Childhood Vaccinations: The Reality Behind the Debate

Childhood Vaccinations Brandi DeLuca Bryant & Stratton College ENGL 101 Alexis Vaughan December 17, 2012 Childhood Vaccinations Child vaccinations have become a huge debate with new expectant parents as well as parents who already have children. Should children be vaccinated? A great majority of pediatricians believe that yes, children should be vaccinated. However, there are many groups that disagree with vaccines because they believe vaccines are doing more harm than good. If that is the case, should we vaccinate our children?The choice to vaccinate our children is a choice every parent must make; there are many risks and side affects with every vaccine, but along with those risks comes the piece of mind knowing that our children are protected against a deadly disease. When a child is vaccinated, the child is administered with a vaccine that is specially made to protect them from a particular disease. The vaccine is created by using a small piece of a microbe that is dead or very w eak (Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, 2012, para. 1). By using a very small amount, it eliminates the chance of the patient getting sick.When the injection is administered, the small piece of microbe is introduced into the body’s bloodstream and into the immune system. When the two meet, the immune system creates an antibody that kills the microbe. Once that particular antibody is present within the body, it will always be on defense and ready to fight if that same microbe returns (Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, 2012, para. 1). The first vaccine in the world’s history to be created was the smallpox vaccine in the 1790s by a man named Edward Jenner (Stern & Markel, 2005, para, 1). Jenner was a country doctor who lived in Berkeley, England.This is where Jenner administered the world’s first vaccination in 1796 (Stern & Markel, 2005, para, 6). The vaccination was created by taking pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaid’s hand. This vaccination was than teste d on an eight-year-old named James Phipps. The child was unaffected by the vaccine and showed no signs or symptoms of smallpox. Jenner conducted twelve additional experiments all proving that vaccinations helped protect humans against infections. It took over eighteen years after Jenner created the smallpox vaccine for scientists to create new vaccines.In the 1830s after an initial generation had been vaccinated, the United States and Europe saw a decline in smallpox (Stern & Markel, 2005, para, 23). Even with the success of the new vaccination, there were people known as antivaccinationists who believed vaccines were an invasion to their privacy and bodily integrity. This is where it began, the debate over vaccinations. During the hospital stay after delivering a baby, the mother will be asked if she would like her child to receive his or her first dose of the hepatitis B vaccination. Many new mothers without hesitation will agree to this vaccine.It is being recommended by a medica l professional, why would a parent question them? Yet, many parents do considering that one-third out of the four million babies born in the United States are not vaccinated by the age of two (Aesoph, n. d. , para. 1). Vaccinations are given to children of all ages to prevent or help fight certain possibly illnesses. All childhood vaccinations are given in a series of two or more doses. Depending on the child’s age, the dose and vaccine will vary. Most children should have completed the recommended vaccine schedule by the time they are six years old.The vaccination schedule was designed to build a baby’s immune system from birth and develop as the child gets older. The first vaccination a newborn will receive is the hepatitis B vaccine, which they will typically get prior to leaving the maternity unit. The hepatitis B vaccine is given in three or four different injections over a six-month period (Department of Health and Human Services, n. d. , para. 2). The vaccine pr otects against hepatitis B, which is a contagious liver disease (Department of Health and Human Services, n. d. , para. 1). The hepatitis B vaccine is considered extremely safe and effective.By the age of six years-old a child could have received as many as ten vaccinations (Department of Health and Human Services, n. d. , para. 1). These vaccines and the dose amount required are: two to three doses of Rotavirus (RV), four doses of Pneumococcal (PCV), three doses of Inactivated Poliovirus (IPV or Polio), four doses of Diphtheria, Tetanus, acellular Pertussis (DTaP), three to four doses of Haemophilus Influenzea (Hib), one dose of Measels, Mumps and Rubella (MMR), two doses of Hepatitis A (HepA), one dose of Meningococcal (MCV4), and one dose of Chickenpox (Varicella) (Department of Health and Human Services, n. . , para. 1). Once a child is older than six months, it is recommended that the child receive the influenza shot as well. Not immunizing children makes them vulnerable to con tract a disease that is almost one hundred percent preventable such as rotavirus. The rotavirus vaccine protects children from gastroenteritis, which is inflammation of the stomach and intestines. When a child contracts the rotavirus disease their symptoms include watery diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain and in some cases, vomiting (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2011, para. ). â€Å"Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide† (CDC, 2011, para. 1). Around the world, rotavirus is responsible for over half a million deaths a year for children under the age of five (CDC, 2011, para. ). I understand that in third world counrties vaccinations are not always available, but that is over five hundred thousand children who have lost their lives to a disease that a vaccination was created to prevent this exact same problem. People known as anti-vaccinationists say that vaccines do more harm than good.How can that possible be said when over five hundred thousand lives could have been saved had they been vaccinated with the rotavirus vaccine? Association of American of Physicians & Surgeons said: Measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, and the whole panoply of childhood diseases are a far less serious threat than having a large fraction (say 10%) of a generation afflicted with learning disability and/or uncontrollable aggressive behavior because of an impassioned crusade for universal vaccination†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.Public policy regarding vaccines is fundamentally flawed. It is permeated by conflicts of interest. It is based on poor scientific methodology (including studies that are too small, too short, and too limited in populations represented), which is, moreover, insulated from independent criticism. The evidence is far too poor to warrant overriding the independent judgments of patients, parents, and attending physicians, even if this were ethically or legally acceptable. (Vaccination Liberation, 2011, para. ) A doctor by the name of Richard Moskowitz was a pediatrician who after ten years of immunizing children could no longer bring himself to immunize children, even if the parents requested the vaccine (Vaccination Risk Awareness Network, 2012, para. 1). Richard Moskowitz wrote an article that was published in a journal in March of 1983. In the article that he wrote, he believed that by ridding the world of microbial species it would disrupt the balance of nature in ways no one would ever imagine.He also believed that vaccines were being created simply for the fact that the equipment is there to produce those vaccines and to show that we can manipulate the evolutionary process (Vaccination Risk Awareness Network, 2012, para. 2). When a vaccine is introduced to the body, foreign proteins or possibly live viruses are released into the bloodstream. Moskowitz believed by just that fact alone, the public is entitled to solid proof that vaccinations are safe and fully effective.If chi ldren are going to be injected with live viruses in hopes that it will someday protect them from that very same disease, proof that these vaccines pose no harm to the children needs to be presented in a very strong way. Richard Moskowitz said: Most people can readily accept the fact that at times certain laws are necessary for the public good that some of us strongly disagree with, but the issue in this case involves the wholesale introduction of foreign proteins or even live viruses into the bloodstream of entire populations. For that reason alone, the public is surely entitled to convincing proof, eyond any reasonable doubt, that artificial immunization is in fact a safe and effective procedure in no way injurious to health, and that the threat of the corresponding natural disease remains sufficiently clear and urgent to warrant vaccinating everyone, even against their will if necessary. (Vaccination Risk Awareness Network, 2012, para. 2) The choice to vaccinate a child is complet ely up to the parents. When making the decision there are two sides of the argument to look at. The parent must know all of the pros and cons to both sides of the argument before being able to make an educated decision.What the parent should know is that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates all vaccines currently in the market to make sure they are safe and effective. Prior to the vaccine being FDA approved, there are many tests that the vaccine must go through before being accepted. The FDA’s Center for Biological Evaluation and Research (CBER) is the department that is responsible for monitoring all vaccines in the United States (U. S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2009, para. 1). The vaccines go through three clinical trials, all of which include human studies (FDA, 2009, para. 3).Once the vaccine has been accepted, the FDA will work side by side with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (FDA, 2009, para. 1). The FDA does this by monitoring s ide effects that a patient or parent may report to their pediatrician after a vaccination has been administered. From my personal experience as a mother to children who have been vaccinated, the most common side effect from a vaccine is a high fever that typically goes away approximately twenty-four hours after the initial injection. The FDA reports that since the beginning of vaccines, many infectious diseases have been eliminated or are now rare (FDA, 2012, para. ). Take rubella for example. In 1964 to 1965 before the rubella vaccine was considered a routine vaccine in the United States, there was an epidemic of rubella (FDA, 2012, para. 2). An estimated 20,000 newborn babies were born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) along with the 2,100 that died shortly after birth and 11,250 miscarriages (FDA, 2012, para. 10). CRS is an infection that a fetus can contract during the first trimester while inside the womb of an infected mother (Boston Children’s Hospital, 2011, para . 2).Babies born with CRS can develop heart defects, mental retardation and deafness (FDA, 2012, para. 12). The FDA reported that â€Å"Of the 20,000 infants born with CRS, 11,600 were deaf, 3,580 were blind, and 1,800 were mentally retarded. † (FDA, 2012, para. 10). In 2010, only six cases of CRS were reported (FDA, 2012, para. 10). If the rubella vaccine was for some reason stopped, rubella would return resulting in pregnant women becoming infected and babies would possibly be born with CRS (FDA, 2012, para, 10). Deciding whether or not to have a child vaccinated is completely up to the parent.There are no federal laws that require parents to have their children vaccinated. However, all fifty states require children to have certain vaccinations if the parent wants them to attend a public school. These vaccinations must be completed prior to the child being accepted to the school. Some may see this as the government controlling the vaccination policy and forcing parents to v accinate their children against their own will. Most parents choose to send their children to school to obtain an education because they believe it is a beneficial choice for their children’s future.If a parent wants this, they must vaccinate the child or they simply are not allowed to attend school. Think about how many children attend a public school on a daily basis and all of the germs that are spread and the viruses that are passed from one child to another. Now think about if those children were not vaccinated and the amount of illnesses that a parent would have to worry about. It would no longer be a simple cold or a case of the flu; it could be rubella, hepatitis B, or even polio.By children being required to have certain vaccinations prior to attending school, can people really say that it is the government forcing us to immunize our children or are they really looking out for the best interest of the children? Of all the many debates surrounding childhood vaccines, autism is the one that most people associate with vaccinations. Autism, which is official called autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental disability caused by a neurological disorder that affects the way an autistic child sees and interacts with the world around them (â€Å"What Is Autism? , 2005, para. 1). The controversy started in 1998 when a study conducted by Andrew Wakefield was published in a British journal called The Lancet (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2012, para. 2). In his studies, he stated that the expected amount of children diagnosed with autism in California should have been around one hundred five to two hundred sixty-three cases, according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Diseases (Wakefield, 1999, para. 4). The actual amount of children diagnosed was one thousand six hundred eight-five cases (Wakefield, 1999, para. 4).Wakefield backed his accusations with proof of examinations from twelve children, all of which had regressive autism (Katz, 20 11, para. 4). All twelve children were developing within normal range until symptoms of autistic behavior appeared shortly after receiving their first dose of the MMR vaccine. He claims that there is a link that the MMR vaccine is the possible cause of autism. In the study he conducted there were two test vaccine groups. One group received the MMR vaccine and the other group received any measles-containing vaccine (Wakefield, 1999, para. ). The study group that received the MMR vaccine was reported by the parents to have temporal clustering (Wakefield, 1999, para. 3). This led Wakefield to the conclusion that the MMR vaccine was the possible cause of autism. After the article was published there was a huge decline in children being immunized. Parents believed that the study was accurate and refused to have their children vaccinated resulting in multiple cases of the measles to appear in emergency rooms around America.Once word got around about the article, parents started to associa te their child’s autistic behavior with the MMR vaccine. The first MMR vaccine is administered around twelve to fifteen months; the signs of autistic behavior typically appear around fifteen to eighteen months of age (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2012, para. 2). This is what led many parents to filing lawsuits claiming the MMR vaccine caused their child to develop autism. Almost all suits at the time were thrown out due to lack of evidence.During an investigation into Wakefield’s accusation of the MMR vaccine being the root cause of autism, researchers tried to replicate Wakefield’s findings but were unable to come up with the same results. An investigation led by a journalist named Brian Deer who worked for British Medical Journal found that five of the twelve children in Wakefield’s study had shown signs of autism prior to even receiving the MMR vaccination (Katz, 2011, para. 5). Once this information was known, more information came out making it lo ok as if the Wakefield study was fraudulent in effort to make money.The investigation by Deer reported that Wakefield’s autism theory was released after Wakefield had been hired by a law firm who was preparing to file a suit against vaccine makers. The British Medical Journal reported that Wakefield was paid approximately five thousand dollars to publish a fraudulent study (Katz, 2011, para. 7). Wakefield has since denied all accusations and still stands by his study that the MMR vaccine is directly related to children being diagnosed with autism.Although the Wakefield study has been recanted by almost every magazine or journal that published the article, there are still parents who stand behind Wakefield saying that his study was accurate and believe that the MMR vaccine is the main cause for their child being autistic. Autism affects one out of every eighty-eight children in the United States and is four out of five times more common in boys than in girls (Autism Speaks Inc . , 2012, para. 1). In recent years, children being diagnosed with autism has went from ten percent up to seventeen percent (Autism Speaks Inc. 2012, para. 5). There is no clear explanation as to why more children are being diagnosed other than research has improved and there is now more awareness surrounding autism. Some could speculate that the world population continues to raise everyday meaning there are more children being vaccinated. With more children being vaccinated, more children are being diagnosed with autism. On the other hand, it could be just a coincidence and the nationwide awareness surrounding autism has made parents and pediatricians more likely to take suspicion to autistic like behavior and symptoms.Regardless the reason for more children being diagnosed, autism is a serious disorder that affects many children and even adults that struggle on the daily basis to cope with symptoms of autism. After many hours of research on childhood vaccinations and the possible effects that they may have on our children, I am going to carefully monitor the research being done on vaccines. In a world where diseases and illnesses surround us, it is very important to me to know that my children are protected from these possibly deadly diseases. In all of my research that I id, I never came across any real concrete evidence that any childhood vaccination that is currently on the market is directly related to any serious health concerns. Yes, after receiving a vaccination a child may experience a slight fever or may seem more sleepy than normal; however, I believe these symptoms are nothing compared to what could be if the child was never vaccinated. Prior to a child receiving a vaccination, the vaccine must undergo many hours of research and clinical studies to ensure that it is safe and poses no medical health concern.The government does not have any federal laws mandating that a child be vaccinated; they do, however, strongly suggest that all children receiv e the proper vaccines in the suggested time frame in the vaccine schedule created by the CDC to ensure that the vaccine is fully effective in protecting children from any serious illnesses. Every parent has the right to choose whether or not to have their child vaccinated; prior to making this decision it is very important to go over the pros and cons to ensure that they are making an educational decision in their children’s future. References Aesoph, L.M. (n. d. ). Shoot ‘em up on the debate over childhood immunization. Retrieved from http://www. healthy. net/scr/article. aspx? Id=380 Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre. (2012). What is vaccination?. Retrieved from http://microbemagic. ucc. ie/inside_guts/defence_vaccination. html American Academy of Pediatrics. (2012, October 29). MMR vaccine & autism. Retrieved from http://www2. aap. org/immunization/families/mmr. html Autism Speaks Inc. (2012). What is autism? What is autism spectrum disorder? Retrieved from http://www. autismspeaks. org/what-autism Boston Children’s Hospital. (2011).Congenital rubella syndrome. Retrieved from http://www. childrenshospital. org/az/Site605/mainpageS605P0. html Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011, April 22). Rotavirus. Retrieved from http://www. cdc. gov/rotavirus/index. html Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012, November 20). What would happen if we stopped vaccinations?. Vaccines and immunizations. Retrieved from http://www. cdc. gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop. htm Department of Health and Human Services (n. d. ). Hepatitis b. Retrieved from http://www. vaccines. gov/diseases/hepatitis_b/index. html# Katz, N. (2011, January 6).Andrew Wakefield: Autism vaccine fraud or conspiracy victim? Retrieved from http://www. cbsnews. com/8301-504763_162-20027552-10391704. html Moskowitz, R. (2012). The case against immunization. Retrieved from http://vran. org/about-vaccines/general-issues/doctors-speak/the-case-against-immunizatons/ Stern, A . M. , & Markel, H. (2005, May). The history of vaccines and immunization: Familiar patterns, new challenges. 24(3), 611-621. doi: 10. 1377/hlthaff. 24. 3. 611. U. S. Food and Drug Administration. (2009, June 18). Vaccine product approval process. Vaccines, Blood and Biologics. Retrieved from http://www. fda. gov/biologics loodvaccines/developmentapprovalprocess/biologicslicenseapplicationsblaprocess/ucm133096. htm U. S. Food and Drug Administration. (2009, December 30). How does FDA assess the safety of vaccines?. Retrieved from http://www. fda. gov/AboutFDA/ Transparency/Basics/ucm194586. htm Vaccination Liberation. (2011, July 22). Lots of great vaccination quotes!. Retrieved from http://www. vaclib. org/basic/quotes. htm Wakefield, A. (1999, September 11). MMR vaccine and autism. The Lancet (354)9182, 949-950. doi: 10. 1016/S0140-6736(05)75696-8 What is autism?. (2005). Retrieved from http://www. autism-pdd. net/what-is-autism. html

Childhood Obesity Solutions Essay

Prevalence of childhood obesity has increased greatly in the recent years, so much so that the number of children considered overweight by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has nearly quadrupled among children aged 6-11 years old (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p.506). Many members of the public, media, and congress have declared childhood obesity as a major public health concern, considering it to be an â€Å"important cause and consequence of wider disparities in health† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010). Director of the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the CDC, Dr. William H. Dietz, went as far as to say â€Å"This may be the first generation of children that has a lower life span than their parents† (Roberts & Wilson, 2012). Though it is evident steps are needed to be taken to help protect the health and futures of our youth, those with the most power to actually make a visible, long lasting environmental change are the most reluctant to do so. Policymakers have alternate interests in finances that water down their attempts to take charge. Sadly, often times playing the social problems game takes precedence over the more genuine social problems work. As a Washington Post article so boldly states â€Å"In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. The side with the fattest wallets.† (Roberts & Wilson, 2012) Proposals that frame childhood obesity as being an inevitable result of increasing environmental surroundings by unhealthful foods are too often neglected by government officials more willing to frame childhood obesity as an individual problem. Indeed it is more convenient to claim providing freedom of choice to individuals who are capable of making their own decisions, emphasizing self regulation, and freeing themselves of responsibility to their nation to lead in financially beefy actions. This essay seeks to demonstrate that childhood obesity should no longer be considered an individual cause stemming from lifestyle choices which can be changed through minor solutions such as education in physical activity and nutrition. Unfortunately, this social problems ownership has become the taken-for-granted frame for this problem (Loseke, 2003, p.69). Childhood obesity really is a social problem which is a direct result from our environment, social structures emphasizing fast, unhealthy, frankly JUNK food which is readily available in any given neighbourhood and continuously marketed through all mediums to increase profits to some select wealthy individuals. I will stress that the only solutions met by this pressing issue have been solely symbolic solutions which have been prematurely praised as they are false attempts to appear loyal to the public, communities, and school systems, while truly remaining loyal to the corporations, who some may very well be held entirely accountable. Within this paper the exploration of three chosen symbolic solutions to date will include: American Government’s distribution of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity Among Youth, the national law passing of requiring restaurants with 20 or more chains to provide calorie information on menus and menu boards, and lastly, the enhancement of PE requirements for school aged children. The distribution of said guidelines is reported to be important by reviewing â€Å"the evidence on strategies to increase youth physical activity and make recommendations†¦ and to communicate findings to the public.† (Rodgers, 2012, p.10) This report focuses on five settings, but in reality only offers strategies for 3 of them. Two settings (Home and Family, and Primary Care settings) received no proposed strategies to increase physical activity among youth, and focused only on areas requiring further research (p.7). Those settings which did receive proposed strategies were quite obvious suggestions which doubtfully would have any significant impact on physical activity among youth. One such suggestion is to â€Å"provide teachers with appropriate training† (p.5). Although it must be noted that this is not a report distributed solely to decrease obesity among youth, it is distributed to increase physical activity among youth, which is not the same, though admittedly similar. On the webpage this guide is provided, a number of other arbitrary tools can also be found. Webinars on online nutrition information, fact sheets, blogs, access to printable posters, and more. Educating the public, educating the parents of youth, and the youth themselves of course is important. At what point however will it be supplemented by restrictions on marketing of food and beverages to youth, which this guideline reports is estimated at a whopping $10 billion per year, but shows no indication of wanting to reduce or restrict this, and can only suggest counterbalancing with media campaigns directed to offset these unhealthy images (Rodgers, 2012, p. 3). One article is more forward in summarizing â€Å"Despite this widespread recognition of negative impact of marketing unhealthy foods, the practice continues unabated.† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012) Mandated menu labelling of calories in some American jurisdictions was passed in 2008, requiring restaurant chains with 20 or more facilities to post calorie information next to each item on their menus and menu board (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1680). This new law was backed by evidence that â€Å"eating fast food has been shown to increase caloric intake and the risk of becoming obese† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012). As an alternative to restricting what is sold in these fast food chains, restricting advertising of these products, or perhaps even zoning restrictions on how many fast food restaurants were permitted to be within a certain range of schools, this new law appears to be the most liberal of solutions, and the most beneficial for the companies selling these high calorie foods. Findings from a health impact assessment are as follows: â€Å"mandated menu labelling at fast food and other large chain restaurants could reduce population weight gain, even with only modest changes in consumer behaviour.† (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1683) As promising as this is, it is followed by a stronger and more realistic assessment stating â€Å" if nonobese restaurant patrons were more likely to order reduced calorie meals than were obese patrons, the impact on the obesity rate could be less than what we reported†. Because there was no study conducted on the weight of those opting for calorie reduced items, it is difficult to say if this solution is beneficial to the target audience, obese people in these jurisdictions. If changes are being made that is great, but there is no evidence to date to support this influencing the rising issue of obesity. It is just another means of essentially saying that the government is willing to educate on the food being provided and it is the choice of the individual, to consume or not consume. One solution offered by government recognizes that with the majority of youth enrolled in schools, school is an ideal place to provide much needed physical activity to students (Rodgers, 2012). In implementation, many state policies require schools to â€Å"have a PE unit requirement that constrains students to spend a minimum amount of time in PE class† (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 508). A study evaluating the effectiveness of such policies revealed that, naturally, a required PE unit is correlated with a higher probability that the student participates in PE (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 511). Although this is clearly a positive outcome of enforcing requirements among youth to enroll in PE classes, this same study goes on to say that â€Å"a requirement is correlated with students reporting fewer minutes spent active in PE†(p.511). Yes, you read that correctly, specifically 15.1 fewer minutes active in PE for boys, and 3.1 fewer in PE for girls (p.511-512). In conclusion, this report sums up the opposing information by stating that â€Å"curriculum development is not significantly associated with the amount of time spent active in PE†. As such, the implementation of these programs sounds a lot more effective in theory then it is in practice. All three of these solutions offered by government are certainly steps in recognizing that childhood obesity is in fact prevalent in our society. These solutions also claim that something can be done to reduce the level of harm to children’s health, and that actions should be implemented in correcting this epidemic. Essentially childhood obesity is a recognized social problem in our society. Unfortunately because the victims, (obese children), are politically powerless individuals, proposals to decrease the harm attributed to them have been, and will continue to be symbolic. Sadly, effort from interest groups with good intentions can be overshadowed by the social problems game of politics. This concept is not lost in an article posted in The New York Academy of Medicine which reads as follows: â€Å"†¦private interests generally have more resources and skills than public health reformers to achieve their policy goals, and are more successful in resisting changes than advocates are in implementing them. These structural barriers are a powerful deterrent to reducing childhood obesity. Creating cities where health rather than business concerns take precedence will require new approaches to governance and democracy.† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010, p.761) It appears as though, for now, the social problems game of proposing symbolic solutions for childhood obesity is being accepted by audiences. Since Loseke claims that â€Å"the goal of social problems game is persuading audience members† (p.51), government officials, the players, are succeeding. References Cawley, J., Meyerhoefer, C. and Newhouse, D. (2007), The correlation of youth physical activity with state policies. Contemporary Economic Policy, 25: 506–517. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2007.00070.x Fredenberg, N., Libman, K., O’Keefe, E. (2010), A tale of two obescities: The role of municipal governance in reducing childhood obesity in New York city and London. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 87:5 doi:10.1007/s11524-101-943-x Harvard School of Public Health, (2012), The obesity prevention source toxic food environment. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ Kuo, T., Jarosz, C., Simon,P., Fielding, J. (2009), Menu labelling as a potential strategy for combating obesity epidemic: A health impact assessment. American Journal of Public Health, 99:9 doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.153023 Loseke, D. (2003), Thinking about social problems. New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Robert, J., Wilson, D., (2012, April 27), Special report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity. Reuters. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/ Rodgers, A., (2012), Physical activity guidelines for Americans mid-course report: strategies to increase physical activities among youth. US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: http://health.gov/paguidelines/default.aspx

Kudler Fine Foods Essay

Kudler Fine Foods is a specialty foods store in the San Diego metropolitan area. Like many businesses, Kudler must adapt to the changing needs of the market and the organization itself. The sales department of Kudler Fine Foods faces the need for changes within its operations. These changes will provide important opportunities for the organization. There are four dimensions that will manage this change and apply specifically to these modifications. The project management approach allows for control of the change and support for this proposal comes from expected return on investment. Kudler’s next enterprise is following purchase behavior of individual customers and encouraging large incentives with a loyalty points program (University of Phoenix, 2011). Tracking this information will allow Kudler to better assist its customers and offer products and deals that are best matched to its customer’s needs. Being a specialty store, the Kudler customer is most concerned with the quality of the product and its uniqueness and availability in the local market. To match the tastes of its customers, Kudler’s loyalty program offers its customers with rewards such as high end gift items, airline first-class upgrades, or other specialty foods (University of Phoenix, 2011). In order to adapt to this new incentive program, the sales department at Kudler is going to need change. The sales department must add another program to the repertoire of sales at Kudler Fine Foods. Pushing the loyalty program needs to integrate itself into the everyday sales message. In order for the program to become successful and achieve its goal of increasing revenue, the sales department eeds to be on board with the changes. There is a need for increased training surrounding the loyalty program and its benefits and offers. A bonus program for employees that garner participation by customers in the loyalty program is also a tool that can assist in implementing the change. There are four dimensions of change that leaders must consider when implementing a successful transition or change. Strategy, resources,systems, culture and their interrelated components makeup the key elements of change management as it relates t using the project management approach. Linking the dimensions f change and the project management approach allow the organization to proceed in a systematic and organized manner that ensures performance gals and objectives are met (Leban & Stone, 2008). Assessment of the needs of Kudler Fine Foods reveals a need for increased training in the sales division regarding the loyalty program. The new way of operating in the sales department leads to learning about what the new organizational objectives really are and what they will demand as far as attitudes, behaviors, and skills. This learning process and interaction between dimensions of change eventually align the organization’s culture and strategy (Leban & Stone, 2008). The project management approach slows control over the development of the changes and adds flexibility for the plan to evolve as the organization sees fit. Constant monitoring of the plan can keep alignment between time, costs, and quality objectives. The comp,any is also interested in the return on investment and an deviation from this expected result. Kudler Fine Foods expects to increase revenue from its loyalty program. Tis may only occur f the entire organization is aligned on the objeives and proper training is given to employees in the sales department. Investing in the training for sales as well as offering bonus incentives aims at motivating employees to see how the loyalty program can improve customer satisfaction and also benefit employees. By taking the time to invest in employee knowledge and skill level, they can feel the support from upper management. Tips program is being rolled t with the support ad backing of the organization with the intent to help employees excel and succeed. The loyalty program itself has an outlined expected revenue lift. Quarter one to include employee training expects an initial revenue lift of . 25%, followed by . 50% in quarter two, 1. 75% in quarter three, and 2. 25% for the fourth quarter (University of Phoenix, 2011). The expected revenue lift totals 4. 75%. This return is expected to come directly from the frequent shopper loyalty program, a direct result of the motivated sales people behind it. Today’s global economy and business world is changing rapidly due the redesigning of systems to reduce costs, the need to develop products faster, and the focus on increasing customer satisfaction.. These types of changes support the use of project management as a way to introduce change to an organization. Kudler Fine Foods may utilize this approach for transitioning its sales department into an increasingly customer-oriented fashion. Not only will the company seek higher quality products better matched to its customer’s needs, but it will provide the necessary training for its employees to be successful. Sales will be trained on these loyalty programs, including in-depth training on data analysis. The management of this change is an integral component to the future success of Kudler Fine Foods.

Should capital punishment be suspended because of racial disparities Term Paper

Should capital punishment be suspended because of racial disparities - Term Paper Example But the question that lies is beyond the validity of imposing capital punishment but rather the effect of color or race that comes with the number of those sentenced for capital punishment. The effects of anger and retaliation are a development of social discrimination and prejudice fueled not just by the wrong act or omission but also the bigotry that comes with such hate. Capital punishment then becomes an added tool for racial discrimination rather than a positive effect of retributive justice. Researches made In 2002, a Governor of Maryland Parris Glendening initiated a research to be done by the University of Maryland regarding capital punishment and although criminologist Ray Paternoster found that the â€Å"race of the defendant was not significant in penalty-eligible cases†, race played an important factor whether the prosecutor sought for a death penalty punishment in a case (Hodgkinson and Shabas 8). There is not just racial disparity but also prosecutor disparity. A t least 43% of total executions since 1976 and 55% of those awaiting execution is for people of color (American Civil Liberties Union, 2003). The General Accounting office in 1990 showed reports that â€Å"race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty." In numerous jurisdictions researchers and case laws have given sufficient proof of racial disparity among persons under death row. In Philadelphia, a study made in 1997 by David Baldus and statistician George Woodworth found results that between 1983 to 1993, a 38% increase in the possibility of a person being eligible for death penalty because the defendant was black. In North Carolina, a study released by the university showed that between 1993 to 1997, a three and a half increase in the possibility of incurring a death sentence when the victim is white rather than black. The area of jurisdiction varies from the number of the race’s population an d possible historical background on racial prejudice. A good example is in the state of Georgia, where University of Iowa law professor David Baldus found that prosecutors sought death penalty for 70% of the black defendants with white victims compared to the minimal 15% white defendants who had white victims. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2003). Further effects of this study will be explained in the latter part of the discussion, as the â€Å"Baldus study† was attempted to be used as a defense in a Supreme Court case (McCleskey v. Kemp (1987). Prosecution disparity is eminent in these cases, it seems that racial discrimination the begun with society is also reflected to the administration of justice. It is the prosecutors who have the discretion in deciding whether cases should seek death penalty. Even in the choice of possible jurors, the prosecution takes control such as in the state of Philadelphia, where prosecutors move to remove 52 % of potential black jurors compar ed to a mere 23 % potential jurors of other races. Jeffrey Pokorak conducted another good research proving racial disparity. He related the important effects of race and gender of all the lawyers authorized to prosecute death penalty cases that evidenced racial disparity. In the 38 states studied, 98% of the prosecuting attorneys are white and almost all are male (Hodgkinson and Shabas 15). Supreme Court Decisions With this issue being established, the

MTV The Leading Multimedia Youth Brand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MTV The Leading Multimedia Youth Brand - Essay Example The work environment provides its employees the ability to contribute, be heard and be successful. MTV was named the world's most valuable media brand for an uninterrupted six years by Business week and Intebrands world's most valuable brands study. Its portfolio of media and entertainment can be broadly classified into online and television channel brands. Some of MTV Networks online, online interactive and web based entertainment brands include Harmonix, AtomFilms, GameTrailers (GT), Xfire, AddictingGames and Shockwave, GoCityKids, Neopets, ParentsConnect and Quizilla. CMT, Logo, MTV, MTV2's, mtvU, MTV Tr3s, MHD, VH1,VH1 Classic,VH1 Soul, COMEDY CENTRAL,Spike TV,TV Land,Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, NOGGIN and The N are the television channel brands under the networks portfolio. The programming content of the MTV channel laid emphasis on reality shows The Real World and Road Rules during the mid- to late 1990s and early 2000s. The years 2005 and 2006 witnessed the channel returning its focus on reality television content with the debuts of popular shows such as 8th and ocean, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, Parental Control and the like. To attract and retain the teen and young adult viewer segment, the channel has also airing movies made for that particular age group. Several productions of its own film producing division is also being broadcast. In 2009 it added scripted comedy programs to its pprogramming portfolio With the recent downslide in the networks ratings, MTV stepped into 2009 with a massive shift in programming. It broadcast content focuses more on reality programming. "You get an intense sense of reality that you haven't seen on television before," Graden says. "These are (techniques) that are interesting that I don't see anyone else doing." Brian Graden is the President of Programming, MTV and VH1. Revenues And Profits The following excerpt taken from www.smartbrief.com gives an account of the Third Quarter 2008 financial Results of Viacom of which MTV is a unit. "Revenues grew 4% to $3.41 billion in the third quarter 2008 led by a 6% increase in Media Networks revenues with Filmed Entertainment revenues relatively flat versus the prior year's results. Operating income declined 15% in the quarter, primarily reflecting a $91 million decrease in the Filmed Entertainment segment as it lapped the strong performance of Transformers in the third quarter of 2007. Third Quarter 2008 operating income decreased 15% to $689 million versus $815 million in the third quarter of 2007. Operating income for the Media Networks segment declined 4%, reflecting the impact of lower advertising and consumer products revenues as well as higher expenses primarily related to programming.Business Outlook For the full year 2008, Viacom expects to deliver mid-single to low double-digit growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations.Stock Repurchase ProgramFor the quarter ended September 30, 2008, 7.6 million shares were repurchased for an aggregate purchase price of $215 million. As of October 31, 2008, the Company has $1.4 billion remaining in its existing $4 billion share repurchase program.

World History.The Effects of Slavery on Slave Owners Essay

World History.The Effects of Slavery on Slave Owners - Essay Example This paper seeks to attempt to try and validate the claims that although the entire commerce that was seen to exist between slave and master can essentially be considered to be a perpetual exercise exhibiting the most boisterous passions, with one part being marked by a degrading submission and the other being fundamentally characterized by unremitting despotism. In order for one to better understand the effects that slavery is seen to have had on the slave owners, it is important that one first grasps an understanding of what exactly is meant by the use of the term slavery. Slavery can be defined as being the condition or status of a given person where by the powers that are commonly seen to be attaching to the rights of ownership are seen to exercised. The person over whom slavery is being exercised is seen to be denied of all the basic human fundamental rights by the owner who regards the person as being mere property. Slavery was seen to have some rather wide ranging effects on t he individuals who practiced it ranging from the people that actually capture the slaves and resell them, the merchants engaging in slave trade as well as the individuals that purchase these slaves and become slave owners. While engaging in slavery is seen to have caused a large number of the slave owners to become

Issue of the Internet Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Issue of the Internet Freedom - Essay Example One of the benefits of Internet freedom exists in different sectors of the economy especially business organizations. Throughout the years, different business organizations have been able to benefit from the use of the internet which has helped these firms grow and expand and also in a way advertise the company. This is because the internet has opened them up to a larger market whereby people around the world have access to the services offered by these organizations (Davis 54). For example, a company like eBay has made it probable for all people to trade goods, as well as exchange services through the internet saving people time and costs they would have incurred by going around the world in search of these same goods and services. Organizations have also mutually benefited from each other. For instance, companies are able to outsource the different services or commodities that they might need from the wide selection of firms and individuals that present their profiles online. This is seen clearly when companies outsource recruitment services from other companies (Davis 67). Throughout the years, internet freedom has been a resourceful and information's a valuable source for people in the education sector. Both teachers and students within various educational organizations refer to the internet when looking for information about topics they might be researching (Christine 45). The internet contains a wide range of information about different topics; moreover, there is the presentation of information provided from different people’s perspective on the various topics. This allows students, and teachers to analyze and evaluate the different perspectives provided and come up with a detailed compilation. Internet freedom has also allowed for correspondence within the field of education. Most institutions are now embracing the use of e-learning. This service eliminates the barrier of geographical distance between the student and the learning institution and e nables students to pursue and achieve the same quality of education from a specified institution without being physically present there. The main requirement tends to be a computer with an internet connection and both teachers and the student can converse and interact in the virtual classes creation. Testing and grading can also be done in the same way (Christine 98). Internet freedom has also allowed students around the world to interact and share their different ideologies on various topics whether controversial or noncontroversial. This has shown to be beneficial especially when discussing prevalent issues such as global warming, HIV/AIDS etc. This also may play a part in fostering strong relations and co-operation among diverse peoples. From all these benefits of internet freedom, there is the facilitation of knowledge expansion in and out of the education sector (Christine 55). Internet freedom has also encouraged the growth of the entertainment industry. People resort to the i nternet when in search of ways of entertaining themselves by listening to music, watching movies or interacting with other people on social networking sites. The internet provides a wide range of entertainment options to cater for diverse and unique preferences of different individuals (Adam 63). The current popular form of entertainment dominating the internet in this modern day is the use of social network websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype among others.

The Communist Revolution in China Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Communist Revolution in China - Term Paper Example The Communist Revolution in China, which culminated in the establishment of the Peoples’ Republic of China in 1949, was the result of several historical developments of the preceding decades. At the start of the twentieth century, China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing, was in deep decline. The moribund feudal Confucian system, massive increase in population, failure to modernize, and the proliferation of warring war-lords, made China a fragmented nation. This fragmentation was further compounded by the establishment of foreign enclaves, or concessions, in important port cities by the colonial powers, each enjoying substantial extra-territorial autonomy and significant economic and political rights. In the aftermath of World War I, in which the Chinese contributed laborers to the Allies, Japan was granted the former German concession in Shantung and expanded control of Manchuria. This was widely resented by the Chinese. The social fabric of the country was in tatters: the peasants, who constituted the largest proportion of the population, were mired in abysmal poverty; the unskilled urban workers were also poor; the landlords and officials blocked any progress; the merchants were constrained by the foreign concessions. In this climate of political fragmentation and social stagnation, an intellectual movement for change took shape and consolidated its hold over the educated Chinese. The intellectual ferment of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century may be considered the precursor of the birth of Communism in China. A growing section of the educated Chinese actively agitated for modernization, social change, elimination of foreign concessions and national unity.... A growing section of the educated Chinese actively agitated for modernization, social change, elimination of foreign concessions and national unity. The earliest attempt for reformation was spearheaded by SunYat-sen, who formed the Revolutionary Alliance in about 1905, and then the Kuomintang (KMT), or National Party, in 1912. Sun Yat-Sen was a medical doctor who entered politics with the goal of building â€Å"a strong, unified, modern Chinese Republic† (Cienciala, 1999). He had a strong backer in the wealthy businessman, Charlie Soong, whose two daughters married Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek. In 1906, the publication of the Chinese translation of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto attracted adherents to Marxism. A short-lived Republic was established in the aftermath of a military revolt in 1912, followed by a changing Central Government, challenged by other regimes and warlords. Thus, the reformists were divided into several factions: constitutional monarchists, anar chists, nationalists, and Marxists. The student-led May 4th Movement of 1919, largely inspired by socialism, expressed the growing intellectual movement for change. The climate was now ripe for the birth of Chinese Communism. The Chinese Communist Party (CPP) took root in the Marxist study groups established at Beijing University in June 1918, under the initiative of Li Dazhao, the chief librarian. Mao Zedong joined the Marxist study group in 1919. At this juncture, in accordance with its objective of establishing socialist allies in other nations, and striking a blow against international imperialism, the Soviet Government adopted friendly relations with China, particularly through the Comintern: the international

MLA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MLA - Essay Example ). The figures above are used not to merely denote the size of the company and the amount of working capital it has, but represents an organization that means business, spells business and does it efficiently. They have been in the forefront of creating ‘The Human Network Effect’ which is the main theme all their advertisements are based on. One of the most interesting features of the company lies in its strategy to acquire other companies to add to its existing talent pool of software engineers. ‘Cisco is intentionally influencing knowledge flows through its management of IT.’ (Managing knowledge for sustained competitive advantage, Jackson. Susan, p 70). Being a company that reported a growth in sales over 50% annually in a timeframe of five consecutive years, this is truly a power to be reckoned with. This resultant growth is only due to its employees. It is because of the employees, hired in the best interests of the company who drove the sale’s m achinery and gave it immense profits that multiplied over the years. But, things have changed since the last few years. The global recession has not only dashed the hopes and wealth of large business enterprises, but also created a sense of intense fear and insecurity in the minds of good workers and employees. In this scenario, the training imparted to employees becomes all the more important because it defines their future roles and shapes their goals when they join the company. Though, currently, this kind of emotional distress seems to be an ongoing problem with most of the business establishments, Cisco needs to be treated differently because of the quality of the workforce it needs to maintain. This is main the reason why Cisco cannot avoid not having a training budget. Training employees is important to make them productive and contribute towards efficient and profitable performance in the long run. It can also act as a retention strategy and ensure that the best and more pro ductive

Why I write Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why I write - Essay Example 5th , 1976) that she has stolen the title of â€Å"Why I write† from the great author George Orwell because she liked the sound of the â€Å"three short ambiguous words.† Didion states that the act of writing is nothing but the imposing of the author’s views and ideas on a particular audience. She calls writing â€Å"an aggressive and even a hostile act† because though the author tries his best to veil or camouflage the writing, yet one cannot get away from the salient fact that the author is a â€Å"secret bully† by imposing his â€Å"sensibility on the reader’s most private space.† Didion, goes on to enumerate her experiences at Berkeley where she did her majors in English and speaks of her inability to deal with different ideas. She always dwelt on the periphery and the physical act of things around her, such as those that had to do with the sense of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching. In other words, she traveled in the world of writing on a ‘shaky passport† because she was no â€Å"legitimate resident in the world of ideas.† It had taken her a great length of time to realize that she was passionate about her writing and wanted to be a writer. In sharp contrast to Didion, George Orwell knew from the onset that he wanted to be a writer. He had a very lonely childhood and because of this he had â€Å"developed disagreeable mannerisms which made him unpopular in school. Loneliness also led him to make up stories and hold imaginary conversations. The feeling of being undervalued and isolated led to the cementing of his literary career. This cocoon to which he transported himself when he wrote, helped to serve as a sort of catharsis where he could get his own back after facing the many failures in his life. When the war broke out during 1914 – 18, he had written a patriotic poem which got published in a local newspaper, but when he attempted nature poems or short stories during that period he failed

Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Essay Example for Free

Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Essay The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in congress in 2002 is designed to protect investors from the potential of fraudulent corporate accounting activities. This act strictly mandates reform, aimed directly to prevent fraud and improve corporate financial disclosures (INVESTOPEDIA, 2012). As a result of several confidence shaking investor accounting scandals that occurred during the late 90s which involved high profile corporations such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco, a much required overhaul regarding financial statements and regulatory standards laid the foundation for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act is making the accounting world more accessible to others for auditors to come in and help in checking the books. It will hold the executives and directors accountable for the internal controls of the company especially with the threat of imprisonment if the internal controls are not maintained. The act ensures that a â€Å"checks and balance† internal auditing of the accounting cycle for the company and investors to keep their assets in check. The role of internal audits is to ensure that Institute of Internal Auditor’s Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing Standard 300 Scope of Work be followed. The scope of the internal audit should encompass the examination and evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the organizations system of internal control and the quality of performance in carrying out assigned responsibilities (M. Wood Company, 2012). The internal audit standards are to review the dependability and integrity of financial and operating information and the resource being used to identify measure and classify those reports. The standard requires the system be reviewed to ensure compliance with those policies, plans, procedure, laws and regulations which may have a huge impact on operations and reporting. The standard is used to review the methods in place to safeguarding assets and verify that the assets protected exist. The final purpose of the standard is to appraise the economy and the efficiency with the means that are employed by a corporation. It is important to note that policies and rules are also enforced to uphold the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Sections 302, 401, 404 and 805 in particular address key requirements as it pertains to effecting financial statements. Section 302 requires senior managers to certify the accuracy of the reports along with establishing internal controls are set in place for the purpose of increasing report accuracy, ensuring honesty and ultimately providing financial protection for the investors. Section 401 ensures that statements may not contain fraudulent information. Section 404 provides for the necessary rules for annual reporting as well as addresses management auditing structures. Lastly, section 805 provides the guidelines for federal sentencing relating to criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. (Hazels, Nov/Dec) A very important question that should be asked is how well main stream America understands the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and how it has effected them? Another pressing area to uncover is how it has affected the US economy over the past ten years? Lastly, it would be interesting to understand how US companies interface globally with countries not held to the same standards. References Hazels, B. (Nov/Dec 2010). Eight Years After The Fact Is SOX Working? A Look At The Brooke Corporation. Journal of Business Case Studies, 6(6.6), 19-29. Invesotopedia. (2012). Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002 SOX. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sarbanesoxleyact.asp#axzz2BCoqABsQ M. Wood Company. (2012, November 1). The role of Internal Audit in Complying with Sarbanes- Oxley. Retrieved from http://www.mwoodco.com/value/Internal_Audit_7-03.pdf

The effects of block scheduling Essay Example for Free

The effects of block scheduling Essay Summary of Current Knowledge and Theory Relevant to Block Scheduling Overview of Perceived Advantages to Block Scheduling Several researchers (Dobbs, W. , 1998; Hurley, 1997; Zepeda, 1999; Staunton, 1997; Staunton and Adams, 1997; Pisapia, and Westfall, 1997; and Eineder and Bishop, 1997) reported the following perceived strengths and advantages by both students and teachers to block scheduling:   Increased teacher preparation time (in both teams and as individuals).   Double the class time for certain core subjects such as language arts and math.   Half as many students for teachers per semester. Additional elective class choice for 9th grade students; more choices for upperclassmen, including options of Advanced Placement and other higher level coursework   More time for completion of labs, incorporating technology, class trips, and other various applications of learned material   Improved school climate and decreased disciplinary referrals   More time to do homework and for guided practice under the direction of the teacherImproved academic achievement by students Ability of students to accumulate enough credits to graduate early. More one-on-one time between teachers and students. In general, surveyed students liked the block scheduling. They claimed to be getting better grades, to have time for more in-depth study, and got more attention from the teachers. They said their lives were less stressed and they liked having a fresh start each semester. Nearly all students asked said they would not want to return to the traditional schedule. One of the greatest effects of the 4 x 4 schedule is that students report having less homework. Of the 37 students interviewed, 20 said they had less homework, 7 said they had more, and 6 said they had about the same. If you dont like the teacher, you dont have to deal with him all year, or if you dont like the subject. When the semester ends, its like a new school year. Youre not bogged down. Clearly, these students reaped academic benefits from the change to the 4 x 4 schedule. Both college preparatory and general students reported they were learning more and receiving more individual attention (Hurley, 1997). Surveyed teachers indicated that they enjoyed lecturing less and spending more time one-on-one with students. Teachers teaching in block scheduling used more of a team approach and allowed them to experiment more in the classroom (Staunton, 1997; Staunton and Adams, 1997). Teachers also reported that their teaching methods and practices changed as block scheduling was implemented. They used a wider array of strategies and activities. In one Florida study of over forty high schools on block scheduling, â€Å"forty percent of the teachers reported less stress at school, one-third reported increased common planning time, and 80 percent noted that they preferred the block schedule to their previous schedule† (Deuel, 1999). There seem to be several perceived advantages associated with block scheduling. Overview of Perceived Disadvantages to Block Scheduling Several researchers (Dobbs, W. , 1998; Hurley, 1997; Zepeda, 1999; Staunton, 1997; Staunton and Adams, 1997; Pisapia, and Westfall, 1997; and Eineder and Bishop, 1997) reported the following perceived weaknesses and disadvantages by both students and teachers to block scheduling: Additional costs in hiring teachers.   Additional costs in adding space for teachers or the need for teachers to ‘travel’ which means he has no permanent classroom. Difficulty in making up work from absences because missing one day equivalent to missing two classes   Some classes clearly benefit from meeting every day (i. e. performing arts classes)   Need for teachers to commit to using new teaching methods   Ninety minutes is a long time to hold the attention of students   Uneven schedules in which the harder classes all end up lumped into one semester making it too difficult and the next semester too easy. The possibility that there will be a long gap in between sequential courses if they are not taken in back-to-back semesters. The primary disadvantage given by surveyed students is that the classes are too long. Students particularly gave this as a weakness when their teachers lectured for nearly all of the time period. Others noted that â€Å"bad classes are really bad when they are held for 90 minutes† (Hurley, 1997). Surveyed teachers voiced concerns about interruptions of sequential material from one semester to the next and consistency issues with students. However, teacher opinion seemed to be mixed about this issue. Some foreign language teachers feared a sequential break between levels (Scheduling Foreign Languages on the Block, 1998). Other researchers found that some schools actually showed an increase in foreign language test scores because students could take level I and level II courses in back-to-back semesters (Schoenstein, 1996). Some teachers felt more comfortable with the lecture approach and had little comfort with experimentation of teaching methods (Staunton, 1997; Staunton and Adams, 1997).

Determinants of the Value of Computers

Determinants of the Value of Computers Market is represented as a gathering place of consumers and sellers that a good/service is obtainable purchasable by producers and purchased by shopper (Blake, 1993). Business managed by the laws of offer and demand, not restrained by management interference, regulation or grant is best as referred to as free market. A free economic system may be a system during which the distribution for resources is set solely by their offer and therefore the demand for them. this can be primarily a theoretical thought as each country, even capitalist ones, places some limitations on the possession and exchange of commodities. The market equilibrium happens at the value wherever consumers temperament to demand is capable firms temperament to produce (Begg and Ward, 2007) In alternative words the connection between the demand and provide determines the equilibrium position of a specific smart or a service within the market place wherever no economic forces area unit being generated to alter the case . For a specific smart within the market this position is alleged to be existed once theres no excess demand and excess offer. In alternative words demand ought to be capable offer. HISTORY ON COMPUTERS Computers were seen as technically superior product that were sold-out initial to its domestic market, then to alternative technically developed countries. Moment in time, its being foreign to the developing countries and that eventually made by their voters. For international trade, the long-run pattern is that the trades among countries area unit being largely influenced by product innovation (invention) and sequent diffusion. The diffusion for pc product is therefore fast and cogent that its currently become virtually not possible to finish a task within the geographic point or colleges while not the help of a pc each within the develop and developing countries. Supply and demand, in recent social science, area unit factors that area unit thought to work out value, by showing a relationship between the quantity of a given article of trade makers WHO anticipate to sell at a definite value (in alternative words supply), and therefore the quantity of that article of trade that customers area unit ready to shop for (in alternative words demand). to produce suggests that manufacturing variable amounts of a good/service that producers to be sold-out at totally different prices; normally, higher costs may lead to a larger offer. Demand refers to the amount of an honest thats requested by shoppers at any given value. in keeping with the law of demand, demand decreases because the value goes up. in an exceedingly utterly competitive economy, {the provision|the offer|the availability} of the upward-sloping offer curve and therefore the descending demand curve yields a supply and demand schedule that, in order that because the 2 curves meet at some ext ent, the equilibrium value of associate item might be got hold of. the data on offer and demand is sourced from king Marshall‘s twentieth century theories, that acknowledges the role of shoppers in value determination, instead of taking the recent theory that focuses utterly on the value for the producer as a determinant. Marshalls work reveals along the recent offer theory with newer developments directed at the utility of a artifact to the buyer. Recent theories, like indifference-curve analysis and unconcealed preference, provide additional credence to the availability and demand theories fashioned by writers of utility. the idea of physical property is vital as well: it reveals however sure product can bear a substantial increase in value if theres no equitable substitute out there, whereas alternative simply disposable merchandise cannot do therefore while not losing business to competitors. The relationship that exit among shoppers and suppliers of an honest in an exceedingly market is standard as demand and provide model within the field of social science. in an exceedingly free market, value and amount sold-out in an exceedingly market of a specific artifact like pc. In recent years, {the availability|the offer|the provision} and affordability of pc act as a big half in high demand of it and to meet the desired demand suppliers/ producers supply additional and additional pc in market. Klein (1983) DETERMINANTS OF the value OF COMPUTERS in an exceedingly FREE MARKET There area unit variety of things which might influence the demand and provide of computers and for this reason the value is while not human intervention determined from the demand-supply curve in an exceedingly demand-supply model. Some variables that influences demand for computers area unit the increasing variety of population, preferences, income etc. of these factors have an effect on the demand of computers absolutely by a right shift in demand curve that will increase value and amount of computers which can yield a shortage of computers in market. as an example, a rise in demand as a results of the result of 1 of the determinant of demand say, a rise within the population size of pc users can shift the demand curve rightward. the rise in population size is as a results of computers being employed by the general public within the less developed and therefore the developing countries that some years back computers were employed by the developed population. The result of a rise within the size of the population on value and demand amount for pc may be seen within the figure below. An increase in demand as a results of population increase can shift the demand curve rightward. That is, the initial demand curve D and provide curve S run across to supply equilibrium E with value P and amount letter of the alphabet. a rise in population influence demand to shift the demand curve rightward to try to to, taking the new equilibrium to Eo, value rises to Po and amount will increase to Qo. cyberspace result is that theres a shortage of demand diagrammatical by Z within the figure. In addition to any or all that has been mentioned the availability of computers influenced by the quantity of suppliers, price implications of the various factors of production, technology etc are going to be imperative. These 3 factors have a positive impact on offer of pcs in computer marketplace therefore we have a tendency to witness a transparent right shift in offer curve that reduces the value and will increase the amount of computers which can yield the excess of computers. An increase within the variety of producers for manufacturing computers can cause a rise in offer of computers within the market place and thus the value. Since the suppliers will currently fancy additional profit for manufacturing the artifact in question, theyll turn out additional of computers inflicting a rightward shift of the availability curve for computers. presumptuous that the initial demand and provide curves for computers area unit D and S that run across to supply equilibrium at E with value of P and amount letter of the alphabet. the resultant result of incentive to create additional profit by producers motives them to extend offer that shifts the availability curve to therefore, taking the new equilibrium to Eo. the value of computers falls to Po and amount will increase to Qo. Source: WWW.investopedia.com Finally, we have a tendency to get the whole illustration of the topical pc market if we have a tendency to merge each rightward shift of demand and provide curve of pc in marketplace along in demand-supply model. during this case, the amount will increase however the value of the pc would possibly fall or rise. For {a sure|a particular|an exact|a precise|a definite|an explicit} shift of pc demand and sure shift of pc offer {the value|the worth|the value} wont be modified however a trifle larger shift in offer curve than the certain shift can decrease the pc price. THE amendment result OF financial gain AND SUBSTITUTION ON the value OF COMPUTERS Another angle to the current issue is to seem at it from whats known as the financial gain result and substitution result of a amendment in value. Demand of a artifact, say computers, is that the amount of the artifact that customers are going to be ready to purchase at a specific value over a declared amount . Demand is influenced several factors like population, taste, income, the standard of the products or services being offered, and therefore the handiness of competitors product or services so on. These factors influencing demand may be cluster into 2, the substitution and financial gain effects. The substitution result emphasizes the amendment within the consumption (demand) of a artifact ensuing from a amendment (in the other direction) within the consumption of a second (related) artifact. as an example, a discount within the value of computers (the product in question) would create substitutes comparatively costly and therefore the shopper would demand additional of computers. In essence the amount demanded for computers would increase. The financial gain result on the opposite hand focuses on the amendment in real financial gain ensuing from a value amendment. a rise within the value of computers as an example would cause a fall within the real financial gain of the buyer. the buyer would purchase less of each smart as well as pc. Therefore the financial gain and substitution effects acts to enforce a negative relationship between value and amount demanded in an exceedingly free market. The figure below explains it. The substitution result is outlined by slippy the budget line around a hard and fast indifference curve; the financial gain result is outlined by a parallel shift of the budget line. the initial budget line is at ab and a fall within the value of pc takes it to aj. the initial equilibrium is at E with letter of the alphabet of demand pc, and therefore the final equilibrium is at E1 with Q1 of pc demanded. to get rid of the financial gain the financial gain result, we have a tendency to shift the aj to a parallel line nearer the origin till it simply touches the indifference curve that passes E. the intermediate purpose E0 divides the amount turn into a substitution result Qo-Q associated an financial gain result Q1-Q0. It may also be obtained by slippy the initial budget line ab round the indifference curve till its slope reflects the new relative costs. SUPPLY Supply is that the amount of products that producers area unit willing and ready to offer at {a cost|a value|a value} or price over a given amount of your time. With offer, 2 factors area unit vital; the temperament to produce and skill to produce. With the temperament to produce, a rise in value of a artifact offers a rise in profitableness given price. thus a rise in value provides associate incentive for producers to supply and provide additional to the market. ABILITY to produce Another issue is that the ability to produce. a rise in offer (production) is typically amid a rise in price. price of manufacturing extra units of artifact is typically high significantly once production exceeds the reserve capacity: additional labour hours would be paid overtime, so advanced technology is also needed to amass extra raw materials, etc. a rise in value provides a motivation to supply additional since {the extra|the extra} value may protect these additional prices. the availability curve is so absolutely slope, indicating that additional is provided at the next value alternative things being equal. The marketplace for computers represents that of a technology whose costs were way higher than their price of production. the value of manufacturing a pc was comparatively higher 20-30 years past. but its value was terribly high creating them terribly profitable. As the technology to supply them (computers) subtle, additional producers (manufacturers) in an effort to create profits entered into the market and provide additional computers. Existing suppliers of computers additionally increase their output due to their temperament to create additional profit. The will increase in offer can cause the availability curve of computers to shift to the proper. The suppliers of computers area unit terribly sensitive to cost. They respond quickly to costs thanks to the presence of competitors (other manufacturers). On the demand facet, the utilization of computers has become additional of necessity; folks realize it imperative to own computers in their homes and work places. Students, even those within the lower grades, need computers to try to to their work. so users or purchasers of computers area unit rather comparatively less sensitive to the value of computers. The net result of those rightward shifts in demand and provide area unit shown within the graph below: The original demand curve DD intersects with offer curve SS at value P1 and amount Q1. pc users being comparatively less sensitive to cost of pcs can increase amount demanded for computer leading to a shift in demand from DD to DD1. On the opposite hand, producers being impelled to create profit increase offer of computers into the market place shifting the availability curve from SS to SS1. The new meeting purpose of DD1 and SS1 turn out P2 and Q2 that shows a fall in value from P1 to P2 and a rise in amount demanded from Q1 to Q2 Conclusion Demand and provide area unit the key determinants within the value of computers. The ability to manage them can facilitate management the value of computers. The higher than document has highlighted factors that would management this sound on economic theories and principles from standard authors and commentators.   REFERENCES Landsburg, S (1999), value theory and applications , 4th edn. Cincinatti: South –Western faculty Publications Perloff J (2001), economics second edn. New York: Addison-Wesley Pindyck, R D. Rubinfeld (2001), economics fifth edition,Upper Saddle watercourse, New Jersey: novice Hall Begg, D. and Ward, A. ( 2007), social science for Business, second edition, ballplayer Hill Publications Hubert, H. (2004), Business and social science Klein, L. (1983), The social science of offer and Demand WEBSITES http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp, Accessed 02 Dec 2010. http://www.netmba.com/econ/micro/supply-demand/, Accessed fifth Dec 2010 Read more: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/demand-and-supply-and-free-market-economy-economics-essay.php#ixzz3BLYtwrDv

Microwave Ovens :: essays research papers

Microwaves are low on the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is a range of all the possible electric radiation. Frequency of a wave is the number of waves per second and the frequency of a microwave is between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. The wavelength of a wave is the distance from one peak of a wave to the peak of a following wave and a wavelength of a microwave varies from one millimeter to thirty centimeters. The frequencies range from ultra high frequency to super high frequency to extremely high frequency. The microwave was discovered by Heinrich Hertz and predicted by James Clerk Maxwell. In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell theorized about microwaves until he predicted equations that would prove the existence of microwaves. In 1888, Heinrich Hertz took these equations and used them in an experiment. He made an apparatus that produced waves and detected these waves. The experiment displayed the different wavelengths of certain waves, such as the short wavelength of microw aves. The discovery of microwaves permitted it to be used for commercial purposes. Microwave ovens are the best example of a commercial usage of microwaves. Microwave ovens use microwaves at a frequency of 2450 MHz. The Microwaves travel and cause the water, fat, and sugars to vibrate resulting in the food’s temperature rising. This type of energy is called Dielectric energy. This benefits the food making process and anyone who buys TV dinners. Another instance of microwaves is cell phones. Cell phones use an antenna and a little transmitter to connect to the microwaves emitted in the air. To make cell phones more attractive for buyers, they minimized the transmitters and antennas. The microwaves used in phones make it possible for a person to receive calls from any location, this is especially important in emergencies. Broadcasting transmissions, such as cable TV and the Internet, use microwaves to transmit the signal in order to broadcast. These two sources that use microwaves permit faster communication between all areas of the world. These two sources th at use microwaves are the most popular ways of entertainment for most of the United States. The commercial industry benefits from these products that use microwaves. Current studies prove indecisive about the effects of microwaves. Microwave ovens can cause damage to the eyes. If a person were to press their face on the microwave oven, it can cause cataracts in the eyes. The best advice to protect against this effect is to stay a couple feet away according to Dr.

Through the careful reading of American Colonies Essay -- Literary Ana

Through the careful reading of American Colonies, written by Alan Taylor, it is clear that there are vast differences as well as a number of similarities between the European competitors as they began to colonize the Americas but diversity can also be found within the colonies they would create. American Colonies shows a close relationship between climate, the state of the economy, and the development of slavery. The varying climate within the Americas proved to have an enormous impact on the source of revenue a colony would rely on to support its economy and this choice of trade would then quickly affect the need for slaves or lack thereof. It is helpful to have an understanding of the variation of the climate within the colonies since it greatly influenced the development of the economy and, eventually, slavery. The climate of the homeland of each of the European competitors is also important to the way in which they settled the colonies as well as what they would appreciate when they began in their production or trade. The Chesapeake was fortunate to have rich soil that was ready to be farmed as well as a long growing season. However, they also suffered from hot and humid temperatures that often triggered diseases such as malaria. The colonists of New England found a much colder and less plentiful environment but it did create a much healthier setting for colonial life. The land of New England was similar to England, full of hills and dense forests, stony soil, and a short growing season (159). New France had harsh, long winters and a short growing season. They continued to be an expense to France since they were unab le to produce many demanded goods for their homeland. New Netherland’s climate â€Å"was more fertile and temperat... ...ome treating them better then others, and some having more or less slaves than others, they still accepted the belief that they were in fact superior, as a result of their common European origins. The climate of the colonies clearly affected the production and trade of goods, while the climate of their homeland affected the colonists’ knowledge and survival rate. What the colonists’ were able to produce created their economy, affected the economy of their mother country, and impacted their development of slavery as well. As we have seen differences can be found not only between the European competitors and the colonies they would create but also between the British American colonies as well. When taking a closer look at American Colonies, their differences are able to stand out and help one further understand their development and their effect on their progress.

Saint Joan of Arc Essay -- European History France England War Essays

Saint Joan of Arc Joan of Arc lived an extraordinary life and accomplished incredible feats during, her brief lifetime. Joan is in a league of her own. As a girl at an absurdly young age and with no military knowledge, she convinces the Dauphin of France that she is a messenger from god and helps lead the almost diminished French army drive the English away from French soil. Her remarkable clairvoyance to foresee future events and for things to fall magically in place at least at the beginning of her career, compels one to believe in her saintly powers or in her connection with a higher being. Joan of Arc was born at Doremy in Champagne on January 6, 1412. Witnesses claim that the roosters of the village hailed her birth by crowing long before dawn. She was born to a wealthy farmer, Jacques Darc, and his wife, Isabelle. Joan never learned to read or write but was very skilled in spinning and sewing. Villagers regarded her as a pious child, and many often saw her kneeling in church, absorbed in prayer. At the age of 12 she first became conscious of her ‘voices.’ At first it seemed that it was simply a voice that would tell her to â€Å"Be good and go to church† (Pernoud 19). Soon the voices would be accompanied by a light, and she identified them individually as being St. Catherine, St. Margaret, and St. Michael. The voices became insistent, often telling her two to three times a week that she should go to France and present herself to Robert Baudricourt who commanded for Charles VII in the neighboring town of Vaucouleurs. A month later she traveled with her uncle to see Baudricourt, but with little success, as he told her uncle to â€Å"Take her home to her father and give her a good whipping† (Pernoud 50). Joan... ... more astonishing, her ability to bring France to victory during the battle of Orleans where the French were completely surrounded and defeat was almost certain. Her ability to produce wonders one after the other makes one hard pressed not to believe in her saintliness. Joan is a saint and her actions can only be categorized as miracles. Joan’s life is astounding by any measure, even when one separates the fact from fiction. Bibliography Brooks, Polly Schoyer Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1999. Pernoud, Regine. Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses. New York: Scarborough House, 1994. Price, Patrick. JoanNet 2004. Feb 2004. http://maidjoan.tripod.com Shaw, Benard. Saint Joan. England: Penguin Books, 1924. Williamson, Allen. Joan of Arc Online Archive 2003. Feb 2004. http://archive.joan-of-arc.org

Where Do These Measurements Come from?

Today almost all women try to lose a few kilograms. But to tell the truth, every woman in the world wants to look like a top model. If they could only dream about a fantastic figure, it was ok. Unfortunately some of them try to achieve this, and sometimes it becomes a big problem. Usually, top models have parameters 90-60-90. There are several versions of the beginning of these, but the real reason is laziness. These numbers were chosen by designers because this is easier to make clothes only for one little size. It happened in the middle of XX century, when mannequins began to demonstrate the clothes.So thinness became fashionable. A woman spends on diets about 10 years of her life. But according to statistics, only 10% of men prefer thin women. Losing weight the woman notices that she likes herself, her man like her, and not only he. But psychologists say that men like women’s confidence and not lost weight. Sometimes a woman wants to lose weight to be better than her friend s. Firstly a diet unites women, but if one of them is more successful, other start to envy her. Also the woman wants to be like actresses or young singers.In addition to this, it is a fact that woman has hard time losing weight. For example, due to unbalanced diet a woman suffers from depressions. A lack of glucose disturbs the thought processes. Moreover long diets reduce the level of estrogen-the hormone of attractiveness. Often, losing weight women cannot stop. According to Wikipedia (2012) â€Å"The thinner one gets, the fatter they think they are. †(para. 2). Later, it becomes a terrible disease â€Å"Anorexia nervosa†. â€Å"Anorexia nervosa† often occurs with young girls. They have this illness because of their paranoia.They want to have it themselves and cannot stop. Macrae (2007) claims that â€Å"Dr. Mann’s research showed that up to two-thirds of dieters put on all the weight they lose-and moreover a four to five-year period. †(para. 12) . Unfortunately, the most of girls already do not have so much time. They die, and nothing can save their lives. In conclusion, I want to add that every second woman returns to her previous weight, and every third woman even gets more. Therefore, it is better for girls not to torment themselves with diets trying to suit the generally accepted standards.

Pink-Dear Mr President Analysis

Pink wrote the song â€Å"Dear Mr. President,† on Martin Luther King Day in 2005. The song was released as a single in 2007 and became apart of her album I’m Not Dead. The song is a direct criticism of President George W. Bush and the policies of his administration. Pink addresses the major concerns of most Americans. The song begins â€Å"Dear Mr. President/ Come take a walk with me. Let’s pretend we’re just two people and/ You’re not better than me. † By stating this as an invitation Pink is directly asking the President to listen to her opinions.Through equalizing social standings, she is diminishing the respect that the President demands, Pink is stating that she will be truthful with him and not sugar coat Tanya Kaplan Song Analysis 03/10/09 her opinions. She will tell him the truth about what everyone is thinking but no one is willing to tell him directly. She states, â€Å"You have come along way from whiskey and cocaine,† addre ssing Mr. Bush’s tainted past, which the media seems to ignore. Pink asks Mr. Bush who he prays for at night. She also asks how he feels when he looks in the mirror and if he is proud of himself.These statements address that Mr. Bush forgot to make good on his promises to help people. He had the power to change society and be a positive force for society but failed to do so. Pink then asks Mr. Bush to look her in the eye, this is a sign that she is aware that he is not proud of his own and is unable to face his own actions, she is challenging him to state that he is proud of his actions. She is also addressing the political corruption that is believed to have occurred in the Bush administration.There are many policies, that were enacted, such as political detainees, which the President directly partook in, while the policy blatantly violated the principles set forth in our constitution. Pink addresses many social issues during this song. â€Å"How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?†¦ Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away,† this is a direct attack on the President’s Iraq war policy. There are thousands of mothers who have lost their children in the war on Iraq; some are soldiers while others are innocent children who are ystanders. During the Presidential Election of 2008, the majority of people stated that they did not support the war in Iraq; however, when this song was written it was very uncommon to have a majority of the people not support the war, let alone discuss the destruction that we are inflicting on the residents of Iraq and their infrastructure. The media did not portray the mass destruction inflicted on the country of Iraq or report the effect that the war was having on military families.There are additional hot button social issues that Pink addresses with the President through her song. She states â€Å"What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away? And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay? I can only imagine what the first lady has to say. † Tanya Kaplan Song Analysis 03/10/09 These statements denote George Bush’s policy of anti? abortion, his attempt to refute the Rowe v. Wade decision and to take away a women’s right to abortion.These statements also call into question the administrations anti? gay policies. Ironically Vice? President Cheney’s daughter is gay. It is near impossible to imagine how the President can instill his anti? gay rhetoric while his second in command’s child part takes in a homosexual lifestyle. One must truly wonder what the first lady does say to Mr. Bush, when such a close family friend is directly being affected by his distorted view of appropriate sexuality. Pink also address the non? action that was insinuated by the no child left behind act.The President adamantly states that he is helping the education system in the country through this act, ye t he fails to provide any sort of funding to instill his policy changes. How can one expect to implement new policies yet not provide any funds to do so, while billions of dollars are being spent to make war? Poverty is addressed when Pink explains that Mr. Bush has no idea what it is like to work from minimum wage and be pregnant, or how it would feel to sleep in a cardboard box. She states Mr. Bush knows nothing about hard work.This is a very plausible assertion considering that his own father was the President and he was raised in a more affluent segment of society. The song â€Å"Dear Mr. President† did not get large amounts of play time on the United States radio, in fact it got very little airtime. Pink was quoted as saying that she wrote the song as an attack on the President and his administration to prove that she could and what a great country that we live in to allow her to do so. The song provides for a valid attack on the policies of the Bush administration and o f President Bush himself.

Decision Making in Healthcare Organization

Running Head: Decision Making in a Healthcare Organization 1 Decision Making in a Healthcare Organization Xavier Hunt MHA 601: Principles of Healthcare Administration Professor Jack Lazzare December 19, 2011 DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 2 In the health care profession a CEO will be asked to make a lot of difficult decisions. The CEO will not only have to make decisions that fit the ongoing vision of the healthcare facility he/she may work at they will also have to form stable relationships with their peers, media, and staff. Decision making occurs in all organizations. The decision-making process begins with identifying a question, problem, or area needing improvement, or an operational issue. Problems, issues, questions, and operational challenges come to leaders and managers from many different people both within and outside the health organization (Pablo, 1996). To make the important decision that was given to us in the case study, I would use the garbage can model and its subsets to help me come to a conclusion. This decision involves a lot of people so the choice that will be made will affect all parties involved. In this paper I will discuss how I would tackle this problem with the various tools of decision making through the readings that we have had. The Garbage Can Model How can the garbage can model help in this situation? The garbage can model was invented to expand the understanding of the organization. It addresses the problem that is going on at that time and accepts confusion as a reality. In the garbage can model loose coupling is required in an organization to understand decision making. The garbage can model has also been introduced as a possible method to understand how an organization learns (Tsang, 1997). In the case study the CEO is faced with a myriad of issues like for instance trying to keep the physicians, and adequate staff at the hospital not only that if they were to leave they have threatened to go to their rivals hospitals across the city. The CEO also has to deal with a possible DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 3 lawsuit because the nurse who possibly has HIV has been asked to leave the operating room to work somewhere else. Would this not spark a fire? Could asking the nurse to leave no matter how they tried to butter the deal up still seem like covert discrimination? So the hospital is about to be hit by a media freight train if they cannot get this under control. The garbage can model allows for the CEO to handle these problems accordingly. â€Å"Garbage can decisions can occur in any organization but are more likely to be found in ‘organized anarchies’ where decisions are made under ambiguity and fluid involvement of participants. † Garbage can models are attempts at finding logic and order in the mist of decision-making chaos. Garbage, defined as sets of problems, solutions, energy, and participants, is dumped into a can as they are produced (streams of â€Å"garbage† in time) and when the can is full, a decision is made and removed from the scenario (Takahashi, 2002). The garbage can model depicts the chaotic nature of decision making. Temporal Order Temporal order is a component of the garbage can model. Temporal order replaces sequential order. Time is spatial in that a multitude of issues, problems, information flows, and sensing mechanisms can bombard decision makers in short or long time blocks. How problems and information to resolve the problems arrives in time has relatively equal priority as the evaluation of their importance. Arrival time and sequence in the current context influences decision makers’ attention to the situation. â€Å"The process is thoroughly and generally sensitive to load. An increase in the number of problems, relative to the energy available to work on them, makes problems less likely to be solved, decision makers more likely to shift from one arena to another more frequently, and choices longer to make and less likely to resolve problems† DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 4 (March, 1996). Individuals in the decision-making process, directly and indirectly, are interconnected and influence the context of the decision at hand. The amount of time that the CEO has to make his decision is limited he has to try to make an informed decision about a very sensitive issue that involves a lot of individuals. His decision also will take an effect on peoples family members that use the hospitals services. If he keeps the man will they still want to use the hospital? Or will they go to the cross cities rival hospital? The CEOs problems increased when the media got involved. The CEO has to find a way to balance his time so no one issue become bigger than the other because if he does this something will be forgotten in the process. To combat these issues the CEO will have to be attentive. Attention demands influence decision making. Time and energy must be allocated to understand, evaluate, and formulate a problem, then synthesize relevant information, evaluate options, and finally choose an alternative to counter or terminate the problem. Individuals focus on some things and do not attend to others in the same space of time. Corporate actions, outcomes, and responsiveness are the results of dynamic organizational processes, not heuristics of individual choice (Swanson 1996). Time and energy combine to form â€Å"attention. † Attention is a dynamic concept that is highly dependent on load (that is the number of decisions that need to be made). Information to Media The information that is conveyed to the media is an important tool in this case study. The way that we receive news has dramatically changed in recent years with the addition of social DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 5 etworking sites. These sites allow us to get information much more quickly, and the way a decision is made and perceived can be misconstrued. Information richness is defined as the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval. The longer the time interval to exchange understanding, the less rich the information. Consequently, the less time required the more rich the information is to the communicators (sender and receiver). The media (such as email, the telephone, or face-to-face conversation) that carries information to intended audiences also has a richness associated with it. A continuum of media richness has been established based on the medium’s capacity for immediate feedback, the number of cues and channels utilized personalization, and language variety. In decreasing media richness, the continuum of richness consists of: â€Å"1) face-to-face, 2) telephone, 3) personal documents such as letters, memos, and emails, 4) impersonal written documents, and 5) numeric documents. † The richer the media, the better equivocality can be reduced; media low in richness is best used when communicating messages that are understood well and possess standard information (Draft, 1986). Simply put, face-to-face interaction works best and bulletin board flyers work the worst in transferring meaning. Leaders and managers must consider what media with which to communicate to ensure the highest probability to transfer meaning to their intended audience. So as CEO he need to make sure that he communicate well with the media saying exactly what he means at all times. My final decision would be to not remove the nurse from the operating room because if he is singled out a lawsuit would ensue and it would be hard to say that he was not removed because it is suspected that he has HIV. He cannot be asked if he has it or not because of HIPPA DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 6 laws prohibit this. As long as everyone followed hospitals protocols such as use of blunt tip sutures as approved by the surgeon, a hands free neutral zone large enough where sharps can be placed and not easily tipped over and the use of double gloves in the operating room if would be okay for everyone to work there. If these procedures were taken lightly whoever did not follow would be reprimanded because there is little room for error in this type of setting. It has already been said that you treat everyone as if they are infected not just certain people. DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION 7 References Daft RL, Lengel RH. Organizational information requirements, media richness, and structural design. Manage Sci. 1986;22(5):554–571. March JG, Weisinger-Baylon R. Ambiguity and Command: Organizational Perspectives on Military Decision Making. Marshfield, MA: Pitman Publishing; 1986. Pablo AL, Sitkin SB. Acquisition decision-making processes: The central role of risk. Journal of Management. 1996;22(5):723–747. Swanson DL. Addressing a theoretical problem by reorienting the corporate social performance model. Acad Manage Rev. 1995;20 (1):43–65. Takahashi, N. A single garbage can model and the degree of anarchy in Japanese firms. Hum Relat. 2002;50(1):91–109. Tsang EWK. Organizational learning and the learning organization: A dichotomy between descriptive and prescriptive research. Hum Relat. 1997;50(1):73–90.