Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Mentor Interview Essay

Rural Education Access Program as a Financial Administrator to give me wisdom and experience to transform my success. Most of the time when a child Is released by parents to go study at a tertiary level they are given advice on how they should conduct themselves in order to be successful in their studies and also in the workplace, this is when the experience of the elders or the ones that have gone through the Journey takes place.Ocean Robbins wrote, â€Å"l want to awaken the passion and creativity of youth , combine it with the wisdom, experience and insight of elders, and transform our world. † In order to succeed or be competent In academics you need to have certain skills that you will utilize and he mentioned a few which Is to have listening skill, Group-working skill and Communication skill where these skills help during lectures and amongst fellow students. Nicholas stated, â€Å"And most of all It Is to have resilience so that what ever comes in your way you do not g ive up but keep on pushing until one achieves that goal†.One other skills that I think has mad my school life better is planning whatever task I am about to do, and to make sure that I follow it. Throughout the interview Nicholas mentions that the Job he does entails most of the above mentioned skills as he works in a finance department of an organization where he has to communicate with deferent departments regarding payments and other financial tasks to the organization like communicating with creditors and stakeholders.This also requires one to be able to work as a team. Clearly has mentioned In one of her books that â€Å"communication Is always purposeful and that the purpose in business communication is to inform, to persuade and to create goodwill† (Eileen et al. , 1999,p. 8). Without communication I do not think we as people e would be able to share knowledge amongst each other.For Nicholas, participation at school really played a bigger role In his success and as part of his memories about school, mentioning that he attended a self-development camp at EDUCE,meeting with mentors and coaches, making sure that he works hard memory he says he will never forget was graduating with 10 Pioneers as it was quite an achievement because they all have gone through some challenges. I can truly relate to this because I have seen how effective it is to take part in development programmed where I get to learn more about my strengths and weaknesses as well s leadership skills.One other aspect he still has about school is the battle of finding a way to balance work life and academics. Nicholas writes, â€Å"l had to work as no one was working at home, and also having a lot of work but limited time†. Which makes me realize that if he can do it through those battles, nothing could stop me from making my own dreams come true. According to Nicholas, the importance of time management is being able to meet due dates on assignments by so you are also reduc ing stress and pressure. He said this also reflects on the quality of work be it in the workplace or assignments at University on how well did one do.Victor Hugo wrote, â€Å"He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life†. This is true because by not being mindful of my time I realize that there's no enough time to modify or rectify my ideas and Just end up aiming to pass or get the task done and not do exceptionally well instead. He says he still applies time management even in his work life and believes that he wouldn't be able to produce quality work without managing his time well.According to L. Callisthenic (Blobs: March 12, 2012) â€Å"Life is such a wonderful, beautiful thing ND it's made out of time. That's why wasting time is essentially wasting life. I mean, time management is about so much more than organizing papers. It's about making the most of your life†. Through his talk I have come to realize that managing my time well somehow has created self-discipline for my work, because this serves as guidance to what happens tomorrow and in order to prove my discipline for that plan I have to fulfill it.He feels that time management does not go alone in the workplace, you have to be able to balance all your skills and that requires a skill also. He mentioned them eying it is team-working skills, communication skills, leadership skills, networking skills and a skill to handle work individually. He feels that the fact that you have gotten a qualification does not guarantee that you will get work, that is why these skills are important so that you can be competent amongst other employees but most of all to do your work very well.I think if I could put these skills to life in general and master them in my life, I can be able to apply them easily in the workplace. It is very easy to apply these skills in the workplace if you are deter mined and know hat you want to achieve, what is nice is that I work with different individuals who your position in an organization, says Nicholas. Leadership has been ranked as the 12th essential skill in the workplace out of 16 skills ( Employment skills for the 21st century workplace,2012).Dealing with different individuals has opened a lot of doors for me in terms of knowing myself and how to work with others even here at school. I still apply these skills at work in order to work well, and to have a better relationship with my manager and colleagues. But learn to always accept that you may not get hem all correct, but as long as you are doing what is working for your work. I think it is essential that one knows what skills they are very good a so they can enhance them, and rise at the top in terms of competency.Before this interview I thought I knew everything that one needs in order to succeed academically and also at work, which is to â€Å"study', not realizing that is not all I need. But I have found out there is still a lot to learn from mentors. This interview has served as the first step to learning from those that have knowledge. The most interesting thing I have learnt also is to have control over your future, and strive to earn more from others. Overall, I trust that all this information will assist me in transforming and making my dreams come true, both at school and at work.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Unit 37 Understanding Business Ethics

Unit 37 – Understanding Business Ethics Explain at least 3 general activities from an ethical viewpoint your chosen business needs to consider in its operational activities. Describe how the business is attempting to show its stakeholders that it is aware of the ethical concerns that apply. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. Business ethics Business ethics is the accepted set of moral values and corporate standards of conduct in a business organization.The specifics of what this actually means can vary from one organization to another. Task 1/P1 Include the following, which should explain: Virgin Airlines operational activities A Virgin Atlantic employee has resigned following allegations she passed on eight celebrities' flight details to paparazzi agency Big Pictures in 2010. Among those reportedly affected were Tottenham Hotspur player Jermaine Defoe, actress Sienna Miller and singer Cheryl Cole, the Guardian reported. Virgin Atlantic has said it is investigating while Defoe's spokeswoman said he was consulting lawyers.The employee has denied the allegations. Other celebrities named by the paper include Ms Cole's ex-husband, the Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole, actresses Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Patrol and pop stars Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger. http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/uk-17637277 Virgin started a trial of free Wireless In-flight Entertainment on a few selected air crafts; the idea was to see if flight entertainment boosted annual profits, they wanted to provide state of the art systems including 300 hours of movies, TV shows and music all available on your own device.The device can be accessed on an iPod, iPhone, iPod, and laptops this shows that Virgin is also in touch with modern technology Virgin yet needs to consider potential price changes for the customers and how this might effect them travelling with the company. Vi rgin Atlantic has reduced fuel emissions by 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually following the introduction of innovative, new flight software. New, innovative computer software will save Virgin Atlantic almost 20 million and reduce fuel emissions by 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, it has emerged.The sophisticated system can pin-point accurately where fuel can be used more efficiently, monitoring 300 different points during each flight and enabling the airline to reduce fuel burn significantly. As a result the airline can now boast impressive emission cuts and savings of of ? 20 million. http://www. clickgreen. org. uk/news/national-news/123721-airline-virgin-atlantic-reveals-100,000-tonnes-of-annual-co2-savings. html Virgin airlines mission Statement and corporate aims and objectives?Virgin airlines mission statement says that they want to provide safety, security and consistent delivery of the basics that are the foundation of everything that they do. Virgin also h as their aims and objectives. These aims are to provide their passengers with pleasurable flying experience from the time they book the flight to the time the plane lands at their destination. Virgin Atlantic also want provide a cost affective way to travel which appeals to all classes.How Virgin Airline attempts to show its stakeholders that it is aware of the ethical concerns Virgin have already created more than 200 branded company’s world wide, employing approximately 50,000 people, in 29 countries Virgin have Corporate social responsibility (CSR) which is how companies manage the business process to produce an overall positive impact on society, Virgin are now doing this by delivering brand values, which are: value for currency, superior quality, dazzling customer service, pioneering, competitively testing and fun. to provide a quality service by motivating employees and to assist and examine consumer feedback. Virgin value all its stakeholders which is anyone who is inv olved in the running of the business, they are an essential part of virgin production and brand and keeping trust in Virgin is one of their core values. In 2006 the group defined a Code of Conduct, covering human rights, environmental concern and business ethics issues. Virgin also launched 3 non for profit projects.These where Virgin earth, Virgin Green Fund and Virgin Unite Virgin Earth rewards a $25 million dollar prize for inventing a method or design of anthropogenic and atmospheric greenhouse gases removal which results in Earths climate stability. http://www. examiner. com/article/a-company-profile-virgin P2 Task 2 Explain the implications, benefits and drawbacks for the business and its stakeholders of operating ethically and any conflicts of interest between different stakeholders, with reasons. The meaning of stakeholders and why they are important to the business with regards to ethical behaviour.Stakeholders are anyone that makes a significant difference or shares and in terest in the overall success and running of the business e. g. the stakeholders in Virgin are the shareholders, management and employees, customers and suppliers, banks, government, trade unions, pressure groups. At Virgin they like to promote good ethical behaviour because they want a good reputation among all the stakeholders, if Virgin behaves ethically then this can attract more and more stakeholders such as suppliers and customers, which in turn can boost the annual profit.Virgin’s stakeholders play a vital role in the progress of the company which is why Virgin needs to behave ethically. This means that all the staff must be treating fairly by complying with all legislation, to attract good employees, always creating new jobs; recently Virgin has decided to go into banking by putting in a bid to buy Northern Rock, the banks today are responsible for our current economic state thus far, Sir Richard Branson ( Virgin Owner) wants put the trust back in banking and shake up the sector, Branson seams like he genially shares an interest in society, he makes comments such as we genuinely try to do what’s right. Any company that does that, hopefully, gets a good, positive brand, and if you’re not trying to do what is right in life, then your brand is damaged. We like to run our company ethically. ’ Richard Branson sets a persona of a person who cares about the public, which proves beneficial to the company because people are more likely to take an interest due to Virgin running its business ethically. The reasons for conflict of interest between stakeholdersTheir are many reasons for conflict of interest between businesses, at Virgin more than 300 GPs decided to end their partnerships with Richard Branson's Virgin Care to provide healthcare services after criticism that the arrangements might see doctors personally profit from sending patients to clinics they part-own under the coalition's health reforms. Under Virgins former name Ass ura, set up 24 local companies, knows as GPCOS which wanted the NHS to fund them to offer community services such as dermatology, physiotherapy and rheumatology to patients this was all run as partnerships with local GPS.The government decided to force GPs to commission health services but they put family doctors in a position of conflict of interest. As a result of this Virgin had taken over the provider companies, they released the doctors from there obligations, and talks with the GPS have been going on for around 18 months. http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/2012/oct/24/doctors-virgin-partnership-conflict-of-interest The benefits and drawbacks of ethical practice to the business on the way in which it is operating and give reasons with examples.Richard Branson ( Virgins owner) likes to make sure that society believe and trust in the company, recently Sir Richard Branson offered a $25m prize for scientists who find away to prevent the threatening effects off climate change to o r planet. Richard Branson’s is trying to offer scientists incentives to come up with a way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Richard Branson understands the importance of behaving ethically and has shown an interest in the future of the planet, also by him doings so he encourages other organisations to match this by operating in a similar more positive way. Task 3Assess how your selected business could improve the ethics of their operations. †¢Assess how your selected business could change or alter some of its practices, showing how the changes would contribute to ethical behaviour, with reference the 3 issues discussed in Task 1, (eg Walker’s Crisps altering the fat and salt content in their crisps to address consumer health; Europe’s largest oil and gas companies planning to survey their suppliers to establish, for the first time, a global database on supplier corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies to check compliance with treatment of the environment, workers and customers. This task addresses M1 In comparison to all the over airlines Virgin Atlantic by far operates the most ethically, like most companies they still have problems within the airline, recently their has been conflict with Virgin and its customers. It came to light that their has been an issue with a member of staff leaking information to the media about who and when, celebrity’s and politicians where traveling on the airline this matter has serious implications, although this is simply immoral, it effects the privacy of the individual and could potentially put the person in danger.Following these allegations in the press in April Virgin voluntary contacted the information Commissioners office and fully assisted with the enquiries, they couldn’t find any other evidence of other members of staff leaking the information and breaking the data protection act, however this is a matter that Virgin takes seriously as it says in the missio n statement that they want to provide safety and security. In my opinion they should take action to prevent this from happening again.I think Virgin should improve the way they structure the recruitment process by asking more questions in the interviews that are relative to this matter, such as have you ever work for the media? Do you have any friends that work for the press? I also think that how they handle personal information needs to improve and should be looked at again to see if their are any loop wholes of gaining access to this type of information. Virgin media needs to keep matching its reputation if the company wants to keep up the trust it’s built over the last few years.I also spoke about Virgin having free wireless internet and flight entertainment on the planes this has proved to rapidly boost of annual profits, I only have one idea to improve this idea and that is to make this device available to all classes not just upper class individuals. Virgin still need to change the price but I think if they didn’t do this so vigorously and applied the idea to lower class passengers more people would then fly with Virgin and enjoy the experience.Virgin Atlantic has reduced fuel emissions by 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide saving them 20 million each year, Virgin have worked with emissions specialists CICS and environ to assess both the emissions of the air craft operations and the carbon foot print. I think this puts Virgin in a good position and most certainly makes them look like a well organised ethical business. I would recommend Virgin to promote this idea to over airlines; this should work because although they are taking into account global warming they are reducing expenses which n turn will lead to an increase in profit. Task 4 Evaluate the impact the changes and suggestions from Task 3 would have on the selected business and its stakeholders. This will need to be supported with evidence of research. Related to your chosen organis ation, select 2 stakeholders and explain the relationship between these stakeholders and the organisation. I have chosen to work on the relationship between 2 stakeholders in Virgin Atlantic; these stakeholders are the employers and the employees who work for the organisation.The relationship between these stakeholders and the organisation is tied to the success of the business e. g. In task 3 I talked about why staff leaking information to the media would affect the customers, this is because the customers in this case who were people in the public eye did not want the public to know when or where they were traveling. This concerned the customers; if you are making your customers concerned about their safety then they are less likely to use your organisation which in turn will mean a loss of profit.I thought of a solution to try and prevent this from happening again, the idea was to find out information about potential employees at the interview stage, and to offer good incentives for employers who report these people, this act would also let them know that leaking information has been an issue and might make them think twice about doing this in the future, in my opinion the more you make your staff aware about these issues their is less chance of them reacquiring. Evaluate how the suggested changes and suggestions on ethical practice will impact on the stakeholders and the business.I think with staff signing more legal documents and training staff to look out for people not complying with company policy and offering incentives for them to catch these people, will lead to the customers preferably upper class customers gaining more trust when using the airline, because their has been some bad press about the information leak, it has had a knock on effect on the image of the business and now Virgin needs to put the trust back into the business. With this idea they can almost reassure customers that any information on the whereabouts can be considered safe. With the practice in place it will take a lot of

Business System Analysis and Design Notes

*IS:arrangement of people,data,processes,information technology that interact to collect,process,provide as output the info needed to support the organization. Types of IS: TPS,MIS,decision support system,communications and collaboration system,expert system, office automation system & executive info systemTypes of Stakeholders:System owners (middle and executive managers, supervisors),System users (clinical& service workers,technical and professional workers; suppliers,customers,employees),System Builders (network admin,security admin,data base programmer,system programmer),System Designers (web archs,graphic artists,network architectures),External service provider (sales engineers, technology engineers, system consultants),Project manager,System analyst:is a problem solver,he/she studies business probs and opportunities,then transform them into info that will be used by technical specialists.System analyst:specialist who studies problems and needs of an organization to determine ho w people,data,processes and info technology can best accomplish improvements for the business. Skills by System Analyst:Working knowledge of information technology(The analyst must be aware of both existing and emerging information technologies),Computer programming, experience and expertise,General business knowledge,General problem-solving skills,Good interpersonal communication skills,Good interpersonal relations skills,Flexibility and adaptability,Character and ethics. Info sys architecture:provides a foundation for organizing various components of any info sys you care to develop. a unifying framework into which various stakeholders with different perspectives can organize and view the fundamental building blocks of information systems. Views of knowledge System owners view: Interested not in raw data but in information. (Business entities and business rules) System users’view: View data as something recorded on forms,stored in file cabinets,recorded in books and spreads heets,or stored on computer.Focus on business issues as they pertain to data. Data requirement System designers’ view: Data structures,database schemas,fields,indexes,and constraints of particular database management system (DBMS). System builders’ view: SQL,DBMS or other data technologies Views of process System owners’view:Concerned with high-level processes called business functions.A cross-functional information system System users’view:Concerned with work that must be performed to provide the appropriate responses to business events. Business processes,Process requirements,Policy,Procedure, Work flow System designers’view:Concerned with which processes to automate and how to automate them. Software specifications System builders’view:Concerned with programming logic that implements automated processes. Application program,Prototyping Views of communication System owners’ view: Who? Where? What?System users’ view: Concerne d with the information system’s inputs and outputs. System designers’ view: Concerned with the technical design of both the user and the system-to-system communication interfaces. System builders’ view: Concerned with the construction, installation, testing and implementation of user and system-to-system interface solutions *Basic principles of system development: Get the system users involved. Use a problem-solving approach. Establish phases and activities. Document through development. Establish standards.Manage the process and projects. Justify systems as capital investments. Don’t be afraid to cancel or revise scope. Divide and conquer. Design systems for growth and change. The need to improve: Performance Info Eco/controlcosts Control/Security Efficiency Service Phases for system development: scope definition, problem analysis, requirements analysis, logical design, decision analysis, physical designand integration, construction and testing, installa tion and delivery. Cross life-cycle activity: Fact-finding, Documentation and presentation Documentation, Presentation, Repository), Feasibility analysis, Process and project management Routes through the basic systems development phases: model driven development strategies (process, data, object modeling), Rapid application development (RAD), commercial application package implementation, system maintenance *Benefits of use case modeling: Provides tool for capturing functional requirements. Assists in decomposing system into manageable pieces. Provides means of communicating with users/stakeholders concerning system functionality in language they understand.Provides means of identifying, assigning, tracking, controlling, and management system development activities. Provides aid in estimating project scope, effort, and schedule. The relationships that can appear on a use-case model diagram: Use case association relationship, extension use case, abstract use case, depends on, inheri tance Use case – a behaviorally related sequence of steps (scenario), both automated and manual, for the purpose of completing a single business task.Steps for preparing a use-case model: Identify business actors. Identify business use cases. Construct use-case model diagram. Documents business requirements use-case narratives *Data modeling(database modeling)–a technique for organizing and documenting a system’s data. Data Modeling Concepts:Entity(class of persons, places, objects, events, or concepts about which we need to capture and store data),Attribute(descriptive property or characteristic of an entity.Synonyms include element, property and field), Data type(property of an attribute that identifies what type of data can be stored in that attribute),Domain(a property of an attribute that defines what values an attribute can legitimately take on),Default value(the value that will be recorded if a value is not specified by the user),Key(an attribute, or a gr oup of attributes, that assumes a unique value for each entity instance. It is sometimes called an identifier),Subsetting criteria(an attribute whose finite values divide all entity instances into useful subsets.Sometimes called an inversion entry),Relationship(a natural business association that exists between one or more entities),Cardinality(the minimum and maximum number of occurrences of one entity that may be related to a single occurrence of the other entity),Degree(the number of entities that participate in the relationship),Recursive relationship(a relationship that exists between instances of the same entity),Foreign key(a primary key of an entity that is used in another entity to identify instances of a relationship),Parent entity(a data entity that contributes one or more attributes to another entity, called the child.In a one-to-many relationship the parent is the entity on the â€Å"one† side),Child entity(a data entity that derives one or more attributes from a nother entity, called the parent.In a one-to-many relationship the child is the entity on the â€Å"many† side),Nonidentifying relationship(relationship where each participating entity has its own independent primary key), Identifying relationship – relationship in which the parent entity’ key is also part of the primary key of the child entity,Generalization(a concept wherein the attributes that are common to several types of an entity are grouped into their own entity),Nonspecific relationship(relationship where many instances of an entity are associated with many instances of another entity.Also called many-to-many relationship) ,Sample CASE Tool Notations Entity relationship diagram (ERD):a data model utilizing several notations to depict data in terms of the entities and relationships described by that data. Logical Model Development Stages:1Context Data model(Includes only entities and relationships;To establish project scope). 2Key-based data model(Elimin ate nonspecific relationships;Add associative entities;Include primary and alternate keys;Precise cardinalities). Fully attributed data model(All remaining attributes;Subsetting criteria). 4Normalized data model Normalize a logical data model to remove impurities that can make a database unstable, inflexible, and nonscalable. First normal form (1NF):entity whose attributes have no more than one value for a single instance of that entity,Any attributes that can have multiple values actually describe a separate entity, possibly an entity and relationship.Second normal form (2NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are dependent on the full primary key,Any nonkey attributes dependent on only part of the primary key should be moved to entity where that partial key is the full key,May require creating a new entity and relationship on the model. Third normal form (3NF):entity whose nonprimary-key attributes are not dependent on any other non-primary key attributes. *Model:pictorial rep resentation of reality.Logical model:nontechnical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does. Physical model:technical pictorial representation that depicts what a system is or does and how the system is implemented Process modeling:a technique used to organize and document a system’s processes. (Flow of data through processes,Logic,Policies,Procedures) Data flow diagram (DFD):a process model used to depict the flow of data through a system and the work or processing performed by the system.Synonyms are bubble chart, transformation graph, and process model. The DFD has also become a popular tool for business process redesign. Processes on DFDs can operate in parallel (at-the-same-time). DFDs show the flow of data through a system. Processes on a DFD can have dramatically different timing (daily, weekly, on demand) Context data flow diagram:a process model used to document the scope for a system. Also called the environmental model. Think of the system as a â€Å"black box. â€Å"2Ask users what business transactions the system must respond to. These are inputs, and the sources are external agents. 3Ask users what responses must be produced by the system. These are outputs, and the destinations are external agents. 4Identify any external data stores, if any. 5Draw a context diagram. Decomposition diagram:a tool used to depict the decomposition of a system. Also called hierarchy chart.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Using of Tidal Model of Mental Health Nursing Essay

Using of Tidal Model of Mental Health Nursing - Essay Example As a link between the doctor and client, the nurse needs to be aware of minute details that could play significant roles in treatment and recovery. The present case is of an 80 year old female within an APATT based community setting, who has a history of mental illness from before the present incidence. The Tidal Model of Care shall be used in the process of assessment and treatment to enable recovery. The Role of the Professional Nurse and Its Impact on Patient Care As a link between the client and doctor, the nurse plays a key role at each stage of treatment. The RCN defines Nursing as â€Å"the use of clinical judgment in the provision of care to enabled people to improve, maintain or recover health; to cope with health problems, and to achieve the best possible quality of life, whatever their disease or disability, until death† (RCN, 2003). The professional nurse has a range of responsibilities and roles (GMC, 1995) that parallel in importance to that of the doctor. Irresp ective of the reasons for this growth in the responsibilities shouldered by the nursing community; an evident fact is that nursing now has a strong impact on the process of care and recovery experienced by a client. It is thus necessary to establish processes that are most beneficial, and to develop a perspective that allows the nurse to interpret the process of treatment to the specific needs of the client. The Tidal Model of Care provides just this philosophical approach to mental health nursing. The Tidal Model A nursing model has been defined as â€Å"A collection of interrelated concepts that provides direction for nursing practice; research and education that approaches the nursing process in a logical, systematic way and influences the very data the nurse collects.† (Rambo, 1984). The Tidal Model of Mental Health Nursing was suggested by Professors Phil Barker, Chris Stevenson and Poppy Buchanan-Barker amongst others. The basis for the approach is the continuous change in all individuals at all times Kitson, 1999. The Tidal Model attempts to make sense of the personal experiences of people, and the role these experiences play in recovery. It believes that a client is capable of leading their own recovery instead of being directed by professionals (Barkway, 2009). The model is based on 6 philosophical assumptions: Barker (2008). 1. Virtue of curiosity: Genuine curiosity can help the professional learn about experiences central to the clients’ illness and recovery. 2. Power of resourcefulness: Available resources need to be identified and used effectively to aid recovery. 3. Respect for the person’s wishes: Patients are cognisant of their own needs and abilities. It is important to listen to them. 4. Paradox of crisis: Every crisis situation can be used as a pointer to the needs of the individual; and can be used to fuel eventual recovery. 5. All goals must belong to the person: Ownership over recovery goals gives the client a feeling of control over the direction and pace of recovery; and is important in the long term maintenance of health. 6. Pursuing elegance: It is easy to be overrun by complex and tedious treatments. The most optimal treatment is often the one that requires the least effort in covering all chosen goals. These assumptions have become the base for the development of a set of 10 commitments that a nurse using the Tidal

Sunday, July 28, 2019

How does DNA relate to you Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How does DNA relate to you - Essay Example s is because, the telomeres; as a result of preventing fraying, they also prevent aging and the development of malignant tumors that threaten appropriate health (The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post, 2008). Moreover, through participating in exercise, the telomeres experience extended life by making them appear younger and thus staying in place. This leaves an individual healthy showing the direct relationship between an individual and the DNA in them. In addition, DNA is unique in everyone, which, in turn, makes every person unlike the other who follows mutation during replications. These mutations occur during terms of misprints and entire changes in replicated DNA. Therefore, this information indicates that only DNA of identical twins is similar (Port, 2008). In terms of survival, for one to live in adverse conditions, genes contained in the DNA effect changes (Designed DNA, 2012). These changes lead to evolutions and adaptations that allow an individual to cope in adverse conditions. In addition, changes could be physical in the form of shape of the teeth or hair color and even the behavior of an individual so as to escape danger (San Diego University of Man, 2001). In conclusion, the relation between an individual and DNA cannot be refuted as it is the DNA that accounts for the unique characteristics they possess. The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post. (January 29, 2008). Exercise linked to â€Å"Younger† DNA. The Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2nd July from

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Rent Policy in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Rent Policy in the UK - Essay Example Each individual Rent Policy today has its guidelines from the legal Restructuring framework. It will be the basis of this essay. The Tenant Service authority(TSA) was created in 2008 as an independent body to work with social housing providers to give structure, legal verification and guidance in the day to day running of their properties including almos. (Housing and Regeneration Act 2008). The TSA replaced the regulatory functions of the Housing Corporation. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) took over the investment functions and delivery activities of Communities and Local Governments. These two authorities cover all types of tenants in the United Kingdom. The Town and Country housing Rent Policy was chosen arbitrarily(T&CHG 2010) The TSA requires that 3 criteria be met . (TSA, 2010) "All Rent Policies must explicitly state their objectives in order to comply with the Housing Corporation's Rent Restructuring framework of 2002 . The Rent Policy shows that the rents are accessi ble to all. the rent increases are in alignment with current legislation. The association is a viable entity, earning enough revenues to maintain the property standards". Town and Country have several types of housing: social housing, shared ownership, market rent and intermediate rented stock. The Housing Corporation Rent Restructuring framework of 2002 and modified in 2009 is applied to social housing in its policy though other types of housing are also dealt with in this policy. "A person must have the choice of what type of place he can afford to have. Price should not be a determinant facture in deciding where he lives but it should determine what size of property he chooses" (Wilson, 2010) Government decision making at the local level has become less appreciated in the last few years. Associations have lost the power manage their own estates because the accountability and local decision making have become the responsibility of the government Target Rent Schemes have put people in a situation where it is no longer economically beneficial to go out and get a job. Needs have changed. Population sources are different. Social demands are no longer what they were 10 years ago Establishing the rent target calculations of 2002 did not take into consideration any of the social or financial factures of the last 10 years. Financial viability is difficult to achieve when household rents rather than property rents are used to subsidize the upkeep of estates. Rent are no longer linked to free market value. If it determined by the physical value, size and manual employment of the tenant (Wilson 2002, 3) and there is high unemployment in the area, the estates can no longer be viable. In 2009, bedroom weighting factor was added trying to add more value to property values. Manual labour was change to general employment. There were still too many variations. The 10 year plan has been met in the majority of areas other than London. The Governmental controls over Social Hous ing does not give enough control to the local councils as it was before 2002. This has been slowly changing since 2009. Public and government subsidised landlords must be able to have a combined free market of rent pricing. There is a chronic need of affordable housing. Millions of properties in the private sector are priced too high to rent and to buy. There are a million empty homes

Friday, July 26, 2019

Managing People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing People - Essay Example In order to understand individual differences in talent management, there are various qualities which are usually measured. They range from abilities, personality characteristics, emotional intelligence, locus of control and other factors. The Big Five Personality Theory It is common for human resource professionals to use the Big Five Personality dimensions of traits which make up an individual’s personality. The five traits are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Wiggins 1996, p. 3). The term ‘openness’ indicates that people who love to learn new things and experiences have high degree of openness. Such people are marked by an appreciation for unusual ideas and art. They tend to be highly imaginative and creative. Those who possess creativity are resistant to change and analytical. Now, a look into the performance of Steve Jobs proves that he was a man who was highly open in nature. He was a man who loved innovation and cre ativity and he wanted his people to be so (Case study). Every time, he and his company managed to come up with radically new things. The second important point is conscientiousness. A person who possesses high conscientiousness is marked by high self-discipline. In the case of conscientiousness, it is evident that such people are capable of controlling, regulating and directing their own impulses. They are capable of developing long-term goals, organising ways to achieve the goals, and working consistently and tirelessly to achieve the goals. Admittedly, such people are capable of showing high degree of responsibility and reliability. One can see that Steve Jobs was a man who possessed great degree of conscientiousness which made him appear as a perfectionist at times. As Wiggins (1996, p. 87) points out, it is likely for conscientious people to be termed as perfectionists. Another point of consideration is their relentlessness. As a result, it is possible for people to term people with high degree of conscientiousness as workaholics. The next important point of consideration is extraversion. It shows how outgoing and social a person is. Such people enjoy being with people and participating in social gatherings. Admittedly, Steve Jobs had high degree of extraversion. He loved to be the spokesperson of the company and he communicated with customers directly (Case study). However, there is the other side of extraversion. The introverts do not love to communicate with the outside world. These people tend to be quiet and keep to themselves. Another important point is agreeableness which means warmth, friendliness, and tactfulness. Such people are marked by helpfulness, friendliness, and generosity. That means, in work, Steve Jobs was less of an agreeable person because he never was ready to compromise on his on perceptions and intuitions in order to accommodate the opinion of others (Case study). He knew he was correct, and this feeling made him less agreeable in front o other people who worked with and under him. The next important point is neuroticism. People with high neuroticism can be divided into various categories based on various sub-traits like anxiety, anger, depression, self-consciousness, and immoderation. Admittedly, Steve Jobs was a man who was famous for his short-temperedness. From the discussion, it becomes evident that Steve Jobs was a man with openness, conscientiousness reaching the extent of workaholic and perfectionist proportions, poor degree of agreeableness, and neuroticism. Also, the two important factors that made him stand out from the rest is the high degree of conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism followed by less agreeableness and high neuroticism. That means, if the company manages to find a person

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Columbian Cartels Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Columbian Cartels - Essay Example The cartels have also developed new threats within familiar threats, this has led to the difficulties in applying traditional security methods in addressing cartels, the cartels have developed new threats that the national security cannot identify and prevent. They have also advanced their ways of evading the local government. Cooperation has increased among the cartels due to the lessening of restrictions between international borders, this has made difficult for law enforcers, and also the increasing global network has greatly helped the cartels to make more profits which have led to stronger cartels. Cartels have used their economic power to corrupt law enforcers and judges and assassinate those who do not corporate, also an example in the Russian Mafia people believe that the cartels are more powerful than the government and therefore people will turn to crime leaders for protection because they feel that the government cannot provide protection or even stop organised crime. The increased cooperation between the cartel leaders and political leaders and law enforcers has also made it possible for this cartels to exist and grow, they also threaten those who do not cooperate through assassining those who do not cooperate therefore people

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary - Assignment Example It had also adopted ‘active industrial policies’ that lured foreign investment in exchange of knowledge transfer. Another important element of its success has been its proximity to Hong Kong where inflow of capital and know how was easy. By focusing on backward areas that were near Hong Kong, it introduced reallocation of labor from agriculture to other activities. The local government and entrepreneurs were given incentives to introduce reforms. The reforms and industrial revolution was accompanied by high quality low waged human skill and infrastructure that was able to mass produce. China has not followed the traditional western culture of best practices but has concentrated on improved performance through incentive driven approach, especially during transition period of growth and development. Indeed, while China lacks in freedom, the billion plus population is high growth market for foreign investment. It has introduced fresh reforms to incorporate the concern regar ding environment concern, human rights and more conducive environment for foreign business. This is a way to declare that its growth is not merely a bubble with short life span. Reference Case study: Understanding a Development Miracle: China.

Comparing between two country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Comparing between two country - Essay Example that was established by the founding fathers of these nations after independence, challenges of border conflicts between neighboring countries is still real. Kenya and Tanzania have suffered similarly from terrorist attacks on the record of a twin bomb in the capitals of these two nations that simultaneously occurred on 7th August 2008 at the embassies of the United States. Politically, Kenya and Tanzania have shared several similarities. It will historically be remembered that these two countries were both British Colonies and got independence in the 1960s. At the time of independence, Kenya and Tanzania had similar structures and organization of a unitary government and (Klugman, Neyapti and Stewart 46). Both countries share a commonality of the political history for remaining single party democracies until 1992 when multiparty democracy was adopted in both Kenya and Tanzania. Their struggles for sovereignty are known to have resulted in massive loss of lives. Today, Kenya and Tanzania are multiparty democracies with several political parties registered in both countries. Both nations are headed by a Head of State with Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the founding father in Kenya heading the country while his counterpart Jakaya Kikwete leading Tanzania. The political relations between the two nations have been stable since independence. Several changes in both countries have aimed at transforming governance although making varied achievements. However, Tanzania and Kenya have clearly manifest political differences. Firstly, through the many constitutional changes and amendments since independence, the political structures are substantially transformed. Kenya adopted and embraced a devolved system of governance while Tanzania embraces a unitary system of government (Martin 23). Under the decentralized governance in Kenya, the President is the Head of State while the Governors head the forty-seven counties. The famous constitutional change in Kenya in 2010 ushered in

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

No topic Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

No topic - Assignment Example This was a great idea especially because it ensured that the participants of the initiative had minimal interaction with the locals. To an extent, this idea would be helpful in maintaining the focus of the participants. However, when looked at as a long term effect, this scheme does more harm than good. I am for the idea that at least a couple of locals should be involved in the construction process of the church (Lane 78). It is noteworthy that the essence of building the church is promoting Christianity in the region. As a matter of fact, a church is meant to welcome all, both Christians and non-Christians. Owing to the fact that this church was being built for the locals of MÃ ©xico, it was important to incorporate them in both the planning and the building processes. It is only through this that the locals would feel like their efforts were needed towards the building of the church. Actually, this would make the locals accept and attend the church more as compared to when they are left out in the building process. For this reason, from my expertise, I would suggest that some locals be involved in not just the planning but also the building of the church. Another pertinent issue in this project is the purchase of the deliverables needed to complete the project. It is a really great idea for the planning board to arrange for the purchase of construction materials back in the United States of America before the team sets off to MÃ ©xico. This is important in ensuring that project quality is maintained. In addition, this is also aimed at avoiding the complications that might be involved in cross-cultural business transactions. However, I am of the idea that at least some materials should be purchased locally in MÃ ©xico. It is important to note that would feel much more attached to church and involved in its construction if some components and materials are purchased locally. That notwithstanding, this

Monday, July 22, 2019

Animism and the Alphabet Essay Example for Free

Animism and the Alphabet Essay Animism and the Alphabet Response The author writes about human being how to develop writing system such as European civilization and the Greek origins. Then talk about â€Å"hieroglyphic† and explain the development of the writing process, this was human primeval communication, which a method of identifying with the animal draw on the wall. After they slowly learn to use images or picture to present what their said. Then, he thinks the ideograms of writing Ideographic scripts must make use of a vast number of stylized glyphs or characters, therefore, there are only a few people who highly trained it. Its hard for writing and training, more and more people choice it as how to describe way. With the advent of the aleph- beth, this new innovation changed new distance and open between human life and the rest of nature, people know how to practice and improve their writing ability. So the author is saying that† the larger, more than human life world is no longer a part of the semiotic, no longer a necessary part of the system† The development of human being language benefits our environment, people will reduce hunting to treat as sign and less depend on nature. I don’t agree the author’s views, because people should be eager to explore new stuff. More innovation can show human being value. Even if some ways is like a double edged sword, try to change new method, the writing system will be benefit more and more in the future.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Multilevel Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Treatment

Multilevel Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy Treatment Comparison between anterior approaches and posterior approaches for the treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy: a meta analysis Abstract Objective: Both anterior and posterior approaches are used in the treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (MCSM) due to spinal stenosis or ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL). However, the optimal strategy remains controversial. To compare the clinical results between the two approaches, a meta-analysis was conducted. Methods: PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane library were searched up to July 2014 without language restriction. The reference lists of selected searches comparing anterior and posterior approaches were screened manually. Subgroup analysis was conducted according to the cause of MCSM. A fixed effect model was used for pool data, and a random effects model for heterogeneous data. Mean difference (MD) and odds ratio (OR) was used for continuous and dichotomous outcomes, respectively. Results: Seventeen articles were selected in this study, all of which were non-randomized controlled trials. There were significant difference between two approaches for post-Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score (MD=1.13, 95% CI=0.41, 1.86), operation time (MD=67.43, 95% CI=16.94, 117.91), post-range of motion (ROM) (MD=1.86, 95% CI=0.61, 3.12), length of stay (MD=-1.54, 95% CI=-2.25, -0.5)and complication rate (OR=2.28, 95% CI=1.52, 3.41). Meanwhile, there were no significant difference for pre-JOA, blood loss, neurological recovery rate, pre-ROM, pre- and post-Nurick grade. Conclusions: Based on this meta-analysis, post-JOA and length of stay are significantly better in the anterior group, but high complication rate and no apparent difference for neurological recovery rate made it necessary to conclude more trials with high quality to further confirm the conclusion. Keywords: multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy; clinical outcomes; meta-analysis Introduction Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is caused by compression of the spinal cord due to degeneration. Spinal stenosis and ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) have been considered as the two common causes of CSM. CSM can be treated by a variety of anterior, posterior, or combined anterior and posterior surgical approaches. The decision to use an anterior or a posterior approach depends on many factors, such as the reason of spinal cord compression, the number of vertebral segments, cervical alignment, and the surgeon’s familiarity with the techniques1. Anterior approaches usually include anterior cervical corpectomy with fusion (ACCF) and cervical discectomy with fusion (ACDF), whereas the typical posterior approaches involve laminectomy and laminoplasty2. Anterior decompression and fusion has been successfully used for CSM involving one or two levels3, 4. But failures will be observed when three or more levels are involved (multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy, MCSM) with anterior approaches5, 6. Compared with anterior approaches, posterior strategies provide an indirect canal decompression by allowing the spinal cord to float away from ventral compression. The disadvantages of posterior approach were also noted, for example, neck pain, loss of lordotic curvature, segmental instability, and late neurologic deterioration7. Although many studies comparing the two approaches have been done, the optimal approach providing satisfactory decompression remains to be determined. No systematic analysis of the two approaches in the treatment of MCSM has been published yet. In order to provide a basis for selecting, a meta-analysis of clinical results of anterior approaches compared with posterior approaches for patients with MCSM was performed. Materials and methods Literature search The authors searched multiple databases, includingPubMed, Embase and The Cochrane library up to June 11, 2014 without language restriction. Additionally, the reference lists of selected searches and related articles that not yet included in the electronic database were screened manually. The searching strings were (1) myelopathy or cervical spondylosis or cervical vertebrae or cervical stenosis; (2) Corpectomy or anterior cervical discectomy or anterior decompression or ventral; (3) laminoplasty or laminectomy or posterior decompression or dorsal, with the operator â€Å"AND†. Literature screening Articles were reviewed according to the following criteria: (1) The researches were designed as randomized controlled trials, case-control studies or cohort studies; (2) Patients with multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (MCSM) due to spinal stenosis or ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL); (3) The anterior approaches group was treated by anterior cervical canal decompression; (4) The posterior approaches group was treated by posterior cervical canal decompression; (5) The outcomes was clinical endpoint, like neurological recovery rates, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, range of motion (ROM), Nurick grade, complication rate, operation time, blood loss, and length of stay in hospital. Also, there are five exclusion criteria for literature screening. These were: (1) The cases followed up less than one year; (2) Patients with MSCM were caused by tumors, trauma, soft disk herniation, or previous surgery; (3) Patients without MSCM; (4) Researches without control; (5) non-nature literatures, such as reviews, letters and comments. Data extraction and studies quality assessment Two investigators respectively assessed each potentially eligible study and then extracted data from the included studies. Disagreements were resolved through discussion. The information extracted including the author, publication year, area, ages, sex, number of patients, follow-up period, surgical methods and outcomes. Furthermore, We used the Cochrane8 for assessing the quality of randomized studies, and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)9 for nonrandomised sudies or cohort studies. respectively. Statistical analysis The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the divergence of all outcomes, and all analyses were performed by RevMan5.2 software. Weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for Continuous variables, while Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CI were calculated for dichotomous data. Statistic heterogeneity was identified using chi-square test and I2 test. If P2 >50%, which indicated heterogeneity exists among all results, random effects model was applied. If P≠¥0.05 or I2 ≠¤50%, which indicated heterogeneity, the fixed effects model was selected10. The publication bias was tested by constructing a funnel plot. Results Search results A flow diagram of the literature search and study selection was shown in fig.1. Basing on the aforementioned criteria, we searched 1216, 1710, and 13 articles from PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane library respectively. A total of 2234 articles were remained after excluding duplicate publications. And a total of 2191 articles that mismatched the included criteria were excluded after screening titles and abstracts. Therefore, a total of 43 articles were identified. Of these, sixteen articles were excluded after reading the abstracts: ten articles did not compare the effects between anterior approaches and posterior approaches and six articles were reviews. Ten articles were excluded for the following reasons: two articles were not about multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy, one was self-controlled study, four were about MCSM due to soft disc herniation, and three articles did not have statistic data. Manual search of references did not find any additional articles. As a result, a total of 17 articles1, 6, 11-25 were identified for the Meta analysis. Baseline characteristics As shown in Table 1, seventeen studies were included for our meta analysis. Patients with MSCM in 10 studies1, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19-21, 24, 25 were caused by spinal stenosis, and 5 studies6, 13, 14, 18, 23 were caused by ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), two studies16, 22 caused by both types above. The articles were published from 1992 to 2013. The mean ages ranged from 51.8 to 66.8 years old. The sample size, gender ratio, follow-up period, and surgical methods of each study are listed in Table 1. All studies included were non-randomized controlled trails. The qualities of all studies were assessed using Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOQAS). The scale for non-randomized controlled trails and cohort studies was used to allocate a maximum of 9 points for the quality of selection (4), comparability (1), and exposure (3) or outcomes (3). As shown in supplement table 1, five studies scored 7 points and twelve scored 8 points. Hence, all studies were of a relatively high quality. Clinical outcomes The main outcomes in this Meta analysis were preoperative JOA score, postoperative JOA score, operation time, blood loss, complication rate and neurological recovery rates. According to patients type, studies were divided into three subgroups: subgroup spinal stenosis, subgroup OPLL, subgroup spinal stenosis and OPLL. The results of heterogeneity for preoperative JOA score was P=0.21, I2=22%, indicating no heterogeneity. So the fixed-effects model was selected and MD was 0.39 (95% CI =0.09, 0.69, P=0.01) (Fig. 2). However, except subgroup spinal stenosis and OPLL had significantly differences, the other two subgroups had no significantly differences in the preoperative JOA. By contrast, there has a statistically significance in the postoperative JOA score (MD=1.13, 95% CI =0.41, 1.86) among the three subgroups. But both subgroup spinal stenosis and subgroup OPLL showed apparent heterogeneity (Fig. 3). We also analyzed operation time, blood loss, complication rate for subgroup OPLL and subgroup spinal stenosis, respectively. Comparison of operation time and blood loss of the two subgroups showed that subgroup spinal stenosis had heterogeneity but not for subgroup OPLL. The operation time for both subgroups had statistically significance (MD=67.43; 95% CI =16.94, 117.91), while blood loss did not (MD=52.43; 95% CI =-79.8, 184.66) (Fig. 4, Fig. 5). Furthermore, when we compared the two subgroups we found the following results. The complication rate of subgroup spinal stenosis was significantly higher in the anterior approaches than in posterior approaches (OR=2.60; 95% CI =1.63, 4.15; P2=38%), while subgroup OPLL was not significant (Fig. 6). The neurological recovery rates compared among three subgroups showed no significantly difference (MD=11.85, 95% CI=0.86, 22.84) (Fig. 7). Since few studies was reported, secondary outcomes like pre- and postoperative range of motion (ROM) , pre- and postoperative Nurick grade and length of stay are listed in table 2. Only postoperative ROM (MD=1.86, 95% CI=0.61, 3.12) and length of stay (MD=-1.54, 95% CI= -2.59, -0.50) showed significant difference (P=0.04). there were no statistical difference in pre-ROM, pre- and postoperative Nurick grade between anterior and posterior approaches. Publication bias A variety of clinical outcomes had been calculated, funnel plots only for preoperative JOA score and postoperative JOA score were displayed. As shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, all studies were within the confidential intervals and the shape of the funnel plots revealed symmetric distribution, which suggested there were no significant publication bias. Discussion The surgical treatment for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) has been studied for a long time. Anterior approaches have been widely accepted as an effective and reliable method for the treatment of CSM. but which surgical strategy should be selected for the treatment of multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy (MCSM) remains controversial and challenge. Therefore, we had compared the clinical outcomes of anterior and posterior approaches in the treatment of MCSM due to spinal stenosis or OPLL. In this study, we searched the PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane library and found 17 articles comparing anterior and posterior approaches for treatment of MCSM. According to NOQAS, all included studies had high quality. And a meta-analysis was performed to determine which surgical treatment is more effective. Based on the cause of MCSM, the studies were divided into three subgroups: subgroup spinal stenosis, subgroup OPLL, subgroup spinal stenosis and OPLL. For the clinical results, there was significant difference in preoperative JOA scores in subgroup spinal stenosis and subgroup OPLL. Postoperative JOA scores was better in the anterior group compared with posterior group. This results show that the groups had similar baseline neural function, and the postoperative neural function condition was better in anterior group. Authors selected operation time and blood loss for meta analysis to estimate surgical trauma. In our study, the operation time was significant difference between the two groups, while blood loss had no statistically significance. This suggests that surgical trauma in anterior group was higher than that inposterior group in the treatment of MCSM. In addition, the post-ROM was better in posterior group while length of stay was shorter in anterior group. The preoperative ROM, pre- and post-Nurick grad did not differ significantly between the two groups. In the meta-analysis of neurological recovery rate, significant heterogeneity was found between the studies. Subsequent subgroup analysis was similar for the three subgroups. Complication rate was selected to evaluate complication-related outcomes by some authors. And they found a significantly higher incidence of complications in anterior group compared with the posterior group. Our analysis showed the same results. Subsequent subgroup analysis showed the complication rate of anterior group was higher in subgroup spinal stenosis. This suggests that the anterior approaches were associated with a higher incidence of complications for the treatment of MCSM. There are limitations in our study. First, all studies included in the meta-analysis were non-randomized controlled trails. Second, only few studies were included to evaluate pre- and post-ROM either in subgroup OPLL or subgroup spinal stenosis and OPLL. Therefore, it is necessary to include more prospective and randomized controlled trials with high quality to provide more data on the clinical results of both procedures. Hence, though anterior approaches seems have better clinical outcomes compared with posterior approaches in our study, we could not draw a strong conclusion about which strategy is preferred to the treatment of MCSM due to spinal stenosis or OPLL. Conclusions On the basis of the meta-analysis of anterior approaches and posterior approaches for the treatment of MCSM, we can conclude that the clinical outcomes of anterior approaches are superior to posterior approaches for post-JOA, length of stay, the outcomes blood loss, neurological recovery rate are equivalent between two groups. Because of the existing limitations of the study, future studies with high quality are needed for update meta-analysis in order to evaluate the strategy for MCSM treatment.

Education Essays Bilingualism United States

Education Essays Bilingualism United States Bilingualism United States The United States Children Growing Up Monolingual Understanding, Identifying, and Examining Bilingualism in the United States: An Interdisciplinary Approach Why do so many children in the United States grow up monolingual? The United States is regarded as â€Å"a melting pot†, in which people of different cultures, races, and religions are joined together so as to widen a multi-ethnic society. Americans have had various beliefs about whether or not English should be the official language in this country. There have been diverse decisions in English Only acts throughout the United States’ history. These English Only acts demonstrate some of the reasons why so many of the United States’ children grow up monolingual. It’s no wonder that immigrants to this country are swayed to lose their mother tongue or even their entire customs and traditions. It is difficult to understand the close ties that language has with certain group ethnicities (Gerstle, 2001). Language is one of the major ingredients of individuals’ identities and ethnicities. The United States should consider a proposal that would include a more enhanced plan for the welfare of certain groups, so that they could fully contribute in our society and encourage a more bilingual or multilingual society that would prepare Americans for a more expanding global society. The United States should consider itself to be at an advantage when it comes to bilingualism. There is a flood of immigrants coming into this nation every year and every immigrant brings with them a unique idiom. Throughout American history, the typical pattern of language usage among immigrants has been a rapid shift from non-English monolingualism to bilingualism to English monolingualism in the third generation (Fishman, 1980). Americans have more of an advantage, because of their high percentage of immigrants, to encourage bilingualism to its citizens. The United States could benefit from the advantage because bilingualism could better prepare the U.S. citizens for an ever-expanding global society (Sheriff, 2007). Major Reasons for Bilingualism in the U.S. One significant element to bilingualism in the United States begins with providing better welfare of specific groups of people who cannot, because of language barriers, contribute fully in our social organization. Another reason for bilingualism in the U.S. is the interest of professional second language groups, who find it essential to continue their support for language study development (Roeming,1971). In addition to the significant elements to increase bilingualism, native speakers might find it meaningful to continue their mother tongue, traditions, and cultures. One important reason for this is that there have been findings that concluded â€Å"a foreign language facilitates mastering the higher forms of the native language† (Lambert Tucker, 2007). Bilingualism could better prepare the U.S. citizens for an ever-expanding global society (Sheriff, 2007). American citizens need to examine outside their borders and learn from the mistakes and successes of other countries, furthermore countries that are thriving with developed citizens with bilingual or multilingual proficiency (Pufahi, 2001). It is essential that the United States’ citizens become a society with multicultural character and reflect as the â€Å"melting pot† nation, so which as they are regarded (Safty, 1988). Why an Interdisciplinary Approach There are many factors that contribute to bilingualism in America. It is important that it be examined for the reasons listed above. The information must be explored from multiple viewpoints, in order to successfully develop a system of improvement. By applying an interdisciplinary approach to the issue, the viewpoints from specific disciplines can be investigated and integrated to provide successful modifications. While disciplines can blind or sway, they become, when used relevantly, our keenest lenses on the world. The disciplines are the most useful means for illuminating those generative issues that have perennially engaged the curiosity of thoughtful human beings (Gardner and Boix-Mansilla, 1994). The interdisciplinary process involves integrating disciplinary insights into a particular problem and it does not attempt to integrate disciplinary perspectives. However, before one can identify insights, one must first identify the disciplines relevant to the problem (Repko, 2005). Bilingualism influences many divisions of this nation. It is difficult to apply only one study of discipline to this multifaceted crisis. The issue needs to be analyzed in more areas of disciplines, so that all factors are considered. This complete examination of bilingualism in the United States could help render all major concerns that affect Americans and their legal citizens. Significant Disciplines There are several disciplines that could contribute to the concerns of bilingualism in America. The disciplines that are considered to be the most critical are Education, Sociology, and Modern Languages. The goal of this investigation is to consider the most important welfare of the United States’ citizens concerning bilingualism. There are several other disciplines that contain factors involving bilingualism, but these disciplines may only briefly be illustrated in this paper. The disciplines that may be briefly studied are Economics, History, Linguistics, Political Science and Psychology. The investigation concentrates mainly on the most critical disciplines. Education, Sociology, and Modern Languages are the disciplines that will be fully investigated for the purpose of the problem at hand. Discipline 1: Education The discipline of Education contains methods that can assist in teaching a system. Teaching techniques can have effective implications to address specific issues. It is important to understand well enough specific structures in order to effectively acknowledge them. The purpose of teaching techniques is to have a sound knowledge base, so that students can build as they are exposed to different life experiences. If a student is well educated, then they are able to interpret good judgment, experience and wisdom (Britannica, 2006). These are the reasons why it is essential that students at an early age be instructed in the issues of foreign languages. Students are able to acquire two languages simultaneously almost â€Å"with the same ease [he] learns his first one because he is doing so at a stage of mental development which proceeds parallel to the mechanisms of language acquisition.† The influence of Education has been proven to be an effective way to promote a Bilingual society ( Safty, 1988). The discipline of Education would allow students to further understand and comprehend the structures of bilingualism and promote the importance of the issue in America’s society. Discipline 2: Sociology The discipline of Sociology contains methods of how and why people are structured in society. Societies are structured as individuals or as part of associations, groups and institutions. Societies are examined to reveal how and why people are structured in specific ways (Britannica, 2006). It is essential to include this discipline’s insights to the issue of bilingualism in the U.S. It should be researched why certain societies do not fully contribute in our society, because of language barriers. Also, it should be examined why certain members continue to contribute to the support of language study. Professional linguists observed evidence of behavioral function in two languages with enthusiasm without recognizing that the disparate cultural levels of the two languages may cause serious individual socio-psychological problems (Roeming, 1971). It is essential to understand how or why people are structured in societies, so that there can be a greater awareness of how Americans can gain a higher participation in bilingualism. Discipline 3: Modern Languages The discipline of Modern Languages involves the structure of languages, syntax formation of languages, and learning capabilities of second language learners. The structure of languages can in some cases be transformed from one language to another. Positive cognitive gains should be expected from bilingualism if the second language is introduced after the child has achieved a certain threshold level of competence in his first language (Diaz, 1983). The syntax-formations of languages are sometimes similar in structure. In an intensive investigation it revealed that exposure to French facilitated the comprehension of certain English syntactic structures (Safty, 1988). Also, the learning capabilities of second language learners can sometimes be very diverse from that of native language learners. It is essential to understand the formalities of Modern Languages, so that the proper proposal can be assessed of bilingualism in the United States. Significant Disciplines Other disciplines that should be briefly studied are Economics, History, Linguistics, Political Science and Psychology. Economics involves the set of principles and techniques by which a society decides and organizes the ownership and allocation of economic resources. History includes the social structures and the interaction of different group in society rather thatn affairs of state. Linguistics encompasses semantics, syntax, and phonology. Synchronic linguistic studies aim to describe a language as it exists at a given time; diachronic studies trace a language[s historical development. â€Å"Political Science contains the nature of states, the functions performed by governments, voter behaviour, political parties, political culture, political economy and public opinion. Psychology illustrates the concerns of personalities, attitudes, motivations, and behaviour of an individual or a group† (Political Science, 2008). The disciplines listed above may be briefly included in this investigation for the purpose of the United States’ citizens examining the importance of increasing bilingualism or multilingualism. Purpose of Interdisciplinary Studies The purpose of this investigation is to understand, identify, and examine bilingualism in the United States. The issue of bilingualism in America is a major concern that needs to be reviewed with more than one aspect of discussion in order for all Americans to agree on the topic at hand. The interests of specific groups of people who are not able, because of language barriers, to contribute fully in our social organization should be reviewed. Also, it is ethically accurate for native speakers to maintain their mother tongue, traditions, and cultures studies. It also should to be reviewed why beginning foreign language study early supports achievement of higher levels of language proficiency and why bilingualism can enhance certain cognitive skills and intellectual development. If the issues listed in this paper are understood, identified and examined then the United States could better prepare the U.S. citizens for an ever-expanding global society with specific groups’ interest included. Background The United States was founded on diverse cultures unifying to establish a new nation of opportunities. The history of America has demonstrated the struggles of diverse cultures trying to create a multicultural nation. One of the major concerns in the United States has been bilingualism. In the beginning Americans tried to define what the nation stood for and what customs and cultures were considered American. President Theodore Roosevelt once said, We have one language here, and that is the English language, and we intend to see that the [assimilation] crucible turns our people out as Americans. These events in American history resulted in federal and state laws, judicial decisions and administrative regulations which were largely sympathetic to the idea of language rights. Official English Movement In the nineteenth century of the United States there were languages other than English that were widely spoken, a strong â€Å"English only† struggle developed at the turn of the century as a flood of immigrates from Southern and Eastern Europe increased xenophobic feelings in Americans. The â€Å"Americanization† movement that grew between 1900 and 1920 demanded national unity upon cultural homogeneity and a common language (Citrin, Reingold, Walters, Green, 1990). The planned drive for â€Å"official English† in the 1980s was what started change in America. Senator Hayakawa (Republican, California) feared that if the United States failed to promote a common language then they would create instability and polarization similar to Canada, Belgium, and other linguistically divided countries. Hayakawa first proposed an amendment to the Constitution to declare English the official language to the United States in 1981. Hayakawa established the â€Å"U.S. English,† the organization which quickly became the leading advocacy group of the â€Å"official English† movement. Today there are 44 states and numerous countries and municipalities that have considered laws or initiatives that declare English to be their sole official language (Citrin, Reingold, Walters, Green, 1990). There are organizations that fight to make English the official language of the United States. ProEnglish is a member-supported, national, non-profit organization founded in 1994. ProEnglish is one of the organizations dedicated to making English the official language of the United States. They disapprove of such orders such as the Executive Order 13166, which states that any entity which receives federal funds must provide whatever services it offers in any foreign language spoken by anyone likely to receive those services. It says failure to do so is likely to constitute discrimination on the basis of national origin as prohibited by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights law (ProEnglish Activism, 2008). The â€Å"English only† movement and the immigrants struggling to strive in American societies demonstrates the diverse viewpoints that their citizens hold about bilingualism. Bilingual Education The United States has had bilingual education since the 1840’s. It was believed that a form of bilingual schooling originated in Cincinnati in 1840. Cincinnati was one of the many communities in which the majority or a large minority of the population was German-speaking. German immigrants were coming to America in huge numbers during the ladder decades of the 19th century. There were private and parochial German schools established, furthermore German parents had to pay tuition and school taxes. As a result of the German schools the native-born Americans became concerned that speakers of other languages would be assimilated into their speech and way of life. They decided to unite the German schools with the public schools and swayed the students to aspire to learn the German language. This resulted in students learning German and English languages together (Andersson, 1971).† The 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s were a low period for foreign languages in general, which almost disappeared from the elementary-school curriculum. On January 17, 1967, a historic bill was introduced in the Senate of the U.S. by the senior senator from Texas together with seven other senators as co-sponsors. The bill was to ensure that students whose native tongue was not English would be better assisted in school. On January 2, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Bilingual Education Act, with the words, â€Å"Thousands of children of Latin descent, young Indians, and others will get a better start- a better chance in school (Andersson, 1971)†. Federal policy in bilingual education since 1960 has been made to ensure equal educational opportunity for minority-language children of limited English proficiency (LEP). They began because of court decisions enforcing civil rights legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA) of 1974 (Secada, 1990). There is a debate for Bilingual Education in which there are those who believe that the goal of the program should be to assimilate LEP students into the mainstream as quickly as possible. Then there are those that believe that the program should help develop dual language competence and literacy, multicultural awareness, and enhanced self concept which could lead to other desirable goals (Secada, 1990). In the 1960s the concept of a federal bilingual education program revealed to be politically popular, and there were more than three dozen bilingual education bills introduced into the House of Representatives. On January 17, 1967, Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough and six cosponsors introduced S. 428, the American Bilingual Education Act (BEA), an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This amendment was to ensure a better education to â€Å"the special educational needs of the large numbers of students in the United States whose mother tongue is Spanish and to whom English is a foreign language (Lyons, 1990)†. The 1974 amendments lengthened the formation and operation of the BEA, they also supported the law’s focus on English-language development and neglect of native-language development. The amendments also excluded federal support for two-way bilingual-education programs like the Coral Way model. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally aided programs and activities and entailed on grant-making agencies accountability for guaranteeing compliance. In 1974 the United States Supreme Court delivered its first and only response to the legal responsibilities of schools serving LRP students. The case was Lau v. Nichols, a class-action suit by the parents of nearly 3000 Chinese pupils in the 16,500 students San Francisco public school system. There were only a small percentage of students that received special instruction and the remainder received none. The plaintiffs alleged that the school district’s conduct violated both the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The plaintiffs requested that the laws be improved and the school districts policies ensure quality instruction for bilingual students. Multilingual-multicultural programs were even more determined in providing instruction in and development of English and at least two other languages (Lyons,1990). In the 1980s the Regan administration cut funding to the bilingual education programs and at the time there was an increase in the number of LEP children needing BEA-funding services. There were at least 3.6 million LEP students that were attending schools in the Unites States. The LEP school-age population was expected to increase, through the year 2000, two and one half times as fast as the general school-age population (Lyons, 1990). During Regan’s term in office he appointed William J. Bennett to be his successor. Secretary Bennett announced to his citizens: Early study of foreign languages makes sense. The imitative capacities of young children give them natural advantages as language students. And language study is good for them. It allows children a taste of the size and diversity of human experience and helps them to distinguish similarities and differences between their own and other cultures and peoples. It may even have a positive effect on their command of English (Lyons, 1990). Integrated Disciplines The disciplines discussed in this investigation are Education, Sociology and Modern Languages. They are essential for the complete investigation of bilingualism in America. Education contains the major aspects of bilingualism in America. Education is the major reason for bilingual studies. Education is the primary reason that American citizens gain comprehensive understanding of a second language. This is the reason that Education is reviewed first in this intense study. Sociology is the next discipline viewed. It is essential to the issue of bilingualism because societies determine what kind of community they desire to exist in. They vote and protest the issues that concern their communities, furthermore determine the idioms used in their societies. The last discipline that is viewed is Modern Languages because of the importance of language structures and facets. These disciplines are viewed in this order due to their importance in the issues concerning bilingualism in America. Other Bilingualism Historical Events Beginning in the 1990s there was a clear presence of xenophobic culture in the California citizens. The California Proposition 277 in 1998 was designed to dismantle bilingual education. Also the Proposition 187 was created to make English the official language of the state. Governor Pete Wilson and other politicians made speeches using a kind of language that demonized the so-called â€Å"illegal† immigrants (Macedo, 2000). These events lead to other states trying to mimic California’s actions. The presence of xenophobic culture was seen much earlier in American history. It can’t be forgotten the English re-education camps designed primarily to yank Native Americans mother tongues. Native American children were taken form their parents and sent to boarding schools with the main objective of cutting them off from their â€Å"primitive† languages and â€Å"savage† cultures (Macedo, 2000). The historical events that have taken place in the Unites States history have brought us to the nation you see today. Bilingualism is still a major issue among American citizens. The issue is still a major debate among our new electing partys nomination for presidency. The recent debate among the two running Democratic Partys nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, were asked about bilingualism in the United States. Their responses to the question are below. Clintons comments: I think its important for as many Americans as possible to do what I have never been able to do, and that is learn another language and try to be bilingual because that connects us to the rest of the world. I represent New York. We have 170 languages in New York City alone. And I do not think that we should be, in any way, discriminating against people who do not speak English, who use facilities like hospitals or have to go to court to enforce their rights. But I do think that English does remain an important part of the American experience. So I encourage people to become bilingual. But I also want to see English remain the common, unifying language of our country (Clinton, 2008). And Obamas: Well, I think it is important that everyone learns English and that we have that process of binding ourselves together as a country. I think thats very important. I also think that every student should be learning a second language. I want to make sure that children who are coming out of Spanish-speaking households had the opportunity to learn and are not falling behind. If bilingual education helps them do that, I want to give them the opportunity. But I also want to make sure that English-speaking children are getting foreign languages because this world is becoming more interdependent and part of the process of Americas continued leadership in the world is going to be our capacity to communicate across boundaries, across borders, and thats something frankly where weve fallen behind (Obama, 2008). The controversy between these two Democratic presidential candidates about bilingualism reveals the major importance of bilingualism in America today. The problem requires a full investigation with the most comprehensive understanding of the issue. The issue should be viewed by all aspects of the problem. The disciplines of Education, Sociology and Modern Languages could give a full investigation on many facets of bilingualism in America. The concerns of bilingualism need an interdisciplinary approach due to the many aspects of the issue. The interdisciplinary approach would allow many viewpoints to be examined and ideas to be fully understood (Repko, 2005). A look back of the history of bilingualism in America is an important aspect to viewing the problems that we see today. It is essential to acknowledge the events that have taken place in America history in order to fully understand the elements of bilingualism in this nation. Reference List Andersson, Theodore (1971). Bilingual Education: The American Experience. The Modern Language Journal, 55, 427-440 Berriz, Berta (2006). Unz Got Your Tongue: What Have We Lost with the English-only Mandates? Radical Teacher, 10-15 CAL:Digest (Pufahi, I., Rhodes, N., Christian, D.). (2001). What We Can Learn From Foreign Language Teaching in Other Countries. Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved September 18, 2007, from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0106pufahl.html Citrin, J., Reingold, B., Walters, E., Green, D. (1990). The â€Å"Official English† Movement and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the United States. The Western Political Quarterly,43, 535-559 Clinton, Hillary (2008, February 21). The importance of bilingualism in America. Lecture presented for the American public in the United States. Diaz, Rafael (1983). Thought and Two Languages: The Impact of Bilingualism on Cognitive Development. Review of Research in Education, 10, 23-54 Encyclopedia Britannica (2006). Encyclopedia Britannica Incoporated, Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.britannica.com Gardner, H., Boix-Mansilla, V. (1994) Teaching for Understanding Within and Across the Disciplines. Educational Leadership, 14-18 Garica, E., Bryant, J. (2007). Helping Young Hispanic Learners. Educational Leadership, 34-39 Gerstle, Gary (2001). Beyond the Melting Pot. New Leader, 28 Leonard, K. (2007). English Only Is English Lonely. American Libraries, 3 Lyons, James (1990). The Past and Future Directions of Federal Bilingual-Education Policy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 508, 66-80 Lubell, M., Zahran, S., Vedlitz, A. (2007). Collective Action and Citizen Responses to Global Warming, Political Behavior, 29,391-413 Macedo, Donaldo ( 2000). The Colonialism of the English Only Movement. Educational Researcher, 29, 15-24 Muhlko, C. (2007). Too Cool for School. New York Times Magazine, 125,126 Obama, Barack (2008, February 21 ). The importance of bilingualism in America. Lecture presented for the American public in the United States. Pease-Alvarez, L., Hakuta, K. (1992). Enriching Our Views of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Edcuational Research, 21(2), 4-6+19 Political science. (2008). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved February 27, 2008, from Portes, A., Lingxin, H. (1998). E. Pluribus Unum: Blingualism and Loss of Language in the Second Generation. Sociology of Education , 71(4), 269-294 Pratt, Mary Louise ( 2002). What’s Foreign and What’s Familiar? Modern Language Association, 117(5), 1283-1287 Roeming, Robert (1971). Bilingualism and the National Interest. The Modern Language Journal, 55(2), 73-81 Safty, Adel (1988). French Immersion and the Making of a Bilingual Society: A Critical Review and Discussion. Canadian Journal of Education ,13(2), 243-262 Secada, Walter (1990). Research, Politics, and Bilingual Eduation. The Annals of the American Academy, 508, 81-106 Sheriff, S. (2007). Nuestros Amigos. Teaching K-8, 46-47

Saturday, July 20, 2019

The Feelings Of Falling In Love :: essays research papers fc

The Feelings of Falling in Love What is Love? Is it attraction? Is it intimacy? Is it attachment? Love, in fact, is all of these things combined together. "Love is spiritual, not physical. It is a union of souls and hearts and minds, not something you can't put under your microscope and understand!" Love is an emotion combined with a series of feelings. These feelings can be immensely powerful and wonderful. Romantic love is defined to be an intense emotional state that one person experiences in relation to another. These types of feelings appear to be among the most intense that most of us are capable of, and at least in some cases, grow rather than diminish with time. Falling in love can be one of the most unexplainable feelings a person can endure. There are two sets of feelings that are the basis of modern romantic relationships. The first is attraction. Attraction is the excitement you feel when falling in love. To better explain this feeling, attraction is what you feel when you have met someone new who really excites you and you begin to feel aroused when thinking about this person. Although this sounds very sexual, this feeling is just the first of what will most likely become a sexual passion. When in this first state of attraction, your body feels different - more bouncy, more energetic, and in need of less food and sleep. When in this state of attraction, one feels very happy and different every time that they are with this person. Frequently the presence (or sometimes merely thought) of the loved one can evoke specific physiological reactions. These physiological reactions include: erections for the male, wetness for the female, a lump in the throat, sweaty palms, weak knees, cold feet, a pounding heart. dizziness, and butterflies in the stomach. These physiological reations are completely normal when falling in love. The second type of feeling that one endures when falling in love is attachment. Attachment is a bond or a special tie between people that are attracted to one another. Attachment helps keep people together and has more to do with feelings of security than of excitement. Romantic love requires attraction plus attachment. Someone can be very strongly attracted to another person but never become attached. Without some feeling of attachment, attraction is nonspecific. Once you have begun to fall in love with someone, this process becomes more and more important and you begin to feel more attached to this person. When in this state of attachment, each person would feel as if they are one person combined together. A special bond is shared and a sense of

Friday, July 19, 2019

The Black Cat Essay -- essays research papers fc

A Glimpse Into the World of 'The Black Cat';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Those who have read any of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories know that most of them are full of suspense and mystery and that they efflict a feeling of horror and shock upon the reader. Poe studies the mind, and is conscious of the abnormalities of his narrators and he does not condone the intellectual expedient through which they strive, only too earnestly, to justify themselves. He enters the field of the starkly, almost clinically realistic investigation of men who, although they may feel uneasy about their mental states when their tension lets up, are too far gone to understand their mania, let alone to control it (Gargano 171). His stories usually have a horrible murder theme in which there is a obsessive narrator and they follow the development of the theme step by step with a realism that, barring with genius, might case a history from the twentieth-century psychiatry. This could not be presented more clearly than in 'The Black Cat';. Those who may deny realism to Poe cannot be very familiar with our daily newspapers, which periodically carry true stories of murders committed under just abnormal psychological pressures as those described in 'The Black Cat'; (Buranelli 76). This story begins with the narrator ,who is about to be hung, confessing what he has done in some type of repention for his soul. The narrator step by step describes how he began drinking and then to neglect his dearly beloved cat and his wife. One day when he is maddened by the actions of the cat, he cuts out its eye and later kills the cat by hanging it. After his house burns down and he has lost all he owned he finds a new cat resembling all to well the first. One day while working with his wife in the cellar he is nearly tripped down the stairs by the cat, he then picks up an axe and tries to kill it but his swing is intercepted by his wife and he instead strikes her and kills her instantly. He conceals the body but then when the police come, he in a mocking manner taps the wall in which she is buried and reveals to the police what he has done(Poe). In Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat,'; his use of point of view, symbolism, foreshadowing, and theme all combine with what he calls 'a series of mere household events'; to show how the narrator is driven into madness (Poe 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tol... ...uld have not got the full effect that Poe was trying to convey, which is that just about anyone can be driven into madness and that the narrator in this story is not very different from any other person. Works Cited Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe: Second Edition. Boston: Twanyne Publishers, 1977. 76-77. Davidson, Edward H. Poe: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. 190. Gargano, James W. 'The Question of Poe's Narrators.'; POE: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Regan. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1967. 169-171. Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1972. May, Charles E. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991. 78. Poe, Edgar Allan. 'The Black Cat.'; Ed. Martha Womack. n.page.online. Internet 29 July. 1998. Available http://www.poedecoder.com./Qrisse/works/blackcat.html. Prinsky, Norman. 'The Black Cat.'; Masterplots II: Short Story Series. Ed. Frank N. Magil. Vol. 1. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1986. 231-34. Womack, Martha. 'Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat.''; n.page.Online. Internet. 2 August 1998. Available http: //www.poedecoder.com/essays/blackcat.