See the attachment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

See the attachment - Term Paper Example The Economists Dictionary of Economics defines Microeconomics as "The study of economics at the level of individual consumers, groups of consumers, or firms... The general concern of microeconomics is the efficient allocation of scarce resources between alternative uses but more specifically it involves the determination of price through the optimizing behavior of economic agents, with consumers maximizing utility and firms maximizing profit." Microeconomics is a field of economic study that focuses on how an individuals behavior and decisions affect the supply and demand for goods and services. For the purpose of microeconomics, the actions of individuals, households and businesses are crucial. One key element of microeconomics is price theory. Theoretically, all markets are perfectly competitive, with supply and demand driving prices. However, individuals and groups can directly affect the supply and demand of products and services. Labor economics, for example, is based largely on the analysis of the supply and demand for labor of different types. An economic theory contends that the price for any specific good/service is the relationship between the forces of supply and demand. The theory of price indicates that the point at which the benefit gained from the people that demanded the entity,   meets the sellers  marginal costs is the most optimal market price for the good/service. Labor is a measure of the work done by human beings. Labor economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the market for labor. Labor markets operate through the interaction of workers and employers. Labor economics looks at the suppliers of labor services (workers), the demands of labor services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income(Freeman, 72-76). Market failure is a situation in which a market is inefficient in organizing

Current issue in government contract Essay Example for Free

Current issue in government contract Essay The issue is focus on the financial aspect in the company operations. The law is so strict enough in the budget allocated for any accounts which are voluntary. Below is the issue accordingly; auditing the companys accounts on a voluntarily basis: â€Å"A request from the Secretary General of the Department of Finance to audit, the annual accounts of Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd. I agreed to audit the companys accounts on a voluntary basis pending the enactment of legislation to put the company and its operations on a statutory footing. The audit, which was completed in June 2001, covered a period from the date it commenced operations on December 10, 1999 to the end of the year 2000. Almost ? 2 million was allocated from the Department of the Taoiseachs Vote to meet the costs of the company in the initial period. The committee will see from the accounts that something around ? 560,000 of that went to fitting out the offices which were rented in Blanchard town, ? 400,000 went to pay for executive services for the last four months of the year 2000 and ? 313,000 or so went on consultants fees (Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie)†. Corporate governance arrangements, tendering for executive services, fee levels for executive services, credit card expenses and the tax status of the company. I can expand on the specific issues during the course of the examination if the committee so wishes. The main activities of the company during the period of the accounts were developing an architectural and environmental scheme for the company, devising the structure of a competition for the provision of the various facilities on the site and latterly organizing a competition for the provision. In my own opinion of the issue, I could rather say, if the provision issue provides the enhancement of the development of the company’s progress then it is so much advice able to adopt the audit more profoundly. Then continuous monitoring of the results of the issue to the point of view of the rest of the people concerned to either it resulted to a positive outcomes or not. If it has positive outcomes then it would be better to enhance such auditing issue just for the good of the company and all the concern as well. Other Issues â€Å" 1.) A persons children or other lineal descendants such as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it does not mean all heirs, but only the direct bloodline. Occasionally, there is a problem in determining whether a writer of a will or deed meant issue to include descendants beyond his or her immediate children. While a child or children are alive, issue refers only to them, but if they are deceased then it will apply to the next generation unless there is language in the document which shows it specifically does not apply to them. This issues looks unfair to the new generation to which no how on how comes they are a part of the problem for infact they just come in existing. 2) n. any matter of dispute in a legal controversy or lawsuit, very commonly used in such phrases as the legal issues are, the factual issues are, this is an issue which the judge must decide, or please, counsel, let us know what issues you have agreed upon. In these issues, as long as it is following the legalities it has to be abided. The judge is the one to promulgate laws that was agreed upon standards. So if it is in my case I don’t need to argue at all though it hurts to accept facts but facts must prevail. 3) v. to send out, promulgate, publish or make the original distribution, such as a corporation selling and distributing shares of stock to its initial investors. I will rather agree to this statement, this is for the reason of visibility to everybody of what was going on the promulgation. There should be participation to everybody’s concern. 4) n. the shares of stock or bonds of a corporation which have been sold and distributed (â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com)†. A Problem in Contracts Assurance contracts are a financial technology that facilitates the private creation of public goods and Club goods in the face of the free rider problem. The free rider problem is that there may be actions that would benefit a large group of people, but once the action is taken, there is no way to exclude those who did not pay for the action from the benefits. This leads to a game theoretic problem: all members of a group might be better off if an action was taken, and the members of the group contributed to the cost of the action, but many members of the group may make the perfectly rational decision to let others pay for it, then reap the benefits for free, possibly with the result that no action is taken. The result of this rational game play is lower utility for everyone. â€Å"Assurance contracts operate as follows: In a binding way, members of a group pledge to contribute to action an at least N-1 other members also make the same pledge. If N members sign the pledge (perhaps by a certain expiration date), the action is taken. If the quorum is not reached, the parties are not bound to carry through the action (â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org)†. â€Å"The binding mechanism may be a contract enforced by a government, a contract enforced by a private organization (e. g. a mediator, a protection agency in an anarcho-capitalist society, etc. ), an escrow organization (in such cases, the binding contract is signed by depositing funds in advance, which are later either disbursed according to the contract, or refunded), etc. Many economists argued that the central planning and bureaucratic directions are necessary to produce public goods. There is at least some types of public good can be produced privately by profit seeking entrepreneurs. A new and more powerful form of assurance contract and discusses, without making rigorous is called a dominant assurance contract. This was contracts that exhibit on the goods or product. There are two problems involved in the production of public goods, the preference revelation problem and the contribution problem. One focus we have for sure is on the contribution problem, how to get agents voluntarily contribute to providing the public good. This will limit the analysis of good, which naturally comes in lumpy quantities, or goods for which we can deduce into an efficient size. If a bridge or road or light house is to built we can probably estimate the efficient size from the information about preferences and technology (Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu)†. Under this issue we can include the government contracts which were brought to news for publicly seen. A recent decision by the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has potentially momentous consequences for bankrupt government contractors and their creditors. â€Å"That court, with jurisdiction over the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D. C. , the primary place of business for many government contractors, has held that the debtor/contractor filing for reorganization of the Bankruptcy Code is not automatically entitled to continue performing its federal contracts. Instead, the government can obtain permission from the bankruptcy court to immediately terminate such contracts (Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com)†. This decision may result in contractor being forced into liquidation proceedings, with little remaining for its creditors. In my own opinion it is inhuman to say getting all proceeding of the debtor on which nothing left for her living. This means that, the same saying killing the debtor for not paying all the debts. It’s too much contract not giving any pardon to debtor itself. If I were to judge I have to see to it that I can make adjustment prior to both the company and the debtor. There must be equal distribution. Government Contract Commitment to the client and the promise of innovative solutions is the core of Government Contracts Consultants. Government Contracts Consultants is organized as a small woman-owned, SBA certified HUB Zone company organized to meet the ever-growing needs of business by providing creative information technology, administrative and acquisition management support services and training to government and commercial clients. Our areas of expertise included. â€Å"M3 Federal Contract Practice Group, LLC. (M3) works on behalf of Prime contractors, Subcontractors, and International companies doing business with the U. S. Government. M3 is a highly recognized U. S. Government contract consultant firm comprised of subject matter experts that focus on and comprehend every element of the federal procurement field from business development, writing winning proposals, contract management, contract closeout, and claim resolution. M3 Federal is the only company within the federal procurement field that provides an all encompassing teaming solution for any company willing to get into the federal procurement field or that has been in the federal field and has complex procurement issues to resolve. M3 Federal Contract Practice Group specializes in all areas of government contracting and federal procurement including (â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com): †¢ Contract Claims †¢ Preparation †¢ Submittal †¢ Resolution †¢ Audits †¢ Qui Tam Actions †¢ Fraud †¢ Bid Protests †¢ Proposal Development DoD Facility Clearances †¢ DoD Personnel Clearances †¢ Intellectual Property Rights †¢ Export Regulation Compliance †¢ Commercial Contracts †¢ Joint Ventures/Teaming Agreements †¢ Contract Administration †¢ GSA Schedules This are all gives us the background of what covers the entire contract. The overview of this contact will focus on business. Business will be better off if it follows a standard to avail. Conclusion: We have dealt with five issues that differ in many ways. Issues has an act by the Government that goes beyond the terms of a Fixed Price Contract, Cost Type, Cost Plus Award Fee, Research Development Contract, etc. or any contract termination that has a consequential ripple effect upon the entire contract and/or Contractor, impose a substantial risk to the Contractor and require immediate action by the Contractor to ensure no financial denigration to reputation. In the sense of Government contract it is legal and purposely design to make progress not only the company but also the people at large. It is properly impose so that everybody will understand the agreement agreed upon. But in the case of problem issues it is focusing more often to the people who have not agreed to to their previous contract or might be things they fail to do and the other parties tends to claim and will sewed the debtor for example. Also problems sometimes will come out to be in the case of agreement which was not abided. If I will to make sure that agreement should complied I have see to it , that my opponents could make a written not just verbal agreement to whom I can claim even if problem arise. Reference â€Å"Assurance Contract†. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Assurance_contracts â€Å"Issue†. http://legal-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/issue Government Contracts. 1999. http://www. hklaw. com/Publications/newsletters. asp? ID=70)† â€Å"M3 Federal Contract†. http://www. m3federal. com Purcell. http://www. irlgov. ie/committees-02/c-publicaccounts/020321/Page1. htm Tabarrok, Alexander. March 6, 1996. http://mason. gmu. edu/~atabarro/PrivateProvision. pdf Sovereign acts by the Government, such as dictating to the Contractor, orally or through un-priced or unsigned modifications are a manifestation that you are working to defective specifications and/or performing added scope work. If any of the following conditions apply to your contract, you may be experiencing lost funds and may be entitled to additional mo whether or not the end item meets contract requirements. Any change in this methodology, not covered by a modification, is a delay to the contract and in many cases is considered added scope work entitling the Contractor to be monetarily Contractor must be aware that a rejection, not supported by a specific contract citation is improper, and that a Contractor is not obligated to perform the work until a citation is given or a modification is made to the contract.

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay Empirical software engineering requires the scientific employment of qualitative and quantitative data to realize and improve the software product and process. To conduct empirical studies, the process steering steps to be performed and research strategy are very essential elements [11]. Apart from the traditional method such as experiments, case studies and surveys, the systematic literature review, also called systematic review, is another strategy becoming normally used in empirical software engineering in order to identify relevant empirical studies and combine results to provide reliable information for researcher. This paper aims to provide the general idea of systematic review, process to conduct the review according to the existing guideline and suggestion to improve the guideline. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction to systematic review, explains the reason why systematic review is needed, discusses the differences from narrative review and pros and cons of systematic review. Section 2 explains process of conducting systematic review in detail according to Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. Since there are still some restrictions and gaps could be improved in the guideline, section 3 described those limitations and provides suggestions for improvement. Lastly, section 4 presents some concluding remarks. 1.1 What is Systematic literature review? Systematic literature review is the methodology that researchers use to gather and evaluate available information to specific research topic. The use of a SLR is mainly proposed to provide an unbiased and systematic approach to answer a structural question which focuses to research topics. The studies or articles that used for systematic review are called primary studies, the systematic review itself is considered as the secondary studies. The review process is very formal with strict procedures and sequence. Each step of the process must be well-defined and can be reproducible by other researchers. The selection criterion of primary studies and type of acceptable information are also defined before hand and thoroughly reviews. To identify the primary studies is done by the use of searching technique. All search methodology and selection criteria are transparent for the reader by described in review protocol. Thus, this means other readers can replicate this review in systematic way. Finally, selected primary studies are analyzed and aggregated, in which forming a systematic review for answer the research questions. 1.2 Why Systematic reviews is needed? Originally, systematic review has been introduced in medical and clinical field as a way to help clinical practitioner finds the answer to their question relating to their practices. Before systematic review was implemented, researchers have difficulties in several areas that traditional review cannot satisfy their need. There is no structural way to review primary studies and to ensure that all related evidence has been evaluated. To summarize and evaluate the knowledge from primary studies is very difficult and also because each study may use different design and organization of information may be vary. The result from traditional review is difficult to evaluation if there is conflicting result. Many times, reader of the review have some doubt to the quality of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ work since the review method is not clear and explicit. In addition, due to broad scope of traditional review, the result of the review can easily be bias as the selection choice by reviewer may not be co nsistency without well defined guideline of the selection. Thus, systematic review methodology has been introduced to address those difficulties. Systematic review process have increasingly recognized and replaced traditional reviews in many academic fields including software engineering discipline since it provides effective way to summarize and determine research result to help those researchers in their studies. The researchers can utilize systematic review to design new studies that previously difficult in the past with traditional review. With systematic review, it helps reducing reviewer bias since it uses objective and reproducible criteria for primary sources selection with strict assessment of the resources. It also help s researchers to combine result from several small studies in which can help them conclude more precise and dependable result. Moreover, it assists in identifying gap that researchers could make further investigation [1]. 1.3 Differences between Systematic and Unsystematic review There are several key differences between systematic review and unsystematic review or traditional review. This topic will discuss each difference of these two types of review. First, the search for primary studies of these two reviews is widely different, with traditional review, the scope of primary studies search usually have wide range of coverage with no strict rules how to search. In contrast, the search of primary studies in systematic review is very focused on the topics, researchers need to identify question and predefined search rules that can be reproducible by other researchers. Second, the primary sources selection process is also different. With systematic review, selection process has to be predetermined; researchers must decide which type of resources is acceptable for the review so that the selection process is explicit and transparent, and then select primary sources with these strict rules and criteria. Unlike systematic review, traditional review selection process does not have specified criteria on the selection process and dependent on researchers experiences to select the primary sources. Finally, the evaluation method of systematic review followed strict evaluation rules to evaluate each of selected primary sources while traditional review is variable based on individual researchers methods. 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Systematic review Though there are several advantages that researchers can utilize systematic review method in their studies, there are still some disadvantages remain comparing with traditional review. Researchers will need to aware and select review type that is appropriate with their situation. This topic will discuss both advantage and disadvantage of systematic review. Advantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ One of the major advantages of the systematic review is that it improves the precision and completeness of the result. Because systematic review process uses well-defined method to search and select for primary studies in which will result in less biased sources comparing with traditional review  ¿Ã‚ ½ The systematic review process helps researchers to identify the consistency or inconsistency of the result from its selection process. If result is consistent, it provides strong answer to researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ questions. If not, researchers can identify the gap and then study the variance. This benefit will be difficult to identify through traditional review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Systematic review can apply statistic technique (meta-analysis) to help combining data from more than one primary studies which will give more precise answer to researchers question than using only one primary study. With traditional review, it will be more difficult for researchers to compare and conclude the result from several primary studies to answer their focus question. Disadvantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ Because of its limited focus and predefined method, as it is the advantage of systematic review, it can be disadvantage in some cases. Since the process does not allow comprehensive coverage of the evidence to answer research topics. Thus, researchers must carefully determine their condition and select technique appropriately. In general, traditional review is more useful if researchers want to obtain more broad perspective of their research topic comparing to systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Traditional review is more useful if the researched topic is the brand new topic, since not much primary studies will be available. Traditional review will have more information coverage than systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Due to its strictness in process and methodology, systematic review process usually needs more time and effort from researchers to conduct the review. 2. Systematic review guidelines As first introduced in medical research studied, systematic review has also been brought to software engineering field by B. Kitchenham (2004). Since software engineering research method is less strict and less experimented-dependent comparing with medical studies, the revision is needed in the process of systematic review to adapt to the characteristic of software engineering studies. The guidelines emphasize the distinction to medical systematic reviews and guide the software engineering researchers how to perform a systematic review. There are several activities involves in the systematic literature review and they are specified in the guideline. In this section, I refer to the guideline suggested by Kitchenham [1] which describes a systematic review process into three main phases: Planning the review, Conducting the review and Document or Reporting or the review. Each of them consists of order of stages. The implementation each phase involves iteration, feedback and refinement in order to move to next stage and finally reach satisfactory outcomes as illustrated in figure 1. Please note that there are some more optional stages described in the guideline. But I only refer to the stages that are essential to be performed Fig. 1. Phases in Systematic Review 2.1 Planning the review In the first phase of the review, the final outcome which would be produced is a review protocol. It is considered as a plan which defines the research questions that will be addressed by the review and basic review procedures. The planning phase consists of the following stages:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of the need for a review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the research question(s)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Developing a review protocol  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the review protocol 2.1.1 Identification of the need for a review Before conducting the review, the reasons behind why the systematic review could answer the research questions or could be useful for further must be given. Originally, the need for a systematic review initiates from the demand to fairly sum up all existing information about some phenomenon. Probably the reasons are to represent more general conclusions instead of just obtaining from individual studies, or may be carried out to lead up to further research activities. In particular, Kitchenham notes that the researchers should first make sure that a new systematic review is really needed before starting the review. And they should consider finding any existing systematic reviews relates to the topic of interest. It could be possible that they do not even need a new systematic review if there existed. Besides, the already published systematic review could help construct a protocol. 2.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) This is the most important stage of the systematic review process. The research questions can be seen as a goal of the review since they drive the whole process of systematic review. To be in detail, the search process is conducted with the aim to classify primary studies that discuss the research questions. Furthermore, the data extraction and analysis processes must extract and synthesize the data in such a way to answer the questions. Kitchenham notes that asking the right question is the important issue in any systematic review. She provides some guideline questions to help in construct the correct questions. She also discusses the characteristics and various types of research questions which are proper for the systematic review. For detailed structure of the questions, the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context) criteria are used to define the review question elements. Besides, Kitchenham discusses about the different kinds of experimental designs to derive the acceptable studies. In particular, she argues whether studies based on primary studies of one particular type should be accepted for systematic reviews in software engineering. 2.1.3 Developing a review protocol A review protocol is a concrete plan which details the process and strategy to perform a particular systematic review. A pre-defined protocol is crucial to minimize the possibility of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. The protocol contains all the essentials of the review and some other planning information. The elements described in protocol are: background, research questions, planned search strategy, study selection criteria and procedures, quality assessment criteria and procedures, data extraction strategy, data synthesis strategy and project timetable. Kitchenham suggests that the review protocol should be piloted during its development to find mistakes in the data search procedures, in which it can help to improve the review methodology. 2.1.4 Evaluating the review protocol Because the review protocol is significant for the systematic review, it should be evaluated before execution. The evaluation procedures are done by asking researchers or experts to review the protocol and the agreements among all reviewers must be reached. 2.2 conducting the review This is the execution phase which follows the plan defined in the review protocol. The final outcomes of the systematic review are generated in the end of this phase. To conduct the review, the subsequent stages must be carried out:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of research  ¿Ã‚ ½ Selection of primary studies  ¿Ã‚ ½ Study quality assessment  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data extraction and monitoring  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data synthesis 2.2.1 Identification of research Since the systematic review aims to find all possible of available publications relating to the research question and make conclusion in a fair manner, how to generate the search strategy and publication bias are the critical issues that Kitchenham discusses in this stage. The search strategies defined in the protocol are used to discover the relevant publications. In general, the search strategies are done iteratively by trial searches using different combinations of search terms and in consultations with relevant experts. Typically the search term can be obtained by separate the research questions into individual elements base on PICOC criteria and then create a list of synonyms and relevant words. Another good way to derive the search term is by analyzing the heading of journals. Kitchenham notes that the search strategy should be designed to detect articles that report pessimistic results in order to illustrate researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. Other major concerns regarding the systemat ic review are the completeness and repeatability. Kitchenham suggests that the review process must be transparent and replicable. By providing sufficient detail when documenting the review, this enables the study to be replicable and allows the external reader to evaluate the search terms. And the search terms should be documented properly. 2.2.2 Selection of primary studies The purpose of the selection process is to assess if obtained primary studies have any actual relevance to the research questions. So that we can identify ones that provide direct information for the review. This process should proceed according to the plan defined in the protocol. Kitchenham explains that the study selection is a multistage process. Firstly, base on the research questions, the researchers should define the study criteria to point out the direct relevant studies. These inclusion and exclusion criteria should be piloted to ensure the reliability and correctness when interpreted. The exclusion criteria should be applied first in order to exclude any irrelevant studies. Kitchenham suggests keeping the record of excluded publication with the reason of exclusion just after all unrelated publications have been filtered out. Then the inclusion criteria are applied to remaining studies. Kitchenham also mentions about how to increase trustworthiness of the process in an attem pt to decrease the possibility of bias. 2.2.3 Study quality assessment After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the primary studies, the quality of primary studies is also considered significantly important to be assessed. Kitchenham describes how important of the quality assessment for example, to allow researchers to evaluate differences in the study, and to weight the importance of each study when synthesize the results. She also discusses about the hierarchy of the evidence described in medical guidelines. Base on their assumption, this hierarchy can be used to control the sorts of study included in the systematic review and it is a ground for the initial quality evaluation. To explain, the top of the hierarchy is the evidence from systematic reviews and controlled experiments, which is believed in the medical area that it is more reliable than the bottom level evidence such as the evidence from expert opinions. However, this argument was later proved that it is not always true. After that, Kitchenham describes about how to defi ne and to use the quality instruments. Basically, checklists are used to assess quality in detailed. To construct the checklists, factors that could bias study results are considered. 2.2.4 Data extraction and monitoring Once the primary studies have been selected, the next step is to extract the relevant information. The extraction process should be performed as defined in review protocol which will describe the extraction forms used to collect the data from the filtered primary studies and also the procedure of data extraction. Kitchenham discusses what should be contained in the data collection form. Not only the information to facilitate the answer of review question and the criteria for quality assessment are included, but also the basic information such as name of reviewer, date of performing data extraction and publication detail must be given. Importantly, the extraction form must be piloted before implementation. Kitchenham suggests that there should be two or more researchers perform data extraction independently. And they have to set agreements either by consensus or by using additional researchers to resolve disagreements on the data. If each paper cannot be assessed by at least two resea rchers, some checking technique, such as random sample of primary studies, has to be employed to ensure that the data are extracted correctly. Monitoring data is also important to perform in this stage. Kitchenham notes that multiple publications of the same study should not be contained in the systematic review since it can lead to bias. It is sometimes needed to contact the authors to make sure if those publications refer to the same study or not and also to derive the required information if the data obtained from studies are missing or we need some unpublished data. 2.2.5 Data synthesis Data synthesis aims to gather and summarize the data extracted from selected primary studies. Same as other stages, the activities to be performed should be defined in the review protocol. Base on Kitchenham research on various options of data combination from several types of studies, sensitivity analyses is suggested to perform to find out the impacts on the synthesis results where some studies are higher quality than others. 2.3 Reporting the review The purpose of this last phase is to write the results of the review. The guidelines explain there are three main stages in this phase  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying dissemination mechanism  ¿Ã‚ ½ Formatting the main report  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the report The final report does not only include the answers to the intended research questions, but it also need to specify the dissemination strategy so that the researcher can expose the result efficiently. Kitchenham presents seven mechanisms to disseminate the systematic reviews results. They are: a) Academic journals and/or conferences b) Practitioner-oriented journals and/or magazines c) Press Releases to the popular and specialist press d) Short summary leaflets e) Posters f) Web pages g) Direct communication to affected bodies Basically, the results are reported in two formulas: in a technical report or in a conference or journal paper. After writing the reports, it is necessary to perform evaluation. Kitchenham discusses evaluation technique for each type of reports. One effective technique is organizing a peer review. The structure and contents of report papers can be seen in the Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. 3. Improvement suggestions on Systematic review guidelines This section aims to present limitations and to provide suggestion for improvement on each step of the systematic review guidelines on software engineering. The recommendations are collected base on lessons learned and experiences from various articles which utilize systematic review as literature review technique. The study reported in [7] reveals that one of the significant problems of publishing low quality systematic review is that some people conducting systematic review do not understand exactly what systematic review is and how to perform it. So, they end up with having no obvious research questions, explicit search strategy and so on. The subsequent suggestions should be always kept in mind before starting and while performing the systematic review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Thoroughly review and study the guidelines, e.g. Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guidelines.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Review several SLR examples and experiences to help you understand the process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Make sure you understand each step of activities and be reasonable for everything you do.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Record the decisions made during conducting the systematic review as much as possible since this information will be needed for writing the final report. According to [2], they suggest to perform training on systematic reviewing in the very first step in order to make the reviewers familiar with the specific terms in the area where they will conduct systematic review. Furthermore, this helps the reviewers get better understanding about the review process and activities. 3.1 Planning the review During this phase, the main activities to be performed are specifying the purpose of conducting a systematic review, formulating research questions, developing and evaluating a review protocol. 3.1.1 Identification of the need for a review In order to identify the clear statement of the objective of the review, the researchers should use the checklist to help pointing out the reasons and ensure their needs. Regarding this issue, there are several useful checklists provided in Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. In addition to identify rationale of the review, Staples and Niazi [3] collected information from case studies, surveys, and reports to check if the intended research questions are possible to be answered by systematic review. This is founded very useful since they come to know what is common and uncommon in the research questions. Sometimes people thought the question is normal and feasible to be answered by other researches but in the later phases when they try searching for the related literature, they found that their question is very uncommon and then they have to discard those questions. Another crucial point is that the researchers should try to identify the existing systematic review related to their topics of interested in order to avoid conducting a duplicate review. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find published systematic review in the area of software engineering comparing with medicine. Since there is no powerful scientific database which collects systematic reviews of studies related to software engineering empirical studies, like the Cochrane (www.cochrane.com) which stores a large amount of systematic reviews of medical research. Although there are currently several services providing access to sources of software engineering publications, there are still many restrictions of those publications as followings [17]:  ¿Ã‚ ½ The available studies is limited and disintegrated properly since many researchers in this field are focused on their own style to generate result rather than structural review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is difficult to combine the result of software engineering review because the quality of review is so variable with no agreed standard for systematic review for this field.  ¿Ã‚ ½ There is no guideline that is well-accepted, though some guideline has been proposed but it neither addresses all necessary topics nor provided sufficient detail. 3.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) As mentioned before, the research questions are specified as part of the review protocol and will be used to construct the search string for searching related primary studies. Basically they will be revised repeatedly during piloting the review protocol and should not be changed when the protocol is committed. The most important point when formulate the research questions is to make them as obvious and concrete as possible. Other than structuring the question by using the PICOC criteria which is shown in [1], it is essential to specify rationale to formulate a particular question. Tabulate the question and purpose such in table 1 could be helpful. Table 1. Research question Research question Purpose RQ1: RQ2: Brereton et al [4] recommend that during protocol construction, researchers should anticipate to refine their research question both for increasing their understanding and making the automated search more effective. There are several systematic reviews, for example the  ¿Ã‚ ½Systematic literature review of guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews ¿Ã‚ ½ in [4], which firstly define a few research questions. Later on, after investigation some information sources, those questions are extended in more detailed questions Regarding [5], the research questions are not only the questions that needed to be answer by the review, but also the question providing some idea in the area of such a topic for better comprehension. This is also confirmed by Staples and Niazi [3] since their research questions are part of a larger research project. By performing the systematic review on these questions will help them understand better in the project background. By selecting clear and narrow research questions, it helps confining the scope of a systematic literature. [4] proposes another method that may help to scope the research question. That is a systematic pre-review mapping study. The idea is to map out sorts of studies relating the systematic review question have been conducted. The mapping process can be considered as a quick data extraction but the studies described are not very details. The further information about mapping study can be found at [12]. 3.1.3 Developing a review protocol As explained in the section 2, the protocol provides information of the plan for conduction the review, including, for example, the procedure to be performed, the search strategy for selecting primary studies, the allocation of reviewers to some specific activities and the quality assessment criteria for evaluate primary studies. Lacking of a protocol, some process such as the selection of primary studies or data analysis and synthesis may be motivated by researcher bias [14]. And because one of the key features of the systematic review is repeatable, a well-documented review protocol is needed to guarantee the reproducibility of the review. Many experiences on systematic review show that developing a review protocol is an iteration process that needs several revisions to get the complete protocol. Thus, the researchers should expect protocol changes, take a long time and allot appropriate time for it. Brereton et al [4] suggests all members in systematic review team should participate actively in constructing the review protocol, in which helps all of them get insights about the protocol and understand the process of data extraction. Additionally, piloting the review protocol is highly suggested to be performed. Not only because it supports discovering misunderstandings and mistakes in the data extraction and aggregation process, but also it may specify that the researchers need to change the method planned to deal with the research questions. As mentioned above, the search strategy must be documented in the protocol, enabling the reader of a review to evaluate how accurate and complete this is. However, due to the restriction of existing software engineering search engines that are not well-supported systematic reviews like in medicine, the software engineers should conduct resource-dependent searches. In particular, they might have to use different search string for each searchable sources which have different form interfaces and search syntaxes [4]. The followings are recommendations to improve the search strategy.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Searches should be performed to title as well as abstract [6]. However, before making a decision to accept or reject a primary study, searching on summary and content is founded very useful. Since mostly in software engineering, the abstract and titles are not much indicative [6] and not so dependable for primary studies selection [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Any search strategy should be made up of multiple keywords, and it is essential to use a various combinations of terms to get the very successful search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Using more standardized vocabulary will promote the search results [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ For some software engineering topics, the publications in related fields should be searched as well. i.e. information systems, psychology, economics, quality, artificial intelligence [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the most out of relevant publications, synonyms of the main search term should be used for search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is likely that adding other more general terms to synonyms of the key search term detects more relevant studies. However, this tends to increase the number of irrelevant articles as well. So, it should only be used when there are a number of systematic review resources available in detecting and rejecting irrelevant articles [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is not necessary to search on all the search fields because it is not considerably benefits the response and also requires a big effort [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Construct search strings using Boolean  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½AND ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to link the key terms and  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½OR ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to group synonyms [4]. An example could be the following: (experiment OR  ¿Ã‚ ½empirical study ¿Ã‚ ½) AND ( ¿Ã‚ ½software cost estimation ¿Ã‚ ½ OR  ¿Ã‚ ½software effort estimation ¿Ã‚ ½)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Try searching from synonyms to the term representing the study type need to search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Include search fields that typically contain the key terms of the study type such as title and abstract [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the key search terms. ,beak down the research questions into single words pertaining to the types of study that will help answer the question, technology of interested, and the response test [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ After deriving the key search terms, using various combinations of those terms to perform trial searches [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the year of the paper first published in the search string can help lessen the amount of irrelevant articles [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when using the Basic or Advances search forms because some search engines may produce different results even though the key searched terms are the s

What Doth A Leader Make? :: essays research papers

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites How come a leader becomes a leader? In this article, we are not interested in the historical process but in the answer to the twin questions: what qualifies one to be a leader and why do people elect someone specific to be a leader. The immediately evident response would be that the leader addresses or is judged by his voters to be capable of addressing their needs. These could be economic needs, psychological needs, or moral needs. In all these cases, the needs are judged to be serious enough as to threaten acceptable existence (emphasis on the word â€Å"acceptable†). Mere survival is rarely at risk (famine, war, plague). On the contrary, people are mostly willing to sacrifice their genetic and biological survival on the altar of acceptable existence. To be acceptable, life must be honourable. To be honourable, certain conditions (commonly known as â€Å"rights†) must be fulfilled and upheld. No life can be honourable without food and shelter (property rights), person al autonomy (as safeguarded by freedoms), security, respect (as expressed through human rights) and influence upon the future (civil rights). In the absence of even one of these elements, people tend to gradually become convinced that their lives are not worth living. They become mutinous and try to restore the â€Å"honourable equilibrium†. They seek food and shelter by inventing new technologies and by implementing them in a bid to control nature and other, human, factors. They rebel against any massive breach of their freedoms : free speech has provoked more bloodshed than it has ever prevented. The seek security : they legislate and create law enforcement agencies and form an army. Above all, people are concerned with being respected and with influencing their terms of existence, present and future. The two may be linked : the more able a person is to influence his environment, to mould it – the more respected he is by others. Leaders are perceived to be possessed of qualities conducive to the success of such battles of restoration. Some signal that the leader emits keeps telling his followers : I can increase your chances to win the war that you are waging in order to find food and shelter / respect / personal autonomy / security / an enhanced ability to influence your future. But WHAT is this signal? What information does it carry with it?

Daphnia Heart Rate – Lab Report

Caffeine is a stimulant which is derived from leaves, flowers and seeds of plants. The plant uses the caffeine as a way to repel insects as it is used as a natural pesticide by paralyzing and killing certain insects. It is used as a stimulant to human the central nervous system by increasing the stimulatory of the neurotransmitters, however high levels of caffeine to the body can cause effects of insomnia, stress, anxiety, weight loos or high blood pressure. In this investigation the effect of caffeine was observed on Daphnia [figure 1] a water crustacean, commonly known as a water flea, normally found in a aquatic areas like ponds, lakes, streams or rivers. They were used because this species of water fleas has a transparent exterior and it is easier to observe the heart rate of the Daphnia through the microscope.VariablesIndependent variables:Same volume different concentration of caffeine. Dependant variables:Heart rate of Daphnia.Controlled variables.Time.Temperature.Size of Daph nia.MethodEquipmentCavity slide.Small piece of cotton wool.Pasteur pipette.Caffeine at different concentrations.Microscope.Tally counter.A piece of wool is teased and made into a small loop.The woollen loop is placed onto a cavity slide.A Daphnia is picked out from a beaker containing the Daphnia with a pipette and then placed in to the loop on the cavity slide The Daphnia used have been left to refrigerate so that the heart rate has been lowered. Immediately after placing the Daphnia onto the slide add pond water was added or the first concentration of the caffeine but adding the same volume each time just different concentration. The Daphnia was placed onto the microscope with a low lighting. Using the tally counter the heartbeat of the Daphnia is counted for 30 seconds. When finished the Daphnia was placed into a new beaker of water. When repeating a test a different Daphnia is used.PredictionThe concentration of the caffeine in the blood of Daphnia will determine the heart rate of the Daphnia. It will be directly proportional to each other, meaning that the increase of the concentration of the caffeine will give an increase of the heartbeat. This prediction can be justified with the fact that caffeine is a stimulant drug that affects the central nervous system, speeding up your metabolism and increasing alertnessResultsCaffeine Heart Rate (BPM)Test 1         Test 2        Test 3         Test           Average 0                     196              190              194           194 0.1                 120              172              140           144 0.2                 120              172              140           144 0.3                 272              316              278           288.6 0.5                 300              306              306           300Ethical issuesAlthough there are no laws of protection of Daphnia, they are still living organisms that need to be treated with reverence, keeping them exposed to environments that they are not naturally acquainted with would deem unethical, so putting them back into pond water when finished would be proper. It could be argued by animal rights or religious views that experimenting on any kind of living is wrong as they also probably feel pain, although they may not suffer in the same way as higher animals they should be correctly returned to their natural habitat after observation.Risk assessmentPreventionCaffeine Concentrations in eyes or spillages onto clothes. Caffeine concentrations could splash into the eyes causing irritation, this could be prevented by wearing goggles. Also to prevent close being damaged by spillages a lab coat should be worn.MicroscopesHeat from the microscope can be harmful to the Daphnia, keeping the brightness low wonâ₠¬â„¢t kill any Daphnia. Glass ware breaking. Handling any glassware for example beakers or petri dishes with care. Wearing goggles or a lab coat will help towards preventing any accidents.Source of errorBecause we had to count the heart beat ourselves it is unreliable as we weren’t able to click fast enough or clicked one to many when there wasn’t a heartbeat or miss heartbeats all together. -Each time a different concentration of caffeine was added a different volume of distilled water was also added each time. As well as different volumes of caffeine. -A different Daphnia was picked out every time a new test was carried out, so they may have been different age/size/gender, this can cause different results. -The timing method was not precise each time a test was carried out as the 30 seconds was either just under or just over. -Because of handling the Daphnia from the beaker to the petri dish to a light under the microscope could put the Daphnia under pressure giving them a raised heart beat any way.ConclusionOur results show a curve of 0% concentration being higher than 0.1% and 0.2% concentration, this could be because of a source of error, as the graph shows a positive correlation of the increase of the caffeine percentage of concentration to the heartbeat of the Daphnia. The results did not fully match with the prediction made as the caffeine concentration % at 0.2 was less effective than 0.1, this may have been a human error, but other than that it seemed to support the prediction as the heart rate tends to increase from 0.2 onwards as there is a considerable increase from 0.2 to 0.3. Withthe sources of error affecting the results making them inaccurate, we could improve the reliability of the test by improving the count of the heartbeat of the Daphnia or using bigger animals so that the heart is easier and quicker to find. Doing trial runs or repeating the test more times could help towards the reliability of the test.ReferencesEn.wikipedi a.org. 2013. Caffeine. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013].En.wikipedia.org. 2013. Daphnia. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnia [Accessed: 15 Oct 2013].

buy custom Compensatory Damages and Medical Malpractice essay

buy custom Compensatory Damages and Medical Malpractice essay Medical Malpractice (MM) can be defined in diverse ways. One definition suggests that MM is a type of negligence whereby injuries caused to the patient results as from a medical practitioners act of failing to exhibit a reasonable degree of skill, diligence and care in discharging his/her professional duties (Sage Kersh, 2006). The word medical practitioner is used in this case to include doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, dentists, medical technicians and other providers of health care. Moreover, reasonable skill, diligence and care refer to what a reasonable practitioner would do, when confronted with a medical problem, in the ordinary course of events. An ordinary medical practitioner is therefore used as a yardstick for determining liability in Medical Malpractice lawsuits. Medical Malpractice may also refer to the act of medical practitioners exhibiting negligence while discharging their duties. In law, a patient (plaintiff) is entitled to several remedies for damages caused to him or her by a negligent doctor (Frank Lindsey, 2008). This implies that medical practitioners should take extreme caution while pursuing their duties; otherwise they would be held liable in negligence. In a negligent medical malpractice case, two types of damages are available; punitive damages and compensatory damages. Worthwhile noting, medicine, as a profession does not solely entail duty to cure or even deliver high quality results from a medical treatment. Rather, it entails the act of providing medical services that meet the predetermined standards in the society, or in the case of a medical specialty, the generally accepted standards of that area of specialization. Moreover, given that a medical professional is not a science of accuracy, medical practitioners are not expected to always be right when making a diagnosis. It is possible for a misdiagnosis to exist even after proper and accurate medical examinations and evaluations are conducted by a skilled practitioner, while observing reasonable diligence and extreme caution. The impression created here is that not all unsuccessful medical treatments can actually amount to Medical Malpractice. However, misdiagnosis arising from the failure of medical practitioner to get the relevant history about a certain medical complication, and or the subs equent failure to conduct relevant tests and examinations, or even the failure to observe illness symptoms that are observable by an ordinary medical practitioner automatically amounts to Medical Malpractice. The scope of this paper deals with compensatory damages only. However, to create a better understanding of Medical Malpractices a prior understanding of the differences between the two damages is indispensable. Punitive damages are offered only in special circumstances where gross misconduct and intentional negligence can be proved on the side of the defendant (medical practitioner). The rationale behind offering these damages is to prevent a medical practitioner from repeating the same act at a future date. It is rather ironical; but true, that a patient can maintain an action against a doctor for failing to deliver the agreed quality of performance. This means that if a doctor promised a patient that he would handle a certain medical complication successfully, he would be held liable for failing to do so. In such a phenomenon, the patient can successfully claim for punitive damages. It is a bit interesting that in a typical Medical Malpractice lawsuit, a doctor might be held accoun table for treating a patient without his/her consent. In such scenario, this amounts to wrongful touching and an action for punitive damages can successfully be maintained by the patient. On the other hand, compensatory damages have been derived from the word compensate which means to stand good for the loss. As such, compensatory damages are types of medical liabilities in Medical Malpractices cases designed to compensate the patient for the losses suffered; either financial or otherwise in a medical treatment. Such damages are broad to cover things like financial loss, pain, suffering, mutilation and consortium related losses. Compensatory damages can further be divided in to two other sub-categories; genral damages and actual damages. Actual damages seek to compensate the patients for expenses met by money from their own pockets and also for other financial losses. More specifically, actual compensatory damages compensate losses arising from: hospitalization bills and medical bills incurred while treating a patient; wages lost while a patient remains out of work as he recovers; and costs of home nursing help including relevant costs viz. cost of a wheel chair. On the other hand, general compensatory damages deal with losses arising from: lost opportunities, loss of consortium, pain and suffering, salary and wages that a patient is likely to lose in the foreseeable future, and medical expenses a person is likely to incur in the future. It is evident that the scope of general compensatory damages goes beyond things that can be quantified in monetary terms to dealing with other more complex aspects. General Types of Compensatory Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases Loss of Income This is a type of compensatory damage whereby a patient is entitled to compensation in the event that he has injuries (from Medical Malpractice) that prevent him from working. Inability to work is a kin to loss of income. The rationale behind this compensatory damage is that if an employee cannot work for a certain duration of time, simply because he has sustained injuries, he is entitled to compensation for the wages lost during that period. Furthermore, a worker is also entitled to compensation if he misses work in search for treatment. In the extreme cases; where the injuries suffered are very serious, a person can maintain a legal action for "loss of future earnings capacity." Moreover, if the injuries results to death, members of the deceaseds family can sue for the income the worker would have gained in his entire work-life. When the compensations are made at present, the cumulative income that the deceased would have been awarded must be discounted to the present value using a n appropriate discounting factor. Loss of consortium A Medical Malpractice may leave a victim in a situation of severe pain, and or permanent disability. Disability may make a patient to lose consortium i.e. love and affection. Personal injury laws recognize such damages as compensable. Such disability may frustrate romantic and recreational activities that are enjoyed by two spouses together by making them impossible to be enjoyed. It is imperative to note that some faulty diagnosis may make a husband impotent thereby unable to consummate a marriage. Compensatory damages for loss of consortium can also be maintained when a medical treatment; Medical Malpractice, causes some sorts of disability to a spouse thereby making him or her unable to discharge duties relied upon by the other spouse. Ordinarily, damages offered for loss of the consortium are usually lesser than those offered for pain or suffering. Damages for loss of the consortium are usually awarded in extraordinary circumstances. Pain and suffering Negligence on the part of a medical practitioner may cause a patient more pain and suffering than before. Pain is a personal feeling and therefore difficult to quantify. However, the severity of pain can be measured by things like the use of painkillers, the length and also the frequency of treatment, recovery time as well as types of treatment. It is difficult to accurately tell whether a medical treatment has indeed subjected a patient to more pain and suffering. In some instances, witnesses who were well aware of the patients condition before the treatment would be required to testify before a court of law. The logic behind this is to compare the patients condition before and after the treatment. However, an action against suffering and pain can be maintained successfully if negligence can be proved on the part of the medical practitioner. Lost opportunity Additionally, a negligent medical practitioner may offer a patient a medical treatmment that causes him injuries. Such injuries may lead to the subsequent loss of an opportunity by the patient. For instance, a faulty injection; which amounts to Medical Malpractice, may make a patient lose his leg (may necessitate the chopping off of the leg). Suppose the patient in question was a marathon runner. This automatically means that he loses the opportunity of continuing with his career. However, extreme caution should be taken while seeking to sue for lost opportunity. It should be recorded that such claims will only succeed if there is a sufficient evidence of a lost opportunity. Moreover, speculation claims can actually ruin the possibility of successfully maintaining a legal action for lost opportunity (Frank, 1994). The Legal Process for Claiming Compensatory Medical Malpractice Damages If a person is involved in a situation whereby an error by a medical practitioner resulted to Medical Malpractice, he/she may seek to maintain a legal action against the practitioner (Richard, 2005). If the court decides in favor of the patient, he; the patient, may be compensated for medical expenses, lost wages among other losses. Otherwise, a Medical Malpractice lawsuit may be too expensive for the patient and his family. It is imperative to note that Medical Malpractice cases are usually complex. With this regard, the plaintiff will in most cases seek the help of a practicing attorney to help in the process. The process of claiming compensatory damages must be characterized by some elements viz. duty of care, breach of the duty, causation and damages. These are elements that must be identified on the part of the medical practitioner for compensatory claims to succeed. Duty of care Here, the court seeks to determine whether the doctor owed the patient a duty of care. This is the first condition precedent for any compensatory claim to succeed. There is a general rule that a doctor owes his patient a duty of care. However, this is only the case when there exists a doctor-patient relationship otherwise not. The standard of care described in this case is that of an average doctor. With this regard, whether an excellent doctor, while discharging his duties, would have committed the same error or not is immaterial. Breach of the duty of care Revealing that a doctor owed the patient a duty of care is only a necessary but not a sufficient move. The patient needs to prove that the doctor actually breached the duty of care. Otherwise, he would not succeed in suing for compensatory damages. A doctor is said to have breached the duty of care if he acted in a manner that a reasonable doctor, in his position, would not have acted. What is a reasonable doctor depends on circumstances of the case in question. It is important to note that specialists are more likely to breach the duty of care than ordinary physicians. This is because specialists are usually held accountable to higher care standards than general physicians. Causation After determining that the doctor actually breached the duty of care, the next step in claiming compensatory damages is to prove that as a result of the doctors breach of duty, the patient suffered injuries. The rationale behind causation is that a claimant must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the breach of duty by the doctor was the direct cause of the injuries that he suffered. Otherwise, he would be unsuccessful in claiming compensatory damages. If it is held that more likely than not i.e. a probability of 51%, that the doctors breach was the direct cause of the injuries, then a patient must be awarded compensatory damages (Paul, 1991). Damages The next step is to determine whether the breach of duty caused the patient economic damages e.g. lost income, medical expenses among other expenses. However, a patient can also be compensated for a damage that cannot be quantified in monetary terms viz. pain and suffering. In rare circumstances, he can also be awarded punitive damages. Buy custom Compensatory Damages and Medical Malpractice essay

biography on Lady Diana essays

biography on Lady Diana essays Diana, Princess of Whales, formerly Lady Diana Frances Spencer, was born on July 1st 1961 at Park House near Sandringham, Norfolk. Lady Diana was educated first at preparatory school, Riddlesworth Hall at Diss Norfolk, and then in 1974 went as a boarder to West Heath, near Sevenoaks, Kent. At school she showed a particular talent for music, as an accomplished artist, and dancing and domestic science. She won the schools award for the giving maximum help to the school and her school- fellows. She got married to Prince Charles at St. Pauls Cathedral in London on July 29th 1981, in a international televised ceremony. Lady Diana had two sons. Prince William Arthur Phillip Louis, and Prince Henry Charles David. In December 1992 it was announced that the Prince and Princess of Whales had agreed to Lady Diana was so involved in the official duties of the royal family. Although Lady Diana was renowned for her style and was closely associated with the fashion world, patronizing and raising the profile of younger British designers, she was best known for her charitable work. During her marriage, the Princess was president in over 100 charities. Lady Diana did much to publicize work on behalf of the homeless and also disabled people, children and people with HIV/Aids. In December 1993, the princess announced that she would be reducing the extent of her public life in order to combine a meaningful public role with a more private life. Lady Diana visited many countries including Germany, U.S.A, Pakistan, Switzerland, Hungary, Egypt, Belgium, France, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nepal so she can help other charities. The Year before he death, Lady Diana was an active campaigner for the ban on the manufacture and use of land mines. In January 1997 she visited Angola as part of h ...

The Catholic Inquisition Essays

The Catholic Inquisition Essays The Catholic Inquisition Essay The Catholic Inquisition Essay The Catholic Inquisition is best defined as a crusade by the church to rid the world of heretics. However, the scope under which these measures were carried out is a testament to the power that the Catholic Church exercised over both the ruling class (kings, lords, and other nobles) in addition to the lay people and commoners. Prior to the 1 lath century, the nobles had increasingly dictated church affairs, as they were making secular choices for bishops. This was important for the nobles to do because a bishop would often be the governmental administrator for a town, in edition to the spiritual leader. However, the papacy began to chafe at this external interference, and more so this external exertion of power. Thus, a spirit of reform came about, spearheaded by Pope Gregory VI. He laid out assertions of power that were to be uniform across the Catholic world, with such edicts as: The Pope alone would appoint or depose bishops The Pope alone would have his feet kissed by princes The Pope alone could depose emperors None of the Popes Judgments could be overturned, except by he himself No one could Judge the Pope The Popes decisions were Infallible With such sweeping powers, plus the supposed moral high-ground, the Church now sat as equal If not greater to any monarchy. As time went on, these powers evolved Into a formal court known as the Inquisition which would serve as the means to exercise these powers against enemies of the Church. In the beginning of the 13th century, these courts could try those accused of being heretics. The accusers did not have to face the victim, thus leaving room for abuses and false accusations. Also, a confession or a denial could equally result In punishment; with the former resulting In a flogging or confiscation of property and he latter resulting In torture and/or death. The true Insight Into the relationship between the church and society Is that no other Institution, regardless of Influence or power, could have carried out such a nefarious means of accomplishing Its objectives. Only the church, with the supposed backing of God, could commit such travesties and not be overthrown. However, both nobles and commoners, In constant fear of delve consequences, had no choice but to submit and obey. The Popes decisions were infallible sat as equal if not greater to any monarchy. As time went on, these powers evolved into a formal court known as the Inquisition abuses and false accusations. Also, a confession or a denial could equally result in punishment; with the former resulting in a flogging or confiscation of property and the latter resulting in torture and/or death. The true insight into the relationship between the church and society is that no other institution, regardless of influence or power, could have carried out such a nefarious means of accomplishing its objectives. Only the church, with the supposed backing of commoners, in constant fear of divine consequences, had no choice but to submit

Modern technologies, social media, and media freedom Essay

Modern technologies, social media, and media freedom - Essay Example It is certain that the next platform shall offer better communication links between two or more peoples. In addition to that, communication may be faster as compared to the current communication speeds. The Internet as a modern technology has led to the rise of the social media (social networking) networks such as FaceBook, Tagged, Hi5, Twitter, MySpace etc. The social media in turn has its positive and negative influences on media freedoms/freedom of expression globally. Based on that notion, this paper shall seek to analyse how social media has affected media freedom. In addition, the paper shall also look into the way forward with regard to social media and its impacts. The social media has its positive and negative effects which we all have to live and deal with as a society/ globally. One of the positive effects of social media is that the information exchanged is in real time (immediately). However, this is the same aspect that has a negative impact with regard to social media existence. A good example of social media gone badly and affecting media freedom is when there were riots in London and Twitter was apparently the modern technology that was being used to â€Å"propagate† the riots. Apparently, Twitter was alleged to have â€Å"mobilized† the riots which initially started in Tottenham and due to the posting of pictures in Twitter, the riots spread very quickly to neighbouring cities such as Walthamstow, Enfield, Waltham Forest and Brixton (â€Å"The Huffington Post,† 2011). Self expression: Different people have different ways in which they express themselves. Some people may express themselves in a manner that deems fit to them alone but not to everybody. Hence, a lot of people think that they can express themselves as much as they want without being held accountable for what they say or do. According to a survey that was conducted on the awareness of the legal consequences surrounding social media postings, approximately 65%

Music and Bible in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues Research Paper

Music and Bible in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues - Research Paper Example Music also provides the context for which the narrator finally sees his brother for who he is at the end of the story while playing jazz music. The unnamed narrator of ‘Sonny’s Blues’ engages an estranged and strained relationship with his brother throughout the story. While each is not trying to out-do the other in terms of impressing other people or gaining acclaim of any kind as is the case in most conventional sibling rivalries, it is their opposing lifestyles and attitudes which are fighting against each other as the narrator cannot accept his brothers actions and constantly attempts to coax him into a more traditional and ‘normal’ lifestyle like his own as he does not understand Sonny’s self-destructive behaviours, â€Å""Tell me," I said at last, "why does he want to die? He must want to die, he's killing himself, why does he want to die?" (38). Though the narrator has largely ignored his troubled younger brother for many years, when he does reach out to him while in jail, their lack of communication is evident as the narrator realises that he does not really know his brother at all. His mother asks him to watch out for his brother, "You got to hold on to your brother," she said, "and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening and no matter how evil you gets with him" (104), but has not done so for years. At the beginning of the story, the narrator sees news of his brother’s trouble in the newspaper and it is only because of this report that â€Å"Sonny became real to [him] again† (Baldwin 3). The narrator enjoys a conventional and respectable lifestyle – he is married with a family, maintains a full-time teaching job and is a respected member of the community in which he grew up. In stark contrast with this, the younger brother Sonny, has engaged in drug use since a very young age and has been in trouble with the law consistently. Feeling extremely trapped in his life by fa cing obstacles typical of that of a black man in Harlem during the 1960s, Sonny represents the problems faced by that community at that particular time (Reilly 56). The dynamics of this relationship is greatly reflective of the biblical story of Cain and Abel from the book of Genesis (Tackach). In the story, Cain is portrayed as being extremely sinful and kills his brother Abel. Though an extreme comparison, the fundamental differences between Cain and Abel and the tensions this causes, reflect the difference between the narrator and his brother as Sonny appears to be corrupted with temptation and sin while the narrator enjoys a highly moral, acceptable and conventional lifestyle. From the very beginning of the story right through to the end, music plays an extremely fundamental and important role in this narrative. It is through music that the narrator finally understands his brother, feels his passion and sees his unique and positive qualities. When he first sees Sonny after his s tint in jail, he initially does not recognise him â€Å"Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light† (Baldwin 35). It is not until the very end of the story, when he and Sonny go to a jazz club

The Value and Importance of Training Research Paper

The Value and Importance of Training - Research Paper Example In the year 1980, the company had abandoned a joint service with British Airways, in which BW was supposed to fly a concord to Ireland and Shannon with packages of FedEx onboard, subsequent to which FedEx would fly the packages to the different points of delivery in Europe. FedEx Corp later on acquired Kinko's Inc. to expand its retail access to the public in general. Being a technologically driven organization, its competitive strength lies in the technical aspect, as well as skills and expertise that it nurtures. The project seeks to bring forth the different training approaches that can be implemented in the organization for sustaining its competitive strengths and position in the market. Along with this, it provides a description of the best ways of applying the training strategies in the organization (FedEx Corp, 2012, p.7-8). ... Some of the critical trends noted in the recent training programs in organizations are the adoption of a performance consulting strategy; constant monitoring and evaluation of results to monitor performance; and a just-in-time approach in training. The current trend in such activities is identified as being in alignment and associated with the long-term strategic objectives of the organizations. They are focused on the strategic and competitive strengths of the organization and are aimed at accomplishing long-term goals and objectives (Laird, Naquin, & Holton, 2003, p.77). The present training and developmental programs in FedEx must first address the gap or discrepancy between the firm’s current level of performance and that which is desired. This includes making analysis of the basic level of performance of employees according to their detailed job description and key result areas (KRAs). Since FedEx is largely a technologically driven organization, it must update itself on the current trends in technology and services. Training must necessarily concentrate on the technical competencies and skills of employees and delivered as per their performance levels. This also includes taking into account the forecasted technical skill requirements in the organization. Another current trend in training programs noted in organizations is that they are largely concentrated on the behavioral aspects in addition to skills building. This is also geared towards adding value to the competitiveness of the organization at large. Behavioral modifications are desired in FedEx to bring about greater tenacity and motivation level at the workplace, stress and time management, team building,

Pattern Recognition Using Neural Network Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Pattern Recognition Using Neural Network - Essay Example Pattern Recognition or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a pipelined process consisting of several stages in proper sequence. They are shown in figure 2. Each character is represented as a combination of pixels. All pixels together make a huge feature vector. Total number of pixels is equal to wh where w is the number of pixel in width side and h is the pixels present in height. Figure 3 depicts the way pixel forms one particular character. xi is the fraction of ink in pixel i. Classifier must be adaptive (generalize) in nature so that it can be able to recognize patterns encountering first time. A typical character image is 6464 pixels large and for each such pixel 256 grey values are required making feature space large. For training a recognizer hence, requires huge amount of data to fill this vast space. In order to reduce the dimension space Principal Component Analysis is mostly used which transforms into lower dimension space (Yeung & Ruzzu, 2001). OCR also should make a distinguishing between 'O' and '6'. Figure 4 shows one case example. If t/b comes smaller that means letter is 'O' otherwise '6'. A good algorithm must define the tolerance level (T) adequately. Other examples of such cases are letter 'q' and digit '9'. There are various algorithm or computer processes available for pattern recognition. One such example is Brian Sanderson's Pattern Recognition (PR) Algorithm. Every patter is identified according to three systems of notation:333 Conway Thurston Notation. P3 The International Union of Crystallography notation. S333 The Montesinos Notation First identify the maximum rotation number whether it is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6. Then check any mirror is present or not (m). Is there any indecomposable glide reflection (g) And finally whether there is any rotation axis on the mirror present or not. Other than this Genetic Algorithm also works as PR. Selection of patterns play an important role in PR process as it determines the accuracy of algorithm, its learning time, and the necessary number of samples. Best selection of feature plays important role at the time developing classifiers. The problem comes out more difficult when number of features become very large. Genetic Algorithm (GA) gives better result in that. As they are effective in rapid global search of large, nonlinear and sparsely spaced points, GA is applied for feature recognition problem. It combines different optimization problem into a single formulation problem (Morita). Most effective approach today for OCR is Neural Network based recognition. Neural Network: An Overview A Neural network is a massively parallel distributed processor made up of simple processing units, which has a natural propensity for storing experimental knowledge and making it available for use. It resembles the brain

Inclusive Education, Boy's under-achievement Essay

Inclusive Education, Boy's under-achievement - Essay Example With reference to the term ‘inclusion’, it has long been regarded as the most important responsibility within education and society to ensure that children with special needs are included rather than excluded. Special educational needs (SEN) is the term currently extensively used in education and care setting to refer to the special needs of children who need an extra support in their life. It has been realised as one of the morally wrong and socially discriminating issue to isolate children due to their physical or learning needs compared to the majority of other children and the most approving endeavour by a practitioner in the area is to embrace the move towards inclusion and to promote this practice. â€Å"The term ‘special educational needs’ was used as an all-encompassing term to describe any child who needed some extra support. Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty that calls for special educational provision to b e made for them.† (Tassoni and White, 4) Children with a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age or those with a disability which hiders them from using the educational facilities are included in this special category. There have been several attempts to correct the term with which the special needs of these students are referred and the concept of inclusive education is the result of the long plea to change the education system in order to allow all children to enjoy fair and equal access to education. While focusing on the children with special needs, the campaign for inclusive education extends to a wider range of children who have been traditionally discriminated against. "The concept of inclusive education signals a significant mind shift. Instead of expecting children to 'come up to standard' or otherwise be segregated, the emphasis is on schools and settings to adapt and be flexible enough to accommodate each and every child." (Tassoni and White, 10) This paper deals with underpinning conceptual frameworks of inclusive education distinguishing between competing models of inclusion. As the term 'inclusive education' has become so widely used and abused, it has almost lost its great meaning. It has long been a topic of debate and the label and the language used to refer to the concept have become serious concern today. "Its application to everything from school effectiveness to civil rights to political manifestos renders it vacuous and susceptible to those critiques which accuse it of masking inadequacies. For the cynics, inclusive education means abandoning labelling and special resourcing for individual needs in order to cut costs in the name of equality." (Corbett, 10) Inclusion is not a new concept as the ideals behind inclusive education have deeper roots in liberal and progressive thought. Whereas the earlier school system focused on the segregation of students with special need, the current system is inclusive in nature. Following the works of the child welfare pioneer Elizabeth Burgwin, there was significant shift in focus where educationalists insisted on an inclusive strategy rather than segregation. Most probably, this inclusive thought of the early years prospered and provided the philosophical and organisational foundation for the school system of the contemporary period. "An inclusive philosophy has ultimately risen again and prospered. It has been able to succeed because it chimes with the philosophy of a liberal political system and a pluralistic culture - one that celebrates diversity and promotes

YES Is todays China a communist country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

YES Is todays China a communist country - Essay Example This was to contend the existence of inequality in the distribution of means of production and the oppression of the working class. He explained the important role played by the state and religion in placing people in classes. The main issue is to determine whether communism is practiced in China up to date. According to Books LLC communism was introduced in China in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong and spread in the country and enjoyed the support of the majority (130). Communism affects all sectors in a country including the legal system, the social life of the citizens and the political system as explained by Mortimer (46). The country has been under the leadership of a single party since the introduction of communism. Mao Zedong introduced the system and remained in leadership till death. After this the leadership style began to change as power was not vested on one person. China practices violation of human rights for example the death penalty is still exercised, police brutality and discrimination against women (Mortimer 49). The issue can be addressed by application of socialism and effecting major changes in the governance of the country. The government should not interfere with the judiciary to ensure that justice is practiced. The government should respect the rights of the minority and major reforms should be implemented in this sector. The violation of human rights remains systematic and is highly practiced in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). According to Ding the violation of human rights involves the control on expression and association, ill treatment of prisoners and death penalty (59). The government continues to maintain political influence over the legislature resulting to an abusive and arbitrary judicial regime. There is a problem when it comes to the fundamental human rights in the country. There is evidence of police brutality as the citizens are beaten by

Pattern Recognition Using Neural Network Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Pattern Recognition Using Neural Network - Essay Example Pattern Recognition or Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a pipelined process consisting of several stages in proper sequence. They are shown in figure 2. Each character is represented as a combination of pixels. All pixels together make a huge feature vector. Total number of pixels is equal to wh where w is the number of pixel in width side and h is the pixels present in height. Figure 3 depicts the way pixel forms one particular character. xi is the fraction of ink in pixel i. Classifier must be adaptive (generalize) in nature so that it can be able to recognize patterns encountering first time. A typical character image is 6464 pixels large and for each such pixel 256 grey values are required making feature space large. For training a recognizer hence, requires huge amount of data to fill this vast space. In order to reduce the dimension space Principal Component Analysis is mostly used which transforms into lower dimension space (Yeung & Ruzzu, 2001). OCR also should make a distinguishing between 'O' and '6'. Figure 4 shows one case example. If t/b comes smaller that means letter is 'O' otherwise '6'. A good algorithm must define the tolerance level (T) adequately. Other examples of such cases are letter 'q' and digit '9'. There are various algorithm or computer processes available for pattern recognition. One such example is Brian Sanderson's Pattern Recognition (PR) Algorithm. Every patter is identified according to three systems of notation:333 Conway Thurston Notation. P3 The International Union of Crystallography notation. S333 The Montesinos Notation First identify the maximum rotation number whether it is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6. Then check any mirror is present or not (m). Is there any indecomposable glide reflection (g) And finally whether there is any rotation axis on the mirror present or not. Other than this Genetic Algorithm also works as PR. Selection of patterns play an important role in PR process as it determines the accuracy of algorithm, its learning time, and the necessary number of samples. Best selection of feature plays important role at the time developing classifiers. The problem comes out more difficult when number of features become very large. Genetic Algorithm (GA) gives better result in that. As they are effective in rapid global search of large, nonlinear and sparsely spaced points, GA is applied for feature recognition problem. It combines different optimization problem into a single formulation problem (Morita). Most effective approach today for OCR is Neural Network based recognition. Neural Network: An Overview A Neural network is a massively parallel distributed processor made up of simple processing units, which has a natural propensity for storing experimental knowledge and making it available for use. It resembles the brain

YES Is todays China a communist country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

YES Is todays China a communist country - Essay Example This was to contend the existence of inequality in the distribution of means of production and the oppression of the working class. He explained the important role played by the state and religion in placing people in classes. The main issue is to determine whether communism is practiced in China up to date. According to Books LLC communism was introduced in China in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong and spread in the country and enjoyed the support of the majority (130). Communism affects all sectors in a country including the legal system, the social life of the citizens and the political system as explained by Mortimer (46). The country has been under the leadership of a single party since the introduction of communism. Mao Zedong introduced the system and remained in leadership till death. After this the leadership style began to change as power was not vested on one person. China practices violation of human rights for example the death penalty is still exercised, police brutality and discrimination against women (Mortimer 49). The issue can be addressed by application of socialism and effecting major changes in the governance of the country. The government should not interfere with the judiciary to ensure that justice is practiced. The government should respect the rights of the minority and major reforms should be implemented in this sector. The violation of human rights remains systematic and is highly practiced in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). According to Ding the violation of human rights involves the control on expression and association, ill treatment of prisoners and death penalty (59). The government continues to maintain political influence over the legislature resulting to an abusive and arbitrary judicial regime. There is a problem when it comes to the fundamental human rights in the country. There is evidence of police brutality as the citizens are beaten by

I deserve to be a Scholar Essay Example for Free

I deserve to be a Scholar Essay To pass Education in UST is really an achievement for me. Before I took up the examination, I was so scared because, even though I am confident that I can manage to answer the exam, I am still afraid that I may not be able to have a slot because I am one of the applicants of the last batch. After passing the examination, I really regret that I failed to reserve my slot between the date I received the results up to the deadline of reservation. So, the moment the Dean of Education allowed me to have a late reservation for my slot in UST, I really felt absolute happiness and thanksgiving that finally, I am able to study on a decent and known school. Being asked by my classmates to teach them everytime they get trouble in studying makes me glad and pleasured. But you know what? There is a side that makes me confuse of choosing the course, Education. Why? Because many of my relatives, my father, and even the parents of my classmates said that Education doesn’t suit my intelligence. I deserve more. A higher degree and profession. They always recommend me medicine but well, I do like medicine and I really dreamt to be a doctor someday back to childhood days but its not the course I really prioritize right now. It’s not what do my heart and soul says. Maybe because I know that we cannot afford it and in reality, it takes too long to graduate. Moreover, I am finally decided to myself that I want to teach because I w as inspired by my late Mommy Joyce who is a LET passer and to my teachers that’s looks like enjoying the work they have. And in addition I really love teaching that’s why its final that I will focus in BS Education to be my course in College. It seems that teaching is a really nice profession and I imagine of going to a classroom full of students and be able to teach them and afterwards developed a professional one someday. To be offered such kind of scholarship makes me overwhelmed and confident of myself. It makes me think that I am so gifted to be given such glorious award. As I thought, I don’t need a scholarship because I am thinking that more people deserve this more than I do and I already credited my scholarship for being the Valedictorian so I am thinking that maybe, it’s already enough. But then, I realized that working abroad to earn a living for your two daughters and as well as aming for them to study in a good school is such a hard job for m y mom. So I was thinking that this opportunity might be a way to lessen the burden to my mom and to be given such additional scholarship would be a really big help for my college degree. Most of my mother’s childhood friends told me that my parents are really good in academics that’s why they think I inherited my intelligence form them. My mother also shared some of her memories and hardships she’d encountered and suffered when she was a student. She experienced being a laundrywoman to earn money for her to finish college and it was really hard for her not to eat sometimes just to save money for her projects and learning materials. According to her, there will be no success if you haven’t faced hardships at all. She always asked me to study hard for us not to have the same fate as hers. Because of her I am so persistent to study hard and finish my studies. I told myself that if I will be able to study without her financial support, it will be a big relief for her. Since my sister is studying as an Engineer at Mapua, she said that if I push studying in UST, her salary won’t be enough to sustain both of us as well as the expenses in our house and daily living. I cannot ask for my father’s help either cause he already have a new family and what he can get from his job is just enough for them. I believe that sholarships are granted for those students who has a potential and I am confident that I am one of tho se because back in highschool days, I have maintained a high and well good grades, participated in various organizations, active in school affairs, helpful to the teachers, loyal to my alma mater and even showed cooperation in my community. I always worry of having low grades and I really work hard in every little thing I do. I remember those nights that I am wide awake studying my lessons and reviewing for examinations. I am also a consistent honor student of my school. When I was in highschool, I always wanted to be a part of those programs and contests. Among my classmates, I am usually the one sent by my school as a representative on some events and contests like quizbee. In fact, I was awarded to be the Most Active of my class. I also received some special awards from our City Mayor for the completion of the days being an Imus Youth. I recite well during class hours and I even tutor my classmates before finals. With those moments and achievement I had in my highschool days, I a m proudly saying that I deserve to have this scholarship and I know that my characteristics made me a competitive applicant for this. That’s why, if blessed, I want to have this scholarship for I know that I am responsible enough, committed to my studies and my aims and goals in life would always bring me to success because I wholeheartedly waste my full and best effort in doing everything to achieve what I want. I never surrender and stop until I get what I want and I always do my best just to maintain high and good grades. Through this scholarship, I would be able to achieve my dream of becoming a professional teacher someday that’s why I will do everything so that I will not lose this scholarship. Most of all, whith the confidence and determination I have as a student, I believe that granting me this award won’t be a waste at all.