All Quiet On The Western Front :: essays research papers

Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that takes you through the life of a soldier in World War I. Remarque is accurately able to portray the episodes soldiers go through. All Quiet on the Western Front shows the change in attitudes of the men before and during the war. This novel is able to show the great change war has evolved to be. From lining your men up and charging in the eighteenth century, to digging and â€Å"living† in the trenches with rapid-fire machine guns, bombs, and flame-throwers being exposed in your trench a short five meters away. Remarque makes one actually feel the fun and then the tragedy of warfare. At the beginning of the novel Remarque gives you nationalist feelings through pride of Paul and the rest of the boys. However at the end of the war Remarque shows how pointless war really is. This is felt when everyone starts to die as the war progresses. Remarque accurately portrays all aspects of the war. However Remarque is best able to portray the effects the war has on the soldiers and the rest of the people and the scene of the battlefield compared to home. The war scarred the soldiers permanently, if not physically then mentally. After the war the soldiers usually never recovered from the war. Two of the most common side affects of the war were shell shock and stir crazy. When suffering from shell shock a soldier’s brain doesn’t function properly and the man is a â€Å"vegetable†. This means the man is alive but he can’t do anything because he is in a state of shock because of the war. Stir crazy is a mental illness caused by the firing of so many bullets that when no bullets are heard by the victim he goes insane. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started. Young recruits were first sent because the veterans knew they were going to come back dead. "When we run out again, although I am very excited, I suddenly think: â€Å"where’s Himmelstoss?† Quickly I jump back into the dug-out and find him with a small scratch lying in a corner pretending to be wounded.† (P 131) Even t he big men like Himmelstoss are scared to go fight. They too go through the mental illnesses like stir crazy and shell shock. â€Å"He is in a panic; he is new to it too.

Discrimination or Disparity in Policing

Discrimination refers to a difference in the kind of treatment given to individuals based on the race, ethnic background, social class, gender and so forth. Disparity on the other hand refers to a difference in outcomes of a situation which is not necessarily as a result of differential treatment or any kind of biased treatment. According to Wrobleski (2005), discrimination can be defined as a differential unequal treatment exhibited by a person when dealing with an individual from a certain race, sex, religion or ethnic origin.In policing, all citizens in a country are entitled to equal amount of protection under the state laws as a sign of democracy. Discrimination in policing occurs when police officers in a given state fail to practice fair treatment when dealing with their workmates and members of the public due to race, gender, ethnic origin, skin color or religion biases and it is a bit different from disparity. For instance, many traffic policemen are known to easily forgive women drivers who violate traffic rules but the same policemen become very strict when dealing with male drivers.On the other hand, women are known to be more careful drivers than their male counterparts and thus, not many women drivers violate traffic rules. The fact that there are many male traffic rules violators than women might lead to some difference in the number of traffic tickets given to women as opposed to those given to men. This kind of difference will be referred to as disparity and not discrimination. The police force has in the recent past being highly associated with cases of discrimination and favoritism.This paper seeks top identify the types of discrimination and disparity in policing mainly based on gender, race and class. Racial discrimination and disparity. The issue of racial and ethnic discrimination and disparity in policing has been widely researched and most studies indicate that there is a common pattern of systematic discrimination and disparity related to factors such as involvement in criminal activities, drug abuse and so forth. Systematic discrimination in policing can be defined as the type of differential treatment which is always present in a state's justice system regardless of the time or place.Most of racial discrimination in the justice systems exists in form of racial profiling (Wrobleski, 2005). Racial profiling refers to a situation whereby members of a certain race or ethnic origin are subjected to extensive surveillance, police force and criminal justice than others. For instance, law enforcement officers in the U. S have been accused of using the authority given to them in a discretionary way when dealing with minority motorists. The word minority here refers to the blacks, Hispanics or native Americans (Walker, Cassia & Miriam, 2000).This is a case of racial profiling and such cases have brought so much controversy in the American policing with many people claiming that the high rates of minority involvement in t raffic stops as opposed to the number of whites involved reflects how biased the traffic police officers are in terms of race. A study carried out by the U. S Rand Corporation in 2006 showed that the minority populations are more likely to be stopped by traffic officers, searched and accused of drug trafficking unlike their white counterparts.The study also discovered some pattern of racial disparities with many drug traffickers located in some parts of the state inhabited by the blacks and the Hispanics unlike those areas inhabited by the whites (Lanier & Stuart, 2008). However, the law enforcers are quick to defend themselves on this accusations claiming that they operate under pressure to track and bring to book those involved in drug use and trafficking activities. The term racial profiling has been replaced with racial biased policing to show how policing in U.S is biased towards the minority population. Apart from traffic police officers, the law enforcing unit in U. S has bee n generally accused of possessing a high tendency of using excessive force when dealing with the minority groups than when dealing with the whites. According to Fukurai (2002), racial discrimination and disparity in the U. S has also been identified in the federal justice systems. Racial disparities in the criminal justice systems has been attributed to the high number of minority populations involved in criminal activities.Racial discrimination is responsible for the disparity seen in police arrests, jury selection and prosecution procedures in the current criminal justice systems in the U. S. Gender discrimination and disparity. Discrimination in policing on the bases of gender is very common in U. S just like in most parts of the world. The major issue of gender discrimination and disparity in the U. S policing is associated with lack of gender integration whereby for a long time now, women have been highly ignored and denied the chance to work as police officers.However, a call for gender equality and affirmative action has increasingly advocated for women in the police force and through continued struggle and determination, more and more women are now working in the police force. The major challenge now is that, women police officers are discriminated against and have not been fully accepted by their male counterparts. Such women are subjected to cold reception, hostility and sexual harassment by their male workmates, supervisors and the police department as a whole (Wilbanks, 2007).Other challenges which affect women in policing include too many family responsibilities, conflict in societal roles, sexual harassment, doubts by the public concerning their ability to compete with their male counterparts, doubts about their self worth, inadequate facilities in the police force such as uniforms, locker rooms and so forth. This type of discrimination is worse when the woman in question belongs to the minority population. Researches have indicated that women fr om the minority populations are exposed to higher discrimination than the white women (Fukurai, 2002).However, it has been found that regardless of the race, all women in policing face a substantial amount of discrimination. Gender disparity in U. S is evident from the statistics depicted by a report by the State Security Department in 2007 which showed that women constitute only four percent of the police force as compared to their male counterparts (Miller, 2007). This can be attributed to discrimination in enrolling women to the police force and the conditions they are subjected to at the work place.Apart from discrimination of women police officers at the work place, another form of gender discrimination in policing is evident whereby, male police officers have been found to act with some level of leniency when dealing with women offenders unlike when dealing with male offenders. This is mostly common especially when the woman in question is young and attractive. Moreover, cases of police officers and law enforcers who ask for sexual favors from women so as to overlook their cases or rule in their favor are also quite common. Class discrimination and disparity.In the U. S, wealth distribution varies widely within the three major social classes. This includes upper class, middle class and low class societies. Most people in U. S fall under the middle class category. Discrimination in policing is brought about by the fact that law enforcers are more biased against low class populations as opposed to those in the middle and upper-class societies (Wrobleski, 2005). When it comes to justice and fairness, the poor people are often denied their rights by the rich and when they go to court, the accuser becomes the accused.This is because the rich have money to bribe in order to have justice passed in their favor. Disparity in terms of social class is common in policing due ti the fact that most poor people have a higher likelihood of engaging in crime and criminal activities when seeking means of survival. This is the main reason why crime is found to be more prevalent among low class societies as opposed to the upper and middle class societies. Conclusion. It is clear that discrimination or disparity is very common in U. S policing based on race, class and gender.Most of the reports and researches reviewed indicate that racial based discrimination is the most common type of discrimination in policing with most police officers practicing what is known as racial profiling. This affects the minority populations of all background regardless of their gender or class. Contemporary researches have also shown that the three types of discrimination interact closely with each other. For instance, most of the minority populations in U. S live in perpetual poverty due to lack of employment and unequal income distribution.This exposes them to higher discrimination due to their race as well as the social class. In addition, it has been found that most bl ack women who work in the police force are subjected to more gender discrimination than the white women. To some extent, discrimination in the police force leads to disparity especially in the case of gender discrimination among women in policing. It can thus be concluded that, discrimination has greatly affected the administration of justice in the criminal justice system and this calls for affirmative action to administer reforms in the system and ensure equal and fair justice for all. Reference. Fukurai, H. (2002). Where Did Hispanic Jurors Go? Racial and Ethnic Disenfranchisement in the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Grand Jury and the Search for Justice. Western Criminology Review 2(2). [Online].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved on Sept 20, 2008 from, . Miller, T. (2007). Gender Discrimination in U. S Policing. New York: Free Press. Lanier, M. and Stuart, H. (2008). Defining Crime. Essential Criminology.   Boulder, CO:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Westview Press. Walker, S., Cassia. S. & Miriam, D. (2000). The Color of Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Publishing Company. Wilbanks, W. (2007). The Myth of the Racist Criminal Justice System. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Wrobleski, M. & Karen, M. (2005). Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.

Reason vs Passion Essay

The view that reason is the superior principle and it causes an action is a fallacy. Having said this, Reason alone can never cause action. What really causes an action is a Passion to act according to what you desire to do. Reason however can be a passion’s or desire’s guide to discover the connection of the causes and effects. Reasoning as is what takes place in our mind and works in terms of experience or as a copy of a late event isn’t really what can cause an action. But since passion or desire takes place in a real world surely is the one that causes action. Reason guides the impulse to act. The fact that reason makes judgements using demonstration which never influence us to act but otherwise guide our action or the causes and effects it is not subjected to cause action. If for example in my reasoning I want to cross the road. In reasoning that I have to crossing the road, reason doesn’t tell me that there are speeding cars in the road and therefore I should wait for them. But for the fact that it is my desire not to get hit by a car I will have to wait until the cars have stopped then I can cross over. Now for the fact that it is my passion or desire not to be hit by a car it states it clear that passion have caused the whole action of crossing the road. My actions have been experimented in the real world according to my desire of crossing the road not only reason about crossing over. Passion is the cause of action. This is because whatever I desire results to the effects that I have expected. If I’m passionate to pass PHIL203 examination, then studying hard is the action that caused by the desire to pass. For I have reasoned in my mind that if I don’t study hard then I will fail, it is therefore my desire not to fail and I should study hard. The reason has been taken into account to direct or guide my action but the actual action has been caused by my desire or passion of not wanting to fail or of wanting to pass. So reason alone can never oppose passion or a desire or it can never prevent the choice of decision (volition) resulted from the will or even to question nor challenge any of my desires or passion. The reason therefore will always be seen to be the assistant or a slave of passion since it is ought to guide or direct our actions and discover the causes and effects while passion is causing the real action. But you got to have a reason to act then a passion can come in to bring the reason into real action. We just have to align with the reason why we have to act, have passion to desire or act at the centre of the reasoning idea, obey and serve our reason. But then again, we shouldn’t be ambushed that reason alone causes action because reason is just an idea in our minds and passion or desire is a real action that is taking place. If for example I have failed PHIL101 examination due to not studying hard then I have an experience of how dangerous it could be not to study. The reason doesn’t force me to study due to the experience I have or a copy of the last event or experience that resulted in not studying hard. This is so because reason is just a copy of an experience and it doesn’t influence me to act. But since reason have discovered the causes and effect and those causes and effects are effecting me I then desire not to be affected by those causes and effect and become passionate or make it my desire to pass the exam then studying is an act of passing for if I desire to pass therefore I should study which states it clear that passion is the cause of an action and a reason as the director. Passion is an original existence which means it is not based on experienced. Passion is not an idea in mind of what has happened before but it is a real event or action that takes place in a real world at any point in time. If for example I’m happy that I have passed PHIL203 examination, that emotion is not a copy or reference of any other object e. g. buying an Apple laptop. There is therefore no way in which a passion can be opposed or be contradictory to the truth or reason unless there are ideas that are not in favour or that are contradictory to the actual or real object they present. This could happen if I for example fear the effects of objects that haven’t or doesn’t exist e.g. fear to fail PHIL203 but not even registered for PHIL203 which means I fear of writing the exam of which I believe that I will write but that I will not write at all maybe again because I didn’t get a DP. In this case the belief is unreasonable not that the passion is. This is because if I have a belief of an effect to be caused by an action of which that effect will no longer take place because there was never a cause of that effect in the first place then belief becomes unreasonable since there was never a cause of any action that would lead to a strongly believed effect. The belief of writing an examination is unreasonable if I’m not registered for the module. If we reason incorrectly about causes and effects then it can lead to our passion being unreasonable again. If there is no false belief or incorrect reasoning about causes and effects then there is no way a passion can be unreasonable. If then I’m registered for PHIL203, got a DP, studying hard, have an experience of what happens if I don’t study hard then there is no way in which passion can be unreasonable therefore it is impossible for passion and reason to oppose each other for the control of will and action. If Stefan denies me a DP then my desire or a belief of writing an exam stops then I shouldn’t bother studying. This means if the belief is false then I must stop caring about an action I desired to take. There are those desires that don’t produce any strongly felt emotion. These kinds of desires concerned the most with what really happening or going on into our minds. It has been argued that these desires are the same as reason but that is quit not true. For the fact that it takes place in our minds doesn’t mean that it doesn’t cause an action. If it was reason alone it wasn’t going to cause any action but for the fact that it is a desire but a calm one, it is subjected to cause action. I don’t really care if my friends fail PHIL203 examination but it is not my desire to see my friends failing. Now for that calm desire I have in mind will cause an action whereby I form a study group with my friends. But then again in the opposite of calm desires there are those desires which produce a strongly felt emotion. These desires are violent in nature. If I have failed PHIL203 examination knowing exactly that I have studied hard and the paper was easy for me will cause an action of being angry with whoever marked my paper and I might even want to see my examination script. Whatever a situation might be a reason will never influence a cause of action but the Passion and the desires we have are the one that cause action. Reason will be a guide or a slave of passion.

Essay on Biography of Barak Obama

Research Front Arnab B Chowdhury – Founder and Knowledge Architect, Ninad Consultancy Services www. ninad. in, [email  protected] in When Technology Meets Health Care in Knowledge Society†¦ Aurosiksha: online learning platform for blindness prevention workers â€Å"Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must also be the joy of doing something beautiful. Being of service to God and humanity means going well beyond the sophistication of the best technology, to the humble demonstration of courtesy and compassion to each patient. † – Dr. G Venkataswamy (Founder Chairman – Aravind Eye Care System) Abstract: This case study (www. urosiksha. org) is about two great movements one in Technology (the FOSS) and the other in Health Care – the Aravind Eye Care Systems (AECS) and LAICO that trains blindness prevention workers. At the con? uence of the two is an eLearning platform called Aurosiksha, which is based on Moodle. Aurosiksha seeks to r each out to the global user, share its rich knowledge base, and in the process create a community of lifelong learners. Keywords: FOSS, ICT, LMS, MOODLE, mLearning, Mobile Moodle, AECS, Aravind, Aravind Eye Care System, Vision 2020, WHO, LAICO, Aurosiksha, eLearning Platform, knowledge society, ocial health care. Introduction As we all know, the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement began as a renegade call to what was felt to be increasing restrictions on collaborative development, distribution, and ownership of software[2]. Free software focuses on the philosophical freedoms (a matter of liberty rather than price) it gives to users, whereas open-source software focuses on the perceived strengths of its peer-topeer development model. Openness, coownership, and transparent collaboration continue to drive the FOSS movement. Development, modi? cation, ownership, and redistribution of software could now e cohesively managed by communities of like-minded developers. This also le d to an evolutionary model of copyright and licensing (GPL) ensuring community ownership. The FOSS movement has evolved from the stages of philosophy and licensing into a complex and pragmatic ecosystem for software production and distribution bene? ting humanity globally. FOSS has introduced technological self-reliance, efficient use and sharing of resources, and C SI Communications | June 2012 | 12 collaborative innovation  and development. One of the most signi? cant areas where the FOSS movement has made strides is in the ?eld of education.During the past decade, education has been rapidly reorganized to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) within the classic teaching-learning-assessing cycle. At the foundation of FOSS is a desire for an equitable and open model of access to knowledge. If one of the aims of FOSS technologies is dissemination of educational content, then Aurosiksha is a case in point. The Case Aurosiksha is an online learning management syste m (LMS). An initiative launched recently (25th July, 2011) in its beta version by Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO), established in 1992 with the support of he Lions Club International, SightFirst Program, and Seva Sight Program. LAICO is Asia's ? rst international training facility for the broad range of blindness prevention workers from India and other parts of the world. It contributes in improving the quality of eye care services through teaching, training, capacity building, advocacy, research, and management consultancy. It offers university-affiliated long-term courses in Eye Care Management, with eye care management programs for directors of eye hospitals, program managers, as well as several skill development courses in the areas of instrument maintenance, community utreach and social marketing, counseling in India, Africa, and South East Asia. LAICO accomplishes this objective within the broader environment of Aravind Eye Hospitals and Aravind Medi cal Research Foundation – all aspects of AECS. Headquartered at Madurai, India, AECS is the world’s largest eye care service provider, which performs 300,000 surgeries per year. Aravind Eye Care was founded and directed by the legendary Padmashree Dr. G Venkataswamy known as Dr. V. Fig. 1: Inspiration and Inspirer www. csi-india. org Fig. 2: LAICO's global reach Designated by the World Health Organization as a Collaborating Centre forPrevention of Blindness, Aravind is studied as a model in prestigious business schools around the world, including Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, IMD-Lausanne, and the Indian Institutes of Management. Currently, LAICO works with over 270 hospitals across the developing world replicating Aravind model of high-quality, low-cost eye care service delivery. Followup studies have shown that several of the programs exposed to the Aravind model have doubled (and in some cases even tripled) surgical productivity and as a result are now ? nancially se lf-sustaining. †¢ †¢ 270+ hospitals (and still growing) that are partnering with Aravind?How do we create courses that cover the broad needs of our trainees that include paraprofessionals, ophthalmologists, eye care program managers, administrators, and others? How do we continue to empower our all-women team of paraprofessionals who form the backbone (about 60%) of Aravind’s workforce? Since †¢ †¢ most of them come from humble, rural background and are trained as assistants and nurses, can this eLearning platform give them the opportunity for continuous training? How can eLearning work consciously toward the empowerment of women and gender equality – an important objective within the Millennium Development Goals?How do we collate, aggregate content to create an interactive Knowledge society The Challenge The real challenge for knowledge society then is in creating equal opportunity in offering the ability to access, to create, to develop, and to ut ilize the right information at the right time in a cost-effective manner. This applies to the public (consumer) as well as the service provider professionals. In this case study, we focus on a decisive initiative with the objective of providing quality training and management skills via the virtual medium for eye care, which is an important area of social health care. †¢ How do we train more than 10,000 lindness prevention workers worldwide, year after year, across Education FOSS ICT Aurosiksha AECS LAICO Education & Management Fig. 3: The case for Aurosiksha C SI Communications | June 2012 | 13 ophthalmic technology evolving so quickly, everyone recognizes the importance of keeping our eye care management skills and knowledge up-todate for the bene? t of our patients. The eLearning solution will allow especially the paramedics to access continuous educational opportunities over the Internet and provide a valuable forum for our members/experts to exchange views and tap into the expertise of their colleagues and fellow olleagues around the world. † Aurosiksha has leveraged ICT in an inclusive way. It is meant Fig. 4: Aurosiksha home page and introduction to provide a one-point Internet access to eye training mechanism that does care training for professionals worldwide justice to the enormous data and with the premise that ‘up to 80% of experiences that Aravind has the world's blindness is avoidable†¦ ’ collected over decades and share it where ‘avoidable blindness is de? ned as with the world so that other blindness blindness which could be either treated prevention professionals and social or prevented by entrepreneurs may feel inspired to nown, cost-effective create Aravinds elsewhere? means’ (VISION 2020 †¢ How do we create a viable way Action Plan 2006to share this ocean of aggregated 2010  © World Health experiences into meaningful content Organization). harvested since 1976? The Solution †¢ How do we instill the Aravind model into our courseware? Especially since Aurosiksha – the the Aravind model needs to be ‘lived’ need of the times and ‘experienced’ as a broad set of LAICO came up values of service, compassion, and with Aurosiksha to self-reliance at its core, along with enhance the reach and management principles that identify quality of education uality care and efficiency that drawn from the rich Aravind stands for? knowledge base that These were perhaps the broad AECS has harvested questions that LAICO asked itself after it since 1976. In this age trained and consulted 60 hospitals in 29 of knowledge society, [1] countries and 213 hospitals in India . its four essential On the eve of the launch of characteristics Aurosiksha, Mr. R D Thulasiraj, Executive digitization, Director (LAICO) said, â€Å"I think this immediacy, is a very important development and virtualization, and underscores the AECS’s commitment globalization – drive to continually enhance the range of nowledge sharing. services we offer to eye care service. With C SI Communications | June 2012 | 14 Aurosiksha was developed and implemented by the LAICO team with the help of instructional designers who joined the AECS as volunteers for the sole purpose of developing its own online educational program. Promoting lifelong learning The goal is to allow all users to take highly engaging and interactive units in order to learn about the theories, techniques, and practical aspects of both clinical and nonclinical management. The idea is to provide an online space where AECS staff can learn, share, and develop their nowledge of providing the best eye care services in all aspects ranging from fundamental concepts to advanced skills using assessed, accredited, and selfre? ective activities and resources. The program The program includes: †¢ Courses & stand-alone sessions: These have been developed by internal and external subject matter experts (SMEs) with the assistance of instructional designers and technicians by using standard training curriculum. They are also assisted by JCPHO, ICO, and other professionals from leading noneye care institutes, such as the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). Quality Fig. 5: Course on cataract ww. csi-india. org Camstasia studio Moodle environment MOODLE usability Pedagogy Technology: MOODLE Information transfer †¢ Add resources (docs, web links) †¢ Forum †¢ Wiki †¢ Glossary †¢ Lessons †¢ Assignments Communication and interaction Assessment of learning †¢ Tests †¢ Discussion forum Co-creation of content †¢ Quiz (self-test) †¢ Lessons †¢ Assignments †¢ Discussion forum †¢ Wiki †¢ Database Articulate quizmaker Fig. 6: The Moodle-based Aurosiksha environment check is performed by including sessions in Aravind’s acclaimed training program. The material is interactive with voice narration, with short quizzes in between ideos to assess the learning. †¢ Assessment with immediate feedback: Assessment is featured in different ways like an organized discussion forum, Q forum, blogs (students are allowed to create), and exercises/quiz. After quiz/exercises, immediate feedback will be given to the student on each submit. For example, if a student chooses a wrong answer, the feedback will spell out why the answer is incorrect and give the correct answer to ensure learning is happening with each and every activity. †¢ Course completion tracking: The tracking feature controls the student/ teacher to provide a better learning/ teaching experience.The tool gives accurate course completion and grading report. This includes customized reports for the bene? ciaries on the impact side. Selecting the tool – a con? uence of spirit and values LAICO’s systems division began with an open mind and explored various Content Management Systems (CMS) and related technologies (Course Manageme nt Systems) both proprietary and FOSS, such as WizIQ, Joomla! , ConferenceXP (an open-source videoconferencing platform from Microsoft Research), and MOODLE (abbreviation for Modular ObjectOriented Dynamic Learning Environment). Echoing Aravind’s values – quality, compassion, self-reliance – Aurosiksha’s bjectives resonated with Moodle. At its core, Moodle is an educational software grounded in a philosophy of collaborative learning, often referred to as social constructionist pedagogy. Additionally, Aurosiksha’s pedagogical approach matched with that of Moodle. The organization and design of Moodle’s interface supports learners and learning tasks, rather than technology and tools. Moodle presented the ideal vehicle for Aurosiksha. LAICO adapted its knowledge resources to the Moodle mould; customization was minimal. It was a happy con? uence of technology and LAICO vision; both shared the same spirit and values.Moodle is based on a social co nstructionist approach, which helps us understand how learning happens in a group and how learning is a product of innumerable human choices. Moodle was built with elements and tools that embody pedagogical understanding. A Moodlebased course can consist of lessons, including reading materials, activities (such as quizzes and projects), and social events that encourage participation between students. In Aurosiksha, one ? nds the Camstasia Studio software to be integrated in Moodle for quality and streaming-like videos for the audiovisual elements in its courses. Similarly, Articulate Quizmaker andles the self-test modules at the end of the lessons. An open (institutional) learning environment Cloud environment Educational institutional environment WEB PAGES Student ID database se Student information system WEB 2. 0 apps Assessment tools Proprietary and licensed content Collaboration tools Student generated content Personal publishing tools Open content Fig. 7: Open learning environm ent C SI Communications | June 2012 | 15 Fig. 8: Beta users statistics As Aurosiksha grows in terms of content repository, user base, and feedback from users, it will trigger a proportionate scaling in features, tools, and technologies ithin and outside Moodle. The following pointers can be considered for Aurosiksha’s future: †¢ Interoperability: Aurosiksha may want to communicate and share its data with that of other medical research institutions. It also needs to be SCORM-compliant (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). †¢ Deeper reach with low-cost handheld devices and low Internet bandwidth leading to low footprint m-learning: With greater penetration of ICT and hand-held devices ranging from tablets (such as Akash) to mobile phones (voice and short messaging services), a strippeddown version of Aurosiksha can be An open learning environment:Moodle and Aurosiksha Apart from being part of FOSS family and therefore free, Moodle is an Open Source Course Managem ent System (CMS). It is also known as an LMS or a virtual learning environment (VLE) and is very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students. Aurosiksha as the learning arm of LAICO-AECS is an experiment in a similar space, moving from Constructionism to Constructivism – an environment in which human beings don’t just act (Construct) but also make sense of their actions as a group (Constructivist). This happens as humans make sense of reality, learn and reate new knowledge continuously while learning. Effective learning happens while learners are in an actively constructing knowledge mode rather than in a passive reading, viewing, and memorizing mode. The kind of knowledge generated impacts attitudes of learners, which in turn re? ects in their actions (practice). Aurosiksha is a Community of Learners in the making, offering insight and reaching out with a sense of service. Future Direction Aurosiksha, in its beta stage, is currently being tested by over 500 beta testers worldwide that range from paraprofessionals, managers, eye care professionals to faculty members.C SI Communications | June 2012 | 16 Fig. 9: Course creation www. csi-india. org †¢ Mentor-guided courseware †¢ Turnitin (functionality to let the student submit assignments) Acknowledgment Fig. 10: E- and M-learning: logical system architecture †¢ a source of knowledge to especially paraprofessionals on the ? eld. Extensive reach with browserbased handheld devices leading to m-learning: With proliferation of 3G and upcoming 4G, Aurosiksha can be experienced on devices, such as iPhone, iPad, and Android-based phones quite extensively with Mobile Moodle (a set of mobile apps and server components from Moodle). †¢ †¢Right now, Google Analytics and Google Maps are being applied to study the online learning behavior of the beta users. This initiative could be further explored with other statistics gen erated dynamically. Relevant pedagogical applications that can be included (already available in Moodle) are as follows: †¢ Grade report †¢ Timer-based courseware Fig. 11: Google maps: geographical spread of beta users We wish to thank Mr. R D Thulsiraj (Director – Operations, AECS; Executive Director – LAICO) and Dr. R D Ravindran (Chairman and Director – Quality, AECS) for all the insightful and frank conversations we had with them. We thank Prof.R K Shyamasundar (Faculty of Technology & Computer Science – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) and Mr. M D Agrawal (President – Computer Society of India) for their encouragement. We acknowledge the spirit of FOSS and the World Wide Web (WWW) to continue to grow as active members of the knowledge society they foster. Finally we wish to acknowledge the spirit and values of Dr. G Venkataswamy (Dr. V) that pulsate through everything that Aravind is and does. We bow with deep reverence to the spiritual teachers of Dr. V: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. References [1] P. Mehta, and S Shenoy, In? nite vision: how Aravind became the orld’s greatest business case for compassion, 1st ed. , Berrett—Kohler Publishers Inc. San Francisco [2] Satish Babu, â€Å"The FOSS Movement and its impact on Education†, CSI Communications, vol. 35, Issue 6, September 2011, pp. 19-20 [3] http://moodle. org/about [4] http://aravind. org/ [5] http://laico. org/ [6] http://aurosiksha. org/ [7] h ttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Free_ and_open_source_software [8] h t t p : //w w w. i f o s s f. o r g /i f o s s f _ library_0 [9] h ttp://www. vision2020india. org / orbiscourse/homepage. htm [10] h ttp://www. vision2020. org/main. cfm? Type=NI=4460 [11] h ttp://www. ats-pyjamas. net / wp-content /uploads/2010/05/ M o o d l e To o l G u i d e fo r Te a c h e rs _ May2010_JS. pdf n Selected among the top 4 papers expressing ‘Collaboration for inclusive growth' at   SEARCC 2011    seminar (South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation, Mumbai, December 2011) [With inputs from Prarthana Kalaskar – Design Principal (Ninad), Remi Boutinet – Outreach Consultant (Ninad), Shwetav Agarwal – Solution Architect (Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture), LAICO team (Deepa Krishnan – Senior Manager – Operations; Vinoth Palanichamy – Online Manager – Education)] C SI Communications | June 2012 | 17

Safety and quality

I believe that there are positive and negative consequences in the safety and quality affecting the delivery of healthcare today. For example, in the past patients used to be on prolonged bed rest following surgical procedures thus the promotion of atelectasis, pneumonia, thrombus formation and so on†¦ Positively, the safety and quality has evolved by enforcing patients to ambulate early, use tri-flows, apply ted hose and sequential compression devices have eliminated the amount of these post operative complications. Also advanced technological inventions, such as laparoscopy, have lessened the extensive hospital stays. According to Dr. Porter-O’Grady, â€Å"Thirty years ago today when somebody entered the health care system for surgery, 86% of the times, they were inpatient. Today, 83% of the people who come through the health care system are outpatients. † However, negatively, after several procedures patients are sent home in a matter of hours and many of these patients wind up in emergency rooms. This was my experience last month, after a diagnostic laparoscopy. At the hospital I felt fine. After a couple of hours when the anesthesia wore off at home, I was in an incredible amount of pain, had urinary retention, and to this day my voice after being intubated is not the same. The staff was professional and comforting but I was disappointed that no one told me about these potential adverse effects. Also, many patients who have cesarean sections and are discharged after 2 to 3 days visit the OB/GYN triage with wound infection, wound dehiscence, and other complications. We are steered by such strict guidelines placed upon us by insurances and Medicaid that we do not have adequate time to monitor the patients for side effects from the procedures and I believe this is a negative impact on the nursing practice. It has become a prominent concern on OB/GYN triage, due to insurance and Medicaid does not pay for re-admits, thus meaning the unit is losing money when it is bombarded with these patients. We need to remember as nurses patients expect us to be proficient and will advocate for them. â€Å"We need to hold on the fact that nurses have been leaders in the health care and society, and that is something we need to act on and emulate and leave for the next generation. † (Mason, 2005) This issue does affect our job because the patients’ experience will be negative if they assume that they are receiving insufficient care.

Clash of titans: East vs. West

Europe includes an immense diversity of cultures and languages that developed side by side; Asia on the other hand had been developing on its own for centuries before Europe began to evolve. So how did the â€Å"peninsula of Asia†, become not only a strong force in the West, but a global power. Through the different articles we read, Illustrated History of Europe, Roberts' A History of Europe, Davies' Europe: A History, Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, and Hanson's Carnage and Culture one can understand how and why the later developing Europe became the dominate power over the already powerful Asia. The Illustrated History of Europe calls Europe a divided continent, but one civilization. Europe's wide plains, for example the Great Northern Plain, only aid to an easy invasion from the east which happened numerous times throughout Europe's history. Europe also has a high diversity of languages, 43 in total, that were originated from Sanskrit. Because of this, Europe's language, in written from, is based on a consonantal system rather than that of an ideographic system such as the Chinese use. This article broke down Europe's civilization into three different bases: democracy originating from the Greeks, law coming from the Romans, and finally, the value of individualism and liberty derived from the Christians. Roberts and Davies mainly describe Europe's geography and how it affected the development of the people within. Roberts described Europe as a â€Å"peninsula of Asia†, being surrounded on its boundaries, primarily by water. This was why Europe was able to develop on its own. The bodies of water, plus the plains and heavily forested inner regions, caused people to become very isolated from one another thus letting them make their own decisions and also forming their own languages. Western Europe's temperate climate aided by the Gulf Stream kept its environment mild year round, plus with the addition of a good amount of rain made it easy to farm without irrigation. Central and Eastern Europe were not as lucky, however, because they experienced fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. Diamond discussed how the â€Å"creation† of the farmer through the domestication of plants and animals led to the development of guns, germs, and steel. He compared the â€Å"hunter/gather† peoples with the â€Å"food producing† peoples, to demonstrate the benefit of the farmer. With a farming group, one could devote one's time to other jobs, and thus become â€Å"specialists†. These specialists could master an art or trade instead of spending time searching for food, and eventually evolved to become the kings, bureaucrats, soldiers, priests, and artisans. The domestications of plants and animals was an integral part of the development of the farming culture over that of the hunting culture. For example, the peapod when it is ripe will â€Å"explode† and drop its seeds onto the ground. The only thing left on the plant after this occurs are the pea pods that did not explode. Thus those were the ones which we were able to eat because they were the only ones we were able to gather. We would therefore only disperse the seeds of the â€Å"non-exploding† pea pods through our excrement or our garbage dumps. In the end the hunter/gatherers will eventually die out because they do not have the steel to make tools as well as the weapons that the farmers have and thus will, in time, be destroyed. Latitude played a huge role in the rise of farmers in Europe. Due to the similar latitude throughout Europe the growing season is relatively the same, along with a relatively equal climate. The easy spread of germs came about because people lived in crowded villages where a disease could simply pass from one household to another. Plus with the domestication of animals, the animals now lived in close quarters to the people and thus contributed to the spread of diseases. When the European explorers introduced germs to the Native Americans, many Native Americas were killed because they didn't have the built up resistance because of the lack of domesticated animals. Because of Europe's close proximity to animals many of the world's diseases have originated there. The Fertile Crescent was a very ecologically fragile area. It ended up being destroyed due to deforestation, and erosion, as well as other factors and now is mainly desert. The Great Man theory said that a few great men can influence the events of history. One of the main reasons Europe â€Å"outdid† China was because of Europe was fragmented, whereas China was totally united, this basically meant that competition could flourish while in China what was said was unquestioned. Landes covered some of what was in the Roberts article as well as what was in the Davies article. He discussed the Gulf Stream and the immense forests, but he also pointed out facts about riverside civilizations. People gathered around rivers because they not only provided water, but also a mode of transportation. Riverside civilizations, because of their strategic importance were, however, more likely to have a ruler. In riverside civilizations if the ruler needed money or more land then he would just take what they wanted from the people. As far as property goes in the West, where there was no need for riverside civilizations due to the temperate climate and abundant rainfall, there was a deep commitment to private property; so much so that even kings did not take their subjects property. During the period of 1000 – 1500 AD, five â€Å"great† inventions were made. These inventions were deemed the â€Å"inventions of inventions†. The inventions were the mechanical clock, gunpowder, eyeglasses, printing, and the water wheel. Gunpowder, in China was used as a defense, but in the European's hands it became an offensive weapon. Eyeglasses â€Å"created† an additional work force from the many people who had poor eyesight but were in overall good physical condition. Printing was used to spread knowledge, so ideas no longer had to be passed by word of mouth. The water wheel became an addition source of power. The mechanical clock, in my opinion the most important, kept people task oriented, and because people always want the most accurate time we kept improving upon it and it turn improved upon all inventions. This was the economic revolution, which was only comparable to when humans went from hunter/gatherers to food producers. Hanson stated that the reason the West fought so well was because Europeans fought for their own land. Peoples in the West had a voice in what happened, militarily and politically, whereas peoples in the east had none. An example of this would be the battle of Salamis, the Greek soldiers got together only hours before the battle to decide if fighting this fight was really worth it. On the Persian side, however, the soldiers had no say in it, and fought that battle not necessarily wanting to fight for the cause. Due to the West's freedom, private property, domestication of plants and animals and the movement from hunter/gatherers to food producers were all factors why the less developed Europe came to overpower the already strong Asia. If Asia had had a these â€Å"fundamentals† as did the West think how different the world would be.

Media Coverage on Public and Ethical Concern Essay

Media Coverage on Public and Ethical Concern - Essay Example It made the US government believe in a concept known as the domino theory. The paramount idea in this discourse was that if one Asian nation fell to the leftist ideology of communism, others would quickly follow. Historically speaking, the year of 1954 had seen the Communist forces in the north of Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, defeat the colonial French rule in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh chartered a policy whereby Vietnam was divided into a pro-American Southern and a communist northern bloc with a demilitarised zone (DMZ) in the middle. Though, Ho Chi Minh had intended to bring the two sections under one government by a common rule of the ballot, it never really happened. On the contrary, the communist forces began a guerrilla war against the south. This tempted the US government to launch a battle in Vietnam in order to curtail what it believed to be the rise of Soviet communism. If from the point of view of Utilitarianism, the ethical doctrine that holds that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility, we make an effort to justify the war, we realise that even then the action of the US government was really uncalled for. The US government's stubborn grit to win the war rose to such a level that even the basic tenets of virtue ethics were debunked. In trying to be utilitarian to their cause, the US army indulged in the horrendous crime of using herbicides in order to defoliate large parts of the countryside. These chemicals played havoc, and still continue to do so, in destroying the landscape, causing hereditary diseases, birth defects and poisoning the food chain. It is estimated that during the years of 1961-1962, the Kennedy administration authorised the use of chemicals to destroy rice crops. Between 1961 and 1967, the U.S. Air Force sprayed 20 million U.S. gallons (76,000 m) of concentrated herbicides over 6 million acres of crops and trees, affecting an estimated 13 percent of South Vietnam's land. In 1997, an article published by the Wall Street Journal reported that up to half a million children were born with dioxin-related deformities, and that the birth defects in southern Vietnam were fourfold those in the north! No amount of utilitarianism can justify this mass killing. Similarly, the war showed how the entire corpus of reason and Kantian deontology was done away with by the US army operation in Vietnam. As General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principle architects of the war noted First, we didn't know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean war, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies .... And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It's very dangerous. Robert McNamara, Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of Defense, was even more blunt. When asked to comment on his role by the London Observer, he replied "I was wrong! My God, I was wrong! Thus, the war clearly defeated the utilitarian purposes it stood for. Moreover, the fact that it cost the American government more than $120 billion, apart from vehement protests and scorn the world over, illustrates the fact that the Vietnam War was definitely a grave error