History of Terrell State Mental Hospital Essay

There are many governmental agencies within the healthcare system. One of most interesting and heart-wrenching agencies is a local governmental agency called Terrell State Mental Hospital. This agency is well known in the state of Texas for its carefree healthcare. They have a longstanding relationship with the families of its patients and are a major contributor to the city of Terrell’s financial windfall. They produce over ten million a year for the city of Terrell, which allows this city to take care of its mental inpatients and make sure they have the best treatment possible. History of Terrell State Mental Hospital According to Mike Hansen (2008), Terrell State Mental Hospital is a 582 room facility that is joint commission accredited and a Medicare certified psychiatric inpatient hospital that is operated under the direction of the Texas Department of State Health Services. This hospital is responsible for many types of illnesses and is an independent, not for profit organization, which has many programs to offer its patients. These programs include an adult acute program, a children’s and adolescence program, a forensics program, geriatric service, an intensive behavioral program and an intermediate care program, all of which has their patients best interest at heart. This hospital was opened in July 1885 and has grown to double its original size and is still running strong to this day. This is a local governmental agency which can compare with national agencies such as The Centers of Disease Control or a state governmental agency such as Health and Human Services in many ways, but the most common factor between these agencies is their ability to help the ill to get over disease or keep from getting a physical or mental illness. This agency houses over 775 patients and employees over 175 people. It is a functioning psychiatric hospital, which cares for its mentally ill patients over four county lines. They onitor their facilities and patients for any new mental illnesses which may develop. This agency also serves the rich, the poor, all races and all minorities in the state of Texas. The Community Relations Department at Terrell State Hospital has three areas of responsibility, which includes volunteer services, public information and fundraising. They provide services and items that the state cannot supply by law or by limitation of funds. This agency has done a tremendous job with curing its patients or at least advancing them to live in society. Admission Process When a person first arrives at the hospital they will be greeted at the admissions office by the staff, which are well trained to address language and cultural needs as well as special needs such as those of the visually impaired or hearing impaired. Then a meeting with the chief psychiatrist will take place to cover the needs and reasoning for the patient being admitted then paperwork will be completed covering reason for hospitalization. Then the patient will be shown around the facility and introduced to the staff that will be caring for the patient. Afterwards, an evaluation will be done by the doctor to determine what needs are to be met. The only motto of this staff is the patient always comes first. Structure and Funding Terrell State Mental Hospital is designed in a matrix structure where the professionals focus on project teams and report to a general manager or a vice president. Because these professionals can work on several projects it is very important to have strong central oversight from the senior managers to ensure people do not stray from the projects they work on. According to Ninomiya (2009), with this style of management system workers report to more than one supervisor at a time. The idea is to share knowledge and personnel to maximize effectiveness. This hospital receives their funding from both voluntary contributions and from the Department of Human Services or the state of Texas. They arrange a budget describing the funds needed and the state of Texas takes care of the rest. Contributions also come from families of the inpatients. The voluntary contributions in this city are amazing. They really know how to make this city shine. It’s like a true Texan to show their winning attitudes by giving back to the economy and being generous with their money. Programs Available This hospital is operated under the direction of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. They offer their services to people within a twenty-two county, 14,622 square mile area including Bowie, Dallas, and Kaufman Counties. According to the Chamber of Commerce (2009), their services are offered to children 6 to 12 years of age, adolescence ages 12 to 18 and adults. Programs include acute care, an intensive behavioral program, medical services, forensic care for inmates of state correctional institutions intermediate care, a cottage program for adult life skills and a research center. Local Agencies vs. National and State Agencies The three of these agencies have different aspects of treatment for disease. The national and state agencies usually focus on locating and making the public aware of possible outbreaks such as a rising number of cases of encephalitis. They announce to the public where and when to stay tuned for information on what is the next step for information on what is the next step or what they need to do to obtain an immunization or where they need to go to get their injection if one is available. The local agency such as with Terrell State Mental Hospital usually focuses on treatment of illness such as with mental illness. It is usually a prolonged and drawn out type of treatment. Doctors usually have to try a patient on several medications before they arrive at the treatment that works for a patients illness. Local agencies usually work with the family members of these patients to help determine what might work with their family member’s illness. According to Colonel Jim Harris (2009), this hospital continues to be governed by a local board of managers. When the State Board of Control assumed the duties for governing state institutions, the operation of Terrell State Mental Hospital came under the control and management of the Board of Texas State Hospital and special schools. The 59th Legislature in 1965, under House Bill No. , created the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act for control and management of Terrell State Hospital. The Board of Texas State Hospital and special schools was abolished at that time. Over the years there have been major ameliorations some planned and some not. These changes have cost the state of Texas millions of dollars. The improvements have changed this pioneer establishment into a modern psychiatric facility that serves twenty-one counties in the northern part of the state. These ameliorations have made this hospital one that the patients and their family members can be proud of. Conclusion Local, National and State governmental agencies in the healthcare field all overlap in many different ways. For one, they all share disease prevention. Each agency shares disease prevention in a different way. A state organization such as Health and Human Services helps to prevent disease by helping to provide the poor with immunizations so they are protected in case of an outbreak of a dangerous disease. A national governmental agency such as Centers for Disease Control helps to keep the public aware when they are suspicious that a disease has reached epic proportions and is beginning to make them think an outbreak has occurred or is a threat to the public. They give the pubic directions on where they should go or how they should handle a dangerous situation in case one was to occur. The last agency which is the local governmental agency such as Terrell State Mental Hospital helps the public with a completely different completely different angle to the disease and its prevention. They help the public with mental disorders and their treatments. This hospital is very generous and works hard to help patients with their disorders. Psychiatric issues can be a very hard time for families, but this hospital works hard and uses voluntary contributions sparingly, so that the state of Texas can take the remainder of their contributions and work hard to make the patients well or to get them on the right treatment, so that they can once again function in society. Terrell State functions as a matrix structure which basically means they are a project oriented type of company. They also function by reporting to more than one manager. They highly believe projects are the best way to make the greatest progress. This style of structure is also well known for keeping several types of projects going at all times. In this case they may have several patients that they work with at a time and these individuals may have many types of problems such as a case of bipolar, and another may be schizophrenic, etc. These patients may have several doctors that they report to. Every doctor truly cares for their patients and they like to make sure that they take each patients interest to heart.

Global communication Essay

The explosion of the internet has improved global communication and created a significant impact in our lives. With the advent of broadband wireless internet access in Singapore, our adolescents are spending intensive hours in cyberspace everyday and everywhere to meet their educational, entertainment, social and emotional needs. While they are going through this transitional stage of their life in seeking the ‘Who am I’ answers, this article reviews and seeks to understand what they do on the internet. It was discovered that both U.S. and Singapore adolescents enjoy interactive cyber communication with their peers and sharing common interest such as on-line games and audio/video downloading. An action research on a group of 35 adolescents in Singapore has revealed some interesting patterns in their internet engagement. This emerging engagement cannot be ignored by parents and teachers as we discuss our roles in protecting and nurturing our adolescents. Literature Review Introduction The Singapore Government is systematically and strongly promoting the use of information technology. One of its strategies is to make it compulsory that 30% of the school curriculum to have an information technology component and to be computer-based by 2002 (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, 2000). Naturally, the advocacy of Internet use is part of this omnipresent attempt. Young Singaporeans are placed right in the midst of all these changes and soon Internet use will be commonplace given the Government’s ubiquitous promotion. As an academic staff in the Polytechnic, my objective is to study what our adolescent students do on the internet. By having a better understanding of their engagement on the internet, it would help us as facilitators to identify their interests, needs and to understand what motivates them. This literature review covers some surveys on adolescents conducted in the United States, studies on the impact of the internet on adolescents’ be haviour and a regional governmental conference on cyber endangerment. United States Adolescents’ Engagement on the Internet As the U.S. adolescent internet usage grew exponentially in the last decade, a number of correspondent expectations have emerged (Gross, 2000). Gross performed a research to identify the activities that adolescents in suburban California engaged in on the internet and why they perform them. She discovered the following: (1) that gender predicts usage, i.e., boys spend more time online, surfing the web and playing violent games, while girls chat or shop online; (2) that internet use causes social isolation and depression, especially for teens; and (3) that adolescents use the internet for anonymous identity experimentation. By means of highly detailed daily reports of adolescents’ home internet usage and peer-related adjustment, the present research sought to compare these expectations with the actual experiences of early and mid-adolescents in 2000 and 2001. For the most part, adolescent boys’ and girls’ online activities have become more similar than different. On average, boys and girls alike described their online social interaction as (1) occurring in private settings such as e-mail and instant messages, (2) with friends who are also part of their daily, offline lives, and (3) devoted to fairly ordinary yet intimate topics such as gossiping with friends (Gross, 2000). This is an interesting article that relates the conflicts faced by adolescents. According to Erikson, adolescents are experiencing a transitional stage of their life between childhood and adulthood where they need to deal with the conflict between identity attainment and identity diffusion (Berk, 2002). Gross(2000) discovered that adolescents need to explore their identity through identity play and role experimentation. Apparently, the internet serves as an ideal platform for them to play an anonymous role in their email and instant messaging (IM) communications. They tend to take on a role of an older character in attempt to explore their future self and identity (Gross, 2000). Another of their interest at this stage is to relate to their peers more than their parents or teachers. They could engage in intimate and private relationship with their peers on the internet interactively and instantly. Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel and Thickstun (2005) attempted to study the effects of the internet on adolescent sexual behaviours. It was triggered by the fact that adolescents in the United States were engaging in sexual activity at early ages and with multiple partners. The mass media have been shown to affect a broad range of adolescent health-related attitudes and behaviours including violence, eating disorders, and tobacco and alcohol use. The authors wanted to explore the factors that contribute to adolescents’ sexual activity. It was found that the mass media plays a very influential role in shaping adolescents’ attitudes and behaviour towards violence, eating disorders, tobacco, alcohol and sex. Based on their survey, the internet is a significant media that the U.S. adolescents engage in (Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel & Thickstun, 2005). In 2003, 60.8% of the U.S. household have at least one desktop computer at home. The adolescents spend 2 hours online each time for 4 days per week. Of the contact time on the internet, 61% of it is spent on surfing the internet. It is interesting to note that the adolescents consider 14% of what they do in the internet as activities they would not want their parents to know. The authors have summarised some pre-studies of the effects of media on adolescents. They have collected some useful statistics that describe the breakdown of adolescents’ exposure to the media, from radio, television, internet to magazines. The statistics in adolescents’ sexual behaviours have supported their linkages to adolescents’ exposure to sexuality in the media. Regardless of the measure of the correlation, one thing that is apparent is that the media does pose a significant impact on adolescents’ attitude and behaviour in various areas, including violence, eating disorder, tobacco, alcohol and sex (Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel & Thickstun, 2005). How the adolescents were influenced by the media were also analysed in this article. Adolescents learn their behaviour through imitating a character they aspire to be (Bandura’s social learning theory). Other supporting theories include arousal, motivation and super-peer theory. In the latter, adolescents have a tendency to model people older than themselves. This resonates with the earlier findings by Gross (2000) that adolescents like to explore their self and future identity. Singapore Adolescents’ Engagement on the Internet The above studies have surfaced couple of gaps that I could address in my research. Firstly, we need to do a study in Singapore’s context. Secondly, I can learn from the challenges that the authors have shared. It would be an upstream task to measure the specific effects of the media on adolescents. Hence, the key objective of my research would be focusing on finding out and understanding adolescents’ usage of the internet. Moving closer to this region, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State and chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee talked about the internet and its impact on Asia (Ho, 2005). He suggested that as nations and governments become increasingly ‘wired’, its youths naturally become more in tune with the cyber world and its hosts of activities. Our youths surf the Internet for information and resources for their schoolwork. They play online games with faceless opponents for their leisure; or to enhance their social life, they may enter chat rooms and journal their thoughts in blogs and make new friends in cyberspace. These are creative and healthy online activities – if done with the right motivations and values, and in moderation. But, as our youths become increasingly cyber-savvy, they are also becoming increasingly cyber-endangered. Hence we need to be cautious of the dark side of internet (Ho, 2005). Besides cyber addiction, we need to be aware that exposure to unhealthy materials on the internet such as violence imageries may lead to increasing violence and anti-social behaviour amongst youths. Apart from preparing our youths to be cyber-savvy and protecting them from becoming victims, we should also be mindful that they are susceptible to the temptations of cyber vices and may end up committing cyber crimes themselves. Once online, a whole new cyber world greets them. Therefore, proper education and programmes need to be in place in society in order to help our youths cope with making informed online decisions, and learning to surf the internet safely and moderately. Professor Ho has started a discussion on the double-edged impact of the internet on our youths. While the internet is a valuable resource basin for their learning and development, it could also pose a threat to their safety, social, emotional and moral developments. There is a need to protect and educate our youth on how they could use the internet safely and responsibly. He shared an important statistic in our youths’ usage of internet. 68% of Singapore youths have frequent access to the internet; that is 18% higher than the regional average of 50% (Ho, 2005). Hence it is critical that we take the leadership role in understanding our youths’ engagement in the internet and taking proactive measures to promote cyber wellness. Research Question The Research Question: What do Singapore adolescents do on the internet? Purpose Why do I want to understand adolescent usage on the internet? Firstly, it is the desire of adults including parents, teachers and mentors, to improve our communication with adolescents. By understanding what they do on the internet, we would be able to identify their interest and needs. According to Ho (2005), it is important that we understand the potential threat based on the activities they engage on the internet. Besides promoting their cyber wellness, it is also our desire as adults to determine effective channels to influence them positively and to support their development. Benefits The results of this survey would be useful for me as an academic staff whose primary role is to facilitate their learning and development in the polytechnic. By understanding their interest and internet activities, it would help me to improve my communications with them and strengthen facilitator-student bonding. I believe that this would in turn increase my effectiveness in preparing them for the industry as they graduate from the polytechnic. The second group of adults that would benefit much from this research are their parents. In the same way, by understanding the paradigm that their children live in, parents could better connect with them and improve family bond. Methodology Research Paradigm Our nation has arrived at this era where youths are playing a more critical role in leading our country. That is why our Ministry of Community Development has added in Youth as an additional portfolio that deserves increased focus and attention. In the recent general election in 2006, the incumbent People’s Action Party has recruited significant number of young leaders who were born after our independence in 1965 (Balakrishnan, 2004). The key reason is to equip the party with leaders who are closer to our youths and adolescents in communication and understanding of their needs and ideology. This group of citizens plays a pivotal role in shaping our future nation as they would be exercising their voting power in future elections, getting involved in national policies and ultimately replacing our current aging population in the long term. With the emergence of information technology and the internet, the learning curve of our adolescents has risen exponentially. As far as communication and information exchange is concerned, the size of our globe has shrunk and distances between countries have become irrelevant with the click of the computer mouse. The internet has emerged to be a major channel of media, especially among the adolescents. The researches done in the U.S. as discussed above have shown that internet pose a significant impact on adolescents. Considering the higher internet penetration in Singapore compared to the U.S. per household, we would not expect the impact of the internet on our adolescent to be any lower. Scope As discussed in the review of Article, it is important that I set a realistic scope of study considering the limited time and resources. As this is the first research, I would be focusing on finding out the activities that adolescents engage in on the internet. I have designed a survey that captures what adolescents use the internet for, the activities they engage in, how much time they spend on them. There were some qualitative question to understand their preferences, interest and reasons for engaging in the internet activities. Subjects and Materials The stakeholders were adolescents. I managed to survey 35 adolescents in my network, of which most of them are polytechnic students between 18 to 19 years old. The materials required for this survey were basically printed copies of the survey questionnaires. They spent about ten minutes each to complete the survey forms. Procedures As this is my first research on the adolescents, it would be practical for me capture a broad span of their activities as a foundation for future or follow-up focused activities. The model of action research used must support continuous improvement and leverage on past findings with an interpretive approach. Hence, the model which I choose to adopt is the Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model. The steps of Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model are: (1) develop a plan of critically informed action to improve current practice. The plan must be flexible to allow adaptation for unforeseen effects or constraints; (2) the group members act to implement the plan which must be deliberate and controlled; (3) this action is observed to collect evidence which allows thorough evaluation. The observation must be planned and the action process and its effects within the context of the situation should be observed individually or collectively; (4) reflection of the action recorded during observation is usually aided by collaborative discussion among the group members. Group reflection can lead to a reconstruction of the meaning of the social situation and provides a basis for further planning of critically informed action, thereby continuing the cycle. I designed a survey questionnaire and printed out multiple copies to the adolescents. Participation was purely based on voluntary basis and their identities were all anonymous. I explained the objectives of my survey clearly to them through both direct verbal communication and highlighting them on the survey form in print. Results and Discussions The Survey forms were given to adolescents in my network as planned. They responded positively and completed the survey with ease. The feedback was that the questions were clear. There were total 35 adolescents who participated in the survey. The gender groups were well represented with 16 males and 19 females. There were some triangulations of the reflection stage of this research as I spent some time after the survey to talk to some of the adolescents to clarify certain information pertaining to some websites or online games which I was not familiar with. It was a meaningful session as they were very open to share with me their interest such as why the males like to play challenging online games like Dota and Warcraft. I then compiled that information gathered into a spreadsheet and studied the pattern of their engagement in the internet. Activities on the Internet It is interesting to note that the adolescents spend more than one-third (an average of 9 hours per day) of their time on the internet. This is supported by the fact that internet access is highly available both at school and at home. First of all, the Polytechnic provides the infrastructure to support the use of Information Technology (IT) in learning. Every student is required to own a notebook computer for administration, curriculum-related communication, research, performing on-line tutorials and submissions of assignments. The entire campus is enabled to provide wireless broadband access. In line with the national adoption of internet access, all the students here have internet access at home. Internet access and cost of IT equipment have become so affordable that most of them (26 out of 35) have wireless broadband access in their homes. [pic] Note: IM : Internet Messaging Games: On-line games on the internet Blog : blogging on the internet Surf : Internet search for information Music : Downloading of audio files Video : Downloading of video files and watching video on-line Chart 1 : Adolescent Internet Usage It is apparent that the adolescents spend most of their time on the internet messaging and chatting. Comparing with the adolescents in the U.S. (Gross, 2000) who spend about 40 minutes in IM per day, Singapore adolescents spend 4.75 hours per day. That is an astounding seven times more. Next in line would be surfing the internet, followed by entertainment such as video and music downloads. Why do they spend almost 5 hours per day internet messaging? Based on the survey, the adolescent revealed that IM is the most convenient and fastest way for them to communicate with their classmates and friends. Besides, it is interactive and free. This is in line with Gross’s analyses of the rationale for adolescents’ affinity to IM (Gross, 2002). Adolescents like to move fast and do not have much patience to wait for response especially when they want to relate to their peers. IM is real-time. They could instantly chat with their peers online and express their emotions immediately. Similar to adolescents in the U.S. as studied by Gross (2000), I also discovered that the adolescent here do not use their real names in their IM image. They like to use emotive roles such as â€Å"I am so scared†¦test is coming†. This also reflects Erikson’s theory on adolescent anonymous identity which teenagers enjoy relating their emotions to their peers in role exper imentation (Suler, 2005). The second most common activity the adolescents engage in is in surfing the internet for information. This is not surprising as they are required to research for information as part of the requirement in projects and assignment in class. [pic] Chart 2 : Favourite Website With reference to Chart 2, it is not difficult to explain the frequent usage of Google and Yahoo as search engines for their studies. However, it is unanimous that Friendster is the most popular website that the adolescent visit. The reasons quoted for visiting this website are to connect with their friends and to update each other of their latest profile. This is in line with Suler’s findings on peer intimacy (Suler, 2005). During adolescence, humans experiment intensely with new intimate relationships, especially opposite sex relationships. They look for comrades and new groups where they can feel a sense of belonging. All these relationships become a big part of exploring one’s own identity. Through communication website like Friendster and Livejournal, there is an almost limitless array of people and groups to interact with – all kinds of people and groups with all kinds of personalities, backgrounds, values, and interests. The adolescents here are curious in discovering both their identity and that of their peers. To reinforce adolescents’ interest, Blogspot and Blogger take up 13.4% of the total favourite websites count. Of the 35 adolescents surveyed, 7 of them have their own blog site and 10 of them are active blogger. They enjoy expressing their emotions and sharing their social life with their peers. One popular site they like to visit, especially among the females is that of a flamboyant 21-year old female XiaXue. The girls like to her blog because it is funny and she shares her social life openly. This confirms that adolescents prefer to interact with people they can identify with (Berk, 2002). Another interest that is significant is that of video watching on the Youtube website. The adolescents’ favourite videos are humorous and entertaining like those of XiaXue and Mr. Brown who is famous for his local political jokes. Gender Comparison [pic] Chart 3: Gender Comparison of Internet Usage Chart 3 above is essentially a breakdown of Chart 1 by gender. It is interesting to note that males spend more time than females in IM. This is also related to their indulgence in on-line games and video downloading. Because of these common interests among their peers, the males derive a sense of achievement as they share information of the latest on-line games and videos using IM. In fact, the more knowledgeable or competent males would co-teach their peers on how they could excel in the on-line game. This phenomenon was highlighted by Suler(2005) in his study. He suggested that adolescents love the sense of mastery and accomplishment as they engage in peer teaching. While females prefer fantasy on-line games like Maple Story and Audition, males indulge in war, strategy and shooting games like Warcraft and Dota. The key reasons are that the males enjoy challenge and like to take risk. Besides, they are also intrigued in connecting with and challenging people in other parts of the world. Males spend substantial time in downloading video over the internet. Their favourites are comedy movies. For females, their favourite are MTVs of their idols. This resonates with the study done by Gross (2000) on adolescents’ tendency in pretending to be someone else. By idolising an older person such as a superstar, they are exploring their future identity (Gross, 2000). Recommendation First of all, as part of the Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model in action research, I would recommend a follow-up to the above research. We have achieved our objective of gaining a general understanding of what adolescent do on the internet. Of the various activities they engage on the internet, the most significant is in IM. Hence, I would propose to do a further action research on why and how they use IM. In doing so, adults could understand them better and even use IM in improving adult-adolescent relationship. Secondly, I would recommend to adults including parents and teachers of our adolescents to be aware of the above findings and take proactive actions to build strong bonding with our adolescents and to protect them from the potential cyber danger. As is true of all adolescent activities, they need at least some supervision to stay on track and avoid trouble (Suler, 2005). Getting involved doesn’t just mean supervising in order to avert trouble. The world of computers also can become an excellent way for parents and adolescents to have fun together, to get to know each other better. There will be a part of the adolescent – maybe even a part that they try to hide – that will love this. Suler suggested a few anecdotes which I think could be applied in Singapore. First, adults could get knowledgeable of the internet and join in with the adolescents. To be most effective in supervising the adolescent’s cyberspace activities, the parent needs to know something about the topic. Parents could talk to their kids about cyberspace and join them in some of their online activities. They could even communicate occasionally with their adolescents through IM to keep in touch with them. It is encouraging to note that our government is supporting the formation of cyber wellness centre such as the PlanetCRuSH which was launched by TOUCH Community Services in August 2006 (Seow, 2006). During the official launch of the centre by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, some parents and their adolescents were playing on-line games together in the E-sports Carnival competition to promote family ties (Seow, 2006). Secondly, adults need to acknowledge the merits and threats of the internet. We should not vilify cyberspace – that will only alienate the adolescent. Instead, we could talk to them openly about both the pros and cons. We should show an acceptance of their cyber life, but discuss some of the dangers and what steps they should take if they encounter unsavoury situations or people. Thirdly, adults should advocate and encourage a balance in cyberspace time and other activities. If there’s something they really enjoy on the Internet, find a way to expand that activity into their in-person life. The idea is to integrate cyberspace into the rest of their life, and encourage them to develop non-Internet activities too. Conclusion Through the above article review and action research, I see Erikson’s psychosocial theory of adolescents’ behaviour in action. What adolescents do on the internet are manifestation of their identity experimentation and exploration, peer intimacy and belongings, separation from parents and venting frustrations. The common activities that both U.S. and Singapore adolescents engage in are IM, emails, audio/video downloads and online games. However, in terms of the length of engagement, Singapore adolescents spend 7 times more than their counterparts, especially in IM. This could be due to the higher broadband internet access rate and availability in Singapore. A further study on how adolescent use the IM is recommended to understand this intense engagement of activity. As parents and teachers, we need to be aware of the intensity of adolescent engagement in the internet and take proactive measures to protect them from cyber danger and be jointly involved in some of their internet activities such as IM and on-line games. By expressing our interest in their lives and communicating with them via their preferred platform, not only could we create a positive impact in their internet experience, we could also foster strong adult-adolescent bonding. Reference List Balakrishnan, V. (2004). Youth Mentoring Convention: Speech by Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Ag Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports. In MCYS [on-line]. Available WWW: http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/corp_speech_story.asp?szMod=corp&szSubMod=speech&qid=863 [2006 November 15]. Berk, L. E. (2002). Infants, Children, and Adolescents (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Escobar-Chaves, S. L., Tortolero, S. R., Markham, C. M., Low, B. J., Eitel, P., & Thickstun, P. (2005). Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. In Pediatrics [on-line]. Available WWW: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/1/S1/303#F1 [2006 Sep 29]. Gross, E. F. (2000). Adolescent Internet use : what we expect, what teens report. In UCLA Digital Media Centre [on-line]. Available WWW: http://www.cdmc.ucla.edu/downloads/Adolescent%20Internet%20usepdf.pdf [2006 Sep 29]. Gross, E. F., Juvonen, J., & Gable, S. L. (2002). Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 75–90 Ho, P. K. (2005). The Youth.Net: Developing Cyber Wellness In Conjunction With Asean + 3 Seminar On Urban Youth Work III at Orchard Hotel – Speech by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State (Law And Home Affairs) And Chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime (IMYC), 26 July 2005. In News@Home [on-line]. Available WWW: http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=1614&type=4&root=0&parent=0&cat=0 [2006 Sep 29]. Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2000). Broad-based approach to make Singapore the location for infocomm manpower and savvy workforce. In IDA [on-line]. Available WWW:http://www.ida.gov.sg/Website/IDAContent.nsf/dd1521f1e79ecf3bc825682f0045a340/7f1eda7f3c633fd1c825689800580dc9?OpenDocument Seow, E. (2006, September 30). Safe Fun and Games at New Cyber Wellness Centre. Keeping in Touch, p. 5.

Company Review Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Company Review - Research Paper Example A brief analysis of the history of Apple Inc would suggest that the firm has gone through significant challenges due to the competitive nature of the industry. Since Apple produced hardware which can run its own operating system therefore it restricted its marketability. It was mostly because of this reason that Microsoft was successful in gaining almost whole market share when it rolled out its own operating system which can run on any hardware platform. However, Apple made a turn around and expanded itself into different other markets thus gaining widespread success. Its real success came with the introduction of Apple Ipod- an MP3 music player which can play songs and videos besides being handy in storing and viewing pictures. Apple Iphone – the smartphone from Apple is one of the leading smartphones in the world and is even overtaking Nokia- a long time market leader in mobile phones besides giving tough challenge to other firms. It has also recently launched tablet comput er with the name of Apple IPAD which has also proved one of the most innovative and successful products in the industry. This paper will discuss the history of Apple, its products, mission and vision statements besides discussing some of the trends in the industry. History of Apple Apple Inc is one of the leading multinational organizations in the world engaged in the business of consumer electronics, personal computers as well as software. Established in 1976, Apple was started by three individuals however, later on it was managed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple Inc was incorporated as Apple Computers and rolled out its first model of computers during 1976. The earliest device manufactured by Apple Computers therefore was a handmade motherboard with a built-in CPU and other accessories considered as basic requirements to perform functions as a computer. (Linzmayer, 1999) The early phase of the firm i.e. its first few decades were dominated by the manufacturing of the compute rs and Apple did not involved itself into the manufacturing of other consumer electronics items. With the change in the personal computer industry and the introduction of DOS and Windows operating systems by Microsoft, Apple started to lose its charm and lost market to Microsoft in operating systems business. Since Microsoft’s operating system could be run on any personal computer therefore it was easy for the firms like IBM to manufacture PCs which could be run through Windows operating system. A closer look at the history of Apple would suggest that it has rolled out different models of its earlier version of Apple 1 and continued to produce new models. During 1977, Apple Computers was able to roll out its second version i.e. Apple 2 overcoming many of the previous technical weaknesses of the first model. During 1980s, due to increasing competition mainly from IBM, Apple rolled out third model of its computer and improving on the previous models by further improving differe nt technical aspects of its earlier computer models. (Coventry, 2006) Apple’s real success came with the introduction of its Apple Mac model during 1984 with extensive marketing efforts by Apple to make it a commercial success. It is also important to note that it was during 1980s that Steve Jobs was forced to leave the company due to its internal power struggle. However, Jobs rejoined the firm as CEO during 1997 and thus Apple’s real stride towards success begun. (MARKOFF, 1997)

Wind Shield Survey Community Assessment of a community in Queens , NY Term Paper

Wind Shield Survey Community Assessment of a community in Queens , NY - Term Paper Example The Wind Shield survey is a health client community that conducts surveys on continuing and comprehensive practices that are preventive, curative and rehabilitative. It also assesses the method in which a series of questions are used to collect data for analysis of specific group or area. The philosophy of care is based on the belief that health cares are directed to individual, family and the communities contribute to the health care of a population as a whole . Community parameters and history of community client The involvement of consumers of health care is encouraged in the development of community activities that contribute to the promotion of education and maintenance of good health. In order to achieve these activities, a comprehensive health programs are required that pay a special attention to social and ecological influences and specific population that is at a risk. As a community client, nurses should focus on environmental features such as physical, cultural, psychosoci al and political features that ensure good health of the population. As a matter of fact, Zuckerman (1998) adds that community client is not restricted to provision of health care to a particular age or diagnostic group but the health nurse is practicing their profession to all people without any biases. A healthy community is one that makes wise use of its resources and is prepared to meet the dangers and threats that may arise as a result of factors encountered when dealing with health problems. This has been the mandate and the aim of the community client over a quite a long time to ensure a mutual relationship between the community and the location . Community client and Windshield Survey assessment According to the ideas presented by Joint Commission Resources, Inc. (2008), they put it that in assessing the performance of Wind Shield survey in New York, a close examination of the original survey data on beneficiary is needed. According to our expectations, the general satisfact ion with the WindShield survey intervention should be high. However, the evidence was found that the endeavor of the WindShield survey to redress the balance between the rich and the poor communities was fairly satisfactory . There was a neglect of the isolated communities possibly due to cost reasons and that the accessibility of the WindShield Survey to beneficiary communities is lower in poor communities. As asserted by Shi and Singh, (2010), these factors significantly reduced the client community satisfaction with Windshield survey. The levels of Windshield survey induced community participation in decision making which also varied with some evidence that participation has an effect on community satisfaction Joint Commission Resources, Inc. (2008).Among the dissatisfaction that the members of the Windshield survey were accused of were self-serving, unresponsive and less than good in whatever they were doing. Assessment of Windshield Survey workers was also done. This was obtain ed through evaluation of the physicians and other professionals caring for the client . With the principles of continuity of care in mind, the nurses’ assessment on condition of care and treatment was done. Also all individuals receiving Medicare were also assessed using the OASIS guidelines. OASIS is an assessment tool developed to measure the outcomes of persons receiving the home health care. After this, assessment of the family was carried out as asserted by Shi

Major Depressive Disorder Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Major Depressive Disorder - Case Study Example She feels worse in the mornings, guilty and hopeless, with suicidal ideation and has developed increased psychomotor retardation. She thinks she is ruining her family, who would be better off without her. These signs and symptoms indicate that she has Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), as defined by criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). The criteria state that more than one important aspect of MDD, such as sustained depressed mood, anergia, anhedonia, disturbed appetite and sleep, psychomotor retardation, suicidal thought, negative thought, hopelessness, or poor concentration, should be present for no less than two weeks and not related to somatic effects, caused by substance abuse or adverse reactions to medication. Depression is the most widespread disorder in relation to mental health. According to World Health Organisation [WHO] (2001), people suffering from depression account for 5 to 10% of the population. The 'Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health' survey (AIHW, 2007) reported that it accounted for 33.7% of mental health disorders managed by general practitioners in Australia in 2003-04. Most studies show that the development of MDD has a higher incidence in females than males in their life time, being found in females twice as much as in males (APA, 2000; Varcarolis, 2006, pp.326-327; WHO, 2001). Typically, MDD is more likely to occur in females aged between 20 and 40 years old (WHO, 2001). Causes assumed include responsibilities of multi-tasking, for instance, domestic and office work, wife and parenting roles, or the menses might contribute to the prominent prevalence of depression in females (APA, 2000; WHO, 2001). However, race, earnings, education or matrimony are not related to the frequency of MDD (APA, 2000; Varcarolis, 2002. p.454; WHO, 2001). 2. Pathophysiology of depression: Depression arises due to multifactorial causes, including biochemical, cognitive, hereditary and environmental factors, and sleep abnormalities (Varcarolis, 2002, pp.456-460; Varcarolis, 2006, pp.330-333). In Isabel's case, a reasonable assumption would be that the major pathophysiologic causes might be biochemical, cognitive factors, and sleep abnormality. There are many studies to indicate that biochemical imbalance can cause depressive disorders, in relation to certain neurotransmitters, mainly serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine in the brain, which are known to play a role in the regulation of mood (Varcarolis, 2002, pp.456-460; Varcarolis, 2006, pp.330-333). The dysfunctional regulation of serotonin is related to decreased sex drive, appetite and sleep disturbance, as serotonin is particularly important in controlling sleep, appetite and sexual drive (Varcarolis, 2006, p.331; Zarate & Charney, 2003, pp.464-468). Reduction of noradrenaline can lead to loss of energy, interest, concentration, and decreased sexual drive (Varcarolis et al., 2006, pp.460-464; Zarate & Charney, 2003, p.464-468). The depletion of dopamine can be associated with loss of motivation and interest, because it contributes to the stimulation of the system of circuits of motivational behaviour in

Task-based Instructions in Interactive Communication Research Paper

Task-based Instructions in Interactive Communication - Research Paper Example Task-based Instructions in Interactive Communication In this system, the teacher gives an assignment that has to be done practically in the field by the students, using the second language, being taught. The students take up the assignments and have to make a choice regarding the setting where they would like to perform their tasks on. Students may choose to talk to the customer care mobile operator, interview a doctor, talk to a government official, talk to members of staff who are adept in communicating in that particular language taken by the student or rather a fellow student who is conversant in communicating in that language. Since the operation is student centered, the students undertake it and file a report on the task. This extends to the presentation of the tasks in class. The teacher then has the responsibility to analyze and give a score in conjunction to the student’s work. This poses major challenges in administration by the teachers, honesty in the part of the student and sentimental trade-offs. The task-based instruction learning system is coupled with several quandaries. It involves focus on the utilization of a given target second language by students. Such assignments include communicating with different people. Assessments of performance ids analyzed from the perspective of the outcome of the assignment as disputed to the expertise or accuracy of the student in that particular language.... The problems begin from this point. Since this method of learning is more students centered and has minimal supervision by the teachers, the students may decide not to advance their vocabulary and explore the language with proficiency. They might limit themselves to simple, elementary vocabulary that is not advancing their proficiency in the second language being studied. Other students may seek to rely on the others working. Another challenge is that of time shortage. Students may run out of time in the practical tasks extending to failure. If not properly organized, the practical task may prove to be confusing and cumbersome in terms of the size of the student body being analyzed. Limited resources and confidence by the students can be a major trade off. Significance of the Problem The quandaries, outlines above are significant in such a way that they affect the task based instructional kind of education to students who take a particular language as the second language. This poses a major debate on whether the system of education is up to standard. However, research will definitely aid in the explanation of the problem and various ways of dealing with its outcome, as well as prospecting the major ways of solving this query. The system of education, as mentioned above, has various disadvantages and poses an immense challenge to those applying it in education. These challenges ought to be addressed and put into profound consideration. The issue also has a streak of advantage as it helps students to push harder and avoid imminent victimization, which may be quite challenging to detach oneself from. The research also looks into different analyses by former and present writers in a way that the

Popular Culture Media Representation and the Construction of Social Essay

Popular Culture Media Representation and the Construction of Social Reality ( See questionsessay thesis below) - Essay Example Under this, again, we have sub-categories as well. Therefore, media diverges into various streams that operate under different conditions and specifications. And very evidently, each of them has a varied mode of consensus containment. The print media, which comes in the form of magazines, newspapers, journals and the like, operates on a more manual mode of obtaining consensus. They attempt to perhaps, try and attach importance to each individual's opinion, by resolving differences that might arise. For instance, they rely on public polls and even letters to the editor. The public can w rite in opinions and the media does try to present a consensus of the majority opinion, if not that of the entire masses. However, one major disadvantage of this media is the fact that in achieving consensus, it does omit those who have no access to reading material and the illiterate or uneducated. The broadcast media, consisting of television and radio, is more open to anyone who can voice their opinions. It need not have to be restricted to only the educated.

Media and National Identity. What particular significance do media Assignment

Media and National Identity. What particular significance do media systems have for the construction of national identities - Assignment Example Experts have been debating for a long period about the role that media plays in the creation and promotion of national identity. The paper briefly discusses the question and examines the possibility that whether or not the sense of national identity could exist in the absence of media. In the process, the paper will start with defining the concepts and terms of â€Å"nation† and â€Å"national identity†. Discussion According to the Oxford dictionary, the concept of Nation could be defined as a â€Å"large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory† (Martin-Jones, 2006). On the other hand, the Cambridge dictionary believes that nation can be defined as â€Å"an independent country, especially when thought of as consisting of a single large group of people all sharing the same language, traditions and history† (Inthorn, 2007). One of the most important and influential ideas presented in an attempt to define nation was put forward by the French philosopher Ernest Renan in the year 1882 with his book â€Å"Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? ("What is a Nation?"). ... tion has its roots in the desire of the people to â€Å"avoir fait de grandes choses ensemble, vouloir en faire encore" (having done great things together and wishing to do more) (Dornfeld, 1998). Like the definition of nation, national identity is also a disputed and debated concept with little disagreements amongst the experts and writers. Some have rejected the existence of such a concept and they label it as fallacy or illusion for the masses created by the governments and the people in power to exert their force. This allows them to maintain the status quo and thus their position in the society (Price, 1995). As John Pilger writes about the concept of national identity that â€Å"National identity ... becomes ... the often elegant collection of images that the government (or a series of interest groups) manufactures or encourages to keep itself in power" (McCauley, Peterson, & Artz, 2003). Price (2004) believes that the concept of national identity can be defined with three di fferent models or approaches, which are instrumental, essential, and pluralistic models. The instrumental model implies that national identity is â€Å"the collection of myths, ideas, and narratives used by a dominant group or coalition to maintain power in society†. The essential model believes that the American-ness, Scottish-ness, British-ness, Russian-ness, and others have their roots in the national identities and more importantly, all of them have historical essence. Symbols, music, colors and flags are tools, which reinforce this identity, there their protection and promotion is the most important job of the public institutions (Tomlinson & Young, 2006; Martin-Jones, 2006). The pluralistic model refers to the practice in certain countries where national identity is the product of efforts of

Is the Claim that PRSPs Increase National Ownership of Programmes Assignment

Is the Claim that PRSPs Increase National Ownership of Programmes through Extensive Participation Substantiated in Specific Country Contexts - Assignment Example The adoption by local governments of policies advanced by international donor organizations like the IMF and World Bank often leaves doubt about the amount of relevance that they have for the states represented by these local governments. Ownership can be considered as influenced by the extent to which the PRSP reflects policies tailored to fit the needs of the individual country, and this might be seen as indicative of the amount of involvement (at all levels of the society) granted the nation in its compilation.   Previous attempts at formulating written strategies for reducing poverty (such as the Policy Framework Paper) had resulted in almost the entire document’s being drafted by the IFI in question (Piron & Evans, 2004). The PRSP differs in that it must be drafted by the country hoping to receive the grant or debt cancellation. Ownership can be called into question on more than one level. First, ownership by the local government can be questioned because of the nature of the document. The fact that grants and debt cancellations are dependent on its completion and approval by the IFI raises doubts as to whether the policies represented will originate with and reflect the needs of the recipient government and not the donor groups. Doubts also arise concerning the extent to which the nation as a whole may be said to own the PRSP, as internal frictions and disjointedness within the levels of government as well as between and among local non-governmental organizations may also prevent the document’s being representative of the different levels and sections of society. The meaning of the term â€Å"participation† is also relevant in the consideration of ownership of PRSP’s. Participation can range from cursory and superficial consultation of the local governments on the one hand, to (on the other hand) the empowerment of that government by entrusting it with a decision-making part in the process.

Review and analysis of Educational Research Essay

Review and analysis of Educational Research - Essay Example The topic of the study revolves around the access factors faced by different employees concerning the learning in the workplace. From the two topics, it is evident that the two studies are somewhat related but completely different. First, the two studies deal with education for mature education, but Swain and Hammond (2011) focus on students in institutions of higher learning while Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focuses on individuals in the workplace. The other difference in the two articles is that Swain and Hammond (2011) try to focus on the individuals themselves and their motivations and benefits from the studies. Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focuses on the external factors that affect the individual, not what the individual feels. According to Brannen, the scope and scale of research refers to the exact areas covered by a researcher, the information presented in the study, and the factors that limit the research. This means that the scope and scale of research include s the lower and upper bounds of a study. In Swain and Hammond (2011), the researchers specifically deal with mature students in Higher education. The authors deal with these students with the aim of identifying their motivations and outcomes for studying part0-time. ... The study focuses on survey data to identify the extent and benefits of workplace learning in Scottish SMEs. The scope is further divided into information intensive organizations and traditional manufacturing and training organizations. Finally, this scope and scale is limited to workplace learning and the benefits derived by the employees for the companies being investigated. Contrary to the research by Swain and Hammond (2009), Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focus on the employer and not the individual. Research in social science is usually different according to the paradigms or extent of research conducted (Oakley, 2007). This means that different researchers aim to achieve different results by focusing on different research methods, mainly choosing from qualitative and quantitative research methods. The two methods mentioned usually differentiate the paradigm used in research, where the scientific theory or positivist theory is used for quantitative research while the constr uctivist paradigm focuses on qualitative research. Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon’s (2009) background literature is read as statistical based, with emphasis on policies and the Scottish Government objectives of getting adults up to a level of education to create an equal Scottish society. The researchers’ literature reports the European study of lifelong learning as its driver, hence a study on government objectives. It does nevertheless highlight, â€Å"driving national economic growth, whilst at the same time increasing social mobility for socially disadvantaged workers through workplace learning programmes† (p.794) does not justify the government objective. This could indicate the perspective of the researcher could fall into

Strong Peso Hurts Food Exports Essay Example for Free

Strong Peso Hurts Food Exports Essay Philippines economy nowadays portraits a good start for, as we are lifting our country from the previous economic situation. Not including the whole world economy, we are experiencing a smaller amount of problems in our economy than the recent. The rate of exchange between our Pesos against the Dollar is going stronger from now and as some bank company said that it could reach as high as â‚ ±37.50 in the next year. This is worthy for our country that it could raise the percentage to lessen the financial crisis and issues of our economy here in the Philippines. However, this could also mean that some other Filipinos, who are contributing a lot in our economic growth, will be at an edge of helping themselves to this â€Å"firmer peso†. Strong peso plus the high sugar price, makes local food producers and exporters come to haste to restore the D-Sugar allocation of 2 percent. This will be considered as hedge for the on-going raise of the peso coupled with high sugar price, which cost around â‚ ±40 to â‚ ±44 per kilo without duties and taxes. The D-Sugar allocation is the use of food producers and exporters for local consumption and export of their products. However, the D-Sugar allocation of 2 percent is too small to make a depression on the profits of sugar producers, but its closure will cause a huge percentage on the production costs of food exporters. One of the factors that affect the Philippine economic growth is price control. Price control defines as governmental imposition on the prices changed for goods and services in a market. It is usually intended to maintain the affordability of staple foods and goods and to prevent price gouging during shortage, or alternately, to insure an income for providers of certain goods. These are two primary forms of price control, a â€Å"price ceiling†, the maximum price that can be changed and a â€Å"price floor†, the minimum price that can be changed. The Philippines is one of main product that commonly buys in markets, groceries stores, etc. The government wants to change its minimum price, which rejected by the administrator of Sugar Regulatory Authority. ~Reaction The Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organization Inc. is a great factor in the Philippine economic society. About its appeal of restoring of D-Sugar, which is not yet responded by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), will be the hedge for the food exporters to the firmer peso that their expectations of the peso-dollar exchange rates will reach â‚ ±37.50 against the dollar. Exporters, in general, in this case could lose around $100 million from this year as they are dependent of the dollar as the international trading currency. The landed cost of imported sugar is now about â‚ ±40 to â‚ ±44 per kilo before duties and value-added tax. Local sugar, on the other hand, sells these sugars for about â‚ ±54 to â‚ ±70 per kilo. As the dollar continues to appreciate, food exporters carry the burden of absorbing the increasing ratio of loss to margins, and that leaves domestic manufacturers at the losing end. It is very unfair for the food exporters, sugar exporters, without any hedge to cancel the D-Sugar restoration and is now coupling with the strong peso exchange rate with the dollar. Sugar producers will be at risk to have another pricing system to regain the loss form their margins and profits. Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) issued Sugar Order 4, series of 2009-2010, converting C-Sugar, or the country’s reserve sugar to B-Sugar for the use of the domestic market. They now abolish the D-Sugar to provide an improvement in the C-Sugar in the domestic supply. It is an aid for the domestic sugar producers as they lucky that they are being supported by the government. However, eliminating D-Sugar plus the increasing value of Peso, is a disease for the food exporters as they may lose not only their margins and profits, but their competition on other countries. Philippine economic growth rate may decrease in such a gap as the sugar which is the main exports for the food exporters which has a greater percentage in contributing to our economic growth. There will be a massive unemployment in some food companies as this problem may tend to be fatal in the next years without any hedge or solution to the abolishment of the D-Sugar. Lots of domestic food producers may shutdown for this reason and a serious displacement as cheaper imports flood the local market. As the currency of peso goes stronger against the dollar, it affects a lot of factors in the Philippine economy. There are lot of appeals concerning sugar because of its continuous increase of price. Local market hurts from the appreciation of peso and comes with a solution of an appeal to aid their problems. But is SRA insisted, they explain why they can’t just take a control over the price of sugar. Moreover, there should be a manipulation in sugar or unstable value of supply and price over the sugar. There is a big increase of percentage in the stocks of sugar so there is no current manipulation. Resoucrce: http://literasura.blogspot.com/2011/07/reaction-paper.html

Discussing The Process Of Operations Management Information Technology Essay

Discussing The Process Of Operations Management Information Technology Essay Operations management is a process of managing resources required for production and deliverance of the products and services. Its basic objective is to improve the amount of value-added activities in each of the processes. The part of the company that is entrusted with this process is the operations function. As each and every organization produces products they all are bound to have operations function. The people responsible for managing the operation functions resources are known as operations managers. In different type of organizations they may be called by different names like in supermarket they are store manager, etc. This report demonstrates the three operations management techniques which helped the companies improve their business activities and performance. They were Supply Chain Management (SCM) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Total Quality Management(TQM) In this report the case studies involving the implementation of the above three techniques are explained. The benefits experienced by the companies and any changes they could have made to maximize them are also mentioned. Supply Chain Management (SCM): Supply chain management consists of coordinating the material and information flow, and the finances between the supplier, manufacturer and the consumer. Its main objective is inventory reduction assuming that when products are needed they are available. The supply networks are made up of Supplier-buyer relationship. The flow of Supply chain management flows can be divided into three parts: The product The informational flow The financial flow The behavior of the supply chain is dynamic and is known as bullwhip effect. This means that if there are small changes happening at the end of the supply chain they start causing changes at the start of the supply chain. The reduction of the bullwhip effect can be achieved by: Efficiently distributing the information by connecting all the operations to the demand source. Establishing a similar decision making process along the entire supply chain. Increasing the efficiency of the operations by eliminating sources of waste. Supplier quality management The basic need of any company from their suppliers is the deliverance of good quality products on right time. The best practice of improving the quality of product is by improving the quality of raw materials supplied by suppliers. SQM can be implemented by following the practices mentioned below: Estimating and finding the cost incurred due to poor supplier quality: This is also known as COPQ (Cost of poor quality). The COPQ can be calculated from the following: The costs incurred due to scrapping and reworking. The shutdown of our assembly line due to defective products. The costs of shipping back the defective products to suppliers and the warranty costs. Developing a system for recovering our costs: In this, the suppliers are charged back for supplying poor quality products. Here, we must include not only the material costs but also the non-material costs like packaging defective products, their transportation costs, etc. Auditing and rating of suppliers: This is the most effective way of checking whether our suppliers are conforming to our mentioned processes, quality systems, transporting, etc. It can be done once every year for all of our suppliers. The advantages gained by companies by having effective supply chain are: They have low maintenance and real costs. They can make delivery of better value and have repeat of business with the customers. They can easily remove waste from the process. They get more turnover profits and can make long term plans for the future. Summary of Case study for Supplying fast fashion: This case study best demonstrates how the garment retailing business is carried out in this dane age.It shows how the different fashion ideas which would not have been even considered by a retail store can become must-have in a short period. The working of top retail brands like HM, Zara and Benetton is been explained. It explains the quicker-picker-upper fashion concept which has made Zara, HM todays leading retailers. Reasons: To achieve this science of fast fashion product development cycles need to compress, which can be done through effective supply chain management. The retail brands believed that the only way they can keep stocks to a minimum while meeting the customers demand quickly and flexibly was through the integration of processes along the supply chain All the top 3 brands have their supply chain divided in four stages Designing of garments Manufacturing Distribution to retail outlets Retail operations Designing: Designing is of extreme importance in retailing market. The stores are supposed to deliver high and fast fashion at an inexpensive cost not cheap cost. H M designing -It is carried out by team of 100 designers in Stockholm who operate with group of 50 pattern designers, about 100 buyers and many budget controllers. Zara designing: Here, the design idea is derived from three different sources-the designers, market analysts and the buyers who order consignments to suppliers. The design stage for Zara is divided in three sections: Women, men and children chlothes.The prototype designs are created and tried out by placing all the three sources (designers, market analysts and buyers) in small workshops. The market analysts capture the new happenings in the fashion market as they are always in contact with the retail stores. This way Zaras retail stores are at the start of the supply chain and not at the end. Distribution: The investment costs incurred by Zara and Benetton in automating their warehouses is very high as they want them to be near production centres which could store, pack and develop independent orders for the network of retail stores around the globe. Currently, Zara only uses half of its warehousing capacity while Benetton is still exploring the possibility of using RFID tags for tracking garments. The distribution process at HM is still routine. The stock management is carried out internally and physical distribution is sub-contracted. In HM, goods are routed to retail site from production site through a transit terminal in Hamburg owned by the HM itself. These goods are then inspected and stored in a centralized stock room known as call-off warehouse where stores are replenished on each item level depending on what is sold. Manufacturing: Manufacturing costs can be significantly reduced if there are reduced labor costs. Therefore, most of the Benettons manufacturing operations are carried out in Asia, North Africa and Eastern Europe. The expensive technological operations are carried out in privately owned Benettons sites whereas all the labor intensive operations would be carried out by smaller contractors. The central Benetton facility decides upon how much and what is to be produced by non-Italian networks. Similar is the case with HM, whose 50% production is carried out in Asia. They have 21 offices all over the world which co-ordinate the supplier activities. The healthy relation maintained between suppliers and production offices allows them to buy fabric early. The actual cutting and dyeing of the garments carried out at later stage. This helps in delaying placement of an order, thereby reducing risk of purchasing wrong items. Zara owns much of its manufacturing capabilities which it can manipulate to meet the customer demands at short response. Almost 50% of Zaras productions, most of which are expensive operations (cutting, dyeing) are carried out in plants owned by Zara in Spain and similar to Benetton the labor intensive operations are sub-letted to contractors. Volume flexibility is maintained by Zara and their sub-contractors using a single shift system. Retail: This working is almost similar between all stores.HM stores have average size of 1300 sq.m and are owned and managed by themselves. Zara stores are smaller compared to HM with 800 sq.m size. The Benetton shops on the other hand are 1300-1500 sq.m.Previously the stores used to be run by third parties as small shops. Though there is difference in size they all have similar aim of providing the customer with comfortable atmosphere to make them feel at home and allow them to buy what they want. Benefits: The retail brands were able to achieve a high level of integration using supply chain management. This allows them to quickly react to customers demand and be flexible with minimum stocks posssible.They were able to find the correct balance between fashion, price and quality(Each brand has their own sense of fashion, price and quality).The average supply lead time achieved was about3 weeks 6 months. Of these 3 brands, Zara has achieved shortest lead times called as catwalk to rack time which is as small as 15 days. This means that not a single garment in Zara store is older than two weeks. The designs are also not repeated and are produced in small batches. This ultimately forces customers to avoid delaying their purchase and visit the store frequently lead to increased profits. Effective Supply Chain Management has helped each of the company to become a global brand image in their own way while keeping their production costs low. Suggestions: In the manufacturing stage where the raw materials are supplied by different suppliers a star rating system can be used. In this procedure a 3 star is given to that supplier which has previous record of success on supply factors set by company itself. On contrary, no stars are given to them with whom company has had certain problems before. We can do this as shown in supplier calculation table below: Value can be added to the retail industry by personalizing the needs of customer and improving customer service by using RFID technology. To automate the supply chain RFID can be used. This will help in labor reduction which accounts for about 50-80% of distribution costs. The benefits gained by implementation of RFID through supply chain can be clearly explained by figure given below: (Tajima M 2007) RFID can prove extremely useful in retail industry to control inventory efficiency and also as a theft protection service. (Michael K, McCathie L) ERP The most common and important problem involved in operations management is managing the vast amounts of data while performing it. It is extremely important that the information of each and every function done spread among the entire organization. This is what will enable them to make crucial decisions like when the activity to be done, by whom is and what is the capacity required. ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning is used to perform all the above said activities and overcome the problems arriving from them. ERP is an intelligent IT system which integrates all parts and functions of an organization to plan and control activities required for operations management. This integration also allows for transparency among all parts of organization. ERP is a complex and difficult system to implement as it is basically designed to solve problems involving fragmentation of information. An ERP system almost forces everyone to forces everyone involved in an organization to change the way they used to do their job. ERP automates the processes involved in all business operations right from taking of an order from the customer, delivering it and the billing process. In ERP, when an order is been taken by the company representative, he has full information of the customer like his credit rating and also the companys. As ERP has a single database system the new order can be accessed by all the departments and when one department is finished with the order it is automatically transferred to the next department by ERP.The location of the order can also be easily tracked using a ERP system. The ERP system make the order processing faster and the customer receive them quickly with fewer errors. The key success factors required for successful ERP implementation are: Top level management support and commitment Clear vision and proper planning Having a Project champion A set time frame to deliver the implementation strategy Project and change management Proper IT infrastructure and selecting the right ERP package Maintaining healthy relationship with the Consultant Risk management The investment required for buying and implementing the software is very high. This can be proved by the survey conducted by the META group on the Total cost of ownership of ERP involving all costs like software, hardware and all staff cost. The highest Total Cost of Ownership was of about $300 million and lowest was $400,000.the average price for user of ERP for period of two years was a massive $53,320.which proves ERP is expensive. Some of the risks involved with ERP implementation are: The chances of under estimating the overall cost are high The training and the expertise level required from the consultants will be more than expected. Under estimation of effort and time required. The project scope can be difficult to control and the need for change management may not be recognized on time 3. A case study conducted at Rolls-Royce investigating the implementation of ERP (SAP): In this case study, the Introduction and background of company along with the changes observed by them after the implementation of ERP is discussed. The risks involved with implementation of SAP are also presented. Reasons For implementation: Rolls-Royce returned back to private sector in 1987 and started acquisition of companies which enabled them to consolidate their position in industrial power .The basic reason for implementing ERP was to sort out centralized database from old legacy MRP2 systems. Before ERP, Rolls-Royce had as many as 1500 systems which were developed internally. The operation of these legacy systems was expensive maintenance was equally difficult. They did not assist for accurate and good decision making as they were unable to provide accurate accessible data. The systems implemented were unable to communicate between individual sites. The tracking of the work in progress between sites was inaccurate and causing inventory problems. The legacy systems were unable to communicate direct with suppliers and customers. (Yahaya Y, Gunasekaran A, Abthorpe M S 2004). Rolls-Royce then decided to outsource its IT department to EDS.This allowed Rolls-Royce to concentrate on its main area of expertise which was developing and manufacturing aero-engines. A team of specialists from EDS-the outsourcing firm was assigned the task of implementing ERP project which also had SAP consultants in their team. The team was well equipped with managers and staff that had crucial knowledge of old legacy systems understanding of cross functional business relationships. Yahaya Y, Gunasekaran A, Abthorpe M S 2004). Although the new systems implemented were better than most of the legacy systems they were not fully appreciated as the older ones. The team decided to overcome this problem by conducting seminars for the staff and explaining them the improvements the new systems have made to company. Training was given to about 10000 people through demonstrations, meetings and presentations. Strategy and direction: For the project, Rolls-Royce required over 100 personal computers and the total cost incurred was two million pounds. The scope and the outline plan for the project were made. A team was allocated to look over actual implementation process. After this a prototype was created and installed. This prototype model was based on Rolls-Royce Allison model. In this stage following activities were carried out: Reviewing preliminary design: Here, strategy for designing and implementation was developed along with BPM (Business process model) Development and customization of the vanilla prototype. Reviewing of implementation and the technical operations. Development of the systems and their conversions before they Go-live. The main implementation stage was divided into two waves. The first wave got delayed by 6 months because They wanted to provide more time for line organizations to prepare and clean up data. To allocate time for pilot testing and system development. To overcome difficulties faced with SAP usage. Wave one-The main objective here was to replace all the old systems. In wave one new manufacturing system like SFDMs were introduced. The pilot project of SAP suggested the end of wave one. Wave second: In this wave the engine assembly was implemented. This wave lasted for one year in duration. The second wave was ended when new systems began showing positive results. Enterprise Resource pilot: This pilot system was a small scale system run for 3 months and number 4 shops was chosen as facility where transmissions and structure operations were centre of attention for company. The reason for this facility selection was its low production capacity of only 280 parts. The pilot system was used to demonstrate processes and procedures for businesses .They were also responsible for defining role for each member and demonstrate how to manage data transfers. Go-live The problems encountered on going live were: They had user authorization issues like passwords, etc The route cards were not there due to which work on shop floor was temporarily halted. Transaction problems were observed and they were corrected by comparing old and new systems. The actual main pat of go-live system was difficult as the shear amount of data to be transferred from legacy systems was huge. To achieve this data was required to be kept in a state of stability for up to 10 weeks. The initial data like the list of suppliers was to be transferred and if any error occurred on old system they were recorded and passed on to the new system.MRP system was used to complete the go-love process which took 2 weeks time. After the go-live stage the old system were kept in view only mode which allowed comparisons to be done between new and old systems. Project risks: This project was involved with all the departments and ha its associated risks. These risks were tried to be overcomed by the ERP implementation team by maintaining a risk register. Some of the risks mentioned on the internet page of Rolls-Royce are: If due to some reason there was no delivery or unavailability of the IT hardware. Possibility of failure while loading the data or setting priorities on ERP. The project would have significant impact on the accounts of the company at the year end. Benefits: The effectiveness of such a large scale IT project is often difficult to understand .The benefits achieved from such a huge project requires at least a year to become visisble.The most immediate and important benefits that was achieved was to make a promise to customer and deliver it on time. This led to improved customer satisfaction and boosts their confidence which would result in increased orders for the future. The ERP system improved the relationship within the supply chain where Electronic communications were used to make transactions easier. The ERP system made communications between all the parts of the business absolutely clear. The Rolls-Royce management gained a better sense of control over number of operations which resulted in continuous improvements. It made possible to have accurate and timely information about their customers, business partners and suppliers. Suggestions: The company for the future can create a large data warehouse. In this the data can be stored centrally and extracted from all different places like historical and external databases. The data can be stored in user friendly format which can be accessible by non-external users. This data warehouse will help in collecting all the new data and merge it with the old data.. The management of EIS (Enterprise Information system) to check its sustainability can be done to maximize the benefits gained from an ERP system. TQM: Quality is the only one of the five operations performance criteria to have its own dedicated chapter in this book. There are two reasons for this. First, in some organizations a separate function is devoted exclusively to the management of quality. Second, quality is a key concern of almost all organizations. High-quality goods and services can give an organization a considerable competitive edge. Good quality reduces the costs of rework, waste, complaints and returns and, most importantly, generates satisfied customers. Some operations managers believe that, in the long run, quality is the most important single factor affecting an organizations performance relative to its competitors. Case Study TQM Summary: Rendall owned Preston graphics plant is located in Vancouver. Before, in March 2000 the plant was bought from Georgetown co-operation. This is a small-scale production plant of precision coated paper required in ink-jet printers. The precise coating was applied by coating machines after which they were cut into coated rods in conversion departments. They were then packed and shipped in small containers. Scenario before Implementation: The main customer of the plant was HP(Hewlett-Packard) and they were the one who pointed out the problems they were facing from the paper supplied to them. They were unable to curl the coated paper at low humidity conditions. This problem was noticed by HP personnel as there was no formal complaint made by Hps customers. The plant then hired a team which resolved the problem in the next 7-8 months. The process started producing in acceptable limits but this was due to the fact that they were only concerned about shipping the product within the specification limits. They had a culture which did not care about how close they were to the specification limits and eventually not be able to meet them. This resulted in the plant making loss of $2 million in a year even though they had buoyant sales. This was mainly due to lower productivity and high scrap and rework. To overcome them the management team hastily made a number of changes like increasing the speed of operation line to improve productivity. But still the process charts given by HP showed that the plant was not capable enough to satisfy their need for the next 3 generations. The plant was then bought by Rendall which was not happy with the plants continuing losses and the important customers dissatisfaction (HP).The plant continued to have productivity and quality problems. The full extent of the problem was made visible to the Preston quality manager by the HP engineer in a meeting at Chicago. They clearly explained him the process control charts they had which were given to them by Preston themselves. They convinced the Preston manager that people at Preston were not giving importance to the data showed by process control charts otherwise they would have realized their quality problems. The quality manager then decided to bring the plant under control. He along with his team then reviewed the decisions they made right from the start when the curl problem appeared and they adjusted the process. The team used a set of shut-down rules which enabled the operations to halt a line if they thought the product they were making was of inferior quality. This resulted in throwing away almost 64 large size rolls and about $10000 worth of scrapped product. The guidelines for shut down procedure were that they had to get rid of the defect and when that is done they are allowed to operate. This might cause the managers to tell the workers to improve their productivity but they would harshly criticize the workers if they were violating the quality process procedures. The two more change they implemented were: Daily reviewing of the control chart data The control chart data was then debated by the staff that was kept away from production while doing this. There was uncertainty among quite a few due to no production but it was vital as it got all the 3 shift operators talking about quality issues and control chart data. This caused a positive atmosphere among the workers and boosted the morale of the shop floor team. It led to remarkable improvements on quality front and improved efficiency of plant. The further progressive action taken in quality management by the plant was the implementation of Statistical process control. Then they did zero-based assessment to bring the costs down by reducing labor costs. They began downsizing process. The less number in workforce means that they should produce good quality paper in the first place to avoid inspection process. The plant workforce then decided to develop a portfolio for the ideas of new product which would boost their confidence. The most significant idea was of protowrap in which the new print wrap was able to be repulped. Benefits: Preston Company made profits after Christmas of 2000 after a period of 2 years. Moreover, they had made such a progress that they were beginning to get noticed at corporate level. This caused HP (Hewlett-Packard) to ask them to bid for their new product. It had continuous three months of profits and they also received the new contract from HP. The plants new quality procedures and principles allowed them to produce products more economically. The most significant benefit Preston received by implementing TQM was that they were able to reverse the decision made by Rendall-their owners to shut them down. The plant not only survived but flourished due to implementation of Quality based principles. Suggestions: Implementing QMS(Quality Management System) having corrective actions: This will be required when we encounter problems relating non-conformance of our supplier products. After faced with the problem, we must be able to locate the problem and find its root cause with immediate effect. This is done by (CAPA) corrective action items. The system implemented should be such that it should itself assess the cost of quality and try to initiate the recovery cost process with the supplier. Involving suppliers in quality systems: Suppliers should be encouraged to implement quality systems within their company so that they can easily reach the quality of products required and also save paying the recovering costs. (Metric Stream, 2010)

Babel Movie Analysis Essay

Babel Movie Analysis Essay The Book of Genesis tells the story of the Tower of Babel. After the Great Flood all of the humankind spoke the same language. People decided to build a city with the tower that can reach heaven. The Tower was built not to worship God, but to make a name for the builders: Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Afterwards, God came down to Earth, and was displeased with the intentions of the builders and the purpose of the Tower of Babel, and he confused their language to break the main principle of their power unity. God also scattered the citizens of Babylon all around the globe. Before going into the analysis of the movie, I would like to make use of the Clifford Geertz argument of cultural interpretations. Social facts and culture are different things, but they are interconnected. If to apply Geertzs terminology we can call a movie director an ethnographer. And whatever the ethnographer researches or studies is highly interpretive to him, to his social facts, culture, norms and values. Culture tends to resist, or is permitted to resist and thus can escape systematic modes of assessment. You either grasp interpretation or you do not, see the point of it or not, accept it or not  [3]  . Therefore, this film in interpreted through the lens of directors perception, so I as a viewer interpret it further through my perception of culture and social facts. The movie Babel was directed by a Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez. The plot of the movie tells the story of 4 different families American, Moroccan, Mexican and Japanese; and all of these families are interconnected by a series of events and face different social facts imposed by diverse societies with various values and cultural norms. Emile Durkheim defined social fact in two ways. First goes as following A social fact is any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint  [4]  . In this definition, Durkheim introduces the idea of social constraint which identifies reasoning behind actions as social facts. Meaning that there are various pressures on an individual on how to act, or of to act in the first place. If he/she violates and breaks this constraint, the consequence of this might be moral (sense of wrongdoing; being judged by people around you) or on the greater scale legal  [5]  . In the movie we can see examples of social constraints to a different extent in all of the 3 story lines. For example, in the beginning of the film the father of the Moroccan family purchases a rifle for his young sons so that they can defend the sheep from jackals. When both of the sons test the rifle, it appeared that younger brother (Yussef) shoots better that the ol der one (Ahmed). This can be interpreted as a social constraint for Ahmed, who felt being judged by the others, even if he was not. What might have given boost to this feeling of judgement is the case of a strong patriarchal rule in Morocco, where more pressure, to some extent, is put on a man. To some level this led to the incident of the bus shooting, where Ahmed was trying to prove that he can shoot better than his younger brother. Another example can be given from this storyline. Yussef was spying on his sister while she was bathing. She knew that her brother was spying, but did nothing to stop it, which on the contrary meant encouragement on some level. This brings the topic of incest taboo to the table. This is constraint which will be not just judged upon, but the legal action can be taken as well. The topic if incest is extremely sensitive and is not tolerated in modern days, although it was acceptable from ancient times in various royal families (e.g. Cleopatras first husband was her brother). Later on, when father found out about what was going on, he physically and verbally punishes children. One of the Durkheim arguments included the way that the children are brought up: Parents impose upon the child ways of seeing, thinking and acting which he himself would not have arrived at spontaneously  [6]  . Further more, Spencer argues that rational education should be reject in favour of giving the child complete freedom. I personally disagree with this view. I do realize that not all of the people are parent material, but this sort view is extreme. Children should be taught certain limitations, rules and values; but the correct balance should be found. As the saying goes Children are their parents reflection. Durkheims second definition was that social fact is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations. This definition takes more general approach to social facts. In order to better understand this concept Durkheim introduced the term social currents  [7]  which are collective emotions, feelings and thoughts in a group, which have stronger impact than any individuals own emotions. The groups experience originates outside of the individual and moves on to all of the members of the group. Durkheim argues that this has certain coercive effect, meaning that while individuals in the group allow shared experience to strengthen, they also keep an illusion of having created, that which actually forced itself from without  [8]  . Moreover, if an individual separates himself from the group emotion, he will find out that the emotion was not his own and will be met by resistance from the rest of the group, if to attempt to show another felling or emotion. This is exactly what happened to American family in Morocco. American woman got accidentally shot while on the bus tour. Bus driver goes to a nearest village, which only had a veterinarian who sewed the wounds. But the wounded woman still needed full medical care because of severe blood loss, so they were waiting for the ambulance which was driving from the nearest hospital (3 hours away). At the same time other tourists on the bus wanted to leave the woman and her husband (Richard) in the fear of another attack (the first attack was quickly labelled terrorist) and concerns over heat. The tour group and Richard engage in several arguments, eventually resulting in tour group leaving while Richard was on the phone. So if we put this example in previously mentioned Durkheims arguments we can see that after the accident the bus group was divided. The groups experience originated from outside, which in this case was the shooting. But Richard and his wife were quickly separated from the group; because now the group did not share same emotion and the same goals. Consequently, the tour group resisted Richards arguments and left. It is not certain what would have been the outcome of this situation if someone else would have shoot. Every group has a leader, which in the movie was played by a British tourist. What if he got shot? Would have this made a different outcome? Or just actors change and the end result remains the same? I guess the outcome will vary significantly depending on parameters of the situation. The next issue of the movie I would like to address is suicide. We observe the story of a Japanese family Yasujiro and Chieko Wataya. Yasujiro is a widower, whose wife committed suicide and is confronted with communication difficulties with his daughter Chieko, who is deaf mute. Because of Chiekos disability, she is seen as an outcast in the society, with people constantly shutting her down while she is in need of a simple human contact. Later in the movie, she told a police officer that her mother committed suicide by jumping off the balcony, while the truth was that she shot herself. And in the end of the movie we find Chieko standing on the edge as the balcony, which I interpreted as suicide intent. Durkheim wrote extensively on topic of suicide, implementing social current into the issue. He took various approaches such as quantitative and statistical, analysis of weather and season, etc  [9]  . But this data just showed statistics and patters, but not the cause, which in Du rkheims view was social. Durkheim argues that one of the most important aspects for explanation of suicide rates are the degree of integration into and regulation by society. Also depending on the size of the family the larger the family, the lesser the chance of suicide within it. Thus, Japanese families in general (inc. the Watayas) tend to be small in size, which according to Durkheim makes members within them more prone to suicide. Coming back to the role of the society, Durkheim gave a sociological explanation: Each social group really has a collective inclination for the act, quite its own, and the source of all individual inclination, rather than the result. It is made up of the currents of egoism, altruism or anomy running through the society. These tendencies of the whole social body, by affecting individuals, cause them to commit suicide.  [10]  We can see an example of this in the movie, when Chieko and her friend are approached by the boy who invites them for a drink with his friends, but as soon as he realises that both girls are deaf mute, he leaves and laughs with his friends. Such tendencies can cause intent to commit suicide. But what Durkheim does not mention, is how and what people attribute to the actions and behaviour of others, which undermines his theory significantly. Overall, Babel brings out various interesting issues in sociological terms. The movie after all is fictional, and so are the characters; but the social facts and culture are real. Durkheims theories are sound, clear, and are easy to put into real-life situations. But on the other hand, if to completely follow his idea of social facts, our behaviour is more or less predicted by them, and we almost have no option but to accept them. People can do anything they like as long as it does not harm others J.S. Mill On Liberty