driving forces for KFC essays

driving forces for KFC essays What forces are driving change in the industry? The forces that are driving change in the industry are, the entry of Boston Market and Chick-fil-As and other companies with different types of chicken. Boston Market was a new restaurant chain that emphasized roasted rather than fried chicken. Boston Market created the image of an upscale deli offering a healthy, home-style alternative to fried chicken and other fast foods. To make their different from other competitive, Boston Market refused construct drive-through and established most of its units outside of shopping malls rather than major city intersection that would attract large numbers of customer, Also the different taste of chicken appealed to customer who preferred non-fried. Later Boston Market filled bankruptcy and McDonalds acquired Boston Market. Which opened the industry to Popeyes Chicken as a major competitor to KFC. Popeyes Chicken shifting the focus to Cajun fast food, launching a Louisiana Legends One-Pot Cajun Meal of jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp, and crawfish etou fee. Also Churchs also enter the industry offering made-from-scratch southern image, and later added buffalo chicken wings, macaroni, and cheese, bean and rice, and collard greens. Chick-fil-As focused on pressure-cooked and char-grilled skinless chicken breast sandwiches, that were sold to customers in sit-down restaurants in shopping malls, and later open smaller units in mall food courts, hospitals, and colleges. All the different variety of chicken was forces driving change industry. Also changes in demographic tends posed as a force driving change in the industry. Rising incomes, greater affluence among a greater percentage of American households, higher divorce rates and rising number of single households, increased the demand in fast-food restaurants. Most families were begin to eat-out more rather then cooking at home, increased consumer alternativ...

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Für Elise

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Fà ¼r Elise SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips From its first repeating notes, Fà ¼r Elise is instantly recognizable. It may even be the most famous melody ever written! But did you know that when Beethoven first drafted this short piano piece, he stuffed it in a drawer, never to be seen in his lifetime? Curious how it went from forgotten trifle to universally known? Wondering what exactly makes it such an unforgettable earworm? Need some tips on learning to play this piece? Then keep reading for everything you've ever wanted to know about one of Beethoven's best-known masterpieces. Fà ¼r Elise: The Basics Ludwig van Beethoven wrote Fà ¼r Elise 1810 as a small piece for the piano, and then put it aside with his many other draft works. We only have it because a musicologist found it and published it in 1867! And it's a good thing for us that Fà ¼r Elise was finally found! Its first five notes (alternating E and D-sharp) have become as famous as the booming da-da-da-dum first notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Why has this piece been so popular ever since its publication? Musically, Fà ¼r Elise is deeply melodic and full of nostalgic feeling, with a relatively simple harmony that makes it very accessible and not overly intellectually demanding. At the same time, because its first part is easy even for a beginner piano player to learn, but is also beautiful, it is often assigned by piano teachers the world over, perpetuating its fame. And finally, the romantic and mysterious possibilities of its name make us wonder about the identity of Elise and the love life of its composer! Where Can I Listen to Fà ¼r Elise? Before diving into the history and background of this piece, here are some versions that will give you a great sense of the range of interpretations out there. Start with this straightforward Fà ¼r Elise piano recording: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ECRYcXtEg[/embed] Then, you can explore interesting takeoffs, samples, and modifications. On the piano, there is a great blues-imbued version, as well as a ragtime version. At the same time, the piece's arpeggios make it a popular choice for classical guitar interpretations like this one. Because Fà ¼r Elise is so incredibly popular, there are a million and one versions of it on YouTube. Do a quick search and check out the versions played by wildly talented four-year-old prodigies! I wouldn't be surprised if there's a cat-playing-violin version out there somewhere. The History of Fà ¼r Elise In 1810, when he was 40 years old, Ludwig van Beethoven was already renowned as one of the greatest composers of all time. He was also already plagued by the horrible tinnitus that preceded his eventual deafness. Although the very next year he stopped performing in public altogether, he never stopped composing. On April 27th, 1810, Beethoven drafted a bagatelle - a small, unimportant song - and jotted the label "Fà ¼r Elise" on it in his famously messy handwriting. But he never published this piece of music. Instead, it sat in a drawer until 1822, when Beethoven revised it slightly, and shoved it back into the same drawer. In 1827, Beethoven died, and his bagatelle never saw the light of day. It was only in 1867, 40 years after Beethoven's death, that a musicologist named Ludwig Nohl found the piece of music and published it. Who Was Elise? Remember how I told you that Beethoven jotted the words "Fà ¼r Elise" on his final draft of the sheet music? Well, it turns out that we only know this from Ludwig Nohl, the man who found and published the piece. The actual final draft itself is missing! Not only that, but no distinct records, letters, or accounts from people at the time make mention of an "Elise" in Beethoven's life. So who was the mysterious Elise that Beethoven apparently dedicated this music to? There is no conclusive answer to this question. There are several theories, however, which I will lay out in order of most to least likely. Theory #1: "Elise" Was Beethoven's "One That Got Away" Beethoven had a doomed love affair with a woman named Therese Malfatti. She was his student, and he fell in love with her right around the time of the composition of Fà ¼r Elise. We aren't quite sure exactly how they broke up, but we do know that he proposed, and she either said no right away, or strung him along for a while and then said no. Either way, Therese then married someone else. So, the most popular theory is that our friend Ludwig Nohl misread Beethoven’s messy handwriting, and that in reality, the piece was labeled "Fà ¼r Therese" not "Fà ¼r Elise." Theory #2: "Elise" Was Beethoven's Opera Singer BFF A few years before writing Fà ¼r Elise, Beethoven became friends with an opera singer named Elisabeth Rà ¶ckel, whose nickname may well have been Elise (Elizabeth to Elise doesn't seem to be that much of a stretch, but we don't have any documentary evidence that anyone actually did call her Elise). Beethoven and Rockel were close friends until she married Beethoven's frenemy, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Perhaps Fà ¼r Elise was written in the midst of this friendship - or as a way of saying good-bye. Theory #3: "Elise" Was One of Therese Malfatti's Friends The least likely scenario is that Beethoven wrote the piece for another woman nicknamed Elise - Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld, who used "Elise" as a variant first name. She was a musical child prodigy who was Therese Malfatti's neighbor and conceivably could have been her student. This theory holds that Beethoven was willing to do anything for his one great love, Therese, including writing a quick piece of music for one of her favorites. Since there's not enough evidence to prove it conclusively, we should probably use Occam’s razor for this one. To whom is a sad, longing love song dedicated? Probably to the lost love of Beethoven's life, Therese. What Does the Title of Fà ¼r Elise Mean? The full title of Beethoven's piece of music is Fà ¼r Elise: Bagatelle in A minor WoO 59. In reality, the stuff after the colon is the official title, and "Fà ¼r Elise" is just a nickname for the piece. This is because musical compositions have a specific naming system that references type, key, and a numbering system. Let's unpack each of the components of this title separately. Fà ¼r Elise. The words â€Å"Fà ¼r Elise† mean â€Å"for Elise† in German. Bagatelle. This is the piece of music's type (other types include sonatas, etudes, symphonies, and so on). A bagatelle is a short, lighthearted, and generally frivolous piece of music. Similar words have also been used to describe this piece. Sometimes the title uses the word "Albumblatt," which means "album leaf" - a short, pleasant, usually solo piano piece that friends could easily share by pasting into each other's musical albums. More rarely, you might find Fà ¼r Elise labeled as a "Klavierstà ¼cke" which is simply German for "piano piece." A Minor. "A" stands for the music's key, indicating the scale - the set of notes divided by regular intervals - that the piece uses. In this case, Fà ¼r Elise is based on the scale that is anchored by the A key. Keys are divided into major and minor, depending on the intervals between the notes used in the scale. Here, the minor key is a technical way to convey which notes should be played higher or lower than the corresponding natural notes. It also tells us about the musicality of the piece. In Western music, music in a minor key sounds sad, helping with the sense of longing and wistfulness that characterizes the melody. WoO 59. Usually, composers number their published pieces of music, using the Latin term "opus" (which means "work") and whatever number followed in sequence from the last piece of the same type. However, not only did Beethoven not number Fà ¼r Elise, but he really only gave opus numbers to his most significant published pieces. Because of this, much of his work has been assigned numbers by later publishers, using the German term "werk ohne opuszahl" (meaning "work without opus number" and abbreviated as WoO) and a number in sequence. So, in this case, WoO 59 means that Fà ¼r Elise was the 59th bagatelle to be published that hadn't been given a number by Beethoven himself. Fà ¼r Elise Musical Analysis Now that we've explored the history and romance behind the work, let's check out what's under the hood. How is Fà ¼r Elise Structured? As we already saw from its title, this piece is in the key of A minor. It's time signature is 3/8, so there are 3 beats in each measure and each eighth note (â™ ª) gets 1 beat. Fà ¼r Elise is a rondo, with a A–B–A–C–A structure. In other words, its first section (main theme A) is repeated between its other sections (themes B and C). The first section is the famous melody that everyone knows, with the right hand playing the melody itself and with the left hand playing arpeggios (chords played note by note instead of all at once). The other sections are more challenging, incorporating the keys E major, C major, G major, and F major. The repeated central theme's A minor key builds a melancholy, longing mood. However, Fà ¼r Elise's other themes are in complete contrast to the main theme, creating a sense of whimsy, unpredictability, and playfulness. What's the Musical Style of Fà ¼r Elise? Fà ¼r Elise is part of the Romantic music movement that developed in the late 18th and early 19th century in Europe along with Romanticism in the arts in general. Note that capital-R Romanticism has nothing to do with small-r romance. Instead, Romantic music was characterized by ideas of revolting against Industrial Revolution and the perceived triumph of hyper-rationalism. Romanticism instead embraced a preoccupation with nature, an imagined glorious past, and beautifully terrifying and unknowable spiritual and emotional experiences. We can see some of this in the way Fà ¼r Elise shuttles back and forth between the forlorn plea of the repeated main theme and the sudden, mercurial shifts in tone of the B and C themes. Romanticism is like a storm: moody, unpredictable, wild, and dominating puny humans. 8 Tips for Learning to Play Fà ¼r Elise Have you decided to learn how to play Fà ¼r Elise on the piano? Here are some things to keep in mind! Are You a Beginner? Because the most famous part of Fà ¼r Elise - the main theme - is reasonably easy to play, many piano teachers assign just that first part of the piece to their students early on in their piano learning. Not only is it not technically difficult, but it also provides a good basic exercise for piano pedaling technique. Here's some advice for mastering the piece: Watch out for tricky fingering. In this piece, precise finger position is key to the flow of the right-hand melody and the support of the left-hand arpeggios. You may want to write out each note’s fingering in your score to help you articulate the music well. Legato, legato, legato. Think of the left-hand’s arpeggios as almost-chords. You should play them as smoothly as possible, gliding each note into the next. Imagine playing the piece as if you're trying to demonstrate perpetual motion. Your gently flowing tempo and legato should unite to let the melody shine. Imagine a conversation between right and left. Start by practicing hands separately. Then, when you're combining them, listen to the way the left and right hands reply to each other - it's almost a series of call-and-response questions, or a plaintive conversation. To articulate this, carry your legato over from the right hand to the left and vice versa, and do not privilege one hand over the other in volume or tempo. Don't rush. Even after you've learned the melody, you have to keep your tempo slow to convey the wistful and sad mood. Beethoven marked the tempo as "molto grazioso," meaning a deeply graceful and even speed. Are You Playing at an Intermediate Level? If you're learning all three section of Fà ¼r Elise, here are tips to help you: Learn the sections in order of difficulty. As we've already seen, theme A is the least technically challenging. The most technically difficult section is the B theme, so you may want to save that one for last. Learn each section on its own, phrase by phrase. Rely on repetition for easier memorizing. The rondo form makes learning the piece by heart much easier, since 3 out of 5 sections are the same. Focus on the transitions between the sections to confidently go in and out of each. Stress the contrast. Fà ¼r Elise is marked by the shifting tones and moods of its three sections. Maintain the contrast demanded by the different sections, and connect your playing with the mood you want to convey. Are You an Advanced Musician? At this point in your musical career, you're no longer as worried about physically being able to carry the piece from sheet music to keyboard. Instead, here are some thoughts about your main challenges: Proper wrist placement. For an even smoother performance, you may want to rethink the way you hold your wrists and how to relieve tension in them while playing. This blog post has some very helpful pointers. Make your mark, find your voice. The biggest challenge for those who can readily overcome the technical challenges is that Fà ¼r Elise is everywhere and has been interpreted many, many times over. How do you bring your own quality to such a widely known work? You may want to simply avoid other interpretations while working on a piece, so that someone else's vision doesn't influence your version. Think deeply about what you want to convey, and which aspects of Beethoven's music you want to illuminate. Let these ideas be the guiding principles of your interpretation. All together now! Where Can I Find Fà ¼r Elise Sheet Music? For beginners. If you'd like a version that has only the first section, clearly labels each note with its corresponding key, and leaves out the sustains, check out this easy piano rendition. For more advanced players. If you're looking for sheet music to learn to play the piece, you can use this printable very cleanly edited PDF version. For research and study. If you are curious about the first printed version that has the D in the 7th measure instead of the E as we now accept, explore a PDF of a potentially misprinted publication. Or you can check out the draft in Beethoven’s hand that informs how we play the piece now. Fà ¼r Elise in the World I wasn't exaggerating when I said that Fà ¼r Elise is now everywhere. Here are some of the more and less unlikely places it has turned up: Garbage trucks in Taiwan use the tune, as part of that country's completely revolutionary approach to dealing with waste. Check out the 99% Invisible podcast for more of this great story. American rapper Nas built his 2002 song "I Can" around samples of this piece. Elephant, Gus Van Sant's 2003 movie about teenage alienation, used Fà ¼r Elise as a haunting refrain. The Peanuts character Schroeder performs the piece in A Charlie Brown Christmas. The Takeaway: 9 Amazing Fà ¼r Elise Facts Fà ¼r Elise was lost for over 50 years until a musicologist found it and published it after Beethoven's death. And then that final draft copy was lost again and has never been found. We do still have an earlier draft copy of Fà ¼r Elise in Beethoven's hand, but that one isn't labeled "Fà ¼r Elise." No one knows who Elise really was! But most likely, she was Therese Malfatti, the woman who broke Beethoven's heart. Fà ¼r Elise is versatile enough to have been musically reinterpreted as blues and ragtime, and used as a sample in a Nas song. There are actually three separate sections in Fà ¼r Elise: the first, most famous section repeats between two other sections. As part of the Romantic music movement that explored beautifully terrifying and unknowable spiritual and emotional experiences, Fà ¼r Elise contrasts the sad wistfulness of its main theme with the unpredictable wildness of its other two themes. Part of the reason Fà ¼r Elise remains so popular is that piano teachers the world over assign its first section to their beginner students. Because there are so many versions of Fà ¼r Elise out there, it can be very hard for professional musicians to put their own spin on this work. Garbage trucks in Taiwan use Fà ¼r Elise to let people know that the garbage pickup is happening, in kind of same the way ice cream trucks use tunes in the U.S. to get people to line up for frozen dessert.

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 3

Strategic management - Essay Example It is ranked among the top 100 ethical and sustainable companies globally (L’Oreal, 2011). The company has about 23 global brands in around 130 companies with 66, 600 employees. The brands annual sales turn up to be more than 50 million Euros. Some of the consumer products of L’Oreal are L’Oreal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, soft sheen Carson to name a few. The brand has its presence felt globally and has been well accepted by the people. 2. Company background L’Oreal is the largest cosmetic company across the world and was established in 1909 by Eugene Schueller, who was a French chemist. By the year 2003, the company had entered 130 countries through 290 subsidiaries and agents. The main heart of L’Oreal strategy is the dermatologist and cosmetic department. The L’Oreal group had thus marketed about 500 brands and provides services for all sectors of business such as body care, skin care, fragrances, hair colour and other products. L ’Oreal owns various brands such as Garnier, Armani, Maybelline, and others. According o L’Oreal innovation and diversification were the critical success factors for the brand and invested highly on research and development but recovered the investment made by launching the products globally. L’Oreal markets its product under its name and also other family brand names. L’Oreal strategy was to drop down technology over the time from high end outlets and markets to the mass population. The brand Plenitude was the market leader in France but in US it was not that promising but with its innovation and diversification strategy the company was able to overcome it (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2007, p. 158-159). 3. Competitive advantage Focusing on fundamentals of strategy does not always lead to formulation...Base on the analysis from various tools it can be concluded that L’Oreal in order to remain competitive in the market place has adopted various strate gy and with needs and demands have also altered the strategies from time to time. L’Oreal has primarily adopted the premium price differentiation strategy in order to stay ahead but as stated above the company also make use of the cost leadership strategy. L’Oreal is the most popular and well known cosmetic brad and in order to maintain its position the company invest heavily in its R&D to innovate and create new products to suit the demands and need of its target market. With the female segment the many has also targeted the male segment and as per reports huge opportunity tends to exists as the male have started to take care about grooming themselves.

What are the opinions of teachers and parents of the barriers to Literature review

What are the opinions of teachers and parents of the barriers to participation in physical activity within the early years (3-7 years) - Literature review Example Craigg and Cameron (2006) assert that kids who have a healthy physical lifestyle in their early years tend to carry the same routines for their entire life. Research shows that some diseases that show up in adulthood can indeed be linked to unhealthy lifestyle in the earlier years. Diseases such as diabetes and obesity have been associated with lack of physical activity in the earlier years of growth. The Institute of medicine (2004) estimates that there are more than 9million overweight children, 4.5million of whom are obese. Obesity in children is majorly associated with poor eating habits and lack of physical activity. Parents play a great role in nurturing physical activities in a child’s life since children spend more time at home during this face of their life. It is important for parents to recognize the need for their kids to participate in physical activities and they should strive to nurture this in them. Play activities should therefore be incorporated to kids in their early years; parents need to constantly talk on the need and importance of physical health to their kids. Research by the American Alliance for Health (2002) suggests that kids should be exposed to at least 60 minutes each of both structured and unstructured play activities each day. Structured activities mainly involve the planned activities involving instructions with clear guidelines while unstructured activities are spontaneous, arising when the child is exploring their surroundings. With the ever increasing competitive world, and the economic hardships that have emerged; many parents have been forced work outside their homes, hence preferring to enroll their kids to day-cares. These centers pose great avenues for the implementation of physical health and activities (Burdettee &Whitaker 2005b ).Teachers in day-care are in unique positions to encourage healthy physical life among the kids since they tend to spend most of

The Effects of Technology on Decision Making Essay Example for Free

The Effects of Technology on Decision Making Essay Computer systems are one way that health care providers have integrated technology into the medical field. Each computer system is unique, yet all have a purpose, function and structure. Deciding what computer system to choose, what software programs to incorporate and what the computer is needed to do are just a few burdens that have to be weighed when deciding which is best suited for the health care organization. Many health care organizations elect to incorporate decision support systems. Decision support systems have been in increasing patient quality of care, increasing positive patient outcomes and decreasing the potential of medical errors. Bar coding, robotics, interactive websites, electronic medical records, and e-scribing are just a few advances in technology. â€Å"Advances in software, hardware, and networking all share common impact attributes in their ability to improve cost-effectiveness of care, quality of care, and access to care† (Nobel Norman, 2003). With these attributes, the benefits are numerous in assisting with decision making in all aspects of health care. A discussion on the DIK Mode The key to the complex relationship between data, information, and knowledge lies at the source of data and information. The source of data and information is dual: activities, and situations. Both activities and situations produce information (e. g. , ‘relevant meaning’ to someone) that is captured, thus becoming data, or becomes unaware. The key to understanding the relationship between information and knowledge is to know where the information resides. Recollect that information is at its soul message that is generated from activities and situations. However, information resides in storage media (e. g. , database, print, video tapes, etc. ) in the form of data, or in the human mind as knowledge (in its simplest form of know-what or the higher forms of know-how and know-why). If this is the case, then extend between data and information in association with information and knowledge becomes evident, e. g. , they occupy different space at the same time. This also explains why many distinguish data and information, as well as information and knowledge as well suited. †¦one man’s data can be another man’s knowledge, and vice versa, depending on context† (Stewart, 2002, p. 6). However, they are not exchangeable in terms of their accepted distinct definitions. So, what is a book; knowledge, information or data? It is all the above in various context. A book is knowledge from the author’s perspective, information for the impending reader, and data as well which is contained in a storage media (called ‘book’). A discussion of systems and informatics theories Direct communication represents an information processing world of systems. Systems have been designed to provide access to data, information, and knowledge for use by nurses in a multifaceted and culturally diverse world. â€Å"A system is defined as a series of well designed mechanism connected by communication links exhibiting resolute, goal directed behavior† (King, 1996 p. 61). A common language among nurses worldwide would describe the categories of various systems wherever they occur. Nurses are becoming more knowledgeable of the technologies offered as health care organizations across the world incorporate technology into their practices. Considering the nurse has the responsibility of the majority of the documentation, it is important to incorporate aspects of nursing classification systems to help with decision making. The transaction Process in King’s theory when used in interdisciplinary teams facilitates mutual goal-setting with patients based on each member of the team’s specific knowledge and functions. This often facilitates role similarity and respect for the knowledge, skills, and values each member brings to the situation. An example of the usefulness of the nursing process, as process in technology use is the documentation of the nursing process in the computerized healthcare record. Information technology has enabled healthcare organizations to function as incorporated healthcare delivery networks, improve quality, and become socially and environmentally responsive (Davenport, Jarvenpaa, Beers, 1996; Tapscott Caston, 1993). Nursing data must be included in computerized information systems in organizations or the nurse’s documentation becomes invisible. The nursing process is much broader than â€Å"steps,† the nursing process is an international method to use the discipline’s body of knowledge organized in the structure of theory and nursing and nursing classifications. With emerging technology, and the integration of software applications, the ability to incorporate the nursing process and other health care information into a digital system has become a reality. As technology advances, incorporation of decision support systems also advances. The use of expert systems and decision support systems further the ability for technology to engage in decision making. The role of expert system in nursing care and medicine Expert systems in medicine are computer programs that make human based decisions by copying the judgments and behavior of humans, based on knowledge and experience from previous diagnosis and investigation derived from treatment and long-term care of patients with similar conditions as the present. That is why expert system is referred to as knowledge- base information system. The expert system is an artificial intelligent branch of computer generated thought with a very narrow focus. It is used in health care because the system functions very well with specific activities or problems and a discrete database of digitalized facts, rules, cases and models. Using patient data, its incorporated knowledge base, its inference engine, and the expert system can derive specific advice related to the case being treated. Expert systems basically act as if a Doctor or Nurse would, when they make a decision on courses of treatment. Diagnosing, predicting, interpreting and instructing are four interactive roles that form the activities of the expert system. The use of decision aids and decision support systems Decision support systems usually have numerous functions when used in hospital or healthcare settings. They are mostly used in specific decision-making activities. Decision support system relies on computer hardware, software and information for effective function. They can be used as knowledge-based and also as non- knowledge -base. One of its functions is administrative, in which they help in documentation of clinical information, decide whether a procedure is appropriate for treating a certain condition, and decide if a referral is necessary, to whom or where, and make follow-ups on the referrals. They help in keeping patients on protocol in situations like chemotherapy treatment or just research. Decision support systems also help in tracking orders whether medical or external shipments. They are very efficient in avoiding mistakes such as scheduling unnecessary tests. Most importantly, Decision support systems help in making the right diagnosis, providing different treatment options and suggesting the better option, and help look after the patients and hospital population as a whole. Decision aids are mostly used in helping the patient or care-giver decide which treatment is best for the condition being considered. Decision aids can also be used in referrals of patient to nurse call-centers or patient education services available. In the future decision support system will incorporate four criteria; robustness, ease of control, simplicity, and completeness of relevant detail. Reusability will be proficient through some type of software or hardware framework in compliance to Alter’s model, enabling companies to take benefit of basic, generalized models common to a range of scenarios. The history of Decision Support Systems is a short one, making it easy to map out the steps and growth of this relatively new concept. Even small improvements to current systems will enable all companies to make improved decisions about the marketing of products, which will in the long run aid the economy as a whole by placing in it only the most desirable and successful products. A framework that represents the backbone of decision support system will enable companies that would not normally work together on marketing concepts to bring together their efforts. The core system will progress to one that will in real meaning constantly learn from past practice. The uses of technology for patient and client management Technology for patient and client management is changing the health care system daily. Informatics is a specialized computer science used to manage information technology. Most healthcare settings have IT departments, yet nurses need to be able to use and retrieve valuable patient information to give patient care. Electronic medical records, also known as EMR, are the most recent and largest application of technology in the health care field. The use of EMR allows for documentation and a more cohesive interdisciplinary care plan for the patient. Another popular trend in healthcare is to have an integrated EMR with other aspects of patient care including patient appointments, assessments, billing and personal information, and other outpatient tests. Within this integrated patient record, a computer can keep documentation of many areas of a patients care; can provide easy access to the records from any place to any medical personnel. Technology such as this decreases the gaps in medical care; the time spent on documentation, and reduces medical errors. This in turn saves money for health care providers. Another form of technology that is used in patient care is the internet. It can be used for retrieval of data for patient education. The internet can be used to search multiple sources of information with efficiency. The biggest concern with the use of the internet is that the electronic source must be evaluated for credibility and reliability. The internet is allows for quick communication amount healthcare professionals to enhance collaboration and coordination of care (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). An analysis of the effect of technology on health care and health status The medical care field is allowing expanding technology of the twenty-first century to be integrated into patient care. Technology has allowed surgical procedures to be simplified, patients recover quicker, and fewer complications occur. This also decreases the length of stay for a patient and therefore decreases medical costs. Technology has also made it possible for a patient’s medical history to be all in one spot, accessible for all members of the health care team, and from any area of the world. The use of technology advances have resulted in better health care delivery and patient outcomes. As health care organizations integrate ethnology into their daily practices, they are faced with many complexities. DIK models, health informatics systems, and decision support systems must be created to improve patient care, increase efficiency among health care staff, decrease costs or be cost-effective, and increase positive patient outcomes. Decision making technology, such as decision support systems, must meet timelines, objectivity, have the ability to integrate with other software applications, have boundaries, and be able to prioritize information and gathered data. â€Å"The quantity and complexity of decisions faced by the health care executive demand standardized decision processes† (Englebardt Nelson, 2002). Efforts to improve the quality and value of health care are increasingly emphasizing a critical role for the meaningful use of clinical decision support systems. The use of health information technology (HIT), health information systems (HIS), electronic medical records (EMR), electronic health records (EHR), and Pyxsis systems are just a few computer software programs that integrate DSS to provide supportive tools to assist health care providers in clinical decisions. Conclusion Technology will continue to change. It is important for health care organizations to embrace these changes to better the delivery of medical care. As technology advances, the ability for health care consumers to gain a better understanding of their diagnosis and treatment options, such as the internet, also advances. Patients are expecting faster service, use of the best technology, and are choosing health care facilities based on how advanced technologically the facility is. The decision support technologies will assist the physician’s and other medical staff to be able to provide faster responses and increase patient satisfaction.

A Biological Look at Suicide Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Efficiency Above All: A Biological Look at Suicide "And let me ask you this; the dead, where aren't they?" – Franz Wright, New Yorker Magazine, Oct. 6, 2003 "Dear Mom and Dad," the letter begins benignly, "Thank you for all of your commitment. But I am not a suitable daughter, and you will all be better off without me. Please realize I have done this for your own good." Nothing more. And beside it, Mr. and Mrs. A find their daughter, dead by her own hand. So begin the episodes of anguished soul-searching, of horrific "if-onlys" experienced by the family members of countless suicides. Anyone who has faced what Mr. and Mrs. A now grapple with knows that the girl is wrong: they will not be better off, not feel happier, without her. Yet each year, thousands of suicide victims express similar convictions: I am killing myself, they reassure us, for your own good. This thinking – this appeal for selflessness that our society cannot condone – where does it come from? Why, in truth, do people kill themselves? The problem of suicide ravages the minds of its survivors – of philosophers – and, more recently, of psychologists. We simply cannot understand it. Why suicide? While many non-biological scientists are inclined to define suicide as a conscious act – thereby excluding, perhaps, all non-human self-inflicted deaths (1), (2) – lets us stick with the more basic definition of suicide as self-murder, with or without cognitive "knowledge" or "intent" (***). And, as the concerned psychologists plunge on in their direction, let us examine this problem from a different standpoint, that of biology. In order to make sense of the biology of suicide, however, we must first understand the more general omnipresent phenomenon: death.... ...ants, a good description of self-destruction of cells, this time in plants http://www.sebiology.org/bulletin/july2002/plant.htm 9)Foucault , Michael. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Random House: New York, 1977. 10) Weizmann Institute of Science: Death of a Cell, a discussion of one series of studies of cellular apoptosis http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/EN/weizman.asp?pi=422&doc_id=436&interID=138&sq=138 NOT CITED IN TEXT 11) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/07/970722090258.htm>Stopping "Cellular Suicide" Could Boost Production in Biotech Labs, a look at some of the cons of cellular suicide in terms of technology 12)Researchers Find New Way to Trigger Self-Destruction of Certain Cancer Cells, a scheme for putting cellular suicide to use for humans! http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-06/sjcr-rfn061803.php

Texas Gladiators Case

teThe Texas Gladiators Apparel Store The Texas Gladiators won the Super Bowl last year. As a result, sportswear such as hats, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and jackets with the Gladiator’s logo are popular. The Gladiators operate an apparel store outside the football stadium. It is near a busy highway, so the store has heavy customer traffic throughout the year, not just on game days. In addition, the stadium has high school or college football and soccer games almost every week in the fall, and baseball games in the spring and summer.The most popular single item the stadium store sells is a red and silver baseball style cap with the Gladiators’ logo on it. The cap has an elastic headband inside it, which conforms to different head sizes. However, the store has had a difficult time keeping the cap in stock, especially during the time between the placement and receipt of an order. Often customers come to the store just for the hat; when it is not in stock, customers are upset , and the store management believes they tend to go to other competing stores to purchase their Gladiators’ clothing.To rectify this problem, the store manager, Jessica James, would like to develop an inventory control policy that would ensure that customers would be able to purchase the cap 99% of the time they asked for it. Jessica has accumulated some demand data for the cap for a 30-week period. The data is shown below. (Demand includes actual sales plus a record of the times a cap has been requested but not available and an estimate of the number of times a customer wanted a cap when it was not available but did not ask for it. ) The store purchases the hats from a small manufacturing company in Jamaica.The shipments from Jamaica are erratic, with a lead time of 20 days. Questions: 1. In the past, Ms. James has placed an order whenever the stock got down to 150 caps. What level of service does this reorder point correspond to? 2. What would the reorder point and safety s tock need to be to achieve the desired service level (99%)? 3. Discuss how Jessica James might determine the order size of caps and what additional, if any, information would be needed to determine the order size. 4. Base Case: Suppose that the carrying cost is $6/unit/year and ordering cost is $200/order.Assume that there are 52 weeks in a year. For this base case, compute an optimal order quantity, average inventory (when service level is 99%), annual number of orders, total inventory costs, and cycle time. 5. For the base case, construct a graph showing how annual carrying cost, ordering cost, and total cost changes due to the changes in order quantity. 6. Sensitivity Analysis: Construct table(s) and/or graph(s) that show how the optimal order quantity and total inventory costs change when (a) carrying cost varies from $4 to $8/unit/year and (b) ordering cost varies from $150 to $250/order.