Saturday, August 31, 2019

Role Of Health Care Organizations Health And Social Care Essay

Health Care Organizations. The function of wellness attention organisations is really of import in the overall wellness scenario of United States. Health attention organisations are dedicated to supply comprehensive wellness services to the patients. These wellness attention organisations provide the services of doctors, nurses, research labs etc. for the patient. However, it has been forecasted by many economic analysts that the wellness disbursals in United States will see a uninterrupted rush due to the deteriorating economic conditions and the increasing figure of uninsured people. This has compelled the infirmaries and other health care supplying units to restrict their disbursals to such an extent that every citizen, conditions holding medical insurance or non, will hold the entree to quality health care. The restrain of disbursals besides affects the staffing of infirmaries and most of the infirmaries follow the scheme of understaffing of their paramedical staff ( Aiken et al. , 2002 ; Unruh, 2003 ) . The authorities of United States in order to supply greater alleviation and convenience to little concerns in the state is hungering programs and explicating policies to supply them wellness insurances which will cover up to 35 % of a company ‘s insurance premiums. With the offering of insurance increasing up to 59 % this twelvemonth the White House anticipates that over 4 million people will be able to take advantage of this agreeableness. Furthermore the authorities intends to supply full revenue enhancement recognition will be provided to employers who have work force of less than 10 employees who earn less than $ 25,000 per annum. In add-on to this the disposal is besides looking frontward towards the retainment of grandfathered wellness insurance programs as it will supply employers the unsusceptibility from certain cardinal outgos. However on the impudent side little business communities and National Federation of Independent Business has already created an confederation to oppose and turn over the jurisprudence which they claim does non supply them equal alleviation and convenience. Most of them say that the eligibility standards outlined by the authorities is so narrow that many employees will merely be barred from these insurance commissariats. Many people have started traveling towards cheaper insurance programs through which their monthly insurance premium payments will cut down. Already 20 provinces have joined custodies to oppose the jurisprudence that the Obama disposal intends to proclaim. Experts besides suggest that preparation of such Torahs will work adversely for the Democrats in the approaching midterm elections as it provides a comprehendible manifestation of their incompetency and indifference towards an built-in sector of the state. Forces of alteration in US Health attention system The wellness attention state of affairs of United States of America is altering at a rapid gait. Several tendencies combined over the last few decennaries to make greater wellness attention unfairnesss. Both Medicaid and Medicare, for illustration, contributed to aggressively lifting medical costs because they required province authoritiess to reimburse infirmaries and doctors at ‘reasonable ‘ degrees determined by wellness attention suppliers. Predictably, reimbursement was really generous and disbursals grew rapidly. Such skyrocketing medical costs, combined with the general lethargy of the economic system put wellness attention out of range for many Americans. The loss of 1000000s of occupations during the recent economic meltdown added to the turning figure of people without medical insurance. The staying occupations ‘ progressively nonunion, portion clip places in the services sector ‘ offered few, if any wellness benefits. The promotion and invention of engineering in the field of medical scientific discipline has confirmed huge blessings on world. New medical specialties emerged mundane to extenuate a figure of diseases. Pharmaceutical and biomedical companies work indefatigably to develop medical specialties for such diseases, which considered as incurable in the past like Cancer ( Vastag, 1998 ) . United States is one of the most medically advanced states of the universe. Anybody who can afford or hold the proper health care coverage has entree to the best available medical engineering ( Bodenheimer, 2006 ) . Translating new engineering into pattern resulted greater per capita health care outgo ( Bodenheimer, 2005 ) . Thus engineering and invention in the medical field is an of import ground for wellness attention outgo ( Cutler & A ; McClellan, 2001 ) . Harmonizing to the US Bureau of the Census, the fastest turning section of the population in 1990 was grownups and seniors. In the twelvemonth 2000, 36 per centum of the population of the United States was over 45 old ages old, as compared to 30.8 per centum in this class in 1980. Alternatively of being youth-oriented in the hereafter, the United States will go a senior orientated civilization. Health disbursals of a individual increases as his or her age additions. However, experts believe that the factor of aging population contributes really small in the addition of wellness attention outgo ( Orszag, 2008 ) . Harmonizing to the informations provided by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) , in the twelvemonth 2003 United States spends about 7.3 per centum of its entire wellness attention outgo on administrative and insurance costs as compared to Canada which spends merely 2.6 % on administrative and insurance costs ( Schoen & A ; How, 2003 ) . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ( CMS ) have besides performed some surveies which show that United States administrative cost for wellness insurance was 14.3 % of its entire wellness attention outgo in 2005 ( Centers for Medicare & A ; Medicaid Services, 2005 ) . Although the alteration of US healthcare scene is non confined to these factors merely but they are some of the major subscribers for the continuously altering healthcare scene. Need for Health and Well Program The first inquiry that pops in head before planing a wellness and health plan for a private corporation is to understand the necessity due to which such a plan is being incepted. By inventing the demand and grounds for the plan any corporation can measure the full issue in greater item and penetration. Furthermore different complications that can be encountered during the class of the full plan can be analyzed in progress and prior to the launching of the plan and out of all these outstanding characteristics it is most of import to happen out a valid ground which can legalize and warrant the demand of such a plan. There are really two dimensions through which we can happen a rational account for such wellness and health plans. The grounds can be biological every bit good as accommodate commercial involvements. Biological grounds include the inauspicious effects of work overload on employee wellness which has become a prima cause of decease for people who develop marks and symptoms of diseases like malignant neoplastic disease, bosom onslaught and shot. Due to work emphasis and huge burden many employees in their several corporations besides develop the wont of smoke. Harmonizing to statistics that were published in 2004 edition of American Medical Journal it was estimated that smoking in the twelvemonth 2000 killed over 435,000 which surged from 400,000 in the twelvemonth 1990. Most of the victims of smoking included people from different corporations who engaged in this harmful and deadly wont due to the work load that they encountered in their corporations. Another really major ground which farther aggravated the demand of wellness plans from organisations included the increasing rate of fleshiness threat. One of the grounds that were held accountable for fleshiness included deficiency of physical activity and vigorous exercising since most of the clip in organisations is spend in forepart of computing machines either making office work or playing video games on computing machine systems. ( Nichols, 2007 ) In add-on to this the quickly progressively and booming concern of fast nutrient ironss through which people can easy buy and entree nutrient has besides proved as an effectual barrier in lending any benefit to their already anaemic province of wellness. It is a clearly understood that a squad of people who is excessively careworn and fatigued to transport his or her ain weight can non perchance afford or manage the duties and load of the work that his or her corporation provides him with and the progressively competitory environment of modern-day corporate industry does non let any topographic point to employees who can non get the better of their weariness or fleshiness syndrome. This really ground links itself to the fact where organisations in the aftermath of researching their corporate societal duties launch plans that cater to the wellness and health of their employees under organisational conditions. Organizations and different corporations in the thick of detecting a new component of marketing through the CSR factor provided their employees with the inducement of originating wellness and health plans for them through which they were successfully able to heighten their degree of trust and repute among their employees and besides boosted their public dealingss by supplying a wholly new run in order to elate their image in forepart of people. Hence the corporate involvements of employees every bit good as of employers led to the origin of the wellness and health plans at an organisational degree. ( Health and Wellness, 2010 ) Current jobs and fiscal defects in the US wellness system United States Health attention plan helps the older and the hapless citizens of the United States. The authorities of United States spends about Eighteen per centum of its GDP in its Healthcare plan, which is highest as compared to the Health attention Systems of other states ( Danzon ) . It is besides to be noted that United States is the lone state, among the developed states, which have about 15 percent population without any medical coverage. Other developed states, on norm, spend 9 per centum of their GDP on wellness attention ( OECD, 2006 ) . Switzerland is at 2nd topographic point in wellness attention disbursement which is $ 4177 per individual. Other industrialised states are non passing more than $ 3200 per individual Unlike other postwar industrialized states, the United States has moved really easy toward comprehensive wellness attention for all citizens. In 1965, Congress established the Medicare plan to function the aged and handicapped, and Medicaid to assist the hapless and institutionalised. For the most portion, nevertheless, United States health care plan has dependent on nongovernmental plans. Peoples have had to happen their ain, private beginning of wellness attention. While this system suit our free-market economic theoretical account and has provided the universe ‘s finest medical intervention to insured patients, it has besides meant that a big figure of Americans have had hapless entree to wellness attention. Although United States is one of the states, which spends batch of money in health care but ‘the consequences are non evident either in Americans ‘ satisfaction with their wellness attention system or in their wellness. Consequences are unsatisfactory in infant endurance, the length and quality of life, and entree to wellness attention, peculiarly for hapless people, and communities of colour. The United States has met merely about 15 per centum of the aims set by Healthy People 2000. While advancement has been made toward the aims in another 44 per centum, Americans ‘ wellness has really deteriorated for approximately 20 per centum of the aims ( e.g. , fleshiness, physical activity, coffin nail usage among striplings ) ‘ ( NCHS 1997, p. 2 ) . United States has experienced steady addition in the wellness attention costs for the last 2 to 3 decennaries. In the decennary of 1980s, US expenditure on wellness attention was $ 253 billion which has increased to $ 714 billion in the decennary of 1990s. Soon, US health care outgo is more than $ 2.7 trillion ( Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2010 ) . US spend about $ 7, 681 per occupant which is about 18 per centum of the entire Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) of the state. It is expected that by the twelvemonth 2015 US wellness attention disbursement will make $ 4 trillion and sum to 20 % of the entire GDP The statistics have proved that 60 to 70 per centum of the entire wellness attention outgo of United States is consumed by the 10 per centum of the population. This 10 per centum of population which generates most wellness attention costs are either suffered from chronic disease, disabled or hapless. The undermentioned figure shows the five costliest wellness conditions that cost United States most out of pocket costs. Actually talking, United States does non supply a coherent patient-centered attention for the above mentioned minority group which is one the factors of overall addition in the wellness attention outgo ( Ayanian et. al. , 2000 ) . Harmonizing to the Institute of Medicine, the quality of attention is â€Å" the grade to which wellness services for persons and populations increase the likeliness of coveted wellness results and are consistent with current professional cognition ‘ ( Institute of Medicine, 1990 ) . But at the same clip this plan is besides blamed, ‘for the bounds of its range in supplying wellness insurance to the hapless, its ties to the public assistance system and image jobs, its fluctuations across States, and the financial loads imposed on Federal and State budgets as the plan has grown in range and disbursement ‘ ( Rowland, 1995 ; pg. 272 ) . United States wellness attention system, being a immense system, has besides established inefficiency which proves to be a barrier to the invention of this $ 2.7 trillion industry. This inefficiency, despite all the mechanization and technological inventions, consequences the loss of $ 300 billion, i.e. 15 cents per dollar spent on wellness attention The figure of uninsured is continuously lifting due to several factors. These uninsured people are really likely to populate without proper wellness coverage because of the turning load of wellness attention ( Institute of Medicine, 2002 ) . As consumers are fighting to get by with the mounting out-of-pocket liabilities, the suppliers are seeking to better their falling grosss by revamping their concern processes to diminish the turning bad debt and to better pull off the payments from the consumers. A common perceptual experience is that consumers are unwilling to pay for their wellness attention outgo. However, the study, conducted by McKinsey quarterly, suggested that consumers are normally willing to pay but the charge system inefficiencies, deficiency of funding options and consumer ‘s confusion are the chief grounds of non ‘ payment ( Finn, Pellathy and Singhal, 2009 ) . It is pertinent to province the position of Healthcare Financial Management Association, ‘ In many ways, the state ‘s current health care payment system blocks, instead than supports, the state ‘s wellness ends: The system does non efficaciously reward health or high quality. The system does non promote social benefit such as entree to care. And the system creates fiscal instability by adding cost and complexness to wellness disposal, by honoring high-cost patterns, and by concentrating on expensive sickness-focused intercessions instead than health. ‘ ( Healthcare Financial Management Association, 2008 ) . Stakeholders in Health attention organisation The uninterrupted alterations in the health care field have wholly changed the position of infirmaries and wellness attention organisations and they are now acted more like a concern venture than a societal service organisation ( Shortell, Morrison & A ; Robbins, 1985 ) . This new altering environment has compelled the disposal of wellness attention organisation to take all the concerns of the stakeholders earnestly and now stakeholders are act uponing the personal businesss of wellness attention organizations whether it belong to disposal, fiscal or quality attention issues ( Blair & A ; Fottler, 1990 ) . Although the stakeholders are the same for both non-profit-making and for net income wellness organisations ; however, their power and influence is different depending on the construction of the wellness attention organisation ( Kralewski, Gifford & A ; Porter, 1988 ) . Although there are legion groups of stakeholders, but harmonizing to a survey ( Fottler et al. , 1989 ) , the und ermentioned five are the most influential and powerful. 1. Medical Staff 2. Patients 3. Hospital Management 4. Professional Staff 5. Board of Trustees The penchants of all these stakeholders are different. Medical and Professional staff stress more on quality of wellness attention provided to the patients. Patients are besides concerned about the service and clinical quality but cost of the quality wellness attention is besides one of their major concerns. Hospital direction focuses on the leading, profitableness and cost containment of health care services. Board of legal guardians who have the reins of control of overall infirmary direction attention largely for the profitableness, regular watercourse of hard currency flow and effectual and efficient use of resources. The disposal and executives of wellness attention organisations normally formulate attempt to explicate a scheme which satisfy all the stakeholders because they have overlapping ends and involvements ( Counte, 1995 ) . Recommendation for how best wellness attention could be delivered 1. Determine the gross beginnings available for subsidising the wellness attention coverage farther with a end to cover all the Americans in wellness attention insurance cyberspace ; as all the above treatment show there are 1000000s of uninsured people in America which prove to be an tremendous load on the economic system of United States. There is a demand to cover as many people as possible under wellness attention insurance by mobilising the bing gross beginnings every bit good as by making new resources like taxing baccy, cresting the revenue enhancement exclusion of employer based wellness insurance etc. 2. Create, in order to pool hazards, insurances exchanges at province or regional footing. Such exchanges will be good for those Americans besides who do non take part in employer-based or other group insurance installations. 3. Establish a board with representation of all the stakeholders of wellness attention system. This board determines and updates the wellness attention benefit bundle of United States citizens through province or regional degree insurance exchanges. Challenges for infirmaries It has been estimated that mean cost of a trial is within the scope of $ 200 to $ 400, accompanied with the medical charges of the concerned physician which are $ 10 to $ 15 and if the status is much serious, which is a usual instance with chronic infections, the cost is above $ 300. It has been forecasted by many economic analysts that the wellness disbursals in United States will see a uninterrupted rush due to the deteriorating economic conditions which has sidelined companies to supply any sort of medical benefit to their employees, authorities institutional wellness reform programs is non deadening any fruit and private sector seems excessively intimidated to assure anything that in the long tally erodes its credibleness. Furthermore, the load of the 47 million uninsured people of the state is being sustained on the disbursal of the 253.4 million people that have medical insurance as disclosed by the statistics released by Census Bureau. Harmonizing to analysts the misdirection and the huge pandemonium occupying the wellness sector in the United States is chiefly an result of unprofessional behavior and a manifestation of utmost carelessness in the allotment of fiscal resources which has resulted in an instability between the end product and input being generated by the sector. At present the end product easy surpasses the input and if concrete stairss are non taken to decide the job, the ensuing effects will be badly inauspicious and irrevokable. Clinical attention of patients are become more and more ambitious with the transition of clip. At the same clip infirmaries face troubles in supplying quality wellness attention service in present economic status. In the twelvemonth 2000, harmonizing to American Hospital Association, 1 out of 3 infirmaries showed losingss, 58 % have negative borders on Medicare patients and 73 % reported loss in handling Medicaid patients ( American Hospital Association, 2002 ) . Doctor ‘s Organization Like others in concern, doctors must vie for paying patients. Doctors are no longer in short supply, except in urban slums and remote rural countries, and find themselves in a purchaser ‘s market. Besides they frequently enter pattern with medical school debts of 100s of 1000s of dollars. All this force per unit area conflicts with the doctor ‘s professional moralss to urge medical service to patients without seeking to maximum fees. Agreements with makers of medical merchandises and drugs may honor doctors for ordering or urging merchandises that are more expensive. Doctors might direct patient to wellness attention installations, such as research labs, convalescent places, in which they are fiscal involvement. The function and duty of doctor ‘s organisation is to set up, ‘Performance measures'if done right'have possible to measure physician public presentation, better the quality of patient attention, heighten the coordination and direction of attention, and reward doctors who meet or exceed the benchmarks set by public presentation steps. However, if applied in a bureaucratic, arbitrary, or punitory mode, public presentation measuring can impede quality and injury patient attention, undermine the physician'patient relationship, and cause physician defeat and calling dissatisfaction ‘ ( ACF, 2004 ) . In the new system, payments should depend on the efficient bringing of quality wellness attention services which leads towards the betterment of the overall status of the patients. Role of Nursing Organization Nurses provide attention, non merely for physical unwellness, but besides for emotional, mental, societal and religious jobs to guarantee the complete healing of the patient ( Donabedian, 1988 ) . In the last century nursing has made a phenomenal accomplishment that it has led to the acknowledgment of nursing as a profession and a separate educational subject. Contemporary nursing is now more meaningful and important because of theory-based pattern which shifted nursing ‘s focal point from career to an organized profession. It was research and theory together which produced nursing scientific discipline. Nursing theory fundamentally suggests that nursing should be given professional instruction during which they will analyze a aggregation of interrelated topics which will be applied in their pattern. The cognition may be derived from experimental acquisition or formal beginnings such as nursing beginnings or nursing research. Nursing is a scientific discipline affecting many pe ople environment and procedure in the context of health care. It is the duty of nursing organisation to guarantee that all wellness attention organisations may hold a sufficient PTN ratio. Overburdened nurses increase the chance of foetal mistake happening and diminish the labour cost economy. Statisticss revealed that traveling from 6:1 to 7:1 costs 1.4 extra lives lost per 1000 admittances. There are 38 million infirmary admittances per twelvemonth in the United States ( Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2002 ) , therefore, little addition in PTN ratio, i.e. 7:1 to 6:1, may ensue in significant figure of lives saved. Improvement in Clinical Support Services The American wellness attention system provides first-class intervention for insured patients, but many people have hapless entree to the system, and unfairnesss have late increased due to many factors. The free market attack is seemly non an attack that could be used in a wellness attention system when there is non the engagement of all parties, such as those that are uninsured. It has been reported that the 47 million uninsured Americans without wellness insurance are mostly borne by those with insurance. The undermentioned betterments are recommended in clinical support services: ‘ Rewards the invention in efficient bringing of wellness attention ‘ Establish a well-and firmly funded entity which continuously perform research on efficiency and effectivity of drugs, wellness attention devices, diagnosing and procedures and processs of wellness attention ‘ Federal and State Torahs must be made more consistent and rational ‘ Establish Information Technology substructure in wellness attention in order to ease informations exchange ‘ Create a National wellness attention database which will be available to all the stakeholders and research workers Social and Economic footing for the growing of the Uninsured in America Several tendencies combined over the last few decennaries to make greater wellness attention unfairnesss. Both Medicaid and Medicare, for illustration, contributed to aggressively lifting medical costs because they required province authoritiess to reimburse infirmaries and doctors at ‘reasonable ‘ degrees determined by wellness attention suppliers. Predictably, reimbursement was really generous and disbursals grew rapidly. Such skyrocketing medical costs, combined with the general lethargy of the economic system put wellness attention out of range for many Americans. The loss of 1000000s of occupations during the recent economic meltdown added to the turning figure of people without medical insurance. The staying occupations ‘ progressively nonunion, portion clip places in the services sector ‘ offered few, if any wellness benefits. The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ( AIDS ) epidemic put an added load on the US wellness attention system. The disease claimed over 80, 000 lives up to 1990. Many of these patients are unemployed, and lack medical insurance, and have unmet demands beyond wellness attention, including guidance services, lodging, and transit. As the disease spreads, the costs of research, intervention, and lost productiveness add up to one million millions of dollars each twelvemonth. For these grounds force per unit area grew for wellness attention reforms in United States. Harmonizing to a study of Institute of Medicine, the future wellness policy must place further the of import maps of the policy, i.e. service, policy development and appraisal. These would besides better the overall quality of different state-owned undertakings. A panel from the platform of Institute of Medicine gave the undermentioned recommendations: ‘that every populace wellness bureau on a regular basis and consistently roll up, assemble, analyze, and do available information on the wellness of the community, including statistics on wellness position, community wellness demands, and epidemiological and other surveies of wellness jobs†¦ ‘ ‘That the public wellness responsibilities of provinces should include†¦ appraisal of demands in the province based on informations aggregation ; confidence of an equal statutory base for wellness activities ; †¦ constitution of statewide wellness aims ; †¦ confidence of appropriate organized statewide attempt to develop and keep indispensable†¦ wellness services†¦ ‘ ( Institute of Medicine, 1988 ) . Reasons for addition in wellness attention costs The steady addition of healthcare outgo coupled with the present planetary economic meltdown and lifting federal shortage makes it really dashing undertaking for United States to finance the wellness attention outgo either through private employers wellness insurance coverage or through public plans like Medicare and Medicaid. This has besides compelled the wellness insurance companies to increase their wellness insurance premium rate. Now the household premium of employer-sponsored wellness insurance has increased by 131 per centum since 1999 ( Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust, 2009 ) . Public plans like Medicare and Medicaid portion a major ball of entire wellness attention outgo duty but they failed to increase their per capita disbursement with the same gait as private insurance companies do, i.e. 6.8 against 7.1 per centum between the period 1998 to 2008 ( Altman, Levitt and Claxton, 2010 ) . Invention and Technology The promotion and invention of engineering in the field of medical scientific discipline has confirmed huge blessings on world. It draws the line between the old epoch and the modern epoch of brightness, between human retardation and advancement, between the life of wretchednesss and the era of felicity and cognition, between work forces ‘s foolish beliefs and scientific enquiry and research. The present epoch is the period of rapid alteration and inventions. New medical specialties emerged mundane to extenuate a figure of diseases. These medical specialties cut down the opportunities of coronary arteria disease, coronary artery disease, and bosom onslaught etc. Pharmaceutical and biomedical companies work indefatigably to develop medical specialties for such diseases, which considered as incurable in the past like Cancer ( Vastag, 1998 ) . Biomedical companies besides working on different vaccinums to extinguish diseases like Hepatitis C, which leads to chronic infections and liver failures ( Stratton et al. , 1999 ) . Similarly Curative vaccinum is best for forestalling malignant neoplastic diseases in general and vaccinum for villoma virus is supposed to forestall malignant neoplastic diseases of neck in peculiar. Aging Harmonizing to the US Bureau of the Census, the fastest turning section of the population in 1990 was grownups and seniors. In the twelvemonth 2000, 36 per centum of the population of the United States was over 45 old ages old, as compared to 30.8 per centum in this class in 1980. Alternatively of being youth-oriented in the hereafter, the United States will go a senior orientated civilization ( Way, 2000 ) . It has been estimated that merely 50 % of the citizens under the age bracket of 55 to 64 old ages are in work in developing states as compared to 75 % of 25 to 54 old ages old and this per centum shrinks further in EU states, i.e. merely 39 % . It is besides estimated that aging population of United States will turn about 80 per centum during the period of 2000 to 2025 ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2002 ) . Health disbursals of a individual increases as his or her age additions. However, experts believe that the factor of aging population contributes really small in the addition of wellness attention outgo ( Orszag, 2008 ) . Decision Peoples cope with life ‘s uncertainnesss, particularly mortality and disease, utilizing medical specialty. Medical scientific discipline uses non a sacred but a profane attack covering with the ordinary, platitude and layman. The hapless suffer more wellness jobs than the remainder of the society as a consequence of low quality wellness attention, more life emphasiss, and fewer get bying resources. Functionalists claim that the wellness attention establishment helps keep a strong work force, but conflict theoreticians argue that it has historically shifted the incrimination for sick wellness from the environment to the laden hapless and through medicalization has extended its control over of all time more parts of society. Even today, medical scientific discipline focal points on the person ‘s duties for illness instead than societal causes. The capitalist system causes the wellness jobs, but uses the medical establishments to get away incrimination and even net income from them. Suggested options include more authorities intercession and greater consumer instruction. The American wellness attention system provides first-class intervention for insured patients, but many people have hapless entree to the system, and unfairnesss have late increased due to many factors. This has promoted calls for reforms, including free, cosmopolitan wellness attention which most other modern states offer to their citizens. Many of these states, nevertheless, have retreated from socialized medical specialty because of lifting cost and increasing consumer demands. The free market attack is seemly non an attack that could be used in a wellness attention system when there is non the engagement of all parties, such as those that are uninsured. It has been reported that the 47 million uninsured Americans without wellness insurance are mostly borne by those with insurance. There is a measure of 2.7 trillion yearly for the cost of attention on United States economic system to care for the uninsured and about three 4th of this is paid by the Federal, State and local authoritiess through a assortment of destitute attention payments. The extra disbursals is push away on to the private sector. There are 299 million people in the United States in 2007 and out of that sum there is about 253.4 million that have wellness insurance ( Cover, 2009 ) . The huge bulk of those 202 million had private wellness insurance, harmonizing to the Census Bureau and those Numberss double as of 2009. Numerous factors combined together to make unfairnesss in United States wellness attention system. State and Federal authorities have to reimburse the wellness attention disbursals of people through Medicare, Medicaid and other authorities sponsored plans liberally which grew at a rapid gait due to the crisp addition in wellness attention cost. The present glooming economic status of United States, loss of 1000000s of occupations increased the figure of uninsured people and added more load on the already bowed down shoulders of US Government. In such a state of affairs, it seems instead, farfetched that US authorities will go on to bear wellness attention disbursal of the uninsured and underinsured people. The continuously increasing fiscal liability of supplying wellness attention services to the uninsured proved to be a hinderance which does non let the system to work decently and an hindrance to supply the wellness attention benefit to the meriting portion of the society.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Human Rights Contemporary Issue

a)Outline the nature of the violation Torture is a serious human rights violation and is strictly prohibited by international law however it still does continue in majority of the countries around the world. Torture is an act of deliberately inflicting severe pain on someone without any legal causes. Torture is not only physical pain but also includes the act of causing mental pain as well such as threats to family or loved ones. Torture has been used as a punishment to intimidate or control a person. The term torture includes a variety of methods such as severe beatings, electric shock, sexual abuse and rape, hard labour, near suffocation etc. Torture is considered a violation of human rights under Article 5 of the UN UDHR which states ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. A location in which torture occurs is Guantanamo Bay detention camp (GTMO) in Cuba. GTMO is a detainment and detention facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The facility was established by the Bush administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later in Iraq. It is operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo of the United States government in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantanamo Bay. A few torture methods being inflicted upon the detainees of GTMO includes sleep deprivation, beatings, locked in confined cold cells, sexual assault and torturing with broken glass, barbed wire and burning cigarettes )Outline the international instruments and mechanisms in place to deal with the violation, and outline how these mechanisms have been breached There are numerous laws in place to deal with events involving torture and the following are the international treaties and mechanisms that determine standards for the human right to be protected from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . According to Article 5 of the UDHR which states that ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman r degrading treatment or punishment’ torture is a human rights violation. Torture is a breach of Article 5 of the UDHR as it is an act of deliberate severe pain inflicted on someone to gain information. Methods of torture such as beatings, sexual assault, rat torture, scaphism are all cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment which are prohibited and are a breach of the UDHR. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a treaty adopted by the General Assembly. This covenant elaborates the principles laid out in the UDHR. Torture is a violation of this convention as it is prohibited under Article 7, which states ‘no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation. As torture is a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment it is classified a breach of this covenant. The United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international human rights instrument, under the review of the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture around the world. It is the principal UN treaty concerned with torture. It compromises 33 articles covering the rights at stake and the enforcement mechanisms. Torture is a violation of human rights as the Article 2 of the convention prohibits torture and no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be raised to justify torture. Torture breaches this article as it torture still exist today even though there are laws prohibiting its occurrence. The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against torture (OPCAT) entered into force on 22 June 2006 and is an important addition to the UNCAT. The purpose of the protocol as stated in Article 1 is to ‘establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’. Torture is a breach of this Protocol because it occurs at GTMO as the detainees are treated unjustly such as being deprived of sleep and torturing of dangerous objects. The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. This convention defines humanitarian protection for prisoners of war. The convention states that prisoners of war ‘are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour’ (Article 14) and ‘must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity’ (Article 13). Article 17 specifies that ‘no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatsoever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind’. Therefore torture is a severe breach of this convention as it is an act of inflicting cruel inhuman pain on prisoners of war to detain information which occurs at GTMO. Even though there are various international instruments and mechanisms in place to deal with torture they are still breached which occurs at GTMO. )Analyse the effectiveness of international law in protecting the human rights you have identified International law is the body of legal rules that apply between sovereign states which are regarded and acknowledge highly by the international community. International law may be not as effective in other countries due to state sovereignty, a nation states values and interest and whether or not treaties have been signed or ratified. The core principle of international law is sovereignty. This means that no authority is legally above the state. The states are not obliged to agree to the international law and apply it within their state because of state sovereignty. This may be a reason in which why torture still exists in the world today as it has not been entirely abolished because some states have not agreed to apply the international laws dealing with torture within their state e. g. UNCAT where some states have both signed and ratified the convention, states have signed but not ratified and other states which have ot signed nor ratified the covenant such as Papua New Guinea, Angola, Zimbabwe and Iran where torture is known to still occur today. As long as state sovereignty applies the nation state cannot have any external interference and therefore cannot be influenced as to whether the nation state should apply the international law into their state or not. This limits international law from becoming affective into the nation state. Not every state will agree wit h the values as they are completely different to their own beliefs. It may be used by states to maintain positions of power and gain self interest. Therefore it is not used objectively. For example a state which disapproves of torture may agree to the international laws created to prohibit torture whereas a state which torture may occur and the leader of the state does not want to entirely prohibit torture, will not agree to the international laws as their goals and values differ of other states. If the international law does not benefit the nation state in anyway the nation state may not decide to apply that law into their nation state. So this weakens the developing and appliance of international law. The ICCPR is a covenant respecting the civil and political rights of individuals. This treaty has been signed by Cuba however it has not been ratified. Therefore the nation state does not have to entirely comply with the treaty which results in torture occurring in Cuba at GTMO and the ICCPR loses its effectiveness. This is because no external interference can influence to comply with the treaty and prohibit torture occurring at GTMO. OPCAT is an addition to UNCAT in which Cuba have yet signed or ratified. It is an international inspection system for places of detention such as GTMO. However since Cuba has not signed nor ratified the protocol OPCAT does not have the jurisdiction to inspect GTMO. This reduces the effectiveness of the international law assisting to prohibit torture occurring at GTMO. As a result of state sovereignty, a nation states values and interest and whether or not the nation state has signed and ratified the treaty international is ineffective in reducing and prohibiting torture in occurring around the world today in such places such as GTMO located in Cuba.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The use of social media by criminal gangs Research Paper

The use of social media by criminal gangs - Research Paper Example The very basic, often considered as the pioneer, a text only social networking system was Six Degrees (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Success of this free site did not go unnoticed and soon other enthusiastic companies came into play. MySpace was launched after this. In addition to the profile creation and connecting with different users of choice, myspace allowed users to change the layout of their profile as a direct reflection of their personality. Sharing and listening music was also added later. Myspace was one of the most popular websites ever launched though it has several problems like openness of profile to everyone in the network. The ease of finding other people in the network had influenced the stalker to harass the victims without minimal effort. Myspace’s problems pushed many users to visit a trendier and privacy concerned website, named Facebook. At the starting of the business, facebook was targeted to the young audience, but it is focused to a broader segment of users . Facebook tried to share more information about the people from their profile and they have changed their security settings numerous times. Continuous distraction of users by new messages, or any intimation has become an annoying factor. These drawbacks have shifted the site’s once loyal users to a different social networking environment. Twitter is the latest addition to this trend. Launched in 2006, twitter soon became successful because of their distraction free method of connecting with different users in the network just by posting the message. It is now integrated to many platforms, including mobile phones and different operating systems. Twitter is an instant success and the success of twitter inspired Google to launch their social networking website named Google+. The Company has registered more than 90 million users (Barnett, 2012) in a span of a few months and its contact management

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Special Relationship between Britain & the United States of America Essay

Special Relationship between Britain & the United States of America since World War II - Essay Example (Sherwood Pg 442) Although Sir Winston Churchill denied every saying that but it captures the essence of the "Anglo American special relationship". The term itself was first used by Winston Churchill during his Iron Curtain speed in March 1946 to describe the warm historical, political, diplomatic, and cultural relations between Britain and the United States. However behind this simple term, the relationship between the two countries is considered to be much more complex going through what some may refer to as a rollercoaster ride; from Churchill and Roosevelt to Blair and Bush, from the Cold War alliance to the war on terror, and from the Beatles and Elvis to James Bond and Ronald McDonald. Therefore it is no surprise that the United States and Britain share the world's largest foreign direct investment partnership. American investment in Britain reached $255.4 billion in 2002, while British direct investment in the U.S. added up to a whopping $283.3 billion. This paper explores how and why the two countries worked so closely together in the early 1940s with emphasis on the two iconic personalities of Churchill and Roosevelt, the ups and downs of their political alliance, the seventies during which the relationship apparently swayed apart. The paper also discusses the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in which they championed a new conservative revolution both at home and abroad, and finally the special relationship in the last fifteen years, especially the relationship between Blair and Bush after the September 11 attack and the Iraq war. Since Churchill coined the term "special relationship" it has been used as shorthand for the complex network of links between the United States and Britain. This relationship can be split into three levels which include personal ties between leaders, elite cooperation and mass sentiment. The first one of these is the most common which according to most historians paralleled the personal one that existed between Roosevelt and Churchill. Similarly it was the closeness between Reagan and Thatcher that helped maintain the special relationship between the US and Britain. Even Bush and Blair are said to have close personal ties. The importance of the relationship for the two countries and for international relations is visible when one glances at the world economic order, European security, cold war diplomacy and global containment that this special relationship helped contribute to from the Second World War till the early sixties. Throughout the sixties this special relationship ranged across trade, migration, investment, communication flows, and military linkage just to name a few. Although the relationship was not without its frictions but it was nevertheless important not just to both governments but to the shaping of the post war world. A decade later William Wallace in a study of British foreign policy gave examples of the relationship as "wartime joint American/British boards, informal meetings between political leaders of the two countries, close consultation by diplomatic personnel, military and intelligence service cooperation and other instances of intergovernmental cooperation" (Wallace 1975) The one

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The affect of Advertisements in print news in both online and print Research Paper

The affect of Advertisements in print news in both online and print editions - Research Paper Example Such type of advertising is highly cheap and convenient for businesses as well. Advertisements are placed in newspapers and online mediums so that it can attract a lot of consumers and spread the advertising message amongst a wide customer base so that more popularity can be gained for the product or service being advertised (Graydon 2003). Organizations know that all potential customers do not use all the mediums through which the advertising message can be available to them. Therefore the advertisers place their ads in different types of print mediums to attract maximum amount of customer. Job tenders and job offers are usually placed in the newspapers so that the business class target market can view the ads and then apply accordingly. These types of ads may not prove to be successful online as senior professionals do not use the internet to a large extent as compared to the younger generation. There are a large number of people in developed countries that use the internet and have their accounts in the various social networking sites available. Organizations use the online print mediums so that they can advertise their product and focus on their target market easily and cheaply. Latest fashion related products can be advertised on the various social networking websites and a lot of local and international customers can be attracted by this medium. Such advertising in newspapers may attract low customers but through online print medium, high amount of customers may be attracted. The advertisements that are specifically targeted towards young generation can prove to be highly successful if the online medium is used as teenagers are highly associated with the internet and may view the ads at one place or the other in the cyber world. Online medium is an excellent place to advertise all the latest fashion related products and

Monday, August 26, 2019

Organisational behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Organisational behaviour - Essay Example The major purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of social psychology with reference to organizational behaviour. The organizational behaviour is concerned with the evaluating the impact of individuals and structure on organizational performance whereas organizational social psychology states that relaxed work environment and strengthening social relations among employees and management are going to further enhance the organizational performance in all regards(Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). In the most practical sense an organization is basically a social entity because employees and management work through different social phenomena in order to accomplish organizational goals. According to recent studies organizational development and progress occur in real sense when a sense of family and belonging significantly prevails amongst the ranks of a particular organization. This essay will also highlight application of various facets of social psychology at Vodaf one that include advanced training of top management in counselling techniques, power to initiate innovative projects, cross cultural teamwork and reward for performance system. Finally Vodafone is used to hire tolerant and flexible individuals in order to apply melting pot technique for managing cultural and gender diversity in employees (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). The operational concepts of organizational social psychology are decentralized authority, participative management and flexible timing and they mainly spread from Japanese organizations to those that are operating in other regions of the world (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). Furthermore it is imperative to note that Australian continent is the second most efficient geographical region in terms of adopting modern management concepts. However the American companies are rather slow regarding implementing the contemporary managerial concepts of the 21st century. But the b asic purpose of this part is to evaluate the involvement of social psychological concepts and practices in a management framework for Vodafone’s unit of New Zealand. Additionally, the application of modern management is relatively easy in the featured culture due to its individualistic and professional nature. The fundamental reason for development and increased application of social psychology in organizations is the need to retain employees for longer periods of time while enhancing their organizational commitment (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). The social psychology stated that humans have a psychological need of receiving a reward after every six to twelve months and if companies fail to do so then they risk job turnover from core employees (Chryssochoou, 2004). Mutual respect and trust among employees and management is also a vital factor in predicting productivity of the staff. Nevertheless, according to recent research employees l ike to be governed by those individuals who have similar personality dimensions. Employees on the other hand spend more time in organizations that offer them reward for performance, paid and emergency leave and divert resources towards employee training and development (Crisp &Tumer, 2007). The nature of the job should also be sufficiently challenging in order to keep things interesting for the

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Racism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Racism - Essay Example Two of these stereotypes are the idea that Chinatown and Chinese people are somehow immoral and dirty. A lot of the background of these and other racial ideas has to do with a shift in the thinking of the nineteenth century "from ethnocentrism to a radical biological determinism," where people tried to come up with scientific proof that one race was somehow better than another (Anderson 585). These resulted in stereotyping of other races and also, such as in the case of Chinatown, the splitting apart from mainstream society of other races so that their lesser qualities would not "contaminate" white society (Anderson 585). Anderson quotes a secretary of state from 1885 in Canada who says that Chinatown is "attended with evils" and that "because of their habits of lodging crowded quarters and accumulating filth, is offensive if not likely to breed disease" (Anderson 586). This idea continues to grow in the period from then until the 1920s. Darwin's ideas and other scientific advances w ere used to argue that Chinese were inferior, dirtier, and that the areas they lived were bad because of this. It was the council of Vancouver who officially labeled the area "Chinatown" in the 1890s and then actually destroyed some of the buildings because of supposed health complaints. The other idea which grew at the same time period was the idea of Chinese immorality. Anderson says the area was seen as "non-Christian, uncivilized, and amoral" and that because of this perception, Chinatown was supposed to be a lawless opium-addicted area with "wickedness unmentionable" (589). At the same time he disagrees that this perception came about purely because Chinese people were not white. He says that instead, the government was motivated by "economic competition" and racial myths which were thoroughly embedded in the government's employees (Anderson 590). 2) In the Aitken reading on school shootings, how is the media depicting these tragic events? And, what is the importance of place i n the varying reactions to the murders? Aitken talks about several school shootings which took place near San Diego in 2001, and compares these to the Columbine shooting that was so shocking when it happened. Several other authors have claimed that the Columbine shooting was inspired by Neo-nazi movements, and that it is disturbing that the media did not report on this information (Aitken 594). Although Aitekn does not think the San Diego shootings were inspired in the same way, he says there is still an element of racism in how the media represented them in news. Specifically this has to do with where the murders took place. Aitken argues that both the place of the school shootings and the way the media reported on them after they happened point towards what he calls "a normalizing and mythic geography of fear" (595). What he means by this seems to be the combination of the old idea everybody has that it can never happen where a person lives because where that person lives, at leas t in America, is always normal, middle-class, and safe. The fear and horror takes place in other parts of the world, or in non-white communities, in places other than the "mythic place of white middle-class America—

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Founding of Ross Screenprint Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Founding of Ross Screenprint - Research Paper Example s refined his idea about T-Shirts and eventually started Ross Screenprint as a small business that served residents within the town in early 1993 (Ross Screenprint, N.p). Despite facing various challenges such as market uncertainty, funds constraint, and inadequate supplies of T-Shirts, Daniel Ross was quite optimistic that his business will grow and serve the interests of the community while still maintaining the overall purpose that was to generate profits. He took the bold step and went out of his way to seek for financial assistance and advice from close family members including his father who perpetually motivated him to move on with the dazzling, and apparently precarious idea. When forming Ross Screenprint, Daniel was aware of the fact that the design industry required an empathetic approach. In 2008, for instance, the business was faced with the challenge of a potential failure resulting from the worsening economic situations that were fueled by the 2007/08 economic recession. However, Daniel demonstrated his management ability by regulating the production of T-shirts and reducing the costs of customizing clothes. Apparently, no customer was left behind, and his concern for customers made his business thrive amidst the hostile economic environment (Palmer, 122). He has always stayed engaged and motivation, vital factors that have helped the business to maintain a strong customer-base. Under the assistance of Industry Canada that works with firms in several areas to ensure Canada’s innovative performance and improve the economic conditions to attract investors, Ross Screenprint started growing and expanding its services in 1994. Daniel Ross, the company’s CEO and major executive, immediately realized that there was the need to include more people in the administration of the venture. Consequently, he hired three people who helped him in managing the affairs of the business as well as spread the word about the existence of the business. As the company

Friday, August 23, 2019

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Case Study Example On the other hand, a question is raised whether it is appropriate to arrest more of the criminals and hence not respect their right towards proper humane conditions by making the state prisons more congested. A more congested environment is likely to pose a number of problems related to health to the inmates. However, they are not taking the right and appropriate measures to correct the situation. They include the chair at the parole booard who knows the conditions in state prison. The main reason as to why the Advocates could be threatening the correctional with Federal lawsuits is to put pressure on them to increase the number of facilities and make the prisoners more comfortable and not exposed to poor conditions through the congested facilities. Thus, as the chair of the parole board Robert is motivated by the fact that less risk is presented with the issue of congestion as opposed to the likely chances of re-offense by the criminals who are released on parole. This is because it causes a greater chance of threats and insecurity to the larger public. However, the results of the risk assessment of the offenders also show instances of offenders being habitual criminals who are likely to engage in more criminal activities once they are released back to the society. In this case, the relaxation of standards is likely to increase the number of offenders released to the community, hence presenting great danger to the citizens. On the other hand, the incineration of most of the offenders who also include the petty offenders increases the level of congestion within the prison, thus acting as a form of violation against their rights since it presents numerous problems and risks to their lives. The situation can be corrected through the expansion of the facilities or building of more facilities to accommodate more inmates. In this case, therefore, the decision to be made by the chair of the board is to

Chinese Economic Development Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Chinese Economic Development - Coursework Example The large scale of foreign direct investment which has entered into Chinese markets, could improve the economic development of eastern coastal areas through accelerating the formation and centralization of capital, Technology Overflows, upgrading of the industrials structure and the human capital formation. On the contrary, the fast speed of the economic development of eastern parts would also increase the earning of the local residents, enlarging the demand of the market, improving the Total Factor Productivity, promoting the external environment and reducing costs, which could possibly bring into being a cluster economic effect, accordingly, there would be more foreign direct investment entry into the market. From all the industrials, the most distinct industrial is the high-tech industrial, which has recently influenced Chinese economic development the most. In this proposal, we will write about how the FDI brought an impact into the Chinese economy, which would mainly focus on th e high-tech industries, and give the result and some suggestions after the particular analysis. (Since the beginning of the far-reaching economic reforms of 1978, China's economy has been growing at a breakneck pace of 9.5 percent a year1. If it were now to grow at 8 percent per year, doubling every nine years, income per person in 2031 for China's projected population of 1.45 billion would reach $38,000. (At a more conservative 6 percent annual growth rate, the economy would double every 12 years, overtaking the current U.S. income per person in 2040.))how have you got these figures Rest of it is simple calculation. After more than twenty years' reform and opening-up, China is gradually integrating into the global economy. The degree of internationalization has also improved to a great extent, as well. It's been the first in developing countries and the second in the world country attracting the most foreign capital during many years. The level of investments by Multi-National Enterprises in the Chinese market has increased over a period of time. As is presented in Table-1 Table1: Directly investment from 1995-2002 Year Increased Foreign Enterprises (Number) Agreed Foreign Investment (Billion US dollars) Actual Foreign Investment (Billion US dollars) 1995 4056 12.97 4.78 1996 2737 9.83 5.07 1997 2108 9.27 5.79 1998 1843 7.57 6.65 1999 1936 6.98 6.4 2000 2648 10.61 6.42 2001 3581 15.1 7.12 2002 5801 19.67 10.37 MNEs direct investment has become an important power in Chinese economy which cannot be neglected and which could obviously impact on Chinese fixed investment and capital stock. As figure 2 shows: Table 2:The proportion of Actual Usage of investment from Multinational to permanent assets Year 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Proportion 12.13 17.08 15.65 15.1 14.79 13.23 11.17 10.32 10.51 10.1 ----where is this table from This table was in your original write up! FDI has become a most important element of Chinese economic development, which has introduced advanced technologies, facilities and management experience and so

Thursday, August 22, 2019

ISO 9000 Essay Example for Free

ISO 9000 Essay According to Barnes F. and Wade J. , ISO 9000 is an appropriate guideline that can be used by management to attain a comprehensive model for quality management systems in order to operate effectively in today’s competitive market environment. Whenever an individual or an entity is considering the adoption of something original, it is always advisable to refer to useful guidelines that can aid in the initial actions to implement such new procedure. In this respect, ISO 9000, due to its vast and detailed coverage of quality processes and procedures, it can be considered as the initial step in adopting quality measures in the organization. ISO 9000 can thus be the yardstick that management could use in a number of quality aspects, such as: †¢ Documented processes to ensure quality documents in the firm. †¢ Key points are established on each procedure that demand monitoring and measurement to guarantee that quality is maintained in all stages of the process. †¢ Suppliers are selected meticulously and materials received are inspected thoroughly to make certain that adequate material quality is inputted in the manufacturing process. Determination of skills required for each job to adopt apposite training and ensure appropriate effectiveness and efficiency. †¢ During new product development, all stages are properly planned and tested to keep up a good level of product standard. To attain the ISO 9000, the organization is audited by an external certification body and through internal staff trained for this process. It thus ensures that appropriate quality systems are developed and maintained in the organization. This will help the firm to be competitive and create and sustain a good brand image.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Exploring Walt Disney World Tourism Essay

Exploring Walt Disney World Tourism Essay What is the largest and most visited resort in the world? Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida is the largest and most visited place in the world. The Walt Disney World Resort contains a variety of places to visit. Disney World offers four famous theme parks, two water parks, along with many other Disney themed attractions. Walt Disney World has five golf courses total. Four of which are 18-hole courses. Those courses include, Disneys Palm Golf Course, Disneys Mangolia Golf Course, Bonnet Creek Golf Course, and Lake Buena Vista Course. Three of those courses are on the PGA Tour. Disney also offers one 9-hole course called Disneys Oak Trail Golf Course. The golf courses offer golf carts for guests to use. Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland are two of Disneys miniature golf course. Walt Disneys water parks include Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach. Disneys Typhoon Lagoon has the largest outdoor water park in the world. Typhoon Lagoons mascot is called Lagoona Gator. The legend of this park is, a typhoon came and flung fishing supplies, surfing gear, and ships all around the park. In the middle of the park is a shrimp boat, Miss Tilly. The shrimp boat is on a mountain that gushes water out every half hour for a waterfall. This park offers raft rides, waterslides, a wave pool, and even a shark reef. Teens and adults can go snorkeling with stingrays and sharks at shark reef. Typhoon Lagoon offers rides for the whole family. Such rides at Typhoon Lagoon include Crush N Gusher which is a roller coaster water slide. Also there are single person flume rides known as Keelhaul Falls and Storm Slides. Mayday Falls is a curvy fun inner tube ride. There is also Castaway Creek, which is an inner tube ride that goes all through the park. This park offers a lot of excitement for guests to have fun in. Blizzard Beach is the other water park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It is one of the most unique water parks. The legend of this park is that huge snowstorms lead to the constructing of a ski resort that didnt happen because the snow didnt last long. As the resort was closing an alligator was spotted sliding down a flume. The ski resort was made into a water park with the alligator named Ice Gator as the mascot. This park has one of the largest free falling slides in the world. Many of the slides are from Mount Gushmore. Mount Gushmore is the fifth highest point in Florida. Blizzard Beach also has a ride called Teamboat Springs which is one of the longest family raft rides. Walt Disney has four theme parks that are very well-known. Disneys parks include, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disneys Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. There are always parades or shows involving Disney characters for children and adults to enjoy. Disney characters are almost everywhere you look at the parks to take pictures with the guests. Every park has Disney related shops and restaurants. Magic Kingdom is the most visited park in the world. The park is represented by Cinderellas Castle. Magic Kingdom includes seven magical lands. The lands include, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickeys Toontown Fair. Magic Kingdom has many Disney movie themed rides for the whole family. This park contains some of the famous rides such as Splash Mountain. Adventureland is themed to resemble jungles in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and South America. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is at this part of Magic Kingdom. At Adventureland take a magic carpet ride on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Also guests can find the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at this section of Magic Kingdom. Attractions such as Splash Mountain and the Country Bear Jamboree can be found in Frontierland. Frontierland is the more western part of the park. Tom Sawyer Island is a place that Walt Disney actually designed. Liberty Square contains the Haunted Mansion and the Hall of Presidents. It is based on an American Revolutionary town. Guests can dance with Goofy and characters from Toy Story 2 at Goofys Country Dancin Jamboree. Main Street USA is the most popular area of Magic Kingdom. Many shopping areas and restaurants are found there. Cinderellas Castle stands at the end of Main Street. The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is a major attraction for young girls to get made over into a princess at Cinderellas Castle. Many of parades happen sporadically at this part of the park. Fantasyland is based on a carnival theme. Fantasylands main attractions include, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, its a small world, Snow Whites Scary Adventures, Mad Tea Party, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Mickeys PhilharMagic is popular here, its a 3-D adventure. Tomorrowland features the well-known ride, Space Mountain. Also guests can interact with Toy Story characters at Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. Mickeys Toontown Fair is the last of the seven lands at Magic Kingdom. This part of the park is exciting because it contains places that belong to the characters. Guests can meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends at Pixie Hollow. At Toon Park guests can interact with Chip and Dale. Guests can walk through Minne Mouses home in this section of Magic Kingdom. Mickeys house is also at this part of the park. Donalds Boat is another attraction here. One of Disneys other parks is Animal Kingdom. This is the newest park; it is also the largest Disney theme park in the world. Animal Kingdom allows animal encounters along with live entertainment. This park is themed around animals. The park contains 250 different types of animals making the park have more than 1,700 animals. Animal Kingdom has seven different areas which include, Oasis, Discovery Island, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafikis Planet Watch, Asia, and Dinoland. The Oasis is the main entrance to Animal Kingdom. This is where guests can encounter with animals such as wallabies, spoons, ducks, and giant anteaters. Rainforest Cafà © is a big attraction at Oasis. It is an animal themed restaurant that has a welcoming environment. The parks Tree of Life is found at Discovery Island. Discovery Island is a main part of Animal Kingdom because it connects to all of the parts of the park besides Rafikis Planet Watch. The parks largest shops and restaurants are located at Discovery Island. Another main attraction of the section of Animal Kingdom is, Its Tough to be a Bug. Mickey and Minnie can be found at Camp Minnie-Mickey. At this section of the park there is a theatre that features The Festival of the Lion King. Africas main attraction is the Kilimanjaro Safaris. Guests will be able to see giraffes, hippos, elephants, and wild animals on the safari. Guests take a Wildlife Express Train to learn about animal habitats on Rafikis Planet Watch. Around that area there is a small petting zoo for people to interact with the animals. Another part of Animal Kingdom is Asia. Asia contains the Maharajah Jungle Trek that guests can go through forests and see tigers, fruit bats, and komodo dragons. There is a river rapid ride located in Asia. There is also a roller coaster through the Himalayas at Expedition Everest. Dinoland has a Bone yard for kids to play in along with carnival games and gift shops. There are family rides and a roller coaster in this area of the park. One can also find Finding Nemo The Musical here. Another Walt Disney Park is Disneys Hollywood Studios. It is represented by The Sorcerers Hat, which is a symbol from the film Fantasia. This park is slightly different from the other parks because it is set up differently. It contains numerous amounts of buildings and streets. There is no defined layout. The park consists of six different areas that are, Hollywood Boulevard, Echo Lake, Streets of America, Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, and Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood Boulevard is Hollywood Studios main entrance. There are venues everywhere you look selling Disney items. Live entertainment is always happening at this part of the park. There is a replica of the Chinese Theater that contains The Great Movie Ride inside of it. The Great Movie Ride is a dark ride that features old movies such as The Wizard of Oz. Another part of Hollywood Studios is Echo Lake. It is a small oval shaped lagoon with attractions such as The American Idol Experience and Hall of Fame Plaza. Another attraction at Echo Lake is the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! Kids can interact with plants and toys at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure at Streets of America. This area of the park is where a lot of stunts are performed. Disneys Toy Story Plant Pizza Arcade is at this area as well. Animation Courtyard is where guests can meet Disneys Pixar characters. Playhouse Disney and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid are live performances at Animation Courtyard. At the Pixar Place the attraction is Toy Story Midway Mania!, which contain all of the Toy Story characters. Guests are able to see animations in movies. Last but not least, Hollywood Studios Sunset Boulevard contains the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock and Roll Roller Coaster. Sunset Boulevard also features Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage. Walt Disney Worlds final theme park is Epcot. Epcots icon is Spaceship Earth. This park is focused on international culture and technological innovation. This park only has two sections which are, World Showcase, and Future World. This park is twice the size of Disneys Magic Kingdom. Epcot has a variety of attractions from just a simple boat ride to fast thriller rides. Epcot has Kidcot stations which offer creations of one-of-a kind souvenirs. World Showcase contains 11 pavilions that represent different countries. Every pavilion has shops and restaurants that resemble their culture. The pavilions include Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, The American Adventure, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada. An attraction at World Showcase is the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. The Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is in most pavilions. It is an electronic scavenger hunt using a type cell phone, presented by Verizon Wireless. At the Germany pavilion characters from Snow White make appearances. In addition to Italy features Pinocchio characters. The Great American pavilion features all of the flags throughout the history of the United States. Guests take a tour through American history at this pavilion. The France pavilion shows a replica of the Eiffel Tower. There are shops that sell French items. Disneys Beauty and the Beast make frequent appearances at the France pavilion. Characters from The Aristocats along with The Hunchback of Notre Dame also make appearances at France. The United Kingdom has a Beatles tribute band known as The British Invasion who performs frequently there. In stores at this pavilion you are able to find Beatles souvenirs. Characters from Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, and Pirates of the Caribbean are usually at this part of World Showcase. Canada is a more outdoor pavilion. Characters from the Disney film, Brother Bear, appear in this pavilion. The other section of Epcot is called Future World. Future World also has many pavilions. The pavilions of Future World are Spaceship Earth, Innoventions, Universe of Energy, Mission: SPACE, Test Track, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, The Land, and Imagination. The pavilions explore innovative technology. Each pavilion is sponsored by a corporation who helped fund its construction. Spaceship Earth is one of the most known and recognizable structures that the Walt Disney World Resort has. It takes guests on a time machine experience that shows advancement in human communication. It has a timeline from how humans used to be, to how they are now. A German company called Siemens sponsors Spaceship Earth. Another pavilion in Future World is Innovations which deals with advancements in everyday life. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, Club Cool, Segway Central, and SlapStick Studios are some of the exhibits this pavilion has to offer. Universe Energy itself was the attraction. It talked about battery powered cars and natural gas, petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Mission: SPACE is a motion simulator ride; it gives off the feeling of an astronaut. Future Worlds Test Track is sponsored by General Motors. Guests can actually drive the test cars around the track. The cars maximum speed is 64.8 miles per hour. Next to Disneys Rock and Roll Roller Coaster, this is the fastest attraction Disney has made. The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a pavilion based on underwater discovery. It is the largest man-made underwater exhibit in the world. Attractions at this park include, Talk with Crush where kids can ask questions about the sea. The Land is a pavilion to show how we can use our land or destroy it. Nestle sponsors this part of Future World. The Circle of Life is performed here, from the film The Lion King. Eastman Kodak sponsors Imagination. An Attraction at Imagination is Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The four parks are similar yet different. They each have different aspects and features about them. Each park has different icons and a different set up. They are alike because they all are Disney themed and have rides, shops, and food. The Disney parks are some of the most visited parks in the world. After all of the parks are closed there is Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is opened to the public. Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining, entertaining area. It has three sections, Pleasure Island, Marketplace, and West Side. The Marketplace has a lot of shopping places that include, Lego Imagination Center, Once upon a Toy, and Goofys Candy Company. The Marketplace has the largest Disney character store in the world. Disneys West Side has many large stores and nice restaurants. Attractions such as Planet Hollywood, The House of Blues, and Wolfgang Puck Cafà © can be found here. Outdoor beverages and food can be found at Pleasure Island. The Orlando Harley Davidson is located at Pleasure Island. Also there is a lot of dancing that goes on at this part of Downtown Disney. One of the main attractions at Downtown Disney is Disney Quest. Disney Quest is an indoor interactive theme park. It offers five floors of fun entertainment. The genie from Aladdin is the parks unofficial mascot. On the first floor the attractions are a Virtual Jungle Cruise where guests may get wet while dodging dinosaurs, and Pirates of the Caribbean where guests search for gold. The second floor features Sids Create a Toy from Toy Story where guests can make a toy then later purchase it. Radio Disney Song Maker allows guests to make a song and later purchase it. In addition to Living Easels, guests can draw something on them and later buy it. Guests can try to find the genie and collect gems on Aladdins Magic Carpet Ride. The third floor of Disney Quest contains Buzz Lightyears Astro Blaster which is bumper cars and Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam which is a giant pinball game. The fourth floor is a comic adventure. The fifth floor resembles the fourth floor. Disney Quest also has games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and many other arcade games. They also have games like skee ball and air hockey. They also have photo booths and claw machines. There are over 20 Disney themed hotels within the Walt Disney Resort. There are different categories of the hotels which include, moderate, deluxe, campgrounds, value, and club villas. Most of these hotels contain a pool, shops, variety of food, room service, arcades, and playgrounds. Disney hotels are fun themed such as Disneys All Star Movie Resort has characters from 101 Dalmatians and Toy Story. Pop Century hotel has Play-Doh and Rubiks Cube figures to show the hotels toy, catch phrase theme. All Star Sports Resort has large statues of sports like basketball or cheerleading to make guests feel the sport theme. Disneys Animal Kingdom Lodge has fun features like Pumbaas Fun Games Arcade where guests can play new and classic games. Another feature this hotel has Hakuna Matata Playground where kids can play all day next to the flamingo habitat. At Disneys campgrounds guests can go horse-back riding, fish, enjoy Mickeys Backyard Barbeque, get involved with water activities, and sing with Chip and Dale at the fire. The Disney hotels are fun and have everything in them to accommodate guests the best they can. The Walt Disney World Resort would not be here today if it wasnt for Mr. Walt Disney himself. Walt Disney has inspired many of people. Walt Disney changed the lives of many people. He changed the entertainment business. He was a magical person. He has touched the hearts of children along with adults. Who knew that by starting out drawing cartoons that Disney would have came this far! He always had a dream of owning a theme park. Walts dream came true. Walt is popular all over the world. He loved history, and slowly introduced us to the future. He is a legend of the 20th century. He won seven Emmy Awards, fifty-nine Academy Award nominations, and twenty-six Oscars. How did Walt get where he is today? Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901. He had three brothers and one sister. In Walts younger days he would sell paintings to local people to make extra cash. Instead of doing his school work, Walt would doodle sketches. He went to college to study art and photography. At night he attended a place to better his drawing abilities. Walt always had a thing for nature and wildlife. Walt was even involved in acting. He would sneak out at night just to go perform somewhere. Walts father was somewhat stern at times. Walts mother and brother, Roy urged Walt to pursue his dreams. Walt was rejected because of young age from the military. He then went to France with the Red Cross. His ambulance had images of Disney cartoons on it. When Walt came back from France, he focused on comical art which led to animation. He produced short animations for local places. When Walt ran out of money, he packed up with The Alice Comedies and went to Hollywood. Walt married Lillian Bounds, an employee in 1925. They later had two daughters. He was not the typical Hollywood star. He didnt care for socializing; the people that knew Walt were his family. Soon after Lillian and Walt got married, Walt created Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse first made his appearance in Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was the worlds first cartoon with sound. Walt produced the first colored cartoon known as, Flowers and Trees. Moving on, in 1937 Walt produced the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This film is a classic, and is still popular today. Right after Snow White came out, an unexpected death of Walts mother took place. This was one time Walt showed emotion. Disney was hard at work and within five years he produced more full-length films such as, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. In 1955, Disneys dream of the amusement park came true. Disneyland was opened. After it opened, Walt Disney expanded. More and more parks popped up. Walt Disney died of lung cancer December 15, 1966 right before the Walt Disney Resort was opened. Walt Disney has changed the world today. New Disney movies keep coming out. Walt Disney created something that will never end. He was a true hero.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Causes of Workplace Accidents

Causes of Workplace Accidents Workplace accidents are generally caused by the unsafe behaviour of employees and the unsafe state of objects (Shi Wenwen, et al., 2011). In the past, root causes of those accidents were reported mainly in terms technological malfunctions and the human element tended to be ignored (Gordon, 1998). Technology and systems have become more reliable and the frequency of technological failures has diminished, there is little uncertainty today that human errors contribute to the majority of safety incidents within high risk industries (Baysari, et al., 2009; Skalle, 2014). The current research on the workplace accidents document that human errors are the root cause of up to 80% of incidents in high risk industries (Liping, 2003; Cullen and Anderson, 2005; Garret and Teizer, 2009; Ganguly, 2011; Quanmin, et al., 2011). As Reason (1997) indicated in an earlier research, it is expected, because human decisions and actions are not only involved in accidents, but also in the design, construction, operation, maintenance and management of complex systems. The significance of human factors contribution to safety has been demonstrated over the past two decades by the often-quoted examples of the contribution of human failures to the major accidents within the process industry such as Bhopal, Piper Alpha, Texas City refinery explosion, Esso Longford gas explosion and Texaco Milford Haven explosion (Hughes and Kornowa-Weichel, 2004). Given this demonstration, it is astounding that the importance of human factors in the safety management has not yet been extensively acknowledged within the high risk industries in the Middle East. There are scarcely any literatures exist within the Middle East on the relevance of human factors in safety management. Some elements of human factors such as training and motivation had always been received attention within the oil and gas industry; however, they have been deliberately managed as part of an integrated safety management system or with the rigour that their contribution to the risk requires. The term ‘human error’ is defined in several literatures (Norman, 1981; Reason, 1990; Sanders and McCormick, 1993; Salmon, et al., 2005). Reason (1990, p.9) defined human error as â€Å"a generic term to encompass all those occasions in which a planned sequence of mental or physical activities fails to achieve its intended outcome, and when these failures cannot be attributed to the intervention of some chance agency.† Salmon, et al. (2005, p.5) defined human error as â€Å"any mental or physical activity, or failure to perform activity, that leads to either an undesired or unacceptable outcome.† Dhillon Liu (2006) and Shi Wenwen, et al. (2011) point out that the causes of human errors are complicated, and the basic reasons can be one’s own unsafe psychological activities, physiological factors, environmental factors, insufficient safety training, poor design factors and inadequate procedures. The term ‘human factor’ is often referred as the thread that runs through the safety management system, the organisation for safety and the culture of a site (Cullen and Anderson, 2005). Cacciabue (2004, p.12) defined human factors as â€Å"the technology concerned with the analysis and optimisation of the relationship between people and their activities, by the integration of human sciences and engineering in systematic applications, in consideration for cognitive aspects and socio-technical working contexts.† The United Kingdom, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defined human factors as â€Å"environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety† (HSE, 2005, p.5; Ganguly, 2011, p.14). Hughes Kornowa-Weichel (2004) and Cullen Anderson (2005) highlight that it is important to integrate human factors from the early stages of process design and procedural development to reduce human failures. Hamilton, et al. (2013, p.5) state that â€Å"human factors integration is the principal method for applying human factors to the development of socio-technical systems across safety critical industries.† In this way, the integration helps to ensure that human factors methods and principles are applied appropriately and consistently during the system development in order to achieve a safe and effective design for end users. McLeod (2004) indicates that human factors maturity assessment of an organisation should be in terms of what action organisation takes to minimise the human contribution to incidents and the impact on the health of the workplace through the way it designs the equipment and implements its associated training and procedures. On the whole, the above discussed literatures put forward the claim that management systems, tools and equipment of an organisation to be designed with the potential capabilities and limitations of people in mind to run it safely and effectively as people are the integral and key features of the business systems. Therefore, the best practices of human failure prevention can only be attained when human factors are integrated into the procedural and system development phase rather than considering as a stand-alone activity. For this reason, the success rate of human failure prevention mostly depends on the level of human factors integration into the health and safety management system of that organisation. Background to the organisation Lamprell Energy Limited (LEL) is a leading provider of diversified engineering and contracting services to the onshore and offshore oil and gas and renewable energy industries. Based in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) and with the operations throughout the region, Lamprell has played a prominent role in the development of the energy industry within the Middle East for over 35 years. Lamprell has established a leading market position in the construction, commissioning and installation of rigs, process modules and top sides. The primary facilities of Lamprell are located in Hamariya, Sharjah and Jebel Ali all of which are located within the U.A.E. The facilities cover approximately 910,000 m2 with 2.2 km of quayside. The organisation employs approximately 2400 employees in the Jebel Ali facility where the research was conducted. Reason for the dissertation Health and safety is a core value within Lamprell businesses and a strong health and safety culture exist within the group. The health and safety management system is accredited by the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001:2007 standard. Surveillance audits are carried out by Bureau Veritas, a global leader in the management systems certification with a strong presence within the U.A.E. Kelvin Top Set root cause analysis tool and problem solving methodology is used within the organisation for the investigation of workplace incidents. This ensures that the root causes of all incidents reported within the organisation are systematically identified. An analysis carried out on all the lost time, restricted work, medical treatment accidents and root causes reported in the last 3 years within the Jebel Ali facility of Lamprell reveals that the accidents caused by the human failures are at an alarming rate. There were no fatalities reported during this period within the organisation. It was confirmed that accidents are classified based on the similar reporting criteria across all three years to ensure consistency of collected data. Figure 1. Total Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) and Human Failure Accident Frequency Rate from January 2011 to December 2013. Figure 2. The causes of human failure accidents from January 2011 to December 2013. As Figure 1 indicates, there was a rise in AFR in 2012 compared to 2011 and then dropped in 2013. Human failures contributed 76%, 82% and 83% to the total AFR in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively. The causes of these human failure accidents were retrieved from Lamprell’s Single Incident Reporting System (SIRS) and illustrated in Figure 2. The pie chart shows that over half the human failure accidents were due to the noncompliance of procedures, poor competency and environmental factors. The high human failure accident rate and the nature of the causes of these failures are self-explanatory for assessing the human factors integration into the health and safety management system of Lamprell.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Evolution and Education :: Science Teaching Argumentative Essays

Evolution and Education Whenever various debates have taken place in parts of the country regarding whether evolution should be taught in schools, I have always observed the situation with a degree of incredulousness; neither the parochial education I received in elementary and middle school nor the public education I received for high school ever attempted to dissuade us from learning about evolution, and while none of my classes ever taught evolution with as much depth as Ernst Mayr attempted to convey in What Evolution Is, both systems taught it as a fact – one that we took for granted. The debate on the use of the word "evolution" in the Georgia school system initially appeared to me to be a manifestation of more anti-evolution tendencies, although Superintendent Kathy Cox has not commented on the theory of evolution itself; "the unfortunate truth," stated Cox as her rationale, "is that 'evolution' has become a controversial buzzword that could prevent some from reading the proposed biology curriculum" (Gross A10). Whatever her own beliefs on the subject are, however, the elimin ation of the term "evolution" may provide cool comfort to the theory's detractors, but its overall effect is merely to hamper the student's understanding of what evolution entails. In place of "evolution," Georgia's proposed replacement is "biological changes over time"; it hopes to convey the meaning behind the word without using the word itself (Gross A10). Mayr's own definition seems to be rather similar when he states, "Evolution is change in the properties of populations of organisms over time," but a word expresses more than what a clipped dictionary definition can allow (Mayr 8). When "evolution" is used in daily parlance in a non-biological context, adaption is often an unspoken yet important component of it. If one speaks of "evolving as a person" or "evolving in his role as team captain," there is a sense that one is moving from a less-adapted state to becoming better suited for whatever it is one does. It implies that there is a development of certain qualities to be better suited for the environment an individual may find him- or herself in, not simply "changes over time" for the sake of change; while there is indeed a degree of randomness in how a species may evolve (or come to destruction, as the well-adapted dinosaurs did when a meteor struck and indelibly altered the environment), for the most part the changes are not entirely due to chance.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Roots of Our Digital World Essay -- Technology Essays

The Roots of Our Digital World Today's world revolves around the storing, organization, and communication of information. While the world today may seem new and unique, this digital world arose out of a combination of many smaller steps that varied from innovations like a new discovery in science or a new philosophical outlook. In their writings Lev Manovich, a professor of New Media at San Diego University, and Dr. Simon Cook, an Economics professor at Duke University, have developed of a history of what lead to the development of the visual world. Manovich claims that the digital revolution came in a three-step process. The first took place in the time period between 1870 and 1920. Manovich believes that during this time period, called the late Victorian, a change occurred in the cultural attitude toward vision. This change was seen in the development of various forms of visual reasoning by scholars like Galton, Venn, and Einstein. The next step occurred after World War II. The world had seen large advances in t echnology and industry. Because of this change, the worker began to do less physical labor and a shift in focus from developing physical efficiency to mental efficiency occurred. The last step has occurred in the modern times. Here the shift focused on the development and dominance of the computer (Cook 2). Cook agrees with Manovich's three- step theory, but feels that Manovich has left out a few important aspects of this visual history. The basic structure of Manovich's claim seems correct, but aspects of the development of late-Victorian visual representations were neglected or incorrectly viewed as unimportant. Cook believes that the more emphasis should be placed on the influence of mathematics in Galton and ... ... Reasoning and a Modern History of Vision. Online Text. http://www.duke.edu/~sjc68/academic/montreal.doc. 8 March 2002. Dodgson, Charles (aka. Lewis Carroll), The Game of Logic. Online Text. 1886. http://www.lib.duke.edu/pdf/ll1513.pdf. 8 March 2002. Ferrell. Keith "Graphical user interface." World Book Online Americas Edition. http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/722716. 8 March 2002. -- "Internet." World Book Online Americas Edition. http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/279620. 8 March 2002. Perini, Lynda. "Fax machine." World Book Online Americas Edition. http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/192830. 8 March 2002. Venn, John, On the Diagrammatic and Mechanical Representation of Propositions and Reasonings, 1880. Online Text. http://www.lib.duke.edu/pdf/ll1512.pdf. 8 March 2002.