Movies and Television Shows Should Include Better Role Models for Their Audiences Essay Example for Free

Movies and Television Shows Should Include Better Role Models for Their Audiences Essay I’m sure it has happened plenty of times. When you finish watching a movie and afterwards feel so inspired. This is often when the movie hero was presented as someone we would like to be or has a personality that we admire. Sometimes it can be other characters that are shown to be â€Å"cool†, attractive, and popular that also inspires us to mimic their personality traits. Movies can also prompt us to try certain activities. Of course this can be seen as the beneficial side of media; the fact that there could be that one movie that has the power to influence someone to become a better person. But like almost everything, there’s a downside to it too. The fact that media can be convincing in positive ways suggests that it can equally convey negative messages as well. The way that movies or television shows portray their characters is something that definitely needs to be paid attention to. The rebellious heroes, senseless social statuses, and unhealthy activities characters engage in are all factors that will influence the audience. Therefore it is important to consider whether it is worth presenting the characters in this way. A large majority of movies are presenting their characters as bad people, yet the people that anyone would find themselves wanting to be. I believe that is wrong, thus movies and TV shows should include better role models for their audiences. Current movies portray violence without consequence, inaccurate representations of social statuses and social interaction, and encourage characters to engage in activities with more harm than good. Many of the heroes in movies happen to be quite rebellious and are often involved in violence. It’s usually the fact that they’re so involved in violence that helps them obtain their cool, heroic status. The characters we see as role models are always showing that violence can be used as a quick fix for conflicts to avoid negative consequences. K. A. Earles states, â€Å"This depiction of violence increases the probability that violence will be one of the first strategies chosen by a child. † Bandura, a professor in psychology at Stanford University demonstrated that preschoolers learn aggressive behavior by watching television. Three groups of children were shown a film n which a man commands a human-sized doll to move, and when it did not he hit the doll with his fists, a mallet, and then rubber balls. In other words, he used violence as an immediate strategy. Group one saw the man rewarded. Group two saw the episode end without reward or punishment. Group three saw the actor receive a verbal lecture. After watching the film, the children in groups one a nd two were seen to behave more aggressively than the ones in group three. This proves that the consequences characters find themselves facing has quite a strong impact on how the audience will act. What encourages violence even more is that it is often carried out by the hero in the story line who is then rewarded for his/her endorsement in violence. â€Å"Such constant exposure to portrayals of physical violence, some of which viewers do not even recognize as violent, may dull a child’s aversion to this behavior. † says K. A. Earles. Reenactments of national worldwide disasters such as terrorism scenes or brutal wars are one thing. But for a fictional superhero to battle and beat his â€Å"enemies† with realistic and bloody dramatizations is not a good way to entertain kids. There aren’t many positive or useful characteristics of the role model heroes for the children to gain besides their â€Å"charismatic† and â€Å"brave† personalities but they express these lovely character traits through violence. They care for the ones who are in danger so they save them with violence. As they stand up to their enemy and begin to battle them they show out their bravery. These heroes are showing young boys that if you are not strong enough, not brave enough to endorse in a physical fight then you are not capable to be someone as amazing and powerful as they are. Physical strength is spotlighted while intellectual strength is forgotten. Sharon Lamb, a professor of mental health at University of Massachusetts-Boston surveyed 674 boys aged 4 to 18 to analyze marketing trends for action figures and movies. This resulted in violence, emotional aloofness, and general hyper-masculinity being the main messages directors of these movies are promoting to young boys. This shows us that there aren’t many useful or healthy things these movies are promoting to their audiences. This only leads me to conclude that directors need to think over the way they are presenting their heroes. Violence is not the only existing strategy. As well as action movies, there are the modern teenage soap operas. I’ve noticed that these programs have a distorted portrayal of the theoretically existing teenage social statuses. There are always the good people and the bad people, the â€Å"cool† people and the â€Å"lame† ones. Although most television programs are to entertain, having a message or lesson for the audience to gain is also important. As mentioned earlier, the way the characters are portrayed is very significant to the audience since they are what influence the audience. There are the more obvious heroes which are the supermen in action movies but the less spotlighted ones in calmer, closer-to-reality programs. In these kinds of films, the â€Å"hero† would be a character the audience finds themselves admiring and looking up to. This depends on the way the characters in the film are presented. A person who our society would admire and want to be has very precise but general character traits; a confident, rich, bossy girl who has an attractive appearance and good leadership skills. It’s practically the same for boys. Society’s image of a picture perfect female or male is neglecting the many other personality traits of a human being that makes them a good and interesting person. Movies present the â€Å"popular guy† typically as someone who is necessarily good at sports for instance, and send the message to younger boys that if they are not good at sports they can’t expect to be at the top of the theoretical social scale regardless of other good qualities they can have. The same goes for girls. These films portray the â€Å"popular† girls as girls who are very narrowed down in their interests. Female adolescents are portrayed as being obsessed with their appearance. † Smart people are shown to be socially unaccepted. â€Å"Intellects are frequently viewed as social misfits. † These movies are encouraging and strengthening society’s distorted image of who the â€Å"popular† kids should be and contribute to a very inaccurate picture of what social interaction and social status is built on in reality. Young girls or boys may start to think that if they are not what the â€Å"cool kids† are presented as in movies, then they will not be successful or liked. This is definitely not the kind of message that should be sent to the younger generations. Lastly, quite a few of the activities characters in movies or TV shows engage in are not healthy and do not set good examples for young teens. The usage of alcohol and drugs is always by the cool, popular kids who will then convince the kids and teens a part of their audience to try them at one point. â€Å"Social Learning Theory suggests that children learn by watching, imitating, and assimilating. † This only proves that the majority of the children that are exposed to media that is practically encouraging alcohol and drug usage will most likely try it in attempt to imitate their role models. Movies propel the idea of these bad habits being â€Å"cool†. With teenagers picking up their first cigarette as early as 14 years of age, evidently there’s a problem. As many parents and adults may have noticed, kids/teens are beginning to have a distorted idea of what sex is all about and media may be the main cause for their way of thinking. Many movies and shows portray it as a normal thing to indulge in, therefore teens are enacting what they see from the media and often end up being pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. A study was done on 75 girls in which half were pregnant. It was found that the pregnant girls watched more soap operas than the non-pregnant girls and were found more surprised when told that their favorite soap opera characters used any sex protection. According to the National Survey of Children, males who watched more television were found to be more sexually active than the ones who watched less television. â€Å"Television may be a significant contributor to the sexual practices and attitudes of young people. † All of these things may be a part of a movie to show what it’s like out there but there must be some sort of proof of it being a bad thing to no give out the wrong message. Having characters in movies continuously smoking cigarettes and never even considering the consequences of having sex may influence kids in a completely wrong way. All of these reasons strongly suggest that the role models portrayed in movies and television shows can influence the younger audiences in negative ways. If teenagers are continuously exposed to such behaviors their minds will adjust to thinking in a certain way and no matter how hard their loved ones will afterwards try to convince them that these activities are wrong, that these behaviors are wrong, they will not be capable of changing their minds. Dear parents, are you okay with your 14 year old daughter already indulging in sexual activity, and your 15 year old son reacting violently and aggressively to any confrontations? Dear world, do you believe it’s acceptable for young girls to stress about their appearance and feel bad about themselves simply because of the way they look? For boys to believe that sports are what they are bound to engage in to be liked? Directors of movies should start to think how to get society to think differently, rather than encourage its shallow beliefs. Fighting scenes should not be the only entertaining scenes for kids. More creative ways of how to entertain children in a positive way could be thought of. The modern teenage popular kids should all have different interests and be liked for who they are and not what they look like. Pathetic assumptions and senseless social statuses in general should be presented in a brighter way in programs. Unhealthy activities should be portrayed as the bad things to do rather than the â€Å"cool† things. Kids will follow their role models, and if they’re role models are doing good things, it’s likely they will too.

Nursing Interventions for Schizophrenia

Nursing Interventions for Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness in which individuals loose the ability to discriminate between reality and imagination, characterized by disturbances to their thoughts, behavior and feelings. About 1% of the population is predicted to suffer from schizophrenia at some point in their life (www.rethink.org), with experience of psychotic episodes such as those of schizophrenia ranging in their duration of a single crisis, to the chronic experience of schizophrenia over a life time. During episodes of schizophrenia, patients will experience a range of what is know as positive and negative symptoms associated with the condition. Positive symptoms include delusions and hallucinations and unusual or irrational behavior (often as a result of the hallucinations and delusions). Delusions can be defined as strange thoughts or beliefs which are not founded in reality, some examples include delusions of grandeur (such as believing oneself to be the next messiah) and delusions of persecution (as in being secretly watched / followed by the police or secret service). Hallucinations are when you see (visual) hear (auditory) or smell (olfactory) things that others cannot. One of the most well known symptoms of schizophrenia is that of hearing voices. People may also experience thought disturbances such as thought jumping (going from one line of thought to another in rapid succession) poor concentration and attention abilities (www.mind.org.uk). Negative symptoms are those which in some way take away from the individual such as anhedonia (not getting pleasure out of activities which were previously pleasurable) and social withdrawal from social situations and a lack of interest in personal hygiene (such as not washing or changing clothes). Treatment of individuals with schizophrenia can be in hospital (forced through section or voluntarily in some cases) and in community settings, and should involve a mixture of pharmacological treatment (typical and atypical antipsychotic medications) and psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in order to manage current symptoms, and in preventing and minimizing future relapse and crises. Nursing of individuals with a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia within a community setting (e.g. after discharge from hospital or when patients not under section and do not want to go to hospital) will be conducted by a community psychiatric nurse (CPN) who will often be working within a community mental health team (CMHT) from a care programme approach. The role of the CPN has diversified over recent years, and is now often nominated within the CMHT to act as the individuals key worker (i.e. who the patient will have most contact with in the CMHT). CPNs can be seen to be involved in patient care interventions in a number of capacities. The most predominant (and traditional) intervention role of the CPN may be seen in the medication management of people with schizophrenia. Typical (haloperidol) and atypical (aripiprazole, olanzapine etc) antipsychotic medication use now mean that around 70% of patients will experience some degree of relief to their psychotic symptoms (McCann, 2001). However relief is most often not absolute and the majority of patients will experience some form of side effects. In typical (older generation drugs) this is often in terms of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) such as movement disorders like Tardive Dyskinsia, and although newer atypical drugs are renowned for less EPS, side effects can include weight gain, sexual dysfunction and sedation. CPNs are therefore an important contact with the patient in ensuring that they are taking their medication correctly, and in identifying patients who may be experiencing high levels of side effects who as a result are at a high risk of discontinuing their medications. By identifying such individuals, relapse can be minimized by helping the patient to engage with clinical services to investigate other medication options of which there are a good number. Switching is a term used by professionals to define this process and it is not unusual for patients to have to switch between medications a number of times, before finding the most appropriate drug / combination. Dosage required is also a very individual factor, and therefore an important aspect of medication management is to check to signs that dosage is high enough to enable clinical relief, but also low enough to minimize side effects. CPNs are thus often in a position to recognize if their patients are not on high enough dosages. The way in which medication is administered will also differ between patients some may be able to take their drugs orally, but a number of patients with schizophrenia are on a form of drug administration called depots. These are long-lasting injections of the antipsychotic, and are often used for patients who suffer severe episodes and those who have a history of non-compliance in taking their medication (Jackson-Koku, 2001). CPNs may also act in helping people come to terms with the fact that they are suffering from an illness, as denial is common in those mental illnesses such as schizophrenia (Fung Fry, 1999), often referred to as lacking insight into illness, and so discuss the need for taking their medications. Providing medication related information is therefore an important part of the medication interventions that nurses are involved with, and will often include discussions about side effects, recognizing early signs of illness and other concerns the person may have. Nurses are however becoming increasingly involved in psycho-educational (Fung Fry, 1999) and psychological therapy (McCann, 2001) based interventions in their patient care within community settings for sufferers and their families. Such approaches have in the literature, been described as aiming at increasing social functioning, decreasing distress, and reducing hospital admission rates (Tarrier Birchwood, 1995) These educational interventions are so targeted on helping to reduce distress in more drug-resistant cases, to help both sufferers and their family (Leff et al, 2001) deal with the illness and learn the signs of relapse and symptom return, and as mentioned above, in increasing medication compliance through better understanding and information. (McCann, 2001) Psychological therapies such as CBT and cognitive therapy (CT) have found recognized success in treating many mental illnesses including schizophrenia including when used within community settings (Morrison et al, 2004), as are aimed at helping people deal emotionally with their illness and its associated distress, but also to help on a practical level through promoting relapse prevention strategies and reducing social disability (Fowler, Garety Kuipers, 1995) Coping techniques and strategies can also be discussed when CPNs become aware and gain knowledge into what particular symptoms are causing people most distress. One example of this could be distraction techniques discussed with those who are having problems with auditory hallucinations; one method that is known for helping many people with this is to listen to music. CPNs often also play an important counseling role to those they support (royal college of psychiatrists,1997). Acting as key workers for people with schizophrenia gives many CPNs the opportunity to get to know the person, and so are in a position to use the discussions they have with their patients in an intervention capacity. Counseling may help in anxiety and distress reduction, but also will provide invaluable insight for the CPN into what the person is going through, how much they understand and whether they are doing well or becoming ill. All this information will play a crucial role in the assessment capacity that the CPN also performs within the care programme. CPNs are thus seen to be involved in many aspects of peoples outpatient care in community settings. Especially involved in medication, information and more recently psychosocial and psychological interventions, nurses looking after people with schizophrenia within the community are central to the patients care programme, and act as an invaluable access into mental health services (McCann Clark, 2003) for community patients.

Osha 1994 in Malaysias Construction Industry

Osha 1994 in Malaysias Construction Industry The construction industry is the builder of our modern world. Nowadays, rapid economic development has not only led to the significant improvement in incomes and the quality of life, but also resulting in great increases in the number of people killed and injured at work. The statistics of accidents at construction sites give us a picture that Malaysian construction industry is one of the critical sectors that need a huge and fast overhaul from the current site practices. Accidents are caused by the unsafe acts, unsafe condition or both. In order to improve the safety and health and minimize the rate of accidents, our government had implemented the OSHA 1994 in Malaysian construction industry. This study was started out by reviewing the literature from journals, articles, magazines, newspaper, web pages and relevant books. This study is carried out has the purpose of investigate the implementation of OSHA 1994 in Malaysian construction industry. In order to achieve the five objective s of this study, qualitative research method was employed to achieve the objectives. Hence the data obtained from primary source that is interview with the safety officer at few of the selected construction site. For the secondary sources found in the regulation of OSHA 1994, journals, articles, magazines, newspapers, thesis, web pages and case study. The finding of this research reveals the general duties of employers, employers and safety officer at construction site, the types of construction accidents and its causes and some of the effective ways in order to minimize the accident of construction. Furthermore, this study also proposes some recommendations to reduce the accidents in Malaysian construction industry based on the result of this research. Introduction Background Construction can be a very difficult and extremely dangerous work. According to the Charles and James (2006), people in the construction industry not only face the dangers of being the first on jobsite, but face potential risks and exposure throughout the building process. However, construction industry performs poorly in occupational safety and health. So, our government has implemented the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994 into our construction industry. OSHA was enacted on 25th February 1994 with the intent to ensure safety, health and welfare of all persons at all places of work. However, our construction industry has not taken into mind especially for those workers and developer. The purpose of OSHA 1994 is to promote and encourage occupational safety and health awareness among workers and to create organization along with the effective safety and health measures. While the aims of OSHA 1994 are, to secure the safety, health and welfare of a persons at work and othe r than work against risks to safety or health arising out of the activities of persons at work ,to promote an occupational environment for persons at work which is adapted to their physiological and psychological needs and to provide the means whereby the associated occupational safety and health legislation may be progressively replaced by a system of regulations and approved industry codes of practice operating in combination with the provisions of this Act designed to maintain or improve the standards of safety and health. Construction industry are expected to comply with the provision of the act such as general duty of employer and employee, the requirement of safety officer regulation, the requirement of safety and health committee and responsibilities of reporting of accidents and dangerous occurrences. Precaution need to be taken to limit exposures which have the potential to cause detrimental health effects to construction workers. Problem Statement The construction industry is considered as one of the most dangerous industrial sector wherein the construction workers are more prone to accidents. Recently, the construction accidents in our country increase accordingly. Safety and health in the Malaysian construction industry has lagged behind most other industries as evidenced by its proportion high rate of accidents. It is due to the unawareness of the workers and employers in the construction site. One of the most important problems is the attitude of the workers and the developer. Therefore, they prefer working at the construction site without using the safety and health equipment and did not obey the regulation in the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994. As a result, OSHA plays an important role in construction industry. Key Questions Why constructions accidents still keep on increasing although OSHA 1994 had implemented in our construction industry? Do all the employers and employees comply with the rules and regulations of OSHA 1994 in construction industry? Aim To investigate the implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 in Malaysian construction industry and to recommend effective ways to reduce the accidents at construction site. Objectives To study the regulations and laws of OSHA 1994 that had implemented in Malaysian construction industry. To identify the role of workers at construction site. To identify the important roles of safety officer at construction site. To analyze the common types of accidents and occurred in construction site and its causes. To investigate the ways to reduce the rate of accidents in construction site. Scope of Study The research will look into the implementation of OSHA 1994 in the Malaysian construction industry. This research will look for the safety and health at selected construction site. Areas of study are limited to the following: Study the regulations on employers, employees and safety officers. Identify the regulation of OSHA 1994 at construction site whether all the employers and employees have complied or not. Identifying the real situation of safety and health at the construction site. Literature Review OSHA 1994 is enforced in Malaysia in 25 February 1994 by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). The act defined the self-regulation and duties of employer, employee, designer/manufacturer and suppliers. The duty of every employer is to ensure safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees. For the employees, they shall be take reasonable care for the safety and health of himself and other persons at work who might be affected. Under the OSHA 1994, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH) was established. The purpose of NCOSH is to improve level of awareness of occupational safety and health and to ensure the safety of all workplaces in Malaysia. The functions of NCOSH are as following: Changes deemed appropriate for occupational safety and health legislation; Administration and enforcement of occupational safety and health legislation; Open communication between management and employees regarding workers safety, health and welfare; Adequate control methods for industrial chemicals in the workplace; Work related death and accident statistical analysis; Issues dealing with the safety, health and welfare of woman, the handicapped and other groups in the community. Encouraging the development and acceptance of an industrial codes of practices related to workers safety, health and welfare; Development of rehabilitation plans and facilities to help those injured in the workplace. The legislation also contains provision for formulating regulations and Code of Practices (COPs), which indicate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“what should be doneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  and thus assist the employer to comply with the Act. According to Rozanah (1994), it is very important for the employers to manage occupational safety and health at their workplace because lack of management control often leads to the existence of causes of accidents and allows for the unsafe practices among the workers. In the construction industry, accidents can be categorizes into several types. According to Master Journal (2004), they have categories all types of the construction accidents into ten ranges. There are struck against, struck by falling, flying, shattering, sliding and moving objects, caught in, on or between in- running nip, pinching, shearing, rotating, reciprocating, punching, pulling and jerking, carrying actions, fall on same levels, fall on different level, slip or overexertion strain and hernia, gradual onset and ergonomic cumulative trauma disorders, repetitive stress injuries, exposure to extreme temperatures, inhalation of poisonous gas and noise distraction. Allan (2006) claimed that there are a lot of causes that cause the accidents happened in the construction workplace. Accidents are the direct result of unsafe activities and unsafe condition. Unsafe condition and unsafe act are often referred to as primary causes of accidents, because they are the most obvious causes and they are usually directly involved or present at the moment the accidents happens. Secondary causes are also important. They are normally due to the failures of the management system to anticipate, and include lack of training, maintenance, adequate job planning and instruction, and not having safe system of work in place. Examples of unsafe act are working without authority, leaving equipment in a dangerous condition, using equipment at the wrong speed, horseplay, drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Examples for the unsafe conditions are inadequate or missing guards to moving machine parts, missing platforms guardrails, defective tools and equipment, fire hazards and ineffective housekeeping. Allan (2006) acknowledged that, there are seven principles in order to minimize the occurrence of accidents at construction industry. There are avoid a risk altogether by eliminating the hazard, tackle risk at source, adapt work to the individual when designing work areas and selecting methods of work, use technology to improve conditions, give priority to protection for the whole workplace rather than to individuals, ensure everyone understand what they have to do to be safe and healthy at work, and the last one is to make sure health and safety management is accepted by everyone. Research Methodologies A research methodology is the way in which the objectives can be questioned. There are two types of research methodologies, which are quantitative research and qualitative research. In my thesis dissertation, I would like to choose qualitative research as my method of research. According to Naoum (2002; p.40), qualitative research is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"subjectiveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in nature. It emphasizes meanings, experiences, description and so on. For my dissertation, I will use a primary source that is interview with the safety officer is one of the methods to acquire the information. I will interview with at least five safety officer in order to collecting the information to achieve my objectives. Interview is one of the major technique for collecting factual information as well as opinion. It is face-to-face interpersonal role situation in which an interviewer asks respondents questions designed to elicit answers pertinent to the research hypothesis. Besides, I also will choose case study for my dissertation. I will choose some of the construction site to study and to investigate about the safety and health of the workers in the construction site. Case study is one of the best methods because it involved an in-depth, longitudinal examination of an event. It provides a systematic ways of looking at the events, collecting data, analyzing information and reporting the result. Throughout the case study, I can observe on whether the construction workers and safety officer have comply with the regulation as stated in the OSHA 1994 or not. By the way, I also will use secondary materials in order to complete my dissertation. Secondary materials are data which already available or had been drawn conclusion by other researchers. For example, the government publications, earlier researches, personal records and company record are the secondary sources. In order to get an efficient result, I will search some relevant reference books, journal, web pages, magazines, articles, newspaper that are related to the implementation of OSHA 1994 in Malaysian construction industry. Among these sources, journal articles and previous studies are the most relevant sources as they provide detailed findings. The journal articles may come from different independent and formal group and different universities libraries. Literature study is an effective ways on order to do the dissertation.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Essay -- English Literature:

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Introduction The Hound of the Baskervilles is a traumatic and adventurous story about a legend that comes with the birth right of the Baskerville family. The story both begins and ends with tragedy. The story firstly begins with the death of Sir Charles Baskerville and a cunning and eccentric detective. Sherlock Holmes is thought of as a highly mannered but stubborn man whom is willing to get to the bottom of any case. â€Å"Watson examines a mysterious cane left in the office by an unknown visitor, and Holmes sits with his facing his friend. Holmes asks Watson what he makes of it, and Watson declares that his friend must â€Å"have eyes in the back of [his] head,† since he saw what he was doing. Holmes then admits that he saw Watson’s reflection in the coffee service, providing to Watson and us that he is an astute observer.† This shows that Mr Holmes is an honest man. As the story continues the reader finds that there is believed to be a curse within the Baskerville family. In this essay I am going to be looking into this story and pointing out ten key areas: Baskerville legend Death of sir Charles Arrivals at the Hall Views of the Locals Barrymore of the window Discovery of Sherlock Death of the convict Waiting for Sir Henry Attack on Sir Henry Death of Stapleton Sir Hugo, is described in the legend as â€Å"a wild propane and godless man.† This suggests that his inhumanity and â€Å"evil† make him potentially a viable enemy who will stop at nothing. It is Sir Hugo that sets the scene for the setting. Sir Hugo uses his power and Baskerville hall as a prison for the young girl. She manages to escape by, â€Å"the aid of the growth of ivy which covered the south walk.† The ivy indicated the age and wildness of the hall a... ...askerville† follows the traditional structure of a Victorian tale, with all the stereotypical characters, and all is resolved at the end of the novel. However, we do not know what happens to Stapleton in the end. We presume that he gets lost in the Grimpen mire and dies, but the author does not tell us what actually happens to him, to end the novel in suspense. This would be a change from the usual, so would entertain the Victorian audience. â€Å"Stapleton never reached that island refuge†¦sucked him in, this cold and cruel-hearted man is forever buried.† It is as if the countryside is a character in its own right, the moor gave birth to Stapleton’s scheme but it also took it away. The land is unsafe, walking alone is ainsane idea. â€Å"Holmes sank to his waist as he stepped from the path†¦had we not been there to drag him out he could never have set foot upon firm land again.†

Left Behind Book Series :: essays research papers

Feeling left behind? You might be if you have looked in the religion section of a bookstore recently. Since 1995, over fifty million books bearing the banner of the Left Behind series have showed up not only in Protestant bookstores but also in mainstream, secular bookstores. In 1998 the original four books of the series simultaneously occupied the top four slots in the New York Times bestseller list—which does not count sales figures from Protestant bookstores. The tenth volume of the series debuted at number one on the list. The books of the Left Behind series offer a fictionalized account of the end of the world, based on the authors’ understanding of the book of Revelation and other Bible prophecies. But Left Behind is much more than a series of books. It is a multi-media franchise that includes not only the original novels (which should total twelve to fourteen) but also two motion pictures, over twenty children’s books, study guides, dramatized and unabridged audio books, and graphic novels—with more on the way! Also attached to the franchise are a number of non-fiction works in which the authors explain their views of Bible prophecy in a straightforward manner rather than using the form of a novel. Evangelical publishing has never seen a phenomenon like this. It dwarfs even The Late Great Planet Earth, which was the best-selling book of the 1970s. Left Behind leaves many Catholics scratching their heads. They may know that it has something to do with the end of the world. Some Catholics have even had Evangelical friends try to get them to read the books as a subtle (or not so subtle) attempt to evangelize them. But few have a clear idea of what the books are about, who is behind them, and how they relate to the Catholic faith. This is a problem. There is nothing wrong with having a successful publishing franchise, but when that franchise contains anti-Catholic prejudice and bad theology, that is a problem. Matters are worse when the franchise is so profit-driven that it puts making a buck over the spiritual and psychological well-being of children. As we will see, Left Behind does all of that. The Man Behind Left Behind The Left Behind books carry the bylines of two men, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The latter is a prolific freelance author and ghostwriter who has published several dozen books. He is the actual author of the Left Behind books, but his is the less important role, because he does not generate the ideas for them.

Mr Nobody Essay

Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film. It was written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, produced by Philippe Godeau, and starred Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo and Juno Temple. The film tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, a 118 year-old man who is the last mortal on Earth after the human race has achieved quasi-immortality. Nemo, memory fading, refers to his three main loves and to his parent’s divorce and subsequent hardships endured at three main moments in his life; him at age nine, fifteen and thirty-four. Nemo tells the story including alternate life paths, often changing course with the flick of a decision at each of those ages. The film uses nonlinear narrative and the many-worlds interpretation to tell the story of Nemo’s life. Mr. Nobody had its world premiere at the 66th Venice International Film Festival where it received the Golden Osella and the Biografilm Lancia Award. Critical response was generally strong and the film was nominated for seven Magritte Awards, winning six, including Best Film and Best Director for Van Dormael. The film was released in Belgium on January 13, 2010. Since its original release, Mr. Nobody has become a cult film, noted for its philosophy and cinematography, personal characters and Pierre Van Dormael’s soundtrack.[1][2] Plot: In the year 2092, Nemo Nobody is a 118-year-old man, the last mortal on Earth. Humanity has conquered mortality through an endless renewal of cells, and the world now watches in fascination as Mr. Nobody edges towards death. Everyone wants to know the life that he has lived. Nemo himself says that he remembers nothing about his past and a psychiatrist, Dr. Feldheim, tries to make him recall memories through hypnosis; other memories are told to a journalist. Nemo spits out contradictory pieces as he is prodded, and no one is sure what happened and what didn’t. He is less than clear, often thinking that he is only 34 years old. He tells of his life at three primary points in his life: at age nine, when his parents get divorced; at age fifteen, when he fell in love; and at age thirty-four, living his adulthood – all three unravelled into many other realities in a nonlinear narrative. At the beginning of the story it’s explained that before birth, children remember everything that will happen in their lives, but at the moment of conception, the Angels of Oblivion make them forget everything. Eventually, the Angels forget about Nemo. Now the boy first has to choose his parents. At age 9, his second choice happens when they divorce, and he has to decide with whom he will live. At a railway station, his mother leaves on a train, while his father stays. In one case he runs to reach the train and his mother manages to pull him in, in another he stays with his father. Epilogue: Before his death, Mr. Nobody tells the journalist that they both don’t exist; they are in the mind of Nemo as a boy, when he is being forced to make an impossible choice. The journalist is then seen looking out of a train window at 9 year-old Nemo as he just misses catching hold of his mother’s hand. The implication is that Nemo made use of that unknown man’s face in one of his imaginary projections into his own distant future. Back at the railway station one final time, Nemo creates a third and totally unexpected choice for himself; he abandons both parents and takes another way out of the dilemma by running away from the tracks in a perpendicular line towards an unknown future. He ends up as the adult Nemo sleeping on a bench by the lighthouse and waiting for Anna’s return. There is, eventually, an ecstatically joyful reunion between them where the two lovingly embrace. At the precise moment Mr. Nobody dies of old age, the expansion of the universe comes to a halt and time reverses itself. The imaginary 118 year-old man then cackles triumphantly as he springs back into awareness with the realization that his younger self has finally found his one true love and life.

Data Warehouse Case Study Essay

History of the CDR When the project began in 1995–96, the CDR, initially referred to as the â€Å"clinical research database,† was intended to support and enhance clinical research at the University of Virginia by providing clinicians, students, and researchers with direct, rapid access to retrospective clinical and administrative patient data. Re? ecting this intent, the system was funded by the School of Medicine and housed in the Academic Computing Health Sciences group, which is distinct from the medical center’s IT group. With considerable assistance and cooperation from data owners and stewards, legacy data from several different sources were loaded into a single relational database and periodically updated. Authorized users accessed the CDR through a standard Web browser and viewed or downloaded data to their personal computers for further analysis. Initially, emphasis was placed on getting the CDR running as quickly as possible and with a minimum of resources; consequently, extensive transformation of data to an enterprise data model was not performed. The CDR project team consists of 2. 5–3. 0 FTEs (full-time equivalents)— one developer, one developer-database administrator, and portions of analyst, clinician, and administrative FTEs. To date, the costs of developing and operating the CDR have been approximately $200,000 per year, underwritten by the School of Medicine. Over the course of the project, there have been signi? cant enhancements to the user interface, incorporation of additional data sources, and the development of an integrated data model. There has also been increasing interest in using the CDR to serve a broader audience than researchers and to support management and administrative functions—â€Å"to meet the challenge of providing a way for anyone with a need to know—at every level of the organization—access to accurate and timely data necessary to support effective decision making, clinical research, and process improvement. In the area of education, the CDR has become a core teaching resource for the Department of Health Evaluation Science’s master’s program and for the School of Nursing. Students use the CDR to understand and master informatics issues such as data capture, vocabularies, and coding, as well as to perform Case Study: A Data Warehouse for an Academic Medical Center 167 exploratory analyses of healthcare questions. Starting in Spring 2001, the CDR will also be introduced into the university’s undergraduate medical curriculum. System Description Following is a brief overview of the CDR application as it exists at the University of Virginia. System Architecture. The CDR is a relational data warehouse that resides on a Dell PowerEdge 1300 (Dual Intel 400MHz processors, 512MB RAM) running the Linux operating system and Sybase 11. 9. 1 relational database management system. For storage, the system uses a Dell Powervault 201S 236GB RAID Disk Array. As of October 2000, the database contained 23GB of information about 5. 4 million patient visits (16GB visit data, 7GB laboratory results). Data loading into Sybase is achieved using custom Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) programs. CDR Contents. The CDR currently draws data from four independent systems (see Table 1). In addition, a number of derived values (for example, number of days to next inpatient visit, number of times a diagnostic code is used in various settings) are computed to provide summary information for selected data elements. Data from each of these source systems are integrated into the CDR’s data model. In addition to the current contents listed in Table 1, users and the CDR project team have identi? ed additional data elements that might be incorporated Table 1. Contents of the CDR Type of Data Inpatient, outpatient visits Source of Data Shared Medical Systems Description Patient registration and demographic data, diagnoses, procedures, unit and census information, billing transactions, including medications, costs, charges, reimbursement, insurance information Physician billing transactions from inpatient and outpatient visits, diagnoses, and procedures Laboratory test results Available Dates Jul 1993–Jun 2000 Professional billing Laboratory results Cardiac surgery IDX billing system HL-7 messages from SunQuest Lab System Cardiac surgery outcomes data (de? ned by Society of Thoracic Surgeons Oct 1992–Jun 2000 Jan 1996–Jun 2000 Clinical details for thoracic surgery cases Jul 1993–Jun 2000 168 Einbinder, Scully, Pates, Schubart, Reynolds into the CDR, including microbiology results, discharge summaries (and other narrative data), outpatient prescribing information, order entry details, and tumor registry information. As of October 2000, we have just ? nished incorporating death registry data from the Virginia Department of Health into the CDR. These data will provide our users with direct access to more comprehensive mortality outcomes data than are contained in local information systems, which generally are restricted to an in-hospital death indicator. User Interface. The user interface runs in a standard Web browser and consists of a data dictionary, a collection of common gateway interface (CGI) programs implemented using the â€Å"C† programming language, and JavaScriptenabled HTML pages. Structured query language (SQL) statements are generated automatically in response to point-and-click actions by the user, enabling submission of ad hoc queries without prior knowledge of SQL. The SQL queries are sent to the CGI programs that query the database and return results in dynamically created HTML pages. The entire process is controlled by the contents of the data dictionary, which is used to format SQL results, set up HTML links for data drill-down, and provide on-line help. Data may be downloaded immediately into Microsoft Excel or another analysis tool on the user’s workstation. Query Formulation. Most CDR users use the Guided Query function to retrieve data. This process involves three steps: 1. De? ne a population of interest by setting conditions, for example, date ranges, diagnostic codes, physician identi? ers, service locations, and lab test codes or values. 2. Submit the query, specifying how much data the CDR should return (all matching data or a speci? ed number of rows). 3. After the CDR returns the population of interest, use the Report Menu to explore various attributes of the population on a case-by-case or group level. Custom reports can also be de? ned, and the results of any report can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel, Access, or other analysis tool. Generally, the query process requires several iterations to modify the population conditions or report options. In addition, â€Å"browsing† the data may help the user generate ideas for additional queries. We believe that it is helpful for end users to go through this query process themselves—to directly engage the data. However, many users, especially those with a pressing need for data for a meeting, report, or grant, prefer to use CDR team members as intermediaries or analysts. To date, we have attempted to meet this preference, but as query volume increases, our ability to provide data in a timely manner may fall off. Security. A steering committee of clinicians guided the initial development of the CDR and established policies for its utilization and access. Only authorized users may log onto the CDR. To protect con? dentiality, all patient and physician identifying information has been partitioned into a â€Å"secure† Case Study: A Data Warehouse for an Academic Medical Center 169 database. Translation from or to disguised identi? ers to or from actual identi? ers is possible but requires a written request and appropriate approval (for example, from a supervisor or the human investigations committee). All data transmitted from the database server to the user’s browser are encrypted using the secure Netscape Web server, and all accesses to the database are logged. In addition, CDR access is restricted to personal computers that are part of the â€Å"Virginia. edu† domain or that are authenticated by the university’s proxy server. Evaluation Understanding user needs is the basis for improving the CDR to enable users to retrieve the data independently and to increase usage of the CDR at our institution. Thus, assessing the value of the CDR—how well we meet our users’ needs and how we might increase our user base—has been an important activity that has helped guide planning for changes and enhancements and for allocation of our limited resources. Efforts to evaluate the CDR have included several approaches: †¢ Monitoring user population and usage patterns †¢ Administering a CDR user survey †¢ Tracking queries submitted to the CDR and performing follow-up telephone interviews Usage Statistics. Voluntary usage of an IS resource is an important measure of its value and of user satisfaction. 5 However, usage of a data warehouse is likely to be quite different than for other types of information resources, such as clinical information systems. A clinical system is likely to be used many times per day; a data warehouse may be used sporadically. Thus, although we monitor system usage as a measure of the CDR’s value, we believe that frequency of usage cannot be viewed in isolation in assessing the success of a data warehouse. Since the CDR went â€Å"live,† more than 300 individuals have requested and obtained logon IDs. As of September 30, 2000, 213 individuals had logged on and submitted at least one query. This number does not include usage by CDR project team members and does not re? ect analyses performed by team members for end users. Figure 1 shows the cumulative number of active users (those who submitted a query) and demonstrates a linear growth pattern.