nanomaterials were before simply used and studied as a means to an end, now formally distinct communities of researchers have begun to study nanoscale phenomena as part of a dedicated research effort (Foster, 2009). Because nanoscience crosses such a wide range of disciplines, the challenges addressed, tools employed, and materials created are extensive. It is possible to create general distinctions based on a variety of classifications, though two methods

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Psychology class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Psychology class - Essay Example al health problems are prevalent in modern society, a fact that contrasts the low mental health cases reported in health institutions in traditional society (Shally-Jensen 80). Society is preoccupied with treating mental health conditions, but the low number of medical professionals cannot effectively address this problem. Clinical psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with assessing, diagnosing, treating and preventing mental health problems (Shally-Jensen 10). A clinical psychologist improves the psychological well-being of individuals by alleviating and reducing psychological distress. As a professional, I will be training in various techniques and theoretical approaches to be able to work in private practice, hospitals, and academic settings. However, other clinical psychologists focus on treating psychological disorders and may involve treatment of severe mental problems like depression and schizophrenia. Dealing with clients and ensuring positive outcomes requires detailed record keeping, client assessment, therapeutic, and diagnostic records for tracking treatment progress and for insurance and billing (Shally-Jensen 57). Moreover, a clinical psychologist works with a team of other professionals, and I will work alongside occupational therapists, doctors, social workers, nurses, and physiotherapists. Clinical psychologists are increasingly demanded today because of the increasing cases of mental health problems. Consequently, the salary of clinical psychologists is increasing annually because of the low number of clinical psychologists today. However, according to the US Department of Labor in its Occupational Outlook in 2013, employment opportunities in clinical psychology are expected to rise in coming years (Department of Labor Statistics 1). It will influence the demand for professionals because of a rising need for qualified mental health experts. A 2013 report by CNN suggested the median pay for clinical psychologists was 80,000 dollars.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

People and Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

People and Organisations - Essay Example Additionally, the paper analyzes the changes that are required to make the 21st century project leadership authentic. The authors argue that the environment for conducting projects in the 21 century have changed from that of 20th century. There has been increased alliancing between companies for project purposes. Therefore, the authors suggest that there is need for development of new leadership style that suits the current as well as future environment. The authors are persuasive and believable. By making use of previous study findings, the authors compare the past and present project environments. The comparison depicts changed environment, which supports the authors’ argument on need for changes in leadership style to enhance authentic leadership. LIoyd-Walker & Walker (2011) provide empirical data to show the different attributes required by project leaders in the 21st century that were unnecessary in the 20th century. Toor and Ofori (2008),Thiry & Deguire (2007), Avolio & Gardener (2005), and Sirias, et al., (2007) agree that the project environment for 21st century is different from that in the 20th century. Additionally, their views are similar to those of LIoyd-Walker and Walker (2011) who argue that there is need for modification of transformational leadership to make it an authentic leadership style for the 21st century. Just as Alvolio and Gardener (2005) had suggested, LIoyd-Walker and Walker (2011) argue that trust and commitment are among the most important feature of authentic leadership and they distinguish authentic leadership required for 21st century from that in the previous years. LIoyd and Walker state that authentic leadership entails enabling or empowering the followers to self-regulate their activities b y supporting their development. As opposed to leadership in business alliances, project alliances require collaboration between the participating teams. This requires that the team members

Friday, August 23, 2019

Observation of Healthy Adult Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Observation of Healthy Adult - Essay Example The first thing that I noticed was a portable oxygen vaporize. One recognizes that as people age, some of the capacity to utilize oxygen are minimized; so the older one gets, the greater the issue on oxygen deficiency that emerges. Seniors with serious breathing problems take in less oxygen and therefore have less energy to conduct daily life; as manifested by this elderly man. As one observed, he exhibited feeling tired, anxious, and depressed. However, despite his apparent predicament, I also could not help but noticed his cheerful smile. He was sitting alone when he asked me a question about his mobile phone. It is funny how technological developments through telecommunication gadgets have encompassed a wider range of age groups, including the elderly. As I was observing him, I noticed he could read very small prints from his phone manual even without his glasses; whereas I was almost squinting when I read those texts. When asked how he managed to maintain his good eye sight, he told me that eating the right kind and amount of healthy foods is the secret. I realized that he was right. The elderly should have proper nutrition with diet rich in dark-green vegetables and have adequate sleep to maintain good eyesight. However, I noticed that behind his smile, he was feeling melancholy; especially when he complained about some personnel in Bristal who were apparently mean to him. He mentioned that everybody was ignoring him and nobody was taking care of the wound on his foot. A reflective mood led him to disclose that his life had greatly changed when he became a widower after 40 years of sharing good memories with his wife. The story progressed to mentioning a daughter who is a speech therapist in a nearby school (which he could not remember the name). He was so proud of her and beamed that I look almost exactly like her. He showed me some of his coin tricks and he also pretended to show his hand and pull his thumb apart. He

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Crime Prevention Essay Example for Free

Crime Prevention Essay Introduction Throughout my project I will be referring a retail shopping centre in tralee, kerry.The shopping centre trades between 8.00 am and 07.00 pm, six days a week and 10.00am to 5.00pm on Sundays I ahave decided to do this project on this centre as it is the only shopping centre located near my home aslo I chose thi centre as I am very familiar with it. Functions of notebook entries: * To record matters which cannot be entrusted to memory. * Make entry for each working day. * To provide a permanent personal record of hours of duty and work done. * To record instructions, incidents and messages * Fill out the top of your report clearly and completely as needed * While doing your rounds Be sure to take notes in your field notebook. Do not use your memory. Make sure to take Note the times, Dates and any persons involved if necessary. * Remember your notebook may be used in a court of law as evidence or to assist you when testifying. Use it only for its intended use. * The retail shopping centre was built in 2004 . The shopping centre employs ten security staff to cover its 90000 sq. ft. area. There is a purposely built security office with all the latest cctv monitoring systems. Uniforms for security are simple such as black trousers, black shoes and white shirt. A high visibility jacket will be supplied for car park duties there are over a 1000 free parking spaces. The only equipment a security guard will carry on them at all times is a two way radio system for communication purposes with the control room and co workers. Inspections * Security personnel who guard entrances and exits must thoroughly screen people and packages to make sure no unauthorized items or individuals go where they shouldnt. Surveillance * Closely monitoring their assigned location be it static or patrolled, allows security guards to spot suspicious behaviour and prevent problems, including illegal activity. Enforcement * A variety of tools help security guards enforce the law and rules, including communication devices like radios, monitoring devices like security cameras, detection devices like scanners and defensive instruments like batons. Emergencies* When emergencies occur, security guards are often responsible for directing people in the area to safety, contacting emergency responders, attempting to determine the source of the problem and containing the threat. Law * As an employer you are required to manage safety and health at work so as to prevent accidents and ill-health. * The law requires employers to: * Carry out a risk assessment * Identify the hazards * Prepare a written safety statement * Section 20 provides that every employer must have a written safety statement based on the hazards identified and the risk assessment under Section 19 and setting out how the safety, health and welfare of employees will be secured and managed. When preparing a safety statement, account should be taken of the general principles of prevention set out in Schedule 3 to the Act. * Safety statements must be specific to the place of work and must set out – * The protective and preventive measures taken and the resources allocated to safety, health and welfare, * The hazards identified and the risks assessed, * The plans and procedures for dealing with emergencies or serious and imminent danger, in compliance with Sections 8 and 11, * The duties of employees as regards safety, health and welfare at work, and the requirement for them to co-operate on those matters with their employer and any person who has responsibility under the relevant statutory provisions, * The names and, where applicable, job titles of persons assigned to perform tasks pursuant to the safety statement, and * The arrangements for the appointment of safety representatives and safety consultation at the place of work in compliance with Sections 25 and 26 and the names of any safety representatives and/or safety committee members. * Assessing the risks in your workplace * This is how to assess the risks in your workplace: * Identify the hazards. * Decide who might be harmed and how * Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions. * Record your findings and implement them * Review your assessment and update if necessary. Risk assessment process: * To identify the hazards: * talk to staff to learn from their knowledge and experience, and listen to their concerns and opinions about health and safety issues in the shop; * look at the accident book, to understand what previous problems there have been; * Walk around the shop, the stockroom and all other areas noting what might pose a risk, taking HSE guidance into consideration. Also consider occasional activities, such as changing light bulbs; * Write down who could be harmed by the hazards and how. * For each hazard, write down what controls, if any, were in place to manage these hazards. These controls were then compared to the guidance on HSE’s website. Where existing controls are not considered good enough, write down what else is needed to be done. * Discuss the findings with staff, display the risk assessment in the staffroom and make it part of the induction process for new staff. Decide when the actions that were needed will be done, and who will do them, and tick the actions off as each is completed. * Review and update the risk assessment every year or straightaway if major changes in the workplace happen. The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005: * Represents a modernisation of our occupational health and safety laws and it sets the scene for achieving further improvements in the national record on safety and health over the next few decades. * Its primary focus is on the prevention of workplace accidents, illnesses and dangerous occurrences and it provides also for significantly increased fines and penalties aimed at deterring the minority who continue to flout safety and health. * One of the aims of the act is to encourage a responsible attitude on the part of both employees and employers. * Duty of care: legal obligation imposed-requiring that safety standards are upheld –to ensure people are not injured by actions or failure to act. Duties of employees * Comply with health and safety legislation, both in the 2005 act and elsewhere. * Take responsible care to protect his or her own safety. * Co-operate with his or her employer or any other person as necessary, to assist that person in complying with safety and health legislation as appropriate. * Correct use of protective clothing and any other protective article or substance where necessary. * Not be under influence of an intoxicant at the place of work. * Not engage in improper conduct or other behaviour such as violence, bullying or horseplay. Hazards and risks * Hazard is the potential to cause harm; risk on the other hand is the likelihood of harm * A hazard is a situation in the workplace that has the potential to harm the health and safety of people or to damage plant and equipment. * Risk is the likelihood that a person may be harmed or suffers adverse health effects if exposed/come into contact with a hazard Some groups of people are particularly vulnerable to hazards: * Young workers, have higher accident rates. * Pregnant women. * People with disabilities. * New or inexperienced workers * Workers who have recently changed roles or jobs. Risk control: is the process of implementing measures to reduce the risk associated with a hazard. The control process must follow the control hierarchy, in order, as prescribed in some health and safety legislation. It is important that control measures do not introduce new hazards, and that the ongoing effectiveness of the controls is monitored. Safety statement Safety statement is the name given to a document that outlines how a company or organisation manages their health and safety. It is a report of all hazards and risks found in the workplace. An account of the controls taken or planned to be taken to control them. A Safety statement is required by law unless the employer employs less than three people. Employers have ultimate responsibility for safety and health. The safety statement should begin with a declaration, signed at senior, responsible management level on the employer’s behave. The declaration should spell out the policy in relation to overall safety and health performance, provide a framework for managing safety and health, and list relevant objectives. That the safety statement will be revised as changes occur and evaluated at set intervals; how the relevant contents of the statement are to be brought to the attention of employees and other people in the workplace who might be affected by the statement. Stress in the workplace Stress is any action or situation (stressor) that places special physical or psychological demands on a person. There are two types of stress: eustress and distress. Eustress is a good stress and appears to motivate and inspire . Distress is considered as bad stress, and can be short-lived or long-term. Stress is often described as a mismatch between the demands of work, family and living and of coping with these demands. Stress can be positive – when it motivates us to get something done – or negative when we have too many demands and constantly feel under pressure. Bullying in the Work Place The 2005 Act provides that employers carry out risk assessments at their place of work in the preparation of a safety statement. This assessment should also include the risks associated with bullying. The definition of bullying is Repeated inappropriate behaviour that undermines your right to dignity at work. It can encompass verbal bullying, physical bullying or otherwise and it may take different forms such as social exclusion and isolation, damaging someones reputation by gossip or rumours, intimidation, aggressive or obscene language or repeated requests with impossible tasks or targets.Whilst there is no specific legislation that deals with bullying in the work place the Health and Safety Authority have issued a code of practice for employers and employees on the prevention and resolution of bullying at work. Conclusions and recommendations: Overall I was impressed with the level of professionalism that is in the shopping center . Security personnel within the premises have very good procedures and should continue this. The security officers have access to the latest technology including CCTV with spinning domes. They use these to great use for crime prevention and should continue to do so . the staff are very good at identifying hazards and protecting customers as a result of this the retail center will be successful for yearts to come.

Electrophoresis Machine Essay Example for Free

Electrophoresis Machine Essay Gel electrophoresis is a laboratory procedure used to separate biological molecules with an electrical current. In this lesson, well review how agarose gel electrophoresis works and introduce the equipment necessary to perform an electrophoresis experiment. Separation of DNA molecules of different sizes can be achieved by using an agarose gel. Recall that agarose is a polysaccharide that can be used to form a gel to separate molecules based on size. Because of the gelatin-like nature of agarose, a solution of agarose can be heated and cooled to form a gel in a casting tray. Think of casting the agarose gel like pouring hot gelatin into a mold. The hot agarose liquid is poured into a casting tray. Once the mixture cools, a thin agarose brick will form. To ensure theres a place to put the DNA in the gel, a comb is placed in the agarose liquid before it cools. Each tooth in the comb will become a hole, or well, in the solidified agarose gel. Once cast, this gel is placed inside a piece of equipment called a gel box. An electrode one positive and one negative resides at each end of the gel box. The wells are always oriented, so theyre farther from the positive electrode. This ensures that the DNA molecules in the well must travel through the majority of the agarose gel, thus providing sufficient time for separation. Air isnt a great conductor of electricity, so we cover the gel with electrophoresis buffer. Electrophoresis buffer is a salt solution. It isnt table salt, but the salt ions can carry an electrical charge just like salt water can. The salt in the electrophoresis buffer completes the circuit between the positive and negative electrodes. When the electrodes of the gel box are connected to a power supply, electricity flows through the electrical circuit, causing the negatively charged DNA molecules to move into the agarose gel. The DNA molecules continue to travel through the agarose toward the positive electrode as long as an electrical current is present. Recall that shorter DNA molecules travel through agarose faster than longer DNA molecules. In this way, agarose gel electrophoresis separates different DNA fragments based on size. Once the samples are loaded, the electrical current supplied by the power supply not only moves the DNA samples through the gel but the dye molecules as well. Note the colored lines that appear. These lines do not represent the DNA fragments. These lines represent the dye in the loading buffer that was used to visualize the samples during the loading step. Once the gel run is complete, the agarose gel can be removed from the gel box and soaked in an ethidium bromide solution. Recall that ethidium bromide is used to visualize DNA. Ethidium bromide molecules intercalate, or insert, between the nitrogenous bases in a DNA molecule. In summary, gel electrophoresis is a laboratory procedure used to separate biological molecules with an electrical current. Together with a gel box and a power supply, an agarose gel can be used to separate DNA molecules based on size. Loading buffer enables scientists to insert DNA samples into the wells of the agarose gel. Once the electrophoresis procedure is initiated, the dye in the loading buffer forms a dye front that is used to determine when the procedure is complete. When the electrophoresis procedure is complete, the agarose gel can be soaked in an ethidium bromide solution to visualize the DNA bands on a UV box.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Activities of Living Model Case Study

Activities of Living Model Case Study Assessment -> diagnosis -> plan -> intervention -> evaluation Section 1: Brief introduction to the person: (max 200 words) Anna is a 42 year old lady who has Rett syndrome and severe learning disability. Anna was born after a normal pregnancy. Anna has one brother and a sister who does not have learning disability or any specific health problems. Anna has been in the care for the last 11 years. Anna lived with her parents until 2001. Her mother used to be her primary carer. Currently Anna lives in a 4 bedroom bungalow with two other ladies, who also have learning disabilities. Part of social life she goes to the day service three days a week. She seems to enjoy up there. Anna enjoys listening to the radio while she is resting in her room. She can give an good eye contact when talk to her. To avoid a breach of confidentiality service user will be referred to as â€Å"Anna†, a pseudonym (NMC, 2008) Due to Anna’s severe learning disability and extremely limited communication skills she is unable to understand, retain or communicate an informed decision regarding consent to the contents of this assessment. In accordance with Mental Capacity Act (2005), following discussion with support staff, family and relevant health and social care professionals, this care plan is deemed to be in Anna’s best interests given the potential risks to her health and well-being. Section 2: 1000 WORDS Assessment based on Roper, Logan Tierney’s Activities of Living Model (1980). Some headings can be very brief if there are no specific issues for the person in that area of their life. Please also consider the age of the person and their level of independence / dependence for each area. Activities of Living The activities of living listed in the Roper-Logan-Tierney Model of Nursing are: 1. Maintaining Safe Environment Anna is dependent on staff to keep her safe. She exhibits bodily movements which interfere with normal safe eating and drinking. On occasions these erratic movements are so extreme as to put her at increased risk of physical injury. She can cause small wounds to her face, limbs and torso due to her repetitive stereotypical hand and arm movements. During the period of her erratic and uncontrolled movements put her at risk of aspiration and chocking. The uncontrolled movement can also cause lose some of her medication which is very essential for her physical wellbeing. When she settle after a seizure she is more likely to sleepy. During this time excessive production of saliva can affect her breathing / blocking the airway. Both Anna and staff are at risk of injury due to her flailing arms and legs. Also it is not safe to do the manual handling. When she displaying extreme body movements it not safe to transport her which can affect her attendance at day services. Anna’s dysphasia can increase the risk of aspiration and may can cause chest infection. Communicating Anna has no formalised system of communication through which to make her need/wishes known and is totally reliant on others to anticipate her needs. Even though she has very good eye contact. She has no active say regarding any aspect of her life. She is open to speech and Language Therapy services but this mainly for dysphasia. Communication and sensory integration assessment have been done in the past with very limited success (2011-12) Breathing Anna has abnormal breathing patterns which is common in Rett syndrome. Anna will show signs of shortness of breath which is causing her distress and/ or pain. Shortness of breath can lead to cyanosis. This most likely to occur after a prolonged seizure or when she has chest infection. If her oxygen saturation levels are reading below the usual baseline ie 93% or less Her range is 94-97%) oxygen is administrated as per prescribed. Eating and Drinking Anna has no functional use of her hand and she is fully depending on others to assist with her eating and drinking. She does eat and drink well, it seems she enjoy her meal. She has been assessed by the Speech and Language Therapy to be at the risk of aspiration. Anna has liquidised food and thickened drink. Anna has dysphasia which can contribute to an increased risk of coughing , chocking, aspiration and recurring respiratory tract infections Elimination Anna is unable to take herself to the toilet and has no formalised system of communication to alert others of her need to go to the toilet. Anna is incontinent of both urine and faeces with an associated potential for skin breakdown. Anna is prone to constipation. Personal Cleansing and Dressing Anna is unable to do her personal hygiene independently due to her complex health needs. Due to her erratic movements she cannot be bathed conventionally. She has had recent urinary tract infection, which may have been the result of faecal contamination of the vaginal area. At present Anna has the bed bath everyday with Aqueous cream (soap substitute) to help with her dry skin. Diprobase moisturiser is available as PRN for dry skin to prevent the risk of skin breakdown. Anna is unable to independently manage her oral hygiene needs and requires full support in this aspect of her care in order to maintain healthy teeth gums. Anna’s oral hygiene is maintained daily. Her positioning during and after oral hygiene procedures are important in order to minimise the risk of aspiration including silent aspiration. Controlling Body Temperature Anna’s normal temperature range for observations is 36-37.5*C. Anna can experience difficulty in maintaining an even body temperature and it is prone to becoming suddenly cold or hot. She prefers moderations in temperature. Staff need to be able to recognise when Anna is becoming too hot. Staff recognise breathing difficulties and cyanosis during prolonged seizures and use the prescribed oxygen via a face mask if necessary. Mobilising Anna is non-ambulant. She is unable to stand or support her own weight but she can hold head up when alert. She requires a back rest and bilateral support to be able to maintain an upright seated position. She has a full range of movement in all her limbs. Anna’s preferred positioning of her legs is to hold her knees tightly in flexion. Anna has apraxia and is unable to perform controlled motor movements. Working and Playing Anna attends day services for three full days a week. Attendance at day service is depending on her health and safety in transporting (i.e. when displaying extreme body movements it is not safe to transport her). Expressing Sexuality Anna’s physical / sexual body development is normal. Anna does not appear to show any interest of a sexual nature with the same or opposite sex. Sleeping Anna has several opportunities to rest in her day chair or in her bed. However, she is likely to drop off to sleep. She can take longer time go to sleep at night and normally has several interruptions in sleep throughout the night. Dying As Anna is stable at the movement her parents are not mentally ready to talk about her end of life. It will be done in the future when required. Section 3: A nursing diagnosis is â€Å"a clinical judgement about an individual’s health needs which provided a basis for selecting nursing interventions, to achieve health gains or maintain health† (NANDA, 1992). For this section you are asked to consider what may be causing or contributing to the health care need what signs and symptoms led you to this diagnosis. Possible aetiology (cause): Anna is a 41 year old lady who has Rett syndrome and severe epilepsy. Anna is totally dependent on others for all aspects of her care and has complex health needs that fluctuate and greatly impact on her day to day activities. These health issues are likely to affect the quality of her life. The most possible cause of Anna’s self injury caused of her extreme erratic body movement can be because of severe epilepsy. She suffers tonic-clonic seizures. Occasionally, post-seizure. She will present with peripheral cyanosis and this most noticeable around her lips, earlobes, and mouth and figure tips. Defining characteristics (signs symptoms): Epilepsy Anna displays an unusually high tolerance to external pain. When Anna sustains a trauma type injury (bruising / abrasions / shear injuries) there is no discernible visible reaction. Staff working with Anna require the ability to make visual assessments of her injuries and have understanding of the implications if the visual symptoms of injuries. There is a risk that the severity of physical injuries may under assessed resulting in treatment mismanagement. It is believed that Anna does react to internal type pain such as menstrual pain, constipation or stomach pain. Anna experiences seizures of varying length and intensity. She used to experience on average 10-15 seizures each month but this had increased to daily seizures. Seizures can occur at any time during the day and night, but there is evidence to suggest that she prone to epileptic activity when asleep. Therefore, she has an alarm monitor which is under trial, whereby noises which accompany seizures activated a pager which the nurse can carry. She remains under the out-patient care of her consultant Neurologist (seen every 6-8 months). Video analysis is available to help diagnose exact seizure presentation and appropriate medical intervention. The use of rescue medication has also increased. She requires rectally administered diazepam for the treatment of status epilepticus. Suction may be required to control oral excretions and administration of oxygen via face mask may be necessary in the event of cyanosis. Buccal Midazzolam has been trialled in the past and although effective in halting the seizure activity, Anna went into status within hours (2006) or her clinical signs dipped significantly (2012). This was found to not be the case with Rectal Diazepam. Anna’s behaviour can be changed after a seizure activity. She will have very uncontrolled body movements mainly with hands and legs. The medication she have to control her seizure can make her depressed. Anna is on medication that required serum blood testing to ensure safe therapeutic levels and prevention of toxicity. This is believed to have occurred as recently as 2011 when Levetiracetam was believed to have caused her dangerous agitation (dose was 1500mg BD at that time). The following factors are known to reduce Anna’s seizure threshold: Menstruation Overheating Over-excitement When she is not well Constipation Anna has regular menstrual cycle. She can experiencedysmenorrhoea. She will have a loose bowl motions during her menstrual cycle. Anna also exhibits other events that may be mistaken for seizure activity: Hyperekpexia Eye – rolling Rett syndrome characteristics (jerks, tics) Section 4: People with complex health care needs often have a number of other non-nursing professionals working to help restore or maintain their health. Please discuss the contribution another profession has made to the assessment and their therapeutic interventions with the individual. Due to Anna’s difficulty in eating and drinking ( mainly during her extreme erratic body movements) she was referred to the speech and Language Theraphist ( SALT ). Anna has been assessed by Speech and Language Therapy to reduce the risk of aspiration / silent aspiration when eating and drinking. According to the SALT Anna has been diagnosed with dysphasia (SALT report, 2011). She is at risk of aspiration of food and fluids, as these do not always clear from her oropharyngeal cavity during meals. The SALT visited Anna at home and gathered all the information about her eating and drinking difficulties from the staff. Assessment has consisted of observation of mealtimes, discussed with staff and monitor at meal times by staff. Speech Language therapist made referral for videofluoroscopy assessment in 2012. After the videofluoroscopy SALT advised to give mouthful of drink in-between her meal. Coughing charts were implemented for both eating and drinking between initial assessment and review. The charts indicated that Anna was coughing when eating and drinking. The recommendations made by Speech and Language Therapy was to avoid mixed textures i.e. soup and stews with bits or high risk of lumpy food. And replace these with a soft alternative, or liquidised soups. It can help her to prevent the risk of aspiration pneumonia. When Anna has liquidised food it is very important to make sure there are no lumps. For example, mashed potato is very likely to have lumps which may cause chocking. Speech and Language therapy also recommended Anna must have a drink with any meal, and mouthfuls of drink must be given during the meal. It is helping her to clear her airway and to enjoy the meal. Anna should not to be fed when she is sleepy or drowsy as fatigue can result in an increased risk of aspiration. If Anna showing extreme bodily movement when the meal or drink is to take place, the second carer is to place themselves at the side of her, and using their forearm, palm facing downwards. Use a blocking technique to lower Anna’s arms down to her lap and gently rest their palm and dingers together on her further chest long bone. While feeding Anna it is very essential the staff to sit on a chair and make sure she is able to give an eye contact. Anna must be seated in her day chair when having meal. Staff need to ensure that Anna is in an upright position. After the assessment done by SALT has also noted the aspiration can also because of the remaining food / drink in her mouth. To rid of that SALT recommended giving her an oral care after food fluid intake. By using a very soft toothbrush to clean the mouth can minimise risk or aspiration due to food fluid residue. And also it is important to maintain upright position for at least 30 minutes after having mouth care to reduce t he possibility of reflux. The recommendations from SALT is likely to help Anna to enjoy her meal. Her dysphasia techniques are continuing as it is recommended this will help to maintain the swallowing difficulty. Staff can contact the SALT if there is any new difficulty in eating and drinking and SALT will do the follow up / regular visits. Nancy Jimmi

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Animal Rights :: essays research papers

Medicines, household products, food, and basically everything involved in the life of an average person has to under go a form of testing before it is legal to be placed on a shelf and if available to the public. The same tests are performed on every medical procedure that is introduced to surgeons. Since the only way to directly mimic the human body is to use it itself, scientists were forced to find the closest and best alternative. That is where animals were introduced to the medical profession. Experimentation on animals date back to as early as 500 BC, making this form of medical validation one of the oldest known to humans. It is not only one of the oldest but one of the most informative. Scientists use animals in medical research to study how the body works and how to diagnose, cure, and prevent disease. Researchers also use animals for tests to try to protect the public from dangerous chemicals, (Day, 13) such as those included in detergents, bleach, and other household prod ucts. When live animals are used in experimentation, this practice is called vivisection. Animals are used in many instances because their bodies often react in a similar way to that of a humans. Although animals have been used in medical research for numerous years it was not until the early 1920’s that it became more prominent. It was at this point that the introduction of using live, un-anesthetized, animals to study toxic effects on an increasing array of drugs, pesticides and food additives was introduced. After this great advance in medical research the results of using animals grew with leaps and bounds. In 1970 this process peaked with the use of millions of animals. Since then, according to the USDA’s Animals Welfare Enforcement, 1,267,828 animals were used for medical purposes in 1998, which is more than a 50 percent decrease since 1970. Although this is a drastic drop in animals used there have been many medical advances; virtually every medical break throug h this century has come about as the result of research with animals. (Office of Technology) Of the many animals used for experiments, about 90 percent of the animals used are rats, mice and other rodents. Animals such as these are used for two reasons, one because they are readily available upon request, and two because they are cheap which helps aid the large cost of animals experimentation.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Gay Marriage Will Help America Essay -- argumentative, persuasive

Why is gay marriage such a big deal? Why are there so many people against it? Most of the time it is easy to presume where to draw the line when interfering with someone else’s rights. Simply, do not do it. Everyone has the right to get a driver’s license or has the freedom of speech, but why on earth do some people have the right to wed and think that he or she has the right to tell somebody else that he or she does not have that same right? Gay marriage is not traditional, gay relationships are immoral, and marriage is for procreation. Gay marriage is a perfectly acceptable decision that any citizen should be able to make for themselves. A gay California man, whose partner died in the September 11 terrorist attacks has become "legally vulnerable in ways he could never imagine". Keith Brodowski lost his life partner, Jeff Coleman, to American Airlines flight 11, which was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. Coleman was a flight attendant. Brodowski is now battling the state and the nation for survivors' benefits, granted to the widows of those who died. It took powerful words of Keith’s testimony to move legislation to grant partial inheritance rights for registered domestic partners in California. Married couples had to go through nothing of this caliper for their benefits. In a survey conducted by Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples, over fifty percent of lesbians and forty percent of gay men had faced problems obtaining employment benefits, lower tax rates, and insurance breaks because civil unions are not recognized as a legal marriage. Other discriminations included employment, hospital visitation, adoption, and many more. These problems could have been eliminated if the couple had been legally m... ...y not believe in the same sexual likings as us, they are still people who live among us. People with different religions do the same and they are allowed to get married and spend a life together. Why shouldn’t gays? References Bidstrup, S. (2000). Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives. Veritas Et Ratio - Truth And Reason. Retrieved from website on March 19, 2011. From . Head, T. Arguments against same-sex marriage - Debunking 10 Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage. Civil liberties at about.com - Your guide to civil liberties News and Issues. Retrieved from Website on March 19, 2011. From . Should gay marriage be legal?. Gay Marriage ProCon.org. Retrieved from website on March 18, 2011. From .

Sunday, August 18, 2019

A Feminist Perspective of Othello Essay -- Othello essays

A Feminist Perspective of Othello  Ã‚  Ã‚      Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello closes the final scene of the last act with the spiritual superiority of the heroine firmly established over that of the hero. This is one of many aspects regarding the feminine perspective on the drama, the subject of this essay. A.C. Bradley, in his book of literary criticism, Shakespearean Tragedy, describes the violence against the heroine as a â€Å"sin against the canons of art†: To some readers, again, parts of Othello appear shocking or even horrible. They think – if I may formulate their objection – that in these parts Shakespeare has sinned against the canons of art, by representing on the stage a violence or brutality the effect of which is unnecessarily painful and rather sensational than tragic. The passages which thus give offence are probably those already referred to – that where Othello strikes Desdemona (IV.i.251), that where he affects to treat her as an inmate of a house of ill-fame (IV.ii), and finally the scene of her death. (174) At the outset of the play only the male perspective is given: Iago persuades the rejected suitor of Desdemona, Roderigo, to accompany him to the home of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, in the middle of the night. Once there the two awaken the senator with loud shouts about his daughter’s elopement with Othello. In response to the noise and Iago’s vulgar descriptions of Desdemona’s involvement with the general, Brabantio arises from bed. With Roderigo’s help, he gathers a search party to go and find Desdemona and bring her home. The father’s attitude is that life without his Desdemona will be much worse than before: It is too true an evil: gone she is;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And what's to come of my despised... ...espearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991. Di Yanni, Robert. â€Å"Character Revealed Through Dialogue.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Literature. N. p.: Random House, 1986. Gardner, Helen. â€Å"Othello: A Tragedy of Beauty and Fortune.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from â€Å"The Noble Moor.† British Academy Lectures, no. 9, 1955. Heilman, Robert B. â€Å"Wit and Witchcraft: an Approach to Othello.† Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. Rev. Ed. Rpt. from The Sewanee Review, LXIV, 1 (Winter 1956), 1-4, 8-10; and Arizona Quarterly (Spring 1956), pp.5-16. Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Clothes and Fashion

A woman speak with a man about fashion and clothes. The man says than the fashion is a invention from clothes factories. The woman says that the fashion is necessary to people feel well The man prefers to wear the same clothes rye day The woman feel better when she wear a beautiful suit, and in each situation you must wear a different clothes. The man things different clothes distinguish between poor people and rich people. I'm going to talk about clothes and fashion. There are two aspects which I want to highlight: the comfort and the appearance.The comfort is the main purpose of dress because the human race began to wear clothes when went out from the hot Africa and spreader over the World and colonized cold lands. They used lots of materials to do their dresses but in the beginning with the only objective that warm the body. On the other hand clothes has a mission, it is to show the personality, the humor, the owner to a certain social status or collective. For instance the unifor m of the police, the robe of lawyers, prosecutor or Judges, or the Army. These are very import to distinguish or discriminate this people from others.When you are going to a party you must put on clothes different than you dress when you are working. The more happy you are the better clothed you wear. We used to wear dark clothes in funerals. If you had to facing in your work you should wear a suit. If you were a politician or a famous person you should dress up everyday well cause you could have a photo taken. I regretted very much don't have known dress up in a very important situation when a was a young girl I had gone to a party but I didn't liked to go there, I wearing a awful suit because my friends persuaded me to go there, and I didn't want.When the party began to be boring, I was thinking going home, suddenly a stunning boy appeared, he was wearing a denim trousers, a beautiful blue cotton shirt with a denim collar ND he was tall and handsome; he seemed very kind with his f riends but I couldn't to approach him because I was wearing a awful loadstone's suit from the times of my mother, I felt very angry with me, I thought â€Å"it is impossible that this person look at me†.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Importance of distinctive qualities of texts

Texts are written in a way for it to appeal to the responders. The Author uses many different techniques, themes and chooses a writing style so that it can appeal to the audience. This is evident In the novel We All Fall Down' In which the author, Robert Cornier, tries to appeal to the audience. This can be achieved also by making the text relatable for responders and certain concepts wealth the book. Crosier's use of themes In the book Is one of the things which appeals to readers. He focuses on relationships and especially family relationships.It is obvious that Cornier believes hat family and family values are very important and this theme is frequent throughout the novel. The theme of family defines the book as Cornier shows that holds together can withstand anything such as with the Jerome family, however with the Walker family, the members have fallen apart and have deteriorated. This is meant to appeal to responders as they can relate to the sense of family within the book, wh ether theirs has fallen apart or clung together as there are examples of both within the novel.The theme of relationships also can help the novel appeal to spenders as they can associate it with the relationships they share with others. The novel explores many examples of both barnacles and relationships between people and this appeals to responders and they can associate the novel with their own lives. The opening of a book Is an Important part of making a text appeal to responders. The first scene hooks the reader with suspense as we read of the trashing and makes them aware of the violence of the text. Violent verbs are used to reinforce this theme and begin the idea of trashing and violence.This theme reoccurs throughout the evolve. The theme is brought up again when the details of the trashing come up again and again and the trashing becomes a large part of the text and the actions of the characters as it is not only the house that has been trashed but the characters themselves . The way the text hooks the readers from the start is one of the ways it appeals to the readers and what keeps them reading on. The appearance of certain characters can help texts appear to more people. Without the addition of ‘The Avenger' or Mackey ‘Loony' as he Is later known, the novel would be more of a mantic novel than the thriller It became.The Avenger adds a sense of mystery and thrills to the book as we learn of his murderous way. This transition caused the book to not only appeal to those seeking a book with romance, but one with action too. Without the addition of several minor characters the story would be completely different and wouldn't appeal to as many responders or to such a variety of responders as it does. The use of language can change how a text appeals to readers or responders. Cornier does an excellent Job of using the right kind of language wrought the text We All Fall Down. The use of colloquial language as well as having the occasional use of vulgar language helps his novels appeal to responders, especially youths as they can relate the language used throughout the text. The text doesn't specify separate chapters, keeping text flowing between characters as It changes the first person. Narration and the use of the right language helps the book to be better understood by responders and the different points of view provide enough variety to keep the book interesting which in turn helps the text to be moreWe All Fall Down' Imagery is used to assist the reader in being able to picture everything in the book, proving to be a delightful experience for the responder. Rhetorical questions such as ‘but I didn't help the girl did l? Are used to make the reader think about situations and similes help further describe concepts and feelings in the text for example, when the way Buddy feels is ‘like a giant mallet hitting a gong inside him' and repetition provides emphasis, e. G. ‘l don't want you in the house, don't want you in my life'.And so in conclusion, qualities such as themes of family and relationships, addition of characters, techniques and language as well as a relatable text helps the text to appeal to responders. Cornier acknowledges this fact and integrates these into his works and so his works appeal to responders of many types. This is what makes the text We All Fall Down' appealing to responders as they feel a connection with the text and understand it and the motives behind the actions of the characters. These distinctive qualities of this text are what make it so appealing to responders.

Analysis of Kony 2012 Campaign

Campaign: Kony 2012 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc Short versions: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=j36n8Kn_lUY http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=VWd0veKp1R0&hd=1 (this may be a stronger version) 1. Why we are choosing this one: This was a very successful campaign. Most of our group had heard about the Kony campaign and have shared with more than one friend; thus it was a successful viral marketing campaign. The statistics show that 112 million people viewed this video in one week. 2. The Message Targeted towards people who are obliged humanitarian causes.Help create awareness of the campaign, which is to imprison Kony by December 2012 with the help of aid from foreign and Ugandan governments. To do this, they were selling products and promoting a â€Å"Cover the Night† day in which individuals who wear/post/display their products. The video tells you to make these purchases in order to help fight Kony, there are links to the website from the video and so the p urpose of the campaign was very clear and relevant. The Messenger is Jason Russell who is the co-founder of Invisible Children.The film’s purpose is to promote the charity’s â€Å"Stop Kony† movement to make Ugandan cult and militia leader Joseph Kony known to the international world in order to have him arrested by December 2012. Joseph Kony is already an indicted war criminal in the International Criminal Court. Environment – right time and right place. People are interested in this type of cause and it is popular to be a humanitarian right now. It was spread through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. People feel good sharing this type of information; it makes the Sender feel as though they are helping a good ause and so they feel good. The result It was a triumph in that it has been viewed by more than 92 million people on YouTube and 20 million more on Vimeo, so well over 112 million people by the end of the first week. This is the same amount of people w ho watched the Super Bowl. (Visible Measures) After ten days, 52% of adults in the US had heard of the video. (PEW research center) More people viewed the video in such a short amount of time than any other video on the internet (to date). Kony 2012 facts and figures: http://static. guim. co. k/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/20/1334929057518/Kony-2012-in-facts-and-fi-009. jpg Invisible Children won’t yet say how much money it made from Kony 2012, but by conservative estimates, it has likely tripled its $13. 7 million 2011 revenue and it’s possible that the actual number is much, much higher. (http://www. businessweek. com/articles/2012-08-30/kony-2012-guerrilla-marketing) [Add details regarding how it was spread] Celebrities have helped spread the message (Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Oprah Winfrey) Why did it work?The film discusses the desire to share, to be part of something, to inform others. Within the first two minutes, has drawn people in and makes them curious as to what is next. It was a very good quality video; both in resolution and the way it was directed. The director of the film, Jason Russell, is very personable. He is using people emotions to make them feel part of the problem. He even involves his own child in the film to make everyone feel that they are connected to this problem. People really want to feel like they are helping a good cause. It was also really the right moment.The film uses everything that is popular right now to keep people’s attention – instagram photos, facebook timeline. People, especially young people and hipsters, really want to help. The products were not very expensive but enabled the viewer to feel as though they were part of the video and â€Å"creating history. † The video emphasizes being part of, and making, history. Purchasing the products allowed for those who wanted to participate in Cover the Night to be part of the â€Å"in† group. Additionally, f amous and important people became involved and vouched for it.Many politicians and even celebrities became involved. What could have been improved? After the video there were allegations that the project was a scam. The Ugandan people were claiming that Kony was not even in Uganda and so contributing to this campaign will not help us. Also there was a rumor that the US wanted to have a reason to come into Uganda for oil. So they could have been their intentions more clear and probably clarified that even if Kony is currently not residing in Uganda, he still must be found and arrested.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 34

Letter #5-December 3, 2006 Dear Nikki, The night after the Tennessee Titans destroyed the Eagles on their home turf – a game in which Donovan McNabb tore his ACL, ending his season and maybe even his career – Andre Waters shot himself to death. I realize you don't care about any of this, but Waters was one of my favorite players back when I was a teenager. He was a big part of the Gang Green Defense. People called him Dirty Waters because he was fined so much for hitting too hard. And when I was a kid, Waters was a god to me. Jake says Waters probably killed himself after watching the Eagles play so poorly against the Titans, which was not a funny thing to say at all. My father is not talking to anyone, because he is upset about McNabb's injury, which will most likely ruin the Eagles' chances of making the play-offs. My new favorite player, Hank Baskett, is not getting many balls thrown to him anymore, but he actually threw an interception during a stupid trick play during the Indy Colts' win over the Birds just this past weekend. And of course, there was also your last letter. So I'm thinking this is the part of my movie where things appear as if nothing is going to work out. I have to remind myself that all movie characters go through this sort of dark period before they find their happy ending. It was hard to wait two weeks for your reply. Your letter made me very sad, and in the past twenty-four hours I have written my reply at least a hundred times. I don't know if Tiffany read you the part of my memoir where I described my therapist's office, but he has two leather recliners – one black, one brown. My therapist lets his patients choose which seat they want to sit in just so he can see what type of mood we are in. I've been picking the black one lately. I've read certain parts of your letters to Cliff – that's my therapist's name. He doesn't know about Tiffany's involvement, because I promised her that I would not tell anyone that she has agreed to act as our liaison. When Cliff asked how I was able to make contact with you, I refused to answer. I hope that you don't mind my reading some of your words to my therapist. It's funny. Cliff keeps hinting that I should pursue a relationship with Tiffany. And I know Tiffany is reading this letter to you, so this part will be awkward for everyone involved, but Tiffany will just have to deal with it because this is what being a liaison requires, and I already danced so well, fulfilling my end of the bargain. Cliff says that Tiffany and I have a lot in common at this point and that you and I have very little in common, because we are in very different places. I thought he meant that you were in Maryland and I was in New Jersey, but it turns out he means that I am still fighting to regain my mental health, and you are mentally stable. I asked Cliff why he would want me to pursue a relationship with someone who is as mentally unstable as me, and he said that you were not able to support me in the way I needed to be supported, which is why our marriage failed. I got very mad at Cliff when he said that, especially since I am the one to blame, but he insisted that you allowed me to become the person I was by enabling me – never putting me in my place and allowing me to emotionally abuse you for so long. He says that Tiffany will not allow me to do this and that our friendship is based on a mutual need and a commitment to bettering ourselves through physical fitness and dance. Tiffany and I are great friends, and I appreciate all that she is doing for me now. But she is not you. I still love you, Nikki. And you can't control or alter true love. Mom checked out The Catcher in the Rye from the Collingswood Public Library. I liked Holden Caulfield very much and felt a lot of sympathy for him because he really was a nice guy, always trying to do right by his sister Phoebe, yet always failing, like when he bought that record for Phoebe and broke it before he could give it to her. I also liked how he was always so worried about what the NYC ducks do in winter. Where do they go? But my favorite part was the ending, when Holden takes his sister to the carousel and she rides on the horse and tries to reach for the gold ring. Holden says, â€Å"I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddamn horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.† When I read this, I thought about your writing that I was in my second childhood and that I would have to â€Å"leave the basement† someday. But then I thought about how my improving myself and learning how to dance with Tiffany was like reaching for the gold ring, which is you. Nikki, you are my gold ring. So maybe I will fall off the goddamn carousel, but I have to reach for you, right? I want to see you. I want to talk to you face-to-face. Just once. Afterward, if you never want to see me again, I can live with that. Just give me one chance to show you how much I have changed. Just one chance. One face-to-face meeting. Please. Love, Pat