Monday, September 30, 2019
Importance of Qualifications from an Aviation Managerââ¬â¢s Perspective Essay
Aviation is described as aircraft operation with the objective of providing air transportation. Air transportation can further be defined as all the civil flying which is performed by air carriers which are certificated and also the general aviation. The industry of air transport can be credited for its vital role it plays in the todayââ¬â¢s global world. Management of the aviation industry is complex and thus it requires one to be competent so as to be able to deal with the challenges that face this industry in our modern world. In addition, the organizational and industrial overview of the air line business is also a complex task and can not be managed by a person who does not have qualifications in aviation management. One needs to have qualification in aviation management so as to make the organization to excel in the job market as well as to manage the other employees so as to improve performance of the organization (Yilmaz, 2008). To be able to manage the organization effectively, one need to understand on the quality of services that the company should produce so as to attract more customers and also he should have leadership traits which can enable him or her to control the behavior of the employees toward achievement of the organization. He should also be able to control conflicts that may be arising in the organization to make sure that workers are satisfied and thus they are working in a conducive environ Aviation industry need a management personnel who is competent so that he or she can be able evaluate the quantitative methods and applications in the organization. The personnel should be able to use the scientific management theories so as to support the situations of decision making by giving sound decisions which can help the organization to grow and even run profitably (Yilmaz, 2008). He or she should be able to use and apply various concepts in the organization such as the techniques of linear programming, the simulation methods, and the models of inventory control as well as the decision theory to ensure the organization is running efficiently. Furthermore, there is need for management personnel in the field of aviation to have knowledge about managerial accounting since it is a necessity in management. This will enable him or her to identify, accumulate, report and interpret the information about cost so as to make decision and control the general operation context (Yilmaz, 2008). It will also enable him to utilize and evaluate information supplied to him or her from accounting department. Having knowledge on managerial accounting can enable the management personnel to be able to have accounting tool which can enable him or her in determining on the performance of the organization. Aviation management personnel should be also qualified in the non profit and governmental accounting to enable him or her to be able to investigate the environment for decision making from a perspective of non-profit entity or public sector. This will enable the personnel to be able to analyze the consequences and also the regulation impact and the established pronouncements by governmental Accounting standards board, which is the comptroller of US and also the office of the general accounting for the federal. Aviation management personnel should also have knowledge on the financial management so that he can be able to have financial analysis, have measurement on the capital costs, capital management, capital budgeting, valuation and also in determining the analysis of the capital structures. A manager in the aviation industry should be competent and should be aware on the impact of the government as well as the current issues concerning aviation industry. He should be aware of this issue not particularly in the country but at a perspective of the world or globe. Aviation management personnel should be able to identify the market segment, to identify the trends that the organization must follow to achieve performance of the organization as well as identifying the developments that need to be introduced in the organization depending on the change in technological know how (Yilmaz, 2008). He should also be aware of the international standards required in the air transport industry so as to be competitive the market. Also being qualified will enable one to understand on the regulations and rules that govern air transport industry and make decisions on how to manage the operation of the organization according to such rules. The personnel should be able to forecast on the future trends and challenges using the present and the past trends of the industry so as to make the organization to be competitive in the market. There is also need of management aviation personnel to be competent so as to be able to identify the output and demand determinants in the organization as well as the labor relations. All in all, it is important for one to be qualified in aviation so as to be competent in the field of management in aviation industry. This is because one will be able to control all activities necessary in such industry so as to make it run efficiently and effectively for the growth or profitability of the organization.
For Love, or Money? Essay
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about Jay Gatsbyââ¬â¢s constant quest to win over his love of the past, Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsbyââ¬â¢s misfortune, he finds that Daisy is married to the wealthy but cocky Tom Buchanan. Daisy is a modern day ââ¬Å"gold-diggerâ⬠she fails to realize her own arrogance, and the success of her relationship with Tom is measured upon the size of his pocketbook. Tomââ¬â¢s secret lover, Myrtle Wilson becomes the victim of a hit-and-run. Tom shows Myrtleââ¬â¢s husband to the door of Gatsby. Gatsby is shot while swimming in his pool for the first time. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, witnesses Gatsbyââ¬â¢s failure to relive his past and recapture the love of his life. Although Nick admires Gatsbyââ¬â¢s effort to use his newly acquired wealth for the intentions of love as opposed to Tomââ¬â¢s use of it to be reckless, he thinks Gatsbyââ¬â¢s obsession is foolish. Before the war sent him packing, Jay Gatsby was seeing Daisy Fay. At that time Jay was not very wealthy, but he had high hopes as to what it would take to win over the girl of his dreams. After the war Gatsby was shocked, but not set off track when he found that Daisy married another man. Nick is constantly in awe of Gatsbyââ¬â¢s undying affection towards a woman that is married to another man, and is the same woman that betrayed him in the past. At first Nick thinks that Gatsby is not able to see through Daisyââ¬â¢s lack of emotion until Gatsby says, ââ¬Å"Her voice is full of money.â⬠(127). Gatsby says this because he realizes Daisy is a different person than he once knew. Gatsby can almost hear the difference in the odd cheerfulness in her voice. At that point in the novel, Nick realizes that Gatsby does not care what Daisy is like now, but he learns instead that Gatsby is in love with the Daisy he knew before the war. Gatsbyââ¬â¢s entire life and his only reason to become wealthy were to win over his love from the past. Tom Buchanan comes from ââ¬Å"old-moneyâ⬠. ââ¬Å"Old-moneyâ⬠is a term for people that have money passed down to them from different generations. He has never had to work for anything, and his incredibly large amount of money is sufficient enough to allow him to be as careless as he wants. He never thinks about his actions because he knows that money is on his side and everybody sides withà money. Tom cheats on his wife without a care in the world. His most recent desire is a Myrtle, the wife of a gas station owner. An example of Tomââ¬â¢s carelessness and brutality is when he intentionally whacks Myrtleââ¬â¢s face and breaks her nose after saying his wifeââ¬â¢s name, ââ¬Å"Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her [Myrtle] nose with his open hand.â⬠(41). After doing this, Tom showed absolutely no signs of regret for his actions. This evil gesture of Tomââ¬â¢s was not by itself. He figured to show his ownership of her by buying her a necklace that is much like the collar Myrtle put on her new puppy that was given to her from Tom. Myrtle could not argue with receiving gifts. Myrtle does not mind any of Tomââ¬â¢s actions towards her because she sees him as her only ticket out of poverty. Tom figures that Myrtle is from a lower class than he is and therefore he can do whatever he wants with her. Another strange character in the novel is Daisy Buchanan (Daisy Fay). Before the war, she was the girlfriend of Jay Gatsby. At this time she probably did not care at all about how much money he made. At that time, all she knew was that she was going to wait for Gatsby to return from the war. This is when she changes. She changes from waiting for her poor boyfriend to come back from war to a person that would marry the first man she met as long as he was filthy rich. She too is now just as careless as her husband Tom Buchanan. All she cares about is herself, her child, and her money. She admits to never actually loving Tom when she tells Gatsby, ââ¬Å"Why,-how could I love him-possibly?â⬠(139). At this point in the novel she begins to question herself as to what she wants more. She now faces a situation where Tom and Jay both are loaded. The difference between the two is obvious. Jay is completely devoted to Daisy while Tom just keeps her for his image. The only reason that she could have married Tom without loving him was to dive into is riches. Now that Gatsby is even richer than Tom, Daisy is left trying to choose. Unfortunately she takes too long to choose and hits a speed bump that indirectly chooses for her. All the time in the novel Nick is just watching and occasionally speaking, but he never actually helps this troubled group that he is caught in the middle of. Instead he watches their problems escalate and through all this he never bothers to answer why. Nick understands all of the problems thatà each character has, and he probably knows how to fix their problems. He has an opinion of each character after carefully studying their personalities and the problems they present. Throughout the novel the reader might wonder why Nick never steps in to set the characters straight when he knows exactly what should be happening. Nick has made his judgment, but like he said in the very beginning of the book, he remembers what his father told him, ââ¬Å"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world havenââ¬â¢t had the advantages that youââ¬â¢ve had.â⬠(5). This is the reason that Nick is almost completely detached. He was taught early to be the viewer rather than the actor. When Nick sees people with problems he calmly backs away from it and watches how they solve it. He wonââ¬â¢t criticize or point any fingers because he simple believes that they might not have had the same advantages that he had. This is the reason that Nick is the narrator of the story. He does not interfere with anybody. In the end he notices things that stand out about people. In this case it was Gatsbyââ¬â¢s great outlook on his life as opposed to Tom and Daisyââ¬â¢s reckless lifestyle. When people read a novel such as this, after the first two to three chapters the reader registers the ââ¬Å"good guysâ⬠and the ââ¬Å"bad guysâ⬠. Because of the nature of American film and literature it is needless to say that you can expect the ââ¬Å"bad guysâ⬠to either get caught or killed, and the ââ¬Å"good guysâ⬠save the day, get the girl, and live happily ever after. That is why it is such a shock to see Gatsby fail in his attempt to capture the women that he loves and save her from her beast of a husband. It is also very strange to see the narrator, Nick, just stand their and watch all these crazy things happen. Although Gatsby dies as a failure to his one goal, Nick does not see it that way. Nick sees Gatsby as a man that worked his way to the top. Nick admires Gatsby for his ambition. Gatsby did not care at all about fame and fortune unless it included Daisy. Nick understands Gatsbyââ¬â¢s obsession, and he feels that out of all the characters that he has met throughout the story, Gatsby is far better than any of them.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Trademarks lost in computer crash
Among articles specifically related to fields of e-business and intellectual property that abound in the Internet I found one which I believe is very interesting and at the same time very indicative of possible legal issues that may arise in those fields.This is the article from The Royal Gazette titled ââ¬Å"Trademarks lost in computer crashâ⬠. This article describes an accident which happened with the computerized Trademark Registry in Bermuda, which is an island Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Atlantic Ocean with internal self-governance. What makes Bermuda special is that it is known as one of the most important offshore financial centers of the world.More specifically, the article in The Royal Gazette reports about the computer database crash which caused the loss of records about approximately half of the 37000 trademarks registered in Bermuda, discusses ensuing consequences of this mishap, and mentions some legal issues and troubles that arose fr om this apparently unexpected event.In general, one of the accents that the article makes is on the mess that accompanied the problems with the computer hardware and the corresponding suspension of activities in the large trademark sector of Bermuda.Interestingly, the author of the article pays attention also to the roots of the technical problem itself, and mentions facts which suggest an involvement of a human factor as one of the causes of the problem.Now, among legal business issues raised in the article we may identify the following ones. Firstly, since for a prolonged period of time registration of new trademarks was suspended and because the whole trademark sector wholly relies upon the Trademark Registry, lawyers who represented companies with trademarks registered in the Trademark Registry in Bermuda could not be sure that their intellectual property had been protected or that no conflicting marks or infringements on property would emerge after the manual recovery of the da tabase.At the same time, the article draws our attention to the fact that the computer crash, while being a gross embarrassment for Government which has been promoting Bermuda as a leading centre of e-business and intellectual property, also serves as an example of what types of encumbrances e-business may encounter from time to time.Indeed, if such an accident has happened once, it may happen as well in other countries, and as the author of the article points out that trademark sectors of for instance the United States and Britain is much larger, it is easy to imagine what mess could arise there in a similar situation.In this way, one of the main legal issues that e-business faces is the creation of additional legal mechanisms which, of course along with the increased protection of important and private data, would ensure protection of intellectual property even during such crisises as the one that happened in Bermuda, and, importantly, endow participants involved into e-business a nd therefore especially susceptible to negative consequences of problems akin to the one in Bermuda with a sense of security.On ground of this, we may conclude that legal issues affect business in direct and indirect ways. For example, the suspense of related business activities during the period of time needed for the manual restoration of the database had some concrete economic costs.On the other hand, even though the problem with the computerized Trademark Registry in Bermuda was solved in a relatively fast manner this accident surely had struck a blow to the image of Bermuda. Indeed, the problems could, and for that matter should, have been avoided in the first place by merely paying more attention to the maintenance of the hard discs with the stored information, and by making sure that back-up systems worked properly.And even though I think that it is unlikely that such a problem will reoccur in the future in Bermuda, I believe that the realistic solution for the Trademark Regi stry to make most use of this trouble is not only to strengthen their computer system, but to compensate to companies, which have trademarks registered in Bermuda and which experienced inconveniences caused by the loss of data, in both a direct way, and in an indirect manner by assuring them in an increased protection of security of their intellectual property in the future.SourcesBreen, S. (2004). Trademarks lost in computer crash. Retrieved January 30, 2006, fromhttp://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040327/NEWS/103270075.
National Economy over the Next Decade Essay
Beyond 2007, the pace of economic growth will probably slow somewhat. The main reason is that the labor force is projected to grow less quickly as members of the baby-boom generation begin to retire and as the scheduled expiration of various tax provisions in 2011 discourages work by raising marginal tax rates. Real GDP is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 3. 1 percent between 2008 and 2011 and at 2. 6 percent between 2012 and 2016. The rate of inflation is assumed to average 2. 2 percent after 2007; and the unemployment rate, 5. 2 percent. Interest rates on three-month and 10-year Treasury securities are projected to average 4. 4 percent and 5. 2 percent, respectively (Marron 6). Over the longer term, the aging of the U. S. population combined with rapidly rising health care costs will put significant strains on the federal budget, which begin to be evident within the projection period. When the first members of the baby-boom generation reach age 62 in 2008, they will become eligible for Social Security benefits. As a result, the annual rate of growth of Social Security spending is expected to increase from about 4. 8 percent in 2008 to 6. 5 percent in 2016. In addition, because the cost of health care is likely to continue rising rapidly, the annual rate of growth of Medicare spending is projected to increase from 7. 4 percent in 2008 to about 8. 9 percent in 2016. (Medicare spending is anticipated to rise by 17 percent this year and 14 percent in 2007 as the new prescription drug program gets under way. ) Rapid growth is also projected for Medicaid spendingââ¬âan average of 8. 3 percent annually from 2008 to 2016. According to Congressional Budget Office, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid together will account for 56 percent of all federal spending by the end of the projection period (up from 43 percent in 2006). Measured as a share of the economy, spending for the three programs will equal 10. 8 percent of GDP in 2016, up from 8. 7 percent this year. In addition, no evidence suggests that the growth of health care costs, which have risen faster than GDP over the past four decades, is likely to slow significantly in the future. As a result, spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will exert pressures on the budget that economic growth alone is unlikely to alleviate. A substantial reduction in the growth of spending and perhaps a sizable increase in taxes as a share of the economy will be necessary for fiscal stability to be at all likely in the coming decades. References: Baker, Gerard. U. S. economy may be headed for a big crash. The Times of London. August 23, 2006. 23 Aug 2006. Barrell, Ray et al. World Economy Forecast. National Institute Economic Review. 28th July, 2006. No. 197. Baumohl, Bernard. Mid-Year U. S. Economic Forecasts For 2006 and 2007. Wharton School Publishing. June 15, 2006. 23 Aug 2006.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Features a of Successful School Essay
The way in which U. S. schools are ran today are not adequate for the growing needs of students in the 21st century. According the Darling-Hammond (2010), if these trends continue, by 2012, America will have 7 million jobs in science and technology fields, ââ¬Å"greenâ⬠industries, and other fields that cannot be filled by U. S. workers (p. 3). Other nations have figured out how to educate their youth, and those students will take the jobs of their U. S. counterparts if the U. S. does not change the ways in which we educate our youth. Darling-Hammond (2010), found that higher-achieving nations are more focused on quality teachers, and development of curriculum and assessment that encourages continuous reflection of teachers and students (p. 8). There is a need for change in the current education system, which was designed to educate students in the 20th century. According the Darling-Hammond (2010), ââ¬Å"At least 70% of U. S. jobs now require specialized knowledge and skills, as compared to only 5% at the dawn of the last century, when our current system of schooling was established (p. 2). Now that a need for change has been identified, it is up to the districts, schools and teachers to implement the changes. Through much research Darling-Hammond (2010), has identified five essential features of education that need to be changed to help prepare students for success in elementary though college. These five features include: small school size or learning communities within the school, personalization and strong relationships among teachers and students, challenging and relevant instruction, performance based instruction, and collaboration of teachers (p. 244). Features Definedà The aspect of small school size and learning communities are important to schools success, because it allows students to feel important in the school system. Studies have been done by Darling-Hammond (2010), and have identified that there is less violence in smaller school compared to larger schools, because everyone knows each other and there is more accountability for a studentââ¬â¢s action (p. 245). When the school and or class sizes are smaller the teachers get to know each of their students and have the ability to identify with each student, where as larger schools the students just ecome a number with little to no individual attention. Darling-Hammonds research states: These experiences underscore evidence accumulated over several decades that suggest that, overall, smaller high schools are associated with greater safety more positive student attitudes about school, higher levels of student participation and attendance, much lower dropout rates (p. 245). The reduction of school size alone will not solve the education problem our nation is facing, but merely an aspect that will help with the problem. The second aspect to a successful school according to Darling-Hammond (2010) is the need for ââ¬Å"structures that allow for personalization and strong relationshipâ⬠(p. 244). The way that teachers and students gain these strong relationships is through an advisory class, teachers are given a small number of students and in many cases these students stay with the same teacher over a number of years. Because of these factors of small class sizes and extended time with the teacher, teachers are able to gain strong relationships with their students. By knowing students well, teachers are more able to tailor instruction to studentsââ¬â¢ strengths, needs, experiences, and interestsâ⬠(Hammond & Friedlaender, 2008, p. 17). According the research done by Darling-Hammond: â⬠¦ we found that strong relationships between and among students and faculty were central to participantsââ¬â¢ views of what enabled them to succeed. Students often compared their school to a family and linked their achievement to their caring relationships with teachers (p. 248). Another equally important aspect to a successful school touched on by Darling-Hammond (2010) is ââ¬Å" intellectually challenging and relevant instructionâ⬠(p. 44). Since the beginning of time teachers have taught curriculum and given students assignments based on what was taught, but is the assignments relevant to the students learning? Darling-Hammond, (2010) says teachers should be getting away from fill in the blank worksheets and having students produce more meaningful work such as research reports, discussions of problems, and open-ended questioning to challenge students more (p. 249). These types of challenging assignments help prepare st udents to become critical thinkers, and get them ready for college. Successful schools also ensure that teachers are giving performance-based assessments, Darling-Hammond (2010) states: All of the schools engage students in completing complex projects and investigations of various kinds, and most of them require the completion of portfolios for graduation, which include high-quality work illustrating disciplinary inquiry in each of the major subject areas (p. 257) These types of assessments are helping create students that are critical thinkers, rather than just recall and memory, which were previously performed. These high-quality assessments are beneficial to students in helping them be more prepared for success in college and beyond. The final aspect of Darling-Hammond plan to improve education is ââ¬Å"highly competent teachers who collaborate in planning and problem solvingâ⬠(2010, p. 244). The idea of collaboration allows teachers and students significant time to discuss, problem solve and create valuable lessons. If teachers were just left to their own means they could teach lesson with little to no results. There is the need for collaboration to identify ways in which they can teach lesson to better help their students. When time for professional development is built into teachersââ¬â¢ working time, their learning activities can be ongoing and sustained and can focus on particular issues over time (Wei, Andree & Darling-Hammond, 2009, p. 39). In the U. S. very few hours are build in to the work week for teachers to plan and many times the planning is done individually and not collaborative with other educators. Many high achieving nations provide the opportunity for continued staff development as well as a wide-range development to teachers, where as the United States give one day workshops with little to know follow up (Wei, Andree & Darling-Hammond, 2009, p. 1). The small amount of time by U. S. teachers spend on collaboration has an adverse effect on students achievement. Prioritizing the Essential Aspects The most important of Darling-Hammondââ¬â¢s aspect is providing students with highly competent teachers that are given the opportunity to collaborate with their peers. As addressed by Darling-Hammond and Richardson (2009): Current research suggests that providing intensive, content-rich, and collegial learning opportunities for teachers can improve both teaching and student learning. When schools support teachers with well-designed and rich professional development, those teachers are able to create the same types of rigorous and engaging opportunities for studentsââ¬âa foundation for student success in school and beyond (p. 52). Teachers are one of the key features to the important of studentââ¬â¢s education, therefore they need to be given the opportunity for collaboration with their peers to gain the knowledge needed to reflect and plan to become better at their profession. Research done by Darling-Hammond shows that professional communities are an aspect that is important to schools that are achieving high levels of student learning (2010, p. 261). The next important aspect is providing instruction that is challenging and relevant to instruction. Teachers need to have high exceptions of their students and give students experience through task that are relevant to the real world and future success. Students are placed in internships and volunteer work as young as 11th grade to provide students with real-world experiences (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 257). According to Darling-Hammond (2010): Students reported that, even when they found they did not like the work or setting they had chosen, or when they experienced conflicts on the job, their internships made them feel more capable, responsible, and confident about solving problems and succeeding in their world beyond school (p. 256). These skills that students are learning from their internship are helping them become more prepared for their future. Keeping instruction relevant helps keep students interested in learning. Just as important as instruction is on education is the types of assessments used. It is important that the school system gets away from memorizing and gives more performance-based assessments, where students are involved in the revision of their work. Students need to be given more authentic assessments that are relevant to their learning and then have the opportunity to present their portfolios to communities of students. In the study by Darling-Hammond (2010) ââ¬Å"â⬠¦a deep sense of accomplishment from their experience, and, having repeated it several times before graduation, a growing sense of confidenceâ⬠(p. 260). These types of assessments are giving students the skills needed to be successful in life. Schools that allow for personalization and strong relationships are important to studentsââ¬â¢ growth in school. Today students are cranking through each day like an assembly line (Darling-Hammond 2010, p. 250). Teachers know very little about the potential of each of their students, and therefore the students suffer. Students from the study by Darling-Hammond have said that they feel like teachers care about them and their work as well as pushing them to perform at their ability (2010, p. 50). The last aspect is also related to personalization of students, it is small sized school and or classes. With the small class sizes teachers are better able to know each of their students to help tailor their learning to meet those needs of the students. It is not a surprise that smaller schools have the ability to have a focus on safety. These smaller schools have an increase in safety a decrease in incidents, because the adults know the students in the school and hold them accountable for their actions (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 45) Implementation The changes that need to be made to school system are something that is not going to happen over night by one teacher. These changes need to start at the state level with help of the district, schools and teachers. Teachers cannot implement all of these changes on their own. The aspects that teachers can control are changing the way that they teach to create students that are more critical thinkers and provide students will more meaningful assessments. Teachers can also help guide students to assess their own learning. Another aspect that teachers can control is the amount of time they are spending collaborating with colleagues to share strategies, and solve problems. Teachers can so also try to get to know each of their students, but this a daunting task with such large class sized. There are many changes that need to be made that are out of control of the teacherââ¬â¢s hands. One of these changes is the amount of time they spend collaborating with other teachers. The district and school site needs to make this a priority and give those teachers the time they need to become more effective teachers. The district and school also needs to implement more meaningful staff development training. As teachers can start implementing more meaningful assessments for students, it is the district that will need to set graduations requirements associated with these assessments. To more effectively tailor students learning it will be the districts responsibility to lower classes sizes or implement an advisory period. Teachers can try to get know each of their studentsââ¬â¢ strengths, but with such large class sizes it is very difficult to individualized instruction. The aspect that teachers have no control over is the school size. If the district wants students to feel safe and accountable for their actions, this is something they will need to implement. Conclusion The traditional model of education that was designed for the 20th century is not working to educate the youth in the global world of the 21st century, and changes need to be made to better reach the needs of the students today. Some schools have already implemented and embraced these changes and have seen great results in achievement of students. By making the necessary changes to the education process students will become better prepared with skills to help them be successful beyond high school.
Paranoid Schizophrenia
Paranoid Schizophrenia Josh Brotheim Keiser University First off, what is paranoid schizophrenia? According to Coon and Mitterer, (2010) paranoid schizophrenia is schizophrenia marked by a preoccupation with delusions or by frequent auditory hallucinations related to a single theme, especially grandeur or prosecution. In simple terms, the patients with this disease have false beliefs (delusions) that somebody or some people are plotting against them or members of their family. They hear things that are not real, or have delusions of personal grandeur- a false belief that they are much greater and more powerful and influential than they really are. (MNT, 2010) The disease was first identified as a discrete illness by Dr. Emile Kraepelin in 1887 and the illness itself is generally believed to have accompanied mankind throughout its history. (Schizophrenia, 2010) There are three things to know about paranoid schizophrenia: what the signs and symptoms are, the types of different treatments, and how people with this disease can have a threatening effect on society. Since paranoid schizophrenia affects so many people worldwide, it is very important to know the early signs and symptoms associated with it. Signs and symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia sometimes vary from person to person, but all the patients have the majority of these symptoms. They suffer from paranoid delusions or false personal beliefs that are not subject to reason or contradictory evidence. (MNT, 2010) A patient with paranoid schizophrenia will usually suffer from periods of high anxiety. They may have anger that may range from mild irritation, to fury and rage. The patients may suffer physical or emotional detachment. Aggression may reach levels in which violent outbursts occur. (MNT, 2010). Violent behavior sometimes occurs with paranoid schizophrenics. Often this violence is interoperated by the patient as self-defense as he believes others want to do him harm; or may become suddenly violent without observed provocation. (Livestrong, 2011) They also often behave in bizarre ways. They are often reported as having a conversation with someone who is not there or making strange statements when speaking to friends and family. (Livestrong, 2011) Finally, many schizophrenics contemplate suicide due to the difficulty of living with their mental illness or because they believe they have been instructed to do so by auditory hallucinations. (MNT, 2010). Patients with paranoid schizophrenia require treatments on a permanent basis; even when symptoms seem to have receded- a tempting time for patients to say they are fine and no longer need more help. Treatments are basically the same for all forms of schizophrenia; there are variations depending on the severity and types of symptoms, the health of the patient, his/her age, as well as some other factors. (MNT, 2010) Treatments include medications, which include antipsychotics; these are effective at managing hallucinations, delusions and other symptoms such as loss of motivation and lack of emotion. (Mayo, 2010) Other medications like antidepressants, anti-anxiety, and mood stabilizing medications may also be used in combination with the antipsychotics depending on the patientââ¬â¢s symptoms. Psychotherapy for paranoid schizophrenic patients is also essential. Psychotherapy may include individual therapy, which is therapy with a skilled mental health provider that can help them learn ways to cope with the distress and daily life challenges brought on by the disease. (Mayo, 2010) Psychotherapy may also include family therapy, where both the patient and his family may benefit from therapy that provides support and education to the families. Eletroconclusive therapy (ECT) which electric currents are passed through their brains to trigger brief seizures, changes the brains chemistry that can reduce symptoms of this disease. Mayo, 2010) Finally, to help the patients live independently and an important part of their recovery, people with this disease benefit from social and vocational skills training. Though there are not too many cases worldwide, people with paranoid schizophrenia may cause a violent threat to our everyday lives. According to Coon and Mitterer, (2010) thinking that god, the government, or ââ¬Å"cosmic rays from spaceâ⬠are controlling their minds or that someone is trying to poison them, people suffering from paranoid schizophrenia may feel forced into violence to ââ¬Å"protectâ⬠themselves. An example is James Huberty, who brutally murdered 21 people at a McDonaldââ¬â¢s restaurant in San Ysidro, California. Huberty felt prosecuted and cheated by life. Shortly before he announced to his wife that he was ââ¬Å"going hunting humans,â⬠Huberty had been hearing hallucinated voices. (Coon and Mitterer, 2010) In July, 1998, a man named Russell Westen, who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, entered the Capitol Building in Washington, D. C. , with a handgun, killing two security guards before he was shot and injured himself. As it turned out, the man had refused to take his medications. He was delusional, claiming that the President was conspiring to kill him. Once he claimed that the satellite dish in his little town in Montana was spying on him for the CIA. His parents said that he believed secret powers were trying to control him through the TV set. The man's symptoms read like a textbook description of paranoid schizophrenia. Not all paranoid schizophrenics are dangerous; most of them are not. However, when they begin to act on their fantasies, like this man did, they can become dangerous. (Psywww, 2007) Since, paranoid schizophrenia affects so many people worldwide, it is very important to know the early warning signs and symptoms associated with it. It is important to be able to recognize the strange activities he or she may be doing, from talking to the strange little leprechauns in the corner or getting violent and raged about the government or whomever, trying to come after them or their families. These diseased people need to be given the help they need. They need the antipsychotic medications, and the psychotherapy treatments to help them control there hallucinations and anger. With positive family and treatments, the violent outrages and murders can be kept under control. We just have to be able to understand what these patients are going through and help them with the proper treatments for their individual symptoms. (W/c 998) REFERENCES: Coon, D. and Mitterer, J. (2010) Introduction to Psychology (12th Ed. (P. 472). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth LIVESTRONG. com, (2010) Signs ; Symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://www. livestrong. com/article/22699-signs-symptoms-paranoid-schizophrenia/ MAYOCLINIC, (2010) Treatments and Drugs. Retrieved December 6, 2011 from http://www. mayoclinic. com/health/paranoid-schizophrenia/Ds00862/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs MNT, (2010) What is Paranoid Schizophrenia? What causes Paranoid Schizophrenia? Retrieved De cember 6, 2011 from
Friday, September 27, 2019
Nono Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Nono - Essay Example This approach will not function properly in a group that is uncooperative, hostile or not evenly represented. Turnover may also take a long time, plus it also has limited external accountability (Ballou, 1916). This evaluation depends majorly on the skills of evaluators, but what the students need is someone who they are conversant with such as their teachers to evaluate them. Hogan, L. (2007). The historical development of program evaluation: Exploring the past and present. Charleston, Illinois: Eastern Illinois University. Retrieved 24th July, 2012 from http://wed.siu.edu/Journal/VolIInum4/Article_4.pdf Even though, involving many stakeholders will formulate chances of better results, some stakeholders tend to shut other stakeholders out of the program since they think that they are more experienced than the other stakeholders. For example, administrators, expert evaluators and parents may dismiss the opinions and views of the high school students because they may feel the students are inexperienced and not knowledgeable enough. Also, the expert evaluators involved will mostly shut the parents out of the evaluation without taking into consideration that parents only want the best for the children. These professional evaluators see parents as setbacks to their plans (Hogan, 2007). Students, on the other hand, might end up not cooperating with the evaluators (McCarthy, 2008). A way of preventing such a case is by stating the roles of each stakeholder early before the evaluation begins. It is vital for every stakeholder to know his or her duty in the program before the program commenc es so as to avoid any hindrances. It is also important for all the stakeholders to understand the roles of the other stakeholders so that they do not take each other for granted. Hogan, L. (2007). The historical development of program evaluation: exploring the past and present. Charleston, Illinois: Eastern Illinois University. Retrieved 24th July, 2012 from
Briefly set out a) the main theoretical perspectives underlying the Essay
Briefly set out a) the main theoretical perspectives underlying the remuneration of executive directors in major national or mul - Essay Example However, this silence is less relevant to their leadership qualities, and more a result of their resultant extra ordinarily high salaries. In addition, there has been a very significant difference in the remunerations of CEOs belonging to US companies, as compared to those belonging to companies in the UK. With respect to this observation, this paper studies the remuneration of executive directors, and delves into the issues and theories concerning their outrageous amounts, and the debates that arise from them. The debate on the remuneration that executives receive has been carried out for several years. A recent factor, which has heated this debate even further, is the current recession and its effects (The Economist, 2010). This stems from the fact that over 13 percent of the residents of the US are unemployed, while millions others struggle to hold on to their jobs as their salaries and wages are reduced from what they used to be (Robbins, Judge & Judge, pp. 278, 2008). Apart from this, Lehman Brothers experienced a downfall, and needed two bailout packages from the government to recover and prevent further such happenings. This occurrence has made the common person wary of the way the scarce resources are employed, and that they should be treated as scarce instead of being wasted. However, people who only see half the picture make majority of the complaints and criticisms that the system of high remunerations receives. They see how these directors receive huge salaries for what they do, but they do not consider or even know about the stressful and demanding jobs that these directors do which help them secure such large payments (The Economist, 2010). This is a critical element that is missing from their perspectives, which makes theirs an unfair, unbalanced perspective. These critics do not bother considering the perspective of the CEOs themselves, or the significance and value of their services (The Economist, 2010). This paper aims to prove that, for this reason, their perception is flawed, and that the CEOs do earn the money they receive, using research, and statistics. Theoretical Perspectives It is an observation (Robbins et al., pp. 23-39, 2008) that a huge number of experts have carried out research on the issue of remuneration of executive directors in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United Kingdom, especially during the last decade. Analysis has identified that extraordinary increment in the salaries of executive directors been one of the major reasons of such a huge number of researches carried out on the subject. In order to understand theoretical perspectives of executive directorsââ¬â¢ remuneration, the paper will include agency and expectancy theories that will provide a comprehensive understanding. In particular, every company in the United Kingdom follows a standard remuneration package for its executive director that usually includes a basic salary, a yearly bonus along with long-term benefits. In this packag e, salary is the permanent component whereas the other components vary in different organisations. It is an observation that two factors play a critical role in determining variable components in remuneration of executive. Firstly, the calculation that relates variable components as functions of basic salary (Robbins et al., pp. 23-39, 2008). The second factor refers to the achievement of directors in terms of their target, thus, an average performance will lead towards to a lower bonus. Besides understanding
Thursday, September 26, 2019
The Impact of Oil spills on our Eco-system Essay
The Impact of Oil spills on our Eco-system - Essay Example The blowout preventer which was expected to alert and prevent the release of oil into the natural environment, failed to activate thus causing disastrous environmental consequences (BBC News, 2012). Furthermore, according to reports, the miss management at BP and its inability to control or prevent the damage is held accountable as one of the key reasons of this huge environmental disaster. The report presented by the Oil Spill commission, stated BP had relatively little knowledge regarding the geology of the site in question, which is perhaps the main underlying cause of the disaster. Apart from that there were several other factors such as oversight and the inability of the management to ensure effective implementation of proper safeguards to prevent such an event from happening. The report also stated that over and above the failure to predict the unfortunate event, BP also failed to implement adequate safety and control measures to prevent the damage (Oil Spill Commission Report, 2011). 2. Describe the risk factors associated with this incident/accident. Apart from the loss of lives of the workers and employees working on the rig, the oil spill has lead to several ecological, social, financial as well as environmental consequences. ... oard), BP was aware of the significant safety issues, well before the explosion occurred but still implemented cost cuts of about 25 per cent during the years 1998 and 2000. This measure on the part of the management led to a significant negative impact on the maintenance and infrastructure expenditures at the refinery (Regester and Larkin, 2008). Also the design of the cement used to seal the bottom of the well was flawed and ought to have been repaired promptly to avoid the dangerous consequences. The management failed to analyze the problem with the seal, and incorrectly validated the test result by approving it, despite the apparent fault. The workers hired on site, failed to foresee the looming disaster, and alert the concerned management regarding the same, which resulted in the blowout (BBC, 2011). 5. What were the short-term effects of this incident/accident on the surrounding environment? Any disaster of this magnitude and scale is likely to result in threatening consequence s which reach beyond the routine issues faced by organizations in their day to day operations. The short term effects of the BP Oil spill are listed below: Source: BBC News (2011) - Impact on the marine life: The oil spill underwater affects the marine environment causing damage to the aquatic life. The site of the oil spill is home to a wide variety of rich and diverse marine life including cold-water corals, fish, etc. Furthermore it is also reported that the endangered sperm whales frequent this water bed in search of giant squid and other prey. The oil spill destroyed the natural habitat of these species and affected their life cycles in the process. Since the marine species are highly interdependent, the food web is completely destroyed. - The environment: As many as 60,000 sea birds
Drummer Boy; The impact of drummers in the black church Research Paper
Drummer Boy; The impact of drummers in the black church - Research Paper Example The paper will consequently describe the subjectââ¬â¢s musical style, history, influence, plans, and repertoire and draw my personal comments. The black church refers specifically to Baptist and protestant religion and churches that minister predominantly to African-American people in America. Ideally, the black church has immense spiritual, economic, and political effects in America especially during the civil rights movement (Huyser-Honig Web). Notably, the black church destines leadership to men although its membership is primarily female. Music making, live performances, and singing are some of the activities that happen in a black church. Indeed, there is sacred music that keeps people coming to worship, and generally music and live-performances stirs worshippersââ¬â¢ souls and moves their feet each Sunday morning (ââ¬Å"A UMNS Reportâ⬠Web). Consequently, among the makers of the black church music is the drummer boy who plays the role of playing drums. The drummer boy tells me that a drummer is the backbone of every band and other musicians rely on the drummer to generate a strong beat that will compile the song. As such, he narrates his importance in the black church where he plays the role of generating strong beats that keeps all forms of music together. Ideally, the drums have soft sides that produce different tonal pitches according to the pressure of the arm of the drummer (Mitchell 3-7). Notably, drum tonality had great meaning in the African culture as well as in the black church. As such, a drummer must be on the beat to retain this cultural meaning and compose a perfect song. In this context, the drummer boy maintains a strong beat to make sure he does not lead the entire band astray. This leads to the connotation that a drummer must possess professional training and adopt relevant techniques to guarantee
Hr proposal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Hr proposal - Research Paper Example However, this dictatorial leadership style is not suitable for an organization that needs to enhance its capabilities and reach. For growth to take place, it is important for the leadership to not simply be about control, but understand the need to allow for other members of the organization to be as responsible for the achievement of goals as the management. A centric leadership structure can take away the culture of innovation and expression from an organization resulting in significant labour turnover as well as loss of productivity, due to dissatisfaction among the workforce. The key obstacle to any change in leadership comes from the top management itself. This is due to the control factor that has been exercised by these members that a change to the structure is regarded as a loss for the company. Leaders seldom wish to forego power that allows them to hold the ultimate control in the position they hold. The factor that is missing from the perception is that leaders are primarily the visionaries of organizations, and must leave the management to the other members of the organizations. Similarly, managers must pass along responsibilities in the labour line so as to increase the sense of belonging among the workforce, by harbouring a feeling of achievement in the overall workings of the organization. In order to manage and support the change, a collaborative approach must be undertaken by the management. This signifies an increase in involvement of all employees in the structuring of processes and procedures by the management, as well as allowing for a greater degree of understanding to be created regarding the vision and objectives of the organization. By understanding the needs of the employees, and bringing an open platform of communication, the management will be able to manage the change in culture that is to be established, while also creating a medium for the resolution of any conflict
Resourcing Talent - R-PartB Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Resourcing Talent - R-PartB - Assignment Example Diversity in an organization enables the organization to have the base of its employees made up of different people bringing together divergent views and ideas. The divergent workforce includes various generations of workforce including generation X, Generation Y and Baby Boomers. Generation X is attracted into the organization through creating a conducive environment that enables them to develop more on their skills and also learn. They are also lured by job positions that provide for independence, proper communication ad for individual potential improvement. Generation Y gives much weight to the benefits of the job as opposed to the salary and can be attracted via by upgrading the organizations offices with the modern and ergo-friendly furniture which would make the generation feel to be working in a healthy environment. Increases creativity as the employees come with a variety of remedies to help the organization soar to greater heights. The more the diverse ideas in an organization the higher the chances of solving a problem in the best way as everyone will be brainstorming to produce his/her best. Divergent language skills. An organization with employees from the different backgrounds enjoys a wider market due to the competency in communication using the various languages. This increases the geographical market coverage of the organization to as far as being a global market. Increases productivity as the employees will offer technical advice to the employer on how to best serve the clients using the newly introduced ideas .Diversity increases the employeeââ¬â¢s morale boosting their efficiency. Diversity helps in building on the image of the organization as it indicates that the organization is not discriminatory in offering job opportunities enabling such firms to attract more employees with new talents as they retain the already existing ones. To achieve diversity in the attraction of senior managers, high potential
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
PSY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
PSY - Essay Example This article classifies consciousness variation into two states, in which sleep plays a major role. These states are Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep and the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. The author regards the aspect of consciousness as a slippery concept, which cannot be touched or seen. That this nature of consciousness limited past psychologists from studying it, and so most were compelled to study behaviorism. At least behaviorism is observable, hence to study, unlike the unobservable consciousness, which is quite hard to study. On the concept of sleep, the article emphasizes the importance of sleep. The author argues that the physical and psychological impact of sleeplessness is evidence that sleep is vital. The problems associated with sleeplessness are mentioned to include increased irritability, reduced alertness, and reduced attention. An important effect of loss of sleep is mentioned as sleep-deprivation psychosis, which is characterized by disorientation, confusion, hallucinations, and delusions. Nonetheless, the importance of both REM sleep and slow-wave sleep are emphasized. These have different roles they play in human body. Slow-wave sleep is vital in refreshing the body after physical fatigue. The author recommends that developing children must be offered ample time to sleep. He explains that it is during sleep that a growth hormone is produced. Therefore, the longer they sleep, the faster they will grow. In the article, sleep is considered a biological rhythm, which cannot be sidestepped. It is like an internal clock, which is set to a 24-hour cycle. According to the author, this ââ¬Å"clockâ⬠experiences grogginess and sometimes peaks at different times of the day, depending on temperature and neutral firings of human bodies. The hypothalamus and the pineal gland are responsible for the control of this rhythm. However, the optic nerve and melatonin hormone play
FINANCIAL REPORTING & MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING Case Study
FINANCIAL REPORTING & MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING - Case Study Example From there, they gained a contract from IBM and in 1985, they both partnered in the development of the OS/2 operating system. That same year, her first retail version of Microsoft Windows came out and in 1986 they went public with an initial price of $21 per share, closing the day in $28. Today, Microsoft Corporation stands as the worldwide leader in software, services and varied ideas and solutions that helps not only businesses but broadens and makes knowledge easier. They have as their registered trademarks today, MS-DOS, .NET, office XP, 2007 office system, windows server, and windows versions like, 3.0, 95, 98, 2000, XP and Vista. As of August 2007, the corporation had a total real estate portfolio of 24,166,129square feet (in 565 sites) of which 13,918,070 were leased (in 482 sites) and 10,248,059 were owned (in 83 sites). Microsoft had a higher profit margin in 2003 which witnessed a sharp drop in 2004. This went up again in 2005 but after that period, it has been dropping yearly. However her return on assets which also dropped in 2004 is increasing from 2005 on a yearly basis. But, the increase on Microsoft's return on equity after her drop from 2003/2004 is very great. Her basic earning power too has improved greatly. The receivable turnover of Microsoft has been somewhat reducing which denotes the fact that she gives out more free ride to its customers. This turnover should increase and thus an increase in physical cash. This poor receivable turnover is also realized when we take a proper look into the day's sales outstanding. It's on the increase which is not good for the corporation. Inventory turnover too is dropping which is bad whereas both fixed asset turnover and total asset turnover are slightly increasing. In all, Microsoft is not managing her assets properly and greater care must be placed on this issue. Exhibit A-2: Asset Utilization Ratios Asset Management 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Receivable Turnover 6.19 6.25 5.54 4.75 4.51 DSO 58.92 58.36 65.87 76.79 80.95 Inventory Turnover 50.29 87.49 81.03 29.96 45.36 FA Turnover 1.56 1.69 1.80 2.15 2.22 TFA Turnover 0.40 0.40 0.56 0.64 0.81 Liquidity Any company's liquidity position is determined by comparing assets to liabilities; current liquidity considers current assets and current liabilities only. The Quick Ratio is similar to Current except that it carves out inventories. Microsoft has a very bad liquidity situation when we look on the two tests and this denotes the fact that, they have a weaker position to handle short-term obligations. Exhibit A-3: Liquidity Ratios Liquidity 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Current Ratio 4.22 4.71 2.89 2.18 1.69 Acid Test/ Quick ratio 4.17 4.69 2.86 2.12 1.64 Debt Utilization Having her debt ratio together with her times interest earned going up denotes the fact that this corporation is very risky as the years go by. But, as they carry more debt, they have a better coverage of debt as their EBITDA coverage reduces, thus their interest payments are well
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez - Research Paper Example Though the mood of the play is light hearted or comic, it discusses grave issues that crave great social attention. The play brings to our notice the issues like social injustice, racism and the class segregation where the Americans always expected the Mexicans to rise up to their expectation. This attitude of the Americans is quite evident in the words of the secretary in the play where she demands the kind of robot that walks and behaves in the American fashion. A critical estimate of the play makes one join with the Canadian writer, Ryan McFadden when he rightly observed thus, ââ¬Å"Los Vendidos is a play centred on drawing great attention to the misconstrued stereotypes of Chicanos while covertly ridiculing Americans which in turn successfully brings about conversation and critical thinking of these stereotypes and inspires viewers the opportunity to change their preconceived notions of Chicanosâ⬠(McFadden para.1). Therefore, the proposed critical study aims to establish a foresaid statement, that is, the play is a criticism, presented in a satirical way, against the existing social injustice touching the Mexican Americans from the Native Americans. The setting of this one-act play is located at Honest Sancho's Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop, a shop located in California that sells various kinds of ââ¬Ërobotsââ¬â¢, stereotypes of Mexicans and Mexican Americans.... The very presentation of the salesman-cum owner, Honest Sancho and the customer, Miss Jimenez, who introduces herself as secretary for Governor Reagan, itself provides enough materials for the audience about the Mexican and Mexican American clash. Jimenezââ¬â¢s reprimand to Sanchoââ¬â¢s mispronunciation of her name in ââ¬Ëbad Englishââ¬â¢, when he actually used Spanish accent, provides ample evidence for this disagreement. The attitude of the Mexican American to the Mexican is crystal clear at her ignorance to the cultural stereotypes exhibited in that showroom, though belongs to the Chicana or the Mexican American and was actually looking for a ââ¬ËMexicanââ¬â¢ type. The satirical note in the play is very notable that the dramatist does not spare even a single chance to criticise dominating mentality of the Americans. Elements of the comedy of manners in Los Vendidos can be especially identified when considering Valdezââ¬â¢s satirizing of his Chicano stock chara cters (Stereotyped, flat characters or caricatures) that fail to conform the conventions of the U.S. society (Vogelmann p.7). The reluctance of the Mexican Americans to mingle with the Mexicans has been shaded in the words of the Secretary when she disagrees with the prospect buying the first two robots. She rejects the first robot which is in the form of the farm worker, just because of the reason that he does not know English, which has an elite part of American culture which the Mexicans lacked. In order to proposes these issues, the dramatist resorts to realistic comedy which really enhances the quality of the presentation, especially the conversation between Sancho and the secretary. According to Vogelmann, ââ¬Å"The most important elements of realistic comedy in Luis Valdezââ¬â¢s acto Los Vendidos are,
Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Corporate Social Responsibility - Case Study Example It has been found out that the company should immediately take initiatives to engage in more innovative and benefit reaping CSR activities so as to improve its socially responsible image and ensure its long-term sustainability. Shell Oil Company is the American subsidiary of the multinational oil major company, Royal Dutch Shell. The Royal Dutch Shell is an oil company of Anglo-Dutch origin and is one of the largest oil corporations in the world. The head office of Shell Oil Company is in Houston, Texas. The company along with its share in the equity companies and the consolidated companies is one of the leading oil and natural gas producing businesses in the United States of America. The company is also engaged in the business of natural gas marketing, petrochemical manufacturing, and gasoline marketing. The main products sold by the company include fuels, oils, and oil card services. The company also deals with the production, exploration, and refining of natural oil and petroleum products. For this purpose, the corporate social responsibility initiatives taken up by Shell Company and the main motives of the corporation for adopting these CSR practices are discussed. The outcomes of the CSR activities are evaluated as per the effects of the different internal and external stakeholder groups and a discussion is made on how these activities have shaped up the image and reputation of the company among the global stakeholder groups. The report is concluded by providing suitable recommendations as to how the chosen company can improve the brand reputation by engaging in more innovative CSR initiatives.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Business Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Business Management - Case Study Example Over time, our activities will be decentralized to enable our services be enjoyed by potential patrons in the outskirts of the capital city. Internet service is woefully inadequate in Ghana, besides, in places where it does exist, it is still at its infancy. In view of the technological wind currently blowing across the world, the people of Ghana should not be left off this experience. It is based on this realization that XZYZ Inc can capture the enormous business potential on the domestic market. It is against this background that the primary focus of the company will be to offer high standard internet service that will be defined by speed and reliable connectivity. By so doing, we will be progressively headed towards becoming the main entryway for data communication by offering ground-breaking products, at affordable prices, and above all with the highest levels of customer service. At the core of the success of every business entity is the strategic role planning plays in the overall operational agenda. Therefore in collaboration with the top management hierarchy of the company, the goals of the company will be identified and streamlined along the conventional managerial standards ( Javashree 2008). Cardinal to the pla Cardinal to the planning policy is the ability to strike a compromising balance between what our goals (as stated in the opening part of the manual) are measured against the resources available to the firm. As part of the policy, the regulatory framework that will be used to determine all aspects of our operations right from financing, legalization, marketing down to customer service will be spelt out. In many ways our plan will be constructed on short term, medium term and long term basis that will factor in an appreciable level of flexibility to accommodate any unforeseen changes in the industry as we progress. Mohr & Puck (2006), has advocated for the establishment of a self-regulatory check and balances scheme into the plans of every business entity in order to avoid needless pertinent misrepresentation of roles and responsibilities. Organizational Structure XYZ Inc will be structured in a manner that will reflect our overall goals. The quality and caliber of staff to be hired will also be carried out along these same lines. In the broader sense, XYZ Inc will be operating on the principles of contemporary managerial structures, which includes among other things, the top management level; middle level management; and first level management (Javashee 2008). A team of highly skilled personalities will constitute the top management level. It will be complemented by the hiring of highly skilled individuals who possess valuable technical know-how in information technology and in their respective professional backgrounds. This is the category that will be heading the various departments such as finance and accounting, marketing, plant management and what have you. It is expected that taking cognizance of the huge human capital base of Ghana, attracting and hiring the right professional experts will not pose
Knowledge and Skills Framework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Knowledge and Skills Framework - Essay Example The NHS KSF (Knowledge and Skills Framework) comprises of thirty dimensions in all of which six of them are core to every job. These core dimensions describe the key functions that the NHS staff must follow in order to optimize the level and quality of service provided to the public at large. These include: Communication; Personal & People Development; Health Safety and Security; Service Improvement; Quality; and Equality and Diversity (DoH, 2004). Communication will help in service givers in caring for dying / sick people in a better manner. Personal & People development aims at ascertaining the learning needs of the staff and to ensure that they are well equipped to train their junior team members such as care assistants or nursing students. The health, safety and security dimension focuses on the belief that every individual within the NHS including the staff, patients or visitors are entitled to be safe and well cared for. Service improvement is an evolving area in the field of palliative care provision and it helps in ensuring that the staff is well equipped with current knowledge which will in turn prove to be extremely crucial and helpful in their respective fields of practice. Quality is one of the most significant aspects of health care. This dimension is included by the NHS to ensure good quality of service provision by individual practitioners. The health care service is often plagued with doubts, complaints and cri ticisms regarding the lack of equality in service provision. This core dimension i.e. Equality and Diversity, hence aims to ensure that no differentiation whatsoever is made between individuals seeking health care service and that all patients regardless of their ethnic or other differences shall be treated with equality at all times (Stevens, 2009). Communication is one of most important factors, particularly in the field of health care. It is the means by which patients and care givers
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Statement of Purpose Essay Example for Free
Statement of Purpose Essay This is an interactive PDF form. Please complete the requested information. When done, you may click on the Print button to create a paper copy. The printed form is to be submitted to the graduate program to which you are applying. Print Statement of Purpose (page 1) Personal History Statement (page 2) Name (as given on the graduate application) Last First Middle Term for which application filed: Proposed Graduate Program Fall year Winter year Spring year Please select program This information must be completed by all applicants for admission and submitted with the application. Please type or print clearly. Statement of Purpose Please state your specific interests with respect to the program to which you are applying. The following information should be included in this statement: 1. Your intended area of specialization, career objectives, and research interests and experience. 2. A brief occupational resume if any significant period has elapsed since you were last enrolled in an academic institution. 3. Academic awards, prizes, honors, fellowships or other distinctions you have received. 4. Work experience or activities pertinent to your graduate goals. 5. If pertinent to your proposed field of study, please list your publications and any scholarly or professional organizations in which you hold membership. 11/07 1 Personal History Statement: This information must be completed by all applicants for admission and submitted with the application. Please type or print clearly. Please note that the Personal History Statement should not duplicate the Statement of Purpose (previous page). In an essay, discuss how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how you might contribute to social or cultural diversity within your chosen field; and/or how you might serve educationally underrepresented segments of society with your degree. The information I have given above is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge. Signature of Applicant Term of Application 11/07 Please print name 2.
Modernization theory Essay Example for Free
Modernization theory Essay Modernization theory focuses on the main idea that the processes which the currently developed countries went through are vital to achieving development in the underdeveloped and developing countries. Modernization is thought to take place in five stages according to the Rostowââ¬â¢s stage theory (Rostow 1960), namely; â⬠¢ The traditional society â⬠¢ Take-off preconditions â⬠¢ Take-off â⬠¢ Drive to maturity â⬠¢ High mass consumption age The modernization theory is based on the idea of human progress according to Carneiro (2003) although according to Jones (1985) and McNeill (1990), the idea of human progress seemed unrealistic so long as man did not significantly influence the natural environment and as long as there was no perceptible change in the agrarian economies from one generation to the next. The developed countries are to serve an important role in helping the developing countries to achieve their level of development and serve as examples. Modernization traces its origin in the enlightenment era with the focus that progress in technology would help man overcome the challenges that the nature posed and man would have control over nature. Condorcet (1979) argued that moral values of people would change through economic development and technological progress, and therefore linked cultural change to economic development. Rostow (1961) argued that the economic effectiveness in the countries of low incomes is hampered by their social institutions and traditional cultural values. In these countries large population do not allow the individuals to save, as does the lack of strong work ethic (Giddens, Griffiths2006). According to the Marxist version of the modernization theory, early industrial society was characterized by exploitation. Growth of the developing countries would result from the use of education and technology. Allocation of resources in the developing countries in an irrational way was linked to the drawback in the industrialization of these countries. In order for a country to develop, it was necessary to remove the cultural, institutional and organizational roadblocks on its way to modernization and allocate resources rationally. Modernization is, according to Inglehart Welzel (2005), a process of the development of human where development of the economy triggers cultural changes which make democracy, gender equality, and individual autonomy increasingly possible. In addition to bringing out the root causes of the problems existing in the underdeveloped or developing countries, the theory also can help countries focus on means and ways of alleviating poverty by emulating the already developed countries. The theory puts strength to the fact that development is reachable, even by the underdeveloped and the developing nations and therefore can help the latter to put efforts to reach the developed world. The theory explains an important point why the developing countries cannot wake up one day and expect to see themselves developed, but that to achieve development, a particular process is followed-building the sub-processes in this process is of paramount importance to the countries of low economy. Dependency theory can be defined as an explanation of the development of the economy of a countryââ¬â¢s or stateââ¬â¢s development policy as influenced by the outside forces of cultural, economical, and political aspects (Sunkel, 1969). It is a system through which the developmental possibilities of the subordinate countries are disadvantaged and conditioned by the economic expansion and development of another country (Dos Santos, 1971). Dependency theory emanated in the 1950s with Raul Prebisch who was the director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and together with his colleagues was not comfortable with the way the developed economy in the developed nations failed to lead to growth in the poorer countries. According to him, the poorer countries exported the raw materials to the developed countries and yet received the same goods as processed goods and the earnings from the exports was not enough to fund the imports. Prebisch offered a solution for the poor countries to substitute imports and avoid use of their foreign reserves to purchase for imports of manufactured goods. Import substitution was hard to follow because of obstacles that were facing the poorer countries. These included: the possibility or ability of controlling their exports of primary products; political will as concerning desire or possibility to shifting from producing primary goods; and the inability of the small internal markets of the poorer countries which made them unable to support the economies of scale used by the richer countries to keep their prices low. International capitalism has been mentioned as the force causing dependency relationship According to Gunder (1972), contemporary underdevelopment is as a result of continued relationships-economic or others-between the developed and the poorer countries. Unlike imperialism which explains dominant state expansion, dependency explains underdevelopment-the result of imperialism. Dependency theory was developed as a result of combination of economic doctrine called structuralism, and Marxist sociology. It blamed the US intervention and the role of the Latin America in the world economy as failing to achieve development and its political authoritarianism as a result of its role in exporting raw materials in the world economy. America was said to suffer deterioration in the terms of trade by experiencing cheaper exports due to low wage resulting from surplus labor, and more expensive imports because, instead of the productivity gains being passed on as lower prices, they were going to the increasingly monopolistic industrial firms. Latin America would therefore, because of this free trade, not be able to accumulate surplus capital required to industrialize. The difference between developed and underdeveloped economies was said not only to be on state of the system of production, or simple difference of stage, but also to be of position or function within a single international economic structure of production and distribution. Poverty of the countries was blamed for the richness of some others, not because of any failure (Reid, 2007). Social exclusion of masses as a result of domination of the economy through industrial monopolies yielded to urbanization void of industrialization (Reid, 2007). As a payment to investments, the foreign investors required that the state discipline those demanding high wages leading to military dictatorship. Although their diverging points on the theory, there is an agreement in issues like the influence of external forces that developed world use to extend their interests abroad which includes foreign aids, communications, multinational corporations and other tools. In all the definitions there is an agreement that there exist two sets of states; the dominant and the dependent, centre and the periphery, the metropolitan and the satellite. All of the definitions point to dynamism of the relationship between the dominant and the dynamic country since the interactions between them tend to reinforce and intensify the unfair patterns (Ferraro, 1996). Like the Modernization theory which can be considered to be developed by different people, the dependency theory also is said to have arisen in three principle formulations. According to Reid (2007) the first principal formulation of the dependency theory focused on formal and institutional relationships such as trade relations and foreign trade, as factors which were sources to dependency. The second formulation treated the theory as a subfield of the refined imperialism theory of the Leninist and the analysis of capitalism by Marxist. The third formulation dealt with the two previous definitions. The theory has assisted in shedding light as concerns the exploitation existing in the monopolistic world market where countries with strong economies try to dominate over those with weak economies and create a monopolistic effect of trade. Continued use of foreign aid to the poor nations, which has seen countries being over-reliance to donors, has left poor countries with no solid alternatives than to pledge loyalty to the developing nations. The theory has helped in enumerating the disadvantages that can be acquired from capitalism especially where the capitalism is the influence to the establishment of relations between countries. The theory was criticized as eroding Latin Americanââ¬â¢s belief in selves, according to Lawrence Harrison, in addition to patronizing and paralyzing Latin America. The formulations were attacked as ignoring or undermining the other causes of underdevelopment such as internal social and cultural factors and were neglect of culture, race, gender and ethnicity. Besides, there were some countries like Asian countries which developed purely on a capitalistic system, and countries like Taiwan and South Korea developed through the ideas that have been propelled in the development theory (ââ¬ËDependency verses Dependency theoryââ¬â¢). The theory has been blamed as indicating that for a country to succeed, it should join others who have succeeded in the exploitation of some, even if it does this on a regional level. It has been termed to be a strategy left only for the smaller third world countries with no real alternative market, and is no strategy at all. The dependency theory work has been blamed also for criticizing development in the third world, indicating that such development builds a society different from that at the core (developed world) and that there is no way the resulting society can be as that at the core. Development in the third world can be best described, as the dependency theory points out, development of underdeveloped and not as the advertised development. The similarities between the two theories can summarized as follows: â⬠¢ Both theories concern themselves with the relationship between the underdeveloped and the developing with the developed countries. While the modernization theory is concerned with the view that the developed countries should serve as an example to the developing or underdeveloped countries for development purposes, the dependency theory explains the development of the country in relation to the outside forces or influences which may be as a result of the activities of the developed countries. Both therefore deal with and recognize that there exist the relationship between thee two types of countries. â⬠¢ Both theories are consent to the idea that the developed countries have a superior hand in terms of the economy, over the developing or the underdeveloped world. The difference in this area is that the dependency theory seems to indicate an unfair dominance of the developed economies over the developing or underdeveloped ones, whereas the modernization theory views the relationship as health-that the developed economies can assist the underdeveloped or the developing ones â⬠¢ Both theories do not give a one-sided explanation as concerns the causes of the low economic status in the developing or underdeveloped countries. While the modernization theory gives a critical look at the reason for the poor economic status of the developing or underdeveloped nations as being a result of the problems already existing such as overpopulation and lack of work ethics, it may be seen as neglecting the role of the developed economies in the resulting economic problems of the third word countries. In its explanation to the resulting economic difficulties in the third world, dependency theory has leaned unfairly away from the role played by the third world countries in resulting to their own economic problems. It has been blamed, as seen earlier, as neglecting the social economic factors that contribute to economic problems in third world countries. It can be seen to be unfairly explaining the problem as a result to exploitation and external forces. â⬠¢ There are a range of modifications or disagreements arising among scholars in the development of the two theories Other differences â⬠¢ While the modernization theory seems to explain the causes of poor economy in the third world as the result of the activities of the countries themselves for example through poor allocation of resources, and with a view to solving it, the dependency theory can largely be described as a criticism to the developed countries as being the cause to the problems of the economy in the third world. The modernization theory focuses on the internal causes of the poor economy in the third world, but the dependency theory focuses on the external influences â⬠¢ The dependency theory is devoid of a clean sheet and proper strategy of solving the economic problem of the third world in a non fair market, to the event that it has been described as a ââ¬Ëno strategy at allââ¬â¢. The modernization theory presents a way of solving the problems of economy affecting the third world such as substitution of imports, advance in use of technology and further education to improve economy. References Andre Gunder Frank, The Development of Underdevelopment, in James D. Cockcroft, Andre Gunder Frank, and Dale Johnson, eds., Dependence and Underdevelopment. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972, p. 3. ââ¬ËDevelopment verses Dependency theoryââ¬â¢ Retrieved November 13, 2008 from http://www. revision-notes. co. uk/revision/619. html Dos Santos Theotonio. The Structure of Dependence, in K. T. Fann and Donald C. Hodges, eds. , Readings in U. S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent, 1971, p. 226 Ferraro Vincent. Dependency Theory: An Introduction. July 1996. Retrieved November 13, 2008 from http://www. mtholyoke. edu/acad/intrel/depend. htm Giddens Anthony Simon Griffiths. (2006). Sociology. Polity Hogan Michael, Thomas Paterson. (2004). Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press Inglehart Ronald Christian Welzel. (2005). Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reid Michael. Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin Americaââ¬â¢s Soul. Yale: Yale University Press Sunkel Svaldo. National Development Policy and External Dependence in Latin America, The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 6, no. 1, October 1969, p. 23
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Effectiveness of Treatment of Postnatal Depression
Effectiveness of Treatment of Postnatal Depression TREATMENT But there have been a recent number of studies that looked at the effectiveness of treatment of postnatal depression. From one of the most recent publications (Dennis, 2005) provides a meta-analysis of the factors which influence the outcome in the condition. The author concluded that the only strategy that was shown to have ââ¬Å"a clear preventative effectâ⬠was intensive post-partum support from the healthcare professionals who are involved in the care of the mother. Surprisingly, this was found to be more effective than all the similar regimes which included an ante-natal component as well. A stable family life, a person experiences in the first years of life have profound effects on his or her mental health. On the other hand, talking about postnatal depression also have to concerns about the lives of the babies involved. A child from a stable home, looked after by affectionate, caring parents (or other adults), is likely to be mentally stable and able to resist everyday stresses than a child from a home where there is emotional strife, constant bickering or violence this child is more at risk of developing a personality disorder in later life. Although one in four of the population in the UK will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lives regardless of age, race, gender or social background. Anxiety and depression for an example in post-natal women is fairly common (Fowles, 1996). Postpartum depression is considered as a factor which can affect the development of a child in the early period of his or her life and partly determines the childs future. The morbidity associated with postnatal depression has a number of potential consequences not only for the mother, but also the child and the rest of the family as well (Oakley et al, 1996). Several recent studies have shown that healthcare professionals often fail to spot the signs of postnatal depression. Making the diagnosis is obviously the prerequisite of establishing a treatment regime so it is clearly vital for all healthcare professionals to be on their guard for warning signs ââ¬â sleep disturbance, irritability, mood swings and irrationality (Ramsay et al, 1995). The importance of spoting the signs of postnatal depression is stressed in the National Institute of Clinical Excellence clinical management and service guidance on antenatal and postnatal mental health, which was released lately that it is applicable to healthcare professionals who care for women who are designing a pregnancy, are with child or throughout the postnatal period (the first year after giving birth) (NICE, 2007). According to NICE, it is approximated that as numerous as one in seven women experience a mental health disorder in the antenatal or postnatal period (Hagen et al, 2007). The guidance is the first of its kind to make exact recommendations on identification, treatment and management of all mental health disorders, encompassing disquiet, depression, consuming disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It should be read in conjunction with living NICE guidance on mental disorders. The guidance states that service users with a mental health disorder should be granted heritage perceptive data at each stage of evaluation, diagnosis, course and treatment about the influence of the disorder. This data should cover the appropriate use and probable side-effects of treatment (Harris,1994). This recommendation concerns to women with a living mental health disorder who are with a child or planning for a pregnancy, and those who evolve a mental health disorder throughout pregnancy or the postnatal period. Healthcare professionals should work to evolve a believing connection with the woman, and her partner(if they have one), imidiate family members and carers where appropriate and agreeable to the woman. In specific, they should be perceptive to the matters of stigma and disgrace in relative to mental illness (Harris, 1994). Stigma as defined by Abrams et al, (2005) is ââ¬Å"a mark or sign of disgrace or discreditâ⬠. Stigma causes people to feel uncomfortable around an issue, or can also cause people to mock the issue in order to make it less threatening to them. Most people who feel uncomfortable is often refused to talk about mental illness therefore causing a silence around the subject. People usually tend to attach stigma to others that are different from them. Often, due to mistaken beliefs, the mentally ill are thought to be dangerous. The stigma attached to mental illness is the main obstacle to better mental health care and better quality of life for people who have the illness, for their families, for their communities and for health service staff that deal with psychiatric disorders (Abrams et al, 2005). Routine communication with doctors and healthcare professionals throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period presents an opening to recognise women who have, or are at risk of evolving, a mental health disorder. At a womans first communication with professionals in both antenatal and postnatal periods, doctors and healthcare professionals should enquire about: (Hagen et al, 2007). Past Previous treatment and medication by a psychiatrist or expert mental health group, encompassing inpatient care; A family history of perinatal mental illness. However, the guidance stresses that other exact predictors, for example poor connections with her colleague, should not be utilised for the usual proposition of the development of a mental health disorder (Gotlib et al, 1991). The following questions must be asked when a pregnant woman attend to a health care professional; During the past month, have you often been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless? During the past month, have you often been bothered by having little concern or delight in managing things? If the woman responses yes to both of these questions, a third enquiry should then be considered: Is this certain thing you seem you require or desire assistant with? The use of self-report assesses for example the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) or Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) may be advised as part of a later evaluation or for the usual supervising of outcomes (Harris, 1994). If a likely mental health disorder is recognised throughout pregnancy or the postnatal period, a further assessment will be needed: If the woman has or is supposed of having a critical mental sickness (for demonstration bipolar disorder or schizophrenia), she should be mentioned to a mental health care service, encompassing, if appropriate, an expert perinatal mental health service professional (Hagen et al, 2007). The womans GP should be acquainted in all situations even if no further evaluation or referral is made (Hoffman and Drotar, 1991). And in writing care plan covering the pregnancy, consignment and the postnatal period should be evolved for with child women with a present or past history of critical mental sickness, generally in the first trimester. This should be evolved in collaboration with the woman and her colleague, family and carers, and encompass expanded communication with mental health service professional (Fowles, 1996). The guidance suggests there should be apparently particular care pathways so that all applicable prime and lesser healthcare professionals understand how to get access to evaluation and treatment (Hoffman, 1991). NICE states that there is clues to support the use of aimed at psychosocial interventions for women who have symptoms of depression and/or disquiet that manage not rendezvous the threshold for a prescribed diagnosis. The guidance interprets that certain treatment or support for a postnatal woman should be advised when symptoms manage not rendezvous diagnostic criteria but significantly hinder with personal and communal functioning (Hagen et al, 2007). For this assembly of women the following should be considered: Offering one-to-one, short psychological treatment (four to six sessions), for example interpersonal psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural treatment for mental health service users who have had a preceding episode of depression or anxiety; Offering communal support throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period (such as normal casual one-to-one or group-based support) for women who have not had a preceding episode of depression or anxiety (Fowles, 1996). However, it adds that psychosocial interventions conceived expressly to decrease the prospect of evolving a mental health disorder should not be part of usual antenatal and But it adds that treatment conclusions are perplexing by the occurrence of the evolving foetus, breastfeeding and the timescales enforced by pregnancy and birth (Hagen et al, 2007). As an outcome, it contends that the thresholds for non-drug treatments, especially psychological treatments, are probable to be smaller than those set in NICE clinical guidelines. It emphasises that women who require psychological treatments should be glimpsed for treatment commonly within one month of primary evaluation and no longer than three months afterwards (Goodman, 2004). The NICE guidance summaries the function doctors can play in noticing, stopping and nurturing for women with a mental health disorder when planning for a pregnancy, throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period. Mental health promotion becomes very important for the people who are plannning to have a child or those who are already pregnant or newly born mother. It should be mentioned that postnatal depression is possible to occour but they should be aware that it is treatable (Harris, 1994). When in a clinical setting dealing with a patient with a mental illness, it is good practice to communicate effectively and adjust the skills accordingly to the patient. For example speak clearly, slowly and ask open-ended questions. Observing any change in mood and behaviour at all times for safety reasons. REFERENCE Cox, J., Holden, J., Sagovsky, R. (1987) Detection of postnatal depression: Development of the 10 item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 782-786.
CMV Infection Epidemiology and Pathogenesis
CMV Infection Epidemiology and Pathogenesis Virus Strain Variation An important variable that may impact the prognosis of infection may be viral strain variation. It has been hypothesized that some clinical strains of CMV are intrinsically more harmful, based on variability in genes implicated in viral pathogenesis. Some subtypes of CMV classified on the basis of their UL144 (TNF receptor homolog) sequence were described as being more likely to be associated with symptomatic disease (Arav-Boger etal., 2006), irrespective of the viral load. On the other hand, other studies were unable to confirm any association with UL144 genotype and the outcome of infection. No differences in clinical outcome could be attributed to variants of the CK homologs, UL146 and UL147 (Heo etal., 2008). When genotypes based on the sequence heterogeneity in the envelope glycoprotein gene, gN (UL73), were compared, congenital infection with one genotype, gN-1, was associated with an improved prognosis with respect to long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae (Pignatelli etal., 2003). In another study of infants with congenital infection, the distribution of genotypes for the gB glycoprotein gene (UL55) showed significant differences, depending upon the disease classification observed, but no information was reported on long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae (Jin etal., 2007). Differences in virulence between strains of HCMV may reflect their abilities to attach to cells. HCMV strains Toledo (low passage in cell culture), Towne and AD169 (cell culture-adapted) exhibited differences in virulence in vaccinated volunteers. Growth differences relative to virulence of the various HCMV isolates have also been observed in endothelial cells. Differences in glycoproteins may be the reason for the differences in abilities to attach and replicate in cells. HCMV was originally classified into four genotypes of gB, each with a characteristic nucleotide and peptide sequence, but later, a fifth glycoprotein genotype has been identified (Sweet, 1999). Clinical HCMV isolates are slower growing on human fibroblast cells and differ from laboratory adapted strains of HCMV in that they encode additional sequences in the ULb locus (about 19kb), which is believed to be associated with viral pathogenicity and/or the ability of the virus to grow on epithelial/endothelial cells (Hahn et al., 2004). This locus is rapidly mutated and deleted in the process of adaptation of the virus to tissue culture fibroblast cells (Dargan et al., 2010). The UL128-131 genes in the ULb locus have been demonstrated to be necessary for virus entry into epithelial and endothelial cells by a newly identified endocytic method of cell entry that is different from the pathway of infection in fibroblast cells (Ryckman et al., 2006). Epidemiology Human CMV is an ancient virus that is ubiquitous in human populations, reaching a prevalence of 100% in Africa and Asia, and approximately 80% in Europe and the USA, depending on socioeconomic status (Cannon et al., 2010). CMV infection is widespread and occurs worldwide. (Bate et al., 2010). Seroprevalence rates vary depending on age (higher rates are observed among older persons), geography (higher rates in developing countries), and socioeconomic status (higher rates in economically depressed regions) (Bate et al., 2010, and Cannon etal., 2010). Primary CMV infection occurs most commonly during the first 2 decades of life (Joseph et al., 2006). Non-white race, low socio-economic status, premature birth, and neonatal intensive care unit admittance are among the important risk factors for congenital CMV infection (Kenneson and Cannon, 2007).Congenital CMV infection can occur in 0.5-2% of all pregnancies, often with devastating consequences for the developing fetus (Sung and Schleiss, 2010). Among congenitally infected infants, approximately 10% have signs and symptoms of disease at birth. Although the remaining 90% of infants are asymptomatic at birth, 10-15% will subsequently develop permanent sequelae, including sensorineural hearing loss and mental retardation (Cheeran et al., 2009). It has been reported that 25% of congenitally infected infants whose mother had a primary HCMV infection during pregnancy had at least one sequela, compared with 8% in infants born to women with recurrent infection (Sung and Schleiss, 2010). The impact of congenital CMV is greater in the developed world because of the number of CMV negative wo men of child bearing age and the risk of primary infection during pregnancy which substantially increases the likelihood of congenital infection (Colugnati et al., 2007). In the developed world, congenital HCMV is the second most common cause of mental retardation next to Downs syndrome (Dollard et al., 2007). Additionally, HCMV related deafness occurs at a greater frequency than that related to Hemophilus influenza infection in the preHIB vaccine era (McGregor and Choi, 2015). Transplacental transmission of virus occurs in about one-third of mothers with primary CMV infection (Kenneson and Cannon, 2007), and approximately one-half of these infections in utero result in a symptomatic clinical syndrome (Adler et al., 2007). Epidemiological data suggest that the timing of acquisition of primary infection relative to the establishment of pregnancy is an important factor in establishing the risk to the fetus for in utero transmission (Revello et al., 2006). The infection is acquired by 40% of children within the first decade of life. Seroprevalence increases to 80% by the age of 60 (Kenneson and Cannon, 2007). Most HIV-infected individuals are seropositive for CMV. HIV infection accelerates the development of CMV-dependant immunological abnormalities (Barrett et al., 2012). In Africa, the prevalence of CMV IgG among HIV-negative adults was 81.8% (range 55-97%). For HIV-infected adults the pooled CMV IgG seroprevalence was lower among those with clinically defined AIDS (81.9%, range 59-100%) than among asymptomatic HIV-infected adults (94.8%, range 71-100%), consistent with the notion of weaker humoral responses associated with AIDS progression. It is also possible that some non-HIV infected adults are infected but do not mount a measurable IgG response. Among pregnant women seroprevalence mirrored that among healthy blood donors, although the HIV status of participants was not always stated. In children, pooled seroprevalence was 88.1% (range 80-100%). With this very high seroprevalence in children, even in very young infants, one would expect seroprevalence among adults to be consistently close to 100% (Bates and Brantsaeter, 2016). In Egypt, the seroprevalence of CMV infection among pregnant women and acute lymphoblastic leukaemic patients was 100%(Bates and Brantsaeter, 2016). Pathogenesis CMV employs at least two distinct, cell-type specific mechanisms of cell entry. Entry of CMV into endothelial and epithelial cells is mediated by endocytosis in a pH-dependent fashion; in contrast, entry into fibroblasts is non-endocytic, and pH-independent. CMV fibroblast entry is believed to be initiated by binding of virion-associated gB to a cell surface receptor, followed by fusion with the cell membrane in a process that requires a complex of three other glycoproteins: gH, gL, and gO (Ryckman etal., 2006). In contrast to the model of CMV entry for fibroblasts, endocytic entry of CMV into endothelial and epithelial cells requires a complex of gH, gL, and three other proteins encoded by a region of the CMV genome referred to as the UL128-131 gene locus (Wang and Shenk, 2005). The pathologic effect of a CMV-encoded gene is believed to be mediated directly by that gene product; in other situations, CMV infection leads to downstream effects on cellular gene expression that then may potentially lead to pathologic outcomes. In many circumstances, CMV gene products mediate more than one pathogenic effect and there is considerable overlap across these categories (Schleiss, 2011). Following infection, the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) for the major 72-kilodalton IE protein is transcribed more abundantly than any other mRNA as a result of an upstream regulatory sequence of DNA that competes more efficiently for ribonucleic acid polymerase 11 (Stinski, 1984). These upstream enhancer sequences constitute the first step in the regulation of CMV gene expression. The 72-kilodalton protein is then transported back to the nucleus, presumably to influence the switch from restricted transcription of the long unique sequence to more extensive transcription. A block in the synthesis of IE proteins disrupts any further transcription of the viral genome, suggesting that these proteins may play a major role in determining whether a CMV infection is latent, persistent, or productive (Spector and Spector, 1984). The pathogenesis of disease associated with acute CMV infection has been attributed to lytic virus replication, with end-organ damage occurring either secondary to virus-mediated cell death or from pathologic host immune responses targeting virus-infected cells (Britt et al., 2008).
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