The Middle Passage: Hell on Earth

The Middle Passage: Hell on earth Olaudah Equiano’s The Middle Passage is a chilling look into the infamous Middle Passage, a harrowing journey across the Atlantic made by captured African slaves. The Middle Passage is told from Equiano’s own perspective of being captured, allowing the reader to more fully grasp the torturous emotions and tribulations involved in being ripped from your home and shipped a world away.Through the Middle Passage, historians are able to view one of the most gruesome aspects of the journey to slavery from a first person perspective, examining the interactions between many cultures and the impressions each had of one another. The Middle Passage begins with Equiano’s sight and subsequent boarding of the ship that will take him across the Atlantic. It is obvious from the very beginning of his description that this is either his first or one of his first experiences with white people, describing them as â€Å"bad spirits† and believ ing â€Å"they were going to kill me. Fear is the first emotion Olaudah feels, and rightly so: The journey of 1-6 months had a 15% mortality rate, higher for africans during the process of capture and containment. (Wiki) In the subsequent paragraphs, fear turns into hopelessness, as Equiano begins to assess his situation and realizing he was â€Å"deprived of all chance of returning to my native country† As his journey progresses, the true horrors of the trip unfold.The disease and stench of the proximity with which the slaves are held make up arguably the worst of the trauma; many throw up, no doubt adding to the disgust. Historians here get interesting insight into the psyche of the crew: instead of leaving the slaves to die down below, they show vested interest in their cargo, allowing the sickest or most at danger of dying to be brought to the deck of the ship in order to survive. No doubt this seeming empathy was targeted at ensuring survival and thus profit margin rath er than compassion.Multiple captured slaves commit suicide, preferring death over their grotesque conditions, a sickening allusion to how terrible the ship must have been. Upon reaching land the slaves are rounded up and finally given an explanation by other slaves that they will not be eaten, a fear that evidently persisted throughout the journey. They are then rounded up as cattle to be bought by land owners and merchants, a process similar to the reports of slave selling in 19th century America.Equiano’s journey finally over, he remarks on the fact he will most likely never see anyone from that journey again, as he is now alone in a foreign world where he neither speaks the language nor has knowledge of any culture of customs. The Middle Passage tells a tale of suffering, calamity and filth. The insight historians glean from the tale no doubt confirms what is already known of the slave trade: that it is a torturous, inhumane institution who’s end could not have came soon enough.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinology disorder affecting 15–20% of women in reproductive age worldwide (1).   PCOS characterized by hyperandrogenism and high level of insulin resistance which leads to the dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovary axis, resulting in anovulation and menstrual irregularity (2-6). PCOS is considered the most common cause of anovulatory infertility. Around 90%–95% of an-ovulatory women visiting infertility clinics have PCOS (7). The current first-line infertility treatment in women with polycystic ovary syndrome is Clomiphene Citrate. However, it has drawbacks, including its overall poor efficacy (only a 22% rate of live birth with up to six cycles of clomiphene (8)), ovulation rate of only 46% (9) and an undesirable side-effect profile, including mood changes and hot flushes. Failure either to ovulate (clomiphene resistance), or to conceive with ovulation (clomiphene failure) often leads to the use of more expensive treatment options for infertility that associated with higher multiple pregnancy rates and an increased risk of the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (10). Insulin-sensitizing agents, such as metformin, have been used successfully to treat women with PCOS (11). However, metformin also has multiple undesirable gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea (61%), vomiting (30%), and diarrhea (65%). (12,13) Furthermore, many women who have PCOS are not satisfied with pharmaceutical treatment. In a survey done on women with PCOS, 99% expressed their desire for effective treatment alternatives to fertility drugs, (14) and as many as 70% of women with PCOS use complementary medicines (15-16). Herbal Medicine is still widely used from world population for approximately 75-80%; this is because that herbal medicine is considered more culturally acceptable, less dangerous and more natural form of treatment (17). In Saudi Arabia, approximately 80% of the population use herbal medicine, and one of the main reasons is the ease of use of herbs that could be taken orally without painful procedure or invasive methods (18). Cinnamon, a commonly used spice, has become a natural product of interest because it has been considered to have health benefits, such as reducing blood glucose, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and decreasing insulin resistance (19). Cinnamon increases insulin sensitivity likely because of its effect on intermediate metabolites acting at the cellular level (20). Several studies stated that polyphenol polymers isolated from cinnamon could increase insulin-dependent glucose metabolism. (21-23) Cinnamon usually causes no serious side effects. The reported adverse events of cinnamon include headache, heartburn and menstrual cramps (24). In general, herbal medicines are better tolerated than pharmaceutical medications as shown in a systematic review for critical evaluation of clinical efficacy and adverse events of herbal remedies (25). Cinnamon extract may offer a low cost, readily available and relatively easily implemented means of reducing insulin resistance and thereby improving ovulation in women with PCOS.2. Literature Review: A randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial investigating the effect of cinnamon on menstrual cyclicity in women with PCOS, women receiving daily 1.5 g of cinnamon treatment showed significant improvements in menstrual cyclicity, whereas patients receiving placebo did not. Sampling from different patients in the study showed the luteal phase serum progesterone (progesterone level >3 ng/mL), sonographic visualization of corpora lutea, and pregnancy which all support that the bleeding has resulted from ovulatory cycles, rather than merely changes in menstrual flow (24). That suggests that cinnamon supplement may have an effect on ovulation induction in women with PCOS. Regarding the effect of cinnamon on insulin resistance, a study conducted in 2017 involving 66 women with PCOS in a randomized, double?blind placebo?controlled clinical trial. The women in the first group treated by cinnamon capsules 1.5 g/day for three months and the second group by placebo capsules. The homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (p = .014) reduced after the three months in the cinnamon group compared with the placebo (26). Another randomized control study concluded that oral administration of 1g of cinnamon extract daily for eight weeks was well tolerated and improved insulin sensitivity in nondiabetic women with PCOS (27). A double-blind randomized control study, comparing the effect of cinnamon and metformin on insulin resistance in 112 women with PCOS taking 1g of cinnamon versus 1g of metformin daily, shows that both significantly decreasing the insulin resistance (28). A study in non-PCOS patients with elevated serum glucose, 173 patients were enrolled and given 500mg of cinnamon daily for two months, showed a significant reduction on fasting insulin, glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol and enhanced insulin sensitivity (29). There are many studies conducted on metformin as insulin-sensitizing agent on ovulation in PCOS women. In a systematic review, forty-four trials (3992 women) were included for analysis, 38 of them using metformin and involving 3495 women, clinical pregnancy rates were improved for metformin versus placebo (pooled OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.52 to 3.51, 8 trials, 707 women) and for metformin and clomiphene versus clomiphene alone (pooled OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.96, 11 trials, 1208 women) (30). Since the cinnamon have been suggested to improve the insulin resistance in previous studies and taking into account the side effects of metformin, a cinnamon supplement may offer a good and natural alternative to metformin as an insulin-sensitizing agent and thereby improve the ovulation in women with PCOS.3. Rational:The rarely and non-serious reported side effects of cinnamon along with the cost-effectiveness and availability lead to the need of exploring the effectiveness of cinnamon supplement as a complementary medicine for ovulation induction in women with PCOS.4.1 Aim:To determine the effectiveness of cinnamon supplement and clomiphene citrate (CC) combination on ovulation in women with PCOS.4.2 Objectives:Primary Objective:To compare the effectiveness of cinnamon supplement in combination with clomiphene citrate versus clomiphene citrate alone on ovulation in women with PCOS, in King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah 2018.Secondary Objectives:To measure the difference in insulin resistance after three months of cinnamon supplementation in women with PCOS in King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah 2018.To determine the effect of cinnamon and CC combination on menstrual cyclicity, approximated by menstrual frequency, during the study period, in women with PCOS in King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah 2018.To measure the pregnancy rate in women with PCOS in King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah 2018.To evaluate the quality of life in women with PCOS in King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah 2018.Materials and Methods Place of study:The study will be carried out in King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Obstetrics and gynecology clinics, in Jeddah 2018. Exclusion criteria:Current pregnancy or lactation.Current use of treatment of infertility.Established diagnosis of diabetes mellitus.Use of Insulin-sensitizing treatment within the past three monthsHormonal treatment involving estrogen or progesterone within the past three months.Known hypersensitivity to cinnamon.Use of statin medication.Any other supplements that contain cinnamon within the past month.BMI 35.Sample Size:To detect a clinically significant difference of 30% between the previously reported systematic review of ovulation rate (~46%) (9) with a one-sided 5% significance level and power of 80%, a sample size of 82 participants (41 per arm) is required. (Fleiss, Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions, formulas 3.18 &3.19). Randomization:The participants will be randomized in 1:1 fashion using a computer program by trained assistance. Allocation concealment will be ensured using similar bottles labeled by letters A and B to receive either the combination of cinnamon supplement and clomiphene citrate or clomiphene citrate with placebo. The intervention allocation will be blind for both investigators and participants.5.6 Intervention:The Cinnamomum cassia  (C. aromaticum) capsules will be purchase from Spring Valley company (distributed by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. USA) by the investigator. Placebo capsules will be prepared by Batterjee Pharma Company and will contain 450 mg of starch and 50 mg of cinnamon powder (to improve blindness regarding taste and odor). Shape, size, and color of placebo capsules will be completely similar to the cinnamon capsules.Cinnamon and placebo capsules will be provided to both groups monthly for 12 weeks. Participants will be required to consume two capsules twice per day after meals (2g/day). The last packages of capsules will be checked at the end of the month, and the number of remaining capsules will be counted; after that, new packages will be delivered to patients. All capsules will be given simultaneously with the clomiphene citrate medication. Participants will be asked to keep their normal lifestyle including daily food and physical activity level.The 2g dose of cinnamon is chosen based on published clinical trials in patients with PCOS (8,15,16,17). All participants in both groups will be followed for three months or until pregnancy confirmed. The three month-period has chosen based on a systematic review that showed the effect of cinnamon could be as early as 4 weeks and up to 18 weeks (31).5.7 Adherence:Compliance with diet and medications and interval progress will be monitored with monthly visits with the investigator or his trained assistances along with SMS reminder or WhatsApp messages. Also, participants will be asked to return all study packs (including empty bottles) at every monthly visit.5.8 Patient safety:Patients will be monitored monthly during the study period, and any occurrence of adverse events will be recorded.5.9 Study Outcomes:Primary outcome: Progesterone level > 3ng/mL (ovulation confirmation) or pregnancy confirmed.Secondary outcomes: Changes in insulin resistance, menstrual cyclicity, pregnancy rate and fertility quality of life at the end of the study in comparison with the baseline values. Procedure:The study will be initiated after obtaining approval from the Unit of Biomedical Ethics in King Abdulaziz University and approval from Saudi Food and Drug Authority. All patients will be explained the procedure and risks involved in common, understandable languages and a written informed consent will be obtained. First visit: Patients meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria will be evaluated during the early follicular phase (day 3-7) after a spontaneous or induced menses (medroxyprogesterone acetate 10 mg twice?daily for 5 days) for: Baseline blood work:o (Hormone profile: FSH, LH and testosterone levels).o In day 21 (luteal phase) patients will be tested for progesterone level.o Insulin resistance using homeostasis model of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR] and Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index [QUICK-I].? QUICK= 1 / (log(fasting insulin  µU/mL) + log(fasting glucose mg/dl))? HOMA-IR= (FPI(mU/l) Ãâ€" FPG (mmol/l))/22.5 Height and weight will be measured and recorded for body mass index (BMI). Diagnosis of oligo-/anovulation will be based on a menstrual pattern of oligo/amenorrhoea (cycle >35 days) and/or a low mid-luteal serum progesterone concentration. Hyperandrogenaemia will be diagnosed either clinically (acne/hirsutism) or biochemically (testosterone ?2.5 nmol/l).Last Visit: At the end of three months, all subjects will be re-evaluated during the early follicular phase (day 3-7) after a spontaneous or induced menses for: Baseline blood work:(Hormone profile: FSH, LH, testosterone levels).o In day 21 patients will be tested for progesterone level.Insulin resistance using homeostasis model of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR] and Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index [QUICK-I].Height and weight for body mass index (BMI).Menstrual cyclicity, approximated by menstrual frequency, (number menses/number months observed).Pregnancy rate using positive urinary hCG and ultrasound detection of the gestational sac.Assessment of dietary intake: To assess participants' dietary intake, a 24-h food recall will be collected three times during the study (at baseline, middle and end of study). Patients will complete food descriptions including food and drinks (brand names), food preparation (ingredients) in detail as much as possible in the last day. Pictures of food commonly consumed in Saudi Arabia, together with a set of common household measurement tools (glass, cup, soup bowls, plates, teaspoon and tablespoon) will be provided to assist subjects in estimating the portion sizes of the food. Assessment of physical activity levels: IPAQ will be applied to assess the physical activity level of participants. The IPAQ form comprises walking, moderate- intensity and vigorous-intensity activity and will be expressed as metabolic equivalents per minute (MET-min) per week. The levels of physical activity will be categorized into low, moderate and high, based on the IPAQ criteria. Statistical Analysis:Statistical analysis will be performed using SPSS 25. Data will be expressed as mean  ± SD for continuous variables and percentage for non-continuous variables. Normality tests will be assessed through Shapiro-Wilk tests carried out on each parameter before analysis. Intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis will include all randomized subjects, regardless of whether or not they received the study treatments. Per protocol (PP) analysis will include all randomized subjects who received the study drug and were not lost to follow-up. Participants who lost to follow-up will be assumed neither to be pregnant nor to have ovulation in the ITT analysis.Relative risk, relative risk reduction, Number Needed to Treat and Number Needed to Harm will be calculated at 95% confidence interval. Study variables:VariableOperational definitioni.e., indicatorScale of measurementOvulationProgesterone level in capillary bloodContinuous:Progesterone level ;3ng/mLInsulin resistanceHOMA-IR and QUICK-IOrdinal:HOMA-IR Healthy Range: 1.0 (0.5–1.4)?Less than 1.0 means insulin-sensitive which is optimal.?Above 1.9 indicates early insulin resistance.?Above 2.9 indicates significant insulin resistance.QUICK-I range between 0.45 in healthy individuals and 0.30 in diabetics.Lower values reflect greater resistance with values below 0.339 indicating insulin resistance. Menstrual cyclicityMenstrual frequencyContinuous:(No. of menses/ No. of month)Pregnancy rateNo. of pregnancies including live births, induced abortions, and fetal deaths per 1,000Continuous:(Number of pregnancies including live births, induced abortions, and fetal deaths / Number of women aged 15 – 44 years) Ãâ€" 1,000Quality of lifeInfertility quality of life questionnaire Ordinal Ethical considerations:Approval from the Unit of Biomedical Ethics in King Abdulaziz University will be obtained before the start of the study.Informed consent of the participants will be considered an essential prerequisite for enrollment in the study.This study will be registered in Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) and at Clinicaltrial.gov website.Confidentiality of the response of the participants will be ensured by keeping the collected data secured and used only for the study purpose.Study duration:The recruitment period will be three months; each arm group will be followed for three months, the total study duration with data analysis and writing the thesis will be ten months.Table1: study time frame

Aquinas vs. Augustine on Their Varying Views of Women

St Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine of Hippo are considered to be two of the greatest Christian theologians in the history of Christianity. Both of these men are apart of the same organization, the Church. Just by this fact it would be easy to assume that they agree on all major issues of the day but this is not the case. They have completely differing views with respect to women in secular and religious life corresponding with the idea of original sin, human sexuality, and social roles. Even in the modern Catholic Church they are still regarded as two of the most important doctors of the church despite their different teachings on key important aspects of leading a Christian life. This shows the variability within the institution of the Catholic Church and some degrees of disagreement within a major faith organization. St Augustine of Hippo termed the idea of original sin. Nowhere in the history of the church had any such concept been taught. He was a man who lived a life of sin and promiscuity until he had an extreme conversion. After this conversion he needed a way to justify all his bad decisions. He did so by terming original sin as the first sin made by Eve that doomed all of mankind for the rest of days. Augustine blames Eve for all the bad experiences in his life, even for all the bad decisions that he has made. He uses original sin and reveals the idea in such a way that no one has to take responsibility for his or her actions because it is innate in us to be bad. Original sin gives people an ‘easy out’ to excuse all previous bad behavior. Never before had the term ‘original sin’ been placed on the sin’s of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Augustine’s example of an ideal woman, his mother, is even faulted by this original sin caused by Eve. â€Å"†¦the torments which she suffered were proof that she had inherited the legacy of Eve, seeking in sorrow what with sorrow she had brought into the world† (Confessions, 101). It is as if woman cannot help but be lesser than man. Even his mother, who he has a high regard for, is as good as she can be—for a woman, â€Å"It is not of her gifts that I shall speak, but of the gifts you gave to her† (Confessions, 192). Original sin is possessed by all humankind and cannot be avoided, this makes it easy for people to remain blameless for sins they have committed. St Thomas Aquinas did not believe in the idea of original sin. He believed that you make choices in life and that original sin was a way to get out of taking responsibility for all the actions that you make, â€Å"†¦so original sin is not the sin of this person except insofar as this person receives his nature from his first parent† (The Summa, 44). He notices that in Genesis that man and woman are created by God before sin and by this interpretation it would be impossible for original sin to exist if it is inherent in mankind. â€Å"What is natural to man was neither taken away nor added to him by sin† (The Summa, 40). Inadvertently by stating this, he is not blaming women for the fall of man. He didn’t believe that woman should be blamed for every evil thing in the world. In fact, he agues that woman was made to perfect man and that without her he would not be whole and able to procreate. †¦it was necessary for woman to be made as a ‘helpmate’ to man† (The Summa, 37). Woman is not condemned to be below man. Aquinas does not explicitly state this however; he does omit mentioning woman as separate from man in his section of the order among man and other things. He states, â€Å"Those of superior intellect are the natural rulers while those who are less intelligent but have stronger bodies s eem to be made by nature to serve†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Summa, 11). He is not gender specific. In fact, one could read into this that most men are to be the servants because they have a stronger physique for working. Aquinas is much more for the idea of actual sin where †¦Ã¢â‚¬ the sin that is the result of [the action of] the soul upon the parts of the body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Summa, 44). This means that each person’s sin is based upon the choices that they make in their life, not from something that is passed down from the original man. In a different aspect, Augustine believes that human sexuality is dirty. His writing is in favor of rejecting his own sexual nature to live a life away from woman altogether. In his writing he always uses negative language to talk about sexuality. He writes about a dream. He sees Continence and she says to him a quote from the Psalms â€Å"Close your ears to the unclean whispers of your body, so that it may be mortified. It tells you of things that delight you, but not such things as the law of the Lord your God has to tell† (Confessions, 176). These sexual temptations are impure, and disordered. He has to turn away from all things sexual. Through all his giving in to temptation in life he pulls a 180-degree turn once he converts and believes that he should never be with another woman again. He runs away from the general population and hides away in a monastery for the rest of his life. He changes from not being able to wait two years for a wife to have sex, to giving up sex forever. He feels like he had been greedy in the first part of his life and that the latter part should be given up to God. â€Å"†¦no bodily pleasure, however great it might be and whatever earthly light might shed luster upon it, was worthy of comparison†¦beside the happiness of the life of the saints† (Confessions, 197). Aquinas believes that human sexuality is innocent. He argues against the popular belief that woman is a ‘ misbegotten man’ by stating that â€Å"†¦woman is not something misbegotten but intended by nature to be directed to the work of procreation† (The Summa, 38). He goes on to say in that paragraph that because God is the creator of all things, and he created male and female, it is obvious that God intended for man and woman to exist with each other equally in nature. Human sexuality is necessary for procreation. Sin does not define whether or not human nature would procreate. â€Å"What is natural to man was neither taken away nor added to him by sin† (The Summa, 40). Sex is not a dirty act, quite the contrary; it is a perfection of God’s creation. â€Å"†¦by nature there is a union of the male and female for the purpose of procreation† (The Summa, 40). If the human race had never sinned and the world was in complete innocence we would still have the need to procreate and sex would be the necessary means to such. â€Å"In the state of innocence, however, reproduction would have taken place without lust† (The Summa, 40). Augustine had ideas for woman’s social roles as well. He had his mother as an example of an ideal woman and described how the ideal woman would be. Woman should behave a certain way. There is no circumstance where a woman would be over a man in any situation. He uses the example of his mother who he praises as possessing â€Å"†¦modesty and temperance†¦obey[ing] her parents†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Confessions, 194) as well as serving her husband as her lord (Confessions, 194). With her husband she â€Å"†¦knew better than to say or do anything to resist him when he was angry (Confessions, 195) and encouraged other women to â€Å"†¦not defy their masters† (Confessions, 195), in speaking about spousal relationships. In other words, woman should know their place and serve their husband without regard for self. He believed that the man was always to be placed first in every situation and that all women should be like his mother. Service should be a woman’s strong suit and it seems that Augustine believed that in this woman would be fulfilled. Aquinas believed that woman had worth and uses reason to prove this. Throughout his writings he uses non-gendered terms to describe most things, which is a sign to the reader that he believes in equality amongst men and women. He does say that woman was not made to be subjective to man in that she is a slave to him. He points out the two different meanings of subjection. The one kind is a product of the result of sin. The other kind is â€Å"†¦that of the household or the citizen in which the superior makes us of his subjects for their benefit or good† (The Summa, 38). He further specifies this to women when he says â€Å"woman is naturally subject to man in this kind of subjection because by nature man possesses more discernment of the reason† (The Summa, 38). In this, he is stating that there is a natural order to things. Not that woman is below the man in equality, but that there is simply a difference. This introduces the idea, separate but equal in a way. Man and woman are different, but also man and man are different. There are many cases in existence where a leader is needed to take charge. This is not because the one man is highly superior to all other men or that all other men should be slaves to the one, but that someone is needed to be a leader; â€Å"†¦someone can have dominion over another person as a free man, when he directs him to his own good or to the good of the community† (The Summa, 39). He also introduces an idea that if a woman is raped, she has committed no sin. Previously, when a woman was raped she was unworthy of marriage and was termed ‘dirty’. Aquinas finds worth in woman, and introduces the voice of reason in non-gendered terms in order to have his philosophies available to both man and woman. In their writings, St. Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine of Hippo have presented significantly differing views on women and the roles that they should have in the world. These three areas are some of the most important aspects of leading a good Christian life. Even today, these two men are regarded as doctors of the church and their ideals and philosophies are taught, with little regard for the fact that some of the things they teach are completely opposite of each other. Through these varying ideas about original sin, human sexuality, and social roles of man and woman they have set the stage for diversity within the Catholic Church.

PROJECT PLAN AND REPORT Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

PROJECT PLAN AND REPORT - Coursework Example It was also recommended that while planning the project, optimum utilization of resources should be done, the timeline is strictly followed and part-timers are recruited, so that the recruitment cost is reduced. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 INTRODUCTION 5 Background 5 Scope of the Project 7 Method of Collecting Information 7 Limitations 7 DEVELOPING AN ONLINE CHRISTMAS GIFT STORE 7 Project Objectives 7 Products 8 Resources Required 8 Strategy and Implementation 9 Stakeholder Analysis 10 Risk Analysis 11 Milestones 13 Conclusion 14 Recommendation 14 References 15 Appendices 16 Appendix 1 16 INTRODUCTION Background Project planning is the science and art of utilizing the historical data, personal expertise, organizational knowledge and the project scope to depict the resource expenditure, cost, and the duration of a project. It also includes the development of guidelines in order to ensure the service quality, response to unfavourable events and commencing with the inevitable changes in the plan prepared for the project. In order to arrive at the estimated duration and cost of the project, the project manager identifies the numerous physical elements and activities that are necessary to meet the objectives of the project (Rad, and Anantatmula, 2005, p. 1). On the basis of this information the project manager estimates the requirements of the resources and the time length of the project. However, the estimation of the resources is done along with their cost estimation, as it is a valuable piece of information for the project team. The estimates of the resource are reduced to the cost. This is because total cost is more important information for the client. The project manager then finally computes the costs and completes the total estimation of the report (Haugan, 2002, p. 4-5). There are many different steps or stages through which a project passes to its completion or closure. Those set of stage would be described in this study through the development o f an online Christmas gift store. Since Christmas gifts are sold before and during Christmas, so this online store opening, launching and operations can be considered a project, which would be described in detail based on the phases that would be described here. The different phases or stages in a project plan are: Defining: Before initiating the project the project manager should determine the goals of the project, ascertain the scopes, risks, budget, cost, timescale, and approach. It should also be communicated to the stakeholders of the company, and the difference in opinions should be resolved in the initial stage. Planning: Planning is very important part of any project plan. While creating the project plan, the first task that is undertaken by the project manager and his team is planning the stages and the minute details in the project. Executing: In this stage the project manager and his/her team would be executing or implementing the pre decided activities for the completion of the project on time and according to the design. Monitoring: After implementing the step wise project operations, the manager has to monitor whether the implementation has been done according to the framework designed or not. Controlling: Controlling ensures that the plans have been followed according to the stages decided and set by the project team. Closure: Once all the tasks are complete in the

Document for Proposal review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Document for Proposal review - Essay Example For example, Chapelle (2005) contends that technology is central to second language teaching, while Sinicrope et al 2007) note the importance of increasing inter-cultural collaboration between individuals who are culturally and linguistically different using ICT. Moreover, Alrumaih (2004) argues that ICT advances aid EFL teachers to innovate the way they teach L2 to students in the virtual and physical classrooms. This research study will seek to enrich knowledge about the use of tele-collaboration promote intercultural communication and learning among EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. O’Dowd (2013), for example, mentions that tele-collaboration enables virtual intercultural interaction and exchange between geographically-dispersed language learners in collaborative projects and tasks. Moreover, Ware and Caà ±ado (2007) also state that tele-collaboration is essential in promoting conversational fluency and negotiation of meaning. By applying online collaboration to enable EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia to collaborate on project work and collaborative tasks, the research project should enrich theory into how EFL teachers can improve their intercultural competence as well as ICT competence. The UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers, for example, outlines the proficiencies and skills needed for teachers to integrate ICT into teaching practice and the study will seek to enhance this framework. In addition, this study will also seek to enhance knowledge on the Salmon (2004) five stage model that seeks to help guide EFL teachers enhance learner experience and knowledge construction using ICT. Moreover, this research study will contribute significant knowledge about the role of the instructor for tele-collaborative intercultural research. Joly and Iseli-Chan (2010) identifies the need for additional research into tele-collaborative partnerships by EFL teachers. By producing co-authored instructions in teacher-teacher dialogue format,

Capital budgeting practices in different countriesindustrial Essay

Capital budgeting practices in different countriesindustrial corporations - Essay Example In today’s world of complex business process, corporate capital budgeting is one of the most important and critical decisions faced by the financial managers. In businesses individuals invests large sums of money which generate cash flow benefit over a period of more than one year. This is the crux of capital expenditures. The goods on which capital expenditures are made include purchasing of new equipments, acquiring of new technologies and that of launching research and development programs and so on. Along with these capital expenditures, a huge volume of cash outlays are involved with significant implications on the future values of the company. Analysis of capital expenditures is a crucial dimension in the business sphere. In this respect concept of capital budgeting (CB) can be introduced. In simple terms it is a business practice utilized for planning the acquisition of long term investments. The prime factor included in capital budgeting is that the organization or the company which builds and starts to use in one year will be highly useful in the future years (Finkler, 244). The importance of capital budgeting is immense as it includes decisions for the future profitability of the companies. Now this technique varies across geographical borders and difference exists in a stark manner within the corporations of developed and developing countries. Developed countries like United States of America exercise thorough scientific analysis associated with the capital budgeting techniques. ... While in the developing countries, the corporations practice formal processes and some also do not follow proper scientific methods for evaluation resulting from the lack of familiarity with such scientific methods (Blum, 1). The underlying mechanism of this paper is based on highlighting the capital budgeting practices in different countries industrial corporations. Decision making is the most crucial process within business operations. Effective decision making evolves from properly analyzing and evaluating the alternatives that are available and then selecting the most feasible as well valuable decision from the available options. The process of capital budgeting assesses the business operations of the companies through quantitative evaluation techniques. Through these techniques, capital budgeting method involves the forecasting of the performances of the future decisions associated with long term investments within the corporations. Capital budgeting techniques utilizes data fro m the financial and operating reports of the firms for predicting the performance of the investment in the corporate and their also their strategic options. In majority of the businesses CB process follows a synchronized application process which involves some fundamental evaluation techniques. The first step of CB is to collect investment ideas followed by a analysis of costs and benefits associated with the proposed investments. Then the subsequent step involves ranking attachments to each of the proposed investments followed by implementation of the selected investment and also simultaneous evaluation of the investments which are implemented. There are certain valuation techniques

Literature review (Effectiveness of Web-based Distance Education) Essay

Literature review (Effectiveness of Web-based Distance Education) - Essay Example That is why the web-based distance education has been the first choice to many learners. As web based learning becomes more popular in the modern world, there are issues which must be able to be looked at in order to make sure that learners who use this system are able to learn just as effectively and efficiently as those using he traditional method (Roberts & McInnerney, 2007). Formal education has a very long history and a big part of this history is geared towards the traditional system of learning. In this regard, most of the theories and models of learning which have been developed have been developed around the traditional modes of learning and there is little theory to support the new and upcoming models such as web based learning. In this regard, it is necessary for there to be an understanding of how the web based and other virtual learning systems can be used to deliver knowledge to learners without compromising on the integrity of the education which the learners received. Without doing this, it will be hard to use such learning environments to able to help t he students as well as the tutors to be able to use the system to deliver kind of education required of them. At the same time, it will be necessary to recognize that learning environments are changing and that there is a need to make sure that there are systems as well as theories and models to support the new modes of learning and teaching. The issue of web based learning, or learning as it is referred by some people, is one which has been a major debate. Debate about web based learning or eLearning start from issues as trivial as what can be said to constitute eLearning and how the term should be spelled. However, there are more serious issues which must be looked at. These issues revolve around the credibility and the effectiveness as well as

How Can Sports Help Kids Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

How Can Sports Help Kids - Research Paper Example Not all sporting activities are beneficial to children, only organized sporting activities. Organized sporting activities help children feel satisfied and have a sense of achievement. It builds a spirit of teamwork and leadership in the children. Parents should not restrict their children from engaging in physical activities if they want their children to be exemplary leaders. However, sporting activities have been declining in the past years because of technological advancements with boys being the most affected (Active community guide, 2002). Children have just played computer and video games instead of physical activities. Girls are the greatest benefits of sporting activities as they take sports more seriously than boys. Warren Clark, 2008. Canadian Social Trends: Kids’ sports, Statistics Canada. Sports permit kids to develop teamwork, competition, leadership and communication skills. These aspects are particularly relevant in growing children. We need to instill these in all children and prepare them as future leaders. Sports also assist in the improvement of the health of children and reduce future health-related problems. In terms of health, it helps build healthy bones in children and enhances fitness. Games also endorse good posture and reinforce the heart. The kids involved in sports are more relaxed than their lazy partners, and this in general boosts proper growth and maturity. I think both the family and the instructors participate significantly in the development of kids through sports. As we all know, children learn through play it helps them learn about the societal context. As children involve themselves in sports and various games, they learn how to solve problems and help themselves. Their mind is developed, and they understand more easily on what they are being taught. Active community guide, 2002. Active kids, NSW Department of Sport and Recreation Sports help the children expand their physical skills which are learned as they find o ut how to climb and handle their toys. Parents should ensure that they have spent considerable time with their children so that the children will feel motivated. They need to be offering emotional support and rewarding them even when they fail. This will motivate them as they build skills. A parent should also not force their child to involve in a sport that they do not like. They should be allowed to make their own decisions at an early age. Sports as well help children enhance cognitive aspects such as solving problems and also improve their attention duration (Pivarnik and Pfeiffer, 2002). This not only helps the kid but also benefits the community as a whole. They gain the ability to do their homework without a lot of help and do their own things like finding socks, bathing themselves and making their beds. Through sporting activities, children learn imperative language skills. As a child plays with other children, the interaction allows them to develop their language in terms o f speaking and writing. Some games such as debates and telling jokes are an unusually vital way of improving language skills. Luepker, R.V. 1999. How physically active are American children and what can we do about it? Int. J. Obes. 23 (Suppl. 2): S12-S17. Children nowadays are becoming overweight because they just sit in front of televisions and computer instead of participating in active games (Luepker, 1999).

Population Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Population - Essay Example From these projections, we can see that the future population growth seems to slow down as compared to the past growth which accounted for most of the increase in food demand. However, although the population growth in developing countries shows promising reduction rate, it will still be slightly higher than that of developed countries. This could be mainly because of higher fertility rates in the developing countries than the developed countries. There is always the threat of a society overtaxing the available agricultural resources thus returning to a subsistence level of existence. This is the Malthusian catastrophe which depends on the fact of exponential human population growth and arithmetic growth of agricultural resources. To prevent the possibility of a growing human population with demands that surpass agricultural capability, there should be a way to avert radical social changes such as a decline in population. One such solution is the reduction of fertility rates by promoting the use of birth control methods especially in the developing countries. This is because they have higher fertility rates thus higher population growth rates. This method would substantially reduce the growing difference between the developing and developed nations thus avert the Malthusian

Single European Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Single European Market - Essay Example Single European Market The Single Market is the European variant of the answer to the economic and technological challenges of the twenty first century and a basis for successful monetary and political integration. As a matter of fact the European Union has reached more than all the other integration groupings. Some of such groupings consider the European model as an example for imitation. Mutual opening of markets is not an easy task even for the safe and economically developed Europe. The idea to create a space without internal borders, comparable in the sizes with the USA market, has come more than fifty more years ago. And perhaps only the first step was rather unproblematic for the countries of the European community: the European Customs Union has been constructed in 1968 even before the planned term. But then they have to wait for almost twenty years for preconditions of completion of the Single Market formation. In 1985 the European Commission under the direction of Jacques Delors has issued the White Paper, a plan of elimination of internal protectionist barriers (physical, technical and tax) on the way of free movement of the goods, services, capitals and people. Proposals of the White Paper have turned out in the development of 282 regulations and directives, most of which has been accepted by December, 31st, 1992, that is to the official date of the Single Market formation completion. ... But the basis, which has been constructed, represented only a good skeleton for so-called "four freedoms". Construction of the Single Market proceeded. The EU institutions consistently revealed and eliminated loopholes in the national law and practice doing all possible to prevent any opportunity of state and corporate protectionism. Today the Single Market is already governed by more than 1500 directives and 400 regulations. The EU law-making has concerned with the newest goods and services, which mass distribution could not been predicted in 1980s. And it seems like there's no bottom to it. Most likely the construction of the Single Market will be conducted without a breach of continuity. While one set of tasks moves forward, the other one even more complex will certainly appear. According to the official reports (EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2004) of the beginning of the decade, positive influence of the Single Market on economy of the member-states began to fade on a number of parameters. Therefore the fifth, the most arrogant expansion of the European Union of 2004 has been called to recover dynamics of economic parameters. And indeed in the process of the Single Market expansion on the East export-import opportunities of the EU were strengthened. For the period of 1992 -2005 the parameter of foreign trade has increased from 6.9 per cent up to 12.3 per cent of cumulative gross domestic product (GDP). Realization of the other project, the economic and currency union has made the freedom of movement of capitals full-fledged. Owing to active lawmaking during last seven years the price of trans-boundary transfers has fallen from 17 - 25 euro for each one hundred up to 2.5

Audustine's Confessions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Audustine's Confessions - Essay Example The traditional understanding of free-will asserts that Adam and Eve were born of Godly nature, but because of illicit impulses or greed were torn away from this goodness and thrown into sin. The resultant occurrence is that all of humanity is then born into sin and requires God’s grace for their freedom. Furthermore, Augustine makes the point that original sin is not only embodied in wayward reason and impulses, but in the very physicality of man. This is, after Adam and Eve committed their act of original sin they had to wear clothing, because their actual pure physicality was an extension of the sin. This concept indicates that man is a physical extension of the depravity of existence. That even as depraved reasoning is an essential characteristic of humanity leading them towards sin, and even as Augustine allows for the concept of the freedom of the will, man is ultimately damned because his physicality is even embedded as a sinful act. This essay considers Augustines conc ept of original sin, arguing that his philosophical construct is misguided as it gives too much credence to deterministic thinking, ignores that wrongdoing is often the result of external circumstances, and doesnt acknowledge the amount of altruism that exists in the world. If all actions are predestined, as Augustine believes they are, then the idea of free will seems impossible, and ascribing responsibility to persons who cannot make their own choices seems wrong. However, to some extent it seems that Augustine’s philosophy demonstrates a hard to define confluence between pre-destination and free-will that have led some scholars to argue that there are actually two different Augustinian philosophies, themselves mutually contradictory (Rist 1972). Adequate research into Augustine demonstrates that these concepts are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as Augustine’s understanding reveals subtle characterizations that bind their philosophic elements in hybrid

Effects of Inflation Essay Example for Free

Effects of Inflation Essay Keeping Inflation under control is a primary concern for the Australian Government as it affects so many different parts of the Economy, including Economic growth, standard of living and unemployment. There are three types of inflation, depending on their causes. Firstly, demand pull inflation occurs when there is an excessive aggregate demand at or near full employment. If aggregate demand exceeds aggregate supply, prices of g’n’s rise as a rationing mechanism. This form of inflation is usually associated with periods of high economic activity. Secondly is cost-push inflation. If business costs such as the cost of wages or materials rise, businesses may aim to maintain profit levels by passing these costs onto consumers. This will result in higher prices and therefore inflation. The final type of inflation is imported inflation. Imported inflation occurs when the price of imports rises, and either adds to business costs (resulting in cost-push inflation) or feeds into the CPI as the price of final goods. Furthermore, a depreciation in the Au$ will raise import prices, also adding to imported inflation. There are a number of factors which may cause inflation in the Australian economy. A major cause of demand-pull inflation is excessive growth in aggregate demand. If aggregate demand increases from AD to AD1, aggregate supply which is the equivalent of real GDP will rise to GDP2 and the price level will rise from P to P2. This results in the inflationary gap of cd. This increase in aggregate demand may be the result of a number of factors, including increases in consumption expenditure, investment spending, net government expenditure, the money supply, or export incomes. Another major cause of inflation, this time cost-push inflation, is a decrease in aggregate supply. If aggregate supply decreases from AS to AS1, real GDP will decrease to GDP2 and the price level will rise to P1. This results in both a contraction in real GDP and a rise in inflation. The main causes of this decrease in aggregate supply is excessive wage growth not accompanied by productivity increase, a rise in the cost of raw materials, and other inputs, or a rise in government taxes or other charges that raise costs for firms. Cost-push inflation may also be the result of imported inflation it there is a rise in world prices of imported goods used in the production process (such as raw materials and intermediate goods) firms are likely to pass these costs onto consumers, resulting in inflation on the other hand if there is a rise in world prices of consumer goods, increased import prices will feed directly into the CPI, also resulting in inflation. Furthermore a depreciation in the Au$ in foreign exchange markets will result in a rise in the prices of imported raw materials, intermediate goods, and consumer goods, again contributing to Australia’s inflation. This is demonstrated in the stimulus when the RBA credits the decrease in inflation to the fading impact of 2000s exchange rate depreciation. A less common cause of inflation is the existence of monopolies or oligopolies. If a monopoly or oligopoly exists in an industry, the lack of competition allows producers to push up prices. This again results in inflation. The final cause of inflation in Australia is inflationary expectations. Inflationary expectations refer to the behaviour of individuals and businesses who seek to compensate for the current inflation, as well as expected future price rises. This may be the result of either firms pushing up prices, or wage earners seeking higher nominal wages. Also, if consumers expect future prices to rise, they rather buy g’n’s now, which leads to increases in spending. This results in demand-pull inflation. Inflation can impact the economy in 3 ways. 1)By encouraging investment in speculative and unproductive activities and discouraging investment in ventures considered productive. Inflation encourages investment in real assets such as gold and real estate because they are considered ‘good shelters’ for inflation. This is because the scarcity of them often outpaces or at least keeps pace with the rate of inflation. If inflation occurs, people will seek to own such assets, shifting resources to these speculative and unproductive assets. Similarly this discourages investment in other assets. This is because entrepreneurs will not think it is financially viable to invest and pursue a project that will only result in less profit, due to the higher costs of inflation. Similarly inflation increases the cost of production thus also discouraging entrepreneurs. For example, if inflation is high, people will invest in gold and real estate. Otherwise known as the opportunity cost, because people will allocate their resources into such ventures (gold and real estate) they must then forego investing into other ventures that are considered productive such as a new business, that may be producing capital goods or normal goods and services. Also by discouraging entrepreneurs is the rise in the costs of production that occur due to inflation, for example the raw materials. Similarly interest rates will rise, making it more expensive to borrow funds for investment purposes, making investment projects less profitable. Either way, inflation can cause a loss in production of capital goods, leading to lower living standards in the future, or a loss in the production of normal goods and services, leading to lowering current living conditions, as current needs and wants go unsatisfied. Since returns from productive capital take longer to materialise, it means that entrepreneurs are also faced with a lesser return. This means that if the rate of inflation is greater than the return offered by the investment, then the project will not be considered economically viable, nor worthwhile. Similarly the risk of loss from any investment project will grow with inflation. Many small businesses take a couple of years before they start to make a profit, so if inflation is high, and is was not taken into account when the business was first planned, then the cost of production may rise, and the resulting price for the commodity will be too high for consumers. ) If inflation is present and is greater than that overseas, it reduces the overseas competitiveness of the Australian economy. This is because inflation is not only associated with a rise in prices, but also an increase to the costs of production. Therefore making overseas exports cheaper to the domestic market. Similarly the overseas firms do not have to put up with the rises in the costs of production. This provides a leakage in the circular flow (p urchase of exports) and thus dampening demand in the domestic market, which if severe enough could lead to a recession, bringing with it many economic problems. An example of how inflation can lead to a recession, would be the 1970s, when high inflation averaged at 10. 4%. Which due to the high oil prices and strong domestic demand led to high inflation in the 1980s (8. 1%). This period of high inflation led to a dampening in spending and a recession in the 1990s (1990-1992) causing many problems such as unemployment. 3) It also creates many winners and losers in the economy. Those that benefit are the owners of real assets (real assets and gold), because their assets are worth more. As well as those belonging to well-organized groups who can demand wage increases (eg, strong trade unions. ) This can lead to rapidly rising wages, increasing the costs of production, and also discouraging investment in productive capital as mentioned above. In addition to this inflation can benefit people who have already borrowed funds because the cost of repayment, represent less as inflation rises. This is because inflation is defined by a loss in the real value of money, therefore the repayment will diminish over time. Conversely inflation disadvantages those on fixed incomes because they lose the real value of income as their money represents less purchasing power. Similarly for the same reasons it disadvantages those that keep their money in liquid form (ie, bank deposits). Also those that lend money receive less back in terms of repayment, due to the loss in value (eg, A mortgage repayment in 1960 was worth more than in 1980, where high inflation had occurred). Also since it reduces international competitiveness, inflation can disadvantage exporters who find themselves with less business opportunities. This can effect the economy, as overseas markets will not purchase Australian goods and services. Therefore the economy will not receive the injection into the circular flow that it would usually, without inflation. Without the strong domestic support that is present in Australia’s economy, the economy could have the effect of dampening economic activity, and aggregate demand. When inflation occurs in the Australian economy it usually had a number of causes. The main causes are excess aggregate demand, cost-push inflation, inflationary expectations and imported inflation. inflation disadvantages many groups in the economy, who in turn benefit other groups. This is because inflation can influence the allocation of resources in regards to encouraging and discouraging investment, the overseas competitiveness of the Australian market, as well as effecting individuals and firms, who often benefit at the expense of others.

Dentistry in Developing Countries

Dentistry in Developing Countries DENTURE CAMP-AN EXPERIENCE BEYOND IMAGINATION Short Title-Gundlupete Denture Camp Abstract Aim: Main aim of dental camp is awareness, education, and motivation of the common man regarding his/her dental health. This report presents the efficient way of conducting a denture camp and tackling the short comings faced during the course. Methods :When treating a vast population in camps, it calls for more number of instruments, equipments and lot of manpower in terms of doctors, dental mechanics and supporting staff. 110 patients were selected for the denture camp. They were informed to come early morning at 8a.m on the scheduled date and make necessary arrangements for their stay for one night during the camp as the most of the patients were from surrounding villages. Discussion: Dentures are no more a luxury; it has become a necessity for the edentulous patients for the basic health maintenance. Many problems were encountered during this camp. Though there were so many hurdles doctors became successful in treating the patients. Conclusion: The team had taken a brave step with all the problems and they ended successfully. In spite of all the problems faced, the dedicated team work proved fruitful in rehabilitating 132 patients in short spans 24 hrs. The efforts of team were highly appreciated by the people. Keywords: Dental Camp, Dentures, Public health. INTRODUCTION Dental Camps in India are being routinely conducted. The main objective being awareness, education, and motivation of the common man regarding his/her dental health. Dental camps usually are conducted for a large population who do not have accessibility for a sophisticated dental treatment and for the people with financial constraint. Camps can be conducted for screening or for treating the patients like extractions, restorations and/or fabrication of dentures. Screening and treatment camps held for extractions, restorations does not require a lot of equipments and man power on the other hand; fabricating a denture for the patients require a lot of equipments and instruments. When treating a vast population in camps, it calls for more number of instruments, equipments and lot of manpower in terms of doctors, dental mechanics and supporting staff. Public health work exhibits a certain number of characteristics that are different from individual practice in the same field. Most important is the fact that the public health work must be done in areas where the group responsibility is recognized. Another characteristic of public health method is its reliance upon the team work. This is due to the necessity of efficient handling of large group of people. This report presents the efficient way of conducting a denture camp and tackling the short comings faced during the course. Materials and Methods A denture camp was conducted by the Department of Prosthodontics, Government Dental College and Research Institute Bangalore, at Gundlupete, Chamarajanagar distric on 9 and 10th of Feb. 2013 Gundlupete, is a small town with a population of 28157 situated 200 kms from Bangalore. The villagers are hailing mostly from poor families, with a very limited knowledge and accessibility to their basic health maintenance needs, especially dental health. For this reason this particular village was chosen by the Department of Prosthodontics, Government Dental College and Research Institute, Bangalore to render denture services to the poor and needy patients. Indian Medical Association Gundelpet took the responsibility to provide the services, like accommodation and food for the team. An announcement of the denture camp was made in the village by a local body one month prior to the scheduled date of the camp. Audio aids like public addressing systems/microphones and visual aids like pamphlets were used for the public awareness regarding the camp [1]. Enlightening the people about the Dental health is a must in such a town, so awareness was made. People were instructed through these aids to attend the preliminary screening which was held on held on 9th Jan 2013 for which a team of doctors with required diagnostic aids were deputed from the college. It is an achievement in the history of Government Dental College and Research Institute for having screened 300 patients. Out of 300 patients, 110patients were selected for the denture camp. They were informed to come early morning at 8a.m on the scheduled date and make necessary arrangements for their stay for one night during the camp as the most of the patients were from surrounding villages. The doctors had so much o f keen interest to render the services for selected 110 patients who had come from different parts of the village. A list of all the necessary equipments, materials and instruments with their quantity was made for the fabrications for 125 dentures. Required materials and equipments were collected from the college stores. Chair-side instruments, diagnostic instruments, lab equipments were collected from the staff and students of the Government dental college and research institute. A total of 100 clamps and flasks and 115 articulators were procured. Ten micromotors were collected, of which 5 were from the department and the rest were borrowed from the other departments. Local organization was so kind enough to take the responsibility of providing two gas cylinders for the lab-work. 4 â€Å"T† attachments containing 10 burner gas connection points each were taken from the Department. The collected materials were sorted out in an orderly manner and were packed in the cartons. There were 20 cartons containing equipments and materials. These cartons were numbered and a list containing all mater ials in a particular carton was made and pasted on each of them. A copy of the same was made and kept with a particular volunteer for easy access and to avoid confusion. 3 mini buses containing a team of 55 dentists, 55 dental mechanics and five supporting staff left to Gundlupete on 8 th morning . The dentist’s team consisted of staff including the Dean cum Director, Post Graduate students of the department and the house surgeons from various other departments who volunteered to be a part of this denture camp. The dental mechanics team consisted of dental mechanics from our institution and also from various other dental colleges. After reaching the camp venue ( primary school in gundlupete) rooms were selected for the clinical work, one for the lab work and plaster work was carried out in the open ground in front of the class rooms. Plastic chairs for seating the patients, tables for the dental technicians, gas assembly, huge containers for dewaxing and acrylization were arranged on the same evening. On the 9th morning the camp started at around 8 a.m. All the patients were registered and were given a token to come in queue to avoid confusion. On the token the patients register number and all the clinical steps involved in the denture fabrication with the assigned Doctor’s and technician’s name were mentioned. Along with each mentioned clinical step, space was provided to indicate the step which has been completed for the patient. Dentist and technicians were divided into 11 groups comprising of 5 dentists and 5 technicians in each group. Primary impressions for all the patient’s were made with high fusing impression compound and subsequent wash impression with irreversible hydrocolloid were made. For the patients with poor alveolar ridges special tray were fabricated, border molding was done using putty and subsequently secondary impressions were made with Zinc oxide eugenol. All the primary impressions were numbered according to the number given to the patient. The same numbers were transferred on the casts. Record bases were fabricated using shellac base plates. Occlusal rims were fabricated on the record bases using modeling wax. Lost Occlusal vertical dimension and centric relation were recorded using a static method and shade selection was done. Teeth arrangements were done by the technicians. The try-in was done and the trial dentures were returned to the technicians for the acrylization. Then the patients were asked to come next day morning for denture insertion. Once the patients were dispersed the dentists also joined the technicians for the lab work like sealing of the trial dentures, flasking, dewaxing, acrylization, finishing and polishing procedures. The register numbers were incorporated in the dentures during the trial closure. The whole team worked till all the dentures were processed which went on day and night without taking rest, the team of doctors did not sleep at all, on such herculean line worked till rising of the sun. Deflasking, trimming, finishing and polishing of the dentures were done the following day. All the required chair side trimming was done and denture insertion was carried out. Post insertion instructions were given to the patients in groups and the written format was distributed to each of them. Most of the dentures had satisfactory retention and stability. Patients were comfortable and satisfied. One or two patients who had compromised retention in their dentures due to poor alveolar ridge were instructed to use the denture adhesives. The patients were advised to come after a week for the follow up for which a team of three dentists was deputed from the college. Some of the patients had developed soreness which was relieved and some minor occlusal corrections were carried out. Discussion In developing countries like India , majority of the population lives in villages were providing basic health facilities is a Herculean task. The worldwide prevalence of dental disease is a constant reminder of the almost universal need for effective dental health programmes. These programmes should be routinely conducted for the betterment of the patients. Conducting a successful camp, especially denture camps include assembling the manpower, finance, materials, equipments, instruments, coordination and generous mind of the team. Denture camps unlike the routine camps, require a lot of time, effort, equipments and co-ordination. Treating the edentulous poor patients in camps provides them with dentures which they cannot afford due to financial constraint. Through these camps it is possible to rehabilitate more number of poor patients in short span of time. Rehabilitating the poor edentulous patients improves their appearance, confidence, health and overall well-being. Further, the quality of treatment provided may not be of high standards as all the clinical steps cannot be done due to time constraint, but the treatment given was the stepping stone to make them know the importance of teeth hygiene and to avoid further complications. Active participation of the local organization is very important for the success of the camp. They play a key role in informing and throughing light on their souls how important the camp was to save them from further decay in life. Arranging the venue for the camp, accommodation and food for the team, should also be taken care by the local bodies for a camp to be successful. Success of the camp depends upon the support and co-ordination of the local bodies. Problems were faced as we had only 100 clamp and flasks, the denture processing steps had to be repeated. The number of patients exceeded our estimate, because of which we informed the unregistered patients to undergo the treatment next time. Conclusion Dentures are no more a luxury; it has become a necessity for the edentulous patients for the basic health maintenance. Denture fabrication in a camp requires lot of efforts, manpower, equipments, coordination and support of the local body. Many problems were encountered during this camp. Though there were many hurdles but the doctors became successful in treating the patients. The mountains may look high, but when we begin to climb and reach the top we say it is not so high. The team had taken a brave step with all the problems and they ended with a happy note. In spite of all the problems faced, the dedicated team work proved fruitful in rehabilitating 132 patients in short spans 24 hrs. The efforts of team were highly appreciated by the people.

Creation of a Web Based Business Property Website

Creation of a Web Based Business Property Website Isidoros Ioannou Creating an Innovative Business Nowadays, the cost of living has been increased significantly in the majority of the European countries. This raise can be reflected on the high amount of money spent by people for renting flats to reside. Especially, UK is the country that charges the highest rent rates to tenants among the other European countries (Guardian, 2015). It is inevitable for several groups of people, particularly students and young professionals to seek and rent a room in a flat share. The process of finding the suitable property and the appropriate future housemates is not easy at all. Living with other people is usually a complicated and difficult situation, because peoples characters are different and not everybody matches with each other. There are several aspects to consider when someone is choosing a property to rent or flat mates to live with. Most of the times people do not respect your privacy and this can lead to various conflicts (BBC ,2013), (thefirstpint, 2010). As a result, UK citizens spend every year a serious part of their income to find a residence that could meet their preferences and countless time to search for important information, such as potential housemates. In order to alleviate the problem of the significant amount of time and money invested for the process of finding a flat and suitable flat mate, a corresponding service provider needs to be developed. The company will focus on helping especially students and young professionals, since these two categories of humans are noticed to search usually for renting properties. The company named easyproperty would be web-based it would give the opportunity to their customers to search for the more suitable people to share a common property, according to their preferences. Customer will have to register first and submit their preferences and characteristics. These would be for example, occupation, gender, nationality, age, habits, interests, the amount of money they could afford to spend, their preferred location, etc. They could have also the capability to prioritize some of their input preferences, in order to the matching algorithms could give more effective results regarding their preferences. The customer could then perform a search on the website of the company. Its search mechanism will find the people that match mostly the customers preferences and concurrently will provide in the same page property recommendations from the databases of various agencies. The capability of altering the location and other attributes before search will be also included. The people list and property list will be sorted based on the people and properties that matched more successfully the persons inputs that conducted the search activity. However, the property list will be displayed with some peculiarities. In other words, for properties that nearly showed the same percentage of matching with the user, priority will be given to them that contain already residents. For instance, if a house consists of two rooms and only one is vacant, this house will be in a higher position in the list, compared to other houses. Currently in the market some competitors exist that offer similar services. The most renowned are SpareRoom.com, Rightmove.co.uk and Zoopla.co.uk. The technologies that these competitors use and the ones that the suggested company is going to use will be analyzed in detail in the following chapter. First of all, the immediate competitor of the authors suggested company is SpareRoom.com. It allows clients to perform searches for suitable flats or flat mates based on their preferences and characteristics. spareroom.com provides its services across all the UK and USA and it is the pioneer on its activity field in the UK since it counts nearly 6,499,202 registered users (spare room, 2017). The user can also register to the website and upload advertisements about suitable rooms or flat mates that he wishes to find. Other users can review these advertisements by performing search tasks to the systems database. One of the drawbacks that spareroom.com has it possess its own database system. This means that the searches are limited to the properties that are included only in its database. In addition, due to spareroom.com targets a wide range of the market, it is difficult to focus on certain categories of people, which in this case are students domestic and international among with you ng professionals. The operation and success of easyproperty will be based on its attempt to tackle the drawbacks of spareroom.com. It will use databases of each areas local estate agencies to offer more options to its users. The options will be mostly compatibles to the two fore mentioned categories of people that the company aims to target. On the other hand, the other remaining competitors, rightmove.co.uk and zoopla.co.uk provide only the option to users to search for the suitable room. They do not offer options for the user to search for a suitable flat mate. Both also use databases from local estate firms they cooperate with and offer a wide range of available property choices. Particularly rightmove.co.uk provides renting and sale services only in the UK while provides also selling services across Spain and France. (rightmove, 2017). Likely zoopla.co.uk provides renting and selling features only in UK but provides selling features for a wider domain of countries, nearly all over the world (zoopla, 2017). The competition with these companies is noticed on the establishment of cooperation with the local estate firms. The web based firm that the author suggests and will penetrate into the property estate market aims to offer efficient features to students and young professionals who are the main groups who cannot afford to rent a house by themselves and need to share a flat. The service that easy property offers is unique as it offers the opportunity to their users to find the most suitable house mate and at the same time it assists them to choose the most desired property to live. From the description of the services that the company will provide it is conceived that the environment of its activity will be the World Wide Web (WWW). According to Gong and Zhu (2009), the main service that an e-commerce electronic website provides is user registration, query, shopping and communicating online. As a result for our business, a functional e-commerce website would be the ideal choice. An electronic commerce website should equip WWW browse, data server, e-mail service, customer operation system together with web service system and so on software and hardware (Gong Zhu, 2009). In addition, the usability factor is vital for this kind of website, since it determines the intention of the customer to use and exploit the services of the website. The term usability refers to both a set of independent quality attributes such as user performance, satisfaction, and learnability (Green Pearson, 2011). In order to, satisfy these requirements and produce an effective and user fr iendly application, the author chose carefully the components that will constitute the website. The website will be developed using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS). It is a free open source tool that requires little programming experience and various free plugins. It will be integrated with php and HTML 5 web development technologies, since they are scripting languages focused on implementing website pages. They will offer dynamic connections to other websites and great responsiveness when the companys website will be displayed on different devices. This practice would result in a better user experience for the user, thus in a better usability (websitesetup.org, 2017). In addition, the Woo Commerce platform will be incorporated to the website as bridge with the companys server which will help with the data retrieval and manipulation from the server. Regarding the other components that are crucial for the operation and tasks of the website and were mentioned above, the author is going to use the most value for money solutions. For the domain name which will be www.easyproperty.co.uk the namecheap hosting company will be chosen. Other software elements, for example the web server and the business email server are provided also from the same company. The technology of cloud computing is really attractive to the majority of the small and medium size companies, since they are not obliged to invest a significant asset on hardware or software services. Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) (Jula et al., 2014). The service and the maintenance of the infrastructure is the responsibility of the cloud provider. Companies can exploit the high performance and the support that cloud providers offer without spending extra money (Laudon Laudon, 2016). From the four cloud computing service models: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Network as a Service (NaaS), the company will depend on IaaS model for utilizing its data storage. Microsoft cloud will be chosen as the cloud provider. According to Payne and Frow (2005), a very important practice that plays important role in the success of the business is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is a practice that if a company implement efficiently, can easily achieve better relationship with its customers and increase the flow of them. The clients will be regularly notified about offers and services by sending those emails that will be stored in the companys database. Finally, the aim of the company is to expand its service by implementing the website into mobile applications. Cross-Platform tools enable the development of applications for multiple mobile operating systems (OS). It allows reusing the same source code for building an application for multiple platforms (Charkaoui, et al., 2014). By using one of the available cross platform tools it will save a lot of time and cost comparing to using native application development tools, since it requires developing separate apps for the different mobile OS and in a different programming language. Business model is the content, the structure and the administration of the transactions, which have been designed to create value and to exploit the various business opportunities. (Zot Amit, 2011). It explains the insight that a business should have in order to achieve revenue by defining its position into the value chain. (Rappa, 2010). According to Ostwalder and Pigneur (2010), the business model describes how an organization can achieve value creation, value delivery and value capture. The authors have also invented the Business Model Canvas which is a tool that organizes all the activities an organization should implement from the initial value proposition stage to the final stage of value capture. It is two dimensional depiction of nine vital blocks that help the organization to fulfill its objectives, achieve its goals and manage its products and resources. The Business Model Canvas contains the tree elements that define the successful activity lifecycle of a company. Value proposition is the activity of designing services and products that would provide value to customers. Value delivery is the activities the business implements for delivering their products and consequently the value to customers and value capture is the way the company has income from the above activities. The Business Model Canvas, as well as the detailed description of each block is discussed below. Â   Â   Figure 1: Business Model Canvas Customer segments Customer segments are the category of people that the company aims to offer value. The targeted audience of the easyproperty company will mainly consists of university students and young professionals, since these categories are most likely to be searching for flat mates in order to share an apartment. Value propositions/creation The value creation or value proposition is an element really important for any business. Any new business that enters the market should offer something unique or provide better services/products from similar organizations, in order to attract customers. The aim of the company is to provide advanced search features for its customer so that they could find the perfect roommate. This is achieved by providing many fields for entering the customer preferences and the ability to prioritize the ones that are more important for them. The next step is to give them a wide list of properties to choose from in various locations. By using the databases from local estate agencies and the advertisements of private landlords, clients have a lot of options to choose from. Finally the company will provide the opportunity for real estate companies to advertise themselves through the companys website. Channels The channels block contains all the means that the company communicates with its customers and these means are used mainly for marketing purposes. Social media like Facebook and Twitter will be used mostly. Then the website will contain all the links for our social media and also information about all the estate companies we cooperate along with links to their websites and social media. In addition, once the company will target students, the universities of each city could provide assistance in promoting the company. Also the student unions of each university. Finally for promoting our company on the web the Google AdWords is going to be used that could offer better positions on their search engine and advertisement. Customer relationships Customer relationships include the means that the company provides for interaction with its clients. The company will use the customer relationship management practice for maintaining close relationship with the customers and provide them with various means to contact. This could be achieved by direct interaction by visiting the companys office. Moreover through the telephone support that it will be provided on a 24 hour basis. In addition through the website or the mobile application by submitting a contact form and by posting on the social media. Revenue streams(Value Capture) In the revenue streams the sources of the companys income are explained. Firstly, the main source of income will be from the agencies and landlords once a client will get in contact with them and agree to rent or buy the property. The agreement process will begin from the website but it will be finalized face to face. Then the agency or landlord will finalize the deal to the companys website and pay the fee, which will be a 10% commission of the first rent. The customer can also cancel the deal and the fee will be returned. All these activities with the agencies will be agreed under contracts. Another source of revenue will be capability of agencies to be advertised through our company. The tool Google AdSense will be used which is operating in pay-per-click manner. Key resources The Key resources are the activities and resources used for developing the Value proposition/creation and for delivering the value to the clients. As resources could be considered first the company staff that will develop the website and is going to support the clients issues later. Another key resource is the staff that will operate the promotion campaign of the company. Finally the information about the properties of the private landlords that will be stored in the companys database and the databases of the estate agencies. Key activities (Value Delivery) Key activities are the most crucial operations for the execution of the companys business plan. This block contains all the tasks for delivering the value which was created in the value creation block. The initial activity is to develop a fully functional website that it will serve all the services explained in the value creation block. The next step is to sign contracts with the landlords and especially with the estate agencies. This is a very important step as the agencies databases will provide the clients with many options to choose. As advertisement and promotion plays an important role for every new established company, assign to a marketing team the promotion of the business is the next steps. Signing contracts with universities for promotion purposes in order to support students searching for apartments belongs also in this step. Finally as the business starts operating the final step is to develop mobile application for providing furthers to our clients to use our services. Key partnerships Key partnerships include the cooperation network of the company. The network will consist of the real estate agencies and the supply of their databases. Moreover, experience promoting agencies, the University staff and students. Cost structure It summarizes the different costs the company has to make for the value creation. In the cost structure, the staff wages and the hardware equipment are included, for example computer infrastructure. Also the cost of hiring a promotion company and flat wages for the domain and the email server. Finally the annual costs of the cloud services (database) and the hosting server should be added. Previous researchers like Rappa proposed a classification of the various business models instead of a detailed description of what each includes. He supports that a business model should just describe how a firm produces revenue based on its position in the value chain. He proposes nine main categories of business model: Brokerage, Advertising, Infomediary, Merchant, Manufacturer, Affiliate, Community, Subscription and Utility model (Rappa, 2000). The proposed business belongs to some of these categories and the reason is explained below. Firstly the company could be classified to the Brokerage model, since its activities focus on the business to customer (B2C) market as it helps customers who are searching for a room to let, to contact the estate agencies that manage the room they wish to rent. In other words it operates as an intermediate between students, young professionals and the real estate agencies. In addition the company charges a fee as commission for every agreement it is achieved between customers and agencies. Particularly, based on the subcategories of the Brokerage model, the company could be described as a distributor as it offers catalogue services and acts as a bridge between customers and agencies. Moreover, it is a search agent as it enables the customer to search properties according to its preferences (Rappa, 2010). The company also could be classified also to the advertising model. The income from the advertisements of the agencies is secondary. The website contains advertises of agencies and n ew entried apartments in the form of banners. Also advertisement messages about new apartments that were inserted and match the users previous searches are sent to the emails of registered users. Finally it could be stated that the company has some characteristics of the Affiliate model. For instance, it enables the client to contact the agency or the landlord, whenever the customer has access to the Internet. Also it charges the agencies that advertise themselves through the website by the pay per click way. According to Timmers (1998) a business mode is an architecture for the product, service and information flows, incorporating simultaneously descriptions of the sources of revenues, description of the actors and the benefits for them. He recognized eleven business models for the operation of the business transactions which are: e-shop, e-auction, e-mall, e-procurement, third party marketplace, virtual communities, value chain service providers, value chain integrators, collaboration platforms and information brokers. References Adrian Payne, Pennie Frow (2005) A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management. Journal of Marketing: October 2005, Vol. 69, No. 4, pp. 167-176. BBC News. (2017). Houseshares: How do people avoid picking a terrible housemate? [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24622858 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Bachelor, L. (2017). UK tenants pay more rent than any country in Europe. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/24/uk-tenants-pay-more-rent-than-europe [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Chandrasekhar, I. (2017). London Flat Hunting tips: Dos and donts for UK flat search [online] Thefirstpint.co.uk. Available at: http://www.thefirstpint.co.uk/2010/10/09/flat-hunting-useful-tips-advice/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Charkaoui, S., Adraoui, Z. Benlahmar, E. H., 2014. Cross-platform mobile development approaches. In: Third {IEEE} International Colloquium in Information Science and Technology,2014, Tetouan, Morocco, pp. 188-191 David T. Green J. Michael Pearson (2011) Integrating website usability with the electronic commerce acceptance model. In: Behaviour Information Technology, 30:2, pp. 181-199 Gong Y., Zhu C.,(2009). Design and implementation of electronic commerce website. In: 2009 ISECS International Colloquium on Computing, Communication, Control, and Management, IEEE Jula, A., Sundararajan, E. and Othman, Z. (2014). Cloud computing service composition: A systematic literature review. Expert Systems with Applications, 41(8), pp.3809-3824. Laudon, K., Laudon, J., (2015). Management Information Systems, Managing the Digital Firm, Pearson Namecheap (2017). Domain Names Cheap Domain Names [online] Available at: https://www.namecheap.com/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y. (2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Wiley, Hoboken Rightmove. (2017). About Rightmove [online]. Available at: http://plc.rightmove.co.uk/about-us/company-overview.aspx [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Spareroom (2017). The UKs #1 Flatshare Website. [online]. Available at: https://www.spareroom.co.uk/content/about/about-spareroom-new/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Timmers, P. (1998, 04). Business Models for Electronic Market. Electronic Markets, 8(2), 3-8 Websitesetup, (2017). How to Make a Website Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. [online] Available at: https://websitesetup.org/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. WooCommerce eCommerce for WordPress. (2017). [online] WooCommerce. Available at: https://woocommerce.com/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Zoopla. (2017). About Zoopla [online]. Available at: http://www.zoopla.co.uk/about/ [Accessed 16 Feb. 2017]. Zott, C., Amit, R. (2010), Business Model Design: an activity system perspective. Long range planning, 43(2), 216-226.

I have read five short stories from the anthology Out of the Darkness :: English Literature

I have read five short stories from the anthology 'Out of the Darkness' - From the five stories I will be discussing the treatment of the women in three of the stories. For my prose coursework, I have read five short stories from the anthology 'Out of the Darkness'. From the five stories I will be discussing the treatment of the women in three of the stories. The three stories I have chosen are 'Invisible Boy', 'More Than Just A Disease' and 'The Darkness Out There'. In the story 'The Darkness Out There', the old lady, whose name is 'Mrs Rutter', is portrayed by the writer as a woman with a 'wonky leg' and a 'bad back' and also a woman that is getting 'home help'; this shows that she is a woman that is unable to do much practical work. This is a stereotype of an old person as most old people have some sort of problem with their body and a bad back is typical problem. Mrs Rutter getting home help is another stereotype because this also shows that she is unable to cope on her own and needs assistance with doing household chores. Mrs Rutter is shown as a lonely person because in the story the girl who is going to help her with the chores says to herself ' Mrs Rutter will be ever so pleased to meet me'. This is a stereotype in the form that the girl is assuming that most old people are lonely and live by themselves. Mrs Rutter is described as being a sweet woman and having chin upon chin also she is shown to like flowers, dresses and talking to other females; this is the most obvious stereotype in the story against women and also old people who like to talk. When we first meet Mrs Rutter she greets the two children 'Kerry' and 'Sandra' and offers them tea, but she seems to like Sandra more because she talks to Sandra a lot more about dresses, boyfriends and flowers, but when she speaks Kerry she ask's him if he is still at school and he says he will be leaving soon to join a garage and she replies, 'that's good steady money if you'd haven't got anything got any thing special in mind'. This is not a great welcoming message to say to a person that has come to help you with chores. 'Pat' the woman who runs the good neighbours club call's Mrs Rutter an 'old dear' and a 'poppet', it is unlike an old dear to greet someone in that fashion. When Mrs Rutter told her dark story of her past about leaving a young

1980-1990 Essay -- Essays Papers

1980-1990 The United States had many significant events occur during this 1980’s. In 1980, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter ran against one another for President. A few months later, Reagan won 43 to 35 million votes over Carter (Bondi 464). This began the "Reagan restoration" period, which was supposed to help get Americans to cut down on abortion, violence and racism (Bondi XI). One year later in 1981 President Reagan was shot in the chest in an "attempted assassination" (Bondi 673). In 1986, the Challenger Shuttle exploded seventy-three seconds after it took off, killing all of the astronauts on board. This explosion delayed the next trip to outer space until the "Discovery Orbit" in 1988 (Bondi 718,736). Finally, in 1988 George Bush and Dan Quale ran against each other for President resulting in a 47 to 40 Bush victory (Bondi 736) Furthermore, throughout the 1980’s, there were several world events that made a mark in history. On July 29, 1981, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married in Great Britain on a warm summer day in front of millions of viewers around the world. This glorious day was "formally declared a holiday throughout Great Britain (Burrows 432). Also, during this time period women were demanding to have a larger and more respected role in society. On June 9, 1983, Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Britain, was reelected to an even higher position in the House of Commons. She was granted this position mainly due to her outstanding leadership skills during the Falklands War of 1982 (Burrows 443). Lastly, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn apart by those who wanted to integrate "the two Germanies." This allowed the Germans to finally be able to travel "through Hungary and into Australia (Burr... ... in the 1980’s. The University joined the Midwest Collegiate Conference in 1988-89 in hopes to gain a bid to the NCAA games. In 1989, Flyers’ head basketball coach for more than two decades, Don Donoher, was fired from his position. Soon after that, on April 19,1989, the University hired the highly respected, Jim O’Brian (Schweikart). Cathy Song was an amazing poet of the 1980’s. She often uses her own life experiences in her writing. One of her best works was "Picture Bride." This poem is about a twenty-three year old Korean woman who chose to leave home on her own and move to a foreign country with nothing but a picture of the man she has longed to be with. This poem coincides with the 1980’s era due to the fact that it exemplifies how the women of this decade are starting to become very independent and are willing to try and experience new things for themselves.