Sex Education in Schools Essay

Abstract Teenage sex education is a topic of much debate in America’s schools because sex and its health related issues are prevalent in the lives of so many adolescents. Teenagers’ engagement in sexual activities has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases, emotional and psychological injuries, and out-of-wedlock childbearing (Rector, 2002, para. 1). Therefore, schools across the nation have been charged with implementing programs that will educate the young about the risks of engaging in sexual activities before marriage. America’s schools use one of the two commonly known approaches in hopes to deter premarital sex. These approaches are abstinence education and comprehensive sex education. Abstinence education is a type of sex education that places strict emphasis on abstaining from sex until marriage. Comprehensive sex education examines abstinence along with sexual reproductive health education and contraceptives. This paper will examine both approaches a nd show that comprehensive sex education is the most effective method. Introduction Sex is a hot topic that reaches many children through the different mediums to include school, internet, radio, and television. An effective way to arm our children with important data concerning sex education is by providing abstinence education in our schools. According to Powezek, in the United States, maturation classes are usually implemented in elementary schools, while sex education is employed in middle school and junior high school (Powezek, 2009, para. 1). Sex education has been incorporated in health programs within schools. Since sex education is funded by the federal government, funding recipients are mandated to follow the government’s declaration during implementation. There are only a few who oppose sex education being taught in school; â€Å"A new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government finds that only 7 percent of Americans say sex education should not be taught in schools†(NPR, 2004, para. 1). Although advocates agree that sex education should be taught, controversy exists among the group about the type of program that should be taught. According to NPR, fifteen percent of advocates believe that sex education should adhere to teaching abstinence until marriage without discussion of alternatives such as condoms and contraception (NPR, 2004, para 2). Forty six percent believes that both abstinence and alternative methods such as condoms and birth controls should be taught. Thirty-six percent of supporters believe that the primary focus should be on how to make responsible decisions concerning sex rather than teaching abstinence only (NPR, 2004, para. 2). The two most popular methods used in schools in the United States are abstinence education and comprehensive sex education. Although, â€Å"no sex is the safest sex,† as described in abstinence education, it does not reiterate the importance of being safe if, and when it is decided to have sex. It is true that having no sex at all is the safest and most effective method, but with the peer pressures of today, there should be an understanding of how to protect themselves against, STDs, emotional and psychological injuries, and out wed lock child bearing. Abstinence education only teaches not to have sex, when there should be involvement of both messages. It should teach a point of not to have sex, but also what precautions that need to be taken to be safe if teens do become sexually involved with an individual. Abstinence Sex Education The majority of people have heard the slogan, â€Å"Say no to drugs.† Similarly, we have heard that one should abstain from sex until marriage. In 1981, during President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the federal government continuously funded sex education programs that suggest refraining from sex until marriage. There has been no research to confirm the program’s effectiveness. However, between the years of 1996 and 2008, Congress approved over $1.5 billion dollars in state and federal funding in support of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Many studies have been done to prove the effectiveness of abstinence only education. It has been proven numerous amounts of times, that this form of sex education does not have an impact on the future sexual behavior of teenagers. A study done by HHS in April 2007 showed, â€Å"Teenagers exposed to abstinence-only based programs were  not any more likely to abstain from sex, and these teenagers had the same number of partners and became sexually active at the same age as the control group† (Darfinger 2008). Jemmot et al thought that by creating a new curriculum, it would change the outcome of students engaging in sex education. He followed up with each student that participated in the abstinence program at a three month, six month, and twelve month make. His study proved that the program was effective at the three month follow up, but was no longer successful or provided any impact after this mark (Denny 2006). Abstinence education has been criticized because it denies that many teenagers will become sexually active. The mission of abstinence education is that all children avoid engaging in sexual activities. Abstinence education also fails to teach about contraception or condom use. Although topics of character building, values, and tactics for saying no are discussed, abstinence education fails to educate on issues such as abortions. Diseases are cited as a reason to abstain until marriage rather than a reason to use contraceptives and other methods of protection. â€Å"Abstinence ha s only contributed to a small percentage of the overall decline, and none for teens aged 18-19. For those ages 15-17, abstinence was responsible for about 23 percent of the decline† (Goldin, 2010, para. 3). Comprehensive Sex Education Comprehensive sex education provides student with a full outlook on sexuality. â€Å"Comprehensive sex education provides adolescents with information to make responsible choices concerning their sexual health as well as building knowledge, attitude and skills† (Healthy Teen Network, 2010). Supporters of comprehensive sex education agree with abstinence until marriage. Believers of comprehensive sex education programs believe that many teens will still engage in sexual activities. Therefore, age appropriate alternative methods must be taught as well. These methods include contraception and condom use. Sexually transmitted diseases and Human Immunodeficiency Virus are major discussion topics in a comprehensive sex education setting. Below are startling statistics on why comprehensive sex education must continue to be taught: By their 18th birthday, six in ten teenage women and more than five in ten teenage men have had sexual intercourse. Between 1995 and 2002, the number of te ens aged 15–17 who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse declined 10%. Of the approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies that occur each year, 82% are unintended. More than one-quarter end in abortion. The pregnancy rate among U.S. women aged 15–19 has declined steadily—from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women in 1990 to 75 per 1,000 women in 2002. Approximately 14% of the decline in teen pregnancy between 1995 and 2002 was due to teens’ delaying sex or having sex less often, while 86% was due to an increase in sexually experienced teens’ contraceptive use. Despite the decline, the United States continues to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world—almost twice as high as those of England, Wales and Canada, and eight times as high as those of the Netherlands and Japan (Guttmaker Institute, 2010). Another study done by the Journal of Adolescent Health shows an excellent diagram on the ratio of teens that participated in a comprehensive sex education course, an abstinence only sex education course, and no sex education course that the only form of education that was successful had a better success rate was the comprehensive se x education course. The numbers on the Venn diagram are numbered as such: the numbers on the outside part of the diagram show the percentage of students who participated in each individual type of course. So the 66.8% participated in comprehensive sex education, 23.8% participated in abstinence only, and 9.4% did not participate in a sex education course at all. Then the numbers on the inside of the diagram show which percentage of teens that had been pregnant or knew that they made another teen pregnant. So the 53.5% is representation of the comprehensive sex education students engaged in unprotected sex and either was pregnant themselves or had made some pregnant before. The 27.1% is the number of teens that were taught abstinence only who had engaged in unprotected sex and either was pregnant themselves or had made some pregnant before. The 19.4% represent those who had not gotten any type of sex education course at all. If you will notices the only number that is lower than the amount of students taught, is the comprehensive sex education ratio because this form of education increased the amount of teens using contraceptive and also decreased the number of STIs contracted. These s tatistics prove that without providing students with some sort of knowledge of sex education, the lives of children and teens partaking in sexual activity are being endangered every day. It must be understood that comprehensive sex education promotes  abstinence until marriage, but also effectively tackles the serious concerns of health associated with having unprotected sex. According to public opinion polls, â€Å"eighty two percent of adults support comprehensive sex education curriculum that includes information on abstinence and other methods of preventing pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Sexually Transmitted Infections† (Schwarz 2007). Despite these astonishing facts, polls and statistics, the federal government continues to invest millions of dollars into an abstinence only program. Considering the increasing number of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) in teens, restricting funding to abstinence only education is jeopardizing the health and lives of teenagers in the United States (Schwarz 2007). It is critical that teens are provided with an inclusive knowledge about protecting themselves against these things, so that these numbers will decrease in the years to come. Comprehensive sex education supporters do provide explanation to adolescents about the benefits of putting off sex until they are emotionally and physically ready. Unlike abstinence education, comprehensive education implementers teach these youth how to guard themselves from diseases and pregnancies (Avert, 2010). There are no views to support effectiveness of abstinence only education. However, abstinence education and comprehensive sex education incorporate views offer support to biblical principles. Yes, youth should not involve themselves in sexual activities. Sex before marriage is wrong. The bible tells to â€Å"flee fornication† (1 Corinthians 6:18, NIV). Therefore, anyone who participates in sex before marriage has sinned before God. In fact, marriage is the only approval for sex given by God (Hebrews 13:4, NIV). Sex education also provides much more information to teens. It provides information about puberty and the changes that their bodies will endure. It also discusses the psychological impact that puberty and sex has on teens. It talks about the emotional stress of sex as well as other things. It touches on other sexual pleasures such as masturbation and oral sex. It helps teens to understand what can be expected from a sexual relationship. It helps them determine what is acceptable in a sexual relationship and what is not satisfactory. Some serious topics talked about in a comprehensive sex education course that is not talked about in an abstinence only course are such things as rape. It teaches teens about peer  pressure and that it is respectable to say no if you are not ready. It advises that no one is allowed to touch their bodies if it is not what they want or are ready for. These are all very important things that students should know. Conclusion Sex education should be taught in the schools and in the homes of youth. The method that should be taught still remains a debatable topic. Abstinence education and comprehensive education have good intentions for our young people. â€Å"The main difference between abstinence based and comprehensive approaches to sex education is that comprehensive approaches do not focus either solely or so closely on teaching young people that they should abstain from sex until they are married† (Avert, 2010) . Abstinence supporters may further argue that teaching anything other than abstinence violates God’s law. However, reality remains that the need to inform youth of alternative methods is essential because it is evident that these youth are partakers in sex before marriage. Annotated Bibliography Avert (2010, June 11). Abstinence and Sex Education. Avert.org. Retrieved from, http://www.avert.org/abstinence.htm Blog at wordpress.com. (2008). Still Trucking. Retrieved from http://stilltruckin.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/sex-education-and-teen-pregnancy/ Darflinger, M. Honesty is the Best Policy:Sex Education and Accuracy, ( ), 81-97. Retrieved from http://www.cinahl.com/cgi-bin/refsvc?jid=1942&accno=2009875074 Denny, G., & Young, M. (2006). An Evaluation of an Abstinence-Only Sex Education Curriculum: an 18-month follow up . , ( ), 414-422. Goldin, R. (2006, December 12). Contraception v Abstinence Education. Retrieved from http://stats.org/stories/contrac_v_abst_dec12_06.htm Guttmacher Institute (2006, December). Facts on sex education in the United States. Retrieved from, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_sexEd2006.html Healthy Teen Network. Comprehensive Sexuality education. Retrieved from, http://www.healthyteennetwork.org/vertical/Sites/%7BB4D0CC76-CF78-4784-BA7C-5D0436F6040C %7D/uploads/%7B4C5F842E-E67A-4AC2-921B-287950431BD7%7D.PDF NPR (2004, February 24). Sex Education in America. NPR.org. Retrieved from, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1622610 Powazek, D. (2009, May 13). Abstinence education in Schools. United Families International. Retrieved from, http://unitedfamiliesinternational.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/abstinence-education-in-schools/ Schwarz, A. (2007). Comprehensive Sex Education: Why America’s Youth Deserve the Truth about Sex. , 29( 1), 115 – 160

Ethics in Research The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Essay

The field of medicine has experienced rapid growth with in the few 150 to 200 years, and over the years we have learn that many of these scientific developments were made at the expense of unorthodox procedures and research carried out with little to no concern on the unethical aspects of the research, as medical science advance the researchers place little or no effort towards informing subjects about the nature of experiments. Tuskegee syphilis experiments in Alabama was on especially an infamous experiment, from ‘‘1932 to 1972’‘ the U.S. Public Health Services (PHS) conducted an experiment on 400 African American males in the late stages of syphilis these men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness, informed that they were being treated for â€Å"Bad Blood† their Doctors had no intention of curing them for syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected for autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity and death, this is the most unethical, immoral and genocidal act carried out and funded my U.S. Public Health Services. Coercion or leverage was the main tactic the PHS researchers use to recruit their test subjects, whom was poor uneducated sharecroppers that luck the resources needed to seek out side help, by misinforming the participants about the truth of their illness (syphilis), but non the less this was a means for the PHS to carry out their hidden agenda, to make them aware that they do have an illness and The U.S. Public Health Services was there to help treat them of their so call bad blood pandemic, this act of coercion provided the PHS the leverage they need to recruit necessary research subjects. Because of this the consent acquired by the researchers from the research subjects was invalid because the information provided by the researchers was subjects was invalid, this violation of inform consent stemmed further, the researchers did not explain the expectancy and severity of the research, the researchers deliberately did not inform the subjects  that they have the right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once it has begun. The spider web of lies and deception planed and carried out by The U.S. Public Health Services researchers had no plans of curing the syphilis pandemic, the deception in this research is the main underlying reason why this research study is unethical in nature, rather than the actual deception itself, the deliberate use of deception in this research resulted in the deaths of a 100 African Americans research subjects, these deaths was actually apart of the research it self. ‘’The study actively kept the men away from treatment, even after penicillin became widely used for the treatment of syphilis in 1950s. In February of 1969, the PHS decided to continue the  study and to continue to deny the men antibiotic treatment even though penicillin had become established as the standard treatment for syphilis, because it assumed that the disease was far too advanced for it to be treated. Associated Press reporter Jean Heller broke the story on July 25, 1972 on the front-page of the New York Times and the study stopped at once’’ After the research had ended the only seventy-four participants of 400 infected subjects had still been a live after the study got exposited, In August 1972, an ad hoc committee found the study to have been â€Å"ethically unjustified† and argued that penicillin should have been given to the men upon its discovery. 40 years after the experiment had ended the test subjects was not Adequate debriefed on the true nature of the study and the long-term effects of the of the syphilis on their bodies, wife and kids. After the press release of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment the test subjects was provided with little to no confidentiality from the press or PHS after the findings of the research was publish. The experiment diversity was limited to African Americans males, who were the carry of the syphilis. References William J. Clinton, â€Å"Remarks,† in Tuskegee’s Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, ed. Susan M. Reverby (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 574-577. Thomas G. Benedek and Jonathan Erlen, â€Å"The Scientific Environment of the Tuskegee Study of Syphilis, 1920-1960, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 43 no. 1 (1999), 1-30. Ad Hoc Tuskegee Syphilis Panel, â€Å"Selections from the Final Report,† in Tuskegee’s Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, ed. Susan M. Reverby (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 166. Jean Heller, â€Å"Syphilis Victims in the U.S. Went Untreated for 40 years,† in Tuskegee’s Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, ed. Susan M. Reverby (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 116-117. anessa N. Gamble and Deborah Stone. â€Å"U.S. Policy on Health Inequities: the Interplay of Politics and Research,† Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 31, (2006): 93-126. Ruth R. Faden, Susan E. Lederer , J. E. Lederer, and Juan D. Moreno, â€Å"U.S. Medical Researchers, the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, and the Nuremberg Code,† Journal of the American Medical Association, 276 no. 20(1996): 1668. Martin S. Pernick, â€Å"The patient’s role in medical decision making: a social history of informed consent in medical therapy,† in Making Health Care Decisions: A Report on the Ethical and Legal Implications of Informed Consent in the Patient-Practitioner Relationship, President’s Commission for Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 3 1-25.

Botticelli, Birth of Venus and Venus De Milo Essay

Botticelli, Birth of Venus and Venus De Milo - Essay Example The well-mixed primary colors resulted in clearly defined secondary colors. The colors provided an outstanding emphasis on the beauty’s milky skin color. Artists illustrate Venus as one of the most beautiful and chaste goddesses who remained as a symbol of coming spring. Painters designed her nudity to depict some significance in itself because all artworks of Renaissance history revolved around the theme of Christianity at that time. At the time, it was not easy to portray a woman as nude (Siapkas & Sjogren, 2013). Most aspects of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus manipulate in motion. For instance, a succinct observation of the orange tree leaves in her background as well as her hair shows that Zephyrs had blown them away. They are floating behind her, the cloaks and the waves gently breaking. Further, the breeze also blows and lifts her drapery of the figures. Representative/Objective The Venus de Milo statue had a carved right arm that lay across the torso with a rested right hand on the left knee that remained raised. Meanwhile, the left arm held up an apple at an eye level. The statute comprises two blocks of marble that sculptured on separate occasions, then joined at the hips (Judovitz & Duchamp, 2010). The sculptors used tendon joints to fashion the left arm and foot, though as different pieces. Venus de Milo had some of its parts broken during transportation including right hip and three other pieces.

Comparing between google and yahoo companies Essay

Comparing between google and yahoo companies - Essay Example Furniture and fixtures 861,000 2,000 Leasehold improvements 290,000 3,000 2,671,000 244,000 Less: accumulated depreciation (448,000) (58,000) $2,223,000 $186,000 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities: Accrued vacation, wages, and other employee benefits $894,000 $110,000 Accrued professional service expenses 706,000 48,000 Accrued content costs 554,000 - Other 2,213,000 362,000 $4,367,000 $520,000 Analysis and Results Table 2:Yahoo! Inc: Financial Statement Financial data in U.S. Dollars Values in Millions (Except for per share items) 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Period End Date 12/31/2007 12/31/2006 12/31/2005 12/31/2004 12/31/2003 Period Length 12 Months 12 Months 12 Months 12 Months 12 Months Stmt Source 10-K 10-K 10-K 10-K 10-K Stmt Source Date 02/27/2008 02/27/2008 02/27/2008 02/23/2007 03/03/2006 Stmt Update Type Updated Reclassified Reclassified Reclassified Reclassified Revenue 6,969.27 6,425.68 5,257.67 3,574.52 1,625.1 Total Revenue 6,969.27 6,425.68 5,257.67 3,574.52 1,625.1 Cost of Revenue, Total 2,838.76 2,675.72 2,096.2 1,342.34 370.09 Gross Profit 4,130.52 3,749.96 3,161.47 2,232.18 1,255.01 Selling/General/Administrative Expenses, Total 2,243.79 1,851.06 1,375.02 1,072.92 709.67 Research & Development 1,084.24 833.15 569.53 368.76 207.29 Depreciation/Amortization 107.08 124.79 109.2 101.92 42.39 Interest Expense (Income), Net Operating 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Unusual Expense (Income) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Other Operating Expenses, Total 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Operating Income 695.41 940.97 1,107.73 688.58 295.67 Interest Income (Expense), Net Non-Operating 131.27 139.78 1,092.45 475.96 45.98 Gain (Loss) on Sale of Assets 14.24 15.16 337.97 0.0 0.0 Other,... Google generates income by delivering relevant, cost-effective online marketing. Businesses employ Google AdWords program to support their products and services by means of targeted advertising. On top, the thousands of third-party web sites that encompass Google Network use Google AdSense plan to deliver related ads that produce revenue and improve the user experience. (Lawrence, Joehnk, Krueger, 2008) Yahoo Company develops and upholds a branded Internet navigational service specifically along with the most widely used directs for information and finding on the World Wide Web. The corporation was integrated in California on March 5, 1995 and inaugurated operations on that date. The financial tables of google and yahoo are being given in this report. (Lawrence, Joehnk, Krueger, 2008) Yahoo's main purpose is to connect people to their enthusiasms, communities, and the world's knowledge and Google's main purpose is to organize the world's information and construct it across the world accessible and useful. (Bamber, Braun, Harrison, 2008)

Portfolio project Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Portfolio project - Term Paper Example In 2012, the deficit in global budget narrowed down to approximately $2.7 trillion (a representation of 3.80% of the global GDP-Gross Domestic Product). However, the global economic growth shifted (dropped) to 3.10% in 2012 from 3.70% in 2011 and 5.10% in 2010 fiscal years. The global unemployment rate increased to 9.20% in 2012. Countries that used expansionary monetary and fiscal policies attained significantly increased growth rates, lower rates of unemployment, increased growth in tax revenues, and success in cutting down public debts. Countries that employment contractionary policies failed to achieve what the former countries realized. In 2012, over 85 countries with pro-growth strategy realized median Gross Domestic Product growth rates of 4.90%, compared to 0.80% realized 37 nations with restrictive monetary and fiscal policies. This represented a difference of 4%. Among the listed 85 countries with pro-growth strategy, Canada grew by 1.90%, 2.20% for the United States, 3.0% for Turkey, 3.40% for Russia, 4.0% for Mexico,, 6.0% for the Indonesia, and 7.80% for China. Among 37 countries that restricted their monetary and fiscal policies, Italy grew by -2.30%, -1.40% for Spain, -0.5% Netherlands, -0.20% Belgium, 0.10% France, 0.70% Germany, and 2.30% Brazil. These 37 countries reported unemployment rate s of 11.50%. The global financial crunch of 2008-2009 caused the first recession in international output similar to what was experienced in 1946. Thus, the globe was faced with a new challenge mainly defined by finding out what combination (mix) of monetary and fiscal policies to apply in restoring jobs and growth, while keeping debt and inflation under control. Monetary stimulus and stabilization programs initiated in 2009-2011 to lower revenues in taxes in 2009-2010; required a number of countries to employ large budget debits. New public debts were issued by treasuries – amounting to $7.6 trillion.

Brown vs. Board of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Brown vs. Board of Education - Essay Example In issuing the verdict on May 17, 1954, the Court set aside the ruling in Plessy v Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which had permitted states to segregate the education system within their jurisdiction provided there were similar facilities in black and white schools. Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court noted that â€Å"separate but equal† policy had actually triggered massive inequality in the US’s education system (Rose 325). The decision essentially triggered a flurry of reactions by the supportive civil rights movement and was attributed to the significant integration of education in the United States around the mid-20th century. In 1896, a similar case had reached the Supreme Court, but one which legitimized segregation based on the â€Å"separate but equal† principle. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the majority decision led by Justice Brown held that the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was clearly categorical that an ideal system should be one in which all communities are guaranteed equal protection in separate institutions (Smikle 39). The Court argued that the constitution recognized differences and separations based on color, race, ethnicity and other social and political factors, hence the legality of segregation in government-run schools. Owing the persistence of social divisions and the disproportionately lower level of education among blacks since 1896, the plaintiffs brought up a class action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in the US’s Kansas District Court in 1951. The claimants comprised of more than a dozen parents whose who felt that their children had been denied their constitutional rights by the then Topeka School District. The parents’ attempt to register their children in education facilities which were nearest to them was denied on the basis of segregation policy. Their denial of an education opportunity prompted them to seek court’s guidance on the issue (Rose

Commercial Law I (Scottish Law)- Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Commercial Law I (Scottish Law)- - Assignment Example The principal can expressly or implicitly permits the agent to perform certain tasks on his behalf which will lead to a binding contractual accord between the principal and the third party but the contract is signed by the agent. In this case, the principal will be legally bound by the actions the agency relationship which exists between agents-principals, agents-third and Principals-third parties and all the parties in the cycle are bound to the agreement, the agency cycle comprises of: Agent: this is the person who enters and performs duties and activities on behalf of the other person (the principal) with the third party and has authority to create a binding relationship or agreement between the principal and the third party. The agent negotiates, performs and enters into binding engagements on behalf of another person with the third party. Principal: This is the person who hires an agent to act on his/her capacity with the third party and is bound by the actions of the said agent in engagements with the third party. ... An agent must therefore operate within the instructions and capacity given by the principal and this will bind the principal in the contractual agreements he or she creates with the third parties which means that the law of agency is based on both implied and express terms. An agent has several duties he/she owes to the principal and must not act outside the scope or mandate provided by the principal. These duties can be summarized as below; The agent must ensure that he/she operates within the specified terms of agency agreement. If the agent ignores the directives of the principal in entering into an agreement with the third party then he/she will be held liable. The agent must therefore follow instructions given by the principal. The agent must carry out his/her duties with due diligence, skill and high level of professionalism to protect both parties from unnecessary breach of contract and subsequent compensation for the same, and this must be followed whether the agency agreemen t is written or oral. The agent must not act out of his own benefit at the expense of the principal and all dealings must protect the interest of the principal. The agency relationships to occur, all the parties must understand the terms of engagement and the roles each of the is required to play within the framework of the agreement and the agent must have intension to work for the principal, though no consideration is necessary, there must be an agreement between the principal and the agent, oral or written. This relationship can be described as below: Therefore, before the contract of agency is constituted, several essentials are mandatory: The agency agreement must be based

Research Design and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research Design and Analysis - Essay Example The essay "Research Design and Analysis" talks about the research methods that have become part of every organization around the globe. With an increase in the global competition for few resources, people have to find new means through which they can survive and have an upper hand. Agassi discussed the major lines that differentiate scientific inquiry from the non-scientific inquiry. In his statement, scientific inquiry is a research method that relies on rigorous and independent procedures in its quest to prove logic and objectivity in research. Scientific inquiry bases its arguments on observations and verifiable experiments while nonscientific inquiry relies on theory or pure logic. Scientific inquiry provides independent, adequate and accurate information about a target population. On the contrary, a nonscientific inquiry is termed as biased because it relies on information obtained from individual imaginations, which may lack proof. Inductive model is used in situations where a researcher first collects all data necessary and relevant to the subject of research. Thereafter, the researcher analyzes the collected data and looks for patterns. With all the data at hand, a researcher narrows down the observations and formulates a theory. Inductive approach is applicable in qualitative research. On the contrary, in deductive approach, a researcher does the exact opposite of the inductive approach. With an existing theory, a researcher tests for its implication with data.

Ferdinand de Saussure Essay Example for Free

Ferdinand de Saussure Essay Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own. [1][2] The preferred object of stylistic studies is literature, but not exclusively high literature but also other forms of written texts such as text from the domains of advertising, pop culture, politics or religion. [3] Stylistics also attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language, such as socialisation, the production and reception of meaning, critical discourse analysis and literary criticism. Other features of stylistics include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and people’s dialects, descriptive language, the use of grammar, such as the active voice or passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of particular language registers, etc. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language. Therefore, stylistics looks at what is ‘going on’ within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals. * | Early twentieth century The analysis of literary style goes back to Classical rhetoric, but modern stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism,[4] and the related Prague School, in the early twentieth century. In 1909, Charles Ballys Traite de stylistique francaise had proposed stylistics as a distinct academic discipline to complement Saussurean linguistics. For Bally, Saussures linguistics by itself couldnt fully describe the language of personal expression. [5] Ballys programme fitted well with the aims of the Prague School. [6] Building on the ideas of the Russian Formalists, the Prague School developed the concept of foregrounding, whereby poetic language stands out from the background of non-literary language by means of deviation (from the norms of everyday language) or parallelism. [7] According to the Prague School, the background language isnt fixed, and the relationship between poetic and everyday language is always shifting. [8] Late twentieth century Roman Jakobson had been an active member of the Russian Formalists and the Prague School, before emigrating to America in the 1940s. He brought together Russian Formalism and American New Criticism in his Closing Statement at a conference on stylistics at Indiana University in 1958. [9] Published as Linguistics and Poetics in 1960, Jakobsons lecture is often credited with being the first coherent formulation of stylistics, and his argument was that the study of poetic language should be a sub-branch of linguistics. [10] The poetic function was one of six general functions of language he described in the lecture. Michael Halliday is an important figure in the development of British stylistics. [11] His 1971 study Linguistic Function and Literary Style: An Inquiry into the Language of William Goldings The Inheritors is a key essay. [12] One of Hallidays contributions has been the use of the term register to explain the connections between language and its context. [13] For Halliday register is distinct from dialect. Dialect refers to the habitual language of a particular user in a specific geographical or social context. Register describes the choices made by the user,[14] choices which depend on three variables: field (what the participants are actually engaged in doing, for instance, discussing a specific subject or topic),[15] tenor (who is taking part in the exchange) and mode (the use to which the language is being put). Fowler comments that different fields produce different language, most obviously at the level of vocabulary (Fowler. 1996, 192) The linguist David Crystal points out that Halliday’s ‘tenor’ stands as a roughly equivalent term for ‘style’, which is a more specific alternative used by linguists to avoid ambiguity. (Crystal. 1985, 292) Halliday’s third category, mode, is what he refers to as the symbolic organisation of the situation. Downes recognises two distinct aspects within the category of mode and suggests that not only does it describe the relation to the medium: written, spoken, and so on, but also describes the genre of the text. (Downes. 1998, 316) Halliday refers to genre as pre-coded language, language that has not simply been used before, but that predetermines the selection of textual meanings. The linguist William Downes makes the point that the principal characteristic of register, no matter how peculiar or diverse, is that it is obvious and immediately recognisable. (Downes. 1998, 309) Literary stylistics In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Crystal observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has attempted to deal with the complex and ‘valued’ language within literature, i. e.  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœliterary stylistics’. He goes on to say that in such examination the scope is sometimes narrowed to concentrate on the more striking features of literary language, for instance, its ‘deviant’ and abnormal features, rather than the broader structures that are found in whole texts or discourses. For example, the compact language of poetry is more likely to reveal the secrets of its construction to the stylistician than is the language of plays and novels. (Crystal. 1987, 71). Poetry As well as conventional styles of language there are the unconventional – the most obvious of which is poetry. In Practical Stylistics, HG Widdowson examines the traditional form of the epitaph, as found on headstones in a cemetery. For example: His memory is dear today As in the hour he passed away. (Ernest C. Draper ‘Ern’. Died 4. 1. 38) (Widdowson. 1992, 6) Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments are usually not very interesting and suggests that they may even be dismissed as ‘crude verbal carvings’ and crude verbal disturbance (Widdowson, 3). Nevertheless, Widdowson recognises that they are a very real attempt to convey feelings of human loss and preserve affectionate recollections of a beloved friend or family member. However, what may be seen as poetic in this language is not so much in the formulaic phraseology but in where it appears. The verse may be given undue reverence precisely because of the sombre situation in which it is placed. Widdowson suggests that, unlike words set in stone in a graveyard, poetry is unorthodox language that vibrates with inter-textual implications. (Widdowson. 1992, 4) Two problems with a stylistic analysis of poetry are noted by PM Wetherill in Literary Text: An Examination of Critical Methods. The first is that there may be an over-preoccupation with one particular feature that may well minimise the significance of others that are equally important. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) The second is that any attempt to see a text as simply a collection of stylistic elements will tend to ignore other ways whereby meaning is produced. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) Implicature In ‘Poetic Effects’ from Literary Pragmatics, the linguist Adrian Pilkington analyses the idea of ‘implicature’, as instigated in the previous work of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson. Implicature may be divided into two categories: ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ implicature, yet between the two extremes there are a variety of other alternatives. The strongest implicature is what is emphatically implied by the speaker or writer, while weaker implicatures are the wider possibilities of meaning that the hearer or reader may conclude. Pilkington’s ‘poetic effects’, as he terms the concept, are those that achieve most relevance through a wide array of weak implicatures and not those meanings that are simply ‘read in’ by the hearer or reader. Yet the distinguishing instant at which weak implicatures and the hearer or reader’s conjecture of meaning diverge remains highly subjective. As Pilkington says: ‘there is no clear cut-off point between assumptions which the speaker certainly endorses and assumptions derived purely on the hearer’s responsibility. ’ (Pilkington. 1991, 53) In addition, the stylistic qualities of poetry can be seen as an accompaniment to Pilkington’s poetic effects in understanding a poems meaning. Stylistics is a valuable if long-winded approach to criticism, and compels attention to the poems details. Two of the three simple exercises performed here show that the poem is deficient in structure, and needs to be radically recast. The third sheds light on its content. Introduction Stylistics applies linguistics to literature in the hope of arriving at analyses which are more broadly based, rigorous and objective. {1} The pioneers were the Prague and Russian schools, but their approaches have been appropriated and extended in recent years by radical theory. Stylistics can be evaluative (i. e.  judge the literary worth on stylistic criteria), but more commonly attempts to simply analyze and describe the workings of texts which have already been selected as noteworthy on other grounds. Analyses can appear objective, detailed and technical, even requiring computer assistance, but some caution is needed. Linguistics is currently a battlefield of contending theories, with no settlement in sight. Many critics have no formal training in linguistics, or even proper reading, and are apt to build on theories (commonly those of Saussure or Jacobson) that are inappropriate and/or no longer accepted. Some of the commonest terms, e. g. deep structure, foregrounding, have little or no experimental support. {2} Linguistics has rather different objectives, moreover: to study languages in their entirety and generality, not their use in art forms. Stylistic excellence — intelligence, originality, density and variety of verbal devices — play their part in literature, but aesthetics has long recognized that other aspects are equally important: fidelity to experience, emotional shaping, significant content. Stylistics may well be popular because it regards literature as simply part of language and therefore (neglecting the aesthetic dimension) without a privileged status, which allows the literary canon to be replaced by one more politically or sociologically acceptable. {3} Why then employ stylistics at all? Because form is important in poetry, and stylistics has the largest armoury of analytical weapons. Moreover, stylistics need not be reductive and simplistic. There is no need to embrace Jacobsons theory that poetry is characterized by the projection of the paradigmatic axis onto the syntagmatic one. {4} Nor accept Bradfords theory of a double spiral: {5} literature has too richly varied a history to be fitted into such a straitjacket. Stylistics suggests why certain devices are effective, but does not offer recipes, any more than theories of musical harmony explains away the gifts of individual composers. Some stylistic analysis is to be found in most types of literary criticism, and differences between the traditional, New Criticism and Stylistics approaches are often matters of emphasis. Style is a term of approbation in everyday use (that woman has style, etc.), and may be so for traditional and New Criticism. But where the first would judge a poem by reference to typical work of the period (Jacobean, Romantic, Modernist, etc. ), or according to genre, the New Criticism would probably simply note the conventions, explain what was unclear to a modern audience, and then pass on to a detailed analysis in terms of verbal density, complexity, ambiguity, etc. To the Stylistic critic, however, style means simply how something is expressed, which can be studied in all language, aesthetic and non-aesthetic. {6} Stylistics is a  very technical subject, which hardly makes for engrossing, or indeed uncontentious, {7} reading. The treatment here is very simple: just the bare bones, with some references cited. Under various categories the poem is analyzed in a dry manner, the more salient indications noted, and some recommendations made in Conclusions. Published Examples of Stylistic Literary Criticism G. N. Leechs A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry (1969) Laura Browns Alexander Pope (1985) Roy Lewiss On Reading French Verse: A Study in Poetic Form (1982) George Wrights Shakespeares Metrical Art. (1988) Richard Bradfords A Linguistic History of English Poetry (1993) Poem The Architects But, as youd expect, they are very Impatient, the buildings, having much in them Of the heavy surf of the North Sea, flurrying The grit, lifting the pebbles, flinging them With a hoarse roar against the aggregate They are composed of — the cliffs higher of course, More burdensome, underwritten as It were with past days overcast And glinting, obdurate, part of the Silicate of tough lives, distant and intricate As the whirring bureaucrats let in And settled with coffee in the concrete pallets, Awaiting the post and the department meeting —  Except that these do not know it, at least do not Seem to, being busy, generally. So perhaps it is only on those cloudless, almost Vacuumed afternoons with tier upon tier Of concrete like rib-bones packed above them, And they light-headed with the blue airiness Spinning around, and muzzy, a neuralgia Calling at random like frail relations, a phone Ringing in a distant office they cannot get to, That they become attentive, or we do — these Divisions persisting, indeed what we talk about, We, constructing these webs of buildings which, Caulked like great whales about us, are always. Aware that some trick of the light or weather Will dress them as friends, pleading and flailing — And fill with placid but unbearable melodies Us in deep hinterlands of incurved glass.  © C. John Holcombe 1997 Metre Though apparently iambic, with five stresses to the line, the metre shows many reversals and substitutions. Put at its simplest, with: / representing a strong stress \ representing a weak stress x representing no stress, and trying to fit lines into a pentameters, we have -| /| x| x| x| /| -| \| x| /| x| | But| as| youd| ex| pect| | they| are| ve| ry| x| /| x| x| /| x| /| x| \| x| x|. Im| pat| ient| the| build| ings,| hav| ing| much| in| them| x| x| \| x| /| x| x| \| /| /| x x| Of| the| heav| y| surf| of| the| North| Sea,| flurr| ying| x| /| -| /| x| x| /| x| /| x| \| The| grit,| | lift| ing| the| pebbl| es,| fling| ing| them| \| x| /| -| /| x| \| x| /| x| \| With| a| hoarse| | roar| a| gainst| the| agg| re| gate| x| \| x| /| \| x| /| /| x| x| /| They| are| com| posed| of,| the| cliffs| high| er| of| course| \| /| x| \| -| /| x| / | x| \| | More| burd| en| some,| | un| der| writ| ten| as| | x| /| x| /| -| /| -| /| x| /| | It| were| with| past| | days| | o| ver| cast| | x| /| x|. \| /| x| \| -| /| x| x| And | glit| ter| ing,| ob| du| rate,| | part| of| the| -| /| x x x| /| -| /| -| /| x x| /| x x| | Sil| icate of| tough| | lives| | dist| ant and| in| tricate| -| \| x| /| x| /| x| \| -| /| x| | As| the| whir| ring| bu| reau| crats| | let| in| x| /| x x| /| x| \| x| /| x| /| x| And | set| tled with| cof| fee| in| the| con| crete| pal| lets| x| /| x x| /| x| \| x| /| x| /| x| A| wait| ing the| post| and| the| de| part| ment| meet| ing| x| \| x| /| \ x | /| x| x| \| /| x| Ex| cept| that| these| do not| know| it, | at| least| do| not| -| /| x| /| x| /| x| /| x| \| x|. | Seem| to| be| ing| bus| y| gen| ER| all| y| \| x| /| x x| /| x| \| x| /| x| /| x| So| per| haps| it is| on| ly| on| those| cloud| less| al| most| -| /| x| /| x| \| x| /| x x| \| /| x| | Vac| uumed| af| ter| noons| with| ti| ER u| pon| ti| ER| x| /| x| \| /| /| -| /| x| /| x| | Of| con| Crete| like| rib| bones| | packed| a| bove| them| | x| /| \| /| x| \| x| /| /| x| \| | And | they| light| head| ed,| with| the| blue| air| i| ness| | -| /| x x| /| x| /| x| \| x| /| x x| | | Spin| ning a| round| and| muz| zy,| a| neu| ral| gia| | -| /| x x| /| x x| /| x| /| x x| /| |. | Cal| ling at| ran| dom like| frail| re| lat| ions a| phone| | -| /| x x x| /| x| /| x x| /| x| /| x| | Ring| ing in a| dist| ant| of| fice they| can| not| get| to| x| /| x| /| x| /| x x| /| /-| \| | That| they| be| come| at| ten| tive, or| we| do| these| | x| /| x x| /| x x| /| \| x| /| x| /| Di| vis| ions per| sist| ing, in| deed| what| we| talk| a| bout| -| /| x| /| x x| /| x| /| x| \| | | We,| con| struct| ing these| webs| of| build| ings| which| | -| /| x| /| \| /| x| /| x x| /| x| | Caulk| Ed | like| great| whales| a| bout| us are| al| ways| x| /| x x| /| x x| /| x| /| x| | |. A| ware| that some| trick| of the| light| or| weath| ER| | | \| /| x x| /| -| /| x x| /| x| | | Will| dress| them as| friends| | plead| ing and| flail| ing| | | x| /| x| /| x| \| x| /| x x| /| x x| And| fill| with| plac| id| but | UN| bear| able | mel| odies| -| /| x| \| -| /| x x x| /| \| /| | | Us | in| deep| | hint| erlands of| in| curved| glass| | Poets learn to trust their senses, but even to the experienced writer these (tedious) exercises can pinpoint what the ear suspects is faulty, suggest where improvements lie, and show how the metre is making for variety, broad consistency, shaping of the argument and emotive appeal. Though other scansions are certainly possible in the lines above, the most striking feature will remain their irregularity. Many lines can only roughly be called pentameters; Lines 16 and 17 are strictly hexameters; and lines 27 and 28 are tetrameters. In fact, the lines do not read like blank verse. The rhythm is not iambic in many areas, but trochaic, and indeed insistently dactylic in lines 9 and 10, 21 and 22 and 28. Line 27 is predominantly anapaestic, and line 3 could (just) be scanned: x x| / x| /| x x \| /| | /| x x | Of the| heavy| surf| of the North| Sea| | flurr| ying|. Reflective or meditative verse is generally written in the iambic pentameter, and for good reason — the benefit of past examples, readers expectations, and because the iambic is the closest to everyday speech: flexible, unemphatic, expressing a wide range of social registers. Blank verse for the stage may be very irregular but this, predominantly, is a quiet poem, with the falling rhythms inducing a mood of reflection if not melancholy. What is being attempted? Suppose we set out the argument (refer to rhetorical and other analyses), tabbing and reverse tabbing as the reflections as they seem more or less private: {8} 1. But, as youd expect, 2. they are very impatient, the buildings, 3. having much in them of the heavy surf of the North Sea, 4. flurrying the grit, 5. lifting the pebbles, 6. flinging them with a hoarse roar against the aggregate they are composed of — the 7. cliffs higher of course, more 8. burdensome, 9. underwritten as it were with past days 10. overcast and glinting, 11. obdurate, 12. part of the silicate of tough lives, 13. distant and intricate as 14. the whirring bureaucrats 15. Let in and settled with coffee in the concrete pallets, awaiting the post and the department meeting — 16. except that these do not know it,  17. at least do not seem to, being busy, 18. generally. 19. So perhaps it is only on those cloudless, almost vacuumed afternoons with tier upon tier of concrete like rib — bones packed above them, and 20. they light-headed 21. with the blue airiness spinning around, and 22. muzzy, a 23. neuralgia calling at random like 24. frail relations, a 25. phone ringing in a distant office they cannot get to, that 26. They become attentive, 27. or we do — 28. these divisions persisting, 29. indeed what we talk about, 30. we, constructing these webs of buildings which 31. Caulked like great whales about us, are 32.  always aware that some trick of the light or weather will dress them as friends, 33. pleading and flailing — and 34. fill with placid but unbearable melodies 35. us in deep hinterlands of incurved glass. The structure should now be clear. Where Eliot created new forms by stringing together unremarkable pentameters, {8} this poem attempts the reverse: to recast an irregular ode-like structure as pentameters. And not over-successfully: many of the rhythms seemed unduly confined. But once returned to the form of an eighteenth century Pindaric ode, however unfashionable today, the lines regain a structure and integrity. Each starts with a marked stress and then tails away, a feature emphasized by the sound patterns. {9} Sound Patterning To these sound patterns we now turn, adapting the International Phonetic Alphabet to HTML restrictions: 1. But | as | youd | expect | u | a | U | e e | b t | z | y d | ksp kt | 2. They | are | very | impatient | the | buildings | A | a(r) | e E | i A e | e | i i | th | | v r | mp sh nt | th | b ld ngz | 3. Having | much | in | them | of | the | heavy | surf | of | the | North | Sea | a i | u | i | e | o | e | e | e(r) | o | e | aw | E | h v ng | m ch | n | th m | v | th | h v | s f | v | th | n th | s |. 4. flurrying | the | grit | u E i | e | i | fl r ng | th | gr t | 5. lifting | the | pebbles | i i | e | e | l ft ng | th | p b lz | 6. flinging | them | with | a | hoarse | roar | against | the | aggregate | they | are | composed | of | i i | e | i | e | aw | aw | e A | e | a E A | A | a(r) | o O | o | fl ng ng | th m | w th | | h s | r | g nst | th | gr g t | th | | k MP zd | v | 7. the | cliffs | higher | of | course | more | e | i | I e | o | aw | aw | th | kl fs | h | v | s | m | 8. burdensome | u(r) e e | b d ns m | 9.underwritten | as | it | were | with | past | days | u e i e | a | i | (e)r | i | a(r) | A | nd r t n | z | t | w | w | p st | d z | 10. overcast | and | glinting | O e(r) a(r) | a | i i | v k St | nd | gl NT ng | 11. obdurate | o U A | bd r t | 12. part | of | the | silicate | of | tough | lives | (a)r | o | e | i i A | o | u | I | p t | f | th | s l k t | v | t f | l vz | 13. distant | and | intricate | i a | a | i i e | d St NT | nd | NT r k t | 14. as | the | whirring | bureaucrats | a | e | e(r) i | U O a | z | th | w r ng | b r kr ts | 15. let | in | and | settled | with | coffee | in | the | concrete | pallets | e | i | a | e ie | i | o E | i | e | o E | a e | l t | n | nd | s tl d | w th | k f | n | th | k Kr t | p l Ts | awaiting | the | post | and | the | department | meeting | e A i | e | O | a | e | E e | E i | w t ng | th | p St | nd | th | d p tm NT | m t ng | 16. except | that | these | do | not | know | it | e e | a | E | U | o | O | i | ks pt | th | th z | d | n t | n | t | 17. at | least | do | not | seem | to | being | busy | a | E | U | o | E | U | E i | i E | t | l St | d | n t | s m | t | b ng | b z /td | 18. generally | e e a E | j nr l | 19. so | perhaps | it | is | only | on | those | cloudless | almost | vacuumed | afternoons | O | e(r) a | i | i | O | o | O | ou e | aw O | a U | a(r) e oo | s | p h ps | t | z | nl | n | th z | kl dl s | lm St | v k md | ft n nz | with | tier | upon | tier | of | concrete | like | rib | bones | packed | above | them | and | i | E e(r) | e o | E e(r) | o | o E | I | i | O | a | e u | e | a | w th | t | p n | t | v | k nkr t | l k | r b | b nz | p Kt | b v | th m | nd | 20. they | light | headed | A | I | e e | th | l t | h d d | 21.with | the | blue | airiness | spinning | around | and | i | e | U | (A)r i e | i i | e ou | a | w th | th | bl | r n s | sp n ng | r nd | nd | 22. muzzy | a | u E | e | m z | | 23. neuralgia | calling | at | random | like | U a E a | aw i | a | a o | I | n r lj | k l ng | t | r nd m | l k | 24. frail | relations | a | A | e A e | e | fr l | r l zh nz | | 25. phone | ringing | in | a | distant | office | they | cannot | get | to | that | O | i i | i | e | i a | o i | A | a o | e | oo | a | | f n | r ng ng | n | | d St NT | f s | th | k n t | g t | t | th | | 26.they | become | attentive | A | E u | a e i | th | b k m | t NT v | 27. or | we | do | aw | E | oo | | w | d | 28. these | divisions | persisting | E | i i e | e(r) i i | th z | d v zh nz | p s St ng | 29. indeed | what | we | talk | about | i E | o | E | aw | e ou | in d | wh t | w | t k | b t | 30. we | constructing | these | webs | of | buildings | which | E | o u i | E | e | o | i i | i | w | k nz str Kt ng | th z | w bs | v | b ld ngz | wh Ch | 31. caulked | like | great | whales | about | us | are | aw | I | A | A | e ou | u | a(r) | k kd | l k | gr t | w lz | b t | s | | 32. always | aware | that | some | trick | of | the | light | or | weather | will | dress | them | as | friends | aw A | e (A)r | a | u | i | o | e | I | aw | e e(r) | i | e | e | a | e | lw z | w | th t | s m | tr k | v | th | l t | | w th | w l | dr s | th m | z | Fr ndz | 33. pleading | and | flailing | E i | a | A i | pl d ng | nd | fl l ng | 34. will | fill | with | placid | but | unbearable | melodies | i | i | i | a i | u | u A(r) a e | e O E | f l | w th | PL s d | b t | n b r b l | m l d z | | 35. us | in | deep | hinterlands | of | incurved | glass | u | i | E | i e a | o | i e(r) | a(r) | s | n | d p | h NT l ndz | v | nk v d | GL s | Sound in poetry is an immensely complicated and contentious subject. Of the seventeen different employments listed by Masson {10} we consider seven: 1. Structural emphasis All sections are structurally emphasized to some extent, but note the use (in decreasing hardness) of * plosive consonants in sections 1, 5, 6, 7, 10-13, 19, 28-50; 31 and 35. * fricative and aspirate consonants in sections 2, 3, 6, 7, 12, 19, 25, 28, 32, 35. * liquid and nasal consonants in sections 3, 4, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 31-35. Also: * predominance of front vowels — in all sections but 6, 7, 11, 16, 17, 19 and 31. * predominance of vowels in intermediate positions — only sections 16 and 17 having several high vowels and section 3 low vowels. 2. Tagging of sections Note sections 1, 7, 13 and 15. 3. Indirect support of argument by related echoes * Widely used, most obviously in sections 3-7, 12-13, and 15. 4. Illustrative mime: mouth movements apes expression * Sections 2, 6, 11-13, 19, 31 and 35. 5. Illustrative painting * Sections 3-6, 10-13, 15, 19 and 33. Most sections are closely patterned in consonants. Those which arent (and therefore need attention if consistency is to be maintained) are perhaps 8, 9, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 27. Originally the poem was cast in the form of irregular pentameters. But if this is set aside in favour of the 35 sections listed above, how are these sections to be linked in a self-evident and pleasing form? A little is accomplished by alliteration: * f in sections 3 to 7. * s and t in sections 12 to 15 * w in sections 29 to 32 And also by the predominance of front and intermediate level vowels, but these do not amount to much. Certainly we do not find that the overall shaping of the poem emphasizes the argument or content. Sociolinguistics Language is not a neutral medium but comes with the contexts, ideologies and social intentions of its speakers written in. Words are living entities, things which are constantly being employed and only half taken over: carrying opinions, assertions, beliefs, information, emotions and intentions of others, which we partially accept and modify. In this sense speech is dialogic, has an internal polemic, and Bakhtins insights into the multi-layered nature of language (heteroglossia) can be extended to poetry. {11} Much of Postmodernist writing tries to be very unliterary, incorporating the raw material of everyday speech and writing into its creations. This poem seems rather different, a somewhat remote tone and elevated diction applying throughout. Let us see whats achieved by grouping under the various inflections of the speaking voice. * urgently confidential But, as youd expect, cliffs higher, of course, that they become attentive or we do * obsessively repetitious flurrying the grit, lifting the pebbles, flinging them Burdensome, underwritten overcast and glinting, obdurate * over-clever silicate of tough lives  distant and intricate constructing these webs of buildings distracted and/or light-headed except that these do not know it at least do not seem to with the blue airiness spinning around calling at random like frail relations * melancholic and/or reflective some trick of the light or weather will dress them as friends pleading and flailing and fill with placid but unbearable melodies. The exercise hardly provides revelation. Heteroglossia is an interweaving of voices, moreover, not shifts of tone or reference. And yet there is something very odd about the opening line. Why should we expect the buildings to be very impatient? This is more than the orators trick of attracting attention, since the animate nature of buildings and their constituents is referred to throughout the poem. To be more exact, the attitude of the inhabitants — observers, bureaucrats, architects — to the buildings is developed by the poem, and is paralleled by the tone. But why the confidential and repetitious attitude at the beginning. Why should we be buttonholed in this manner? Why the But, which seems to point to an earlier conversation, and the urgency with which that earlier conversation is being refuted or covered up? Because the blame for something is being shifted to the buildings. What error has been committed we do not know, but in mitigation we are shown the effect of the buildings on other inhabitants. Or perhaps we are. In fact the whirring bureaucrats seem to grow out of the fabric of buildings, and we do not really know if the we, constructing these webs of buildings is meant literally or metaphorically. The poems title suggests literally, but perhaps these constructions are only of the mind: sections 17, 20-29, 32 and 34 refer to attitudes rather than actions, and there is an ethereal or otherworldly atmosphere to the later section of the poem. So we return to heteroglossia, which is not simply borrowed voices, but involves an internal polemic, {12} that private dialogue we conduct between our private thoughts and their acceptable public expression. The dialogue is surely here between the brute physicality of a nature made overpoweringly real and the fail brevity of human lives. That physicality is threatening and unnerving. If the we of the later section of the poem is indeed architects then that physicality is harnessed to practical ends. If the constructing is purely mental then the treatment is through attitudes, mindsets, philosophies. But in neither case does it emasculate the energy of the physical world. Architects may leave monuments behind them, but they are also imprisoned in those monuments (us in deep hinterlands) and hearing all the time the homesick voice of their constituents. Conclusions: Suggested Improvements The greatest difficulty lies in the poems structure. An pentameter form has been used to give a superficial unity, but this wrenches the rhythm, obscures the sound patterns and does nothing for the argument. If recast in sections defined by rhythm and sound pattern the form is too irregular to have artistic autonomy. A return could be made to the eighteenth century Pindaric ode in strict metre and rhyme, but would require extensive and skilful rewriting, and probably appear artificial. A prose poem might be the answer, but the rhythms would need to be more fluid and subtly syncopated. Otherwise, blank verse should be attempted, and the metre adjusted accordingly. The internal polemic is a valuable dimension of the poem, but more could be done to make the voices distinct. http://www. textetc. com/criticism/stylistics. html1. On StylisticsIs cognitive stylistics the future of stylistics? To answer this question in the essay that follows, I will briefly discuss Elena Semino and Jonathan Culpeper’s Cognitive Stylistics (2003), Paul Simpson’s Stylistics (2004), and a recent essay by Michael Burke (2005). However, because questions are like trains – one may hide another – any discussion of the future of stylistics raises intractable questions about stylistics itself. French students of stylistics, for example, will come across definitions of the discipline like the following. According to Brigitte Buffard-Moret, â€Å"si les definitions de [la stylistique] – que certains refusent de considerer comme une scien

Minimum wage essay Essay Example for Free

Minimum wage essay Essay Some people may support minimum wage legislation because they believe it will help struggling workers to make ends meet. What do you think about that? Minimum wage, as a kind of price floor, refers to the least amount of money that employers can legally pay labors for per hour of work. Therefore, government sets a price that is under the market equilibrium price in order to reduce the poverty and ensure that young employees and minority will not be treated unequally. However, those aimed goals are not accomplished as expected and minimum wage only makes economy inefficient and worsens some people’s lives. After the minimum wage is imposed above the equilibrium wage rate, this results in the supply of labour being greater than the demand for labour. Therefore, while only E2 amount of labour is demanded in the market, E3 amount of labour is provided and causes excess labour. In theory, the minimum wage results in excess supply of labour because the higher costs of labour motivate companies to cutoff employees and then cause unemployment, ceteris paribus. Meanwhile, the minimum wage reduces the demand from E1 to E2 so this reduces both consumer and producer surplus, and creates a deadweight loss to the society. Furthermore, it is highly possible that because of the increased production costs, the quantity of supply is increased and the average price level is increased overall, so consumers tend to pay higher prices. Therefore, when price floor is imposed, deadweight loss and excess supply of labour are created, and unemployment rates and overall price level will be increased. Subsequently, although there are considerable large amounts of people are benefited from the minimum wage, those poor people without enough professional skills or in the state of unemployment are likely to suffer worser living conditions. While those people in employment are benefited from the minimum wage, they are also affected by minimum wage negatively, like less opportunities to increase income. Since the minimum wage increases production costs of company, except cutting off labour, companies would also decide to reduce times to promote employees. Therefore, in the long run, those employees will be demotivated and then decrease their passion and working efficiency. Besides, even if those employees still get lots of opportunities, their  living standards will not be enhanced so much because the overall price is also increasing. Therefore, although people enjoying minimum wage have higher wages, they need to pay more when consuming goods in daily life. In conclusion, although minimum wage ensures the salary of some people in the short run, minimum wage creates welfare loss and excess labour in the market, so in the relatively long run, unemployment rate and overall price level will be increased due to increased production costs (which are consist of labour, land, technology and capital). Therefore, for people in the state of unemployment, they will suffer by the higher price and they will be poorer. While for those people benefited by the minimum wage, they tend to obtain less promotion chances, receive higher average prices in the market and in the long run even may lose enthusiasm for working hard.

POEMS Syndrome Symptoms and Treatment

POEMS Syndrome Symptoms and Treatment POEMS Syndrome: Paraproteinemic neuropathies, Organomegaly, Endocrinopathy, M-protein and Skin changes Abstract The POEMS syndrome, also known as Crow-Fukase syndrome, is a rare multi organ disorder characterized by polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, M-protein spike and skin changes. Other associated features, such as sclerotic bone lesions, edema, ascites, hematological disorÂÂ ­ders and Castleman disease can also be present. We report a case of POEMS syndrome who presented with insidious onset, progressive sensorimotor polyneuropathy, pedal edema, ascites, hepatomegaly along with skin changes. X-ray pelvis showed osteosclerotic lesions. Thyroid function tests showed hypothyroidism. M-protein (IgG) monoclonal band was seen on immunoelectrophoresis. The patient was started on melphalan and corticosteroid combination therapy. We emphasis on the importance of recognizing a challenging diagnosis of a rare disease, which is shown to be treatment responsive. Introduction POEMS syndrome is a rare paraneoplastic disorder of plasma cell dyscrasias, which was first described in 1956 by Crow and then in 1968 by Fukase [1]. The name POEMS was given to it by Bardwick and co-workers in 1980 based on five salient features: polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal gammopathy and skin changes [1]. It is more prevalent in men, with male to female ratio of 2.5:1. It usually manifests in 5th and 6th decades of life. Its inheritance is uncertain and its pathophysiology is still not well understood. Case Presentation A 40-year-old male presented with progressive weakness, tingling and numbness sensation in both lower limbs for two years. He had swelling of lower limbs, abdominal distention and dermatologic changes in form of discoloration and thickening of skin over the cheeks, nose, hands and feet for one year. He had also gave history of erectile dysfunction and loss of libido for six months. There was no history of syncope, bony pain or drug abuse. He had no previous history of hypertension, diabetes or tuberculosis. On physical examination, the patient had bilateral pedal edema [Figure 1.c] and abdominal distention [Figure 2.a]. Skin was thickened and hyperpigmented over the face, fingers of the hands and shin (Figure.1a,b,c). Bilateral gynecomastia and testicular atrophy were present. Abdominal examination showed hepatomegaly and ascites. Higher mental functions and speech were normal. Fundus examination showed papilledema on both side and rest of the cranial nerves examination were normal. Motor power in upper limbs was normal and in lower limbs showed predominant distal weakness [Medical Research Council (MRC) 4/5 at hip joint and 4-/5 at ankle joint). Deep tendon reflexes in upper limb were diminished (+1) including biceps, triceps and supinator and absent in lower limbs. There was 30% loss in pain, touch and temperature sense in both lower limbs below knees. Posterior column sensations (joint position and vibration sense) were also impaired in lower limbs below the anterior superior iliac s pine. Romberg sign was positive. Hemogram, liver and renal function tests, muscle enzymes (creatine phosphokinase), serum ferritin and vitamin B12 level were normal. Serum total protein was 7.1 gm/dL, albumin 3 gm/dL, globulin 4.1 gm/dl, and A:G ratio 1:1.3. Fasting and postprandial blood sugar level were normal. Thyroid function test showed raised TSH level (16.62 ÃŽ ¼/ml). Luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone levels were 15 IU/L (1.8-8.6 IU/L) and 111 ng/L (300-1,000 ng/dL), respectively. Antinuclear antibody (ANA), Rheumatoid factor (RF), serum human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ELISA test, hepatitis B and C markers were negative. Ultrasonography of abdomen showed hepatomegaly (16 cm), moderate ascites and enlargement of multiple lymph nodes along the iliac vessels. Fine needle aspiration cytology of mesenteric lymph node was inconclusive. Ascitic fluid examination revealed exudative nature (SAAG Discussion POEMS syndrome is a rare, multiple system disorder, characterized by polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal or M-protein band and skin changes. Any three of the five features may be present to establish diagnosis [2]. However, some authors have proposed clinical criteria for diagnosis in which includes two major criteria, which can be either presence of polyneuropathy or plasma cell proliferative disorder. Minor criteria include sclerotic bone lesions, organomegaly, edema, endocrinopathy, papilledema or skin changes [2]. Polyneuropathy is a predominant feature of POEMS syndrome and is found in >90% of the cases. It is usually a sensorimotor, axonal and demyelinating type polyneuropathy [3]. As in our patient, both axonal and demyelinating polyneuropathy are seen on electrodiagnostic studies. The mechanism of neuropathy is not known but the recent evidence of the presence of anti-neural antibodies points to an immunological mechanism [4]. Endocrinopathies occur with a frequency of 60%-80% and the most common are gonadal failure (70%) and glucose intolerance/diabetes mellitus (50%). Hypo or hyperthyroidism, hyperprolactinemia and adrenal insufficiency have also been reported. The mechanism of endocrinopathy is also not obvious; however, involvement of direct acting antibodies against hypothalamo-hypophyseal-axis and endocrine end organs has been hypothesized [5]. In our patient, impotence, loss of libido and testicular atrophy and hypothyroidism on ancillary laboratory investigation were present. Increased levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) are found in POEMS syndrome. VEGF increases microvascular permeability, thereby inducing edema, ascites and pleural effusions as were present in our patient [6,7]. However, measurement of VEGF level in ascites was not available in our patient. Papilledema may be seen in approximately 37% of patients and is not associated with the increase in intracranial pressure. The real cause of papilledema is not still known. Hepatomegaly may be seen in up to 50% of patients with splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy occurring less often. The hyperpigmentation over the face, legs and hands was also observed in our case. The skin changes usually observed in POEMS syndrome are hyperpigmentation, lichenification, hypertrichosis, sclerodermoid changes and glomeruloid hemangiomas. Skin biopsy may show inflammation, fibrosis, or nonspecific changes. Monoclonal protein is detected in more than 90% of patients and may become positive in the follow- up of patients who have no monoclonal gammopathy initially [8]. Nearly all cases reported in the literature show lambda positivity as in our patient. It may be rarely found in urine and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The natural course of POEMS syndrome is chronic, with a reported median survival for a decade (8-13.8ys). The morbidity depends on the extent and number of systems involved. The cause of POEMS syndrome is still unknown. It is tempting to incriminate the presence of lambda light chains in the pathogenesis because of their unexpected frequency (more than 95% of patients), but histopathologic review of affected organs and nerves does not support that it is a form of deposition disorder. Increased levels of cytokines IL-1ß, TNF-Ã ¡ and IL-6, more specifically VEGF, appear to play a pathogenic role in the disorder [9,10]. In view of the constellation of a mixed polyneuropathy, monoclonal gammopathy, osteosclerotic myeloma, extravascular volume overload, bilateral papilledema, skin changes and endocrinopathies, our patient was diagnosed as POEMS syndrome. However, other close differential diagnosis like tuberculosis and hemochromatosis were ruled out with appropriate investigations. Patient was treated with combination of alkylating agent melphalan and corticosteroid. To conclude, when a patient present with unexplained sensorimotor polyneuropathy, signs of extravascular volume overload and evidence of other system involvement, a high index of suspicion should be kept for a diagnosis of POEMS syndrome, to avoid missing this rare syndrome, which is amenable to treatment. Figure Legends Figure 1. Photographs of patient showing skin hyperpigmentation over the face, hand and limbs (thin arrows). Thick arrow showing pitting edema over the left leg. Figure 2. Photograph of patient (a) showing abdominal distention (free fluid was confirmed by ultrasonography). X-ray pelvic bone (b) showing multiple sclerotic lesion over right iliac crest (thin arrow) and one large osteosclerotic lesion (thick arrow) over the neck of left femur (b). Figure 3. Nerve conduction study showing axonal and demyelinating neuropathy in right median nerve. Figure 4. Bone marrow smear in centre reveals one large atypical plasma cell, which has prominent nucleoli and abundant cytoplasm. There is loss of normal nuclear configuration with fraying border. References Bardwick PA, Zvaifler NJ, Gill GN, Newman D, Greenway GD, Resnick DL. Plasma cell dyscrasia with polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, M proteins and skin changes: the POEMS syndrome: Report on two cases and a review of the literature. Medicine (Baltimore). 1980;59:311-322. Dispenzieri A, Kyle RA, Lacy MQ, Rajkumar SV, Therneau TM, Larson DR, et al. POEMS syndrome: definitions and long-term outcome. Blood. 2003;101(7):2496-2506. Min JH, Hong YH, Lee KW. Electrophysiological features of patients with POEMS syndrome. Clin Neurophysiol. 2005;116(4):965-968. Kelly JJ Jr, Kyle RA, Miles JM, O’Brian PC, Dyck PJ. The spectrum of peripheral neuropathy in myeloma. Neurology. 1981;31:31-34. Reulecke MD, Dumas M, Merrier C. Specific antibody activity against neuroendocrine tissue in a case of POEMS syndrome with IgG gammopathy. Neurology. 1988;38:614-616. DSouza A, Hayman SR, Buadi F, Mauermann M, Lacy MQ, Gertz MA, et al. The utility of plasma vascular endothelial growth factor levels in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with POEMS syndrome. Blood. 2011;118(17):4663-4665. Watanabe O, Maruyawa I, Arimura K, Kitajawa I, Arimura H, Hanatani M, et al. Overproduction of vascular endothelial growth factor vascular permeability factor is causative in Crow-Fukase (POEMS) syndrome. Muscle Nerve. 1998;21(11):1390-1397. Miralles GD, O’Fallen JR, Talley NJ. Plasma cell dyscrasia with polyneuropathy; the spectrum of POEMS syndrome. N Eng J Med. 1992;327:1919-1923. Kanai K, Sawai S, Sogawa K, Mori M, Misawa S, Shibuya K, et al. Markedly upregulated serum interleukin-12 as a novel biomarker in POEMS syndrome. Neurology. 2012;79(6):575-582. Soubrier M, Dubost JJ, Serre AF, Ristori JM, Sauvezie B, Cathebras P, et al. Growth factors in POEMS syndrome: evidence for a marked increase in circulating vascular endothelial growth factor. Arthritis Rheum. 1997;40:786-778.

Babe Ruth :: essays research papers

On February 6, 1895, George Herman Ruth, Jr., was born in his grandparents house in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth as a young child. Ruth’s dad worked as a bartender and owned his own bar. They spent very little time with George because they worked long hours. Eventually, his parents felt that they couldn’t take care of George, and on June 13, 1902, he was taken to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. His custody was also signed over to the Xaverian Brothers, a Catholic Order of Jesuit Missionaries who ran St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s was both a reformatory and orphanage, which was surrounded by a wall like a prison with guards on duty. George, who was always involved in pranks and fights, was classified as "incorrigible" when he was admitted. The only positive thing that happened from going to St. Mary’s was meeting Brother Mathias. Brother Mathias was the disciplinary guy at St. Mary’s. He spent a lot of time with George. He even helped Ruth learn to be a baseball player. Baseball was a popular game for the boys at St. Mary’s and George played well at a young age. He played all positions on the field, was an excellent pitcher and had the ability to hit the ball very well. By his late teens Ruth had developed into a major league baseball prospect. On February 27, 1914, at the age of nineteen, the Baltimore Orioles signed Babe to his first professional baseball contract. Because Ruth’s parents had signed over custody of him to St. Mary’s, he was supposed to remain at the school until he was twenty-one. To go around this, Dunn, the man who signed him, became Ruth’s legal guardian. Just five months after being signed by the Baltimore Orioles, Babe Ruth was sold to the Boston Red Sox. He made his debut as a major leaguer in Fenway Park on July 11, 1914, pitching against the Cleveland Indians. In the mornings, Ruth would frequent Landers’ Coffee Shop in Boston, and it is here that he met Helen Woodford, a seventeen-year-old waitress. They married on October 17, 1914 at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Ellicott City, Maryland. As Babe’s career began to blossom and his salary increased, by 1919 he was making $10,000 per year, he and Helen were able to buy a home outside of Boston in Sudbury, Massachusetts. In December of 1919 Babe was sold to the New York Yankees, owned by Colonel Jacob Ruppert and managed by Miller Huggins.

The Effects of Motivation on Performance Essay examples -- Andrew and

The Effects of Motivation on Performance Findings Task 2- Write a Report on the effects of Motivation on Performance Research people’s attitude to work and factors affecting their motivation by constructing a questionnaire and conducting a small survey. You should aim to distribute your questionnaire to at least 5 people within your organisation. Gather information on what motivates individual performance and identify attitudes to work by interviewing an employee in-depth and comparing their attitudes with your own. Relate you findings to motivation theories and provide a description of the motivators appropriate for different types of individual performance. Andrew and Robertson: An Introduction to the Business Objectives Andrew and Robertson have started put life as property mangers in 1887. Managing properties on behalf of owners. Southwark Council also contracted out housing management for a trial period in the 90’s in which Andrew and Robertson’s partly participated. In the 1960’s Andrew and Robertson expanded into auctioneering. The object of this section of the business aims to sell houses at auctions 4 times a year. However 1980 prior they only had two actions a year. The business aims to make a profit for the four senor partners. The business has no obvious intentions to float on the stock market. The partnership has currently invested in a new phone system and computer network for one of its three branches. This according to an associate partner is the partnership attempting to modernise the old fashion approach to the business currently used by managers. Serves Andrew and Robertson’s serve the clients who own the properties, which they manage. The management also serve their auctioneering arm that sells properties for the clients of the property-managing arm who wish to sell their properties. Motivational Procedures Andrew and Robertson’s have no written procedures however there are a number of unwritten procedures, which are used. These procedures include: Staff/Management association (This is not like by a small minority of staff  ¼) Close quarters arrangements (Putting desks in close proximity for communication means) Appraisal Meetings (Token) Staff Management association This is the system in which higher level management work along side their employers. In the hope that the bond between the low... ...people work so hard and Physiological needs Basic needs such as food water and shelter are all met because the pay is reasonable at the firm of Andrew and Robertson’s. Food and drink is also supplied in small quantities at break times. The management sees these as incentives because in the afternoons the employees generally work harder. So therefore the reason for higher efficiently in the afternoons is the cakes and tea, which are available at lunch times and corresponds to the Physiological needs on Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs William Bridges IT Evolution William Bridges wrote that there have been many changes in the modern working environment. Including the number of jobs in an organisation deceasing or increasing during fluctuating periods of demand. He argument being the advancement of IT had increased competition and therefore the nature of management philosophy. This is truer at Andrew and Robertson’s since the number of employees aged over 40 years has dropped tremendously over the last 3 years due to the need for IT compliant staff. Since it is the partners who dictate policy their behaviour and types of behaviour towards their management policy.

Extra Classes

Extra classes a waste of time and resources SOME schools extend schooling time to hold extra classes. The schools think that this will guarantee straight A’s students. I do not think so. After-school hours are for students to play games, join some social events or other beneficial activities. And the school holiday is a very crucial time for students because they can rest and indulge in their favourite pastimes like reading, playing outdoor games, travelling, etc, which they would not otherwise have the time for. All these activities are beneficial to them as they are in their growing years.Malaysia is a tropical country with a hot and humid climate and it is not conducive for students and teachers alike to study and teach in the hot afternoon. Extra classes are normally an extension of school hours, which make it very uncomfortable, and coupled with their tiredness make these lessons a waste of time and resources for both teachers and students. One thing about extra classes i s that control and supervision by the school authorities tend to be lax. And because of this, students often flout school rules by playing truant and bringing mobile phones to class.This then defeats the whole purpose of having tuition classes! So why have tuition classes? It is a waste of time and resources to parents and the school authorities, not to mention the desired end-results. Students should be committed to their studies when in school. Schools should develop each student’s talents according to his or her potential. That will effectively nurture students. Extra classes burdening and unnecessary? EF International Academy www. ef. com/academy More parents are sending their children, aged between 7 and 10, for private tuition.They cite competitive school environment, crowded classrooms and changing standards of language as reasons. But there are also perceptions that extra tuition places unnecessary stress on the child, writes Rozanna Latiff SHARON Lieu, a 36-year-old mother of three, sends her eldest daughter, aged 8, for Mathematics and English tuition twice a week. Even though Lieu does not believe that primary school children should be attending tuition classes, her daughter's struggle to catch up with her classmates had forced the matter. â€Å"In school, her class is so big that the teachers don't have time to help the few who cannot follow the lessons. Some have even told the students, ‘Ask your tuition teacher' when the child says they can't understand. † Lieu said she had little time to teach her daughter on her own as she was often busy with work and taking care of her younger children. â€Å"I wish that I did not have to send her for tuition, but it is the only way she will be able to keep up. â€Å"I think many parents feel the same way, especially as schools have become more competitive. † School authorities and parent groups generally agree that sending children under 10 years old for private tuition was unneces sary.Some, such as the National Collaborative Parent-Teacher Associations of Malaysia president Associate Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Ali Hasan, believe that sending pupils for tuition too early could even be detrimental to their social development. â€Å"Children should be allowed time to play and learn at their own pace. â€Å"Putting too much pressure on them to succeed academically at an early age means that there will be less time for them to learn to socialise or communicate effectively with others. â€Å"Stress can also affect them emotionally. â€Å"Ali said the most important part of early education was learning the basic skills of reading, writing and counting, which weaker students can master under the education ministry's learning and numeracy (Linus) remedial programme. He said tuition should be a measure of last resort when the student is truly struggling with schoolwork. â€Å"It is crucial that they learn to read and count by Year Three. â€Å"But apart from that, paren ts should just let children be children. † Nevertheless, the Education Ministry believes that there is little to stop parents from sending their children to tuition outside school hours. Ultimately, it is the parents choice. â€Å"I'm not saying it is healthy, but parents just want the best for their children. â€Å"If they believe tuition is the way to go, then there is nothing to stop them,† deputy education minister Dr Puad Zarkashi said. Puad, however, remained sceptical on whether private tuition centres offered the best education for children. â€Å"The best kind of tuition allows the child to study one-on-one with the teacher. â€Å"But most centres usually have several students to one teacher. Some centres even crowd up to 40 students in one class. So, I don't believe they make much of a difference.Read more: Extra classes burdening and unnecessary? – Top News – New Straits Times http://www. nst. com. my/top-news/extra-classes-burdening-and-unne cessary-1. 52841#ixzz2IFQypuPW [pic]About EF Founded in 1965, EF Education First is the world's largest private education company. We offer language education for students and professionals in more than 50 countries. [pic]EF Research Unit at University of Cambridge EF has established a Research Unit at the University of Cambridge Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics to collaborate on fundamentally improving the way students learn English. EF International AcademyAdmissions Office Haldenstrasse 4 Luzern 6006 Switzerland Tel: +41 41 417 46 31 [pic]EF International Academy in New York, Oxford and Torbay are IB world schools. [pic]The EF schools in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Brighton and Bournemouth are accredited by the British Council. [pic]The EF school in Torbay is accredited by the British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education [pic]The EF school in New York is a member of the American Association of Intensive English Programs. [ pic]EF International Academy schools are accredited by the University of Cambridge International Examinations Centre.

Decreasing Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections Essay

Urinary Tract Infections are one of the most common hospital-acquired infection and many are associated with an indwelling catheter. For each day a catheter is in place the risk of developing a CAUTI increases 3%-7% (Kahnen, Flanders, & Magalong, 2011 ). Although indwelling urinary catheters are widely used in hospitalized patients and can provide an appropriate means of therapeutic management, they are often used without clear indications putting the patient at a risk for complications during their hospitalization. Complications related to a urinary catheter include physical and psychological discomfort to the patient, bladder calculi, renal inflammation and most frequently CAUTI (Bernard, Hunter, & Moore, 2012, 32(1)). Not only does the urinary catheter cause complications to the patient and put them at a higher risk for morbidity and mortality they also increase the hospital costs. Therefore CAUTIs are considered by the Medicare and Medicaid Services to represent a reasonably prev entable complication of hospitalization and as such will not provide any additional payment to hospitals for CAUTI treatment (American Association of Critical Care Nurses, 2012). A great amount of attention has been placed on improving quality of care and minimizing preventable harms that are occurring in the healthcare setting. With the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and the implementation of the Final Rule in October 2008 the CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will no longer pay hospitals for the additional cost of care resulting from hospital-acquired conditions such as CAUTI (Palmer, Lee, & Wroe, 2013, 33(1)). Urinary tract infections can lead to bacteremia which can produce fever, chills, confusion, hypotension and leukocytosis, but more seriously can lead to the patient becoming septic (Palmer, Lee, & Wroe, 2013, 33(1)). More than 13,000 deaths occurred in 2002 associated with UTI and increased the costs of hospital visits by an additional $600 per CAUTI episode by increasing the length of the hospital stay, tests needed and antibiotics administered (Meddings, Reichert, & Rogers, 2012). Guidelines  have been established and CAUTI prevention bundles have been implemented throughout hospitals to aid in the reduction of CAUTI. These bundles outline a group of evidence based interventions aimed at reducing overall usage of indwelling urinary catheters, encourage timely removal of catheters no longer clinically indicated, and delineates infection prevention strategies to follow when catheters are in place (Kahnen, Flanders, & Magalong, 2011 ). Indications for use of an indwelling catheter for a short term period, meaning less than 30 days, include urinary retention, obstruction of the urinary tract, close monitoring of the urine output of critically ill patients, urinary incontinence that poses a great risk to the patient because of stage 3 or greater ulcer to the sacral area, and for comfort care of the terminally ill patient (Bernard, Hunter, & Moore, 2012, 32(1)). Even though there are guidelines to follow urinary catheters are often placed for inappropriate or poorly documented reasons with totals close to 50% not being needed (Bernard, Hunter, & Moore, 2012, 32(1)). The majority of unnecessary urinary catheters are placed in the emergency department without a doctor order or if there is an order there is no documentation of the need for the catheter. This lack of documented rationale has proved to be an ongoing problem. Other factors relating to catheters are that the assessment of the continued need for the catheter is often overlooked and the catheters remain intact without proper indications. Urinary catheters are often used for personal preference of the nursing staff and even with the best nursing care, each day a catheter is present the risk for infection goes up 3%-10% (Burnett, Erikson, & Hunt, 2010). Evidence based strategies are used to decrease the use of indwelling urinary catheters. Some of these strategies are nurse driven and include the charge nurse or staff nurse assessing the need for the catheter after a period of time and discussing with the doctor the finding or following a standing order for the catheter. Data was collected on this process for a 6 month time frame and showed that the active intervention of daily consultation and review of the need for a catheter significantly reduced the number of indwelling urinary catheter days per month as well as the number of CAUTIs (Bernard, Hunter, & Moore, 2012, 32(1)). Another study according to Fakih et al. (2008) used  quasi-experimental design that made use of nurse led multidisciplinary rounds. The nurses were given education guidelines on the indications for urinary catheters based on recommendations by the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Fakih, 2008). During the daily rounds of the nurse if there wer e no indications for the continued use of the catheter the nurse would contact the physician for an order to discontinue. This process drastically reduced the number of days the catheter was used and also the percentage of catheters in use (Fakih, 2008). According to the American Association of Critical Care nurses the expected practice of a nurse to reduce CAUTIs is that prior to the placement of the catheter assess the patient for any accepted indications and alternatives, adhere to aseptic technique for placement and maintenance of the catheter, document all instances of the catheter including the insertion date, indication and removal date. Nurses should also promptly discontinue the urinary catheter as soon as the indications expire. In order to follow the best practice there should be written guidelines for the catheter including indications and that only patients meeting these requirements have urinary catheters placed (American Association of Critical Care Nurses, 2012). Have available in the department devices, supplies, and techniques that allow alternative routes (American Association of Critical Care Nurses, 2012). Several other actions are recommended such as reviewing on a daily basis the need for the catheter, develop systems to ensure prompt removal of the catheters, implement infection surveillance programs to measure the days and rates of CAUTI, and develop an action plan to address needed improvements (American Association of Critical Care Nurses, 2012). Surveillance data suggests that 4.5 out of 100 hospitalized patients get hospital acquired infections with 32% of them having a urinary tract source associated with a catheter (Meddings, Reichert, & Rogers, 2012). One assessment made in the research was that hospitals with higher CAUTI rates may not have a higher incidence of CAUTI than another reporting hospital they may do a better job documenting the results of indwelling catheter use. By 2015, rates of hospital-acquired events will be used to report hospitals performances and compare them nationwide causing a reduction in the payments  made by Medicaid. References American Association of Critical Care Nurses. (2012). Cathter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections. AACN Bold Voices, 13. Bernard, M., Hunter, K., & Moore, K. (2012, 32(1)). Review of strategies to decrease the duration of indwelling urethral catheters and reduce the incidence of catheter associated UTI. Urologic Nursing, 29-37. Burnett, K., Erikson, D., & Hunt, A. (2010). Strategies to prevent Urinary Tract Infection from Urinary Catheter Insertion in the Emergency Department . Journal of Emergency Medicine, 546-550. Fakih, M. D. (2008). Effects of nurse led multidisciplinary rounds on reducing the unnecessary use of urinary catherizations inhospitalized patients. Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 815-819. Kahnen, D., Flanders, S., & Magalong, T. (2011 ). CAUTI: Making them Matter. Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses, 4-7. Meddings, J., Reichert, H., & Rogers, M. (2012). Effects of nonpayment for hospital acquired CAUTI. American College of Physicians, 305-312. Palmer, J., Lee, G., & Wroe, P. (2013, 33(1)). Including Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in the 2008 CMS Payment Policy: A Qualitative Analysis. Urologic Nursing, 15-24.