Monday, December 23, 2019

Islam And Muslim Will Be Used Interchangeably - 857 Words

For the purpose of this paper, Islam and Muslim will be used interchangeably. Islam and Muslim are words that are both used to represent the message and religion revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. As an example someone may say: I am a Muslim, my religion is Islam. Fear is a powerful motivator. In a human’s primitive subconscious mind, fear triggers a fight-or-flight response that allows us to react quickly to threats in our environment. As beings with highly developed brains however, we are capable of creating irrational, persistent, and excessive fears that cause overwhelming distress and rash actions. These fears are referred to as phobias. Types of phobias include insects, flying, blood, and, the recently labeled, Islamophobia. Islamophobia is prejudice towards or discrimination against Muslims due to their religion, national, or ethnic identity associated with Islam. Related in prejudice to anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia, Islamophobia describes thoughts and actions that degrade an entire class of people. The original purpose for this research project was to study the correlations between American anti-Muslim hate crimes and global terrorist attacks. The thought was that because so many places were being attacked, American peo ple would be more scared of Muslim peoples and commit more hate crimes. However there was no remarkable correlation, so we began to think of the rises and falls in American anti-Muslim hate crimes differently. In the year’s pre SeptemberShow MoreRelatedAnalysis On The Orlando Nightclub Shooting Essay1794 Words   |  8 Pagesof a content analysis on the same topic and used to understand how both the public and the media represent the shooter, Omar Mateen. An audience analysis is used to determine how the public and viewers responded to media content and is used to shape media content (Napoli, 2012, pp.79). A survey responded by peers was used to gather the results, which will be analysed and compared throughout this paper with the findings of the content analysis, and used to understand, not only the representation ofRead MoreMiddle Eastern And African Terrorist Movements1414 Words   |  6 Pages Middle-Eastern and African Terrorist Movements Michael Scheil Troy University Abstract Over the course of this paper Middle-Eastern and African Terrorist Movements will be examined with different organizations and networks used as source material. How states sponsor terrorism in different parts of the world and trends that influence violence in these parts of the world. When talking about terrorist goals and campaigns, many people group all of the countries in the Middle East andRead MoreCountry Of Iurasia1507 Words   |  7 Pageswhich became a leading world power for the next four centuries.[21][22] Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century AD, ultimately leading to the displacement of the indigenous faiths of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism with Islam. Iran made major contributions to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential figures in art and science. After two centuries, a period of various native Muslim dynasties began, which were later conquered by the Turks and the Mongols. TheRead MoreArab, Muslim And Middle East1875 Words   |  8 PagesTo even begin to delve into our topic, we must first define the following terms: Arab, Muslim and Middle East. Millions of the people that fall into these categories live in the United States, yet we hardly take the time to learn to differentiate between them thanks to the negative connotations that are associated with each of these terms (Chin, 2009). To be considered Arab, you or your ancestors live or lived in the Arab world and speak Arabic. The â€Å"Arab world† is made up of 22 states and territoriesRead MoreBrotherhood Research Paper964 Words   |  4 PagesEgyptians at large and they did so by staying immensely vague with their goals and objectives. For instance, they claimed to be a â€Å"civil party† despite the religious presence carried throughout their platform. The FJP also used terms like â€Å"shura† and â€Å"democracy† interchangeably and continued to gain support from those who were conservatives and those who were reformers. The FJP’s ambiguity was, â€Å"an apparent reflection of the conflict between the party’s religious ideals and its political ambitions†(al-AnaniRead MoreSyncretism And Anti Syncretism : The Politics Of Religious Synthesis Essay2024 Words   |  9 PagesAre fireworks is Islamic? Towards an understanding of Turkish migrants and Islam in German y. Yalcin-Hackmann argues that any investigation of syncretic tendencies in migrant culture and religion has to handle the problem of differentiating critically between ‘culture’ and ‘religion’. She studied culture and religion of Muslim Turkish in Germany so to explore power and agency in syncretism. She took approach of informing Islam Turkish migrants (households and teachers) in Nà ¼rnberg, and delivered herRead MoreIslamic Way of warfare23558 Words   |  95 Pagesimportant to understand that anything, to be qualified as Islamic, has to have a reference from the core sources of Islam, i.e. the Quran, and the practices and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This research is focused to define an Islamic way of warfare based on these fundamental sources, with a view to identifying whether Al Qaeda is truly Islamic or not. This thesis identifies that Islam does not dictate minor tactical matters of warfare, rather focuses its guidance on warfare in two broad categories:Read MoreSocial Stratification4449 Words   |  18 Pagesstratification 2. Characteristics of social stratification 3. Origins of social stratification 4. Social stratification in Bangladesh 5. Religious stratification In Bangladesh 6. Caste systems among Hindus 7. Caste systems among Muslims All societies arrange their members in terms of superiority, inferiority and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this placing of people in strata, or layers is called stratification. Social stratification is a natural and voluntary separationRead MoreThe Abu Bakr Masjid : The Islamic Center Of San Diego1895 Words   |  8 Pageswould violate the sacred space. At Abu Bakr Masjid, like in many other mosques around the Muslim world, genders are separated—men pray in the main prayer hall while women pray upstairs in a separate prayer room. When I asked why, Imam Taha simply explained that it was a matter of modesty and concentration. Once inside the prayer hall, the imam explained to me that in a mosque there are no seats because Muslim prayers require open space for body movement. Moreover, Imam Taha Hassane kindly instructedRead MoreCompassion, Defined By Three Faiths Essay1835 Words   |  8 Pagesthat this embodiment drives us to unite as one, setting aside our differences, be it in religion, politics, or other worldly conflicts, to master our divine purpose, the betterment of humanity and nature. The three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, among other religions, exemplify the qualities of compassion and love clearly reflecting these ideas in their scriptures and teachings. In fact, if one delves deep into any religious philosophy or teaching, he/she will find that all strive

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Reason for Seeking a College Degree Free Essays

The purpose of this essay is to discuss why I chose to seek a college degree, my learning style as discovered by the results of questionnaires, and the fact that I feel the results are accurate for me personally. Everyone has their own individual reasons for pursuing a college degree. For me, it is the desire to become a state Game Warden after retiring from the military. We will write a custom essay sample on Reason for Seeking a College Degree or any similar topic only for you Order Now Being a state Game Warden requires that I have a degree in the biological or wildlife sciences. In a profession like this, it is important that one has a clear and concise understanding of wildlife biology at a collegiate level. To be a viable candidate in this profession, a college degree is necessary to present myself as a competitive individual for the job I am seeking to fill. Whether or not I have on the job training or experience, the college degree will show that I have the knowledge base to help me succeed as a warden. The end goal in my pursuit of a college degree is to not only broaden my scope of knowledge and skills, but to unlock career aspirations that would otherwise be unattainable for me without a degree. But before I put the cart before the horse, graduating with degree in hand requires I truly know myself inside and out. Basically I need to understand what my personal learning style is. Learning styles are not exactly chosen, they are natural and inherent to each learner. According to Felder Soloman (n. d. ) there are several different learning styles: Active, Reflective, Visual, Auditory, Tactile, Sensing, Intuitive, Verbal, Sequential and Global. To find out what kind of learner you are, a simple questionnaire or quiz can be taken to narrow these options down. In taking Felder Soloman’s Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (n. d. and the Learning Style Inventory (Penn State, 2010) questionnaire, I have discovered that I am an active learner and a visual learner. An active learner is one who gravitates toward interpreting, comprehending, and retaining information in a â€Å"hands on† or active fashion. In other words they discuss or apply and explain the information to others (Felder Soloman, n. d. ). The degree program I am enrolled in is online; which presents me with challenges and difficulties in using the active learning style that I normally rely upon. An alternative to active learning for me is visual, which will serve me well because online course material is something I can see to interpret and retain. Visual learners are those who absorb and maintain information efficiently through methods such as charts, diagrams, pictures, films or demonstrations (Felder Soloman, n. d. ). Suggestions for success as a visual learner include writing out ideas and information for memorization and fully utilizing all course materials, whether they are maps, flashcards, charts or filmstrips (Penn State, 2010). I am someone who always reads the directions prior to completing any task, therefore this fits me perfectly. I fully agree with the results of these questionnaires. I am a mechanic- someone who works day in and day out with my hands. The things I am trying to accomplish or figure out require me to read texts, diagrams and pictures and solve the problem using these resources. I also discuss and apply the information found with those who are masters of the mechanic profession. My reasons for seeking a college degree are simple. I need to hold at minimum at Bachelor’s in the wildlife or biological sciences to reach my goal of being a state Game Warden after retirement from the military. To be successful in this means that I understand I am a visual and active learner, as realized after taking the learning styles questionnaires. References Felder, R. M. , Soloman, B. A. (n. d. ). Index of learning styles. Retrieved from http://www. engr. ncsu. edu/learningstyles/ilsweb. html Penn State. (2010). Learning style inventory. Retrieved from http://www. personal. psu. edu/bxb11/LSI/LSI/htm How to cite Reason for Seeking a College Degree, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Authors Purpose in Fahrenheit 451 free essay sample

In both Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and our world today, the government uses censorship to control the thoughts and actions of the people. Censorship is very immoral and terrible for humanity. Censorship keeps people in the dark about the government and its happenings, and does not allow free thinking and drawing conclusions for oneself because of the lack of information to come to a decision using one’s best judgment. The censorship described by Ray Bradbury in a futuristic world is not far off from some of the examples of censorship we see in today’s world. When the government censors information from the public and controls what people know or do not know about the government’s activities, it creates ignorance. Because of censorship, people do not have the information they need to make informed decisions about who they are going to vote for and why. In Fahrenheit 451, Mrs. Bowles says, â€Å"I voted last election, same as everyone, and I laid it on the line for President Noble. I think he’s one of the nicest looking men ever to become president† (96). Mrs. Bowles is saying that she voted for a man simply because of his looks, rather than on his plans of how he is going to run the country. There is very little rationale in that this man is going to be running the country, and all people care about is what he looks like. The reason the population does this is because the government censors out all the information, beliefs, and stances on political views so people do not know any better. The government censors out political ideas in the book because they want to control the information that gets to the public. Captain Beatty says to Montag, â€Å"If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none† (61). Beatty is telling Montag that people are happier when they do not have to worry or think about a problem, so by not giving them any information, it is better for them. Then there will be no fighting amongst political parties. People are easier to control when they only know the information the government wants them to know. One can see this in today’s world by certain websites that favor either Democratic or Republican parties, showing news that benefits that particular party. Also, there are articles written in the newspaper and programs on television and radio that give information that favors one party over another. Censorship about the government is very harmful to a nation and its political affairs. When the government gives people only the information it wants them to know to control how they think, it makes it hard for people to make decisions about anything because they forget how to think for themselves. While talking to Montag, Beatty says, â€Å"Cram them [the people] full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed†¦Then they’ll feel like they’re thinking† (61). Beatty is saying that to make people feel like they are learning and thinking, make them learn useless facts about nothing. People will be so engaged about things like how much corn Iowa produces in one year that they will not actually do any thinking or decision making about what the government is doing. The government will get to continue to do whatever it wants without anyone questioning them. This is still in the world today in the form of game or trivia shows. We glorify shows like â€Å"Survivor† and â€Å"Shark Tank† and watch them on TV with the chance of the contestant winning a lot of money. Yet, the questions are always simple, black and white. There is no thinking about what the government is doing or any political issues, just on what the contestant needs to do to win money. A little later in the talk with Beatty and Montag, Beatty says, â€Å"Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. † (61). What Beatty is explaining is that philosophy and sociology are complex and dicey subjects. He is right; they are very complex and intricate, and everyone has a different opinion. What he is wrong about is that he is telling Montag that they are evil and bring sadness. Philosophy and sociology promote thinking and questioning the world around oneself, something the government does not like people doing. When people start asking questions and thinking about political issues, the government has a much harder time controlling people and doing whatever it wants. The government still does this today to an extent. The core classes in school are math, reading, writing, science, and history. None of those include philosophy or sociology. To be fair, people can still take philosophy or sociology, they are just less common and not as important to the government as math, reading, writing, science, and history are. If the government censors out all the important information and just gives the people useless ‘facts’, then the people will be unfit to make their own decisions about life and other vital areas. In conclusion, censorship is very corrupt and abysmal for society. The two big reasons are lack of information about one’s own government, and censorship does not allow one to think for oneself and come up with answers to life’s significant questions. These questions cannot be answered with the names of the state capitals or the lyrics to a popular song. They can only be answered with philosophy and sociology, subjects that actually make people think. If the government censors what information gets out to the public, the public remains ignorant and the government has control over all the decisions that are made.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

More About The 1968 Tet Offensive Essays - Vietnam War,

More About The 1968 Tet Offensive For several thousand years, Vietnamese Lunar New Year has been a traditional celebration that brings the Vietnamese a sense of happiness, hope and peace. However, in recent years, It also bring back a bitter memory full of tears. It reminds them the 1968 bloodshed, a bloodiest military campaign of the Vietnam War the North Communists launched against the South. The "general offensive and general uprising" of the north marked the sharp turn of the Vietnam War. Today there have been a great number of writings about this event. However, it seems that many key facts in the Communist campaign are still misinterpreted or neglected. In the mid-80, living in Saigon after being released from the Communist "re-education camp," I read a book published in the early 1980's in America about the story of the 1968 Tet Offensive. It said that the North Vietnamese Army supreme command had imitated one of the greatest heroes of Vietnam, King Quang Trung, who won the most spectacular victory over the Chinese aggressors in the 1789 counter-attack - in planning the 1968 operations. The book quoted King Quang Trung's tactic of surprise. He let the troops celebrate the 1789 Tet Festival one day ahead so that he could launch the attacks on the first three days of the lunar new year while the Chinese troops were still feasting and not ready to organize their defense. Those who claimed the similarity between the two campaigns certainly did not know the whole truth, but jumped into conclusion with wild imagination after learning that the North Vietnamese attacking units also celebrated Tet "one day ahead" before the attacks. In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early morning of January 30, 1968 at many cities of Central Vietnam, such as Da Nang and Qui Nhon, as well as cities in the central coastal and highland areas, that lied within the Communist 5th Military Region.. The other cities to the south that included Saigon, were attacked 24 hours later at the small hours of January 31. Thus the offensive lost its element of total surprise that every tactician has to respect. But It surprised me that some in the American media were still unaware of such tragic story. The story started some 5 months previously. On August 8, 1967, the North Vietnam government approved a lunar calendar specifically compiled for the 7th time zone that covers all Vietnam, replacing the traditional lunar calendar that had been in use in Asia for hundreds of years. That old calendar was calculated for the 8th time zone that Beijing falls right in the middle. It was accepted in general by a few nations such as China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and somewhat in Japan and Korea, mostly for traditional celebrations and religious purposes. South Vietnam used this calendar. With common cultural origin, these countries needed not have their own calendar, particularly it has not been used for scientific and administrative activities. The North Vietnam new lunar calendar differs from the common calendar about some dates, such as the leap months of certain year (1984 and 1987) and the Tet's Eve of the three Lunar New Years: Mau Than (1968), Ky Dau (1969) and At Suu (1985). South Vietnam celebrated the first day of the Mau Than lunar year on January 30, 1968, while North Vietnam celebrated it on Jan 29, 1968. It was obviously that the North Vietnamese leaders had ordered the offensives to be launched on the night of the first day of Tet to take the objectives by total surprise. By some reason, the North Vietnamese Army Supreme Command was not aware of the fact that there were different dates for Tet between North and South Vietnam. Therefore, most NVA units in the Communist 5th Military Region - closer to North Vietnam - probably used North Vietnamese calendar, and conducted their attacks in the night between Jan 29 and 30, while their comrades farther to the south attacked in the night from Jan 30 to 31. Many in the intelligence branch of the South Vietnamese Armed Forces were well aware of the reason why the Communist forces launched their attacks at two different dates. Information from sources among NVA prisoners of war and ralliers about the new calendar of North Vietnam should have been neglected by the American side. The information was also available in broadcast from Hanoi Radio. In military operations, nothing is more important than surprise. So the Communist forces lost their advantage of surprise on more than half of the objectives. Had the Vietnamese Communists conducted their coordinated attacks at the same H-hour, South Vietnam would have

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

The Beginning Essays - Human Reproduction, Reproduction, Midwifery

The Beginning Essays - Human Reproduction, Reproduction, Midwifery The Beginning Prenatal development is the period in development from conception to the onset of labor. Perinatal period is the period beginning about the seventh month of pregnancy and continuing until about four weeks after birth. Postnatal development is the period in development the follows directly after birth. The germinal stage is the stage lasting about ten -fourteen days following conception before the fertilized egg becomes implanted in the uterine wall. The embryonic stage is the stage in which major biological organs and systems form. The fetal stage is the stage in which is marked by rapid growth and preparation of body systems for functioning in the postnatal environment. Viability is the ability of the baby to survive outside the mothers womb. The gestational age is the age of the fetus derived from onset of mothers last menstrual period. The number of older mothers is on the rise in the U.S. as women postpone pregnancy to establish careers or for other reasons. Healthy women older than thirty-five routinely deliver healthy infants just as other between the ages of twenty and thirty-five do. Teenagers, however, may be at a greater risk for delivering less healthy babies. Lack of prenatal care is a big reason. Diets, while pregnant, must be sufficient not only in number of calories but also with respect to the right amount of proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients. Stress also plays a big role in delivering a healthy baby. Cultural beliefs about potentially harmful consequences of frightening or stressful events on fetal development are pervasive, and many societies encourage a calm atmosphere for pregnant women. The social support a pregnant woman receives from family and friends is an important factor that can lessen the consequences of stress during pregnancy. Another reason is the complicated nutritional needs of teenagers. Teenage mothers give birth to as many as 500,000 babies in the U.S. every year. It is suggested to women that are thirty-five or older undergo a test. Not in all cases does the woman have to be certain age. In some cases women must undergo an amniocentesis which is a small sampling of the fluid surrounding the developing fetus by inserting a needle and drawing fluid. This test is designed to diagnose fetal developmental disorders and/or genetic disorders. Ultrasonography is a method using sound wave reflections to obtain a representation the developing fetus. Support within the womb: the placenta. The placenta is a support organ formed by the cells from both blastocyst and uterine lining; serves as exchange site for oxygen, nutrients and waste products. The umbilical cord is made up of blood vessels in which oxygen, nutrients and waste products are transported between placenta and embryo. As extra precaution the fetus is surrounded in a fluid-filled, transparent protective membrane known as the amniotic sac. Teratogen is any environmental agent that can cause deviations in prenatal development. Causing behavioral problems to death. There are a number of diseases that can cause complications to a pregnancy. These are just a few of the many diseases that can cause harm: toxoplasmosis, hepatitis B, diabetes, and chlamydia. FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) is a cluster of fetal abnormalities stemming from mothers consumption of alcohol. This disease can be avoided. Most infants are born in a hospital, although there are some alternative birth settings such as, birthing centers (home-like setting). Statistics show that births directly supervised under a midwife, have less complications and distress. Preparing for childbirth, prepared childbirth (also known is ouch), is procedures practiced during pregnancy and childbirth designed to minimize pain and reduce the need for medication during delivery. A cesarean birth is the delivery of a baby through a surgical incision in the womans abdomen and uterus. During the delivery, a fetal monitoring device is used to monitor fetal heartbeat. In the first stage of labor , the neck of the uterus, dilates and thins to open a passage through the birth canal. When the water is about to break, the babys head rests inside the cervix. Then, transition, the baby shifts to the birth canal. After the resting in the birth canal, the baby is ready to be born. The head rotates sideways after it emerges. Thus, allowing the placenta to fall. Infants born with low-birth weight are in luck. Despite the immediate obstacles facing low-birth weight babies, many become normal children and adults. Newborns and infants display a number of states. A large part of their time in engaged in REM sleep, a state that may provide them with stimulation even when asleep.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Adolf Hitler Rise To Power History Essay

Adolf Hitler Rise To Power History Essay During the 20th century, the Germans faced a terrible economic depression during which time the people lost trust in their government, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Hitler rose to power. The Treaty of Versailles, established post World War I, led Germany to humiliation. They lost their land, military, respect, and a say in world affairs. Germany became isolated, and to the German people, Hitler was their ultimate savior. In a matter of years, Hitler quickly rose to power and boosted the economy. He had satisfied Germany, in the early years, and came to power in a legal manner. Along with the rest of Germany, Adolf Hitler was depressed after World War I due to the loss and the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler, still enlisted in the German military, was assigned undercover duty as an agent. His main task involved finding out who were Marxists, and on September 12, 1919, he investigated them at a hall in Munich, Sterneckerbrau, where a meeting took place. Duri ng the meeting, he gave an emotional speech that mesmerized his audience, and as a result, he was asked to join the German Worker’s Party, to which he accepted. Abandoning his undercover spy mission, he became enthusiastic about the group and came to be highly involved with their activities. In addition, he placed ads for rallies and public meetings in anti-Semitic newspapers. Soon enough, the German Worker’s Party was changed to National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NAZI). For the party’s platform, Hitler created the twenty-five points that involved nullifying the Treaty of Versailles, revoking civil rights for Jews, confiscating war profits, and seizing land by decision of state. In addition, the Swastika (à ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ ) was adopted as the party’s symbol. Hitler hoped that the party would allow him to gain national recognition as well as a respectable politician that the German people would favor. In addition, the party allowed Hitler to use S torm Troopers or Brown Shirts and this would help him gain support from the people. Deploying the Storm Troopers in rallies impressed the German people by raising nationalism. These Storm Troopers would be present in parades all across the country and during election rallies that would significantly influenced the vote of many. CITATION In addition, thousands would join the party because they were victims of hyperinflation and blamed the Jews for economic troubles. Joining the party would show that they supported Hitler and wanted serious changes in Germany, starting with the Jews. On November 8, 1923, Hitler held a rally at a beer hall in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, to declare a revolution, and he led over two-thousand men to overthrow the Bavarian Government. The men all wore Brown Shirts to emphasize how much they supported Hitler and his beliefs to make Germany better. CITATION However, the rally resulted as a disaster and Hitler was charged with treason. He was taken to trial, which he used to his advantage by promoting the Nazi platform, and he gained popularity. He was ruled guilty by the court and sentenced to prison for five years, however, he had only served nine months due to a recommendation from the governor of Landsberg who stated that his behavior conduct in prison was satisfactory.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Science ommunication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Science ommunication - Essay Example Science communication programmes and activities have a very important role to play for developing a scientifically informed and attitudinally rational society. Sustained science communication efforts play a key role in enhancing level of public understanding of science and thus empowering them with useful knowledge. This can be done by way of interpretation of scientific knowledge and scientific concepts to the public through different mass media - print, broadcast, folk, interactive or digital. One such initiative on the web is http://whyfiles.org. The message may comprise of written words, spoken words, body language signs, icons or symbols. Sometimes, Noise may get embedded with the message, if the channel is not robust and reliable. A noisy message in turn may not communicate the intended thoughts to the receiver. Therefore great emphasis is laid on the medium as well, as Marshall McLuhan's famous saying goes, 'the medium is the message'. The mission statement of 'why files' says: "The mission of The Why Files is to explore the science, math and technology behind the news of the day, and to present those topics in a clear, accessible and accurate manner. We are based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but The Why Files covers science at all institutions that engage in scientific exploration and discovery."1 Strengths: Founded in 1996 as part of the National Institute for Science Education with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Why Files has been supported through the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1998. The support, financial as well logistical is the prerequisite for sustenance of any science related venture, because science in general is not a blue eyed boy of business community and we must not expect open hearted patronage from this sector. Whatever comes is

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Two separate survey Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two separate survey - Research Paper Example For the most part, the participants are grouped together under a focus group, after having been selected from a previous quantitative survey. The major shortcoming of hybrid survey compared to mail surveys is that, it is more expensive. This is manly due to the fact that, hybrid survey involves a lot of coordination and organization, and hence requires quite a considerable amount of resources to administer. Furthermore, hybrid surveys require extensive time period for implementation. However, this form of survey is able to enhance quality than mail survey design, since it has a higher response rate, coupled with a superior response quality and validity (Ritter, 2007). For instance Wal-Mart conducts an initial online survey for most of its customers who log in to their survey portal. Subsequently, based on the answers they obtain from the participants, the company sends email and phone requests for them to participate in another structured survey. The initial survey is deliberated to obtain the participants feedback, concerning their latest shopping experience. The goal for Wal-Mart is to avoid repetition (Wal-Mart, 2011). Mail survey is a data collection technique, whereby respondents fill questionnaires in paper format and return them through mail (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). Mail surveys unlike hybrid online surveys, are not that expensive to manage. Furthermore, the same questionnaires are able to be sent to a wide number of individuals, and they are able to complete at their own expediency. However, it has the shortcoming whereby the response rates are regularly very low, especially when it comes to asking for comprehensive written responses. Notably, all entries are postmarked, and added to subsequent monthly entries (UPS, 2012). Then information and answers provided in the online surveys is used by Wal-Mart to assess and come up with possible changes that are conducive

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Medical Assisting Essay Example for Free

Medical Assisting Essay Medical Assistants are crucial people in the medical field. â€Å"Medical Assistants are multi-skilled members of the health care team who perform administrative and clinical procedures under the supervision of a licensed health care provider such as a nurse or doctor.†(American Association of Medical Assistants, Library) Medical Assistants do have a variety of different duties that they have to perform on a day to day basis. As a medical assistant, a person will have administrative and clinical duties; work with nurses and doctors, and comply with OSHA and HIPAA guidelines. Some of the administrative duties a person might have to perform as a medical assistant include: â€Å"greeting patients, handling correspondence, scheduling appointments, answering telephones, creating and maintaining patient medical records, handling billing and insurance processing, and performing medical transcriptions.† (K. Booth, L. Whicker, T. Wyman, S.M. Wright 2008-2011) All of these administrative duties that a medical assistant does, they must remember to follow HIPAA guidelines and privacy of the patient. (HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.) If a medical assistant fails to follow these guidelines they could possibly face legal charges such as: fines, imprisonment, and/or loss of job. There was a case in Kansas were a man was suspended for unknown causes but, did have to go to court to see if an immediate danger to the public health, safety, or welfare requiring immediate state agency action. said presiding officer Dr. Nancy Welsh. Some of the clinical duties a medical assistant might have to perform include: â€Å"assisting the doctor during the examination of a patient, infection control, performing tests (urinalysis, blood work, ECGS(Electrocardiogram)) , preparing and giving injections and medications, phlebotomy (blood work), disposing of contaminated supplies, preparing patient for examination, vital signs and medical histories, preparing the exam room before and after examination of a patient, removing of sutures or changing dressings on wounds, and sterilizing equipment.†(K. Booth, L. Whicker, T. Wyman, S.M. Wright, 2008-2011) With all of the clinical duties, as well as the administrative duties, a medical assistant must remember to follow the HIPAA guidelines. Depending on the office a medical assistant works in will depend on the clinical duties they will be preforming. For example, if a medical assistant is assisting a surgeon or a surgical technician they might have duties like: sterilizing equipment, making sure the operating room is stocked properly with supplies(gauze, medical tape, suture kits), and talking with the patient about the procedure. As a medical assistant there are certain values or qualifications that you need to have. These qualifications might include: critical thinking skills, time management, empathy, attention to detail, flexibility, professionalism, neat appearance, positive attitude, remaining calm in a crisis, team work, proper judgment, and good communication skills. (K. Booth, L. Whicker, T. Wyman, S.M. Wright, 2008-2011) Such things as time management, empathy, attention to detail, neat appearance, and positive attitude are extremely important in the medical field. No patient wants to be taken care of by someone who is rude, has a negative attitude, does not exhibit proper hygiene, or who just plainly doesn’t care about the patient. In the medical profession, professionalism is something that a person must have! The difference between a CMA and an RMA is: a CMA is a certified medical assistant and an RMA is a registered medical assistant (www.aama-ntl.org). A certified medical assistant has only a state wide certification. In order to practice in another state a person would have to transfer their certification to that state. It is different for a registered medical assistant. For a registered medical assistant it is nationwide, which means a person does not have to transfer anything. A person with a RMA can practice anywhere in the U.S., but a person with a CMA would have to transfer their certification first before they could practice in that state. The current issues that medical assisting face is that they are a â€Å"new breed† into the medical field. Which means that a person with a degree in medical assisting; might find it hard to find a job right now. The job field for medical assisting is growing and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the field is to grow 31% in the years to come. (Bureau of Labor Statistics; Publications; Job Outlook 2010-20). So, in the next few years, medical assisting should be as common as certified nursing assistants are today. The median average pay for medical assistant right now is around $28,860 a year or around $13.87 per hour. For more information about Medical Assistants you can visit the following websites: www.aama-ntl.org ( American Association of Medical Assistants), www.caahep.org (Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education), www.amt1.com (American Medical Technologists), www.jcahpo.org (Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthmology), and www.aspma.org (American Society of Podiatric Medical Assistants). These websites have helped me a great deal with not only research but, questions that I have had about my degree as a Medical Assistant. I know that they have helped me and I hope that they will help others with either questions they have or concerns that they might have about the medical assistant degree or duties. Becoming a Medical Assistant takes hard work and dedication. Working as a Medical Assistant takes even more hard work. Medical Assistants do a lot to help doctors and nurses every day. Some of the things they do for them are: answering the phone so that patients can make or cancel appointments or to answer a question they might have, preparing the patient and the room for the patient, doing blood work for the doctor or nurse, handling insurance paperwork, giving medication or getting it ready for the nurse, and cleaning up after the doctor is done with the patient’s examination. Medical Assistants are a very important part of the everyday duties in the medical field. REFERENCES Bureau of Labor Statistics; summary; job outlook. American Association of Medical Assistants website (www.aama-ntl.org); become a CMA. Medical Assisting: Administrative and Clinical Procedures with Anatomy and Physiology, 4e; Kathryn A. Booth, Leesa G. Whicker, Terri D. Wyman and Sandra Moaney Wright; Pages 9,26-38 License of medical assistant suspended Hutchinson News, The (KS), Apr 07, 2012 Newspaper Source; Kaplan Library

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Lord of the Flies :: essays research papers

By comparing and contrasting the characters of Jack and Ralph it allows the reader to fully understand their characters and how each develops throughout the novel. Once this has been achieved the reason the rivalry occurs becomes evident and the novel’s most important qualities and themes emerge from these two characters. It is then that we are able to see why Ralph and Jack’s friendship can never develop into anything but rivalry. Throughout the novel we see that Ralph and Jack share similar qualities, but there is a great difference in the way they use these attributes to benefit both themselves and others. Ralph uses his power to create a democracy, where each person has the right to voice their opinions and ideas. â€Å"I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking...and he won’t be interrupted.† The conch becomes a symbol of the right of a speaker to a fair hearing. While Jack uses his authority to produce a fascist, hostile environment where he controls the doings of his tribe. â€Å"Tomorrow we shall hunt† and â€Å"He said we weren’t to let you in.† Whilst both characters have the chance to exercise their power, both do so in a disparate way, with Ralph aiming to benefit the group as a whole, and Jack himself profiting from his actions. Ralph and Jack begin the novel with similar beliefs, both wanting to implement rules. â€Å"I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them.† Ralph concentrates on being rescued and Jack goes along with this taking on the responsibility that he and his choir will mind the fire. â€Å"We’ll be responsible for keeping the fire going-†, but while Ralph remains focused on being rescued, Jack’s newfound interest in hunting leads him to forget about rescue. â€Å"Jack had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was. ‘Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first-.† As the story evolves, so to do Ralph and Jack’s different opinions. The pressure on Ralph and Jack’s different ideas peak when Jack forgets about his responsibilities in order to hunt. When Ralph tells Jack a ship had passed, and Jack had let the fire go out, because he had been hunting, all Jack can say is â€Å"You should have seen the blood!† Now Jack is faced with two choices. â€Å"There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled commonsense.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Postcolonial Theory & Feminism Essay

Postcolonial theory is actually a growing as well as a controversial field. Some of the critics understand postcolonial theory as hypothetically and incoherent not worth mentioning at its best and political harmful at its worst. Post colonial theory is however superficial as an uncritical condemnation of the Western nations, cultures as well as values. For some reasons, these wrong interpretations materialize from a lack of intellectual commitment with the topics in that same field. These critics are actually motivated by a political desire which is out to sustain and legitimize the power of Western values, nations together with the cultures. This paper will respond to these types of distortions. The paper will identify how philosophical reflections might assist people to understand the nature of connections between dissimilar cultures. After the introduction together with the main problems in the field of postcolonial theory, the paper will talk so much about the early theorists of anti-colonialism. However, postcolonial theory must be conceptualized as an extension of the aforementioned anti colonial struggles. In this situation one is able to understand fully the connections between colonialism and the western philosophy. At times when the West tends to control as well as shaping different cultures and the way of their thinking, the study of the way different cultures interacted during the past seems tremendously necessary. As a result, feminist theory is the expansion of feminism into philosophical or theoretical position. It tends to encompass the work done in a very broad variety of disciplines, importantly including the approaches towards women’s roles and lives together with the feminist politics in sociology and anthropology. Feminist theory always aims at understanding the natural history of inequality and it actually focuses on power relations, femininity politics as well as sexuality (Tiffin, 9). Postcolonial feminism is the main form of feminist philosophy which tends to criticize the Western forms of feminism, particularly liberal feminism as well as fundamental feminism plus their universalism of female experience. The postcolonial feminists argue that the cultures that are impacted by the colonialism are often vastly different and it should be treated that way. Colonial oppression might result in glorification of pre-colonial culture in which in cultures with traditions of stratification of power along the lines of gender, could somehow mean the acceptance or refusal to deal with, inherent matters of gender inequality. Postcolonial feminists does not present a united front on feminist issues, but it can be described as the feminists who have always reacted against both universalizing tendencies in the Western feminist thought as well as a lack of attention to gender issues in mainstream postcolonial thought (Tiffin, 9). A lot of postcolonial feminists tend to argue that the oppressions connecting to the colonial experience, more especially class, radical together with ethnic oppressions, have marginalized women in postcolonial societies. In one way or the other, they tend to challenge the assumption whereby the gender domination is the most important force of patriarchy. Furthermore, postcolonial feminists point to the superficial interpretation of women of non-Western societies just like the passive and people who don’t have a voice, as opposed to the depiction of Western women as educated, modern as well as empowered. At the same time as demanding gender oppression contained by their individual cultures, postcolonial feminists in addition tends to fight the charges of being â€Å"Western†, just the way some would contend within their cultures (Reina, 46). As a result, feminism is the conviction in the social, political as well as the economic equality of women. It involves a variety of movements, philosophies and theories which are concerned with the idea of gender dissimilarities as well as campaigning for the rights of women together with their interests. Feminist theory came as a result of these particular feminist movements. The idea of postcolonial feminism arose right from the gender history of colonialism. The regal powers regularly imposed Westernized norms on top of colonized areas. In the year 1940 to 1950, immediately after the creation of the United Nations, previous colonies were being supervised for what was deemed as social development by Western principles. The progression of women, in the middle of other variables, has always been supervised by questionably Western organizations for example the United Nations. Consequently, customary practices together with the roles taken up by women from time to time is regarded as objectionable by Western standards which could sometimes considered as a type of rebellion in opposition to colonial oppression. Postcolonial feminists, they really work so hard in order to fight femininity oppression in their individual cultural models of the social order relatively than from those of the Western. The fundamental theoretical principle of postcolonial feminism is that the concept of freedom, equality as well as rights stems right from the enlightenment together with privilege European and Western norms, instead of representing a universal ethical system (Boniface, 14). Postcolonial feminist writing tends to overlap a great deal with transnational feminism together with the third world feminism. Postcolonial feminism is somehow connected with post colonialism. However, there is an essential alliance among black feminists plus the postcolonial feminists because both of them have really struggled for identification by the Western feminists as well as men in their own individual ethnicity. As a result, feminist discourse actually shares a lot of similarities with post colonial theory and consequently both fields have always been thinking of being associative. They are both predominantly political and they are concerned with the struggle against injustice and oppression. However, both of them tend to refuse the established patriarchal, hierarchical system which is actually conquered by the hegemonic white men as well as passionately denying the hypothetical supremacy of mannish power together with the authority. The demoralized women are in this sense of the same kind with the colonized subject matter. Basically, exponents of post colonialism are very much reacting in opposition to colonialism in both the political and economical sense. The feminist theorists on the other hand are refusing colonialism of a sexual environment. In one way or the other, colonialism is the biggest iniquity for the reason that it mechanically entails the danger of misogynistic. Colonial oppression do affect the lives of women both socially and economically whereby it has forced postcolonial critics to take on a keener awareness of gender roles during the time when they are discussing imperialist exploits. In the same way, feminism has become very much aware of the post colonial counterparts in the latest period of time. The failure to acknowledge the historical specificity is actually damaging like any other assumptions which are based in chauvinism as well as ignorance. Feminists also tried to apply the intolerance of blanket terms towards post colonialism and they as well have subsequently been so much critical of post colonialists’ tendencies to construct one category of the colonized, hence ignoring the essential issues of gender differences (Reina, 29). There are quite a number of significant literary texts which are written both from post-colonial and feminist stand point. The texts usually share views about individuality and disparity of the subject and agreements on shared strategies of resistance against the external forces that are doctorial. Bill Ashcroft in his book, â€Å"Key Concepts in Post Colonial Studies† compares â€Å"writing place† in post-colonial theory to â€Å"writing the body† in feminism. This clearly indicates that colonized space in the discourse of feminist is the highly vulnerable body of the female. This therefore reflects the fertile and productive nature of the place and body that has got the power to yield crop and also to destroy it. They are both capable of ruthlessness when forced to it. Caryl Churchill’s controversial play â€Å"Cloud Nine† written in 1979 deals in a broader length with ‘double colonization’ towards women by their male counterparts and the colonial powers. Consequently, there is a critic of gender of familial and sexual duties in the ‘Victorian colonial society’. The play utilizes both cross-dressing and role-doubling in a comical way to fully explore the association between colonial and sexual oppression throughout history. The first act takes place in a British colony within Africa whereby Clive, one of the racist and sexist colonial administrator brings forth his stringent ideals both to his family and the natives of Africa. Being the superior white male, he identifies the roles that women and the natives must play. His doting and self effacing female counterpart is Betty. She says she is a man’s creation and what men want is what she wants to be. The boundaries of gender are fully closed as Betty is played by a man. This foregrounds her gender as a fiction that is constructed by a â€Å"male gaze†. The patriarchal society of Clive can not be able to envision the identity of women. Betty therefore, must just be played by a male actor and through Betty’s character; Churchill satirizes the traditional role of women who are subordinate in history. This forces us to recognize that the female identity is both a historical and a cultural construction. There are also some constructions of the pre-colonial that are strongly influenced by phallocentrice prejudice which defines a native woman as passive and subsidiary inferior. There are also more representations of female native figures in Western Art and Literature which perpetuate the myth of the female that is charged erotically. For instance, the primitive exotism danger of Ayesha in H. Rider Haggard’s novel â€Å"She† which is full of prejudice. And truly much of the 19th century, the black skin depicted sexual promiscuity and bad behavior It has been made clear that during the time the artists were attempting to make an ultimate change and the oppressive power connections encoded in the sense of nation, race and empire, together with those of class, gender and sexuality in tracing a path of feminist postcolonial concerns. The present feminist postcolonial theory goes on exerts a pressure on mainstream postcolonial theory on its constant iteration of the necessity to consider gender issues. Some time ago, feminist postcolonial theorists tent to criticize male theorists because of assuming the behavior of British men might take a stand for the behavior of imperial subjects in general or to symbolize the empire as a whole. The feminist postcolonial theories always engage the two fold project, to racialise mainstream feminist theory as well as to insert feminist concerns into conceptualizations of colonialism and post colonialism. Feminist postcolonial theory is concerned, among other things, to analyze the relationship among the western women and that is indigenous women (Tiffin, 9). Feminist is at present abandoned in a good number of feminist theories. The acknowledgment of subjectivity which tends to ground the feminist practice apparently doesn’t ground it for others. People don’t think the same way. However, ant-liberal feminist theory as well demonstrated and enacted its own failure to resolve the conflicts it debates so energetically. The conflicts are not going to be resolved by the theory. They cannot be resolved for the reason that women are human beings in spite of everything. Finally, that unbearable reality makes feminist theory important.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Macbeth and Animal Farm Essay

Both Shakespeare and Orwell present rivals as threats to their leaders’ power. Shakespeare introduces this threat through the Witches in Act 1, scene 3 when the third witch announces that Banquo ‘shall get kings’. In Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 3, scene 2, the audience is reminded that he is predisposed with maintaining his power, now that he has become king, and illustrates that Banquo was announced as a ‘father to a line of kings’. The audience assumes that Macbeth is infertile as he feels he is unable to produce an heir as he expresses his ‘fruitless crown’ and his ‘barren sceptre’ and seems quite indignant that Banquo’s will profit from ‘the  gracious Duncan’ that he has murdered. It appears that Shakespeare is justifying Macbeth’s ruthless ambition and want to maintain power, which puts Macbeth into darker depths by having Banquo and Fleance murdered, by his lack of an heir. Similarly, the audience is provided by Snowball as the rival to Napoleon’s absolute power in his introduction to the character in Chapter 2. Orwell tells the reader he ‘was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon’, setting him up immediately in competition His description goes on to describe him as ‘quicker in speech and more inventive ‘. This is proven when he emerges later in Chapter 4 as the brave hero of the Battle of the Cowshed after which we see him awarded with the military decoration of ‘Animal Hero First Class’ while the reader realizes Napoleon seems to be conspicuous in his absence. Moreover, Snowball invents plans for the windmill and Orwell outlines all his creative ideas in his committees and therefore Napoleon clearly makes plans to expel him from the farm. The key difference between Shakespeare and Orwell’s presentations is that we witness Macbeth’s thought processes and plans while Orwell keeps the reader in the dark yet offers them clues that Napoleon is not to be trusted. It comes as no surprise to the reader in Chapter 5 when Napoleon unleashes his personally educated dogs, who represent Stalin’s secret police, on Snowball. Both leaders maintain power by eradicating any competition. http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/compare-contrast-impact-conflict-napoleon-macbeth-372660 http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/q-and-a/explore-the-ways-george-orwell-and-william-shakespeare-present-conflict-in-animal-farm-macbeth-51453/ http://prezi.com/f41ewhbheqdv/animal-farm-vs-macbeth/ Comparisons between characters: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and Napoleon all use others to further themselves. Lady Macbeth takes advantage over Macbeth by persuading him to kill Duncan so she can have more power. Napoleon uses Squealer to take advantage of the other animals by making them their slaves and being made to believe all Napoleon’s decisions are best for the farm. Both Napoleon and Macbeth become power hungry which turns into a negative effect, both use violence to gain power by installing fear into people Macbeth’s hunger for power causes him to  murder many innocent people and eventually leads to him downfall. Napoleon’s hunger for power causes him to use excessive force and make the animals do slave labor. -both Napoleon and Macbeth represent Stalin Differences: One is a play, one is a novel M written in 1606 when James 1 was in power in England (birth of the Stuart regime) AF was published in August 1945 after the Russian Revolution of 1917 + predicted the Cold War. Throughout both ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Animal Farm’ the audience can see a large amount of deceit, treachery and a lack of trust between the leaders’ and their followers. Shakespeare shows this deceit in Macbeth’s relationship with other characters where he hides his true feelings and ‘is here in double trust’. However, the audience is privy to the true thoughts of Macbeth and his wife due to their plotting in Act 1, scene 5 where Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to ‘look like th’innocent flower/ But be the serpent under’t’ and which creates dramatic irony during the play. Similarly, Orwell’s novella ‘Animal Farm’ uses dramatic irony as the audience can see that the pigs are manipulating the animals into slave labor and although the audience is not made privy to Napoleon’s innermost thoughts, we can still see past the animals’ lack of intelligence to see the pigs are re-writing the 7 C ommandments.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Crop Cover

Crop Cover Vineyard Floor Management I. Clean cultivation: 1. conserves moisture 2. destroys organic matter at surface 3. may damage soil structure 4. changes soil porosity-root growth is restricted 5. earthworm populations are lower 6. suppresses root growth in upper layer 7. increases the breakdown of nitrogenous compounds into nitrates.8. May develop hard pan.COVER CROPS Choice and performance are site specific, so test in a few rows before deciding.Two types: 1) disked or 2) perennial sod Considerations: 1. costs vs. benefits 2. irrigation method 3. tillage practices 4. nitrogen needs 5. frost concerns Cover crops are generally only grown in row middles, with under-row vegetation controlled by mulch, herbicide, or tillage.Advantages of cover crops: 1. provide organic matter for the soil 2. provide mulch for under-row 3. increase water infiltration rate 4. control erosion 5. reduce dust in vineyard.6. Dry out and stabilize the soil in wet areas 7.A photo demonstrating the use of cover crops betwe...

Monday, November 4, 2019

Understanding the Special Needs of Children. Building Patterns of Essay

Understanding the Special Needs of Children. Building Patterns of Kindergarten Teaching from Student Assessment - Essay Example During this time I was introduced to the Kindergarten teacher Mrs. â€Å"Adams† as well as the school Principal and other teachers on the staff. The Edge Academy is a Kindergarten through Fifth Grade (K-5) school located in Akron with approximately 98% of the students coming from African-American families. According to statistics, â€Å"The Edge Academy spends $7,064 per pupil in current expenditures. The district spends 45% on instruction, 48% on support services, 7% on other elementary and secondary expenditures.† (Education.com, 2011) In standardized test results, the school scores an average of 2/10 nationally last year. This school can be seen as having potential problems due to the challenges the children and their families manage in coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Some parents have removed children from classes in preference for more racially diverse and integrated schools. However, while there may be many challenges in this school it is a very good place for children’s education. The teachers at Edge Academy are attentive and caring about the students’ needs, and conduct themselves in a professional manner. The school has facilities for music, sports, science, library, and other special activities. The Edge Academy has been developed to meet the challenge of providing the best education and foundation for future personal development to students in Akron. I am happy about the time I spent there in observation, and I gained many memories in working with the children and staff. The Edge Academy represents a school that I would like to seek a career in because I believe it is possible to make a difference in children’s lives by being a good teacher in such an environment. The Edge Academy is in the Akron School District and is publicly funded through tax dollars. It participates in standardized testing and also upholds Ohio Department of Education standards of quality in education. The Edge Academy has an enrollment of approximately 158 to 268 stude nts per year. (BES, 2006; Great Schools, 2008, Education.com, 2011) The school has been rated between 3/10 - 2/10 on the Standardized Testing Scale, based on national averages of performance for similar aged students in the country. (BES, 2006; Great Schools, 2008) The school has classrooms for six classes, plus additional rooms for group activities, events, and administration. The school has only a limited outdoor play area, but is near to a local city park in Akron. Source: Council of Chief State School Officers, 2011 The Kindergarten class I was assigned to observe in had all of the students sitting at four big tables in the room. There are three windows in the room to allow for natural sunlight and fresh air. There is a large chalkboard at the front of the room which the teacher uses for instruction. The classroom has a teacher’s desk in the corner that is used to prepare lessons and keep class materials organized. There is also a large rug that students can move to for p lay or other activities related to instruction. There is a restroom facility attached directly to the class for the students to access. The

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Artificial neural network Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Artificial neural network - Research Paper Example In addition, they are very helpful for solving those problems which are difficult to resolve through customary techniques, as well as often a lot of them have been tackled through neural networks, for example analysis of seismic signals, forecasting grassland community or solar radiation, control of chaotic dynamical systems, data and air quality control and categorization of remotely sensed information (Benvenuto & Marani, 2000), (Giles, 1998) and (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). This paper outlines the application of neural network to solving environmental problems. One of the major environmental difficulties and challenges that require using well-organized software tools is the forecast issues. These forecasting issues include meteorological forecast, water, soil, air, flood prediction, pollution forecast and many more. In the past, numerous techniques based on the artificial intelligence have been designed and implemented by taking into account that they are able to present additional in formed techniques that utilize domain specific information as well as offer solutions faster than the customary techniques those are based on mathematical techniques (Oprea & Matei, 2010).

Thursday, October 31, 2019

International Dimension for Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Dimension for Business - Essay Example With the opening up of world economy, nearly all the business entities big or small, old or new are getting inspired in taking their business to the international level (Aswathappa, 2010, p.6). Companies are getting determined in their decision to operate across the globe. The shifting of organisations from a domestic viewpoint to a level of internationalization gives rise to a number of challenges for the firm (Turner & Johnson, 2009, p.2). The challenges may be in the form of setting up of infrastructure in the foreign market, purchasing the materials from overseas suppliers and the biggest challenge is to sell it to the foreign customers. One of the biggest trends of the recent times has been the lowering of international trade barriers. Different organisations such as World Trade Organisation, GATT and IMF are constantly working towards the intensification of globalised trade. In the recent past globalisation has been a catchphrase for the business organisations. Globalisation is a global phenomenon which can be defined as the movement of goods, services, resources, funds and labour around the world in a harmonized and synchronized way. In this process a global relation among the countries gets developed and ensures efficacy in using the scares resources of the world (Milward, 2003, p.10-16). The present study deals with the international dimension of business or in other words the other avenue to conduct business apart from the local listings. The study will reveal the international market entry strategies such as foreign direct investment, franchising, licensing and exporting. The study will also try to analyse the foreign market entry strategy of Volkswagen. The reason for choosing this organisation for conducting the study is because it is amongst prime multinational companies. A multinational company is described as the company which operates in its home country as well as in foreign market. The factors which contributed towards choosing this company a re its rich history, brand image and also considering the fact that it is the biggest car manufacturing & marketing company of the world. Company History The history of the company dates back to 1937, when the company was known as ‘Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH’. In the next year the company is renamed to ‘Volkswagenwerk GmbH’. The construction of the plant for manufacturing cars started on 1938 at Wolfsburg, Germany. During the period of 2nd world war the production of the company switched to weapons and arms. At around 20000 forced labours, prisoners were working at the plant. After the end of World War II the responsibility of Volkswagenwerk was placed on to the hands of British military government. During that era mass production of volkswagon beetle was started. During the 1950s the product line of the company was increased. In the meantime the production of Volkswagon bus was initialized. The bus is still popular even in this century for its multi-functionality and is popularly known as VB bully. As the wheels rolls on the company slowly touched the milestone of producing one million Volkswagon beetle cars. The employees and dealers from the country and overseas celebrated this memorable day in a special comportment. In 1972 the company has broken the all time record of car production with the figure touching mammoth 15,007,034 units. The company slowly moved towards the production of new age cars during 1973 with its model ‘passat’. With that initiation the company moved towards the production of varieties new age cars. That was the time when Golf was built inside the industrial units of the company. The

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Caterpillar's Organizational Structure and Culture Essay

Caterpillar's Organizational Structure and Culture - Essay Example For this reason, organizational environment has been divided into three sections: general environment, task environment and internal environment. The first of them refers to factors that are likely to impact the organization as a market’s unit, as for instance technological and socio-cultural factors. Task environment refers to factors influencing the organization’s daily operations; customers and suppliers are factors of such type. As for the organization’s internal environment, this refers to factors, which are related to the organization’s internal boundaries, meaning factors such as employees and culture (Caterpillar, case study). Changing organizational structure can be a challenging task mostly because all parts of organizational structure need to be transformed. If a change successfully occurs, this fact can be made known to the management in the following way: no problems appear in the organization’s daily operations, especially in regard to the areas where change was promoted. The organizational culture can include a series of elements, such as symbols, ceremonies and stories; in Caterpillar, the above elements have been set as value hallmarks (Caterpillar, case study). Moreover, organizational culture can set the rules on which organization’s plans are based; reference is made particularly to the plans that regulate employee relations across the organization. In Caterpillar, organizational culture also refers to understandings, beliefs and norms; the above elements are characterized as shared values and define the cultural framework of Caterpillar (Caterpillar, case study). In accordance with the case study, adaptability and involvement are key characteristics of Caterpillar’s culture, ensuring flexibility and employee participation in organizational plans. In Caterpillar corporate culture is of critical value; teaching

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Marketing Strategy Of The Times Marketing Essay

Marketing Strategy Of The Times Marketing Essay Times Newspapers Limiteds The Times is one of the most famous newspapers based in the United Kingdom with 692,581 copies in circulation per day. The name of Times is not confined to the United Kingdom but is also a big name in the international newspaper industry. Many countries have newspapers published with the name of Times, such as New York Times, Times of India etc. The Times is published daily, with a special publication of Sunday Times. Its fame is always on the go. Recently, due the massive change in the global newspaper industry, where readers are switching to more interactive and internet based news broadcasts, The Times may have had its blow in terms of sales initially, but it has managed to survive very profitability. With leading newspapers such as The Economist, catching readers tremendously with new and improved marketing strategies, The Times has its own winning strategies. How is it coping up with this change? The marketing managers of the Times have devised a strate gy where the design, the look, the appeal of the newspaper has been changed so as to deal with intense competition, and changing readers preferences whilst bringing about increased revenue. This marketing strategy is backed with extensive marketing research to incorporate proper information in to it, and also takes into account the global context. The marketing strategy to renovate the newspapers very much deals with its e-business strategies. Overview of Newsweeks Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is the game plan to achieve the marketing objectives as devised by the marketing manager. This game plan comprises the mission, marketing objectives, financial objectives, target markets, the positioning, the marketing mix and the information gathered through marketing research. (Donald, 1992) Mission: The Times mission to keep news circulating in an interactive way, to keep up with the real times, and maintain its strong readership throughout UK with its regular issues and throughout the world with its websites. (Times, 2009) Marketing Objectives: To narrow it down further, its marketing objectives are: To achieve higher sales To increase circulation To increase market penetration Financial Objectives: The financial objectives behind the marketing strategy are: To increase profit margin Target Markets: The Times target market is A smaller group of an elite audience who prefer quality over price. Web users to prefer to get the news on one click. Critical thinkers who want information on a wide variety of subjects. And most importantly the business people. Positioning: The Times positions itself as a thought leader in the world of journalism so that the readers jump on to the latest editions of the Times before any other having a firm impression that The Times will be covering the best news. It is a high-end newspaper which sells commentary, reports and articles that are in-depth, elaborative, interesting and reader-friendly. (Hrichorn, 2009) Strategies: How is The Times going to achieve all of this? Through three main things: Content, Layout and Advertisements. Firstly, The Times keeps a firm focus on its profound glory of original reporting in its publication, with the editorial policy that focuses on rich and fair content. This is backed by the implementation of a new and improved business models in the entire organisation. The newspaper emphasizes more on narrative reporting, and deviate from the news where the paper does not have any original piece of its own to add to. (Hrichorn, 2009) It adds a provocative element in journalism to outrage the readers, through well structured, well presented and strong opinionated articles. Its famous writers contribute articles on the hottest topics of the modern world that the readers are just dying to read. Secondly, The Times timely changes its design and redesigns through employing creativity and innovation. The purpose of the redesigns are to make the newspaper more appealing, more modern, classy, entertaining and reader friendly. The new layout contains sections on, brief news reports, essays and detailed opinioned reports, special features and reports on cultures. The Website Times Online features, online articles as well as an archive of all the in print articles. (Times, 2009) High quality paper is being used for printing the newspaper, so that readers can feel the fine class of the newspaper as soon as they take it in their hand. (Times, 2009) The marketing team of The Times tries to keep the original DNA of the newspaper intact, by just updating it and not changing it altogether. Finally, Times focuses on gaining advertisers and traffic on its website. Advertisers, too, are more inclined towards targeted audiences. The Times newspaper is focusing on a more affluent, high-taste, and deep audience, and the advertisers will be giving ads for just this small group. Whereas, there are separate advertisers for the different groups the newspaper targets. The purpose is to increase sales revenue in its target markets. Marketing Mix Product: The Times has the following product features: An attractive layout design Various sections, with rich content High-quality paper Targeted advertisements Price The Times is charged 90p every day, but 30p for students and  £1.50 on the weekends.. Distribution The distribution of The times, is in selection university shops, all business locations, and several newsstands all throughout UK. To summarise The Times marketing strategy focuses on its content, higher-quality paper and a more elite audience and to become a thought leader all in an attempt to achieve sustainability in the world of journalism with an increase in price. (Hischorn, 2009) Use of Marketing Research Information in the Marketing Strategy Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company (Kotler, 2006). The Marketing Research is a detailed process, which is very crucial to developing a sound and effective marketing strategy. In fact, it is the first step when planning to develop a marketing strategy. The marketing research process includes: Define the problem, he decision alternatives, and the research objectives Develop the Research Plan Collect the information Analyse the information Present the information Making the decision Before devising the marketing strategy for the re-launch of The Times Newspaper, the marketing team had conducted a detailed marketing research that became the foundation of the whole campaign. Research Objectives The marketing research objectives of the marketing team were to: Find out the reason why the sales of the newspaper were declining; The global conditions of the newspaper industry; The reader preferences; Analyse competitors strengths; and Search market segments unexploited by another newspaper as yet; Presenting the information of the research, analysing it and then making the decision based on them is the most crucial element of the marketing research, though the other elements also hold their respective worth. Research Findings So what did the market researchers find out? Following were some of the things that caught immediate attention of the marketing manager of The Times: The Times before 1988 was only known for celebrity and entertainment news. (Times, 2009) The newspaper had been getting fewer ads, which were on the decline of 11.7 percent as recorded by Publishers Information Bureau. This showed that the future was in red. This reduced the revenue per ad thus, affecting the overall profit of the newspaper The reason for this decline was the drastic economic affect upon the advertisers, the vast audience for which the ads were targeted to, was not working too well, and lastly, the falling quality of the newspaper was discouraging the advertisers to place ads in it repeatedly. (Richard, 2009) The newspaper was targeting mediocre readers whose curiosity for news was nonetheless for the sake of knowing things. This audience does not exist anymore. (Hrichorn, 2009) Internet has changed the news reading concept with online journals available at a mouse-click, readers now prefer to go to more catchy, speedy, and interactive delivery of news than having going through user-unfriendly layout of newspapers. Several websites serving to provide the juiciest and fasted news such as The Huffington Post, Yahoo headlines and Politico.com are changing the readership of news scenario. (Richard, 2009) As for the international scenario, more focus is towards, localizing the imprint rather than producing on the basis of mass-customization. And the need is for more fast, rich The rising newspapers of today, like The Economist are exploiting niches in the newspaper market, and focus on their quality more. They are also engaged in online journalism and are attracting readers through impressive and attractive web pages and easy navigation. (Hrichorn, 2009) Although there is abundance of information available for journalists to make use of in their articles and essay, they seldom present a proper insight in their writing. Readers want less of celebrity news, which is splattered across almost every newspaper. Research Conclusions The marketing research findings lead the marketing manager to conclude the following things that were to be incorporated in the newspaper: Times needed to clearly define its target audience and move to a more sensible and serious genre which reflected its foundation. (Times, 2009) The newspaper was in need of gaining new ads, which were not mass- targeted; Improve the print and web layout of the newspaper to appeal to the changing readers preferences; Make the content richer in terms of in-depth essays and world-wide appeal; Target a small segment; Include articles that are related to more serious issues. Enrich the online version. Therefore, with these conclusions the marketing strategy for the re-launch of the newspaper took its roots and sprung up. Effects of the Global Context in the Marketing Strategy Marketing has a lot to do with the international market. Marketers of multinational businesses detect the changes in the international market, and bring about innovation in meeting demands. Where, the international businesses bring about changes, the local businesses suffer from the consequences in the form of changed customer preferences. They get compelled to develop new marketing strategies to deal with this situation. All in all, all the businesses let it be local or international have to deal with global changes. (Kevin, 2000) What changes were there for Times to deal with? First was the international change in the readers preferences. This change was a move towards interactivity in reading from the plain text layout of the conventional newspapers. Second, was the preference towards accessibility and speed. The Times sales were greatly being affected because of this. To cope up with this, the marketing strategy was devised around redesigning the layout and the content of the newspaper. Other than the content, the inclusion of various sections in the newspaper and the website were mainly because of the changing preferences of the readers. Also, a special feature to create your own profile on the website of The Times, was something very new and a strategy to compete with the international market. E-Business Strategy Incorporated in the Marketing Strategy The Times e-business strategy involved increasing readership on its website. So the marketing strategy was kept in line with this. As part of the marketing strategy of the newspaper, was to redesign the web page. The marketing research showed that more and more readers prefer to read online now so redesigning the online layout was essential. Few things were kept in mind: the design was to be so that the readers would find easy navigation through the various interesting articles, there had to be proper illustration along with the news articles, and most importantly, a proper space for user access. What did that mean? The new e-business strategy of the newspaper was to increase reader involvement in the newspaper. So to achieve this, the designing was done so that the website contained a mix of the newspapers own content created by its expert writers and the content posted by the readers. The Times allows reader interactivity to maintain traffic on the website, through a section called comments. (Orienwell, 2009) The marketers found out that readers have accounts of social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, so the Times sought alliance from these websites, offering the link to its website and allowing readers to comment on articles through Twitter and Facebook. To gain revenue through online operations, advertisements are encouraged for posting on the website and online subscriptions are offered. The Times e-business strategies are to exploit online journalism to the maximum. And its marketing strategy is devised keeping in mind this very important element. New Product Marketing Strategy The Times can offer an online and print supplement of The Times Youth, for the age- group of 18- 25. This is the segment that is least exploited by the competitors of The Times. This segment includes the college graduates, who will the be the leading entrepreneurs, and are just looking to indulge in the changing world, are seeking opportunities to exploit, are waiting to bring change themselves, and have a lot to say about the current situations. Mission: To develop a magazine for the youth who are ready to become the leading entrepreneurs of tomorrow and increaser market share of the newspaper through this. Marketing Objectives: To narrow it down further, its marketing objectives would be: To achieve sales To increase circulation To increase market penetration Financial Objectives: The financial objectives behind the marketing strategy would be: To increase profit margin To cover up the market research expenditure in the minimum time after the re launch. Target Markets: The target market would be the youth between 18-25 who is: Energetic; Business-minded; Political minded; and Change oriented. Positioning: The Magazine is to be a one-of-a-kind youth motivator to bring change in the business world and in the society. Strategies: The strategies could include: Creating word-of-mouth awareness of the magazine; and Catching readers from blogs and viral advertising. Marketing Mix Product: The Times Youth magazine will have sections on, business, politics, society and youth issues. Price The price would range from 20p to 25p. Distribution The limited distribution would be in colleges and Universities, and campus residents. Conclusion The Times executives are sure in the near future the newspaper will be able to achieve profitability with its top-notch marketing strategies that ensure maximum returns. As much as the marketing strategy boosts up sales, the future of the newspaper industry still poses a threat to the old lasting newspapers who have so far had their share in fame. Internet continues to threaten the way the news is being delivered, through the ever changing readers tastes and the need it brings for faster and better. More and more online publications are being developed each day as online journalism continues to exploit readers. Blogs and social networking sites are taking the lead. Future looks more reader-oriented with more and more reader participation and less and less imposition of news from reports. The internet has made readers more opinionated so the newspapers have to watch out. (Orienwell, 2009)

Friday, October 25, 2019

Prejudice in The Song of Roland Essay -- Song of Roland Essays

Prejudice in The Song of Roland Unfortunately, the role of ignorance and jealousy combining to breed fear and hatred is a recurring theme in history ultimately exhibiting itself in the form of prejudice. As demonstrated through the altering of historical events in The Song of Roland, the conflict between the Christian and Islamic religions takes precedence over the more narrow scope of any specific battle and is shaped, at least in part by the blind perception of a prejudice born of the ignorance and envy Christian Europe had for representatives of the non-Christian world. To fully see this prejudice and its effect on the participants, it is necessary to recognize the circumstances of the "real" battle along with the altering characters and settings attributed to its later writing, understand the character and beliefs of the participants, and carefully examine the text itself to see how prejudice comes into play. The historical battle described in The Song of Roland, took place on 15 August 778 and involved the ambush and slaughter of Charlemagne's rearguard by Basques (Burgess 9). Victims of treachery, those killed included Roland of Breton (Burgess 10). This battle was a part of the fighting to create the Spanish March which served as a buffer zone between Spain and the Franks of Charlemagne (Koeller). While this particular ambush was relatively insignificant, the incident was transformed into a rallying cry for the Christian armies of Europe when taken and reworked by a later poet. External evidence indicates the epic poem was written no earlier than 1060 and no later than the second half of the twelfth century with the generally accepted time begin 1098-1100 which coincides with the time of the First Crusade (Bur... ...tions for them. Just as the Christians fought the Muslims fueled by this prejudice and greed, the historical pattern has been shown to recur frequently throughout history -- whether the slave issue of the nineteenth century United States or the Nazi treatment of Jews in the twentieth century -- man takes the unknown and distorts it into hatred rather than seeking enlightenment. This is the true tragedy of The Song of Roland and man's unwillingness to learn from history. Works Cited Burgess, Glyn trans. The Song of Roland. NY: Penguin Books, 1990. Koeller, David. Lectures on Western Civilization to 1500. Phillips University. Enid, Fall 1992. Perry, Marvin, et al. Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics and Society. 4th ed. Vol. I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. Southern, R.W. The Making of the Middle Ages. London: The Cresset Library, 1967.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Social Work and Data Protection

CYP3. 3: Understand how to safeguard the well being of children and young people 1. 2 Explain child protection within the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people Child protection is much more than safeguarding or protecting children from direct abuse. The ‘Safe action plan’ is a piece of legislation that is very similar to the outcome of the 10 year strategies which we have here in Northern Ireland. It shows an understanding that children need protected in a wider view of safeguarding and has recognised a number of aspects in areas of protection . Keeping children safe. . Crime and bullying . Forced marriage Missing children . Actively promoting their welfare in a healthy and safe environment. This action plan is designed to work in a more holistic nature and be more ‘child centred’ promoting a happy safe environment for the child, supporting the child in areas of social and emotional wellbeing, healthy eating e. g. Healthy eating vouchers, n o tolerance to bullying. 1. 3 Analyse how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect ‘day to day work with children and young people. As it is the responsibility that anyone who comes into the contact of children directly or indirectly have a duty to keep children safe. And have the ability to recognise if a child is at risk of harm or abuse the local guidelines, policies and procedures have some clear guideline responsibility exist to ensure children are protected. The table below shows the English equivalent to the ‘Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety’(DHSPSS) which issues guidance for or four local health and social service boards in Northern Ireland. THE LINE OF RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE CHILDREN OR PROTECTED There is a multitude of services and people who work directly with children and are guided by regional policies such as professional nurses, doctors, social workers. Teachers, classroom assistants and education officers. Also those who offer leisure activities such as football coaches, piano teachers, drama club leaders etc. all of which will need to be familiar with their settings/ organisations policy and procedures. The policy and procedures in my setting is also based on the guidance of the DHSPSS. It is made available for all in the setting to be made aware of and to know how to follow. Each setting including my own has a flow chart of steps to follow in the case of suspected abuse. ( please see copy of flow chart attached. The guidance in my setting are clear and if I had to report an incident of suspected abuse I would know who and how to report this. By following the flow chart guidelines I would be able to do the above in a professional manor keeping the child’s best interest foremost. 1. 5 Explain how the processes used by own work setting or service comply with legislation that cover data protection, information handling and sha ring. My organisation and myself understand that data protection is a legal legislation where the information held on service users must be kept safe, must be accurate, kept up to date and used only as needed. In my work setting data protection is held very highly as the information held in the setting about service users may be of a very sensitive nature and not for public knowledge. Staff are required to complete mandatory training on confidentiality, and are aware of the consequences if they breach the policies and procedures of the organisation regarding data protection and confidentiality. As all information on a service user is covered by the data protection/ confidentiality policies there are times when this information can not be kept secret e. g. when abuse is suspected. There is procedures set up to pass this information on but keeping it to a need to know bases. E. g. designated child protection officer who will then pass it on to the appropriate organisations. Social worker, police etc. CYP3. 3 LO 1. 1-5 Department of Education- overall responsibility for safeguarding and child protection in England Issue statutory and non statutory guidance to local authorities Local authorities – use guidance to produce procedures for services and practitioners Services use basis for their own polices and procedures.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Leading and Developing a Work Team

UNIT 9 LEADING AND DEVELOPING A WORK TEAM Distinguish between management and leadership and assess the implications of each on effective team performance. Managers depend on their people. They cannot do without their wholehearted commitment and support. But gaining that support, motivating and engaging them and ensuring that they know what they are expected to do and how to do it is down to managers and it is a difficult task.This book How to Manage People of Michael Armstrong 2008 is designed to make it easier by going into the main actions that managers have to carry out to get things done through people, namely: managing effectively overall, leading, motivating, team building, delegating, interviewing, managing performance, developing and rewarding people, managing change and handling people problems. As a manager you are there to get things done through people. You are engaged in a purposeful activity involving others.But you are concerned with defining ends as well as gaining th em. You decide what to do and then ensure that it gets done with the help of the members of your team. You deal with programs, processes, events and eventualities. All this is done through the exercise of leadership. People are the most important resource available to you as a manager. It is through this resource that other resources are managed. However, you are ultimately accountable for the management of all resources, including your own.When dealing with immediate issues, anticipating problems, responding to demands or even a crisis, and developing new ways of doing things, you are personally involved. You manage yourself as well as other people. You cannot delegate everything. You frequently have to rely on your own resources to get things done. These resources include skill, know-how, competencies, time, and reserves of resilience and determination. You will get support, advice and assistance from your own staff and specialists, including human resources, but in the last analy sis you are on your own.It is important to examine particular aspects of managing people, such as leadership, organizing and motivation including teamwork. There is a need to exercise your people management responsibilities effectively. It starts with an overall look at the criteria for managerial effectiveness. This is followed by a review of the attributes of effective managers. The rest of the chapter deals with a number of the key aspects of management. As a manager and a leader you will be judged not only on the results you have achieved but the level of competence you have attained and applied in getting those results.Competence is about knowledge and skills – what people need to know and be able to do to carry out their work well. You will also be judged on how you do your work – how you behave in using your knowledge and skills. These are often described as ‘behavioral competencies’ and can be defined as those aspects of behavior that lead to effec tive performance. They refer to the personal characteristics that people bring to their work roles in such areas as leadership, team working, flexibility and communication.As a manager of people your role is to ensure that the members of your team give of their best to achieve a desired result. In other words you are a leader – you set the direction and ensure that people follow you. It is necessary to distinguish between management and leadership: Management is concerned with achieving results by obtaining, deploying, using and controlling all the resources required, namely people, money, facilities, plant and equipment, information and knowledge.Leadership focuses on the most important resource, people. It is the process of developing and communicating a vision for the future, motivating people and gaining their engagement. The distinction is important. Management is mainly about the provision, utilization and control of resources. But where people are involved it is imposs ible to deliver results without providing effective leadership.Describe the processes of team formation, and evaluate strategies for encouraging team formation and development One of your most important roles as a manager is to act as a team builder – developing and making the best use of the capacity of your team so that its members jointly deliver superior levels of performance. Team building takes place when you clarify the team’s purpose and goals, ensure that its members work well together, strengthen the team’s collective skills, enhance commitment and confidence, remove externally imposed obstacles and create opportunities for team members to develop their skills and competencies.A team is a group of people with complementary skills who work together to achieve a common purpose. Their team leader sets the direction, provides guidance and support, coordinates the team’s activities, ensures that each team member plays his or her part, promotes the le arning and development of team members, consults with the team on issues affecting its work and, in conjunction with team members, monitors and reviews team performance.However, some organizations have developed the concept of self-managing teams which are largely autonomous, responsible to a considerable degree for planning and scheduling work, problem solving, developing their own key performance indicators and setting and monitoring team performance and quality standards. The role of their team leaders is primarily to act as coordinators and facilitators; their style is expected to be more supportive and facilitative than directive.An effective team is likely to be one in which its purpose is clear and its members feel the task is important, both to them and to the organization. The structure, leadership and methods of operation are relevant to the requirements of the task. Team members will be highly engaged in the work they do together and committed to the whole group task. The y will have been grouped together in a way that means they are related to one another through the requirements of task performance and task interdependence.The team will use discretionary effort – going the extra mile – to ensure that its work gets done. The main features of well-functioning teams as described by Douglas McGregor (1960) are that the atmosphere tends to be informal, comfortable and relaxed; team members listen to each other; most decisions are reached by consensus; when action is taken, clear assignments are made and accepted, and team leaders do not dominate their teams – the issue is not who controls but how to get the work done.The performance of teams should be assessed in terms of their output and results and the quality of team processes that have contributed to those results. Output criteria include the achievement of team goals, customer satisfaction and the quantity and quality of work. Process measures comprise participation, collaborat ion and collective effort, conflict resolution, joint decision making, planning and goal setting, interpersonal relations, interdependence and adaptability and flexibility.How you and your team apply these criteria will be related to the following factors that affect team performance: the clarity of the team’s goals in terms of expectations and priorities; how work is allocated to the team; how the team is working its processes in terms of cohesion, ability to handle internal conflict and pressure, relationships with other teams; the extent to which the team is capable of managing itself – setting goals and priorities, monitoring performance; the quality of leadership – even self-managed teams need a sense of direction which they cannot necessarily generate by themselves; the level and range of skills possessed by individual team members; the extent to which team members work flexibly, taking advantage of the multi-skilling capabilities of its members; the syste ms and resources support available to the team.Good support to your team-building efforts will be provided if you conduct regular team performance review meetings to assess feedback and control information on their joint achievements against objectives and to discuss any issues concerning team work. The agenda for such meetings could be as follows: general feedback review of the progress of the team as a whole and problems encountered by the team which have caused difficulties or hampered progress, and helps and hindrances to the operation of the team. Work reviews of how well the team has functioned. The group problem solving, including an analysis of reasons for any shortfalls or other problems and agreement of what needs to be done to solve them and prevent their re-occurrence.Update objectives – review of new requirements, opportunities or threats and the amendment of objectives as required. Evaluate the stages of development of their work group as a team and select and e mploy strategies to improve and develop team working. One of your most important, if not the most important, responsibilities as a manager is to ensure that the members of your team achieve high levels of performance. You have to ensure that they understand what you expect from them, that you and they work together to review performance against those expectations and that you jointly agree what needs to be done to develop knowledge and skills and, here necessary, improve performance. Your organization may well have a performance management system which provides guidance on how this should be done but ultimately it is up to the manager. You are the person on the spot. Performance management systems only work if managers want them to work and are capable of making them work. You have to believe that your time is well spent in the process of managing performance as described in the first part of this chapter. You need to know about performance planning (agreeing what has to be done), m anaging performance throughout the year and conducting formal performance reviews as covered in the next three parts.You should have no problems in appreciating the importance of the first two activities. It is the third activity – performance reviews – managers often find hard to accept as necessary and even more difficult to do well. The process of managing performance is based on two simple propositions. First, people are most likely to perform well when they know and understand what is expected of them and have taken part in defining these expectations. In other words, if you know where you are going you are more likely to get there. Second, the ability to meet these expectations depends on the levels of knowledge, skill, competency and motivation of individuals and the leadership and support they receive from their managers.As a manager or team leader you need skilled, knowledgeable and competent people in your department or team. You may appoint able people from within and outside the organization but most of them will still have a lot to learn about their jobs. And to improve your team members’ performance you must not only ensure that they learn the basic skills they need but also that they develop those skills to enable them to perform even better when faced with new demands and challenges. Most learning happens at the place of work, although it can be supplemented by such activities as e-learning (the delivery of learning opportunities and support via computer, networked and web-based technology) and formal ‘off-the-job’ training courses.It is your job to ensure that favorable conditions for learning ‘on the job’ exist generally in your area as well as taking steps to help individuals develop. To do this job well you need to know about: the conditions that enable effective learning to take place; the importance of ‘self-managed learning’, i. e. individuals taking control of their own learnin g; the contribution of formal learning; the advantages and disadvantages of informal learning and development approaches; how you can contribute to promoting learning and development in your department or team; the use of such learning and development aids as coaching, mentoring, learning contracts and personal development plans; how to instruct people in specific tasks should the need arise. Set standards and targets and review performance.Managing performance is about getting people into action so that they achieve planned and agreed results. It focuses on what has to be done, how it should be done and what is to be achieved. But it is equally concerned with developing people – helping them to learn – and providing them with the support they need to do well, now and in the future. The framework for performance management is provided by the performance agreement, which is the outcome of performance planning. The agreement provides the basis for managing performance th roughout the year and for guiding improvement and development activities. It is used as a reference point when reviewing performance and the achievement of improvement and development plans.You should treat your responsibility for managing performance as an integral part of the continuing process of management. This is based on a philosophy which emphasizes: the achievement of sustained improvements in performance; the continuous development of skills and capabilities; that the organization is a ‘learning organization’ in the sense that it is constantly developing and applying the learning gained from experience and the analysis of the factors that have produced high levels of performance. You should therefore be ready, willing and able to monitor performance and define and meet development and improvement needs as they arise. As far as practicable, learning and work should be integrated.This means that encouragement should be given to your team members to learn from th e successes, challenges and problems inherent in their day-to-day work. You should carry out the process of monitoring performance by reference to agreed objectives and to work, development and improvement plans. You have to decide how tightly you monitor on the basis of your understanding of the capacity of individuals to do the work. Identify own leadership style and skills, and assess own effectiveness in leading and developing the team and its performance. Self-managed learning style involves encouraging individuals to take responsibility for their own learning needs.The aim is to encourage ‘discretionary learning’, which happens when individuals actively seek to acquire the knowledge and skills required to perform well. It is based on processes of recording achievement and action planning, which involves individuals reviewing what they have learned, what they have achieved, what their goals are, how they are going to achieve those goals and what new learning they n eed to acquire. The learning program can be ‘self-paced’ in the sense that learners can decide for themselves, up to a point, the rate at which they work and are encouraged to measure their own progress and adjust the program accordingly. Self-directed learning is based on the principle that people learn and retain more if they find things out for themselves.But they still need to be given guidance on what to look for and help in finding it. Learners have to be encouraged to define, with whatever help they may require, what they need to know to perform their job effectively. They need to be provided with guidance on where they can get the material or information that will help them to learn and how to make good use of it. Personal development plans as described later in this chapter can provide a framework for this process. People also need support from their manager and the organization, with the provision of coaching, mentoring and learning facilities, including e-lea rning. The leadership style I would apply is the combination of a Transformational and Transactional Leader.As a leader I can be both arouse emotions of my followers which motivates them to act beyond the framework of what may be described as exchange relations at the same time be aware of the link between the effort and reward. I can be proactive and form new expectation and be responsive from the basic orientation in dealing with present issues. Transformational leaders are distinguished by their capacity to inspire and provide individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation and idealized influence to their followers while transactional leaders rely on standard forms of inducement, reward, punishment and sanction to control followers. Leaders create learning opportunities for their followers and stimulate followers to solve problems at the same time they can motivate followers by setting goals and promising rewards for desired performance.A trait that a leader should posses s good visioning, rhetorical and management skills, to develop strong emotional bonds with followers and depends on the leader’s power to reinforce subordinates for their successful completion of the bargain. Lastly, leaders motivate followers to work for goals that go beyond self-interest.REFERENCES: http://www. ehow. com/how_5485211_evaluate-team- performance. html#ixzz1sqUbPZyH accessed on July 18, 2012 How to Manage People. Michael Armstrong 2008 accessed on July 24, 2012 How to Evaluate Team Performance | eHow. com accessed on August 3, 2012 http://www. ehow. com/how_5485211_evaluate-team-performance. html#ixzz1sqUbPZyH accessed on August 10, 2012