Eating disorder in adolescent Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Eating disorder in adolescent - Research Paper Example Eating disorders tend to develop during adolescence and are much more common to girls and women, where the causes of these disorders are related to psychological and medical issues such as low self esteem, depression, anxiety, trouble coping with emotions and substance abuse. Additionally, eating disorders start by eating less or more than the usual, where the behaviour goes out of control and gets taken over by the person’s life. Smolack and Thompson (32) argue that although the symptoms of eating disorders are known to originate primarily in adolescence, most studies have revealed that these disorders emerge due to lack of solid knowledge on how to eat well and live healthy. Obesity in adolescents has now become a very serious matter, leading to health risks such as hypertension, respiratory problems, mellitus and orthopaedic disorders (Cooper and Stein 76). Matsumoto and Herrin (32), discuses the three types of eating disorders Anorexia, Bulimia and Binge eating disorders , where Anorexia is a condition where an adolescent refuses to eat adequate calories out of an intensive and irrational fear of becoming fat and this condition has greatly risen in the past years among these adolescents. Few cases of Anorexia lead to recovery since some experience alternative bouts of weight gain and weight loss and through this conditions tend to emerge as a result of treatment such as depression and low self esteem among the adolescents. Anorexia has been known to increase risks of deaths among these adolescents and they come as a result of starvation, suicide, and severe low levels of potassium, (Matsumoto and Herrin 33). Anorexia is better when discovered and treated in early stages, since it prevents against mortality among the adolescents. Effective treatments for disorders in eating have been availed to, because Anorexic

The study of design research methodology Essay Example for Free

The study of design research methodology Essay Abstract Studies on design research methodology are infrequent, although there is a consensus that more e ort is needed for improving design research quality. Previous calls for exercising better research methodology have been unsuccessful. As numerous studies reveal, there is no single scienti c methodology that is exercised in science or in any other research practice. Rather, research methodologies are socially constructed. Since some constructions are better than others for di erent purposes, it becomes valuable to study di erent methodologies and their in uence on research practice and results. Proposals for such studies are overed. 1 The state of design research methodology In many disciplines, research methodology is seldom discussed by researchers. Such neglect may result from several attitudes towards research methodology including indi erence or ignorance. Researchers may be indi erent because their research is well received by the community therefore they need not change or worry about it; or researchers may perceive their practice as science and wish to adopt as their methodology what they perceive to be the methodology used by scientists, henceforth referred to as the received scienti c methodology. Roughly, the received scienti c methodology consists  of several steps: (1) observations or preliminary studies, (2) hypothesis formation, (3) hypothesis testing, (4) hypothesis evaluation, and (5) hypothesis acceptance or rejection. It is asserted that results of research discovered by this methodology lead to applied research and subsequently, to practical impact. In contrast to this assertion, it is proclaimed that the goal of this methodology is to advance knowledge for its own sake and not address practical needs nor be responsible for delivering practical results. Most researchers would rarely question this methodology, but since it is impossible to follow or even hard to approximate, researchers who would claim to have adopted it, would not practice it.  Indi erence may be caused by ignorance; often researchers are not familiar with the details  of, and the controversies about, the received scienti c methodology. They are unaware of the alternatives of this methodology that we brie y mention later, their practice, and consequences. In fact, most researchers interpret methodology as a fancy synonym for method, while methodology is (or attempts to approximate) a compatible collection of assumptions and goals underlying methods, the methods, and the way the results of carrying the methods out are interpreted and evaluated. The ability to validate the attainment of research assumptions and goals through the evaluations is a critical factor in making the above collection compatible. The di erence in meanings assigned to the term methodology can be illustrated through an example from structural optimization. One research method of structural design involves the development of optimization procedures and their testings on benchmark problems. Most researchers will call this method \research methodology. However, the assumptions underlying such work (e.g., that optimization is a good model of structural design) and its testing (e.g., that simple benchmark problems are representatives of the complex structural designs performed by designers), or the believe that such research advances practice (e.g., that designers use optimization programs developed in research and that designers practice bene ts from them), are rarely articulated thus  rarely validated. If these issues would be addressed, the conclusions would probably contradict those implicit assumptions. First, independent of any discipline, optimization is a very restricted view of design (even with respect to Simons (1981) restricted view). Second, results obtained on simple benchmark problems do not necessarily transfer to real design problems nor do they re ect performance on other benchmark problems (Haftka and Sobieski, 1992); simple benchmark comparisons provide little understanding of the relative merit of di erent optimization procedures (Burns, 1989). Third, practitioners are very reluctant to use optimization procedures (Adelman, 1992; Haftka and Sobieski, 1992). This reluctance contradicts the implicit or stated research goals of improving structural design practice. Indi erence or ignorance towards research methodology relieve researchers from addressing such contradictions or exercising informed choices between methodologies in their research. Many researchers simply follow the method of their close senior peers without questioning or even knowing the assumptions that underlie it. In most cases, only the method|the actual research activity|is transferred to research apprentices. Thus, driven by social proximity, research assumptions become part of the implicit unarticulated research culture. Infrequently, this state of a airs had called the attention of researchers. In 1987, two representative papers critical of the state of design research practice were published, one by Antonsson (1987) and the other by Dixon (1987). Both papers advocated adopting the scienti c methodology in design research either for improving research quality or for improving design practice. These and other related papers elicit almost no response from the research community. Since their publication, the state of design research methodology has remained virtually unchanged. Such reaction raises at least two questions: what may have caused this response and if this is an expected reaction, is the state of research methodology worth additional discussions? Two plausible answers that originate from two di erent interpretations of Dixon and Antonssons papers justify further discussions. First, Dixon and Antonssons positions may have been interpreted as criticizing the intellectual de ciency of research and demanding from researchers to exercise a methodology di erent from the one they actually use and one that requires additional e ort. In particular, the methodology Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  proposed demanded researchers to seriously test their hypotheses. It might have been expected that such requests would be opposed to or, worst, be ignored. Second, researchers who are familiar with current views in the philosophy of science may have treated Dixon or Antonssons positions as being too simpli ed if they interpreted these positions as advocating for the received scienti c view. Since the stated goal of science is creating knowledge for the sake of knowing, but not necessarily knowledge that is relevant to practice, the received scienti c methodology may hinder improving practice by detaching the products of research ( i.e., design theories) from actual practice (Argyris, 1980; Reich, 1992). According to this interpretation and its limitation, previous calls for improving research methodology could not have impacted design practice even if researchers had adopted them. If design practice is indeed a goal of design research, di erent methodologies may be needed to establish a connection between research and practice (Reich et al, 1992; Reich, 1994a; Reich, 1994b). These methodologies can evolve in various ways including studying researchers activities and the way these activities correlate with research progress, thereby identifying the relationships between di erent assumptions, methods, and consequences. I have no intention to select between these two interpretations or to develop others but to explain how to improve research practice without assuming a xed methodology. To start with, we must acknowledge that there are di ering views about scienti c methodology (Kourany, 1987). In addition, we must  acknowledge studies on science and technology demonstrating that scienti c progress is in uenced by social, cultural, and political factors. Researchers in various sciences are increasingly acknowledging that knowledge is socially constructed (Pickering, 1992), and knowledge of design, in particular (Konda et al, 1992; Monarch et al, 1993). Moreover, the social in uence on research practice includes aspects such as: shaping research goals according to available grants or unarticulated interests; publishing papers to receive tenure or to justify traveling to conferences; and fraud (Bell, 1992; Broadbent, 1981). The rst studies on the social dimensions of science analyzed the progress of the \hard sciences such as chemistry or physics (Feyerabend, 1975; Kuhn, 1962). More recently, historical or re ective studies in science and engineering have begun addressing the social aspects underlying research and the need for di erent methodologies if practical impact is sought. These disciplines include: management science (Argyris, 1980), education (Guba, 1990), public policy (Palumbo and Calista, 1990), information systems (Bjerknes et al, 1987), cell biology (Grinnell, 1982), design in general (Broadbent, 1981), structural design (Addis, 1990; Timoshenko, 1953), solid mechanics (Bucciarelli and Dworsky, 1980), and even mathematics (DeMillo et al, 1979). Moreover, the social aspects manifested themselves in unexpected circumstances and in resolving seemingly trivial issues such as the implementation of computer arithmetic (MacKenzie, 1993)|the most basic infrastructure for much engineering design re search and practice. The importance of the aforementioned studies is twofold. First, they reject the received scienti c view as the means for formulating theories and as a means for improving practice. Second, they acknowledge and demonstrate that research methodology is a subject of study and constant improvement, and that gaining insight into the procedures of doing research can improve research itself. Since science is a social enterprise, the study of research methodology is mandatory for providing guidance in the maze of methodologies and in monitoring the quality of research. In order to sustain credibility, researchers must use and demonstrate that the techniques they develop in design research have some relevance to practice. Moreover, since funding  agencies Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in  press researchers to work towards improving design practice (National Research Council, 1991), researchers need to understand what kinds of studies are useful in practice, how are such studies conducted within budget limits, and which factors account for the di usion of studies results into practical engineering. 2 Studying research methodology Researchers may nd it fruitful to study: the objectives or goals of engineering design research; how can these objectives be ful lled through research; how can progress towards research goals be tested; and how can this overall process be improved. Such study will evolve a repository of methods with their assumptions, interpretations, successes and failures. This is the essence of studying engineering design research methodology. This view does not advocate for nor lead to anarchy. Furthermore, the evolving nature of methodology does not empty the usefulness of some principles for evaluating scienti c theories (e.g., such as those acknowledged even by Kuhn, 1987), nor does it mean that methodology is merely an art (Beveridge, 1957) that is not amenable to systematic study. It only acknowledges that the assumptions underlying methodologies and their potential e ectiveness and drawbacks for conducting certain types of research projects must be studied. We now illustrate the study of research methodology by elaborating some issues related to Antonssons six-step methodology (1987, p. 154). Each of the steps raises issues that need further study. These issues are not startling; some are familiar while others are not. Unfortunately, most of them are neglected all too often. (1),(2) Propose/hypothesize that a set of rules for design can elucidate part of the design process and develop those rules. Several questions arise about the actual execution of this activity. What is a good source of such rules? Are (un)successful designs (Petroski, 1989; Suh, 1990), patents previously issued (Arciszewski, 1988) or design textbooks (Aguirre and Wallace, 1990) good sources? Is studying human designers useful (Subrahmanian, 1992)? The answer is obviously a rmative; nevertheless, rarely are these sources consulted. If studying human designers is useful, how do di erent ways of studying a ect the usefulness of the rules hypothesized? Inarguably, such studies bring to bear research methods from psychology and sociology into play in design research. For example, how are designers activities being coded in observational studies? Is the coding scheme tested for reliability by using at lease two coders? Are the results statistically valid? Which criteria may be used for selecting candidate hypotheses for further testing? Can the subjective bias in th is selection be reduced? Note that the above questions raise a related question. Consider trading the quality of the design rules proposed with the resources to nd them. What kind of information is needed for making a sensible trade o and how can this information be collected and organized? (3) Have novice designers learn the rules and apply them. How is the above learning process taking place? Are the designers being taught thus introducing teachers bias? Or do they learn the rules on their own, potentially by solving Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  other design problems, thereby excluding the exercise of some measure of control? How are problems selected such that novice designers can solve them yet such that they are relevant to real practice. For that matter, how relevant is any laboratory experiment to real design? This critical question leads researchers in other disciplines as well as in design to use different  methods such as ethnography and participatory research while studying designers. See (Reich et al, 1992; Subrahmanian, 1992; Reich, 1994a) for additional details. Are benchmark problems used by di erent researchers to allow for the replication of results? Is performance on benchmark problems indicative of performance on other problems or on real design? Is it possible to replicate results relevant to real design? Can rules for multidisciplinary design be hypothesized and tested in the same manner? If the common view of science is adopted, this study must be controlled to be valid. One minimal requirement is that another group of designers participate in the study, potentially novice designers that did not study the new design rules. Note, however, that since the rst group of novice designers are trained with the new rules, the second group must receive similar training with default or irrelevant rules. Furthermore, members of the groups must not know which group was trained with the new rules. A better study may also include two groups of expert designers, one that learns the rules and another that learns the default rules. The latter may prov ide better indication about the relative merit of the new design rules with respect to existing design practice. In contrast, if the study follows a di erent methodology such as participatory research (Reich et al, 1992; Whyte, 1991), the nature of the study would change signi cantly into long-term case studies where real design problems are addressed. Exercising common scienti c methods in this methodology may damage research (Blumberg and Pringle, 1983). (4) Measure the design productivity of the rules. How is productivity being measured? Which criteria are included in the measurement: quality of design, time to design, or revenue of manufacturer? Do the measures used adhere to the principles of measurement theory (Roberts, 1979; Reich, 1995), or are they ad hoc and meaningless? Do independent designers than those who created the designs, or do potential customers, participate in this measurement?  Can the quality of design be assessed without manufacturing it and subjecting it to actual use? How relevant will abstract measurements be to practical  design? Is the measurement quantitative or is qualitative information being gathered as well? (5) Evaluate the results to con rm or refute the hypothesis. How is the measured data evaluated? What are the criteria that determine whether a hypothesis was con rmed or refuted? Are these criteria general or context dependent? Note that most philosophers of science including Popper and Kuhn reject the existence of such criteria (Weimer, 1979). Are the criteria correlated with real design? That is, could not researchers nd designers successfully employing design rules that were refuted by researchers? For example, Fritts et al. (1990, p. 478) describe engineers using theories that produce erroneous results with respect to experiments but that have a pragmatic utility of di erentiating between candidate designs. Are hypotheses really refuted or con rmed or are di erent hypotheses found to be useful Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  in different contexts? When is it possible to disregard experimental evidence in favor of keeping a hypothesis (Agassi, 1975)? When can experiments be harmful to progress (Truesdell, 1982)? Does a failure of a hypothesis constitute a failure of a research project or can it provide useful information worth reporting? Will archival journals publish such a report? (6) Re ne the hypothesis. The comments on items (1) and (2) apply here. Moreover, How does one diagnose a faulty hypothesis to accommodate empirical testing? When is re nement insu cient to address the failure of a hypothesis and a new \worldview must be adopted? The above expansion of Antonssons proposal re ects the complexity, richness, and necessity of studying research methodology. It illustrates that the design of a research activity is complex and di cult. It hints that  some activities that lead to research successes may fail other research and that some activities may not be compatible with some methodologies. Furthermore, research failure s (OR SUCCESSES) can lead to practical successes (or failures). Therefore, it is critical to identify where methods fail or succeed and in relation to which assumptions. Summary Science does not progress according to a distinctive methodology, nor could engineering design research; especially not if the goal is advancing design practice and not some abstract `understanding. Di erent research scenarios consisting of di erent goals, disciplines, and cultural settings, may call for di erent research methodologies for attaining the stated goals. Research involves design and therefore design researchers must be re ective continuously. This paper illustrated how researchers can be re ective upon their research methodology. If researchers object to such re ection, they risk losing credibility and, more importantly, lose the chance of discovering whether their work is meaningful. Acknowledgments The ideas expressed in this paper bene ted from discussions with Suresh Konda, Sean Levy, Shoulamit Milch-Reich, Ira Monarch, and Eswaran Subrahmanian. This work was done partly while the author was with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC. and the Engineering Design Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. References Addis, W. (1990). Structural Engineering: The Nature of Theory and Design, Ellis Horwood, New York NY. Adelman, H. M. (1992). \Experimental validation of the utility of structural optimization. Structural Optimization, 5(1-2):3{11. Agassi, J. (1975). Sciene in Flux, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  Aguirre, G. J. and Wallace, K. M. (1990). \Evaluation of technical systems at the design stage. In Proceedings of The 1990 International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED-90 (Dubrovnik). Antonsson, E. K. (1987). \Development and testing of hypotheses in engineering design research. ASME Journal of Mechanisms, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 109:153{154. Arciszewski, T. (1988). \ARIZ 77: An innovative design method. Design Methods and Theories, 22(2):796{ 820. Argyris, C. (1980). Inner Contradictions of Rigorous Research, Academic Press, New York, NY. Bell, R. (1992). Impure Science: Fraud, Compromise, and Political In uence in Scienti c Research, Wiley, New York, NY. Beveridge, W. I. B. (1957). The Art of Scienti c Investigation, Norton, New York, NY, Revised edition. Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P., and Kyng, M., editors (1987). Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge, Gower Press, Brook eld, VT. Blumberg, M. and Pringle, C. D. (1983). \How control groups can cause loss of control in action research: The case of Rushton Coal Mine. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 19(4):409{425. Broadbent, G. (1981). \The morality of designing. In Design: Science: Method, Proceedings of The 1980 Design Research Society Conference, pages 309{328, Westbury House, Guilford, England. Bucciarelli, L. L. and Dworsky, N. (1980). Sophie Germain: An Essay in the History of Elasticity, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland. Burns, S. A. (1989). \Graphical representations of design optimization processes. Computer-Aided Design, 21(1):21{24. DeMillo, R. A., Lipton, R. J., and Perlis, A. J. (1979). \Social processes and proofs of theorems and programs. Communication of the ACM, 22:271{280. Dixon, J. R. (1987). \On research methodology towards a scienti c theory of engineering design. Arti cial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 1(3):145{157. Feyerabend, P. K. (1975). Against Method, New Left Books, London, UK. Fritts, M., Comstock, E., Lin, W.-C., and Salvasen, N. (1990). \Hydro-numeric design: Performance prediction and impact on hull design. Transactions SNAME, 98:473{493. Grinnell, F. (1982). The Scienti c Attitude, Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Guba, E. G., editor (1990). The Paradigm Dialog, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. Haftka, R. T. and Sobieski, J. (1992). \Editorial: The case for helping consumers of research. Structural Optimization, 4(2):63{64. Konda, S., Monarch, I., Sargent, P., and Subrahmanian, E. (1992). \Shared memory in design: A unifying theme for research and practice. Research in Engineering Design, 4(1):23{42. Kourany, J. A., editor (1987). Scienti c Knowledge: Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Science, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA. Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The Structure of Scienti c Revolution, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Kuhn, T. S. (1987). \Objectivity, value judgment, and theory choice. In Kourany, J. A., editor, Scienti c Knowledge: Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Science, pages 197{207, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth. MacKenzie, D. (1993). \Negotiating arithmetic, constructing proof: The sociology of mathematics and information technology. Social Studies of Science, 23(1):37{65. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press  Monarch, I. A., Konda, S. L., Levy, S. N., Reich, Y., Subrahmanian, E., and Ulrich, C. (1993). \Shared memory in design: Theory and practice. In Proceedings of the Invitational Workshop on Social Science Research, Technical Systems and Cooperative Work (Paris, France), pages 227{241, Paris, France, Department Sciences Humaines et Sociales, CNRS. National Research Council (1991). Improving Engineering Design: Designing For Competitive Advantage, National Academy Press, Washington, DC. Palumbo, D. J. and Calista, D. J., editors (1990). Implementation and The Policy Process: Opening Up The Black Box, Greenwood Press, New York, NY. Petroski, H. (1989). \Failure as a unifying theme in design. Design Studies, 10(4):214{218. Pickering, A., editor (1992). Science as Practice and Culture, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Reich, Y., Konda, S., Monarch, I., and Subrahmanian, E. (1992). \Participation and design: An extended view. In Muller, M. J., Kuhn, S., and Meskill, J. A., editors, PDC92: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference (Cambridge, MA), pages 63{71, Palo Alto, CA, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Reich, Y. (1992). \Transcending the theory-practice problem of technology. Technical Report EDRC 12-51-92, Engineering Design Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Reich, Y. (1994). \Layered models of research methodologies. Arti cial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing, 8(4):(in press). Reich, Y. (1994). \What is wrong with CAE and can it be xed. In Preprints of Bridging the Generations: An International Workshop on the Future Directions of Computer-Aided Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA, Department of Civil Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University. Reich, Y. (1995). \Measuring the value of knowledge. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. (in press). Roberts, F. S. (1979). Measurement Theory with Applications to Decisionmaking, Utility, and the Social Sciences, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, Vol. 7, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA. Simon, H. A. (1981). The Sciences of The Arti cial, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2nd edition. Subrahmanian, E. (1992). \Notes on empirical studies of engineering tasks and environments, invited position paper. In NSF Workshop on Information Capture and Access in Engineering Design Environments (Ithaca, NY), pages 567{578. Suh, N. P. (1990). The Principles of Design, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Timoshenko, S. P. (1953). History of Strength of Materials: With a Brief Account of the History of Theory of Elasticity and Theory of Structures, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Truesdell, C. (1982). \The disastrous e ects of experiment upon the early development of thermodynamics. In Agassi, J. and Cohen, R. S., editors, Scienti c Philosophy Today: Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge, pages 415{423, Dordrecht, D. Reidel Publishing Company. Weimer, W. B. (1979). Notes on the Methodology of Scienti c Research, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. Whyte, W. F., editor (1991). Participatory Action Research, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA. Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Mechanical Design, 1995, in press

Imagery In Macbeth :: essays research papers

Imagery in Macbeth William Shakespeare’s play, (if indeed he did write it) Macbeth is rife with killing, and is probably only second in bloodiness to his earlier play, Titus Andronicus. Not only is blood a key part of the plot for obvious reasons, it is also an example of imagery, representing several different symbols throughout the play. In the beginning, blood represents honor. Later, blood seems to show treachery. A the end of the play Shakespeare uses blood to show Macbeth’s guilt for all his evil and greedy acts. The first reference of blood occurs when Duncan sees the injured sergeant and says, "What bloody man is that?" (1.2.1) The King is referring to the brave messenger who has just returned from a war. Soon after, the bloody captain praises Macbeth’s deeds in battle, saying that he held his sword "Which smoked with bloody execution" (1.2.20), meaning that Macbeth’s bravery was shown by his sword covered in the hot blood of the enemy. After at first symbolizing bravery, blood soon becomes an image representing treachery and treason. When Lady Macbeth is trying to summon enough courage to have the king killed, she cries out to spirits to "make thick my blood," (1.5.50) meaning that she wants to try and be as remorseless as possible so that she can perform this treacherous deed. Macbeth also calls the act of treason the â€Å"...bloody business...† (2.1.60) In addition, Lady Macbeth knows that blood is evidence of treason, and so she shifts the blame onto others by telling Macbeth to "smear the sleepy grooms with blood," (2.2.64) Throughout act two, whenever a character speaks of Duncan’s murder, they always refer to it as the bloody deed or the bloody murder, showing that blood has taken on the meaning of treason. In addition to treason, blood also represents guilt and remorse in act two. Shortly after he has killed Duncan, Macbeth asks himself, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?," (2.2.78-79) meaning that he is already disturbed by his awful deed. Later, during the banquet scene, blood represents the guilt that haunts Macbeth. Banquo’s ghost (who is covered in blood) appears and haunts Macbeth, who says, â€Å"... they blood is cold...,† (3.4.114) meaning that Macbeth feels guilty and is scared of Banquo’s cold revenge. Blood as a symbol of guilt shows itself very well in the scene in which Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep.

Filipinos Before the Spanish Era

Long before the Spaniards came, the Philippines was already inhabited by natives. And among the natives of the Island were the Negritos. Characteristically, the Negritoes were short and dark skinned people. They had curly hair, small nose and were thick-lipped. These natives were barely clothed as clothing for them consists of the bahag and a jacket-like upper for men. They wore neither shoes nor slippers but go about barefooted. Their women adorn themselves with ornaments while their men usually tattoo themselves.The natives of the Island lived in small huts more popularly known as bahay kubo. These small huts were usually made of bamboo and the roofs made of nipa, resources that are readily available and abundant in the Philippines. For their livelihood, the natives depended on fishing since the Philippines is mostly coastal. However, the natives also went hunting for food. This is because the Philippines is known for being rich in natural resources. Thus, food was never a problem for the natives as the island is abundantly endowed.Like any tribe or group of people, the natives were very communal and thus lived in small communities known as the balangay. Each balangay was headed by a leader called the datu or raj. The Datu or the Raj was usually a brave and respected leader who is expected to protect his community from outside attack. It is also the leader’s responsibility to maintain peace and order within the community. Thus, the Datu or the Raj resolves whenever conflicts arise between and among his constituents.This system is the earliest known form of government which has now been carried over to the present day Barangays. Even before the Spaniards came and who claimed to have civilized the inhabitants of the island, the natives were already literate and civilized people. Manifestations of their civilization and literacy can be seen from the rules that govern the balangay. And there have been many other indications especially in their communities that these natives were literate people.

Ethics in Economics and Finance Essay

Ethics is defined as a standard of human behavior that offers how to act in many situations with friends, family members, employees, business people, professionals, etc. It is necessary to mention that to make really ethical decision means to use trained sensitivity to ethical issues. In other words, ethics is associated with acceptable human behavior in this or that everyday or scientific field. Ethics incorporates norms of conventional morality to distinguish ‘wrong’ behavior from ‘right’ behavior. Generally, ethical norms suggest honesty, truthfulness, fairness, integrity, justice and respect for others. Ethics is applied to all aspects of life as, for example, medicine, psychology, business, finance and economics. Financial and economic ethics is considered subset of general ethics. (Frowen, 1995, p. 46) Ethics and Ethical Norms Researches argue that ethical norms and values play important role in maintaining harmony and stability in social life as ethics suggests proper ways of human-human interactions. Ethics recognizes human needs and aspirations, as well as cooperative efforts, fairness and truthfulness. Ethics contributes social stability and ensures balance in all spheres of life and business. Social evolution has developed instinct care in humans to take care of ourselves and of others. Ethical norms are necessary for guiding human behavior and it is refereed to when it is necessary to resolve conflicts between selfishness and selfishness, between conscience and material needs. In finance and economics ethical violations are associated with inconsistency in modern financial-economic theory. Violations are also attributed to inconsistencies in use if principal-agent model of relations in economic and financial transactions. It is noted that the financial-economic theory is based on the rational-maximizer paradigm which promotes capitalist system stressing that individuals are egoistic and they tend to behave rationally when looking for ways of maximizing their own interest. The problem is that modern financial-economic theory contradicts ethical norms of loyalty, fidelity, trustworthiness and stewardship. Moral values are the core of traditional concept of agency, but if humans are claimed to be rational maximizers, then traditional sense is impossible. (Frowen, 19995, p. 47-49) For example, Duska argues that â€Å"to do something for another in a system geared to maximize self-interest is foolish. Such an answer, though, points out an inconsistency at the heart of the system, for a system that has rules requiring agents to look out for others while encouraging individuals to look out only for themselves, destroys the practice of looking out for others†. (Duska, 1992, p. 61) Ethics in Finance Ethics in finance plays important role as it aims at ensuring fair deals and transactions. Moreover, ethics in finance addresses corporate governance, and agency relationships which should be purely contractual. In financial sphere, ethical behaviour should be based on carrot-and-stick approach. In corporate governance the conflict between stockholder and management is described as agency problem. To deal with this problem an agency theory was developed. It stresses that the principal and agent are both self-interested aiming at generating their gain. (Dobson, 1993, p. 7) Researchers say that we tend to entail our needs as, for example, management of retirement savings or stock and bond investing, to financial services as we may fail to carry them effectively. We are not as organized as financial managers, but we are not aware of agency problem. Lack of necessary information limits our ability to monitor managers’ behaviour. Therefore, modern world is characterized by selfish behaviour as people are willing to get their things done by others. Such paradoxical situation explains ethical problems in financial sphere stressing that declining in morality is observed. (Dobson, 1993, p. 8) Ethical violations in finance are rather frequent nowadays and that mainly associated with stakeholder interest, insider trading, investment management and camping financing. Loyalty and trust in public and private dealings are often violated. The most common occurrences are fraudulent financial dealings, corruption in government and public institutions, influence peddling, cheating customers about their trading profits, insider trading, unauthorized transactions, misuse of customer funds in order to obtain personal gain, larceny and corruption in banks, improper pricing of customer trades, etc. Most frequently, unethical behaviour is associated with insider trading which is defined as trading in securities of particular company or organization with an effort to take advantage of information about material side of the company. In such a way, trade is provided with unfair advantage over other competitors in the same security. (Dobson, 1993, p. 59) Therefore, ethical codes are very important in financial filed as they set standards of acceptable behaviour, fair dealing and honest relations with customers. Ethical codes in finance tends to replace egoistic paradigm and to create such system which would promote, honesty, altruism and virtuous traits. It is rather common to fid ethical codes in modern financial markets and financial corporation. In financial markets such ethical codes are established by official regulatory agencies which are trying to ensure ethical and responsible behaviour as important part of all operations and transactions. Furthermore, re-examining of the core principle of capitalist society helps to address ethical problems in both financial and economic fields. Financial ethics suggests that individual should be presented as honest and altruistic promoting honesty and fairness in public and private dealings. The primary purpose of ethic in financial sphere is to set standards of internal good. (Dobson, 1993, p. 60-61) Ethics in Economics Ethics is related with economic sphere in three ways: economists should follow ethical values trying to shape the way they are doing economics; economic actors have ethical values which shape their own behavioural standards; finally, ethical values are important for economic policies and institutions as they affect people differentially. However, from economic perspective ethics is defined as a matter of choice for everyone. Many economists argue that ethical values contribute positively economic welfare. However, there are ideas that economics is ethically neutral. Economists are interested in implication of Adam Smith’s idea that all human are driven by self-interest and egoism. Smith argued that self-interest led to the common good of nation. (Wilber, 1996, p. 135) However, he agreed that human should act in terms of internationalized moral law and police power of the state. Therefore, it is recognized that in economic sphere all figures should act on the basis of acknowledged ethical norms as economy of every country needs efficient ethical behaviour to improve country’s reputation at the world scene. In economics ethics suggests avoiding corruption in government and promoting fair decision-making. It is a matter of fact that ethics is not an easy task for economic system and business as there will be always interest groups which will challenge ethical standards and values. Therefore, economics should pay more attention to ethics and social responsibility, as well as to set ethical codes of behavior. For example, businesses are defined as important institutions in any economic structure. Therefore, they are expected to follow ethical norms when deciding how to organize the work and to produce necessary goods and service. Businesses reflect the overall economic system and unethical behavior may create unfavorable reputation. (Wilber, 1996, p. 139) Conclusion Ethics plays crucial role in all aspects of life, especially in financial and economic sphere. In financial field ethics is associated with fair transactions and dealings, honest buyer-customer relations and avoidance of corruption. In economic field ethics is associated with social responsibility, ethical decision-making as the whole nation depends on them, and, of course, with no corruption on national level. Ethics is necessary not only for maintaining balance and harmony, but also for improving reputation of company, organization, and even country. (Frowen, 1995, p. 68)

Chemistry SC Essays

Chemistry SC Essays Chemistry SC Essay Chemistry SC Essay Questions 19. Based on the observations provided in the kitchen lab, Developing an Activity Series, the order of the four metals from most reactive to least reactive is: zinc, iron, nickel, copper. Zinc is the most reactive. The reaction occurred quickly Small bubbles (hydrogen) appeared straight away. As the reaction continued, larger bubbles (more hydrogen) appeared. At the end of the experiment, the nail was completely rusted. Hydrogen displaced the zinc. Iron had no visible reaction after 1 hour, so there wasnt as an immediate off reaction as with the zinc. The reaction then escalated after four hours, and after a 1 day period, hydrogen displaced the iron and left the nail rusted. The reaction of the nickel was even slower than that of the iron; there was no immediate reaction and no visible change until after a one day period, when it appeared darker and slightly tarnished (not as violently corroded as the zinc and iron). The penny shows no reaction because it is below hydrogen in the activity series. Hydrogen does not displace copper. Chemistry SCHUSS-B, Unit 2, Lesson 7: Key Questions a. Word equation for the burning of carbon: carbon+ oxygen 0 carbon monoxide Balanced chemical equation for the burning of carbon: C(s) + 02(g) 0 CO(g) Word equation for the burning of sulfur: sulfur + oxygen 0 sulfur dioxide Balanced chemical equation for the burning of sulfur: S(s) + 02(g) 0 SIS(g) b. SIS is a byproduct of the burning of coal. It is a very acidic oxide, producing sulfurous and eventually sulfuric acid when mixed with water, contributing to acid rain. In areas where there is a large amount of SIS present, the rain pH can be as low as 3. 5 whereas natural rain is about 5. 6. This is 100 times more acidic. C. This harmful effect is noted by: Sulfur dioxide + water + sulfurous acid 0 sulfuric acid SIS + H2O 0 HASPS HASPS Chemistry SCHUSS-B, Unit 2, Lesson 8: Key Questions 25. It is important to ensure that your furnace is tuned up and in proper working order prior to winter because of CO emissions that could be potentially dangerous leading to carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is fatal to humans. As windows are generally kept closed in winter months, the excess CO gas could be lethal as the CO would have no way of dissipating. 26. I support the President of the United States in his boycott of Alberta dirty oil. In addition to the excess greenhouse gases created in separating the oil from the sand, extraction of the tar sands oil and upgrading it to fuel grade for car engines required enormous amounts of energy and water and destroys miles of forest. 1) To extract each barrel of oil from a surface mine, the industry must first cut down the forest, then remove an average of two tons of peat and dirt that lie above the oil sands layer, then two tons of sand itself. (2) The water that is used in water shortage to consider. The water used in the mining and refining of this oil moms from the Databases River, which mostly is derived from the Databases Glacier, which is retreating rapidly. This wat er shortage would be detrimental to the Alberta populous.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi essays

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi essays Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar (In the state of Gujarat) on the 2nd of October, 1869. He was educated at university College, London. After this, he went back to India to begin his Law profession but had no luck and moved to South Africa. Gandhi found that in South Africa he was considered as a second class citizen even though he was a well educated Lawyer. This started his first 'mission'. To get India's residing in South Africa equal rights. In this action he discovered a technique of resistance that is non-violent and more to the fact of accepting a persons violence, allowing them to so the damage they inflict on you, and letting them feel guilty (In a way). This for of resistance is formally known as Passive Resistance. The mission he was fighting for did not quite work and after 20 years of on-and-off imprisonment, he want back to India. At the time, India was under the rule of the British Empire. Gandhi devised a form of a political group to make a free and independent India. The forms of activities this group participated in were protect marches, gatherings and this was all done with Passive Resistance. During Gandhi's life, he was so into this idea of Passive Resistance, if anyone that wanted an Independent India resorted to violence, he would fast until the violence stopped. he did this a number of times and it always worked. Also if he created notes, memos or writings about India's home rule, the government would throw him in jail. The great thing about Gandhi is that he never denied a true accusation and happily was taken of to jail. I believe that Gandhi once said 'It is not as if I am sentenced to prison, just taking an extended holiday.'. The qualities that Gandhi had were very respectable. He was a very well educated man, he was articulate and very true in his words. Everything he seemed to say was so meaningful and so to the point, that is very inspiring to anyone. He had a good personality and a lovin ...

8 ideas for experienced teachers who want a second career

8 ideas for experienced teachers who want a second career Teaching is both rewarding and difficult. There’s a lot to love about the profession, particularly having a front seat to witness students growing and learning throughout the school year. But over the long term teachers can get worn out- and are often overworked for little pay. The good news for experienced teachers is that the profession comes with a number of translatable skills. In addition to particular subject area knowledge, experienced teachers possess excellent public speaking, presentation, and leadership skills, and establish themselves as effective communicators- not just with school-aged populations, but also among parents, colleagues, and administrators. Teachers are also adept at detail-oriented work like editing, long-term planning of activities, and meeting educational goals.If you’re looking to leave the traditional classroom, the skills you’ve acquired as a teacher are can translate to many jobs in varying fields. Let’s look at a few.8 no n-classroom jobs for teachers1. Employee training/HRMany companies offer workshops, new employee training, and orientations, and need someone to run them. These employee training activities require someone with a similar skillset to teaching. Often housed in the HR Department, the presentation and transfer of knowledge in a corporate setting can offer experienced teachers a place to use their communication skills to help employees learn about their company and enrich their experiences at work.2. School administratorWhether in the area of running the day-to-day business of the school or assisting in curriculum development, teaching experience is a boon for any administrative position. From school principals to university registrars, there are a variety of positions that help keep a school running, and most positions require advanced degrees. This is a good position for teachers who are devoted to the educational system, but worn out on teaching in the classroom.3. Residential life c oordinator/Youth organization directorThe organizational skills required to plan a year of lessons and be flexible minute to minute in the classroom translate well to camps, youth organizations, and residential life departments of college campuses. Teaching experience means you will be adept at the long-term planning required in these roles, and familiarity with specific age groups in a classroom setting gives you a leg up, as you must show you can deal with large groups of people and keep them organized and engaged.4. Freelance writing and editingTeachers’ communications skills translate well to writing and editing positions, where they can use their expertise to educate outside of the classroom. Writing offers more flexibility than teaching, but less job security- especially as most writers work on a freelance basis. Editing positions, where a teacher can be called upon as a subject-matter expert to review and offer advice on their topic of knowledge, are another great free lance opportunity.5. Guidance counselorGuidance counselors must have specific knowledge about school-age populations, testing, and school district guidelines, as well as the ability to tap into a student’s motivation. Teachers already know how to do this well. In most cases, guidance counselors need to be licensed, and in some states, they need to have a master’s degree. While this job is very much adjacent to the classroom, as the primary goal is guiding students toward their educational goals, the change from classroom to office is a big one. Even so, you’re still in a school setting so that the career will feel s.6. Academic librarianExperienced teachers fit well into the role of librarian, as they have experience engaging with students while helping them in educational settings. In academic libraries, there are subject librarians with particular knowledge in certain areas (similar to teaching) that help students and faculty find resources to help with their research. Academic librarians often give presentations or build websites for university classes to help them learn how to use library tools. This role requires a graduate degree in library and information science, but for teachers looking to make a career move it can be a great option.7. Event plannerLarge-scale events, from evening receptions to corporate meetings, require a lot of planning over months and need planners with ability to think on their feet to make sure the day of the event runs smoothly. As they coordinate speakers, catering, and venue staff, event planners must be detail-oriented, effective communicators who are comfortable with large groups. While a departure from teaching, running a big event and coordinating all the details requires a similar skillset and can be a new avenue for a teacher looking to embark on a totally different career.8. Teaching outside the classroomEssentially â€Å"freelance† teaching, this option offers educators the ability to set t heir own schedules. Beyond the traditional classroom setting in schools, there are growing opportunities for online teaching or tutoring one-on-one or in small groups. Educators who don’t want to branch out on their own can also work through an agency. For teachers who have frustration with the school system but still have the teaching bug, this route can provide more freedom while still changing students’ lives.

E-Learning, the Possibilities of Replacing Traditional Learning Dissertation - 1

E-Learning, the Possibilities of Replacing Traditional Learning - Dissertation Example This dissertation is intended to find the possibilities of replacing traditional learning with E-learning .Such study is important in order to find or know the more suitable learning environments for the students and what skills they need in order to fulfil the E-learning course they are taking. Also, to know what are the advantages and disadvantages that the student believes that may affect his/her E-learning course, and do they have the responsibility and the self motivation to complete there on line course or assigned target within the specified time window. A survey was conducted with 22 questions to investigate the possibilities of totally replacing E-learning with the traditional classroom learning. The results reveals that some of the students are unfit in such kind of learning techniques as they do not have the kind of self-obedience to gain knowledge by mean of internet. It is also essential for the e-learners to obtain some kind of e-learning guidance before undertaking the course to avoid issues related with the technology. The findings from this dissertation provide evidence that although E-learning can be at least as effective as traditional classroom learning under certain situations, we are not in a position to claim that E-learning can replace the traditional classroom learning. ... requires more maturity and self-discipline from students than traditional classroom education, which may explain the higher dropout rates in e-learning programs compared to conventional programs. Nevertheless, we believe that e-learning is a promising alternative to traditional classroom learning, which is especially beneficial to remote and lifelong learning and training. In many cases, e-learning can significantly complement classroom learning. E-learning will keep growing as an indispensable part of academic and professional education. Key Words: e-learning, online course, traditional learning, environment, motivation, teaching and learning. Introduction Besides the technological development and boom in internet services and courses, traditional learning is still prevailing and students opt for traditional learning over the e-learning. The present study highlights the advantages of e-learning courses over the traditional learning process. The arrival of information technology, has made life easier and communication is on the fast track. It has eliminated the distances and thus one can utilize time to learn various other subjects that are beyond the scope of books. It is a convenient way of teaching and learning as it could be carried out in the classroom or outside the class. According to Fry (2000), "Delivery of training and education via networked interactivity and a range of other knowledge collection and distribution technologies". According to Wild, (2002), "The creation and delivery of knowledge via online services in the form of information, communication, education and training". According to Bleimann (2004), "e-learning is a self directed learning that is based on technology, especially web-based technology, thus e-learning is a collaborative learning".

Technology Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology Management - Essay Example I have discussed various strategies and techniques that can be used to improve the management of technology in a business organization and their impact. Each strategy is given a specific time which if accurately followed will produce some projected results. Technology Management The role of technology in the production industry can never be overlooked. It is clear that the more the use of advanced technology in the industry the better the results. However, the use of technology must be managed appropriately to ensure that it has been used efficiently and that the technology meets the expected results. Hence it is good for a business organization that incorporates technology in production to consider proper management of technology to increase profits and avoid losses. There are several issues of concern that are practices of poor technology management. One of them is having a weak internal technical support (Treat, 2011). Often the technical support is given to the computer experts w ho perform the work in addition to their regular job responsibilities. This causes the expert not to give their full attention to this work and this leads to poor performance. Another aspect is the keeping of older technology for too long. Old methods of technology in production need a lot of repair and fail often. This leads to a high business downtime, where the systems of production are rarely available (Bidgoli, 2010). This means that production time is wasted during repair hence reducing production. Older technology also work slowly and inefficiently hence does less work compared to use of up to date technology. Hence we can conclude that keeping older technology for too long is a poor practice that heavily costs productions. One more issue concerning poor technology management is lack of proper training to the employees (Tesar et al. 2004). Proper understanding of a computer system to the employee will enable them to easily perform the expected operations. When new technology or application is introduced into the organization, proper training of the users is essential for increased productivity. Another very crucial aspect of management of technology is the lack keeping the current software licenses (Harrison & Samson, 2002). If a business organization fails to keep their software licenses current, they greatly miss out on critical software updates. This also hinders access to technical support that would expose the users to new ideas and features and this holds back people from being as productive as possible. There are several strategies and techniques that can be used to improve technology management. One of it is to keep the users well trained on all the operations of technology. Training should not be done only when the user in been introduced to the technology, but should be frequently done so as to perfect the users knowledge and expertise on the use of technology. Another very effective technique is to put in place a strong internal technical sup port team. This team should be completely dedicated to technical operations support and research and should not have any other responsibilities. This empowers the team to concentrate on the use of technology in the most efficient way to increase production. Use of a good data backup is critical in good technology management. This technique ensures regular data backup to all business related information. Good policies and tools to manage backup of information regularly should be established. This ensures that even if the

Integrate Coastal and Ocean Management (ICOM) Essay

Integrate Coastal and Ocean Management (ICOM) - Essay Example At sea, the acquisitiveness of the ocean itself accumulated with authoritative complexities and the about abridgement of acreage curve aftermath their own difficulties. In addition, coastal areas must address the issues, if the land meets the sea, such as erosion, flooding and pollution from agricultural runoff and the problems of access, including control platforms, operating the main means of transport between land and sea. An integral part of the challenge for coastal communities is that the resources are dependent on their social, cultural and economic well-being, fish and minerals in the coastal areas of countries and beaches, to apply a combination of jurisdictions, municipal, provincial and federal government and First Nations. Significant results of these learning experiences are more positive integration experience with other user group-based community resources, First Nations in the commercial fishery in the wake of the Marshall of the Supreme Court Decision. The other is a natural evolution away from the same sector management approaches for ICOM. Local communities must cope with all those in the use of local resources with municipalities on land based on land use with provincial governments for coastal activities, based on land, such as aquaculture, with the federal government on uses of the ocean fisheries to mining to shipping. All companies are faced with this multiplicity of jurisdictions and must also cope with First Nations otherwise again with different governments, based on realities treaty or lack thereof. There are two main peaks and this First implementation, it is important for communities and governments are able to monitor and evaluate the state of the relevant coastal States and marine systems, including biophysical and human dimension of how each of these change over time and their overall strength and flexibility. Secondly, the participation of coastal communities of ICOM, and the use of participatory approaches to management and co mmunity-based management, highlights the need to understand the process of the effectiveness and acceptance, a need to carry out a performance review "to assess the degree of ICOM that works in practice to a community or local level (or even usually). Monitoring of coastal and ocean: The first way of monitoring and evaluation based on results of ICOM, develop and use indicators to track current and relevant over time (a) "State of the World" in the oceans, coastal areas and coastal communities, and (b) progress towards the main objectives of ICOM, to facilitate the sustainable development of marine and coastal areas. Each of these aspects can be fabricated from a "macro" angle of a nation or region, but as well a bounded association that cannot be ignored (Boyd and Charles, 2006). The first class of indicators observed, "state of the world" distance indicators of biomass of fish in the sea and the extent of their geographic distribution, sea level based gross domestic profit (GDP) a nd export levels fisheries, measures the distribution of marine wealth and prosperity for coastal communities. Attended each of these indicators requires constant attention to data management and statistical systems, which can be a challenge at the local level. In fact, to support governance participatory democracy, we must (a) ICOM efforts to be attentive to strengthen and exploit the information on coastal

Profile, incorporate, and compare the health information Essay

Profile, incorporate, and compare the health information - Essay Example It allows the electronic sharing of health information between different health information systems while maintaining the integrity of the information being passed across. HIEs connect healthcare providers such as hospitals, pharmacies, labs, ER physicians to access patient information in a resourceful manner to improve the quality of care. HIE also refers to those organizations that facilitate the electronic sharing of health information across systems and organizations. HIE organizations manage and provide support for the commercial and legal issues that can arise during the exchange of information. These organizations come in several forms and may be private, national or state firms; information can thus be shared only with a single hospital network, across many hospitals in one region or across the state. Another difference between the different HIE organizations is seen in what information is shared e.g. some may share only lab results, or only emergency room records. HIE organi zations are key to facilitating the implementation of health information technology to provide quality patient care. In the United States, a number of such organizations exist that perform several important functions. In this discourse, we will examine the Indiana Health Information Exchange. By exploring the profile of this HIE organization; the author aims to show the core capabilities of this technology, the importance of electronic information systems and the necessity of understanding that technology. Indiana HIE The Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) is one of the largest HIE in the United States, and also the oldest. It is a non-for-profit organization that connects more than 80 hospitals and over 19,000 doctors in Indiana, including long-term care facilities and rehabilitation centres to share health information on more than 10 million patients as and when needed (Finn, 2011; Biever, 2013). The organization administrates the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), w hich is a protected network that shares electronic health records to involved physicians and other healthcare providers. Launched by the Regenstrief Institute (which specializes in medical informatics research), local hospitals and other partners, IHIE provides useful health information technologies and tools to patients in Indiana as it aims to mitigate the high costs of quality healthcare. For instance, if a patient is admitted to a hospital, the INPC presents a clinical abstract of the patient’s medical history-provided the patient had ever visited a networked hospital- even if the patient has never received treatment from that hospital before. This saves time in treatment and avoids duplicate testing thus saving costs. The INPC contains records of more than 80% instances of medical care provided within participating hospitals. Additionally, it also holds radiology images, discharge summaries, operative notes, pathology reports and medication records. This wide range of in formation enables doctors to make informed and accurate medical decisions, especially during critical times. Figures 1.1 and 1.2 below show how IHIE improved information flow. Figure 1.1: Former system which fragmented patient information and created redundant, inefficient efforts Source: Indiana Health Information Exchange Figure 1.2: HIE system that consolidates information

Global Financial Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Global Financial Markets - Essay Example Low inflation is a positive scenario as it enables a country to maintain a stable economy and keep the value of local currency money. For example, if a Central Bank wants to attain and keep exchange rate stability and stem capital outflow, the bank must implement a high interest rate policy such as increasing call market rates to a range of 20 to 30% from a regular level of 10% in most cases. A stable foreign exchange rate will prevent a deep contraction of domestic economic activity. The Central Bank can also encourage an expansion of bank lending to small and medium enterprises by expanding its credit facility to support local enterprises. By achieving its primordial goals of stablility and efficiency in the monetary and financial frameworks, the Central Bank makes its very important contribution to the growth of the local economy. The Central Bank sets a base rate at which it transacts with other financial institutions. This interest rate then impacts on an array of interest rates set by commercial banks and building societies for their clients consisting of both borrowers and lenders. It also affects the price of financial assets including bonds and shares. The policy of decreasing or raising interest rates influences the level of spending in the economy. For instance, lower interest rates makes saving less attractive and borrowing more attractive. Lower interest rates can affect the consumers' and the firms' cash-flow. For example, a steep drop in interest rates reduces the income from savings and the interest payments due on loans. Borrowers also spend more of any extra money they have. The final effect of lower interest rates is to encourage higher spending in aggregate.Lower interest rates can boost the prices of other assets such as houses. Higher house prices permit the home owners to extend their mort gages to finance higher consumption. Higher share prices increase the households' wealth also. In addition, the main macroeconomic objectives of long-term growth and employment are achieved by monetary authorities through the judicious application of the appropriate monetary policy. Over the years, monetary authorities are focused on price stability by setting numerical targets for inflation over specific periods.As a strategic move to set the base rates, the monetary authorities make a series of choices regarding the information used as the basis for short-term and longer-term monetary policy adjustments by giving weight and specific roles to crucial economic variables. This information is applied in setting the base rate for interest rates, the prevailing foreign exchange rate regime, the intermediate money supply targets, the preferred forecasting mechanisms and the prevailing indices of the prevailing conditions in the monetary sphere. Individual country assessments on the base rate vary in most respects. The financial variables which exert an important role at the strate gic level include important targets such as money, credit and asset prices.The main operating procedures which relate to the tactical level of policy implementation encompass the choice both of instruments and of operating objectives. The central bankers use major policy instruments such as official interest rates, market operations such as repurchase tenders, reserve requirements and specific direct controls like ceilings on loans and ceilings on bank deposits

A Perpetual Winner of All Schools Tournament Assignment - 1

A Perpetual Winner of All Schools Tournament - Assignment Example My name is Aziz Shah. I am very passionate about the soccer. I have watched the soccer game since my childhood and always wanted to join the soccer team. When I joined my high school team, I decided to take this game seriously and tried my best to achieve the success for my school. As an active member of the team, I communicate with the other members and share my ideas and strategies with other members. In our practice matches, I cooperate with my team members to learn the skills effectively. In out sports period, my coach told us to be an effective team and all the members of the team must have to put mutual teamwork. Being an efficient team member, I know that I rely on the team so, I endeavor to make my team a successful team. We play every day after school hours, during that time, I try my best to deliver the perfect performance. I learn, better skills from other members as I don’t feel ashamed to appreciate the qualities of others. This is how a team must work, admiring t he best practice from the other member does not make our value down. Because his performance will help the team to achieve the goal. Â  Lukas is one of the best members of our team. He has an advantage of his height and strikes the match-winning goals. He loves to play soccer and is seen most of the time playing it. As a team member, he is very attentive in learning every skill that our coach tells us. He joined the team recently but has made a strong position in the team. He has played 3 tournaments and always performed well. He has the potential to reach the highest international level soccer. Our coach hopes that Lukas will be able to reach that level with a little more effort. I have never seen him down and lazy. He is always active and ready to play the game. In our spare time, I and Lukas spend some time together. I want to learn some skills from him as he is the best player on our team in my eyes. His attitude towards his teammates is so friendly and caring.

Global Financial Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Global Financial Markets - Essay Example Low inflation is a positive scenario as it enables a country to maintain a stable economy and keep the value of local currency money. For example, if a Central Bank wants to attain and keep exchange rate stability and stem capital outflow, the bank must implement a high interest rate policy such as increasing call market rates to a range of 20 to 30% from a regular level of 10% in most cases. A stable foreign exchange rate will prevent a deep contraction of domestic economic activity. The Central Bank can also encourage an expansion of bank lending to small and medium enterprises by expanding its credit facility to support local enterprises. By achieving its primordial goals of stablility and efficiency in the monetary and financial frameworks, the Central Bank makes its very important contribution to the growth of the local economy. The Central Bank sets a base rate at which it transacts with other financial institutions. This interest rate then impacts on an array of interest rates set by commercial banks and building societies for their clients consisting of both borrowers and lenders. It also affects the price of financial assets including bonds and shares. The policy of decreasing or raising interest rates influences the level of spending in the economy. For instance, lower interest rates makes saving less attractive and borrowing more attractive. Lower interest rates can affect the consumers' and the firms' cash-flow. For example, a steep drop in interest rates reduces the income from savings and the interest payments due on loans. Borrowers also spend more of any extra money they have. The final effect of lower interest rates is to encourage higher spending in aggregate.Lower interest rates can boost the prices of other assets such as houses. Higher house prices permit the home owners to extend their mort gages to finance higher consumption. Higher share prices increase the households' wealth also. In addition, the main macroeconomic objectives of long-term growth and employment are achieved by monetary authorities through the judicious application of the appropriate monetary policy. Over the years, monetary authorities are focused on price stability by setting numerical targets for inflation over specific periods.As a strategic move to set the base rates, the monetary authorities make a series of choices regarding the information used as the basis for short-term and longer-term monetary policy adjustments by giving weight and specific roles to crucial economic variables. This information is applied in setting the base rate for interest rates, the prevailing foreign exchange rate regime, the intermediate money supply targets, the preferred forecasting mechanisms and the prevailing indices of the prevailing conditions in the monetary sphere. Individual country assessments on the base rate vary in most respects. The financial variables which exert an important role at the strate gic level include important targets such as money, credit and asset prices.The main operating procedures which relate to the tactical level of policy implementation encompass the choice both of instruments and of operating objectives. The central bankers use major policy instruments such as official interest rates, market operations such as repurchase tenders, reserve requirements and specific direct controls like ceilings on loans and ceilings on bank deposits

Short answers about Introduction to Political Economy Essay - 3

Short answers about Introduction to Political Economy - Essay Example In a bid to take over the market, firms enhance internal efficiency, adopt new technologies, invest in innovations, and reduce inefficiency on managerial level (Office of Fair Trading 6). In the economic systems that are based on free markets, the latter are major determinants of market outcomes. In the situation when the market failure occurs because of the fact that this market’s quality, price, or quantity do not meet established social welfare norms, economic regulation is used. Its major aim is to prevent market failure. It is desirable since it prevents the market failure (Jacobs & Rapoport 353). The major difference between capture theory and public interest theory is that the latter believes that regulation is inherently effective: it leads to the society getting better off. By contrast, capture theories assert that regulation works in the interest of a particular group which has succeeded in making its case to some regulatory agency or some legislative body (Hovenkamp 133) In his Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx lists 10 steps needed to destroy the system of free enterprise and replace it with system of all-powerful governmental rule. This will bring in the communist state. These steps of 10 Planks of The Communist Manifesto are 1) abolition of private property and giving all land rents for public use; 2) a heavy progressive (or graduated) income tax; 3) abolition of rights of inheritance; 4) property confiscation from all rebels and emigrants; 5) centralization of credit in the state’s hands through national bank; 6) centralization all transportation and communications in the state’s hands; 7) factories’ extension; waste lands’ cultivation; 8) equal liability of all people to labor; 9) agriculture and manufacture combination, as well as equitable population distribution around the country; 10) free education in all public schools (Sims 194). The earliest position in the timeline of

Case Analysis of Sutton Health Essay Example for Free

Case Analysis of Sutton Health Essay This network identified that traditional payment processing system had limitations that hindered the effective collecting of revenue. What with the recession, healthcare organizations have seen an increase in the inability to collect debt from the self-pay, the uninsured and underinsured patients. This has caused a lot of struggle when it comes to the organizations to meet the operational margins and the profits. I find there are a number of reasons for the new increase in patient’s debts, the most common are, poor accounting practices, lack of patient information and correct demographics. There is new governance that is designed to provide more coordinated care to said patients (Gleeson,2010). There are five geographic regions that reflects the health care access to the customers of Northern California. Each of the five regions will have governance structure and it will oversee many of the Sutter affiliated medical facilities and also the hospitals. In its effort to increase point of service collections and improve the overall revenue cycle Sutter health took steps to measure performance using a handful of specific primary benchmarks, empowering PFS staff to assume responsibility for every individual account they handle, ensure each registration is analyzed using a rules engine to identify problems before patients leave the registration desk and ensure PFS staff receive appropriate comprehensive training to excel under the new system† (Souza, McCarty, 2007). Obtaining the correct patient information plays a large part on non-collectable debt because patients are not able to be reached. These limitations were associated with limited access to accurate information by the account representatives, ineffective performance measures and fragmented centers of the service provision. The Sutter Health program developed a system that was comprised of solutions that were geared towards overcoming these limitations. The key problems and issues, is that the United States healthcare system is characterized by huge upkeep from collecting revenue from patients. This situation is brought about by a health care insurance system which entails high deductible pay health plans and as well as higher co-payments plan. (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This situation has been made worse through the large proportion of the population not having healthcare coverage. The traditional health care system has had a hard time meeting their target revenue collection. This is due to several problems that attached along with the traditional payment system. Unlike when dealing with the payments through insurance claims but also dealing with the up-front payments that are required by the hospital for payment of services before the patient could even receive the service (Souza, Mccarty, 2007). So this means that the patient services staff (PFS) has to have complete and accurate information about above said client. This presented a problem for the traditional payment system where much of the customer payment system was processed in the back end. This system also required that the PFS staff ask for money from self-pay patients, but the PFS were not accustomed to this under the traditional system. The PFS staff found it hard to wait for the back end section to process customer information and to provide a breakdown of the patients payment details. So this became a tedious task for hospital accounting departments as well as for patients that had to wait a longer period before receiving services. The inefficiency of the traditional system not only resulted in low quality services, but also in low revenue collections. The system provides such a broad range of health care services, which include acute, sub- acute, home health, long term, outpatient care as well as physician delivery systems. These services are provided through an integrated health care delivery approach that gives the system the ability to deliver a full range of healthcare products and services. rks. Sutter also recognized that the traditional system did not provide a means for analyzing selected data nor did it generate required detailed report on demand. This led to more cost as the hospital had to rely on programmers to generate such reports. The front desk staff also lacked real time information which hindered their ability to serve the client without consulting the back end staff. It also meant that the front desk staff could not monitor the patients progress (Souza, McCarty, 2007). Another challenge was that the PFS members were not empowered enough to be held accountable for each patients accounts they dealt with and it reduced the amount of accountability among the staff. These are some of the key challenges that the Sutter system were meant to address. The solutions that were employed by Sutter Health was an attempt to overcome the challenges stated above. Sutter Health implemented certain changes in the fore mentioned system that would make their operation more efficient. The strategies identified by the Sutter program entailed transferring most of the back end tasking to the front desk; providing accurate and complete information to managers and upfront staff; providing more effective performance evaluation and integrating all data elements within the system (Souza, McCarty, 2007). Allowing front desk staff to handle much of the payment process was deemed to have an effect on the efficiency of the process. Various solutions were employed to ensure that this is achieved. One of these solutions entailed using benchmarks to measure performance by the Patient Service Staff (PFS). Sutter identified a handful of primary benchmarks which included; Unbilled A/R days, Gross A/R days, Major A/R days, Cash Collection,percentage of A/R over 90, 180, 360 days (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This benchmark introduced shorter periods with which staff performances could be evaluated. This move was timely especially when onsidering that the industry has changed and things happen in terms of hours and days but not months. Another solution involved empowering the PFS members to have full responsibility over the accounts they are dealing with. This move was meant to increase a sense of responsibility and accountability as each individual members will be responsible for his or her own account (Souza, McCarty, 2007). This also gave the PFS members more autonomy to act as they saw fit and this improved the speed and efficient of service delivery by these staff members. The program also provided the PFS members with tools, that enabled them to automate their accounts, sort out their accounting using various means and seen their performances based on the achievement of the target. PFS and other accountant representatives were presented with individual dashboards that helped in the tracking of their progress in meeting targets. This also helped in enforcing the benchmarks set by this program. Sutter’s health program also introduced a front end collecting system as means of overcoming the mentioned problems. The pint of access collecting system introduced an opportunity for the health care facilities to reduce claims and denials. Though this system the patient records are analyzed before the patient leaves the registration desk. This enables the front desk staff to identify problems such as bad debt, patient or invalid patient type early enough and take the necessary corrective action. The Sutter health program also embarked on a comprehensive training program that was designed to support the existing PFS members and the registration staff. This gave staff the necessary competence to deal with the tools provided by this system. The training program also eliminated the need to hire formally educated staff to operate the system that would and more than the $10-$20 an hour paid to current registration and PFS staff. For example, registration staff who were not used to asking patients for money were trained in effective communication skills. The training was also designed to introduce autonomy and effectiveness which acted as a motivator to the employee.

A Nigger No Longer Caged :: Graduate Admissions Essays

A Nigger No Longer Caged I taught myself to read when I was twenty years old. The book I started with was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. I was raised in Huntington, West Virginia. Living in Huntington was like living at the bottom of a bottomless pit. The hills defining our valley town were four insurmountable walls, imprisoning me in that special hell reserved for children of miscegenation. My mother had broken one of Huntington's greatest taboos - she had mothered three children by a black man. After three kids and numerous beatings, my mother bravely left him. Disowned by her family and ostracized by the larger white community, her strength did not last long; she started on the long road to alcohol and drug dependency. My mother did not suffer in silence; instead, she passed on to us the tainted wisdom that her parents gave to her. Her most frequent reminder to us was, "You're not worth anything, you will never be worth anything, because you're niggers!" We rarely had food, and many winters we had no working gas for heat or hot water. My mother would conveniently go stay at her boyfriend's for weeks at a time. Sometimes she would leave me ten or fifteen dollars, and I would buy a week's worth of food: cereal and milk, hamburger, bread, and potato chips, and Little Debbie snack cakes. When that ran out, my brothers and I had some pretty crafty ways of finding more: talking my father out of some money, begging, or stealing. My mother had a house in the white part of town, about a block from the geographic dividing line, so we went to the white school. I was one of three blacks in the entire high school. I remember my welcome sign the first day of school: "GO TO HERSHEY HIGH NIGGER" spray painted on my locker, signed in red by the KKK. In my junior year the school decided to celebrate Black History Month by devoting one afternoon's history class to a discussion of Black achievements. I was so anxious and excited. I was hoping to learn something more than the words of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. My excitement was quickly shot down as my teacher turned to the only Black in the class - me - and asked if I had anything to offer.

Essay on Symbolism in Kafkas Metamorphosis -- Kafka Metamorphosis Ess

Symbolism in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis    Kafka uses symbolism in his short story, Metamorphosis.   He uses this technique to make the reader try and figure out what was going on in his head.   He brought out in this story many things about his life, including his father/family, love life, and his future.   He used metaphors to show his love for people in his life.   This story is autobiographical about the forces that control Franz Kafka's life.   In this paper I will explain how Kafka relates his life to the readers through the story in Metamorphosis.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Franz Kafka had trouble at home with his father.   His father wanted him to become a lawyer, but Franz did not want to be a lawyer, he wanted to be a writer.   He went to law school against his will, because his father wanted him to go there.   He then took a high paying position with the government of Czechoslovakia in an insurance post.   In the story, Gregor?s father had very little respect for him, and Gregor had to work to pay off the family debts.   That is an example of Gregor?s father?s control over his life and Kafka?s situation was similar.   He eventually was forced to become a lawyer, whereas what Kafka wanted was a literary degree.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Franz Kafka made his character, Gregor, transform into an insect in the story.   Nobody wants to associate themselves with an insect, which is a lowly creature, a pest, or nuisance.   This symbolizes Kafka?s depression and his poor self image.   Since his family treats the insect like an outcast, that must be how Franz felt about the treatment that his own family gave him.   It showed the control that his father put on him.   He was not allowed to leave his room.   Gregor?s parents were so afraid to take... ...   After Gregor dies, at the end of the story, his parents notice that his sister has grown up into a beautiful woman and they feel that it is time for her to get married.   This means that they used Gregor as the pawn who went out and supported them.   Now that his sister is grown up they can force her into marrying a rich man.   Then they would be well off for a long time to come.   They can now control the daughter like they did Gregor.   Grete?s new husband can support the whole family.   Once she is married, she too will then become a pawn, a victim of her parents control.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The main theme of the story is the effect of other?s control on a person such as his relationship with his father, and how his father for controlled his life.   He realized that he was his own person when he could escape from his father?s control, even if the only escape was death.

Ethical Dilemmas and Cultural Issues Essay

29 year old Sakura has been brought to counseling by a concerned neighbor because she believes Sakura is suffering from depression. She is listless and silent, and prone to staring in to space. During the course of the counseling sessions, it was discovered that Sakura’s husband has been violent towards her recently. Sakura is Japanese and has migrated to California two years ago, here she met and married an American husband. Sakura refuses to tell authorities because she is ashamed that her family in Japan would discover the failure of her marriage. She clearly tells the counselor that no one should know of the state of her relationship with her husband. A counselor is ethically obligated to inform authorities about the abusive nature of the relationship but she is also obligated to respect her client’s wishes. Framework for Ethical Decision Making (Velasquez, M. , Moberg, D. , Meyer, M. J. , Shanks, T. ,. McLean, M. R. , DeCosse, D. , Andre, C. , and Hanson, K. O. , 2009) Recognize an Ethical Issue Psychologists cannot break client-therapist confidentiality; Sakura has clearly expressed that her problems in marriage must be kept confidential and believes that her husband’s temperament is just being affected by his problems at work and the situation between them can be resolved. The counselor feels conflicted because the situation involves actual and potential risk for the client. Get the Facts Sakura is being verbally and physically abused when her husband is incited to anger by small things, like unwashed laundry or bland food. She sometimes gets bruises when her husband grabs he arms and shakes her or pushes her around. Sakura feels miserable at the state of her marriage but she was raised to be a loyal wife to her husband. The Japanese value a good marriage and frown upon divorce and marital problems. The Japanese believe marital problems must be resolved at home and must not be publicly acknowledged. This must be dealt with in therapy sessions sensitive to her culture and to her way of thinking. She must learn to value herself more than valuing the opinion of others. Evaluate Alternative Actions The counselor may decide to first try to convince Sakura of the unreasonable aspects of her situation. An establishment of a high sense of self-worth in therapy can ideally enable her get out of the abusive relationship by her own accord. However, when the danger is imminent and when it is clear that her husband is escalating in violence towards Sakura then the first area of concern would be to notify authorities to stop the abuse. Make a Decision and Test It The therapist can decide to tell the authorities about the nature of the situation, testing a decision can involve looking at the possible outcomes should the decision be executed. All other approaches must be considered; a useful exercise would be asking the question â€Å"what If I told someone I respect-or told a television audience-which option I have chosen, what would they say? † considering different perspectives is vital in making the choice. Act and Reflect on the Outcome Implement the decision, tell the authorities and monitor the outcome, Sakura must be guided in therapy and offered psychological support at all times. Reference: Velasquez, M. , Moberg, D. , Meyer, M. J. , Shanks, T. ,. McLean, M. R. , DeCosse, D. , Andre, C. , and Hanson, K. O. , (2009). A framework for ethical decision making. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Ethics on Outsourcing Essay

Outsourcing is a very controversial topic with both positive and negative aspects. Before approaching to an answer of â€Å"Yes† or â€Å"No† to the above statement, I would like to keep an open mind and be able to see both sides of the situation in order to have an accurate view of the issue. According to wikipedia. com, outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. In his book, â€Å"Crafting & Executing Strategy†, Arthur and his co-authors outlines that outsourcing involves a conscious decision to abandon or forgo attempts to perform certain value chain activities internally and instead to farm them out to outside specialists and strategic allies. Outsourcing has become one of the fastest growing trends in the business world. There are many reasons that a company would elect to use outsourcing. Among them is the fact that it provides an almost immediate opportunity for savings resulted from outsides that can often perform certain activities better or cheaper. Outsourcing allows a company to focus its entire energies on those activities at the center of its core competencies and that are the most critical to its competitive and financial success. In order to achieve deemed advantageous of outsourcing, following criterion have been discussed in the chapter 6 – Supplementing the Chosen Competitive Strategy of the book â€Å"Crafting & Executing Strategy†: 1. An activity can be performed better or more cheaply by outside specialists 2. The activity is not crucial to the company’s ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and won’t hollow out its core competencies capabilities, or technical know-how 3. It reduce the company’s risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer preference 4. It improves a company’s ability to innovate 5. It streamlines company operations in ways that improve organizational flexibility and cuts the time it takes to get new products into the marketplace 6. It allows a company to assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and efficiently 7. It allows a company to concentrate on its core business, leverage its key resource, and do even better what it already does best While it’s possible for a company to outsource virtually any kind of service, several were especially common in the e-commerce arena where positive impacts have been demonstrated. Among them were IT management; logistics and order fulfillment; Internet video production, management, and distribution; customer relationship management; and Web site development and hosting. The ease and cost efficiency of handling different aspects of e-commerce in-house was easier and more cost-effective for some companies than it was for others, so companies outsourced services differently. Many companies looked to outside parties to handle online order fulfillment (filling and shipping orders they received via the Internet) instead of building or renting their own warehouse operations, which required special expertise for e-commerce. This freed them to focus on core competencies like creating new products and services, and marketing. When companies rely on third-party fulfillment providers, they normally manage the front end of e-commerce (the content and appearance of their Web site) and leave the rest to the third party. In other words, the third party receives orders from customers, manages the inventory of available products in its warehouse, and coordinates shipping. Some also provide value-added extras like customer service. Another example of outsourcing involves application service providers (ASPs), third parties who manage business applications for companies so they can focus more on their core business. These applications often involve things like payroll, billing, and customer service. The software systems offered by the ASP are sometimes Web-based, so that client companies do not have to host the software and devote resources to maintaining and updating them. Although ASPs held the potential to simplify things for client companies, they also moved long-held control over internal systems and data to outside parties, which made some organizations uncomfortable. The hierarchal structure of business is another area that has the potential to be impacted by outsourcing. If an aspect of a business, such as Human Resources, is controlled by an outside group, human resources are thus removed from an organization and its formal structure. An advantage to this would be the prospect of expanding into locations that have not yet been outsourced. At the same time, the departmentalization of the structure would most likely need to be altered to meet with the changes resulting from the outsourcing. Above mentioned outsourcing activities are considered as the best practice of one core concept introduced in the book â€Å"Crafting ; Executing Strategy†: A company should generally not perform any value chain activity internally that can be performed more efficiently or effectively by outsiders – the chief exception is when a particular activity is strategically crucial and internal control over that activity is deemed essential. Hence, above all seems to show the strong support to â€Å"view outsourcing as a means whereby a company can enhance its competitiveness and thereby better protect the jobs of the remaining employees. † However, before we come to a conclusion let’s take a step further to have a look at some statistics and what some economists say about outsourcing.

Process Design Matrix and Summary Essay

Mattress Express is in the service of delivering mattresses is available to the customers. The company strategy for deliveries is to be able to deliver mattresses in both a reasonable on timely manner and to the consumer’s home. The delivery cost is $49.99 and includes delivery, set up, and removal of the customer’s old mattress set. Mattress Express has a centralized warehouse that is strategically located in order to best service the surrounding community. The warehouse feeds five stores and houses the inventory for each of the locations. The warehouse also has a showroom attached which makes it easily one of the largest Mattress Express locations Mattress express offers a five day delivery schedule. The deliveries are handled by the warehouse manager. All deliveries are separated into time frames which are then designated into particular areas and group to gather for the most efficient routing. Mattress Express inventory levels are kept to a minimum as the company operates on cash only. Inventory levels fluctuate up and down as cash flow increases via the trends in business. All inventory is stored at the centralized warehouse and deliveries are operated from this location as well. PRODUCT Tempur-pedic is a product that is a standalone within the mattress industry. The company strategy is to build the most highly recommended bed in America. They also wish to sell direct to the consumer as well as through a series of retail partners. Another important aspect of their strategy is to excel as a marketing firm. Tempur-pedic has a total of three factories. The factories are located in Lexington Kentucky, Duffield Virginia, and a European facility in Denmark. Each factory produces Tempur-pedic products and  distributes to regional distribution centers. Tempur-pedic is of the utmost superior quality and craftsmanship. To ensure the quality level of the products one out of every four mattresses is tested. In addition to testing mattresses frequently the product integrity margins are also how to extremely precise standards. This ensures that all to review the customers are experiencing the highest level of quality possible.