Creation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Creation - Research Paper Example Conversely, the Buddhist worldview places little emphasis on the creation story and/or the understanding of such a concept as God; choosing instead to focus upon the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path as a means of personal enlightenment. However, it was ultimately stated by the Buddha that the world came into existence over the course of millions and millions of years in which life quite literally evolved within it. Rather than being spoken into existence within the space of a moment in time, the creation story of Buddhism is a seamless and continual loop of life death and rebirth that culminates in the world as we see it today (Schell 2). In such a way, there is not a definitive beginning or end to the earth and the life that it has. Conversely, the Christian approach has a definitive beginning and end. For this reason, the necessity of the faith to have a final rescuer, a redeemer, and a second coming is understood. Benstead, George. "Christian Creation Story." Innovations Learning - Welcome to Innovations Learning. N.p., 11  Apr.  2011. Web. 24  Feb.  2013.

Does the Cosby Show challenge conventional stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Does the Cosby Show challenge conventional stereotypes Essay From 1984 to 1992, The Cosby Show (starring comedian/actor/author Bill Cosby) aired on NBC television network. In the storyline , a black doctor and his family (his wife and five children) lived their everyday entertaining lives. Audiences worldwide watched daily to laugh and admire the African American family ; at the same time they began to ponder about the well-off family and what this said about the conventional black family to the world. Two models are most commonly usedâ€Å"the weak family model† and the â€Å"strong family model†, says Wynona Bryant -Williams Ph. D Director â€Å"with nothing in between. † However it was the weak family model that dominated the social sciences literature until the mid 1980s. (Williams) The Cosby’s set a high standard of the stability and lifestyle of the Black American family. A bold message to send, this also challenged the realism of American culture and how it depicted African Americans and their households. Small-time author Tiffany Frizzel had this to say: â€Å"To be perfectly honest, this show does not show typical life for the vast majority of this nations population. There are not many white children in this nation that have a doctor and a lawyer as parents so that criticism lacks substance and social research. Cosby always kept the show somewhat light-hearted and sometimes shied away from some key issues of the time period, but keep in mind that his name was on the program and everything was written as if the characters were sometimes walking on eggshells. † Apparently it was hard to accept that a black family did not have to struggle or stress. Why? Even though the family still had their household disputes and their lessons to learn , the idea that this particular family of color was doing so well was hard to take and swallow. For many observers, The Cosby Show was unique in other ways as well. For example, unlike many situation comedies, the program avoided one-liners, buffoonery and other standard tactics designed to win laughs. Instead, series writers remained true to Cosbys vision of finding humor in realistic family situations, in the minutiae of human behavior. Thus episodes generally shunned typical sitcom formulas by featuring, instead, a rather loose story structure and unpredictable pacing. Moreover, the soundtrack was sweetened with jazz, and the Huxtable home prominently featured contemporary African American art. Several observers described the result as classy. This project, of course, was not without its critics. Some observers described the show as a 1980s version of Father Knows Best, the Huxtables as a white family in blackface. The Huxtables affluence, they argued, worked to obscure persistent inequalities in Americaespecially those faced by blacks and other minority groupsand validate the myth of the American Dream. One audience study suggests that the show strikes a deal with white viewers, that it absolves them of responsibility for racial inequality in the United States in exchange for inviting the Huxtables into their living room. Meanwhile, the same study found that black viewers tend to embrace the show for its positive portrayals of blackness, but express misgivings about the Huxtables failure to regularly interact with less affluent blacks. For the black family sitting at home watching the show however; it was a revelation long anticipated. This motivated and challenged families to grow closer together. Single, married, and divorced individuals all could view their expectations for their family and their futures based on the uplifting obvious message being sent. For the African American culture , this was an epidemic that needed to expand in the mindsets of everyone else in the world. As far as â€Å"Black Americaâ€Å" was concerned; this was an illustrious thing. So what exactly is the difference between â€Å"Anticipated Black America† and â€Å"Conventional Black America†? E. Franklin Frazier’s â€Å"The Negro Family in the United† States supplied a model for the study of Blacks which emphasized family disorganization and dysfunction ,2 describing the black familys present condition of matriarchy, ineffective black males being marginal to the family, casual sex relations, and general dissolution of the black family to be caused by urbanization and the heritage of slavery. Fraziers work was used for the basis of Moynihans conclusions that identified Black matriarchal mothers as responsible for the breakdown and pathology of Black families (who, he claimed, were responsible for high rates of illegitimacy, delinquency, and unemployment)3. On national renown search engine â€Å"Yahoo. com†, when the words â€Å"negro† and â€Å"black† are entered into the search bar ; words such as unemployment, equality, broken homes, proportion, and black community are given as â€Å"helpful hints† to further specify your search criteria. This is not to say that yahoo alone is portraying this image. But it does conclude a point that this issue should very well be recognized. The mental attitude of the black family’s standards in present America are poor indeed when left up to some critics. Nonetheless, Black America is continuously upgrading and rebelling in all fields of education and occupation. Our greatest and highest recognized entertainers, scholars, preachers, political figures, and moguls are filled with African American people. Many inventions are in existence today because of African Americans. A Black figure is currently running for president of the country! The Cosby Show does not challenge Black America as much as it motivates and really disciplines the mentalities and ethics behind us. The show’s head writer ,John Marcus, had this to say regarding the co-writer and star of the show Bill Cosby: I think Bill knows that he has a power, and that he thinks of it very judiciously. He is conscientious and sensitive to the minds of people who watch the show. And he is very respectful of their intelligence, said Markus. He sees that a more powerful tool in education is to entertain and engage the audience in a delicate manner rather than to hammer home a message. We want to educate black America, but we never want to Sermonize. (1990) It was never the intention of the show nor the writers behind it to preach about high time living to the black families of America. Yet, it was extremely obvious that there was luxury behind the hard work, and it’d all came from the benefit of great education. In the series, Huxtable is a doctor married to an awfully attractive, independent minded, and intelligent woman who has become quite a successful and well established lawyer. His five children all attend school and his children eventually all attend college following after their parents, but with different career motives that they each discover throughout their development from children to young adults. The Cosby Show ’s family is fiction but based on a lifestyle that is meant to be lived and enjoyed by the Black families of America. With the right motivation and the desire to become educated and to fulfill their selves , anyone of any race could very well live a full life without much struggle. The Cosbys did not live without flaws and disappointments. But they dealt with it as a strong and confident family with the continuous support and love of each and every one of their family members. This is a message that needs to be spreaded more and more everyday. The Black family can better themselves if they can get together and make a change to better their mentalities and their environment as well. Following the Cosby’s example; the Black family can succeed. â€Å"If every parent in their community taught their children how to act and teach them the life lessons that they need to succeed. Wouldnt that as a whole help the black community, one family at a time? † This was the question asked in an online discussion about upraising of children in the black community. It begins at home. If we do not or refuse to maintain order at home, there will be none outside of our households. The Cosby Show displays for us that restrictions and rules set inside the house also better govern our black children as they are outside of the household or away from home. By laying down the law in the house, the children were not as in as much trouble as friends and classmates. This distinguished them from the other children in other families on the show as well. With rules came responsibility. According to Senior Magazine Online, as humans responsibility is given to us automatically â€Å"because we are a part of society. † It is also stated that â€Å" It is in this area that we seem to be losing our children. † The main focus within the Cosby family was, without any doubt, family. The family came first. Before work, before friends, and before the personal wants of any individual; the entire family came together and worked together to make their home the joyous place it was. It was stressed as an importance that everyone was responsible in remembering birthdays, talking to their parents about their issues, and continuously seeing that a personal (perhaps assigned) chore was completed everyday. In conclusion, the Cosby Show is due many thanks and many praises. It stands, even today, as a landmark of hope and inspiration for the Black family. Although there are many public voices that are motivating us to push forward and challenge ourselves to complete education and a fulfilling life; the Cosby Show had a powerful message that is not easily forgotten and forever appreciated. The family is the most important part of our foundation. When we look back at what helped us to grow, we should find our family. References 2008 Discussion on saving the Black Community. http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20070209125845AAYhqrg. 4 May E. Franklin Frazier (American Sociologist). The Negro Family in the United States. 1939 Interview with Head-writer of The Cosby Show, John Marcus. http://www. medialit. org/reading_room/article344. html (1990) Jhally, Sut, and Justin Lewis. Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1992. Senior Magazine Online. http://www. seniormag. com/caregiverresources/articles/caregiv Tiffany Frizzel quoted , The Internet Movie Database, http://us. imdb. com April Wynona Bryant- Williams Ph. D Director , ,http://www. blackperspective. com/pages/mag_articles/sum01_blackfamily. html erarticles/parenting/taking-reponsibility. htm

Nuclear Energy Essay -- Renewable Energy

Nuclear Energy Energy consumption has become a necessity and an important part of our daily life in the past 10 years. It seems that the world is looking for an energy source that is cleaner, cheaper and more efficient and since nuclear energy has emerged it has become the forerunner for alternative energy sources. ‘As of 2004, nuclear power provided 6.5% of the world's energy and 15.7% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for 57% of nuclear generated electricity’ (‘Nuclear energy facts’ 2007). Nuclear energy can be a doubled edged sword as it can be used for peaceful uses or used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction which can put the world in danger. As more countries begin to use nuclear energy, especially in the Middle East, fears of the countries in the west increases as they cannot be sure if their intentions are for peaceful uses or military uses. Many people argue that the main problem with nuclear power plants is the radioactive waste it leaves behind which have no use. ‘A typical nuclear power plant in a year generates 20 metric tons of used nuclear fuel. The nuclear industry generates a total of about 2,300 metric tons of used fuel per year’ (‘Nuclear Waste: Amounts and On-Site Storage’). There are mainly two types of radioactive wastes, low-level waste and high level waste. Low level wastes are ordinary items that come in contact with some radiation and are generated anywhere radioisotopes are used or produced such as a hospital. High level waste is the actual spent fuel, or the residual waste from reprocessing spent fuel. It takes ten of thousands of year for this for this waste to decay and be harmless to the environment, so it needs professional han... ...in the wrong hands it may lead to wars and disasters. If it is used properly, it can be an efficient source of energy in the future, treat and diagnose diseases and most important of all prevent wars. Works Cited http://www.our-energy.com/energy_facts/nuclear_energy_facts.html http://www.nei.org/resourcesandstats/nuclear_statistics/nuclearwasteamou ntsandonsitestorage/ http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Nuclear_energy http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/22745 http://www.ehow.com/about_5100776_disadvantages-nuclear-energy.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/np-risk.htm http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/chernobyl/inf07.html http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf55.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_%28microbiology%29

Media: The Fourth Pillar of Democracy Essay

Today, media is considered the fourth pillar of the state all over the world; first and foremost British Member of Parliament Lord Macaulay had given this status to the media. In any republican government system, there must be three administrative bodies, 1- Parliament, 2- Administrative department, 3- Judiciary body. In the absence of any of these three bodies, the government cannot run systematically, but now it is felt that one body more is necessary to be with them, that is media. This body is considered more important these days, it plays an important role as an informative bridge between governing bodies and general public, in absence of media general public cannot know about what kind of bills and acts are passed in the parliament, and what are their positive and negative effects in the society. If media person close their eyes the government officials will do what they want, so media plays a very important and impartial role between government activities and general public, so much so that it is said that the freedom of media is the guarantee of success for a government. Below mentioned are a few recent incidents in which media played a key role and established itself as the fourth pillar of democracy. Delhi Rape Case The media played an important part in raising a debate on women’s safety. As the news of the rape broke, the media went into frenzy, not just in tracking the case but in leading people to introspect. A responsible section of the media asked people to be part of radical reforms the country required while it continued to give expression to the public grief, the mourning and reconciliation as people watched in horror the victim’s final moments. As the movement to bring the gang rape victim to justice went viral, the nation saw a major protest that spread on streets across the country. The media extensively covered the demonstrations, following the protesters; giving their demands for justice a voice and bringing them to the centre of the political debate. It exposed the growing crime statistics, especially in Delhi, against women. The media led bare the growing frustrations of an entire emerging aspirational urban class and generation Rapes that are taking place are being continuously reported in major newspapers with more prominence than before, even though they are not always given the front page coverage. One is assured that the December 16 gang rape incident will continue to be a milestone when covering issues related to women’s safety. This movement goes to prove that the democracy’s fourth pillar can transform incidents of national shame to national justice by establishing confidence in institutions that have been created to protect the citizens of the country. The Anna Hazare Movement The news media, particularly, the TV channels have played a key role in keeping up the tempo of the movement by ensuring round the clock coverage, they ensured that the protests occured across the country and there was a mass frenzy. Even though the channels didn’t state much about merits and demerits of the proposed institution of Lokpal or educated citizens about the implications of the ombudsman, TV and newspapers were visibly the driving force behind the anti-corruption movement. The movement was a perfect example of how media can be used effectively. Though the propriety regarding active participation of news media in a movement is debatable, it is true to an extent that Indian media has voluntarily become a party, a sort of participant, in this drive for Jan Lokpal Bill. The Egyptian revolution The Egyptian revolution began on Facebook with a call to protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Protesters used Twitter to manoeuvre around police and reach the area. People arrived at the location expecting to see a few hundred like-minded individuals. Instead, they found a few hundred-thousand. Until they reached the square, Egyptian dissidents had no clue of their strength. It was a remarkable indication of the power of social networks as a political organizing tool, as has been seen in many uprisings sweeping North Africa and the Middle East. Around 20 million people in Egypt, or about one-quarter of the country’s population, are on the Internet. Early in the political unrest, the Egyptian government attempted to block Facebook and Twitter, then took the unprecedented step of shutting down Internet access in the country altogether. The cyberspace blackout lasted a week but could not thwart the revolution. President Hosni Mubarak stepped down a week later.

Cloud Computing Unit 2 Lab 1 Essay

If comparing the cloud solutions and services for businesses from Amazon, Google, and Rackspace. Amazon: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers. Amazon EC2 is simple web service interface allows you to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon’s proven computing environment. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use. Amazon EC2 provides developers the tools to build failure tough applications and isolate themselves from common failure scenarios that are common amongst other cloud providers. Amazon EC2 presents a true virtual computing environment, allowing you to use web service interfaces to launch instances with a variety of operating systems, load them with your custom application environment, manage your network’s access permissions, and run your image with the number of systems as you desire. The Amazon EC2 will provide some of the following features: Inexpensive – Amazon EC2 passes on to you the financial benefits of Amazon’s scale. You pay a very low rate for the compute capacity you actually consume. On-Demand Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour with no long-term commitments. Reserved Instances – Reserved Instances give you the option to make a low, one-time payment for each instance you want to reserve and in turn receive a significant discount on the hourly charge for that instance. Spot Instances – Spot Instances allow customers to bid on unused Amazon EC2 capacity and run those instances for as long as their bid exceeds the current Spot Price. The Spot Price changes periodically based on supply and demand, and customers whose bids meet or exceed it gain access to the available Spot Instances. Elastic – Amazon EC2 enables you to increase or decrease capacity within minutes, not hours or days. You can commission a variety of server instances simultaneously. Because this is all controlled with web service APIs, your applications can automatically scale itself up and down depending on its needs. Reliable – Amazon EC2 offers a highly reliable environment where replacement instances can be rapidly and predictably commissioned. The service runs within Amazon’s proven network infrastructure and datacenters. Secure – Amazon EC2 works in conjunction with Amazon VPC to provide security and robust networking functionality for your compute resources. Amazon Elastic Block Store – Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) offers persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EBS volumes are network-attached, and persist independently from the life of an instance. Amazon EBS volumes are highly available, highly reliable volumes that can be leveraged as an Amazon EC2 instance’s boot partition or attached to a running Amazon EC2 instance as a standard block device. EBS-Optimized Instances – For a low, additional, hourly fee, customers select Amazon EC2 instances types as â€Å"EBS-Optimized† instances. EBS-Optimized instances enable Amazon EC2 instances to fully utilize the IOPS provisioned on an EBS volume. EBS-Optimized instances deliver dedicated throughput between Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS, with options between 500 Mbps and 1000 Mbps depending on the instance type used. Multiple Locations – Amazon EC2 provides the ability to place instances in multiple locations. Amazon EC2 locations are composed of Regions and Availability Zones. Availability Zones are distinct locations that are engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones and provide inexpensive, low latency network connectivity to other Availability Zones in the same Region. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud – Amazon Virtual Private Cloud lets you provision a logically isolated section of the Amazon Web Services Cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that you define. You have complete control over your virtual networking environment, including selection of your own IP address range, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways. Amazon CloudWatch – Amazon CloudWatch is a web service that provides monitoring for AWS cloud resources and applications, starting with Amazon EC2. It provides you with visibility into resource utilization, operational performance, and overall demand patterns—including metrics such as CPU utilization, disk reads and writes, and network traffic. Google Cloud Connect: a free cloud computing plug-in for Windows Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 that can automatically store and synchronize any Microsoft Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or Excel spreadsheet to Google Docs in Google Docs or Microsoft Office formats. The Google Doc copy is automatically updated each time the Microsoft Office document is saved. Microsoft Office documents can be edited offline and synchronized later when online. Google Cloud Sync maintains previous Microsoft Office document versions and allows multiple users to collaborate, working on the same document at the same time. Google Cloud Connect was discontinued on April 30, 2013; former users are advised to migrate to Google Drive. This solution is, however, only available to paying users of Google Drive. Backup: Microsoft Office documents could be manually or automatically backed up to Google Docs each time they are saved locally. Synchronize: Changes made to an Office document on one computer can sync when the file is opened on another computer. Microsoft Office documents synced to Google Docs can be made accessible to one person. Microsoft Office documents synced to Google Docs can be made accessible only to selected people. A shared document can be set to only be viewed by others or edited as well. Documents synced to Google Docs can effectively be published by making them accessible to anyone. Multiple users can work on the same document at the same time. When one person edits a document, others sharing the document receive an email letting them know. Use Google Cloud Print to print to local or remote network connected printers. Allows you to compare the previous version is maintained allowing users to compare to older versions. Roll back allows users can go back to a previous version of the document. Green computing allows documents to be shared without printing or sending large files. Only links need be sent. Mobilize: Google Sync allows synced documents to be viewed and edited with most internet connected mobile devices. Storage: 5GB of Google Drive storage is included for free. Rackspace: The Rackspace public cloud gives you the tools you need—just sign up for a cloud account to get started. Plus, you can combine the quick, flexible deployment options of the public cloud with the security of private cloud and the performance of dedicated servers in the hybrid cloud. Using Rackspace cloud you have access to Linux and Windows servers with persistent local hard drives and optional managed services. MySQL Cloud Databases with 22.9% faster performance than RDS. High-performance SSD Block Storage and Cloud Files storage with CDN for fast global delivery of content. Software-defined networks for network isolation, performing packet filtering, and supporting broadcast/multicast. The Rackspace cloud has different variations including hybrid and private clouds. The Private cloud is a scalable cloud environment providing the agility and efficiency of a public cloud built on infrastructure dedicated exclusively for your organization. It can be hosted in your own data center, in a partner data center, or at Rackspace. Private clouds are ideal when you need to accelerate innovation, have large compute and storage requirements, or have very strict control, security, and compliance needs. Running a private cloud requires time and expertise. When you work with Rackspace, you get the ability to host in our data center, your data center, or a colocation facility, access to experts at the company that launched OpenStack with NASA, as much or as little support as you need. Quickly and easily provision infrastructure so you can scale up and down to meet business needs. Advanced functionality, including dynamic provisioning and workload balancing managed by Rackspace, allow you to avoid costly and time-consuming IT projects and maintenance. The Hybrid (public) cloud is it combines public cloud, private cloud, and dedicated bare metal computing and makes them work as one to: Fit your application, instead of forcing your application to fit it. Boost performance, security, and reliability while reducing costs because you use the right tool for the right job. It delivers an OpenStack-based platform for the flexibility you demand. Rackspace offers a range of hybrid cloud solutions, from out-of-the-box to highly customized.

Free Essays on Leadership Case Analysis

QUESTION #1: Compare and contrast the situations/circumstances used in the Hersey-Blanchard â€Å"Situational Leadership Model† with those of the Vroom-Jago Decision Tree Model. Will these two models suggest the same style of leadership for the same situations? Both models deal with the decision-making process. The Hersey-Blanchard theory has 4 leadership styles: telling, selling, participating, and delegating. These styles are determined by readiness levels and maturity of the workers. Telling is providing specific instructions and closely supervise performance. Selling is explaining decisions and provide opportunity for clarification. Participating is sharing ideas and facilitating in decision-making. Delegating is turning over responsibility for decisions and implementation. The Vroom-Jago Leadership Decision Tree focuses on different decision trees for individual and group decisions. The decision styles are autocratic, consultive, group, and delegative. With the Vroom-Jago model, you must consider these 3 elements: (1) specification of the criteria by which the decision effectiveness is judged, (2) a framework for describinb specific leader behaviors or styles, and (3) key diagnostic variables that describe important aspects of the leadership situation. In the Hersey model, a person that is high in job readiness has the knowledge and abilities to perfrom the job without a manager directing the work. Also, a person with high psychological readiness has self-motivation and put forth a high quality of work. The Vroom model deals with methods of approching the decision-making process and what leadership style would work the best based on the decisions. Sometimes there is no one way to solve a problem, but these models show that there is only one way to solve problems and gives managers to a â€Å"guide† to help make decisions. QUESTION #2: Using the Hersey-Blanchard, Vroom-Jago, and Fiedler models, determine which style of leadership shou... Free Essays on Leadership Case Analysis Free Essays on Leadership Case Analysis QUESTION #1: Compare and contrast the situations/circumstances used in the Hersey-Blanchard â€Å"Situational Leadership Model† with those of the Vroom-Jago Decision Tree Model. Will these two models suggest the same style of leadership for the same situations? Both models deal with the decision-making process. The Hersey-Blanchard theory has 4 leadership styles: telling, selling, participating, and delegating. These styles are determined by readiness levels and maturity of the workers. Telling is providing specific instructions and closely supervise performance. Selling is explaining decisions and provide opportunity for clarification. Participating is sharing ideas and facilitating in decision-making. Delegating is turning over responsibility for decisions and implementation. The Vroom-Jago Leadership Decision Tree focuses on different decision trees for individual and group decisions. The decision styles are autocratic, consultive, group, and delegative. With the Vroom-Jago model, you must consider these 3 elements: (1) specification of the criteria by which the decision effectiveness is judged, (2) a framework for describinb specific leader behaviors or styles, and (3) key diagnostic variables that describe important aspects of the leadership situation. In the Hersey model, a person that is high in job readiness has the knowledge and abilities to perfrom the job without a manager directing the work. Also, a person with high psychological readiness has self-motivation and put forth a high quality of work. The Vroom model deals with methods of approching the decision-making process and what leadership style would work the best based on the decisions. Sometimes there is no one way to solve a problem, but these models show that there is only one way to solve problems and gives managers to a â€Å"guide† to help make decisions. QUESTION #2: Using the Hersey-Blanchard, Vroom-Jago, and Fiedler models, determine which style of leadership shou...

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke Essays

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke Essays The Soldier by Rupert Brooke Paper The Soldier by Rupert Brooke Paper Essay Topic: Literature Even though seems like one, The Soldier by Rupert Brooke is not a war poem which stresses the hideousness of the war. Instead it is a patriotic poem, written on the way to the battle, which is a time when patriotism usually reaches the peak. The speaker, presumably the soldier, shows his eternal love to England, by personifying it as this protective, caring mother like figure. Throughout the sonnet the extended metaphor of England as a mother develops, and it helps Brooke to show his love and patriotism evidently. Definite article of The in the title The Soldier shows us that the poem will be about a specific soldier, and it deceives the readers by making them think it is a war poem. The first line gives us much information about the sonnet and the narrator, as it clarifies the question marks created by the title; If I should die, think only this of me I and me show that the reader is the soldier. In addition to that, it also shows that the speaker is alive and he is about to make his last wish. In the following two lines, the forever love for England is introduced for the first time. Besides, it indicates that the speaker is on his way to the war at a foreign field which contains an alliteration of f which draws attention to the idea of distant and strange place where he might not be welcomed, as foreign is a word with negative connotations such as, strange, outlandish and unfamiliar. Subsequent lines demonstrate the building up of patriotism as the speaker starts to show the influence of his country on him as a person. In what rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam These lines contain personification of England and some constant repetition to emphasize ideas. In the first line of those three lines, the repetition of rich catches attention and shows the richness of English soil and Englishmen, as he is referring to himself in the phrase richer dust. England, and everything related to her, is conveyed as this superior figure with the help of the comparative of the word rich which already is a superior word only as a nominative. The extended metaphor of England as a mother to the speaker is first introduced here. England gives birth to him, shapes him and makes him aware, in other words takes care of him and educates him, which is what mothers do. England has given the speaker everything he has and made him what he is, thus he feels like it is his duty to go protect his mother. He is also enthusiastic about the fact that he has the chance to give something back to his country after everything she gave him. Therefore, he sees the war as a good opportunity which illustrates the poets naivety towards the war which in reality is not a glorious situation. The last two lines of the first stanza, some religious references are used to show that England is this holy figure in the speakers life. A body of Englands, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. Washed by the rivers and blest by suns are strongly religious ideas. Washed and blest represent Christian baptism. Furthermore, air, sun and river represent the fundamental needs of life as well as being religious allusions. They are all granted to the speaker by England. The continuing personification of England, is linked to the extended metaphor hence helps the poet build up the mother like figure he created. Furthermore the poet draws this idyllic picture of England by using superior and pleasant words such as rich, river, and blest. The previous repetition of England and its belongings such as body of Englands and English air also help the poet illustrate the idealistic picture. In the sestet, there are no negative words; instead it is filled with positive and warm words. There are no war images at all. It focuses on the glory and honor of dying for ones country; therefore it is optimistic about dying in a battle, while fighting for your country. The sestet commences with the word And which reinforces the idea in the first line of the octet. The phrase And think gives the idea that he is trying to convince the reader that what he believes in, which is fighting and dying for your country, is true. To verify this idea, he expresses that if one will die for his country, his heart will be purified, which means that in death he will be purified from all mortal sins. Moreover, even though its jarring, the poet starts off the sentence with an And which is used to create the impact of this continuation idea as well as a link back to his original point which he makes at the beginning of the octet and gets ready to build his original point up. The continuation idea is related to the second line where he draws attention to the fact that even if he dies in the war, he will be remembered for what he has achieved and will keep on living as a heart beat in peoples thoughts and memories. The last three lines, is where the sonnet becomes optimistic and calm. The poet achieves this mood by using positive words such as; dreams, happy, laughter, friends, gentleness, hearts, peace and heaven. In addition to these optimistic words, the soft alliterations such as s sound and other sounds such as h and f sounds which are steady and calm, are used to emphasize the natural beauties of England. There is also the sense of success in these final lines. The poet is satisfied with the outcomes of the war, and doesnt regret it at all. Instead, he is pleased with his current feelings which celebrate the glory of England. There are religious allusions in the last two lines, just like there is at the end of the first stanza. Such words as, peace and heaven are religious. The phrase English heaven shows the reader that England is the holy side in this war. It also suggests that it s a good cause to side with England because then God will be on your side. Heaven is also a positive word which is linked to the general atmosphere of the war from the poets point of view. In addition, it indicates that soldiers who will die at a war, fighting for ones country, will go to heaven. Throughout this sonnet, the sincere and genuine tone was kept by the poet. He has full belief in the ideas he puts forward and argues them enthusiastically. Extreme patriotism is highlighted in this sonnet. The whole sonnet has an extended metaphor of England as the mot her of the speaker. She gave life to him, brought him up, and educated him. She provided him with the crucial needs of life and helped him survive like a mother would help her son. Because England was a mother to the speaker and she took care of him when he was young, he feels that it is his duty to protect England, his mother. Finally, to elucidate his message and his statement, Brooke chooses an unusual structure. Even though this piece is a sonnet there are no couplets, but it includes an octet and a sestet. The difference between them is that in the first stanza, the soldier describes his last will on his way to the war. The second stanza takes place in the future when he is dead and he describes what presumably will happen after hes gone. The traditional attitude, which is getting all patriotic about the war without questioning its causes and effects like this specific soldier, and the contrast in this stanza, is even though he dies, which is supposed to be a mournful event, to him it is something to be proud of, some sort of success and something which was crucial to accomplish.

Major General Henry Halleck in the Civil War

Major General Henry Halleck in the Civil War Henry Halleck - Early Life Career: Born January 16, 1815, Henry Wager Halleck was the son of War of 1812 veteran Joseph Halleck and his wife Catherine Wager Halleck. Initially raised on the family farm in Westernville, NY, Halleck quickly grew to detest the agricultural lifestyle and ran away at a young age. Taken in by his uncle David Wager, Halleck spent part of his childhood in Utica, NY and later attended Hudson Academy and Union College. Seeking a military career, he elected to apply to West Point. Accepted, Halleck entered the academy in 1835 and soon proved to be a highly gifted student. During his time at West Point, he became a favorite of noted military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan. Henry Halleck - Old Brains: Due to this connection and his stellar classroom performance, Halleck was permitted to give lectures to fellow cadets while still a student. Graduating in 1839, he placed third in a class of thirty-one. Commissioned as a second lieutenant he saw early service augmenting the harbor defenses around New York City. This assignment led him to pen and submit a document on coastal defenses entitled Report on the Means of National Defense. Impressing the US Armys senior-most officer, Major General Winfield Scott, this effort was rewarded with a trip to Europe to study fortifications in 1844. While abroad, the Halleck was promoted to first lieutenant. Returning, Halleck gave a series of lectures on military topics at the Lowell Institute in Boston. These were later published as Elements of Military Art and Science and became one of the key works read by officers in the coming decades. Due to his studious nature and his numerous publications, Halleck became known to his peers as Old Brains. With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, he received orders to sail for the West Coast to serve as an aide to Commodore William Shubrick. Sailing aboard USS Lexington, Halleck used the long voyage to translate noted theorist Baron Antoine-Henri Jominis Vie politique et militaire de Napoleon into English. Arriving in California, he initially was tasked with building fortifications, but later took part in Shubricks capture of Mazatln in November 1847. Henry Halleck - California: Brevetted to captain for his actions at Mazatln, Halleck remained in California after the wars conclusion in 1848. Assigned as military secretary of state for Major General Bennett Riley, governor of the California Territory, he served as his representative at the 1849 constitutional convention in Monterey. Due to his education, Halleck played a key role in shaping the document and was later nominated to serve as one of Californias first US Senators. Defeated in this effort, he helped found the law firm of Halleck, Peachy Billings. As his legal business increased, Halleck grew wealthy and elected to resign from the US Army in 1854. He married Elizabeth Hamilton, the granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, that same year. Henry Halleck - The Civil War Begins: An increasingly prominent citizen, Halleck was appointed a major general in the California militia and briefly served as president of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Halleck promptly pledged his loyalty and services to the Union cause despite his Democratic political leanings. Due to his reputation as a military scholar, Scott immediately recommended Halleck for appointment to the rank of major general. This was approved on August 19 and Halleck became the US Armys fourth-most senior officer behind Scott and Major Generals George B. McClellan and John C. Frà ©mont. That November, Halleck was given command of the Department of the Missouri and dispatched to St. Louis to relieve Frà ©mont. Henry Halleck - War in the West: A talented administrator, Halleck quickly reorganized the department and worked to expand his sphere of influence. Despite his organizational skills, he proved a cautious and difficult commander to serve under as he often kept plans to himself and seldom ventured from his headquarters. As a result, Halleck failed to cultivate relationships with his key subordinates and created an air of mistrust. Concerned about Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grants history of alcoholism, Halleck blocked his request to mount a campaign up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. This was overturned by President Abraham Lincoln and resulted in Grant winning victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in early 1862. Though troops in Hallecks department won a string of victories in early 1862 at Island No. 10, Pea Ridge, and Shiloh, the period was marred by constant political maneuvering on his part. This saw him relieve and reinstate Grant due to concerns over alcoholism as well as repeated attempts to enlarge his department. Though he played no active role in the fighting, Hallecks national reputation continued to grow due to the performance of his subordinates. In late April 1862, Halleck finally took to the field and assumed command of a 100,000-man force. As part of this, he effectively demoted Grant by making him his second-in-command. Moving cautiously, Halleck advanced on Corinth, MS. Though he captured the town, he failed to bring General P.G.T. Beauregards Confederate army to battle. Henry Halleck - General-in-Chief: Despite his less than stellar performance at Corinth, Halleck was ordered east in July by Lincoln. Responding to McClellans failure during the Peninsula Campaign, Lincoln requested that Halleck become the Union general-in-chief responsible for coordinating the actions of all Union forces in the field. Accepting, Halleck proved disappointing to the president as he failed to encourage the aggressive action that Lincoln desired from his commanders. Already hampered by his personality, Hallecks situation was made more difficult by the fact that many of his nominally subordinate commanders routinely ignored his orders and thought of him as nothing more than a bureaucrat. This proved the case in August when Halleck was unable to convince McClellan to rapidly move to Major General John Popes aid during the Second Battle of Manassas. Losing confidence after this failure, Halleck became what Lincoln referred to as little more than a first rate clerk. Though a master of logistics and training, Halleck contributed little in terms of strategic guidance to the war effort. Remaining in this post through 1863, Halleck continued to prove largely ineffective though his efforts were hampered by interference from Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. On March 12, 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and made Union general-in-chief. Rather than sack Halleck, Grant shifted him to the position of chief of staff. This change suited the studious general as it allowed him to excel in those areas which he was best suited. As Grant embarked on his Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee and Major General William T. Sherman began advancing on Atlanta, Halleck ensured that their armies remained well-supplied and that reinforcements found their way to the front. As these campaigns pushed forward, he also came to support Grant and Shermans concept of total war against the Confederacy. Henry Halleck - Later Career: With Lees surrender at Appomattox and the end of the war in April 1865, Halleck was given command of the Department of the James. He remained in this post until August when he was transferred to the Military Division of the Pacific after quarreling with Sherman. Returning to California, Halleck traveled to newly-purchased Alaska in 1868. The following year saw him return east to assume command of the Military Division of the South. Headquartered at Louisville, KY, Halleck died in this post on January 9, 1872. His remains were buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. Selected Sources Civil War Trust: Major General Henry W. HalleckCivil War: Henry HalleckNNDB: Major General Henry W. Halleck

Civil Proceedings - John Tobin and the Department of Industrial Assignment

Civil Proceedings - John Tobin and the Department of Industrial Accidents - Assignment Example The plaintiff seeks that his case should be remanded to a lower judge so that more evidence can be gathered related to the statute applicable to his case. In addition, he seeks to prove that he is entitled to receive social security benefits and employee pension despite being inactive for two years in the labour market. The employees appeal was submitted in and heard by a single judge in the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court upheld the orders of the reviewing board of the Department of Industrial Accidents. His request that this issue should be remanded to a lower judge for further consideration of evidence and findings stands rejected. Furthermore, the Court rejected the employees contention based on the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) (CASE). John Tobin started working as the custodian of Stoughton Police department in 1978. In 1988, he injured his shoulder while cleaning an overhead light fixture. Consequently, surgical procedures were performed on his shoulder; He received two payments out of the workers' compensation benefit on 15th October 1988 and 29th October 1991. John Tobin had been unemployed for two years and over the age of sixty-five by 29th October 1991 when he received the second payment. The administrative judge passed an order that John Tobin is not entitled to receive employee benefits. He appealed against the order to the reviewing board but two out of the three judges on board affirmed the orders passed by the administrative judge. The issues relate to whether John Tobin is entitled to receive employee benefits as he is above sixty-five years of age and has been out of labour market for over two years. Additionally, if he is entitled to receive compensation payments as he was injured prior to the amendment in the General Law, which laid down certain restrictions on compensation payments. The orders of the reviewing board were affirmed so they won this case. The Appeals Court rejected the employees argue that the General Laws c. 152, Â § 35 are in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution.

The payment is made as soon as the contract is signed Case Study

The payment is made as soon as the contract is signed - Case Study Example All of a sudden if Jason says he is insolvent, or even proves to be. Jim is the one who will be actually stuck in the entire situation. Jim is probably thinking, Jason's not going to pay him. In certain contracts, the payment is made as soon as the contract is signed. So there are two possibilities. One: If the payment has already been made to Jim, all he needs to worry about is that Jason, might not claim in court, that now that he is insolvent this contract is null and void and so he wants' the money back. Two: if the payment is yet to be made, then Jason will definitely want to not make the payment. Jim has the right to make his point in court in both the cases. What Jim needs to understand is the fact that under the JCT 05 Standard Form of Building Contract with Quantities contract. The general law, right to stop otherwise denies a contract can come up in a lot of situations. Initially, a single party can make it apparent that it has no intent of performing its part of the good deal. Secondly, that party might be responsible of such a grave violation of contract that it will be tackled as bearing no target of acting. An occurrence of this type is recognized by law as a repudiatory breach. In mutual cases, the innocent party has an alternative; either to confirm the contract also holds the additional party to its responsibilities at the same time as asserting costs as apt for the breach, or else to get the contract to an ending. If negation is decided on for, then both the parties are free from any more contractual compulsion to carry out.1Also Jim ought to know that not every breach is alike nor do the astringent parties essentially have the similar privileges for the diverse breaches. For instance if in a case a contractor is thrown out his job, the contractor may discover it the tough way that project financer acted irrationally plus used irrational force, moreover it may be acknowledged the one in defaulting.2If Jason gets in touch with Jim, this act will be then by action of law, and will take place where the accountable party has committed a basic infringe and the blameless party has then b y remark or act chosen to believe the refutation and finish the contract. In this case Jim will not be claiming any rights that he might have in this case. Jim should opt for a scenario wherein, he might have chances to claim his damages while at the same time abiding by his contractual commitment. It is vital that Jim as the innocent party ascertains evidently the lawful base for this path of action. More significantly, it ought to be esteemed that the distressed party is forever permitted to seek alternative for a specific violation through an action in indemnity. If Jason does terminate the, it would hence, be the last option, wherever any possible quantum of payment in the shape of a grant for damages is expected to be inadequate to give good reason for the continuation of the focused agreement. Jim has by law the right, to claim for damages while any breach of contract can give rise to a claim for damages, because the evasion by Jason would be specifically of a very grave or essential nature. Jim can claim his right to the damages. It would be wiser to wait and see what Jason's next step will be and decide accordingly in light of a ll above given advice. Section 2) The statement tort is derivative from the

Role of Emotional Intelligence and Gender in an Organizations Essay

Role of Emotional Intelligence and Gender in an Organizations Leadership Styles - Essay Example This paper illustrates that some people believe that leaders are born whereas others are of the view that leaders are developed. In any case, it is a fact that genetics and environment play vital roles in shaping leadership styles of a person. It is not necessary that children of leaders may always become leaders or children of workers may not become leaders. Emotional intelligence and gender are two decisive factors which can influence leadership qualities in one way or another. According to Cherry, â€Å"Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic†. In any case, it is a fact that the leadership qualities of a person have strong associations with his emotional intelligence. People with weak emotional quotient may not function effectively when crisis situations develop whereas people with high emotional intelligence may not lose their temper and patience when the organization faces crisis situations. Same way, the manner in which a female leader reacts to a crisis situation need not be the same as male leader reacts to same situations. This paper analyses the role of emotional intelligence and gender in shaping leadership styles of different people in different organizations. The competition between Microsoft and Apple Inc. for domination in computer and consumer electronics market has caught the attention of many business pundits. 1980’s and 90’s were challenging periods for Apple and many people thought that Apple computers are on the verge of destruction. Microsoft did succeed in monopolizing operating system market during this period with the introduction of their window-based operating system for personal computers. On the other hand, Apple’s Macintosh operating system failed to make many waves in the market.

Le Corbusier and Modern Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Le Corbusier and Modern Architecture - Essay Example From the very beginning of his life, Le Corbusier was interested in art. He studied at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School in Switzerland under Charles L'Eplattenier and architect Ren Chapallaz. The influence of both these people is visible in the earliest works of Le Corbusier. In 1907, after extensively touring Europe, he worked in the office of Augeste Perret, the pioneer of reinforced concrete. Having gained experience there for three years, he moved to the office of Peter Behrens in Germany. During this period, he met a lot of influential architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, the effects of which can be seen in his works. In 1912, Le Corbusier returned to La Chaux-de-Fonds to teach along with his former teacher L'Eplattenier and to begin his own practice and continued doing this during the course of World War 1. The first works of Le Corbusier show that he was very close to nature. Before he set out on his travel in 1907, he completed his first project, Villa Pallet. During the World War when he was working in Switzerland, he formulated various theories on modern architecture, emphasizing on structural frame of reinforced concrete. This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs supported by a minimal number of thin, reinforced concrete columns around the edges, with a stairway providing access to each level on one side of the floor plan. This became the basic concept for most of his future projects. Le Corbusier envisaged it as an affordable, prefabricated system for the construction of new housing in the wake of World War I's destruction. Developed with the help of partners, Max Dubois and, Perret, the system differed from the then standard Hennibique frame in its idealization of floors as flat slabs without exposed beams. Its columns were perfectly straight posts without capitals, set in from the edge of the slab. This system freed both exterior and interior walls from all structural constraints. Le Corbusier moved to Paris after the war ended. Here he worked concrete structures under government contracts and ran a small brick manufacture, but he dedicated most of his time trying to perfect his skills in the discipline of painting. Purism: The Artistic Movement In 1918, Le Corbusier along with disillusioned Cubist painter, Amde Ozenfant was instrumental in terming the movement Cubism as "irrational and romantic". His book entitled "Apres le cubisme", advocates his stand. Le Corbusier orchestrated a movement called Purism, which called for the restoration of the integrity of the object in art. Ozenfant and Jeanneret established the Purist journal "L'Esprit Nouveau". Between 1918 and 1922, Le Corbusier built nothing, concentrating his efforts on Purist theory and painting. In 1922, Le Corbusier and Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris. "Anyone could reinvent oneself": Pseudonym Adopted In 1920, the name Le Corbusier appeared in his journal, an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, "Lecorbsier". This change of name reflected his belief that "anyone could reinvent oneself". Initial Projects Maison "Citrohan" Le Corbusier tried to design single-family house models. Le

Treatment of sepsis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Treatment of sepsis - Research Paper Example International campaigns to improve outcomes have emerged based upon the efforts of 11 different organizations in the guise of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. An international effort to increase awareness and improve outcome in severe sepsis. On the agenda are data from hospitals around the world, where the condition has been tackled by decades of dedicated work from a variety of researchers. Sepsis and related disorders are potentially life-threatening syndromes that occur in association with a suspected infections whose signs and symptoms match at least two conditions of a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). The major SIRS conditions are an increased heart rate, fever, and rapid respiration; the young and the elderly often exhibit early signs and symptoms of sepsis sometimes before exhibiting the full scope of SIRS criteria. The majority of sepsis cases are the result of bacterial infection. Those hospitalized with sepsis are treated with intravenous antibiotics, and therapy to alleviate organ dysfunction. (Davis & Stà ¶ppler, 2011) Sepsis and systemic inflammation that arises as a result are still responsible for as much as 70% of mortality in some intensive care units. (Reidemann et al. 2003) The mortality rate of severe sepsis includes organ dysfunction as a result of infection or subsequent failure in blood pressure and septic shock. This is in cases where hypotension does not respond to fluid resuscitation and correlates with organ dysfunction or blood pressure issues is too high by the standards of any medical practitioner. (Dellinger et al. 2004) Even before signs of organ failure, the odds of mortality can still reach up to 30%. Prevention of infections in the first place and the expedient diagnosis and treatment of sepsis are the best ways to prevent sepsis and moderate sepsis syndromes. The prognosis depends on severity of sepsis, and can change rapidly unless answered with swift, effective treatment. Also influential is the underlying

Le Corbusier and Modern Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Le Corbusier and Modern Architecture - Essay Example From the very beginning of his life, Le Corbusier was interested in art. He studied at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School in Switzerland under Charles L'Eplattenier and architect Ren Chapallaz. The influence of both these people is visible in the earliest works of Le Corbusier. In 1907, after extensively touring Europe, he worked in the office of Augeste Perret, the pioneer of reinforced concrete. Having gained experience there for three years, he moved to the office of Peter Behrens in Germany. During this period, he met a lot of influential architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius, the effects of which can be seen in his works. In 1912, Le Corbusier returned to La Chaux-de-Fonds to teach along with his former teacher L'Eplattenier and to begin his own practice and continued doing this during the course of World War 1. The first works of Le Corbusier show that he was very close to nature. Before he set out on his travel in 1907, he completed his first project, Villa Pallet. During the World War when he was working in Switzerland, he formulated various theories on modern architecture, emphasizing on structural frame of reinforced concrete. This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs supported by a minimal number of thin, reinforced concrete columns around the edges, with a stairway providing access to each level on one side of the floor plan. This became the basic concept for most of his future projects. Le Corbusier envisaged it as an affordable, prefabricated system for the construction of new housing in the wake of World War I's destruction. Developed with the help of partners, Max Dubois and, Perret, the system differed from the then standard Hennibique frame in its idealization of floors as flat slabs without exposed beams. Its columns were perfectly straight posts without capitals, set in from the edge of the slab. This system freed both exterior and interior walls from all structural constraints. Le Corbusier moved to Paris after the war ended. Here he worked concrete structures under government contracts and ran a small brick manufacture, but he dedicated most of his time trying to perfect his skills in the discipline of painting. Purism: The Artistic Movement In 1918, Le Corbusier along with disillusioned Cubist painter, Amde Ozenfant was instrumental in terming the movement Cubism as "irrational and romantic". His book entitled "Apres le cubisme", advocates his stand. Le Corbusier orchestrated a movement called Purism, which called for the restoration of the integrity of the object in art. Ozenfant and Jeanneret established the Purist journal "L'Esprit Nouveau". Between 1918 and 1922, Le Corbusier built nothing, concentrating his efforts on Purist theory and painting. In 1922, Le Corbusier and Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris. "Anyone could reinvent oneself": Pseudonym Adopted In 1920, the name Le Corbusier appeared in his journal, an altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, "Lecorbsier". This change of name reflected his belief that "anyone could reinvent oneself". Initial Projects Maison "Citrohan" Le Corbusier tried to design single-family house models. Le

Essay on the book Christianity in the first three centuries by Adolf

On the book Christianity in the first three centuries by Adolf Harnack - Essay Example Thus, the religion of Christianity has â€Å"become a power† (Harnack 312). Initially, Christianity has been known as a part of Judaism; subsequently, it has become one of the most dominant religions in the world. In its evaluation as a popular religion, it has attained a powerful grip on humanity. Harnack, by analyzing both historical developments of dogma and of the relation of the church to the state, along with missionary movement of Christians, investigates the expansion of this religion. Christianity has received a strong foundation to grow and the time too has been perfect in a certain sense, despite the stiff oppositions, constant attacks, enemies, unfavorable rulers and authorities. Harnack’s work is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the humble but dynamic beginning, with the background of Judaism, and the emergence of Jewish religion. Then it goes on to the mission, consequently segregating from the mainstream. The second section concer ns with the contents of the message that influenced the Christians with such a powerful force. The third section dwells on different methods employed, and hostility suffered in the voyage of the mission until it attained the recognition of the masses. This paper offers a critical analysis of Harnack’s work in relation to the mission and the expansion of Christianity. Review: Right at the beginning, in Book 1, Harnack brings to the attention of his audience Christianity’s germination on the fertile land of Jews and examines how it has fared then on. The context has remained favorable for Christianity’s growth. Jewish foothold has been very firm and their propaganda profound. Judaism gradually kept transforming in a philosophical context. However, afterwards, the religion has â€Å"presented itself in the eyes of the law and the authorities as a religion distinct from that of Judaism, its character as a religio illicita was assured† (Harnack 302). Simultane ously, the religion has blended itself into the lives and other aspects of the society in the east. This was syncretism, which looked like a unity from distance but is heterogenous in reality. When â€Å"Christianity came to formulate ideas of God, Jesus, sin, redemption, and life, it drew upon the materials acquired in the general process of religious evolution standing against polytheism.† Harnack showed that Jesus’ preaching and works are the base for further mission work and the impulse given by His genuineness worked as its spirit. The earliest followers, especially Paul, got this profound consciousness of being an apostle to the world. He was driven till the western ends of Roman Empire. The transition from Jewish mission to gentile mission is clearly shown by Harnack. In between, he argues against the Jews’ evilness and unworthiness of God’s grace. He takes it to extremes. In the gospels, first of all, one can find the obligation to go to the Jews and then the Gentiles. Jesus, however, did not give an explicit command for this, which remained further a field to think upon. However, His message was for the whole humanity. Harnack depicted Christianity as a syncretistic religion. But it is not clear to what extent this syncretism or the acceptance of ideas from others, and employing them for own understanding, was present in the words of Jesus and the

The Journals of Lewis and Clark Essay Example for Free

The Journals of Lewis and Clark Essay The book â€Å"The Journals of Lewis and Clark,† as edited by John Bakeless and written by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, chronicles the various events that Lewis and Clark experienced during the exploration of some Western territories. Lewis and Clark both wrote down notes through their journals about their various experiences during their journey. The first journal entry, dated May 13, 1804, was written by Clark upon his correspondence with Lewis to join the expedition to explore some territories in the West. Clark was able to contribute to the needed provisions for the exploration. The succeeding journal entries were both written by Lewis and Clark, which detailed daily weather conditions, problems or difficulties they have encountered through their transport in a barge, relations and discussions with the commanding officer and his men, the places they have passed, the food they ate, the geographical and topographical details and conditions of the places they have seen and camped in, and so on. (Bakeless, Lewis, Clark, 2002) Aside from the journals written by Lewis and Clark, Bakeless has included numerous notes to explicate further some of the details in the journals that might be foreign to the readers. Since the book was a reissue or a reprint of the original manuscripts, Bakeless made it a point that there would be new information or details, which would allow the readers to understand deeply the relevance or significance of reading about Lewis and Clarks experiences during the expedition. For instance, Bakeless has included notes on the meaning of some of the abbreviated words written by Lewis and Clark, such as â€Å"Starboard† for the â€Å"S. S. † abbreviations, â€Å"Larboard† for â€Å"L. S. ,† and so on. (Bakeless, Lewis, Clark, 2002) Furthermore, some of the words and details found in the original transcript of the journals of Lewis and Clark during their expedition were wearisome, uninteresting, and sometimes difficult to understand. In this reprint of the original transcripts, Bakeless has successfully edited out some of the details and changed some of the words to provide a clear and concise transcript on the expedition of Lewis and Clark. With regards to the embedded messages in the book based on the statements of the author, Bakeless sought to provide the readers with an understandable and comprehensible text that the readers would be able to relate to as opposed to earlier prints of the original transcripts that were uninteresting and incomprehensible. Although there was a need to simplify or abridge the original transcripts of Lewis and Clark’s journals, Bakeless believed that there was also a similar need to preserve the information and thoughts written by Lewis and Clark in their journals in order to provide a vivid or lucid picture on what both explorers had to go through in order to explore the unchartered territories of the West and be able to contribute to social and cultural development. This was Bakeless’ response to the numerous attempts to recreate the expedition of Lewis and Clark through other books and documentaries, such as â€Å"Lewis Clark: The Great Journey West,† (Meehan, Miller, Truitt, Neibaur, 2002) which seemed to him as lacking in comprehensive and relevant information. (Bakeless, Lewis, Clark, 2002) With Lewis and Clark, both explorers understood the need to take down notes during the expedition as a means of reference as contributions to history and archaeology, and human knowledge as a whole, and as notes that shall allow them to remember the events that happen to substantiate how they were able to accomplish the goals and objectives of the expedition in relation to the Louisiana Purchase under the supervision and control of the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine was a political maneuver by James Monroe for the purpose of acquiring foreign territories by strengthening international relations with other nations. (Leavitt, 1863) Since the book contains journals written personally by Lewis and Clark throughout their expedition, judging the existence of biased opinions in the entries is difficult to determine. The entries were retelling of the various events experienced by Lewis and Clark during their expedition. Their narratives and thoughts were based on their personal points of views, perspectives, and interpretations, but they were also based on what they have seen through their observations. Furthermore, Lewis and Clark would have written the journal as a means to present a clear, descriptive, and somewhat scientific account of the things, people, places, situations, etc. that they have encountered during the expedition to the administrator or director of the expedition upon their arrival. Therefore, the thoughts, ideas, and opinions written by Lewis and Clark in the book were influenced by both their own perspectives and personal interpretations, as well as the goals and objectives of the expedition to gather comprehensive and detailed information on the unchartered territories in the West, which was later purchased by America from France (Leavitt, 1863). On the other hand, the ideas included by Bakeless in the book were unbiased or impartial since they were substantiations or explications of the information and details, written in the journal entries of Lewis and Clark, based on further research on the Lewis and Clark expedition including perhaps the documentary previously mentioned, â€Å"Lewis and Clark: The Great Journey West† (Meehan, Miller, Truitt, Neibaur, 2002) and further readings on the Louisiana Purchase and the Monroe Doctrine. As previously mentioned, Bakeless was able to provide unbiased, reliable, and valid information in his inclusion of notes and substantiations on the information and ideas presented by Lewis and Clark in their journals by utilizing other books, research studies, and reputable online sites, which presented factual and comprehensive information on the expedition of Lewis and Clark. Most of the references used were books written by other authors on the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Monroe Doctrine, and other scientific substantiations of what Lewis and Clark saw in their journey. Bakeless was able to use relevant and valid information in order to provide the readers with complete information on the journey of Lewis and Clark. Bakeless’ contributions to the journals of Lewis and Clark was extremely important in helping readers understand what both explorers wrote and grasping the significance of the expedition through Bakeless’ inclusion of information regarding the Louisiana Purchase and the Monroe Doctrine, as well as the implications of what Lewis and Clark discovered and the results or outcomes of these discoveries to the history of mankind. By and large, the contributions of Bakeless to the reissue of the journals of Lewis and Clark were extremely important. Bakeless’ arguments on the necessity to provide a piece of information that comes directly from Lewis and Clark themselves, consequently providing readers with a vivid picture of the entire expedition, without extracting the essence of the journal entries, have made the book an important reference for readers who would want to learn about Lewis and Clark’s journey in the West. The book as edited by Bakeless and written by Lewis and Clark is a must read for everyone, especially those in search of information on the Monroe Doctrine, Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, and the expedition itself, as well as those who are looking for a book that portrays a factual and scientific adventure into the once unchartered territories of the United States of America. References Bakeless, J. , Lewis, M. Clark, W. (2002). The Journals of Lewis and Clark. New York, NY: Signet Classic. Leavitt, J. 1863. The Monroe Doctrine. Harvard University. Meehan,E. , Miller, J. T. , Truitt, L. (Producer) Neibaur, B. (Director). (2002). Lewis Clark: Great Journey West [Documentary]. United States: National Geographic Television.

Incorporating Telemedicine into a Surgical Practice

Incorporating Telemedicine into a Surgical Practice Kristen Harkey Complex wounds can create a challenge for the patient as well as the surgeon. The challenges faced include operative management, cosmesis, long-term management, effects on lifestyle for patient and caregiver, and self-image (Park, Copeland, Henry Barbul, 2010). Hospitalized patients will have the surgical team, the wound care specialist, and a bedside nurse to assist them in their daily care. When these patients are ready to leave the hospital they can feel anxiety about providing care for themselves, especially if they have a complex wound present. This anxiety can decrease once they learn how to care for themselves at home while having the readily available supplies, but then they must leave their homes to travel to come to the surgical office for a wound check. This can be a burden to not only the patient but their primary caregiver. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an evidence-based change project that focuses on providing patients with the option of telemedicine office visits. Background In 2010, approximately 51.4 million inpatient surgeries were performed in the US according to the National Center for Health Statistics (CDC/NCHS, 2010). Wound complications can be an important cause of postoperative morbidity following a laparotomy (Mizeell, Sanfrey, Collins, 2014). Acute wound care is needed in all patients with surgical and traumatic wounds, when an incision is made this creates a wound which will need further attention. There are a multitude of ways to address these wounds such as wet to dry dressings, dry packing strips, wound vac systems, and if needed further surgery such as a skin graft. These wounds can then become chronic when they have failed to proceed through the reparative process to produce anatomic and functional integrity in 12 weeks (Sen, 2009). Both acute and chronic wounds can become a significant financial burden on both the healthcare system and the patient’s themselves. Significance With the sheer number of surgeries listed above, this will create wounds that need to be managed appropriately. Not only are wounds created by surgery, they can also be created by trauma or massive soft tissue infections (Park, Copeland, Henry Barbul, 2010). Part of this management may be further surgical interventions to restore the fascia or possibly watchful waiting. In our facility in 2014, 3349 patients were evaluated by our wound care specialist. Of these 695 patients had surgically created wounds and approximately 656 were managed with wound vacs (G. Caldwell, personal communication, January 20, 2015). These patients will need to be followed in the outpatient setting for ongoing wound assessments, possible change in wound management, or further surgical intervention if indicated. The outpatient care to these patients will include discussions on proper nutrition to promote wound healing, activity levels, timing of dressing changes, and ongoing assessments of the wounds. It can create a significant burden to patient and caregiver to travel to office visits for ongoing assessment of the wounds which can take as little as ten to fifteen minutes to examine once they have arrived back to the exam room. This short office visit can create a significant burden to the patient and their caregiver, this burden can include ability to keep themselves clean throughout the trip, financial, and time-strain. PICO Question and Components Evidence-based practice (EBP) can be described as a â€Å"life-long problem solving approach to clinical decision-making that involves the conscientious use of the best available evidence with one’s own clinical expertise and patient values and preferences to improve outcomes for individuals, groups, communities, and systems† (Melnyk Fineout-Overholt, 2011). EBP will help to ensure high quality, safe, relevant, and up-to-date care while at the same time improving patient outcomes (Robb Shellenbarger, 2014). One of the ways to create EBP in a way that will yield the most relevant information from a search is to form a question in the PICOT format. The PICOT format is composed of the following: â€Å"P† will describe the patient population, â€Å"I† will reveal the intervention or issue of interest, â€Å"C† will reveal the comparison intervention or status, â€Å"O† will reveal the outcome, and â€Å"T† will reveal the time frame in w hich the intervention/issue of interest will accomplish the outcome (Melnyk Fineout-Overholt, 2011). For the purpose of this paper, the author will include all components listed except for time which will be addressed at another juncture. Population The population of focus will be outpatient postoperative patients in the home health setting. The patient population will be those with acute/chronic wounds, ages eighteen and up, both male and female patients with no restrictions on ethnicity. The wounds will likely be compromised of complex abdominal wounds, however no limit will be placed on the type/cause of the wound. The patient’s will live in North Carolina or South Carolina and reside within a 4 hour drive from Charlotte, NC. No restrictions will be placed on the agency providing home health services to the patient. Intervention Telemedicine is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the practice of healthcare using video, interactive audio, and/or data communications (Chanussot-Deprez Contreras-Ruiz, 2008). With the use of telemedicine the patients will be able to stay in their own home. This will also provide an enhanced team based approach because we will have both the patient, patient’s caregiver if applicable, and the home health nurse. This will provide accurate documentation of wound measurements. The appropriate wound care will then be provided by the home health nurse, and if applicable the wound vac will be re-applied. Comparison The comparison group will be a standard office visit. The standard office visit will consist of the patient and their caregiver coming to our surgical practice, in one of our two locations. The patient will be required to wait for their appointment time and wait as required for the provider to see them. If a wound vac is present, this will be removed in the office and will not be re-applied per standard operating procedures. The patient will have a temporary dressing replaced and will then need the home health nurse to come to their home upon their arrival to re-apply the wound vac. This consists of a standard office visit in our practice. Outcome The anticipated outcome, will be no effect on wound healing when using telemedicine. For the practitioner, one important aspect of examination of the wound is not only using your sense of sight but also your sense of smell. The smell of a wound can be indicative of necrotic tissue that requires further debridement or possibly a wound infection. This sense will be missing with telemedicine and the practitioner will need to rely heavily on the home health nurse for this aspect of assessment. Another outcome for this study will be increased patient satisfaction. The patient with a complex abdominal wound may have difficulty at baseline maintaining adequate coverage for the drainage, this is more of a challenge when you add frequent position changes associated with traveling to a health care provider’s office. In summary, a postoperative surgical patient will require care for the surgical wound in an outpatient setting. This care can be frustrating for the patient, the patient’s caregiver, and the home health nurse. With the addition of telemedicine to a surgical practice this will decrease the burden of traveling to a standard office visit as well as enhance multi-disciplinary care for the patient. It is the hope of the author that for complex wounds that remain difficult to manage in the outpatient setting, the inpatient wound ostomy nurses who provided care inpatient will be able to assist more in the outpatient setting by providing continuity of care. Conclusion With every surgery performed a resultant wound is created. Wounds can also be created by trauma or massive necrotizing soft tissue infections (Park, Copeland, Henry Barbul, 2010). The surgical wound can heal without difficulty and the patient returns to his activities of daily living, however a multitude of wound complications can occur delaying wound healing. Some wound complications will require further surgery, however due to the nature of these wounds surgery may need to be delayed for up to one year or longer. This can cause caregiver strain and for the patient can take away many of the freedoms we enjoy on a daily basis. As part of a standard office visit the patient is expected to arrange transportation to our office, wait for his/her appointment time, have their wound examined, and then if a wound vac is used they are expected to have this re-applied when they get back to their home by the home health nurse. With the addition of telemedicine to the patient’s postopera tive care, they would be able to have a multidisciplinary team visit them in the home using telemedicine resources. This would significantly decrease the burden travel can create for these patients with complex wounds. References CDC/NCHS National Hospital Discharge Survey (2010). Retrieved from  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhds/4procedures/2010pro4_numberprocedureage.pdf Chanussot-Deprez, C. Contreras-Ruiz, J. (2008). Telemedicine in wound care. International  Wound Journal, 5(5), 651-654. Melnyk, B. Fineout-Overholt, E. (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing healthcare: A  guide to best practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer|Lippincott Williams   Wilkins. Mizell, J., Sanfrey, H., Collins, K. (2014). Complications of abdominal surgery. Retrieved  from http://www.uptodate.com. Park, H., Copeland, C., Henry, S., Barbul, A. (2010). Complex wounds and their  management. The Surgical Clinics of North America, 90(6), 1181-1194.  doi: 10.1016/j.suc.2010.08.001 Rob, M., Shellenbarger, T. (2014). Strategies for searching and managing evidence-based  practice resources. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(10), 461-466. Sen, C. K., Gordillo, G. M., Roy, S., Kirsner, R., Lambert, L., Hunt, T. K., Longaker, M. T.  (2009). Human skin wounds: A major and snowballing threat to public health and the  economy. Wound Repair Regeneration, 17(6), 763-771. doi:10.1111/j.1524-475X.2009.00543.x Incorporating Telemedicine into a Surgical Practice Incorporating Telemedicine into a Surgical Practice Kristen Harkey Imagine presenting to the hospital for your planned cesarean section, a time of great anxiety and joy. During the procedure you unfortunately have a complication and an enterotomy (cut into the intestines) is made, but missed at the time. Hours later you develop increasing abdominal pain and a rash spreads quickly across your abdomen. Your healthcare providers explain you have an infection called necrotizing fasciitis and this requires further surgery to treat the condition. The individual then wakes up possibly weeks later with most of their abdominal wall, upper thigh skin, some muscle layers missing of both the abdomen and thigh, as well as stool draining from the middle of the wound. The individual is informed they have an enterocutaneous fistula that will likely not be able to be repaired for several months to a year. This person is finally able to transition home with their newborn, a gaping abdominal wound, stool draining from the wound, not allowed to have anything to eat or drink, and are attached to intravenous nutrition twenty-four hours a day. This would be overwhelming for the most health literate patient, much less an individual with limited resources and low health literacy. Our health can change quickly with an unexpected surgery that causes a complex surgical wound. This wound must be monitored closely in the outpatient setting to prevent further complications including loss of limb or possibly life. Typically the patient’s wound care has been provided in the home by a home health nurse. Subsequently the patient and family caregiver are then expected to travel to the doctor’s office for intermittent follow-up examinations of the wound over a weekly to monthly schedule which could last up to one year or more postoperatively. Leaving the patient’s home with these complex wounds can be a burden due to factors such as increased pain, time-consumption, financial costs, and possible embarrassment if the wound or ostomy appliance leaks. Some of this burden could be relieved with virtual visits. Overview of Problem of Interest In the United States 6.5 million individuals are affected with chronic wounds that require ongoing care (Sen et al., 2009). Patients are expected to travel to their healthcare provider’s office for follow-up examinations and sometimes this requires a long care ride, wait in the office, and then travel home. It is difficult to maintain a dressing on the wound in the most basic of circumstances, such as during times of everyday activity in their home. With the addition of traveling this can become an overwhelming and untidy endeavor while the healthcare provider will likely only spend minutes examining you. Due to this some patients will not come to their follow-up appointment and this can be detrimental to their health by prolonging wound healing, increasing risk for infection, and delay future surgical repairs. When the individual is at home, they require home health services for ongoing wound care as well as provision of supplies. The home health nurse sees the patient on a m ore regular basis than the healthcare provider and will call the providers’ office with important changes they note. Unfortunately this process may take several phone calls which takes valuable time for the home health nurse and increases wait time for care of the patient. Most patients have an expectation that surgery will help them heal or cure their disease. Unfortunately approximately 22% of patients may experience moderate to complete postoperative disability (Shulman et al., 2015). Home health nursing will provide some relief for the patient and a multidisciplinary approach is necessary to manage complex treatment modalities (Wilkins, Lowery, Goldfarb, 2007). In Carolinas Medical Center Main in 2014, 3229 patients had wound care provided by our wound ostomy care nurse team and of those 820 were surgical patients (G. Caldwell, personal communication, January 25, 2015). These are many of the patients that require ongoing care in the outpatient setting to prevent further complications. In the United States (US) in 2000, forty million inpatient surgical procedures were performed and at that time the need for post-surgical wound care was sharply on the rise (Chittoria, 2012). In the US the amount of money spent on wound care, diminished quality of life, and the loss of productivity for the individual and caregiver comes at a great cost to our society (Sen et al., 2009). Therefore it is in our best interest as providers to provide safe and effective care to our patients in the most convenient format for both the patient, caregiver, home health nurse, and the healthcare provider. Review of Literature One of the first steps to address a problem is reviewing evidence available to support the proposed intervention. Virtual care is currently being used in many different platforms such as urgent care, psychiatric care provided in ER’s, preventing readmissions in heart failure patients, and many other venues. The examination of acute and chronic wounds is one venue that has found success. In the plastic surgery population where visual exam is heavily relied upon for decision-making, telemedicine has been shown to have great potential. Gardiner and Hartzell (2012) performed a systematic review of twenty-nine articles. Twenty-eight of the articles noted a benefit including improved access to expertise and cost reduction through conserving hospital resources and avoiding unnecessary transfers (Gardiner Hartzell, 2012). Wallace, Hussain, Khan and Wilson (2012) had similar findings in the burn population where they noted improved assessment and triage, avoidance of unnecessary trans fers and a potential for health care savings when using virtual care. In the trauma population a 90% accuracy was noted in assessing traumatic plastic surgery injuries whether the practitioner was using bedside visual exam or transmitted digital images (Gardiner Hartzell, 2012). Wilkins, Lowery, and Goldfarb (2007) used their initial investigation to determine the feasibility of virtual wound care and then moved forward with performing a pilot study using a store and forward technique. At the time of initial referral the mean wound surface area was noted to be 5.85 cm2. Using virtual care the authors noted in 58.2% of the wounds, the diagnosis or treatment plan was changed. This change in diagnosis or treatment plan resulted in an average decrease of 58% from the initial wound size over an average time period of 40.2 days. The authors went on to note 95.5% of patients found telemedicine consultation more convenient than traveling and 98.2% of patients were either satisfied or very satisfied with the care they received (Wilkins, Lowery, Goldfarb, 2007). An article published in 2014 by Kidholm, Dineseen, Dyrvig, Rasmussen, and Yderstraede was noted to be the largest and most comprehensive research project to evaluate telemedicine effectiveness and costs for patients with chronic diseases. The results revealed telehealth reduced mortality with an odds ratio of 0.54. Mortality in the control group was noted to be 8.3% while the intervention group was 4.6%. The authors also noted a 10.8% lower hospital admission rates in the intervention group with an odds ratio of 0.82 (Kidholm, Dinessen, Dyrvig, Rasmussen, Yderstraede, 2014). Telemedicine may be applied to many different aspects of medicine, but a benefit has been shown in the examination and long-term treatment of wounds (Wilkins, Lowery, Goldfarb, 2007). Telemedicine has been shown to satisfy both the clinician as well as the patient, while continuing to provide quality care. Therefore a solution to the burden of traveling to the doctor’s office, decreasing financial strain, decreasing caregiver strain, and improving access to care are all potential benefits of providing care using virtual visits. Purpose of Project The purpose of incorporating telemedicine into our surgical practice is to provide our patients with the most efficient high quality care in the most appropriate setting for the patient. A standard office visit consists of the patient traveling to our office, being evaluated by the medical team, and then having to travel back to their home. This evidenced based project will allow the patient to stay in their own home and have the providers visit them via a virtual visit. Upon discharge from the hospital the patient will be evaluated for inclusion into the virtual visit program. If the patient is determined to meet the criteria including living in NC, using Healthy at Home to provide home health services and have a complex surgical wound; then an appointment will be made for the virtual visit. The home health nurse will proceed to the patient’s home at the assigned appointment time and use their tablet for the visit. The provider will then join the home health nurse in the virt ual setting and the patient’s wound will be evaluated. Appropriate changes in the treatment plan for the wound will occur and the provider will assure all questions/concerns are addressed with the patient, caregiver, and home health nurse. One desired outcome for this project will be to maintain a high level of patient satisfaction, as we do in our office. As providers, we would like to provide more efficient care and this may be possible by having one provider performing postop visits virtually while another provider evaluates new consults in the office. It will be important for this project to provide the same level of care that we provide in the brick and mortar office, as well as following all current standards of care. Project Management The facility where this project takes place is a Magnet facility. To receive this designation an organization must prove they have several key characteristics including empirical outcomes as well as integrating evidenced based practice and research into operational and clinical processes (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2014). An important goal for our organization this year will be to provide care in new ways, one of which will be providing more opportunities for our patients to experience virtual care. This innovative project is meant to assure that we are improving quality, enhancing value and dealing with the complexity of health care today (Harris, Roussel, Walters, Dearman, 2011). Implementation Team The backbone of quality improvement work is the team and their teamwork (Ogrinc et al., 212). The team for this project will include individuals from different disciplines to ensure success. The author of this paper will serve as the operational lead on the project, assuring all aspects of the project are coordinated. Our administrative lead will be the practice manager for our outpatient sliding scale clinic. He will be able to assist the project in assuring we meet meaningful use standards as we do in the office, as well as building templates in our scheduling software, and facilitate changes in the organization. A management associate with the virtual care division will remain part of the team, as she has had past experience with implementing similar projects and has provided invaluable support. The next member of the team will be a member of the IT department and will assist the team in choosing the right technology/platform for this project. He will not only assist in the beginn ing stages of this project but will be a constant resource for ongoing IT support. The administrator for the home health agency will be a member of this team, she will provide information regarding her organization and provide us with establishing workflow for the home health nurse. This will be an important step as this project is meant to provide multidisciplinary care, however it will not be beneficial for it to provide more efficiency for our team but not the home health team. The chairman of surgery who also serves as the interim lead of the acute care surgery team, as well as the two surgeons who practice on the same service. This team will serve to bring virtual care visits to our surgical practice. Risk Management Strategy It is important to examine every project to identify external and internal items that either positively or negatively affect the project. One type of assessment that can be performed is the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT analysis). During the SWOT analysis the system is fully examined from the clinical micro to the macrosystem perspective (Harris, Roussel, Walters, Dearman, 2011). For this project some strengths noted include other departments within the facility using virtual visits and a department dedicated to assisting new groups to use this technology. Another strength is the patients included in this project will remain in the global ninety day postoperative fee which will not require reimbursement from insurance companies and keep the cost incurred limited. It is important to then examine some of the weaknesses which include removing a provider from an already overbooked clinic to participate in this project, the additional cost of the techno logy, and surgical postoperative care has not been provided in this manner in our facility prior to this. When further evaluating opportunities associated with this project, the ability to be the only surgical providers providing care virtually will set this team apart and appeal to more consumers and home health agencies. Another opportunity would be to include all home health care providers in our area and obtain licensure to be able to provide virtual visits in South Carolina. Some threats to this project include newer technology that hasn’t been tested, a good working relationship with the home health agency must be in place, and is it possible for the team to provide confidential care to our patients using virtual visit technology. Organizational Approval Process Initially this project was approved at the departmental level after multiple discussions with the chairman of surgery for the metro division of our healthcare system. Prior to proceeding to the IRB process, the facility requires submission of your proposal to the Nursing Scientific Advisory Council (NSAC). Once NSAC has evaluated a proposal fully and any revisions have been completed you may move forward with your submission to the IRB. Role of Information Technology in this Project Information technology will play an integral part of this project. Although virtual visits are used throughout the hospital system, they have not been incorporated into the surgical practices within our system. This project will include an IT tech to assist in choosing the best platform to serve our patient population while being user friendly for our home health nursing colleagues. It will be important for our platform to work well with the technology available to the home health nursing team. This will assure we are able to provide the best quality visit and address not only the provider’s needs, but also the home health team, patient, and caregiver. The project needs IT support for both the onsite provider as well as the home health team in the patient’s home. Plans for IRB Approval An institutional review board (IRB) is a committee that is mandated by the National Research Act, Public Law 93-948 and is required in institutions that conduct biomedical or behavioral research that involves human subjects (Harris, Roussel, Walters, Dearman, 2011). IRB approval will be sought for this project using the Carolinas Healthcare System’s IRB. The submission type will be expedited. This approach was chosen because it is evidenced based research and poses minimal human risk to the participants (Chatham University). Prior to approval by the IRB this project must be submitted to the NSAC therefore this will be performed in September 2015. Once approval has been obtained by the NSAC the information will then be submitted to the IRB for approval, likely in November 2015. This letter can be reviewed in Appendix A of this paper. References American Nurses Credentialing Center. (2014). Magnet model. Retrieved  fromhttp://www.nursecredentialing.org/Magnet/ProgramOverview/New-Magnet-Model Chatham University. (n.d.). Institutional Review Board (IRB). Retrieved from  http://my.chatham.edu/tools/irb/ Chittoria, R. (2012). Telemedicine for wound management. Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery,  45(2), 412-417. Gardiner, S., Hartzell, T. L. (2012). Telemedicine and plastic surgery: A review of its  applications, limitations and legal pitfalls. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive   Aesthetic Surgery: JPRAS, 65(3), 47–53. doi:10.1016/j.bjps.2011.11.048 Harris, J., Roussel, L., Walters, S., Dearman, C. (2011). Project planning and management:  A guide for CNLs, DNPs, and nurse executives. Sandbury, MA: Jones Bartlett  Learning. Kidholm, K., Dinesen, B., Dyrving., A, Rasmussen, B., Yderstraede, K. (2014). Results from  the worlds largest telemedicine project-The whole system demonstrator. EWMA journal,  14(1), 43-48. Ogrinc, G., Headrick, L., Moore, S., Barton, A., Dolansky, M., Madigosky,  W. (2012).Fundamentals of health care improvement: A guide to improving your  patients’ care(2nded.). Oakbrook Terrace, IL: The Joint Commission and the Institute  for Healthcare Improvement. Sen, C. K., Gordillo, G. M., Roy, S., Kirsner, R., Lambert, L., Hunt, T., . . . Longaker, M. T.  (2009). Human skin wounds: A major and snowballing threat to public health and the  economy. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 17, 763-771. Shulman, M. A., Myles, P. S., Chan, M. V., McIlroy, D. R., Wallace, S., Ponsford, J. (2015).  Measurement of Disability-free Survival after Surgery.Anesthesiology,122(3), 524-536.  doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000000586 Wallace, D., Hussain, A., Khan, N., Wilson, Y. (2012). A systematic review of the evidence  for telemedicine in burn care: With a UK perspective. Burns, 38, 465-480. Wilkins, E., Lowery, J, Goldfarb, S. (2007). Feasibility of virtual wound care: A pilot study.  Advances in Skin Wound Care, 20(5), 275-278.