So what exactly is sexism

Sexism is the belief that rights and roles in ones society should be governed by ones sex. Historically, sexism has been male-driven and accompanied by a belief in the inferiority of women. The new opportunities becoming available to women and men through the feminist movement will be beneficial to both. Men can become happier and more fulfilled human beings by challenging the old-fashioned rules of masculinity that embody the assumption of male superiority. Traditional masculinity includes many positive characteristics in which men take pride and find strength, but it also contains qualities that have limited and harmed hem. I strongly support the continuing struggle of women for full equality. I oppose such injustices to women as economic and legal discrimination, rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and many others. Women and men can and do work together as allies to change the injustices that have so often made them see one another as enemies. One of the strongest and deepest anxieties of many American men is their fear of homosexuality. This homophobia contributes directly to the many injustices experienced by gay, lesbian and bisexual persons, and is a debilitating restriction for many heterosexual men. We should call for an nd to all forms of discrimination based on sexual-affectional orientation, and for the creation of a gay affirmative society. The enduring injustice of racism, which like sexism has long divided humankind into unequal and isolated groups, is of particular concern to me. Racism touches all of us and remains a primary source of inequality and oppression in our society. I also acknowledge that many people are oppressed today because of their class, age, religion, and physical condition. I believe that such injustices are vitally connected to sexism, with its fundamental premise of unequal distribution of power.

How satisfactory is this view of Wolsey’s position as Henry VIII’s Minister Essay

Thomas Wolsey rose from being the lowly son of a butcher, through various posts in the royal service, to become Lord Chancellor in December 1515, and remained at the pinnacle of the King’s service until his fall in October 1529. To stay in power for so long, it needs to be established whether he spent his time as a ‘servant’ to the King, or as a authority in his own right. Historian G.R.Elton stated that, ‘He had lasted so long because †¦ he knew how to promote himself, and for most of the time, he knew how to keep henry satisfied.’ Elton’s words indicate what I believe are the two main factors in studying Wolsey’s ministry – how he served the King, and how much he did for himself. It is my opinion that Wolsey, despite his plentiful policy in areas of little interest to the King like social and governmental reform, remained so prominent in the King’s service due to his ability to serve the King, allowing Henry to live life as a young ‘Renaissance Prince.’ The King also felt relatively safe giving such power to Wolsey, as he didn’t pose a threat to his throne in the way that some nobles or those of royal blood may have posed. However nature of the relationship between Henry and Wolsey was unusual, as it was not like the archetypal master-servant relationship. In some of his letters to Wolsey, Henry signed off as ‘your loving friend and master,’ or referred to hims as ‘father’ in the spiritual sense of the word. George Cavendish, a contemporary, and Wolsey’s butler said â€Å"The king displayed a most loving disposition towards him, especially as he was most earnest and readiest among all the council to advance the King’s mere will and pleasure.† The friendship seemed to work both ways, and although it has been suggested that Henry took Hampton Court by force, I am in agreement with most historians that Wolsey gave it to Henry as a gift. To judge the extent to which Wolsey did serve his ‘master,’ it is necessary to analyse Wolsey’s work, and discover the true aim behind each of his major areas of policy. In studying Wolsey’s domestic policy, one must establish Henry’s role in this area, and in particular, what he wanted done and how much of it he was willing to do himself. As Henry was not the first son of his father Henry VII, he had not received the same royal training that his older brother Arthur had done, thus he had never really developed an interest in royal domestic affairs. While Henry VII chose to rule the country himself, Henry VIII saw ruling his country as delegating jobs to other people so he could live a youthful life, spending time hunting and enjoying himself with other men of his age. His lack of interest in day-to-day administrative affairs left a void to be filled, so the arrival in the his service of someone who not only excelled in the field, but was willing to serve his every need seems to have been the main reason for the King to keep Wolsey. As Lord Chancellor, Wolsey was effectively head of the legal system. However, as I established previously, Henry’s interest in fields such as this was limited, so he gave Wolsey power to do what he pleased (but he did have to approve Wolsey’s reform before it was implemented). Wolsey became a contriver of many policies of reform in the legal system, notably with his personal service in the Court of Chancery, increasing the administering of law of equity as opposed to common law, and with his revision of the role of Star Chamber in 1516, so that it would dispense justice and oversee fairness in the legal system. The question we need to ask is how much of this was done for the King, and how much did Wolsey do of his own accord, as arguments can be established for either opinion. By sitting in on the Court of Chancery, Wolsey was taking on a lot of unnecessary extra work, and his enforcement of equity (which was seen as dangerously close to Roman Law) is evidence to suggest that Wolsey allegiance may not have only lain with Henry, but with the Pope as well. However, Wolsey himself had little or no legal training, and the work he carried out was rather early in his ministry, which suggests that is ultimate aim was to please the King by offering him exciting new plans of reform to keep him happy. Also, the work he carried out in Star Chamber was demanded of him by Henry. It is my personal opinion that Wolsey’s needed to maintain the King’s interest and appear as though he was working directly to serve the King, and this seems to have been his main priority, as this was the key to remaining in the King’s favour. Wolsey’s background lay in religion rather than in law, so it seemed that anything policy he would implement would be more likely to reflect his own personal desires, rather than as a service to the King. In 1514, he was made Archbishop of York, and in 1518, he was promoted to Papal Legate (a position which was conferred on him for life in 1524), effectively making him the most powerful man in the church. The important question is that when serving the Pope in England, would he be acting for himself (and the Pope) or his master, the King? Wolsey’s first major policy in the church was the defence of ‘Benefit of Clergy.’ In the 1515 Parliament. This itself was a bold move for Wolsey, as he had only recently been given power, and to defend something that both King and Parliament didn’t approve of meant losing popularity. Nevertheless, Wolsey knelt to Henry to assure him that his power was totally unthreatened by the church. This evidence suggests that Wolsey may not have necessarily wanted to do everything that the King wanted, and he seemed to have some power of refusal over the King himself. In the church, we also witness Wolsey’s collection of offices, wealth and power, which we can hardly regard as a service to the King. His offices included Bishop of Durham and Winchester, Abbot of St Albans (one of the richest abbeys in England), as well his previous offices as Archbishop of York, Papal Legate and Lord Chancellor, providing examples of pluralism. He even charged clergy to carry out duties which he could not fulfil, in a gross example of non-residence. He derived a huge income from all of the above while maintaining power, placing him in a unique position, and freeing him up to serve the King in other ways. One third of land in England belonged to the church, and this seemed to be the one of the few aspects of the church that Henry himself was displeased with, thus it can be said that the dissolution of 30 monasteries between 1524-9 would have theoretically been done for the King. In practice, Wolsey kept a great deal of the revenue from the monasteries, diverting it to his school in Ipswich and his college at Oxford. Social reform was one of the areas of domestic policy that least concerned the King, so it seems likely that most of Wolsey’s action in this field would not be in service to the King. His attempt to reduce the injustice of ‘enclosures’ and ‘engrossing’ via the Enclosure Commission of 1517-9 was clearly of little consequence to the King, and was more likely to be an area of policy where the King gave Wolsey freedom to implement his own policy. The fact that Wolsey carried out policies for which there is little evidence of any involvement on Henry’s part suggests that Wolsey may have been more than just a servant to Henry. Wolsey’s immense activity in financial policy corresponds with Henry’s desire for money to carry out foreign expeditions against the French. The Act of Resumption of 1515, the Subsidies of 1513-5 and 1523, the Forced Loan of 1523 all reduced his popularity, but managed to quench Henry’s desire for money. However, Wolsey was seen to go one step too far to please his master in 1525, in asking for the Amicable Grant, while the forced loan of 1523 was still being collected. The country reached a state of near-rebellion, and more serious disturbances occurred in London, East Anglia and Kent. It was at this stage when the relationship between Henry and Wolsey faced its first major attack, and Henry blamed the whole fiasco on Wolsey to save himself. Wolsey himself had largely been opposed to his attempts to raise extra revenue for the King, yet he had been acting as the King’s servant, doing his bidding. To Henry, Wolsey was to act as a scapegoat in situations wh ere things went wrong. The other area of domestic policy in which conflict arose between Henry and Wolsey was in the Eltham Ordinances of 1526. Wolsey had been struggling to eliminate those who may have influenced the King. In 1518, he had attempted to expel Henry’s ‘minions’ or ‘young favourites,’ but his ‘governmental reform’ as he called it, was reversed by Henry, indicating some tension, but more importantly indicating to Wolsey that he could not consider overpowering the King. It was in the Ordinances of 1526 that Wolsey again went too far. In another bout of governmental reform, he was able to reduce the number of ‘Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber’ from 12 to 6, and he removed enemies such as William Compton, the ‘groom of the stool.’ The resultant lack of advisors around Henry angered him, and he was well aware that Wolsey was the cause of his seclusion. Wolsey had emerged as a competent organiser during the 1512-3 French campaign, and also organised the peace with France in 1514, proving himself to Henry as effective in diplomacy as well. Clearly, Henry was a king who sought glory, and was full of dynastic ambition. He wanted England to be as influential in European affairs as it had been in the time of Henry V. His jealousy of his French rival, Francis I meant that he would be seeking alliances against his traditional opponent. Wolsey on the other hand was a man of humanist tendencies, sought glory in diplomacy through his desire to become the ‘peacemaker of Europe.’ The Venetian Ambassador at the time stated that â€Å"Nothing pleases him more than to be called the arbiter of the affairs of Christendom.† In 1516, Henry wanted to renew his campaign against the French alongside the new leader of Spain, Charles V, but Wolsey managed to convince him to join a coalition against French action in Italy instead. Henry clearly trusted Wolsey sufficiently to trust his advice in this are, indicating that he held more importance than that of just a servant. One aspect of Henry’s personal policy is also revealing at this stage as to his relationship with Wolsey. In 1518, Pope Leo X was expressing some concern as to the advance of the Ottoman Empire into Europe, and sent cardinals around Europe to organise a unification of Christendom against them. Henry used his desperation to his advantage, refusing entry to Cardinal Campeggio, the embassy, unless Wolsey was made ‘legate a latere’ (papal legate), to which the Pope agreed. In this action, Henry can be seen to have depended somewhat on Wolsey, as he was essential to Henry in maintaining some degree of control over the church in England. Wolsey, seeing an opportunity to fulfil his personal aims, took diplomatic control of the Pope’s mission, and turned it into an international peace conference of more than 20 countries in London. The resultant Treaty Of London was signed in October 1518, and served as a great achievement for Wolsey. It not only brought together the great powers of Europe in a ‘universal and perpetual peace,’ but also put England at the centre of European affairs. More importantly, Wolsey had not needed to compromise the wishes of his master to achieve his role of peacemaker, as the treaty also allowed England’s standing in Europe to improve, which was one of Henry’s major priorities. Wolsey carried out more diplomacy to serve the King two days later, in an Anglo-French treaty in which a marriage between the Dauphin and Henry’s daughter Princess Mary was proposed. Henry was getting his most important desires fulfilled, and foreign affairs seemed to be going exceptionally well for Henry and Wolsey, until the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian, which saw Charles V become the new emperor, and imminent conflict between the newly strengthened Charles and F rancis I, would see the destruction of the glorious Treaty of London. In 1520, Wolsey’s service to his King in foreign policy continued, and faced with both sides of the conflict courting the support of England, he organised the splendorous meeting between Francis and Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, which would have seemed like the beginning of a grand peace between the two countries. However, Wolsey had to sacrifice his role as peacemaker to appease Henry’s desire to benefit from the inevitable war, and at the Treaty of Bruges in August 1521, Wolsey served the King’s cause further by providing the possibility that Charles may marry the 8 yr old Princess Mary who Henry desperately wanted to marry off. The war itself provided no real success for England, and only further marginalized England as a minor power in Europe. Against Wolsey’s desire, Henry wanted to fight on during 1523, and Wolsey was obliged to carry out his duty, in the way that any ‘servant’ would, and England only met further wartime embar rassment. Despite Henry’s hopes of campaigning in 1524, Wolsey managed to convince Henry otherwise, and in the following year, Wolsey took the bold step of instigating a peace with France, and the Treaty of the More was signed in August 1525, and now, a force to face the might of Charles had begun. Wolsey began to slip back into his comfortable role as peacemaker, orchestrating the League of Cognac between France and the Papal States (Wolsey made England abstain from joining, so that England remained peaceful). Another Wolsey-organised treaty was made in April 1527 between France and England in the Treaty of Westminster, which declared perpetual Anglo-French peace, promised Francis’ second son to Princess Mary and threatened Charles with war if he didn’t join the peace. England was back at the forefront of English politics, thanks to Wolsey’s redemption from Henry’s war failures. However, this grew inconsequential, and just as Wolsey done what Henry wanted in foreign affairs, Henry’s desire for divorce grew urgent. Wolsey could reasonably expect to stay in power as long as he kept carrying out the King’s wishes, and despite his unpopularity and court faction working against him, it is clear that his inability to get Henry his divorce led to his downfall. Henry’s new love Anne Boleyn managed to convince Henry that Wolsey had no use any more – he couldn’t get a divorce and he hadn’t secured the King’s succession. In general, his ‘service’ was no longer required, and historian John Guy concludes that â€Å"Wolsey was destroyed because he had become a liability in the eyes of the king and was expendable. This has fundamental implications for reassessing his relationship with Henry.† Guy is correct is saying that this sheds new light on the nature of the relationship between the two men, and suddenly, Henry’s regard for Wolsey as a ‘loving friend’ became trivial. This essay has been able to establish that the majority of Wolsey’s policy was executed in service to the King. Wolsey may have acted for his own interest in certain areas such as the church and social reform, but this was only because of Henry’s lack on interest in the fields, and the trust that he placed in Wolsey’s service. I am therefore able to conclude that theoretically, Wolsey was the ‘King’s Servant.’ However, I say theoretically, because although Wolsey was a servant to Henry in his actions, the image created by the word seems to extreme for Wolsey. I believe that the relationship between Henry and Wolsey was strong and full of friendship when Wolsey did what was required of him. In reality, everyone in the kingdom was a servant to the King, and many people wanted to serve him more to gain more influence. In light of this, although he was a servant, it appears to me that the word ‘servant’ underestimates the immense of power that he had, despite the fact that the power was given to him by the King, and many other more complimentary words can be used to describe the importance of Wolsey to the King. Nevertheless Wolsey, as a minister, remained a servant to Henry throughout his time in power, and devoted the majority of his policy to the King’s service.

Pros and Cons of Prison Privatization Essay

Prisons are institutions that have specifically been designed to handle the members of the society who are under conviction of different crimes. The people who reside in the prisons are referred to as inmates or prisoners and the time they spend in the prisons depends on the imprisonment period. This period is dependent of the intensity of the crime committed. Once in the prisons, the inmates undergo rehabilitation, incapacitation, retribution and deterrence which are elements for considered appropriate for the provision of justice to the society. In the past, it has been the responsibility of the government to manage these institutions on behalf of the society. The increased debate on the privatization of different institutions has seen a debate being launched in regard to the privatization of prisons. This implies that the main purposes of these institutions to the society are shifting from not just maintenance of justice but also as a source of financial wealth. The new advancement is directed at allowing the straightening out of the contemporary faults that exist within the public prisons such as recidivism and overcrowding but there are some people who are opposed to this due to some possible negative results. In short, the process of privatizing the prison industry has both negative and positive effects and this paper seeks to address some of the pros and cons of this exercise. Privatization though a new concept to be applied in prison department in most of the countries across the globe, there are a few countries who used it in the past. For example during the mid 18th century, the United States government entered into a treaty with a number of private investors to manage a number of its institutions and these investors went ahead to contract inmates to some of their private enterprises as a source of labor. Some of the institutions that were contracted included ‘New York Auburn and Louisiana’ penal colonies. However, this did not last for long based on the fact that there was rampant corruption that was carried out as well as vicious resistance from other businesses who termed this as some kind of ‘unfair’ competition that was caused by these workers who were unpaid. Contemporary private prisons are however not the same as these because they operate on new models that are more promising. The Pros on the Prison Privatization Industry One of the major benefit that privatization of prisons would bring about is cost saving. The cost of crime depends upon relative increase in the rate of crime. The government in different countries spends billions of dollars every year on construction of prisons so as to be able to handle the increasing rates of crime. This is not the only cost based on the fact that guards to guard these inmates need to be recruited as well as other expenses that include; administration, food, health and education costs. It is argued by the majority of proponents of this idea that private companies can operate the prisons at a cost that is far much low than what the government uses and still maintain the quality services that are required. Some of the major reasons that these proponents give in regard the reduced cost are the elimination of bureaucracy, red tape, and the numerous laws that usually makes the costs of managing the prisons to rise in the case of public prisons. Allowing the private sector to manage these institutions will imply that some of the costs that are involved in learning the jail will not be generated from the tax payer’s contribution directly and as a result the money may be diverted to other government projects. This will facilitate better utilization of the government’s funds to develop the areas that are in serious need of development. Due to the issue of competition privatization there will be increased productivity as well as reduced waste in terms of resources. Studies have revealed that the boarding cost in the private owned prison to reduce to half that of the government owned prisons. There have been other studies some institutions saved more than twenty percent of the cost incurred in terms of the construction expenses and management costs reducing by 5-15% Sloane, 1996). The cutting down on cost is something that has been criticized heavily by the lobby groups who think that this will lead to the deteriora tion of the conditions inside these prisons. This is an economical plan that aims at giving back to the society as it serves to preserve justice to the community. According to the economic theory, the problem of financial support towards the running of the prison facilities would go down if there are more available, renting and selling prison cells, the challenges in terms of the funding and efficient allocation of prison space. Privatization of prisons is based on this factor of trying to exploit the opportunities by the introduction of factories adjacent to bars, cost reduction of the costs and give the prisoners the freedom to earn some pay as they give back to the society through the provision of labor. By this, they will be making peace with the society that they infringed some pain in the initial time through committing of crime. Though the public prisons try as much to carry out this exercise, this cannot be compared to the private sector that expresses this in a more profound manner. One way of demonstrating this is what was demonstrated in the United States sometimes ago. There was a time when there were more than one hundred private firms that with more than two thousand prisoners in the manufacturing industry. These inmates used to manufacture goods with the range of bird feeders, circuit boards, and other related equipments and from the money that was earned through this method, about 56% of it was used to cater for the room and boarding facilities, restitution of the victim, and support of the family. The process also left the inmates with some acquired skills that they could use during their re-integration process that welcomed them back to the society. Having some skills that they could use to earn a living put them in a better position in the society based on the fact that these people were liable of being treated by the community as ex-convicts that may rerun back into crime. It is also worth noting that the process of privatization may lead to some other new methods of criminal control other than the use of jail to detain people there by denying them freedom. One method can involve methods of detaining criminals within their dwelling by the use of new technology such as surveillance through small devices worn on the body such as bracelets or the electronic monitoring. It is however worth to note that such methods would cause some greater concern of the general public based on the fact that some would question whether the method would be effective in ensuring that crime is contained in the society. In short the privatization of the prison industry would have a lot of benefits as mentioned in the points that have been stated above. The financial benefits, well being of the prisoner, security gains, and answerability among other factors might be used by the proposers of this system to ensure that the majority of the prisons are privatized so as to improve this important institution that ensures the execution of justice in a given country. The concept of privatization is indeed a very bright idea that has so many advantages though the issue needs to be put under more scrutiny to be able to get to the bottom of some of the positive features that have been mentioned in this paper. This is a concept that has the potential of flourishing if given the attention it deserves to ensure that the social interests come before the urge to maximize profits by the corporations that have been contracted to set up the private institutions. It is also worth noting that each of the positive points that have been presented in favor of privatization, an equal amount of disproof as a means of counteract or frustrate this should be expected as it is the case for the public prisons. This is because in each debate regarding an issue that will touch on the welfare of the society there are those who are behind its implementation and there are those who solidly oppose such an issue; this is a good example of this kind of a topic. The Cons on the Prison Privatization Industry It is obvious that the main motive behind privatization is the profit. This is one of the major issues that can lead to a conflict of interest. It should be noted that prisons not only serve to separate the criminal from the rest of the society and give them punishment, it is also the duty and responsibility of the people in charge of the prisons to ensure that the criminals go through a rehabilitation process to ensure that that the recidivism rate is highly reduced based on the fact that it is very risky to relapse to the earlier behavior. Though the private prisons are cheaper than the public, they are not as efficient based on the fact that obtaining profits through the management of a prison would mean that rehabilitation programs, medical care, food and the hiring costs will be reduced at the expense of the welfare of the inmates. As a result, there high chances that the inmates will be underfed, experience poor living conditions, lack the rehabilitation guidance and be supervised by inexperienced and unskillful officers. James Austin who was an analyst conducted a survey in regard to the welfare of the inmates in some of these prisons and the results he obtained spoke volume of the kind of experiences that the inmates had to cope up with. One of the discoveries he made was that there was 49% more assaults on inmates by staff and 65% more assaults by inmates in the private run facilities than in the facilities that were learn by the government. This is one of factor that indicates that these private prisons are not that efficient when it comes to their performance. Another report that was conducted in England indicated that that the privatized prisons had bad scores in terms of the security and management based on the fact that there was failure in containing drugs, severe assaults and intentional criminal act ivity in the prisons. In addition, there are poor payments as well as working conditions in the private prisons as compared to the public prisons and this is the reason why there is high turnover in the public prisons as compared to the private prisons. It is also worth noting that privatization brings about lack of transparency in the prisons department. Public prisons have high degrees of transparency as compared to the private prisons. Despite having low transparency, the private prisons are also hard to legalize, scrutinize and bleaching of the contractual agreements are common and hard to detect and resolve. In short, the public prisons can be scrutinized easily by the public unlike the private prisons where public scrutiny cannot be assured due to the operation contracts that are usually confidential causing a serious failure in terms of accountability. Finally, this issue that seems to contradict the traditions that have been used for a long time by different countries in regard to the state respon sibility. There are functions that have been known for a long time to belong to the government and not to private developers since they are considered to belong to the class of the state responsibility to its citizens and one of this is the national defense. This is one thing that goes hand in hand with the protection of the public against crime and one of the major methods of doing this is the prison department and as a result, this department should be managed by the government of the particular country. Furthermore the act of administering punishment needs to be delivered by a body with high authority for it to be effective and this can only be the government towards is citizens who have indulged into criminal activities. As a result the ruthlessness of the punishment impacted by imprisonment or the denial of freedom needs to be executed by the government which is the sole representative of the society and not some individuals from the private sector. Privatization has also received some critics in regard the issue of ‘low-balling’. This is a system or a trick that played by contractors on the government. They under bid their fellow competitors with the aim of winning the tender and once they have won the tender, the costs are increased to very outrageous figures. The worst thing is that the competitors stand a chance of learning into bankruptcy, a situation that can leave the government in a positional that does not have any correctional capability. If this is introduced in the prison sector, this would mean that such an important section of the ensuring justice in the country would have some technical hitches and provision of poor facilities, a thing that would make this body loose its purpose. Despite the system having some advantages, there are a good number of disadvantages that may hinder the process of privatization in a given country. Some of the arguments presented by a section of scholars may not hold water but there are some arguments against privatization that should really be put into consideration for the sake of the welfare of the citizens who should be the first priority of any government (Sloane, 1996). Morality is a very important virtue and based on the fact that there are some aspects of privatization that undermine this value, it is a matter that needs to be deliberated deeply. It is also questionable as to whether the issue of morality and the society peer responsibility as well as the ultimate should be left to the hands of people whose major motive is to maximize profits and search of financial gains. This is an issue that makes the society to appear as if it is no longer guided by morals but rather by greed for money and opportunistic advocacy.

Nurse Practitioner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nurse Practitioner - Essay Example They also act as a psychiatric in some cases as their main focus is on the prevention of illness and they do so by educating their patient about his illness and the causes which help him to take preventive measures to avoid illness. The can provide services to patients of all ages, they can treat acute as well as chronic conditions. They also have discretion to provide medications and therapies to their patients. The three primary function of practitioner are to provide prevention, wellness and education to their patients. Their scope of working broadens when they take into care the effect of patient's illness to the people around him along with a focus on patient's condition. This preventive style of care helps reducing the future illness, medications and therapies to the patients and hence lesser expensive treatments. Nurse practitioner may easily provide diagnosis and management facilities to their patient for diseases such as Pneumonia, BP, or Diabetics. This autonomy comes from the specialized training that they receive in their particular area of interest during their degree program for Nurse Practitioner. They are also allowed to obtain medical histories of their patients under care and to decide upon and conduct the type of medical examination they think is appropriate for the patient. They are also allowed to prescribe diagnostic studies such as lab tests, x-rays etc to help gain an insight of the causes of patient's illness. They are also entitled to refer patients to physicians if needed or other professionals for better treatment of patient's illness. And for the reason they have good relationships with most of the physicians and surgeons. Pursuing nurse practitioners as a profession also brings some interference and questioning to your efforts from other medical professionals around you. It is not always the case that the services of a nurse practitioner will be welcomed. Medical professionals some times think nurse practitioner as a threat to their scope of working. Specially the diagnosis and the referral part of working of a nurse practitioner is always questioned and a clear-cut definition of a nurse practitioner's role is yet to be outlined. "There are times that the autonomy of the nurse practitioner is directly challenged by other medical professionals that it is it sometimes difficult for a nurse practitioner like me to work on some specific cases (Wadsworth et al, 2002)". Many medical professionals refuse a nurse practitioner's judgments and decisions just because of the fact that he/she does not a doctor written with his name. According to a study conducted by the RNC Nurse Practitioner Association, refusal to honour the referrals and diagnosis made by nurse practitioner is quite common. "About 44% of the nurse practitioners surveyed by the association reported that their request for X-rays and referrals were refused on the basis that these request and referrals are made by 'nurses, not by doctors' (Jane Ball, 2006)". The refusal from some medical professionals and service providers to honour the requests made by nurse practitioner creates a big obstacle in the practice of NPs' profession. It is sometime not only frustrating but also discouraging to the passion of a NP towards his or

Ethic report for wind and solar and hydropower Essay - 1

Ethic report for wind and solar and hydropower - Essay Example an be produced in different scales namely; large hydro (more than 10megawatts), small hydro (upto10 megawatts), micro hydro (up to 100kw) and pico hydro (up to 5kw). One major advantage of hydroelectric power is that the operational cost of a hydroelectric plant is almost immune to the increase in the cost of fossils fuel and, more so, absolutely no imports are required for the same. Hydropower is a clean source of energy with absolutely no emissions of Carbon Dioxide, and, therefore, no pollution to the environment. Global warming is also minimized. The hydropower dams can be used as a habitat for some fish and wildlife. More so, the water can be used for irrigation purposes, and they also make the surrounding area around fertile (Scheer 45). Additionally, electricity can be produced at a constant rate and electricity generation can be stopped when it is not needed by closing sluice gates. Therefore, water can be stored for some time when there is less demand for electricity. Since dams can stay for a longer period of time it can be used to store water there is no high demand of power (Somma 56). Besides the advantages, there exist demerits of hydropower. The turbines used can have negative effect on the fish population as in some fish are killed as water go through the turbine. A dam therefore, changes wildlife and fish in a place as well as landscape. More so, hydropower has an impact on local population. Individuals who live in places that are flooded are forced to move out of their places, thus farms and businesses may be lost. People, at times, may be forced to move out their residential to give space for dam construction. Additionally, dams consume a lot of space for their construction and are usually constructed on marginalized land that is wooded. Therefore, it is necessary to cut down trees, which can be dangerous to our environment since the trees act as carbon dioxide sinks which may be harmful. This may be risky to an environment. Finally, on it is

Profit and loss account and balance sheet Essay

Profit and loss account and balance sheet - Essay Example This means that the financial status of the organization can be known by simply looking at these accounts. The users of these final accounts include the owners of business, managers, shareholders, government, creditors and the directors amongst other stakeholders of the business. These are mainly the people who are directly affected by the performance of the business, which is a significant factor in regard to credit worthiness of a business. On the other hand, government taxation is usually levied depending on the profitability and size of the organization. These aspects can be known through the final accounts (Dyson 2001 p 45-48). This essay is a critical evaluation of the purpose of the Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet to the various users or stake-holders. This is a critical component of an organization's financial report that provides information regarding capital, the long and short term assets as well as long and short term liabilities. This means that the owners of the business can get information regarding the possessions as well as the debts of the business by simply looking at the balance sheet. It is significant in avoidance of losses in the business operations. It indicates whether assets match with the liabilities hence it is useful in setting up the business strategy. This is mainly because a business will try as much as possible to ensure that the liabilities are checked in order for them not to go beyond a certain level whereby the debts may be more than the assets, a situation that may lead to insolvency of the business, which according to Berman (2008 p 11) is referred to as balance sheet insolvency. The wise use of the balance sheet can help in avoiding bankruptcy. The balance sheet is also significant in the evaluation of expenditures as well as the debts incurred by the business. The total spending by the business in a trading period is reflected in detail on the liabilities section. This gives the managers an opportunity to understand the items which significantly reduce the assets of the business. This knowledge is important in helping the managers to develop strategies for reducing the expenditures especially on the needless items. Expenses can be reduced through the use of inexpensive materials as well as the expenses that the business can do without. Strategies can also be developed to leave the assets that are not very necessary to the organization in order to pay the owing debts. (Weekman 2003 p 45- 51). Most of the time a business will be anticipating income which needs to be tracked in order to ensure that it is not lost before it is acquired. The balance sheet helps in tracking these receivables. It gives a detailed list of these receivables which indicates the payments owed to the business by customers. These payments are usually apparent in the balance sheet, which makes it possible for the managers to make a follow up in regard to their clearance. It is also significant in helping the managers to make a critical analysis of the inclination of the receivables and the amounts owing (Dyson 2001 p 56). They are able to identify whether the anticipated income is taking longer than expected and whether there is anything that can be done to facilitate

Employability in the community sector Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Employability in the community sector - Essay Example Governments often do not have sufficient resources to train and employ highly skilled people. Therefore, to compensate for the workforce shortage, countries superficially train their youth cross functionally. However, with the passage of time, the concept of community worker became formalized. At the same time, it is important to understand the ideology of community workers; previously they were seemingly trained in health sciences, so that they can provide first aid in a case of emergency. Nevertheless, in the modern era governments came to understand the value of community work (Peacock, Issel, Townsell, Chapple-McGruder, & Handler 2011). This enlightenment led governments to initiate cross training for community workers. Along with this, they are offered excellent remuneration and health insurance, thus compelling increasing number of young individuals to join community work as full time profession. Notably, these community workers are actively participating in various sectors of economy such as financial, emergency and military services. In this way, they are developing cross-industrial skills, which can help them in earning a handsome pay at the later stage of their career. On the other hand, these workers are respected around the globe for their notable contributions in medical practice. Nowadays, these professionals are playing a significant role in spreading the general knowledge about various health issues worldwide. The effectiveness of these awareness programs conducted by social workers is admirable because, they are conducted with the help of limited resources without any formal organizational identity. Female social workers are also prominent in their respective field due to their heightened commitment towards benefiting humanity. This paper in addition, to the general description of social work, will provide few essential skills necessary for the successfulness of a social worker in the coming paragraph. The

Medication managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Medication managment - Essay Example The health care provides a standardized form that can be used in nursing, medical and pharmacy (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Health Care). The most important role of a nurse is to administer drugs to patients. They have much knowledge about what drugs to give to patients. Nurses are to be expected to aware of pharmacology, anatomy, physiology and legal issues associated with a particular drug administration. Before administer IV or IM medications, the nurse has to be check the medication. Correct medication include dose and expiry date. There is need to check right medication by nurses asking patients their full names and date of birth. They also make double check by looking at their wrist bands and comparing it with the medication chart. Correct label bearing the name of medication has to be attached on the IV tubing (Tollefson 2012, p. 86-89). After that, a nurse must check the patient situation and recording the volume of IV in fluid balance

Divorce in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Divorce in America - Essay Example There are seven factors identified as the reasons for divorce based on the study done by Mafauzy, director of faculty of health in Malaysia. According to him the following is the reason for divorce; failure by husbands and wives in discharging their responsibilities, low grounding in religion, interference by third parties, differences in culture, sexual problems, money and careers. A recent study by the Creighton University Center for Marriage and Family concludes that the biggest obstacle in the marriage life is the time, sex and money. The study found that debt brought into marriage, the couples' financial situation, balancing job and family, and frequency of sexual relations were of greatest concern to those ages 29 and under. The female or male may have their freedom from the marriage but the biggest impact will be on the children of the couple. Each year over 1 million children suffer the divorce of their parents. Those children who witnessed the divorce of their parent before they turn 18 usually carry the effect up to their adulthood and even affect the future generation. Some of the damaging effects include the following: Families with children that were not poor before the divorce see their income drop as much as 50 percent. Almost 50 percent of the parents with children that are going through a divorce move into poverty after the divorce. Institutions, go Religious worship, which has been linked to better health, longer marriages, and better family life, drops after the parents divorce. Conclusion Institutions, government and every individual should be aware in the effects of divorce in children. The people or couple should understand the core principles of marriage before getting into it. That principle is that marriage is the best environment in which to raise healthy, happy children who can achieve their potential and that the family is the most important institution for social well being. If the family is the building block of society, then marriage is the foundation of the family. If this foundation is growing weaker, then the society will not be as strong as it used to be. Reference: 1. Patrick, F. and Rector, R. , "The Effects of Divorce on America, June 5,

Nursing Schizophernia in the UK Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Nursing Schizophernia in the UK - Assignment Example The key concept related to the two main parts of nursing I. e. Health promotion and disease prevention are individual care, promoting independence, self dependent and lifespan approach. The main questions related to nursing are how one individual does work; how to protect the health of the patients. Kulbok et.al. (2012) in their article mentioned the unique knowledge that a nurse needed to perform the work in the public health sector, community and also the importance of a good partnership the needed to effect care and treatment. Their article enlightened the historical perspective of both public health and community care from â€Å"sanitation and an infection control perspective toward challenging resources for the poor and underserved and now to its continued emphasis on participatory partnerships for effective intervention.†( Kulbok et.al, 2012). According to Burggarf (2012) transition in a core concept always play a major role and nurses are the integral part of it. Accord ing to him it is a passage between two relatively stable period of time with older patients diagnosed with dementia. Nurses play an important role in this phase to keep them mentally fit and healthy. In his article he also discussed about a patient navigation model for chronic disease which encapsulated into transformation for the health conceptual framework. This model was designed keeping in mind the behavioral changes and the concept of this model was based on the direct relationship between a patient and nurse. According to hi patient navigation , which was originally conceptualized on oncology , played a great role in the wider health care field including treatment of severe chronic diseases. (Burggarf, 2012) 2. Case study : Role of Nursing in Treatment of... Following is a summery of a case study   which is a clear indication about the fact that nurses are an integral part of the curative process for any person who is suffering from a chronic disease. Terry is a 26-year-old single female. She was a high school graduate and completed 1 year of college. She was born and bought up upper-middle-class family where academic and career success were extremely important as was their conservative Christian faith.   Terry was a good   hard working and self critical. After graduation,   Terry went out of state to college. In the first year of college, she received passing grades   but began to experience auditory hallucinations and delusions. She started to act in bizarrely and withdrew from people. At 18, she was hospitalized   1 month and dropped out of college. In the last   7 years was   hospitalized 12 tunes. There was no history of psychiatric illness in the family. Terry was discharged from a psychiatric hospital after 2 month s of inpatient treatment. Her diagnosis was schizophrenia, undifferentiated type, chronic. Her GAF at discharge was 30. She lived with her parents and was on SSI. Terry was referred by her nurse for ongoing psychotherapy as part of her discharge plan to help her adapt to the demands of community living and manage her illness. During her illness she was facing   auditory persecutory hallucinations and delusions as well as frequent cognitions such as "I'm no good,"I can't do anything." Behaviourally she was inactive, unable to work or live independently.

Belonging Related Text Essay Example for Free

Belonging Related Text Essay George Orwell’s essays – related text ‘Marrakech’ explores the notion of ethnocentricity through a Eurocentric perspective, in which one is isolated at the consequence of differing morels. Orwell succeeds in doing so through various anecdotes â€Å"What does Morocco mean to a Frenchman? An orange-grove or a job in government service. † In essence this displays the failure of a migrant to withhold a deeper connection to the land. Orwell emotively describes the crippled elderly women who â€Å"answered with a shrill wail, almost a scream, which was partly gratitude but mainly surprise†, as a response to the charity he provided her with. The dramatic reaction displays her sense of alienation from her own homeland, at fault of those who are foreign, yet awfully powerful. This is furthered through the description of â€Å"the shy, wide-eyed Negro† where through his ignorance, he â€Å"has been taught that the white race are his masters, and still believes it. † A sense of melancholy pervades this essay through the harsh truth â€Å"How much longer can we go on kidding these people? † displaying the indigenous peoples disconnection to a place that was originally theirs. While ‘Marrakech’ explores the notion that one does not belong to their homeland. This is juxtaposed through ‘Shooting an Elephant’ with Orwell’s alternative experience of belonging. Through Orwell’s ambivalence we see the highly controversial understanding of â€Å"the hollowness.. of the white man’s dominion in the East. † It is ironic that a â€Å"sub-divisional police officer† should feel self-conscious with such authority. Controversially he â€Å"was all for the Burmese† juxtaposed to the grotesque imagery of his deepest desire to â€Å"drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts.

IQ causes success Essay Example for Free

IQ causes success Essay I was particularly intrigued by the authors’ discussion of the cultural differences that affect the ways in which people deal with concepts. In order to illustrate this point, the authors point to the different ways in which Chinese and American people deal with the conflict between capitalism and communism. The first tends to seek out some kind of common ground between two different concepts while the latter tends to place different concepts into either/or categories. This discussion of culturally contingent ways of thinking made me wonder how much more successful high-level political debates would be if both parties tried to understand not just the other’s position but the way of thinking that allowed them to arrive at that position. The discussion of problem solving tactics (algorithms and heuristics) and obstacles to problem solving was interesting as it contained practical, real-world applications of the course material. I had one question, however, when reading this section. From the discussion, it seems that the authors are taking emotional detachment from the problem as a given, i. e. the ability to think logically about the problem is a prerequisite for problem solving. However, they do not ever explicitly discuss this necessity or how to achieve it. With regards to IQ, the authors discuss a longitudinal study undertaken by Lewis Terman in the 1920s. Terman found that children with high IQs continued to have academic and career success throughout their lives. The way the authors’ discussion is worded, it seems that they are saying that high IQ causes success. However, there could have been other contributing factors to these individuals’ success. For example, a child identified early on as having a high IQ might have more encouragement and attention from their parents and teachers. They might also be subjected to greater expectations for success. These factors, and not just the IQ alone, could also cause the success of the individual.

Post Structuralism Phenomenology Concepts in Architecture

Post Structuralism Phenomenology Concepts in Architecture 1. Post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a progression of earlier movement resulted by the work of a Swiss linguist, Ferdinand De Saussure in the 1910s and 1920s called Structuralism. The latter was influenced by semiotics (a study of signs). According to Saussure, a language is a system of signs made up of a signifier (an acoustic-image) and a signified (a concept).[1] Structuralism is understood as how the system works to structure their individual elements to imply a meaning. Post-structuralism is often interchangeably linked with postmodernism and deconstruction in general, as all these movements respond to structuralisms philosophy of language but they apply those insights to a wider range of topics and radicalize some of the structuralisms premises. [2] The consideration of architecture as communication while recognizing its functionality came during the Modernism era, which revolves around the universal form and the principle of form follows function phrased by American architect, Louis Sullivan. Modern architects believed the functions of diagrammatic objects would be transparent, or obvious to everyone.[3] However, the text, The Lesson of the Toilet Bowl, has taught us that it is through learning that human knows how to use a form. Charles Jencks and Peter Eisenman both opposed the former movement in post-modernism and deconstruction respectively. Jencks sees communication as the main problem of modernism as modern architects abandoned the traditional language of architecture and tried to design functional buildings. Post-modernism is characterized as double-coding[4], highlighting multivalent, unlike modern architecture which was criticized as univalent in terms of form. While modern architecture strives to create new, independent works of art, postmodern architecture embraced diversity with the merge of ideas, styles, and characters to promote parody, humor and irony. Deconstruction, on the other hand, challenges the values of harmony, unity, and stability, and proposing instead a different view of a structure that the flaws are intrinsic to the structure.[5]   Deconstructivist rejects the presence of metaphysics, as well as the function, scale, and context. [6] In terms of design process within the discipline of architecture, structuralism revolves around the idea of binary, hierarchical, and structural thinking for example, black cannot be white and vice versa. Whereas in poststructuralism, French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze (1925-95) collaborated with the psychoanalyst, Fà ©lix Guattari (1930-92) introduced the concept of rhizome in  A Thousand Plateaus (1980). A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.[7] The term rhizome promotes connective thinking in which post-structuralists criticized the reductive and that phenomena actually occurs in a more multifarious manner. There are in betweens and tangents and ambiguous non-binary associations. Post-structuralists approach argues that to understand an object, it is necessary to study both the object itself and the systems of knowledge that produced the object. 2. Phenomenology Phenomenology is a philosophical movement or approach which was inaugurated by a German philosopher, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) during the 1800s.   In architecture, the term phenomenology is the study of the essence of human consciousness through the subjective experience of phenomena. Architectural phenomenology acknowledged the importance of human experience as part of architecture; also referred as a return of lived experience.[8] This theory promotes the integration of human sensory and perception as part of built form to create an architectural and experiential space that is beyond tangible, but rather abstract, observed and perceived. One of the key approaches in phenomenology discourse was shaped by the thought of Martin Heidegger where he defines the meaning of Bauen (building) as to dwell, the latter simply means creating a sense of quality space within the building, providing the sense of feeling being at home to build is in itself already to dwell. However, dwelling does not necessarily occur in every building or typologies.[9] It was later then, the Heideggers philosophy becomes influential among a number of architectural theorists, namely, Christian Norberg-Schulz, a Norwegian architectural theorist, who was among the first to attempt to translate phenomenological approach into architecture. Schulz argues that the perception is inseparable from our preexisting knowledge about the things we perceive. Our perception is actually a result of our previous experiences.   This infers that every individuals perception is very subjective to their experiences and thus, asserted as a limiting factor to the phenomenological approach. In the architecture of today, people give too much of attention on the visual image (appearance) that the reality of how a building an experience has been neglected as mentioned by Finnish architect, Juhani Pallasmaa, who explored this notion in his work titled, The Geometry of Feeling (1985). Pallasmaa phrases that, the artistic dimension of a work of art does not lie in the actual physical thing; it exists only in the consciousness of the person experiencing it.[10] This statement enables us to think thoroughly that we do not only design a building as its physical form, and it is the images and feelings in other words, the design aims to achieve emotions/ experiences. A phenomenological concept in architectural design strategies to develop a unique experience by taking account of phenomena factors like space, light, and form. Architecture aims to provide to human needs and therefore, it is essential that a great design considers the relation of human senses with built form in order to create a rich experience that unfolds over time and gives a memorable impact for users.[11] 3. Theory and Practice Every now and then, we see theories overlap and developed from criticism, judgment, descriptive or interpretation on specific existing works. Consequently, this provides alternative solutions based on observations of the current state of the discipline, or offers new thought paradigms for approaching the issues.[12] The discourse of architectural theory and practice began after the Renaissance period when the Art of Building in Ten Books, which closely modeled Vitruviuswork was published by Alberti.[13] According to Korydon Smith in Introducing Architectural Theory, he defined architectural theory as: the evolution of the objective principles and subjective values that guide individual and collective decisions about, and assessments of ones own and othersarchitectural works.[14] Based on the definition, we can infer theories in architecture appear to be subjective and rather more individualistic and collective paradigms as everyone relatively do not share the same opinions or visual languages. His work also introduced the concept of the dialectic in particular, a dialogue. It arises as a dichotomy, a debate between two opposing positions, ideas, or theories (thesis and antithesis) but, through the desire to reconcile (synthesis) the debate, results in proposition. The dialectic, as such, is popularly known as Fichtean dialectics by Kants philosophies. The idea of dialectic is to be said a process using reasoning to ascertain what the truth could be. The discourse of theoretical within the discipline of architecture focuses on the relationship between theory and practice with two very distinct views revolving on the necessity of theory to practice effectively. For Bernard Tschumi, he argues that Architecture is not an illustrative art; it does not illustrate theories whereas, Vittorio Gregotti insists on theoretical research as a direct foundation of action in architectural design.[15] Theory within the practice is resolved to be inevitable as quoted by Iain Borden, Theory is indispensable. It is how we make sense of the world.[16] The Oxford philosophy professor John Alexander Smith phrased: The real gain from studying philosophy is not in learning about the views of great philosophers but in understanding their arguments and in acquiring confidence in ones ability to think critically, by thinking through these arguments.[17] From this statement inferences the relation of theory and practice where two have to evolve simultaneously. Dialectics are often present within the discipline of architecture design and practice, as a process of making incremental, though interrelated, decisions.[18] The theoretical dissertation has hugely contributed a number of architectural works today which helps to stimulate people to apply critical thinking in theory and practice and thus, the cycle repeats. Bibliography 1) Book Bibliography.  Macey, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory London: Penguin Group, 2000. 2) Book Chapter Bibliography.  L. Fastiggi, Robert. Post-Structuralism. In New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethic and Philosophy, Volume 3. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning in association with the Catholic University of America, 2013. 3) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Jencks, Charles. The Architectural Sign. In Signs, Symbols, and Architecture. New York: Wiley, 1980. 4) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Jencks, Charles. The Paradoxical World of Post-Modernism. In Movements in Twentieth Century Architecture, Ed. Michael J. Ostwald. Sydney; Arcadia Press / University of Newcastle, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design, 2000. 5) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Wigley, Mark. Deconstructivist Architecture. In Movements in Twentieth Century Architecture, Ed. Michael J. Ostwald. Sydney; Arcadia Press / University of Newcastle, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design, 2000. 5) Book Bibliography.  MitroviĆ¡, Branko. Philosophy for Architects. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. 6) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Felix.Introduction: Rhizome. In A Thousand Plateaus. London: Continuum, 2010. 7) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Heidegger, Martin. Building Dwelling, Thinking: Part One. In Rethinking Architecture; A Reader in Cultural Theory, Ed. Neil Leach. London: Routledge, 1997. 8) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Geometry of Feeling: A Look at the Phenomenology of Architecture. In Theorizing A New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Ed. Kate Nesbitt: New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. 9)  Peter Zumthor. The Hard Core of Beauty. In Thinking Architecture, Second, expanded edition. Basel à ¢-  Boston à ¢-  Berlin: Birkhà ¤user Publishers for Architecture. 10) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Nesbitt, Kate. Introduction. In Theorizing A New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Ed. Kate Nesbitt. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. 11) Book Bibliography.  Smith, Korydon. Introducing Architectural Theory, Ed. Korydon Smith. New York: Routledge, 2012. 12) Book Chapter Bibliography.  Borden, Iain and Rendall, Jane. Introduction. In Intersections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories. London: Routledge, 2000. [1] David Macey, structuralism, in The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (London: Penguin Group, 2000): 364. [2] Robert L. Fastiggi, Post-Structuralism., in New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethic and Philosophy, Volume 3 (Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning in association with the Catholic University of America, 2013): 1245. [3] Charles Jencks, The Architectural Sign, in Broadbent, Bunt, and Jencks (eds.) Signs, Symbols, and Architecture (New York: Wiley, 1980): 83-85. [4] Charles Jencks, The Paradoxical World of Post-Modernism, in Movements in Twentieth Century Architecture, ed. Michael J. Ostwald (Sydney: Arcadia Press / University of Newcastle, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design, 2000): 116-118. [5] Mark Wigley, Deconstructivist Architecture, in Movements in Twentieth Century Architecture, ed. Michael J. Ostwald (Sydney; Arcadia Press / University of Newcastle, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design, 2000): 182-187 [6] Branko MitroviĆ¡, Architecture and Deconstruction, in Philosophy for Architects (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011): 162-163 [7] Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Introduction: Rhizome, in A Thousand Plateaus (London: Continuum, 2010): 23-24; 27-28. [8] David Macey, phenomenology, in The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory (London: Penguin Group, 2000): 297-299. [9] Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling, Thinking: Part One, in Rethinking Architecture; A Reader in Cultural Theory, ed. Neil Leach (London: Routledge, 1997): 100-103. [10] Juhani Pallasmaa. The Geometry of Feeling: A Look at the Phenomenology of Architecture, in Theorizing A New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, ed. Kate Nesbitt (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996): 448-453 [11] Peter Zumthor, The Hard Core of Beauty, in Thinking Architecture, Second, expanded edition (Basel à ¢-  Boston à ¢-  Berlin: Birkhà ¤user Publishers for Architecture): 7-8 [12] Kate Nesbitt, Introduction, in Theorizing A New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, ed. Kate Nesbitt (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996): 16 [13] Korydon Smith, Introduction: To Students: Why Architectural Theory is Vital, in Introducing Architectural Theory, ed. Korydon Smith (New York: Routledge, 2012): 5. [14] Korydon Smith, Introduction: To Students: Why Architectural Theory is Vital, in Introducing Architectural Theory, ed. Korydon Smith (New York: Routledge, 2012): 6. [15] Nesbitt, Introduction, in Theorizing A New Agenda for Architecture (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996): 19 [16] Iain Borden and Jane Rendall, Introduction in Intersections: Architectural Histories and Critical Theories (London: Routledge, 2000): 6. [17] Branko Mitrovic, Preface, in Philosophy for Architects. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press,  2011): 12. [18] Smith, Debating a Discipline: Architecture, Argument, and the Concept of the Dialectic, in Introducing Architectural Theory (New York: Routledge, 2012): 10.

The Promise of Sociology Essays -- C. Wright Mills Sociological Imagin

According to C. Wright Mills, what occurs in any one individual's life is interrelated with society as a whole. The sociological imagination gives us the ability to understand the correlation of one's biography, history, and traditions along with the knowledge of the social and historical impact and/or influence society may have on that person or group of people. Mills' notion compels us to investigate into an individual's biography and lifestyles, and place their findings within the surrounding circumstances in which events occur in order to perceive the whole picture of the society in which the individual lives. Mills says to understand this "imagination" would be to see the connection between personal troubles and public issues. Personal troubles meaning, problems that are felt personally which are caused by occurrences or feelings in an individual's life; and public issues meaning, issues that affect a group or mass of people with their roots interwoven within an organization or institution and history of a society. A person can become homeless for many reasons: a family member throws them out of their home because they do not contribute financially, or they become incapable of caring for themselves due to mental illness, or they become addicted to drugs and lose their home trying to support their habit. These are a few examples of personal troubles which most would think are brought about by the individual alone and therefore can be solved by them. But, when using sociological imagination, one can see that homelessness is also a social problem. Unemployment rates are high and public assistances rates being low could leave a person unable to sufficiently contribute financially, therefore being forced to leave... ...ety in this period?." Whereas, taking into consideration the interaction between individuals and their societies, sociology sees where people and groups of people are products of whole societies in which they live. In studying Mills however briefly, I am beginning to see where my life and the lives of others are interrelated with biography, history, and traditions. We are all just a part of a whole, which is now beginning to make a great deal of sense to me. I am beginning to ask questions in order to understand clearly what shapes our lives. It seems to me Mills gave sociologists a format to open the doors to a better understanding of the whole picture. As Mills indicated, humans have the capacity to change the social structures around them; I believe seeking knowledge gives one the wisdom to change and make changes which in turn affects us all.

Insomnia Essay -- essays research papers

INTRODUCTION  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stephen King’s Number One Best-Seller, Insomnia, is a book about an elderly man named Ralph Roberts who begins to suffer from early waking. This form of insomnia grows into a terrible problem for Ralph as he begins to awaken earlier and earlier each morning. People begin to comment about his health and sickly appearance. Many take it upon themselves to recommend old-fashioned home remedies that aren’t supposed to fail. Ralph attempted everything from staying up all night (much to his dismay, he found himself growing more and more awake as the early morning hours passed) to sucking on honeycomb. None of the-tried-and true remedies work and by the time Ralph is getting only about an hour of sleep each night, Ralph begins to see auras around people. Naturally, Ralph begins to think that he is becoming senile because of his old age of 70, even one of his best friends tells him that he has lost it. When Ralph meets two little men from another realm of consciousness and they reveal that they caused him to lose sleep. They explained to him that losing sleep enable him to see the auras that he had begun to see, he is quite relieved to find that he isn‘t insane. This story progresses to its climax in which Ralph must take on a man who is unknowingly helping the king of the dark side, known as the Random in this thriller, kill two thousand people. There is a little boy amongst these people who will save two men in the future, these men are destined to help the light side, known as the Purpose. During the fight, Ralph takes on the king of the Random himself and wins. This saves the little boy and according to the two little men, the universe is balanced once again. As promised by the two little otherworldly men, life returns to normal for Ralph and he can once again sleep.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What happened to Ralph in this work is a very imaginative look at what happens to a person suffering from insomnia. In scientific reports, there isn’t evidence of the patient seeing auras, being capable of rising to other levels of consciousness at will, or even entering levels which make them invisible to the human eye, as Ralph did in the book. Sufferers of insomnia in the real world will experience difficulties such as: da... ...oncentration; stress, anxiety, irritability, sleepiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This loss of sleep comes in many different flavours such as difficulty falling asleep, not having a problem falling asleep but a problem staying asleep (many awakenings), and waking up too early. This can lead to many problems in a person’s life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Of the three forms of insomnia, chronic insomnia is the most serious and can last for a month or longer. This form is usually more complex and may be caused by a number of factors, including underlying physical or mental disorders. One of the most common causes of chronic insomnia is depression. Physical causes include arthritis and sleep apnea. Other causes are related to behaviors such as the misuse of caffeine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Insomnia can be cured with proper treatments. Popular treatments for this difficulty sleeping include relaxation therapy and reconditioning.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though insomnia may be glamorized by some authors, this problem is nothing to fantasize about, it is a serious problem if it is chronic and should be attended to if it lasts as long as a month.

Golden Ass Essay -- Apuleius Roman Literature Mythology Papers

Golden Ass Apuleius' Golden Ass, the only surviving novel of the Roman Empire, is a tale of a Greek nobleman devoting his life to the goddess Isis following his transformation to an ass and back. Although a work of fiction, the novel reveals a great deal about religion in Apuleius' society. This information, however, must be viewed with a critical eye. He incorporates stories from Greco-Roman mythology not to affirm their validity, but to reveal their commonness to society. Apuleius insults other religions that are not of the Pantheon with severe viciousness, while the general public may have been more open to them. In the end, he praises Isis and Osiris as the supreme gods while giving first hand account of their righteousness. Overall, Apuleius' view of religion cannot be trusted. From the very start we see Apuleius using references to Roman myths as similes to everyday occurrences. When Fotis, the slave, enters his bedroom to make love to him, he remarks that "she stood, transformed into a living statue: the Love-goddess rising from the sea. The flushed hand with which she pretended to screen her mount of Venus showed that she was well aware of the resemblance; certainly it was not held there from modesty." He describes a slave girl trying to seduce him as Venus rising out of the sea. Some of this description may be a hyperbole for Lucius' love of Fotis. However, Apuleius goes beyond this by linking Fotis directly to Venus. Thus, the most beautiful goddess in the Pantheon is easily seen in a slave girl. Similarly, Thelyphron, when telling the story how members of a household attacked him, describes himself as feeling "like Adonis mauled by the wild boar, or Orpheus torn in pieces by the Thracian women." This... ...ddess. To prove his point, Apuleius first discounts all other worships. Throughout the novel he describes things that happen to individuals in terms of the traditional Greco-Roman myths. He subtly chips away at the traditional Roman gods, avoiding a direct attack on the Pantheon because the vast majority of his audience believed in it. If he attacked them directly, he would surely not be considered credible. With the other religions, however, Apuleius reserves nothing. He declares religions of Asia Minor to be fraudulent and calls monotheistic religions "blasphemous." After questioning the other religions, Apuleius goes on to praise the worship of Isis. As a result, we the contemporary reader cannot infer too much about Roman religion from The Golden Ass. Works Cited Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Trans. Robert Graves. Noonday Press, 1998. ISBN 0-374-50532-2.

Analyzing of the Changes that Occurred during the 1960’s in Civil Rights Movements

To what extent did economic and political developments as well as assumptions about the nature of nature of women affect the position of American women during the period 1890-1925? In the years 1890-1925, the role of women in American society had changed politically, economically, and socially. Women were no longer considered the servant of men. She was considered an important part of society, but wasn’t able to lead in areas dominated by men. In this time period this is when things started to change for the women.The late 1800’s saw an emergence of women’s rights groups. These groups stressed that women were not only able to do skilled jobs, but capable in acquiring these positions. In the past, when had been held back by the lack of education, strength, and the amount of money in their banking account. However, women began to seeing an availability of an education, jobs, and social events. As the 1800’s comes to an end ant the 1900’s enter women b egan to see clearly. Then in the 1908 the Supreme Court ruled the Muller vs. Oregon case, which said that even though women were becoming better educated, they still couldn’t have the same treatment men did; the court also believed that women belonged at home, in a class by herself (Doc B).Throughout all these rulings, some women began to feel that society might not be the place for them. Under all that pressure, women’s rights groups enhanced their campaign and pushed hard for women’s rights. They were mainly focus on the need for women to vote. They stressed this because at the time women felt that voting was helpless. They supposed they lived in a society that needed them to only serve men and bear children. The women’s rights groups changed that though by pushing women to get jobs to support their families and nation and also vote for understanding politicians.After a good period of time, the women of this country began to fight back. They started fig hting back by getting jobs hat paid off and by voting. After  women were held back by society, women won the battle for social equality. In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled Adkins vs. Children’s Hospital that there previous ruling in the Muller case was wrong (Doc J). That court had also say that from 1908-1923 the status of women had almost been changed completely.A women’s movement occurred during 1890-1925. It began with women were entering the personnel for their right to work. It continued with involvement of middle class women in social issues and continued with the new workers during the World War I. It ended with economically independent women during the noisy 20’s. Economic opportunities opened the chance for women to become politically active and change how America views women. As the position of women increased so did their income.

Advertising Regulations

Advertising Regulation The strength of the self-regulatory system lies in both the independence of the ASA and the support and commitment of the advertising industry, through the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), to maintaining the high standards laid down in the Advertising Codes, which are designed to protect consumers. Today, the UK advertising regulatory system is a mixture of   * Self-regulation for non-broadcast advertising * Co-regulation for broadcast advertising. The ASA is the UK self-regulatory body for ensuring that all advertisements, wherever they appear, are legal, decent, honest and truthful. The protection of consumers is at the heart of the ASA's work. They aim to ensure that advertising does not mislead or offend. Advertising self-regulation in the UK The system is based on a contract between advertisers, agencies and the media that each will act in support of the highest standards in advertising. Compliance with the Codes and ASA adjudications is binding on all advertisers. It is not a voluntary system. The system is both self-regulatory (for non-broadcast advertising e. g. press, poster, cinema, online) and co-regulatory (for TV and radio advertising). The Codes sit within a legal framework, which means that, where appropriate, they reflect the standards required in law, e. g. the Consumer Protection for Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) for misleading advertising. The Codes also contain additional protections that are not required under law e. g. rules related to taste and decency and social responsibility. The ASA is responsible for administering five Advertising Codes and deals with more than 26,000 complaints per year. Just one complaint can cause the ASA to launch an investigation and remove an advertisement, if the ad is found in breach of the Codes. For instance, if Bulldog’s TV ad, had a voiceover that said â€Å"With up to 8 meg broadband, more people can play, e-mail, download and talk, together, all at the same time. With Bulldog, unlimited phone calls to your network friends are included. To find out more about Bulldog Broadband packages call now on 0800 or visit bulldogbroadband. com. Bulldog Broadband and Phone. † Onscreen text said â€Å"Broadband speed is up to 8meg downstream. Subject to local availability and Bulldog phone line†. BT complained the TV ad was misleading because, due to the technical limitations of high speed broadband services, the maximum speed quoted would not be available to a significant number of people within the geographic areas in which the service was available. Figures were provided and showed that, as the length of line between a local exchange and a customer's home increased the broadband speed that could be achieved by the customer decreased. They said broadband speeds of 8 megabits per second (Mbps) or close to 8 Mbps could be achieved only by people who lived within 3 km of an exchange. Beyond that distance the achievable speed dropped rapidly because of unavoidable signal attenuation caused by line length and quality. The 35% of people who lived more than 3. 8 km from an exchange, for example, would get at best a 5 Mbps connection. They believed the prefix â€Å"up to† was not an adequate indication that a large proportion of customers could not get a service close to the headline speed. Members of the public also said the TV ad was misleading because the broadband speed quoted was not achievable for all users. One said their connection had never exceeded 5 Mbps and while others believed technical limitations would prevent users from achieving the headline speed. Bulldog however would then be given an opportunity to respond to any claims made against them therefore saying our ads were in line with previous ASA adjudications and CAP guidance, which required claims about broadband speeds to be preceded with the words â€Å"up to†, to indicate that the top speed might not be achieved by users. Assessment Complaints upheld The ASA noted Bulldog considered that the inclusion of the words â€Å"up to† was an adequate indication to consumers that they might not achieve the top speed quoted in the ads and that their ads were in line with previous ASA adjudications and CAP guidance. We considered that â€Å"up to† was an adequate qualification in ads for 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps services, where the user would not achieve the maximum speed because of factors such as the number of people on line but where the attainable speeds were close enough to those advertised so as not to affect the customers' experience in any meaningful way. We considered that the higher speed service was likely to be attractive to consumers because of the advertised headline speed and the potential capabilities that a connection of that speed could give users. We understood, however, that the speeds 8Mbps services could deliver were significantly affected by signal attenuation, which was caused by distance from the exchange, and that as a result a significant proportion of consumers could not achieve speeds close to the headline speed. We understood that users of an up to 8Mbps service could take advantage of capabilities such as video streaming, file sharing and online gaming but that there would be a noticeable degradation of quality of the service when speeds fell below 6Mbps. We therefore considered that â€Å"up to† was not an adequate qualifier in ads for higher speed services, given the impact that signal attenuation could have on speed and performance. ASA concluded that the ads were misleading and asked Bulldog to amend them. The TV ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5. (Misleading advertising), 5. 2. 1 (Evidence) and 5. 2. 3 (Qualifications). Action Bulldog will then be asked by the ASA to indicate prominently in future ads (for example in the body copy of non-broadcast ads) that top speeds varied significantly, in particular because of a user's distance from their local exchange. The broadband speed must be preceded by the words ‘up to', in order to make it clear that a consumer can receive anything up to the advertised speed. The ad must contain a clear notice in the main body copy (i. e. ot in a footnote) that states that speeds vary significantly subject to a number of factors, such as distance from the exchange. The ad must also make clear where the service is available i. e. geographical limitations that might mean a headline speed is only available to those in, for instance, urban areas. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) are the industry committees responsible for writing and maintaining the Advertising Codes. The Committee members represent the three main parts of the advertising industry, namely the advertising agencies, media owners (e. . poster site owners, newspapers, broadcasters) and the advertisers themselves. CAP and BCAP also enforce the adjudications of the ASA. Interaction with the law Across the European Union (EU) there is a unified piece of consumer pr otection legislation to prevent the use of misleading or unfair trading practices. This law, called the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, has been translated into UK law to make sure that we have the same rules as all the other countries in the EU. The ASA works within this legal framework to make sure that UK advertising is not misleading or unfair. The ASA is able to refer advertisers who refuse to work with us and persistently make The ASA is considered the ‘established means’ for gaining compliance with both these pieces of legislation. This means that the law itself is not usually enforced formally through the courts; instead the ASA is first allowed to tackle any problems under the Advertising Codes. This approach works well in the overwhelming majority of cases. Broadly this means that the system is paid for by the industry, which also writes the rules, but those rules are independently enforced by the ASA. The system is a sign of a considerable commitment by the advertising industry to uphold standards in their profession. All parts of the advertising industry – advertisers, agencies and media – have come together to commit to being legal, decent, honest and truthful in their ads. * Adverting Standards authority – http://www. asa. org. uk/Complaints-and-ASA-action/Adjudications/2006/9/Bulldog-Communications-Ltd/TF_ADJ_41768. aspx * The Advertising Codes – http://www. cap. org. uk/The-Codes. aspx * –

Flipkart Report

INTRODUCTION E-COMMERCE E-commerce is short for electronic commerce. It is the business over internet involving buying and selling of  products/services. E-commerce makes use of payment gateways for online transactions. It requires excellent supply chain management, online transaction processing, logistics strategies and control, inventory management systems and many other automated softwares and database collection systems. WEB-BASED E-COMMERCE ARCHITECTURE E-COMMERCE INFRASTRUCTURE * Information infrastructure * Internet, LAN, WAN, routers, etc. Telecom cable TV, wireless, etc. * Messaging and information distribution infrastructure. * HTML, XML, e-mail, HTTP, etc. * Common business infrastructure * Security, authentication, electronic payment, directories, catalogues, etc. * The Internet * System of interconnected networks that spans the globe * Routers, TCP/IP, firewalls, network infrastructure. network protocols * The world Wide web (www) * Part of the Internet and allows user s to share information with an easy-to-use interface * Web browsers, web servers, HTTP, HTML Web architecture * Client/server model * N-tier architecture; e. g. , web servers, application servers, database servers, scalability THE PROCESS OF E-COMMERCE * Attract customers * Advertising and marketing * Interact with customers * Catalogue, negotiation * Handle and manage orders * Order capture * Payment * Transaction * Fulfilment (physical good, service good, digital good) * React to Customer Enquiries * Customer service * Order tracking E-COMMERCE IN INDIAE-commerce in India is still nascent, but it is important for developing countries like India. The opportunities for E-commerce players are many due to rapid urbanisation and rising literacy rates and rapidly growing internet user population, advances in technology, growing adoption of computers, introduction of 3G and falling net access costs. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) estimated that India's E-commerce mar ket is growing 70% every year and 500% since 2007. Transactions In $ MillionsSegment-wise share in e-commerce market 2012 ABOUT FLIPKART Flipkart is an India based e-commerce company which belongs to the e-tailing (electronic retailing) sector. It is head-quartered at Bangalore and it initiated its operations in 2007. Flipkart was launched by a couple of young, enthusiastic friends, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who grew up together and studied at the prestigious IIT-Delhi, as an online retailing venture with the objective of making books accessible to individuals living in the all the parts of India.Sachin and Binny used to work for Amazon, which has a similar kind of business before quitting and opening up this new venture. Initially they used to sell just books on Flipkart and relied mainly on ‘word of mouth’ for promotions. But in 2010, they started selling CDs, DVDs, Mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers and in 2011 stationery, home appliances, person al care items and health care products. It has now revenue of Rs. 500 crore within a span of just five years making t one of the largest e-commerce companies in India. The core value of Flipkart is strong focus on customer service. The major goal of the company is to provide its customers with an ultimate online shopping experience and for this they use many innovative policies like a 30-day replacement policy, EMI options, Cash on Delivery, free shipping, discounted rates, pre-paid online wallet and most important timely delivery  of all the products. This requires an extensive supply chain and logistics and distribution network.A network of over 500 distributors have been established by the company and it keeps only those items for which orders are placed frequently by the customers and the items that are rarely ordered are almost always sourced from the suppliers when such an order is received from the customers. The company owns four offices in each metro city with a combined strength of more than five hundred employees. Fifteen courier companies such as Blue Dart, DHL etc. have been engaged to deliver the products and also Indian Post where courier service is not available.Warehouses are there in seven cities including metros. One can track the order right from ordering an item to delivery. One can even pre-order an unreleased book from the website and that too on attractive prices and on top of that there is excellent customer service. Customer satisfaction, amazing customer experience and the discounted rates of items are the key factors that work in the favour of Flipkart. The company has a stock of nearly 12 million books making it the largest book retailer in India and it has eighty per cent share of the online book market in India.Access to internet, increasing number of iPads, smart phones, latest technology that gives 3D images of products, time constraint consumers and increasing real estate costs required for offline stores have lead to a shif t to e-commerce businesses especially to online retail stores. According to a survey done by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the online retail market in India may grow from Rs 20 billion in 2011 to Rs 70 billion by 2015 as internet access improves. INNOVATIVE SERVICES LAUNCHED BY FLIPKART PREPAID WALLET FEATURE * As a general wallet that is used to store cash in it and allows a person to purchase and enjoy products or services equivalent to the cash amount in it, Flipkart has adopted a prepaid wallet service to its e-commerce website platform that provides customers with an opportunity to store and keep money on the website and consume it to purchase different products, without the need to take out their debit cards or credit cards or net-banking for each and every transaction.   The purpose of a prepaid Wallet is to make online transactions easier and more secure for the customers as they will be spared from the hassle of taking out their credit card or deb it card or net banking details each and every time they want to buy a product. Customers can fill their Online Wallets with up to Rs 10,000 by using any of the general payment methods like credit card, debit card and net-banking and then can consume it over multiple transactions. There is no expiry date for the wallet and the cash stored in it can always be refunded back to the source using which payment was made. Flipkart. com has included wallet service in its e-commerce structure keeping in mind the ease and convenience of their regular customers – those who make transactions multiple times during the month, and particularly when individual transactions are comprised of many small payments. Wallet allows the customers to make the payment just once and still involve in multiple transactions. This also makes sure that customers would not have to go through the bank payment verification processes each time they purchase something using the Flipkart. com.The wallet helps in cu tting down the issues with payment gateway too. * Also by including the innovative prepaid e-wallet, the aim of the Flipkart is to shorten the duration of the order processes that would certainly make the online shopping much simpler, faster and totally trouble free experience for their customers. * CASH ON DELIVERY * Flipkart launched the Cash on Delivery services for the customers who do not prefer to make an online payment. Using this payment mode, customers have to pay only when they receive the ordered item at their doorstep without any making any sort of advanced payment to Flipkart.Payment mode for this is strictly cash and the currency used can only be Indian Rupees. No discount coupons or e-vouchers can be availed while using this mode of payment. * India is a cash- driven economy with plastic cards penetration as low as 3% as of 2012. Also the existing payment gateways and infrastructure are not in such good condition and a noticeable amount of transactions fail. Also peop le in India still perceive high risks in using credit/debit cards online and thus in online transactions. All these reasons led to Flipkart adopting such a mode of payment.But the most important reason was because it was the demand of customers and since Flipkart has the maximum focus on customer satisfaction, they went ahead and adopted Cash-on-delivery mode of payment. * Important factors while adopting Cash-on-delivery model are that they have to deliver good products in good condition because if a product is not in good condition, customer cannot be expected to make the payment. They have to have their own collection and delivery network as they can’t rely on a third person to collect cash for expensive items and give it to them.They need to have strong and consistent operations and they need to make timely delivery because if they fail to do so, a customer is already lost for them for future. They also need to maintain customer relationships and respect customers so as t o maintain long-term profitability from the customers. * Cash-on-delivery model has increased the sales of the company by great margins and Cash-on-delivery has become the most used mode of payment. But there as many downsides of using this model. Rejection rate of the products delivered through this model is as high as almost thirty per cent.Though this is lower than other Cash-on-delivery players, still it is too much. Generally the company has to incur Rs. 35-70 for every transaction involving cash-on-delivery, but the cost could reach as high as Rs. 100 in case there is rejection or if multiple trips are needed to deliver the order. Whereas when the transaction is carried out using credit/debit cards or net-banking, only 1-2 per cent of the transaction total value is taken by the online payment partner as service fee. Therefore until and unless the transaction value is high enough, cash-on-delivery model cuts down the retailer’s margins by high values.Also cash-on-deliver y model tends to block the working capital that could have been better used for expansion and growth. * REPLACEMENT POLICY * Flipkart provides a thirty day replacement policy for every product purchased from its website. Defects in any product can be highlighted by customers at the time of delivery or within thirty days from the date of delivery. No cost is charged for replacing the defected product. * Main objective of this policy is related to the core value of the company – customer satisfaction.This policy makes customers feel much more secure about purchasing items online and helps build the company a strong trust with its customer base. PAYMENT GATEWAY OF FLIPKART Flipkart provides its customers with a hundred per cent safe transaction experience. Credit card payments are processed through the HDFC Bank payment gateway, as well as payment gateways (E Billing Systems/cc Avenue) that interface with various banks. The latest encryption technology is being used by HDFC bank to protect each customer’s credit card information.So as to hide the information while information travels over the internet, it encrypts one’s credit card number. HDFC also asks you to enter the three digit CVV (Credit Verification Value) number which follows credit card number and is given at the back of the card so as to make sure that the person carrying the transaction has the physical plastic card. Flipkart’s main focus is on customer satisfaction and in this case also Flipkart. com offers the security of highest standards so as to ensure that the shopping experience of each customer is private, safe and secure.Flipkart. com does not collect or store customer’s account information at all. Authorization of transaction takes place at multiple points, first by HDFC and subsequently by Visa/MasterCard/AMEX secure directly without any information passing through them. Payment Options * Flipkart accepts all MasterCard, Visa credit cards and AMEX. * Flipk art do not accept any international credit cards on Flipkart. com at this stage. * Apart from Credit and Debit Cards, payments are accepted by Flipkart by Internet Banking, Cash-on-Delivery and Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI).All Credit/Debit card details remain confidential and private. SSL encryption technology is used by Flipkart and their trusted payment gateways so as to protect the customer’s card information. SSL encryption technology Netscape developed a protocol Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for moving the private documents over the Internet. A cryptographic system is being used by SSL that uses two keys to encrypt data ? a public key that is known to everyone and a private or secret key which is known only to the recipient of the message.Many Web sites use the SSL protocol to obtain and protect confidential user’s personal information, such as credit card number. URLs that use SSL connection have to start with https instead of http which is nothing but Secure HTTP. But both SSL and S-HTTP have different uses. Where a secure connection between a client and a server is created by SSL, over which unlimited amount of data can be sent securely, individual messages are transmitted securely using S-HTTP. SSL and S-HTTP are therefore complementary rather than competing technologies. DIFFERENT METHODS ADOPTED BY FLIPKART Auto redirection to banking site: Customers are automatically redirected to the page of respective banks where the information is required to be filled. Thus Flipkart never lands you on CC Avenue page unlike most other ecommerce sites. Hence Flipkart skips an unnecessary page by passing the needed parameters directly to CC Avenue. * Banks Status: Flipkart maintains its own real time status to check whether the net banking service of particular bank is working. So the customers come to know about a problem prior to entering that bank’s website.ONLINE PAYMENT PROCESSING SERVICES CC Avenue 1) Uses secure servers throughout an d adopt stringent security measures to ensure that sensitive information such as customers’ personal details is protected. 2) Customers enter all their personal information and Credit Card details on ICICI’s E-Payments (Payseal) and Citibank’s secure servers and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. 3) Additionally CC Avenue’s server is behind security firewalls to ensure maximum protection of your customer’s information. EBS (E-BILLING SOLUTIONS)For better encryption of data, it uses seven architecture model which helps in protecting the client information. High-tech Axis, HDFC and Citibank’s secure servers are used to authorize all credit card transactions and the same is encrypted before it is transmitted over the Internet to the Acquiring Banks. To ensure maximum protection of customer’s information, EBS servers are also behind the security firewalls. This guarantees that the buye r’s information is not available to any third party. EBS makes use of the best amongst the industry standards – the VeriSign technology, which ensures the complete security of the data.A/B FRAMEWORK – UNIQUE FRAMEWORK USED BY FLIPKART The framework has two components: Through the first one the performance of the website is measured using various metrics which are pre-defined. The second one uses an A/B framework that allows different versions of the website to be available simultaneously which is used to check the success of the advertising campaigns over the website. Thus the company conducts live and real experiments by diverting a small portion of the traffic and studying the results. Both components work together and simultaneously.The website’s performance on various parameters is measured by the metrics tool which is kind of a dashboard. For example, systems are immediately warned in case the transaction rate goes down below a certain limit. Flipkar t’s engineers can also rapidly implement and check their ideas using the A/B component. When someone proposes a new idea, a lot of precious time is spent debating what-if scenarios. Using this framework an idea can be implemented while mitigating  its risks. For example, the A/B framework redirects ten per cent of the Flipkart’s traffic to the new design/idea whenever an engineer changes the design of any page.Through this they can evaluate and analyze the effect of the changes using the metrics tool for collection. If it does not lead to any productive result, they can immediately change it back, and only less than ten per cent of traffic is impacted. The Benefits Since the tool has been introduced sometime around mid-2010, Flipkart now sells more than twenty types of products, taking the sales up to Rs 75 crore a month. In fact, during the last eight quarters, Flipkart has been able to double its revenue each quarter.