What function does religion play in human society Why is religion Essay

What function does religion play in human society Why is religion Universal Is there an evolutionary explanation or a social phenomenon - Essay Example It also explores the reasons why human society appears to be so fond of religious expressions, looking at both evolutionary and social explanations for its popularity. There are many religions in the world, and they can appear very different to observers, but they share three main features in common: there is faith in something supernatural; there is a system of beliefs that adherents sign up to, and there is a set of ritual behaviors which believers follow as a way of expressing their religion (Palomar College, 2011). These things work together to help people formulate a world view, in which there is meaning and purpose. Human beings have a high intelligence compared to other animals, and religion appears to be both a result of the ability to reason with an advanced brain, and of the need to have explanations for things so that future actions can be properly planned. It could be, then, that religion serves an evolutionary purpose, in helping people to understand the environment and adapt to its changes. Its universality is due to the way that the human mind works, seeking out answers to things. This curiosity and search for understanding lies behind human progress through different stages of technology and is a fundamental feature of the homo sapiens species. This evolutionary explanation shows that the first function that religion plays in human society is therefore â€Å"to provide a sense of order in what might otherwise be seen as a chaotic existence.† (Palomar College, 2011) Religion provides a collective framework which people use to interpret inexplicable events like natural disasters or the changing seasons. The supernatural dimension arises because human beings know that their own power and understanding is limited, and that there are forces far bigger and stronger than they are. Religion is needed to explain how human beings fit into the universe around them. This has a dual function, first in providing a connection between humans and these gr eater forces, and secondly in allowing people to harness these powers and let them affect their daily lives: â€Å"religion tunes human actions to an envisaged cosmic order and projects images of cosmic order onto the plane of human experience† (Geertz, p. 90) This binds human beings to their environment more closely and explains why so many religions have connections with the sky, the sun and weather phenomena. By developing a set of beliefs around these phenomena, people make them more comprehensible, and less frightening. This is a psychological need which minimizes stress, and provides some security for people who could otherwise feel afraid and lost in a world that can bring unexpected events at any moment. The first and most important reason for the universal existence of religion in human societies is therefore the evolutionary advantage that it gives, but the second reason has more to do with the way that human beings live in social groups. Forming groups appears to b e a common behavior in many different animal types, and these groups create safety in numbers against predators and a hostile environment. One of the ways that groups determine the boundaries between one another is to have different cultures, or ways of doing things. Religions are an important way of forming groups. Many of the rituals that religions have are initiation rituals, such as circumcision, baptism, trials of faith, etc. which demonstrate who has become a member of the group and who has not. Following the rituals of religion binds the

Feet by Seamus Deane Essay Example for Free

Feet by Seamus Deane Essay The following extract is taken from the book- Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane written in 1996. The extract focuses on one of the chapters in the book titled as Feet. The extract is based on a young boy hiding under the table viewing the death of his sister and how she is taken to the hospital. Through the style, setting and characterization, the reader is able to understand the thoughts and feelings portrayed by Deane. The extract is written in an autobiographical style, from the point of view of a young boy who narrates the story. The repetition of I gives the extract a personal touch. Using the boy as the narrator allows the writer to acquire greater intimacy and sympathy for the character. In addition, it makes the extract comic and light hearted, even though it talks about death and loss. This fusion of comedy and tragedy reflects the idea that life is a series of sorrows and joys. The extract is set under the table. Throughout the extract, the boys name is not revealed which allows the reader to explore other characters in the extract through his perceptions. The reader gets the impression that the boy is young and naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve. He is not aware of the seriousness of the situation as he loved the names of the diseases. He finds the names peculiar and compares them with Italian football players, racing drivers and opera singers. The dog is symbolic of what the boy feels. The whimpering and quivering of the dog reflects the boys inner feelings. I became deaf to their words and alert to their noise presents the idea that the boy has become like the dog, behaving in the same way. Deane mentions feet in the first line of the extract which reinforces the importance of the title. Also, the repetition of feet suggests the importance and significance of the title since the young boy sees everyone from under the table judging them only on what shoes theyre wearing. Deane uses visual and aural imagery to captivate the readers attention in line 1 and 2- I could only see their feet. But I could hear the noise and some of the talk Deane uses heavy sensory imagery to emphasize the importance of feet as the title. He describes the characters and their social status through the shoes theyre wearing. For instance, in lines 30-34, I recognized Uncle Manuss brown shoes: the heels were worn down Uncle Dan and Uncle Tom had identical shoes, heavy and rimed with mud and cement Dans were dirtier but they werent good shoes. The detailed description of the shoes allows the reader to make judgments about the characters. The description is used for characterization- mud and cement, give the reader the impression that theyre working men at a construction site. Heavy suggests that theyre strong, muscular men and develops their personality in the readers mind. But they werent good shoes suggests that theyre not very rich people. The predicament of the extract is presented through specific and short sentences. Una. My younger sister, Una. This sentence clearly brings the focus on Una, to highlight the importance of her character. The writer tells the readers that she is going to die and goes into great details describing her illness and pain. That morning, Una had been so hot, pale and sweatyshe had made me think of sunken fires her eyes shone with pain and pleasure, inflated from the inside. The coupling of pain and pleasure reinforces the idea that joy and sorrow go hand in hand. With his style, use of imagery, setting and characterization, Deane creates an intriguing story which reflects harsh ideas of death and reality through the innocent, happy world of a young, naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve boy.

Mary Cassatt Art Style: An Overview

Mary Cassatt Art Style: An Overview Cassatt is perhaps best-known for her paintings of mothers and children, works which also reflect a surprisingly modern sensibility. Traditional assumptions concerning childhood, child-rearing, and the place of children in society were facing challenges during the last part of the 19th century and women too were reconsidering and redefining their place in modern culture. Cassatt was sensitive to a more progressive attitude toward women and children and displayed it in her art as well as in her private comments. She recognized the moral strength that women and children derived from their essential and elemental bond, a unity Cassatt would never tire of representing. The many paintings, pastels, and prints in which Cassatt depicted children being bathed, dressed, read to, held, or nursed reflect the most advanced 19th-century ideas about raising children. After 1870, French scientists and physicians encouraged mothers (instead of wet-nurses and nannies) to care for their children and suggested modern approaches to health and personal hygiene, including regular bathing. In the face of several cholera epidemics in the mid-1880s, bathing was encouraged not only as a remedy for body odors but as a preventative measure against disease. Shortly after her triumphs with the Impressionists, Cassatts style evolved, and she moved away from impressionism to a simpler, more straightforward approach. By 1886, she no longer identified herself with any art movement and experimented with a variety of techniques. A series of rigorously drawn, tenderly observed, yet largely unsentimental paintings on the mother and child theme form the basis of her popular work. In 1891, she exhibited a series of highly original colored lithograph prints, including Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before. Her decision to become a professional artist must have seemed beyond the pale, given that serious painting was largely the domain of men in the 19th century. Despite the concerns of her parents, Cassatt chose career over marriage Jansons History of Art, Seventh Edition p. 879-880 This text gives us a little insight into the life of Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). She was an American who was born into a wealthy family and raised in Pittsburgh; also influenced by Renaissance art, she approached Impressionism from a womans perspective, mainly as a figure painter. As a female, she was often restricted as far as going places unattended where men could go. Her subject matter was attributed to these restrictions. Many of her themes included women reading, visiting, taking tea, and bathing an infant. The Childs Bath is not only a picture about health, but about intense emotional and physical involvement. Paul case: Cathers understanding of the tacit limits governing the representation of sexuality, and the way they were linked to genre, explains why she chose the mode of indirection in writing her 1905 story of a homosexual teenager, Pauls Case. Recent developments in sexology enabled Cather to characterize Paul as a homosexual without naming his condition. Through background information and physical description, Cathers narrator discreetly invokes degeneracy theory to explain her protagonist, aligning him with the subjects of recent case studies. After experimenting with the persona of the fairy, Paul uses stolen money to transform himself into a cultured, sophisticated queer, but neither persona proves permanently satisfactory. Through its references to Pauls sexuality, the story analyzes one particular product of late-nineteenth-century consumer capitalism: the middle-class, urban gay man. How to write it ? Write your climax first; it will aid you to gauge properly the view-point of your story. The climax is the plot in brief: here is a hint as to plot finding. Take a situation: it may be humorous, pathetic, full of mystery, or dramatic; but it must be striking. Life abounds in many such, and he who goes about with his eyes open can not fail to set aside an ample store. The conclusion should follow closely on the heels of the climax. Its office is to ring down effectively the curtain on the scene. Often it dovetails in the climax so that we can not tell where one begins and the other ends When you conceived your climax, doubtless some one thing stood out in bolder relief than all the rest. It may have been humor, it may have been pathos, it may have been grim tragedy. Whatever it was, it is the point of the tale, the centre of gravity of your story. You wisely gave it a setting in keeping, and in the conclusion let it dwell like a lingering note to be a haunting memory for many a day. It is the essence of your conception, and in the introduction you held it up before your readers eyes as the game to be pursued. This we will call the theme of the composition. The subtle power of the French school lies in the art of innuendo. It is what is left unsaid rather than what is said that causes the greatest thrill. But the inference must be plain: the readers imagination should not be left to construct the tale which you set out to tell. Often a story will be saved from boredom to fascination by the power of suggestion alone. This is particularly true of love scenes, deaths, and the like, such as only a masters hand at description can hope to handle effectively. Rosebud: One of the key cruxes of the film is the question of what exactly Rosebud means. We ask this question even though we know that Welles Co. were in part trying to show that you cannot reduce a mans mysteries to one thing. On the other hand, there is a solution to the problem. It is actually found in Welless next film, The Magnificent Ambersons. Throughout Welless radio career, his most moving shows, such as his adaptation of The Apple Tree, were about loss loss of a bucolic past, of a domestic happiness, of a quiet life. This theme doesnt seem to have anything to do with Welless real life. Its just something he liked, though perhaps based on the loss of his mother at an early age. The Magnificent Ambersons is his most poignant realization of this theme in his work. Rosebud leads up to that film. Rosebud is The Magnificent Ambersons. The small-town values and mothers love that the snow-ball evoke which reminds Kane of his childhood home, and the sled called Rosebud are all explored in much more detail and presented with an additional dollop of aching loss, in Welless second film. Rosebud is not a gimmick. As a narrative device, it is the holy grail of the film, the engine that drives the reporter Thompson to solve the mystery of Kane, and along the way we learn as much about Kane as the characters (and the undermining overvoice of the film itself) can tell us. But when we learn, from our privileged position as viewers of the film, what Rosebud actually is, even as it is being destroyed, we also learn that it is not a hoax, nor is it hokey. As Bernard Herrmanns beautiful music rises in the background, we feel both the unsealing of the envelope and the closing of a life. Its a beautiful moment, one of the most expressive in all cinema. And you know what? In a way, a mans life can be reduced to one thing, if that thing is the rich cluster of images and ideas that Rosebud contains. The gay subtext in Citizen Kane Who wrote Kane? The answer is in the aspect of the film that everyone is afraid to mention, the gay subtext that appears in Kane and in many of Welless other films. Im not talking about his private life, in which, according to Simon Callow, Welles had a knack for attracting the support of older gay men such as Houseman, who were smitten with the youths vivacity. Welles, a heavy drinker, was married three times and, like Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty after him, had ostentatious affairs with many women, among them Dolores Del Rio. None of this seemed to find its way into his films. Women dont figure that heavily in most of Welless films, and rarely does sex truly enter. Love and passion are there, but often presented discreetly. Kane offers up something of a Madonna/whore contrast, while his next film shows dedicated woman in a soap-operaish oleo of unrequited, often even unexpressed, love. Although the aborted Its All True celebrated the passionate life of Latin America, Welles was really interested in the politics of the time. Subsequent films dealt with great men and their political lives. Welles played Othello as if he were really married to Iago. There is the suggested rape of a newlywed in Touch of Evil, and a nymphomaniac in The Trial. Its a shock to see footage from the unfinished The Other Side of the Wind in which actual lust is realized in the back seat of a car. But the combination of sex and women is not what we carry away from many of these films. Male friendship and its betrayals interested Welles, from one film to another, starting with Kane and lasting all the way to The Big Brass Ring, a screenplay credited to Welles but finally filmed by someone else. As in many films with a gay subtext, parts of Kane dont make sense unless you view them from a gay perspective. Why, exactly does Jed Leland feel so betrayed by Kane? It cant just be because Kanes political folly put back the cause of reform 20 years. When Leland, the stooge friend, first learns of the political disgrace, he walks into a bar to drown feelings of what? Leland, who elsewhere says he took ballet lessons with Kanes first wife and was very graceful, has no female companions in the film, and his reaction to Kanes political betrayal far exceeds its actual weight. Theres a love here that dare not speak its name. This gay subtext provides another indication of Welless hand in the Kane screenplay. Welless other great movie, Touch of Evil, has a similar relationship between a powerful man and a stooge, in which the powerful man is the love of the stooges life: Welless Quinlan and Joseph Calleias Pete Menzies; only here, both men betray each other. And the totality of The Trial only makes sense if the film is viewed as really about the persecution of a gay man in a straight society. The gay subtext of Kane only adds to its mysteries and makes it a richer film. Understanding themes:D1 Personal identity is shaped by ones culture, by groups, and by institutional influences. Examination of various forms of human behavior enhances understanding of the relationship between social norms and emerging personal identities, the relationships between social processes that influence identity formation, and the ethical principles underlying individual action.

Computers Impact on Physically Challenged :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Computers' Impact on Physically Challenged Have computers positively impacted society of the physically challenged? The answer to that question is yes. Computers have helped physically challenged people to become more independent and have better and fuller lives. The Internet has been a useful tool for these people because they can buy, sell, or read objects on the web pages. They can buy their groceries and read the newspaper on-line. Without the Internet and computers the physically challenged would have to depend on other people to help them do their shopping or reading. This paper will discuss speech and language impairments, hearing impairments, visual impairments, and mobility impairments and how computers have positively impacted each of these groups of people. First of all speech and language impairments are usually due to defects of articulation, voice production and rhythm, cleft palate speech, delayed speech development, and disorders connected to hearing impairments ("Speech", p.1). Computers have helped these people through software and hardware designed specifically for speech disabilities. One device, called a speech synthesizer, is connected to a computer or incorporated into the software. This can be useful as a training and teaching aid and also it can be used as a voice output for a non-vocal person ("Speech", p.1). This device allows a person who cannot speak, communicate to another individual through the computer. The computer speaks the words for the speech-disabled person. If the main desktop computer is not available for this purpose a portable communication aid can be used. This portable communication aid is an electronic device that has a speech synthesizer and it may be operated with a switch ("Speech", p.1). Another use of computers for the speech and language impairments is cognitive rehabilitation software. This software identifies and treats people who have suffered a stroke or some type of brain injury. The software is designed to concentrate on the detection and retaining of language function ("Speech", p.1). Michigan Memory Series of Software, provided by IBM, is a series that is useful for adults with stroke defects, closed head injuries, and other neurological problems. This series of software is also useful for children with learning disabilities, communication disorder, reading disorder, autism, mental retardation and other speech impairments ("Speech", p.1). Computers have positively impacted the speech and language impairments of people because these people can learn and communicate with others due to computers. Second, computers have positively impacted people who are hearing impaired.

Describe a Sports Event That You Took Part in or Watched Essay

I love to play badminton especially in the summer time. It is a game I really enjoy, so play it whenever I can get a willing partner. It is a lot like tennis, but I can play badminton anywhere. I do not have to go to a tennis court to play and I can play in between classes without getting sweaty. Badminton is played with rackets that look a lot like tennis rackets, but they are much more delicate. You should have a net, which sits high above the ground, and a ball that is called a birdie. The birdie has a small rubber half a ball on one end, and it fans out with feathers on the other end to help it to fly. A badminton court has a net in the center that stretches from side to side. Each side of the net has a square that the team mates play in. It is ideal to play badminton with four people, but you can play one on one as well. You can also play without points or a net, but I do not think it is as much fun. It is a game that takes a lot of energy so you get plenty of exercise playing badminton. The main reason I like the game is that everyone, man or woman, has an equal chance to compete. There are so many sports that require height or strength to be good; it is refreshing to play one that I have an equal opportunity to win. Maybe that is why I get very competitive and energetic when I play. I love the game; it is fun and rewarding, and I feel alive when playing. Describe a difficult thing you did well. ä ¸â‚¬Ã¤ » ¶Ã©Å¡ ¾Ã¦ Å¾Ã¥ ®Å¡Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¤ ºâ€¹ Ã¥  ¯Ã¤ » ¥Ã¥ â€šÃ§â€¦ §Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ¤ ½  Ã¥ â€šÃ¤ ¸Å½Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥ Ë†Ã¤ ½Å"é ¡ ¹Ã§â€º ® You should say: what it was and explain why it was difficult. or and explain how you felt after you did it. Difficulty is a very subjective term. What one person may find difficult the other may find rather easy. For me overcoming my glossophobia was a very difficult thing. I used to be very stage shy and could never speak in front of an audience. It so happened that once I participated in an environment fair held in my hometown. We were a team of four students – Mohit, Rohan, Ravi and I. We had to make a model on pollution. It was very difficult to collect ideas for the model, but our teacher, Mrs Promilla helped us. We collected all data from different sources like the internet, library, magazines and so on We presented all three types of pollution – air, water and noise pollution – on thermocol In this project we showed the causes, effects and ways to control pollution We had to speak turn wise on our model. I remember I was very afraid to speak. But my other friends gave me the confidence. I felt very good that I was part of that team. I spoke very well that time. Getting over my glossophobia was an accomplishment for me. I felt very good after that. We won the first prize in this competition. The judges specially mentioned that the first prize was mainly because of the verbal explanation of the model. This fair was covered by the local cable TV and so many people of the neighbourhood congratulated me the next day. Our photograph was also there in the local newspaper Jag Baani. Our school principal also appreciated us I cannot forget that day. All four of us were on cloud nine on that day. So, this was a difficult thing I did well. something useful you learn from family member Describe a person who taught you a certain skill, such as cooking or driving or swimming. Please say – Who is that person? – How did he/she teach it to you? – Why did you learn it? – Was this skill useful to you? I have learnt many skills from people around me in my life. Here I would like to talk about my mother who taught me a very useful skill of cooking. My mother is in her forties and she is very tall and beautiful. She has a gifted hand in cooking. She has her unique way of teaching us, I mean me and my sister, how to cook. She never made us feel as if she was teaching us. She just kept us involved in the kitchen while she cooked. We learnt a lot just by observing her. I learnt cooking because I too want to be able to cook like her. I also learnt cooking because it is a very useful skill in today’s time. Moreover, as I plan to go abroad for my higher education, this skill will be veryuseful. I will not face any food problems. I am a vegetarian and I have heard that veg. food outlets are very few in foreign countries. This skill has proved very useful because many times I have been able to attend to guests when my mother was not at home. My mother not only taught me simple routine cooking but also some Chinese dishes. She also taught me how to make pizzas in the electric tandoor. She also bakes excellent cakes. Whenever anybody in our neighbourhood celebrates a birthday, the cake is always baked by my mother. She loves experimenting in the kitchen and she has many of her own recipes which are quick and easy and at the same time very delicious. She also presents her dishes very well. She says that the look of the dish is as important as its taste. I am fortunate, I have a talented mother who has taught me this useful skill. something you saw or experienced that made you laugh Here I would like to talk about one when I really laughed from my heart. It was my cousins wedding two months ago and we were all dancing on the beats of DJ. The groom’s father that is my uncle had taken a few pegs of whiskey. He was dancing the maximum. His odd and weird dancing steps were very hilarious and everyone was laughing at him. But he was not at all perturbed. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. My aunt tried to stop him many times but he wouldn’t listen. He was wearing a silken dhoti kurta. Suddenly he tripped and his dhoti came off.That was the most hilarious moment of all. The bride and the groom also had a hearty laugh.The photographer captured it all very nicely in his video camera. Even today when we see that we all have a hearty laugh. So this is the situation when I laughed from my heart. Describe a special meal you would like to eat: What would it be? Where would it be? Whom would you like to share it with? Why it is special for you? I’ve had many special meals in my life. Some were special because of the quality of food. Others were special because of the occasion And some were special because of the people with whom I shared those meals with. Here I would like to talk about a special meal that I would like to have. It would be dinner at the Rangla Punjab section of Haveli which is a beautiful restaurant in the suburbs of my home town. I would like to share it with my best friend who is now studying in Australia but is coming next week to spend his winter vacation here. Actually his birthday next month and I would like to treat my friend to a dinner at Rangla Punjab. Dinner is very special at Rangla Punjab. It is accompanied by cultural programmes. They serve dinner with traditional Punjabi hospitality. First they serve buttermilk which is followed by salad and light snacks. Then they serve two to three types of green vegetables and some lentil curry and rice with various types of chapatti. During winter they also serve makki di roti and sarson ka saag. Makki di roti is a chapatti made of maize floor and sarson da saag is a dish made of mustard leaves to which spinach leaves can be added. In the end they serve rice pudding and after that some jiggery. I have had dinner several times at Rangla Punjab but I would love to have it again with my friend. This time his company would make the meal even more special. I know he has never been to Haveli so he would also love it. Describe your favourite way to communicate with someone. You should say: what it is and explain why this is your favourite way to communicate Man is a social animal. To survive in this society we need to communicate with others. We can communicate in many ways – such as through cell phone, e-mail, internet chatting or by face to face communication. My favourite way of communication is through cell-phone A cell phone is a very useful gadget. We can communicate with almost anyone, from anywhere and at any time. That is why it is my favourite means of communication. It has become an indispensable part of my daily life. I use it daily to stay connected with my friends and family. I can call them, send messages and even send and receive e-mails through my phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 model It is fully touch screen It has android operating system. It has its own application market through which we can download various applications according to our needs. I downloaded Talking Tom application which copies and speaks whatever you speak. I downloaded various games also. I have downloaded Sudoku which I play daily. My friends also play Sudoku and we compare our timings with each other. It has GPS facility through which we can search the desired location. Once I went to Delhi and through this GPS system I could locate my Uncle’s home easily. Otherwise it is very easy to get lost in Delhi. It has wi-fi facility. It has many inbuilt applications .It has a 12 megapixel camera. Describe a child you know. You should say: how you know him or her how often you see him/her what kind of person he/she is (= what his/her personality is like) and explain what you like about this child. I know many children but here I would like to talk about my niece, Gia, who is three years old. She is my cousin’s daughter and lives in my neighbourhood. She is very cute and I just adore her. She is a very chubby child. When she smiles, she has dimples on both cheeks which look very beautiful. I always feel like picking at her cheeks but she screams when anybody does so. She has curly hair and does not like getting her hair combed. Almost every day she comes to my house with my cousin. Then she comes to my room and messes everything up. Normally I don’t like if anyone messes up my things but with Gia I don’t mind at all. She loves chocolates and candies and I always keep some in stock for her. She is only 3 years old but she really knows how to twist everyone around her little finger. It is sometimes very amusing to watch her small pranks. She surely knows what she wants and gets it somehow. Recently, my cousin admitted her to a pre-nursery school called Petals. That school is in our neighbourhood and is very nice. She goes there happily and enjoys the three hours she spends there. She has learnt many nursery rhymes over there. Sometimes I go to pick her up from school as my cousin is busy in the household chores. I just love it when she comes running to me and hugs me tight. She has so much to share with me about her school and her new friends. May God bless her with a long and happy life. A job you would like to do My ambition is to become a teacher. I would like to teach small children i.e. primary level students. A bachelor’s in education degree is required to be a teacher. Nowadays, teaching has become a very lucrative profession. Moreover, I like being with young children. I am good at telling jokes and stories. Secondly, I am a very sensitive person. I am the first person to note if someone is sad or not feeling well. Since children don’t always say what they feel. My sensitivity would make me a good teacher. I am also a very organised person. Children need to be organised too So, I can instil these values in my children. I know that I don’t have a very high ambition but this is a very fulfilling ambition. I believe in enjoying what I do and at the same time I wish to do quality work. These children are our future. I aspire to would them to become good human beings tomorrow. I believe god has sent us all on this earth with a purpose. I hope I can fulfil this purpose by becoming a teacher. A gift you have given I have given and received many gifts in my life Here I am going to talk about a gift which I gave to my best friend on his eighteenth birthday. It was a mobile phone. He had always wanted a mobile phone. But his parents would not buy him one I saved all my pocket money for five to six months to buy this mobile It cost me Rs 2800 It is a small mobile – a Samsung X-210 model It is black rectangular and a folder type model It has many features like watch, calculator, FM radio, alarm, timer and a memory card to store phone numbers It does not have a camera but all the other features are very useful I saw an ad of this phone six months ago and immediately started saving money to buy it. Then, I used to get Rs 500 per month as pocket money. I was so fond of chocolates and candies that I used to spend all my pocket money on these things. But I remember I did not eat a single chocolate those six months. I was overjoyed to see the happy look on my friend’s face when I gave him the mobile phone. I honestly feel that there is more pleasure in giving than receiving. A childhood toy I had many toys in my childhood but here I am going to talk about my electric toy car. My father gifted it to me on my 11th birthday. I used to spend hours playing with it. I was greatly fascinated by it It is red in colour It worked with four pen torch batteries fixed in a box under the car. When I switched it on it would move in all directions If there was an obstacle on the way then the car could change directions Along with that it had lights which flickered at times. I was so fascinated by this car that I used to finish its batteries very soon. I used to show it to my friends with pride. None of my other friends had such a beautiful toy car. I just loved it when I saw the jealous look in their eyes. I remember, once I took it to school in my bag. When I came home I got a big spanking from my mother. I was very possessive about my car and never used to let anyone touch it. Even though I don’t play with the car any more I still have it in my room It brings back nostalgic memories of my childhood favourite time in a day The evening time is the best time of the day for me. It is the time when all my family members are together and we sit together and have our evening tea and chat with each other. We discuss all our day’s happenings with each other. During the day we all are busy and have no time for each other. In the evenings, sometimes, I go with my mother to do some shopping for grocery and vegetables. Once or twice a week I go out with my friends. There is a park near my house. Occasionally I go there also. All the children of my neighbourhood are there. I play some games like passing the ball with them. The elderly people of my neighbourhood are also there. It is a good time to interact with them and learn some values of life from them. There is a Mrs Sharma in my neighbourhood. Sometimes I meet her in the park. She has a great sense of humour. Ten or twenty minutes with her are really very refreshing. She is a lecturer in Kamla Nehru College, Phagwara. Sometimes, she guides me regarding studies too. Then I come home and take a nice cool bath. After that I watch TV for half an hour to one hour with my family over dinner. We all love watching some reality shows and sitcoms. Then I study or read something for an hour or two before going to bed. Describe a friend you haven’t been in contact with for a long time but who you would like to see again. ä ¸Å½Ã¥â€"Å"æ ¬ ¢Ã§Å¡â€žÃ© â€™Ã¥ °â€˜Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã¥ Ë†Ã¥ ¹ ¶ In our life we come across many people and make a lot of friends.I too made a lot of friends during my school and college days. Here I would like to talk about a special friend of my school days with whom I lost contact but would really like to meet again. His name is YINYANG. He joined my high school in 2nd when his father got transferred to my hometown.His father was teacherin my high school at that time.I remember, he was very shy by nature and used to sit next to me. In just a few days we became good friends.He was not very tall AVERAGE in terms of appearance with his curly hair and a dimple on his chin. He was very good at studies.I used to trouble him all the times as I always had problem with maths, but he was always willing to help. We remained very good friends for three years and then his father got a promotion and was transferred to Chandigarh. After that we lost all contact because we are busy with our study I always think of him and would really like to meet him as soon as possible. I made other friends but I could not get as intimate with anyone else as I was with him I could share all my secrets with him and be sure he would never tell anyone. He was so trustworthy.I think I will have to travel changchun province to reach him. I would like to share all my experiences which I had till now after we separated. It has been 3 long years and I am sure he would also be happy to see me or hear from me.I wonder what he is doing now. a decision made by others but wrong in your opinion You should say: who the person was what the situation was what decision they made and explain why you think it was the wrong decision. In our day to day life we all have to take a lot of decisions. Some decisions turn out to be very good and some turn out bad. Here, I would like to talk about a person who made a wrong decision. Actually he did not mean it to be wrong but it turned out to be wrong. This person is my cousin Ravi. He is in his mid thirties. He is not tall but looks very handsome. He is running his own business of readymade garments. He has a seven years old son Rohan, who is very naughty. He was fed up of his naughty pranks and to punish him he sent him to a boarding school in Shimla. He thought that a boarding school would teach him discipline but when Rohan came home from his boarding school everyone at home was shocked because he had become very stubborn and even more naughty. Now he answers back to everyone and does not show any respect or love for his parents. Actually, he knows that the boarding was his punishment. This was a mistake done by my cousin. Children are very sensitive and should be handled with care. My cousin should have told him that the boarding was necessary for him because the education there is very good. Then perhaps Rohan would have not felt bad about going to the boarding school. Now my cousin repents for his decision. He has decided to call Rohan back from his next session. We had a family meeting and there it was decided that it would be better if Rohan stay at home with all of us. Talk about a meaningful song I love music and I love listening to Hindi and Punjabi songs. Most of these songs are very meaningful. Here I would like to talk about a Punjabi song by a famous Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan The name of the song is Boot Polishan. It is from his album Boot Polishan It was released in 2008. The song gives the message that work is worship. Instead of begging for money a person should work and earn. It does not matter if the work is small. If a person works and earns he can always hold his head high. I heard this song about two years ago and since then it has become my favourite song. Actually Gurdas Mann is my favourite singer. He is a multifaceted personality. He is a singer, actor, director and a lyricist as well. He writes the lyrics of his songs himself. He has also acted in many Punjabi movies. All my family members also love his songs. When we go out anywhere together we play his songs in the car. All his songs have messages. He even performs in stage shows. There is a village near my home town where he comes every year and performs for charity. I went there last year. It was an electrifying experience. A thing make you relax Once I have accepted that there are unhappy issue impacting my life, it’s necessary to make room for relaxation amid all those busy things I am doing. Walking the dog can be one of the most effective ways to ease your mind. What I want to mentioned is that My pet is a very important part of life. Spend time with my pet is the most relaxing time for me. when I feel lonely, I turn to play with her. I will Talk to my pet about all the stress and anxiety I ‘ve been going through ,that makes me feel a lot better. I guess that Pet therapy is a genuine means for relaxing; you can also learn a lot from watching how the pet relaxes.

Korean business culture Essay Example

Korean business culture Essay Example Korean business culture Essay Korean business culture Essay HI, I am Rocco. Today I am here to explain one of the problems that discovered in the Accounting case. After having the research through internet and some printed document. I have identified a problem which is most of the Korean believe the authority so much. So in this case, the company strongly believes the government policies and doesnt refuse the policies. The first reason is that base on the past experience; the government indeed could lead the company or even the whole country to success in economic aspect. One of the examples is that the government successfully led the country get out of darkness of financial tsunami in 1997. The government lowered the target of economic growth and made a structural reform in financial sector. After these policies are carried, the economic growth rate in 1999 and 2000 are 11% and 9 % respectively. And for the unemployment rate, it decreased from 6. 8% to 4. 1% from 1999 to 2001. Moreover, due to the structural reformation of the financial sector, the credit rating of South Korea got A grade again. The total erect investment is 56. Billion US dollars during 1998 and 2002, which is 1. 3 times more than that from 1962 to 1997. The drastic increase in foreign investment was another positive signal of successful reformation. This shows that the government can actually implement some policies to recover the economy. Thats the reason why some managers or companies trust government so much. Another reason is that the culture of Confucianism is said to have bee n compatible with industrialization because it valued stability, hard work, and loyalty and respect awards authority figures. Traditional Korean shows respect to the authority. So even the authority made a wrong decision, Korean seldom point out their mistake. Korean also hate being shamed by others. Even if they really want to point out some mistake of the authority, they will not talk to the managers of authority in front of a group of staff. Unlike some companies in open-minded country, they can talk to the manager directly. Moreover, the image of Korean is very important to them. In their daily life, hey like having luxuries to show they are rich. The traditional values of Korea make the Korean obeying the orders and caring about the images. Thats one of the reasons why managers will follow the government rules. The living style and culture of Korea are unique and we are difficult to change it because it existed for hundreds of years. If we want to work in Korea in the future, we can only adapt their culture and avoid violating the rules in other countries. Korean business culture By Winooski

Free Essays on Interpreting 1984

In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the Party of Oceania is able to control several things that we may think impossible to control. The party controls the people of Oceania psychologically and physically. Controlling not only the people, the Party also controls every source of information, operating and rewriting the content of all newspapers and histories making Oceania look like the only power worth living for. The Party flood its subjects with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind’s ability for independent thought. The telescreen in every resident’s room blasts a steady flow of propaganda designed to make the past and present failures of the Party appear to be triumphant successes. The telescreens also monitor behavior everywhere the people go. Citizens are constantly reminded, especially by means of the ever present signs reading â€Å"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,† that the authorities are studying them. The Party challenges family structure by introducing children into an organization called the Junior Spies, which brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any example of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to hold back their sexual desires, treating sex as simply a duty which ends in the creation of new Party members. The Party then directs people’s unexpressed frustrations and emotions into inten se, wild displays of hatred against the Party’s political enemies. Many of these enemies have been invented by the Party specifically for this purpose. In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also controls the bodies of its subjects. The Party constantly watches for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a tiny facial twitch could lead to an arrest. â€Å"Your worst enemy†¦was your own nervous system.† (64). The Party forces its members to undergo mass morning-exercises called the â€Å"Physical Jerks†, and then to work long, gruel... Free Essays on Interpreting 1984 Free Essays on Interpreting 1984 In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the Party of Oceania is able to control several things that we may think impossible to control. The party controls the people of Oceania psychologically and physically. Controlling not only the people, the Party also controls every source of information, operating and rewriting the content of all newspapers and histories making Oceania look like the only power worth living for. The Party flood its subjects with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind’s ability for independent thought. The telescreen in every resident’s room blasts a steady flow of propaganda designed to make the past and present failures of the Party appear to be triumphant successes. The telescreens also monitor behavior everywhere the people go. Citizens are constantly reminded, especially by means of the ever present signs reading â€Å"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,† that the authorities are studying them. The Party challenges family structure by introducing children into an organization called the Junior Spies, which brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any example of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to hold back their sexual desires, treating sex as simply a duty which ends in the creation of new Party members. The Party then directs people’s unexpressed frustrations and emotions into inten se, wild displays of hatred against the Party’s political enemies. Many of these enemies have been invented by the Party specifically for this purpose. In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also controls the bodies of its subjects. The Party constantly watches for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a tiny facial twitch could lead to an arrest. â€Å"Your worst enemy†¦was your own nervous system.† (64). The Party forces its members to undergo mass morning-exercises called the â€Å"Physical Jerks†, and then to work long, gruel...

Final exam Review Guide Essays

Final exam Review Guide Essays Final exam Review Guide Essay Final exam Review Guide Essay Cohort: A non-experimental design in which a defined group of people (a cohort) is followed overtime to study outcomes for subsets of the cohorts; also called a prospective design. P. 234 prospective (cohort) designs (studies that begin with a resumed cause and look forward in time for its effect. 2. Randomized controlled (trial): A full experimental test of an intervention, involving random assignment to treatment groups; sometimes, phase Ill of a full clinical trial. Experiments (or randomized controlled trials [Rests]) Involve manipulation (the researcher manipulates the Independent variable by Introducing a treatment or Interventions control (Including use of a control group that Is not given the Intervention and represents the comparative contractually); and randomization or random assignment (with people allocated to experimental and control groups at random to arm groups that are comparable at the outset). P. 232 3. Factorial: (p . 14) experimental designs in which two or more independent variables are simultaneously manipulated, permitting a separate analysis of the main effects of the independent variables and their interaction. Terms (know definition and applicability) Contractually: chi 9 (p. 202) In a research context, a contractually Is what would have happened to the same people exposed to a causal factor If they simultaneously were not exposed to the causal factor. An effect represents the difference between hat actually did happen w ith the exposure and what would have happened without it. : This contractually model is an idealized conception that can never be realized, but it is a good model to keep in mind in designing a study to provide cause-and- effect evidence. Confounding: p. 177 The issue of contaminating factors?called confounding (or extraneous) variables. A variable that is extraneous to the research question and that confounds the relationship between the independent and dependent variables; confounding variables need to be controlled either in the research design or through statistical procedures. Causality: chi 9 (p. 01) cause effect Placebo: chi 9 A placebo or extemporaneously presumed to have no therapeutic value; for example, In studies of the effectiveness of drugs, some patients get the experimental drug and others get an innocuous substance. Placebos are used to to participants. (There can, however, be placebo effects?changes in the dependent variable attributable to the placebo condition?because of participants expectations of benefits or harms). Fa ctorial design: chi 9 (p. 214) When two or more independent variables are manipulated simultaneously and allow researchers to test both main effects and interaction effects. Randomized groups: Hawthorne Effect: p. 216 a placebo-type effect caused by peoples expectations. The term is derived from a set of experiments conducted at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Corporation in which various environmental conditions, such as light and working hours, were varied to test their effects on worker productivity. Regardless of what change was introduced, that is, whether the light was made better or worse, productivity increased. Knowledge of being included in the study (not Just knowledge of being in a particular group) appears to have affected peoples behavior, thus obscuring the effect of the treatment. . Masking: (chi 9 p. 233 ) Blinding (or masking) is sometimes used devoid biases stemming from participants or research agents awareness of group status restudy hypotheses. Single-blind studies involvement of one group (e. G. , participants) amendable-blind studies involve masking of two groups (e. G. ,participants, investigators). 2. Blinding: (same as masking) Also called Masking; Sometimes used to avoid biases stemming from participants or research agents awareness of group status or study hypotheses. . Prospective study: prospective (cohort) signs(studies that begin with a presumed cause and look forward in time for its effect) a. Cause Effect: Chi 9 p. 233 1. Switching replication design: p. 268 Replication studies are direct attempts to see if findings obtained in a study can be duplicated in another study. 2. Time series designs: In a time series design, there is no comparison group; information on the dependent variable is collected over a period of time before and after the intervention. Time series designs are often used in single-subject (N-of-l) experiments. 3. Nonequivalent control group pretest-posters: The nonequivalent intro group pretest-posters design involves using a normalized comparison group and the collection of pre-treatment data so that initial group equivalence can be assessed. 4. Quasi-experimental: Quasi-experimental designs (controlled trials without randomization) involve an intervention but lack randomization. Strong quasi- experimental designs include features in support of causal inferences. 5. ) After-only (posters-only) design: An experimental design in which data are collected from subjects only after the intervention has been introduced; also called an after-only design. ) Before-after (pretest-posters) design: An experimental design in which data are collected from subjects both before and after introducing an intervention; also called a before-after design. O Pretest-posters Design: chi 9 p. 233 A posters-only (or after-only)design invol ves collecting data only after an intervention. In a pretest-posters(or before-after) design, data are collected both before and after the intervention, permitting an analysis of change. ) Factorial design: An experimental design in which two or more independent variables are independent variables and their interaction. D) Crossover (repeated measures) sign : An experimental design in which one group of subjects is exposed to more than one condition or treatment, preferably in random order. 6. Manipulation (of Variable) : p. 203 factorial design p. 234 chi 1. Correlations Study: describe how phenomena are interrelated without invoking causal explanations. 2. Inebriate descriptive study: examine the frequency or average value of variables. 3. Cohort Study: prospective (cohort) designs studies that begin with a presumed cause and look forward in time for its effect. 4. Path Analysis: which test causal models developed on the basis of theory 5. Triangulation (in qualitative studies) : The use of multiple methods to collect and interpret data about a phenomenon, so as to converge on an accurate representation of reality. Types of correlation studies: p. 224 Although correlation studies are inherently weaker than experimental studies in elucidating cause on page 232 Case control: (see below) Retrospective: p. 224 Also called Case-Control designs; Begin with the outcome ND look back in time for antecedent causes of saneness by comparing cases that Prospective: Also called Cohort designs; Studies that begin with a presumed cause and look forward in time for its effect. Crossover: When people are exposed to more than one experimental condition, administered in a randomized order, and thus serve as their own controls. CHAPTER p. 236-256 Rigor and Validity in Quantitative Research Limitations of research designs (quantitative): p. 216 see CHI 10 PPTP Controlling Intrinsic Source of Confounding Variability p. 237 CHI 10 1. Stratification: chi 9 10th division of a sample off population into smaller units e. G. , males and females), typically to enhance representatives or to explore results for subgroups of people; used in both sampling and in allocation to treatment groups. (238) 2. Randomization: chi 9 10 p. 237 The researcher assigns participants too control or experimental condition on a random basis. E most effective method of controlling individual characteristics. The primary function of randomization is to secure comparable groups?that is, to equalize groups with respect to confounding variables. 3. Crossover design: (p. 215) A crossover design involves exposing the same people to more than one condition. This type of within-subjects design has the advantage of ensuring the highest possib le equivalence among participants exposed to different conditions?the groups being compared are equal with respect to age, weight, health, and so on because they are composed of the same people. . Matching: (p. 238) Matching (also called pair matching) involves using information What is the best approach to help control extraneous variables? P. 2550 The issue of contaminating factors?called confounding (or extraneous) variables o The best control method is randomization to treatment conditions, which effectively intros all confounding variables?especially within the context of a crossover design. Four types of validity that affect the rigor of a quantitative study. Know types. CHI 10 1. Statistical conclusion validity: Statistical conclusion validity concerns the validity of inferences that there is an empirical relationship between variables (most often ,the presumed cause and the effect). 2. Internal validity: p. 255 Internal validity concerns inferences that out-comes were caused by the independent variable, rather than by factors extraneous to the research. Threats to internal validity include: p. 236 chi 10 1. Emperor ambiguity (lack of clarity about whether the pre-summed cause preceded the outcome), 2. Election (preexisting group differences), 3. History (the occurrence of events external to an independent variable that could affect outcomes), 4. Maturation (changes resulting from the passage of time), 5. Mortality (effects attributable to attrition), 6. Testing (effects of a pretest), 7. Instrumentation (changes in the way data are gathered). Internal validity can be enhanced through Judicious design decisions, but can also be addressed analytically (e. G. , through an analysis of selection or attrition biases). When people withdraw from study, an intention-to-treat analysis (analyzing outcomes for all people in their original treatment conditions) is preferred to a per- protocol analysis (analyzing outcomes only for those who received the full treatment as assigned) for maintaining the integrity of randomization. 3. Construct validity: p. 255 concerns inferences from the particular exemplars of a study (e. G. , the specific treatments, outcomes, people, and settings) to the higher-order constructs that they are intended to represent. The first step in fostering construct validity is a careful explication of those constructs. Threats to construct validity can occur if the personalization of a construct fails to incorporate all of the relevant characteristics of the construct or if it includes extraneous content. Examples of such threats include subject reactivity, researcher expectancies, novelty effects, compensatory effects, and treatment diffusion. 4. External validity- concerns whether inferences about observed relationships will hold over variations in persons, setting, time, or measures of the outcomes. External validity, then, is about the generalization of causal inferences, and this is a critical once for research that aims to yield evidence for evidence-based nursing practice. External validity can be enhanced by selecting representative people, settings, and When is a study internally valid? Study validity concerns the extent to which appropriate inferences can be made. Threats to validity are reasons that an inference could be wrong. A key function of quantitative research design is to rule out validity threats by exercising various types of control. Control over confounding participant characteristics is key to managing many validity threats. The best control method is randomization to retirement conditions, which effectively controls all confounding variables?especially within the context of a crossover design. CHAPTER 20: p. 487-514 Qualitative Research Design and Approaches CHI 20: Qualitative research traditions have their roots in: (p. 489) 1. Ethnocentric (roots Anthropology)- focuses on the culture of a group of people and relies on extensive fieldwork that usually includes participant observation and in-depth interviews with key informants. Ethan-graphs strive to acquire an mimic (insiders) perspective of a culture rather than antic (outsiders) perspective. 2. Ethnomusicology (roots Sociology): seeks to discover how people make sense of their everyday activities and interpret their social worlds, so as to behave in socially acceptable ways. Within this tradition, researchers attempt to understand a social groups norms and assumptions that are so deeply ingrained that immerse no longer think about the underlying reasons for their behaviors. 3. Hermeneutics (allied with Phenomenology): focuses on interpreting the meaning of experiences, rather than just describing them. Types of grounded theory studies: (p. 498) Grounded theory aims to discover theoretical precepts grounded in the data. Grounded theory researchers try to account for peoples actions by focusing on the main concern that the behavior is designed to resolve. 1. Substantive theory is grounded in data on a specific substantive area, such as postpartum depression. It can serve as a springboard for- 2. Formal grounded theory, which is at a higher level of conceptualization and is abstract of time, place, and persons. The goal of formal grounded theory is not to discover a new core variable but to develop a theory that goes beyond the substantive grounded theory and extends the general implications of the core variable. . Charismas constructivist grounded theory has emerged as a method to emphasize interpretive aspects in which the grounded theory is constructed from shared experiences and relationships between the researcher and study participants. O Qualitative description: p. 505 qualitative description is perhaps viewed as a distributed residual category'(p. 82) that signals a confederacy of diverse qualitative inquirers. CHI 21 sampling in Qualitative Research: 1. Sampling Plan: The formal plan specifying a sampling method, a sample size, and procedures for recruiting subjects. 2. Data Saturation: The collection of qualitative data to the point where a sense of closure is attained because new data yield redundant information. 3. Transferability: (p. 530) The extent to which qualitative findings can be transferred to other settings or groups; one of several models of generalization. 4. Reflexivity: In qualitative studies, critical self-reflection about ones own biases, preferences, and preconceptions. 5. Descriptive correlation: 6. Triangulation: The use of multiple methods to collect and interpret data about a phenomenon, so as to con-verge on an accurate representation of reality. . Patient- centered intervention: An intervention tailored to meet individual needs or characteristics. Use of Analysis of covariance for statistical control p. 443 Controlling confounding variables. Various approaches can be used to control confounding variables, many of which require measuring those variables. For example, for analysis of covariance, variables that are statistically controlled must be measured. P. 255 When randomization is not possible, other control methods include statistical control to remove the effect of a confounding variable statistically (e. G. , through analysis of covariance). Statistical power refers to the ability to detect true relationships among variables. Adequate statistical power can be achieved in various ways, the most straightforward of which is to use a sufficientl y large sample. When small samples are used, statistical power tends to be low, and the analyses may fail to show that the independent and dependent variables are related?even when they are. Another aspect of a powerful design concerns how the independent variable is defined. Typical sample size in qualitative study: (for various types of studies I. E. Phenomenology, grounded theory) p. 529 1. Ethnographers make numerous impaling decisions, including not only whom to sample, but also what to sample (e. G. , activities, events, documents, artifacts); decision making is often aided by their key informants who serve as guides and interpreters of the culture. 2. Phenomenological typically work with a small sample of people (10 or fewer) who meet the criterion of having lived the experience under study. . Grounded theory researchers typically use theoretical sampling in which sampling decisions are guided in an ongoing fashion by the emerging theory. Samples of about 20 to 30 people are typical in grounded theory studies. Typical sample size in grounded theory (see above) Types of Samples: 1. Convenience; p. 2761529 qualitative Convenience sampling entails using the most conv eniently available people as participants. A faculty member who distributes questionnaires to nursing students in a class is using a convenience sample. The nurse who conducts a study of teenage risk taking at a local high school is also relying on a convenience sample. The problem with convenience sampling is that those who are available might be a typical of the population with regard to critical variables. Weakest form of sampling 1. . Snowball: (p. 276/ 516) also called network sampling or chain sampling- is a variant of convenience sampling. With this approach, early sample members (called seeds) are asked to refer other people whom et the eligibility criteria. This sampling method is often used when the population is people with characteristics who might otherwise be difficult to identify (e. G. , people who are afraid of hospitals). Snowballing begins with a few eligible participants and then continues on the basis of participant referrals. 3. Purposive / Purposeful : (279) or Judgmental sampling uses researchers knowledge about the population to select sample members. Researchers might decide purposely to select people who are Judged to be typical of the population or particularly knowledgeable about the issues under study. 4. Responding to numerous criticisms and to their own evolving conceptualizations, a fifth criterion that is more distinctively within the constructivist paradigm was added: authenticity (Cuba Lincoln,1994). What is credibility in the- framework of quality criteria? P. 599 which refers to confidence in the truth value of the findings, is sometimes said to be the qualitative equivalent of internal validity. to the extent to which researchers fairly and faithfully show a range of different realities and convey the feeling tone of lives as they are lived.

ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS - Essay Example The business and economic strategy based on chaebols took an export and outward-oriented model to boost the country’s economy through business associations. Today, the chaebols have become global powerhouses that have made the economy of South Korea become one of the greatest in the world. Chaebols are multinational conglomerates that are controlled by certain families in South Korea. The chaebols have received immense government support in South Korea resulting in fast economic growth and an increase in the country’s GDP of about 10 percent between the years 1962-1994 (Powers, 2010). The Korean chaebols have resulted in enormous economic growth of South Korea from early 1960s to early 2000. The economic growth in South Korea was due to the effects from industrial and other services sector. The industrial sector increased its contribution to the country’s economy from 20 to 37 percent while the services sector increased from 43 to 60 percent from 1965 to 2008. To boost economic growth, the South Korean government fully supported the chaebols. The government nationalized all commercial banks so that the banks could channel all their finances to the chaebols. The chaebols had a great share of the total credit produced by financial institutions. As a result, the chaebols had to fulfill most of their export obligations thus, increasing economic growth in South Korea. The government also developed an export strategy to promote export of goods and at the same time substitute imports that favored the conglomerates. The government also restricted direct foreign investments and used this as a chance to get new technologies and business expertise. As a step to support fast economic growth, the government allowed the chaebols to access foreign loans. In contrast, the government curbed any outflows in domestic capital. Government support of the chaebols was of a great magnitude to the extent that the chaebols expanded unprecedentedly in size. The cha ebols had

Peer review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Peer review - Essay Example on which are; the skin-to-skin attachment between mother and child after birth is essential for bonding and what is the effect of delayed skin-to-skin contact for up to one hour? respectively. To these extents both thesis and question are addressed adequately. However, a more likely research question not brought out though slightly discussed is, â€Å"what are the long-term effects of immediate skin-to-skin contact when compared to delayed skin-to-skin contact? 2) Are the links between the concepts and examples in the research articles clearly made? If not, list here some issues that were left out or some important examples from the article that were left out. Yes, the writer has clearly made the links between the concepts and examples in the research article. A clear point of reference is when the writer mentions that, effective mother and child skin-to-skin attachment leads to proper bonding, and then correlates the same with a question that asks the contrary effect supposing there is no attachment for a period more than one hour. The writer also expresses that early skin-to-skin attachment affects emotional attachment of the baby to the mother including breastfeeding, physiological and neurobehavioral responses for up to one year. However, a great concern is expressed that too much concentration is made on the bonding rather than on the baby’s health should be checked hence the question, â€Å"How is the optimal bonding experience obtained?† the writer should have elaborated more on this topic to enhance the readers’ perception and clear understanding of this concept. This could have been achieved through the use o f an appropriate question as illustrated above. 3) Does the writer use research terminology appropriately and correctly? If so, give some examples of good uses. If not, put an asterisk (*) in the margin where the vocabulary should be more clear and specific. The writer does truly make good use of the research terminologies appropriately and

Knowledge Is Power Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Knowledge Is Power - Essay Example From this paper, it is clear that the teachers encouraged us to analyze and critically evaluate topics that will result in the effective incorporation of knowledge in a future career. I work independently, as the classroom environment provided me hands-on experience. This experience provided me opportunities to develop proficiency and skills required to manage tasks/activities. The diversity of topics in this course helped me in building my communication skills. I can communicate effectively as at Flinders, frequent group discussions with classmates and senior colleagues are part of everyday routine. This has helped me boost my confidence and develop skills required to actively participate in discussions as well as conveying my point of view to others. I can work collaboratively because development of my communication skills provided me the confidence to take risks and share my opinions, reasoning, and decisions with my fellows. I value ethical behavior as being at a multicultural un iversity has helped me understand views, social norms and cultural beliefs of others. This had made me value intricacies of several issues. The multicultural experience has enhanced my vision and broadened my spectrum of the world. I connect across the boundaries because studying in a diverse university such as Flinders has provided me the opportunity to share my beliefs and cultural values to fellows. The comfortable environment offers me the opportunity to incorporate my values into the system as well as adapt certain morals and ethics from other parts of the world.

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Summary - Essay Example Gruwell soon finds out that the students she was stranded with were far different from her expectations. Her class is categorized into four groups – whites, Latinos, Cambodians and blacks. She resorts to unconventional teaching approaches despite the disagreement with her departmental head Margaret Campbell (enacted by Imelda Stauton) and her colleagues. In the course of her determination and campaign she ends up working more in the school and spending less time with her husband which later becomes a source of constant complain from his side, finally leading to their separation. She pulls up money from other part time jobs to buy books for them instead of abiding by the conventions. She begins her campaign by teaching lessons from the Holocaust, which even involves a trip to the Museum of Tolerance. The idea was to generate feelings of harmony irrespective of races. She arranges meetings with the survivors of the Holocaust and reads through The Diary of Anne Frank. Later she i nvites to the class the lady named Miep Gies (enacted by Pat Carroll) who once gave shelter to Anne Frank. Meanwhile parallel to these lessons the boyfriend of a Cambodian student names Sindy gets killed accidentally by Eva’s boyfriend. ... This brings about the climax of the movie (after the first 90 minutes run) where Eva takes a decision, which would bring a twist to the lives of her family and friends. Eva therefore considers saying the truth and gives the right testimony to the rage of several onlookers. The members of her gang initially decide to kill her but owing tot heir respect for their father they back off. A racial discrimination was broken as Eva takes back her decision of defending the criminal boyfriend form her race and instead does what she feels is morally right. This is an evidence of the transformation, which Gruwell was able to embed amongst his students. During her classes Erin always encourages the young students to make entries in their notebooks on a regular basis. The best part of the lessons delivered by Gruwell includes her asking the students to write their notes taken down in their diaries in the form of a book. She alter combines all these documents into a single book known as The Freedom Writers Diary. Later she was asked to stop teaching her students but Gruwell goes on to assure the superintendent of her ways of teaching. Certain distractions like Gruwell’s pearl necklace initially cause interest but later the film takes us to more sublime themes. The movie succeeds in delivering the note of hope along with emotional and intellectual fulfillment. It also exploits the potential of the young performers adequately, especially that of Hernandez. The movie also manages to retain the touch of originality by quoting verses from students’ diaries in order to give rise to the complementary themes or stories. The movie in general has a lot to offer to the audience who look out for something to identify themselves with rather than complete fiction.

Cadbury and Mobil Management Organization Case Study

Cadbury and Mobil Management Organization - Case Study Example But as the technology evolved and organization faced more competition in the marketplace then the need for the new system implementation has increased. This new project for the implementation of the SAP R/3 will completely change the structure for the working of organization and also provide them the competitive edge. The second company is the Mobil Oil Australia Limited that is previously using Sap system for the data processing and as a core back-office system. But the company is not feeling well with this system implementation because the present working is still heavily paper-based. So they have aimed to implement the SAP R/3 project for the better organizational working and management. The most common factor in both companies’ projects is the renovation of the old organizational working environment to a new and efficient ERP system. In this scenario, both companies are aimed to implement the new fully automatic system for the better organizational information management. They also have the common aim regarding the gaining the competitive adage through the technology-based organizational system. Another common goal settled by both organizations is the adaptation of new IT-based system as a tool to transform our business processes. They want to the implementation of mySAP.com to create a standard IT platform and in doing so develop new transparent organizational processes. Another of the similarities in both companies project is the implementation of the process re-engineering for their already SAP based organizational management system. This re-engineering process will change and improve the functionalities of the already present SAP-based system to enhance the organizational working. Now I will discuss the main dissimilarities in both organizational projects.

Wal-Mart Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Wal-Mart - Case Study Example A brief introduction to business ethics and social responsibility is undertaken. The importance of CSR initiatives is also discussed. The results indicate that Wal-Mart is well perceived by many customers despite few criticisms leveled against it due to its low and affordable prices. Candid CSR initiatives emerged as a very crucial factor. Corporations today have to pay much attention to the needs as well as preferences of many interest groups. Corporations are not required to behave as if their profit making goal is more important that the interests of their stakeholders. Stakeholder theory maintains that management’s role is to create value for their non-shareholder stakeholders such as consumers, the community, creditors, employees and suppliers (Lii, 2011). However, Wal-Mart has been greatly criticized for going against this theory. Areas of criticisms include treatment of suppliers, foreign products sourcing of the corporation, environmental practices, employee compensations as well as working conditions, the corporation’s security policies, the use of public subsidies and slavery (Yuan, Bao, & Verbeke, 2011). They have sought to inflict harms on their stakeholders for profit seeking in a number of ways. However, the MNE has a number of CSR initiatives to help in leading as well as providing the m with an opportunity to make differences on the big issues that matter to everyone. The corporation noted that they are committed to using their big size as well as scale in helping the world live better. Through such initiatives, Wal-Mart has been able to empower women, contribute to energy efficiency and assisting with disaster relief (News & Brothers, 2005). The aim of this paper is to identify the harms Wal-Mart inflict on their stakeholders while they make profit and the CSR initiatives it has adopted as well as their motives. In addition, the paper evaluates the results of such CSR initiatives and makes recommendations to

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Summary - Essay Example Gruwell soon finds out that the students she was stranded with were far different from her expectations. Her class is categorized into four groups – whites, Latinos, Cambodians and blacks. She resorts to unconventional teaching approaches despite the disagreement with her departmental head Margaret Campbell (enacted by Imelda Stauton) and her colleagues. In the course of her determination and campaign she ends up working more in the school and spending less time with her husband which later becomes a source of constant complain from his side, finally leading to their separation. She pulls up money from other part time jobs to buy books for them instead of abiding by the conventions. She begins her campaign by teaching lessons from the Holocaust, which even involves a trip to the Museum of Tolerance. The idea was to generate feelings of harmony irrespective of races. She arranges meetings with the survivors of the Holocaust and reads through The Diary of Anne Frank. Later she i nvites to the class the lady named Miep Gies (enacted by Pat Carroll) who once gave shelter to Anne Frank. Meanwhile parallel to these lessons the boyfriend of a Cambodian student names Sindy gets killed accidentally by Eva’s boyfriend. ... This brings about the climax of the movie (after the first 90 minutes run) where Eva takes a decision, which would bring a twist to the lives of her family and friends. Eva therefore considers saying the truth and gives the right testimony to the rage of several onlookers. The members of her gang initially decide to kill her but owing tot heir respect for their father they back off. A racial discrimination was broken as Eva takes back her decision of defending the criminal boyfriend form her race and instead does what she feels is morally right. This is an evidence of the transformation, which Gruwell was able to embed amongst his students. During her classes Erin always encourages the young students to make entries in their notebooks on a regular basis. The best part of the lessons delivered by Gruwell includes her asking the students to write their notes taken down in their diaries in the form of a book. She alter combines all these documents into a single book known as The Freedom Writers Diary. Later she was asked to stop teaching her students but Gruwell goes on to assure the superintendent of her ways of teaching. Certain distractions like Gruwell’s pearl necklace initially cause interest but later the film takes us to more sublime themes. The movie succeeds in delivering the note of hope along with emotional and intellectual fulfillment. It also exploits the potential of the young performers adequately, especially that of Hernandez. The movie also manages to retain the touch of originality by quoting verses from students’ diaries in order to give rise to the complementary themes or stories. The movie in general has a lot to offer to the audience who look out for something to identify themselves with rather than complete fiction.

Wal-Mart Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Wal-Mart - Case Study Example A brief introduction to business ethics and social responsibility is undertaken. The importance of CSR initiatives is also discussed. The results indicate that Wal-Mart is well perceived by many customers despite few criticisms leveled against it due to its low and affordable prices. Candid CSR initiatives emerged as a very crucial factor. Corporations today have to pay much attention to the needs as well as preferences of many interest groups. Corporations are not required to behave as if their profit making goal is more important that the interests of their stakeholders. Stakeholder theory maintains that management’s role is to create value for their non-shareholder stakeholders such as consumers, the community, creditors, employees and suppliers (Lii, 2011). However, Wal-Mart has been greatly criticized for going against this theory. Areas of criticisms include treatment of suppliers, foreign products sourcing of the corporation, environmental practices, employee compensations as well as working conditions, the corporation’s security policies, the use of public subsidies and slavery (Yuan, Bao, & Verbeke, 2011). They have sought to inflict harms on their stakeholders for profit seeking in a number of ways. However, the MNE has a number of CSR initiatives to help in leading as well as providing the m with an opportunity to make differences on the big issues that matter to everyone. The corporation noted that they are committed to using their big size as well as scale in helping the world live better. Through such initiatives, Wal-Mart has been able to empower women, contribute to energy efficiency and assisting with disaster relief (News & Brothers, 2005). The aim of this paper is to identify the harms Wal-Mart inflict on their stakeholders while they make profit and the CSR initiatives it has adopted as well as their motives. In addition, the paper evaluates the results of such CSR initiatives and makes recommendations to

Contributions to Misunderstanding Psychology Essay Example for Free

Contributions to Misunderstanding Psychology Essay Rose (1992) has accused psychology of â€Å"Engineering the Human Soul† (p. 351). This is a very odd statement for a sociologist to make because science, whether hard or social, by definition, requires conclusions to be based on use of the scientific method. Alas, the hypothesis that there is a human soul is one that that the scientific method cannot address because there is no way to provide empirical evidence that either confirms or disconfirms it. Indeed, even the phrenologists Gall and Spurzheim (discussed below), who mapped the brain into areas controlling all sorts of human attributes, found an area for â€Å"spirituality† (Myers, 2004), but not for the soul. Rose is, however, in the company of a medical internist with a Ph. D. from Yale in physical chemistry, i. e. , Collins (2007, as cited in Snyder, 2007), who has claimed there is evidence that â€Å"moral law is implanted in our brains by God† (p. 6). Nonetheless, despite psychology being unable to engineer an entity for which there is no scientific evidence, one purpose of this paper is to argue that Rose (1992), along with other critics of psychological research, has failed to recognize that the continued influence of the studies of individual differences beyond the early part of the last century, mainly the development of tests to measure intelligence, i. e. , IQ testing, has not been on psychology, but on education. Indeed, later psychological research on intelligence and cognitive development has been largely ignored in education (Perlmutter Burrell, 1999). There is no disagreement that IQ testing had and continues to have a negative influence on education, but this paper addresses the waning of the influences of IQ testing within psychology itself not long after the development of these tests. What is psychology? Rose (1992) defined psychology as the study of individual differences, based on a â€Å"paradigmatic technique of . . . the psychological ‘test’ . . . (pp. 358-359). The goal of psychology, according to Rose, is â€Å"the isolation, intensification, and inscription of human difference† (p. 359). This definition is not the same as the one used in most textbooks on introductory psychology, where the discipline is defined as â€Å"the science of behavior and mental processes† (Myers, 2004). While psychological questions have been of interest from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers, psychology as a science did not develop until the latter part of the 19th century (Myers, 2004). Psychologists eventually conducted research in areas that began in other disciplines – and also came to be blamed for the wretched excesses of still other disciplines, notably education. In the early 19th century, phrenologists Gall and Spurzheim mapped out brain areas supposedly controlling attributes from acquisitiveness to sublimity and measured people on these attributes by feeling bumps on their heads (Myers, 2004). Despite the embarrassment phrenology caused scientists, late in the 19th century French and German neurologists, notably Brocca and Wertheimer, provided evidence of left-hemisphere dominance in tasks involving language (Deutsch Springer, 1997). They used autopsy findings of those who suffered language deficits following strokes to areas in the left cerebral hemisphere (the dominant hemisphere for more than 90% and 70% of right- and left-handed people respectively). These findings were followed by further research on deficits in spatial abilities following strokes in the right cerebral (usually non-dominant) hemisphere (Deutsch Springer, 1997). In the next century, researchers studied the performance of those who underwent a surgical procedure where the connecting fibers (the corpus colossus) between the two hemispheres were severed to control the spread of severe seizures (Deutsch Springer, 1999). Later research, using equipment such as evoked potentials, was conducted using samples from the general population. The research provided evidence not that only one hemisphere was activated during performance of most tasks but evidence that one hemisphere was more activated than the other, for example, in language comprehension, the left hemisphere is more activated, but the right hemisphere also is activated in comprehending the emotional, metaphoric, and humorous content of language (Deutsch Springer, 1997). Individual differences also were rare, for example, listening to music results in greater activation in the right than left hemisphere, except there is the reverse pattern for trained musicians (Deutsch Springer, 1999). However, the history of research related to the cerebral hemispheres is an example of psychologists falsely being blamed for the nonsense propagated by those in education that there were left- and right-brained people – and teachers somehow were supposed to adjust their teaching for their right-brained students (Connell, 1990). In outlining the history of psychology, introductory textbooks place its beginnings in Wundt’s establishment of a laboratory in Vienna in 1879 for the purpose of applying the scientific method to the study of human mental processes: â€Å"On a December day in 1879 . . . Wundt was seeking to measure . . . the fastest and simplest mental processes. Thus began what many consider psychology’s first experiment† (Myers, 2004, p. 4). However, those in other disciplines, such as Rose (1992), seem to believe not only that psychology began – and ended with the early work of those studying individual differences, but also that research in psychology actually is used in education. Individual Differences One important difference between the early work of neurologists on the human cerebral hemispheres described above and early work on individual differences is that the former research was based on beginning with basic or shared mental processes. Put another way, the law of parsimony is that main effects are studied prior to interactions (Kirk, 1995). The early work on individual differences in intelligence began prior to research on basic cognitive processing. Galton’s definition of intelligence (White, 2006) was based on an assumption drawn from Darwin’s evolutionary theory of the survival of the fittest, both between- and within-species (1859, as cited in Myers, 2004). Between-species, humans clearly are advantaged with superior intellect. However, if human intelligence had been defined as those characteristics that increase the probability of an individual’s survival, predominant attributes would be those related to the attainment of economic and political power. From the beginnings of civilization, world history has been a struggle for power, with members of prevailing powerful groups inhumanely dominating members of less powerful groups (Braudel Mayne, 2003), a concept perhaps best expressed by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever as â€Å"everybody always has to have somebody to dump on† (Wexler, 1977). Being powerful certainly does enhance one’s chances of survival, but how did anyone reach the conclusion that power was related to what we usually think of as intellect?

A Teacher | An Educational Experience

A Teacher | An Educational Experience Many times, when we are young, we are faced with decisions that we can only understand as we grow older. I can still remember that game, where my parents chose different things each representing a different job, and I had to pick one of them. This was supposed to indicate the road I was going to take as an adult and the work I was going to deal with. The one thing I chose that time was a stethoscope, which meant I was going to study to become a doctor. As I grew older, many things changed and even my ideas became different from time to time. Now I find myself reading a four year course in teaching, and I would definately have never imagined myself as a teacher. Discussion Our professional life is something, which I think, cannot be decided when we are still young and without any experience. It is often affected by factors which are out of our control, and shaped by different experiences we go through in our life. Way back through my secondary years, I used to imagine myself as a pilot or becoming an air-hostess, following my fathers footsteps. I always loved planes and I remember telling my friends that once I finish school, I was going to work on a plane and start flying often. It all changed when I had to chose the subjects I wanted to broaden my studies on. We had a good variety of choices, amongst which sciences, maths, languages, and an option including physical education and home economics. This option was new to the school and it was introduced to the students of our year, so we were the first to experiment in this. I was quite undecided on what to choose as sciences and maths were not my favourite, and I was left with languages and the other option of physical education. Obviously I seeked my parents advice, and they were not quite keen on me choosing physical education, so they encouraged me to take the option regarding languages. Despite this, I opted in choosing physical education. At the beginning of the scholastic year, when I was in Form 2, the school employed a new physical education teacher, who was very young, fresh and enthusiastic on teaching new students. My life at school was very sedentary and I rarely used to attend to physical education lessons, because the teacher we had was very traditional. She used to give us a ball and let us experiment on our own each and every lesson. Otherwise, she also used to prepare lessons with about four (4) or five (5) different exercises and we had to spend the whole lesson practising the given skills. This new teacher was different, I remember the very first lesson where I told her I was not going to take part because I did not want to, and she insisted on me helping her out throughout the lesson. The lesson was an introduction to football, something which I previously had never done. She literally caught my attention, as without even realising, I was taking part in the lesson with the whole class. It was so interesting and challenging, using games in order to make us think and experience the skill, rather than just giving it out. This teacher believed a lot in learning through experience, in order to help the students think and arrive to a conclusion. From that day onwards, my view on the physical education lessons totally changed, and there was not one lesson I did not fully participate in. As Dewey (1897) claims I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. Agreeing to what Dewey states, learning and education are social and interactive processes, where the school is the institution which helps the child interact with the curriculum and learn through real, guided experiences. He compares two (2) extremes, that are the traditional method against the progressive method of teaching. The first one (traditional) is more of an authoritarian and strict approach, where the teacher focuses on delivering the curriculum, with not enough understanding of the students experiences. The second method (progressive) is free, student-directed and uses the students experiences to enable them to learn. Going back to my primary years, I remember how I used to hate physical education because the teacher was very traditional and used to gives us a ball and kind of dictate the skills that had to be practised, in order to stick to the syllabus content. This used to get annoying, with very minimal learning, and for this reason I always used to opt out in taking part and stay wandering around. This was only until the school employed the new teacher, and with her the lessons were so different. They were fun, progressive, and educational at the same time, introducing a variety of sports to us and teaching us numerous skills and games which we had never done in years. Recalling these years made me understand how I wanted to become that teacher who makes the students love the subject and guide them to learn through their own experience, being able to understand the skills. I did not want to become the traditional teacher, as Dewey claims, who gives a ball to the students and its like sending a clear message I do not care in doing the lesson. The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences. (Dewey, 1987). In physical education, students tend to ask for playing games rather than having a lesson focused on drills and skill practise. A very good method I have been introduced to at University is the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), and our lecturers emphasize its use in schools. Throughout my teaching practice I realised it is very effective and endorses students in a thinking process, because rather than focusing on how to do it (main importance is given to the techniques practised), it addresses the why and the what if (students have to think of skils and strategies for better play). As Griffin and colleagues (1997) suggest, it helps in encouraging the students to respond with a range of creative actions, being able to critically think and make their own decisions. Students are thus able to develop a deeper meaning and understanding of what they are being taught, and be able to decide and use information in a variety of situations. Concording to Dewey: the true centre of correlation of the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the childs own social activities. (Dewey, 1987). Applying this method in my teaching practice, turned out very well and also made me realise that teaching is a drawing forth rather than a telling. Teaching does not have to be a dictatorship, or else giving only importance to what lies within the curriculum. If students prefer learning through games, than use games to deliver the content, but in a way that encourages students to learn and not push them away in disliking the subject. For example, taking physical education again and focusing the lesson on basketball; if the aim of the lesson is introduce passing, I would start the lesson by a ball possession game, where the students have to make five (5) consecutive passes to be able to score a point. In this manner, students are playing a game, practising passing between each other, and also being able to think and understand that in order to score a point they need to move about and create open spaces. Obviously, in contrast to the I want you to stay in pairs and pass the ball to each other traditional method, this progressive approach allows the students to think and experience the skills. As a future educator, I also believe that students need to be guided in order to be able to discover new knowledge. Socrates established a very important notion of philosophy, that is arriving at truth through a series of questions. He used to question man in the street himself to arrive at political and ethical truths. He also questioned his students, as a means of instruction to engage them in thinking a problem and arriving at a critical conclusion. Nowadays, this so called Socratic Method, is very much used by teachers to stimulate learning in students. It focuses on the students knowledge to address a given problem, and learning is through a process of critical thinking and discovery, and not by having the teacher telling the student the proper answer. It is through the use of questioning methods, that students are encouraged to think and analyse a given situation. In teaching this is what is known to be as the guided-discovery method, where the process is triggered off by a series of stimuli. These can range from small statements to questions that elicit discovery. The questions might then proceed in small steps, until the student discovers the wanted target or concept through own knowledge and experience. An example drawn from a particular lesson I had during my teaching practice last year, where a student was finding it difficult to hit the ball, as the lesson was about softball (very similar to the baseball game). Instead of just teling her she had to swing the bat earlier, I started to ask her a series of questions to make her think about what she was doing wrong. The first question First I asked her why wasnt she able to hit the ball, and her answer was that she was swinging earlier than the ball. To this I then invited her to think why she was swinging early, and she came to a conclusion that it was happening because she was not timing the ball correctly. Thus, automatically she realised that she needed to wait a bit more before swinging the bat. After a couple of times practising the swing, she managed to hit the ball. I could have easily told her to wait for the ball before swinging, but in this manner the student managed to arrive to the conclusion through her own experience a nd by critically thinking and analysing the problem. Conclusion In a learning community, learners construct their own knowledge, and then share it with the whole society through: collaboration as an act of shared creation/and or shared discovery. (Schrage, 1990). This is important, as in a world where technology is prevailing: it is not possible for the individual to understand the complexities of this modern age without drawing on and accepting the contribution of others. (Schrage, 1990). A teacher is definately essential in helping the learner construct his or her own knowledge. Undoubtedly, a teacher also has great responsibility in preparing the students well for their careers and lives, and it is important to note that without the teacher, jobs such as those of a doctor, lawyer, auditor and so on, could not be taken as one needs to be taught before taking up a career. Many people have been helpful and important in helping me become what I am today, but a person which has been an important role-model and inspired me to take this road, is my secondary physical education teacher. She is what I define a successful and efficient teacher, and one day I would like to be defined in that manner by my students. An analysis of the Selfie: A new unconscious illness An analysis of the Selfie: A new unconscious illness Title: Selfie: A new unconscious illness 1.0 Introduction People have been taking selfie as a trend that is ongoing. The word ‘selfie’ is officially named by the Oxford Dictionaries World of the Year in 2013. ‘Selfie’ is define as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website (Oxford University Press, 2014).Moreover, selfie is often associated with social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. People take selfie wherever they are and whatever they are doing. These days, people snap pictures of themselves wherever they are. For example, selfies taken at funerals, presidential selfies, and even a selfie from space (The Daily Hit, 2013). The popularity of selfies has dramatically increased and had become a social media phenomenon. So, should this be seen as an issues? According to Doctor Pamela Rutledge (2013), selfies can be damaging to a person’s mental health and that indulging in them is indicative of narcissism, low self-esteem, attention seeking behaviour and self-indulgence. Even Thailand’s Department of Mental Health come to a conclusion that the ‘selfie culture’ bring a potential negative impact and claiming that young people are suffering from emotional problem when their selfies is not underappreciated by others. The public does not concern about this issue [L1]because they are not conscious of the illness that selfie can bring. 2.0 Sickness of selfie 2.1 Narcissism The meaning of narcissism is excessive self-love (Acocella Joan, 2005). Due to the improvement of the technology, taking selfie now is much more convenient. Camera are now being placed on our phones with high mega pixel, we get to edit the picture that we just snap with a touch and we can share it to everyone with a click. The more shots that are taken, the danger you are. You might feel each of the photos of you are so pretty due to the effect that make your skin smooth, fair and make you look younger. This thought may be the platform of the sickness – Narcissism. Narcissism can be also defined as a personality disorder that cause by behaviour like exploiting others, envy, lack of empathy and an insatiable hunger for attention (Acocella Joan, 2005). It is a pretty judgmental label to string up on someone who might be happy with him or herself. According to Doctor Pamela Rutledge (2013), the growing selfie trend is today being connected to a lot of psychological disorders that can be damaging to the overall psyche of the users. Psychologists and psychiatrists are reporting rising numbers of patients who are suffering from narcissism, body dysmorphic and dramatically low self-esteem, all thanks to selfie-nation. According to Doctor David Verle (2014) â€Å"Two out of three of all the patients who arrive to examine him with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the cost increase of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly read and post selfies on the social media sites.† This indicates that too much selfie can actually lead to Narcissism. 2.2 Addiction Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry (ASAM, 2011). Selfie can be an addiction to everyone, not only youngsters, elderly may also addicted to the selfie phenomenon. It seems that some people cant stop turning the camera their way for that perfect shot, and now psychologists say taking selfie can turn an addiction for people already affected by certain psychological disorders. Research found that UK’s first selfie addict is the teen and has had therapy to treat his technology addiction (Fiona Keating, 2014). They believe that the addiction toward selfie is because Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or attention-seeking social dependence that raises narcissism or low self-esteem, (Pamela Rutledge, 2013). Someone that who are addicted to selfie can snap more than 200 times selfie per day. The first case is of Danny Bowman who is 19, a British teen diagnosed with selfie addiction. He reportedly spen t 10 hours daily with 200 photos of himself, but the numerous shots cannot still satisfy his desires. He eventually tried to commit suicide to break free from addiction (Aldridge Gemma; Harden Kerry, 2014). Due to the addiction of selfie, he quit school to have more time for selfie, shutting himself in the house for six month, lost 13 kg just to get a better feature from the camera and become aggressive with his parents when they tried to stop him from selfie. Danny says that he constantly search for the perfect selfie and when he realise the he couldn’t he wanted to suicide. Because of the addiction of selfie, he lost his friends, disappoint his family, giving up his education, health and almost scarifies his own life. The addiction of selfie is most likely to the addiction of drugs, alcohol or gambling which require a lot of efforts to be recover. 3.0 Dealing with selfie 3.1 How parents can help to reduce this issues Most of us do practice selfie, but how to deal with it, how to prevent from getting any illness but still enjoying selfie. First, parent’s education is most important. Knowing what is your children going through and having a better example of selfie phenomena. Some of the children go through rebellious period, they tend to do the opposite thing when their parents say not to (Rutledge Pamela, 2013). So due to this, parent should know their kids well and have a good communication between them to solve this issue. Next, parents should keep the habits of taking selfie when their children is not around because the behaviour of a parent’s influence their children because children tends to modify what their parents doing. Furthermore, parents should also educate their children on what negative effect can selfie bring. Parents play an important role in a child’s life and what they have made changes what they think. 3.2 Time limitations on phone Other than having the parents educate, time limitation on the phone also helps in dealing with selfie. The lesser the time you spend on your mobile phone, the lesser your addiction towards selfie. Most of us search for photo perfection for example Danny Bowman. After selfie, we spend most of the time on choosing the perfect picture and spend time on editing. Due to the advance technology, there are now thousands of applications for you to edit your picture. From the case of Danny Bowman, there is a cure toward the addiction of selfie which is to limit his time on his mobile phones. Danny claimed that the doctor confiscate his phone from him for ten minutes, then half an hour, then an hour (Aldridge Gemma; Harden Kerry, 2014). It was tough for him at first, but the idea of living keeps him motivated. According to Doctor Veal, the usual treatment for selfie is where a patient gradually learns to work for a longer period of time without satisfying the urge to submit pictures. There is not much worried because there is a cure for addiction and narcissism. 4.0 Conclusion Selfie addiction is so new there are, as yet, no statistics on it (Aldridge Gemma; Harden Kerry, 2014) so it causes people to be unconscious about it. How can the society help to improve the selfie phenomena is to spread the word and inform about what illness can bring when they having too much of selfie. Other than that, self-conscious is also important as we. Always control yourself on the number of selfie and the time spent on selfie, make sure you are not addicted to it. If you were addicted, find someone to talk to, get some opinion or seek for a further medical check-up if you can’t manage to get out from the illness that you are having. Lastly, we can make the selfie phenomena a better world by reminding each other not to take too much shots to avoid all the illness and educate them on how to deal with selfie. Reference List Acocella Joan. (2014) Selfie.New Yorker, 0028792X, 5/12/2014, Vol. 90, Issue 12. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/[emailprotected]vid=1hid=4202bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==#db=a9hAN=96140839 Addiction. (2011). American Society of Addiction Medicine. Retrieved form http://www.asam.org/for-the-public/definition-of-addiction Aldridge, G., Harden, K. (2014). Selfie addict took Two Hundred a day – and tried to kill himself when he couldn’t take perfect photo. Retrieved from http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/selfie-addict-took-two-hundred-3273819 Martino Joe. (2014). Scientists Link Selfies to Narcissism, Addiction Mental Illness. Retrieved from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/04/07/scientists-link-selfies-to-narcissism-addiction-mental-illness/ Rutledge Pamela. (2013). Making Sense of Selfies. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201307/making-sense-selfies Rutledge Pamela. (2013). The psychology of the selfie. Airtalk. Retrieved from http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2014/02/11/35997/the-psychology-of-the-selfie/ Selfie. (2012). In Oxford dictionaries. Retrieved from http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/oxford-dictionaries-word-of-the-year-2013/ The Daily Hit. (2013). The Selfie Addiction  ¼Ã… ¡ Top 16 worst types of selfies. Retrieved from http://www.dailyhiit.com/hiit-blog/hiit-life/selfie-addiction-top-16-worst-types-selfies/ The Huffington Post. (2014), ‘Selfie Addiction’ is No Laughing Matter, Psychiatrists Say (VIDEO). Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/selfie-addiction-mental-illness_n_5022090.html [L1]Informal tone. Please rephrase. Concepts of Evils: Reflective Essay Concepts of Evils: Reflective Essay CONCEPT OF EVILS : I doubt that anyone thinks that we live in a perfect world. Although famine, war, earthquakes, disease and crime are common occurrences, I am sure that most people would be happy to live without them. In fact, I would expect that most people would say that these things are an indication that all is not well with the world. Types of Evils : There are basically two types of evil viz. Moral evil:  Suffering caused by humans. Natural Evil:  Suffering due to non-human agents. Those who argue that God does not exist, will often suggest that the presence of evil and suffering in the world is evidence that there is no God. Their argument can be set out in the following way; If God exists then surely God would want to, and could, deal with the problem of evil and suffering. Evil and suffering continues to occur in the world. Therefore, God cannot exist. So there is no perfect confirmation on the presence of God or absence of evil and vice versa. That means if God exist then evil too exist. The tact is to reformulate the argument from evil so that this criticism does not apply; for example, by replacing the term evil with suffering, or what is more cumbersome, state of affairs that orthodox theists would agree are properly called evil. MORAL EVIL : Moral evil is violence, slavery, dishonesty and so on which is basically out of our moral values and ethics. For example; If a girl gets raped then it is not her fault, it is one who does that. But society in which we live always blames the girl starts spoiling her name and starts gossiping about her activities that she does or did in his life like about her clothing’s, friends and the list doesn’t stops. Already the girl in the immense pain they she might be going through on the other hand such gossips hurts her more. On the other hand the media, newspapers tell something other story with all the emotions, drama, extra knowledge all that stuff just to increase their trp rate and for the fame. People in the society should ashamed that if they always tell girls to live but why can’t they teach their boys how to behave with girls In this example we can say that everyone has freedom to do what they want to. We always say that we live in a free country but the fact is that we are miles away from the freedom. It is not acceptable i.e. violence against women nor any type of harassment. That’s what our moral value says not to do harm anyone and also one should have some kind of humanity within them but do people nowadays really have it. If they have so then they might not gossip or do such kind of things with girls. The problem with our judiciary system is that there procedure of making judgement is so slow that victims can make hundreds of crime within that period. So fast trails should be made so that the victims can know their faults and anyone should not dare to repeat the mistake again. NATURAL EVILS : Natural evils are those which are done by non- human agents like people believe in superstitions, spirits, etc. For example; I heard this one from one of my friend who actually experienced it, one of their relative who was close with their family died some 2 years back who met with an accident and after few months everyday some or the other things happens in their house like sometimes there is health problems, sometimes my friend would go crazy like laughing like ghost and starts speaking to himself about that uncle’s family all that stuff. Then they went to many doctors for treatment but all that was of no use then some people told them that u go to religious places and do pooja and perform some kind of rituals it will be fine because all these is happening because of wicked spirits that is in my friend so their family did all rituals and then things became as normal it was. But now I can’t understand that one side it is said that wicked things are all fake and it is superstition but in the other side its true that my friend got cured because of all that rituals. But I personall y believe that there is no such kind of wicked spirits present in this world. All this rituals are performed so that one can earn money, fame and so on. The best part is that how they fool people in and around them by telling all the stupid things and people to fall pray. We all have noticed all these poster in the train which tell the same thing but the phone number in it is different. In this people are given wrong information about it due to which a fear is built inside them about their own problem. All this builds up stress in their mind and causes mental illness. I don’t believe that how people started using the name of the God for earning. But its true that if people believe in God then they must believe in spirits too. One more example of natural evil is blackmagic. The article down is taken from http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-08/india/41873071_1_kerala-village-kalari-black-magic KOCHI: For Peringottukara is best known for the practice of black magic, especially one involving chathan or kuttichathan. This figure is a dark avatar of Vishnu who rides a buffalo, and whose mastery in removing, or placing, hurdles in mortal life is never questioned by believers. The chathan could blight your love life, business dealings or general prosperity but could also set things right if placated.The families of Avanangattil Kalari and Kanadi are the resident experts in this trade. They are at pains to explain that, rumours of black arts notwithstanding, they are harmless folk.The treatment is often elaborate tantric pujas that involve ornate symbolism, much mumbo-jumbo, trances, communion with saturnine powers and the like. If you are here, it is hard to remain untouched by the rituals. There are more worldly matters to be dealt with as well. Even as this correspondent was chatting up a priest at Avanangattil Kalari, an NRI nonchalantly placed a fat bundle of notes as advanc e for the chathans intervention in his business empire. A couple of minutes later, a poor, halfblind lottery ticket vendor too lands up to lament business losses. All he has to placate the mischievous chathan is a one rupee coin. The priest seems to show no particular interest in the money being offered. Those in the know, however, will tell you how easily and seamlessly these priests shuttle between the spiritual and temporal worlds. Many of them have got incredibly rich and run petrol pumps and cinema theatres. They have also put in place a fairly well-oiled structure to run the faith industry, including staff to woo devotees from far and wide.According to advertising industry circles, the Kanadi groups spend lakhs on publicity every year. Some of the Malayalam newspapers which were reluctant to carry advertisements of such dispensers of divine blessings have now changed tack. Nowadays people are feared about their life and they are not interested in their moral values and ethics. I too believe that sometimes something depends upon circumstances but there are something that is not acceptable under any circumstances like harassment, inequality, racism, etc. It is common in all the trucks there is some kind of picture is drawn and it is said that it will save it from all kinds of accidents and damage that may occur. All this things are only to up come our fear that have been put into our mind or taken by us through some instance that they have been known. Today’s youth is tomorrow’s adult generation. Now we may take any big step to eradicate social evil but we can prepare our minds that when we will be adults we will not support social evil. At this moment we can orally fight with the social criminals, put up posters in the neighbouring to decrease social evil such as rape, child labour, black magic, etc. Thats all we can do now later we all be not this generation as it is now. So one should prepare their mind that in our generation there would be no evil nor any issue.!!!!! So lastly I conclude that moral evils can be eradicated from our society but natural evils (spiritual or wicked) can’t be easily removed from our society. I too didn’t understood that do really natural evils exit in the world because I don’t believe in God!!! Nursing Leaders in Afghanistan: Competency and Challenges Nursing Leaders in Afghanistan: Competency and Challenges Wais Mohammad Qarani Significance The objective of this topic is in line with the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) priority program on human resource development as indicated that MoPH supports â€Å"research at all levels†¦and capacity building of nursing and midwifery department† (MoPH-National Priority Program, 2012, p. 95). Moreover, understanding of the competency of nursing leaders in Afghanistan would provide evidence to maintain equity in the provision of learning opportunities, serve as an advocate for allocation of resources through the MoPH for the capacity development, and facilitate donor attraction for the development of nursing profession to create carrier development opportunities. Subsequently, this would be a foundation to increase awareness, build on knowledge, facilitate advocacy, improve professional image, improve quality, and enhance patient outcome. Therefore, it is important to explore that what is the competency level of nursing leaders who are working in the public h ospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan and what challenges they face that hinder their practice and subsequently affect patient care. Search Strategy This literature review consists of the data from the CINAHL, PubMed databases and Google Scholar. The data about nursing in Afghanistan were limited to the opinion articles and were searched as an entire through the term â€Å"Nursing AND Afghanistan† without filtering and only six relevant articles were found. Other search terms were conducted in combination of the keywords including; leadership, nursing, capacity, competency, development, building, challenges, and assessment. Afghanistan national strategic plans and reports were also taken into consideration through the search from Google Scholar and web pages. The searches were filtered to recent data according to the number of available articles accordingly. Majority of the search terms were searched without any filter as the total number of articles were limited. (Refer annexure A for more detail). Introduction Attention to the nursing in Afghanistan peaked in the mid to late 1970s through the establishment of nursing schools for both male and female (Furnia, 1978, p. 94). Likewise other systems of the country, nursing education and practice started to deteriorate after the initiation of war which continued for decades. From the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and the fall of Taliban, the Afghan education and health systems have drastically damaged. Since the late 2001 the flow of international agencies and contributions to participate in the reconstruction of health sector have increased which have positively contributed in the health of Afghan population (Ministry of Public Health-National Strategy on Healthcare financing and Sustainability, 2009-2013, Forward section, para. 1). International agencies have made to contribute in majority of the health branches and brought remarkable improvements in the health system both at the knowledge and skills level. The nursing education has improved during the past decade. There are some improvements in the curriculum, learning resource package, teaching methodologies, capacity of the instructors, and supervision skills since 2002 and a lot more is needed (Herberg, 2005, p.132). The first four year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program was established and launched just in 2007 at the Kabul Medical University (KMU) under the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE). Despite improvements in nursing education, nursing services/practice and leadership at the point of practice have not been addressed through any mechanism to improve patient outcome, which needs to be explored and design programs for improvements. The purpose of this literature review is to explore available data and researches conducted on the competency of nursing leaders in Afghanistan. The review also covers literature from the neighboring and other developed countries. The review includes both theoretical and empirical literature focusing on the concepts of competency and leadership. Critical Review and Analysis Robbins et al. (2001) defined competent person as â€Å"one who has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform a job adequately† (p. 192). Robbins et al. have also concluded that competency is divided into four main domains which include â€Å"technical skills, industry knowledge, analytic and conceptual reasoning, and interpersonal and emotional intelligence† (p. 193). Furthermore, 25 participants of a conference attendees in Texas who were leaders reported competency as â€Å"the ability to think in action, have confidence and clarity in decision making, and retrieve information throughout the career trajectory† (Allen et al., 2008, p. 81). In addition, political skill to understand and manage every stakeholder’s conflicting behaviors and external awareness of laws, policies, and decisions are the two important characteristics of effective leadership and management (Blaney, 2012, p. 44) which all together outline competency based leadership and mana gement. Indeed, these domains and components of competency and leadership are distinct from individual to individual, hence have diverse outcomes. Kang et al. (2012) have compared managerial competencies among nursing administrators (n=330) from 16 hospitals in Taiwan through a cross-sectional survey and found that more than 50% of the Head Nurses (HNs) and more than 35% of the high level management had never received any administrative training (p.942). The findings also revealed that HNs and Nurse Executives (NEs) both rated themselves highest in integrity and lowest in financial management followed by clinical skills and knowledge, and interpersonal relationship skills for HNs, whereas; collaboration and team skills and human resource and labor relations were rated by NEs (pp. 942-943). Although organizational outcome is relied on effective leadership and management, it has been given less importance to fulfill capacity development needs of the nursing leaders. Furthermore, considering diverse technological and resources accessibility, competency also differs from person to person in different contexts. Therefore, it is reas onable to explore nursing leaders’ competencies on the context of Afghanistan to enable us in planning programs for the capacity development of nursing leaders accordingly. The development of nursing in China is associated with one of the key factor which is medical orientation of the health system (Wong, 2010, p. 526), while the most troubleshooting challenge of the American nurses is distinct to â€Å"absence of adequate pipeline for nursing leaders† (Thompson, 2008, p. 914). A descriptive qualitative study on the perception of the Community Health Nursing (CHN) Assistant Manager role in Pakistan indicated confusion of the role which needed role clarity (Gulzar, Mistry, Upvall, 2011, p. 389). The same study reported existence of tension between CHN assistant manager and Lady Health Visitors (LHVs) and expected to be the result of the lack of understanding of their roles and expectations (p. 390). This conflict is further exaggerated where the role of one discipline (nursing) is taken by the other discipline (medical) and vice versa particularly in Afghanistan. A quantitative exploratory study by Essani and Ali (2011) conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi Pakistan about knowledge and practice gaps among pediatric nurses revealed that incompetency of the participants had a great impact on the level of care provided to the patients. The gaps were categorized in five areas where knowledge and skills were ranked second and third highest respectively (p.1). The competency of low level staff is dependent on the managerial skills and leadership competencies of high level staff of a particular entity which in turn has its impact on patient outcome. Therefore, capacity development of nursing leaders must be a priority which plays a vital role in organizational outcome. Scarcity of research in Afghanistan hinders any step forward; and due to decades of conflicts, Afghanistan faces greater challenges in terms of leadership than any other country. The issues and practices of nursing in Afghanistan have not been published to guide nursing practice in the country or plan for improvements. Majority of the published articles are on the missions and personal experiences of the international armed forces nursing personnel who worked in Afghanistan. Cameron (2008) described Afghans as â€Å"extremely intelligent and bright† but, decades of war have destroyed the health system of the country and the emotional wellbeing of the population (p. 30). Cameron claimed that despite the role of supervision in maintaining standard of care, majority of the managers do not turn to the wards and do not know about the patient’s condition (p. 30). This claim is needed to be explored through the nursing research to discover leadership incompetence as a contribu ting factor. It appears that nursing leaders could best identify and describe their need for capacity development to design programs which would enable them to avail international knowledge and technology. The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has valued to develop evidence based public health programs (MoPH, Strategic Plan, 2011-2015, p. 20). Besides, the MoPH strategic plan has determined the human resources management and development (pp. 24-25) which is in line with the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS, 2008-2013, p. 62). Although evidence based programs and human resource development are the focus of MoPH, nursing profession has disadvantaged in this regard. This fact is supported by Forsyth (2013) that â€Å"Health Services professionals shifted their focus from caring for sick and injured coalition personnel to mentoring and capacity building with the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)† (p. 32). Although international nurses are posted within ANSF for mentorship and training, this opportunity is much limited within the public hospitals. The MoPH strategic direction on increasing equitable access to quality health services (strategic objective -5) to impr ove patient safety (MoPH, Strategic Plan, 2011-2015, p. 30) is purely dependent on effective nursing care through effective leadership and management. Strategic direction on governance in the health sector (MoPH, Strategic Plan, 2011-2015, pp. 31-32) is an important consideration for fulfilling the objectives. Therefore, identification of the nursing governance competency limitations and evidences which hinder effective nursing leadership require an in-depth research. Conclusion Competency of the nursing leader plays a vital role in the organizational outcome. Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI) under the International Confederation of Nurses (ICN), designs annual leadership development programs for nurses at the executive level. The objectives of the institute focused to develop capacity of the nursing leadership and build international network at the global level (Blaney, 2012, p. 47). On the other hand, Afghan nurses have disadvantaged from such opportunities. Efficiency of a health industry is associated with the better workplace and workforce management and also connected with clinical supervision and effective leadership and management which is compromised component in diverse settings. Therefore, it is vital to develop the capacity of the nursing leaders on the bases of evidence to enhance productivity. Administrators play a central role in the provision of high quality health services to the patients. They are the one who train his/her designe e what to do, when to do and how to do and above all why to do which is more significant for patient outcome. Thus, the finding of this literature review indicates a need to explore the capacity of nursing leaders to plan developmental programs accordingly. The purpose of the research would be to explore competency level of the nursing leaders in public hospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan and also identify challenges they face in the workplace. References Allen, P., Lauchner, K., Bridges, R., Francis-Johnson, P., McBride, S., Olivarez, A. (2008). Evaluating continuing competency: a challenge for nursing.Journal Of Continuing Education In Nursing,39(2), 81-85. doi:10.3928/00220124-20080201-02 ANDS – Afghanistan National Development Strategy (2008-2013). Retrieved from http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/IMG/pdf/Afghanistan_National_Development_Strateg y_eng.pdf Blaney, P. P. (2012). Senior nursing leadership capacity building at the global level. International Nursing Review, 59(1), 40-47. doi:10.1111/j.1466-7657.2011.00953.x Cameron, A. (2008). Planting seeds of hope nursing in Afghanistan. Australian Nursing Journal, 16(5), 30. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=83dab417-8198-4e8d-b006- ca398eb9f9b9%40sessionmgr113vid=1hid=113 Essani, R., Ali, T. (2011). Knowledge and Practice Gaps among Pediatric Nurses at a Tertiary Care Hospital Karachi Pakistan. ISRN Pediatrics, doi:10.5402/2011/460818 Forsyth, J. (2013). Building capacity in Afghanistan. Canadian Nurse, 109(9), 32-33. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5af86ac0-ed52-42e7- b821-aef93fea8df3%40sessionmgr114vid=1hid=113 Furnia, A. H. (1978). Syncrisis: The dynamics of health. XXIV: Afghanistan. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Health, Education and Welfare Public Health Service (DHEW 78-50056). Retrieved from http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAH120.pdf Gulzar, S. A., Mistry, R. R., Upvall, M. J. (2011). Capacity development for Community Health Nurses in Pakistan: the assistant manager role. International Nursing Review, 58(3), 386-391. doi:10.1111/j.1466-7657.2011.00896.x Herberg, P. (2005). Nursing, midwifery, and allied health education programmes in Afghanistan. International Nursing Review, 52(2), 123-133. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a63c682f-0b1b-410f-a19e-4d991fd96aa5%40sessionmgr114vid=1hid=113 Kang, C., Chiu, H., Hu, Y., Chen, H., Lee, P., Chang, W. (2012). Comparisons of self-ratings on managerial competencies, research capability, time management, executive power, workload and work stress among nurse administrators. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(7), 938-947. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01383.x Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) National Strategy on Healthcare financing and Sustainability (2009- 2013). Retrieved from http://moph.gov.af/Content/Media/Documents/NationalStrategyonHealthFinancingandSu stainability20092013English1742013132843116553325325.pdf MoPH, National Priority Program, (2012). Health for All Afghans. Retrieved from http://moph.gov.af/Content/Media/Documents/NPPEnglishVersionNarrative29July20122 752013125750126553325325.pdf MoPH, Strategic Plan, 2011-2015. Retrieved from http://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=sfrm=1source=webcd=1cad =rjaved=0CCcQFjAAurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmoph.gov.af%2FContent%2FMedia%2F Documents%2FMoPHStrategicPlan2011Final2882011115859177553325325.docei=6r 8IU7yqDIir0gWSloDoBwusg=AFQjCNHy730DBrvhFbHBqDFOd7UtpTS- 1gsig2=JJnlggylJ5mHxP2DlfKRSwbvm=bv.61725948,d.Yms Robbins, C., Bradley, E., Spicer, M. (2001). Developing leadership in healthcare administration: a competency assessment tool. Journal of Healthcare Management, 46(3), 188. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ad517ba7-0311-433a-bd10- 40f4819cf245%40sessionmgr198vid=1hid=126 Thompson, P. (2008). Key challenges facing American nurse leaders.Journal of Nursing Management,16(8), 912-914. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2008.00951.x Wong, F. (2010). Challenges for nurse managers in China.Journal of Nursing Management,18(5), 526-530. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01115.x Annexure – A: (detail of search strategies) Annexure B: (List of Acronyms used in the paper)