Quality of Life for the Patient and Family Essay

Quality of life has a different meaning for everyone. Many personal thoughts and feelings can come into play when caring for others during the end stages of life. However as a nurse and caregiver, these opinions must be put aside at this significant time. For some health care providers, we may feel that keeping the patient comfortable and having them surrounded by family is most important. However, for the patient, personal culture, lifestyle and value for one self as well as a sense of independence in handling this time alone is most imperative. Therefor a nurse must consider the individual’s past experiences, present lifestyle and personal hopes in which they choose to live in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns at this stage. One must meet not only the physical needs of the patient but the psychosocial demands in this sensitive time of need. Seeking aggressive medical treatment vs. palliative care is something that is very personal and differs from individual to individual. Nurses’ opinions and suggestions of the â€Å"best care† should not be voiced to the patient or family, even if asked directly. For Mrs. Thomas, time also plays an important role. She is young and may have many other worries than those of an older age experience in preparing for end of life. A nurse must consider what areas of life are important to her and what is the relative importance of each of these areas. Personal perception that counting on family support is huge, but may not be possible in Mrs. Thomas’ situation as her children live out of town. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE The nurse should look at several strategies that directly impact the patient as well as the family. Quality of life not only looks at the health status the patient but those directly involved in the care of the patient. This encompasses a broader set of planning including finances, housing, and employment. This will have a direct impact on the entire family. Three important strategies that are helpful to relieve overall stress and promote optimal coping skills include: 1) patient awareness of disease process, 2) available support from healthcare providers and 3) addressing physical as well as the psychosocial needs of the patient. Healthcare professionals must be prepared and speak directly with the patient and family when it is determined best to the physician’s ability, that the identified disease of breast cancer will cause death. Advance planning and preparation may be helpful in dying well if Mrs. Thomas is more aware about her status of disease. Physicians and nurses must change the plan of aggressive medical treatments of curing the disease of breast cancer and concentrate providing support and a comfortable well being of the deteriorating disease process. This in turn should provide a plan of care for relief of pain, contentment to the patient and focus on the overall whole being of quality of life. The homecare team can include doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, and clergy as well as trained volunteers. Most team members provide on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to deliver support. The patient and family should feel the comfort in calling these resources at anytime. The nurse must remind Mrs. Thomas and her husband that they are not â€Å"bothering† any team member by asking for assistance. The team must always work together and communicate the patient’s goals for end-of-life care. It is important for all to realize this is very individualized for each patient and family member. Each individual strategy should include caring for the whole person physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. It important for the team to develop strengths based perspectives of psychosocial interventions and listen to what the patient and family have to say to enable them to cope better. In doing so, the team must also communicate on each encounter with Mrs. Thomas and family as well as each other to assure that her and the husband’s needs are being met. HOLISTIC CARE A holistic nursing care plan in valuable in delivering care to the entire person in supporting the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social and environmental needs. With this approach, nursing care needs to move away from viewing Mrs. Thomas as merely a ‘diagnosis’ and treating her as a whole person. Nursing goals should be to develop immediate trust with the patient and family, provide comfort, supportive care, and symptom management. This can be achieved by effective communication and providing a calm, relaxed setting for Mrs. Thomas. Allowing her to speak openly and honestly about her feelings and emotions of grief, physical complaints such as pain, nausea, and difficulty sleeping is a good way to start to develop a trusting nurse/patient relationship. As a nurse, one must be supportive and be willing to listen openly. Once Mrs. Thomas begins to express these types of things, the nurse must review and evaluate every visit to improve specific concerns with her. More importantly, healthcare providers must display an openness to hear new concerns and prioritize the needs of the patient and family. FUNCTIONAL ABILITY Assessments to maintain the self functional ability for Mrs. Thomas should include creating a plan to achieve realistic goals and allow self care as long as possible. This in turn can give control back to Mrs. Thomas, help raise confidence and value her quality of life. Mrs. Thomas’ physical, social and environmental conditions should also be considered to help her care for herself. Discussing the 24/7 availability of visits from registered nurses and social workers, involving family and friends or volunteers that can help with running errands and meal preparation for adequate dietary intake, and discussing appropriate medical equipment to assist with ADLs such as performing personal hygiene can prove to be helpful. PROVIDING ADDITIONAL CARE When self-care is no longer possible, the importance of more frequent nurse and/or social worker visits, and interaction of clergy is valuable. In addition, further involvement of additional family, friends, home health aides or volunteers to assist not only with running errands, meal preparation and assistance with ADLs but being present in the home for longer periods to care directly for Mrs. Thomas becomes more imperative. The nurse can assist in making sure appropriate DME equipment is in the home. In addition, this turns out to be a time when additional emotional support is of great concern for Mr. Thomas. CHRONIC DEPRESSION Mr. Thomas already suffers from chronic depression and now has to endure immense and continuous stress to care for his wife with advanced breast cancer. Over time this takes a toll his health, ability to work, finances, and their own personal and family needs. Involvement of not only the nurse, but also social worker and bereavement counselor can help Mr. Thomas tremendously. Encouraging him to take his medications will help both him and his wife. Also, reassurance that it is okay to want quiet time and allowing others to help to care for his wife should be verbalized to him in a caring manner. Taking some of the financial worries away from Mr. Thomas may help as well. The social worker can discuss resources that are of no cost from community volunteer organizations and review the reimbursement of covered services from the insurance organization at the beginning and in ongoing care of his wife. Sharing the right information with the patient’s family is very important and can assist in better coping. Again, the home care team must offer an environment that provides the openness to hear all concerns and overall needs of not only the patient but also her family.

How Risky is Risk

â€Å"The human understanding, once it has adopted an opinion , collects any instance that confirm it, and though the contrary instances may be more numerous and more weightily, it either does not notice them or else rejects them, in order that this opinion will remain unshaken. † Francis Bacon, 1620. Risk is a very interesting thing; people normally tend not to realize the real effect that risk takes in their lives.There are many kinds of risk, we want to focus on studying the financial risk, the perception of it, the effect that it has on the private banking behavior, their clients, and how they would be treated, the effect that it has on decision making, and the effect that it has o behavioral finance. Because when you start talking about behavioral finance you need to try to understand what risk represents and all of the effects it has. During this article we want to show why over 10% return margins shouldn't be viewed as something risky, but as something worth analyzing. Because in this times people are going to need over 10% margins if they still want to be making profits out of their investments. And once people understand what risk represents, what it represents ND all of its effects, they can start analyzing what they want and need out of their investments. And once they understand that, they are going to do anything to accomplish it, because as it is said in the quote at the beginning once the human understanding acquires a goal and an opinion on how to get to the goal, he will do anything to end up successfully. . Risk Risk by definition, is the potential of gaining something of value, weighed against losing something of value but, The term â€Å"risk†, means financial risk or uncertainty of financial loss† (Raglan, 2003). After using these terms for the purpose of this paper e will divide the study of risk into 3 parts: types of financial risk, the ways to measure IR and perception of risk. 2. 1 Types of risk There are many types of risk; we are going to focus on 5: credit risk, market risk, operational risk, regulatory risk, environmental risk.All of these are top priorities for banks to analyze throughout the operational process. Credit risk, is the potential that a borrower fails to meet his obligations on the terms that were agreed. There are 2 key components on defining credit risk, quantity of risk and the probability of default. The banking system manages credit risk using exposure ceilings, review renewal, risk rating, risk based in scientific pricing and portfolio management. Market risk is the possibility of loss caused by changes in market variables, it sums up to four components.Liquidity risk, this is divided into funding risk, time risk and call risk. Interest rate risk, which is the potential of negative impact coming from changes in rates. Foreign exchange risk and country risk. Operational risk: Human error risk. Regulatory risk: The risk implied by the government ‘s ability to make n ew laws and modify regulation. . 2 Wars to measure risk There are several methods to measure risk, we will be focusing on the most common ones and the ones that are better suited for Hedge Funds. Vary is used to quantify the exposure to the market risk, using standard statistics techniques.It measures the minimum expected loss that a firm may suffer under normal circumstances, over a set time period at a desired level of significance. One of the biggest setbacks with Vary is that it's useless in times of booms and crisis as it doesn't prevent you from being part of them. Another big problem with Vary is that it is one of the most moon risk measures and people tend to trust it too much without hesitation. (CITE) Standard deviation is a measure of dispersion of a set of data from its average. It is usually applied to the annual rate of return of an investment to measure the investment ‘s volatility. CITE) After taking a look at these 2 methods that are the most commonly used, we will be talking about the ones more suitable for the Hedge Fund industry, which are the following: Seminarian's or downside deviation is the average of the squared deviation of values that are less than the mean or a â€Å"minimum acceptable return†. This method is similar to variance, the difference between the two is that seminarian's focuses only on the negative fluctuations of the asset neutralizing all the values above the mean. This method primarily provides the estimate of loss that a portfolio could incur, keeping the estimated risk realistic. CITE) Kurtosis is a statistical measure used to describe the distribution of observed data used around the mesas. Kurtosis is also known as the measurement for the volatility of volatility. Its main purpose is to describe the trends in charts. Keenness describes asymmetry from the normal distribution in a set of statistical data. Keenness can come in the form of â€Å"negative keenness† or â€Å"positive keenness† , depending on whether data points are skewed to the left (negative skew) or to the right (positive skew) of the data average. CITE) After analyzing these methods, we can conclude that for a Hedge Fund and especially for clients investing in these it is better to use the seminarian's, kurtosis and keenness methods to analyze the risk of an investment. These three focus more on the downside risk of the portfolio instead of using the Vary that is only good on stable periods and doesn't account for drastic mimes, besides standard deviation and variance can be very deceiving in the context of analyzing the real risk that a portfolio can have focusing also on outlying positive returns. 3.Private banking What we want to analyze is the way private banks operate and especially how clients needs are met, how they are treated, how their money gets almost frozen with interest rates that barely covers their money from the effect of inflation, and how private banks earn a lot of money while clie nts barely earn real returns. Banks offer annulled returns between 3 and 5 percent which is usually not enough to meet paving expenses or inflation for the wealthy clients. An American study showed the following: â€Å"Americans said they need to earn average annual gains of 9. Percent above inflation to make their financial needs. Natives officials noted that inflation since 1964 has averaged 4. 2 percent annually, which means the average American has to generate 14 percent to meet their needs. â€Å"fee,2014) having this in mind clients can realize that they need to expect a bigger profit on their investments because they are actually losing money, their money is losing value and the only way f stopping this from happening is by demanding higher returns using alternative investments. High returns while taking minimal risk is a pipe dream; if asset growth is your priority, taking risk is crucial† Oaf,2014), and that is why clients need to be sure that risk is being managed in the most efficient manner. 3. 1 Clients The most important part of any financial institution are the clients, and most important thing about them is recognizing that every client is different and every client has different needs. Every client has to be treated differently to help them meet his/her goals. As the investigation of Dry.Rene Fischer and his team in the book â€Å"Wealth Management in new Realities†, â€Å"we identify 7 engagements that are shaping client behavior and needs† (Fischer, De Conge, OK, Topper, 2013), with this in mind we will take a look at those seven trends to give clients the best service possible while maintaining a steady margin of returns. Engagement one: Changing demographics. The population is growing and also the markets, clients need security and information that their money is secure and generating profit.Engagement two: Globalization and future markets. With the Gap's of various developing countries rowing at a fast pace, clients are starting to look at investing in new markets. Engagement three: Scarce resources and climate change. Global awareness is growing for environmental issues that can create new opportunities in clean energies, and a new set of investments in ecological matters for clients. Engagement four: Economic crises and insecurities. With the volatility of the market, clients are starting to be insecure about their money.It is the financial institution ‘s Job to keep clients informed about the situation their money is in, and make them feel safe that their money is in good hands. Engagement five: Dynamic technology and innovation. With all the changes in information technologies, â€Å"more and more people are getting connected and are sharing information on the go' (Fischer, De Conge, OK, Topper, 2013), this makes clients better informed and more aware about what is happening to their money.Engagement six: Sharing global interest responsibility. With the shift towards global cooperati on and MONGO ‘s gaining power, clients are demanding socially responsible investments. Engagement seven: Global knowledge society. This trend goes hand in hand with trend number five, with new technologies of information, society has easier access to new information and the tools to know what is happening.With all these trends happening, clients want to be more informed and still get the same yield, but with the misinformation, manipulation and misunderstood promises from the monetary agents, the clients think that having their money working to win Just a little over inflation Just to avoid losing money might be wrong, because with the globalize economy that we have this days studies that are being made all around the world can be generalized, so if something is happening in Europe you could assume that something similar is happening morpheme else.So with this in mind after taking a look in some studies made in India we saw that the inflation is not the same for every social c lass and that the general inflation that everyone takes for granted does really have much effect on the middle and high class, because it is made out from an average of items that don't really affect does two classes, and we are focusing on them because they are the ones that are clients of the financial institutions, and the prices of the items that they acquire are going up stronger that the regular inflation, so that is why they are not retorted with the interest rates that they receive, and they are in fact losing money which is the one thing that they were trying to avoid. 4. Behavioral finance There are many factors involved in the process of understanding behavioral finance.To understand this you have to start with risk perception, understanding why people tend to make certain decisions, and after that study the behavioral biases investors exhibit to see what drives the intuition of most individuals. Behavioral finance can help a financial institution prevent certain human fa ctors that can be mitigated at the mime of making decisions and preventing psychological factors to play an important role in the decision making process. 4. 1 Risk perception Risk perception is one of the most important elements of psychological effect on the market. Trying to understand why people tend to make certain decisions at certain times is one of the biggest questions in this matter.Many investigations have been made about the subject, one that stood out was: â€Å"The Psychological Impact of Booms and Busts on Risk Preferences in Financial Professionals† by Cohn, Fear and Marcella. During this experiment they decided to manipulate two different kinds of lotteries giving different options in different controlled markets. Their final conclusion was that there will always be a psychological/emotional factor that can't be measured with precision but you can be sure that during times of booms people tend to be overly optimistic and risk is not their biggest concern, and during times of busts people usually tend to be overly conservative and almost allergic to risk.This can be obvious in both cases as it is when biases come into play. This is why risk can be a risky thing when you are not certain that is being measured the right way. If the risk is being measured correctly, psychological factors shouldn't have any weight in the decision making process. 4. 2 Behavioral bias Behavioral biases in finance are tendencies to act in a certain way; they can lead someone to a systematic deviation from a standard of rationality or good Judgment. Five biases that we believe can be the most common ones in an investor are the following: 1. – Confirmation bias is the tendency that makes people believe in information only if confirms their beliefs and hypothesis. 2.Optimism bias is the tendency to think that you are less at risk of experiencing a negative event than others. 3. – Loss aversion bias is the tendency that agents take on when they prefer the option of avoiding a loss than the option of acquiring gains. 4. – Self-serving bias is the tendency to distort a process because of the need to maintain and enhance once self-esteem. 5. – Planning fallacy bias is the tendency to underestimate the time that it will take to complete a task. These are only some of the behavioral biases that play a significant factor in the psychological process of making decisions. It has to be taken into account that all of them could affect an investor 5.Conclusion â€Å"The human brain has evolved to be very efficient at pattern recognition, but as the confirmation bias shows, we are focused on finding and confirming patterns rather than minimizing our false conclusions. Yet we needn't be pessimist, for it is possible to overcome our prejudices. It is a start simply to realize that chance events, too, produce patterns. It is another great step if we learn to question our perceptions and our theories. Finally, we should learn to spend as much time looking for evidence that e are wrong as we spend searching for reasons we are correct. † (Millions, 2008). After looking at previous evidence, it is clear that both Private Bankers and Clients have a misconception about risk.Behavioral biases transform risk into fear which if not mitigated by Private Bankers leads to inefficient allocation in Client's portfolios, and a controlling position in their relationship. This is why Bankers usually oversee those investments that they are not familiar with and reject them or cause Clients to reject them without studying their process and risk/reward ratio. This is the case with vast majority of Alternative Investments. We encourage Clients to keep a critical point of view with regards to their portfolios and continuously question their Banker's recommendations. By being involved in their investment decisions and being up to date on current market trends Clients will have a correct attitude towards risk when it comes to investing.

MIS in USA

â€Å"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence!†-Vince LombardiThe five natural elements aside, the modern world today revolves around a sixth human developed energy i.e. Electricity. From telegraphy and telephony to electrical circuits for power, Electrical Engineering today focuses on a broad range of disciplines. The progress of this field has immensely influenced the advancement of technology. The vast application potential when combined with the notion of management intrigues me and I’m keen to continue my academic pursuit in this direction.A proclivity for Math’s and Science since childhood had resulted in 90+ aggregate in the respective subjects in high school and sparked the initial interest. A tryst with a Physics concept, ‘Electromagnetic Force’ at the Higher Secondary Level invoked the zeal to foray into this discipline. It was during this period that my teachers instilled in me a strong inclination towards the subject. This led me to opt for Electrical and Electronics Engineering in my undergraduate study as it not only requires analytical thinking but also involves hands-on practical application and is challenging.My credentials include Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Annamacharya Institute of Technology and science, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University , Hyderabad, India which covered a broad spectrum of subjects which include Electromagnetic field, power electronics, electrical measurements, Pulse and Digital circuits, computers’ methods in power system controls, digital signal processing, Power Systems(1to3),  Electro Mechanics, Micro processors and Micro Controllers, High voltage Engineering and Utilization of electrical energy. I am also well versed in programming languages like C, C++ & JAVA. I was also introduced to management based subjects like Managerial Economics & Financial Analysis (MEFA), Management Sciences which fascinated me and imbi bed the urge to delve deeper and explore the management related aspect.In an attempt to probe further, during my final year of the undergraduate course I presented a project â€Å"SPEED CONTROL OF INDUCTION MOTOR USING PLC† at SANGHI SPINNERS INDIA LIMITED, HYDERABAD, INDIA. and also another project on â€Å"A NEW 84-PULSE VSC CONFIGURATION USING MULTI LEVEL DC VOLTAGE USING MATLAB†. These project involved coding a programme using MATLAB technology which solves a pattern recognition problem. They also include the practical application of management to engineering which has sustained and also further honed my interest to pursue this subject.I consider it an accomplishment to have finished meritorious in several technical events and I have also presented a number of technical papers which were highly acknowledged. I feel it a privilege to have been a part of Make a Difference (NGO). My tenure at MAD as a Teacher Volunteer has acuminated my organizational and interpersona l skills. It has also reinforced the ‘Never say never attitude’ which enables me to persevere, look beyond and extend my boundaries and also go the extra mile.Specialization becomes a necessity to understand new technologies and to improve upon the existing ones. Finesse in the subjects I pursue is what I envision. I now find it essential to equip myself in a specialized institute, one that will consider my knowledge as a stepping stone to higher education and help me transcend new horizons. In the near future, my aim is to attain an advanced education in MIS through a Masters Degree Program. To achieve this I would like to gain exposure to the latest practices adopted in the field of MIS. The multifaceted attributes of the course and the flexibility of the curriculum have played a pivotal role in my decision to apply for MIS at your university.The collaborative environment at your university and the confluence of ideologies would help me learn the global standards in t his field also become aware of the worldwide  competition. I aspire to bring back the acquired expertise to India and use it successfully in future endeavors. My long term goal is to put my footprints in the field of MIS through contribution of original ideas and translation of those ideas to develop high end applications and products.I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Electronics and Computers, an aptitude for teamwork, a zest for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to learn all I can. With the above attributes I firmly believe that I would meet all the criteria and would also be an asset to your esteemed university. I can assure you that I will be able to contribute and learn from the academically challenging environment at the university. Hence I appeal to the Graduate Admissions Committee to consider me for admission and I look forward to becoming a part of your institute.

Operation Management Techniques at McDonalds Term Paper

Operation Management Techniques at McDonalds - Term Paper Example Owing to the success of the corporation, there is evidence that McDonalds utilizes distinct operation management techniques that often give it an edge over others in the global business environment. This is informed by the actuality that being a service business, McDonald has widespread operations in virtually all the regions across the world that comprise of America, Asia and Europe. This makes it be essential to circumspectly examine the relevant methods of operations management as applied by McDonalds. Such an evaluation will consider the strategic methods that make the company distinct with regard to business effectiveness. Since operations management regards the development, in addition to the organization of merchandise, systems, and services along with supply chains and is founded on the attainment, expansion and use of resources that business entities need to convey commodities to clients, a comprehensive evaluation of McDonalds’ operations management will expose the b asic activities and strategies that make the company unique. Such a report will be necessary in providing information that could be used by other companies pursuing effectiveness. Table of Contents I. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.3 A. Objectives†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 B. Motivation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦3 C. Report Outline†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..4 II. Detailed Study and Comparative Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 ... Operations management techniques in McDonalds†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....7 III. Recommendation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...11 IV. Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.12 V. References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.13 Introduction A). The Goals and Objectives The central function of this account is to examine McDonalds, particularly how it utilizes operation management techniques in its activities. The description w ill spotlight the manner in which operations management is practiced in McDonalds. This will help establish the dynamics employed by the relevant company in achieving its objectives as well as executing its daily commercial activities. McDonald stands out as a very successful global commercial entity with outlets all over the world, there must be something quite distinct about the operations management of this company (Render & Heizer, 2005). The account will endeavor to underscore the exact essence of McDonald brand in the perspective of operations management to bring out the practices that make the global corporation a success. The eventual aspiration of the testimony is to evaluate and offer a comprehensive account of the practices of operation management in McDonalds Company. B). Motivation The motivation for studying this topic is derived from the significance of operations management in commercial entities as well as the global commercial presence of McDonalds. Operations mana gement is a dynamic discipline in management that caters for the design and administration of merchandises, services and practices (Welch et al, 2007).

Organization Analysis - Wal-Mart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organization Analysis - Wal-Mart - Essay Example The organization has a reputable brand that is globally recognized allowing it to outshine competitors in the field. The company’s brand is distinct; furthermore, Wal-mart has established a group of loyal customers. Spotts (2005) asserts that consumers usually respond to less costly products to sustain their daily needs especially in a current time of economic hardships. Since the company makes purchases in large quantities, it obtains huge discounts that it can pass to its customers. This enables it to offer products at a reduced cost. Furthermore, the organization manufactures its own products allowing it to sell them at subsidized rates. Wal-Mart’s huge capital and customer friendly operations promote the marketing capacity. The strategic pricing is the prominent marketing strength that offers the company a competitive advantage. The organization has a policy that governs the procedures for determining prices for the products. This restricts management from hedging p rices. Furthermore, the company conducts a Rollback promotion strategy that targets customers. This system lowers the prices of the already subsidized products making the company out-price their competitors. The company understands the concept of customer value as highlighted in their customer-oriented scheme. The organization has one of the best contentment guaranteed models that enhances customer goodwill. The organization allows customers to return the purchased products that do not please them and claim a refund.

Marketing Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing Case Study - Essay Example The IKEA products are often referred as ‘start up furniture’ which is bought by the consumers for their first home. It is due to this reason that the company focuses on income level, age, education etc while targeting the market segment. The market has been segmented in the following manner: Segment Age Group Annual Income Level Psychology Education 1 18 - 25 >$ 34500 This particular age group has a tendency of being driven by social trends. They generally do not possess much knowledge about ethical trading. High school and College (education) 2 26 - 35 $34500 - $ 68000 This age group has knowledge related to ethical trading and they remain ready to purchase quality products by paying high prices. College and masters level (education) 3 36 - 65 >$ 69000 This age group purchases products in order to represent their self image in the peer group. Educational level does not have any influence on the purchasing behaviour of this particular age group. IKEA mainly targets the y oung group with lower income level (Business Today, 2013). The affordable price offerings increase the demand of the company’s products in the market. The college students those who belong to the young generation cover wide target market for the company as it mainly consists of those individuals who are planning to purchase furniture for 1st time. Another target segment set by IKEA on the basis of demography is the family life cycle. The company targets new families who require furniture for filling their houses but do not have high money to spend for this purpose. IKEA always provides quality products and services to these young families and they provide stores which are entirely environment friendly. The stores have specially designed playing area where the parents can keep their children at the time of shopping in order to complete it in a peaceful manner. The company targets those customers who want high value for their money invested and opt for quality products with com paratively cheap prices. Thus from the above table, target segments 1 and 2 are the target segments for IKEA. Answer 4 PESTEL Analysis Pestel analysis would help in the environmental scanning of IKEA (Lorat, 2009). Political The level of consumer taxation and corporate tax which is regulated by the political authorities of any particular country has an effect on the after-tax income of any corporation. The corporate tax rate has an impact on the profitability of the organization thereby affecting the after tax income as well. IKEA regional earnings are generally subjected to the regional tax laws. The corporate tax rate of any region has an impact on the business structure as well. The special business structure of the organization plays a vital role in the tax rate. IKEA business structure has a subsidiary model which instructs the subsidiaries of the company to abide by the regional tax rules and regulations. In addition to the corporate tax, the trade barriers such as tariff and quotas also have an effect on the businesses. The major reasons behind imposing tariffs and other trade barriers are: protecting the local employment, retaliation, national security etc. However imposition of tariff increases the prices of the products that are imported in the country. This benefits the local producers in place as they are not forced to raise the prices. In case of IKEA, their higher reliance on the local producers rather than import of the products decrease the extent of influence of tariff and other trade b

History- access to humanities and social science Essay

History- access to humanities and social science - Essay Example Social class structures were beginning to break down as common men were able to make fortunes in industry and landowners found it more and more difficult to keep the idyllic life they’d constructed alive. Women, too, were beginning to question their allotted place in society as more and more opportunities opened for them in the urban centers of the country, providing them with a means of supporting themselves and freeing themselves from the yoke of male domination. However, at the same time, these positions were not the equal rights positions of modern times, so it was often difficult to determine whether one wanted to sacrifice freedom for comfort or comfort for freedom. Rarely was it possible to attain both. All of these social and economical concerns can be found in the novels written during this time period. â€Å"The Victorian novel, with its emphasis on the realistic portrayal of social life, represented many Victorian issues in the stories of its characters† (Gre enblatt, 2005). By looking at the literature of the age, one can begin to gain a sense of how ideas of gender affected the lives of Victorian men and women whether they were struggling to uphold them or struggling against them. Issues of gender, education and sexuality were tremendous stumbling blocks over which numerous fictional characters and real Victorians had to struggle in order to maintain a respectable standing in society. Within the patriarchal society of the Christian nations, men were expected to operate according to specific rules of behavior, namely that they were to be heterosexual, virile, yet also constrained and sensible of a woman’s good name. It was all right to have intercourse with women to whom one was not married, but that woman must be of a much inferior social status and must not be allowed to cross these boundaries. In novels such as Wuthering

Final project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Final project - Essay Example Unless controlled, these conditions constantly prompt more noteworthy ethnic and racial competition and to more noteworthy political, social, and economic oppression. According to Barusch (264) racism is a modern phenomenon that has been in place for a longer time and it aims at alienation and exploitation of both economic and social state of the victims. I come from a metropolitan area and for that reason the area is home to all races of the world. In the past years, there has been conflict between different races living within the area. The situation around the area can trace its roots back to the time when the area was growing with establishment of industries and other social amenities. There was a huge movement of people from other regions of the country seeking employement and better social amenities. In return, there was an increase in population which was made up of different races. With time, differences started rising among individuals from different races. There are those who felt to be more superior to others. The main races that have greatly been affected are the African-American and the Latinos. The racism is highly manifested in the places of work, educational facilities, and among social amenities like restaurants and places of worship. The African-Americans particularly have been victimized more than other races as th ey are the minority within the area. The plan against racism will take place in three main area; Educational institutes, social places, and in the public places. The idea is to create social awareness and ask people to stand against racism. The following people will be involved in the program; The program will run for a month and will be taking place daily running from Monday to Saturday. The use of the Ying Yang will be very instrumental as our tool or instrument of communication. The Yin Yang is known globally to represent two

Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 24

Summary - Essay Example Prof. Scott emphasized the philosophy of environmental sustainability in the management and disposal of municipal solid waste. Disposal methods are based on reusing, recycling, power generation and incineration. Recycling and reuse methods are appropriate for glass, plastic, paper and metal waste products; bio-degradable materials like kitchen waste and other non-hazardous waste that can not otherwise be reused or recycled are shredded, packed as pellets and used as fuel for power generation. Hazardous waste like hospital cotton, plastic syringes, diseased body parts removed through operations etc. are all sent for incineration. Landfill is another common method, and is more appropriate for construction waste or for material with very little calorific (hydrocarbon) value. Discussing the positive and negative aspects of the different methods, Prof. Scott informed that landfill method is relatively safe for short periods of time but might allow leaching of undesirable and toxic chemicals into soil/groundwater resources. Incineration causes air pollution and hence is not permitted for certain types of plastics, which when incinerated give out objectionable chemicals compounds into the air that we breathe. Finally, power generation from municipal solid waste is not always economically justified. Hence, the three R’s of environmental management viz., reduce, reuse and recycle assume extra significance for municipal solid waste management. Effective segregation and collection of waste for the three R’s plan is still a challenge for most municipalities around the

Nursing in a legal and ethical environment in Australia Essay - 1

Nursing in a legal and ethical environment in Australia - Essay Example This latter document also forms the basis of what the profession offers to the public, and thus also forms the basis of public expectations with regard to nursing services and how nurses are to conduct themselves in the course of their duties (South African Nursing Council, 2004). Looking at the two documents, one is able to piece together some of the key ethical considerations in nursing care in South Africa as being embodied in nursing responsibilities and duties as prescribed by the law, and as prescribed and monitored by the profession association. On the other hand, while it does this, it also goes back to fundamental principles that guide its ethical formulations, chief among them being South African conceptions of social justice, truthfulness, doing no harm, doing one’s best, being caring, being autonomous, and being giving and demonstrating genuine care. Its code of ethics is linked, moreover, to a set of fundamental values, chief among them the value of the life of a person, privacy, respect for others, right to care, truthfulness, and the maintenance of the integrity of the nursing profession (South African Nursing Council, 2013). On the other hand, there are views on nursing ethics in South Africa that go beyond the rules and law-based ethical considerations, and go deep into the culture to fish out ingrained ethical values relating to care and compassion for the sick. These are spirituality-based ethical considerations that are not strictly found in the rules-based Code of Ethics discussed above (Haegert, 2000). Meanwhile, the South African Ethics Code for Nursing also lists specific ethical dilemmas as also forming part of the primary ethical considerations that guide practice. They are included in the code of ethics by way of fleshing out what those are, recognizing the complex nature of the dilemmas, and providing avenues for discussing the merits of individual cases within the nursing community and with the critical supervision of the Sou th African Nursing Council. Some ethical dilemma situations listed include euthanasia, and the early ending of pregnancies (South African Nursing Council, 2013). II. Nursing Care- Key Ethical Considerations: Australia The foundation of nursing ethics in Australia are the fundamental human rights laws that are observed and followed, as well as additional legislation that are geared towards securing the well-being, health and security of the general population, as well as the community of health care professionals that administer care. Moreover, there are national accreditation schemes and national organizations in place that complement the work done by the National Boards, or the associations of professionals for the different professions within the health care field, including nursing, that formulate the key ethical constructs and the guidelines and codes of behavior that in essence implicitly determine what the ethics of care for nursing in Australia are. Those ethical consideratio ns flow from a concern for the rights of individuals and the observance of the laws relating to that. Moreover, the ethical considera

Ordination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ordination - Essay Example In spite of the strong protest against the ordination of women by the conventional Christian thinkers and scholars, there is an increasing opinion in favor of the practice of ordaining women and associate pastors. In this background, it is important to make a reflective analysis of the topic and take a strong opinion regarding the controversy. "Women in the ordained ministry have been the focus of considerable public interest and controversy, perhaps more so than any other professional occupation... Occasional cracks have allowed a few women to move into leadership positions, offering hope to scores of other women clergy. But female leadership in mainline denominations remains at token levels." (Nesbitt 1997, 3). In fact, the question concerning the issue needs to be realized according to the different contexts of the Christian traditions. It is, therefore, important to relate here that it is not easy to come to a conclusion regarding the issue as the opinions of every group is based on specific cultural, theological, and traditional beliefs and practices of different sects. Whereas the traditional and conservative view of the question forbids the ordination of women and ordination of associate pastors, a researched and thoroughly studied position on the question would be to grant women the equal rights for ordination along with men. Such a view favoring the ordination of women and ordination of associate pastors would not only improve the status of women, but, more importantly, would uplift the status of this divine vocation as such. Therefore, it is important that more and more strong opinion supportive of the ordination of women and ordination of associate pastors is the need of the period. In a reflective analysis of the question concerning the ordination of women, it becomes lucid that the argument against the ordination of women and ordination of associate pastors is the result of several complex aspects. Thus, it is relatable that the Catholics defend the Church's position on women's ordination mainly due to factors which are of common interest to the group. That is to say, the question of ecumenism is a strong factor deciding the position of the Catholics and orthodox Christians, and they wish to avoid factors that may hinder the scope of ecumenism with similar Christian groups. "Conservative Catholics who agree with the tradition of restricting the priesthood to men," as Ferrara and Wilson point out, "do not wish to offend their Protestant friends who have grown accustomed to female pastors or who may even be female pastors. Nor do they wish to insult their fellow Catholics who may think women should be ordained." (Ferrara and Wilson 2003, 33). Therefore, the posi tion taken by the Catholic Church on the issue is determined by factors of their specific concerns, along with the traditional and cultural aspects. In fact, the arguments against the ordination of women and ordination of associate pastors need to be carefully analyzed and the basic issues concerning the question be scrutinized. Whereas the

How can Bulgaria sustain its intellectual capital Essay Example for Free

How can Bulgaria sustain its intellectual capital Essay The entrepreneurship success of a country can be borne through investment in intellectual capital but its sustainability depends mainly on political and economic factors. Bulgaria is one country with a lush intellectual capital featured through valuable capabilities of individuals and enterprises. Worth noting is that entrepreneurship is a tool for wealth creation that benefits both the individuals and the country. For instance, the US is known for its entrepreneur-friendly environment that encourages growth of small businesses for wealth creation. Bulgaria also needs to seek ways through which it can sustain its intellectual capital for further entrepreneurship stimulation and subsequent wealth creation. The purpose of this dissertation is to compare Bulgaria to Sweden (a country in the Nordic region) and the UK (a country in Western Europe) in terms of entrepreneurial success. Importantly, economical and political factors that affect entrepreneurship in these regions are discussed and a reference is made on the US Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship stimulating strategies. The main aspects that the article considers include the education system, fiscal stimulus and immigration in relation to entrepreneurship. Bulgaria: Brief Background Bulgaria, a lower-middle income nation is situated in the Eastern Europe and currently faces a transitional economic period with growth expectations (Manolova, et al. 2007; Georgieva, 1999; Emerson, 2005) and establishment of a civil society. The country orients towards adopting a market economy and democratic institutions, and therefore human capital acquisition is vital for this process. Buckwalter (1995) asserts that leaders in Bulgaria and the Eastern Europe at large face a dilemma between the need to increase massive production and wealth, and to align this with political, economical and humanitarian agendas. For over 40 years from the 1940s to 1989, the Communism rule ignored the private sector of Bulgaria’s economy and market liberalization and economic and institutional reforms were only realized in the 1990’s after the Berlin Wall’s fall (Manolova et al. 2007 ). Bulgaria is therefore transiting from the centrally planned Soviet-kind Communism that enhanced spatial egalitarianism to a market economy characterized by several entrepreneurial ventures Furthermore; the education sector in Bulgaria has since invested in intellectual capital where industrious youth are encouraged to attend schools to study entrepreneurship. Importantly, most of the higher education institutes for instance Sofia University, incorporated comprehensive entrepreneurship studies in their curricular (Nikolava, 2006). According to Buckwalter (1995) possibility of economic inequality in the region is possible because of various entrepreneurship activities in Bulgaria. Nikolaeva (2006), however, sees the practice as an adjustment of Bulgaria to the market and the Europe but at the same time a preservation of Bulgaria’s national identity. Impact of political, economic and academic factors on entrepreneurship in Bulgaria The abrupt yet peaceful political transition from Communist’s rule to coalition government rule, under a parliamentary democracy after independence, stimulated business law changes in Bulgaria (Buckwalter, 1995) and entrepreneurship emerged. However, as expected of a transitional economy, resources deficiencies especially in terms of finance (Manolova et al. 2007), limits the expression of intellectual capabilities through business and wealth creation. Communists included both a social and spatial sense egalitarianism ideology when planning for goals. Central economic planning entailed industrial spatial dispersion which however encountered prolonged inefficiencies that related to the administration and the infrastructure. Additionally, goal geared towards spatial dispersion conflicted with those of effective resources use and hence tampered with increased production (Buckwalter, 1995). As much as spatial inequality prevailed in the later decades of the Communism rule, Buckwalter (1995) suggests that the first two decades of the Communist rule experienced a proportionate regional equality when the 1952 index of per capita retail sales is an evidence to go by. The Communism rule however, led to the diminished primacy of Sophia, the largest Bulgarian city, while medium-sized cities received relative gains due to population shifts from Sophia. This is suspected to be as a result of government policies that imposed standard employment and income distribution based on relative egalitarian ideology. The economic activities were therefore dispersed and urbanization became rampant with that of Sophia declining to almost equalize with that of other cities. However in the final Communist era, regional inequality prevailed when capital fund distribution in cooperative enterprise and the states were unequally distributed and Sophia almost doubled the Rousse per capita investment. Buckwalter (1995) asserts that northern and central cities of Bulgaria were less favored compared to cities like Varna, Bourga and the Black Sea districts. Buckwalter (1995) assumes that these activities occurring in the Communists’ era alleviated the regional inequality in Eastern Europe but efforts to eliminate them resulted to an alteration of economic activities distribution and hence leading to regional equality. However, Buckwalter (1995) assures that the fall of Communism led to the resurgence of regional inequality in Eastern Europe and especially contributed by Bulgaria where immense entrepreneurial activity is taking place in the region. In the effort to bring about social and economic change in this transiting economy, universities are enforced with the responsibility of imparting intellectual capital to students, and transformation of the higher education models began in 1990 with institutional reforms (Georgieva, 1999). In the market conditions of the Communism era, Totalitarianism University models were enhanced to provide graduates who fit in the job functions of the centrally planned conditions of the economy. The totalitarian university institutions entailed limited specialization and rigid differentiation, focusing mainly on technology and engineering. Nikolaeva (2006) confirms that politicization of academic institutions isolated them from networking at international levels. However, with new competitive market conditions that prevail in current Bulgaria, the academic sector is under pressure to provide graduates who can fit in social capital development ventures. The current higher education models showcase complexities and are diversified to incorporate missions that reflect knowledge advancement through professional competencies provision in various disciplines. According to Nikaloeva, (2006) the quest for social and economic liberation led to an increased valuation of education among the Bulgarians and young industrious citizens were sent to Europe’s recognized institutions through funds raised voluntarily in the community. Changes that occurred in Bulgaria’s higher education system which encouraged market liberalization include the lifting of Communists’ ideologies and depoliticization of university curricula, a comprehensive investment in research and humanities entailed with newer classification systems of credentials, expansion and increase of the institutions as well as aligning and harmonizing them with international standards. Manolova et al. (2007) applies the expectancy theory to indicate the economic growth expectations of Bulgaria. Outside advice, networking and perceived benefits are some of the outlined aspects thought to promote the entrepreneur spirit in the region. Manolova et al. (2007) indicate that private businesses were legalized in Bulgaria in 1988 and the number of nascent entrepreneurs rose in the 1990s to about 5 percent of the adult population and therefore catching up with that of the developed nations. Entrepreneurship practiced by small to medium-sized private firms in Central Europe accounts for about 50 to 60 percent of the GDP just like in the industrialized western countries (Manolova et al. 006). Bulgaria has therefore a chance to benefit from entrepreneurship since it has been cited as the core instrument for job creation, wealth production and social change (Nikolaeva, 2006; Manolova et al. 2007; Georgieva, 1999). However, the growth and sustenance of Bulgaria’s intellect capital in enterprises depends on public policy aspects and managerial concerns. Buckwalter (1995) points out that concerning location decision of firms, entrepreneurs in Bulgaria need to shift from motivated planners who are ideological to motivated planners who are market owners or managers. Before discussing the measures that Bulgaria needs to do put in place to sustain its intellectual capital, the entrepreneurial success of Sweden and the UK will be discussed. Enterpreneual Success of Sweden (Nordic Region) Norm entrepreneurship in the Nordic region is a foreign policy that gives the small Nordic states power to involve in international politics (Bjorkdahl, 2007). Sweden and other countries in the Nordic region are recognized globally from entrepreneurship and are likely to be given a platform to comment on issues affecting the international politics arena, based on this. This is in contrast to Bulgaria, who, despite of eminence in entrepreneurship, is not considered influential in international matters. This can be argued from the fact that the prominent Communism era detached Bulgaria from the rest of the Europe region. Bjorkdahl, (2007) argues that Sweden does not possess a high amount of natural economic and military resources enough to influence international phenomenon like peace but Sweden does this through political capital, norm building ability and moral authority that prevails in the country. Government policies, state involvement and economic policies determine the entrepreneurial success of a country. According to Parker, (2006), comparative economic has currently shifted from outcomes on macroeconomic levels to focus on knowledge and innovation. Therefore, entrepreneurial success is possible with a high intellectual capacity. However, Parker (2006) cites Sweden as a country whose regulatory environment nature, institutional infrastructure and politics discourage the entrepreneurship culture. Sweden however is economically famous for possession of large firms. Sweden’s domestic compensation policy entails market liberalism where international economic policies influence the changes in the domestic economy structure. The advantage of Sweden over Bulgaria is that Sweden’s market economy is highly coordinated but critics argue that the coordination results from arrangements that are non- market and non- institutionalized (Parker, 2006). Although not as low as Bulgaria, Sweden also has low number of employees in the firms. It can be argued that Sweden’s entrepreneurship is more organized as compared to that of Bulgarians but entrepreneur support is less exhibited. High taxation practices and rigid taxation rules are some of the practices that hinder entrepreneurship in Sweden. Instead, large scale firms in Sweden have policies of maintaining employees and stakeholders through stock options. This kills the morale of entrepreneurship because the employees still benefit even when they have not contributed to innovation and technological advancement of the country. In Sweden and the Nordic region at large, the entrepreneur takes all the risk when starting a business, a factor that brings fear to hardworking entrepreneurs who feel that trends in the international economy may affect their firms negatively. When compared to an established entrepreneur culture like that of the Silicon Valley in the US, the venture capital that Sweden grants to the entrepreneurs is very limited. Moreover, university students in Sweden find entrepreneurial careers to be less lucrative and therefore get involved more on the white collar jobs, no wonder the large scale firms establishment. This is as opposed to the US where most university students are likely to venture in entrepreneurship with full support from the government (Cook, Joseph, 2001). Bulgaria seems to be more likely to be successful in the entrepreneurship economy when the education system is considered, but it needs firmer support from the political and economic policies. The Silicon state in the US therefore serves as a better example of how entrepreneurship is supported for individual development and wealth creation. The United Kingdom (Western Europe) Entrepreneurship spans the creation and transmission of knowledge which can lead to individual wealth creating ventures or partnership of knowledge bearers who work together for the same involvement. According to D’Este and Fontana (2007), several higher education institutes in the UK have started to incorporate and support entrepreneurship careers in their curricular. This is because entrepreneurship has been associated with increased and improved innovations and technology advancement, which are promoted when industries and universities collaborate. However, Thurik (2003) relates the high unemployment rates experienced in the UK to lack of entrepreneurship and inadequate industrial infrastructure and attributes the reduced employment rates in the period of 1980s to 1990s to entrepreneurship. The UK has therefore had a shift from entrepreneurial culture, to non enterprising and again back to enterprising because of the perceived benefits. Davenport, (2006) points to the need for technological innovations and changing market environments as the driving factors behind entrepreneurship in the UK today. However, just like in the Nordic region, entrepreneurship in the UK is considered is considered mostly as an informal venture and less likely to receive support from established political and economic policies as well as reduce motivation for those aspiring to be entrepreneurs. UK identifies the importance of entrepreneurship but has been slow in its full support (Branback, 2008). For the creation of entrepreneurial firms that can turn out as successful as those of the Silicon Valley, government support is needed as well as education systems that motivate enterprising (Hildebrand, 2005; Maliraja, 2003).

The Definition Of Stress Psychology Essay

The Definition Of Stress Psychology Essay Stress  is a term that is commonly used today but has become increasingly difficult to define. It shares, to some extent, common meanings in both the biological and psychological sciences. Stress is the bodys reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response. Stress can be defined in terms of all people responding in the same biological way to the same stimulus, or as dependent upon the persons response to the stressor. Any perception of a stress stimulus triggers the persons physiological and psychological responses to situations or events that disturb the equilibrium. Stress is any event that a human being perceives as harmful or threatening. The body reacts to stress with fight or flight response. Stress hormones like adrenalin, dopamine, cortisol, noradrenalin, and endorphins are released in the blood when one experiences stress. The term  stress  had none of its contemporary connotations before the 1920s. In the 1920s and 1930s, the term was occasionally being used in biological and psychological circles to refer to a mental strain, unwelcome happening, or, more medically, a harmful environmental agent that could cause illness. Walter Cannon  used it in 1926 to refer to external factors that disrupted what he called homeostasis. Homeostasis is a concept central to the idea of stress. Environmental factors, internal or external stimuli, continually disrupt homeostasis.  Factors causing an organisms condition to waver away from homeostasis can be interpreted as stress. A life-threatening situation such as a physical insult or prolonged starvation can greatly disrupt homeostasis. Psychologists have defined stress in a variety of ways. Contemporary definitions of stress regard the external environmental stress as a stressor, the response to the stressor of distress, and the concept of stress as something that involves biochemical, physiological, behavioural and psychological changes. While there is little consensus among psychologists about the exact definition of stress, it is agreed that stress results when demands placed on an organism cause unusual physical, psychological, or emotional responses. In humans, stress originates from a multitude of sources and causes a wide variety of responses, both positive and beneficial (Eustress) and negative and harmful (Distress). The most commonly used definition of stress was developed by Lazarus and Launier (1978), who regarded stress as a transaction between people and the environment and described stress in terms of person-environment fit. Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on ones mental  and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible. Both negative and positive stressors can lead to stress. The intensity and duration of stress changes depending on the circumstances and emotional condition of the person suffering from it (Arnold. E and Boggs. K. 2007). Humans may all be faced with the same stressor (stimulus) but the stress response that they show will depend on their individual differences or gender or culture. Stress is an extremely adaptive phenomenon in a person which contributes to his/her survival, activities, and performance.1 Physical and psychological stress can induce a number of immunological alterations in the cell mediated.2 Stressors may influence the immune system through their impact on neuroendocrine, autonomic and central nervous system.3 Psychological stress may influence the functions of the immune system both indirectly through hormonal changes, and directly through nervous regulation during brief but acute stressful periods.4 Exposure to psychological stressors can modulate the primary antibody response.5,6 (4) Some common categories and examples of stressors include: Life experiences such as poverty, unemployment, clinical depression. Obsessive compulsive disorder, heavy drinking,  or insufficient sleep  can also cause stress. Students and workers may face performance pressure stress from exams  and project deadlines. The medical student: Medical students are frequently individuals with a long-standing need for caring, a capacity to tolerate, being in a providing, dispensing, and nurturing relationship with other people. It is not uncommon for medical students to have chosen medicine after a death of a family member or close friend, sometimes with the quite conscious desire to learn how to fight wasteful death. The goal of medical education is to graduate knowledgeable, skilful and professional physicians. The medical school curriculum has been developed to accomplish these ambitions. Medical students are a highly self-selected group who arrive in medical school with a set of developed abilities, motives, adaptive styles, and values that must be taken into account if we are to understand the impact of their medical studies on them. Teams of sociologists have studied the ways medical students organize themselves to excel and to manage the vast amounts of information that they should learn. They consider success in medical school as the first step to a future of helping others and they are not about to jeopardize that. Medical students as a group are attracted to medicine partly because of their special sensitivity to and concern on three psychological issues: death, suffering, and care. Secondly, medical students are distinguished by a preference for certain adaptive techniques, styles, and defences-specifically by a propensity to counter, master, and overcome sources of anxiety, a tendency to react to stress and anxiety. (3) Stress and medical studies: There is extensive literature demonstrating that medical students begin medical school with mental health profiles similar to their non-medical peers. Since the healing profession is distinctively motivated to confront the issues of suffering, death and care, issues that most of their fellows anxiously avoid, through the course of medical school, they experience substantial deterioration in their mental quality of life, due to stress and anxiety. Medical students have to deal with stressors specific to medical school in addition to normal stressors of everyday life which explains this high prevalence of anxiety. (1) Medicine is a kind of training which is emotionally demanding and therefore medical education can be regarded as stressful. High levels of stress have been found in medical students in various studies. Amongst medical students, stress has been reported to be caused by academic pressure, perfectionist standards, increased psychological pressure, mental tension and too much work load. The demanding nature of medical practice requires involvement with the most personal or emotionally draining aspects of life (human suffering, death, sexuality and fear) and these are considered to be stressors. Stress during medical school can lead to problems later in professional life compromising patient care. (1) Studies suggest that medical students experience a high incidence of stress with potential adverse consequences on academic performance, competency, professionalism and health. Medical students experience substantial stress from the beginning of the training process. Students use various coping mechanisms to process stress that vary by year in training and source of stress. The specific coping strategies that students use may determine the effect of stress on psychological and physical health and may determine whether stress has a positive or negative influence. Strategies that centre on disengagement such as problem avoidance, wishful thinking, social withdrawal and self-criticism have negative consequences and correlate with depression, anxiety and poor mental health. In contrast, strategies that involve engagement such as problem solving, positive re-interpretation, reliance on social support and expression of emotion enable medical students to respond in a manner that leads to adaptation, which can reduce stress. Medical education has deleterious consequences. Trainees (students, interns, and residents) suffer high levels of stress, which lead to alcohol and drug abuse,  interpersonal relationship difficulties, depression and anxiety,  and even suicide.  Medical students have mean anxiety scores one standard deviation above those of non-patients. (12) Studies which have tried to identify the sources of stress among medical students generally concern three main areas : academic stress: enormous syllabus to be covered in a limited time, sudden change in their style of studying, flooding of medical science with new concepts, lack of proper guidance, thought of failing in exams, inadequate time allocated to clinical posting, insufficient bed side teaching, social stress : relationship with peer groups, hostel friends, senior teachers, displacement from home, expectations of parents, peer pressure, change in the medium of education, physical stress : inadequate hostel facilities, hostel food etc. (5) Anxiety is also associated with feeling of loneliness, peer competition, long hours and loss of social time. The majority of stressful incidents in traditional curricula are related to medical training rather than to personal problems. (7) Stress may not only impair the quality of life of medical students but can also influence patient care and the complex psychodynamics of the doctor- patient relationship. (5) Stress is receiving increased attention because of the realization that tired, tense, anxious doctors may not provide as high quality care as do those who do not suffer from these debilitating conditions. A medical career can be particularly stressful due to the combination of involvement with life and death and the high expectations of medicine and of doctors held by both the public and doctors themselves. Partly as a result of these pressures and the need to acquire a substantial body of knowledge and skills, medical students experience considerable anxiety at various stages in the curriculum (Arndt et al., 1986; Firth, 1986; Firth-Cozens, 1987; Kidson Hornblow, 1982; Moss McManus, 1992; Tooth et al., 1989). Such anxieties may result in, for example, reduced examination performance (Tooth et al., 1989), increased alcohol consumption (Firth, 1986) and attempted suicide (Warren Wakeford, 1990). (6) Some students may perceive factors such as nutrition, exercise routines, sleep patterns, social activities, having a child to care for, job responsibilities, finances as stressors that they need to overcome in order to achieve a higher academic standing. By themselves, these constraints may have no effect at all on a student, but when combined, a student could perceive them as stressful and these stress factors could have a dramatic effect on a students academic performance. Exam stress during medical studies: Medical students are repeatedly subjected to rigorous examinations in order to check their potential to be a doctor as they have to deal with human life every single day. They have chosen a career which demands not only responsibilities but also ethical and legal liability for others lives. The onus of this responsibility and sheer volume of syllabus places a medical student under tremendous stress prior to professional exams. This stress may manifest with varying magnitude of anxiety (Kidson and Hornblow, 1982) and decrease in psychological health (Aktekin et al, 2001). (13) To a student, the prospect of sitting for an examination could be identified as a stressor and the resulting emotional and physiological state could be described as an exam stress. (4) Many students experience anxiety before a test or exam; a little bit of nervousness can actually enhance performance. However, if stress levels rise to the point where they inhibit performance on the test, then this is considered exam stress. 92% of students said that they got worried during exam time; one fifth of students surveyed revealed that they had suffered anxiety attacks as a result of pre-exam stress. Furthermore, 61% of those questioned cited lack of sleep/insomnia as a result of stress, 51% said that they suffer from headaches or migraines and 47% admitted turning to the one of the worlds best comforts, food. (10) Here below are some of the symptoms of exam stress, which can vary widely in intensity. Some test-takers experience only mild anxiety, and still perform well, but others are left nearly unable to function, failing the test or even experiencing a panic attack. Physical symptoms of exam stress include tremors, sweating, dry mouth, nausea, rapid heartbeat and even fainting. Milder cases include symptoms of butterflies in the stomach, but severe cases can lead to physical illness which must be treated. Behavioural and cognitive symptoms include defiant avoidance of exam situations, or just a little fidgeting. In some cases, exam stress can become so severe that the student is forced to drop out of school entirely just to avoid testing. Many students attempt self-medication with alcohol or drugs; still others report blanking out completely, or experiencing difficulty concentrating, inability to control thoughts and a negative outlook, which are all common behavioural / cognitive symptoms of exam stress. Emotional symptoms of exam stress include low self-esteem, anger, depression and feelings of despair. The students taking the test often feel unable to do anything about their situation, so they may berate or belittle themselves about their performance and their feelings. Exam stress is reported to have a significant impact on the well-being of the student and is associated with changes in the mental and physical health such as increasing anxiety, increasing negative mood and changes in the functions of the immune system. (4) In other words, the exam is one of the stressful events associated with lowered immune system function.14 Academic examinations have often been used in stress research because they are predictable, standardized, and discrete examples of real-life stressors. It was demonstrated that this stress caused a significant neurohormonal change. A small but significant increase in their emotional distress is indicated by an increase in anxiety during the final examination. Glucocorticoids can downregulate the immune activity, but acute stresses were reported to increase the cortisol level.19 Results show that the exam stress can result in significant increase in the cortisol level. (4) According to a study conducted by Shamsdin, et.al. (2010) on thirty five university medical students, two blood samples were provided from each participant one month (first stage) and one hour (second stage) before the exam. The results show that stress has determining effects on the immune response. The exam stress can result a significant increase in the cortisol level. So, these changes may indicate the alterations of immunological status and presence of stress in an immunosuppressed individual, affecting his / her health. Under stressful conditions, the hypothalamus releases corticotrophins into the blood circulation and when it reaches the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, adrenocorticotrophic hormones are released into the blood circulation. When this reaches the adrenal gland, lucocorticoids are released which are chemicals that modulate or regulate the immune response. Since lymphocytes have receptors for glucocorticoids as well as other steroid hormones associated with r esponses to stress, the brain and immune system are sufficiently well connected to one to influence the other. Exam stress  involves a combination of physiological over-arousal, worry and dread about test performance, and often interferes with normal learning and lowers test performance. It is a physiological condition in which people experience extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during and/or before taking a test. Exam stress is prevalent amongst the student populations of the world, and has been studied formally since the early 1950s. During states of excitement or stress the body releases the hormone adrenaline. This hormone is responsible for preparing the body for danger, or the fight or flight response. Adrenaline is known to cause the physical symptoms one might experience that accompany exam stress such as increased heart rate, sweating, and rapid breathing.  [3]   Symptoms of exam stress can range from moderate to severe. Students who exhibit moderate symptoms are still able to perform relatively well on exams.  [5]  Other students with severe stress will often experience panic attacks. Student expectations are one major mental factor. For example, if a student believes that he or she will perform poorly on an exam, he/she is far more likely to become anxious before and during a test. (9) Exam stress is the emotional reaction that some students face before exams. The fear is not irrational, but excessive fear interferes with performance. Many researchers suggest that a little worry is good for students because it keeps them task oriented; however excessive worry on the other hand can be very debilitating and interferes with the results if not managed appropriately. (2) Exam stress is a set of responses that includes excessive worry, depression, nervousness and irrelevant thinking to a class of stimuli from an individuals experience of assessment / test and outcome. It is experienced by many students while undertaking any exam. There are four main areas of reported stresses which can contribute to exam stress including life style issues, lack of required information, studying style and psychological factors. (2) Life styles related issues include inadequate rest, insufficient physical activity, poor nutrition and lack of time management are found to be the contributing factors leading to exam stress as reported by many authors. Psychological factors which contribute significantly to exam stress are negative and irrational thinking about exams, outcomes of exams and feelings of no control over exam situation (e.g. going blank during exam) are reported by many authors. Students perception of extensive course load is also reported to cause exam stress in medical students. Examination system itself is a major stress factor for medical students. (2) In other words, the phrase exam is the same stimulus, but some medical students will be feeling very worked up about the exam, others will be more laid back. The internal and behavioural response will be different for each of them. Psychologists try to find out the factors affecting this interaction and stress management depends on the perceived interaction and response. Gender is likely to be an important factor in students anxiety. Women are reported to be more anxious than men, both overall and for most individual situations. (6) Anxiety levels increase in medical students just before exams, with female students found to be more anxious than males, shows a study undertaken by the Armed forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, India (Pahwa, et. al., 2008). (14) According to this study labelled A study of exam related anxiety amongst medical students pre-exam anxiety levels are seen to be higher in female than male population indicating greater increase in anxiety levels amongst females. This is in agreement with other studies that substantiate presence of sex differences in exam related anxiety, with female students having higher test anxiety than male students (Chapell et al 2005, Eller et al 2006). (13) Females are more likely to report concern and stress due to self expectation, a feeling of lack of competence and a tendency to over report symptoms. (1) Comparison of rankings between 1992 and 1995 Birmingham students shows that rankings were consistent over time for both genders, particularly for the higher ranked questions. More detailed analysis of the 1995 data shows that individual female students were more likely to have higher total scores than male students. (6) All stress factors were more common among female students with statistically significant differences in factors which included: studying all night before exams, feeling no control over exam situations, improper nutrition and lack of exercise. Personality and stress: Mental health professionals believe personality plays a significant role in how individuals perceive stress (Martin, 2011). Lazarus and Folkman (1984) define stress as a product of the relationship between the person and the environment. Stress occurs when a person appraises a stressful event as exceeding his / her coping abilities or threatening his / her well being. Personality can influence both health related and everyday behaviours and is also related to an individuals appraisal of a stressful experience (Booth-Kewley, 1994). Stress is not a simple, stimulus-response reaction; rather it is the interaction between an individual and the environment, involving subjective perception and assessment of stressors, thus constituting a highly personalised process. Specific inherited characteristics, early experience in life, and in particular, learned cognitive predispositions make individuals more or less susceptible to the effects of stressors. Resilience and vulnerability to stressors as well as intensity of stress response mainly depend on age, gender, intelligence, and many other characteristics of personality (19). (Psychiatrike. 2011. Stress and personality. Lecic-Tosevski D, Vukovic O, Stepanovic J. psychiatric Department, Belgrade University, School of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia.) Research has indicated that certain personality traits can make individuals more vulnerable to stress. There is a number of personality traits that could be described which measure human personality. A broad and comprehensive way of identifying the traits and structure of human personality is the Five Factor model (Digman, 1990). J.M. (1990). (Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model.Annual Review of Psychology  41: 417-440). Five Factor Model: This model has originated in a decades-long factor-analytic research tradition (13). Most researchers goal was to create a brief inventory that would allow efficient and flexible assessment of the five dimensions when there is no need for more differentiated measurement of individual facets. (6) Big Five has proven useful as a framework for organizing any findings on adult personality in areas such as behavioural genetics and industrial psychology. (6) The five factor model of personality is better understood as a lexical and factor analytic derived personality approach (Haslam, 2007). McCrae and Costa (1991) claim that this model provides a comprehensive taxonomy of personality traits. However this model has not always been regarded as noteworthy (McAdams, 1992). McCrae and Costa have conducted a lot of research on the model, including cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs (Cavanaugh Blanchard-Fields, 2006) and they argue that the model includes a large number of traits found in language and scientific theory. Thus, this model allows for a systematic approach to personality (12). The five factors model is more than a simple classification of basic personality traits. By the late 1980s, Costa and McCrae were convinced that they and other researchers had found a stable structure of personality. (11) In McCrae and Costas (1996, 1999, 2003) personality theory , behaviour is predicted by understanding the three central or core components and the three peripheral ones. The three central components include (1) basic tendencies, (2) characteristic adaptations, and (3) self-concept. (11) The five factors are labelled by McCrae and Costa (1992) as extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. These dimensions make up the personality traits of the five-factor model, which is often referred to as the Big Five (Goldberg, 1981). The first of the five factors is extraversion. Extraversion has a different importance in different measures. Sometimes it is based on assertiveness, sometimes on spontaneity and energy. Sometimes it is based on dominance, confidence, and agency (Depue Collins 1999), sometimes on a tendency toward happiness. Extraversion is often thought to be implying sociability (Ashton et al. 2002). Others see a sense of agency and a sense of sociability as two facets of extraversion (Depue Morrone- Strupinsky 2005). Finally, others argue sociability is a by-product of other features of extraversion (Lucas et al. 2000). A connection has also been made between extraversion and the approach temperament; thus, some now view extraversion as reflecting a relative sensitivity of a general approach system (DepueCollins 1999, Caspi Shiner 2006, Caspi et al. 2005, ElliottThrash 2002, Evans Rothbart 2007). People who score high on extraversion tend to be affectionate, jovial, talkative, joiners, and fun-loving. In contrast, low extraversion scorers are likely to be reserved, quiet, loners, passive, and unable to express strong emotion (11). The second factor, neuroticism, refers to the ease and frequency with which a person becomes upset and distressed. Moodiness, anxiety, and depression indicate higher neuroticism. Measures often include items or facets relevant to hostility and other negative feelings, but they are dominated by vulnerability to anxiety and general distress. Neuroticism has been associated with the avoidance temperament discussed above (Caspi Shiner 2006, Caspi et al. 2005, EvansRothbart 2007), suggesting that anxiety and sensitivity to threat is its emotional core. People who score high on neuroticism tend to be anxious, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable to stress related disorders. Those who score low on neuroticism are usually calm, even-tempered, self-satisfied, and unemotional. (11) The next factor is agreeableness. Agreeable people are friendly and helpful ( John Srivastava 1999), empathic (Graziano et al. 2007), and capable of inhibiting their negative feelings (Graziano Eisenberg 1999). Agreeable people become angry over others transgressions than do less agreeable people (Meier Robinson 2004), and this probably short-circuits aggression (Meier et al. 2006). At the opposite pole is an oppositional or antagonistic quality. People who are low in agreeableness display their power to deal with social conflict (Graziano et al. 1996). Agreeableness as a dimension is often characterized as being broadly concerned with maintaining relationships (Jensen- Campbell Graziano 2001). People who score high on agreeableness tend to be trusting, generous, yielding, acceptant, and good-natured. Those who score low are generally suspicious, stingy, unfriendly, irritable, and critical of other people (11). The most commonly used label for the next factor is conscientiousness, although this label does not fully represent the qualities of planning, persistence, and purposeful trying to achieve goals that are part of it (Digman Inouye 1986). Other suggested names include constraint and responsibility, reflecting qualities of impulse control and reliability. Specific qualities included in this trait vary considerably across measures (Roberts et al. 2005). Individuals who score high on conscientiousness are hardworking, conscientious, punctual, and persevering. In contrast, people who score low on conscientiousness tend to be disorganized, negligent, lazy, and aimless and are likely to give up when a project becomes too difficult (11). Agreeableness and conscientiousness share an important property. Both suggest breadth of perspective. Many manifestations of conscientiousness imply taking future contingencies into account. Agreeableness implies a broad social perspective: taking the needs of others into account. It has been suggested that both of these traits have their origins in the effortful control temperament (Ahadi Rothbart 1994, Caspi Shiner 2006, Jensen-Campbell et al. 2002). The fifth factor, most often called openness to experience (Costa McCrae 1985), is the one about which there is most disagreement as far as content is concerned. Some measures (and theories) enrich this factor with greater overtones of intelligence, terming it intellect (Peabody Goldberg 1989). The fifth factor involves curiosity, flexibility, imaginativeness, and willingness to immerse oneself in atypical experiences (McCrae 1996). People who consistently seek out different and varied experiences would score high on openness to experience. They are creative, imaginative, curious, liberal and have a preference for variety. Those who score low on openness tend to support traditional values and to preserve a fixed style of living and they are typically conventional, down-to-earth, conservative, and not at all curious. (13) Big Five and Medical students: Most of the research on the Big Five is based on self and peer ratings, typically made by college students. (6) Conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness have been shown to be related significantly to academic performance (Poropat, 2009). (15) Neuroticism, in contrast, has a negative significant relationship with academic performance. The relation between educational operation and neuroticism, particularly with regard to anxiety in stressful situations such as university examinations has been clarified 14 (18). It is often claimed that, besides cognitive abilities, a mixture of personality characteristics is necessary for people to be successful in medical studies and eventually in the medical profession. However, there is debate as to which personality traits are typical of students in medical studies as compared to students in other academic fields 1-3. (5) A study conducted by Nauert (2009) which was labelled Personality profile of medical students studied more than 600 Belgian students over their seven years of medical studies to determine what impact their personality had on their performance. The researchers employed a commonly used test to measure the Big Five personality traits. Although the study was conducted in Belgium, the personality factors and the modern medical practices are similar around the world so personality should consistently relate to valued outcomes in medical education. Personality traits can reveal a lot about how students perform during the different demands and emphases of a students medical studies. For example, trait conscientiousness was a good predictor of learning success throughout the medical studies of the students. The researchers speculated that extraverted students are more likely to spend less time on studying than on their social relationships during the first years of medical school, which could hinder their academic performance and result in lower grades, whereas students who scored well in persistence and conscientiousness experienced success in their studies (Grohol, 2009). Big Five and Stress: Personality has been linked to the probability of experiencing stressful situations (Bolger Zuckerman, 1995) and to the evaluation of an event as stressful (Guthert, Cohen Armeli, 1999). Stress plays a role in personality/psychopathology associations (Klein, Wonderlich, Shea, 1993). Stressful reactions act as a medi

Oscar Niemeyer Design Philosophy

Oscar Niemeyer Design Philosophy Being born as the son of Brazils Federal Prime Minister, Oscar Niemeyer was living in a Portuguese colonial style house with beautiful tropical setting: a wide carriageway, neatly lined with tropical trees, that curves along the broad seawall looking out to the dome of Pao de Acuacar guarding the bays mouth; lawn designed as formal gardens Niemeyer obsessed over the landscape of his motherland Brazil. No matter how different his house designs vary through time, the element of landscape is always strong and evident. This essay focused on Niemeyers house designs. Being an icon of modern architecture, Niemeyer pushed the limit of reinforced concrete and revealed the expressive charm of this artificial material. The contemporary architecture was monotony. Niemeyer wanted to challenge it. Niemeyer is well-known mainly because of his design for some of the most dominant governmental buildings in Brasilia, Brazil. As one of the early pioneers of modern architecture, Niemeyer opened up a unique approach to contemporary architecture using bold free-form curves in design. Some of his house projects were equally powerful in terms of his dramatic application of free-form. But other projects indicate more thoughts in Brazils colonial background and his own formal exploration throughout his career. Niemeyer did a series of house projects with a huge time span from 1936 until now. Among the dozens of house projects, there are extremely luxury houses he designed for wealthiest Brazilians, there area also some house he designed for middle-class friends and family. Niemeyer also designed four houses for himself. One house, Casa das Canoas, was his most published and well-known work. Four houses designed in year 1942, 1949, 1953 and 1960 had varies characters and different concepts. As Niemeyers other house design sometimes have to fulfill his clients requirements, his own house designs seems to be trademarks of his career, evolving through different phases. The first house he designed for himself is located on a sloping site in Lagoa, Rio de Janeiro. Graduated from National Fine Arts School in 1934, Niemeyer was deeply influenced by Le Corbusiers visit to Brazil in 1929. He joined Costas office in 1935, and from 1936-1942, he was working mainly on the Ministry of Education and health Building, on which, Le Corbusier was invited as project consultant. During this period, influence from the modern master was obvious and they got clearly reflected in Niemeyers first house. The three story house was zoned with clear rationality. The main living room and bedrooms are clearly separated from the service area. A set of scissors ramp is just identical as the one appeared in Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye in terms of its function as the only connection between different floors. The rectilinear upper floors sit on columns on the ground floor, with curvilinear walls direct the flow from entrance to garage and later towards the ramp. Horizontal openings on the facade give a clear indication of free elevation. However, the house is not a simple duplication of Le Corbusiers work. Niemeyer started to explore forms and material in the context of Rio, which is a humid tropical Brazilian city. A single direction slanted rooftop deals with the massive rain water during the monsoon season. A veranda on the second floor fully opens to the lake view. The material he used for the elevation is also unique. Different from his later larger public buildings which mainly deals with reinforced concrete, brick and wood was applied as elevation infill. On the top floor, the wall is composed with wood trims originally painted in blue. Wooden louvered panels were added to cover the veranda. Wood was also widely used as the material for interior finishes as well. The symbol of house as a machine, ramp, in Villa Savoye was no longer represented in cold metal frames and concrete finish. It was covered in wooden panels on the side and a wooden frame. On the ground floor, bushes were planted from the irregular sit e boundary towards the hose edge, defined by a hard pavement following the outline of the elevated second floor. In this project, although marks from Le Corbusier are clear through the use of free plan and clear zoning in a house project. Niemeyers awareness of context and site was already obvious. This prototype of dwelling on top of the landscape evolved and became one of the most frequently used prototypes in his later house designs. In 1949, Niemeyer designed another house in Mendes, RJ. The house was built and later demolished. The house has a very dominant feature which was the slanting screens shelter the porches for living room and bedrooms. Different from his first house for himself, this house was located on a flat piece of land with the trees surrounding it and a stream runs in front of it. The setting is purely natural, not urban. The difference in the context led to a very different design solution. The single floor house is organized in a rectilinear order with all the rooms facing the screen and indoor garden in between. Here, a hint can be found between his modernist approach and traditional colonial architecture. The old colonial porch was transformed into a screened indoor garden, blending the artificial indoor and purer nature outside. This became a prototype which the landscape and the artificial indoor environment was articulated on the same level through a buffer garden. In 1953, Niemeyer designed his most published house, Casa das Canoas. The design was open to the world and shocked the audience with its curvilinear roof. Just before the CIAM meet for the first time in Brazil in 1954, the house was finished. Niemeyer faced some of the most dominant figure in modern architecture with their critics on the house. Walter Gropius and Mies van de Rohe were both attracted to its beauty but pointed out the uniqueness of its geometry became he limit that it can not be multipliable. Faithful to his ideology of mixed ancestry and Antropofagist hybridization, Niemeyer proceeded to infect the classical pavilion with the organic, spontaneous architecture of the morros, mixing Western achievements in the field of domestic architecture with tropical exuberance and lessons from Brazils colonial past and popular present. Case das Canoas is one example of Niemeyers treatment of continuity between the interior and exterior. Curve and landscape became the media that he utilized to achieve it. With the irregular curvilinear roof lines, the nature surrounding the house became closer and farther, varies according to the geometry. A large piece of rock placed right at the edge of the glass wall, penetrating the transparent faà §ade and made it even less dominant. The warm wood finish of the interior partition wall conter-balance the rigidity brought by the steel frame of the glass faà §ade. The white ceiling and black floor becomes the frame of the this transition between na ture and artificial. The exploration of the form continued and became more vigorous when he designed an unbuilt house in Tel Aviv, Edmond de Rothschild House. This time with the desert becomes the setting, the free-form geometry was reverted from edge of the house to its inside. A free-form garden is enclosed by a rectilinear volume. Just at the time when Niemeyers free-form house design became a signature image. In 1960, he designed his house in Brasilia in a totally traditional colonial style. It creates a very strong contrast between the ideology of Brazils independence and its colonial historic roots. On the one hand, with the huge governmental projects, Niemeyer was creating the most powerful formal language, trying to declare to the world that Brasilia represents Brazils new future. On the other hand, he showed his respect very thoroughly to the colonial style, honest and modest. The houses feature a covered porch with red-tiled gable roof, whitewhased walls and regularly spaced windows. More houses will be discussed following the category of the four houses Niemeyer designed for himself. These houses includes: Edmundo Cavanelas House Allvorada Palace Carmen Baldo House Burton Tremaine House Weekend house for Juscelino Kubitschek Cavalcanti house Overlaid with the complexities of Brazils history and stratified society, these scenes evoke contradictions that Niemeyers designs have always balanced: natural shapes created by artificial technology, structural logic and ecstatic emotions, simple forms and complex purposes. Niemeyers house design showed his critical thinking and evolving career, just as strong as his public buildings. His public building may be restricted to their formal strength as a responsibility to speak for the nation. However, in his house design, there are clear trademarks of his weighing of traditional vernacular concept and modern formal exploration. Curves in Niemeyers house projects are more utilized as a mean to explore the relationship between nature and artificial, building and landscape, indoor and outdoor etc.