The Signifigance Of Irony, Metaphor, And Reverasal Of Situation In Oed

The Signifigance of Irony, Metaphor, and Reverasal of Situation in Oedipus Rex Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of a man who attempts to flee a prophecy out of fear of what the future may hold for him, and in doing so blindly falls straight into his tragic fate. The use of literary devices in this play such as irony, metaphor, and reversal of situation in this play help to weave Sophocles' masterpiece tragedy in to a work of art to be appreciated for centuries to come. The literary artwork of Oedipus Rex makes it a tragedy honorable of the title "perfection". As these threads of literary devices join together throughout the play, they weave the magnificent tapestry of Oedipus Rex. In the play Oedipus Rex, there are many hints of irony laced throughout this tragic play. The plot of the play in itself is ironic: Oedipus' goal in the play is to find the source of the plagues haunting Thebes, a search which ironically leads to the main hunter, himself. Many of these threads of irony are found in the third scene of the play. For example, in the beginning of scene three, Iokaste begins the scene by presenting a prayer to the Gods to help her land in this time of turmoil. In these opening lines, Iokaste observes that the "king is not himself" (scene 3, line 4). In this part of the play, Iokaste is only referring to Oedipus' mood. Iokaste will later in the play discover that Oedipus is indeed not the same person that she believes him to be. Iokaste had given birth to a child that she was prophesied to marry years later, and so not to shame herself with this event in the future; she bound the baby and left it in the forest to die. What she does not know is that another family found him, and raised him, and he is now the man that she has married in Laius' absence. Another spot of irony in scene three of the play: In line 182, Oedipus blindly boasts when speaking on why he insists that he pursue the truth "I am a child of luck, I cannot be dishonored". Ironically, Oedipus is actually extremely unlucky as he blindly follows a path that he thinks will lead him away from his predestined fate. In reality, this path only leads him directly to it. Another thread of irony To add color to the Oedipus Rex tapestry, Sophocles adds to his play the threads of metaphor. The riddle of the Sphinx becomes a metaphor for Oedipus himself. Oedipus is the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits, which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic man. The Sphinx posed the following riddle to all who came to obtain the rule of Thebes: "What is it that walks on 4 feet and 2 feet and 3 feet and has only one voice, when it walks on most feet it is the weakest?" Oedipus correctly answered "Man" and became the king of Thebes. This riddle is a metaphor for the life of Oedipus. As a child man crawls on his hands and knees this is the four feet to which the Sphinx refers. Also man is at his weakest as a small child. He depends solely on others for his nourishment and well-being. Oedipus was the child of Iokaste and King Laius who was taken to the mountain by a Shepard to be killed so the omen of the god Apollo that Laius' son would kill him and lay with Iokaste would not come true. Oedipus was the weakest of his life at this point. If it has not been for the Shepard sparing his life and giving him to Polybus to raise as his own Oedipus would have died. Man walks on 2 feet when he has matured. This is a metaphor for Oedipus when he reaches adulthood and leaves Corinth to escape the oracle. Oedipus meets up

Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power

Greeting Cards and Their Power Today’s greeting cards portray many of our society’s norms. For example, norms about age are portrayed. Many norms are portrayed by greeting cards, such as family, age, illness, and gender. Many of these cards can also make certain groups or a behavior of people seem deviant. Greeting cards have the power to establish social norms and also make a behavior or person appear deviant. I found a card on a printing program on my computer. The card had two leprechauns standing beside a building and the word "beer" written in big letters across the top. The inside of the card says, "Essential Building Block for strong muscles and bones! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!" There is also a laughing leprechaun inside the card. This card illustrates the norm of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day and in general. In a way, it also implies that Irish people are supposed to drink a lot. Drinking is definitely a norm some of our society holds. In a lot of areas, it is acceptable and pretty much expected to have a drink every day, as long as you do not drink in the morning. Drinking in the morning places an "alcoholic" label on people. It is also a common expectation that Irish people drink a good bit. People who do not follow these norms appear to be deviant. Based on the card I found, if you do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day, or you are Irish and do not drink, then you are deviant. Greeting cards like this, along with other forms of media, are one of the reasons our society expects people to drink. It appears to be the "cool" thing to do and our society has conditioned us to want to do the "cool" thing and fit in. Most people do not want to be deviant. They want to follow the norms, such as the ones this greeting card establishes. I do not agree with this card. I am part Irish and so is most of my family and we do not drink. I also do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day and most people I know do not e... Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power Free Essays on Greeting Cards And Their Power Greeting Cards and Their Power Today’s greeting cards portray many of our society’s norms. For example, norms about age are portrayed. Many norms are portrayed by greeting cards, such as family, age, illness, and gender. Many of these cards can also make certain groups or a behavior of people seem deviant. Greeting cards have the power to establish social norms and also make a behavior or person appear deviant. I found a card on a printing program on my computer. The card had two leprechauns standing beside a building and the word "beer" written in big letters across the top. The inside of the card says, "Essential Building Block for strong muscles and bones! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!" There is also a laughing leprechaun inside the card. This card illustrates the norm of drinking on St. Patrick’s Day and in general. In a way, it also implies that Irish people are supposed to drink a lot. Drinking is definitely a norm some of our society holds. In a lot of areas, it is acceptable and pretty much expected to have a drink every day, as long as you do not drink in the morning. Drinking in the morning places an "alcoholic" label on people. It is also a common expectation that Irish people drink a good bit. People who do not follow these norms appear to be deviant. Based on the card I found, if you do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day, or you are Irish and do not drink, then you are deviant. Greeting cards like this, along with other forms of media, are one of the reasons our society expects people to drink. It appears to be the "cool" thing to do and our society has conditioned us to want to do the "cool" thing and fit in. Most people do not want to be deviant. They want to follow the norms, such as the ones this greeting card establishes. I do not agree with this card. I am part Irish and so is most of my family and we do not drink. I also do not drink on St. Patrick’s Day and most people I know do not e...

United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1099 v. Southwest Ohio Essay

United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1099 v. Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, 163 F.3d 341; Rita Miller V. Clinton County, 544 F.3d 542 - Essay Example enged SORTA’s decision to reject the planned wrap-around advertisement, which they (SORTA) termed as aesthetically unpleasant and too controversial. Among SORTA’s commercial ventures is the sale of advertising space on the buses and bus shelters it owns. However, UFCWU’s proposed wrap-up advertisement, which portrayed protesting union workers fleeing from the police and boarding a bus belonging to SORTA was rejected. In its ruling, the district court concluded that UFCWU was favored by the balance of equities and, therefore, granted the preliminary injunctive relief (Moore 1). Case number 07-2105, Rita Miller, Plaintiff, vs. Clinton County; Honorable Richard Saxton, Appellant, was argued from May 13 2008 and decided on October 1 2008. The civil rights action was brought against Richard Saxton, the Court of Common Pleas’ President Judge, by Clinton County’s former probation officer, Rita Miller. It was asserted by Rita Miller that Richard Saxton violated her right to free speech (First Amendment) and right to due process (Fourteenth Amendment) by firing her after she wrote him a complaint letter claiming hostility and intimidation from her supervisor. Miller appealed against Saxton’s decision to fire her, and a district court permitted the wrongful termination case to proceed. However, the case was dismissed by a federal appeals court, effectively reversing the ruling made by the district judge. Miller had alleged that her supervisor had acted unprofessionally by stating the probationers were a scum and did not merit the money spent on them by the probation office. In his move to dismiss the claims, Saxton wanted to be granted a summary judgment motion and alleged to be immune to suit. In the UFCWU v. SORTA appeal case, the court stated that a preliminary injunction aims to avert irreparable injury and uphold a court’s capacity to deliver significant decisions based on merit in reference to Canal Authority of State of Florida v. Callaway, 489 F.2d

Should Animals Be Used for Research Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Should Animals Be Used for Research - Term Paper Example Scientific breakthrough has created a healthier society and longer life expectancy. Scientists have traveled a long way of research to meet this end. Yet, the price being paid is so high because the lives of man’s friend such as dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, and others are being sacrificed in various animal testing and research for medical advancement. In a simpler term, we are facing a confusing thought of, â€Å"Is animal research, a ‘Blessing’ or a ‘Curse’?† Evidently, medical scientists consider animal research as a blessing. They have attained numerous achievements on developing medicines, antibiotics, medical treatments, operational procedures and even organ transplants. Dreadful diseases such as the epidemic of influenza, typhus, infantile paralysis, poliomyelitis, small pox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, measles, malaria, pneumonia and others are being controlled and treated. All of these things would not become possible without the help of animal testing and research. Let us put it this way. Let us say, that you are in a critical condition. Your life is in danger due to an illness or an epidemic. I am pretty sure that you don’t want to die, especially at this moment that your are still young. What if the only way to save your life is to sacrifice a life of a rat, or a rabbit, or maybe a monkey, for research in order to test and produce the medical treatment intended for you? If that’s the only way you can be saved from an excruciating disease and even death, would you reject the idea of animal research and prefer to die instead, just because you are against the animal research technology? Is it really worth to die than put the animal in laboratory research and suffer pain while being experimented? Or is it really worth it that animals should be sacrificed in order to save human lives? So the question is simply as, Who must be sacrificed, an animal life, or a human life? This reminds me of a situation in ancient times, during the bib le times or before Christ era. According to the bible, as attested by historical facts, people of ancient times are used to sacrifice lives of animals, particularly sheep and goats, in order to gain Gad’s favor and righteous standing before Him. So, would it be possible that even God himself consider animals research as a blessing for humankind? This is such an emotional issue for individuals who are against animals research. Probably, in their own points of view, this situation is impossible to overcome because evidently they consider animals research as a curse. Since they oppose the idea of using animals in laboratory experiments for developing possible cures to common rampant diseases due to ethical issues, would it be easy for them to stood by this principle and tell directly to the doctor that do not use the animals for laboratory test for my health benefits or for treatment of my illness? In the stance of a pro-medical technologies using animal testing, they may view t hose in the opposing side as short-minded persons or extremely fanatic and traditional. If you will watch the 3-minute video clip of the PETA organization, People for Ethical treatment of Animals, regarding their anti-animal testing stand in the you tube, with a video URL link of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRBcHIIsXc you might find them quite reasonable in their points of view. You might find this video as heart-stirring in behalf of the lives of animals being sacrificed in animal laboratory research. You will surely understand the ethical issues that they want to point out and willing to fight for. It is true, like humans, how animals

Mark Haddon Essay Example for Free

Mark Haddon Essay Throughout the novel, the chapter headings are labelled in prime numbers instead of the normal cardinals, which is an important fact. This helps us to understand the character behind the surface. At the start of chapter 2 (headed 3), he says he knows all the prime numbers up to 7,507. This tells us that he is very good at maths and enjoys puzzles. People with Aspergers syndrome are usually very intelligent, but find it difficult to express, since they easily get confused if somebody asks too many questions. At the start of chapter 7, Christopher says this is a murder mystery novel, which would indicate that there will be some detective terminology (a particular lexical register) used later on in the book. He also says that his hero is Sherlock Holmes (who incidentally solved a case called the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time where the title of the book comes from), who has the ability to detach his mind from anything not related to the problem, which is exactly what Christopher does. He could be detached when he does not do what he is told. In terms of semantics, Christopher only refers to the denotations of words, since he finds it difficult to understand connotations. The reader knows the literal meanings of the words, but also, they create certain negative connotations. When Christopher talks or writes, he does not take the connotations of the words into account. In the book, there are no metaphors, similes or any linguistic devices, as he tells us at the start of chapter 5, this will not be a funny book, because I cannot tell jokes, because I do not understand them. His lack of a sense of humour could be demonstrated by his total lack of understanding when Siobhan laughed. He does appear to feel anger when he tears the paper. He doesnt use euphemisms, because he cannot see the point in evading the truth (incidentally, he doesnt tell lies). For example, on page thirteen, he says and people will be burnt to death, even if they live in tunnels. Here, it is possible to detect a hint of pessimism. The choice of words that the author uses is not typical of the teenage social peer group. For example, he doesnt say wicked since this would be a metaphor. This also enforces Christophers social isolation. Christopher does not use any of the more common spoken English techniques, for example; contractions, But I could not be certain about this. The contraction would be couldnt. The language that Mark Haddon uses throughout the book is very formal. There are very few conjunctions since the book is written from Christophers point of view, and Christopher thinks very logically, in a structured, simple way. In conclusion, it can be seen that the opening chapters of this novel manage to seamlessly meld together the symptoms of Aspergers syndrome, with narrative devices. The use of numbers and illustrations, allow the reader to enter a world which although strange to us is a familiar and usual one of the main character. The language structures, such as the use of short sentences echo the thinking methods of Christopher, and the authors use of unemotional and denotative vocabulary is an excellent way to demonstrate Christophers own lack of complex emotions. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Conan Doyle section.

Arguments for and against prostitution legalization

Arguments for and against prostitution legalization The articles writer is Emily Bazelon who is a senior of Slate. Majority of the articles in which she wrote, were mostly controversial subjects, such as, the Hamdan v. Rumsfelf trial and post-abortion syndrome. She is a contributing writer who plays in many roles. Emily is the co-editor of the Jurisprudence blog, and edits Slates legal column. The Jurisprudence blog talks about womens issues. Emily Bazelon was a senior editor of Legal Affairs before she started joining Slate as well as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. In the year 1993 and 1994, she worked as a reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area and also as a journalist in Israel. Moreover, she is also a Senior Research Scholar in Law and Truman Capote as well as a fellow for the Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She examined the reasons why prostitution is illegal or why it should be legal in the article of Why is Prostitution. Emily was comment that the reasons of it are because of the deprived wom en in the industry and it would only help brothel frequenter who are the ones who exploit and demean these women. From the article of Why Is it prostitution illegal?, Emily Bazelon talks on the prostitution issue by giving argument. Argument on legalizing prostitution expands, leads to back-alley violence and fails to protect woman. It also causes greater demand for human trafficking victims. Martha Nussbaum argues on sale of bodily services and poor woman that work as bad conditions. Difference between a street worker controlled by a pimp and a high-end call girl who picks her own clients, and how to increase poor womens access to decent and safe work. Prostitution is inevitable but if its regulated then conditions will be better. Countries that prostitution is legal arent cesspools. In 1999, legal to sell but illegal to but sex and only johns and traffickers can be prosecuted. According to Womens Justice Center, Swedens way is a big success. Prostitution has been reduced in Stockholm and Finland. SANS, for sex workers and Allies Network in Sweden dislike the 199 law. It has more dangerous clie nts and unsafe sex. Industries want straight-out legalization but without systematic studies shown law has made sex work worse or riskier. Prostitution laws should not come down to working conditions, laws that would lead for sex workers. Due to a recent working paper (PDF) by economist Steven Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, apparently dont know that much about the specifics of the structure of the sex market. Levitt and Venkatesh found that women working on streets were making $27 a day and less than $20,000 a year from the data of Chicago police department. The Ricks of the trade were serious as an annual average of a dozen incidents of violence and 300 instances of unprotected sex. Surprisingly, high prevalence of police officers demanding sex from prostitutes in return for avoiding arrest. Its another argument against the bans on prostitution; presumably women would not be caught in this particular trap if they were not worried about going to jail in the first place. Prostitution means, the act or practice of engaging, and a career in which it is contempt by society even if it has been around for centuries. In ancient Greek, prostitution is not to be contempt because of the prostitutes dedication to the Gods or goodness of the priests. It began many centuries ago, as a way to service for the God. Today prostitution has become more and more open to the extent that some countries approve for the legalization of prostitution, countries such as, Bulgaria and the Netherlands industry. In my opinion, prostitution is an immoral transaction, even if it has been around for thousands of years. Legalization of prostitution is a problem on the countrys controversial topic. The article does not entirely agree because it has brought many negative effects, such as health, community policy issues and religious issues. As we all know, that the biggest impact caused by prostitution is none other than health problems. There are many impacts created by prostitution, whether to the society or other people, and it is physically harmful to sex workers. Those sex workers have a high probability will get sexually transmitted disease (STD), such as HIV/ AIDS, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Herpes, Human Papilloma virus , and Syphills. These STD are alarmingly high among women in the prostitution industry. According to Minneapolis/St. Paul, studies demonstrated that 31% of the women interviewed had experienced at least one episode of DID which is the accounts for most of the serious illness associated with STD infection.(Janice, 1994). Besides that, it does not only gravely impair to the sex workers, but it will also be passed to innocent people such as their couple partners. In some developing countries, it has been estimated that 70% of females have STD and infertility, most of which were caused by their husbands o r partners who were involved in prostitution (Jacobson, 1992). It shows that prostitution does not only affect sex workers and clients, but it also implicates to innocent people as well. Assuming that these diseases are uncontrollable and are continuously being spread out into community, the consequences will be disastrous. Hence, the rate of health in the community will be in the danger zone. Furthermore, prostitution also related to the crime problems in the community. Most prostitution industries connected to crime groups such as triad. Illegal prostitution does not bring any benefit to the society; instead, it will increase the rate of crime. Because prostitution is being induce, it leads to the production of criminal such as theft robbery, assault, murder, alcoholism, drug abuse, kidnapping, human trafficking and others. Some of the sex woman workers are victims of human trafficking which are manipulated by criminal groups. Many of them are living in a violent environment even life threatening ones as Emily Bazelon mentioned in the article. She mentioned that women who fear prosecution could not go to the police for help due to life threats. As the article mentioned, many of the works involve the sales of bodily services and that lots of the works involve bad working condition. I strongly believe that legalizing prostitution is a huge mistake because not only will it encourage the rate of crime to continuously rise but sooner or later it will become a rampant increase. For example, as Why Is Prostitution Illegal article mentioned, the government claimed that legalizing or tolerating prostitution would create a greater demand for human trafficking problem. More succinctly, legalizing prostitution industry will increase the demand of sex worker because of the shortage of voluntary sex workers, so they will kidnap girls and force them to be sex workers. Therefore, do not legalize prostitution is the best choice. In fact, professional ethics have always despised sex workers in the society because it is a violation of religious moral teachings. Prostitution represents a distortion of traditional cultural values and a corruption of humanity. For example, there have five percepts in Buddhism. One of the percepts is talking about prostitution. The third percept is to be refraining from sexual misconduct. Prostitution is a systematic violation of this rule, a problem Buddhists need to take more seriously. Among other things, a substantial improvement in the economic well-being of rural areas, as well as the enforcement of laws punishing profiling from the business of prostitution, is needed to reduce pressure on rural young women to resort to prostitution (Peter, 1999). From this, we know that a religionist or a superior man does not allow prostitution. Even in ancient China, the status of sex workers has no value and its level is lower compared to slaves. Despite some countries acceptance, the Mu slim religionist in Malaysia does not. Therefore, Malaysia has laws to those prostitution offenders. They will be given serious punishments if the laws are violated. It is stated in the Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997. In section 21 of Act 559, it is demonstrates that any women who are involves in prostitution shall be arrest and offense on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to whipping not exceeding six strokes or to any combination thereof. This is one of the ways Muslim people go against prostitution, which is using strict laws. Therefore, the legalization of prostitution would be very likely to break with the harmonious relationship between governments and religionists. In conclusion I strongly believe that these three factors are why prostitution is should not be legalized. Prostitution is to increase the culture of corruption in a society, because it will gradually undermine the social morality and the destruction of human conscience. If peoples cultures are being corrupted continuously, we will no longer live in a peaceful and harmonious life. Thus, prostitution should not be legalized. Reference Page Parriott, Ruth. Health Experiences of Twin Cities Women Used in Prostitution: Survey Findings and Recommendations. Unpublished, May 1994. Available from Breaking Free, 1821 University Ave., Suite 312, South, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104. Retrieve from November 27, 2010 from http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhvhealt.htm. Jacobson, Jodi L. The Other Epidemic. World Watch. May-June 1992, pp. 10-11. Retrieve from November 27, 2010 from http://www.enabling.org/ia/vipassana/Archive/J/Jackson/homoBuddhaJackson.html Emily Bazelon. Article of Why is Prostitution Should Illegal? Posted Monday, March 10, 2008 at Slate Magazine. Retrieve from November 27, 2010. From http://www.slate.com/id/2186243/ Syariah Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997. In section 21 of Act 559. Retrieve from November 27, 2010. From http://www.mylawyer.com.my/pdf/Syariah_Criminal_Offences_Federal_Territories_Act.pdf

Healthcare It Security and Cloud Computing Essay

Abstract Through the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the federal government is pushing healthcare providers and hospitals to quickly move towards electronic documentation systems or be penalized for non-compliance. This push has presented many problems for physicians and hospitals alike. Probably the most important issue that needs to be kept in mind when making a decision on a system is security and patient privacy. These two pieces present technological challenges as well as practical challenges including where and how the patient data is captured, stored, and accessed. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is the dictating law that must be kept in mind when choosing a medical charting system and the devices needed to access the system. Patient data and privacy must remain confidential and protected above any other concerns regarding electronic systems. Cloud computing is a â€Å"hot-button† topic that is becoming popular in business and healthcare. The convenience of access data from anywhere and from multiple hardware platforms has many benefits, but this ease of access comes with security concerns. These concerns must be reviewed and policies put in place to ensure that confidential patient data is not exposed. Security Issues: Healthcare I.T. and Cloud Computing Introduction The digital age has brought about many changes in the way certain tasks are performed, the way communication takes place, the way education is performed, and the way that medicine is practiced. As government regulation regarding healthcare practice and reimbursement becomes more strict and requires documented evidence to back up medical decisions before Medicare or Medicaid will pay the providers, it is becoming increasingly important for medical personnel and hospitals to not only conform to the new technological standards, but to embrace the technology that is driving it. In the past, organizations were required to host, store, and back-up the data and applications that were used both inside and outside of the facilities. This presented many difficulties such as application maintenance, data storage and maintenance, and hardware maintenance. Cloud computing offers some solutions to these issues by allowing IT departments to rely less on physical hardware, perform backups and duplicate them easily to offsite facilities, and provide application support to platforms that previously were unsupported. However, this presents significant security risk and legal liabilities with regards to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws. Purpose The purpose of this report is to discuss the options available for implementing and accessing Electronic Medical Record Systems and the issues inherent with the different options, focusing on the security and privacy concerns specific to cloud computing. Scope This report will identify the reasons and methods for implementing cloud computing within the healthcare environment. It will also point out the security risks inherent to electronic storage of confidential health information and compounded by access to this information through the internet. As background information, the core components and functions of Healthcare IT will be discussed. The research will also cover the laws that govern the protection of PHI (personal health information), who has access to PHI, and what are the differences in the laws with regards to hosting a service versus being a user of the service. Sources and Methods of Collecting Data The research for this report was done primarily through secondary resources including the transcript from a webinar performed for healthcare IT and compliance personnel covering regulatory compliance within healthcare software as well as articles from Information Technology and Healthcare journals covering issues with security and â€Å"cloud† environments. A survey was also performed in 2009 of the physicians on active staff at Terrebonne General Medical Center. The primary research is also used to demonstrate the lack of adoption within the local physician community. Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare IT is not that different from IT in other industries. The maintenance of pc’s, servers, software, and network connectivity is the same regardless of the business. The difference between Healthcare and most other industries is that the nature of the data being held within the computer systems is incredibly personal and the protection of that data is highly regulated by government entities. Up until the last few years, it was primarily hospitals that had to be concerned with ensuring that electronic patient data was stored and protected correctly. Some technologically advanced physicians have already implemented Electronic Medical Record Systems, but most physicians are only now beginning to explore the multitude of options available due to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 by the US Congress. Applications Within the realm of healthcare, there are typically two major divisions in computer applications. There are financial systems and clinical systems. Financial systems have been adopted in most hospitals and physician offices, largely due to requirements from insurance companies and government bodies that require data to be transmitted electronically for payment. Clinical systems, however, have not been implemented wide due to lack of knowledge and workflow interruption concerns. â€Å"Elaborate training in new e-healthcare systems is not a luxury that is typically available to healthcare professionals – i.e., doctors, paraprofessionals, (e.g., nurses) and administrative personnel—because of the 24Ãâ€"7 nature and criticality of operations of healthcare organizations, especially hospitals, thus making peer interactions and support a key driver of or barrier to such e-healthcare system use† (Venkatesh, Zhang, & Sykes, 2011). Data and security While a paper could be written solely regarding the storage and maintenance of electronic data, for the purposes of this paper only an overview and best practices will be discussed. Data can be stored in a multitude of different manners, all of which have benefits and downfalls. Saving data locally to a particular computer or other device can be dangerous. Should that device fail, the data saved to it could be lost. Also, data that has been saved locally to a device is more difficult to secure and guarantee that the data will only be accessed by the appropriate person or persons. From an enterprise or business level, the best practice for data storage is to ALWAYS save data to a central location so that is can be backed up regularly and can be accessed from multiple locations. It is also recommended for larger business such as hospitals to have duplicated backups and in some cases the data may be backed up to an off-site facility for disaster management purposes. Though proper backup practices are vital, data security is just as important. Software applications such as Microsoft Active Directory and Novell NETWare are used to provide security to a computer network and the data stored within. Through these systems, users must log into individual workstations and based upon the credentials provided to this log in, the user will only be allowed to access certain portions of the data which is stored somewhere else on the network. This method of access and storage is much safer and more easily controlled than it would be if the data were stored to the hard drive of the device the user is accessing. Security has become more difficult to enforce with the increased adoption of mobile devices. The rapid growth in the number, types, and functionality of mobile devices has been stunning†¦ currently there are over 17,000 healthcare mobile applications listen in major app stores, of which 50% are directed to healthcare professionals (Laverty, Kohun, Wood, & Turchek, 2011). Securing data accessed by Smartphones, tablet computers, iPads, and other handheld devices presents a host of new difficulties. In many cases, these devices are not owned by the facility and thus are not being accessed in the same manner as desktop pc’s and laptops. Challenges Controlling devices that access patient data while working within the confines of HIPAA is a key challenge for healthcare organizations. HIPAA privacy rules apply to all healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and business associates (Roach & Wunder, 2009). Internally, data security can be achieved by proper user habits such as logging out of a session when the user is not actively using the system, screensavers that require a password, and automatic timeouts during periods of inactivity all help to ensure that private data cannot be accessed by someone that does not have the legal rights to view the data. Many organizations undergo periodic security audits to assist in finding vulnerabilities within the systems being run. Not only is it a challenge to provide data access security, but it is even more difficult to physically secure a device that someone carries around with them and is not stationary. Some programs like Microsoft Exchange (for email) can require that a security threshold be in place before the program can be accessed from a particular device and have the ability to remotely wipe the data from a device should it become compromised. The mobile nature of handheld devices is also a major challenge. In years passed, laptop computers were the only valid threat to data being accessed from off-campus sites. As cellular data technology has gotten fast and now mobile devices can access these wireless systems from nearly anywhere, the threat of data security breaches has increased. Another challenge is keeping up dated with users that should no longer have access to the available systems. Internally, a systems administrator can keep track of employees that are still employed with the organization. It becomes a much more difficult task to police the accessibility of users outside of an organization. Cloud Computing What is cloud computing? The term â€Å"cloud† computing originates from the telecommunications world of the 1990s, when providers began using virtual private network (VPN) services for data communication. (Kaufman, Lori M.;BAE Systems, 2009) Cloud computing shares its resources among a cloud of service consumers, partners, and vendors. (Kaufman, 2009) In simpler terms, cloud computing is a shared infrastructure where hosting and accessing of services is not site specific. The data does not live only on a server in an office or building. Cloud computing can be used to offsite data backup. In lieu of housing a set of storage servers at an offsite facility, organizations can choose to back up their data to the cloud where it will be stored by someone else for a fee. The same process can be applied to applications. Rather than having to invest in expensive hardware that requires maintenance, organizations may choose to run web based applications that are hosted by someone else over the internet for a fee . Cloud computing allows for some systems to interconnect and share data, which is the end goal of electronic medical records and forming a personal health record for patients. Cloud computing has begun to take off as vendors such as Google and Apple have begun to open up their own cloud offerings. Some vendors offer these services for free, such as Google has with its Google Documents offering. Others, such as Apple’s iCloud are offered to users for a fee. Services such as these have enabled users to access personal data from anywhere at any time. Benefit to Implementing in Healthcare Though the upside to implementing EMR systems and sharing data is evident, there are drawbacks. One key concern is that practitioners will be slowed down due to the learning curve involved with using new systems. Physicians have grown accustomed to providing medicine in a certain manner, which does not always work well with electronic charting systems. Another issue at hand is who owns the data? Physicians are not always excited to share their personal notes regarding patient care. â€Å"The whole point of cloud computing is economy (Delaquis & Philbin, 2011).† With the passage of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, physician and hospital organization reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid will be tied to meeting certain â€Å"meaningful use† guidelines. In order to get full reimbursement for services provided, these providers are being pushed to document their practice of medicine electronically and in turn this information will be t he property of the patient and shared with other providers to ensure proper continuity of care. The idea behind this is that there will be fewer medical errors and the patient will have access to all the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding their healthcare. From a provider stand point, this means that â€Å"hopefully† all medically necessary information will be available to medical professionals in order to provide the necessary medical care and fewer errors will be made due to lack of patient health history. Electronic documentation and ordering also has a few other side effects. Fewer errors should be made due to less human intervention and interpretation of orders and, with luck, better coding and documentation of services rendered will lead to increased revenue. Because physician adoption is low, the building of personal health records is moving much more slowly (see Illustration below for EMR adoption rates at a local hospital) than the growth of cloud computing as a whole. Illustration 1 Conclusion Though there are definite risks involved with the storage and transfer of protected personal health information, the use of mobile devices in the work place is driving cloud computing and will continue to do so. In order to get healthcare providers to begin adopting electronic systems, the systems must be user friendly and work well within the flow of the practice of medicine and not inhibit the proper care from provided. The environment of healthcare is changing and the delivery of healthcare information must change with it. Patients no longer expect to just be given appropriate care, but they now insist on being involved with the decision making regarding how that care is rendered. Moving health information into a cloud environment and allowing that information to be shared will eventually lead to better healthcare for everyone, no matter which hospital the patient is in or which physician is providing the care. Works Cited Delaquis, R. S., & Philbin, G. (2011). To Cloud or Not to Cloud? Issues in Information Systems, Volume XII, No. 1, 54-58. Kaufman, Lori M.;BAE Systems. (2009, July/August). http://www.computer.org. Retrieved from IEEE Computer Society: http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/sp/2009/04/msp2009040061.html Laverty, J. P., Kohun, F. G., Wood, D. F., & Turchek, J. (2011). Vulnerabilities and Threats to Mobile Device Security from a Practitioner’s Point of View. Issues in Information Systems; Vloume XII, No. 2, 181-193. Miller, Esp., W. J. (November 3, 2011). New World of Medical Appls: Beware Regulatory Traps! Progressive Healcare Conferences. Malvern, PA. Mishra, S., Leone, G. J., Caputo, D. J., & Calabrisi, R. R. (2011). Security Awareness for Health Care Information Systems: A HIPAA Compliance Perspective. Issues in Information Systems, Volume XII, No. 1, 224-236. Pardue, J. H., & Patidar, P. (2011). Threats to Healthcare Data: A Threat Tree for Rick Assessment. Issues in Information Systems, Volume XII, No. 1, 106-113. Paullet, K. L., Pinchot, J. L., Douglas, D., & Rota, D. R. (2011). Mobile Technology: Plugged In and Always On. Issues in Information Systems; Volume XII, No. 1, 141-150. Roach, W., & Wunder, G. (2009). Privacy Under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996: The Impact of RFID. Issues in Information Systems, 237-241.

Microbiology 311 Lab Report

Rebekah Worley February 21, 2012 Mitchell Section 4 Biol 311 Staining and Identifying Unknown Bacteria Introduction: The microbiology lab up to this point has been used to teach the students how to stain and identify bacteria. There are several types of staining through which the bacteria can be identified based on the color and shape. The staining methods used in the lab are Gram Staining, Capsule Staining, Endospore Staining, and Acid Fast staining. One of the most significant method of staining is the Gram Staining, as it is highly dependent (McCarthy, 25).In the specific experiment that was done, Gram Staining was used and the bacteria that was found was purple and round (cocci) shaped. Through this the bacteria was identified as Staphylococcus epidermis. Material and Methods: The first step to identifying the bacteria was to heat fix it to the slide. The materials used were a slide, water, a Bunsen Burner, bibulous paper and clothes pin. The unknown bacteria was in a vial in sol id form. The steps on page 19 and 20 of the Customized Biol 311 General Microbiology Laboratory Manual were followed to heat fix the bacteria.After this gram staining was used to identify the unknown bacteria. The materials used for gram staining include the slide the was heat fixed, bibulous paper, crystal violet, distilled water, Gram's iodine, 95% ethyl alcohol, safranin, oil and a microscope. The steps on page 26 of the Customized Biol 311 General Microbiology Laboratory Manual were used to stain the bacteria. Several changes were made in the procedure. The crystal violet was on the slide for 1 minute rather than 20 seconds. The decolorizing step was used with alcohol for 10 seconds rather than 20 seconds.The only other change was that the safranin was on the slide for 1 minute instead of the recommended 20 seconds. The slide was put under the microscope at 1000x magnification using oil immersion. Results: When looking under the microscope the bacteria was found to be purple and cocci shaped. Because of the specific color and shape of the bacteria it was easily identifiable as Staphylococcus epidermis. From this it is seen that only a Gram stain was necessary to identify the bacteria. Discussion: From this experiment it is seen that bacteria is easily identified when stained correctly.Going through the procedure with accuracy is vital, and when done right the bacteria is clear and concise. When the bacteria was stained in this experiment the color was difficult to determine at first. After exploring the bacteria on the slide it was seen to be mainly purple. If the staining had not been done properly it would have been a lot more difficult to distinguish between bacteria. This was an important thing to learn because staining is so vital in identifying unknown bacterium. Works Cited McCarthy, Charlotte M and Harold Benson. Customized Biol 311 General Microbiology Laboratory Manual. 2nd. ed. New York. McGraw-Hill 2002 Print.

Dante as a humanist essays

Dante as a humanist essays Discuss Dante's early contribution to the Humanist era, focusing on his use of Virgil in Cantos I-IV and the use of the vernacular in the Divine Comedy. Dante Alighieri is not considered a Renaissance Humanist, however he is considered one of the three crowns of Florentine literature, alongside Petrarco and Boccaccio. Petrarco is reputed as being the fore-runner of Humanism, whereas Dante gave Florentine Italian to the people of Italy and was a key leader in making vulgar Italian an acceptable means of Literature and Rhetoric. Dante also studied and revered many poets and philosophers of antiquity and used them in the Divine Comedy. Virgil was in fact chosen by Dante to be his guide through the Inferno. He was also interested in reason and virtue and the development of the individual. For these reasons, Dante's style exhibits many precursors, if not aspects of later humanistic thought. In this essay, I will define Humanism and its qualities and I will discuss Dante as an ante-litteram Humanist, focusing on the language he uses in the Divine Comedy and his relationship with Virgil in the first four Cantos. It is my obligation to inform you, in the first place, that Dante was not a Humanist and belongs to the Late Medieval period in a class of his own as a moral and social philosopher, a Politician, a classical enthusiast, a Linguist and a Poet. The term Humanism derives from the Latin humanitas meaning the cultural values attained from a liberal education. Studia humanitatis, including language, literature, history and moral philosophy, was the name given to this kind of education and was studied in classical times. Petrarco was the principle fore-runner of the rebirth of humanitas, or Humanism as it came to be called and the term umanista was used in the 1400s to describe a professor or student of classical literature. The English wordhumanist? did not emerge until the 1500s. However, it was not until 1809, in Germany, tha...

Examining the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing

Examining the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing Like many issues in public education, standardized testing can be a controversial topic among parents, teachers, and voters. Many people say standardized testing provides an accurate measurement of student performance and teacher effectiveness. Others say such a one-size-fits-all approach to assessing academic achievement can be inflexible or even biased. Regardless of the diversity of opinion, there are some common arguments for and against standardized testing in the classroom. Standardized Testing Pros Proponents of standardized testing say that it is the best means of comparing data from a diverse population, allowing educators to digest large amounts of information quickly. They argue that: Its accountable.  Probably the greatest benefit of standardized testing is that educators and schools are responsible for teaching students what they are required to know for these standardized tests. This is mostly because these scores become public record, and teachers and schools that don’t perform up to par can come under intense examination. This scrutiny can lead to the loss of jobs. In some cases, a school can be closed or taken over by the state. Its analytical.  Without standardized testing, this comparison would not be possible. Public school students in Texas, for example, are required to take standardized tests, allowing test data from Amarillo to be compared to scores in Dallas. Being able to accurately analyze data is a primary reason that many states have adopted the Common Core state standards. Its structured.  Standardized testing is accompanied by a set of established standards or an instructional framework to guide classroom learning and test preparation. This incremental approach creates benchmarks to measure student progress over time. Its objective.  Standardized tests are often scored by computers or by people who do not directly know the student to remove the chance that bias would affect the scoring. Tests are also developed by experts, and each question undergoes an intense process to ensure its validity- that it properly assesses the content- and its reliability, which means that the question tests consistently over time. Its granular.  The data generated by testing can be organized according to established criteria or factors, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and special needs. This approach provides schools with data to develop targeted programs and services for improving student performance. Standardized Testing Cons Opponents of standardized testing say educators have become too fixated on scores and preparing for these exams. Some of the most common arguments against testing are: Its inflexible.  Some students may excel in the classroom yet not perform well on a standardized test because theyre unfamiliar with the format or develop test anxiety. Family strife, mental and physical health issues, and language barriers can all affect a students test score. But standardized tests dont allow personal factors to be taken into consideration. Its a waste of time.  Standardized testing causes many teachers to teach to the tests, meaning they only spend instructional time on material that will appear on the test. Opponents say this practice lacks creativity and can hinder a student’s overall learning potential. It cant measure true progress.  Standardized testing only evaluates one-time performance instead of a students progress and proficiency over time. Many would argue that teacher and student performance should be evaluated for growth over the course of the year instead of one single test. Its stressful.  Teachers and students alike feel test stress. For educators, poor student performance may result in a loss of funding and teachers being fired. For students, a bad test score may mean missing out on admission to the college of their choice or even being held back. In Oklahoma, for example, high school students  must pass four standardized tests  in order to graduate, regardless of their GPA. (The state gives seven standardized  end-of-instruction (EOI) exams in Algebra I, Algebra II, English II, English III, Biology I, geometry and U.S. history. Students  who fail to pass at least four of these exams  can’t get a high school diploma.) Its political.  With public and charter schools both competing for the same public funds, politicians and educators have come to rely even more on standardized test scores. Some opponents of testing argue that low-performing schools are unfairly targeted by politicians who use academic performance as an excuse to further their own agendas.

Management accounting and control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management accounting and control - Essay Example It acts as a plan developed by experts from within the organization or belonging to external agencies, private or governmental. These professionals make forecasts based on assumptions related to the prices of goods produced, costs of production, wages of labour, level of demand in the market and several other variables. These assumptions are then distributed in the form of a budget to the various departments from the head office. The employees in these departments then infer the status of their respective departments and figure out the ways of action depending on their level of knowledge about the market. Therefore in effect the budget comes true only to the extent up to which the specific departments make accurate assumptions regarding their own operations and also the condition of the market. The moral of this entire process lies in the advice lent out to the different departments that they must try and act in a little more efficient way and that they should be selling more amounts of the products in the coming years (Wallander, 1999). This context is good enough to prove redundancy of the intricate system of budgeting in organizations. The management can also do it without taking refuge under complicated assumptions but rather check at regular intervals that the departments are following the advice. In this paper we shall look into the issue that the process of budgeting is no longer a relevant system for running an organization successfully and that it has been termed by a most well known Swedish author as â€Å"an unnecessary evil† (Chapman, Hopwood and Shields, 2009). Considerable amount of debate has arisen regarding the necessity of budgets in business organizations. The process of preparing an annual budget embodies a lengthy process incurring huge expenses. Thus as Hope and Fraser calls it, the system of budgeting is quite cumbersome and is

Creative paper Consider yourself to be a political candidate for Assignment

Creative paper Consider yourself to be a political candidate for national office - Assignment Example He has lost sight of what is best for the people and instead, allows his own political ambitions, and party affiliations to dictate the moves that he shall make. We were once known as the Last Remaining Super Power in the world. We were the international police. Our presence in turmoil filled countries brought peace and stability. Our political, social, and economic system was once the envy of other nations. We were the allies of those oppressed and the enemies of those who wished to dominate the world. We have lost that standing now. These days, thanks to the cowardly leadership in Washington, North Korea thinks they can aim bombs at our allies, build nuclear weapons, and threaten the peace in South Korea. China has been flexing its muscles in the international community and bullies countries that dare to question their occupation of the Spratly Islands. Rogue nations now think that because America has lost its way, there is no need to fear the countrys position as an international leader anymore. After all, our president has decided that we are spending too much on military improvements and wars abroad. Totally missing the point that witho ut our well equipped military forces, and fighting wars abroad, we would be fighting the terrorist battle right here on our very soil. Causing more sociopolitical and economic problems for the citizens of this country. It isnt surprising that he cant handle diplomatic relations with other nations. That is why he hired Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State. Barack Obama doesnt have any international relation skills at all. He was just a newbie senator when he decided to run for president. On his first international trip to Germany as president the first thing he did was apologize for the actions of America during the war. And he has done that every country that he has visited since. He has turned America in a â€Å"lame duck† country. Further proving that he was in no way, shape, or form ready for the