Friday, December 27, 2019

What Is Les DOM-TOM

Les DOM-TOM, pronounced duhm-tuhm, is actually a French  acronym, and it stands for  Dà ©partements doutre-mer, Territoires doutre-mer, which are French overseas departments and territories. An alternate spelling is D.O.M.-T.O.M. These department and territories include: ClippertonFrench Southern and Antarctic Lands  French PolynesiaFrench GuianaGuadeloupeMartinique  Mayotte  New Caledonia  Saint-MartinSaint-Barthà ©lemySaint Pierre and Miquelon  Reunion island  Wallis and Futuna   Examples Grà ¢ce à   Aimà © Cà ©saire, la France a crà ©Ãƒ © les DOM-TOM / Thanks to Aimà © Cà ©saire, France created its overseas departments and territories.Les citoyens des DOM sont des citoyens de la France / Citizens in the overseas departments are citizens of France.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Essay on Bi polar disorder - 1550 Words

Bipolar affective disorder has been a mystery since the 16th century. History has shown that this disorder can appear in almost anyone. Even the great painter Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have had bipolar disorder. It is clear that in our society many people live with bipolar disorder, however, despite the amount of people suffering from it, we are still waiting for explanations for the causes and cure. The one fact of which we are aware is that bipolar disorder severely undermines its victims ability to obtain and maintain social and occupational success. Because bipolar disorder has such debilitating symptoms, it is important that we keep looking for explanations of its causes and for more ways to treat this disorder.†¦show more content†¦(Hopkins, 1994) Many times, bipolar patients report that the depression is longer and increased in frequency as the person ages. Often bipolar states and psychotic states are misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The onset of bipolar disorder usually occurs between the ages of 20 and 30 years of age, with a second peak in the mid-forties for women. A typical bipolar patient may experience eight to ten episodes in their lifetime. However, those who have rapid cycling may experience more episodes of mania and depression that follow each other without a period of remission. (Hollandsworth, 1990) nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The three stages of mania begin with hypomania, in which patients report that they are energetic, extroverted and assertive. Hypomania progresses into the transition that is marked by extreme loss of judgment. (Jamison, 1990) Often, euphoric grandiose characteristics are displayed, and paranoid or irritable characteristics begin. The third stage of mania is evident when the patient experiences paranoid delusions. Speech is generally rapid and hyperactive behavior sometimes turns into violence. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Sometimes both manic and depressive symptoms occur at the same time. This is called a mixed episode. Those affected are at special risk because there is a combination of hopelessness, agitation, and anxiety that make them feel like they quot;could jump out of their skin.quot; Up to fifty percent of allShow MoreRelatedDescription Of Bi Polar Disorder Essay1592 Words   |  7 Pagesof Bi-Polar Disorder Pat Solitano has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. He suffers from unwanted thoughts, aggressive outburst, delusions and mood swings. In many scenes Pat is seen having irritability, and uncontrolled anger. He has become obsessed with running and exercise. He believes it is a way to impress his wife and restore his marriage. Pat has refused to take medication and believe positive thinking will help him overcome is illness. Pat’s formal DSM diagnosis would be Bi-polar DisorderRead MoreDifferent Forms Of Bi Polar Disorder855 Words   |  4 PagesThere are many forms of bi-polar disorder but to understand those forms we must know the definition of Bi-polar disorder. Bi-polar disorder, is also referred to as manic-depressive illness. It causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels and the ability to carry out day-to-day task. People go through ups and downs from time to time. Some also experience drastic change in mood. Scientist are always trying to study the cause for the disease. Practices have been linked back as far as theRead MoreThe Youth Health Issue Of Bi Polar Disorder1354 Words   |  6 Pages This essay will critically evaluate contemporary approaches that address the youth health issue of bi-polar disorder. It will first explain what bi-polar is, how it affects young people and how it is different from similar disorders. It will then explore contemporary approaches to treating and managing the disorder, going into detail on how effective each is how they are best used and if they can improve or be used in different ways. The approaches explored will not just be ones of medication, butRead MoreReflection Paper On Schizophrenia And Bi Polar Disorder954 Words   |  4 PagesReflection Paper on Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder Guest Speaker Overview I was highly interested in the topic of schizophrenia that the guest speaker gave her presentation on during our, The Helping Profession in Health Care Settings class. Debra Wuichet is a License Clinical Social Worker and is the Director of Social Services at the North Mississippi State Hospital. As the Director of the State Hospital her duties consist of intake assessments and exit planning for the patients. I haveRead MoreBi Polar Disorder (Psychological Disorders - Manic Depression)1947 Words   |  8 Pagesof bipolar or manic-depressive disorders have been around since the 16-century and affect little more than 2% of the population in both sexes, all races, and all parts of the world (Harmon 3). Researchers think that the cause is genetic, but it is still unknown. The one fact of which we are painfully aware of is that bipolar disorder severely undermines its victims ability to obtain and maintain social and occupational success. Because the symptoms of bipolar disorder are so debilitation, it is crucialRead MoreEssay about Bi-polar Disorder - How I live with it839 Words   |  4 PagesI had been on several different combinations of medications over the years. None of them really seemed to help. Doctors said that my brain wasn’t producing enough seratonin. Recently, the first genetic defect specifically associated with bipolar disorder was identified. The abnormality occurs in a gene known as human serotonin (5-HT) transporter gene (hSERT). http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1680.50547 The medications that finally seemed to work were Depakote, Clonzapaem, and Pamelor. The newerRead MoreA Polar And Schizophreni Analyzing The Misinformation About Mental Illness1233 Words   |  5 Pages Bi-Polar and Schizophrenia; Analyzing the Misinformation About Mental Illness in the Media and Movies Sarah Jabro Abnormal Psychology 336 October 1st, 2015 Clinical diagnoses of Bipolar disorder, (BP) and schizophrenia (SCH) symptoms that are related to mental illness have increased dramatically within the last several years, and treatment is becoming more specialized. But, unless you study these disorders, or have some degree in psychology, the basis of your knowledgeRead MoreBenefits And Side Effects Of His Current Medication1032 Words   |  5 Pages1. What symptoms might Stan express given that he is Bi-polar and what are the benefits/side effects of his current medication? Per Stan explanation, he experienced the following symptoms and emotions from his bipolar diagnosis; anxiety, feeling alone, scared, isolated, and hopeless, feeling great about himself and then getting depressed. Stan also have a drinking problem that may contribute to mood changes. General phobias of certain peoples, social events and places. Stan grew up in a dysfunctionRead MoreSilver Linings Playbook, An American Romantic Comedy Drama Film Directed By David O. Russell1662 Words   |  7 Pagesof Pat through the struggle with his mental disorder. However, since this is a product of Hollywood, there are still some details that have been distorted with real life in order to please the viewer’s expectations in terms of feeling and emotion. In Silver Linings Playbook, we learn about the life of a man dealing with bi-polar disorder, how it effects his life and the symptoms, and use the movie as a comparison to what we have learned about the disorder itself. The movie started with Pat SolatanoRead MoreSelf Efficacy, Self Esteem, And Social Wellness Essay1028 Words   |  5 Pageswith unhealthy minds cannot do things like that. They either have difficulty trying to fix up their minds or have social anxiety that make them have panic attacks. People with unhealthy minds that struggle with depression, addictions and eating disorders may not believe that they have much in common. But at the source of many mental health issues are thoughts and beliefs that affect the individual’s self-conscience. This is what unhealthy minded people struggle with, unlike the healthy mind people

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Concerned With Management And Leadership †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Concerned With Management And Leadership? Answer: Introduction The current topic is concerned with the management and leadership within the organization BBQfun, which is considered as the case study here. The topic allows for developing an operational plan to respond to business by conducting research on the resource requirements, management of relationship with stakeholders, setting up of performance indicators, create a contingency plan and lastly to gain approval according to the requirements of the organization. The operational plan has been developed by BBQfun to define the various business activities that are needed to be managed for supporting the strategic objectives and plan for proper upper management (Austin 2012). BBQfun scenario The mission of the organization is to provide the customers with good quality outdoor lifestyle products of greater value and better customer services to people to fulfill their needs and expectations. The vision of the company is to remain successful within the business environment and emerge as a leading and reputed retailer in the next five years. The values offered include good quality products and services, better customers services and promoting safety, teamwork, innovation and improvements on a continuous basis (Burgoyne 2012). Summary of BBQfun operational environment Legislative and regulatory context The legislative and regulatory policies include Work Health and Safety Act 2011, Privacy Act, Competition and consumer Act, Fair Work Act, etc. Work Health and safety Act is followed to ensure that proper health and safety measures are maintained within the workplace of BBQfun while the Privacy and Competition and Consumer Act have helped in keeping information secured and manage good trade practices to overcome competition within the business environment (Mujtaba 2013). BBQfun policies and procedures The Privacy Act has helped to keep the data and information of customers and employees secure and prevent any unauthorized access to the database as well. Anti-discrimination policy ensured preventing any form of discrimination based on race, religion, color or ethnicity even maintain good culture, peace and harmony within the workplace to allow for effective communication and teamwork (Boin, Stern and Sundelius 2016). role of an operational plan for implementing e-commerce strategy The e-commerce strategy implementation is part of the operational plan to manage buying of products online. This would also allow the company to manage the commercial transactions through use of internet with much more ease and convenience. It is important to update the website, maintain confidentiality, manage liability and enhance the website design for attracting more customers and increase sales revenue for BBQfun (Austin 2012). new operational plan BBQfun has developed an operational plan for defining the business activities and ensure that those support the strategic objectives to plan for future growth and success. The overall process of planning is focused on for developing an operational plan by keeping all the resources managed and allocated properly (Nahavandi 2016). This would accomplish the goal of promoting business online and generate more sales revenue. Resource requirements for implementing e-commerce strategy The financial resources are required to ensure that good quality raw materials and resources are supplied for the production of good quality BBQfun items to the customers. It is important to engage customers through marketing, establish a positive brand name and image, generate more sales and control costs (Bolman and Deal 2017). Development of an action plan physical resourcing For the implementation of e-commerce system, the resources essential include computer system, internet connection, a technically skilled and knowledgeable workforce, well-designed web site, proper telecommunication system and a good system to managing the transactions and payments done during the purchase of products and services of the company. The resources requirements are approved for ensuring that the organization promotes its products and services properly as well as promote business online with ease and effectiveness. Physical resourcing is done by protecting the IP rights, maintaining registered trademarks, managing patents and considering an IP insurance policy to develop measures for preventing disclosure and loss of important data (Burgoyne 2012). human resourcing To enhance the human resources efficiency, it is important for BBQfun to manage proper communication between the employees and managers and provide them with training sessions to improve their skills and knowledge. The human resources include customers services people, warehouse staffs, drivers and individuals who can deliver the products to the customers (Elloker et al. 2012). timelines and milestones Activities Timeline Development of policies and procedures 5 days Operational plan 10 days Key performance indicators 7 days Establishing e-commerce 15 days Management of resources 30 days Consultation and communication The major components of the website that are needed to be protected are e-commerce systems, search engines, design of the websites, databases where important data and records are kept related to the information of customers and sales orders placed. All these information must be consulted with individuals working within the organization before making a particular decision in business. Through consultation, the risks of online sales are reduced along with deterioration of customer service quality and misunderstanding among workers (Nahavandi 2016). The medium risks should be consulted as well to know the loss of IP ownership and not complying with the organizational standards and WHS legislations. Purpose Audience Methods Restructuring Store staff Face to face meetings or interviews Innovation Manager Implementing new technologies Management of resources HR manager Recruitment and selection processes Operational plan Manager Assess the organisational requirements E-commerce Technical staffs Use of coding, SDLC and other robust technical approaches Performance indicators for operational and financial targets The key performance indicators are used to measure the performances of the workers of the organization through operational measures and managerial measures. The operational performance indicator is measured with the help of determining of machineries and equipments used for the production while the number or percentage of performance reviews done by the managers of respective teams are examples of managerial performance indicator (Schoenly 2012). Risks of operational plan implementation and contingency plan development risk due to employee underperformance Due to the poor performances of employees, the customers services can deteriorate and even result in lesser organizational productivity and profit level (Boin, Stern and Sundelius 2016). risk related to intellectual property management Intellectual properties can be generated due to creativity including management of patents, trademarks and copyrights. The symbols and image used in commerce are needed to be managed as well. There could be violation of these intellectual properties and even lead to exposure of customer data and information. Other companies using the same patent, trademark or copyright can also lead to violation of intellectual property management (Shin et al. 2015). risk related to breach of health and safety compliance responsibilities The Health Care Act and Health and safety within workplace Act should be implemented properly to meet the requirements of the organization as well as ensure that every workers and the customers are kept safe and healthy from any kinds of harm or abuse within the organizational premises. The handling of equipments manually should be done properly to make sure that people were not subjected to any kinds of harm. A confined space is maintained and people with musculoskeletal disorders are provided with support and help for making them relax and enjoy during their stay at BBQfun (Austin 2012). Development of proposal proposed implementation of resourcing The financial, human and organization assets are considered as major resources for implementing the e-commerce strategy. Costs breakdown The costs are incurred at various operational levels of the organization such as nearly $350000 have been spent on plants and machineries, promotional costs and website development activities incurred $200,000 and cost for recruitment of new workers and training is more than $50,000. Store managers, leaders of teams, Gold Coast store manager also are paid wages that can rake up to $30,000. There could also be spending of money, nearly up to $50,000 for the management of office infrastructure. Thus, the total would be nearly $900,000. Benefits to organization Based on the financial projections, it could be understood that the company had a present value of initial investment up to $861000 and the profitability index was 1.39, which represented that the organization maintained a good financial status. approaches for developing KPIs There are various ways of developing KPIs like strategic approaches managed to answer the queries of customers and develop products and services according to their needs and preferences. The operational approaches needed to develop KPIs are management of customer service personnel and provide training to the staffs for enhancing their skills and expertise level (Bolman and Deal 2017). risks E-commerce strategy could bring issues like poor sales online, low quality customer service, loss of IP and IP ownership and not recruiting the most skilled and knowledgeable workers that might often lead to inaccurate website development and inability to attract customers. contingency planning A contingency plan is developed for deriving a good outcome that is somewhat different from the actual expected plan. The contingency plan is developed for risk management and is mainly devised by the business organizations or Government. Risk management practices are adopted by BBQfun to develop policies and practices and manage online business successfully. This could also prevent any kinds of internet fraud activities and maintain proper security and authentication of seers as well who login to the website to purchase the barbecue and outdoor lifestyle products of the company (Elloker et al. 2012). Approval by Operations General Manager The manager has approved all the resources needed to set up the e-commerce system and strategy and it showed that costs incurred at various levels of the organization have been broken down, key performance indicators have been identified along with the risks experienced and contingency plan to prevent those issues. The legislative policies including Privacy Act, Anti-discrimination and Health and safety at workplace have helped in maintaining a good culture and enable proper communication and teamwork within the organization as well. The e-commerce strategy is implemented with the help of managing web development agreement to create a long term vision and evaluate approaches to gain material ownership and IP rights. The human resources management included recruiting of new staffs within the workforce while the financial resources had been obtained with the management of organizational assets (Nahavandi 2016). The operational plan was created by developing strategic framework, make decisions and implement the budgetary procedures to ensure development of e-commerce strategy with ease and effectiveness. Conclusion The simulated business considered here was BBQfun for which the resource requirements were identified and then an operational plan had been developed. It had been done by consulting with the various stakeholders in business such as shareholders, customers, managers, employees and suppliers. The key performance indicators were identified as well along with management of risks and development of contingency plan to implement a successful e-commerce strategy at BBQfun, Australia. References Austin, D., 2012.Human services management: Organizational leadership in social work practice. Columbia University Press. Boin, A., Stern, E. and Sundelius, B., 2016.The politics of crisis management: Public leadership under pressure. Cambridge University Press. Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017.Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley Sons. Burgoyne, J., 2012. Management learning. InEncyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning(pp. 2090-2092). Springer US. Elloker, S., Olckers, P., Gilson, L. and Lehmann, U., 2012. Crises, routines and innovations: the complexities and possibilities of sub-district management: leadership and governance.South African Health Review, pp.161-73. Mujtaba, B.G., 2013.Managerial skills and practices for global leadership. ILEAD Academy. Nahavandi, A., 2016.The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson. Schoenly, L., 2012. Management and Leadership.Essentials of Correctional Nursing, p.327. Shin, Y., Sung, S.Y., Choi, J.N. and Kim, M.S., 2015. Top management ethical leadership and firm performance: Mediating role of ethical and procedural justice climate.Journal of Business Ethics,129(1), pp.43-57.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Women and Society free essay sample

Women and Society Tannen, Kingston, and Sandberg all provide insight on the subject of the cultural expectations American women face on a daily basis. Women have always been thought to be intellectually and physically inferior when in comparison to men. Throughout time, women’s potential was limited, as they were expected to be nothing more than housewives. Today, American women are powerful and intelligent, living up to their potential. Although women have come so far along, they still receive harsh views; their success, rather than being applauded, is criticized. New doors opened for women with opportunities in education, the work place, and even their social life. A great step forward for women was gaining the right to vote in 1920; empowering them as far as to feel the liberty to pursue more personal freedoms. Women begin engaging publicly in â€Å"male† activities, such as smoking and drinking. They worked toward attaining sexual freedom as well as equality in the work place. We will write a custom essay sample on Women and Society or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Skirt lengths went up, hair was cut, and the journey began for women’s success! The right to vote for American women it paved way for women leaders, such as Nancy Pelosi, who became the first female Speaker of the House. In the 1940s, as World War II played in the background, women took the jobs of the men gone at war. Their efforts during the war proved the misconception that women were incapable of manual labor. This was a significant because men realized that women were able to keep the country moving. In the article â€Å"His Politeness Is Her Powerlessness†, Tannen states that â€Å"women’s style is negatively evaluated† (9). Each culture has its own customs and beliefs on how women should behave. Often we find that men tend to speak straight forward and demanding, overpowering a woman’s soft voice. Since women are emotionally tied, they speak indirectly as a form of respect, or as others would consider it, playing it safe. But rather, men take this form of speech as â€Å"sneaky† and â€Å"covert† (3). In an article focused on Sheryl Sandberg, we find that women’s success is  viewed negatively. An experiment was led by the Columbia Business School and New York University professors where they gave the students a success story with two versions, in one story the person’s name was â€Å"Howard† and in the other the person’s name was â€Å"Heidi†. The results were that ‘Howard came across as a more appealing colleague† and on the other hand, ‘Heidi was seen as selfish’ (11). While males are recognized as being â€Å"assertive† and â€Å"taking leadership†, females are simply seen as â€Å"bossy† (9). As a female, I am very proud of how far women have come along, not letting themselves get held back. Women have surpassed the â€Å"standards† a woman had, such as to be nothing more than a housewife. Women have proven that they can perform any task men can. Today’s American women are powerful and intelligent, though dealing with constant negativity. Women lack confidence, therefore allowing the put-downs to continue. Accepting their compliments would help gain the confidence to match their power and potential.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

How To Avoid Writer Burnout When Its Your Day Job

How To Avoid Writer Burnout When Its Your Day Job He was submerged in words all day. He wrote thousands and thousands of words in any given week on assigned topics, laughing at blog posts that insisted that the most important way to be a great writer was to write X amount of words every day, as if mere quantity had that much to do with it. When he got home after work, the thought of writing for his own blog and fiction projects made him ill, and he was lucky to do much more than sit in front of the TV and turn off his mind completely. For a writer, he didnt write much when he wasnt on the clock. He had writer burnout. You might feel as if you have used up all the words you have left to use. How To Tell If You Have Writer Burnout Writer burnout happens when your day job requires your writing abilities non-stop, but those same abilities are what you also use on your own time for creative enjoyment. If the balance tips too far either way (too much used on the job, too much used for yourself), there will either be severe burnout from giving your best to the job and leaving nothing for yourself, or youll perform poorly at work as you save the best for yourself and give little to your job. Writer burnout happens when you use up all of your creative reserves and become a machine.Writer burnout isnt a matter of writers block, of not having ideas. Many writers who have the start of a serious burnout issue might be churning out fairly decent content and appear to have nothing wrong. Theyve adapted to the pressure of being forced to write a certain amount in a particular way during a specific time frame by creating a routine, an almost internal factory for creating. At least at the start, they keep functioning. Their factory system keeps them going. But gradually it takes them longer to finish writing projects. Their writing isnt as deep or exciting, and readers can tell. Their factory formulas start to show. They resent their low-quality work, the pressure to write within constraints, and the fact that they dont write on their own free time. They get the job done, but barely. If this is you, then youre on your way to writer burnout. We all have different levels of creative energy, and we all have different levels of creative energy reserves. We can even operate on a deficit for short periods of time, eating into those reserves that weve built up. Burnout happens when you have been operating on a deficit for a long period of time. Your writing reserves are all used up, and you turn into a machine. If youre on the path to writer burnout, you need to make changes in what youre doing and rebuild your reserves if you ever want to get back to enjoying writing again. I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is youre giving up that makes you resentful. -Marissa Mayer Change How You Write You can change the way you write in an attempt to slow down, and then reverse, writer burnout. Changing how you write is an option when youre still able to limp along but have a mild sense of panic when you think of continuing on for the next month or half year. 1. Diversify Your Writing If you spend most of your day writing thousands of words in the form of bullet-list blog posts, try writing something completely different on your off time, like a short fiction story, or even poetry. Try writing for pleasure. Write about something you dont normally write about, a topic youve never considered before. Write anything BUT work-topic blog posts or white papers or matter-of-fact content. Forgo anything that smacks of marketing, anything where the letters SEO might come into play, and have some fun. No one has to read it but you. Heck, really change things up and use pen and paper instead of your computer. 2. Stop Writing Content And Copy Why not change the way you think about your writing? Instead of using the buzz words content and copy think of your writing as something more. Its writing, its fiction, its literature, its philosophy. Your words are your story, your creation, your ideas and its perfectly fine if the most they do is bring you enjoyment. Sometimes the phrases we use now to describe our writing are clinical, as if the product of our minds was mere copy meant to be red-penned into submission, or content, which sounds like nothing more than a product to be traded and used. It is easier to find inspiration from great writers than from the great copywriters or great content producers of our time. 3. Reduce The Stop-And-Start Are you able to sit down and write with relatively little distraction, or is a ringing phone or crying child causing you to have to constantly stop in the middle, and then come back and start up again? Are you tasked with lots of non-writing related tasks that cause you to break up the day and actually get less done? That constant stopping and starting is as wearing to your writing as driving a car at high speed, slamming on the brakes, and repeating it over and over again. See if you cant work out a way to set aside large chunks of time (and a quiet place) per writing project to reduce the energy drain that it takes to keep starting back up after youve ground to a halt. It should be an easy sell; much time is wasted when you have to come back to a project and re-read everything to figure out where you were headed with your writing. Diversify your writing, and stop calling it content or copy if youre feeling burned out.Protect Your Writing Reserves You might be so far into the red when it comes to your writing reserves that the only thing you can do is stop the truck. Stop, evaluate, and set up a new system. You need to replenish the reserves and put something back into your creativity bank before you can go on. 1. Reduce Your Writing (Temporarily) You may need to write a bit less, sort of like taking a break from running to give the blister a chance to heal a bit. You must give yourself permission to ignore, for a time, all of the online advice that tells you to press on and write long blog posts regularly or you will take an SEO hit. While thats valid advice, it doesnt do any good to whip a tired horse. Work writing. Reducing the number of posts that need to be written each week is a purely by-the-numbers solution. Youre burned out on writing? See if you can write less for a period of time. Personal writing. I have several personal blogs of my own that I enjoy writing for. They are of different topics than what I write at work and are often a refreshing change. I have been writing many of these blogs for years. However, Ive begun to consider the reality that I may not have an unlimited amount of words to write in any given day, no matter what the topic. As much as I would hate to give up my personal writing projects, even for just a while, I may have to make that difficult choice. If your day job requires a heavy load of writing, proofing, editing, and more writing, and if you are nearing the edge of your finite pool of writing tricks, you might have to reserve your writing energy for your day job alone. Perhaps taking a short break to build up some writing reserves are all it takes. This is not an easy choice, as it can easily cause resentment to build inside of you. 2. Rethink Extracurricular Activities There are a few things we do to supplement our work that help us excel and stay on top of our game. While they arent bad and may actually be a requirement, they can have the unfortunate side effect of feeding writer burnout. Take a break from proofreading. Proofreading is much like writing. If youre reading the work of others, youre not reading it for pleasure. Youre reading it to catch typos, errors, and check the structure. In some ways, it is more draining than writing on your own because you are trying to find  editorial balance  between how youd write it and how it was written. After a while, you might start to notice that typos get by, or you cant be sure what is good writing any more. Take a break from proofreading, or set aside a day or two where all you will do is proofread and you wont mix proofreading and original writing on the same day so that you can compartmentalize your mind for each task. Restrict your work-related reading.  The process of writing isnt just the moment you sit down in front of your keyboard and start typing. It involves the gathering of ideas, thoughts, and making connections.  Writing for your job often means you spend time reading on topics that pertain to what you need to write about. If youre getting burned out, its not just on the act of writing, but on the topics you are being asked to write about. Pull yourself away from the blogs, the feeds, the ebooks, the articles, and read something completely unrelated to work.  One strange side-benefit to doing this is you might actually find yourself coming up with more unique ideas than you would if you kept your reading so fixed inside the work-related sphere. Reading outside of your work-related topics helps you avoid using using buzz words, and helps you question the validity of concepts that only an outsider is capable of doing.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Life of Shakespear essays

Life of Shakespear essays Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564 in the town of Stratford, England. His father, John Shakespeare was a glove maker and his mother May Arden inherited land so they had some money. As a result of his father having money he did not have to stay home and help out as much. He probably unlike many other children at that time attended the towns free school. At the age of eighteen Shakespeare married Anne Hathawy November 27, 1582 who was eight years older then him. He had three children his first was Susanna then twins Hamnet and Judith. For most of his life he lived in London and had very little to do with Stratford. He listed as a member of the Lord Chamberlains Company, which is a troupe of actors in 1594. By the mid 1590s his plays were extremely popular, he was once rated by a critic as the best author of both tragedy and comedy. In 1599 the Lord Chamberlains Company built the Globe Theater. In the year 1608 the Lord Chamberlains Company acquired control of the Blackfriars, which at that time was the only theater within the limits of London. Shakespeare was a shareholder in both of these theaters. This suggests that Shakespeare might have been a businessman as well as an actor and playwright. In Shakespeare began to write plays for his troop Lord Chamberlains Company. In writing his plays he had to take several things into account. Some examples are the skills of the actors in his troop, and also that all of the actors were men, because of the fact that no women were allowed to perform at that time. By 1592 he was recognized as a successful actor, also as a poet. During his life he wrote at least 36 plays. Between 1611 and 1613 he bought a house in Stratford and retired from the theater. He did at the age of 52 on his birthday. His was buried and remains at the Church of Holy Trinity in Stratford. ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

What you see as the pathWay to complete wellness Essay

What you see as the pathWay to complete wellness - Essay Example Before I took this course, I roughly thought that this was the path to complete wellness, so my ideas have not really changed based on what I have learned throughout this course. The most obvious component to complete wellness is in the physical area of someone’s life. To experience fulfillment in this area, it requires being totally satisfied with one’s physical state. The sad thing is that too many people do not feel this, and this is mostly because of what society and the media tells them how they should be. To improve physically, someone needs to take the time and dedication to be willing to alter their diet in order to improve their physical appearance. This is just one component of improving physicality; another is being motivated enough to do exercise so as to reduce one’s weight. This is really challenging for most people, but it can be achieved with enough will power. Another component to complete wellness is through emotions. Females are very susceptible to this, but it can affect everyone at some stage. Some people are very emotional and get upset even at the slightest thing. This shows that someone is not content with their emotional side because they cannot control their emotions. It does not matter what another person says or does; emotional wellness is about feeling good about one’s self and not listening to what others have to say. The next area of complete wellness is through the mental side. This is perhaps the most underestimated part of complete wellness because it is very difficult to know what other people are thinking. Negative thinking can result in poor lifestyles choices, and this will ultimately not lead to complete wellness. In fact, mental toughness is the most critical part of wellness because it determines how someone would react to certain situations. The fourth area to complete wellness is spirituality. Many people do not think

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Monopolies and Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Monopolies and Economics - Essay Example Economists have debated the value and the cost of monopolies for centuries and still have come to no clear consensus. Even our laws that protect the market from monopolistic practices have been viewed as incapable of defining the words 'market' and 'monopoly'. When does market share become a monopoly In the United States, the foul line is crossed when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) interprets the anti-trust laws and rules that the actions are injurious to competition. The technical definition of a monopoly is a business that is the sole provider of a good or service that has no suitable substitute. Consumers are restricted to buying from the monopolist. Geographic limitations can also create a monopoly such as being the only doctor within a hundred miles. Monopolies can also exist where a firm manufactures a specialized product to a limited market. New innovations may become monopolistic due to patent restrictions or until the innovation becomes more widely available. Another characteristic of a monopoly is that there needs to be a barrier to entry into the market. This is usually due to high sunk-costs that prevent competitors from reaching an economy of scale. Though all these traits are seen in monopolies, many practices are labeled monopolistic because they restrict competition and are prohibited by law. Most of these practices serve to limit competition or drive competition out of business. Product dumping, price fixing, predatory pricing, and bid rigging are all considered monopolistic practices. In the United States corporations are occasionally allowed to engage in a monopoly or monopolistic practices. Professional sports, utilities, government institutions, and markets with a single producer are sometimes exempted or protected. These protected monopolies do not always benefit from their monopoly status, as they may still need to be competitive to keep new entrants from competing. Major League Baseball is sometimes seen as a monopoly. However, there are substitute products in the form of other sports and entertainment activities. Though they prevent any new entries into the market, they can't be called a true monopoly. Even the US Post Office, a protected monopoly, has come under increased competition with the advent of new technology and services. Though they were once the only provider for their services, failure to innovate left them vulnerable to alternate suppliers. A criticism often leveled at monopolies is that they are complacent and slow to innovate. . Monopolies can be destructive to the economy because they give the firm the opportunity to be a price maker rather than a price taker. The monopoly will reduce the supply, which increases the price to the point that it maximizes profits (Parkin 110). This point is almost always at a point above the price that would be available in a competitive market. According to Stigler, "the purely "economic" case against monopoly is that it reduces aggregate economic welfare". For example: If a firm can sell 100 units when the price is $5 it will generate $500 revenue. If they price them at $7 they can only sell 80 units, but will have generated $560 revenue. However, the loss to the economy is 20 unsold units at $5 each, or $100. Though the firm has gained $60, the market has lost $100. This aggregate loss is known as deadweight loss and is what the anti-trust laws are designed to

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Language of Robinson Crusoe Essay Example for Free

Language of Robinson Crusoe Essay Daniel Dafoe’s popular novel, originally titled The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates (iii), like most classics underwent many editions through the years. However nothing but the first edition, which is the basis of this essay, can give us the look and feel of the time as intended to be shown by the author. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH According to Volume 14 of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes, Early Modern English period marked the expansion of the use of the English language outside England. But since English was spread at various times it has been subjected to different influences and additional variations caused by attempts at etymological spelling (Ward et al ch 15 sec 3 par 1). These were evident in the novel in two aspects of language: grammar and vocabulary (Ward et al ch 15 sec 1 par 1-2). Among the inflectional changes during the early modern English was the dropping of the weak vowel in verbs ending in –ed (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 4 par. 7). Examples of these manifested not only in the title (the word deliver’d) but within the text itself such as call’d, fill’d, encreas’d, and fatigu’d. Spelling also appeared to be phonetically defective (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 3 par. 1) with words like perswasions, lyon, lye, and prophetick. Compounding of words were also used in the novel by examples of free-school, hand-maids, ground-tackle and fellow-slave. However, the change in the verbs as well as the defects in spelling was not applied to the entire novel which makes us consider the reasons for such use. TOWARDS A PURITY IN STYLE Daniel Defoe, in his book An Essay upon Projects, emphasized that it was the responsibility of the society to polish and refine the English tongue and to purge it from all the irregular additions that ignorance and affectation have introduced as befitted the noblest and most comprehensive of all the vulgar languages in the world (8). The spread of the English language was depicted in the novel when Robinson Crusoe teaches his servant Friday the English language. We may notice from an excerpt of their discourse below that although essentially Crusoe and Friday came to communicate effectively with each other, Friday’s English differs much from Crusoe’s parallel to their difference in status and origin: Friday, My Nation beat much, for all that. Master, How beat; if your Nation beat them, how come you to be taken? Friday, They more many than my Nation in the Place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me; my Nation over beat them in the yonder Place, where me no was; there my Nation take one, two, great Thousand. Master, But why did not your Side recover you from the Hands of your Enemies then? Friday, They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the Canoe; my Nation have no Canoe that time. (Defoe, â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 254) Much is the same circumstance that brought about the variations and additions to the English language in which Defoe is clamoring for purity (â€Å"An Essay upon Projects† 8). Shoar and Shore. Aside from the defective spelling mentioned earlier is the variation in the spelling (Ward et al. ch 15 sec 3 par. 1). An example if this is the word shore, spelled shore and shoar, in different context of the novel. It may be noted that shoar was only used in the part of Robinson Crusoe’s mishaps. That is to say, from the part of his captivity at Sallee until before his wreck on the island. These mishaps, Crusoe later reflected on, were results of his ignorance in the Providence of God and malcontent thus the use of the spelling shoar. While his solitary life in the island described the learning process he underwent to survive and finally live harmoniously with his surroundings; hence the renewed use of the spelling shore. In this regard, one may interpret that the use of the word was intentional to show the need and difficulty in creating a standard for the English language. viz. and (viz. ). The use of foreign language in novels is quite common throughout the ages. As such, we came to attention on the use of the Latin word viz. Oxford English Dictionary defines viz. as the abbreviation of videlicet which generally means namely or that is to say (1033). Although Defoe used viz. without parenthesis and viz. in parenthesis based on the same definition, its participation in the statement are quite different. The viz. without parenthesis was used in identifying and qualifying statements such as the â€Å"All the rest of that Day I spent in afflicting my self at the dismal Circumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither Food, House, Clothes, Weapon, or Place to fly to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 82). On the other hand, viz. in parenthesis, which appeared in lines like â€Å"This was what I wish’d for; so I took them up, and serv’d them as we serve notorious Thieves in England, (viz. ) Hang’d them in Chains for a Terror to others†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† 138), was used as such in order to explain earlier statement. The use of parenthesis to differentiate the use of the same word in the novel further reflects Defoe’s quest for refinement of the English language as mentioned previously. CONCLUSION Indeed, regardless of the plot of the story which categorized it to fiction, the culture and language of the time is unmistakable. Robinson Crusoe, in its original version, allows us the indulgence to peek and appreciate not only the early modern English language but the period as well. The flexibility of the language then reflected the society of that time as it has always been for any period or era. At the same time, the novel provided additional venue for the author to disseminate his ideas and further his individual attempt towards the transition to the modern English language and insertions to the importance of learning across the spectrum of the society. Such power language has to influence its readers, whether consciously or unconsciously. And the duality that the novel showed made it a favorite among children and adults alike. Fulfilling its objectives to entertain and propagate (however subtle it may be). Works Cited Defoe, Daniel. An Essay Upon Projects. New York: Adamant Media Corporation, 2005. Print. . The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates. London: printed for W. Taylor, 1719. Print. Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. Ward, Aldolphus William, Sir, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907-21; New York: Bartleby. com, 2000 (Web) April 1, 2009.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Anderson And Hemingways Use Of The First Person Essay -- essays resear

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."At one point in his short story, "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II", Hemingway's character Nick speaks in the first person. Why he adopts, for one line only, the first person voice is an interesting question, without an easy answer. Sherwood Anderson does the same thing in the introduction to his work, Winesburg, Ohio. The first piece, called "The Book of the Grotesque", is told from the first person point of view. But after this introduction, Anderson chooses not to allow the first person to narrate the work. Anderson and Hemingway both wrote collections of short stories told in the third person, and the intrusion of the first person narrator in these two pieces is unsettling. In both instances, though, the reader is left with a much more absorbing story; one in which the reader is, in fact, a main character. With the exception of "My Old Man", which is entirely in the first person , and "On the Quai at Smyrna", which is only possibly in the first person, there is just one instance in In Our Time in which a character speaks in the first person. It occurs in "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II", an intensely personal story which completely immerses the reader in the actions and thoughts of Nick Adams. Hemingway's utilization of the omniscient third person narrator allows the reader to visualize all of Nick's actions and surroundings, which would have been much more difficult to accomplish using first person narration. Nick is seen setting up his camp in "Big Two-Hearted River: Part I" in intimate detail, from choosing the perfect place to set his tent to boiling a pot of coffee before going to sleep. The story is completely written the in third person and is full of images, sounds, and smells. In "Big Two-Hearted River: Part II" Hemingway exactly describes Nick's actions as he fishes for trout. Details of his fishing trip are told so clearly that the reader is almost an active participant in the expedition instead of someone reading a story. He carefully and expertly finds grasshoppers for bait, goes about breakfast and lunch-making, and sets off into the cold river. By being both inside and outside Nick's thoughts, the reader can sense precisely the drama that Hemingway wishes to bring to trout fishing.... ...art of the story. The entire book is a dialogue between narrator and reader. The effect is that the reader becomes even more involved in the stories. Both of these works are unlike others from the same time period which are told completely using first person narration. Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes are both written wholly in the first person. But both of these read like diaries, of which the reader is just that - a reader. Neither one has a point at which the reader is so definitely brought into the story consciously by the author. By jumping abruptly into first person instead of using it all along, Hemingway and Anderson more effectively do this. Anderson's and Hemingway's sudden switches to first person narration of course could not have been mere mistakes, and their reasons may have been even more convoluted than imaginable to late twentieth century readers. What is left are two collections of short stories in which the reader plays an actual role. The intrusion of first person narration makes these stories come alive in a way that a third person narration cannot, a tribute to the skill of both of these authors.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Patient Care

â€Å"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. † William Penn (1644-1718) There are many ways to define patient care in my own words. Doing my job to the best of my ability not only for myself but the patients that are in my care is of the utmost importance.My dedication to my work is defined by my ability to communicate effectively, actively listen, treat the patient with respect, respect their autonomy and take part in the environment I provide care in. By defining my personal point of view on what good patient care is I am setting my own standards to which I will strive to achieve in work and in life. Communication is in my opinion is the most important thing I can do to provide quality patient care. Being an effective communicator has many aspects to it.One is to help the patient feel like a human and not another test or number. Calling the patient by their name. Always talk directly to the patient and not â€Å"about† the patient. Give appropriate explanations about the procedure and explain what will be happening before, during and after the procedure. Answer any questions to the best of my ability and provide answers or solutions to ones I may not be able to answer, Follow up. Communication is not just speaking but actively listening, is not only verbal but also physical.Looking someone in the eye when engaging in conversation is a great way to show you are listening. Hearing a patients worries and concerns and maintaining a calm composed presence can help ease their fears. Not taking a patients anger personally. I know that they do not want to be where they are and probably have many concerns. It is my job to be professional and not react to someone who may be rude or angry due to circumstances that have nothing to do with me. Practicing patience is an important sk ill to develop and hone in the health care field.Involving a family member or whomever the patient may have brought for support is a good idea. Asking the patient if they would like that person or family member to be in the room during the procedure is a great way to relieve any stress they may have going in. Taking the time to listen and hear the patient while having understanding even in the most undesirable situations is my job as a health care worker. Another Important aspect is my dedication to my work. Making sure my room is clean and organized. Ensuring that every piece of equipment in my care is clean and working properly.Ensuring the patient is covered and offering a blanket in a cold exam room is one way to make them feel comfortable. Offering a glass of water if a patient is thirsty. Whatever I am able to provide to make the patient more at ease I will. A reassuring smile and a squeeze of the hand may be all they need. Lastly Respect. To respect a patient concerns, questi ons, family, morals, values and religion is important to providing a quality of care that truly puts the patient first. Patient care has many different definitions, not one answer is wrong or more right than another.It is important to consider what it means to me as an individual, as well as an employee that represents where I work and to take responsibility for creating a good patient care atmosphere. Patient care to me is always putting the patient first. The patients’ needs, concerns and autonomy all have to be respected. I can only hope that in my time as an ultra sound technician that I can provide the quality patient care that I would want given to my family or myself. As Mr. Penn said, be kind and do good things because we only get one chance.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Lgbt Organizations

LGBT Supportive Organizations The first website I visited was called No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice. Their main focus was on an alternative Christian perspective on the issue of homosexuality. They basically believed in advocating justice for all, especially Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered persons. The support that I see they give is a sense of belonging. They give the support that many seek with is religious acceptance. This organization is very unique because for many years the church has never really given gays a home; No Longer Silent gives us that place to go to for moral support.Their website gave educational materials like articles on news pertaining to our community. Also materials like scriptures from that give the LGBT community, who are not familiar with the bible; some interpretations and teachings. The next website that I visited was called Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. Their focus was on assuring that each member of every school commun ity is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. They give support by giving students internet resources on bullying. They also support our LGBT community by starting their campaign â€Å"Think before you speak†.It helps us inform the world that words do hurt and helps in the prevention of anti-gay language. Their website gives educational materials like Facts about Sexual Orientation. They even give resources like crisis support and advocacy. Then I visited the website for Equality Arizona. Their focus is to secure, protect and defend the rights and welfare of LGBT people in Arizona. The support they give is huge throughout the state of Arizona. They are the ones that fight for our rights. They support us in legal stand points like marriage and adoption.As for educational materials, they give many blogs on how our issues are coming along. For example: They explain how our local LGBT leaders respond to President Obama’s Declar ation of Support for Marriage Equality. Next website visited was PFLAG Phoenix. Their focus is on celebrating diversity and envisions a society that embraces everyone, including those of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Their support is very important to our community. Their support is being our family with open arms. It gives parents and families a place where they can show their support for us.They have a lot of educational material for not only our LGBT community but for our families too. It gives terminology, some theories, and most of all many answers to questions. The last website I visited was 1n10. Their focus is on providing our youth with the tools to improve their self-esteem and help with acceptance of who they are. Their support is how they create a safe space, mentally and physically, for youth ranging for 14-24. Their support also includes helping teens by providing homeless shelters and suicide prevention crisis lines. Educational materials were sca rce.I really didn’t find anything other than a lot of resources for different problems our LGBT youth may encounter. To say the truth, I never knew any of these organizations existed. The one that melted my heart the most would be the PFLAG website. Reason being is all LGBT people look for family acceptance. All the pictures of the protesters made me smile. The 1n10 website also struck me because to me the youth is our future. If they are not educated or helped with open arms, society just might take steps back instead of forward. Our adolescent years are crucial especially being LGBT.The Equality Arizona website gives me hope that one day they will push far enough to make Marriage and Adoption legal for us. I think that step would push us through the red tape at the finish line. No Longer Silent is another milestone. I learned that they gives us a place of religion that doesn’t outcast us or tell us we should change because if we don’t we’ll go to hell. That’s important to me because during my coming out I lost faith in religion. The GLSEN website shows me that one day LGBT could one day cease forever. All of these websites posed as a great learning experience.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Health policy as it relates to a health care program

Health policy as it relates to a health care program Abstract Survival in the health care world requires an informed person. Healthcare providers, administrators and patients are affected by decisions and health policies made on health care programs. Healthcare policies are closely tied with politics of United States where decisions are made to affect the entire population.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Health policy as it relates to a health care program specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Health policies are as a result of decisions made by many people in hospitals, the government, insurance industry, and some business corporations. Health care policies affect the effectiveness of service delivery in current health care programs. This paper seeks to highlight the influence of health policy on the development, operation, design, and effectiveness as it relates to the effectiveness of health care delivery systems of health care program. Introduction Health care programs offer the primary means of getting access to health care in the United States today. Designing of health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid involves extensive interactions among health insurers, health care providers, individuals, public and private sectors, and the government. Proposals in health coverage in general focus on their policy impact. Majority of proposals give only sketchy information about management. In addition, administrative costs stand for only a diminutive part of the total costs of a proposal (Darr Longest, 2008). Nevertheless, when matters of implementation are not addressed, expensive policies or programs fail to achieve their objectives. Health care policies affect the management and administrative issues, and this affects the effectiveness of health care programs (Morone, Litman, Robins, 2008). An important goal of health care programs is expanding access to inexpensive, high-quality health care (NAPA-NASI, 2009). This goal is met when heal th care policies provide a supportive environment. Health care policies affect planning, coordinating and implementation of healthcare programs.Advertising Looking for research paper on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It also affects the process of regulating health insurance, streamlining health care program markets, and the process of designing managerial organizations for health reform (Morone, Litman, Robins, 2008). Health care system in United States The three major issues facing the health care system of United States are access, cost, and quality. Improved access may quickly become expensive without slowing the increase of costs and without increasing the quality of health care (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Improvements quality and cost are consecutively likely to necessitate changes in the process of delivering health care. Financial access in health care is an important issue in United States; d ifferent financing models may have different implications on control of costs and performance improvement of the health care delivery system like Medicare and Medicaid (Angeles, 2009). The relationship between service delivery in health coverage and containing health costs is of utmost importance. Committed public administrators can make any health program to work on the ground. However policy makers can make the administrators’ task to be easy by considering administrative issues when creating proposals and legislations (NAPA-NASI, 2009). This is an important factor in creation of a successful health program. Administrative issues can either be specific to certain plans, or apply to a wide range of programs. The establishment of Medicare program in 1965 and the implementation of latest health care reforms experiences, gives some common lessons in planning for service delivery of health programs (Merlis, 2003). A case study of Medicare Medicare was signed into law in1965 by P resident Lyndon Johnson, and began offering benefits less than a year later in 1966. The program offered health care coverage to approximately nineteen million elderly people in US. Of the nineteen million, only half had previously had some form of health insurance. Medicaid, a joint federal-state program of medical assistance for poor people was also created. Medicaid created some significant alterations to disability benefits and social security retirement (NAPA-NASI, 2009).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Health policy as it relates to a health care program specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The beginning of Medicare offers good instance of impact of health policy on healthcare programs. Implementation of Medicare had started earlier before the legislation was passed. Congressional leaders and administration had discussed the part of Medicare dealing with hospital insurance during the early 1960s. The prov isions of health insurance had been refined to assist administration. The program was supposed to begin in midsummer when hospital occupancy was low. Nursing homes coverage was supposed to start six months after hospital benefits to separate the two. A proposal to give beneficiaries a choice of benefit packages was rejected following its administrative complication (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Some aspects of legislation and health policies simplified the implementation of Medicare. An important policy aspect of Medicare was that it was a fully federal program that did not depend on the different interests and administrative capabilities of the states. It is important to note that there was a political agreement was not meant to reform delivery of, or payment for, health care. There was an agreement from the beginning of discussions that Medicare was to be administered by the Social Security Administration. This policy allowed the program to experience a tremendous success at the beginning. S ocial Security Administration had put in place a network of field offices for taking care of Medicare beneficiaries. The administration was supportive of the new program and was willing to take some chances to ensure its success (NAPA-NASI, 2009). The government of the day contributed a lot in designing of health policies. The federal government understood that Medicare was a main concern for the presidency of Johnson. The General Services Administration and the Civil Service Commission cooperated with Social Security to ensure the success of the program. The Social Security agency received additional funding, new staff and its training and new field offices. Social Security Administration devoted a small team to run Medicaid as compared to Medicare. In addition, its design and implementation was largely left to the states. The agency was left to implement and run the program without interference from the office of the president (Baucus, 2008).Advertising Looking for research paper on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The only notable major instance where the office of the president got involved was a few weeks before the launching of the program. The president was concerned about the likelihood of certain hospitals to be overwhelmed by a flood of newly insured elderly people. A system that was to track hospital occupancy rates was created to take care of this issue. The veterans and military hospitals were placed on standby, and plans were established to transport people. Eventually, capacity of hospitals proved more than enough to accommodate more people than it was anticipated (Darr Longest, 2008). The Social Security Administration developed consensus over policies via various informal task forces and working groups instead of depending on the formal federal rulemaking process. Proposed policies were presented to â€Å"the Health Insurance Benefits Advisory Council† after far-reaching staff work and discussions with all stakeholders. The agency took the council’s advice, althou gh it was not a requirement. Rather than in final regulations, policies were integrated in the conditions of participation for health care providers. In this regard, hospitals were required desegregate. Hospitals were required to comply with the Civil Rights Act by the federal officials (Ebeler, Van de Water, Dem, 2006). Policies were also designed to provide a tight time frame for the magnitude of the task. This facilitated implementation of Medicare in timely fashion due to the sense of urgency. The administration of Social Security was motivated to boost its morale. Offices were opened on evenings and weekends to allow more applicants into the program. The program also gained considerable support from advocacy groups and aging organizations. After enactment of the program, a lot of cooperation was obtained from all stakeholders (Etheredge, 2009). Regulation of health care programs and health insurance Health care programs have similar regulatory issues as other forms of insuranc e. The person covered under the healthcare program requires the program to provide a contract that meets realistic expectations about coverage. The individual also requires the health insurer to explain the nature of the cover being offered. As agreed in the health insurance policy, the individual requires his/her claims to be paid promptly and fairly. Before enrolling people into health care programs, the risks are assessed before the cover is granted. In ordinary health insurance programs, the insurer assesses the risks and may decide to decline the cover depending on risks (Hacker, 2007). Health insurance covers have had cases of fraud in marketing and claiming process. The government through state authorities has regulated the issuance of health insurance covers to protect the consumers. The federal government has also become more involved in financing and insurance of health care. Since the launch of healthcare programs, the authority of the states to control and regulate healt h insurance has been well established (Jost, 2009). The Supreme Court decided to put the health insurers under the federal control in 1945. The McCarran-Ferguson Act which enables the states to control insurance business was passed by the Congress. In each state, the insurance industry is regulated by a division of insurance or similar agency. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) controls and coordinates the regulation of multistate health insurance agencies. The model laws and regulations of NAIC usually act as the foundation for state policies. It also brings some degree of consistency to regulation of health insurance. Some premium taxes are imposed by the states on health insurers as a source of income (Hacker, 2009). The original emphasis of health insurance regulation was making sure that the financial accountability of insurers to pay claims was met. The federal bankruptcy code excludes insurers from its coverage and leaves the issue of assuring the solv ency of the insurer to the states. States have designed the process of managing insolvent health insurers and take care of their financial responsibilities. Traditional concerns of regulations are getting rid of deceptive advertising and marketing, follow-ups of consumer feedbacks, and review of health insurance policies (Monheit Cantor, 2004). Health insurers are faced with challenges when covering small groups since they pose threats of adverse selection. Small groups and individuals are sometimes denied the cover, have their covers cancelled or not renewed. High risk groups are sometimes given long waiting periods. Administrative activities, marketing and other expenses increase the cost associated with small groups and individual health insurance policies as compared to large groups (Van de Water Nathan, 2011). The state started to enact reforms of health insurance market associated wit small groups in 1990. Major changes included guaranteed issue and renewal of policies regar dless of health status of individuals. Restrictions on exclusions of existing health conditions were done to limit the difference in premiums. State regulators have to review premium schedules and insurance policies to ensure that they are in compliance and to limit on rates (Monheit Cantor, 2004). A few years ago, the states took deregulatory measures to assist the spread of high deductible health insurance plans. In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act approved tax subsidies for health savings accounts (HSAs) amid highly deductible health plans. The law did not obstruct any state insurance guideline. However, the states provided that the tax subsidies for HSAs would be accessible only in states that allowed high deductible plans (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Regulation of insurance has been a responsibility of the states for a long time. However, the roles of the federal government have grown in recent past. Federal regulation is primarily carried out through the income tax system, the Medi care and the Medicaid programs. The initial administrative rulings that employee contributions to health insurance plans sponsored by the employer are not taxable to both were confirmed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. The tax subsidy has been conditioned on different legislation requirements although IRS gives little omission and has by and large been slow to create implementing policy or impose tax punishments for infringements. For instance, nondiscrimination provisions of the tax code forbid employers who are self insured from giving better tax favored health coverage to employees who are highly paid (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Presently, Medicare and Medicaid cover approximately a quarter of US citizens, and a third of health care expenses. The rules that regulate the coverage and payments for these programs constitute an important form of federal regulatory activity (Angeles, 2009). The result of failure to comply with the policies of the program is denial of program eligibility o r payment. In addition submitting inaccurate claims can results to civil or criminal penalties. Medicare is the largest purchaser and regulator of health care in the United States. This enables the program to exert a significant influence on the rest of the health care system (Ebeler, Van de Water, Dem, 2006). Public programs and private insurers have widely adopted the coverage policies and the payment system of Medicare. Majority of private health insurers follow Medicare’s lead in approval and adoption of new medical technologies. New payment mechanisms used by Medicare have been widely adopted by the private sector. For instance, the private sector has adopted the prospective payment system for hospitals and fee schedule for medical practitioners (Baucus, 2008). Medicare influences the way health care is provided through its participation conditions for hospitals and health plans. In addition, Medicare influences administrative procedures including reporting requirements and review practices of claims. State regulations that conflict with requirements of Medicare are generally preempted by the federal government. In this category are state regulations of private health plans that contribute in Medicare. States have the power to license and control the insurance agents and brokers dealing with private plans for healthcare. However, the states cannot control the organizations that provide the plans. On the contrary, federal requirements for Medicaid managed care organizations cannot prevent more strict state standards (Angeles, 2009). The responsibility of private health plans in Medicare was expanded by the Modernization Act of 2003. The act also broadened the federal preemption of state control of these plans. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 prohibits certain sales and marketing processes under Medicare Advantage plans and Prescription Drug Plans. According to state regulators, the present federal control structure for Medicare private does not sufficiently protect consumers. The state regulators have called for authority to impose state laws on marketing methods of insurers that sponsor them (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Medigap plans are the private plans offered to those already covered by Medicare to cover expenses that are not covered by Medicare. This plan is regulated by both state and federal government. A regulation model has been established as required by the federal law to include a standardized benefit strategy and marketing standards for all Medigap plans. The model has been incorporated in federal guidelines by the centers for Medicaid and Medicare services. States that are using the Medigap standards imposed by the federal law enforce them against the plans. In some cases, more strict standards are imposed by the states (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Payment responsibilities of medical services covered by both Medicare and other health insurance are governed by the federal law. Laws making payment by Medicare secondary to payment by health insurance plans sponsored by employers have been passed by the Congress. An excise duty is imposed for operating a health plan that goes against the regulations (Gluck Reno, 2001). The Employer Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) has the most important limitations of the federal government on regulation of health insurance by the state. The act takes over from the most state regulations applicable to health plans based on employment and subject to the federal law. However, the act does not apply to church or governmental sponsored plans. The implication is that the act’s preemption of state rules allows multistate employers to provide health benefits on a national basis. This is done without having to adapt their plans to specific state in which they function. Employers can steer clear of any state rule or taxation of its health plan if it assumes the plan’s financial risk and does not buy a cover for the funding of benefits. Particularly, it gets rid of state authorized benefits (NAPA-NASI, 2009). Initially When ERISA was enacted it covered mostly the pension plans and enforced no regulations on health insurance based on employment. The Congress then modified the act by adding comparatively few requirements. ERISA prevents the state regulation, but does not enforce much in the way of substantive regulation. This structure implies that self-funded employers have operated in a regulatory vacuum that is unreal. In order to provide continuance in some cases of employer-sponsored coverage that would otherwise be stopped, ERISA was amended by the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) in 1985. The amendment required that employer with over twenty employees and who offer employers’ sponsored insurance covers to continue providing health insurance temporarily to employees who have lost coverage or stopped employment. In most cases, compliance with COBRA is impelled by the effort s of the Department of Labor and the risk of lawsuits posed by participants under ERISA (Darr Longest, 2008). To prohibit discrimination by employment-based group health plans in enrollment, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted in 1996. HIPAA curbs discrimination on the basis of health status. The act also limits the elimination of coverage for pre-existing health conditions and requires special enrollment in case of occurrence of such events. Without limiting the charges, HIPAA requires health insurers to avail and renew health coverage for small employers. Except under limited circumstances, health insurers operating in the individual market are also required by the act to guarantee restitution of coverage (Ebeler, Van de Water, Dem, 2006). Administrative responsibility is isolated in that the requirements of HIPAA are enforced under ERISA for employer-sponsored group health plans. As far as COBRA is concerned, the Department of the Treasur y has the power to impose an excise duty to enforce observance. Generally, states are accountable for implementing the necessities imposed on health insurance issuers in the individual markets. In addition, states may enforce more stringent regulations on health insurance issuers in some specific situations (Fowler Jost, 2008). Conclusion It is not possible to achieve a reformed health care system and healthcare programs without health insurance policies. Any proposal seeking to subsidize or direct health insurance must describe the insurance coverage to be subsidized, and set up measures for assuring that plans conform to the requirements. The financial responsibilities of the insurer and protection of consumers against errant insurers, fraudulent marketing practices, and denial of claims are very important in any healthcare program (Fowler Jost, 2008). It is important to note that the enforcement of a particular regulatory principle is a significant administrative issue. However , the appropriate content of regulation of health insurance is mainly a policy issue. The federal government does not have a significant administrative framework for regulating health insurance. On the contrary, states have substantial regulatory understanding and proficiency (NAPA-NASI, 2009). A number of regulatory approaches are possible if health insurance reform is to take place at the federal level. The federal government could adopt its own health insurance regulations and form an administrative framework to impose them. Although the federal government cannot constitutionally mandate states to enforce federal laws, it could provide financial incentives to the states to take regulatory and enforcement procedures (Gluck Reno, 2001). The federal government should exploit the states’ regulatory skills, experiences and administrative mechanisms for consumer protection. This can be approached by developing a uniform national standard for health insurance to be fundamentally imposed on states level. States should be given the mandate to impose the national standards against all health plans existing in the state. As the case foe Medigap plans, states should be allowed to create standards that are more protective of their populace. The responsibility of states in protection of consumers of health insurance is likely to become more sophisticated. Policy makers at federal level are required to identify the difference in the resources and potential from state to state. Policy makers should also ensure that the states have the needed resources to impose new regulations on health insurers. References Angeles. ( 2009). Improving Medicaid As Part of Building on the Current System to Achieve Universal Coverage. Washington: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Baucus, M. (2008). Call to Action, Health Reform 2009. Washington: Senate Finance. Darr, K., Longest, B. B. (2008). Managing Health Services Organizations and Systems. New York: Health Professions Pr. Ebeler, J., Van de Water, P. N., Dem, C. (2006). Improving the Medicare Savings Programs. Washington: National Academy of Social Insurance.. Etheredge, L. (2009, May 16). Government and Health Care Costs: The Influence of Research on Policy. Retrieved from University of Pennsylvania: www.upenn.edu/ldi/etheredge1.pdf Fowler, E. J., Jost, T. S. (2008). Why Public Programs Matter- and Wil lContinue to Matter- Even After Health Reform. Journal of Law, Medicine, Ethics , 36(4):670-76. Gluck, M. G., Reno, V. (2001). Reflections on Implementing Medicare. Washington: National Academy of Social Insurance. Hacker, J. (2007). Health Care for America. Briefing Paper No. 18. Washington: : Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Hacker, J. (2009). Healthy Competition: How to Structure Public Health Insurance Plan Choice to Ensure Risk-Sharing, Cost Control, and Quality Improvement. Washington: Institute for America’s Future. Jost, T. S. (2009). The Regulation of Private Health Insurance. Wash ington: NAPA/NASI. Merlis, M. (2003). The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: Program Design, Reent Performance, and Implications for Medicare Reform. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Monheit, A. C., Cantor, J. C. (2004). State Health Insurance Market Reform. New York: Routledge. Morone, J. A., Litman, T. J., Robins, L. S. (2008). Health Politics and Policy. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning. NAPA-NASI. (2009). Administartive Solutions in Health Reforms: Administrative Issues in Expanding Access to Health Care. New York: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Van de Water, P. N., Nathan, R. P. (2011). Governance Issues for Health Insurance Exchanges. Health Policy Brief No. 1 (pp. 1-12). Washington: National Academy of Social Insuarnce (NASI).

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Communicating Effectively essays

Communicating Effectively essays Communicating Effectively in the Business Environment Communications in the workplace have become as relaxed as dress codes. Everyone has experienced miscommunications in his or her personal life, but when communications fail in the business world, opportunities to rectify the situations are rarely there. In many incidences, the damage has already been done and money or jobs have been lost. The reputation of the company has suffered immeasurable harm in the business community. Communicating effectively in the business environment is crucial as the success of an organization is directly connected to the abilities of its employees. The problem of miscommunications in the business world is far more serious than one might think. According to Patricia Eyres, author of Every Word Counts, Evidence from business records generated over years and even decades affects an increasing number of civil lawsuits. In fact, damage awards have soared in recent years, some due to explosive content of business communications, gaps in documentation, inflammatory e-mail, or charges of evidence tampering. (Eyres, 2003, p. 80) Ms. Eyres goes on to say, Any written information, whether formally or informally generated, can be considered documentary evidence if it is pertinent to a legal action, a regulatory proceeding, or a misconduct investigation. (Eyres, 2003, p. 80) Extreme care must be taken when choosing your words. Tone must be considered and attitudes or prejudices must be put aside when composing business communications. Michael Whelan, President of The Whelan Group, states, Writers should always plan before they write. Its interesting, but writing is the only thing businesspeople never plan. (Whelan, 2002, p. 27) Managers and employees may not be aware of the repercussions related to miscommunications within business communications. Knowing this, a company cannot afford to take the...

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Assignment 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Assignment 3 - Essay Example The main statutes that make up the antitrust law are the Sherman Act 1890, the Federal State Commission Act of 1914 and the Clayton Act of 1914. These laws are meant to prohibit and restrict the formation of cartels and other activities aimed at restraining trade. They also constrain acquisitions and mergers which would reduce competition. These laws restrict the creation of monopolies that intend to abuse the monopoly power. Antitrust laws are put in place to protect the consumers from greedy business practices by making sure that there is fair competition in the market. The core function of the antitrust provisions is to safeguard the welfare of the consumers. Both the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice as well as the Federal Trade Commission can bring actions to enforce antitrust laws. State governments can also bring actions to enforce antitrust laws. It is also noteworthy that private civil suits can also be brought to enforce these laws. Public enforcement is, howe ver, more effective as the costs, complexity and overwhelming tasks provide a challenge to private parties considering that enforcement is often against large corporations (Weiser 2005). How the antitrust laws have ensured fair, balanced, and competitive business practices. ... Among the most notable cases brought under the antitrust law is the disintegration of the AT&T telephone service monopoly in 1982. The company was broken up into one distant company and seven regional companies. The argument for the disintegration was that competition should replace a monopoly for the benefit of both the economy and consumers (Connor, 2006, p. 198). In United States v. Eastman Kodak Company (1921) the court used antitrust law to check the absorption, acquisition and elimination of other enterprises involved in the photographic trade. The court prohibited the procurement of monopolistic raw materials and eliminated the obligation on dealers not to deal with products of competitors. Antitrust law was also significant in preventing a movement to change the motion picture industry into a giant cooperation. In United States v. Fox Theatres Corporation, et al (1948) the court disabled a merger of two main players in the industry. United States v. National Retail Credit Ass ociation (1933) also used antitrust law to prevent the elimination of almost three hundred and fifty independent retail credit businesses. A strategy to monopolize the retail credit business in the country had been developed and enforced by the credit association. Members were allocated regions where each was to serve as a monopoly. The other small retail credit businesses were to be removed from the business by policies intended at eliminating their source of credit information. United States v. Kansas City Ice Company also used antitrust law to prevent the destruction of small businesses in the ice trade. The Kansas City Ice Company had acquired control of almost 90% of ice supply through contracts to purchase the whole production of ice

Friday, November 1, 2019

The Import-substitution Industrialisation (ISI) Failure in Argentina Essay

The Import-substitution Industrialisation (ISI) Failure in Argentina - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is import substitution industrialization in Argentina that depended on the exchange rate and trade restrictions. They included several exchange rates, import licenses, quotas, protective tariffs, and export taxes. The main aim was to limit external trade and prepared the domestic market for local manufactures. Further, another aim was to protect the domestic industries from stiff competition arising from external industries. The domestic industries were expected to compete internationally. However, these policies typically led to inefficient firms and high cost industrial substitutes. The consequences were diverse, for instance, the local industries could not pose any competitive challenge internationally. As a result, Latin Americans had to pay high prices for substandard goods that could not satisfy their need for quality. Further, Argentina was not able to have foreign exchange to pay for the much required imports; they had spent much time de-emp hasizing exports. ISI had actually led to some economic gains, however, by 1980s, it had been exhausted. During 1980s and 1990s, Argentina was forced to injstitute a number of policies with the aim of opening its economy, decrease the size of the government as well as improving efficiency. Other countries in the Latin America such as Brazil and Paraguay experience government involvement in infrastructure development and in the production sectors. However, the major difference between these countries and Argentina was the issue of funding. This issue was not well addressed in Argentina. The country began to use inflation taxation as the best solution to their problems. Inflation taxation occurs when the government decides to print money to pay the state bills. From the mid 1940s, Argentina witnessed huge difference in its rising inflation figures from the low inflation figures in other countries of the world (Zanetta, 2004). High inflation rates, high fiscal deficits and huge governm ent debts were the main challenges facing Argentina from 1940s to the end of the century. Several argentine citizens argued that the excessive government interference in the economy and the fiscal laxness were not the only problems that led to economic down turn in Argentina. Another challenge that faced Argentina was the relatively trained administrative personnel. The argentine government was not prepared to put in place policies that could lead to stable economic growth. Corruption also affected this problem as well (Birkbeck, 2011). President Peron’s earlier economic gains in Argentina quickly ran into a number of challenges. In 1949, Peron’s government witnessed inflation of about 31percent. This was due to Peron’s strategy of demand expansion through wage increases. At this time, employment was already high. Further, the controlling of imports and the stronger purchasing power siphoned off exports and led to inflation in Argentina (Birkbeck, 2011). In 1949 , Argentina was affected by its first foreign trade deficit since the First World War. In addition, the drought that affected Argentine’s agricultural export further affected argentine’s economy. Further, the terms of trade had started to work against the country. The terms of trade included the rising prices of imports and the decreasing prices of exports. Peron’s approach to economic growth was making the problems worse. For instance, in giving artificially low prices to farmers, to ensure that urban food

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Evil in St.Augustine's Confessions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Evil in St.Augustine's Confessions - Essay Example He proposed many interesting arguments. This theme was important for Augustine as he was very sinful until realized the essence of God and religion. His theory is very valuable as it serves as the basis for Christian knowledge. However, as every theory, the ideas of Augustine is not fully accepted and actively criticized. The presence of good and evil in the world is obvious, but what are the relations between them? Many experts emphasize the conflict between good and evil. The main statement of St. Augustine is that evil is simply the absence of good. This presumption has a long history. It is a well known fact that St. Augustine was initially a Manichean and became Christian only after he realized the drawbacks of Persian Dualism religion- Manichaeism. The main idea of this religion lies in the belief in two gods, who represent good and evil. In this religion we can see the struggle between the light and darkness. St. Augustine scrutinized Christianity and rejected Manichaeism. He claimed that in this world there could be only one god, a good one. God and the world that he created are the main aspects of the philosophy of Augustine and the relations between them deserve special attention. Augustine argued that the world is the creation of God, God does not depend on the world and the world is fully dependent on God. Creating human soul, God initially incorporated in it the striving for happiness as the main goal in a man’s life. That is why a man must use all the abilities of his soul to achieve the happiness. Happiness itself consists in the maximum cognition of God and in this case the human reason becomes the main basis for belief. That is why belief is the foundation and the initial point for cognition. Cognition without the belief is sinful. The supreme form of cognition is divine inspiration given by God to humans, who have strong belief. This

Monday, October 28, 2019

My Mother in Garden Essay Example for Free

My Mother in Garden Essay Alice Walker also uses her own mother as a method to explain the way they are and the creativity they have lived in . She explains, Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and respect for strength-in search of my mothers garden, I found my own. (Walker 675) This quote shows how Walker was able to find her own creativity by seeing her mothers creativity in the creation of her gardens. Walkers mother grew beautiful gardens at every single house they had ever lived in,it was so original in its design, and so magnificent with life and creativity. These gardens inspired Walker to a degree and by viewing her mothers creativity she was able to write and find her creativity in writing. This shows that even to this day, black women are keeping their creativity alive and passing it on to each new generation. Walkers mother kept her creativity alive by creating these beautiful gardens and through her keeping her creativity alive, she has given her creativity to her daughter and allowed her daughter to become the magnificent writer that she is today. Another quote said the mule of the world(Walker pg. 421 paragraph 4), explain how black women who were nothing more than bodies to be used were tread as tools for work or even impregnation . To the world around them, they had no creativity and certainly no intelligence, which forced their creative thoughts into suppression and their bodies into submission. They were not allowed to have creative thoughts and not allowed to think of art, or anything other than the work they were assigned to do, breaking them further and further away from their creative instincts and deeper into the forced labor they had to carry out day in and day out. However, even though they were so beaten down and ruined by the world around them, that creativity was still present within them and, given the chance, they could have been the artists they were meant to be, express themselves freely like so many white men and women of that time period . Alice Walkers essay In Search of Our Mothers Gardens explains the hardships that black women had to endure and their perseverance in maintaining their creativity throughout. Although these women were beaten down and destroyed by the world around them, they still managed to use the little amount of creativity they had in them to create masterpieces and pass down their creativity from generation to generation.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Mirror Neurons and Motor Memory Formation Essay -- Biology

WHAT ARE MIRROR NEURONS? Mirror neurons have been hailed by scientists as the most significant finding in neurology in the past decade, the key to understanding the secrets of human interaction and learning, and as significant to psychology as DNA is to biology. Mirror neurons are a newly-discovered structure of the brain responsible for the firing of neurons during both physical movement and the observation of physical movement. It is these firings during observation of movements that has scientists excited about their relation to learning and interaction. While mirror neurons have been found in both primates and humans, their role in terms of learning and perfecting motor skills is still unclear. The discovery of mirror neurons: The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque monkey was actually an accident during research on the monkeys. It was found that when placing peanuts in front of a monkey, a neuron would be fired whenever the monkey would reach for a peanut. This was to be expected: neurons are fired as signals to muscles to perform the movement. However, when a researcher grabbed a peanut while the monkey was simply watching, the neurons were still fired, implying a neurological link between physical movement and observation. While it is believed that mirror neurons are imperative for monkeys to understand what other monkeys are doing, the believed function of mirror neurons in human brains is much more extensive. Discovery of possible neuron mirror systems in the human brain have been found by the fact that areas in motor cortex become excited when a person observes another do an action. This same motor cortex is responsible for our physical movements, thus offering support that we too contain mirror... ...eversed and reinforced results. The ObsPract Towards data shows that repeated viewing of a movement reinforcing one's baseline does, in fact, translate to a reinforcement of the physical baseline. However, the ObsPract Opposite results show that viewing, and not merely practicing (as in PhysPract) a movement that contradicts one's baseline can affect that baseline. After viewing the contradictory film, the ObsPract Opposite subject's baseline was clearly altered, as now half of his involuntary movements followed the film rather than his previously-established baseline. Though not a complete change of the neural pathway, this clearly demonstrates that viewing an activity can affect one's brain, as was hypothesized. Sources Stefan, Katja et al. October 2005. Formation of a Motor Memory by Action Observation. The Journal of Neuroscience: Vol. 25, issue 41.