Festive Medieval Christmas

When the holiday season engulfs us—and as we are subjected to a barrage of sentiment and commercialism (which are often indistinguishable from one another)—simpler days seem so much more attractive, and many of us tend to look to the past. Many of the customs we observe, traditions we practice, and foods we eat today originated in the middle ages. You may already incorporate some of these festivities in your holiday, or perhaps you might like to start a new tradition with a very old one. As you celebrate these customs, remember that they started with a medieval Christmas. A Christmas Carol and a flood of nostalgia for the Victorian era gives us a fairly good idea of what a nineteenth century Christmas was like. But the concept of observing Christs birthday goes back much farther than the nineteenth century. In fact, the origin of the English word Christmas is found in the Old English Cristes Maesse  (mass of Christ), and winter solstice festivities date back to ancient times in all corners of the world. So what was it like to celebrate Christmas in the Middle Ages? Early Medieval Christmas Observances Determining exactly what Christmas was like depends not only on where it was observed, but when. In late antiquity, Christmas was a quiet and solemn occasion, marked by a special mass and calling for prayer and reflection. Until the fourth century, no fixed date had been formally set by the Church—in some places it was observed in April or May, in others in January and even in November. It was Pope Julius I who officially fixed the date at December 25th, and why exactly he chose the date is still not clear. Although it is possible that it was a deliberate Christianization of a pagan holiday, many other factors seem to have come into play. Epiphany or Twelfth Night More commonly (and enthusiastically) celebrated was the Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, celebrated on January 6. This is another holiday whose origins are sometimes lost in the festivities of the moment. It is generally believed that Epiphany marked the visit of the Magi and their bestowal of gifts on the Christ child, but it is more likely that the holiday originally celebrated Christs baptism instead. Nevertheless, Epiphany was much more popular and festive than Christmas in the early middle ages and was a time for the bestowal of gifts in the tradition of the three Wise Men—a custom that survives to this day. Later Medieval Christmas Observances In time, Christmas grew in popularity—and as it did so, many of the Pagan traditions associated with the winter solstice became associated with Christmas as well. New customs particular to the Christian holiday also arose. December 24th and 25th became a time for feasting and socializing as well as a time for prayer.

Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft Essay - 1745 Words

You come home late one night after a rough day at work. You’re hungry, tired, achy and all you want to do is lie down. You pick up the mail and notice a letter from a credit card company you don’t have a contract with. Slowly, you open the envelope, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, pure terror fills you as you stare at a bill for over five thousand dollars. You reassure yourself and say this obviously must be some mistake. You never opened this credit card account, but yet it’s in your name and it is your address. You may not believe it, but your identity has been stolen and now someone is out there posing as you, running willy nilly around town with your life in hand. The truth is, there is almost nothing you can do once your†¦show more content†¦Reasons for Identity Theft changed over time and became more sophisticated as new forms of technology were introduced to the public. Now not only did people have the motive, but also the resources to take someone’s identity and money. However, what exactly is considered modern identity theft? Identity Theft is when a criminal uses someone else’s identification documents such as social security number, drivers license, tax documents, birth certificate, bank statements and many other forms of identification in order to impersonate them. Once someone has this information there are a number of ways in which they could use it and a number of ways in which they can obtain it. Phishing Phishing is the most common type of identity theft in the world. Thieves will send fake emails out to people saying there is a problem with their paypal or Amazon accounts. It claims that if they do not enter their account information in a timely manner, then their accounts will become frozen. It is not just emails regarding account information, but fake malicious websites are also created. These websites and emails scare people into giving their personal information, without even realizing what they have done before it is already too late. Richard Darell a writer for â€Å"Get Cyber Safe† claims that about 156 million phishing emails are sent out worldwide daily. He explains that 8 million of these emails will be opened and 10% of these emails have links that can beShow MoreRelatedIdentity Theft Essay832 Words   |  4 Pagesface in today’s society is stolen identity. Stolen identity can ruin the life of every citizen in the United States and foreign countries. According to Ballard, a journalist, who recognizes the Federal Trade Commission for capturing identity theft as the number one rank of consumer complaints (21). Out of ten million people, there will be one person who has been a victim of stolen identity. At birth, a child is given a social security number to distinguish them from other babies. In reality, the socialRead MoreOnline Identity Theft1414 Words   |  6 PagesOnline Identity Theft What is identity? The word itself can have so many connotations, definitions, and subjects tied to it. However, the most basic definition of our identity would be the qualities, beliefs, and baggage that make up each person. An identity is something that each of us have a claim to from the moment we are born to even past our death. Through the recent technology surges however, our most basic claim is now threatened. We have all heard about crime on the streets but with theRead MorePersonal Prevention of Identity Theft Essay886 Words   |  4 PagesPersonal Prevention of Identity Theft Today in the United States there is a crime that every citizen faces having committed against them and that is the crime of identity theft. Identity theft is the theft of ones personal identifying information such as ones name, address, date of birth, credit card numbers, bank information, and most of all social security number (National Insurance Crime Bureau, 2000). With the modernization of our world it has became easier for would be identity thieves to commitRead MoreIs Identity Theft Or Having Credit Card Or Banking Information Stolen?1352 Words   |  6 Pagestrack and manage these types of accounts. While there may be no way to revert to the days of paper accounting, the idea of identity theft or having credit card or banking information stolen has many people fearful of having their information on the internet. While there may be no guaranteed method of ensuring your information is completely protected, there are ways to make yourself much less vulnerable to these attacks. By educating oneself on the risks and vulnerabilities associated with being on theRead MoreNew Growing Trend: Identity Theft859 Words   |  4 Pageshave been a victim of identity theft or not, the author of the article â€Å"Identity Theft Is a Growing Danger† has educated a neutral audience about the different ways identities are stolen. Overall, the article used pathos effectively to support the identity theft claim by capturing quotes from actual identity theft victims and the author utilized scare tactics to inform the neutral audience about the various ways that identity theft can happen and to help protect their identity on and offline. BasedRead MoreSocial Networing Sites: Befriending Identity Theft1126 Words   |  5 Pagesdoes one think that their Facebook site is hazardous to their identity. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, an estimated 11.7 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2010 (U.S. Dept. of Justice). Identity theft is defined as a crime where someone illegally acquires and utilizes another person’s vital information to deceive for personal gain. That same year, the Federal Trade Commission reported that identity theft crimes cost businesses and individuals an estimated $53 billionRead MoreIdenity Theft Essay1430 Words   |  6 Pagesestimated 11.7 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2010 (U.S. Dept. of Justice). Identity theft is defined as a crime where someone illegally acquires and utilizes another person’s vital information to deceive for personal gain. That same year, the Federal Trade Commission reported that identity theft crimes cost businesses and individuals an estimated $53 billion (Federal Trade Commission). Most Americans are familiar with identity theft but aren’t well-informed about the influence itRead MoreTips To Preventing Identity Theft Essay example551 Words   |  3 PagesHaving your identity taken away from you is a very difficult thing to handle. It could mean not being able to pay your bills or at the worst, not being able to obtain credit. Protecting your identity is the only way to prevent it from being stolen. Moreover, in this day and age, there are more thieves than ever. Therefore, knowing exactly how to protect the most precious thing to you is the only way you can keep it safe. Here are a few tips to prevent you from having your identity stolen. Tips Read MoreThe Crime Of Identity Theft3476 Words   |  14 PagesAccording to the Federal Trade Commission Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States of America. They estimated that 10 million people a year are victimized by the crime which comes out to about 19 people per minute are becoming victims of this crime. Given these extremely worrying statistics it has never been more important to be informed about the crime of identity theft and how to avoid it in your daily life especially as more schemes and ways to unknowingly forfeit yourRead MoreData Security Case Study748 Words   |  3 Pagesstored at your college? Is there an chance your information could be hacked and stolen from your college? At the Palm Beach State College (PBSC) PantherWeb site all of my personal and academic information, including my key contact family member information is stored at the college’s PantherWeb Website. I would certainly hope that all of my personal and academic information would not be hacked or stolen from the PBSC Website because the college would certainly have in place the utmost highly security

Youtube Effect Essay Sample free essay sample

New media are immature upper comers and full of potencies ; The Internet. Smartphone. Computers. and Tablets Pc. all of them are taking people through the border of digital media. Cross state broadcast medium or devouring assortment of contents from outside the state is becomes the basic communicating. The occurrences of societal media. they are synergistic platforms in which people are able to bring forth their ain interested contents and come along with synergistic activities such as communities portion. treatment. and alteration in which people become more occupied. Trade names those are seeking to increase their consumer’s trade name battle for the long term relationship. They are non overlooking the societal media. Unfortunately. for Thai market. the societal media are unable to bring forth high coverage by themselves. Thinking about the figure of Television spectator compared with Smartphone. Computer and Tablet Pc users. Television is better performed in tern of media incursion among wide mark. We will write a custom essay sample on Youtube Effect Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page whereas those three digital devices are engaged with some specific groups such as concern work forces. or immature people. Therefore. the viral selling is using both new media and traditional media to make consumers’ trade name battle ( societal media ) and enhance in making the mark audience with high coverage ( traditional media ) . Whether Or Not New Media Have Affected Consumer’s Media Consumption? In the past few old ages invention in engineering have significantly change media. taking to the term â€Å"New Media† . Previously separated media platforms are now unified and consumed in manner that links one beginning to another. Internet. Smartphone. and Tablet Pc are new platform for media distribution. Those new devices are non wholly merely a affair of communications engineerings. but besides a affair of how digitalisation and modern communicating devices are altering communicating maps and abilities. New media are wholly changed communicating from one-way to two-way and besides inactive to synergistic communicating. They were besides changed media from mass media to specialised media. shifted us from entree to few media to many media. and liberating consumers from fixed location media and communicating devices to mobile media and devices. At the same clip. people are traveling from holding sep arate mass and personal communicating media into assorted engineerings that have multiple maps. And the engineerings are altering the content available from simply national media to planetary media every bit good. Despite these important functional alterations. if one really looks at the consequences of this state of affairs we see that the digitalisation. new media. and information and communicating engineerings are portion of an evolutionary instead than radical alteration in communicating ability. No existent new communicating ability is being created. They are non impacting communications in such cardinal ways as did the reaching of the printing imperativeness. the telegraph and telephone. picture taking and gesture images. and airing. What the information revolution is chiefly making is increasing the velocity. flexibleness and integrating of bing signifiers of communicating. The most radical facets are new economic systems of range and integrating that are altering the economic sciences of production and distribution. These factors play important functions in the picks of audiences and consumers sing new media entree and usage. A aboard instance survey was taken in Sweden by Professor Ol le Findahl. who has conducted a survey on immature people’s media wonts on behalf of NORDICOM at the University of Gothenburg. He found that immature people age 9-24 old ages old who are chief users of internet societal media do non abandon traditional media. Alternatively. the two are used together. True. people in this age group do watch Television and listen to radio and recorded music slightly less today than 30 old ages ago. The same tendency can be observed for reading. particularly when it comes to educational text editions and nonfiction. However. kids and striplings still use traditional media more than the cyberspace. In fact. schoolchildren ( age 9-14 ) spend a whole 75 per centum of their media clip on traditional media ; for the age group 15-24 the proportion is 60 per centum. Similar to what happened when telecasting came approximately in the 1950s. it seems like people use the cyberspace to complement and non utility older media. The cyberspace provides immature people with music and movies. Then there is the wholly new behaviour that is made possible through societal webs ; contacts with like -minded persons who portion the same involvements. The societal web Facebook has a greater range among immature people than newspapers. and about the same range as Television. And the range of the digital music service Spotify ( Swedish music streaming service ) comes close to that of wireless. However. this does non intend that everything that has to make with the cyberspace automatically becomes popular. For illustration. comparatively few immature persons use tablet computing machines. e-books and the Twitter micro web log service. Yet the usage of alleged Smartphone has increased by several hundred per centum in merely two old ages. It should be noted that there is no direct negative correlativity between cyberspace usage and the usage of traditional media. Alternatively. the most intense cyberspace users are besides heavy consumers of traditional media. Why Viral Selling On Social Media Is More Important To The Brand? ( International Perspective ) Social media has become a portion of everyone’s life and it is something that influences their day-to-day life. Social media has played a large function with how people interact with each other and it is something that is non decelerating down anytime shortly because of people have more engaged with it. Social Media has proven to be an of import and built-in portion of modern twenty-four hours concern operations. and can non be ignored. By the manner. cyberspace and devices engineering are still turning daily and one manner to maintain closer the distance between trade name and consumers is by get downing a community and turning a followers in the societal infinite comprised of nucleus mark audience. A quality of online community encourages their trade name online. Social media are non something those are traveling to decelerate down because of their power and strength of community can drive to a turning of trade name. Social media is an astonishing manner to turn an online trade name in springs and bounds it merely takes creativeness. passion and consistence to maintain things traveling in the right way. There are some grounds as to why societal media should be included as a portion of any trade names. As media planner perspective 1. Peoples are now more interested in societal media. mostly because of the possible in footings of how many people will have the communicating message from the trade names. There are 1000000s of people on societal media sites and societal networking sites. doing them the perfect hunting evidences for concern. 2. Although some on-line selling are still used mostly as portion of selling by many successful concerns such as direct electronic mail. streamer ads in top viewership web sites. but it is still non every bit effectual as societal media sites. The ground for this is those consumers are invariably barraged with electronic mails on a day-to-day footing. doing it hard to read every promotional mail. Social media sites nevertheless filter out this facet of on-line selling. and do you more seeable to the client. and can associate to them on a personal degree. 3. Social media allows trade name to make meaningful and personal relationships with clients and possible clients in ways that other channel unable to make. By staying active on societal media. Trade names make themselves be seen as portion of a community. which encourages consumer involvement. and hopefully change over this involvement into gross revenues. Why YouTube Should Be Considered By The Brand?( International Perspective )The rise of societal media provides trade names with more client touch points and more information about their clients and penchants than of all time before. YouTube has become the 3rd most visited web site in the universe ( Alexa. 2011 ) . It was behind Google and Facebook. Since its creative activity in February. 2005. YouTube saw rapid growing ; 16 months after its creative activity. 100 million cartridge holders were being viewed per twenty-four hours ( comScore. 2006 ) . In October 2008. the site attracted 100 million American viewing audiences a twenty-four hours. estimated to be over two tierces of the cyberspace users in the United States ( comScore. 2008 ) . Even though. Facebook was in the top rank by its highest figure of users more than any societal media ( over 600 million ) . and besides their use statistics ( logins. clip spent on site. stations. interactions. etc. ) are through the roof. But there was one important measuring where. surprisingly. Facebook is non the leader in term of user satisfaction ( Netpop Research. 2011 ) . Harmonizing to a new survey. YouTube as one of the most post powerful societal media with the bests the societal web. Chirrup. Groupon. and all other societal media rivals in the country of user satisfaction. It is connoting about how the trade name present itself via preferred societal media. You tube is like a narrative Teller with gesture image and visible radiation A ; sound to make feeling. Figure 1: Top Ten Social Media Sites. Netpop Reaserch. 2011 Figure 2: Social Media Vs Consumers Satisfaction. Why Brand Should Consider YouTube? ( Southeast Asia Perspective ) .Harmonizing to Nielsen Research’s societal media ; analyze on Southeast Asia consumers by 2011. on-line societal media exploded onto the media scene at the terminal of the last decennary. Digital consumers are on-board and in all market except Vietnam. societal media activities can be found in the top five most popular online activities to excite frequent behavior. As in many other markets globally. Facebook has won the Black Marias and trueness of Southeast Asiatic consumers. A monolithic 90 per centum of Indonesian digital consumers actively maintain a Facebook profle. Facebook dominates the societal media landscape in all markets except Vietnam. Figure 3: Proportion Of Digital Consumers With Active Profile in Southeast Asian ; Nielsen Y2011. YouTube besides enjoys widespread popularity in Southeast Asia. Not surprisingly it dominates when it comes to the site most used to see picture. Digital consumers in Thailand. Philippines and Malaysia are the most likely to hold interacted with. or engaged with. a trade name or company via a societal media site like Facebook. Twitter or YouTube. Not merely can brands deliver messages and content to clients via this channel. but they should besides listen to the conversations taking topographic point through societal media. Southeast Asiatic digital consumers are actively posting their ain sentiments about trade names and services online. and reading other consumers’ remarks. as portion of the determination devising procedure. Rich media. in the signifier of on-line picture about merchandises or services. besides plays a function in many consumers’ determination doing procedure particularly in Thailand. Figure 4: Social Media Support Consumer Decision Making in Southeas t Asian ; Nielsen Y2011. High possible part for on-line activities. people are alarming to consumer the online engineering. Figure 5: Connecting/Interacting With The Brand’s Online Campaign in Southeast Asian ; Nielsen Y2011. In Southeast Asia. people give their response with on-line runs.The power of YouTube is something every trade name should be tapping into. It is a powerful free tool for concerns and organisations to prosecute an audience with on-line picture. To utilize picture as one of the selling tool is a great thought of bring forthing ton of traffic to brand’s web site. YouTube is working as narrator. Videos have a stronger impact on people more than other societal media. Because of picture cartridge holder can set across messages to the audience more expeditiously than merely images or texts. Peoples have intended entree to YouTube for hunt interesting VDO contents. They clicked the Share button to direct out It is challenges the trade name and besides media contriver about how to use the societal media as a portion of their communicating program. The traditional media have a ton of research and instance surveies. whereas societal media ; particularly in Thailand. are deficiency of loc al research surveies and besides instance surveies. The event research to analyze about effectual usage of uniting between those two media ( Traditional A ; New Media ) . This survey is placing some abroad instance surveies and some ad hoc advertisement run in may be relevant for survey. Analytical some advertisement runs on YouTube. how does do the constructive or deconstructive terminal consequence. Successful Viral Market On YouTube. Brand Have To Understand The Fact of â€Å"Viral† . The key to holding a successful viral run lies in truly understanding the targeted demographic. The usage of music. facts. comedy and sex will merely assist the run if it is appreciated by that desired audience. But how does a picture go from one position to million? Viral or sharing refers to something that self-propagates. or in the selling sense. something that spreads by viva-voce. peer-to-peer. as opposed to purely from an official advertizement. Traveling viral is valuable because the intended audience does all the heavy advertisement work for trade name. ideally at an exponential rate. This saves money and resources in advertisement costs and normally means more powerful audience incursion ; people are more disposed to believe their equals than an advertizement. Peoples like to hear themselves speak. non be talked at. So when person with similar involvements whose sentiment you hold in high respect recommends something. you are more likely to follow up on that suggestion than if you received that same call-to-action from some generic public advertizement from the trade name. Viral advertisement or selling is any specific advertizement or run that is finally intended to travel viral. Normally these runs need to be extremely new thought or creatively unusual in order for them to virally distribute. In fact. many runs even appear as â€Å"real† or non-commercial in order to derive more viral consequence. Viral battle is a more accurate term and position towards viral selling. Because viral runs depend on an closely ecstatic audience for their exposure. this type of marketing isn’t merely a typical â€Å"advertise one time. so done. † It’s more of a uninterrupted duologue. and as such. the nature of the run in advancement may even germinate or radically change in order to retain its audience and/or attract more. It is less of a run towards a mark and more of a duologue. If traditional selling is a talk. so viral battle is a keenly interesting conversation. There’s part. reaction. and advancement from both parties. non merely the initial talker. So the following inquiry is what makes something viral? The better inquiry is: what make s something deserving sharing? Traveling viral is largely known on the Website or on-line activities. but truly it is able to use everyplace such as What is it about a film that compels you to urge it to a friend? Or for that affair. non to urge it? Why would consumer base on balls on some piece of content to a friend? Is it because it made their friends laugh? Made them shout? Made them emotional? Possibly you are seeking to originate an empathetic session. so that you can bond together afterwards by benefit of the common experience. So how can those illustrations are harnessed? How can the trade name predict what will travel viral and what won’t? And more significantly. how can we make something that will intentionally travel viral? That is the challenge ; the most obvious attack is to do something that trade name would probably desire to portion. But consumer personal gustatory sensations are so subjective. After all. who could hold guessed that current and past tendencies would of all time go. good. trendy! So. trade name should look to the polls. studies. demographics and analytics. For Thailand. trade name should larn from history. at what worked and failed earlier. to seek and outline together some kind of gage. But there is one guideline which is believed closest to going a regulation. If there is one dominant. relentless factor in any viral content. whether original commercial or non. it is this: it has to be content first. Content is. and ever will be. male monarch. Even viral advertizements. while evidently for commercial intents. spread as they did because people valued them as pieces of content. non merely as ads. Figure 6: The Anatomy of traveling viral ; SingleGain. com. Figure 6: The Anatomy of traveling viral ; SingleGain. com. Figure 6: The Anatomy of traveling viral ; SingleGain. com. How To Determine Viral Market Campaign. Success or Failure?To utilize historical analysis interpreted some of the existent instance surveies for comprehension. and prerequisite. This survey is comparing between successful viral selling and failure from the historical narrations. Successful Viral Marketing On YouTube.1st Case Study: Translated For Animals March 2010UK Market / Product Google’s Android Mobile Platform. – International. Brief:Android is an unfastened platform for Mobile and an of import strategic trade name for Google. The competition is the established – and omnipresent – iPhone. In April 2010 Google wanted to make bombilation and generate conversations in societal infinites about the platform as portion of the physique up to the release of the Google’s first Android phone. the Nexus One. April 1st was merely hebdomads off. It was excessively good an chance to allow base on balls. Solution:We developed the thought of Google Translate for Animals. From a company that has made extraordinary and complex things look simple it’s an intriguing. about plausible. thought that was bound to acquire practical linguas wagging. Working with Google’s developers we built the application. seemingly interpreting the barks. squeaks and tweets of 13 family pets. We shot a movie to demo the universe Translate for Animals in action showing it to an suitably awed and deep in thought husbandman. We besides developed a seeding scheme to make expectancy and maximise bombilation. On 31st March. Reto Meier. a well-thought-of Android developer at Google leaked the narrative on his web log. suggesting at exciting and secret developments. accompanied by shaky and inconclusive footage. On April 1st at midnight Google. co. uk carried a simple text invitation to look into out this new Google app. Beginning: Glue isobar UK. Consequence:* Within a hebdomad 1. 250. 000 people from states watched the movies. * A top trending top on Twitter with over 25k Tweets 5000+ remarks on YouTube. * 30k positions of UGC content Coverage on 546 web logs 40k app installings with 500+ . * Android Market reviews 4 user-generated Facebook. Fanpages. â€Å"Translate for Animals† a top 10 hunt subject on Google. co. United Kingdom 2nd Case Study: T-Virus SMS / Product Resident Evil VDO Game. Fail Viral Marketing On Mobile Devices. Beginning: Glue isobar UK. A selling run to advance the latest version of the Resident Evil picture game has provoked a terror about the spread of a non-existent Mobile phone virus. Users have received unasked SMS text messages on their nomadic phones stating them they are infected by the alleged T-Virus. motivating calls to AV Company Sophos about the supposed eruption. The messages are sent from a web site designed to advance the game Resident Evil: Outbreak. in which participants defend themselves against living deads by blowing their caputs off with a scattergun. The web site allows unasked text messages to be sent to mobile phones claiming that the phone is infected. without the permission of the phone’s proprietor. A typical message reads: â€Å"Outbreak: I’m infecting you with t-virus. my codification is ****** . Forward this to 60022 to acquire your ain codification and opportunity to win awards. More at t-virus. co. United Kingdom. † â€Å"The messages themselves are non infective. but some people have panicked that they might hold received a existent nomadic phone virus. This selling run seems peculiarly misguided. as there is so much echt involvement in the nomadic virus menace at present. Decision International broadcast medium is airing that is intentionally aimed at a foreign. instead than a domestic. audience. YouTube is the best instance to depict about international broadcast medium for today. Viral Marketing is fast going a tendency amongst sellers due to developments and influence of societal and technological factors. Communicating online has become a extremely popular method for remaining in touch with others. Due to the handiness and convenience of the cyberspace and the communicating vehicles it offers. such as electronic mail. instant courier and societal networking. people are taking to pass on online as an alternate to face-to-face or telephone. The on-line consumer is good connected. Hence how Viral Selling has surfaced. Viral Marketing depends on the natural leaning of an on-line consumer to send on something they see of value on to their web of contacts. Peoples do non portion brand’s viral stuffs ( such as VDO cartridge holder. images. and music ) beca use they love the trade name and wish to adopt it. They portion because those viral stuffs made them laugh. made them sentimental. made them experience. And they want to see if others shared in that experience every bit good. Even the trade name has merely happened to be within those experiences. but what made the viral stuffs are deserving to speak. worth to portion. The viral content is the key to success. Think about the existent life. people recommend films or music to their equals non because they want to back up them. but because they were engaged by the content and believe their friends will be likewise engaged. Then they can prosecute one another in their common battle of the content. Therefore. the viral stuff must be worthwhile contents. even if it serves small to no way in footings of being an advertizement. It may really be a awful ad by advertisement criterions. But every bit long as it is prosecuting content. audiences will love it. In fact. they may affect it more because it is non an advertisement stuff. Peoples want something they can see. and so in bend Lashkar-e-Taiba others see. Seller and Media contriver should be cognizant of false viral run. Thinking of some inquiry to remind what is cause of failure run. What genuinely defines a failed viral media run? What are the factors and elements that drive a societal media run to its day of reckoning? What are the worst societal media runs online? What can be learned from the errors they have made? †¢ To revise selling message one time. twice. three times and even more to do certain those message will acquire the least sum of onslaughts or negative feedback from your audience. †¢ When utilizing societal media for the viral media run. the trade name should seek non to curtail remarks and feedback because of the BASIC of societal media is to make a treatment in which it builds effectual moral force of bipartisan communicating. †¢ The trade name should make non seek to sell yourself excessively bluffly. If it is truly necessitate the trade name has a demand to make so. make it through communicating and engagement with communities and persons on different suited societal media channels. †¢ Be ethical ; lying or intentionally lead oning will non pay off as some might surmise. Mentions: Finally. Marketer A ; Media contriver should be keep in head that about 50 % of societal media run will neglect. They have to be after and use the new media sagely. Reference A ; Source Of Information* Afuah. Allan. and Christopher L. Tucci ( 2001 ) . Internet Business Models and Strategies. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. * Ballon. Pieter. Sandra Helmus. Roland new wave de Pas. Henk-Jan new wave de Meeberg ( 2002 ) . ‘Business Models for Next-Generation Wireless Services’ . Tendencies in Communication. No. 9. * Eisenmann. Thomas R. ( 2002 ) . Internet Business Models: Text and Cases. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. * Eisenmann. Thomas R. ( 2002 ) . Internet Business Models: Text and Cases. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. * Brand As Friend / How Open Are People To Brand s on Social Network: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. tnsdigitallife. com/view/social-brands * Reason Why Social Media Is More Important:hypertext transfer protocol: //www. brandignity. com/2011/03/4 * Search-engine optimisation:hypertext transfer protocol: //sem-group. net/search-engine-optimization-blog/how-social-media-influences-consumer-behavior/ * The Digital Media Habit Attitudes Of South East Asiatic Consumer. : Nielsen 2011

Oedipus Rex Essays (1155 words) - Ancient Greek Theatre,

Oedipus Rex Oedipus Rex In the play Oedipus Rex, it shows many different forms of fate and freewill. Fate is a word that can be defined in many different ways. Fate can affect a persons life in many different ways. Oedipuss fate ruined his life and lead him to a horrible death. Antigones life was also thrown out to the hand of fate. Neither one of them had any freewill in there lifetime, all of there lives were based upon the fate that the gods handed to them. Both of these elements, fate and freewill, play a large role in the telling of the story of Oedipus Rex. Was his life really left to fate or was it left up to him? In most tragic plays fate and freewill play a large role in the rise and fall of the protagonist. The protagonist in a play has to either cause the fault by his own freewill or by fate causing it. Without this there would be no fall of the protagonist in a tragic play. Ignorance of a protagonist can lead to a fall do to a mistake done by there own free will. Fate can cause the fall of a protagonist without there consent or there control. The fate of a protagonist leads to a much more horrible conclusion then the mistake of a tragic protagonist do to there own freewill. Oedipus was born with a horrible prophecy told to his parents which led his parents to believe that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. They soon had Oedipus taken up to a mountain, to leave him there to die. A shepherd saved his life and raised him, Oedipus soon went back to Thebes were he was born. Oedipus believed that he was traveling away from his home town, he soon found himself at a road where three corners met. There he murdered his father without knowing it was his father. He soon then traveled to Thebes and then he married his own mother. Soon Oedipus found out what he had done. His mother committed suicide and Oedipus Tore out his own eyes and insisted on being banished from Thebes. Oedipus led the exact life that was prophesied, Oedipus had little choices to make in his life. I believe that most of the events that happened to Oedipus were left to the hand of fate. Oedipus was trying to escape his own fate by traveling a different way then what he had thought was his hometown. Fate is something that no human being can run from, no matter what they do or where they hide. This was a choice that Oedipus made, which added to the answer of what Oedipuss character flaw was. Oedipuss character flaw was that he was ignorant throughout his life, he never saw things as what they really were, he only saw them as how he wanted to see them. Fate is a element in life that can not be changed or be foretold. Oedipus had no way of changing his own fate or anyway from running from it. People cannot change there fate, as much as they think that they can. People, along with Oedipus believe that they can control there lives and that fate plays no role in there lives. But people do not understand that control is an illusion and is nothing more then something for people to believe in so that they do not feel scared, while living in this world that is based upon fate. People will always think that they control there lives even no they do not. Freewill is also an illusion that is put out by society, people believe that society gives them choices but really everybodys life is set up and is up to fate. The two conventions fate and freewill are not equal conventions in a tragic play. Fate predominates freewill because fate controls freewill in life. In the story Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is doomed to his fate, he tries to escape by using his own freewill but in the end he faces his fate. There was no way for Oedipus to escape his fate that was told to his parents. Oedipus led a very terrifying life but the hand of fate allowed Oedipus to die in peace. How Oedipus has passed away no man shall ever tell. A related factor to fate is luck and fortune, Oedipus was handed a bad fate but luck brought

Great Wall of China Essay If You Have a Writer’s Block

Great Wall of China Essay If You Have a Writer’s Block The Great Wall of China can be righteously called one of the building miracles that survive in modern world. There is so much to say about it in your Great Wall of China essay that you might be lost at all the options. We have assembled some of them for you to consider and to choose one for your Great Wall of China essay. Great Wall of China Essay: Option #1 The Great Wall of China is a unique architectural construction, unrivalled in modern world. In your Great Wall of China essay, you can choose to conduct a historical and architectural investigation of this wonderful fortress. Trace historical sources as to when and by whom the Great Wall of China was built, as well as what function it performed. Did it accomplish its protective functions? Has it remained in the same condition through the centuries or was it rebuilt from different materials? These are just some of the many questions to consider in your Great Wall of China essay. Great Wall of China Essay: Option #2 Preservation of historical heritage is one of the key tasks for the educated people nowadays. You can dedicated your Great Wall of China essay to discussion of the state of the Great Wall of China. Has it preserved completely? Is it protected by law? Is it regularly maintained? What should be done to let our progeny see it in the same glory as it is now? Great Wall of China Essay: Option #3 There has been a lot of dispute on the visibility of the Great Wall of China from space. In your Great Wall of China essay you can track the documents on this matter and dwell on the issue. What conclusions do you reach from your research? Is the Great Wall of China visible from space or not?

Augustines Confessions essays

Augustine's Confessions essays In the Confessions, by Saint Augustine, Augustine addressed himself articulately and passionately to the persistent questions that stirred the minds and hearts of men since time began. The Confessions tells a story in the form of a long conversion with God. Through this conversion to Catholic Christianity, Augustine encounters many aspects of love. These forms of love help guide him towards an ultimate relationship with God. His restless heart finally finds peace and rest in God at the end of The Confessions. Augustine finds many ways in which he can find peace in God. He is genuinely sorry for having turned away from God, the source of peace and happiness. Augustine is extremely thankful for having been given the opportunity to live with God. Augustine uses love as his gate to Gods grace. Throughout The Confessions, love and wisdom, the desire to love and be loved, and his love for his concubine, are all driving forces for Augustines desire to find peace in God. The death of his fri end upsets him deeply, but also allows him to pursue God to become a faithful Christian. Augustine often experiences darkness, blindness, and confusion while attempting to find rest in God, but he knows that when he eventually finds him his restless heart will be saved. Augustine started out in childhood with a restless heart because he had to live in two different worlds. These worlds consisted of that of his mothers religious faith, and the world of everything else. These two worlds confused and disturbed Augustine as a child. In his mothers world, talk consisted of Christ the Savior and about the mighty god who helps us especially to go to heaven. In the other world, talk was about achieving. It seems as if Augustine felt that if he were to live in both of these worlds, his life would turn out to be nothing. He believed he would not accomplish anything he would be remembered for. He became unhappy with the idea of his life amounti...

Punishment and Morality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Punishment and Morality - Essay Example There are and always have been two sides to this issue. What follows is an inquiry into issues which are integral to the cause of giving the punishment to offenders; both sides shall be represented therein, and the most plausible option shall be elucidated. Essentially, giving the punishment is considered as a moral obligation in almost all cultures and theologies around the world. It is taken as a compulsory act of reprimand, without which the integrity of the justice provider is lost, and essentially the entire process of equality suffers an emotional blow. The act of kindness is hence lost, and there surfaces an immense feeling of betrayal and anguish on part of the victim. Conversely, the other side presents an equally convincing argument. For one, many offenders around the world do not have the exposure and luxury to understand and deal with the environment they live in. To add, an offender goes through several ups and downs during his life, which psychologically turns him into a law-breaker - so does he actually deserve retribution Though this may jeopardize the act of beneficence, but it is deemed necessary. After all, the true beneficence lies in the cure of the offender, and if this cannot be actualized at the end of the day, then the utilitarian process would have drastically failed. The judiciary frequently ignores their offenders' wishes when they consider the appropriateness of punishment giving.

Extended definition paper on Urbanization and the environment in Essay

Extended definition paper on Urbanization and the environment in arizona - Essay Example In being overburdened with several problems related to development, cities have to suffer from severe crisis situations. This paper will examine issues relative to urbanization and the environment in the state of Arizona. The city of Phoenix in Arizona will be analyzed in this context because it is amongst the world’s most swiftly urbanizing arid region. In being a region that is growing and developing rapidly, the Phoenix area faces immense risks of high levels of environmental, economic and social impacts, primarily because of the growth induced urban heat island (UHI) effects that characterize urbanization. Researchers have found in comparing the Phoenix region’s yearly minimum high temperatures with similar rural settings that the urban areas in the region have demonstrated much higher UHI effects, which obviously matches with the speed with which urbanization is increasing in the region. Urban development has also provided an excellent means to examine the significance of socio-ecological relationships. The speedy urbanization process in Phoenix and other parts of Arizona have impacted the diversity of plant species and composition of the community at regional levels. Diversity of plant species and their density is a factor of abiotic sorting characterized in non urban desert areas but certainly not in urban areas. Resea rchers have found that plant species are richer in deserts than in urban areas such as Phoenix in Arizona. A comprehensive perspective is created because of the complex and diverse relationship amongst environmental change and urbanization. There are varied interactions and interconnections in the conceptual framework dealing with this issue in terms of interactions between urbanization and the political, economic, cultural, social and biophysical aspects associated with environmental change. Cross temporal and cross spatial approaches have to be adopted in carrying out comparative studies.

Nursing Theorist Grid Essay Example for Free

Nursing Theorist Grid Essay 1. Theorist Selected: Florence Nightingale born on 5/12/1820, a writer, a philosopher, a theorist, a â€Å"reformer, a statistician, an administrator, a researcher† (Attewell, 1998), an educator, and a nurse leader. 2. Description of key points of the theory: Nightingale was one of the first theorist to connect the environment with the patient’s well being. Nightingale believed a persons health depended on their environment and that patients will be compliant to treatment because they wanted to be cared for and be healthy. Nightingale believed (as cited by Alligood, 2010, p. 101), â€Å"that the person was a holistic individual and thus had a spiritual dimension. She believed nursing was a spiritual calling, and with that belief she assumed that nurses could help those clients who were in spiritual distress.† She believed that the way the home, community or hospital room was kept affected the patient’s healing process. She created â€Å"13 cannons: Ventilation and warmth, light, cleanliness of rooms and walls, health of houses, noise, bed and bedding, personal cleanliness, variety, chattering hopes and advices, taking food, what food, petty management and observation of the sick† (Alligood, 2010, p.101-102) that help aid in the care of the patient and the environment to help promote good health. She also believed that nurses should be caring in nature and want to care for the ill and not for personal gain. Nightingale promoted a well balanced diet to help the patient with the healing process. 3. Theory’s historical background: Nightingale developed her passion young in life. Cook wrote (as cited by Selanders, 2010) â€Å"She records in her diary an interaction with God at age 16 when He â€Å"called her to His service†. Nightingale clarified (as cited by Alligood, 2010, p.98), â€Å"nursing knowledge is distinct from medical knowledge.† Nursing focuses on the patient and the environment to promote health where medicine focuses on disease process and medicinal use for health. In 1854-60 Nightingale cared for the wounded soldiers in the Crimean War with â€Å"emphasis on hygiene† (Attewell, 1998). During her time in the Crimean war she persuaded the education of army soldiers and doctors, which then lead to an opening of a pathology lab. She was an advocate for nursing education and clinical experience. â€Å"In 1860 founded 1st program to educate nurses in St. Thomas Hospital in London† (Alligood, 2010, p.98). In 1882 she wrote 2 articles â€Å"nurses, training of†, â€Å"nursing the sick†, they were in reference to how nursing school should be training. Let us not forget how she help analyze data she collected. â€Å"Statistics were a vital component of Nightingale’s systemic approach to health care† (McDonald, 2010). Complete the following grid based on the selected theorist information. Define each term according to the selected theorist. Explain how the selected theorist’s approach to each element of the metaparadigm applies to the following: Nursing practice Nursing education Nursing research Term Definition Applied to Nursing Practice Applied to Nursing Education Applied to Nursing Research Person According to Alligood (2010, p98), â€Å"most of Nightingale’s writings refer to the person as the one who is receiving care, she did believe that the person is a dynamic and complex being†. The one whose health is affected by the environment. The patient allows the nurse to provide care and help promote a healthier environment. McDonald noted (as cited by Hegge, 2013) â€Å"Nightingale realized that working-class women needed education to become competent nurses, so she began designing educational elements that would later be used in the Nightingale School of Nursing.† Nightingale’s research and data collection was done for the benefit of the patient. Creating evidence based practices. Health According to Alligood (2010, p 98) Nightingale wrote, â€Å"Health is not only to be well, but to be able to use well every power we have.†Ã‚  Nightingale created the 13 canons to help promote health. Getting patients back to their functioning status before they fell ill. Nightingale promoted patient health education, especially in the young women so her children could be healthy. Nightingale statistical expertise help make changes to improve a patients care and overall health. Nursing Whall noted (as cited by Alligood, 2010, p. 99)â€Å"Nightingale saw nursing as the â€Å"science of environmental management.† Nightingale set four steps for nursing process: observation of patient’s health status, identification what needs changing in the environment, implementation of nursing care plan, reassessment of patient’s health status with documentation of all steps. Nightingale advocated for nursing education. Schools taught nurses how to observe a patient, how to alter the environment and implement changes. We report back to the physician from our assessments and reassessments. Nightingale had the hospital collecting data report data such as mortality and length of stay. The data was analyzed and then changes in practices were implemented. Environment Selanders stated (as cited by Alligood, 2010, p98) that â€Å"environment can be defined as anything that can be manipulated to place a patient in the best  possible condition for nature to act†. Placing the patient in the appropriate environment. For example, Creating a pleasant, calm, soothing and quiet environment in a nursery so babies can rest and stay healthy without distress. Schools created to help educate the future nurses. In those teachings were the â€Å"how to change, alter, or improve the patient’s immediate environment. Nightingale’s collected statistics on the environment in which the soldiers dwelled in and analyzed it creating changes. Reference: Alligood, M.R. (2010). Nursing theory: Utilization application (4th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Mosby Elsevier. pgs 98. Retreived from the UOP ebook collection. Attewell, A. (1998). Florence nightingale (1820-1910). Prospects, 28(1), 151-166. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02737786. Retrieved from the UOP online library Selanders, L. C. (2010, March). The Power of Environmental Adaptation: Florence Nightingale’s Original Theory for Nursing Practice. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 28(1), 81-88. doi:10.1177/0898010109360257. Retrieved from the UOP online library Hegge, M. (2013, July). Nightingale’s Environmental Theory. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26(3), 211-219. doi:10.1177/0894318413489255. Retrieved from the UOP online library McDonald, L. (2010, March). Florence Nightingale Passionate Statistician. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 28(1), 92-98. doi:10.1177/0898010109358769. Retrieved from the UOP online library

Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation Essay -- ending slave

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was delivered by Abraham Lincoln. This bold and progressive move by the President declared that "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free" (The Library of Congress, 2014). While Lincoln now harbors the fame for ending slavery, his proclamation initially only ended slavery in those states that attempted to separate from the union. The proclamation authorized the recruitment of former slaves into the Union Armies and promoted the eventual creation of a Union without slavery. It was this strategic use of the legal system that allowed Lincoln to manipulate the Border States between the North and South while molding the characteristics of the Civil War. Still, after the war was ended the now freed slaves did not flourish with their new found and hard fought freedoms. The ideal that former slaves were successful after the war is very far from realistic. Many freed slaves faced the new world without necessities such as shoes or clothing to protect them from the environment. During the winters, many freed slaves were out of work and homeless causing them to freeze and starve to death. Being ‘kept’ by slave masters their entire lives, they did not possess any skills outside crop farming to aide them in survival. This lack of experience and materials only served to increase the hardships endured; yet nothing could prepare them for the inequalities they would continue to face. The first inequality they would have to endure was in the form of education. As slaves, it was illegal for them to read or write thus propelling them into ... ...nearly eliminated blacks from the American landscape. Luckily, over the last 151years America has continued to grow and heal from the ugliness that was slavery. In doing so, Americans cherish Lincoln who cemented our ideals that all citizens remain â€Å"†¦forever free" (The Library of Congress, 2014). References Oshinsky, D. M. (n.d.). The Washington Post. Retrieved from Worse Than Slavery: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/worsethanslavery.htm Schuessler, J. (2012, June 10). Books: Liberation as Death Sentence. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/books/sick-from-freedom-by-jim-downs-about-freed-slaves.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 The Library of Congress. (2014, April 10). Retrieved from Primary Documents in AMerican History: Emancipation Proclamation: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/EmanProc.html

Childhood and Memories poetry Essay

Carol Ann Duffy was born in 1955 and has four brothers; she grew up in Staffordshire with a strong religious upbringing. At fourteen she decided to become a poet and has written ever since. A lot of her works look at growing up and past experiences especially from childhood. Most of these poems are published in her 1993 book of poetry, â€Å"Mean Time†. I am going to concentrate on five of her poems; â€Å"The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team†, â€Å"Litany†, â€Å"Stafford Afternoons†, â€Å"Brothers† and â€Å"Prayer†. One of the most obvious points that stand out in all of Duffy’s poems is religion and it isn’t surprising having gone to catholic schools since the age of seven! The poem â€Å"Litany† has a clear religious meaning with the title having Christian references; a litany in the church is a list of people who the congregation pray for in a time of need. By Litany, I believe that Carol Ann Duffy is actually trying to portray the things that really stood out in her childhood, a good example of this could be the first litany in the poem, â€Å"candlewick bedspread three piece suite display cabinet†. Perhaps Duffy was often old of for damaging her mother’s sofa or can remember her mother tidying up the house and the bedspread for visitors. Another poem with religious iconography is â€Å"Brothers†, in which Carol Ann Duffy describes her four siblings, on of which is illustrated as â€Å"an alter boy† I believe she is trying to tell the reader that they lived solitary lives and didn’t have a very active social live inside or outside the family. This is because of the portrayal of her other brothers, â€Å"a boy practising scales†, â€Å"a boy playing tennis with a wall† and â€Å"a baby crying†. If you look at these collectively you can see that these are quite lonesome activities and events, none of them involve other people. My final example of religious connotations is in â€Å"Prayer†, most of the poem is in iambic pentameter and I believe that this is trying to show that religion can bring order in to a hectic lifestyle. The poem is about loosing faith but still having hope and a type of sub-conscious faith in your mind. The rhythmic structure along with the religious connotations throughout the poem give hope to reader by allowing us to believe that the poet has suffered the same as you and has got through their experiences and are here to remember them. Carol Ann Duffy also uses the effect of the senses on the reader, my first example of this is in â€Å"Litany†; the poet uses taste to relieve the memory of being disciplined. â€Å"The taste of soap† is quite a strong image that, unfortunately, most people can remember from being in the shower or having a wash! The use of senses gives the reader the chance to really imagine themselves in the poet’s shoes and gives the poem a more realistic picture. In â€Å"Brothers†, Carol Ann Duffy uses another sense; hearing to emphasis her mothers repetitive comments about children and her wishes to be a grandmother but then finding out that Duffy was a lesbian. I believe that the phase â€Å"I hear her life in the words† obviously this is a turning point in Duffy’s life; telling your mother your gay isn’t the easiest thing in the world! And the use of senses here shows how much this experience really did stand out. These two examples are quite obvious but the final one is a little more subtle. It is again in Litany and is synaesthesia, it mixes more than one sense, Duffy explains how a butterfly moves into her hands, â€Å"a butterfly stammered into my curious hands† here the two senses being used are touch, the butterfly crawling onto her hands and voice in the word stammering it is a piece of onomatopoeia. Synaesthesing allows the audience to imagine one thing, in this case someone stammering and put it into another situation, a butterfly crawling and flapping its wings. This gives the all important realistic picture.

Nursing Theorist Essay

Formulate 3 nursing diagnoses using the Problem, Etiology, and Signs and Symptoms (PES) format and the taxonomy of NANDA. The diagnoses must be based on the case study, be appropriate, be prioritized, and be formatted correctly. For each nursing diagnosis, state 2 desired outcomes using NOC criteria. Desired outcomes must be patient-centered and measurable within an identified timeframe. For each outcome, state 2 nursing interventions using NIC criteria as well as 1 evaluation method. Interventions and the evaluation method must be appropriate to the desired outcomes. Provide rationale for each nursing diagnosis, and explain how PES, NANDA, NOC, and NIC apply to each diagnosis. Use a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed resources, and create an APA formatted reference page. Nursing Diagnosis 1: Urinary Retention R/T Anesthesia Nursing Interventions Desired Outcome 1 Desired Outcome 2 Nursing Intervention Visually inspect and palpate lower abdomen for distention (Mosby 2012). Patient’s abdominal girth will not increase and distention will decrease. Patient will remain free of abdominal pain r/t urinary retention. Nursing Intervention 2 Urinary Catheterization (Mosby 2012) Patient will empty bladder >30ml an hour Patient will demonstrate clean technique if performing self-catheterization. Evaluation method Measure input and output hourly to obtain accurate measurements. Make sure catheter is free of kinks to allow for proper drainage Rationale Keeping accurate records of I/O will ensure that the patient is evacuating properly. Ensuring patient is free of pain will promote less anxiety and keep vital signs within range. Educating patient on clean technique will promote an environment with less bacteria and keep risk of infection lower. Nursing Diagnosis 2: Risk for Infection/RT Urinary Catheter Desired Outcome 1 Desired Outcome 2 Nursing Intervention 1 Infection Control Patient remains free of infection, as evidenced by normal vital signs, and absence of purulent drainage from wounds, incisions, and tubes (Mosby 2012). Infection is recognized early to allow for prompt treatment (Mosby 2012). Nursing Intervention 2 Infection Protection Teach patient to wash hands often, especially after toileting, before meals, and before and after administering self-care (Mosby 2012). Teach patient importance of eating well balanced meals to promote healthy nutritional status. Evaluation method Evaluate patient perform self-care as to promote further education. Allow patient to verbalize and demonstrate understanding of proper nutrition and signs of infection. Rationale Patients with indwelling catheters need to be shown clean techniques when being discharged home. Educating patient on proper hand washing will promote clean environment and keep patients risk of infection lower. Educating patient on the early signs of infection will promote prompt medical intervention. Educating patient on proper nutrition and importance of well balanced meals will promote faster healing of incision and lower patients’ risk of infection. Nursing Diagnosis 3: Pain R/T Postoperative pain Desired Outcome 1 Desired Outcome 2 Nursing Intervention 1 Anticipate need for pain relief (Mosby 2012) Anticipating pain may result in medicating at a lower dose to keep patient comfortable. Maintaining a level of comfort where the patient is not begging for relief. Keeping vital signs stable while maintaining the patient comfortable. Nursing Intervention 2 Respond immediately to complaint of pain (Mosby 2011) Creates a trusting relationship with patient to ensure open lines of communication. Allows the patient to know that you are empathetic to their discomfort and that they are not alone. Evaluation method Evaluate scheduled times of medication administration. Round hourly on the patient as to reassure the patient that their needs will be met. Educate patient on medication administration time so they are not waiting until their pain is at a level 8 before they ask for relief. Evaluate the responses from the patient as to ensure that they are feeling comfortable with the care. Rationale Anticipating pain will allow the nurse to be on time for the patient in pain. Creating that trusting relationship with the patient will allow open lines of communication with the patient which will in turn allow for better care and outcome. Educating a patient on when to ask for medication will ensure that the patient never reaches a level of extreme pain. Treating your patient with compassion and empathy will allow for the patient to feel satisfied with the care they are receiving and create a trusting relationship. Reference Swearingen, P. L. (2012). All-in-one care planning resource: medical-surgical, pediatric, maternity, psychiatric nursing care plans (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier/Mosby. Gulanick, M. (2011). Nursing care plans: diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes (7th ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier Mosby. Doenges, M. E., & Moorhouse, M. F. (2002). Nursing care plans guidelines for individualizing patient care (6th ed.). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.

The History of Stem Cell Research

The History of Stem Cell Research Free Online Research Papers Stem cells, many have heard the name, but really don’t understand the theory or research behind it. Stem cell research had a slow uprising in the mid 1800’s and had exploded here in the 21st century. It started out with the discovery that some cells can regenerate or create other cells. Now stem cell research is stuck in a controversy over the usage of these cells for research. The first real proof of stem cell capabilities was discovered in the early 1900’s with the discovery of the regeneration of blood cells. They’re similar to cells that duplicate through mitosis and a new creation of another cell all together. The first stem cell research came along with the findings of animal and human stem cells. A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to continuously divide and differentiate into various kinds of cells and tissues. It’s somewhat similar to a blank micro chip; it can be made to be specialized at anything, like our stem cells. When certain conditions occur in the laboratory stem cells can be manipulated to be specialized to create various kinds of cells and tissues. The main reason for this research is the treatment of life threatening and debilitating diseases such as cancer Parkinson’s disease and even diabetes. If scientists are able to figure out the genetic programming of these cells then one day they can program them to work for our benefit and make human life better, more sufficient and give us the ability to repair damaged tissues and organs and better understand disease processes. In work with the human genome experiments and advanced gene-line engineering stem c ells can be the next cure for everything and the possibilities are endless. Cloning of humans and animals and the permanent resistance of harmful and currently incurable diseases is the goal of this research in whole. There are different kinds of stem cells that contribute to research, but all are not constitutionally considerate and lead to the debates that we have now that cripple this research and slow down our race; the human race. The discovery of the embryonic stem cells is important to research which can only be collected from the inner-mass of the blastocyst (unborn fetus) seven to 10 days after initial fertilization in a human female uterus. There is the fetal stem cell, which the cells are taken from the germ-line tissues that make up the gonads of aborted fetuses. Umbilical cord stems cells are similar to those found in adult bone marrow. Placenta stem cells can accumulate ten times more stem cells than umbilical cord blood. Then there are adult stem cells, many can be isolated and used for the goals that want to be reached, but let’s narrow it down. There are three broad categories of stem cells classified by their abilities to differentiate or vary. Totipotent stem cells can ne found in early embryos and each of these cells can create one full organism such as an identical twin, very useful in the cloning of any organism. Pluripotent are like the embryonic stem cells and can vary into over 200 different cell types found in every human. Multipotent stem cells are those of adult cord blood and fetal tissue stem cells. Their abilities are narrower than those of pluripotent cells, but already have successful records for cell based and minor gene based therapies. The use of these cells are very complicated, but can be attained. The first real use of them was the administration of adult stem cells in connection with bone- marrow transplants. At this time bone marrow was being administered through the mouth to patients who suffered from anemia and leukemia. This therapy had no success, but led to the quick discovery of lab experiments that ultimately showed that mice with defective marrow could be restored to complete health by infusing marrow from other mice into the mouse with defective marrow. These lead physicians across the globe wondering if marrow could be transplanted from one human to another, which today is called the allogeneic transplant. Early experimentation of this procedure was happening during the radiation accident in the late 1950’s which kept it low on radar. Usage of this procedure didn’t inflate until a French medical researcher (Jean Dausset) made a discovery about the human immune system that discovered antigens that were proteins connected to most human cells that are called HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigens). Basically they determine what belongs to one body and what does not, such as, blood germs ect†¦ If the body doesn’t recognize the series of proteins or antigens on the cell walls of the cells then the body creates anti bodies and other things to dispose of it. A bone marrow between complete identical twins guarantees complete HLA compatibility between the donor and recipient. Not until the late 1600’s were scientists able to perform these kind of transplants on non identical siblings. The first successful transplant of unrelated bone marrow between two non siblings happe ned in ’73 requiring 7 transplants to be complete. With this, in ’84 the National Donor Society was created and is the first national list of donors, thanks to Congress and the Nation Organ Transplant Act. It allowed clearance to evaluate unrelated marrow, which lead to the NDWP (National Marrow Donor Program) that took over lists for hundreds of thousands of people in ’90. So far the NDWP has completed over 16,000 transplants for treatments of immunodeficiency and leukemia combined. Adult stem cells have also been a perfect candidate for research due to their ability to form many kinds of cells and tissues that can repair brain, liver and even heart cells, consumed by disease, but there were some very unhappy people debating these procedures. Pro-Life activists believe that it is unethical to take a life to save a life and started this debate. This is purely scientific and is rendering stem cell research hopeless because, it is totally impossible to harvest the potential of these cells using them to save the living and protect the â€Å"sanctity of life† at the same time. With plain fact that these cells possibly hold the secrets to cures preventions and treatments of the most undetermined diseases it would seem that this would be a no brainer. Politically though the battle is something of a tougher substance. This debate is clearly the battle over abortion and religiously an embryo is considered a life, but many families and patients depend on the use of these cells. Also, these cells would normally be discarded and put to no use. This debate has left political figureheads left with the fact that any decision made can be considered to be left at a reevaluation of positions. In ’73 a moratorium was placed on the government for federal funding of stem cell research. Then in ’88 a NIH panel voted 19 to 2 in favor of federal funding for research. In ’90 Congress voted to veto that overrode the moratorium on federal funding. Which was then vetoed by George Bush then lifted by Clinton, but changed his mind after a public outcry to him about religion. Thus banned in ’95. Again in 2000 it was allowed , but only on pre- existing aborted fetuses and or stem lines. Though the decision to give federal fund ing was difficult, Bush decided to give way to stem cell lines that are already in various stem cell facilities, but leaving all excess embryos (over 100,000) left to be discarded in these facilities. He said that had to take upon this issue with great care. He left the funding for adult stem cell research at 250,000 dollars per year. In Novembers 2004 election California had a Stem Cell research funding ballot that won 60% to 40% and has established the California Institute for Regenerative Health to regulate the cost of research and the research facilities. Before it was as simple as a mother who willingly signs to donate her embryo after independently deciding to abort pregnancy, but now that has been destroyed. Political debate has crippled the thought of having a faster way of acquiring these cells for research, but still continues and gives everyone a chance to prove what human life has to offer even at the brink of death or destruction. Stem cells can be a new light for many and give those dying a chance for survival, but if lives are to be taken away for that, what is the price for our actions and is it worth it? This debate is no where near over and the future of the living and â€Å"living† is at hand and it is not something that any of these side will easily give in to. Some believe it is a personal right to be able to have abortions and donate their offspring to the future of mankind and some stick to their morale ethics because, it is what they believe. There is only one answer and no mid-point between them. Research Papers on The History of Stem Cell ResearchGenetic EngineeringAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaOpen Architechture a white paperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfResearch Process Part OneInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesCapital PunishmentThree Concepts of PsychodynamicPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyEffects of Television Violence on Children

Medical History essays

Medical History essays Throughout any period of time, many changes occur, especially within the medical field. In a half of a century, the preoccupations and concerns of the American physician underwent a complete transformation. Two sources are the basis for this comparison, the first written by Benjamin Rush entitled Observations of the Duties of a Physician and the other was the first Code of Ethics by the American Medical Association. As a preliminary difference between the two sources, an examination of the authors should not be overlooked. The earlier source was written by a single man, while the second was a collaborative effort by an association. Thus, the knowledge of medicine was infectiously spread throughout the ever growing population in America. Over this spread of fifty years, other key differences can be observed. One that will be discussed is the American Medical Association stressed a superior level of professionalism. Another difference within the articles was the societal class of ph ysicians. The last noticed observation was about the role the patients played. In the article written by Benjamin Rush, he suggests certain behavioral acts to help the physician blend with the rest of society. An example and one of the most crucial recommendations was to live in the country, on a farm. By following this suggestion, the physician would show no superiority to the common people. Not only would superiority be defeated, but agriculture would benefit. Medicine is primarily based off of chemistry which works directly with agriculture. Thus the physician would share his discoveries for the advancements in medicine, and promote improvements within the country. Another benefit of living on a farm that Rush described was the occupation for the off, or healthy, season. Since the medical field was not as prospered, physicians could ...

International Trade and Finance Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International Trade and Finance Law - Assignment Example However, besides the vivid opportunities, the global exposure practices have also been observed to impose certain threats and constraints upon the organisations. For instance, organisations intending to expand in the global context may face various types of legal risks owing to the differences pertaining to the regulatory framework of the home country and the host nation. It is in this context that international trade laws, in terms of industry specific concessions and Foreign Direct Investments, often tend to constrict the expansion programs of organisations (Johnsrud, 2011). Based on these aspects, the discussion intends to briefly discuss the international trade laws and the related risk factors that are quite likely to be faced by Cowan Davies (CD) PLC when expanding its business operations in South East Asia. Moreover, the discussion also focuses on identifying major risks of trade and finance that are probable to be faced by CD in its planned expansion to South East Asia. Brief Description of Legal Risks in International Trade and Finance Legal risks are often perceived to be a few of the fundamental issues faced by organisations when conducting processes related to international trade and finance. It is in this context that over the past decades, laws related to trade affairs and business operations have developed apparently, which has also imposed a significant influence on the organisational operations. For instance, in early decades of the 18th century, businesses were largely focused on national contexts rather than on foreign environments apart from the export and import functions. With the gradual increase in the globalisation effects, organisations became more concentrated on expanding their businesses in foreign countries in order to attain the virtues of added resource availability and increased market demand. However, owing to the distinctive cultural backgrounds and business procedures, various regions developed dissimilar trade policies which later cropped up as a fundamental reason for international trade related conflicts (Schmitthoff & Cheng, 1937). For instance, the legal framework followed by the South East Asian economies to facilitate international trade has been observed as quite different from that practiced by the western countries. Where the organisations operating in America, England and other allied western countries need to abide by the norms specified by North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the companies operating in the South East Asian region needs to follow the rules and regulations specified by the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN). Supposedly, the policies followed by the two international trade related treaties are distinct in terms of their characteristics which might give rise to conflicts and legal issues in case of global exposure (Johnsrud, 2011). With this concern, there are various trade and finance risks identifiable, which could affect the export activities of CD for its expansion in the South East Asian region. It is worth mentioning in this context t

White Noise and Movie, Revolutionary Road(dir. Sam Mendes)2008 Essay

White Noise and Movie, Revolutionary Road(dir. Sam Mendes)2008 - Essay Example Each of these themes is used to create a question of the family life and the identity that is a part of this. More specifically, both authors show that the illusions that are a part of white suburbia create problems and complications of living life, specifically because of the desire to reach the American dream. One of the main focuses of both the novel and movie that are presented is the idea of family life. However, each of these presents an illusion of what it means to life in a middle class, white family as a part of suburbia. In both works, there is an ideal that the family life and suburbia is able to create a picture perfect representation of the American dream. For instance, at the beginning of White Noise, the author states â€Å"The well – made faces and wry looks. They feel a sense of renewal, of communal recognition. The women crisp and alert, in diet trim, knowing people’s names. Their husbands content to measure out the time, distant but ungrudging, accomplished in parenthood, something about them suggesting massive insurance coverage† (DeLillo, 3). This opening statement is a presentation of the American white family that lives in suburbia and keeps up a specific impression about family life. In this statement, the author creates an understanding of the identity of suburbia, consumerism that is at the center of the family and the representation of family life. While this particular ideal is set in both the movie and the book, there is also a question of the truth of this identity. The American dream that is pictured in both the book and the movie becomes problematic when the family life is led to illusions that have an undertone of problems. In White Noise this is presented by the husband, Jack, who has been married five times with several children. The main problem arises when the illusion of suburbia and the American dream can no longer present real life.

Public sector management and governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Public sector management and governance - Essay Example For example market-type mechanisms like contract giving. New public management also includes high emphasis on performance, maximization of outputs and great level of customer orientation. New public management developments include several economic, political, social and technological factors. Countries that adopt new public management are found to be witnessing fiscal and economic crises. This has resulted in the attempts to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of providing public services. The crisis encountered by the welfare state created several doubts about the role and institutional nature of the state. In many developing countries, developments in public administration and management have been accelerated by external pressures. Moreover, these reforms have happened in the background of structural adjustment programs. Other factors of new public management developments include pre-eminence of neoliberal ideas that existed in the late 1970s and the deployment of efficient int ernational management advisors and consultants on various reforms. Other factors in new public management include the development of information technology. For developing countries, new public management developments include great emphasis on proper governance and lending conditions. Earlier, new public management was considered as a phenomenon of developed countries, typically Anglo-Saxon, phenomenon. In the 1990s we have seen applications of different alternative of new public management practices in few developing economies and transitional economies. Downsizing and user fees are introduced in several countries, for example African countries. These activities are related to different structural adjustment works. Autonomous agencies included in the public sector are formed in certain countries. For example, the autonomous hospitals in Sri Lanka, Ghana and Zimbabwe. In Uganda and Ghana we found the hiving-off of excise and customs and revenue divisions to create executive agencies . Performance contracting as well as contracting out have been the major policy options in different crisis states. Contracting out has been considered as a tool to develop SOEs, state-owned enterprises. This provided more operational freedom to SOE managers while making them responsible for the performance of the enterprises. Grants, sanctions and rewards are implemented for the performance enhancement of enterprises. Performance contracts are introduced in different sectors like agriculture, transport and telecommunication. Countries like India, Bolivia and Ghana have implemented this. Contracting out is put into practice in the various sectors. Delivery of public services including road maintenance, waste management, laundry services, catering services, health services and other urban services are contracted out. In Zimbabwe we find the contracting out of different public services. Even though the adoption of new public management practices appear to be beneficial in certain case s, they have certain limitations to be applied in come crisis states. In Brazil and few other African countries new public management have brought cost savings while contracting out public works like road maintenance. However these techniques bring certain limitations in few states. The inefficiency of new public management in such countries reveals that there are institutional problems and other issues that

The Fifth Discipline Essay Example for Free

The Fifth Discipline Essay Introduction The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be those that discover how to tap people’s commitment and develop the capacity to learn at all levels in an organization. Deep down, people are learners. No one has to teach an infant to learn. In fact, no one has to teach infants anything. They are intrinsically inquisitive, masterful learners. Learning organizations are possible because at heart we all love to learn. Through learning we re-create ourselves and are able to do something we were never able to do earlier. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning. This seminal book by Peter M Senge explains how learning organizations can be built. The building blocks Systems Thinking Business and other human endeavours are systems of interrelated actions, whose full impact may be seen only after years. Since we are part of these systems, it’s hard to see the whole pattern of change. Instead, we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the systems, and wonder why our deepest problems never seem to get solved. Systems thinking is a conceptual framework, to make the full patterns clearer and to help us see how to change them effectively. Personal Mastery Mastery means a special level of proficiency. People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them in effect. They approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art, by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning. The discipline of personal mastery, starts with clarifying the things that really matter to us, of living our lives in line with our highest aspirations. Mental Models Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures of images that influence how we take action. Very often, we are not consciously aware of our mental models or the effects that they have on our behavior. Many insights into new markets or outmoded organizational practices fail to get put into practice because they conflict with powerful, tacit mental models. Institutional learning is the process whereby people change their shared mental models of the company, their markets, and their competitors. Building Shared Vision If any one idea about leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, it’s the capacity to hold a shared picture of the future we seek to create. When there is a genuine vision, people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to. But many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization. All too often, a company’s vision revolves around the charisma of a leader, or around a crisis that galvanizes everyone temporarily. But, people must pursue a lofty goal, not only in times of crisis but at all times. What is needed is a discipline for translating individual vision into shared vision – not a â€Å"cook book† but a set of principles and guiding practices. Team Learning The discipline of team learning starts with â€Å"dialogue,† the capacity of team members to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine â€Å"thinking together.† Dialogue also involves learning how to recognize the patterns of interaction in teams that undermine learning. The patterns of defensiveness are often deeply engrained in how a team operates. If unrecognized, they undermine learning. If recognized, they can actually accelerate learning. Assessing the organization’s learning disability Most organizations learn poorly. The way they are designed and managed, the way people’s jobs are defined, and most importantly, the way people have been taught to think and interact, create fundamental learning disabilities. When people in organizations focus only on their position, they have little sense of responsibility for the results they produce. Moreover, when results are disappointing, we tend to find someone or something outside ourselves to blame when things go wrong. All too often, â€Å"proactiveness† is reactiveness in disguise. True proactiveness comes from seeing how we contribute to our own problems. Actions in organizations are dominated by concern with events: last month’s sales, the new budget cuts, the last quarter’s earnings, who just got promoted or fired, the new product our competitors just announced, the delay in launching a new product, and so on. Our fixation on events is actually part of our evolutionary programming. The irony is that today the primary threats to our survival, both of our organizations and of our societies, come not from sudden events but from slow, gradual processes. The arms race, environmental decay, the erosion of our society’s public education system, increasingly obsolete physical capital, and decline in design or product quality are all slow, gradual processes. Learning to see slow, gradual processes requires slowing down our frenetic pace and paying attention to the subtle as well as the dramatic. We learn best from experience but we never directly experience the consequences of many of our most important decisions. The most critical decisions made in organizations have systemwide consequences that stretch over years or decades. Systems thinking Systems thinking is the fifth discipline. It is the conceptual cornerstone that underlies all the five learning disciplines. The easy or familiar solution is not only ineffective; sometimes it is addictive and dangerous. The long-term, insidious consequence of applying non-systemic solutions is the increased need for more and more of the solution. There is a fundamental mismatch between the nature of reality in complex systems and our predominant ways of thinking about that reality. The first step in correcting that mismatch is to let go of the notion that cause and effect are close in time and space. Tackling a difficult problem is also a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies, a change which – with a minimum of  effort would lead to lasting, significant improvement. This point is quite similar to what Malcolm Gladwell makes in his book, â€Å"The Tipping Point†. Without systems thinking, there is neither the incentive nor the means to integrate the learning disciplines that have come into practice. Systems thinking is the cornerstone of how learning organizations think about their world. Sophisticated tools of forecasting and business analysis, as well as elegant strategic plans, usually fail to produce dramatic breakthroughs in managing a business. They are all designed to handle the sort of complexity in which there are many variables. Senge calls it detail complexity. But there is another type of complexity, where cause and effect are subtle, and where the effects over time of interventions are not obvious. This, Senge calls dynamic complexity. Conventional forecasting, planning, and analysis are not equipped to deal with dynamic complexity. When the same action has dramatically different effects in the short run and in the long run, there is dynamic complexity. When an action has one set of consequences locally and a very different set of consequences in another part of the system, there is dynamic complexity. When obvious interventions produce non-obvious consequences, there is dynamic complexity. The real leverage in most management situations lies in understanding dynamic complexity, not detail complexity. Unfortunately, most â€Å"systems analyses† focus on detail complexity, not dynamic complexity. Systems thinking is useful for describing a vast array of interrelationships and patterns of change. Ultimately, it helps us see the deeper patterns lying behind the events and the details. In mastering systems thinking, we give up the assumption that there must be an individual, or individual agent, responsible. Everyone shares responsibility for problems generated by a system. That does not necessarily imply that everyone involved can exert equal leverage in changing the system. But it discourages the search for scapegoats. In reinforcing processes, a small change builds on itself. A small action snowballs, with more and more and still more of the same, resembling compounding interest. But there’s nothing inherently bad about reinforcing loops. There are also â€Å"virtuous cycles† – processes that reinforce in  desired directions. If we are in a balancing system, we are in a system that is seeking stability. If the system’s goal is one we like, we will be happy. If it is not, we will find all our efforts to change matters frustrated until we can either change the goal or weaken its influence. Nature loves a balance – but many times, human decision makers act contrary to these balances, and pay the price. In general, balancing loops are more difficult to see than reinforcing loops because it often looks like nothing is happening. Leaders who attempt organizational change often find themselves unwittingly caught in balancing processes. To the leaders, it looks as though their efforts are clashing with the sudden resistance that seems to come from nowhere. In fact, the resistance is a response by the system, trying to maintain an implicit system goal. Until this goal is recognized, the change effort is doomed to failure. Systems seem to have minds of their own. This is specially evident in delays between actions and their consequences. Delays can make us badly overshoot the mark, or they can have a positive effect if we recognize them and work with them. That’s one of the lessons of balancing loops with delays. Aggressive action often produces exactly the opposite of what is intended. It produces instability and oscillation, instead of moving us more quickly toward our goal. Symptomatic intervention A reinforcing (amplifying) process is set in motion to produce a desired result. It creates a spiral of success but also creates inadvertent secondary effects (manifested in a balancing process) which eventually slow down the success. Instead of trying to push growth, we must remove the factors limiting growth. An underlying problem generates symptoms that demand attention. But such a problem is difficult for people to address, either because it is obscure or costly to confront. So people â€Å"shift the burden† of their problem to other solutions – well-intentioned, easy fixes which seem extremely efficient. Solutions that address only the symptoms of a problem, not fundamental causes, tend to have short term benefits at best. In the long term, the problem resurfaces and there is increased pressure for symptomatic response. Meanwhile, the capability for fundamental solutions  can atrophy. Symptomatic intervention; the â€Å"quick fix,† solves the problem symptom quickly, but only temporarily. In case of a more fundamental response to the problem, it takes longer to become evident. However, the fundamental solution works far more effectively. It may be the only enduring way to deal with the problem. The shifting burden structure explains a wide range of behaviors where well-intended â€Å"solutions† actually make matters worse over the long term. Opting for â€Å"symptomatic solutions† is enticing. Apparent improvement is achieved. Pressures, either external or internal, to â€Å"do something† about a vexing problem are relieved. But easing a problem symptom also reduces any perceived need to find a more fundamental solution. Over time, people rely more and more on the symptomatic solution. Without anyone making a conscious decision, people have â€Å"shifted the burden† to increasing reliance on symptomatic solutions. A special case of shifting the burden, which recurs with alarming frequency, is â€Å"eroding goals.† Whenever there is a gap between our goals and our current situation there are two sets of pressures: to improve the situation and to lower our goals. Dealing effectively with the situation requires a combination of strengthening the fundamental response and weakening the symptomatic response. Strengthening fundamental responses almost always requires a long-term orientation and a sense of shared vision. Weakening the symptomatic response requires willingness to face the truth about palliatives and â€Å"looking good† solutions. Leverage The bottom line of systems thinking is leverage. We must see where small actions and changes in structures can lead to significant, enduring improvements. The best results come not from largescale efforts but from small well-focused actions. Nonsystematic ways of thinking consistently lead us to focus on low-leverage changes, on symptoms where the stress is greatest. So we repair or ameliorate the symptoms. But such efforts only make matters worse in the long run. Systems thinking means organizing complexity into a coherent story that illuminates the cause of problems and how they can be remedied in enduring ways. The increasing complexity of today’s world leads many managers to assume that they lack the information they need to act effectively. The fundamental â€Å"information problem† faced by managers is not too little information but too much information. What we  most need are ways to know what is important and what is not  important, what variables to focus on and which to pay less attention to. This will generate leverage. Personal Mastery Organizations learn only if individual employees who learn. Individual learning is a necessary, through not sufficient condition for organizational learning. We must make personal mastery a part of our lives. This involves continually clarifying what is important to us. We often spend too much time coping with problems along our path that we only have a vague idea of what’s really important to us. We also need to see current reality more clearly. We’ve all known people entangled in counterproductive relationships, who remain stuck because they keep pretending everything is all right. In moving toward a desired destination, it is vital to know where we are now. The juxtaposition of vision and a clear picture of current reality generates â€Å"creative tension†. The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives. The gap between vision and current reality is a source of creative energy. If there is no gap, there wo uld be no need for any action to move toward the vision. But when there is a gap between the goals and the current reality, negative emotion may also arise. We may lower our goals when we are unwilling to live with emotional tension. On the other hand, when we understand creative tension and allow it to operate by not lowering our vision, vision becomes an active force. Truly creative people use the gap between vision and current reality to generate energy for change. Mastery of creative tension leads to a fundamental shift in our whole posture toward reality. Current reality becomes our ally not an enemy. An accurate, insightful view of current reality is as important as a clear vision. If the first choice in pursuing personal mastery is to be true to our own vision, the second fundamental choice in support of personal mastery is commitment to the truth. What limits our ability to create what we really want is belief in our powerlessness and unworthiness. People cope with these problems in different ways. Letting our vision erode is one such strategy. The second is to try to  manipulate ourselves into greater effort toward what we want by creating artificial conflict, such as through avoiding what we do not want. Some people psyche themselves up to overpower all forms of resistance to achieving their goals. Willpower is so common among highly successful people that many see its characteristics as synonymous with success: a maniacal focus on goals, willingness to â€Å"pay the price,† ability to defeat any opposition and surmount any obstacle. Being committed to the truth is far more powerful than any technique. It means a relentless willingness to root out the ways we limit or deceive ourselves from seeing what is, and to continually challenge our theories or why things are the way they are. It means continually broadening our awareness. Focusing on the desired intrinsic result is a skill. For most of us, it is not easy at first, and takes time and patience to develop. As soon as we think of some important personal goal, almost immediately we think of all the reasons why it will be hard to achieve – the challenges we will face and the obstacles we will have to overcome. While this is very helpful for thinking through alternative strategies for achieving our goals, it is also a sign of lack of discipline when thoughts about â€Å"the process† of achieving our vision continually crowd out our focus on the outcomes we  seek. We must work at learning how to separate what we truly want, from what we think we need to do in order to achieve it. A useful starting exercise for learning how to focus more clearly on desired results is to take any particular goal or aspect of our vision. If we ask ourselves the question. â€Å"If I actually had this, what would it get me?†, the answer to that question reveals â€Å"deeper† desires lying behind the goal. In fact, the goal is actually an interim step to reach a more important result. Ultimately, what matters most in developing the subconscious rapport characteristic of masters is the genuine caring for a desired outcome, the deep feeling that it is the â€Å"right† goal. The subconscious seems especially receptive to goals in line with our deeper aspirations and values. People with high levels of personal mastery do not set out to integrate reason and intuition. Rather, they achieve it naturally – as a by-product of their commitment to use all the resources at their disposal. They cannot afford to choose between reason  and intuition, or head and heart. The discipline of seeing interrelationships gradually undermines older attitudes of blame and guilt. We begin to see that all of us are trapped in structures embedded both in our ways of thinking and in the interpersonal and social milieus in which we live. Our knee-jerk tendency to find fault with one another gradually fades, leaving a much deeper appreciation of the forces under which we all operate. Mental Models New insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works. That is why the discipline of managing mental models – surfacing, testing, and improving our internal pictures of how the world works holds the key to building learning organizations. The problems with mental models arise not because they are right or wrong but because we often act without being aware of them. The healthy corporations are ones which can systematize ways to bring people together to develop the best possible mental models for facing any situation at hand. Learning skills fall into two broad classes: skills of reflection and skills of inquiry. Skills of reflection concern slowing down our own thinking processes so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the ways they influence our actions. Inquiry skills are concerned with how we operate in face-to-face interactions with others, especially in dealing with complex issues. People who become lifelong learners practice â€Å"reflection in action,† the ability to reflect on one’s thinking while acting. Our mind tends to move at lightning speed. We immediately â€Å"leap† to generalizations so quickly that we never think of testing them. Our rational minds are extraordinarily facile at â€Å"abstracting† from concrete particulars – substituting simple concepts for many details and then reasoning in terms of these concepts. But our very strengths in abstract conceptual reasoning also limit our learning, when we are unaware of our leaps from particulars to general concepts. Leaps of abstraction occur when we move from direct observations (concrete â€Å"data†) to generalization without testing. Leaps of abstraction impede learning because they become axiomatic. What was once an assumption becomes treated as a fact. To spot leaps of abstraction, we need to keep asking what we believe about the way the world works – the nature of business, people in general, and specific individuals. We need to ask â€Å"What is the ‘data’ on which this generalization is based?† We need to ask, â€Å"Am I willing to consider that this generalization may be inaccurate or misleading? This is a powerful technique for beginning to â€Å"see† how our mental models operate in particular situations. It reveals ways that we manipulate situations to avoid dealing with how we actually think and feel, and thereby prevent a counterproductive situation from improving. Most managers are trained to be advocates. In fact, in many companies, what it means to be a competent manager is to figure out what needs to be done, and enlist whatever support is needed to get it done. Individuals became successful in part because of their abilities to debate forcefully and influence others. Inquiry skills, meanwhile, go unrecognized and unrewarded. But as managers rise to senior positions, they confront more complex and diverse issues. Suddenly, they need to tap insights from other people. They need to learn. Now the manager’s advocacy skills become counterproductive. What is needed is blending advocacy and inquiry to promote collaborative learning. When operating in pure advocacy, the goal is to win the argument. When inquiry and advocacy are combined, the goal is no longer â€Å"to win the argument† but to find the best argument. When we operate in pure advocacy, we tend to use data selectively, presenting only the data that confirm our position. When we explain the reasoning behind our position, we expose only enough of our reasoning to â€Å"make our case,† avoiding areas where we feel our case might be weak. By contrast, when both advocacy and inquiry are high, we are open to disconfirming data as well as confirming data – because we are genuinely interested in finding flaws in our view. Likewise, we expose our reasoning and look for flaws in it, and we try to understand others†™ reasoning. Learning eventually results in changes in action, not just taking in new information and forming new â€Å"ideas.† That is why recognizing the gap between our espoused theories (what we say) and our â€Å"theories-in-use† (the theories that lay behind our actions) is vital. Otherwise, we may believe we’ve â€Å"learned† something just because we’ve got the new language or concepts to use, even though our behavior is completely unchanged. Systems thinking is equally important to working with mental models effectively. Most of our  mental models are systematically flawed. They miss critical feedback relationships, misjudge time delays, and often focus on variables that are visible or salient, not necessarily high leverage. Understanding these flaws can help to see where prevailing mental models will be weakest and where more than just â€Å"surfing† the mental models will be required for effective decisions. Ultimately, the payoff from integrating systems thinking and mental models will be not only improving our mental models but altering our ways of thinking. T his will result in shifting from mental models dominated by events to mental models that recognize longer-term patterns of change and the underlying structures producing those patterns. Shared vision Shared vision is vital for the learning organization because it provides the focus and energy for learning. While adaptive learning is possible without vision, generative learning, occurs only when people are striving to accomplish something that matters deeply to them. In fact, the whole idea of generative learning will seem abstract and meaningless until people become excited about some vision they truly want to accomplish.  Vision creates the spark, the excitement that lifts an organization out of the mundane. Shared vision fosters risk taking and experimentation. People know what needs to be done. Even if they don’t know how to do it, they keep experimenting till they succeed. But even when they experiment, there is no ambiguity at all. It’s perfectly clear why they are doing it. Organizations intent on building shared visions continually encourage members to develop their personal visions. They want people to have their own vision, not to â€Å"sign up† for someone else’s. That leads to compliance, not commitment. On the other hand, people with a strong sense of personal direction can join together to move toward what they truly want. Personal mastery is the bedrock for developing a shared vision. This means not only personal vision, but commitment to the truth and creative tension – the hallmarks of personal mastery. The origin of the vision is much less important than the process whereby it comes to be shared. It is not truly a â€Å"shared vision† until it  connects with the personal visions of people throughout the organization. In many organizations, most people are in states of formal or genuine compliance with the organization’s goals and ground rules. They go along with â€Å"the program,† sincerely trying to contribute. On the other hand, people in non-compliance or grudging compliance usually stand out. They are opposed to the goals or ground rules and let their opposition be known, either through inaction or through grudging obedience. An organization made up of genuinely compliant people will be very productive and cost effective. Yet, there is a world of difference between compliance and commitment. The committed person brings an energy, passion, and excitement that cannot be generated if he is only compliant. The committed person does not play by the â€Å"rules of the game.† He is responsible for the game. If the rules of the game stand in the way of achieving the vision, he will find ways to change the rules. A group of people truly committed to a common vision is an awesome force. They can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Building shared vision is actually only one piece of a larger activity: developing the â€Å"governing ideas† for the enterprise, its vision, purpose or mission, and core values. These governing ideas answer three critical questions: â€Å"What?† â€Å"Why?† and â€Å"How?† †¢ †¢ †¢ Vision is the â€Å"What?† – the picture of the future we seek to create. Purpose (or â€Å"mission†) is the â€Å"Why?† the organization’s answer to the question, â€Å"Why do we exist?† Core values answer the question â€Å"How do we want to act? A company’s values describe how the company wants life to be on a day-to-day basis, while pursuing the vision. There are two fundamental sources of energy that can motivate organizations: fear and aspiration. Fear can produce extraordinary changes for short periods, but aspiration is a continuing source of learning and growth. Vision spreads because of a reinforcing process of increasing clarity, enthusiasm, communication and commitment. As people talk, the vision grows clearer, enthusiasm for its benefit builds and the vision starts to spread in a reinforcing spiral of communication and excitement. Enthusiasm can also be reinforced by early successes in pursuing the vision. If the reinforcing process operates unfettered, it leads to continuing growth  in clarity and shared commitment toward the vision, among increasing numbers of people. But any of a variety of limiting factors can come into play to slow down this virtuous cycle. The visioning process can wither if, as more people get involved, the diversity of views dissipates focus and generates unmanageable conflicts. People see different ideal futures. Must those who do not agree immediately with the emerging shared vision change their views? Do they conclude that the vision is â€Å"set in stone† and no longer influenceable? Do they feel that their own visions even matter? If the answer to any of these questions is â€Å"yes,† the enrolling process can grind to a halt with a wave of increasing polarization. This is a classic â€Å"limits to growth† structure, where the reinforcing process of growing enthusiasm for the vision interacts with a â€Å"balancing process† that limits the spread of the vision, due to increasing diversity and polarization. In limits to growth structures, leverage usually lies in understanding the â€Å"limiting factor,† the implicit goal or norm that drives the balancing feedback process. In this case, that limiting factor is the ability (or inability) to inquire into diverse visions in such a way that deeper, common visions emerge. The visioning process is a special type of inquiry process. It is an inquiry into the future we truly seek to create. If it becomes a pure advocacy process, it will result in compliance, at best, not commitment. Approaching visioning as an inquiry process does not mean that we have to give up our views. On the contrary, visions need strong advocates. But advocates who can also inquire into others’ visions open the possibility for the vision to evolve, to become â€Å"larger† than our individual visions. Visions can die because people become discouraged by the apparent difficulty in converting them into reality. As clarity about the nature of the vision increases, so does the awareness of the gap between the vision and current reality. People become disheartened, uncertain, or even cynical, leading to a decline in enthusiasm. In this structure, the limiting factor is the capacity of people in the organization to â€Å"hold† creative tension, the central principle of personal mastery. This is why personal mastery is the â€Å"bedrock† for developing shared vision – organizations that do not encourage personal mastery find it very difficult to foster sustained commitment to a lofty vision. Emerging visions can also die because people get overwhelmed by the demands of current reality and lose their focus on the vision. The  limiting factor becomes the time and energy to focus on a vision. In this case, the leverage must lie in either in finding ways to focus less time and effort on fighting crises and managing current reality, or to break off those pursing the new vision from those responsible for handling â€Å"current reality.† A vision can die if people forget their connection to one another. This is one of the reasons that approaching visioning as a joint inquiry is so important. The spirit of connection is fragile. It is undermined whenever we lose our respect for one another and for each other’s views. We then split into insiders and outsiders – those who are â€Å"true believers† in the vision and those who are not.