Ethics and Safety Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics and Safety - Assignment Example If Garcia takes the Miltech’s case to the union, the management will be liable for negligence and greed. The management would be accused of defiance to guide their subordinate employees when undertaking their duties, providing them with appropriate facilities, and improving the working conditions of their employees. The union will also challenge the management for its poor decision to accept the project beyond its capability and the risking for losing the contract would be high. Furthermore, the management would be challenged for violation of the Miltech’s corporate ethics because of neglecting their leadership qualities and making decision without consulting all the parties involved. On the other hand, If Garcia takes the matter to OSHA; the management team would be in trouble because it will have a case to answer. A legal action would be taken against the management because of risking the lives of their employees to achieve their personal objectives. Secondly, the team would make the company to be charged for its failure to adhere to the health and safety acts set by OSHA. Additionally, the case will damage the reputation of Miltech Company and the chances of retaining the awarded contract and winning similar contracts in the future would be slim. To make the matters worse all the members in support of such kind of a risk against health and safety of their employees would be sacked because they lack the characteristics of good leaders and are guided by greed. Before taking any action, Garcia should talk to the boss about the ongoing the circulating rumors for the newly awarded contract. Then he should act according to the decision made by the boss. If the boss decides to resolve the matter internally, it could be fine because the idea would prevent Miltech from losing its reputation. The management team and Garcia should meet and discuss the way forward in handling the contract and employees too should be represented. At their meeting, the

Child Obesity Essay Example for Free

Child Obesity Essay Who’s To Blame for Obesity? Do you want to be surrounded with a society filled with obese children? Obesity has become a big problem in America. Parents are not being careful with the amount of junk food they’re allowing their kids to take in. According to Daniel Wientraub’s article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home†, he claims that parents are in the position to fight the epidemic of overweight children, not the government or fast food companies. I agree with Daniel Wientraub because parents should be held accountable for the obesity of their children. Advertising has become Americas biggest tool for manipulating kids in the U.S as indicated in David Barboza’s â€Å"If you Pitch It, They Will Eat It†, New York Times article , professor Linn of Harvard says â€Å"The programs have become advertising for the food and the food has become advertising for the programs (Barboza,P.39,Par.33).† Children are getting attached to television and programming, which is where the fast food commercials vastly appear. For example, kids begin to ask their parents for fast food just because there happens to be a toy in their â€Å"Happy Meal†. Parents don’t have the strength needed to continue managing on telling their children â€Å"No!† because they will cry, nag, and proceed to bug their parents to take them. Marketing strategies aim on manipulating kids, and the more being targeted, the more money they continue making. Parents need to start saying â€Å"No!† and begin acting like the boss, instead of it being the other way around. Exercising is a huge factor on staying healthy. A vastly amount of kids in America are not participating in physical education. In the article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home† Daniel Weintraub indicates â€Å"We limit television and encourage our boys to get out the house, either to participate in organized sports or to ride their bikes, skateboards, or roller blades(Weintraub,P.43,Par.15).† This particularly indicates that parents need to push and motivate their children to exercise daily, to remain active. Staying fit is more important because it prevents obesity. The majority of children lack exercise and stuff themselves with fast food but it isn’t their fault because their too young to comprehend any better. Parents need to step it up and provide their kids with consistent physical education to prevent their children becoming obese. Adolescents need to start noticing what they are feeding their children. A great amount of food comes from the home kids are living in. in Daniel Wientraub’s  article â€Å"The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home†, he states that, â€Å"We try to cook as many meals as possible on the theory that even the last healthy home cooked meal is probably better for our children than the healthiest fast food serving (Weintraub, P.43, Par.15).† I support this claim because when kids are given a meal at home, their parent can provide and control the ingredients they are feeding them, in contrast to when they are eating out. Therefore, kids can consume vegetables and healthy edibles that their parents are serving at home, without worrying about the bad factors that fast food is giving them. In other words, cooking at home is a veritable good way for parents preventing obesity. Others may suggest that fast food services are at fault for childhood obesity. However, I believe this is faulty reasoning because fast food places provide a great amount of high fattening food that makes kids gain weight. Support of my position can be found in the following â€Å"Fast foods marketing strategies, which make perfect sense from a business perspective, succeed only when they induce a substantial number of us to overeat (Brownie, P.33, Par.6).† This clearly substantiates my position by illustrating that purchasing fast food products may be cheap and less time consuming, but it is a bad decision for parents to make on their children. In conclusion, I am adamant that parents are responsible for what they feed their kids. As such, in my opinion it would be in our best interest for parents to stand up and help children at most they can. If parents follow this course of action, I am confident that child obesity will decrease not only in America, but all over the world.

The Most Successful Absolute Monarch in Europe was Louis XIV of France

Of all the absolute rulers in Europe, by far the best example of one, and the most powerful, was Louis XIV of France. Although Louis had some failures, he also had many successes. He controlled France’s money and had many different ways to get, as well as keep his power, and he knew how to delegate jobs to smart, but loyal people. According to the text book, an absolute monarch is a king or queen who has unlimited power and seeks to control all aspects of society (McDougall little, 1045). In more simple terms, it is a ruler who can do just about anything without having to get permission from anyone, or having to worry about the repercussions. This was a trend that started in the 1600’s by European leaders who were rich, and didn’t like to be told what to do. These conflicts arose with the States-General in France, or Parliament in England who had substantial control. The first countries to have absolute rulers were the traditionally strong countries, such as England, Spain, and of course Louis XIV’s France. In order to gain the power he desired as an absolute monarch, Louis used a few key techniques that were very successful. His first and most necessary step to get all control was to take all of the nobles’ power, and make it so they were completely under his control. He first did this by taking the nobles’ positions of power, and either getting rid of them by doing it himself, or giving the jobs to loyal middleclass or some nobles who were completely loyal and under his control. Louis had very simple reasoning for doing this, which was that if the nobles had any power or control, they would have a better chance of overthrowing him, and that since there can only be so much total power, the more they had, the less ... ...s was from a military stand point, which was rare for him. In 1667, Louis attacked a portion of the Netherlands that was owned by the Spanish. This resulted in the gaining of 12 towns, which encouraged Louis to attack the Dutch Netherlands, which did gain him a few wealthy port towns, before ending in disaster. Louis’ last great success was the building of the Palace of Versailles, which as described earlier was a feat never before matched by a ruler. Of all the absolute rulers in European history, Louis XIV of France was the most powerful, and the best example because of his successes, being able to continue his complete control even after failures, his ability to be able to use France’s money in any way he wanted, such as the Place of Versailles, taking away the nobles power, and his ability to delegate impotant jobs to smart yet loyal people.

Burying Your Life Essay

1. The short story Burying Your Life is written by Harkiran Dhindsa and published in 2010 on The Guardian website. Rahul is standing in his backyard trying to dig a grave. The soil is extremely hard so he struggles a lot with the hole. As he digs his wife Sarah walks back and forth from the house to the grave. They have agreed be nice to each other when Tom their son is around. Rahul try to make Sarah understand that it for the best that Tom stays with him at the house because of the incident with George their cat which has died. As Rahul continues to dig Sarah comes to the hole and try to explain that she haven’t been unfaithful and that it ´s just a friend that she has been seeing. Rahul don’t believe her as she is trying to explain her innocence. When the grave is complete they all gather around it. As Rahul puts the box with the dead cat inside down into the pit Tom says goodbye and help covering the grave with soil. Rahul watches Sarah stroking Toms back and gets emotionally touched. 2. Rahul is a normal man with a calm temper who lives with his wife Sarah and their son Tom in London. He gets home from work on time at least three times a week to eat with his son. He is a dependable person who appears to be in good contact with his own emotions. As Sarah wants to leave with Tom to her mom, Rahul try to talk her out of it. He is afraid of two things. That Tom is going to stay there for good and that Sarah will meet up with her lover again. He gets very affected by Sarah ´s unfaithfulness and actually don’t believe her, but on the other hand he want to believe her because he want their family to be together. Rahul is too dependable and that’s maybe why Sarah has been seeing another guy. Rahul is boring. 3. Sarah has many issues leaving her husband. The gardener Chris who she has been unfaithful with is probably more exciting than Rahul. They have been together for nine years and the spark between them is gone. But she still loves him and they have a son together. So that why she isn ´t just leaving him at once. She wants to work things out first by going to her mom and stay there for some time with Tom. As she walks back and forth from the house to the grave it is like she hasn’t completely made her mind yet about leaving. She can ´t decide whether to leave or stay with Rahul. She has big issues with keeping a job and drifts around from job to job and that also shows that she has big difficulties in keeping her attention on one thing for a long time. As she tries to explain to Rahul several times that she hasn ´t been unfaithful she also tells us that she wants to stay with Rahul or at least justify what she has done.

Methodology in action research Essay

Appropriate methods should be employed in the various stages of implementing a successful action research strategy. I have selected the methods discussed below based on their reliability and cost among other important criteria. This research in a qualitative survey and aims at gathering enough data from the selected sample. The data collected will then be subjected to qualitative analysis using the appropriate tools. This paper therefore seeks to gather relevant data from people who are led and those who practice leadership in the selected organizations. The selection of the sample was based random sampling technique so as to avoid bias selection. This is also significant in obtaining composite data that will touch on a variety of organizations that practice leadership. For the participants in this research I have chosen managers of various organizations for instance the sales managers are normally the team leaders in the sales team therefore they can provide the relevant data concerning leadership in their organization. I have also targeted to interview members of such team who are also capable of giving out information regarding to how they relate with their leaders and what they feel about their current leadership . In an organization like a bank I will target the sales representatives of customer relations officers who are part of teams in that particular firm. Data collection The first technique I will use will be the available information. This will be found in books, magazines, journals, reports and the internet. I will go for this technique because I will not spend much besides the information being readily available. But I fear that issues regarding to confidentiality may arise and I may also get incomplete information. The methods should also consider the appropriate demographic that is targeted in the research. Structured interviews in the form of questionnaires can best work for collecting pieces of information form that targeted group. This method is objective and its validity is high. Written questionnaires permitted anonymity and made me get more honest responses from the respondents. The following are examples of questions to be included in the questionnaire; What can you say about leadership in your organization? Are there teams in your organization? Does your team leader understand the needs of the other members? Have you ever been a leader? Do you trust your leaders and are they open to their subjects? What do you think a good leader should have? Do the leaders in your organization understand men and women who work for the organization? Are you contended with the leadership in your organization in terms of human relations? Do you think good human relations affects leadership in your organization? Oral interviews will also utilize because they provide direct contact with the sources of information hence increasing validity. I also preferred this method because of its flexibility besides seeking clarification where doubts exist. If a respondent does not understand well a given question I can give him an example or explain further before getting his/her response. There was a higher response in this method as compared to the written questionnaires where some respondents were asking for more time and some even delayed with their responses. The only problem I expect while using written questionnaires is that some respondents will delay and some will not be honest enough. This is because as they delay with the questionnaires some of them will go consulting and therefore compromise some of the ethical values associated with the information they are supposed to supply. Data analysis This part is vital so as to establish the relevance of what has been gathered Appropriate tools have to be used in this stage because the product will be used for interpretation I would prefer to use bar graphs in the analysis because they are straightforward and can easily convey the expected message. They are also very easy to construct using Ms Excel tools. Ms excel is able to choose different types of bar graphs that will bring out clear comparisons between the variables. I will format the graph in such a way that it will have different colors representing the views of the respondents on some of the questions concerning leadership in their organization for instance I can use Red, Blue and Green to represent Good, Fair and Bad leadership. This can be interpreted by whoever will be reading the report and reveal to him/her that the team members have a specific perception of how social intelligence affects leadership in the society. The bar graphs would be very useful especially when comparing between two or more variables. However one challenge with the bar graphs is that they will require some additional verbal or written explanation to accompany them. This will be a challenge because it will mean additional time will have to be created so as to provide the additional materials in terms of explanations. This will also result in more expenses because more effort will have to be put in.

Chesty Puller Essays

Chesty Puller Essays Chesty Puller Essay Chesty Puller Essay Lewis B. â€Å"Chesty† Puller By: Jeffrey Edinger militarywisdom. net/page7. html http://articles. dailypress. com/keyword/chesty-puller http://militarytimes. com/citations-medals-awards/recipient. php? recipientid=5665 http://militarytimes. com/citations-medals-awards/recipient. php? recipientid=5665 http://militaryhistory. about. com/od/WorldWarIILeaders/p/World-War-Ii-Korean-War-Lieutenant-General-Lewis-Chesty-Puller. htm tricitymarines. com/puller. htm military. com/Content/MoreContent? file=ML_puller_bkp ampuslibertyalliance. com/blog/21-american-hero-and-us-marine-chesty-puller semperfidelisnoah. com/TheFewTheProud. htm [pic] Lewis Burwell Puller was born on June 26th, 1898. He was born in West Point, Virginia, to his mother Martha and his father Matthew Puller. Lewis grew up listening to old Civil War Veterans talk about the military because his father died when he was only ten years old. He soon wanted to join the United States Army in 1916 , but could not because he was too young and his mother would not sign him off. A year later he began to attend Virginia Military Institute, but left a year after enlisting in the institute. Lewis left because he went to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in Paris Islands, South Carolina. Although, Lewis joined the Marines towards the end of World War I, he did not attend in any battle. Soon after graduating boot camp he soon attended Officer Candidates School (OCS), in Quantico, Virginia. After, graduating OCS on June 16th, 1919, Lewis was given the ranking of Second Lieutenant in the Reserves. The amount of soldiers in the force reduced from 73,000 men to 1,100 men. After being inactive for ten days, every soldier that was inactive was given the ranking of Corporal. When Lewis was a Corporal he was ordered to serve in the Gendarmerie dHaiti as a lieutenant. He was involved in forty encounters in Haiti. He tried to regain his office rank twice, but in 1922 he was appointed to the helper of Major Alexander Vandegrift . Lewis Puller soon returned home, to the United States and was appointed the ranking of Second Lieutenant. In these first years of the marines Lewis was acquired his nick name Chesty because of his perfect body structure. This means he had a iron chest and that he was a extremely strong man. He was assigned some jobs to do in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Marine Barracks and at the Basic school, and the 10th Marine Artillery Regiment in Quantico, Virginia. Then in July of 1926 Chesty, was assigned to the Marine barracks in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Two years later Chesty was assigned to the Marine Barracks in San Diego, California. In that year Puller was assigned to the Nicaraguan National card. This is were he received his first Navy Cross Award, for his actions between February and August of 1930. First Lieutenant Puller, successfully led his forces into five successful battles against superior numbers of armed bandit forces. They killed nine men and wounded a great amount of them. Despite the danger of losing his life he dished out these five successful attacks on the bandit forces. That’s how Lewis Burwell Puller received his first Navy Cross. He returned home to the United States in July 1931 and completed a year-long Company Officers Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. Soon after returning to Nicaragua in September of 1932, Chesty received yet another Navy Cross. Chesty and his men penetrated the isolated mountains of bandit territory for a distance of eighty to one hundred miles north of Jinotega, his nearest base. They were ambushed on the 26th of September, 1932. This happened at Mount Kilambe by a rebel force of one hundred fifty men in a well-prepared position armed with more than seven automatic weapons and various classes of small arms and extra ammunition. Early in the combat, Gunnery Sergeant Lee, the Second in Command was seriously wounded and reported as dead. The patrol behind Puller was shot down in a flash. Puller ordered his men to shoot at the direction where the gun fire was coming from. They branched off to higher ground and killed many rebel soldiers and the battle was a victory for Puller and his men. Therefore by his courageous and determined actions, Lewis Burwell Puller obtained his second Navy Cross. Lewis Puller once again, returned home to the United States in August of 1941. After being on short leave he was stationed in New River, North Carolina. Chesty was give command of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines of the 1st Marine Division. This means they are the first group of marines out of seven, in the First Marine Division. Early in the Pacific theater, the 7th Marines formed the strongest and smartest people of the newly created 3rd Marine Brigade and arrived to defend Samoa on May 8, 1942. Later, they were redeployed from the brigade and on September 4, 1942, they left Samoa and rejoined the 1st Division at Guadalcanal on September 18, 1942. Early after arriving in Guadalcanal Major Puller led his battalion into heavy action, this was not a wise choice for who ever made the order. Pullers swift thinking saved three of his companies from total devastation. In the action, these companies were surrounded and cut off by a larger Japanese force. Puller ran to the shore, signaled the USS Monssen, a US navy destroyer, and then directed the destroyer to provide fire support while landing crew rescued his Marines from their dangerous position. For his actions, he was awarded the Bronze Star. The Bronze Star is a United States Armed Forces individual military medal that may be awarded for bravery, and acts of merit. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the V for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the U. S. Armed Forces and the ninth highest military award (including both combat and non-combat awards) in the order of precedence of the United States military decorations. Officers from the other federal uniformed services are also eligible to receive the award if they are or detailed to serve with a service branch of the armed forces. Later on Guadalcanal, Puller was awarded his third Navy Cross, in what was later known as the Battle for Henderson Field. Lewis Puller, commanded 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, which was the only American unit defending the airfield against a strong Japanese force. In this fight we only suffered around 70 casualties, and the strong Japanese force had over 1,400 killed. Major Lewis B. Puller and his small battalion held their own against a humongous Japanese force. Major Lewis Puller was then made executive officer of the 7th Marine Regiment. While serving at Cape Gloucester, Puller was awarded his fourth Navy Cross for overall performance of duty between December 26, 1943 and January 19, 1944. While, under heavy machine gun and mortar fire, Puller cleverly organized the battalion and a successful attack against a heavily armed Japanese defensive positions. He was promoted to colonel on February 1, 1944, and by the end of the month had been made commander of the 1st Marine Regiment. Colonel Puller, would lead the 1st Marines into the protracted battle on Peleliu, one of the bloodiest battles in Marine history during October 1944, action where he was awarded his first Legion of Merit. After the war, he was made Director of the 8th Reserve District at New Orleans. During the beginning of the Korean War, Puller was once again assigned as commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, with which he made a landing at Inchon on September 15, 1950, earning his Silver Star. For leadership from September 15 to November 2, he was awarded his second Legion of Merit. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross from the Army for action from November 29 to December 5, 1950 and his fifth Navy Cross for action during December 5–10 at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. In January 1951, Puller was promoted to brigadier general and was assigned duty as assistant division commander of the 1st Marine Division. On February 24, however, his superior, Major General O. P. Smith, was transferred to command X Corps when its Army commander. Smith’s temporary transfer left Puller in command of his beloved 1st Marine Division. He would serve as ADC until he completed his tour of duty and left for the United States on May 20, 1951. General Puller received promotions to major general and lieutenant general, and served in various commands until he suffered a stroke from high blood pressure and retired in 1955.

The Language of Health Informatics Essay Example

The Language of Health Informatics Essay Example The Language of Health Informatics Paper The Language of Health Informatics Paper Preferred language style: English (U. S. ). For this case assignment, you will be assuming the role of a lead person on a technology review committee at a multi-facility regional hospital. Your committee has been tasked with evaluating the plausibility and possible selection of a new health information system that will enable the hospital to electronically collect and share patient medical history information among its various hospital centers and departments. Currently, each hospital center maintains paper copies and files of patient records, which are separately managed and stored at each facility. Very few of the electronically based information system are integrated between the various centers and locations. To add to the challenge, the CIO informs you that most of the members on the committee have very limited experience with information systems and databases. However, the CIO is aware that you are studying health informatics, so she has asked you to help familiarize the committee with fundamental concepts related to databases systems and relevant health information standards. Specifically, the CIO (and your professor) requests that you prepare a two (full) page paper for presentation to the committee that provides a good overview of the following: Fundamentals of database characteristics and structure. Various types of medical data and information records relevant to this project. The importance of uniform terminology, coding and standardization of the data. Various information standards and organizations that may be applicable, and possibly required, for this project. Remember, your committee is mostly comprised of clinicians and other healthcare practitioners. Accordingly, they do not have a great deal of technical knowledge related to information systems. Introduction The objective of this project is to create a new electronic patient management health information system in order to handle the flow of patient information. This system is to basically enter process, store, modify and transmit the patient information. The current system is a manual one, in which the data is hand written down and stored in the form of hard copies. A lot of hassles are experience with the current system. Hence, it is proposed to shift to an electronic system. Fundamentals of database characteristics and structure The health information system database seems to be highly specialized functional and structural units integrated in a particular hospital environment. The system not only helps to manage the processes but also helps in the functioning of the hospital. The data is collected from the patient entry system or from integration with other networks. It then passes through the internal network for use by the various staff units including patients, laboratory, clinical, nursing units, intensive care unit, pharmaceutical, management, administrators, etc. The database would be performing several functions including processing and storing medical data, ensuring that certain quality standards are met, reporting costs and ensuring that cost-effective strategies are followed and also providing templates and forms for medical entries. Several functions such as quality control, resource handling, administration, etc, are taken care of by the database. The health information system would convert the data entered into information using the computational devices. The information can be stored and used.

ESL Lesson Plain for a Class Job Fair

ESL Lesson Plain for a Class Job Fair Putting on a class job fair is a fun way of exploring English skills related to employment. The following lesson plan extends much further than just a lesson. This series of exercises can be used over approximately three to five hours of classroom time and takes students from a general exploration of jobs students might be interested in, through vocabulary related to specific positions, into discussions of ideal employees and, finally, through the job application process. The class can be fun or focus on working on professional skills development. Students will learn a wide range of vocabulary related to work skills, as well as practice conversational skills, tense usage, and pronunciation. This series of exercises include using an informational employment website. I recommend using the Occupational Outlook Handbook, but for more general classes its a good idea to visit a listing of unique jobs that students might find more interesting. Jobsmonkey has a unique jobs page which lists a number of fun jobs. Aim: Develop, extend and practice work-skills related vocabulary Activity: In-class Job Fair Level: Intermediate through advanced Outline Write a number of professions on the board or brainstorm as a class. Its a good idea to have a mix of professions in order to generate a wider range of vocabulary (fire fighter, manager, engineer, programmer).Have a quick discussion of each type of profession. What skills does each profession require? What would they have to do? What type of person should they be? Etc.Put students in pairs or small groups and pass out the adjectives matching sheet. Ask students to match each adjective to a definition. Help students by making descriptions of professionals who are diligent, precise, etc.Correct as a class. Ask students to discuss which professions would require which characteristics using the vocabulary they have learned.Discuss as a class, or have students each stand-up and give an answer for the profession of their choice.Ask students what type of job they (would like to) have. Using one students job as an example, navigate to the Occupational Outlook Handbook or similar job descript ion site. Search for or choose the students position, and navigate the resources provided. Its a good idea to focus on the What do they do? section, as students will learn vocabulary related to the profession. Make sure the students get the url for any job site you recommend. Provide the worksheet on finding an ideal job. Students should name the job, write a brief overview of the job, as well as do research on the principal responsibilities of the job they have chosen.With their research in hand, have students pair up and interview each other about the jobs they have chosen.Ask students to find a partner to write up job fair advertisement. Together students will decide which job theyd like to create an announcement for.Using their informational sheets, ask students to create a job advertisement to announce a job opening based on the materials below. Provide large sheets of paper, colored markers, scissors and any other necessary equipment. If possible, students can print out or cut out pictures to accompany their poster.Students post their job advertisements up for other students to browse. Each student should choose at least two jobs theyd like to interview for.As a class, brainstorm typical questions they might be asked in an interview. Discuss possibl e answers with students. Get students back into the job poster pairs. Have each pair write up at least five interview questions about their position using their original information sheets including work duties.Have your job fair! It will be chaotic, but everyone will get a chance to practice using vocabulary they have learned throughout this activity. The job fair can be free form, or you can have students trade off roles at intervals.To expand the job interviewing of the aspect use this job interviewing practice lesson. Match each adjective to its definition bravedependablediligenthard workingintelligentoutgoingpersonableprecisepunctual someone who is always on timesomeone who can work steadily and with accuracysomeone who gets along well with otherssomeone who people like to likesomeone who people can trustsomeone who is smartsomeone who works hardsomeone who doesnt make mistakes Can you think of more? Answers punctual - someone who is always on timediligent - someone who can work steadily and with accuracyoutgoing - someone who gets along well with otherspersonable - someone who people like to likedependable - someone who people can trustintelligent - someone who is smarthard working - someone who works hardbrave - someone who isnt afraidprecise - someone who doesnt make mistakes Job Worksheet Questions Which job did you choose? Why did you choose it? What type of person should do this job? What do they do? Please describe with at least five sentences describing the positions responsibilities.

Ethics in Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethics in Cinema - Essay Example For this reason, if a person conducts an act that reflects the right motive and good consequences it is normally perceived as flourishing moments and success. However, this does not mean that the consequences will not be there. In this case the paper seeks to analyze relativism and absolutism in the films Crimes and Misdemeanors and A Clockwork Orange. There has been a conflict between objective theory and relativist theory in ethics. However, there is a clear distinguishing explanation which describes the absolutist theory as the degree of right and wrong from an objective point of view which should not change according to culture. Relativism is defined according to the Mariam Webster dictionary as a theory that knowledge is relative to the limited nature of the mind and the conditions of knowing. The same dictionary also defines relativism as a view of ethical truth which may vary to personal conviction, cultural characteristic and differing religious beliefs (Gardiner). Deontological reasoning states that certain things are wrong and right in themselves if they possess the intrinsic value. On the other hand relativist theory states that there is no universal valid moral principle. This is because we come from different cultures and that all the principles will therefore vary depending in the culture or age. This is a teological argument which means that there is no such good in itself. However, if an action deem good to you and bad to me, then there is no need for both of us finding out the truth. From the film Crimes and Misdemeanors the author says, â€Å"It’s a fundamental difference in the way we view the world. You see it as harsh and empty of values and pitiless. And I couldn’t go on living if I didn’t feel it with all my heart a moral structure, with real meaning, and forgiveness, and a higher power, otherwise there’s no basis to live†

Overdosed America The Broken Promise of American Medicine Essay

Overdosed America The Broken Promise of American Medicine - Essay Example To keep the lid sealed on this corruption of medical science-and to ensure its translation into medical practice-there is a complex web of corporate influence that includes disempowered regulatory agencies, commercially sponsored medical education, brilliant advertising, expensive public relations campaigns, and manipulations of free media coverage. And last, but not least, are the financial ties between many of the most trusted medical experts and medical industry". I choose this quote because it encapsulates the scope of this book. Overdosed America, by John Abramson, M.D. is a thought-provoking and riveting assessment of health care and the corruption thereof in America. Pointing to evidence which is concrete and shocking, we are forced to wonder what else is out there that we do not know about. We wonder how mistaken we are to put so much trust into the hands of doctors and the medicines that they peddle. He does not write the book in an attempt to sell a blockbuster best seller. Rather, he wants integrity to return to the field of medicine in a country that can well afford it. This book makes me wonder who is leading who. I had no idea that the majority (80 percent) of clinical research is funded by pharmaceutical companies. How does that amount to honest statistics There is an enormous conflict between the pharmaceutical companies and their influence over the studies that are conducted. Moreover, a tremendous amount of the studies which are reported in medical journals are not complete so not only are we as consumers being duped but so are the people that we rely upon to save our lives! For example, Dr. Abramson detected the frequent use of overblown statistics guaranteed to scare people into a life-long drug regimen. When the New England Journal of Medicine published a study about a new, inexpensive blood test designed to measure blood levels of inflammation in the body called C-reactive protein, or CRP, which supposedly can predict a person's risk of heart disease. The study followed 28,000 women over eight years and found that those with the highest CRP levels were more than twice as likely to develop heart disease. The study's authors concluded that identifying people with elevated CRP would allow "optimal targeting of statin therapy." Simply stated, it was a way to identify future customers for cholesterol-lowering drugs. A closer look at the statistics from this study showed that the 28,000 female participants were less than 55 years old and healthy. Their risk of heart attack, stroke, etc. was quite small. For "every 1000 women with the highest CRP levels, there was only slightly more than one (1.3) additional episode of cardiovascular disease each year than among the 1000 women with the lowest CRP levels." In other words, the twice-as-likely-to-develop-heart-disease statistic boiled down to a doubling of odds that were tiny to begin with! "The public needs access to independent expert opinion that can counterbalance the enormous influence that the medical industry wields over our beliefs about the best approach to health and medical care," writes Dr. Abramson. Indeed, Dr. Abramson clearly suggests that a regimen that has been promoted forever is still the best means by which to keep heart disease. Dr. Abramson promotes that regular exercise, smoking cessation, and a healthy diet accomplish more than just about every medical

Foundationalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Foundationalism - Essay Example This essay shall briefly state the concept of 'foundationalism' with an example, and analyze some criticisms against foundationalism. The essay shall argue that foundationalism presents itself as a very weak and debate-able theory of epistemic justification for it to be accepted as plausible. The essay shall cite appropriately from researchers and other works, to support its argument. As can be deduced form its very name, 'foundationalism,' is a view that as states that, some beliefs become the foundation for others. It is worthwhile to enter into a discussion of the theory of foundationalism, because, only if one understands clearly what foundationalism is, can one understand why it presents a weak and debate-able theory for plausible epistemic justification. As stated earlier, is rooted in the idea that knowledge is 'justified true belief' (JTB). This means that all our knowledge has to be based on some sort of justified belief that is true. This concept of a chain of justified beliefs, one based on another and that based on another, leading to innumerable regress of justified beliefs, appeared unconvincing to some thinkers, and the foundationalists sought to solve this problem by introduction of basic beliefs and non-basic beliefs or 'inferentially justified beliefs'. For example, one knows that 1) plants are living things and 2) all living things need oxygen, then one can deduce from this, that 3) plants need oxygen. Statement three (plants need oxygen) then becomes the new, justified belief, which is inferred from the justified beliefs of the statements 1) and 2). This is called 'inferentially justified belief' while the first two are 'non-inferentially justified beliefs' and foundationalists hold "that there must be a kind of justification that does not depend on the having of other justified beliefs" which then becomes the foundation of all our beliefs and knowledge (Fumerton, 1). In other words, "if one has a non-basic belief, then-at rock bottom-it owes its justification to at least one basic belief" (Howard-Snyder, 1). Interestingly, foundationalists state that some beliefs need no further explanation; for example, when one is in pain, or feels a sense of pleasure - this needs no further justification because one knows that it is true. It is based on personal knowledge or empiricism. Similarly, there may be another belief that one cannot sleep because of the pain. This is derived form the belief that one is in pain, or derived belief. Relationships like the one mentioned, between basic and derived beliefs, in terms of justification, are more basic than others, since in "they cannot be justified by reference to other beliefs (call them the 'Derived Beliefs') whereas derived beliefs can be justified by reference to basic beliefs" (Fumerton, 1). Types of Foundationalism and Their Criticisms Descartes may be cited as "the paradigm of a classical foundationalist" (Fumerton, 1). Classical foundationalism holds that the basics or the 'foundations of knowledge' must be absolutely protected, and that they must be invulnerable to skepticism (University of Reading, Foundationalism

Massachusetts Health Reform Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Massachusetts Health Reform Policy - Essay Example Public policy is a complex process which involves collaboration of various players to act toward achievement of that public policy. It involves development of laws, regulations, decisions and actions towards the policy achievement. This paper addresses health care policy and reform undertaken in Massachusetts health care in United States America (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Health care provision in USA has been a major debate over along period. The debate has centered on right to health care, accessibility, sustainability and the quality of health care system. Although United States heath care system is the most expensive in the world which consists a mixture of public and private system, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicated that use of health services was below its meridian. National Academy of Sciences and the institute of Medicine cited that US is the only developed state that does not cover its citizens, thus the debate on universal health care policy. The United States government policy which seeks to provide universal health care has been a major debate which has divided Americans along party lines. ... Those against universal healthcare argue for people to be let free to choose their health insurance. The universal health program is yet to be achieved in US (Sered, 2005). Massachusetts health care reform (2006) Before enactment in to law of Massachusetts healthcare reform in 2006 as Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of the Massachusetts Legislature, most of the residents approximated to range from 395,000 to 653,000 were uninsured. US laws require all people to be treated in all hospitals regardless of residency or whether one has money or not. This brought unpaid hospital bills and expenses due to the uninsured residents in Massachusetts (Richard, 2005). A fund known as "Uncompensated Care pool" was used to reimburse hospitals the expenses of uninsured residents and those of non residents. The fund was raised through state contributions, federal tax revenue and annual assessment on insurance providers. The fund accumulated due to an increase in insured Massachusetts residents prompting the legislation of reform on health care without additional funding. The Massachusetts health care reform was made law in 2006. The law requires every Massachusetts resident to obtain cover of health insurance. Subsidized health care is provided to residents earning up to 100% of federal poverty level and partially to those earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level. An independent body was put in place to subsidize coverage and to facilitate the selection and buying of private insurance. Tax penalties are given to residents who fail to obtain health insurance (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Legislation of the policy The plan to cover uninsured began in 2004 when Governor Mitt Romney called for a cover plan for the uninsured. At that Affordable Care

Legal feminist theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal feminist theory - Essay Example It follows, therefore, that the key issue identified and addressed by feminists can be viewed broadly as the bill of rights for women. This paper is in support of legal feminist theory and will offer reasons for the choice. The women’s suffrage may have had voting rights as its driving ambition, but in the contemporary world women need more liberties, albeit simply by virtue of being female. The feminist viewpoint of law identifies how patriarchy invasively influences legal structures, demonstrating how the material condition of women is adversely affected. For example, the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973), showed that women reserve the right of abortion as a basic constitutional right (Levit & Verchick 89). Essentially, the ruling supported that reproductive rights should be borne by women, even though with certain limitations. This is in direct support of legal feminist theory because it promotes interdisciplinary examinations into how practices, policies and expectations relating to gender are influenced by the interaction of culture and law. It operates from the liberal legal prototype and focuses on an approach to law based on rights to en sure that women also enjoy genuine equality (Sunder 93). Legal feminist theory develops reforms designed to correct gender restriction, exploitation and injustice (Sunder 104). Therefore, through the perspective of feminist epistemology, political theory and relational metaphysics, legal feminist theory applies insights into feminist philosophy which help in understanding and changing the way overriding masculinist standards are enforced by legal institutions (Threedy 745). For instance, one would easily answer in the negative when asked whether judges can and should be allowed to be feminists, simply because judges are expected to do their job and not be activists who promote personal political agendas. However, judges

Massachusetts Health Reform Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Massachusetts Health Reform Policy - Essay Example Public policy is a complex process which involves collaboration of various players to act toward achievement of that public policy. It involves development of laws, regulations, decisions and actions towards the policy achievement. This paper addresses health care policy and reform undertaken in Massachusetts health care in United States America (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Health care provision in USA has been a major debate over along period. The debate has centered on right to health care, accessibility, sustainability and the quality of health care system. Although United States heath care system is the most expensive in the world which consists a mixture of public and private system, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicated that use of health services was below its meridian. National Academy of Sciences and the institute of Medicine cited that US is the only developed state that does not cover its citizens, thus the debate on universal health care policy. The United States government policy which seeks to provide universal health care has been a major debate which has divided Americans along party lines. ... Those against universal healthcare argue for people to be let free to choose their health insurance. The universal health program is yet to be achieved in US (Sered, 2005). Massachusetts health care reform (2006) Before enactment in to law of Massachusetts healthcare reform in 2006 as Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of the Massachusetts Legislature, most of the residents approximated to range from 395,000 to 653,000 were uninsured. US laws require all people to be treated in all hospitals regardless of residency or whether one has money or not. This brought unpaid hospital bills and expenses due to the uninsured residents in Massachusetts (Richard, 2005). A fund known as "Uncompensated Care pool" was used to reimburse hospitals the expenses of uninsured residents and those of non residents. The fund was raised through state contributions, federal tax revenue and annual assessment on insurance providers. The fund accumulated due to an increase in insured Massachusetts residents prompting the legislation of reform on health care without additional funding. The Massachusetts health care reform was made law in 2006. The law requires every Massachusetts resident to obtain cover of health insurance. Subsidized health care is provided to residents earning up to 100% of federal poverty level and partially to those earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level. An independent body was put in place to subsidize coverage and to facilitate the selection and buying of private insurance. Tax penalties are given to residents who fail to obtain health insurance (Kowalcyzk, 2006). Legislation of the policy The plan to cover uninsured began in 2004 when Governor Mitt Romney called for a cover plan for the uninsured. At that Affordable Care

Describe the laws of thermodynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Describe the laws of thermodynamics - Essay Example To understand energy better, there has been that study called thermodynamics that seeks to study and understand the various forms of energy. First, energy has been defined as the capability of perform some duty, the ability to bring change. Therefore, in order to understand the thermodynamics, there have been laws established. These laws try to explain how heat also called Thermo travels through other forms hence the term thermodynamics. As such thermodynamics connotes the different character of heat (Bub, 2001, p. 570). Under the first law, Zeroth Law, we are made to understand that if three bodies are at equilibrium, then they would have the same character. For instance, three bodies under similar conditions would have same temperatures in a matter of time. The second law, First Law is understood in the context that some form of energy may be at rest and would be changed if some other force is applied to it. Then we have the Second Law, which seems so difficult to comprehend. It behaves differently under different circumstances (Bub, 2001, p. 572). Lastly, we have the Third Law, which states that there are some things that are totally hard to change for instance cooling something to a particular degree. It is definite that there would be some factors to affect the targeted temperature basing on the already mentioned laws. From the above, it is now important to state the different types of energy. These include fossil fuels, solar energy, nuclear energy, wind power, hydropower, and bio-fuel. All these types have their good and bad sides. With fossil fuels, it is easy to establish the plants and extract. They provide efficient and cost effective energy, and they can be located anywhere. Fossils are also easy to find and cheap to extract. However, they are so much of pollutants that they threaten the environment. Harmful gasses emerge from minerals causing the destruction of the atmospheric layers. Further, by getting them from the earth,

How Social Media Influences Your Shopping Essay Example for Free

How Social Media Influences Your Shopping Essay At the present time social media is the one of the most powerful ways to shop and advertise online via the use of web-based and mobile technologies; it transforms online communication into an interactive dialogue. Quester, Pettigrew and Hawkins (2011) defined social media as â€Å"media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques.† According to Vithoulkas, social media is more than just the hardware or software which enables it, instead he argues that it is more of a philosophy of communication where honest and transparency is required and information is shared and has the potential to â€Å"spread virally very quickly†. For the consumer, social media can be a continual bombardment of advertising and promotion every time we use communication modes, such as the internet or mobile, which may be infuriating for the consumer but increases the market exposure for the seller. This report intends to analyse the effectiveness of social media in influencing the general population to purchase more than presently before. When large companies, such as Pepsi, invest 50% of their annual advertising budget into Social Media it is obviously a worthy idea for the discussion of marketing professionals worldwide. The buyer behaviour system has been challenged in ranges of high involvement and low involvement alike. Consumer control is now the focus of consumption, when before it was heavily regulated institutionally. Although social media is an inescapable part of every day life it cannot be assumed that it will replace other forms of communication. A great number of people of all ages use social networking sites before purchasing a product, especially in high involvement purchases. Seidma (2010, p11) has demonstrated that the large majority of people are engaged in some form of social media, showing its considerable societal acceptance; Marketing magazine online tells us that â€Å"Facebook has more than 400 million active users. Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. An estimated 5–10 thousand Twitter accounts are opened per day,† showing that when information is directly found by a population 20 times that of Australia there is serious product awareness to gain . Quester et al. (2011) stated that there are fives stages of decisions making processes prior to making the choice in buying a product or service. These include problem recognition, information search, evaluation and selection, store choice and purchase and post purchase processes. When consumers’ recognise a need or identify a problem which may exist, they then undertake an information search on the product or service with their behaviour influenced by internal and external factors, Consumers evaluate the various alternatives after they have gathered all information, and afterwards they make a selection of retail outlets for the actual purchase of the good or service. Lastly, the consumer compares the product performance against their expectations and decide whether they satisfied or dissatisfied with it. In last few decades, traditional media such as television, radio, newspaper has been the only way to promote and communicate with the target market, but now it appears that the trend has changed. As seen in diagram one (below) consumer control is now the driver in the marketing segment. As seen in chart one (below), it can be seen that on average people spend more time when choosing and product and general spend more money, suggesting that when purchasing online the products will be a high involvement purchase. Marketing Magazine online tell us â€Å"For 35% of shoppers, the process starts with online search; 30% of consumers read user reviews on retailer websites as a part of the shopping process.† In the U.S.A. alone there are 95 million people who admit to frequently using social-media in their purchase decisions. Hub Magazine found that more than 40% of American adults currently use social media as part of their shopping experiences, with further data showing most consumers increased in use of social media for shopping within an annual period. Hub magazine also found that 39% have strongly agreed with the statement that ‘they can learn a lot more about a brand by seeing what everyday people are saying about it online’ in comparison with only 22% percent of non-social media shoppers agreeing with the statement. This clealy shows us that Social Media can obviously affect buying habits. However, social media may not be the first choice for every business or organisation for their marketing strategy. In December 2009, COM Score released a report of their customer survey that showed peoples views on social media in comparison to traditional forms of media. Overall, they found that 28% of respondents were likely to notice advertising on social media and less than that 23% are likely to trust the advertisements they notice. Those numbers put social media websites at #5 on the list behind television, print, news and corporate websites. In the same findings it also showed that only 28% of those who had began their holiday shopping this season indicated that social media has influenced their purchases specifically consumers said their influences were: †¢ Reading a consumer-generated product review (13% of respondents) †¢ Reading an expert product review (11 %)  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Following a fan page on Face book to take advantage of special offers and deals (7%) †¢ Influence by a friend’s Face book status update referring to a particular product (6%) †¢ Following a company on Twitter to take advantage of special offers and deals (5%) †¢ A friend’s â€Å"tweet† about a product influenced their purchase behaviour (3%) Given the exposure to the internet that we in the western world undergo every day versus time spend watching television, it is odd that only 13% saw the high consumer involvement in reading reviews of products. What is even stranger is that these consumers have shifted from trusting expert reviews to peer reviews. In traditional media reputable sources were usually quoted to give weight to a certain product. It seems in the days of social media, peer influence has replaced the trustworthiness of reputable sources. Thus changing the buyer behaviour process. Social Media may influence and change the buyer behaviour process but it is not necessarily a replacement for tradition media. Although it is a change to the normal standards of media, it will never replace traditional media given the system of interaction in our society. The interesting thing, as discussed in this essay, is the change in the high involvement purchase process and the consumer control over purchases. It is effective to some degree, given the right target audience and consumer group, but in our society with the lack of general literacy (21.1% of the world are internet literate) and dramatic choices for consumers it is not the answer to the change of the consumer buyer process.

Optimizing Cloud Resources Implementation of IPTV Service

Optimizing Cloud Resources Implementation of IPTV Service Optimizing Cloud Resources Implementation of IPTV service delivery through Virtualization MOHAMMAD ISMAIL Abstract- The Internet Protocol Television is a system over which Internet television services are delivered using the networking and architecture methods of the Internet Protocol Suite through a packet-switched network infrastructure, e.g., the Internet and broadband Internet access networks, rather of being delivered over traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats. Implementation of IPTV Virtualization is of practical concern in numerous applications such as detecting an IPTV service delivery failure. The intrusion detection is determined as a mechanism for an IPTV service delivery over virtualization to detect the existence of inappropriate, incorrect, or anomalous moving attackers In this paper, we ruminate this issue according to inhomogeneous IPTV service delivery models. Furthermore, we ruminate two sensing detection models single-sensing detection and multiple-sensing detection we want to lower a providers cost of real-time IP TV services over a virtualized IPTV architecture and over intelligent timeshifting of service delivery, We define a extrapolated framework for computing the amount of resources needed to support multiple services, without missing the deadline for any service. We construct the problem as an optimization formulation that uses a generic cost function. Our simulation results show the benfits of multiple sensor inhomogeneous WSN IPTV service delivery through virtualization. We also show that there are attarctive open problems in designing mechanisms that allow time-shifting of load in such environments. I. Introduction Now a days the demand for Internet-based applications grows around the world, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has been very popular. The recent advances in communication and computer technology, television has gone over many advances over the years. Now a days IP based video delivery became more popular (IPTV). demands placed upon the service provider’s resources have dramatically increased. Service providers typically provision for the high demands of each service across the subscriber population. However, provisioning for high demands leaves resources under employ at all other periods. This is particularly evident with Instant Channel Change (ICC) requests in IPTV. Our goal is to take favor of the difference in workloads of the different IPTV services to better utilize the deployed servers. In IPTV, Live TV is typically multicast from servers using IP Multicast, with one group per TV channel. Video-on- Demand (VoD) is also supported by the service provider, with each req uest being served by a server using a unicast stream. For each channel change, the user has to join the multicast group associated with the channel, and wait for enough data to be buffered before the video is displayed; this can take some time. As a result, there have been many attempts to support instant channel change by mitigating the user perceived channel switching latency [1], [7]. In our virtualized environment, ICC is typically managed by a set of VMs while other VMs would be created to handle VoD requests. With the ability to spawn VMs quickly [1], we believe that we can shift servers (VMs) from VoD to handle the ICC demand in a matter of a few seconds. This requires being able to predict the ICC bursts which we believe can be predicted from historic information. Our goal is to find the number of servers that are needed at each time instant by minimizing a cost function while at the same time satisfying all the deadlines associated with these services. To achieve this, we i dentify the sever-capacity region formed by servers at each time instant such that all the arriving requests meet their deadlines. We show that for  any server tuple with integer entries inside the servercapacity region, an earliest deadline first (EDF) strategy can be used to serve all requests without missing their deadlines. This is an extension of previous result where the number of servers is fixed [2]. Thus, well known concave programming techniques without integer constraints can be used to solve the problem [3]. Finally, for a maximum cost function, we seek to minimize the maximum number of servers used over the entire period. II. RELATED WORK There are mainly three threads of related work, namely cloud computing, scheduling with deadline constraints, and optimization. Cloud computing has recently changed the landscape of Internet based computing, whereby a shared pool of configurable computing resources (networks, servers, storage) can be rapidly provisioned and released to support multiple services within the same infrastructure [7]. In preliminary work on this topic [4], we analyzed the maximum number of servers that are needed to service jobs with a strict deadline contraint. We also assume non-causal information (i.e., all deadlines are known a priori) of the jobs arriving at each instant. In this [5], considers the advancing scenario, this approach only requires a server complex that is sized to meet the requirements of the ICC load, which has no deadline flexibility, and we can almost completely mask the need for any additional servers for dealing with the VoD load. With the typical ICC implemented on current IPTV s ystems, the content is delivered at an accelerated rate using a unicast stream from the server [6], [7]. There have been multiple efforts in the past to analytically estimate the resource requirements for serving arriving requests which have a delay constraint. These have been studied especially in the context of voice, including delivering VoIP packets, and have generally assumed the arrival process is Poisson [8]. For a concave minimization with linear constraints, the solution is one of the corner points of the polytope formed by the linear constraints. III. Improved Cloud Data Utilization for IPTV Transmission Internet Protocol-based video delivery is increasing in popularity with the result that its resource requirements are continuously growing. It is estimated that by the year 2017 video traffic will account 69% of the total consumer’s Internet traffic. Content and service providers typically configure their resources such that they can handle peak demands of each service they provide across the subscriber population. The solution presented takes advantage of the temporal differences in the demands from these IPTV workloads to better utilize the servers that were deployed to support these services. While VoD is delivered via unicast, Live TV is delivered over multicast to reduce bandwidth demands. However, to support Instant Channel Change (ICC) in Live TV, service providers send a unicast stream for that channel for a short period of time to keep a good quality of experience. If a number of users change their channels around the same period of time, this produces a large burst l oad on the server that has to support the corresponding number of users. Compared to the ICC workload which is very bursty and has a large peak to average ratio, VoD has a relatively steady load and imposes a relatively lax delay requirement. By multiplexing across these services, the resource requirements for supporting the combined set of services can be reduced. Two services that have workloads which differ significantly over time can be combined on the same virtualized platform. This allows for scaling of the number of resources according to each service’s current workloads. It is, however, possible that the peak workload of different services may overlap. Under such scenarios, the benefit of a virtualized infrastructure diminishes, unless there is an opportunity to time shift one of the services in anticipation of the other service’s requirements to avoid having to deliver both services at the same time instant. In general, the cloud service provider strives to optimize the cost for all time instants, not necessarily just reducing the peak server load. Cost Function We investigate linear, convex, and concave functions With convex functions, the cost increases slowly initially and subsequently grows faster. For concave functions, the cost increases quickly initially and then flattens out, indicating a point of diminishing unit costs (e.g., slab or tiered pricing). Minimizing a convex cost function results in averaging the number of servers (i.e., the tendency is to service requests equally throughout their deadlines so as to smooth out the requirements of the number of servers needed to serve all the reques ts). Minimizing a concave cost function results in finding the extremal points away from the maximum to reduce cost. This may result in the system holding back the requests until just prior to their deadline and serving them in a burst, to get the benefit of a lower unit cost because of the concave cost function (e.g., slab pricing). The concave optimization problem is thus optimally solved by finding boundary points in the server-capacity region of the solution space. Fig1. IPTV Architecture. the potential of utilizing virtualization to support multiple services like Video On Demand (VoD) and Live broadcast TV (LiveTV). We explore how we can carefully configure the cloud infrastructure in real time to  sustain the large scale bandwidth and computation intensive IPTV applications (e.g. LiveTV instant channel changes (ICC) and VoD requests). In IPTV, there is both a steady state and transient traffic demand [2]. Transient bandwidth demand for LiveTV comes from clients switching channels. This transient and highly bursty traffic demand can be significant in terms of both bandwidth and server I/O capacity. The challenge is that we currently have huge server farms for serving individual applications that have to be scaled as the number of users increases. In this paper, we focus on dedicated servers for LiveTV ICC and VoD. Our intent is to study how to efficiently minimize the number of servers required by using virtualization within a cloud infrastructure to replace dedicat ed application servers. Since there is storage at set top boxes (STBs), by properly speeding up the delivery prior to the burst ICC load, the delay constraints for the VoD can be relaxed for a period of time. The opportunity is to explore how these services may coexist on the same server complex. We cause one service (VoD) to reduce its resource requirements temporarily to help support a sudden influx of requests from another (LiveTV ICC) service. IV.Impact of Cost Function on Server Requirements We investigate linear, convex, and concave functions. With convex functions, the cost increases slowly initially and subsequently grows faster. For concave functions, the cost increases quickly initially and then flattens out, indicating a point of diminishing unit costs (e.g., slab or tiered pricing). Minimizing a convex cost function results in averaging the number of servers (i.e., the tendency is to service requests equally throughout their deadlines so as to smooth out the requirements of the number of servers needed to serve all the requests). Minimizing a concave cost function results in finding the extremal points away from the maximum (as shown in the example below) to reduce cost. This may result in the system holding back the requests until just prior to their deadline and serving them in a burst, to get the benefit of a lower unit cost because of the concave cost function (e.g., slab pricing). The concave optimization problem is thus optimally solved by finding boundary p oints in the server-capacity region of the solution space. The linear cost represents the total number of servers used. The minimum number of total servers needed is the total number of incoming requests. The optimal strategy is not unique. Any strategy that serves all the requests while meeting the deadline and using a total number of servers equal to the number of service requests is optimal. One strategy for meeting this cost is to set to serve all requests as they arrive. The optimal cost associated with this cost function does not depend on the deadline assigned to each service class. V. Evolution We provided an analytic framework that computes the optimal amount of resource (i.e., number of servers at different times) for accommodating multiple services with different deadlines. The initial theoretical framework depends on non-causal information regarding the arrival times and deadlines for each chunk of a requested content. We demonstrate two optimization approaches namely, postponing and advancing VoD delivery. Alternatively, VoD requests can also be advanced after the initial movie request without incurring any startup delays (i.e., subsequent chunks of the movie can be advanced before their playout deadlines). We set up a series of experiments to see the effect of varying firstly, the ICC durations and secondly, the VoD delay tolerance on the total number of concurrent streams needed to accommodate the combined workload. In figures diurnal VoD time series (in blue) and a ICC time series (in red). For a given VoD Delay n≠¥0, we use two services, one with delay 0 and o ne with delay . For each incoming VoD  movie request of length L, a request is made of second service in each of the L consecutive time-slots. Further, each ICC burst creates a request for the first service. Thus, given the requests of the two services, gives the number of concurrent streams that are necessary and sufficient to serve all the incoming requests Fig2: Maximum Cost: Maximum number of Concurrent Sessions. A movie request is made up of different chunk deadlines. For each chunk, we associate a service class i. Specifically the i th chunk of any movie is designated a service class with a corresponding deadline of i-1. For a requested movie, we enlist a request made of L service classes (service classes 1 to L ), where L is the movie length. A LiveTV ICC request corresponds to a service class 1 request for 15 consecutive seconds as in the postponement case. For an operational trace as shown in Fig. 2, with advancing, a maximum of 24955 concurrent streams can accommodate both LiveTV and VoD requests. With only LiveTV, the total number of concurrent streams needed is 24942. VoD requests can be essentially serviced with just an additional 13 concurrent streams. VI. Conclusion We presented the construction of an efficient PDP scheme for distributed cloud storage. Based on homomorphism verifiable response and hash index hierarchy, we have proposed a cooperative PDP scheme to support dynamic scalability on multiple storage servers. IPTV service providers can leverage a virtualized cloud infrastructure by intelligently timeshifting load to better utilize deployed resources while still meeting the strict time deadlines for each individual service. We used LiveTV ICC and VoD as examples of IPTV services that can run on a shared virtualized infrastructure. Our paper first provided a generalized framework for computing the resources required to support multiple services with deadlines. We formulated the problem as an optimization problem and computed the number of servers required based on a generic cost function. We considered multiple forms for the cost function of the server complex (e.g., min-max, convex and concave) and solved for the optimal number of serve rs required to support these services without missing any deadlines. We provide an analysis that computes the minimum number of servers needed to accommodate a combination of IPTV services, namely VoD session and Live TV instant channel change bursts. By anticipating the LiveTV ICC bursts that occur every half hour we can speed up delivery of VoD content by prefilling the set top box buffer. This helps us to dynamically reposition the VoD servers for accommodating the LiveTV bursts that typically last for 15  to 30 seconds at most. Our results show that anticipating and thereby delaying VoD requests gives significant resource savings.   References [1] H. A. Lagar-Cavilla, J. A.Whitney, A. Scannell, R. B. P. Patchin,  S.M. Rumble, E. de Lara, M. Brudno, andM. Satyanarayanan,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"SnowFlock: Virtual machine cloning as a first class cloud  primitive,† ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. (TOCS), 2011. [2] J. A. Stankovic,M. Spuri, K. Ramamritham, and G. C. Buttazzo,  Deadline Scheduling for Real-Time Systems: Edf and Related  Algorithm. Norwell, MA, USA: Kluwer, 1998. [3] N. V. Thoai andH. Tuy, â€Å"Convergent algorithms for minimizing a  concave function,† Math. Oper. Res., vol. 5, 1980. [4] V. Aggarwal, X. Chen, V. Gopalakrishnan, R. Jana, K. K.  Ramakrishnan, and V. Vaishampayan, â€Å"Exploiting virtualization for  delivering cloud-based IPTV services,† in Proc. IEEE Conf.  Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), Apr.  2011. [5] V. Aggarwal, V. Gopalakrishnan, R. Jana, K. K. Ramakrishnan, and  V. Vaishampayan, â€Å"Optimizing cloud resources for delivering IPTV  services through virtualization,† in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf.  Communication Systems and Networks (COMSNETS), Jan. 2012. [6] D. Banodkar, K. K. Ramakrishnan, S. Kalyanaraman, A. Gerber, and  O. Spatscheck, â€Å"Multicast instant channel change in IPTV system,†Ã‚  Proc. IEEE COMSWARE, Jan. 2008. [7] Microsoft TV: IPTV Edition. [Online]. Available:  http://www.microsoft. com/tv/IPTVEdition.mspx. [8] G. Ramamurthy and B. Sengupta, â€Å"Delay analysis of a packet voice  multiplexer by the Queue,† IEEE Trans. Commun., pp. 1107–1114,  Jul. 1991. [9] H. Tuy, â€Å"Concave programming under linear constraints,† Soviet  Math, vol. 5, pp. 1437–1440, 1964. [10] S. Sergeev, â€Å"Algorithms to solve some problems of concave  programming with linear constraints,† Autom. Remote Control, vol. [11] A. Dan, D. Sitaram, and P. Shahabuddin, â€Å"Scheduling Policies for an  On-Demand Video Server with Batching,† in Proc. of ACM Multimedia,  San Francisco, CA, October 1994, pp. 15–23. [12] A. J. Stankovic, M. Spuri, K. Ramamritham, and G. Buttazzo, â€Å"Deadline  Scheduling for Real-Time Systems EDF and Related Algorithms,† 1998,  the Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science.

Active Euthanasia- A Kantian Perspective Essay -- essays research pape

Active Euthenasia – From A Kantian Perspective Euthanasia is one of society's more widely debated moral issues of our time. Active euthanasia is; "Doing something, such as administering a lethal drug, or using other ways that will cause a person's death." In the other hand, Passive euthanasia is; "Stopping (or not starting) a treatment, that will make a person die, the condition of the person will cause his or her death." It seems that this one is not to debate, as much as the other one (active). I have chosen to look more closely at the issue of active euthanasia, and that it should not be considered ethical, by Kantian standards. Those who support active euthanasia can argue that helping the ill to bring their own deaths, allowing them to determine the how and when, is not only a human act but also allows the person, who is "living to die," to maintain their dignity; this way, they will let them die in peace, rather than suffer to the end. Because if not, they think of themselves as a disgrace, to those they love. According to recent researches and surveys, many Canadians would agree to this, but my question is, have they taken a close look at the ethical debate? Those who are against active euthanasia would say not, and would argue that by participating in the practice of active euthanasia, they are "playing God," or perhaps, that they are not acting out of mercy, therefore, the act is nothing less than cold-blooded murder. Murder by the law is defined as; "The unlawful, premeditated killing of one human being by another." Euthanasia, in Canada, remains unlawful as of today, and the act of euthanasia is premeditated, whether for the purpose of mercy or not, euthanasia is, by definition, murder. According to Kantian perspective established by Kant the philosopher, and the Holy Bible, murder is both a sin and a crime, therefore we ought not participate in the practice of euthanasia, because it is murder, and it is the wrong thing to do. The euthanasia debate raises many questions. Questions such as: who is the one benefited by the murder? Or should we allow family members to make a life-or-death decision over a loved one who may never have expressed a desire to die, simply because they could not say with words a will to live? If a person should be suffering with an illness of which there seems no hope of r... ...sidered as ethical because it totally violates the will, the freedom of choice, and also the values of the ill person. Barbara McKinnon, "Euthanasia," Ethics Theory and Contemporary Issues, second edition, p.126, 1998 Barbara McKinnon, "Euthanasia," Ethics Theory and Contemporary Issues, second edition, p.126, 1998 http://charlacon.infosel.com/000165/lomejor.htm TTI Market Explorers, Poll of 603 Adults in British Colombia, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, 1997 Clarendon Press, "Concise Oxford Dictionary", p. 895, 1995 . http://www.sagrado.edu/personal/lazaro/jlazaro.html Pieter Admiraal, "Euthanasia in the Netherlands - A Dutch Doctor's Perspective," (speech presented at the national convention of the Hemlock Society, Arlington VA, 1986) http://www.vrweb.cl/mf/wwwboard/messages3/1131.html Brown, Henteleff, Barakat and Rowe, "Is It Normal for Terminally Ill Patients to Desire Death?," American Journal of Psychiatry, Flora Johnson Skelly, "Don't Miss Depression, Physicians say," American Medical News, p. 28, 1992 Dahlgren, "Suicide and Life Threatening Behaviour," Attempted Suicides 35 Years Afterward, 1977

To Be Or Not To Be A Criminal: A View On Young Offenders And Young Victims Of Crimes

Everyday we hear about news on crimes committed almost everywhere in the world. What is not anymore surprising to hear is that most of the persistent offenders and victims of crimes are young people. No matter how not surprising it can be, it has been a growing public concern. This work aims to understand why these young people are the most common offenders and victims of crimes, the factors which pushed them to commit crimes, and gender differences of the offenders and victims. Furthermore, a view on the reasons why the Black youth has the greater tendency of committing and being victimized by crimes will also be discussed. An individual who is 17 years old or younger is classified as a young offender or victim of crime. It has been observed that the presence of certain risk factors in a young individual’s life most likely increases his vulnerability in committing crimes. Such particular factors include personal, family, social, educational and mental health factors. When we speak of personal factors, these involve alienation and lack of social commitment. Family factors are poor parental supervision and discipline, low family income or social isolation, family conflict and parental criminality. Social factors are hanging around in public places, availability of illegal drugs, opportunity for crime and peer involvement in problem behavior. Educational factors include lack of commitment to school, disruptive behavior, low achievement and school disorganization. In regard to mental health factors, these are aggressive and anti-social behavior, emotional disorders and severe mental illnesses. You can read also King v Cogdon Additionally, it was also studied that young people in care are the most disadvantaged and socially excluded population. Hence, their low educational attainment increases their chances of being unemployed, becoming homeless and more likely to engage in anti-social behavior and crime. Furthermore, the young people have the greater tendency of committing and becoming offenders of crimes should there be proof of evidence of the availability of multiple risk factors in their lives. As much as young people commit crime disproportionately, they also suffer from it. Analysis on the experiences of young people showed that they are generally at greater risk of all types of violence than older people. Violent offences are predominantly committed against young people, and more often against men than women. It has been observed that males are more delinquent and victimized than females. Such difference in gender and youth crime is affected by the seriousness of the crime being committed. A study by Carrington and Moyer (1998) states that females are less likely to commit crimes involving the use of weapon which most of the time result to major injury or death to the victim. Furthermore, females are much less inclined in targeting a private residence to commit crimes probably because males are more likely to be involved in break and enter offences. The males, having the greater chances of being violent, are therefore more delinquent in committing crimes. Hence, such tendency also pushes them to commit crimes against male victims whom they think will have the lesser opportunity of fighting back, or should they fight back, such offenders will take the risk in placing great injury or killing their victims. Young chronic offenders may be defined as a group of individual who are responsible for the most severe crimes and are most likely to continue such criminal activity until they reached adulthood. Family and environment play vital role whether or not youth become chronic offenders. Chronic juvenile delinquents display a huge amount of anti-social behavior whether or not they belong to the same social class or racial group. Hence, the vulnerability of youth in committing crimes does not depend solely in a particular class or racial or ethnic group. As long as the same factors exist in the youth’s life, the greater the tendency of them becoming juvenile delinquents. It has been learned that these young chronic offenders have history of lying, stealing, or doing poorly in school when they are still of tender age. Such behavior patterns will not be outgrown as easily as it may appear. In regard to the issue why there are more black youth offenders in the society as well as juvenile delinquents from the lower class who commit crimes, it is fair to note that racial and social status should not only be the determining factor why these people have been tagged as chronic crime offenders. Geographical factors as well as the number of population of blacks and other races in a particular place are vital elements in the determination of the weight of crimes being committed. It would be too racist to establish the black youth as chronic crime offenders. Economic deprivation may be an issue in committing crimes but belonging in the lower class does not necessarily mean that most youth belonging in this social bracket have the most tendency of becoming offenders.

Pregnancy with Gestational Diabetes Essay

Gestational diabetes is a condition characterized by high blood sugar (glucose) levels that is first recognized during pregnancy. The condition occurs in approximately 4% of all pregnancies. What Causes Gestational Diabetes in Pregnancy Almost all women have some degree of impaired glucose intolerance as a result of hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy. That means that their blood sugar may be higher than normal, but not high enough to have diabetes. During the later part of pregnancy (the third trimester), these hormonal changes place pregnant woman at risk for gestational diabetes. During pregnancy, increased levels of certain hormones made in the placenta (the organ that connects the baby by the umbilical cord to the uterus) help shift nutrients from the mother to the developing fetus. Other hormones are produced by the placenta to help prevent the mother from developing low blood sugar. They work by resisting the actions of insulin. Over the course of the pregnancy, these hormones lead to progressive impaired glucose intolerance (higher blood sugar levels). To try to decrease blood sugar levels, the body makes more insulin to get glucose into cells to be used for energy. Usually the mother’s pancreas is able to produce more insulin (about three times the normal amount) to overcome the effect of the pregnancy hormones on blood sugar levels. If, however, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to overcome the effect of the increased hormones during pregnancy, blood sugar levels will rise, resulting in gestational diabetes. Complications of Gestational Diabetes Diabetes can affect the developing fetus throughout the pregnancy. In early pregnancy, a mother’s diabetes can result in birth defects and an increased rate of miscarriage. Many of the birth defects that occur affect major organs such as the brain and heart. During the second and third trimester, a mother’s diabetes can lead to over-nutrition and excess growth of the baby. Having a large baby increases risks during labor and delivery. For example, large babies often require caesarean deliveries and if he or she is delivered vaginally, they are at increased risk for trauma to their shoulder. In addition, when fetal over-nutrition occurs and hyperinsulinemia  results, the baby’s blood sugar can drop very low after birth, since it won’t be receiving the high blood sugar from the mother. However, with proper treatment, you can deliver a healthy baby despite having diabetes. Risks for Gestational Diabetes: The following factors increase the risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy Being overweight prior to becoming pregnant (if you are 20% or more over your ideal body weight) Being a member of a high risk ethnic group (Hispanic, Black, Native American, or Asian) Having sugar in your urine Impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose (blood sugar levels are high, but not high enough to be diabetes) Family history of diabetes (if your parents or siblings have diabetes Previously giving birth to a baby over 9 pounds Previously giving birth to a stillborn baby Having gestational diabetes with a previous pregnancy Having too much amniotic fluid (a condition called polyhydramnios) Many women who develop gestational diabetes have no known risk factors. Gestational Diabetes Diagnosed: High risk women should be screened for gestational diabetes as early as possible during their pregnancies. All other women will be screened between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy. To screen for gestational diabetes, you will take a test called the oral glucose tolerance test. This test involves quickly drinking a sweetened liquid, which contains 50g of sugar. The body absorbs this sugar rapidly, causing blood sugar levels to rise within 30-60 minutes. A blood sample will be taken from a vein in your arm 1 hour after drinking the solution. The blood test measures how the sugar solution was metabolized (processed by the body). A blood sugar level greater than or equal to 140mg/dL is recognized as abnormal. If your results are abnormal based on the oral glucose tolerance test, another test will be given after fasting for several hours. In women at high risk of developing gestational diabetes, a normal screening test result is followed up with another screening test at 24-28 weeks f or confirmation of the diagnosis. Gestational diabetes is managed by: Monitoring blood sugar levels four times per day before breakfast and 2 hours after meals. Monitoring blood sugar before all meals may also become necessary. Monitoring urine for ketones, an acid that indicates your diabetes is not under control. Following specific dietary guidelines as instructed by your doctor. You’ll be asked to distribute your calories evenly throughout the day. Exercising after obtaining your health care provider’s permission. Monitoring weight gain. Taking insulin, if necessary. Insulin is currently the only diabetes medication used during pregnancy. Controlling high blood pressure. Monitor Sugar Levels Testing your blood sugar at certain times of the day will help determine if your exercise and eating patterns are keeping your blood sugar levels in control, or if you need extra insulin to protect your developing baby. Your health care provider will ask you to maintain a daily food record and ask you to record your home sugar levels. Testing your blood sugar involves pricking your finger with a lancet device (a small, sharp needle), putting a drop of blood on a test strip, using a blood sugar meter to display your results, recording the results in a log book, and then disposing the lancet and strips properly (in a â€Å"sharps† container or a hard plastic container, such as a laundry detergent bottle). Bring your blood sugar readings with you to your medical appointments so your health care provider can evaluate how well your blood sugar levels are controlled and determine if changes need to be made to your treatment plan. Your health care provider will show you how to use a glucose meter. He or she can also tell you where to get a meter. You may be able to borrow it from your hospital, as many hospitals have loaner meter programs for women with gestational diabetes. The goal of monitoring is to keep your blood sugar as close to normal as possible. The ranges include Time of TestTarget Blood Sugar Reading Before breakfastplasma below 105; whole blood below 95 2 Hours After Mealsplasma below 130; whole blood below 120 Insulin treatment is started if above levels are not maintained. Insulin for  Gestational Diabetes Based on your blood sugar monitoring results, your health care provider will tell you if you need to take insulin in the form of injections during pregnancy. Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar. If insulin is prescribed for you, you may be taught how to perform the insulin injection procedure. As your pregnancy progresses, the placenta will make more pregnancy hormones and larger doses of insulin may be needed to control your blood sugar. Your health care provider will adjust your insulin dosage based on your blood sugar log. When using insulin, a â€Å"low blood glucose reaction,† or hypoglycemia can occur if you do not eat enough food, skip a meal, do not eat at the right time of day, or if you exercise more than usual. Symptoms of hypoglycemia include Confusion, Dizziness, Feeling shaky, Headaches, Sudden hunger, Sweating, Weakness Hypoglycemia is a serious problem that needs to be treated right away. If you think you are having a low blood sugar reaction, check your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is less than 60 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter), eat a sugar-containing food, such as 1/2 cup of orange or apple juice; 1 cup of skim milk; 4-6 pieces of hard candy (not sugar-free); 1/2 cup regular soft drink; or 1 tablespoon of honey, brown sugar, or corn syrup. Fifteen minutes after eating one of the foods listed above, check your blood sugar. If it is still less than 60 mg/dL, eat another one of the food choices above. If it is more than 45 minutes until your next meal, eat a bread and protein source to prevent another reaction. Record all low blood sugar reactions in your log book, including the date, time of day the reaction occurred and how you treated it. Diet Change with Gestational Diabetes If you have gestational diabetes, follow these eating tips: Eat three small meals and two or three snacks at regular times every day. Do not skip meals or snacks. Carbohydrates should be 40%-45% of the total calories with breakfast and a bedtime snack containing 15-30 grams of carbohydrates. If you have morning sickness, eat 1-2 servings of crackers, cereal, or pretzels before getting out of bed. Eat small, frequent meals  throughout the day and avoid fatty, fried, and greasy foods. If you take insulin and have morning sickness, make sure you know how to treat low blood sugar. Choose foods high in fiber such as whole-grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice, fruits, and vegetables. All pregnant women should eat 20-35 grams of fiber a day. Fats should be less than 40% of calories with less than 10% consumed being from saturated fats. Drink at least 8 cups (or 64 ounces) of liquids per day. Make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your daily diet. Ask your health care provider about taking a prenatal vitamin and mineral supplement to meet the nutritional needs of your pregnancy. Regular exercise during pregnancy can improve your posture and decrease some common discomforts such as backaches and fatigue. Being fit during pregnancy means safe, mild to moderate exercise at least three times a week. But, regardless of gestational diabetes, every pregnant woman should consult with her health care provider before beginning an exercise program. He or she can give you personal exercise guidelines, based on your medical history. Since both insulin and exercise lower blood sugar, you should follow these additional exercise guidelines to avoid a low blood glucose reaction: Always carry some form of sugar with you when exercising, such as glucose tablets or hard candy. Eat one serving of fruit or the equivalent of 15 grams of carbohydrate for most activities lasting 30 minutes. If you exercise right after a meal, eat this snack after exercise. If you exercise 2 hours or more after a meal, eat the snack before exercise. Pregnancy Weight Gain The recommended amount of weight gain during pregnancy depends on your pre-pregnancy weight, whether there is more than one fetus, and the trimester. Typically more weight gain is expected during the second and third trimester and recommended intakes of calories should increase at that time. Gaining the right amount of weight during pregnancy by eating a healthy, balanced diet is a good sign that your baby is getting all the nutrients he or she needs and is growing at a healthy rate. It is not necessary to â€Å"eat for two† during pregnancy. It’s true that you need extra calories from nutrient-rich foods to help your baby grow, but you generally  need to consume only 200 to 300 more calories per day than you did before you became pregnant to meet the needs of your growing baby. Ask your health care provider how much weight you should gain during pregnancy. A woman of average weight before pregnancy can expect to gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. You may need to gain more or less weight, depending on what your doctor recommends. In general, you should gain about 2-4 pounds during your first 3 months of pregnancy and 1 pound a week for the remainder of your pregnancy. Where the weight goes Baby8 pounds Placenta2-3 pounds Amniotic fluid2-3 pounds Breast tissue2-3 pounds Blood supply4 pounds Fat stores for delivery and breastfeeding5-9 pounds Uterus increase2-5 pounds Total25 to 35 pounds Baby After Delivery Your baby’s blood sugar level will be tested immediately after birth. If the blood sugar is low, he or she will be given sugar water to drink or by an intravenous tube in the vein. Your baby may be sent to a special care nursery for observation during the first few hours after birth to make sure he or she doesn’t have a low blood glucose reaction. If you had gestational diabetes, there is an increased risk that your newborn will develop jaundice. Jaundice is a yellow discoloration of the skin that occurs when bilirubin is present in the baby’s blood. Bilirubin is a pigment that causes jaundice and is released when extra red blood cells build up in the blood and can’t be processed fast enough. Jaundice goes away rapidly with treatment that often involves exposing your baby to special lights to get rid of the pigment. Gestational diabetes does increase the risk that your child will have diabetes in the future. Usually with gestational diabetes, blood sugar levels return to normal about 6 weeks after childbirth because the placenta, which was producing the extra hormones that caused insulin  resistance, is gone. Your doctor will check your blood sugar levels after your baby is born to make sure your blood sugar level has returned to normal. Some doctors recommend an oral glucose tolerance test 6-8 weeks after delivery to check for diabetes. You should also be screened for diabetes in the future. Women who have had gestational diabetes have a 60% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later-in-life. By maintaining an ideal body weight, following a healthy diet, and exercising, you will be able to reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In addition, women who have gestational diabetes during one pregnancy have a 40%-50% chance of developing diabetes in the next pregnancy. If you had gestational diabetes during one pregnancy and are planning to get pregnant again, talk to your health care provider first so you can make the necessary lifestyle changes before your next pregnancy. Get tips on eating right with Diabetes by consulting with a dietician or your primary care physician. Sources American Diabetes Association: â€Å"Gestational Diabetes.† Diabetes Care 2008 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: â€Å"Gestational Diabetes: A Guide for Pregnant Women.† August 2009 American College of Nurse Midwives: â€Å"Gestational Diabetes.† JMWH org. 135 2006