I dont have topic on mind you can choose an easy one Research Paper - 1

I dont have topic on mind you can choose an easy one - Research Paper Example In essence, this paper explores the two major challenges faced by students in their research projects i.e. finding and using of quality research sources. Those who have written research papers prior to this reading have probably found difficulties in the process of searching and citing of sources, with some viewing the process as totally mechanical (McClure 51). However, this process of searching and citing of sources usually ends with a writer producing rhetorical work. In order for a student to get their readers to accept their writing, believe in it and be interested in it, it is vital to locate the appropriate sources of information and make use of them effectively. Types of Research Sources. It has become well conversant with almost every individual in the contemporary world that we breathe in an information age where information is tangible and has numerous capabilities with it including influencing of government strategies and the public’s opinions, destroying and creating of wealth, as well as effecting social change within the community. Students usually have a wide range of information emanating from varied sources (McClure 56). For a student to have a significant influence on their audience, it is essential that they know all the available research sources, how and where to find them as well as how to put them into quality use. Primary and Secondary Sources. A primary source of research can be defined as that which presents the learner with first hand learning and or information about a given subject. They provide the researcher with first hand evidence regarding a topic under study while at the same time offering the researcher with direct access to the events and or phenomena under study. A suitable example is where one is studying the history of the First World War. If the researcher decides to study the maps used by soldiers on battle fields and the letters they sent to their relatives back at home, then these are primary sources. Other

Product Reassessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Product Reassessment - Essay Example With respect to gender, 80% of beer consumers using SABMiller products are male. Women account for 20% of SABMiller’s products consumed. The company’s market segments in the US are dived into 21-27 year olds. The Latin America population segment, the African Americans population segment and finally the 50 years or older population (SABMiller 2010). The target market for SABMiller has grown steadily in the past. 9% of the Latin Americans consume SABMiller products. SABMiller has positioned itself in the market to expect a 13% growth in consumption of beer by 21-27 year olds, a 32% increase in consumption of its beer products by Latinos, 15% increase in consumption by African Americans and 25% increase in consumption by individuals who are 50 years and above. As at September 30th 2012, the company’s sales rose by 4 percent in Latin America (Geller, 2012). This shows that the company has positioned itself strategically to solidify it position as the number two brewe r world wide. The company has adopted a strategy to promote its products in the existing markets in the US and avoid markets that are either too volatile or too small. Types of research needed to reposition SABMiller products Branding research SABMiller requires to embark on branding research in order to reposition its beer products. Branding research is instrumental in creating a brand that has a positive and rusted image in the mind of customers and stakeholders. Branding research enables the company’s products to be structured in a way that reflect the products as the best in the market. Through this research, SABMiller will put strategies to make its customers see, hear, experience and believe the company’s products are the best in the market. Branding research provides information that is utilized to increase brand awareness, brand recognition, and improve the perceived quality and credibility of the company. SABMiller needs to undertake branding research to posit ion its brand strategically and ultimately increase the company’s sales and profits (Vernom research group 2012). Business forecasting research. It is paramount for SABMiller to undertake business forecasting research to focus accurately on business trends. This is vital for the company to reposition itself as one of the best brewing companies in the world. This type of research assesses the opportunities for new technologies as vital elements to reposition the company’s products. Business forecasting provides information on how the company is supposed to use its resources. The resources are used to identify the market that is vital with respect to the company’s operations. Through business forecasting research, SABMiller will understand the customer’s acceptance of SABMiller’s products and customer’s likelihood to purchase its products (Vernom research group 2012). Image and advertising research According to Vernom research group (2012), SA BMiller’s repositioning among the fierce competitor should focus on boosting its image in the beer industry. This information should be obtained through conducting image and advertising research. This type of research aids the company to put more emphasis on its brand image when repositioning. Image and advert

Network Key Terms Essay Example for Free

Network Key Terms Essay The Internet- The global network formed by interconnecting most of the networks on the planet, with each home and company network connecting to an Internet service provider (ISP), which in turn connects to other ISPs. Internet edge- The part of the Internet between an ISP and the ISP customer, whether the customer is a company or organization with a large private TCP/IP network, or whether the customer is a single individual. point of presence- A term used by service providers, particularly for WAN or Internet service providers instead of traditional telcos, that refers to the building where the provider keeps its equipment. Access links that connect the customer device to the WAN service physically connect into the POP. Internet core- The part of the Internet created through network links between ISPs that creates the ability of the ISPs to send IP packets to the customers of the ISPs that connect to the core. Internet access- A broad term for the many technologies that can be used to connect to an ISP so that the device or network can send packets between itself and the ISP. analog modem- A device at the customer and ISP end of an analog circuit, created when one modem calls the phone number of the other modem, with the two modems sending data using the analog circuit. DSL- Digital subscriber line. A type of Internet access service in which the data flows over the local loop cable from the home to the telco central office, where a DSLAM uses FDM technology to split out the data and send it to a router, and split out the voice frequencies and send them to a traditional voice switch. cable Internet- A term referring to Internet access services provided by a cable company, using many components, including a cable modem, coaxial cable, and a CMTS at the cable company head end. default route- In a router, a concept in which the router has a special route, the default route, so that when a rout er tries to route a packet, but the packet’s destination does not match any other route, the router routes the packet based on the default route. host name- A name made up of alphabetic, numeric, and some special characters, used to identify a specific IP host. Host names that follow the convention for domain names in the DNS system use a hierarchical design, with periods  separating parts of the name. Domain Name System- The name of both a protocol and the system of actual DNS servers that exist in the world. In practice, DNS provides a way for the world to distribute the list of matching host name/IP address pair information, letting each company maintain its own naming information, but allowing the entire world to discover the IP address used by a particular host name, dynamically, using DNS protocols, so that any client can refer to a destination by name and send IP packets to that host. Subdomain- With DNS naming terminology, this term refers to a part of a host name (or domain name).That smaller part can be the part that a company registers through IANA or some authorized agency to identify all hosts inside that company. IPv4 address exhaustion- A term referring to the very real problem in the worldwide Internet, which first presented itself in the late 1980s, in which the world appeared to be running out of the available IPv4 address space. classless interdomain routing (CIDR)- One of the short-term solutions to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem that actually helped solve the problem for a much longer time frame.CIDR allows more flexibility in how many addresses IANA assigns to a company, and it helps reduce Internet routing table sizes through route aggregation. Network Address Translation (NAT)- One of the short-term solutions to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem that actually helped solve the problem for a much longer time frame. NAT reduces the number of public IP addresses needed by one ISP customer by using one public IP address for the traffic from many real client hosts. Acronyms: BGP- Border Gateway Protocol CATV- Cable TV CIDR- Classes Interdomain Routing CMTS- Cable Modem Terminating System DSL- Digital Subscriber Line DSLAM- DSL Access Multiplexer FTTC- Fiber to the Curb HFC- Hybrid Fiber Coaxial IANA- Internet Assigned Numbers Authority IPS- Intrusion Prevention Systems ISP- Internet Service Provider NAT- Network Address Translation POP- Point of Presence RIR- Regional Internet Registries RJ-11- Registered Jack 11 SOHO- Small Office/Home Office

Islamic Feminism: An overview

Islamic Feminism: An overview Introduction Feminism is a secular ideology and Islam today rests on fundamentalist foundations. Those who advocate that feminist projects be conducted within an Islamic framework have clearly despaired of secular options for change without considering how have elaborated Lilas argument against the possibility of the coexistence of Islam and feminism because it explains the anxiety many Muslim women public intellectuals, including Chandra Talpade (2003), Jasmine (2004), and Martin (2003), feel as they watch the Taliban taking away womens rights in Afghanistan, the Algerian Front Islamique de Salut targeting women intellectuals, the fundamentalist Sudanese government oppressing its women. Many are sure that compromise with such a religion is fatal. Some women are joining religious groups despite their gender conservatism. Others are fighting these same groups, fearing the dangerous chemistry of politics and religion. Whether through or against religion they are choosing to become part of the struggle for a better world. The question many pose to women who voluntarily Islamize is: Do they accept their communities reactionary norms or do they appropriate and in the process subvert them? If there are some who can be considered feminists according to my definition of the term, how do they adapt their convictions that women have certain rights with the perceived need to subsume them to the community interest? How will the ways in which they position themselves to assert responsibility for the construction of their own, new religious identity change the face of Islam? How does participation in jihad allow for feminist activism? These are the questions which are imposed and discussed by Amina Wadud, Badran (1995), Hamid (2006), Saba ( 2005), Lila (2002) and other writers in their respective books and articles. Feminism according to Holy Quran The Quran is unequivocally opposed to gender equality, and the Sharia is not compatible with the principles of equality of human beings (Afshar, 1996, p.122). Despite its growing currency throughout the Muslim world, Lila asserts that Islamic feminism has no coherent, self-identified and/or easily identifiable ideology or movement. Those who advocate its utility as a concept and a marker for a specific brand of feminism are not women from within Muslim societies but rather diasporic feminist academics and researchers of Muslim background living and working in the West (126). These women she later characterizes as exceptionally forgiving, postmodern relativist feminists in the West whose indigenized and exotic form of Western feminism excludes core ideas of legal and social equity, sexual democracy and womens control over their sexuality (146). The attitudes to Islamic feminism span the gamut of leftists like herself who reject its possibility because they consider divine laws inherently hostile toward feminism, to those who posit that feminism within an Islamic framework is the only culturally sound and effective strategy for the regions womens movement (134). The latter group may include secularists overwhelmed by the political and discursive influence of Islamic fundamentalism (134). Here lies the major problem in Lilas argument: she confounds Islam and Islamic fundamentalism, as though the two were the same. This affirmation, she dramatically asserts, relies on twisting facts or distorting realities, ignoring or hiding that which should be clear (135). Her very real fear is that to celebrate Islamic feminism is to highlight only one of the many forms of identity available to Middle Eastern women, obscuring ways that identity is asserted or reclaimed, overshadowing forms of struggle outside religious practices and silencing the secular voices which are still raised against the regions stifling Islamification policies (137-38). An Anti-Modern Feminist Perspective A considerably different perspective is presented in Anouar Majids â€Å"The Politics of Feminism in Islam.† Majid is wary of the dangers of imposing Western feminist traditions on non-Western cultures and attempts therefore to recuperate a feminist tradition within traditional Islamic culture, though he is not entirely successful in doing so. Majid recognizes that the problems women face in Islamic societies cannot be divorced from European colonialism. For Majid, the political and economic structures that have resulted from independence from European domination have not emancipated the poor (341). He feels that nationalist elites have established Eurocentric models of government, namely nation-states (342, n. 17). For Majid, representations of Islamic culture as undemocratic and patriarchal reify the history of Muslim culture and downplay the impact of imperialism on gender relations in Islamic countries (349). Majid finds that a major problem in attempting to develop Islamic feminist perspectives is the difficulty of overcoming the Western and often Orientalist biases that pervade feminist thought. These biases include a dehistoricised notion of human rights and â€Å"an implicit acceptance of the bourgeois political apparatus as a reliable mechanism for negotiating the grievances of the exploited† (339). Western feminism cannot be readily separated from hostility to Islamic culture, according to Majid. To illustrate the point, he cites the example of upper-class Islamic women who have sometimes embraced Western feminist values and in the process â€Å"condemned native customs as backward, proclaimed the superiority of the West, and uncompromisingly equated unveiling with liberation† (338). Females in Islam Even though women may have high-status professional jobs and make important decisions in the course of the day, and even though Islamic sharia insists that women have the right to keep their income, it appears that husbands continue to control the decisions concerning expenditures. The husband is pivotal in allowing his wife to work in the interest of the welfare of the family, he is also the final arbiter in defining what constitutes that welfare. In many instances, while accepting that she may work outside the home, he will not allow her to participate in public events. As already noted, Oven the power of the constitutions of various countries affirming the determination of the sharia that men are in charge of women, there is little chance for change in the foreseeable future. Modernization and urbanization, however, have brought about certain changes in family life. One is a preference for nuclear families. This has altered the traditional power of the mother-in-law which has been undermined by the new system. Instead of being a guest in her mother-in-laws home, the bride gets to be in charge of her own household. But, if she also has to go out to work in order to maintain private residence, her workload is doubled. In addition, the change in housing design from the traditional open courtyard with a garden and opening to the sky to the small apartment has confined the woman and restricted her contact with other members of the family as well as with nature. If her husband restricts her going out, she feels imprisoned and lacks contact with friends and intimate relations. Zine identifies what she sees as the roles for women, determined by the tripartite class structure of Arab society: the working class, the middle class, and the upper class. In the working class, she says, a sharp distinction is made between feminine and masculine characteristics (Zine, 2006, p.19). Conclusion One of the themes that emerges from contemporary writing about Muslim women is that of woman as victim of the experience of oppression in developing countries. The oppression is not unique to the Arab context but is a consequence of disempowerment and feelings of impotence. The condition of the woman serves to demonstrate the extremes of disempowerment. She has become the projection of the inadequacy of the society, shackled with the burden of failure and weakness. Her inherent worth is devalued in relation to her physique, intellect, gender, productivity, and status. At the same time, her role as mother is symbolically elevated. Islam provides security and equivalence to the females and it has made many laws which secures the importance of females in this male dominant world. References Abu-Lughod, Lila 2002. Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others. In American Anthropologist, Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 783-790 Afshar, Haleh 1996. Islam and Feminism: An Analysis of Political Strategies. In Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives, ed. Mai Yamani. NY: New York University Press, p.122-138 Badran, Margot 1995. Feminists, Islam and Nation: Gender and Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. Hamid, Shadi 2006. ‘Between Orientalism and Posrmodernism: the changing nature of Western Feminist thought towards the middle east’, HAWWA 4,1:76-92. Mahmood, Saba 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Mahmood, Saba 2006. ‘Performativity, Agency, and the Feminist Subject‘, in (eds) Ellen Armour and Susan St. Ville, Bodily Citations: Religion and Judith Butler (New York, Columbia Uni Press). ISBN 0-231-13407-X Majid, Anouar 1998. The Politics of Feminism in Islam, Signs, Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 321-361 Martin F McLelland 2004 ‘Re-placing queer studies: reflections on the queer matters conference’, in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies vol 6, number 2: 299- 311. Talpade, Chandra 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham London: Duke University Press. P.71 Zine, Jasmine 2004. Creating a critical faith-centred space for antiracist feminism, in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Vol. 20, No. 2, Pages 167-187 Zine, Jasmine 2006. Between Orientalism and Fundamentalism: The Politics of Muslim Womens Feminist Engagement, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights: Vol. 3, p.19 Public Health Issue Analysis: Smoking Public Health Issue Analysis: Smoking ENHANCING HEALTH AND WELLBEING ACROSS POPULATIONS: INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this essay is to identify a public health issue related in my field. To facilitate the discussion smoking as a public health issue has been chosen. The holistic impact smoking have on the wellbeing of an individual will be explored. The stage of change model and the Healthy Lives (2010) policy will be explored in relation to smoking. The rationale for choosing this topic is because smoking is an important public health issue. The smoke is very toxic to every human tissue it touches on its way into, through and out of the smoker’s body (Ewles 2005). Smoking is considered as a health hazard because Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a poisonous alkaloid, and other harmful substances such as carbon monoxide, acrolein, ammonia and tars.Gorvenment initiatives like the Public Health White Paper, choosing health; Making Choices Easier (DH 2004) will be addressed. The nurse’s role and other professions involved will be highlighted .Confidentiality shall be maintained throughout this essay as prescribed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008). The impact of tobacco smoking on public health extends beyond the direct effects on the individual smoker and their personal health, plus taking into account the effect on their economic, environmental and social effects (Ewles 2005).). Smoking harms nearly every org an of the body thereby causing many diseases, reducing quality of life and life expectancy. Also it has been estimated that in England, 364,000 patients are admitted to NHS hospitals each year due to smoking related diseases which translates into about 7,000 hospital admission per week and 1,000 admissions per day (ASH 2006). In the UK, smoking causes about a fifth of all deaths, approximately 114,000 each year, most of which are premature with an average of 21 years early (Ewles 2005). According to Peto et. al. (2003) cited in Ewles (2005), most premature deaths caused by smoking are Lung and coronary cancer, chronic obstructive heart diseases and coronary heart diseases with 42800, 29100 and 30600 deaths respectively every year. In addition, smoking is known to also bring increased risk of many debilitating conditions like impotence, infertility, gum disease, asthma and psoriasis (Ewles 2005). Research has also shown that non-smokers are put at risk by exposure to other peopleâ₠¬â„¢s smoke which is known as passive or involuntary smoking and is also referred to as second-hand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) (Cancer Research 2009). According to the Oxford Medical Companion (1994) cited in the WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2008, â€Å"tobacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when it is used entirely as intended†. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the World which causes one in ten deaths among adults worldwide and in 2005, tobacco caused about 5.4million deaths, an average of one death every six second Certain behaviors have been labeled as risky behaviors associated with negative health outcomes among which smoking is and which has been the subject of UK national health strategies (Naidoo Wills 2005). Smoking causes about one fifth of all deaths in the UK, most of which are premature and has hugely significant impacts on the wider environment and community through causing air pollution, fires, litter and environmental damage (Ewles 2005). Prevalence of smoking among the low paid groups has been observed to be twice those of the affluent groups because of the great difficulty people in the less affluent groups experience in stopping smoking (Ewles 2005). Tobacco smoking is also widely recognized as a cause of health inequality in the UK because it is common among the deprived groups and also compromises the already poorer health of deprived population such as those that fall within the marginalized groups. Examples are people with mental problems and prisoners, who are more likely to smoke and less likely to have access to mainstream smoking cessation services (Ewles 2005). The Index of multiple deprivation ranks areas from the most deprived to the least deprived and the odds of smoking increases as deprivation in the area increases (The NHS Information centre 2008). Children smoke for all sorts of reasons. Some smoke to show their independence, others because their friends do while some smoke because adults tell them not to and others do smoke to follow the example of role models. There is no single cause. Parents, brothers and sisters who smoke are a powerful influence. Also is the way it is been advertised and the tobacco companies sponsor sport which makes children want to try it (DH 1998). The problems of smoking during pregnancy are closely related to health inequalities between those in need and the most advantaged. Women with partners in manual groups are more likely to smoke during pregnancy than those with partners in non-manual groups: 26 per cent of women with partners in manual groups smoke during pregnancy, compared with 12 per cent with partners doing non-manual work (DH 1998). Health promotion is a complex activity and is difficult to define. Davies and Macdowall (2006) describe health promotion as â€Å"any strategy or intervention that is designed to improve the health of individuals and its population†. However perhaps one of the most recognized definitions is that of the World Health Organization’s who describes health promotion as â€Å"a process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health (WHO 1986). If we look at this in relation to the nurse’s role in smoking cessation and giving advice to a patient, this can be seen as a positive concept in that with the availability of information together with support, the patient is then able to make an informed decision, thus creating empowerment and an element of self control. Bright (1997) supports this notion suggesting that empowerment is created when accurate information and knowledgeable advice is given, thus aiding the development of personal skills and self esteem. A vital component of health promotion is health education which aims to change behavior by providing people with the knowledge and skills they require to make healthier decisions and enable them to fulfill their potential. Healthy Lives Healthy People (2010) highlight the vital role nurses play in the delivery of health promotion with particular attention on prevention at primary and secondary levels.Nurses have a wealth of skills and knowledge and use this knowledge to empower people to make lifestyle changes and choices. This encourages people to take charge of their own health and to increase feelings of personal autonomy (Christensen 2006). Smoking is one of the biggest threats to public health, therefore nurses are in a prime position to help people to quit by offering encouragement, provide information and refer to smoking cessation services. In 2010 the white paper Healthy Live Healthy People set out the government long term policy for improving public health and in 2011 a new tobacco control plan was published (Department of Health 2011). The Whitepaper Healthy Life Healthy People set out a range of measures aimed at preventing people from starting to smoke and helping them to stop, such as banning cigarettes advertising on billboards, in size and action on tobacco intensified (DH, 2011). WHO defines health promotion a process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve, their health. It implies that the ideology moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. Naidoo and Wills (2010), states ‘health promotion is based on theories about what influences people’s health and what are effective interventions or strategies to improve health.

Crossroads of Tibet :: miscellaneous

Crossroads of Tibet Tibet, the roof of the world, is the highest and the most isolated country on earth. Located between China and Nepal, imagine a place tucked safely away from the world, hidden by walls of snowcapped mountains, rich with strange beauty and innocence. Tibetans are very confined people, their clothes are plain and simple like ropes but are actually silky and thick, unlike Chinese gowns which are flamboyant. They may have old fetchers but that is because the cold makes them look dry and old, but they are actually very pleasant people. During those days, they did not allow foreigners to enter their country. They were not hiding anything but they believed that foreign people would want to modernize their country, which they were against. Tibetans want to maintain their culture without changes, like a time capsule. Tibetans believe that walking for a long distance to holy places purifies the bad deeds they have committed; and that the more difficult the journey, the greater the depth of the purification. In 1949, Chairman Moa Tse-Tung was triumphantly proclaimed leader of the new People’s Republic of China, vowing that the first task of the communist regime, was to reunite the Chinese motherland. He declared that remote kingdom of Tibet was an integral part of Chinese territory and must rejoin the great republic. As the news passed to the ears of the Tibetan government, they replied firmly that â€Å"The government of Tibet recognizes no foreign sovereign, and we are an Independent Nation and all Chinese officials will be expelled from Tibet, and have a safe and pleasant return to China†. The government of Tibet knew that they would have a war against China which they did not intend to for it to happen and in the early 1950’s His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power of Head of State, when Tibet was threatened by the might of China. His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, at the age of 12 was the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people, was recognised as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama, was born in a small village of Takster – Northeast of Tibet. His Holiness dreamt that the village of Takster in Amdo including the northern border regions of Tibet was secured by the Chinese killing every man, woman and child. In his dream, images of monks were forced against their own will to point a gun to each other’s head.

The Art of the Renaissance

The Art of The Renaissance by Maria Large Did you know that most likely the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, was painted in the time of the Renaissance? The oil painting of the straight faced woman (or man), painted by the famous Leonardo De Vinci, is said to be painted between 1503 to 1506. No one knows who the person in the painting is. No one even knows whether or not it is De Vinci himself, a relative or even a man or a woman! The English name â€Å"Mona Lisa†, came from a description by Renaissance Art historian â€Å"Giorgio Vassar†.There were many exquisite paintings done in the time period of the Renaissance. I'm going to briefly tell you what happened in the time of the Renaissance and what styles or cultural aspects influenced these talented artists. Also, how their faith reflected the artwork they made. The Renaissance first occurred in Italy, spreading throughout the countries starting approximately in the sass's and ending around the sass's . It was after the Middle Ages and after the Black Death had swept through many countries and eventually ending up in Europe killing 1. O 4 million people in total. The Renaissance was a new uprising, it displayed many things, such as freedom, independence, creativity, the rebirth of classical learning, the rediscovery of ancient Rome and Greece, and many other things. In the Middle Ages there were only certain religions allowed and certain ways of living. The people thought of the Middle Ages as a dark time but the Renaissance changed all that. They no longer wanted the old ways so they changed many aspects and ways of living in this time period, including there own language.The Renaissance artwork was typically not done for fun or as a hobby. It was usually used to make money or made for religious reasons. Only the paintings done by the masters hand would sell for big money, all others being of little value. Back then, the church was a big part of the income, resulting in many pai ntings that were religious themed. They would sell their artwork to cathedrals and churches for money. Most of the paintings were based off the Life of Christ, the Life of the Virgin, the Life of the Saint or Salvation.The paintings brought new ideas to artwork such as â€Å"a sense of space†, which makes your eye see 3 dimensional and also the use of perspective. A big part of the art of the Renaissance was religious based. The way the artists painted these paintings portrayed faith very well, even to the point of making the humanists think spirituality instead of thinking with human individuality. There were many famous religious paintings done in the time of the Renaissance such as Leonardo De Vine's paintings called, â€Å"The Last Supper† and â€Å"Virgin of the Rocks†.Another famous piece of art, is the painting of the â€Å"Sistine Chapel Ceiling† by Michelangelo. Also among his famous works are his sculptures, â€Å"David†, representing the David in the bible and â€Å"Pieta†, showing Jesus dead body in the arms of his mother Mary. An interesting fact about the paintings is that in the Middle Ages, because of the strong dedication to Catholicism, they were not allowed to study the human body. After the Middle Ages ended, because people had more freedom of religion, people started studying the human body, which resulted in paintings that coked much more realistic.As you have seen, the Renaissance was a very big historical change for the people of that time as well as the people of today. I have only mentioned a few of the many pieces of artwork created during the Renaissance. The artists and their paintings are still remembered to this day. The styles of their artwork have affected how people create there own art today. We can learn from the styles they used, their use of perspective, colors that showed the time period, and even small things added to their ark that changed the whole picture itself.In one sense, the art of the Renaissance could be said to be the true beginning of art and the pathway that was set for the future artwork that is created today. References: Art and Expression- Renaissance Art by Maria Lacy Kitchen Oracle Think Quest- The Renaissance Period by (unknown) Web Gallery of Art- Welcome to the Gallery by Emil Kern and Daniel Marx Renaissance by Thomas J. Choke, Harold E. Damager and Jose Marie Devalue BBC News- Is Ad Vine's Mona Lisa a self-portrait? By Nick Watt and Mama Snappily

Improve end-of-life care Essay

Advocacy to improve end-of-life care and decision-making for patients over the past twenty-five years has frequently turned to the law as a source of protection and procedural innovation. There has been a deliberate strategy to use the legal system to improve the outcome for patients at the end of life by means of courts of law and congressional hearings. Such efforts have resulted in the formation of legislation and regulation but have produced varying measures of gain as well as some serious limitations. As a result of these efforts a wide array of patients’ rights respecting end-of- life care have been established. These include the right to self-determination and to refuse unwanted life-prolonging interventions. Additionally there are regulations which have established decision-making processes and protocols should patients lose the ability to make decisions for themselves. The right to die is understood as the freedom to make a decision to end one’s life, on one’s own terms, as a result of the desire to allay painful effects of an incurable illness (Angus, 2004). The act of ending one’s life can take various forms, depending on the role the patient, their family and the physician plays in this process (Rosen, 1998). Euthanasia refers to the family member or physician intentionally ending the patient’s life by direct request from the patient. Euthanasia can be active or passive, voluntary or involuntary. In active euthanasia either a physician, a family member or another prescribed person, at the directive of the patient or an authorized representative, administers or withholds some form of procedure that leads to the eventual or immediate death of the patient. Passive euthanasia involves these agents withholding a procedure necessary for the patient’s continued survival. Active euthanasia involves administering either drugs or another treatment that will directly lead to death. Voluntary euthanasia is where the patient makes a direct request for either an active or passive procedure and involuntary euthanasia is when this decision is made by someone besides the patient because the patient is probably incapable of making such a decision. Assisted suicide refers to helping the patient end his or her life. There are numerous advocates and agencies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries, that either promote or oppose the right to die concept. One group advocates the establishment of clear limitations on the ability of healthcare providers or the state to impose undesired life-prolonging interventions against the wishes of the patient or the patient’s authorized surrogate decision-maker. The strength of this effort lies primarily in the articulation by these advocates of procedures for decision-making that respect patients’ autonomy and anticipate the range of circumstances in which patients would lack decision-making capacity and thus would require tough decisions about end-of-life care to be made for them (Johnson, 1998). In contrast to such articulation of ‘negative rights’, more recent advocates for dying patients have focused on using legal mechanisms such as courts of law and legislative processes to try to establish and articulate rights and responsibilities governing the role of the physician in a patient’s suicide. Instead of asking for patients to be free of unwanted interventions, these efforts have lobbied for legal support for positive assistance at the end-of-life. This assistance involves purposefully bringing an end to life through the use of medical interventions. To date, these efforts have met with mixed success. While physician-assisted suicide has been legalized in the Netherlands, achieving the same results in the United States has been challenging. Thus far only the state of Oregon has managed to make any headway in this regard. They managed to pass the ‘Death with Dignity Act’ which came into effect in 1997 (Public Agenda, 2006). This act gives patients a limited amount of legal right to physician-assisted suicide. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has determined that at this time, there is no constitutional violation if a state’s criminal laws prohibit assisted suicide. At a minimum, however, these efforts have succeeded in arousing public interest and inquiry into the suffering endured by patients and their families when serious or terminal illness becomes unbearably burdensome. This outcome may be more valuable than any articulation of a theoretical legal right. Another category of advocates targets the issue at the level of the health centers that provide care for these patients. They argue that the presence of so many discussions on the provision of suicide assistance is a reflection of the U. S. ’ failure to make proper palliative care readily accessible to those who are suffering. They believe that little has been done to ensure that all dying patients and their families receive competent, compassionate care at the end of life, regardless of the care setting or disease process. Such care does not simply involve being left alone or freedom from the use of machines. Efforts and successes in the legal arena have had more to do with decision protocols and processes, documents and directives, than with the substantive clinical aspects of quality care at the end of life. It is not sufficient to simple have a document that articulates a patient’s wish to refuse life-prolonging interventions. What this group advocates is ensuring that doctors effectively communicate with the patient and compassionately provide each with quality palliative care appropriate to their condition (Waters, 1999). There is a limit to the extent to which the law is turned to as a strategy for improving end-of-life care. While considerable time and effort has been spent over the past few decades ensuring, through the law, that certain things should not be done to patients at the end of life, there has been little focus on what should be done for such patients. In this regard the law has limited utility. The earliest and most enduring efforts involving the law in end-of-life care have focused on defining the limits of government intervention and interference, articulating individual freedoms, and creating processes and protocols to address areas of contention. There are precedents from judicial cases, including the cases of Karen Ann Quinlan in 1976 and Nancy Cruzan in 1990, that clearly establish the right of individual patients to refuse all undesired life-prolonging interventions as well as the clear establishment that the interests of third parties or governments cannot supersede individual rights to limit care at the end of life. Also there are legal guidelines and procedures that enable the treatment wishes of patients to be preserved and respected, even when the patients are no longer capable of articulating them. Finally there has been the creation of legal obligations and responsibilities on the part of care providers and care systems to inform patients of their options in this difficult decision-making process. In many ways, the law has been effectively employed to ensure patients’ liberty and privacy against the encroachments of modern medical technology as they approach the end of their lives. However, it is difficult to determine how successful the law has been in impacting positively the quality of care and decision-making provided to patients at the clinical level (Angus, 2004). Through legal principles and legislation, courts at both the state and federal levels have extensively considered the issue of end-of-life care and decision-making. They have consistently emphasized the right of patients to refuse any and all life-prolonging medical interventions, including ventilators, dialysis, surgery, and artificial nutrition and hydration. This protection is extended where patients are able to personally articulate their wishes or do so through authorized surrogate decision-making mechanisms. With respect to the cases that have thus far been examined through the courts, they have extended the fundamental legal right of patients to generally refuse treatment, providing clarity and creating decision paths in situations of uncertainty. The cases have not, however, completely eliminated debate and apprehension in the clinical arena, where moral ambivalence, medical uncertainty, religious convictions, emotional distress, and outright misunderstanding of the law still obscure the decision-making process in individual circumstances. The issue of ending a patient’s life is complex, no two cases being the same. There are significant implications for the patient involved, their family, physician and the facility providing care at this crucial time in their lives. For many clinicians, patients and their families, decisions about whether to withdraw a feeding tube or turn off a ventilator are still difficult. Such dilemmas cannot be addressed by the law, which can provide a process for decision-making but cannot necessarily guide the involved parties to the ‘right’ decision in a particular circumstance. The difficulty of end-of-life decisions are further compounded by evolving standards of care, continuing debate over what constitutes ‘futile’ care and confusion among clinicians, particularly about ‘what is legal’ (Angus, 2004). Evidently there are limits to what the law can clarify and make concrete when the issues are so complex and confounding. Another challenge has been the limited use of the many advance care-planning mechanisms that have been developed through both judicial and legislative processes. Additionally there has been limited advocacy by healthcare professionals for the use of these mechanisms. Mechanisms such as living wills and healthcare proxies or powers of attorney are intended to empower patients and their surrogates. Through the use of these, patients and their caregivers can consider the complex and problematic area of end-of-life care in a thoughtful and deliberate way, long before the chaos that often accompanies an acute, life-threatening event or the onset of serious illness ensue. While none of these mechanisms is perfect, if used properly and as prescribed in the law, such documents and advance planning could help avoid some of the crises that frequently accompany end-of-life care and decision-making (McDonald, 1999). A growing body of studies documents the myriad of problems and challenges that have surfaced in trying to implement advance care planning in the clinical setting. Some studies reveal physicians’ erroneous beliefs about advance directives and their lack of knowledge about how to employ them in clinical care routines. Other studies highlight the inadequacy of understanding between patients and their care providers about treatment preferences at the end of life, even when patients have previously executed an advance directive. Still other studies reflect that there is uncertainty in the clinical arena concerning who is responsible for initiating and helping to formulate advance care-planning decisions. Of course the variety of issues examined by studies are not exhausted as there still needs to be studies on strategies to increase the number of patients who execute advance directives prior to incapacity given that only a small percentage do so now. Also it remains unclear whether more directives will ultimately lead to better care that is more responsive to patient and family needs.