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Saturday, August 31, 2019

Exhibition Learning Essay

Art is controversy. Even with words and visuals, it cannot be explained in its full essence. It can be felt, it can be understood, but it cannot be explained by anyone. It can be explained by the artworks themselves and for each individual, the meaning is different. One of the most common ways to showcase different forms or kinds of art is through exhibitions. An exhibition is a display, a presentation of something for the public. For an artist to have a solo exhibition, or to be included in a major exhibition, it is already an honor. However, in putting up or organizing an exhibition, many things have to be taken into consideration. Exhibitions may focus on one artist, one group, one genre, or one theme and they may include anything from paintings, drawings, sculptures, videos, or interactive pieces. Usually, when exhibitions feature different artists, the works have the same theme or the genre. For example, one exhibition which Chen Quilin participated in centered around the effect on Chinese culture by urban development. Now, there are major reminders on how to put up a good and effective exhibition. One technique is to use only one size for print art, and also putting captions on the artworks. The size is important so that the appearance is consistent and organized. The grouping of the artworks must be according to artist or to theme. Another factor is the use of leaflets, brochures or pamphlets. This is very helpful so the visitors will have something to take home and perhaps use as future references. These may contain facts about the artists, their works, and schedules for exhibitions. The equipment to be used is also a major factor. Every small detail concerning the materials must be well planned out and thought of. Tables, decorations, technical equipment must be organized and placed in the area in such a way that it is not distracting. For example, some use panel boards to mount the photographs. Some exhibitions also prefer to hang paintings on the walls. For sculptures, where to place them is indeed very tricky. The venue must have an artistic feel, and yet, still look organized. The placing of the artworks must be creative, not crowded, and yet in such a way that the audience will be able to see everything in the exhibition and not miss a single artwork. Another tricky part in exhibition is the promotion and the publicity associated with it. The target audience must be decided, as well as how to invite the public to come and view the exhibition. The effect of the publicity is mostly due to an attention-grabbing and effective display, or banner. It is also recommended that the hosts entertain the visitors and encourage them to ask questions and to look at the other pieces. Planning an exhibition is definitely not an easy task. There are more factors to remember, aside from the ones stated previously. The process of planning must not be rushed, or else the quality of the exhibition might suffer. It is important to understand every single detail as to ensure the success of the exhibition. It is also fulfilling to plan exhibitions because of the privilege to show the public the different pieces and interpretations of art that the artists have created. Works Cited Stenning, A. â€Å"How to Put Up the Best Exhibition Display. † 18 August 2008 Articlesbase. 6 May 2010 â€Å"How to set up an exhibition† May 1999 Protetch, M. â€Å"Chen Quilin 2007† 5 April 2007-5 May 2007 One Art World. Your Dictionary.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Irac Case Brief State V. Mcneely

State v. McNeely 358 S. W. 3d 65 MO. (2012) Facts: The defendant was stopped by a Missouri state highway patrolman for speeding and during this stop the trooper noticed that the defendant was displaying all the tell-tale signs of being intoxicated; blood shot eyes, slurred speech, and the smell of alcohol on his breath. This stop then changed from being a speeding stop to a DWI investigation. The trooper had the defendant get out of his truck and perform standard field sobriety tests.The defendant did poorly on the test so the trooper arrested him for driving while intoxicated then, he asked him to take a breathalyzer which the defendant refused. The trooper then drove the defendant to the hospital to obtain a blood test to verify its alcohol content level. Once at the hospital the defendant refused the blood test but the trooper demanded it be done anyway, without securing a warrant, based on what he believed was a recent change in the law since time is critical to blood-alcohol con tent levels.The blood sample was analyzed and the defendant’s blood alcohol content was well over the legal limit. The trooper believed at the time that officers no longer needed to obtain warrants for nonconsensual blood test, due to a change in Missouri’s implied consent laws FN2. This belief was based on an article written by a traffic safety resource prosecutor. The defendant moved to suppress the results of the blood alcohol test as evidence, citing that the blood draw was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.The trial court sustained the motion. The Circuit Court, Cape Girardeau County and state appealed. Issues Did the State Trooper violate the defendants Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizures with the warrantless blood draw? Is the natural dissipation of blood-alcohol evidence alone a sufficient necessity to dispense with the warrant requirement under the fourth amendment? Rule The Fourth amendment to the United States Constitution ensures the right of people to be secure in their person†¦against unreasonable searches and eizures. This includes not only a person’s dwelling but also includes the intrusion of a person’s body when no emergency exists. The United States Supreme Court has continually stated that† any searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by a magistrate are per se unreasonable under the fourth amendment subject only to a few specifically established and well delineated exceptions. The limited exceptions to drawing a person’s blood without consent would rest on special facts where the officer reasonably believed there was probable cause that incriminating evidence would be found and that if the time needed to obtain a warrant would endanger life, allow a suspect to escape, or they were faced with an emergency situation where delaying to get a warrant would lead to destruction of evidence. A nalysisThe testimony of the Trooper is that the defendant was under arrest for DWI after showing obvious signs of being intoxicated and then failing the field sobriety test when he refused the breathalyzer and blood test. The trooper, who has had over 17 years of experience in obtaining warrants for blood draws, believes that taking the defendant to the hospital for a blood test against his will, without a warrant, is justified because of an article recently published stating that the law had been changed.The article was written by a traffic safety resource prosecutor and was published in â€Å"Traffic Safety News† referred to a Supreme Court case where a limited exception to the warrant requirement for taking nonconsensual blood samples in alcohol related arrests was allowed for special facts, that an officer would be faced with an emergency situation where delaying to obtain a warrant would threaten destruction of the evidence.The trooper in this case was not faced with spe cial facts because there was no accident to investigate and there was no medical attention needed to anyone so there was no delay that would threaten the destruction of the evidence. There is also no evidence that the trooper would not have been able to obtain a warrant if he had attempted to do so.No case in Missouri supports a per se rule that the natural dissipation of blood-alcohol is alone sufficient to constitute exigent circumstance that would permit officers in every DWI case to take blood from a suspect without consent or a search warrant. Conclusion The defendant’s Fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches of his person was violated. The trial courts judgment to suppress is affirmed. The case is remanded.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

A Case Study of Woolworths Samples for Students â€Myassignmenthelp

Woolworths is the biggest retail supermarket in Australia. It operates efficiently in the retail industry to achieve its principal goal of providing customers with high-quality goods at affordable prices, (Pod.com, 2008). Its effective strategies have seen it compete favorably with other companies in the Australian retail industry such as Coles. However, it is apparent that this company does not operate in isolation. It interacts with both internal and external environmental variables. It is, therefore, prudent to analyze its inner and external environment so as to identify its key stakeholders and their influence on the success of the company. In 1878, Frank W. Woolworth established the first Woolworths store in New York. This store later failed and forced him to change location and establish another store in Lancaster, (Woolworths Holdings, 2016). In 1879. This is how Woolworths emerged. It later expanded its stores throughout the United States, Australia Mexico, and Germany, among other countries, (Pod.com, 2008). This supermarket mainly deals in retail products. It conducts proper strategic planning that has ensured its remainder in the retail industry. These are units within an organization that perform independently to contribute to the profitability of the whole entity. Some strategic units in Woolworths include Woolworth’s general merchandise and clothing unit, financial services unit and Woolworth’s foods, division. These units can be evaluated regarding profitability, (Woolworths Holdings, 2016). The BCG model can be used to analyze these units, whereby, the underperforming units can be retrenched, and profitable units advanced further Woolworths mainly deals in general merchandise, clothes food and financial services. Its primary objective is to enhance customer satisfaction, by making its clients to derive a value of their purchases, (Woolworths Holdings, 2016). Its main market is derived from clothes market, consumables and general merchandise. It has stores in several countries including Australia, US, UK, Germany, and Mexico among other states. The analysis of the external environment of this supermarket can better be done using strategic tools of analysis like PESTEL analysis and Porter’s five forces. This analytical tool assesses the present position of the entire industry where the firm operates. This tool can, therefore, be used to analyze the Australian Industry as follows: Bargaining power of buyers: The negotiation capability of consumers in the retail industry in Australia is relatively higher. This is because several supermarkets are dealing in similar items, making the consumers have a large variety of goods to choose from, (Arli, Dylke, Burgess, Campus & Soldo, 2013). Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The Australian retail market consists of many players such as Tesco, Coles, and Aldi. It is therefore highly concentrated, and some particular big players have dominated the market share, (Humerston, 2013). This increases the level of bargaining power of suppliers to a certain threshold, and as such, it may be concluded that the bargaining power of suppliers is moderate. Threats of new entry: when the market is not very concentrated, there is always a threat to new players entering the market. They then create a stiff competition with already established firms, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014) In Australia, larger companies have made it difficult for the new players to quickly enter into the industry, (Hummerston, 2013). This reduces the overall threat of new entry into the retail industry.   Rivalry among existing firms: The current companies always tend to pose threats to each other by devising better ways of approaching competition. These may include innovation, creativity and utilizing unique technology, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014). In the Australian retail industry, there are few existing competitors like Coles, Wesfarmers, Asda and Woolworths among others. These supermarkets are competing against each other to achieve larger market shares, (Moscardo, Lamberton, Wells, Fallon, Lawn, Rowe & Renouf, 2013). Therefore, the threat of rivalry among the existing firms is relatively higher. The threat of substitutes: Substitutes refer to products that can be used alternatively, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014). The supermarkets in the Australian industry deal in similar retail products, (Hummerston, 2013). Therefore, the consumers have no substitutes rather than consuming the retail products. The threats of substitutes in the industry are therefore relatively small. This is another essential analytical tool that can be used to evaluate Woolworths’ external environment. The application of this tool in assessing the external environment can be made as follows: Political: Political factors refer to government policies and regulations which affect proper operations of an enterprise, (Dockalikova & Klozikova, 2014). The political conditions affect the operations of retail stores in Australia including Woolworths. For instance, the Australian federal government launched a competition policy which bars established free players like Woolworths and Asda in eliminating competition, (Keith. 2012). The increasing dominance of these traditional supermarkets has resulted in developing retailers struggling to succeed in the industry. Economic: Economic factors refers to the market variables that affect the performance of a firm, (Mialon, Swinburn, Allender & Sacks, 2016). The decline in the economic conditions in Australia has hit the performance of Woolworths. Apart from the decline, some economic indicators- fluctuations in the value of currency, and the decline in value of the Australian dollar have negatively influenced Woolworth’s’ international operations, (Ulle, 2014) Social: For a company to operate efficiently, it must be compliant with the social expectations of the community on which it operates, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014). The present trend in the Australian market indicates that there are high expectations of the community on social responsibility, (Hummerston, 2013). The companies operating in this country must, therefore, ensure they are socially sensitive. Woolworths must, therefore, take social initiatives that would ensure it is viewed as socially responsible. Technological: With the growth of technology and internet marketing, companies must ensure that they devise technologically updated ways of marketing and distributing their products, (Docklikova & Klozikova, 2014). Woolworths, in particular, has considered the utilization of green refrigeration technology so that it can store the perishable products for longer time durations. Environmental: Firms must always examine the impacts of their operations to the environment. This enables them to avoid environmental pollution, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014). Woolworths is particularly affected by environmental factors in that its petrol and wine making businesses are executing adverse effects to the environment, (Keith, 2012). This has adversely impacted on the profitability of this company. Legal: Legal factors include rules and regulations imposed by the government that businesses have to comply with, (Mcguire, 2014). In Australia, the imposition of the carbon tax has affected Woolworths and the retail industry in general, (Hummerston, 2013). Taxes reduce the profitability of businesses as they have to pay a certain percentage of their income to the government. Woolworths interacts with both external and internal stakeholders. The evaluation of the impacts of internal stakeholders on the success of Woolworths can be conducted through internal analysis. This can be done by utilizing SWOT analysis model. This is a tool that can be used to examine the threats, opportunities, strengths, threats and weaknesses a firm may be exposed. The analysis of Woolworths using this tool can be conducted as follows: Strengths: Strengths refers to the unique capabilities of a company. The power of Woolworths lies on the fact that it is a market leader in the retail industry in Australia, (Mcguire, 2014). It also has reliable sources of capital and secure resources. The utilization of technology such as green refrigeration also acts as a strength of this enterprise, (Ulle, 2014). The company has also developed an excellent market position, making the customers acutely aware of its presence. Weaknesses: Weaknesses are the aspects of the business that are not entirely established. Competitors may usually take advantage of these shortcomings so as to gain a competitive advantage, (Helms & Nixon, 2010). In the case of Woolworths, some of its weaknesses may include failure of its brand to attain competitive advantage and negligible presence in the global market, when compared with other enterprises like Tesco. It also entered the online market at a later time as compared to other companies, (Keith, 2012). These weaknesses have led to the development of a stiff competition between Woolworths and other companies. Opportunities: Opportunities are gaps in the market that accompany can fill so as to gain a competitive advantage against its rivals, (Helms & Nixon, 2010). The Australian retail industry shows an excellent growth capability. Factors such as advancement in the supply chain, computerization, and consumer lifestyle changes have influenced the ability of retailers and provided a chance for growth, (Ulle, 2014). Woolworths have also tried to adopt multi-option marketing approach so as to keep up with the diverse customer needs. Technology is a major determinant of competition. Although this company has tried to embrace technology through such aspects as virtual marketing and Woolworths’ app, the Woolworths app has not been customized to address all the customers’ requirements. One of the growth opportunities available for this company is that it should customize the Woolworths app so that the clients can be able to locate the exact shelf in the store where a product is located. The company has enough resources and qualified technical staff. It should, therefore, grow in this line so as to gain a competitive advantage against its rivals such as Coles. Threats: Threats refer to the factors that may necessitate a company to be quickly thrown out of the market. Threats mainly sprout from competition, (Mcguire, 2014). In the Australian retail market, there exists a high level of competition posed by other companies such as Coles and ASDA. These companies represent a lot of threat to the development of Woolworths, as Woolworths has to administer strategies that would ensure it remains competitive. Apart from this, government intervention in the market significantly affects the growth of Woolworths within the Australian retail market, (Hummerston, 2013) The success of Woolworths in Australia critically depends on three factors; the emergence of real online businesses such as Amazon, the rise of companies that conduct marketing traditionally and online, and growth of real traditional firms. The key success factors of this entity are based on its strengths. These may include: Strong brand: Woolworths has established a strong brand name in Australia. It, therefore, has a pool of loyal customers who purchase its products, (Powell, 2016). Customer loyalty is the primary determinant of the success of any business as it ensures that the clients develop a preference to the products of a particular company. It’s a well-established company: Woolworths is well-established and known in Australia as a big retailer, (Feigin, 2016). This makes its products known to the customers. Many customers have therefore developed trust to its products making it able to sell its goods quickly in the market. It has also produced a steady customer based and a significant market share, which enhances its profitability through the sale of a large volume of retail products, (Keith, 2012). Excellent Reputation: Reputation refers to the respect a company develops among its clients. This can be accomplished by providing high-quality products that are accepted by the customers, (Hubbard, Rice & Galvin, 2014). Woolworths has developed a strong reputation among its clients in the retail market, (Ulle, 2014). This has made it more successful as compared to its competitors as customers develop trust and preference to its products. In conclusion, it is apparent that Woolworths is an open organization that interacts with both internal and external environmental factors. Its internal environment can be analyzed using SWOT model, while its external environment can be evaluated using Porter’s five forces and PESTEL analysis. The company has critical success factors such as brand reputation and market reputation. It is also old-established in the market making it have a strong customer base in the market Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R., & Soldo, E. (2013). Woolworths Australia and Walmart US: Best Practices in Supply Chain Collaboration.  Journal of Economics, Business & Accountancy Ventura,  16(1). Dockalikova, I., & Klozikova, J. (2014). MCDM Methods in Practice: Determining the The significance of PESTEL Analysis Criteria. Proceedings of the European Conference On Management, Leadership & Governance, 418-427   Feigin, L. M. (2016).  The Effects of Protests and Boycotts on a Brand and its Reputation: a Case Study on Woolworths and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)  (Doctoral dissertation,The IIE). Helms, M. M., & Nixon, J. (2010). Exploring SWOT Analysis–where are we Now? A Review of Academic Research from the Last Decade. Journal of Strategy and Management, 3(3),15-251  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hubbard, G., Rice, J., & Galvin, P. (2014). Strategic Management. Pearson Australia.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hummerston, J. (2013). Options and Directions for the Continuous Improvement of the AustralianMeat Retail Qualifications  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Keith, S. (2012). Coles, Woolworths and the Local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific Journal ofRegional Food Studies, 2, 47-81. Mcguire, K. (2014). SWOT Analysis 34 Success Secrets-34 Most Asked Questions on SWOT Analysis-What You Need To Know. Emereo Publishing.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mialon, M., Swinburn, B., Allender, S., & Sacks, G. (2016). Systematic Examination of Publicly-Available Information Reveals the Diverse and Extensive Corporate Political Activity of The Food Industry in Australia. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1-13. Doi: 10.1186/s12889- 016-2955-7 Moscardo, G., Lamberton, G., Wells, G., Fallon, W., Lawn, P., Rowe, A. & Renouf, M. (2013). Sustainability in Australian Business: Principles and Practice. Wiley-Blackwell.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Poid.com. (2008, February 4). Woolworths Supermarkets. Retrieved January 4, 2017, from Poid.com website: https://www.poidb.com/groups/group.asp?GroupID=153 Powell, S. M. (2016). Journal of Brand Management–Yearend Review 2016.  Journal ofBrandManagement,  23(6), 601-611.   Ulle, J. (2014). Microenterprise; Marketing B2b from a Manufacturers Point of View Thesis 2014. Woolworths Holdings. (2016). Woolworths Holdings Ltd 2016 Strategic report. Woolworths Holdings. Retrieved 2017, from https://www.woolworthsholdings.co.za/downloads/2016/WHL-Integrated-Report-2016.pd

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Business Improvement Districts from public finance perspective and its Research Paper

Business Improvement Districts from public finance perspective and its case study - Research Paper Example There is another type of district similar to Business Improvement District. It is called the Community Benefit District. It is pretty much like Business Improvement District only that property owners have to pay any additional taxes. Business owners do not vote to pay any additional taxes in Community Benefit Districts. In a gist, Business Improvement Districts are very lucrative. They offer services such as cleaning and cleansing of streets, provision of security, capital improvements, streetscape enhancement, pedestrian construction and marketing the area. All aforementioned services are offered to ensure that the district retains its attractiveness. These services are supplemental to those already offered by the municipality. The paper will be a rationale paper discussing Business Improvement Districts in the context of New York city. It will discuss various financing tools and the economic impact created by business districts. Why they are important? Why do they attract attention? Why kind of economic advantage do they bring with them? All these questions will be answered in the context of BIDs of New York. More-over there will be some more insight into un-even service delivery outside the district and eventually there will be a discussion on one district within NYC. That district will be thoroughly district in terms of ways in which it raises money and the services provided by that district. That district will be used as a case in New York City. The economist Magazine projected Business Improvement Districts as â€Å" the best hope for getting parts of America’s cash strapped cities working again† . These districts if properly identified and worked upon give that vicinity a new lease of life and face all together. Business Improvement Districts have attracted tremendous amount of interest. They have triggered a great deal of excitement amongst city governments and urban policy makers world over. They have started looking into Business

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Project report-Ikea Estates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Project report-Ikea Estates - Essay Example As far as the marketing plan is concerned, strategic and marketing concepts such as the SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, Segmentation, targeting, positioning and the 4 P’s of marketing has been used (Kotler, 2001, p. 25). As mentioned earlier Ikea, the master of self assembly, flat pack furniture manufacturer entered the prefab housing business. The company joined forced with a construction firm name Skanska in the year 1996. The prefab houses developed were named as ‘Boklok’. The houses were made available in Finland, England, Denmark and Norway (Kohler and Fetters, 2006, p. 54). Prefabricated housing has attracted many businessmen, architects and politicians over the years. The factors behind the attraction are the promise of an expedient, affordable housing at a relatively modest price. However, many perceive this as a solution provided o solve the housing crisis. Prefabrication can be defined as the assembling of components of a construction structure in a factory unit and transporting the completed the assemblies to the designated site. This approach contrasts the traditional approach of construction, where the raw materials are taken to site and assembled to develop construction structure. The principle of prefabrication is applicable on the grouping of similar tasks using assembly line techniques during the availability of skilled workers. Prefabrication is very effective in the presence of modularization. Application of prefabrication was pursued in construction industry to counter the aftermath of the world war two crises, especially in the UK, US an d Japan market. However, over the years the success of prefabricated housing has been questioned over the factors like quality, social status. Therefore the traditional housing still reigns supreme over the prefabricated housing techniques (Biswas, 2011, p. 105). In UK the construction housing is mainly dominated by the brick related construction methodology.

Monday, August 26, 2019

How Managers Measure Organizational Effectiveness Research Paper

How Managers Measure Organizational Effectiveness - Research Paper Example own to cover the facets of organizational performance combined with the internal performance outcomes, which are directly influenced by the results of the effort (Zhou, Hong & Liu, 2013). The determination of the organizational effectiveness is thus an essential role of every organization in the 21st century that is driven by the desire to succeed and achieve the internal goals of the business. At the time an organization is formed, the managers must secure a continuing supply of resources from the organization’s environment. This will enable the business to operate continuously and achieve long and short-term goals. In this paper, a discussion of the important approaches that managers use to determine the initial mix of resources to adopt during the creation of the business will be discussed. The measure of organizational effectiveness is an essential process for any startup organization that desire to grow and enter new markets. As a result, either a number of tools have been developed for the measurement of effectiveness theoretically or empirically which make up part of the entire process of effectiveness determination. The judgment of performance in an organization is influenced by the group willing to determine the effectiveness, performance and the ability of the organization to achieve its objectives. Three approaches have been developed for the determination of effectiveness of an organization and can be utilized in the measure of new businesses whose operation parameters are still limited (Guest & Conway, 2011). In measuring the organizational effectiveness through the determination of the external resource approach, the ability of a business to secure, manage and control the valuable resources and skills from the external environment is measured. In resource based view, the firm’s ability to effectively utilize the available resources is measured to determine the likelihood of profitable performance in the future. In this approach, two assumptions

Monitoring U.S. citizens' phone conversations to detect potential Essay

Monitoring U.S. citizens' phone conversations to detect potential terriorist threats - Essay Example Such provisions threaten the quintessential American way of life. Liberty and freedom have always been a fundamental part of the American ethos and values. The very spirit of American political life and popular expectations simply do not allow the state to extend its sway beyond a point where it not only interferes with the personal and professional lives of people and individuals, but rather tempers with the privacy of their private and professional phone conversations. National security is really very important. However, the concerns for national security cannot be allowed to irrationality expand to a level where they start hampering the normal activities of the citizens. The act of monitoring the phone conversations of citizens is also unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment rights of the citizens, which constitute a part of the Bill of Rights (Dripps, 2007). Superficially speaking, the Fourth Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America intends to prot ect the citizens from illegal search and seizures. Surprisingly, the very purpose of this Amendment was to check the abuse of general search warrants in the American Revolution (Dripps, 2007). In the historical Katz v.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Impact of Mobile Phones and Tablets on Modern Business Coursework

The Impact of Mobile Phones and Tablets on Modern Business - Coursework Example This research will shed light on the potential and role of smartphones and tablets in increasing efficiency and effectiveness in organizations and to evaluate the attitudes of organizations towards the use of tablet and mobile phones in their operations and determine whether these attitudes and discernments differ among companies. Data will be gathered through questionnaires among 20 respondents. The data will be analyzed qualitatively. Over the past few years, technology has tremendously changed to include advanced gadgets such as mobile phones and tablets. These gadgets have been used for numerous purposes including entertaining and connecting friends and family. Tablets and phones have been fitted with numerous applications with different uses. The use and demand for smartphones and tablets have grown tremendously. The increment of tablets and smartphones across the world has created a complex environment and an opportunity for organizations. Tablets and smartphones have gained popularity over the past few years because of their comfort of interaction with the user and their entertainment uses. Numerous studies have suggested that tablets and smartphones have been primarily used for playing video games, watching videos and movies and reading books. However, tablets and smartphones are not entirely used for entertainment purposes. Since the functionality of smartphones and tablets is comparable to that of desktops and laptops, they have more undiscovered uses that can be beneficial not only to people but also to organizations. Presently, most organizations across the world have adopted the use of mobile phones and tablets to aid in their operations. Many of these organizations have employed smartphones and tablets to aid their business operations hoping to attain benefits from such usage. However, few of  these organizations understand the role and potential of mobile phones and tablets in business.  

Saturday, August 24, 2019

To what extent does a social phenomenon, like the 2008-to-present Essay

To what extent does a social phenomenon, like the 2008-to-present economic recession, influence or cause health behaviors - Essay Example A personal experience with regard to the effect of the economic crisis on health behaviors provided me with a clear picture of this issue. I still clearly remember when a friend’s father lost his job and the stress of tough financial conditions almost drove him mad. He worked in a clerical position at a factory that went bust during the recession in 2009. My friend had two younger siblings, who were 4 and 8 at the time. And like all children, they too wanted to have the same things that everyone else their age at school had. And thanks to the gadget race these days, children do want a lot then they used to. There is the Xbox, the Sony PlayStation and of course, the latest offerings from Apple to drive everyone wild with consumerism. Pair that up with an empty pocket and a mounting sense of despair and helplessness, and anyone would go out of their mind. My friends dad drunk himself to oblivion, but thank fully he was rescued after family and friends recognized the signs of dep ression. Others may not be so lucky. Economic distress has a direct relation to mental and psychological problems, as I have witnessed around me over the past few years. It is conventionally believed that health-related behavior usually deteriorates during economic recession. But interestingly, research shows an altogether new picture. It seems that when economy weakens, the mortality rates also go down and physical health improves. This cannot be said about mental health as evidenced by the sudden rise in suicide rate. According to recent research, a 1 percent increase in unemployment rate leads to a 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent decrease in the number of deaths (Ruhm, 2009). There can be several reasons for this phenomenon. First of all people do not get to drive (to and from work etc) and as a result decreasing car accident related deaths. Interestingly, there is also a substantial decrease in the number of heart attacks. This risk is perhaps the most reactive to the changes in

Friday, August 23, 2019

Gender Sexuality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gender Sexuality - Essay Example This is interesting because it reverses the more common poetic tradition of male poets writing about female beauty from a male perspective. The history of Western love poetry goes back to the Middle Ages, and the tales of courtly knights who admired fair ladies. The lady was idealized in poetry, but in society men had a very much stronger position. Love poetry was therefore artificial, with very little reference to actual sex. In modern times there are more women poets, mainly because access to education, and to publishing facilities, are much more available to women. The two poems mentioned here are examples of a challenge to masculine literary tradition. They suggest there might be a different world order where women can take the initiative and use their power of writing to objectify and idealize men, according to a new set of gender rules which are much more equal. Ackerman’s poem shows how a meeting between a man and a woman can take place under water, using breathing apparatus. The first section shows how the underwater world is different from the everyday world on land. The fact that the man â€Å"had to ask twice† before the woman could interpret his gesture of love, suggests that the new environment requires a new type of body language, and a more subtle way of initiating sex. In fact as the poem progresses, the underwater location provides a whole new set of images and connotations. It is very noticeable that the the male partner is described with in terms of an octopus, sand, sea, kelp, shells etc. His hands are described as being â€Å"like tawny starfish†. These are not powerful images. The woman seems to be a part of the whole ocean, while the man is little more than a collection of timid creatures who want to be near her. It is clear that the woman feels at home in the underwater world, and the only disturbing moment in the scene occurs in the lines â€Å"drawing her close as a pirate vessel to let her board: who was this she loved?† (AFPP, lines 47-50). This reference to the pirate ship suggests that the man is an element of danger, but the thought is dismissed and the scene carries on. An important element in the scenery is the way that the underwater world is compared to a very feminine space: â€Å"an opium den† (AFPP, line 6) or â€Å"blue boudoir† (AFPP, line 90), complete with decor that is â€Å"pillow soft† (AFPP, line 91) with â€Å"quilted mosaics† (AFPP, line 100) and â€Å"twitching spangles† (AFPP, line 102). The ocean caresses the woman and the suggestion is that when a woman makes love, she returns to a previous evolutionary state, in which she is at one with the beautiful surroundings. The man is the pirate, who invades this matriarchal world, and she remembers him fondly, but she eats up the memory like a peach, showing that ultimately it was the union with the ocean that inspired her, and the man was just a small part of that whole experience. The poem by Joan Murray also writes about memories, but this time they are the collective memories of women who have been watching young men playing softball. For centuries men have been discussing women’s bodies, and evaluating them, for their own amusement. In this poem the tables are

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Super Kikay and Her Flying Pagong Essay Example for Free

Super Kikay and Her Flying Pagong Essay The turtle is a magical and gave Kikay the power to save humankind and the sea creatures. It is her duty to protect the ocean deep from the giant small Octopus and its master disciple from getting the magical pearl that gives life to the ocean deep. As a training, Super Kikay fly around their town and try to solve the problems and difficulties of other people. Some of the problems she solve was to help a stuck jeepney get off the mud. She also rescued a girl that almost fall from the ferries wheel and stop the illegal fishers from destroying the ocean by using dynamites to catch fish. After her training, Dong pagong instructed her to get the magical pearl and bring it to their land to prevent the giant octopus from finding it in the ocean. Kikay transforms into Super K and dive into the ocean to get the magical pearl. She easily found the magical pearl but she was also seen by the giant octopus and followed her into the land. When Super K noticed that the giant octopus followed her, she immediately dug a hole to hide the magical pearl but she forgot to bury it. Super K and the giant octopus fight each other. Super K almost defeated the giant octopus but she was easily beaten because the giant octopus fired a black ink on her face and temporarily blinded her giving the octopus time to escape w/ the magical pearl. Super Ks brother was also kidnapped by the giant octopus while she was temporarily blinded. The next morning, Dong pagong told Kikay that she must get the magical pearl from the giant octopus to prevent the fishes from dying. Kikay transformed into Super K again to find the giant octopus and get the magical pearl and also to rescue her younger brother. Horje (the scientist who created the giant octopus) eliminated the giant octopus because he thinks that the giant octopus may be a barricade on his plans (he plans to sell the magical pearl to foreigners for 100,000 million pesos) Super K heard the gun shot that was fired from Horjes gun. She thought that shot her younger brother but later on found out that Horje killed the giant octopus and not her younger brother. After letting her younger brother escaped, she chased Horje until she cornered him. They fought fiercely until she have beaten Horje and get the magical pearl. Super K go back on their town and returned the magical pearl into the ocean. After the returning the magical pearl, the ocean became clean again and all the fishes were happy and thanking Super K for saving them. Dong pagong did not take back the power that she has given to Kikay because he knows that Kikay will use her powers to help humans.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The Reformation Essay Example for Free

The Reformation Essay Gabriel Mà ¼tzenburg in his article Calvin and the Swiss Reformers ( p442 The Lion Handbook of Christian Belief) says that :- The Reformation was a reawakening. It was not basically an attempt at theoretical speculation and research. It was experience. Long before the well known reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin came along there had been criticism of the church. In 1378 there came the great Schism , one of the results of which was that Christians saw for the first time that it was possible to go to war against someone whom others saw as the true Pope. In 1418 the church was united under one pope once more, but damage to papal authority had been severe. Authority was too centralized and the granting of benefices had come to depend much more on the petitioner involved rather than the needs of the faithful church members. John Huss, a Bohemian, had been burned at the stake in 1415 for his opposition to the church when he taught that ordinary men and women could , by living virtuous lives, be more truly priests than some ordained to that position. His followers turned away from shrines and worship of the crucifix as being merely manmade rather than worthy of true worship. According to McNair in his article ‘Seeds of Renewal’ the problem had been building up for at least one hundred years. The church was seen as too rich, when many church goers were poor. The sacraments of baptism, marriage and funerals were considered essential by the church, but these processes were expensive for those who wanted them. There was corruption both in individual priests, even popes, and in the system as a whole, where corruption was condoned. In the upper ranks of the clergy many were worldly and ambitious, and had little time to spare for such tasks as the care of souls while the lower ranks contained those who were idle and ignorant. These were the facts in the late middle ages. This criticism came from within the church and what was wanted was reform. However this eventually led to the outright rebellion we now call the Reformation. Not that the church was wholly corrupt, there was much good work going on, but from this distance in time it is difficult to perceive the piety and goodness that was also present. Having said that many bishops and abbots were also secular rulers and this became the dominant feature of their lives in lots of cases. The church at this time was under other threats to its stability in the form of attacks from the Muslim Turks and from the Black Death, both of which occurred from the mid-fourteenth century and were seen by many as God’s punishment for the failings of the Catholic church. Another important development was the rise of the Devotio Moderna movement. This was a form of spiritual revival in the church of Northern Europe which concentrated upon personal involvement and social action. I t consisted of groups of men and women who lived together in poverty and obedience, but without taking any form of vows. In this group ordinary working people found that they could express their religious life. Thomas à   Kempis was a member of one such collective. They modelled themselves on the example of the apostles. The teaching of this movement, freely available to all who could read, prepared the way for the Reformation of the church. People at the time had a very real fear of punishment that they believed they would receive in Purgatory, for the church taught that before ascending to heaven the soul must be cleansed of every sin. At the same time they accepted the authority of the Pope as having been handed down through Christ to St Peter and his successors. But the Pope and his church taught that those who sinned in life would spend many years in Purgatory before they reached Heaven. It is no wonder that they sought Indulgences – a means on earth to reduce their time in Purgatory. Johann Tetzel was sent to Germany to sell indulgences in 1516. According to the theology of the time an indulgence was remission of punishment for sin – the sinner confesses and receives absolution. In October 1517 Martin Luther wrote to his local archbishop complaining about the sale of such indulgences. He enclosed what became known as the 95 theses – a series of scholarly arguments about the practices then current in the church. When he nailed these same theses to the door of Witternberg church it was a symbolic act of protest. This was not so much an act of rebellion as a plea for reform from within. Luther felt that forgiveness was God’s prerogative, not that of men to be bought and sold. What he wanted was a deepening of spirituality within the church. He is quoted by James Atkinson in The Lion book of Christian Belief ( page 439) as saying ‘I simply say that true Christianity had ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it – the bishops and scholars.’ He eventually came to feel that the Reformation was much more than a protest against corruption, but a battle for the truth of the Gospel. So important was this to him that he stated that he would give up every point to the Pope, if only the Pope affirmed the truth of the Gospel and in particular the doctrine of justification by faith i.e. that Christ’s own goodness is imputed to believers and on this ground alone do they receive salvation. Indeed he describes himself as, before this matter had arisen, as ‘one of the right frantic and raving papists’ in his book of 1545, ‘Doctor Martin Luther to the Christian Reader’. By criticizing the church on this one point, the sale of indulgences, he endangered the whole basis of the authority of the church. If it was wrong on this one point who could say on which other points it might also be wrong. Its riches for instance were not only in contrast to what the majority had, they were in contrast to what Christ had had, and with what he had taught. This idea of putting Christ first, rather than the works of men, rather weakened the power of the priest as mediator and weighed heavily against the systems of church at that time. Luther was urged to recant, but refused to do so and went into hiding at Wartburg, which is where he translated the whole New Testament in a very short time. The word quickly spread and in several countries of Western Europe the authority of the church came into question. Ordinary people who came to believe in this spiritual freedom of the individual also came to think that it might mean political freedom and took up arms to fight for such freedom in 1525. This time the secular as well as religious powers took up the arguments. Lay men, the princes and rulers of German states, were for the first time ready to clash with the church and eventually reject it altogether. According to ‘The Christian World’ p.172, historians have argued too that the new merchant class that had gradually emerged in the middle ages had no political role and needed to create one. New ideas, in particular humanistic ones, were going about which vied with the church’s dogmatic approach. Luther’s appeal to the Bible, to the will of God and to man’s individual relationship with God, led to steps that he would never have originally dreamt of. One of those steps was Calvinism, with its strict doctrines of election i.e. God has pre-ordained people for salvation. Another was the Puritanism that developed in England a little later, which according to the dictionary was a form of extreme moral vigour with an hostility to social pleasures and indulgences. Luther began a new translation of the Bible into German in 1517 despite the fact that Archbishop Berthold of Mainz had, in 1486, banned all unauthorized printing of sacred books in his diocese, as he felt that the German language was unsuited to the task., and that lay people, who did not have knowledge of the Latin and Greek needed to read the Latin and Greek Bible available, would not be able to understand the Bible anyway. When this new Bible became available many thought that if the Bible contained the word of God why should not its readers, the laity, decide for themselves about religious matters. Luther firmly believed in the importance of the scriptures being available to all. At night always carry in your heart something from Holy Scriptures to bed with you, meditate upon it like a ruminant animal, and go softly to sleep; but this must not be too much, rather a little that may be well pondered and understood, that you may find a remnant of it in your mind when you rise in the morning. As a result of such thinking for many private devotion became the centre of their Christian life, rather than the sacraments of the church. It served another rather different purpose as this common use of language eventually bought about a united Germany from the many tiny states then present. Over the next 25 years Luther produced many books in powerful and vivid German that could be understood by ordinary people. His translation of the Bible served to convince many that his arguments were sound. Protestant ideas spilled over into neighbouring states such as the cantons of Switzerland. One of these, Zurich, was where Ulrich Zwingli , 1484 – 1531, also led a campaign in opposition to indulgences. Although a Catholic priest he bought in Luther’s ideas and by 1523 the canton was the first Protestant state outside Germany. His theology was based on one principle, if something wasn’t in the scriptures then it should not be believed or practised. It was on this principle that he based his argument against indulgences. His theology involved a literal reading of the scriptures so that there could be only one meaning ascribed. It also meant that those practices which were contained in scripture were to be followed uncritically. It is on the basis of such thoughts that the first pilgrims set out for America and such ideas persist in society to this day. Zwingli was priest during a terrible attack of plague. I t bought him to believe that though his flock were in great physical danger from the disease they were in even greater danger because of their spiritual weakness. Luther was not Zwingli and there were differences in their beliefs. Luther was not willing to give up Catholic ceremonies and on the subject of the nature of the Eucharist they totally disagreed. Luther held to the Catholic view that the bread and wine literally became the body and blood of Christ whereas Zwingli held that it was merely a symbol. The Protestant churches tended to emphasise the spirituality of Christ and felt that this idea of actual body and blood over emphasised his humanity. This dispute led to Philip of Hesse, who wanted an alliance with Switzerland, calling the two together in 1519 at his Marburg castle. However the differences were irreconcilable and the reformed church , within a few decades, had split into dozens of tiny pieces. Zwingli was eventually killed in battle with those Swiss cantons who had decided to remain part of the Catholic church. John Calvin 1509 – 1564, a French man from Picardy, came along a little later. He went even further than both Luther and Zwingli, basing his theology on the total subservience of man’s will to that of God’s. God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation. He arrived in Geneva in 1535, fresh from studies in the universities of France – studies that would have included new humanistic ideas. He was such a dedicated ascetic that eventually he ruined his health. Though still only a young man, he set about turning it into a city of God on earth. It was later described as ‘The Protestant Rome’ by Mà ¼tzenberg. After much persecution he was forced to flee to Basel, which is where he wrote his famous ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion.’, first published in 1536 and later expanded. This he addressed in a preface to King Francis I on behalf of the French Hugenots. It was this great work, added to throughout his life, that set Calvin up as a great leader. Calvin’s reforms meant that churches changed physically. The pulpit, where God’s word was declaimed, and applied to the life of the community became the centre of worship rather than the alter. There were three essential parts to their worship – baptism, preaching and the sharing of communion. Also in Switzerland at the time was John Oecolampadius from Basel, who was very determined upon the independence of the church from the state. He had some influence upon Calvin, but was closer to Zwingli. Calvin believed in marriage rather than clerical celibacy and married the widow of an Anabaptist. The Anabaptists were so named because of their practice of re-baptising those who had been baptised in infancy, when, as adults they confessed to a personal faith. They considered infant baptism as being invalid because the child concerned had no say in the matter. Luther on the other hand held that infants had hidden faith, just as adults were still saved when they were unconscious or asleep. Anabaptists were considered to be among the more radical of the dissenting groups. They saw the New Testament church as basically congregational and so urged that each group of believers be independent of the others and held that they should be totally free from state, either in the form of support or control. It seems that Calvin really treasured his wife and even considered her a helper in his ministry. The five points of Calvinism which carry his name were in fact produced by the Synod of Nort. They do however reflect his idea that God is able to save everyone on whom he has mercy and this does not depend upon their abilities. Calvin suffered such poor health that he was at times actually carried to the pulpit and even preached from his bedroom. Anabaptist was also used as a general term of abuse for those seen as in opposition to the church. Calvin was succeeded by Theodore Beza ( 1519 -1605) After announcing that he was a Protestant in 1559 Beza was made professor of Greek at Lausanne University. He became a leading advisor to the Huguenots in France. His aim was to establish the Reformed faith across Europe, but especially in France. In the Netherlands Luther and his writing were an inspiration to many. As early as 1523 people were being martyred for their adherence to the new faith. Those who accepted adult baptism despite having been baptized as infants were among them. Later it was Calvin’s influence with his doctrine of predestination that would rule. But Spain ruled the Low Countries at that time and the king of Spain was firmly opposed to Protestantism. This lead to a call for independence and 100,000 people were said to have died in the struggle, but eventually in 1584 the northern Netherlands formed a Federation under the rule of William the Silent. This new church however soon split because of the teaching of Arminius (1560 – 1609) professor of theology at Leiden. He said that though God wanted all to be saved he still allowed man to have free will. At first he was condemned for this, but he insisted that his view was a Biblical one and eventually such thoughts became tolerated and in 1795 were officially accepted by the Syndod. This was a big move from Calvin’s predestination of only the elect.. John Huss’s followers supported Luther at first, but most soon switched to Calvinism. In Poland the two sides managed to reach an amicable understanding. There were however internal rumblings, some caused by the ideas of Socinus, who among other things went so far as denying the deity of Christ. An important figure there was Menno Simons, a former Catholic priest and founder of the Mennonites. As a priest he conducted the mass, baptized infants, heard confessions and prayed. What the did not do was read the scriptures as he had been taught, according to Ronald Gordon, that only the Pope could correctly interpret the Bible. He first began to have doubts about papal infallibility with regard to the doctrine of Transubstantiation i.e. the belief that during the mass the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ. This had first become an official doctrine in 1215 and affirmed in the 16th century during the Council of Trent which was convened on several occasions in response to the Protestant Reformation. Menno was one of many who could see with their own eyes that bread remained bread and wine the produce of the grape, though he acknowledged the huge symbolism of these elements. He was influenced by his readings of Luther’s works and came to believe that the Scriptures were more important than any man made laws, even if that man be the pope himself. He could find no evidence for infant baptism in scripture, though others claimed that it was the equivalent of circumcision and meant that the parents would vow to bring up the child in a Christian home. Yet for some time he continued to baptise babies – an example of the confusion that resulted in honest men when radical new ideas were met for the first time. Menno was aware of men dying for their faith, while he continued to practise what he no longer really believed. In 1536 he finally resigned as priest and became an Anabaptist, but had to immediately go into hiding for a year, a time which he used to mediate upon the doctrines involved. Eventually he was asked to become leader of the Anabaptists in the Netherlands. In later years he married and formulated a theology that was in many ways orthodox, but did not include practises that were not scriptural. The modern huge denomination of Baptists began with a single congregation in Amstersdam made up of exiled English people. The Baptist soon split into those ( the Arminians) who believed that Christ died for all , and those ( the Calvinists) who believed in salvation only for the elect. In Germany Anabaptists, led by the Dutchman John of Leyden, forcibly took over the running of the town of Muenster, which they did according to what they felt were Christian principles. The changes were not welcomed and anarchy followed, forcing many to flee to Holland. In England the Reformation took a rather different course. Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry the younger, and still fertile Anne Boleyn. The Pope refused, but the Archbishop granted the divorce and in 1534 Henry was made supreme head of the Church by an act of Parliament. There were few to oppose him and so the country broke away from the power of the pope. The monasteries held much of the wealth of the Catholic church in the country and so the monks became seen as enemies of the king. He decided to get rid of them – an act now known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Wherever there was any sign of corruption such as married monks or pregnant nuns this gave him his excuse. It became a nationwide scourge starting with the small monasteries and eventually moving to the larger ones. A few leading churchmen were executed , but most received pensions – the Abbot of the huge Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire received  £100 a year for life according to Chris Trueman – a huge sum at the time. The only real opposition to this wholesale destruction was the Pilgrimage of Grace led by lawyer Robert Aske in 1536. Henry promised to look into the complaints of the many thousands of pilgrims, but nothing was actually done and Aske was starved to death in chains. In some ways there was little immediate change in the church – most prayers were still in Latin and priests were still not allowed to marry, unlike the Protestant clergy in other lands. These changes took much longer to come about. We can see from all this that the Reformation was no the result of one man’s, or even several men’s actions, but came about because of a number of very different factors. It is also obvious that though various groups were influenced by others, especially by Luther and Calvin, the resulting manifestations of the Reformed church varied considerably, both in their beliefs and practices. Some of these have persisted and other have been modified with time, but either way there has been no going back to many of the practices of medieval Catholicism. Changes were necessary, but need not have resulted in such splintering and diversity if Catholic church had properly addressed the problems within at the time. Some changes were for purely religious reasons, others had political overtones and yet others were as a result of more personal reasons as in the case of Henry VIII. Between them these changes altered forever the religious political, geographical and even linguistic face of Europe. When the church started out in the first century people had to make a deliberate choice to become Christians, often this meant turning their backs on the faith they had been born to, but as time went on had , for some at least, just become an automatic occurrence – your parents were Christian and so you were. With the Reformation once again Faith became something one was no longer born into, but was the result of a personal relationship with God. Bibliography and Works Cited Barraclogh, G. editor The Christian World, New York, Harry N. Abrams Inc. Publishers, 1981 Calvin , J. The Institutes of the Christian Religion published in Latin in1536 and later expanded by him. English, D.et al, editors, The Lion Handbook of Christian Belief, Tring, Hertfordshire, Lion Books, 1988 McNair, P. Seeds of Renewal article in The History of Christianity, Tring, Hertfordshire, Lion Books, 1977 Electronic Sources Calvin, J. Quotations found 24th May 2007 at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_calvin.html Gordon, R. Menno Simons found 25th May 2007 at http://www.cob-net.org/text/history_menno.htm Hooker, R. Zwingli, Ulrich found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/ZWINGLI.HTM Luther, M. Doctor Martin Luther to the Christian Reader, 1545 found 25th May 2007 at http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/luther-reader.txt Luther, M. Quotations found 24t5h May 2007 at http://www.quotationspage.com/search.php3?Search=Author=Martin+LutherC =colesC=lindslyC=poorcC=netC=devilsC=contribpage=2 Martin Luther found 25th May 2007 at http://www.educ.msu.edu/homepages/laurence/reformation/Luther/Luther.htm Puritanism, definition, found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.answers.com/Puritanism Trueman,C. The Reformation found 25th May 2007 at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/reformation.htm Schaff, P. Luther’s translation of the Bible found 23rd May 2007 at http://www.bible-researcher.com/luther02.html

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Infection Control Is A Contentious Issue In Modern Healthcare Nursing Essay

Infection Control Is A Contentious Issue In Modern Healthcare Nursing Essay The aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of infection control. The essay will begin by looking at the prevalence of infection. This will be followed by a discussion of the infection control measures in place to break the chain of infection whilst evaluating the problems of implementing the various techniques in practice. Reference will be made to wide range of literature which will support arguments and demonstrate evidence-based practice. The essay will then conclude and offer recommendation for future practice. With the outbreak of antibiotic resistant infections, infection control is becoming a major concern for health organisations all over the world (Department of Health (DH), 2003). Generally between 4 and 10 % of patients hospitalized in a more economically developed country, such as the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA) or Australia, develop a hospital associated infection during their time in hospital (DH, 2003). Currently, the DH (2003) estimates that one in ten NHS patients will contract a healthcare association infection whilst staying in an NHS hospital thus giving the UK one of the highest rates of healthcare associated infections in the western world. As well as significantly raising healthcare costs and lengthening hospital stays, it is estimated that hospital associated infections cause 25,000 patient deaths every year (Borton and McCleave, 2000). Although these facts and figures may seem daunting, the situation can be improved by implementing a number o f simple measures to break the chain of infection and prevent hospital associated infections occurring. Huband and Trigg (2000) explain that for a nosocomial (healthcare associated) infection (HAI) to occur there must be a susceptible host, an infectious agent and a means of transmission from the source of the infectious agent to the susceptible host. If any of these components are not present the chain of infection is broken and an infection cannot occur (Mallik et al, 1997). The susceptible host is perhaps the hardest part of the chain to control since patients are generally admitted to hospital as a result of an illness or injury which often leaves them more vulnerable to infection. As well as patients who are immunologically compromised because of illness or injury, there are also patients who are more vulnerable just because of their circumstances. The elderly and the very young (children of a gestational age of less than 32 weeks) are at a high risk because their immune system is not yet fully developed (Huband and Trigg, 2000) and patients undergoing immunosuppressive treatment, or who have an immunosuppressive illness such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), may struggle to fight off infections (Hockenberry et al, 2003). Although this means that there will almost always be a susceptible host present, there is still a lot healthcare professionals can do to protect vulnerable patients. Measures are in place to assess each patient individually to uncover their needs and equip nurses with the correct information to produce a protective care plan. One of the areas in contention, especially in the media is the hygiene practices in hospital and by staff and how they contribute to the problem of HAIs (REF). Nurses actions account for roughly 80 percent of the direct care patients receive and usually involves personal and intimate care activities (REF). As such, the chance of infecting a patient with an avoidable HAI is as high as ten percent and some of the infections will be caused by microbes present on the hands of those providing care (REF). Evidence from a review conducted by Pratt et al (2000) concludes that in outbreak situations contaminated hands are responsible for transmitting infections. This is supported by evidence presented in NICE (2003) infection control guideline. The act of hand hygiene however, is simple but effective against the possibility of cross-contamination between patient-patient or indeed from nurse to patient and vice versa. In a non-randomised controlled trial (NRCT) a hand washing programme was introduced and in the post intervention period respiratory illness fell by 45% (Ryan et al, 2001) A further NRCT, introducing the use of alcohol hand gel to a long term elderly care facility, demonstrated a reduction of 30% in HAI over a period of 34 months when compared to the control unit (Fendler et al, 2002). One descriptive study demonstrated the risk of cross infection resulting from inadequate hand decontamination in patients homes (Gould et al, 2000). Despite these findings and hand hygiene being a simple procedure and the rates of compliance should be high; the evidence points to the contrary (REF). A study conducted by Jenkins (2004) found that even when staff did perform hand hygiene 89% missed some part of their hands.   In a nother study Parini (2004) reported that work pressure reduce opportunities for effectively hand hygiene in between procedures or patient handing. Expert opinion however, is consistent in its assertion that effective hand decontamination which refers to the process for the physical removal of blood, body fluids, and transient microorganisms from the hands, i.e., handwashing, and/or the destruction of microorganisms, i.e., hand antisepsis (Boyce and Pittet, 2002), results in significant reductions in the carriage of potential pathogens on the hands and logically decreases the incidence of preventable HAI leading to a reduction in patient morbidity and mortality (Boyce Pittet, 2002; Infection Control Nurses Association (ICNA), 2002). Therefore, as an infection control measure hands should be washed before and after each patient contact and before every episode of care that involves direct contact with patients skin, their food, invasive devices, following removal of gloves or dressings (iCNA, 2002; NICE, 2003; Jamieson et al, 2002). This may be a full hand wash, using liquid antibacterial soap and water or alcohol rubs (Nicol et al, 2003). A full hand wash should be carried out before placing gloves on the hands; when the hands are visibly soiled; after contact with contaminated materials, e.g. linen; when performing an aseptic technique; before handling food; after using the toilet and before leaving the ward (Parker, 2002). The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (2003) and NICE (2003) contend for hand washing, to be reliable, it should take about 20 seconds and should follow the standardised hand washing techniques. Both surfaces of the hands should be washed thoroughly, taking particular care of areas that are usually missed, for example, nail beds, back of thumbs and in-between fingers. The hands should be wetted first, the soap applied and used to wash the hands, then with the hands bring rinsed in clean water and thoroughly dried with disposable paper towels (Stewart, 2002). Hot air dryers or re-usable towels should not be used in the clinical setting as studies have shown the increased contamination after drying, or with the hand dryers, the lack of drying (Parker, 2002). The taps should be turned off with elbow or wrist or in the case of normal taps, a paper towel (Clark, 2004). Part of modern day hand hygiene procedures now include alcohol rubs which are in widespread use as they are easily used and are effective in destroying the transient microbes found on the hands. They are usually used between hand washes and require no water or paper towels as the alcohol evaporates very quickly. Myers Parini (2003) explains most contain an emollient to ensure that constant use of the alcohol does not cause skin problems. Alcohol gel rubs however, are not a substitute for hand washing as they are ineffective if used on hands contaminated with body fluids or excreta (Nicol et al, 2003). It also has been shown that without washing the hands regularly when using alcohol rubs causes a build-up of emollient on the hands, which means that the alcohol becomes less effective at killing the transient bacteria (Girou et al, 2002). Kampf and Loffler (2003) showed the use of antimicrobial soap and water along with an alcohol gel sanitizer was the most effective at reducing the n umber of transient microbes, over 99.99 percent, compared with just fewer than 99.0 percent for antimicrobial soap and water alone, and 99.46 percent for just alcohol gel sanitizer. This highlights the fact that the use of only alcohol gel or hand washing alone still leaves a risk of contamination, albeit a negligible one. As part of any infection control measure NICE (2003) recommendations the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by healthcare personnel in primary and community care settings which includes the use of aprons, gowns, gloves, eye protection and facemasks. Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (Health and Safety Executive, 2002), all healthcare professionals caring for patients are required to make proper use of PPE provided. Correct use of PPE is a key measure in preventing the spread of infection. ICNA (2002) states disposable aprons and gloves reduce the number of micro-organisms on uniforms, clothing and hands, but do not eliminate them. Gould (2010) contends that disposable gloves and aprons should be worn for all contacts with patients with MRSA, but this according to Bissett (2007) is not an excuse for ineffective washing of hands, as hands should be washed even when gloves have been worn. Gloves cannot be guaranteed 100% impervious (Clark et al 2002 ). Gloves sometimes leak or may tear, especially with prolonged use, and the hands may become contaminated as they are removed (DH 2008). In addition, safe removal of aprons is very important: Aprons must be removed by breaking the ties and rolling the apron inwards to prevent scattering of skin flakes and organisms. Infection control also relates to the clinical environment. Studies have confirmed that large numbers of bacteria are present in the surrounding environment and that symptomatic carriers contribute to the spread of infection (Mutters et al 2009). The isolation of patients with suspected or confirmed infections such as particularly meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) in a side room is strongly recommended (DH, 2007; Health Protection Agency (HPA), 2009). Masterton et al (2003) in a joint UK working group reviewing hospital isolation facilities recognised that although isolation may be requested regularly, it is not always possible. Similarly in a prospective study conducted in a large UK hospital over 12 months, approximately one in five requests for patient isolation was not met for a number of reasons, including lack of facilities (Wigglesworth and Wilcox 2006). Hence where isolation facilities are not available, patients should be cohorted (DH and HPA 2009). Isolating patients conversely has some element of psychological risks, for example anxiety, depression and feeling of loss of choice (Gammon 1998) and is something that the nursing staffs need to be aware of and assess regularly. Specific local infection control guidelines should also be readily available to help support nurses and other healthcare professional carry out effective environmental decontamination. Bacteria can survive on surfaces, so common sense indicates that, if the environment is kept clean, the bacterial load will be reduced (Bissett, 2006). Gould et al (2007) points out that transmission of infections such as MRSA can also take place from environmental reservoirs of the bacteria, including bedpans and urinals contaminated with spores. Hence, patient equipment hygiene is another important aspect of infection control in preventing the risk of spread infection. Although this list is not exhaustive, nurses caring for patients should ensure clean hoists, slings, baths, cot sides, toilet seats, commodes and bed pan holders after each use. Lockers, bed tables and chairs also need regular cleaning. According to WHO (2009) all care equipment must be treated in the same way. NICE (2003) states widely available approved detergent wipes are useful for cleaning and MRSA prevention. Disinfectants are not cleansers, so equipment needs to be cleaned with a detergent first, unless a sanitizer that combines both cleaning and disinfectant properties is available. Local guidelines on clearing up spillages of blood and body fluids should also be followed, remembering to wear aprons, gloves and eye protection (if required) to ensure safety and reduce the risk of infection for the person cleaning up the spillage. Nurses working in both hospitals and community settings should be aware of the growing threat of HCAI such as MRSA and acknowledge the need for universal precautions when nursing patients with this form of infection. Moreover, infection control departments have a clear responsibility to provide staff in clinical areas with information on infection control policies and procedures. It is imperative that all nurses and other healthcare professionals are made aware of the existence of such policies and procedures (NICE, 2003). Registered nurses must be aware that they may be in breach of the NMCs Code of Professional Conduct (2004) specifically clause 1.4: You have a duty of care to your patients and clients, who are entitled to receive safe and competent care. Meaning should a nurse fail to take appropriate precautions when dealing with a patient, for instance disregard for hand hygiene procedures the nurse may be liable for disciplinary procedures by the NMC. This may make nurses more aware of their responsibility with regards to HCAI such as MRSA and infection control. DH (2008) argues staff must take a pro-active rather than a reactive approach to the barriers that they face with implementing infection controls procedures such as hand hygiene. Nurses must ensure that the materials needed are readily available and others can be sourced if the need arises and that their training on infection control is up-to-date (RCN, 2000). In conclusion, MRSA with its antibiotic resistance has become one of the major challenges to the scientists and researchers in the health and medicine sector since the 1990s due to the increase rate of the number of inpatients who have caught infection due to cross infection. It is integral for nurses, other healthcare professional and visitors to follow the various precaution measures set out according to the hospital policies, procedures and guidelines as this will assist in the prevention of the transmission of MRSA.   The high numbers of HCAIs are putting patients lives and well being at risk and it also have significant implication on the NHS finance and resources. For this reason there is a clear need for nurses and other healthcare professionals to work collaboratively to tackle infection such as MRSA if infection rate are to fall.   Improving nurses knowledge of the cycle of infection in MRSA is one step in helping to prevent and control this infection. This may be in the form of education and training on the aspects of infection control, with constant up-dates on the current issues that are supported through evidenced-based practice (NMC, 2008). This will not only improve practice and assist in the appropriate use of resources but will also contribute towards to ensuring HCAIs do not reach epidemic proportions. The barriers to adequate hand hygiene are apparent, these must be overcome to ensure that Hospital Acquired Infections do not reach epidemic proportions, and as a result there are implications to nursing practice that must be met (Simpson, 1997). This may be in the form of education and training on the aspects of infection control, with constant up-dates on the current issues that are supported through evidenced-based practice (RCN, 2004). This will not only improve practice and assist in the appropriate use of resources but will also contribute towards nurses professional profiles for PREP requirements (NMC, 2004). Infection control departments have a clear responsibility to provide staff in clinical areas with information on infection control policies and procedures. It is imperative that clinical staff are made aware of the existence of such policies and procedures (NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, 2004). Registered nurses must be aware that they may be in breach of the NMCs Code of Professional Conduct (2004) specifically clause 1.4: You have a duty of care to your patients and clients, who are entitled to receive safe and competent care. Meaning should they fail to take appropriate precautions when dealing with a patient, for instance disregard for hand hygiene procedures they may be liable for disciplinary procedures by the NMC. This may make nurses more aware of their responsibility with regards to infection control. Staff must take a pro-active rather than a reactive approach to the barriers that they face with hand hygiene. They must ensure that the materials needed are readily available and others can be sourced if the need arises and that their training on infection control is up-to-date. (Scottish Executive, 1998).

Monday, August 19, 2019

Ford Motor Company - Supply Chain Strategy :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Essays

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An analysis of the current situation revealed the following issues in the current spply chain: Ø Information flow impaired beyond level one suppliers. Ø Development of Information Technology in the supplier base. Ø Competitors headed to a virtual organisation. The decision to be taken is whether to virtually integrate the supply chain (create a virtual marketplace accessible to authorised personnel) or carry on operating the traditional way automakers have. The recommendation is to virtually integrate by creating an online centre where for a small fee, using only an Internet browser suppliers will have access to the centre’s large database. This facility will be extended to dealers and customers. The implementation costs will be approximately, but there will be significant amount of savings by the way of purchase discounts and lower transaction costs on materials, and parts. Also as there is reduced buffer stock due to speedy real time information flow leading to reductions in inventory and storage costs. Additional revenue will be generated from transaction fees and advertisements placed. CURRENT SITUATION ANALYSIS PHYSICAL FLOW OF GOODS Ford has a large supplier base for material procurement in a complex network of business relationships. Ø The supply base consists of several tiers of suppliers. Ford directly deals with tier one suppliers and these deal with the next tiers. If feasible the lower tier suppliers ship materials directly to Fords’ manufacturing unit. Ø Long-term contracts with suppliers have been negotiated to ensure uninterrupted supply and minimum inventory levels. Ø Ford has provided its suppliers with techniques like Just-In-Time, (JIT) Total Quality Management (TQM) And Statistical Process Control (SPC). Ford benefits by procuring materials at reduced cost and supplier involvement in the company operations like design process, leading to cost saving for both parties. Ø The Ford Production System (FPS) is designed to make the operations leaner, efficient and more responsive to the customer needs, hence reducing production costs and improving profit margins. Ø The Regional mixing centres optimise schedules and delivery of finished vehicles via railway, to provide customers the right product at the right time and place, Ford Motor Company - Supply Chain Strategy :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Essays EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An analysis of the current situation revealed the following issues in the current spply chain: Ø Information flow impaired beyond level one suppliers. Ø Development of Information Technology in the supplier base. Ø Competitors headed to a virtual organisation. The decision to be taken is whether to virtually integrate the supply chain (create a virtual marketplace accessible to authorised personnel) or carry on operating the traditional way automakers have. The recommendation is to virtually integrate by creating an online centre where for a small fee, using only an Internet browser suppliers will have access to the centre’s large database. This facility will be extended to dealers and customers. The implementation costs will be approximately, but there will be significant amount of savings by the way of purchase discounts and lower transaction costs on materials, and parts. Also as there is reduced buffer stock due to speedy real time information flow leading to reductions in inventory and storage costs. Additional revenue will be generated from transaction fees and advertisements placed. CURRENT SITUATION ANALYSIS PHYSICAL FLOW OF GOODS Ford has a large supplier base for material procurement in a complex network of business relationships. Ø The supply base consists of several tiers of suppliers. Ford directly deals with tier one suppliers and these deal with the next tiers. If feasible the lower tier suppliers ship materials directly to Fords’ manufacturing unit. Ø Long-term contracts with suppliers have been negotiated to ensure uninterrupted supply and minimum inventory levels. Ø Ford has provided its suppliers with techniques like Just-In-Time, (JIT) Total Quality Management (TQM) And Statistical Process Control (SPC). Ford benefits by procuring materials at reduced cost and supplier involvement in the company operations like design process, leading to cost saving for both parties. Ø The Ford Production System (FPS) is designed to make the operations leaner, efficient and more responsive to the customer needs, hence reducing production costs and improving profit margins. Ø The Regional mixing centres optimise schedules and delivery of finished vehicles via railway, to provide customers the right product at the right time and place,

Teacher Ethics Essay -- moral code ethics ethical educators

Teacher Ethics â€Å"Ethics are defined as a set of principles of right conducts; the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession† ( Dictionary of the Human Language, 2000). Teachers are often put in situations that require more than just knowing the basic school rules. It is within these situations, that the ethical dilemmas occur. There is not always a right way to deal with many daily problems that face educators, but there are ways to handle situations that are better then others. Teachers should follow and refer to a code of ethics to help teach in the most appropriate and ethical way; as well as a guide to help deal with dilemmas. It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. â€Å"The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance† ( Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children especially tests should never be the only criteria of assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair. When testing a child, make sure that the testing method used is appropriate for that child. For example, if giving a test that relies on visual aids to administer the test it is important that the teacher is certain that all the children have good enough vision to clearly see the aids. When assessing young children in particular it is important to look for more then simply right or wrong. An in depth look is necessary to see what the children really know before giving them a poor grade. Children’s work needs to critiqued in more then one way to be sure that they really do ... ...o put a leash on teachers' pets. Retrieved November 2, 2002 from http://www.mbhs.edu/silverchips/articles/apr2001favoritism.html . Dictionary of the human language. (2000). Retrieved November 5, 2002 from www.dictionary.com. Goodlad, J. I., Sirotnik, K. A., & Soder, R. (1990). The moral dimensions of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Gushee, M. (1984). Student discipline policies, 12. 5. Retrieved November 4, 2002. ERIC Digest. Hanson K., & Shwartz W. (1992). Equal mathematics education for female students, 78. 4. Retrieved November 4, 2002. ERIC Digest. Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (2000). Exploring your role: A practitioner’s introduction to early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Orange, C. (2000). 25 biggest mistakes teachers make and how to avoid them. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. Teacher Ethics Essay -- moral code ethics ethical educators Teacher Ethics â€Å"Ethics are defined as a set of principles of right conducts; the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession† ( Dictionary of the Human Language, 2000). Teachers are often put in situations that require more than just knowing the basic school rules. It is within these situations, that the ethical dilemmas occur. There is not always a right way to deal with many daily problems that face educators, but there are ways to handle situations that are better then others. Teachers should follow and refer to a code of ethics to help teach in the most appropriate and ethical way; as well as a guide to help deal with dilemmas. It is important that teachers give children a fair chance to show their knowledge when assessing. â€Å"The purpose of assessment is to provide feedback that can be used to improve student performance† ( Orange 2000). Teachers assess children to ensure that they are understanding the material, and to make sure they are learning. For young children especially tests should never be the only criteria of assessment. Instructors should always make sure that their assessment is fair. When testing a child, make sure that the testing method used is appropriate for that child. For example, if giving a test that relies on visual aids to administer the test it is important that the teacher is certain that all the children have good enough vision to clearly see the aids. When assessing young children in particular it is important to look for more then simply right or wrong. An in depth look is necessary to see what the children really know before giving them a poor grade. Children’s work needs to critiqued in more then one way to be sure that they really do ... ...o put a leash on teachers' pets. Retrieved November 2, 2002 from http://www.mbhs.edu/silverchips/articles/apr2001favoritism.html . Dictionary of the human language. (2000). Retrieved November 5, 2002 from www.dictionary.com. Goodlad, J. I., Sirotnik, K. A., & Soder, R. (1990). The moral dimensions of teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Gushee, M. (1984). Student discipline policies, 12. 5. Retrieved November 4, 2002. ERIC Digest. Hanson K., & Shwartz W. (1992). Equal mathematics education for female students, 78. 4. Retrieved November 4, 2002. ERIC Digest. Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (2000). Exploring your role: A practitioner’s introduction to early childhood education. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Orange, C. (2000). 25 biggest mistakes teachers make and how to avoid them. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Art Censorship Essay examples -- essays research papers

Art Censorship   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In recent news there was a controversy over art shown in Santa Fe Community College’s gallery. The artist Pat Payne created obscene religious pictures that for the most part were mocking the Catholic religion. I feel that there is no need for artwork to be censored if in an appropriate place. Placing paintings that may seem to be obscene in an art museum, gallery, or anywhere else that attract mostly mature individuals is appropriate and obviously placing those same pieces of art in an elementary school would be inappropriate. My point being that artworks of any type being placed in Santa Fe’s art gallery should not be an issue. The majority of individuals looking at Santa Fe’s gallery are older and mature, and if children are being brought into a place like this, ad...

Saturday, August 17, 2019

My Ideal School Essay

What is a school? To me, a school is the center of education. It provides intellectual ,emotional as well as spiritual enrichment. I am sure everyone has their own notion of what an ideal school is. It is a place where one feels most comfortable to learn in. In my opinion,an ideal school would consists of a building with an ultra modern infrastructure and top-notch facilities. All the classrooms will have colourful walls with wonderful paintings and thought-provoking pictures hanging on them. All the classrooms will be well-lit and fully air-conditionered. It would be perfect if the tables and chairs are arranged in a semi-circle facing the teacher. Apart from that,we will also need a well-equipped library with the state-of-art facilities for students to conduct their research and studies. Computer cataloguing should also be introduced to make referencing easier. In addition an ideal school should have a shopisticated gymnasium and sports centre. Athletes and swimmers can also train at the school mini-stadium and swimming pool. Students nowadays are burdened with homework and endless examinations. My constructive and productive homework shoul be given instead of burdening homework. Students should not be doing their homework for the sake of doing them. Teachers could perhaps have Biology classes outdoors so that students can really appreciate the beauty of nature or organized field trips to exhibition and conventions to make learning interesting. Traditional art and culture classes should also be held in the ideal school to nurture the spirit of appreciation among students. Moreover,to maximize the students learning capacities,lessons should start at 10. 00 a. m. There should be breaks in between so that students can digest knowledge from the previous lesson instead of rushing to the next lesson straight after the previous one. In this era of globalization,ICT is of upmost importance . So why can’t schools have paperless teaching and learning? Heavy bags and tons of books should be a thing of the past. Besides,it will also great if the students have teleconferencing and online forum with scholars from all over the world. The notion of ideal is sometimes painfully defined as an idea existing only in imagination and is not likely to come true. However I believe the idea of creating an ideal school would not merely remain a dream after all.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Carol Ann Duffy Study Notes

1. ‘LITTLE RED CAP’ ‘LRC’ is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy, and is the first poem in the anthology ‘The World’s Wife’, published in 1999. By interpreting the fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood in her poem, Duffy recounts her ten years of marriage to Adrian Henri, who was twenty-three years old her senior. She places herself as the character of Little Red Cap and Henri as the wolf. Duffy also alludes to fairytales such as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in ‘Queen Herod’ or more traditional stories like ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ in ‘Mrs. Quasimodo’.In ‘LRC’, however, Duffy uses the fairytale staple of the woods, symbolically a rite of passage, to represent her change from a naive teenager to a woman who gains sexual maturity and independence, as a woman and a poet. a. Form and structure: POV of Little Red Cap? by extension, this is the POV of Duffy when she was younger? access true st thoughts of the character ? also allows the reader to see how she progresses from a naive young teenager who is struck by the wolf’s (and by extension Henri’s) sophistication and, more importantly, physical features to someone who has seen past this illusion and is more mature . Key features: Duffy’s use of the fairytale? seeing through illusions to find truth, leading to transformation? the illusion that Little Red Cap has to see through ? also may contain a moral, as fairytales do. While LRRH may have focused on never trusting strangers, this one may be about learning to trust and know yourself before anything else (girl gains independence at the end- ‘I took an axe’, etc. )? links to self-discovery? Duffy also subverts the original tale by removing the passive female protagonist who gets saved by a man, into someone who asserts her independence by taking ‘an axe to the wolf’ herselfSetting? contributes to the theme of self-discove ry and awakening ? we begin ‘at childhood’s end’, where ‘the house petered out’ ? there is a sense of safety and innocence lost, as she is on her own ? the listing in the first stanza presents a world that encapsulates childhood (‘playing fields’), work (‘factory’) and retirement (‘allotments’) ? she has left the microcosmic reality of childhood, inside her house, and is surrounded by this vast expanse of life? sense of being overwhelmed? but before she can join them she must go through the woods? ymbol of a rite of passage? somewhere unknown, fearful that LRC must traverse through in order to come out the other side with her ‘flowers, singing all alone’ Characterization of LRC? throughout the poem, the dynamic of the relationship between LRC and the wolf, as well as the states of each character change ? represents Duffy’s changing and growing dissatisfaction in her marriage to Henri? charact er represents Duffy at age sixteen (young)? described as ‘sweet sixteen†¦waif’, emphasizing her innocence and naivety ? casual tone (‘You might ask why. ), again highlights her juvenility, which attracts her to the more mature wolf? attraction causes whirlwind romance (‘I clung till dawn to his trashing fur’/ ‘my stockings ripped to shreds’) ? emphasized through violent verbs, and her need to seek justification (‘what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf? ’)? suggests she doesn’t really know what she is doing? so, it takes ‘ten years in the woods’ to come out the other side? she undergoes her rite of passage? represents the disillusionment caused during the final years of Duffy’s marriage? fterwards, she gains independence (repetition of ‘I’), and by doing so she finds her own voice within her femininity in the final lines of the poem (‘I come with my flowers, singin g, all alone’) Characterization of the wolf? represents the older Adrian Henri ? character progresses in the opposite way of LRC ? he starts off at a higher status, but falls from grace at the 6th stanza’s turning point ? introduced in stanza 2? Duffy emphasizes his masculine, physical qualities (‘What teeth! ’), emphasized by allusions to the original tale, as well as the regular rhyme scheme (focuses on ‘hairy paw’, ‘bearded jaw’)? lso creates a juvenile tone, emphasizing LRC’s schoolgirl attraction to him, and how he has the upper hand status-wise ? portrayed as mysterious, sophisticated and confident (contrasts with juvenility of LRC)- ‘red wine staining his bearded jaw’- it is red wine, not blood? also has connotations of illusion? however, in the 6th stanza she sees through the illusion ? realizes the ‘greying wolf howls the same old song at the moon’? implies that she was only taken by the i nitial lust for him, but that she has become bored and dissatisfied over time? caesura and parallel structures (‘year in, year out’) emphasize this? o she emasculates him (‘one chop, scrotum to throat’), relinquishing him of his power, becoming independent In conclusion, Duffy manages to explore the themes of self-discovery and independence as she takes a look back at her 10-year marriage to Adrian Henri. She cleverly places herself and Henri as the characters Little Red Cap and the wolf, subverting the traditional fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood and by doing this, uses the fairytale staple of seeing through illusions. Finally, Little Red Cap emerges out of the woods, completing her rite of passage.