Thursday, November 14, 2019

The Impact of the Internet on Society Essay -- Technology Cyberspace E

The Impact of the Internet on Society The internet is a big impact on our society today. It has been around for quite some time. In fact, in 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a research to develop communication protocols that would allow networked computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked packet networks. In 1986, the U.S. National Science Foundation initiated the development of the NSFNET which provides a major backbone communication service for the internet. Both public domain and commercial implementations of TCP/IP suites became available in the 1980’s. Then in 1991, the internet grew to include some 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries (A Brief History). Many positive and negative aspects of the internet affect our society. One major impact the internet is used for today is communication for people working. Communication has a positive impact because it helps people to communicate through email to get work accomplished quicker. â€Å"Email has become the preferred medium for communication between public relations ...

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Case study of a person with alzheimer’s disease

The word old brings to most people in our society an image of homeless, helpless, forlorn derelicts inhabiting park benches, slum hotels, nursing homes and other institutional ghettos. The elderly and aging population is poised to be the center of attention in the coming years since the Baby Boom generation will be retiring. Consequently, these retired individuals shall be experiencing the different problems that come with the concept of aging and that is their quality of life is disturbed as they are hampered by chronic illnesses or chronic physical pain, depression or simply just the inability to perform several activities of daily living.(Understanding Aging as a Social Process 2005). These particular tasks must be performed well by an individual or else he or she may be classified as disabled. And this disability is the one issue that every aging person in America faces. According to Erik Erikson, each of us passes thru eight psycho-social stages in our life where we are all face d with a crisis. The last two stages in a man’s life, middle adulthood and the aging years will be carefully discussed in this reaction paper, and the life of real-life models will be revealed to verify if Erikson’s theories are right.The elderly face the crisis of â€Å"integrity versus despair. † This paper is based on an actual interview with an 88-year old male who is showing early signs of the Alzheimer’s disease. This paper looks into the plight of the elderly population and presents the different ways they are presently treated and are seen as a kind of abuse of this sector of the population. It also hopes to start a momentum and take a conscious effort for those who are able to act for these individuals and represent them and their varying plights for a better quality of life.The Case of Paul, male, 88 years old with Alzheimer’s Disease Paul, who now is 88 years old, has resentments about his accomplishments. He did not finish any degree an d just marries with 6 sons and daughters who are also unfulfilled like him. He has grand daughters and grand sons who live in the same neighborhood with him. He still has unfulfilled dreams and desires because of stagnation during his younger days. He would always say: â€Å"Life has been hard, that’s why.† By nature, the old man is a jolly and funny person but behind his words, you can feel a trace of sadness and frustration on how life had been hard on him. Instead of dreaming more, he would prefer to look up to younger folks who have been successful so far with their life. He would prefer telling stories about other people, cracking jokes about his friends, unable to talk much about his own accomplishments because inside him, he feels he has not achieved much in life. Alzheimer’s disease is manifesting in Paul now. He fumbles with his hands and is quite mentally incapable of being consistently coherent.Constantly needing assurance, I help him to understand ho w his clothes look good on him and he beams radiantly at the compliment, eyes and face crinkling. He is forgetful now, peering into my face and asking who I am even if I am his niece. He appreciates how I talk to him so kindly. I focus on what he needs in the process, how the he seems to be coping with his life, what sort of help he is seeking, what sort of help he may need, and my ability to participate in the helping process with him, given his needs. During the time I spend with him, I managed quite well in relating with him verbally most of the time.He had lucid moments at times but was quite conversant during other times that kept me on my feet in terms of history and other interesting topics that would often crop up during our conversation. Talking with him involved an interactive process based on certain fundamental principles in counseling and communication. The interactive process with the elderly can be based on a generic model of helping such that of Egan (1975). His mode l for counseling and communications includes three stages wherein the person is expected to begin with self-exploration, move to deeper levels of self-understanding and finally to develop a plan of action.While engaging him in an active verbal conversation, he describes his past life. He forgets the name of his eldest child but that is all right. I help him differentiate conditions of the past from conditions of the present so that a clearer understanding of attitudes and behaviors emerge. I was able to build the trust needed in this kind of session, and at the same time help the client focus on concrete concerns about which he personally must make. Then, I use that trust that has been built to get involved more potently in helping him understand himself.I now respond not just to what he says but also to what he implies. Mental and Emotional Condition The mental and emotional condition of old people is a major issue in designing for the welfare of the elderly. Often, aging is associ ated with increased depression, loneliness and lower self-esteem as old people begin to be unable to do the usual activities they do while they were still young and strong. The need to move out of one’s home also adds to the emotional issues that the senior may be facing.It becomes apparent that facilities and environments created specifically for the elderly should promote mental and emotional well-being, aside from addressing the general health and medical needs of these people. Developmental Theories According to Erik Erikson, each of us passes thru eight psycho-social stages in our life where we are all faced with a crisis. The last two stages in a man’s life, middle adulthood and the aging years will be carefully discussed in this reaction paper, and the life of real-life models will be revealed to verify if Erikson’s theories are right.The aging years of any person are a time when he or she either feels fulfilled and satisfied, or becomes in despair: this is the age of 65 and above. Usually, those who have fulfilled their social roles satisfactorily in middle-adulthood are those who become happy and active until their last days on earth. Those who have failed with their dreams and social roles are the ones who have poor health and illnesses in their old age. During this time, an individual asks himself if he has lived well.If he looks back with regret, it is an indication that his failures overpower his achievements. Meanwhile, Peck (1968) modified Erikson’s last stage, ego integrity, which he elaborated into two broad periods: middle age and old age. Peck subdivided each of these periods again into stages and said that these stages may occur in a different time sequence for different individuals and thus do not imply sequentiality. The theme of transcendence iterated by Peck appears in the thinking of several other life span developmental theorists.For example, Erikson (1950, 268) says of the individual in Stage 8: â€Å"He knows that an individual life is the accidental coincidence of but one life-cycle with but one segment of history. Peck’s ego transcendence versus ego preoccupation puts it as this, ‘The constructive way of living the late years might be defined in this way: To live so generously and unselfishly that the prospect of personal death—the night of the ego, it might be called—looks and feels less important than the secure knowledge that one has built for a broader, longer future than any one ego ever could encompass.† Nuances of the Alzheimer’s Disease The Alzheimer’s Disease Fact Sheet of the National Institute on Aging explains in detail the Alzheimer’s Disease. It is under the Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center and defines first the word as a brain disorder that seriously makes a person unable to carry on with his activities. It then clarifies that the most common form of dementia among the elderly is Alzheime r’s disease (AD). This is a disease that involves particular portions of the brain that controls thought, memory and language.To date, this disease is still incurable and most experts are at a loss as to what causes it. Basically, this site contain valuable information about the disease including contact persons and their telephone numbers and locations so that one can easily consult with those who are equip to handle and give advice. Clarifying further, this disease begins after age 60, increasing with age. Discovered by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German doctor who observed that there were changes in the tissues of an old woman who died of an unusual mental illness.Upon closer inspection, it revealed clumps called amyloid plaques and bundles of fibers called a neurofibrillary tangle that is a sure sign of AD. (Alzheimer’s disease Fact Sheet. National Institute on Aging). The NIH Senior Health website provides links to the disease, its causes and risk factors, symptoms and diagnosis, treatments and a site on Frequently Asked Questions. The elderly and aging population in the United States is increasing ever more and such ill-effects of old age occur more often such as injuries, disabilities, emotional pain and worst-case scenario, suicide.Without any participatory work done by the ones who are able-bodied, the elderly of America might not be as safe and as well-taken care of as they should be. Bottom line is that the quality of life of elderly people should not be compromised just because they have already finished their foremost contribution to society through hard labor. With one click, one is led to make more discoveries in the process. (NIH Senior Health). There are newer ways of spotting early symptoms of the disease from McCoy’s (2006) research.When water molecules move throughout the brain when it is damaged, then this processes of cellular damage can cause an increase in the â€Å"apparent diffusion coefficient† which measures t he amount of water in the brain. (McCoy, 2006). Friedland (2004) stated that estimates show that there will be more aging individuals requiring long-term care than people, whether family members or hired caregivers, who will take care of the senior citizens.He added that â€Å"family caregivers need all the help they can get to provide care, including purchasing modifications to the home, purchasing labor-enhancing and labor-saving technologies, and figuring out how best to integrate caregivers into their homes† (Friedland, 2004, 2). The issue of the effectiveness of the healthcare and housing systems for those with Alzheimer’s disease is also important to consider. According to Lawler (2001), the current challenge is in the integration of the housing with the health care strategies for the elderly.She added that â€Å"most of the current inefficiencies in the delivery of aging services occur during the provision of both overcare, providing more housing or health care than required, and undercare, when inadequate service provision compounds problems and increases expense† (p. 1). To address the health needs of the aging population, the American Dietetic Association [ADA] (2000) promoted the provision of â€Å"a broad array of culturally appropriate food and nutrition services, physical activities, and health and supportive care customized to accommodate the variations within this expanding population of older adults† (p.580). The association also asserted that â€Å"medical and supportive services, including culturally sensitive food and nutrition services that are appropriate to levels of independence, diseases, conditions, and functional ability, are key components of the continuum of care (p. 580). Conclusion The right kind of assessment is the cornerstone of treatment and care for those individuals afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. Because assessment is so critical, clinicians must be certain that the models or princip les that guide the data collection and analysis lead to the richest possible view, of the client as a person.A person with Alzheimer’s disease who comes to treatment with a history of successes and failures, traumas and satisfying experiences; a person with a culture that influences values, beliefs, and norms; a person with psychological archives that have shaped the individual's personality and patterned his or her interactions; a person who lives in an environment that imposes conditions on the quality of life; a person with an enduring drive to bring order to the world, to reduce the anxiety that accompanies psychological unrest, and to experience competence in valued activities.These dimensions of a person's life, singularly and in interaction with each other, constitute the â€Å"baggage† of the client that must be considered in the assessment process. The attempt to deal with a client's difficulties without taking stock of this larger context will probably result in ineffective treatment strategies because the clinician's understanding of the client's problems will be incomplete and the treatment plan will lack relevance.Indeed, the aging years of any person are a time when he or she either feels fulfilled and satisfied, or becomes in despair: this is the age of 65 and above. Usually, those who have fulfilled their social roles satisfactorily in middle-adulthood are those who become happy and active until their last days on earth. Those who have failed with their dreams and social roles are the ones who have poor health and illnesses in their old age. During this time, an individual asks himself if he has lived well. If he looks back with regret, it is an indication that his failures overpower his achievements.Elder care is significant since people over the age of 65 are usually prone to, and may be suffering from diseases, sometimes multiple diseases, and they would need to be accorded assistance somehow, although the assistance is in vary ing degrees. Frailty, diseases and disability are often correlated with old age. REFERENCES Alzheimer’s disease. NIH Senior Health. Retrieved Nov. 7, 2006 at: http://nihseniorhealth. gov/alzheimersdisease/toc. html Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York. Norton. Friedland, R. B.Caregivers and long-term care needs in the 21st century: will public policy meet the challenge? Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project. McCoy, K. (2006). New Technique Might Help Diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease. Retrieved Nov. 7, 2006 at: http://www. nlm. nih. gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_39170. html Peck, R. (1968). Psychological developments in the second half of life. In B. L. Neugarten (Ed. ) Middle age and aging. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Understanding Aging as a Social Process. (2005) Retrieved Nov. 7, 2006 at: http://www. roxbury. net/esgch1. pdf

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Patriarchy and the System

Patriarchy is a society system that large than oneself, which means not just about a person’s idea or one’s life. It is something larger than that. It tends to be organized around specific kinds of social idea and relationship. And restrictions on the establishment of regular, while the social relations of what is supposed to happen a common understanding of what is allowed and what is the expected behavior of individuals within the system. Race, sex, race, age, class, which was seen as patriarchy is based on the understanding of individualism, which need to increase and modify the action of a major type of personal social characteristics. As stated in Allen G. Johnson’s, Patriarchy, the System, â€Å"To live in a patriarchy culture is to learn what is expected of men and women—to learn the rules that regulate punishment and reward based on how individuals behave and appear. † (p. 74) As we can see, people are generally regulated by a unvisual concept which is patriarchy. This system is subject to personal choice, and only allow each person to choose to participate or in the expected behavior, relationships, and with understanding. These unwritten content has been produced and training with the patriarchal system to shape and guide the acceptance of actions, behaviors and individual experiences. Within the private and public relationship in the structure of patriarchy, patriarchy does use different strategies to maintain gender inequality and these strategies have achieved the status of women's subordination. Household strategy is considered to be the strategy of exclusionary and inequality. As Kirk and Okazawa-Rey wrote in their article â€Å"Making a Home, Making a Living†, â€Å"The father is the provider while the wife/mother spends her days running the home. This family if regularly portrayed in ads for food, cars, cleaning products, or life insurance, which rely on our recognizing—if not identifying with this symbol of togetherness and care. †(p. 303) This is an example of exclusionary strategy in the private area which is based on household production. The most common situation that women will face can be sexual harassment, age discrimination and against women with disabilities. What is more, women have to balance home and work flextime, such as part-time job, home and mommy track. Also they have to take care of children when they have families. It is unfair to not be able to do both, which stand for successful career and house wife, they have to make decision. Being underestimate the value of women and regulated with patriarchy privilege and oppression, people always expect women to take care of families but to work like a man. The household has a different structure to other institutional form. For example, the workplace. According to Joni Seager, â€Å"women are both â€Å"segregated† and â€Å"concentrated† in the workforce. They are employed in different occupations from men, and are over-represented in a limited number of occupations. † (p. 64) Under the construction of patriarchy, there are â€Å"women’s jobs† and â€Å"men’s jobs†, although the definition of these has changed over time, there still lot of limit for women to work. Usually, women just take a small rang of jobs, their jobs are lack of varieties and are used as low-wage service and industrial labors. Public institution can not oppress or exclude women directly from public structure, this situation force women go back to home and do what people expect them to do. Moreover, the system also regulates the students in universities. In the video â€Å"Playing in the closet: Homophobia in Sports†, the basketball team in Pennsylvania State University exerted pressure on their female basketball players of not to be a lesbian. This is another kind of patriarchy privilege and oppression. What happened in this team was that the coach, who is called Rane Portland, told her players that being a lesbian was forbidden in this team and dislodged some players who were considered to be the lesbian from their basketball team. Under the oppression, female players in this team not only failed their academic and basketball career, but also were traumatized in their bodies and soul. They were asked to fellow the standardization of behavior and were misled to a wrong way of gender differences. This is the way in which public institutions and individuals use their power to reveal how related the structures of patriarchy are. Gender inequality is an outcome of Patriarchy. Radical feminists defined as the patriarchal social system in which all social roles for women are in a subordinate position. Community is divided, being ruled. From this perspective, men are the main class, women are the ruling class. As Johnson Points out in his article, â€Å"because of patriarchy is, by definition, a system of inequality organized around gender categories, we can no more avoid being involved in it than we can avoid being female and male. †(p. 76) Patriarchal attitudes come into being in the family through the socialization process. The family, as a social institution, is a producing area for patriarchal practices by socializing the young people to recognize gender differentiated roles, so ideological factors is the roots of patriarchy. Men in society have a dominant temperament. With the development of socialization, this provides a higher social status of men which in turn led them to fill a social role in which they can exercise mastery over women. Patriarchy probably has the biggest part of gender inequality, it is continuance in this century is result from the reluctance of society to adapt to gender equality. People are fighting against the inequality in the system of privilege and oppression. As stated in Allen G. Johnson’s, Patriarchy, the System, â€Å"We need to see new ways to participate by forging alternative paths of least resistance, for the system doesn’t simply â€Å"run us† like hapless puppets. It may be larger than us, it may not be us, but it doesn’t exist except through us. Without us, patriarchy doesn‘t happen. And that’s where we have power to do something about it and about ourselves in it. † People created human society and developed it, at th e same time people establish a system to control peopel’ s activities and build their though. That means people can change the situation they are in and make it better. According to Seager, J. â€Å"The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, Sports†,. the author listed the examples that â€Å"the French Open equalized payments to women and men tennis singles champions in 2006, the US Open stared offering equal prize money to women and men in 1968† As we can see, people, especially the female athletes, are challenging the rules that have been established to regulate them. While the female athletes acknowledging the existence of limitations and restrictions, each person has come up with their own efforts, in behavior, to change and improve the reality. Follow the crowd to the path was usually acceptable in the past, but now they choose taking the path of least resistance although it is hard. Independent action or behavior, our personal choice is to create an acceptable and positive against the oppression of patriarchy in our society the only way to change.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

6 steps toward a cautious career change

6 steps toward a cautious career change A life where you dread what you do every day isn’t sustainable. If you’re absolutely miserable, it’s clear you need a change- maybe even a total career overhaul. What isn’t clear is how to transfer all the hard work you’ve put into building this one career into the start of a new one. There are ways to make a big change without having to give up all the gains you’ve made so far. Let’s explore some key steps you can take.1. Define your ultimate goals.First and foremost, take a big step back and ask yourself some tough questions. What do you want out of a career, and why aren’t you getting it in your current career? Look at your life from higher up to map out the career and work life you hope to attain. Taking time to assess the situation will help you make the right choices and not rush into anything too fast.2. Pick an ideal moment.A career change is a stressful move, no matter how happy it makes you. Even if you’ve done your homework and can make the transition as smooth as possible, your life will be turned upside-down for a while. Choose a time to explore career change when everything else in your life (your family and friends, your home life, etc.) is stable and can fly on autopilot as you navigate the bumpy seas of your transition. Don’t attempt any massive job changes when you’re about to go through a massive life change, as well!3. Ask people who have found success.Seek advice from people further up the food chain who have made big career leaps. They can give real-life examples of how to handle specific situations. Ideally, you can find a mentor in the field to ask about steps for your particular industry. You’ll want to gain a full understanding of the territory you’re branching into in order to make smart, calculated moves.4. Think big, act small.Once you’re sure you have an ideal scenario of where you want to eventually end up, go  for it. Just break th at massive goal down into smaller benchmarks- goals that you can meet in the shorter term. Then put your blinders on and focus on one task at a time until you start generating the momentum to carry yourself closer to your desired endpoint.5. Test the waters.If you’re not 100% sure of what you want, don’t just leap headfirst into a new career- particularly one that will involve a major lifestyle change. Try to gain some casual experience in the field or position before you commit. The last thing you want to do is end up in a new career and hate it! Try volunteering or taking on some freelance work until you see how well you fit.6. Remain humble throughout the process.You’re making a move into a territory you can’t know as intimately as the one you’ve been in- no matter how well-respected and successful you are currently. You’ll have to start a few notches down and prove yourself. Embrace new challenges with eagerness and gratitude, and youâ⠂¬â„¢ll be fine.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Quick Guide to Command-Line Arguments in Ruby

Quick Guide to Command-Line Arguments in Ruby Many Ruby scripts have no text or graphical interfaces. They simply run, do their job and then exit. To communicate with these scripts in order to change their behavior, command-line arguments must be used. The command line is the standard mode of operation for UNIX commands, and since Ruby is used widely on UNIX and UNIX-like systems (such as Linux and macOS), its pretty standard to encounter this type of program. How to Provide Command-Line Arguments Ruby script arguments are passed to the Ruby program by the shell, the program that  accepts commands (such as bash) on the terminal. On the command-line, any text following the name of the script is considered a command-line argument. Separated by spaces, each word or string will be passed as a separate argument to the Ruby program.   The following example shows the proper syntax to use to launch the test.rb Ruby script from a command-line with the arguments test1 and test2. $ ./test.rb test1 test2 You may encounter a situation in which you need to pass an argument to a Ruby program but theres a space in the command. It seems impossible at first since the shell separates arguments on spaces, but there is a provision for this. Any arguments in double quotes will not be separated. The double quotes are removed by the shell before passing it to the Ruby program. The following example passes a single argument to the test.rb Ruby script, test1 test2: $ ./test.rb test1 test2 How to Use Command-Line Arguments In your Ruby programs, you can access any command-line arguments passed by the shell with the ARGV special variable. ARGV is an Array variable which holds, as strings, each argument passed by the shell. This program iterates over the ARGV array and prints out its contents: #!/usr/bin/env ruby ARGV.each do|a|   Ã‚  puts Argument: #{a} end The following is an excerpt of a bash session launching this script (saved as the file test.rb) with a variety of arguments: $ ./test.rb test1 test2 three four Argument: test1 Argument: test2 Argument: three four

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Blog #3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Blog #3 - Essay Example Another important gear is a helmet. The helmet protects a person on site from injuries from overhead loose chippings. Most construction sites are on open air and hence protect the employees from harsh weather conditions. Construction equipment should be used in such a manner that they do not hurt the user and the people around them. Most construction tools are metallic and hence can cause serious injuries if misused (Rowlinson, 2004). The safety codes of construction requires that any equipment should only be utilized if it is the in its best condition. Construction managers should, therefore, ensure that all the tools are in good use so as to avoid any possible injuries. The sector makes use of many types of machinery due to the nature of the job. The machines can cause severe damages is they are not properly used. Machines users of cranes should ensure that the sweep area of the crane is clear before operating it (Rowlinson, 2004). Other machines such as compactors and excavators should be used in an area with minimal traffic to avoid possible

Friday, November 1, 2019

Research Proposal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Research Proposal - Assignment Example Why the difference in that, because logically as the millers make profit the farmers should also enjoy from the profit. Does it mean that the millers are behind the rise in the poverty level of the farmers or the farmers are the source to there poverty. The millers should always be in support of the farmers, this is because farmers need to be motivated to increase the amount off the cane production and this intern will lead to the millers’ increment in production. If the farmers are demoralized, they my opt for production of other food staffs hence may lead to the collapse of the sugar industries due to lack of raw material for production. The third argument is that the poverty experienced in the sugarcane farmers maybe as a result of the poor cane production skills (Evenson and Pingali, 2009). Due to these, farmers may use huge amount of capital for sugarcane production but having little return during the harvesting, hence need to reduce the cost of cane production. However for this to be achieved, the need for the farmers and millers working together is very important which in most cases is not easy as millers are only determined in maximizing on the profit and not concerned of the wellbeing of the farmers. The Kenyan government should deploy extension officers at various regions in the sugar belt who should have an initiative of giving farmers the skills in sugarcane management and production. This may improve the quality and quantity of the cane being produced in the region hence intern reducing the poverty level of the sugarcane farmers. One argument that is to be analyzed in this research topic is the issue whether the millers should also be concerned with the wellbeing of the sugarcane farmers or just concentrate on profit maximization in the expenses of the farmers. It is always advisable that the millers should treat the farmers with grate importance as this will determine the amount of profit they make.