Shadow Kiss Chapter 29

Twenty-nine NEARLY A WEEK LATER, I showed up at Adrian's door. We hadn't had classes since the attack, but our normal curfew hours were still in effect, and it was almost bedtime. Adrian's face registered complete and total shock when he saw me. It was the first time I'd ever sought him out, rather than vice versa. â€Å"Little dhampir,† he said, stepping aside. â€Å"Come in.† I did, and was nearly overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol as I passed him. The Academy's guest housing was nice, but he clearly hadn't done much to keep his suite clean. I had a feeling he'd probably been drinking nonstop since the attack. The TV was on, and a small table by the couch held a half-empty bottle of vodka. I picked it up and read the label. It was in Russian. â€Å"Bad time?† I asked, setting it back down. â€Å"Never a bad time for you,† he told me gallantly. His face looked haggard. He was still as good-looking as ever, but there were dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't been sleeping well. He waved me toward an armchair and sat down on the couch. â€Å"Haven't seen much of you.† I leaned back. â€Å"I haven't wanted to be seen,† I admitted. I'd hardly spoken to anyone since the attack. I'd spent a lot of time by myself or with Lissa. I took comfort from being around her, but we hadn't said much. She understood that I needed to process things and had simply been there for me, not pushing me on things I didn't want to talk about – even though there were a dozen things she wanted to ask. The Academy's dead had been honored in one group memorial service, although their families had made arrangements for each person's respective funeral. I'd gone to the larger service. The chapel had been packed, with standing room only. Father Andrew had read the names of the dead, listing Dimitri and Molly among them. No one was talking about what had really happened to them. There was too much other grief anyway. We were drowning in it. No one even knew how the Academy would pick up the pieces and start running again. â€Å"You look worse than I do,† I told Adrian. â€Å"I didn't think that was possible.† He brought the bottle to his lips and took a long drink. â€Å"Nah, you always look good. As for me †¦ well, it's hard to explain. The auras are getting to me. There's so much sorrow around here. You can't even begin to understand. It radiates from everyone on a spiritual level. It's overwhelming. It makes your dark aura downright cheerful.† â€Å"Is that why you're drinking?† â€Å"Yup. It's shut my aura-vision right off, thankfully, so I can't give you a report today.† He offered me the bottle, and I shook my head. He shrugged and took another drink. â€Å"So what can I do for you, Rose? I have a feeling you aren't here to check on me.† He was right, and I only felt a little bad about what I was here for. I'd done a lot of thinking this last week. Processing my grief for Mason had been hard. In fact, I hadn't even really quite resolved it when the ghost business had started. Now I had to mourn all over again. After all, more than Dimitri had been lost. Teachers had died, guardians and Moroi alike. None of my close friends had died, but people I knew from classes had. They'd been students at the Academy as long as I had, and it was weird to think I'd never see them again. That was a lot of loss to deal with, a lot of people to say goodbye to. But†¦ Dimitri. He was a different case. After all, how did you say goodbye to someone who wasn't exactly gone? That was the problem. â€Å"I need money,† I told Adrian, not bothering with pretense. He arched an eyebrow. â€Å"Unexpected. From you, at least. I get that kind of request a lot from others. Pray tell, what would I be funding?† I glanced away from him, focusing on the television. It was a commercial for some kind of deodorant. â€Å"I'm leaving the Academy,† I said finally. â€Å"Also unexpected. You're only a few months out from graduation.† I met his eyes. â€Å"It doesn't matter. I have things to do now.† â€Å"I never figured you'd be one of the dropout guardians. You going to join the blood whores?† â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"Of course not.† â€Å"Don't act so offended. That's not an unreasonable assumption. If you're not going to be a guardian, what else are you going to do?† â€Å"I told you. I have things I have to take care of.† He arched an eyebrow. â€Å"Things that are going to get you into trouble?† I shrugged. He laughed. â€Å"Stupid question, huh? Everything you do gets you in trouble.† He propped his elbow up on the couch's arm and rested his chin in his hand. â€Å"Why'd you come to me for money?† â€Å"Because you have it.† This also made him laugh. â€Å"And why do you think I'll give it to you?† I didn't say anything. I just looked at him, forcing as much womanly charm as I could into my expression. His smile went away, and his green eyes narrowed in frustration. He jerked his gaze away. â€Å"Damn it, Rose. Don't do that. Not now. You're playing on how I feel about you. That's not fair.† He gulped more vodka. He was right. I'd come to him because I thought I could use his crush to get what I wanted. It was low, but I had no choice. Getting up, I moved over and sat beside him. I held his hand. â€Å"Please, Adrian,† I said. â€Å"Please help me. You're the only one I can go to.† â€Å"That's not fair,† he repeated, slurring his words a little. â€Å"You're using those come-hither eyes on me, but it's not me you want. It's never been me. It's always been Belikov, and God only knows what you'll do now that he's gone.† He was right about that too. â€Å"Will you help me?† I asked, still playing up the charisma. â€Å"You're the only one I could talk to †¦ the only one who really understands me†¦.† â€Å"Are you coming back?† he countered. â€Å"Eventually.† Tipping his head back, he exhaled a heavy breath. His hair, which I'd always thought looked stylishly messy, simply looked messy today. â€Å"Maybe it's for the best if you leave. Maybe you'll get over him faster if you go away for a while. Wouldn't hurt to be away from Lissa's aura either. It might slow yours from darkening – stop this rage you always seem to be in. You need to be happier. And stop seeing ghosts.† My seduction faltered for a moment. â€Å"Lissa isn't why I'm seeing ghosts. Well, she is, but not in the way you think. I see the ghosts because I'm shadow-kissed. I'm tied to the world of the dead, and the more I kill, the stronger that connection becomes. It's why I see the dead and why I feel weird when Strigoi are near. I can sense them now. They're tied to that world too.† He frowned. â€Å"You're saying the auras mean nothing? That you aren't taking away the effects of spirit?† â€Å"No. That's happening too. That's why this has all been so confusing. I thought there was just one thing going on, but there've been two. I see the ghosts because of being shadow-kissed. I'm getting†¦ upset and angry†¦ bad, even†¦ because I'm taking away Lissa's dark side. That's why my aura's darkening, why I'm getting so enraged lately. Right now, it just sort of plays out as a really bad temper†¦.† I frowned, thinking of the night Dimitri had stopped me from going after Jesse. â€Å"But I don't know what it'll turn into next.† Adrian sighed. â€Å"Why is everything so complicated with you?† â€Å"Will you help me? Please, Adrian?† I ran my fingers along his hand. â€Å"Please help me.† Low, low. This was so low of me, but it didn't matter. Only Dimitri did. Finally, Adrian looked back at me. For the first time ever, he looked vulnerable. â€Å"When you come back, will you give me a fair shot?† I hid my surprise. â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"It's like I said. You've never wanted me, never even considered me. The flowers, the flirting †¦ it rolled right off you. You were so gone for him, and nobody noticed. If you go do your thing, will you take me seriously? Will you give me a chance when you return?† I stared. I definitely hadn't expected this. My initial instinct was to say no, that I could never love anybody again, that my heart had been shattered along with that piece of my soul that Dimitri held. But Adrian was looking at me so earnestly, and there was none of his joking nature. He meant what he said, and I realized all the affection for me he'd always teased about hadn't been a joke either. Lissa had been right about his feelings. â€Å"Will you?† he repeated. God only knows what you'll do now that he's gone. â€Å"Of course.† Not an honest answer, but a necessary one. Adrian looked away and drank more vodka. There wasn't much left. â€Å"When are you leaving?† â€Å"Tomorrow.† Setting the bottle down, he stood up and walked off into the bedroom. He returned with a large stack of cash. I wondered if he kept it under his bed or something. He handed it to me wordlessly and then picked up the phone and made some calls. The sun was up, and the human world, which handled most Moroi money, was also up and awake. I tried to watch TV while he talked, but I couldn't concentrate. I kept wanting to scratch the back of my neck. Because there was no way of knowing exactly how many Strigoi I and the others had killed, we'd all been given a different kind of tattoo instead of the usual set of molnija marks. I'd forgotten its name, but this tattoo looked like a little star. It meant that the bearer had been in a battle and killed many Strigoi. When he finally finished his calls, Adrian handed me a piece of paper. It had the name and address of a bank in Missoula. â€Å"Go there,† he said. â€Å"I'm guessing you have to go to Missoula first anyway if you're actually going on to anywhere civilized. There's an account set up for you with †¦ a lot of money in it. Talk to them, and they'll finish the paperwork with you.† I stood up and stuffed the bills in my jacket. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. Without hesitating, I reached out and hugged him. The scent of vodka was overpowering, but I felt I owed him. I was taking advantage of his feelings for me in order to further my own devices. He put his arms around me and held me for several seconds before letting go. I brushed my lips against his cheek as we broke apart, and I thought he might stop breathing. â€Å"I won't forget this,† I murmured in his ear. â€Å"I don't suppose you'll tell me where you're going?† he asked. â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"I'm sorry.† â€Å"Just keep your promise and come back.† â€Å"I didn't actually use the word promise,† I pointed out. He smiled and pressed a kiss to my forehead. â€Å"You're right. I'm going to miss you, little dhampir. Be careful. If you ever need anything, let me know. I'll be waiting for you.† I thanked him again and left, not bothering to tell him he might be waiting a long time. There was a very real possibility that I might not be coming back. The next day, I got up early, long before most of campus was awake. I'd hardly slept. I slung a bag over my shoulder and walked over to the main office in the administrative building. The office wasn't open yet either, so I sat down on the floor in the hallway outside of it. Studying my hands as I waited, I noticed two tiny flecks of gold on my thumbnail. They were the only remnants of my manicure. About twenty minutes later, the secretary showed up with the keys and let me in. â€Å"What can I do for you?† she asked, once she was seated at her desk. I handed her a stack of papers I'd been holding. â€Å"I'm withdrawing.† Her eyes widened to impossible size. â€Å"But†¦what†¦you can't†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I tapped the stack. â€Å"I can. It's all filled out.† Still gaping, she muttered something to me about waiting, and then scurried out of the room. A few minutes later, she returned with Headmistress Kirova. Kirova had apparently been briefed and was looking at me very disapprovingly down her beaklike nose. â€Å"Miss Hathaway, what's the meaning of this?† â€Å"I'm leaving,† I said. â€Å"Quitting. Dropping out. Whatever.† â€Å"You can't do that,† she said. â€Å"Well, obviously I can, since you guys keep withdrawal paperwork in the library. It's all filled out the way it needs to be.† Her anger changed into something sadder and more anxious. â€Å"I know a lot has gone on lately – we're all having trouble adjusting – but that's no reason to make a hasty decision. If anything, we need you more than ever.† She was almost pleading. Hard to believe she'd wanted to expel me six months ago. â€Å"This wasn't hasty,† I said. â€Å"I thought a lot about it.† â€Å"Let me at least get your mother so we can talk this out.† â€Å"She left for Europe three days ago. Not that it matters anyway.† I pointed to the line on the top form that said date of birth. â€Å"I'm eighteen today. She can't do anything anymore. This is my choice. Now, will you stamp the form, or are you actually going to try to restrain me? Pretty sure I could take you in a fight, Kirova.† They stamped my packet, not happily. The secretary made a copy of the official paper that declared I was no longer a student at St. Vladimir's Academy. I'd need it to get out the main gate. It was a long walk to the front of the school, and the western sky was red as the sun slipped over the horizon. The weather had warmed up, even at night. Spring had finally come. It made for good walking weather since I had a ways to go before I made it to the highway. From there, I'd hitchhike to Missoula. Hitchhiking wasn't safe, but the silver stake in my coat pocket made me feel pretty secure about anything I'd face. No one had taken it away from me after the raid, and it would work just as well against creepy humans as it did with Strigoi. I could just make out the gates when I sensed her. Lissa. I stopped walking and turned toward a cluster of bud-covered trees. She'd been standing in them, perfectly still, and had managed to hide her thoughts so well that I hadn't realized she was practically right next to me. Her hair and eyes glowed in the sunset, and she seemed too beautiful and too ethereal to be part of this dreary landscape. â€Å"Hey,† I said. â€Å"Hey.† She wrapped her arms around herself, cold even in her coat. Moroi didn't have the same resistance to temperature changes that dhampirs did. What I found warm and springlike was still chilly to her. â€Å"I knew it,† she said. â€Å"Ever since that day they said his body was gone. Something told me you'd do this. I was just waiting.† â€Å"Can you read my mind now?† I asked ruefully. â€Å"No, I can just read you. Finally. I can't believe how blind I was. I can't believe I never noticed. Victor's comment†¦ he was right.† She glanced off at the sunset, then turned her gaze back on me. A flash of anger, both in her feelings and her eyes, hit me. â€Å"Why didn't you tell me?† she cried. â€Å"Why didn't you tell me you loved Dimitri?† I stared. I couldn't remember the last time Lissa had yelled at anyone. Maybe last fall, when all the Victor insanity had gone down. Loud outbursts were my thing, not hers. Even when torturing Jesse, her voice had been deadly quiet. â€Å"I couldn't tell anyone,† I said. â€Å"I'm your best friend, Rose. We've been through everything together. Do you really think I would have told? I would have kept it secret.† I looked at the ground. â€Å"I know you would have. I just†¦ I don't know. I couldn't talk about it. Not even to you. I can't explain it.† â€Å"How†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She groped for the question her mind had already formed. â€Å"How serious was it? Was it just you or – ?† â€Å"It was both of us,† I told her. â€Å"He felt the same. But we knew we couldn't be together, not with our age†¦and, well, not when we were supposed to be protecting you.† Lissa frowned. â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Dimitri always said that if we were involved, we'd worry more about protecting each other than you. We couldn't do that.† Guilt coursed through her at the thought that she'd been responsible for keeping us apart. â€Å"It's not your fault,† I said quickly. â€Å"Surely†¦there must have been a way. †¦ It wouldn't have been a problem†¦.† I shrugged, unwilling to think about or mention our last kiss in the forest, back when Dimitri and I had thought we'd figured out a solution to all of our problems. â€Å"I don't know,† I said. â€Å"We just tried to stay apart. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't.† Her mind was a tumble of emotions. She felt sorry for me, but at the same time, she was mad. â€Å"You should have told me,† she repeated. â€Å"I feel like you don't trust me.† â€Å"Of course I trust you.† â€Å"Is that why you're sneaking off?† â€Å"That has nothing to do with trust,† I admitted. â€Å"It's me†¦well, I didn't want to tell you. I couldn't bear to tell you I was leaving or explain why.† â€Å"I already know,† she said. â€Å"I figured it out.† â€Å"How?† I asked. Lissa was full of surprises today. â€Å"I was there. Last fall when we took that van into Missoula. The shopping trip? You and Dimitri were talking about Strigoi, about how becoming one makes you something twisted and evil†¦how it destroys the person you used to be and makes you do horrible things. And I heard †¦Ã¢â‚¬  She had trouble saying it. I had trouble hearing it, and my eyes grew wet. The memory was too harsh, thinking of sitting with him that day, back when we were first falling in love. Lissa swallowed and continued. â€Å"I heard you both say you'd rather die than become a monster like that.† Silence fell between us. The wind picked up and blew our hair around, dark and light. â€Å"I have to do this, Liss. I have to do it for him.† â€Å"No,† she said firmly. â€Å"You don't have to. You didn't promise him anything.† â€Å"Not in words, no. But you †¦ you don't understand.† â€Å"I understand that you're trying to cope and that this is as good a way as any. You need to find another way to let him go.† I shook my head. â€Å"I have to do this.† â€Å"Even if it means leaving me?† The way she said it, the way she looked at me †¦ oh God. A flood of memories flitted through my mind. We'd been together since childhood. Inseparable. Bound. And yet†¦Dimitri and I had been connected too. Damn it. I'd never wanted to have to choose between them. â€Å"I have to do this,† I said yet again. â€Å"I'm sorry.† â€Å"You're supposed to be my guardian and go with me to college,† she argued. â€Å"You're shadow-kissed. We're supposed to be together. If you leave me †¦Ã¢â‚¬  The ugly coil of darkness was starting to raise its head in my chest. My voice was tight when I spoke. â€Å"If I leave you, they'll get you another guardian. Two of them. You're the last Dragomir. They'll keep you safe.† â€Å"But they won't be you, Rose,† she said. Those luminous green eyes held mine, and the anger in me cooled. She was so beautiful, so sweet†¦ and she seemed so reasonable. She was right. I owed it to her. I needed to – â€Å"Stop it!† I yelled, turning away. She'd been using her magic. â€Å"Do not use compulsion on me. You're my friend. Friends don't use their powers on each other.† â€Å"Friends don't abandon each other,† she snapped back. â€Å"If you were my friend, you wouldn't do it.† I spun back toward her, careful not to look too closely into her eyes, in case she tried compulsion on me again. The rage in me exploded. â€Å"It's not about you, okay? This time, it's about me. Not you. All my life, Lissa †¦ all my life, it's been the same. They come first. I've lived my life for you. I've trained to be your shadow, but you know what? I want to come first. I need to take care of myself for once. I'm tired of looking out for everyone else and having to put aside what I want. Dimitri and I did that, and look what happened. He's gone. I will never hold him again. Now I owe it to him to do this. I'm sorry if it hurts you, but it's my choice!† I'd shouted the words, not even pausing for a breath, and I hoped my voice hadn't carried to the guardians on duty at the gate. Lissa was staring at me, shocked and hurt. Tears ran down her cheeks, and part of me shriveled up at hurting the person I'd sworn to protect. â€Å"You love him more than me,† she said in a small voice, sounding very young. â€Å"He needs me right now.† â€Å"I need you. He's gone, Rose.† â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"But he will be soon.† I reached up my sleeve and took off the chotki she'd given me for Christmas. I held it out to her. She hesitated and then took it. â€Å"What's this for?† she asked. â€Å"I can't wear it. It's for a Dragomir guardian. I'll take it again when I †¦Ã¢â‚¬  I had almost said if, not when. I think she knew that. â€Å"When I get back.† Her hands closed around the beads. â€Å"Please, Rose. Please don't leave me.† â€Å"I'm sorry,† I said. There were no other words to offer up. â€Å"I'm sorry.† I left her there crying as I walked toward the gate. A piece of my soul had died when Dimitri had fallen. Turning my back on her now, I felt another piece die as well. Soon there wouldn't be anything left inside of me. The guardians at the gate were as shocked as the secretary and Kirova had been, but there was nothing they could do. Happy birthday to me, I thought bitterly. Eighteen at last. It was nothing like I had expected. They opened the gates and I stepped through, outside of the school's grounds and over the wards. The lines were invisible, but I felt strangely vulnerable and exposed, as if I'd leapt a great chasm. And yet, at the same time, I felt free and in control. I started walking down the narrow road. The sun was nearly gone; I'd have to rely on moonlight soon. When I was out of earshot of the guardians, I stopped and spoke. â€Å"Mason.† I had to wait a long time. When he appeared, I could barely see him at all. He was almost completely transparent. â€Å"It's time, isn't it? You're going†¦you're finally moving on to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Well, I had no clue where he was moving on to. I didn't know anymore what lay beyond, whether it was the realms Father Andrew believed in or some entirely different world that I'd visited. Nonetheless, Mason understood and nodded. â€Å"It's been more than forty days,† I mused. â€Å"So I guess you're overdue. I'm glad †¦ I mean, I hope you find peace. Although I kind of hoped you'd be able to lead me to him.† Mason shook his head, and he didn't need to say a word for me to understand what he wanted to tell me. You're on your own now, Rose. â€Å"It's okay. You deserve your rest. Besides, I think I know where to start looking.† I'd thought about this constantly over the last week. If Dimitri was where I believed he was, I had a lot of work ahead of me. Mason's help would have been nice, but I didn't want to keep bothering him. It seemed like he had enough to deal with. â€Å"Goodbye,† I told him. â€Å"Thanks for your help I †¦ I'll miss you.† His form grew fainter and fainter, and just before it went altogether, I saw the hint of a smile, that laughing and mischievous smile I'd loved so much. For the first time since his death, thinking about Mason no longer devastated me. I was sad and I really would miss him, but I knew he'd moved on to something good – something really good. I no longer felt guilty. Turning away, I stared at the long road winding off ahead of me. I sighed. This trip might take awhile. â€Å"Then start walking, Rose,† I muttered to myself. I set off, off to kill the man I loved. As always, I can never express enough gratitude to the friends and family who hang with me through the ups and downs that go along with writing a book – let alone one as powerful as this. Many thanks to David and Christina for their speedy beta reading; to LA. Gordon and Sherry Kirk for their help with Russian; to Synde Korman for her help with Romanian; to my agent Jim McCarthy who is wise and does all the hard stuff for me; to editors Jessica Rothenberg and Ben Schrank for all of their guidance; to the Team Seattle authors for their distraction and good cheer; and to Jay for being infinitely patient†¦and even making a good joke once in a while.

A More Perfect Union

In the remarks on â€Å"A More Perfect Union† Senator Barack Obama discusses the issue of race identity in terms of American society. Barack Obama describes his life stressing the role the race has played in his life. It is known that if Obama wins Presdiential elections, he will become the first African-American president in the US history.Obama touches the questions of slavery, declaration of independence in Philadelphia and origins of democracy in America. Declaration of independence in Philadelphia played crucial role in promoting democracy as farmers, scholars, patriots and statement were provided with opportunity to express their negative attitude towards slavery, discrimination, tyranny and inequality.Declaration of independence became the first step on the long road to democracy, freedom, liberty and universal human rights. (Obama, 2008)Through struggles and protests, through civil disobedience and civil war, American citizens made a successful attempt to narrow the ga p between empty words and reality of the time they lived in.Therefore, the most important idea of the speech is that all citizens of the United States should be provided with full rights and obligations despite their color, religious preferences and beliefs.Obama says that US Constitution is the ideal for citizens as it ensures their legal rights, and opportunities. It is Constitution that promises all citizens liberty, freedom, justice and union. Obama adds that union should be perfected with time.Therefore, Obama views the task of his campaign as one which will continue the long march of to more just, equal, free American nation. Obama says that he decided to run for presidency as he believed that challenges couldn’t be overcome unless they were solved together and unless the union was perfected. (Obama, 2008)Obama stresses that we have different hopes, but all of us are striving for better future sharing similar hopes. Obama argues that â€Å"we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren†. (Obama, 2008) Obama’s beliefs, according to his words, are rooted in his own story. Obama tells he is the son of a black man and white woman from Kansas.Obama’s grandfather survived Depression and helped to raise Obama. Obama says he visited the best schools in American, and, at the same time, lived in one of the poorest nations. She is married to an African-American women and blood of slavery flowed within them. Obama’s life story has taught him that a nation isn’t simply a sum of genetic make-ups. Instead, nation is sharing common hopes and prospects for better future.Obama says that racial tensions are seen in all spheres of life. Even he is often labeled as ‘too black’ or ‘not black enough’. In South Carolina there are powerful coalitions of African-Americans an d white Americans. Blacks and whites are equally offended and it should be stopped. Obama shares his experiences at Trinity.He says that Trinity is embodiment of African-American community as similar to other African-American churches Trinity offers services which are full of bawdy humor and raucous laughter. Obama says that Trinity’s church is full of dancing, shouting and clapping, as well as it combines kindness and cruelty, struggles and success, intelligence and ignorance, love and bitterness, etc. All these components build the experience of Africans in America. (Obama, 2008)

Individual Rights in Health and Social Care Essay

Learning aims covered Learning Aim A: Investigate the rights of individuals using health and social care services Learning Aim B: Examine the responsibilities of employers and employees in upholding service users’ rights in health and social care Scenario You are about to go on work experience at a training centre for young adults with learning disabilities. Some of the young adults also have mental ill health and require medication. Task 1 We all have rights As part of your preparation for work experience, you have decided to produce an information pack on the rights of the young adults who attend the centre. Your information pack should contain:  a summary of the rights of the individuals who use the centre an explanation of how the rights of individuals can be upheld within the centre; you should refer to three examples here an assessment of the benefits and potential  difficulties of upholding the rights of individuals within the centre, referring to your chosen examples a description of how the Human Rights Act and the Mental Health Act 1983 may be used to uphold the rights of young adults who attend the centre, referring to three examples. Evidence you must produce for this task Information pack Criteria covered by this task: To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit Criterion reference Summarise the individual rights of service users in health and social care. 8 2A.P1 Describe how current and relevant legislation protects the rights of service users, using examples. 8 2A.P2 Explain ways in which service users’ individual rights can be upheld in health and social care, using selected examples. 8 2A.M1 Assess the benefits and potential difficulties of upholding service users’ rights in health and social care, using selected examples. 8 2A.D1 Task 2 My rights are your responsibility Your supervisor at the training centre is impressed with your information pack, and would like you to deliver a presentation to a group of volunteers from a local college. Your presentation must include: a description of how each volunteer can maximise the safety of the young adults who attend the centre, giving four practical ways an explanation of why it is important to assess potential risks when planning care for the young adults an evaluation of the importance of risk assessment when  planning care, referring to three examples a description of how each young adult’s right to confidentiality is protected within the centre an explanation of why the centre protects the confidentiality of the young adults, referring to the Data Protection Act 1998, and giving three examples a justification of three occasions when it would be necessary to breach confidentiality in the training centre. Evidence you must produce for this task Learner presentation Learner notes Tutor observation record Camcorder recording of the presentation to support tutor observations Criteria covered by this task: To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to: Unit Criterion reference Describe how an employee can plan to maximise the safety of service users. 8 2B.P3 Describe how the right to confidentiality is protected in health and social care. 8 2B.P4 Explain why risk assessment is important in health and social care. 8 2B.M2 Explain why the right to confidentiality is protected in health and social care, using examples. 8 2B.M3 Evaluate the importance of the use of risk assessments in health and social care, using selected examples. 8 2B.D2 Justify occasions where there is a need for an employee to breach confidentiality, using examples. 8 2B.D3 Sources of information Textbooks Asbridge, L., Lavers, S., Stretch, B. and Scott, J. (2008) BTEC First Health and Social Care, Revised Edition: Student Book, Oxford: Heinemann, 978-0-43550-026-9 Gresford, P. (1997) Case Studies in Health and Social Care, Oxford: Heinemann, 978-0-43545-273-5 Haworth, E., Higgins, H., Hoyle, H., Lavers, S. and Lewis, C. (2010) BTEC Level 2 First Health and Social Care Teaching Resource Pack, Harlow: Pearson Education, 978-1-84690-671-8 Moonie, N., Bates, A. and Spencer-Perkins, D. (2004) Diversity and Rights in Care (Care Management Series), Oxford: Heinemann, 978-0-43540-126-9 Nolan, Y. (2003), S/NVQ Level 2 Care Candidate Handbook: Student Handbook, Heinemann, 978-0-43545-221-6 Websites www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=5145524 Equality Act 2010 www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/law.pdf Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Human Behavior and the Environment Seminar UNIT 6 Research Paper

Human Behavior and the Environment Seminar UNIT 6 - Research Paper Example Nevertheless, the risk before such success is very thin. In other words, the study has ended into a conclusion that children with divorced parents stood either in a normal life or in a rebellious life. For example, a child, who had seen his or her parents within a marital conflict, has a tendency to lead a life under financial insecurities, failure in academic aspect, alcohol, cigarettes, and unemployment. Moreover, McLanahan would eventually point out the economic instability of households facing divorce as one of the main contributors of the adjustment deficiency of a child. In other words, the study claims that rebellious children are neither the cause nor reason of marital conflicts; rather, there is a huge possibility that 8 out of 10 rebellious children were products of marital conflicts. With such gravity of the consequences of marital conflicts, teenagers must be given value and a lot of understanding within their family and institutions they are into. Basically, most of their time when classes start was being spent in schools. During summer, holidays, or other vacations, most of their time was being spent together with their family. These times are very crucial and delicate. Hence, these moments must never be put to waste. In other words, these times will be beneficial if parents and institutions will put it in good use. Otherwise, such moments of development will pass by without emotional or psychological positive effects to the children. A lot of resources and studies were made in order to use such delicate time towards the development of each and every child. A lot of experts, such as the APA President Dr. Norine Johnson, have invited every parent to take time in reading various brochures that are full of information. Such information includes topics about adolescence, peers, self-esteem, sexuality, moods, preventing rebellion, and a lot more. These resources must be taken advantage in order to guide teenagers nowadays.

Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Book Review - Essay Example African Muslims that were enslaved and shipped to the land constituted a significant number and they were educated, civilized and had a strong moral foundation in the tenets of Islamic Religion. Because of their distinction as educated and capable of analyzing their own predicament their resistance to slavery was somewhat fiercer. Apart from this central theme that runs through the length and breadth of the Diouf’s work the book gives us the story of the slaves in their homeland, the astonishing struggles of the Muslim slaves to keep their faith and their rich contribution to the fabric of American life. According to the author the Islamic faith of the African slaves gave mooring to their harsh life, away from the home land and motivated them to resist forcefully the tyranny of slavery. Diouf draws convincing evidence of the heroic struggle of the enslaved Muslims by strewing her works from revealing quotes that the reader is brought to admire the faith of the Muslim Africans in their Diaspora. Spanish royal edict of 1543 ordained, â€Å"in a new land like this one where (the Catholic) faith is only recently being sowed, it is necessary not to allow to spread there the sect of Mahomet or any other.† The royal command is motivated more by military consideration than by reasons of faith. The Spanish feared that the native Indian might learn the horsemanship from the Muslim Africans and this would destroy the Spanish military advantage. In spite of these attempts the Muslim religion took root in the Americas and as Diouf notices Islam is the second taste of monotheism of the Native Americans. The author asserts that Islam was functioning in hostile conditions in the new land .According to her slavery,†far from making the Africans’ religious fervor disappear, deepened it.† â€Å"Servants of Allah†, contains a comprehensive account of the Muslim slave attempts to hold on to the Islamic way of life, their unwillingness to accept Christianity, their attempts to

A spin on the issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A spin on the issue - Essay Example Military veterans who have suffered a disabling injury during service are neither condescended to nor treated with undue special treatment by being given preferential treatment for jobs and positions through affirmative action. In this case, society is giving preferential to those who have served society and earned, with the price of their health, the opportunity to be placed at the head of the line. While most social groups who are elevated because of affirmative action are given preferential treatment because of something that was a consequence of birth, disabled veterans have earned the spot at the head of the line. According to Hackerott, Kapusta, and Miller (2003), all federal job opportunities must be covered under affirmative action parameters to support the hiring and advancement of disabled veterans. In comparing the purposes of affirmative action to the plight of women and minorities in contrast to giving preferential treatment to those who have served, the purpose of equaling the playing field for woman and minorities is very different than giving honor to those who have served society through military service. Women and minorities have suffered under oppressions that have denied them the same consideration as others, which affirmative action frameworks intended to balance by then requiring those groups to be considered first. The ethical problems that come through these forms of trying to set things right are different than those for disabled veterans. An example of the ethical problems involved in affirmative action initiatives arose during the case the University of California versus Bakke. Mr. Bakke sued the University of California for discriminating against him because he was a white male for not letting him apply under the special admissions program. Bakke won his lawsuit and provided context for arguments against affirmative action in that through the intention of trying to level the playing field in

The Ethical and Regulatory Issues of the Business-To-Consumer Site Case Study

The Ethical and Regulatory Issues of the Business-To-Consumer Site - Case Study Example There are some important factors that you must make all of your IT team aware of prior to the startup of the business-to-consumer site. These issues are legal, ethical and regulatory in nature. Awareness of these issues is imperative for all IT workers and significant to the content of the site. Due to the significance of these issues and the need to maintain your reputation in good standing. I have prepared a meeting to explain and discuss the following issues with the entire IT Team including Senior Manages.The points to be addressed at the meeting are; †¢Ethical issues in marketing, B2B + ethics, marketing standards for advertising ethics B2C site compared to a B2B site. †¢Ethics and B2B, legal, & ethical issues. E-business Ethical Issues & Concerns. †¢What are Internet ethics and B2B marketing and advertising ethics in B2B and B2C? B2B legal, ethics, regulatory ethical and legal issues with websites B2C & B2B. The Internet is a growing and continually evolving creature that will live on in perpetuity. As such, it would be wise to ponder the e-business legal and Internet marketing ethical issues of b2b b2c. Whatever is written and published online will be there forever. Imagine the billions upon billions of text information pages that are and will be stored for a long time. There is even a site where you can go Way Back to check out archives of other websites and view pages that were created at the beginning of their infancy. Additionally, video, films, movies, and audio in various applications formats are also viewable. Please make all members of your team aware of the meeting and the issues that will be addressed: Meeting: Monday, August 3rd 9:30v AM Location: Conference Room F 3rd Floor It is important all IT employees attend.

Case analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Case analysis - Essay Example This is not the case in other countries such as the U.S. and the European markets, where there seem to have a relatively sluggish economic growth consequently resulting to decreasing disposable income. The levels of disposable income in any particular country will affect the demand of the motorcycles. Most people will tend to determine whether a motorcycle is a luxurious good or an alternatively cheaper means of transport. If for instance the motorcycle is considered a luxurious good, any sort of an increase in the level of disposable income would lead to increase in demand of the motorcycle and vice versa. On the contrary, if a motorcycle is widely considered as a cheaper option for transport, decrease in the level of disposable income will increase the demand for the motorcycle and vice versa. The company scenario planners take the varying levels of income into consideration. They plan to establish market segments where different motorcycles would be sold depending on the needs of the market. In addition, scenario planning has led to developing strategies that ensure that motorcycles are developed to meet the different economic conditions (Fred, 2011). The company will thus be in a better position to compete well in the market. Other influences such as trade barriers in terms of tariffs are highly affecting the number of motorcycles imported within any particular country. This excludes the countries that are engaged in agreement of free trade and reduction of trade barrier. The free trade agreement has also increased the opportunity of international trade of motorcycle. Legislations regarding noise and emission levels have set the standards within certain countries. Thus, the motorcycles have to be made to comply with such standards (Fred, 2011). Harley Davidson Company continuously monitors the changes of laws and regulations in the market and other political issues that might hamper the sales efforts such as war. Over the

Watch video, discuss and consider the points Essay

Watch video, discuss and consider the points - Essay Example lawyer and possessed economics degree yet he chose to be a distributer in some small shop instead of seeking employment from renowned and well-established corporations like most new graduates do. Even at this stage, he was very philanthropic and used to give back to the community especially to the children who loved candy. As the saying goes, charity begins at home, David Klein was charitable and this probably contributed to the high traffic of customers frequenting the shop. Seeing this, and from the loyalty he had developed from the customers decided to seize the opportunity to introduce a premium price jelly belly. At this point one would describe as having followed one business ethic followed by many believers of laissez faire called self-interest business ethics theory. At the point when he created jelly belly, he was already an aggressive entrepreneur and an opportunist who not only wanted to make profit from a given opportunity but also a visionary business man who was focused at making the best out of himself from available opportunity. He trusted himself to introduce a new product with differentiated and improved quality and market it with success. He observed that the current candy were not naturally cooked and decided to give the idea to a company he was acting as a distributor for its product. The company also agreed and produced jelly belly beans in small quantities for which he sold alongside the other candy in the corner shop he was operating from. Noticing that the jelly belly was trading at relatively very high prices, he invented a plan to dupe the media (print media) to air his story claiming he was making big sales from that. However, this was a necessary evil since it marked the beginning of his blessings. By organizing friends and relatives to frequent the shop at exactly the same time when the media representative was visiting, thus giving the impression of a busy store selling g what customers loved an interestingly false presentation.

Case study in ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case study in ethics - Essay Example Thus, the popular appeal of a certain depiction that is rendered in an advertisement creates a condition of biased, shallow perception. This kind of perception is highly reductive. In this case study, I shall focus on the issue of the image of Obama in an advertisement that has a certain pedigree of racism and political labeling. This discourse shall be explained and engaged further in the succeeding parts of the paper. At the same time, aside from the construction of the image, the impression derived thereof shall be put into account by looking into the formal elements that make up the image. At the same time, there is also a need to clearly assess why the image creates an impression through certain sensibilities, which are political, cultural and sociological in nature and must be discussed in conjunction with the signs that parts of images create for the spectator to gaze. Looking at the elements of the image, Obama’s image is presented with sickle and hammer, which are embodiments of communism (â€Å"Image†). Another crucial thing to look at the image is the use of the terms â€Å"somewhere in Kenya a village is missing its idiot Obama† (â€Å"Empty Suit†). Together with the image comes the face of Obama, smiling and wearing formal attire that befits the campaigning needed for the elections. The advertisement has these elements that evoke a totally different level of problematic propositions and discourses of representation. To understand the points to be raised in this paper, there is a need to understand that the context of presidential elections must be duly considered since this defines how the image works and creates a certain standard for judgment. The first thing that must be understood is that the image is highly offensive, given that the signs and symbols that have been incorporated in the advertisement are tantamount to

Many studies show that social background determines pupils' success Essay

Many studies show that social background determines pupils' success and it has been suggested that 'Class Does Matter' in ed - Essay Example Recently, some approaches came into picture which focused on: a) Raising the aspirations of working-class individuals, and b) On the diversification of the education market. Here, both these approaches are reviewed as well as analyzed. As an effort to find the remedy to this situation, the previous Labor government aimed to ‘drive up the standards’ through the diversification of the market and increased competition. The government took various initiatives including the academic program, and further ‘freeing’ of the market through allowing schools to gain their independence from local authorities. At this time came the concept of ‘free schools’ which in turn helped in analyzing emerging literature works as well as standards. At this point in time, the concept of the marketization of education worked perfectly as desired as per the closing of the social class gap in the field of education, and giving a stronger purchasing power to the middle-class es (Huat See, 2004). It increased their ability to ‘play the game’ successfully to their various social and cultural capitals. Early Reforms During the decade between the 1980s and the 1990s, the then functioning governments made a lot of standard changes to the education system of UK (DCSF, 2009). Some of these standard mechanisms included representation of parents on governing bodies, parental choice and creating a link between student enrolment numbers and school funding so as to bridge the gap. The explicit aim behind designing these reforms was the improvement of pupil achievement. The policy makers have also been concerned about the existence of poor basic skills found in the UK workforce, in comparison to other nations, especially amongst the younger population. Keeping in view all these issues, a nationwide standard curriculum was introduced by the government for the students in the age group of 7-16, so as to ensure that every student studied a minimum componen t of the curriculum (DCSF, 2009). In recent decades, higher education (HE) has been an important policy area, subjected to frequent reforms. As per the prevailing trend, higher education has been reserved as an area meant only for the higher socio-economic groups. Although, the recent decades have witnessed a gradual rise in HE participation, the lower socio-economic groups still score low on relative participation. Additionally, there is enough evidence to support the fact that the economic value attached with HE has not collapsed on account of its expansion. Indeed, the value of degree returns has remained very much intact during the period. Beginning from the late 1980s, a number of policy changes have been introduced in the education system of Britain (Huat See, 2004). Depending upon the type of educational system, the main content of these policy changes went through time based variations. However, the ultimate goal behind these changes was the creation of a standard policy fra mework which would make it mandatory for all schools and colleges to adopt the improvement agenda, as prescribed by Labour as well as Conservative Governments. The FEFC (Further Education Funding Council) has made an attempt to achieve the below given goals through the adoption of funding mechanism (DCSF,

Meaning of life - Question Essay Example for Free

Meaning of life Question Essay Freud, like Newton and Darwin, did not consider himself to be a philosopher but had an enormous influence over philosophy, he believed that to consider the question: â€Å"what is the meaning of life? † is a waste of time. The question, he thought, is rather meaningless and has no ultimate answer, asking it is being somewhat like asking what the color of time is (Mason). There are serious arguments that can be advanced in support of this point of view, especially if we agree that meaning is not something inherent to events, things, and other processes and so on, but something we ascribe to them (Mason). To think otherwise would involve ascribing them something that is a product of our intellect and consciousness. The meaning of X, whether X is an event, a thing, or a process, is actually the connection or a set of those connections X has with other events, things, and processes and so on, which we choose to consider to be of particularly importance to us (Mason). This is why the same events have different meaning for different people. For a Chinese, be he a Communist or an anti-Communist, the meaning of the war in Korea is that it marks the end of a century of national humiliation and a permanent threat of devastation through a long series of military defeats by foreign powers; for an American, the meaning of that very same war is that it put an end to the attempts to expand by direct military invasion the influence of Chinese Communism (Adams). There are undoubtedly countless amounts of explanations to this riddle, and there are many circumstances that can change one’s perspective towards this problem, but ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer. Paragraph 2: Everything changes radically, of course, if we belong to a Church. Everything is noted under God’s eye For believers, their life long goal is to sustain God’s knowledge and go his way. Go to the right passage and obey his â€Å"laws† Their passage of life consists of saving one’s immortal soul. Duty of life makes up the meaning of life. Paragraph 3: The practical Romans grasped something that over the head of two millennia of Christianity resonates with contemporary pragmatism, and with the life philosophy resumed in the dictum â€Å"the meaning of life is life itself† Meaning of life is life itself Living the life in happiness is the meaning of life. Anything that fits you the best will become your meaning of life. Find out your goals, what you want to achieve life, and that will become your meaning of life ultimately. Limitations will apply. Paragraph 4: Living your life according to this life philosophy, which is the most commonly chosen among the life philosophies derived from the answer â€Å"the meaning of life consists in living life†, is usually not too difficult for a â€Å"normal† person living under â€Å"normal† circumstances. Meaning of life depended on the status of the person. Meaning of life is to live a good life. Do not know what exactly is a good life but a good life will be noted. Everyone has different meanings to life. Paragraph 5 (Conclusion): But be it Confucius, Aristotle or even Kant with his theory of being impossible to achieve moral perfection or any other of the great minds each of whom spent years of their lives trying to provide humanity with an answer to the fatal question, essentially, they trying to tell us what to live for and how to live. Namely, almost all the answers they offered have the same basic flaw: when they are workable at all, they work only for very few exceptional individuals and are way beyond the reach for the rest of us (Shields); us, those weak, silly and prone to sin creatures that make up the vast majority of humankind. Luckily, this vast majority do not worry too much about what great minds have in mind, but just live their lives as they best can according to their own, petty, senseless wishes and notions (Metz): work their gardens, even if they never heard of Voltaire, and whether they know that Freud existed or not, do not waste their humble intellectual potential trying to answer a question that has no answer (Metz). The rest is a senseless waste of time, â€Å"Primum vivere, deindre filosofare†, and if you spend too much time and effort philophizing, you will have no time nor energy to live, which involves earning money to pay the bills. As to the great eternal and fundamental questions, let’s leave them to professional philosophers whom society pays to do this specific job, as it pays plumbers to do the plumbing, scientists to explore nature, nurses to help the sick, the clowns to entertain us.

Information System Business

Information System Business A system, whether automated or manual, that comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect, process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user information. The elements of an information system are Workload, Response time, Throughput, Resource utilization, Resource service time. In other words information system is a system in which all the data is stored, analyzed and output with all the options is given to the managerial level to make decision for the development of the business. It is a system which is helpful at levels of business. Information systems deal with the development, use and management of an organizations IT infrastructure. In the post-industrial, information age, the focus of companies has shifted from being product oriented to knowledge oriented, in a sense that market operators today compete on process and innovation rather than product: the emphasis has shifted from the quality and quantity of production, to the production process itself, and the services that accompany the production process. The biggest asset of companies today, is their information, represented in people, experience, know-how, innovations (patents, copyrights, trade secrets), and for a market operator to be able to compete, he/she must have a strong information infrastructure, at the heart of which, lies the information technology infrastructure. Thus, the study of information systems focuses on why and how technology can be put into best use to serve the information flow within an organization. Compare and contrast the roles of systems designers from systems builders. System Designer has to collect the information for the system to be designed. Than analyze the gathered information. Create a document to show how the system is going to functioning; what are the requirements, who are the users, what would be the environment for the system. System builders: Based on the system design document system builders develops a plan to build the system, resources needed to develop the system, resource utilization plan, time needed to build the system. What are the similarities and differences between business and data requirements? Business Requirement: A requirement is a description of what a system should do. Systems may have from dozens to hundreds of requirements. A requirement describes a condition to which a system must conform; either derived directly or indirectly from user needs. A requirement for a computer system specifies what you want or desire from a system. Requirements should be: unique in scope. Is this the only requirement that defines this particular objective? precise in wording. Are there any vague words that are difficult to interpret? bounded by concrete expectations. Are there concrete boundaries in the objectives? irrefutably testable. Can you build one or more test cases that will completely verify all aspects of this requirement? Data Requirement: To build or create the above business requirement data is needed to analyze the business requirements. Based on the data collected report is created to justify the business requirement. How does the concept of work-flow change the focus of a traditional information system? Workflow can be described simply as the movement of documents and tasks through a business process. Workflow can be a sequential progression of work activities or a complex set of processes each taking place concurrently, eventually impacting each other according to a set of rules, routes, and roles. Workflow is acknowledged in the industry for facilitating powerful and flexible process automation. It is a tool that both business users and IT professionals can use to automate business processes and track work as it moves through the organization ensuring that the right work gets to the right person at the right time. It can be scaled from a small departmental solution to an enterprise-level Business Process Management solution that supports thousands of concurrent users across multiple sites. By that productivity can be increased and managed. Workflow Management Systems Workflow Management Systems allow organizations to define and control the various activities associated with a business process. In addition, many management systems also allow a business the opportunity to measure and analyze the execution of the process so that continuous improvements can be made. Such improvements may be short-term (e.g., reallocation of tasks to better balance the workload at any point in time) or long-term (e.g., redefining portions of the workflow process to avoid bottlenecks in the future). Most workflow systems also integrate with other systems used by the organization: document management systems, databases, e-mail, office automation products, Describe the major aspects of a feasibility analysis. The feasibility of a project can be ascertained in terms of technical factors, economic factors, or both. It is a study documented with a report showing all the aspects of the project. Different Feasibility studies are as follows: Technical Feasibility. It refers to the ability of the process to take advantage of the current technology in pursuing further improvement. The technical capability of the personnel as well as the capability of the available technology should be considered. Technology transfer between geographical areas and cultures needs. Managerial Feasibility: It involves the capability of the infrastructure of a process to achieve improvement. Support of Management, Involvement of employee, and commitment are key elements required for managerial feasibility. Economic Feasibility: This involves the feasibility of the proposed project to generate economic benefits. A cost-benefit analysis is important aspects of evaluating the economic feasibility of projects. The tangible and intangible aspects of a project should be translated into economic terms to facilitate a consistent basis for evaluation. Financial Feasibility: It involves the capability of the project organization to raise the appropriate funds needed to implement the proposed project. Project financing can be a major obstacle in large multi-party projects because of the level of capital required. It is done to determine that whether it is worth to spend that much money according to the profit analysis. Cultural Feasibility. It deals with the compatibility of the proposed project with the cultural setup of the project environment. As an example: religious beliefs may influence what an individual is willing to do or not do. Social Feasibility. Social feasibility addresses the influences that a proposed project may have on the social system in the project environment. The ambient social structure may be such that certain categories of workers may be in short supply or nonexistent. The effect of the project on the social status of the project participants must be assessed to ensure compatibility. It should be recognized that workers in certain industries may have certain status symbols within the society. Safety Feasibility. Safety feasibility is another important aspect that should be considered in project planning. It refers to an analysis of whether the project is capable of being implemented and operated safely with minimal adverse effects on the environment. Political Feasibility. Political considerations often dictate direction for a proposed project. This is particularly true for large projects with national visibility that may have significant government inputs and political implications. Environmental Feasibility. Concern must be shown and action must be taken to address any and all environmental concerns raised or anticipated. It mostly done for bio technological projects.. Market Feasibility. The market needs analysis to view the potential impacts of market demand, competitive activities, etc. and market share available. Price war activities by competitors, whether local, regional, national or international, must also be analyzed for early contingency funding and debt service negotiations during the start-up, ramp-up, and commercial start-up phases of the project. What is scope creep? Give an example and describe methods for controlling creep. A scope creep means when an unavoidable or unexpected change occurs while the project development. It can also result in a project team overrunning its original budget and schedule. If budget or schedule is not increased along with scope, the change is usually considered an unacceptable addition to the project is known as scope creep. Methods for controlling creep : Expect that there will be scope creep. Implement Change Order forms early and educate the project drivers on your processes. A Change Order form will allow you to perform a cost-benefit analysis before scheduling changes requested by the project drivers. Be sure you thoroughly understand the project vision. Meet with the project developers and deliver an overview of the project as a whole for their review and comments. List the priorities. Make an ordered list for your review throughout the project duration. Items should include budget, deadline, feature delivery, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction Define your deliverables and have them approved by the project developers. Deliverables should be general descriptions of functionality to be completed during the project. Divide the approved deliverables into actual work requirements. The requirements should be as detailed as necessary. The larger your project, the more detail you should include. If your project spans more than a month or two, dont forget to include time for software upgrades during development and always include time for ample documentation. Break the project into major and minor milestones. Minor milestones span should not be more than a month. Whatever your method for determining task duration, leave room for error. When working with an unknown staff schedule 140 to 160 percent of the duration as expected to be delivered. If your schedule is tight, reevaluate your deliverables. Once a schedule has been created, assign resources and determine your critical path using a PERT Chart or Work Breakdown Structure. Your critical path will change over the course of your project, so its important to evaluate it before development begins. Follow the map to determine which deliverables must be completed on time. Describe PERT charts. What major elements are tracked? PERT (Program Evaluation and Review technique) A PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. It is a methodology developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s to manage the Polaris submarine missile program. A PERT chart looks more like a flow chart and concentrates on the relationships between tasks and less on the timeline. PERT charts emphasize task relationships rather than time. Major Elements tracked are : Identify the specific activities and their milestones. Determine the proper sequence of the activities Construct a network diagram. Estimate the time required for each activity. It has 3 types of timing which are Optimistic time, Most likely time and Pessimistic time. Determine the critical path in the process. It is helpful to determine ES (Earliest Start Time), EF(Earliest Finish Time), LS (Latest Start time) and LF (latest Finish Time. Update the PERT CHART along the progress of project. Define Systems Analysis. Systems Analysis is a deep and through study of an existing system or the new system that has to be created. In it all the aspects are taken into condition like whether the new system would be helpful for the business to grow or run smoothly, Cost effective, improve the overall system process for the business. System Analysis more emphasis is given to understanding the details of an existing system or a proposed one and then deciding whether the proposed system is desirable or not and whether the existing system needs improvements. Thus, system analysis is the process of investigating a system, identifying problems, and using the information to recommend improvements to the system. An analysis report is generated and based on it system design document is prepared. Or Systems analysis of an operating system consists of the evaluation of the efficiency, economy, accuracy, and productivity of existing procedures measured against the stated objectives of the library; and the design of new procedures to satisfy the demands of management and user. What is a use case? What are the elements and how is it used? USE CASE: A Use Case is a top level category of system functionality (i.e.: Log on, Shut down, etc.). A Use Case has graphical representation and/or a text description. The diagram or description identifies all the actors (outside of the system) involved in the function, as well as an indication of how the Use Case is initiated. The collection of Use Case diagrams provides a ‘context diagram of system interfaces. Each Use Case constitutes a complete list of events initiated by an Actor and it specifies the interaction that takes place between an Actor and the System. In a Use Case the system is viewed as opaque, where only the inputs, outputs, and functionality matter. Components of USE CASE: The Use Case diagram just provides a quick overview of the relationship of actors to Use Cases. The meat of the Use Case is the text description. This text will contain the following: Name Case ID Brief Description SRS (software requirement specification)Requirements Supported Pre Post Conditions Event Flow The requirements in the SRS are each uniquely numbered so that they may be accounted for in the verification testing. These requirements should be mapped to the Use Case that satisfies them for accountability. What is the purpose of Primary and Foreign Keys on database tables? Primary key constraint is set a database table to make a record unique. In other words to avoid duplicate records primary key constrain is created. It can be on field or an combination of more than one field. Foreign key constraint is created to check a matching entry in another table which it refers. It is useful to link two tables with different details. It can have relationship like one to one or one to many. Foreign key is referenced by the primary key or unique key field in another table. BONUS Describe the similarities that exist between the Project Management, Systems Analysis and Information Systems lifecycles. Project Management Lifecycle System Analysis and Information System Lifecycle Phase I: Project Initiation Phase I System Initiation and Feasibility Study Phase II: Project planning Phase II Project Planning and Functional Analysis Phase III System Design Phase III: Project Execution Phase IV Programming Phase V Testing and Implementation Project Closure Phase VI Post-Implementation Evaluation

Analysis of taobaos business strategies

Analysis of taobaos business strategies Taobao is the most famous online shopping website in China. It was launched in 2003 and within two years it became the leader of Chinas online shopping market. In order to keep the leadership position in increasingly intense competition and sustain its development, Taobao needs to modify and better its strategies for future development. Furthermore, its marketing strategies can also provide a good example for other online shopping companies. This essay is going to make an overall analysis on Taobaos business strategies by SWOT. Key words: Taobao; marketing strategies; SWOT analysis Taobao operates a website, Taobao.com which is the largest Internet retail website in China. According to its website the transaction volume on Taobao (gross merchandise volume or GMV) exceeded RMB200 billion (US$29 billion) in 2009. Taobao launched in 2003, is owned by Alibaba Group, which is a family of Internet-based businesses. (Taobao, n.d.) Taobao provides not only online platforms but also third-party online payment services (Alipay) and instant messaging services (Aliwangwang) Platforms within Taobao include Alimama (alimama.com), an online advertising exchange and affiliate network for publishers in China. In addition, there is also a classified listing website Koubei.com. (ibid.) SWOT analysis, according to Philip Kolter, is an overall evaluation of a companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. (Kolter, 2003) As the competition in the online shopping market is becoming increasingly fierce, Taobao faces some problems as well. The purpose of this SWOT analysis is to provide a critical review of key factors that may slow down Taobaos future development. 2. Strengths 2.1 Leading position in Chinas online shopping market Taobao is an acknowledged leader in both B2C (business to consumer) and C2C (consumer to consumer) online shopping market in China. Taobao has (should be: had) more than 190 million registered users by (could use: at) the end of April, 2010. (Taobao, n.d.) It has built a strong brand and is recognised by more Netizen (which is defined as the Chinese population who have accessed the Internet in the past 6 months by China Internet Network Information Centre) (CNNIC. 2008, January 15th). The company is well-thought-of by customers which gives Taobao more advantages in competition. 2.2 Effective combination of diversified offerings Taobao combines its three segment businesses effectively to enlarge its customer base. Take Alipay as an example, it is a third-party online payment platform, provides a simpler, efficient and safe payment service for both customers and sellers. This service not only ensure (should be: ensures) the transaction security but also reduces the transaction risk for online consumers, as it enables buyers to confirm the quality of goods before releasing funds to sellers. For example, if goods are found (to be) broken or fake, customers can request Alipay to postpone the release of funds to sellers. (Taobao, n.d.) This service help (should be: helps) Taobao (to) attract more customers. In addition, an instant message (could use: messaging) service called Aliwangwang make (should be: makes) the communication between (the) buyer and seller easier. Moreover, this service enables (the) buyer and seller (to) have a directly private bargain during the transactions, which is the preference of Chinese customers. 2.3 Precise market positioning Taobao analyzed Chinas online shopping market at the beginning of its business. Different from other online shopping websites which prefer older white-collar worker(s) with higher salaries or people who like collecting and sharing, Taobao chose fashionable younger females as the target customer. This market positioning proved more suitable for Chinas market compared to other websites (apostrophe not needed) . This is one of the reasons that the growth rate of Taobao is much higher than other competitors. 3. Weaknesses 3.1 Limiting itself to local market The design of Taobao website and other supporting services were based on Chinas local market. This localisation strategy made Taobao grew (should be: grow) fast at the beginning. However, with the development of the website, this strategy limits Taobao to the Chinese market and (, therefore resulting in a) lack of presence in (the) global market. 3.2 Insufficient screen process to control counterfeit products Although Taobao has taken some measures to control the sale of fake goods, such as rating the sellers by credit value, the result was not as expected. Because of the free strategy that Taobao used, individuals can establish an online shop easily without charge and requirement. This makes it even hard to monitor and select sellers that commit fraud. Lack of effective screening processes to control the sale of counterfeit products has had a negative influence on customers confidence in Taobao. It could also affect Taobaos brand image and sales. 4. Opportunities 4.1 Growing demand for online shopping in China According to CNNIC, the number of online buyers reached 87.9 million by June 2009, increasing from 74 million in 2008 and 46 million in 2007. The online shopping penetration rate achieved 24.8% by June 2009. (CNNIC. 2010, January 15th; 2010, July 15th) As the data above shows, more people in China prefer to buy products online. Convenience and various choices could be two main reasons. This increasingly growing demand for online shopping contributed to the growth of Taobao. 4.2 Government support After the global financial crisis, (the) Chinese government provided a RMB 4 trillion stimulus package in order to boost the domestic economic growth through 2010. (the) IT industry received around 0.5% to 1% of the cash injection. (Xinhua, 2008). This gave online shopping companies strong support for future developments. 4.3 Safer payment systems for online transactions The improved online payment systems play an important role in the growth of Chinese online shopping markets. There are more flexible payment systems for customers to choose. For example, a third-party online payment system ensures the security of transaction(s) and enables customers to get their refunds easily. A simpler and safer payment for online transaction(s) attracts (should be: attract) more customers. 5. Threats 5.1 Low entry barrier leads to fierce competition Because of the low entry barrier and fast growing market, Taobao meets many challenges, particularly in the face of increased competition from new market entrants. In addition, without many technical difficulties, it is easy for other competitors to copy Taobaos business pattern. Therefore, Taobao will be forced to increase investments on advertising or technological innovation. 5.2 Strict policy for third parties payment license Recently, Peoples Bank of China issued an Administrative Measures for the Payment Services Provided by Non-financial Institutions which has raised the entry standard for third payment party. In order to get (could use: obtain) and keep the license, Taobao has to increase its expenditure on online payment. 5.3 Higher logistics costs Taobao will give customers suggestions about the logistic companies which are mostly local third party logistics providers and customers usually take the suggestions because of the lower delivery prices these companies offered, compared to other international express companies, such as DHL and UPS. However, local third party logistics recently announced that they would raise the price. As most online customers are highly prices sensitive, this will have a negative effect on Taobaos sale. 6 Conclusions According to the SWOT analysis, although there are some drawbacks which have negative effects on Taobaos future development, the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages. In addition, there are many opportunities for Taobaos further growth. This conclusion will give some suggestions for Taobaos future business expansion. First of all, in order to keep the leadership position, technological innovation is crucial for Taobao. Taobao may focus on continuous improvement of its online payment system, which is also one of its strengths, particularly in the aspect of transactions (should be transactions, without apostrophe) reliability and security. Moreover, website functions, Internet stability and high-speed access to websites are also important in providing a better user experience, which may help to attract more customers. Secondly, as Taobao has the advantage of large scale consumers and sellers, Taobao may segment its market to provide more specialized services based on different demands so that it can meet customers requirements more effectively. To sum up, it is undeniable that the future of (the) online shopping market in China is promising. Based on the statistics by CNNIC, It is in a steadily (should be: steady) development stage. In this attractive online shopping market, more complete logistics providers and payment systems will appear. These will provide Taobao more opportunities to develop in the future.

John Worthing Critique :: essays research papers

I chose to evaluate the acting of Jason Dormeyer, who played John Worthing. I want to say first of all that even though the main points mentioned in this paper will be negative, the performance of Jack was quite convincing and carried out very well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The actor seemed very uptight whenever he was on stage. Luckily, being uptight works with the character of Jack. His jaw and his neck seemed to be tense during the performance. Jason’s voice, however, does not seem to suffer because of that. The fact that he is uptight tends to put me on edge in the audience. I started to feel less comfortable and get somewhat tense because of this.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jason rushes too much. He needs to slow down and enunciate more to make his lines more audible. I don’t want him to lose any of the energy that he has, but I do wish that he would take more time to give more clarity to the words. A good example of this is the way that the line, â€Å"†¦while I’m in this horrible trouble,† is rushed trough. I believe that the line is in the second act during the muffin scene. It was not hard to figure out what was being said, but it did take more effort to understand.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The clarity of Jack’s relationships was good. Jack and Algernon were definitely friends that have known each other for a while. They were comfortable enough with each other to argue and tell faults, while knowing that they would still remain friends. Jack was also very clear on his relationship with Gwendolyn. She was obviously of romantic interest with him because of the way he saw to her every need. A good example is when she first walks in and Jack says, â€Å"you are quite perfect Miss Fairfax.† This is also displayed well when Jack fills Gwendolyn’s teacup. He jumps up with great haste when she hands the cup to him. I was confused on the relationship with Lady Bracknell, though. She was clearly Jacks superior, yet Jack acted somewhat indifferent and overconfident while talking to her about his childhood and social standing. I felt that he could have been reminded of his social standing at times like the â€Å"Good morning!† line. J ack is trying to obtain consent to marry her daughter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The age of John Worthing was very consistent throughout the play.

Turing Machines And Universes :: essays research papers

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknin's Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web Sites In 1936 an American (Alonzo Church) and a Briton (Alan M. Turing) published independently (as is often the coincidence in science) the basics of a new branch in Mathematics (and logic): computability or recursive functions (later to be developed into Automata Theory). The authors confined themselves to dealing with computations which involved â€Å"effective† or â€Å"mechanical† methods for finding results (which could also be expressed as solutions (values) to formulae). These methods were so called because they could, in principle, be performed by simple machines (or human-computers or human-calculators, to use Turing’s unfortunate phrases). The emphasis was on finiteness : a finite number of instructions, a finite number of symbols in each instruction, a finite number of steps to the result. This is why these methods were usable by humans without the aid of an apparatus (with the exception of pencil and paper as memory aids). Moreover: no insight or ingenuity were allowed to â€Å"interfere† or to be part of the solution seeking process. What Church and Turing did was to construct a set of all the functions whose values could be obtained by applying effective or mechanical calculation methods. Turing went further down Church’s road and designed the â€Å"Turing Machine† – a machine which can calculate the values of all the functions whose values can be found using effective or mechanical methods. Thus, the program running the TM (=Turing Machine in the rest of this text) was really an effective or mechanical method. For the initiated readers: Church solved the decision-problem for propositional calculus and Turing proved that there is no solution to the decision problem relating to the predicate calculus. Put more simply, it is possible to â€Å"prove† the truth value (or the theorem status) of an expression in the propositional calculus – but not in the predicate calculus. Later it was shown that many functions (even in number theory itself) were not recursive, meaning that they co uld not be solved by a Turing Machine. No one succeeded to prove that a function must be recursive in order to be effectively calculable. This is (as Post noted) a â€Å"working hypothesis† supported by overwhelming evidence. We don’t know of any effectively calculable function which is not recursive, by designing new TMs from existing ones we can obtain new effectively calculable functions from existing ones and TM computability stars in every attempt to understand effective calculability (or these attempts are reducible or equivalent to TM computable functions).

Early Childhood Education: Impact on Cognitive and Social Development Essay

Abstract There has been a great deal of research conducted in the subject matter of early childhood education. During the preschool years, the human brain is growing rapidly and extremely sensitive to new information. Researchers have conducted studies in an effort to show a correlation between enrollment in early education and cognitive and social development. This paper will provide a brief overview of the results from the following: the Head Start program studies, the High/Scope Perry Preschool study, and the Child Parent Center in Chicago. This paper will also discuss the impact of childcare facilities on child development. The vast amount of research provided by these studies effectively shows an increase in cognitive development in the preschoolers that were enrolled and found that negative social behaviors were reduced as a result of early education intervention. The research indicates that all children exhibited signs of cognitive and social growth, but that underprivileged children were impacted the most. Child- care facilities were not as productive furthering childhood development. This paper will conclude by addressing the need of well-developed preschool programs and the need for well-educated teachers in the preschool environment. Keywords: early childhood education, preschool, cognitive and social development Early Childhood Education: Impact on Cognitive and Social Development Preschool is a term that defines early childhood education for children ranging from ages two through four years old. Preschool programs normally consist of federally funded programs, state and local preschools, and child care facilities. Preschool enrollment has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Approximately 75% of four year olds and 50% of three year olds are enrolled in a preschool center, which is a statistically significant contrast from 10% in the 1960’s (Barnett, 2008). Not only has there been an increase of children enrolled in public preschools, but also in private preschools (Barnett, 2008). This increase may be attributed to the need for childcare as the work force shifted from a single income to dual income household or the desire to equip children with the necessary skills to help them in their educational career (Barnett & Yarosz, 2007). Winter and Kelley (2008) reported that many early childhood teachers found that nearly one-third of their students were deficient in certain areas that were sure to hinder their educational success (p.260). There have been many studies conducted to try and define the impact of preschool on a child’s development. Researchers have studied Head Start programs across the country, the High/Scope Perry Preschool, the Child Parent Center in Chicago among others, and child care facilities. Early Childhood Education research has shown that preschool has an impact on a child’s cognitive and social development, with the greatest impact on minority and disadvantaged children. Developing Brain. Most parents and educators know that a child’s brain, from birth to approximately five years of age, is exceptionally vulnerable to the learning of new skills and concepts. Winter and Kelley (2008) state that the â€Å"neural connections or ‘synapses’ develop at a phenomenal rate during this time† which aids in developing a â€Å"foundation for later skill acquisition† (p. 263). Due to the brains extreme susceptibility during the preschool years, not only do preschoolers develop cognitive skills they need, but also socio-emotional skills. Mai, Tardif, Doan, Liu, Gehring, and Luo (2011) conducted a study of positive and negative feedback in preschoolers, which showed that preschoolers are â€Å"more responsive to positive feedback than to negative feedback† (p. 5). They concluded that the importance of the amount of positive feedback was significant enough that it may stimulate preschoolers desire to learn (Mai, et al, 2011). Researchers have found that during this early period of childhood development, children are able to boost gross motor skills and acquire language (Winter & Kelley, 2008, p. 262). Due to the unique nature of the brain during preschool years, experiences or lack of can impede child development (Winter & Kelley, 2008, p. 263). In a study conducted by Burger (2012), a toddler’s working memory can positively impact a child’s behavior and has a positive influence over a child’s math and reading ability (p. 210). A young child’s brain, if stimulated inappropriately, can have an adverse impact on cognitive and social development. A child’s cognitive development is connected to their social development. Willis and Schiller (2011) propose that â€Å"positive early experiences promote optimum brain development, which impacts all areas of development (para. 1). Impact of Government Preschool Programs In 1965, the Head Start program was created in an effort to provide â€Å"an array of social, health, and educational services for young children and their families† (Winter & Kelley, 2008, p. 261). This program is federally funded and targets underprivileged children. Underprivileged children are more susceptible to fall behind or to not complete their education due to lack of early education intervention. There is documentation that shows that minorities and poor children struggle with â€Å"language, literacy, social, and other skills needed† (Child Trends & Center for Child Health Research, 2004; Early et al, 2007), than children who are not underprivileged (Winter & Kelley, 2008, p. 260). Burger (2009) reports that a majority of children from low socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to: experience grade repetition, to require additional educational assistance throughout their school career, or ultimately become high school dropouts (p. 142). Ludwig and Phillips (2007) reported the findings of an evaluation completed by Garces, Thomas, and Currie (2002) that compared siblings, either attending or not attending the Head Start Program (p. 4). They wrote that the sibling that attended Head Start were 22% more likely to graduate and 19% more likely to seek higher education (p. 4). The National Impact Study (NIS) is one of the most in depth study on the Head Start program, and involves a random compilation of children enrolled in Head Start throughout the country between the ages of three and four years old (Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009, p.  59). This study showed that there was minor cognitive and social growth over a nine month period. Barnett (2008) reported an increase of 0. 20 standard deviations on cognitive development and a decrease of 0. 05 standard deviations in negative social behavior, such as hyperactivity for three year olds (p. 6). However, upon completing a follow up on the study, the cognitive benefits gained by the children were no longer observed at the end of their kindergarten school year (Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009, p.  59). Parents reported positive changes in their child’s dental and physical health and the research indicates an increase of 0. 12 standard deviations (Barnett, 2008, p. 6). There was a case of four year olds that experienced greater cognitive development. This was illustrated by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, which had an increase of 0. 20-0. 27 standard deviations (Barnett, 2008, p. 7). The Tulsa Head Start program was designed with a vision to help children develop skills for school readiness. This preschool program is funded by the state and is a part of the Tulsa Public School system; therefore, teachers must possess a Bachelor of Art degree and have a certification in early childhood education (Gormley, Phillips, & Gayer, 2008). The Tulsa Head Start program study compared the Tulsa Public School (TSP) pre-kindergarten against the Tulsa Head Start program. The study showed that the TSP pre-kindergarteners showed vast improvement in letter-word identification, spelling, and applied problems, whereas the Tulsa Head Start preschoolers’ results were deemed notable (Gormley, Phillips, & Gayer, 2008). While Head Start programs are supposed to adhere to a â€Å"national standard† (Pianta, et al, 2009), many do not have the same requirements (p. 55). Pianta and his colleagues (2009) explain that most teachers working for Head Start programs make less than $26,000 per year, with the exception of Tulsa Head Start whose teachers earn a regular teacher salary (p. 55). This may explain why the results of the Tulsa Head Start studies are not typical compared to other Head Start studies (Barnett, 2008, p. 7). Teacher qualifications of the Head Start employees may have an impact on the low levels of development observed of children in the program. Before 2011 Head Start teachers (excluding the Tulsa Head Start teachers) were not required to obtain an associate degree and directors did not have to possess a bachelor degree (Pianta, et al, 2009). However, Pianta and his colleagues (2009) report that by the year 2013, at least half of all Head Start teachers will be required to obtain a bachelor’s degree (p. 55). Because the Head Start studies were conducted in varying locations and on a variety of children, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact impact of cognitive and social development for each child. The rate of attendance also varies on location. Some Head Start programs have fewer than five days of scheduled class per week, while others attend the program five days a week during an entire school year (Pianta, et al, 2009, p. 54). Major successes of the Head Start programs appear to be achieving higher educational levels and improved health for children. The Head Start program reduced the mortality rate of children between the ages of five and nine years old (Barnett, 2008, p. 8) and provided a cognitive advantage in school achievement (Reynolds & Ou, 2011, p. 556). There were no extraordinary impacts on children’s social development throughout the Head Start studies. The program, however, has received conflicting reviews. Williams (2010) explains that because there is no orderly way to measure the effects of this program, there have been reports of positive â€Å"short-term gains in cognitive functioning† (p. 4) and the program has received criticism for only producing short term benefits (Williams, 2010, p. 4). Impact of Public Preschool Another option for children is a public preschool program. There are public preschools that function similar to the Head Start program, in which they target children from low income families. The teaching credentials of preschool teachers differ from other educators in the public school system and vary throughout different states. The requirements for public preschool teachers range from possessing a Child Development Associate (CDA) to a bachelor’s degree (Pianta, et al, 2009, p. 55). Public preschool programs tend to be successful in the area of cognitive and social development due to the increase of attention from the teacher (Barnett, 2008, p.8). The topic of teacher quality in preschools is of a major concern and can have a direct impact on childhood development. Winter and Kelley (2008) explain that the development of a child’s social behavior correlates with the quality of the teacher (p. 263). The most significant research on public preschools stems from the High/Scope Perry Preschool study. In this study that lasted for two years, approximately 130 children, minority and underprivileged, were either enrolled in a half-day preschool or assigned to a control group (Barnett, 2008, p. 9). These participants were chosen by the following criteria: â€Å"low levels of parent education, socioeconomic status, and low intellectual performance† (Williams, 2010, p. 4). The results were astounding. Barnett (2008) reported that language and basic cognitive skills increased by approximately 0. 90 standard deviations (p. 9). The cognitive advantage was short-lived as children from the control group were caught up during kindergarten (Barnett, 2008, p. 9); however, Reynolds and Ou (2011) determined that there was an advantage on educational attainment (p. 556). The Perry study also showed evidence of social development in later years. The students demonstrated appropriate classroom etiquette, had lower levels of delinquency, and a higher rate of commencement (Barnett, 2008, p. 9). Burger (2009) explained that the Perry study is unique in nature due to the environment of the classroom (para. 5. 2). He added that preschools similar to the Perry preschool have â€Å"low child-to-staff ratios† (Burger, 2009, para. 5. 2), so teachers are able to be readily available to their students. Another influential study on preschool impact is the Child Parent Center (CPC) study on a preschool in Chicago. This program was directed more for children from the ages of three to nine years old (Williams, 2010, p. 5). This preschool is tailored to low-income families that includes â€Å"a half-day preschool, kindergarten, and a follow-on elementary school component† (Barnett, 2008, p. 11). The results of all CPC studies were positive for impact on children’s cognitive development (Barnett, 2008, p. 12). The CPC study showed that participating preschoolers had higher test scores up until eighth grade, a reduction of delinquency, and observed an increase in the percentage of high school graduates (Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009,p. 62). Reynolds and Ou (2011) also evaluated the CPC study and found that former students tend to have less risk of experiencing depression and generally have higher occupational stature (p. 558). The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) reports that the Abbott Preschool Program has had a tremendous effect on child development as measured in 2005 and 2006 with the Abbot Preschool Program Longitudinal Study (APPLES) (Study of Abbott, 2007). The Abbott Preschool was opened in 1999 and was put in place to serve the â€Å"highest-poverty school districts† (Study of Abbott, 2007) in the state of New Jersey (Study of Abbott, 2007). This preschool program showed positive cognitive growth in their students through their kindergarten year. The students enrolled showed significant achievements in English, reading, and mathematics (Study of Abbott, 2007). This program not only measured student progress, but also took into account the quality of the classroom. The study found a significant increase in â€Å"child learning, language and reasoning, activities and interactions, and program structure† (Study of Abbott, 2007). Other studies of public preschools provided results depicting social development and school preparedness (Barnett, 2008, p.10). Pickens (2009) explains that public preschool programs â€Å"show a positive impact on children’s behavior outcomes, especially for children living in poverty† (Barnett, 1995; Peterson & Zill, 1986). In the preschool setting, children are exposed to other children from different backgrounds, different personalities and different ethnicities. During this time in childhood development, children begin to learn social behavior. Pickens (2009) explains that these social behaviors are influenced by their teachers and classmates (p. 263). Participation in the preschool setting allows children to learn how to interact with classmates and encounter situations that can mold their cognitive development (Willis & Schiller, 2011). Attending a preschool class helps to enable a child to learn to regulate their emotions, communicate effectively with others, cooperate with others, and to follow directions (Pickens, 2009, p. 263). Children model what they see. Pickens (2009) urges educators and parents to assist children in developing healthy behaviors in an effort to avoid a negative path of behavioral and academic issues (p. 264). Impact of Child Care Facilities Child care facilities can consist of home-based child care or child development centers (with some centers offering half-day preschool programs). These facilities are normally center-based and care for infants from six weeks old to three year olds (Pickens, 2009, p. 262). Child care facilities were â€Å"found to have the smallest initial effects on children’s learning and development† (Barnett, 2008), while home-based daycare had no effect on building cognitive skills (p. 5). This is not to say that all home-based daycares are not able to provide some cognitive benefit to children. If a home-based child care program is well-developed and provides a â€Å"high-quality† (Winter & Kelley, 2008), then children are more likely to benefit cognitively (p. 263). This high-quality can also make a difference in child care centers. The National Institute of Child Health (NICHD) and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) showed that â€Å"higher quality care†(Belsky, Burchinal, McCartney, Vandell, Clarke-Stewart, & Tresch Owen, 2007) had a positive impact on children’s vocabulary skills (p. 681). The NICHD SECCYD conducted future evaluations and found that some effects wore off at four and a half years old, while when evaluated in third grade the children had â€Å"higher scores on standardized tests of math, memory, and vocabulary skills† (Belsky, et al, 2007). The cognitive long-term benefits of attending child care may result in an increase in household income caused by working mothers; however, working mothers tend to spend less time with their children (Barnett, 2008). Just like preschool, child care can benefit underprivileged children. Belsky et al (2007) stated that â€Å"child care can serve as an effective intervention for low-income children† (Hart & Risley, 1995) that live in a household lacking in literary skills (p. 697). Barnett (2008) mentioned that some studies show an actual regression of social development as children were more prone to be aggressive (p. 6). Winter and Kelley (2008) also report that the amount of time a child spends in child care has an impact of negative behaviors when they reach elementary school (p. 263). Others believe that a child’s negative behavior is may correlate with the amount of time spent in day care. Pianta and his colleagues (2009) found that children who spent the least amount of hours in day care had less troublesome behavior (p. 58). Just as the quality of the Head Start and preschool teacher had an impact on the child, so does the caregiver at a child care center. The lack of academic qualifications of child care workers or lack of academically challenging curriculum can attribute to the small cognitive development observed in children who attend child care versus a more academically centered program. Meyers (2007) reports that the approximately two and a half million child care teachers are some of the lowest paid, only earning approximately $18,000 annually (para. 1). This is significantly lower than other early education teachers. The cognitive and social impacts on children are strongly related to child-to-teacher ratio, total number of children in a room, and the teacher’s qualifications (Clothier & Poppe, 2007). However, it has been noted that the amount of attention the caregiver offers to the child can have an impact on their social and cognitive development (Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009, p. 58). Conclusion There are noticeable short-term and long-term impacts on a child’s development, cognitively and socially, with the aid of early childhood education programs. Because the brain is vulnerable at this age it is in these years that children experience â€Å"dramatic improvements† (Mai, et al, 2011) in their cognitive and social abilities. The government funded program, Head Start, has indicated that while children do show immediate, moderate growth in cognitive development, social benefits were not as prominent. This program has proven to be beneficial to children from low- income families, as it has resulted in improved literacy, language skills and an increased rate of commencement. Preschool studies have also shown an increase in reading and mathematics ability and in some cases extending into elementary school years. The social benefits of a preschool education have had an even longer impact on a child’s future behavioral issues. There is a vast amount of research that shows that â€Å"the early years of a child’s  development can influence future success† (Winter & Kelley, 2008), so federal and state â€Å"policy makers should not depart from preschool education models that have proven highly effective† (Barnett, 2008). It is important that in order for preschool programs, government-funded and public, to continue to be effective in child development, the need for well-designed programs is a must (Barnett, 2008). These well-designed programs must demand a high caliber of teachers that have formal post-secondary education in the area of early childhood development. Preschools should be prepared meet the needs of the variety of students from different backgrounds and be able to give children in need more of a priority (Barnett, 2008). More research on the impact of early childhood education is needed, due to the varying types of programs that are currently in place. References Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool education and its lasting effects: Research and policy implications. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved September 12, 2012 from http://epicpolicy. org/publication/preschooleducation Barnett, W. S., & Yarosz, D. J. (2007). Who goes to preschool and why does it matter? Preschool Policy Brief, 15, p. 2. Retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://nieer. org/resources/policybriefs/15. pdf Belsky, J. , Vandell, D. L. , Burchinal, M. , Clarke-Stewart, K. A. , McCartney, K. , Owen, M. T. , & the NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (2007). 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