Allocation of Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Allocation of Resources - Essay Example The work breakdown structure of the company’s server upgrade will be as follows: Having looked at the WBS for the company’s project, it is important to explain the various work packets data that will emanate from the already formulated WBS. Work packets will determine the scope of the projects in terms of the costs involved as well as the time in hours that will be employed for the success of the project. The total work packets will be embodied in the six key areas of the intended system upgrade. They will include project launch, installation and troubleshooting and finally evaluation for changes before the final roll out to the other departments. First, the project launch will include the initiation of the project, education on the need for change in the organization and mobilization of the relevant personnel for project roll out. This will take an average of 10% of the project costs and an equal amount of time relative to the allocated project duration. Secondly, the verified programs and physical hardware will be installed into the system to gradually phase out the older system. Since the purchase and installation of the newer version of windows and other networking essential into the main server will take a lot of resources in terms of finances and time, the bulk of the project’s allocation (60%) will be assigned to this packet. This stage will also involve troubleshooting any problems associated with usage or compatibility of the newly installed system. Evaluation will involve the collection and analysis of data on usage, system capabilities and efficiency for the organization. The data collected will be utilized for the purposes of analysis that will culminate to the project’s adoption and full integration in the company’s operational systems. All the issues relating to customer usage, system requirement’s satisfaction and sustainability will be corrected at this stage to ensure a steady and running system. Since this is also an important

GBM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

GBM - Essay Example What is known is the expected value to the distribution of Brownian motion at time =2. Therefore, the centre of the distribution is known, i.e. what the expected value of the distribution is and this will be the expected value of W2= 0. It will always be zero, regardless of what point in time we view the Brownian motion. The expectation of Brownian motion at all points on a plain at any time is 0 as per property one. Not only will the expected value at any time be 0, but also normally distributed. The peak of the normal distribution is centred at 0, meaning that the Brownian motion will be distributed as a normal variable with expected value 0 and variance t. Property three relates to the concept of property number two, i.e. the Brownian motion increment, which is the difference between the two Brownian motions (Wt - Ws). Therefore, the difference between the two Brownian motions is also normally distributed and the variance of the Brownian motion increments (Wt - Ws) is (t-s), where t stands for time and s stands for a point in time which differs from t. (t - s) is the difference in two time periods between measurements of our Brownian motion. Consequently, looking at the Brownian motion at two different points in time, the expected increment , the expectation of the difference of these two Brownian motions ( E [Wt - Ws])=0 and the variance of this difference ( Var [Wt-Ws]) = t-s. It emerges that the variance is proportional to time. Other properties of Brownian motion state that the process Wt has stationary and independent increments. What does it mean to say that the Brownian motion has stationary increments? Looking at an example of a Brownian motion at time = 0 (W0) and the same Brownian motion at time = 1 (W1) and then looking at a graph of our Brownian motion , it moves the Brownian motion increment further in time by a constant amount (a). This will be W0+a and W1+a and what this means is that

The importance of vocabulary knowledge

The importance of vocabulary knowledge Introduction CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and motivation The aim of the present thesis is to investigate the relationship between EFL learners depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge[1] and the extent to which vocabulary knowledge contributes to listening comprehension in English as a foreign language[2]. Over the last 20 years vocabulary has assumed a more prominent role within the field of second language acquisition research, and vocabulary is no longer a neglected aspect of language learning as it was designated by Paul Meara in 1980. While researchers in applied linguistics were previously concerned mainly with the development of learners grammatical, and to some extent phonological, competence, more attention is now being paid to their lexical competence. This has happened as a consequence of the growing realisation that lexical competence forms an important part of learners communicative competence in a foreign language. As observed by McCarthy (1990: viii) in the introduction to his book Vocabulary: No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way. The importance of vocabulary knowledge in communicative competence has similarly been stressed by Meara who has argued that lexical competence is at the heart of communicative competence (1996a: 35) and that vocabulary knowledge is heavily implicated in all practical language skills (Meara and Jones, 1988: 80). In order to fully uncover the role of vocabulary knowledge in second language use, we therefore need to explore the extent to which it contributes to different language skills. The above claims by Meara have been solidly supported by findings from a considerable number of empirical studies investigating the relationship between learners vocabulary knowledge and their reading comprehension. Such studies have found that vocabulary knowledge is a significant determinant of reading success in L1 as well as L2. However, as will be come evident in the present thesis, very little research has addressed the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and the skill of listening in L2 and, at present, we can only tentatively assume that vocabulary knowledge will also play some kind of role in learners listening comprehension in English as a foreign language. Research of the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening is important as findings from studies of reading cannot automatical ly be applied to listening despite the fact that reading and listening are both receptive skills. The present study is thus motivated by a critical lack of empirical research on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension and by the resultant need to explore the extent to which learners vocabulary knowledge will contribute to their listening success in L2. A prerequisite for exploring the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening, or any other language skill, is a clear notion of what is involved in being lexically competent in a foreign language. A further motivation behind the study therefore springs from the need to gain more insight into the nature of learners vocabulary knowledge. As evidenced in the research literature, the field suffers from a lack of consensus as to ways of defining learners vocabulary knowledge, partly due to the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the construct. Very often the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and L2 performance has been addressed simply from the perspective of vocabulary size. However, as other dimensions of learners vocabulary knowledge have been recognised, notably the dimension of depth, we need to empirically investigate how such dimensions interact and how they can make individual contributions to learners language use. 1.2 Aims and research questions The overriding aim of the thesis is to empirically investigate the relationships between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in English as a foreign language. The point of departure for this investigation is the construct of vocabulary knowledge, specifically depth of vocabulary knowledge. Although the notion of depth in L2 learners vocabulary has received an increasing degree of attention in recent vocabulary research, the construct severely lacks conceptual clarity. For this reason an analytic aim of the thesis is to provide a clear and consistent theoretical framework for describing and operationalising the construct of depth of vocabulary knowledge. This is done by drawing on research within the field of L2 vocabulary acquisition and testing. The analytic aim then serves as a prerequisite for empirically investigating the following two main research questions: To what extent are EFL learners depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge interrelated? To what extent is vocabulary knowledge associated with successful listening comprehension in English as a foreign language? While the first research question addresses the interrelationship between two dimensions of learners vocabulary knowledge, namely a qualitative and quantitative dimension, the second research question is concerned with the extent to which these two dimensions will contribute to successful listening comprehension in English as a foreign language. The above research questions will be addressed through an empirical study comprising 100 Danish advanced learners of English. The theoretical basis and the methodology of this study will be introduced below. 1.3 Theoretical basis Although the present study draws on research in different fields, it is first and foremost a study rooted within the field of second language vocabulary knowledge and acquisition. The widely recognised theoretical distinction between depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge will serve as a theoretical basis for reviewing different ways of defining and operationalising L2 learners vocabulary knowledge and for empirically investigating the relationship between quantitative and qualitative aspects of learners vocabulary knowledge and their listening comprehension. In exploring whether vocabulary knowledge is associated with successful listening comprehension in L2, the study also draws on theory and research from the field of L1 and L2 listening. Prevalent theoretical models of listening and listening comprehension will be outlined, and factors assumed to influence successful listening will be described, but this account is far from exhaustive and will only serve as a backdrop for examining the role of vocabulary in listening comprehension. This will furthermore be evident from the theoretical framework developed to describe and explore the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in the study. This framework draws on concepts from vocabulary as well as listening research, but the pivotal factor of the framework is vocabulary knowledge, emphasising that this is the main area of research in the study. In attempting to operationalise vocabulary knowledge and develop instruments that can tap learners depth of vocabulary knowledge within the context of the present research design, the study furthermore draws on concepts from testing theory and language testing research. However, the study will limit itself to primarily draw on research within the field of vocabulary testing and in particular focus on the assessment of depth of vocabulary knowledge. As will become evident, depth of vocabulary knowledge is frequently conceptualised in relation to what is made possible by assessment instruments, and the construct often becomes an artefact of the instruments used to assess it. This means that an important aspect of reviewing how this construct has been defined in various research contexts is to examine the way in which it has been operationalised. In view of this, concepts mainly related to vocabulary testing will be drawn upon in the present study. In addition to this, it is important to note that the vocabulary tests developed in the study are intended entirely as research tools that can be used for the investigation of learners vocabulary knowledge within the context of the present research design. No attempts have been made to develop generic and practical vocabulary tests that might be used for other kinds of research or pedagogical purposes. 1.4 Data and methodology The empirical study comprises 100 Danish EFL learners who are all first-year students of English at the Copenhagen Business School. These participants are given a range of tests intended to tap the depth and breadth of their vocabulary knowledge as well as their listening comprehension in English. While some of the tests are standardised measures of vocabulary size and listening comprehension, others have been designed specifically for the present study to assess the participants depth of vocabulary knowledge. Hence, a central aspect of the methodology is the operationalisation of depth of vocabulary knowledge. Different theoretical approaches to the construct will be discussed and these will serve as a basis for operationalising the construct from two distinctly different perspectives. The quantitative data collected through these tests will be subjected to different kinds of statistical analyses to explore relationships between the different variables of the study. SPSS[3] is chosen as the statistical program used for the analysis of the data and the principal statistical methods will be correlational and multiple regression analyses. As noted above, very little research has been done on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in L2 and none of this research has addressed the role of depth of vocabulary knowledge in listening. This means that there is little solid ground for the present study to build on and it must therefore be characterised as an exploratory study. 1.5 Structure of the thesis The thesis falls in two main parts. The first part, comprising Chapters 2 and 3, provides the theoretical background for the thesis, while the second part, comprising Chapters 4 to 7, describes the theoretical framework of the empirical study as well as the research design, and presents and discusses the results of the study. Although Chapter 4 is included in the empirical part, it can be viewed as a bridge between the two parts of the thesis. This will become evident from the description of the chapters below. Chapter 2 constitutes the main theoretical chapter of the thesis. This chapter provides an account of different ways in which the constructs of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge have been defined and operationalised in the research literature. Furthermore, the chapter presents two comprehensive conceptualisations of lexical competence and ability that attempt to integrate different dimensions of vocabulary of knowledge and explain their interrelationships. Chapter 3 examines the role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension. While the first part of the chapter presents key concepts related to listening, the second part focuses explicitly on the role of lexis in listening comprehension. This includes a brief description of word recognition models, followed by a more elaborate review of findings from empirical studies investigating the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in L2. Chapter 4 outlines the theoretical framework underpinning the empirical study. Drawing on theoretical approaches and empirical findings dealt with in Chapters 2 and 3, the key constructs of the study will be defined and the rationale for including them will be provided. Moreover, the chapter proposes a framework for describing the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension and presents a number of more specific research questions that will be addressed in the study. Chapter 5 presents the research design of the study, describing how the theoretical framework is operationalised. This includes information about participants, research instruments, the data collection and the data analyses. Furthermore, a pre-testing phase involving native speakers of English will be described and the results of a pilot study will be reported.   Chapter 6 describes the statistical analyses conducted and presents the results of the study in six phases. These phases address the various, specific research questions of the study. Chapter 7 interprets the findings of the study, discusses implications for theory and assessment and suggests directions for future research. Furthermore, the chapter addresses a number of limitations of the study and includes suggestions for further analyses of the data collected. Chapter 8 sums up the main findings and contributions of the thesis. [1] The concepts of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge will be defined in the chapters to come. However, at this point, it should be noted that the terms breadth of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary size will be used interchangeably in the thesis. [2] No distinction will be made between English as second language and English as foreign language (EFL). The terms second language and foreign language will be used interchangeably. [3] Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

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Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals would be granted many of the same rights as married couples under UK Government plans for legally-recognised civil partnerships. Barbara Roche, the Minister for Social Exclusion and Equalities, says there is a strong case for allowing same-sex couples to register their relationships. This seems to be equating gay relationships with marriage and I think that is very wrong Colin Hart Christian Alliance Co-habiting couples do not receive the same tax breaks or entitlements that married couples enjoy, including access to a partner's pension. Civil partnerships could give homosexual couples property and inheritance rights for the first time. Under the plans, those who register their partnership will also receive next-of-kin status, without which partners cannot be consulted about hospital treatment. The government is set to unveil detailed proposals for change next summer and consult on the issue before bringing in legislation. Any bill would be likely to run into opposition in the House of Lords. Britons support unmarried couples Click here to read Panorama report There is already a register for gay couples in London - but it does not confer legal rights. Mrs Roche says the idea is not about being politically correct but about recognising how society has changed. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are a number of people in gay relationships, in lesbian relationships, who are in loving relationships but their partnerships have no recognition in law. Roche: Change would send a strong message against homophobia "What I am seeking to do is to say I think there is a strong case for considering a civil partnership registration scheme." Earlier, she told the Independent newspaper the change would also send a powerful message that homophobia was unacceptable and still far too widespread. Mrs Roche said that many gay people had been refused hospital visits or excluded from funerals, while others had had to sell their homes to pay inheritance tax. Eight European Union countries, Canada and several American states already gave legal status to civil partnerships, said Mrs Roche. A new survey of British social attitudes this week suggested a "dramatic" shift in the way the public view homosexuality. We certainly welcome it and would hope that the government will go on and recognise these relationships in full David Allison, spokesman for OutRage! In 1985, 70% of people thought homosexuality was "always" or "mostly" wrong. Now that view is shared by under half (47%) of people, while a third of people says it is "not wrong at all", suggested the National Centre for Social Research survey.

Live in the Present with Memories of the Past Essay

Human Society is a long period of building and developing. From the time man lived in dank caves to nowadays when he lives in such a modern life with a lot of excellent facilities. The modern life, the excellent facilities was not a present from god. It was made by people of all generations who always learned from the past and developed everything they had learned from it. Thus, I totally disagree with the statement above that learning about the past has no value. The first reason for this is that learning about the past brings us all the knowledge and information in the past. Without yesterday, there is no today. A society can develop only when its people inherit and understand the achievements of the precursors because the precursors’ achievements were the foundation for everything to develop.. For example, before 1964 there was only black-and-white television but until now there are kinds of colour televisions that are slim and innovative such as LCD TV†¦ The black-and-white television made the basis and gave inventors idea to develop the modern TV nowadays. Consequently our knowledge, success today is the result of constant work of our ancestors before. Secondly, learning about the past is very essential because it makes us doubt and take consideration into earlier assumptions. For that reason, people will find out mistakes that were made in the past. This will show us which roads not to ever go down again and put human in a right way to develop. Learning about the past is not only learning about the history but also is learning from our and the others’ mistakes. By this way of learning, people will become more and more experienced and never make the same mistakes again. Additionally, if learning about the past has no value, people in the world could speak, could write by themselves without learning from anyone. This is impossible so the value of the past, in this case are the parents, are undeniable. In a nutshell, the past is always a good teacher and we are still bad students who crave for knowledge. Denying the past also means that we are destroying the present and our future because no one can jump without ground to stand on.

External Analysis of the Telecommunication Industry Essay

Economic †¢ Market analysis by Insight Research predicts that telecommunications-industry revenue will reach $1.2 trillion by the end of next year, and grow by a compounded rate of 5.9 percent to $1.6 trillion by 2010. †¢ Telecommunication remains an important part of the world economy and the telecommunication industry’s revenue has been placed at just under 3% of the gross world product. †¢ Mobile phones have had a significant impact on telephone networks. Mobile phone subscriptions now outnumber fixed-line subscriptions in many markets. Sales of mobile phones in 2005 totaled 816.6 million with that figure being almost equally shared amongst the markets of Asia/Pacific (204 m), Western Europe (164 m), CEMEA (Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa) (153.5 m), North America (148 m) and Latin America (102 m) †¢ In terms of new subscriptions over the five years from 1999, Africa has outpaced other markets with 58.2% growth †¢ Size matters in telecom. It is an expensive business; contenders need to be large enough and produce sufficient cash flow to absorb the costs of expanding networks and services that become obsolete seemingly overnight. Transmission systems need to be replaced as frequently as every two years. Big companies that own extensive networks – especially local networks that stretch directly into customers’ homes and businesses – are less reliant on interconnecting with other companies to get calls and data to their final destinations. By contrast, smaller players must pay for interconnect more often to finish the job. For little operators hoping to grow big some day, the financial challenges of keeping up with rapid technological change and depreciation can be monumental. †¢ During the late 1990s, the telecommunications industry experienced very rapid growth and massive investment in transmission capacity. Eventually this caused supply to significantly exceed demand, resulting in much lower prices for transmission capacity. The excess capacity and additional competition led to either declining revenues or slowing revenue growth, which has led to consolidation within the industry, as many companies merged or left the industry. Socio-Cultural †¢ Telecommunication is an important part of many modern societies. Good telecommunication infrastructure is widely acknowledged as important for economic success in the modern world on micro- and macroeconomic scale. †¢ On the microeconomic scale, companies have used telecommunication to help build global empires, this is self-evident in the business of online retailer Amazon.com but even the conventional retailer Wal-Mart has benefited from superior telecommunication infrastructure compared to its competitors. In modern Western society, home owners often use their telephone to organize many home services ranging from pizza deliveries to electricians. Even relatively poor communities have been noted to use telecommunication to their advantage. In Bangladesh’s Narshingdi district, isolated villagers use cell phones to speak directly to wholesalers and arrange a better price for their goods. In Cote d’Ivoire coffee growers share mobile phones to follow hourly v ariations in coffee prices and sell at the best price. †¢ On the macroeconomic scale, in 2001, Lars-Hendrik Rà ¶ller and Leonard Waverman suggested a causal link between good telecommunication infrastructure and economic growth. Few dispute the existence of a correlation although some argue it is wrong to view the relationship as causal. †¢ However from any perspective the economic benefits of good telecommunication infrastructure are undeniable and, for this reason, there is increasing worry about the digital divide. A 2003 survey by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) revealed that roughly one-third of countries have less than 1 mobile subscription for every 20 people and one-third of countries have less than 1 fixed line subscription for every 20 people. In terms of Internet access, roughly half of countries have less than 1 in 20 people with Internet access. †¢ The September 11 attack reinforces the need for robust, interconnected networks that have a high probability of survival in the event of natural or man-made disaster. That argues for a consolidated base of carriers operating with agreed-upon disaster protocols Technological †¢ The largest sector of the telecommunications industry continues to be made up of wired telecommunications carriers. Establishments in this sector mainly provide telephone service via wires and cables that connect customers’ premises to central offices maintained by telecommunications companies. The central offices contain switching equipment that routes content to its final destination or to another switching center that determines the most efficient route for the content to take. While voice used to be the main type of data transmitted over the wires, wired telecommunications service now includes the transmission of all types of graphic, video, and electronic data mainly over the Internet. †¢ These new services have been made possible through the use of digital technologies that provide much more efficient use of the telecommunications networks. One major technology breaks digital signals into packets during transmission. Networks of computerized switching equipment, called packet switched networks, route the packets. Packets may take separate paths to their destination and may share the paths with packets from other users. At the destination, the packets are reassembled, and the transmission is complete. Because packet switching considers alternate routes, and allows multiple transmissions to share the same route, it results in a more efficient use of telecommunications capacity as packets are routed along less congested routes. †¢ One way wired carriers are expanding their bandwidth is by replacing copper wires with fiber optic cable. Fiber optic cable, which transmits light signals along glass strands, permits faster, higher capacity transmissions than tra ditional copper wire lines. In some areas, carriers are extending fiber optic cable to residential customers, enabling them to offer cable television, video-on-demand, high-speed Internet, and conventional telephone communications over a single line. However, the high cost of extending fiber to homes has slowed deployment. In most areas, wired carriers are instead leveraging existing copper lines that connect most residential customers with a central office, to provide digital subscriber lines (DSL) Internet service. Technologies in development will further boost the speeds available through a DSL connection. †¢ Wireless telecommunications carriers, many of which are subsidiaries of the wired carriers, transmit voice, graphics, data, and Internet access through the transmission of signals over networks of radio towers. The signal is transmitted through an antenna into the wire line network. Other wireless services include beeper and paging services. Because wireless devices require no wire line connection, they are popular with customers who need to communicate as they travel residents of areas with inadequate wire line service, and those who simply desire the convenience of portable communications. Increasing numbers of con sumers are choosing to replace their home landlines with wireless phones. †¢ Wireless telecommunications carriers are deploying several new technologies to allow faster data transmission and better Internet access that should make them competitive with wire line carriers. One technology is called third generation (3G) wireless access. With this technology, wireless carriers plan to sell music, videos, and other exclusive content that can be downloaded and played on phones designed for 3G technologies. Wireless carriers are developing the next generation of technologies that will surpass 3G with even faster data transmission. Another technology is called â€Å"fixed wireless service,† which involves connecting the telephone and/or Internet wiring system in a home or business to an antenna, instead of a telephone line. The replacement of landlines with cellular service should become increasingly common because advances in wireless systems will provide data transmission speeds comparable to broadband landline systems. †¢ Changes in technology and regulation now allow cable television providers to compete directly with telephone companies. An important change has been the rapid increase in two-way communications capacity. Conventional pay television services provided communications only from the distributor to the customer. These services could not provide effective communications from the customer back to other points in the system, due to signal interference and the limited capacity of conventional cable systems. As cable operators implement new technologies to reduce signal interference and increase the capacity of their distribution systems by installing fiber optic cables and improved data compression, some pay television systems now offer two-way telecommunications services, such as video-on-demand and high-speed Internet access. Cable companies are also increasing their share of the telephone communications market both through their network of conventional phone lines in some areas and their growing ability to use high-speed Internet access to provide VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). †¢ VoIP is sometimes called Internet telephony, because it uses the Internet to transmit phone calls. While conventional phone networks use packet switching to break up a call onto multiple shared lines between central offices, VoIP extends this process to the phone. A VoIP phone will break the conversation into digital packets and transmit those packets over a high-speed Internet connection. Cable companies are using the technology to offer phone services without building a conventional phone network. Wireline providers’ high-speed Internet connections also can be used for VoIP and cellular phones are being developed that use VoIP to make calls using local wireless Internet connections. All of the major sectors of the telecommunications industry are or will increasingly use VoIP. Demographic †¢ The telecommunications industry offers steady, year-round employment. Overtime sometimes is required, especially during emergencies such as floods or hurricanes when employees may need to report to work with little notice. †¢ Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations account for 1 in 4 telecommunications jobs. Telecommunications line installers and repairers, one of the largest occupations, work in a variety of places, both indoors and outdoors, and in all kinds of weather. Their work involves lifting, climbing, reaching, stooping, crouching, and crawling. They must work in high places such as rooftops and telephone poles, or below ground when working with buried lines. Their jobs bring them into proximity with electrical wires and circuits, so they must take precautions to avoid shocks. These workers must wear safety equipment when entering manholes, and test for the presence of gas before going underground. Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers, generally work indoors—most often in a telecommunication company’s central office or a customer’s place of business. They may have to stand for long periods; climb ladders; and do some reaching, stooping, and light lifting. Adherence to safety precautions is essential to guard against work injuries such as minor burns and electrical shock. †¢ Most communications equipment operators, such as telephone operators, work at video display terminals in pleasant, well-lighted, air-conditioned surroundings. If the worksite is not well designed, however, operators may experience eye strain and back discomfort. The rapid pace of the job and close supervision may cause stress. Some workplaces have introduced innovative practices among their operators to reduce job-related stress. †¢ The number of disabling injuries in telephone communications, the principal sector of the telecommunications industry, has been well below the average for all industries in past years. †¢ The telecommunications industry offers employment in jobs requiring a variety of skills and training. Many jobs require at least a high school diploma or an associate degree in addition to on-the-job training. Other jobs require particular skills that may take several years of experience to learn completely. For some managerial and professional jobs, employers require a college education. †¢ Due to the rapid introduction of new technologies and services, the telecommunications industry is among the most rapidly changing in the economy. This means workers must keep their job skills up to date. From managers to communications equipment operators, increased knowledge of both computer hardware and software is of paramount importance. Several major companies and the telecommunications unions have created a Web site that provides free training for employees, enabling them to keep their knowledge current and helping them to advance. Telecommunications industry employers now look for workers with knowledge of and skills in computer programming and software design; voice telephone technology, known as telephony; laser and fiber optic technology; wireless technology; and data compression. Political/Legal †¢ Telecommunications Act: Enacted by the U.S. Congress on February 1, 1996, and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the law’s main purpose was to stimulate competition in the United States telecom sector. †¢ FCC controls the wireless spectrum allocations among the various broadcasters and service providers. This allocation is through a competitive auction at high cost to service providers, which result in an increase of debt burden of these companies, eventually trickling down to consumers. †¢ FCC as a watchdog regulates that there be no monopoly of a single player in the telecom market. Mergers and consolidation among companies is closely watched and evaluated before being allowed Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis 1. Threat of New Entrants – No surprise, in the capital-intensive telecom industry the biggest barrier-to-entry is access to finance. To cover high fixed costs, serious contenders typically require a lot of cash. When capital markets are generous, the threat of competitive entrants escalates. When financing opportunities are less readily available, the pace of entry slows. Meanwhile, ownership of a telecom license can represent a huge barrier to entry. In the US, for instance, fledgling telecom operators must still apply to the Federal Communications Commission to receive regulatory approval and licensing. There is also a finite amount of â€Å"good† radio spectrum that lends itself to mobile voice and data applications. In addition, it is important to remember that solid operating skills and management experience is fairly scarce, making entry even more difficult. 2. Power of Suppliers – At first glance, it might look like telecom equipment suppliers have considerable bargaining power over telecom operators. Indeed, without high-tech broadband switching equipment, fiber-optic cables, mobile handsets and billing software, telecom operators would not be able to do the job of transmitting voice and data from place to place. But there are actually a large number of large equipment makers around. Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, Nokia, Alcatel, Ericsson, Tellabs are just a few of the supplier names. There are enough vendors, arguably, to dilute bargaining power. The limited pool of talented managers and engineers, especially those well versed in the latest technologies, places companies in a weak position in terms of hiring and salaries. 3. Power of Buyers – With increased choice of telecom products and services, the bargaining power of buyers is rising. Let’s face it; telephone and data services do not much vary regardless of which companies are selling them. For the most part, basic services are treated as a commodity. This translates into customers seeking low prices from companies that offer reliable service. At the same time, buyer power can vary somewhat among market segments. Customers can be as small as individual residential users like you or me, or be as big as an ISP like America Online or a large university. While switching costs are relatively low for residential telecom customers, they can get higher for larger business customers, especially those that rely more on customized products and services. 4. Availability of Substitutes – Products and services from non-traditional telecom industries pose serious substitution threats. Cable TV and satellite operators now compete for buyers. The cable guys, with their own direct lines into homes, offer broadband Internet services, and satellite links can substitute for high-speed business networking needs. Railways and energy utility companies are laying miles of high-capacity telecom network alongside their own track and pipeline assets. Just as worrying for telecom operators is the Internet: it is becoming a viable vehicle for cut-rate voice calls. Delivered by ISPs – not telecom operators – â€Å"Internet telephony† could take a big bite out of telecom companies’ core voice revenues. 5. Competitive Rivalry – Competition is â€Å"cut throat†. The wave of industry de-regulation together with the receptive capital markets of the late 1990s paved the way for a rush of new entrants. New technology is prompting a raft of substitute services. Nearly everybody already pays for phone services, so all competitors now must lure customers with lower prices and more exciting services. This tends to drive industry profitability down. In addition to low profits, the telecom industry suffers from high exit barriers, mainly due to its specialized equipment. Networks and billing systems cannot really be used for much else, and their swift obsolescence makes liquidation pretty difficult.

Lead Facts - Element 82 or Pb

Lead Facts - Element 82 or Pb Lead is a heavy metallic element, commonly encountered in radiation shielding and soft alloys. Heres a collection of interesting facts about lead, including about its properties, uses, and sources. Interesting Lead Facts Lead is a relatively abundant element because it the endpoint of the decay schemes of many radioactive elements with higher atomic numbers.Because its fairly easy to extract (for a metal), lead has been used since prehistoric time. Lead was readily available to common people in the Roman Empire, finding use in dishes, plumbing, coins, and statues. People used it for everyday items for thousands of years, until if was finally found to be poisonous toward the end of the 19th century.Tetraethyl lead was added to gasoline to reduce engine knock in the 1920s. Even when it was invented, it was known to be poisonous. Several factory workers died from lead exposure. However, leaded gas wasnt phased out until the 1970s or banned for use in road vehicles until 1996. The metal is still used in car batteries, for making leaded glass, and for radiation shielding. Worldwide production and use of the metal continues to increase.Lead is a post-transition metal. Its not as reactive as many other meta ls, except in powdered state. It displays weak metallic character, often forming covalent bonds with other elements. The element readily bonds to itself, forming rings, chains, and polyhedrons. Unlike most metals, lead is soft, dull, and not very good at conducting electricity. Powdered lead burns with a blue-white flame. The powdered metal is pyrophoric.Pencil lead is actually the graphite form of carbon, but lead metal is soft enough to leave a mark. Lead was used as an early writing instrument.Lead compounds taste sweet. Lead acetate has been called sugar of lead and was used as a sweetener in the past.In the past, it was difficult for people to tell tin and lead apart. They were thought to be two forms of the same substance. Lead was called plumbum nigrum (black lead) while tin was called plumbum candidum (bright lead). Lead Atomic Data Element Name: Lead Symbol: Pb Atomic Number: 82 Atomic Weight: 207.2 Element Group: Basic Metal Discovery: Known to the ancients, with a history dating back at least 7000 years. Mentioned in the book of Exodus. Name Origin: Anglo-Saxon: lead; symbol from Latin: plumbum. Density (g/cc): 11.35 Melting Point (Â °K): 600.65 Boiling Point (Â °K): 2013 Properties: Lead is an extremely soft, highly malleable and ductile, poor electrical conductor, resistant to corrosion, blue-white shiny metal that tarnishes to dull gray in air. Lead is the only metal in which there is zero Thomson effect. Lead is a cumulative poison. Atomic Radius (pm): 175 Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 18.3 Covalent Radius (pm): 147 Ionic Radius: 84 (4e) 120 (2e) Specific Heat (20Â °C J/g mol): 0.159 Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 4.77 Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 177.8 Debye Temperature (Â °K): 88.00 Pauling Negativity Number: 1.8 First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 715.2 Oxidation States: 4, 2 Electronic Configuration: [Xe] 4f145d106s26p2 Lattice Structure: Face-Centered Cubic (FCC) Lattice Constant (Ã…): 4.950 Isotopes: Natural lead is a mixture of four stable isotopes: 204Pb (1.48%), 206Pb (23.6%), 207Pb (22.6%), and 208Pb (52.3%). Twenty-seven other isotopes are known, all radioactive. Uses: Lead is used as a sound absorber, x radiation shield, and to absorb vibrations. It is used in fishing weights, to coat the wicks of some candles, as a coolant (molten lead), as ballast, and for electrodes. Lead compounds are used in paints, insecticides, and storage batteries. The oxide is used to make leaded crystal and flint glass. Alloys are used as solder, pewter, type metal, bullets, shot, antifriction lubricants, and plumbing. Sources: Lead exists in its native form, though it is rare. Lead may be obtained from galena (PbS) by a roasting process. Other common lead minerals include anglesite, cerussite, and minim. Other Facts: Alchemists believed lead to be the oldest metal. It was associated with the planet Saturn. References: Los Alamos National Laboratory (2001), Crescent Chemical Company (2001), Langes Handbook of Chemistry (1952)

Research Paper on Snowboarding

Research Paper on Snowboarding Snowboarding is a new sport that is very challenging and is attracting new fans all around the world. Snowboarding has really changed since it was first invented. It has become one of the fastest growing sports in America and the world. People everywhere including me are waiting for the snow to get a chance to go snowboarding. Snowboarding is the cross between surfing and skateboarding. Snowboarding has evolved into a great new sport but when it was first invented in the early 1900’s it was thought to be a child’s toy. Since that time it has changed from a child’s sport to a new competitive sport that features men and woman. Now days there are many competitions for snowboarding. Some people saw snowboarding as an alternative to surfing, skiing, and skateboarding. People who couldn’t buy surfing boards like Jake Burton used snowboarding as an alternative. It was a new sport and cheap to buy a snowboard. People who liked skateboarding saw snowboarding as a new sport that they could make their mark on. Nobody knows who invented the snowboard but in 1929 M.J. â€Å"Jack† Burchett invented one of the first snowboards. He cut out a piece of plywood and tried to secure his feet with some clothesline and horse reins. Thirty years later the next step in snowboarding was taken when Sherman Poppen, a chemical gases engineer invented â€Å"The Snurfer† as a toy for his daughter. Poppen made the â€Å"Snurfer† by bounding two skis together and putting a rope at the nose, so that the rider could hold it and keep it stable. Soon many of his daughter’s friends wanted a â€Å"Snurfer† too. So Poppen licensed his idea to a manufacturer and in 1966 â€Å"The Snurfer† sold over half a million times. In 1979 Poppen left the snowboarding business after Burton came up with the bindings and went back to his old profession. Another inventor was Jake Burton who became interested in snowboarding after taking part in Poppen’s â€Å"Snurfer† competitions that Poppen organized. His parents wouldn’t buy him a surfboard so riding the â€Å"Snurfer† was a new cool thing to do. In 1977 after he finished college Burton moved to Londonderry, Vermont to make money building different types of the Snurfer. He made his first boards out of laminated hardwood. While at a Snurfer competition in 1979 Burton shocked everyone by using his new board which had the first binding. The new binding made a big difference for handling the board and the binding made it easier for him to beat the other riders. In 1969 Dimitrije Milovich started making snowboards after he got the idea from sliding down a hill on a cafeteria plate in college. His snowboards were based on surfboards combined with the way skis work. In 1972 Dimitrije started a new company called â€Å"Winterstick†. He produced lots of snowboards and even got articles in magazines like â€Å"News Week†, â€Å"Playboy†, and â€Å"Power† which gave snowboarding lots of notoriety. In 1980 Milovich left the snowboarding business. He was still known as a very important pioneer of the sport. At the same time that Jake Burton was producing his snowboards Tom Sims produced his first snowboards in 1977. Sims was an avid skateboarder who made a â€Å"snowboard† in a junior high school shop class. He made his out of carpet wood and aluminum. He glued some carpet to the top of a piece of wood and put an aluminum sheeting on the bottom. He started making snowboards in 1977 in his garage with his friend and employee Chuck Barfoot. Barfoot actually made the boards and came up with the â€Å"Flying Yellow Banana†. It was a skateboard deck on top of a plastic shell with skegs. During 1980 Sims signed a skate-snowboarding deal with a big company Vision Sports. Signing the deal helped Sims get out of his financial problems but his friend Barfoot was left out and tried to go into business for himself but couldn’t compete with big competitors like Sims and Burton. The first modern competitive snowboarding contest took place in Leadville, Colorado in 1981. Then snowboarding competition took off from there and became world wide. In 1982 the first national snowboarding race was held in Suicide Six, outside of Woodstock, Vermont. Because of the conditions of the hill the goal of the race appeared to be mostly just surviving the race. The race was on a steep icy downhill run called â€Å"The Face†. Paul Graves put it on and Tom Simms and Jake Burton competed. Doug Bouton wins first place overall. This race marked the last time that snowboards and snurfer’s raced together. In 1983 Jake Burton puts on the national snowboarding championships in Snow Valley. A couple of months later Tom Sims holds the inaugural World Snowboarding Championships at Soda Springs Ski Bowl in Lake Tahoe. That contest featured the first contest with a half pipe. In 1986 the World Snowboarding Championships move from Soda Springs to Colorado. In 1986 a new European snowboarding generation is launched. Then the Europeans began to organize their own regional events like the Swiss Championships in St. Moritz. In 1987 a group of riders and manufacturers form N.A.S.B.A. who’s main goal is to create a unified World Cup tour with the Europeans. In 1988 N.A.S.B.A. got its wish and the first world cup was held in both Europe and the United States. On a interesting note one million dollars is spent on the Victoria World Cup in Japan. It was the most expensive snowboarding contest ever. In 1994 everybody was happy because snowboarding was declared a Winter Olympic sport. It was finally accepted as a real competitive sport. In the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan it was the first time ever that snowboarding was in the Olympics.

Blog Writing on Bani Bani Bani Re Bani

Blog writing on â€Å"Bani Bani Bani Re Bani† from â€Å"Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon†.    Bani Bani song is taken from Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon. This song is a dance performance by Kareena Kapoor. Chitra, the singer of Bani Bani voice was high-pitched as ever. Her dandiyal or tribal tune happens as courtesy of her effervescence. Bani Bani is the most passionate song of the year. Music of main prem ki Diwani hoon is beautiful song and new feel in the particular song. Anu Malik proves as genius musician for the movie ("Bani Bani - Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon _ HD"). Kareena Kapoor is delight to watch in this song. She is wearing red legenga dress in the song and dances in every beat of the song. Kareena Kapoor was remarkable throughout the film. Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon is worth successor of one of the Sooraj R Barjatya previous hits. Bani Bani is one good picturised song. This is a peppy Bollywood Song that is sung by Chitra released in the year 2003. It is from Rajshri Productions starring Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan. This song was beautifully choreo graphed and Kareena Kapoor provides justice in following the steps in nice way. As far as review is concerned, it has diverse opinion from viewers who have watched the movie. Some feels Sooraj; the Director had successfully won heart of audience the fourth time. Some felt that the movie was worst movie in Bollywood. According to few viewers, the song could have been made better with much better steps.   I feel that Kareena Kapoor has the potential in giving more edge to the dancing steps of Bani Bani. She has done justice in following the steps of the choreographer and putting her best to entertain her fans and audience. I felt this was one of the best songs from Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon. This dance was performed by Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor) at one of her college fest. She was happy and refrained in the song with bit of sadness as Prem (Hrithik) was not present in the show for watching it. As Kareena was in love with Prem, she was imagining him in each of the steps and b ing happy by his presence. However, in actual, Prem (Abhishek Bachchan) was watching Sanjana dance and enjoying her beautiful presence on stage. Abhishek Bachchan visualizes his life with Sanjana and gets mesmerized by her dancing skills and expression. He was constantly staring at Kareena’s performance without blinking his eyes for a second. Sanjana’s dad was frustrated of the fact that her daughter was imagining Hrithik as her life partner, which is not the real motive of her mother. On the other hand, her mother was happy, as Sanjana will get married to rich businessperson like her elder sister. There was great confus ion in the movie that was revealed at the end with a â€Å"happy ending†. This song was set with vibrant colours and ravishing background. It gave the feel of â€Å"that† bollywood magical- romantic song which every happy go lucky girl would love to hum and dance.  Ã‚   "Bani Bani - Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon _ HD".  YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 June 2016.

Benefits of Walking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Benefits of Walking - Essay Example Walking reduces weight by burning excessive calories in the body. For instance, a person who weighs sixty kilograms can burn up to seventy-five calories simply by walking for thirty minutes at 2mph. walking is therefore an exercise highly recommended for people who would like to lose weight. The faster an individual walks for a given time duration, the more calories are burned. Another health benefit of walking is that walking lowers the risk of getting certain diseases. Brisk walking for up to thirty minutes daily can help reduce the risks of getting diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, certain type of cancer and asthma among others. Doctors believe that walking improves blood circulation within the body therefore reducing the risks of getting diseases. In addition to lowering the risk of acquiring certain diseases and maintain good weight, walking gives an individual energy. Although it may seem a paradox, researchers have found out that brisk walking is an energizer. As an individual walks, blood circulation in the body is boosted which implies that oxygen supply in the body becomes sufficient thereby making one to feel energetic and alive. Walking also eases the muscle tension, strengthens joints and hence making an individual feel relaxed, and

Historical Developments that Presented New Opportunities and Desires Term Paper

Historical Developments that Presented New Opportunities and Desires for Women - Term Paper Example Introduction Today, with women occupying many high ranking positions at work both in the private and public sectors, it is difficult to imagine and contextualize a time in the past when they were confined to the household and generally restricted and discriminated upon when it comes to the issue of working and employment. It is even no longer fashionable to talk about the glass ceiling in the corporate ladder presently because many female executives are making waves in the corporate world. While, America is yet to see a female president, there is no shortage of powerful female politicians that became influential in Washington and overseas. It is, unarguably, the best time yet for American women to live, work, compete and achieve things for themselves. Looking back, the women of the past were not that lucky. They have to fight for equality and for the recognition that they, too, have rights and capabilities that can be as useful and meaningful as those of men’s. Remember the La dies In the early years of the United States as a country, the first opportunity for change emerged. It was in search for the values, norms, identity and character that would define the nation. There are several notable women who made a difference and helped shape the course of the path that America took during these times. For instance, there is the case of the documented correspondence between John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams, which demonstrated how Mrs. Adams led the women of her day to empower women and fight for their rights. In a letter dated March 31, 1776, she wrote her husband during the Continental Congress, which is on the process of drafting the Declaration of Independence. She reminded Adams that: I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. The correspondence did not reveal the extent of the impact of Abigail Adams’ admonitions. In the end, the Founding Fathers came up with the classic line in the Declaration that, â€Å"all men are created equal.† Her experience depicted how the American society during this period has displayed a stereotypical view of women, wherein they are widely seen to belong at home in the so-called cult of domesticity. Nonetheless, Abigail Adams is considered one of the pioneering women that launched the process of women emancipation and gender equality. Her actions served as an inspiration for many feminists that would come after her. More and more women became educated as schools were set up for them by individuals who advocate equal rights. There are numerous other developments driven by individual personages and they all influenced the trajectory of women empowerment later on. In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt became influential in advancing many of the women’s causes. During the Great Depressio n, she was at the forefront of those exhorting women to contribute something to their country and to alleviate the crisis. In one of her pronouncements, she stated that, â€Å"The women know that life must go on and that the needs of life must be met and it is their courage and determination which, time and again, have pulled us

Interactive Whiteboards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interactive Whiteboards - Essay Example "And the color, movement, sound and participation all come without messy chalk, stinky dry erase markers and copies of transparencies" (par. 2). Interactive whiteboards offer tremendous benefits not only for students, but also for teachers. They assist "people of many learning styles and save teachers time and space. Lessons can be saved into the system and can easily incorporate countless videos, maps, photos and websites. Teachers can pause videos and write notes on the screen, science classes can explore frogs through virtual dissection and geometry figures can be rotated, shrunk or expanded" (par. 18). In short, they make classroom instruction more efficient and learning more fun and interesting. The ability to harness the power, depth and breadth of the internet in this manner offers infinite new ways to try and reach out to students to grab their attention and improve their understanding of the material. There are many examples of ways in which this new technology has been and can be applied within the classroom. "Teachers can put a pyramid on the board and turn it so the class can see all the angles and sides. Students can count vertices by touching them on the board and setting them off in another color. Teachers can bounce between editing a paper on the board to searching for something online to illustrating what 1/16th of an inch looks like on a ruler" (par. 4). Any subject from math to literature to art and music can greatly benefit from these cybertronic chalkboards. This emerging hardware technology is significant because of its potential to revolutionize classrooms and teaching approaches. In the past, classroom instruction has tended to be one dimensional, very static, and non-interactive. Teachers would write on chalkboards or overhead slides, and would often be confined to the limited universe of often out-of-date instructional aids and materials to which they happened to have access. The ability of students to actively participate in a lesson, beyond raising their hand to answer the teacher's questions or make comments in a class discussion, was quite limited. With interactive whiteboards, teachers have the ability to take their lessons "outside of the box." Virtually any material available on the internet that pertains to the subject matter being taught can be summoned right then and there during a classroom lesson. This enables a much more detailed, nuanced and up-to-date discussion of the material. Further, students have a much greater opportunity to participate in the lesson in a meaningful way in which they can really interact with and digest the material. For example, at Centerville Elementary School in Minnesota, the technology prompted students to utilize their down time more productively, gathering around the board to review the material that had been taught earlier. "Using their fingers they dragged numbers on the screen into blank spots on a triangle as part of a math problem. When it's time for the class to leave for their next activity, one student pleads to the teacher, 'Can we check if it's right before we go'" (par. 11). As part of a literature lesson at the same school, teacher Tony Valenti used the device to bring to life the book

Applied science Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Applied science Report - Research Paper Example While clinical science includes a scientific component, it also includes aspects of care such as communication and knowledge, acquired through interaction in the health care environment. Clinical science is distinguished from medical practice, in that it includes experiences and knowledge gained through interaction, as well as relevant data surrounding clinical issues. Daniels & Powell (2006) define clinical science as â€Å"the contributions of scientific disciplines to health promotion and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease through the development, communication and application of new knowledge.† The definition does not suggest, however, the existing knowledge and experiences are cast aside, in preference of more current findings. It implies that existing knowledge, experience and data can be used to further advance or develop new methods of inquiry and new approaches for the clinical setting. Two topics of interest in clinical science today are those of exer cise and sports psychology. Exercise is an increasingly important topic, as more Americans face health issues, due to sedentary lifestyles. Benefits of regular exercise are linked to longevity and holistic wellbeing of a person. Sports psychology is an important topic, as it provides insight into how top athletes develop and how they are able to become the best and fiercest competitors. This report will investigate how a physical activity program and visualization techniques can be coupled, to improve overall fitness. â€Å"Numerous athletes are turning towards mental imagery to take their game to the next level† (Plessinger, 2011). Understanding how athletes use imagery can help those who adopt a regular exercise program achieve the results they desire. Research Method The method of research used for this report is inquiry into current literature on both the benefits of regular exercise and the benefits of visualization in exercise. Data collected from literature includes sc ientific journals on exercise and sports performance, with the inclusion of reports available on the internet, which focus on health benefits of exercise and the benefits of visualization in sports. Key words used to find relevant literature include visualization in sports, benefits of regular exercise, mental imagery in sports, science in exercise and use of mental imagery in competition. The databases used for journal articles are Academic Search Premier, for articles in Journal of Sports Behavior and Ebscohost, for Journal of Physiological Anthropology. Ebscohost is also used for the Book by Carol W. Kraak and Vivica I. Articles pertaining to sports performance were also obtained directly from the Vanderbilt University, Psychology Department website and from the University of Minnesota, Department of Medicine site. Findings Physical Exercise With realization on benefits of regular exercise comes the pressure of incorporating exercise program into already over-crowded and busy dai ly routines. This means that maximal benefits are sought under the shortest span possible, predisposing one to risk of injury and chronic fatigue. Therefore, there is need to formulate a proper working out program. It is of great importance that before commencing an exercise program, one should consult with a clinical physician or a qualified sports physician. This takes

Federal Subsidized Housing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Federal Subsidized Housing - Essay Example The CHA is governed by commissioners who are appointed by the mayor. The first Executive Director of the CHA was Elizabeth Wood. Who served for 17 years. During the Wood years the CHA became immersed in perpetuating an obvious pattern of institutional racism: The federal Housing Act of 1937 in conjunction with the Chicago Public Works Administration were successful in completing four low-rise (two to four story building prior to World War II. Three of these projects were opened in 1938: Jane Adams House, on the near west side, comprising of 32 buildings which housed 1,027 families; Julia C, Lanthrop Homes on the north side housed 925 families and Trumbull Park Homes on the far south side for 426 families. These three complexes were built primarily for whites (although 2.5 per cent or 60 units were set aside for African Americans). In 1940 The CHA embarked on a pattern which would later be challenged as a social, moral and legal travesty. In 1941 the CHA completed construction of its first public housing project exclusive for African Americans and situated it in the heart of an African American (Ghetto) neighborhood. The Ida B. Wells House was considerably larger than the CHA’s previous projects, and it accommodated 1,662 families.... a myth which permeated every (white) neighborhood in Chicago. Not only did the CHA promote its promulgation on the local level, the federal government under the"Neighborhood Composition Rule", gave tacit approval for the furtherance of institutional racism, when it stipulated: that the tenants of a housing development be of the same race as the people in the area in which it was situated. (Hilliard1966) Many northerners took a special type of "white" pride in decrying the antics and overt racism of their southern brothers, while declaring that they (northern whites) were all liberals, who believed in the absolute provisions of the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution, which provides human and civil rights for all men, regardless of their race or skin color. In his pre World War II study of the race situation in America, Gunnar Myrdal presented his findings on the heightened hypocrisy which existed in the souls and minds of most white Americans in general and in this instance of Chicagoans in particular; Another form of discrimination in the North against Negroes is in the market forHouses and apartments; whites try to keep Negroes out of white neighborhoods by Restrictive covenants. The legality of these covenants is open to dispute, but in soFar as the local courts uphold them, the discrimination is in the legal principle, not In the individual cases brought to court. (Myrdal 527)This study by Myrdal is required reading (at least passages and

Interactive Whiteboards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interactive Whiteboards - Essay Example "And the color, movement, sound and participation all come without messy chalk, stinky dry erase markers and copies of transparencies" (par. 2). Interactive whiteboards offer tremendous benefits not only for students, but also for teachers. They assist "people of many learning styles and save teachers time and space. Lessons can be saved into the system and can easily incorporate countless videos, maps, photos and websites. Teachers can pause videos and write notes on the screen, science classes can explore frogs through virtual dissection and geometry figures can be rotated, shrunk or expanded" (par. 18). In short, they make classroom instruction more efficient and learning more fun and interesting. The ability to harness the power, depth and breadth of the internet in this manner offers infinite new ways to try and reach out to students to grab their attention and improve their understanding of the material. There are many examples of ways in which this new technology has been and can be applied within the classroom. "Teachers can put a pyramid on the board and turn it so the class can see all the angles and sides. Students can count vertices by touching them on the board and setting them off in another color. Teachers can bounce between editing a paper on the board to searching for something online to illustrating what 1/16th of an inch looks like on a ruler" (par. 4). Any subject from math to literature to art and music can greatly benefit from these cybertronic chalkboards. This emerging hardware technology is significant because of its potential to revolutionize classrooms and teaching approaches. In the past, classroom instruction has tended to be one dimensional, very static, and non-interactive. Teachers would write on chalkboards or overhead slides, and would often be confined to the limited universe of often out-of-date instructional aids and materials to which they happened to have access. The ability of students to actively participate in a lesson, beyond raising their hand to answer the teacher's questions or make comments in a class discussion, was quite limited. With interactive whiteboards, teachers have the ability to take their lessons "outside of the box." Virtually any material available on the internet that pertains to the subject matter being taught can be summoned right then and there during a classroom lesson. This enables a much more detailed, nuanced and up-to-date discussion of the material. Further, students have a much greater opportunity to participate in the lesson in a meaningful way in which they can really interact with and digest the material. For example, at Centerville Elementary School in Minnesota, the technology prompted students to utilize their down time more productively, gathering around the board to review the material that had been taught earlier. "Using their fingers they dragged numbers on the screen into blank spots on a triangle as part of a math problem. When it's time for the class to leave for their next activity, one student pleads to the teacher, 'Can we check if it's right before we go'" (par. 11). As part of a literature lesson at the same school, teacher Tony Valenti used the device to bring to life the book

Federal Subsidized Housing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Federal Subsidized Housing - Essay Example The CHA is governed by commissioners who are appointed by the mayor. The first Executive Director of the CHA was Elizabeth Wood. Who served for 17 years. During the Wood years the CHA became immersed in perpetuating an obvious pattern of institutional racism: The federal Housing Act of 1937 in conjunction with the Chicago Public Works Administration were successful in completing four low-rise (two to four story building prior to World War II. Three of these projects were opened in 1938: Jane Adams House, on the near west side, comprising of 32 buildings which housed 1,027 families; Julia C, Lanthrop Homes on the north side housed 925 families and Trumbull Park Homes on the far south side for 426 families. These three complexes were built primarily for whites (although 2.5 per cent or 60 units were set aside for African Americans). In 1940 The CHA embarked on a pattern which would later be challenged as a social, moral and legal travesty. In 1941 the CHA completed construction of its first public housing project exclusive for African Americans and situated it in the heart of an African American (Ghetto) neighborhood. The Ida B. Wells House was considerably larger than the CHA’s previous projects, and it accommodated 1,662 families.... a myth which permeated every (white) neighborhood in Chicago. Not only did the CHA promote its promulgation on the local level, the federal government under the"Neighborhood Composition Rule", gave tacit approval for the furtherance of institutional racism, when it stipulated: that the tenants of a housing development be of the same race as the people in the area in which it was situated. (Hilliard1966) Many northerners took a special type of "white" pride in decrying the antics and overt racism of their southern brothers, while declaring that they (northern whites) were all liberals, who believed in the absolute provisions of the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution, which provides human and civil rights for all men, regardless of their race or skin color. In his pre World War II study of the race situation in America, Gunnar Myrdal presented his findings on the heightened hypocrisy which existed in the souls and minds of most white Americans in general and in this instance of Chicagoans in particular; Another form of discrimination in the North against Negroes is in the market forHouses and apartments; whites try to keep Negroes out of white neighborhoods by Restrictive covenants. The legality of these covenants is open to dispute, but in soFar as the local courts uphold them, the discrimination is in the legal principle, not In the individual cases brought to court. (Myrdal 527)This study by Myrdal is required reading (at least passages and

Program Design of an Outpatient Adolescent Prevention Essay Example for Free

Program Design of an Outpatient Adolescent Prevention Essay The adolescence stage is often characterized as the stage of maturing from childhood to adulthood. This stage of maturing commonly occurs at the age of 12 for males and 14 for females. This is where significant developments in both physical and mental abilities of an individual begin to happen as early signs of puberty stage. This is the moment where a person or an individual starts to operate according to his or her own personal views in life and practice independence from their guardians. Furthermore, adolescence is the stage of trials where teenagers are expected to be active in doing things that differ from the usual, which will satisfy their urges due to their growing curiosity. Professionals normally define adolescence as the most critical stage of growing up. This is where an invidual experiences sudden changes in sexual drives, acquire mood swings, develop relationship with the opposite gender, and encounter different kinds of difficulties in shool and at home. Apart from these technical defiinitions of adolescence stage, it is also the stage where young people from 12 to 19 years old start to be involved in different types of substance abuse (Answers.com Health, 2008).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are different kinds of substance abuse that adolescence are faced with, namely, cigarettes,   alcohol, and drugs. These are the most popular substances of modern time amongst teenager. According to recent reasearch archives, data shows that alcohol and drug abuse are the most common substance that teenagers abuse. In 2006, there was 1.2 million adolescents from 12 to 17 years old who smoked cigerettes; 631,000 drank alcohol; and 586,000 experienced drug dependency (Focus Adolescent Services, 2008).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This data clearly indicates that most of young individuals in the puberty stage are involved to these kinds of abuses. Figures mentioned show that drug abuse has the lowest percentage of abuse among the three substances. Continuous efforts and programs to decrease the number of adolescents involved in drug dependency is constantly needed because of the high potential hazardous effect it can cause to the life of young individuals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Moreover, efforts and supportive programs are implemented over the years, considering the serious effect that drug abuse can cause on the lives of the youth. Because of the active campaign to battle adolescents drug dependency, success is evident in positive results that show the decreasig number of young ones involved in drugs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One effective way of treatment for adolescent drug dependency is by means of drug rehabilitation centers. This is the traditional method for treating drug dependency among individuals. These centers are characterized as the special environment for drug abusers coming from different backgrounds, who are advised to stay in the facility for a certain period of time to achieve the needed treatment for addiction. These treatments include detoxification and counselling for possible success of recovery from drug dependents (theraphistunlimited.com outpatient). In addition, drug rehabilitation centers gurantee to properly address the needed medications of drug addicts through effective programs conducted by professional doctors, psychiatrists and counsellors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Aside from the traditional way of drug rehabilitation, another possible way to properly address the abuse of drugs among teenagers is through outpatient rehabilitation. This program has the same purpose of addressing needed medications for adolescent drug abusers. However, with this type of program, patients no longer need to stay inside the rehabilitation center to get needed attention from addiction to recover from drug abuse. Basically, outpatient rehabilitation is like a live-in residential program that is usually done at home (theraphistunlimited.com outpatient). Although outpatient program is advisable for minor cases only, it has a big potential to be as effective as the traditional rehabilitation center. With the proper formulation and implementation of this program for adolescents involved in drug abuse, outpatient program can be a reliable way to properly address drug abuse among teenager. Furthermore, this type of program is advisable to ensure continuous recovery of   the patient after undergoing treatment in a rehabilitation center (theraphistunlimited.com outpatient).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In accordance with the concept of outpatient rehabilitation program, I designed a program design for outpatient adolescents who engage in drug abuse. This program is formulated to contribute on the ongoing campaign to lower the rate of adolescents that are suffering from drug abuse. The main objective of this program is to protect the adolescents from the risk of further deterioration of drug abuse. Drug dependency in the puberty stage is a critical issue that needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, this program will make its own contribution to ease the problem of drug abuse. It will focus on rehabilitative works for adolescents to further effect recovery from drug abuse and addiction. Outpatient rehabilitation may be advisable among adolescents with minor drug abuse only. However, the program will also serve as a safety measure to ensure the effectivity of the rehabilitation center towards full recovery of the patient. Furthermore, the target of this program are the teenagers who have undergone treatment in rehabilitation centers for treatment of drug abuse. With this design, adolescents will be advised to attend a program that will keep them interested to stay away from drugs and show them positive outcome of recovering from drug abuse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the understanding that teenagers are having a hard time recovering from drug abuse, the design of this outpatient program will protect the iniatives done by the decisive adolescents to recover from drug abuse. Also, through this program, patients will get the guarantee of effective service to help regain composure as they start to work their way to be part of the community again. Furthermore, this program will work to maintain the momentum of affecting change towards full recovery of adolescents from drug abuse. Its service will be characterized as a further rehabilitative medication for adolescents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To be an effective outpatient rehabilitation program for adolescents, the program is composed of major features to address accordingly the needed treatment for drug abuse. First on the list is to empower family support. This is to explain to the family that their efforts and care is needed for the recovery of the patient. Second, the Comprehensive Education about drugs, which will give the patient the needed information about the proper use of drugs and its negative effect to the body if abused. With this, adolescents may understand that abusing drugs can cause serious effects in their health. Third is counselling and sessions with a former adolescent drug abuser who succesfully recovered from addiction. The primary purpose of which is to inspire the patient to work hard for recovery and instill positive views to stop drug abuse for a better life and future. Fourth is the Recretional Activity, which aims to give the patient a chance to be involved in various acitivities to regain confidence that will help him or her start a new life after engaging in drug addiction. Fifth is the Religious exercise. With this, adolescent drug abusers may realize the bright side of living a new life. Last of the features is regular check-ups of physician and psychiatrist to address proper medication and record the improvement of the patient. References   Focusas Adolescent (2008) Drugs and Teen Substance Abuse: Retrieved April 3 2008:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.focusas.com/substanceabuse.html Narconon. (2007). What is a Drug Rehabilitation Center. Retrieved April 3 2008 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.narcononstonehawk.com/what_is_drug_rehab.php    theraphistunlimited.com outpatient(2008), Outpatient Drug Rehabilitation: Retrieved april 3, 2008   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://therapistunlimited.com/index/Articles/Therapy++Rehab+Services/Outpatient Answers.com Health. (2008). Adolescence. Retrieved April 3, 2008, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.answers.com/topic/adolescence?cat=health

Health Essays Power Empowertment Promotion

Health Essays Power Empowertment Promotion Power and empowerment in health promotion: Discuss the implications of power and empowerment in community based health promotion. Chronic disease is now a major concern for the western world. No longer are infectious and acute diseases the leading causes of death in the UK, but chronic diseases such as cancers and obesity related disorders have now taken over as the biggest health threats to the general population. Many chronic disorders are a result, to some degree, of behavioural factors like lifestyle choices or diet. Lung cancer from smoking and Type II Diabetes through poor diet (obesity) and sedentary lifestyle are prime examples of the link between modern life and a shift towards chronic disease. As a result of this partially behavioural foundation to illness, there is the opportunity to change open to many people, and ultimately the ability to improve health and health outcomes such as life expectancy or quality of life. Health can thus be seen to be potentially determined by our actions. One way of letting people know what they should be doing to stay healthy or to improve their health is through health promotion. As set out in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO, 1986), health promotion can be defined as the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. The strategies used in health promotion programmes have been reported as diverse, through engaging in; awareness, information provision, influencing social policy, fighting for change and intervention type programmes. (Speller et al 1997) Traditionally health promotion has focused around education, prevention and protection interventions (Tannahill, 1985) and has been designed, implemented and evaluated from a top-down approaches and programmes. This is where behaviour change is generally the focus of outcome, and the issues that are being investigated are set by some form of authority, like a local health authority or even at a national level through the Government. Top down is thus where a small number of select people make the choices for people lower down the chain effectively a minority with power over the majority. Health promoters who operate in this capacity can thus be seen to hold and exert power over the population or different communities through their setting of the health promotion programmes, and through acting as gatekeepers of the information they choose to share. People in such decision-making positions may also have control over issues such as resource allocation and funding or who is given decision-making responsibilities (Laverack Laonte, 2000) and all of these factors work to take away power from the grass-roots / individual level. Real power is possessed by those who define the problem. (McKnight, 1999) Decision makers such as health promoters or authorities that dictate what people need, and what they can and cannot have in relation to health information, promotion and intervention also exert power over the population through creating individual dependency on health professionals for maintaining and responsibility for their health and wellbeing. The Ottawa Charter highlighted the need for health promotion to move beyond what is an essentially person-passive approach of receiving health promotion information and interventions, to one where individuals are enabled to become much more active participants with greater control over their health and well-being, and through instigating greater action on a community and group level. A concept known as empowerment with roots in social psychology constructs such as self-efficacy and health locus of control, refers to processes of social interaction of individuals and groups, which aim at enabling people to enhance their individual and collective skills and the scope and range of controlling their lives. (Erben, Franzkowiak Wenzel, 2000) Empowerment can thus occur at both individual and group levels, such as within communities. The basis of empowerment is essentially associated with the so-called bottom-up approach to health promotion (where the decision making process begins at the individual or group level, and these ideas are taken up the chain for approval and implementation) which has given focus to issues of concern to particular groups or individuals, and regards some improvement in their overall power or capacity as the important health outcome. (Laverack Labonte, 2000) Empowerment is seen as a particularly important strategy in enabling more marginalized groups of society, those who may be powerless in many other aspects of their lives as well as in regards to control over their health (Bergsma, 2004). The Ottawa Charter (WHO,1986) outlined the 8 fundamental pre-requisites it believed were necessary for attaining improvement in health and well-being; peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable natural environment, sustainable resources, and lastly social justice and equity. People from marginalized groups or those who are from a lower socio-economic-status (SES) background may have the basics of these elements, but not in the quantities or to the levels of those from higher SES groups. Difficulties in these areas that are common amongst marginalized and low SES groups each in themselves have implications for health (Bergsma, 2004). Low income families are more likely to have an unhealthier and less nutritious diet. This is thought to stem from financial considerations of buying some foods, but may also be a consequence of poorer education. Low SES neighborhoods are also generally found to be more stressful places to live. Higher crime rates, poorer community facilities and educational institutions have the potential of confounding the problem further. Types of work amongst different SES groups can affect health some of the blue-collar jobs types associated with low SES groups are catergorised as some of the most stressful work environments; those with low control and low decision authority such as factory work are thought more stressful than typical white-collar jobs like managerial work. Stress is well established as linked to poorer health through work like PNI (psychoneuroimmunology) where psychological stress can be translated by the body into physiological responses and cause short-term and long-term health problems (Karasek, Baker, Marxer, Ahlborn Thorell, 1981) as well as psychological distress. As factors such as low income (money worries) crime rates (living in dangerous neighborhoods) and work all and feelings of powerlessness and have the potential to cause high levels of stress, those that are experiencing a good number of these factors are likely to have poorer health (Bergsma, 2004) than those who do not have such worries or uncontrollable stressors. These factors can thus be seen to be to a large extent, difficult to control, and as such people can feel powerless to make any changes in regards to such difficulties, either through feeling that they would be unable to make any change especially making change as a lone individual (Erben, Franzkowiak Wenzel, 2000) or where through education or poor health people are not aware of what changes could help them, or being in a position to take any action. It is for reasons such as these that research have found that change in knowledge did not necessarily translate into behaviour change through action, or ultimately improved health of those within health promotion education programmes. Health promotion at an individual level may thus not be effective for all individuals who come to the education or intervention with different experiences or backgrounds. Educational level may dictate the level to which people can understand health promotion campaigns or the medical reasons why they may need to alter their behaviour. Health education promotion may also be unable to interest everyone due to the different motivations for change that people may have someone who is struggling to pay the mortgage bills to keep their house may have less motivation to ensure they are eating healthily to make sure they do not develop diabetes. These individual differences in regards to health may exert a potentially large detrimental effect on the efficacy of health promotion programmes when decision making in regards to targeted behaviour, resource allocation etc, have been made without consultation with those the intervention is designed for, as is the case in typically top-down programming approaches. Some authors have however argued that top-down and bottom-up programmes for health promotion need not necessarily operate on a mutually exclusive basis. (Laverack Labonte, 2000) These authors argue that the way in which bottom-up approaches can be incorporated into top-down programmes is through more subtle targeting of behaviours for change. The example provided by Laverack Labonte (2000) is through concern more with the group members experiences of empowerment in terms of the quality of their social relationships and self-identities than with changes in specified health behaviours. Programmes with this focus may create an environment conducive to, and a support network for people to begin to critically evaluate their health behaviour. A study involving a sample of lower income women and their concerns about themselves (body image, parental ability, managing household budgets etc) found that within the supportive environment of the group, the women began to perceive they had more control over their situation and through this an increased feeling of self-esteem through which they began to evaluate health concerns such as smoking. (Labonte, 1996; Kort 1990) In this capacity health promoters and authorities can retain control of resources and project design, although the direction of the project will be guided by a need raised by the community. Greater priority is thus gained from understanding what a group or community needs through its participation in early stages, and not assuming what may be effective (Laverack Labonte, 2000). Through this kind of design stra tegy the powerless are becoming empowered to participate in the orientation and type of health promotion they receive. Empowerment within health promotion can thus be seen to involve enabling people to take more control over their health, through teaching them the skills they need to do this; developing self-efficacy (confidence in ones ability to perform / complete a task) decision making and problem solving skills, and life skills like communication, in general. Empowerment reestablishes the individual with autonomy over their health. (Hubley, 2002) Implications of empowering people on an individual level with their health, means that people have the chance to assess what is important to them, and to be in a position of making an informed choice about what they could do to improve or resolve their health problem, and to have the skills and knowledge of knowing where to start in the correction process if they come to the decision that they do want to change. Giving someone the capacity to make an informed choice over their health does not however guarantee that they will always make the same choices as health promoters or authorities may wish them to, simply that the power has been given back to them on deciding how to proceed. Empowered individuals may subsequently decide to give up drinking but continue smoking for example. There will be consequences of individual decisions at higher levels resulting from empowerment; those that continue to engage in unhealthy behaviours that have also received empowering health promotion interventions have used health promotion resources as well as potentially needing healthcare resources such as hospital stays, surgery or palliative care later on in their life as a result of behaviours they engage in. People may also experience guilt and psychological distress after making decisions that result in a poor health outcome, or may feel under stress from the responsibility of making choices that can affect their health. Those that through empowerment have taken positive action in regards to their health may reduce their future needs for resources from the health service, and may spread knowledge such as health dieting and exercise engagement with their family and friends. There are therefore both positive and negative implications for enabling people to take the driving seat in decision-making for their health. Western contemporary society does however favor the notion of personal control rather than state control, and this therefore is complimentary to the notion of health empowerment within the health promotion perspective. Personal empowerment can be complemented through community empowerment. This model from a bottom-up approach, takes into account the many social inequalities that exist within society, and the effect that such inequalities have on the health outcomes for minority / marginalized or low SES groups, and the extent to which they can bring about change in themselves and their situations socially. Community empowerment looks at re-establishing peoples power in relation to these factors at a social and community level that is theoretically proposed as benefiting health. A community can be defined as a geographical construct, but can also relate to a group of people who share a sense of social identity, common norms, values, goals and institutions. (Bergsma, 2004) The community empowerment construct seeks to help people develop these skills within small groups or communities, in order to allow them to be in a position to participate in the decision making process within their wider community, over issues that will affect their health and their lives and control over personal, social, economic and political forces in order to take action to improve their lives. (Israel et al, 1994) One way through which communities can do this is through participatory action research, which is when professionals work in collaboration with communities to define issues, designing the research questions gathering and evaluating the data, and designing resolutions to the problems investigated and finally in acting out the change required. (Gebbie, Rosenstock Hernandez, 2002) Action within a community setting towards health is one of the five principles that were outlined in the Ottawa Charter, as the WHO believed that people needed to hold some degree of control over their living and working conditions in order to develop lifestyles conducive to health, (WHO, 1986) as community empowerment health promotion allows individuals to gain mastery and impact the social, environmental ad economic conditions that determine their health (Bergsma, 2004). Implications of working from a community empowerment model within a bottom-up health promotion strategy, can be seen to be more informed decision makers within health authorities and those in charge of resource allocation, through being better informed about community level need through the use of local knowledge. Through this strategy a number of positive implications are potentially viable in comparison to tradition top-down programmes. Decisions based on local knowledge of need are likely to result in better health change and outcome as resources are more appropriately targeted with a better understanding of the people the services are aimed at. Closer collaboration between health authorities and communities is likely to create stronger collaborative relationships, which can create an environment of trust and openness. This has positive implications two ways, firstly through a more open relationship individuals within a community may more honestly assess their health behaviours and need through which authorities will be able to target resources even more efficiently. Within the community itself, collaborative work will continue to empower individuals allowing community participation to evolve to higher capabilities over time. On the more negative side, community empowerment initiatives that do not reflect the community perspective are likely to be construed as a waste of time by those who have participated, and this may cause distrust within the community towards health authorities and future health promotion initiatives, through the community disengaging with the health authority, health services, or future research, or resisting health promotion programmes. In summary, traditional top-down health promotion programmes can be seen to have operated in a way in which a minority had power over those which it aimed to help, through the control it exerted in regards to targeting health behaviours for change, resource allocation, information gate keeping, and dependency of health professionals to make decisions over individual health. This is compounded further for groups who are already marginalized within society, who have little control over other aspects of their living and working conditions, which have the potential to influence their health status power is associated with health to the extent to which those with the least power, have the poorest health. Bottom-up approaches to health promotion have begun to readdress the balance of power, through the use of empowerment strategies on both an individual and community level, in order to get people back involved (and capable) of making decisions about their health. It is found that empowerment on both these levels has a number of implications (positive and negative) for the individual and society in general, although it is felt that empowerment is more conducive to our notion of what society should be, and the power that individuals should have of making informed decisions over their own health. REFERENCES Bergsma, L (2004) Empowerment education American Behavioural Scientist Vol.48, 2Erben, R. Franzkowiak, P Wenzel, E (2000) People empowerment vs. social capital. From health promotion to social marketing Health Promotion Journal of Australia ol.9, 3Gebbie, Rosenstock Hernandez (2002) cited in Bergsma, L (2004) Empowerment education American Behavioural Scientist Vol.48, 2Hagquist, C Starrin, B (1997) Health education in schools from information to empowerment models Health Promotion International Vol.12, 3Hubley, J (2002) Health empowerment, health literacy and health promotion putting it all together Review paper, LeedsIsrael et al (1994) cited in Judd, J. Frankish, J Moulton, G (2001) Setting standards in the evaluation of community-based health promotion programmes a unifying approach Health Promotion International Vol.16, 4Judd, J. Frankish, J Moulton, G (2001) Setting standards in the evaluation of community-based health promotion programmes a unifying approach Health Pr omotion International Vol.16, 4Karasek, Baker, Marxer, Ahlborn Thorell (1981) cited in Bergsma, L (2004) Empowerment education American Behavioural Scientist Vol.48, 2Kort (1990) Laverack, G Labonte, R (2000) A planning framework for community empowerment goals within health promotion Health Policy and Planning Vol.15, 3Labonte (1996) cited in Laverack, G Labonte, R (2000) A planning framework for community empowerment goals within health promotion Health Policy and Planning Vol.15, 3Laverack, G Labonte, R (2000) A planning framework for community empowerment goals within health promotion Health Policy and Planning Vol.15, 3Laverack, G Wallerstein, N (2001) Measuring community empowerment: a fresh look at organizational domains Health Promotion International Vol.16, 2McKnight (1999) cited in Bergsma, L (2004) Empowerment education American Behavioural Scientist Vol.48, 2Speller et al (1997) cited in Laverack, G Labonte, R (2000) A planning framework for community empowerment g oals within health promotion Health Policy and Planning Vol.15, 3Tannahill (1985) cited in Laverack, G Labonte, R (2000) A planning framework for community empowerment goals within health promotion Health Policy and Planning Vol.15, 3WHO (1986) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion First International Conference on Health PromotionWHO (1997) New players for a new era Leading health promotion into the 21st century Jakarta Declaration