Movie Analysis of Count of Monte Cristo Essay

The Limits of Human Justice- Edmond Dantes takes justice into his own hands because he is dismayed by the limitations of society’s criminal justice system. Societal justice has allowed his enemies to slip through the cracks, going unpunished for the heinous crimes they have committed against him. Moreover, even if his enemies’ crimes were uncovered, Dantes does not believe that their punishment would be true justice. Though his enemies have caused him years of emotional anguish, the most that they themselves would be forced to suffer would be a few seconds of pain, followed by death. Relative versus Absolute Happiness- A great deal separates the sympathetic from the unsympathetic characters. The trait that is most consistently found among the sympathetic characters and lacking among the unsympathetic is the ability to assess one’s circumstances in such a way as to feel satisfaction and happiness with one’s life. Dantes claims that â€Å"There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. In simpler terms, what separates the good from the bad in The Count of Monte Cristo is that the good appreciate the good things they have, however small, while the bad focus on what they lack. Love versus Alienation- Dantes declares himself an exile from humanity during the years in which he carries out his elaborate scheme of revenge. He feels cut off not only from all countries, societies, and individuals but also from normal human emotions. Dantes is unable to experience joy, sorrow, or excitement; in fact, the only emotions he is capable of feeling are vengeful hatred and occasional gratitude. It is plausible that Dantes’s extreme social isolation and narrow range of feeling are simply the result of his obsession with his role as the agent of Providence. It is not difficult to imagine that a decade-long devotion to a project like Dantes’s might take a dramatic toll on one’s psychology. Edmond Dantes – The protagonist of the novel. Dantes is an intelligent, honest, and loving man who turns bitter and vengeful after he is framed for a crime he does not commit.  When Dantes finds himself free and enormously wealthy, he takes it upon himself to act as the agent of Providence, rewarding those who have helped him in his plight and punishing those responsible for his years of agony The Count of Monte Cristo – The identity Dantes assumes when he emerges from prison and inherits his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that comes from an existence based solely on vengeance. Lord Wilmore – The identity of an eccentric English nobleman that Dantes assumes when committing acts of random generosity. Lord Wilmore contrasts sharply with Monte Cristo, who is associated with Dantes’s acts of bitterness and cruelty. Appropriately, Monte Cristo cites Lord Wilmore as one of his enemies. Abbe Busoni – Another of Dantes’s false personas. The disguise of Abbe Busoni, an Italian priest, helps Dantes gain the trust of the people whom the count wants to manipulate because the name connotes religious authority. Sinbad the Sailor – The name Dantes uses as the signature for his anonymous gift to Morrel. Sinbad the Sailor is also the persona Dantes adopts during his time in Italy The story begins in 1815 and ends in 1844. Though most of the action takes place in Paris, key scenes are also set in Marseilles, Rome, Monte Cristo, Greece, and Constantinople. Edmond Dantes has been betrayed by a neighbor, a coworker, a friend, a fiancee and an officer of the law, and following a lengthy imprisonment in terrible conditions, he escapes and uses the knowledge and wealth that has been given to him by a fellow prisoner to exact his revenge on all of these people. He stops short of his fiancee when he finds that she still loves him and that her marriage to another was only because she thought he was dead. Edmond and his friend, Fernand Mondego, officers of a French trading ship, head to Elba seeking medical attention for their captain. Dantes and Mondego are chased by English Dragoons who believe they are spies for the exiled Napoleon. The Emperor declares they are not his agents, and asks Dantes to give a letter to a friend in France. After the captain dies, they are sent on their way. Dantes is reprimanded by the ship’s first mate, Danglars, for disobeying orders. However, the shipping company’s boss, Morrell, commends Dantes’ bravery, promoting him to captain over Danglars. Mondego intercepts Dantes’ fiancee, Mercedes, and tries to seduce her. When he hears of Dantes’ promotion, Mondego realizes that Dantes will be able to marry Mercedes sooner than expected. Mondego gets drunk and tells Danglars about the letter Napoleon gave Dantes. Danglars has Dantes charged with treason and sent to magistrate J. F. Villefort. Villefort is sure of Dantes’ innocence, but discovers the addressee is Villefort’s father, Clarion, a Bonapartist whom he denounced to secure a promotion. Villefort burns the letter and fools Dantes into submitting to arrest, then attempts to send him to an island prison. Dantes escapes and goes to Mondego for help, but Mondego wounds him so he cannot escape; when Dantes asks why he betrayed their friendship, Mondego says that he is angry that he wants to be Dantes despite his wealth and superior social position. Dantes is imprisoned in the Chateau D’lf.  Meanwhile, news spreads that Napoleon has escaped from Elba. Mondego, Mercedes, Morrell and Dantes’ father go to Villefort to plead that Dantes is innocent, but Villefort rejects their efforts. Mercedes thanks Mondego for his support, but after she leaves Mondego and Villefort discuss their reasons for imprisoning Dantes. Mercedes is told that Dantes has been executed. In prison, Dantes befriends Abbe Faria, a priest and former soldier in Napoleon’s army. Faria was imprisoned because he claimed not to know the location of the deceased Count Spada’s fortune. For 13 years Faria educates Dantes, teaching him mathematics, literature, philosophy, economics, hand and sword combat and military strategy. While escaping, their tunnel caves in, mortally wounding Faria, who gives Dantes the location of Spada’s treasure. When the guards put the priest into a body bag, Dantes removes the corpse, hides himself in the bag and is thrown into the sea. Dantes washes onto a desert island and encounters Luigi Vampa, a smuggler and thief. Vampa persuades Dantes to fight Jacopo, a traitor whom they intended to bury alive. Dantes defeats Jacopo but makes a deal with Vampa to let him live; Jacopo vows to serve Dantes for the rest of his life. Dantes joins the smugglers for three months, leaving when they arrive at Marseilles. Not recognizing him, Morrell tells Dantes that his father committed suicide upon learning of his imprisonment and that Mercedes has married Mondego. Danglars took over Morrell’s shipping company after Morrell made him a partner. Dantes goes to the island of Monte Cristo, finds Spada’s treasure and vows revenge on Mercedes, Mondego and the other conspirators. Dantes becomes the â€Å"Count of Monte Cristo†. He hires Vampa to stage a kidnapping of Mondego’s son Albert and then â€Å"rescues† him, inviting the boy to his residence. In return, Albert invites the count to his sixteenth birthday at the Mondegos’ residence. Dantes meets with Villefort to discuss a shipment of unspecified property. Mondego meets with Villefort later that evening and mentions that his son heard Monte Cristo use the words gold, shipment and Spada. They believe the shipment is treasure and plot to steal it. At the party, Mercedes recognizes Dantes, with whom she is still in love. Jacopo allows her to hide in Monte Cristo’s carriage to speak with him, wanting his master to abandon his obsession with revenge and simply live his life. Dantes does not admit to being her former lover, but accidentally says ‘Edmond Dantes’; Mercedes had never mentioned Edmond’s last name. Dantes confronts Danglars with the police in tow; Danglars fights Dantes, who reveals his true identity before having Danglars arrested. Dantes gets Villefort to confess that he persuaded Mondego to kill Clarion in return for telling Mercedes that Dantes was executed. Villefort is charged with conspiracy to murder, and realizes Monte Cristo’s true identity before being imprisoned. Mercedes admits that she still loves Dantes. After spending the night together, Dantes decides to take Mercedes and her son and leave France. Dantes has Mondego’s debts called in, bankrupting him. Mercedes confronts Mondego, revealing she is leaving him and Albert is Dantes’ son; she only married him and claimed that the boy was born prematurely to hide his true paternity. Mondego leaves for his family estate, where the stolen gold shipment was to be taken. He finds that the chests are filled with dirt and sand, and that Dantes has arrived to take his revenge. Albert rushes to defend Mondego, until Mercedes reveals to Dantes and Albert that they are father and son. Mondego attempts to kill Mercedes, but only wounds her, as Jacopo throws off his aim. Mondego fights Dantes, and Dantes stabs Mondego through the heart. Dantes returns to Chateau d’If to pay homage to Faria and promises him that he has given up on revenge and will live a better life. He leaves the island with Mercedes, Albert and Jacopo.

Is Texting and Driving as bad as Drinking and Driving Essay

There are many dangers when both drinking while driving and texting while driving. In this essay the two will be compared and contrasted to find why people do them even with the dangerous consequences. Drivers think they can text while driving and also drink while driving because they think they can get away with it because nothing has affected them in the past while doing it. Michael Austin states, â€Å"Texting, also known as SMS (for short message service), is on the rise, up from 9.8 billion messages a month in December ’05 to 110.4 billion in December ’08†. What does it mean to all drivers to text and drive, or even drink and drive? Why would somebody text and drive? Why would somebody drink and drive? Are the consequences great enough to make a change? Driving is already dangerous when the driver isn’t impaired, so when they add the risk of being impaired it increases their chances of getting hurt or damaging their car. Not only could they kill thems elves, but they could also kill somebody else and that’s not fair to the other people that are doing nothing wrong if it isn’t their fault. Drivers may want to pay close attention when they have their children because if they are texting while driving or drinking while drive when their children are in the car, the children will pick up the habits that are being influenced and think that it is okay. Larry Copeland states in USA today, although they’re otherwise protective of their young children, the survey finds, 78% of mothers with children under age 2 acknowledge talking on the phone while driving with their babies; 26% say they text or check their e-mail (Larry Copeland, 2013). What it means to text while driving is that the driver is on their phone emailing, texting, or searching the web while their attention should be on the road aware of their surroundings. All drivers should constantly be focused on the road and other cars instead of their phones. But is texting while driving as bad as drinking while driving? What it means to drink while  driving is that the driver has possession and is consuming alcohol while operating a motor vehicle at the same time. Although they are both different they have one thing in common, they both impair the driver. Micheal Austin states, â€Å"Intern Brown’s baseline reaction time at 35 mph of 0.45 second worsened to 0.57 while reading a text, improved to 0.52 while writing a text, and returned almost to the baseline while impaired by alcohol, at 0.46. At 70 mph, his baseline reaction was 0.39 second, while the reading (0.50), texting (0.48), and drinking (0.50) numbers were similar†. A huge difference betwe en the two is that when a driver drinks they are constantly impaired as they are driving. But when a driver is texting and driving there are usually impaired for less than a minute. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, â€Å"five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field. Also a texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-texting driver.† (NHTSA, n.d). Even though texting and driving and drinking while driving are very dangerous one can be more harmful than the other at times. Everybody has received a phone call, email or text while driving one time or another. As soon as the driver gets the notification that somebody is trying to reach them they feel the urge to check their phone. Our phones have become a major addiction and people cannot resist the temptation to check their phones every minute they get. A driver feels like it won’t matter if they just happen to look down at their phone for a moment as they take their attention off of the road. Nothing has happened before as they’ve done it many times, so why would something happen now? But little do they know it could impact their lives in many ways. According to drivesafely.net, only 60% or more have admitted to texting and driving when the results are closer to 80% in reality (drive-safely.net, 2011). There may be more than one reason why people feel like it is okay to drink in drive. One of those reasons may be that they are so impaired that they aren’t aware of the dangers of get ting behind the wheel. In some situations a driver could get pulled over by a police officer and he would give a breathalyzer test that the driver would most likely fail. Then the driver would be taken away to  jail in hand cuffs and treated like a criminal. Another reason is that the driver feels as if they can drink as much as they would like and still be able to drive because they have done it in the past. Also drivers don’t want to feel intimidated by the alcohol in their system; they believe they are still capable of doing the same things they did when they weren’t under the influence. After you’re put in jail you will have to face a judge or jury and depending on your alcohol level you’ll be sentenced. If it’s okay to drink and drive, is it okay to text and drive? Neither option is okay. But people feel as if texting and driving is a lot more minor then drinking in driving. Drivers look at driving as a dangerous thing already and most think adding alcohol to the equation makes it more dangerous. But is it worse than drinking and driving? Teenagers and adults don’t think so. Drivers feel as if they can hide their phone when they are texting or talking on it and the police officer will not se e them or take the time to pull them over. Especially since the consequences aren’t that great. The current texting fine is around $150, if you bump that up to about $300 I’m sure people would be more careful. Also having insurance nowadays is a MUST. If insurance companies decided to stop covering these crashes I’m sure they would decrease. In both situations drivers feel they have the ability to drive while taking these actions even though they are wrong and a danger to all other drivers. Regardless of these situations a responsible driver should never drive impaired in any way. Texting while driving and drinking while driving both have their down falls. And no responsible driver should ever take part in either action. Drivers think they can get away with a quick text or a little alcohol while driving because it may have not affected them in the past. They aren’t aware of the true danger and consequences of these actions when things go horribly wrong. In my essay I hit three main points; what it means to do these things, followed by the reasons people do it, and also the consequences of doing it. In the end the roads are only as safe as we make them. WORK CITED PAGE http://www.caranddriver.com/features/texting-while-driving-how-dangerous-is-it-the-results-page-2

Assertive Community Treatment At Medical Center Essay - 1

Assertive Community Treatment At Medical Center - Essay Example According to the directive, the primary identified roles of MHICM teams include: initiative numerous efforts to reduce symptoms associated with psychiatric problems, ensuring there is increase in global assessment of functioning scores, be able to raise the level of patients’ abilities to complete their daily activities, and also be able to increase the quality of life for the clients, together with treatment needs that results into satisfaction (Rosen, Mueser and Teesson, 2007). The MHICM teams are further helped in accomplishing these tasks through the adoption of specified measure instruments such as the Dartmouth Assertive Community Treatment Scale (DACTS) (Bond and Saylers, 2004). When the teams have appropriated filled the DACTS results, they are required to send the instruments to the Northeast Program Evaluation (NEPEC) which eventually conducts the evaluation of the results (Bond and Saylers, 2004). In most cases, for the MHICM teams to be perceived or regarded succes sful, they should exhibit an overall fidelity of 4.0 +/- 0.3 score, which when compared to ACT constituter success of the program (Bond and Saylers, 2004). The ACT has led to the improvement of lives of people who initially demonstrate serious and persistent mental illness (Rosen, Mueser and Teesson, 2007). The model has advocated for the large-scale and holistic promotion of quality recovery and also empowerment of clients through diverse strategies of partnership, self-care, and determination and also an individual choice. At the same time, MHICM continue to play a critical role in ensuring holistic and qualitative care is provided for the diverse victims and that their lives improve in diverse dimensions. Nevertheless, even with these developments, it has been noted that there exists lack of or inadequate research work, which can be used by directors to have clear guidance on how well individual MHICM teams function and conducts its activities (Saylers et al., 2003).

Nursing mental health evaluation of care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nursing mental health evaluation of care - Essay Example When asking questions related to the mental health of the patient, it is always best to have â€Å"a nonjudgmental, matter- of-fact approach† (Molony, 2003). In taking their history, the mental health professional and the various professionals should listen carefully to the patient. Prying too deeply into their lives should be avoided and information should not be forced out of patient. Information extracted should focus on what the patient is comfortable discussing. Many patients are reluctant to discuss their condition and to reveal information about their mental health because of the stigma associated with mental illness. Society often labels mentally ill patients as dangerous. Society has a picture of the mentally ill patient, and this image is often distorted and exaggerated. Mentally ill patients are often shunned from the rest of society for reasons which are often misguided. Lack of knowledge and enlightenment about mental illness on the part of the patient may also be attributed to limited information sharing on the part of the patient. Patients are mostly not aware that what they are feeling is attributable to some form of mental illness. In these instances, they do not exactly know which information indicative of mental illness they should share with their caregiver. For them, these are just feelings and emotions. To the enlightened medical personnel, these may be symptoms of an illness. In caring for the mentally ill patient, the medical personnel were able to ensure that history taking was taken in a non-judgmental, comfortable, and non-prying manner. Through a comfortable and subtle interview, the patient was able to open up about the events leading up to her suicide attempt. She was able to reveal information about her emotional state and other psychological conditions that reveal mental illness. As regards age factor, a study comparing older and younger mental health patients revealed that older patients are less

The Use of the Second Life Virtual Environment and Other Social Media Essay

The Use of the Second Life Virtual Environment and Other Social Media for Teamwork - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the continuous development of technology worldwide has led businesses to invest a significant amount of money in order to keep their IT to a high standard. Moreover, it seems that technology has become a necessary tool for developing a wide range of organizational activities, particularly in regard to the communication of each business with its customers. The potentials of the Second Life as a tool for the development of team meetings and activities are examined and analyzed in this paper. A comparison is also made with other forms of social media used by organizations in various industries. The risks and challenges of social media as tools for organizing team meetings and activities are mostly related to the failures in the management of the relevant IT systems, i.e. this is an issue of faults in the organizational structure and control. The use of IT systems for organizing business activities has been a common practice in markets wor ldwide. In order to understand the role of Second Life virtual environment for specific business tasks, including the development of team meetings and activities, it would be necessary to describe the context of such environment. In accordance with Lehmann-Grube, the virtual environment (known also as the virtual world) is ‘asynchronous, persistent network of people, represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers’. The Second Life is a virtual world incorporating most of the facilities available in real worlds, such as ‘businesses, recreation, buildings, and services’. The Second Life virtual environment has become particularly popular among businesses, especially regarding its potentials to offer a cost-effective and well-organized platform for training and team working.

Culture, Service and Product Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Culture, Service and Product - Essay Example These barriers have to be addressed so that entering a new market would be successful. This paper comes in two parts. First part discusses glocalization issues, and the second part talks about case of Disneyland as it entered glocalization in HongKong and the soon to be opened Shanghai Disney. Conceptual framework of the study analyzes importance of glocalization, gives its meaning, and how it is applied by Disney in its business practice in setting up its resorts to an environment totally different from its origin. These comes as are positive challenges to the this icon of entertainment. In this study, I borrowed the concept of Luigi and Vineran (n.d.) that proposed: â€Å"in order to be successful globally, managers must act locally in the different markets they chose to enter.† Glocalization is coined word from globalization and glocalization which is used describe a product or service that is developed and distributed globally, but is also fashioned to accommodate the user or consumer in a local market†. (Investopedia. n.d.) Glocalization meant differently as to each region because of differences cultures, language, religion, traditions and laws. Luigi, D. and S. Vineran (n.d.) in their study put forward a definition that states: â€Å"providing a global offer (brand, idea, product, idea, or service, etc.) while taking local issues into account†. A global product / service that can face competition from both local and international brands in a better way because it meets certain local needs or preferences at lower costs due the global edge of the company. What key areas does a company need to consider when moving a product/service developed in one country to a different country? How should a company assess how a product or service is being received in a different country? Global marketing has introduced may changes on business approaches, such as the way how a company transacts business to

Final project PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Final project - PowerPoint Presentation Example al structure is the separation or combination of missions or activities consisting of speculations and anecdote as to the most effective way of organizing the health agencies and the environment in terms of the outcomes (Sinclair, & Whitford, 2013). There are three general ways of identifying and categorizing health agency structures in every state. First, there is the combined health and environmental agency model, where the agency is at the cabinet level, with one policy leader overseeing both environmental and health functions. Second, there is an independent health agency located at the cabinet level with a policy leader reporting to the governor directly. Third is the health super agency model which additional functions. For a public health organization, this may include healthcare funding. The enforcement of law is the primary means by which the government creates conditions for safer and healthier lives for all people. The law is responsible for creation of missions for public health officials, assignment of their functions and exercises manner of exercising their power. The law also influences norms for healthy behavior, identify and respond to threats relating to health and setting health standards. The public health ethics are concerned with the ethical dimensions of professionalism and the moral trust bestowed on public health professionals by the society (Gostin, 2010). Resources like funding will be required to embrace the community’s definition of population health. To achieve the population health goals, the Accountable Care Organizations (ACA) will need to identify the financial resources required. The demonstration grants provided may help to fund the fee-for-service structure currently used but it is barely enough to sustain it. Therefore, the nonprofit hospitals have to provide support for the community programs. With passage of the ACA, the U.S. has had to result to improving the health care’s quality while decreasing the costs

Business Law Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Law Coursework - Essay Example (or "Divies") under the principle of vicarious liability. Crates may likewise have a claim for consequential economic loss. For Abraham and Crates to successfully claim under the law of tort, it must be shown that the elements making up a successful claim of negligence exist: duty, breach, causation, and damage. In the case of Lochgelly Iron and Coal Co. v M'Mullan (1934), it was stated that the tort of negligence 'properly connotes the complex of duty, breach and damage thereby suffered by the person to whom the duty was owing'. It was likewise stated in Burton v Islington (1992) that 'it is now elementary that the tort of negligence involves three factors: a duty of care, a breach of that duty and consequent damage.' Based on the foregoing decisions, the tort of negligence to be actionable must have the following elements: (1) there is a legal duty of care owed by defendant to the plaintiff; (2) a breach of that legal duty of care consisting of an act or omission by the defendant; and (3) consequent damage on the part of the plaintiff as a result such act or omission by the defendant. [see also Markesi nis, p. 69 (1999)] In the recent case of Jones v BBC, 2007 WL 2187023 (QBD), Jones, a freelance sound recordist for defendant BBC, claimed that he suffered personal injury caused by the negligence of the defendants. During a recording of the lowering of a windmill mast, and while Jones was walking under the inclined mast, the windmill rotor fell onto his back causing severe spinal injury rendering him paraplegic. In ruling for the claimant, the court stated that the BBC, as employer, had assumed responsibility for the health and safety of freelancers when they work on BBC productions. Since the safety crew had identified a risk of the falling mast, a discussion before filming should have been made to warn the crew not to go beneath it. But the safety crew did not give the warning. Such failure of BBC, through the safety crew, is considered negligent which caused Jones' accident. It had been held that it was incumbent upon BBC, its safety crew and the owners of the farm as occupiers of the site to take steps further to those they had taken to ensure that the BBC crew did not pass under the mast during its lowering. In the instant case, the shop manager breached the legal duty of care required of him under the circumstances when he failed to give a safety warning or danger warning after opening the windows onto the pavement because it is reasonably foreseeable that such window obstructs the path of the pedestrian and is most likely to cause an accident. Thus, in the case of Crowther v Kirklees Metropolitan Council (2006), the claimant ambulance driver claimed damages for personal injuries she sustained when she went to the house of a patient where the street was a narrow cul-de-sac with no footpaths. When plaintiff got out of the ambulance and placed her right foot on the step, as it was a high drop to the road, and her left foot on the ground, it entered a large defect centred around a circular utility cover measuring 5cm in depth, 40cm in width and 46 cm in length. When her foot entered the defect, she went over on her left ankle, which she strained. In ruling for the plaintiff, the court stated that it was reasonably foreseeable that the defect could result in injury to pedestrians. The

Interpersonal Relationships and Team Effectiveness Essay

Interpersonal Relationships and Team Effectiveness - Essay Example This project has taught me much more than I had imagined in the beginning. Surprisingly, majority of what I have learnt was from outside of the multitude of course books. During my project, almost all kinds of experiences occurred, from memorable to impressive. The major problem occurring in any team is ineffectiveness of team members and adverse interpersonal relationships. If team members do not have better understanding and acceptance of each other’s differences, then resulting conflicts might not let the group members work on an assigned project. If looked from a critical eye, those experiences have brought change in my personality and have furnished my understanding. I certainly developed myself in many areas after this project. This paper will be examining and reflecting upon my behavior and self-awareness and shows an analysis of my role with respect to my team. It also highlights the roles of my team members and ways through which we increased team effectiveness. The p rinciple purpose of this reflective essay is to examine our team coherency and team effectiveness while working on our group project. This process will be evaluated in the light of relevant academic theories such as communication, and leadership, as well as few models of behavior in team such as Adair-Action-Centered Leadership, Belbin Roles, Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development, and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. ... On the very first day, many complexities occurred among us as team members primarily due to unfamiliarity with each other. Largely, these complexities were related to lack of interpersonal relationships with each other. Some of them included communication gap, fear, not listening to each other’s ideas, running away from assigned tasks, and egoistic nature. Some complications relating directly to projects were availability of group members at certain time and schedule for discussing project details, time, and schedule for discussing the project proceedings with professor, company to be selected for the project, assigned task, and responsibility of each group member etc. I had no idea about how to approach these problems and I had no clue what I could do to solve these problems. Rules of task were also not known to us due to which we acted independently. Each one of us was lacking planning, understanding, and communication. All the group members appeared to be astounded by the p roject. It was looking very hard to complete and I, as a group leader, was feeling fretful regarding how I would carry out the entire project with increased complexities among group members. The team consisted of five group members, which means several ideas for the accomplishment of project. Suddenly, the best idea came to mind. In our very first meeting, I was able to convince my group members for this idea. I explained the importance of this project for each of us. It was 30% of our course, so we all have to contribute substantial attention to this project. The goal of all of us was same, that is, getting as higher points for this project as we could. The first thing that united and created harmony among our team was our common goal of ‘achieving excellent

Research methodology used to collect data and converting the data into Essay

Research methodology used to collect data and converting the data into meaningful information - Essay Example The author has selected the issue for discussion after reading the article in newspaper about the sporting habit of person in London. The researcher will use qualitative research methodology in order to gather personal insights of respondents regarding the research problem. Using qualitative methodology will help the researcher to get personal viewpoints of respondents which will help the researcher to address the research problem without using any categorical boundaries or subjective assumptions. Fife and Saunders et al have argued that, using secondary data sources such as books, printed peer reviewed journals; government data etc to collect data can also be classified as good way to conduct qualitative research. Following the argument of research scholars, the researcher will use secondary data sources as a neutral medium to construct the theoretical argument in the literature review and later on test the validity of the response of respondents. The researcher will use convenience sampling as part of non-probabilistic sampling method for selecting respondents for the interview. Using convenience sampling method will help the researcher to conduct the interview in timely and cost efficient manner. After observing the behaviour of players in sports centre the researcher will select one respondent who is ready to give interview for more than 1hour. Research scholars Punch and Patton have stated that using unstructured interview can is helpful in cases where researcher is planning to gather information from respondents without imposing any priori categorization. In this paper, the researcher will use unstructured interview to give chances to respondents to express their viewpoint on the research topic in unhindered manner. The researcher will use a casual approach to slowly drag the interviewee to the core research objectives and allow the interviewees to direct the further flow of interview. There might be cases, where the researcher will ask some contextual qu estions to interviewee in order to engage him/her with the interview process. Entire unstructured interview process will be tape recorded and later on these interview transcripts will be produced in the data analysis sections. The researcher will fix appointment with the interviewee prior to the unstructured interview and also take his/her permission before asking any sensitive questions. The researcher will examine preconceptions by checking the validity of responses by consulting books and academic journals written on the topic. As the research questions will be open ended hence no coding technique will be used to quantify the responses. The researcher will ensure the respondent that their responses will only be used for academic purposes and their identity will not be revealed for any commercial purposes. The researcher will also ensure that respondent is aware about the ethical norms prior conducting unstructured interview. Transcription The respondent is almost 39 years of age and he is not a sports person by profession. However, the person visits the sports centre thrice/week in order to play his favourite game lawn tennis. The respondent loves lawn tennis for the

Basic Computer Memory Types Essay Example for Free

Basic Computer Memory Types Essay Random Access Memory (RAM) RAM is a location within the computer system which is responsible for stacking away data on a temporary basis, so that it can be promptly accessed by the processor. The information stored in RAM is typically loaded from the computers hard disk, and includes data related to the operating system and certain applications. When the system is switched off, RAM loses all the stored information. The data remains stored and can be retained only when the system is running. When the RAM gets full, the computer system is more likely to operate at a slow peed. The data can be retrieved in any random order. Generally, there are two types of RAM; namely Static RAM (SRAM) and Dynamic RAM (DRAM). When many programs are running on the computer simultaneously, the virtual memory allows the computer to search in RAM for memory portions which havent been utilized lately and copy them onto the hard drive. This action frees up RAM space and enables the system to load different programs. Read Only Memory (ROM) This type of memory is active, regardless of whether the system is turned on or is switched off. It is a kind of permanent non-volatile storage memory. As the name read only suggests, the contents in it cannot be changed or modified. It is an integrated circuit which is pre-programmed with important data that should necessarily be present for the computer to carry out its normal functionalities. Cache Cache is a kind of RAM which a computer system can access more responsively than it can in regular RAM. The central processing unit looks up in the cache memory before searching in the central memory storage area to determine the information it requires. This rules out the need for the system to search for information in larger and bigger memory storage areas, which in turn leads to a faster extraction of data. Computer Hard Drive These devices are important data storage components that are installed in the CPL]. Their memory ranges widely, and a user may choose the memory depending on the data needed to be stored and accessed. Nowadays, hard drives having a memory capacity of 120 gigabytes to 500 gigabytes are normally used. Flash Memory This is a non-volatile kind of memory which is intended to contribute to portable torage and a convenient transfer of data from one computer to another. The data in it can be erased and re-programmed as per the users requirements. It only has a specific number of erase and write cycles that it can withstand, after which it creates a tendency to lose out on the stored information. Memory cards and USB flash drives These are Just the common and main computer memory types which facilitate memory and data storage. However, there are many subtypes which are sorted out according to the memory-related functionalities they perform and the requirements they serve.

Operations Strategy with focus on Growth

Operations Strategy with focus on Growth Briefly describe your understanding of the concept of Operations Strategy, its importance and its min constructs. Huge number of companies asserted that operations strategy is one of the best approaches to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Waller [5] asserted that the strategic which should relate to operations performance object is important of its operations and supply chain. Hill [4] also suggested that strategy include the perspective of both direction and implementation. Operation strategy is a long term plan which is designed to achieve its desired objectives [5]. Chase et al. [3] claimed that operations strategy is to plan a wide and complete guidelines or approaches which is the best support for companies long term goal. Chase et al. [3] also mention four levels of perspective in operations strategy including learning and growth, internal, customer and financial perspective. Slack et al. [2] addressed that operations strategy is the pattern of decisions and actions that shapes the long term vision, objective and capabilities of the operation and its contribution to overall strategy. Slack et al. [6] also point out that operations strategy should concerns four perspectives as following: (1) Top down Operation strategy is a top down reflection of what the business wants to do. (2) Bottom up Operation strategy is a bottom up activity where operations improvements cumulatively build strategy. (3) Market requirements Operations strategy involves translating market requirement into operations decisions. (4) Capabilities of operations resources Operation strategy involves exploiting the capabilities of operations resources in chosen markets. According to above, it can be concluded that operations strategy which is the way in which operations resources are developed over the long term to create sustainable competitive advantage for the business concerns investments and developments to support the order winners and qualifiers (such as on time delivery, quality conformance and price) for which it has both individual and cooperative responsibility. 2. What do you consider to be the main operations performance objectives in the context of Yo!Sushi? How these objectives reflect the structure and expectations of the companys market? How do you assess the relative importance of these objectives? Answer: An operations strategy should define operations performance objectives which will adds value for customers and contributes to competitiveness by being able to satisfy the requirements of its customers. Slack et al. [2] suggested that there are five aspects of operations performance, all of which to a greater or lesser extent will affect customer satisfaction and business competitiveness. (1) Quality: doing things right. (2) Speed: doing things fast. (3) Dependability: doing things on time. (4) Flexibility: changing what you do or how you do it. (5) Cost: doing things cheaply. Chase et al. [3] also claimed that the major competitive dimensions that form the competitive position of a company include the following: (1) Cost: make it cheap. (2) Product quality and Reliability: make it good. (3) Delivery speed: make it fast. (4) Delivery reliability: deliver it when promised. (5) Coping with changes in demand: change its volume. (6) Flexibility and new product introduction speed: change it. (7) Other product specific criteria: support it. According to above, the main operations performance objectives in the context of Yo!Sushi are quality( food and service), speed, flexibility and cost. (1) Quality Quality is very important index or part in the restaurant industry. According to the article, firstly, the quality of food must manage and control vey carefully including food standards and hygiene. Secondly, the quality of service also is a vital fact which not only relates to the person to person interaction, but also to the general cleanliness of the restaurant. In addition, in order to improve service quality, Yo!Sushi use questionnaires to make some communication and feedback from their customers. It not only let them understand their drawbacks but also found a way to make the customer a repeat visitor in the future. (2) Speed With regard to speed, food stock management is a very important part which is related to it. On one hand, if the food has sold off the belt, the same item of food will to be filled in shortly. On the other hand, if the food has not been sold off the belt in two hours, it must be discarded. To achieve the performance objective of speed not only ensure fresh of food, but also improve the restaurants service quality. (3) Flexibility Customers who want to see a variety of dishes displayed need some different and special menus to make them returning. Variety dishes include seasonal menus and meal promotions which can encourage customers expecting. (4) Cost How to make a reasonable rang of price for their food is also a critical object in Yo!Sushi. According to the article, the author mentioned that there are three different level customer groups including symbols of success, urban intelligence and welfare borderline have been eaten in the restaurant. Because of this, how to set price of meals are a vital issue in their business. There are four structure and expectations of companys market. First of all, to achieve the object of quality can create a chance of customers returning. Secondly, to achieve the object of speed not only ensure fresh of food, but also improve the restaurants service quality. Thirdly, to achieve the object of flexibility could encourage customers motivation to taste special and also make them returning. Lastly, to achieve the object of cost could create much business in many different level customers. It can be concluded from above, different operations will have different views of what each of the performance objectives actually means. In other words, the relative importance of four performance objectives above which can provide competitive advantages depends on how the business competes in its market. 3. What do you see to be the most important challenge for the company and its director? Answer: According to the article, the most important challenge for the company is how to motivate the virgin category customers and how to create the best chances of this customer returning. Virgin customers who mean the people who have not been to the restaurant before will not know how the conveyer belt system works and how to order different Japanese dishes. We can also see from the article that the most important challenge for the companys director is how to get right performance measures of the restaurants. In the article, Robin asserted that given the right set of metrics not only encourage managers performance but also servers performance outperform their current roles. There are also two main reasons why the companys director should to get right performance measures. Firstly, it will bring free up cash to invest in new opening. This reason is refer to CEOs objective which is to have over 100 restaurants open at 2011.Secondly, it will keep companys loyal band of lovers coming back for more. This reason is a vital strategy which make company sustainable operations. It can be concluded from above that if the company can motivate the virgin category customers and make them returning, it will bring much benefits for the company; if the companys director could to get right performance measures of the restaurants, it not only bring free up cash to invest in new opening but also keep companys loyal band of lovers coming back for more in the future. 4. How the identified performance objectives would impact the companys resources and processes (quality, capacity and planning)? And what your suggestions would be to the CEO in selecting measures of performance to improve the restaurants position? Compare your answer with what may be the current approach and solutions of the companys management. Answer: According to the figure1 above, Slack et al. [1] claimed that the market requirement and the operations resource perspectives on operations strategy represent two sides of a strategic equation that all operations managers have to reconcile. According to the figure2 above, Slack et al. [2] also asserted that building operations capabilities means understanding the existing resources and processes within the operation. Different product groups require different performance objective which might related to their position. In case of Yo!Sushi, quality and flexibility are the most important performance objective which should be measured more carefully. First of all, food quality and service quality are a vital index related to customers satisfaction which not only improve restaurants position but also create brand loyalty of their customers. In addition, the flexibility of food is also approach to attract customers successful. In order to identify my suggestion of performance measure, I will compare with another food restaurant called Burger king which is also set some performance objective to make their business excellent. (1) Quality Burger king not only proud the quality of its food but also focus more on their service quality [1]. Compare with Yo!Sushi, quality of food and service are an important points of its business. (2) Speed of service This is a main different between Burger king and Yo!Sushi. Burger king is type of fast food which is important in its speed of service, especially take away. Whereas, more customers of Yo!Sushi choose eat in which more focus on enjoy the process of meal than speed. (3) Flexibility Flexibility is another vital index in restaurant industry. Both Burger king and Yo!Sushi are attach importance to it. Variety meals can attract customers more success than unchanged meals. (4) Cost Burger king is not very cheapest in the fast food market [1]. As a result, how to make a reasonable rang of price which can bring more wide rang customer groups for their business is also a critical object in Burger king and Yo!Sushi. Whilst, using raw materials more effectively and avoid excessive wastage are also a method to decrease its operation cost. 5. How do you describe Yo!Sushis position in the market and the state of their operations and performance, and how do you relate it with the operations strategy the company has adopted and implemented? Answer: An operations strategy should identify the broad decisions that will help the operation achieve its objectives [2]. In general, Yo!Sushis position in the market and the state of their operations and performance are good. First of all, Yo!Sushi very care about their quality of food and service because they know it is a critical fact in restaurant industry and service industry. Secondly, in order to make variety dishes, Yo!Sushi create seasonal menus and meal promotions to encourage their customers returning. Thirdly, Yo!Sushi control their food stock management very well which related to services quality. Fourthly, in order to run their business well and improve their brand visibility, Yo!Sushi choose open restaurants in marketplace. Location selection of Yo!Sushi is also a very vital decision in their operation strategy. Fifthly, Yo!Sushi franchise the concept to overseas partners which makes Yo!Sushi from small company to multinational company. Sixthly, Yo!Sushi use questionnaire to measure restaurants performance and communicate with their customers. It not only acquires some advice from their customers, but also let them make a reasonable measure of performance. Lastly, Yo!Sushi create a new dining experience which include informal, edge and self-paced quick service eatery. In summary, it is clear that the operations strategy of Yo!Sushi is very successful. It not only reflects the businesss market requirements, but also achieve companys performance objective.

Social Care For Older Adults In England Social Work Essay

Social Care For Older Adults In England Social Work Essay During the last two decades social care for older adults in England has witnessed many significant changes. Implementation of the community care reform, privatisation of the social care and Direct Payments have had an impact on the social work as a profession to date. In the first part of the literature review I would like to give an overview how all of these initiatives shaped present social work practice for older adults and then focus strictly on personal budgets and recent research of the practice. Traditional social work characterises working closely with the service user, building very much needed relationship, assessing problems, making a judgment about coping abilities, looking on range of resources and at the end making an informed professional judgment about the best way to support service user (Lymbery, 1998). Dustin (2006) presents traditional set of skills such as communication and interpersonal skills, use of self, negotiation and mediation skills as well as appreciation of organisations and procedures as a core of the practice. In the 1980s governments concerns about increasing number of older people as well as running very expensive residential care have been a driver for transformation delivery of social care (McDonald, 2010). Furthermore, and most significantly, a new Conservative political view included: a belief in the greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness of private sector management; consumerism; the virtues of competition and the benefits of a social care market; and a deep mistrust of public service professions and their claims to special knowledge and expertise (Lymbery, 1998, p. 870) had its reflection in implemented legislations and community care reforms. The White Paper Caring for People: Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond and The NHS and Community Care Act 1990, implemented in 1993, introduced care management and changed the role of the social worker in statutory sector. Hugman (1994, p.30) argues that the care management is a move away from professionally defined responses to need to managerialist responses dominated by resource priorities. McDonald (2010, p. 28) also states that professional discretion has to a large extend been replaced by formulaic approaches to assessment and service eligibility. Community care reform imposed on practitioners to focus more on the processes and on more complex bureaucracy what affected other aspects of care managers/social workers practice such as limited and formal contact with the service user and therefore difficulties in building up relationships with the client, reduced emotional support, counselling role, advocacy role, group work, less attention to monitoring and reviewing (Lymbery, 1998; Postle, 2002; Weinberg et al. 2003; Carey, 2008). Carey (2008, p. 930) states that: the quasi-market system has also helped to create a complex administrative system based around the management of contracts, assessments, care plans and a seemingly infinite variety of bureaucratic regulations and procedures. Most such tasks are relentlessly processed by often perplexed care/case managers, many of whom quickly begin to question any initial motivations to enter social work. Lymbery (1998) points out that more administrative system and budgetary constraints took away from practitioners a sense of traditional role and increased monitoring of social workers decisions. It has been argued, that key community care reform objectives such as a wider range of choice of services, reducing unnecessary paperwork, meeting individual needs in a more flexible and innovative way have not been achieved (Scourfield, 2006; Carey, 2008). The next important step for the shape of present social care has been introduction of direct payment schemes. The British Council of Disabled People (BCODP) presented findings of their research in publication Cash in on independence with evidence that directly provided services were inflexible, unresponsive, unreliable and take away service users control over the support (Zarb and Nadash, 1994). The BCODP also proved that direct payments can be cheaper and at the same time can provide a higher quality of support (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). Under the pressure of sustained and strong campaign for reform from the BCODP and other bodies, the government finally implemented The 1996 Community Care (Direct Payment) Act (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). The Act allowed making cash payments by local authorities to individuals to arrange their own support (McDonald, 2010). In 2000, direct payments were extended to other service user groups and from now on older adults could also benefit from it (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). Following direct payments, in 2003, the charity organisation in Control, focused on people with learning disabilities, developed the new way of organising care called self-directed support (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). Browning (2007, p. 3) states that the introduction of self-directed support is potentially the biggest change to the provision of social care in England in 60 years. The terminology has developed during the process of implementation of this concept. By 2004 in Control started using the term individual budget which describes budget from several different streams such as the Access to Work; the Independent Living Fund; Supporting People and the Disabled Facilities Grant; local Integrated Community Equipment Services, adult social care and NHS resources. In the pilots where funding streams were not integrated and projects relied on social care funds the term personal budgets was being used (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). The in Control Partnership desire was to have the ir concept to be fitted to the existing social care arrangements, to free up available resources, which were tied up in existing buildings and pre-paid services and to allow people to use them flexibly and creatively (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009, p. 77). The aim of personal budgets was to shift power to service users by adaptation to the way of allocating resources, controlling and using the support (Routledge and Porter, 2008). At the same time the government was facing challenges such as aging population, care within the family becoming less an option, more diverse communities, higher expectation form the service as well as continuing desire to retain by people control over their lives as much as possible, including risk management (DH, 2005; HM Government, 2007). Older adults are the largest group of recipients of social care with more than a one million in 2006 (Leadbeater et al., 2008). The number of people of state pensionable age is gradually increasing with twelve million in mid-2009 (ONS, 2010). Some of the above factors have been a drive for governments increasing interest in a personalised system as a way of saving cost in already constrained budget (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). From 2005, numerous documents such as Independence, Well-Being and Choice, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services, Opportunity Age and Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People, Transfo rming Social Care stated governments support and shift towards personalisation (Routledge and Porter, 2008). In 2007, The Putting People First concordat informs about reforms to transform the system, based on  £522 million Social Care Reform Grant, to include service users and carers at every step of organising care (HM Government, 2007). Although the government states the way forward, it gives little explanation what it will mean for the front-line practitioners, for their roles and tasks required under new arrangements (Lymbery and Postle, 2010). It states the time has now come to build on best practice and replace paternalistic, reactive care of variable quality with a mainstream system focussed on prevention, early intervention, enablement, and high quality personally tailored services (HM Government, 2007, p 2). The Putting People First concordat (2007, p. 3) also says about more active role of agencies, emphasises greater role of self-assessment, therefore giving social workers more time for support, providing information, brokerage and advocacy. It also underlines importance of person centred planning, self directed support as well as personal budgets being for everyone. Glasby and Littlechild (2009, p. 75) define personal budget as: being clear with the person at the start how much money is available to meet their needs, then allowing them maximum choice over how this money is spent on their behalf and over how much control they want over the money itself. The recently published, in 2009, Working to Put People First: The Strategy for the Adult Social Care Workforce in England states a bit clearer roles and tasks of front-line staff under new arrangements and recognises social workers role as a central in delivering personalised service. Social workers play a key role in early intervention, promoting inclusion and developing social capital as well as safeguarding adults in vulnerable circumstances. They are skilled at identifying models of intervention, some therapeutic, some task centred and working through with people the outcomes to be achieved. They also undertake navigator and brokerage roles as well as supporting self-assessment (DH, 2009, p. 34). However, Lymbery and Postle (2010) points out that the strategy does not explain who will be undertaking specified roles and tasks, we have the right people doing the right roles and not using highly skilled workers for lower skilled tasks (DH, 2009, p. 33), and therefore the situation from community care reforms replicates where introduction of care manager denied the unique position of social worker. On the other hand, Glasby and Littlechild (2009) point out that the change of the social workers role from focusing on assessment to support planning and review will give more chances to work in partnership with service users to support them, what was the reason for many to come to the social care profession. Implementation There is an agreement that social workers motivation and support are crucial for the success of personalisation and based on their education and experience they are best-placed to fulfil roles and tasks in the new arrangements (Tyson et al. 2010; Samuel, 2010). Results from Community Care and Unison this year survey regarding impact of personalisation on social workers reviled that 88% of respondents had recognised some impact on their job, with 40% saying it had been positive and 29% negative (Samuel, 2010). Two years ago in similar survey, negative impact of personalisation claimed only 18% of respondents (Samuel, 2010). One of the most important evaluation of personalised budgets undertaken by IBSEN (2008) indicates that practitioners attitude towards the new system was based on the positive experiences of service users, strong leadership from managers or implementation team. On the other hand, hindrance for positive experience included high workloads, poor information and trainin g about IBs, and the lack of clarity about detailed processes as new systems were put into place (Glendinning et at., 2008, p.22). The IBSEN study also indicates that inclusion of front-line practitioners in developing documentation and processes was key factor for successful implementation. The limitations of the IBSEN study are that it have been conducted in very tight timescales and with continues policy changes and delays, however it is a crucial research on the early impact of individual budgets (Glasby and Littlechild, 2009). My research study will examine in depth the experiences of front-line practitioners of implementation of the personalisation and will also look at their positive and negative drivers. Bureaucracy The Community Care survey has found that two-thirds of respondents experience increase in bureaucracy as a result of transformation (Samuel, 2010). There has been an indication in the IBSEN study, two years earlier, that completing assessment and other office based duties was time consuming, however this increase was not significant. Although increased bureaucracy was an effect of more administrative approach of care management after community care reforms (Weinberg et al., 2003), it has been pointed out by Richard Jones, president of the ADASS, that some councils had over-complicated processes such as self-assessment and support planning (Samuel, 2010a). My research will provide in depth insight of the administrative role of the front-line practitioner in current system. Processes The social workers experiences varied significantly regarding assessment process based on self-assessment, with some seeing it as a complete transformation, where for others it was a move towards further development of practice (Glendinning et al., 2008). At the beginning working in dual assessment systems has been recognised as a major challenge (Glendinning et al., 2008). Moreover, the view of social workers from Community Care survey match with opinion form IBSEN study that self-assessment was not giving complete picture of a persons needs, with no focus on risk, issues regarding carers and their needs, and putting at risk social workers skills and professionalism (Glendinning et al., 2008; Samuel, 2010). The in Control report of the Second Phase (Hatton et al., 2008) sees self-assessment approach as the way to reduce the process and at the same time social workers time on this task. On the other hand, Lymbery and Postle (2010, p. 11) point out that assessment is at the heart of w hat social workers do and that not all service users have a ability and knowledge to recognise their needs and then to find appropriate ways to address these needs. Front-line practitioners reported that self-assessment usually has been undertaken with support from a family member or a friend, which has been seen as essential support (Glendinning et al., 2008). It can be seen as a potential ground for conflict of interest between service users and carers with examples such as need for respite care or risk within home setting (Lymbery and Postle, 2010). On the positive side, some front-line practitioners indicated that self-assessment shows that peoples views were taken seriously and as having the potential to generate positive discussions about needs and outcomes (Glendinning et al., 2008, p. 147). The IBSEN study recognises that social workers involvement in this process in work with older adults may be of more importance. Older people become more isolated, have less available supp ort from family, they tend to under-assess their own needs as well as do not perceive their behaviour as creating risk (Glendinning et al., 2008, p. 147). CSCI (2009, p. 137) back up above points regarding assessment stating that In practice, and particularly for people with complex needs, self-assessment entailed intensive support from care managers, more demanding of staff time and skills than traditional professional assessment. However, Community Care survey (2010) showed that two-third of social workers did not have enough time with service user to support self-assessment. In support planning process, exploring options, co-ordination, building confidence and empowering service users and carers were the main roles and tasks mentioned by care co-ordinators (Glendinning et al., 2008, p. 147). Many co-ordinators taking part in IBSEN study admitted that the focus on outcomes had an important impact on their practice. Some participants said that one of their roles was to translate the information given by service user in order to produce a meaningful plan. One of the key issues, raised by practitioners, was confusion whether allocated monies based on for example personal care needs could be used flexibly to purchase other services. Further source of confusion and frustration for front-line staff as well as service users and carers, reported in the IBSEN study, was regarding the material good allowed to be purchased and whether family member could be paid for provided support. Specifically regarding older adults, the issue has been raised that their needs ten d to change much faster, therefore a support plan may be out of date within a couple of months (CSCI, 2009, p. 140). In relation to support planning, the Resource Allocation System (RAS) has been perceived by front-line staff as purely mathematical, easy to use tool, on the other hand, some practitioners said that such mechanical approach to allocation of resources cannot fairly and accurately distribute resources due to complexity of service users needs and circumstances (Glendinning et al., 2008). This research will look at the experiences of front-line staff regarding assessment process, support planning as well as resource allocation in new arrangements. Risk management In CSCI report (2008) there is indication that the new arrangements for social care might increase the level of risk for service users. This issue arise especially where service user with complex needs is involved, as he/she might not be able to show distress (CSCI, 2008). Lymbery and Postle (2010) state that critical in terms of safeguarding in new arrangements is to retain professional engagement with service user. The IBSEN study states that giving service users more responsibilities and therefore more risk was in personalisation philosophy from the very beginning and also recognises that it is a difficult shift for care co-ordinators (Glendinning et al., 2008). Front-line staff had concerns that money could be spend inappropriately by service users, that they might not have appropriate skills and experience to employ PAs, that PAs had proper training to provide for example personal care tasks in safe and effective way (Glendinning et al., 2008). Contrary to that, in Control Third Phase evaluation (2010, p. 73) evidence suggests that people feel and are safer when they are In Control of their support and their money and they can determine what happens around them on a day-to-day basis. In in Control study 60% of professionals said that there was no change in risk management from the start of Personal Budgets (Tyson et al., 2010). On the other hand, Community Care survey (Lombard, 2010) found that 37% of social workers do not know what to do when care arranged by service user puts him/her at risk. My research project will examine in depth the view of front-line staff regarding risk assessment and implication, if any, of shifting more responsibilities to service users. Training, knowledge and skills The IBSEN study found out that most of the care co-ordinators had training provided before implementation of the individual budgets, however there was some who did not have any before undertaking first IB case (Glendinning et al., 2008). The participants in the IBSEN study said that training was focused more on the idea and philosophy behind individual budgets, and did not concentrate enough on processes (Glendinning et al., 2008). Successful in terms of informal training were recognised interactive activities such as team meetings, meeting with IB team workers and development officers and peer support development groups (Glendinning et al., 2008; Lombard, 2010). The Community Care survey on personalisation shows that there are significant knowledge gaps amongst social workers (Lombard, 2010). 63% of respondents admitted the need for brokerage skills, with only 31% stating that they have them. An understanding of the key terms and overall knowledge about personalisation has improved (57%), however 14% of social workers still understand little or nothing about individual and personal budgets (Lombard, 2010). Only 49% of practitioners said that they feel they have enough knowledge about employing personal assistant (Lombard, 2010). My research will examine the experiences of front-line practitioners regarding received training as well as subjective opinion about skill gaps in their practice. Mindset, culture The need for cultural shift and change of mindset of service users and practitioners has been recognised in several publications as one of the most important issues (Glendinning et al., 2008; CSCI, 2009; DH, 2010). The CSCI report (2009) shows that it was not expected from older adults that they will appreciate additional responsibilities in managing individual/personal budgets, however in some sites more older people decided to have Direct Payment and to manage the money by themselves. In addition, in Control report (2010, p. 135 136) shows that by the end of 2009 30.000 people were having Personal Budgets across 75 local authorities with older people being the largest group of receivers (53%). The in Control evaluation was based on online data voluntarily shared by local authorities, however there was no requirement on authorities to share data as well as not all authorities included breakdown by social care group, therefore the information from this report does not show an accura te national picture (Tyson et al., 2010). The Personal Budgets for older people making it happen guidance (2010) emphasises importance of sharing successful stories and cases in order to challenge front-line practitioners stereotypes and increase positive attitude towards older people as a recipients of personal budgets. Resources In this year Community Care survey 36% of respondents said that resources have been the biggest barrier for successful implementation of personalisation. Moreover, based on the information about planned cuts in public sector by the current government, 82% of respondents said that this will slow down the progress of personalisation (Samuel, 2010). It has been pointed out in several publications (Glendinning, 2008; Carr and Robbins, 2009; Samuel, 2010) that front-line practitioners using only public resources face significant challenges in exercising choice, control and independence of service user and his/her own creativity. It is well pictured in this quote this is more difficult when a budget is strictly for personal care that is essential the equivalent of 30 minutes washing and dressing a day is not going to allow much creativity (Fighting Monsters, 2010). Social workers under new arrangements will still be responsible for control expenditure with funding targeted at those most i n need (HM Government, 2008, p.9) what clashes with one of the key principle Putting People First which is prevention and early intervention (Lymbery and Postle, 2010). This research project will examine in depth the view of front-line staff about using of existing social care resources in order to fulfil policies principles and meet older adults needs. Services In the CSCI report (2009) it has been emphasised that to allow people to exercise choice and control and to feel independent, together with transformation of the system, the existing services need reconfiguration. At the moment services are limited and insufficiently flexible, where day services are traditional and predominantly based in buildings, and where block contracting arrangements limit the range of services on offer (CSCI, 2009, p. 148). The Community Care survey (2010) found out that 56% social workers have noticed that services such as day centres are being closed down on the assumption that using personal budgets will mean reduced use of such services. Services, especially from local authority, will have to by attractive, flexible to needs, affordable, price competitive, sustainable, well structured and managed to meet service users needs (Tyson et al., 2010). My research will examine social workers experiences of changes in structure of services for older adults with the emphasise on increasing their choice, control and independence.

Gulivers Travels Part Two :: Free Essays

After only a brief stay with his family, Gulliver returns to the sea as a surgeon. The ship is blown off course by a storm in the Pacific Ocean east of Japan and a shore party in an unknown country abandons Gulliver. He finds himself in Brobdingnag where the inhabitants are sixty feet tall. After being captured and exhibited for money by a farmer, Gulliver becomes a prized possession of the royal court. One of the two main story lines in his part is Gulliver's many misadventures due to his size; menaced by wasps, a frog, birds, a monkey, and a jealous court dwarf. The other thread centers on Gulliver's interviews with the King, who questions him about all aspects of the rest of the world. Gulliver recounts these discussions to show the King's "narrow" understanding but instead proves the King's judgment to be very sharp. After hearing the state of affairs in Europe, he concludes we are a "Race of little odious Vermin." Gulliver escapes when an eagle carries away his box and drops him into the sea where he is rescued by an English ship and returned home. Some very important themes that the reader may have picked up on can be very helpful. One of these themes is that no matter How small something is, it is not inferior. Gulliver stayed with the Lilliputians for a very long time. The fact that they were only six Inches tall did not mean that he could do anything he wanted around or to them. Another theme that the reader should have got is that no matter how large something is; it still has to have a small amount of brains. The giants in the second part were very tall, but nowhere did the book say that they were very smart. There was a large amount of satire to be observed in this section of the novel.

Robert Browning Poems: My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover Essay

Robert Browning is one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian age. His two poems I am working from, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover", are just samples of his eminent work. Browning wrote a range of monologues when living in Italy with his wife, Elizabeth Barret. Dramatic monologues are the basis of the essay. I will discuss whether (or not) each poem "creates a character who reveals himself in what he has to say". My Last Duchess is a monologue spoken by the Duke. He talks about his relationship with his recently deceased wife. Through the words of the poem, he reveals the true demise of the Duchess and the reader is shown the Duke's feelings and opinions of this woman. Porphyria's Lover is also about the death of a woman. It involves a possessive lover who wishes to enshrine a moment of love. Though his method is everything but normal. Both poems are filled with rhyming couplets, however with the technique of enjambment, they are almost undetectable. This is a clever and subtle insinuation to the murderous deed in hand. I would first like to comment on the titles of both poems. My Last Duchess can give many hints to what the poem regards. The word 'My' can symbolise the Duke's wish to own the Duchess and using "My" creates this image. "Last" may make the reader think that she is the latest in a long line of wives, or that she is the last wife once and for all. Porphyria's Lover is left unnamed. Using 'Duchess' the reader can imagine that the male character is a Duke and therefore he has a title and a label. The 'Lover' is anonymous; he has no name, but uses 'Porphyria' to describe himself. This makes him very... ...anonymous Lover is possessively insane. He is driven only by his love for Porphyria. He feels restrained by society and feels that the moment she declares she is his; he cannot let it slip away. Time is against him and he had to find some way of keeping her perfectly preserved and unchanged. The Lover also reveals his rebellion against religion and God, thinking that God will not condemn him, as his deed was not wrong. I prefer Porphyria's Lover to My Last Duchess, as the Duke is terribly arrogant and pedantic. The Lover, I believe, truly loved Porphyria with all his heart, though it is baffling why he felt death was the only option. Whereas the Duke, did not love his wife but saw her as a possession to show off in front of people. The painting must surely work the way he wants it, as it is another thing to show off.

What the Women Want Essay -- Health Policy, Aboriginal Women

What the women want Research done by Browne & Fiske (2001) describes aboriginal women’s’ positive experiences with the health care system and interactions. For example, one woman stated that being able to be involved in her care and sharing information and knowledge led her to develop a rapport with her physician. She was given the time to ask questions and felt welcome. Caring gestures towards the patients also made the women feel as though they were important. Presencing themselves after shifts were over were described as going above and beyond by the women and they were appreciative while going through something emotionally distressing. The women also felt validated when their cultural healing practices were welcomed and discussed in conjunction with western medicine. Forming long term positive relationships with health care providers enhanced the women’s well being and overall health care experience. All of these testimonies of experiences narrowed the social gap between health care provider and patient. This enabled a healthy relationship in which trust and respect were mutually exchanged. Native Liaison Workers In a report done by Browne and Fiske (2008) entitled Paradoxes and Contradictions in Health Policy reform, women who participated in a study expressed the desire to have access to Native Liaison workers. More hospitals would benefit from adopting professional roles such as the Native Liaison worker. Native Liaison workers work to interpret, advocate and bridge the gaps between health care professionals and aboriginal patients. This role has been quite significant in maintaining cultural sensitivity amongst the power imbalances that may take place within health care settings. The Native Liaison workers help both th... ...post colonial concerns into praxis, pushing beyond culturalist approaches to policy† (Browne & Smye, 2002). According to Richardson, Williams, Finlay & Farell (2009) there are three concepts that can be used to incorporate cultural safety into their practice and these are: self recognition, situational assessment, and a solution focus. Nurses need to self reflect and identify their own cultural position and identify biases that may affect their daily practice. By undergoing this process, nurses can then identify what constitutes cultural risk. Next, by assessing each situation, potential outcomes can be foreseen that may or may not be culturally safe practice. Nurses who are solution focused can serve as role models for patients, colleagues and the community at large. Communication, reflection and leadership skills are essentials of culturally safe practice.

Resuming Internationalization at Starbucks Essay

Starbucks is the premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. The first Starbucks store was opened in Seattle in 1971. The current CEO, Howard Schultz, joined the company in 1982 and decided bringing the Italian coffee-drinking culture to the United States. In 1992, the company went public. In 1996, with the home market becoming increasingly saturated, Starbucks opened the first outlet in the Far East. Ever since, the company has pursued a relentless international expansion. By 2012, Starbucks had achieved a global reach of 18,066 stores in 62 countries. With revenues grew on average 30 per cent per year, Starbucks experienced substantial growth from $160 million in 1993 to $10 billion in 2009. In 2007, Starbucks had a presence in 56 countries through approximately 17,000 stores. However, Starbucks’ relentless march had been slowed by increasingly intense competition and rising coffee bean prices between 2007 and 2009. After 2007, demand for Starbucks’ products was badly hit by the global economic recession. At the end of fiscal 2009, nearly all of the approximately 800 US Company-operated stores, 61 stores in Australia and 41 Company-operated stores in other International markets had been closed. Approximately 70 per cent of the stores that were closed had been open for fewer than 3 years. In the third quarter of 2009, The company achieved the first profit since the first quarter of 2008 by the self-save closure. Finally, CEO Schultz made Starbucks backed to the growth trend. But as the criticism the company had receiv ed on a number of fronts, he needed to decide again how to approach international markets. Industry Analysis The 5 forces approach is used in this part and the aim of this analysis is determining the attractiveness of the industry and understanding factors driving past, current and forecast industry profitability. Barriers to Entry: A cup of coffee could be served from many kinds of sources, such as independent operated coffee shops, quick-service restaurant, specialty coffee shops, and international retailers. Considering different types of independent operated coffee shops, the barriers of this industry is not that high. However, being one of recognized and respected band in this industry needs standard quality and high level of capital to support. In this case,  the barriers to entry are medium. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The coffee beans are mainly plant in Latin America, East Africa and South Asia. Exporters collect coffee beans which are already roasted from farmers and trade with retailers all over the world. Although there are plenty of suppliers in the industry, with the increasing consumption globally and the decreasing production in the large coffee producing countries, the average wholesale price for coffee had increased twofold between 2001 and 2010. The suppliers still keep strong power on bargaining. Bargaining Power of Buyers: The customer have lots of choices even though there will be a variety of request on flavor for different people. They also have low switching cost because of many competitors and brands in the market. Product differences are small and price sensitivity is high. All of these reasons give consumers strong bargaining power. Threat of Substitutes: There are a number of substitutes in the market to buyers. Juice, Tea and other beverages could be another choice for people. There are also many kinds of coffee related products recognized by different making process. In some regions which coffee drinking is not the main habit in daily life. For example in China, Tea obtains considerate market shares in beverage market. Competitive Rivalry: Coffee industry possesses intense competition. The differentiation of products between different entities is low and easy to replicate. Worldwide demand of coffee is growing. More than 500 billion cups of coffee were being consumed yearly. Meanwhile, hundreds of exist competitors led to low switching cost of customers. Starbucks roast 4 hundred million pounds coffee annually. It has high quality requirement on coffee beans. In that case, the company cultivates the stable relationship with its own suppliers. So Starbucks has high cost on switching suppliers. However , Starbucks highlights and chases the experience that their customers can obtain in coffeehouse. The company positions itself as the third place besides workplace and home. This high level of experience and also good quality coffee raise the switching cost of customers and reduce the power of bargaining. SWOT Analysis Strength Starbucks stands one of the most recognized and respected brands in the world. It has the largest chain stores, which is operating approximately 18,000 stores in 62 countries. Besides high coffee’s quality, the strongest advantage of the company is the experience it delivers to the customers. Starbucks is not just passionate purveyors of coffee, but everything else that goes with a full and rewarding coffeehouse experience. The company also provides well offers to employees compared with other competitors in the industry. Weaknesses Starbucks has high price in the market based on its quality and so-called experience. The main was the high cost of the products. It contains the rent of the stores where located in very popular districts. The company offers good paid to their employees. And also, it is influenced by the coffee beans’ price. Starbucks’ main target consumers are well educated white collars. So it is influenced by the cycle of economy to some extent. Opportunities About 79% of the revenue comes from the company-operated stores, which means Starbucks has low levels of diversification. The company need to develop more kinds of products to meet different demand. There are great opportunities in local market, the company could focus on the expansion to emerging economies. The smart phone and moving technology is developing really fast. From online promotion to offline sails, new form of sail brings the company more opportunities. Threats Local competitors could be the direct threat to Starbucks on internationalization. The model and the style is easy to be replicated by new entrants. High cost is the weakness of Starbucks and also brings threats compared with other competitors. The saturated demand in some market needs to be considered carefully in future strategy. SWOT Analysis of StarbucksStrength -Good reputation -Largest chain stores -Quality and experience -Well employees treatmentWeaknesses -High price -High cost -Influenced by economy Opportunities -Diversification -Expansion on emerging -Online to Offline model -Chain stores could promote the diversification -New technology such as App would be used widely -Good financial statement provide capital on emerging -Reduce the influence by diversification and emerging -New model could enhance sails and also get lower on the price Threats -Competitors in local market -Be replicated -Rising price of the cost -Saturated market-Good reputation has strong competitive power in new market -Hard to be replicated -Reliable loyalty of customers -High cost could bring the competitors more opportunities -Close stores after crisis in saturated market Internationalization Company-operated versus licensed stores Starbucks set the mix form of company-operated and licensed stores in a given market. About more than 70% revenue is generated from company-operated stores. See the below chart. Actually, Starbucks could be considered has both forms of chain and franchise stores. The chain stores consist its main profit annually. Compared with Mcdonald’s, the very success in franchise model worldwide, Starbucks has its own advantages on internationalization. The company has the absolute dominate right to decide every aspects of a new store. It contains the decoration style, location picking, training new employees and so on. This form could fully maintain the value and culture of a company. To Starbucks, the experience of the customers and the spirit are the target and  the core value of their products. Its mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit. Company-operated store is the right way which could assure that the value will be delivered completely. After repurchased the shares of some stores in some first level cities in the world, Starbucks shown its insist in the quality on the expansion road. However, this form costs more higher than franchise. Starbucks need to decide main issues such as the store’s design respectively. The most important is, without local partner, the company will hardly know and understand the real demand and then provide the suitable service. These real problems could not be ignored on internationalization. Local Competition After entering the new market, what is waiting for Starbucks is the intense local competition. Starbucks has to face new problems and balance the profits and its belief in coffee. Price The Price Discrimination in different countries was questioned by media. Starbucks was doubted on the reasonability of price. High price compared to the other coffee retailers let Starbucks to be luxury products in some developing countries. High cost is the main reason of the price. Sails to some extent rely on the growth of economy. This brings more chances to local competitors. Local Demand Coffee is not the irreplaceable drink in people’s daily life in some countries although the consumption of coffee is increasing annually. This situation requires Starbucks obtain brilliant ability on innovation and diversification on products. Providing tea products and acquiring tea producer’s company is the necessary strategy in featured markets. Competitors Starbucks needs to compete with local competitors and international retailers after entering the new market. For example, Mcdonald’s possesses stable relationship with local partners based on its stores and also has long time experience than the others. The wide spread network and well understanding to the local market provide McCafe a perfect stage. The local competitors also have obvious advantages on cost and distribution. Conclusion After experienced the stores closure issue, Starbucks was doubted and received criticism for going and expanding too fast. Actually, Starbucks did not stop its pace on internationalization. According to the numbers provided by the company in 2009, there are about 800 US. company-operated stores were closed out of 1000 planned closure globally. The measurement of Starbucks could be considered as an adjustment which emphasized on the demand saturated market. Its global expansion is still going on especially in the developing market which obtains tremendous potential demand such as China. However, on the road of expansion worldwide, Starbucks still has variety of problem which need to deal with. No matter how its strategy is adjusted, Starbucks should maintain its quality and experience to their customers. Their belief on coffee is the only sustainable way to the future. Reference Resuming Internationalization at Starbucks; Richard Ivy School of Business, The University of Western Ontario Starbucks’ Annual Reports of 2012

Business: It’s Nature and Environment Essay

Offering a unique look at interior design, Materials and Components of Interior Architecture, Seventh Edition fully covers the nonstructural materials available to interior designers. With an eye on the environment, it provides a firm understanding of the products, properties, and uses of all materials, from floors, walls and ceilings to installation, and recycling. Going beyond paint and carpet, it explores over 27 different floorings and devotes separate chapters to kitchens and baths. Filled with  the latest information provided directly from the suppliers, it helps readers think knowledgably and creatively about the â€Å"nuts and bolts† of interior design—both in terms of structure and style. With an eye on the environment, it provides a firm understanding of the products, properties, and uses of all materials, covering everything from floors, walls and ceiling to installation, and recycling. Progressing from the ground up—literally—it looks beyond the more decorative aspects of design to study the properties and uses of both finishing materials in the design field and structural materials in the architectural field. For interior designers and specifiers. Book Description The fourth edition of STRATEGIC LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT is an excellent balance of theory and practical application and continues to include state-of-the-art logistics information and technology. This is one of the few books to have a view of logistics from a marketing perspective. In  addition, it integrates the areas of logistics, marketing, finance, accounting, technology and manufacturing. Extensive coverage of customer satisfaction, global issues, and accounting/finance issues are incorporated throughout the text as well as in separate chapters. Examples of â€Å"real world† illustrations of concepts are also included in each chapter. This book has been extensively revised and updated in the areas of technology, global coverage, and transportation. From the Author A number of important topics not covered in many other logistics texts, or covered only superficially, are given significant treatment in this book, including: supply chain management, measuring and selling the value of logistics, order processing and management information systems; e-commerce and the Internet; reverse logistics and packaging; financial control of logistics performance; logistics organizations; and global logistics. Our goal in covering these topics in addition to the traditional activities is to provide readers with a grasp of the total picture of logistics within the context of supply chain management processes. There are a number of worthwhile improvements in the fourth edition. We have included many more references and examples from general business and other literature because of the impact of logistics on a variety of business processes. This edition covers the academic and trade literature in the area of logistics extensively, and includes the most up-to-date information and examples. Readers will notice the significant number of citations from the year 2000. We have retained those elements that are â€Å"timeless† and those that made the previous editions successful. About the Author James R. Stock  is Professor of Marketing and Logistics at the College of Business Administration, University of South Florida. Dr. Stock held previous faculty appointments at Michigan State University, University of Oklahoma, and the University of Notre Dame. From 1986 to 1988 he held the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Logistics Management, School of Systems and Logistics, at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson  Air Force Base. Dr. Stock is the author or co-author of over 90 publications including books, monographs, articles, and proceedings papers. He is author of Development and Implementation of Reverse Logistics Programs and Reverse Logistics; co-author of Distribution Consultants: A Managerial Guide to Their Identification, Selection, and Use; and co-author of Fundamentals of Logistics Management. He currently serves as editor of the International journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management. He received the Armitage Medal (1988) f! rom the SOLE—The International Society of Logistics in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the discipline. His areas of expertise include reverse logistics, supply chain management, and the marketing-logistics interface. He has lectured on various logistics topics throughout Europe and Africa. Dr. Stock holds BS and MBA degrees from the University of Miami (Florida) and the Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Douglas M. Lambert  is the the Raymond E. Mason Professor of Transportation and Logistics and Director of The Global Supply Chain Forum, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. He is also the Prime F. Osborn III Eminent Scholar Chair in Transportation, Professor of Marketing and Logistics, and Director of The International Center for Competitive Excellence at the College of Business Administrati on, University of North Florida. From 1983 to 1985 he was PepsiCo Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University. Dr. Lambert has served as a faculty member for over 500 executive development programs in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia and he has given more than 100 presentations to professional associations around the world. He is the author of The Development of an Inventory Costing Methodology, The Distribution Channels Decision, The Product Abandonment Decision and co-author of Management in Marketing Channels, Fundamentals of Logistics Management, Str! ategic Logistics Management, and Supply Chain Directions for a New North America. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications. In 1986 Dr. Lambert received the Council of Logistics Management’s Distinguished Service Award, â€Å"the highest honor that can be bestowed on an individual for achievement in the physical distribution/logistics industry,† for his contributions to logistics management and has also received CLM’s Founders Award (1997) and Doctoral  Research Grant (1975). He holds an honors BA and MBA from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Dr. Lambert is co-editor of The International Journal of Logistics Management.