Hiv Prevention Strategy In Nigeria Health And Social Care Essay

Nigeria ‘s population of 140 million is the largest in Africa with 1 in 6 Africans being Nigerian. The information from the 2005 HIV study indicates that approximately 4.4 % of Nigerians are infected with HIV. The prevalence exhibits province broad disparity of between 1.6 % in Ekiti province ( south West ) and 10 % in Benue province ( north cardinal ) . ( Figure 1 ; NACA, 2007 ) While the infection rate is slower than some other African states, issues about HIV are still high on the docket because of the states high population. ( Figure 2 ; Jennifer Kates, Alyssa Wilson Leggoe, 2005 ) The Antenatal information shows that immature grownups appear most affected with 3.6 % amongst pregnant 15-19 twelvemonth olds and 4.7 % amongst 20-24 twelvemonth olds ( Figure 3 ; Technical Report National HIV/Syphilis Sero-Prevalence Sentinel Survey, 2005 ) This fact highlights the demand for a good co-ordinated National HIV/AIDS bar plan to farther decelerate down the infection rate and cut do wn incidence. ( NACA, 2007 ) Figure 1: HIV Prevalence by State ( 2005 ) www.naca.gov.ng Figure2 a ) Percentage of Adults estimated to be populating with HIV/AIDS and B ) Number of People estimated to be populating with HIV/AIDS. Beginning: HIV/AIDS Fact sheet, 2005 Figure 3: HIV Prevalence by Age group ( Old ages ) 2005 www.naca.gov.ng Drivers of the HIV Epidemic in Nigeria Informal Transactional Sexual activity: While commercial sex workers ( CSWs ) have long been identified as critical in impacting the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic rubber usage among them is high. A cardinal driver nevertheless is informal commercial sex among the general population ( J. Robinson, 2008 ; NACA, 2007 ) Low Risk Percept: 67 % of Nigerians perceive themselves to be at no hazard of undertaking HIV while 29 % perceive themselves to be at low hazard and merely 2 % rated their opportunities of infection high ( NARHS, 2005 ; NACA, 2007 ) Multiple Partnerships: In Nigeria, spiritual beliefs tend to back up the publicity of common fidelity ; NDHS ( 2003 ) nevertheless proved that multiple sexual partnerships are common particularly amongst sexually active work forces. About 30 % and 24 % single and married work forces severally reported holding more than one sexual spouse in the past twelvemonth ( NDHS 2003, NACA 2007 ) . While work forces with multiple spouses have a 60 % increased hazard, adult females are 10 % higher than work forces. ( NARHS, 2005 ) Lack of established STD Programming for Most at Risk Population ( MARP ) : Package of services provided to MARPs is limited. Linkages to HIV guidance and testing, STD direction and intervention are weak and have relied chiefly on referrals. Continuing Risky Behaviour of males in General Population: Hazardous behavior in the general population is more prevailing among work forces than adult females. 26 % of work forces report holding more than one sex spouse in the last twelvemonth as against 2 % in adult females. ( NARHS, 2005 ) Gender Inequalities: Underliing causes and effects of HIV/AIDS infections in work forces and adult females varies reflecting differences in biological science, sexual behavior, societal attitudes, economic power, exposure, and cultural attitudes that discourages safe sex dialogue. ( NACA, 2007 ) Economic Drivers: HIV impoverishes persons and communities through losingss of human resources. Poverty brings about low degrees of instruction associated with illiteracy and by and large hapless wellness position. These conditions result in hapless acceptance of behavior alteration which exposes the population to HIV infection. ( NACA, 2007 ) Equally shortly as an epidemic of HIV/AIDS was noticed in the state, Nigeria mounted a national response, which was expanded in 2000 with the constitution of the Presidential Council on AIDS ( PCA ) and the National Agency for the control of AIDS ( NACA ) . This allowed for a co-ordinated attempt to supply bar, intervention, attention and support services through policy preparation, development of programs and execution. NACA ‘s authorization provinces that: -A A 1.A A A Coordinate and prolong protagonism by all sectors and at all degrees for HIV/AIDS/STD expanded responses in Nigeria.A 2.A A A Develop the model for coaction and support from all stakeholders for a multi-sector and multi-disciplinary response to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. 3.A A A Develop and present to the PCA, all programs on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria for policy determinations. 4.A A A Develop and joint a strategic program for an Expanded National Response to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.A 5.A A A Coordinate, proctor and measure the execution of the Strategic National Plan for the control of HIV/AIDS/STDs in Nigeria and all other approved policies.A 6.A A A Coordinate and ease the mobilisation of resources for an effectual and sustainable response to HIV/AIDS/STDs in Nigeria.A 7.A A A Undertake any other responsibilities as assigned by the PCA from clip to clip. ( NACA, 2007 ) The National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework for Action ( 2005-2009 ) provides a strong and comprehensive model for bar attempts including a balanced â€Å" ABC † attack. In this model, in-school young persons were marked as a mark population group. Sexual activity instruction is a major constituent of bar and one of the tools in minimal bundle required for HIV bar. Political issues environing it include Resistance to arouse instruction and rubber publicity by Faith Based Organizations ( FBO ) , Religious leaders and other stakeholders Inadequate accomplishments on rubber usage and dialogue Misconception about sex instruction and low credence Availability, handiness and affordability Lack of policy environing sexual instruction in secondary schools ( NACA, 2007 ) A survey done in Nigeria analyzing the sexual behavior of secondary school striplings showed that the average age at first intercourse was 12 old ages with a scope of 6-19 old ages ; many of the participants had multiple sexual spouses and a hapless perceptual experience of the hazard of STD including HIV. It was recommended that a structured sexual instruction course of study be instituted for all schools get downing at an early age. ( A.T. Owolabi, A.A. Onayade et Al, 2005 ) Other surveies have examined how instructors feel about go throughing their cognition on HIV / AIDS bar steps to their pupils in the context of their cultural and societal norms that restrict unfastened treatment of sex.A The consequences showed a high degree of cognition about HIV / AIDS bar among teachers.A Nevertheless, instructors do non go through on this cognition because of cultural and societal taboos.A In add-on, instructors do non have proper preparation and motive on information, instruction and communicating on HIV / AIDS and sex instruction. ( Daniel C. Oshi et Al, 2005 ) It is hence necessary to increase handiness of sexual wellness services, create societal support for sex instruction in schools and build capacity on appropriate sex instruction. Previous efforts at supplying sex instruction were interfered by spiritual and cultural resistance. In 2000 a new course of study was introduced for comprehensive sex instruction for 10-18 twelvemonth olds which concentrated on bettering pupil ‘s cognition and attitudes to sexual wellness and cut downing hazardous sexual behavior. However the execution of the undertaking was a entire failure and has since been abandoned. ( Avert, 2010 ) In a state where issues such as confidentiality around HIV proving is non covered by statute law, where no action is taken when human rights are broken in relation to HIV infection and stigmatisation. It seems the destiny of the immature people are in their custodies, owing to the absence of generative wellness ( RH ) institutes and deficiency of separate Torahs or statute law for immature people in relation to HIV bar. ( United Nations Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, 2004 )POLICY AGENDA SettingTo accomplish this wellness policy, one must see the histrions that would be involved and analyze all stakeholders- so as to understand their behavior, purposes, inter-relations and involvements: and to measure the influence and resources they bring to bear on decision-making or execution procedure. ( Varvasovszky Z. , Brugha R. 2000 ) Stakeholder/ Actor analysis will place the type of people to interview, utilizing sweet sand verbena techniques, reappraisal questionnaires etc. It is of import to plan a semi-structured/ condense interview inquiries. Interviews will let comparison across cultural groups and faith ; and yet be sensitive to specific contexts. Stake holder ‘s position has to be transformed into one that utilizes indexs to exemplify the extent of the job. They need to be informed of graduated table, tendencies and likely future class of HIV epidemic in their part or territory and within specific subgroups of the population. Table 1: Stakeholders AnalysisStakeholdersEngagement in the issueInterest in the issueInfluence/ PowerPositionImpact of issue on histrionParents Participate in Child Sexual Education and can act upon their kids ‘s determination Medium Low Non-mobilized High Media Industry Promote stakeholder ‘s positions and can act upon determination shapers by supplying dependable information High High Supportive Low Ministry of Health Promote healthy generative picks, direction of STIs and HIV related unwellnesss High Medium Supportive High Presidential Council on AIDS Survey policy proposals and do determinations on them Medium High Non-mobilized Medium School Administration Participate in policy Execution High Medium Opposed High Ministry of Education Ensure sex instruction is integrated in national course of study and implemented Training of staff Policy Implementation and Evaluation High High Supportive High Bilateral Organizations Provide support and proficient support High High Supportive High Religious Leaderships Influence the population through spiritual, moral and cultural beliefs High High Opposed Medium Importers, Manufacturers and Sellers of the merchandise e.g. rubbers, text editions Provide low-cost and high quality merchandise Engagement in distribution High Low Supportive High NACA Develop and present to PCA all programs on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria for policy determinations High High Supportive High Documentary/ Content analysis would be undertaken to place the grade of consistence between the present policies in the state. It would besides cover how far policy shapers draw on research findings in addresss during policy preparation and execution phases. The information beginnings would include research publications and studies, statute law, administrative/executive ordinances or orders, reimbursement agreements, guidelines and advice, meeting studies and proceedingss, policy statements, addresss, and articles. An economic rating will be considered to measure and construe the value of this wellness intercession. This will mensurate the results in pecuniary footings every bit good as in wellness units. For this policy a cost effectivity analysis ( CEA ) will be more good in order to besiege the quandary of puting pecuniary value on human lives. It will compare the value of resources spent on the intercession to the measure of wellness gained as a consequence. ( David Wonderling et Al, 2005 ) A thorough apprehension of consistence of old policies with research findings, the grade of influence of research on policy docket scene, preparation and execution would be needed to guarantee a high degree of wellness research use in the determination devising of this wellness policy. CLARITY OF MESSAGE HIV bar, peculiarly sex instruction demands strong grounds in order to be recommended for consideration and broad spread execution. Hall ‘s theoretical account of docket puting claims that the strength of this grounds depends on the issue ‘s Legitimacy, Feasibility and Support. ( Kent Buse, 2005 ) The issue at manus is legitimate as the HIV epidemic continues to harry the state, heterosexual sex being the most reported signifier of transmittal and high rate among immature people. It is executable since the policy will be implemented logistically through already bing systems, cost and resources will hence be reduced. Support can be generated through act uponing the population with the usage of media, raising consciousness and advancing rubber usage, affecting FBOs in policy execution. There is besides no grounds that sex instruction or rubber handiness in schools will increase promiscuousness or cut down the age of first sexual intercourse of in school young person, hence this policy has no potency for inauspicious consequence. This policy ‘s acceptableness might be of concern, as there will be resistance from spiritual leaders and other involvement groups. This policy besides has other societal and wellness benefits, as the usage of rubbers will besides cut down other STIs, cut down unwanted gestations and the complications from illegal abortions, thereby cut downing maternal mortality. Previous work in Nigeria has shown that equal instruction works in HIV bar and this is soon being used to advance abstention and be faithful intercession plans. Kingdom ‘s Model proposes that there are 3 watercourses of policy procedure and they need to cross for policies to be considered. ( Kent Buse, 2005 ) Problem watercourse: High prevalence of HIV among in school young person, with the highest signifier of transmittal being heterosexual sex Politicss watercourse: The National HIV bar work program promotes condom scheduling and there have been ongoing arguments around this issue. In 2000, sex instruction was integrated into National course of study but was ne'er implemented. Meanwhile the prevalence amongst in school young person since so has increased. Policy watercourse: Following the 2005 National HIV/Syphilis Sero prevalence lookout study for pregnant adult females go toing Ante-natal clinics in Nigeria. NACA has mounted more response to HIV bar. More support for HIV bar is being provided by bilateral organisations and NACA has become unfastened to execution of policies through FBOs and CSOs. Interventions are now being chosen and funded based on scientific grounds research.POLICY FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATIONLegislators are influenced by media and runs, cultural beliefs, lobbyists, political parts and support every bit good as grounds based research. It is hence of import to guarantee they have adequate information from researches, prevalence of HIV and alternate solutions. The function of the media and other organisations can non be over emphatic. This policy proposes the debut of structured sex instruction with condom publicity in secondary schools across Nigeria It aims to cut down the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among in-school young persons Aims To better the cognition about HIV/AIDS amongst young person To raise the age of first sexual brush amongst in-school young person by 5 old ages in 10 old ages To promote rubber usage among in-school young person To increase the figure of in school young person seeking intervention and attention for other STIs by 20 % in 5 old ages To cut down teenage gestations by half in 5 old ages Resistance to this policy ‘s credence could be limited by ab initio influencing policy alteration in southern urban parts where it will be more acceptable and if successful, scaled up to other less urban countries utilizing traditional and spiritual leaders to act upon credence. A broad web and model of HIV/AIDS bar is soon on land in Nigeria, a assorted scanning attack will be ideal. A rational attack for explicating policies and go throughing the measure, which will be instantly diffused through the Ministry of Health to all schools An incremental attack by ab initio increasing the cognition of in-school young person on HIV/AIDS by presenting sex instruction into the school course of study, presenting text editions and stuffs that educate pupils on HIV/AIDS and subsequently up-scaling to include RH clinics to turn to early intervention and bar of STIs. Formation of in-school HIV nines and groups will supply a forum for pupils to aerate their positions on abstention, sexual exposure and bar patterns and eventually condom handiness and distribution. Cost will be reduced by utilizing bing resources and adult male power. Increased cognition of HIV/AIDS in the population with capacity edifice for instructors and in school young person will let for easy execution. A elaborate and careful pilot testing could be done in the relevant mark group to let for appropriate rating and alteration before broad spread execution. A underside up attack should besides be used to let for more engagement by implementers and uninterrupted rating and redefining of aims or schemes.EvaluationHIV bar intercessions are complex. There are legion intercessions and schemes to take from. The content and quality of intercessions may differ well from one another and intercessions may be implemented in different ways by different people. Specific intercessions may be interactive or even counter and yet most programmes will unite several intercession schemes, doing rating of the effects of specific intercessions or constituents within the programme bundle hard or impossible to extricate. ( UNAIDS, 2008 ) In measuring the effectivity of the policy, elaborate grounds on the existent procedure of bringing of the intercession that establishes the extent and quality of bringing will be gathered. Facility audit is besides of import to supply information on adequateness of substructure, equipment, proficient and operational guidelines. The success of the policy execution will besides be evaluated utilizing the five key United Nations General Assembly Special Session ( UNGASS ) ends. ( WHO Technical study series, 2006 ) Provide appropriate information to immature people and grounds of betterments in their resulting cognition Provide appropriate accomplishments developing to immature people and grounds of their ability to show these accomplishments, and utilize these accomplishments to diminish their hazard of going infected Supply appropriate skills-based preparation, equipment and supplies to implementers and grounds of this ensuing in increased bringing of effectual, high quality wellness services to immature people. Provide grounds of reduced exposure of HIV among immature people, such as alterations in the attitudes and behaviors of immature people Provide grounds of a decrease in HIV prevalence among immature people that can be attributed to the intercession Donabedian ‘s model for measuring health care conceptualizes â€Å" Inputs, Process and Outcome † . ( Kent Buse et Al, 2005 ) Table 2: Policy Implementation and EvaluationUndertaking IMPLEMENTATIONUndertaking EVALUATIONINPUT/RESOURCESACTIVITIES/INTERVENTION SERVICEEnd productOUTCOME/IMPACTMEASUREMENT METHOD/INDICATORSStaff Monitoring and rating preparation for plan directors and implementers Training of school nurses and instructors Training of spouses and stakeholders on young person and HIV Media preparation on Sexual activity instruction and Condom publicity Capacity edifice for implementers Change in supplier behavior in relation to school young person Change in supplier behavior in relation to describing systems Improvement in administrative and describing systems Experimental surveies Number of instructors and school nurses trained in supplying sexual instruction and wellness services to school young person Number of stakeholders trained on HIV and the young person Quality appraisal of describing systems Media support Awareness creative activity for rubber publicity to interrupt barriers Commission and air jangles on the impact of sex instruction on school young person. Media run aiming socio cultural issues disaggregated by age, sex and location. Media run on inter-generational sex Harmonization of stuff development, distribution and usage Increase consciousness on sex instruction and rubber rebranding Sexual activity instruction and sex literacy as a societal norm Condom usage as a societal norm Behavioural surveillance study Condom handiness and handiness Stigmatization around sex instruction and rubber usage Number of jangles aired on sex instruction and rubber usage among school young person Education Production and distribution of IEC Materials Production of text editions integrated with cognition of STI and HIV Development and version of course of study on sex instruction Sexual instruction Sessionss in schools Condom dialogue accomplishments developing for school young person Improve school young persons consciousness on HIV/AIDS Improve rubber negociating accomplishments among school young person Improve rubber usage among school young person Reduce STI incidence Reduce HIV morbidity and mortality Reduce teenage gestations and it ‘s complications Reduce maternal mortality associated with teenage gestations Annual National HI/AIDS sero-prevalence lookouts study among in school young person Prevalence of STI and HIV among school young person Number of teenage gestations and maternal deceases related to them No of rubber distributed No of school young person who used rubbers in their last sexual brush Facilities Handiness of friendly accessible service Centres for school young person within and outside the school Build effectual linkage/referral systems for STI direction in communities Establish regional offices through the Ministry of Education to supervise disposal and M & A ; E Increase entree to RH services Promote dealingss among assorted organisations involved Allow easy monitoring and rating of execution School young person will be able to entree RH services without stigmatisation Provide utile information on execution procedure and success Behavioural surveillance study No of young person accessing RH services before and after intercession No of RH services available to youth No of young person referred through linkage systems Research Population based study on Sexual activity instruction, rubber usage and publicity in school young person Increase cognition base on sex instruction and rubber scheduling Increase cognition on the young person ‘s sexual hazard behavior Making future sex instruction programming policies based on grounds based scientific research Experimental surveies Number of research proposals and surveies carried out on sex instruction, hazard behaviors, rubber scheduling and usage among school young person Community Mobilization Battle of FBOs, CSOs, community and spiritual groups and parents on HIV/AIDS cognition Skills and services community mobilisation for HIV Sensitization of community leaders against stigmatising or opposing sexual instruction among school young person Increase consciousness of FBOs, NGOs and parents on HIV and the young person Promote rubbers as a double method Rebrand rubber usage as a positive thing Engagement of policy execution at grass root degree Improve community consciousness and integrity in the battle against HIV/AIDS Enable societal and cultural credence about sex instruction Constitution of young person groups Experimental surveies Number of young person groups on HIV/AIDS advancing sex literacy and rubber usage Number of community stakeholders involved in young person groups Number of outreach events advancing sex instruction Advocacy/policy Recommending for policy reforms on socio-cultural and economic issues that promote HIV transmittal, stigma and favoritism among young person Increase consciousness of stakeholders on HIV and young person HIV and youth issues get on the policy docket Laws on HIV and young person, stigma and favoritism enacted Experimental surveies Nature and type of issues incorporated into the National Youth policy No of public hearings on the bill of exchange measure and Young person policyDecisionThe immature can non talk for themselves in doing lawful determinations that impact their ain lives. Their determinations are influenced by parents, the community, equal force per unit area, and their personal cognition. It is hence of import that the cognition they have is sufficient and diverse to enable them do informed determinations refering their sexual wellness. Surveies done have shown adequate grounds that sexual instruction addition in-school young person ‘s consciousness of HIV/AIDS and can act upon their attitude or do behaviour alteration. Health system research findings in the Nigeria will stay impotent unless translated into public wellness action through effectual public policy-making. ( Shamsuzzoha B Syed et al.,2008 ) Policy docket scene, preparation, execution and rating are all necessary phases in achieving policy alteration. In world, they all happen at the same time and can be revisited and changed while the procedure is ongoing. Stakeholder ‘s influence is really important in policy devising and acceptance. The media is a really powerful tool which should be used suitably. Policy execution should be done carefully without rigidness utilizing bottom up attacks. Evaluation is necessary in order to mensurate the success of the plan and larn more for future policy executions. Reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence amongst in-school young person goes a long manner in cut downing prevalence in the general population and promises a healthier brighter hereafter, free from HIV/AIDS.

Belonging Essay

Belonging is the finest thing in the world that knows how to belong to oneself. You have to belong to yourself before you belong to society. Belonging is a quite a hard concept, as you can argue that people who don’t want to belong actually â€Å"belong† to a group of people who don’t want to belong. But what is belonging? One idea is that you belong when you feel comfortable with people who have similar objectives, goals, and aims as you. But, as i realised while analysing a film in fact it’s for this unit, if you don’t feel comfortable with the group you believe you belong to, then even if you have the same goals for example cricket. Even though everyone’s goal is to win, should the team not befriend you, make you feel like you are excluded from the team, then you don’t really feel that you belong to the team so it’s basically what belonging is about. My first text is about a song by my island home by Christina Anu and how the singer portrays aspects of belonging through her song lyrics. Firstly she explores the idea that belonging to people or places shapes our identity and then she explores how the barriers which prevent belonging can create a need to belong. The song Island Home shares her perception that belonging to certain people or place creates our ideology of life and where we rightfully belong. We live by the sea and My home is Australia this use of language shows pride and belonging to Australia. This creates and brings belong into place where our perspective of belonging to be one of happiness. Belonging is evident in the song in the boat on the sea again, and I holding that long turtle spear, and I feel close to where it must be. The composer emphasises the point that her home must be by the sea because that’s where she is from and where she feels that she belongs, the pride of her belonging. We create our own identity from the feelings and affections we have with belonging to certain societies and their way of life. Inclusion and isolation demonstrates our personal identity which portrays who we are. Our perspectives and views are changed depending upon what we belong to. My home is Australia; we are a land bound by sea to show that Australia is a part of her which will never be lost is also shown as her the composer is from a native background (aboriginal). She emphasises on how her and land are one, and it is this affection that had shaped her identity. Belonging in the song My Island Home? which I find is people who had experienced belonging to a place or community. But the song conveys the composer as; these glimpses are obviously not enough to make you feel the same way real belonging makes others feel. The composer shows the barriers she has to overcome like modernisation, family and living far away from the place she belongs to and this belonging is felt by her. The composer shows the importance of belonging by using a reflection question to compare her life in the present time and when she belonged. Will this place ever satisfy me this shows how much she wants to belong again, which portrays her strong love for her place of belonging. The composer only reveals through her dreams how she feels towards belonging. Six years I have lived in the desert, every night i dreamt of the sea shows the identity of the composer since Australia is covered in desert lands ad this shows the connection she has with Australia through her. Ahhh already it has taken so long to type this up for you to read , hope you are bored because you have a lot more to read so stay awake and read it ahah. My second text is on Edward scissor hand by Tim Burton, I was actually going to Life of Pie by Ang Lee but it was quite tough to relate to belong so I went with Edward scissor hands plus I got a bit help my English teacher for this movie so it make my life a bit easier. At the beginning of the film we see that Edward lives alone in a gothic castle. He has been isolated in the castle for an indeterminate time. Below the castle is a small town a close knit community and barely visits the castle, not knowing that Edward lives there. Peg feels sorry for him and decides to take him back to live with her in the town. At first Edward is being treated well because he is a great novelty. No one has ever seen someone like him before and he quickly becomes a celebrity. He is embraced by the townspeople; they think he is very useful with his scissors (haircutting, gardening etc. ) one of the town women thinks he is sexy and tries to seduce him. He refuses and runs away. This incident becomes the catalyst for Edwards’s rejection and alienation from the community. Edwards’s personality consists of innocent, naive, limited social skills, very gentle and very experienced at relationships with people, no idea of sex, manners etc. Other than what his creator taught him from books. He is very trusting until he finds himself he victim of a setup. After things become worse, Edward finds he is a victim and cannot remain in the community. Techniques used to convey the context relevant to belonging is that Edwards’s clothes and appearance is a complete contrast to town’s people. When he first arrives Peg him clothes to wear which he puts on over his own costume. This helps him develop a sense of belonging to the family and the community and reduces his difference to the townspeople. However the fact that he doesn’t remove his clothes indicates that he wants to maintain his identity. Later in the film he becomes angry and feelings of rejection and alienation by the town cause him to rip off. Music is used in a number of ways to show Edwards innocence and purity. His character is linked to Kims in the way music and lighting are used, the haunting they’re music, together with soft/bright lighting plus show plus the slow motion of the camera reinforces the innocence and the nature of their love for each other. At the end of the film, when it becomes impossible for Kim and Edward to belong to each other in a proper relationship. He goes back into the castle and she to the town. All though they cannot belong together physically they will always belong together emotionally. This is shown at the end of the film as Edward continues to make snow from the ice and flashback to the narrator at the child’s bedside. Alright you only got a bit more reading for go so sit back and read the rest and tell me how I went. For my third text I have chosen the picture the island by Armin greder. The picture book, The Island portrays belonging as impossible if there is an ignorant and fearful dominant culture. The book portrays to the responder into almost alienation and new comer into a strongly built and well organized society. The alien is portrayed as thin and white-white and unclothed showing that the new comer is an empty canvas to be painted opinions onto. The new comer is also thin and innocent looking showing how the character is reliant on acceptance to survive. Whilst the dominant society is given the appearance of large, over bearing, they are always portrayed as a collective group portraying their dominance. They are in black clothing, they all appear to look the same- again representing there collectiveness, and they are holding pitch forks portraying their feelings towards the new comer unwelcomed. The dominant society belong together they appear to look the same, and have much of the same views, they have collectively created a community that are dependent on each other and there likeness. The society is well established and fearful of anything that will imbalance its structure and that is different from their social, cultural and historical similarities. The new being does not offer any change, it does not do anything to radicalize the community but just its presence of being different offers physiological fear to the dominant society. The book demonstrates the effect of fear, what it does to a community and the object being feared. Through fear of this unknown the community alienated the unknown, trying to forget its existence when this did not work the community they contemplated integrating the being. But the overbearing fear of the effect the being would have on their system led them to cast out the different being. The being that was submitted to the dominant cultures fear was treated as inferior, become the dominant society did not want the unknown to belong they create a barrier around themselves in fear of the unknown and it defining themselves as exclusive. Because the dominant society was afraid of the unknown they showed ignorance and a lack of open thinking which creates difficulties to them from acceptance and understanding of anything other than their own people. Therefore Belonging is a way of life which characterises us humans and creates our individuality. Due to the complex and abstract nature of the concept of belonging, a true sense of belonging can be found in different circumstances for different people. As each individual has their own desires, needs and values, they find their place in the world and a genuine sense of belonging in various avenues. Many individuals find the strongest sense of belonging through relationships, due to the fact that by nature these connections fulfil the human need for social interaction and enrich the lives of the persons involved.

Heart is a lonely hunter - symbology of music Essay

Heart is a lonely hunter - symbology of music - Essay Example When one reads â€Å"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,† they can hear the sounds of music through the words, as music shapes the way that this entire novel is written. The language of the novel is sometimes written in such a way that makes it seem as though one is listening to music that is rhythmic and harmonious, such as when the depressing duets take place between Mick and Singer. At other times, however, the novel takes a different turn, as the language makes it seem as though one is listening to music that is harsh and discordant, such as when the final argument takes place between Jake and Dr. Copeland. Along with the different types of music that are portrayed in the novel, McCullers also enables us to experience silence, as in the case of singer, who is a mute (Big Read, 2). Not to mention, this novel is musical in that it deals with the polyphonic characteristics of words and phrases, as it relates to the structure of the complete novel (Fuller 57). McCullers is ingenious in how she creates different voices with the characters in the novel that have differing tones and sounds that are like different musical instruments, which are to represent the way their lives are, as well as their thoughts and what they are determined to do; yet, these voices sing similar notes, which are the two similar themes in which the novel is written around.

Money Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

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Product Innovation and Pricing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Digital Communication Simulation Using Matlab Computer Science Essay

Digital Communication Simulation Using Matlab Computer Science Essay Objective Aim Scope of the assignment The objective of this assessment is to model and analyse modulation and coding in Communication Systems using Matlab.[1] This lab exercise aims to teach (show) modulation demodulation techniques like QAM 64 over AWGN wireless channel throw Matlabs Communication toolbox. In task 1, simulation and analysis of modulation and demodulation (using the 64-QAM) is been perform. By use of Matlabs high performance language, a designed code is been given in each task. Transmitted and received signals are been show in scatter plots at different SNR values. Simulation of the rectangular pulse shaping filter in combination with modulation is been introduced in the second part. The effect of rectangular pulse shaping is been used at the transmitter side after the QAM-64 modulation. Integrate and dump operation effect is been used at the receiver side. A full analysis of these two effects is been given below. In both tasks, the transmission is being over an AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise) wireless communication channel. Comparison, analysis and a discussion of the results is been given below each task. Introduction on general modulation/demodulation and 64-QAM AWGN channel, noise and rectangular pulse shaping Modulation Demodulation Modem In the area of telecommunications, modulation is the process of changing a periodic waveform (i.e. a tone), in order to use that signal to transfer a message. Normally the carrier signal (usually is a sinusoidal) has higher frequency than the input signal. Amplitude, phase and frequency are the three key parameters of a sine wave. These parameters can be modified in accordance with a low frequency information signal to obtain the modulated signal. Amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM) and phase modulation are the most common analog modulation techniques. Radio and television broadcast stations typically use AM or FM. More complex forms of modulation are Phase Shift Keying (PSK), Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) which are the three basic digital modulation techniques. A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that performs the inverse operation of modulation is known as a demodulator. A modulator converts a digital signal to an analog signal (typically a sinusoidal signal) and a demodulator converts a modulated (analog) signal back to the original unmodulated (digital) signal.[2] A few years ago a computer was connected to the internet through a modem (in now days a different type is being used, ADSL modem/router) over a regular analog line. A modem converts an outgoing digital signal to an outgoing modulated signal, and converts an incoming modulated signal to an incoming digital signal.[2] Modulation is used to change the signals bandwidth so it can be transmitted on a limited-bandwidth communication channel (like a telephone line or a cable TV channel) without too much distortion.[2] It also allows more connected users on the same communication link. Digital modulation Digital modulation schemes transform digital signals into waveforms that are compatible with the nature of the communications channel. There are two major categories of digital modulation. One category uses a constant amplitude carrier and the other carries the information in phase or frequency variations (FSK, PSK). The other category conveys the information in carrier amplitude variations and is known as amplitude shift keying (ASK). In digital communications, modulation is often expressed in terms of I and Q. This is a rectangular representation of the polar diagram. On a polar diagram, the I axis lies on the zero degree phase reference, and the Q axis is rotated by 90 degrees. The signal vectors projection onto the I axis is its I component and the projection onto the Q axis is its Q component.[5] Figure 1 I-Q format [5] Figure 2 Trends in the industry [5] Main Digital Modulation Schemes Techniques Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) Amplitude shift keying represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave. There is an on/off transmission that represents the binary logic 1/0. ASK has poor performance cause is heavily affected by noise and interference. For binary digital modulation, BASK is the simpler form of ASK. Figure 3 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) [3] Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) The carriers frequency is modulated by the digital signal. 1/0 represented by two different frequencies slightly offset from carrier frequency.[4] That means that is a different frequency for 1 and another frequency for 0. FSK can be expanded to a M-ary scheme, employing multiple frequencies as different states.[3] For binary digital modulation BFSK is the simpler form of FSK. Figure 4 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) [3] Phase Shift Keying (PSK) Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of the carrier wave. Phases are separated by 180o. Phase modulation can be achieved simply by defining a relative phase shift from the carrier, usually equi-distant for each required state. Therefore a two level phase modulated system, such as Binary Phase Shift Keying, has two relative phase shifts from the carrier, + or 90o. Phase modulation requires coherent generation and as such if an IQ modulation technique is employed this filtering can be performed at baseband. [6] Figure 5 Phases separated by 180o on BPSK [4] Figure 6 Phase Shift Keying (PSK) [3] Multi-Symbol Signalling M-ary Signals Multiple-symbol signaling is the process where multiple levels are used to encode binary information into groups of two bite, four bits, etc. [8] Figure 7 M-ary signals [3] Amplitude and phase shift keying can be combined to transmit several bits per symbol (in the above figure M=4). These modulation schemes are often refered to as linear, as they require linear amplification. 16-QAM has the largest distance between points, but requires very linear amplification. 16PSK has less stringent linearity requirements, but has less spacing between constellation points, and is therefore more affected by noise. M-ary schemes are more bandwidth efficient, but more susceptible to noise. [3] Quadrature Phase Shift Key Modulation (QPSK) Quadrauture Phase Shift Keying is a form of PSK. QPSK is a system of modulating digital signals onto a radio-frequency carrier signal using four phase states to code two digital bits. QPSK is effectively two independent BPSK systems (I and Q), and therefore exhibits the same performance but twice the bandwidth efficiency. QPSK can be filtered using raised cosine filters to achieve excellent out of band suppression. Large envelope variations occur during phase transitions, thus requiring linear amplification. [3] Figure 8 QPSK [4] Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) Quadrature amplitude modulation is a combination of amplitude modulation and phase shift keying. It is a modulation scheme-technique which conveys data by modulating the amplitude of two carrier waves. That is an amplitude modulation on both quadrature carriers. These two waves, usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90Â ° and are that is why they called quadrature carriers. QAM has extensive use in digital microwave radio links. The 16-QAM below stands for 2n discrete levelsÆ’Â   n=2 same as in the above QPSK. Figure 9 16-QAM Figure 10 16-QAM [7] Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) Additive means that the sum of the transmitted signal and noise produce the received signal. White means that its two sided power spectral density is flat for all frequencies of interest for radio communication system. The amplitude of the noise is distributed according to a normal or Gaussian distribution. [8] Its information gives a single impairment. Noise pulse shaping and rectangular pulse shaping In digital telecommunications, pulse shaping can be used to change the waveform of transmitted pulses, so the signal bandwidth matches that of the communication channel, reducing distortion and intersymbol interference. In other words its purpose is to make the transmitted signal suit better to the communication channel by limiting the effective bandwidth of the transmission. Modulation is often followed by pulse shaping. Rectangular pulse shaping repeats each output from the modulator a fixed number of times to create an up-sampled signal. Rectangular pulse shaping can be a first step or an exploratory step in algorithm development, though it is less realistic than other kinds of pulse shaping. If the transmitter up-samples the modulated signal, then the receiver should down-sample the received signal before demodulating. The integrate and dump operation is one way to down-sample the received signal. [8] Demodulation is often preceded by a filtering or an intergrate and dump-operation. Answers to assignments tasks Task 1 In this assignment you are required to design and implement the process of modulating a random binary data stream using 64-level QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), transmitting it over an AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise) wireless communication channel, and demodulating the received signal using the 64- QAM demodulator. Your system should consist of a baseband modulator, AWGN channel, and a demodulator. The following table indicates some relevant functions from the Matlab Communications Toolbox which may be used in this assignment. The functions for 64-QAM modulator/demodulator can be taken from the Matlab Communications Toolbox, or even implemented by you. Job Function Generate a random binary data stream randint Add white Gaussian noise awgn Create a scatter plot scatterplot Compute the systems BER biterr The length of the binary data stream (i.e., the number of the rows in the column vector) is set to 5000. Task 1.1 Write codes to 1) Display the transmitted and received signals in different scatter plots for the following two situations: a) SNR = 40 dB; b) SNR = 14dB; 2) Compute the systems bit error rate (BER) for the two situations. Answer 1.1 1a) The m-file for SNR=40dB x=randint(4998,1); %Random binary data stream of 4998 digits %Bits to symbols mapping xsymbols=bi2de(reshape(x,6,length(x)/6).,left-msb); y=qammod(xsymbols,64); %Modulation using the 64-QAM yTx=y; %Transmitted signal scatterplot(yTx) grid; title(Transmitted Signal) %Transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel,SNR=40dB ynoise=awgn(yTx,40,measured); yRx=ynoise; %Received signal scatterplot(yRx) grid; title(Received Signal, SNR=40dB) zsymbols=qamdemod(yRx,64); %Demodulation using the 64-QAM z=de2bi(zsymbols,left-msb); %Symbols to bits mapping z=reshape(z.,prod(size(z)),1); %Computation of Number of Erros and Bit Error Rate [Number_of_errors,Bit_Error_Rate]=biterr(x,z) Figure 11 Transmitted signal Figure 12 Received signal 1b) The m-file for SNR=14dB x=randint(4998,1); %Random binary data stream of 4998 digits %Bits to symbols mapping xsymbols=bi2de(reshape(x,6,length(x)/6).,left-msb); y=qammod(xsymbols,64); %Modulation using the 64-QAM yTx=y; %Transmitted signal scatterplot(yTx) grid; title(Transmitted Signal) %Transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel,SNR=40dB ynoise=awgn(yTx,14,measured); yRx=ynoise; %Received signal scatterplot(yRx) grid; title(Received Signal, SNR=14dB) zsymbols=qamdemod(yRx,64); %Demodulation using the 64-QAM z=de2bi(zsymbols,left-msb); %Symbols to bits mapping z=reshape(z.,prod(size(z)),1); %Computation of Number of Erros and Bit Error Rate [Number_of_errors,Bit_Error_Rate]=biterr(x,z) Figure 13 Transmitted signal Figure 14 Received signal 2) Computation of the systems bit error rate for the two situations SNR=40dB SNR=14dB Task 1.2 Compare/explain in detail the results obtained in a) and b), and explain clearly how the differences come from. Answer 1.2 In the above code, there is a bit to symbol mapping. A bit cant take values from 0-63 but a group of bits can. The two transmitted signals are identical cause both signals modulated with the same modulation schemes (64-QAM) and transmitted throw the same channel (Additive White Gaussian Noise wireless channel). Received signals have different scatter plot. This happens cause the first received signal was transmitted throw a channel with SNR=40dB and the other one was transmitted throw a channel with SNR=14dB. In the second scatter plot it is obvious that the channel is too noisy in accordance with the first scatter plot which seems that it hasnt got any clue of noise. For example, if a ADSL line has SNR lower than 15dB then several problems occurred like frequent disconnections etc. According to scatter plots the bit error rate and the number of errors for the first signal with SNR=40 was expected to be 0 cause the channel was clear from noise. On the contrary, for the second signal with SNR=14dB bit error rate and number of errors expected to be non zero. Both expectations verified. The ratio of the signal strength to the noise level is called the signal to- noise ratio (SNR), . If the SNR is high (ie. the signal power is much greater than the noise power) few errors will occur. However, as the SNR reduces, the noise may cause symbols to be demodulated incorrectly, and errors will occur. [3] Task 2 Modulation is often followed by pulse shaping, and demodulation is often preceded by a filtering or an integrate-and-dump operation. In this task you are required to investigate the effect of rectangular pulse shaping by using it at the transmitter side after the 64-QAM modulation and also the effect of integrate-and-dump operation at the receiver side. Rectangular pulse shaping repeats each output from the modulator a fixed number of times to create an upsampled signal. If the transmitter upsamples the modulated signal, then the receiver should downsample the received signal before demodulation. The integrate-and-dump operation is one way to downsample the received signal. The following table indicates the additional relevant functions from the Matlab Communications Toolbox which may be used in this assignment. Job Function Rectangular pulse shaping rectpulse Intergrate-and-dump downsampling Intdump Task 2.1 Write codes to 1) Display the received signals in scatter plots when a) SNR = 40 dB; b) SNR = 14dB; 2) Compute the systems bit error rate (BER) for the two situations. Answer 2.1 1a) The m-file for SNR=40dB %Random binary data stream of 5004 digits x = randint(5004,1); %Bit to Symbol Mapping xsymbols = bi2de(reshape(x,6,length(x)/6).,left-msb); %Modulation using the 64-QAM. y = qammod(xsymbols,64); %Pulse shaping, 3 samples per symbol shaped=rectpulse(y,6); %Transmitted Signal yTx = shaped; scatterplot(yTx) title(Transmitted signal) grid; %Transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel,SNR=14dB ynoise = awgn(yTx,40,measured); %Received Signal yRx = ynoise ; %Integrate and dump deshaped=intdump(yRx,6); scatterplot(deshaped) title(Received signal,SRN=40dB) grid; %Demodulation using the 64-QAM zsymbols = qamdemod(deshaped,64); %Symbol to bit mapping > to perform the computation of BER z = de2bi(zsymbols,left-msb); a = reshape(z.,prod(size(z)),1); %Computation of Number of Erros and Bit Error Rate [Number_of_errors,Bit_Error_Rate] = biterr(x,a) Figure 15 Received signal,SNR=40dB 1b) The m-file for SNR=14dB %Random binary data stream of 5004 digits x = randint(5004,1); %Bit to Symbol Mapping xsymbols = bi2de(reshape(x,6,length(x)/6).,left-msb); %Modulation using the 64-QAM. y = qammod(xsymbols,64); %Pulse shaping, 3 samples per symbol shaped=rectpulse(y,6); %Transmitted Signal yTx = shaped; scatterplot(yTx) title(Transmitted signal) grid; %Transmission over an Additive White Gaussian Noise channel,SNR=14dB ynoise = awgn(yTx,14,measured); %Received Signal yRx = ynoise ; %Integrate and dump deshaped=intdump(yRx,6); scatterplot(deshaped) title(Received signal,SRN=14dB) grid; %Demodulation using the 64-QAM zsymbols = qamdemod(deshaped,64); %Symbol to bit mapping > to perform the computation of BER z = de2bi(zsymbols,left-msb); a = reshape(z.,prod(size(z)),1); %Computation of Number of Erros and Bit Error Rate [Number_of_errors,Bit_Error_Rate] = biterr(x,a) Figure 16 Received signal,SNR=14dB 2) Computation of the systems bit error rate for the two situations SNR=40dB SNR=14dB Task 2.2 Compare/explain the results with those obtained in Task 1, and explain clearly how the differences come from. Answer 2.2 The difference between Task1 and Task 2 are the rectangular pulse shaping and integrate and dump operation. Rectangular pulse shape upsampling the signal after modulation. It actually applies a square pulse to the signal and repeats each symbol several times (in this case symbols are repeated 6 times). The dump operation is downsampling the signal. It is actually an integral of the signal for a single period. In this case, modulation followed by pulse shaping and demodulation preceded by integrate and dump operation. Since rectangular pulse shaping repeats each output from the modulator a fixed number of times then we expected our signals to be better than those in task1. This expectation came true since BER for SNR=40 dB is 0 and for SNR=14 dB is 0.0038. In the second case when SNR=14 dB it is obvious that BER and number of errors reduced dramatically. The filtering on the transmitter causes intersymbol interference. The filtering at the transmitter and the channel typically cause the received pulse sequence to suffer from interysmbol interference and this appear as an amorphous smeared signal, not quite ready for sampling and detection. When the channel bandwidth is much greater than the pulse bandwidth, the spreading of the pulse will be slight. When the channel bandwidth is close to the signal bandwidth, the spreading will exceed symbol duration and cause signal pulses to overlap. This overlapping is called intersymbol interference. [11] Rectangular pulse shaping was used to minimize distortion and the effect of intersymbol interference. It made the transmitted signal fit better to the communication channel by limiting the effective bandwidth of the transmission. The BER and number of errors improvement succeeded because symbols were sent several times. In this case, filtering made the signal better. Without filtering, signals would have very fast transitions between states and therefore very wide frequency spectra much wider than is needed for the purpose of sending information. [5] Conclusions If the SRN value is high enough, the received signal is almost clear from noise. High SNR value stands for a value close to zero for Bit Error Rate. In the presence of noise and interference, it is necessary to increase signal power to reduce the possibility of errors. The bit error rate (BER) of a system indicates the quality of the link. Filtering is essential for good bandwidth efficiency. High level M-array schemes (such as 64-QAM) are very bandwidth-efficient but more susceptible to noise and require linear amplification. [3]

History And Procedures of Gene Therapy Essay -- Biology Medical Biomed

The History And Procedures of Gene Therapy Abstract: Over the course of history there has been the idea of gene therapy has inspired many great scientists. The history of eugenics is important to the history of gene therapy because it is how gene therapy originated. Eugenics has driven many people to take extreme measures to try and make a â€Å"better human race†, this includes the Nazi party and the movement in the 1930’s inspired by Francis Galton. After that, research in eugenics continued and the human genome project sprung from the minds of scientists. After the inspiration of the human genome project scientists developed theories that gene therapy is possible. After a series of experiments that then failed, scientists were discouraged and the future of gene therapy is now being doubted. Gene therapy is an idea that has fascinated humans and scientists for centuries. Gene therapy theoretically can allow scientists to change the human genome and peoples DNA. Ideally, scientists wish to replace â€Å"bad genes† in your DNA that can potentially hurt you with good genes that will help you avoid any genetic ailment. In fact, all that scientists really want to accomplish is to replace our natural genes with unnatural ones. The idea and concept of gene therapy is not new to human history. On the contrary, gene therapy is a concept that has been fascinating the minds of many scientists and researchers over the span of many centuries. Although the idea of genes was first born during the times of Plato, the concept of gene therapy wasn’t really born until the late 1900’s. Mr. Francis Galton, who is the younger first cousin of Charles Darwin, had the idea that the human race could be improved according to the method of selective breeding.... ...The Last 80 Years in Primary Immunodeficiency: How Far Have We Come, How Far Need We Go† Shearer, William & Fischer, Alain Department of Pediatrics and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Department of Allergy and Immunology. February 9, 2006. Accessed June 17. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WH4-4JS81T0-M&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2006&_alid=425456057&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=6840&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059598&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=4421&md5=b273338ae3c563bfa35380a2e42aff41 United States. Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Emergency and Remedial Response. This Is Superfund . Jan. 2000. 16 Aug. 2002 superfund/whatissf/sfguide.htm>. Lyon, Jeff & Corner, Peter. Altered Fates: Gene Therapy and the Retooling of Human Life. W. W. Norton & Company Inc. New York, New York. P. 1995.

Ibsens Ghosts Vs. Aristotles Poetics Essay -- essays research papers

Ibsen’s Ghosts, although a relatively modern drama, maintains many classical elements of tragedy as defined by Aristotle and championed by the ancient Greek playwrights and poets. One element of displayed prominently in this case is character. Aristotle believed that there were four main elements to a good tragic hero: 1) the character must be good, 2) decorum, 3) the character must be true to life, and 4) constancy within the characters demeanor and actions. The tragic hero in Ibsen’s Ghosts, Mrs. Alving, fits into these criterion, yet Ibsen also strays from Aristotle’s conventions. â€Å"The character will be good if the purpose is good.† (pg. 27), according to Poetics. Ibsen attempts to create a good character in Mrs. Alving. Although she makes many mistakes and her judgments lead to the ultimate tragedy her intentions are good. â€Å"Yes, I was swayed by duty and consideration for others; that was why I lied to my son day in and day out.† (Ghosts; pg. 29) She loves and wants to protect her son and to do so she feels she must shelter him from the truths of his father. â€Å"I want my boy to be happy, that is all I want. Mrs. Alving’s goal is to purge herself and her loved one’s from the past and the guilt which she feels for hiding the sins of her husband and therefore her family name. â€Å"I had been taught about duty, and the sort of thing that I believed in so long here. Everything seemed to turn upon duty-- my duty, or his duty-- and I am afraid I made your poor father’s home unbearabl...

Free College Essays - The Optimists Daughter :: The Optimists Daughter

The Optimist's Daughter  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The major characters in The Optimist's Daughter are Judge McKelva, Becky Mckelva, Laurel Mckelva, Wanda Fay, Dr. Courtland, Miss Adele Courtland, Tish Bullock, Major Bullock, Miss Tennyson, and Miss Missouri. Becky Mckelva was Judge Mckelva's wife before she died and had Laurel Mckelva with him. Wanda Fay remarried Judge Mckelva after his wife's death. Dr. Courtland did surgery on Becky Mckelva and the final operation on Judge Mckelva. Miss Adele Courtland is the sister of Dr. Courtland and is a bride's maid to Laurel McKelva. Tish Bullock is also a bride's maid to Laurel and is the daughter of Miss Tennyson and Major Bullock. Miss Tennyson is another bride's maid to Laurel McKelva and is married to Major Bullock. Miss Missouri is the maid to the McKelva's and a long time friend of the family.   3.1 Two main characters in The Optimist's Daughter are Wanda Fay and Laurel McKelva. Wanda Fay is a woman in her 40's and has the maturity of a child. Whenever she becomes mad, Fay starts to scream, point fingers, and search out people who will help her. She can not stand up and fight for herself, instead Fay uses tactics to make her opponent feel sorry or inferior. This makes her extremely hard to get along with since she is always demanding and never giving. Laurel McKelva is the complete opposite of Wanda Fay. She is kind hearted, nice, caring, and intelligent. Laurel has a air of maturity and understanding around her due to her experiences in life. 3.3 In "The Optimist's Daughter" Judge McKelva will soon enter eye surgery to fix a slipped retina. Judge McKelva, his daughter, Laurel, and his new wife, Fay, are all anxious about the surgery and what might happen. Laurels mother died from cancer that started with her eyes and the family fears that the judge might be suffering from the same illness. The surgery symbolizes a fear that is contained by the three main characters and is a form of foreshadowing. As mentioned by Laurel several times, she fears that her father might not make it out of the operation and die, like her mother, blind and confused. I predict that Judge McKelva will not make it through the surgery or he will die shortly afterwards. With such a sudden death, Laurel and Fay will not have time to say good-bye to him and this will lead to complications later in the book.

Corporate Social Responsibility Task

The partnership is employee owned (these employees are Often called members or partners) and so they state that their purpose is â€Å"the happiness of all our members, through their worthwhile, satisfying employment in a successful business† The next business researched was McDonald's which is the largest global fast food restaurant in the world. It has over 34000 stores located around the world that serve around 68 million people a day (equivalent to the population of the K). McDonald's has often been criticized for its effect on the environment and its customers due to its low quality products.Its main competition is KEF and Burger King although to combat this McDonald's offers a larger product range with KEF mainly focusing on chicken and Burger King mainly offering burgers. To help promote their food to children they use a clown mascot that they also use for their charities that support children e. G the Ronald McDonald House charity which offers temporary homes for famil ies with close relatives who are in a distant hospital. The Final business researched was SAD which is owned by Wall-Mart, the largest private employer in the world and the second largest public reparation in the world.SAD got its name from the merger of Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited and Acquits (a small chain of supermarkets) with the AS coming from Acquits and the DAD coming from Dairies. SAD has had various problems with false advertising in the past usually due to showing items in adverts for sales that are not included in the sale. SAD manufactures and sells its own range of clothes called George. SAD employs 175,000 employees and 565 stores in the ASK. Its mission statement is â€Å"to be Britain's best value retailer exceeding customer needs always. All of these organizations have been put under pressure in recent years to act responsibly and show good corporate social responsibility. The main pressure on these businesses comes from pressure groups which are group s such as Greenback who put pressure on businesses who damage the environment. These groups can have a substantial effect on a business as they can use various protest methods to reduce the profits of a business. These methods include calling for boycotts, deterring ethical consumers, picketing and even suing the business.All these methods cause negative publicity for the equines which deters customers from going to the store as its actions may not follow their ethical beliefs. Negative publicity can also affect share prices as this publicity can be an indicator that the profits of the business fall drop soon due to some of their customers being deterred. The main organization have researched that has been effected by this is McDonald's who has been targeted by various environmental groups in the past and is now being targeted by PETA who has done investigations into McDonald's and has set up whom. Cruelty. Com which publicizes how McDonald's mistreats animals. This is likely to det er customers from going to McDonald's and cause it to lose a small amount of its market. Although it is being targeted negatively by some pressure groups, other groups have recently sat reed to us port its new CEO-friendly initiatives and employment strategies which has improved the company's image a lot. Another organization that has been effected negatively is SAD who have been targeted by Labor Behind the Label and War on Want who have shown various suppliers of SAD to be underpaying workers.This would affect ethical consumers as they would be deterred from supporting SAD and its u pliers by buying their products and some may protest against SAD in other ways. Pressure groups can also help a business if it shows advancement in particular CAR fields. The John Lewis Partnership is the main business that I've researched that has benefited from positive publicity from pressure groups as it has received various awards from pressure groups for having good suppliers and caring for the e nvironment.One of their recent awards, the good pig award, allowed the company to advertise that they sourced their pork products from high welfare farms which would increase the likelihood hat an ethical consumer would purchase that product. Many of the Actions taken by pressure groups would not work without ethical consumers. Ethical consumers are people who purchase goods based partly on them being ethically right.An example of this is people who buy fair trade products which are often more expensive than non-fair trade products but help support the producers of those products. These consumers are very important for the pressure groups as it can allow them to get customers to boycott certain products or retailers. This also allows pressure groups to influence the decisions of a business as they can reduce the profits of a business or alternatively if the business is doing well in some aspect of CAR they can give them an award that will attract ethical consumers to them.An example of the power of ethical consumerism is that McDonald's has been forced to alter its view on the environment with it being linked to rainforest's destruction and over packaging of products whereas now it has some of the best packaging in the fast food industry and has decreased its effect on the rainforest's. The main way ethical consumerism has affected SAD is through the reduces it sells with them now stocking a large range of fair-trade and free range products to encourage ethical consumers to go to SAD instead of its competitors.This has caused SAD to decrease its profit margin on these products as these products cost more for SAD to buy which may have lost them money for a short time but would increase their sales due to greater Customer retention. The John Lewis Partnership has benefited a lot from ethical consumerism with many of its products aimed at ethical consumers and a lot of its customers choosing to shop their because of their view on business.This allows them to main tain a good customer base as ethical consumers are likely to keep shopping at John Lewis Partnership stores so long as they continue to make ethical decisions. Often the main way a business promotes it is being socially responsible is through its investments. This helps to maintain a good relationship with pressure groups and advertises the business to ethical consumers. An example of this is McDonald's who promote their investment into fuelling over 50% of their trucks with bodiless and continually researching ways to reduce their packaging waste.Most socially responsible investments made by a business have other benefits too such as the bodiless they make themselves which reduces fuelling costs and decreasing waste packaging means they don't have to buy as much of the raw materials for the packaging. The John Lewis Partnership promotes its socially responsible actions a lot. An example of this is that it has invested into an awards program called the Waitress Supplier Awards which rewards suppliers for improving their environmental performance. This has helped Waitress improve its suppliers so that ethical groups will continue to support Waitress.This also advertises to consumers that Waitress are trying to improve the CAR Of their suppliers and not just their stores. SAD gain substantial benefits from advertising its socially responsible actions. One way it has benefited is through better employment as it advertises its employment benefits, such as access to its skills academy, to gain a better standard of employees. It also benefits by advertising the various things it is doing for the local community, such as supporting a local athlete, which would help the local community see some of the good aspects to having an SAD in their community.All 3 of the businesses I have researched have benefited from their positive CAR which has helped them grow. The John Lewis Partnership has benefited a lot from the good publicity it has received from various organizations that report on CAR to the extent that it has become the industries leader for ethical consumers. This has allowed their stores to offer their goods at a higher price than their competitors as their customers are willing to pay more for an ethically sourced product.As they have a history of ethical consumerism they have been able to maintain customer loyalty as it is less keel for them to make an unethical business decision. John Lewis has also used its employment benefits to maintain a good work force with it giving its employees a large percentage of the profits (usually in the form of a bonus worth 2 months pay). These benefits increase employee loyalty and make the John Lewis Partnership a more attractive option for job seekers. This allows the stores to be more selective when employing new members of staff so that they can get the best person for the job.This also allows them to create a more diverse workforce so that they can find out bout different ways to market products tow ards people of a different age, culture, ethnicity, sex and background. McDonald's has benefited from the positive publicity from its socially responsible actions a lot because in the past many pressure groups have given McDonald's negative publicity on its effects on the environment, its packaging and its effects on the consumers health. Over recent years though it has advertised what it has done to combat these issues to such an extent that it has now won a lot of environmental awards.This has helped to increase its ethical consumer customer base and in turn increase its profits. The main area McDonald's has benefited from good CAR is in its recruitment. Due to McDonald's offering its employees a good range of benefits it has been named one of the Auk's top employers. This helps promote McDonald's to potential employees and helps retain employees which is essential for McDonald's as most Of their franchise owners are previous employees. SAD has benefited a lot though the loyalty o f its customers. This is due to them maintaining a good price for their products while still doing a lot for their CAR.This has meant that the business has not had to invest in club cards which it says cost â€Å"hundreds of millions of pounds† and only reward â€Å"people who can afford to spend the most†. Instead it explains that it uses that money to reduce the cost oftener products â€Å"across the board for everyone. † This allows them to advertise that they have more products cheaper than Deco's than Deco's have of SAD. This draws in new customers and maintains customer loyalty as customers believe it is the best option for them to shop there. SAD have offered a lot of benefits to employees with cheaper stock offerings and various qualifications available. Corporate Social Responsibility task One thing it has done is source a lot Of its products from local suppliers e. G. All Waitress fresh chicken, beef and pork, bacon, duck and goose are sourced room the [J which helps local communities as it increases the profits of the local suppliers and allows them to expand which allows them to increase their workforce. Increasing the suppliers workforce helps the community as it decreases unemployment rates and increases the amount of money that stays in the community.This is very important to local communities as usually 95% of a business's income is taken away from the local community but by altering its supply methods and improving its employee bonuses John Lewis removes a lot less. Another way the John Lewis Partnership has had a positive impact on the coal community is through its employee bonuses which are substantially larger than most other supermarkets. This helps the local community as it gives the employees more disposable income which is likely to be spent in the local community.It also helps employees to maintain financial stability through the Christmas period which would help the community as there would not be as many community members in debt after Christmas. The John Lewis Partnership has also helped the local community through its community matters scheme which offers its employees the opportunity to work with the community on local projects. This combined with their investment of Ell million into the local community has benefited their local communities a lot.This helps the local community as it not only gives them the funds to make a change but access to a large workforce to get it done. The final way the John Lewis Partnership helps the local community is by using diverse recruitment methods which helps different parts of the local community to learn about each other's cultures and helps people who would find it hard to get a job. An example of this is their elderly recruitment which provides jobs to elderly people who normally would fi nd it hard to get a job.This would also set an example for other business in the area and so increase diverse recruitment methods in other businesses. The John Lewis Partnership also has a negative impact on local communities as its Waitress products are often a higher price than other supermarkets which could cause problems for people with money troubles as they would not be able to afford as much. This may also cause a class divide in some areas as some would be financially able to shop at John Lewis or Waitress whereas other would not and so this may split the community.The John Lewis Partnership has also been linked to an increase in house rises as people are willing to pay more for a house located near a Waitress. This effect has been noticed by estate agents in areas that a Waitress has been built nearby with some claiming it increases house prices by up to 25%. This would affect people who want to move into the area as they may find fewer houses in their budget. This would al so affect the diversity of the local community as it would reduce the amount of people who have a lower income in the area.This would however have a positive impact on people already living in the area as their house value would increase. The final negative impact that Waitress has had is that in some communities it has caused traffic problems as people from the local area flock in to use the store. This would affect the environment as some of these people would have driven further than normal so that they can use Waitress rather than a different store. This would also affect the local area which would become more congested and would have to spend Moore to maintain the roads.Overall I think that the John Lewis partnership is good for the local community as it offers the local community a range of high quality products and has advanced ethical consumerism a lot. Also the main negative impacts John Lewis has are difficult for them to change and they are still trying to improve on thes e effects such as offering a value range to make Waitress a more affordable option and looking to decrease its impact on congestion such as at its Guilford site which is located near a large junction they have paid for the council to improve the roads.McDonald's McDonald's is probably the most improved business I have researched as it has received a lot of negative publicity on its CAR choices in the past but is now trying to improve its public image. One way it has done this is by advertising its various green schemes that reduce the impact they have on the environment. The most visual form of this environmental change is their packaging which has been altered so it is now more biodegradable and smaller.This helps the local community as it makes it easier for the council to deal with any litter that is dropped by a customer and it reduces the amount of waste McDonald's contributes to the local land fill. Another way McDonald's green schemes have helped the local community is that i t has increased its local product sourcing. This decreases the air miles of he food and reduces the amount of money that is removed from the local community. This helps support local agriculture which is at threat due to other companies sourcing products from overseas.This also helps to support the local economy as a transnational corporation usually removes a lot of money from local communities and so the more money it spends on local produce the less impact it has on the local economy. McDonald's also helps the local community by bringing a lot of jobs to their community and hiring people with little or no experience which helps some members of the local community improve their ability to work. This also helps people in higher education as often McDonald's working hours are quite flexible and so they can work their without it affecting their education.The final way they are trying to help the local community is by decreasing the amount of litter found around the community. They ar e doing this by funding local council bins and putting litter bins outside of their restaurants. This helps the local community as it makes it a cleaner place and improves its image which would increase the amount of people who would want to visit the area. This also helps reduce the cost for the council when dealing with an areas litter problem. McDonald's has had substantial negative impacts on the local community as well.The main impact it has had is on the health of the local people as many of their best selling products are unhealthy and the products that are healthy have been criticized as they often do not appeal to their customer base. This is shown in a daily mail article called â€Å"McDonald's shares fall as customers shun new healthier items on the menu† that links recent price drops to customers rejecting the healthier McDonald's products. Although McDonald's are trying to combat litter in their local communities, they are one of the main causers of it. This is s hown by a 2009 survey that McDonald's packaging makes up for a third of the Auk's litter.Also a lot of their delivery packaging contributes to local landfills which if filled would have to be expanded or a new local site would have to be created which would decrease the appeal of the local area. Overall I think that McDonald's is bad for the local community as although it is trying to reduce its impact on the local community it still has a strong impact on the local populations' health and the cleanliness of the surrounding area. This would decrease the appeal of the area which may lead to problems such s a decrease in house prices, less tourism and less people visiting the area to use the local shops.As I have mentioned above, McDonald's is often criticized for it negative effects on the customer's health and its low sales in its healthy options. To decrease these negative effects McDonald's should look to invest in research on improving the nutritional value of their food. This re search should include trials of various food ideas in some of their stores so that they can work out which ones to spread chain wide and which to improve on. After improving the healthiness of their product range they should then Penn a large amount of money on a new advertising campaign that advertises the largest changes e. . A large decrease in calories or saturated fat in their burgers. This should also include a look at their Other positive improvements such as their care for the environment and anything else related to the welfare of their customers and the environment they live in. Due to McDonald's advertisement of its healthier product range the company's image should improve. This should help to set up a business deal with a new healthy food partner such as Real Foods, Weight watchers, Wellness Foods or another healthy food company who would be happier to e associated with a healthier McDonald's.With one of these healthy food company McDonald's should work with them to try and improve the taste of their healthier product range so that it seems a more attractive option to customers. This would allow McDonald's to gain a larger customer base as then only other large fast food chain that can advertise the healthiness of its food is subway who McDonald's could take customers from. This could also be used to try and appeal to a larger customer base as some organizations, such as weight watchers, offer their own food range for people who are dieting.If they sold weight watchers dieting products or certified some of their own products as recommended by a healthy food company then they would probably attract a lot of new customers as their main competition, KEF and Burger King do not offer any specific dieting products. Another benefit of this is that they could work with a company such as Real Foods to increase the amount of special diet foods on their menu. This would increase their customer base as it would attract people that are vegetarian, vegan or hav e an allergy to things like gluten or wheat.This improvement would greatly improve McDonald's image as they would come the market leader in healthy fast food which, with its environmental work, would alter the view of groups such as PETA who would not target them as much. This image change would also increase the amount of children (one of their prime demographics) that go to McDonald's as parents would be happier to take them if they had healthy food. SAD SAD benefits the local community mainly through its SAD foundation program which supports a lot of small charities located around the ILK.This is especially helpful to the local community as most businesses only support arguer charities but as SAD has this program it can donate to smaller charities that need the money to improve their functionality in the local community. So far this year the program has donated almost E3000000 to a wide variety of charities which often offer specialist support for members of the community. Anothe r way SAD is helping the local community is through its new plan to give Store space to local authorities, businesses, voluntary groups and educational services.It is giving this space as a lot more customers are buying online and so the stores do not need as much space for stock. This helps the local community as it means that customers are more likely to find out about various groups and community projects in their community. The final way SAD has had a positive impact on the local community is through its community life program which offers customers the opportunity to vote on what SAD should do with the money it plans on investing in the local community. This helps the local community as it increases the relativity of the changes for the local community.This also encourages other groups to consult the community more due to the increased advertisement they receive from voters. SAD has also had a negative community due to where it's building. A lot of Sad's stores are deliberately located near another supermarket to try and reduce its profits. The problem with this is that often they can't find a suitable site near enough and so use planning loopholes and other methods such as paying for an improved transport system to secure sites that aren't meant to be built on.This affects the community negatively because it is likely that there would have been a reason for the council not wanting the supermarket being built there (e. G. The site had natural beauty). This also effects where the average shopper purchases goods as many of these stores are located out of town or on the edge of towns many people are drawn away from the shopping area Of the town and so are less likely to purchase something from that area. Due to Sad's delivery service many of their Lorries have to go into smaller towns to make deliveries.This poses problems for the local community as they may not have the infrastructure needed for Lorries to travel through their town which could cause damage to the roads and congestion. This effects the local community as the council would have to pay for any damage one to the road and the local people may find it harder to get to their destination. Like other supermarkets, SAD cause 2 main problems, increased traffic and a decrease in business for local shops.