Monday, September 30, 2019

Hollifield Family Reunion Essay

Every year around the last week of July my father’s family all meets for a two day reunion in the small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Hollifield’s have resided in the area for over 100 years! There are many streets named after us and if you’re walking around town some people even notice you’re a Hollifield just by looking at you. Although it is only two days long, the reunion is something I cherish deep in my heart, for it’s the only time I get to see my father’s family. One night in 1974, my grandpa and a few other family members were sitting around reminiscing about their childhood. They were laughing at all the memories and good times they’ve had and all the trouble they got into. My grandpa was telling everyone he had been thinking of a way that everyone could make some time to all come together for a couple days once every year. His uncle told him that they should start a family reunion. So starting in July of 1974 the annual Hollifield reunion began. Everyone gets to the hotel Friday night and gets settled in and reacquainted a lot of hugging, kissing, laughing, and eating. My sister and I get our own hotel room so most of our cousins bring sleeping bags and stay both nights in our room. We talk about what we’ve all done that year, who’s dating who, what kind of cars we’ve bought; we pretty much talk each other’s ears off. The next morning we all get up and find somewhere to eat and walk around town. Downtown Spruce Pine is absolutely beautiful. There are flowers and pine trees growing everywhere, and you can smell all the bakeries and barbeque pits. There are little stores with antiques and instruments, florists, wedding dress shops, and candy stores. It could go from 90 degrees with the sun shining to a humid rain in a matter of minutes. When it rains you can smell it a hundred times better than in California. After we walk through town we get to a huge, long wooden bridge. It’s been there for years and underneath it flows a beautiful creek and a park filled with laughing children frolicking in the sunlight. We normally go to the park and mess  around on everything then make our way to the creek. You have to go down a steep hill made of dirt and freckled with little patches of bright green grass. The boys catch crawdads and crayfish while us girls dip our feet in the clear chilly water and wait for the train to pass. The train is large and used to transport coal and freight. Personally, the train is one of my favorite parts of Spruce Pine. It’s loud yet still soothing and controlled. After a few hours the rest of the family begins to show up at the park with fresh, good old-fashioned southern food. They unload the cars of barbeque, slaw, potatoes, mac and cheese, collard greens, green beans, pasta salads, and more desert than any amount of people should ever consume. Following our meal is the baseball game. The whole family plays and we get chosen randomly for two teams. In the end my grandpa tells us that everyone won and an MVP is chosen from each team who receives a golden trophy of a boy or girl with a tiny body and huge head, holding a baseball bat. We all clean up then head back to the hotel to get swimsuits and drive over to the pool. A few hours into swimming we decide to go to the hotel and shower then all the kids find a place to eat supper. Upon leaving the restaurant someone informs us that the annual hide-n-seek game has begun. We take off running towards the hotel to find a hiding place while the person chosen as â€Å"it† stays and counts for 5 minutes. The game involves a lot of pushing, shoving, screaming, laughing, and those little chills you get when you’ve found a place and you know that any second you could be found. After the game we all head back to my sister and I’s room and hang out. We stay up all night talking about everything that happened, who did the most embarrassing thing, which was the funniest, and other things we had encountered that day. As the night goes by we start to notice our time is almost up. Most of my cousins live in NC so they see each other all the time, but as the hours pass my sister and I notice that our time in NC is almost over; that we’ll have to wait yet another slow, California year before we get back to the peaceful happiness of NC. Around 9 in the morning our cousin’s head back to their rooms to get ready for our last meal together. For breakfast Sunday morning the whole family fills the back room of The Western Sizzler. Western Sizzler may be the best place to get breakfast ever. It’s is 3 large buffet tables covered in bacon, sausage, ham, eggs,  fruit, veggies, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and gravy, yogurt, granola, hash browns, country potatoes, varieties of juices, milks, sodas. And at the end there is a huge dessert bar. We eat and talk and talk and eat. And eat some more†¦ and then a little bit more. We catch up with some of the older members of the family and tell them what we did all weekend. My aunt Vicki walks around and takes millions of pictures with her big nice camera that has a flash that could blind the whole family at the same time. When everyone has finished my grandpa stands up and talks about all the great things that have gone on during the weekend, all the graduates and birthdays, all the births and deaths. We end the reunion by hugging and some crying (I won’t lie; Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢m one of the criers). If my family had never got the idea to have a reunion, I don’t know when I would ever see them. The reunion brings us together in a quick two day span filled with great food, laughter, and all around happiness. It seems like when we’re all together nothing can go wrong. My cousins and I have vowed that when our time comes, we will carry on the tradition of the Hollifield Family Reunion until the day we die.

Alcoholism: Compulsive and Uncontrolled Consumption of Beverages Essay

Alcoholic addiction is compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker’s health, personal relationships, and social standing. It is medically considered a disease. For example a person who is physical addicted to alcohol and continues to drink, despite problems with physical health, mental health, and social, family, or job responsibilities continue to drink, even when health, work, or family are being harmed. Alcoholics Drink alone, They also become violent when drinking, Become hostile when asked about drinking, Are not able to control drinking — being unable to stop or reduce alcohol intake, Make excuses to drink, Miss work or school, or have a decrease in performance because of drinking, Stop taking part in activities because of alcohol, Need to use alcohol on most days to get through the day, Neglect to eat or eat poorly, they Do not care about or ignore how they dress or whether they are clean, Try to hide alcohol use, Shake in the morning or after periods when they have not a drink. Alcoholism is characterized by cravings for a alcohol and an inability to stop drinking. It is accompanied by a physical dependence which also means that the person experiences withdrawal symptoms when not drinking and an increased tolerance for alcohol meaning the person needs to drink greater amounts to feel better. Before entering recovery, most alcoholics will deny they have a problem . the difference with being addicted to alcohol and abusing it is that People who abuse alcohol but are not dependent on it may have similar symptoms, but they don’t feel the same craving to drink and usually don’ t feel the same craving to drink and usually don’ t experience withdrawal symptoms. About 18 million people in the United States abuse alcohol and estimates suggest that more than 70 million Americans have dealt with alcoholism in their family. Alcohol is involved in almost half of all traffic deaths in the U. S Alcoholism does not have a specific cure but through rehab and therapy, it can be maintained and controlled and a person can keep clean for as long as they are determined.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Corpus Linguistics Essay

Introduction This paper includes information about corpus linguistics, its connection with lexicology and translation. The latter is the most important one and I am keen on finding and introducing something which is mainly connected with my future profession. Frankly speaking that was not an easy journey but I am hopeful it is destined to be successful. A corpus is an electronically stored collection of samples of naturally occurring language. Most modern corpora are at least 1 million words in size and consist either of complete texts or of large extracts from long texts. Usually the texts are selected to represent a type of communication or a variety of language; for example, a corpus may be compiled to represent the English used in history textbooks, or Canadian French, or Internet discussions of genetic modification. Corpora are investigated through the use of dedicated software. Corpus linguistics can be regarded as a sophisticated method of finding answers to the kinds of questions linguists have always asked. A large corpus can be a test bed for hypotheses and can be used to add a quantitative dimension to many linguistic studies. It is also true, however, that corpus software presents the researcher with language in a form that is not normally encountered and that this can highlight patterning that often goes unnoticed. Corpus linguistics has also, therefore, led to a reassessment of what language is like. During this journey we will try to find out; What is Corpus Linguistics Corpus Linguistics Terms and Their Meanings History of Corpus Linguistics Resources and Methodologies for Corpus Linguistics, Corpora Translation Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, Corpus-Based Descriptions So fasten the seat belts we are flying! What is Corpus Linguistics? Corpus linguistics is a study of language and a method of linguistic analysis which uses a collection of natural or â€Å"real word† texts known as corpus. Corpus linguistics is used to analyse and research a number of linguistic questions and offers a unique insight into the dynamic of language which has made it one of the most widely used linguistic methodologies. Since corpus linguistics involves the use of large corpora that consist of millions or sometimes even billion words, it relies heavily on the use of computers to determine what rules govern the language  and what patters (grammatical or lexical for instance) occur. Thus it is not surprising that corpus linguistics emerged in its modern form only after the computer revolution in the 1980s. The Brown Corpus, the first modern and electronically readable corpus, however, was created by Henry Kucera and W. Nelson Francis as early as the 1960s. Corpus Linguistics Terms and Their Meanings Corpus (plural corpora). It refers to a collection of systematically or randomly collected texts of natural language which is electronically stored and processed. Corpus can consist of texts in a  single or multiple languages. It contains a large number of texts which allow the researchers to 1 / 6 analyse linguistic rules but the corpus does not represent the entire language, no matter how large it is. Multilingual corpus. Like its name suggests, multilingual corpus consists of texts in multiple languages. Parsed corpus (treebank). It is a collection of texts in naturally occurring language in which each sentence is parsed – syntactically analysed and annotated. Syntactic analysis is typically given in a tree-like structure which is why parsed corpus is also known as treebank. Parallel corpora. The term refers to a collection of texts which are translations of each other. Annotation. It refers to an extension of the text by addition of various linguistic information. Examples include parsing, tagging, etc. Annotation is often used in reference to corpora as opposed to annotated corpora which consist of plain text in the raw state. Collocation. It refers to a sequence or pattern in which the words appear together or co-occur. Concordance. The term encompasses a word or phrase and its immediate context. In corpus linguistics, concordance is used to analyse different use of a single word, word frequency and  phrases or idioms. Orthography. It is a standardised writing system of a particular language and includes various grammatical rules such as spelling, capitalisation and punctuation marks. Orthography can pose a problem in analysis of writing systems which use accents because the native speakers of these languages sometimes use alternative characters to the accented letters or omit them completely. Token. It is an occurrence of an individual word which is plays an important role in the so-called tokenisation that involves division of the text or collection of words into token. This method is often  used in the study of languages which do not delimit words with space. Lemmasation. The term derives from the word lemma which refers to a set of different forms of a single word such as laugh and laughed for example. Lemmasation is the process of grouping of the words that have the same meaning. Wildcard. It refers to special characters such as question mark (? ) or asterisk (*) which can represent a character or word. 3A perspective. It is a research method that is used in corpus linguistics which was introduced by S. Wallis and G. Nelson. 3A stands for annotation, abstraction and analysis. History of Corpus Linguistics  History of corpus linguistics is typically divided into two periods: – early corpus linguistics, also known as pre-Chomsky corpus linguistics and – modern corpus linguistics The early examples of corpus linguistics date to the late 19th century Germany. In 1897, German linguist J. Kading used a large corpus consisting of about 11 million words to analyse distribution of the letters and their sequences in German language. The impressively sized corpus that corresponds with the size of a modern corpus was revolutionary at the time. Other early linguists to use corpus to study language include Franz Boas (Handbook of Native  American Indian Languages, 1911), Zellig Harris (Methods in Structural Linguistics, 1951), Charles C. Fries (The structure of English, 1952), Leonard Bloomfield (Language, 1933), Archibald A. Hill and others, mostly American structural and field linguists. Some of them such as Fries and A. Aileen Traver also started to use corpus in pedagogical study of foreign language. In 1961, Henry Kucera and W. Nelson Francis from the Brown University started to work on the Brown University Standard Corpus of Present-Day American English, commonly known simply as the Brown Corpus which is the first modern, electronically readable corpus. It consists of 1 million word American English texts that are organised into 15 categories. For the modern standards of corpus linguistics, the Brown Corpus is kind of small, however, it is widely considered one of the most important works in history of corpus linguistics. But this was also the time of Chomsky’s criticism of corpus linguistics which would result in a period of decline. Chomsky rejected the use of corpus as a tool for linguistic studies, arguing that linguist must model language on competence instead of performance. And according to Chomsky, corpus does allow 2 / 6 language modelling on competence. Corpus linguistics was not abandoned completely, however, it was not until the 1980s when linguists began to show an increased interest in the use of corpus for research. The revival of corpus linguistics and its emergence in the modern form was greatly influenced by the advent of computers and network technology in the 1980s which allowed the linguists to use electronic language samples as well as electronic tools. The use of computers, however, dates back to the early 1970s when the Montreal French Project developed the first computerised form of spoken language, while Jan Svartvik began to work on the London-Lund corpus with the aid of the  Brown Corpus and the Survey of English Usage (SEU) at University College London. All mentioned works before the 1980s as well as the early examples of corpus linguistics paved the way to modern study of language on the basis of corpora as we know it today. The term corpus linguistics has been finally adopted after J. Aarts and W. Meijs published Corpus linguistics: Recent developments in the use of computer corpora in English language research in 1984. Resources and Methodologies for Corpus Linguistics, Corpora The basic resource for corpus linguistics is a collection of texts, called a corpus. Corpora can be of varying sizes, are compiled for different purposes, and are composed of texts of different types. All corpora are homogeneous to a certain extent; they are composed of texts from one language or one variety of a language or one register, etc. They also are all heterogeneous to a certain extent, in that at the very least they are composed of a number of different texts. Most corpora contain information in addition to the texts that make them up, such as information about the texts themselves, part-of- speech tags for each word, and parsing information. ? What Corpus Linguistics Does  Gives an access to naturalistic linguistic information. As mentioned before, corpora consist of â€Å"real word† texts which are mostly a product of real life situations. This makes corpora a valuable research source for dialectology, sociolinguistics and stylistics. Facilitates linguistic research. Electronically readable corpora have dramatically reduced the time needed to find particular words or phrases. A research that would take days or even years to complete manually can be done in a matter of seconds with the highest degree of accuracy. Enables the study of wider patterns and collocation of words. Before the advent of computers, corpus linguistics was studying only single words and their frequency. Modern technology allowed the study of wider patters and collocation of words. Allows analysis of multiple parameters at the same time. Various corpus linguistics software programmes, online marketing and analytical tools allow the researchers to analyse a larger number of parameters simultaneously. In addition, many corpora are enriched with various linguistic information such as annotation. Facilitates the study of the second language. Study of the second language with the use of natural  language allows the students to get a better â€Å"feeling† for the language and learn the language like it is used in real rather than â€Å"invented† situations. What Corpus Linguistics Does Not Does not explain why. The study of corpora tells us what and how happened but it does not tell us why the frequency of a particular word has increased over time for instance. Does not represent the entire language. Corpus linguistics studies the language by using randomly or systematically selected corpora. They typically consist of a large number of naturally occurring texts, however, they do not represent the entire language. Linguistic analyses that use the methods and tools of corpus linguistics thus do not represent the entire language. Searches, Software, and Methodologies Corpora are interrogated through the use of dedicated software, the nature of which inevitably reflects assumptions about methodology in corpus investigation. At the most basic level, corpus software: . searches the corpus for a given target item, 3 / 6 . counts the number of instances of the target item in the corpus and calculates relative frequencies, . displays instances of the target item so that the corpus user can carry out further investigation. It is apparent that corpus methodologies are essentially quantitative. Indeed, corpus linguistics has been criticized for allowing only the observation of relative quantity and for failing to expand the explanatory power of linguistic theory (for discussion, see Meyer, 2002: 2–5). It is shown in this article that corpus linguistics can indeed enrich language theory, though only if preconceptions about what that theory consists of are allowed to change. Here, however, we leave that argument aside as we review corpus investigation software in more detail. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, Corpus-Based Descriptions. As has been noted, corpus linguistics is essentially a methodology or set of methodologies, rather than a theory of language description. Essentially, corpus linguistics means this: . looking at naturally occurring language; . looking at relatively large amounts of such language; . observing relative frequencies, either in raw form or mediated through statistical operations; . observing patterns of association, either between a feature and a text type or between groups of words. Reduced to its essence in this way, corpus linguistics appears to be ‘theory neutral,’ although the  practice of doing corpus linguistics is never neutral, as each practitioner defines what is meant by a ‘feature’ and what frequencies should be observed, in line with a theoretical approach to what matters in language. Approaches to the use of a corpus that essentially rely on the existence of categories derived from noncorpus investigations of language are sometimes referred to as ‘corpus based’ (Tognini-Bonelli, 2001). Studies of this kind can test hypotheses arising from grammatical descriptions based on intuition or on limited data. Experiments have been designed specifically to do this (Nelson et al., 2002: 257–283). For example, Meyer (2002: 7–8) describes work on ellipsis from a typological and psycholinguistic point of view that predicts that of the three possible clause locations of ellipsis in American spoken English, one will be much more frequent than the others. A corpus study reveals this to be an accurate prediction. On the other hand, the study of pseudo-titles mentioned in the section ‘Languages and Varieties’ shows how assumptions about language – in this instance about the influence of one variety of English on another –can be shown to be false. Biber et al. (1999: 7) comment that ‘‘corpus-based analysis of grammatical structure can uncover characteristics that were previously unsuspected. ’’ They mention as examples of this the surprisingly high frequency of complex relative clause constructions in conversation, and the frequency of simplified grammatical constructions in academic prose. A clearer integration between linguistic theory and corpus linguistics is demonstrated by Matthiessen’s work on probability (see the section ‘Probability’). This work takes its categories from an existing description of English (Halliday’s (1985) systemic functional  grammar), but the corpus study was more integral to the theory, as it was the only way that statements about probability of occurrence of each item in the system could be made with accuracy. Corpus-Driven Descriptions However, more radical challenges to language description can be found. Sinclair (1991, 2004) argues that the kind of patterning observable in a corpus (and nowhere else) necessitate descriptions of a markedly different kind from those commonly available. Both the descriptions and the theories that they in turn inspire are, in Tognini-Bonelli’s (2001) terms, ‘‘corpus driven. ’’ Some  of the challenges to tradition that corpus-driven theories involve are these: . Lexis and grammar are not distinct, and grammar is not an abstract system underlying language . Choice of any kind is heavily restricted by choice of lexis . Meaning is not atomistic, residing in words, but prosodic, belonging to variable units of meaning and always located in texts. 4 / 6 Evidence for these claims is presented in the section ‘Observing patterned behavior’ above. The notion of pattern grammar focuses on the way that different lexical items behave differently in terms of how they are complemented. Grammatical generalizations about complementation cannot be made without describing that individual lexical behavior. Similarly, choice between features such as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ depends to some extent on lexical item, as some verbs (such as afford) occur in the negative much more frequently than most. In other words, the probability of any grammatical category’s occurring is strongly affected not only by the register but also by the lexis used. Finally, the evidence of phraseology is that it makes more sense to see meaning as belonging to phrases than to individual words. Findings such as these have led many writers to see a need for descriptions of language that are radically different from those currently available. Sinclair (1991, 2004) proposes, for example, that meaning be seen as belonging to ‘units of meaning,’ each unit being describable in the way set out in He criticized conventional grammar for distinguishing between structures (a series of ‘slots’) and lexis (the ‘fillers’), such that it appears that any slot can be filled by any filler: there are no restrictions other than what the speaker wishes to say. This is clearly sometimes the case, and  when it is, Sinclair Translation Corpora can be used to train translators, used as a resource for practicing translators, and used as a means of studying the process of translation and the kinds of choices that translators make. Parallel corpora are often used in these applications, and software exists that will ‘align’ two corpora such that the translation of each sentence in the original text is immediately identifiable. This allows one to observe how a given word has been translated in different contexts. One interesting finding is that apparently equivalent words – such as English go and Swedish ga ° , or  English with and German mit (Viberg, 1996; Schmied and Fink, 2000) – occur as translations of each other in only a minority of instances. This suggests differences in the ways those languages use the items concerned. More generally, examination of parallel corpora emphasizes that what translators translate is not the word but a larger unit (Teubert andC ? erma? kova? , 2004). Although a single word may have many equivalents when translated, a word in context may well have only one such equivalent. For example, although travail as an individual word is sometimes translated as work and sometimes as labor, the phrase travaux pre?  paratoires is translated only as preparatory work. Thus, Teubert and C ? erma? kova? argue, travaux pre? paratoires and preparatory work may be considered to be equivalent translation units, whereas no such claim can be made for travaux and work. As well as giving information about languages, corpus studies have also indicated that translated language is not the same as nontranslated language. Studies of corpora of translated texts have shown that they tend to have higher incidences of very frequent words and that they tend to be more explicit in terms of grammar (Baker, 1993). They may also be influenced by the structure  of the source language, as was indicated in the discussion of wh- clefts in English and Swedish in the section ‘Languages and Varieties. ’ In communities where people read a large number of translated texts, the foreign language, via its translations, may even influence the home language. Gellerstam (1996) notes that some words in Swedish have taken on the meanings of English that look similar and argues that this is because translators tend to translate the English word with the similar looking Swedish word, thereby using the Swedish word with a new meaning, which then enters the language. One example is the Swedish word dramatisk, which used to indicate something relating to drama but which now, like the English word dramatic, also means ‘substantial and surprising. ’ Conclusion So every journey has its end. Ours isn’t an exception. It was a long journey but it was worth it. Corpus linguistics is a relatively new discipline, and a fast-changing one. As computer resources, particularly web-based ones, develop, sophisticated corpus investigations come within the reach of 5 / 6 the ordinary translator, language learner, or linguist. Our understanding of the ways that types of  language might vary from one another, and our appreciation of the ways that words pattern in language, have been immeasurably improved by corpus studies. Even more significant, perhaps, is the development of new theories of language that take corpus research as their starting point. The list of used literature 1. M. A. K. Halliday – Lexicology and Corpus Linguistics 2. Teubert and C ? erma? kova? 2004 3. Wallis, S. and Nelson G. ‘Knowledge discovery in grammatically analysed corpora’. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 5: 307–340. 2001 POWERED BY TCPDF (WWW. TCPDF. ORG)

Friday, September 27, 2019

Do the requirements of IFRS 8 Operating Segments enhance the quality Assignment

Do the requirements of IFRS 8 Operating Segments enhance the quality of information available to financial statement users - Assignment Example IFRS 8 states that an operating segment is a component of any organization that engages in business activities that earn revenue. The entity’s operating results must also be regularly reviewed by the chief operating decision maker. In addition, the entity must have discrete financial information. In business, an operating segment is that an independent unit that produces discriminated revenue thus necessitating preparation of separate books of transactions. It helps companies to track their performance in different areas of the market (IFRS 8 website). The paper discusses the reasons why the provision of segmental information is useful, current requirements of IFRS 8 and how they differ with other past and present accounting standards. It also presents the evidence as to whether the current requirements increase the quality of information available to users of financial statements. A good number of market participants and stakeholders are usually interested in the disclosures of information regarding the operating segments of the company. The provision of segmental information ensures that users of financial statements access information relating to the firm’s past performance, their risks and returns so as to be able to make informed decision or judgment about the entity in entirety (Christian & LüDenbach, 2013, p. 451). It ensures that users of information easily access the information regarding performance and prospects of the particular part of the entity that which they are interested. The stakeholders need to consider separate prospects and performance of each sector so as to be able to estimate the performance of the entire enterprise fully. Provision of segmental information ensures transparency. Transparency is the cornerstone of any corporate financial reporting because analysts and other stakeholders require complete and accurate information to assess the growth and

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Eastern Meditation Meets Christianity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Eastern Meditation Meets Christianity - Essay Example This type of meditation is a practical way to achieve real peace of mind, and leads to a deeper wisdom and clearer understanding of the truth. Misconceptions: There are some common misconceptions about meditation in Western countries. Some people think that "meditation is not for them because they are Christians, or that meditation is about just sitting and thinking nothing." In fact, meditation is about reality-seeing things as they are. There are no beliefs to adopt which might conflict with one's religion. Although there are some differences between Christian and Eastern spiritual practice, both of them share many similarities in the practice of listening to the spirit, the method of prayer and meditation and the spiritual and mental changes these bring about. All religious traditions, not only Buddhism and Christianity have different processes, movements and transformations for seeking answers from spiritual sources. Each faith tradition has grown over so many centuries and has been practiced in different societies and cultures. There is a fundamental difference between Christianity and Buddhism. The Buddha teaches people to remain fully in the realm of human experience, but Christ offers us a hope outside ourselves. The hope of a Christian is to have faith in God and Jesus Christ, but not in man or the earthly life. One of the main goals of meditation is to learn by observing what is going on in our bodies, our feelings, our mind and our worlds. The continual process of meditation greatly enhances our understanding of things around us. However, Christians mainly focus on developing more faith and a better relationship with God and Jesus Christ through prayer, using this to communicate with God, and possibly receive a personal revelation from Him, described sometimes as the Spirit of the Lord. But if we look at how people participate in meditation and prayer, we can highlight the similarities between the Buddhist and Christian approaches to spiritual practices. Meditation can lead to spiritual communion with God through the Holy Spirit. President David O. McKay (date) from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints explains We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. Meditation is the language of the soul. It is defined as a form of private devotion, or spiritual exercise, consisting in deep, continued refection on some religious theme. Even Jesus Christ also meditated during the forty days of fasting; he communed with himself and his father, and contemplated upon the responsibility of his great mission. One result of this spiritual communion was such strength as enabled him to say to temper "...Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only salt thou serve." (Matthew 4:10.) What is Meditation: In Buddhism, meditation plays an important role in developing peace, compassion and awareness. Challenges and afflictions in life make the Kositjaroenkul 3 heart yearn for the a perfection of peace, a pure love from someone, and compassion flowing through our hearts. When beginning the process of meditation, a person will focus on clearing the minds from everything around them. It is a moment of peace, calmness and mindfulness. The next part of the

Movie Theaters and Digital Distribution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Movie Theaters and Digital Distribution - Essay Example The technology boom has advantages and challenges. It is up to the industry to get its act together to make best use of the opportunities. It is no use blaming anyone including technology and competition for plunging fortunes. Innovations and internet is making inroads deep inside domains hitherto impenetrable. People, the young generation in particular, are taking advantage. But this need not lead anyone to press the panic button. A good look at causes for decline in business proves that it is not due to technological advances but rather in spite of it. The problem lies elsewhere. It could be any one or more than one of the reasons. It could be technology, piracy, lethargy, obsolescence, or just plain stupidity. Whatever it is, research proves that it is manageable. The opportunities are immense. The younger generation is reaping it. It is not their fault if established markets have failed to appropriate their share. (The Future of Music+Technology, and Online Music). The rapid growth of entertainment and media technology has clearly rattled the relevant industries of music, movies and information. Suddenly everyone is talking in terms of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) as if it is the panacea to all the ailments. The DRM is helpful in curbing piracy and even competition. But what happens if the content of the music and the movie fails to inspire Will the DRM claim responsibility Can any amount of piracy wreck the bond between Michael Jackson and his fans If Enrique Iglesias makes an appeal not to encourage piracy, it will be interesting to get feedback of how many fans oblige. It is all very well to talk about security, legal protection, strong infrastructure, good network, and so on. Entertainment and media is facing real challenges from the digital revolution. The best way to face these challenges is by using factors both technical as well as emotional. There are many ways to maintain good customer relations and balance sheet. Every customer is not a pirate. (Blake White). Theatre owners are changing over to multiplexes in a big way in order to lure viewers. This is an external factor and a good one! However, it is equally important to adequately update and organize internal factors such as viewer satisfaction, added values such as better seat arrangement, sensibilities, hospitality, comforts, and so on. Movie goers no longer visit theatres to only watch films. They want more value for their money. Pirates or Demons I think the issue of home theatre, piracy and online distribution is being overblown. Going through statistics and observations, one cannot but agree that the problem exists. But not in the proportion it is being made out to be. Where there is a will there is a way. The Southeast Asian nations have proved it. Malaysia saw piracy drop from 95% to 65%. (Kristen Bole). If every country in the world displayed similar resolute purpose, piracy could be curbed to a very great extent. The revolution in communication and media industries has impacted every industry. Those who survived are the ones who reviewed the situation, prepared for the changes

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Application of E-Business in Saudi Arabia Research Paper

Application of E-Business in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example Factors that affect the adoption of the technology in Saudi Arabia include the financial position of the business, the nature or characteristics of the business organization and the employees’ acceptance and perception of e-business. Some of the recommendations for the research are that the governments should use standardized methods to implement ICT projects. Regular training and empowerment workshops should be conducted to ensure that there is no resistance to change. Table of Contents Application of E-Business in Saudi Arabia 1 Running head: E-BUSINESS 1 1 Abstract 1 E-Business 5 Rationale 5 Project Topics 6 Research Methods 7 Expected Findings and Implications 7 Annotated Bibliography 8 Introduction 12 Rationale 13 Specific Topic 13 Research Purpose 14 Hypotheses 14 Literature Review 14 History and Background 14 Exceptions 15 Solutions 16 Discussion 17 Barriers to E-Business 17 Motivators to Commerce 18 Methodology 19 Research Purpose 19 Data Collection Method 19 Survey In strument 20 Population, Sampling Strategy and Sample 20 Data Analysis 21 Results 21 Implications of the Findings 26 Limitations 27 Conclusion 27 Recommendations 28 Final Thoughts 28 Questionnaire 34 E-Business E-business (electronic business) describes the act of a business utilizing electronic network in the improvement of business processes or systems. ... The data collecting tool will be administration of questionnaires which will be conducted through various means such as e-mail, post and fax. However, face-to-face surveys will be conducted although reference will be made to questionnaires. The collected data from the tables will be analyzed through application of the Microsoft Excel and recommendations offered based on the results. The application of e-business among Saudi Arabian companies is expected to be low. Factors that affect the adoption of the technology in Saudi Arabia include the financial position of the business, the nature or characteristics of the business organization, and employees’ acceptance and perception of the of e-business. Some of the benefits of e-business include: promotes globalization, reduction in the costs involved in running of the business, improvement of the supply chain, portrays flexibility in operation hours, enhances procurement process and not subject to city laws and permits. Rationale A lthough e-business is currently applied globally, Saudi Arabia still lags behind in adoption of the technology. Although the country possesses the most advanced and the fastest growing ICT technology in the Arab region, the application of e-business has been adopted at a slow rate. Additionally, there is no detailed information on the adoption of E-commerce among most of the Saudi Arabians. According to Marcus, Wigham and Gould (2011), the Kingdom has registered a substantial population growth that can profitably adopt e-business and enhance the economic growth of the country. This research will rely on wide range of responses from employees in various organizations within Saudi Arabia. This will enable the identification of the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Carolingian Empire During The Middle Ages Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Carolingian Empire During The Middle Ages - Essay Example Accordingly, this brief essay will attempt to consider the overall effects that the Carolingian Empire had o formulating the basic understandings of culture and statehood that eventually developed into our modern interpretation of France as it has existed for the past 1200 years. One of the preeminent problems with pre-Middle Ages Europe was that it was a highly tribalized and lacked any type of cohesion or unity after the collapse of the Roman Empire. The power vacuum that was created caused a litany of tribes to stake out territorial claims throughout the continent and beyond and seek to raise a form of society and individualized culture from out of these constructs.1 It was not until Charlemagne came long that a sense of cohesion was begun to be implemented by right of conquest within the tribes that now constitute modern day France. The dawn of the Carolingian Empire was of paramount importance to the formulation of a modern day understanding of France due to the fact that Charle magne and his progenitors were able to incorporate the use of a common language and religion among the areas and tribes they conquered. As any student of history knows, these two factors alone are powerful forms of congealing a given area into the idea that nationhood/statehood. In this way, Charlemagne, as one of the first actions of the Carolingian Empire, sought to congeal his grip on the territories in and around modern day France. One of these ways was to ensure that the encroachment of the Muslim Moors was stopped at the Battle of Tours. This event in and of itself was a massive victory for the definition of Christianity and statehood of the Frankish peoples. With respect to the subsequent Carolingian Renaissance, as historians have called it, the name itself is a bit of misnomer due to the fact that the Carolingian Renaissance did not have the far reaching societal effects that later European renaissances would have. Rather, the Carolingian Renaissance was almost entirely pre dicated on a restoration of the glory of the Roman Empire.2 Although this in itself was not necessarily a bad end to strive towards, the effect of the renaissance on enlightening the populace, changing social mores/norms, and giving way to higher and greater interpretation of art was severely constricted.3 The artistic developments during the period include the literary development of the Vulgate Bible, the development of Romanesque art and the illuminated manuscripts that were indicative of Byzantine iconoclasts (such as â€Å"Christ in Majesty† from the Aberdeen Bestiary), and the further development of distinctly Pre-Romanesque architecture in Europe (such as The Palatine Chapel in Aachen).4 What these three things have in common is the fact that each of them is merely a development of something that had previously existed; rather than a new interpretation of an old theme. In this way, the actual nature of the â€Å"Carolingian Renaissance† has been called into ques tion as compared with the later fuller renaissances that took place within Europe. Rather than seeking to propagate new styles and new ideas, the Carolingian Renaissance seemed to point backwards to a time of European history that was long gone yet still remembered fondly. Although the Carolingian Empire was a key determinate in establishing the idea of modern statehood within Europe, one could argue that as compared to the artistic expression and sociological

Monday, September 23, 2019

Organisational Context of Management Accounting Essay

Organisational Context of Management Accounting - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the governance framework of Ivy League University is decentralized where the various departments are separately administered and consolidated centrally for the purpose of financial reporting and regulatory requirements. The university receives research grant funds for which it has a fiduciary responsibility. The revenues from grants and contracts constitute 30% of the total operating budget of the University. The consolidated grant activity is reported other university funds because improper management of grant funds increases the risk position of Ivy. The grant activities are strictly assessed by the legal counsel and the internal as well as external auditor. The University’s Central leadership works towards decreasing inconsistencies in grant activities. Ivy has made an effort in business process redesign and system modernization within three functional areas i.e. financial management, administration of grants and contracts, and HR and payroll. Th erefore, in order to create an integrated administrative system, Ivy had introduced ERP that was expected to decrease audit risk and increase fiduciary control. These efforts were driven by the fact that Ivy is a highly leveraged and highest graded financial institution in US and the bond-holders have trusted it with their money. However, the introduction of ERP has also brought along problems of adjustments to a more centralised management accounting system where it was more decentralised previously and followed the legacy commitment accounting. Issues in Management Control & Accountability Major issues that were related to the management control and accountability of Ivy League University are: High Audit Risk: As Ivy was involved with decentralized governance framework in which every department was administered separately in its grant funds and its uses. There was a gap between funds actually used and those reported. The inconsistencies in spending process were quite high. Despite this disadvantage, the commitment accounting was an essential part of the management accounting system at Ivy, removing which from the ERP system presented institutional risk. Management Control: In Ivy, FSS (Faculty and Support Staff) were responsible for the actual expenditure of Principal Investigators (PIs) and the decided budget. The funds that were asked by PIs for project activities are known as commitments (commitment accounting). The negotiation between PIs and administrators to allocate the funds was a result of many subjective factors such as individual temperaments, departmental norms, available time, professional relationships, nature and stage of research. Therefore, the management control over the variations in research expenditure was very low. The ERP financial management was introduced without the feature of commitment accounting which posed problems of faculty’s control over their finances. The problem was that the new management accounting system focussed more on providing information to the Central leadership than the faculty, as expressed by the academic manager. Accountability: The University is responsible for the grants it gets every year for research work. The grant providers have a right to know that their funds are utilized in an efficient manner. The problem of accountability has been associated with the variances in

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Death Penalty Essay Example for Free

Death Penalty Essay Capital punishment or also known as death penalty is the killing of an individual by a state which serves as punishment for committing unlawful actions and retribution on behalf of the victims. Several countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Japan and the United States have retained this process of executing criminal. Different views regarding this issue have arisen but most people especially those governed by religious sectors have went up against the idea of death penalty. Death penalty has already gained its popularity worldwide. In fact, it was often the theme in any debate or even the usual conversation, thus lead to the emergence of several arguments which are in favor and against death penalty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Implementation of death penalty has several advantages. Death penalty provides closure to the victim’s families. It was very hard for family members of the victim to forget the traumatic experience and recover form the loss of a loved one. In fact there are cases that the relatives of the victim do not recover at all. This sort of closure is a great help for the recovery of the relatives. Life in prison is not enough punishment compare to death sentence which gives finality to the horrifying experience felt by the members of the family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In death penalty, justice is better served. The primary principle of justice is that a crime deserves an equivalent punishment. Hence, when someone brutally murders another person, he deserves to be put into death. Just like what the code of Hammurabi have stated, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Implementation of death penalty prevents the crime from happening again. If criminals are not put into death, we are not assured that this kind of person would not do such crimes again. On the other hand, death penalty can execute all criminals but there are cases that implementation of death penalty may include execution of an innocent man. Do you mind an innocent individual will suffer from death? Implementation of death penalty is a good way of obtaining â€Å"justice† but can we call it justice—killing an innocent. Another argument against death penalty is that it is arbitrary and capricious. Implementation of death penalty often favours well-off individuals or people who have money. How about the poor ones? Only the rich are able to afford a highly competent lawyer, thus makes the process unfair. Those accused people who are struggling from poverty cannot pay good attorneys thus making their chances of being acquitted very little. See how unfair it was? Even appealing to court was not possible. There are even cases that convicted wealthy persons pay the judge with a very big amount of money in order to become free of death penalty. Death penalty is geographically contingent which that it depends on state to sate. Maybe for this place, death penalty is not implemented but on others it is strictly performed. Death penalty also is racist and classist in nature. Race really makes a big difference when it comes to the implementation of death execution. For an instance, a black murdered a white victim. The black will executed 4 times than any other races. Still racial discrimination is dominant. That becomes a big problem of implementation of death penalty. One cannot avoid looking at races. Everyone is created equally by a supreme being God; hence one must receive equal rights and equal opportunities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Some will surely say that implementation of death penalty can reduce crimes because of the fear of death. That belief is not true. It is not true due to the fact that some people commit crimes when they are not on the good state of mind. How can they think of fear of death if they cannot think rationally?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We have presented both the pros and cons of death penalty. Death penalty is good in some ways but also awful in some other manner. Every human has different perspective regarding this social issue. Death penalty may be good for some but some would surely disagree with it. What is important is we respect everybody’s opinion. Work Cited Gregory, David L. â€Å"2000.Legal Arguments Against the Death Penalty. 2 April 2008   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.vincenter.org/95/gregory.html. Messerli, Joe. â€Å"November 11, 2007. Should the death penalty be banned as a form of punishment?†. 2 April 2008 http://www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Pascal And The Meaning Of Life Book Review Religion Essay

Pascal And The Meaning Of Life Book Review Religion Essay This is a religious text book based on the facts existing on Christianity, it was written by Thomas Morris who was the most gifted writer and philosopher of the time. The book is titled, Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life. was published in 1992 by, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. The book has addressed several issues such as; need for a guide, folly which arise due to indifferences, dangers which are caused by diversion, understand the meaning of life, how one can live a good life, how God is hidden to human beings, mysteries of human beings, how truth assist in human beings coexistence, how faith is related to heart and how one can be able to love God and life. Thomas Morris amplifies Pascal in the ways that someone may not have a clue about before; this clearly has an intriguing effect on the critical mind that is about the possibility of the Truth hidden behind Christianity. The leap associated with the link between the mind and the faith does not seem to be strange especially after reading this book. The title, Making Sense of It All. is one of the best volumes that expound the topic of Christianity and its philosophy and the apologetics. There is uniqueness in this book based on its organization and the content. Morris has utilized the scientific, some of the philosophical, and at some point, the apologetic sentiments of the great creative Christian thinker called Blaise Pascal from his titles, the Pascals book Pensees. and he shows how having faith in Jesus Christ is the only unique answer given to mankinds longtime and deepest yearnings for the meaning, the purpose, his significance, and the eternal life. This book has skillfully and in the most successive manner answered most of the existential objections of which people have given as the reasons for not believing. Morris has achieved this by weaving together many of the Pascals brilliant insights specifically into a significant and most powerful Christian apologetic writings. Though the content has been covered a lot in terms of the philosophical and the theological grounds, the book has remarks that are readable and at some places quite humorous. The philosophical, theological, and the apologetic concerns have been extensively addressed in a tremendously clear and the engaging style. Therefore, in this volume Thomas Morris has provided a very deep insight as to why people who live in todays world tend to avoid the urge to think about the ultimate issues. Thomas V. Morris due to his enticing works has been recognized as one of the Christianitys finest contemporary philosophers. This book is intended to address the Christian believes who in most cases have been having thoughts on their faith, it explains to them the facts as they are linked to the religion and the general human philosophy. This book suits with the needs of its audience who in this case, the Christian. As Morris tries to captures the essence of the Pascals thought. He deftly weaves it with some of the insights of the other thinkers and he shows this in a practical application for the believers lives. This book enriches the believers mind and the spirit, thereby deepening their walk with God. Pascal is just an example of a very brilliant and scientific mind who found it to be very reasonable to have very strong beliefs in God, or to be more specific, A Christian God. Therefore, Morris, through Pascal, has showed that faith and reasoning can take a believer farther than anything can alone. This is a great thought provoking book which is meant for the person who is always seeking to understand some of those hard questions. The author articulated on how most of the time we shall be in need of urgently providing guidance which is needed by most people, it is informative on how its readers would understand how the indifferences would be solved. The author emphasized on how diversions provide a risky environment and how it would be taken care of and how one can live a better life by being skeptical and the role which research does in improving someone life. Morris makes the reader to understand the nature of God being hidden from human beings who would not even know the intentions of God and how truth is importance in promotion of self development and relation with others. As Morris wrote about need to guide which he argues that, When you stop to think about it, life can be very confusing (p. 1). Having been given this reality, there is the need for a good guide that shows us how we are supposed to live. Morris insists, that Blaise Pascal is partly one of the best guides, who attunes to our concerns although he existed 350 years ago. Pascal was one of the great thinkers in the human history. He made the original contributions in the mathematics; he became the fixture of the French intelligentsia, on the night of November 23, 1654, at the age of thirty-one, Pascal had a profound and deeply moving mystical experience that dramatically turned him around, reorienting all his priorities (p. 9). He was able meet God. He emphasized that he met the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob . . . God , who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As he Immersed himself in the spiritual concerns, Pascal, during the following eight years, wrote down notes meant for a theological treatise that he tirelessly planned to write, this was an explanation and the defense based on the Christian faith that he highly hoped would make an appeal to non-believers. Unfortunately at the age of 39, he died, leaving us only with the loosely organized collection of the thoughts, which were his Pensees, According to Morris thinks, these thoughts, may possibly guide us towards our own discovery of what life means. In the next Chapter 2 The foolish indifference, due to our bored indifference towards ultimate realities, the timeless truths, makes our greatest flaw. According to his views, This negligence in a matter where they themselves, their eternity, their all are at stake, fills me more with irritation than pity; it astounds and appalls me; it seems quite monstrous to me (p. 23). This is like hoarding the pennies while using thousands of dollar bills for then cooking fuel! Those who are charged with teaching philosophy together with theology, of course, almost on a daily basis face almost the same apparent indifference that Pascal condemned. Thomas was mystified by the interests that his students showed in some trivial campus events as compared to their frequently and bored response to questions that are concerned with the heaven and hell, or death and immortality. Therefore if we as human beings dont just ignore the ultimate issues, then, we find the ways to keep our minds on other things. These Diversions always fill our waking hours and tend to dull our minds away from the possibilities of most important things. Analyzing chapter 3: Risk of diversion there is no writer, in my experience, who can better dissects this malaise. Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, he wrote, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things' (p. 31). This is contrary to our media-dominated culture, where as there is constant amusement by ourselves to death. Therefore, one can easily and only imagine, However, it is very clear that many of us tend to seek the shelter from the reality by making sure that we are always immersed in a state of noise and activity. In his efforts in trying to makes us think in a more seriously manner, Pascal tried to set forth some ways to do so. He struggled very hard in order to discern what makes life to be meaningful? And what makes life to be good? Such like questions could not be reduced to a scientific inquiry with the empirical data and the logical proofs. The Thinkers who tend to make metaphysics or theology to be purely rational, with the endeavor to prove the existence of God, will always fail because they tend to take the wrong approach, by failing to remember Aristotles wise advice to using the right methodology while approaching a given realm of the reality. Morris wrote about skepticism, research and a better life, the Christians use reason. Pascal was able to do it with the best, However they know that there is more to the reality than the reason, that some of the realms of reality just need to be encountered through some other means. Pascal said that, We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them' (p. 82). In the write-ups of the hidden God, he shows the emphasis that we all know God, who has constantly hidden from us, more so through the heart than it is to the head.: What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence, nor the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this stamp' (p. 94).Therefore God, and the lifes meaning, tend to reveal themselves to those who truly and honestly seek Him (God). Therefore God does not necessarily reveal himself to those who are intellectually able and those who demand that He conforms to their established standards. Indeed, he re-marked that, Pius scholars rare' (p. 37). While in Tokens of truth  he wrote that Truly religious people must humble themselves in the worship and obedience of a creator they do not see (p. 146). God comes only to those who are very much willing to bet their lives on the truth of His Being. In his comparison to Pascals philosophy he challenges human beings to risk to believe in God, and to dare commit ourselves to the living truth that God unveils reality and assures the humans of immortality. For one to able to find meaning in our lives, we must be in a position to understand not only the truth about God but also the truth about ourselves. Evaluation Morriss focus of the, Making Sense of It All. is much more than the scissors-and-paste technique of collage that is normally done the quotations with the transitional comments and the explanations of the famous French genius (Pascal). In showing how contemporary some the issues Pascal raised are, Morris injects the illustrations that range from the Tolstoys novels to Woodie Allens movies. Therefore this book is an illustration of a gifted religious teacher at work: The audience is introduced to one of the most famous and greatest philosophers, This makes the authors ideas to be very clear and most relevant without the compromise of the essence of his views on the title, I like the book very much because it has greatly motivated me as a believer in Christian faith.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Financial and Non-Financial Motivation: An Overview

Financial and Non-Financial Motivation: An Overview In modern society, business markets are getting more competitive. As a consequence, firms in the markets try to use more effective ways to achieve their goals, which include earning more profit and expanding market share. Motivation, which is a way that encourages employees to make an effort to work, is a feasible method to help firms to reach their targets. According to Tutor2U (n. d. a), if workers are motivated well, the business will get better productivity as well as improved product quality, and earn good reputation. Hence, a business ought to spend considerable time in thinking the best way to motivate employees, and there are a significant number of different opinions about it, including financial motivation and non-financial motivation. These two methods of motivation focus on different kinds of employees and satisfy different needs of workers. In addition, both of the two measures have their advantages as well as disadvantages. Therefore, the business should use these two m ethods together to encourage employees to work harder or worse, and make productivity good or bad. Different people have different needs to work, so according to specific conditions, a business should use different methods to motivate its workers. Hall et al. (2008) state that Maslow concluded a theory that there are five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled at work, and they are physical, safety, social, esteem and self actualization. An employee would be motivated by the higher need, only once a lower level of need has been fully satisfied (Tutor2U, n. d. b). For example, a person, who has no money and is dying of hunger and thirst, may think about basic wage at first instead of job security and respect from others. A business ought to offer different sets of incentives from worker to worker, because workers are not all motivated in the same way. According to Hall et al. (2008), McGregor also suggested two theories to explain why people have the will to work. Theory X assumes some workers are motivated by money, while theory Y assumes other workers are mo tivated by many other factors. For instance, due to the little amount of wage, lower paid workers, who include blue collar workers, tend to be willing to work overtime to earn higher pay. However, as for the better paid employees, including white collar workers, salary is not the only important factor for them. They may pay more attention to other aspects of work, such as colleagues, recognition and promotion. Consequently, a business should take different measures aiming at different kinds of employees in order to meet all of their needs and make profits. Financial motivation, which is related to a fair days pay for a fair days work, has both its strengths and weaknesses. Money is necessary for everybody, especially for the poor who have a strong desire to earn more money so as to make a living. Hence, the specific approach that motivates employees using money could be a good way to improve performance of workers as well as productivity. On the other hand, financial motivation may also cause some problems too, such as quality and operating problems. Hall et al. (2008) list some possible methods of financial motivation, including piece rates, fringe benefits, performance related pay and profit sharing. Each method has different benefits and drawbacks to motivate workers. An example is piece-rate pay, which is recommended by Taylor, it is the wage that is paid to workers by the number of products they make in a certain period of time (Hoddersamplepages, n. d.). Workers would work harder to earn more, because the ones who produce more co uld get higher pay. It might be good for increasing the speed of work therefore productivity. Nevertheless, piece rates tend to make employees rush work, so lead to some quality problems, and further influence the reputation of the business. Another measure is fringe benefit, and it is the extra money that employees receive in addition to their normal wage or salary, such as a company car, free use of a house as well as private health insurance (Tutor2U, n. d. c). It can help satisfy the social needs of employees and make them loyal to the firm. At Google for example, it provides free meals for employees to motivate them to be more loyal and make profits for the company (Hall et al., 2008). However, Tutor2U (n. d. c) also points out that fringe benefits could be difficult for the firm to operate because of increasing costs that are used by individuals. Therefore, there are some obvious advantages and disadvantages of financial motivated methods. Owing to the problems of financial incentives, firms should also use non-financial incentives to encourage workers. The similar to financial motivation, non-financial motivation has not only many significant benefits but also some drawbacks too. According to Tutor2U (n. d., b), Mayo reported that the human relations approach is the process for retaining and developing people in organizations but not using ways that involve money. A case in point is Tejas Securities Group. The Chairmans Cup is a silver chalice, which is awarded by the firm each month. It is the award to the workers who contribute to the success of the whole firm, so it inspires employees to work harder toward achievement (Searchwarp, n. d.). Non-financial incentives include job enrichment, empowerment and team working (Hall et al., 2008). Job enrichment means giving workers new sets of interesting and challenging tasks, which is supported by Herzberg (Hr-scorecard-metrics, 2010). It provides employees more chances to develop their capabilities and make them gain a strong sense of achievement. On the other hand, Tutor2U (n. d. d) reports that job enrichment might make some expensive mistakes if the work is too complex for workers or they do not possess the correct skill level. As for empowerment, it gives official authority to workers to make decisions and control their own activities (Hall et al., 2008). For example, employees can arrange how to use their time and how to achieve the tasks by themselves. The advantages of empowerment are significant, one of which is making employees feel free to make the most suitable choices for themselves. The disadvantages are obvious as well. Hall et al. (2008) point out employees might be given more work with the same pay, so they may be not willing to do it. Furthermore, empowerment may increase the costs that relate to the business, such as the costs of changing the workplace and training the workers (Hall, et al., 2008). If the employees make wrong decisi ons, it tends to have bad effects on the whole business. As a result, both the strengths and weaknesses of non-financial incentives exist. To sum up, according to Maslows hierarchy of needs as well as McGregors theory X and theory Y, different workers may have different needs to be met through motivation. On the one hand, either financial motivation or non-financial motivation is useful to encourage employees. On the other hand, both of the methods have their drawbacks as well. As far as I am concerned, these two methods are both beneficial for a business to motivate its employees, improve productivity, then earn more profits and achieve the business objectives. Thus, a business ought to combine these two methods, and use them together reasonably. The business should also take advantage of both financial as well as non-financial motivation, and try to avoid some unnecessary problems depending on specific needs of employees and real conditions of work.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Liberal Puritan Essay -- essays research pap

Nathaniel Hawthorne's best known short stories including Young Goodman Brown, The Minister's Black Veil, and The Birthmark, should be considered some of the great works of American literature because their exploration of enduring American themes of moral struggle. The short stories demonstrate a masterful command of symbolism and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. Descended from a staunch Puritan family, Hawthorne?s father was a presiding judge over the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne?s father died when he was young and he spent much time alone during his childhood. He had an introspective nature and was an avid reader. He began to write while he was in college and following graduation, returned to Salem where he entered a twelve-year literary apprenticeship. His first collection of short stories, Twice-Told tales, was published in 1837. Soon afterwards, he joined for a short period an experimental utopian community outside of Boston called Brook Farm in 1841. In 1842, Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody and they moved to Concord, Massachusetts. There Hawthorne wrote many pieces including his next collection of stores in 1846 called ?Mosses from an Old Manse.? From 1846 to 1849, Hawthorne worked in a Salem customhouse. Following his dismissal was a two-year period of intense p roductivity after which he wrote very little fiction, although he did keep notebooks. Hawthorne died in 1864 following several years of inability to complete any of this writings. Much of Hawthorne's work is set in colonial New England and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan ancestry. He believed that the misfortunes of his immediate family were the result of d... ...esides over a funeral and a wedding, providing no one with any explanation as to his unusual appearance. The only character not afraid of the veil is the minister?s fiancà © but she does ask him to remove it and how his face if only for a single time. He refuses to do so, explaining that the veil must stay on forever in recognition of the time when we will all cast aside our veils. She finally breaks off her engagement with Mr. Hooper since he refuses to remove it. When the minister dies, he is buried with the veil unlifted. Nathaniel Hawthorne?s best known short stories including Young Goodman Brown, The Minister's Black Veil, and The Birthmark, should be considered some of the great works of American literature because their exploration of enduring American themes of moral struggle. The short stories demonstrate a masterful command of symbolism and allegory.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Iranian Education Essay -- Iran Middle East

Iranian Education: From Modernization to Traditionalism An education system, because of its purpose as the shaper of the future, is a good indicator of what is going on within a country politically and culturally. The history of the Iranian education system showed change as the ideological values of the country shifted with each new regime change in the mid twentieth century. Iran, as a country, went from a country focused on modernization and secularization under the Reza Shah, to a country focused on traditional Islamic values under the new government established after the Islamic Revolution of 1977-791. These changes shifted the very purpose of education, its impact on women (in arguably negative or positive ways), and its literature. The shift in political focus from modernism to religious traditionalism can also be seen in how religion is taught in Iran, especially compared with different countries around the world. The history of the Iranian education system from 1907-1977 is one that is filled with problems. In 1907, Iran established a Ministry of Science and Art to control all areas of education, even religious education. In 1910, this ministry was reorganized and renamed the Ministry of Education, and given more power to set laws and guidelines for education, religious and secular. This body was not necessarily effective in setting new guidelines for Iranian schools. The main problem was overcoming was the lack of qualified, quality teachers (Szyliowicz 176- 7). After 1925, the Shah2 built many new schools and tried to revitalize the educational system. This effort was hampered again, by lack of qualified teachers (Szyliowicz 231), a lack of coherent ideology (Szyliowicz 232), and a program of edu... ...ern Iran. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992. Rivard, Jean-Franà §ois and Massimo Amadio. â€Å"Teaching Time Allocated to Religious Education in Official Timetables.† Prospects 33 (2003): 211-217. Shavarini, Mitra K. â€Å"Misconceptions about Islam and Women’s Education: Lessons learned from the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI).† International Education. 33.1 (Fall 2003): 40(11). Gender Watch. Proquest. Univ Mass Amherst. 10 Feb 2006. . Szyliowicz, Joseph S. Education and Modernization in the Middle East. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1973. UNESCO. Integration of Technology and Vocational Education into Special Needs Education. Austria, Colombia, Iran, Tunisia. Geneva: Imprimeries Popularies, 1977. Zia, Rukhsana. â€Å"Religion Education in Pakistan: An Overview.† Prospects. 22 (2003): 165-178.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Is Mathilde Loisel in The Necklace a Sympathetic Character

Mathilde Loisel is not a sympathetic character in â€Å"The Necklace† because of her materialistic and selfish motives. She is not just poor financially but also in character. She is always dissatisfied with her life. Nice clothes, expensive jewelry, a beautiful house, more furniture and rich friends are the only things she loves in her life. Moreover, she is not a sympathetic character because she disrespects her loving husband. In spite of having a kind, generous, loyal and hard working husband she never stops complaining about him. Mr. Loisel works hard in the evening and sometimes at night as well in order make their life easier. Yet, Mathilde is self-centered and never realizes the problems her husband has to go through to ensure her happiness. Mr. Loisel expects his wife to be thrilled when he gives her invitation to the Ministry’s party. Instead, she throws the invitation in his face for not having a suitable dress and jewelry for the function. He buys her a dress with the money he has saved for a gun. Also after the party, he goes to look for the lost necklace at four in the morning and spends his ten years to pay the debt incurred by a lost necklace. He does everything possible to fulfill her demands and to make her happy. But she didn’t feel his love and devotion for her. Also, in the other way she is too proud because she doesn’t tell Madame Forestier about the lost necklace at first. Because of Mathilde’s greed and pride she and her husband have to spend a miserable life. Therefore, the reader should not feel any pity for her.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Activity and Exercise

Chapter 38: Activity and Exercise! Test Bank! ! MULTIPLE CHOICE! ! 1.! The coordinated efforts of the musculoskeletal and nervous system maintain balance, posture, and body alignment. Body alignment refers to! ! a.! A low center of gravity balanced over a wide base of support.! b.! The result of weight, center of gravity, and balance.! c.! The relationship of one body part to another.! d.! The force that occurs in a direction to oppose movement.! ! !! ANS: C! Body alignment refers to the relationship of one body part to another body part along a horizontal or vertical line.Body balance occurs when a relatively low center of gravity is balanced over a wide, stable base of support. Coordinated body movement is a result of weight, center of gravity, and balance. Friction is a force that occurs in a direction to oppose movement.! !! DIF: Remember! REF:! 746-747! ! OBJ:! Describe the role of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems in the regulation of movement.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Te aching/Learning! ! ! ! 2.! A structural curvature of the spine associated with vertebral rotation is known as! a.! Scoliosis.! b.! Osteogenesis.! c.! Osteomalacia.! .! Arthritis.! ! !! ANS: A! Scoliosis is a structural curvature of the spine associated with vertebral rotation. Osteogenesis imperfecta is an inherited disorder that makes bones porous, short, bowed, and deformed. Osteomalacia is an uncommon metabolic disease characterized by inadequate and delayed mineralization, resulting in compact and spongy bone. Arthritis is an inflammatory joint disease characterized by inflammation or destruction of the synovial membrane and articular cartilage, and by systemic signs of inflammation.! !! DIF: Remember! REF:! 749! ! OBJ:!Discuss physiological and pathological influences on body alignment and joint mobility.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! a.! 3.! Unlike arthritis, joint degeneration! Occurs only from noninflammatory disease.! b.! Occurs only from inflammatory di sease.! c.! Involves overgrowth of bone at the articular ends.! d.! Affects mostly non–weight-bearing joints! ! !! ANS: C! Joint degeneration, which can occur with inflammatory and noninflammatory disease, is marked by changes in articular cartilage combined with overgrowth of bone at the articular ends. Degenerative changes commonly affect weight-bearing joints.! ! DIF: Understand! REF:! 749! ! OBJ:! Discuss physiological and pathological influences on body alignment and joint mobility.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The nurse is providing care to a patient who is bedridden. To prevent fatigue, the nurse raises the height of the bed. The nurse understands that balance is maintained by raising the bed to! ! 4.! a.! Prevent a shift in the nurse’s base of support.! b.! Narrow the base of support.! c.! Allow the nurse to bring his or her feet close together.! d.! Shift the center of gravity further away from the base of support.! ! !! ANS:A! Raising the h eight of the bed when performing a procedure prevents bending too far at the waist and causing a shift in the base of support. Balance is maintained by maintaining proper body alignment and posture through two simple techniques. First, widen the base of support by separating the feet to a comfortable distance. Second, increase balance by bringing the center of gravity closer to the base of support.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 747! ! OBJ:! Discuss physiological and pathological influences on body alignment and joint mobility.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! 5.!Approximately what percentage of all back pain is associated with manual lifting tasks?! a.! 10%! b.! 25%! c.! 50%! d.! 75%! ! !! ANS: C! Half of all back pain is associated with manual lifting tasks.! !! DIF: Remember! REF:! 758! ! OBJ:! Describe how to maintain and use proper body mechanics.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! ! The nurse is preparing to position an immobile patient. Before doin g so, the nurse must understand that! ! 6.! a.! Manual lifting is the easier method and should be tried first.! b.! Following body mechanics principles alone will prevent back injury.! c.!Body mechanics can be ignored when patient handling equipment is used.! d.! Body mechanics alone are not sufficient to prevent injuries.! ! !! ANS: D! Body mechanics alone are not sufficient to prevent musculoskeletal injuries when positioning or transferring patients. The use of patient-handling equipment in combination with proper body mechanics is more effective than either one in isolation. Body mechanics cannot be ignored even when patient handling equipment is being used. Manual lifting is the last resort, and it is only used when it does not involve lifting most or all of the patient’s weight.! !! DIF: Understand!REF:! 758! ! OBJ:! Describe how to maintain and use proper body mechanics.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! ! ! 7.! The nurse is preparing to reposition a pa tient. Before doing so, the nurse must! a.! Assess the weight to be lifted and the assistance needed.! b.! Attempt to manually lift the patient alone before asking for assistance.! c.! Attempt a manual lift only when lifting most or all of the patient’s weight.! d.! Not use the agency lift team if a mechanical lift is available.! ! !! ANS: A! Before lifting, assess the weight to be lifted and determine the assistance needed and the resources available.Manual lifting is the last resort, and it is used when the task at hand does not involve lifting most or all of the patient’s weight. Use safe patient handling equipment in conjunction with agency lift teams to reduce the risk of injury to the patient and members of the health care team.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 758! ! OBJ:! Describe how to maintain and use proper body mechanics.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! ! Isotonic, isometric, and resistive isometric are three categories of exercise. They are cl assified according to the type of muscle contraction involved.Of the following exercises, which are considered isotonic?! ! 8.! a.! Bicycling, swimming, walking, jogging, dancing! b.! Tightening or tensing of muscles without moving body parts! c.! Push-ups, hip lifting, pushing feet against a footboard on the bed! d.! Quadriceps set exercises and contraction of the gluteal muscles! ! !! ANS: A! Examples of isotonic exercises are walking, swimming, dance aerobics, jogging, bicycling, and moving arms and legs with light resistance. Isometric exercises involve tightening or tensing of muscles without moving body parts. Examples include quadriceps set exercises and contraction of the gluteal muscles.Examples of resistive isometric exercises are push-ups and hip lifting, as well as placing a footboard on the foot of the bed for patients to push against with their feet.! !! DIF: Remember! REF:! 747! ! OBJ:! Describe how exercise and activity benefit physiological and psychological functio ning.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! 9.! In planning a physical activity program for a patient, the nurse must understand that! ! a.! Isotonic exercises cause contraction without changing muscle length.! b.! The best program includes a combination of exercises.! c.!Isometric contraction involves the movement of body parts.! d.! Resistive isometric exercises can lead to bone wasting.! ! !! ANS: B! The best program of physical activity includes a combination of exercises that produce different physiological and psychological benefits. Isotonic exercises cause muscle contractions and changes in muscle length. Isometric exercises involve tightening or tensing of muscles without moving body parts. Resistive isometric exercises help promote muscle strength and provide sufficient stress against bone to promote osteoblastic activity.! !! DIF: Understand!REF:! 747! ! OBJ:! Describe how exercise and activity benefit physiological and psychological functioning.! TOP:! Assessme nt! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! An active lifestyle is important for maintaining and promoting health. In developing an exercise program, the nurse understands that! ! 10.! a.! Physical exercise is contraindicated for patients with chronic illnesses.! b.! Regular physical activity is beneficial only for the body part that is exercised.! c.! Physical exercise has no effect on psychological well-being.! d.! Physical activity enhances functioning of all body systems.! !! ANS: D! Regular physical activity and exercise enhance the functioning of all body systems, including cardiopulmonary functioning, musculoskeletal fitness, weight control and maintenance, and psychological well-being. It is also essential in treatment for chronic illness.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 747! ! OBJ:! Describe the benefits of implementing an exercise program for the purpose of health promotion.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! 11.! The nurse is developing an exercise program for elderly patien ts living in a nursing home.To develop a beneficial health promotion program, the nurse needs to understand that when dealing with the elderly! ! a.! Exercise is of very little benefit because the patients are old.! b.! It is important to disregard their current interests in favor of exercise.! c.! No physical benefit can be gained without a formal exercise program.! d.! Adjustments to exercise programs may have to be made to prevent problems.! ! !! ANS: D! Exercise is extremely beneficial for older adults, but adjustments to an exercise program may have to be made for those of advanced age to prevent problems.When developing an exercise program for any older adult, consider not only the person’s current activity level, range of motion, muscle strength and tone, and response to physical activity, but also the person’s interests, capacities, and limitations. Older adults who are unable to participate in a formal exercise program are able to achieve the benefits of impro ved joint mobility and enhanced circulation by simply stretching and exaggerating movements during performance of routine activities of daily living.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 759! ! OBJ:! Describe the benefits of implementing an exercise program for the purpose of health promotion.!TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The nurse is attempting to start an exercise program in a local community as a health promotion project. In explaining the purpose of the project, the nurse explains to community leaders that! ! 12.! a.! A sedentary lifestyle contributes to the development of health-related problems.! b.! The recommended frequency of workouts should be twice a day.! c.! An exercise prescription should incorporate aerobic exercise only.! d.! The purpose of weight training is to bulk up muscles.! ! !! ANS: A! A sedentary lifestyle contributes to the development of health-related problems.A holistic approach is taken to develop overall fitness and includes warm-ups, aerobic ex ercise, resistance training, weight training, and so forth. The recommended frequency of aerobic exercise is 3 to 5 times per week or every other day for approximately 30 minutes. Crosstraining is recommended for the patient who prefers to exercise every day. Some patients use weight training to bulk up their muscles. However, the purposes of weight training from a health perspective are to develop tone and strength and to simulate and maintain healthy bone.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 796-797! ! OBJ:!Describe the benefits of implementing exercise and activity.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! The patient is eager to begin his exercise program with a 2-mile jog. The nurse instructs the patient to warm up with stretching exercises. The patient states that he is ready and does not want to waste time with a â€Å"warm-up. † The nurse explains that the warm-up! ! 13.! a.! Allows the body to readjust gradually to baseline functioning.! b.! Prepares the body and dec reases the potential for injury.! c.! Should not involve stretching exercises because they can lead to injury.! d.!Should be performed with high intensity to prepare for the coming challenge.! ! !! ANS: B! The warm-up activity prepares the body for activity and decreases the potential for injury. It usually lasts about 5 to 10 minutes and may include stretching, calisthenics, and/or aerobic activity performed at a lower intensity. The cool-down period allows the body to readjust gradually to baseline functioning and provides an opportunity to combine movement such as stretching with relaxation-enhancing mind-body awareness.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 757! ! OBJ:! Describe the benefits of implementing exercise and activity.!TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! Many patients find it difficult to incorporate an exercise program into their daily lives because of time constraints. For these patients, it is beneficial to reinforce that many ADLs are used to accumulate the reco mmended 30 minutes or more per day of moderate-intensity physical activity. When instructing these patients, the nurse explains that! ! 14.! a.! Housework is not considered an aerobic exercise.! b.! To strengthen back muscles, the patient should bend using back muscles.! c.! Daily chores should begin with gentle stretches.! d.!The patient should stick to one chore until it is done before beginning a new one.! ! !! ANS: C! Daily chores should begin with gentle stretches. Housework is considered aerobic exercise. To make it more aerobic, work faster and scrub harder. Bend your legs rather than your back to prevent back injury. Alternate cleaning activities to prevent overworking the same muscle groups.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 757! ! OBJ:! Describe important factors to consider when planning an exercise program for patients across the life span and for those with specific chronic illnesses.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! 15.!The nurse is developing an exercise plan for someone diagnosed with congestive heart failure and exercise intolerance. In doing so, the nurse should! ! a.! Plan for 20 minutes of continuous aerobic activity and increase as tolerated.! b.! Perform 6-minute walks at the patient’s pace at least 2 times a day.! c.! Instruct the patient that he should not take his beta blocker medication on exercise days.! d.! Encourage a high-calorie diet to plan for extra calorie expenditure.! ! !! ANS: B! For the diagnosis of exercise intolerance, the patient should begin by performing 6minute walks at his own pace at least twice a day.The patient would not be able to tolerate 20 minutes of continuous aerobic activity. Patients should be instructed to take medications as ordered. Low-calorie, low-sodium, and high-protein diets are best for this type of patient.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 755! ! OBJ:! Describe important factors to consider when planning an exercise program for patients across the life span and for those with specific chroni c illnesses.! TOP:! Implementation! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! Which of the following exercise activities would most likely provide the opportunity for mind-body awareness?! 16.! a.! Warm-up activity! b.! Resistance training! c.! Aerobic exercise! d.! Cool-down activity! ! !! ANS: D! The cool-down period allows the body to readjust gradually to baseline functioning and provides an opportunity to combine movement such as stretching with relaxationenhancing mind-body awareness. The warm-up activity prepares the body and decreases the potential for injury. Aerobic exercise includes running, bicycling, jumping rope, and so forth, and is the main portion of exercise activity; it precedes the cool-down period.Resistance training increases muscle strength and endurance and is associated with improved performance of daily activities but not with enhancing mind-body awareness.! !! DIF: Analyze! REF:! 757! ! OBJ:! Describe important factors to consider when planning an exercise program for patients across the life span and for those with specific chronic illnesses.! TOP:! Evaluation! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The patient is brought to the emergency department with possible injury to his shoulder. To help determine the degree of injury, the nurse should evaluate! ! 17.! a.!The patient’s gait.! b.! The patient’s range of motion.! c.! Fine motor coordination.! d.! Activity tolerance.! ! !! ANS: B! Assessing range of motion is one assessment technique used to determine the degree of damage or injury to a joint. Gait is the manner or style of walking. It may have little bearing on the shoulder damage. Assessing fine motor coordination would be beneficial in helping to assess the patient’s ability to perform tasks but would not help in evaluating the shoulder. Activity tolerance refers to the type and amount of exercise or activity a person is able to perform.Damage to the shoulder would affect this, but this would not have a direct bearing on the am ount of damage done to the shoulder.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 752-753! ! OBJ:! Assess patients for impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! The nurse is examining a patient who is admitted to the emergency department with severe elbow pain. Of the following situations, which would cause the nurse to suspect a ligament tear or joint fracture?! ! 18.! a.! Range of motion of the elbow is limited.! b.! Joint motion is greater than normal.! c.!The patient has arthritis.! d.! The elbow cannot be moved (frozen).! ! !! ANS: B! Increased mobility (beyond normal) of a joint may indicate connective tissue disorders, ligament tears, or possible joint fractures. Limited range of motion often indicates inflammation such as arthritis, fluid in the joint, altered nerve supply, or contractures (frozen joints).! !! DIF: Analyze! REF:! 752-753! ! OBJ:! Assess patients for impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Evaluation! MSC:! Teachin g/Learning! ! ! ! The patient has been bedridden for several months owing to severe congestive heart disease.In determining a plan of care for this patient that will address his activity level, the nurse formulates which of the following nursing diagnoses?! ! 19.! a.! Fatigue related to poor physical condition! b.! Impaired gas exchange related to decreased cardiac output! c.! Decreased cardiac output related to decreased myocardial contractility! d.! Activity intolerance related to physical deconditioning! ! !! ANS: D! When activity and exercise are problems for a patient, nursing diagnoses often focus on the individual’s ability to move. The diagnostic label directs nursing interventions.In this case, physical deconditioning must be addressed relative to activity level, perhaps leading to 6-minute walks twice a day. Physical deconditioning is the cause of fatigue as well, so it would take priority over that diagnosis. Decreased cardiac output and myocardial contractility ar e serious concerns that must be addressed before activity intolerance to keep the patient safe and to help determine the level of exercise that the patient can tolerate, but reconditioning of the patient’s body will help improve contractility and cardiac output.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 753| 755! ! OBJ:!Formulate nursing diagnoses for patients experiencing problems with impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! The patient weighs 450 lbs (204. 5 kg) and complains of shortness of breath with any exertion. His health care provider has recommended that he begin an exercise program. He states that he can hardly get out of bed and just cannot do anything around the house. To focus on the cause of the patient’s complaints, the nurse devises which of the following nursing diagnoses?! ! 20.! a.! Activity intolerance related to excessive weight! .! Activity intolerance related to bed rest! c.! Impaired gas exchange related to sh ortness of breath! d.! Imbalanced nutrition: less than body requirements! ! !! ANS: A! The diagnostic label directs nursing interventions. This requires the correct selection of related factors. For example, Activity intolerance related to excess weight gain requires very different interventions than if the related factor is prolonged bed rest. In this case, the intolerance is related to the patient’s excessive weight. He is not on bed rest, although he claims that it is difficult for him to get out of bed.Shortness of breath is a symptom, not a cause, of Impaired gas exchange, making this nursing diagnosis ineffective. The patient certainly has an imbalance of nutrition, but it is more than body requirements.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 753! ! OBJ:! Formulate nursing diagnoses for patients experiencing problems with impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! The patient is being admitted for elective knee surgery. While the nurse is admitting the patient, she will! ! 21.! a.! Begin to develop a discharge plan.! b.!Plan to wait until after the surgery to plan for discharge.! c.! Place a generalized discharge plan in the record for later use.! d.! Address immediate needs of the patient only and address other needs later.! ! !! ANS: A! The nurse needs to begin discharge planning when the patient enters the health care system. The nurse cannot wait until after surgery to begin to plan for discharge. In addition, the discharge plan is always individualized to the patient and directed at meeting the actual and/or potential needs of the patient.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 754! ! OBJ:!Write a nursing care plan for a patient with impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The patient is admitted with a stroke. The outcome of this disorder is uncertain, but the patient is unable to move his right arm and leg. The nurse understands that! ! 22.! a.! Active range of motio n is the only thing that will prevent contractures from forming.! b.! Passive range of motion must be instituted to help prevent contracture formation.! c.! Range-of-motion exercises should be started 2 days after the patient is stable.! d.!Range-of-motion exercises should be done on major joints only.! ! !! ANS: B! When patients cannot participate in active range of motion, the nurse must institute passive range of motion to maintain joint mobility and prevent contractures. Passive range of motion can be substituted for active when needed. For the patient who does not have voluntary motor control, passive range-of-motion exercises are the exercises of choice. Unless contraindicated, the nursing care plan includes exercising each joint (not just major joints) through as nearly a full range of motion as possible.Initiate passive range-of-motion exercises as soon as the patient loses the ability to move the extremity or joint.! !! DIF: Understand! REF:! 759! ! OBJ:! Describe intervent ions for maintaining activity tolerance and mobility.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The patient has been in bed for several days and needs to be ambulated. Before ambulation, the nurse! ! 23.! a.! Removes the gait belt to allow for unrestricted movement.! b.! Has the patient get up from bed before he has a chance to get dizzy.! c.! Has the patient look down to watch his feet to prevent tripping.! d.!Dangles the patient on the side of the bed.! ! !! ANS: D! Some patients experience orthostatic hypotension—a drop in blood pressure that occurs when the patient changes from a horizontal to a vertical position. Assist the patient to a position of sitting at the side of the bed, and dangle for 1 to 2 minutes before standing. The nurse needs to provide support at the waist so that the patient’s center of gravity remains midline. This is achieved with the use of a gait belt. A gait belt encircles the patient’s waist and may have handles attached for th e nurse to hold while the patient ambulates.The patient should maintain as normal a walking posture as possible with the head erect.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 759! ! OBJ:! Describe interventions for maintaining activity tolerance and mobility.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! 24.! The nurse is ambulating a patient in the hall when she notices that he is beginning to fall. The nurse should! ! a.! Grab the patient and hold him tight to prevent the fall.! b.! Gently lower the patient to the floor.! c.! Jump back and let the patient fall naturally.! d.! Push the patient against the wall and guide him to the floor.! !! ANS: B! If the patient has a fainting episode or begins to fall, assume a wide base of support with one foot in front of the other, thus supporting the patient’s body weight. Then extend one leg and let the patient slide against the leg, and gently lower the patient to the floor, protecting the patient’s head. Grabbing the patient will shift t he nurse’s center of gravity and may lead to a back injury. Allowing the patient to fall could lead to head injury for the patient. Pushing the patient against the wall could also cause the patient to hit his head and cause injury.! !! DIF:Apply! REF:! 759! ! OBJ:! Describe interventions for maintaining activity tolerance and mobility.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! a.! 25.! In assisting the patient to exercise, the nurse should! Expect that pain will occur with exercise of unused muscle groups.! b.! Set the pace for the exercise class.! c.! Force muscles or joints to go just beyond resistance.! d.! Stop the exercise if pain is experienced.! ! !! ANS: D! Assess for pain, shortness of breath, or a change in vital signs. If present, stop exercise. Let each patient exercise at his or her own pace.Assess for joint limitations, and do not force a muscle or a joint during exercise.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 759! ! OBJ:! Describe interventions for maintaining act ivity tolerance and mobility.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! The nurse is developing a plan of care for a patient diagnosed with activity intolerance. Of the following strategies, which has the best chance of maintaining patient compliance?! ! 26.! a.! Performing 20 minutes of aerobic exercise daily with 10 minute warm-up and cool-down periods! b.! Instructing the patient to use an exercise log to record day, time, duration, and responses to exercise activity! .! Instructing the patient on the evils of not exercising, and getting her to take responsibility for her current health status! d.! Arranging for the patient to join a gym that she will have to pay, for so that she does not need to depend on insurance! ! !! ANS: B! Keeping a log may increase adherence to an exercise prescription. Cross-training (combination of exercise activities) provides variety to combat boredom and increases the potential for total body conditioning as opposed to daily aerobic exerci se. â€Å"Blaming† a patient for his or her health status is usually counterproductive.Instead, the nurse should instruct the patient about the physiological benefits of a regular exercise program. Developing a plan of exercise that the patient may perform at home may improve compliance.! !! DIF: Evaluate! REF:! 756! ! OBJ:! Evaluate the nursing care plan for maintaining activity and exercise for patients across the life span and with specific chronic illnesses.! TOP:! Evaluation! MSC:! Teaching/ Learning! ! 27.! The nurse is working with the patient in developing an exercise plan. The patient tells the nurse that she just will not participate in a formal exercise program.The nurse then suggests that exercise activities can be incorporated into activities of daily living. The patient seems to be agreeable to that concept. Of the following activities, which would be considered a moderate-intensity activity?! ! a.! Doing laundry! b.! Making the bed! c.! Ironing! d.! Folding clo thes! ! !! ANS: D! Low-intensity ADLs include doing the laundry, making the bed, ironing, and washing dishes. Moderate-intensity ADLs include sweeping the kitchen or sidewalk, washing windows, folding clothes, and vacuuming.! !! DIF: Evaluate! REF:! 757! ! OBJ:!Evaluate the nursing care plan for maintaining activity and exercise for patients across the life span and with specific chronic illnesses.! TOP:! Evaluation! MSC:! Teaching/ Learning! ! MULTIPLE RESPONSE! ! Bones perform five functions in the body: support, protection, movement, mineral storage, and hematopoiesis. In the discussion of body mechanics, which are the most important? (Select all that apply. )! ! 1.! a.! Support! b.! Protection! c.! Movement! d.! Mineral storage! e.! Hematopoiesis! ! !! ANS: A, C! Bones perform five functions in the body: support, protection, movement, mineral storage, and hematopoiesis.In the discussion of body mechanics, two of these functions —support and movement—are most import ant. In support, bones serve as the framework and contribute to the shape, alignment, and positioning of body parts. In movement, bones together with their joints constitute levers for muscle attachment. As muscles contract and shorten, they pull on bones, producing joint movement. Protection involves encasing the soft tissue organs in a protective cage. Mineral storage helps to strengthen bones but also helps regulate blood levels of certain nutrients. Hematopoiesis is the formation of blood cells.! !! DIF: Remember!REF:! 747! ! OBJ:! Describe the role of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems in the regulation of movement.! TOP:! Assessment! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! When assessing the activity tolerance of a patient, the nurse would evaluate which of the following? (Select all that apply. )! ! 2.! a.! Skeletal abnormalities! b.! Emotional factors! c.! Age! d.! Pregnancy status! e.! Race! ! !! ANS: A, B, C, D! Factors influencing activity tolerance include physiological factor s such as skeletal abnormalities, emotional factors such as anxiety/depression, developmental factors such as age and gender, and pregnancy status.Race is not a factor because people of all races are faced with similar factors that affect their activity tolerance.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 754! ! OBJ:! Assess patients for impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning! ! ! ! In developing a nursing care plan for increasing activity tolerance in a patient, the nurse should (Select all that apply. )! ! 3.! a.! Use generalized therapies because they work for everyone.! b.! Consult with members of the health care team.! c.!Avoid goals published by the American College of Sports Medicine.! d.! Involve the patient and the patient’s family in designing an exercise plan.! e.! Consider the patient’s ability to increase activity level.! ! !! ANS: B, D, E! When planning care, the nurse should consult/collaborate with members of the health care team to increase activity, involve the patient and family in designing an activity and exercise plan (especially if family members are also providers of care), and consider the patient’s ability to increase activity level.Therapies should be individualized to the patient’s activity tolerance. Information from the American College of Sports Medicine serves as a standard that the nurse should use when applying activity and exercise goals.! !! DIF: Apply! REF:! 754! ! OBJ:! Write a nursing care plan for a patient with impaired mobility and activity intolerance.! TOP:! Implementation!! MSC:! Teaching/Learning!