Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Emendation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Emendation - Essay Example As of today, researcher cannot establish the actual figures of deaths resulting from HAIs, although all indications point to the fact that the numbers have risen high. However, existing literature points to the fact that hand hygiene plays a vital role in preventing HAIs. This project adopts a quasi-experimental research design, which will utilize quantitative research to gather and analyze relevant data. The data will be collected through a pretest posttest design for further analysis to assess the effectiveness of hand hygiene programs in reducing HAIs. Hospital Acquired infections (HAIs) present a serious challenge in provision of healthcare services to patients in hospital settings. Studies indicate that about 80 percent of patients who contract HAIs often succumb to the diseases and die while receiving treatment in the hospital (Ivers, et al. 2012). The numbers have since risen up and it has become increasingly difficult for researchers to point to the exact numbers of patients suffering from HAIs. Nevertheless, existing literature has produced a lot of evidence pointing to the role of hand hygiene practices in reducing the rates of HAIs. However, compliance rates to hand hygiene practices such as hand washing and gelling remain low, which makes it difficult to prevent HAIs. There is also a gap in available literature concerning the impact of specific hand hygiene programs in reducing the rates of HAIs. This project assesses how reeducation can enhance compliance to hand hygiene in hospital settings thereby reducing the rates of HAIs. Hand hygiene encompasses various technics and practices for cleansing hands before and after treating patients. Several agents such as antiseptic agents, anti-microbial soaps, alcohol based rubs, plain soaps, and antiseptic agents play a critical role in hand hygiene practices. The main underlying factor is that compliance with

Monday, October 28, 2019

Supply and Demand Essay Example for Free

Supply and Demand Essay Various factors, including fluctuations such as increases or decreases in prices, can cause a change in supply and demand as well. This paper will attempt to discuss different economic principles and factors and how they are affected by change. In the current situation, GoodLife Management manages seven rental properties in the city of Atlantis, and over the course of 7 years has to be flexible with its pricing due to changes in demand. Economics is literally defined as â€Å"the study of how human beings coordinate their wants and desires, given the decision-making mechanisms, social customs, and political realities of society† (Colander, D. C., 2010). Simply put, economics focuses on three things: 1) what, and how much, to produce; 2) how to produce it; and 3) who to produce it for. Microeconomics is the study of individual choice, and how that choice is influenced by economic forces; while macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole (Colander, D.C., 2010). When looking to microeconomic principles, scarcity is the first that comes to mind. The more scarce a service or product, the more the supplier will be able to charge for it. In the situation at hand, when the influx of employees began coming to Atlantis, GoodLife was able to raise the prices of their apartments. Consumers had the choice of whether to rent the apartment for the price given, or go to a neighboring town, where the price might not be as high. A rise in the population of Atlantis led to a greater demand for housing. This in turn contributed to the rise in rental prices. Next would be opportunity costs, which is the â€Å"benefit that you might have gained from choosing the next-best alternative† (Colander, D.C., 2010). Again, this comes down to consumer choices. If someone could live in a neighboring town and pay less rent, they would have a longer commute; whereas if they lived in Atlantis in the GoodLife apartments, they would pay more for rent, but have more ti me to spend with family due to the lack of commute. On the other hand, macroeconomic principles include the invisible hand, and economic forces. Economic forces are a reaction to scarcity. The economic reaction of GoodLife could be one of two – it could lower prices to entice consumers to rent its apartments instead of going to neighboring communities. If consumers were, indeed, paying the price for apartments and there were not many left, GoodLife could also raise the price of those apartments because there are not as many to choose from. Invisible hand is the principle that â€Å"gives more power to the supplier of something that is in short supply† (Colander, D.C., 2010). If there are not many apartments left to rent because the majority of them are all rented, and there are more interested consumers than apartments, the invisible hand says that GoodLife can raise the price and get a higher premium for those apartments because of the demand. A shift in the demand curve in this simulation is when GoodLife needed to have a 15% vacancy rate. In order to do this, it lowered apartment rental prices, thereby increasing the demand for the apartments. A shift in the supply curve occurred when GoodLife raised the prices of their apartments to $1,550 per month in order to cover maintenance fees for all apartments. They were able to supply more apartments at this rate. Housing prices in my area have continued to drop because there is a large supply, however there is not currently a demand. Until consumers begin purchasing houses again at a fairly consistent rate, the prices will continue to stay low. Once people begin consistently purchasing homes again, the prices will begin to rise back up. The price elasticity of demand for goods and commodities determines a consumer’s behavior in the event of a price change. Products which are price elastic will experience dramatic movements in demand in response to price changes. If prices are lowered, consumers will demand more of the product; however, if prices increase, consumer demands for the product will be lower. Suppliers who supply goods that are price elastic will deliver fewer units to the market when prices fall, and more if prices rise. References: Colander, D. C. (2010). Economics (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Investopedia (n.d.) Economics Basics: Demand and Supply. Retrieved from Investopedia.com, http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3.asp#axzz1x3HdbLol

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Poverty and Charity in Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Essays

Poverty and Charity in Jane Eyre When Jane Eyre resided at Gateshead Hall, under the care of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she yearned for a change. The treatment that she received at Gateshead Hall was cruel, unjust, and most importantly, lacked nurture. Jane wanted to escape Gateshead Hall and enter into a school. The school that was imposed upon Jane was Lowood Institution. Through her eight year stay at Lowood, Jane learned how to control her frustrations and how to submit to authority. After leaving Lowood Institution and taking the occupation as governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane realized that her experiences at Gateshead Hall and Lowood Institution had deeply rooted themselves into her personality. After departing Thornfield Hall, Jane wandered about as a vagabond. Arriving at Whitcross, Jane was starving, cold, and in need of help. It is St. John Rivers who aids in helping Jane back to health. Through her experiences at Gateshead Hall, Lowood Institution, and Whitcross, Jane Eyre becomes the recipient of the positive and negative aspects of the New Poor Law depicted by Charlotte Bronte in nineteenth-century England. Under the care of Mrs. Reed, Jane's aunt, Jane is treated as though she is a "wicked and abandoned child" (60; ch. 4). Her "father had been a poor clergyman" (58; ch. 3) and both her parents died from typhus fever. She was given to her motherà ­'s sister-in-law in "promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain her as one of her own children" (48; ch. 2). Jane is treated just the opposite. She entered into Gateshead Hall, the residence of the Reeds, in hopes of being brought up a civil and well-nurtured child. Instead, Jane is treated as a subservient child who is abused not only by Mrs. Reed, but also by h... ...cation at Lowood, she still "desired liberty" (117; ch. 10). After searching for a job, Jane realized she was once "an outcast, a beggar, and a vagrant" (387; ch. 31). She becomes grateful for the charity and job as a teacher that Mr. St. John Rivers bestowed upon her. The charity that Mr. Rivers showed towards Jane exemplified the kind of philanthropy that Charlotte Bronte depicted as being genuine; on the other hand, the kinds of treatment that Jane received at Gateshead Hall and Lowood Institution were the types of charity that were governed by the New Poor Law administrators. In Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, she clearly illustrated how she viewed charity and philanthropy under the ruling of the New Poor Law. Works Cited: Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London, Penguin Books Ltd.: 1996. (Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Mason).

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Greek Column :: Architecture Architectural Essays History

The Greek Column A French champagne cognac with a Centaur trademark, called Remy Martin, is featured in several magazine advertisements resting on a column in various positions. The one being analyzed in this article shows the bottle of Remy Martin and a pair of glasses placed on top of a column so tall that it reaches above the clouds. It invites the viewer: "Want to come up for a drink sometime?" At the bottom right corner, the Centaur logo is repeated, along with a short description of its origin and a complimentary video offer. Found in the October issue of Vanity Fair, it targets adult women readers who, perhaps, want a fashion enlightenment. Both the column and the slab on top of it appear to be made out of concrete, covered with plaster, whitewashed, and then it was given a chipping effect. Its purpose is to support the bottle of Remy Martin and the glasses for someone who can reach high enough for a drink. The use of the column in ancient architectures, however, do not include exhibiting a beverage. From the remarkable Roman Pantheon, dated from the second century B.C., to the Chartres Cathedral in France, which began construction in the mid-twelfth century A.D., the column is widely used according to different tastes and architectural purposes. It is a Greek creation emerged from the Archaic period between 6oo-480 B.C., during which the two elevation designs from Greek temples, called the Ionic and Doric orders, came into form. The Corinthian order is the third classical Greek architectural order originally used in interiors, which began to appear around 450 B.C. The Greeks used columns in architectures including the Parthenon, the Tholos and the mausoleums, sometimes in pairs and sometimes in colonnades. All three orders, occasionally with various different modifications, were adapted by other civilizations such as the Romans and the Etruscans. They were erected in temples, Cathedrals, Forums, on city streets or even in residents as a supporting device for arches, entablatures , ceilings or roofs. They are also incorporated in reliefs for tombs and cathedrals and expressed in Roman wall paintings. For example, the bedroom walls in the House of Publius Fannius in Boscoreale were decorated with images of columns in fantastic Roman cityscapes. (Stokstad, p.162-213, 223-283, 553-556.) The column used in the Remy Martin advertisement does not clearly belong to any classical Greek order or its later variants. However, it resembles a down-sized column of the Doric Order because of its recognizable Doric-like capital, though its components are only representative.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Medical Billing Process Essay

The medical billing process is when claims are filed to insurance companies requesting payment to providers who rendered the services to a patient. There are ten steps to make this process that we went over earlier in the class. Those ten steps include preregistering the patients, establish financial responsibilities for visits, check in patients, check out patients, review coding compliance, check billing compliance, prepare and transmit claims, monitor payer adjudication, generate patient statements, and follow up patient payments and collections. I think it goes along with the first step and all throughout. We use HIPAA to get insurance information from the patients and their demographic information to schedule appointments. HIPAA is there to protect the patient’s information. When you get ready to check out the ICD code book and the CPT codes would be used to get the diagnosis, treatment, and procedures. For the HCPCS codes, they do not provide any information about the diagnosis, just about what procedure was performed. The HCPCS codes are used to process outpatient services and professional services. ICD codes are required by HIPAA for inpatient services. The coding is done by the coding team that codes based on the information provided by the doctor. The people handle the medical billing process have to make sure they keep the patient information confidential because of HIPAA regulations. All the coding must be documented correctly so that you will not have any issues with payments.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

How Should You Spend the Night Before the ACT

How Should You Spend the Night Before the ACT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Planning the night before the test is the last thing you really have to worry about before taking the ACT. But how do you know what to do so that you get the best score possible the next day? This comprehensive guide will lay out everything you should (and shouldn’t) do before you head to bed the night before the ACT. Follow these tips - covering everything from logistical concerns to last-minute exam prep - to wake up confident, refreshed, and ready. Let’s get started! Take Care of the Small (But Important) Details If you square away all of these small logistical concerns the night before the ACT, you’ll cut down on stress and worry the next morning. Logistical Details to Take Care of the Night Before the ACT Print your admission ticket.This ticket has important details printed on it - you also won't be able to take the test without it. Know what time the test is and when you need to be there - standard check-in time is 8 am. If you’re late, you won’t be allowed to take the exam.Plan on getting there 15-20 minutes early so that you won’t be rushed (or late) if anything happens in the morning, like unexpected traffic. Know where the test is, how to get there, and how long it’ll take you to get there.You can double-check the location on your admission ticket or at your ACT Account. Try usingGoogle Mapsto plan out the fastest route. Enter your arrive-by time for the next morning in addition to the testing center address and your starting point - Google Maps will tell you when to leave! Have a wake-up plan, especially if you're prone to oversleeping.Set multiple alarms, giving yourself an extra cushion of time (10-15 minutes) to get ready.Plan on having a family member wake you up as a backup plan. Set out all your outfit for the next morning. Choose something you’d be comfortable sitting around in for several hours. Layers are a good idea, in case the testing room is warmer or colder than ideal. Organize everything you need to bring for the test. There are only a few items you have to bring, but there are several other items that would be smart to have for the test: Mandatory: Your admission ticket Mandatory: Photo ID Mandatory: Several sharpened #2 pencils Good quality erasers An approved calculator + extra batteries A watch (without an audible alarm) A bottle of water and snacks to eat during breaks. Officially, you won’t be able to eat or drink in the testing room, but you should have access to food + water during breaks. Plan on leaving forbidden items at home.If you bring any forbidden items, you could jeopardize your scores. Here’s a list of items you should leave at home: Any electronic device aside from your calculator and watch (no smart watches, obviously) Anything with an alarm Any writing utensils or tools aside from your #2 pencils Any pamphlets or papers Dictionaries or other books You can find more info on prohibited behavior here- basically, just listen to directions and be polite and you'll be fine A note about cell phones: If you don’t have to bring it, then don’t. If you do choose to bring your phone, make sure it’s turned off and out of reach during the test and during breaks. If it goes off at any point - even if it’s an innocent alarm - all of your scores will be canceled. Have a Plan for Self-Care I think that the best thing you can do before the ACT is to make sure you’re relaxed, well-rested, and well-fed. Even if you prepare really well for the exam, you won’t do very well if you’re stressed, tired, or hungry. Here, I’ll go over the things you should and shouldn’t do the night before to make sure you’re in the best possible shape the next morning. Things You Should Do Eat a satisfying and healthy dinner -ideally something with produce, fruits/vegetables, and whole grains. Your brain needs fuel! On that note,plan your breakfast for the next morning.Something quick, easy, and filling should do the trick, like whole-grain cereal or a bowl of oatmeal. Get to bed earlier than usual - maybe 30-60 minutes prior to your normal bedtime. This gives you a bit more time to fall asleep if you're having trouble. Take a shower to save time the next morning.This may also help you relax and get to sleep. If your normal routine is to shower in the morning, though, then skip this step. Still having trouble falling asleep?Here are some things you can try: Gentle stretches (no cardio!) Listening to relaxing music A warm bath Caffeine-free tea (chamomile is always a good choice) You can't go wrong with a cup of tea if you need to wind down and relax. Things To Avoid Disrupting your regular routine. Our normal bedtime rituals help prepare us to fall asleep - try not to deviate too much from what you’d normally do. Playing video games, texting, or surfing the internet.Staring at screens for fewhours before you head to bed can keep you up longer than you’d like. Taking any sleep aids. Unless sleep medications are part of your normal bedtime routine, avoid them. They can make it really difficult to wake up the next morning, and you don’t know if you’ll have other adverse reactions. Prepare for the ACT You might be feeling pressure to cram as much info as you can into your brain the night before the test. You want to make sure you remember as much stuff as possible, right? Well, stressful cramming might do more harm than good. The ACT isn’t a test where memorizing factoids will help you perform better - the best preparation strategy is a long-term one. Ultimately, there are a couple of ways you could â€Å"prep† for the ACT the night before the test without stressing yourself out. Here are your options: Strategy #1: Don't Prepare at All If you feel well-prepared for the ACT - or even if you don’t - there's not much you can do toprocessimportant, helpful information the night before the test. Good ACT prep happens through long-term practice, not short-term cramming. Last-minute prep for any test tends to stress me out, so I avoid it. If you feel the same way, this is probably the strategy for you. Strategy #2:Briefly Review Key Concepts or Problems Some students might get nervous if they’re missing out on time to review tricky concepts or practice problems. It would be silly to actively avoid ACT preparation if this would stress you out more than flipping through your study materials. The best way to approach Strategy #2 is to work through a few practice problems on paper (remember, stay away from screens). You don’t want to pick particularly difficult problems - we’re trying to avoid stress - but reviewing problems that’ll help you start thinking through weaker skill areas may help ease some of your anxiety. Putting Your Best Foot Forward: The Morning of the ACT No matter what you ended up doing the night before, there are a few things you can do the morning of the ACT to make sure you do as well as possible. Here are the most important steps you can take to ensure success: Eat breakfast.Hopefully, you’ve planned one the night before, but if not, make sure to grab something on the way out the door. Avoid caffeine, unless you usually have caffeine in the mornings. It’ll make you more jittery and anxious than awake and alert. Caffeine also acts as a diuretic, which means more bathroom breaks for you during the ACT - this could lead to less time available to work on the test. Take the test one step at a time. Once a section is over, it’s over - your only responsibility is to the section you’re currently working on. Try not to let concerns about earlier sections of the ACT affect your performance. Treat yourself! Taking the ACT is stressful and exhausting. Plan on doing something nice for yourself - like getting lunch with a friend, going for a nice run, or even watching episodes of your favorite TV show - after you’re finished with the test. No matter how you feel about how the test went, remember that you followed through on a really important commitment - that’s a big deal! If this is the first time you take the ACT, and you plan on taking the test a second time, this first test will serve as a really important learning experience. Good luck, and (who knows), maybe even have fun! Think of the ACT as a marathon, not a sprint. What's Next? You know now what to do the night before the ACT, but what aboutbefore that? Don't worry - we've got you covered. You'll want to start off by checking out our last-minute tips and strategies for taking the ACT. If you have more than a night to prepare for the test but you're still on a tight schedule, you'll definitely want to take advantage of our 10-day ACT study guide. If you're just looking for some easy reading to ease your nerves before the test, check out our guide to the ACT rules and regulations you have to know before the test. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Wrong Place, Wrong Time Professor Ramos Blog

Wrong Place, Wrong Time As weeks and weeks go by, one Friday the man decides to miss his routine stop at the bar in order to go to a birthday party. Because he missed this one Friday, he didn’t spend his money on his casual beers like he regularly does. Having saved this money, he decided to go to the bar the next Friday. Coincidentally, this Friday happens to be the exact same one the woman normally goes to the bar to have drinks with her friends. As night falls, the woman walks into the bar with her friends and leaves them to get something to drink. She sits quietly at the bar apart from her friends while all of her friends gossip and talk about how their week was. The man then walks in and sits one seat away from the woman. They both give each other a friendly smile and go on separately ordering their drinks. After about 3 drinks each, the man feels a bit tipsy and accidentally knocks over his fourth glass of beer all over the counter-top and watches it as it drips down onto the woman’s lap . She stands up abruptly and yells,   â€Å"EXCUSE ME, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?†. She tries to wipe the beer off her jeans before it soaks them. The man quickly gets up and tries to help her dry off her jeans. He immediately feels bad and says, â€Å"I am so sorry I didn’t mean to do that, can I do anything to help?†. As the beer seems to be off of her jeans, she jokingly laughs and says â€Å"yes, actually, you can buy me another drink for doing that.† He happily agrees and buys her another drink. They end up hitting it off and find a lot in common. They both want to leave the city they live in, have the same type of dog, and enjoy the same movies. The two also open up about why they both chose to go to the bar that Friday night, both explaining that they go there to meet someone new, but have never had the courage to talk to anybody.   As they continue talking, a loud screech from brakes on a car sting their ear drums. They both look out of the window and see a black van parked sloppily at the front of the bar. Two men angrily exit the vehicle and begin walking to the front door. Before the man or woman could say anything, bullets come soaring through the glass windows of the bar. The shattered glass falls to the ground, and mass panic immediately erupts within the bar. All the customers begin running around trying to take cover underneath nearby tables and behind chairs. Some customers fatally get hit by gunshots, causing them to fall over and screech in pain. The man looks at the woman and tries to grab her hand to run but right as he turns to do so, she gets shot in the stomach. The woman shrieks in panic and pain and instantly grabs the right side of her stomach. She screams for help as blood oozes out of her side. The man looks down at her in shock as an intense terror overwhelms his body freezing him up. She falls down in shock and the man finally runs to her rescue and bends down trying to aid her. He decides to put pressure on the wound because that is what he has seen on his favorite television show. The woman begins crying in agonizing pain and says, â€Å"I really don’t think that’s doing anything call 911!†. However, from the chaos still going on in the restaurant, the man is unable to find his phone and begins to panic even more. Suddenly, one of the shooters bursts through the broken door screaming â€Å"EVERYBODY GET ON THE GROUND, GIVE ME YOUR MONEY, AND DON’T SAY ANYTHING!†. While the gunman is collecting everybody’s valuables, the bartender climbs behind the bar counter where a shotgun is kept just in case a situation like this happens. As the bartender begins reaching for the gun, he knocks over a glass cup and watches as it falls to the ground and breaks. The gunman looks over and notices the shotgun the bartender was trying to take. He then picks up his rifle and immediately shoots the bartender straight through his skull. This is unfolding right in front of the man’s eyes as he watches in disbelief and horror. After the gunman sees the bartender is down, he goes over to the bartender to check if the kill is confirmed and sees the bullet hole wound in his forehead. The gunman then goes back to looting all of the hostages taking their valuables. During this, the man tries hi s best to sneak over to grab the shotgun that the gunman happened to leave by the corpse of the bartender. The woman signals to him to stop what he’s doing, but the man ignores her and proceeds to go toward the shotgun. Once he reaches it, he draws the shotgun back and aims for the gunman and instantly pulls the trigger. The gunman reacts quickly to the shots that spread throughout his chest and neck by falling to the floor and gasping for breath. He starts to breathe slower and slower as he takes in less and less oxygen while time goes on. The man drops the shotgun after killing the gunman, but suddenly hears a loud bang. He looks down to see he is bombarded by bullets that pierced his chest which causes blood to rapidly spew out of his body. The woman sees the man fall to his knees and in utter disbelief she crawls over to him to grab the shotgun. Almost instinctively, she pulls the trigger to kill the second gunman that just shot the man. She weakly makes her way over to t he man and begins to cry even harder. The two hold each other waiting for help to come, but as minutes go by they are still lying in shattered glass coated in their own blood. She looks over to him as his breathing gets slower and smiles and says, â€Å"So much for going out to meet people, right?†. He lets out a light chuckle and looks back at her and says, â€Å"I’m just glad I met you.† Finally, the familiar flickering of red and blue lights surround the bar, but it’s too late.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Review of Professional Ethics essays

Review of Professional Ethics essays A Review of Professional Ethics Codes: How the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of Professional Practice Compares Introduction: In this paper, the ethical code of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is compared with the ethical codes of five other professional organizations in order to more completely discover those areas in which the AFP Code is on solid footing with other, like organizations, as well as where the AFP Code may be lacking from an objective viewpoint. The comparative codes used were some of the best-written professional conduct codes from various well-respected professions of our society. These codes are: American Bar Association (ABA) Creed American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws American Medical Association (AMA) Oath and Law of Hippocrates American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Code of Ethics United States Department of Commerce (DOC) Model of Business Principles Professional ethical codes have been in existence for thousands of years. Just as codes were established to protect professions from outside contamination (i.e.: a person pretending to be a physician when s/he was not) and external regulation; so too have ethical codes become shields for the clients using the services of those various professions. Ethical codes and professional creeds of practice often protect the public from unseemly actions of the practitioner. They also provide direction for the training of new professionals. Standards of conduct for actions taken while performing services or even standards of conduct in general life, which would reflect negatively on the individual as a member of the profession are sometimes addressed, as well as a sense of organization around a professional that could establish a corporation or guild, with regu...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

The Observation Instrument Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Observation Instrument Paper - Essay Example This renewed interest has been stimulated by the education accountability movement, the teacher minimum competency movement, and the continuing emphasis on excellence in education Contemporary teacher classroom performance†. (Carolyn Lavely,   Neal Berger,   Joseph Blackman,   John Follman,   Jan McCarthyObservation instruments Education,   Summer, 1994    - retrieved on 4/11/2008 rethttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3673/is_/ai_n28646693) The class room teacher observation instruments will help a teacher for a diagnosis about his level of teaching. How far a teacher is effective for the students in the classroom? What are the defects of the methodology implemented by the teacher? How can a teacher correct himself? Which errors should be corrected and which should be ignored? Who should be correcting the errors? Is it appropriate to correct the mistakes in the classroom itself? These questions can be answered in order to improve the level of teaching with the help of observation instruments. The most commonly used classroom teacher observation instruments are â€Å"Classroom Observation Form Open Ended – (Form A), Classroom Observation Report, Classroom Observation The observer will check the development of learning materials, Use and selection of instructional materials, the learning climate, variety of materials used, preparation of the class session, method of instruction and student participation, student responses and feedback, learning difficulties etc. using the Classroom Observation Form Open Ended – (Form A). The observer can study whether the objectives for the specified class given or not. He can also analyse the outcome of the instruction. He can also analyse the appropriateness, quantity and quality of the instructional materials used. The class climate also can be analysed using this instrument. The overall activeness, the student attitude towards the topic and the teacher, their participation and the teacher’s

Friday, October 18, 2019

Marketing plan for NIKE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Marketing plan for NIKE - Essay Example Nike was founded on January 25th 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight as Blue Ribbon Sports. The company adopted the name Nike on May 30, 1978 and began marketing its products and services under its own brand. Today, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. In addition, the company is known worldwide for sponsoring a great deal of sports activities and supporting many sports teams. The Nike brand is presently found in many countries across the world notably in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas (Esty & Winston, 2009). Courtesy of its innovative design and effective marketing strategies, the company has obtained a very huge position in the sports markets in these regions. More importantly, Nike’s products are usually associated with high quality and this has been a major boost for the company over the years. Situation analysis Company mission and objectives Nike has always been focused to the realization of its goals, mission and object ives. More importantly, the organization has a strong sense of values which have created a kind of organizational culture often admired by many organizations. The mission of the organization is â€Å"to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world† (Esty & Winston, 2009) In this regard, it is seen that Nike actually exists in order to ensure that the world is well supplied with quality equipment, shoes, apparels and other quality products. The focus of Nike is to bring a new reality to the world of athletics. In the same way, Nike’s vision stresses on the aspect of people and profit and the need to implement sustainable principles within the market. The organization greatly appreciates the dynamic nature of the market and is therefore at the forefront in instituting the very changes that are almost imperative for its continued success. One major goal of the organization is always the creation of partnerships in the hope of adding value. In this regard , Nike UK has been a strong force in creating valuable partnerships with other organizations and the social media which has seen the creation of such brands like Nike. A combination of these vision, values and goals have been the core marketing formula for the organization. In this regard, the organization has seen much progress and success (Rigsby & Greco, 2003). Products Nike engages in the production of various types of sports equipment. The initial products were track running shoes. However, the company has greatly diversified its product line and manufactures shoes, shorts, jerseys and base layers for various types of sporting activities. The Nike Air Max was the initial shoe line introduced by the company back in 1987 and has remained popular for a long time. Some of the recent products introduced include Nike NYX, Nike SB and Nike 6.0 Shoes all for skateboarding. Similarly, the company launched a type of cricked shoes known as Air Zoom Yorker which are designed to be very eff ective and are actually 30% lighter than the competitors in the market (Katz, 2012). While Nike is majorly known for athletics products, it should be noted that the organization actually produces an assortment of products for basketball, combat sports, golf, football and many other sporting activities. In addition, the Nike brand has been very popular across the world in youth, hip hop and Chav

Mrs Fields Cookies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Mrs Fields Cookies - Case Study Example Debbi and Randy while acquiring control of LPB thought that there were many similarities found in the two chains—Mrs Fields Cookies and LPB. According to Randy LPB was, â€Å"a logical extension for the bakery aspect of Mrs. Fields' Cookies† (Cash and Ostrofsky 9). Debbi and Randy saw the affiliation of LPB with Mrs Fields Cookies as a step taken for business expansion as the two chains suited each other. They were interested in combining the two forms of stores. Both of the store chains dealt with bakery items due to which, their combination business was not a destructive step. The senior managers working at Mrs Fields Cookies were given a chance to run the stores of LPB for understanding the working systems of the new chain (Cash and Ostrofsky 10). According to Debbi and Randy, LPB business was similar to their own as they have matching products, same customers, similar managerial issues and challenges and so on. By noticing the two chains, it is quite straightforward to consider that the two have a sameness in many terms, their working procedures, their products, and their consumers are very much alike. The chains are divided into a network of stores operative at various places. This feature also makes them alike in terms of their functional procedures and way of processing. According to my consideration, this affiliation is a prospective one for Mrs Fields cookies and the step of opening combination stores is going to be a successful one. The MIS (Managerial Information System) developed and employed at Mrs Fields Cookies is quite a useful information system as it keeps the capability of connecting all the outlets and stores of Mrs Fields Cookies. Paul Quinn is the director of MIS running at Mrs Fields Cookies (Cash and Ostrofsky 7). Paul Quinn had to report directly to Randy for every kind of information related to stores and outlets. The MIS is very supportive as it enables the managers to have easier options for decision making and informat ion gathering. According to Randy, if machines can do the jobs of people, more people should not be employed as smaller groups play smart.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Define And Discuss The Term Ethics From Your Own Perspective Coursework

Define And Discuss The Term Ethics From Your Own Perspective - Coursework Example al., 2012, p. 3). Acceptable behaviour is usually dictated by laws and religious norms. General perceptions are that persons who are ethical will usually conduct themselves according to norms dictating what is good and what is right and persons who are not ethical will act in ways that are not good and inherently evil. However, ethics is not merely concerned with acting in appropriate ways, but also concerned with omitting to act in ways that enable wrongdoing or is complicit in wrongdoing (Braswell, et. al., 2012). It would therefore appear that ethics not only demand that ethical individuals act in ethical or good ways, but that they also police unethical behavior. Whether or not this is realistic or fair, does not appear to be a concern. It does appear to be lofty goal for individuals to follow. However, when looked at within the parameters and operations of the criminal justice system the definition of ethics as a tool for moral responsibility and accountability makes sense. As Pollock (1993) informs, ethics in criminal justice studies ensures that those involved in the criminal justice system are able to identify â€Å"ethical issues†, gain empathy with others regardless of where they stand on an issue, and to â€Å"evaluate alternatives to dilemmas using ethical rather than legal or egotistic criteria† (Pollock, 1993, p. 377). Ethics permits all parts of the criminal justice system to be understood and supported as key components of the necessary machinery for engendering social order and social control in a free and open society. Ethics helps criminal justice actors to understand how all parts of the criminal justice system fit together in ordering of society (Pollock, 1993). Ethics in this regard is also important for individuals who make up parts of the social order and the social system. The individual’s ethics education begins at home and is branched out into the community in which we come into contact with others. Thus what we learn at home is inevitably taken into the larger community. Thus when both family and community values are ethical, crime and justice is not only understood but minimized via a collective sense of right and wrong and fairness and justice (Braswell, et. al, 2012). In this regard, ethics is directly connected to criminal behaviour and appropriate responses to criminal behavior. 2. Explain and Discuss Kant's categorical imperative. How appropriate are his views in today's criminal justice field? Kant was of the opinion that consequential theories in evaluating and explaining ethics did not pay enough attention to the issue of duty. Kant also took the position that these theories did not pay sufficient attention to the question of â€Å"basic morality† or â€Å"good will† or the intention to do good† (Braswell, et. al., 2012, p. 16). Thus Kant developed what is referred to as the categorical imperative which is contrasted with the â€Å"hypothetical imperativeâ €  (Braswell, et. al., 2012, p. 17). Hypothetical imperatives make allowances for a â€Å"command that begin with ‘if’† (Braswell, 2012, p. 17). For instance, a hypothetical imperative might function in the sense that an individual may decide that if he wanted to obtain a satisfactory academic outcome, the individual should be more academically prepared. Categorical imperatives are not hypothetical and therefore not prefaced by ‘ifs† (Braswell, 2012, p. 17). Kant formulated a number of aspects of categorical imperative. Two of those formulations are the universalizability

Statistical assessment of two research reports Essay

Statistical assessment of two research reports - Essay Example A few studies have compared care recipients’ and relatives’ perceptions of care quality in nursing homes as opposed to home-based care. However, a few studies have systematically compared how different stakeholder groups perceive the quality of care offered in different types of community-based older people care settings. Specifically, little is known as to how care recipients and their relatives perceive the quality of services offered in home care as opposed to nursing homes. Such comparisons could offer concrete information regarding quality aspects in need of improvement in each respective setting. In the paper â€Å"Relationships between coping, coping resources and quality of life in patients with chronic illness: a pilot study†(Study 2)- The original purpose of the study was to determine differences between two groups of patients with chronic illness (ESRD and CHF) regarding the following study variables: coping, sense of coherence (SOC), self-efficacy and quality of life (QOL). ... There have been studies where researchers examined relationships between coping and QoL, SOC and QoL, or self-efficacy, coping and QoL. But In these studies, there was no attempt to investigate the relationships between all four variables in patients with chronic illness.This study will consider all the 4 variables at one time and find the correlation between them. 2. Data Collection Method Study 1- All the older people receiving home help services, home care or living in nursing homes in these two municipalities were considered eligible for the study. However, older people not capable of expressing their perceptions because of severe dementia did not receive the questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed by the nursing staff who were instructed to discuss the capability of each care recipient to reply to the questionnaire with their supervisors. Thus, the only reason for not receiving the questionnaire was severe dementia.All the individuals who were registered as a primary family member to care recipients were included in the study and are referred to as care recipients’ relatives. One relative per care recipient was registered as primary family member and therefore one relative per care recipient was invited to participate in the study. Study 2- A total convenience sample of 201 patients (125 CHF and 76 ESRD) was selected from the medical records in two hospitals in Sweden. The inclusion criteria were: 45–80 years old, main diagnosis of CHF or ESRD, lived in their own homes, read and understood the Swedish language, and that they were not in the terminal stage. Questionnaires were mailed to the recipients with two reminders, which resulted in answers from 64 CHF and 41 ESRD patients within a period of 6 months. Five of the CHF

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Define And Discuss The Term Ethics From Your Own Perspective Coursework

Define And Discuss The Term Ethics From Your Own Perspective - Coursework Example al., 2012, p. 3). Acceptable behaviour is usually dictated by laws and religious norms. General perceptions are that persons who are ethical will usually conduct themselves according to norms dictating what is good and what is right and persons who are not ethical will act in ways that are not good and inherently evil. However, ethics is not merely concerned with acting in appropriate ways, but also concerned with omitting to act in ways that enable wrongdoing or is complicit in wrongdoing (Braswell, et. al., 2012). It would therefore appear that ethics not only demand that ethical individuals act in ethical or good ways, but that they also police unethical behavior. Whether or not this is realistic or fair, does not appear to be a concern. It does appear to be lofty goal for individuals to follow. However, when looked at within the parameters and operations of the criminal justice system the definition of ethics as a tool for moral responsibility and accountability makes sense. As Pollock (1993) informs, ethics in criminal justice studies ensures that those involved in the criminal justice system are able to identify â€Å"ethical issues†, gain empathy with others regardless of where they stand on an issue, and to â€Å"evaluate alternatives to dilemmas using ethical rather than legal or egotistic criteria† (Pollock, 1993, p. 377). Ethics permits all parts of the criminal justice system to be understood and supported as key components of the necessary machinery for engendering social order and social control in a free and open society. Ethics helps criminal justice actors to understand how all parts of the criminal justice system fit together in ordering of society (Pollock, 1993). Ethics in this regard is also important for individuals who make up parts of the social order and the social system. The individual’s ethics education begins at home and is branched out into the community in which we come into contact with others. Thus what we learn at home is inevitably taken into the larger community. Thus when both family and community values are ethical, crime and justice is not only understood but minimized via a collective sense of right and wrong and fairness and justice (Braswell, et. al, 2012). In this regard, ethics is directly connected to criminal behaviour and appropriate responses to criminal behavior. 2. Explain and Discuss Kant's categorical imperative. How appropriate are his views in today's criminal justice field? Kant was of the opinion that consequential theories in evaluating and explaining ethics did not pay enough attention to the issue of duty. Kant also took the position that these theories did not pay sufficient attention to the question of â€Å"basic morality† or â€Å"good will† or the intention to do good† (Braswell, et. al., 2012, p. 16). Thus Kant developed what is referred to as the categorical imperative which is contrasted with the â€Å"hypothetical imperativeâ €  (Braswell, et. al., 2012, p. 17). Hypothetical imperatives make allowances for a â€Å"command that begin with ‘if’† (Braswell, 2012, p. 17). For instance, a hypothetical imperative might function in the sense that an individual may decide that if he wanted to obtain a satisfactory academic outcome, the individual should be more academically prepared. Categorical imperatives are not hypothetical and therefore not prefaced by ‘ifs† (Braswell, 2012, p. 17). Kant formulated a number of aspects of categorical imperative. Two of those formulations are the universalizability

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Recruiting creative workforce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Recruiting creative workforce - Essay Example To improve quality and effectiveness, the organisations realized that something would have to change. Now the recruiting departments measure how well its recruits subsequently do' Did they turn out well, or did they need remedial help' Increasingly, recruiting is an essential tool; our competitors recognize that it is a competitive weapon. To land a production job at Toyota, for instance, takes at least 18 hours. Once prospective employees complete a general knowledge exam and they are tested in their attitude toward work, the company then takes the top 30 percent and scrutinizes them the way American organisations do their managers. (Leopold, 2002) These promising candidates go in groups of 12 to interpersonal skills assessment centres run by Kentucky State University for a session on problem solving. Prospects are then given a hypothetical problem and told, for example, "that a lawn mower manufacturer has production problems. The winners ask the right questions and work together to find solutions" (Sparrow, 2004). Candidates also go through a manufacturing exercise and are asked to improve on the method they were taught. Less than 10 percent of applicants survive the final probing interviews. Most UK firms do not go through such an extensive recruiting process as Toyota, but they are getting more serious about it. It may be just in time. It is estimated that since most of the baby boomers now hold jobs, the work force will slow way down from 2.4 percent in the 1990s to 1.2 percent in the 2000s. The Bureau of Labour Statistics estimates the number of jobs will grow faster than the labour force (Bernstein, 2002). Organisations will have to appeal to different groups, notably women and minorities, who will make up two-thirds of the new work force. Finding and keeping quality employees are the battle cry of the 1990s. The senior vice president of corporate relations at K-mart UK, says, "For UK corporations, tomorrow' s competitive battle will be won or lost on the strength of their ability to build and retain a skilled work force" (Gilley, 2000). Everyone is talking about the labour shortage, but it seems to be a matter not of shortage but of finding and keeping the right people. There are always people, but not necessarily ones that meet our needs. Once they are found, it is a matter of being able to keep them. One company that has a good track record on both of these accounts is a medical organization that is one of the best managed in the world: Merck & Co. Arthur F. Strohmer, executive director of Staffing and Developments, emphasizes that Merck places heavy emphasis on meeting very high standards in its recruiting activities, for example, targeting certain schools as being the "best" for the disciplines it needs. Merck, like Motorola, bases much of its campus recruiting on the past performance of employees who have come from certain schools. Many organisations try to do the same thing. Either consciously or unconsciously, organisations keep returning to the same source for personnel. Whether they are truly successful or at the mercy of random selection depend on how organized they are. Many managers make choices based

Myki Project Boundary Essay Example for Free

Myki Project Boundary Essay Changes to the boundaries occurred during the development of MYKI project: * More than 350 changes were made to the specifications by the TTA, increasing the complexity, time and cost of the project. * Example of alteration made during development phase is the removal of city saver fare option that has been applied in Metcard system. * Change in relationship/management issues between TTA, vendor and sub-contractors. The continuous modifications of the project specifications and outcomes were mainly caused by the project’s ambiguous initial contractual precedence and specifications, such as the consideration of which necessities are within or outside the contractual boundaries, leading to disagreement on priorities and costs in later phases of the project. The impact of undefined boundaries and constant amendments to the contracts and requirements: Project Delay Initially, the MYKI project was scheduled to be completed in July 2007, but full operation has been behind the schedule by approximately 5 years * The optimistic 2-year deadline could not be achieved due to subsequent changes carried out by TTA to the original scope of the project, causing technical difficulties to re-surface and complexity to increase. Internal Audit was conducted in 2010 to evaluate whether MYKI project is still worth pursuing after the long overdue, indicating the government’s loss of trust to the project and vendor. As the results of the audit shows that cost of scraping MYKI will be higher than completing it, the Government decided to continue the project. Over Budgeting * The overall cost has increased by 35% from initial estimation of $999 million to $ 1. 35 million. * It is forecasted that additional cost is required for project completion and complete replacement of Metcard. * $ 50 million cost will be required annually to keep operating the MYKI system. * As the delay was prolonged, Metcard must be kept in operation for a longer period of time, requiring additional operating cost, which was accounted in the MYKI project funding. The funding of a project is an important part of project boundaries and significant over-budgeting by at least 35% indicated the breach of the set boundaries Fractured relationship between TTA and Kamco The relationship between TTA and Kamco has worsened due to the inability to meet deadlines and continuous amendments to the project’s requirements. Mistrust was developed, as more deliverables and contractual obligations were not achieved. However, the vendor cannot receive all the blame because TTA also kept changing the specifications and targets. Preventing Breach of Boundary  The main problem is that TTA selected vendor that has limited experience in developing smart card ticketing system. Kamco, as the project vendor, followed the correct procedure of agreeing and committing to all changes made by TAA throughout the project. However, it will be difficult for a company Kamco to come up with the most effective method to resolve any modifications to the contracts due to their limited experience and knowledge in this project type. Their ways to tackle these issues may be inefficient, leading to excessive use of their budget. TTA should realises this and must ensure that the initial project boundaries and scope is well defined, preventing any major change during the development phase. TTA should have given the project to proven and experienced vendor because MYKI itself is a new and unproven project that requires innovative and effective problem solving skill through experience in this type of project. The thought that the vendor can learn as they are conducting the project entails high risks which can lead to possible over-budget and delays. On the other hand, the vendor must also be able to refuse any changes made to the initial contractual agreements. They should be able to say â€Å"no† to any amendments during the negotiation as these may risk the project itself. Kamco neglected one of their role to refuse any agreement that may risk the project and ruin their future reputation. The project manager should take his role in convincing the project authority, TTA, that any changes would delay the projects and consult the best solution to meet the most of TTA’s expectations without significantly increasing the cost and time of the project. In this MYKI project, communication issue has also been one of the factors that caused boundary breach.

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Passion Of The Christ Theology Religion Essay

The Passion Of The Christ Theology Religion Essay For the past 2000 years the Jewish people have been persecuted with extreme prejudice. They have been murdered for countless different reasons over the course of two millennia. The underlying reason for this hatred and racism has always been a belief that their ancestors were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This racism is literally an ongoing punishment for the supposed sins of the early Hebrews. In at least three of the gospels in the Christian bible there are differing accounts of the roles the early Jews played in the actual trial and execution of Christ. Needless to say, these passages remained controversial for as long as they have been committed to paper. There is speculation as to the validity of their claims as historical proof. A recent film about the final twelve hours of Jesus Christs life and death places these inconsistencies and the mistreatment of the modern Jews back into the spotlight. This alleged literal translation caused many contemporary Jews to cry out in protest over the hard-line depiction in Mel Gibsons new film The Passion of the Christ. Part of the reason this new film is causing so much controversy is because of Gibsons blatant reinterpretations and artistic license taken throughout the film. He tends to go out of bounds with the already tough Jewish public sentiment in regard to Christs death and creates a completely anti-Semitic work. Artistic license is acceptable when creating, but when the claim is made that the work will be a literal translation of the gospels, one looses the ability to fabricate and enters into a new realm of scrutiny. Mel took a copious amount of artistic license with this film, but he does not see it that way. In 1965, the Catholic Church via the pope in the Vatican declared, among other things, that the Jews were not responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. This declaration is formally entitled Vatican II. It exonerates the Jews and condemns all those still seeking Jewish suffering. It directly affects the Catholics, which means that Gibson and his family, who are not Catholics, are not required to abide by these new dictates. Mel, his family and a group of others called The Holy Family, have decided that their particular form of Catholicism needed to be further amended and conservatively redefined. They practice the Trinitine Mass, an extremely conservative form of Christianity based on traditional Catholicism, and they openly reject the changes of Vatican II. In short, they still hold present and past Jews responsible in particular for the death of Christ. Mels father, Hutton Gibson, stated all the popes since John XXIII are illegitimate anti-popes, the Second Vatican Council was a Masonic plot backed by Jews, and the Holocaust figure of 6 million Jews killed was an exaggeration (Schroth 2). He himself is a full-fledged member of this ultra conservative right wing theology and did nothing but illustrate their prejudiced philosophies to the media and an interested society at large. He is an accurate reflection of the ideals that helped to form the interpretations governing this film. Mels self-professed goals for this film were simple. Gibson claimed that his account would be historically truthful because it would be based on the Gospels (Schroth 3). He was unimpressed with previous attempts to depict the passion in film so he embarked on the journey of telling this story. He wanted to depict the scriptures literally and show the events the way they truly happened. Gibson funded his attempt with his own 25 million dollars and the rest was history. This is an attempt to influence his audience to believe that the sacrifice Christ made for humanity happened the way he and his Holy Family see it. By creating a flashy high-profile film he makes this subject popular and accessible to the secular world as well as the established Christian community. No matter what Gibson claimed to begin with he fell short of his publicly stated intentions. After viewing his finished product one can easily walk away with the notion that this is actually an Anti-Semitic film and not the truthful enlightenment of the Scriptures originally purported. First, because Gibson stated the film would be Scripturaly truthful one must stay alert, knowing that the film starts off on shaky ground. The bible is a huge collection of literal contradictions and potentially inaccurate historical events, the Gospels themselves, written between A.D. 70 and 100, are not reliable historical documents. They contradict one another on detailsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Schroth 3). These inconsistencies can and do become a damning problem when one begins to make claims using the bible as infallible support as Gibson does for the film. Second, people interpret the bibles same passages in many different ways. This is part of the reason that Christianity separated into so many factions at different times throughout history. It is the reason so many people believe they are acting within spiritual grace. While other Christians may think the same action would be deviating from the correct path. These differing interpretations have been a source of constant confusion for two millennia, with no end in sight. So when Gibson makes a movie based on the scripture it could contain almost anything, slanted and yet still hold validity and accuracy. However this does not mean it was the way the true events occurred in history. It means he is trying to make truth from what can be anecdotal metaphors without any real support for actual fact regardless of Scripture. Perhaps most intriguing here is that the bible is actually at odds, within itself, as to the actual culpability of the Jews. The four gospels do not agree with the role the Jews played in Jesus execution, the amount of Jews present during the entire ordeal and ultimately whether or not they are guilty at all. Gibson in his film removes all the bibles messy inconsistencies and forces the Jews to shoulder the responsibility themselves; all the while operating under the pretense that this is the most faithful rendition of Scripture yet. This is a condemnable offence by itself on Gibsons behalf. Gibsons film boasts several inconsistencies with the Bible. This is a rough point for a film, which was purported to be a truthful translation of the Scripture. If we accept the Bible as fact, as faithful Christians do, then we are instantly exposed to many small changes and artistic licensing. These new interpretations singularly may not present an offence, but collectively within the span of a two-hour film become impossible to ignore. Among the more prominent of these points in dispute with the facts as the bible presents them are the inclusion of the devil as a supporting character. He, or she in the film, does not enter even once into Christs final twelve hours at all. No matter how great Satan is as a metaphor for evil in general, he had no place here. The portrayal of Harrod as an unbelievably self-consumed man is acceptable. The problem there was removing a classic sense of blame which can be interpreted as guilt in the role he played in sending Christ to a certain death at the hands of Pilate. He became a nonentity that only slowed the progression of the story. The depiction of the irrational high courts evaluation and sentencing of Christ is not congruent with the scriptures as well. The court actually speaks words directly from scripture but acts in a way that makes them seem to be just a well-dressed addition to the radically insane Jewish mob. There is a thoroughly unbelievable Jewish mob, which defies b oth scripture in most cases and also reality throughout the entire film. With the exception of Jesus inner circle there is no scene in this film that does not feature throngs of Jews acting horribly by spitting, beating and ridiculing Christ. It losses effect after fifteen minutes and just becomes farcical. Jesus and his inner circle are not portrayed as Jews in this film. They read as something else entirely, but the truth is they were Jews and just the sign above Christs cross was not enough to show that. This subtle technique only further pushed the Jews into a corner of singular guilt. This was particularly ridiculous. The outright destruction of the throne and the Jewish temple with the high priests falling all over themselves was a blatant misrepresentation of the truth. The Bibles account only shows the sacred curtain being ripped down. Again, this is a real strike against the Jews with nothing to back it in terms of scriptural fact. Last, and very important to these minor ar guments was the extreme brutification of the criminal Barrabas. His role in the film is taken out of chronological order from the scriptures in all cases. This would seem minuscule, but it becomes profound, when in the film the Jewish mob chooses a disgusting known killer of Jews over a scourged and mutilated Jesus Christ. As opposed to how it actually takes place in scripture before the whipping. Again, all of these points are inconsistent with the Bible as a fact, and most of them are used to make the Jews look horrible, so that their sole blame can be easily established. The next and possibly most important point illustrating Mels disdain for the Jews is his treatment of the crucifixion, whipping and flogging in the film. In all four of the Gospels there is a description of the torture and execution of Jesus, but in only two of these accounts is he ever flogged. When mention of his flogging appears it is only included as an unelaborated fragment of another sentence. There is substantial doubt as to whether or not the scourging ever happened, let alone the flogging, but this is not how Gibson portrays this event. Gibson uses the bibles lack of detail as a green light to insert his own interpretations as he sees fit. He literally takes the sentence fragment from the two Gospels which mentioning a whipping, and recreates a seriously significant new transgression in Christs final trials. This newfound trial is then portrayed to be even more severe than the actual crucifixion itself, finally becoming Christs horrific true sacrifice. Gibson only had to rei nsert the Jews as the scapegoat decision makers and in the audiences eyes they would automatically take the blame for this horrifying act. This is a very subtle and true masterstroke on Gibsons part and it shows his deliberate intent completely. Gibsons doctoring of the Gospels accounts, reinterpretations of their clear passages and wholesale elaborations on their context becomes damning. It changes the movie from a literal interpretation of the Bible and creates a propaganda piece outlining one fanatical but skillful directors point of view: the Jews are not only responsible for Christs death but are guilty of an execution so brutal and a torture so heinous that it is literally unparalleled in human history. Furthermore, they should still be held accountable even now 2000 years later. Not only are these concepts ridiculous, but they became so polarized before the movie even released, that Gibson, probably realizing he had gone to far, cut out several lines from the film directly accusing the Jews of wrong doing. He knew he had crossed the line and would have an increasingly serious problem on his hands because the script pieces he removed were literal text from the Bible, not speculative fodder like many of his other treatm ents of the events. He must have truly understood that what he was doing was deplorable if he felt that cutting actual, literal text was acceptable when his goal was to make a truthful version of the Gospel in film. In order to understand how deeply Gibsons desire to defame the Jews runs, we need only examine the treatment of one of the movies main characters. Gibsons cruel intent is ironically tied to his saintly portrayal of the man Pontius Pilate. It is first important to note that all four of the Gospels are uniquely in unison on one thing: Pilate killed Jesus. Pilate made it his final decision to crucify Christ. If the whipping and scourging happened at all the way it did in the film, Pilate made that so. A small group of Jews 2000 years ago called for Christs execution, but it was Pilate who ordered it. Pilate is a monster, and he has always carried that reputation so fiercely that it is and has been common knowledge to Christians for 2000 years. It is Pilate who is responsible for Christs demise and not the Jews, but Gibson has another idea. For one very specific reason Gibson sees fit to take extreme artistic license once again with the facts as presented in the Bible and utilizes revisionist history to reinvent the monster Pilate into a good man. In his film Pilate is presented almost as a hero. He is the voice of reason and personifies logic. He is completed with a clichà © good-guy demeanor that is not at all the standard template for this dubious historical figure. Gibson plays him out in the film as a fine, moral Roman Tribune possessed of extraordinary logic and sympathy, struggling with a profound unwillingness to execute Christ amidst throngs of blood-hungry, insane Jews. Gibson manufactured Pilate into deity from an evil human being, and by doing that absolved Pilate of guilt. Pilates absolution was paramount to Gibson because it drives the nail home on the Jews. Gibson has carefully crafted many inconsistencies with the scriptures in order to create an even more terrifying version of Christs ordeals. With Pilate he removed any and all others associated with the wrongful death of Christ so that the burden would fall squarely on the Jews. There literally remains no third party to convolute the picture of now clearly established blame. Finally Gibsons grand-masterstroke can be revealed. The audiences horror with his extreme violent depictions of scourging and crucifixion will subconsciously transform into a basis of hatred against the Jews. This hatred of the character Jews in the film is probably intended to further proliferate a continuing Anti Semitic sentiment in both Christian and global Culture, perpetuating a 2000-year-old racial prejudice Gibson is an experienced master of his craft, which means that he acted deliberately. Nothing could have appeared in a film he produced, directed, financed and helped to write without his knowing and approval of every small detail. He can point no fingers here; there is nowhere to hide. All of his ugly subtleties were in the end, all to apparent to people with an open mind and an understanding of the facts as presented in the Bible. This is Gibsons true intent for this film, not historic truth based on the Gospels at all. Gibsons attempt to slander and blame the Jews either shows a profound lack of understanding or a scalding ignorance of the Christian faith on his part. He thinks he is a very devout Christian, but Christians believe in one very important thing: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he sacrificed himself to atone for all of mans sins. Gibsons film does not reflect this ideal. He blames the Jews directly, but they could not be directly responsible at all. This shows either his inability to accept the fact, or just a simple prejudice. The Jews are not guilty because all mankind is guilty. A true follower of the teachings of Christ knows this and acts accordingly. After all, Jews helped Christ to fulfill the prophecies needed in order to die for all mankinds sin. This could serve to shed a fresh, new, and positive light on the Jews; in the end they are Gods chosen people. Gibsons extremist mincing throughout the film works against his established intentions. His interpretations are shallow and transparent. They clearly show his prejudice towards the Jewish people, and he can only come off as an ugly person in the end. Intelligent people and open-minded Christians will not be swayed by the coercive piece of propaganda that The Passion Of The Christ is. It will insult them and their intelligence. Gibsons only stroke of brilliance involved with this project was displaying that he understood the psyche of the religious-right in the US. He knew how to strike up the publicity on this film. Not only did he get the hard-core right wing Christian community to back it without question, he drummed up an overwhelming amount of raw curiosity throughout the secular world. His story, the publicity, the controversy, the disagreements, the inconsistencies, earned him notoriety, acclaim and over 300 million dollars. That money may be the only true success he earns with this film, because anyone ignorant of Christs story will not be converted by this nonsense. They will just be confused about how his portrayal of Jesus could measure up to the man so many people worship as God.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Bloc Quebecois :: Government Canada Essays

Bloc Quebecois missing works cited The Bloc Quebecois is the hope for Quebec, while the rest of Canada plot's to take away our individuality, heritage and language from us, we the Bloc are sworn to protect these segments of Quebec. The purpose of the Bloc Quebecois is to ensure that Quebec is fairly represented in the House of Commons and that we, the people of Quebec, obtain all that we require to ensure that Quebec will be strong in the future when we separate from Canada. If we get a fair number of seats in the House of Commons, we would not use ourpower to block economic benefits for other parts of Canada. But we would act in the best self-interests of Quebec. The Bloc is a pro- sovereignty party, and the Bloc believes that only through Quebec sovereignty can Quebec achieve its legitimate ambitions and Canada can have a centralized government. What the Bloc offers to the people of Quebec is that they are given the choice to vote for something they have wanted for a long time, a separatist party, or one of the traditional federalist parties. The sovereignty of Quebec may only be decided in a referendum but until that time, the Bloc will work within the rules of the game to look out for Quebec's interests in the federal parliament. Our plan for deficit reduction will ensure more efficiency at all levels of government. The plan we have is in three basic steps to cut $10 billion from the federal deficit per year. 1 Our strategy is to cut and eliminate government spending and inefficiency by about an estimated $6 billion annually, without touching any of the social programs. 2, We would also chop the military budget by 25% to save approximately $3 billion. 3 We would also give the responsibility of job training programs to the province of Quebec to save nearly $1 billion. Another part of our scheme would be to have $5 billion per year transferred from existing programs to job creating ones. There would be no cuts in transfer payments or social programs. We would repatriate the $28 billion in taxes that Quebecers pay to Ottawa. When Quebec separates, we would be willing to take 18% of the deficit, we feel that this is a fair amount considering that we benefited from its use. We are in favour of eliminating the tax shelters for the rich. We want to promote investment in our economy and would stimulate it by private Bloc Quebecois :: Government Canada Essays Bloc Quebecois missing works cited The Bloc Quebecois is the hope for Quebec, while the rest of Canada plot's to take away our individuality, heritage and language from us, we the Bloc are sworn to protect these segments of Quebec. The purpose of the Bloc Quebecois is to ensure that Quebec is fairly represented in the House of Commons and that we, the people of Quebec, obtain all that we require to ensure that Quebec will be strong in the future when we separate from Canada. If we get a fair number of seats in the House of Commons, we would not use ourpower to block economic benefits for other parts of Canada. But we would act in the best self-interests of Quebec. The Bloc is a pro- sovereignty party, and the Bloc believes that only through Quebec sovereignty can Quebec achieve its legitimate ambitions and Canada can have a centralized government. What the Bloc offers to the people of Quebec is that they are given the choice to vote for something they have wanted for a long time, a separatist party, or one of the traditional federalist parties. The sovereignty of Quebec may only be decided in a referendum but until that time, the Bloc will work within the rules of the game to look out for Quebec's interests in the federal parliament. Our plan for deficit reduction will ensure more efficiency at all levels of government. The plan we have is in three basic steps to cut $10 billion from the federal deficit per year. 1 Our strategy is to cut and eliminate government spending and inefficiency by about an estimated $6 billion annually, without touching any of the social programs. 2, We would also chop the military budget by 25% to save approximately $3 billion. 3 We would also give the responsibility of job training programs to the province of Quebec to save nearly $1 billion. Another part of our scheme would be to have $5 billion per year transferred from existing programs to job creating ones. There would be no cuts in transfer payments or social programs. We would repatriate the $28 billion in taxes that Quebecers pay to Ottawa. When Quebec separates, we would be willing to take 18% of the deficit, we feel that this is a fair amount considering that we benefited from its use. We are in favour of eliminating the tax shelters for the rich. We want to promote investment in our economy and would stimulate it by private

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Comparing The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing "The Lottery by Shirley Jackson" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin      Ã‚   The differences between "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin seem relatively minor when compared to the striking similarities they contain in setting, symbols, and theme.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Each of the stories begin with a description of a beautiful summer day. "The flowers were blooming profusely and the grass was richly green"(para 1) in "The Lottery" is quite comparable to "old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees"(para 1) in "...Omelas."   These descriptions (along with several others) provide positive connotations and allow the reader to relax into what seems to be a comfortable setting in either story.   Both stories also contain a gathering of townspeople.   In "...Omelas there is music, dance, and special attire incorporated in the gathering, whereas in "The Lottery," the women show up "wearing faded house dresses and sweaters."   Although Le Guin's environment seems more festive, all the folks in both stories are coming together for what seems to be   enjoyable, even celebratory occasions.   However, I believe the major similarity lies in the fact that   these many pleasant details create a facade within each story.   The reader is then left ill-prepared when the shocking, brutally violent, ritualistic traditions are exposed.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Children are an important focus in both stories.   Jackson makes it easy for us to imagine their "boisterous play"(para 2), and Le Guin writes "their high calls rising like swallows' crossing flights over the music and the singing"(para1).   I see these children being used to symbolize perceived states of happiness in both stories.   I also believe they are vital necessities in each story because they are taught and expected to carry traditions into the future. For instance, in "The Lottery,"   "someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles"(para 76),   he is then able to participate in the stoning of his own mother, and in "...Omelas," the tradition "is usually explained to children when they are between eight and twelve"(para 10), and of course, the victim in this tale is a child.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fact that both authors include references to farming may be due to the association between farming and tradition.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Scary Moment

One night, In the crowded mall, me and my friend Kathleen were having fun messing around In all the stores. Then, we decided to go to cutbacks and get some refreshing drinks to quench our thirsts from running around the huge mall. When we got to cutbacks, we couldn't wait to taste the caramel franchises in our dry mouths Kathleen let me go In front of her (of course she would, she's so nice), and so she turns around and looks behind her, only to see the scariest man you couldn't even explain it.This guy had black spiky hair with a gun In his pocket, a pack of cigarettes In his jack pocket, and an evil face of a villain. The guy was looking up and down at Kathleen, licking his lips as if he were interested. Kathleen said very loudly, â€Å"Can I Help You?!?!?! â€Å",and he walked outside quietly, still with that evil villain face. Kathleen told me what happened so let her go In front of me.As we waited in the long line that was out the door of cutbacks, the guy was sitting outside , like he was waiting for us, and we could tell that he was plotting to steal, because he had that face that a puppy does when it sees food. As soon as we got our two caramel franchises, we took a run for it. I even dropped some change and didn't even care. When Kathleen ran by where I dropped all my change, she stopped to pick it up. I said, â€Å"Kathleen come on, he's right†¦ † And I didn't even get to finish when he was standing right behind Kathleen. Kathleen Run! † I screamed, and helped her up. Luckily, her mom was in the mall, and we ran in that exact direction, no where else, and he was still chasing us. Finally, we found Sateen's mom and ran right behind her and told her everything bout what had Just happened. We went to the security place and they said they have been looking for this person for 2 weeks and that the same thing happened to 2 other pre-teens just like us. If her mom was not in that mall, we could've been kidnapped and possibly killed!By Ass istantship One night, in the crowded mall, me and my friend Kathleen were having fun messing around in all the stores. Then, we decided to go to cutbacks and get some refreshing When we got to cutbacks, we couldn't wait to taste the caramel franchises in our rye mouths Kathleen let me go in front of her (of course she would, she's so nice), and This guy had black spiky hair with a gun in his pocket, a pack of cigarettes in his Kathleen said very loudly, â€Å"Can I Help You?!?!?! , and he walked outside quietly, still with that evil villain face. Kathleen told me what happened so I let her go in front of some change and didn't even care. When Kathleen ran by where I dropped all my change, she stopped to pick it up. I said, â€Å"Kathleen come on, he's right†¦ † And I didn't other pre-teens Just like us. If her mom was not in that mall, we could've been

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Program Design and Narrative Essay

To achieve the objectives for our Healthy Pomona Kids Partnership program, the city of Pomona will utilize the methods outlined below. These methods have been proven effective by the Healthy RC Kids Partnership for the city of Rancho Cucamonga, where their client population is Latino. Representatives from this organization assisted in the development of this project and we have also provided an in depth timeline to this proposal. Objective One See more: how to start a personal narrative essay examples Ensure that children from low income families have access to fresh and nutritious foods in before and after school programs. †¢Healthy Pomona Kids Partnership will hire a program supervisor and two fulltime bilingual program assistants to establish a community outreach committee. †¢Appoint four community outreach committee leaders that are culturally competent, with two of the leaders needing to be bilingual. †¢Staff will develop a plan for local farmers markets and community gardens. Objective Two Educate families on the importance of good eating habits and the dangers or risks pertaining to childhood obesity; to promote healthy eating and reduce childhood obesity. †¢Staff will coordinate weekly health classes to educate and promote healthy living. †¢Staff will develop a formal feedback system so voices and concerns can be heard. †¢Staff will track participant’s progress on a weekly basis. Objective Three Engage community leaders and local police to help residence feel safer in their community to encourage exercise. †¢Staff will develop group walks within the community to meet three times a week. †¢Encourage local leaders to build walking trails.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Meet with local schools to educate students about the benefits of exercise.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

THE RESPONSIBILITY PROJECT Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

THE RESPONSIBILITY PROJECT - Research Paper Example Geyston Bakery is a bakery that contributes to the community through profits (Liberty Mutual 2012). A popular item sold is the brownie which is used in the social enterprise help a social and profit mission (Liberty Mutual, 2010). One problem facing the bakery is the open hiring. The bakery uses an open hiring to hire individuals in the community. Any one that applies, no matter an individual’s past history, will receive an open position in the bakery. People are only turned away if the bakery is already fully staffed. Open hiring can impact the community in a positive way. All individuals in the community can get job experience, learn a marketable trade, and receive a paycheck that goes back into the community. Lower employment rates can result from this practice. The community can prosper as members of the community get back on their feet through a job. Another issue is the funded community development. Profits from the bakery are given to the Graceland Foundation (Liberty Mutual, 2010). In turn, the Graceland Foundation helps out community programs. A few of these programs are housing, healthcare, and childcare in the community. (Liberty Mutual, 2010). The programs that Graceland Foundation provides help the local community, not some far away community. The bakery gets support, but receives more business due to the programs supported. Childcare helps both parents be employable. Housing programs can provide shelter for families. Healthcare will allow for preventative measures that will save the community in medical bills for issues that can be corrected. Greyston Bakery is helping their community be a better place and setting an example for other businesses to help their communities. The actions of open hiring and supporting community programs are relevant in the way organizational and personal decisions are made in the bakery. These goals are the

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Who will be the major political actors in international relations in Essay

Who will be the major political actors in international relations in the post-cold war era Furthermore, what do you think are the major issues in this new world - Essay Example One of the major political player in the post-cold war era is Europe, a continent that was turned into an object during the cold war due to the dominance that Russia and the infiltration that the United States. The post-cold war era has however ushered a new Europe, which has ended its object status and today considered as a major actor in international relations. The role of Britain and other European friendly states in helping the United States to strengthen its domination over the Soviet Union has been replaced by s block that charts its own course. With the formation of the European Union and the development of a single currency, Europe has stamped its authority in international relations, often differing with its cold war era partner, the United States. China has also emerged as one major super power due to its industrial and manufacturing strengths. Economic focus in the world has shifted from the United States as many countries today courting china to benefit from its great economy, available resources and technological advancements. As the new centre of attraction away from the United States, the strength of china can today be compared with the former soviet as it struggles to rival the United States and de-Americanize the world. Exports from china have increased tremendously with companies and multinationals from the country serving different contracts across the world compared to the former world powers (Luundestad 216). Apart from the emergence of new political centres in the world’s political landscape, issues of concern have also changed from arm building and wars to economic competition. Economic growth and the development of strong economic blocs like the European Union and the BRICS block has changed the political landscape in the world and resulted into a new political discourse. This explains the unease that the United States has developed over the current dominance that china is gaining especially in countries that formally

Monday, October 7, 2019

Managing Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Performance - Essay Example Likewise, the organization will be active, physically, statistically, economically etc due to the organized activity of the workers and the departments. Like brain in the human body, the leader of the organization in the form CEO (Chief Executive Officer), MD (Managing Director), Chairman, manager, supervisors etc will put his/her brain and manage the various human filled departments. So, organized human activity is planned and controlled flow of human energy. So, if organized or planned activity is carried out with precision, the organization will be a success. But, precision in organizing or planning cannot be done without the initiatives of the workers and departments and also without a knowledgeable, capable and powerful initiator. Like the five different fingers in one’s hand, each human is different from one another having different characters, attitudes, education, background etc, etc†¦And the unison of these different humans under a single organization to reach a target is, and will always be a difficult proposition. As these different humans could only create a different working culture, the success rate will be minimal. If a common working culture, if correctly said, the perfect, feasible and winnable working culture is ‘operationalised’, through out the organization, the organization will be a success story. The script for the success story could only be scripted by an effective leader or manager. With this optimum working culture the performance of the management can be increased manifold. So, this paper will critically explore the difficulties in efforts to manage employee performance and how the organization and its leader or manager can try different methods to get optimum performance. While trying these different methods or approaches, the organization would face potential problems, but if the methods are carried out perfectly it

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Types of electronic medical records Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Types of electronic medical records - Essay Example †¢ Professional electronic health record is designed to serve less than forty health officers. This means that the software is capable of successfully showing details of less than 40 patients at once. Thus if the request to show information exceeds forty, the system may experience delays or even crash. It is ideal for a medium-sized health institution. †¢ The Enterprise electronic health record software is designed in such a manner that it can handle a large number of requests to display patient’s health records. The software can handle a big number of requests thus making it ideal for large health institutions. It is also used commercially hence given the name enterprise electronic health records software. eClinicalWorks This is one of the biggest and most popular electronic health records vendors. It has a customer base of more than 55, 000 customers who have their records electronically stored. The main reason behind its popularity is the fact that it is easily accessible in most of the health institutions, and hence, the chances of the patient failing to get their records are low. This means that a patient can be treated by different physicians in different locations and still provide the same information to the different medical practitioners. The software popularity and efficiency have won it several electronic health record awards. The software is also widely accepted and also legitimate as it is ONC-ATCB certified. The Aprima electronic health record is popular and acceptable with many people. ... The software can handle a big number of requests thus making it ideal for large health institutions. It is also used commercially hence given the name enterprise electronic health records software. eClinicalWorks This is one of the biggest and most popular electronic health records vendors. It has a customer base of more than 55, 000 customers who have their records electronically stored. The main reason behind its popularity is the fact that it is easily accessible in most of the health institutions, and hence, the chances of the patient failing to get their records are low. This means that a patient can be treated by different physicians in different locations and still provide the same information to the different medical practitioners. The software popularity and efficiency have won it several electronic health record awards. The software is also widely accepted and also legitimate as it is ONC-ATCB certified (Software Advice, 2011). Aprima Electronic Health Record The Aprima ele ctronic health record is popular and acceptable with many people. The software boasts of several features that are not available in the other electronic health record software. Among the unique properties of the Aprima electronic health record software is the feature that incorporates billing and scheduling. This makes it possible for the patient to get the breakdown and total of the treatment charges. The software also reminds the patients of their schedule and appointments with the clinician. The advanced features make it usable by any size or type of practice. The legitimacy of the software is proved by the fact that it is also ONC-ATCB certified. Greenway primeSUITE 2011 This is electronic health record software which has grown to be a market leader in this line of

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Response Papers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Response Papers - Essay Example eople appreciated the innovativeness of the students who came up with the animations having put into consideration the changes in the twenty first century. Further, it is noted that video games can be used as interactive texts, which are important in providing sites through which to engage in media literacy. In the case study, it is noted that the Pac-Man game had been revised to allow them comment on space, geography, power relations, and the manner in which resources had been allocated. The games have further been revised to include the social, cultural, and political aspects of the society. The games challenged the destructive urbanization and resisted urban criminality. The students came up with a version of the â€Å"MacArthur Park Hot Dog Chase† which depicts how authorities view the area as a crime infested area full of drug barons. From the case study, it is evident that personalizing video games and sharing the games online can help the youth share strategies that are important in community empowerment and could be used to transform lives. It is important for the youth today to be keener with video games as games could be used as a means of communication. Media activists and the game designers should interact with the youth and deduce what attracts them to play games. Game designers should also take time to create games that reflect the youth’s observation of the society and the digital world. In conclusion, video games are important in passing across crucial information and can be used as a platform to reach out to the youth. Therefore, several factors need to be put into consideration to ensure that games designed are entertaining and educative at the same

Friday, October 4, 2019

Problem of Good and Evil Essay Example for Free

Problem of Good and Evil Essay ? 12/2/09 How can a God who is both omnipotent and good allow evil in the world? For Christians, evil can be a problem because non-believers can use it as a way to attack Christianity. The first thing they might say is if there is evil, then God must not be good or omnipotent because he is allowing it. Yes, God allows evil in the world, but evil does not come from God. Evil comes directly from Satan. We see this in the book of Matthew, vs. 1-11, where Satan tries to tempt Jesus. Another way an non-believer may discredit Christianity is saying that because there is evil, God doesnt exist. This is definitely false. God does exist and we know because the Bible says so. We also can see the results of his power. Some examples of that are when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and God parted the waters of the red sea so they could get through, but he closed them over the Egyptians and they were wiped out. Another example is the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, in Mark 5: 25-34, and with one touch of Jesus robe, was healed. This is just a little taste of Gods power over evil. Finally, non-believers could say that God is no better than pagan gods, but he is real and here to save us. God hates evil, but Adam sinned which caused evil in mankind, and he had to bear the consequences of his disobedience against God. The Bible shows us that God is both omnipotent and good. God is omnipotent which means all-powerful. In Luke 1:37, it says For nothing is impossible with God. There isnt anything that God cant do. Also in Rev. 19:6, it states Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: Hallelujah! For our Lord God Omnipotent reigns. In that verse, we see God directly described using that word. Now on the other hand, God is good. How can we define good? That is difficult to do. My definition of good is: Having desirable or positive qualities. God is good to his people, and everything he has created. Psalm 136:1, a passage about Gods goodness, says, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Another passage is from Psalm 34:8, which says O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusts in him. This verse is saying that if you let God in your life, you will see that he can provide only good things for you. He will not bring evil your way. God may cause trials in your life, but that is only because he wants to produce perseverance, as said in James 1:3.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation

Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation Pixel and Edge Based Lluminant Color Estimation for Image Forgery Detection Shahana N youseph  and Dr.Rajesh Cherian Roy ABSTRACT Digital images are one of the powerful tools for communication. So Image security is a key issue when use digital images. With the development of powerful photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop Light room 4, Apple Aperture 3, Corel PaintShop Pro X5, GIMP 2.8, photo manipulation is becoming more common. In this paper mainly detecting forged peoples in images. The main idea for the detection is, different images are captured under different illuminant condition, when combining these image fragments from different images, it is difficult to match the illumination conditions. This inconsistency of illumination leads to forgery detection. The main contribution of this method of forgery detection is how illuminant color can be used as a clue for forgery detection. The proposed method will be able to detect forgery using Linear SVM classification, with 70%-75% of accuracy. Keywords Pixel based illuminant color estimation; Edge based illuminant color estimation, I. INTRODUCTION Every day, millions of digital documents are produced by a variety of devices. They are distributed by newspapers, magazines, websites and television etc. In all these information channels, images are a powerful way for communication. It is not difficult to use computer graphics and image processing techniques to manipulate or to forge images. Video footage, scanned images, as well as digital and analogue images can be the target for manipulations. From a forensics perspective, several changes in a photograph are widely acceptable for improve the quality of images, e. g. to enhance the contrast, denoise an image, or highlight important regions etc.Forensics Science is a department for criminal investigation in distinct areas such as digital forensics, analogue forensics, multimedia forensics, network forensics etc.Image Forgery is the process of creating doctored/fake images, with the development of advanced image processing software’s such as Adobe Photoshop Light room 4, App le Aperture 3, Corel PaintShop Pro X5, GIMP 2.8 etc forgeries in images is easy process. Image Forgery detection is Active and Passive. Digital watermarking is an example of active. The passive image forgery detection is a blind approach, which means it does not have any prior knowledge of input image. There are various methods used for the checking of authenticity of images. In this paper the method used is based on illumination. When light fall on an object color of the object is reflected, depends on illuminant color/light color. Objects having different color in different illumination condition. So when we forge an image or making composite of various images it is very difficult to maintain the consistency of illumination. Illumination is one of the criteria for forgery detection. Some other criteria’s are used for passive image forgery detection such as, JPEG compression properties, Projective geometry, Chromatic aberration, Color filter array (CFA) and inter pixel corre lation etc. Literature Survey Table1. Illuminant Color Based methods Proposed Method First step is cropping face of the input image. This proposed method is mainly detecting forged peoples in an image. The estimation of the illuminant color is error-prone and it is affected by the materials in the scene, the illuminant color estimates on objects of similar material exhibit a lower relative error.Thus,the illuminant color detection to skin, mainly to faces. Pigmentation is the most obvious difference in skin characteristics. Second step is illuminant colour estimation, explained in next section. Fourth step is generation of illuminant map. Image is segmented with graph cut segmentation. Illuminant color is estimated using static methods on each segmented output with same index number. Based on the estimated illuminant color, apply it for the segments with same index number. The resulting output will be RGB components. This coloured representation of image with R G B components is termed as Illuminant Map. Fifth step is shape and colour feature extraction. For shape fe ature HOG Edge feature is used. An edge of illuminant map is extracted using various edge detection methods. Histogram of Oriented Gradients of edge points. For colour feature extraction. Colour Moments feature is used. Moments with first and second moments are extracted. Last step is SVM classification. Classify the illumination for each pair of faces in an image as either consistent or inconsistent. Assuming all selected faces are illuminated by the same light source, Train the SVM with two class with one class is for forged image and other for original image.When testing operation performed based on the test feature value image is classify either forged or original. ILLUMINANT COLOR ESTIMATION Pixel Based Illuminant Color Estimation Pixel values of the entire are taken for illuminant color estimation. In this methods focussed on low level features. Such as Grey World, Max-RGB, Shades of grey. Simple and less complex calculation is used for the estimation, with the help of some static variables. So it is also known as static illuminant color estimation. Grey World Hypothesis: In Grey World, Illuminant color is estimated from Average Pixel values of images. Under a neutral light source or white light source, Average reflectance of the entire image is achromatic (Having no colors), if any deviation from this condition is due to color of illumination. This average reflected color will be the color of the light source. Max-RGB Hypothesis: In Max-RGB, illuminant color estimated from maximum response of Red Green Blue (RGB) channel. Maximum response is obtained from perfect reflectance. A surface having perfect reflectance property will respond (reflect) for the full range of light colors it captures, when light incident on it. Then this reflected color is actually the color of light source. Shades of Grey: Grey world and the max-RGB illuminant color estimation in terms of Minkowski norm, is called shades of gray. , If p=1 Grey World Estimation If p=∞ Max-RGB Estimation If p=6 Shades of Grey Estimation Edge Based Illuminant Color Estimation Edge based illuminant color estimation is use low or higher order derivatives. In this methods edges and colors towards illuminant direction. In order to accurately estimate color of light source is use the pixel and edge points that coincide the illuminant direction. Highlights produce such types of points. In edge based estimation contains Grey edge and Weighted Grey edge estimation are used. In Weighted grey edge methods, using some weighting fuction to the edges. For that classifying the edges based on the photometric properties, material edges (e.g. edges between objects and object-background edges), shadow/shading edges (e.g. edges caused by the shape or position of an object with respect to the light source) and specular edges (i.e. highlights).These edges perform better influence on illuminant estimation. In Weighted Grey edge methods computing weighted average of edge points. The iterative weighting scheme is proposed, and by assigning this weighting scheme in to the grey ed ge method, the color of the light source is estimated. Edge based illuminant color estimation mainly contain, †¢ First Order Grey Edge †¢ Second Order Grey Edge †¢ Weighted Grey Edge First Order Grey Edge: The pth Minkowski norm of the first derivative of the reflectance in a scene is estimated. Computed by, Second Order Grey Edge: The pth Minkowski norm of the second derivative of the reflectance in a scene is estimated. Weighted Grey-Edge: Weighted Grey-Edge algorithm is computed by assigning a weighting function to the illuminant estimate. This weighting function is estimated by classifying edges based on the photometric properties and an iterative edge weighting scheme is generated. †¢ Derivative order x: the assumption that the average of the illuminants is achromatic can be extended to the absolute value of the sum of the derivatives of the image. †¢ Minkowski norm p: instead of simply adding intensities or derivatives, respectively, greater robustness can be achieved by computing the p-th Minkowski norm of these values. †¢ Gaussian smoothing ÏÆ': to reduce image noise, one can smooth the image prior to processing with a Gaussian kernel of standard deviation. Specular Edge Weighting scheme: Specular weighting scheme is the ratio of the energy in the specular variant versus the total amount of derivative energy. This ratio translates to the specular edge weighting scheme given by: , where , Results To check the accuracy of forgery detection using SVM classifier with SVM is trained with 50 forged and 50 original images and SVM is tested using total of 50 images where 25 are original and 25 are composite images downloaded from different websites in the Internet.SVM is trained several times for several testing process. First set of forgery detection testing is done with various illuminant estimation methods such as Grey World, MAX-RGB, Shades Of Grey and Grey Edge First and Second Order and weighted grey edge with shape feature and color feature extraction separately. In shape feature called HOG Edge use various edge detection methods such as Canny, Roberts, Prewitt, and Sobel for the comparative study. And finally the combination of color moment and HOG Edge is tested for forgery detection. Confusion matrix is generated accuracy is calculated. Accuracy=TP+TN/(TP+TN+FP+FN) Where, True Positive (TP) input-Forged, Output-Forged True Negative (TN)- input-not forged ,output-not forged False Positive (FP) -input-forged, output-not forged False Negative (FN)-input-not forged, output-forged . Table 2. Estimated Accuracy Of fogery detection with Various Illuminant Color Estimation Methods From the above result, when using all static illuminant color estimation method for forgery detection Weighted grey edge peform well when compare with other methods. Feature extraction used is HOG Edge and Color moments features for shape and color feature extraction. If use one feature extraction method only get 50%-64% of accuracy. If use combined HOG Edge and Color Moments features accuracy is improved to 66%-74%. Conclusions Presented a new method for detecting forged images of people using the illuminant color Estimation. Estimate the illuminant color using Pixel and Edge based Illuminant estimation method, and generation of illuminant map. Canny edge detector are used to obtain edges of illuminant map for the extraction of shape features using HOG Edge descriptor, which is used to get Histogram of oriented Gradients of edge points. For color feature extraction use color moments features. These two features are tested separately with different illuminant estimation method for the comparative study. Combination of these two features is also used for forgery detection for the comparative study.From the result it is clear that combined HOG Edge and color features get more accuracy than method used shape and color features separately.Accuracy is Estimated using SVM Classifier.The Combined feature extraction with Weighted grey edge testing process get 74% of accuracy. The proposed method requires only a mini mum amount of human interaction and provides a crisp statement on the authenticity of the image. Additionally, it is a significant advancement in the exploitation of illuminant color as a forensic cue. 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