Monday, December 30, 2019

Analysis Of Walt Whitman s Life - 1384 Words

Walt Whitman could be seen as a narcissist because of his confidence in knowing the â€Å"ways† of the world. He is confident in his theory that the physical self and the emotional self, or the soul, are equals in all aspects. But I’m unsure if this is such a bad thing, as narcissism has negative connotations. On the other hand, the object of a visionary poet is not to sway people a certain way or impress them but to be able to reveal a moment or feeling in time and share their findings, which Walt does. Through his work he isn’t saying look at me and all I know. He is sharing his self-discovery and soul searching with the reader to show how magical it can be. He shares his uncertainties, what it’s like to love and what it’s like to be at peace†¦show more content†¦For the Rosicky’s a dry summer could mean dead crops and for the men a strong storm could mean lost lives. The Rosicky’s and the men use the same method to keep eac h other alive. Each individual has an independent role amongst the farm that is done for the success of the greater whole. On the boat, each of the mean had a specific duty. The captain gives directions, the cook works on bailing water and the correspondent and the oiler take turns rowing. The realization of both groups that they need to group to survive makes their method of survival similar. â€Å"A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a jumpy horse, and a horse is not much smaller. The boat was much like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse leaping over a high fence. The manner of her ride over these walls of water is a thing of mystery. Each wave required a new leap, and a leap from the air. Then jumping and slipping and racing and dropping down, she steadied for the next threat.† This passage’s personification of the boat gives quite an uneasy feeling. When I think of a jumpy horse I think of a massive and erratic creature. Their behavior is unpredictable. This is the feeling that the men are getting from the sea. Every wave seems to be a complete surprise for the boat; she is never fully prepared when it comes. This outside force is causing their boat to become uneasy

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Genre Analysis The Movie Scream 1996 - 2217 Words

Genre Analysis By Aleksandar Najdovski Genre is a French word meaning ‘type or ‘kind’ (Genre, 2016). The film industry has been around for at least 100 years. The evolution of entertainment is growing rapidly through the use of media. And as these years go on, films have begun to fit into specific genres, and are important to appeal to the different types of audiences. Films can be described to genre in different types of ways, such as stars, director and narrative to help identify what genre the film is (Neale, 1990, pg. 49). Genre in films has become common because it helps give the audience a different expectation. One specific genre of film is a horror. Horror is a genre that tries to create, panic, dread and fear for the audience.†¦show more content†¦The producers will develop a test and the audience will tell the producers whether it is something they want to see or they are not going to see. This can affect the next text to be produced in an attempt to conform to the audience demands. L ooking at the development of different types of genres and the development of films within the same genre, it’s possible to look at similarities and differences and identify changes in society and audience ideologies and tastes. Horror is designed to scare, cause alarm and dread, while also entertaining the audience at the same time in a cathartic experience (Dirk, 2016). Horror films are meant for a specific type of audience that enjoy scary films. Dirks (Tim, 2016) approach to genre horror, is that films went back as 100 years ago, from the earliest days our vivid imagination in seeing ghosts in the shadows to be connected emotionally of the unknown, and fear things that are improbable. You watch a horror film, it makes you aware of the scary surroundings, the essence of fear itself, without actually being in any sorts of danger. Dirks argues that there is a fun and thrill factor in being frightened, or watching something disturbing. It gives you that feeling of an adrenaline rush, as well as having that feeling someone is actually next to you lurking in the dark (Dirk, 2016). Todorov’s novel ‘The Fantastic’, it lies with the audience’s doubt how they can’tShow MoreRelatedHorror Genre Dissertation6741 Words   |  27 PagesIntroduction PG. 4 Discussion - 4. History of the Horror Genre PG. 5 - 9 - 5. Slasher Films and the Gender roles PG. 9 - 13 - 6. Comedy Horror PG. 13 - 16 - 7. Postmodernism and the Horror Film PG. 16 - 18 - 8. Case Study: Scream Vs. Scary Movie PG. 18 - 22 9. Conclusion PG. 23 Bibliography PG. 25 - 27 1. Abstract Page I have researched on the Horror genre, looking at when it begun, the decline in popularity it has foreseenRead MoreMedia Violence Effects on Society1930 Words   |  8 PagesMedia Violence: Effects on society â€Å"Millions of teens have seen the 1996 movie Scream†¦Scream opens with a scene in which a teenage girl is forced to watch her jock boyfriend tortured and then disemboweled by two fellow students who, it will eventually be learned, want revenge on anyone from high school who crossed them. After jock boys stomach is shown cut open and he dies screaming, the killers stab and torture the girl, then cut her throat and hang her body from a tree so that Mom can discoverRead MoreIntroduction to Film Cinema and Literature12137 Words   |  49 PagesKinetoscope, which was a sort of peep show device (Fig.1.4 1.5). The device became very popular and was adopted by many business men. The Lumiere brothers envisioned great wealth in their ability to increase the number of people who can watch a movie at the same time. To achieve this, they made people sit in a darkened room to watch motion picture projected on a screen. In 1895, they patented a device that both photographed and projected action which was named Cinematography (Fig.1.6). Some commonRead MoreAnalysis of the Music Industry30024 Words   |  121 Pageselectronic item (like a widescreen TV or home computer). What is the maximum amount of money you would feel confident borrowing in order to buy these items at this moment in time? Source: IRN Research/Key Note Want more detail? Order further customised analysis through IRN Research on keynote@irn-research.com. See Further Sources for more on this service. Consumer confidence weakened across the board in the summer months of 2005, as reflected in the decreasing desire to spend money either from savings

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Cognitive Competence Free Essays

string(95) " use new methods even though he is clever enough to think of many other new potential methods\." Tomorrow’s Leader Term paper Topic: Cognitive Competence Wai (Synergy) Content Part 1 1. Definition cognitive competenceP. 3-4 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Cognitive Competence or any similar topic only for you Order Now Theory of cognitive competenceP. 5-8 3. Factors affecting cognitive competenceP. 9-10 4. Importance of cognitive competence in leadershipP. 11-12 5. Ways to enhance the level of cognitive competenceP. 13-14 Part 2 Self evaluationP. 15-17 Part 3 ReferenceP. 18-19 Part 1 Definition of cognitive competence 1. Cognitive competence is defined as the ability to perform adequately those cognitively complex tasks considered essential for living on one’s own in this society. Willis SL. (1996). Everyday cognitive competence in elderly persons: conceptual issues and empirical findings, Oct;36(5):595-601) 2. The ability to develop and apply the cognitive skills of self-talk, the reading and interpretation of social cues, using steps for problem-solving and decision making, understanding the perspective of others, understanding behavioral norms, a positive attitude towards life, and self –awareness. (The W. T. Grant Consortium on the School-Based Promotion of Social Competence (199 2: 136)) 3. Academic and intellectual achievement. include the ability to use logic, analytic thinking, and abstract reasoning) (Catalano, R. F. , Berglund, M. L. , Ryan, J. A. M. , Lonczak, H. S. , ; Hawkins, J. D. (2002). Positive youth development in the United States: Research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs. Prevention and Treatment, 5 (15), 1-106. ) This three definitions are little bit different. The third one is too narrow as it just mentioned academic and intellectual achievement. The second one, on the other hand, is not specific enough. In my understanding, I think cognitive competence is best defined using the first two definitions. Cognitive competence is defined as the ability to perform adequately those cognitively complex tasks considered essential for living on one’s own in this society. It also includes understanding the perspective of others, understanding behavioral norms, and self –awareness. † Theory Hui Sunâ €™s model (2007) This model divides cognitive competence into three types of thinking: 1. Creative thinking, a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests unorthodox solutions (which may look unsettling at first). 2. Critical thinking, which includes reasoning, making references, self-reflection, and coordination of multiple views. Critical thinking has been described as â€Å"the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, which uses reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, methods, and criteria. † (Facione, Peter A. Critical Thinking: What It is and Why It Counts, Insightassessment. com) 3. Rational thinking refers to logical or reasoning being involved in the thought process. It refers to providing reasons or rational behind thoughts or ideas. It adds an element of calculation and planning to a steam of thoughts rather than basing them on emotion or personal opinion. It is a kind of objective process of thinking and an analytic approach to any problem. Rational thinking is based on reasons or facts and is hence much more calculating and realistic. Geiwitz’s model This model divides cognitive competence into three steps of thinking: 1. Know what, to know what is the problem 2. Know how, to know how the problem can be solved 3. Know why, to know why choose particular method to solve the problem, or to evaluate the method currently used. What How Why In Hui and Sun’s model, creative thinking is the innovative way of thinking. It allows people to invent new things or idea. Critical thinking is used when commenting on something, e. g. in writing editorials. As for rational thinking, it is used when analyzing. In my opinion, the second model is easier to understand. And it shows progressive levels of cognitive competence, whereas the first model only divides our thinking into three different ways. Therefore, I would further explain cognitive competence using the second model for reference. Take the example of inventors of the world’s first airplane – the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur. This is an good example to illustrate the concept of cognitive competence and the Geiwitz’s model. Applying the Geiwitz’s model, the Wright brothers’ aim was to create a â€Å"flying machine†, this is the â€Å"know what† level of cognitive competence. They then started to think and design this machine, and this is the â€Å"know how† level of cognitive competence. Finally they evaluated the products (what’s good and not good about it) and thought how to improve further. The â€Å"know how† and â€Å"know why† steps repeated. And finally an mature airplane was invented. Start Know what: to invent a flying machine Know how: How to built a better flying machine Know why: Why this model is good/not good enough Repeat A satisfatory model is invented Another example to illustrate is the development in high jump styles. The styles used in high-jumping has changed from initially scissors style, to straddle style, and finally the Fosbury style which is still using nowadays. Start Know what: to jump high Know how: What jumping style Know why: Why this style is good/not good enough Repeat A satisfatory syle is invented Factors affecting cognitive competence I think the factors affecting the development of one’s cognitive competence can be divided into intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are those confine to yourself, while extrinsic factors are those influenced by the environment. For intrinsic factors, I think there are: intelligence, personalities, knowledge and past experience. For intelligent, I think it is not difficult to imagine that it is important for high cognitive competence. Intelligence is particularly important for the â€Å"know how† and â€Å"know why† stage. Only if you are wise enough can you think of a new way to solve problem that no one has ever think of or find out what is the problem of existing method being used by other people. Moreover, intelligence is kind of inborn; therefore, cognitive competence is also inborn to a certain extent. As for personality, I think people with different personality may affect his/her performance in problem solving and the presentation of his cognitive competence. For example, if a person lacks confidence and likes to deal with problem in a low risk aspect, he/she may not abandon the existing widely used method to tackle the problem and use new methods even though he is clever enough to think of many other new potential methods. You read "Cognitive Competence" in category "Papers" They may only attempt the new ways when they are 100% more effective and safer than the existing ones. Knowledge and past experience are very similar. They both can be regarded as memory. They are very important factors that affect cognitive competence. When tackling problems, memory always acts as your â€Å"reference†, it gives you basic information and background about the problem. And help you to figure out the solution in relation to this â€Å"reference†. Like the case of the Wright brothers, when they tried to invent a flying machine, their knowledge in engineering gives them basic information of how to build it. It is interesting to notice that sometimes past experience may hinder our cognitive performance. For example, when you are dealing with a project you are very familiar with, you might too much into your experience and knowledge and think that it is impossible to explore new methods. For extrinsic factors, there are: Environment (e. g. family background, situation of the problem) and the nature of problem Environment is the major extrinsic factor affecting one’s cognitive competence. It determines many of intrinsic factors including past experience, knowledge and even personality. Environment can also affects ones attitude to deal with the problem, thus performance of cognitive competence. For example, the due date of your proposal is tomorrow morning and now is already three o’clock in the morning and you haven’t even started yet. I am sure you may feel desperate and will not spend much time to think of the new ideas. Moreover, family socialization also affects cognitive competence and intelligence of people. (Grundmann, M. ; Teo, Thomas; Socialization, intelligence, and cognitive competence (1997)) Another one is the nature of the problem. It determines one’s past experience and knowledge are useful or not. It is because the past experience and knowledge can not apply to all situation. Importance of cognitive competence in leadership Cognitive competence is important in leadership. A research points out that cognitive skills were found to be directly correlate with high-level of leadership performance in a MLE (Military Leadership Exercises) research. (Marshall-Mies et al. , 2000) Often included intelligence, general skills, crystallized skills (e. g. oral and written expression and comprehension), and creative or divergent thinking capacities are cognitive capabilities that should influence leadership performance. (Connelly, Gilbert, Zaccaro, Threlfall, Marks Mumford, 2000). I also agree that cognitive competence is important in leadership. First of all, leader with higher level of cognitive competence can deal with different kinds of problems with his own way of thinking. That means they can find out his own most effective way to tackle the problem without copying others method. This gives the leader independency that he does not need to rely on others too much. It also gives them maturity that they can have their own way of thinking. Independency and maturity surely are the important factors of a leader. This makes people happy and feeling safe to follow you. Secondly, leader with high level of cognitive competence can have great contribution to the team. They can give out a lot of useful ideas that no one has thought of before. This already makes them the strongest ones or the most unique ones in the team. People would love to follow leaders which are stronger than them. Again, this makes them feel safe. Finally, leaders with high level of cognitive competence can have a clear mind and know what is wrong in the team. They know what the team should do (goal). And they evaluate the performance of the team, and find out what should be improved. That means they are not only using cognitive skills in problem solving, but also in team management. It is because â€Å"team management† itself is already a task. People with higher cognitive competence usually have higher IQ and are conflicts encountering (Heydenberk R. A. and Heydenberk W. R. , Increasing Meta-Cognitive Competence through Conflict Resolution(2005)) Ways to enhance the level of cognitive competence Before discussing how to enhance the level of cognitive competence, I think we should first identify what cannot be changed or be improved. They are called constrains. Through understanding what are the constrains, we can focus on what can and what should be improved. The constrains include family background, intelligence and personality. These factors are sort of fixed, or can only have little change. So, to raise the level of cognitive competence, I think it is effective that we try to learn as much as possible. This is to enhance our knowledge and enrich our experience. As mentioned, knowledge and past experience are two important factors affecting one’s cognitive ability. This is because they are our own sources of information about the problem being coped. We can make use of this information to find a way to solve the problem. We may not figure out any new method, at least we know how people deal with it previously. In Janet E, Et Al, The Role of metacognition in Problem Solving, four steps of thinking is also mentioned to guide people to solve problems. They are: 1. Identifying and defining the problem 2. Mentally representing the problem 3. Planning how to proceed 4. Evaluating what you know about your performance This way of thinking can help people to organized their thoughts, so that they can deal with the problem step by step. I think it is a quite useful way to improve cognitive performance because it makes people organized and focus on one job at a time. This prevents them from being interrupted from different sources. Furthermore, it helps people to think logically. Part 2 Self-reflection Hong Kong students are known to be a copycat. We are blamed to have low level of creativity and afraid to try new things. People always say that we just copy things from others or textbooks without digesting them. But I think it is not totally my case. I am not a stupid student. I used to be very creative in primary school. Others describe me as naughty. It is because all my creativity is used in inventing new ways to play tricks on my classmates. I remember one time I played a game in an activity class. My teacher ask my group to use a deck of playing cards to build a tower as high as we can. Then we started. Other groups are using the traditional method (see left). Obviously it requires high technique. Therefore they can only built towers with few floors high. But I figured out another method. I folded up two cards, turned them sideway to make two â€Å"L† shape walls, put them facing each other to make a square wall, on top of it I placed a flat card. And I repeated to do this. Of course, my team built the highest tower. But guess what happened next. My teacher told us that was against the rules. Playing cards are not supposed to be folded (She didn’t tell us before the game). We lose that competition at the end. I think, after this event, my creativity started to slowly bury in my heart deeply. When I recall this event, I discover one important thing. That is our creativity is often being restricted by our teachers, and our education system. Teachers set all the projects, homework with rules and restrictions, trying to make them easier to mark and compare. But this made our assignments all looking the same. Examination questions have all the model answers, this made our student the same person who can only memorize answers without digesting the questions and answer them in their own way. Not that I don’t have critical thinking and creativity. It is just because they have to be thrown away to survive in HK’s education system. Take the example of A-level exams, the curriculum is very tight that teachers even cannot have time to teach us all the topics included. How would I have time to individually explore all the topics taught? Instead, in order to get high grades in this exam, I spent most of the time on memorizing past paper’s model answers. I know it would not help my cognitive development, but getting into a good university is more important to me. I believe this is also the problem of many students. Now, when I am given a problem to solve, I still try my best to explore the alternatives. May be this is due to my personality. I just don’t like to be the same with others. I like to be unique. But I think I am not creative as I was small anymore. Apart from the reason about the restrictions set by teachers just discussed, another possible reason may be due to my own knowledge and experience. As I mentioned in part 1 of this report, knowledge and experience, although can help to solve your problem, they sometimes hinder your cognitive performance. Sometimes this happens to me. I just rely too much on the knowledge and experience, and cannot think out of the box. But the major reason is still because of the education system in HK. But in the university, a place to train student’s critical thinking and creativity, I think that this problem would become less severe. To improve my cognitive abilities, I think the best way is to train to have independent critical thinking. Don’t rely too much on knowledge from any sources and my own or others’ past experience. Always try my best to look for other possible alternatives. Although this might spend a lot more time and at the end there may not come up any new things. But I think the process can also help me to develop my cognitive skills. Although it might hinder my cognitive performance, I think it is still important to enrich my knowledge and broaden my horizon. This is because learning more can let me compare different theories and thus train my independent critical thinking. They are also my valuable first encountered source when any problem comes to me. Part 3 Reference Willis SL. (1996). Everyday cognitive competence in elderly persons: conceptual issues and empirical findings, Oct;36(5):595-601 The W. T. Grant Consortium on the School-Based Promotion of Social Competence (1992: 136) Catalano, R. F. , Berglund, M. L. , Ryan, J. A. M. , Lonczak, H. S. , Hawkins, J. D. (2002). Positive youth development in the United States: Research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs. Prevention and Treatment, 5 (15), 1-106. Grundmann, M. ; Teo, Thomas; Socialization, intelligence, and cognitive competence (1997) Marshall-Mies et al. , 2000 Connelly, Gilbert, Zaccaro, Threlfall, Marks Mumford, 2000 Heydenberk R. A. and Heydenberk W. R. , Increasing Meta-Cognitive Competence through Conflict Resolution(2005) How to cite Cognitive Competence, Papers

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Edward Snowden Case And Morality Of Secrecy -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Edward Snowden Case And Morality Of Secrecy? Answer: Introduction Information Ethics is the branch of ethics that deals with the organization, collection and use of information or data according to the ethical standards and moral codes. It provides a framework concerning the ethical issues related to privacy and security of information, problems arising from the ownership of information, data or facts and many more (Floridi, 2013). An analysis of the most famous case of Edward Snowden is done in this report using Doing Ethics Technique and on the basis of ACS code of ethics. DET is a technique of analysing the ethical issues in a scenario. Though it does not provide best solution but van force someone to think ethically (McDermid, 2015). On the other hand, ACS code of ethics provides six core ethical values which are to be followed by each and every member of the society. These values allow the individuals to act with responsibility and integrity with respect to all their professional dealings (Acs.org.au, 2014). Edwards case is analysed on the basis of these two techniques, out of which one provides the details and all the facts including ethical issues and complications about the case, whereas the other deals with the degree of persuasion of ACS ethical codes by Snowden. The report provides details of various statements made by many authorities in respect to his actions followed by a conclusion that shows the result of both the analysis and provide overall recommendations. Synopsis of the case In year 2013, a 29 year old individual employed as a computer expert at National Security Agency and a former CIA systems administrator, Edward Snowden was held responsible for leaking the confidential government documents to reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post. According to the US government and many legal authorities, Edward violated the Espionage Act 1917, which defines the leak of state records as an act of betrayal. But despite the fact that he broke the law, Edward argued that it was his moral responsibility to inform the public about what is done for and against them. Many people regarded the act of Snowden as ethical whereas many treated him as Traitor (Nolan, 2017). Case facts There are some facts about the case which describes it in a nutshell. They also provides the evidence regarding the statements made in support and against the case. Following are: Edward Snowden is an ex-CIA agent who released the intimate information to press about the data mining program of NSA. The documents which got leaked contains the details of NSA surveillance programs that collect and perform data mining on millions of US phones and Internet traffic data in order to identify the links with known terrorists (Branum and Charteris-Black, 2015). According to the government and American Law, his actions violates espionage. Snowden opposed all the allegations put on him by stating that it was his act of whistleblowing. The Attorney General of US, Eric Holder, stated that he harmed the national security and broke the law, for which he should be held accountable (Fenner, 2014) Jesselyn Radack, a member of Government Accountability Project took the side of Edward by considering his actions to be ethically true and by arguing that he worked for public welfare (Fenner, 2014). Issues related to the case The disclosure of the governments wide surveillance program has fuelled an emotional debate related to privacy, secrecy and security. These disclosure raised three fundamental issues that are: People raised the question on the working of governments that was it okay to conduct such a massive program and to maintain such extensive files. Another issue was that, the government keep the surveillance program secret from the public. The question raised that was it ethical to do so (Greenwald, MacAskill and Poitras, 2013). The case involved an issue which addresses that did the government provide a justification for the disclosure of classified information by Edward, if it was not hiding the program from public. Ethical issues related to breach of law, legality, nations privacy and security also arises in the case (Harding, 2014). However, there were no answers to these questions. In fact, the officials who respect privacy were also involved in this. People who get affected Edward Snowden Looking at his deeds, US Government annulled his passport and its Whistle blower Protection Act does not allow him to enter the country because of his contractual working with the government. So on a whole the case had negative impact on the life of Snowden (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). NSA As per the reforms presented by Obama administration, NSA could no longer directly collect the call records from the telephone companies and required a court approval to do the same. On the top of this, NSA was allowed to collect data two hops from the source. Foreign relationships The case had also impacted the foreign relations of United States. Countries like Brazil, Germany, and Russia with whom US maintain relations, had decided to downgrade the commercial ties with the country. Brazil president cancelled his planned visit to US in October 2013, Germany asked for the investigation of NSA spying on it and Russia took the advantage of Snowdens statements to define US as two-faced. All these incidents hinder the relationship of US with these countries (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). Cloud based companies There were doubts about the cloud based services offered by American companies on American soil, as the outside governments were suspecting that they might have been spied upon. Due to the disclosures, the US technological companies suffers high losses and damages (Von Solms and van Heerden, 2015). Ethical issues and its implications According to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the actions of Edward Snowden were against the ethics. The Kant theory states that certain actions like murder, theft and lying are strictly prohibited, even if they give a positive result. He said that the reason for performing actions is not pleasure but to produce a will that is good and a good will is established by acting for the sake of the duty (O'Neill, 2013). According to his theory, Snowden must have act for his duty towards NSA and US government. By leaking the secret documents, he violates the ethics of privacy, secrecy and confidentiality of the nation. He must had perform his duty as an employee of NSA rather than acting as whistle blower. National security and privacy was hindered by his deeds which left a great impact on the overall country. USAs foreign relationships got worse, security and general public has affected a lot and even Edward himself had to face many things because of breach of his duty ethics (Lyon, 2014). Solutions to solve the case Considering Kants theory, Edward has many alternatives to stop the surveillance program. He could go to the regulatory authorities, or any legal department regarding the case. In fact he could consult with one of the organization member rather than secretly disclosing the information in the media. He could have done this without violating his duty ethics. Options available Various options were available like talking about the concern with one of the colleague, consulting to a NGO or legal authority or a regulatory department about the issue. Best Option The best option which could be exercised was Snowden taking the help of legal and regulatory departments regarding surveillance program. He must have spoken to them regarding penetrating privacy of general public by NSA. This could make his actions legal and also in favour of both the country and public. If he had opt for this alternative, then situation would be different than that of what happened after his sudden disclosure to the media. The primacy of public interest According to ACS code of ethics, one should keep the interest of public above all. An individuals actions must be in favour of public interest prior to the business or sectional interest. The person should act within the law and should comply with the society rule of giving first priority to the public (McDermid, 2015). In Edward Snowden case, he has followed this ACS code of ethics as he revealed about the NSA surveillance program to the public, fulfilling his duty of whistle blower. He told the public about NSAs secret program of collecting the private information of general public related to their phone calls, contacts, emails, messages and everything. He did not think of breaking the legal laws and security of the nation and follow his whistleblowing ethics by keeping public interest above all. The enhancement of quality of life This code of ethics deals with enhancing the quality of life of the people who are affected by the work of an individual. The development of ICT has significant impact on the life styles and society of people. The technology has both negative and positive impact, so in order to reduce such negative effects, an ethical approach of improving the quality of life of affected people is followed (Weckert, 2017). Edward knows that the surveillance program conducted by NSA would largely impact the live of Americans. Tracking the record of personal data of general public by using technology, would not be acceptable in any means and the organization should not cross its limits. Through leaking the classified documents, Snowden make the people aware about the deeds of NSA and protect them from their implications. In a manner, he followed the ethics of enhancing the life quality of Americans. Honesty All the professional decisions and actions of an individual must underline its utmost honesty and integrity. There may be some circumstances which forces an individual to be deceptive in some way and to act for his benefits. This type of behaviour is strictly prohibited as per the ethic of honesty (Bowern, et. al. 2006).Talking about honesty, Edward somehow not followed this code as he stole the documents and gave them to the reporters without the concern of NSA. This shows his breach of honesty towards his organization. Though his revelations benefited to public to some extent but his actions towards his duty shows dishonesty in his professional career. He broke the code of honesty and loses the trust of his stakeholders. Competence It means an individual must accept only that work, for which he is capable of doing. He must be competent to perform and should not hesitate to take advice from the qualified experts. The person must know his limitations, his capabilities and knowledge about using all the facets of ICT (Aasheim, 2011). Keeping this ethic in mind, Snowden was capable of doing both the work that is keeping the NSA program as a secret and revealing it about to the general public. As all knows, he chose to release the documents to the press agencies, following other ethics related to primacy of public interest and enhancement of quality of life. Though it is a fact that it did it in a dishonest way, but he was aware about all the facts, standards and legislation related to the program, which he thought to make people aware about. So in some manner, he followed competency in his profession. Professional Development This code allows the person to keep himself updated about the new technologies, standards and practices related to his work. An individual must increase its awareness about the issues which affects his relations with public and profession. He should support the programs concerning with training and development of ICT that helps in satisfying the needs of individual professional and their career. Edward Snowden was very much aware about the changes going in the organization, technologies used by NSA employees to conduct the surveillance program and the consequences of the same on the country. He updated himself with all the facts and classified documents related to PRISM, gather all the information and then released it into the public through the reporters of The Guardian and The Washington Post. The US government still feels that Edward has some more information regarding the program, which he did not disclosed to public. Professionalism This code of ethic defines that there should be professionalism in anything a person do. He should maintain professional standards and the society should be aware of the fact that ACS can help them to resolve ethical dilemmas. It can assist in taking correct actions like whistle-blowing (Al-Saggaf, Burmeister and Schwartz, 2017). Edward follow his professionalism to the extent where his actions justify the ethics of a whistle-blower. He went against NSA and decides to showcase organizations secret program as he thought that NSA was breaching the privacy of public. But from US government, NSA and some peoples point of view, he violates the law of Espionage, breaches national security and privacy which shows his unprofessionalism toward his duty. Conclusion The above report concludes that there were some ethical issues which came into notice by applying DET to the case study. It is reported that in order to fulfil his whistle-blowers responsibility, he violates the country laws which affected many people including himself. He loses the trust of his organization and US government and also hinders privacy and security of the country. By revealing the secret program of NSA, he portrays himself as a traitor in eyes of many people which includes government officials and legal authorities. The technique also provides some options that can be applied by Edward to solve the issues, which would not result in breaking of laws, his loyalty towards NSA and his duty ethics. The report also concludes that he almost followed all the six ethical values laid down by ACS. His actions justifies and reflects those moral code of ethics which are required to be followed by an ICT professional. From this perspective, his deeds completely justifies him but from the point of view of Kants ethical approach, Snowdens actions include one of the certain action that is stealing of the documents, which is prohibited and against ethics according to Immanuel Kant. Although he was seen as a hero for many people as he prevents the privacy of general people from being hampered. Many people justified his actions as his duty of whistle-blower and its ethics. So overall, it can be said that Edward Snowden was traitor as well as a hero according to his actions. But if he had followed a legal procedure for doing all this, then he might have saved himself from such allegations and repercussions. References Aasheim, L., 2011.Practical clinical supervision for counselors: An experiential guide. Springer Publishing Company. Acs.org.au. (2014).ACS Code of Professional Conduct Professional Standards Board Australian Computer Society. [Online] Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/rules-and-regulations/Code-of-Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018]. Al-Saggaf, Y., Burmeister, O.K. and Schwartz, M., 2017. Qualifications and ethics education: the views of ICT professionals.Australasian Journal of Information Systems,21. Bowern, M., Burmeister, O., Gotterbarn, D. and Weckert, J., 2006. ICT Integrity: Bringing the ACS Code of Ethics up to date.Australasian Journal of Information Systems,13(2). Branum, J. and Charteris-Black, J., 2015. The Edward Snowden affair: A corpus study of the British press.Discourse Communication,9(2), pp.199-220. Fenner, G., 2014. Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor? Floridi, L., 2013.The ethics of information. Oxford University Press. Greenwald, G., MacAskill, E. and Poitras, L. 2013.Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations. [Online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018]. Harding, L., 2014.The Snowden files: The inside story of the world's most wanted man. Guardian Faber Publishing. Lyon, D., 2014. Surveillance, Snowden, and big data: Capacities, consequences, critique.Big Data Society,1(2), p.2053951714541861. McDermid, D., 2015.Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU. McDermid, D., 2015.Ethics in ICT: an Australian perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU. Nolan, C., 2017. The Edward Snowden Case and the Morality of Secrecy.Catholic Social Science Review,22, pp.291-310. O'Neill, O., 2013.Acting on principle: An essay on Kantian ethics. Cambridge University Press. Von Solms, S. and van Heerden, R., 2015, January. The Consequences of Edward Snowden NSA Related Information Disclosures. InIccws 2015-The Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security: ICCWS2015(p. 358). Academic Conferences Limited. Weckert, J. ed., 2017.Computer ethics. Routledge.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Romeo Essays (1087 words) - Rodham Family, Bill Clinton,

Romeo As quoted by Hamlet in the play by William Shakespeare, To be or not to be, that is the question(Fetzer 360). When on the subject of President Clinton, some would rather he not be than to be. Some look down upon him because of recent accusations against him concerning him having a sexual relationship with someone other than his wife and then lying about not taking part in any of his accused shenanigans. The whole ordeal has upset many parents about how their children will react to all that is going on about the Clinton scandal, but still some parents find it as an educational and somewhat profitable lesson to teach their children. The Presidency is a highly honorable task and the President has disgraced his office. As leader of the free world, it is his responsibility to set a good example. To little surprise, there are some countries that are angered by the way the President has handled himself lately. The Clinton scandal is giving parents a chance to have serious talks to their chi ldren, justifying the act of lying in the minds of children, and giving countries a reason to look down upon the United States. Due to President Clinton's actions concerning these allegations, there have been three substantial and obvious affects on today's society. First, the scandal is giving parents a chance to sit down and have serious talks with their children. Children are interested in learning about what is going on with the President and why he is in such big trouble, so parents find this as an opportune time to talk about lying and lying's drastic consequences. As stated by Chuck Green, I wrote that parents can cite no finer example than Bill Clinton not as an example of getting away with lying but as an example of its consequences(Green n.pag.). The problem with this is parents sometimes get into a sticky situation when they don't know what to tell their children, but Chuck Green replies by saying, Just tell your kids the truth - that lying doesn't pay, even if you are the President. Sooner or later, you'll pay a heavy price(Green n.pag). Lying is not the only major issue that the President's problems have brought to many parents' attention. Sex has become another issue that parents can discuss with their children because of the recen t scandals. A lot of parents choose not to tell their children about the birds and the bees, but the scandal almost forces them to talk about it. Mr. Clinton's troubles also are putting parents on the spot when it comes to explaining sex, which is a good thing(MacDonald n.pag.). When asked about what she thought about the Clinton scandal, Amy McMahon said that, She and other parents and experts say that discussions with children about the President's on going problems may border on 'distasteful' and 'disgusting'. Some, though, see it as an opportunity to talk about family values, appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and what happens when people get into trouble(MacDonald n.pag.). Sex is a part of everyone's life, and it has the necessity to be discussed with a child eventually; this inappropriate situation allows for a good discussion in this area. Next, in the minds of children, the President's lying has significantly justified the act of lying. Children see the President as a role model, which they look up to and sometimes imitate in actions. A boy said of the President, He can't lie like the rest of us, 'cause he's a role model(Shales n.pag.). If kids find the President as a role model and they see and hear of the President doing these bad things, it might get imbedded in their heads that what the President has done is all right(Hoover n.pag.). Looking at the situation from another standpoint, some might say that they see the President doing bad things then they will learn from his mistakes, right? That is not true. Parents have tried to teach their children right from wrong and they have always told them to get a role model to look up to. If the President is a role model and so many kids look up to him, then they will think what he is doing

Monday, November 25, 2019

SAT for Regular Admissions Deadlines

When's the Last ACT/SAT for Regular Admissions Deadlines SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you have been putting off the ACT/SAT or are hoping to retake one, you need to know when you can take your last test so that your scores will arrive at your schools in time. In other words, when is the very latest you can take the SAT or ACT for your college applications? Read on to find out when you can still take the SAT or ACT- and when you'd be too late. You might be surprised by how little time you have! College Application Deadlines: General Info and Trends Most regular decision college application deadlines are around January 1, though some are earlier in mid- to late December and some are as late as mid-January. I recommend keeping New Year's in mind as the general date your college applications will be due. (Note that if you are applying to a school early action or early decision, your application deadline will likely be much sooner!) The standard date you find out your admission decision is April 1 (though some colleges release results earlier in March). But while admissions decisions are finalized in March, applications are being read and evaluated long before then. Typically, applications are read for the first time in January and maybe February, and decisions are made in February and March. This is why having your entire application submitted by the deadline, including your SAT/ACT scores, is so crucial. In many cases, your application could be read before your parents get around to taking down the holiday decorations ... In order for scores to arrive in time to be considered in January, the last ACT/SAT test dates are usually in December. (For the 2019-20 school year, this is the SAT on December 7 and the ACT on December 14.) December scores usually arrive in time to be considered during the initial application reads in January and February. However, if you take the tests in February or March, your scores won't get to your schools until March or April, which is typically well after your application is read for the first time. (In early 2020, the ACT is on February 8 and the SAT is on March 14.) Since there is no longer a January SAT test date, this means December really is your last chance for the SAT for almost all schools. While a handful of schools do accept the February ACT, these policies aren't the norm. Ideally, you want to finish your SAT/ACT testing before senior year so you can focus on applications exclusively. If you're taking any of the final test dates, you have to make sure you put your colleges down to receive your scores when you're signing up for the last available test. In other words, don't wait to see your scores before you send them, or else it will be too late! If there's a problem with your score reports or they get delayed, sometimes colleges will accept a screenshot or printed version of your test report sent from your guidance counselor as a provisional result. That said, this won't replace an official score report from the College Board or ACT, Inc., which needs to be sent along eventually. Last SAT/ACT Test Dates: Advice for Your College Applications If you're reading this as a junior or younger, aim to have your standardized testing done before senior year, or at the very least by the October ACT/November SAT dates (this means the October 26th ACT and the November 2nd SAT for the 2019-20 school year). This will make the application process less stressful since you'll only have to focus on applications, not testing. Studying for the ACT/SAT while also working on an your applications in December can be a real stressor and might result in subpar applications! Keep in mind that if you're sending SAT/ACT scores from the last possible test date, you're taking a risk. If it's your first test score and it's not within your schools' average score ranges, it won't help your chances of admission. It also won't look good if it's a retake and your score goes down. (While most schools focus on your highest test scores, some require students to send all SAT scores or all ACT scores and will take all scores, high or low, into consideration.) This is why we recommend having your testing done by senior year- including retakes. If you really need to take one of the last possible ACT/SAT dates, plan ahead as much as possible so you have plenty of time to both study and work on your applications. The Latest Possible ACT/SAT Dates for Top Schools In this section, we'll be taking a look at the last possible ACT/SAT dates for top colleges. We'll also show you how to look up this information yourself for any school you're interested in applying to. Schools Whose Final Testing Date Is in December The majority of schools we researched will accept the December ACT and December SAT, but no later SATs or ACTs. If any of your top schools are on this list, do your best to complete your testing as soon as possible! You'll need to have your standardized tests completed by winter break if you're applying to any of these schools! Amherst For regular decision, Amherst requires all materials to be received by January 1. This means you should aim for the December ACT or December SAT at the very latest. Brown According to Brown's website, "Most first-year students choose to apply under our Regular Decision plan, which requires applying by January 2 (11:59 p.m. applicant's local time)." (emphasis mine). Caltech Caltech lists December as its standardized testing deadline, meaning you can take the December ACT or SAT at the latest. Applications are due by January 3 for regular decision. Cornell Everything has to be submitted by January 2 for Regular Admission for Cornell, which means your last-chance test dates for the SAT/ACT are in December. Dartmouth At Dartmouth, because the regular decision deadline is January 2, the last possible SAT/ACT test dates for regular admission are in December. Duke Although Duke's last test date is December for both the ACT and SAT, the school will accept ACT scores from the February test date and consider them as additional scores in your application file. The regular decision deadline is January 2. Georgetown Georgetown's deadline is slightly later in January than those of many other top schools: "Regular Decision applicants should have all application materials postmarked by January 10" (emphasis mine). The December ACT and SAT are still the last test dates whose scores will arrive before the deadline. Harvard There are two regular decision deadlines at Harvard: December 15 (the preferred deadline) and January 1 (the final deadline). Harvard states on its admissions website, "Although it is possible to submit scores from tests taken as late as the December SAT and the February ACT, we recommend that you submit testing as early as possible" (emphasis mine). However, the school also says, "Scores submitted before the end of November will allow us to begin our evaluation process for those submitting applications by December 15." So even though you can submit scores from December tests, the earlier you submit, the better! MIT At MIT, most parts of the application are due by January 1. Therefore, "you must take the required tests on or before the November test date for Early Action or the December test date for Regular Action. These are the latest scores that will reach the Admissions Committee in time for review." Northwestern Since the application deadline for regular decision is January 2, the latest tests you can take for Northwestern are the December ACT or SAT. Princeton As the deadline for regular decision is January 1, "regular decision applicants must complete all SAT testing by the December test date. All ACT testing must be completed by the December test date." Stanford For the regular admission deadline on January 2, Stanford's last test date is in December for both the ACT and SAT. University of Pennsylvania According to Penn's admissions website, the regular decision deadline is January 5, meaning the last test dates accepted are those in December for both the SAT and ACT. Vanderbilt Vanderbilt's website states the following: "For students applying under Early Decision II or Regular Decision (submission deadline January 1), the last opportunity to take the exam is the December administration" (emphasis mine). Washington University in Saint Louis "The last test date accepted will be the December testing," writes the WUSTL website. So at the latest, you can take the December SAT or ACT for Regular Decision (deadline January 2), or the October SAT or ACT for Early Decision (deadline November 1). Williams College You have to take the ACT or SAT by December for it to be added to your file at Williams in time for the January 1 regular decision deadline. These next schools let you take an even later test- the February ACT! Schools That Accept Testing Through February Some top schools have even later testing deadlines and will accept the early February ACT. Again, these schools are in the minority, so do your best to complete your testing much earlier than February of your senior year! Columbia According to the Columbia Admissions FAQ, "Scores for February tests can be provided in time for consideration. Testing taken after February cannot be considered." Note that although the regular application deadline is January 1, Columbia is willing to accept scores from as late as February. University of Chicago UChicago says that it will accept January SAT scores and February ACT scores. However, since there is no longer a January SAT test date (it was replaced by the August date), your last possible SAT test date is actually the one in December. You'll still have the February ACT, though. The deadline for regular decision is January 2. Yale The last testing dates Yale will accept are the December SAT and the February ACT. Applications for regular decision are due by January 2. How to Look Up the Last ACT/SAT Date for Any School We couldn't include the final SAT/ACT date for every single college in the country! Use this guide to learn how to look this info up anywhere you're applying. First, search "[School Name] regular decision deadline" on Google. I'm searching for Wellesley College's last possible SAT and ACT dates. The first link, "Decision Plans and Deadlines," looks promising, so I'll start there. This search should pull up the page on the school's admissions site with regular decision dates and deadlines. The admissions page will typically list the last SAT/ACT dates a school will accept for consideration. For Wellesley, the first link I found led to the following page with info about regular decision dates and deadlines, including for standardized tests: For the regular decision deadline of January 15, Wellesley lists the last possible test dates for the SAT or ACT as "December of your senior year." If you're looking up a school and can't find a deadline page that lists SAT/ACT dates, check its FAQ page- there's often a question there about SAT/ACT testing. Look for questions such as "When is the latest I can take the SAT/ACT?" and "How long does it take for SAT/ACT scores to arrive?" If there's no info about the last ACT/SAT dates on either your school's deadlines page or FAQ page (which is unlikely!), call the admissions office and ask about the last test date you can sign up for if applying regular decision. Key Takeaways: The Last Test Dates for Regular Admissions Most schools have regular decision admissions deadlines on or around January 1. These deadlines vary slightly depending on the school and can be as early as mid-December or as late as mid-January. As a result, usually your absolute last chance to take the SAT or ACT is in December; however, it's advisable to opt for an earlier test date, if possible. If you decide to take the December test, be sure to choose your score recipients as you register for the test. This ensures that your scores will arrive at your schools before the January deadline. While results from a December test should arrive in time, it's best to take the SAT/ACT as early as possible- typically starting in the fall of your junior year. This way you have plenty of time to retake the test should you want to get a higher score. What's Next? Read more about optimizing your ACT and SAT test dates for your senior fall schedule. How high does your ACT/SAT score need to be for your top school? Find out what number you should be aiming for to make sure you're on track for admission. Still have to make serious changes to improve your SAT/ACT scores? Get top strategies for each section with our individualized guides to SAT Reading, Writing, and Math, as well as ACT English, Math, Reading, and Science. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT and ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160+ points or your ACT score by 4+ points. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The purpose and usefulness of standard audit report Essay

The purpose and usefulness of standard audit report - Essay Example Normally, audit reports presents the external review of the financial information of a company, conducted by an accounting firm and shareholders use it in assessing the financial health of a company. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in UK recommended for the enhancement of the responsibilities in financial reporting for the audit committees through publicizing of expanded reports. The auditor reporting entails coordinated structure that leverages the resources by IAASB (Boeckman et al. 2013, p. 76). A standard report summarizes an audit by the public accounting firm about the liquidity strength of a company. Auditing process entails comparison of the findings to internal audits to identify any discrepancies or errors involved therewith. When the audit is clean, standard audit report results. The standard audit report is the most used audit report, and it ensures that companies do not defraud the investors. Failure of the audit reports to conform to the acceptable standards in ac counting creates apprehension amongst the shareholders of the company (Boeckman et al. 2013, p. 77). The corporate finance statements and other investors express the concerns on the usefulness of standard audit reports (SAR). ... Three types of audit reports issued by auditors include the qualified, unqualified and adverse. Qualified opinions indicate the violation of accounting standards; adverse report shows shortcomings of the company; while unqualified opinion shows not-material misstatements. Audit reports are beneficial to a company. Standard audit report indicates issuance of non-qualified opinion based on the financial information of a company. This allows for extension of business by seeking outside investment to enhance future operations (Carcello 2012, p. 22). Furthermore, standard audit reports entail warnings. Adverse or qualified audit opinions subject the company to further audits resulting in negative goodwill to the outside investors. Companies also experience regulatory fines from the government agencies due to misleading the public on the financial health of the company. Standard audit reports also contain the expert insight. The accounting firms issue information to companies and auditors on acceptable auditing standards (Carcello 2012, p. 24). Standard Audit Report (SAR) SAR changed insignificantly over the last 60 years. Audit reports had not changed prior to 1988 Statements on Auditing Standards (SAS). There were significant changes made on the audit report by the financial statements. Professions tried making changes in 1965, and SAS incorporated introductory, opinion and scope changes in the third paragraph. The changes enhanced the usefulness of the audit report by giving a comprehensive definition of audit, as well as maintaining effective communication of management responsibilities, and the auditor in order to reduce SASs expectation gap. The main objective of SAR is to enhance credibility of the financial statements by the

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Causes and effects of Homeless Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Causes and effects of Homeless - Research Paper Example The author states that poverty plays the biggest role in rendering people homeless. This is because poverty and homelessness inextricably link. Agreeably, poor people face substantially hard times when paying for their house rent, food, education, child care, and health care among other things (Andersen & Taylor, 2010). Note that, one must make difficult choices especially when limited resources have to cover a number of these necessities. In most cases, according to experts, many people tend to opt for other things instead of housing since housing absorbs much of most individuals’ earnings (Levinson, 2004). A research carried out in 2007by the US Bureau of the Census 2007 found out that 12.5 percent (37.3 million) of the US population lived in poverty. The Bureau asserted that the 2007 findings were not statistically different from those of 2006 in any way (Ravenhill, 2008). Further studies on this subject indicated that increased erosion of employment opportunities for the l arger segment of the American workforce and the declined availability and value of public assistance are the two major contributing factors accounting to increased poverty. Advocates for homeless maintain that violence in homes is a factor contributing to homelessness, particularly in women with children. Facts about the homeless point out that almost half of all homeless youths and adult women with children experienced domestic violence prior to fleeing their homes (Andersen & Taylor, 2010). Nationally, studies reveal that most people who are now homeless could not withstand the kind of physical abuse they experienced in their homes and as such, they opted to run away or rather disappear from their previous settlement (Levy, 2010). Research findings from 2007 showed that of the more than 7,000 people counted during the One Night Count, over 1000 complained indicated that domestic violence is a significant element that contributed to their state of homelessness.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Marketing Ethics at Apple Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing Ethics at Apple Inc - Essay Example Both of them left college without graduating in order to launch their dream company. Owing to the fact that they did not have enough capital to buy offices, they started by working out in a garage. The idea that there were two young people who so believed in what they were able to create that they even left university to do it is what inspires so many people about Apple. Steve Jobs is still viewed by many as the genius who literally inspired many people to begin to love computers. Jobs was behind Apple’s first technological marvels such as Macintosh, Apple brand, and Power Mac computers (Lashinsky 2012). Apple Computer’s iconic advertisement that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl so inspired people that they actually snatched fliers from Apple’s representatives at the end of the games (Lashinsky 2012). Apple’s profile suffered a momentary lapse shortly after the success of Macintosh when Steve Jobs left the company after a power struggle (O'Grady 2009). His return, more than 10 years later, marked another period of prosperity for Apple. People began to associate Apple’s success with Steve Jobs. In 2001, Apple launched the Apple iPod. The ingenuity of this device had other electronics companies scrambling and trying to produce duplicates of it that had more operations than Apple’s model. None, though, was considered by the public to be as good as the original. Many attribute Apple’s success to the extraordinary crea tivity of its late CEO Steve Jobs. When he succumbed to cancer in 2011, many technology experts were convinced that Apple would never be able to find another like him. Good Marketing Ethics at Apple Inc. Throughout its existence, Apple has tried to make sure that its workers always exhibit the appropriate conduct in all circumstances. It believes that it owes its success to the creation of high-quality and innovative products as well as the demonstration of uprightness in every business transaction (Shaw 2003). Apple holds that respect, honesty, compliance and confidentiality are the qualities that denote business integrity (Linzmayer 2004). To include these values into its workforce, Apple has outlined a code of conduct that is observed in all its branches worldwide. It has also availed more detailed policies that concern conflict of interest, corporate governance, and rules on how to report any instances of questionable conduct (Lashinsky 2012). Furthermore, Apple offers its worke rs a Business Conduct Helpline through which they can testify on any misconduct to the corporation’s Audit and Finance team. To stress on its pledge to ensure dependable supplier conduct, Apple issues a yearly Apple Supplier Responsibility statement that clarifies its audit conclusions, supplier expectations and the remedial actions the corporation will take against foreign branches where violations have taken place (Lashinsky 2012). Apple commodities are intended to have a lengthier lifespan as the hardware is created from sturdy materials such as aluminum and recyclable glass. The operating system is created to be useful even after years of being in the market (Alas, Ennulo and Turnpuu 2006). Owing to this fact, Apple’s commodities do not have to be replaced as often as those of other electronics corporations. This leads to fewer products being consumed, and less demand put on the large-scale workforce. If demand as well as world population were to decrease, Apple ma nufactured goods would be the primary products to be ethically sustainable due to the fact that they can be created by workers who are not overburdened with work or live in cramped quarters (Lashinsky 2012).

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Delivery Of Social Work Services

The Delivery Of Social Work Services The second part of the report concentrates on to understand process of ageing. It will then assess the role and function of social work within wider socio-political policy context especially in terms of poverty and inequalities. Finally it will be demonstrated how the identified issues may inform the policy and organisational context and the points raised will be summarised in the conclusion. According to World Health Organisation, most developed world countries have accepted the age of 65 years as a definition of elderly or older person. (WHO: 2012) However, in the United Kingdom the Friendly Societies Act 1972 S7(1)(e) defines old age as, any age after fifty, where pension schemes mostly are used age 60 or 65 years for eligibility. (Scottish Government: 1972) Ageism can be defined as process of discrimination and stereotyping against people because of their age. It affects many institutions in society and has a number of dimensions such as job discrimination, loss of status, stereotyping and dehumanization. Ageism is about assuming that all older people are the same despite different life histories, needs and expectation. (Phillipson: 2011) According to Erikson (1995) psychosocial stages of life older age has been defined as the period of integrity versus despair. This stage involves the acceptance and reflection on ones life. The authors describe older people as a group of marginal concern that has moved to one of central importance in social work profession (Phillipson: 2011) This is caused by the speed of demographical change that is most remarkable in its expand. The number of older people is increasing both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total population. The ageing of the population indicates two main factors such as the downward trend in the birth rate and improvements in life expectancy. (Phillipson: 2011) In Scotland in 2010 there were an estimated 1.047 million older people age over 60, where older people are one fifth of Scottish population. (Age Scotland: 2012) In the last hundred years Scotlands life expectancy has doubled from 40 in 1900, to just over 74 for males and just over 79 for females in 2004. By 2031 the number of people aged 50+ is projected to rise by 28% and the number aged 75+ is projected to increase by 75% (All our future: 2007) It has been estimated that in the UK in 2005, 683,597 people suffered from dementia, the number is expected to triple by 2051 to 1,735,087 people. (Alzheimers research trust: 2010)The issue require to be deeply analysed in terms of how society will be able to respond effectively to the complex needs of older people. Look beneath the surface the needs and issues of older people The policy All our future (Scottish Government: 2007) indicates the age over fifty as a stage where life circumstances start to change in ways that can be significant for the future. An example of this can be; children leave home, change in working patterns, people have less work and more time for themselves and perhaps more money. It is worth pointing out that caring responsibilities for elderly relatives at this stage can also increase. The time fifty upwards is a time when physical health can deteriorate causing possible health problems such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis or coronary heart disease. What is more, the state of health after that time decrease substantially and become greater in its extend. People must face changes in appearance such as wrinkles, hair lost or change of hair colour to grey. In addition, they physical state deteriorates and they are not as fit as they used to be. Form psychological point of view this must be difficult to accept it. However, ageing can also concerns some psychological effects such as changes in memory function, decline in intellectual abilities or even memory loss. As a result of a degenerative condition of brains nerve cells or brain disorders many people may suffer dementia, Alzheimer or Parkinson disease. Wilson et al. (2008) who draws attention to physical, biological and psychological effects of the ageing, pointing out that ageing is not itself a disease but some specific diseases may be associated with this process. (Wilson: 2008) Social work underwent fundamental changes from the 1960s following broader ideological, political and economic developments. To understand the current role of social work within society and wider policy framework, particularly with older people, it is important to analyse the past socio-political and economic trends that have reflected on contemporary practice. By the 1960s, more attention was beginning to be paid to the social consequences of capitalism that started to be seen as the economic order of an unequal and unfair society. The strong critique of that system is known as radical social work that grew on the ideology of Marxism. (Howe: 2008) The publication of the Kilbrandon (1964) consequently led to introduction of Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, which embedded social work firmly within state sector with the voluntary sector as complementary. (Ferguson Woodward) Social work wanted to be seen as unified profession that offered generic services, to overcome earlier fragmenta tion and overspecialisation of services. Social workers were obligated by law to assess needs and promote social welfare by providing services. However, the government of Margaret Thatcher began to weaken state welfare responsibilities to help people in need leading to the major ideological shift in 1980s called neoliberalism. As a result Barclay Report (1982) intended to clarify the role and task of social workers employed within statutory or voluntary sector, the later Griffiths Report (1988) were similar to Barclay Report in terms of promoting greater choice, participation and independence of service user and carers. However, neoliberalism undermines the role of welfare professionals, allow the rich become richer and marginalise the poorest and most vulnerable individuals. Woodward and Ferguson (2011) argue that neoliberal trend has been continued under New labour government, leading to managerialism and bureaucratisation. Therefore, contemporary practice is drawn by extreme pres sure through the forces of marketisation, managerialism and consumerism, that led to profession dominated by stress, frustration and strongly focus on meeting deadlines. The labour government has also been driven by the development associated with consumerists ideas such as personalisation that place service user at the centre of service design and delivery or direct payments that emphasise independence and individual choice through giving service user their own money to buy own services. For a long time neoliberal economic and social policies in the UK speculated a very different concept of what social work should be about. The Changing Lives report of the 21st Century Social Work Review (Scottish Government: 2006) has brought significant shift within social work polices through an expression of dissatisfaction of social work that was mainly caused by lack of opportunity for relationship based work with service user. The policy has reshaped social work practice towards providing social workers with additional space to develop good social work practice. There have been initiatives to improve recruitment and increase professionalism and standards within workforce as well as improve integration in the planning and provision of social work services. Integration has been developed through Modernising Community Care: An Action Plan (1998) and Community Care Joint Future (2000) that introduce Single Shared Assessment (SSA). In Scotland Joint Future is the driving policy on joint working between local authorities and the NHS. The other key policy themes are personalisation, self-directed support, early intervention and prevention as well as mixed economy of care on the grounds of more effective partnership. (Scottish Parliament: 2008) Another significant report that brought about change in policy and later in Scottish legislation is the Sutherland Report (1999) that provided free personal and nursing car e on the basis of assessed needs. (Petch: 2008) The above review of social work policy framework is a good illustration of constantly changing role and function of social work. Social work operates within socio-political framework of constantly developing policies and legislation of health and social care. The reality and ideology constantly has changed people and society faceing new challenges. Social work makes a key contribution to tackle these issues by working with other agencies to deliver coordinated support and to increase the wellbeing of older people. The critical analyse of needs of older people and current issues in the delivery of social work services. The first issues when working with older people is partnership of health and social care within four main areas: assessment, care management, intermediate care and hospital discharge. (Wilson: 2008) The main problem is tight budget this is in particular importance especially in statutory setting. (Wilson: 2008) The problem increases when local authority must, as normally is a case, work in collaboration with other bodies. This raises an external question who are going to pay for services? That causes unnecessary delays and constraints. One might expect that new Integration of Adult Health and Social Care Bill (Scottish Government: 2012) will resolve problem by the joint budget and equal responsibilities of Health Boards and Local Authorities. Wilson et al. stresses the importance of rationing services in social work due to low budget that lead to delays in provision of services and lack of time to develop more creative forms of practice. The next issue is the assessment process that is seen as balance between needs and resources. A major element during assessment is the relationship with service user and appropriate methods of communication to understand and be understood. Practitioner must take the time to get know the older person and resist pressure from other professional to do a quick assessment. (Mackay: 2008) The problem of autonomy and protection is the other one in relation to work with older people. This raises the question of capacity, consent and the deprivation of liberty of older people. This group of service users is often a subject of legislation that deprives their rights and liberty, this is because they are likely to be affected by cognitive disorder such as dementia. The term dementia include Alzheimers disease, vascular and unspecified dementia, as well as dementia in other diseases such as Parkinsons. It has been estimated that in the UK the number of patients diagnosed is 821,884, representing 1.3% of the UK population. (Alzheimers research trust: 2010) The assessment of incapacity or mental disorder is not straightforward and ethically and morally difficult for both service user and social worker. Social workers have to manage the balance between acting in accordance with the wishes of the individual and their best interest. It has been suggested by policy and legislation that the views and wishes of people expressed through self-assessment would remain at the heart of intervention. (Department of Health: 2005) The another issue is abuse of older that may have many forms and can be very severe in its extend. Older people are vulnerable to abuse or to not having their rights fully respected and protected. The problem came to public awareness not as long as few years ago. Despite the fact that legislation came into force through Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 it is estimated that elder abuse affects 22,700 people in the Scotland each year. (Age Scotland: 2012) Older people are a subject of physical, psychological abuse, neglect, sexual or financial harm, that normally takes place at home, in hospital, residential care or day centre. Age discrimination is next issue to consider around 24 per cent of older adults in the UK report experiencing age discrimination. (Age Scotland: 2012) The new NHS policy that came to force 1st of October this year, states that it is unlawful for service providers, policy makers and commissioners to discriminate, victimise, or harass a person because of age. A person will be protected when requesting and being provided with services. If anybody will be treated less favourably because of their age, they will be able to take organisations or individuals to court and may be awarded compensation. This mainly relates to health boards individual clinicians such as consultants, GPs or other health professionals. (Department of Health: 2012) Older people are disadvantaged based on the relatively low socio-political and cultural status in contemporary society. They are repeatedly presents as a drain on resources as they no longer actively contribute to grow of society. They do not work and do not pay taxes anymore. Older people are systematically disadvantaged by the place they occupy within society. Wilson et al. (2008: p. 620) rightly suggests that old age is socially constructed. A good example of this is retirement that makes people officially old and unavailable to work, despite factual physical and emotional state of the individual. Other forms of social construction that significantly affect the experience of old age is class, gender, race and ethnicity. (Wilson: 2008) An illustration of this can be statement that older people have much more in common with younger people from their class then they do with older people from other classes. (Philipson: 2011) Disadvantages and inequalities experiences during life can m agnified the process of ageing through differences in access to health facilities, health status and lifestyle that may influence life expectancy. There is no doubt that experience of ageing is subjective and depends on many factors but it seems to be a matter to consider class, gender and race at first place. When discussing poverty and inequalities the things that have to be in mind are issues of discrimination of older women who are less likely to have as a great pension as male due to the fact many women are paid a lower wage then men. Moreover, women tend to live longer than men so they are more vulnerable to live alone and in poverty. (Age UK: 2012) There are many forms of disadvantage associated with older people in poverty such as; low income, low wealth and pension, debts or financial difficulties, feel worse off, financial exclusion, material deprivation and cold home. The first three are experiences by around 20% of older people, half of older people experienced at least one of the nine forms of poverty described above, and 25% had two or more. A minority 3% suffered from three or more forms of poverty. (Age UK: 2012) In terms of ethnicity and race there are significant inequalities in the process of ageing. An illustration of this can be the black community of older people who are more likely to face greater level of poverty, live in poorer housing. In addition, they are more susceptible to physical and mental illness due to often heavy manual work, racism and cultural pressures. (Phillipson: 2011) Most of older people want to say at home as long as possible this is supported by policy All Our Future (Scottish Government: 2007) that helps people through services such as free personal care, telecare development programme, care and repairs services or travel scheme free bus passes. The policy aims to improve opportunities for older people, foster better understanding towards this group of service user, create better links between generation to work together and exchange experiences, to improve health and quality of life: promote well being and active life within community, improve care support and protection, housing and transport as well as promote lifelong learning. The role of social work in working with older people is described by Marshalls text (1990) and cited by Scottish Government (2005) It has been suggested that a key issues are: communication, including sensitive listening and awareness of non-verbal communication, taking time to assess needs always in the presence of service user. Supporting people in managing crises that arise through loss or change such as bereavement, mental health issues or physical constrains like illness or disability. Offer practical help and organise resources. Working with other professionals and people involve in the process of intervention and together combat ageism. Ageing can be defined as discrimination against older people m The current trends in adults social care have began through Green paper Independence, Well-being and Choice (Department of Health: 2005) and the subsequent White Paper , Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (Department of Health: 2006) these documents set out the agenda for future. This is based on the principle that service users should be able to have greater control over their own lives, with strategies that services deliver will be more personalised than uniform, this is referred to as personalisation. Personalisation enables the individual to participate and to be actively involved in the delivery of services. Personalisation also means that people become more involved in how services are designed by shaping and selecting services to receive to support that is most suited to them (Scottish Government: 2009) Personalisation is a wide term covering a range of approaches to providing individualised services, choice and control. The programme directly response to wants and wishes of servic e user regarding service provision. Personalisation consists of person centre approach, early intervention and prevention, is based on an empowering philosophy of choice and control. It shifts power from professionals to people who use services. (Department of Health: 2010) However, it could be argued that approaches extending service user control in realty can be seen as transferring risk and responsibilities form the local authority to the individual service user (Ferguson: 2007) Another option recently promoting by government is Self Directed Support (SDS), a Bill has been introduced into the Scottish Parliament last year and recently has passed stage three. The bill seeks to introduce legislative provision for SDS and the personalisation of services and to extend the provisions relating to direct payments. (Scottish Parliament: 2012) The SDS approach before has been brought into Parliament were reflected in many reports and policy initiatives such as: Changing Lives, Reshaping Care for Older People. SDS let people to make informed choices about the way support is provided, they can have greater control over how their needs are met, and by whom. Social worker working on behalf of local authority will have a duty to offer SDS if the individual met eligibility criteria. The four options to consider are: direct payment to the individual in order that that person will arrange own support, the person chooses the available support and local authority will make arr angement for services on behalf of that person, social worker will select support and make arrangement for provision, the last option is a mix of the above options. (IRISS: 2012) There is no doubt that the ideas of SDS are glorious because express a great opportunity for service user to expand their control over services provided. However, this raises a question of how many people will be ready to utilise option one of SDS, if a ordinary person who use services will have skills and knowledge to take responsibility for own care such as to employ own carers or personal assistance and to buy own services. One could envisage that it could be possible if the role of social worker will change from care management to brokerage and advocacy. The new model of care requires also to support communication, have experience in employment practice, manage record keeping and pay roll services. A potential care broker will provide assistance to obtain and manage a support package, drawing on individ ualised funding. It can be questioned if social workers who are mostly employed by local authority and accountable to statutory agencies are reliable to perform this task working across three sectors. Service User Involvement Dalrymple and Burke (2006) discuss issues that influence contemporary social work such as social justice, empowerment, partnership and minimal intervention. The service user participation has began in 1990 through NHS and Community Care Act. (Ray, 2012) There is still increasing acceptance that people who receive services should be seen as own experts in defining their own needs. This is in accordance with exchange model of assessment presented by Smile and Tuson et al. (1993), where social worker view the individuals as experts of own problems. The role of practitioner is to help service user to organise resources in order to reach goals that are define by the service user. Government policy addressing to older people highlights the importance of developing services that focus on maintaining independence, encouraging choice and promoting autonomy such as Independent living in Scotland (2011), Reshaping Care for Older People (2011), All our Future(2007). The policies highlights the i mportance of user participation in risk management and risk taking within independent community living for older adults. One of the action enhance independent living is direct payments. This has been seen as a way of improving choice and autonomy of older people. Social workers have a moral obligation to ensure that direct payment, when offered, do in fact provide better opportunity for this group of service user to meet their needs in creative way. (Ray: 2009) One may expect that active involvement and participation in service provision will have a crucial role not only in exercise more control and choice but also in challenging social exclusion. Shaping our lives is a notional independent user network that aims to make sure the voice of older people are heard so they have equal chance in defining outcomes in social care. (Crawford Walker: 2008) It could be argued that one of the main needs of older people is the importance of active listening of this group of service user, who are often because of age ignored or disregard. This is supported by Kydd (2009) who highlights how important it is for older people to feel that they are being listened too. In social work there is constant need to evidence based practice on the grounds of empirical knowledge that guide decision making process. An example of this can be three stages of theory cycle presented by Collinwood and Davies. (2011) There is no doubt evidence based practice is important but the view undermine relationship based practice that is equally important. Rightly Wilson (2008) refers to relationship-based as a main feature of social work practice that shape the nature and purpose of the intervention. It is a unique interaction between the service user and the practitioner that help to obtain more information and define the best way of intervention. A fundamental part of working with older people is to recognise and respond to the way in which they may be marginalized. An example can be the role of social worker as advocate that seek; to provide accurate information in relation to the services the individual is entitled and to enable the person to live where she/he wants to live. (Dalrymple Burke: 2006)

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Golden House of Nero :: essays papers

The Golden House of Nero After years of fighting and civil wars, order was finally established throughout the Roman empire during the first century AD with the rule of Augustus. Peace and prosperity followed with the reign of Augustus and with the emperors that came into control after him, and it was during this time that Roman architecture began to move away from the traditional Hellenistic and Greek influences and generate its own style. It was also during this time that Rome was subjected to numerous horrendous fires that destroyed much of the city when it was under the control of the emperor Nero. Considered a tyrant and self-centered even for an aristocrat at the time, Nero became very unpopular towards the end of his reign, but not before he was able to commission the construction of a marvelous villa for himself stretching over two hundred acres in the center of Rome where the fires had destroyed most of the original buildings. Commonly called The Golden House of Nero, it was originally given the more formal name of Domus Aurea, and was and still is considered one of the most extravagant projects ever ordered by a Roman emperor to be created. The most significant and majestic feature of the Domus Aurea is the Esquiline wing, or the main palace, located about two hundred meters northeast of the Coliseum, formally known as the Flavian Amphitheater. After the fires of 104 AD, Trajan had his engineers fill in the Esquiline wing of the Domus Aurea so as to secure the elevated terrace for his Baths. By covering the Esquiline wing with earth, it was free from pillaging, fires, considerable wearing from weather, and other harmful effects over the years. Unfortunately, only a sizable fragment remains of the palace, and the original extent of the scores of rooms that have been recovered is unknown. Much can be extrapolated from these remaining bits of the structure, though, and like a puzzle, archeologist and architects have been able to piece together the scraps and come to fairly detailed conclusions. One major point that has been looked at closely but has not been completely decided upon is the original number of stories the palace contained. There are no indications of a second story beyond the two narrow staircases back in the upper north service area of the wing.