The Family Process Is Very Different For Each Unique...

The family process is very different for each unique family. There are a number of specific things that go into creating a family, such as, family paradigms, family rules, family finances, and gender. Some families excel in a few areas, while others struggle with almost all of them. It’s impossible to be perfect, especially in a family setting, but it’s important to look at the strengths and weaknesses in each area to decode how the family best works together and what they can improve on. Developing a strong family process is something that takes course over lifetimes, but conducting a thorough analysis is the first step in working towards improvement! Our family, the Kinworthy’s, is made up of five people: mom, dad, and their three girls, Taylor, Megan, and Hannah. Two of the girls are moved out of the family home and the last is approaching her senior year in high school, so it’s been interesting to look at how our family processes have developed over the years. Dad works four jobs (one full-time, three part-time) and mom works two part-time jobs. We grew up LDS, attending church with mom every week. Dad was never religious and usually did yardwork on Sundays. All of us girls grew up in the dance studio and on a stage, always encouraged to be creative and to develop our talents. Each family is unique, but fully analyzing my own family of origin will hopefully help me with my future family in developing the same strengths, while recognizing and avoiding theShow MoreRelatedAmerican Families At The University Of Mount Union1678 Words   |  7 PagesPrior to enrolling in American Families at The University of Mou nt Union, I had a predisposition to what I perceived a perfect family looked like. I envisioned a nuclear family with parents who are madly in love and children who thrive from tremendous emotional support. After weeks of studying the topic of American families more in depth in and outside of the classroom, my perception has changed. I have learned the important concept that every family is a unique, diverse unit. The service-learningRead MoreCultural Aspects Of Care During The Grief And Bereavement1055 Words   |  5 Pagespatient and family. Respecting cultural practices is key in providing care during this difficult time (Kazanowski, 2013). Cultural diversity refers to the differences between people based on a shared ideology and valued set of beliefs, norms, and customs (American Nurses Association). For example, it is important for the medical professional to realize that in Asian cultures, telling a patient directly that they have cancer is thought of as very cruel. In Hispa nic and Chinese cultures, family membersRead MoreConcept of Entrepreneurship1455 Words   |  6 PagesQ1. Discuss and define the concept of ‘entrepreneurship’. The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. Were born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies. Michael Gerber The term entrepreneur has been around since the seventeenth-century, it originates from France, where the phrase â€Å"entreprendre† wasRead MoreReading And Writing About Family Guy : The Semiotics Of Stream Of Consciousness1619 Words   |  7 Pagesand Writing about Family Guy: The Semiotics of Stream of Consciousness† Lee Transue explains how Seth MacFarlane integrates his own unique version of stream of consciousness in the animated sitcom Family Guy to entertain its viewers. The reason Transue wrote this essay is he was invited by Dr. Johnathan Silverman to write a piece for the book, The World is a Text. He chose to write about Family Guy because of its popularity and he is a fan of the show. To begin the writing process, Transue sat downRead MoreEssay On Health Resource Analysis Worksheet1622 Words   |  7 PagesDescription Each person has the right to a meaningful life and the potential to make it happen. Spokane Guilds’ School Neuromuscular Center acknowledges this right. They also understand that exercising this right and tapping into this potential is harder for some members of the population than others. Spokane Guilds’ School Neuromuscular Center is a group designed to serve babies and toddlers from birth to age three with developmental disabilities or delays and provide aid to their families. TheirRead MoreCollin Labranche. May 9Th, 2017. Barosky. English 102.1227 Words   |  5 PagesHarrison’s essay describes the way our society perceives home much differently than the way Houyhnhnms do. In modern day, and more specifically in the 18th century the family system that we associate with views home as a place for love, family, and support. In comparison to the Houyhnhnms, they use the home as more a community area to gather. Each article by Harrison, Nichols, and Guenther a ll gravitate to look at Jonathan Swift’s perception of home and society in a literal sense but I would disagree. I believeRead MoreHeritage Assessment963 Words   |  4 Pagesrestoration of each individual’s cultural beliefs. The heritage assessment tool is often used by healthcare providers to help determine different cultural beliefs that may or may not impact an individuals care. The heritage assessment tool has been used to compare three different cultured families, health traditions, addressing health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. During the interview process with the three different cultured families, the heritage assessment tool was very helpfulRead MoreChinese Culture1223 Words   |  5 PagesSocialization ------ American Born Chinese Children under Chinese Culture According to the American Heritage Dictionary, socialization is the process of learning interpersonal and interactional skills that are in conformity with the values of one s society (American Heritage). It is a process of learning culture. During socialization, children will acquire attitudes, norms, values, behaviors, personalities, etc. within agencies of socialization, which were described as Agencies of socializationRead MoreMy Philosophy Of Nursing Philosophy1481 Words   |  6 Pageshealthcare professionals, while working in different setting as a nursing in the health care. This also addresses nurse s ethics, goal and values as it relates to my nursing practice. My Nursing Philosophy is based on five components: nursing, Person, environment, holistic care and health. Person: One of the central concept in nursing care is person or human being (McEwen and Wills 2007). My nursing philosophy focused on treating each person as a unique individual that deserves to be valued andRead More Chinese Culture Essay1208 Words   |  5 Pages Socialization ------ American Born Chinese Children under Chinese Culture According to the American Heritage Dictionary, socialization is â€Å"the process of learning interpersonal and interactional skills that are in conformity with the values of ones society† (American Heritage). It is a process of learning culture. During socialization, children will acquire attitudes, norms, values, behaviors, personalities, etc. within agencies of socialization, which were described as â€Å"Agencies of socialization

Barbie Doll s Influence On Society - 1315 Words

â€Å"My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices,† Ruth says. (Inc, n.d) Ruth and Elliot Handler are the founders of Mattel creation and in 1959 the world was given the â€Å"Barbie† doll. (Inc, n.d.) The Barbie doll was introduced to a small toy fair costing $3. The Barbie doll was the first doll to be sold that doesn’t look, â€Å"like a baby† but more like a woman. The Barbie doll is an iconic doll available for anyone, anywhere. After further research, the Barbie doll has influenced body image and society that there is a â€Å"right way to look† to fit in consists of blonde hair, blue eyes, 5’8 or taller, long legs, small waist, big boobs and butt. This encourages women to think what they have is not good enough and they need to change it to look the best or the â€Å"norm.† The influences the Barbie doll h as had on body image are the â€Å"unrealistic Barbie,† and increasing eating disorder percentages. For every girl in the world there are most likely 3 Barbie dolls in their house hold. Barbie dolls are accessible at almost any store: grocery store, dollar general, Wal-Mart, and a Toy Shop. From the start at age 3 and older young girls are encouraged to play with dolls. They are encouraged to play with dolls are take the â€Å"mother† figure and act as if it is their own child. Barbie however shows a different approach where because it is a woman rather than a baby it allowsShow MoreRelatedThe Positive And Negative Effects Of Barbie Dolls964 Words   |  4 PagesNegative Effects of Barbie Dolls in Society All around our world we are constantly being told what we should act and be like for females and males. Barbie was born on March 9, 159 in the American International Toy Fair in New York. The Barbie doll has been influencing young girls ever since she was born. The Barbie doll have a huge influence on the way that girls perceive their role in society and also on the way they develop. Barbie dolls in some way reflect and influence our society values. EspeciallyRead MoreInfluence Of The Body Features Of Barbie On The Ideal Feminine Body1275 Words   |  6 PagesThe Influence of The Body Features of Barbie on The Ideal Feminine Body I. Introduction: Manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Barbie has become the most famous and popular doll in the world. She has conquered more than 150 countries and over one billion Barbie dolls have been sold around the world since they were launched. Barbie is a young beautiful blonde who is rich and highly-skilled. Mattel claims that she can do more than 150 jobs and buy anything she wants, includingRead MoreThe New Body Types Are Petite, Tall And Curvy763 Words   |  4 PagesAfter 57 years since its creation, Barbie has finally obtained a new body. The three new body types are petite, tall and curvy. On January 28th, Mattel released these new dolls for sale on their website. Eliana Dockterman goes inside the company’s story to discuss the risks they re taking and what their decision says about American beauty standards. For generations, Barbie has been the global symbol of American beauty. The doll has been associated with the belief that it was designed â€Å"to teach wom enRead MoreFrom Little Girl to Sex Goddess: the Negative Influence of Bratz Dolls1346 Words   |  6 Pagestoday look to society for influences in how they should look and act. Children are influenced daily by television, Internet and video games, friends, and even the toys they play with. Boys grow up wanting to be like the superheroes and G.I. Joe figures they play with; girls look to their Barbies and dolls to see how society mandates teens and young adults to be. Bratz dolls are also among those Barbie-type toys that girls are looking up to these days. Bratz dolls are similar to Barbie in form; howeverRead MoreBarbie Role Model Essay1683 Words   |  7 PagesBarbie is more than just a doll for young girls, it became a role model for them. Barbie was a friend, a fashion archetype, and a stylist who transformed young girl lives. Many young girls were impacted with Barbie’s in a materialistic way. For instance, Barbie’s clothing style and accessories became an obses sion for young girls to be just like them. Young girls wouldn’t even play with other toys and only focused on their beautiful Barbie, who became their best friend. It was like these young girlsRead MoreBarbie the Teenage Fashion Doll Essay examples1212 Words   |  5 PagesThe idea of Barbie came about when a woman named Ruth Handler was watching her daughter play with dolls. In the 1950’s, girls of all ages only had paper or cardboard dolls to play with and preferred to play with cut outs of teenagers and adult dolls. So, Ruth Handler thought to make The Teenage Fashion Doll for older girls, as a three dimensional doll, called Barbie, named after her daughter Barbara (Heppermann 2010). However, Mrs. Handler met resistance when she went to her husband with the ideaRead MorePlastic Makes Perfect?814 Words   |  3 Pagesblonde Barbies? Barbie Dolls threaten young girls’ mental, emotional, and social health in major ways. There should be warning labels on Bar bie Dolls because they set ridiculous standards, reinforce the ideas of racism, and destroy the self-esteem of girls everywhere. Girls are worrying about their appearances earlier in life than ever before. They strive for perfection, which no one can attain, well, except for Barbie. Have you ever seen a woman who has the same body as Barbie? Probably not, consideringRead MoreEssay on The Face of Eating Disorders1599 Words   |  7 Pagesepidemic, the slender image depicted on the brochure: Mattel’s Barbie. â€Å"Inspired by her daughter’s fascination with cutout paper dolls, Ruther Handler suggests making a three-dimensional doll through which little girls could play out their dreams†¦ Barbie soon leads Mattel to the forefront of the toy industry and fascinates generations of young girls† (â€Å"Barbie Doll Makes Her Debut† 1). Barbie Millicent Roberts, more commonly known as Barbie, began her magnificent journey into 125 different careers,Read More Barbie Essays1716 Words   |  7 PagesBarbie Since the beginning of time, toys have often been an indicator of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their children. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts recovered there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a sick child on a hillside for dead, seems to indicate a lack of attention to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of today’s society. As you can see with the number of toy storesRead MoreMarketing Barbie954 Words   |  4 Pages Marketing Barbie In order to put your product into to the market you have to develop a marketing strategy. A Market strategy is selecting a target market and maintaining a market mix that consists of product, price, promotion, and distribution. By doing this a company such as Mattel ensures that it is giving consumers what they want and they are creating a strategy for their product. One of Mattel s biggest products is Barbie. Barbie was introduced by Mattel in 1959 and

Business Models Matter Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Why Business Models Matter? Answer: The business model concept has often been perplexed and misinterpreted leading to the numerous failures along with disbeliefs that it can work in most of the cases (Wirtz et al. 2016). It is often been seen as a preparation for each business in starting to produce massive profits and develop its positions within the market, even though it is stated to be crucial in knowing the ways in choosing and applying the same in every unique case. Therefore, the key aim of this paper is in evaluating the article by Joan Magretta Why Business Models Matter providing a deep insight on the models of the business and the ways they are being applied for improving the performance of business. The author has stated the dissimilarity between models of the business along with the strategy. The former one would be explaining the identity of the customers and the ways of making money through providing proper importance to the customers. A business model of sound nature has the ability in complementing a strategy in enabling the organization in thinking scrupulously about the factors of business aligning of the employees behind the mission of the company and beating of the toughest of rivals. A good model of business generally begins with an in-depth insight into the motivation of the humans that generally ends within rich stream of profit factor. The model of business generally tells the story in logical manner describing the customers, their real value. The article of Joan Magretta is of few years back, after which there has been lot of other researches along with new discoveries. Magretta has compared the models of business to a story that describes the way a company works. All the good stories, of itinerary, are the key characters, plots and motives taking into account the customers and the partners, the value assurance to the customer and the ways the value of the customers is being generated. According to Magretta, one of the most significant models of business ever has been a traveler. It has also been a good instance of an innovation in business model, where the main protagonists have been a traveler. The excellent model has been, in accumulation to the authentic value of customer, it has been lucrative. As a traveler, good model of business are in the habit of creating fresh demands and not just transferring the flows of cash between the players of existing nature or dividing the market in new way. On the other hand, Magretta is of the opinion that the overall business models are eventually only the value chain disparity. In the new model of business, the chain of value is thus only faintly dissimilar in terms of the ways value is being generated and the ways it would be delivered to the customers. Innovation within the models of business does not always require a product or service that is new, but has the ability in relating to a fresh way of administering a process for action. Although models of business does not frequently be the actual system of activity, however, every models of business boasts of a clear, methodical nature where it takes in the elements of the model and the relationship existing between them (Baden-Fuller and Mangematin 2013). The model of business should never be confused with the strategy, but at times can be complementary. This is for the fact that the model of business does not take in any sort of positioning the factor of competition, but this is completely a strategy to be dealt with. The model of business also does not cover up the areas like the strategic choices and options. The author squabbles to the key idea of the model of business in creating a story that would be determining its activity for the future. A business model of successful nature needs to be clarified on who the customers are and what are the key values of the customers. However, as per Bereznoi (2015), the key considerations that any model of business has is to realize the ways of money making in the selected field of business along with finding out in meeting the demand of the customers both by the products facet and the cost related to it. Implementing a new model of business is being aimed towards surrogating the existing practice with the fresh options that makes it more opportune along with valuable at the same time for the customers. A business model of progressive nature has the ability in completely reinstating the older ways of operating and establishing of the new standards within the industry (Arend 2013). It is usually being based on the old practices, however, the idea needs it to perfect the same and suggest on the fresh advancements of tackling the distinctive situations. In some of the cases, a new model generally finds a solution to the needs of the consumers that are still to be met or an innovation can be recommended within the process itself enabling the organizations in selling off an extant product in a fresh way (Boons et al. 2013). Business people search for different ways in creating the additional value to the customers along with their business through the pertaining of the new models of busine ss. The companys interest in producing and improving on the models of business is been explained by the capability of predicting the businesss deeds, environment along with the customers (Boonsand Ldeke-Freund (2013). The modeling of the business can organize the managers to the response from the external factors determining the companys enormous success. Calculations of precise nature along with the predictions needs to be made in order for assuring the effectiveness of the business model created. Profit is stated to be one of the significant measures of the effectiveness of the model of business as it has been demonstrating is the model toils with the same. If the outcomes that were being anticipated on the stage of the improving on the model are not being attained, the managers or the owners of the business needs to be prepared in reassessing of the model, implementing some of the changes in making the same work. Thus, as per Ovans (2015,) the modeling of business is stated to be a development that consists in suggesting of the hypothesis, testing of the same, and revising if there is a need for it. An important role for the centre of the company is in being the architect of the business, creating and developing the moving parts. As per Wirtz et al. (2016), putting it another way, it is in the setting of the ecosystem in which the business elements would be acting and performing. People call it the model of business. The models of the business help in reconciling certain internal tensions of competing of the factor of synergy, effectiveness and reduction of cost. However within that internal drive sometimes the journey of the customer can get lost, the service becomes disjointed and the integrity of the model of the business starts falling down. Businesses require ample glue in holding them together but not to that extent where they cannot move. It requires testing of the maximum amount of dissension that can be managed and still holding together rather than making the individuals stable. Testing a model of business is one of the critical steps that is being used in assuring the effectiveness. Thus, it can be stated that there exists two methods for testing a model; the n umbers test and the narrative test. The number test is being based on the checking if the calculations and the numbers strive while the main focus of narrative test is in identifying the story, which was being based on the model of the business, making much sense. Magretta explains the fact that the modeling of business should not only deem the estimation in logical manner, but also take into consideration certain other elements like the behavior of the customers, their preferences, alternative and the loyalty of the brand (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). A great assistance of the modeling of the business is the capability in estimating the situation overall and making a prediction for the future through evaluating of each single component within the system. The author offers an example of the successful planning of the business by the founders of eBay. The businesses that maxim the probability of selling online have greatly been promoted and augmented their profits through participation at the eBay (Zott and Amit 2013). It was always an idea of innovative nature during that point of time that thrived for couple of reasons. A cost of decreased nature associating the sellers along with the buyers, high activity scale and an appropriate construction of organization were the key factors contributing to the success factor of the ground-breaking model of business (Kindstrm and Kowalkowski 2014). A model of business along with the strategy are sometimes been used as interchangeable idioms, and they should never be confused. Both of them need to be used within the organizational environment, though they symbolize various stages of the planning of the business. Hence, modeling of the business is being associated in evaluating the systems elements and making certain that everything would be working in effective manner. However, the next step or stage within the planning of the business needs monitoring and tackling the rivals which is one of the main aims of the strategy (Coombes and Nicholson 2013). Thus, the key difference between a model of the business and that of strategy is generally being described by the issues they contract with the participation level. The model of business generally differs from strategy; models of business are being described as a system, how the system pieces would be fitting in together; however they would not be any factor in competition. Dealing with all these is the strategys job (Carayannis, Sindakis and Walter 2015). The strategy of competitive nature takes into account the ways a particular organization would be doing better than their counterparts. Furthermore, if the company does not boast of any sort of good corporate strategy, the company is bound to fail even though the model of the business is stated to be booming. A strategy that is being applied by the organization generally focuses on the finding of ways for the organization in performing in better way than their competitors. Differentiating of a company from its competitors and providing of unique products or services is stated to be the paramount strategy in attaining of the performance of outstanding nature. Using of this method takes in producing of fresh ideas that is mainly been based on the needs of the customers that were not obvious on prior occasions. Furthermore, it needs to be introduced within the market before any of the other company does the same thing. An example of Wal-Mart can clarify the dissimilarity between the strategy and a model of a business. The author explains the fact that the success of it was not for the implementation of the model of business. As a matter of fact, the Wal-Marts founder rented the key concept from some of the existing discounting stores that previously exerted in the way of providing low amount of prices through offering of the less personal service. However, the scheme was being personalized and modified slightly by the owner of Wal-Mart through applying of the unique strategies of business (Casadesus?Masanell and Zhu 2013). Thus the Wal-Marts success is generally based on the strategy of its business and not the model which was similar to the one that was been applied by the other stores. Wal-Marts strategys uniqueness was being represented through the ideas of the owner in operating within various market scenarios, serving a varied range of customers. The owner decided on focusing on the small towns of rural nature that were previously been ignored by the other retailers. Moreover, the towns size that was being chosen by Wal-Mart facilitated it in becoming a monopolist scattering its chain across the country (Beattie and Smith 2013). Thus the submission of the strategy of distinctive nature within a business model of existing nature has been the key to the success of Wal-Mart. Furthermore, as per Bocken et al. (2014), Wal-Marts strategy had some of the other exceptional aspects like the factor of merchandizing and pricing. Wal-Mart did reduce its costs through the implementation of the factor of innovation for keeping the promise of transporting the national brands at low amount of prices for the customers. Such an approach has helped the retail chain in standing out of the other retailers who were focusing at the promotion over conventional pricing and selling off of quality items. Thus, it can be concluded that the model of business is one of the powerful tools that boasts of an outstanding practical value for the organizations. Having knowledge of the mechanisms in creating and relating of the model of business determines the success of the venture in future. Implementing a model of business is one of the dynamic procedures that need regular investigation of its effectiveness and being prepared in reassessing and adjusting it as per the markets reaction (Veit et al. 2014). Adding to that is the fact that the author explains on the ways the business model is dissimilar from a strategy and that these conditions should never be confused. However, the modeling of business needs to be supported by a thriving strategy that would recognize the important directions in following the order in attaining the results expected for assuring the high performance of an organization. References: Arend, R.J., 2013. The business model: Present and futurebeyond a skeumorph.Strategic Organization,11(4), pp.390-402. Baden-Fuller, C. and Mangematin, V., 2013. Business models: A challenging agenda.Strategic Organization,11(4), pp.418-427. Beattie, V. and Smith, S.J., 2013. Value creation and business models: refocusing the intellectual capital debate.The British Accounting Review,45(4), pp.243-254. Bereznoi, A., 2015. Business model innovation in corporate competitive strategy.Problems of economic transition,57(8), pp.14-33. Bocken, N.M.P., Short, S.W., Rana, P. and Evans, S., 2014. A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes.Journal of cleaner production,65, pp.42-56. Boons, F. and Ldeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda.Journal of Cleaner Production,45, pp.9-19. Boons, F., Montalvo, C., Quist, J. and Wagner, M., 2013. Sustainable innovation, business models and economic performance: an overview.Journal of Cleaner Production,45, pp.1-8. Carayannis, E.G., Sindakis, S. and Walter, C., 2015. Business model innovation as lever of organizational sustainability.The Journal of Technology Transfer,40(1), pp.85-104. Casadesus?Masanell, R. and Zhu, F., 2013. Business model innovation and competitive imitation: The case of sponsor?based business models.Strategic management journal,34(4), pp.464-482. Coombes, P.H. and Nicholson, J.D., 2013. Business models and their relationship with marketing: A systematic literature review.Industrial Marketing Management,42(5), pp.656-664. Kindstrm, D. and Kowalkowski, C., 2014. Service innovation in product-centric firms: A multidimensional business model perspective.Journal of Business Industrial Marketing,29(2), pp.96-111. Ovans, A., 2015. What is a business model.Retrieved July,5, p.2016. Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016.Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley Sons. Veit, D., Clemons, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Kundisch, D., Leimeister, J.M., Loos, P. and Spann, M., 2014. Business models.Business Information Systems Engineering,6(1), pp.45-53. Wirtz, B.W., Pistoia, A., Ullrich, S. and Gttel, V., 2016. Business models: Origin, development and future research perspectives.Long Range Planning,49(1), pp.36-54. Zott, C. and Amit, R., 2013. The business model: A theoretically anchored robust construct for strategic analysis.Strategic Organization,11(4), pp.403-411.

Related Diversification Is a More Successful Strategy free essay sample

(exploitation of know-how, more efficient use of available resources and capacities). In addition, companies may also explore diversification Just to get a valuable comparison between this strategy and expansion. Types of diversifications Moving away from the core competency is termed as diversification. Diversification involves directions of development which take the organisation away from its present markets and its present products at the same time. Diversification is of two types: (i) Related diversification: Related diversification is development beyond the present roduct and market, but still within the broad confines of the industry (i. e. value chain) in which a company operates. For example, an automobile manufacturer may engage in production of passenger vehicles and light trucks. (ii)Unrelated diversification: Unrelated diversification is where the organisation moves beyond the confines of its current industry. For example ,a food processing firm manufacturing leather footwear as well. The different types of diversification strategies The strategies of diversification can include internal development of new products or arkets, acquisition of a firm, alliance with a complementary company, licensing of new technologies, and distributing or importing a products line manufactured by another firm. We will write a custom essay sample on Related Diversification Is a More Successful Strategy or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Generally, the final strategy involves a combination of these options. This combination is determined in function of available opportunities and consistency with the objectives and the resources of the company. There are three types of diversification: concentric, horizontal and conglomerate: (1) Concentric diversification The company adds new products or services which have technological or commercial ynergies with current products and which will appeal to new customer groups. The objective is therefore to benefit from synergy effects due to the complementarities of activities, and thus to expand the firms market by attracting new groups of buyers. Concentric diversification does not lead the company into a completely new world as it operates in familiar territory in one of the two major fields (technology or marketing). Therefore that kind of diversification makes the task easier, although not necessarily successful. (2)Horizontal diversification The company adds new products or services that are technologically or commercially nrelated to current products, but which may appeal to current customers. In a competitive environment, this form of diversification is desirable if the present customers are loyal to the current products and if the new products have a good quality and are well promoted and priced. Moreover, the new products are marketed to the same economic environment as the existing products, which may lead to rigidity and instability. In other words, this strategy tends to increase the firms dependence on certain market segments. (3) Conglomerate diversification (or lateral diversification) The company markets new roducts or services that have no technological or commercial synergies with current products, but which may appeal to new groups of customers. The conglomerate diversification has very little relationship with the firms current business. Therefore, the main reasons of adopting such a strategy are first to improve the profitability and the flexibility of the company, and second to get a better reception in capital markets as the company gets bigger. Even if this strategy is very risky, it could also, if successful, provide increased growth and profitability. Risks in diversification Diversification is the riskiest of the four strategies presented in the Ansoff matrix and requires the most careful investigation. Going into an unknown market with an unfamiliar product offering means a lack of experience in the new skills and techniques required.

Pulp Fiction Essays (1912 words) - English-language Films

Pulp Fiction Introducing a film such as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction takes much patience and significant artistry with words. Tarantino's work is an audacious, outrageous look at honor among lowlifes, told in a somewhat radical style overlapping a handful of separate stories. "Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn't care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking" (R.Ebert). Introducing a film such as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction takes much patience and significant artistry with words. Tarantino's work is an audacious, outrageous look at honor among lowlifes, told in a somewhat radical style overlapping a handful of separate stories. "Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn't care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking" (R.Ebert). The title is perfect. Like those old pulp magazines named "Thrilling Wonder Stories" and "Official Detective", the film creates a world where there are no normal people and no ordinary days; where breathless prose clatters down fire escapes and leaps into the dumpster. Or at least there are no ordinary days for those who don't consider tactless and accidental murder to be part of their everyday agenda and occupation. The characters in this film separate societal normality from personal normality. For example, Jackson and Travolta are magnetic as a pair of hit-men who have philosophical debates on a regular basis. These characters continue to think that they're "just doing their job" and that there jobs are for the same purpose as any body else's job - to get paid and then to, in return, pay the bills. Societal norms push the audience to believe that these characters along with Ving Rhames, (Marsellus Wallace), are misfits and should be "taken care of". Tarantino starts us off with a dual definition of "pulp" one being "a soft, moist, shapeless, mass of matter" and two being "a book containing lurid subject matter, and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper". This introduces the audience to the presentation of the film. It's segmented structure is Tarantino's way of playing with the audience's perceptions. The entertainment throughout Pulp Fiction is scintillating, it captures the audience and forces them to piece the segments together in order to form one complete story. Hence the title containing the word "pulp" and the product being "rough" and somewhat "unfinished" to the viewer. This voluble, violent, pumped-up movie isn't for every taste, not for the squeamish, but it's got more vitality than almost any other film of 1994. The screenplay by Tarantino and Avary is so well written in a psoriatic yet potent way that you'll want to rub noses in it - the noses of all those zombie writers who take "screenwriting classes that teach them the formulas for writing "hit films". Pulp Fiction is constructed in such a nonlinear way that you could see it a dozen times and not be able to remember what comes next. It doubles back on itself telling several interlocking stories about characters who inhabit a world of crime and intrigue, triple-crosses and desperation. Vincent Vega (Travolta) and partner Jules Winnfield (Jackson) are a couple of mid-level hit-men who carry out assignments for a mob boss. We see them first on their way to a violent showdown discussing such mysteries as why in Paris they have a French word for Quarter Pounders. They're as innocent in their way as Huck and Jim, floating down the Mississippi and speculating on how foreigners can possibly understand each other. Vince's and Jule's careers are a series of assignments that they can't quite handle. Especially Travolta's character, not only does he kill people inadvertently ("The car hit a bump") but he doesn't know how to clean up after himself. Good thing the two of them know people like Mr. Wolf (Harvey Keitel) who specializes in messes; and has friends like Lance (Eric Stoltz) who owns a "big medical encyclopedia" for emergency situations. Uma Thurman can tell you about those medical procedures. Bruce Willis is compelling as a crooked boxer whose plan to take it on the lam hits a few detours. Butch Coolidge (Willis) is supposed to throw a fight but bails and looses Marsellus (Rhames) a lot of loot. Butch and his girly are to ditch town ASAP but first he needs to make a dangerous trip back to his apartment for a valuable family heirloom. The history of this heirloom is described through a flashback dream narrated by Christopher Walken, a Vietnam veteran. Walken's dialogue build to the movie's biggest laugh. The

RU486 essays

RU486 essays The article I chose is about the anti-progesterone RU-486 (mifepristone). I chose this article for a few reasons. I was interested in the article's content, and although the article appeared to be straight forward there were many hidden messages. Before this article I knew nothing about RU-486. I would have read this article and probably passed right over the messages that makes the article negative about this drug for moral reasons instead of scientific ones. The article appears to be a straight forward article explaining what Ru-486 is, what it does, and that it is very bad. Once I did some research myself I began to see that this article is bias and that it is packed with hidden messages I would normally take for truth. This paper was written by a pro-lifer directed towards people, probably women looking for information on the new drug. I believe that it is written by a pro-lifer because there are all kinds of hidden clues. For instance, the article begins with explaining what RU-486 stand for. The author explains that the pill is named after the manufacturer who is owned by a corporation that spun off from the I.G. chemical firm. The firm that supplied Hitler with the Zyklon B gas used to kill Jews and Christians in the Third Reich death camps. Also, the author once refers to a fetus as "little one, baby." Referring to a fetus as a "little one" means that he assumes there is more to the fetus than biological life and than is not going to present this information objectively. When the author gives the citations they are from the American Life League and a book called "Misconceptions, myths, and morals." The information presented in this article is all negative. The author begins the article explaining how RU-486 is somehow correlated with killing Jews and Christians. The author asks if RU-486 is safe. This question is answered ...

Process Analysis Essay on the Language of Mordovia

Process Analysis on the Language of Mordovia - Essay Example This paper was also able to explain important aspects and developments which now seem to impact on the preservation and use of the Mordovian language. These details formulate part of this paper’s critical analysis. Such details provide links between societal changes and their impact on the language. The explanation of the writer is orderly and detailed. The essay was able to present a structured paper as it discusses the Mordovian language based on the contribution of their society and the Russian historical developments. The paper is highly substantive. In evaluating the content and substance of this paper, it has been noted that the author has concentrated his analysis on a historical context. Although this analysis process is helpful in evaluating the development of the language, it does not provide details in relation to development milestones which would also have impacted on the growth or the decline of the language. The content of the paper is also lacking in more speci fic details in terms of the Russian influence and in terms of the people’s acceptance of their language and changes in such language. The materials, as well as the discussions of the references chosen to support this study, are very much relevant and appropriate for this paper. They help provide support for the contents and for the substance of this topic, as well as provide clarity for some vague aspects of the subject matter. In effect, the topic for this essay is very much relevant because there are various changes being seen in the development of this language – changes which are contributing to the decline of this language’s usage in Mordovian society. The essay is highly informative in terms of presenting important aspects of the Mordovian language, its people, and its history. The discussion is not based on a unidimensional discussion, it is based on a dynamic and diverse perspective on the Mordovian language. The essay even made a clear pitch towards its discussion on the future of the language and its current prospects based on the contemporary global situation. The author tried to ensure that the paper was plagiarism free, however, there are gaps in the paper which seem to indicate that the statement being made are of the author’s own words, when in fact they come from a resource material. The paper needs to be improved in terms of summarization and paraphrasing in order to avoid plagiarism and to ensure that the author’s own words are not used as personal words for this paper. It would have been more appropriate for the student to use more words like â€Å"according to,† â€Å"in the book by,† â€Å"based on,† and similar words which indicate that the statement is not of the student’s own opinion or analysis. This essay is based on the APA format and the student made use of proper APA formatting. The reference page however is not properly formatted. The APA format is not supposed to be n umbered and the references must be placed on a hanging indent. The indents for each paragraph are also not based on the APA format. The flow of ideas from one paragraph to the other is mostly logical. For the most part, the links for the different paragraphs are based on the logical movement of ideas. However, there are some gaps in the flow with some of the paragraphs failing to provide links to the next paragraph.

Operations manager & project management tools Essay

Operations manager & project management tools - Essay Example The methodology of a project enables a project manager to finish the project as early as possible, whether the manager is a novice or an expert (MPMM). A project manager makes use of a methodology in order to keep the projects going as per the schedule and conforming to the standards of quality required by the client. Methodology also helps a project manager structure the project in a way that it becomes more manageable. Methodology applied on a particular project can be used for many projects of similar nature, thus becoming a process as more and more projects are executed. Methodologies involved in a project include but are not limited to conduction of feasibility studies, cost-benefit analysis, designing, risk assessment, cost assessment, obtainment of insurance coverage, selection of staff, space management, organization, project execution, leading and controlling. All of these are a necessary part of the management of any project. There is also a whole range of project management tools including basic project management applications, wiki-based project management, ticket and bug tracking, conferencing and collaboration, invoic ing and time tracking (Chapman). Likewise, an operations manager needs to use all these methodologies to conduct the operation. In fact, execution of a project of any nature is an operation in itself. Thus, a project manager and operations manager can be used interchangeably. A task does not necessarily have to be called a project in order for project management methods to be very useful in its planning and implementation. Even the smallest task can benefit from the use of a well-chosen project management technique or tool, especially in the planning stage. (Chapman). In order to make the operation cost effective, an operations manager needs to assess the risks involved in the work prior to the commencement of the work. Taking

Science fiction has less to do with science and more to do with an Essay

Science fiction has less to do with science and more to do with an endless reworking of the human condition - Essay Example Science fiction has a lot of admirers around the world. It is widely discussed and paid much attention to. It is a kind of innovative representation and reconsideration of human conditions. In accordance with Jules Verne called, his novels were â€Å"voyages extraordinaire†, and H. G. Wells was writing in the field of â€Å"scientific romance.† It is rather difficult to understand the main idea of the authors of science fiction. On the one hand, they are focused on discussing allusions or different fake representations of different issues (Westfahl and Slusser, 2002). On the other hand, they follow the laws of the human nature development. Very often the main characters of science fiction novels are humanized. They are often very much concerned about human feelings, such as love, friendship etc. and this makes science fiction more attractive. Very often these stories gain approval of a various audience. For example, women who usually do not like such reading can also re ad these stories and not be afraid of different interesting or unreal creatures. In any case, different readers have their own chances to underline what they want to read in the science fiction books. Publishers are printing what readers will like for sure. There is no doubt that the authors of science fiction books introduce an innovative vision and creative ideas. It is surely a literature of change. For example, in the novels by Isaac Asimov humanity is fighting against the fall of the Galactic Empire. This author made an attempt to popularize science. Thanks to his creative mind he managed to represent the issue of biochemistry in a popular manner. He followed his scientific logic and managed to represent it to the readers in a comprehensible manner. He wanted to understand a possible future of the generations that concerned human ability to rule their future empires. He turned his attention to so-called scientific sociology. In case mankind colonizes galaxy, it will be very

Evaluation Of Reading Skills English Language Essay

Evaluation Of Reading Skills English Language Essay In Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (2nd edition, 2005) definition of a language is stated as a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession. And that means, learning a language to communicate properly in that language requires mastering all parts of a language system such as the vocabulary, the grammar and the sound system. According to Dawani (2006) in order to communicate in a language one should study a balance of four basic language skills which are reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Thats why teaching and evaluation of these skills has a particular importance in language education. In this paper, the evaluation of one of four basic language skills, namely Reading Skill will be discussed in detail. However it is essential to lay some basic facts about reading before starting to discuss its evaluation. According to Alyousef (2005), as a definition, reading is can be perceived as an interactive process, leading to automaticity or fluency, between a text and a reader. Agreeing that, Rasinski (2004) states, accurate and automatic decoding of the words by giving its expressive interpretations to achieve maximum comprehension means reading fluency. Accordingly, Rasinski (2004) again states that reading does not merely mean accurate decoding of the words like teachers thought for years. And thats why the assessment of reading should involve the ability of fluency and comprehension, for sure. Reading in a different language has traditionally stemmed from the need of accessing the written literature of a high culture and as a material these literature pieces are used to work on as Byrnes (1998) suggests. As the aim of this kind of reading does not involve a real communication, the reading fluency is ignored. Later with the appearance of communicative approach, instead of high culture literature, reading texts started to be chosen according to the current reading aims, like using everyday materials such as newspaper articles, bus schedules, etc., for purposes to develop communicative competence. As a result, over time teaching of reading and reading drills at any levels became a fundamental part of language teaching. According to Stages of Reading Development of Challs (1983) reading is a continuous process which develops through some certain stages. Agreeing that, Beers (2006) adds that in case of a skip in a reading development stage, students will struggle in their reading ability and eventually this will also affect their writing skills. Thats why teachers should be exclusively attentive to students comprehension of each stage of reading process before continuing with the next level. According to Carnine Silbert (2004), Assessments provide the information that will enable educators to provide children with instruction that starts where they are and then build on that base to help children advance to the higher levels.(p. 13-15). As it is apparent from all these researchers statements, the evaluation of reading is a crucial part of teaching a language. Although most of the researches of that field unite in the importance of evaluation, they differ in the opinions for the evaluation mediums. N o matter how much a particular evaluation type is praised by educators, in reality all of them has some advantages and disadvantages and use of these evaluation types is only a matter of preference. Hughes (2007) states that all assessments are basically designed to develop the learning of students. Accordingly, evaluation is the process of gathering, utilizing a variety of sources and supplying students with descriptive feedback for future development. And these assessment processes are listed as following in various sources; Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs) In that evaluation type, the teacher decides a reading skill level by calculating the ratio of correctly read words in a passage as it is stated in NICHHD (2000). In IRIs, there are three main reading skill levels. According to Rasinski (2004) levels of performance for word decoding accuracy in reading can be listed as the following list; Independent Level: 97-100% Without Assistance Instructional Level: 90-96% With Assistance Frustration Level: The reason of these scale is explained in Mohler (2004) with a comparison of comprehension levels with these word accuracy levels; in independent level 90% or more comprehension, in instructional level 60% or more comprehension, and in Frustration level 50% or more comprehension occurs. According to McEwan (2002) this measure of oral reading fluency is the most sensitive to the small changes in reading ability, simplest and quickest classroom assessment type that is known. Adams (1990) states that letter recognition speed and accuracy are essential for reading proficiency and growth as letter recognition sub-skill improves word recognition skill. On the other hand, according to Rasinski (2004) in spite of the fact that IRIs value accuracy while determining the overall performance level of readers, they demand reader to read several word lists and passages orally and to be examined on their comprehension of each passage which eventually leads to one to two hours of endeavor for a complete IRI. In contrast to what Adams (1990) says, Rasinski (2004) finds it very time-consuming, particularly in case an application of the inventory to a struggling reader. Miscue Analysis Gunther (2007) defines miscue as any unpredictable calling of a word or section of text. The inventor of this analysis type, Ken Goodman specifically avoids using the term error instead of miscalling because of its negative implications. Goodman (1969) declares that a departure from the text does not necessarily exhibit a negative side of the reading process but it rather opens a window on the reading process which can assist both teachers and students. Using this method, a teacher can be more easily aware of the students comprehension by looking at the kind of mistakes he/she makes. According to Gunther (2007) miscue analysis particularly focuses on the readers cueing system similar to the ones used to describe the results of running records. These cueing systems are listed as the followings; the graphophonic system (visual cues in running records), the syntactic system (syntax or structure cues in running records), and the semantic system (meaning cues in running records). In these cueing systems, there are six types of miscues as stated here; 1st Correction: A child self-corrects his/her error and re-reads the section/word without prompting, 2nd Insertion: A child adds a few words which are not on the page, 3rd Omission: A child omits a word while reading a text, 4th Repetition: A child repeats a word or some part of the text, 5th Reversal: A child will reverse the order of the text or the word, 6th Substitution: A child places a different word, instead of reading a particular word. According to Wilde (2000) instead of focusing more on the number of miscues as in running records, miscue analysis is more concerned with type of miscues because being a good reader does not necessarily require a word-by-word comprehension of the text. Due to the fact that skipping, substituting, miscalling words does not necessarily make someone a bad reader, miscue analysis respects the reasons of miscues and develops the reading success of the given student according to the information gained by the analysis. However according to Kuroneko (2008) a technical knowledge of linguistic concepts and long succeeding analysis is required to conduct Goodmans miscue analysis thats why it is a complicated process to learn. Running Records Running Records is defined by Clay (1985) as a teacher adjustment to run a miscue analysis in the busy atmosphere of the classroom. According to Hughes (2007) diagnostic, formative and summative assessments can be conducted via running records. However using solely running records does not give enough evidence for evaluation purposes. According to Glover (2008) this type of assessment is useful for deciding the level of text used by the teacher and student and gaining the insights of the strategy types a child utilizes while reading. There are two separate parts of this assessment: the running record and a comprehension check. In running record part, the teacher basically uses some marking conventions and symbols to record the readers reading manner including accuracies, errors, assistance from the teacher and self-corrections while he/she continuous to read from the book and in comprehension check part the teacher utilizes retelling method by asking some comprehension questions as i t is stated in A Guide to Effective Instruction in Reading, Kindergarten to Grade 3 (2003, p.12, 27). While the teacher is evaluating the errors, he/she investigates them from three aspects as it is expressed by Gunther (2007); 1st Meaning: whether the meaning of the text has an influence on the childs reading, 2nd Syntax: whether the child reads in a grammatically and linguistically reasonable way, 3rd Visual: whether the child is mistaken for another word because of the words appearance/letters. According to what is mentioned by Gunther (2007), a teacher can decide a learning point utilizing students errors as an instantaneous chance for further learning because running records reveals the students cuing system and self correction patterns. Correspondingly, Johnston (1997) also states that comprehending the reasons behind errors, a teacher can put his/her knowledge of instruction to use to guide the student to learn. In A Guide to Effective Instruction in Reading, Kindergarten to Grade 3 (2003) the advantages of using running records are stated as followings; being an efficient and effective medium to record independent reading behaviors and providing a chance for teachers to observe students use of cues and strategies during an oral reading. Despite the time it takes to evaluate all students individually, running records when conducted on a regular basis creates a rich source of assessment information on the continuous development of an individual. De Leon (2009), on the other hand, lists some of the disadvantages this evaluation type posses as followings; requirement of fluent use of language, dependence on the ability to observe details and write quickly, making the student feel watched, become uncomfortable thus destruction of the nature of the recording, causing the teacher to be unavailable to control the classroom because of being focused on the recording, giving information about only one student at one time and can be tiring for the recorder because of its intensity. As it is apparent from the article, there are various evaluation types for the assessment of reading skill. While this is the case, the important question to ask can be the aim of the researcher/teacher when conducting one of the reading assessment methods. Although all of them stem from the need for improving the teaching quality of reading ability, they all differ from each other with the ways they try to achieve this. Some of them are depending on the number of the miscalled words while another one is paying attention to the type of miscalling. All of them have some week points compared to others as it can be seen by the objections of various researchers. Although, personally, I found, among all assessment types, running records very useful to learn the insights of the reading ability of a student, I also agree with the researchers who are opposed to this evaluation method because of its excessive needs. Just because of the time and attention demanded by this assessment, the appli cation of it to the real circumstances becomes nearly impossible. As a conclusion, it can be clearly said that all the evaluation methods have their advantages and disadvantages coming with them. As long as they are conducted with a special care, all methods can assist students to improve their reading skills.

Mercantilism vs. Laissez-faire Essay

Mercantilism suggested that a country’s goverment should play an active role in the economy by urging more exports than imports, especially through the use of tariffs. A nations wealth, when it comes to mercantilism lays in its gold and silver amounts. Many physiocrats of the time opposed mercantilism because they saw it as exploition of business. The government collected substantial fees from guilds, and other groups. Therefore using them for their own profit. The government also restricted economic innovation, and regulated which goods would be made and what regions are to be traded with. This brought out many critics in the aristocratic classes. One of mercantilisms greatest critics was Adam Smith. Adam Smith wrote: † The man who buys, does not always mean to sell again, but frequently to use or to consume; whereas he who sells, always means to buy again.† (Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations) This basically means that in order to sell, you must regain what you’ve sold, and will sell again, but those who buy will use what they’ve bought. Adam Smith had â€Å"laissez-faire† ideology which meant that an individuals self-interest is the motor of economic progress. He believed each individual should be free to pursue their economic interests freely, without restriction by the government, which he believed should not concern itself with economic affairs. High tariffs, guild restrictions, and mercantilist restraints just obstructed economic activity. Physiocrats who advocated Laissez-faire ideology also believed that agriculture is the sole productive economic activity and encouraged the improvement of cultivation. Because they considered land to be the sole source of wealth, they urged the adoption of a tax on land as the only economically justifiable tax. So essentially â€Å"Laissez-faire† and mercantilist are completely opposite in the sense that mercantilism is for the government, for restriction and monarchial control, and Laissez-faire is for the individual, the consumer, the masses, the good of the country.

New paradigms for health care delivery

Changes occurring in Health care delivery and Medicine are the result of social, economical, technological, scientific forces that have evolved in the 21st century. Among the most significant changes are shift in disease patterns, advanced technology, increased consumer expectations and high costs of health care. These factors have redefined medical practices to fit into the changing health delivery system. Many health care professionals have come to the conclusion and belief that they will be compelled to explore new paradigms for health care delivery in the future like electronic medical record keeping, telemedicine, computer-based diagnostics and health monitoring to keep pace with the changing scenario. This is due to the accountability of the medical profession today and changing disease patterns. Doctors are under increasing pressure to keep up to date and to base their decisions more firmly on evidences as opposed to anecdotal information of the past. Patients are much more informed than they were 10 years ago. No doctor can tell a patient what to do without being questioned today. Further, with the advent of concepts like informed consent and advance directives, such scientific changes gain relevance. ELEMENTS OF THE NEW PARADIGM The use of electronic documentation is becoming increasingly prevalent in terms of convenience. The National Academy of Sciences report states that the US health care industry spent between $10 and $15 billion on information technology in 1996. Much of this expenditure is attributed to creating electronic records systems and converting conventionally stored data to electronic formats.   There are many software programs specially developed for electronic record keeping. This includes ‘Doctors partner’, an advanced Electronic Medical Records (EMR) System with Integrated Appointment Scheduling Billing, Prescription Writer, Transcription Module, Document Management and Workflow Management built to meet HIPAA standards. ‘Practice Partner Patient Records’ is an award winning electronic medical records (EMR) system, allowing practices to store and retrieve patient charts electronically. There are innumerable such branded medical record softwares available today. The standards in practice for EMR include ASTM International Continuity of Care Record , ANSI X12 (EDI) CEN , EN13606, HISA, DICOM , HL7 ,ISO   and openEHR . (Ringold et.al.,2000). The American Medical Association and 13 other medical groups representing 500,000 physicians have signaled their intention to go electronic with the AMA formed   Physicians' â€Å"Electronic Health Record Coalition† to recommend affordable, standards-based technology to their constituents. President Bush has also promoted a nationwide computerized medical records system in a recent visit to a children's hospital at Vanderbilt University. Scientific innovations have found a niche in complicated medical procedures as well. A recent study successfully has evaluated a bar code patient identification system, which involves a hand-held computer for sample collection and for compatibility testing administration of blood. (Turner et.al, 2003). A recent research article (Sandler et.al, 2000) reports of a solid phase and micro titer plate hemagglutination method for pretransfusion compatibility tests. This I-TRAC is an automated process of blood matching with improved serological sensitivity and standardized compatibility testing supporting electronic record keeping and linking to a bar code identification system. San Raffale Hospital in Milan, Italy, has recently collaborated with Intel and CISCO systems to use wireless-enabled infrastructures and Radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. The system uses RFID-radio frequency identification technology to address the sources of   human and systems error in blood transfusion supply chain. This pilot programme has been   implemented at the 1,100 bed San Raffale hospital where more than 15000 blood transfusions are done every year. The CAT (Computer Aided Tomography) is yet another revolution in medicine which combines the X-ray technology with computer signal processing to generate images of tissues of the body obscured by other organs. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a common technique used to scan pathological or physiological status of living tissues. Much is known about the computer aided continuous ECG monitoring with a play back facility for assessing the cardiac status of the patient. Today we are in a wonderful situation where we will be able to develop a drug based on computer analysis skipping a few phases of clinical testing. PERSPECTIVES ON THE PARADIGM SHIFT Thus, scientific innovations are part of the evolutionary process of the medical science. The basic instrument of a physician, the Stethoscope, the Sphygmomanometer used for monitoring the patient blood pressure, the Catheter, Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy, the EEG, ECG, EMG, Echocardiogram, Ultrasonic scan, to name a few were nothing but such scientific innovations integrated into the field of medicine in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Thus, Computer based telemedicine, medical record system, and diagnostic procedures are scientific innovations of the twenty-first century. Hence, it is nothing but a natural and moral obligation of the health care sector to integrate them into the field of medicine. Changes in financial incentives and health care delivery structures are producing new threats to health care quality (A.Brennan, 1991). The retributive measures are cumbersome and expensive. Hence, there is a need for more accountable health delivery system, which will enable application of modern scientific approaches to quality health care system. In this context, quality of the medical care depends on promotion of quality medical care by managed care organizations. REFERENCE Brennan, T, et.al, â€Å"Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients: the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study†, New England Journal of Medicine 324: 370-76, 1991. Là ¦rum Hallvard, MD, Tom H. Karlsen, MD, and Arild Faxvaag, MD, PhD . â€Å"Effects of Scanning and Eliminating Paper-based Medical Records on Hospital Physicians' Clinical Work Practice†. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 10: 588-595.2003. Ringold DJ , JP Santell, and PJ Schneider , â€Å"ASHP national survey of pharmacy practice in acute care settings: dispensing and administration–1999†. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 57 (19): 1759-75. 2000. Sauer et.al, â€Å"Errors in transfusion medicine† Lab Med. 32(4): 205-207, 2001. Turner et.al, â€Å"Bar code technology: its role in increasing the safety of blood transfusion†, Transfusion, 43(9): 1200:2003.

Steve Roland Prefontaine essays

Steve Roland Prefontaine essays To Give Anything Less then Your Best is To Sacrifice the Gift. Steve Roland Prefontaine was born in Coos Bay, Oregon, on January 25, 1951. Through out his life he established himself as one of the greatest American Running legends. He is the only person to ever hold the American record in all distances for 2,000-10,000 meters. The impacts of his short life can still be seen and heard today. Wendy Ray the announcer at Hayward field during Pres running career describes him best saying He just had whatever that is-I dont know, actors have it. Singers have it. Some people have it, some people dont. Most people dont. He had a lot of it. (Jordan 115) Pre was a special person and changed running totally. He changed peoples views on it he made people see it as a sport and not just a hobby. To him running was special and he conveyed these feelings to all the world. He once said Some people create with words or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, Ive never seen anyone run like that before. Its more then just a race, its style. Its doing something better than anyone else. Its being creative.(Jordan 161) Pres running career did not start until he was in the 8th grade. In the 8th grade while at football practice he would see the cross country team running by and think to himself What kind of crazy nut would spend two or three hours a day just running?(Jordan 6) It wasnt until physical fitness test in gym showed him what it was to run, and that he had a talent like nobody else. Once in high school he just started winning. In his freshmen year he found himself a letter winner on his schools cross country team. In his senior year he set a new high school 2 mile record running a 8:41.5. He won the mile ...

Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essays

Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essays Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essay Compare Online Relationships with Face-to-Face Relationships Essay Perhaps, to think that online relationships are in some points more superficial, deceitful or perilous than face-to-face relationship is such a dangerously-shallow deception. In fact, online relationships aren’t much different from real life relationships. Despite the fact that people have grown panic towards online relationships lately, face-to-face relationships themselves don’t serve any fewer disadvantages. Somehow it has been believe to be true that online relationships and face-to-face relationships are totally unalike, nonetheless the two elationships share three similarities covering intimacy, sincerity and risks. The first similarity concerns level of intimacy between two people in the relationship. Face-to-face relationships allow people to actually meet in person. In a real-life situation, they can see each other or have conversations with real interaction, such as eyes contact and body languages. The relationships can develop into fur ther closeness and sometimes the couples end up with marriage. Similarly, all types of interactions provided in face-to-face relationships also exists in online relationships. By using interactive devices, such as web cameras, microphones and speakers, actual talking and seeing becomes possible through the internet. Deeper intimacies like serious relationships or marriage are also feasible for many internet couples. A new study of online dating site members has found that when couples who had built up a significant relationship by e-mailing or chatting online met for the first time, 94 per cent went on to see each other again. Moreover, the study also shows the successful relationships which last at least seven months and in some case over a year. This result proves that online relationships have a similar degree of success as real life ones. (Dr Gavin and Dr Adrian Scott, 2005) Additionally, according to the online dating research conducted by Marry Madden and Amanda Lenhart in 2006, nearly 3 million adults have entered long-term relationships or married their online dating partners. These evidences confirm that the situation of online dating is not any less real than face-to-face relationships. Secondly, the two relationships have something in common dealing with sincerity. In face-to-face relationships there are opportunities to meet not only decent people but also the spurious. People lie, research has shown, in one-fourth of their daily social face-to-face interactions especially when it comes to the relationship issues. (Cornell University communications researchers, n. d. ) For example, some lie about having an affair. One study found that 2/3 of the wives (26 to 36 million women) whose husbands were cheating had no idea their husbands were having an affair. This’s because their husbands lied to them and they failed to recognize the telltale signs. Moreover, 25 percent of men and 17 percent of women had been unfaithful no matter how many years there’ve been married. (National Opinion Research Center, n. d. ) Likewise, online relationships offer both sincerity and deception. Nowadays, it has been on the news that internet relationships mostly lack elements of truth and frankness. Anyone can make up his or her profile about the looks, personality, occupation, education, financial status, or even name. These disadvantages of online relationships can occur in face-to-face relationships as well. However, honesty is not mpossible to find in cyberspace, due to the fact that there still be lots of genuine people using internet as a tool to find the right person for them to have relationships with. Furthermore, sincerity can also be found in other forms, several kind of support groups, such as groups for anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. As some of the members of each group share their own experiences, their relationships become a sincere binding between them and develop to further possibilities. All these proofs proves that online relationships should not be accused of eing more doubtful in term of sincerity than face-to-face ones. The last but not least similarity has to do with the risk. Both online relationships and face-to-face ones have the possibility to be deceived for money, sexual intercourse, physical assault or even homicide. Crime rates in online relationships as well as in face-to-face ones have been increasing. In real life, by 1991 the dramatic crime rate was 313% the 1960 crime rate and the rates are continuously increasing. Approximately 5% of the U. S. population, thirteen million people, are victims of crimes every year. United States Crime Rates, 1960 – 2006) The categories of crimes cover property thefts such as robbery and forgery as well as violence ,such as murder, forcible rape, physical and mental assault. Similarly, online relationships can lead into any categories of crimes that occur in face-to-face relationships. The cyber crime rates are also rising 255% in 2006 over 2005. (US. National Crime Records Bureau statistics, 2005-2006) According to the statistics, no obviously different risks between face-to-face relationship and online relationships appear. Summarily, people trend to e panic so much on online crimes that they overlook the fact that crimes that are caused by people in real life don’t have any less rates than online ones. It’s more than clear that, in contrast to what has been believed, both online relationships and face-to-face relationships carry the similar qualities in term of closeness, frankness and peril. In other words, internet relationships are no worse than the real life ones. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider our attitude towards this cyber romances as a virtual alternative relationships and to open the doors of opportunities and understanding for those millions online daters.

Course Project-Research Proposal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Course Project-Research Proposal - Assignment Example to be protected by their respective governments from such fraudulent individuals but they also have a responsibility to take all the necessary precautionary measures to minimize their exposure to identity theft. 1) Having one’s identity taken away by individuals with wrong motive is one of the most difficult things for the individual to deal with. It could interpret to inability to pay bills or even worse, inability to obtain credit besides exposing the person to more destructive eventualities. 2) Although am not an expert in the field of identity theft, it is self-evident that everybody is a potential victim of such occurrences. This implies that it is necessary for all to be equipped with the appropriate information on how to deal with such modern realities. Through the exploration of some experts’ work within the field of identity theft, I am able to establish my credibility in responding to the issues surrounding identity theft. Such experts include Saleh (2013), Mulig, Smith and Stambaugh (2014), and Biegelman (2002). 2) My secondary audience will be my professor in this course as well as fellow classmates, some of whom have been victims of identity theft and who would desire greater exposure on precautionary measures to protect themselves from such future recurrences. 3) Except for some few individuals who believe there is nothing much one can do to protect themselves from identity thieves, majority of my audiences share in my school of thought that it is possible to create a wall between oneself and such fraudulent individuals. From exploration of a number of literatures, it is evident that identity theft is often a crime of opportunity, which implies that precautionary measures can go a long way in reducing risks. Most of the attacks have been made possible because of negligence and loopholes created by the victims themselves, thus they have a significant role to play in ensuring that they are safe. It is a fact that both technology and hackers

Challenges of Advance Planning in Care-Giving Assignment

Challenges of Advance Planning in Care-Giving - Assignment Example This assignment explores one of the most basic challenges in advanced planning as the misconception that it requires a complex legal documentation process. These make patients reluctant in engaging in the process. In such a situation, a patient may require some time to go and rethink the issue over and prepare for a discussion over the matter. It is necessary at this point to demonstrate the benefits of the plan to their lives and to family members (Laverty, Laverty, & Cindy, 2010). Initiating this program only requires patients to be thoughtful and engage the family in their discussions. Lack of awareness, State laws support advance directives in care giving for all individuals. Nevertheless, there is still no clear process and procedures to allow individual wishes to be known and be fulfilled at the appropriate time. Support studies sponsored by various organizations such as Robert Johnson Foundation in America reported that almost 75% of terminally ill patients do not like cardiop ulmonary resuscitation but less than 50% of their care givers know about this. Even if the patient had documented his preference, less than 42% of the cases are discussed by the actual care giver (Bumagin & Hirn, 2006). These bring lack of awareness as a strong challenge to the process of advanced planning. Denial is also a key problem in advance care planning. The society’s denial of death and dying puts patients in a situation where they cannot make decisions for themselves. These make them unable to heed waning of life just as we acknowledge the waning of birth. Denial about death makes people not to review life. Live in fear and uncertainty when these happens, the patient is unable to make clear directives of his health care preference. Confusion this is also a big challenge that affects advance plans in health care giving. Despite a strong desire for quality life and â€Å"good death†, many people worry about conflicting feelings within them. These conflicts arise from palliative care and doing whatever it takes to extent patient’s life. Research carried out by Regence Foundation shows that almost 50% of the respondent ascertained that emphasizing on palliative and end of life care options can interfere with the processes put in place to extent the patient’s life as long as possible (Bumagin & Hirn, 2006). This creates a misunderstanding of what to take as the best alternative. Majority of patients, who benefit from Medicare of all racial and ethnic groups, argue that in the event of a terminal illness with less than months to live, they would rather stay at home and die. They would not like to use life-prolonging drugs that have uncomfortable side effects to prolong their lives for a week or month hindering advance planning. However, various researchers like Amber Barnato, MD and colleges have discovered different distribution of end life preferences in different races ethnic groups. For example a research done between the whi tes and the blacks shows that more blacks are likely to die in the hospital compared to white.  

Free topic Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Free topic - Research Paper Example The cultural as well as religious identity related to Hinduism is considered as quite broad. In Hindu mythology, there are more than 330 million role models that are most likely to validate the person’s identity who have been framed in pace with the developing mankind since ancient times (Doyle, â€Å"Hindu Mythology†). Two short stories have been considered in the discussion henceforth, i.e. the Story of Yayati and the Incarnation of Vishnu as a Fish with the sole intention to obtain a better knowledge regarding the linkage of cultural values, philosophies and beliefs perceived by Indians with Hindu mythology. Hence, the chief objective of the discussion will be to obtain a better in-sight to the rudiments of Hindu mythology. According to the Satapatha Brahmana, a Hindu sacred text determining account of Vedic rituals, the first incarnation of Lord Vishnu on earth is known as Matsya Avatar. The story narrates that when Hari, who was considered to be the preserver of the universe, discovered the deed of the prince of the Danavas, became bound to take the shape of the fish which was known as Saphari or Matsya (Wilkins 134-141). According to the myth, Brahma was sleeping one day when Hayagriva, a horse-headed demon, took away the holy Vedas that helped God in creating life. The demon ran away and concealed inside the deep oceans which obstructed Brahma from nurturing the establishment of the universe. Owing to the fact that He was incapable of doing so, Brahma called Vishnu for assistance. It was during that time when Vishnu took the form of fish in order to get the Vedas back from the demon. Consequently, Vishnu took the avatar of Matsya, a one-horned fish, and swam into the hands of Satyavrata, who has also been the king of ancient Dravida-desa and renowned as Manu. Lord Vishnu, in his Matsya avatar then asked Manu for shelter from the predators in the ocean. In order to save the life of the fish, Manu took it

Meaning of life - Human Essay Example for Free

Meaning of life Human Essay I believe the meaning of life is to give life a meaning. Throughout my entire life, I have wondered what the purpose is. Why am I and every other human being even on this planet in the first place? That brings me to my next question. Is there a God? If there is, why did he put us here? Any Christian asked will say our sole purpose is to serve God. First of all, what does that even mean? And second, I must ask why? Why would a supernatural being place us strategically on this planet strictly to serve him? That sounds pretty selfish to me. There has to be something more. Something concrete. Something greater. How could there not be? All my life I have worked hard to succeed. I have challenged myself and fought to do better than my best. Why? I asked myself. Why stress so much when I’m only going to die in the end? Pessimistic, I know. Finally, I thought, maybe the meaning of life doesn’t have to be so complex. Maybe the meaning of life is whatever we want it to be. Maybe the meaning of life is to give life a meaning. I do what I do because I want to do it. It’s that simple. I do it because it means something to me. Everyone adds their own meaning to life. The meaning of life is never universal. The meaning of life is never complex. The meaning of life is actually quite simple to think about. Many people help the needy. Others play sports. Both activities add meaning to those lives involved. Purposes change, but the overall meaning of life will always stay the same. The meaning of life is simply to give life a meaning. This I believe.

A Rose for Emily By William Faulkner :: Free Essay Writer

A Rose for Emily The following paper analyzes the William Faulkner story called A Rose for Emily. The paper discusses my thoughts and ideas about the story, and evaluates different elements of the story. The paper analyzes the style that the author uses in characterization, and a few specific methods used to convey the plot and lay out the scene mentally, giving specific examples in the story. Finally, I give my overall opinion of the story. I found the first paragraph very enticing; first drawing me in with the explanations of why all the townspeople attended her funeral. Then making me want to get a look into her house that only a few others had seen for so many years. The descriptions of the house with its â€Å"cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies† sparked memories of old houses in my neighborhood when I was growing up. The story quickly created strong mental images of contrasting scenery with the mention of the encroaching cotton gins, garages, and gas pumps around Emily’s grand, but decaying home on what the author calls a â€Å"select street†, (Xroads, 2005). The Author’s smooth use of imagery and language drew me deep into the story after only the first paragraph, and it just kept getting better. I enjoyed this story for a number of reasons, which included how the author laid out the plot. The story was not told in a chronological order, thus allowing relevant information to be pieced together in an interesting and different way. It started with Emily’s death, then jumped back in time and finally led to her ultimate demise. This play on time was carefully constructed so that it built suspense and anticipation in a way that a chronological story could not, (Xroads, 2005). I also enjoyed the story because of its gothic undertones. The author’s use of dark images such as the decaying mansion, dead bodies, and the morbid attraction of Emily to dead bodies was only part of the carefully crafted multi-layered story line that used descriptive language, characterization, and chronology to keep you on the edge of your seat, (Xroads, 2005). I also liked the way the author portrayed the characters in the story, especially Emily. One example is Emily’s characterization when she purchases the arsenic, looking through her â€Å"cold, haughty black eyes† which peer from a â€Å"face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eye-sockets†, (Xroads, 2005).

America’s Working Poor Response

Tens of millions of men and women in America struggle because they are stressed out about not making enough money even though they are working as hard as possible. In her book Nickel and Dimmed, Journalist, Barbara Rehiring writes about her research working as a minimum wage employee attempting to get by in Americas tough economy, she describes in depth the struggles that the minimum wage workers suffer through and she witnesses them first hand as she goes under cover and works these Jobs herself.Middle class Jobs are being replaced by low income bobs, the people in these Jobs are referred to as â€Å"the working poor†,and are not able to make ends meet at the end of the month. People in America working minimum wage Jobs struggle on a daily bases to get by, this causes them anxiety due to their lack of a health care plan, living situations, and injuries that occur at work. Health insurance premiums are rising and some employers no longer offer this benefit, the low wage worker s are the ones that are particularly affected by this major issue.Employees without health coverage, are unable to get preventative care r proper treatment for an illness, may become sicker later on. In chapter one of her book â€Å"Serving in Florida† Rehiring describes her co worker Sail's situation, â€Å"Gall, for example,†¦ Is supposed to be on the company health plan by now, but they claim they have lost her application form and to be beginning the paper work all over again. So she spends $9 a pop for pills to control the migraines she wouldn't have, she insist, If her estrogen supplements were covered. (27) Without the company behind them, employees will end up paying more for Individual health coverage than their employers would have paid to put them on group coverage. Similar to Rehearing's situation, Morgan Spurious and his flange Alex attempt to survive 30 days living of a minimum wage salary, as n the TV episode â€Å"30 days: Minimum Wage†. In the ep isode there Is a scene where Splotch's hand Is Injured and swollen because of the manual labor he is doing. Due to the lack of medical Insurance he chooses to try out a free clinic provided by the community for the low Income families Instead of the emergency room.Once he Is there he realizes that getting checked by a doctor wont e so easy since there Is so many people In line and the clinic only takes the first twenty. He then has to resort to the emergency room where he Is charged more that he can afford to pay because of his low Income. Even though the communities attempt to help the working poor, not everyone Is available to take advantage of the benefits. While there Is no easy solution to the problem of health Insurance, It Is obvious that leaving employees on their own to find Insurance, rather than Glenn them the benefit of group rates, Is not the solution.America's Working Poor Response By carpenter kook â€Å"Serving in Florida† Rehiring describes her co worker Sail 's situation, â€Å"Gail, for she spends $9 a pop for pills to control the migraines she wouldn't have, she insist, if employees will end up paying more for individual health coverage than their there is a scene where Splotch's hand is injured and swollen because of the manual labor he is doing. Due to the lack of medical insurance he chooses to try out a free clinic provided by the community for the low income families instead of the emergency room.Once he is there he realizes that getting checked by a doctor wont e so easy since there is so many people in line and the clinic only takes the first twenty. He then has to resort to the emergency room where he is charged more that he can afford to pay because of his low income. Even though the communities attempt to help the working poor, not everyone is available to take advantage of the benefits. While there is no easy solution to the problem of health insurance, it is obvious that leaving employees on their own to find insurance, r ather than giving them the benefit of group rates, is not the solution.

How do the writers present sexuality and gender in Tales Of Ovid?

Gender roles have been continually redefined throughout literary history. The evolution of sexuality and gender is presented in Behind The Scenes At The Museum, A Streetcar Named Desire and Tales Of Ovid as driven by context and in particular patriarchal society. From Hughes’ classical presentation of a ‘human passion in extremis’[1], so strong that it ‘combusts, levitates, or mutates into an experience of the supernatural’[2] to Streetcar’s ‘succes de scandale’[3], dealing with sex to an extent, and in a manner not yet encountered on the stage and then Museum’s sterile and comical view of sex, the mutability of sexuality and gender has transcended generations but has been subject to contrasting literary perspectives. The degree of fluidity of gender can be clearly seen to mirror the context of societal and historical change within which the three works were created. In the introduction of Ovid, Hughes describes the significance of the tales being written at ‘the moment of the birth of Christ within the Roman Empire. The Greek/ Roman pantheon had fallen in on men’s heads’[4] and Hughes makes a clear attempt to equate Adonis with Jesus Christ, describing him as ‘the miraculous baby’[5] and ‘perfection’[6]. For all its Augustean stability, Rome was at sea in hysteria and despair, caught in a tension between the sufferings of the gladiatorial arena and ‘a searching for spiritual transcendence’. This era of volatility is reflected in the marked fluidity of sexuality in Hughes’ Ovidian world, where men and women becomes birds and trees. As such, identity itself is problematic; gender can no longer be exclusively prescriptive. According to Leo Curran, Ovid recognised the ‘fluidity, the breaking down of boundaries, due to the uncontrollable variety of nature and the unruliness of human passion. ’[7] Hughes unsettlingly explores this in the story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, where the carnal nymph Salmacis rapes the bashful boy Hermaphroditus. You can read also  Similarities and Conflicts in † a Streetcar Named Desire† As he continues to struggle, she prays that ‘we never, never/ shall be separated, you and me’[8]. Her plea is hubristically answered and, ‘with a smile’, the gods look on as ‘the two bodies/ melted into a single body/ seamless as the water. ’[9] The conjunction of the two sexes seems incompatible as observed in the drowning of what a modern audience would recognise as a hermaphrodite. Hughes’ selection of this myth, with the same destructive conclusion as Ovid’s original, conveys the commingling of the two sexes as resulting in the debilitation of the male qualities, rather than their strengthening, thus presenting effeminacy pejoratively. The dissolution of gender boundaries is reiterated by Hughes in his story of Tiresias. Tiresias’ passage through femininity, ‘having lived and love in a woman’s body†¦and also in the body of a man’[10] leaves him with the unique experiences of both sexes. His knowledge about feminine pleasure, that women do, as Jupiter contends ‘end up with nine-tenths of the pleasure’, angers Jupiter and his revelation proves damaging as she blinds him. It takes only one man, formerly a woman, to destroy the reassuring view that placed wives beyond the influence of pleasure. Social upheaval was also explicit at the beginning of the 20th century. Two World Wars had, temporarily, shifted the gender power balance with women filling vacant male roles only for these to be reassumed in the 50’s. William’ Streetcar is an astute depiction of the continual metamorphosis gender roles were encountering in the struggle for supremacy, both at home and nationally between the Old South and the New America. In Streetcar, Blanche, as a manifestation of the antebellum, is taken away, leaving Stanley holding his new son. The new decedent acts as a symbol of the end of the decaying Du Bois line and a sort of victory for the new Kowalski family. As the Cambridge Companion To Tennessee Williams states ‘Theatregoers†¦ did not easily shake off lingering apprehensions that were born of the 1930’s depression and nurtured by the 1945 unleashing of nuclear weapons†¦ in this climate, the loose structure and morale ambiguities of Streetcar struck a chord of truth. ’[11] Furthermore, when Williams describes Stanley shouting ‘Sttellah! [12] in a ‘heaven splitting voice’, we see the further power of the Kowalskis, who have rocked the status quo to the same extent as Venus’ ‘doomed love’[13] in Ovid, that means she has ‘neglected even Olympus’[14]. Ted Hughes’ exploration of gender fluidity is a more progressive one, in that a 21st century audience is much more open to transgender and sexual deviance than Tennessee Williamsâ₠¬â„¢ contemporaries. Williams’ homosexuality was illegal for the greater part of his life, but he found ways, open or oblique, of speaking of them in his plays. There is, indeed, a real sense in which Williams is a product of his work. When he began to write he was plain Tom. The invention of ‘Tennessee' was not merely coterminous with the elaboration of theatrical fictions; it was of a piece with it. In that sense it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that he was the product of the discourse of his plays. Indeed he created female alter egos, such as Blanche in Streetcar, before he began, as he did in later life, to dress up as a woman[15]. Where did his work end and his life begin? The man who consigns Blanche to insanity later found himself in a straitjacket. As critic Hana Sambrook more explicitly notes ‘there are those who believe that the tragic figure of Blanche Dubois is a transsexual presentation of the promiscuity of Williams’ himself’[16]. Certainly, Blanche’s many ‘intimacies with strangers’[17], her unfeminine like licentiousness and charade of hypocrisy aligns Williams with his protagonist. For a man for whom the concealment of his true sexual identity was for long a necessity, the fragmentation of the self into multiple roles offered a possible refuge. Blanche enters the play an actress and Williams creates her character as a series of roles, by using structural techniques to focus the audience upon her even when off stage; heard bathing ‘serenely as a bell’[18] whilst singing obliviously in ‘contrapuntal’[19] contrast to the lurid revelations of her past being detailed by Stanley in the adjoining room. Blanche’s desire for disguise is a phony pretension, using the smoke and mirrors of her alcoholicism and fine clothing, to concoct an elaborate alternative reality she can abscond to, enabling her to ‘put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings, and glow’[20]. This indirect, dramatic language and vivid imagery is typical of her escapism and her view of herself as ‘delicate’[21] reinforces the image of Blanche as a fragile moth that pervades Williams’ stage directions. Despite this, Williams does not wholly present Blanche as a ‘faded Southern belle’[22] as some critics claim, but rather sheds a favourable light on Blanche’s attempts to protect and preserve the genteel values of the old Southern civilisation. Williams’ states that â€Å"Blanche was the most rational of all the characters [he’d] created†, evident in her contradictory wilful ignorance of the causes of the loss of Belle Reve, yet her understanding that the root cause was her family’s ‘epic fornications’. Williams also reveres Blanche as his ‘strongest character in many ways’[23] and her unique internal integrity of ‘Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart’[24] has seen her resist the brutality and savagery of a relentless modern society. Thus, even to the very end of the play, Blanche has never yielded to any coarse violent actions and rude behaviour, crying â€Å"Fire! Fire! † during Mitch’s attempted rape and fighting Stanley to her physical limit with a broken bottle when eventually violated. When the big Matron tries to subdue her physically on the floor, she never stops resisting until the Doctor gently offers her his arm like a real gentleman. Blanche’s dignified leaving further indicates her spiritual integrity, as critic Robert James Cardullo[25] claims ‘Blanche’s ascension from crucifix pinioning on the floor and her spirited leading the way out of the hell of her sister’s home creates a moving tragic catharsis for the audience†¦ Blanche’s defeat has considerable aesthetic dignity’. Williams’ literature was strangely unmoved by the issue of gay rights and the issue of homosexuality that was so prominent in his private life, while clearly a strand in his work, was never a central theme and certainly never defended or promoted, neither publically nor politically. He seems to use Blanche as an expression of a conflict which clearly existed between his morality and sexuality, never to be resolved and never aired fully in his plays, despite its pertinence in the play’s political context. By contrast, in Behind The Scenes many aspects of life seem constant and the stability of gender roles seems to reflect this. In Museum, the past permeates the present and the present is doomed to replicate the past. The shop ghosts and objects such as the pink glass button that goes rolling down the years act as chronological touchstones and history repeats itself through the lives of successive women. Sophia, Alice, Nell and Bunty all lead lives marred by misery, disappointment and domestic drudgery. None of these women marry for love and all encounter marital strife. Alice, an impoverished widower marries Frederick in order to give up teaching, Nell marries Frank out of desperation, her two previous fiances having been killed in the war, and Bunty marries George when abandoned by her American fiance Bick. Thwarted in potential, trapped and unhappy, the women share a sense that they are ‘living the wrong life’[26]. Parallels between past and present create a sense of historical inevitability that is endorsed by a series of echoes between the lives of different women. Nell falls for Jack who has ‘high, sharp cheekbones†¦ like razor clam shells’[27] and by the end of the novel, Ruby has fallen for a strikingly similar Italian with cheeks ‘as sharp as knife blades’[28]. Bunty looks like Nell and Ruby looks like Alice. The latter pair both believe in ‘destiny’[29] and embrace it in the mistaken form of men. Alice, Bunty and Ruby have all ‘had enough’[30]. With typically perceptive narration for her tender age, Ruby accounts for this hereditarily as ‘one of those curious genetic whispers across time dictates that in moments of stress we will all (Nell, Bunty, my sisters, me) brush our hands across our foreheads in exactly the same way that Alice has just done’[31]. The reference to genes by Atkinson implies that behavioural patters are inherent and inescapable. Even Adrian, as the sole gay man in the novel, is presented in cliched terms as having an interest in hairdressing, his intimate conversation with a barman prompting a dramatically ironic exclamation of ‘that’s queer’[32] from the unwitting Uncle Clifford. Gender roles within all three texts are enforced through the sexual dominance of men over their female companions. Critic C. W. E Bigsby noted that ‘the shock of Streetcar†¦lay in the fact that this was the first American play in which sexuality was patently at the core of the lives of all its characters, a sexuality’[33]. Williams presents sex as having the power to redeem or destroy, to compound or negate the forces, which bore on those caught in a moment of great social change. The ‘gaudy seed bearer’[34] Stanley is a bestial representation of the new South and he uses his intense virility and sexual power to great effect. His sexual magnetism is exemplified by the symbolic package of meat thrown to a visibly delighted Stella in the opening scene. The connotations of his sexual proprietorship over Stella and her sexual infatuation with him are not lost on the watching Negro woman. In stark contrast, Bunty feigns deafness at the butcher’s ‘innuendo laced conversations’[35], exposing him as a ‘bluff parody of himself’[36]. Her caustic description of him as ‘a pig†¦smooth shiny skin stretched tightly over his buttery flesh’[37] is both comical and telling in her uptight rejection of his smutty behaviour. This mordant tone continues into the awkwardly comical depictions of male sexual supremacy in Behind The Scenes’ fornications. Ruby’s conception by a typically tipsy George and equally typically stoic Bunty who is ‘pretending to be asleep’[38], summarises well Atkinson’s presentation of a tired female submission to male virility in the repressed society of 40’s England. George’s demise is with his trouser round his ankles, a less than dignified ‘epileptic penguin[39]’, as the World Cup final ‘carries on regardless’[40] in another typically callous death of Behind The Scenes. This dominance leads to a trapping sexual dependence of women upon men, symbolically reflected by Williams in the eponymous streetcar, ‘bound for Desire, and then for the Cemeteries’[41]. The streetcar stands for Blanche’s headlong descent into disaster at the hands of her lust. Like the streetcar’s destination, Desire, the stop called Elysian Fields is an obvious symbol; an ironic fantasy however, as the Elysian Fields – the abode of the blessed dead in Greek mythology – turns out to be a rundown street in New Orleans. The very same symbol of the ‘rattle trap streetcar’[42] is used by both sisters in scene 4, as a euphemism for sexual experience. They speak explicitly of the ‘blunt desire’[43] that decides their choice. In answer to Stella’s question ‘haven’t you ever ridden on that street-car? [44] Blanche’s bitter riposte of ‘it brought me here’[45] displays both self-knowledge and self-condemnation of her current destitution. Ominously the matter-of-fact Stella offers no words of self-criticism prior to the only fleeting moment that she confronts her guilt; ‘oh god, what have I done to my sister? ’[46]. Moments later, in the middle of her ‘luxurious’[47] sobbing, she yields to Stanley’s lovemaking, compounding her guilt. This dependence is echoed in ‘Tiresias’ from Ted Hughes’ Ovid where women are said to take â€Å"nine tenths of the pleasure†[48] during sex. Men are vital for women to experience any sexual satisfaction and female desire ultimately renders them reliant and weakened. Their dependence is compounded by a financial reliance. Marxist feminist theory argues an economic dependence on men deprives women of the right to dominate their own fate, reducing them to existence by male affiliation. On â€Å"a teacher’s salary†¦barely sufficient for her living expenses†[49], Blanche ‘had to come [to New Orleans] for the summer’ as ‘[she] didn’t save a penny last year’[50]. In the wake of her husband’s suicide and the ‘epic fornications’[51] of her ‘grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers’[52], she is forced again to turn to men for financial support, depending, as is her mantra ‘on the kindness of strangers’[53]. Her attempted allurement of Stanley is based on the recognition that ‘maybe he is what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve’[54]. Her spiral of desperation turns to Mitch and finally the nebulous millionaire Shep Huntleigh who comes to stand as a symbol of material strength of dependence and guarantee for women, more exactly for Blanche. Blanche recognises that Stella could be happier without her physically abusive husband, Stanley, yet her alternative of Shep still involves complete dependence on men. When Stella chooses to remain with Stanley, she chooses to rely on, love, and believe in a man instead of her sister. Williams does not necessarily criticise Stella—he makes it quite clear that Stanley represents a much more secure future than Blanche does. That Shep never materialises strongly suggests that if women place their hope and fortune on men, their oppressed and subordinate status can never be changed. Bunty, like Stella, who has to request that her husband â€Å"better give [her] some money†[55], confirms her reliance on George in having â€Å"no intention of working after her marriage†[56]. Bunty’s quest for stardom and self-discovery conflicts with a mode of motherhood that requires service, sacrifice, and selflessness. As she moves into adulthood during World War II, Bunty tries out a series of different quixotic identities in the search for selfhood; Deanna Durbin[57], Scarlett O’Hara[58] and Greer Garson[59]. However, as her family grows, her dreams diminish, and Bunty is forced to forgo a self she has not yet fully realised. The erosion of self is symbolised by the abbreviation of her name for Bernice, to Bunty, which George truncates to ‘Bunt’[60]. Ironically, George marries Bunty only because ‘he thinks she will be a big help in the shop’[61] and thus Bunty is comically presented as trapped in the role of the ‘Martyred wife’[62] despite her belief that marriage to George would free her from the graft that she imagines herself to be ‘above’. Ruby’s mock expression of pity in her narrative gives an account of Bunty’s woes in a sardonic tone; her tranquilisers are ‘Bunty’s little helpers’[63] and Atkinson’s pathetic portrayal of Bunty as put out but ultimately accepting of her role as a married woman contrasts with Williams’ poignant subdual of Blanche and Stella. Sexual and financial dominance coalesces in another tool for the subjugation of women; rape. Hughes presents his women in terms of capital value; Philomena is a ‘priceless gift’, available to ‘cash in your whole kingdom for’[64]. As a result of rape in Streetcar and Ovid, the victimised females are presented as devalued and diminished in ‘worth’ in the views of patriarchal society. Myrrha, ‘utterly disgusted with her life’[65] is described as ‘polluted’[66] and ‘contaminated’[67] in the wake of her incestuous act, which ‘removes [her] from life and death†¦ in some nerveless limbo’[68]. Male exploitation of Blanche’s sexuality has left her with an equally poor reputation. This notoriety makes Blanche an unattractive marriage prospect, but, because she is destitute, Blanche sees marriage as her only possibility for survival, trapping her in the cycle of submission to men. It is telling that Blanche’s rape is not condemned, and it can be argued that Williams portrays her violation as inevitable in patriarchal culture and also self-inflicted by her provocative behaviour, a controversial thought for a modern audience. In her ingratiation of Mitch, she uses all kinds of strategies to â€Å"deceive him enough to make him-want†[69] and conceals her true age, because â€Å"Men don’t want anything they get too easy. But men lose interest quickly†¦ when the girl is over-thirty†[70]. This represents the internalisation of patriarchal society that her behaviour has precipitated. Her trunk, symbolic of her own displaced and materialistic identity, is full of the flashy pretension of fake finery that she perceives men to desire, and the Chinese lampshade softens the glare of the Mitch’s gaze on her fading beauty and adds to the ‘magic’ Blanche desires; the dressing up of ugly reality. However, both are ultimately violated with a strong sense of dramatic irony. When first Mitch and then Stanley tear off the paper lantern, she cries out as in pain. The opening of the trunk becomes a divesture of interiority – Stanley’s question ‘what is them underneath? ’[71] becomes a central one as the trunk functions as a metonymy for some unchartered territory about to be fundamentally disrupted, but to no condemnation from the playwright. Similarly, even when the male hunter Actaeon is punished upon inadvertently offending the nakedly bathing goddess Diana with his sight, Hughes suggests that Actaeon’s crime was one of fortune: ‘Destiny, not guilt, was enough/For Actaeon. It is no crime/To lose your way in a dark wood’[72]. Hughes suggests here that Actaeon’s death is the necessary ordeal to lead him through hell to paradise. When sexual aggression or rape is exhibited by females however, the result and portrayal are markedly different. Salmacis and Blanche are remarkably alike in this respect. Salmacis is a naiad (a nymph who presided over springs and brooks) and as such is described in typically natural imagery as ‘perfect / as among damselflies’[73], ‘gathering lilies for a garland’[74]. This peaceful language of the natural world is tinged however with a more foreboding aggression in the ‘viper’[75] like elegance of her ‘sinewy otter’[76] like body, which portends her sexual experience in contrast to the innocent young boy Hermaphroditus, who blushes at the naming of love. Hughes places the emphasis on the feminine snares of the lascivious water nymph, who is aggressively sexual in a very Blanche like manner. She knows ‘she had to have [Hermaphroditus]’[77] and proceeds to unashamedly flirt, ‘checking her girdle†¦ her cleavage’[78]. Her sensual language is heightened by its inference of a taboo love with the incestuous reference of ‘what a lucky sister! As for the mother/ Who held you, and pushed her nipple between your lips/ I am already sick with envy’[79], exemplifying her sexual command over the boy, who refuses her advances without really knowing what she wants. He desires only to bathe and his obliviousness to her advances are indicative of his youth and inexperience but also his male gender precluding him from the experience of passion, as echoed in the ‘nine tenths of the pleasure’[80] that the female takes in Tiresias. Thus he becomes an easy prey and ‘Like a snake’[81] she ‘flings and locks her coils/ around him’[82], a ‘tangle of constrictors, nippled with suckers’[83] – the disturbing organic metaphors further exemplifying her atypical literary position as the female aggressor of rape. Throughout this scene however, Salmacis is never rendered as in sexual control; Hermaphroditus ‘will not surrender/ or yield the least kindness/ of the pleasure she longs for/ and rages for, and pleads for’[84]. Hughes’ implication of their demise as a result of their unnatural union is clear – the only way in which a woman can rape a man is if he is not clearly male. To conclude, in the words of an anonymous critic ‘gender roles figure so prominently in literature that they begin to take on a life of their own, whereas to become fluid in the mind of the writer and reader alike†¦ it is evident that when working with ambiguity, man and woman, whose boundaries are few and far between, become locked in a dimension of transmutation’. These words said of Ovid, offer a concise summary of the three works, applicable mainly to Hughes’ characters such as Salmacis and Tiresias, and Williams’ Blanche. Ultimately however, despite the differing time periods in which they were written the role of gender is an inextricable fibre in ancient, southern and modern literature. The three writers posit sexuality and gender contrastingly; Williams’ uncompromising ‘personally and socially powerful’[85] play, Hughes’ matter-of-fact narration and Atkinson’s comically cliched bildungsroman. A prominent similarity in the treatment of gender by all three authors is the ability of each to manipulate and intertwine not only their ideas of the gender line but also those of their contextual popular culture in order to effectively and complexly examine its role.