Essay --

After the financial crisis of 2008 there has been a dramatic decrease of foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world. Particularly the rapid decline in inflows has affected the recovery speed of FDI around the world. Inflows into Europe contracted by 42% and to North America by 21%, inflows to Australia and New Zealand together declined by 14% 1. However there are few exceptions to the trend, such as the United Kingdom who have managed to keep its FDI attraction. UNCTAD has confirmed that FDI inflows into the UK have risen by 22% 2 over the past year. Inward FDI into the UK In the last 30 years the UK has put in a lot of effort to dramatically increase the inflows of FDI into the country. The strategy succeeded due to the rich and diverse ecosystem of the UK and ease of doing business. The inflow FDI has shown constant growth until 2000, which peaked to $118.8 billion. The IT bubble burst in 2000 caused a dramatic fall in IFDI which can be illustrated in Figure 1. The downfall resulted in the UK attracting only $16.8 billion in 2003. The data shows that the FDI inflows boosted in the period of 2004-2007, and that Mergers and Acquisitions that the Multinational Corporations used to enter the UK, as well as the reduced interest rate, can explain this. Due to the sudden collapse of the world’s economy in 2008 M&A became an unfavourable method of FDI and in just one year IFDI into UK shrank by 50%. The trend continued up to 2011, as the FDI pattern moved towards investments into third world countries and developing nations. This enormous change in the FDI graph after the financial crisis is mainly due to a decline in investments from transnational corporations that are located in the European Union. As the world’s economy has... ...T and communications sector in the UK is likely to stay attractive and to increase its share of IFDI. The plans for UK network companies to move to 4G speed only open opportunities for foreign investors. Overall, I believe that foreign direct investment is going to increase within the next 5 years. Even though the manufacturing sector is likely to shrink, IT and business services will make up for the losses. Due to the nature of the UK economy and a high diversity and educated pool of labour, the IT and Business industries are going to expand. UK is already one of the most favourable countries in the world for IT and financial services due to its ease of doing business, the attractive corporate and personal tax environment, the preferred use of both the English language and English law in business operations, and the UK’s involvement in the European Single Market7.

The Internet Beyond Human Control :: essays research papers

The Internet Beyond Human Control The Internet has started to change the way of the world during this decade. More homes, companies, and schools are getting hooked online with the Internet during the past few years. This change has started to become the new way of life present and future. The Internet system is so advanced it is ahead of our time. This system is becoming predominately used everyday, but every which way it works out this system ends up in a negative way. The Internet System has started to migrate in many schools. The Schools that are hooked online are mostly colleges. This is because the Internet is capable of flashing up pornographic picture or comments at anytime. Also their is many different chat lines that consist of a lot of profanity and violence. A majority of high school students are minors. This is why most colleges are hooked up online to the Internet system. The government is trying to figure out ways to police the Internet so this will not happen. The problem with that is it is a very hard task to do. It is almost guaranteed this will not happen for another five to ten years. Being hooked up online helps make high school easy to slide through. There is a student at Chichester Senior High School that has a home computer hooked online with the Internet system. So when he has a term paper due all he does is down load a term paper on the system with the same topic. He just puts his name on the paper, hands it in, and receives an A. In return when he hits college life he will not know how to write a term paper. This will cause him to drop out. I know other students do the same thing he does. Now students will come out of high school not well educated. The Internet system is set up in a way we can give and receive mail. This mail is called electronic mail usually known as e-mail. This mail will be sent to where you want it the second you click send with the mouse. The regular U.S. mail takes two days if you are sending mail from Philadelphia to Media. Now if you mail from coast to coast that could take up to two weeks. When my parents went to Mexico for two weeks they tried to send me a postcard, but I didn't receive it till the next day they came back. This could very well end up to become a problem. Soon no one will even want to use U.

Brand Comparison Paper Essay

Pepsi Co. and Coca-Cola have been in business for a long time and both are largely successful companies in the beverage industry. They both have different brand components in comparison. A few of the different comparisons would be pricing, quality, packaging, logos, brand equity and features. In the following paper we will discuss these items in detail to see how different these two brands are. Pricing Strategies Looking at the pricing strategies of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola they are taking two very different plans. The products they sell are similar with variations in taste and the brand war in the soda market has been to out discount your competitor to gain market share. The issue with giving deep discounts is that your digging into profits which could cause both long-term and short-term issues. Pepsi has realized the short-term strategy of deeply discounting products over its brand portfolio is not a sustainable business model for the long-term business needs. PepsiCo has changed its view from the short term to the long term and was in a transition in 2013 that slowly saw the company stop offering discounts but switch to a hybrid everyday value strategy. The hybrid strategy closes the gap of holiday price points and its regular price point to provide a better value for the customer very day and not just wait for sales to purchase the product (â€Å"Reuters†, 2013). Coke on the other had is still out performing PepsiCo and other competitors even in 2014 so their outlook is different. The large reason for their performance is the heavy discount strategy that is continuing to be implemented. While it is successful in the short-term it leaves the soda giant open for long-term financial issues (Cooper, 2014). Comparing the two while Coca-Cola is winning the short-term war currently PepsiCo is setting itself up for better long-term gains and growth. PepsiCo is able to see the  value in the future of its company and understands it had to change the way it does business which would cause a short-term set back while introducing its new pricing strategy. However, the long-term value of doing this will keep the company in business and profitable for many years too come. Differences in product quality As far as quality difference in the two products it really is a matter of taste, which is either acquired or just something a person likes. An example of an acquired taste one is like the household a person grows up in drinks Coca-Cola then their taste buds may come to like the product because that is what they were offered in the house. Which for either company doesn’t represent a quality issue in reality but because of brand loyalty they may deem Pepsi or Coke better than the other product. Pepsi has a distinct sweater taste than Coke, which has a hint of vanilla flavoring, higher carbonation, and sodium per swerving (Mertz, 2013). The lower carbonation and sodium makes Pepsi a slightly higher quality product in the not so healthy soda industry. Product Packaging When it comes to Pepsi versus Coca-Cola, these companies have been competitors throughout the years. Both companies have come a long way with their advertising slogans. Coca-Cola’s first slogan in 1886 was â€Å"Drink Coke† and has changed many times over the years to today’s slogan â€Å"Open Happiness† (Coca Cola Journey, 2012). Pepsi’s first slogan in 1939, â€Å"Twice as much for a Nickel† promoted great pricing (G&M Distributors, Inc., 2012). Today Pepsi’s advertising slogan is â€Å"The Best Drink Created Worldwide† (G&M Distributors, Inc., 2012). These two companies could not be any more different is their logos, symbols and colors. Coca-Cola’s main logo has not changed much over the years, sticking with the cursive Coca-Cola font (Coca Cola Journey, 2012). Pepsi, on the other hand, has changed their logo many times over the years. From the Pepsi-Cola cursive font to the Pepsi bottle top, and more recently the Peps i half red and half blue globe (G&M Distributors, Inc., 2012). Product Image and Personality Even though these companies are vastly different in there branding they are very similar when it comes to image and personality. Both companies are concerned with sustainable packaging, recycling, and making an impact of the future of our globe and its environment. Coca-Cola has a commitment to â€Å"set the standard for sustainable packaging, achieve zero waste in our operations and recycle more packaging than we use† (Coca Cola Enterprises, 2014). Coca-Cola uses targets such as using less packaging, using recycled materials, PET bottles, recyclability of their packaging, manufacturing, and inspiring consumers to recycle to assist in keeping our environments clean (Coca Cola Enterprises, 2014). Coca-Cola also uses campaigns like â€Å"Recycle for the Future† to inspire communities to recycle (Coca Cola Enterprises, 2014). Pepsi also concerns them with less packaging, turning waste into wealth, recycling, and motivating others to recycle (PepsiCo, n.d.). Both companies want to improve what they are doing as a company to help improve the environments in communities where they are located. Distinguishing Features Pepsi Co and Coca Cola are both known for offering similar colas that have competed to be consumer’s favorite soda for decades. Pepsi Co most recently has been seen as a more attractive brand to a younger audience than the well-known Coca Cola. Pepsi Co is known for many products beyond Pepsi cola but is easily recognized by the red, white, and blue logo. Besides the noticeable difference in logos Pepsi tends to have a sweeter taste and a citrusy flavor burst. (â€Å"Lubin†, 2012.) Almost everyone has a preference when it comes to choosing between Pepsi and Coca Cola. â€Å"There is a great comparison which says Pepsi is a timely brand and the other brands are timeless brand. So one is for the older people, one is for the younger people.† (â€Å"The Economic Times†, 2013.) Brand Equity A brand has positive brand equity when consumers react more favorably to a product and the way it is marketed when the brand is identified than when it is not. (L.K. Keller, 2008.) Consumers have known both Pepsi Co and Coca Cola for decades. Consumers have tried their products and collected their memorabilia as a supporter of each brand. Although Coca Cola has proven to  be the more successful brand Pepsi Co has not given up. Pepsi Co also has shown success with their sports beverage, Gatorade and bottled water, Aquafina. Pepsi Co has continued to make necessary changes in order to remain competitive and build brand equity. Conclusion In conclusion, although these two brands are largely successful in their own right they also have very different brand components. We were able to research and distinguish several of them to include pricing, quality, packaging, logos, brand equity and features. References Cooper, T. (2014). The Montely Fool. Retrieved from http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/16/is-coca-cola-outsmarting-pepsico-or-mortgaging-its.aspx Mertz, R. (2013). Things you didn’t know. Retrieved from http://www.tydknow.com/7-differences-between-coca-cola-and-pepsi/ Reuters. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/pepsico-pricing-idUSL2N0E32L020130522 Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand   Equity (3rd ed.) L. K. Keller Prentice Hall, 2008 Upper Saddle River, NJ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-11-11/news/43930097_1_pepsico-india-brand-equity brand- positioning http://www.businessinsider.com/the-difference-between-coke-and-pepsi-2012-12 Coca Cola Enterprises. (2014). Sustainable Packaging and Recycling. Retrieved from http://www.cokecce.com/corporate-responsibility-sustainability/sustainable-packaging-and-recycling Coca Cola Journey. (2012, January 1). A History of Coca-Cola Advertising Slogans. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans G&M Distributors, Inc.. (2012, December 11). Pepsi Slogans and Logos Throughout the Years. Retrieved from http://www.gmdist.com/2012/12/11/pepsi-slogans-and-logos-throughout-the-years/ Pepsico. (n.d.). Packaging, Waste & Recycling. Retrieved from http://www.pepsico.com/Purpose/Environmental-Sustainability/Packaging-and-Waste

What is an Eating Disorder?

There are different types of eating disorders and while they are all different, in many ways they also have a lot in common. An eating disorder may develop out of a simple diet. Some people, to relieve tension or depression will go on a binge. A binge is eating a lot of food in a very short time until uncomfortably full. Although the binges relieve some tension, they also cause disgust, guilt, and concern about weight gain which will lead a person to purge after their binges. A purge is a way to compensate for all the extra calories by vomiting, excessive exercise, fasting, or using laxatives. It causes rapid gain and loss of weight, feelings of inadequacy, and an obsession with food. Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa are the most common forms of eating disorders. Binge-Eating Disorder and Bulimia Nervosa are considered mental disorders because people with these disorders do not feel like they are in control of their eating behaviour. If a person binges more than twice a week, it is considered Binge-Eating Disorder. The combination of bingeing and purging is called Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia, although still considered a mental disorder is more controlled, with the person either taking very small amounts of food or starving themselves to remain thin. It is estimated that 0.5 to 1% of women in late adolescence develop anorexia. It is most common between the ages of 10 and 30 and 90% of the cases are women. However, cases are increasing for men, minorities, older women and pre-teens. There are children as young as 8 showing concerns and behaviours around food, and up to 50% of these youngsters are boys. Anorexia is associated with feelings and behaviours related to the fear of â€Å"fatness†. These feelings include poor body image, a phobia about food and its ability to create fatness, and an intense fear of being a normal body weight. People with anorexia have not lost their appetite. They are very hungry indeed. They think about food all the time, want to be close to it – give it to others. What they don't do is allow themselves to succumb to their desire for food. Like all compulsive disorders, the roots of anorexia lie in deep anxiety, the sense that not only is life out of control, running away too fast, but that their ability to cope with life and all its demands is poor. Given these fears, it is all too easy for an individual to turn to the control of food and weight to gain some kind of control over their existence. Typically anorexia starts when a young person feels overweight. This may be because they have gained a little more weight than average at puberty, or have slim friends with whom they compare themselves. A decision to go on a diet may be triggered by a specific event such as a comment or remark from a peer. The diet is most usually the first ever tried and it is initially quite successful, giving the young person a real sense of achievement at an otherwise insecure time of life. There may initially be approval from friends or members of the family which is a positive form of attention. The anorexic never starts off intending to starve themself into emaciation. They just feels that life will be better if they lost a few pounds – which it is for a while. At some point in the diet there is a subtle psychological change – which is not experienced by normal dieters – and dieting actually becomes more intense as the diet progresses and the target weight is near. The dieting behaviour goes underground so that it can become a private secret rather than a public activity and strategies are developed to convince â€Å"others† that eating is taking place when in fact it is not. This requires a great deal of craftiness such as throwing food away, finding ways to get rid of it off a plate at mealtimes, or pretending to already have eaten. Hence by the time that weight loss is noticeable to the family, the anorexia is already well under way. In their own private eating world, the person developing anorexia will become very â€Å"ritualised† around food. This may take the form of eating fractions of portions of food at specific times of the day, – like one third of an apple – or eating the crusts around a sandwich but not the middle. They will toy with their food, cut it up into tiny pieces and eat them very slowly. Even non-fattening foods will be feared. Many anorexics weigh themselves several times each day. An anorexic can panic if they show a small change in weight after eating one lettuce. The physical effects of anorexia are mostly connected with the effects of starvation on the body: * menstruation stops(in women) * breathing, pulse and blood pressure rates plummet * mild anaemia occurs * osteoporosis * impaired kidney function * infertility * immune system fails to fight infection * physical weakness * sensitivity to heat and cold. * erosion of the teeth from acid in the stomach due to vomiting * as body weight falls to low levels the anorexic may be covered with a fine downy hair * ulcers and rough skin on legs and feet due to poor circulation * digestive problems as a result of starvation * constipation which makes the abdomen feel dense and large. * Bone loss as a result of under nourishment * shrinkage of the reproductive organs in both men and women * destruction of areas of the brain which are responsible for endocrine production. The most significant feature of anorexia is denial of the disease and anorexics are typically very intelligent people with a great deal of academic ability. Although there are several theories as to the causes of anorexia, it is increasing partly due to cultural changes and social pressure and development in food and nutrition, leading to an early maturation of young girls compared to that of the early 20th Century. (Phillip W. Long, M.D.1999 NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health)) Social &Cultural Theory It is understandable that anorexia hardly exists in third world countries where there is barely enough food for survival and where fatness is regarded as a sign of affluence. It is also rare in countries which have sufficient food but which do not see slimness as a sign of sexual attractiveness. However, in the developed countries where there is a tendency to associate fatness with negative attributes such as lower social or economic status and personal inadequacy, anorexia is on the increase. In countries where it's perfectly normal to be big, everyone is the same so it doesn't matter. As different cultures start to integrate and live in Western societies, the pressures to look like their counterparts leads them to have a low self-esteem of themselves. Young white women and girls faced with thin and beautiful white celebrities long to be like them — it would make sense to think that young Black and Hispanic women and girls, when faced with beautiful and thin celebrities, such as popstars and models sharing the same culture might also wish to achieve the same physical goals.( Furnham & Alibhai 1983) In addition, race discrimination in the professional job market may contribute to their low self-worth and desire to be loved and accepted. Those pursuing professions or activities that emphasise thinness, like modelling, gymnastics, dancing, singing, athletes, filmstars and wrestling are more susceptible to anorexia. Even today's men in the entertainment business are of a more muscular, slender build compared to the extremely skinny or bulkier type of years ago. While girls wish to attain a specific size, men who become anorexic are likely to have had a specific role model in mind – usually a sportsman or a rock star, when they begin to diet. Too much emphasis is being made on fashion being thin and the numerous diet pages in magazines and teenage literature. (About Face Organisation's Website) Environmental Theory Another social theory to the cause of anorexia could be family surroundings. The typical anorexic comes from a â€Å"perfect on the outside† family. The parents are often older and are reported by the child as demanding, placing emphasis on their educational or athletic achievements instead of them as a person. This is the parent's attempt of showing love. They feel that if they were to gain 99% in a test, they would be held accountable for not having got it all right. Their own body becomes their greatest achievement. Getting anorexia could be an unconscious choice, but by showing rigid control of their body and not eating with their family, the anorexic demonstrates independence in the only way they can. As a result, looking back on their early life, many anorexics remember growing up trying to please others and meet their expectations. They usually succeed, since many are high achievers and good students, anxious to please their parents or teachers and earn their approval. These are the children who are described by teachers as well behaved and conscientious, never causing trouble or disruption at school, and never giving their parents any of the usual forms of adolescent rebellion, such as rudeness or defiance. Evaluation These ideas show that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the social pressures of being a young person in today's society can be associated with the onset of anorexia so if today's culture is a risk factor for anorexia, and wanting to be thinner precipitates the illness, why is it that out of all the women and girls who diet at some time in their lives, only some go on to become anorexic? A youngster growing up in a strict family with high expectations feels that she has no control over herself as her parents are taking away her independence and are basically mapping her life out for her. The only thing left is her body, so she uses this to control what she eats as an achievement of her independence. This can backfire on the anorexic, making the parents more overbearing than before. Biomedical theory Genetic factors Eating disorders appear to run in families–with female relatives most often affected. This finding suggests that genetic factors may make some people prone to eating disorders. Female family members of women suffering from anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa develop eating disorders at rates up to 12.3 times higher than those of women who have never suffered from an eating disorder. Also, women who have sons or brothers that have had anorexia are also more likely to get this eating disorder themselves. Recent research looks at newborns of mothers with a history of eating disorders, and presents evidence that these babies also have characteristics that appear to put them at risk of having similar problems.( Dr. Michael Strober, lead author of the study and director of the Eating Disorders Program at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute). Twins too showed a genetic tendency to develop the same disorder, with identical twins being 55% more prone to the disease than non – id entical twins at 7%. Biochemistry In an attempt to understand eating disorders, scientists have studied the biochemical functions of people with the illnesses. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain which controls the body's neuroendocrine system — the part which regulates the multiple functions of the mind and body, such as sexual behaviour and emotional arousal, physical growth and development, appetite and digestion, kidney function, heart, sleep, thinking and memory. An experiment on rats in the 1940's identified the hypothalamus as playing a crucial part in eating behaviour. It was discovered that abnormalities in the lower- central region of the hypothalamus, the VMH (Ventro-Medial Hypothalamus) caused the stop-eating signals to cease working so that the rats became extremely obese (Teitelbaum 1967). In the same way that the VMH inhibits eating, there is a part that stimulates eating, the LH (Lateral Hypothalamus). If this is damaged, it would cause the rat to starve. Opioid Addiction Opioids are substances that are produced naturally in the brain when under stress. Their job is to relieve pain and give pleasure. As self-starvation leads to stress for the body and the release of opioids, this gives the person a feeling of being high. Anorexics tend to exercise excessively as both starving and vigorous exercise produce high levels of endorphins in the brain. It could therefore be argued that anorexics become addicted to that â€Å"high† thus becoming addicted to their own opioids. Evaluation Firstly, it is very rare for the sons to get an eating disorder before the mothers, as it is generally young women with no children who are at risk. Secondly, if there is just as high a risk of anorexia if a brother has had an eating disorder as there is with a son, the answer must lie in a defective chromosome of the male which should be easy enough to rectify, given modern medicine today. Could it be possible that there was a stress factor that ran through the family that increased the risk anyway and a combination of the two factors led to an increased risk? Surely, as well, a baby born to a woman with these sort of disorders is going to be at risk of a number of things when he is growing up. Apart from being nutritionally deprived whilst in the womb(which might cause a number of neurological problems) there must be some sort of emotional problems living in that kind of environment. The bio-medical theory sounds the most understandable. As with all mental health problems the change in brain chemistry can cause the different parts of the brain to malfunction leading to all manner of psychoses. The only query is: does starving oneself cause physical changes in the brain, or are the chemical changes in the brain responsible for the eating disorder? Alternative Theories to the Causes for Anorexia Psychoanalytic Theory Puberty for women is seen by psychologists to be a time of change and the hormones of puberty create body fat in women and the girl is reminded by her bodily changes that she is becoming a woman. There is also a big change in the age of puberty, which used to be at 18 years and is now occurring at 10, 11 and 12. Girls are experiencing their sexuality at an age where they appear to lack the emotional equipment to handle it so early puberty is linked with self- destructive behaviour in girls. Some researchers believe that anorexia is an attempt to stop the clock – to avoid growing up and becoming a woman and to avoid the problems that maturity brings. Evaluation This is arguable as – are all young girls aware that their periods will stop when they starve themselves, and how long is it before they realise that the bust is less affected by weight loss than other parts of the body. This theory does not take male anorexics into account. Learning Theory When a young person feels they need to lose a bit of weight, sometimes due to remarks from peers or the opposite sex, they go on a diet. As the weight starts to drop off, appraisal replaces the remarks. This leads to the desire to lose more weight which in turn leads to more attention. The diet soon escalates out of proportion and before long the positive attention turns to a more concerned attention. The anorexic enjoys this attention, whatever the kind and sees their behaviour as a way of being liked and being popular. This behaviour is carried on sometimes until the need for intervention by the medical authorities, which then sees the anorexic receiving attention and concerns from everyone around them, including their families. Evaluation This explanation is quite arguable as it is usually an unconscious decision to start starving yourself – the intention was to lose just a few pounds. Anyway, lack of attention, which is the issue, from people or family when young could quite easily lead to over-eating or other forms of self-abuse. Treatments and Outcomes Early treatments for anorexia were based on behavioural and psychotherapeutic techniques. These treatments were largely unsuccessful in the long term. Anyhow weight gain alone is not the only goal of treatment. The â€Å"best outcomes† are with therapies that treat the whole individual, and provide a variety of approaches, nutritional, psychological, personal growth and relaxation therapies. Part of this process would include building self-esteem. For those anorexics who are too far gone for these therapies to benefit them, a stay in hospital will apply where they can be force-fed under the powers of the Mental Health Act, since severe emaciation destroys the ability to think rationally, thus making any form of therapy very hard to do. Anyway, many therapists believe that it is impossible to carry out psychotherapy with an anorexic person unless weight has first been restored. ( The National Centre For Eating Disorders August 1999). Medical Treatment Scientists have found that the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, (chemical messengers which control hormones in the brain) function abnormally in people affected by depression. Researchers funded by NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) have recently learned that these neurotransmitters are also decreased in extremely ill anorexia and bulimia patients and long-term recovered anorexia patients. Because many people with eating disorders also appear to suffer from depression, some scientists believe that there may be a link between these two disorders. In fact, new research has suggested that some patients with anorexia may respond well to the antidepressant medication fluoxetine which affects serotonin function in the body. Cognitive Treatment Treatment of anorexia is often a long, drawn – out duration, requiring a combination of cognitive and analytic interpretative techniques to explore the past, identifying the underlying cause of the maladaptive behaviour. For older women personal therapy works best whereas family therapy is especially helpful for adolescent patients as every member of the family can understand what the patient is going through (Murray et al., 1997). Anorexia can be fatal if left untreated. About one fifth of people with anorexia recover,   a further two fifths gain weight but develop other problems with eating such as bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. About one third of sufferers remain anorexic, with only one aim in life – to stay thin.   Death rates in long term anorexics are as high as ten percent, usually due to heart failure in the case of bulimic anorexia, suicide or lack of resistance to illness.

Technology in the Healthcare Industry and Its Impact

I. Technology in the healthcare industry today and its impact The state of technology in the healthcare industry is that it is developing very rapidly. 10 or 20 years ago, you wouldn’t be able to find very many computers or technology at a typical doctor’s office. Most of the stuff was done with analog equipment and manual paperwork. Now, if you go into a doctor’s office, you will find it laden with advanced technical equipment and computer technology. You may not even find a pen or pad on the doctor’s desk! Technology has the ability to change the face of the whole healthcare delivery system and improve the quality of health and healthcare. Although there are many challenges that it represents, overcoming these challenges will lead to a more effective and better quality healthcare system in general. First of all, the use of technology in managing the healthcare system is currently in the stages of being implemented to a great extent. There is a big push to standardize medical records, for example, in an electronic format. The government is currently offering incentives for those who convert over to and put in use some form of electronic medical records system (Versel, 2011). They are also putting into place penalties for those who do not by 2015 (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2011). In terms of the actual impact on the healthcare system, this shift to electronic records will not only reduce our premiums for insurance, but also streamline and speed up healthcare delivery twofold. It also cuts administrative costs for healthcare organizations and increases space, as they will no longer have to store bulky files or paperwork. They can replace all of that with digital records. In the long term, this transition to digital records will benefit everyone involved in the healthcare industry; however, in the short term there will be increased costs for all of us. The reason why is because there will be associated costs in developing and buying the systems to house the medical records. Not only that, but the training associated with getting everyone up to speed on how to use the new medical records system is an effort that will take both time and money. There will likely be some resistance to the change, but overall, this is a development in technology in the healthcare industry that stands to benefit all parties involved once it gets up to speed. Another way that technology is making an impact on the healthcare industry is in the treatment of patients. Complex microsurgeries and drug administration are a thing of the past. Now, a lot of the new facilities have specialized information systems and technology that utilize robots to administer medication and perform surgeries with a much higher level of accuracy than humans could do (Feder, 2008). Not only that, but technology and information systems are improving the treatment and diagnosis of patients for various diseases. We use technology to analyze blood and tissue samples, and also to take a look at internal parts of the body that normally would have required invasive surgery to diagnose and treat. This is clearly a move in the right direction for the healthcare industry in that the quality of care will improve without teaching human resources how to improve. We simply have to teach the human resources how to use the equipment and analyze the results. Unfortunately, not every facility has the latest and greatest technology. The drawback to this improvement technology has brought is that not all facilities will be able to afford the new equipment straight away. There are even places in other countries that really need the equipment the most, but don’t have the ability or the resources to afford them. Often at times, patients will need to be transported to other facilities to get the treatment that they need, and end up worsening in condition or dying along the way. The technology that drives the healthcare industry does have the power to save lives, however, it will take some time before the rest of the world is up to speed. II. Challenges in implementing technology In addition to the improvements technology is making in the healthcare industry, technology in general also poses some major challenges. For one thing, it does have a major impact on the delivery of healthcare services and their experience. For example, one of the positive points for many people in going to the doctor is the non-clinical aspect of talking and having an open forum in getting diagnosis and treatment. With the implementation of technology, however, there is an increasing concern that visits will become â€Å"less personal† and more about the diagnosis and treatment than the actual experience. According to an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, commercially insured patients tend to focus on the non-clinical aspects of a visit rather than the clinical (Grote, Newman, & Sutaria, 2007). However, a lot of the patients on Medicare and those that are uninsured tend to care more about the cost of delivery rather than the actual experience. Based on this, there is a concern that the shift towards more technological means will alienate one group of patients whereas they will welcome another. The shift to technological means will certainly mean a decreased cost in delivery. That is for certain. However, the shift to technological solutions won’t necessarily mean a decrease in the quality of the visit. More doctors will continue to use technology to drive their treatment methods, but overall it is up to the doctor to make a connection with the patient as the customer relations part of the job. In fact, I feel it will be more about customer relations than the actual treatment once technology has been fully developed. Doctors will spend less time writing down and crunching numbers on the computer and focus more on interacting with the patient and utilizing technology to drive a diagnosis and treatment. Technology will also make diagnosis more transparent as medical imaging devices will make things more visible to both the patient and the doctor. Overall, the shift to technological means will certainly bring on challenges in implementation. Doctors will at first have a hard time in getting up to speed on the new technologies and balancing that with the way they are used to doing things, and integrating it into their daily visits. However, as time goes on this will be less and less of an issue once doctors and patients accept new ways of treatment and technology in general. III. Technology in the development of medicine Technology has always had a place in the development of medicinal treatments and medical devices. Clinical trials are conducted all around the world with he promise of new and better treatments that will cure illnesses and increase lifespan and quality of life. The use of technology in clinical trials is helping to not only get safer and better drugs to the market faster, but also to ensure that there are no problems long term. It used to be that clinical trials were conducted on paper, but now technology is used to ensure both quality of data entry and also the monitoring of subjects in a trial. Technolo gy is also used to develop tests and experiments more efficiently than they were ever done on paper. The shift to technological means is definitely one of the mainstays in the development of medicine, and is a welcome addition that presents few challenges aside from the training of resources. In terms of development, technology has also helped to make processes more efficiently and easily to allow newer drugs to be developed at a lower cost than older traditional methods of conducting trials (ICON, 2011). Budgeting and analysis can be used to efficiently allocate supplies and funds, and the actual trial data can be run through information systems in order to analyze the data from a bird’s eye view and make decisions on its development. The impact of this is likely to be decreased costs for the consumer for drugs and medical products. IV. Recommended plans for the adoption of technology in healthcare organizations As mentioned above, there are likely to be some growing pains in the adoption of technology in the healthcare industry. Doctors will likely have a hard time with the shift to more technological means, and their staff will also likely suffer the same hardships. Ensuring a proper plan to implement a technological solution in a healthcare organization is therefore essential, and ensuring a smooth transition so that the customer is not affected in the process. Therefore, the following are my recommendations for a smooth transition: 1. Identify the technological solution to implement, and assess what modules of the business this will impact. 2. Notify the staff of what will be implemented, and create a training plan to bring everyone up to speed in advance of the implementation so that no one is taken by surprise. 3. Develop a plan to ensure smooth integration into the organization, so that delivery is not compromised. This may include implementing it in part so that the new technology is used alongside the old process that was used to perform the same function. . Develop a timeline for the actual implementation to be complete. This is so that the employees do not continue to follow old methods as a crutch for not getting used to the new technology, and so they know when the new process will be followed. The above 4 items will be absolutely critical in ensuring a smooth transition for any healthcare organization to technological means. The reason why these steps will aid technology implementation is because it ensures that there is enough time to train resources and integrate the technology into the organization. The reason why many organizations have a problem integrating technology is an ineffective change management plan. By introducing it slowly and getting all the required resources up to speed, there should not be an issue in change management. V. Final Thoughts Overall, technology is continuing to make an impact on the healthcare industry in a big way. Right now, there is increasing shift towards using technology to speed up services delivery and management of services. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, there will be an ever-increasing shift towards technological means. The key to implementing technology in any healthcare organization is a change management plan that gets everyone up to speed before the actual technology is implemented, and the communication of this change to all stakeholders involved. Once the change is communicated, steps will need to be taken to ensure training of resources and integration of the technology in the business practices. In terms of using technology in the healthcare industry, technology will lways continue to impact healthcare in development of products and delivery of services. Technology is always going to be used to develop the Healthcare organizations need to focus on change management and integration of technology rather than just implementation. Works Cited U. S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2011, April 20). CMS EHR Meaningful Use Overview. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from U. S. Depart ment of Health & Human Services Web Page: https://www. cms. gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/30_Meaningful_Use. asp Versel, N. 2011, May 31). Physicians Get Meaningful Use Payment Checks. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from InformationWeek Healthcare: http://www. informationweek. com/news/healthcare/EMR/229700213 Feder, B. J. (2008, May 4). Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery. New York Times . Grote, K. D. , Newman, J. R. , & Sutaria, S. S. (2007, November). A Better Hospital Experience. The McKinsey Quarterly , 1-10. ICON. (2011, May 1). Technology in Clinical Trials. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from Kris Gustafson: http://krisagustafson. com/gpage1. html

Maths coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Maths coursework - Essay Example Although the function "y=10e^ (-0.175t)", slightly differ from the given values of the graph (between hour 4-7). However, for the all other points, the graph follows the same path as the one given. So we can say that the function "y=10e^ (-0.175t)", is suitable to model the data of the graph. Figure 3 represents the amount of the drug in the bloodstream over a 24-hour period. In the below graph (figure 3) assumption is made that after every six hour 10 Â µg of drug is given to patient and it adds in the drug remained in the bloodstream ( value of constant a in function "y=10e^ (-0.175t)", will change after every six hours). Therefore, the function will change after every six hours as the remaining drug adds into the given drug every six hours. Initially the drug given was 10 Â µg. After six hour, it remains to 3.5 Â µg. Now when 10 Â µg is again give to patient then it will become 13.5 Â µg. Moreover, this pattern will be continues for every six hours. Since we wanted to plot for 24-hour period, so for the second, third and fourth period the function will be " y=13.5e^ (-0.175(t-6)) ", " y=14.7e^ (-0.175(t-12)) "and" y=15.1e^ (-0.175(t-18)) " respectively. The value of t is changed here, so that the graph plotted continuous from the last point, other wise it will start from the starting point. From the figure 5, it can be seen that, when after initially 10Â µg of drug is given to the patient and thereafter no drug is given to the patients then the function "y=10e^ (-0.175t)" is when plotted for week period, the value of y approaches to 0 (actual value will be 0.0524 Â µg) after 30 hours. However, it will never become zero. Figure 6 represents the amount of the drug in the bloodstream over a 24-hour period. In the above graph assumption is made that after every six hour 10 Â µg of drug is given to patient and it adds in the drug remained in the bloodstream ( value of constant a in function "y=10e^ (-0.175t)", will change after

Do we posses free will and are we ever morally responisble Essay

Do we posses free will and are we ever morally responisble - Essay Example Furthermore, the denial of free will leads to the fact that morality as a science of human responsibility and freedom of ethical choice loses its value. Not having the freedom of will, a person cannot take a free moral choice. Consequently, regardless of human actions including bad ones no one can punish a person because in this case the man is not morally responsible. From my point of view, these two arguments in favor of the existence of free will are sufficiently convincing. Nevertheless, opponents of the idea of free will can bring two rather serious counterarguments that have scientific and ethical character. According to the first scientific counterargument, human free will cannot exist for one simple reason. Every human act can be explained on the basis of the reason, which leads to its implementation. Specialists who deny free will demonstrate that regardless of what people do one can find reasons for their behavior and actions. Not by chance that many philosophers who had the opportunity to conduct scientific studies have concluded that human life, actions, and even thoughts are deterministic, since they have a cause. Therefore, free will cannot exist because determinism defines human life. For example, in addressing the issue of the relationship between free will and determinism, a well-known English philosopher Thomas Hobbes emerged as an opponent of the doctrine of free will (Duncan). Hobbes defined the will as the desire stemming from the preceding act of deliberation. The will is not arbitrary, said Hobbes, thus Hobbes denied any free will. Hobbes consistently and persistently p ursued the idea that the will itself is caused by other factors that do not depend on it. Therefore, all voluntary actions are caused by necessary reasons and are compelled. This logic may seem to be rather convincing and able to justify the denial of the existence of freedom. Nevertheless, if one continues to