Quality Management Worldwide Total Quality Management Essay

For more than four decades after independence the companies in India enjoyed a protected market with virtually no competition, and some of them even monopolised the market, with customers having little or no choice. As a result complacency set in, and no pressure existed for improvement or change. However, the policy of globalization and liberalization adopted by the Indian Government five years ago, has hrown open new avenues and challenges to companies in India. The new policy has resulted in open doors through which global corporate players have entered the Indian markets, and are threatening the domestic manufacturers and suppliers, using quality as a weapon. This has compelled the managers of local companies to look for those tools and techniques, proven and tested, which would help them to maintain and improve their strategies and positions in the market. One such policy or philosophy that has captured the attention of industry and the business community is TQM. Particularly, in the recent years TQM is even regarded as bsolutely essential for growth, stability, and prosperity. This paper has the main intention of presenting an overview of TQM’s progress in the country, starting from its initiation to its current status. Besides, the paper also describes how the organizational attempts by various agencies enabled the establishment of a TQM culture. Further, these attempts are presented in a chronological order, to appreciate the role played by various agencies, which resulted in growth and propagation of TQM in India. Towards the end, the gaps that still exist and hence the efforts that eed to be channeled are pointed out, so as to result in appropriate guidelines about the work to be done. The author R. Jagadeesh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, S. J. College of Engineering, Mysore, India. Keywords TQM, India, Quality Abstract Total quality management (TQM) has spread its wings in every sphere of the global corporate world and Indian companies are no exception. In this paper, first the growth and spread ofTQM in India is traced from its initiation to current status. Further, the paper has tried to identify the causes for poor quality of products and ervice, and the gaps that exist between the expectations and the outcome after adopting the TQM practices. Later a critical view of the quality scene in India is presented, and finally, based on these observations suitable guidelines and recommendations are made to bridge this gap. It is concluded that there is still a long way to go for Indian companies to receive the stamp of acceptance for their products at international level. Electronic access The current issue and full text archive of this Journal is available at http://www. emerald-library. com are synonymous with high quality products and trust worthiness. However, the post- independent era did not witness any spectacular improvement regarding the quality of goods and services produced in the country. According to Agrawal (1993) due to protected business environment many positive attributes of the Indian industry have been lost and weaknesses have surfaced. These weaknesses based on the study are: lack of trust and credibility in the working system, lack of clarity/seriousness for achieving target, lack of precise observance of rules and norms, low quality of supplies and components, lack of consciousness of time as money, viewing only short term benefits ahead of long term oals, politicalization of labor unions, lack of accountability for actions, lack of management commitment, lack of national quality policy, inadequate economic resources, lack of indigenous technology, inadequate infrastructure, preferring quantity to quality, lack of team spirit, cartel formation, and sellers’ market. Besides, lack of consumerism, Government control on everything, bureaucratic delays, quick profit making attitudes by the companies, all resulted in quality getting a low priority and consequently Indian products were constrained to serve only the domestic market being not able to compete in the international markets. Further, the factors mentioned before, clearly proved to be obstacles in the path to progress, and India in spite of possessing good resources and rich scientific and technical manpower, could not produce world-class products acceptable in the international markets. The TQM movement in India The TQM initiatives were first set by the Confederation of Indian Industries (Cll) in the early 1980s, in its pioneering effort in promoting awareness about quality among Indian industries. The work done by Cll in this direction is well documented in Deccan Herald Advertising Feature (1993) and also in The Standards Engineer (1996). In 1982, quality circles took birth in India, and some of the companies to launch quality circles first were Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, and Bharat Heavvy Electricals Limited, Trichy. In 1986 the Cll then known as CEI (Confederation of Engineering Industries), invited Professor Ishikawa to India, to address industry people about quality. Later in 1987, a TQM division was set up by the Cll. This division owes its foundation to 21 companies who agreed to support the cause by pooling resources and pledging to start the Journey to TQM. Chief executives of these companies formed the National Committee on Quality, 22 Total quality management in India ? ± perspective and analysis R. Jagadeesh The TQM Magazine Volume 1 1 . Number 5. 1999 . 321? ±327 newsletter on quality. In 1987 and 1988, the Cll invited the Juran Institute to India to conduct three training workshops, and then in 1989 a team from India attended the Deming Seminar in London. Study teams organized by the Cll were taken to Japan and the USA to study quality practices. During 1990, the Cll consolidated and focused on training, and in February 1991, an Indian company with the assistance of the Cll, obtained the first ISO 9000 certification in India. The Cll organized the launch of the National Quality Campaign led by the Prime Minister of India in May 1992. It is around this time, the process of globalization and liberalization was started in the country, bringing a new dimension to the business and industrial sectors. From then on, a new line of thinking in terms of quality, productivity, and competitiveness has begun. Since 1993, the Cll has been organizing The Quality Summit every year. This provides an opportunity for all business leaders, and higher level managers of member and non-member organizations of the Cll to network, learn, and contribute hrough experience sharing, and listening to the experts who gather there. The National Productivity Council (NPC) has set up a TQM and Benchmarking Division in New Delhi, and offers TQM implementation services, which include modular training programs and consultancy services. In 1996, the Government of India announced the setting up of the Quality Council of India, (QCI) with the Industry Ministry bringing in half the seed capital of Rs. 1. 5 crores. The rest of the seed capital will be contributed by the corporate sector. The setting up of a national agency for quality certification is art of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, under which member countries will not trade in non-certified products two years down the line. The corporate sector too was demanding the setting up of an internationally recognized quality council as it found the certification process from foreign agencies too expensive. Besides, it would save vital foreign exchange for the country. The QCI will be entrusted with monitoring and administering of the National Quality Campaign and will also oversee the effective functioning of the National Information and Enquiry Services. Post-liberalization scene ? ± improvement in quality The economic reforms that started in 1992 have ushered in a new era of progress and prosperity in the country. According to a report published in YoJana (1997), the real gross domestic product (GDP) recorded a growth rate of 6. 8 per cent in agriculture and allied sectors, 7. 0 per cent in industry, and 7. 4 per cent in services. The Eighth Five Year Plan (EFYP) (1992-97) which ended with an average growth rate of 6. 5 per cent per annum, compares well with the target rate of 5. 6 per cent for the EFYP, and actual achievement of 6. 0 per cent in the Seventh Five Year Plan. In fact his is the highest average growth rate achieved in the planning period since 1951. The sectoral average growth rates for the period 1992-97 are: Agriculture and allied sectors ? ± 4. 0 per cent, Industry ? ± 7. 8 per cent and, Services ? ± 9. 2 per cent. Further, exports during 1996-97 registered a growth rate of 4. 1 per cent. Foreign direct inve stment amounted to US $2,696 million during 1996-97. These facts clearly indicate that the economic reforms brought through globalization and liberalization have yielded rich dividends, and hold a lot of promise for the coming years. While all ndividually to improve their product quality, besides overall performance through TQM practices. For example, Gupta and Sagar (1993) describe a case of total quality control in an engineering company through the extensive use of personal computers, and state that the Indian company was able to overcome many quality related problems which included: high rejection levels, slow inspection rates, frequent errors in measurement, inconsistency in interpreting inspection data, time consuming data storage and retrieval, rigid inspection schedules, not responding to changing environment, and quality plans not adjusted to varying batch sizes. The company improved the problem solving capacity through quality circles, and quality database at each stage. Comprehensive information systems enabled the personnel to obtain better guidance leading to improved decision making. Thus the success is attributed to systematic application of TQM. 323 The TQM Magazine volume 11 . Number 5 . 1999 . 321? ±327 Business Today (1995) in an exclusive coverage on status of quality of India, presents a detailed report on companies which are market leaders and corporate giants. The cases covered include reports on leading Indian companies like Mukand, BPL, Arvind, IFB, ABB, HDFC, Amex, Hidustan Lever, Ranbaxy, Indal, Gujarat AmbuJa, Wsya Bank, Oberoi Hotels, and Thermax. It is emphasized that these companies carved a niche for themselves by focusing on quality in their planning, operations, and marketing strategies. Awareness of quality ? ± a positive change Pati and Reis (1996) state that India is emerging as a leading economy in the new world economic order. The phenomenal increase in India’s export earnings, which rose to IJS$ 26. 2 billion in the 1994-95 fiscal year showed an increase of 18. 27 per cent over its 1993-94 export earnings of IJS$22. 7 billion. This is said to be an indicator of how its products and services are perceived by its global customers. It is further stated that the thrust has been shifted from import substitution to development of an export-oriented economy. Other pertinent observations made are: . Indian businesses are pursuing paths of superior quality and high productivity; . quality conscious consumeris m; . increasing competition; . industries expanding their domestic share and venturing into global markets; . significant rise in the ISO 9000 certified companies. The survey conducted by Pati and Reis (1996) has further revealed many interesting aspects bout quality practices in India. The survey questionnaire has used a five-point Likert interval to capture the strength of perception, where points 1 (very high), 2 (high), 3 (medium), 4 (low), and 5 (very low) indicate the degree of current practice related to quality. The critical success factors contributing to quality and overall average scores (3. 43); . role of quality department/personnel (3. 14); . training (3. 69); . product/service design (2. 91); . supplier quality management (2. 6); process management and operating procedures (2. 74); quality data reporting (2. 72); employee relations (2. 2). It is concluded from the survey that the manufacturing sector in India is well aware of importance of quality, and efforts have been channeled to improve product quality. However, the service sector mostly Government owned and operated, lags behind the manufacturing sector in all aspects that i mply quality. TQM ? ± success stories of Indian companies Many Indian companies are beginning to realize that ‘ ‘customer focus† is an absolute requirement of TQM. Jain (1996), while writing on TQM in India, states that companies are paying closer attention to consumer feedback in order to tailor roducts to meet customer needs and are using a wide variety of methods that include benchmarking with rival products, regular customer meetings, and even engaging market research companies to collect consumer feedback on their product range and after sales service. Two specific cases are worth mentioning. Escorts Limited, an automobile manufacturing company, based on the feedback from customers and dealers, changed the delivery route to ensure safe and quick delivery. Similarly, J. K. Synthetics, based on feed back from customer meetings, focused on standardization of quality parameters, and started after-sales service. This resulted in the sales rise from 220 tonnes in first quarter of 1995 to 632 tonnes in the last quarter of the same year, an impressive growth in the sales by three times the previous value. According to a report published in Business Today (1998), some Indian companies are being guided by Yoshikazu Tsuda, a counselor at JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers) in their quest for total quality. Some of these companies are Sona Steering, Jai Bharat Maruti, GKN Invel, Asahi Float Glass, Brakes India, Lucas TVS, India Pistons, and India Piston Rings. Further, as stated in The Economic Times (1998), sixsigma technique, which is considered to be a classic TQM technique, is being practiced by several Indian companies notable among 324 significant achievement by an Indian company due to its practicing TQM principles is reported by Sridharan (1998a). The Indian company Sundaram Fasteners located near Chennai, India, has received the Best of Best Vendors Award consecutively for two years during 1996 and 1997, for its supply of metal radiator caps to General Motors, USA. The award was given to the company for its consistent zero defects rate, 100 percent reliability in delivery schedules, and lowest price. The company is the only supplier to General Motors, USA from India out of its 3,000 supplier companies scattered all over the globe. In an exclusive interview covered by Premchander (1996), the managing director of Asea Brown Boveri Ltd (a partly owned subsidiary of Asea Brown Boveri Limited, Zurich) one of the very successfully operating multi-national companies in India, has stated that the managers have to spend time and resources on TQM. A historical achievement by an Indian company winning the coveted Deming Prize for Overseas Companies, for successful implementation of TQM, is reported by Sridharan (1998b). The Indian company Sundaram Clayton, has successfully turned its people into quality practitioners by the actual deployment of TQM tools, techniques, and systems. 38 ? ± time to market; 22 ? ± corporate credibility. Indian quality scene ? ± a critical view The developments related to Indian companies, concerning quality of products and services, need to be examined on a comparative global scale. This would enable judgement of the progress made in improving quality. A survey made in 1994 in which products and services from 41 countries were ranked by World Competitiveness Report indicates that the quality of Indian products and services is isappointing. According to the summary of results given in Skaria (1995), India’s rank based on different quality parameters is as follows (the rank out of 41 is given followed by the parameter): . 39? ± price to quality; . 38 ? ± practice ofTQM; . 40? ± customer orientation; . 28 ? ± product liability; . 39 ? ± time to innovate; The report clearly suggested that on a global scale, Indian products and services are far from satisfactory, and have a poor image. This is a major cause of worry for the corporate managers particularly for those looking for new markets, and ventures with oreign collaborators. One commonly quoted reason for getting away with low quality in India, is lack of pressure from consumers. Many managers are of the opinion that unless the customers are aware of their right to demand high quality, and insist on companies to invest in quality, they continue to receive poor quality products. While the growth and spread of quality practices are slow in India, TQM has firmly seated itself in other Asiatic countries. In a cover feature on ‘Quality in Asia’ reported in World Executive Digest (1996), it is stated that as Asia grapples with the challenge of lobalization, more and more companies seek ISO 9000 certification and adopt TQM. Companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and China are overtly involved in embracing practices of total quality to march ahead in global markets. According to The Economic Intelligence Unit (1996), which surveyed companies in Hong Kong on issues in the region. The growth of TQM across Asia however means that new approaches are being developed in the region. These observations clearly suggest that India has to carefully watch the developments in the Asiatic region, as TQM principles have been successfully applied by several countries improving their utput quality, attracting more foreign investment, and hence capable of restricting India’s share in the global market. What the quality experts say In spite of the hype created by the ISO 9000 bandwagon, which today has more than 1,500 companies certified as such, quality is yet to emerge as a major strength of Indian products. Managers of Indian companies have still a lot to learn and implement in the image building process based on quality. This is perhaps aptly summarized by a statement made by Philip Crosby as reported in The Times of India (1997). While addressing a 325 ews conference at the end of his weeklong visit to India, Crosby has said that complacency is a major problem with the Indian management system. The managers of Indian industries should take this seriously. In an interview published in Business India (1997-98) James Harrington, a leading authority in the field of quality, has stated that India still has four types of companies: those with poor performance, with good performance, with better performance, and with outstanding performance. Harrington remarks that companies with poor performance went bankrupt in other parts of the world, while those with good performance would follow them. But those with better performance will survive and those with outstanding performance would explode into the twentyflrst century. This indicates that India still has scope for bad products, and bad performance, which need to be immediately curbed. It is pointed out by Sukumar (1998) that TQM continues to baffle corporate India, as evident by the different interpretations made by each person in the industry about what is TQM. It was observed during the Sixth Quality Summit organized by the Cll in New Delhi, that TQM means anything and everything depending on the individual’s perspective, politics, and paradigms. During the summit as many as nine different definitions were presented by the speakers about what constitutes TQM. This means people in the corporate sector have no consensus about the concept of TQM and it could be a deterrent in its implementation. In another survey conducted by Arun et al. (1998) with regard to ISO certified companies interesting observations were made about implementing TQM in a company. Out of 17 companies that were surveyed, managers in seven companies said that though they believe in TQM they do not know how to implement it. The survey further revealed that the long term supplier elationship, an essential ingredient for successful implementation of TQM, has not the implementation of TQM were found to be: continued dependence on traditional incentive schemes, numerical targets, performance rating, slogans for improving productivity, and not identifying and providing the right type of training for each and everyone as demanded for every Job. The survey concludes that if all these factors are not mitigated a company may continue as ISO certified but not be recognized as a TQM company. Comments and conclusion The various surveys independently conducted by researchers and business ublications have revealed that awareness on quality of products and services has picked up in India. With quality based competition intensifying, Indian industries and business people are showing keen interest in improving the quality of products through TQM. A number of organizations, private and Government are actively propagating TQM through a variety of training and educational programs. TQM has proved to be a vital ingredient for success, and now has its permanent roots in the mission and vision† of the Indian corporate sector. However, based on common observations the requirements for quality to succeed in India can be summarized as ollows: . a strong consumer movement; . a sincere and committed drive by the corporate sector to keep quality as the main focus; . trict enforcement of standards by the regulatory bodies and authorities; . avoidance of multiple grading of quality in products, like export quality, first grade, seconds, import rejects, etc. ; . setting an example in adhering to high quality performance and output, before pointing to others. While TQM no doubt has enabled the Indian companies to improve the quality of products and services, the international market demands still higher uality levels to give due recogn ition and acceptance.

Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis Essay Essay

After analyzing the characters in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, one can recognize that many of the characters embody the theme of the novel. One of the prominent themes in Lord of the Flies is man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others, and Golding manages explore and capture this theme in a way that is enjoyable to read. Three characters in the book who truly illustrate the theme of man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others are Jack, Ralph, and Simon. The theme of the novel, man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others is most apparent in Jack Merridew’s character. Our first true glimpse into Jack’s inner monster occurs after he kills his first pig: His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink (Golding, 81). Jack’s excitement stems from having â€Å"outwitted† a living thing, and having â€Å"imposed† his will on it, which he later does with Simon, and Piggy. Jack really has no reason for killing showing that, â€Å"Perhaps the most disturbing motives for killing is just for the thrill of it.† (Ramsland, 3). Throughout the book, Jack is driven by his thirst for power, and is willing to go to any lengths to get what he wants, which includes killing anybody that steps in his way. He  slowly begins to lose his conscience, as shown by the fact that he feels no remorse, guilt, or regret after participating in the brutal murders of both Simon, and Piggy. The fact that Jack could turn from a proper, E nglish boy to a murderer who can kill and feel no remorse, shows that Jack does harbour a monster inside of him, is a savage, and he is very capable of being inhumane to others, thus, illustrating the theme of the novel. Read Also:  Analytical Essay Topics for College Another character who briefly illustrates the theme of the novel is Ralph. Ralph shouldered the responsibility of rescuing all the boys, proving him to be the leader that the boys on the island needed, but even then, Ralph senses himself falling into the same savagery as the other boys at times during the book. On the hunt that Ralph participates in, Ralph’s inner savage has one of its only opportunities to reveal itself, â€Å"Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering† (Golding, 164). This hunt proved that even Ralph, the sensible, responsible, and intellectual leader who represented the struggle for order, civilization, and democracy on the island, has an inner savage, just waiting to get out. Near the end of the book, Ralph was close to falling victim to the other boy’s savagery as they were chasing him through the island, ready to kill him. He trips and falls at the feet of an officer, and begins to cry, â€Å"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy† (Golding, 290). Ralph cries for all that he has lost, and at that moment, he realizes that he will never be the same since he has learned about the evil that lurks within all humans, illustrating the theme of man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others. Man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others is first recognized by the character, Simon, in the novel, Lord of the Flies. When the boys discuss the possibility of there being a beast on the island, Simon steps forward and says, â€Å"Maybe it’s only us.† (Golding, 126) implying that it was the boys themselves who were the â€Å"beast†, capable of hurting, of killing, and of committing other acts of evil. This theme is explored prior to the killing of Simon, the other boys chant, â€Å"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!† (Golding, 219) and when Simon is being murdered, Golding  describes it in brutal detail to emphasize the inhumanity shown by the other boys, and to show how savage they have become: The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws (Golding, 219). On the island, Simon was the only character to represent hope, and innocence, but in the end, he was a direct result of the other boy’s savagery, and inhumanity. His death signified the end of innocence, and goodness on the island. In William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, the theme of man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others is explored in many ways, one of them being through the characters Jack, Ralph, and Simon. Jack embodies this theme the most, since he is the first to turn savage, and impose his will on the other boys. Ralph comes close to becoming a savage at times throughout the book, and Simon is one of the only characters who manages to keep his innocence, but is a direct result of the savagery shown by the other boys on the island in the end. William Golding managed to explore and capture the theme of man’s inner savage; man’s inhumanity to others perfectly in his book, Lord of the Flies in a way that is enjoyable for all to read. Works Cited Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print. Ramsland, Katherine. â€Å"The Unthinkable — Children Who Kill and What Motivates Them† Retrieved December 2, 2012, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/kids2/index_1.html

A Learning Experience Essay

In this content, there will be a discussion on how someone can learns how to not use drugs and what it was like for them before and after their initial use. There will be an identification of what someone would learn from using to not using. Also included in the discussion there will be a description of how someone’s learning could have occurred through classical conditioning, identifying the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response. An explanation will be given in regards to how their learning could have occurred through operant conditioning, describing the behavior, consequence, and reinforcement. There will be an address of how the learning could have occurred through cognitive-social learning. Identifying the Learning Experience Let us say that someone has been doing drugs on a social basis, living a wild and carefree lifestyle. Until one day, a different way of using the drug becomes introduced. In that instance the drug is introduced, it becomes an automatic addiction. It becomes an overwhelming desire to have more to obtain that rush repeatedly. It is the loss of all control and the beginning of losing the power of life. The person frits at the thought of the drug and loses control when they cannot get a hold of it when they want it and how they want it. It becomes a part of their lifestyle and it becomes more difficult for them to lose the desire after a long period of using. It takes a power greater then themselves to quit and the help of people like them who have been clean. With the help and support of these people, the desire to use becomes less and less and the â€Å"disease of addiction,† becomes arrested. What is Learned through the Experience The long term learning experience is learning to live without the use of drugs. Living with the use of drugs causes many to live a life of unmanageability. It leads to a time in an addict’s life when they seek a place where they can receive help, therefore leading to a clean life. They no longer want to live with the obsession of using and no longer with a life of insanity. Classical Conditioning, Unconditioned Stimulus and Response, Conditioned Stimulus and Response Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditional stimulus capable of eliciting a given response after being repeatedly presented with an unconditioned (significant) stimulus (Oxford Reference, 2007). For example, an addict may use a pipe, cigarillos, roll up papers, or syringes (conditional stimulus) whenever an addict set out to use their preferred drug of choice. Eventually, the addict becomes craved at the presence of these items (conditional response), even when the drug was absent (unconditional stimulus). Therefore, the absence of the drug leads to the overwhelming desire to use (unconditional response). If the drugs and all the items are present and then something runs out, the conditional and unconditional stimuli occurs together and are presented at the same place, making the addict powerless. Operant Conditioning, Behavior, Consequence, Reinforcement  Operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning) is a form of learning where an individual forms an association between a particular behavioral response and a particular reinforcement (Oxford Reference, 2007). In the case of an addict, when an addict takes the first drug it may be pleasant, but then a thousand is never enough. Therefore, the cliche becomes an addict’s worst nightmare. They use to live and live to use, resulting in the disease of addiction. Once an addict realizes the more they use the more unpleasant it gets, they do not want to face the consequences of jails, institutions, or death. Therefore, they seek the help of recovering addicts, admit their powerlessness over the drug, and make a choice to come clean. As an addict attempts to come clean, they need the reinforcement of Narcotics Anonymous meetings on a daily basis. It is recommended that a newcomer attend 90 meetings in 90 days, associate themselves with other recovering addicts of the same sex, and to seek out a sponsor to work the Twelve Steps. With all these options that Narcotics Anonymous provides helps a recovering addict get well on their way to living a clean productive life. The recovering addict needs to be constantly reminded to take it a day at a time, remember that they didn’t become an addict over night, to keep going back (to meetings), and easy does it. If an addict keeps coming back, they are less likely to go out an relapse; but if they keep beating themselves up, do not change the people, places, and things around them, and continue to keep their old behaviors, they are just punishing themselves making it less likely for them to return to meetings and instead go out and use. Cognitive-Social Learning Cognitive-social learning incorporates the general concepts of conditioning, but rather than relying on a simple stimulus and response model, this theory emphasizes the interpretation or thinking that occurs within the organism, stimulus-organism-response (Carpenter-Huffman, 2010). In the case of an addict, addicts have attitudes, beliefs, expectations, motivations, and emotions that affect learning (Carpenter-Huffman, 2010). In the case of a recovering addict, these old beliefs, attitudes, false motivation and expectations, and lost emotions, being in the rooms of a Narcotics Anonymous meeting helps them to socialize with other recovering addicts and soon the newcomer is able to learn new behaviors through the observations, suggestions, and reading of literature given. In a roundabout way, the newcomer begins by imitating and sharing in meetings, gains a comfort, develops a sense of security, and becomes honest with themselves, allowing them to become honest with other recovering addicts. They learn that not one person is different from another in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, but they are all alike, one addict reaching out to help another addict recover. Conclusion With the continued socialization and fellowshipping of Narcotics Anonymous, a recovering addict can lose the constant desire to use, find a power greater than themselves, and live a new life taking it a day at a time because any day clean is a day of success. Classical conditioning is a learned behavior that happens with or without the drugs being present. Operant conditioning is knowing that there are consequences for this learned ehavior (drug use), that results in punishment (an addict trying to recover but still having the presence of their old people, places and things resulting in relapse), and lead to a desire to have positive reinforcement (an addict entering into recovery after a life of defeat). Cognitive-social learning is coming to the realization that through participation in the Narcotics Anonymous program, it becomes easier to recover seeing that other addicts too have chosen to recover (imitating and practicing the principles, traditions, and completing the twelve steps).

Global Marketing and Advertising Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Global Marketing and Advertising - Assignment Example Such is an effective strategy that ensures that they develop advertising contents that resonate with the uniqueness of the respective markets. Key among the factors that influence the decisions to localize advertising is the fact that emerging markets become the most lucrative markets for some of the leading global brands. They must, therefore, find appropriate ways of penetrating the unique markets. Hollensen, (2004) asserts that localizing advertisement is vital since it limits the costs of marketing to the prevailing marketing costs in any given market. Introducing a new product in a new market requires the company to employ appropriate brand development strategies. Developing a brand requires the effective introduction of the product a feature that validates the localized advertising. Any company such as those marketing whiskeys like Johnnie Walker cannot employ the same marketing strategies it uses in the United States in such a new country as China. The United States is an established market. Johnnie Walker is a stable brand and a market leader in the country. In China, Johnnie Walker is a new brand with the company barely introducing its products. The company, therefore, uses localized advertising in China with the view to introducing and developing a brand in the country as it has in the United States. In emerging markets, the company uses basic target market strategies such as the marketing mix. The marketing mix is a vital introductory and product developmental strategy that presents specific features of a product (Kotler & Armstrong, 1991). Key among such features is the product itself, the price of the product, place, and promotion. The attractiveness of the emerging markets often enhances the development of a scramble for the market. This requires strategic yet aggressive marketing that validates the use of the marketing mix since it presents the price of a product as a major competitive advantage.

Classroom Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Classroom Environment - Essay Example This supports the school philosophy where it states that â€Å"Creative Care Preschool provides a clean, safe and nurturing environment. It offers rich, age-appropriate learning materials/ experiences for children, carefully planed and prepared by teachers each day. Creative Care Preschool is a place where children free to explore, touch, experiment and ask many of their questions, supervised by adults in school so that they can discover the answers to these questions themselves.† (Creative Care Vision, Mission and Philosophy, 2010, p. 1) In general, the classroom environment should reflect the goals and expectations of the teacher. It will also dictate somehow to the children how they will behave (Brewer, 2001). Space allocation reflects the priorities of the curriculum. According to Boulton-Lewis & Catherwoods (1995), when the quality of the physical environment declined, teacher restriction and control increased, the teacher’s behavior became less friendly, the students became less interested and involved, classroom rules increased, and conflict among children increased. Likewise, Kepler (1995) observed that the learning environment influences, and directly contributes to, children’s behavior and levels of learning. It seems teachers at Creative Care Preschool are well aware of this, as they have structured the physical environment in such a way that children feel free to be themselves. The environment is one that is open and stimulating in order to encourage children to participate, explore, and learn. A stimulating environment provides the teacher with many opportunities to observe where a child’s interests lay as well as those areas the child may be tentative in (Danoff, Breitbart & Barr, 1977). The environment should also be flexible and spontaneous to accommodate children’s play that is essential in a preschool classroom, and is

Theories on Mental Health and Illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Theories on Mental Health and Illness - Essay Example Further, incorporates psychological meaning of events, feelings and behaviors in nursing interventions (Evans, 2008). Travelbee- Human-to-Human Relationship model emphasizing purpose of nursing through establishment of nurse-patient relationship; must assist the patient, family or community to cope with sufferings (Evans, 2008). These ideologies pave the way for considerate and indulgent nursing practice. These theories have given a now outlook to the nursing practice, enabling the development of congenial nurse-patient relationship. This give an impact on the psychology of the patient and helps the patient to confide on nurse, building a confidence and trust in nurse's practice. This trust in turn helps in sooner recovery of patients from the ailments. Psychological theories play crucial role in the personality judgment through human behavior, supporting psychotherapeutic interventions for mental illness.

Adidas Company in Sports Industry Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Adidas Company in Sports Industry - Coursework Example To Adidas Company, putting too many efforts into the whole career thing and strict adhering to certain routines during life do not coincide with the overall expectations. Instead, the company is about passion and a belief that one should push own limits everywhere and all the times. It is sports as the foundation of everything that company does; it is about the redefining the benchmark for discovering and shaping the future; it is the fair play which creates the basis for company’s performance among similar businesses (Our expectations, 2015). All these considerations create the mission of Adidas Group as the company which strives to be the global leader in the provision of sports goods and the services of which are built on the passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. Values of the company describe the desired culture, which are the promotion of sports as the foundation of all Adidas does, passion for constant moving, innovation and the improvement, the integrity approach based on such characteristics as honesty, openness, ethical and fair attitude toward others, and the understanding of the diversity of ideas, strengths and interests in building the company’s brands. At the same time, however, one should understand that vision and mission which are the visual part of the company’s strategy are different from the forces that embed innovation. According to (Dobni, 2010), innovation is premised on the market orientation, the creation of value and defining of the new opportunity space.

Rare earth-Business Globalization Research Paper

Rare earth-Business Globalization - Research Paper Example as shown at Fig-1.The same can be inferred from Table-1 showing the production of rare earth from 1983-2003.The geographical location of major rare earth mines are shown at Fig-2.China, which produced 120,000 tonnes or 97% of world output of rare earths in 2009, is undeniably the largest producer of rare earths globally, with India trailing far behind at a distant second place producing only around 2% of the global output(Humphries,6),(Rare Metal Mining, Nov 7,2010). The Baotou’s Bayan Obo mines in Inner Mongolia of China, containing 40,000,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides hold the largest estimated deposits of rare earths in the world, producing 55,000 tonnes of rare earths annually, which is more than 50% of rare earths presently extracted in China. Neodymium and Lanthanum are produced from left-overs of iron ores at these mines(Forbes.com). The US company Moly Corp at Mountain Pass, California is the topmost rare earth producing plant outside of China, with 6 tonnes daily ou tput of rare earth oxides which approximates to 40-67% of rare earths extracted outside of Chinese mainland(Lifton J, Rare Earth Crisis-Part-1). China, Japan, Korea and the EU are supposedly following a policy of maintaining reserves of rare earths. The European Union has identified as strategic and critical, 40 metals for safeguarding and stockpiling purposes( Lifton J, Rare Metals,5).China, has only recently embarked upon a similar policy of establishing and maintaining rare earth reserves to stabilize their prices. It has been reported that China has plans to store 200,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide reserves spread over 10 strategically located reserves(Deloitte,3). China appears to have become concerned about its rising domestic consumption of rare earths, fuelled by rapid industrialization of its metallurgical sector and consumer demands in varied other sectors such as wind turbine, and electronic goods such as cell phones, laptops and in green energy technologies.

Critical Thinking Essay regarding an Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Thinking regarding an Article - Essay Example rs initiated a critical thinking on pedagogical medication to seniors taking their last capstone course in a school of business organization at a Midwestern university. Two classes of seniors was treated as the trial group, one was the control bunch. The instructional method was based upon Diane Halperns book, Critical thinking Across the Educational module (Halpern, 1997). One of the authors improved this pedagogical medication based upon the cognitive-behavioral instructional framework outline of Foshay, Silber, and Stelnicki. The medication utilized the California Critical Thinking Skill Test (CCTST) as the assessment mechanism (Facione, 1990). The researchers Reid and Anderson (2013) in their article ‘Critical Thinking in a College of Business Administration’ executed the medication inside the capstone classes being taught. They joined basic speculation aptitudes into the research accomplishments where the people were assessed as an ordinary piece of the course, to underscore the utilization of these abilities in true business situations. Learner basic considering scores expanded essentially in six of the seven parameters of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. The outcomes of this examination have been distributed widely. The inquiry remains, nonetheless, as to if the learning, aptitudes, and techniques taught in the course were moved into the particular, scholastic, and expert lives of the graduates. The scientists advanced a 16-inquiry overview to furnish both quantitative and qualitative data concerning the pedagogical medicine. Two inquiries were utilized for screening purposes. Eleven inquiries were quantitative, based upon a 7-focus Likert scale. On this scale, 1 was the most exceedingly bad conceivable score, 7 the best conceivable score, and 4 was characterized as unbiased. The analysts sent duplicates of the review along with a stamped return envelope to the graduates whom they identified. In expansion, duplicates of the review were

Aspects of Adaptive Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Aspects of Adaptive Leadership - Essay Example The various examples and cases discussed in the case study including that of the game strategy used by Earvin 'Magic' Johnson and Bobby Orr; helped in driving home the key message that leaders today are not only required to identify the critical challenges faced by the organizations posed by the external environment but must also orient the employees regarding such challenges and equip them with the task of adapting to the changes by reflecting on their day to day activities. Through various examples discussed in the case study, I learned the value of adaptive work and its relevance, especially in present day and age. This case study helped me in understanding the fact that in the absence of an adaptive work ethics in contemporary corporate environments, businesses risk the threat of extinction. Given the increasing competition brought about by globalization and technological advancements, conventional attitudes towards leadership and management it is imperative to replace convention al approaches to leadership with adaptive leadership. In conclusion, one of the most valuable lessons I learned via this case study is the fact that leadership entails a process of ushering in a generally unwelcome reality and motivating the employees and/or individuals to successfully adapt to it. It refers to the manner in which leaders coax the employees to unlearn the conventional work practices by guiding them to adapt their behavior in a way that helps them thrive in this extremely competitive and dynamic business environment.

Nation-states and colonial regimes have historically managed diversity Essay - 1

Nation-states and colonial regimes have historically managed diversity while creating further diversity in the process. Explain some of these tensions - Essay Example ular media, scholarly literature, professional journals and many more, it is a multifaceted expression, and thus, there is no single definition of diversity. The dictionary definition of diversity is â€Å"a state of unlikeness† or â€Å"the condition of being different.† For many, diversity means inclusion, gender, or racial differences. Since we are all different, diversity is a term that includes everyone. In this essay, diversity refers to individual, group and cultural differences. A nation-state is an independent state in which the majority of the citizens are united by factors such as common descent and language, which are factors that define a nation. JurgenOsterhammel (2005) as â€Å"a relationship between the majority who are indigenous and the foreign invaders who are the minority†, on the other hand, defines colonialism. In the pursuit of interests, the colonial rulers make and implement the fundamental decisions that affect the lives of the colonized people. History has that many examples of colonial regimes rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population exist. This end up forcing the colonized population believes that the colonizers are the superior. Unsurprisingly, this rejection leads to tensions within the diverse population. A concept that has been propagated to respond and manage the issue of diversity is multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is the ideology of embracing diversity in cultures and formulation of policies to protect the existence of different orientations in a population (Long, 1997). It is all about making people in a society to preserve their different cultures. The idea of multiculturalism is manifested in the approach used to propagate and champion for it. Advocacy groups are formed to push for recognition of the right of people to uphold and practice their culture and religion. Another way it comes out is by creating of policies that promote diversity of cultures. The concept is opposed to the integration of

Backward Design Essay Example for Free

Backward Design Essay Deliberate and focused instructional design requires us as teachers and curriculum writers to make an important shift in our thinking about the nature of our job. The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities. Though considerations about what to teach and how to teach it may dominate our thinking as a matter of habit, the challenge is to focus first on the desired learnings from which appropriate teaching will logically follow. Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results. It is analogous to travel planning. Our frameworks should provide a set of itineraries deliberately designed to meet cultural goals rather than a purposeless tour of all the major sites in a foreign country. In short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought. The appropriateness of this approach becomes clearer when we consider the educational purpose that is the focus of this book: understanding. We cannot say how to teach for understanding or which material and activities to use until we are quite clear about which specific understandings we are after and what such understandings look like in practice. We can best decide, as guides, what â€Å"sites† to have our student â€Å"tourists† visit and what specific â€Å"culture† they should experience in their brief time there only if we are clear about the particular understandings about the culture we want them to take home. Only by having specified the desired results can we focus on the content, methods, and activities most likely to achieve those results. But many teachers begin with and remain focused on textbooks, favored lessons, and time-honored activities—the inputs—rather than deriving those means from what is implied in the desired resultsâ€⠀the output. To put it in an odd way, too many teachers focus on the teaching and not the learning. They spend most of their time thinking, first, about what they will do, what materials they will use, and what they will ask students to do rather than first considering what the learner will need in order to accomplish the learning goals. Consider a typical episode of what might be called content-focused design instead of results-focused design. The teacher might base a lesson on a particular topic (e.g., racial prejudice), select a resource (e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird), choose specific instructional methods based on the resource and topic (e.g., Socratic seminar to discuss the book and cooperative groups to analyze stereotypical images in films and on television), and hope thereby to cause learning (and meet a few English/language arts standards). Finally, the teacher might think up a few essay questions and quizzes for assessing student understanding of the book. This approach is so common that we may well be tempted to reply, What could be wrong with such an approach? The short answer lies in the basic questions of purpose: Why are we asking students to read this particular novel—in other words, what learnings will we seek from their having read it? Do the students grasp why and how the purpose should influence their studying? What should students be expected to understand and do upon reading the book, related to our goals beyond the book? Unless we begin our design work with a clear insight into larger purposes—whereby the book is properly thought of as a means to an educational end, not an end unto itself—it is unlikely that all students will understand the book (and their performance obligations). Without being self-conscious of the specific understandings about prejudice we seek, and how reading and discussing the book will help develop such insights, the goal is far too vague: The approach is more â€Å"by hope† than â€Å"by design.† Such an approach ends up unwittingly being one that could be described like this: Throw some content and activities against the wall and hope some of it sticks. Answering the â€Å"why?† and â€Å"so what?† questions that older students always ask (or want to), and doing so in concrete terms as the focus of curriculum planning, is thus the essence of understanding by design. What is difficult for many teachers to see (but easier for students to feel!) is that, without such explicit and transparent priorities, many students find day-to-day work confusing and frustrating. The twin sins of traditional design More generally, weak educational design involves two kinds of purposelessness, visible throughout the educational world from kindergarten through graduate school. We call these the â€Å"twin sins† of traditional design. The error of activity-oriented design might be called â€Å"hands-on without being minds-on†Ã¢â‚¬â€engaging experiences that lead only accidentally, if at all, to insight or achievement. The activities, though fun and interesting, do not lead anywhere intellectually. Such activity-oriented curricula lack an explicit focus on important ideas and appropriate evidence of learning, especially in the minds of the learners. A second form of aimlessness goes by the name of â€Å"coverage,† an approach in which students march through a textbook, page by page (or teachers through lecture notes) in a valiant attempt to traverse all the factual material within a prescribed time. Coverage is thus like a whirlwind tour of Europe, perfectly summarized by the old movie title If Its Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, which properly suggests that no overarching goals inform the tour. As a broad generalization, the activity focus is more typical at the elementary and lower middle school levels, whereas coverage is a prevalent secondary school and college problem. No guiding intellectual purpose or clear priorities frame the learning experience. In neither case can students see and answer such questions as these: Whats the point? Whats the big idea here? What does this help us understand or be able to do? To what does this relate? Why should we learn this? Hence, the students try to engage and follow as best they can, hoping that meaning will emerge. The three stages of backward design Stage 1: Identify desired results What should students know, understand, and be able to do? What content is worthy of understanding? What enduring understandings are desired? In Stage 1 we consider our goals, examine established content standards (national, state, district), and review curriculum expectations. Because typically we have more content than we can reasonably address within the available time, we must make choices. This first stage in the design process calls for clarity about priorities. Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence How will we know if students have achieved the desired results? What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency? The backward design orientation suggests that we think about a unit or course in terms of the collected assessment evidence needed to document and validate that the desired learning has been achieved, not simply as content to be covered or as a series of learning activities. This approach encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first â€Å"think like an assessor† before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine if students have attained the desired understandings. Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction With clearly identified results and appropriate evidence of understanding in mind, it is now the time to fully think through the most appropriate instructional activities. Several key questions must be considered at this stage of backward design: What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and skills (processes, procedures, strategies) will students need in order to perform effectively and achieve desired results? What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills? What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of performance goals? What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals? Note that the specifics of instructional planning—choices about teaching methods, sequence of lessons, and resource materials—can be successfully completed only after we identify desired results and assessments and consider what they imply. Teaching is a means to an end. Having a clear goal helps to foc us our planning and guide purposeful action toward the intended results. Conclusion Backward design may be thought of, in other words, as purposeful task analysis: Given a worthy task to be accomplished, how do we best get everyone equipped? Or we might think of it as building a wise itinerary, using a map: Given a destination, whats the most effective and efficient route? Or we might think of it as planning for coaching: What must learners master if they are to effectively perform? What will count as evidence on the field, not merely in drills, that they really get it and are ready to perform with understanding, knowledge, and skill on their own? How will the learning be designed so that learners capacities are developed through use and feedback? This is all quite logical when you come to understand it, but â€Å"backward† from the perspective of much habit and tradition in our field. A major change from common practice occurs as designers must begin to think about assessment before deciding what and how they will teach. Rather than creating assessments near the conclusion of a unit of study (or relying on the tests provided by textbook publishers, which may not completely or appropriately assess our standards and goals), backward design calls for us to make our goals or standards specific and concrete, in terms of assessment evidence, as we begin to plan a unit or course. The rubber meets the road with assessment. Three different teachers may all be working toward the same content standards, but if their assessments vary considerably, how are we to know which students have achieved what? Agreement on needed evidence of learning leads to greater curricular coherence and more reliable evaluation by teachers. Equally important is the long-term gain in teacher, student, and parent insight about what does and does not count as evidence of meeting complex standards.

Friendship In Fried Green Tomatoes

Friendship In Fried Green Tomatoes Friendship is the relationship between two or more more people who trust, have faith and are concerned with the welfare of each other.Relationship involves intimacy and mutual care for one another.A good friend has the responsibility of accepting good and bad qualities of his friends and one who is ready to help his friend in changing bad traits.Friends should love each other and have faith in whatever their friends tell them.Friendship has to do with undertsnding and caring for one another.A relationship based on this qualities makes friends to have a good feeling and smile because of the love and care which is given to him.In some cases people do not remain to be friends for a long period of time for instance when people disagree with each other and seize to be friends. When making friends people should be careful because all friends may not be good. Some friends will only be for you during the times of happiness but they run away when problems arises.These are not good friends bec ause you cannot depend on them.Good friends will always sacrifice to be with you during good and bad moments of your life and they will understand your strong and weakpoints (Fanny 10). Having friends is a very important aspect in life. One may have all the necessities needed in life like money, good house, clothing but still friends are needed. Human beings are depend on one another and they can not survive all alone.There are some things that other people must do for you and therefore its very important to have people around you.If for example one gets sick, he/she will need other people to take them to the hospital making friends very important to the lives of individuals.Friendship is therefore something which all people should have in order to have peace of mind (Fanny 15). There are different kinds of friendships for example friendship based on utility. In this kind of friendship, people become friends so that they can benefit personally. For example people who come together and start a business.They do not spend most of their times together and they may not like each other.A very common form of friendship is one which is based on pleasure.This is a friendship between two people with the aim of gaining pleasure from one another.This kind of friendship occurs mainly between people of different sexes who have love and affection for one another.The main aimof this friendshilp is compabnionship and these people may end up marrying one another. Being a very important aspect of life, i will discuss friendship in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes basing my arguiment on one relationship. Fried Green Tomatoes was a novel written in 1987 by Fannie Flagg which later came to be adaptedas a movie in 1991.It was a commedy drama which was based on the novel and it was lreleased in the United States bearing the full name of the novel.The film was directed by Jon Avnet and written by Fannie Flaggin conjunction with Carol Sobieki. The film is about of twowomen Ruth and Idgie at a time when they have difficulties in their friendships.There is also another friendshipwhich ekxisted in 1980s between Evelyn a woman of a middle age and Ninny an old woman.Ninny knew ruth and Idgie.The story dwells much on the murder of ruths husb,and who was abusive and the accusations which came after he was murdered. The film received two academy awards and critics of film were positive in the poem.The people who were making the view criticized it because the group which reviewed the book ignored the contents about lesbian (Fanny 28). The film begins with Evelyn Couch a house wife aged around 40 years who mwas timid and unhappy coming in to contact with Ninny Threadgoode in a Birminghamfond in a nursing home called Alabama. Ninny and Evelyn visit each other several times during which Evelyn tells her about a town in Alabama called Whistle Stop which had been occupied by people sometimes back but they had moved from that place (Fanny 30). She tells her stories of people who used to occupy that town.She begins the story by telling about Idgie Threadgoode the youngest of her children but who during her description is reffered to as her sister in law.Idgie had a brother who was a good friend of him but he died through an accident by a train.After the death of his brother whoi meant alot to his life, he moved away from his society where he spend most of his childhood and adolescent stages. She stayed away from his family until Ruth Jamison the former girlfriend of his brother is requested by his family to intervene so that they can become friends. She refused to befriend Ruth in the first stages but after some time she found a space in her heart to have feelings for her.Frank Bennette befriends Ruth and marries her after which they moved fromWhistle Stop town and settles in Valdosta, Georgia. The act of Ruth getting married annoyed Idigie because she lost her friend .It was a hard task for her to forget ruth but she tried hard to forget her. She later paid a visit to Ruth who was already carrying a baby but her husband Frank abused her.Idgie pleads with Ruth to leave her husband and accompany her back to Whistle Stop.Ruth accepted but Frank was against the idea.It is at Whistle Stop that Ruth gave birth to a baby named Buddy Jr. Idgie was given money to open a business so that she can cater for the needs of Ruth and her baby. Ruth and Idgie opened a cafe at Whistle Stop Town called Whistle Stop Cafe. They employed Sipsey and Big George her son as cooks.These cooks made barbeque which became popul ar with their patrons within a short period of time. Frank paid a visit to Whistle Stop town with the aim of kidnapping Buddy Jr. But he was killed by an assailant who was not recognized. For some time frank could not be found and his car was found at the bottom of a sea around the town.Idgie is suspected to be responsible of Franks death because she had threatened him publicly because of beating her friend Ruth. Idgie and Big George were arrested as suspects for the murder of Frank (Fanny 38). The police wanted torelease her and pin the crime to Big George alone but she refused to betray her friend.The judge during the trial says that the two clients were not aware of the diappearance of Frak because had had gone on a three day journey but it was a lie.In addition to that he says that Frank was always drunk and his death cloud have resulted from an accident.Idgie and her friend are cleared of the charges and released.Ruth died soon after the trial as a result of cancer.The Cafe closed after Ruth died and many people who stayed in Whis tle Stop migrated to other places.That is the way Ninny ended her story to Evelyne without revealing to her what really caused the death of Frank. Franks death came accidentallly because he was killed by Sipsey with a cast iron skillet in an effort to prevent him from kidnapping Buddy Jr.The body was then taken by Big George and he berbecued it while the body was burried by his mother in the garden of Mrs.Threadgoode. Ninny stayed in the nursing home temporary because her house had been condemned and torn away.When Ninny became aware of what had happenegd to her she decided to welcome her and give her a room in her own house since they had already became good friends. Ninny accepted accepted to stay with Evelyne.On their way from Ninnys former home, they passed through the grave of Ruth which was decorated with flowers and on top of it was a card bearing the writings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Bee Charmerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  the nickname she was given by Idigie. After the death of Mrs Threadgroode, Evelyne got a letter from a neighbour of Mrs. Threadgoode inviting her for a visit (Fanny 40). She went to visit her grave carrying pink flowers.She found a note on Ruths grave fron Idgie which had not taken long after visiting the grave of Mrs. Threadgoode. Finally Idgie is found to be stillliving selling honey on a satnd which is near a road. There are many themes in this film. For example the theme of food is highly elaborated. In the cafe where Sipsey and her son cooked they prepared barbecue which became popular to many people. Rth and Idgie sold food for the blacks through the back doors at a reduced rate.When Frank died, his body is said to have been barbecued by Big George and served to the people. Food is a very important aspect such that human beings are also eaten.The film portrays lesbianism in the sense that when Buddy the brother to Idgie died, she was encouraged by her family to befriend her (Fanny 45). This is a clear indication that the society encourages lesbianism.Women are mistreated by men according to this novel.When we look at Evelyne,she was unhappy with her marriage because her husband had ignored her.The same case applies to Ruth who was abused by Frank her husband.Another theme in the film is death. So many people have died in the film. To begin with, Buddy the boyfriend to Ruth was hit by a train and he died. Frank was bitten by Sipsey with a cast iron skillet in an attempt to prevent him from kidnapping Buddy Jr. which caused his death. Ruth died as a result of cancer while Mrs. Threadgoode is also said to have died and burried in the same place with Ruth. The death of all these characters makes death a major theme in this film. The other theme and among the most important is the theme of friendship. According to the film, we have a series of friendships.To start with Mrs. Threadgoodes became a very good friend of Evelyne after they came in to contact with each other for a period of time.Through the story which Threadgoode gave to Evelyne, she was encouraged by the character of Idgie thus influencing her positively in her ways of living .Buddy and Ruth were also friends. According to the film, Ruth was Buddyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s girl friend but the relationship ended when he died as a result of an accident.Buddy was also a friend to his sister Idgie.When Buddy passed away, her sister was so much affected an indication that the two people were very good friends with each other.Ruth befriended Frank who married her but later started abusing her. Idgie was offended by the marriage because she lost her friend Ruth to Frank.She was so much attached to Ruth because even after Ruth married Frank, she took a long time to forget her. All the above are friendships portrayed in the film. In my paper i will discuss the relationship between Ruth and Idgie (Fanny 56). According to this book friendship is defined as a relationship which is different fromothers.Friends volunatariry come together.Frindships are different fromother relationships like marriage relationships which are based on institutions and established laws. Friends are not governed by laws and there is no standard way through which friends should interact.Friendships have some qualities like emtional closeness.Some people become friends so that they can be emotionally close.Emotional love comes as a result of spending time together, talking and going through experiences together.Issues of gender and sex however have impacts on the way people express their emotions towards their friends.Some people get close to their friends through dialogue.As for women,the best way to maintain social closeness is through listening and talking.Through talking with one another people can understand lives of other people.Through dialogue friends can become emotionally close. Ruth and Idgie must have t alked together during the time they stayed together.Another way through which people can become emotionally close is through doing things (Wood 253). When people do things together and they perform duties for one another, they become close to each other.Looking at the relationship between Ruth and Idgie they did their things together.They opened a cafe where they helped one another. The two people participated in all the activities in the cafe.Through sharing of the duties, these people became close to each other.Another quality is acceptance.Each and every person wants to be accepted by his/her friends.We all have our strong and weak points and we expect our friends to appreciate us the way we are. People try their level best to ensure that they impress people who are knew to them. Ruth was wrong when she agreed to marry Frank and leave behind her friend Idgie who loved her very much.However we can say that both of the two characters accepted and appreciated each other based on the way they conducted themselves. Idgie even offered to take good care of Ruth and her child because she had accepted her as a friend. Friends should trust each other.We should trust our friends that we can relie on them.We should also trust their words in the sense that they will do what they say.Trust also means being sure that the friends that we have cares for our welfare.Idgie was a trustful friend of Ruth because she was very much concerned with her welfare.When she found that Frank was abusing Ruth through beating her, she took her and offered to care of her and the pregnancy until she gave birth.This shows how much she cared about her.In addition, she threatened Frank in the public because of abusing her friend which is a risk to her because she was later suspected to be responsible for his death and was jailed (Wood 258). Friends should support each other both in words and financially.Support includes telling your friends that you love them.Another way of suporting our friends is through being available and helping them in times of difficulties.Its clear from the film that Idgie was always there for Ruth an d she sacrificed her time and money in helping her and the baby.Its true to ssay that the relationship between these people was based on good characteristics of a friendship.Even after the death of Ruth we can see Idgie visiting her grave an indication that she was a very influential person in her life. Sometimes friendships come to an end because of several reasons.Friendships can come to an end when people disagree on some issues or when as a result of separation.Friendship can seize if people who are friends stop coming into contact with each other the way they used to do.Education and employment are some of the factors which can make people stop being friends when they move far away from each other.Many friendships however do not end umbruptly. They fade slowly by slowly until the friendship comes to an end (Wood 260). When friendship comes to an end, people will change their mode of communication. People who used to spend alot of time with others do not see the need of spending time with them.Words like I do not have time for you may be heard from people who used to be very good friends.Ruth accepted to leave Idgie who had been her friend because she had seen another friend Frank. This is how their relationship came to an end even though they later agreed on each other and star ted staying together. In most cases friends do not always lead a smooth life. They are also subjected to pressures from internal and also from external just like other relationships of human beings.Internal tensions arise from an individual and the interactions he/she is involved in.Pressure can arise in a friendship if the parties have different needs.If what i need in not what my friend needs then we are likely to differ (Wood 265).Communication also affects friendships especially in a case where th parties come from different cultural backgrounds and do not understand each other.For instance some societies no not circumcize their males while most of the societies do.This differences can be a problem in a friendship.Sexual attraction can also pause a problem in the case where friends have decided not to have sexual intercourse but one of them is not abiding to what they said. Friendships are also affected by external pressures.Human beings change from time to throughout their life.The same thing applies to friends.Whenever one moves from one place like schools,colleges, to another they make new friends.Since people make friends with people they meet frequently, they are likely to forget old friends.Geographic distance also affects friendship.When people migrate from one place to another they will make new friends there.However technology has made it easy for people far away from each other to continue with their communication through emailing and face book thus maintaining their friendship. Friendship is a very important aspect of life as portrayed in the film because through friends we can achieve what we may not achieve alone (Wood 268). Work Cited Flagg, Fanny. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Audio Download. London: Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 2007. Wood, Julia. Interpersonal communication: everyday encounters. 6th edition. Wadsworth: Boston, 2010.

William Shakespeare An Analysis

William Shakespeare An Analysis Why was William Shakespeare regarded as the best English play writer? In his book Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt describes Shakespeare as â€Å"the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time†. This echoes the fact that ‘the Bard’ is often considered to be one of England’s greatest authors. Even today his work is read by thousands of schoolchildren, his plays are performed in many theatres (including the replica Globe in London which is named after him), his plays have been repeatedly filmed and turned into parts of popular culture, and his language is often quoted in various forms. In addition, his home town of Stratford has become one of England’s premier tourist attractions. Considering Shakespeare is such a famous figure, it is remarkable how little we actually know about his life. In fact, some critics have suggested that this is one reason for his continuing success or for the ‘cult’ of ‘The Bard’: if the man himself is a myth then he can be permanently recreated for many generations. However there are some details that we can identify with relative confidence. Shakespeare was born in 1564, probably on April 23rd as he was baptised on the 26th. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire where his father was a glover and alderman. He   received a good education at the local grammar school, the Kings New School, where boys were taught Latin grammar and classical texts (he later used Latin sources for the plots of some of his plays, for example Titus Andronicus refers to Ovid’s tales Metamorphoses). By the time Shakespeare was 18 he was married to a relative and local woman named Anne Hathaway, with whom he eventually had three children, called Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 there are few records to indicate where Shakespeare was living and under what occupation, though a number of different stories suggest he was already in London, or had fled accused of poaching, or was in fact himself a teacher: â€Å"He had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the country† wrote John Aubrey. But by 1592 records suggest that he was established in London as a playwright, where he continued to write and perform plays with considerable success until shortly before his death in 1616 (coincidentally, on April 23rd, his birthday). When Shakespeare’s plays were originally published all together in the First Folio of 1623, they were collected for the first time, and were divided into comedies, tragedies and histories. While these generic categories are not always upheld today, and there are some plays such as Measure for Measure which do not easily fit into one group or another, there are consistencies between some of the plays which allow them to be grouped in this manner.   We can identify certain patterns based upon genre. For example, in Othello, Othello’s murder of Desdemona followed by suicide restores the social status quo of a powerful state under white leadership. Hamlet’s death in Hamlet disrupts the royal line but succeeds in first purging the state of the corruption, the â€Å"something rotten†, that affects the country. However both of these plays, like Macbeth, are mainly concerned not with social relations but with following the decline of a powerful character. It is true that there is often a comic subplot in the plays to provide a light relief, but the main plot follows a tragic flaw in character to a tragic conclusion usually of multiple deaths. By contrast, where tragedy has multiple deaths, the comedy plays usually offer multiple marriages – this is one of their most characteristic features. Confusion and misinterpretations are resolved not in duels or deaths but in reconciliation and the restoration of characters to their proper social roles. At the end of Twelfth Night, Orsino responds to the revelation of Sebastian and Viola’s identities with the following lines: â€Å"If this be so, as yet the glass seems true, I shall have share in this most happy wrack† (V.i) Although â€Å"wrack† suggests the potential for catastrophe, it has found its proper romantic conclusion and the love-plot is untangled. Viola is released from her disguise as the boy Cesaro and restored to her proper female role, and everyone’s identity revealed. Social reconciliation usually takes this form in Shakespeare’s comedies as lovers are united in marriage, usually in groups of two or three pairs whose plots are followed together throughout the play. Multiple narratives are drawn together often in the final scene. The ability to resolve complex plots in such a way is one of the features that make Shakespeare such a great dramatist. Shakespeare’s construction of love, though often seemingly simplistic in its conclusion, is sophisticated in being able to question each character’s ability to make the right decisions for themselves, and the different layers of narrative serve as comments upon the other plots that work alongside them. In the complex reversals of affection in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most popular romantic comedies, the proper order of the lovers is disrupted and then restored by Oberon and his servant Puck: â€Å"When they next awake, all this derision, Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision† (III.ii.370-1) A popular theme running throughout the plays is disguise and the complication of identity which in the case of gender roles enables Shakespeare to further entangle the male-female tensions which are at the centre of marriage plots. Famous heroines who dress up as boys include Viola in Twelfth Night and Rosaline in As You Like It, who are able under the cover of their male identities to act out courtship activities, Viola acting on behalf of Orsino in carrying his suit to Olivia and Rosaline teaching Orlando to woo in the guise of Ganymede. In Twelfth Night this then creates comic confusion (and sometimes pain) in a typical love triangle: â€Å"My master loves her dearly, And I (poor monster) fond as much on him, And she (mistaken) seems to dote on me† (II.ii) Viola is a â€Å"monster† in the play because she is not in her proper position as a woman, and cannot express her feelings to the Duke. It is only when she is restored to her female role that the plot can be properly concluded. In speeches such as this one, the audience’s ability to see which way love is really directed in the play create a distance of dramatic irony that reduces the damaging effect of characters who are experiencing pain. Also, the passionate language that Shakespeare is sometimes so flowery that it enables him to generate comedy from expressions of passion: â€Å"O when mine eyes did see Olivia first, / Methought she purged the air of pestilence† (I.i). Unlike in tragedy, when Gertrude â€Å"protests too much† in Hamlet and is then horribly implicated in the crimes which have so upset her son, this kind of exaggeration in comedies creates the effect of laughter, because the audience realise that they have more knowledge than the charact ers in the play. One of the reasons often given for Shakespeare’s enduring popularity is his â€Å"universal† appeal: his stories cross many genres and different places and periods in history and thus they always seem relevant to a particular society at a particular moment in time, or can be adapted to seem relevant (and they have been adapted into many languages around the world). Sometimes this provides a political context for the plays, sometimes it merely serves to add fresh ways of interpreting the language and the scenery, for example in Baz Luhrman’s film William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the story takes place in a futuristic modern-day setting at ‘Verona Beach’ in America, where the commercial rivalry of the Capulets and Montagues replaces their social positions and where guns and advertising are everywhere, contrasting with the romantic poetry as it is retained from the play. But it remains a tragic and affecting story. Shakespeare himself created an impression of universal drama in the language that he uses in suggesting that what was represented in the theatre could represent the whole world. In As You Like It he wrote the following famous lines, â€Å"All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts† (II.vii) Here he refers to the activities in the theatre, the actors coming on and off stage, to suggest a metaphor for how people live their lives. He suggests that anybody could play a different part, or any part, so we could all recognise ourselves in a Shakespeare play. It also hints towards the way that characters such as Olivia and Rosaline dress up as other than they are, assume different roles or become different ‘players’. It was common in Shakespeare’s time for the actors in each company to play many different roles, sometimes within the same plays and sometimes across several plays that were being performed in the same week. This kind of language is also reflected in plays such as Macbeth, in tragedy rather than in comedy, where in the dying speech of the play’s hero or antihero he says, â€Å"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.† (V.v) Here the metaphor extends to the process of life itself, which is only like a â€Å"poor player† who has only an â€Å"hour† to perform. This is perhaps wishful thinking on the part of Macbeth who would like to imagine that his actions were only â€Å"performed† and that they â€Å"signified nothing†, as he is now consumed by guilt for the murder of Duncan. The metaphors of theatre run right through the plays in a way that both playfully emphasises their artificiality, as stories and characters who are performed many times in many different ways, and a way that makes them feel eternal, that they could be acted a countless number of times and still have something to say to us. Also, it is notable that the theatre in which Shakespeare spent the longest years working was called The Globe, drawing attention again to the round stage as representing the universe. The legacy of Shakespeare’s language can be observed not just in how frequently his plays are quoted but also in everyday language and conversation; even without realising it we have absorbed many of his sayings into modern English which we now take for granted. From Lady Macbeth saying â€Å"what’s done is done† in Macbeth to Juliet parting from Romeo in â€Å"such sweet sorrow,† these phrases have become part of our vocabulary so that often their use is unconscious. Shakespeare also used proverbs which may have been popular at the time and which have been handed down to us through the medium of his plays, including phrases like â€Å"to the manner born† and â€Å"brevity is the soul of wit†, both of which can be found in Hamlet. By the time Shakespeare died in 1616 he had written a remarkable quantity of plays and enjoyed a successful career as both playwright and actor. When his plays were finally published together in 1623 they were preserved for future generations to enjoy and to adapt. Today the popularity of Shakespeare appears to be as high as ever, as people all over the world continue to read the plays and to recognise the universal value of the ‘great Bard’. Bibliography Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, Penguin (1967) Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arden (2005) Shakespeare, William, Twelfth Night, Penguin (1994) Shakespeare, William, As You Like It, Arden (2006) Crystal, David, Think on My Words: Exploring Shakespeare’s Language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (2008) Greenblatt, Stephen, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, London: Pimlico (1995), Macrone, Michael Lulevitch, Tom, Brush Up Your Shakespeare!: An Infectious Tour Through the Most Famous and Quotable Words and Phrases from the Bard, Collins (2000)

Career Integration Research Assignment: Athletic Training Essay

The field of athletic training is one of the fastest expanding careers today. This could be due to the much greater demand for health care providers. Athletic trainers specialize in preventing, diagnosing, and treating muscle and bone injuries. They work with a diverse group of patients, from young children to professional athletes. Athletic trainers are usually part of a sport medicine team, which tend to include a physician, physical therapist, and even a sport psychologist. Many athletic trainers work in educational facilities, such as high schools and colleges. However, much of their time is spent on the sport fields. The profession applies their wide range of medical knowledge; and in order to do so, athletic trainers must have strong interpersonal and communication skills to converse with the athletes, coaches, physicians, and parents (Occupational outlook handbook, 2012). Athletic trainers are mainly responsible for injury recovery and injury prevention. However, these responsibilities are physical concerns, but what about the mental concerns? There is a movement within the athletic training field to approach sport injuries with a more holistic perspective. Many athletic trainers have had inadequate education in sport psychology to institute any sort of psychological initiative in their rehabilitation programs. This paper will discuss some of the prospective ideas and various methods of rehabilitation tactics that could be used in the field, as well as how to perhaps properly train athletic trainers to administer these mental treatments, along with the physical treatments. These mental treatments will be related back to sport and exercise psychology concepts, such as strategies for setting realistic goals, methods for enc... .... (2009). The Impact of a Workshop on Athletic Training Students' Sport Psychology Behaviors. Sport Psychologist, 23(4), 504-522. Jeansonne, J., Hoenig, J., & Hollander, D. (2008). Applying Sport Science Theories to Increase Rehabilitation Adherence. Athletic Therapy Today, 13(3), 18-19. Naylor, A. (2009). The Role of Mental Training in Injury Prevention. Athletic Therapy Today, 14(2), 27-29. Occupational outlook handbook. (2012, March 29). Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Athletic-trainers.htm Podlog, L., & Eklund, R. (2009). High-level athletes' perceptions of success in returning to sport following injury. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 10(5), 535-544. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.02.003 Wiese, D., Weiss, M., & Yukelson, D. (1991). Sport Psychology in the Training Room: A Survey of Athletic Trainers. Sport Psychologist, 5(1), 15-24.

What a Society Prepares Itself For :: Personal Narrative Racing Death Papers

What a Society Prepares Itself For I'm from Texas. And when I lived in Texas, which was before I lived in New York, my friends were Texans. I don't mean to say they were the all-got-up-in cowboy hats, tight jeans, bit belt buckles, and snakeskin boots kind of Texans a lot of people tend to think about. But I do mean to say they were the beer drinking, football playing, pick-up driving, bar brawling kind of good 'ol Texas boys that don't really exist anywhere else but where I spent the first eighteen years of my life. And, although you might never be able to tell from my long hair, baggy pants, lack of shoes, and the random book I'm usually reading, I was one of them. We'd go to Mexico on school breaks and hop keg parties on the weekend. And on one Saturday night, I went and watched some drag races with my friends at this little speedway in a town called Ennis, which is outside of Dallas. We drove out in two trucks, the seven of us, drinking beer on the way. When we got there it wasn't quite as nice a place as the Texa s Motor Speedway (I've been to the Texas Motor Speedway also, you see), or the Indianapolis Speedway, but it is a similar atmosphere. It was dusty, loud, and smelled like tire rubber and motor oil. A majority of the crowd seemed to be either drinking beer, betting on the races, or both. But it wasn't just an "overweight, sweaty, wasted, smelling-of-beer-and-marijuana, American, middle-aged man" gala weekend attraction either. There were plenty of hard working middle class men (mostly men) that had nice houses in the suburbs of Dallas who worked hard all week long, maybe even owned their own business, with their kids going to college at Texas A&M, or Texas Tech, or the University of Texas, or maybe even Rice. And as the night went on, I began to notice something. The first thing was that my friends knew a hell of a lot about racecars. That was odd because nine out of ten of my friends barely went to school half the time, much less studied, and yet they knew the intricate details of the speed, weight, torque, and horsepower of the cars. My second observation, more subtle yet more striking than my first, was that ever yone was getting along impeccably. What a Society Prepares Itself For :: Personal Narrative Racing Death Papers What a Society Prepares Itself For I'm from Texas. And when I lived in Texas, which was before I lived in New York, my friends were Texans. I don't mean to say they were the all-got-up-in cowboy hats, tight jeans, bit belt buckles, and snakeskin boots kind of Texans a lot of people tend to think about. But I do mean to say they were the beer drinking, football playing, pick-up driving, bar brawling kind of good 'ol Texas boys that don't really exist anywhere else but where I spent the first eighteen years of my life. And, although you might never be able to tell from my long hair, baggy pants, lack of shoes, and the random book I'm usually reading, I was one of them. We'd go to Mexico on school breaks and hop keg parties on the weekend. And on one Saturday night, I went and watched some drag races with my friends at this little speedway in a town called Ennis, which is outside of Dallas. We drove out in two trucks, the seven of us, drinking beer on the way. When we got there it wasn't quite as nice a place as the Texa s Motor Speedway (I've been to the Texas Motor Speedway also, you see), or the Indianapolis Speedway, but it is a similar atmosphere. It was dusty, loud, and smelled like tire rubber and motor oil. A majority of the crowd seemed to be either drinking beer, betting on the races, or both. But it wasn't just an "overweight, sweaty, wasted, smelling-of-beer-and-marijuana, American, middle-aged man" gala weekend attraction either. There were plenty of hard working middle class men (mostly men) that had nice houses in the suburbs of Dallas who worked hard all week long, maybe even owned their own business, with their kids going to college at Texas A&M, or Texas Tech, or the University of Texas, or maybe even Rice. And as the night went on, I began to notice something. The first thing was that my friends knew a hell of a lot about racecars. That was odd because nine out of ten of my friends barely went to school half the time, much less studied, and yet they knew the intricate details of the speed, weight, torque, and horsepower of the cars. My second observation, more subtle yet more striking than my first, was that ever yone was getting along impeccably.

Disease Surveillance

Disease surveillance is defined as the systematic data collection, data analysis and interpretation of the results in order to enable effective planning in the aspect of disease control. It enables infectious diseases to be detected early so that their potential threat to the public is minimized. The threats may be due to cases of food borne infections, bioterrorism and communicable diseases (Lombardo and Buckeridge, 2007). There are several systems and networks that have been put in place in order to help in the surveillance of infectious diseases.Disease surveillance also requires the collaboration of different partners and officials, an effective communication system and reliable laboratory networks in order to be effective. BioSense involves the use of syndromic data derived from different electronic sources. This improves the speed at which disease is detected. It enables outbreaks to be detected early enough before they lead to serious problems. It has been applied in different sectors by the state such as to detect any cases of bioterrorism and other threats that may put the lives of the citizens in danger.This system has been employed by CDC (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Electronic Laboratory Exchange Networks (eLEXNET) is a surveillance system used in food safety. It is a web-based system used in state, federal and even local agencies. It enables the collaboration of both the government and health officials in that the data regarding food safety is shared and therefore the potential risk of a possible outbreak of food borne diseases is detected early enough (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).The other type of syndromic system is the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community based Epidemics (ESSENCE). It relies on data that is got from hospitals, dispensaries and clinics. This data is collected daily and assist in the tracking of the common syndromes found in a particular area. H istorical data is also helpful in this system since it acts as a starting point for the epidemiologists. The officials can also pin point the specific area or region with a high number of a certain syndrome through the use of a geographic information system (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X) is a web based communication system usually used by CDC. It enables the sharing of information with the state, federal and other pubic health officials. It is an effective system since it enables the authorized users to share information and get feedbacks on every issue such as the efforts put in place for the control of infectious diseases (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Food borne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is a system which is designed to respond to any new food borne disease that is of public importance.It also monitors the trend and identifies the specific sources of these diseases. It is a more reliable and an accurate system in the estimation of incidences of these diseases (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004). Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) enable keen surveillance of diseases which have either been confirmed or rumored. It is mostly used by WHO in the surveillance of diseases that are of worldwide importance. The information is gotten from different sources such as the media, institutions and health ministries in different countries (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).Other systems that have also been used include Global Public Health Intelligence (GPHIN), Health Alert Network (HAN), Laboratory Response Network (LRN), National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS), National Retail Data Monitor (NRDM), Real Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) and Sexually Transmitted Disease Management Information System (STDMIS) (United States Government Accountability Office, 2004).These systems require a number of key factors in order for disease surveillance to be effective. First, the source of data must be reliable to enable the accurate and fast response during surveillance. The data is the baseline for surveillance as seen in all the systems above such as ESSENCE and BioSense. Therefore, surveillance cannot be possible without data. Secondly, effective communication networks which enables the information to be shared with other partners such as the state, federal and public health officials. References Lombardo, J.S. & Buckeridge, D.L. (2007).Disease Surveillance: A Public Health Informatics Approach. New Jersey: John Wiley & sons, Inc. United States Government Accountability Office. (2004). Emerging Infectious Diseases: Review   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of State and Federal Disease Surveillance Efforts. Retrieved on 12th May 2010 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04877.pdf