Saturday, August 31, 2019

Integrative Network Design Project Essay

Kudler Fine Foods will be embarking on a new project to implement improvement to its existing network infrastructure. The end result will be the installation of a WAN to connect all three store locations together to enable better communication and sharing of data. A new WLAN shall also be implemented in order to provide more flexibility in the stores and make added new systems and features easier in the future. Lastly with the new network implementations there shall also be a new VOIP system added to the multi-store network. The first section shall cover the network’s fundamental characteristics components, and evaluation of the current network topology and a description of the standards applicable to this project. Kudler Find Foods currently has three locations, the La Jolla Store/Home Office, The Del Mar Store, and the Encinitas Store. All three locations are currently running on a 100 Base T Ethernet network as well as an HP Blade Server. Each location currently has a 25 Mb ps connection out to the internet, as well as a dedicated OC1 SONET connecting them to other stores. Of the three locations the La Jolla Store currently houses most of the infrastructure. There are currently 19 total computers, POS terminals for the store, and the NAS for backups. In the Del Mar and Encinitas stores the setup is identical with six computers, and the POS terminals for the store. When designing this new system the importance of both standards in network as well as the importance of communication protocols will help to make sure the network works smoothly and devices on the network can talk to each other. Currently Kudler is using a SONET which is â€Å"An ANSI standard, incorporated into the SDH standard, that defines a line rate hierarchy and frame formats for use with high-speed optical fiber transmission systems† (Goleniewski & Jarrett, 2007, p. 800) Standards bodies are essential in networking for the fact that they allow different developers, designers and maintenance teams to have a set of rules to follow when creating and maintaining a system. With this in place Kudler will keep using the ANSI standards when designing and developing the new systems. Along with these standards the system will need to work on a common communication protocol in order for all devices to be able to talk to each other as well as transfer data and other information correctly and efficiently. Each location has its own local network thus it is distributed across the company, however this has its pros and cons that can affect the company. With the implementation of a WAN as defined in Telecommunications Essentials â€Å"A wide area network (WAN) is a group of computer networks connected over long distances by telecommunications links, which can be either wireline or wireless.† (Goleniewski & Jarrett, 2007, p. 201) The benefits that a WAN will bring to Kudler Fine Foods is a centralized management of all systems and an ease of use communication from store to store. As stated earlier along with the WAN, each location will also be implementing a WLAN. This shall improve network coverage and give each location the ability to place computer systems or POS machines in locations that may have not been possible before due to the lack of a hardline or ability to install a new line. Wireless technology has greatly improved over the years and has transitioned from an additional layer that may not be needed or only added if there was room in the budget to a system that is almost a requirement in today’s ever evolving workplace. While implement these new features there are some inherent responsibilities in providing telecommunication services. Some of these responsibilities are security, privacy, reliability, and performance. Security is paramount as a loss of client data or client financial information could be extremely damaging to the Kudler brand. The security of the system and client information should be foremost in the system developer’s mindset. The next item is privacy which has become a hot topic as of late. The need to keep a customer’s privacy in tact will make them feel secure in becoming a return customer. Along with customer privacy is employee privacy. If an employee believes their privacy is intact while at work they will feel more secure as well. Lastly reliability and performance. These two will usually go hand in hand. When a system is reliable it will be able to perform as expected. Raising the performance can impact the reliability of the system and so a balance should be found and strived to be kept. This will allow the network  to operate at peak performance while still being able to work day in and day out. Goleniewski, L., & Jarrett, K. W. (2007). Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source (2nd ed.). : Pearson Education.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Effects of Corruption on Economic Growth Essay

Corruption has been around for a very long time and will be around in the future unless governments can figure out effective ways to combat it. This is not going to be easy. Corruption in any form is treated as an incurable disease cause of many social and economic evils in the society and it damages the moral and ethical fibers of the civilization .Indisputably, it is correct that corruption breeds many evils in the society & once corruption start take place ,slowly and gradually whole country passes through its net and it becomes after some time incurable diseases .from the economic point of view ,there seem to be no clear cut correlation between corruption and the economic growth of a country. There may be some social maladies like inequality of income among the people ,moral degradation of people due to the prevalence of corruption ,the parameter of economic growth which are taken on percentage or an average basis are entirely different To begin with, in the presence of corruption, businessmen are often made aware that an up-front bribe is required before an enterprise can be started and that afterwards corrupt officials may lay claim to part of the proceeds from the investment. Businessmen therefore interpret corruption as a species of tax–though of a particularly pernicious nature, given the need for secrecy and the uncertainty that the bribe-taker will fulfill his part of the bargain–that diminishes their incentive to invest. Empirical evidence suggests that corruption lowers investment and retards economic growth to a significant extent. Moreover, when it takes the form of tax evasion or claiming improper tax exemptions, corruption may bring about loss of tax revenue. What is more, the allocation of public procurement contracts through a corrupt system may lead to lower quality of infrastructure and public services. Then, Corruption may distort the composition of government expenditure. Corruption may tempt government officials to choose government expenditures  less on the basis of public welfare than on the opportunity they provide for extorting bribes. Large projects whose exact value is difficult to monitor may present lucrative opportunities for corruption. A priori, one might expect that it is easier to collect substantial bribes on large infrastructure projects or high-technology defense systems than on textbooks or teachers’ salaries. So far Indian economic is concerned the slow progress is the result of lack of decision making at higher level .Many politician who take money but could not enforce their will because of powerful lobby of bureaucrats at many place and a democracy like India ,voice of media ,voice of opposition could suppress the wish of the leader . India’s economic growth on an average 6 % GDP despite considerable corruption is because of the stability and the liberalized measure taken by the present govt., gradual privatization of various sector, reducing bureaucratic intervention in routine work & other measure adopted by govt. In brief it can be concluded that corruption and economic growth has no clear correlation .strong institution, political stability, fast and reasonability in decision taking are some of the requirement for fast economic growth.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychological Contract

Advantages and Disadvantages of Psychological Contract Outline and critically evaluate the concept of the ‘psychological contract’. Why is an understanding of the psychological contract considered to be important to the management of the contemporary employment relationship? The concept of psychological contract Introductions There are two kinds of contracts which are the formal, written economic contract as well as the euqally important, informal and unwritten psychological contract. It’s all about how people think they should be treated. Both involve rights, obligations and expectations on the part of employer and the employee. The key feature of the word ‘contracts’ is exchange in term of reward or the effort that employee puts in etc. For instance, the level of effort which employee puts in or employee’s perception can be affected by how they are being treated by the organization. A quite large research literature on the psychological contract has been produced in only a short time with the ke y players being, in the United States, Denise Rousseau (Rousseau, 1995, 2001), Schein (1980) etc. Although much of the interest in the psychological contract is recent, its roots go back a long time, it having originally been discussed by Argyris (1960). History The concept of a â€Å"psychological contract† was first coined by Argyris (1960); it refers to employer and employee expectations of the employment relationship as well as represents the mutual beliefs, perceptions and informal obligations between an employer and an employee. Expanding the concept of the contract was Schein (1980). According to Schien it may be defined as an†Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦unwritten set of expectations operating at all times between every member of an organization and the various managers and others in that organization.† More recently Rousseau and her co- workers (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994) have suggested a more specific definition of the psychological contract. According to them, the psychological contract is characterised not only by expectations, but by promissory and reciprocal obligations. When these obligations are broken, they produce more emotional and extreme reactions than weaker expectations produce feelings of disappointment. Broken obligations lead to feelings of anger and reassessment of the individual’s relationships with the organization. Content The term psychology is derived from the Greek, meaning ‘mind, spirit or soul’ and contract is that the expectations concern non- tangible, psychological issues. There are significant elements of all definitions of the psychological contract include: 1.3.1 integration of beliefs, values, expectations and aspirations of employer and employee, the beliefs of implicit promises and obligations are included, the level to which these are perceived to be met or violated and the level of trust within the relationship. 1.3.2 All the expectations must not be made explicit. It could be the implici t deal between employers and employees. Fairness and good faith are involved. 1.3.3 An significant feacture of the concept is it can be repeatedly re-negotiated, changing with an individual’s, and an organisation’s, expectations, and in shifting economic and social contexts. Yet, a snapshot of one point in time was only provided thus capturing only one stage in this social process. 1.3.4 Because it is based on individual perceptions individuals in the same organisation or job may perceive different psychological contracts, which will, in turn, influence the ways in which they perceive organisational events for instance redundancies or developing or modifying a flexitime system.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Integrated Marketing Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Integrated Marketing Communications - Essay Example Information technology facilitates the gathering and maintaining of customer data and evaluating these data to identify similarities and differences and provides means of highly sophisticated segmentation tools. Vastly improved communication industry has provided means of interactive marketing such as the Internet and a host of other innovative means of informative advertising such as CD Rom catalogues and Video screens in supermarkets, altering the traditional mix of promotional tools. When considering the promotional or the communication mix decisions, the choices available is diverse today and the cost per reach can be vastly reduced with the new choices such as web site advertising. The traditional dominance of mass media such as TV, Radio and press is reduced, though it remains an important component. Modern marketing calls for more than just developing a good product, offering it at attractive price and making it available to the targeted market. Companies have to consider the promotional element of the marketing mix with equal importance and manage it effectively. Concept of Integrated Marketing Communications addresses the need for organizations to deliver clear, compelling, cohesive and consistent marketing message about the company and its product through carefully integrated and coordinated communication activities utilizing many marketing mix elements. Traditionally, firms executed their marketing mix elements in isolation and managed them separately with different budgets, different views of the market and different goals and objectives. These companies failed in presenting and communicating a consistent image of the company and its products to the targeted markets. Concept of integrated marketing communications recognize the need for carefully planning, coordinating and executing all marketing and promotional mix elements to

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Logistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Logistics - Essay Example Moreover, from the functionality perspective, logistics in business background can be technically termed as the backbone of every possible type of small or large scale business processes. This business actively supports the globalisation of production / manufacturing business, where one nation acts as manufacturer, whereas the other nation, act as procurer. The major functional aspect of logistics lay in ensuring the fact that the ordered goods get delivered to the customers within the set time frame and at acceptable conditions (Aveta Limited, 2014). Apart from the above discussed functionalities, the means of carrying out varied logical operations are also multiple. For instance, logistics operations can be carried out either in the domestic markets or at international levels. Large scale corporations utilise both types of logistics operations for commencing their functionalities. However, in a similar manner to that of the hospitality industry, the logistics industry also gets impacted by constantly changing economic scenario of the nations due to massive reliance on the utilisation of fuel. Thus slight change within the economic stability of a nation often results in bringing about huge distortions within the overall functionality of the corporations relating to logistics (PwC, 2014). Regardless of the above discussed facts, logistics industry can only perform well if the external surrounding environment projects favourably aid in attaining perceived objectives. Instances regarding multiple uncontrollable factors can be provided that subsequently hamper the effective functionality of logistics organisations. Once of such instances can be related to the inappropriateness of the transportation facilities within specific geographical areas. Situations related to inappropriate infrastructure development and increasing price of fuel often restricts the normal functionality pace of logistics sector. High restrictiveness within the

Monday, August 26, 2019

Carry out a full CSR audit and report on Burnley Football Club Essay

Carry out a full CSR audit and report on Burnley Football Club - Essay Example This incorporates the impact of operations directly and also the wider effect of the business ranging from suppliers then to customers and then to the consumers. Moreover CSR also includes the contributions the Company voluntarily makes to community and the wider society. This trend is widely increasing in the sports industry. Nowadays there is greater focus on the CSR by the stakeholders (Argandon?a Ra?miz, 2009). In the world today the discussion is increasing on the issue of the importance of integrating CSR strategies into businesses for real benefits especially in the sports organizations that have various stakeholders associated with them like the football clubs (Brown, Crabbe and Mellor, 2009).The unique position of football clubs for delivering widespread benefits of CSR is debatable. Moreover the call for building the goodwill residue that connects to CSR as their need for planning permission and attraction of negative publicity keeps growing is equally important and arguabl e. The requirement of permission for planning for a different new ground, corruption at top levels, racism amongst footballers etc. propose that all the football clubs need to address the CSR. There are basically four approaches in CSR that are namely political (corporate citizenship idea), instrumental (achievement of economic objectives by social activities), ethical (right things to perform) and integrative (integrating social demands) approaches (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). It has been found out by recent researches that CSR policies’ effective application by the football clubs can enable the donors and also the variety of stakeholders to take a lot advantages from them. Burnley Football Club A Professional League of Football based in Burnley is known as the Burnley Football Club. The colors of the clubs are blue and claret that were adopted in tribute to leading English football club Aston Villa in 1910. Football League Championship belongs to Burnley twice that is onc e in 1920 and the other in 1960. The club has also once won FA Cup in 1914. This Clubs is a part of the two teams (the second team is Wolverhampton Wanderers) that has won all four top English Football professional divisions. It has been revealed by the recent researches that the need for stakeholder management at club level is constantly increasing and this refers to the maturity and professionalism of the football industry. This change has made the football clubs recognize the expansion in the social, economic and political importance. The importance of financial management is at its place and will always remain important but at the same time management of many other things like stakeholders is very significant for the survival of the club in the long run. Following is the analysis of the club’s stakeholders, how the relationships can be improved, the CSR learning stages in relation to Burnley football club and the assumed policies and vision statement that the club can ado pt. Club’s Stakeholders Stakeholders are those individuals who affect and influence the company. They can be clients, customers, suppliers, investors and employees. The participation of stakeholders in the survival of t

Health Reform Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Reform - Research Paper Example Preskitt (2008) indicates that Clinton’s health reform plan is one that not only affected patients but also other service providers and physicians.. First, studies indicate that about 36 million Americans were uninsured at that time (Preskitt, 2008). This percentage of Americans comprises of the poor and majority depended on aid from other sources. On a realistic point of analysis, it would be extremely tasking for Clinton’s policy to apply among such population brackets. This can be discussed on a cost constraint point of view, since the available resources were not well reorganized. Universal recognition not being the centre of the focus of Clinton’s reform plan, failure of the plan was indeed in the pipeline. Brady & Kessler (2009) indicate that Clinton’s Health Care Reform failed for the reason that this plan was more inclined towards promoting a market for insurance on a long term basis. The administration was of the opinion that expanding then public health sector would be very expensive for the government. Long term insurance care was on a great extent left for the private sector. Investors were at an advantage that was geared towards coming up with a market for private employers, in terms of provision of long term care. The costs of health care rose tremendously, provision of long term care was then laid on the line. Preskitt (2008) indicates that Clinton’s health plan did not receive public support both from the liberals and conservatives. Democrats were opposed to the fact that none of the constituencies was fully for the program. For instance, the aged feared the cutting down of Medicare and nothing would do good to them in return (Starr, 1995). The high costs of health plans were also expected to be expensive; thus, taxing to the common citizens. Generally, Clinton had no back up to support the policies. It is in line to this argument that Oberlander (2002) argues that Clinton’s health plan would have been planned and

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Regional Trade Agreements versus Global Trade Liberalization Annotated Bibliography

Regional Trade Agreements versus Global Trade Liberalization - Annotated Bibliography Example This journal was written on the backdrop of renewed interest in regional trade agreements, with many policymakers and scholars analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of regional trade agreements versus trade liberalization. This book discusses the proliferation of regional trading relationships in the world, particularly in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and the resulting policy concerns on their impact on excluded countries and generally the global trading system. It has been observed that multilateral system may fracture due to the overt discrimination policies advanced by the regional blocs. The book relies on empirical analysis to explore new forms of preferential trade agreements that concentrate their trades within such regions. In a twist, the author further assesses the regional blocs on what he terms as natural or supernatural and their impacts on the global welfare. in conclusion, the book talks about complete liberalization within blocs without reduction in barriers between them pushes the trading system into the super-national sphere of too much regionalization Many reason underlie the need for regional integration among which include strategic alliances mainly for security purposes, access to a larger chunk of the international market, and lock in domestic policy reform as is with the case with Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Ensuring of fair returns among the member is also a priority of regionalism as it ensures the disparities that exist among the members do not tilt the scale in favor of any particular member. The article reviewed the theoretical and empirical literatures that have been penned down on regionalism. The regional trade agreements have been to some extent the most liked form of reciprocal form of trade liberalization in the past decade or so. The paper highlights certain aspects of regionalism that have often been forgotten by writers, and theses aspects are key

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Arbitration on Buyer-Seller Disagreement Case Study

Arbitration on Buyer-Seller Disagreement - Case Study Example There are situations in the international market where the buyer and the seller disagree on their transactions. The basis of such dispute could range from the supply of inferior quality goods, failure of the goods delivered to meet standards and specifications or failure to deliver such goods or services in good time (Cornell, 2001). Under all these circumstances, the laws governing the international market provides an avenue through which such disputes can be resolved (Frank, 2009). In our case where the American businessperson ships livers to the German trader that do not meet all the specifications, then a need for dispute resolution arises. While the sex of the animal from which the livers are obtained is no cause for concern to Americans, the case is different in Germany. The livers obtained from different sexes of animals will fetch different prices in their markets. Since the attempt by the traders to resolve the dispute by them has failed completely, then a need for arbitrati on arises. The most important thing that the arbitrator should consider in this dispute resolution is the fact that a company is guided and under obligation to follow both the domestic laws regulating business transaction and the laws of the foreign country where the company is undertaking its business. In this case, owing to the fact that in Germany livers fetch different prices, based on which sex of the animal they come from, then the German importer has a reason to require the American supplier to pay a price allowance of $1000 (Cornell, 2001). Owing to the fact that the German importer issued instructions to the effect that the livers shipped should be of customary merchantable quality, it was the responsibility of the American trader to seek to understand the particular requirements of customary merchantable quality livers in the German market. Therefore, in this case, the arbitrator will rule in favour of the German importer, and establish an agreement with both of the traders, for the American exporter to reduce the price of the livers he shipped, so that the German importer does not run at a loss wholesomely.     

Friday, August 23, 2019

Contemporary Art Form Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contemporary Art Form - Essay Example The essay "Contemporary Art Form" discovers the form of contemporary art. Our society today affects each one of us in different ways, while we can’t tackle all the problems our worlds face head on; we may use our art to defuse one problem at a time in our own introspective personal way. Used as a solution, contemporary art gives an issue the identity of the artist. On a personal level I have always had an aversion to any form of racism. With education and the spread of knowledge many great minds once thought discriminatory behavior could be diminished to a small quantity, if not ceased completely. However, this was not the case, as even in the age of information our societies continue to evolve into new avenues for hate and prejudice, and this trend will seemingly continue. What I’ve realized over the course of time studying different people is that the underlying reason for such attitudes is people’s inability to listen to another and accept differences. People seem to have this innate need to fit their lives into a neat little box where everything is categorically arranged, and when they come across people who do have ideas different than their own, their box is disturbed and ergo begins a process of problems. For any artist who has chosen to make contemporary art his own, his work will always exist on a plane of freedom which conforms to nothing but his own perception of the world at large. It’s a simple thing to tell people to open their minds and open their hearts; this piece of advice is not practical.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

History of AIDS Essay Example for Free

History of AIDS Essay AIDS is a disease that destroys a person’s immune system. AIDS is a blood born pathogen. It was originally only found in gay men. This led to people calling it the â€Å"gay men disease. † They use to think that this was punishment from God for their being gay. Then researchers found out some drug users were also getting the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS, from sharing needles. After that, it was referred to as the â€Å"gay man and druggy disease. † All of the labels AIDS has been given are completely wrong; even heterosexual, sober people can get AIDS. Considering the many ways of contracting HIV/AIDS it seems foolish to limit the causes to sex and drug use. Jonathan Mann wrote: We do not know how many people developed AIDS in the 1970s, or indeed in the years before. We do now know that the origin of AIDS and the virus HIV was probably in Africa. What we also know is: â€Å"The dominant feature of this first period was silence for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was unknown and transmission was not accompanied by signs or symptoms salient enough to be noticed. While rare, sporadic case reports of AIDS and sero-archaeological studies have documented human infections with HIV prior to 1970, available data suggest that the current pandemic started in the mid- to late 1970s. By 1980, HIV has spread to at least five continents (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia). During this period of silence, spread was unchecked by awareness or any preventive action and approximately 100,000-300,000 persons may have been infected. (qtd in â€Å"History†) The first awareness of AIDS was in June of 1981, when they found traces of PCP in five men in Los Angeles, California. This event occured when they believed only gay men could get the disease, so they were not worried about it spreading to heterosexual people. This was all also before the method of transmission was known; they thought a person could catch it if he or she were standing to close to someone who had the disease. In December of 1981 the first cases of AIDS were reported in intravenous drug users. In 1982 AIDS was still nameless. People started calling it numerous names, such as â€Å"Gay Compromise Syndrome,† â€Å"GRID (gay-related immune deficiency),† â€Å"AID (acquired immunodeficiency disease),† â€Å"gay cancer† and â€Å"community-acquired immune dysfunction. (â€Å"History†) Later that year, reports emerged of children and transfusion recipients getting AIDS. Everyone knew this was no longer a gay related disease. Persons who may be considered at increased risk of AIDS include those with symptoms and signs suggestive of AIDS; sexual partners of AIDS patients; sexually active homosexual or bisexual men with multiple partners; Haitian entrants to the United States; present or past abusers of IV drugs; patients with hemophilia; and sexual partners of individuals at increased risk for AIDS. qtd in â€Å"History†) This was the message that CDC (Center for Disease Control) sent out when researchers discovered that AIDS was spread through body fluids. It was not until March 1983 that researchers discovered this. Between 1987 and 1992 there were many prevention groups created. ACT-UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was founded to attempt to end the AIDS crisis. â€Å"On April 2, 1989, Hans Verhoef, a Dutch man with AIDS, was jailed in Minnesota under the federal law banning travelers with HIV from entering the USA. †(â€Å"History†) In July of 1990, Kimberly Bergalis was infected with HIV by her dentist, David Acer. The CDC would not believe Kimberly, they didn’t think this type of infection was possible. Her father kept telling the CDC that Kimberly would not back down, thus by the end of it all the CDC supported her conclusion. Early in 1991, the CDC confirmed that the same dentist infected two other patients. In the fall of 1991 Kimberly requested mandatory HIV testing for all health care workers, so that â€Å"others don’t have to go through the hell that I have. (â€Å"History†) A few years after the CDC chose not to do the mandatory testing, Kimberly Bergalis died. In 1991 Earvin (Magic) Johnson announced that he was HIV positive; he then retired from professional sports. He wanted to use his celebrity status to educate kids about the disease. He also said, â€Å"I think sometimes we think, well, only gay people can get it – it is not going to happen to me. And here I am saying that it can happen to anyone, even me Magic Johnson. † (â€Å"History†) In 1992 the FDA(Federal Drug Administration) approved the use of two drugs combined, it was the first combination of drugs that was successful. This new drug is not a cure, but it constitutes an important addition to the expanding group of antiviral drugs currently available, including AZT and DDI, for treating people with AIDS. † stated James Mason. (â€Å"History†) On December 1, 1993, World AIDS Day, Benetton and ACT UP Paris put a giant condom (22m x 3. 5m) in the time square equivalent in Paris to raise awareness of the disease. (â€Å"History†) One of the television ads, entitle Automatic, features a condom making its way from the top drawer of a dresser across the room and into bed with a couple about to make love. The voice-over says, ‘It would be nice if latex condoms were automatics. But since they’re not using them should be. Simply because a latex condom, used consistently and correctly will prevent the spread of HIV. ’ (qtd in â€Å"History†) This was a commercial that attempted to make men wear condoms to keep the HIV virus from spreading. If a man wears a condom it will reduce the chance of the woman contracting the virus. In 1994 scientists found a medication that reduced the spread of HIV from mother to infant by two thirds. This was the first sign that mothers can decrease the spread of HIV to their children, and maybe stop it all together. In 1996, a heavyweight boxer was tested positive for HIV before a fight. This was his reaction: â€Å"I thought AIDS was something that happened to gays and drug addicts. A macho guy like me who loves ladies and super fit – he doesn’t get AIDS! † stated Tommy Morrison. (â€Å"History†) In his State of the Union address on 28th January, US president George Bush proposed spending $15 billion in combating AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over the next 5 years. He called the scheme a great mission of rescue. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS. †-President Bush Just two days later, US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson was elected as the new chairman of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria. It was hoped this move would prevent a conflict between the Bush administration and the international health community. (qtd in â€Å"History†) Symptoms of AIDS include; heart infections, intestine infections, and other infections that are uncommon. When a person has AIDS he or she gets very uncommon infections that a healthy immune system could fight off. Since his or her immune system slowly gets destroyed he or she can’t fight off infections and viruses that most people can. The most common cause of AIDS is sexual transmission. This can be between two men, two women, or heterosexual intercourse. The second highest cause is being exposed to blood borne pathogens. This can happen from blood donations, or just having open wounds. This however cannot happen from close contact, like some people believe. The least likely way to contract the virus is from mother to child, because we now have drugs that make it so less than one percent of children will get it from their mother. AIDS is a disease that will completely destroy your immune system. It attaches to your white blood cells and keeps them from doing their job. White blood cells would normally fight off any infection that get into your body, but when the HIV virus changes to AIDS it will block the receptors from the message your brain sends saying to attack this bacteria. This means AIDS does not kill you, rather the illness AIDS won’t let your body fight kill you. There are many ways to prevent AIDS, the most effective way is abstinence. If you are not sexually active, you cannot get an STI. However, if you feel you have to have sex use a condom. Not only does it prevent unwanted birth, but it will also reduce the transmission of STIs. (â€Å"CDC†) The importance of condoms in the fight against STDs is readily apparent, whether one focuses on the past, the present or the future. But condoms clearly have not been used as widely as they must be to significantly slow the spread of infection. One solution is the greater promotion of condoms through advertising, education and public-awareness campaigns. We believe another necessary step is to improve condoms – making them more user-friendly, sexy and pleasurable. (qtd in Pinkerton) Another way to prevent the spread of AIDS is to avoid infected blood. So if you are a doctor working on an HIV positive patient, wear rubber gloves. Also, if you are HIV positive, don’t have sexual relations with multiple people, and tell them if you are going to sleep with them. The least you can do is let them know they are risking their lives. William B. Kaliher has investigated cases of venereal disease for more than twenty-five years. In the following viewpoint, Kaliher asserts that while it is mandatory for health departments to find and notify the sexual partners of patients with venereal disease, partner notification in HIV cases is not mandatory. He argues that partner notification is especially important in HIV/AIDS cases, however, as AIDS is always fatal. Without mandatory notification, he contends that those who have HIV can continue to infect other people. If people with HIV/AIDS are notified that they may be infected, they can get tested. qtd in Kaliher) In this society, two things are very clear. The government is not making decisions in the best interest of the public health. The government is also not utilizing every tax payer’s dollar; they are not doing as much to prevent the spreading of AIDS as they can do. Also another way of preventing the spread of AIDS would be to educate the people most likely to spread the disease. The health official could do this by going into the areas where drug users live, and tell them that if they share needles they are at risk of dying earlier than normal people are. They could also talk to the prostitutes in Las Vegas, the women who are with ten, fifteen, or twenty men a night. They could tell them not only are they at higher risk for spreading the disease, but they could also spread it to hundreds of other men. (Kaliher) There is no vaccine against HIV, and no cure for AIDS. The key to decreasing the spread and reducing the impact of this disease is to promote healthy behaviors that prevent infection or minimize the adverse effects of treatment. Health promotion, disease prevention, and symptom management are key components of the research conducted by the biobehavioral scientists supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). The Institute funds both domestic and international HIV/AIDS research programs. (qtd in NINR) There are also many myths about AIDS. First of all AIDS is not just the gay men disease. Anyone can contract AIDS, and not a lot of people try to prevent spreading it. Like the saying â€Å"gay as AIDS† that statement is very inaccurate. AIDS is present in many heterosexual peoples’ lives. Also AIDS is not only in drug addicts who share needles. Someone cannot call AIDS the druggy disease or the gay men disease just because they were some of the first people to have it. The solution to the myths about AIDS is to increase awareness on all of the aspects of AIDS. People need to know that people can get AIDS from more than just sharing needles and having gay sex. People can catch AIDS from their mother when they are born or being breast fed, people can catch it from having heterosexual sex, and people can also catch it when they receive a blood donation from an infected donor.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Good vs. Evil Essay Example for Free

Good vs. Evil Essay There are many concepts that are determined in the eye of the beholder. People have different morals; someone’s morals could be seen as corruption to someone else. What someone considers beautiful, another might consider appalling. A person’s definition of justice could be someone else’s definition of illegal. There are many factors as to why we all have different paradigms, such as the way we were raised, our past experiences, our culture, or our faith. Consequently, we all judge accordingly to our own perspectives. In East of Eden, John Steinbeck states that one can be assumed good or evil once the person has died. With our different paradigms, we would have different perspectives on good and evil. Therefore, we do not know the correct definition of good or evil, so it would not be right for us to judge someone at all before or after their death. Everything we see is perspective, but how are we so sure it is the truth? Take for example, a flower. To a human, it is small enough to hold in his hand; to an insect, it is big enough to be a home. The human and the insect are looking at the same flower, but view it differently. Is the ant simply miniature, or is the human just too big? It cannot be deemed because there are different paradigms that manipulate our judgment. There are also more serious cases that this applies to. On July 5, 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty for murdering her young daughter Caylee. Observers were stunned and outraged by the jury’s verdict. Jurors claimed that it could not be proven that Casey Anthony was guilty because there was not enough evidence. There were only facts that led up to the conclusion that Casey could be the murderer, but there were no raw and actual facts that clearly showed that Casey was responsible for the death of her daughter. The death penalty weighed a lot on the deliberation of the jurors. They had a life in their hands; conclusions and inferences were not enough to find her guilty. The jury could be deemed good for following the law and abiding by their oath, or they could be deemed evil for letting a potential murderer get away with a crime. There are many positions on this verdict based on our viewpoints, but we do not actually know the truth. There are so many perspectives in the universe, we can never be so sure which is the correct one. Without knowing the truth, our judgments aren’t justified. They say there is a story behind everything. Stories usually have two sides to them, maybe even more. Often times, we want to believe that we know the full story. As human beings, we like closure and we do not like unanswered questions. But should it often occur to someone that there may be multiple unknown sides to a story? Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her bedroom from an overdose on August 5, 1962. Monroe’s death remains a mystery and has become one of the most debated conspiracy theories of all time. Some people believe that her death was a homicide, and some people believed it was a suicide. There could be many unknown explanations to Monroe’s death, and we may never find out. Without knowledge of how she died, our judgments are not rationalized. There are always going to be unanswered questions and ambiguous endings. As humans, what we believe is virtuous usually leads back to our viewpoints and understanding of life. Everyone has their life structured a certain way according to their beliefs. Our beliefs have a huge impact on our mentality and actions whether we believe in God, Buddha, Atheism, Karma, or anything at all. With differentiating religion and beliefs, there is no validity to our judgments. Without the knowledge of the truth, we are not able to judge righteously; we would be assuming blindly. It is a human instinct to judge. We judge to make laws so society can function in an orderly manner, we judge to protect ourselves from harm by distinguishing what seems to be dangerous or harmful, and we also judge to make decisions to benefit ourselves, such as choosing the college to our desire. Although these are rational reasons as to why we should judge, they also lead to war, terrorist attacks, stereotypes, and prejudice. Our assumptions and judgments revolve around our perspective. Our paradigms frame our judgments, and this often results to different positions and viewpoints. The concept of good and evil are in the eyes of the beholder. The true definition of good and evil may never be revealed in our lifetime. Consequently, we are not able to deem someone good or evil before or after their death since we do not have the understanding of these ideas in the first place. Works Cited Death of Caylee Anthony. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Does Palliative Care provide a peacefull death

Does Palliative Care provide a peacefull death Palliative care was traditionally considered something done just for the dying patient and patients with cancer, but times have changed. Today it is a form of care that can be administered to not just someone facing the end of life, but also to people with terminal illnesses. At the end of life many patients will receive palliative care and comfort measures which are intended to keep the patient comfortable with pain medications, turning, suctioning, oral care, etc. Comfort is something all nurses want to achieve for their patients. Comfort also means different things to different people; therefore it is difficult to gauge and deciphering concrete ways to provide comfort is not easy. In the acute care setting, researchers have focused solely on physical comfort care interventions for end of life, but research for interventions for overall holistic comfort care measures are lacking. This paper demonstrates that because comfort is the top priority for a dying patient receiving palliative care, holistic comfort measures that take care of the body as a whole should be achieved to ensure maximum comfort. The purpose of this evidence-based literature review was to explore health care providers and patients views on palliative and comfort care at end of life, examine current comfort care and palliative care practices and evaluate whether palliative and comfort care measures allow the patient to have a peaceful dying experience. Research indicated that the patients care needs to be individualized, that patients should be assessed, and personalized interventions implemented to ensure a holistic comforting dying experience. Palliative care order sets are helpful, but they are just a guideline or tool to help provide consistently good quality care. Hospice has been known for their excellent holistic comfort care for the dying patients, hospitals would benefit from learning some of their interventions and modifying them for use in the hospital. Some comfort interventions include music therapy, hand massage, utilization of visual analog scales such as the faces, and guided imagery to measure comfort. These methods are some of the ways hospitals can utilize the findings from the research into daily practice to ensure quality holistic patient comfort is achieved. Research Question Does the use of Palliative Care and comfort measures during End-of-Life provide the patient a more peaceful death experience? Relevance to Nursing Practice Research supports the need for providing holistic comfort measures using palliative care during end-of-life care. Registered nurses working in the acute care hospital setting along with Advanced practice nurses (APNs) and palliative care physicians should utilize the many other specialties such as integrative medicine to ensure holistic patient comfort. Palliative order sets are a great tool to help manage pain and anxiety levels but each patients comfort care needs to be individualized to fulfill their needs. Registered nurses need to make sure the patients comfort needs are addressed, so that the patient may have a peaceful dying experience. This Literature review advocates that holistic patient comfort during end-of-life is achieved by attending to its many physical, mental, and social states. Therefore, a nursing definition of comfort can be described as the physical and/or mental state of relief or contentment achieved as a result of holistic nursing interventions, which ensure a satisfying, peaceful, good dying experience. Review of Literature In Comfort Measures: A Qualitative Study of Nursing Home-Based End-of-Life Care, Waldrop and Kirkendall (2009) used a qualitative study method to survey employees from a 120-bed suburban, nonprofit nursing home. The researchers goals were to explore how their staff recognized a dying patient and to identify applicable standards of palliative care. The sample consisted of 42 employees, including nurses, chaplains, social workers, nursing assistants, housekeepers, and administrators. Employees in various roles were interviewed to provide multiple perspectives on the dying experience. The survey was a 30-minute interview conducted in a quiet location of the nursing home away from the nursing unit (Waldrop Kirkensall, 2009). An affiliated research assistant or investigator who has had training in conducting interviews and qualitative data analysis conducted the interviews. The interviewer asked the employees open-ended and objective questions about frequency and standards of care for dying patients and their families. All interviews were audio taped, transcribed by a professional transcriptionist, and labeled with a letter number combination (e.g., N[urse]-1). The transcripts were entered into Atlas ti software for data organization and management (Waldrop Kirkensall, 2009, p.720). The survey identified physical, behavioral, and social factors as the three main indicators of impending death. Physical indicators included altered breathing patterns (including apnea), anorexia, or increase in pain; behavioral indicators included mood changes and diminished activity level. Social indicators sometimes included withdrawal from interaction with staff or family (Waldrop Kirkendall, 2009). During the survey, the staff explained that comfort care is initiated when patients began to exhibit these signs. At this nursing home, standard order sets were not used and comfort care measures were described as being very patient-individualized and holistic. Comfort care includes an interrelationship of symptom management, family care, interpersonal relationships, and interdisciplinary cooperation in which each member of the healthcare team participates in the care of the patient, according to their scope of practice (Waldrop Kirkendall, 2009). The survey revealed that health care employees deliver comfort care in different ways. The study has several limitations including that it was conducted in only one nursing home, lacked direct physician perspectives, lacked family and resident opinions, and a possible response bias. This studys findings identified the need for more comparison studies to explore standards of care in other facilities. It also raised the questions whether or not palliative care includes comfort measures and how palliative care is defined across the healthcare settings (Waldrop Kirkendall, 2009). By further comparing nursing homes that use different models of care, comfort care standards and/or improvements can be made. This survey was conducted in a nursing home setting, but its results reflect on hospital end-of-life care. At the present time, the standard of care for dying patients in hospital settings usually consists of pre-printed order sets that are not individualized to the specific needs of the patient. This study promotes use of the holistic, individualized care approach to ensure a more satisfying and comforting dying experience. Jarabek, Cha, Ruegg, Moynihan, and McDonald, (2008) began a study within the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The researchers hypothesized that standard palliative order sets within a hospital setting would enhance physician comfort with managing 4 aspects of end-of-life care, pain, secretions, agitation, and dyspnea. A 5-question, pre-intervention web-based survey regarding physician comfort in diverse aspects of palliative care was given to 144 internal medicine resident physicians before the release of the palliative order set, which would later be used within the hospital. Each question included a 5-item Likert response scale, ranging from 1, very comfortable to 5, very uncomfortable(Jarabek et al., 2008). Three months later, an educational e-mail was sent to all house staff and faculty addressing end-of life-care along with the initiation of the order set, which consisted of physical ailment provisions. Another 3 months was spent allowi ng staff to use and or work with the order sets at which point a post-intervention survey was performed. Results of the post-intervention survey were that 88% had utilized the palliative order sets and 63% stated that they felt increasingly comfortable with palliative care (Jarabek et al., 2008). There was an overall 10% increase in resident comfort regarding the 4 aspects of palliative care with the initiation of order sets, but no change in social or communication-related comfort (Jarabek et al., 2008). One weakness of the General comfort Questionnaire (GCQ) is that each item is scored on a scale of 1 to 6 and not weighted based on importance to the patient. Some items are more significant than others in determining overall comfort level and the patients score on the GCQ as a whole may not be an adequate indicator of their overall comfort level. For example, if a patient answers 1, strongly disagree to the statement my body is relaxed right now, the patient will get 1 point for th e question, but if they score high on the rest of the GCQ, the results could show an overall high comfort level even though the patient is really uncomfortable and in pain. The GCQ is a very useful tool because it can be given to patients verbally if they are weak or lack dexterity. Because the survey addresses all aspects and levels of comfort it is a valid tool for nurses to use to make interventions to provide holistic patient care. The survey concluded that palliative order sets can increase physician comfort in providing care to patients during end-of-life, but it also revealed that the order sets do not address the psychosocial needs of the patient when providing comfort care. Although physicians find comfort in having order sets as guidelines for end-of-life care, they are only guidelines and open communication needs to be initiated between the health care team and the patient to ensure all the comfort care needs of the patient and family are met in a holistic way so that the y may have a peaceful dying experience. Teno et al., (2004) evaluated 1578 adult patients with different, chronic illnesses end of life experiences by surveying the decedents loved ones and determining whether their perspectives on quality end-of-life care were influenced by the environment where the patient spent their last 48 hours of life. A survey was devised from a conceptual model for patient-focused, family-centered medical care and the calculation of scores and psychometrics of the measures were taken from an online tool formulated by Brown University. Within 9 to 15 months from the time of death a close family member or informant whom was listed on the death certificate was surveyed and was asked about the quality of care their loved one received during their last 48 hours of life. Five different domains were used in the survey, including whether healthcare workers provided patient physical comfort and emotional support, supported collaborative decision-making with the physician, treated the patient with respect, attended to family needs, and provided coordinated care with other healthcare workers or facilities (Teno et al., 2004). Teno et al., (2004) concluded that 69% of the decedents site of death and last place to receive care was in a hospital or nursing home setting, 31% home, 36% without nursing service, 12% home nursing, and 52% home hospice. The survey showed that family perceptions of the quality of care were different according to where their loved one last received care. Families of patients who were in nursing homes or had home health had a higher rate of unmet needs for pain (Teno et al., 2004). Over half of the families in hospital or nursing home settings reported unmet emotional needs. In addition, 70% of families receiving home health care reported inadequate emotional support in comparison to 35% in families who utilized home hospice care. Patient and family respect was also a concern to families and varied in different settings. Only 68% of nursing home residents families felt they had been treated with respect and consideration compared to the 96% of families receiving hospice care (Teno et al., 2004). Survey participants felt that physical symptom management was adequately managed so it was comparably equal throughout all patient settings. Although families did not experience a difference in pain or dyspnea management in comparison to other nursing services families who used hospice services overall, 71% reported excellent care (Teno et al., 2004). The survey suggests that although patient care settings such as hospitals, home health, nursing homes all try to provide comfort care during end-of-life that it can be inadequate in meeting the emotional needs of the patient who is dying and their families. The survey supports the hypothesis that hospitals and other care settings need to start utilizing holistic comfort measures similar to the measures hospice incorporates to achieve psychosocial and emotional patient satisfaction and a comfortable dying experience. Kolcaba, Dowd, Steiner, and Mitzel (2004) identified the need for comforting interventions for patients at end of life that are simple, easy to learn and administer, and require minimal effort on behalf of the patient. Bilateral hand massage is a good intervention because it is noninvasive, easy to do, does not take long, and relies on caring/healing touch (Kolcaba et al., 2004). The purpose of their study was to determine empirically if a bilateral hand massage provided to patients near end of life twice per week for 3 weeks was associated with higher levels of comfort and less symptom distress. Thirty-one adult hospice patients from 2 hospice agencies participated in the study. Each patient was English-speaking and expected to remain alert and oriented for the duration of the trial, 13 months. Data collectors who were unknown to the patients called the homes of the patients, explained the study, and then scheduled an appointment for a research visit. Data was collected at the patients homes and at the hospice centers(Kolcaba et al., 2004). After informed consent, participants were randomly divided into the treatment group (with 16 patients) and the comparison group (with 15 patients). All participants were asked to complete a modified General Comfort Questionnaire (GCQ), tailored for end-of-life patients, once a week for 3 weeks. After completing the questionnaire each week, the treatment group then received the hand massage intervention twice a week for 3 weeks. The comparison group received the intervention once at the end of the study period. The researchers concluded that there was no significant difference between the treatment and comparison groups in regard to enhanced comfort or decreased symptom distress over time (Kolcaba et al., 2004). However, comfort did increase some in the treatment group even as the patient approached death. The study also revealed that the hand massage seemed to allow more time for therapeutic or face to face communication allowing the patients to talk about how they feel and their feelings on transitioning to death, and patients receiving the intervention reported it to be a personalized experience something they could engage in that feels good, and family members were appreciative of the care and attention their loved one was getting (Kolcaba et al., 2004). Because this intervention is easy to learn and requires minimal time for the caregiver to do and minimal effort for the patient it is an excellent intervention that can even be taught to the family. This study identifies interventions t hat can be used within the hospital setting and any other setting to enhance comfort during end-of-life. Nurses and family members can use this intervention to increase communication by using caring touch, which provide psychosocial care and therefore holistic comfort for the patient. Bakitas et al., (2009) using project ENABLE {[Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends]} combined with a nurse-led intervention with ongoing assessment, coaching, symptom management, crisis prevention, and timely referral to palliative care and hospices hypothesize that patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer if exposed to this intervention right away would become informed, active participants in their care, and would experience an improved quality of life, mood, and have better symptom relief. The study protocol and data and safety monitoring board plan were approved by the institutional review boards of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Dartmouth College in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and the Veterans Administration (VA) medical center in White River Junction, Vermont. All patient and caregiver participants signed a document confirming their informed consent.(Bakitas et al., 2009). Participants completed baseline questionnaires when they were enrolled and then completed a fol low-up one month later. Using a stratified randomization scheme patients and their caregivers were randomly assigned to the interventions or usual care group. One of 2 advanced practice nurses with palliative care experience conducted 4 structured educational problem solving sessions first one lasting 41 minutes and sessions 2 through 4 approx 30 minutes each and at least monthly telephone follow-up sessions until the participant died or the study ended (Bakitas et al., 2009) The advanced practice nurse began all contacts with an initial assessment by administering the Distress Thermometer, an 11-point rating scale recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. It identifies sources of distress in the 5 areas of practical problems physical problems, family problems, spiritual, emotional problems or religious concerns. If distress intensity was higher than 3, the advanced practice nurses then identifies the sources of distress and checks to see if the participan t would like to problem/solve to take care of their issue. The nurse then covers the assigned module for that session. The participants clinical teams are responsible for all medical decisions and inpatient care management, however the advanced practice nurse was readily available by telephone for the participants and they could also facilitate ancillary resources. The participants also were able to participate in group shared medical appointments (SMAs), which are led by certified palliative care physicians. The usual care participants were allowed to use all oncology and supportive services without restriction. Follow-up questionnaires were mailed every 3 months until the patient died or study completion in December 31, 2007. Quality of Life was measured with a 46-item tool called the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy for Palliative Care. It measures the participants physical, social, emotional, and functional well being along with the concerns of a person whom has a life-threatening illness. Of 1222 screened, 681 were eligible and were approached and 322 were enrolled (47% participation rate). There were a total of 134 participants in the usual care group and 145 participants in the intervention group. A systematic review of specialized palliative care identified 22 trials (16 from the United States) between 1984-2007 with a median sample size of 204, half exclusively with cancer patients. There was lack of evidence due to contamination, adherence, and recruitment etc. The trial addressed these issues and contributed to the increasing evidence that palliative care may improve quality of life and mood at the end of life. In our study, intervention participants higher quality of life and lower depressed mood may be attributed to improved psychosocial and emotional well being. Mood is a determinant of the experience of quality of life and suffering despite a mounting burden of physical symptoms(Bakitas et al., 2009). However, while patients in the intervention group had improvement in these outcomes, we conservatively planned our original target trial enrollment of 400 based on a significance level of .01. Statistical inferences based on this stringent critical value would lead to the conclusion that there were no statistically significant differences between groups in quality of life or mood(Bakitas et al., 2009). A number of limitations were found in the study, first there was limited racial and ethical representation in the study, which recognizes the need for duplicate studies with more diverse populations. Second, the interviews were conducted by telephone, in-person interactions (such as those seen in another successful outpatient palliative care intervention study may have produced a more robust effect, particularly in reducing symptom intensity(Bakitas et al., 2009). In person consultation was not often feasible for the debilitated population whom usually live more than an hour away from the cancer center. More re search is needed on optimal care delivery systems for this population(Bakitas et al., 2009). The researchers concluded that compared with participants receiving usual oncology care those receiving a nurse-led, palliative care-focused interventions that takes care of the patient holistically provided at the same time with oncology care had higher scores for quality of life and mood, but did not have improvements in symptom intensity scores or reduced days in the hospital (Bakitas et al., 2009). Characteristics of Comfort Even though nursing scholars have extensively researched and described various aspects of comfort, perceptions of the characteristics of comfort vary from personal perspectives and situations. After reviewing literature and research relevant to achieving comfort, it is clear that its characteristics extend beyond its physical attributes and are indeed a state of ease, relief, and transcendence (Kolcaba Kolcaba, 1991). To achieve holistic comfort at end-of-life there needs to be patient participation to enhance comfort with the use of comforting interventions. Kolcaba et al. (2004) described a peace of mind with a reduction in undesirable dying symptoms as important indicators of comfort while researching the efficacy of hand massage in hospice patients. Nursing interventions at end-of-life should be individualized to the patient to meet their comfort needs, as comfort is vital in palliative care. Novak et al. (2001) postulated that comfort consist of holistic properties which includ e a soothing environment, social support, conflict resolution, and spiritual harmony. Waldrop et al. (2009) also proposed similar qualities he studied comfort measures in a nursing home setting and described comfort care as the combination of the integration of symptom management, family care, interpersonal relationships, and interdisciplinary cooperation. Comfort in this study was a result of holistic interventions focused on achieving enhanced patient comfort, thereby allowing a good death (Waldrop et al., 2009). Application of the Literature to Practice Findings from the literature and research support the need for providing holistic comfort measures using palliative care during end-of-life care. Registered nurses working in the acute care hospital setting along with Advanced practice nurses (APNs) and palliative care physicians should utilize the many other specialties to ensure holistic patient comfort. Palliative care nurses (PCRNs) are an excellent resource to consult for any questions regarding end-of-life care. Registered nurses need to make sure the patients comfort needs are addressed; they need to talk with the patient and their families to get a better understanding of their comfort level expectations. Palliative order sets are a wonderful tool with which to help manage physical discomfort, but Registered Nurses should assess the environmental, psychospiritual, and social comfort needs in order to create adequate interventions to help achieve enhanced holistic comfort. To achieve the physical aspect of comfort during end-of-life care pain medication can be prescribed, and to help relieve anxiety, ativan may also be given. Music is also a relaxation therapy that may also have a calming effect and can be encouraged to help bring relaxation, peaceful environment, and help the patient to forget their illness for a short time. To facilitate the psychospiritual aspect of comfort care the Registered nurse can consult a chaplain, social work, or a family therapist who can help the family and patient address the feelings of grief, fear, anxiety, and help promote resolving of family issues, which ultimately assists the patient in overcoming any negative feelings to gain closure and to achieve peace. The hospital room can be stressful, room lighting, dà ©cor, and music can be modified to help provide a more peaceful and soothing environment to relax and reflect during their last hours. The social aspect of comfort may be fulfilled by consulting social servic es to help provide support by addressing any communication issues within the family and helping the patient and their family fined courage and strength in times of need and despair. Using feedback from all the aspects of holistic comfort care is important in promoting consistent and continuous comfort during the patients dying experience. Registered nurses must determine the wishes of the patients for achieving comfort and using the many interventions the nurses should evaluate ad make adjustments accordingly. Providing holistic comfort care is an integral part of palliative medicine and it is continuously being changed to fit the needs of the patient and their families, and therefore is an excellent way to approach end-of-life care in the acute care setting of a hospital. Conclusions The research presented reveals while palliative care order sets provide a helpful guideline or tool which reassures health care providers in giving consistent good quality care, patients care needs should be assessed and individualized orders and interventions should be implemented to ensure a peaceful and comforting dying experience. Hospice care settings have been shown to provide excellent holistic care for dying patients and they have also been shown to show compassion to the family as well. The comfort interventions from these facilities can be modified for application in the hospital for use in the acute care setting. Holistic comfort care interventions include hand massage, music therapy, or the utilization of a visual analog scale the faces to measure comfort. These are some of the ways hospitals can utilize the findings from this research into daily practice to ensure quality holistic patient comfort is achieved and ultimately a peaceful death.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Essay --

What is the director ultimately saying about the ways in which hope affects the individual? During the film Shawshank Redemption there is a very prominent theme of hope. Shawshank Redemption demonstrates positive and negative ways in which the main characters Andy, Brooks, Tommy and Red display hope. Through out the movie Frank Darabont gives us an insight to how each character connects to the theme of hope. Each character connects differently to hope. For example andy persevering through digging the tunnel, Red connects to hope by become friends with Andy, Tommy gets his high school diploma and finally Brook, although institutionalized became accustomed to being the librarian for many years of his life time in Shawshank prison The first example of a character connecting to hope is Andy, continuing to stay determined and pushing through abuse with â€Å"the sisters† he is still able to remand hopeful and ultimately escape. After serving almost twenty years in Shawshank prison Andy’s views began to change from hope being non existent to honestly believing that hope was real. After re...

The Elements of Fantasy and Horror Essay -- Literary Analysis, This Wa

The elements of fantasy and horror blend together perfectly to create an unforgettable series of events. An example of dark fantasy is Something Wicked This Way Comes, the novel by Ray Bradbury that tells the story of two young boys, Jim and Will, who discover the secret of a mysterious traveling carnival. The magical carnival has many temptations, including a frightening mirror maze and a carousel that changes one’s age. However, its allure only causes one to fall into the clutches of the ringmaster, Mr. Dark, an illustrated man who tattoos each person bound to the carnival in servitude onto his skin. Along with Will’s father Charles, the boys set out to investigate and destroy the soul-sucking attraction. They eventually defeat the carnival through love and happiness; during this time, Charles also comes to the extraordinary realization to not take life too seriously. Ray Bradbury’s symbols in the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes define and emphasize the t heme life endures through constant struggle between good and evil. Jim and Will, Charles, and the carnival attractions demonstrate the theme in Bradbury’s novel and bring it to life. The literary elements Ray Bradbury incorporates in Something Wicked This Way Comes plays an essential role in shaping the main idea of the novel. Jim and Will represent symbols that greatly help unravel the theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes. In the first place, they illustrate symbols of good and evil, with Jim as the darker of the two and Will as the lighter. Charles can see that this appears obvious, and he points it out to the kids. He states, â€Å"[Jim] wears the black ten-gallon hats and reads books to fit. Middle name’s Moriarty, right, Jim? Any day now he’ll move up from Fu Manchu ... ...ruggles and will continue to do so as long as life itself continues. The carnival attractions serve as excellent symbols in proving the theme. The use of symbols in Something Wicked This Way Comes renders the theme that life bears through unvarying battle between good and evil more apparent. To begin with, Will and Jim represent good and evil, respectively, and struggle constantly between themselves throughout the course of the novel. Subsequently, Charles also symbolizes good and battles with many types of evil in the book, including Mr. Dark and the Dust Witch. In conclusion, the carnival attractions include forms of fear and temptation that fight against the main characters as the plot progresses. Something Wicked This Way Comes combines dark nights, folk-tale characters, and magical elements to relate supernatural and sinister matters to everyday life.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Babbage Charles :: Essays Papers

Babbage Charles Charles Babbage was born at Walworth, Surrey England in December 26,1791. He achieved many great feats and belonged to many very distinguished groups before he died in October 18, 1871. Many people consider him to be the grandfather of computer science due to his great works with his Difference Engine (1821), which printed tables of polynomials, and his Analytical Engine (1856), which was intended as a general symbol manipulator. Babbage grew up with a fascination with the way mechanical objects worked and was an excellent mathematician. This was discovered at an early age when he employed a tutor only to find out he knew more about math than the tutor did. He was home schooled for most of his early education mainly on account of his invalid health. Babbage eventually enrolled in Cambridge University in 1810, an institution where he would later hold the position of Lucasian chair of mathematics from 1828 to 1839. He was involved in many different fields of science. He was the first person to be presented the Gold Medal award given by the Astronomical Society, and a key figure in the founding of the Astronomical Society in 1820, the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831, and the Statistical Society of London in 1834. He authored the very influential book On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, as well as a series of papers on varied topics such as optics and cryptology. Charles Babbage had a fascination with numbers and statistics. He was obsessed with quantifying everything observable in nature. Babbage delighted in the thought of having a daily account of food consumed by zoo animals, or the "proportion of sexes amongst our poultry". He proposed tables to calculate the amount of wood (elm or oak) a man would saw in 10 hours, or how much an ox or camel could plow or mow in a day. In Mechanics Magazine in 1857 Babbage published a "Table of the Relative Frequency of the Causes of Breaking of Plate Glass Windows" detailing 464 breakages, of which "drunken men, women, or boys" were responsible for 14. Babbage thought the table would be "of value in many respects", and might "induce others to furnish more extensive collections of similar and related facts". In Babbage’s early years he was a popular and well-liked socialite. In fact, he was known for extravagant dinner parties where many famous and prominent people would be in attendance.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Res 351

Preparing to Conduct Business Research: Part 3 RES/351 February 20, 2012 Age discrimination is existent. Older employees are defined as members of the â€Å"mature† generation (58 or more years old); younger employees are members of three generations—the Baby Boom (post World War II or 38 – 57 year olds), Generation X (23 – 37 year olds), and Generation Y (18 – 22 year olds). The key to a company’s future success will be its adaptability – its capacity to deploy resources quickly to seize competitive opportunities and to draw from a labor pool that features a mix of multi-skilled, full-time workers, and specifically-skilled, contingent employees who contribute on a part-time or temporary basis† (Hall and Mirvis, 1998). Research is conducted when individuals or businesses want to find out the connection, if any, between two or more things. This paper will discuss, â€Å"Will hiring younger employees to take the place of older emp loyees increase the productivity of a business? We will be discussing the different aspects of finding a solution to this very question. We are going to focus on four areas within our research. They will be broken down by significance, scope, magnitude, and feasibility of finding a solution to our question. We will discuss how using these different aspects of our research will help us determine the purpose of conducting our research. Working in businesses in which you have to make life changing decisions can be stressful. Factors to consider with this topic are age, experience, knowledge, and productivity.The final solution will impact current employees and potential new hires; therefore, businesses need to be fair in the decision(s) being made and make sure it is in the best interest of all parties involved. Businesses must examine every aspect of a situation to avoid discrimination lawsuits, loss of business, or an increase in employee turnover. Overall, happy employees will produ ce an efficient workflow and exhibit a more positive attitude toward the company as well. â€Å"The two criteria to judge feasibility are cost required and value to be attained† (Wikipedia. com).Many solutions can be prepared for various situations within a business environment. However, each solution needs to be logical and suitable for the situation. Businesses should test possible solutions to see which one will be the most beneficial by using feasibility studies. â€Å"Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats as presented by the environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success† (Wikipedia. om). The magnitude of finding a solution to the issue of whether or not hiring younger employees will increase productivity is very high. The business needs to continue to make a profit in this economy and if hirin g young people is the solution, it is imperative that we make sure the solution is found. This task should not be difficult, however, as long as the decision making process is followed. We created research questions, a hypothesis, decided on what the variables are, and considered the ethical complications.Following legal guidelines and the process of finding the solution will help us get to the right answer. The magnitude of finding the right answer is enormous since our business depends on it. Older workers are often liable to encounter difficulties in employment and occupation because of prejudices about their capacities and willingness to learn, a tendency to discount their experiences, and market pressures to hire younger workers who are often cheaper to employ.To increase productivity and eliminate discrimination when it comes to younger employees versus older employees, the following measures could be taken to have a more productive workplace: (1) Set up a policy establishing clear procedures on non-discrimination and equal opportunities; and communicate it amongst all employees, (2) Provide training at all levels of the organization, in particular for those involved in recruitment and selection, as well as supervisors and managers, to help raise awareness and encourage people to take action against discrimination, (3) Set measurable goals and specific time frames to achieve objectives, (4) Modify work organization and distribution of tasks as necessary to avoid negative effects on the treatment and advancement of particular groups of workers, and (5) Address complaints, handle appeals and provide recourse to employees in cases where discrimination is identified.To determine whether hiring younger versus older employees increase productivity in the workplace, there are a few questions that need to be researched in order to analyze the situation. (1) If we hire younger employees, will this be an open opportunity for a lawsuit for age discrimination? (2) W ill productivity increase, decrease, or stay the same with younger employees? (3) Will it be cost effective to hire younger people who may be entitled to more compensation? The employer who would decide to replace older workers with younger workers to increase productivity, with the thought younger people are more energetic, therefore could work faster than older people. The younger employees may be easier to train and retain information better than older employees.They may also look at the younger employees as being more comfortable with new and advanced technology. There are four variables to consider when it comes to making a decision about hiring the younger versus older employee. The variables are the independent variable, dependant variable, confounding variable, and the intervening variable. The independent variable is hiring younger employees to replace older employees. The dependent variable is the increase in productivity. The confounding variable is younger employees have fresh ideas. Lastly, the intervening variable is training the new employees. The research design that best suites how the information was researched was the Quasi-Experimental research.With using this particular research for our topic, the quasi-experiment treats a given situation as an experiment, even though it is not wholly by design. The independent variable may not be manipulated by the researcher, treatment and control groups may not be randomized or matched, or there may be no control group. The researcher is limited in what he or she can say conclusively. The significant element of quasi-experiments is the measure of the dependent variable, which it allows for comparison. Some data is quite straightforward, but other measures, such as level of self-confidence in writing ability, increase in creativity or in reading comprehension are obviously subjective. In such cases, uasi-experimentation often involves a number of strategies to compare subjectivity, such as rating data, t esting, surveying, and content analysis (Colorado State University. edu). One type of instrument that would be very useful in our research would be interviews. Interviews are a systematic way of communicating through talking and listening. â€Å"Through the knowledge of conversation â€Å"(KMExecutive, 2010), data can be collected on what new younger employees can bring to the organization, and how they feel they would better benefit the company over an experienced older employee. Within the interview, the interviewer and interviewee are able to become involved with talking about their views, and their perception and interpretation of the situation.With the use of interviews in the survey method, we can initially get some very valuable information necessary for finding the key to hiring new younger employees within the company to help boost productivity, without causing any legal issues or moral falls with the older employees. In the interview section of the survey, we will be abl e to find out from the new potential employees what they want to bring to the table to boost our needs. Also, by doing one-on-one interviews with the older employees, we will be able to find out what areas have become complacent and what areas do not need to be touched. This will allow for us to find out if we need to hire new employees, for which section(s), and which ones we are able to leave alone. This will definitely eliminate the unnecessary desire for older employees of these areas to retaliate against the company. Another instrument type we could use would be experiments.It would definitely benefit the organization to see if the new younger employees were able to provide the company with more production, especially if there is training involved. We would take the experimental variable (the younger verses the older) and put them to work side by side to see which one is more productive. This will give us an idea if we need to train more, or reconsider hiring new and getting ri d of the old. By developing the constants, the researchers can evaluate the effect of the changes to the production quality and quantity. We would be able to test the effectiveness, appeal, and sales of various products that the organization is planning on developing or selling.WE can divide the population into two groups, the younger group and the older group. In order to help solve the issue of whether or not hiring younger employees will increase the productivity in the workplace, we must take some samples. Samples help to determine which decision is the best. The type of sampling that will best suit this issue is probability, or random sampling. This will avoid any bias on the company’s part. This ensures that the participants will be random and of all ages. Survey questionnaires will be used as a sampling frame within a 30 day period. Each person randomly selected will have to complete the survey questionnaire which will contain all of the information needed to make an i nformed decision.The sampling size will be determined by the amount of employees of the organization. While we cannot sample everyone we do want to give the issue a fair sampling size. We will want to sample the majority of them, around 75%. Therefore, if there are 20 employees, 15 will be sampled by using the survey questionnaire. â€Å"A statistical test provides a mechanism for making quantitative decisions about a process or processes. The intent is to determine whether there is enough evidence to â€Å"reject† a conjecture or hypothesis about the process; the conjecture is called the null hypothesis† (itl. nist. gov). â€Å"A set of data can only reject a null hypothesis or fail to reject it.For example, if comparison of two groups (e. g. : treatment, no treatment) reveals no statistically significant difference between the two, it does not mean that there is no difference in reality. It only means that there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis ( in other words, the experiment fails to reject the null hypothesis)† (wikipedia. com). Based the types of instruments used such as experiments and interviews, to collect data pertaining to our topic of choice, the best statistical test to use would be the t-test. â€Å"The t-test assesses whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other (socialresearchmethods. net).With our topic comparing the productivity among older employees versus younger employees, we can better determine if age does or does not play a significant factor in current or future workflow processes and the implementation of new creative ideas. The results will be displayed as â€Å"the actual difference between two means in relation to the variation in the data (expressed as the standard deviation of the difference between the means)† (biology. ed. ac. uk). In this case, the two means are the older employees and younger employees; the variation in the data would be the produc tivity of the workflow, whether it would increase, decrease, or remain the same.Everyone who wants to work should be able to and no one deserves to be judged by their age or any other factor that does not relate to their productivity (nytimes. com/2009). Considerations that should be taken into account  when it  involves hiring a younger versus older employee are discrimination and stereotyping. The repercussions of age-based communication and productivity can be devastating to older employees; this could lead to a decline in their self esteem and mental well-being. Discriminating against older employees could also lead to lawsuits; which eventually has a bad look on the employers. The steps in performing any type of research is crucial for finding the right answer to any situation that may arise.With the issue of determining whether or not hiring younger employees to increase productivity, there is no answer. The quality of work and range of experience of one individual versus the next can make or break the moral of the employees in the workplace (Stanford). Therefore, changes in the workplace can be beneficial to the business as long as the basis does not conflict with business ethics. The significance of finding a solution is going to help eliminate the chances of having a lawsuit because of age discrimination. It will allow us to continue to grow as a business instead of losing business, and will help in decreasing employee turnover. Part of the significance is to create a happy work environment with a more productive workflow.The Scope of finding a solution is the investigation into what will happen and the plan of action to make it happen. Within the scope we can determine what the negatives and positives will come of the solution. Magnitude will allow the company to continue to grow by increasing the productivity, and if this can be done with younger employees, then we need to make the changes the right way to incorporate this for our organization. This will possibly be a significant change, so we need to be prepared to make adjustments so we do not lose any productivity in the process of making the change. The last part of our discussion takes us into the feasibility of finding the correct solutions to our issue.Here we discussed five ways to make this happen, such as create a policy for this type of situation, provide training for all levels to discourage discrimination, set goals to achieve objectives, make modifications to avoid negative effects of each group being changed, and address any complaints of discrimination that may have been founded earlier. Understanding our research process will help us determine the correct way to make the needed changes within the organization without the possibility of having severe repercussions. As an organization, it is important to do the needed research that will be certain to create more jobs in the future, and possibly prevent any lawsuits or discrimination acts in the process. Refe rences Hall, Douglas T. and Philip H. Mirvis (1998). â€Å"Increasing the value of older workers: Flexible employment and lifelong learning. † In James A. Auerbach (ed. ), Through a Glass Darkly: Building the New Workplace for the 21st Century.NPA Report #289. Washington D. C. : National Policy Association. Retrieved from: http://www. zurichna. com/NR/rdonlyres/AEFC0FF5-EE0B-4765-B5D4-F640D99E1412/0/Designingtheworkplacefortheagingworkforce. pdf Retrieved from: http://www. ilo. org/empent/areas/business-helpdesk/faqs/WCMS_DOC_ENT_HLP_BDE_FAQ_EN/lang–en/index. html Retrieved from: http://writing. colostate. edu/guides/research/experiment/pop3e. cfm Retrieved from: http://www. socialresearchmethods. net/kb/quasnegd. php Retrieved from: http://www. experiment-resources. com/randomization. html#ixzz1m8h0k9Zh Retrieved from: http://ibpsychology. wetpaint. com/page/Non-experimental+Research+MethodsSchindler, D. C. (20011). Business Research Methods (11th ed. ). In a. P. D Co oper. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Trochim, W. M. (2006, October 20). Introduction to Evalution. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from Research Methods Knowledge Base: http://www. socialresearchmethods. net/kb/intreval. php Trochim, W. M. (2006, October 20). Types of Surveys. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from Research Methods Knowledge Base: http://www. socialresearchmethods. net/kb/survtype. php Survey. (2012). Retrieved from http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/survey KMExecutive. (2010). The Knowledge Management Executive. Retrieved from http://kmexecutive. logspot. com/2010/03/gathering-company-knowledge. html 7. 1. 3. What are statistical tests? (2003 – 2010). Retrieved from http://www. itl. nist. gov/div898/handbook/prc/section1/prc13. htm The T-Test. (2006). Retrieved from http://www. socialresearchmethods. net/kb/stat_t. php Null hypothesis. (2012). Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Null_hypothesis Student's t-test. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://w ww. biology. ed. ac. uk/research/groups/jdeacon/statistics/tress4a. html Learning Team Log Group: Team ASubmission Date: 2/20/12 Course: RES 351 Meeting Type: In-Person E-mail Internet Chat Teleconference XOther Team Forum Student Name (printed) |X = Participated |  x | | |  x | |  x |  x | |Learning Objectives and Assigned Tasks |Activities and Outcomes | | |Combine the three parts of the Preparing to Conduct Business | | |Research assignment to develop a cohesive research proposal of no more than 2,450 words. | |Include the following elements: | | |Research problem and purpose | | |Significance, scope, magnitude, and feasibility of finding a solution to the issue, opportunity, or problem | | |Research question, hypothesis, and variables | | |Research design | |Instrument you developed or selected | | |Sampling method | | |Overall data analysis approach | | |Result reporting | | |Ethical considerations | | |   | | |Discuss the overall data analysis a pproach and result reporting: | | |Which statistical test will be used and why? | | |How will the results be displayed? | |Using the T-test | | |Actual difference between two means | | |   | | |Completing the team log | | |Develop or select the instruments your team will use to collect data. | | |Interview instrument. | | |Talking and listening | | |Different views on situations | | |Experiment instrument. | |Working side by side | | |Comparing productivity between young and old employees | |   |Describe how you will sample the population: | | |What is the appropriate sampling method? | | |What sampling frame will be used? | | |What is the appropriate sampling size? | | |How will the sample size be determined? | | | | |Probability and random sampling | | |Using survey questionnaires | | |All age groups | | |30 days for sampling | | |75% of the employees | | |   | Students’ Responsibility: Participation in Learning Team activities is an important factor in determining each student’s final course grade. Team members should work together to complete this form and submit it at the workshop following the team meeting. The log should provide details regarding the meeting, the attendance/participation of members, the results and actions of the team, and reflections regarding how the team process might be improved. Plus/Delta Exercise: What went well? What didn't go well? What will we do differently next time? Everyone in our group works hard in participating within the week.The only problem we run into is if there is a situation that prohibits a person from completing their assigned tasks on time, but for this group, it hasn’t hurt us because we keep in constant communication about those issues, and we work around them. For this group, there isn’t anything that we can do different, we keep everyone informed throughout the week of what is going on, when we need help someone always steps up to provide assistance, and the tasks are laid out so that it is very clear as to what each participant has to accomplish and when it needs to be in. Overall this group has been great, and has taken every opportunity to progress in a great team effort.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Truth in Sentencing

Truth-in-sentencing debate Learning Team B CJA/204 November 26, 2012 Deana Bohenek Truth-In-Sentencing Debate Opening Argument Truth-in-sentencing laws do not deter crime. The federal truth-in-sentencing law guarantees that certain violent offenders will serve at least 85% of their sentence  (Schmalleger, 2012). However, if the offender acts accordingly in prison, he or she can attain parole for good behavior. What about the victims? Victims do not want to hear this. If an offender is sentenced for 30 years, the victim wants justice and wants to see the full 30 years served.They do not want to see the offender getting released after 25 years. The truth-in-sentencing laws are the judges’ guideline when choosing the sentence of the offender. The law is a structured guideline for sentencing the offenders. However, the judge can deviate from the guidelines if there are mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Look at plea bargaining,  this is still a possibility even though t here are truth-in-sentencing laws in place. The offender knows that if they get caught, they can plea bargain for a lesser sentence and be back out on the streets sooner.Let me say it again, truth-in-sentencing laws do not deter crime. The offenders know they will get out of prison soon through a plea bargain or parole. They know they can avoid serving the full sentence that the judge imposed on him or her. The only way to deter crime and reduce recidivism is to abolish the possibility of parole and ensure that the sentence the judge renders is carried out to full-term. Obviously, to take away the option for parole would mean that the prison populations would increase. Well, we should take the funds left over from overhead to run the parole division and build more prisons to house these offenders.The longer we keep them off the streets, the safer society will be. Rebuttal Argument Each state has to look at the amount of money being spent to house each inmate they have in custody. Be cause the Truth-In Sentencing Law wants to keep the offender behind bars until they complete their entire sentence/term in prison no matter what the costs are to the public. Meaning, everyone’s hard earned income  (taxes) are used to keep them in their present place of occupancy. This law depletes the services we receive from our state revenues.We don’t have much say in the budget spending but we do see the increase in taxes used for each state program. I have to disagree with the statement made â€Å"The offenders know they will get out of prison sooner through a plea bargain or parole. †Ã‚   Not all offenders before or during their trial will know the outcome of sentencing. Many do not have the option for plea bargaining because plea bargaining depends on the severity of the crime committed. Instead, if the case went directly to trial, (this includes judge and jury) the accused might have a chance of plea bargaining.No plea bargaining makes the offender elig ible for a parole based on his or her behavior during incarceration and no plea bargaining being offered. But if society had no parole system, then the correctional system will have to face overcrowding in the institutions. The lack of Rehabilitation for said prisoner would be non-effective because there would be no programs such as work-time credit or good-time credit, which is the main reason why early release would benefit them. With those programs the time served by offenders would be less and would allow the offenders to enter back into society.The fear of re-entry of said offenders are the defense for keeping them locked up. These programs should be used for offenders that have this as a first offense on their record and have shown they can be productive in today’s society. Not all inmates are repeat offenders some are just non-violent offenses but carry a great penalty. When I was younger it was a big deal to go to jail because it showed most people that they were a â €Å"badass†, a badge of honor, and should be feared. In my eyes it was a waste of mind, body, and productive individual. Those same individuals found when they came out ithout a trade they were worthless and the only way to survive was crime and more time in jail. In Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn on October 2, 2012 has reinstated the program for â€Å"Good-time† releases,  a way to bring down the overcrowding in his state and federal prison system. Opening Argument Truth-in-Sentencing laws deter crime because they ensure that offenders are in prison for at least 85% of their sentence. Therefore, the convicted offenders stay in prison for longer periods and not able to commit additional crimes and endanger the member of society.TIS laws are the assurance of longer prison terms as punishment and serve as an effective deterrent from criminal actions to the serving offender and others who may be considering criminal acts. The laws provide the ability for the criminal just ice system to operate more effectively by lowering violent crimes as well punishing violent criminals. According  to the publication from  University  of Alabama at Birmingham (2005) citing data from Bureau of Justice Statistics, in the decade following the passage and implementation of the truth-in-sentencing laws in 1994, the arrests for violent crimes were reduced by 16% by the year of 2005.The TIS laws also limit some of the discretion of the judges and parole boards with regard to release of the offenders prematurely and being â€Å"too soft† on crime, thus eliminating the many possibilities for the offenders getting away without receiving the well-deserved punishment. The Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report from January 1999 indicates that prior to the TIS laws violent offenders barely served half the length of their sentences. What kind of message did that send to the convicted or potential criminals?With the availability of TIS laws, criminal justice adm inistrators can build public confidence by ensuring that the just punishment is served to anyone breaking the law. In the article written by Joanna Shepherd published in the Journal of Law and Economics, she makes this statement: â€Å"Using a country-level data set, empirical results confirm that TIS laws deter violent offenders, increase the probability of arrest, and increase maximum imposed prison sentences. TIS laws decrease murders by 16%, aggravated assaults by 12%, robberies by 24%, rapes by 12%, and larcenies by 3%† (Shepherd,  2002,  p. 09). Today, more states are implementing the TIS laws and abolishing parole and indeterminate sentencing, demonstrating that the state legislature believes in this uniform application of justice processes and effectiveness of these laws in crime prevention. This information clearly shows that TIS laws are very effective in deterring crime by ensuring the stern and just punishment for offenders and sending the clear message to pot ential criminals that criminal behavior will be punished by lengthy imprisonment. Rebuttal ArgumentWhat about crime being committed in prisons around the world? Are we just going to ignore that fact because victimization is still happening across the boards of federal and state prisons? According to  a writer of The  New Yorker, Adam Gopnik, darkly described America prisons as â€Å"the moral scandal of America life. Prison rape is so endemic- more than seventy thousand prisoners are raped each year. † That is routinely held out as a threat, part of punishment to be expected. † (Gopnik, 2012). The National inmate survey reported that â€Å"An estimated 4. 4% of prison inmates and 3. % of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of victimization by another inmate or facility staff since admission to the facility  (Beck & Harrison, 2010). The total federal and state population in 2010 was 1,605,127, while the total jail population in 2009 was 767,62 0. This implies that there were over 94,000 victims subject to multiple violations (Beck & Harrison, 2010). No I don't agree with the fact that offenders being incapacitated for longer periods of time don't commit another crime. For people who want to do so, they will commit crimes anyway, and largely at that.Especially, the incentive behind good time credit is to have offenders behave in prison. If you lock them up in less than ideal conditions with no incentive to behave appropriately while incarcerated, they will be a population difficulty to control because they have nothing to lose. Earning good time credit gives them an insight to behave well inside. As for truth-in sentencing laws, I don't know if I  would actually say it is a deterrent or at least how much of a deterrent it  is, but I think it is  important nonetheless. Prior to 2003, legislation allowed for automatic emission of every sentence imposed to be reduced by one third (Chong, 2008). If the offender was made eligible for parole, a portion of that sentence is served under supervision in the community to enable their reintegration  into the community when released (Chong, 2008). Legislation introduced in 2003 abolished the automatic remission provision, so the sentence  imposed would more truly reflect the time to be served. In its place, legislation required courts to adjust the sentence actually imposed by one third, to reflect the abolition of automatic remission (Chong, 2008).What the government has done is  replace  automatic remission with reduction of sentence (Chong, 2008). The more things change, the more they remain the same. Sentences are more or less duration  for the same type of offenses (Chong, 2008). Some say the money being used for these criminals sitting in  jail should be more valuable of utilizing for work  time credits and more programs  for educational, substance abuse, psychiatric help programs for these offenders before being released out into the world again.I think it will better prepare themselves rather than not knowing what to do and all they are use to is the  jail's way of life in which they will end up back  in having that kind of mind set. References Beck, A. J. , & Harrison, P. M. (2010, August). Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Retrieved from http://bjs. ojp. usdoj. gov/content/pub/press/svpjri0809pr. cfm Chong, P. (2008, June 19). The Truth about ‘Truth in Sentencing'. WAtoday. Retrieved from http://blogs. watoday. com. u/theverdict/2008/06/the_truth_about. html Ditton, P. M. , & Wilson, D. J. (1999, January). Truth in Sentencing in State Prisons. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report,  (NCJ 170032). Retrieved  from  http://bjsdata. ojp. usdoj. gov/content/pub/pdf/tssp. pdf Gopnik, A. (2012, January 30). The Caging of America. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www. newyorker. com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/12030crat _atlarge_gopnik Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the 21st Century, 11th ed. Upper Saddle River: NJ. Shepherd, J. M. (2002,