Memo to Ceo

Our goal is to inspire, engage and develop our people to unleash full potential as individuals and as an organization. The organizational components of the hospital are its governing board, administration, the nursing staff and other key personnel. Each group has primary responsibilities specific to the nature of their function. However, each group share common Interests with others and must work cooperatively on issues such as long range planning, budgeting, capital equipment acquisition, facilities design, maintenance, and quality assurance.According to Giuliani (2004) decentralization is a structure that would promote better-informed decision-making, ensure effective articulation. Additionally, decentralization encourages self-sustainability and enable greater of understanding of local needs as well as better use of local resources and growth potentials for improving productivity and increased quality of care.Being cognizant of how Select Medicals' decentralized structure function s will help to formulate effective strategies for improvement. There are crucial responsibilities In the organizing of Select Specialty. The Governing Board represents corporate leadership and ownership. The Governing Board address legal and regulatory manliness, Investments and business procedures, allowably Insurance, gulden and directing the organization, and establishing its policies and for charting its future course.Of crucial importance is the need for the governing board to ensure that specific organizational goals and philosophies are identified so that all parties have a clear understanding of why the institution exists and what goals everyone should be working toward. The Administrator is responsible for the implementation of the Board's policy in the daily operations of the hospital. While the board is primarily unconcerned with whether the hospital will do well, the administrator is responsible for how it will be achieved.Typically the administrator focuses on hiring, o rganizing and supervising personnel and staff, designing and implementing proper policies and procedures, and allocating resources efficiently. The nursing staff and other key staff are responsible for caring out the interventions prescribed by the physician according to polices and procedures designed by the Governing Board. The staff team approach works to identify all of the patient's medical conditions, devise he administrator is the liaison between the Governing Board and the rest of the organization.The identification and knowledge of Selects structure and functionality will assist in developing a strategic plan that will be in align with the vision, mission and objectives of the organization. Please feel free to contact me. Best regards, Michelle Frank References Giuliani, V. S. (2004). Decentralization of Health Care: Understanding the Relationship Between Values, Social Interaction and Health Policy. Conference Papers American Sociological Association, 1 . Dot: as_proceedin g_35637. PDF

Opposite of Loneliness

osite of loneliInterpretive essay – opposite of loneliness For every teenager, stepping into the world of adulthood somewhat gives them a different vibe and ambiance whereby they go through different stages and levels to finally be where they are today. They can never be aware of what the future holds for them but to only be prepared for every impact that might hit them along the way. Its like a test, being graded based on your performance and to distinguish whether or not you’ve achieved your success.In the article â€Å"Opposite of loneliness† by Marina Keegan, it explains about the life of a young adult who started her adulthood in Yale University. A place she had found happiness and most certainly the opposite of loneliness. Moreover, she finds herself completely attached to it as she had said in the first paragraph â€Å"What I’m grateful and thankful to have found at Yale and what I’m scared of losing when we wake up tomorrow and leave this p lace†. This phrase shows us that Yale brought out the best in her, something she fears losing and that she is actually very reluctant to have to leave.She is afraid that all her memories and experiences she has gone through would be gone once she steps out of Yale. This article shows the basic development of a young adult’s social life beginning with a simple circle of friends or a clique and the attachment that became stronger as one grow fonder of the people around her which is exactly what she faces in her experience in Yale where it was mentioned in paragraph three, â€Å"Yale is full of tiny circle we pull around ourselves†. She found that even though not everyone knows everyone, there is still unity and a sense of togetherness among the students in Yale.She also added that the experienced they shared among themselves were priceless and unforgettable and that she felt safe and loved whenever in the company of her peers during her time in Yale. This article a llows us to see that the writer begins to discover herself and learns to comprehend about life as she faces challenges along the way while being in Yale. The fear of knowing the truth or fear of not knowing at all is something every individual learns to adapt to however the word â€Å"fear† should never conquer a person as it would only demotivate ourselves instead f seeing the positive side of life just as she had mentioned in paragraph 4 â€Å"But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us. They’re apart of us† The writer starts comparing the her past and the possible future where she wished that she could wind back time and correct her past mistakes and regrets if given the chance to. It makes us realize that in life there will be scenes playing in our minds like a 1980’s classical film in which the â€Å"What if† takes place.There are times that every individual wished they could go back in time and do somethin g good for themselves or be a the chairperson of a certain society, things they never knew they had it in them or things they went through and it never crossed their mind that they actually did it which is exactly what she felt in herself, â€Å"I’ve looked back on my high school and thought: how did I do that? How did I work so hard? † Everybody would have their standards of living and expectations of succeeding however the article also makes us realize that no matter how perfectly we plan, we may not have the ending that we wished for.We can never be certain of what the future holds for us, however as life goes on, we understand that a human being tends to regret her decisions and change their minds ample of times which explains what she had mentioned in paragraph nine â€Å"If only I had majored in biology, if only I’d gotten involved in journalism as a freshman† The writer also shared uncertainties for what the future would hold for her. She starts co mparing herself to others who have accomplished more than she has. Life is all about choices and it is these choices that she is most afraid of.The writer also stated that during her time in Yale, she never had to make any life changing choices and knows she has to start doing it once she graduated and is afraid to make the wrong choices. However, she added that however our lives turned out to be, the future is uncertain and that it can be altered at any point of our life. This can be seen when she said â€Å"What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over†. At a young age especially an undergraduate student would always feel that there’s always something missing in their lives to what they’ve accomplished.However also at a young age the opportunity that lies ahead in the future is even bigger. For each expect the young adult faces in Yale University, she comes across one conclusion of her college life, lonel iness was never involved however happiness, laughter and memories are definitely words to describe it. Stages by stages this article makes us understand that we as human beings should cherish each and every moment that we have and make the best out of it. Sustain it as a memory that becomes apart of you until the very end. Yes life is not a bed of roses however there’s no harm in trying to make it an enjoyable experience and ride.

Principles of Marketing †Shoes Essay

For most women shoes are probably the most important part of the whole outfit. The shoes you wear can increase your confidence or destroy it, and you can never have enough. Companies capitalize on this idea by mostly targeting women when they are marketing their shoe products. The market for fashion forward men is growing rapidly, thus more stores are providing a lot more variety of men’s shoes as well. The shoe market is divided into three major product categories athletic shoes, casual and dress shoes, and then â€Å"boom-or-bust† novelty designs. The shoe industry is one of the more â€Å"mature† industries, meaning that it has passed the emerging and growth stages and the sales are slower and more constant. The average woman owns 17 pairs of shoes. Women make up 25% out of the 40% casual/dress shoes segment, while the remaining 15% of it belongs to men. In order for a company, to retain its old customers and attract new customers, they must continually offer better and bolder shoes. The taste of shoe buyers changes often, and so the retailers must improve their shoes. The improvements in an athletic shoe would focus on comfort and performance enhancement. The dress and casual shoes would rely on the fashion-forwardness and the superior products and novelty designs focus on improving profitability. The whole shoe industry has to be able to adapt to change and with the electronic era here. The biggest change the industry probably has to make is moving to an e-business adjusting a company’s sales to stay the same and even increase, while keeping up with the technology and trends at the same time. That could mean expanding internet sales and closing down low performing stores or just marketing their online segments harder. The Designer Shoe Warehouse, more formally known as DSW, opened in 1969 and over the years has become a â€Å"leading branded footwear and accessories retailer†. DSW offers a wide range of brand name shoes and sneakers for men women kids as well accessories. Their strengths rely in the distinctive and convenient store layout as well as the prices offered to customers. Some shoes at DSW are offered at lower prices than in other stores. DSW is a warehouse with rows upon rows of shoes. The possibilities seem endless. They carry lots of different brands and styles so everyone can find something that they like. The company has 364 stores in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as 346 leased departments for other retailers in the US. Not only does DSW have a whole bunch of traditional brick and mortar store locations, there are two websites. There is a product site where you can purchase shoes and accessories, and there is an investor relations site where you can find information about the company, press releases, SEC filings, and stock information since it is a publicly traded company. DSW became public in 2005. One effort in retaining customers would be their rewards system. To become a member is free of charge and you receive reward certificates after every 1,500 points earned. There are special deals and offers that are available to members only, such as, double-point shopping days twice a year, birthday certificates, and tracking purchases. And if you want to, you could upgrade your membership to the Premier Rewards status; for a small price. But, the Premier Reward members get all the perks, such as free next day shipping, triple-point days twice a year and access to events and offers that are just exclusively for them. The product website has an easy layout for customers divided into categories and sub categories. When a customer is in the process of looking for a shoe to purchase there are many great features included to help along the way. Such as full product detail that includes a colorful description of the shoe, the materials the shoe is made out of, and the dimensions. The customer can see ratings other people give the shoe such as duration, width, and comfort. There are also indications on the site that are more specific to feet preferences. Options such as choosing whether you want the shoe to come in a wide or narrow, the different colors and sizes available are given to the customer as well as, compare prices to show you how much you can save on a particular shoe. These details help the customers find a shoe that is the best for them. ALDO is a private company that is deeply rooted in culture, tradition, and service to others. Their mission is to deliver Total Customer Service, and make people feel good through the products that they provide. Similar to DSW, ALDO sells shoes and accessories to men and women. ALDO stores are found all over the world in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and 60 other countries. ALDO’s success relies on its ability to be fashion forward and globally conscious. This company is big on giving back and the employees participate in community service events, fundraisers and causes. One big cause ALDO participates in is the fight against AIDS. They have been involved with the fight since 1985 but in 2005 the ALDO Group launched campaign called ALDO fights AIDS that has been spreading awareness and raising money for a cure by using talented and known celebrities and media genres to donate as well as promote it. Something that differentiates ALDO’s website is that they have a ‘Trends’ tab on their website that describes the looks, or styles they represent and has a gallery of pictures to show how they would dress while wearing the shoes. To make it easier for the customer, they have a section on the website that has the top pic ks for both men and women. When thinking about purchasing a pair of shoes from ALDO there are many helpful things such as videos to teach you about the style of the shoes, colors available, a full written description of the material of the outside of the shoe and what the soles made of and a size guide with US and European sizes since their shoes vary in the sizes offered. The website also provides recommendations on what else you may like according to their beliefs. ALDO offers free returns and fast delivery. There is a new age among us where shoe stores don’t have to actually have a building, but only a space online to sell and showcase shoes. Zappos is one of those stores. Zappos was founded in 1999 at the peak of the internet boom because the founder Nick Swinmurn was dissatisfied with the shoe market. No one retailer had everything that he was looking for. The vision for the company is to have the best service and best selection online and they are living the vision, and have been evolving with the market for the past 9 years. Zappos has been called the Amazon of shoes. Even though the company does not have traditional brick and mortar stores they do have a warehouse that houses all of the shoes that they make available for sale. Zappos is a family that is made up of different members that do different things. The first member is Zappos.com, Inc. which has the facilities, finance Treasury and Accounting departments, the Help Desk , Human Resources, etc. The next member of the family is Zappos CLT which takes calls, emails and chat live with customers. Zappos Development is responsible for content, creativity and marketing. Zappos Gift Cards sells gift cards. Zappos Insights provides insight into the company culture and mentors people on Zappos Family culture. Zappos IP is comprised of development and the Project Management Team. Zappos Merchandising develops relationships with the vendors and purchase the products on the site. Zappos Retail consists of clothing and apparel to help with retail therapy. And the last member of the family is 6pm.com, LLC, this site sells shoes, clothing, bags, and accessories at discount prices. The Zappos Family has ten core values that they live and abide by in order to grow strong and fulfill their goal to have the best service and best selection online. When on the Zappos website it is extremely easy to navigate through the pages. There are many categories and sub categories to choose from and the selections under them are endless. Zappos currently houses 1,140 different brands of shoes clothing and accessories with the goal and plan on increasing that number. They sell merchandise from Crooks and Castles which sells hip clothing to Giuseppe Zanotti which sells expensive high fashion shoes, heels, boots, and sandals. A newer, all internet company is Just Fabulous or JustFab.com. This company is led by, fashion icon and owner of Baby Phat, Kimora Lee Simmons. JustFab keeps its members and customers up-to-date with fashion trends and styles. This company is differentiated because when you first sign up for JustFab, you take a style quiz about the different styles and looks you like. And every month your own style experts pick out items that they think you will like, and adds them to your boutique. There is a VIP membership, where members pay $39.95 for everything on the site and receive free shipping and returns. There is no obligation to pay but each month you must browse your boutique by the 5th or else you will be charged the $39.95. It is very important for a company to differentiate itself from others. Differentiation is key to getting and retaining customers, whether the differentiation comes from customer service, brand style, membership perks, etc. The companies selected all have things that differentiate them from each other, most of them relying on their rewards programs and customer service. DSW and Zappos pride themselves on having a wide range and variety of shoes, accessories, and clothing. They both try to be a â€Å"one-stop-shop† getting all of your needs fulfilled in one place. I think the personalized stylist in the JustFab Company is a brilliant idea because it is a form of interactive marketing. They are increasing relationships between the customer and the company. The only critique of JustFab is in the variety and styles. Most of the shoes and clothes they sell look cheap and ugly, but that is the price to pay when you are only spending about $40.00 for a pair of shoes, when they can run from $60-$200 for a good pair, or even more. ALDO has a strong sense of community and the products are extremely stylish. The AIDS campaign is also a good sense of social responsibility that increases the goodwill of the company. Out of all the companies the best and most effective business model and presence would have to be Zappos’s. The Zappos Family established a set of goals in the beginning and have been working toward them ever since. They live, work, and thrive by their ten Zappos Family Core Values. They are constantly working on growing the company and offering more brands to sell. The prices are good because they give sales on different shoes periodically. One thing I would do to better the company would implement a â€Å"boutique† just like in JustFab because all the variety it can be a little overwhelming at times. Websites Used http://www.dsw.com/ http://investors.dswshoe.com/ http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/culture http://www.justfab.com/how-justfab-works.htm http://about.zappos.com/ http://www.statisticbrain.com/footwear-industry-statistics/ http://www.investopedia.com/terms/ http://articles.philly.com/2011-10-18/entertainment/30292867_1_shoes-foot-pain-women http://www.valueline.com/Stocks/Industry_Report.aspx?id=7259

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 172

Assignment Example These morals and values in some instances may conflict with my personal values and morals, in such cases it will require I adhere to the codes of ethics governing my profession. An example situation where my morals and personal values may contradict with my client’s personal values and morals is whereby I encounter a gay client. In a similar case, it may happen that I encounter a drug addict who tends to behave in an irrational manner and in most cases; he has a high chance of getting out of control and becoming violent. On a personal point of view, I may not be okay with the client’s morals and personal values however; I still have to understand that the client’s welfare is primary. I will also have to observe counselor’s codes of conduct and behave professional manner (NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals, 2011). I will also have to attend the clients and ensure I help them or if I am unable to then I should not cause them any harm both mentally and physically. For the client who is a drug addict this challenge may serve as a driving force to help him change for the better as I would exert more effort in helping him. The key factor is to understand that as a professional counselor I should acknowledge my personal weaknesses and try to control them so that they do not affect my

BSc Criminology - Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem Essay

BSc Criminology - Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem - Essay Example It is useful to compare the trends in the data series. For example both charts give property crime the largest section (78 and 75 percent respectively). Looking at Tale 4.06 women are more likely to be attacked than men and younger women are more vulnerable than any other group. Overall non-married persons are more likely to be victims than married persons. To a certain extent identifying persons who are socialising outside the home as being more at risk is nonsense, since if one is attacked inside the home that becomes a burglary. It would also be useful to know how many victims actually knew who the perpetrator was. On the figures given here one would assume that most crime is anonymous and yet we know this is not statistically true. Further, there is no breakdown by gender and we must ask the question are women more likely to be attacked whilst under the influence of alcohol or are they simply more likely to be victims of this type of crime regardless of sobriety? Whilst the survey states that people who had left the house for less than three hours a day were significantly less likely to have been victimised this actually tells us very little. As one ages one has fewer reasons to be away from home for extended periods of time. As noted earlier, if one is attacked in one’s home the name of the crime changes. The survey indicates that marital status affects the risk of being a victim of theft from the person. That is hardly surprising given that the majority of persons in England are beneath marriageable age and it is the non-marrieds who are more likely to have the time and spending power to be out socialising in urban areas. It is also more likely to be a reflection of the fact that 2 out of every 3 marriages in England/Wales end in divorce. The immediate difficulty with data presented in the format of Figure 6.3 is that it actually makes it difficult to determine what one is seeing. For example we are asked to view the data by

Effects of Technology in Administrative Office Systems Essay

Effects of Technology in Administrative Office Systems - Essay Example Technology has been a source of ease and comfort for man but along with innumerable advantages, it has bought with it certain drawbacks as well. Excessive dependence upon technology and its practically implemented turnaround such as Smartphone, the Internet and tablet PCs has shown signs of certain disadvantages that may have long-lasting effects if not addressed timely. Since connectivity to the internet is not an issue anymore it is possible to access both personal and office related work via the internet just about any time during the day. All one needs to do is to log into the internet and begin to access your work while even sitting at your home.For some people this may seem like a precious facility but the fact is that excessive usage of this facility is leading to personality disorders among individuals. Writing in the New York Times author Tara Parker-Pope maintains that," Typically, the concern about our dependence on technology is that it detracts from our time with family and friends in the real world. ... It may be that the immediacy of the Internet, the efficiency of the iPhone ..."It is vital to state here that though it is important to make use of technology throughout the day this usage should be constrained and should not affect the personal responsibilities of an individual. Tara Parker-Pope also emphasizes in her article that excessive dependence upon technology emerges like a disease that needs to be treated just like any other psychological disorder. Not only does this dependence make a person negligent of his responsibilities towards himself and his family he may even turn out to become beholders of virtual personalities which are entirely different from their own individual existence. This war of an individual with his own self is mainly overcome by the virtual self leading to devastating effects in the days to come. While technology has begun to have adverse affects upon the personalities of individuals, the core advantages that it has bought to the human society greatly outweigh drawbacks associated with it. Administrative Offices have many organizational and managerial tasks at hand. It is imperative that their details be discussed in order to narrate the changes that would be bought with the fusion of technology in them. For a conventional office system administrative tasks may merely be as simple as the maintenance of records of the employees working for an organization and the maintenance and generation of their payroll, regularly, on a monthly basis to the strategic tasks as those involving major business decision making. A number of tasks that may be assisted greatly by the infusion of technology are: Recording and Managing of Organizational data. Maintenance of records of purchases, products and merchandise. Business related human interactions. Accounting. Communications in business. Organization in business. Correspondence and Collaboration. Strategic Decision Making. Managing of administrative knowledge, in a knowledgeable manner is the key to betterment in the implementation of these processes. Shannak (2010) researched the effect of managing knowledge upon administrative decision making and quotes the following as part of his research, "Knowledge Management is a technique that seeks to improve the performance of individuals and organizations by making use of the present and future value of knowledge assets. It is presumed that the performance will be improved by

The Responsibilities of Nurse managers Assignment

The Responsibilities of Nurse managers - Assignment Example Nurse empowerment also minimizes chances of employee burnout, being strained by work and, experiencing feelings of frustration and failure. Empowered nurses are not only motivated but also motivate other healthcare professionals by sharing the power tools and nurse managers should encourage this. Nurse empowerment can be used to build respect and trust in the workplace. The enhanced workplace aspects positively influence the behaviors and attitudes of nurses to a great extent because empowering workplaces increase feelings of organizational respect, justice and trust in management. This also encourages positive relationships with superiors, subordinates and peers within the workplace leading to the establishment of effective alliances. Nurse managers should, therefore, ensure the administration organizational justice through fair organizational processes and making of rational decisions, interpersonal justice through treatment of individuals with respect and dignity and, informationa l justice through the provision of quality and timely information. Nurse empowerment also increases autonomy among nurses which encourages them to bring out their special talents and apply them to improve the ways of accomplishing tasks in the workplace. Nurse managers should encourage and allow the expression of talents among nurses. Evaluation of staff retention tactics Good pay is a nice staff retention tactic. However, employees are not just concerned with salary. Instead, they seek for continual career advancement and learning opportunities. Nurse managers should, therefore, focus on paths to nurse advancement by understanding what is important for them in terms of their professional lives, and help them design their work and learning around that. They should also develop clear career paths for each nurse and help them set career goals frequently. Organizational credibility, employee treatment and work conditions are also very critical. Nurse managers should, therefore, ensure the provision of good work conditions, treat nurses as individuals, and advocate for the fulfillment of organizational pledges to employees. The ability to adjust to an organization is important thus nurse managers should ensure a smooth on board experience to assist new nurses adjust to the organization and become productive more quickly. Judgment of the importance of communication Effective and sufficient communication in nursing is important. It facilitates timely two way delivery of information between nurses, their superiors, patients and co-workers. It also allows nurses to obtain information from the patients, give them information and act as an effective liaison between the patient and the doctor. Nurse managers should, therefore, ensure the development of and assess communication skills among all nurses to ensure nurses are competent in giving and receiving information. This encompasses spoken language, proximity, eye-contact and therapeutic relationship and spatial awarene ss. Nurse managers should also note the things that can cause communication breakdown and plan to counter them, for example improper shift change among nurses, lack of trust, and conflict among nurses among others. They should also create an environment of confidence. Comparing challenges in the management of generational issues Today’

Are We Ready for Another Catastrophe Research Paper

Are We Ready for Another Catastrophe - Research Paper Example On the federal level, government agency reports by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and CDC (Centers for Disease and Control Prevention) will be examined by looking at decisive changes on emergency response and preparedness. On the State level, emergency management in disaster prone areas such as Florida, Texas, New York, and Mississippi will also be looked upon. Lastly, on the local level, steps taken by the community to prepare itself for major catastrophe will be examined. According to Perry & Lindell (2003), emergency preparedness refers to the readiness of a political jurisdiction to react constructively to threats from the environment in a way that minimizes the negative consequences of impact for the health and safety of the individuals and the integrity and functioning of physical structures and systems1. However, this definition does not encompass the entire scope of disasters that we face in modern society. Among these catastrophes are nuclear power plant emergencies, cyber terrorism, bio terrorism, and other man-made disasters. As such, a broader definition was provided by Nursing Clinics of America on its issue on Disaster Management and Response (2005), stating that emergency preparedness is the â€Å"comprehensive knowledge, skills, abilities and actions needed to prepare for and respond to threatened, actual, or suspected chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive incidents, man-made incidents, natural disasters or other related events.†

The Role of Power and Politics in Organizations Assignment

The Role of Power and Politics in Organizations - Assignment Example The company that I am going to focus on is called Procter&Gamble. This company was set up a bit more than 180 years ago. The company operates in more than 190 countries and it is planning to expand its performance. Being such a giant in the world of washing powders and cosmetic utilities, the company should meet certain high requirements both in the public and inner policy of the company. The purpose of the company sounds as â€Å"to provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. As a result, consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders and the communities in which we live and work to prosper† (http://www.pg.com). Having a purpose signifies about the planned strategy and policy of the company. Moreover, the company has the clearly-stated vision and strategy. The feedback from the customers is greatly a ppreciated since it adds to the improvement of the company. P&G claims it is striving for the life quality improvement but not for its income. The company has worked out the program of introducing environmentally friendly products. The policy of the company is based on the rule â€Å"to create the prosperous company from within it†. It implies the profound staff and management policy. The general goal of the company is to improve the life of every customer and to make him/her loyal to the company. The major elements of any organizational culture, such as purpose, values and goals, originate with the company formation and they are maintained and are to be transferred to the next generations. The growth strategy that the company of P&G sticks to means attracting new customers every day and making their life more meaningful. â€Å"Our Values reflect the behaviors that shape the tone of how we work with each other and with our partners†( P&G Must Proceed With Caution). Pro cter&Gamble has many principles that it demands from its staff and management. First of all it takes care about respect to each individual -no matter weather it is a customer, a manager or a potential buyer. The organization is indivisible from the people working for the organization and those people who keep it on float. The customers’ needs and demands are the top priority for the organization. The whole functioning of the company is strategically planned and worked out. Certainly, there are some cases, when a company has to act spontaneously in certain circumstances, but in general in has the plan of its development, operation and marketing. The next principle that is of great importance for any company is the one about innovations. Bringing in innovations is the main engine of the company’s development. Innovations are accepted both in the sphere of the product quality and in the sphere of advertising ad merchandising. The next point deals with competition – the company wants to be the best in its field. The only way to win the competition is to gain the customers’ loyalty and work on constant improvement of the company’s performance. Moreover, the company is focused not internally but externally. It means that the feedback with the customers is the dominant element for it. It cannot be said that the managerial system, and corporate culture is ignored - it is just not as important as knowing

The Great Wall China Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Great Wall China - Research Paper Example It is a truly captivating site. The Great Wall was never intended to stand as a testament of art or the grandeur of architecture, it served a far more simpler and practical purpose. Yet, all the same it is remarked as one of the greatest architectural feats of human history, like the pyramids at Giza and the city of Machu Pichu; and remains so today. It is still worthy of further research and discussion. History There is a myth that has become truly intertwined with the legend of the Great Wall of China. The myth tells the story of the wall as one great single undertaking, spanning, decades, of continuous building. However, this is, simply, not the case. The wall was built in different sections, in different locations, ultimately linked, throughout the years. ("Chinese Heritage Quarterly" 1) It is Qin Shih Huang, or the First Emperor, who is credited with conceiving of the idea to create a wall of immense length and strength that would prevent the invasion of the threatening Huns. Ho wever, many scholars today acknowledge that there are portions of the wall that may date back to smaller construction efforts that predates the rule of Qin Shih Huang. All the same the greatest portions were inspired by his intention to protect China from outsiders. There were, in fact, several Chinese Dynasties that contributed to the Wall, the Qi, the Wei, and the Zhao, however, it is three dynasties that are attributed with the greatest contributions. Qin Dynasty Again, Qin Shih Huang is responsible for the many of the oldest parts of the Great Wall. He foresaw the Wall as a fortification to protect the country from Hun invaders, as well as, ensure the rule of his descendents and future emperors who will take power after him. As one can see in the photograph these older sections of the wall have are formed of simple, natural materials, and are bit worse for wear in some sections. However, Qin, despite all of the innovations he brought during his rule, book printing and road build ing, but much of his rule was considered harsh and, even, cruel. The use of force to maintain work on the wall, along with a number of other sources of social unrest, resulted in a rebellion that ended his dynasty just after his death ("Chinese Heritage Quarterly" 1). Han Dynasty The Han Dynasty, regarded as one of the most powerful of Chinese dynasties, also, feared invasion from Hun Forces. This diplomatic rule attempted to make peace with by offering trade and economic incentives. However, this had little success and the Chinese resorted to a few offensive battles, but they became too costly to finance. The Han focused on adding to portions of the Great Wall, again as a defense, but this time it moved west toward the Gobi Desert; the intention being to protect the Silk Roads that were so essential to the empires economy ("The Great Wall of China"). As can be seen in the photograph, there is distinct difference in style and coloring of the stones in comparison between the Qin and the Han contributions; the Hans stones are darker and red Ming Dynasty The Ming Dynasty is credited with being the most prolific contributor to the building of the Great Wall. In fact, the majority of the wall that we are familiar with today is remnants of the works of this dynasty added between the years of 1368-1644 C.E. The Ming

Thomas Malthus Thomas Jefferson Essay Example for Free

Thomas Malthus Thomas Jefferson Essay Thomas Malthus is popular for his Malthusian theory of population where he presents a mathematical perspective to express his ideology about population. To him, the population grows at a geometric rate while the food supply grows at an arithmetic progression and the resultant effect of this is that the population would out do the food supply. Consequently there would be increased rates of starvation and extreme poverty. Although he was aware of technological advancement he did not appreciate the fact that it would have a significant effect on the food production and hence the adverse effects of population growth would not be felt. He argues that the population would be checked by natural calamities like drought, war, famine as well as moral restraint where some people may not get married or others would delay marriage to bear few children. He also cited high infant mortality rates as a means of controlling the population.   Although many dismissed his theory citing it as one full of pessimism, Thomas Jefferson partly supported it. To him, it would best explain the European situation but not the American state. It is actually true the American land was very vast that it would accommodate many people. Population growth would consequently be seen as a means of ensuring that the unoccupied lands were utilized. (Faragher J, 2002). If the Americans worked hard to increase labor effectiveness then the food supply would be adequate for the increasing population. He argued that both the food supply and the population would increase at a geometric progression and hence no cause for alarm.   Thomas Jefferson did not seem to favor industrialization and advocated for increased agriculture. He distinguished Europe and America where he was quick to note that Europe had abundant labor and if it utilized its land to the optimal it would be able to overcome the adverse effects of population growth. (Wood J, 1994). To him, Europe should aim at maximizing its labor potential. He further argued that the European political economy was in a manner that needed to be changed as it was exploitative and to this respect he favored the democratic American population. Population policies did not exist to control the population but natural means favored it. It is important to note that immigrants were excluded but this was not due to economic reasons but due to racial as well as religious reasons. (Wood J, 1994).   He explained how the European population had doubled in a span of 23-24 years which is equivalent to a 3% increase per annum making it necessary to retain the previous reserves as they would be needed by the increasing population. However, for the American case he argues that population growth would be a mechanism of ensuring that vacant lands were occupied. (Wood J, 1994).   Ã‚  I think that both Malthus and Jefferson had a misconception regarding population growth and food supply. They underrated people’s innovation abilities. The theory was based on historical data and consequently a way of explaining historical trends and hence ineffective in explaining future population trends. It is inappropriate to justify the applicability of the theory because Europe population seemed to be increasing in a regular pattern. The linear or rather arithmetic progression of food supply was not based on experimentation but rather on convenient assumptions. (West B and Deering W, 1995). Population does not seem to increase exponentially as they both argued. In fact in the face of industrialization people tend to concentrate more in improving the quality of life rather than the population size. Again, the notion that population growth and food supply being independent on each other is also wrong. Malthusian theory does not bear any truth in today’s society as people’s birth rates have declined. A major advantage of increased physical mobility in the American society is that it ensured the provision of labor in areas where it is demanded and this was vital in the industrialization process. The physical mobility is also vital as it ensures the transfer of technological know how which is very significant in economic growth.   (Bergsten F, 2005). Social evils like crime and prostitution are bound to rise due to increased mobility. The political organization must also be affected as with time some immigrants become permanent citizens and have to air their views which is not necessarily the wish of the natives. Discrimination also emerged especially against the immigrants and this led to the rise of classes. The immigrants recorded lower living standards as compared to the natives. (Bergsten F, 2005). References: John MacK Faragher 2002. Out of Many: A History of the American People, 4th ed. Prentice Hall Publisher. Fred Bergsten. 2005. The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the immigrants. Peterson Institute Publishers.   Bruce West and William Deering. 1995. The Lure of Modern Science: Fractal Thinking World Scientific Science Publishers. John Cunningham Wood. 1994. Thomas Robert Malthus: Critical Assessments. Routledge Publishers.

The Inspector in An Inspector Calls Essay Example for Free

The Inspector in An Inspector Calls Essay The play was written in 1945 but surprisingly, J. B. Priestley decided to set it in 1912, as capitalism is the strongest before the war and poor people have to rely on charities; due to the class system. Priestley is trying to convey to the audience a message that we are all equal and we have to look after each other in order to survive. He gave us a clue before he departed, he said if we dont learn it now, we will have to learn it in fire, blood and anguish. This is a hint to us for what is going to happen in the future, this is also dramatic irony as we knew the fire and blood is from the soon coming war. Dramatic Irony is also used again when Mr Birling said the Titanic she sails next week forty six thousand eight hundred tons forty six thousand eight hundred tons New York in five days and every luxury and unsinkable The truth is the Titanic has sinked, and as a audience we know this whilst the narrator or the characters dont. Also, by repeating the weight of the ship we can interpret that Mr Birling is extremely proud of his country and this new ship, during that time, this is common as many people are nationalists then. In 1945, much of the capitalism and class discrimination has gone because of the war, and because we know this its emphasis the proud and great feeling Mr Birling has for his country. The play begins as a simple and thrilling detective play, but it unfolds eventually. Due to the crimes and the responsibility the characters learnt to take, the plays unfolds into a mortality play and teaches us something. This is the struggle of Good and Evil. The Inspector reflects Priestleys ideas and thoughts and voice them out, Priestly himself is a socialist even before he has fought in the two major world wars and realises the importance of everyone and life. At the end of the play, the Inspectors final comment warns Mr Birling,because of his nature, the Inspector wanted him to change and to respect everyone and treat them equally. The name Goole Inspector Goole sounds mysterious and a bit sinister, this is supported by the fact he seems to know a wide variety of things and all these knowledge and understanding is the truth, which makes it even more sinister.

Application Performance Optimization and Load Balancing

Application Performance Optimization and Load Balancing Application Performance Optimization and Load Balancing using RAID and Caching Techniques Akilesh Kailash Sunil Iyer Kolar Suresh Kumar Sabarish Venkatraman ABSTRACT As the data processing and demand for storage grows, the performance of a critical application should always be intact with respect to disk I/O. There has been considerable improvements related to disk seek, latency and spindle speeds; However, these improvements have not met the challenges and addresses the need for better performance and load balancing. The challenge of any Database administrator is to maximize the Application I/O performance and ensure the high availability with zero downtime. This performance challenge can be met using I/O monitoring, Load balancing, Cache management and RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) technologies. The primary goal of this paper is to exemplify the details of successfully solving the I/O problems of a database application in a consistent fashion with the appropriate RAID configurations, caching mechanisms and load balancing algorithm. Categories and Subject Descriptors B.3.2 [Design Styles]: Mass storage – RAID. D.4.2 [Storage Management]: Secondary storage, Storage hierarchies. D.4.3 [File Systems Management]: File organization. D.4.4 [Communications Management]: Input/Output. D.4.5 [Reliability]: Backup procedures, Fault-tolerance. General Terms Algorithms, Performance, Design, Theory, Reliability. Keywords RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks I/O – Input/Output DBA Database Administrators HA High Availability OLTP Online Transaction Processing. IOPS HBA 1. INTRODUCTION RAID technology addresses the need for higher storage capacity in IO system and provides the feature of data redundancy. This helps in efficient and improved disk access and avoids data loss by disk failures. Theoretically, RAID is mainly used to create a logical disk from two or more physical disk drives in order to provide high bandwidth. RAID is an imperative part of storage stack and fabric layer and is coordinated by various storage vendors like EMC, Hitachi, NetApp. RAID technologies have enumerated different methods in building storage stacks and sub-systems for different kinds of databases. Thus, the two main technical reasons for switching to RAID are scalability and high availability in the context of I/O and system performance. As the database sizes of today have grown manifold from the gigabytes to petabytes range, the intricacy to scale I/O performance of such gigantic systems is needed very much for critical applications. Load balancing is a critical factor in environments like Operating Systems, Clusters, Networking and Applications. They play a quintessential role in the performance and reliability of any environment avoiding catastrophic failures. In a quotidian scenario, the resource allocation and load balancing are done through hash methods, genetic algorithms and several scheduling algorithms in Operating systems. Many database applications demand high throughput and availability from storage subsystems. For instance, a stock market application running in New York stock exchange will need to have a high throughput and bandwidth with absolutely no downtime. This requires continuous operation i.e., the need to satisfy each I/O request even in the case of disk failures. It is not acceptable to meet the aforementioned requirements at the cost of deprived performance mainly in real-time applications such as video and audio. It is highly unacceptable if a video is played at slower speed or the data is lost during transmission and ends abruptly. Since a database application may encounter extreme I/O activity or suffer a sudden spike of I/O activities for a brief period of time, the organization of the database structure onto the disk becomes imperative. 2. PROBLEM DEFINITION Mission critical data centers have a compelling need to have highly available applications and services thereby ensuring zero downtime. Current clustering solutions, like MSCS or HP Service Guard enable HA for vital applications. However, such applications are specific and developed only for the OS/application for which they are designed. The I/O performance and their patterns of a database application has to be analyzed by understanding their relation with the physical storage so that it helps in determining the deployment of application based on any given workload. I/O from an application needs to be categorized based on which appropriate techniques can be used in order to improve its performance. There are many DBA tuning software which are primarily used for indexing the database and monitor the drive activities. This approach is effective but requires lot of time and in reality it is quite tedious in nature. 3. ABSTRACT SOLUTION The possible solutions are: Determining the RAID Level and stripe size RAID levels are determined on factors such as type of I/O, disk cost, read/write I/O and so on. The data transfer rate and IOPS performance is very much influenced based on the segment size chosen and the striping size used. For example: In a RAID 5 configuration, there are 4 disks and 1 parity disk. Let the segment size of each disk be 64KB. Thus, when an I/O of 64KB has to be addressed, it is written to the first drive. The next I/O of 64KB is written to next and so on and finally the parity of the 4 I/O’s is calculated and written to the last disk. In case of RAID 1 (Mirroring), there are 2 disk groups and 2 mirror groups. A 64KB I/O would be written to each of the disk drives and mirrored drives. Caching techniques Splitting the cache The cache acts as an interface between the host application and RAID controllers. The cache can be divided into two parts viz. front-end and back-end. Database applications can rely on the front-end cache. Prefetching OLTP applications may have I/O operations which are not sequential; the pre-fetch algorithm confirms the addresses which will fetched in future and loads it in memory. The amount of data to be pre-fetched depends on the application requirement, memory and performance desired by application. Database organization on a storage system Organizing the database objects such as tables, logs, views on storage layout comes in a wide range. Based on the structure of the database layout, an appropriate storage is chosen. Load Balancing I/O load balancing across cluster nodes are performed using regression analysis. If a port of an HBA or fabric node is loaded heavily, then the I/O is balanced across the ports which are not utilized to its full potential. 4. LITERATURE SURVEY I/O performance and disk I/O contention plays a vital role for critical applications. Our proposal and work on application performance monitoring and I/O tuning and load balancing is motivated based on the â€Å"Oracle I/O Performance† and â€Å"Array tuning Best Practices† paper. The proposed solution and enhancements are based on similar lines of these papers. We start off the survey by explaining the technical feasibilities, the pros and cons of these approaches discussed in the papers and explain in brief about the issue we are addressing based on the survey findings. 5. PERFORMANCE BOTTLENECKS Application performance and write access is generally obtained by using storage Arrays having different RAID configurations. For instance, the striping of data across multiple disks using RAID 1 in order to achieve redundancy is the most common way of obtaining high availability. Disk failure vulnerabilities in enterprise storage The main motivation of going for striping technologies is because of the vulnerability in disk failures in enterprise storage Arrays which can result in catastrophic loss of data. This high availability of application and I/O is obtained at the cost of write performance. Keeping synch of write operations During a write operation, all the writes have to be updated simultaneously to all the disks in order to keep the disks in synch. This will have a catastrophic result in operations which will have heavy writes and its performance. In addition to it, maintaining the synchronization of data between all disks and achieving concurrency is a difficult task and can lead to system crashes. In order to overcome the aforementioned problems; a number of different striping mechanisms have been proposed; each of them have their specific tradeoff based on cost, high performance, scalability and robustness. The majority of RAID configurations are based on the interleaving of the data and the pattern is which the redundant information is distributed across the disks. Load Balancing of I/O and resource utilization Load balancing is essentially implemented in SQL server clustering and is very common practice. There are many third party tools that provide solutions to load balancing and resource utilization; however the limitations of such tools is that the factors to decide on load balancing are very system specific and are dependent heavily on the characteristic of each application. As the database size grows in a short period, we generally observe that the query speed has a performance hit as the number of rows increases. This is mainly observed on applications where the performance data is being collected in frequent intervals and simultaneously the data is read from the DB for other purposes. The general and quick solutions to optimize query speed it to partition the views, indexing and table partitioning. But even then, things are observed to be quite slow. The main problem with such solutions is that the database tables and views are located on different servers. Hence a server cluster is used which add in reliability if there is any performance issues seen on one of the cluster nodes. 6. RAID LEVEL SELECTION CRITERIA The choice of RAID level to be chosen is based on different factors. When a mirrored configuration is chosen such as RAID 1 or RAID 1+0, each write request is duplicated to disk by the raid controller. This results in performance issues if the application does not rely heavily on data duplication and its availability. When higher levels/parity based RAID configuration is used, things get more intricate. Let us consider that, when RAID 5 or RAID 6 is used and if the size of the write I/O is less than the stripe size which is frequently observed in database applications where the data write is around 4kb pages contrasting to the drive size of around 128KB; as a result of this, the raid controller has to perform magnitude of I/O operations for just a single request. The main drawback of the above technique is that for a small write request, the raid controller has to first fetch the data from the back end disk to the main memory. Then it has to insert the fresh data at the appropriate position and calculate the new parity stripe to perform another write operation back to the disk. Hence, one I/O operation results in roughly 3 to 4 times the IOPS. This overhead adds in if the calculation of parity is for two sets as in RAID 6. The other factors of choosing the RAID configuration are the disk/drive cost and I/O pattern. The cost is zero for RAID 0 as there is no redundancy; while it is highest for RAID 1 or its combination such as RAID 10. This cost is high because of drive mirroring. The cost of RAID 5 is comparatively lower than RAID 1 but it has one disk which is dedicated for parity. A cleared distinction is required to classify small I/O and large I/O. The bursty nature and large I/O is seen if the request for the I/O is more than the one third of the cache size. All the small/short I/O’s are addressed in cache thereby avoiding the RAID access. All in all, RAID 5 and 6 are generally preferred for large I/O and sequential I/O operations while RAID 1 and RAID 10 is preferred for short I/O operations. 7. SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT This paper goes on the aforementioned aspects and concentrates on monitoring the I/O pattern, analyzing the load on each of the I/O and performing a load balance if required; In addition to the above criteria, taking the I/O pattern into consideration, an appropriate RAID configuration along with write-back cache method is used if necessary. 8. PROPOSED SOLUTION Characterize the I/O pattern The first step is to monitor the I/O and characterize it. This is done using tools such as Perfmon or IO Meter. We plan to use these tools and analyze the I/O pattern of a given application. This monitoring of pattern is required as we will characterize the request as read intensive, write intensive, how the load is being varied. Perform load balancing upon I/O threshold The second step is to perform load balancing. This is done by analyzing the load and identifying the threshold of the I/O from a server HBA Port through the fabric layer to the storage Array. Threshold is a boundary which serves as a benchmark for comparison or guidance, and any deviation or breach of the said threshold may result in a change in state of an overall system. Our proposed infrastructure identifies the threshold by analyzing the I/O graph and monitoring the following parameters: Linear Regression Slope of the curve Using Linear Regression, the value of the slope is calculated. Based on these two parameters, if we observe that if one of the HBA ports is heavily loaded, we tend to balance it out by redistributing the excess load to different cluster nodes. Once the I/O is balanced, an appropriate RAID configuration is calculated. 9. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK After studying the I/O access patterns of various workloads, we can clearly the map the database application to the physical storage thereby achieving high performance, fast access and retrieval. This would be helpful for DBA’s to deploy management applications and would be easy to track the application performance. This analysis can be implemented at the enterprise level configuration as well resulting in efficient usage of physical storage, making it cost effective and reducing the work for DBA’s or lab administrators. 10. REFERENCES The RAID Book: Sixth Edition. RAID Advisory Board. LACIE: RAID Technology White Paper. RAID: High-Performance, Reliable Secondary Storage – ACM Computing Surveys Peter M. Chen, Edward K. Lee. Array tuning best practices A Dell technical white paper DOI=http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/powervault-md3200i-performance-tuning-white-paper.pdf. Exploring Disk Size and Oracle Disk I/O performance DOI= http://www.openmpe.com/cslproceed/HPW02CD/paper/11026.pdf

Ressentiment and Rationality :: Philosophy Philosophical papers

Ressentiment and Rationality ABSTRACT: This paper is an investigation of the condition of ressentiment. It reviews the two most prominent philosophic accounts of ressentiment: Nietzsche's genealogy of ressentiment as the moral perversion resulting from the ancient Roman/Palestinian cultural conflict and giving birth to the ascetic ideal; and Scheler's phenomenology of ressentiment as a complex affective unit generative of its own affects and values. A single sketch of the typical elements of ressentiment is drawn from the review of these two accounts. One element in particular, the exigency of rationality, is highlighted. The rationality of ressentiment is found to be essential to the phenomenon as a whole and to its constitutive parts. Curiously, while their accounts imply and suggest the role of rationality, neither Nietzsche or Scheler make the centrality of rationality to ressentiment implicit. Ressentiment is a state of repressed feeling and desire which becomes generative of values. The condition of ressentiment is complex both in its internal structure and in its relations to various dimensions of human existence. While it infects the heart of the individual, it is rooted in our relatedness with others. On the one hand, ressentiment is a dark, personal secret, which most of us would never reveal to others even if we could acknowledge it ourselves. On the other hand, ressentiment has an undeniably public face. It can be creative of social practices, mores, and fashions; of scholarly attitudes, academic policies, educational initiatives; of political ideologies, institutions, and revolutions; of forms of religiosity and ascetic practices. The concept of ressentiment was first developed systematically by Nietzsche in his account of the historical emergence of what he terms 'slave morality' and in his critique of the ascetic ideal. While references to this condition can be found throughout his works, the chief sections in which he develops this notion are in his early work The Genealogy of Morals. Max Scheler provides an eidetic account of this complex affective phenomenon in his book entitled Ressentiment. The picture of ressentiment that emerges from these two thinkers is in part a function of their methodological approaches and their abiding philosophic interests. Nietzsche's historical approach to the development and the corruption of morality is empiricist and deterministic, but it does not have the marks of the narrow positivism that emerged later. His historical method is informed by his philological training in ancient Hellenic texts and by Enlightenment ideals. So, although Nietzsche writes of cultural conflict s in the ancient world as historical fact, he actually uses them as models with universal anthropological significance.

Life with Vision Loss Due to MS :: Vision Eyesight Multiple Sclerosis Essays

Life with Vision Loss Due to MS Joyce Bohen recently wrote a book about her experience with multiple sclerosis. She told about her battle with multiple sclerosis and one of her major symptoms, optic neuritis. In this book, she told each individual to imagine life from one day being able to see bright colors and distinct pictures to only realize that as each day goes by the world is beginning to look darker and darker until you can see nothing but black. Not only did she experience blindness but also came the intense pain. After seeing a neurologist many times and continuously being treated with steroids to help her vision return, she finally gave up her battle and began to accept the idea that she would never be able to see again. The goal of her book was to help those with low vision accept the idea that life will never be the same and that there are strategic ways to get around this disability. One of the coping mechanisms she suggested was to outline doorways, steps, and wall switches with high contrast or textu red tape. This story of one woman's dedication and perseverance to get through her disability should give researchers all the persuasion needed to continue on discovering permanent treatments or even preventive methods for optic neuritis (Cohen, Dinerstein, & Katz, 2001). Another woman's determination went beyond coping mechanisms. After being touched by her brother's battle with multiple sclerosis Silvia Lawry created the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Her goal was to begin research that could help end the suffering of all those individuals who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her dream is to try to help discover a cure for symptoms such as optic neuritis (Scott, 2001). Multiple sclerosis can be defined as an inflammatory, autoimmune, and demyelinating complex disease of the central nervous system (Kidd, 2001). More common in women than men, the disease can strike at an early age, "especially when reproduction is a major consideration" (Sadovnick, Guimond, & Dwosh, 2001 p374). It is known to be the most common cause of "neurological disabilities in young adults" (Kidd, 2001 p540). The most common type of multiple sclerosis is the relapse remitting which later turns into secondarily progressing. This means that the patient will no longer go into relapse but rather begins progressing farther into the disease. There is a disability scale called Kurtzke's Extended Disability Status Scale that determines the status and progression of the disability. Life with Vision Loss Due to MS :: Vision Eyesight Multiple Sclerosis Essays Life with Vision Loss Due to MS Joyce Bohen recently wrote a book about her experience with multiple sclerosis. She told about her battle with multiple sclerosis and one of her major symptoms, optic neuritis. In this book, she told each individual to imagine life from one day being able to see bright colors and distinct pictures to only realize that as each day goes by the world is beginning to look darker and darker until you can see nothing but black. Not only did she experience blindness but also came the intense pain. After seeing a neurologist many times and continuously being treated with steroids to help her vision return, she finally gave up her battle and began to accept the idea that she would never be able to see again. The goal of her book was to help those with low vision accept the idea that life will never be the same and that there are strategic ways to get around this disability. One of the coping mechanisms she suggested was to outline doorways, steps, and wall switches with high contrast or textu red tape. This story of one woman's dedication and perseverance to get through her disability should give researchers all the persuasion needed to continue on discovering permanent treatments or even preventive methods for optic neuritis (Cohen, Dinerstein, & Katz, 2001). Another woman's determination went beyond coping mechanisms. After being touched by her brother's battle with multiple sclerosis Silvia Lawry created the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Her goal was to begin research that could help end the suffering of all those individuals who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her dream is to try to help discover a cure for symptoms such as optic neuritis (Scott, 2001). Multiple sclerosis can be defined as an inflammatory, autoimmune, and demyelinating complex disease of the central nervous system (Kidd, 2001). More common in women than men, the disease can strike at an early age, "especially when reproduction is a major consideration" (Sadovnick, Guimond, & Dwosh, 2001 p374). It is known to be the most common cause of "neurological disabilities in young adults" (Kidd, 2001 p540). The most common type of multiple sclerosis is the relapse remitting which later turns into secondarily progressing. This means that the patient will no longer go into relapse but rather begins progressing farther into the disease. There is a disability scale called Kurtzke's Extended Disability Status Scale that determines the status and progression of the disability.

Employee Benefit Programs in the Information Technology Industry Essay

Individual Case Study Develop a case study that analyzes the competitive position of a business organization in a technologically-oriented industry. This case study should demonstrate an understanding of competitive forces and principles applicable to competitive environments, including Sun Tzu’s â€Å"Art of War† axioms. The case study should be 5-7 pages in length. â€Å"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved. Sun Tzu â€Å"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?† Sun Tzu I work for Electronic Data Systems (EDS). "EDS is a global business and technology services company headquartered in Plano, Texas." Hewlett-Packard Co. reached a deal with EDS to acquire the company for $13.9 billion . On August 26, 2008, the deal was sealed and EDS was renamed EDS, an HP Company. After the normal paranoid questions were raised (possible layoffs, transfers, loss of pensions, etc.), everyone had questions about HP and Compaq computers. The first questions were, â€Å"What are we going to do with all of the Dell servers and computers? Are we going to get new HP workstations? And how can we get free computers, or at least reduced? These questions got me to research Employee Computer Purchase Plans with several other companies. Siemens AG is Europe's largest engineering conglomerate; it is one of the world’s largest communications, electronics and electrical engineering companies. Siemens' headquarters are located in Berlin and Munich, Germany. Siemens employs over 480,000 people in nearly 190 countries; their revenues were over 72.448 billion Euros in fiscal year 2007. The company has three main business sectors. These... ... It’s perfect. BIBLIOGRAPHY â€Å"Sun Tzu Qotes (2008). Retrieved September 10, 2008 from the BrainyQuote website: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sun_tzu.html â€Å"Electronic Data Systems† (2008). Retrieved September 11, 2008 from the Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems. Margaret E. Dobbin. (2008). â€Å"Open Text: The Content Experts†. Retrieved September 11, 2008, from Open Text Web siste: http://www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=123. Paul, Franklin (2008). "HP to buy EDS for $12.6 bln in challenge to IBM", Reuters, pp. 4. Retrieved on September 11, 2008, from the Reuter UK website: http://uk.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKN1230539620080514. (2008). â€Å"Fujitsu: The Possibilities are Infinite†. Retrived September 11, 2008, from the Fujitsu website: http://www.fujitsu.com/uk/

Night World : The Chosen Chapter 8

Well?† Daphne said. â€Å"I think it's the slave trade.† And, Rashel thought, I think I was right-this is something big. The Night World slave trade had been banned a long time ago-back in medieval days, if she remembered the stories correctly. The Council apparently had decided that kidnapping humans and selling them to Night People for food or amusement was just too dangerous. But it sounded as if Quinn might be reviving it, probably without the Council's permission. How very enterprising of him. I was right about killing him, too, Rashel thought. There's no choice now. He's as bad as I imagined- and worse. Daphne was goggling. â€Å"They were going to make me a slave?† she almost yelled. â€Å"Sh.† Rashel glanced at the man behind the doughnut counter. â€Å"I think so. Well-a slave and a sort of perpetual food supply if you were sold to vampires. Probably just dinner if you were going to werewolves.† Daphne's lips repeated werewolves silently. But Rashel was speaking again before she could ask about it. â€Å"Look, Daphne-did you get any idea about where you might be going? You said they mentioned a boat. But a boat to where? What city?† â€Å"I don't know. They never talked about any city. They just said the boat was ready†¦ and something about an aunt-clave.† She pronounced it ont-clave. â€Å"The girl said, ‘When we get to the aunt-clave†¦'† Daphne broke off as Rashel grabbed her wrist. â€Å"An enclave,† Rashel whispered. Thin chills of excitement were running through her. â€Å"They were talking about an enclave.† Daphne nodded, looking alarmed. â€Å"I guess.† This was big. This was†¦ bigger than big. It was incredible. A vampire enclave. The kidnapped girls were being taken to one of the hidden enclaves, one of the secret strongholds no vampire hunter had ever managed to penetrate. No human had even discovered the location of one. If I could get there†¦ if I could get in†¦ She could learn enough to destroy a whole town of vampires. Wipe an enclave off the face of the earth. She knew she could. â€Å"Uh, Rashel? You're hurting me.† â€Å"Sorry.† Rashel let go of Daphne's arm. â€Å"Now, listen,† she said fiercely. â€Å"I saved your life, right? I mean, they were going to do terrible things to you. So you owe me, right?† â€Å"Yeah, sure; sure, I owe you.† Daphne made pacifying motions with her hands. â€Å"Are you okay?† â€Å"Yes. I'm fine. But I need your help. I want you to tell me everything about that club. Everything I need to get in-and get chosen.† Daphne stared at her. â€Å"I'm sorry; you're crazy.† â€Å"No, no. I know what I'm doing. As long as they don't know I'm a vampire hunter, it'll be okay. I have to get to that enclave.† Daphne slowly shook her blond head. â€Å"What, you're going to, like, slay them all? By yourself? Can't we just tell the police?† â€Å"Not all by myself. I could take a couple of other vampire hunters to help me. And as for the police†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Rashel stopped and sighed. â€Å"Okay. I guess there are some things I should explain. Then maybe you'll understand better.† She raised her eyes and looked at Daphne steadily. â€Å"First, I should tell you about the Night World. Look, even before you met those vampires, didn't you ever have the feeling that there was something eerie going on, right alongside our world and all mixed up in it?† She made it as simple as she could, and tried to answer Daphne's questions patiently. And at last, Daphne sat back, looking sick and more frightened than Rashel had seen her yet. â€Å"They're all over,† Daphne said, as if she still didn't believe it. â€Å"In the police departments. In the government. And nobody's ever been able to do anything about them.† â€Å"The only people who've had any success are the ones who work secretly, in small groups or alone. We stay hidden. We're very careful. And we weed them out, one by one. That's what it means to be a vampire hunter.† She leaned forward. â€Å"Now do you see why it's so important for me to get to that enclave? It's a chance to get at a whole bunch of them all at once, to wipe out one of their hiding places. Not to mention stopping the slave trade. Don't you think it should be stopped?† Daphne opened her mouth, shut it again. â€Å"Okay,† she said finally, and sighed. â€Å"I'll help. I can tell you what to talk about, how to act. At least what worked for me.† She cocked her head. â€Å"You're going to have to dress differently†¦.† â€Å"I'll get a couple of other vampire hunters and we'll meet tomorrow after school. Let's say six-thirty. Right now, I'm taking you home. You need to sleep.† She waited to see if Daphne would object, but the other girl just nodded and sighed again. â€Å"Yeah. You know, after some of the things I've learned, home's starting to look good.† â€Å"Just one more thing,† Rashel said. â€Å"You can't tell anybody about what happened to you. Tell them anything-that you ran away, whatever-but not the truth. Okay?† â€Å"Okay.† â€Å"And especially don't tell anyone about me. Got it? My life may depend on it.† â€Å"Elliot's not here.† The voice on the telephone was cold and as hostile as Rashel had ever heard it. â€Å"Vicky, I need to talk to him. Or somebody. I'm telling you, this is our chance to get to an enclave. The girl from the warehouse heard them talking about it.† It was Friday afternoon and Rashel was phoning from a booth near her school. Vicky was speaking heavily. â€Å"We staked out that street for days and didn't see anything, but you just happened to be in the right place at the right time to help a girl escape.† â€Å"Yes. I already told you.† â€Å"Well, that was convenient, wasn't it?† Rashel gripped the handset more tightly. â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Just that it would be a very dangerous thing, going to a vampire enclave. And that a person would have to really trust whoever was giving them the information about it. You'd have to be sure it wasn't a trap.† Rashel stared at the phone buttons, controlling her breathing. â€Å"I see.† â€Å"Yes, well, you don't have much credibility around here anymore. Not since letting that vampire get away. And this sounds like just the sort of thing you'd do if you were in on it with them.† Great, Rashel thought. I've managed to convince her that I really am a vampire sympathizer. Aloud she said, â€Å"Is that what Nyala is telling everybody? That I'm working with the Night World?† â€Å"I don't know what Nyala is doing.† Vicky sounded waspish and a little uneasy. â€Å"I haven't seen her since Tuesday and nobody answers at her house.† Rashel tried to make her voice calm and reasonable. â€Å"Will you at least tell Elliot what I'm doing? Then he can call me if he wants to.† â€Å"Don't hold your breath,† Vicky said, and hung up. Great. Terrific. Rashel replaced the handset wondering if she wasn't supposed to hold her breath until Elliot called, or until Vicky passed on the message. One thing was clear: she couldn't count on any help from the Lancers. Or any other vampire hunters. Nyala could be spreading any kind of rumors, and Rashel didn't dare even call another group. There was no choice. She'd have to do it alone. That night she went to Daphne's house. â€Å"Well, she's grounded,† Mrs. Childs said at the door. She was a small woman with a baby in one hand, a Pampers in the other, and a toddler clutching her leg. â€Å"But I guess you can go upstairs.† Upstairs, Daphne had to chase a younger sister out of the bedroom before Rashel could sit down. â€Å"You see, I don't even have a room of my own,† she said. â€Å"And you're grounded. But you're alive,† Rashel said, and raised her eyebrows. â€Å"Hi.† â€Å"Oh. Hi.† Daphne looked embarrassed. Then she smiled, sitting cross-legged on her bed. â€Å"You're wearing normal clothes.† Rashel glanced down at her sweater and jeans. â€Å"Yeah, the ninja outfit's just my career uniform.† Daphne grinned. â€Å"Well, you're still going to have to look different if you're going to get into the club. Should we start now, or do you want to wait for the others?† Rashel stared at a row of perfume bottles on the dresser across the room. â€Å"There aren't going to be any others.† â€Å"But I thought you said†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Look. It's hard to explain, but I've had a little problem with the vampire hunters around here. So I'm doing it without them. It's no problem. We can start now.† â€Å"Well†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Daphne pursed her lips. She looked different from the disheveled wild creature Rashel had rescued from the street last night. Her blond hair was soft and fluffy, her cornflower blue eyes were large and innocent, her face was round and sweet. She was fashionably dressed and she seemed relaxed, in her own element in this normal teenager's room. It was Rashel who felt out of place. â€Å"Well†¦ do you want to just take along a friend or something?† Daphne asked. â€Å"I don't have a friend,† Rashel said flatly. â€Å"And I don't want one. Friends are people to worry about, they're baggage. I don't like baggage.† Daphne blinked slowly. â€Å"But at school†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I don't stay at schools more than one year at a time. I live with foster families, and I usually get myself sent to a new city every year. That way I stay ahead of the vampires. Look, this isn't about me, okay? What I want to know-â€Å" â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Daphne was staring at the mirror. Rashel followed her gaze to see that the reflecting surface was almost completely covered by pictures. Pictures of Daphne with guys, Daphne with other girls. Daphne counted her friends in droves, apparently. â€Å"But doesn't that get lonely?† â€Å"No, it doesn't get lonely,† Rashel said through her teeth. She found herself getting rough with the lacy little throw pillow on her lap. â€Å"I like being on my own. Now are we done with the press conference?† Looking hurt, Daphne nodded. â€Å"Okay. I talked with some people at school and everything at the dub is going on the same as usual-except that Quinn hasn't been there since Sunday. Ivan and the girl were there Tuesday and Wednesday, but not Quinn.† â€Å"Oh, really?† That was interesting. Rashel had known from the beginning that her greatest problem was going to be Quinn. The other two vampires hadn't seen her-she didn't think they even realized that Daphne had run off with a vampire hunter last night. But Quinn had spoken to her. Had been†¦ very close to her. Still, what could he have seen in that cellar, even with his vampire vision? Not her face. Not even her hair. Her ninja outfit covered her from neck to wrist to ankle. All he could possibly know was that she was tall. If she changed her voice and kept her eyes down, he shouldn't be able to recognize her. But it would be easier still if he weren't there in the first place, and Rashel could try her act on Ivan. â€Å"That reminds me,† she said. â€Å"Ivan and the girl- are their little groups into death, too?† Daphne nodded. â€Å"Everybody in the whole place is, basically. It's that kind of place.† A perfect place for vampires, in other words. Rashel wondered briefly if the Night People owned the dub or if some obliging humans had just constructed the ideal habitat for them. She'd have to check into that. â€Å"Actually,† Daphne was saying, a little shyly, â€Å"I've got a poem here for you. I thought you could say you wrote it. It would sort of prove you were into the same thing as the other girls.† Rashel took the piece of notebook paper and read: There's warmth in ice; there's cooling peace in fire, And midnight light to show us all the way. The dancing flame becomes a funeral pyre; The Dark was more enticing than the Day. She looked up at Daphne sharply. â€Å"You wrote this before you knew about the Night World?† Daphne nodded. â€Å"It's the kind of thing Quinn liked. He used to say he was the darkness and the silence and things like that.† Rashel wished she had Quinn right there in the room, along with a large stake. These young girls were like moths to his flame, and he was taking advantage of their innocence. He wasn't even pretending to be harmless; instead he was encouraging them to love their own destruction. Making them think it was their idea. â€Å"About your clothes,† Daphne was going on. â€Å"My friend Mamie is about your size and she lent me this stuff. Try it on and we'll see if it looks right.† She tossed Rashel a bundle. Rashel unfolded it, examined it doubtfully. A few minutes later she was examining herself even more doubtfully in the mirror. She was wearing a velvety black jumpsuit which clung to her like a second skin. It was cut in a very low V in front, but the sleeves reached down in Gothic points on the backs of her hands almost to the middle finger. Around her neck was a black leather choker that looked to her like a dog collar. She said, â€Å"I don't know†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No, no, you look great. Sort of like a Betsey Johnson ultra model. Walk a little†¦ turn around†¦ okay, yeah. Now all we have to do is paint your fingernails black, add a little makeup, and-â€Å" Daphne stopped and frowned. â€Å"What's wrong?† â€Å"It's the way you walk. You walk like-well, like them, actually. Like the vampires. As if you're stalking something. And you don't ever make a noise. They're going to know you're a vampire hunter from the way you move.† It was a good point, but Rashel didn't know what to do about it. â€Å"Um†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I've got it,† Daphne said brightly. â€Å"We'll put you in heels.† â€Å"Oh, no,† Rashel said. â€Å"There is absolutely no way I'm going to wear those things.† â€Å"But it'll be perfect, see? You won't be able to walk normally.† â€Å"No, and I won't be able to run, either.† â€Å"But you aren't going there to run. You're going to talk and dance and stuff.† Hands on her hips, she shook her head. â€Å"I don't know, Rashel, you really need somebody to go there with you, to help you with this stuff†¦.† Daphne stopped and her eyes narrowed. She stared at the mirror for a moment, then she nodded. â€Å"Yeah. That's it. There's no other choice,† she said, expelling her breath. She turned to face Rashel squarely. â€Å"I'll just have to go with you myself.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"You need somebody with you; you can't do this all alone. And there's nobody better than me. I'll go with you and this time we'll both get chosen.† Rashel sat on the bed. â€Å"I'm sorry; this time you ‘re crazy. You're the last person the vampires would ever choose. You know all about them.† â€Å"But they don't know that,† Daphne said serenely. â€Å"I told everybody at school today that I didn't remember anything that happened from Sunday on. I had to tell them something, you know. So I said that I never got to meet Quinn; that I didn't know what happened to me, but I woke up last night alone on this street in Mission Hill.† Rashel tried to think. Would any of the vampires believe this story? The answer surprised her. They just might. If Daphne had begun to come out of the mind control while she was in the truck†¦ if she had jumped out and started running, only to become fully conscious a little while later.. .. Yes. It could work. The vampires would assume that she'd have amnesia for the whole period she was in a trance, and maybe for a little before. It could work†¦. â€Å"But it's too dangerous,† she said. â€Å"Even if I let you go to the club with me, I could never let you get chosen.† â€Å"Why not? You already said I must be resistant to their mind-control thingy, right?† Daphne's blue eyes were sparking with energy and her cheeks were flushed. â€Å"So that makes me perfect for the job. I can do it. I know I can help you.† Rashel stood helplessly. Take this fluffy bunny of a girl to a vampire enclave? Let her get sold as a slave to bloodsucking monsters? Ask her to fight ruthless snakes like Quinn? â€Å"I like to work alone,† she said in a hard voice. Daphne folded her arms over her chest, refusing to be intimidated. â€Å"Well, maybe it's time you tried something different. Look, I've never met anyone like you. You're so independent, so adventurous, so–amazing. But even you can't do everything by yourself. I know I'm not a vampire hunter, but I'd like to be your friend. Maybe you should try trusting a friend this time.† Her eyes met Rashel's, and at that moment she didn't look like a fluffy bunny, but like a small, confident, and intelligent young woman. â€Å"Besides, it was me who got kidnapped,† Daphne said, shrugging. â€Å"Don't you think I should get to pay them back a little?† Rashel caught herself almost grinning. She couldn't help liking this girl, or feeling a glow of warmth at her praise. But still†¦ She drew in a careful breath and watched Daphne closely. â€Å"And you're not scared?† â€Å"Of course I'm scared. I'd be stupid not to be. But I'm not so scared I can't go.† It was the right answer. Rashel looked around the cluttered lacy room and nodded slowly. At last she said, â€Å"Okay, you're in. Tomorrow's Saturday. We'll do it tomorrow night.†

Private military contractors Essay

Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Private military contractors, also known as private security contractors provide a number of different services for the UN military in Iraq.   Various services include the preparation of meals, navigating army supply vehicles, military training and security for US officials.   Some private military contractors also provide interrogation and translating services for the US military. Contractors providing this service in particualr have been suspected of a number of human rights abuses at the Abu Ghraid Prison.   Other activities by private military contractors have raised issues about humanitarian conerns and the abuse of womren’s rights.   There are currently at least 100 private military contractors in Iraq.[1]   This discussion looks at the unique role of private military companies in Iraq and examines their impact on the rights of women. Private Military Companies in Iraq   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The US military and the State Department spends billions of dollars on private security contractors in Iraq.[2] These contractors according to the Washington Post are: â€Å"Out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase.†[3]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The primary goal is to â€Å"offset chronic troop shortage† and the number of invidual contractors are between 20,000 and 30,000.[4]   David Isenberg in a report by the British American Security Information Council published on September 4, 2004 maintains that it is impossible to accurately account for the number of private military companies currently in Iraq.   This is because only PMC’s whose contracts exceed $50 million are required â€Å"to be reported to Congress.†[5]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Isenberg complains that the legal status of private military companies is especially problematic since there is no real provision in International law to account for their role and definition.[6] While many view the private military personnel as mercenaries, they do not fit the definition of mercenry within the meaning of the Geneva Convention.[7]   Article 47 describes a mercenary as an idividual who takes part in military combat and is not a national and: â€Å"is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party†.[8]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   James Conachy however, refers to these private military personnel as â€Å"modern-day mercenaries.†[9]   Conachy aligns their physical presence with their abstract presence.   While they are by and large not subjected to transparency and legal accountability in the traditional sense they operate out of uniform and from â€Å"unmarked vehicles†.[10]   They go about their business in this manner while â€Å"manning roadblocks, or stalking outstide building, with machine guns.†[11] As a result, the private militaray presence in Iraq has â€Å"become an ubiquitous and offensive symbol of the US occupation.†[12]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conachy maintains that the need for private military presence in Iraq is obviated by the bredth of US military deployment overseas following the September 11 terrorist attacks.   Without the use of private military companies the US would be compelled to send more troops to Iraq from an already depleted armed force or would have to seriously consider â€Å"reviving the military draft.†[13] It is obvious from this assessment of the single purpose of the private military that distinguishes them from the Article 47 definition of mercenary.   Mercenaries are not aligned to a paritcular party and obviously the private military contractors are aligned to the US and are used to facilitate the US military’s shortfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The following description of private military duties takes them well outside of Article 47’s definition of mercenary: â€Å"Far more than in any other conflict in United States history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military.†[14] It is clear that private military companies are not in actual combat.   Mercernaries, according to the Geneva Convetions are actively fighting . Human Rights Concern and Women   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In an article published in the Guardian, Luke Harding explains that the full extent of abuse toward women by all sectors of the military in Iraq will not be fully known.   This is primarily because Islamic women rarely discuss violations of a sexual nature.   Rape, Harding maintains is a symbol of shame in the muslim world   and â€Å"victims can be killed to salvage family honour.†[15] The most shocking incidents of abusive treatment of women originate from the Abu Ghraib jail which was primarily manned by private military personnel.[16] Accroding to Patrap Chatterjee the private military’s role at the Abu Ghraib jail was one of interrogation which brought them into more frequent contact with the prisoners than other jail personnel.[17]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that in October 2003 there were approximately thirty female prisoners in the Abu Ghraib jail.[18]   According to prison personnel, that number was reduced to five by May of 2004.[19]   The Internation League for Peace and Freedom had documented some eye witness accounts of abuse at the Abu Ghraid jail.   One such account was given to Iman Khamas who heads the International Occupation Watch Center, a private organization that collects anti-human rights information.   The account came from a former prisoner who told Khamas of a rape incident at the jail.   Khamas reports that the prisoner recalls that: â€Å"†¦ the prisoner said her cellmate had been rendered unconscious for 48 hours. ‘She claimed she had been raped 17 times in one day by Iraqi police in the presence of American soldiers.’†[20]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another report originated from Mohammed Daham al-Mohammed who heads an Iraqi group, the Union of Detainees and Prisoners.   According to a-Mohammed he was informed of a â€Å"mother of four† who had been arrested in December of 2003 and killed herself after being raped by US guards who forced her husband to watch while incarcerated at the Abu Ghraib jail.[21]    According to the woman’s sister the rape victim committed suicide.[22] The victim had told her sister of incidents of physical abuse outside of the rape.   In one account she recalled a American male pulling her by the hair and forcing her to look at her husband while the American took off her clothing.   After this incident the rape took place.   Once released, the woman was afraid to face her husband since he had witnessed the rape and asked her sister to help her commit suicide.[23]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A former male prisoner reported incidents where women were constantly removed from their cells to private rooms.   The prisoner explains: â€Å"They had to pass in front of our tent and cried out, ‘Find a way to kill us’.†[24] Human Rights groups explain that rape for a Muslim woman shames the entire family which is why these women would rather die having suffered a rape.[25] Khamas recalls an incident in which she visited a woman at the Abu Ghraid jail and a female prisoner told her about a rape, but whispered in her ear despite the fact that no one else was present.[26]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Khamas, Mohommed and Hoda Nuaimi, a professor in politics at Baghdad University report that: â€Å"†¦three young rural women from the Sunni Muslim region of Al-Anbar, west of Baghdad, had been killed by their families after coming out of Abu Ghraib pregnant.Nuaimi said that in the case of another such woman, who was four months pregnant, her brother had been reluctant to kill his sister because he considered her a victim.†[27]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Luke Harding reports that the first information about abuse of female victims at the Abu Ghraib jail, a US facility first came to light by a note smuggled out of the prison by a female prisoner.[28]   In the note the woman claimed that women were being raped by US personnel and many of them had become pregnant.   The note also begged the Iraqis to â€Å"bomb the jail to spare the women further shame.†[29]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Swadi, a female lawyer among seven representing the female detainees indicated that the abuse was not limited to the Abu Ghraib jail and was happening all over Iraq.[30] The shame associated with rape and the consequence for family disgrace were evident in the following account from a female prisoner at al-Kharkh, a US military base: â€Å"She was the only woman who would talk about her case. She was crying. She told us she had been raped†¦Several American soldiers had raped her. She had tried to fight them off and they had hurt her arm. She showed us the stitches. She told us, ‘We have daughters and husbands. For God’s sake don’t tell anyone about this.’†[31]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Luke Harding also reports that an investigation conducted by the US Military which was headed by Major General Antonio Taguba confirmed the contents of the note smuggled out of the Abu Ghraib facility.   Moreover, digital photographs, according to Tajuba’s findings also depitcted US personnel engaging in sexual contact â€Å"with and Iraqi woman.†[32] Tajuba’s investigation also found videotapes of nude female prisoners.[33]   There are additional photographs of Iraqi women being forced at gun point to â€Å"bare their breasts.†[34] While these photographs have been relased to Congress they have not been released to the public.[35]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In May of 2004: â€Å"an Iraqi woman in her 70s had been harnessed and ridden like a donkey at Abu Ghraib and another coalition detention centre after being arrested last July.†[36] UK Labor Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd investigated the incident and confirmed that it was in fact true.   The Iraqi elderly woman had been held without charge for at least three weeks during which time â€Å"she was told that she was a donkey.†[37]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Luke Harding explains the devastating consequences for female rape victims which only accentuates the abuse involved.   According to Harding: â€Å"Honour killings are not unusual in Islamic society, where rape is often equated with shame and where the stigma of being raped by an American soldier would, according to one Islamic cleric, be â€Å"unbearable†. The prospects for rape victims in Iraq are grave; it is hardly surprising that no women have so far come forward to talk about their experiences in US-run jails where abuse was rife until early January.†[38]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At the time of writing, Harding describes another incident of physical and mental abuse agianst female detainees in Iraq in which the private military personnel are activiely involved.   Five women, according to Harding were being held in â€Å"solitary confinement† in cells measuring just 2.5 meters in length and 1.5 meters in width at Abu Ghraib.[39] Captain Dave Quantock who was then in charge of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib told journalists that all female prisoners at Abu Ghraib are kept â€Å"in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.†[40]   The only entertainment the women are allowed is access to the Koran.[41]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mystery surrounds the grounds upon which the five females in solitary confinement are held.   The general term used is that they are held as â€Å"security detainees.†[42] Swabi maintains that these women are being held â€Å"for who they were married to and their potential intelligence value.†[43] Be that as it may, the degree of abusse cannot be justified.   Under both US and International laws the cruel and inhuman treatement of prisoners at anytime is unlawful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   International humanitarian laws contained in the Geneva Conventions 1949 of which the United States ratified since 1955 requires that during times of war and peace all prisoners are to be treated humanly.[44] More over the Geneva Convention IV specifically prohibits rape and indecent assault on women.   Article 27 provides as follows: â€Å"Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitutiOn, or any form of indecent assault.†[45]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Judicth Gail Gardam and Hillary Charlesworth argue that women have always been at risk of violence in armed conflict.   Although the emphasis has always been on sexual violence there have been other forms of violence against women.   Gardam and Charlesworth note that the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action called for governments worldwide to map out plans for combatting: â€Å"the effects of armed or other kind of conflict on women, including those living under foreign occupation.†[46] The Iraqi conflict and occupation and the violence against women is therefore nothing new.   What is perhaps more surprising is the fact that it could happen in light of international laws and attention to violence against women in the past. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   An irony arises out of these reports.   The US invasion has been called â€Å"operation Iraqi freedom† which presupposes a vastly humanitarian effort.   Yet in the course of fighting for Iraqi freedom, those sent to fight for the cause have added to the problem.   Roger Normand alleges that the US personnel in Iraq are: â€Å"†¦violating almost every law intended to protect civilians living under foreign military occupation.†[47] While many of   these crimes are being committed by private military companies,   the world at large and the Iraqi populace draw no distinction between the US soldiers and the security companies employed by them to help the cause. The private military and security personnel are agents of the US government and as such the US government is vicariosuly liable for the misconduct of the private miliatary contractors.   As long as they are permitted to continue working with and for the military and as long as they continue to violate international law particularly article 27 of the fourth Geneva Convention, the US must take responsibility for the ills committed by them.   They cannot take the benefit without the burden.    Bibliography Center for Economic and Social Rights.(n.d.) â€Å"New Report Documents Extensive U.S. War Crimes In Iraq†. Available online at: http://www.ccmep.org/2004_articles/iraq/061104_CESR.htm Retrieved December 11 2007 Chatterjee, Pratap. (May 12, 2004) â€Å"Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq.† Democracy Now. Available online at: http://www.democracynow.org/2004/5/12/private_contractors_and_torture_at_abu Retrieved December 11, 2007 Conachy, Jamers. (May 3, 2004) â€Å"Private Military Companies in Iraq: Profiting from Colonialism.†International committee of the Fourth Amendment. Available online at: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/pmcs-m03.shtml Retrienved December 11, 2007 Fainaru, Steve. (June 16, 2007) â€Å"Iraq Contractors Face Growing Parallel War: As Security Work Increase, So do Casualties.† Washington Post Gardam, Judith, Gail and Charlesworth, Hillary. (Feb. 2000) â€Å"Protection of Women in Armed Conflict†. Human Rights Quarterly Vol. 22 No. 1 pp 148-166 Geneva Convention Harding, Luke. (May 12, 2004)† Focus Shifts to Jail Abuse of Women.† The Guardian. Harding, Luke. (May 20, 2004) â€Å"Rape in Iraq: The other prisoners.† The Guardian. Isenberg, David. (Sept. 4, 2004) â€Å"A Fistful of Contractors: A Case For a Pragmatic Assessment of Private Military Companies in Iraq.† British American Security Information Council, Research Report. Kabbara, Rouba. (May, 29, 2004) â€Å"Human Rights Groups: Iraqi Women Raoed at Abu Ghraib Jail.† Peace Women Available online at: http://www.peacewomen.org/news/Iraq/May04/Women%20in%20Prison.html   Retrieved Deember 10 2007