No Christian should ever have an abortion Essay Example

  No Christian should ever have an abortion Essay This statement is very controversial people can believe it completely or can have doubts. It all depends on which branch of Christianity you are a part of. The Roman Catholic Church is the firmest believer in this statement. They do not consider abortion any different from infanticide when a parent murders their child. They believe that abortion is a very serious crime, and that it should be punished by law. Because of this firm standing against abortion, it is not unusual for a catholic family to have lots of children. They believe that, no matter the circumstances, the pregnancy should be seen through. If you are a Roman Catholic, then you are supposed to believe that abortion should be punished by law. The United States Methodists are a little more lenient on the subject. They also consider abortion a very serious matter, but stop short on saying that it should be punished by law. They simply say that it is a very serious crime. They do not allow abortions, but they do not think it suitable to punish anybody who participates in any part of an abortion. By saying that abortion is a sin, they hope that the person concerned will feel guilty and will not go ahead with the abortion. We will write a custom essay sample on   No Christian should ever have an abortion specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on   No Christian should ever have an abortion specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on   No Christian should ever have an abortion specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The Church of England are undecided about this subject. No church could possibly say that abortion is a good thing. The Church of England says that abortion is a sin. However, they do acknowledge the fact that there may be times when an abortion may be the best option (in the event of rape). They agree that abortion is a sin, as it is killing a human being, but they also say that to withdraw compassion is also a sin, so both sides of the argument should be considered. The UK Methodists point of view is very similar to that of the Church of Englands. They realise that the feelings of the mother of the unborn child must be considered. They consider abortion an evil, but say that sometimes it is the lesser of two evils. They also make the valid point of saying that it is best for abortion to remain legal and controlled, rather than it being illegalised again and women resorting to back-street abortions, where the process is a danger to the health of the mother. My personal opinion is that abortion should remain legal. I agree with the statement from the UK Methodists, that it is better for it to remain legal and controlled, rather than being made illegal and therefore unsafe. I dont think that anybody could really agree with abortion. Whichever way you look at it, you are killing an unborn child. However, I think that there are some times when abortion may be necessary. For instance, if a woman is raped and it results in a pregnancy, there is no way that she would want to keep the baby. I think in cases such as these, abortion may be necessary. However, if a woman finds herself pregnant unexpectedly and she has not used contraceptives, then I think that she should be made to see out the pregnancy, as it is her fault that she has fallen pregnant. There are always two sides to every argument. There may be some Roman Catholics who, because of their religion, are made to firmly disagree with abortion, but personally, they do not think that it is as great a sin as the church says it is. They may find themselves in a dilemma, being pulled one way by the church, and another by their own opinions. I do not think that just because you belong to a certain branch of Christianity, that you should have the same beliefs about everything as your church. By all means, listen to what your church has to say on the issue, and listen to other peoples points of view. This will help you to form an opinion of your own, not that of your church or of other people.

Definition of Appendix in a Book or Written Work

Definition of Appendix in a Book or Written Work An appendix is a collection of supplementary materials, usually appearing at the end of a report, academic paper,  proposal  (such as a bid or a grant), or book. The word appendix comes from the Latin appendere, meaning hang upon. An appendix typically includes data and supporting documents used by a writer to develop the written work. Though such information should be of potential use to the reader (not  treated as an opportunity for padding), it would disrupt the flow of the argument if  it were included in the main body of the text. Examples of Supporting Materials Not every report, proposal, or  book needs an  appendix. However, including one allows you to point to  additional information that is relevant  but would be out of place in the main body of the text. It can  give the reader more depth to the topic, supply resources for further reading or contact lists, or provide documentation to make your case for your grant or bid proposal. Appendix information may include tables, figures, charts, letters, memos,  detailed technical specs, maps, drawings, diagrams, photos, or other materials. In the case of research papers, supporting materials may include surveys, questionnaires, or schematics and the like that were  used to produce the results included in the paper. Because of its supplementary nature, it is important that material in an appendix not be left to speak for itself, according to Eamon Fulcher in A Guide to Coursework in Psychology. This means that you must not put vital information only in an appendix without any indication in the main text that it is there, Fulcher says. An appendix is an ideal place to include information and other data that are simply too long or detailed to incorporate into the main body text. If these materials were used in the works development, readers may want to reference them to double-check or locate additional information. Including the materials in an appendix is often the most organized way to make them available. Should You Include an Appendix? Whether you include an appendix depends on your topic and what will benefit the reader. If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, create an appendix. Will supplemental materials aid the readers understanding of your topic? Will they provide resources for further reading or exploration? Will they supply additional depth to the data presented in your report, article, book, or proposal? Will the materials provide additional backup for your thesis or message? Do you have items  that would be unwieldy to present in a footnote? The appendix material should be streamlined, relevant to your topic or thesis, and useful to the reader- but its not a place to put all of your research materials. The citations in the references, bibliography, works cited, or endnotes will take care of citing your sources. An appendix is a place for items that help the readers understanding of your work and research and the topic at hand.  If the material is not important enough to refer to in your text, then dont include it in an appendix. Appendix vs. Addendum An addendum is new  material added to a book or other written work after its first edition has been produced. It may be updated research or additional sources that came to light or further explanation about the book from the author, for example. In a contract, an addendum can change the terms of the contract, such as canceling sections or updating terms or pricing in sections without the whole contract becoming null and void and needing everyone to sign it anew. The parties to the contract just need to sign the addendum with the noted changes. Formatting an Appendix The way in which you format your appendix depends on the style guide you have chosen to follow for your work. In general, each item referred to in your text (table, figure, chart, or other information) should be included as its own appendix- though if there are many data sets under one grouping, keep them together in their appendix and label each piece appropriately. If you have more than one appendix, label the appendices Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. so that you can easily cite them in the body of the  report, and start each on a separate page. Put them in the order that you refer to them in the paper, for ease of use for the reader, and dont forget to note them in the table of contents, if your work has one. Research papers, including academic and medical studies, usually follow APA style guidelines for the formatting of appendices. They can also follow the Chicago Manual of Style. For each of these styles, format the appendix as follows: APA: Center the title, and use upper and lowercase letters. The text of the appendix should be flush left, and you should indent your paragraphs. Chicago: The Chicago style manual also allows for numbered appendices (1, 2, 3, not just A, B, C). As far as location, they appear before any endnotes sections so that any information in the appendices that needs a note can refer to the notes section. If there are many tables in the appendices, though, it might be best to keep the notes with the tables.

Establishing a Formal Systems Development Process Case Study

Establishing a Formal Systems Development Process - Case Study Example Brian has been advocating for waterfall approach while Carrie has been advocating for incremental developmental approach. Jane wants to develop a formal systems development process and the two analysts would like implementation of their preferred approaches. Dealing with the two analysts from a technical perspective would require a quantitative approach to understanding their proposed approaches and an evaluation of benefits and limitations of their proposals. This would lead to development of models for quantitative analysis of the two proposed systems and the models compared. The model that offers the highest level of net benefits to the organization and best suits the organization’s scope and resources would then be implemented. A trade off would be necessary between net benefits and the systems’ ability to integrate into the systems but the approach disregards any possible differences between the analysts (Quaddus and Siddique, 2013). Human resource perspectives involve relationships between employees towards a cohesive work environment. The difference in opinion between the two analysts, having existed for a long period, offers a threat to such a cohesive relationship and requires an approach to compromise in selectin g the approach to be implemented. Jane should therefore invite the two analysts for a discussion in which each analyst would explain the reasons for supporting his or her position before a joint evaluation. She would assume a mediator role to help the two analysts agree on the most suitable approach and then implement the approach (Pravin, 2010). Process management solutions do not guarantee success unless factors to their implementations are considered and incorporated in implementation processes. Jane needs to consider such factors and the main considerations should be her organization’s goals and objectives. This is because goals and objectives of a department should be aligned for

The Role That Customer - Brand Identification Plays In Brand Loyalty Literature review

The Role That Customer - Brand Identification Plays In Brand Loyalty and Brand Promotion - Literature review Example A brand is principally responsible for establishing a strong relationship with the customers. Therefore brands hold the accountability to build a healthy and strong relationship with the customers of the company. In that process customer brand identification plays a major role. Brand identification is defined as the process of developing a brand that offers positive consumer benefits and in turn results in repeat purchase. Also in the process of customer brand identification, identity of a brand acts as a significant factor. Identity of a brand provides the direction, meaning and purpose of the brand. Brand identity is thus considered as the central unit towards the development of a strategic vision. Brands generally have 3 aspects namely brand image, brand identity and brand position. Brand image portrays about how the brand is being perceived by the customers, brand identity is about how the strategist desires the brand to be perceived by the target audience. Brand positioning is also a part of brand identity; it is about the way by which the intended audience can be effectively targeted. However modern studies highlights that branding has 5 aspects that are, design, positioning, customer relationship, storytelling and price (Healey, 2008, p.8). Thus in order to sustain with a brand in the market and continuously communicating the messages to the target customers, Relationship Marketing is a key process. The next half of the project will offer insights about relationship marketing. The area of relationship marketing has been an area of focus for the last few years. Relationship marketing mainly puts emphasis on the retention of customers rather than acquiring new customers. It heavily stresses on the process of customer satisfaction and gives less importance to sales transactions. Relationship

Misconceptions of Buddhism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Misconceptions of Buddhism - Research Paper Example When it comes to religions, people are often guided by misconceptions and wrong beliefs. The way in which everybody understands and comprehends religious texts and traditions leads to the movement of all these misconceptions. For many years, Buddhism has suffered a number of misconceptions regarding its traditions, beliefs and practices. Among the misconceptions include the three ways of life, practices and beliefs (Nielsen, 2004). 2.0 Misconceptions of Buddhism. Buddhism is termed to be a pagan religion that involves worship of many gods rather than one accepted Christian God. There is also a misconception that Buddhists believe in reincarnation. It is termed that all Buddhists welcome suffering in their lives; they believe that when one suffers or is poor, then she/ he is regarded as a sincere Buddhist. All Buddhists in the world are to wear robes as part of their clothing. This is a misconception. Another misconception about Buddhism is that Buddhists must endure gruelling meditat ions in their entire life. Majority of people perceive that when Buddhist faithful put their hands together and bow their heads they are praying for a good fortune to come to their lives. It is stated that in America, members of ‘shin Buddhism’ are only Japanese and if not it is for Japanese- American citizens only (Tudge, 2002). Another misconception is a reflection on the appearance of a Buddhist, where a Buddha, is believed to be a Chinese monk who is a fat guy, and are always bald (shaving their heads completely), leaving no sign of any hair on their heads). All Buddhists in the world are said to be vegetarians, taking only vegetables as part of their diets. One of the wide misconceptions about Buddhism among the Buddhists is that all of them meditate more often and always, and they do so while sitting in full lotus. The Buddhists believe that all roads lead to the same mountain tops -but Buddhism is termed as the clear route to the top of the mountain (Nielsen, 200 4). Majority of people think and believe that Buddhists live in monasteries as either monks or lay people who are secluded from the rest of the people. It is believed that one must be a monk or a lay nun to get enlightened. From the strange behaviours, beliefs and dressing, a misconception has been raised that Buddhists are Idol worshippers. The respect that they give Dalai Lama leads to misconception that Dalai Lama is the head of Buddhism. The social and interaction among individuals and Buddhists have led to a misconception that Buddhism is a pessimistic religion, an illusion created, and Buddhist behaviour is a dreadful one; serious individuals who don’t wear any kind of make-up, and in most cases they do not leisure at all. The Buddhism religion is termed as one that is boring and rigid that does not allow its faithful to desire any kind of earthly thing such as engaging in sports. The last misconception is that Buddhism is a reformation or upgrade of Hinduism (Tudge, 20 02). 3.0 Reasons for and against misconceptions of Buddhism Buddhism is not a pagan religion just because Buddhists don’t concern themselves about God or gods; they put their concerns on ‘Dharma’ who is not a god or gods but the truth or reality. Their belief in reincarnation is true as the majority of the sects in Buddhism believe in reincarnation in the same way Christians do in God. The misconceptions of the Buddhism of

Visual cryptography

Visual cryptography Introduction One of the popular solutions for image encryption is visual cryptography. Secret sharing concepts are used to encrypt a secret image into the shares (customized versions of the original image) which can be transmitted over an undeveloped communication channel and by overlapping shares, the secret message is obtained Visual cryptographic solutions are based on binary or binaries inputs. Due to this, natural images must be first transformed into halftone (this is a technique which uses different density of dots to display the image) images to simulate the original gray or colour levels in the target binary image To create the shares, the halftone version of the input image is used instead of the original image. The decrypted image is made by stacking the shares together. Because binary data can be displayed in an apparent form when printed on transparencies or viewed on the screen and overlapping shares that contain apparently random information can expose the secret image. However, the decrypted image is darker, contains a number of visual damages due to the algorithm that is used for the process and the resolution of secret image is increased by most of visual cryptography solutions (Lukac at el,2005) and(Lukac 2006). 1.1 Objectives The base of protected communication among users using insecure channel is known as cryptography. In order for cryptographic security to take place, an algorithm is involved for the practice of encrypting and decrypting messages In its basic form, one image is split into two separate images called shares. When the shares are stacked on top of each other, the unique image is retrieved A general n out of n visual cryptography scheme involves n participants in which a secret image is split into n random looking shares and all n shares are required to recover the original image. 1.2 Aims The important idea behind Visual Cryptography is to encrypt information in the form of images in a secure and flawless way The information must be encrypted before it is sent, so that it cannot be illegally read or modified in the middle of transmission. Suppose 4 persons have deposited their money in a bank account. These persons obviously do not trust each other. In particular, they do not want a single member of themselves to withdraw the money. However, they assume that withdrawing money by two members of the group is not considered a conspiracy; rather it is considered to have received authorizations Therefore, they decided to set the bank code (with a trusted computer) into 4 partitions so that any two or more partitions can be used to reconstruct the code. Since the persons representatives will not have a computer with them to decode the bank code when they come to withdraw the money, they want to be able to decode visually: each thief gets a transparency The transparency should yield no information about the bank code (even implicitly). However, by taking any two transparencies, stacking them together and aligning them, the secret number should pop out. How can this be done? (Naor and Shamir, 1994) proposed a solution and introduced a simple but perfectly secure way that allows secret sharing without any cryptographic computation, which they termed as Visual Cryptography Scheme. The simplest Visual Cryptography Scheme is given by the following setup. A secret image consists of a collection of black and white pixels where each pixel is treated independently To encode the secret, the original image is split into n customized versions (referred as shares). To decode the image, a subset S of those n shares is picked and display each of them onto a transparency In this project, a new visual cryptography scheme is intended for shadow images. The proposed scheme will be flexible, easily implemented, and more secure for shadow images. Moreover, shadow image structure is augmented to reduce the chances for an attacker to guess the secret. Literature Survey 2.1 introduction Visual Cryptography was introduced by (Naor and Shamir, 1994) at Eurocrypt, an annual conference sponsored by the International Association for Cryptographical Research (IACA) to encourage discussions and seminars among cryptologists all over the world In that, the description is about a new cryptographic scheme that encodes a black and white image into n shares. Decoding is done with the human visual system when the n shares are placed on transparencies and stacked on top of each other. They included several schemes to implement a visual cryptography system in their presentation Since that time, the paradigm of visual cryptography has attracted wide attention all over the world. Several papers and projects have been presented to extend visual cryptography. Schemes have been invented for a general k out of n sharing scheme and to cover gray scale and colour images as well(Jim Cai and Zhou,2000) Even today, research continues in the field of visual cryptography and papers regarding contrast, extended schemes are being published regularly This research addresses the few questions concerning visual cryptography, and will attempt to answer these questions in the context of the research by using experimental approach into the problem of visual cryptography, these questions are: what is cryptography? What set of features should be used in visual cryptography? How to reduce chances for attackers to get the secret of shadow images? 2.2 Theory This section will attempt to explain the basic theory behind visual cryptography. Consider a black and white image (not gray scale). It is made up of black pixels and white pixels grouped such that when viewed with the human eye, the picture (or word, symbol etc.) can be seen. To encrypt this image, each pixel from the original image is taken and converted into sub pixels. For sake of this discussion and for simplicity, let us assume that each pixel will be converted into two sub pixels and there will be two shares If a pixel is white, then one of two combinations of sub pixels will be randomly chosen to represent the pixel on each of the shares. When the shares are stacked and properly lined up, the sub pixels for the white pixel produce the result In both sets of sub pixels for the white pixel, it can be seen the result is one black sub pixel and one white sub pixel next to each other. When viewed with the human visual system, the result appears to be gray (combined effect of white and black next to each other) On the other hand, if a pixel is black, then one of the two combinations of sub pixels will be randomly chosen to represent the pixel in each of the shares (same idea as the white pixel). However with black pixels gives two sub pixels next to each other. To the human eye, this appears as a share by itself gives no visible information from the original image because the sub pixels are evenly distributed on each share (one black sub pixel and one white sub pixel for each pixel in the original image). These combinations (black/white and white/black) occur with probability 1/ 2 providing a share with randomized pixels and thus not revealing any hint of the original image. When the shares are stacked, the white pixels are seen as gray, while the black areas remain black (Naor at el, 1994 ,Lee at el,2003 and Voyatzis,1996) (Naor and Shamir, 1995) thought about the problem of encrypting material such as: printed text, handwritten notes, pictures, etc in an absolutely secure way which can be interpreted directly by the human visual system Furthermore, they have explained that the basic model includes a printed page of cipertext (which can be sent by mail of faxed) and a printed transparency. The system they developed can be used by anyone who lacks knowledge of cryptography and without performing any cryptographic commutations. Moreover, they noted that the best way to visualize the visual cryptographic scheme is to consider a concrete example In cryptography, the process of transforming data (referred to as plaintext) where the process uses an algorithm (called cipher) is called encryption. The encrypting process make the information unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The encrypting process results encrypted data (in cryptography, referred to as cipher text). To read encrypted data, the encrypted data should be made readable. So the reverse process is called decryption. In real world, the software for encryption can typically also perform decryption to make the encrypted information readable again (ElGamal,1985 and Rivest,1978) Encryption has long been used by militaries and governments to facilitate secret communication. Encryption is now used in protecting information within many kinds of civilian systems, such as computers, storage devices (e.g. USB flash drives), networks (e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines. Encryption is also used in digital rights management to prevent unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted material and in software also to protect against reverse engineering (Encryption) Encryption, by itself, can protect the confidentiality of messages, but other techniques are still needed to protect the integrity and authenticity of a message; for example, verification of a message authentication codes (MAC) or a digital signature. Standards and cryptographic software and hardware to perform encryption are widely available, but successfully using encryption to ensure security may be a challenging problem. A single slip-up in system design or execution can allow successful attacks. Sometimes an adversary can obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the encryption. (Maurer,1994 and Diffie,1976) Moreover, The optimality of VC is determined mostly by its pixel expansion and the relative contrast and, the relative contrast needs to be as large as possible to ensure visibility (Alvarez at el,2005). In the scope of this research, the works related to contrast optimization will be explored. Works related to deriving lower bound of pixel expansion m can be found in (Naor and Shamir, 1995), (Rivest at el,1984) etc. The research on contrast optimization was motivated by the problem of extra graying erect introduced to decoded image. This occurs because the decoded image is not an exact reproduction of the original image, but an expansion of the original, with extra black pixels. Research methods -Doing a thorough investigation into basic visual cryptography -Careful study of algorithms used in visual cryptography -Checking out a suitable development environment and a suitable frame work that can ease the image processing tasks -investigating shadow image structure for visual cryptographic practices such as pixel expansion and the relative contrast -This project emphasizes, intends and evaluates a computer-based system using appropriate processes and tools, as follows Front End :Java Back End :Microsoft SQL Server OS : Windows XP and Windows vista IDE : net beans 6.7 The net bean IDE is used for following features: In this project, net beans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is used because its tools, debugging and performance monitoring. Net bean IDE for developing applications saves the time by managing windows, settings, and data. In addition, an IDE can store repetitive tasks through macros and abbreviations. Drag-and-drop features make creating graphical user interface (GUI) components or accessing databases easy and highlighted code and debugging features alert to errors in the code The application is developed by java because of following features Java is a graphical user interface programming language Java supports to platform independent mechanism Java is a general purpose and object oriented programming language The most striking features of the language are that it is platform neural language Java program is under the control of JVM; the JVM can contain the program and prevent it from generating side effects outside the system. Thus safety is included in Java language. Java is mainly adopted for two reasons Security Portability These two features are available in java because of the byte code. Byte code is a highly optimized set of instructions to be executed by the Java run time system called JVM. The features of Java which are adopted for the network system explore are Multithreading Socket programming Swing Multithreading Users perceive that their world is full of multiple events all happenings at once and wants their computers to do the same. Unfortunately, writing programs that deal with many things at once can be much more difficult than writing conventional single threaded programs in C or C++. Thread safe in multithreading means that a given library functions is implemented concurrent threads of execution Swing Swing refers to the new library of GUI controls (buttons, sliders, checkboxes etc). Swing is a rapid GUI development tool that is part of the standard Java development kit. Swing is a set of classes that provides more powerful and flexible components. Swing components are not implemented by platform specific code. Instead they are written in Java and therefore are platform independent (java doc).

Basic Principles Of Democracy :: essays research papers

The United States of America has five basic principles which ensure the ability of the country. The basic foundations: fundamental worth, equality of all persons, majority rule minority rights, necessity of compromise, and ividual freedom. This paper reviews three of the five principles: majority rule and minority rights, individual freedom, and necessity of compromise. Two of these cases of individual freedom plus majority rule and minority rights the United States has failed to uphold. The third case on individual freedom is an undecided case at this point. The United States must not ignore these ations’ importance making judicial decision or the stability of the country is at risk.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Majority rule and minority rights is a basic foundation of democracy. A general concept of this foundation is that the popular vote will be the deciding party in most cases. Along with this concept the minority of the people will maintain certain basic human rights that will not be compromised by the popular vote. A challenge to this principle occurred when Asheville City district zoning was voted on many years ago, and unfortunately was passed. The rules and restrictions that are accompanied by zoning are phenomenal. In many cases the taxes rise depending on how property is zoned. For example, if property is zoned as commercial property the taxes are considerably higher than if property was in a residential area. Consequently the minority here is being punished. More permits must be acquired and plans must be approved before anything can be done to ones own land. Zoning was voted in by the majority, however the minority’s rights were not completely maintained. People need to maintain certain basic rights, and these rights pertain to what they may do to their property. Justification of how the government failed to honor this basic foundation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Individual freedom is by far one of the most important foundations to a democracy’s survival. Individual freedom is difficult to define, though a general meaning is illustrated by a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, â€Å"The right to swing my fist ends where another man’s nose begins.† Enforcing people to wear their seat belt against their will is an example of how America has failed to secure the one of most important foundation of democracy. People should have the right to choose whether or not they wear their seat belt. The American government and the North Carolina government specifically passed a law which makes all passengers in the front seat, no matter what age, wear their safety belts.

Ethical Leadership: What It Is and How We Use It in Schools Essay

In the context of the present century, when the entire course of life is changing much faster than ever, rapidly increasing body of knowledge in every walk of life has made tinier issues look magnified. Today, what is considered as a most important requisite of a plan or strategy may not have even been noticed in the past days. As such, education is one domain where challenges of the present time of diversity are felt more than in any other area. Thus educational management and leadership is one area that catches a good deal of scholarly attention. When it comes to leadership, ethical leadership takes the lead because today leadership in schools is something highly challenging due to the diverse environment of cultural diversity and so on. The present paper carefully examines the phenomenon of ethical leadership, and then makes empirical analysis as how it can be employed usefully in schools for better outcomes. For this purpose, the present paper takes into account extensive research with regard to ethical leadership in schools. Today, the need for exploring the phenomenon of ethical leadership in an academic environment has become a necessity especially for those working at such positions: principals and teachers. The present writer is a teacher and considers that the study of ethical leadership is highly important for professional growth and substantial results with regard to training of pupils being taught at any level of schools. This study, henceforth, is useful not only for professional teachers, but it also encompasses grounds for other related people in the field. It will also be worthwhile for the common reader. Problem Statement On the face value, the phenomenon of ethical leadership remains a complex area which is in need of exploration for its better understanding and implication in practical ways in a school or college, etc. For example, what is known from the observable behaviors of leaders like principals and teachers may not be sufficient to mark any solid statement with regard to the definition and implication of ethical leadership. However, this is another grey area to point out that observable behaviors have not been fully investigated in this regard. Different practices of leadership, say across the educational setting of the United States of America, exist and need to be interpreted for a comprehensive exploration of ethics and the use of ethics to lead. As such it is important to address both these areas. From the explicit definition of explanation of what ethical leadership is to how it can be best practiced to positively influence an academic environment is at the core of the problem. A number of researchers have already delved into this area; however, more digging is needed. The present paper looks at the issues from both the sides: from its explanation to its implementation in best possible conditions. Literature Review Available literature on ethical leadership yields a good deal of information. The Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Craig, p. 256, 2000) states the following explanation for ethics: â€Å"What is ethics? First, the systems of value and custom instantiated in the lives of particular groups of human beings are described as the ethics of these groups†. This definition tells us that ethical leadership is about practices that leaders exercise with regard to pupils studying in their institutions. It means not merely controlling the physical actions of the learners but influencing their values and customs in a positive way. To Campbell (2000), â€Å"Ethics are standards by which one should act based on values. Values are core beliefs such as duty, honor, and integrity that motivate attitudes and actions† (p. 23). As such, ethical leadership is something that aims at addressing the issues of attitudes and strikes morally the attitudes of workers and students in such a manner which positively provokes high level of motivation. According to Covrig, D. M. 2000), ethical leadership â€Å"is the practice of effective ethical decision making and leadership which responds to, preserves and clarifies the organization’s core values. Conflict and conflict resolution suggest a healthy moral administrative process† (p. 40). If we look at this definition, we will notice that preserving and clarifying an organization’s core values is one important factor that keep s the ethical leadership going. As such one simply observable point here is that an organization, say a school, will only adhere to its core values only when these values are well defined and logged. If the values are not well defined, no effort will result in preserving any value because, according to the present writer, there will not be any values worth mentioning. This will, in turn, give no positive feedback for the practice of ethical leadership. Sergiovanni (1992) defines ethics in the following manner: When purpose, social contract, and local school autonomy become the basis of schooling, two important things happen. The school is transformed from an organisation to a covenantal community, and the basis of authority changes from an emphasis on bureaucratic and psychological authority to moral authority (p. 102). Foster (1986) pointed out the serious implication and significance of ethics in educational management as he penned that, â€Å"Each administrative decision carries with it a restructuring of human life: that is why administration at its heart is the resolution of moral dilemmas† (p. 33). This definition again informs us of the importance of dealing with values and moral code of students instead of controlling them outwardly so that true basis of character can be fostered. The ethical leadership also addresses the role played by faculty and teachers. This is a switch-over from traditional views about leadership because they are simply top-down. They consider influence in terms of a mechanical process. Hashem (1997) observes that â€Å"The conventional leadership concepts and practices which rely on top-down philosophy, decisiveness, unemotional, and total control have been challenged by the transformational concept and more empowering practices† (p. 94). When it comes to ethical leadership, ‘what is to be achieved? ’ is the question often asked by the critical eyes. The purpose of ethical leadership is to seed in students the confidence to build or construct knowledge genuinely by addressing their natural demands. Hence ethical leadership is constructivist in approach. According to Henson (2004) by this approach, students construct knowledge through the process in which an interaction between their perception about their knowledge and new knowledge and ideas and experiences that come to their way of learning. This way the students practice highest possible model of ethical learning which is possible only if leaders practice ethical code to train their students. Initial research worth-noticing in this area links as back to the past as the 1980s. Forty empirically conducted studies were reviewed by Reid et al. 2004). They investigated the impact of school heads on different aspects of students’ functioning and teacher’s activities. With regard to the leadership impact on students, they found out positive attitudes of students to school, better mathematical and reading skills, and absenteeism + vandalism were reduced. With regard to the impact of school leaders on teachers, Reid at el. found out that teachers’ satisfaction for job increased; they used innovative techniques in classroom. Additionally, seven studies were conducted by Majestic et al. 2004). These studies also affirm that leadership by principals in schools positively impacted students’ basic learning skills and teachers’ attitude toward job satisfaction and employment of innovation by them in classroom settings. However, the researchers also came up with four additional types of impacts. Andrews et al. (2002) also undertook a study in which they analyzed scores gained by students on standardized tests to examine the influence of school leaders. Teachers rated their principals on a band of strong, average, and weak leaders. The findings presented high correlations between what was achieved and how strong ethical leadership of these leaders was in both mathematical and reading skills. Four major areas were listed in this study, which were directly or indirectly influential for the strength of ethical leadership. These were: (i) mobilization of human and material capital by principals to meet school’s targets; (ii) effective communication with regard to negotiating the set-goals; (iii) their active involvement in school’s teaching practices; and (iv) the time span that these principals spent to make their presence known at school. These four areas are very influential if the leaders are at the top of the grid, that is, if they are trying their level best to perform better in these four areas. As far as loyalty of teachers with regard to their teaching practices and leadership influence down to students, the principals who had the ability to address the moral issues of both the faculty and students were successful in attaining higher level of loyalty from their teachers (Spillane, 2004). As such, a number of school administrations have come to realize the importance of ethical leadership as being the powerful tool that can yield higher results in students not only with regard to their learning but also to the higher order thinking and moral strength of these students as prospective individual citizens. Now the focus should be how effectively these ethical leaders affect the course of learning of their students in connection with the above as well as in the present context of changing cultures, cultural assimilations, self-concept in the fast-paced world, sense of community service, and so forth. This should be our future schools (Hargreaves 2004 8-13). In this very regard, Hart (2004) points out to the importance of understanding and addressing the inside-school culture and its impact on the knowledge-construction and ethical character of the learners. According to him, future research should focus on the elements as to what extent the culture of a school helps train students ethical healthy and how much contribution can be made on the side of the principals and teachers (pp. 117-28). With this all review of literature review, what can be noticed is that ethical leadership is not a simple phenomenon which addresses only one or two areas of school leadership and the training of the learners in a school. Substantially, ethical leadership is about building better moral values for character building and higher order thinking and learning. The process of ethical leadership is not simply top-down or bottom-up (which in contrast to traditional views of leadership); in fact, it is a combination of a number of processes taking place at a number of places in an organization like a school. These processes are present anywhere in the faculty, administrative staff, and students themselves. Thus, ethical leadership is the outcome of efforts put by all the major players in a school context. There is no doubt that such an approach to understanding ethical leadership and its implementation is the need of the present as well as future time so that higher order thinking and learning can be obtained making the students ethically strong.

Show, Dont Ask

Show, Dont Ask Dont ask an editor what you can write for him. Writers arent just about putting words together. They are about bringing fresh material to the table. Writers are a dime a dozen. New ideas are a dime a dozen. Writers who can write and produce fresh ideas hit the sweet spot. Dont ask questions like: 1) What can I write for you? 2) Is this the sort of thing you publish? 3) What are your guidelines? 4) Are you accepting submissions? Were talking ANY sort of writing whether you pitch magazines, apply for copywriting gigs, write nonfiction, or create novels. Your job as a writer is to make an editors work easy, not add to their pile. Come to them with solutions, not more work, and yes, answering inquisitive emails is work when you multiply it times a hundred each and every day. At the risk of being repetitious, the golden rule for any writer attempting to earn money is this: Dont make work for an editor (or agent or publisher). Approach the editor/agent/publisher with a proposal that makes them eager. . . makes them feel like you are more than worth their time. Make a proposal strong. State what you can do for the other party and demonstrate how you can do it. Of course, a pitch for a freelance story is different from one for a novel, and nonfiction requires the book to be outlined with sample chapters while fiction must be polished to the hilt. But the recipient must open this package and marvel at how print-close it is. But the goal of any proposal/pitch/query is to show the person on the other end that: 1) You know how to write, 2) You have a fresh idea, 3) Your work fits THEIR goals of reaching readers, and 4) You are capable of following through. You might be a fantastic writer, but if you cannot pitch it properly and show how much value you can add, nobody will ever learn how great you are. And to ask someone to help you figure it out, not appreciating how full their plate already is, is like putting in your query, Youre not interested in buying my work, are you? Trust me. The answer will always be no.

Finance Report for Huffman Trucking

Finance Report for Huffman Trucking Finance Report for Huffman TruckingBy: Jaime SmithFIN/486Mary OrcuttJuly 22, 2013Huffman Trucking is like any other company. They are looking to grow and develop for the convenience of their customers. Huffman Trucking has already purchased more building to expand their business. The company is steadily growing and looking to expand more in the future. The company needs to know if this is the right move for the company as a whole and if they are financially stable enough to withstand another big purchase. The current balance sheets and statement of income will show the numbers to make the decision.Huffman Trucking Balance Sheet2006 2005(In Thousands)Current AssetsCash and Cash Equivalents51,93338,893Accounts Receivable56,29257,441Prepaid Expenses and Supplies3,4433,343Total Current Assets111,72899,677Carrier Operating Property73,02470,957Less: Allowance for Depreciation(57,536)(55,477)Net Carrier Operating Property15,48815,480Assets of Discontinued Operations16,19218,891Goodwill (net )57,76753,977Other Assets26,61324,194Total Assets227,788212,219Liabilities and Shareholders' EquityCurrent LiabilitiesAccounts Payable47,12439,936Salaries and Wages29,75327,048Current Portion of Long-Term Debt2,2042,514Freight and Casualty Claims Payable9,7468,941Total Current Liabilities88,82778,439Long-Term LiabilitiesAccrued Pension and Post-Retirement Health Care58,36252,721Long-Term Debt13,43115,318Total Long-Term Liabilities71,79368,039Shareholders' EquityCommon Stock3.8823.882Treasury Shares(1.952)(1.952)Retained Earnings67,16665,739Total Shareholders' Equity67,16865,741Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity227,788212,219Huffman Trucking Income Statement2006 2005Revenue879,944807,288Salaries Wages and Benefits353,739330,597Fuel Expense217,363192,357Operating Supplies and Expenses152,318136,319Purchased Transportation89,95782,529Operating Taxes and Licenses18,61317,989Insurance and Claims13,52613,006Provision for Depreciation2,7262,738Total Operating Expenses848,242775,535 Operating Income...English: Liabilities of the United States as a fra...

Anxiety of a Preoperative Patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Anxiety of a Preoperative Patient - Essay Example Extensive surgery or surgery with uncertain outcomes also generates more anxiety than any surgery with a predictable course of events. Ambiguity about the outcome and unpredictability about the course, although depend on the type of the surgery and the indication for which it is done. Therefore the nursing staff that is usually in contact with such patients in the immediate preoperative period in the preoperative area has a chance to intervene provided they can assess these patients in a systematic manner for the experienced perioperative stress leading to elevated anxiety scores of these patients. Perioperative nurses are specially trained to do so, and they must find out time to intervene in these patients even in the preoperative area to deal with these patients' emotional distress. If the positive outcome of the care is the goal of care delivery, these interventions can change the emotional status of these patients in such a manner that the relationship between preoperative psych ological status and postoperative recovery of these patients is positively influenced (Stirling, 2006). The most common nursing diagnoses that require intervention from the nurses in this period are anxiety that may be partly related to knowledge deficit, but also partly contributed by the context and the environment. Therefore, the knowledge about the surgical procedure and the patient assessment findings can be combined to make an appropriate plan of care in such situations. It is to be remembered that every patient have their own perspectives of anxiety, and hence assessment and consequent plan of care should be individualized based on specific patient needs. A patient who needs surgery and is waiting for the in preoperative area may be surrounded by a sense of impending doom for the imminent surgery, and a nursing diagnosis of preoperative anxiety needs nursing intervention in that period only. Many of the incidents of anxiety result from patient knowledge deficits related to perioperative routine, surgical interventions, or outcome expectations (Stirling, 2006). Contextual assessment process would examine and assess the patient's knowledge about the surgery. Thus, the assessment must include the status and quality of communication the patient has already received, the patient's possible language barrier, assessment of sufficiency of the patient's mental capacity, extent of information received by the patient regarding the surgical procedure and why it is needed. Since most of the anxiety in this phase id related to the ignorance about the details of the surgical intervention and outcome expectations, the patient's level knowledge regarding those must be assessed in simple questions, so the nurse can design a customized intervention strategy and create the baseline communication link for future interventions before the surgery following this contextual assessment. This assessment should ultimately be able to determine the patient's learning needs and based on these needs, to design an intervention to fulfill the patient's knowledge deficits a ppropriate to the etiology of it (Mitchell, 2000). The environment plays a significant role in perioperative nursing, and the operating area environment has significant impact on all such patients. The perioperative nurse also is a part of the environment, and she can indeed catalyze a positive environment that can influence the patient's anxiety. While assessing anxiety,

Inccident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Inccident - Essay Example My mind had drifted off to recall the conversation at the kitchen table in the morning where I heard momma telling my dad of the intended visit of our grand parents for the summer. Having my grand parents for holidays made my days shine. Grand pa with his erect frame and ruddy sun tanned skin from countless hours in the outdoors brought me memories of great cowboys. Grand ma always reminded of softness with her twinkling blue eyes and beautiful soft skin. Her voice was so gentle and soothing that I loved to fall a sleep in her lap, listening to the stories and songs she read or sang to me at bedtime. I came out of the reverie of my grandma’s soft cocoon of love when I heard Tim, our implicitly appointed group leader chanted in a high pitch tone â€Å" Here comes a Wadley Sack..he he he he† and I looked up to see the woman of an extra bulky frame walking pass the lot. Tim was right in one sense in that she was hardly walking but waddling along with a difficult gait. She looked in our direction as the chanting got more boisterous with the rest of the boys, Sean, Steave, Mat and Harry joining in the ridiculing of the plus sized lady. I watched her, expecting to see anger and distaste in her expressions but was surprised at the kind and conciliatory look in her eyes. â€Å" Wow†¦ she must be eating like a giant!† said Tim, and everyone laughed aloud. I looked at her once again and thought that though she was rather big, she looked kind and pleasant with her redeeming smile. In the silence that followed, my â€Å"tag & hoop† buddies turned questioning ly at me. I have not uttered a single word up to now, nor had I joined in the laughter, which rankled the humid summer air. â€Å"Alan? You don’t think she looks like a big sack of potatoes?† Questioned Tim and I waited as if the cat got my tongue. â€Å"Oooohh†¦ Alan likes her! He doesn’t think she looks that bad!† Exclaimed Tim, the gang master in mock exaggeration and the others