The Ecology Of A Rain Forest Essays - Biology, Ecology, Symbiosis

The Ecology of a Rain Forest In 1980, the estimated amount of rain forests in the world was 40,000 square miles. This number decreases each year by roughly 1,000 square miles due to construction and the resources being used for profit. It is too bad, because the rain forest is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is the most diverse, containing the most species of living things, much more than anywhere else, and most have yet to be identified. All rain forests are located on earth's "green belt", that is, the area roughly around the equator that covers all the area from Mexico and the northern area of South America, to Africa, to India, stretching out to Indonesia, the northern tip of Australia and all the way to New Guinea. This area is heavily covered with flora and fauna, and it abounds with life. In a rain forest, it is very wet and it rains everyday or every other day very heavily. There is a high and steady level of heat and moisture. There are some general layers to the rain forest. It starts 135 feet up in the air, with the lofty crowns of the tallest trees in the jungle. They take the most light, heat, rain and the most punishment from the winds. Woodpeckers hunt insects in this layer, and also the black and white Colobus monkey can be found here, ready to launch into the air, using his specially developed tail as a rudder to guide his flight. Beneath this is the second layer of trees, whose crowns form a forest canopy. Rain filters through this canopy, and the top sides of the crowns hold a large amount of ferns and other small plants whose roots never touch soil. They live off the water and nutrients held in the small pockets of the leaves and branches. Tree frogs and chimpanzees live here, burrowing holes to live in the vast vegetation. The third layer is called the "understory". This grows beneath the canopy. The gorilla makes this his regular hangout, also pythons lie here waiting for prey. The dim forest floor teems with life. Termites and ants feed on all the decomposing matter on the ground, and elephants make their way down a path of moss. Butterflies move silently by, and the air is still and very humid. These are the layers that make up the rain forest's complex ecology. In the rest of the essay I will describe some of the life forms found in the rain forest, and ways they affect the environment. In the rain forest, plants develop poisonous alkaloids to protect against insects, and insects develop complex digestive chemistry to overcome these poisons. Some of these plant alkaloids give native Indians great poisons for darts, and to cancer researchers hope for a new medicine. The rain forest root systems are so efficient that almost all of the nutrients in decaying plants are recycled into new ones. Most roots are found within three inches of the surface in heavy clay or at the surface in sandy soils. Tiny rootlets grow up and attach themselves to leaves. When the leaf decays, minuscule fungi on the rootlets take over and send threadlike projections into the leaf which absorbs all of the leaf's nutrient material. The phosphorous that the fungi produces is taken by the root, and in turn gives the fungus sugars from the tree. Al! so, termites and ants break down the forest litter. ALAM In a small lake in the middle of the rain forest, a small lizard skims across the water away from dangerous prey and attacks its own victim by surprise, yet another marvel of the tropical rain forest. Mutualism occurs in the jungle with a specialized ant and a swollen-thorn acacia. The acacia provides budlike leaflet tips which are called Beltian bodies, which the ants give to their young for food. The insects hollow out the tree's thorns when soft and green and raise their young inside. The acacia doesn't have chemical defenses to repel dangerous and damaging insects and demands pure sunlight for proper growth. The ants patrol the tree day and night. If any insect lands on the tree,

Essay Sample on Software and Copyrights

Essay Sample on Software and Copyrights Sample essay on Software and Copyrights: Current copyright and patent laws are  inappropriate for computer software; their imposition slows down software development and reduces competition. From the first computer as we know them, the ENIAC, computer software has become more and more important. From thousands of bytes on miles of paper to millions of bytes on a thin piece of tin  foils and witched between two pieces of plastic, software has played an important part in the world. Computers have most likely played an important role in all our lives, from making math easier with calculators, to having money on the go with ATM machines. However, with all the help that has been given to us, we havent done anything for software and the people who write it. Software by nature is completely defenseless, as it is more or less simply intellectual property, and not a physical thing, thus very easily copied. Copied software does not make money for its creators, and thus they charge more for whats not copied, and the whole industry inflates. There are two categories of intellectual property. The first one is composed of writing, music, and  films, which are covered by copyright. Inventions and innovations are covered by patent. These two categories have covered for years many kinds of work with little or no conflict. Unfortunately, it is not that easy when dealing with such a complex matter as computer software. When something is typed on a computer, it is considered writting, as it is all written words and numbers. However, when executed by the computer, it functions like an invention, performing a specific task as instructed by the user. Thus, software falls into both categories (Del Guercio 22-24). It is generally covered today by copyright laws, for most mass market software at least. More advanced software or programming techniques, however, can be patented, as they are neither obvious nor old. This results in many problems which I will go into later. Copyrights last the lifetime of the author, plus 50 years, and can be renewed. Patents last only 17 years, but cannot be renewed. With technology advancing so quickly, it is not necessary to maintain the protection of the software for the length of the copyright, but also, it is sometimes necessary to renew them (Del Guercio 22-24), say, for a 10th sequel in a video game series or version 47.1 of Bobs Graphic Program. With copyrighted material, one is able to write software similiar to someone elses, so long as the programming code is their own, and not borrowed from the others (Del Guercio 22-24). This keeps the industry competitive, and thus results in better software (because everyone is greedy, and they dont want to fall behind). With patents no one is allowed to create software that performs a similar functions. Take AutoCAD and TrueSpace 2, two 3D modeling programs. TrueSpace 2 would be a violation of patent laws, as it performs a very close task to AutoCADs, which came first. Luckily for us, CAD programs are not new, they have been around for more than 10 years, and no one thought to patent them. Thus, you can see the need for change in the system. The current laws regarding the protection of intellectual material cannot adequately protect software, they are either too weak or too strict. We need a new category of protection. The perfect protection law would most likely last for 10 years, renewable. This is long enough to protect a program for as long as it is still useful, and allows for sequels and new versions just in case. It would also have to allow for others to make similar software, keeping the industry competitive, but it would have to not allow copying of portions of other software (because you cant quote something from someone elses software like you can with a book). However, there are many who dispute this, and I can see their point. Current copyright laws have and will protect software effectively, it can be just as protected as other mediums (Cosgrove). This is true sometimes, however, to copy a book would take time. You would have to type up each page to make a copy of it, or at least photocopy or scan each page, and it would most likely take up much more time than its worth. To copy a computer program however, takes seconds. Changing the law would take time and money, you might be saying. It would be a tremendous hassle in Congress to have a new law written just to cover that Information Superhighway thingy. Yes, thats true too, but to not change the laws will cost more. With the ability to patent new and non-obvious software functions comes serious problems. The latest new technology, be it ray-tracing 3D engines, anti-aliasing software, or a new internet exploring fad can be patented. This would mean that only one company and its software could use it. Any other companies that wanted to use the software would have to pay them a large sum of money for the rights. Also, since patent hearings are conducted over a period of 3 years, and in secrecy, company a might create a software package and then apply for a patent, and company b may create better software during that period, and might become quite successful, and then bam, the patent is given to the company a, who prompty sues the pants off company b. T his stagnates the computer industry; it used to be that company a would retaliate by making better software (Del Guercio 22-24). For example, Lotus software. They used to make data organization software. Up until I did this report, I thought they had gone out of business, because I hadnt heard about anything new being done by them. Well, while I was researching, I found the appalling truth. When patenting of software became acceptable in the early 90s, they closed up their RD departments and called in a bunch of lawyers to get them patents on all their programming techniques (Del Guercio 22-24). Ever since then, theyve been selling out the rights as their primarily (and Im willing to bet, only) business. This could even be taken to the extremes of actually patenting simple methods of handling data, such as say, mouse support. Now, it cant happen to mouse support as it is today, but in the future, something  undoubtedly will replace the mouse as the preferred method of input, for instance, in what may be a virtual reality future, the glove might be the input device. Anyway, say it did happen to mouse support. Every single program that uses mouse support would have to pay a fee for the rights to do so. This would result in higher software prices (arent they high enough?), and reduced quality in the programs, as they have to worry about the legalities more (Del Guercio 22-24). Needless to say, the patenting of software is not a widely loved policy, mostly embraced by large corporations like Lotus and Microsoft (Tysver Software Patents). Smaller companies and most often consumers are generally against it. Even with all the legal problems Ive mentioned that arise with current laws, thats not all. The complexity of software protection laws brings up a large degree of confusion. I myself thought that copyrights lasted 7 years until I read this. I asked 15 people in a chat room on the Internet what they knew about software protection laws, and only one of them knew that software could be patented. 12 of them thought that it cost lots of money for a copyright, which it doesnt. Its $20 for a copyright at most, and $10000 at most for a patent. 5 of them thought that software copyrights lasted 7 years (hey, its a popular misconception, I thought so myself at one point). And last but not least, 10 of them believed that there was no laws regarding the copying of software (there are, but theyre virtually ineffective). Now that you know all about the legal and business aspects of software protection, lets take a look at how it can affect you. Say youve got a web page, and youve got a link on your web page to your friend Bobs web page, and hes got a link on his page to JoeS LeeT PiRaCY aND WaReZ, and on that site, there is a link to a pirated copy of AutoCAD. Then Joe gets busted. Joe will almost certainly be in trouble, Bob will likely be either questioned or considered responsible, depending on the blatancy of the link, and YOU will likely be questioned and your page might be monitored for a time (Bilodeau). One such example is my web page. I had a link from my page (the Wierd Wide Web) to Archaic Ruins, which is a site regarding information on emulators of old video game systems. When the operator of Archiac Ruins got sued by a video game company (I think it was Konami), I too got questioned, and had my page had ANY questionable material on it, I would have been sued. Thankfully, I was too lazy t o work on the page, as I had planned to put up a page that had really old videogames. Who said procrastination was bad? How can you prosecute someone for a crime that is undefined? Thats a question many people are asking. What is a copy of software? Is it a physical clone of the media it came on? Or is it the code duplicated to someplace else? If so, where else? Currently, software copying is generally considered a copy of the code someplace else but thats a problem. We all know that a backup of software is a copy, but did you know that even running the software creates a copy of it? Yes, it does. When you load a program, it goes into your computers memory, and is legally considered a copy. While the copy does not stay indefinitely, it does stay long enough to perform a certain task, and can and has been looked upon as a form of software piracy, as stupid as that sounds. (Tysver Software Patents) BBS (Bulletin Board Systems, small online services run by normal people) Sysops (system operators) are legally considered responsible for all the files that are available on their system (Elkin-Koren). While at first this seems like an obvious thing, after all, it is their computer, they should know whats on it. However, if you had ever run a BBS before, which I do, youd know that its hard, if not impossible to know whats on your computer. Planet-X, my friend John Morses BBS, which I co-run, has 50 calls a day. Of those 50 calls, about 35 of them upload or download software. Neither one of us is constantly monitoring the system, nor is there a way to make the computer automatically check to see what happens. Thus, about half of the public files on the BBS we dont know about. Lets take a look at an example of BBSs and copyright, and how they oh-so-beautifully coincide. Sega Ltd., maker of the Sega Genesis and Sega Gamegear, recently sued the Maphia BBS for making Sega Genesis ROMs publically available in a download section. This section was a type of digital rental as it is commonly known in the BBS community. Commercial software publically available for download, on an on-your-honor system, you had to delete the files after a short period of time (24-48 hours). Unfortunately for the Maphia BBS, they did not have a disclaimer, stating that the files must be deleted after a trial period, and thus, Sega was able to sue them for it, as without the disclaimer, there was no proof that they had used the digital rental system, and thus it was not fair use, as it could be used for monetary gain by the downloader (not having to buy the game). Of course, it could be used for that purpose WITH the disclaimer, but the disclaimer does just that, disclaims the BBS operator of the responsibilities of that copy of software (Elkin-Koren). Another such case was the case between Playboy (I think we all know who that is), and the Frena BBS. The public file areas on the Frena BBS frequently contained image files, and more often than not, they were adult image files. Well, I dont know exactly how it happened, but Playboy somehow found out that this BBS had some scanned photos from a Playboy magazine, and because they have the copyright to all their photos, they w ere able to sue the operator of the Frena BBS. The operator had no idea that there were any Playboy images on his system (Elkin-Koren). Speaking of image files, they too can be a problem with software protection. Say youve got an image file that someone had copyrighted. You load it up in a photo-retouching program, and add a big old goat in the background and paint the sky red. Then you remove the artists file name. Viola, the picture is now semi-legally copyrighted to you, as it has been significantly changed from its original, although I wouldnt recommend going to court over it (Grant 12). All you have to do is change a very large portion of the image files coding. Technically, darkening or blurring the image, changing the file format, or interlacing the file changes the file entirely, and thus, its yours. Sounds too easy? It is. Copyrights and patents are designed to help the media it protects. But in the case of technology, its actually hindering it. CD-ROMs contain a lot of information, and are the perfect media for music. A lesser known media, the Digital Video Disc, or DVD, is much more versitile, containing 26 times the storage compacity of a CD-ROM, and 11500 times more than a standard floppy disk, or about 17 gigabytes (the largest hard drives are 9 gigs). However, DVDs are not available to the public. Why? Because of the ease of copying them. Weve all dubbed tapes, its easy to do. However, we often opt for higher quality originals, because there is always a bit of degradation in the copies (although its very small now). With DVDs, a copy is exactly that, a copy. No degradation, no reason to buy an original. All the big companies are really scared by this technology, because it will take another five bucks out of their pockets. DVDs would be one of the greatest advancements in the short history of computers, but because of the shadier uses it could be used for, well never see it. I like to compare it to the Internet, its very useful, but it can be used for illegal purposes. You be the judge (Ross 134-140). Luckily, we may yet someday see DVDs, because several companies are developing copy protection schemes for them, to stop the casual home hacker/copier. Macrovision, for instance, is producing hardware for the DVD player that will make them incompatible with VCRs (the easiest dubbing-to platform, the equivilant of CD to audio tape). It will send output through the audio/video out ports that when played on a TV, will appear normal, but when played through a VCR, will have color stripes running sideways across the screen. This is due to the differences between the ways the two work (Ross 134-140). So as you can see, current methods of protecting software are a hinderance on the software industry. The problems outweigh the benefits, but with a new law, the industry would be able to keep the benefits and minimize any drawbacks. Instead of having to nitpick over who wrote something that did something similar, it would be back to who wrote something more powerful than the other guy, and thats what makes the industry great, competition. Oh, and Id like to add that I broke copyright law a total of 13 times in the making of this report, when I made a copy of each reference with the school copying machine (James 16), although it was fair use, so Im not in any trouble (Ruth). You can order a custom essay, term paper, research paper, thesis or dissertation on Software and Copyrights topics at our professional custom essay writing service which provides students with custom papers written by highly qualified academic writers. High quality and no plagiarism guarantee! Get professional essay writing help at an affordable cost.

The Role of Reading Fluency Tables in Comprehension

The Role of Reading Fluency Tables in Comprehension Listening to a student read, even for a minute, can be one of the ways a teacher determines a students ability to comprehend text through fluency. Improving reading fluency has been identified by the National Reading Panel as one of the five critical components of reading. A student’s oral reading fluency score is measured by the number of words in a  text that a student reads correctly in a minute. Measuring a students fluency is easy. The teacher listens to a student read independently for one minute in order to hear how well a  student reads accurately, quickly, and with expression (prosody). When a student can read aloud with these three qualities, the student is demonstrating to the listener a level of fluency, that there is a bridge or connection between his or her ability to recognize words and the ability  to comprehend  the text: â€Å"Fluency is defined as reasonably accurate reading with suitable expression that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read† (Hasbrouck and Glaser, 2012). In other words, a student who is a fluent reader  can focus on what the text means because he or she does not have to concentrate on decoding the words. A fluent reader can monitor and adjust his or her reading and notice when comprehension breaks down.   Fluency Testing A fluency test is simple to administer. All you need is a selection of text and a stopwatch.   An initial test for fluency is a screening where passages are selected from a text at the students grade level that the student has not pre-read, called a cold read.  If the student is not reading at grade level, then the instructor should select passages at a lower level in order to diagnose weaknesses.   The student is asked to read aloud for one minute. As the student reads, the teacher notes errors in reading. A student’s fluency level can be calculated following these three steps: The instructor determines how many words the reader actually attempted during the 1-minute reading sample. Total # of words read ____.Next, the instructor counts up the number of errors made by the reader. Total # of errors ___.The instructor deducts the number of errors from the total words attempted, the examiner arrives at the number of correctly read words per minute (WCPM). Fluency formula: Total # of words read __- (subtract) errors______words (WCPM) read correctly For example, if the student read 52 words and had 8 errors in one minute, the student had 44 WCPM. By deducting the errors (8) from total words attempted (52), the score for the student would be 44 correct words in one minute. This 44 WCPM number serves as an estimate of reading fluency, combining the students speed and accuracy in reading. All educators should be aware that an oral reading fluency score is not the same measure as a student’s reading level. To determine what that fluency score means in relation to grade level, teachers should use a grade level fluency score chart. Fluency data charts   There are a number of reading fluency charts such as the one developed from the research of Albert Josiah Harris and Edward R. Sipay  (1990) which set fluency rates that were organized by grade level bands with words per minute scores. For example, the table shows the recommendations for fluency bands for three different grade levels: grade 1, grade 5, and grade 8.   Harris and Sipay Fluency Chart Grade Words per minute Band Grade 1 60-90 WPM Grade 5 170-195 WPM Grade 8 235-270 WPM Harris and  Sipays  research guided them to make recommendations in their book  How to Increase Reading Ability: A Guide to Developmental Remedial Methods  as to the general speed for reading a text  such as a book from the  Magic Tree House Series  (Osborne). For example, a book from this series is leveled at M (grade 3) with 6000 words.   A student who could read 100 WCPM fluently could finish  A Magic Tree House  book in one hour while a student who could read at 200 WCPM fluently could complete reading the book in 30 minutes. The fluency chart most referenced today was developed by researchers Jan Hasbrouck and Gerald Tindal in 2006. They wrote about their findings in the International Reading Association Journal in the article â€Å"Oral Reading Fluency Norms: A Valuable Assessment Tool for Reading Teachers.† The major point in their article was on the connection between fluency and comprehension: â€Å"Fluency measures such as words correct per minute has been shown, in both theoretical and empirical research, to serve as an accurate and powerful indicator of overall reading competence, especially in its strong correlation with comprehension. In coming to this conclusion, Hasbrouck and Tindal completed an extensive study of oral reading fluency using data obtained from over 3,500 students in 15 schools in seven cities located in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New York.† According to Hasbrouck and Tindal, the review of student data  allowed them to organize the results in average performance and percentile bands for fall, winter, and spring for grades 1 through grade 8. The scores on the chart are considered  normative  data scores because of the large sampling.   The results of their study were published in a technical report entitled, â€Å"Oral Reading Fluency: 90 Years of Measurement,† which is available on the  website for Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon. Contained in this study are their grade level fluency score tables  designed  to help instructors to assess the oral reading fluency of their students relative to their peers. How to read a fluency table Only three-grade level data selections from their research are in a table below. The table below shows fluency scores for grade 1 when students are first tested on fluency, for grade 5 as a midpoint fluency measure, and for grade 8 after students have been practicing fluency for years. Grade Percentile Fall WCPM* Winter WCPM* Spring WCPM* Avg Weekly Improvement* First 90 - 81 111 1.9 First 50 - 23 53 1.9 First 10 - 6 15 .6 Fifth 90 110 127 139 0.9 Fifth 50 110 127 139 0.9 Fifth 10 61 74 83 0.7 Eighth 90 185 199 199 0.4 Eighth 50 133 151 151 0.6 Eighth 10 77 97 97 0.6 *WCPMwords correct per minute The first column of the table shows the grade level. The second column of the table shows the percentile.  Teachers should remember that in fluency testing, percentile is different from  percentage. The percentile on this table is a measurement is based on a grade level peer group of 100 students. Therefore, a 90th percentile does not mean the student answered 90% of the questions correctly; a fluency score is not like a grade. Instead, a 90th percentile  score for a student means that there are nine (9) grade level peers who have performed better.   Another way to look at the rating is to understand that a student who is in the 90th percentile performs better than 89th percentile of his grade level peers or that the student is in the top 10% of his peer group. Similarly, a student in the 50th percentile means the student performs better than 50 of his or her peers with 49% of his or her peers performing higher, while a student performing at the low 10th percentile for fluency has still performed better than 9 of his or her grade level peers. An average fluency score is between 25th percentile to 75th percentile Therefore, a student with a   fluency score of 50th percentile is perfectly average, squarely in the middle of the average band. The third, fourth, and fifth columns on the chart indicate into which percentile a students score is rated at different times of the school year. These scores are based on normative data. The last column, average weekly improvement, shows the average words per week growth that student should  develop to stay on grade level. The average weekly improvement can be calculated by subtracting the fall score from the spring score and dividing the difference by 32 or the number of weeks between the fall and spring assessments. In grade 1, there is no fall assessment, and so the average weekly improvement is calculated by subtracting the winter score from the spring score and then dividing the difference by 16 which is the number of weeks between the winter and spring assessments. Using the fluency data   Hasbrouck and Tindal   recommended that: â€Å"Students scoring 10 or more words below the 50th percentile using the average score of two unpracticed readings from grade-level materials need a fluency-building program. Teachers can also use the table to set long-term fluency goals for struggling readers.† For example, a beginning fifth grade student with a reading rate of 145 WCPM should be assessed using fifth grade level texts. However, a beginning grade 5 student with a reading rate of 55 WCPM will need to be assessed with materials from grade 3 in order to determine what additional instructional support would be needed to increase his or her reading rate. Instructors should use progress monitoring with any student who may be reading six to 12 months below grade level every two to three weeks to determine if additional instruction is needed. For students who are reading more than one year below grade level, this kind of progress monitoring should be done frequently. If the student is receiving intervention services through special education or English Learner support, continued monitoring will provide the teacher the information on whether the intervention is working or not.   Practicing fluency For progress monitoring on fluency, passages are selected at a students individually determined goal level. For example, if the instructional level of a 7th grade student is at the 3rd grade level, the teacher may conduct the progress monitoring assessments by using passages at the 4th grade level. To provide students the opportunity to practice, fluency instruction should be with a text that a student can read at an independent level.   Independent reading level is one of three reading levels described below: Independent level is relatively easy for the student to read with 95% word accuracy.Instructional level is challenging but manageable for the reader with 90% word accuracy.Frustration level means the text is too difficult for the student to read which results in less than 90% word accuracy. Students will better practice on speed and expression by reading at an independent level text. Instructional or frustration level texts will require students to decode. Reading comprehension is the combination of numerous skills that are performed instantaneously, and fluency is one of these skills. While practicing fluency requires time, a test for a students fluency takes only one minute and perhaps two minutes to read a fluency table and to record the results. These few minutes with a fluency table can be one of the best tools a teacher can use to monitor how well a student understands what he or she is reading.

Effective Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Effective Leadership - Essay Example 74-78, 2001). This paper is attempt to look at different types of leadership and the recent developments in the field of leadership by briefly looking at the literature available on Fred Fielder’s Situational Leadership Model, Level 5 Leadership, 360-degree leadership and Charismatic leadership. Discussion Fred Fielder’s Situational Leadership Model Fred Fielder is considered as one of the most notable gurus of leadership. During the mid of the 20th century, when most of the leadership experts were occupied by the discussion that whether leaders are born with certain characteristics which distinguish them from others or whether people can acquire these skills to become leaders. Fielder took the liberty of providing an entirely different perspective to the management and organizational behavior experts by giving his situational leadership theory (Kellerman, pp. 234-238, 2010). He divided the leadership styles into two groups namely relationship motivated and task motivat ed. Relationship motivated leaders are the ones who would place their emotional bonds with their people over the tasks and jobs. These leaders are more concerned about their image, respect, and perception amongst their followers. However, task motivated leaders are the ones who are more interested in numbers, targets, figures and objectives, and in the pursuit of the same, they are ready to sacrifice their image and bonding with their employees (Robbins & Judge, pp. 223-228, 2010). Furthermore, fielder proposed three elements, which have the ability to determine the situational control of the person. These are leader member relations, task structure and position power. Leader member relations refer to the degree to which the leader enjoys the backing, support, and loyalty of his sub ordinates. Second, task structure is high when the job descriptions are clear, structured, and well defined. Third, position power refers to the degree to which the leader enjoys the formal power to hire , recruit, select, reward, punish, or obtain compliance from the employees (Fulmer & Goldsmith, pp. 74-78, 2001). Furthermore, Fielder suggests that when the above-mentioned factors are high, the situational control is high and vice versa. A task-motivated style remains the most favourable option when the situational control is either extremely high or extremely low. Nevertheless, when the situational control is moderate, the leader should opt for a relationship motivated leadership style (Kellerman, pp. 41-49, 1999). 360 Degree Leadership Maxwell (2006) gave one of the most modern and influential concepts in leadership known as the â€Å"360 degree leadership† (pp. 15). Maxwell focuses on the most basic and simplest definitions of leadership, which says, â€Å"Leadership is nothing but the art of influencing people towards the achievement of shared goals† (Maxwell, pp. 84-86, 2008). Quite understandably, one cannot only influence the people who are underneath the indi vidual in the organizational hierarchy but also who lie at the same line or even who are over him in the organizational hierarchy. This means that one cannot only lead his subordinates but also his peers, colleagues, friends, bosses, bosses’ peers, and others. Many leaders fail to view the concept of leadership in a board way of leading down, leading across and leading up but they fall into the trap of leading down

The scholarly articles issues that are related to Chinas social Essay

The scholarly articles issues that are related to Chinas social security - Essay Example The scholarly articles issues that are related to China’s social security The article focuses on the need for reforming the social security sector in China. Scholarly articles are addressed to policy makers as evidenced by the three articles of which two were published in the International Journal of Social Welfare and the other article was published in the China Economic Review. Keywords: order, equations, systematic, articles 1. Introduction The scholarly articles chosen for this analysis address issues that are related to China’s social security. The three articles are consistent with the general trend exhibited in the discipline and will thus form the backbone of this analysis to cut across the discipline. Yang, Williamson, and Shen author the first article in the year 2009, and it was published in the International Journal of Social Welfare. The article addresses the issue of social security in China, specifically relating to the rural aged. The article has been written in efforts of attempting to alleviate the social security coverage in the country. Leung authored the second article selected in 2003, and it was published in the International Journal of Social Welfare. The article focuses on the need for reforming the social security sector in China. Feldstein is the author of the third article, published in the China Economic Review in 1999. The article’s focus is centered on the necessary reforms in the social security system of China. ... termined from an in-depth analysis conform to the general systematic set up of presenting findings that border on the social-economic aspect of daily life. The analysis is written in conformity with the writing style applied in the third article that was selected. The sections are a representative of the general format that is used in writing academic articles in the discipline. 2. Analysis of the articles The authors of the three articles are a true representative of the academic elite in the discipline with Leung working at the Department of Social Work and Social administration at the University of Hong Kong. Shen and Williamson are faculty members at the Boston College while Yang is a faculty member at the Beihang University. Feldstein is an associate at the Harvard University in the department of economics while at the same time he serves at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The five authors have a mastery aura of the field and this can be attested to by their systematic analysis of social economic issues that are linked to the provision of social security in China. The purposes of the different authors in the three articles are intertwined and are concentrated about providing a solution in the social security policy of China. The three articles identify the need of enacting a strong social security policy that would work towards ensuring that the elderly people of China reap the maximum benefit. The simplification of the social security system in the country alongside the increased coverage will be fruitful in reducing the country’s dependency level as well as improving the living standards of its elderly citizens. The rhetorical strategies advanced by the three articles are almost similar in the composition and advancement of the topics. The authors

Global Warming: An Inconvenient Truth :: Global Warming Catastrophe

In 2006, former senator Al Gore created an academy award winning documentary on global warming entitled â€Å"An Inconvenient Truth† . The movie earned several awards including an academy award for best documentary and gore later received a noble peace prize. The movie discussed several different topics of great concern to global warming; such as permafrost, climbs in temperature, extinction of species, drought, and fatigue to name a few. Four writers in five different articles discussed the three topics of greenhouse gases, climate change, and causes of global warming. These writers are writer and scholar Bill McKibben in â€Å"Think Again: Climate Change† and â€Å"How Close to catastrophe†; William J. Broad, writer for the New York Times in â€Å"From a Rapt audience, a call to cool the hype†; writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kevin O’Brien, in â€Å"Global Warming? I won’t be losing any sleep over it†; and Alan Zarembo, sta ff writer for the the Los Angeles Times, in â€Å"Game over on global warming?† All though the articles explain some different topics from one another, only one of them disagree with gore on the causes for global warming being humans, they all agree that there will be impacts to the environment, and all of them believe that greenhouse gases are one of the primary causes for global warming. First, all the articles discussed about who was to blame for the raising temperatures of the planet. The issue may be serious but O’Brien states that is just the media using another topic of interest and throwing it out of proportion. He claims that there is global warming, but the statistics being given are always changing, so the blame game can’t always point a finger at humans. Zarambo explained that humans are the cause of global warming but cannot but no matter what we were to do, even revert to the Stone Age, that global warming will still rise because the waste we have build up can dissolve slowly. On the opposite side, McKibben in â€Å"Think Again: Climate Change† he explains that humans are to blaim because the planet is already struggling to keep itself alive and all the excess heat we generate from CO2 and other waste, we are dooming ourselves to an early grave. In â€Å"How Close to catastrophe† where he explains his own thoughts he explains t hat its not just humans to blame but the citizens of the US.

Effective Communication Essay

Effective Communication Communication, as well as the organizational structure, is imperative for any organization to become successful. Effective communication is one of the main foundations in building a strong relationship between management, staff, patients and their families. Patients depend upon the staff to help them answer and understand questions regarding their health conditions. The organizational structure is one of the most efficient methods for allocation of relevant information within the facility. The appropriate organization structure is vital to authorize alliances of the organization to communicate within the facility and outside the facility. If there is no communication or ineffective communication the facility will fail to meet the needs of staff, patients, families as well as causing the organization to become unsuccessful. Organization Structure The formal structure describes an organization that is typically hierarchical in nature. Formal structures use organization charts that include staff member’s names and their official job titles within the organization. The hierarchical organization begins at the top and flows down to managers then to employees under those managers. When an organization uses a formal structure the lines of authority are clear (Lombardi & Schermerhorn, 2007). Techniques for Sharing Information and Ideas Sharing information and ideas with individuals comes in many forms of communication. Communication in the health care industry can vary depending on the individual one is working with. There is a time when all types of communication has to be in cooperated into the success of an organization and the care of patients. Face-to-face communication is effective as well as verbal communication via telephone is effective when communicating with  doctors, managers, staff, patients and the community. Communicating face-to-face allows one to rely on body language to decipher the effectiveness of the information that is transmitted from one individual to another. Written communication is a technique that is always dependable within the health care industry. The use of e-mails is also a technique of sharing information, but can sometimes leave an individual wandering if the message was received as the sender intended. Communication time out is a technique that is critical, but seldom performed . The road works allowing two-way conversations to be held by deciding the modes of communication preferred by each individual involved. It communication time-out is performed correctly potential risk factors can be identified and untimely minimized (â€Å"Best practices in communication reduce liability, 2011). Techniques Proved to be Ineffective Ineffective communication can affect the successfulness of an organization. The same techniques used for effective communication can lead to ineffectiveness in communication. Using face-to-face communication can show anger and stress through body language and can breakdown as messages are interpreted the wrong way. Messages that are not carefully planned, for example, the time and delivery are not chosen efficiently will result in negative communication. Once communication becomes negative it may be a challenge to regain positive communication methods. Applying Communication Techniques in the Health Care Environment Managers can use face-to-face communication in morning meetings to discuss the problems arising from the day before or the potential problems that will arise. Transmitting information via telephone is vital to nursing staff when communicating with physicians about patient care. Telephone communication allows questions to be answered instantly instead of waiting on a respo nse. When communicating with family member’s verbal communication retrieves the best results as well, the families will be able to receive the information they are seeking. Electronic mailing (email) can be used to transmit information between managers and other employees. It is important to insure the message sent via email is received with the intentions the sender is sending (Writing Effective Emails, 1996-2014). Written communication is a reliable communication used in some facilities. Daily team talks delivered to each  department by the department manager is a method of communicating with staff. Daily team talks can consist of the daily census, potential admits, upcoming discharges as well and safety tips, financial tips, and positive recognition of any staff member. Applying any technique of communication can have its positive or negative effects on communication between individuals. Technology and Communication With the expansion of technology use in healthcare today it can become a challenge to keep up with the growth of technology. With today’s technology computers is a major benefit in the health care industry. Video conferences used in today’s medical fields allowing for face-to-face communication via technology. Technology can be used positively and negative in communication between individuals. The lack of proper English and format can cause for negativity. Technology can also have many benefits with communication, as well. It can make it more convenient for managers to contact other staff and technology can be used in communicating with the community, as well. Conclusion Effective communication is vital in assuring the message is interpreted correctly. Listening openly, understanding the intent of the message and using proper body language in receiving and delivering the message is positive in communication. Preventing negative communication is the ultimate goal for organizations in order for them to succeed. Applying the proper techniques of communicating continues to be a challenge among organizations in today’s world. References Best practices in patient communication reduce liability. (October 2011). Retrieved from http://www.riskandinsurance.com Lombardi, D. N., & Schermerhorn, J. R. (2007). Health care management: Tools and techniques for managing in the health care environment. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Writing Effective Emails. (1996-2014). Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmailCommunication.htm