First Day of High School Essay

The beeping of my alarm clock sounded like a countdown. The first day of high school was only two hours away. I was excited, but a lot more nervous. I got out of bed, got ready, and then was on my way to the bus stop. All I could think of are the stories I heard about high school being so horrible with all the strict teachers, the really hard tests, and of course being a freshman doesn’t help either. The bus ride to the school was only ten minutes, but it seemed a lot longer. When we finally got there, I was more nervous than ever. The day ahead of me was about to get a lot more complicated though with all the work, finding a seat at lunch, and getting lost. After already being late to my first period and all of the not-so-bad classes afterwards, it was lunch time. I dropped off some books at the locker I shared with my boyfriend, and walked down with him. We were a little late when we got there so we ended up sitting somewhere we didn’t want to because the tables were already filled up. We went up to get our lunch and came back to find our seats were taken. We soon found out getting up meant risking your seat. The whole lunch period everyone was talking about how their day went so far. Most of them were complaining, including me. Then the bell rang and it was time to go to the next period. I really didn’t want lunch to end. But on the other hand, at least there were only about two hours left of the day. Finally, it was the end of the day. Finding my next class was easier. I still wasn’t in time, but neither were the other kids. When my 6th period ended, it was a huge relief. I thought the day was finally over. But I still had to get on the bus again to go home; therefore it still wasn’t completely over. I went to our locker, grabbed my take-home textbooks and checked to make sure I didn’t lock the combination in there again. I forgot which way to go, so I followed around my boyfriend. When I got outside, all the buses were in line. I walked back and forth trying to find mine or at least someone who was on the same bus as me. After most of the kids already found their bus, I started to get nervous. I still couldn’t find mine. Finally I saw someone who also took my bus. He was standing there clueless too. After a couple minutes, we finally found it. Our bus wasn’t in line like all the others were, it was behind some of the all of the buses. When I go t on, I knew the day was really over. To sum it all up, my first day of high school was a challenge. It’s a new school with new people, new teachers, new subjects, and new schedules. I also missed the school orientation so I was less experienced than most of the other students. I faced many problems such as the loads of work, finding a seat at lunch and keeping it, and getting lost. It was a long day, but I can now say I survived freshman year and the rest of High School.

Investigate the ways in which hip hop music appeals to male and female audiences

Investigate the ways in which hip hop music appeals to male and female audiences, with reference to 50 cent's Amusement Park, attempting to account for its popularity despite its sexist representations of women In this essay I shall be investigating the ways in which hip hop songs appeal to both male and female audiences, with specific reference to Amusement Park (released May 8, 2007) by 50 cent (real name Curtis Jackson), and its music video. I will attempt to account for the huge popularity of this artist, and others of the genre, despite the apparent sexism displayed in his songs. Firstly I shall look at how hip hop has gone from primarily an underground phenomenon to having mainstream status, as recounted by Bakari Kitwana (2005). From when hip hop originated, it was always an alternate culture for black youngsters to turn to. During the late 1980s economic recession, many Americans were still living in poverty: unskilled workers faced poorer wages than before, resulting in a sense of alienation from mainstream America. Although they had achieved equality in legal status, there were still plenty of economic and social problems facing black youth. Not only was hip hop an artistic way of expressing and making public these issues, but also provided a sense of culture those less privileged. Concerns could be voiced through the medium of music and radio stations, which, although primarily were by and for black people, still very much of the white working class population, who were also facing similar problems and suffering from the same detachment from the mainstream. In the late 80s powerful black icons began emerging, such as Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, and major bands like Public Enemy who produced ‘politically charged lyrics, criticism of the media, and active interest in the concerns of the African American community'1. It soon became hard for white audiences to ignore hip hop culture. The East-West coast feud between artists from either side of America, leading to the eventual murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG also brought both urban issues and its music in to public light. Gangster rap was a predominant subgenre which was responsible for expressing shocking views (notably rap group N. You can read also Audience Adaptation Paper W. A. ‘s F*** tha police) and portraying the more violent and misogynistic side of hip hop culture. While it still receives a lot of backlash, hip hop has become increasingly mainstream and popular. One way to account for the popularity of â€Å"Amusement Park† is to look at the representations of women in the video on its own, and to draw conclusions from those alone. The girls are shown against a very minimalistic background, only with the â€Å"ride† which they are on. This puts the focus on to their bodies and faces, increasing our sense of their sexuality. Both the shots of the girls and their poses are explicitly constructed, as their poses are unnatural and staged. They often look directly in to the camera, suggesting an awareness of the audience's voyeuristic perspective. A shot which specifically give a sense of degradation is one in which a girl is shot almost directly from above, her body twisted unnaturally on the ground, looking on command as the camera focuses on her. This appeals to the male audience by making them feel that the girl is putting out her sexuality for the benefit of the viewers i. e. he individual watcher. It might seem that this video is primarily aimed at males however; the huge success of 50 cent in the mainstream implies that his apparent misogyny is not only accepted but embraced by a large audience. One explanation would be to accept the belief of female sexuality being masochistic, and that the gratification a female gets from the video is that of relating herself to the girls in the video who are enjoying being a sexual object. However, French feminist Luce Irigaray questions the idea the traditional view of female sexuality: †¦ omen in the sexual imaginary of Western culture have always been a male fantasy; hence maschocism is something forced on women by culture, not a quality inherent within them. Thus, women don't define their own sexuality, desire, or pleasure2. If we bear in mind the amount of competition that is around now in the hip hop industry and the selection of media now readily available, through the wide range of music channel, and the relatively recent development of the ability to watch music on sites such as youtube and yahoo, audience could be said to become more active in the way they choose and thus perceive their media. Taking Irigaray's perspective, female audiences do not necessarily need to read the text in masochistic way, and this broadening of choice in their media allows them to take an alternate stance on such texts: that of a more active one. If this is the case however, it does not necessarily mean that female audiences reject Amusement Park, only that there is room to interpret the representations in a more ironic way and as I shall discuss later on, the text itself encourages this type of reading. The next issue I shall look at is the extent to which 50 cent is taken as a serious role model by his audiences. His background would imply that he is the stereotype of gangster: his mother gave birth to him at 15, was involved in cocaine dealing, and was murdered at the age of 23. 50 cent himself began dealing in crack/cocaine and taking guns to school. Before the release of his first album with Columbia Records, he survived being shot 9 times, including once in the mouth, which led to him being dropped by the record company. This would seem highly ironic, given that to a large extent the idea of an authentic gangster was what selling rap records in the first place (artists such as Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B. I. G and Tupac Shakur had a history of crime and drugs; and the murders of the latter two helped to bring hip hop in to mainstream media). It is interesting to ask whether it was the songs that consumers were buying and continue to do so, (his debut album, get rich or die tryin' selling 12 million albums worldwide) or the now glamorised image of celebrity gangster which is currently present, despite the fact that he currently lives in an $18,500,000 Mansion. He himself admits to the fact that his image portrayed in his music is separate from him as a person: †¦ all the things I say are good, if you watch what I do. What I say on record is entertainment; but what I'm actually doing with my life and the things I've had the opportunity to do is what makes me inspiring3 Although evidently he has achieved a great deal for himself, in the media he rarely expresses himself personal side, and even has made attempts to reinforce his gangster image, and example being: I've been in situations where either it was me or somebody else, and I handled my business. 4 (2003) However, in the later interview he does deny any assumptions: †¦ people associate me with gun violence, when I was the one who got shot5 This suggest that Curtis himself does have an expectation that audiences will be able to distinguish between his image portrayed in the media, and the reality of his life, but does little to counteract the negative images. Is he also being naive in thinking that the audience will automatically realise this, and not model his violent and sexist lyrics? There is clearly some sort of awareness in public audiences, both black and white, as shown by findings by the Black Youth Project: Over half of youngsters between the ages of 15 – 25 strongly agree with the statement that â€Å"Rap music videos portray Black women in bad and offensive ways. 6 The huge success of 50 cent however, seems to contradict this, which would seem to imply that audiences are in fact able to separate this misogyny from the rapper himself. However, it could also be argued that this is merely a way of excusing such portrayals. Considering the artist's earlier works, such as Get in my car containing the lyri cs â€Å"I got no pickup lines / I stay on the grind / I tell the hoes all the time / Bitch get in my car† and the highly pornographic music video for Disco Inferno, it is harder to take such things lightly. A widely quoted statistic is that 70% of hip hop consumers are in fact white. Although it is interesting to note that no accurate source has been cited for this statistic, hip hop is undeniably a prominent part of mainstream white music culture. Before, when the genre was a political move as much as it was a music genre, a chance for black underprivileged youth to voice their concerns for the culture, it was something that both black and white people could understand in relation to their own lives. The current state of hip hop is that we ‘look through the keyhole into a violent, sexy world of â€Å"money, ho's and clothes†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ as described by Justin Ross (2007). This may be an accurate description of the way that audiences perceive such videos, given that 50 cent's music refers to neither the real problems, past or present, of black culture, nor to the life which Curtis leads. It would also account for the general acceptance of these representations, if the audience is distanced from what is shown in the videos: issues of sexism and violence are far less relevant outside black urban society and it is therefore easier for a white consumer to take the videos solely as entertainment. It is also important to remember that while the majority of hip hop artists are black, it is predominantly marketed and controlled by a white industry, as Bakari describes (p46) in which the importance of an authentic representation of black culture is of little importance compared with supplying the public with texts which they will buy in to, as evidently the sex appeal of the videos is an important aspect. The next thing I shall look at is the level of awareness of the sexism in both the video itself, and the audience it is aimed at. There are many shots which suggest that the images in it, and the lyrics, are not entirely sincere. This is evident in the shots of the girl sitting on a bench next to 50 cent. Unlike the rest of the images, she is not highly glamorised, and her actions appear to be a lot more naturalistic than the others. She directly reacts to his lyrics, often looking away smiling, as though amused by what he is saying. The title of the song could also be referring to 50 cent himself as a celebrity figure: that both his image and his songs are merely an â€Å"amusement;† not to be taken as serious. This creates a sense of bathos juxtapositioned against the more professional looking shots, so that the female audience can relate more to the women shown. Although taking up a lot less time in the video than the glamorised ones, it creates a distance between the hyperreality of the rest of the video, and the ordinary more down to earth shots, so audiences see the video more objectively. The shots of the girl lying provocatively on the car bear even less relation to the lyrics than earlier in the video, being more reminiscent of a car commercial than a music video. The car itself is briefly but distinctly focused on, which makes reference to the importance of money and material values which are present in not only video, but the whole hip hop industry. This hints at the suggestion that both the girls and their representations are merely a product of this, and therefore are not in fact serious degradations of the women. In this shot we see a girl, while impressed; rolling her eyes at the artist at the lyrics â€Å"You know it's no fun without the magic stick†. In this sense the girls are in fact the more active ones in the video, whilst 50 Cent mostly maintains his position as an entertainer. Instead of them covering the whole screen, two similar shots of the same girl are often slid in from either side against a plain black background, sometimes overlapping each other. Whilst in one sense emphasising the importance of the girls' bodies, it also is highly self aware as product, as by seeing two separate views of one scene, it reminds us that it is a construction. Instead of taking itself too seriously, it makes explicit its intention of providing a sex appeal. A less prominent but important character in the video is the girl dancing acrobatically, and the only girl who is represented by her skill rather her sexuality – the camera barely focuses on her face. On the surface, she seems to represent an entertainer at a fair (the bright flashing lights help to anchor this meaning), but it is possible to decipher alternate readings of her: certain comparisons can be drawn between the actions of 50 Cent and herself. She and he are the first people we see in the video, and she appears immediately after the artist announces himself: â€Å"50† and â€Å"Ferrari F-50†. The setting she is in is almost identical to that of 50 Cent's. At times her dance moves mirror the lyrics of his, for example at â€Å"You fear heights when I'm high hell yeah I go low†, she can be seen to do exactly this. In another shot she briefly does a boxing punch, followed by a similar view of 50 Cent looking macho. At the lyrics â€Å"yeah it's like that† she mimes as though saying the words herself. In this sense she is the female counterpart to 50 Cent, and could be said to hold the power, in that she has little direct engagement with the audience, while Curtis has to explicitly put on an act to keep is position as an entertainer. This could allow women to from the perspective of her instead of the rapper, and thus 50 Cent himself becomes the object of the video instead of the subject. As previously discussed, the initial purpose of this media text is to sell 50 Cent's music, and this is done by providing the audience with representations they are familiar with: a stereotypical ‘gangster', highly sexed girls, and also to be considered is the artist's own sex appeal. Firstly, the subject of the song itself is 50 cent inviting girls (the audience) to attend his â€Å"amusement park†, and the lyrics describe the activities available to those who go, thus partially placing him as the object of desire. He is shown later in the song without a shirt on, with lighting focused in such a way that highlights his muscular physique. An important issue is that of whether hip hop should be censored, else voluntarily toned down. In April 2007, a controversial incident occurred, involving Don Imus, the presenter of his radio show, which already had a reputation for its crude humour. In discussing a black female basketball team, he referred to the players as ‘nappy headed hos'. After floods of outraged complaints, his show was permanently removed from air, prompting wide discussion over the standards in the media, often with reference to hip hop. 0 Cent himself was involved in the subsequent discussion, but refused to agree to clean up his lyrics, using a politician involved in adult dating websites to make comparisons between standards in hip hop and that in supposedly higher society. While this may be true to some extent, it firstly does not provide a justification in itself; but also it is debatable as to how much of what he said was his own opinion and how many were prearranged arguments by his managers (in the video he can be seen grinning in long pauses after phrases such as â€Å"I personally believe†). On the subject of Master P, who made the decision to stop using sexist and violent lyrics, he replies â€Å"Well Master P doesn't sell CDs anymore†7. From this, and other interviews where he has put the focus on that of entertainment, one could draw the conclusion that the artist in fact, as Amusement Park suggests, concerned with little other than the money involved in the business. In defence to his own lyrics, 50 Cent has also expressed his irritation of apparent double standards in the media, in reference to Britney Spears' single ‘Gimme more'8 beginning with the lyrics ‘it's Britney, bitch'. While it may appear to be merely a sore complaint, it is certainly valid to discuss the treatment of women in other areas of the media, and by women themselves. The music video of the song in question consists of Britney Spears, wearing little more than underwear, dancing round a poll in a seedy setting. Similarly, in ‘Dip it Low' by Christina Milian, the artist is seen allowing herself to have black paint poured over her semi-clothed body, whilst a group of men stand at the side watching and jeering: the presentation of women apparent in male hip hop videos is not a unique one. In all aspects of the media girls are presented, more than anything, by their sexuality and appearance, which can be found in adverts in women's magazines, stereotypes in film and television (a notable example being Desperate Housewives), car adverts, drink adverts. Although elevated within the genre, this representation could be described as a reflection of attitudes prevalent in both the media and in society and therefore not so shocking to audiences. Another issue described by an internet blogger9 is that by shutting sexism and violence portrayed in hip hop music, it is shutting off a fundamental way of keeping these issues in the eye of the public. He quotes that the leading killer of African Americans is homicide; and that males are five times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts. These issues will still exist even in the absence of offensive hip hop. While this certainly an interesting point, hip hop paradoxically glorifies the very things which it makes an issue of. While artists like 50 Cent may primarily be driven by selling as many records as possible, he still in one sense continues to represent issues which would otherwise be forgotten, if only in a postmodern way. Therefore, in order for hip hop to serve this purpose, it is essential that audiences neither directly embrace the values shown in the videos, nor take it as purely entertainment, as Amusement Park evidently does allow us to do. However, audiences could be said to be becoming increasingly desensitised to these things, with violent films and video games and the huge availability of pornography through the internet, which would make this reading more difficult to achieve. Whether or not the sexism and violence in hip hop is justified or not, if audiences were to take a more active role in their media, it would simultaneously prevent potential influence from such songs, and also make thorny issues in black society more accessible to deal with.

Fresh Water

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water. 97% of water on the Earth is salt water, and only 3% is fresh water of which slightly over two thirds is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. [1] The remaining unfrozen freshwater is mainly found as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. 2] Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of clean, fresh water is steadily decreasing. Water demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and as the world population continues to rise, so too does the water demand. Awareness of the global importance of preserving water for ecosystem services has only recently emerged as, during the 20th century, more than half the world’s wetlands have been lost along with their valuable environmenta l services.Biodiversity-rich freshwater ecosystems are currently declining faster than marine or land ecosystems. [3] The framework for allocating water resources to water users (where such a framework exists) is known as water rights. [pic] [pic] A graphical distribution of the locations of water on Earth. |Contents | |[hide] | |1 Sources of fresh water | |1. Surface water | |1. 2 Under river flow | |1. 3 Ground water | |1. 4 Desalination | |1. 5 Frozen water | |2 Uses of fresh water | |2. 1 Agricultural | |2. Industrial | |2. 3 Household | |2. 4 Recreation | |2. 5 Environmental | |3 Water stress | |3. 1 Population growth | |3. 2 Expansion of business activity | |3. Rapid urbanization | |3. 4 Climate change | |3. 5 Depletion of aquifers | |3. 6 Pollution and water protection | |3. 7 Water and conflict | |4 World water supply and distribution | |5 Economic considerations | |5. Business response | |6 See also | |7 Further reading | |8 Notes | |9 References | |10 External links | [pic ][edit] Sources of fresh water [edit] Surface water Main article: Surface water [pic] [pic]Lake Chungara and Parinacota volcano in northern Chile Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland. Surface water is naturally replenished by precipitation and naturally lost through discharge to the oceans, evaporation, and sub-surface seepage. Although the only natural input to any surface water system is precipitation within its watershed, the total quantity of water in that system at any given time is also dependent on many other factors. These factors include storage capacity in lakes, wetlands and artificial reservoirs, the permeability of the soil eneath these storage bodies, the runoff characteristics of the land in the watershed, the timing of the precipitation and local evaporation rates. All of these factors also affect the proportions of water lost. Human activities can have a large and sometimes devastating impact on these factors. Humans often increase storage capacity by constructing reservoirs and decrease it by draining wetlands. Humans often increase runoff quantities and velocities by paving areas and channelizing stream flow. The total quantity of water available at any given time is an important consideration.Some human water users have an intermittent need for water. For example, many farms require large quantities of water in the spring, and no water at all in the winter. To supply such a farm with water, a surface water system may require a large storage capacity to collect water throughout the year and release it in a short period of time. Other users have a continuous need for water, such as a power plant that requires water for cooling. To supply such a power plant with water, a surface water system only needs enough storage capacity to fill in when average stream flow is below the power plant's need.Nevertheless, over the long term the average rate of precipitation within a watershed is the upper bound for average consumptio n of natural surface water from that watershed. Natural surface water can be augmented by importing surface water from another watershed through a canal or pipeline. It can also be artificially augmented from any of the other sources listed here, however in practice the quantities are negligible. Humans can also cause surface water to be â€Å"lost† (i. e. become unusable) through pollution. Brazil is the country estimated to have the largest supply of fresh water in the world, followed by Russia and Canada. 4] [edit] Under river flow Throughout the course of the river, the total volume of water transported downstream will often be a combination of the visible free water flow together with a substantial contribution flowing through sub-surface rocks and gravels that underlie the river and its floodplain called the hyporheic zone. For many rivers in large valleys, this unseen component of flow may greatly exceed the visible flow. The hyporheic zone often forms a dynamic interf ace between surface water and true ground-water receiving water from he ground water when aquifers are fully charged and contributing water to ground-water when ground waters are depleted. This is especially significant in karst areas where pot-holes and underground rivers are common. [edit] Ground water Main article: Groundwater [pic] [pic] Sub-Surface water travel time [pic] [pic] Shipot, a common water source in Ukrainian villages Sub-surface water, or groundwater, is fresh water located in the pore space of soil and rocks. It is also water that is flowing within aquifers below the water table.Sometimes it is useful to make a distinction between sub-surface water that is closely associated with surface water and deep sub-surface water in an aquifer (sometimes called â€Å"fossil water†). Sub-surface water can be thought of in the same terms as surface water: inputs, outputs and storage. The critical difference is that due to its slow rate of turnover, sub-surface water sto rage is generally much larger compared to inputs than it is for surface water. This difference makes it easy for humans to use sub-surface water unsustainably for a long time without severe consequences.Nevertheless, over the long term the average rate of seepage above a sub-surface water source is the upper bound for average consumption of water from that source. The natural input to sub-surface water is seepage from surface water. The natural outputs from sub-surface water are springs and seepage to the oceans. If the surface water source is also subject to substantial evaporation, a sub-surface water source may become saline. This situation can occur naturally under endorheic bodies of water, or artificially under irrigated farmland.In coastal areas, human use of a sub-surface water source may cause the direction of seepage to ocean to reverse which can also cause soil salinization. Humans can also cause sub-surface water to be â€Å"lost† (i. e. become unusable) through p ollution. Humans can increase the input to a sub-surface water source by building reservoirs or detention ponds. [edit] Desalination Main article: Desalination Desalination is an artificial process by which saline water (generally sea water) is converted to fresh water. The most common desalination processes are distillation and reverse osmosis.Desalination is currently expensive compared to most alternative sources of water, and only a very small fraction of total human use is satisfied by desalination. It is only economically practical for high-valued uses (such as household and industrial uses) in arid areas. The most extensive use is in the Persian Gulf. [edit] Frozen water [pic] [pic] An iceberg as seen from Newfoundland Several schemes have been proposed to make use of icebergs as a water source, however to date this has only been done for novelty purposes. Glacier runoff is considered to be surface water.The Himalayas, which are often called â€Å"The Roof of the World†, contain some of the most extensive and rough high altitude areas on Earth as well as the greatest area of glaciers and permafrost outside of the poles. Ten of Asia’s largest rivers flow from there, and more than a billion people’s livelihoods depend on them. To complicate matters, temperatures are rising more rapidly here than the global average. In Nepal the temperature has risen with 0. 6 degree over the last decade, whereas the global warming has been around 0. 7 over the last hundred years. [5] edit] Uses of fresh water Uses of fresh water can be categorized as consumptive and non-consumptive (sometimes called â€Å"renewable†). A use of water is consumptive if that water is not immediately available for another use. Losses to sub-surface seepage and evaporation are considered consumptive, as is water incorporated into a product (such as farm produce). Water that can be treated and returned as surface water, such as sewage, is generally considered non-con sumptive if that water can be put to additional use. [edit] Agricultural [pic] [pic] A farm in OntarioIt is estimated that 69% of worldwide water use is for irrigation, with 15-35% of irrigation withdrawals being unsustainable. [6] In some areas of the world irrigation is necessary to grow any crop at all, in other areas it permits more profitable crops to be grown or enhances crop yield. Various irrigation methods involve different trade-offs between crop yield, water consumption and capital cost of equipment and structures. Irrigation methods such as furrow and overhead sprinkler irrigation are usually less expensive but are also typically less efficient, because much of the water evaporates, runs off or drains below the root zone.Other irrigation methods considered to be more efficient include drip or trickle irrigation, surge irrigation, and some types of sprinkler systems where the sprinklers are operated near ground level. These types of systems, while more expensive, usually offer greater potential to minimize runoff, drainage and evaporation. Any system that is improperly managed can be wasteful, all methods have the potential for high efficiencies under suitable conditions, appropriate irrigation timing and management. One issue that is often insufficiently considered is salinization of sub-surface water.Aquaculture is a small but growing agricultural use of water. Freshwater commercial fisheries may also be considered as agricultural uses of water, but have generally been assigned a lower priority than irrigation (see Aral Sea and Pyramid Lake). As global populations grow, and as demand for food increases in a world with a fixed water supply, there are efforts underway to learn how to produce more food with less water, through improvements in irrigation[7] methods[8] and technologies, agricultural water management, crop types, and water monitoring. [edit] Industrial pic] [pic] A power plant in Poland It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water use is industrial. [6] Major industrial users include power plants, which use water for cooling or as a power source (i. e. hydroelectric plants), ore and oil refineries, which use water in chemical processes, and manufacturing plants, which use water as a solvent. The portion of industrial water usage that is consumptive varies widely, but as a whole is lower than agricultural use. Water is used in power generation. Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower.Hydroelectric power comes from water driving a water turbine connected to a generator. Hydroelectricity is a low-cost, non-polluting, renewable energy source. The energy is supplied by the sun. Heat from the sun evaporates water, which condenses as rain in higher altitudes, from where it flows down. Pressurized water is used in water blasting and water jet cutters. Also, very high pressure water guns are used for precise cutting. It works very well, is relatively safe, and is not harmful to the environment. It is also u sed in the cooling of machinery to prevent over-heating, or prevent saw blades from over-heating.Water is also used in many industrial processes and machines, such as the steam turbine and heat exchanger, in addition to its use as a chemical solvent. Discharge of untreated water from industrial uses is pollution. Pollution includes discharged solutes (chemical pollution) and discharged coolant water (thermal pollution). Industry requires pure water for many applications and utilizes a variety of purification techniques both in water supply and discharge. [edit] Household [pic] [pic] Drinking water It is estimated that 8% of worldwide water use is for household purposes. 6] These include drinking water, bathing, cooking, sanitation, and gardening. Basic household water requirements have been estimated by Peter Gleick at around 50 liters per person per day, excluding water for gardens. Drinking water is water that is of sufficiently high quality so that it can be consumed or used with out risk of immediate or long term harm. Such water is commonly called potable water. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard even though only a very small proportion is actually consumed or used in food preparation. edit] Recreation [pic] [pic] Whitewater rapids Recreational water use is usually a very small but growing percentage of total water use. Recreational water use is mostly tied to reservoirs. If a reservoir is kept fuller than it would otherwise be for recreation, then the water retained could be categorized as recreational usage. Release of water from a few reservoirs is also timed to enhance whitewater boating, which also could be considered a recreational usage. Other examples are anglers, water skiers, nature enthusiasts and swimmers. Recreational usage is usually non-consumptive.Golf courses are often targeted as using excessive amounts of water, especially in drier regions. It is, however , unclear whether recreational irrigation (which would include private gardens) has a noticeable effect on water resources. This is largely due to the unavailability of reliable data. Additionally, many golf courses utilize either primarily or exclusively treated effluent water, which has little impact on potable water availability. Some governments, including the Californian Government, have labelled golf course usage as agricultural in order to deflect environmentalists' charges of wasting water.However, using the above figures as a basis, the actual statistical effect of this reassignment is close to zero. In Arizona, an organized lobby has been established in the form of the Golf Industry Association, a group focused on educating the public on how golf impacts the environment. Recreational usage may reduce the availability of water for other users at specific times and places. For example, water retained in a reservoir to allow boating in the late summer is not available to farm ers during the spring planting season.Water released for whitewater rafting may not be available for hydroelectric generation during the time of peak electrical demand. [edit] Environmental Explicit environmental water use is also a very small but growing percentage of total water use. Environmental water usage includes artificial wetlands, artificial lakes intended to create wildlife habitat, fish ladders , and water releases from reservoirs timed to help fish spawn. Like recreational usage, environmental usage is non-consumptive but may reduce the availability of water for other users at specific times and places.For example, water release from a reservoir to help fish spawn may not be available to farms upstream. [edit] Water stress [pic] [pic] Best estimate of the share of people in developing countries with access to drinking water 1970–2000. Main articles: Water crisis and Water stress The concept of water stress is relatively simple: According to the World Business Cou ncil for Sustainable Development, it applies to situations where there is not enough water for all uses, whether agricultural, industrial or domestic.Defining thresholds for stress in terms of available water per capita is more complex, however, entailing assumptions about water use and its efficiency. Nevertheless, it has been proposed that when annual per capita renewable freshwater availability is less than 1,700 cubic meters, countries begin to experience periodic or regular water stress. Below 1,000 cubic meters, water scarcity begins to hamper economic development and human health and well-being. [edit] Population growth In 2000, the world population was 6. 2 billion. The UN estimates that by 2050 there will be an additional 3. billion people with most of the growth in developing countries that already suffer water stress. [9] Thus, water demand will increase unless there are corresponding increases in water conservation and recycling of this vital resource. [10] [edit] Expans ion of business activity Business activity ranging from industrialization to services such as tourism and entertainment continues to expand rapidly. This expansion requires increased water services including both supply and sanitation, which can lead to more pressure on water resources and natural ecosystems. edit] Rapid urbanization The trend towards urbanization is accelerating. Small private wells and septic tanks that work well in low-density communities are not feasible within high-density urban areas. Urbanization requires significant investment in water infrastructure in order to deliver water to individuals and to process the concentrations of wastewater – both from individuals and from business. These polluted and contaminated waters must be treated or they pose unacceptable public health risks.In 60% of European cities with more than 100,000 people, groundwater is being used at a faster rate than it can be replenished. [11] Even if some water remains available, it c osts more and more to capture it. [edit] Climate change Climate change could have significant impacts on water resources around the world because of the close connections between the climate and hydrological cycle. Rising temperatures will increase evaporation and lead to increases in precipitation, though there will be regional variations in rainfall. Overall, the global supply of freshwater will increase.Both droughts and floods may become more frequent in different regions at different times, and dramatic changes in snowfall and snow melt are expected in mountainous areas. Higher temperatures will also affect water quality in ways that are not well understood. Possible impacts include increased eutrophication. Climate change could also mean an increase in demand for farm irrigation, garden sprinklers, and perhaps even swimming pools [edit] Depletion of aquifers Due to the expanding human population, competition for water is growing such that many of the worlds major aquifers are becoming depleted.This is due both for direct human consumption as well as agricultural irrigation by groundwater. Millions of pumps of all sizes are currently extracting groundwater throughout the world. Irrigation in dry areas such as northern China and India is supplied by groundwater, and is being extracted at an unsustainable rate. Cities that have experienced aquifer drops between 10 to 50 meters include Mexico City, Bangkok, Manila, Beijing, Madras and Shanghai. [12] [edit] Pollution and water protection Main article: Water pollution [pic] [pic] Polluted waterWater pollution is one of the main concerns of the world today. The governments of numerous countries have strived to find solutions to reduce this problem. Many pollutants threaten water supplies, but the most widespread, especially in developing countries, is the discharge of raw sewage into natural waters; this method of sewage disposal is the most common method in underdeveloped countries, but also is prevalent in qu asi-developed countries such as China, India and Iran. Sewage, sludge, garbage, and even toxic pollutants are all dumped into the water. Even if ewage is treated, problems still arise. Treated sewage forms sludge, which may be placed in landfills, spread out on land, incinerated or dumped at sea. [13] In addition to sewage, nonpoint source pollution such as agricultural runoff is a significant source of pollution in some parts of the world, along with urban stormwater runoff and chemical wastes dumped by industries and governments. [edit] Water and conflict The only known example of an actual inter-state conflict over water took place between 2500 and 2350 BC between the Sumerian states of Lagash and Umma. 14] Yet, despite the lack of evidence of international wars being fought over water alone, water has been the source of various conflicts throughout history. When water scarcity causes political tensions to arise, this is referred to as water stress. Water stress has led most ofte n to conflicts at local and regional levels. [15] Using a purely quantitative methodology, Thomas Homer-Dixon successfully correlated water scarcity and scarcity of available arable lands to an increased chance of violent conflict. 16] Water stress can also exacerbate conflicts and political tensions which are not directly caused by water. Gradual reductions over time in the quality and/or quantity of fresh water can add to the instability of a region by depleting the health of a population, obstructing economic development, and exacerbating larger conflicts. [17] Conflicts and tensions over water are most likely to arise within national borders, in the downstream areas of distressed river basins.Areas such as the lower regions of China's Yellow River or the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, for example, have already been experiencing water stress for several years. Additionally, certain arid countries which rely heavily on water for irrigation, such as China, India, Iran, and Pakistan , are particularly at risk of water-related conflicts. [17] Political tensions, civil protest, and violence may also occur in reaction to water privatization. The Bolivian Water Wars of 2000 are a case in point. [edit] World water supply and distributionFood and water are two basic human needs. However, global coverage figures from 2002 indicate that, of every 10 people: †¢ roughly 5 have a connection to a piped water supply at home (in their dwelling, plot or yard); †¢ 3 make use of some other sort of improved water supply, such as a protected well or public standpipe; †¢ 2 are unserved; †¢ In addition, 4 out of every 10 people live without improved sanitation. [6] At Earth Summit 2002 governments approved a Plan of Action to: †¢ Halve by 2015 the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water.The Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report (GWSSAR) defines â€Å"Reasonable access† to water as at least 20 liters per person per day from a source within one kilometer of the user’s home. †¢ Halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation. The GWSSR defines â€Å"Basic sanitation† as private or shared but not public disposal systems that separate waste from human contact. As the picture shows, in 2025, water shortages will be more prevalent among poorer countries where resources are limited and population growth is rapid, such as the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia.By 2025, large urban and peri-urban areas will require new infrastructure to provide safe water and adequate sanitation. This suggests growing conflicts with agricultural water users, who currently consume the majority of the water used by humans. Generally speaking the more developed countries of North America, Europe and Russia will not see a serious threat to water supply by the year 2025, not only because of their relative wealth, but more importantly their populations will be better aligne d with available water resources.North Africa, the Middle East, South Africa and northern China will face very severe water shortages due to physical scarcity and a condition of overpopulation relative to their carrying capacity with respect to water supply. Most of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern China and India will face water supply shortages by 2025; for these latter regions the causes of scarcity will be economic constraints to developing safe drinking water, as well as excessive population growth. 1. billion people have gained access to a safe water source since 1990. [18] The proportion of people in developing countries with access to safe water is calculated to have improved from 30 percent in 1970[19] to 71 percent in 1990, 79 percent in 2000 and 84 percent in 2004. This trend is projected to continue. [18] [edit] Economic considerations Water supply and sanitation require a huge amount of capital investment in infrastructure such as pipe networks, pumping stati ons and water treatment works.It is estimated that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations need to invest at least USD 200 billion per year to replace aging water infrastructure to guarantee supply, reduce leakage rates and protect water quality. [20] International attention has focused upon the needs of the developing countries. To meet the Millennium Development Goals targets of halving the proportion of the population lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, current annual investment on the order of USD 10 to USD 15 billion would need to be roughly doubled.This does not include investments required for the maintenance of existing infrastructure. [21] Once infrastructure is in place, operating water supply and sanitation systems entails significant ongoing costs to cover personnel, energy, chemicals, maintenance and other expenses. The sources of money to meet these capital and operational costs are essentially either user f ees, public funds or some combination of the two. But this is where the economics of water management start to become extremely complex as they intersect with social and broader economic policy.Such policy questions are beyond the scope of this article, which has concentrated on basic information about water availability and water use. They are, nevertheless, highly relevant to understanding how critical water issues will affect business and industry in terms of both risks and opportunities. [edit] Business response The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its H2OScenarios engaged in a scenario building process to: †¢ Clarify and enhance understanding by business of the key issues and drivers of change related to water. Promote mutual understanding between the business community and non-business stakeholders on water management issues. †¢ Support effective business action as part of the solution to sustainable water management. It concludes that: †¢ B usiness cannot survive in a society that thirsts. †¢ One does not have to be in the water business to have a water crisis.

How Stress can be Damaging to an Individual Employee Essay - 2

How Stress can be Damaging to an Individual Employee - Essay Example From this study it is clear that the stressors in the workplace are able to stimulate physiological reactions that will eventually lead a person to become physically and mentally ill. As commonly observed, the common stressors that are found in the workplace that can affect a person physically and mentally include but not limited to the number of workloads given to them, the seclusion, excessive hours given to work, a stressful environments because of pressures, the inability of a person to engage in self-rule, problematic relationships with colleagues and management, presence of intimidation among members in the organisation, pestering, and the lack of either provocation or openings for career-pathing advancement via improvement of skills, abilities, knowledge, position and accountability.   This paper highlights that  theories of occupational stress are linked to the theory pertaining to workplace support and work-life balance, emphasising that the stressful conditions will hav e greater negative impact on the individual’s psychological health and well-being especially if there is absence of support. Therefore, it is of no great surprise as to why many research studies would want to find out the effects when there is absence of balance, the effects are mostly in line with the stress created due to conflict between the demands of work and non-work activities, and the level of satisfaction in work and non-work activities.

Supreme Court case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Supreme Court case - Essay Example The judges vote on the ruling was 7 to 2 with majority choosing to have abortion legalized basing it on the right to privacy, which is spelt under the clause of due process in the 14th amendment. In the written ruling by Justice Harry Blackmun, he justified the legalization of abortion because of the fact that illegalization infringed upon women’s right to privacy and the ruling subsequently, overruled all other state antiabortion statutes. According to Alcorn, the ruling issued in this case permitted the state to intervene during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy when there is an urgent need to protect the pregnant woman and/ or even the unborn child (28-31). However, it is important to note that the trimester consideration was struck out leaving the main fact about the ruling as that a pregnant woman had the right to abort until ‘viability.’ Murti stated that despite the numerous cases being filed to repeal this judgment, a ruling made 1992 in the cas e of Planned Parenthood versus Casey reaffirmed the right to abortion that had been granted under the Roe versus Wade case, but it permitted further restrictions (33-36). ... The pro-life group refers to those who are against the ruling while the pro-choice refers to those who support the ruling citing the fact that a woman has the right to decide whether she would want to keep the pregnancy or not (45-56). Without including matters of the law or legal principles into the discussion, Murti stated that the greatest opposition to the ruling made by in the Roe versus Wade case has been based around religious and moral ideologies or views (88-89). The pro-life advocates have continually stated that the ruling given in the Roe versus Wade case goes against religious teachings in all the faiths where abortion has been openly condemned and classified as a sin against the Lord. With reference to religious teachings, Alcorn stated that the Bible has openly refuted the act of abortion since the Lord referred to children as a blessing and therefore, it would go against the Lord’s wishes if a pregnant woman terminates a pregnancy thereby failing to give the un born child the right to life (67-73). For example, Amos chapter 1 verse 13 states, â€Å"the help of the Lord is essential, for He has dominion over human life and its origin. Parents cooperate with God in bringing forth life. Because this whole process is under God’s dominion and therefore, it is sinful to interrupt it.† This versus was written with reference to the violent acts that were taking place in Gilead where attackers were ripping open expectant mothers, thus killing their unborn children. This verse by Amos clearly indicates that pregnancy is under the dominion of God and therefore, it is a sin before the Lord. Additionally, Biblical teachings repeatedly in several versus condemn the killing of the innocent while other versus refer to the

Is emancipation and how can it be used to explain security Essay

Is emancipation and how can it be used to explain security problematics - Essay Example A number of components such as trans-national capitalism, liberal democracy and international organizations have affected international security in positive and in some cases negative ways. Krause & Williams (1997, p. 49) states ‘The challenges to the conventional understanding of security and the object to be secured also necessitate an epistemological shift in the way security is to be understood and studied.’ In the last decade or so, there have been various events which have threatened international security, some of them being weapons proliferation, advancements in military technology and ethnic conflict in a number of nations. Additionally, cases of human rights violation, gender inequalities and environmental as well as economic security have been on the increase in the present era. This has necessitated a new type of security framework as well as management, which can successfully handle the modern security concerns worldwide. This is also an era where terrorism activities have skyrocketed. Among the economists and scholars, there is an ongoing debate whether strategic studies should be modified and improved or whether security studies should be augmented. It’s however been agreed by most scholars, that strategic studies should serve a limited purpose and should be seen in the broader context of security studies. Recently, a number of European schools have integrated security studies, and theories from some of these schools have created a major impact in the field of international relations or IR. Krause & Williams (1997, p. 231) states ‘In the West, security was inseparable from the need to secure the space of Western Europe, the securing of a feminine object by a masculine subject, the United States.’ Unlike the security studies originating in American soil, the European schools have put forward breakthrough ideas and incisive analysis which has created a

Problematic situation is Contract Law Case Study

Problematic situation is Contract Law - Case Study Example It is fortunate the judge took the time to find where the problems lay and also decide the outcomes (GP Surveyors). In June 2003, Mr. Simon Davenport and Mrs. Angelika Davenport, husband and wife, engaged the services of a small and untried building contractor called TL Construction (UK) Ltd. ("TL") to carry out plastering, wiring and other such refurbishment work in their beautiful stucco terrace leasehold house located in Knightsbridge, SW3. Mrs. Davenport was in charge of all the work being carried out by TL. While she left the technical aspect of the work to TL, she provided most of the management needed to keep the work going through day to day close personal involvement and continuous monitoring of the finished product. Mrs. Davenport also looked after the co-ordination of the work of the building contractor with the directly engaged specialists. The work was done without any builder's specification. Mr. David Jones, surveyor and principal to Design Group Nine Ltd provided limited supervisory services. The work was paid for at cost and in cash and there was no defined contractual period or completion date or any clear definition of the specialist work such as the electrical work, plastering, joinery or painting work. After having paid a substantial amount and not satisfied with the work, they terminated their contract with TL nine months later during Easter 2004. The Davenports had paid out 147,000 and this amount was in excess of what had been quoted at the outset and the work was still significantly incomplete. The Davenports were unhappy with most of the work, particularly waterproofing and electrical works done by TL. They began to despair when the work kept dragging on even after nine months! The plastering and waterproofing was not only substandard but also erratic. Some weeks before terminating the contract with TL, the Davenports had engaged Monavon, following an introduction from Mr. David Jones, to install a new conservatory extension at the rear of the house. When the contract with TL ended on a sour note, Mr. Davenport invited Mr. Ian McGowan, Monavon's principal, to inspect the works and indicate how much he would charge for remedying the defective work left by TL. The work was to be done to a very high standard. Mr. Davenport also obtained quotations from two other contractors. He did not disclose this to Monavon. Mr. McGowan gave Mr. Davenport what he contends was a provisional guide price of about 100,000 which was less than half what the other two contractors had quoted. Mr. Davenport therefore decided to engage Monavon. Monavon carried out the work between April and September 2004. It was not to Davenports' satisfaction. The work by McGowan also took more time than was anticipated. It not only took more time, but the payments to be made were more than what the Davenports were ready to pay. Basically, there were three works that needed to be done. They were electrical work,

History (Fifteen Year War) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History (Fifteen Year War) - Essay Example In the context of the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific World War, collectively known as the Fifteen Years War, the reasons for its successes in not spawning staunch resistance from East Asia proved to be the same reasons in the demise of the promise of liberation and ultimately, the Japanese occupation. The annexing of Korea and Manchuria provided momentum for Japan to strengthen its military and industrialize its economy. In the 1940s, Second World War in the Pacific broke out, initially won by the Japanese, and the commissioning of its message of liberation. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (GEACPS) was proposed to consolidate the socio-economic interests of the Japanese empire and newly-conquered Asian states (including Australia Pacific islands) in order to achieve its promulgated objective of liberating Greater East Asia from Western imperialismii. The Japanese invasion was fast and deadly, taking only a few months from the Pearl Harbor incident. It would not be as rapid, however, if the Asian states have bitterly fought the Japanese. In 1937, Japanese forces were intercepted by Chinese forces on their way to Nanking. The delay angered the Japanese, so when they finally reached the Kuomintang capital, the Japanese mercilessly destroyed the city, killing, torturing and beheading some 30,000 citizensiii. Through the stories of the unharmed European and American nationals, the Rape of Nanking was known, reminding Asians of the severe consequences of mounting a resistance to Japanese occupation. Likewise, surrendering to the Japanese would propel the economic development of the region. Such was the case after the capture of Manchuria, despite the underhanded bombing of Mukdeniv, incited by the Japanese themselves. Over a short span of time, the utilization of Chinese resources for Japanese superior knowledge and technical ability, transformed Manchuria to become an urbanized industrial complex. Such

The Determinants of Sustainable Competitive Advantage in International Research Paper

The Determinants of Sustainable Competitive Advantage in International Marketing - Research Paper Example Same way many other prominent companies failed to develop properly in international market because of their misinterpretations and wrong perceptions about the sustainable competitive strategies in international market. Knowledge management, cost leadership or differentiating, innovation or development of new products, timing of introduction of new products, customization of the product and technology, superior technology, ability to adapt with local cultures, commitment to demonstrates corporate social responsibility, geographic dispersion of activities etc are some areas in which international companies should focus more to sustain their competitive advantage in international market. This paper analyses various determinants of sustainable competitive advantage in International Marketing. A company that operates in a small number of countries or within in a restricted business sector may believe that its competitive advantage comes from low cost manufacturing, design capability and d istribution efficiency. However when exposed to global competition it may find that its own competitive advantages cannot be transported to new countries and discover, instead, that regional or global competitors have even greater competitive advantage in their own domestic markets as wells as in the target country market (Doole & Lowe, p.430). Knowledge management is one of the major determinants of competitive advantage in international market. As mentioned earlier, Parker Pen Company tried to sell its products in international market using same marketing strategies everywhere. Parker Pen was the market leader in the manufacturing of writing equipment once. But now same thing cannot be said about them because of the huge setbacks they received from international market during the initial period of globalization. â€Å"The idea of selling pens the same way everywhere did not sit well with many parker subsidiaries and distributors. Pens were indeed the same, but markets, were diffe rent† (Marketing across cultures, p.195). Parker thought that for the same product, same marketing strategy is enough everywhere. They failed to recognize the fact that the global market is different from domestic market and it needs customized marketing strategies for each market outside, United States. It should be noted that Tiger Woods could be a good brand Ambassador in American conditions whereas in Indian conditions, instead of Tiger Woods, Sachin Tendulkar or Shah Ruk Khan could be a better brand ambassador. In short, local knowledge is essential for international companies to formulate better business strategies for each global market in which they try to sell their products. â€Å"Traditional approaches to developing competitive advantage focus on developing a positional advantage relative to competition based either on cost leadership or differentiating the product /service offering† (Craig and Douglas). However, in international market, cost leadership or di fferentiation strategies alone may not help an organization much. For example, most of the Chinese products are believed to be the cheapest products available in the global market at present, compared to the products from competitors. China is focusing more on quantity rather than quality while producing goods. Cheaper price may help Chinese companies to sell their

The relationship between landlord and tenants in relation to Essay

The relationship between landlord and tenants in relation to assignment of leases and recovery of rent arrears - Essay Example The relationship between landlord and tenants in relation to assignment of leases â€Å"not to be on unreasonably withheld† & the legal and softer approach to dealing with rent arrears bearing in mind a proactive management approach Introduction Question one : Case scenario The first question deals with assignment of a lease by the tenant whereby the lease agreement permits for assignment, but with the consent of the tenant. In this case, the consent of the tenant cannot be unreasonably withheld. One of the shop is used by a hairdresser who wish to assign the lease to another hairdresser in the town. Shelagh (the other hairdresser) is considered a better covenant than existing tenant since she has a more profitable business than the current tenant.Although, I dislike Shelaghm, the lease permits the tenant to assign the premises with my consent. In this case, I cannot withhold the consent unreasonably. In the above case scenario, I cannot simply say no to the assignment of the lease. There are numerous laws that govern the landlord and tenant relationship with regard to the assignment of the lease. The Amendment of law of property Act 1925, provides the procedure for discharging or modifying any covenants including leaseholds (Pawlowski, 2002). The lease is of a commercial property and entails a covenant that is legally binding to the landlord and tenant. The tenant has the right to assignment lease to another tenant. Accordingly, the covenant requires the tenant to make an assignment only with the consent of the landlord.... Accordingly, the landlord must notify the tenant of any conditions attached to the consent or reasons for withholding the consent (Karp and Klayman, 2003). In addition, section 19(1) a of the landlord and tenant ACT1927, makes it clear that a landlord cannot unreasonably withhold his consent in a qualified covenant (Karp and Klayman, 2003). Accordingly, section 19 (1A) of the landlord and tenant Act 1927 allows both the landlord and tenant to agree of certain conditions that will apply while granting the consent of assignment (Pawlowski, 2002). In this case, the landlord will not unreasonably withhold his consent if he withholds the consent due to a specific circumstance that attaches to the assignment. In the above case, it is the legal duty of the landlord to grant the consent of assignment or provides reasons for the withholding of the consent (Karp and Klayman, 2003). Ideally, the main issue that arises in the grant of assignment consent is financial capability of the proposed ne w tenant. The landlord can ask for the financial accounts of the proposed tenant and enlist the services of a credit rating agency in determining the creditworthiness of the proposed tenant (Pawlowski, 2002). In the above case, Shelagh has a more profitable business and thus more credit worth than the current tenant. Accordingly, the landlord is entitled to take in to full consideration of the attaching property interests in the whole property such as good estate management reasons (Karp and Klayman, 2003). The landlord will seek satisfaction that the proposed new tenant is capable of complying with the lease covenants after the assignment and require for additional securities such as rent deposit and guarantees. In addition, the

Principal Intern Essay Example for Free

Principal Intern Essay As I embarked into this higher education path I wanted nothing more than to be an administrator of an Elementary or Middle School in Texas. I was able to even envision myself in the school district I currently work in working in school administration at one of the schools I have taught at. I was fortunate on my internship year to have the position of being the instructional technology facilitator and was able to help more in depth with the administrators of my campus and learn the in and outs of the administration side of the school. Looking at all of this and having experienced it I am now thinking I am leaning towards more working towards becoming a department head or maybe the head of a academic department for the district. I am hoping the first step to this will be to become the department head for fifth grade on my campus and then moving towards becoming the English Language Arts and Reading department head. Eventually over time I hope to move into a more Reading Specialist position for a campus or even possibly a district. My ultimate goal is to move into the administration building and become a curriculum director for a district. As a leader I hope to accomplish many things to my employee’s and staff like being stronger leaders in the classrooms, stronger teachers, and being able to empower students for long term success. I have always wanted since I entered education to see the end result of my students to be a positive one and love to see the academic growth my students show over the course of a school year. I think that being able to show teachers and staff how to be and become strong leaders in the classrooms will help to majorly accomplish this goal. For me a leader is someone who listens and empowers its learners to learn in a way that fits their own personal needs and not necessarily the needs of the teacher themselves. I also think that using these techniques it will help teachers to become stronger educators in life and in the long run. Helping teachers, just like students, create a solid foundation is a great way to start them in the right direction and therefore it will be easier for them to lead themselves one day. And finally I would love to see in teachers, like I do with my students, long term success over the course of a year, two years and even ten years as they grow academically with the students. In Texas we are constantly changing the way things are being tested and handled. Being able to be a leader that is open to those changes will help me to accomplish my goals to the best of my ability while creating successful teachers and students. Reflective Practice In the beginning of these courses reflective writing did not seem to be an influential part of my learning process as a student myself. In my own classroom I did not use much reflective writing for my students because I saw it as time that I could be using on something else related to the content. Throughout the courses related to my master’s degree through Lamar University I have had to reflect in every course on what I learned throughout the class. At first I was skeptical about the reflective writing but as the course progressed I realized that by writing reflectively I was able to take the course material and transpose it into my own words. This helped me to have a clear understanding of what I learned and make it my own. One of the meaningful things that I feel I should have walked away from these courses is that the best way to become a leader is to create ownership for the staff, and I relate that to reflective writing. In my reflective writing I am walking away with a sense of ownership from my courses, and this helps to realize the main facts of what the course was about. Reflective writing now has a new meaning to me; it is now more of me creating my own ownership to the material presented in the course. I have even now find myself using reflective writing more and more in my own classroom and finding it a useful tool to assess what the students are walking away from my lessons with. To me reflective writing is a great tool to check students understanding of what was taught and what was learned. Reflective writing has had a significant influence on my practice currently in my classroom. Instead of using traditional quizzes and test I find myself using more reflective writings in my own classroom. It is a great form of writing to use to allow the students to use their own words to explain what they have learned in the classroom. In my future I plan on using reflective writing more and more in a leadership role for my staff to obtain information on how well the school is operating and working as a team. I feel that if my current principal used more reflective writing in our faculty meetings then he would have a better understanding of what is going on inside the campus. When I am a principal with my own campus I plan on using reflective writing responses in order to check if my staff walked away from staff developments with what was intended for them to learn and to also make sure that the training was effective or not to use on our campus. I would also like to implement a feedback process that involves reflective writing, which will allow staff to respond to any procedures implemented on campus that might need to be adjusted. By using this reflective writing process in the future I can make sure that my staff walks away with the knowledge they need in staff developments and in-services. This will prove to be an effective form of feedback for me and reflection on what skills they acquired. In Examining what we do to Improve our Schools Tool 8.1 the CARE Model: Planning Tool uses four steps to address change for the future the final step Evaluate allows the staff to reflective on the prior steps they have created (Harris). In this process the staff or administrator is to take steps into identifying and solving problems they are facing on campus. The first three steps are steps on how to implement and strategize the problem at hand. The fourth step in the CARE Model is to ‘identify the best ways to evaluate the implemented recommendations’ which is a way for the person(s) making the decisions can reflect on what they have created. In the same book Tool 8.2 (Harris) provides a list of reflective type questions to be answered to examine school improvement. These are great questions to guide someone’s reflection or at the very least jump start their reflection process so they have a starting point. An example of one of the questions asked in Tool 8.2 is ‘What am I doing to sustain improvement?’ These types of questions allow me as a future administrator to use for myself and others to reflect upon what we are doing as a team to create positive school improvement. Competency Development DOMAIN I School Community Leadership Competency 001- The principal knows how to shape campus culture by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. In this competency I learned many things on how to create a vision for my campus and how to make it happen. I found it is not only important to make your school have a vision or just a common goal but the process of getting to that vision is equally important. Competency 001 is the foundation for that solid house you want to build, without the foundation a house will eventually fall and break, just like a school would without a solid foundation. As a leader of my campus it is my duty to look into creating a climate that promotes higher level thinking and teaching. When I do obtain my own campus I will be using this competency to ensure that higher expectations are required. It is not just enough to create higher standards and expect people to follow them it is equally important to create them in such a way that they can become obtained. In order to make these goals and visions obtainable and reachable it is important not to just let one person make these decisions, but to allow all stakeholders to have a say in the creation and implementation of them. I found throughout all of my courses that the most important factoring in leading your staff and students in any direction is the ownership that they have in the school. It is important that all stakeholders have a clear understanding that each party involved was and is clearly represented. I know that I feel better implementing a plan that I took part in planning or know someone in the plan that had my best interests and the student’s best interests at heart. I found myself spending 23 hours on this competency with my principal and assistant principal. The majority of the time was spent prior to school helping the committees to set up the vision and goals. We then revisited the vision in the middle of the school year to adjust to the changes our campus faces. It was also important that my principal have me sit in on grade level meetings to see if each grade level had a clear understanding of what the vision meant for them and what it looked like in their classrooms and for their students. I would say in this section of the domains I believe that I am walking away with the most mastery because of all of the actual hands on time I got to spend working with my campus vision and missions. Competency 002 The principal knows how to communicate and collaborate with all members of the school community, responds to diverse interests and needs, and mobilizes resources to promote student success. In this section I learned the importance of correctly communicating with all staff, students, and community stakeholders for my campus. Although it was difficult at times to get parents to communicate and participate at school functions I was able to learn a lot about the process of correctly communicating with them. I was able to assist in almost every letter we sent home with students explaining our events. We not only had to have a copy in English but we also had to translate all letters in Spanish as well. Over the course of the year, logging over seven hours, as paper became more and more precious I was able to focus more on call outs over the phone system and also to work on maintaining accurate information on the schools website. I had a bit of the upper hand in comparison to others in these course because I was able to find ways through our website to communicate effectively with the community. In our many multicultural events we held on campus (Hispanic Heritage Art Contest, Black History Writing Contest, Math Night, and Science Night) I was able to have exposure to the positive effect it has on students through multicultural awareness. On this competency I spent around seven hours of internship time (I believe more logged hours were possible). Another wonderful thing I learned during this lesson was how to correctly manage school wide communication that took place on campus. I was very fortunate to have a very supportive principal who was willing to take me under her wing and allow playing a huge role in all activities on the campus. My principal always told me anything you would not say out loud make sure you do not put it in writing. She taught me through example and doing how to effectively write and create e-mails to be sent to the staff. I know now the importance of tone in my writing to ensure the way the e-mail is received it is received correctly. Competency 003 The principal knows how to act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical and legal manner. One of the most memorable things I will walk away from this course is the question to always ask myself â€Å"Is the decision to the question in the best interest of the child(ren)?† My mentors (principal, assistant principal, counselor, veteran teachers) taught me this valuable lesson that any decision, no matter the size, has to have the student’s best interest at heart. This is a great way to keep you in check to make sure you are being ethical and act with integrity in everyday decisions as a campus administrator. The legal portion of this competency comes with the knowledge of making sure to follow all state guidelines set for by the Texas Education Agency. One of the best ways I found to make sure you are following the rules legally is to ask questions. My internship supervisor, Sherry Gore through my eighteen internship hours, taught me to never be afraid to ask questions or research the answer before making a decision. The way she taught me this was not in a direct manner but more indirectly. By demonstrating to me on topics that she was unfamiliar with how she asked other principals or administrators to solve her problems I learned his valuable lesson. With the ever changing ways of education in the State of Texas, and the Country for that matter, it is important for an administrator to make sure they are up to date with all their knowledge about the laws concerning the education of the children in their school. It is also the responsibility of the principal to make sure their staff knows about any changes in laws and procedures. Making sure the staff knows of these changes it will make the transition to the new ones a smoother one for their campus and thus make the impact less stressful on the children. DOMAIN II Instructional Leadership Competency 004 The principal knows how to facilitate the design and implementation of curricula and strategic plans that enhance teaching and learning; ensure alignment of curriculum, instruction, resources, and assessments; and promote the use of varied assessments to measure student performance. One of the major witnessing to competency 004 was that of how our campus was having year after year to adjust to its ever growing numbers of bilingual and ESL students on our campus. Each year we a faced with the challenge of how to adjust to the growing numbers not only with resources but also with the staffing of these new positions needed. In all campus purchases, technology or academic workbooks, we find ourselves looking as administrators on the campus at what kind of Spanish and ESL supplements were available and how well they will work for our students needs. I found it very interesting in choosing our new reading textbooks in how different the Spanish supplements are for the different adoptions. As a person on the committee, logging over twenty-three internship hours, for our school to help us choose our next adoption it was made very clear to us at the beginning of the process that we needed to make sure we are considering not only the English portion of the textbook but the ESL materials are equally important. I knew going into it that the ESL supplements were important but it never crossed my mind how important it is to our campus. With my campus being one of two bilingual campuses it was important to my principal that our vote was heard at the district level when choosing the newest adoptions. The next step in this was implementing a new reading textbook while adjusting to the new district wide curriculum CSCOPE. It was my principal’s job to make sure that all of her staff was well aware of how to use the materials mandated by the district for our new instructional focus always keeping the students best interests at heart when training the teachers to prepare for our school year of academic success. Competency 005 The principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain an instructional program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. All too often there is going to be a change in policy or educational law, and with these changes there is always going to be changes in educational practices that have proven to be effective. The older methods of teaching are not necessarily the best methods to be used to reach the students of 2011. This competency ensures that the principal keep up with the best practices and methods out in the world to use for the success of our students and staff. This includes making sure that the staff is up to date on the latest practices in teaching in new and exciting ways to reach children. I spent close to twenty-one hours working with my principal and instructional facilitators to ensure that our campus had what we needed to implement new teaching practices in our classrooms. This section requires a lot of research into the newest needs of the students and then the needs of the staff to meet those needs. One example of a staff development that I was part of implementing with the principal and instructional facilitators was when we had to move into a new online lesson planning system. This system was completely online and making paper lesson plans not necessary. It was my responsible to make sure the staff was trained in how to use this new system to its full potential. I had to attend training provided by the company ht owned the software as well as district training to show me how to show the staff how to use this new system. It was essential that the staff knew how to implement this program because it was soon to become a mandate by the district to improve district lesson plan sharing throughout the entire district. The essential great thing for the teachers was that of making teachers resources more readily available to district employees across the di strict. Competency 006 The principal knows how to implement a staff evaluation and development system to improve the performance of all staff members, select and implement appropriate models for supervision and staff development, and apply the legal requirements for personnel management. With this area I feel I need a little more practice, and that is my fault in the internship hours and plan. I do however plan on using my current principal to help me to understand the evaluation process of a staff member. With only putting in eight hours into this area of focus I feel that I need to focus more on the PDAS system. I know the system as a teacher but I feel I need to works towards better understanding of the administrator side of the evaluations. I did focus my attention on part of this aspect as determining the needs of the staff and creating a staff development for the staff to grow from. With the help of the assessment specialist on my campus I found that we as a staff needed more focus on how to properly prepare the kids to take tests for a long period of time. We gathered information and tips for the staff to use while preparing the students for their long awaited TAKS tests. We then used a simple evaluation survey at the end of the training to evaluate the effectiveness of the training to meet the needs of the teachers and students. We produced a lot of reflective time for teachers to share their own experiences in the classroom that allowed students to work to their best potential. With the knowledge of the results of the survey we used the knowledge we gained to conduct follow mini-trainings to assess the needs of the staff after they implemented the practices. The reason we conducted the mini-follow ups was because of the survey evaluation at the end of the training said they enjoy the trainings we have but they need further help after we implement the training in our classrooms. Competency 007 The principal knows how to apply organizational, decision-making, and problem solving skills to ensure an effective learning environment. Spending close to eighteen hours working on this competency it clear to see that this competency is an important one in relationship to the effectiveness of a campus. One major thing I learned from my principal was that you need to be organized enough to make sure you put together a quality interview to ensure that you put together a quality staff. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit in the interview process of one of our future teachers. The before part of the process was the preparation in getting ready for the interview, my principal using the Gallup interview process so she must be organized and ready. During the interview quality questions prove to be the most effective in choosing future staff members. Following the interview there is a debriefing with the hiring committee to ensure that the newest staff member would be a good fit for our campus and our students. We then moved onto working with the staff and interviewing them on what needs to be improved on campus. The next step in this process for my principal and I was to look towards the staff and see how well they internalized or resisted change in our continuous improvements implemented at the campus. We had to look at what changes were the best for the students as a whole and the needs of our at risk students.

Gender Communication Essay Example for Free

Gender Communication Essay The concept of gender is often poorly differentiated with sex, at times even being utilized synonymously with sex. The terminology gender commonly appears within both popular and academic discourses regarding social event dynamics. However, regardless of the form in which the term appears, authors seldom specify what they imply by the terminology. It is widely assumed that readers and listeners already comprehend the connotation and hence explanation is ruled out as being unnecessary. The sex/gender disparity embodies some feminists’ attempts at breaking the link between the organic sex category and the social gender category. As per this social molding viewpoint, gender refers to the customary sense which ultimately becomes dependently linked to the body. When gender becomes understood to be culturally molded, it becomes likely to evade the essentialist notion which suggests that gender emanates for the organic body (Clancy, 2004). However, despite the fact that the disparity between culturally molded gender responsibilities and ahistorical organic sexes attacks the idea that females’ organic configuration make up their social fate, it encounters some difficult dissociation of culturally-derived genders out of sexed bodies. Women and men exhibit dissimilar but similarly valid communication styles. The speaking modes displayed by both women and men have gender differentials. Essentialism belief holds that, since biological disparities between men and women exist, men and women are obviously dissimilar with regard to personality and character. Strict organic essentialism proposes that ones gender construction is not influenced by nurture. Essentialists assume men to be aggressive, strong, violent, logical, brave, lustful, independent and disciplined. Conversely, women are viewed as being passive, weak, cowardly, gentle, emotional, having no sexual appeal, having no stamina and self-control plus extremely invested in their associations with other persons. Aristotle suggested that men are more courageous, virtuous and noble as compared to women. The 1900s saw philosophers like John Locke and Emmanuel Kant argue that the social separation of female and male gender is reasonable owing to the innate disparities between female and male bodies. Scientist in the 1900s studied studies on female and male bodies and proposed that since male craniums were bigger in comparison to female craniums and feminine pelvises proved bigger than masculine pelvises, males are more suited for business, politics and general community life, whereas females whose little craniums supposedly signified lesser intellect, were most suitable to child bearing and home tending (http://www. humboldt. edu/~mpw1/gender_theory/perspectives4. shtml). The ramifications of essentialist gender perspectives are extensive. Conventional gender responsibilities are somewhat based upon some fundamental organic determinism; a viewpoint that views biology as being destiny. Consequently, females have had the principal responsibility of housework and parenting, with men being the wage earners. Even presently, males outnumber females in government and business and women and girls are not as powerfully urged to practice occupations in science, technology and math as are men and boys. Essentialists hold that gender is the same as sex, or that the two concepts are naturally-derived (God-given) and indivisible. Gender and observable sex indicators, such as, vagina and penis are inseparable. This theory holds that merely two gender types exist from birth and they are not altered throughout life. No continuum exists between these two genders since any appearances or behaviors not coherent with such suppositions are considered as being perverse. Essentialism holds that females are dissimilar with men owing to their anatomy, particularly their minor sex traits, hormones plus reproductive structures. Gender disparities in verbal capability and visuo-spatial, aggression plus other actions, as well as other mental and physical characteristics are attributed to pubertal or prenatal hormone contact. Essentialist stances may exist within developmental psychobiological, sociological, neuropsychological and ethological work. Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) female and male brain picture Disparities or other mental aspects, for instance, are at times regarded as mirroring inborn disparities. Gender disparities in spatial, verbal and Mathematical capabilities are usually regarded as being organically based (http://www. humboldt. edu/~mpw1/gender_theory/perspectives4. shtml). Constructivists hold that gender as well as sex are derived from social relations and do not exist without social contact. It admits social influences upon persons’ gender. It assumes that manhood or womanhood implies endorsing some general function unique to an individual’s sex. Personal uniqueness, sexual inclination, as well as modes of socially interacting is determined by some set of individual constructs. This implies that gender and sex do not have natural foundations because nature itself is essentially socially defined. The constructivist quality of Gender and sex is rendered invisible through typical social life dynamics and this makes the two notions seem natural as opposed to artificial (Gergen, 2007). Persons construct fresh knowledge, through assimilation and accommodation processes, out of the experiences they undergo. Assimilation involves integrating fresh experiences into previously existent frameworks with no alteration of such frameworks. Such events could happen when person’s experiences reflect their inner world representations; however, they may as well happen whenever alteration of some defective understanding happens, for instance persons may fail to detect events, could misinterpret others input, or could conclude that some occurrence is offer some unimportant information regarding the world. On the contrary, whenever persons’ experiences disagree with their inner representations, they could alter their viewpoints of such experiences with a view to conforming to their inner representations. Accommodation involves restructuring ones intellectual outside world interpretation to suit fresh experiences (Glasser, Smith, 2008). It is the means though which learning emanates from failure. When persons act based on the anticipation that the world functions in some specific way only for such expectations to be violated, such individuals usually fail. However, through accommodating such fresh experience as well as restructuring their model regarding the functioning of the world, persons learn through experiencing disappointment or the failure of others. . Constructivists suggest that gender representations systematize an individual’s personality uniqueness, social awareness and interpersonal actions. The notion of classifying as either female or male is the vital initial action in the classification of human beings following birth, and owing to contemporary technological advances, even some months prior to birth. Sexual inclination; whether bisexual, homosexual or heterosexual, at puberty it too viewed as a vital gender representation element that is vital to interpersonal actions and societal lives (Rosser, 2003). Men interact with the world as persons within hierarchical communal order whereby they are either placed down or up. Conversations in Such worlds comprise of negotiations whereby persons attempt to attain and uphold the dominant position when they can, as well as shield themselves from the attempts of others to shove them about and drag them down. Life, in such circumstances comprises of some contest or efforts to uphold autonomy and evade failure. Women approach the world as individual within some system of linkages. Ni such a world, dialogues comprise of consultations for intimacy whereby persons attempt to look for and offer support and confirmation, as well as to arrive at a consensus. Persons attempt to shield themselves from the attempts of others to drive them farther. Therefore, life consists of some community and efforts to uphold intimacy as well as evade segregation. Despite the fact that hierarchies exists in such world too, such hierarchies are associated more with friendship as opposed to accomplishment and power (http://openlearn. open. ac. uk/mod/resource/view. php? id=166569). Females too are inclined towards attaining status as well as evading failure, however, such objectives do not occupy all of their time, and women seem to seek for such goals while disguised as maintaining connection. Men too are inclined to attaining participation as well as evading segregation, however, they do not focus on such objectives; they seem to seek for them while disguised ads opposing them. Thus, Women and men seek entirely different entities during communication, and they as well functions as per varied rules. Men’s self-worth originates form the capacity to attain outcomes; whereas women’s self-esteem originates form her sensations as well as the fineness of their relationships. Therefore, women fair better in personal contact and communication; communication has primary significance (Armstrong, 2006). For womenfolk, relationships take precedence over technology and work. Individual expression, particularly regarding their emotions, is extremely crucial. Sharing of personal emotions has greater significance than attaining goals as well as success. Interpersonal contact and talk grants tremendous satisfaction. References Armstrong, A. (2006). Foucault and feminism. Retrieved on 25th May 2009 from http://www. iep. utm. edu/f/foucfem. htm. Clancy. (August 7th 2004). Essentialism: draft of 3W encyclopedia entry. Culturecat. Retrieved on May 25, 2009 from http://culturecat. net/node/486. Gergen, M. (2007). Positioning in general relations: from constructivism to constructionism. Retrieved on May 25, 2009 form http://74. 125. 95. 132/search? q=cache:rvPREfxYUt8J:www. taosinstitute. net/Websites/taos/Images/ResourcesManuscripts/manu_gergen_01. doc+constructivist/constructivism+views/approaches+on+gendercd=8hl=enct=clnk. Glasser, H. M Smith III, J. P (June 30th 2008). On the vague meaning of â€Å"gender† in education research: the problem, its source, and recommendations for practice. http://74. 125. 95. 132/search? q=cache:KNx-Y-ZIM_EJ:aera. net/uploadedFiles/Publications/Journals/Educational_Researcher/3706/09EDR08-343. pdf+Compare+%26+contrast/ANALYZE+the+essentialist+view+%26+the+constructivist+views+on+gendercd=3hl=enct=clnk. Humbolt edu. Perspective used to look at gender. Retrieved on May 25, 2009

Influential Costs to Healthcare Departments

Influential Costs to Healthcare Departments Patrick Bobst New federal laws, government regulations and the continuous rising costs of medical care have healthcare organizations facing financial revenue challenges stemming from fluctuating patient volumes to declining reimbursements. A major change in the healthcare industry has incentivized healthcare systems to keeping patients healthy and out of facilities instead of applying patient volume reimbursements. Healthcare organizations are shifting to value-based models that strategically focus on initiatives to not only reduce costs, but also improve efficiency while improving quality care. Challenges to maintain high quality care under tight budgets will be a continuous and arduous task for senior leaders. Budgeting practices are regarded as an organizational imperative if costs are to be predicted and controlled(Frow, Marginson, Ogden, 2010). Nurse Managers with a firm grip on relevant budget information are influential to patient care and insure the patient is receiving the best and safes t possible service(Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010). Budgeting increases efficiency through planning and coordination as well provides the ability to weave together all the disparate threads of an organization into a comprehensiveplan that serves many purposes (King, Clarkson, Wallace, 2009). Organizations today are implementing strategies to control the rising cost of healthcare are aimed at reducing medical resource consumption rates (Reiter Song, 2013). Research has shown that shifting budget strategies away from growth and expansion of high fixed costs associated with hospital care is shifting from growth and expansion toward a focus on efficiency, maintenance and existing capital in order to achieve cost control (Reiter Song, 2013). Cost Concepts in Healthcare Nurse Managers are rarely involved with revenue information but mainly involved with the spending aspect of the budget (Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010). Understanding the relationship of cost to volume is an important concept in a manager’s role for a departmental budget. Complexity surrounds the concept of volume, especially in volume-driven healthcare revenue planning and reporting. Volume in hospitals includes not only the patient census numbers but also takes into account the patient acuity, patient insurance type, patient minute/hours/days, and number of patient visits (Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010). â€Å"Direct supply costs are the only truly variable costs and a hospital that can be directly tied to patient volume and to cash expenditures† (Rauh, Wadsworth, Weeks, 2010, p. 61). Labor can be classified into two broad categories of direct labor and indirect labor. Labor is direct when working wages can be identified with specific costing units such as departments products or sales contracts and indirect labor is identified as all other employees that cannot be directly traced to the costing units (Chiang, 2013). Distinguishing between direct and indirect labor is vital to the budgetary process in determining accurate costs, measuring efficiency, decision-making and control, and minimizing overhead allocation inaccuracies (Chiang, 2013). Costs that have a direct correlation to the department could be either a variable or a fixed cost and the sum of these components equate to the total cost. Fixed costs are those that stay the same regardless the number of patients a healthcare facility treats or admits. The hospital still has to pay fixed costs even if their services are not used or even underutilized. Examples of fixed costs include insurance premiums, rent o n buildings or equipment, depreciation on buildings or equipment, taxes, utilities, and some salaried labor costs(Roberts et al., 1999). In healthcare, variable costs are expenses that fluctuate directly and proportionally with patient volume (Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010). Variable costs comprise all direct materials related in treating an individual patient including medications, testing agents, and disposable supplies as well as the salaries of nurses and technicians. Nurse Managers are considered a direct cost to the nursing department since the salary is the same reoccurring amount each month regardless of the quantity or volume of patients. The medical supplies furnished to the nursing department will be a direct cost that will be a variable cost if the total amount of supply used in the department increases or decreases as a volume in the department fluctuates. In estimating budgets, nurse managers determine the relationship between fixed costs, variable costs and total costs by utilizing a relevant range graph. The relevant range graph represents the likely range of activities within each cost behavior that is covered by the budget(Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010). Labor’s Influential Department Costs With enduring economic changes in healthcare, executives are continuously seeking how best to manage labor costs, how to efficiently allocate resources and optimize hospital staffing while reducing expenses all the while improving patient care. Twenty-five to 30% of the healthcare budget in a hospital organization stems from the nursing department (Dunham-Taylor Pinczuk, 2010) and the variable costs of labor are often 50 to 60% of total operating expenses(Rauh, Wadsworth, Weeks, 2010). Nursing departments are the only area where labor costs are directly related to patient volumeand the hospital’s profitability is very sensitive to changes in patient volume (Rauh et al., 2010). A hospital loses 100% of the patient revenue when volume is reduced but saves only on the cost of the direct supplies, whereas when patient volumes increase the next patient become highly profitable since revenue is captured(Rauh et al., 2010). Rauh et al. (2010) asserts, the true cost of caring for t he next patients is relatively small, as the additional cost is limited to direct supplies(p. 62). As a result, nursing management will focus their attention on utilization and throughput, the driving force in any fixed cost industry (Rauh et al., 2010). With labor cost containment and productivity initiatives scrutinized, managers are implementing flexibility in staffing. Strategically integrating a flexible staffing workflow provides the ability to adjust skill mix of core staff and volume of workforce when volume cycles demand. PACU Staffing and Productivity The labor force of the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) is directly patient volume driven and planned differently than other units. The PACU workload resets daily, with a daily variation in census, and the workload is peaked by time of day. The unit of service indicator used for the PACU department during the budgetary process is 2.5910 hours per patient. For example, with 40 surgical cases scheduled the PACU’s productive target hours will be 103.64. Hours per patient minute (HPPM) are the numbers of hours of nursing care provided, compared to the number of patients during a 24-hour period. Actual productive HPPM is calculated by taking the total nursing hours spent providing direct patient care each month and dividing it by the actual patient minutes spent in PACU. These hours include nurses, clerical, ancillary staff, and the assistant nurse manager. The nurse manager reviews weekly reports for the target HPPM with actual HPPM, monitoring vacancy rates, and maintaining the a verage nurse to patient ratio of 1:2. Understanding these reports help the nurse manager make data driven budget and staffing decisions. Due to the PACU’s fluctuating workload and census, adjustments are necessary to the HPPM. In order to ensure safe patient care the PACU manager evaluates the nursing skill level each day and makes the proper skill mix adjustments. Since shift overlap overtime raises the HPPM, the nurse manager analyzes productivity reports daily. Historical data supported management’s decision to mitigate expensive nursing care hours with an adjustment in our workforce to flex positions in order to meet changing volumes. Nonproductive non-worked hours and nonproductive indirect hours are also important budgeting factors in labor. Nonproductive, indirect hours referred to the hours reserved for activities, meetings, education and orientation. Nonproductive non-worked hours include paid time off for vacation, holidays, and sick time. References Chiang, B. (2013). Indirect labor costs and implications for overhead allocation. Accounting Taxation, 5(1), 85-96. Dunham-Taylor, J., Pinczuk, J. Z. (2010). Financial management for nurse managers: Merging the heart with the dollar (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Frow, N., Marginson, D., Ogden, S. (2010). Continuous budgeting: reconciling budget flexibility with budgetary control. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35, 444-461. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2009.10.003 King, R., Clarkson, P., Wallace, S. (2009). Budgeting practices and performance in small healthcare businesses. Management Accounting Research, 21, 40-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2009.11.002 Rauh, S., Wadsworth, E., Weeks, W. (2010). The fixed cost dilemma: What counts when counting cost reduction efforts. Healthcare Financial Management, 64(3), 60-63. Reiter, K. L., Song, P. H. (2013). Hospital capital budgeting in an era of transformation. Journal of Healthcare Finance, 39(3), 14-22. Roberts, R. R., Frutos, P. W., Ciavarella, G. G., Gussow, L. M., Mensah, E. K., Kampe, L. M. (1999). Distribution of variable versus fixed costs of hospital care. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 281, 644-650. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.281.7.644